We’ve seen a few of these in a variety of papers, this time it’s Time magazine’s turn to carry the life and times of Ray K and the singularity. Not much is new here to those who have been following the field, but it is a good read (especially for those who have not yet been exposed to the meme) as well as doing a good job at least in showing how much unnoticed progress has been made in the last few years.
This article from the NY Times discusses China’s gradual taking a lead in wind and othe
r alt energy markets.
Apparently it did so by a. giving massive financial backing to local manufacturers in the form of low-interest loans and cheap land; b. giving priority to local players in contracts with state-owned power companies; and last but not least, c. forcing foreign companies to manufacture a substantial percentage (70%) of wind turbines using local producers, which basically equals disseminating the know-how locally, fueling the local industry and bringing it rapidly up to international standard. This local industry, which was nearly non-existent 5 years ago, now take 85% of the local and around 50% of the international market.
Now, it seems that the foreign companies are so intent on not losing out on the massive Chinese market that they put up with what is a clear repeating strategy by the local government, a story which has already happened in the computer and solar panel market and is set to occur in many others. Neither do they complain, for fear of angering the authorities.
Such practices are, of course, contrary to WTO (which China joined in 2001) trade rules, but in a similar fashion to the ongoing skewing of the Renminbi exchange rate the Chinese are happy to put the needs of the local industry (as part of the “growth whatever the cost” strategy) above all, including agreements they have signed (but then again, agreements are there to be violated, aren’t they?)… Under pressure from the US, keen to support its own green energy sector, the Chinese revoked the local production requirement in 2009 – by which time all the know-how was already in local hands.
So, subsidies, local production rules…protectionism in general is supposed to be what the WTO is all about defeating. Unfortunately, the organization is more effective at getting countries to abolish current trade infringements than getting compensation for ones that have already been used effectively and abolished.
While this post is about China, lets not be naive – there is no doubt that many WTO signatory countries practice some degree of protectionism, and the US is not an exception. Trade wrangles are part and parcel of the game. The blatancy with which this is done on the Chinese side however (in the same vein as exchange rate fixing), together with weak yet innocent-sounding denials (““It was localization support”; “China is a developing country, and developing countries need to do what they can to foster industrial development”), really puts them a level apart.
It should be added, of course, that the largest Chinese manufacturer now wants to expand abroad in light of a local market facing saturation. Would the Chinese authorities be happy with other countries playing the same game as they have done (such as Canada has recently done with a 25% local content rule)? I doubt it – it is more likely they will rush to lodge a complaint with the WTO regarding any perceived wrongdoing.
What is certain is that international trade relations are a very interesting, and very political (and thus cynical) field.
Following up on the recent post regarding the apparent financial and social decline of the US, I’ve come across a report that the city of Detroit is so deep in dept and finding it so hard to raise money that it is planning to downsize vital public services, such as the police and fire departments. As harsh a measure as that sounds, one that is potentially frightening to the local population, it is only a symptom of the larger decay of one of the big American cities, home to the local car industries (or what’s left of them) and legendary home of Motown.
Looking at the larger picture, the city (with several others on their way to follow) is actually downsizing not only in budget and manpower but also in size – neighborhoods are actually being deserted and left to nature. A Time report on this can be seen here.
A quick search on the topic brought me to this blog, the author of which is a Detroit resident who goes around the city armed with his DSLR and archives, among many other things, the widespread urban decay. The photos he takes are really depressing – a lot of boarded up houses, abandoned churches and schools, city blocks which used to be teeming with people and are now completely abandoned (except for wildlife, that is).
The pictures really best tell the tale (have a look at additional posts on this blog – there are a lot of really haunting pictures, especially the ones of schools):
Such a phenomena was truly unbelievable to me, coming from a country where the population is quite crowded and real estate prices booming, and living in Western Europe where while land is available, some areas (notably the Netherlands) are very crowded. In hindsight, though, urban degeneration is possible and ultimately likely when financials are taken into account – and that’s a clear sign that the American system is not well.
I was asked a few months ago to answer three questions for the new “Rough Guide to the Future” which has just come out in print: Looking at the future of humanity (with no particular timeframe), what’s a. your highest hope; b. your best bet and c. your view as to what’s likely to happen in view of answers a. and b.
As this is a futuristic publication I naturally veered to the singularity aspect of what I see in humanity’s future, particularly the merging with AI, of which I wrote of extensively here. Some would call this about as far-fetched as can be (heck, some of my closest peeps constantly jibe me about this), but read the article here on the site and judge for yourself…
Now, while they did manage to get my job title wrong, I think it came out quite well.
Of course, any publication that I contribute to deserves a full-fledged plug, so if you want to read the experts’ opinion on what’s to come in a variety of fields, and this includes some very serious people and not just frenzied geeks like myself, you can order yourself a copy here.
A few months ago I cycled down to “downtown” Strasbourg and got myself a spanking new HTC Desire. Now this baby (below) is a great phone, miles better than its predecessor which I had (the Magic) – but it came with two downsides.
First was the need to change my contract to the local Orange franchise – that it, what used to be France Telecom. I thought I knew a cutthroat mobile company before but boy, was I wrong. These guys, as it’s emerged in the last few months, are amazingly good at finding new and innovative ways of fleecing you from your money. And no matter what snazzy package you choose, the costs will always surpass this, sometimes by a lot! And not due to excessive talking…
However, that is a well-known problem which seems to blight Orange affiliates in many countries. What I did not expect, however, was that after choosing a not-at-all affordable package and phone (on what is supposedly an open-source OS-based phone) I got a phone which was 1. filled with integrated, non-removable software from the mobile provider and 2. that I was forced to rely on the same provider for software updates, i.e. updates to the Android OS. Now, anyone’s frustration from being forced to have non-removable apps he or she didn’t ask for bloating their newly-purchased mobile is one thing. Being forced to rely on a local provider for important OS updates, while the same company has a clear incentive not to upgrade so you are forced to return periodically and get a new device – totally sucks!
And so, as ever, I dove online in search of a solution, only to discover a myriad of souls across many countries in the same predicament – apparently mobile providers are uniformly nasty! I was happy to discover that one can a. ROOT his/her device and gain complete control over it – using either simple, one click processes or complex ones which take hours or days to figure out if it’s your first time . b. having done so, FLASH new software updates without relying on any company’s generosity (replying only on the wonderful open source community).
Hallelujah! Viva the revolution 
I’ve since also rooted and upgraded my old Magic, upgrading to Froyo before handing it over to my sister so she joins the Android crowd rather than the monotonous self-satisfied Legion of Jobs zombies.
A few useful links for you if you’re setting out to reclaim your droid:
Oh. And in any case, mobile bloatware, provider control of OS updates, etc. etc…I’d stillrather get an open source Android-based device than yet another iPhone every day of the week!