CINA

본문

동지여러분의 연대를 부탁드립니다!
열사정신계승하여 민중권리 쟁취하자
살인정권 폭력정권 이명박정권 박살내자
자본주의 박살내자!

본문

** Sorry, but KCTU's web-poster for the "Nat'l Workers Protest Demonstration" looks for me more as a call for a sad celebration for its own resignation!
Or alternatively just a call for a "mass prayer to achieve a better government"(^^)..

본문

Yesterday the (North) Korean Committee of Space Technology announced that the "Preparations for Launch of Experimental Communications Satellite (are) in Full Gear"!! The name of the strange object: Gwangmyeongseong-2 (*), transported by the Eunha-2 missile.

But while the N.K. propaganda asserts that the launch of the "satellite" (**) is "essential for the construction of the socialist economic power in Korea" (KCNA), at the same time in the Communist Party of China circulate N.K. jokes, like following:

金正日万岁!

Comrade Jeong Man-yong, a farmer at an agriculture "collective" in the D.P.R.K., catches a large fish in the river. Exalted, comrade Jeong comes back home and asks his wife to fry the fish.
“We can have fried-fish for dinner!” said Jeong.
“But we don’t have oil.” countered his wife.
“Then, let’s have steamed fish.”
“We don’t have an iron pot either!”
“OK, then let's just grill it.”
“There is no firewood.”
Angrily Jung goes back to the river and lets the fish go free.
The fish circles around and jumps out of the water, yelling “Long live the General Kim Jong Il!”

김정일 장군님 만세!

* Gwangmyeongseong-1, according to KCNA, was launched 1998.8.31(well, untill now nobody in the int'l military/aerospace agencies has been able to detect the "satellite" visually, by radar, or to pick up its radio signals..) and until now, also according to KCNA, it's transmitting the melody of "Song of General Kim Il-sung" and "Song of General Kim Jong-il" and the Morse signals "Juche Korea" (very useful!!^^).

** Well, nobody believes in N.K.'s fable about the "satellite"! In fact almost everyone (in the int'l military/aerospace community) believes it will be just a new North Korean ICBM (Taepodong-2) test..

Related articles:

☞ Q+A: Why would N.K. test-fire its missiles? (Reuters, 2.24)

☞ North Korea has begun a game of “satellite” (Hankyoreh/analysis, 2.25)

☞ U.S. in 3-Stage Response to N.Korea 'Missile Test' (Chosun Ilbo, 2.25)

☞ Breaking the cycle of brinkmanship (Hankyoreh/editorial, 2.25)

본문

Guadeloupe, the French Caribbean island, where last week the month-long general strike - led by the Collective Against Exploitation (LKP) - escalated into a widespread uprising, is 6,500 km away from Paris, but the demands of the strikers("rioters") in Pointe-à-Pitre are the same as those of Parisians, as the latest edition of The Observer (UK, 2.22) reported:

After squalls in the Caribbean, Sarkozy

faces a storm at home

This time nothing was left to chance. As he walked between the stands of farming produce yesterday, admired the prize bulls, stroked the noses of calves, nibbled a stick of cheese, Nicolas Sarkozy was followed not just by his minister of agriculture and security detail but by a group of well co-ordinated fans bellowing support. "Nicolas, Nicolas," they shouted as the diminutive president forged ahead through a chaos of outstretched hands, moustaches and oversized animals.

The care taken by the presidential staff to ensure an incident-free visit to the annual Farm Fair in southern Paris was due to more than a well-known preference for bling over bovines. Last year the fair saw one of Sarkozy's worst gaffes when he was filmed by an amateur telling a heckler: "Casse-toi, pauvre con" (roughly "get lost, loser"). Farmers are as anxious and angry as everyone else in the country and such a confrontation, eminently likely, could not be risked again.

Already the hyperactive French president's poll ratings, 36%, are at their lowest since he was elected nearly two years ago. "Sarkozy is playing with fire ... Can he prevent the explosion?" L'Express magazine is asking on its front cover this weekend.

Last week that explosion almost came. The country's worst violence since the riots of 2005 saw youths burning cars and charging police night after night. This time the riots were not in the rundown estates that surround many French cities but in the poverty-stricken alleys of Pointe-à-Pitre, on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, where per capita income is half that of mainland France and the unemployment rate three times higher.

The violence resonated with a tense and angry public in France itself. The 430,000 people of Guadeloupe are theoretically citizens of the republic like those of Lille, Lyon or Paris and, though many of the roots of the protests lie deep in the colonial past, the slogans and demands of the rioters were very contemporary, focusing on pouvoir d'achat, the famous lack of buying power in the face of high prices and stagnant wages that is the main grievance of all the French.

"Looking at Guadeloupe is like looking at France through a distorting magnifying glass," said Frédéric Dabi, public opinion specialist at pollsters Ifop. "There are things that are specific to Guadeloupe, and there is a sea between over there and France, but there are all the ingredients everywhere for a wave of social panic."

In an Ifop poll for regional newspaper Sud-Ouest last week, 63% of respondents thought similar violence could soon take place on the mainland - a view shared by their leaders. All eyes are now on the general strike planned for next month. An earlier strike and mass demonstration in January was widely supported and seen as a major shot across the bows of the rightwing Sarkozy.

Though trouble in the universities remains limited - French police on Friday removed students who briefly occupied the Sorbonne as part of a long-running dispute over the president's reform plans and perceived contempt for academics - it is nonetheless seen as "warning signs before the storm", according to one French parliamentarian.

In the face of recent protests in schools, ministers backed down from major reforms. "There's the feeling that Sarkozy has a bit too much on his plate," said Jean-Baptiste Prévost, president of France's biggest student union.

For Denis Muzet, a media and public opinion analyst in Paris, all Sarkozy's talk of "reform", the very slogans that got him elected, now scares people. "Even in September, when he spoke of accelerating reforms, it was only the left who worried. When he says it now, everyone is worried," said Muzet.

An indication of the tense atmosphere came when Sarkozy's closest friend said that anyone who didn't own a Rolex watch by the age of 50 was "a failure". The remark, by millionaire advertising tycoon Jacques Séguéla, caused outrage. One French news website called it "obscene", adding it they would like to shove Séguéla's Rolex down his throat. The daily France-Soir said that "in a global financial crisis [where] people are struggling to make ends meet ... most workers will find this highly offensive".

This weekend a fragile calm had been restored to Guadeloupe, the Caribbean island system that was annexed to the kingdom of France in 1674. Last week saw the fatal shooting of a union official in rioting and street battles so bad that 260 specialist police had to be flown in from France to flood the island with forces of order, in the words of the French minister of the interior. Tourists at the many luxury hotels that support the otherwise moribund economy in Guadeloupe fled and flights were cancelled when the airport was temporarily shut.

Despite Sarkozy's offer last week of measures worth €580m to help France's overseas regions, including aid to poor families, relief from social security contributions and price controls, there was still discontent among the protesters, who have organised a general strike that has now lasted for nearly a month. "There is nothing new in Nicolas Sarkozy's announcement. It's still far from what we are demanding, which is a €200 salary increase," said Elie Domota, the leader of Guadeloupe's mass protest movement, Liyannaj Kont Pwofitasyon (LKP).

Negotiations between employers and the LKP, a coalition of unions and leftwing groups, were restarted on Friday but have been put on hold over the weekend. The sticking point is salaries, with bosses speaking of possible increases of between €35 and €120, depending on the sector.

The unrest has highlighted tensions reaching back to the colonial past of Guadeloupe, one of four overseas regions that are, as part of France, part also of the European Union. "The economy has kept the hierarchy of the 19th century, with all its flaws and injustices," said Nelly Schmidt, author and historian at the National Centre of Scientific Research. "There is a profound lack of understanding in France of its former Caribbean colonies. We know about the beaches, the palm trees and the rum and that's about it."

There is deep resentment of the economically powerful minority of béké, or white, families, often descendants of the slave-era colonists. After being abolished by revolutionary forces, slavery was bloodily reinstituted by Napoleon and only finally abolished in 1848.

"Guadeloupe has had a particularly bitter history of relations with the mainland," said Marc Semo, foreign editor of Libération newspaper. "That history has bred a tough and uncompromising claims culture."

Now the strike has spread to neighbouring Martinique and protests have broken out in French Guyana and the Indian Ocean island of Réunion. But it is the concern that the disruption on Guadeloupe might spread to the mainland that forced Sarkozy to act last week, meeting MPs from the dependencies and broadcasting a television address.

The latter was carefully timed to go out - on specialist channels for the overseas territories - after the main evening news bulletins on domestic TV had been broadcast. For the French government fears pressure to extend any pay increase deal in Guadeloupe to mainland France.

Last week, as Sarkozy met senior national union leaders in a social mini-summit, senior figures from the French hard left, such as the self-styled peasant leader José Bové, and the postman head of a popular new French Communist party, Olivier Besancenot, travelled to Guadeloupe. "Their fight is our fight - against capitalism, exploitation, the big supermarkets who make so much profit from us," said Anne Bronnec, 32, a shopworker handing out leaflets in the Bastille district of Paris.

Many analysts speak of a loss of direction at the highest levels of the French state. For Dabi, the pollster, Sarkozy is suffering the same fate as other European leaders who are trying to convince disoriented populations that they have an answer to the financial crisis. "There is a sense of incoherence and a sense that Sarkozy does not really know where he is taking France. But that's largely because there is an incoherence and Sarkozy doesn't know where he is taking France," Dabi said.

Last week Sarkozy unveiled proposals for tax breaks and social benefits he said were worth up to €2.65bn but ruled out raising the minimum wage or reversing key reforms such as plans to cut thousands of public sector posts. "We will beat the crisis through modernising France," the president said in a 10-minute televised speech. However, massive aid for ailing car manufacturers has already been agreed.

The nightmare scenario is that of 1995, when massive industrial action blocked the country for three weeks. The strikes at that time were led by the public sector, while this time it is the private sector that is most at risk from the looming recession. "The public sector can shut down the country, but the private sector can't," said Philippe Waechter, an economist with Nataxis Asset Management.

Equally, according to Dabi, Sarkozy has little to worry about from the left. "There are very few alternatives to Sarkozy right now. Besancenot is doing well with a message that attacks capitalism, neo-liberal economics, the rich and so on, but that's not going to cause too many problems for the president. His core support among traditional rightwing voters remains high."

For media analyst Muzet, there are two sides to the crisis: the pessimism and the worry, but also "the feeling that something is being born", a new solidarity and consciousness of the suffering of others, "in Guadeloupe today, elsewhere tomorrow".

France - whether in Pointe-à-Pitre or Paris - is more divided than ever.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/22/sarkozy-strike-france

Related articles:
☞ Strike in Guadeloupe escalates into rioting (IHT, 2.17)

☞ Guadeloupe - Collective against Exploitation - General Strikers (IWW, 2.17) 

☞ General Strike Against the Economic Crisis.. (PA.N.W., 2.18)  

☞ Guadeloupe: A Consciousness-Raising Movement (l'Humanite, 2.19) 

☞ Guadaloupe riots turn paradise into war zone.. (Guardian, 2.19)

본문

While the rhetoric between N.K. and S.K. is becoming more and more - to put it mildly - icy (N.K.: "The KPA is ready for an all-out war against the puppet military in the south", "The Korean Peninsula is on the brink of war" etc../S.K.: "We'll retaliate and punish merciless any attack from the North!" etc..) some U.S. politicians, analysts and military officers recently presented a real maverick idea how to deal with a possible Taepodong-(ICB)missle test: "Be ready to strike and destroy North Korea's missile test!" (Foreign Policy, 2.17). (*)

Well, that's really a f****** great idea! (^^)

Firstly it would be a very good opprtunity to test capacity of the U.S. missile defense system (in real life, in real time^^)!!

Secondly - undoubtedly - it will open up complete new perspectives in the U.S.-D.P.R.K. relationship!!! (^^)

* To be sure, some of the hardliners in the S.K. ruling class are sympathizing with this idea (!!??):
☞ U.S. Warns It May Shoot Down N.Korean Missile (Chosun Ilbo, 2.12)

But, please dear U.S. Imperialists (incl. your puppet 'gov't' in Seoul), be careful!!

Because "the vengeance by the D.P.R.K. will be without any mercy":

본문

Y'day the "5th rally to mourn the victims of the Yongsan Massacre" took place in downtown Seoul. Unfortunately only a very, very small number (max. 150) of activists/citizens joined the "event"..

   But, despite the extreme small number of protesters, thousands of riot cops were deployed in downtown Seoul to oppress any "violent public disorder" (^^)...

 (source of the pics: OMN, VoP)

 
More pictures (incl. a short report) here:

☞ '5차범대회' 원천봉쇄, 산발시위 펼쳐

본문

동지여러분의 연대를 부탁드립니다!
열사정신계승하여 민중권리 쟁취하자
살인정권 폭력정권 이명박정권 박살내자
자본주의 박살내자!

본문

Since recently the World Economic Crisis (Well, it's not over, not at all!! Some analysts even forecasts an aggravation of the situation!!) is reaching the oil-rich monarchies on the Arab Peninsula.

And like everywhere the most affected are at first the poor and most exploited: hundreds of thousands of migrant workers (*) from South/South-East Asia, the poorer Arab countries and East Africa.

But there are also several thousands of Europeans affected: people with lacking job alternatives in the "own" countries (you can call them also "migrant workers", but well paid..) and many who just want to make remittance.

The following feature in last week's Guardian (UK, 2.13) describes very impressively the current situation in Dubai/UAE:

Dubai's six-year building boom grinds to halt

as financial crisis takes hold

• Expatriates flee as work dries up and visas are rescinded
• Migrant workers forced to leave with debts following them home

Arab tycoons wrapped in traditional headscarves sipped fruit juice cocktails as

they watched Russian models twirl in silk dresses.

It was the most exclusive ticket in town, a private catwalk show to which the

Middle East's biggest spenders had been personally invited.

But if the smiles at this week's Dubai fashion event looked more false than usual,

it was for a reason. The net worth of the VIPs in attendance today is a fraction of

what it was six months ago.

A six-year boom that turned sand dunes into a glittering metropolis, creating the

world's tallest building, its biggest shopping mall and, some say, a shrine to

unbridled capitalism, is grinding to a halt.

Dubai, one of seven states that make up the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is in

crisis.

So too are British expatriates. Many of the estimated 100,000-strong community

came here expecting to make millions in property, and to soak up a lavish lifestyle

living alongside footballers, actors and supermodels.

But the real estate bubble that propelled the frenetic expansion of Dubai on the

back of borrowed cash and speculative investment, has burst.

Many westerners are being made redundant or absconding before the strict legal

system catches up with them.

Half of all the UAE's construction projects, totalling $582bn (£400bn), have either

been put on hold or cancelled, leaving a trail of half-built towers on the outskirts of

the city stretching into the desert.

Among the casualties is the tower Donald Trump promised would be "the ultimate

in luxury", a $100bnresort complex by the beach, and four huge theme parks and

an artificial island developed by the state company Nakheel.

It is not all bad news: the building projects still in play are almost the equivalent of

the US stimulus package. And the city remains a haven for super-rich sheikhs,

billionaire hedge fund managers and Russian oligarchs.

But banks have stopped lending and the stock market has plunged 70%. Scrape

beneath the surface of the fashion parades and VIP parties, and the evidence of

economic slowdown are obvious. Luxury hotels are three-quarters empty.

Shopkeepers in newly-built malls are reporting a drop in sales. In Dubai you

expect to see a Ferrari parked beside a Rolls-Royce. But not, as is the case now,

with scruffy For Sale signs taped to the windows.

Living the dream

Nowhere sums up the fortunes of expatriates in Dubai quite like Palm Jumeirah,

an artificial island fanning out into the Persian Gulf, populated by residents

including the likes of David Beckham, Michael Schumacher and even, it is said,

Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai.

At the top of the island stands the Atlantis, a garish $1.5bn hotel complex with

1,539 rooms and a whale shark swimming in a 1 million-litre fish tank.

The Atlantis's $20m inauguration celebration, where the world's A-list celebrities

were treated to 1.7 tonnes of lobster and 1,000 bottles of Veuve Clicquot, was

promoted as the world's biggest party.

For Palm residents, it was followed by an equally impressive hangover. The value

of their villas and apartments on the Palm fell by as much as 60% in just a few

months.

"Drink your last cocktail and get out of here," said Sasha Reynolds, a 33-year-old

airhostess. "My boyfriend is an engineer and work has dried up. He's been

offered work in Qatar but who wants to go there? People are still making money

here but the parties aren't quite the same. I'm lucky ‑ I didn't buy."

The exact number of unemployed is not known. The Dubai government does not

release figures, and prevents the press from running stories that damage the

economy, such as mass redundancies.

But there were sacked expatriates ‑ bankers, lawyers and architects ‑ in all but

one of the hotel bars visited in Dubai this week.

Employees who lose work in the UAE automatically have their visa rescinded,

generally giving them 30 days to leave.

"I look out of my balcony every day and I see Brits by the pool on their laptops,"

said Andrew Hillocks, 29, a sacked telecoms consultant whose passport has

been seized. He will be escorted to the airport next week. "They're looking for

work that just isn't there. I sold my car to cover my loan, but other people are

panicking."

Under Dubai's strict legal code defaulting on debt or bouncing a cheque is

punishable with jail. Any expatriate in financial difficulty knows the safest bet is to

take the next outbound flight.

At the airport, hundreds of cars have apparently been abandoned in recent

weeks. Keys are left in the ignition and maxed out credit cards and apology letters

in the glove box.

Officials put the number of vehicles at 11. "No one believes that. There are 11

cars abandoned just on my street," said Anne, 26, a fashion editor from London.

"Over the past two months I've been getting an email a day from people trying to

sell their stuff. 'New Jaguar – need to sell before the end of the week'."

In a world of self-made millionaires and property entrepreneurs, some remain

bullish. Simon Murphy, 42, runs the exclusive Crest of Dubai social club for Palm

residents. "My job is to keep people smiling," he said.

The former hedge fund adviser's apartment is a "boy's paradise". Beside the

snooker table and darts board are photos of him beside Richard Branson, Alan

Shearer and Pele.

"I have the beach there. My local is that bar a couple of yards away. That's the

pier where they're going to dock the QE2. People ask about the whole 'living the

dream' scenario? Ain't this it?"

Some people had to lose out, he said. "As they say: eagles fly with eagles. The

motivating factor to come here is greed. You have to be selfish, have minimal

social responsibility, and want to make money quick. Brits in Dubai are gamblers.

It's the nature of the beast that not everyone wins."

The invisible losers

In the Dubai however, the losers are the invisible majority.

Taxi drivers from Egypt, Yemen and Iraq compete for work. Their clients often

ask to go to hotel bars where, at night, they will find prostitutes from Eastern

Europe, Africa and Asia.

Expatriates from the developing world maintained Dubai's orgy of consumption

during the boom years. Now they too are being forced to leave.

Perhaps those who suffer most are the construction workers from the Indian

subcontinent, who have worked on perilous building sites earning as little as £70

a month.

The Indian embassy is reportedly anticipating an exodus with 20,000 seats on

flights to India already "bulk-booked" for next month.

Buses come to pick up 250 workers every night from one dusty street on the

edge of Sonapur, a labour camp on the edge of the desert.

As night falls, the gangly silhouettes of construction workers file out of the camp

gates. "There is no work," said Jasvinder Singh, 24, placing his suitcase in a pick

-up truck, the words "Dubai to Delhi" taped to the side.

"It has been such a drama. We came here to earn money. We are going home to

see our wives but our pockets are empty."

Sanjit, 44, another construction worker from Punjab, gestures angrily in the air:

"We were treated badly here. We were slaves to the Arabs."

But unlike their British counterparts, construction workers from India, Bangladesh

and Pakistan cannot abandon lives in the glove compartment of a 4x4. Most took

loans to pay agent fees to come to Dubai, and their debts will follow them home.

"I sold our land and took loans in the village to come here," said Imran Hassan, a

20-year-old Bangladeshi farmer. "I paid the agent £2,000 to bring me. He said I

would earn 1,500 dirham [£287] a month, but we are paid 572 dirham. When I

return people in the village will want their money but I have none."

A Welsh construction site manager said he had protested to his boss about the

treatment of labourers.

"We tell them to bring their clothes to work one day and then we send them

home. It makes me feel sick. I asked why it had to be done so quickly and I was

told a lot of them commit suicide and we don't want that on our hands."

Tale of two cities

Dubai's future will actually be decided well way from the shimmering skyscrapers.

To find out why, you need to drive along 90 miles south along the Gulf coastline,

past tiny Bedouin enclaves and shimmering desert mosques.

Abu Dhabi, the oil-rich capital of the UAE and the richest emirate, has opted for a

more conservative – and, some say – prudent approach to growth that contrasts

with Dubai's giddy expansion.

But it boasts 95% of the UAE's oil reserves and more than half of its GDP, and

regional experts predict it will overtake Dubai as the destination of choice for

westerners in the Middle East.

Dubai, which has barely a trickle of oil in comparison, is projecting a 42%

increase in public spending on infrastructure projects, to compensate for

vanishing private investment. But it cannot go it alone. Abu Dhabi is increasingly

expected to bail out its poorer neighbour, and the two ruling families are meeting

regularly to decide how to transfer cash into Dubai's ailing economy.

"The question is not if Abu Dhabi will come to the rescue, but how big it will be

and how public," a source with knowledge of the negotiations said. "Abu Dhabi

cannot let Dubai sink."

But Abu Dhabi has its own problems. The emirate's sovereign wealth fund – once

said to be worth $1 trillion – has taken a hit in the global recession, while the

lifeblood of the economy – the price of oil – is down more than 60%.

Thirty miles from the capital, dust rises from the barren horizon where a 10km-

long building site is being turned into al-Raha Beach, an $18bn waterfront city, a

joint venture between Aldar, Abu Dhabi's largest property developer, and Laing

O'Rourke, the UK's largest construction company.

"A lot of staff have been moved over here from Dubai," said Paul, 35, a Laing

O'Rourke project manager, raising his voice over the noise of JCBs.

"But it is all coming to a stop here too. There are mass redundancies now. We've

gone from an expat workforce of about 1,000 to about 400. There are more

waves of redundancies coming this week."

He said he could not be sure, but by his estimate more than half of the al-Raha

development had been quietly shelved.

"I've not been made redundant myself but I've decided to go home in April. The

wife and kids have already left. A lot of people are jumping ship beforethere are

no lifeboats left."

Back in Dubai the following day, a Mercedes Benz snaked along the city's main

street, Sheikh Zayed Road. Firas Darwish, 35, an Emirati property magnate

dressed in traditional Arabic clothing, sat in the driver's seat, listening as as

Veronica Chapman, 65, a real estate agent from Hull, recalled what the city was

like when she first arrived in 1980.

"No milk, no bread, no schools. It was a desert and a couple of buildings," she

said.

Darwish slowed the car to point out abandoned building sites where cranes stood

still in the baking heat. "Here we are completely reliant on foreigners," he said.

"Maybe Dubai grew too fast."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/13/dubai-boom-halt

Related contributions:
☞ Dubai: Inside the Labour Camps
☞ Dubai: Migrant Workers on Strike

본문

 Hong Kong:

龍山區拆遷悲劇

本星期二，首爾警察廳派出反恐特警隊到市中心龍山區，鎮壓一個市區重建地盤示威活動，弄成五死廿三傷的悲劇，多份南韓報章指這是「不尋常的數字」。這也令筆者想起，去年香港警察用胡椒噴霧對付天水圍手無寸鐵的平民，相對南韓派出反恐特警隊，原來只是小巫見大巫。

四十戶居民不滿跟政府未達共識就進行拆遷，於一棟四層高樓房屋頂進行了廿五小時靜坐。到星期二深夜，首爾警方派出反恐特警隊，以吊臂貨櫃攻入屋內驅散居民，又向屋內發射多枚催淚彈。當警察強行搬走居民時，屋內突然起火。有居民為逃跑到天台邊緣，失足從四樓跌到地上至重傷，亦有廿三人被打傷、或吸入濃煙入院。火種熄滅後現場發現五具屍體，包括四名居民及一名警察，令南韓公眾憤怒...

For more please check out:
☞ 龍山拆遷悲劇：南韓恢復「公安政局」

Taiwan:

☞ 2009韓國龍山區拆遷鎮壓事件 的文章
☞ 首爾龍山慘劇/韓人權團體發起反迫遷行動

Japan:

☞ トピック: 龍山殺人鎮圧

본문

Today Kim Jong-il, the "Dear Leader" of the D.P.R.K., the "Sun of the 21st Century", the "Beloved Father of the Korean Nation" (*), the "Greatest Commander on Earth, Created in Heaven" etc., etc... celebrates his 67th birthday!

 
And with him - of course - the entire world pupulation is celebrating, according to KCNA

But despite Don Kirk's prediction that the Dear Leader's party will be a blast (Asia Times, 2.14) so far there's nothing special going on. No Taepodong missile attack against Alaska/USA, no naval battle in the Yellow Sea... What a drag!! (**)

* The "Korean Nation" means - of course - the entire Korean nation, incl. S. Korea!!
** But it might be that the "Dear Leader" is celebrating his birthday with binge drinking... and tomorrow he'll be screwed! And sooner or later he'll bite the dust - hopefully!