In China, Selling Your Organs for Cash or an Ipad 2 is a Mouse Click Away

The illegal organ trade is widespread in China. It's made easier by a lack of proper regulations and hospital loopholes.

1.5 million Chinese require organ transplants, however, only 10,000 receive them each year. 65% of the organs come from executed prisoners. But new government regulations have reduced the number of organs available for transplant, and few Chinese agree to donate their organs upon death, widening the gap between supply and demand.

A 17-year-old student in Anhui Province sold one of his kidneys for 20,000 yuan only to buy an iPad 2. Now, with his health getting worse, the boy is feeling regret but it is too late, the Global Times reported today.

"I wanted to buy an iPad 2 but could not afford it," said the boy surnamed Zheng in Huaishan City. "A broker contacted me on the Internet and said he could help me sell one kidney for 20,000 yuan."

On April 28 Zheng went to Chenzhou City in neighboring Hunan Province for the kidney removal surgery arranged by the broker. His parents knew nothing about it, Zheng said. He was paid 22,000 yuan after his right kidney was taken out at the Chenzhou No. 198 Hospital.

When he returned home, his mother found out and reported to the police immediately. But they could not locate the broker whose cell phone was always powered off, the report said.

It turned out that the Chenzhou No. 198 Hospital was not qualified to perform organ transplant. The hospital claimed they had no idea about Zheng's surgery because the department that did the surgery had been contracted to a Fujian businessman.

The case is still under investigation, the report said.

Links:

The Red Market On the Trail of the World's Organ Brokers, Bone Thieves, Blood Farmers, and Child Traffickers

Regarding other black markets, the author of the book, Scott Carney, said:

I actually don't go into Kosovo at all in the book. It's a shame because what happened there during the war is horrible. In fact, I found during my research that there were far too many ways that the body is sold illegally for me to ever possibly cover. There are huge gaps where I don't explore organ rings in south america, the bone thefts of Biological Tissue Services in New Jersey, the NY Rabbi caught in a kidney ring, plastinated cadavers in South Shore Seaport. The list is extensive. Instead I have tried my best to look at ten or twelve distinct markets and look a similarities that might provide a lens to examine all red markets.

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Who Finances American Debt And Will They Continue?

Americans, immersed in debt and worried about their jobs or lack thereof, are wary of continuing their excessive consumption habits, not a bad thing, nevertheless, considering how much our economy depends on consumer spending, it's not a good thing either. On the other hand, China, the major holder of our debt, and known for saving, are spending more than Americans on everything from cars to computers.

However, although not quite to the level of China spending, government reports show stronger-than-expected November retail sales, an unexpected rise in business inventories in October and the dollar advanced to a two-month high against the euro as a bigger-than-forecast increase in retail sales, all pointing to a recovery in consumer spending.

Despite our unusually high debt levels, our number one ranking and power in the world instills the confidence needed to keep investors lending to us at generous rates.

The heartland website displays a map (below) that displays the current financial dependence relationships of the United States:
click to enlarge:

The major foreign holders of treasury securities are, in order, China Mainland, Japan, United Kingdom, oil exporting countries 3 (Ecuador, Venezuela, Indonesia, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Gabon, Libya, and Nigeria) , oil exporting countries 4 (Caribbean Banking Centers include Bahamas, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Netherlands Antilles and Panama) Brazil , Hong Kong, Russia, ...etc.

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Signing Statements, The Military-Petroleum Complex and Oil Wars

If you have any doubt as to why we went to war with Iraq, read on.

Contrary to the rule of law and our constitutional system of separation of powers, as stated by the American Bar Association in 2006, President Bush went ahead and issued another signing statement on Tuesday that would allow him to ignore parts of the new military authorization act he signed into law.

Why? To ensure U.S. control of Iraq' oil, of course.

In the authorization bill, Mr. Bush challenged four sections. One forbid the money from being used “to exercise United States control of the oil resources of Iraq”; another required negotiations for an agreement by which Iraq would share some of the costs of the American military operations there.

Bush objected to one section of the bill barring attempts “to exercise United States control of the oil resources of Iraq.” Bush also declared the right to ignore sections of a bill meant to protect oversight at federal agencies; he rejected a provision that would allow inspectors general the right to their own counsel instead of politically appointed attorneys, and he rejected a section that would require the White House to tell lawmakers what each inspector general said about the administration’s budget proposals for their offices.

The signing statements Bush issued are necessary to keep - as Nick Turse calls it, in his book, The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives - The Military-Petroleum Complex, functioning.

The Pentagon awarded Shell a $338 million contract, on September 17th, in addition to the over $1 billion it was already awarded the previous year. The following day on September 22nd, Iraq and Shell officially signed a $4 billion deal to process and market natural gas. The very next day, Shell "established an office in Baghdad.

Bush scored some major points a few days ago when the Iraqi government put 40 billion barrels of oil up for sale...that's 40% of Iraq’s reserves. This is the biggest sale of oil assets ever. All the big players - Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total, BP, and Chevron - who show up regularly on Pentagon's payroll, taking home more than $4.1 billion - are involved.

It should come as no surprise that President Bush is doing all he can to ensure the future profits of oil companies, especially at a time when when the number of oil discoveries are less, the size of those discoveries, smaller, and the demand for oil is greater than ever, across the globe,

Americans use twenty million barrels of oil per day, or seven billion barrels of oil per year, that's 25% of what the world uses. That may not sound like a lot until you consider Americans make up 4-5% of the world population, and that the US reached peak oil in 1970. Our dependence on other countries will continually increase as we import approx. 70-75%, between crude oil and finished products currently.

Is there an oil shortage? I doubt it because by the time we run out of oil, we should have the technology available to harvest energy from the sun. However, shoddy oil infrastructure and waste is a problem.

After the oil price of oil collapsed in 1982, massive amount of down-sizing occurred in the industry leaving us with the "shortage" problem we have today...shortage of equipment and professionals, that is. One deep water rig costs $1 billion and takes 4-5 years to build. There are approximately 500 off shore oil rigs worldwide, today and they are on average about 28-years old...it used to be that oil rigs were retired after 25-years. In addition, there is a shortage of geologists, rig hands, reservoir engineers, drilling crews and seismic crews.

Combine an outdated oil infrastructure with the explosive economic growth of other parts of the world -- China and India -- and you can imagine the problems this might cause. Since these "underdeveloped" countries of yesteryear have morphed into the "developing" countries of today, due to , as Matthew Simmons, author of Twilight in the desert: The Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy. says, "in a nutshell, the supply is too old and the demand is too new".

If we could contain the economic blueprint -- two or more cars per household, trucking industry, excessive use of electricity etc. -- to the U.S., Canada, Western Europe and more recently Korea and Japan, oil supply wouldn't be so problematic. However with China, India and other parts of the world adopting our wasteful ways, oil supply, demand and waste become an enormous issue.

The Iraq war may only be the beginning of whats to come. For example, the tribes of the Niger Delta are sick and tired of the oil companies taking but never giving back. Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) is blowing up pipelines and siphoning off the oil in an effort to rid their country of these greedy companies. Their ultimate goal is to totally destroy the capacity of the Nigerian government to export oil.

What could all this lead too? Oil wars, according to Simmons. But, hasn't that already started? Yes, however, so far we've been spared the brutality. If things continue on the same path...well, let's just say karma's a bitch.

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Blog Action Day 2008: What's Going On That We're Not Hearing About?

If Monica Lewinsky, Britney Spears and the winners and losers on American Idol can unsettle the reasoning minds, thus diverting our attention away from important current events, imagine the level of distraction as we face the horror and confusion that this fiscal crisis has produced.

As the powers that be rush to "repair" the havoc, that the egregious greed of the powers that be has wrought, by "borrowing" trillions of our dollars to reward themselves; in hopes that they can save our economy, I wonder what else are they up too? Let me rephrase that question without the annoying cynical overtones. What is happening or developing right now, that may affect our lives in the near future, as we focus all of our attention to the plight of our pocketbooks?

Global poverty is one issue that has and will suffer from the lack of attention that they might have otherwise received if not for the current fiscal crisis, especially if rich nations renege on their pledges of aid.

The world's wealthiest nations pledged billions of dollars at a U.N. food summit in June, following a spike in commodities prices that tipped 75 million more people into hunger last year.

But the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said very little of promised aid had been received so far, even though the outlook had darkened for the world's poorest.

Although, considering foreign aid represents 1% of the U.S. federal budget, and that the U.S. ranks last in the percent of gross national product spent on foreign aid - the Department of defense spending 20% of that 1% - it's not as if global poverty is a top priority anyway. However, those people, unfortunate enough to exist in a state of having no money, food, clean water, shelter etc, and most importantly no way of earning the necessities to ensure their survival, will undoubtedly take anything they can get.

Well, what does global poverty have to do with this financial crisis or us? Aside from moral imperative, there is the geopolitical one. As our world shrinks, we can no longer afford to ignore the combination of geographic. and political factors around the world. More and more, those factors will influence us, whether we want them too or not. Existing circumstances of hopelessness, marginalization, impoverishment and conditions where violation of human rights is the norm, are fertile breeding ground for terrorism, disease, backward thinking, and conflict, all of which can spread faster than William "The Refrigerator" Perry can scarf down 40 hotdogs.

What else are we missing?

On a more positive note, “Chinese leaders are expected to allow peasants to buy or sell land-use rights for the first time, a step that could draw hundreds of millions of farmers more firmly into the market economy, now centered around the cities.”

Iran is imposing the nation’s first ever sales tax.

History is being made in Zimbawbwe.

The U.S. and Iraq draft an agreement that will allow U.S. troops to stay until 2011 and gives Iraq the right to try U.S. soldiers for felonies committed off duty.

The Iraqi Government is putting 40 billion barrels of reserves up for grabs in biggest sale ever.

It was always oil. Here's the proof.

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China Earthquake and Myanmar Tropical Cyclone

Relief Web has all the latest updates, news and maps on the China earthquake and Myanmar tropical cyclone.


China Map: Earthquake as of May 12, 2008














Eastern Sichuan, China: Estimated Population Esposed to Earthquake Shaking (as of 12 May 2008)




















Cyclone Nargis Floods Burma (Myanmar) (as of 05 May 2008)




















Myanmar: Cyclone Nargis - Who/What/Where, Protection Sector (as of 12 May 2008)















Relief Web serves the information needs of the humanitarian relief community in assessing the amount of devastation that takes place around the world every day.

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Toy Converts to GHB, Naked Suday, Censoring Cock and other Dumb Moments in Business World 2007

1. China - "Mattel is forced to recall almost 20 million items made in China because of lead paint on toy cars and tiny magnets that could be deadly if swallowed. Lead paint problems are also found in 844,000 Chinese-made Barbie accessories and toys with the Sesame Street brand.

Pet food makers recall more than 60 million cans of food laced with tainted melamine in wheat gluten from China. A huge underground distribution network for steroids, human growth hormones, and other bodybuilding drugs is traced to 37 companies in China. Chinese-made lunch boxes, given away by the California Department of Public Health to promote healthy eating habits among children, are found to contain lead.

Nike recalls 235,000 football helmets because the Chinese-made chin cup has a defective strap and has caused at least two concussions and a broken nose. Ethylene glycol is found in Chinese-made toothpaste. The government of China executes the former head of its State Food and Drug Administration."

2. Eli Lilly -- Prozac for Dogs

Eli Lilly wins FDA approval to put Prozac into chewable, beef-flavored pills to treat separation anxiety in dogs.

3. Leona Helmsley leaves $12 million to her white Maltese, Trouble.

4. Merrill Lynch -

In the first quarter of 2007, thanks to its $1.3 billion purchase of First Franklin Financial, Merrill Lynch becomes the world's top underwriter of subprime-mortgage-backed securities. Nonetheless, with the market in meltdown just a few months later, Merrill CFO Jeffrey Edwards (pictured) tells analysts that the firm's subprime exposure is "limited, contained, and appropriately marked." In October, Merrill announces a quarterly loss of $2.24 billion after $7.9 billion in subprime-related write-downs.

5. Stanley O'Neil -

In August and September, as his company is racking up the largest quarterly loss in its 93-year history, Merrill Lynch CEO Stanley O'Neal squeezes in 20 rounds of golf, including three rounds on three different courses in a single day. In October, O'Neal announces his "retirement," walking away with a compensation package valued at $161.5 million.

6. Citigroup CEO Resigns - after the company takes an $11 billion write-down.



7. Hi-Tech Toilets - "The fire would have been just under your buttocks." Japanese manufacturer Toto apologizes to customers and offers free repairs for 180,000 high-tech toilets - thrones that feature heated seats, air purifiers, blow dryers, and water sprayers - after at least three catch fire. "Fortunately nobody was using the toilets when the fire broke out," says a company spokesman. "The fire would have been just under your buttocks."


8. Hordes of Rats in KFC/Taco Bell A video clip showing hordes of rats in a closed-for-the-night KFC/Taco Bell outlet in New York City gets nearly a million hits on YouTube.
9. Ratatoullie --

The French daily Le Monde calls Ratatouille, Pixar's movie about a rat in a kitchen, "one of the greatest gastronomic films in the history of cinema."

10. Electronic Voting Machines --

Diebold tightens security after it is revealed that a simple virus can hack its electronic voting machines. Months later a hacker uses a picture of a key from the company website to make a real key that can open the company's machines.

11. Oil Spills - "I touched the delta tower." -- Captain John J. Cota,

The pilot of the container ship Cosco Busan, after the vessel strikes the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and spills 58,000 gallons of diesel fuel from a 160-foot gash in its hull.

12. Procter & Gamble

The parents of two Florida toddlers sue Procter & Gamble after they are surprised to find images of their children on packages of Luvs diapers. The parents say they were paid a "nominal fee" at a casting call but were promised an additional payment if the photos were selected.

13. Disneyland -- Gives free food coupons to fat customers for not sinking their small world. Disneyland announces plans to close the "It's a Small World" attraction to deepen its water channel after the ride's boats start getting stuck under loads of heavy passengers. Employees ask larger passengers to disembark - and compensate them with coupons for free food.
14. Naked Sunday --The Fitworld gym in Heteren, the Netherlands, introduces Naked Sunday.

15. Toy Converts Into Date Rape Drug --

Australia's Toy of the Year, a bead toy called Bindeez made by Moose Enterprise, is pulled from stores after scientists discover that the beads contain a chemical that converts into the date-rape drug GHB when ingested.

16. Microsoft Pretexting Award -- While working on an article about Microsoft, Wired contributing editor (and former Fortune writer) Fred Vogelstein receives a 13-page dossier about himself, describing him as "tricky" and his stories as "sensational." The document, prepared by the company's public relations firm, Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, as background for Microsoft executives, was sent inadvertently to the writer.


17. Cocaine Energy Drink --

After receiving a warning from the FDA, Redux Beverages agrees to stop calling its energy drink Cocaine. It changes the name first to Censored, then to NoName.

18. Censoring the Word "Cock" --

A contributor to the website of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds complains that he is being censored when a filter in the site's Microsoft software automatically replaces the word "cock" - the common designation for a male bird - with asterisks. "As bird lovers will know," he writes, "a Parus major is a great tit, and while a **** doesn't get past the forum censors, tits do not cause offense."

19. Judge Rules OK to Drive Zambonis Drunk --

New Jersey Superior Court Judge Joseph Falcone dismisses drunk-driving charges against a Zamboni operator even though he tests positive for alcohol. The judge rules that the ice-grooming machines aren't motor vehicles because they are not street legal.

20. OJ Simpson's Troubles Have Not Worked Out for Him --

"The police, since my trouble, have not worked out for me." -- O.J. Simpson, on why he took matters into his own hands to reclaim memorabilia he says were pilfered. He is charged with kidnapping and armed robbery.

21. Cartoon Network's "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" Salutes -- To build buzz for its animated show "Aqua Teen Hunger Force," Turner Broadcasting's Cartoon Network places electronic lightboards throughout Boston, triggering a bomb scare that shuts down two bridges, an expressway, a subway station, and a stretch of the Charles River. The devices depict a character from the show saluting passersby with an upraised middle finger.

22. Don Imus' "Nappy-headed hos" remark

23. HBO President Punches and Chokes Girlfriend --

HBO President Chris Albrecht allegedly punches and chokes his girlfriend while drunk at 3 A.M. in a Las Vegas parking lot

24. Raining Dollar Bills on Las Vegas Dancers --

Tennessee Titans Cornerback Adam "Pacman" Jones rains dollar bills down on dancers at a Las Vegas strip club, setting off a melee in which three people are shot.

25. Isiah Thomas -- Sexual harassment lawsuit

The Rest of the Dumb Moments List...

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China and Russia Seek to Block Report on Darfur

March 16, 2007 (GENEVA) — China and Russia joined Arab and Muslim states on Friday in urging the U.N.’s human rights watchdog to ignore a report from a mission to Darfur that blamed Sudan for continuing war crimes against civilians there.

The two permanent United Nations Security Council members argued the mission, led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jody Williams, last month failed to gain access to the vast western region of Sudan and had not fulfilled its mandate.

Despite warnings from Western and some African states that failure to act would undermine the credibility of the newly formed Human Rights Council, Muslim and Arab states and their allies backed Sudan’s line that the report had no legal basis.

"The so-called mission failed to make an onsite visit. The report cannot be considered objective ... and has no legal basis," China said in a statement to the 47-state Council, which was echoed by Russia.

The mission’s report said the government of Sudan had orchestrated and taken part in war crimes. It appealed for the Council to take "urgent further action," to protect civilians.

Some African states, which are manning a 7,000-strong peacekeeping force in Darfur but are split over how to respond to the human rights crisis there, spoke out strongly about the need to accept the report and act on it.

Denial of access was not grounds for dismissing it, Zambia said, noting South Africa under apartheid and the then Rhodesia, also under white rule, routinely refused entry to such missions.

Deserve Better

"The people of Darfur deserve better," said Zambia’s ambassador Love Mtesa.

After initially agreeing to the mission, the government of Sudan refused visas to the five-person team because it said one of its members had previously spoken of genocide in Darfur and could not be objective.

The U.N. investigators, asked by the Council in December to examine reports of abuse in Darfur, were forced to conduct their work from neighbouring Chad and in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, headquarters of the African Union.

Observers estimate 200,000 people have been killed and more than 2 million driven from their homes since a revolt broke out fours ago. The government responded to the uprising by arming militias which have been accused of atrocities.

The Sudanese government denies responsibility for abuses and blames rebel groups that have refused to sign a 2006 peace deal.

The report, the latest international probe to point the finger at Khartoum over the violence in Darfur, also accused rebels of crimes against civilians.

"This report has no legal standing. This faulty report should not be discussed," Sudan’s Justice Minister Mohamed Ali Elmardi told the Council.

Williams told the Council it was its credibility that was on the line — not that of the mission — if it failed to act on her team’s recommendations.

"Innocent civilians continue to suffer and die. They do not need more reports. They are pleading for protection," she said.

"Our job is to attempt to try to alleviate the suffering of the people of Darfur who are being raped, pillaged and burned while political wrangling goes on here in the hallowed halls of the United Nations," she said, to applause.

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