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If you have not familiarized yourself with the lifetime works of luminary graphic designer Josef Müller Brockmann, Alki1 has assembled a nice Flickr set featuring some of his more well known pieces. I was totally consumed by Brockmann in my senior year of college while studying graphic design and was particularly obsessed with his Musica Viva posters. His work has continued to be a big source of inspiration and while working for Nasir Kasamali, I was surprised that even he carried a Brockmann book in the small library at his Luminaire furniture store in Miami. After discovering the book then 4 years out of college, I was once again obsessed all over again with Brockmann's work. You can definitely see his influence on the current trends in design.
written by Christopher | tags: Akzidenz Grotesk, Graphic Design, Josef Muller Brockmann, Typography


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PAROS, Greece — A few summers ago, every merchant on this island—which means pretty much everybody with a job—faced ruin. Greece's economic catastrophe had bankrupted the government and brought nearly every industry to a standstill. A modern European country faced the prospect of unthinkably widespread poverty. The local crisis reached up to the highest level: the European Union contemplated the collapse of the euro. Meanwhile, here on Paros, where the crisis was exacerbated by a global recession that had depressed tourism, mom-and-pop hotels, cafes, and tchotchke shops were going bust.
To avoid calamity, Europe agreed to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to bail out Greece. In return, Greece pledged to overhaul nearly everything about its economy. The government promised to fire half its employees, and liberalized laws on everything from trucking to private universities. Generous pension benefits were slashed, and once-cushy lifetime government gigs were turned over to the free market.
The reforms were supposed to rout corruption from the senior ranks of government, bring efficiency and a service ethos to a notoriously indifferent government, and make it easy for entrepreneurs to launch new businesses. Many Greeks were anguished, even taking to the streets to protest the overhaul of a welfare system that had given the working poor and lower middle class an exceptionally humane and dignified standard of living. But on the bright side, others saw a window opening: finally, the cozy and corrupt Greek economy would be cracked open by genuine market discipline. Scouring out corruption and entitlements might be painful, but it would also clean up daily life and create genuine opportunities.
Europe came through on its end of the deal: hundreds of billions flowed into the Greek treasury. This year, the island is flush again. The tourists are back, eager to spend their euros. New souvlaki joints fill once quiet alleys. Bars have sprung up in orchards. Small business owners who have exuded anxiety since 2008 are once again smiling and confident.
But not everything has changed in Greece. In daily life here, cheating, bribes, and tax evasion are still a matter of course. Even anticorruption officials reputedly accept bribes, and only one Cabinet minister has gone to prison for embezzlement. At the bottom level, freelance workers and shopowners still hide most of their income, like a workman who got angry when I filed a receipt for the repairs he did at my house.
What's happened over the past five years shows Europe's surprising ability to pull together as a region and avoid a financial disaster. But developments on the ground in Greece offer a less encouraging view of human nature. In response to additional laws and regulations, Greece's corrupt system has simply upped its game. If anything, the new rules have just given Greeks more official protocol to maneuver around.
Why does this corrupt system survive, when everything points toward how it needs to be improved? Macroeconomists and development theorists have studied this problem for years, examining cases in countries that are abjectly poor and ones that are developed and comparatively rich, like Greece. There have been bold initiatives underwritten by international loans, and pointed local efforts like Italy's long-losing battle against Mafia-driven graft. But conversations with ordinary people in Greece make it clear just why it's so hard to reverse a culture of corruption once it becomes engrained. Even in a relatively prosperous European country, never mind Liberia or India, the most immediate self-interested move is for everyone to keep playing the game.
My ancestors have lived for centuries on Paros, since before Greece fought for independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1821. My grandparents were the first generation to leave the island for Athens, after World War II, but we've been coming here every summer since then.
Although my lineage is pure Greek, I grew up with American attitudes about cheating. I spent my childhood surrounded by a certain moralism that I found appealing: you don't cheat not because you might get caught, but because it's wrong. You pay taxes because it's the law and the government provides security and services in return, regardless of whether your politics are welfare-state liberal or "don't tread on me" libertarian.
This is not how people see the bargain in Greece. Individuals refuse to pay taxes or obey the rules not just because it's cheaper and easier to do so, but also because they don't want to be suckers.
"I took my daughter to the government day care and they put her on the waiting list. The waiting list! Can you imagine?" a man griped to me recently. "And then they expect me to pay taxes! I'll pay taxes when they do their job."
The man wasn't a sidewalk souvenir vendor or otherwise working in the gray market. He was an insurance broker, making small talk in his office while filling out a 20-page form to insure my moped, a glorified bicycle whose Greek government-mandated paperwork was more complicated than an American mortgage application.
The Greek system can feel like a Mexican standoff. Citizens won't obey the law until the government fulfills its duties. The government shirks its duties because it doesn't have enough revenue to govern responsibly. Small-time tax cheats refuse to bend until the corrupt elite is tried and imprisoned. The government says it can't punish scofflaws because it doesn't have the resources. And so the vicious circle turns.
Merchants watch out for the tax man. If they know the customer, they don't issue the legally required receipt. Workmen offer discounts: 20 percent off a job if you pay under the table. Beach touts pick up old receipts and give them to new customers. Only nerds check carefully and demand a fresh receipt.
The electrician who rewired my house called in a panic after I deposited the payment in his bank account.
"Can you take it back?" he pleaded. There was no way to erase the transaction. Now he would have to pay value-added tax (as he was legally obligated to do).
"There goes all my profit," he complained. That wasn't true, but it irked him that he'd have to share a few hundred euros of his take with the government.
Cheating is so common that the few who don't do it feel like saps. Among them are salaried employees who don't have the option to hide their income. They must pay their ever-increasing tax bills, carrying a disproportionate share of the burden, and yet they don't see any improvement from the government. Complaining is a social lubricant, whether it's about the tab you escaped, or the one you paid.
"Sixteen thousand euros, my friend, that's the name of my pain," an antique dealer told me. "After you pay that, nothing feels good."
"You must have made a nice profit if your tax bill was that high," I said.
"I'm barely living," he said.
It's tempting to blame all this misbehavior on some kind of national character. I admit at times I've thought that myself, but I've observed enough to know that it's not that simple. A whole web of social structures undergirds bad attitudes and practices. Historians go even deeper; they start the story with the Ottoman Empire, which dominated the region, including most of Greece, from 1453 until the end of World War I.
Greece still carries the traces of Ottoman rule, under which it chafed for four centuries. The sultanate in Istanbul tried to crush provincial uprisings, but was remarkably tolerant toward territories that paid their tribute and created no problems. The Ottomans ruled through a combination of neglect and stifling bureaucracy, which gave rise to a system of institutionalized bribes. The sultan milked his provincial governors, who in turn squeezed the citizenry. Taxes were just another negotiable kickback.
That Ottoman legacy is still alive, nearly two centuries after the first parts of Greece won independence. The Greek elites mirror the predatory habits of the sultanate, while the citizens act as if evading taxes is a heroic act of revolt against the occupier. "You know what they say about the rotten fish, don't you? It stinks from the head," said a restaurant owner who for most of my lifetime has avoided ringing up dinner bills at the cash register.
Those officials and the plutocratic elite have escaped the crisis relatively unscathed. One minister, Akis Tsochadzopoulos, who stole an obscene amount of money from defense contracts, was sentenced to 20 years in jail. For the most part, however, the rich and powerful have been left alone even as small business owners and pensioners have been squeezed by huge tax hikes and massive cuts in benefits. For the vast numbers of Greeks in that category, it's hard to appreciate why they should be more accountable than the government itself. Even the new tax inspectors sometimes turn out to be on the take, shopowners say, offering to take a bribe in exchange for a lower fine that goes to the treasury.
Suspicion breeds suspicion, and everyone has a horror story. A doctor who is a family acquaintance told me that he used to be a model citizen, declaring all his income and scrupulously paying taxes. Then, he said, some years ago he was hit with a huge bill by the tax inspector.
"We know you hide 40 percent of your income," the inspector told him. "So we've charged you accordingly." The doctor promptly stopped reporting his full income, and has been strategically lowballing it ever since.
Academic economists have been fascinated by the persistence of Greek corruption since the reforms. Yannis Ioannides, an economist at Tufts University, and Costas Azariadis, an economist at Washington University in St. Louis, surveyed the topic for a forthcoming book published by MIT. In it, they offer suggestions on stanching the corruption: they'd like to see the government mount a genuine effort to punish wrongdoers at the top, coupled with a robust new independent watchdog agency to catch tax cheats and embezzlers.
Still, they're not optimistic these measures would change what they call "the entire value system of nihilism and antisocial behavior that parents and schools have allowed to percolate through Greek society." Research has shown that Greece's culture of mistrust and cheating is far more extreme than anywhere in Europe. According to surveys, 80 percent of Greeks believe it's all right to claim government benefits to which they are not entitled, while 20 percent disapprove. In most of Europe, the ratio is almost exactly flipped.
A look around the world doesn't offer much inspiration that corrupt cultures can mend their ways. There have been some successes: New York's Tammany Hall was once synonymous with total corruption. So were Hong Kong and Singapore. Time and reform turned them into models of efficiency, relatively speaking, though the latter two are notably undemocratic today. More common are the kinds of marginal improvements seen in places like Rwanda or the former Soviet republic of Georgia, where reformers have steadily improved police, courts, and some other government services but where graft, bribery, and inefficiency are still serious problems.
Some observers argue that Greece's economic near-death experience wasn't deadly enough. "People didn't starve in the streets," said Yiannis Vlahos, a surgeon who also writes a column for Estia, one of Greece's oldest newspapers. "We didn't suffer enough. Now things are a little better and everyone thinks they got away with it."
His daughter, a marketing executive, lists a litany of banal ignominies visited upon her by the state: she had to take three full days off work to stand in line to register with the Greek tax authorities so she could pay her taxes online. She can't count on public education or health care for her children, and must instead pay for private schools and doctors. When a neighbor encroached on a family summer home, it took 20 years for the courts to issue a ruling.
"Only one thing has changed," she said of the reformed Greece. "Now I ask for receipts."
When I was a kid in the 1970s, Paros regularly ran out of water during the summer. There was no sewer system, and mosquitoes flourished in the septic tanks whose stench marred the scenic whitewashed alleys. No one had a swimming pool, and most of the roads were unpaved.
Today Paros has a better infrastructure than Beirut, the far more cosmopolitan and wealthy capital city where I live and work. A custom-built miniature garbage truck circulates every morning through the ancient streets, and immigrant workers roam around picking up litter.
The carpenter drives an Audi and the restaurateurs send their kids to university in Athens or London, but almost everyone I talked to swears to me that they still have to cheat to make ends meet. No amount of unearned money, apparently, will ever be enough.
Jokes aside, it's obvious that there's really no such thing as national character—just culture and history. By their nature Americans aren't less prone to lie, cheat, steal, or kill than people from any other country. Habitual high-scorers on Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index, like the Scandinavians and Singaporeans, aren't wired to be more honest than low-scoring North Koreans and Somalis.
Corruption persists because it is a system, and it provides benefits in places where the state does not. Inefficient states create incentives for people to pay bribes to get things done—a building permit, a health department seal of approval, a new passport. Scandinavia is less corrupt than other parts of the world because it's a better deal to not cheat; you pay really high taxes, but the government really does give you everything you need.
Overcoming corruption, therefore, requires almost unimaginable transformation. You have to build an entirely new system—for instance, a new tax code and incorruptible people to collect the taxes—and you have to convince individuals to completely overhaul their personal behavior and their view of authority. One only has to spend a few weeks in Greece to see why, not just here but in places like India and Afghanistan, this is such a Herculean task.
The resistance lies in institutions, in political cultures, and in expectations that have become deeply ingrained in daily life. Cultures and institutions are made of people; people and policies can both change. But some places, like Greece, have been stuck in these feedback loops of corruption and stagnation for so long—for their entire modern history—that it's hard to see where the reservoir of a new public morality would come from. You'd have to look back to Pericles, two and a half millennia ago, to find a Greek leader who could claim with a straight face to be "not only a patriot but an honest one."
Thanassis Cambanis, a fellow at The Century Foundation, is the author of "A Privilege to Die: Inside Hezbollah's Legions and Their Endless War Against Israel." He is an Ideas columnist and blogs at thanassiscambanis.com.

subset: commoncrawl


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The Department of Childhood Studies puts the issues, concepts and debates that surround the study of children and childhoods at the center of its research and teaching missions.
Through a multidisciplinary approach, the Department of Childhood Studies aims both to theorize and historicize the figure of the Child and to situate the study of children and childhoods within contemporary cultural and global contexts.
The curriculum in the Department is multidisciplinary in scope and purpose and provides students with a strong background in both humanistic and social science perspectives on children and their representations. This approach will prepare students for careers in many areas including academics, public policy, social services, youth programming, and education.


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Missy – An emotional hip-hop beat, dedicated to one special person which I miss … You tell your own story…
The Missy Track you can purchase in a package Sentimental Hop Pack and save 50%!
More Hip-Hop Track: [Hop-Cheerful] | [Hop-Powerful] | [Hop-Sentimental]
Thanks for purchasing and rating!
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Two docking station products set to ship in September of this year promise to bring USB 3.0, and much more, to the Mac.
By taking advantage of the Thunderbolt port on recent Macs, Belkin and Matrox will soon offer docks that allow most owners of Thunderbolt-equipped laptops and desktops to take full advantage of speedy USB 3.0 peripherals for the first time.
While USB 3.0 devices are backwards compatible with the USB 2.0 ports found on all Macs, those devices can operate only at slower USB 2.0 speed—480 megabits per second instead of 5 gigabits per second for USB 3.0. Presently, only owners of 17-inch MacBook Pros with ExpressCard slots or Mac Pro models with PCIe expansion slots have access to third party add-on cards that let Macs take full advantage of the types of USB 3.0 storage devices that are popular in the Windows world.
Of the two docking products announced this week, the $400 Belkin Thunderbolt Express Dock offers the largest number of connections. It includes three USB 3.0 ports, one FireWire 800 port, a gigabit ethernet port, an eSATA connection, and a Mini DisplayPort connection. The Belkin dock also has headphone and microphone inputs as well as a second Thunderbolt port for daisy chaining additional Thunderbolt devices. A Mini DisplayPort to DVI adapter will also be included in the box.
For $150 less, the $249 Matrox DS1 offers a gigabit ethernet port, one USB 3.0 port, two USB 2.0 ports, headphone and microphone ports, and a DVI connector. The Matrox dock takes up less desktop real estate than the Belkin product, but doesn't include any FireWire 800 ports—which MacBook Air users might find handy—or a second Thunderbolt port for connecting other Thunderbolt devices.
Apple's $999 Thunderbolt Display ( ) already offers several of these connections, including FireWire 800, USB 2.0, gigabit ethernet, and a second Thunderbolt port for daisy chaining—but not USB 3.0. But for those interested in USB 3.0—and don't need a 27-inch glossy display—these docks will make a lot more sense.
Both companies say their products will work with Thunderbolt-equipped PCs—which have yet to appear on the market—as well.
[James Galbraith is Macworld's lab director and PCWorld's senior lab manager.]


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Water flowed down the aisles and rained down on passengers of a double-decker Qantas Airways flight bound for Australia after a leak that forced the plane to return to Los Angeles late Tuesday, airline officials and passengers on the flight said.
The flight to Melbourne landed safely again at Los Angeles International Airport about an hour after takeoff, the company said in a statement.
Qantas said there were no safety concerns with the leak and that the captain decided to turn the Airbus A380 around in the interest of passenger comfort.
Water ran down stairs in the cabin and dripped onto passengers seated in the lower deck. Some people were moved to dryer areas of the plane.
"You couldn't keep going like that for 15 hours," passenger Ken Cross told KABC-TV.
Passengers were put up at a hotel as other flight arrangements were made.
The 11:40 p.m. flight was carrying about 400 passengers, LAX spokeswoman Amanda Parsons told The Associated Press.
Qantas says the plane's crew did all it could to help customers and that the issue with the plane was being addressed by its engineers.
The company said it was working to determine the cause of the leak.
The A380 is a massive four-engine jet with two decks of passenger seating. The planes first flew to the United States in 2007.
Filed Under: Aerospace + defense


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Privacy Notice of Arthrex, Inc.
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Last Updated: December 16, 2019


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DONETSK, Ukraine — After Ukraine's new president, Petro Poroshenko, told reporters in Kiev on Wednesday that he might soon order a temporary, unilateral cease-fire as part of a broader 14-point peace plan, it took all of several seconds for pro-Russian militants to rule it out.
"I am a condemned man," said a stick-thin fighter who, like many others here, identified himself only by an alias, Tarik, for security reasons. Sipping tea in the gloom of the lobby of Donetsk's rebel-occupied administration building Wednesday, he patted the magazine of the automatic rifle slung across his chest.
Any cease-fire would certainly be violated by the Ukrainian army, he said, adding that he and other pro-Russian separatists would be arrested the minute the government had the opportunity.
"What peace can they possibly offer me?" he asked. "If they want peace, then they can leave."
Tarik and a dozen other rank-and-file fighters here reacted to Poroshenko's proposal with a dark, belligerent skepticism. Most rejected the idea of disarming until a patchwork of amorphous conditions were met, suggesting that a truce will be awfully difficult to achieve.
Some demanded that the Ukrainian military leave the region, called Donbass, while others wanted a war tribunal for Ukraine's newly elected leaders. Most said they wanted the restoration of "stability," the precise definition of which remained elusive.
"Maybe there was a way back when this all just started, when the people were out here with the flags to make their point, and before the killing," said Denis, a separatist fighter from Makeyevka, a depressed industrial town outside of Donetsk, when asked how and when the conflict might be resolved.
Another fighter jumped in helpfully. "The Third World War," he said to nods of assent.
None said he was ready to lay down his arms.
The responses seemed to afford little hope that, as Poroshenko urged, a cease-fire "should receive support from all participants in the events in Donbass." Toward that end, the president's office announced that Poroshenko would meet Thursday with what his office called the "legitimate" leaders from the east, including mayors and business representatives.
The Russian government has called repeatedly for Ukraine to stop its military crackdown on the separatists but has also insisted that it does not control, or speak for, the separatists.
But rebel leaders quickly dismissed Poroshenko's proposal. Denis Pushilin, one of the leaders of the political wing of the Donetsk People's Republic, said in television appearances in Moscow that he thought it was "pointless," suggesting it was the latest trick by Kiev to subdue the fighters.
Another rebel commander, Igor Strelkov, told Komsomolskaya Pravda, a Russian newspaper, that Ukraine had already violated the cease-fire, though officially it had not yet even been declared.
In Kiev, Poroshenko told reporters that he planned to announce the cease-fire as part of a wider peace plan to end the more than two months of fighting in eastern Ukraine, where, the United Nations reported Wednesday, at least 356 people are known to have died.


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A heavy education for New York City commuters
Many of us don't know how to eat. (And it's making us fat, sick and disconnected.) This poster and three more like it are turning up in New York subways, confronting us with the vagueness that goes into our food choices. If you really knew that a fast-food burrito meal was 1170 calories — more […]Continue reading


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Viddler.com - Merlin Mann - Worst Website Ever - SXSW 2008 - Uploaded by rooreynolds
This was the best part of the best presentation at South by Southwest this year: Merlin Mann gives his spiel during Andy Baio's "Worst website ever."
This was the best part of the best presentation at South by Southwest this year: Merlin Mann gives his spiel during Andy Baio's "Worst website ever."
The guys from Viddler have put together a little site dedicated to video coverage from South by Southwest.
I stumbled across this video that Neil Ford shot of the Hackfight project in full flow. The back-end guys are brainstorming, the front-end people are user-testing... this is the stuff of magic!
On the last day of XTech 2007 I abducted Ian and forced him to shoot a quick video of a microformats demo that I didn't have a chance to include in my presentation.
The video is one minute and one second long. It's a quick demo of John McKerrell's bluetooth version of the Tails plugin.
Here's a transcript of the 1:01 minutes of video:
This is my website. This is my mobile phone. My website has microformats. This is a version of the Tails plugin for Firefox. It exposes all the microformats I have on my website. I can convert and export those microformats as vcard, iCal, whatever I want. With this version of the plugin I can also export to bluetooth. So let's take an event for example. I click on bluetooth. My computer asks me which device to export to. I have previously paired up my phone. So now I'm going to send the event to that device. And there we go. I have now exported from the World Wide Web onto my mobile phone. Easy!
The video is released under a Creative Commons attribution license. You are free to share, remix, caption and translate this video (as long as you provide attribution).
This was my third year attending South by Southwest and also my third year speaking.
It seems to have become a tradition that I do a "bluffing" presentation every year. I did How to Bluff Your Way in CSS two years ago with Andy. Last year I did How to Bluff Your Way in DOM Scripting with Aaron. This year, Andy was once again my partner in crime and the topic was How to Bluff Your Way in Web 2.0.
It was a blast. I had so much fun and Andy was on top form. I half expected him to finish with "Thank you, we'll be here all week, try the veal, don't forget to tip your waiter."
As soon as the podcast is available, I'll have it transcribed. In the meantime, Robert Sandie was kind enough to take a video the whole thing. It's posted on Viddler which looks like quite a neat video service: you can comment, tag or link to any second of a video. Here, for instance, Robert links to the moment when I got serious and called for the abolition of Web 2.0 as a catch-all term. I can assure you this moment of gravity is the exception. Most of the presentation was a complete piss-take.
My second presentation was a more serious affair, though there were occasional moments of mirth. Myself and Derek revisited and condensed our presentation from Web Directions North, Ajax Kung Fu meets Accessibility Feng Shui. This went really well. I gave a quick encapsulation of the idea of Hijax and Derk gave a snappy run-through of accessibility tips and tricks. We wanted to make sure we had enough time for questions and I'm glad we did; the questions were excellent and prompted some great discussion.
Again, once the audio recording is available, I'll be sure to get it transcribed.
That was supposed to be the sum of my speaking engagements but Tantek had other ideas. He arranged for me to rush the stage during his panel, The Growth and Evolution of Microformats. The panel was excellent with snappy demos of the Operator plug-in and Glenn's backnetwork app. I tried to do a demo of John McKerrell's bluetooth version of the Tails extension using a volunteer from the audience but that didn't work out too well and I had to fall back on just using a localhost example. Still, it was good to be on-hand to answer some of the great questions from the audience.
And yes, once the audio is available, I'll get it transcribed. Seeing a pattern here? Hint, hint, other speakers.
As panels go, the microformats one was pretty great, in my opinion. Some of the other panels seem to have been less impressive according to the scuttlebutt around the blogvine.
Khoi isn't keen on the panel format. It's true enough that they probably don't entail as much preparation as full-blown presentations but then my expectations are different going into a panel than going into a presentation. So, for something like Brian's talk on the Mobile Web, I was expecting some good no-nonsense practical advice and that's exactly what I got. Whereas for something like the Design Workflows panel, I was expecting a nice fireside chat amongst top-notch designers and that's exactly what I got. That's not to say the panel wasn't prepared. Just take one look at the website of the panel which is a thing of beauty.
The panelists interviewed some designers in preparation for the discussion and you can read the answers given by the twenty interviewees. Everyone gave good sensible answers… except for me.
Anyway, whether or not you like panels as a format, there's always plenty of choice at South by Southwest. If you don't like panels, you don't have to attend them. There's nearly always a straightforward presentation on at the same time. So there isn't much point complaining that the organisers haven't got the format right. They're offering every format under the sun—the trick is making it to the panels or presentations that you'll probably like.
In any case, as everyone knows, South by Southwest isn't really about the panels and presentations. John Gruber wasn't keen on all the panels but he does acknowledge that the real appeal of the conference lies elsewhere:
At most conferences, the deal is that the content is great and the socializing is good. At SXSWi, the content is good, but the socializing is great.


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What can we do for you? To discuss your home's needs give us a ring at 1.888.724.6810 or feel free to contact us through e-mail here.


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Luxury Outlook 2023
An ambitious exploration into high-end residential markets across the globe.
A home in Central Marin deserves a real estate company with roots here. Golden Gate Sotheby's International Realtys modern and sophisticated Drakes Landing office along the Corte Madera Creek in Greenbrae, serves as a gateway to all of Central Marin, offering the services of a world-renowned real estate brand in a uniquely local way. Our curated team of Marin experts are mobilized among each of our carefully selected and conveniently located offices. We provide intimate knowledge and market leadership to both sellers and prospective buyers with an unyielding commitment to exceptional service, along with an understanding that prime properties in Central Marin deserve the highest level of global marketing, unparalleled visibility and reach, and clientele discretion. These are the hallmarks of Sotheby's International Realty and the standards we deliver to our clients. Whether you are seeking to buy a premiere residence or looking for the best representation in selling your property, Golden Gate Sotheby's International Realty welcomes you to discover our distinguished and preeminent services in Central Marin.
With experts in every part of the world, we are local everywhere, allowing us to walk alongside our clients at every stage of their journey. With innovative technology and unrivaled service, we ensure that your home is connected with buyers, locally and worldwide.
Meet the Team
Visit our more localized experience provided by Golden Gate Sotheby's International Realty


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I. The Role of the United Nations (UN)
The world is undergoing tremendous changes and adjustments. Peace and development remain the call of the times. The pursuit of peace, development and cooperation is the common aspiration of all governments and peoples around the world. Interdependence among countries is increasing and the international situation has been stable on the whole. At the same time, however, the world is far from trouble-free. Regional conflicts and hotspot issues keep emerging. Imbalances in the world economy are worsening. The North-South gap is widening. Traditional and non-traditional security threats are intertwined. All this poses difficulties and challenges to world peace and development.
Multilateralism is an inevitable choice for countries to share the development opportunities, jointly meet various challenges and advance the noble cause of peace and development of humanity. The UN is an important platform to practice multilateralism, achieve win-win cooperation and build a harmonious world of enduring peace and common prosperity. China firmly supports the UN in continuing to play a central role in international affairs and firmly supports efforts to uphold and strengthen the effectiveness and authority of the UN.
II. UN Reforms
China supports the UN in carrying out necessary and reasonable reform to enhance its authority and efficiency and better fulfill the responsibilities bestowed on it by the Charter of the United Nations. It meets the development needs of the UN itself and also represents the consensus of the entire membership. The outcome document adopted at the 2005 UN Summit has charted the course for the reform, and China welcomes its positive results. Security, development and human rights are the three pillars of the UN. Reforms in these three fields should proceed in a balanced way. Efforts should be made particularly to produce results in the field of development. Necessary guarantees in terms of institutional arrangement and resources should be assured for development to promote the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals for the benefit of developing countries.
China supports reasonable and necessary reform of the Security Council to enhance its authority and efficiency. We have always supported developing countries in playing a bigger role in the UN, including the Security Council. We maintain that priority should be given to increasing the representations of developing countries, especially African countries, in the Security Council. As reform bears on the future development of the UN and the common interests of all countries, extensive and democratic discussions should be carried out to take into account the interests and concerns of all parties and reach consensus. China is ready to work with all other parties to ensure that the reform of the Security Council will follow a direction that is conducive to the overall interests of the UN member states and upholds and enhances the solidarity of the member states.
III. Security Sector
1. UN Peacekeeping Operations
UN peacekeeping operations are an important and effective means to practice multilateralism and uphold collective security. The peacekeeping operations, with ever expanding scale and increasingly broader mandate, are facing more and more challenges. China supports reasonable reform of UN peacekeeping operations to further improve resources allocation and enhance the rapid reaction and deployment capability of peacekeeping operations. The reform should comply with the spirit of the Charter of the United Nations and the universally recognized norms governing peacekeeping operations, strengthen communication and coordination among various UN departments and agencies and between the Security Council, the UN Secretariat and the member states, in particular, the states involved in the peacekeeping operations, and enhance cooperation between the UN and relevant regional organizations.
2. Peacebuilding
The task of peacebuilding involves the whole UN system. As an important link of efforts in the fields of peace and development, the Peacebuilding Commission should play its role to the full. China is of the view that the Commission should focus on the following three areas: First, it should not only launch quick-impact projects in the recipient countries but also take into consideration their long-term development; Second, it should properly identify priority areas with full respect given to the opinions of the recipient countries; Third, it should be a good coordinator among relevant agencies and step up cooperation with the General Assembly, Security Council and ECOSOC. China supports the Commission in playing a bigger role in peacebuilding and has pledged US$ 3 million to the Peacebuilding Fund.
3. Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict
China is deeply concerned about the security of life and property of civilians affected and threatened by armed conflicts and urges the parties concerned to faithfully observe the International Humanitarian Law and the relevant Security Council resolutions and give full protection to civilians.
The responsibility to protect civilians rests first with the government of the country involved in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and the International Humanitarian Law. Humanitarian assistance should respect the principles of impartiality, neutrality, objectiveness and independence, respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the countries concerned and refrain from interfering in local political disputes or impeding the peace process.
Civilian protection should focus on conflict prevention. The Security Council should step up its effort to prevent conflicts and keep peace. Civilian protection should also be given priority in post-conflict peacebuilding. Relevant UN agencies should strengthen coordination and forge synergy for this purpose.
4. Counter-Terrorism
China supports combating terrorism in all manifestations. The international community should act on the Charter of the United Nations and other universally recognized norms of international law in its fight against terrorism and give full play to the leading and coordinating role of the UN and its Security Council.
China welcomes and supports the adoption of the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy and supports the Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee and the General Assembly Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force in playing an active role in coordinating counter-terrorism efforts among member states.
Both the symptoms and root causes of terrorism must be addressed. By making full use of its resources, the UN should play an active role in eliminating poverty and other root causes of terrorism, promote dialogue among civilizations and assist developing countries in counter-terrorism capacity building. China opposes the linkage of terrorism to certain countries, ethnic groups or religions and is against the practice of double standards.
China supports and takes an active part in the drafting of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism, and hopes all parties will continue consultation with a constructive and cooperative attitude and reach consensus at an early date.
5. The Korean Peninsula Nuclear Issue
A Korean Peninsula that enjoys peace, stability, progress and prosperity serves the common interests of countries in the region, China included, and the rest of the international community. To further advance the Six-Party Talks and achieve the goals set out in the September 19 Joint Statement at an early date are the shared aspirations of the international community.
As the chair of the Six-Party Talks, China will continue to play a constructive role, strengthen consultation and coordination with other parties and work for the early, comprehensive and balanced implementation of the remaining actions of the second phase to move the Talks into a new phase.
6. The Myanmar Issue
China hopes to see Myanmar maintain peace and stability and achieve democracy and national reconciliation. The Myanmar issue is, in essence, a country's internal affair. The international community should provide constructive assistance to Myanmar. Imposing sanctions and exerting pressure will not help solve the issue. China supports the good offices of the UN Secretary-General and his Special Adviser. These efforts take time and require patience and persistence. China supports giving full play to the role of the tripartite mechanism involving the ASEAN, the UN and Myanmar in helping Myanmar complete post-cyclone reconstruction at an early date.
7. The Afghan Issue
The situation in Afghanistan has a bearing on peace and stability in the region and beyond as well as on the smooth progress of the international counter-terrorism efforts. Despite positive progress, the reconstruction process in Afghanistan still faces numerous challenges. To succeed, it requires first and foremost the determined efforts of the Afghan Government. It also needs the strong support from the international community.
China has consistently supported and actively participated in Afghanistan's peaceful reconstruction. China applauds the formulation of the Afghanistan National Development Strategy, welcomes the Paris Declaration issued at the International Conference in Support of Afghanistan and supports further implementation of the Afghanistan Compact. We call on the international community to continue to take an interest and make inputs in Afghanistan and intensify coordination and cooperation. China supports the UN in continuing to play a leading role in resolving the Afghan issue.
8. The Iranian Nuclear Issue
China supports upholding the international nuclear non-proliferation regime. To properly resolve the Iranian nuclear issue through dialogue and negotiation and maintain regional peace and stability serve the interests of all parties.
The Iranian nuclear issue is at a critical stage. There is a rare opportunity for resuming talks. Parties concerned should step up diplomatic efforts and show flexibility, so as to facilitate early restart of talks and negotiations to seek a comprehensive, enduring and proper settlement of the nuclear issue. China remains committed to encouraging dialogue for peace and will continue to play a constructive role in pushing for the peaceful settlement of the Iranian nuclear issue.
9. The Middle East Issue
It is China's long-held position that parties concerned in the Middle East issue properly solve their disputes through dialogue and negotiation on the basis of relevant UN resolutions, the principle of "land for peace", the Middle East Roadmap for Peace and the Arab Peace Initiative.
The International Conference on the Middle East held in Annapolis has achieved positive progress. We hope Palestine and Israel will seize the opportunity and steadily advance peace talks. China also welcomes and supports the efforts made by parties concerned to resume talks between Syria and Israel and between Lebanon and Israel. The international community should respect the religious and ethnic features of Arab countries, take into account the culture, history and reality of the Middle East and establish a balanced and effective peace mechanism to work for a just, enduring and comprehensive settlement of the Middle East issue.
10. The Iraq Issue
China holds that Iraq's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity should be maintained and supports its unity, stability and development. China supports the efforts of the Iraqi Government in stabilizing the security situation, promoting national reconciliation and carrying out reconstruction and has encouraged Iraq to build good-neighborly relations of mutual trust and cooperation with its neighbors.
China considers it necessary to give full play to the important role of the UN in resolving the Iraqi issue. The international community should work together, promptly deliver pledged assistance and help Iraq embark on a road of peace, stability and development at an early date.
11. The Issue of Darfur, Sudan
The causes for the Darfur issue are complicated. To resolve this issue, the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sudan should be fully respected in the first place. China stands for a "double-track" strategy to promote balanced progress in peacekeeping deployment and political negotiation. The role of the UN-AU-Sudan tripartite mechanism should be brought into full play as the main channel. At the same time, it is important to help Sudan improve the humanitarian and security situation in Darfur and realize peace, stability and development in the region as soon as possible.
China takes the issue of "impunity" seriously. We are gravely concerned about the indictment of Sudanese President Bashir proposed by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. We believe that measures taken by relevant parties on the Darfur issue should facilitate stability in Sudan and proper settlement of the Darfur issue.
China has made its efforts in promoting a proper settlement of the Darfur issue. The 315-member engineering unit dispatched by China to Darfur as peacekeepers has been fully deployed. To date, China has provided RMB140 million in humanitarian assistance to the region and contributed US$2.3 million to the AU peacekeeping mission and US$500,000 to the relevant UN Trust Fund. China will continue to play a constructive role in resolving the Darfur issue.
12. The Zimbabwe Issue
China is following the situation in Zimbabwe and hopes that Zimbabwe will restore domestic stability and development as soon as possible. China appreciates and welcomes the resolution of election disputes between parties concerned through dialogue and negotiation and the agreement reached on establishing a government of national unity.
The Zimbabwe issue is an internal affair of Zimbabwe. The current problems should mainly be resolved by the Zimbabwean people independently. The international community should do more to advance peace and stability in Zimbabwe and may play a constructive role in encouraging dialogue and promoting reconciliation. China welcomes the active mediation of the AU,SADC and South African President Thabo Mbeki and supports them in continuing to play an important role in this issue.
13. The Kosovo Issue
It is the common objective of the international community to properly resolve the Kosovo issue and build a Kosovo where diverse ethnic groups live together in harmony. The best way to resolve the issue of Kosovo's status is for the Serbian Government and the Kosovo authorities to reach a mutually acceptable solution through negotiation. This is also what the international community should continue to work for.
IV. Development Issues
1. "Millennium Development Goals" (MDGs)
The UN MDGs serve as the guiding document for international development cooperation. The international community has made some progress in implementing the MDGs in recent years. But it remains a long and arduous task to meet the goals on schedule by 2015.
The UN will hold a High-level Event in September for a mid-term review of the MDGs. The international community should take this as a good opportunity to redouble efforts and work for comprehensive and balanced progress across the world in achieving the MDGs. To this end, the international community should establish genuine global development partnerships, provide strong support for developing countries, and place great importance on Africa's development by increasing aid for Africa.
The UN and other international organizations should set frameworks for comprehensive and objective monitoring and evaluation of progress made. It is necessary to both look at the progress made by various countries in implementing the MDGs and evaluate the performance of developed countries in honoring their commitments.
2. Africa's Development
Africa is the continent with the most developing countries in the world. Development is a pressing and arduous task facing Africa. To maintain stability and development in Africa is the common responsibility of the international community. To help African countries realize greater development, the international community should effectively honor commitments of aid for Africa, actively assist Africa in preventing and resolving conflicts to lay the foundation for development, respect African countries' independent choice of development models and strengthen South-South cooperation as a useful supplement to North-South cooperation.
China is always a firm supporter of the cause of peace and development in Africa. At the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in November 2006, President Hu Jintao announced a host of policy measures on behalf of the Chinese Government to support Africa's development, including expansion of aid for Africa, debt relief, tariff exemption and increase of assistance and input to Africa in social development. China is working earnestly to fulfill the above commitments in order that African countries and people benefit from them as soon as possible. China is ready to work with African countries and the rest of the international community to continue to make contribution to Africa's development.
3. Food Security
Food security is not only an issue of economy and livelihood, but also an issue of development and security. All parties should embrace the concept of common development, coordinate policies and actions actively and effectively, and work together to properly address the food security issue. China believes that it is necessary to do the following:
-- Increased aid and support the UN in playing a coordinating role to stabilize food prices and help developing countries to tide over difficulties;
--Formulate a long-term international food cooperation strategy and make food production a priority to increase the amount of food production and food reserves;
--Foster a favorable environment and establish a fair and reasonable order for international agricultural trade;
--Enhance macro-coordination and curb excessive speculation, formulate an international cooperation mechanism led by the UN, and establish a global food security system that integrates early warning, monitoring and supervision, macro-regulation and emergency relief;
--Look at the food issue from many inter-related perspectives, and foster an enabling environment for food security by taking a combination of measures covering finance, trade, aid, the environment, intellectual property rights and technology transfer.
There are a number of factors contributing to the continued rise of the food price. It is neither objective nor constructive to lay the blame on the growth of developing countries or the certain policy of certain country.
China is a positive force for upholding world food security. Its food self-sufficiency rate has been kept at 95% or above for the past 10 years. China has met the food needs of about 20% of the world population with only around 9% of the world's arable land, making great contribution to world food security. In addition, China has always provided assistance to other developing countries according to its ability.
4. Energy Security
Energy security bears closely on the stable growth of the world economy and the livelihood of people around the world. Countries should foster a new energy security concept featuring mutually beneficial cooperation, diversified forms of development and common energy security through coordination, and work together to uphold world energy security through enhanced dialogue and cooperation. In line with the spirit of interdependence, the international community should promote mutually beneficial cooperation in the development and use of energy, advance the development of new energy and renewable energy and promote the application of advanced energy technologies. Practical cooperation in the energy fields should be strengthened. Healthy growth of the international energy market should be promoted and security of international transportation routes should be guaranteed. International cooperation in energy and in development should be coordinated and priority should be given to ensuring developing countries of their right to development. Such cooperation should aim at promoting common development of the whole world. It should combine with international poverty reduction efforts to help developing countries strengthen infrastructure building, reduce poverty, develop economy and improve people's lives through energy-based poverty alleviation programs.
China is willing to continue its active participation in international energy cooperation on the basis of equality, reciprocity and mutual benefit, and work with other countries to uphold world energy security.
5. Climate Change
Climate change, a major challenge faced by today's world, needs to be addressed through international cooperation. Climate change is primarily caused by developed countries' historical emissions over many years and their current high per capita emissions. Developed countries bear unshirkable responsibilities for climate change and they should continue to take the lead in emission reduction after 2012, and honor their obligations of providing financial resources and technology transfer to developing countries set forth in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its Kyoto Protocol. Developing countries are the main victims of climate change. Though faced by pressing tasks of development and poverty eradication, they will make contribution to the joint efforts to cope with climate change by embarking on the road of sustainable development.
In essence, climate change is an issue of development, and should be addressed in the context of sustainable development. In the international climate change cooperation, the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities" should be observed and the role of UNFCCC and its Kyoto Protocol as the main channel of international cooperation on combating climate change should be upheld.
The Bali Roadmap has reaffirmed UNFCCC and its Kyoto Protocol as the effective framework for the international community to tackle climate change. At present, negotiations on the implementation of the Bali Roadmap have reached a critical juncture. It is imperative for countries to show political sincerity and turn slogans into actions following the principles and framework of UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol, so as to achieve positive results by the end of 2009. Developed countries, in particular, should continue to take the lead in reducing their emissions by a large margin and with quantitative commitments by following the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities", and provide support to developing countries in the fields of capital, technology, adaptation and capacity building, so as to help developing countries enhance their capacity of tackling climate change. Under such preconditions, developing countries will, under the framework of sustainable development, make their efforts to the best of their capacity to cope with climate change.
6. South-South Cooperation
For developing countries, South-South cooperation is an important channel to draw strengths from each other and realize common development, as well as an important means to help each other and work together to address development challenges. In recent years, South-South cooperation has achieved positive progress, generating active trade and investment among the developing countries. Some new mechanisms or initiatives have been launched among developing countries, injecting new vitality to South-South cooperation. All parties should make joint efforts to enhance cooperation in various fields, effectively use multilateral mechanisms, uphold common interests and expand South-South cooperation in width and depth.
China wishes to reiterate that South-South cooperation supplements rather than substitutes for North-South cooperation. Globalization has led to growing interdependence among countries in the world. Developed and developing countries should work together to bring about common prosperity and development.
7. Financing for Development
Financing is an important guarantee for international development cooperation. For years, shortage of financial resources has seriously impeded the economic and social development of developing countries. At present, the progress is slow in implementing the MDGs, and developing countries are in urgent need of financial and technical support from the international community. Thus it is worrying indeed that the official development assistance has decreased rather than increased.
The international community should focus on implementing the Monterrey Consensus, promote the establishment of a global development partnership, and supervise and promote the delivery of pledged international cooperation and development assistance.
First, faithfully honor commitments and increase official development assistance (ODA) to hit the target that ODA accounts for 0.7% of the gross national income of developed countries. Second, encourage and support the capacity building of developing countries to enhance their capacity of mobilizing domestic resources and attracting international capital. Third, create a favorable external environment, give full play to the role of trade as an engine for development, promote the reform of the international financial regime and coordinate policies on development and on trade and finance.
At the end of this year, the Follow-up International Conference on Financing for Development will be held in Doha, Qatar. Parties concerned should work together for substantive progress at the conference in mobilizing development resources and ensuring adequate and predictable financing for development.
8. Doha Round Negotiations
Success in the Doha Round negotiations will be in the interests of all parties concerned, for it will facilitate the stable development of the world economy and orderly growth of international trade.
China maintains that efforts should be made to push for comprehensive and balanced outcome of the Doha Round negotiations at an early date and curb trade protectionism. The development objective of the Doha Round must be achieved and concerns of developing countries, particularly the least developed countries, should be fully accommodated so that developing countries will fully and effectively participate in the multilateral trading regime and benefit from it.
China has been committed to the building of a fair, equitable and non-discriminatory multilateral trading regime. China made great contribution in market openness upon WTO accession and will continue to make contribution that matches its status as a new member and a developing member of the WTO. China will work with all the other parties concerned to ensure the success of the Doha Round negotiations at an early date, and give strong impetus and confidence to efforts aimed at revitalizing the world economy.
9. Reform of the International Financial Regime
The international financial market is volatile and the world economy faces more uncertainties. Countries around the world want to see necessary reform of the international financial regime to properly cope with current challenges in the world economy.
The international financial reform should focus on reflecting the changes in the world economic pattern, increasing the say and representation of developing countries, reducing their risks in participating in economic globalization and shaping an institutional framework that is conducive to sound and sustainable development of the world economy. The priority of such reforms should be on the building of a stable, orderly and equitable international financial regime.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has made some progress in increasing the say and representation of developing countries. In future, it should focus on improving regulation on the international financial market, in particular, improving regulation on the economic vulnerability and policies of reserve currency issuing countries which could affect the whole system, warding off financial risks, and properly coping with financial fluctuations. The World Bank, as a multilateral institution for poverty alleviation, should focus on the long-term interests of developing countries. It should further increase its input in the development issue and take real actions as soon as possible to improve the say and representation of developing countries to reflect their concerns. The World Bank also needs to mobilize more resources to help developing countries achieve the MDGs.
V. Arms Control, Disarmament and Non-proliferation
China has consistently placed importance on and supported international arms control and disarmament efforts and stood for comprehensive prohibition and thorough destruction of all weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) such as nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.
China is firmly opposed to the proliferation of WMDs and their means of delivery. To achieve the goal of non-proliferation, countries should be committed to building a global security environment of cooperation and mutual trust to realize universal security for all countries; try to resolve the proliferation issue by political and diplomatic means; bring into full play the core role of the UN and other relevant international organizations; and well handle the relations between non-proliferation and peaceful use.
China has never evaded its due responsibilities and obligations in nuclear disarmament and supports the conclusion of international legal instruments on complete prohibition and thorough destruction of nuclear weapons. China has persistently exercised the utmost restraint on the scale and development of its nuclear weapons and upheld its commitment that it will not be the first to use nuclear weapons at any time and under any circumstances and that it will unconditionally refrain from using or threatening to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear-weapon states or nuclear-weapon-free zones.
China firmly supports the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and is actively promoting its early entry into force. China supports the Conference on Disarmament in concluding a comprehensive and balanced programme of work and launching negotiations on the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty as soon as possible.
China maintains that the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) is the cornerstone of the international nuclear non-proliferation regime. Under the current circumstances, the authority and universality of the NPT should be further upheld and strengthened for it to play an even greater role in preventing proliferation of nuclear weapons and promoting nuclear disarmament and peaceful use of nuclear energy.
China supports the purposes and objectives of the Chemical Weapons Convention and the Biological Weapons Convention. China has fully and strictly fulfilled the obligations under the two Conventions, supported the enhancement of their universality, and called on countries that own or possess chemical weapons and countries that have abandoned chemical weapons in other countries to further intensify their work and speed up destruction of chemical weapons.
China has consistently stood for peaceful use of outer space and opposed the weaponization and an arms race in outer space. The formulation of relevant international legal instruments through negotiation is the best way to achieve this goal.
China has attached importance to military transparency and been committed to enhancing mutual trust in the military field with other countries. In 2007, China joined the UN Standardized Instrument For Reporting Military Expenditures, and resumed its participation in the UN Register of Conventional Arms.
China supports the UN in playing an important role in addressing issues related to missiles and conventional arms trade, and has participated in the work of relevant Groups of Governmental Experts in a constructive manner. Relevant efforts should be continued within the UN framework in an appropriate, comprehensive and balanced way, and concerns of all parties concerned should be respected.
China attaches importance to the humanitarian issues in the field of arms control, fully implements its obligations under the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons and its Protocols, and takes an active part in the work of the Group of Governmental Experts of the Convention. China has actively engaged in international de-mining assistance and assisted relevant countries in getting rid of sufferings caused by landmines. China actively supports the international efforts on combating illicit trade in small arms and light weapons and earnestly implements the United Nations Program of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects and the International Instrument to Enable States to Identify and Trace, in a Timely and Reliable Manner, Illicit Small Arms and Light Weapons.
VI. Human Rights
Governments of all countries in the world are duty-bound to promote and protect human rights in accordance with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and relevant provisions of the international instruments on human rights, taking into account their national conditions. The international community should recognize that all human rights are indivisible and attach equal importance to the realization of the economic, social and cultural rights, the civil and political rights, as well as the right to development. Due to different national conditions, countries have taken different approaches and adopted different models on human rights. It is undesirable to impose one uniform model to promote and protect human rights.
China is an advocate of international cooperation in the field of human rights. We stand for dialogue and cooperation on the basis of equality and mutual respect to address differences on the issue of human rights, and enhance mutual understanding and learning for common development. We oppose politicizing human rights issues and adopting double standards.
China takes part in the work of the UN Human Rights Council with a constructive attitude and is ready to work with other countries to ensure that the Council addresses human rights issues in a fair, objective and non-selective manner to promote constructive dialogue and cooperation in this field.
VII. Social Issues
1. Transnational Crimes
Transnational crimes like production and trafficking of illicit drugs, smuggling, trafficking in persons and money laundering have become more reckless and are often connected with terrorist activities, posing serious threats to economic development and law and order of various countries and presenting challenges to regional stability and even world peace.
Strengthening international cooperation to prevent and combat transnational organized crimes is not only the common need of the international community but also the shared responsibility of all countries. The United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime is an important document of the international community in the fight against transnational crimes. The international community should, in accordance with the purposes of the Convention, earnestly fulfill their obligations under the Convention and strengthen cooperation on the basis of "mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality and cooperation".
2. Anti-Money Laundering
Money laundering is intertwined with terrorism and other transnational crimes and poses a serious threat to the financial stability and economic security of all countries. International cooperation in anti-money laundering is conducive to the building of a sound international financial system and harmonious development of the international community.
China attaches great importance to the fight against money laundering and actively promotes and participates in international and regional cooperation in this respect. China became a full member of the Financial Action Task Force in June 2007. China will continue to work with the international community and participate more actively in international cooperation in anti-money laundering to build a sound and orderly international financial system.
3. Public Health
The issue of public health bears on the health and safety of people of all countries. The International Health Regulations, which came into effect on 15 June 2007, is an international legal document on the prevention of international spread of diseases. Governments of all countries should continue to enhance public health capacity building through economic development, in order to provide strong guarantee for a healthy life of the people and promote coordinated and sustainable economic and social development.
At China's initiative, the resolution on "Strengthening Capacity-Building in Global Public Health" was adopted unanimously at the 58th, 59th and 60th sessions of the UN General Assembly, fully reflecting the attention of the international community on capacity building in public health. Developing countries face many difficulties in the prevention and control of major infectious diseases, and the international community should provide greater help to them to strengthen their capacity building in disease prevention and treatment.
4. Anti-Corruption
The United Nations Convention against Corruption sets the legal principles and rules for the joint efforts of all countries to punish and prevent corruption. All countries should earnestly strengthen international cooperation against corruption on the basis of mutual respect for sovereignty, equality and mutual benefit. Extradition, mutual legal assistance and asset recovery should be regarded as the focus and priority in the implementation of the Convention. Technical assistance should focus on meeting the needs of developing countries and assisting them in capacity building without attachment of additional conditions. Countries should strive to improve the efficiency of cooperation by minimizing restrictions of their domestic laws on the measures of cooperation provided for in the Convention.
VIII. The UN Financial Issues
All member states of the UN should, in accordance with the spirit of the Charter of the United Nations and the principle of "capacity to pay" set out in UNGA resolutions, continue to fulfill their financial obligations to the UN by paying unconditionally their membership dues and assessments for peacekeeping operations in time and in full, to ensure a solid and stable financial footing for the UN.
The efficiency of the use of UN resources should be further enhanced through integration of resources and programs with full consideration and accommodation given to the legitimate concerns and demands of developing countries.
Member states should step up coordination and communication to improve work efficiency and give more guidance to the Secretariat in program coordination, finance and budget.
IX. Rule of Law
1. The Rule of Law at the National and International Levels
It is a shared goal of all countries to achieve rule of law at the national and international levels. Countries are entitled to independently choose the models of rule of law that are suitable for their national conditions and can learn from each other's model for common development. To strengthen international rule of law, it is necessary to uphold the authority of the Charter of the United Nations, strictly abide by the well established principles and rules of international law, adhere to the consistent application of international law, avoid double standards, improve international law-making process and promote democracy in international relations.
2. Combating Impunity
China condemns all crimes in violation of human rights and international humanitarian law and supports the international community in its efforts to address impunity in conflict areas. The international efforts to punish crimes should not disrupt the ongoing peace process in conflict areas or hamper the measures in conflict areas to promote national reconciliation and build enduring peace. The issue of impunity can only be better addressed with relaxation of tension and political stability in related regions.
3. The International Court of Justice
China supports an enhanced role of the International Court of Justice in the peaceful settlement of international disputes and supports the Court in its efforts to improve the way it works. The right of each country to freely choose the method of peaceful settlement of disputes should be respected.
4. The International Criminal Court
China supports the establishment of an independent, impartial, effective and universally accepted institution for international criminal justice to punish the most serious international crimes. The work of the International Criminal Court should be pursued in a way that dose not impede or jeopardize the relevant peace process. China will continue to follow the work of the International Criminal Court.
5. Oceans and the Law of the Sea
China places great importance on maritime issues and the law of the sea and believes that the international community should strengthen cooperation and coordination to establish and maintain a harmonious international order on the sea. We propose that:
First, we need to maintain harmony between mankind and the sea in order to sustain a mutually-rewarding relationship between them. The way to achieve this goal is to strike a balance between reasonable utilization and scientific conservation of the sea.
Second, we need to make an equitable distribution of maritime interests between countries with advantageous and disadvantageous maritime conditions and between developed and developing countries. It is important for us to share the responsibility of conservation and work together to care for the sea, the common homeland of mankind.
Third, in order to maintain a harmonious maritime order, it is important to strengthen international rule of law with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea as the legal basis. The Convention, a product of many years of international negotiation, reflects the concerns of various parties in a relatively balanced manner. It has set a legal foundation and framework for building a harmonious maritime order and for addressing new maritime problems and challenges.
Fourth, a scientific and reasonable delineation of the outer limits of the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles is not merely a right some coastal states are entitled to under international law. It also concerns the scope of international seabed area which is the common heritage of mankind. The international community should ensure that the work of the Committee on the Limits of the Continental Shelf is conducted in a serious, science-based and accurate manner.


text: Departments, research and courses in sexuality and gender studies are under attack--and what we stand to lose is the important contributions that research and scientific inquiry make to sexuality related policies, programs and interventions. Lawmakers in Georgia and Florida are using 'budget cuts' as an excuse for a witchhunt--targeting sexuality, queer and women's studies courses and cloaking a moral agenda as a fiscal decision. At Florida Atlantic University, the administration is trying to suspend the Women's Studies degree and Master's program. In Georgia, legislators Charlice Byrd and Calvin Hill inaccurately implied that "disgusting" courses were being taught on oral sex and male prostitution at Georgia State University. In fact, these were faculty research topics, contributing critical science-based data to shape health promotion and intervention--including reducing child prostitution. Any researcher, program or class across the country could be next. We need to act now to protect the integrity of scientific research and the importance of sexuality and gender studies--including those who do sexuality work in complementary programs like anthropology, gerontology, sociology and ethnic studies.The work of these researchers and academics contributes greatly to a healthier sexuality for all of us, preventing disease, addressing stigma and promoting lifelong sexual literacy with accurate, science-based evidence. Science and research must trump opinion. We must defend the pursuit of knowledge and scholarly inquiry--the purpose of which is to have a better understanding of humanity and our world in order to work for change for the betterment of humankind. Controversial and innovative research topics are at the very heart of academic and philosophical debate that drive the classrooms and laboratories of faculty, staff, and students to finding solutions to society's biggest problems. We, the National Sexuality Resource Center, and the partners and signers to this petition, demand the continued support of sexuality and gender-related courses and research across the country--starting with Georgia State University and Florida Atlantic University. We insist that lawmakers, legislators and administrators do not use the current economic crisis as an excuse to attack intellectual and academic freedom, or to de-emphasize the role of accurate, rigorous and scientific studies in shaping sexuality policy, health promotion and intervention. Have you ever taken a class on sexuality, queer studies, women's studies or gender issues Taught a class or done research in these areas We invite you to post a comment about how your work has contributed to healthy sexuality, the body of academic research or personal growth. (Include your title and academic/affiliation in the comments if you can.) Sincerely, the National Sexuality Resource Center http://nsrc.sfsu.edu firstname.lastname@example.com