VFA: Rice Exports Down 9.72 Pct Against 2011February 23, 2012 (Vietnamica) — According to the Vietnam Food Association (VFA), the country would export 6.5 million tons of rice this year, down 9.72 percent against 2011. The domestic rice market would undergo a tough year of 2012 due to domestic costly large stockpiles, price competition, and reduced global rice trading (VNS, Feb. 15).
February 22, 2012 (Vietnamica) – The country’s oil minister expelled the head of Chinese-Malaysian oil consortium Petrodar (Reuters)amid rising tensions between Juba and Chinese oil firms. South Sudan, which recently shut down its oil output, has accused the firms of helping neighboring Sudan steal its oil.
February 21, 2012 (Vietnamica) — Iran warned today of a preemptive attack against its perceived enemies if the country feels its national interests are in jeopardy (NYT), amid rising tensions with the West over its controversial nuclear program. A day earlier, UN nuclear investigators visiting Tehran were barred from Iranian nuclear facilities.
February 21, 2012 (Vietnamica) — Amidst the long darkness of the so-called ‘Great Recession,’ China has been one of the global economy’s few bright lights. So successfully has Beijing weathered the current economic storm, that many in the West are hoping that China can be the engine of global demand that propels a global economic recovery. Hopes that China can provide the impetus for a global economic resurgence are predicated on a profound misunderstanding of the intrinsic contradictions of the Chinese economy, however.
February 21, 2012 (Vietnamica) — The evolution of geopolitics is cyclical. Powers rise, fall and shift. Changes occur in every generation in an unending ballet. However, the period between 1989 and 1991 was unique in that a long cycle of human history spanning hundreds of years ended, and with it a shorter cycle also came to a close. The world is still reverberating from the events of that period.
February 21, 2012 (Vietnamica) – Was the People’s Bank of China really buying gold at the rate of 1 ounce in every 8 sold worldwide last quarter…? So those militant crazies known to the mainstream media as “gold bugs” – and to the FBI as subversives – got the headline they’ve been longing for, apparently, last week.
