Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Mar 24, 2014

choi

Christina Larson, Myanmar Prepares for a Risky Head Count.
("The last time Myanmar conducted a census was in 1983. Large areas of the country--once called Burma in the West--were embroiled in civil war and unreachable. The last comprehensive count was the 1931 imperial survey under British Raj. Maynmar may have about 60 million people, but even the government isn't sure")

Note:
(a) summary underneath the title in print: The first full census since 1931 may reveal a sizable Muslim population
(b) There is no need to read the rest of the article.

(c)
(i) British Raj
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Raj
(1858-1947)

Quote: “The system of governance was instituted in 1858, when the rule of the British East India Company was transferred to the Crown in the person of Queen Victoria[8] (and who, in 1876, was proclaimed Empress of India), and lasted until 1947, when the British Indian Empire was partitioned into two sovereign dominion states, the Union of India (later the Republic of India) and the Dominion of Pakistan (later the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the eastern half of which, still later, became the People's Republic of Bangladesh). At the inception of the Raj in 1858, Lower Burma was already a part of British India; Upper Burma was added in 1886, and the resulting union, Burma, was administered as a province until 1937, when it became a separate British colony, gaining its own independence in 1948.

(ii) Upper Burma
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_Burma
("The term was first used by the British to refer to the central and northern area of what is now the country of Myanmar (Burma). After the Second Anglo-Burmese War of 1852, Lower Burma was annexed by the British Empire, while Upper Burma remained independent under the Kingdom of Burma until the Third Anglo-Burmese War of 1885")
(iii) Kingdom of Burma--specifically, Konbaung Dynasty (1752-1885; the last dynasty of Burma)--moved its capital from Amarapura (1842-1859) to Mandalay (1859-1885; the last royal capital; located 445 miles (716 km) north of Yangon).

(d) Burma
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burma
(section 1 Etymology)

choi

Dexter Roberts, The Chinese Want Their Own Cargill.

Quote:

“On Feb 28, China’s largest food processor and grain trader, Cofco, originally known as China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Corp, announced it would buy 51 percent of Dutch Grain trader Nidera. The investment gives the state-owned company access to port terminals, grain elevators, and processing facilities for soybean, wheat, and corn in Argentina and Brazil, as well as Nidera’s seed business.

“Cofco’s flurry of activities fits Beijing’s plan to consolidate its fragmented food industry and create a global giant that can compete with Archer Daniels Midland, Bunge, Cargill, and Louis Dreyfus Commodities--known as the ABCD companies.

Note:
(a) summary underneath the title in print: The government aims to build a global player in commodities
(b) There is no need to read the rest.
(c) Company: History. Bunge Limited, undated
undatedwww.bunge.com/company-history
(1818  Johann Peter Gottlieb Bunge founds Bunge & Co in Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

Bunge remains privately held, is now registered in Bermuda and headquartered in White Plains, New York.   
(d) Louis Dreyfus Group (founded in 1851 by Léopold Louis-Dreyfus [a French born to a Jewish family in Alsace; Headquarters Paris)  Wikipedia

choi

Michael Heath, Australia Is Immune to China’s Flu.
www.businessweek.com/articles/20 ... a-slowdown-in-china

My comment:
(a) summary underneath the title in print: Construction and employment are rebounding, aided by rate cuts
(b) Read only the first two paragraphs and view the graphic.

choi

Liza Lin with Jing Jin, Keeping the Mystery Out of China’s Meat.
www.businessweek.com/articles/20 ... -food-cops-in-china

Quote:

“Inadequate government oversight also is forcing big Western companies, from Wal-Mart to Nestlé to French supermarket operator Carrefour, to put on their sheriff’s hats and take food policing into their own hands" by doing their own tests from residues of pesticides and chemicals to DNA to organic labeling.

"The world’s largest retailer [Wal-Mart] has two vans making unannounced visits to stores every day to take samples of vegetables, seafood, and meat to check for melamine in dairy products, clenbuterol in pork, and excessive antibiotics in chicken. It does this only in China.

"The world’s largest milk producer, Fonterra Co-operative Group, has gone even further. Each year since 2007, it has transported via cargo ship as many as 7,000 cows from its New Zealand home to its large-scale dairy farms on the mainland. Operating its own farms is a first for the Auckland-based dairy co-op, which typically sources from local farmers.

Note:
(a) summary underneath the title in print: Fox? Mink? Rat? Western companies become food cops.
(b) "CHEN Junshi, senior research professor at the China National Centre for Food Safety Risk Assessment"
国家食品安全风险评估中心 陈君石教授

(c) China was the sixth-largest exporter of food to the US last year, supplying more than two-thirds of the tilapia and apple juice and about half the cod that Americans consume. * * * Greater exposure to China’s less-regulated suppliers comes with risks: In the last four years, FDA inspections in China have uncovered cases of * * * a producer in Fujian province misdeclaring potentially poisonous puffer fish as monkfish."
(i) cod
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cod
(The two most important species of cod are the Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) and the Pacific cod (Gadus macrocephalus))
(ii) monkfish
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkfish

choi

Lulu Chen, Breaking Through China’s Great Firewall.
www.businessweek.com/articles/20 ... y-around-censorship

Note:
(a) summary underneath the title in print: Secretive Web activists are giving the Chinese way around censorship
(b) quotation underneath the title in print: ‘Most foreigners know that censorship exists in China. Many Chinese may be unaware”
(c) Start reading from paragraph 3--the first two paragraphs talk about familiar stuff--about an interview, deep inside China, with an anonymous co-founder of Greatfire.org.




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Shawn Hasto, Mobile: In the US, Data Is Officially King.
www.businessweek.com/articles/20 ... arges-surpass-voice
(online title: Data Revenue Tops Voice in the US)