CN Intellectuals Silent on Tibetans + Cuba's Oil Drilling

choi

Andrew Jacobs, Many Chinese Intellectuals Are Silent Amid a Wave of Tibetan Self-Immolations; Years of official misinformation of a people have left a mark, even on the educated. New York Times, Nov 10, 2012.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/1 ... lf-immolations.html

two consecutive paragraphs:

“'The apathy is appalling,' said Zhang Boshu, a political philosopher who lost his job at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences three years ago for criticizing the government’s human rights record.

"With a mounting toll of 69 self-immolations, at least 56 of them fatal, many Tibetans are asking themselves why their Han Chinese brethren seem unmoved by the suffering — or are at least uninterested in exploring why so many people have embraced such a horrifying means of protest.

(2) Clifford Krauss and Damien Cave, Cuba’s Prospects for an Oil-Fueled Economic Jolt Falter With Departure of Rig; A nation's dream of energy independence becomes less clear. New York Times, Nov 10, 2012.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/1 ... -oil-prospects.html

Quote:

(a) "Cuba’s hopes of reviving its economy with an oil boom have produced little more than three dry holes, persuading foreign oil companies to remove the one deepwater rig able to work in Cuban waters so it could be used for more lucrative prospects elsewhere.

"The rig, which was built in China to get around the United States trade embargo, is expected to depart in the next few weeks. With no other rigs available for deepwater exploration, that means Cuba must now postpone what had become an abiding dream: a windfall that would save Cuba’s economy and lead to a uniquely Cuban utopia where the island’s socialist system was paid for by oil sales to its capitalist neighbors.

(b) "In Cuba’s case, the American embargo makes it far more difficult for companies seeking to explore Cuban waters. The Scarabeo 9, the rig set to depart, is the only one available that is capable of drilling in deep waters and complies with the embargo. To get it built, Repsol, the Spanish oil giant, was forced to contract an Italian operator to build a rig in China to drill exploration wells.

My comment:
(a) There is no need to read therest of this report.
(b) The report emphasizes that Cuba is still hopeful, thinking its luck may lie somewhere deeper than the area that have been explored.
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