Summary:

The last stop is in Saudi-Arabia. We move from East-Asia to the Middle-East. A totally different country: Saudi Arabia. A very rich oil state, where we end our trip.

Prince Walid, or better known as the 26^th richest man in the world (to Forbes magazine), has obtained a loan of $26 million from the international World Bank. They borrowed him the money for a 9 year loan-contract, for building a new hotel in Ghana. IFC (or the biggest shareholder in the United States) gave the loan to the KHI Company (or better known as the Kingdom Hotel Investments). The building of the hotel will create an economic boom in Ghana. Because the 109 million hotel will bring some new facilities, like a commercial center etc … with it. To the IFC it will be a project with strong developmental impact in Ghana. This will be the beginning of the attraction of new investors in the low-income countries in Africa.

Opinion:

I think it’s a good idea of the KHI Company to invest in a ‘new’ (not touristic) country like Ghana. Instead of always putting new hotels together in touristic areas, where you have an overwhelm of choice, it’s better that you support a country with an economical and touristic low level. I guess that there will be some discussions about the fact that they will build a 5-star hotel in a place where people have no money, that he uses the money of the IFC (that’s a part of the World Bank Group, … but lost of people who give commentary on these projects, don’t see the fact that there will be a creation of 300 new jobs in the hotel itself, but another creation of more than 400 jobs for the delivery of the food, the reparation services, … and as a result of the building of a mega-hotel, a new shopping center will be opened, and how many jobs will create this? We better would have a project like this in our ‘touristic’ cities like: Bruges, Gent, Ypres, … Some people would be against, that’s for sure, but it would create another economic boom. Jobs would be created, tourists would be more attracted, … the only problem that we have, it that the reservation of a room would be very expensive, because we aren’t a low-income country. Companies aren’t interested in investing in Belgium, caused by our difficult laws, our very high loan wages and so many other reasons. Maybe the political minsters of Belgium should do something on this, because it’s getting serious. How many times don’t you see that companies are leaving from Belgium, jobs are cancelled and factories are closing? The only advantage that we have, is that we have a knowledge of several products for about 50 years, that other countries doesn’t have.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/may/1/princely-loan-for-a-luxury-hotel-in-ghana/

10-05-2011 om 11:20 geschreven door 2BMA1  

Summary:

F1 is a popular sport, and this all over the world. Also in India, where on the 30^th of October, the 17^th race of the F1 championship will be organized. Everyone is looking forward to it, and so is Sebastian Vettel, the current leader in the F1. The Buddh International Circuit in Greater Noida can host a 110000 persons, and all of them will surely be filled in October. India is becoming a great sport-country. With a 1,15 billion inhabitants, they have some of the best cricketers of the world (the most popular sport in India), and last year, they even organized the Commonwealth Games (a variant of the European Championships, but a thousand times more popular).

Opinion:

I think it’s always good for a country when they can create an international well known sport (like the F1). This always stimulates the economy, and gives the country a good reputation. Different from the World Championship football, they can use the track every year. In South Africa, where they built a lot of World Championship stadia for the world championship football last year, they now have a lot of misery with those stadia. They cost a lot of money, and that for some fame that lasted only 4 weeks. Lots of people came to South-Africa to see the football, but the revenues were small, and the problems afterwards were big. Empty stadia are standing there, and are asking a lot of maintenance (so that’s another word for money). I am very happy that the Belgium Bid for bringing the World Championship  to Belgium and The Netherlands failed. It would only cost money, and the revenues would only be temporary. The capacity of the stadia that they need for a final, is way too big for the clubs that we have in Belgium and Holland.

So my opinion about the racetracks is, that it’s not a bad investment. It’s only used once a year for the F1, but the other days of the year, you can use it for other sections of the racing sport. 100000 visitors might sound a lot, but with so many inhabitants it will be filled fast. 

http://www.asianage.com/racing/vettel-excited-race-sold-out-crowd-india-910

10-05-2011 om 11:19 geschreven door 2BMA1  

Summary:

In a conference last week between several East-Asian leaders, the political leaders talked about Myanmar's bid to take over the rotating chair of the regional grouping in 2014, food shortages, spiraling energy prices, human trafficking and maritime security. But no important decisions were taken. Other discussion were the potentially oil-rich Spratly-islands. The Asian countries (who corporate with the US) fear an overwhelm of China if they would own those island. Another discussion about the violence and the disputes at the Thailand-Cambodia-border, ended up in a heavy discussion. Both countries deal with the problem that their economy suffers in that region, caused by the daily border violence. 

Opinion:

I didn’t really liked the article, because it’s doesn’t really has a subject. There are several subjects, for example: The fact ASEAN-Conference wasn’t a great success, the fact that Myanmar will take over the place as leader of the ASEAN-group in 2014, and the discussion  between Cambodia and Thailand about their conflict at their borders.

My opinion about the fact that Thailand and Cambodia have troubles to keep peace in the border-region, is that the government should react more adequate to problems like those. People often have troubles caused by ethnic or racist reasons, this is a typical point of opinion for creating problems. If you notice that the political partners don’t have a good relationship, then you may say that it will be difficult for the inhabitants for having a good relationship with their neighbors (of the other country). The prime ministers of both countries should solve this problems, instead of postponing the problem, and giving it to their ministers of  Foreign businesses.

The conflict is about some ancient temples that  should belong to one or another country. Already 20 people have died between those battles. I think that ancient temples don’t belong to a country, but to the past. Instead of making trouble for such a bagatelle, they better would make a tourist attraction from it, so both countries could have a revenue from it. Of course it’s difficult to react on something if you don’t know the roots of it.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_ASEAN_SUMMIT?SITE=OHALL2&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

10-05-2011 om 11:19 geschreven door 2BMA1  

Summary:

The third stop is in Vietnam, a beautiful country in the South-East of Asia. The article considers the dead of 3 babies in Hanoi (the capital of Vietnam with 6.5 million people).  The article says that 3 children died  last week, on an week-long protest by the Hmong ethnic group. More than 5000 people demonstrated for an autonomous region, but as a result of their demonstration, with poor living conditions, people became ill. The problem is, that there wasn’t enough food and drinking water for one week. As a result of the demonstration, 40 people were arrested, and the result of their stubbornness, 3 infants between 1 month and 1 year died.

 Opinion:

Everywhere in the world, people want autonomy (for example: Catalonia, Northern Ireland, Northern Tirol, Flanders ,…). But people often don’t see the costs and problems that they might create if they want an autonomous state. I chose this article, because it refers a bit to the Belgian state, where we have a political deadlock. Flanders is an economical strong part of Belgium, and they might be (in theory) better off in a county without Wallonia, but the practical side is more important! We both have our strengths and weaknesses, so why don’t we just combine them, and make the best of it? There is an expression who says: “together we are strong”. Or in Asian terms: The ying and yang. If we can combine the best of the 2, we can be stronger than before. People should see this more often, that’s how you create solutions and not problems. For example the Vietnamese people who ask for autonomy. They are one of the poorest parts of Vietnam, so autonomy will be very difficult. They create a chaos, and so people get arrested, people get hurt and they even die. And if it are children, it’s even more painful. So they have to see that demonstrating for something impossible, is impossible!

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/asiapacific/news/article_1637872.php/Vietnam-officials-Babies-die-from-poor-conditions-at-protest-camp

10-05-2011 om 11:18 geschreven door 2BMA1  

Summary

With a shrink of 32% the last century, Indonesia has lost a part of the battle against the recovery of illegal timber in the Indonesian woods. Together with the EU trade commissar De Gucht and   secretary general of the European Timber Trade Federation De Boer, Indonesia has reached an agreement to reduce the illegal wood import to the European Union. The idea is to create a stamp of approval to prove that the wood or paper isn’t illegal. The same deal would be made with Liberia, one of the greatest timber exporters in West Africa.

My opinion:

I think that this deal between Indonesia and the European Union is a good step into the direction of a better lifestyle of our use of the environment. Over the last century, a lot of wood has been cutted illegal, over a long term, this will lead to a world who is less healthy. If we want to make it a better world (or less bad) for our children, we now have to make restrictions about illegal woodcutting, pollution of the air, pollution of the sea, … we already are making some good improvement in continentals like America, Europe and Oceania, where the companies and governments have the money to invest in a more healthy environment. But in other continentals and countries, they screw all the good work that we are doing. I think it already became far, that we (Europe), as a rich continental have to tell Indonesia that they have to make a special stamp, so we won’t buy any illegal cutted wood anymore. If Indonesia would be more professional (and richer), they would make their own restrictions. That’s how it should work, so we don’t even have the chance to buy illegal wood. If we had done this 50 years ago, nowadays there wouldn’t be 30 million people depending on the forest. Now, a lot of families are depending on that illegal woodcutting, so you create another (maybe even bigger problem): the creation of an unemployment of many families. A solution would be, that they build some factories over there, so the people have another job, if they abandon the illegal woodcutting. if everyone is against the illegal woodcutting, if nobody from Europe (which is a big consuming market) buys illegal wood anymore, the illegality will fade away from itself. But if there will always be a demand, there will always be an offer. That’s the main principal of the economy.

http://euobserver.com/9/32266

http://www.newsnow.co.uk/h/World+News/Asia/Indonesia/Economy

10-05-2011 om 11:18 geschreven door 2BMA1  

Hello!

Our sixth and last stop was Saudi Arabia

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12367624

Summary

Today’s problem in Saudi Arabia is the rising food prices. Tensions have boiled over in Tunisia and Egypt because of rising prices and lack of jobs. In the supermarkets in Saudi Arabia they have to make difficult choice. The price for daily products like sugar is doubled! In the Middle East’s largest economy Saudi Arabia, food price inflation is expected to hit 9% this year. Also prices of some items such as beef, chicken and vegetables have nearly doubled in just a few years.  

It will be very difficult for the inhabitants of Saudi Arabia to buy enough food with only a salary of 15.000 dollars a year or less. Much of the country’s enormous wealth is concentrated in a minority of the population, making food inflation a severe problem for those at the bottom of the social ladder.
Hotels and restaurants are also complaining.

2 years ago Saudi Arabia started to look at Africa as a solution or as a choice for them to start cultivating.

Opinion

In Belgium, the food prices can rise with 3% or even less, but an increase of 9% is a lot. Remarkable is that mostly only the food prices rise, the one we need every day. When the prices of the hotels or the prices of the plane tickets become more expensive, we don’t mind as much as we do if the food prices are rising.
In Saudi Arabia it is worse, because of their little salary. The salaries in Belgium are mostly higher and the inflation of food prices isn’t so high.

Unfortunately this was our last stop what means our city trip is coming to an end.
We learned a lot and maybe we will do 6 other countries next year!

Greets

10-05-2011 om 10:55 geschreven door 2BMA1  

The text I read about Saudi-Arabia tells us a very interesting fact. A US diplomat pretends that the reserves of the world’s biggest oil exporter have been overestimated by nearly 40%

The US fears that Saudi-Arabia hasn’t enough reserves to prevent oil prices escalating. The revelation comes because of the rising oil prices in the recent weeks to more than $100 a barrel. The US pretends that the Saudis let the price rise, to shrink the global demand. And that in order to save the stock. A l-Husseini believes that Aramco's reserves are overstated by as much as 300bn barrels. In his view once 50% of original proven reserves has been reached …

I’m again astonished about what they pretend in this article. How is it possible that one country rules the whole world. Did isn’t realistic I think! In this article it is clear that money and monopoly are the biggest trumps to rule the world. Saudi-Arabia is its own boss and that’s the big mistake! So the US fears that Saudi-Arabia, (don’t forget: the world’s largest crude oil exporter!) may not have enough reserves to prevent oil prices escalating. In my opinion that’s ridicule. How is it possible that just one man pretends that the Saudi oil stock is overestimated by 40%? There has to be a little truth in the whole case! In my opinion it isn’t strange anymore how the Middle-East dominates the world by manipulating the market. When the prices for oil are high, mostly because of the Saudi’s themselves) they are satisfied. When the demand takes off, they will pump more oil, to avoid that the high price will threatened the demand. Sadad al-Husseini, a geologist and former head of exploration at the Saudi oil monopoly Aramco, met the US consul general in Riyadh in November 2007 and told the US diplomat that Aramco's 12.5m bar a day in 10 years but before then global oil production would have hit its highest point. And it went on: In a presentation, a current senior vice-president for exploration, reported that Aramco has 716bn barrels of total reserves, of which 51% are recoverable, and that in 20 years Aramco will have 900bn barrels of reserves.

And totally not a loss of 40%, pretends by Al-Husseini. Who said that believing Aramco's reserves are overstated by as much as 300bn barrels. In his view 50% of original proven reserves has been, and this amount will be able to stop the production! He believes that what will result is a plateau in total output that will last approximately 15 years followed by decreasing output." Like Jeremy Leggett pretends: We are asleep at the wheel here: choosing to ignore a threat to the global economy that is quite as bad as the credit crunch, quite possibly worse."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/feb/08/saudi-oil-reserves-overstated-wikileaks

10-05-2011 om 10:44 geschreven door 2BMA1  

The first article I read, tells us the future prospects about the Indian economy . and how there economy handles with the past economical crisis. A World Bank report says that the economy of India will grow at 7.5 percent in 2010-2011. The following years the grow would be better and reach the 8 percent in 2012. Hans Timmer, director of the World Bank says that the future prospects are based on the first quarter of fiscal 2009-2010 and that’s the raison why the amount of percentage is so big. India stays optimistic after the global crisis because it’s country is very depended on export. India is still the second biggest country in advance after Brazil.

The article I had found was very pleasant to read because I’m very interested in economical situations of other countries. It was rather difficult but understandable. After reading the article twice, I was rather upset because of huge inefficiencies in the financial market in India. I thought India was already more specialized in manufacturing and financial cases. But considering the text India is still one of the biggest and fastest growing developing countries. The future prospects are still rose-colored so the Indian population has still no raison to worry. The manufacturing and natural resource sectors have been particularly negatively impacted by the crisis. And that’s (in my opinion) the biggest problem of India. When your biggest sector (after agriculture) is so tender because of an economical crisis. Then you have still a lot of work to do. The growth during the first quarter in the current fiscal was 6.1 percent and rose unexpectedly at 7.9 percent (the World Bank report said that the Indian economy would grow with 7.5 percent during 2010-2011). while the global economy grew 6.7 percent during 2008-2009 and 9.1 percent in 2007-2008. We can degree that the Indian economy had corrected itself very, very fast. They have still an arrears because of the global crisis! But it will not take long to correct that small arrears. We can also consider that the Indian economy grows faster than Hans Timmer, director of the World Bank had expected. The first quarter the growth was unexpected 1.8 percent higher than earlier expected. And that’s in my opinion the biggest advantage of a country like India. Half a year after the global economical crisis its economy grows faster than expected and reaches almost the same percentage than 2 years ago. (in years of big economical increase). So in general: India’s economy is almost unbreakable… but for how long?

More at : India’s economy to grow 8 percent by 2011-12: World Bank (Lead)

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/business/indias-economy-to-grow-8-percent-by-2011-12-world-bank-lead_100313184.html#ixzz1LTfUK7IBhttp://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/business/indias-economy-to-grow-8-percent-by-2011-12-world-bank-lead_100313184.htm

10-05-2011 om 10:44 geschreven door 2BMA1  

I watched a short movie (7min) about the tourism in Thailand. The movie is called ‘the color of Thailand’. And tells the story of John. John is an explorer and had already travelled many countries. He travels the world extensively and he still believes that there’re still a lot of fascinating destinies to discover his next destiny is Thailand. In the movie it is clear that the city never sleeps, lights are everywhere! John visits Bangkok ‘the Capital City of rich culture’ Thailand. He visits al historical and architectural places in no time! In the movie you see the typical massage therapies, the city cruises, the exceptional sunset. John visited also the Central Plain and took an elephant ride around the archeological city.

The movie I watched was, like I already expected an indisputable commercial! I had the intention to learn something more about the advantages and disadvantages of Thailand. But I only saw the advantages! John, the protagonist during the movie was pleasant to see, but I sometimes it was to processed block ( cliché) to watch. During the movie it is easy to explain how the tourism of Thailand is so overwhelming. A Thailand holiday has so much to give, next to the friendly people, the wealth of exotic and cultural distinctive destinations . The country offers more than that! The biggest advantage of Thailand, in my opinion, is it diversity! The country offers 76 provinces. And those who travel to Thailand want to see as much as possible from all these provinces! Knowing that every experience in Thailand will be unique and so much fulfilling! You can’t ignore the whole country and its culture. If I have to believe the whole commercial, Thailand is the place to be for an exciting Cultural and comforting holiday. But honestly when so see the movie, nothing is different it’s all the same. Okay it is nice, they aren’t lying! But it’s all to artificial, to forced, to unnatural! How they were greeting each other, how the fireworks begins when he Bangkok enters, how he rides an elephant, how he eats fruit from the trees alongside the roads. Sorry for me it’s more a trap than objectivity and why am I so sure? Because my parents went to Thailand 4 months ago. And they hoped to have the time of their live but when they came back, they were totally contrary to expectations! The food was totally not that good or special, every evening there was other food. One evening Turkish, another evening Spanish. The beaches were also very polluted, filled with rubbish and trash. The local inhabitants threw away their trash just in the sea and beaches alongside their house. Unbelievable!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEjcComji0o

10-05-2011 om 10:43 geschreven door 2BMA1  

The article a read about Vietnam tells us that the Vietnam economy has to battle against the internal inflation since almost two year! Statistics of the General Statics Office in Hanoi had calculated this. Over the past year the value of Vietnam’s official currency, the dong has been going up in smoke. The consumer prices rose by 17.5% in the first quarter of this year. Only Ethiopia and Venezuela are more worse. It doesn’t seems that de Vietnamese government can extinguish the whole ” inflationfire”. The central bank is also fighting the creeping dollarization and even “goldisation” of the economy. its core business. The Vietnamese government has raised fuel and electricity prices and hopes for a good spring harvest, so the prices of rice can lower.

When I read the article I was astonished that the Vietnamese government doesn’t really cares about the giant inflation period of their economy. Maybe they know that there will be an improvement of their economy the second quarter of this year. But they are estimating that’s clear. What alarms me the most, is the price of rice, knowing that Vietnam is one of the biggest consumers of rice in the world. For the industry and their economy that’s detrimental. But for the poor Vietnamese population, the whole inflation story is a disaster. Another year like this and there will be a massive famine! And who will take his responsibility for this? Nobody! So in my opinion the Vietnamese government has to take action! They first have to help their own population (by reducing their Inflation). Thinking that the consumer prices rose by 17.5% in the year to April and that poor country’s like Ethiopia and Venezuela are the only persuaders. Than we can talk about one of the biggest Vietnamese problems since years. Next to the inflation the central bank is also fighting the creeping dollarization and even the ‘goldisation’ of the economy. And that’s the big problem in Vietnam. Despite its capital controls, holders of the dong find it unusually easy to switch to hard currency of soft metal. In April, the government capped the interest rates offered on dollar deposits at 3% compared with the rates that are as high as 14%. The expansion of the rates shows that the Central Bank cares more about the inflation increasing than their own internal economy. And that’s an advantage for the Vietnamese people. At last I hope that the decision of the Vietnamese government by raising the fuel and electricity prices will succeed and that the rice spring harvest will be lucrative for the Vietnamese provincials.

http://www.economist.com/node/18651919

10-05-2011 om 10:43 geschreven door 2BMA1  

This time I didn’t read an article, but I watched a 6 min movie on Youtube about the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami. First I searched a bit about that Tsunami, about the cause of a tsunami, the consequences, what about the disaster relief operation and how to avoid a tsunami . In the movie you first see that there was a very big earthquake that hits whole Indonesia. You saw a lot of people sitting down on the ground hiding for buildings how were trembling. Everybody knew that this wasn’t a normal earthquake, this was more… The rest of the movie you see the impact of the tsunami and thousands of people who are in danger. Now I want it to know how they can make better tsunami-prediction systems.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDOuwMj7Xzo

I have based my second text on a movie that inspires me already for months. And I would like to know if there were already good detection systems or tsunami-prediction systems. The text begins with the statement that some marine earthquakes generate tsunamis and others not. After the big tsunami in Indonesia and Thailand the whole world was warned for the impact of such a disaster. But the situation in Japan makes clear that we haven’t learned anything! There is still a lot of work to do, based on the article a new earthquake-monitor system developed by Andrew Newman and Jaime Convers 2 profs on the Georgia Institute of Technology can make the difference! For the investigation of tsunamis there are big differences of earthquakes, they can be divided into two sorts. Deep ones, those below 20km. Shallow ones, those above 20km. The biggest problem with the investigation of tsunamis is deciding which is which. Once the investigators know the data, an earthquake’s depth can be worked out! But that takes a lot of time. A good example of this was the recent Japanese quake. All the investigators thought the earthquake had taken place 83km down. But the latest measures say the dept was actually 30km. In my opinion that is still in the class of the deep ones, those below 20km. so that earthquake could still be put in a safe class. But the “Japanese” earthquake was so powerful that the normal rules couldn’t be used! The secret of the new method is that depth changes an earthquake’s character in ways other than just its tsunami-generating trend. The system Dr Newman and Mr Convers have developed taps into hundreds of seismic monitoring stations around the world. With a bit of luck the system should be introduced in the summer, supported by alarms around the world the tsunami risk would be signaled all over the world in less than 7 minutes. It will then be up to the local authorities to evacuate as soon as possible.

http://www.economist.com/node/18437890?story_id=18437890&CFID=169837768&CFTOKEN=86319586

10-05-2011 om 10:42 geschreven door 2BMA1  

My article about East-Timor tells me something more about Vannessa Hearman. Vennessa tells us a story about the Timorese president and peace laureate Jose Ramos Horta who clarifies that there will be no international tribunal. And that on the 10-year anniversary of the United Nations-supervised Ballot in East-Timor! 10years ago the people of East-Timor voted for independence from Indonesia. The vote revealed that 78.5% wanted independence. But as Indonesia protested that the ballot had been rigged, its military and their militia friends damaged and destroyed 70% of public buildings, houses and infrastructure. By that moment many Timorese were deported on trucks and ships to West Timor. Talking about justice is so bad for the business between Indonesia and East-Timor that they are scared to cooperate.

What I’m reading here is totally unacceptable. How is it possible that a country in 2011 may not decide if they want to be independent ‘yes’ or ‘non’. In my opinion there is just one truth during the whole text and that’s the opinion of Vennessa Hearman. Vennessa worked in East-Timor from 2000 to 2002 as an aid worker for the United Nations. She also worked as United Nations interpreter. The text is written by her, it’s her doctoral thesis about the Indonesian mass killings of 1965 till 1966. In her text she analyzes 2 questions: what about the accountability in East-Timor and what about the Human rights? During the text there’s totally no amelioration. I totally don’t understand how it’s still possible to neglect such a country. Okay Belgium is a progressive country based on industry sectors and we have since almost 300 days no government. But East-Timor is a poor country. There’re a lot of big country’s that can help Timor!

How is it possible that a country like Indonesia can be so powerful. East-Timor is a beautiful country with more than a million people. In late 1999, about 70% of the economic infrastructure of East Timor has been destroyed by Indonesian troops and anti-independence militias, and 260,000 people fled westward. From 2002 to 2005, an international program led by the United Nations, manned by civilian advisers, 5,000 peacekeepers (8,000 at peak) and 1,300 police officers, substantially reconstructed the infrastructure. But 5year after the international program of the United nations the population tries to develop their environment and the country. But in vain... there are not enough ways and means to bring East-Timor to a higher level and the independence. But they still keep fighting for it, no matter what the Indies pretend.

http://www.towardfreedom.com/global-news/1671-east-timor-10-years-on-still-waiting-for-justice

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBkPgifb2r0

10-05-2011 om 10:42 geschreven door 2BMA1  

Hey!

Our fifth stop was India!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11135197

Summary

India’s growth rate rises to 8,8% and it’s their fastest rate for more than two years. India is the second fastest-growing behind China.

India’s statistics agency said that the strong industrial and mining output had helped boost the growth rate. Industrial output rose more than 12%, and mining and quarrying jumped nearly 9%. Services including hotels and banking also did well, with output up nearly 10%. Services account for 55% of India’s economy, while industry makes up around 25% of output.

The annual growth has causes also inflation. The inflation rate topped 11% and the strong performance in the economy is expected to encourage policymakers to continue raising interest rates.

Growth to slow: economists expect further rises and many expect them to slow India’s economic growth in the coming months.
A director at Trusted Sources said that he don’t expect this growth rate to be as strong over the next two quarters. India is less dependent on developed countries than the others.
The director general of the Confederation of Indian Industry agreed that domestic demand was important for India’s economy.

Opinion

I will give a bit more information about the economy of India.
India is the tenth-largest economy in the world and is also one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Despite impressive economic growth during recent decades, India continues to face a number of socio-economic challenges.
During the next four decades, India’s economy is expected to grow at an average of 8%, making the nation potentially the world’s fastest growing major economy until 2050.
That was a bit more information how the economy will be in the future.  

We loved the trip!

Greets

10-05-2011 om 10:28 geschreven door 2BMA1  

Hey everybody!

Our fourth stop is Thailand!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEXAlre0jGY

Summary

Today in Thailand, political tension is reaching a critical pitch, as the country awaits the outcome of a court ruling to decide whether Thailand’s deposed leader Thaksin Shinawatra should lose his fortune for alleged corruption.
There is some violent political unrest that has exposed deep divisions in Thai society. The government hopes that there is a return of stability after the decision whether leader Thaksin should lose his fortune or not.

4000 police held a crowd control exercise in front of Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban, who is also responsible for security, to show they are ready to quell any disturbance following the verdict.

Thaksin Shinawatra was popular with the poor and won two landslide election victories. But he was accused of massive corruption. That’s what this court case is all about. The judges have seen a lot of documents showing how he abused his power to gather a fortune.  He’s about to lose around two billion US dollars.

In Thailand, it’s just a fear of violence that’s transfixing the country.

Opinion

Again I found an interesting video fragment of Thailand. You see there’s a lot of violence and there are a lot of people who destroy cars on the streets. In April they destroyed the Minister’s car. The inhabitants are also aggressive to the police. The police had to use tear gas to defend them against the aggressive crowd.
Especially the Red T-shirt leaders made a total mess of the country. There are a lot of demonstrations where the Red T-shirt leaders are presented.

The trip was again very pleasant! Up to the last but one country India!

Greets

10-05-2011 om 10:02 geschreven door 2BMA1  

Hello!

Our third stop was Vietnam:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12168737

Summary

Vietnam’s governing Communist Party has begun its five-yearly congress by admitting its programme of economic growth has strayed off course. It’s necessary to speed up modernisation!

Choosing new leaders for the party is the main task of the congress. A new central committee with 200 members were selected at the end of the nine day gathering. 
The nation must renew the growth model and restructure the economy to speed industrialisation and modernisation with fast and tenable development.
In 2020, their strategy is that their country will become an industrialised nation.

Some important people, who were present at the congress, said all different things.
Truong Tan Sang, who’s expected to become the new president, told delegates corruption and mismanagement must be stamped out. Another person, the BBC’s Nga Pham, said the Communist Party is determined to retain its monopoly on power, but will need strong, energetic and reform minded people to help them. She also said that little change in policy is expected at the meeting, but the new leadership will have to find ways to renew old socialist ideas.

The conclusion was a more skilled workforce, better infrastructure and more efficient state enterprises.

Opinion

This article is actually an article which I’m not informed of or never heard of it before. But what I do know is that Vietnam has to deal with inflation of 12%. The economy is fluctuating, confidence in the currency is low and Vietnam’s deficit is growing. In short time, Vietnam has moved too far too fast and is now in financial problems.
The opinions of inhabitants in Vietnam are divided. Some of them are optimistic, and others are pessimistic.
I think big reforms are needed to rethink the way things are done to cut out waste and generate jobs, and to give the sector more room to grow.  

Our next stop is Thailand!

Greets

10-05-2011 om 09:51 geschreven door 2BMA1  

Hey everyone!

The second stop was Indonesia. I was looking forward to see this country!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovIMoVrO6qE

Summary

Indonesia has rich and national resources, including oil, gas, minerals and palm oil. The exports of Indonesia only count for 25% of Indonesia’s economic rote. That is a problem because Indonesia has the fourth largest population of any country and it’s still growing (with 3,5% this year).

The global Markets Economist (Fauzi Ichsan) said that Indonesia is lucky, because it has the biggest economy in Asean and also the biggest domestic marketing in Asean. On top of that is Indonesia less effective by the global crisis.
The Minister of Trade, Mari Pangestu, said that hopefully they have the foundation to be able to take off again, maybe in another two years, to go back on track for a 6 to 7% or even a higher rate of growth.  

Women in Indonesia play an important role in society. The Muslim women are quite free!
Indonesia can even be compared with China and India , even when they have a little higher growth. But the stories and processes in Indonesia are similar with these in China and India

Opinion

I found a very interesting video fragment about the economy in Indonesia. When I first watched the video, I practically knew ‘everything’ of Indonesia’s economy.  I thought Indonesia would still have a lot of damage and debts because of the Tsunami, but it wasn’t like that at all.
After I saw this video fragment on Youtube, my image of Indonesia was different than I thought.
I liked this country more than East Timor, because of its more impressive buildings and streets.

We had a great time and hope to see even more during the next stop!

Greets

Jasmin Verspeeten

10-05-2011 om 09:50 geschreven door 2BMA1  

Hey!

Our first country of our trip was East Timor

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12644608

Summary

East Timor wants to become an Asean member as soon as possible and has applied to join the South East Asian regional grouping, Asean.  On his trip to Indonesia, foreign Minister Zacarias da Costa signed the application.

There was a lot of criticism when people find out that East Timor has applied to join Asean. The people said that Asean has already enough problems and the problems would be bigger if East Timor was a member. The chance that East Timor will become a member of Asean is very small.

Indonesia’s foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa, he also received an application for membership, said East Timor was geographically, politically and economically linked to south East Asia’s future, but other members don’t think like that at al.

Opinion

They also said in the article that the Asean group should focus on helping poorer nations which are already members of Asean – like Burma, Cambodia and Lao. I think that’s true, because South East Asian has to think of their country and the economy and if they are adding another poor country to its economic burden.
I also understand why South East Asian didn’t except East Timor. I read that in 1999, about 70% of the economic infrastructure of East Timor was destroyed by Indonesian troops.  And the economy is still at the bottom. It’s nice to know things like that about the country we were on trip!

I look forward to the second trip!

Greets

10-05-2011 om 08:34 geschreven door 2BMA1  

Saudi Arabia is our last stop of the voyage. This country is situated in Asia and the Middle-East, it  consists for the greater part of desert and there is a lot of oil present. The two important holy cities for the Islamitic people are situated in Saudi Arabia, Mecca and Medina.

I found an article about the Saudi Arabian embassy in London on the following website:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-13326566

The Zamzam water is taken from a well in the holy city of Mecca. The well is called Zamzam and containds arsenics for the Muslims. It may not exported to other countries. This water has a special meaning for pilgrims in Mecca. In the UK they sell Zamzam water, but it isn’t water of the holy well. Tests of BBC showed the water of the well was poisoned, but it wasn’t true. A correct test confirmed that the water is qualified for consumption. After these problems and misunderstandings, the embassy of Saudi Arabia made it clear: ‘any writing on a bottle of water suggesting that it comes from the Zamzam source is not proof that the water is genuine’. They also concluded  that the water of the holy well may still not be utilized for consumption.

So there was a misunderstanding with the term of the water in the UK. There wasn’t any link with the holy well, that’s why it doesn’t contain any arsenics. Maybe the government of Saudi Arabia has to take a patent on the name ‘zamzam’, of course it may not possible to introduce this rule all over the world. So as you can see in this example, religion is an important subject in this country, I also noticed this during my trip.

So we’ve done our route from East-Timor to Saudi Arabia and I’ve had a great time! Sofie

09-05-2011 om 21:11 geschreven door 2BMA1  

So our before last trip is India, situated in South-Asia. Beside China India is the most populous country of the world.

On the internet I found an article on the rising oil prices. I’ve used the following source: http://www.todayonline.com/Business/EDC110502-0000309/Rising-oil-prices-likely-to-stall-Asian-economies-with-high-fuel-subsidies

The oil prices continue to rise and that’s why fuel subsidies will take a larger share of government spending. Because of that there will be less money available for other fiscal projects. I’ve chosen this subject, because India will be heavily affected by rising prices. India’s fuel subsidies will increase the budget deficit. Most investors expect that the rising prices will move on, caused by the global economy recovery and the unrest in the Middle-East. Inflation will be the result of the higher oil prices. Economists suggest to reduce the subsidies and the inflation will reduce the consumption.

India has become one of fastest growing economies. Despite of the current poverty, corruption... India is considered as new industrializing country. The rising oil prices aren’t a stimulation for their economy. The government is looking for solutions, now they give subsidies. I don’t think it’s the best solution. When they invest in more subsidies for the high oil prices, they can’t invest in other (possible) important projects. They will, for example, have to economise on infrastructure. More than 60% of the Indian people work in the agricultural area. The industry, like mining, has a lot of potential in India. Thanks to the high level of education grows the services area, especially the IT. So the economy knows a liberalisation since the end of the 20^th century and I hope this will continue in a positive way.

Our final stop will be Saudi-Arabia. I had already a great time and hope the last trip will give a surplus value. Greeting Sofie

09-05-2011 om 19:38 geschreven door 2BMA1  

Thailand is our fourth stop, I was very curious to discover this place.

I will talk about the conflict between Thailand and Cambodia that I read in the following article:
http://www.todayonline.com/World/EDC110501-0000802/Thai-Cambodia-clash-enter-9th-day

The fighting that began the 22nd of April has killed already more than 30 people. The domestic politics on each side is probably the reason of the conflict. A meeting between Thailand and Cambodia hadn’t solved the problems. Both militaries said they are defending themselves against foreign aggression and blamed each other for starting the fighting. A Thai construction worker wants both sides would talk and stop the fighting. A lot of villages were already attacked and innocent people had to run away from home. But normally the conflict won’t lead to full-scale war, Thailand neither Cambodia will expand their territory.

In my opinion I really hope this will not lead to a full-scale war. Wars don’t solve problems, but create more difficulties. The reason of this discussion is about the politics, I would propose a meeting between them. They already met, but at that time it didn’t have any effect. As long as both countries blame each other, nothing will change. Both parties have to give in! Wars destroy countries, and  a few years ago Thailand had already lots of damage due to natural disasters.

I hope there will never be war again, it brings a lot of destitution. People lose their family, their house, their work because of the absent economy...

I liked this trip! Things that I will remember of Thailand are the rough division of the population, the different dialects and the weather types. In the north of this country are a low number of people in contradiction with the south. 90% of the people are locals, beside the official language they speak five different dialects. At last Thailand knows rainy seasons alternating with periods of serious drought.

Now we will go to our last but on stop; India. See you! Sofie

09-05-2011 om 19:37 geschreven door 2BMA1  

Hey everybody,

We have just returned from the final country of our trip, Saudi-Arabia! I hope you enjoyed our stories!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSpR1eWKM4s

Summary:

I found a video fragment of the protests in Bahrain. The country Saudi-Arabia sends a thousand troops to Bahrain where people are protesting the two century rule. There are already demonstrations for a month where seven people has been killed. Communication is important because everybody has to live together and everybody has to talk to each other. For the opposition it’s an invasion for the government it’s support. The population is scared by the things they see, they don’t want a revolution.

Saudi-Arabia wants to demonstrate to the population of Bahrain, because they want to prevent a worse situation. The population of Bahrain can’t believe why the soldiers of the same people are firing shots on them. The people of Saudi-Arabia has a different view on the situation. Washington is trying to help and to make people change their mind.

Opinion:

It’s always a sad situation when there are protests and demonstrations, when people are disputing. I appreciate the fact that Washington is trying to help both because mostly, America is one of the villains. I hope that Bahrain and Saudi-Arabia can change their minds and come to an agreement. I can’t understand why people are still grabbing at weapons, because mostly, the wrong people are dying, the innocent ones. When you are fully grown, you have to sit together and talk until you have the right solution.

So this is the end of our trip!

Jolien Parmentier

09-05-2011 om 15:18 geschreven door 2BMA1