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Louisville immigrants share stories of terror, love and courage on their road to America
Everybody has a story. Ten refugees tell the unique tale of their journey to Louisville.
Pat McDonogh, The Courier-Journal
Published 10:43 a.m. ET June 29, 2017 | Updated 11:14 a.m. ET July 1, 2017
If you've ever met a refugee who's gone through the ordeal of legally coming to the United States, you may be struck by how thankful they seem despite a painful journey that might have lasted for years.
Louisville, like many other cities, has a healthy melting pot of nationalities. And many of the immigrants here share common traits: a strong worth ethic, a desire to succeed, the willingness of adults and children to help family members here and abroad.
On this Independence Day weekend, we present some refugees sharing stories of their plight in their native land, their flight to safety and their quest for independence on the journey to America.
Former South Vietnamese army officer Thuc Nguyen spent sixteen years in a concentration camp following the end of the Vietnam War. Oct. 23, 2016
(Photo: By Pat McDonogh, The CJ)
Thuc Nguyen - Vietnam
You wouldn't know it at first that the 80-year-old man is a hero. Slight of build, quiet and unassuming.
When he was a young man in South Vietnam, Thuc Nguyen achieved his dream of becoming a military officer and served his country up to and through the war with North Vietnam.
Following the fall of Saigon in 1975, officers like Nguyen were ordered by the victorious communist government to report to re-education camps for three months. The father of seven didn't surrender and was soon captured. Those three months turned into 16 years of captivity and beatings.
He speaks calmly and deliberately now, seemingly unmoved by the memories as he recounts his days in the labor camp, working seven days a week from dawn to dusk. "The camp was pretty brutal, they tried to starve you and work you really hard. There was very little food to eat."
"When I came here, America did nothing but good things for us. They are very nice people and give us the opportunity to become who we are today."
Thuc Nguyen
Nguyen often confounded his captors. "They stopped beating me because I would dare them to shoot me." His defiance in turn cost him. "I never liked the communists. ... I had to stand up to them and they hated me for it."
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During his captivity, Nguyen spent about five years shackled in a box the size of the small couch he sits on in his living room. "I couldn't stand up or put my feet straight out," he recalls.
His faith in Buddha and the support of his family, who would travel long distances to visit, helped him endure. "We know who is true friend and who is true love. That's why I can survive until now. Otherwise, I die in camp."
Finally released in 1992, Nguyen joined his family and they were eventually resettled in Louisville in a wave of Vietnamese immigration. "When I came here, America did nothing but good things for us. They are very nice people and give us the opportunity to become who we are today."
Cuban immigrant Milyxa Garcia. Jan. 6, 2017.
Milyxa Garcia - Cuba
"My father was a communist in Cuba, and I was too, when I was a little girl," said Milyxa Garcia. "He was an idealist like Che Guevara when he was a young guy. He began to realize that many things he dreamed of were not real and began to state his opinion."
He ended up in prison, where he suffered the first of several heart attacks. Once out of prison her father, a mathematics professor, moved his family around the country in search of jobs, only to lose them later for being labeled a dissident.
"In Cuba everyone lived with fear, fear of everything. Years later I saw a Harry Potter movie for the first time. When they talked about Voldemort, they said, 'he-who-must-not-be-named.' We were the same with Fidel Castro. We never, never mentioned his name," Garcia recalled.
"I went to Havana to the university in the 1990s. Things were very dark because the Soviet Union had collapsed. ... We didn't have anything to eat and people were very aggressive because they were hungry. We had to steal to survive. ... I knew about a bakery that would give us bread after 7 p.m. There was a big line and two men began to fight, so the bakery closed and didn't give out any. I waited for everyone to leave and knocked on the door. A guy opened it and I asked if he had some bread. He said, 'yes, come in.' There were three guys inside. I was raped."
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In her second year at the university, her father died and her mother turned to alcohol to cope. "I think when my father died she realized the years of suffering that they had. She could avoid the situation through the alcohol. ... Our family were still being accused of being dissidents and she was very scared."
"The United States is wonderful. I never thought Americans could be like a family, close to me."
Milyxa Garcia
As a 25-year-old, Garcia left Cuba for Italy and the prospects of a new life. But, she said, an employer tried to broker her into an unwanted marriage and she fled back to Cuba. She later left Cuba again and returned to Italy, where she joined the Catholic Church, and then later fled the government-fueled anti-immigrant movement before moving to Spain.
In the meantime, her mother and brother left Cuba for Equador, where her mother remarried before eventually moving to the United States.
"I realized the most important thing is family, and through all those years away I missed them. I wanted to be near my mother. So, I bought a ticket to Moscow, I flew to Miami and said I am Cuban. They gave me an alien number and sent me to Catholic Charities. They settled me in Louisville," said Garcia, 45.
"The United States is wonderful. I never thought Americans could be like a family, close to me. People like to socialize here. I'm happy because I'm near my family, I am very glad to stay here."
Rwandan refugee Mukesha Eduige. Dec. 4, 2016
Mukesha Eduige - Rwanda
"Being a refugee is like a rug being snatched from under your feet," said Mukesha Eduige. "I don't know whether to stand or fall because the ground is still moving. We are orphans from Rwanda, we are taken into foster care by South Africa, and when we get there our foster parents decide they don't want us."
Genocide affected everyone in Rwanda at the time. "I was a baby when my family fled for South Africa," said Eduige, now 23.
"My family entered in the post-Apartheid era, so South Africa still had issues. They didn't know what to do with us and weren't prepared for refugees. Life was hard, there was no agencies like Catholic Charities helping you find a job."
"Being a refugee is like a rug being snatched from under your feet."
Mukesha Eduige
Then, around 2008, the civilian attacks on immigrants began. "People's houses were burned and for the first time in, 16 to 17 years of living in South Africa, I was so scared for my life," she recalled.
Her family applied to the Geneva-based International Organization for Migration for help relocating to another country. "For six years we lived in limbo. Every time we were interviewed (to be resettled) we were told to carry on living like nothing is happening. You can't get excited, you can't plan, or think ahead. If you talked of being on the resettlement list it could jeopardize your chances. ..."
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Then the call came. After years of waiting, they had less than 24 hours to pack.
"We are told 'you are going to Kentucky' just a couple of hours before we got on the plane. ..."
In retrospect, Eduige noted: "A refugee child grows up way ahead of your time. Children pick up a language quicker than their parents, so that puts you in a position and it changes the role of parent to child. ... If a bill comes home and you have to tell them this is an electricity bill and they are cutting it off. You start thinking we don't have enough money to pay the bill. When that happened I was like a 23-year-old in a 13-year-old's body."
Gaby Zomar fled came to the United States with his brother following the earthquake in Haiti in 2010. March 7, 2017.
Gaby Zomar - Haiti
"No one in Haiti ever thought I would be here. My family didn't believe in me. They didn't think I would be anything. They didn't see me as a human being, only as someone they don't even want," said Gaby Zomar, 31, on his early life in the Haitian village of Fonds-Parisien.
"Since I was 12 years old I took care of myself. I was a responsible kid and I still am. I would catch a fish, sell it and pay for my school. I never waited for anyone to give me something. I don't live like that. If I want something, I work hard to get it."
The earthquake in 2010 changed everything.
His brother's apartment building in Port-au-Prince had collapsed and his brother was paralyzed. "There was no hospital at the time due to the disaster, so I paid a friend gas money to drive him to the Dominican Republic. When we got there, there was nothing they could do for him because there were too many people waiting to be helped. He was just waiting to die. ... I had a buddy in Canada who called and told me the Americans were taking patients from Haiti to the U.S. ... I just took my chances."
"No one in Haiti ever thought I would be here. My family didn't believe in me. They didn't think I would be anything."
Gaby Zomar
After arriving in Florida, he and his still-paralyzed brother eventually ended up in Louisville.
"It was really tough for me," said Zomar. "I had to work two jobs and take care of my family in Haiti. I send money to them every week for them to live. I pay rent here, pay rent in Haiti and provide food here and in Haiti."
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Now married and a student at Jefferson Community and Technical College, he hopes to become an attorney and help others overcome the difficulties of immigration. He has applied for permanent citizen status and hopes to become a U.S. citizen, along with his wife.
"America is a place that no matter where you come from they see you as human. If you have a dream and you work hard you will achieve your dream. This is a good place and I'm really thankful to be here," said Zomar.
Cuban immigrant Ernesto Rivera. Jan. 5, 2017.
Ernesto Rivera - Cuba
"They threw themselves into an uncertain destination after thinking about their situation, and halfway to paradise death surprised them. Better to die on the sea than living on your knees."
The lyrics are from Ernesto Rivera's song, "Exodus," which was dedicated "to the people who lost their lives at sea trying to make it to America."
Rivera, 43, was just a singer in a rock and metal band who found life in Pinar del Rio, Cuba suffocating. "My wife, Belkis, and I lived our entire lives there. ... The government controls everything from what you study to what programs you see on TV. Being in a band you have to be careful about the lyrics you write and the things you say in concert.
"I was concerned about the social situation in my country and it was reflected in my lyrics. It was a problem for me when I spoke the truth openly, I started feeling harassment from the police. They have a lot of people who are undercover agents who would recruit others to watch people for them. You live in fear because you never know who among your group of friends might be one of them," Rivera said.
"... In America you have a lot of opportunities, a lot of chances. If you have a dream you can go for it."
Ernesto Rivera
They decided to leave. She left first for Mexico, where her brother lived, and obtained legal status. He joined her. His visa was about to expire in 2012. "I had this very good friend in Louisville who said, 'Come here, you will live in my house as long as you need.' "
Their journey was fraught with the fear of being kidnapped, having to bribe Mexican officials and then finally an arduous four-day bus trip to Louisville. "It was December and very cold. We'd never felt temperatures like that. We grabbed a taxi with the money we had left and got to our friend's house. The nightmare was over," Rivera said.
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Ernesto and Belkis were able to escape to Louisville thanks to the 1966 Cuban American Adjustment Act, which allowed Cubans to become permanent residents if they are in the United States for a year.
"There is not such a thing as a perfect place, a perfect government. That doesn't exist. But in America you have a lot of opportunities, a lot of chances. If you have a dream you can go for it. In my country you don't have choices."
Mohamed Diabate, center, age 30, stands with his brother and sisters and their children. The family spent eleven years in a refugee camp in Guinea, after fleeing the revolution in the Ivory Coast. From left is his sister Mawata, age 26, neice, Mariam Bamba, age 4, brother, Sekou, age 24, nephew, Mohamed Kaba, age 4, and sister Mawa, age 26. March 25, 2017.
(Photo: By Pat McDonogh / The C-J)
Mohamed Diabate - Ivory Coast
His father sold auto parts and life was good for Mohamed Diabate in the Ivory Coast's capitol of Abidjan. He was on his way to school in 2002 with his younger brothers and sisters when the sound of gunfire filled the air. A military coup had begun against the country's president, Laurent Gbagbo.
"It was really scary because it was the first time our country had been at war. It was all new to us and very terrible," said Diabate, now 30.
Over the next few years the conflict raged over regional, ethnic and religious grievances. "One day the military burned my father's business and everything around it."
His father sent the family across the country to stay with his brother in Danane. "When we got there we couldn't find my uncle because the war erupted there as well. ... Eventually we walked over 200 miles to get to Guinea. We were taken to a refugee camp where over 5,000 people lived. ... Guinea is a poor country and the camp had nothing. The food we were eating was bad and the people were dying," Diabate said.
"Life is good here, it's a nice country. But I cannot be free in my mind if I think about people living in the worst conditions, people I've shared most of my life with."
Mohamed Diabate
His father eventually found them in the camp, but while there he succumbed to a heart condition in 2010 and died. "The hospital in Guinea was too small to take care of my father's illness."
Diabate said the family began the process to immigrate to the U.S. in 2005. Eight years later, Mohamed Diabate and one brother were allowed to immigrate. Most of the family followed, though two brothers-in-law are still in Guinea hoping to join their wives in Louisville.
Diabate said, "Life is good here, it's a nice country. But I cannot be free in my mind if I think about people living in the worst conditions, people I've shared most of my life with. ..."
Diabate traveled back to the camp in Guinea with $1,500 he saved last year. He gave all of it away to the refugees. He hopes to find an investor for a project to help the people living in the camp in Guinea.
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Diabate struggles on $11.50 per hour he earns at a local warehouse to support his family. He also sends what money he can to friends in the camp. "It's not easy for me to take care of my brother, sisters and their children. My friends from Guinea call and say, 'please try and do something for us.' I say OK, at the end of the month I will send you something. When the end of the month comes, I have to say I'm sorry I don't have any funds to help you."
Cuban immigrant Andre Rodrigues. Feb. 1, 2017.
Andre Rodrigues - Cuba.
Andre Rodrigues was sleeping on that fateful day in 1980 when Cuban government officials knocked on his door and hauled the unemployed 25-year-old from his home.
"The police came to the house, knocked on the door and said, 'Come on you've got to go, we don't want you here anymore.' "
He was gathered up in a huge net of Cubans who were being shipped to the U.S. under the umbrella of the Mariel boatlift, a mass exodus of more than 100,000 immigrants who were given permission by Cuba to leave the economically depressed country.
"The police came to the house, knocked on the door and said, 'Come on you've got to go, we don't want you here anymore.'"
Andre Rodrigues
But also included in the wave were inmates, patients of mental institutions and others out of work.
"I didn't want to come to the United States," said Rodrigues. "I didn't know nothing about America, I didn't want to come."
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From Miami, Rodrigues was sent to Wisconsin to wait for refugee sponsorship. He eventually left for Tucson, Arizona and on to other cities where he worked in construction and as a mechanic. Now 61, retired and living in Louisville, Rodrigues says, "I've got a wife and a son, people who love me here, aunts, uncles and cousins too."
Somalian refugee Farhan Abdi is seen with rugs that his sister sells at the International Mall in Louisville. Abdi is an accountant and the Executive Director of the Muslim Americans for Compassion. Nov. 30, 2016
Farhan Abdi - Somalia
"The climate was really tough," said Farhan Abdi. "It's hot, almost 100 degrees every day. There's not enough food and no electricity. The Turkana people were nomadic. ... They would come at night and take whatever you had. Some of my friends were shot by Turkana."
Abdi was just 4 when his family fled war-torn Somalia for a U.N. refugee camp in Kakuma, Kenya. Over the next 14 years he would see his mother die and his father leave the family.
"It feels like a big jail cell. They give you food, housing and the rest will be from the hands of countries coming to help people, like America. You just pray to God, 'When am I going to leave this place?' It's a long process. It took us almost 17 years to get here. We did more than 1,000 interviews. You have to have patience."
His struggles didn't end when he arrived in Louisville. "When I came it was me and my four younger brothers. I was the oldest at 18. I worked full time at Wal-Mart on the night shift when I was in high school so I can pay the bills. My brothers were depending on me. Transportation was the toughest thing, finding a job was difficult too. Engaging with Americans was hard for me because of the language barrier."
"It took us almost 17 years to get here. We did more than 1,000 interviews. You have to have patience."
Farhan Abdi
Despite the obstacles Abdi graduated from the University of Louisville in December with a degree in business.
Now he hopes to make a difference his community. "I started this accounting and tax business so I can help people file taxes, because we have a big community. After the tax season is over I do community service. I help people get jobs because most of the Somali community lack an education. Most of the people work at a warehouse, so I'm like the guy who speaks for them when something happens in our community. I feel like this country has done a lot for me and I have to give it back to my community. Now I do it for everyone, not just Somalis but for everyone. I think the core value of this country is volunteerism so I'm trying to teach my community what it means to be a volunteer," said Abdi.
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"My (Muslim) faith teaches us that whatever happens to you is what God planned for you. The day we left the camp is the day God planned it. We learned from the experience that not everyone gets a chance to come here. To those that get the chance, it comes from God."
Iraqi refugee Shakir Ali. Feb. 6, 2017.
Shakir Ali - Iraq
"I saw Saddam Hussein twice," says Shakir Ali, age 46. "I was an unskilled laborer building one of his palaces in Mosul. I was about 18-19 years old and a college student, working in the summertime. He was close to me, but I couldn't look in his eyes because I was very afraid. Maybe I will do something wrong and my life will be in danger," he said
"I graduated in 1991 as a teacher of English language. My salary was around $80 per month. The salary was very bad due to the international embargo on Iraq. ... The situation was very bad for us Kurds."
In 1988 Iraq dropped bombs containing mustard gas, and Sarin and Tabun nerve agents on the city of Halabja. All told, Iraq killed an estimated 5,000 Kurds in the attack and its aftermath.
"I saw Saddam Hussein twice. ... I couldn't look in his eyes because I was very afraid. Maybe I will do something wrong and my life will be in danger."
Shakir Ali
"In 2003 the U.S. Army liberated my city of Mosul. ... I went to them because I had a degree in English. After an interview, they accepted me as an interpreter. When the situation grew worse I moved my family to Kurdistan and worked at another U.S. Army base as a contractor. I had two shops open there until President Obama pulled all U.S. forces from Iraq.
"The problem is America replaced Saddam's tyranny with the most corrupt government in the world. Can you imagine the billions in income for a country like Iraq in 10 years? Yet, no new schools, no new hospitals, no new bridges were built in those 10-13 years. The happiest day in my life is the day I knew Saddam was not in power anymore. The happiness didn't match our expectations," said Ali.
He is working on his doctorate at Bellarmine University and is an interpreter and board member at Catholic Charities.
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On the recent United States' travel ban on immigrants from certain countries, Ali says, "Personally, I am not against any president who wants to protect his country or protect his people. But the way they put this into effect, the mechanism was not right. When they say even if you have an American visa or a green card you cannot come in. Getting a visa is not easy at all. It takes a long time to be checked."
Bhutan refugee Chandra Dahal. Dec. 4, 2016
Chandra Dahal - Bhutan
With a swelling Napalese population in the 1980s, the Bhutan government sought to preserve its cultural identity by forcing the use of Bhutanese national dress, language and etiquette code, leading thousands to flee to Nepal.
"There were cultural and discrimination issues in Bhutan between the ruling class who speak the native language of Dzongkha, and us, the Lhotshampas, or Southern Hills people," said Chandra Dahal, who fled Nepal as a young boy with his family. "We follow the Nepalese culture and they don't like it."
So he and others left Bhutan in 1992 and settled in a camp in Nepal at a place called Goldhap.
"Camp life was horrible," said the 26-year-old. "No one should ever have that kind of life ever in the future. If there is rain everything enters the house. It's very hot and no way to block it. No restrooms and when we bathed we had to go to the river.
"Transitioning to life in Louisville is way, way tough. I had never heard of McDonald's, or a drive-through. It was a major change in our life from a refugee camp."
Chandra Dahal
"We are glad that some of the agencies helped us with education and some basic needs. There was a lot of sickness in the camp. ...
"I never felt the Nepalese government helped us in any respect because there was hatred between the Nepalese people and the Bhutanese people. ... Having said that, they at least gave us a place to live. That's more than enough for us. There were lots of issues in the 20 years there. I saw lots of theft and crime. There were secretive and dangerous things going on, but we have our own Bhutanese community and we worked together to survive."
He added, "Transitioning to life in Louisville is way, way tough. I had never heard of McDonald's, or a drive-through. It was a major change in our life from a refugee camp. We'd never seen air conditioning or bathroom facilities before. It's a shocking change for us. ...
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"There is nothing to worry about for us. We are legal people. What I say to my community is this is the land of opportunity. Take my example, we came here in 2012, I graduated in May as a dual major computer engineering/computer science student at University of Louisville's Speed School."
He is currently working on his master's degree. "My sister is enrolled in nursing school and we already bought the house. My dad works and he is happy. There is nothing to block you from your dreams here."
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Louisville immigrants share stories of terror, love and courage on their road to America Everybody has a story. Ten refugees tell the unique tale of their journey to Louisville. Check out this story on courier-journal.com: https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/2017/06/29/immigrants-share-stories-louisville/327127001/


Should I Break Up a Chapter in My Book?
Home » Editor Blog » Should I Break Up a Chapter in My Book?
A common problem writers may come across during manuscript editing is finding a chapter that is longer than the others. When this happens, you may ask yourself, "Should I break up a chapter in my book for consistency with the others?" After all, the chapter may stand out compared to the others; won't readers notice the page difference?
While the ultimate decision whether or not to break up a chapter in your book ultimately lies in your hands, the following tips may help you determine the pros and cons of making a large scale change to your book such as breaking up a large chapter.
Consistency with Other Chapters – As addressed before, some writers choose to break up a particularly long chapter into two or more parts to keep the length consistent with other chapters. For example, if your chapters are between 7 and 10 pages, suddenly having a chapter double the length may feel troublesome. Discussing the issue with an editor and readers whose opinions you trust can help you determine if this is problematic.
Leaving Readers Wanting More – A writer's ultimate goal is to gain a loyal readership, and if in your review you do not feel the chapter is filling the need or drags out the story, it may be time to split it into more than one chapter or make significant changes until you are satisfied. Finding a good place to naturally break up the chapter can help the story flow better, which keeps readers turning the pages long after they have decided to finish reading for the day.
Unnatural Pause in Story – Many readers may not notice, but the structure and formatting of books frequently determines their experience. If a book has a chapter break and it feels inconvenient to the reader, it may be better to stick with the longer chapter.
Unfinished Business – If you split your chapter up, does it feel incomplete or as if there are questions left unanswered? This could be a sign to keep the chapter together, but may also indicate a larger problem something like a content review could address.
Still struggling to determine if you should split a chapter into two? Try these tips to find a natural point where the chapter could split.
Scene Change – Are your characters moving from one place to the next? Do you have two or more running story lines where characters are encountering different sets of circumstances? Either of these scenarios can make a good place to turn one chapter into two.
Character Action Change – Did your main character go to sleep in one paragraph and wake up later in the next? Did they hop in the shower, eat a meal, or make some other transitional action? Depending on your setup, a character action could make for a good place to split a chapter up.
Tone Change – Has something surprising, startling, or depressing happened to your characters? In genres like horror or suspense, ending a chapter on a cliffhanger is common and makes for easy chapter changes. However, in genres like young adult or romance, relying on emotions like surprise, sadness, or contentment can help end a chapter. Context is important when determining if a tone change within a chapter offers an opportunity to break it up into two or more chapters.
Remember, some of the most successful writers have had chapters long and small, and some write with no chapters at all. Only you can decide what is best for your writing and makes you feel comfortable upon publishing. The fact that your chapter review includes questions about what is best shows you are putting your best product forward, giving readers a high quality book they can enjoy and reread many times.
St. Louis editor Megan Harris has had experience working with many authors on their books. If you are having trouble with your manuscript prior to publishing or want a second eye, please contact Megan to discuss your project today.


So, today, along with a room full of other people I attended a great presentation by Peter B Hirtle, Senior Policy Advisor, Cornell University Library, and Research Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet Security and Society, Harvard University. The presentation covered issues regarding copyright and publishing research. While copyright laws many have differences between countries, many of the issues are the same for scholars everywhere.
So the talk covered many issues, including why open access is important (making publicly funded research available to the public, research visibility, sharing with those who don't have the resources to subscribe, the possibility of increased citations etc.). It also provided a backgrounder on copyright (which I am not going to cover here – there are many other good examples out there on the web relevant to different situations), some of the barriers to OA, including restrictive copyright and licensing agreements between publishers and authors. The presenter then proposed four different options for authors seeking to make their work OA.
Publish in an Open Access journal. There are good ones in most fields. Some charge article processing fees, others don't. Do your research, consult your colleagues or or the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and find the one most suited to your research and or your needs. Also be aware that while most are fine, not all OA journals are reputable, so perhaps also consult Beall's list of possibly predatory journals and publishers.
Publish in a conventional, toll access journal and deposit the author's peer reviewed final copy in an institutional or disciplinary repository. Tools such as Sherpa/Romeo provide easy to use information on publisher copyright and self-archiving into repositories or web sites. For immediate deposit into a repository, we are basically looking for journals and or publishers with a green tick!
If the publisher is does not allow green open access in their copyright or licence to publish agreements, you can request changes to the agreement. As an aside, I have been successful in amending a restrictive agreement in two cases and not successful in one – in only the three times I have tried.
The final suggestion today was to add an author's addenda to the agreement seeking the rights you require. There is more information on this at the SPARC site.
In introducing the presentation, the Scholarly Communications Librarian at the University of Pittsburgh Office of Scholarly Communication also mentioned the many services they have which support faculty wanting to investigate more open access. These services include OA repository services, altmetrics, an author fee fund for eligible open access journals, and open access journal publishing services.
Most academic libraries offer a range of such services. Why not use OA week to see what your librarian can do to help you go OA?


Marketing budgets can seem to be just like a chore with no dedicated marketing team crunching the figures, but all businesses need someone to succeed. Why?
Because every dollar spent differentiating your company out of your competition can enable you to get 5 to 10 dollars in revenue.
That's how valuable getting an advertising and marketing finances are, yet, most companies end up marketing through the seat of the pants because budgeting is really a challenge.
Time and sources needed to build up a highly effective marketing budget are often scarce, specifically for promising small to mid-sized companies. The budgeting process is not only selecting a amount of money, selecting your marketing channels after which creating marketing pieces. Additionally, it needs to take into account research, personnel and tracking.
Having a clearer look at your audience and vetted differentiators, you might research what marketing channels best communicate your differentiators for your customer. For instance, if you are marketing an expert plan to other companies, you may consider LinkedIn or perhaps a robust SEM strategy. If you are marketing an item to millennials, you may consider Facebook or remarketing.
Set expectations and benchmarks to determine how well you're progressing, but be sensible. In case your audience is small, is it possible to achieve $5 million in new sales within the year? Are you able to truly convert 50% of leads once the industry average is 10%? This isn't to state your objectives should not be challenging, but make sure they are achievable with regard to your employee's morale, your sanity as well as your main point here – here's your chance to define what your ability to succeed appears like.
Just getting goals isn't enough. You have to establish tools along with a process for tracking your ability to succeed and making changes. Facebook provides HTML pixels that will help you attribute website conversions to some specific Facebook ad. Squeeze pages or unique URL's in your website can help you identify campaign related traffic and leads. Promotion or QR codes can help track the prosperity of marketing offers. The important thing being, if you cannot measure it, do not do it.


President Donald Trump's overall approach to Saudi jounrnalist Jamal Khashoggi's disappearance and death is seemingly alienating him from some of his top Republican allies in the Senate.
Key Republican senators, including Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, and Bob Corker, have all condemned Saudi Arabia over the case. These Republicans have pushed for economic sanctions, among other repercussions.
Trump has been criticized for being too "soft" on the Saudis and hasn't committed to any form of punishment.
Twitter has suspended hundreds of bot accounts identified by NBC News as being involved in a coordinated campaign to defend the Saudi government's role in the disappearance of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
Twitter told Business Insider it had already been aware of the bot accounts, which it said behaved like spam accounts.
Twitter said it could not definitively link the accounts to the Saudi government.
Saudi Arabia reportedly confirmed the death of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
Initial reports suggest Khashoggi was involved in "a physical confrontation, which resulted in his death," a Saudi statement said.
In a statement, the Saudi government claimed "a fistfight that led to his death." The fatal fight allegedly occurred after an argument broke out between Khashoggi and the men who met him inside the consulate.
President Donald Trump's overall approach to Khashoggi's disappearance is seemingly alienating him from some of his top Republican allies in the Senate.
Saudi Arabia's state media has confirmed the death of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi on Friday.
A close aide to the Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman was also reportedly dismissed .


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Using An Online Will Writing Service?
You can find pages of online Will writing services on the Internet at the click of your mouse. Some work completely online, some via phone and post and others offer a more personal service with will writing consultants or advisers who will visit you at home.
Which method you choose depends upon your personal preference and how much your are expecting and willing to pay to make a Will. One thing you need to remember when selecting a Will writing service is what credentials and level of expertise are you buying.
Anyone can call themselves a Will Writer and start a will writing service, you can even do it yourself with a simple form from a stationery shop. But only a properly trained professional Will writing service can ensure that your Will is correctly drafted. Do it yourself or badly made Wills can be just as bad (and sometimes worse!) than making no Will at all.
Investigate their experience, how long have they been in the will writing business.
Do they have any or adequate insurance cover should they get it wrong.
Are they a member of a professional body such as the Society Of Will Writers, the Institute of Professional Will Writers or Society of Trust & Estate Practitioners. If a will writing service cannot show this, be cautious.
How Much Does a Will Writing Service Cost?
The majority of online will writing services simply write your will based on your personal details and cost between £30 – £100, but generally don't offer any legal advice. Their service is based upon standard legal phrases that have been tested by legal precedent. For more complex affairs some solicitors offer online will writing with limited legal advice from around £70.
A few of the most popular will writing services are listed below for your convenience. However, this is not a complete review of all such services available and does not constitute a recommendation or legal advice. Use common sense and bear in mind the points above.
This is only a brief summary of the Will writing services reviewed. Although we make every effort to ensure our reviews are accurate and up to date; prices, terms and conditions are subject to change. Therefore reviews may be dated, partial or inaccurate; and should not be solely relied upon without conducting your own independent research before deciding to make a purchase or other course of action.
Some of the products and services reviewed on this website may earn us a commision when purchased by our visitors. All our reviews are completely unbiased and independent and are in no way influenced by the commission we may earn.


text:
/*
 *  Pure Ecmascript eventloop example.
 *  Original Version: https://github.com/svaarala/duktape/blob/master/examples/eventloop/ecma_eventloop.js
 *
 *  Timer state handling is inefficient in this trivial example.  Timers are
 *  kept in an array sorted by their expiry time which works well for expiring
 *  timers, but has O(n) insertion performance.  A better implementation would
 *  use a heap or some other efficient structure for managing timers so that
 *  all operations (insert, remove, get nearest timer) have good performance.
 *
 *  https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Timers
 *
 *  CHANGES
 *  TSH - August 2015
 *      - Removed EventLoop.run as it was looking at Sockets which Atomic doesn't provide.  Now, this subscribes to the Atomic.engine.update/afterUpdate events to process the timers.
 *      - Modified the way that setTimeout,clearTimeout,setInterval,clearInterval are loaded into global scope
 *      - Implemented setImmediate/clearImmediate
 *
 */

/*
 *  Event loop
 *
 *  Timers are sorted by 'target' property which indicates expiry time of
 *  the timer.  The timer expiring next is last in the array, so that
 *  removals happen at the end, and inserts for timers expiring in the
 *  near future displace as few elements in the array as possible.
 */

EventLoop = {
    currentTime: 0, // Current timer in the system.  Need to make sure this doesn't overflow
    // timers
    timers: [], // active timers, sorted (nearest expiry last)
    immediateTimers: [],
    expiring: null, // set to timer being expired (needs special handling in clearTimeout/clearInterval/clearImmediate)
    nextTimerId: 1,
    minimumDelay: 1,
    maxExpirys: 10,

    // misc
    exitRequested: false
};

EventLoop.dumpState = function () {
    print('TIMER STATE:');
    this.timers.forEach(function (t) {
        print('    ' + Duktape.enc('jx', t));
    });
    print('IMMEDIATE TIMER STATE:');
    this.immediateTimers.forEach(function (t) {
        print('    ' + Duktape.enc('jx', t));
    });
    if (this.expiring) {
        print('    EXPIRING: ' + Duktape.enc('jx', this.expiring));
    }
}

// Get timer with lowest expiry time.  Since the active timers list is
// sorted, it's always the last timer.
EventLoop.getEarliestTimer = function () {
    var timers = this.timers;
    n = timers.length;
    return (n > 0 ? timers[n - 1] : null);
}

EventLoop.getEarliestWait = function () {
    var t = this.getEarliestTimer();
    return (t ? t.target - Date.now() : null);
}

EventLoop.insertTimer = function (timer) {
    var timers = this.timers;
    var i, n, t;

    /*
     *  Find 'i' such that we want to insert *after* timers[i] at index i+1.
     *  If no such timer, for-loop terminates with i-1, and we insert at -1+1=0.
     */

    n = timers.length;
    for (i = n - 1; i >= 0; i--) {
        t = timers[i];
        if (timer.target <= t.target) {
            // insert after 't', to index i+1
            break;
        }
    }

    timers.splice(i + 1 /*start*/ , 0 /*deleteCount*/ , timer);
}

EventLoop.insertImmediate = function (timer) {
    var timers = this.immediateTimers;

    // Just simply add to the end of the immediate timers array
    timers.push(timer);
}

// Remove timer/interval with a timer ID.  The timer/interval can reside
// either on the active list or it may be an expired timer (this.expiring)
// whose user callback we're running when this function gets called.
EventLoop.removeTimerById = function (timer_id, isImmediate) {
    var timers = isImmediate ? this.immediateTimers : this.timers;
    var i, n, t;

    t = this.expiring;
    if (t) {
        if (t.id === timer_id) {
            // Timer has expired and we're processing its callback.  User
            // callback has requested timer deletion.  Mark removed, so
            // that the timer is not reinserted back into the active list.
            // This is actually a common case because an interval may very
            // well cancel itself.
            t.removed = true;
            return;
        }
    }

    n = timers.length;
    for (i = 0; i < n; i++) {
        t = timers[i];
        if (t.id === timer_id) {
            // Timer on active list: mark removed (not really necessary, but
            // nice for dumping), and remove from active list.
            t.removed = true;
            timers.splice(i /*start*/ , 1 /*deleteCount*/ );
            return;
        }
    }

    // no such ID, ignore
}

EventLoop.processTimers = function () {
    var now = Date.now();
    var timers = this.timers;
    var sanity = this.maxExpirys;
    var n, t;

    /*
     *  Here we must be careful with mutations: user callback may add and
     *  delete an arbitrary number of timers.
     *
     *  Current solution is simple: check whether the timer at the end of
     *  the list has expired.  If not, we're done.  If it has expired,
     *  remove it from the active list, record it in this.expiring, and call
     *  the user callback.  If user code deletes the this.expiring timer,
     *  there is special handling which just marks the timer deleted so
     *  it won't get inserted back into the active list.
     *
     *  This process is repeated at most maxExpirys times to ensure we don't
     *  get stuck forever; user code could in principle add more and more
     *  already expired timers.
     */

    while (sanity-- > 0) {
        // If exit requested, don't call any more callbacks.  This allows
        // a callback to do cleanups and request exit, and can be sure that
        // no more callbacks are processed.

        if (this.exitRequested) {
            //print('exit requested, exit');
            break;
        }

        // Timers to expire?
        n = timers.length;
        if (timers.length <= 0) {
            break;
        }
        t = timers[n - 1];
        if (now <= t.target) {
            // Timer has not expired, and no other timer could have expired
            // either because the list is sorted.
            break;
        }
        timers.pop();

        // Remove the timer from the active list and process it.  The user
        // callback may add new timers which is not a problem.  The callback
        // may also delete timers which is not a problem unless the timer
        // being deleted is the timer whose callback we're running; this is
        // why the timer is recorded in this.expiring so that clearTimeout()
        // and clearInterval() can detect this situation.

        if (t.oneshot) {
            t.removed = true; // flag for removal
        } else {
            t.target = now + t.delay;
        }
        this.expiring = t;
        try {
            t.cb();
        } catch (e) {
            console.log('timer callback failed, ignored: ' + e);
        }
        this.expiring = null;

        // If the timer was one-shot, it's marked 'removed'.  If the user callback
        // requested deletion for the timer, it's also marked 'removed'.  If the
        // timer is an interval (and is not marked removed), insert it back into
        // the timer list.

        if (!t.removed) {
            // Reinsert interval timer to correct sorted position.  The timer
            // must be an interval timer because one-shot timers are marked
            // 'removed' above.
            this.insertTimer(t);
        }
    }
    // see if there are any events left over for this cycle
    n = timers.length;
    if (timers.length <= 0) {
        return false;
    }
    t = timers[n - 1];
    if (now > t.target) {
        // we have more timers that need to be handled.  Let the driver know that we should pick them up in the next cycle
        return true;
    } else {
        return false;
    }
}

EventLoop.processImmediates = function () {
    var timers = this.immediateTimers;
    var sanity = timers.length;

    /*
     *  Here we must be careful with mutations: user callback may add and
     *  delete an arbitrary number of set immediates.
     *
     *  The way we handle this is that if any setImmediates adds another setImmediate to the
     *  list, it will wait until the end of the next cycle..not sure this is the best way to handle
     *  this, but if not you could easily implement a DOS where the update handler never gets returned to
     */

    while (sanity-- > 0) {
        // If exit requested, don't call any more callbacks.  This allows
        // a callback to do cleanups and request exit, and can be sure that
        // no more callbacks are processed.

        if (this.exitRequested) {
            //print('exit requested, exit');
            break;
        }

        if (timers.length <= 0) {
            break;
        }
        // we want to process setImmediate timers FIFO
        t = timers.shift();

        // Remove the timer from the active list and process it.  The user
        // callback may add new timers which is not a problem.  The callback
        // may also delete timers which is not a problem unless the timer
        // being deleted is the timer whose callback we're running; this is
        // why the timer is recorded in this.expiring so that clearTimeout()
        // and clearInterval() can detect this situation.

        t.removed = true; // flag for removal
        this.expiring = t;
        try {
            t.cb();
        } catch (e) {
            console.log('timer callback failed, ignored: ' + e);
        }
        this.expiring = null;
    }
}

EventLoop.requestExit = function () {
    this.exitRequested = true;
}

/*
 *  Timer API
 *
 *  These interface with the singleton EventLoop.
 */

/**
 * schedules a function to be called after a certain number of milliseconds
 * @method
 * @param {function} func the Function to call
 * @param {int} delay the number of milliseconds
 * @param {any} [parameters] A comma separated list of parameters to pass to func
 * @returns {int} the id of the timer to be used in clearTimeout in order to cancel the timeout
 */
function setTimeout(func, delay) {
    var cb_func;
    var bind_args;
    var timer_id;
    var evloop = EventLoop;

    if (typeof delay !== 'number') {
        throw new TypeError('delay is not a number');
    }
    delay = Math.max(evloop.minimumDelay, delay);

    if (typeof func === 'string') {
        // Legacy case: callback is a string.
        cb_func = eval.bind(this, func);
    } else if (typeof func !== 'function') {
        throw new TypeError('callback is not a function/string');
    } else if (arguments.length > 2) {
        // Special case: callback arguments are provided.
        bind_args = Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments, 2); // [ arg1, arg2, ... ]
        bind_args.unshift(this); // [ global(this), arg1, arg2, ... ]
        cb_func = func.bind.apply(func, bind_args);
    } else {
        // Normal case: callback given as a function without arguments.
        cb_func = func;
    }

    timer_id = evloop.nextTimerId++;

    evloop.insertTimer({
        id: timer_id,
        oneshot: true,
        cb: cb_func,
        delay: delay,
        target: Date.now() + delay
    });

    return timer_id;
}

/**
 * stops a previously queued timeout.
 * @method
 * @param {int} timer_id the id of the timer that was created via setTimeout
 */
function clearTimeout(timer_id) {
    var evloop = EventLoop;

    if (typeof timer_id !== 'number') {
        throw new TypeError('timer ID is not a number');
    }
    evloop.removeTimerById(timer_id, false);
}

/**
 * schedules a function to be called after the end of the current update cycle.  SetImmediate timers are processed FIFO
 * @method
 * @param {function} func the Function to call
 * @param {any} [parameters] A comma separated list of parameters to pass to func
 * @returns {int} the id of the setImmediate function to be used in clearImmediate in order to cancel it.
 */
function setImmediate(func) {
    var cb_func;
    var bind_args;
    var timer_id;
    var evloop = EventLoop;

    if (typeof func === 'string') {
        // Legacy case: callback is a string.
        cb_func = eval.bind(this, func);
    } else if (typeof func !== 'function') {
        throw new TypeError('callback is not a function/string');
    } else if (arguments.length > 1) {
        // Special case: callback arguments are provided.
        bind_args = Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments, 1); // [ arg1, arg2, ... ]
        bind_args.unshift(this); // [ global(this), arg1, arg2, ... ]
        cb_func = func.bind.apply(func, bind_args);
    } else {
        // Normal case: callback given as a function without arguments.
        cb_func = func;
    }

    timer_id = evloop.nextTimerId++;

    evloop.insertImmediate({
        id: timer_id,
        oneshot: true,
        cb: cb_func
    });

    return timer_id;
}

/**
 * stops a previously queued setImmediate callback.
 * @method
 * @param {int} timer_id the id of the timer that was created via setImmediate
 */
function clearImmediate(timer_id) {
    var evloop = EventLoop;

    if (typeof timer_id !== 'number') {
        throw new TypeError('timer ID is not a number');
    }
    evloop.removeTimerById(timer_id, true);
}

/**
 * set up a timer that repeats every "delay" milliseconds.
 * @method
 * @param {function} func callback function to call every "delay" milliseconds
 * @param {int} delay number of milliseconds to delay
 * @returns {int} the id of the timer so that it can be stopped in the future.
 */
function setInterval(func, delay) {
    var cb_func;
    var bind_args;
    var timer_id;
    var evloop = EventLoop;

    if (typeof delay !== 'number') {
        throw new TypeError('delay is not a number');
    }
    delay = Math.max(evloop.minimumDelay, delay);

    if (typeof func === 'string') {
        // Legacy case: callback is a string.
        cb_func = eval.bind(this, func);
    } else if (typeof func !== 'function') {
        throw new TypeError('callback is not a function/string');
    } else if (arguments.length > 2) {
        // Special case: callback arguments are provided.
        bind_args = Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments, 2); // [ arg1, arg2, ... ]
        bind_args.unshift(this); // [ global(this), arg1, arg2, ... ]
        cb_func = func.bind.apply(func, bind_args);
    } else {
        // Normal case: callback given as a function without arguments.
        cb_func = func;
    }

    timer_id = evloop.nextTimerId++;

    evloop.insertTimer({
        id: timer_id,
        oneshot: false,
        cb: cb_func,
        delay: delay,
        target: Date.now() + delay
    });

    return timer_id;
}

/**
 * stop a repeated timer that has been set.
 * @method
 * @param {int} timer_id the id of the timer that was created via setInterval
 */
function clearInterval(timer_id) {
    var evloop = EventLoop;

    if (typeof timer_id !== 'number') {
        throw new TypeError('timer ID is not a number');
    }
    evloop.removeTimerById(timer_id);
}

/* custom call */
/**
 * custom call to exit out of the current event loop.
 */
function requestEventLoopExit() {
    EventLoop.requestExit();
}

// Create a closure that will throttle the EventLoop.processTimers function from being executed too often
function throttleProcessTimers(ms) {
    var deltaTimer = 0;
    var pendingOps = false;

    function doThrottle(eventData) {
        deltaTimer += eventData.timeStep * 1000;
        if (deltaTimer > ms || pendingOps) {
            deltaTimer -= ms;
            // double check to see if we have more timers that expire during this sim
            // if we do, then we want to process them in the next update, and not
            // wait 100ms
            pendingOps = EventLoop.processTimers();
        }
    }
    return doThrottle;
}

// Hook into the update event of the engine and process all the timers.  These
// will be throttled to only run every 100ms
Atomic.engine.subscribeToEvent('Update', throttleProcessTimers(100));

// Hook into the postUpdate event of the engine and process all the setImmediate calls.  These should
// really process once the current update loop is completed.
Atomic.engine.subscribeToEvent('PostUpdate', function (eventData) {
    EventLoop.processImmediates();
});

// Load up the global methods .  This module doesn't export anything, it just sets up the global methods.
(function (global) {
    global.setInterval = global.setInterval || setInterval;
    global.clearInterval = global.clearInterval || clearInterval;
    global.setTimeout = global.setTimeout || setTimeout;
    global.clearTimeout = global.clearTimeout || clearTimeout;
    global.setImmediate = global.setImmediate || setImmediate;
    global.clearImmediate = global.clearImmediate || clearImmediate;

    global.requestEventLoopExit = global.requestEventLoopExit || requestEventLoopExit;
})(new Function('return this')());

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Тъ̀уин () е град в Северозападен Уелс, графство Гуинед. Разположен е по източния бряг на залива Кардиган Бей на около 70 km западно от английския град Шрюсбъри. На около 50 km на север от Тъуин е главният административен център на графството Карнарвън. Има жп гара и пристанище. Морски курорт. Селското стопанство и туризма са основните отрасли в икономиката на града. До северната част на града се намира устието на река Дъсъни, която се влива в езерото Тал ъ Лин. Населението му е 2864 жители според данни от преброяването през 2001 г.

Личности
 Родени
 Роб Дейвийс (р. 1987), уелски футболист
 Дейвид Ричардс (1751–1827), уелски поет

Външни препратки
 Уебсайт за града на ВВС
 Фотоси от Тъуин на Geograph.org.uk

Градове в Уелс

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Everything you want to know about Australia-China trade war but were too afraid to ask
By Stan Grant, Stephen Dziedzic and Bang Xiao
Posted ThuThursday 10 DecDecember 2020 at 5:29amThuThursday 10 DecDecember 2020 at 5:29am , updated ThuThursday 10 DecDecember 2020 at 8:34amThuThursday 10 DecDecember 2020 at 8:34am
A war of words and trade restrictions: Scott Morrison and Xi Jinping. (ABC News, Reuters)
In a bid to shed some light on the increasingly confusing stoush between Australia and China, we asked you to put your burning questions to three of the ABC's China experts — international analyst Stan Grant, foreign affairs reporter Stephen Dziedzic and bilingual reporter Bang Xiao.
"Australians are clearly concerned about the state of relations with China," says Grant. "So many of you are looking long term and asking how we engage with China which clearly presents a clash between our interests and our values."
Here's some of your top questions (and you can read the full Q&A here).
Why aren't we enforcing our own trade restrictions?
Why is the trade spat a one way street? Reciprocal tariffs on Chinese imports would help our local manufacturers — Anonymous
Foreign affairs reporter Stephen Dziedzic has been following the relationship between Canberra and Beijing closely. Here's what he had to say:
I asked someone in the Government the very same question a few days ago. They said "we don't want to get in the sandpit with China and start flinging stuff about".
In other words: we don't want to play dirty. If we were to hit Chinese imports with tariffs for no valid reason then our moral authority would be shredded. Our appeals to China to play by the rules would ring very hollow and any global support we've gathered would fade away.
Plus it would likely just draw further economic punishment from the Chinese Government. And this is probably a good time to repeat an obvious point: China's capacity to inflict economic pain on us is *much* greater than our capacity to inflict economic pain on China.
More than 60 per cent of China's iron ore imports come from Australia. (Reuters: David Gray)
Can we just stop trading iron ore?
Can the Chinese economy do without Australia? Without trade with China, Australia would be dealt a pretty hefty blow--but is the reverse as bad for China? It just seems like they're playing a risky game, especially during a global pandemic. — Kas
Here's Stephen Dziedzic:
There is really only one Australian export which China really needs, and that's iron ore.* More than 60 per cent of China's iron ore imports come from Australia and its other major supplier — Brazil — is in a world of trouble because of COVID-19 in its mines and a tailing dam collapse. So if we suddenly stopped sending them iron ore, many of their larger steel mills would probably stop operating. That would deliver a substantial blow to China's economy.
But there's no way Australia would do that because we'd lose a market worth tens of billions of dollars. That would be a hammer blow to our economy, which is only just starting to emerge from the coronavirus crisis.
Earlier this year the Nationals leader Michael McCormack declared "we need China as much as China needs us" but unfortunately that's probably not true. The brutal reality is we simply do need China, more than they need us. This doesn't mean we should just fold to Beijing's demands of course. But they hold more cards than we do.
*Australian coal is also quite important and there are another one or two which are quite crucial to supply chains but that's a more complicated story.
Australian wine has been in China's firing line. (Reuters)
Are both sides just trying to save face?
Has the concept of "saving face" been affecting Chinese-Australian diplomatic relationships and if so, how? — Z
Here's international analyst Stan Grant:
Saving face is a critical issue. The West does not appreciate the sensitivities of China. Western society has been built on ideas of progress and to a large degree leaving history behind.
Western philosophers talk about a linear movement of history and in 1989 American political scientist Francis Fukuyama wrote an influential essay that saw the the fall of the Berlin Wall as "the end of history", that Western liberal democracy had triumphed over Soviet communism.
The Chinese were lectured that they were on the wrong side of history.
We get into tricky water when we imagine that Western values are universal, China rejects that. It believes its model of authoritarian capitalism is superior.
China also has long memories of the humiliation and domination by foreign powers. It portrays criticism by countries like Australia of China's human rights record, for instance, as another example of Western humiliation.
How do we legitimately criticise China or challenge China on issues of human rights and values without antagonising? That is the critical question.
A vote at the closing session of the national congress of the Communist Party in 2017. (Reuters: Tyrone Siu)
Why have China and the CCP become interchangeable?
Why do Western democracies, and their institutions, continue to refer to China and the CCP as one and the same? China's people and culture, including the Chinese diaspora, are not the CCP, yet we continue to equate China to the CCP. Why don't we drop the use of "China" and put the party first? China is not the CCP, and the CCP is not China!
Here's bilingual reporter Bang Xiao:
I could totally understand this! It has been one of my biggest concerns around the rise of China on the world stage. Mixing China, Chinese Communist Party, and Chinese people is unwise, but a common practice in the West. It is common sense that delicious Chinese food isn't part of Beijing's regime. When it comes to Chinese citizens and people of Chinese heritage, the distinctions are often ignored. Fortunately, we have seen a growing number of our politicians trying to tell differences between these concepts.
However, the confusion comes from the CCP's narrative too. The party has been making a conceptual shift between these terms in its nationalism propaganda. By doing this, some Chinese people may believe criticisms about the party are also targeting Chinese citizens and diaspora.
One of the great examples is that China's deputy head of mission, Wang Xining, describes Canberra's focus on determining the origins of the coronavirus "hurts the feelings of the Chinese people". There is no doubt that some Chinese citizens feel hostility, but the diversity of Chinese people means Canberra's call can gain some support too. We just didn't find it being represented.
Will young Australians be left to deal with the fallout?
Will young Australian's have to pay in the future the economic costs of a bad relationship with China? — Cameron
Here's Stan Grant:
I fear for the world our young people are going to live in. As Scott Morrison pointed out recently we live in a world that is poorer, more disorderly and more dangerous. I think our age is equivalent to the lead-up to World War I. Not that we will repeat it, but similar forces are at play.
Australia's place in the global order is shifting
Scott Morrison has sent a message to China that Australia will not be America's "deputy sheriff" and Canberra won't be making decisions based on a choice between Washington and Beijing, writes Stan Grant.
There is a rising power in China and a relatively waning power the US just as then there was a rising Germany and waning Great Britain. The world is deeply interconnected as it was then. Germany and Britain were each other's biggest trade partners.
The weights on the scale tipped the balance to war then and the weights are piling up again today: trade disputes, diplomatic freeze, territorial disputes, rapid militarisation.
Between 1915 and 1945 the world saw war, a flu pandemic, economic collapse, rise of fascism, communism, revolution and war again.
Today we have terrorism, war in many parts of the world, a global financial crisis in 2008, a virus pandemic, a resurgence of authoritarianism and a weakening of democracy.
China sits at the hinge point of this history. How the world responds will determine the fate of our children.
How is the rest of the world responding?
How are other countries reacting to the current tensions between Australia and China? Are there sides being taken at international levels, particularly within the Pacific nations?
Australia has received public support mainly from Western nations so far. Unsurprisingly, the United States has been the most vocal critic of China's actions — although the public response from the incoming Biden administration was less forceful than some in Canberra expected.
Several other countries, including New Zealand, France, Germany and Britain, have also criticised China's behaviour — particularly the inflammatory tweet posted by the Chinese foreign affairs Zhao Lijian which kickstarted the most recent Australia-China dispute.
When Japan's new Prime Minister met Scott Morrison in Tokyo last month the two nations issued a joint statement which can be read as a pretty clear condemnation of China's trade punishments, saying "trade should never be used as a tool to apply political pressure".
But most other countries (including Pacific Island nations) have remained silent.
Duration: 1 minute 59 seconds 1m 59s
Scott Morrison demands apology from China over "repugnant" tweet
Does Australia need to tone down its response?
I believe Australia has made some unnecessary comments about China which have insulted a very sensitive big power. There are issues which we should be free to determine but how we do that is important and we have not always handled that well. Do you agree and is it inevitable that Australia will ultimately have to retract some of its diplomatic gaffs. — Martyn Brown
This is a common criticism. Critics argue that some of the language used by Coalition politicians (for example Malcolm Turnbull's quoting of Mao to say "the Australian people have stood up!") and the fierce attacks on the CCP from some government backbenchers have made a bad situation worse.
The same critics say the Prime Minister's decision to publicly denounce the inflammatory tweet from Zhao Lijian was also a misstep.
The Coalition tends to scoff at these arguments. They see this contest as ideological and structural. And they think it's a fantasy to argue that a few nice words from Canberra would change anything.
Will the Government actually retract any of its public statements on China? It's hard to predict, but I think it's unlikely. The public mood towards Beijing is quite hostile, so there's no political imperative to do so.
The Government may deliberately soften its language on China from this point on in an attempt to dial down the temperature (we've already seen some evidence of this) but of course that's not the same thing as a retraction.
What's the deal with the CCP?
Can you tell us more about the CCP? What factions exist are there left, right and centre? How does it function? —David McCormack
Here's Bang Xiao:
The ideology of the CCP is very different from the conventional Western left-right spectrum. There is no doubt that the CCP has internal revival systems, but the lack of transparency of the party means we cannot give a clear answer with solid evidence.
Generally speaking, the debate is between the state control of both economic and personal lives on one end, and individual control of personal life and government non-intervention at the other. But this is only one of measures that analysts may use to look at the party.
The CCP has over 92 million members, who not only walk the halls of power in Beijing, but also supervise China's institutions and major companies. Party and Government staff only covered 8 per cent of the CCP's membership, while the rest are made up by students, professionals, farmers and industrial workers.
Fortunately we have got some current and former CCP members who explained the party with us this year.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping participate in a welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China on November 9, 2017. (AP: Andrew Harnik)
Where does the US fit into all of this?
You cannot have a sensible discussion about China without taking into account the American empire. — Bev Coates
It's a great question Bev! Both Beijing and Washington consider each other as a political threat. In the CCP's propaganda, the US has been described as a bully on China's internal stability, and a blackhand behind the conflict in Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
But bringing the US to the discussion can be a double-edged sword. It gives contexts for the debate between two global superpowers in our times, but helps Beijing's narrative to legitimise its suppressive treatment of its own people and raise nationalism. It is one of the most difficult parts of the discussion about China.
Stan Grant also weighed in:
America has been the dominant power since World War II albeit locked in a Cold War with the Soviet Union. It wrote the rules of a global order that assisted China's rise. It was an American president Richard Nixon who travelled to Beijing in 1972 to meet chairman Mao Zedong and assist a rapprochement that in time brought China back into the world.
For much of the past 50 years there has been an attitude of cooperation. That era is over.
The rivalry between the US and China will define this century and handled poorly could lead to greater conflict. America is no longer the sole global power. But we don't yet live in a post-American world either — it is still the biggest economy and most powerful military but it has been drained by decades of crisis and conflict.
It is a deeply divided society that no longer carries the same global prestige. We are all readjusting to this new global reality.
What's the end game?
What does China want? What is their preferred outcome from this spat? — Tom Ho
China wants respect. For much of the last 3,000 years China was the great power of the world and the largest economy. The past 200 years are an aberration. The fall of the Qing empire was the start of what China sees as the great humiliation by foreign powers.
China's latest move straight from its punishment playbook
The Morrison Government seems to be betting that all it needs to do is hold its nerve and hold the line when it comes to China's trade threats, writes Stephen Dziedzic.
Now it wants to be seen as an indispensable nation.
China has a point: the so-called global order was created by the West and the major global institutions are dominated by the West. For instance only a European can head the International Monetary Fund and only an American can be president of the World Bank.
China is setting up rival institutions like the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank and the Belt and Road initiative to counter what it sees as a Western institutional bias.
The problem is China does not share liberal values and that creates a crisis in the order.
Does China believe its own propaganda?
Why do Chinese officials tell so many lies? Do they actually believe their own propaganda? —Gary
These are my favourite questions so far! Just to be fair, lies and politics can be a natural fit in many countries. But the authoritarian political system and the massive censorship and self-censorship in media and academia made the cost of a lie from Chinese officials far less than others in a democratic country.
Do they believe their own propaganda? Yes or no. There are certain nuances in the system where some members don't agree with Xi Jinping's propaganda.
However, speaking out the doubts may result in harsh punishment on dissidents and their families. That might be why we haven't seen many officials make the choice.
How do Chinese immigrants feel?
I'm a new immigrant from China. It's sad to see the situation between China and Australia now. Many of my friends in China just concern about me whether some discrimination could happen to me. I personally don't worry about it as I know Australia is an immigrating country with integrated international cultures. My question is if Australia can learn from Japan, Korea or UK and Germany to establish maybe not so good relationship but at least harmonious with its neighbour? Pray for both countries.
Hey there, I for one echo your concerns about the discrimination against Chinese diaspora in Australia. I believe the deterioration of the Australia-China relations has become a worrying issue for many migrants from mainland China. I always remind myself of the fact that it takes two to tango, which means you can't solve the problem by simply blaming one side or the other.
It is a difficult year for many Chinese-Australians who felt caught up in the crossfire. The community that used to be very quiet has shown unprecedented involvement in conversations against racism this year, not only about the diplomatic relations, but also individual cases related to COVID-19.
Please always remember to protect yourself and report it to the police if you were subject to any racist incident.
Posted 10 DecDecember 2020ThuThursday 10 DecDecember 2020 at 5:29am , updated 10 DecDecember 2020ThuThursday 10 DecDecember 2020 at 8:34am
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