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Out of the Closet: "china’s Other Tibet"
OUT OF THE CLOSET: CHINA‘S ‘OTHER TIBET‘
Maryam Sakeenah
“Xinjiang will always keep up the intensity of its crackdown on ethnic separatist forces and deal them devastating blows without showing any mercy.”
- Wang Lequan, Chinese Communist Party Xinjiang Secretary, quoted by China News Agency, January 14, 2003
“China is guilty of fierce repression of religious expression, and intolerance of any expression of discontent.”
- Rebiya Kadeer, Uighur rights activist, writing for The Washington Post.
The 2008 Olympics held in Beijing helped bring into the limelight the plight of ethnic minorities in China, subject to ‘gross human rights violations’, according to Amnesty International. This said, however, there was a clear duality in the international perception and approach to the two issues of ethnic persecution in China: the Tibetans and the Muslim Uighurs of the Xinjiang region in the North-West. While the Tibet issue received international attention, building up pressure on the Chinese government, the ethnic unrest in Xinjiang remained eclipsed and went quite unnoticed, even to the extent that Al Jazeera TV had to call it ‘China’s Other Tibet’ in order to garner public attention. This international inattention and apathy makes sense in the context of the War on Terror, considering the fact that China’s diplomacy has successfully managed to present the Uighurs’ struggle as ‘terrorism’. Regardless of the international attitude towards it, facts on the ground seem to support what Uighur human rights activist Rebiya Kadeer stated in an interview to Kate Mc Geown of BBC, “I believe the Uighurs are the most persecuted people in the world.”
Amnesty International reports on March 17, 2005: “Since the late 1980s, the Chinese government’s policies and other factors have generated growing ethnic discontent in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. Thousands of people there have been victims of gross human rights violations, including arbitrary detention, unfair political trials, torture and summary executions. These violations are suffered primarily by members of the Uighur community and occur amidst growing ethnic unrest fuelled by unemployment, discrimination and restrictions on religious and cultural freedoms. The situation has led some people living in the Xingiang Uighur Autonomous Region to favour independence from China. Crackdowns in the region have intensified since 9/11, with authorities designating supporters of independence as ‘separatists’ and ‘terrorists’. Muslim Uighurs have been the main targets of Chinese authorities. Authorities have closed down mosques, detained Islamic clergy and severely curtailed freedom of expression and association.”
The holding of the Olympics in Beijing was used as a justification of a hard-hitting crackdown in Urumqi and other sensitive areas in Xinjiang. Uighurs have been jailed for reading newspapers sympathetic to the cause of independence. Others have been detained merely for listening to Radio Free Asia, an American-sonsored English-language station. Even the most peaceful Uighur activists, if they practise Islam in a way that the authorities deem inappropriate, risk arrest and torture. China regularly dubs Uighur historians, poets and writers “intellectual terrorists” and sends them to jail. In June 2003 Abdulghani Memetemin, a teacher and journalist, was sentenced to nine years in jail for “providing state secrets for an organisation outside the country”. What he had actually done was help the East Turkestan Information Centre (an NGO based in Germany and run by exiled Uighurs), with its work by sending it news reports and transcripts of speeches by Chinese officials. In 2005, Nurmemet Yasin, a young intellectual, was sentenced to a decade in prison for writing an allegory comparing the Uighurs’ predicament with that of a pigeon in a cage.[i]
Amnesty International has documented that, since 2001, “tens of thousands of people are reported to have been detained for investigation in the region, and hundreds, possibly thousands, have been charged or sentenced under the Criminal Law; many Uighurs are believed to have been sentenced to death and executed for alleged “separatist” or “terrorist” offences.” AI has further reported that once imprisoned, detainees are subjected to types of torture from cigarette-burns on the skin to submersion in raw sewage. Prisoners have had toenails extracted by pliers, been attacked by dogs and burned with electric batons, even cattle prods.[ii]
Those held and routinely tortured usually have flimsy charges against them. Human Rights groups say many of those arrested ‘may have done little more than merely practice their religion or defend their culture’, says M J Gohel, a terrorism specialist at the Asia Pacific Foundation in London.[iii] The joint report ‘Devastating Blows’ by Human Rights Watch and Human Rights in China reveals that more than half the detainees in Xinjiang’s labour camps are there for having engaged in ‘illegal religious activity.’ Sharon Hom, the Executive Director of Human Rights in China says ‘Religious regulation in Xinjiang is so pervasive that it creates a legal net that can catch just anyone the authorities want to target.’[iv]
Rebiya Kadeer was a successful Uighur entrepreneur who founded a trading company in Xinjiang and rose to a position of prominence. Her company helped train Muslim Uighurs and give them employment opportunities. She and her husband became spokespersons for the rights of the Uighurs, and used their international connections to further the cause. In 1999, Kadeer was arrested as she entered a hotel to deliver a speech on human rights, and sentenced to eight years in prison on the charge of ‘providing secret information to foreigners’, which happened to be some news clippings about human rights abuse in Xinjiang she wanted to pass on to her husband in the United States. These ‘secret’ documents, however, were from newspapers that were publicly available. Human rights groups globally campaigned for Kadeer, and her sentence was shortened. She was released in 2005 and today champions the Uighurs struggle as an advocate of their rights in USA. In a June 2005 interview with Kate Mc Geown of BBC, Kadeer says, “Since I came out of jail I have never stopped fighting for the freedom of my people. In prison I witnessed personally the torture and persecution of many Uighurs who were totally innocent of the crimes they were said to have committed. I wasn’t allowed to get a lawyer… My struggle is peaceful. I focus on human rights. China has used 9/11 as an excuse to crack down. It is easy for the government to say the Uighurs are terrorists, because they are Muslims. Many Uighurs have been falsely persecuted for this.”
While the unrest in Xinjiang is decades old, China always looked at it as a sort of ‘national embarrassment’, deflecting international attention and keeping mum. M J Gohel of the Asia Pacific Foundation says “China has been shy about the whole problem. It has now come out of the closet.” The ‘coming out of the closet’ comes as a policy change in the wake of the War on Terror, which provides the Chinese government with an opportune moment to gather international support. This it is doing by presenting the unrest in Xinjiang as terrorism, fomenting a link with terrorism elsewhere around the globe which the United States has committed itself to fight. Both Human Rights Watch and Human Rights in China accuse China of ‘opportunistically using the post 9/11 environment to make the outrageous claim that individuals disseminating peaceful religious and cultural messages in Xinjiang are terrorists who have simply changed tactics.’[v]
The international connection is easy to establish as Xnjiang enjoys deep ethnic, religious and cultural ties with neighbouring states including Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan. China has utilized this natural connection to the hilt. The government claims foreign nationals are in the region. At a press conference, Xinjiang Party Secretary Wang Lequan warned that the province was “under attack… In Xinjiang, the separatists, religious extremists and violent terrorists are all around us_ they’re very active.” [vi] Post 9/11, China has busied itself with convincing the world that there is indeed a direct link between the US-led War on Terrorism and China’s indigenous fight against separatists in Xinjiang. With Islam as the mainstream religion in Xinjiang, the ‘common link’ is easy to establish.
The common link has enabled China not only to seek international approval for its counter-terrorism methods but also to demand support and assistance for the same. China has already named more than 10 groups who it claims are supporting separatist ‘terrorism’ in the region, and all of which are based abroad. These include, besides the already banned East Turkestan Islamic Movement, the East Turkestan Liberation Organisation, the World Uighur Youth Congress and the East Turkestan Information Centre. The last two groups are based in Germany, and have been operating peacefully and legally since years.[vii] Mike Dillon, Xinjiang expert at the University of Durham says, “Whether the other groups on the list even exist is open to doubt. And whether groups demanding independence have links abroad is open to doubt.”[viii] Dru C. Gladney, President of the Pacific Basin Institute agrees: “The ETIM has no truly effective links with Al Qaeda, at least not any more, and is most probably defunct by now, as far as we know.” Like several others, Andrew Nathan of Columbia University believes China is by far exaggerating the danger separatism in Xinjiang really poses.[ix] Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer emphatically states, “I vehemently deny that our struggle is connected to Al Qaeda. I believe history will show we were never terrorists. My people will win.”[x]
The fruits of China’s diplomatic labours are manifested by international unconcern and apathy towards the issue. The United States, usually bitterly critical of human rights abuse in China, has apparently agreed to maintain strategic silence over the issue. When compared with international censure over Tibet, the duality of standards becomes only too clear. One reason for this is that the Uighurs lack effective, dynamic leadership that can advocate their cause internationally. They do not have the Nobel Laureate ‘Dalai Lama’ that Tibet has. The other reason that goes deeper, is the connection China has been able to establish with global terrorism, which makes world public opinion apathetic. The connection, sadly, is fomented conveniently because Uighurs share their religion with other separatist groups around the world that are branded ‘terrorists’. International propaganda against Islam churned for politically expedient reasons in the context of the War on Terror demonizes Muslim populations struggling for rights. It takes away sympathy and concern over rampant human rights abuse, making criminals of us all.
Nicholas Bequelin is pessimistic about future prospects for a peaceful resolution for the oppressed Uighurs due to international unconcern: “There is absolutely no international pressure to change policy in Xinjiang now. So why would China make any changes?”[xi]
[i] Fahad Ansari, “Plight of the Uighurs”, islamicawakening.com, September 9, 2008.
[ii] Ibid.
[iii] Quoted by Tim Luard, “China‘s Changing Views of Terrorism”, BBC News Online, December 15, 2003.
[iv] ‘China Crushing Muslim Uighurs’, BBC News Online, April 12, 2005.
[v] “Devastating Blows”, Human Rights Watch, April 2005.
[vi] Quentin Sommerville, ‘Chinas Grip on Xinjiang Muslims’, BBC News Online, November 29, 2005.
[vii] Quoted by Tim Luard, “China‘s Changing Views of Terrorism”, BBC News Online, December 15, 2003.
[viii] Ibid.
[ix] Quoted by Preeti Bhattacharji, ‘Uighurs and Chinas Xinjiang Region’ Council on Foreign Relations, September 29, 2008.
[x] Rebiya Kadeer in an interview by Kate Mc Geown in June 2005.
[xi] Quoted by Preeti Bhattacharji, ‘Uighurs and Chinas Xinjiang Region’ Council on Foreign Relations, September 29, 2008.
Maryam
http://www.articlesbase.com/politics-articles/out-of-the-closet-quotchinas-other-tibetquot-690161.html
Entertainment & Its Different Faces
When we first say entertainment, the first thing one considers is the medium of reach. From television to radio, from newspaper to magazines and lately the internet along with mobile technology, every medium is utilized as a resource by the entertainment company to reach out to the common man. Earlier when we spoke of entertainment the only thought that came to our minds was cinema, but today with the evolution of society many other happening events has raised the standard of entertainment. From fashion shows, to sporting events, to a celebrity wedding or a perfume launch the entertainment industry has dominated in all major fields. Even when it comes to brand building your business all you would need is proper publicity of the product or brand that you would want to market. Getting it done through the entertainment sector proves beneficial simply because any major celebrity related to hardcore entertainment is a house hold name and hence caters to the masses and classes alike.
The Entertainment sector in India on the whole can be categorized into various industries or companies depending upon the kind of services that they provide. If it is into news, advertisements and brand building it could be called a Media and Entertainment Company in India, if it is into public relations and ensures that it bridges the gulf between the product and the targeted customers it is said to be a public relation agency in India. If the company conducts any live event that is related to highlighting any particular product launch or an important social event it is termed as an Event Management Company in India. If it is into film production and distribution and other aspects of movie making it is termed to be a Movie Production Company in India. An important aspect of brand-building or product marketing through films is called in-film marketing. Here the product to be marketed is presented through out the film. If a company is into sports entertainment and has the broadcasting rights to any major sporting event that has the curiosity of the public and is being conducted then it is termed as Sports Marketing Company in India. Similarly if a company is solely into advertising it is termed as an advertising agency or advertising company in India.
Entertainment presented online has also been a source of revenue to many. Online games, film websites and other related domains do arouse the interest of numerous visitors, and to have a business link posted to that website does help. There is a saying that “Having a business and not advertising it, is like blinking at a girl in the dark”. Entertainment in India today is all about money. Film celebrities shield out around 10 crores per annum as income tax, hence providing enough amount of evidence the kind of finance involved in the entertainment sector.
manstone
http://www.articlesbase.com/television-articles/entertainment-its-different-faces-700761.html
What is Marketing?
When most people think of marketing, they think of advertising. That’s not exactly true.
While advertising is a part of marketing, that’s all it is. A part. Marketing is much bigger than that.
A better way to think about marketing is anything you do that touches either your customers or potential customers.
Yes, I do mean anything. Whether it’s sending an invoice, handling a complaint call, running a radio ad or sending an e-mail, you’re marketing your business if you’re touching a customer or a potential customer.
That said, let’s talk about ways to use marketing to increase business and get new customers. To simplify things, I’ve broken it down into five key components:
Advertising
Public relations
Promotions
Community relations
Customer relations
Advertising is any kind of paid promotion. You pay money for your words and/or graphics to be run your way. This includes: print ads (newspaper and magazines), radio, television and online (banner and other ads). I would also include direct mail and other marketing pieces, such as brochures, flyers, Web sites, business cards, in-store displays etc.
What’s strong about advertising? Control. You control your message, your call to action, where and when it’s run.
What’s weak? Credibility. Your audience knows you control the message, therefore it’s not considered terribly credible.
Public relations is getting stories and information about your company, your employees, you or your partners or your products and services into the media. (I include online media, radio and television in this). You don’t pay the media to publish these articles or information. However, you may pay someone to discover an angle, write a press release, pitch the story, etc.
What’s strong about public relations is credibility. Someone else is writing the story — it’s not coming directly from your business nor are you paying for placement. What’s weak is the lack of control. You can’t control where, when or even what’s said.
Promotions is any kind of event. I include in this open houses, trade shows, parties, expos and other events. Also, if you do any public speaking or seminar hosting, I would consider this promotions.
Promotions are a great way to personally touch a lot of customers in a short time. If your target market shows up, promotions can be extremely effective. However, they take a lot of time, can get pretty expensive and there’s no guarantee your target market will appear.
Community relations is when you and your business become involved in your community. For instance:
Your business donates money to nonprofit associations
You or your employees volunteer at a fundraising event
You or your employees volunteer for a nonprofit association
You or your employees join a service club,
You or your employees network at industry association meetings or business functions (such as Chamber of Commerce events).
Strengths include building credibility for you and your business, building personal relationships with customers and creating goodwill. Weaknesses include eating up an incredibly large amount of time and taking awhile to see the payoff, especially if you find yourself donating to charities that may be wonderful causes but offer little advertising and/or promotional opportunities. (However, I’m not advocating that you should only donate to high-visibility nonprofits. Marketing is only one factor — there are other aspects, such as your passion, when planning a community relations program.)
Customer relations is any program where you build or strengthen a relationship with a past, present or potential customer. I include in this referral programs, newsletters, e-newsletters/e-zines, holiday gifts, etc. (Note: This also includes how you or your employees treat your customers or potential customers.)
It takes far less money and effort to keep an existing customer than to attract a new one, so customer relations should always be a strong part of every business.
Ideally, a good marketing program should include a mixture of all five components. How much depends on what you’re trying to accomplish.
Michele PW
http://www.articlesbase.com/small-business-articles/what-is-marketing-725344.html
Understating the Super Bowl Point Spread
Over the weekend I was cruising around Buckhead having a few drinks with an old friend when the topic of the Super Bowl came up. He mentioned that he had asked “a guy” that he places wagers through to throw down $2,000 on Chicago for him next Sunday. But when I asked my friend what number he got the line at he looked at me like I just asked him to recite the state capitols in reverse alphabetical order.
It would seem simple enough that the No. 1 fundamental of betting the Super Bowl involves understanding the spread. However, there are still so many square bettors out there that toss out their hard-earned loot without a full appreciation or knowledge about the line that they’re playing.
Now, it’s possible that my friend was just trying to impress me. But if he really wanted to accomplish that feat he could have done so by knowing that in Super Bowl history teams favored by exactly a touchdown are just 1-4-1 ATS or that the underdog has covered in four of the last five years. That type of analysis could justify two dimes on the Bears. Nostalgia from the time you stole a hand job from a toothless tranny in the parking garage of O’Hare Airport couldn’t.
If you are going to bet on Super Bowl XLI, which will kickoff at approximately 6:20 p.m. EST on Sunday, Feb. 4 at Dolphin Stadium in Miami, you should at least have a working knowledge of what the spread is, and what it is trying to tell you.
The Indianapolis-Chicago line opened with the Colts instilled as a 7.5-point favorite. That number was quickly bet down to an even touchdown. That tells me that the sharp bettors and Windy City wise guys saw the obvious value in getting the team with the better defense above a key number and the early action was on the Bears.
(When I say “key number” I mean that seven is a statistically significant difference in the outcome of NFL games. In fact, the final score is decided by exactly seven points in approximately 7.1 percent of all games. Further, if you have Chicago at +7.5 you would have them through three “key numbers” – 3, 4, and 7 – and across differences that combine to make up approximately 43 percent of all NFL outcomes. That’s value.)
Now, it’s not surprising that the Colts are the favorite and I believe that the number is fair, though beatable from either side. The touchdown represents the fact that the AFC has clearly been the superior conference both in this season and in recent years. The AFC has won seven of the past nine Super Bowls straight up (5-3-1 against the spread) and has won 61.5 percent (118-74) of all interconference games since the start of the 2004 season.
Besides the recent conference totalitarianism, the Colts get the nod because they fit the profile of the team that the public is most likely to back. They have the more potent, fan-friendly offense. They have a recent history of success with five consecutive trips to the postseason. Additionally, the last impression that fans and gamblers have of Indianapolis was its dramatic comeback victory over New England in the AFC Title Game.
Finally, the Colts are the favorite because they hold the key to the most hyped storyline of the week: Peyton Manning. Indy becomes the sentimental favorite for the general betting public because the question of whether or not Manning will get a Super Bowl ring has been overblown to the point that its more important than our failing education system or the hypocrisy of our current Republican administration. People want to believe that this is Peyton’s time, and they’ll line up to throw their money on him in the hopes that he can vanquish over a decade’s worth of choke jobs.
Now, I’m not here to say that the Colts are the favorite in this game simply as a result of some public relations machinations. No, no. They are a veteran crew with some devastating skill players. They can score points in bunches and have some momentum, so if they do win there’s a fair chance that it will be by a double-digit margin. But what you have to keep in mind is that the Super Bowl line isn’t set according to who the books think will win the game, it’s based on who the books believe the public will play.
Which brings us to our next point. Since its initial settling, the line has held firm at -7 at most online sportsbooks. However, at two of the more prominent books (Pinnacle and BetCris) that spread has at least flirted with a stay at -6.5 due to heavy Bears action. In fact, Pinnacle and 5Dimes currently have the Colts available at -6.5. I’m not surprised to see this type of manipulation by the books and suspect it will increase as we get nearer to kickoff in order to balance the action.
Again, that’s the goal: balance the action. Traditionally, the public overwhelmingly backs the favorites in the Super Bowl. This puts the books in a kamikaze position of needing the dog to cover to avoid a massive loss. But this year may be a bit different. Because Chicago is from a major market, with a marquee defense and a strong tradition, the books may have a chance to avoid such an all-or-nothing scenario.
However, there’s also another underlying plot that should influence the line.
“It will take a lot of action for us to (move off 7), considering we’d be doing more than just moving off a key number,” a bookmaker at Bodog said in published reports. “We would also be opening ourselves to be sided by the players if we were to move off -7. If the sharps keep playing the Bears and the recreational players play them as opposed to the Colts, we may move.”
We’ve already established that seven is an important number. If the books were to lower the line to -6.5 then they would be opening themselves up to get middled. Bettors would get the Bears +7.5 and the Colts -6.5, and if Indianapolis won by exactly a touchdown the books would get hammered by having to pay out on both tickets. Therefore, if a majority of books were to move to 6.5 you would instantly be tipped off that a LOT of money was heading on the dog.
That scenario isn’t likely, but it certainly is possible. According to Wagerline.com’s calculations nearly 58 percent of all Super Bowl bets up to this point have been placed on the underdog Bears.
Robert Ferringo
http://www.articlesbase.com/sports-and-fitness-articles/understating-the-super-bowl-point-spread-98175.html
SEO PR: Buzz-Worthy Or Just Hype?
SEO PR is a buzzword that is both over-hyped and under-hyped at the same time. What do I mean by this? SEO PR is currently in buzz overkill mode in the Search Engine Marketing industry, but is drastically underutilized in the traditional PR world. Many traditional PR agencies are misinformed about Search Engine Marketing in general and are completely taken aback by SEO PR specifically.
So what is it? Search Engine Optimization Public Relations (SEO PR) is a blend of search engine visibility and traditional public relations that disperses a company’s message across the Internet by way of online media outlets and search engines. SEO PR not only helps disseminate an organization’s messages, but it also incorporates search engine-friendly communication through techniques such as optimizing copy in online content such as press releases, articles, whitepapers, blogs, RSS feeds and websites.
A successful search engine public relations engagement harnesses the power of the search engines by focusing on relevant keywords within the content being created and distributed. Careful attention must be paid to the content to ensure a careful balance between search engine-friendliness and good copywriting. Ultimately readers need to be able to understand the message without being bombarded by keyword spam, or copy overloaded with keywords affecting readability and comprehension.
As with any marketing campaign, integration of other marketing initiatives is crucial. A good SEO PR campaign heavily complements any Public Relations, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns in place while strengthening a firm’s brand. Some traditional PR firms are beginning to partner with SEO firms to add this service to their portfolio and vice-versa. This is good news for many firms as the incremental costs of adding SEO PR to existing marketing activities should be relatively low assuming that both SEO and PR services are already in place. Much of the additional work is simply connecting the SEO efforts with the PR efforts.
The logical first step is to integrate press release activity with search engine marketing. By optimizing and distributing press releases online (assuming the right online wire service is used), not only will the release have the opportunity to get picked up by thousands of sites, but it will often be picked up and archived by Google News, Yahoo! News and by a multitude of other sites that pull relevant news feeds.
This means that the press release’s message gets instant online visibility and SEO efforts are also strengthened by having strategic keywords included in the release’s copy, with the most important ones linked to your website with relevant anchor text. Besides the link-building benefit, the relevant anchor text makes this “off the page” SEO activity very powerful. Moreover, the sites that are likely to pick up your online release are usually relevant to the content being distributed.
However, there is a point of diminishing returns. You cannot keyword spam or add dozens of links to a release. The press release needs to be first and foremost a press release that makes sense to readers. Secondly, if you litter the release with too many links it’s likely that the major search engines will actually punish you in terms of rankings. In addition, delivering press releases too frequently just for SEO purposes will not be likely to achieve your desired results either. Press releases should be newsworthy. Otherwise they won’t get picked up, even online.
The next steps can be easy depending on whether content generation and distribution are part of your current marketing activities. By taking the same approach as described for online press releases (minus the online wires), content such as whitepapers, articles, “micro-sites” and/or advertising sites, etc. can be optimized, distributed online and used to both enhance brand and bolster SEO results. The same principles apply with online press releases. Keep the content focused on its purpose whether it’s educational, technical, marketing-oriented or a combination thereof. Again, avoid keyword and link spam.
A word of caution when looking for ways to distribute your content online for SEO purposes: Avoid companies that offer services where you pay them to host your whitepapers or optimized content. These firms can deliver leads in many cases through various mechanisms which they usually control, but the content usually disappears as soon as you stop using their service. Such firms may be a fit for a demand generation program, but I don’t advise using them if your goals include a solid, long-term SEO uplift as you could easily end up in a situation where a significant amount of your content disappears the moment you end the relationship.
Many sites, directories, online media firms and related industry sites are usually open to distributing content via their electronic outlets if it’s of a certain quality, adds value to their readers and meets their editorial guidelines. Just like a traditional PR firm identifies a target media list, the same needs to be done for your online media efforts. Like traditional PR, SEO PR can be hard to measure in some ways, but tends to be easier to measure in other ways especially when it comes to search engine rankings, online press release pickup and traffic generated from the release.
SEO PR can be much more involved than the basic ideas discussed above, but most organizations can get immediate benefits just by combining their existing SEO and PR efforts. To learn more about SEO PR I suggest checking out resources such as Search Engine Watch (http://searchenginewatch.com), SEMPO (http://www.sempo.org), Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seo_pr) or simply searching in your favorite search engine for terms such as “SEO PR,” “Search Engine Public Relations,” “Online Reputation Management,” “Online PR” and related phrases.
Brian Easter
http://www.articlesbase.com/communication-articles/seo-pr-buzzworthy-or-just-hype-55355.html