NIKE WORKERS STRIKE: Crushing Vietnamese Inflation At Root Of Flap

More than 20,000 striking workers have shut down a Nike shoe factory in Vietnam.

They are demanding higher wages that would offset Vietnam’s current 9.2% inflation rate. That comes on the heels of 10% last year.

The average monthly salary at the Taiwanese-owned plant is about $59. That’s about $14 more than the Vietnam’s monthly minimum wage.

The striking Ching Luh plant workers make about 12% of the 75 million pairs of shoes made for Nike in Vietnam each year.

The workers seek a 20% pay rise and better canteen lunches.

Strikes in Vietnam are becoming more common as living costs have surged there.

The Ching Luh plant is in southern Vietnam. It is one of 10 factories in Vietnam that produce footwear for Nike.

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JAPANESE WWII LIBEL SUIT DISMISSED: Oe Vindicated

Kenzaburo Oe - photo source Wikipedia

A Nobel Laureate who documented some of Japan’s World War II atrocities on Okinawa has beaten back a libel charge that stemmed from his work.

Japanese judges threw out a libel case against author Kenzaburo Oe, who was accused of lying about the country's wartime past.

In his book Okinawa Notes, Oe described how Japanese soldiers forced hundreds of civilians on Okinawa to commit suicide as US troops advanced during World War II.

The legal battle pitted two retired military officers - including one who thought he recognized himself in the book - against Japan's best-known living author.

In claiming Oe lied, the officers demanded the book be banned and $200,000 (20 million yen) in damages.

Judge Toshimasa Fukami concluded: "The former Imperial Japanese Army was deeply involved in the mass suicides."

The ruling likely chagrinned Japanese right-wing nationalists who have been locked in an overwrought ideological battle with intellectuals such as Oe, whom they see as unpatriotic.

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ORIGAMI IN SPACE: Paper Re-Entry Vehicle Okayed For Testing

Japanese scientists and origami masters hope to launch a paper airplane from space and learn from its journey back to Earth.

A prototype passed a durability test in a wind tunnel this month and Japan's space agency adopted it Wednesday for feasibility studies.

A successful flight from space by an origami plane could have far-reaching implications for the design of re-entry vehicles or space probes for upper atmospheric exploration, said project leader Shinji Suzuki, a professor at Tokyo University's Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

In a test outside Tokyo in early February, a prototype about 2.8 inches long and 2 inches wide survived Mach 7 speeds and broiling temperatures up to 446 degrees Fahrenheit in a hypersonic wind tunnel.

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SKULL and BONE HEADED

Geez, maybe someone ought to look into President Bush's resume, after all...

A South Korean college is suing Yale University for $50 million claiming Yale made  an administrative error that snowballed into a national scandal.

And, while we should just leave it at that delicious claim, here's the rest of the story.

It roots extend back to 2005 when Dongguk University hired a woman named Shin Jeong-ah as it art history professor after Yale confirmed she had graduated there.

Last year, someone claimed that Shin, who dates a South Korean presidential aide, had never studied at Yale.

At that point, Yale said it had confirmed her degree by mistake.

Now, Dongguk has brought suit claiming the scandal has "irreparably damaged" its reputation.

In the fallout from "Shingate", as the affair has been dubbed by the Korean media, several other leading academics in South Korea were exposed as having lied about their degrees, too.

Shin also became curator of one of the country's most prestigious art exhibitions. She's is now on trial in South Korea for forgery – a charge she denies.

In papers filed in Connecticut District Court, the Seoul university says it has been "labeled as being dishonest and has been held up to disgrace and ridicule".

In the suit, Dongguk say that Yale sent it fax message in September 2005 confirming that Shin had studied there.

When suspicions about her credentials arose, Dongguk contacted Yale again.

But, this time the Yale said Shin had not graduated there.

Then Yale claimed the 2005 fax was forged... but, low and behold, Yale officials now admit the fax had been sent by mistake. 

It apologized... but has yet to open its checkbook.

Hey, I went to Yale too... you probably did, as well... just ask 'em. 

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CHINA SOCIETY: BBC Website Unblocked

People in China are reportedly able to access stories on the BBC News website in full, after years of strict control by the Beijing government.

Dubbed the great firewall of China, the Communist government routinely blocks foreign news sites such as the BBC.

But BBC staff working in China now say they are able to access news stories that would have been blocked before.

However, the firewall remains in place for Chinese language services on the website and for any links in Chinese.

Beijing has never admitted to blocking access to BBC news stories – and there has been no official confirmation that the website has been unblocked.

But Chinese users trying to access pages on the site have almost always been redirected to an error message telling them: "The connection was reset."

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ASIA BUSINESS & INVESTING: April Newsletter Adjunct

This is an adjunct to the April 2008 Asia Business & Investing newsletter.

Still, this Paddy Chayefsky-penned soliloquy from the 1976 movie, Network, is a keeper.

Now, everyone knows the savage satire that is Network... but man oh man... could Chayefsky write movies. 

He wrote the adapted screenplays for Marty and  The Goddess, along with the original screenplays for The Americanization of Emily, Altered States (wrote the book too), The Hospital and one of my top 10 (along with Network), Paint You Wagon, which is doubly great in an altered state.

The man had a fearless soul.

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RED SOX TOKYO: It Is A Big Deal

So, I didn’t believe it's a big deal.

Still, just before game time I started watching the Japanese TV feed of the Boston Red Sox exhibition game against the Hanshin Tigers.

The scene is electric… the World Series Champs are in Tokyo... in baseball crazy Japan.

This is a big deal!

Daisuke Matsuzaka, a mega-star of Japanese baseball; a national hero – and a member of the reigning World Series Champion Red Sox – enjoyed the homecoming like a high school senior in May.

As I watch on the Internet at 11:39 p.m., March 21, here in Boston (12.39 p.m. March 22, in Tokyo), I realize again that bandwidth means we are a total global society... except the Japanese have far better Internet than we, in the US, will ever have.

My friend Hao, in Beijing, whom I took to a Red Sox game last July when he was over, is watching the same feed I am.

On top of that, it's pure Red Sox baseball. Apparently, the Sox do what the Sox do no matter the time zone… they go deep into counts… then batter the opposition’s pitching.

In the bottom of the first, the Tigers’ Yuya Andoh opened the frame by striking out Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youklis.

Then – as the Grateful Dead’s record American Beauty played on my iPod's Bose sound dock – Andoh hung a slider to David Ortiz.

GuBYE – opposite field homer to left… just as Ripple started playing.

Manny Ramirez walked… Mike Lowell singled… JD Drew pounded at 2-2 hanging slider to left center for a 4-0 Sox lead in the first… Brokedown Place is right, for Andoh at this juncture.

A couple innings later I can tell you Andoh can pitch – great curve and change up – and the Hanshin Tigers can flat out pick it on defense.

Good game.

The Tiger's got into the Sox bullpen in the fourth, knocking Clay Buchholz out after three and two thirds innings.

If you’re here you know we’ve each gone global in our own way – tonight I am really lovin’ it… for all the ups and downs I still can’t believe how sweet this continues to be.

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