Monday, January 21, 2008

Conference promotes global citizenship

By Shenandoah Sowash
For the Wausau Daily Herald

STEVENS POINT -- As America continues to struggle with overseas outsourcing and increasing global competition, professors at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point are working to arm graduates with the skills needed to become global citizens.

Robert McGough, a senior education specialist, researcher and program manager with the World Bank, encourages professors to take seriously the need to give students a global education.

"Some see globalization as a destructive influence, as a bad thing ... at this time in history, globalization is here to stay, and we must learn to live with it," McGough told instructors Thursday during the 12th annual UWSP Teaching Conference, "Teaching with a Global Perspective: Preparing Students to be Global Citizens."

Globalization affects everyone, even the World Bank, which now outsources a majority of its accounting work to New Delhi, McGough said.

"Countries such as India and China are destined to be superpowers, or at least major players," McGough said.

Drawing on the need for sustainability, economic development and self-sufficiency, McGough offered a strong case for educating college students in the ways of the world.

"Over time, you'll find more college graduates going overseas for work. ... These other countries are going to be major sources of employment," McGough said.

Organized by the Office of Academic Affairs, the one-day conference featured workshops on cross-cultural teaching and learning, internationalizing the curriculum, developing interdisciplinary approaches to global education, incorporating non-Western themes in the classroom and developing global citizenship through local service-learning activities.

"Faculty have left this conference in the past and rewritten their entire syllabi," said David Ozsvath, a geology professor.

Maureen Giblin of the Tutoring Learning Center asked McGough what skills recent graduates are missing.

"Language is one aspect most graduates don't have," he said. "American graduates are often naive and immature; they have an inability to understand how to communicate."

Institutions of higher education have a responsibility to teach students to be globally aware, McGough said.

"The United States has had a good run, using 50 percent of the world's resources. But the world won't let us do that anymore," McGough said.

UN Wants Final Word on Rearing Your Kids

American Free Press
Monday January 21, 2008

While pressing senators to reject the Law of the Sea Treaty, or LOST, patriots should also urge rejection of another “convention” sent to the chamber by Bilderberg President Bill Clinton that has been lurking since 1995. If the Senate ratifies the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the world body, not parents, will decide how to rear children.

The Senate is likely to get a significant makeover in the 2008 election. If your senators are incumbents with a good, America-first record, contact them and warn them of these two treaties. If one or both are new boys, give the man in-depth education. Even senators who are normally on good behavior can cast odd votes. For example, the late Sen. William Proxmire (D-Wis.) was a strong patriot and pork-fighter. But, unexplainably, he advocated ratification of the UN’s so-called “genocide treaty.”

If the Senate ratifies Rights of the Child, the state. acting under UN direction, will decide what your children read, who they associate with, what discipline (if any) can be imposed and whether or not they can be home schooled (home-schooled children perform significantly better academically than their peers in public schools).

But, regardless of merit or lack thereof, the UN should have no role in rearing America’s children. For that matter, Congress has no role in state school systems under the 10th Amendment.

Random breath tests planned for motorists

David Millward
London Telegraph
Monday January 21, 2008

Motorists face being subjected to random breath-testing as part of the biggest shake-up of drink-drive laws since the introduction of the breathalyser 40 years ago, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

Ministers are convinced that tougher enforcement is the key to cutting the number of alcohol-related road deaths. Their plans for random testing will be unveiled within weeks.

Police can currently carry out a breath test only if a motorist has been driving erratically, been involved in an accident or committed another offence while driving, such as having a faulty tail light or speeding.

The proposed changes would allow breath tests to be carried out at any time, with roadside checkpoints being set up at points where police were confident they could catch lawbreakers.

Ministers have previously rejected random breath-testing but it is understood that there was a change of heart when the results of the latest Christmas campaign against drink-driving were revealed.

These showed that while the number of tests carried out in England and Wales rose six per cent, the number of drivers who failed fell to 7,800 - down from 9,700 in 2006.

Ministers believe that the results prove that increasing the number of tests acts as a deterrent.

Full article here.

What Really Happened in the Taiwan Strait?

Dennis Behreandt
JBS
Monday January 21, 2008

A Pacific Fleet spokesman has denied reports that the carrier Kitty Hawk was in a standoff with the Chinese Navy in November.

Follow this link to the original source: "No U.S.-Chinese warship standoff in Taiwan Strait: U.S. official"

Earlier stories (covered here) in the media this week, stemming from a Taiwanese source utilized by the Navy Times, reported that the U.S. aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk and the ships of her battle group had a 28-hour-long standoff with Chinese Navy ships in the Strait of Taiwan in November.

That story is now being denied by the U.S. Pacific Fleet. According to Taiwan Headlines, fleet spokesman Mark Matsunaga indicated that "there were no incidents when the Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier battle group navigated through the Taiwan Strait last November."

The mainland Chinese press, however, is referring to the Kitty Hawk's transit through the Strait as an "incident." According to United Press International, the subject was brought up by Chinese reporters during a briefing with U.S. admiral Timothy Keating in Beijing on Tuesday this week.

According to that report:

The admiral had a sharp but polite exchange with CCTV [China's national TV station] over what was termed the "Kitty Hawk incident." The reporter wondered why the United States decided to have the carrier cross through the Taiwan Strait last year without first seeking permission from China, after being denied a Thanksgiving port call in Hong Kong by the Chinese authorities.

"We don't need China's permission to go through the Taiwan Strait, it is international waters," Keating said. He said the U.S. Navy "will exercise our free right of passage whenever and wherever we choose, as we have done repeatedly in the past, and will do in the future.
Whatever it was that really occurred in the Taiwan Strait, it further raised tensions with China. Chinese press agency "Xinhua asked the admiral what the United States would do if war breaks out across the Taiwan Strait in 2008." Keating responded that the goal of the U.S. "is to make sure that the situation you describe does not happen." But when asked by the Communist Party affiliated Global Times about the Pacific Command's evaluation of People's Liberation Army "strategic doctrine," Keating replied with what might be termed a veiled threat.

"The Chinese profess to want to protect the things that are theirs. Included in that list, I am assuming, are the sea lines of communications that provide for the flow of commerce and energy sources," Keating said.

Saber rattling aside, the "Kitty Hawk incident" illustrates the tenuous nature of our relationship with China. While the Bush administration has focused on the Middle East and Iran, that is a short-term problem. The real long-term foreign policy problem facing the nation is managing our relationship with the growing regional and future superpower that is China. Hopefully, the next administration will do a better job of managing that relationship than either the Clinton or Bush administrations have done.

Republicans: FISA authority in Constitution

Bill Gertz
Washington TImes
Monday January 21, 2008

Authority to conduct warrantless electronic surveillance comes from the Constitution and is vital to stopping foreign terrorist attacks and spies, says a Republican staff assessment of the revised Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

"There is nothing new or aggressive about relying on Article II authority in the context of foreign intelligence surveillance," stated the assessment produced by the office of Sen. Christopher S. Bond, Missouri Republican and vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

The 13-page assessment counters Democrats and other critics of the Terrorist Surveillance Program (TSP) who argued during a Senate filibuster of the legislation last month that electronic spying is illegal, began before the September 11 attacks, and that the program spied improperly on domestic telephone and electronic communications.

"There is no evidence to substantiate claims about warrantless spying on Americans prior to the 9/11 terrorist attacks," the report stated. "Nor is there any evidence to substantiate the claim that the TSP covered domestic calls between friends, neighbors and loved ones. As the president has stated, the TSP involved the collection of international calls involving members of al Qaeda."

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, said during the floor debate last month that the surveillance program spied on innocent Americans. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, Connecticut Democrat, also said then that any surveillance without a court order undermines "our democratic society."

But the report stated that "warrantless surveillance for foreign intelligence collection has been an integral part of our nation's foreign intelligence gathering. During World War II, our warrantless surveillance of the German and Japanese militaries and the breaking of their codes preserved our democracy."

The Senate is expected to take up legislation as early as tomorrow on extending legislation governing electronic surveillance aimed at stopping foreign terrorists and spies. A law passed in August, the Protect America Act, revised the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act procedures to better deal with modern communications and technology. That law will expire at the end of this month.

"Congress will have only eight days to pass a fix before our foreign intelligence surveillance law expires," Mr. Bond, ranking member of the Senate intelligence committee, told The Washington Times. "To continue to stall legislation needed to help our intelligence community prevent attacks and protect American lives is irresponsible."

Full article here.