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...while much of the structure and essential nature of the system remains largely the same, the substance and process of politics has changed quite a lot. The leadership and the 76 million party members are better educated and their recruitment and promotion is much more meritocratic. Competence is now rewarded. In the past, there existed only two exit paths from officialdom: purges and death. Now mandatory retirement is firmly implemented. Instead of being a totalitarian party dominated by a single leader, the CCP today is an authoritarian party with a collective leadership. The leaders themselves - at least those I have...
...stock up on food and water, keep cell phones charged and gas tanks at least three-quarters full, and exercise caution when driving through "small rivers." It's the sort of travel advisory you'd expect for negotiating an untamed wilderness, not a city of more than 12 million souls. Damage from a deadly 2007 flood cost Jakarta half a billion dollars - ironically, roughly the same cost as an unfinished project designed to prevent it. Nearly 15 miles (24 km) long, the East Flood Canal will one day drain the overflow from Jakarta's rivers into the sea. But when...
...also one of the most flood-prone. One solution is the Dhaka Integrated Flood Control Embankment. Its two main aims are laudable: protect eastern Dhaka from the overflowing Balu river and, with a road running along its top, ease the city's mind-bending traffic jams. But the $350 million project is so ill-conceived it will actually worsen flooding, claims landscape architect Iqbal Habib, one of many eminent Bangladeshi experts opposing it. Much of Dhaka is already ringed by similar embankments. These keep out the rivers (most of the time) but also keep in the rainwater. The city, says...
...recent charges that Florida staffers had falsified voter forms--has been a blow to the group, which works on behalf of low- and middle-income families. The U.S. Census Bureau dropped ACORN as a partner in the 2010 population count, and the Senate voted to strip it of $1.6 million in grants. ACORN said it will stop advising new clients pending an independent review...
...rare move, a federal judge threw out a proposed $33 million settlement between the Securities and Exchange Commission and Bank of America stemming from the company's January takeover of Merrill Lynch. The SEC had sued the bank over $3.6 billion in undisclosed bonuses paid to Merrill staff before the deal. Judge Jed Rakoff accused bankers and regulators of having a "cynical relationship" that penalizes shareholders rather than bank executives...