Post #414,732
10/21/16 4:58:48 PM
10/21/16 5:34:47 PM
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BBC: Wallonia blocks CETA trade deal between Canada and EU
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37731955A trade deal between the EU and Canada is on the brink of collapse because a Belgian region with a population of just 3.6 million opposes it.
An emotional Canadian Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland left the talks in Brussels, saying the EU was "not capable" of signing a trade agreement.
Belgium, the only country blocking accord, needed consent from the regional parliament of Wallonia.
The wide-ranging deal, seven years in the making, was to be signed next week. The Brexit people in the UK should be panicking over things like this... Cheers, Scott.
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Post #414,734
10/21/16 5:30:45 PM
10/21/16 5:30:45 PM
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Reminds me of the protectionist (almost 800%) import tax on rice in Japan.
Punish the many to protect the few. Lots of cultural hand waving used to justify it. Alex
"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."
-- Isaac Asimov
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Post #414,756
10/23/16 1:54:00 AM
10/23/16 1:54:00 AM
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But, remember, California rice is very inferior to Japanese rice . . .
. . which is why every Japanese tourist leaves this state with bags of rice carefully calculated to be 2 rice grains below the legal limit to take to Japan.
Incidentally, if you want the very best California (Japanese style) rice, it's Kokuho Rose (Nomura & Company, Inc, Burlingame, CA 940101). The Korean markets here have vast mounds of the stuff.
Japanese markets are nearly extinct in Southern California - they exist only to provide junk foods Japanese tourists crave - but the Korean markets have all the stuff you need for real Japanese cuisine.
Of course, the Koreans pretty much own Little Tokyo now, as well as almost all the "Japanese" sushi bars here.
Of course, the Japanese do make their presence known. Down in Glendale, a sculpture has been installed in a park to commemorate the Korean "Comfort Women" forced to serve the Japanese during WWII. Japanese have filed multiple lawsuits to have this monument removed as an "insult to the Japanese people", claiming these women were "regular prostitutes". Yeah, regular prostitutes service 26 soldiers a day for a bowl of rice. So far, the reaction from the courts has been "Fuck off and die".
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Post #414,757
10/23/16 5:18:01 AM
10/23/16 5:18:01 AM
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Comfort Women et al.
We had a brouhaha here in Sydney about a memorial to the Comfort Women, too. It was supposed to be installed in a public place but the councillors got cold feet. So a Korean church put it up in on their land.
I've also discovered Japanese restaurants here being run by Koreans. It was an odd moment when I recognised them talking to each other in Korean! :-D
Wade.
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Post #414,768
10/23/16 12:30:08 PM
10/23/16 12:30:08 PM
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Hai! :)
Alex
"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."
-- Isaac Asimov
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Post #414,773
10/23/16 3:28:16 PM
10/23/16 3:28:16 PM
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Yup . . .
. . the Little Nippers are probably regretting having forced the Koreans to cook Japanese as part of the reaculturation program.
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Post #414,824
10/24/16 9:40:16 PM
10/24/16 9:40:16 PM
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Cross-cultural ties still happen, though.
The K-pop marketplace in South Korea is insanely competitive and very saturated - but it turns out the Japanese market is much bigger. Groups that learn Japanese and go perform in Japan can gain immense followings. The largest girl-group concert ever in Japan was a South Korean group!
Wade.
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Post #414,826
10/24/16 11:08:51 PM
10/24/16 11:08:51 PM
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Yea-but, what happens when the Japanes realize . . .
. . the Koreans are winning?
One thing that happened here is that Japanese "experts" became very distressed by the situation in California sushi bars - especially all the non-traditional things they were serving. They came up with a certification scheme that all sushi chefs must be Japanese trained, and certified sushi bars would be inspected to be sure they were only serving properly authorized sushi items in the approved way.
Of course, the California sushi industry laughed them right back onto their boat.
Imagine a "certified" sushi bar. In comes a boat load of Japanese tourists, and the first thing they say is, "We want try California roll we hear so much in Japan".
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Post #414,760
10/23/16 11:04:21 AM
10/23/16 11:04:21 AM
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Panick? This is exactly what they wanted
... for themselves, of course. Now that someone else refuses to rubberstamp what is handed down to them, independent spirit is suddenly a problem. Oh, irony...
The same is actually playing out inside Belgium now. The reason Wallonia can do this is because the separatists (thinly disguised facists) now in charge of Flanders pushed for the treaty powers to be removed from the federal level down to the states. And now that it turns out that sword cuts both ways, the toys are flying out of the pram.
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