W RLD
HILARIOUS HEADLINES
“We should have reacted and realized that excluding women from the Saudi Arabian version of the catalog is in conflict with the IKEA Group values.” THE INVISIBLE WOMAN
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October 5, 2012 FRIDAY
NETANYAHU’S RED LINE
NO HOLES IN SWISS COW COMMUNICATION
When Swiss farmer Christian Oesch gets a text message these days, it’s probably from one of his cows. Oesch is part of an experimental operation that implants heat sensors into cows to let farmers know when the animal comes into heat. When the device is triggered, an SMS is sent to Oesch’s smartphone.
FINANCIALLY
FALTERING
Euro threatened by faltering Spanish economy
RACHEL VACHON L&T/FE AT URE S C O-ED I TO R
Concernisspreadingthroughouttheeurozone as Spain’s economy worsens and its financial crisis threatens the value of the euro. With unemployment rates reaching a record 25 percent, borrowing costs increasing and public workers’ salaries effectually frozen for the third straight year, Spain is on the brink of needing a bailout, according to CNN. And the unstable economy continues to deteriorate as Spain’s current situation dissuades investors from lending, Reuters reported. Spain, the fourth largest economy in the eurozone after Germany, France and Italy, comprises 11 percent of the currency bloc’s gross domestic product (GDP), according to CNN. To lend some perspective, CNN reported that Greece, Portugal and Ireland, three countries who have already received a bailout, together constitute only six percent of the bloc’s economy. Growing tensions over austerity measures and the financial crisis have led to public displays and protests, according to al-Jazeera. Also adding to the problem, are regional pressures for independent region, Catalonia, to separate from the government. Each of these factors continue to intensify the current state of affairs and threaten efforts to save Spain, according to CNN. Although the question of Spain’s future is looming in many minds, Spain would not be the only affected party if it failed. Europe and even the global economy would potentially be impacted due to continually rising debt and a declining GDP, CNN reported. As a result, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has started overseeing the economic conditions of various European countries, according to Reuters. “We are very close to a full blown systemic crisis of the euro area and it is the IMF’s duty to make sure the situation is stabilized,” said Domenico Lombardi, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, in an analysis article from Reuters. Under the IMF’s monitoring, solutions are sought for countries that desperately need help, despite their reluctance to have the IMF looking into their affairs. Additionally, the IMF lacks monetary assistance for a country as large as Spain. Banks have also contributed to the financial crisis in the eurozone through the purchasing of government debt during more prosperous times, according to The Associated Press.
WHO STOLE THOSE ISLANDS? What you didn’t know about China’s territory dispute with Japan, out in the open and under the microscope.
KARI TRAVIS WORLD EDITOR
KISS THOSE HUGGIES GOODBYE A world diaper shortage may be the result of an explosion at a Japanese chemical plant, according to Reuters. The plant, which is one of the world’s largest producers of acrylic acid, a main ingredient in diapers, suffered a chemical tank explosion. Such an unfortunate event is likely to spike diaper production costs.
BEHIND THE TIMES
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu displays his red line incentive at the U.N. General Assembly.
OLIVIA JESSUP CONTRIBUTOR
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made waves Since Israel’s founding in 1948, America has supported at the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 27 when he held Israel with both economic and security assistance, up a picture of a cartoon-like bomb and drew a red line, according to the U.S. Department of State. However, calling for world action against Iran’s developing nuclear recent data indicates that relations between America program, according to The Associated Press. and Israel are at an all time low, according to the Journal Netanyahu’s red line marks the point of successful of Turkish Weekly. Netanyahu and President Obama have development of Iranian nuclear technology, right under not gotten along well in the past, and the most current where Iran would have enough enriched uranium for a events at the U.N. General Assembly have slowly changed nuclear bomb. their standing with each other. Iran’s President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, noted the Both Obama and Netanyahu appear to have come Israeli threat when he took the stage to give a speech at away from the U.N. General Assembly with what they the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 26. hoped for, according to Reuters. Obama now has the “Continued threat by the uncivilized Zionists to resort assurance that Israel will not attack Iran until after to military action against our great nation is a clear the elections, and Netanyahu has a commitment from example of this bitter reality,” Ahmadinejad said in his America that it will do what it takes to prevent Iran from speech. “A state of mistrust has cast its shadow on the developing nuclear arms. international relations, while there is no trusted or just Still, America’s red line is not parallel with Israel’s. authority to help resolve world conflicts.” Both countries are in agreement that Iran should not go Ahmadinejad made it clear in a CNN interview that he nuclear, but they have different perspectives on modes is not afraid to retaliate should Israel attack. of prevention, according to CNN. “The response of Iran is quite clear, I don’t need to “The Israelis are telling the United States, ‘look, the red explain that,” he said. “Any nation has the right and will line is when the Iranians get the technological capability indeed defend herself.” to build a bomb, we then feel we have to attack,’” said CNN Senior Political Analyst David Gergen. “Previously the The threat of Iranian nuclear empowerment still exists at the root of the conflict. Netanyahu told the U.N. Iran United States government has been telling Israel, ‘no, the would have enough uranium for a bomb by next spring red line should be when they actually get it.’ From the or summer, roughly 10 months, according to a CBS news Israeli point of view, that’s way too late.” America is still holding out for a diplomatic resolution report. Netanyahu has openly said that Iran must be to this conflict. According to a CNN Facebook survey, stopped before then. His red line is a part of this. “I believe that faced with a clear red line, Iran will back 76.77 percent of Americans think the country should respond to Iran with diplomacy and sanctions, 15.77 down,” Netanyahu said in a CNN report. After his demonstration last Thursday, Netanyahu’s red percent want military force and 7.46 percent say they think the U.S. should do nothing. line is now literal.
AROUND THE WORLD Scotland The Scottish Cromarty dialect died, along with its last native speaker, on yesterday in a remote fishing town on the Black Isle, according to The Associated Press.
Russia 2018 World Cup host Russia recently revealed that it will spend a budget of 600 billion roubles ($19 billion) on buildings and renovations for the event, according to the BBC.
Brazil A major power outage swept five Brazilian states on yesterday due to a fire that forced the shutMiddle East down of an electrical operation, according to The Associated Turkey began to enforce harsher Press. retaliation strikes on a Syrian border town as of yesterday, according to Reuters. Several Syrian soldiers were killed in the Turkish parliament-approved military action.
THE INVISIBLE WOMAN Saudi Arabian IKEA ads cut women from its photos in a display that reinforced the country’s clamp on equality.
CLAIRE HADLEY W O RL D STAF F WRI T E R
In most countries, women demand equality and equal representation. But in a recent IKEA catalog published in the Middle East, women are all but nonexistent. Swedish furniture giant IKEA apologized Monday for removing women from some of the photos in catalogs shipped to Saudi Arabia. Comparing the Saudi catalog to a standard version of the catalog shows that several women photographed in the standard version are missing from the Saudi version. Otherwise, the photos appear identical.
Japan and China are having a figurative fist fight. And it’s all about eight little islands in the East China Sea. You mi g ht ’ve n oti c ed something about it while checking your Twitter. The situation is a tension-filled territorial dispute, complete with rowdy and sometimes violent protests. (Most of them are made up of Chin ese citizens protesting Japan, the country that recently tried to sell the territory in question to Tokyo’s governor.) But the question at the bottom of it all remains, why is China so desperate to hang onto a freckled portion of uninhabited isles? Let’s take a row around the issue, and the islands, to find out. On one side of the landmarker, Japan claims it played fair before declaring the islands up for grabs. Repor ts from Japan ese officials say that the country kept an eye on the area for a decade before staking its claim on the territory in January 1895. The Diaoyu islands, then called Ryukyu, became Japan’s digs. Then came a little complication in the form of World War II. As history has it, Japan wasn’t a very friendly player in that affair and was forced to relinquish possession of the islands under the Treaty of San Francisco. The U.S. kept the territory until 1971, when it gave the islands back to their original owner. Japan says China didn’t throw a fit about the exchange. But on the other side of the landmarker, China claims the Japanese version of the story is just a little fishy. According to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the islands go way back in ancient Chinese history. The story is that they served as some important fishing grounds. See how this situation might serve up a stench under China’s nose? O k ay, s o w e’v e s a i l e d partway around the situation’s history, but we haven’t yet discovered why these islands are the object of so much envy. Certainly, Japan and China don’t need the islands to remain as the seafood center
from years past. Of course not. However, like most international relations di sput es, thi s par ticular political brawl can be directly linked to a competition over valuable energy resources. In other words, the D iaoyu islands are sitting atop some oil. Correction. Lots and lots of oil. According to statistics from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the East China Sea region (the body of water adjacent to the Diaoyu islands) contains an oil deposit of s o m e w h e r e b e tw e e n 6 0 million and 100 million barrels. A Chinese estimate is even more generous, projecting a total untapped reserve of 213 billion barrels, according to a CNN report. If this number is correct, it would be the largest oil reserve in the world outside Saudi Arabia. And if that alon e i sn’t enough to cause China to clamp its fist around the region, the area also contains massive reserves of natural gas. What makes the situation even less convenient for China is its ever expanding energy demand due to a population that keeps . . . well, populating, according to an in-depth report from the BBC. All in all, Japan has created a very inconvenient situation for the Chinese government. Only time will tell who comes out the top fighter in this land battle, but for now it’s an increasing force of turmoil that may assist in continuing to push Asia’s trade economy toward yet another crash on the rocks, according to CNN. There you have it. Monetary m o t iv a t i o n s m a ke f o r a conf lict that has the two countries pulling no punches over some pebbly little islands in the East China Sea. And as the issue continues to make waves, the tide may begin to affect the shores of other global markets. So here’s just one word of advice. Keep an eye on the issue as it pops up in your news feed, because behind this headline is a whole lot of residual, global effect that may very well crash in on an economy near you.
Hong Kong An investigation into the Oct. 1 boating collision that killed 38 people continues as the country mourns the victims of the accident, according to the BBC.
was featured in other company catalogs, according to The Washington Post. “As a producer of the catalog, we regret the current situation,” Ylva Magnusson, spokeswoman for IKEA Group told The Wall Street Journal. “We should have reacted and realized that excluding women from the Saudi Arabian version of the catalog is in conflict with the IKEA Group values.” A separate branch of IKEA, IKEA Group, makes the Photograph by IKEA catalogs. They said in a statement that its values “support the Shown far right, IKEA erased a woman from a photo in its catalogue. fundamental human rights of all people.” IKEA Saudi Arabia, it said, is run by a franchisee outside One picture shows a family getting ready for bed, with the IKEA Group. a young boy brushing his teeth in the bathroom with his CNN reported that the news nearly made Sweden’s Trade mother, father and younger sibling. In the Saudi version, Minister Ewa Bjorling fall off her chair and want to throw one. however, the modest, pajama-clad woman standing next to “I regret that there is still such a long way to go when it the boy is missing. comes to gender equality in Saudi Arabia, which these Another picture of five women dining has been removed images clearly show, ” she told CNN. altogether. Women do not appear frequently in Saudi advertising but IKEA also removed the image of a female designer who are occasionally shown on Saudi-owned TV channels. Even
then, women are portrayed in long dresses, long sleeves and head coverings. Censors black out many parts of a woman’s body, including arms, legs and chest in imported magazines, according to CNN. “We’re deeply sorry for what has happened,” said Ulrika Englesson Sandman, an IKEA representative. She said the omissions were completely needless, since Saudi Arabia doesn’t prohibit women from being depicted in marketing material. “It’s impossible to retouch women out of reality,” Swedish Minister of Trade Ewa Björling told the Swedish newspaper Metro, the first paper to cover the story. “These images are yet another regrettable example that shows we have a long road ahead when it comes to gender equality in Saudi Arabia.” Saudi Arabia is often criticized for treatment of women that includes travel restrictions and requirement of a male guardian’s permission to study or work. Women continue to be denied driver’s licenses but were given voting rights last year, reported ABC News.