Shanghai Town Hall

Tomorrow, November 16, President Obama will have a town hall meeting with Chinese youth in Shanghai, China. Holding the event in Shanghai is symbolic as the Shanghai Communique was announced here and helped pave the way for normalization and the first 30 years of formal diplomatic relations.

At the meeting, the President will interact with young Chinese and discuss the relationship between our two countries in the years ahead.  Attendees of the event will come from several Universities in the Shanghai area. During this event, the President will take questions from the live audience, as well as from the online Chinese community. The online community in China has been submitting questions on a variety of websites including Xinhuanet, Sohu and the U.S. Embassy in Beijing’s website.

The Town Hall will be livestreamed on Whitehouse.gov/live. You can also join us on the official White House page on Facebook or the Embassy’s website to view and participate in a live discussion during the event.

The event is planned to start Monday at 12:45pm local time in Shanghai which means late Sunday night in Washington, DC at 11:45pm EST.

Woods leaves with Australia wanting more

MELBOURNE — Australian sports fans were still buzzing on Monday and pining for more of Tiger Woods after the world’s best golfer’s masterclass performance to win the Australian Masters at Kingston Heath.

The 14-time major winner left the door open for a possible return next year to defend his Masters title after a week of unprecedented scenes for Australian golf.

The Masters moves to the nearby Victoria Golf Club next year and tournament officials along with the Victorian state government are likely to try and entice him back again after paying a reported three million US dollar fee for this year’s appearance.

Press reports on Monday speculated that the rich World Golf Championship tournament in Shanghai next November may help get Woods back to Melbourne to play in the Masters again.

Woods drew a huge roar from the crowd around the 18th green at Sunday’s Masters title presentation when he was asked if he would return to defend the title.

“I would love to,” he said, while apologising for taking so long — 11 years — to come back to Australia.

“I’ve had a great time… this has been phenomenal,” Woods said. “I’m sorry it took me so long to get back, I promise it won’t be as long (next time).”

Woods said he would decide on his 2010 playing schedule after his last tournament of the year at the Chevron World Challenge at Thousand Oaks, California, from December 3-6.

“I haven’t looked at next year’s tournament schedule yet, I will do that after the Chevron and get an idea of what I need to do for the entire year,” he said.

In any event Woods, 33, is expected to come to Royal Melbourne with the American team for the 2011 President’s Cup.

IMG, the Australian Masters’ owner, has an agreement with the Victorian state government to have three of the top 25 players in the world in the event’s field, with press reports saying a player like American world number two Phil Mickelson could also be a target.

Woods claimed victory in the European Tour co-sanctioned tournament with a closing round of four-under 68 to finish the 72 holes at 14-under 274.

He beat Australian Greg Chalmers by two shots with Frenchman Francois Delamontagne and American Jason Dufner another two shots away in joint third.

The Australian Masters was a spectacular success with a total of 95,000 fans over the four days and a huge economic fillip for the sports-obsessed city.

Victorian Premier John Brumby told reporters the returns would far outweigh the outlays, adding that his government’s estimated economic benefits of 19 million dollars (17.7 million US) had been conservative.

City hotels reported full occupancy throughout the tournament and television ratings were well above what they had been in the previous years.

Another big attraction in luring Woods back Down Under is the reputation of Melbourne’s famed sandbelt golf courses.

“All the guys have raved about this golf course, and I understand why,” he said. “I really enjoy all the sandbelt courses, because it brings back shot-making and it’s something that we don’t see enough of in the United States.”

The victory also replicated the success of compatriots Gene Littler and Mark O’Meara at the Australian Masters and also meant Woods had savoured success on five of the six continents, something he clearly relished.

“I have never won down here, so now I have won on every continent, which is nice,” Woods said before correcting himself.

“Except for Antarctica. To have won on every playable continent is something I have always wanted to do and now I have done that.”

TOKYO – President Barack Obama declared Saturday that an era of American disengagement in the globe’s fastest-growing region is over and warned that the U.S. and its Asian partners “will not be cowed” by North Korea’s continued defiance over its nuclear weapons and other provocations.

Obama also said a robust China should be welcomed, not feared, as a powerful partner on urgent challenges. Addressing Americans’ worries about the economic and security threat from China’s rising might and Asians’ skepticism about U.S leadership, the president said: “We welcome China’s efforts to play a greater role on the world stage, a role in which their growing economy is joined by growing responsibility.”

In a 40-minute speech, Obama offered incentives for North Korea to abandon the nuclear weapons it is believed to already have and the production program it continues in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions. He outlined a possible future of economic opportunity and greater global greater respect, saying, “this respect cannot be earned through belligerence.”

“It should be clear where that path leads,” Obama said. “We will continue to send a clear message through our actions, and not just our words: North Korea’s refusal to meet its international obligations will lead only to less security, not more.”

More broadly, the president’s address to 1,500 prominent Japanese in a soaring downtown Tokyo concert hall was intended to showcase a United States that, under Obama’s leadership, seeks deeper engagement in Asia. It was the fifth major foreign address of his 10-month presidency. He reached out to locals through several personal notes that delighted his audience, including calling himself “America’s first Pacific president,” referring to his boyhood time in Indonesia and travels in Asia, and saluting the residents of Obama, Japan.

Acknowledging Asia’s growing power and the perceptions here of America’s parallel decline, Obama aides had said the chief aim for his eight-day trip through Asia wasn’t so much to bring home specific “deliverables” but to convincingly press the point that the U.S. very much is in the Asian game.

Obama said Washington would work hard to strengthen alliances in Asia, such as with Japan and South Korea, build on newer ones with nations like China and Indonesia, and increase its participation with a burgeoning alphabet soup of Asian multilateral organizations. The involvement, the president said, is not just academic for Americans. It affects everyday, top-priority issues such as jobs, a cleaner environment and preventing dangerous weapons proliferation, he said.

“I want every American to know that we have a stake in the future of this region, because what happens here has a direct effect on our lives at home,” Obama said. “The fortunes of America and the Asia Pacific have become more closely linked than ever before.”

Obama also sounded free-trade notes sure to be welcome in Asia, where nations are rapidly seeking agreements with each other.

He said the U.S. would seek to join a trans-Pacific free-trade area, formed in 2006 between Chile, New Zealand, Singapore and Brunei. Vietnam and Australia are also said to be keen to join it.

The so-called Trans-Pacific Partnership is seen as a starting point for a possible regional free trade area comprising 21 countries of Asia-Pacific. Obama’s announcement gives the proposal a boost.

On China, Obama called for harnessing China’s clout to make progress on shared interests like weapons proliferation, a more solid global economy and climate agreements.

“In an interconnected world, power does not need to be a zero-sum game, and nations need not fear the success of another,” he said.

He also said the United States “will never waver in speaking up for the fundamental values that we hold dear.” And yet, clearly hoping to avoid overly irritating Beijing, Obama named none of the many and serious specific human rights concerns with respect to China, including Tibet, where authorities have suppressed religious freedom and national aspirations. Except for the brutal regime in Myanmar, he spoke only generally about human rights and democratic values.

“Indigenous cultures and economic growth have not been stymied by respect for human rights, they have been strengthened by it,” the president said. “Supporting human rights provides lasting security that cannot be purchased in any other way.”

Obama’s remarks came near the start of a trip presenting him with risks at every stop.

In Japan, the relationship with the U.S. is on newly delicate footing after a change in leadership in Tokyo that has the Japanese moving toward greater independence from Washington and closer ties with the rest of Asia. Saturday night, Obama arrives in Singapore, where he is to join a larger meeting that includes the leader of a brutal regime in Myanmar, also known as Burma. He is the first U.S. president to make such close contact.

Then he flies to China, where relations with the U.S. are bedeviled by Beijing’s global ambitions, as well as numerous issues including trade, currency, Taiwan, human rights and climate change. Obama ends his trip on an easier note in South Korea, an increasingly reliable U.S. ally.

Obama made Tokyo the venue for his speech, a symbolically important choice that displayed respect for Japan’s long history as the U.S.’ chief ally in Asia and one of the region’s foremost democracies.

After his speech, Obama had lunch with Japan’s Emperor Akihito and his wife, Empress Michiko, bowing deeply as they welcomed him to the graceful grounds of the Imperial Palace in the heart of the bustling city.

Obama’s speech won praise from several Asian analysts.

Shen Dingli, director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, welcomed the remarks about not seeing China as a threat.

“He did not want to go to Asia to renew differences,” Shen said. “The differences are clear, everybody knows them. He wants to make clear we share some fundamental values.”

Some in Taiwan, which has had tense relations with China for decades, were less impressed.

“His stressing engagement with China will raise the question of what priority the U.S. gives to its security treaty with Japan,” said Lo Chih-cheng, a political science professor at Taipei’s Soochow University.

–

Associated Press writers Charles Hutzler, Vijay Joshi and Eric Talmadge contributed to this report

The two-time Hong Kong champion conceded a bogey on his opening hole Saturday, but recovered quickly with four straight birdies on the front nine and another four on the back nine, bringing his overall score to 10-under 200.

Jimenez said he enjoyed playing on the relatively short course at the 6,702-yard Hong Kong Golf Club lay out.

“It’s a golf course where you don’t need to be banging the ball to win the tournament or to play well,” Jimenez said.

Eight-time European Tour Order of Merit winner Colin Montgomerie shot a 3-under 70 to move up to 5-under overall.

Learning Golf Basics Is As Easy As Shouting Fore!

For any number of people, on any golf course, a game of golf is no more than striking a number of golf balls with whatever club and eventually stopping to drink, eat, and exaggerate about our game. I am very sure these people are enjoying the sport without ever learning any golf basics.

That is one group of golfer. There is another. The golfer that lives the game knows that it is impossible to really enjoy it unless you learn the basics. In business is may be: location, location, location but in golf basics it is practice, practice, practice.

Let us approach the game first by gathering all the gear. A big part of that game is the game in your head and patience. Watch a pro match and see the quite, talent and grace exhibited by the players. This effortless power takes the same amount of exertion as any other sport. The beginner learning golf basics must be patient and learn to take their time to line up each shot. They will learn to look ahead to the next hole and to the point of knowing what club is their best bet for that challenge.

In learning golf basics you will learn the general rules of the game itself, as well as the basic terminology. If for no other reason you learn the lingo to keep from being embarrassed while golfing with friends or relatives. Just some basic terms will do fine don’t get crazy.

OK now here we are. We have studied golf basics and it’s time to pick up that club and swing it. The golf swing is not natural to the beginner. Don’t feel bad if when you first pick up a club you don’t know how to hold it or use it. What you have to do now is read a good instruction book and get out on the range. While at the range you can pick up pointers from the club pro or more experienced golfers. The best course of action is to get some good hands on instruction from a certified instructor.

Take the sport on and enjoy every swing and remember learning golf basics are as easy as shouting fore!

USGA reverses TaylorMade stance

Obama sets off for Asia

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama left for Asia on Thursday with the US economy, jobs and a huge trade deficit with China looming large on his agenda.

Global climate change, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and Iranian nuclear disputes and Obama’s review of his Afghanistan strategy are also major topics for his talks with the Chinese and other officials on the first trip to Asia of his presidency.

“I will be meeting with leaders abroad to discuss a strategy for growth that is both balanced and broadly shared,” Obama said at the White House before departing for Japan, underlining the economic focus of his week-long trip.

“It is a strategy in which Asia and Pacific markets are open to our exports and one in which prosperity around the world is no longer as dependent on American consumption and borrowing but rather on American innovation and products.”

In an interview with Reuters this week, Obama described China as a “vital partner, as well as a competitor.”

Obama’s nine-day tour includes a stop in Singapore for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, followed by visits to Shanghai, Beijing and Seoul.

Obama said he would talk to the Chinese about revaluing their currency, the yuan, as well as encouraging Chinese consumers to spend more and opening Chinese markets further to US goods.

With the US unemployment rate now at 10.2 percent, the Obama administration hopes an emphasis on building export opportunities will play well at home.

Giving Obama a possible boost ahead of the trip, China signaled on Wednesday it might allow appreciation of the yuan, saying it would consider major currencies — not just the dollar — in guiding the exchange rate.

Soaring US budget deficits have weakened the dollar because of US borrowing to meet the day-to-day spending needs of the United States. The dollar has declined against a basket of major currencies since mid-February.

US manufacturers have long complained that Beijing artificially holds down the yuan’s value to make Chinese exports cheaper and US goods more costly for China.

But Obama may face some pushback from China and other countries who worry that Washington’s drive for economic cooperation with Asia may be too one-sided.

Beijing is upset over US moves to slap tariffs on Chinese tires and steel pipes, while South Korea and other countries harbor doubts over whether Obama, elected with strong labor union support, is committed enough to a free-trade agenda.

The Asia tour also comes as Obama juggles many pressing domestic issues, including his drive to pass healthcare reform and climate change legislation, and nears the final stages of a decision on whether to send more US troops in Afghanistan.

SEEKING DEEPER TIES

One of Obama’s main messages will be a promise to put a high priority on engagement with the dynamic Asia-Pacific region, an area of the world where he has personal connections, having grown up in Hawaii and Indonesia.

“The president is the first president of the United States really with an Asia-Pacific orientation,” said Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser for strategic communications. “He understands that the future of our prosperity and our security is very much tied to this part of the world.”

Forging an effective working relationship with Beijing will be crucial to any effort to deepen US engagement in Asia.

“I certainly think this administration differs from its predecessors in its apparent recognition of the ascendancy of China and the ascendancy of Asia,” said David Rothkopf, a business consultant and former US official.

The Obama administration’s approach toward China, known as “Strategic Reassurance,” builds on a Bush administration effort to ease mistrust between Washington and Beijing and encourage China to become a responsible stakeholder in global affairs.

Underscoring the importance placed on the three-day China visit, Obama’s itinerary includes a formal state dinner, a series of meetings with President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao and a dialogue in Shanghai with Chinese youth.

Japan will be another crucial leg of Obama’s trip. Some in Tokyo and in Washington worry about a drift in relations between the two staunch allies.

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama campaigned on a pledge to set a more independent course from Washington and frictions have arisen over plans to relocate the US military base on Japan’s Okinawa island.

Obama plans to make a major speech in Tokyo on Saturday in which he will discuss his view of US engagement in Asia and reaffirm the strength of the US-Japan alliance.

Wen meets Japanese war orphans revisiting China

BEIJING: In cold weather, 45 Japanese war orphans revisiting China to thank their Chinese foster families received a warm welcome in Beijing.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao met them, mostly in their seventies, in the Zhongnanhai compound Wednesday.

Premier Wen invited the orphans to Zhongnanhai for talks and also accompanied them on a visit to the former residence and office of the late Premier Zhou Enlai inside the compound, who were much concerned about the war orphanage issue.

The Japanese orphans were those who had been left behind by their parents after the eight-year Japanese Aggression War against China. More than 2,800 Japanese orphans were adopted by the Chinese people and most of them went back to Japan in the 1980s and 1990s after normalization of bilateral ties.

The thanksgiving gathering is organized to express the war orphans’ gratitude to their foster families, but the visit is, to some extent, an emotional one as many of their foster parents have died.

“We care about the living conditions of the orphans after they returned back to Japan, and I believe that everybody will live a happy and stable life though their own efforts and by support from the Japanese government and all walks of life,” said Wen in talks with the delegation.

Wen said that it was a handful of militarists who were responsible for that war of aggression, and the Japanese people were also victims of the war.

“The Chinese people, despite their own sufferings caused by the war, saved the lives of the orphans and brought them up instead of pouring their hatred on the Japanese people,” said Wen.

Wen said the war orphans will feel again the love given by their foster parents and the deep friendship between the Chinese and Japanese people during their visit in China.

The war orphans have been active in promoting Japan-China friendship since they returned back to Japan. They raised funds to build a primary school named China-Japan Friendship Hope School in the aftermath of the Sichuan earthquake last year, said Wen.

CALL FOR FRIENDSHIP

History tells us that “peace between China and Japan leads to mutual benefits, and rivalry is damaging to both”, said Wen.

China-Japan friendship confirms to the fundamental interests of the two peoples and to develop friendly cooperation is of great significance to Asia, the world as well as the two countries, Wen said.

Wen said the two nations should take history as a mirror and look forward to the future in their relations. They should, in the spirit of the four political documents between China and Japan, coexist peacefully, engage in mutually beneficial cooperation, seek common development and lasting friendship, making due contributions to Asian and World peace, stability and prosperity.

Members of the delegation said although they now live in Japan, they still miss their family members and hometowns in China. They are very excited about this trip and would like to continue to work for lasting friendship between the two peoples.

Peasant Clothing
Peasant men wore stockings or tunics, while women wore long gowns with sleeveless tunics and wimples to cover their hair. Sheepskin cloaks and woolen hats and mittens were worn in winter for protection from the cold and rain. Leather boots were covered with wooden patens to keep the feet dry. The outer clothes were almost never laundered, but the linen underwear was regularly washed. The smell of wood smoke that permeated the clothing seemed to act as a deodorant. Peasant women spun wool into the threads that were woven into the cloth for these garments.

Fur and Jewelry
Fur was often used to line the garments of the wealthy. Jewelry was lavish, much of it imported and often used as security against loans. Gem cutting was not invented until the fifteenth century, so most stones were not very lustrous. Ring brooches were the most popular item from the twelfth century on. Chaucer’s prioress in the Canterbury Tales wore a brooch with the inscription “Amor vincit omnia” (”Love conquers all”), not a particularly appropriate slogan for a nun. Diamonds became popular in Europe in the fourteenth century. By the mid-fourteenth century there were laws to control who wore what jewelry , and knights were not permitted to wear rings. Sometimes clothes were garnished with silver, but only the wealthy could wear such items.

Nike History
Preliminary Information:
Nike’s Heritage
NIKE, pronounced NI-KEY, is the winged goddess of victory according to Greek mythology. She sat at the side of Zeus, the ruler of the Olympic pantheon, in Olympus. A mystical presence, symbolizing victorious encounters, NIKE presided over history’s earliest battlefields. A Greek would say, “When we go to battle and win, we say it is NIKE.” Synonymous with honored conquest, NIKE is the twentieth century footwear that lifts the world’s greatest athletes to new levels of mastery and achievement. The NIKE ’swoosh’ embodies the spirit of the winged goddess who inspired the most courageous and chivalrous warriors at the dawn of civilization. (from Nike Consumer Affairs packet, 1996)

The Swoosh
The SWOOSH logo is a graphic design created by Caroline Davidson in 1971. It represents the wing of the Greek Goddess NIKE. Caroline Davidson was a student at Portland State University in advertising. She met Phil Knight while he was teaching accounting classes and she started doing some freelance work for his company. Phil Knight asked Caroline to design a logo that could be placed on the side of a shoe. She handed him the SWOOSH, he handed her $35.00. In spring of 1972, the first shoe with the NIKE SWOOSH was introduced…..the rest is history! (from Nike Consumer Affairs packet, 1996)

A brief history of Nike
The Nike athletic machine began as a small distributing outfit located in the trunk of Phil Knight’s car. From these rather inauspicious beginnings, Knight’s brainchild grew to become the shoe and athletic company that would come to define many aspects of popular culture and myriad varieties of ‘cool.’
Nike emanated from two sources: Bill Bowerman’s quest for lighter, more durable racing shoes for his Oregon runners, and Knight’s search for a way to make a living without having to give up his love of athletics. Bowerman coached track at the University of Oregon where Phil Knight ran in 1959. Bowerman’s desire for better quality running shoes clearly influenced Knight in his search for a marketing strategy. Between them, the seed of the most influential sporting company grew.

The story goes like this: while getting his MBA at Stanford in the early ’60s, Knight took a class with Frank Shallenberger. The semester-long project was to devise a small business, including a marketing plan. Synthesizing Bowerman’s attention to quality running shoes and the burgeoning opinion that high-quality/low cost products could be produced in Japan and shipped to the U.S. for distribution, Knight found his market niche. Shallenberger thought the idea interesting, but certainly no business jackpot. Nothing more became of Knight’s project.

Cut to 1963. Phil Knight traveled to Japan on a world-tour, filled with the wanderlust of young men seeking a way to delay the inevitable call of professional life. Seemingly on a whim, Knight scheduled an interview with a Japanese running shoe manufacturer, Tiger–a subsidiary of the Onitsuka Company. Presenting himself as the representative of an American distributor interested in selling Tiger shoes to American runners, Knight told the businessmen of his interest in their product. Blue Ribbon Sports–the name Knight thought of moments after being asked who he represented–was born. The Tiger executives liked what they heard and Knight placed his first order for Tigers soon thereafter.

By 1964, Knight had sold $8,000 worth of Tigers and placed an order for more. Coach Bowerman and Knight worked together, but ended up hiring a full-time salesman, Jeff Johnson. After cresting $1 million in sales and riding the wave of the success, Knight et. al. devised the Nike name and trademark Swoosh in 1971.

By the late ’70s, Blue Ribbon Sports officially became Nike and went from $10 million to $270 million in sales. Katz (1994) describes the success via Nike’s placement within the matrix of the fitness revolution: ‘the idea of exercise and game-playing ceased to be something the average American did for fun,’ instead Americans turned to working out as a cultural signifier of status. Clearly, the circumstances surrounding the shift are not this simple; it is one of the aims of this project to discover other generators of popular attention to health.

If Nike didn’t start the fitness revolution, Knight says, “We were at least right there. And we sure rode it for one hell of a ride” (Katz, 66). The 80s and 90s would yield greater and greater profits as Nike began to assume the appearance of athletic juggernaut, rather than the underdog of old. “Advertising Age” named Nike the 1996 Marketer of the Year, citing the “ubiquitous swoosh…was more recognized and coveted by consumers than any other sports brand–arguably any brand” (Jensen, 12/96). That same year Nike’s revenues were a staggering $6.74 billion. Expecting $8 billion sales in fiscal 1997, Nike has targeted $12 billion in sales by the year 2000.

And all from the back of a car.

Few can question Nike’s financial hegemony. But nearly $7 billion in revenues clearly begs the question, What sells these shoes? It is my assertion that Nike’s power to sell comes from deep-rooted yearnings for cultural inclusiveness and individual athletic accomplishment. These seemingly paradoxical desires collide in consumers hearts and minds and produce the unyielding zeal for Nike shoes and apparel. Unfortunate effects of this zeal can be found in the rash of Nike apparel killings in 1991 and the profusion of Nike collectors and webpages designed around the company’s products. (See listing of homepages on Works Cited Page) Nike appeals to these disparate elements of Americans’ personalities through an advertising philosophy that is, at once, simple and sublime. In addition, Nike’s practice of top-level athletes promoting their products appeal to countless ages and creeds as a way to identify with and emulate their athletic heroes. These forces work powerfully upon the individual consumer, but one should not lose sight of the cultural context in which the individual moves.