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【速度】
Ghana Markets See Influx of Fake Goods
【计时1】
There is an influx of fake goods on Ghana’s markets, with some claiming to possess miraculous healing qualities. Ghana’s Food and Drugs Board, which certifies and licenses products, has refuted such claims, saying lack of education and vigilance on the part of consumers may be encouraging the makers and sellers of such products.
Substandard goods sold
The goods in question are said to be either substandard, lacking essential ingredients listed on the labels or are imitations of recognized brands. Ghana Food and Drugs Board communications chief James Lartey says the fake goods include anti-malaria drugs and antibiotics.
Products said to have healing abilities include undergarments imported into the country by a Chinese company licensed to deal in food supplements.
“They imported some panties, brassieres and cups. According to them, these panties can deal with prostate cancer, the brassiere can deal with breast cancer, the cup when you put water in it and drink can deal with Type-1 and Type-2 diabetes. But these things are false," said Lartey.
That is not all. Some local alcoholic beverages laced with Indian hemp are alleged to have sexual enhancement properties. Then there are fake sanitary pads which are said to cure hypertension when soaked in water and the liquid drank by patients. Other products include life extension machines.
【215】
【计时2】
Exposing counterfeit, expired goods
Lartey says none of these products have been evaluated or registered by the Food and Drugs Board.
Trade in fake goods is said to be growing worldwide, but Africa has been identified as a special case. Besides the goods available to consumers, the World Customs Organization said Africa is being used as transit route for such goods intended for markets in Europe and America.
Lartey says it will take vigilance on the part of consumers to expose fake medicines and cures. Unfortunately, consumer watchdog groups are either nonexistent in some countries or dormant in others.
“The Ghanaian will walk into a shop and buy. He will not even look at expiration date. He will just eat or drink it," he explained. "When there is a problem before he goes and refers what is on the bottle; whether it has expired."
Consumer Protection Organization executive director Jean Lucaz agrees. He says some shop owners unintentionally leave expired products on their shelves.
“Well, they sell until somebody complains and people have been buying. So when you check they think, 'Did you just come back from abroad?' I do not understand why it is attributed to living abroad and not doing the right thing," he stated.
【209】
【计时3】
He says that behavior contributes to a culture of apathy among Ghanaians and fails to put responsible government agencies on their toes.
“Ghanaians generally shy away from complaining. And most of these agencies cannot take any action unless they receive complaints because they are not on the market. If they receive complaints on a particular product, then they can go where the complaints are coming from and do something about it," said Lucaz.
Consumer watchdog group, one solution
But lack of effective consumer watchdog groups is hampering public education in that regard. Jean Lucaz says the situation may largely be due to absence of donor support for consumer advocacy. His organization functions mainly on a blog and has a small following among educated consumers.
Lucaz says a lasting solution could be attained through legal reforms. Ghana already has legislation dealing with consumer protection issues. But he says the country needs a more comprehensive law regulating production, advertisement and sale of goods, along with stiffer punishment for those who violate it.
【177】
【计时4】
Facebook's flotation
Revision time
ANYONE who thought that Facebook would run out of steam ahead of its initial public offering (IPO), which is expected to take place next month, should think again. On April 23rd the company revealed in a revised pre-IPO filing that it now boasts some 901m monthly active users, up from 845m in December 2011. If it continues to grow at this rate, the social-networking behemoth could soon boast one billion users, or around one in seven people on the planet.
But can Facebook translate this momentum into steadily growing profits against the backdrop of a volatile world economy and a growing battle over software patents that is roiling the tech industry? The social network is already locked in a fierce legal tussle with Yahoo!, which has accused it of violating a number of patents it holds in areas such as privacy controls and online advertising. And chances are that Facebook will be hit with more such lawsuits in future as its success makes it a tempting target.
This explains why the company has decided to fork out $550m on 650 patents held by Microsoft, which owns a small stake in Facebook. The social network will add these to the 750 patents that it snapped up from IBM for an undisclosed amount in March. The latest deal will enable Microsoft to recoup some of the $1.1 billion that it handed over to AOL earlier this month for a treasure trove of patents and patent applications, whilst retaining the rights to use the ones that most interest it. (Some commentators also see this as strengthening Microsoft and Facebook's united front against competitors such as Google.)
【273】
【计时5】
Experts think similar coalitions between tech firms will become more common in future because by working together they can afford to buy larger portfolios of patents and also compete more effectively against what is known as “patent trolls”, outfits that specialise in acquiring patents to make money from them purely through licensing or litigation in the courts. Frank Azzopardi of Davis Polk & Wardwell, a law firm, says the amount of collaboration around patent purchases has reached unprecedented levels. Earlier this year, for instance, another coalition led by Microsoft and Apple received a green light from American anti-trust regulators to buy a big portfolio of patents from Nortel Networks, a Canadian firm.
As well as strengthening Facebook's patent portfolio, its bosses must also demonstrate that they can keep its revenues and profits heading in the right direction. In the first quarter of this year, the company clocked up just over $1 billion of revenue, a 45% increase over the same period of 2011. But some analysts had been hoping for more. In its regulatory filing the company said that average revenue per user had fallen 12% compared with the fourth quarter of the previous year, but said that it was common to see sales dip after a busy holiday season.
【210】
【自由阅读】
True, but Facebook recently spent a cool billion dollars in cash and stock on Instagram, a photo-sharing service. And potential investors will want reassurance that it can make handsome returns on their money. For now, the company seems set on investing heavily: its net income fell nearly a third from the fourth quarter of 2011 to $205m in the first three months of this year as expenses soared to $677m from $343 million a year earlier. Pouring money into new data centres, new hires and other areas makes sense ahead of a flotation. But once Facebook has gone public, its new investors may well expect it to pile up profits as well as patents.
【越障】
China's military
This house believes that the rise of China's military power is a threat to East Asian stability.
Before providing my summary, permit me a few observations on my distinguished opponent's rebuttal.
Dingli Shen rightly notes that a country engaged in a military build-up should not necessarily be viewed as a threat. As he notes, "In terms of capability, America is the strongest, but does that mean it has threatened the world every day? Of course not."
Mr Shen incorrectly argues that because America has certain capabilities in excess of the Chinese military's, then any effort by China to field similar capabilities on a comparable scale is inherently peaceful. But history shows this is not always the case. Between the two world wars Britain had the world's most powerful navy, while Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan sought to build up the power of their fleets. Yet it was not Britain but Germany and Japan that posed the threat to peace. America has used its power primarily for the public good—to keep the seas free for the use of all, to enable all to benefit from its global positioning system (GPS) satellites in space and to exploit the potential of the internet. Is it any wonder the countries of East Asia have embraced America more closely in the face of growing Chinese military power?
For one to believe that China's military build-up is not a threat to East Asian stability, one would have to be convinced that:
? China's neighbours in the region welcome China's growth in military capabilities. But its neighbours are emphatically not welcoming China's military build-up. After two decades of peace—thanks in large measure to the stability provided by the American military—China's military build-up is increasing the probability of military tensions and perhaps open armed conflicts in a region that has been largely at peace since 1979, when China invaded Vietnam. Rather, these countries are asking America to increase its military presence because of China's growing military capability and increasingly aggressive behaviour.
? China's military build-up will not jeopardise the spectacular economic growth and prosperity that most regional countries—China most of all—have enjoyed over the past several decades. It is hard to imagine how China's military build-up could possibly improve regional economic conditions. Over the past two decades, regional military spending has been historically low because many states were "free riding" on America's efforts to maintain regional stability. In contrast, China's military build-up is causing its neighbours to divert resources from economic growth to offset China's growing military capabilities.
? China's military build-up is only about Taiwan, and once China has resolved that issue to its satisfaction, it will accept the regional status quo. Yet China is developing power-projection capabilities, including aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines and long-range missile systems, that suggest far greater ambitions. Indeed, by declaring the South China Sea a "core interest" on a par with Taiwan, China tips its hand to show it has far more expansive territorial designs in the region.
? China's military build-up does not pose a large opportunity cost for addressing China's more pressing societal concerns and responsibilities. But of course it does. Hundreds of millions of Chinese live in poverty. Water supplies are shrinking or becoming polluted. A rapidly ageing Chinese population still lacks a social safety net. Those who argue that China's military build-up does not pose a threat need to explain why its leaders, who have made economic growth—that is to say, the Chinese people's welfare—their stated priority, continue diverting ever greater resources to expanding the People's Liberation Army (PLA) in lieu of addressing such concerns.
? China will be a responsible stakeholder. Recent indications hardly provide confidence that this will prove to be true. When North Korean military forces sunk a South Korean ship, China kept silent. It has bullied Vietnam and the Philippines over conflicting maritime claims in the South China Sea. When Japan detained a Chinese captain whose fishing boat had rammed a Japanese Coast Guard ship in Japanese territorial waters, China cut the supply of important rare earth metals to Japanese industries. It seems fanciful to believe that as China amasses more military power it will moderate this kind of behaviour; rather the opposite seems likely to obtain.
? There is no danger of Chinese super-nationalism. The legitimacy of the Chinese regime no longer rests on communist ideology. Nor do China's rulers enjoy popular support as a democratically elected government. Gravity-defying economic growth rates, which have been a source of legitimacy in recent decades, are likely to decline. That leaves the regime increasingly dependent on exploiting Chinese nationalism as the source of its legitimacy. Combined with the PLA's build-up, this would be a highly toxic mix, one that could hardly contribute towards regional stability.
In summary, the weight of evidence leads to the conclusion that China's military expansion is undermining the regional stability that has produced an era of peace and unparalleled prosperity. China's actions speak far louder than its words, as do the actions of most of its neighbours, which are now actively seeking to counter the PLA's "peaceful rise".
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发表于 2012-4-26 22:28:51
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