There was some talk about shutting it down at the 10th of April, but now it already happened. Let’s see who shouts, cries and complains the loudest. Bye bye google.cn, bye bye censorship. I guess they’ll throw a big party in the Baidu headquarters. Who has Baidu shares?

For comparison purposes 2008’s values for a number of countries sorted by per capita GDP.

What’s more?

• The money in China is not equally distributed. Living standards in the coastal regions could reach western levels in 20 years.
• Once the current recession is over, China could see a few years of 10%+ growth.
• It’s obviously still worth learning Chinese.

My numbers are pretty simplified. I just took the 2008 numbers and then added 8% growth each year. Whatever your interpretation of these numbers is or whatever your conclusions are feel free to add a comment.

• 13. November: Tokyo, Japan
• 14. November: Tokyo, Japan
• 15. November: Singapore, Singapore
• 16. November: Shanghai, China
• 17. November: Beijing, China
• 18. November: Beijing, China
• 19. November: Seoul, South Korea

Besides his long term mission world peace, Obama will talk about a number of questions. I also want to give an overview about these.

US – China trade deficit

China exports much more goods to the USA than vice versa, therefore much more cash is flowing from the USA to China. The money is literally leaving the USA and the value of the dollar declines. While this shouldn’t be a problem for China it still is, because the USA is the main buyer of Chinese products. Furthermore China has huge money reserves in $US, therefore they are interested in a strong US-Dollar. Obama will try to solve this issue with Chinese leaders. Possible solutions include USA geting their household right and China. China on the other hand has to give up on the restrictions regarding its currency the Chinese yuan. The RMB is not freely convertible or tradeable and is subject to strict governmental controls, makeing exports from China to the world cheaper than they really are. The US – Chinese trade deficit is a serious problem for both nations and I’m sure Obama will spend a lot of time talking about this with Hu Jintao.

Looking for new allies

For a long time several countries of East Asia wanted to create an economical alliance, however they couldn’t agree on the terms. Especially Japan was leaning to the USA and keeping distance from China. But times change quickly and Japan is more and more accepting that USA is no longer the center of the world. It is clear that Asia will be the world-shaping global force at some point in the next few decades and an exclusive economical alliance within Asia is only the next logical step. Barack Obama wants to make sure, that the USA is not left behind in this restructuring process.

Human Rights

As part of his world peace task, Obama wants to promote human rights once again. With the influence of the USA fading and other problems on top I doubt his words about this will any weight, except if he can present some logical reasons. While it is clear that solid human rights are necessary for economic excellence, it is not clear why China with it’s economic growth should care about them. The growth keeps the people happy for now and ensures the top position of the party.

Afghanistan strategy, Iran, North Korea

Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan enjoy a walk in the sun. Picture: Wikipedia

When the Afghanistan war started I could read in the newspapers, it will be only for a few years until the NATO-troops move out again. The Afghanistan war started on October 7. 2001, lasting more then 8 years and still going on without an end coming into sight. Obama wants to exchange views with Asian leaders on Afghanistan, but also North Korea and Iran.

Good luck!

Barack, Obama, I wish you a great journey and good luck on your Asia tour. I guess all the political interested readers of my blog will also follow the events on TV and newspapers and also I’m looking forward for the outcome, however I doubt we will see any real surprises.

There is no date when the Chinese characters finally hit the domain names in practice, but I guess it might happen in less than one year. When this happens I might register the domain name 学中文吧.中国 additional to yolearnchinese.com. This also opens up for funny domain names like 我爱台湾和.中国. I guess other more creative people will come up with more exaggerated insensitive political incorrectness in Chinese domain names.

It seems like the Chinese are realising their own situation. If they let people just copy anything it will hurt their economy in the long run. Who wants to spend money and time into developing new products if they will be copied anyway? This is a serious threat to the Chinese employment market. Simply copying products doesn’t require high intellectual skills, actually it’s pretty easy I can tell you (although I never ever did that). Especially with digital goods this is easy. Anything sold on a old-fashioned CD or DVD can be copied on a cheap homecomputer by almost anyone with basic technical knowledge. But the results of this are severe. Highly educated people won’t find jobs. Noone needs them to develop anything.

As high skilled workers are not needed two things happen. First some of the more smarter Chinese just go abroad in search of their luck. The second group stays in China and accepts jobs below their skills, which leads to a certain frustration. While copying things allows people to buy quality goods for cheap prices it undermines the development of a high tech industry which is interested in researching new things.

With this sentence in the Microsoft case a new message has been given: It is no longer possible to get away for stealing other peoples intellectual property. The offenders have been given sentences of several years in prison, and they have to pay a 1.5 million 元 fine, which is small as they made gains of 1.9 million 元 by selling the software. Copyists take care! It still might take years before intellectual property rights are widely accepted within the Chinese society, however a first step has been taken. Maybe this is also a moment to get hope that not only intellectual property rights are respected in China, but also the people itself are respected. Something China is lacking currently.

So how do I get the Chinese Input on my BlackBerry working?

Or in particular: How do I install a Chinese Input Method on my BlackBerry? How can I read Chinese on my BlackBerry? It’s a quite easy process, once You know how to install the right things on Your BlackBerry to make the Chinese characters work. Here is a step by step approach using a Windows desktop:

Preparation Step (optional, only if necessary): If there is existent data, like emails, contacts, etc. and You want to keep these, You have to backup it in some way. See Your BlackBerry manual for Backup.

1. Uninstall any previous BlackBerry device software. Go to the Control Panel and then go to Add/Remove Programs. There You can find any previously installed device softwares. Don’t confuse the device software with the BlackBerry Desktop Manager.
2. Download the latest BlackBerry OS for Your specific BlackBerry model from this site (I chose the south east Asian version, You can choose the language on step 2 on the BlackBerry website):
   https://www.blackberry.com/Downloads/entry.do?code=EEFC9E10EBDC4A2333B42B2DBB8F27B6
3. Install the files You just downloaded
4. Make sure Your BlackBerry device is connected to Your desktop PC and the BlackBerry Desktop Manager is NOT running.
5. Go to the folder of Your BlackBerry device software loader:
   C:\Program Files\Common Files\Research In Motion\AppLoader
   There You can find a file named VENDOR.XML. Rename it or delete it.
6. Open a console window and go to the BlackBerry folder by entering:
   cd C:\Program Files\Common Files\Research In Motion\AppLoader\
7. enter:
   Loader.exe /nojvm
   This should start the installation routine.
8. After a short while You see a window where You can choose what to install. See picture below.
9. Finish Your installation. The first reboot after installing the new OS software on Your BlackBerry might take half an hour, so You better drink some tea meanwhile

If You reach this screen, You almost made it. Pinyin and other input methods! Don’t forget to install the necessary fonts as well.

So why do customers always take these steps on their own, why don’t they ship all languages by default. It can’t be a question of memory space today. It must be some dark conspiracy against Chinese learners like me. I hope this article helps You to install Chinese language support on Your BlackBerry device as well. Enjoy! This reminds me to write an article how to get Chinese input on a Sony Ericsson device – a problem I faced last year. And it also reminds me of the whole Chinese DVD story I encountered in Hong Kong

If You just want to read Chinese, without any input, You could try this BlackBerry Chinese character pack:
net_rim_font_chinese

Last words: This HowTo is a result of a lot of googleing, reading several resources and testing myself. Many people have tried it and it worked for them (see comments as well). However I cannot give You any guarantees of course. Anything You do is Your own responsibility. Big thanks to my readers as well, they have written great comments with helpful knowledge on this matter.

info on BlackBerry Storm
There is no device software for the BlackBerry Storm with Chinese at this moment. It has been asked countless times so far, read the comments please. Frank suggested in the comments to use some 3rd Party solution, if You are up for an adventure

Caseway Bay buildings in Hong Kong Island are one piece of really hot property to own. Great waterfront view included!

How can Hong Kons’s real estate prices drop

I guess You have recently followed the news. You already know that there has been a number of sudden bankruptcies in the finance world. Sounding names like Lehman are down the drain now. This will place thousands of bankers onto the street within days. And I’m not talking about a few hundreds, no, thousands. While these guys occupied some shiny fancy bling bling luxury flats they have to settle for less. Lehman t-shirts and mugs can suddenly be found on ebay.

So what happens? Here is my prediction: These guys either have to get a cheaper place or leave the town in search for a job. High end luxury homes will suddenly become cheaper. If You always dreamt of buying some nice 50-something floor apartment with private pool, this might be Your chance. Watch the Hong Kong real estate market closely and You might get lucky.

I dreamt to live in a high building for a long time, now it’s true. All the other condos are so small!

Property agencies in Hong Kong are countless. You can find them in almost any street and English speaking is available. If You want to use the online way You can check out this post: Find appartments, flats and real estate online.

The whole thing is a guess, but it might turn out true. Then properties, especially high end luxury homes, can be bought for a reasonable price. If You are not sure, just have a trip. Stay a week in Hong Kong and look around what is on offer. You also might consider to buy some luxury flats and then sell them later for a better price. Anything is possible in Hong Kong at the moment.

People with $US 100,000 in their account

The number of people who have $US 100,000 (one hundred thousand) or less in their bank accounts or in form of stocks is pretty much stable. However taking into account that there is something like inflation this money is not worth as much as it has been a while ago. 82% of the world population belong to this group.

On the opposite end are the other 18% of the world population who have $US 100 000 or more. However this group has 88% of all the money. The gap between the rich and the poor becomes continuously bigger.

Where are all those rich people

While the total number of millionaires or rich people in general is increasing in Europe and the USA, China and India also show significant increases. However the highest density of rich people can be found in Singapore. I always thought Hong Kong was the home of the rich. Maybe I should reconsider that and move to Singapore. At least people in Singapore can speak good English and Chinese.

The Singapore skyline in the evening. Playground of the rich