Official Visit Research Articles

PERSIAN BARGAINING IS INAPPROPRIATE

(By Aleksei Khazbiyev. Ekspert, Feb. 22, 2016, p. 28. Complete text:) The Russian military-industrial complex's hopes to secure billions in contracts with Iran are fading fast. before Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan flew to Moscow [see Current Digest, Vol. 68, No. 7, p. 16], Tehran indicated in no uncertain terms that bargaining with Russia was not going well and that no quick results should be expected. For instance, in response to our proposal regarding T-90 tanks, Ahmad Reza Pourdastan, commanding officer of the Iranian Army's Ground Forces, stated unequivocally that his country does not need this hardware. And this despite the fact that only two months ago, he had talked about the T-90's high combat capabilities and even dispatched a group of experts to Russia to assess those capabilities. Even though the General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces stated that the T-90 will be given preferences in procurement contracts, the procurement of these tanks is being ruled out at present, considering [our] country's potential. We want to manufacture our own armored vehicles, and are in fact doing so successfully, Pourdastan said. This issue was also unexpectedly addressed by minister Dehghan. According to him, Iran already developed a new tank model, the Karrar, which may not be superior to the T-90, but is definitely every bit as good. ... Such behavior ahead of an official visit would usually be considered at odds with the diplomatic code of conduct, but not for Iran. The country believes - not without reason - that Russia failed to act like a partner toward Iran at least twice. The first time was in the late 1990s, when following agreements with the US, we decided to freeze military-technical cooperation with Iran (but only on paper). The second time was in 2010, when Russia voted in favor of sanctions against Iran at the UN Security Council and even tightened them unilaterally, refusing to deliver S-300 missile defense systems [see Current Digest, Vol. 62, No. 22, pp. 12 - 14]. So it seems that any talk of ethics is inappropriate here. ... Nevertheless, Tehran attempted to rectify this embarrassing situation. Kioumars Heidari, deputy commander of the Iranian Army's Ground Forces, stated that Tehran has not yet abandoned the idea of buying Russian T-90s, but is counting on the transfer of their manufacturing technology. This is a mandatory condition, and no transaction is possible without it. In response to this, Uralvagonzavod [Urals Train Car Plant] deputy general director Aleksei Zharich immediately announced [the company's] willingness to set up licensed T-90 production in Iran. However, no specific agreements have been reached on the matter. What's more, not a single serious arms contract been signed as a result of Dehghan's talks [last week] with Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin. Granted, the Iranians said that discussions have begun on agreements worth $10 billion and that contracts are still to come. In particular, Iran plans to procure two S-400 [antiaircraft missile system] installations, large consignments of Su-30 fighter jets and Mi-17 helicopters, Bastion missile systems and diesel submarines. Importantly, the Iranians want almost all of these systems to be manufactured in their country. And with regard to the Su-30, [the Iranians] also want to implement joint R&D projects to develop its Iranian modification. In other words, Iran is seeking to achieve the same level of military-technical cooperation [with Russia] that Russia achieved with India. However, unlike India, Iran is not prepared to pay now: It wants to get all weapons on credit. Needless to say, no offensive arms contacts are possible until 2020, when all sanctions on Iran are lifted. Nevertheless, the Iranians could have already bought our defense systems - for example, the S-400. However, this not happened. Nor Iran bought our SSJ-100 civilian airplanes. Iran's Civil Aviation Organization head Mohammad Khodakarami said Tehran is not interested. All of this stands in stark contrast to Iran's relations with Europe. For example, the Iranians have already procured 118 airplanes worth $25 billion from Airbus without any preconditions. And they have signed a contract with ATR to buy 40 regional jet liners that are competitors of the SSJ. Iran has already signed a total of over $50 billion in various agreements with European Union countries. And it had enough funds for all of that. Obviously, in this situation, we must stand firm in our relations with the Islamic Republic and maybe even reevaluate them completely.

KOOPMANS IN THE SOVIET UNION: A TRAVEL REPORT OF THE SUMMER OF 1965

Tjalling C. Koopmans, research director of the Cowles Foundation of Research in Economics, was the first US economist after World War II who, in the summer of 1965, travelled to the Soviet Union for an official visit to the Central Economics and Mathematics Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Koopmans left hoping to learn from the Soviet economists’ experience with applying linear programming to economic planning. Would his own theories, as discovered independently by Leonid V. Kantorovich, help increase allocative efficiency in a socialist economy? Inspired by a vague notion of universal reason spanning the iron curtain, Koopmans may have even envisioned a research community that transcends the political divide. Yet, he came home having discovered that learning about Soviet mathematical economists might be more interesting than learning from them. On top of that, he found the Soviet scene caught in the same deplorable situation he knew all too well from home: that mathematicians are the better economists. Reconstructing Koopmans’s voyage from a first-person perspective puts the spirit of universal economic knowledge at Cowles to test: Is it capable of establishing a dialogue across the political divide of the Cold War or is it limited to the Western academic cocoon?

China's Economic Diplomacy and the Politics-Trade Nexus

This article reviews the literature on the linkages between political tensions, economic diplomacy and international trade in the light of China’s rise in the global economy. The existing scholarly work suggests that economic diplomacy should be more pivotal in economic exchange with China than with Western market economies. In an econometric test, I analyze how diplomatic tensions, measured through foreign dignitaries’ meetings with the Dalai Lama, affect the likelihood of an official visit from a Chinese leader. The results show that the likelihood of the Chinese leadership traveling to a country is 13.6 percent lower if the country’s government receives the Dalai Lama in a given year but increases in the following year, supposedly to restore ties. This finding underlines that economic diplomacy is an important channel linking political climate and economic exchange between nations.

Main Trends of Foreign Trade of PRC during the Eleventh Five-Year Plan in Terms of Target Intensification of Trade and Economic Relations with Russia

Economic relations between Russia and China gradually enter into the most active phase, primarily due to the successful results of the official visits of heads of state and government. Trade between the countries become more active increasingly that contributes to the development of economic relations in general. In order to understand the reasons for this development against the background of the ongoing growth of the Chinese economy, the focus of attention in this article is the foreign trade of China as the dominant component of the activity of economic relations with other countries. The article presents an analytical summary of the results and prospects of foreign trade of the People's Republic of China (PRC) according to the Eleventh Five-Year Plan results (2005-2010). Besides formulated general conclusions and trends, such indicators as the trade balance, the global, sectoral, regional, commodity structure of exports and imports are analyzed detailed , and also the reasons for these trends in foreign economic activity of the country are investigated. Among the analyzed basic forms of foreign trade it is considered tolling system and its place in the trade of goods. Indicators of foreign trade products and services are analyzed separately. The basic trend in the development of trade and economic relations between China and Russia is investigated. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n6s3p19

Sacred Forests, Sacred Nation: The Shinto Environmentalist Paradigm and the Rediscovery of Chinju no Mori

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)In June 2014, unique and unprecedented event took place at the shrines of Ise (Ise Jingu ...), generally considered as the most sacred site in Shinto. Dressed in the official robes of their respective traditions, religious functionaries from all over the world-representing Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, Hinduism, Islam, Roman Catholicism, Sikhism, Shinto, and various Protestant denominations-collectively paid an official visit to the Inner Shrine of Ise, where the Japanese sun goddess and imperial ancestress Amaterasu ?? is enshrined. They were accompanied by representatives of the United Nations and other international ngos. In addition to visiting the shrine and paying respect to its goddess, they all participated in an international conference entitled Tradition for the Future: Culture, Faith and Values for Sustainable Planet, where various issues related to religion and environmental issues were discussed. The conference was organized by Jinja Honcho ???? (Association of Shrines), the umbrella organization with which the majority of shrines in Japan today are affiliated, in cooperation with the Alliance of Religions and Conservation (arc), uk-based nonprofit organization which defines itself as a secular body that helps the major religions of the to develop their own environmental programs, based on their own core teachings, beliefs and practices.1Among the conference speakers were Jinja Honcho's current president, Tanaka Tsunekiyo ...; Princess Akiko of Mikasa ..., an art historian and member of the Japanese imperial family; and Olav Kjorven, Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations, Norwegian Christian Democrat politician who embraced the idea that religion can play significant role in sustainable development-as illustrated by his conference speech, which was later published on The Huffington Post (Kjorven 2014). Although the event was not open to the general public, it was reportedly attended by approximately seven hundred priests from all over the country (Dougill 2014a), as well as by number of selected journalists and scholars. One of them, Paul Vallely (a well-known author who written several books and articles on religion, ethics, and development issues) published report in The Independent, in which he described the conference as part of the remarkable resurgence of Japan's ancient religion of Shintoism, which according to him has produced new Japanese openness to the wider world (Vallely 2014). This openness was illustrated by the event's interreligious character, as well as the apparent environmental awareness of the actors involved, which, he suggested, could benefit the whole world (Vallely 2014).Describing in such positive terms, the article no doubt constitutes useful international publicity for Jinja Honcho. In particular, it underlines the claim that constitutes form of ancient nature-centered spirituality offering models for environmental sustainability, which become more and more pronounced in recent years. However, although such claims reflect recent popular discourse on Shinto, they are not entirely unproblematic. First, as anybody familiar with recent academic studies of the history of Shinto and kami ? worship can confirm, the notion of as an essentially apolitical prehistoric tradition of nature worship is historically inaccurate. Although this image continues to be spread in popular scientific books, websites, social media, and tourist guidebooks, by actors as well as non-Japanese aficionados, it been challenged convincingly by number of historians. They have demonstrated that as it exists today-an institutionally and theologically independent religion, conceptualized as Japan's ancient indigenous ritual tradition and seen as intimately connected with the imperial family-is grounded largely in early-modern ideological inventions, which were given concrete shape in the subsequent Meiji period (1868-1912) (Breen and Teeuwen 2010; Hardacre 1989; Josephson 2012; Kuroda 1981; Thal 2005). …

Uneasy Fate of the Baron Guenzburg Collection [Ending

The article describes the history of appearance of the Baron Ginzburg Collection in the holdings of the Russian State Library. This Collection of Jewish and Arabic books and manuscripts of Baron Ginzburg is considered to be one of the treasures of the Russian State Library. The manuscript part of the Collection consists of 1913 units of the 14th - 19th centuries. In 2010 the Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu during the official visit to the Russian Federation raised the issue of transfer of the Ginzburg Collection to Israel “as a reciprocal gesture of good will” (the building of St. Sergius Metochion in Jerusalem was returned to the Russian Federation at the end of 2008). The search of documents relating to the fate of the Baron Ginzburg Collection in Russia held in the Russian archives produced unexpected results. After the First World War the Society of Friends of the Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem (JNUL), created in London, got interested in the Ginzburg Collection. At the beginning of the 1920s representatives of JNUL claimed that Baronesse M. Ginzburg has been paid in advance and there has been drawn the act of purchase and sale of the Collection. However they did not submit any documents which could confirm the version of sale of the Collection. By that time books and manuscripts were nationalized as scientific treasures and got held at the Rumyantsev Museum. The Museum leadership and Soviet Jewish community objected the idea of transfer of the Collection. Director of JNUL G. Leve appealed to V. Lenin, to A. Lunacharsky, the People’s Commissar of Education, and to other leaders of the Soviet Russia to solve the matter concerning the transfer of the Collection to Jerusalem. The request was supported by the famous scientist Albert Einstein. His letters to A. Lunacharsky are published for the first time.

Report of the Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, Mission to Guinea-Bissau

The Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights conducted an official visit to Guinea-Bissau from 23 February to 1 March 2014. In the present report, the Special Rapporteur outlines the challenges that Guinea-Bissau is facing in implementing measures to address poverty and in ensuring the rights of those living in poverty.Guinea-Bissau ranks as one of the poorest countries in the world, with a consistent decline of investment in essential social services such as health care and education. The Special Rapporteur is particularly concerned about the disproportionate vulnerability of certain groups, especially women, as well as obstacles to poverty reduction such as political instability, corruption and impunity.This Special Rapporteur provides recommendations to ensure that relevant policies and programmes are implemented to enable those living in extreme poverty to enjoy their human rights on an equal basis with the rest of the population.

Uneasy Fate of the Baron Ginzburg Collection

The article describes the history of appearance of the Baron Ginzburg Collection in the holdings of the Russian State Library. This Collection of Jewish and Arabic books and manuscripts of Baron Ginzburg is considered to be one of the treasures of the Russian State Library. The manuscript part of the Collection consists of 1913 units of the 14th - 19th centuries. In 2010 the Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu during his official visit to the Russian Federation raised the issue of transfer of the Ginzburg Collection to Israel “as a reciprocal gesture of good will” (the building of St. Sergius Metochion in Jerusalem was returned to the Russian Federation at the end of 2008). The search of documents relating to the fate of the Baron Ginzburg Collection in Russia held in the Russian archives produced unexpected results. After the First World War the Society of Friends of the Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem (JNUL), created in London, got interested in the Ginzburg Collection. At the beginning of the 1920s representatives of JNUL claimed that Baronesse M. Ginzburg had been paid in advance and there had been drawn the act of purchase and sale of the Collection. However, they did not submit any documents which could confirm the version of sale of the Collection. By that time books and manuscripts were nationalized as scientific treasures and got held at the Rumyantsev Museum. The Museum leadership and Soviet Jewish community objected the idea of transfer of the Collection. Director of JNUL G. Leve appealed to V. I. Lenin, to A. Lunacharsky, the People’s Commissar of Education, and to other leaders of the Soviet Russia to solve the matter concerning the transfer of the Collection to Jerusalem. The request was supported by the famous scientist Albert Einstein. His letters to A. Lunacharsky are published for the first time.

Employers issue post-Savile advice on official visits

Employers issue post-Savile advice on official visits

An Era of Climax of Cordiality in Sino-Pakistan Relations

The paper seeks to analyze the developments between China and Pakistan since the end of Indo-Pakistan war of 1965 to 1971. After the signing of Pakistan’s boundary, air and trade agreements with China, the latter continued its support to Pakistan. Their bilateral relations reached to the climax of cordiality by the exchange official visits of both leaderships and support to each other’s key issues and interests. Pakistan changed its pro-West policy of casting vote in favor of Taiwan and against of China for membership in United Nations. Chinese assistance for Pakistan’s defense sector began and supported the Pakistan’s view regarding the disputed area of Kashmir. However it was Pakistan’s start of good relations with the Soviet Union which created a doubt in China’s mind after the Tashkent Conference. It was natural for China to express her surprise on the new bilateral relationship between Pakistan and Soviet Union and called it superpowers’ conspiracy. The paper concludes that bilateralism in Pakistan’s foreign policy brought China and the US to normalization of relations where Pakistan played a bridge role between the two.

The Last and Next Decades of the Asian Core Program on Cutting‐Edge Organic Chemistry in Asia

The Last and Next Decades of the Asian Core Program on Cutting‐Edge Organic Chemistry in Asia

Die baltischen Länder und der Norden: Festschrift für Helmut Piirimäe zum 75 Geburtstag ed. by Mati Laur, Enn Küng, und Stig Örjan Ohlsson (review)

Reviewed by: Die baltischen Länder und der Norden: Festschrift für Helmut Piirimäe zum 75 Geburtstaged. by Mati Laur, Enn Küng, und Stig Örjan Ohlsson Francesco La Rocca (bio) Mati Laur, Enn Küng, und Stig Örjan Ohlsson (Hgs.). Die baltischen Länder und der Norden: Festschrift für Helmut Piirimäe zum 75. Geburtstag. Tartu: Akadeemiline Ajalooselts, 2005. 564 S. ISBN: 9949-13-208-8. Forschungen zur baltischen Geschichte. 2007. Bd. 2 / Hg. von Mati Laur und Karsten Brüggemann. 309 S. ISSN: 1736-4132. Helmut Piirimäe is professor emeritus at the University of Tartu and one of the most respected researchers of the history of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century relationships between Sweden and Estonia. His work has enjoyed a most positive reception both in Estonia and in Sweden, to the point that in 1998 he was chosen to accompany then-president Lennart Meri during his official visit to Stockholm in his capacity as expert in Swedish–Estonian relationships. To mark the occasion of his seventy-fifth birthday, in 2005 he received a Festschrift edited by his fellow professors at the University of Tartu, Mati Laur and Enn Küng, in cooperation with Stig Örjan Ohlsson, titled Die baltischen Länder und der Norden: Festschrift für Helmut Piirimäe zum 75. Geburtstag. The volume, containing twenty-three contributions plus a bibliography of Piirimäe’s works, pays tribute to the Estonian scholar by expanding on various aspects of his mayor research topic, namely, the interaction between Nordic and Baltic lands in the Modern Age. The first chapter serves as the introduction without actually being labeled as such, as it consists of personal memories of Piirimäe by Ohlsson. The Swedish scholar first met him in 1994 upon his arrival in Tartu as a lecturer of Swedish. The chapter is basically a collection of anecdotes that flesh out Piirimäe’s personality and the relevance of his activity in the life of his university. The chapter’s title, “Den förste estniske bonden som har sovit i kungliga slotten i Stockholm,” comes from the above-mentioned 1998 Estonian presidential visit to Sweden. On that occasion, Piirimäe proudly claimed to have been the first Estonian farmer to have spent a night in the royal castle in Stockholm, thus stressing his attachment to his peasant roots and his people, as well as a good degree of self-irony. The next chapter may come as a surprise to the reader, for it has nothing to do with Baltic or Swedish history, but is instead a reflection on the idea of the mask in ancient Mesopotamian cultures. Its author, Thomas Richard Kämmerer, attempts to apply the idea of the mask, here understood as an inner dissociation, to textual representation of gods and heroes, claiming that ritual invocations [End Page 455]were actually playing the same role played by a mask, for through the masked language (“maskierte Sprache”) the priest was able to act as a divine stand-in. Ancient Mesopotamian culture is well beyond the reviewer’s competence, and it also has no connection whatsoever with the book’s main topic. Despite being a quite interesting reading per se (although the correlation between actual masks and ritual language is far from convincingly argued by Kämmerer), I fail to see the point of including such a contribution in a Festschrift titled Die baltischen Länder und der Norden. The following chapter, “Die baltischen Länder im europäischen Kraftfeld,” is an overall narrative of the geopolitical history of Estonia and Latvia from the Viking Age to the end of the Soviet rule. It was written by the Heinz von zur Mühlen, who passed away in the same year of this Festschrift’s publication (2005). His contribution does not offer any new arguments or sources, but it nonetheless provides an effective recap of a thousand years of Baltic political and military history. Ivar Leimus introduces the very first actual research paper of the book. His “Einige Beiträge zur Münzgeschichte Livlands am Ende des 14. Jahrhunderts” expands on the discovery of medieval coins near Tallinn in 2004. Leimus accurately describes the coins and compares them...

Wizyta prawników radzieckich w Polsce w 1955 r. Dokument archiwalny o tematach i wynikach prawniczych konsultacji polsko-radzieckich

In 1955 the first official visit of Soviet lawyers to Poland took place. It is somehow strange that it took place so late, when the process of Sovietization of Polish law was already very advanced. The chairman of the delegation was Professor D. S. Kariew, who was also a high ranked official of the Soviet Ministry of Justice. The document presented below is the minutes of the last meeting of the delegation with Polish Minister of Justice, Henryk Świątkowski. The Soviet delegation was suggesting to implement many Soviet regulations into Polish law. Among them were: the election of judges (complete fiction) and abolishing the self-government of advocates. They were also pressing on increasing the Ministry’s supervision over judges. At the time the Polish party seemed to accept these proposals but in the event none were implemented into Polish law. This was so because of political changes in Poland in 1956, when Stalin’s period in Polish history ended. The process of reception of Soviet law in Poland then stopped, but not completely.

Reversing the Influence: Anglo-German Relations and British Fitness Policies in the 1930s

In ‘inventing’ and exporting modern sports to the world, the British influenced innumerable people. However, by the inter-war period, there was a general anxiety regarding British decline. The reasons were threefold. First, British health and fitness experts underlined the low physical standards of their people. Second, it became evident that Britain's leading position in international sport was under threat. Third, the fascist states seemed to be doing particularly well in this area. How could the British Empire last without strong men to defend it? Perhaps part of the solution might be found overseas in just the place where the present ‘danger’ came from. This paper studies this reversed influence and shows how German influence affected British fitness policies in the 1930s. In a period marked by appeasement, sports meetings, official visits and a large amount of cultural propaganda resulted in the sharing of British and German experiences. However, the attitude of the British was complex and their determination to go their own way limited the effectiveness of German influence. By the time the war broke out, the British had distanced themselves from German organization and values once again. The brief flirtation with fascist forms of physical culture was over.

Report of the Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights. Mission to Mozambique

The Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights conducted an official visit to Guinea-Bissau from 23 February to 1 March 2014. In the present report, the Special Rapporteur outlines the challenges that Guinea-Bissau is facing in implementing measures to address poverty and in ensuring the rights of those living in poverty.Guinea-Bissau ranks as one of the poorest countries in the world, with a consistent decline of investment in essential social services such as health care and education. The Special Rapporteur is particularly concerned about the disproportionate vulnerability of certain groups, especially women, as well as obstacles to poverty reduction such as political instability, corruption and impunity.This Special Rapporteur provides recommendations to ensure that relevant policies and programmes are implemented to enable those living in extreme poverty to enjoy their human rights on an equal basis with the rest of the population.

Report of the Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights. Mission to Mongolia

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights conducted an official visit to Mongolia from 3 to 7 December 2012, during which she collected first-hand information on the situation of people living in extreme poverty and on the impact of key policies relating to poverty alleviation and development in the country.In the present report, the Special Rapporteur outlines the general challenges facing Mongolia in implementing measures to tackle poverty and ensuring the rights of those living in poverty in the country. The Special Rapporteur highlights the particular difficulties encountered by the most vulnerable groups affected by extreme poverty along with the challenges preventing them their full enjoyment of rights. Particular attention is given to the right to social protection, to access adequate housing and to access justice. The Special Rapporteur is concerned that despite the impressive growth rate in recent years economic prosperity has not been inclusive. There is a high level of inequality at a time when the country is experiencing a major economic boom. The report recognizes the important steps already taken by the new Government to implement poverty reduction measures and highlights a number of recommendations for consideration by all stakeholders.

A review of the official sampling of flocks of laying hens in the Salmonella National Control Programme in Great Britain

1. In line with European legislation and the UK National Control Programme for Salmonella, poultry farms are sampled to establish their Salmonella status. Regular samples are collected by the farmer (operator), with annual routine (official) samples being collected by the competent authority to verify achievement of the Salmonella programme reduction target.2. To confirm sampling was being carried out effectively, a questionnaire-based survey was conducted. The aim was to identify any complicating factors the samplers encountered and the decisions made in these circumstances.3. There was good compliance with the official sampling visits, with few delays reported. However, farm-specific clothing/separate boots for non-caged houses were rarely provided by the operator, whereas boot dips and hand washing facilities were usually available. The collection of dust was often a problem for official samplers, operator boot swabs were not always moistened before sampling and both sampler groups did not always follow the recommended method for the collection of faeces from belts and scrapers.4. Overall, there was a good application of the sampling protocol, although a few areas for improvement were identified.

China-to-North Korea Tourism: A Leisure Business on a Tense Peninsula

IntroductionChina maintains a special relationship with North Korea, because of the traditional friendship that was first established by Mao Zedong and Kim Il-sung during the Korean War in the 1950s. Although North Korea's first nuclear test in 2006 caused uncertainty regarding bilateral relations, high-level official visits continued (see Table 1). Table 1 shows the mutual visits by top leaders between North Korea and China since 2006. Every year for the past seven years, there has been at least one ministerial-level visit from one side to the other. On the Chinese side, former Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, current Prime Minister Li Keqiang (vice prime minister at the time of the visit), current President Xi Jinping (vice president at the time of the visit) and current Vice President Li Yuanchao have all paid visits to North Korea. Despite fluctuating tension between North Korea and South Korea, relations between China and North Korea have entered a different stage, especially noticeable when new leaders came into power in both countries. Xi Jinping was elected president of China during the 18th Plenary Conference of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on November 15, 2012. After the death of his father, Kim Jong-il, in December of 2011, Kim Jong-un became the 1st Chief of Committee of National Defense Committee on April 13, 2012.Since 2006, the United Nations has authorized four rounds of sanctions on North Korea, which mainly limit the import of nuclear- and missile-related equipment and technologies.1 As a result, trade between North Korea and the rest of the world has been affected. The trading of goods and services that were excluded from the sanctions still continue between North Korea and the outside world, including China. Tourism is also an important sector that has not been stopped by the sanctions.From the demand side, China is the neighbor of North Korea, and being a large market, China's economic environment provides a sound basis for tourism. China's per capita GDP reached about 6,000 USD at the official exchange rate and about 9,000 USD in purchasing power parity in 2012. According to empirical research, the tourism and leisure industry of a country will have strong growth when per capita GDP reaches 3,000-5,000 USD. Consequently, customers will have high expectations of service quality.2As more Chinese citizens travel abroad for sightseeing, more destinations are being approved by the Chinese government, after examination of mutual diplomatic relations and the security situation in those destinations. A destination must have unique value to offer to tourists. Several aspects of North Korea are attractive to Chinese tourists. The war in the 1950s left a deep impression on many Chinese, as well as on their relatives and friends, particularly those who served as voluntary soldiers. These individuals go to North Korea hoping to revisit former battlefields to see how they have changed.Members of the younger generation, born after the 1970s, grew up during the fast economic development and all around policy reform that has taken place across China in recent decades. The outlook of China changed, or became modernized, greatly after the 1980s. This makes it hard for members of the younger generation, especially those living in urban areas, to understand China's past, as they cannot find tangible elements or memories from China's history. North Korea's slow change and growth since the 1950s, plus its isolationist policies, make it a showpiece which resembles China's history. For younger Chinese, North Korea is an ideal place to learn about China's past, due to its centrally planned economy, egalitarianism, and strictly managed society. For these individuals, the main attraction is related to the spiritual, rather than the material, side. On the other hand, some Chinese investors are trying to find business opportunities in North Korea and they also join tours of the country.Curiosity will drive people to tour new destinations. …

Navegando em águas brasileiras: notas sobre a viagem do francês Pyrard de Laval à colônia brasileira (1610-1611)

A presença dos viajantes/navegadores em terras americanas após a conquista contribuiu para a circulação de informações úteis acerca do potencial dessas regiões. Os recursos naturais que as novas terras possuíam despertaram o interesse dos europeus nesses produtos visando o comércio. A visita oficial ou não de viajantes a essas terras resultou em registros das condições da terra, seus hábitos e sobre a obediência ou não às leis elaboradas pelas metrópoles para o controle das suas colônias. Nossa proposta nestas notas de pesquisa é identificar nos relatos deixados por Pyrard de Laval, escrito no início do século XVII, os hábitos, os costumes, as leis, a organização das cidades, enfim a conduta social e as relações entre Estado e sociedade na colônia portuguesa da América. Neste sentido, procuramos compreender, a partir da contribuição do autor sobre a exploração dos recursos naturais e das práticas agrícolas nos arredores da Baía de Todos os Santos, as relações lícitas e ilícitas desta dinâmica social.

Report of the Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights. Mission to the Republic of Moldova

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights conducted an official visit to the Republic of Moldova from 8 to 14 September 2013. In the present report, the Special Rapporteur outlines the challenges facing the Republic of Moldova in implementing measures to tackle poverty and in ensuring the rights of those living in poverty in the country.The Republic of Moldova ranks as one of the poorest countries in Europe at a time when the cost of essential goods and services is steadily on the rise. The Special Rapporteur was concerned at the widening gap between urban and rural areas, the disproportionate vulnerability of certain groups as well as obstacles to poverty reduction, such as corruption and gaps in policy implementation.The report contains recommendations aimed at ensuring that relevant policies and programmes are implemented so as to enable those living in extreme poverty to enjoy their human rights on an equal basis with the rest of the population.