Dehli 2010: XIX Commonwealth Games

Absolute disaster! It's sad but every bad stereotype about India is being shown for the world to see. Corruption is clear as the games have gone over budget, the athletes village is filthy. Terrorist attacks, bridges collapsing, holes in roofs, bad roads on and on.

You hear racist things about India all the time, this doesn't help.



That ladder doesn't look very safe!



Just embarrassing.

If you were in Vancouver earlier this year, be proud. Those Olympics were amazing!

Ramen shop closes; too popular

Source: Daily Yomiuri

A ramen shop where customers line up for hours to eat a bowl of noodles has decided to close its doors. The reason: customers line up for hours to eat their noodles.

Rokurinsha in Shinagawa Ward will close on Aug. 29 in response to repeated complaints from neighbors about customers blocking traffic, smoking on the street and talking loudly. "We don't want to cause any more problems for our neighbors," the shop said.

Rokurinsha, a six-minute walk from JR Osaki Station and located on a shopping street next to a residential area, opened in April 2005. Its tsuke-men, thick noodles dipped in a rich sauce, has attracted ramen-lovers and the media, and has been featured several times in magazines and on TV. As soon as the shop opens, a line starts to form.

According to Matsufuji Shokuhin, a company based in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, that runs Rokurinsha, the line stretches to about 100 people on weekends, and waiting times of two hours are common. The thick noodles take longer to boil, exacerbating the long waits.

The shop has tried to solve the problem by opening early, or changing the way customers line up, but failed to come up with a good solution.

.....more

Failed to come up with a good situation? They failed to do the most basic thing when things are going well, sometimes too well.

JACK up the price! Find out who your real loyal customers are! If the noodles are really good people will still come and if people leave because it's too expensive then no more lineups!

Come on Japanese people, be business saavy!

No North Koreans in Australia!

Source: Fail.com

This special World Cup feature in the Illawa Mercury, showcasing the diversity of the Australian region, has one peculiar photo representing the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. So there are NO North Koreans in Illawa right!? Really?

Vietnam re-enacts fall of Saigon

Source: BBC

Vietnam has marked 35 years since the end of its war by staging a re-enactment of the fall of the Saigon.

Thousands of troops marched through the streets of what is now officially called Ho Chi Minh City to mark the day the communist North claimed victory.

Vietnam's President Nguyen Minh Triet used the event to praise the country's economic development.

The Vietnam War claimed the lives of three million Vietnamese and some 60,000 US soldiers.

Tens of thousands of people gathered in front of the former presidential residence, now called Independence Palace, in Ho Chi Minh City, to watch the military and cultural display.

The BBC's Nga Pham in the city said the events began in the early hours to avoid the heat of the day, with a play recounting the history of the country from ancient times to when the North's tanks smashed through the gates of the palace, leading to the surrender of the southern government.

A replica tank drove through the city to the palace, greeted by cheers from the crowds.

The event was an emotional one for many who lived through the war itself, with some people crying as they watched the display.

"We are here today, very emotional, and thinking of what happened 35 years ago," said Vu Dang Toan, a member of the tank unit involved in the victory in 1975.

"It was a great victory, it was very quick to liberate Saigon and the country is reunited."

It's this last statement that bothers me the most. Severe brainwashing that still exists today. You liberated Saigon from what? Saigon was one of the most advanced cities in Asia in the 50s and 60s. The Paris of Asia.

Look at this picture of Saigon in 1966.



Big buildings, commercial advertising. Looks very advanced!

Liberated from what? Liberated from capitalist to communist ruin? From 1975 to 1995 Saigon was sent back to the dark ages. Upon taking control of the bomb-ravaged country, the Vietnamese communists banned all other political parties and forced public servants and military personnel of the Republic of Vietnam into re-education camps. The government also embarked on a mass campaign of collectivization of farms and factories. Reconstruction of the war-ravaged country was slow, and serious humanitarian and economic problems confronted the communist regime. Millions of people fled the country in crudely built boats, creating an international humanitarian crisis. The boat people. If you had a degree, it was cancelled. If you had a house, they could just come and take it.

This is liberation?

Beginning in the late 1970s, the quality of health care began to decline as a result of budgetary constraints, a shift of responsibility to the provinces, and the introduction of charges. Inadequate funding has led to delays in planned upgrades to water supply and sewage systems. As a result, almost half the population has no access to clean water, a deficiency that promotes such infectious diseases as malaria, dengue fever, typhoid, and cholera. Inadequate funding also has contributed to a shortage of nurses, midwives, and hospital beds.

This is liberation?

Vietnam can say they have advanced all they want, but Vietnam in 2010 is still nowhere near Vietnam in 1975. While other countries like US and Canada have made amazing advances in the last 35 years, Vietnam is still backwards. But of course that's liberation from evil forces, wherever they might be.