 Monday, January 12, 2004
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Last week we reported the plight of tiny Tuvalu in the South Pacific, which is in danger of sinking into the Pacific as a result of global warming.
That fate has very nearly befallen even smaller Niue:
Niue's status as a nation is under question after the cyclone that hit the tiny Pacific nation, causing more than $50 million damage.
There's been looting, and worse, citizens are burning the debris, which is extremely hazardous since many homes in Niue are constructed from asbestos. Slashdot notes that Niue's wireless grid is also out, which seems the least of their worries.
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Now he's a commentator on Abu Dhabi TV:
"Finding [Saddam] wasn't surprising. However, the way he was arrested was insulting," al-Sahhaf said in a TV interview the day after the former Iraqi dictator was captured.
"We never expected that he would be arrested alive. We all were expecting that Saddam would kill himself rather than be [caught].
"He said that we would not surrender at all; rather, they [the United States] could only take us as dead bodies."
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eWeek:
At lunch, the friend claimed that although Lotus folks should feel good that the IBM division has recommitted to the Notes and Domino platforms, morale is lower than ever. Many Loti are chafing at layoffs and IBM policies that call for Loti to be written up for not locking their office doors when they leave or for leaving laptops in view, even if offices are locked. Some are declining to present at Lotusphere, the pal posited.
Pity. I've heard this too. Some of the stories I've heard about these corporate policies boggle the mind.
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Carly Fiorina, chairman of HP, and Craig Barrett, of Intel, have stirred up a firestorm with remarks about moving US technology jobs overseas, and Jeff over at SAP Ventures has a great summary of the issues. Read this:
"There is no job that is America's God-given right anymore," said Carly Fiorina, chairman of Palo Alto information technology giant Hewlett Packard.
Will all technology jobs inexorably migrate overseas? I don't think so. I've seen offshore product development work -- and I've seen it fail. Offshore development works when there is intense coordination between home office and the development center, and this means a huge commitment on the part of the company's management, because you have to recognize that you can't just walk down the hall and ask somebody how it's going. Daily satellite conference calls, at least monthly in-person visits back and forth, and some inevitable loss of efficiency are required: you're not all in the same place, and software development is at its heart an intensely collaborative thing. All these things can cut into the very seductive promise of cutting costs by sixty or seventy percent.
Certainly for startups and smaller companies, which depend upon their ability to rapidly execute, offshoring has limited appeal. For larger companies it makes great sense when there are projects with clear deliverables.
But there is a more strategic goal of offshoring, which is to take advantage of the extraordinary talent pool in countries like India and China, and to leverage that into the explosive markets growing there. Fact, these countries are both turning out vast numbers of highly trained professionals -- and their governments have national initiatives to transform themselves into information-driven societies.
UPDATE: If you had any doubt about the rise of techno-literacy overseas, read this.
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US officials have visited Yongbyon, site of North Korea's nuclear reprocessing plant. They're not saying what they saw until they brief US and South Korean officials (next week) but the whole thing has a surreal air about it:
Iraq obstructs, obfuscates, and hinders UN inspections; we invade and find nothing other than a very scruffy leader in a hole.
North Korea invites us in, and politely shows us their weapons plant which they clearly have little or no intention of dismantling. A million men on the border facing our ally South Korea, and missiles under development that can reach the US...
And...this is OK with everybody?
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Dokdo is a tiny, rocky, uninhabitable islet off the coast of Korea which is periodically a source of intense friction between Korea and Japan, which calls the 54-acre rock Takeshima. The Marmot has a great summary of this confrontation which appears to be heating up again.
Now looking at the picture:
you wouldn't think it worth the argument. But there are economic issues: fishing rights and the possibility of oil reserves underneath. More importantly, underlying the entire conflict are simmering issues of national pride. (As it happens, Korea's claim appears to be unassailable.)
But why has the issue bubbled up again? Is President Roh, whose administration is under fire for corruption and weakness in foreign dealings, attempting to "wag the dog"? -- that is, divert attention away from domestic troubles by provoking Korea's favorite whipping boy Japan?
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Dec Feb
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