Today’s Great Firewall of China is built to repress free speech and shield its people from opinions contrary to china’s belief. The BBC.co.uk says, it is composed of, “a vast infrastructure of technology to keep an eye on any potential online dissent. It also applies lots of human eyeballs to monitoring. The agencies that watch over the Net employ more than 30,000 people to prowl Web sites, blogs, and chat rooms on the lookout for offensive content as well as scammers. In the U.S., by contrast, the entire CIA employs an estimated 16,000 people.”

Despite having nearly 340 million Chinese online, all Internet traffic entering or leaving China must pass through government-controlled gateways — that is, banks of computers — where e-mail and Web-site requests are monitored. “E-mail with offending words such as “Taiwan independence” or “democracy” can be pulled aside and trashed within minutes,” says businessweek.com. Amnesty International says that China has the world’s largest number of imprisoned journalists and cyberspace dissidents.

In addition to being closely monitored, businesses are bullied into agreeing to promote China’s Public Pledge on Self-Discipline for the Chinese Internet Industry. Contrary to world opinion, a Pew Research Center survey suggests more than 80% of China’s citizens believe the government should manage or control the internet.

The term globalization, which for years meant Americanization, has been watered-down by government-backed industries, rich-world business and brand acquisitions, or nation sponsored intellectual theft. The international landscape is now a place filled with buyers and sellers from both developed and emerging nations competing for customers and aligning with suppliers and manufacturers to produce goods and offer services around the world.

Globalization offers two distinctly competing opportunities to all nations willing to embrace it. First, use your natural resources, economic influence and/or manufacturing capacities to leverage your way in to the global market place. Secondly, you must ensure the politics of your country are in line with current international trade agreements to allow your business community to flourish in a global economy. Conversely, are you conveniently positioned to make deals outside of any global trade agreement interference?

Without strong demands from China or poor weather conditions, the exercise will take place. Although North Korea is poised to react by using strong military force to answer South Korea’s live-fire artillery drills set to take place on the island of Yeonpyeong, closed door negotiations press on.

Since the signing of the armistice, Yeonpyeong Island has been a point of contention. Bloomberg says, “The North says it won’t recognize a sea boundary drawn up by U.S. officials commanding UN troops at the end of the Korean War in 1953. It says the sea around the islands belongs to the North, and has vowed massive retaliation if the South again fires into the sea around the islands. The U.S. has about 28,500 troops in South Korea.”

Many opponents suggest developers intend to locate networks or hot zones of millions of, “RFID receivers strategically placed around the globe in airports, seaports, highways, distribution centers, warehouses, retail stores and consumers’ homes…” In addition, new technologies are offering RFID tag users the ability to read multiple tags simultaneously including those of different vendors.

Radio Frequency Identification or RFID will quietly become one of the most applied technologies since the introduction of the bar code. The shear cope of available applications and processes that welcome RFID already exceeds that associated with bar code technology. As the cost continues to fall industries such as, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, health care, retail and logistics all move aggressively toward adopting RFID ignoring the unintended moral and ethical consequences associated with this technology as it seeps into our society.

The most disparaging issue surrounding the use of RFID technology rests with the unspoken realization of those entities in society that look to use it fail to comprehend its reach or inform the public of its unintended consequences. More importantly, “There is no law requiring a label indicating that an RFID chip is in a product. Right now, you can buy a hammer, a pair of jeans, or a razor blade with anonymity. With RFID, tags on the horizon anonymity and privacy may be a thing of the past. With RFID, that very same hammer may one day be located and tracked to your home or RFID chips found within the tires that you purchase for you automobile may be scanned and tracked as you drive along the highways. Some manufacturers are planning to tag just the product packaging, but others will tag the products guaranteeing the seller unobstructed tracking to where ever the products goes.

Some believe that RFID can be introduced in to our everyday life as easily as bar codes, “But critics regard this technology as a growing threat, giving potentially dangerous new power to businesses. A recent report by the American Civil Liberties Union said: ‘Scarcely a month goes by in which we don’t read about some new high-tech way to invade people’s privacy, from face recognition to implantable microchips, DNA chips, and even brain wave fingerprinting.” What is RFID technology? RFID or as it is commonly known, RFID tags were,” Invented in 1969 and patented in 1973, but only now becoming commercially and technologically viable, RFID tags are essentially microchips, the tinier the better… Most RFID tags do not have batteries (How could they? They are 1/3 of a millimeter!). Instead, they are powered by the radio signal that wakes them up and requests an answer.
Do not assume that RFID technology is only an American issue, “The Central Bank is moving forward with plans to embed RFID tags as thin as a human hair into the fibers of Euro bank notes…in spite of consumer protests…consumers fear that the technology will eliminate the anonymity that cash affords.”

In hospital settings, RFID tags routinely operate in conjunction with bracelets or nametags. However, there are increasing instances where tags were placed underneath the skin and become tiny hard drives of information.  In today’s ever-changing technology environment, moral and ethical dilemmas appear long after flaws in new technologies are discovered.

Food producers are implementing RFID tags allowing them to follow food from farms-to-forks. “IBM helped develop full traceability solution, providing business consulting and project management services, working with more than 16 supply chain partners, including beef and pork producers, animal feed ingredient producers, feed manufacturers, farmers, processing plants, truckers and a retail grocery chain.”
No one truly knows where this technology will lead us. Moreover, it is important to note that this author does not believe that there is something sinister taking place within our manufacturing community. However, I do believe that the negative aspects concerning this technology are not circulating as freely as its benefits.

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The question, “Who are we?” continues to baffles people. If you ask, a group of people from different parts of the world to describe the United States you might get a variety of different answers. For example, one might say that the US is a country that manufactures products for sale to other countries around the world. Some would consider US politics and the role it plays at home and aboard as the definitive description of America. While others may want to focus on US military might its size and technology.
Some may consider US culture or standard of living as a true definition.

With that said let us look at what we think the US is and is not.

The United States as a manufacturer

The US is a manufacturing nation, right? Yes, we are and we are still the world’s largest manufacturer. The Alliance for American Manufacturing believes that, “Manufacturing in the U.S. generates about $1.6 trillion, or 12 percent of our gross domestic product, accounting for nearly three quarters of the nation’s industrial research and development (R&D), two-thirds of our nation’s total exports of goods and services, and supports more than 20 million high-paying jobs. Manufacturing also ensures we have a strong industrial base to support our national security objectives.”

However, we are not the only big fish in the area of manufacturing. The author of the book, “When China Rules the World states that China, “produces two-thirds of the world’s photocopiers, shoes, toys and microwave ovens; half its DVD players, digital cameras and textiles; one-third of its DVD-ROM drives and desktop computers; and a quarter of its mobiles, television sets, PDA’s and car stereos.”

It may surprise you to learn that Chinese companies, says Fortune Magazine, ”see America as more that a manufacturing center…and have announced plans to build a wind-energy turbine plant and wind farm in Nevada that will create 1,000 American jobs”

For now, the short answer is yes. The US is a country that manufactures products that other countries need and are willing to purchase. With the revenue generated from those sales, some believe the US builds a nation. Not everyone would consider the previous statement to be valid without a qualification, which attempts to address issues concerning policies like NAFTA, CAFTA and GATT. What if, some may say, instead of implementing creative strategies designed to promote increased manufacturing opportunities within the U S we provide redirection efforts to manufacture products elsewhere while at the same time importing gargantuan amounts of manufactured products.

The American Prospect says that the US has lost 42,400 factories. If you are wondering how all of this effects you and I the American Prospect says, “Wal-Mart imported 720,000 containers of sophisticated manufactured products from overseas factories into the United States, followed by Target (435,000 containers), Home Depot (365,300 containers), and K-Mart, which owns Sears (248,600 containers).”

The United States as a Political Power

As part of the United Nations, the US along with 191 other member states all vying for leverage to control and promote their own political agendas. In this environment, the US thrives and with few exceptions manages to overcome most internal obstacles designed to block or alter its plan. In addition, the WTO, WIPO are also organizations sought by countries that play a vital role in how politics are woven into how a country is viewed by others.

The US as a military juggernaut.

Looking back in reverse order Americans were involved in many military activities from helping allies and friends to all out war with other nations. Some of the more resent are Operation Iraqi Freedom, March 19, 2003-Present, Operation Enduring Freedom, October 7, 2001-Present, Kosovo War, in 1999, U.S. Occupation of Haiti 1994, Operation Deliberate Force, the NATO Intervention into Bosnia and U.S. Intervention in Somalia 1992-1994.

It is clear that America will not be bullied.  However, contrary to popular opinion, the US is not the largest military force in the world; the fact is the US is one of the largest military force in terms of number of personnel however; we are second to China and barely edging out India. There are around 2,255,000 active members in China’s army the US has about 1,473,900 and India currently boast 1,414,000. In addition, there is a substantial cost associated with maintaining a large war-time military force on foreign soil. For example, Contemporary Logistics says “a US armored division consumed daily 5,000 tons of ammunition, 555,000 gallons of fuel, 300,000 gallons of water, and 80,000 meals.” Furthermore, the above figures do not include medical, transport or equipment cost.

Some believe it is not necessary for the US to command the largest military force in the world, just the best.

 Limbaugh comfortably ensconced in the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies and Clear Channel Communication Inc inked a deal to pay Limbaugh $400 million. The deal makes him the highest paid radio personality in history. With Conservative listeners around the country tuned in and hanging on every word. Limbaugh expounds the virtues of the Republican Party. While most political pundits believe, Limbaugh is the leader of a conservative revolution in the US he is not alone.

Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity are two other conservative professional radio hosts vying for the number one spot. Using TV as a venue O’Reilly and Hannity have access to mainstream America, a path Limbaugh pursued and left behind years ago.

Bill O’reilly’s cable news show The O’Reilly Factor and his radio program The Radio Factor helps to propel him up the political broadcast ladder. His personal philosophy is,” I’m not a political guy in the sense that I embrace an ideology. To this day I’m an independent thinker, an independent voter, I’m a registered independent … there are certain fundamental things that this country was founded upon that I respect and don’t want changed. That separates me from the secularists who want a complete overhaul of how the country is run.” Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.

Sean Hannity has a nationally syndicated radio program which airs throughout the United States on ABC Radio Networks. Various sources purport Hannity signed a $25 million five-year contract extension with ABC Radio.