Finding topics to write about can be a daunting task. I know, I belong to Helium.com and get paid to write articles about various topics. It’s actually a competition with your peers rating you against other writers. I haven’t made any money as of yet. Each week I look at the topics and people contributing articles, and I seem to freeze with writer’s block like a rabbit in the road. It’s hard to explain the dread I feel writing and posting for other’s to review. However I feel none of that pressure here, on Morgan and Byrne. I just write and let that words flow across the page in a stream of consciousness. Occasionally I run up against a temporary writer’s block. I step back, think about it, and wait a day or two. I do a little bit of research on the internet, analyzing Google Trends and current events. Something of interest usually jumps out at me and before I know it, my two fingers begin pecking at the keyboard like two geriatric chickens. I rarely pander to the general public, but if they like my topics of Hooters and Baseball…That’s cool.
I know “Our Girl” doesn’t like it when I plagiarize, however I thought this was an interesting article on the state of affairs in China from the Financial Times (FT.com). China has executed its former head food and drug regulator for taking bribes to approve medicines, rapidly carrying out his sentence in an apparent warning to other officials following a series of scandals about the quality of products made in China. The execution of Zheng Xiaoyu, 62, was confirmed by state television and news agencies after the Supreme People’s Court approved the death sentence. Mr Zheng was convicted of taking Rmb6.5m in bribes from pharmaceuticals companies. Commenting on the case, a spokeswoman said, “China is a developing country and our supervision of food and drugs started late and our foundation for this work is weak,” said Yan Jiangying. “Therefore we cannot be too optimistic about the current food and drug safety situation.” The prosecution of Mr Zheng has also coincided with a number of safety problems with Chinese products in the US, including pet food that contained an industrial chemical, toys covered in lead paint and tires that lacked an important safety feature. He looks really young for 62! oops...sorry.Bloomberg.com reports, “China, facing international criticism over the quality
of food and drug exports, said it will take five years to stamp out production
of fake medicine and that the trend in safety ``isn't promising.''
I find it ironic that China is executing anyone for bribery. Bribery in Asia is a way of life; however, I have been seeing increasing efforts to eradicate corruption from Thailand to China. Second point of interest, they executed a former government official…Hmmmm, he must have pissed somebody off. The third interesting point is the fact that Chinese exports to the U.S. seem to be taking a financial hit. Everything from pet food to Chinese medication seems to be suffering form poor quality control. With the upcoming XXIX Olympiad to be held in Beijing in 2008, China is aware that eyes of the world will be on the 5,000 year old culture and it looks like they’re cleaning house. Sorry no more China stories for a month. Cheers!
