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Chinese sex toy market to be worth 40bn RMB by 2014: Shanghaiist
The Chinese market for sex toys is expected to grow1 to around 40bn RMB by 2014, up from around 10bn last year, according to industry experts.
Considering the woeful levels of sexual education2 in China and a conservative, at times extremely patriarchal culture3, the acceptance and prevalence of sex toys on the Chinese mainland4 is somewhat remarkable. It’s not uncommon to find vibrators sold on shop counters, right next to chewing gum and cigarette lighters.
The about face in attitudes towards sex in China, which began when the prudish Communist government launched its opening and reform drive in the late 1970s and has been catalyzed by the Internet, is creating a prime business opportunity for the sex toy industry, insiders say.
Highlighting expectations of a strong upward trajectory in domestic sales, two private equity firms in August jointly invested 300 million yuan into Love Health Science & Technology Co Ltd, the biggest Chinese sex toy manufacturer.
Illiberal and disapproving attitudes towards sexuality and sexual agency are in fact relatively new in China. The use of pornography and sex toys goes back centuries5, it was only with the advent of Communism and accompanying policies “aimed at repressing people’s personal desires, including romance and sex, in favour of ideas of revolution and collectivism” that Chinese attitudes towards sex became more conservative.
According to Peng Xiaohui, professor of sexology at Central China Normal University, post-Communist Chinese society “was more conservative than in ancient China”. The slow ‘liberalisation’ of attitudes towards sex is actually a return to traditional values.
The country’s state-run broadcaster has aired a program featuring a controversial sexologist, who on the show called for the legalization of homosexual marriages, while an annual sex fair in Guangzhou in southeastern China drew 250,000 visitors last month.
References
- ^ grow (www.reuters.com)
- ^ woeful levels of sexual education (shanghaiist.com)
- ^ at times extremely patriarchal culture (shanghaiist.com)
- ^ acceptance and prevalence of sex toys on the Chinese mainland (shanghaiist.com)
- ^ The use of pornography and sex toys goes back centuries (www.danwei.com)
Sex Offender Research and News: 34 states unable to track sex …
Here we see another method of confabulation of facts, i.e., 34 states cannot track offenders because they chose not to comply with the Adam Walsh Act. There isn’t an ounce of proof that 34 states cannot track registrants in their states, except this erroneous claim.
10-13-2012 Oklahoma:
OKLAHOMA CITY — Nearly three dozen states have failed to meet conditions of a 2006 federal law that requires them to join a nationwide program to track sex offenders, including five states that have completely given up on the effort because of persistent doubts about how it works and how much it costs.
The states, including some of the nation’s largest, stand to lose millions of dollars in government grants for law enforcement, but some have concluded that honoring the law would be far more expensive than simply living without the money.
“The requirements would have been a huge expense,” said Doris Smith, who oversees grant programs at the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration. Lawmakers weren’t willing to spend that much, even though the state will lose $226,000.
The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, named after a boy kidnapped from a Florida mall and killed in 1981, was supposed to create a uniform system for registering and tracking sex offenders that would link all 50 states, plus U.S. territories and tribal lands. When President George W. Bush signed it into law, many states quickly realized they would have to overhaul their sex-offender- registration systems to comply.
Some lawmakers determined that the program would cost more to implement than to ignore. Others resisted the burden it placed on offenders, especially certain juveniles who would have to be registered for life. In Arizona, for instance, offenders convicted as juveniles can petition for removal after rehabilitation.
The deadline to comply with the law was July 2011. Thirty-four states have been unable to meet the full requirements, and five of those have decided they won’t even try. Arizona, Arkansas, California, Nebraska and Texas will instead forfeit 10 percent of the law-enforcement funding made available through the Justice Department.
The five states that have given up on the program still have the option to reapply for the withheld money. The 29 states that are in partial compliance have asked to have their withheld money released to help them meet conditions of the law.
Richard Kishur, an Oklahoma City counselor who has worked with sex offenders for more than 30 years, said his biggest reservation was that the law categorized offenders by the crime they commit, not the risk they actually pose.
“What we need to do is be rational about it and apply resources to people who are dangerous and quit wasting our money and time on people who aren’t dangerous,” Kishur said. ..Source..1 by Sean Murphy
References
- ^ ..Source.. (www.denverpost.com)
US hegemony-media on the US' military “pivot” to Asia « Frontlines …
This year has seen US power beginning to shift its central focus from the middle east to Asia.
North Korean Soldier Kills Two Superiors to Run Away to South …
South Korea
Minor // Crime
A North Korean soldier has deserted and crossed the border with South Korea on Saturday, saying he shot and killed two officers, said the South Korean army.
Crossing the border between the two Koreas by military defectors from the North is a rare event, the last dating from 2010, and the one on Saturday being only the fourth known in the past ten years, after those of 2002, 2008 and 2010. None of them resulted in casualties.
This desertion takes place at a sensitive time, while the two Koreas blame each other for challenges almost two months before the presidential elections in South Korea, scheduled for December 19.
There were heard six gunshots, South Korean guards spotting a North Korean soldier crossing the military demarcation line, said press spokesman of the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The same spokesman said that the soldier used a bullhorn in order to confirm that he wants to come south, local authorities leading him to a safe place, where is still under protection.
The runagate soldier explained that he killed two officers who commanded the department and his platoon before running away.
Lord's Resistance Army kidnaps dozens in raids in Central African Republic
The Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army rebels kidnapped around 55 people in raids in a remote corner of the Central African Republic on Saturday, according to Reuters 1 . A local gendarme and another eyewitness told Reuters about the September 1 attack, which highlights the difficulties Ugandan and US Special Forces face in fighting the Ugandan insurgency led by war criminal Joseph Kony. “The 55 people who were taken hostage were forced to act as porters carrying food and other basic goods they (the rebels) stole from these two villages,” said the gendarme, Nicolas Bondi. Half of those captured were girls. More on GlobalPost: African Union force to hunt Joseph Kony 2 There was no statement from Ugandan or US forces who have been hunting Kony’s rebels who left Uganda in 2005 and have been operating in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and the Central African Republic. The news comes a day after reports that the Ugandan army destroyed the base of a key general in the Lord’s Resistance Army in the Central African Republic. Ugandan Army Colonel Milton Katarinyebwa said the army had captured the headquarters of LRA General Dominic Ongwen, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court, according to the Associated Press 3 . More on GlobalPost: South Africa drops murder charges against 270 miners 4 Last week, Agence France Press reported 5 that Ugandan soldiers clashed with insurgents led by Ongwen, killing two. Army spokesman Felix Kulayigye said, “We rescued a six-year-old child in the bush whose father and mother are still in the bush and both are Ugandans. Also, the squad rescued a 19-year-old boy from DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo).” The LRA is believed to number around 250 fighters now, and has been waging an insurgency against the Ugandan government for 25 years, AFP noted. It is notorious for abducting and using children as sex slaves and soldiers. http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/africa/120903/lords-resistance-army-kidnaps-dozens-raids-central-african-repub References ^ according to Reuters (www.reuters.com) ^ African Union force to hunt Joseph Kony (www.globalpost.com) ^ according to the Associated Press (www.google.com) ^ South Africa drops murder charges against 270 miners (www.globalpost.com) ^ Agence France Press reported (www.google.com)
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Lord's Resistance Army kidnaps dozens in raids in Central African Republic
Now, rampant sex abuses reported in UK Armed Forces
London, Aug. 28 ( ANI ): One rape or sexual assault is reported by members of the British armed forces every week, but real figures could be much higher. The Member of Parliament, who released these figures, believes that they could be a huge underestimate, with the true figures closer to an attack a day. Over the past two-and-a-half-years, there have been 53 rapes and 86 sexual assaults reported in the Army, the Navy and the Air Force. According to the Daily Mail, Labour MP Madeleine Moon , who received the figures in a parliamentary question, said she was concerned that there was a ‘culture of silence’, with hundreds of victims never reporting attacks. Only nine rape cases and 45 sexual assault complaints have ended in conviction, the report said. The figures only include reports made to the Armed Forces ‘ service police departments, meaning the cases are perpetrated by servicemen and women on their compatriots, the report added. According to the report, the Ministry of Defence could not say how many victims were male and how many were female. Moon said she looked into the issue after reading that the US Department of Defense estimates that only 13.5 percent of assault victims in the Armed Forces report the attack. “Worryingly, the Ministry of Defence is saying they have no record of any prosecutions taking place in civilian courts,” Moon said. “I want to ensure the military process is robust enough and that we don’t have a culture of silence preventing cases being dealt with effectively. If there is a culture of silence, we need robust structures in place to stamp it out,” Moon added. A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said any allegations of rape and sexual assault are investigated by either the civil or service police, the report added. (ANI)
Excerpt from:
Now, rampant sex abuses reported in UK Armed Forces
No evidence of Japanese army using S. Korean women as 'sex slaves'
Mayor Toru Hashimoto of Osaka, Japan, said that there is no evidence that the Imperial Japanese Army forced Korean women and girls into sexual servitude at wartime military brothels.
South Korean President Lee Myung Bak had demanded Japan to apologize to the forced sex workers, now often described as ’sex slaves’ by the media, who were called ‘comfort women’ by the Japanese.
“There is no evidence that people called comfort women were taken away by violence or threat by the (Japanese) military,” Hashimoto said, adding: “If there is such evidence, South Korea should provide it.”
According to the Japan Times, Hashimoto also said he is ‘not denying all of what South Korea is saying,’ adding: “The military brothel system may have been ethically problematic if viewed now”.
According to the report, in August 1993, after more than one and a half years of government research into the issue, then-Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono issued a statement saying that the Japanese military was, directly or indirectly, involved in the establishment and management of ‘comfort stations’ and the transfer of ‘comfort women’.
“The government study has revealed that in many cases they were recruited against their own will, through coaxing, coercion, etc., and that, at times, administrative/military personnel directly took part in the recruitments,” the report quoted the government statement, as saying.
“It is deeply regrettable that the politician (Hashimoto) made remarks that run counter to the official position of the Japanese government,” a South Korean government spokesman in an email to The Japan Times said.
“Former Chief Cabinet Secretary Kono issued a statement acknowledging the forcible recruitment of the so-called comfort women, sexual slavery victims drafted for the Japanese Imperial Army. As such, we believe the Japanese government has already acknowledged the forced nature of the recruitment of comfort women,” the report quoted the spokesman, as saying. (ANI)
No evidence sex slaves were taken by military: Hashimoto
Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2012 OSAKA — Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto said there was no evidence that the Imperial Japanese Army forced Korean women and girls into sexual servitude at wartime military brothels. In response to a question Tuesday about South Korean President Lee Myung Bak’s visit to the disputed Takeshima islets, which are called Dokdo in South Korea, which controls them, Hashimoto touched on Lee’s recent demands for Japan to apologize to the forced sex workers — now often described as “sex slaves” by the media — who were euphemistically called “comfort women” by the Japanese. “There is no evidence that people called comfort women were taken away by violence or threat by the (Japanese) military,” Hashimoto said. “If there is such evidence, South Korea should provide it.” Hashimoto also said he is “not denying all of what South Korea is saying,” adding the military brothel system “may have been ethically problematic if viewed now.” In August 1993, after more than 1½ years of government research into the issue, then-Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono issued a statement saying the Japanese military was, directly or indirectly, involved in the establishment and management of “comfort stations” and the transfer of comfort women. “The government study has revealed that in many cases they were recruited against their own will, through coaxing, coercion, etc., and that, at times, administrative/military personnel directly took part in the recruitments,” the statement said. “It is deeply regrettable that the politician (Hashimoto) made remarks that run counter to the official position of the Japanese government,” said a South Korean government spokesman in an email to The Japan Times. “Former Chief Cabinet Secretary Kono issued a statement acknowledging the forcible recruitment of the so-called comfort women, sexual slavery victims drafted for the Japanese Imperial Army. As such, we believe the Japanese government has already acknowledged the forced nature of the recruitment of comfort women.”
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No evidence sex slaves were taken by military: Hashimoto