CHINESE TRAVEL BOOM

Analysis: China consumers counter
economy gloom with travel boom

By Nick Edwards

BEIJING | Sun Aug 12, 2012 5:39pm EDT

Nanjing Road, Shanghai
 Photo National Geographic

(Reuters) - Soaring numbers of Chinese tourists packed onto flights out of the country is a sure sign that a fast-growing consumer class of around 130 million is not worried that the likely slowest year of economic growth since 1999 will sap their spending power.

Nearly 39 million mainlanders left China on overseas trips in the first half of 2012, roughly double on five years ago and evidence that a powerful consumer force - envisaged by the top leadership as the engine of economic expansion in a generation to come - may be bulking up faster than thought.

The question for investors is if a burgeoning bourgeoisie is now big enough to fully offset the economic impact of faltering foreign demand evident in data last week, when undershoots in July new bank lending, export, import and industrial output growth prompted analysts to start slicing into GDP forecasts.

Paul French, Shanghai-based chief China strategist at market intelligence consultancy Mintel, says the purest view of the domestic economy's health always comes from the consumer.

"If consumers feel good about things they'll spend. If they don't feel good they'll stop," he told Reuters. "Travel is a good indicator because people are travelling more and they are consuming a lot when they travel abroad."

Investors, facing world growth slowing to levels economists define as marking a global recession, are anxious for any sign that critical consumer mass may have already arrived in China.

Consumer spending in China has comfortably enjoyed double-digit growth for a decade, while exports have slowed to become a net drag on the economy in 2011 and in the first half of 2012.

Retail sales rose 13.1 percent year on year in July. Adjust for inflation and it was the second best month of the year.

But that's not been enough to arrest six straight quarters of slowdown, with the latest Reuters poll forecasting economic growth to slide to 8 percent in 2012 from 9.2 percent in 2011.

While well below the 10 percent average of the last 30 years and a level that has previously prompted urgent action to create jobs, 8 percent remains above Beijing's 7.5 percent target.

Meanwhile the labor market appears tight, with data showing the ratio of vacancies to workers near its highest in 10 years.

STRONGER, FASTER

Evidence that consumers are rapidly getting stronger comes from the Geneva-based Digital Luxury Group, which reckons China's travel market is already worth some $232 billion.

Its new World Luxury Index China Hotels report says Chinese travelers made 70 million overseas trips in 2011 to be pampered at spa resorts in Bali, to shop in Dubai, Paris and London, and to spend in Singapore and Hong Kong.

International Air Travel Association chief executive, Tony Tyler, says airlines will see an extra one billion travelers in a decade if average annual incomes in China hit $15,000.

Part of the proof is in the building going on. China, IATA says, plans to build 56 new airports nationwide before the end of 2016, with a further 16 relocated and 91 being expanded.

Chinese carriers made about half of all the $7.9 billion in profits earned by the global airline industry in 2011, according to IATA, which expects international traffic growth of 8-9 percent from China in the five years to 2015.

A Beijing-backed World Bank report envisages per capita income rising to $16,000 by 2030 from about $5,000 now, with two thirds of economic activity forecast to come from domestic consumption against less than 50 percent now.

CONSUMER CUSHION

A shift to the domestic market, leveraging China's 1.3 billion-strong population, would cushion the economy from huge falls in foreign demand that Europe's debt crisis is causing, barely three years on from the trade shock it suffered in the 2008-09 global financial turmoil.

An emerging urban middle class has made grocery shopping the engine of domestic retail sales growth, taking in 41 percent of all retail spending in China which analysts at Citi reckon will be up 55 percent up over five years to $600 billion in 2012.

Annual double digit wage rises over the last decade - the government has decreed minimum wages rise at least 13 percent in the five years to 2015 - have helped China create what brokerage CLSA says is "the world's best consumption story".

But while workers in the world's second largest economy are earning more, they lag well behind those of the United States.

Average annual wages in the state-owned firms which dominate economic output were 42,452 yuan ($6,700) in 2011 and just 24,556 yuan in the private sector which creates some 75 percent of the country's jobs. The U.S. average wage was $39,959 in 2010, according to the latest data available.

China's wealthy elite, however, have generated a whole new market for the world's luxury personal goods makers, estimated to be worth $25 billion a year now and likely to leapfrog Japan and the United States to the $28 billion top spot by 2015.

It indicates a consumer market presently polarized between the super rich and a middle-class with modest discretionary spending strength, but growing rapidly in size and affluence.

It is one reason why Yolanda Fernandez Lommen, head of the economics unit at the Asian Development Bank's China mission, says a self-sustaining consumer class is some way off.

"We consider that 10-15 percent of the population shows a consumption pattern that is consistent with the type that would be regarded as a solid domestic driver of growth," she said.

"In general, economies where consumption plays a meaningful role as a driver of growth entail a wide middle class that on average comprises about 70-80 percent of the population."

AFFLUENCE ARRIVING

China officially classed 51 percent of its citizens as urban dwellers in 2011, but that includes some 230 million rural migrant workers who generally do poorly paid jobs in cities, lack residency rights in them and have very little to spend.

Only deep structural reforms will turn those migrant workers into fully-fledged urban consumers, Fernandez Lommen said.

Analysts at consultancy, McKinsey, say affluence is arriving faster than many economists anticipate, forecasting a giant leap by 2020 based on annual surveys it has carried out since 2005.

By then China will have 167 million "mainstream" consumer households - those with annual disposable income of between $16,000 and $34,000 - more than 10 times the 14 million, or 6 percent, who currently fit that definition.

There will also be 120 million households with $6,000-$15,999 of spending power, according to McKinsey.

Analysts at Nomura point out that domestic consumption contributed 4.5 percentage points of the 7.8 percent growth in China in the first half of 2012.

All of which implies consumer strength underpinning activity - and the confidence Mintel's French says his clients have in the spending power of China's shoppers at home and overseas.

"The only thing we're seeing slowdown in is some softening in the higher end numbers for luxury goods. But the reason for that is because we have got unparalleled amounts of arbitrage going on from the Chinese going abroad and shopping," he said.

(Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

Peter’s Comment

It proves the old adage, it’s made round to go round.

China and India, traditionally countries of large population and widespread poverty are emerging as the economic power-houses of the twenty-first century.

Watch out also for Nigeria with its population of 170 million, huge resources and rapidly expanding technology industries.

GLOBALIZATION

Jobs dry up for travel 

agents and IT workers

By Alanah Eriksen New Zealand Herald Business

5:30 AM Monday Aug 13, 2012

The internet has diminished some industries significantly - including travel agents. Photo / Thinkstock

If you're a travel agent or an accountant, you could be facing "extinction" by 2017.

Car manufacturers, retail and IT workers may also need to start thinking about a new career path as consumers increasingly turn to the internet for services and employers outsource for cheaper labor.

The Balance Recruitment agency has compiled a list of the top five jobs they believe will disappear in the next five years.

Managing director Greg Pankhurst said overseas companies were becoming more trusted by local businesses.

"Many jobs will become obsolete due to technological advances, while others will simply move offshore to Asia," he said. "Offshoring is not a new phenomenon, but people are getting a lot better at it and higher-skilled jobs are starting to go offshore. It used to be the very basic roles.

"It is vital people understand these changes and attempt to reskill so they don't end up becoming superfluous."

Continues below  . . . 

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New Zealand has been benefiting over the past few years as Australian companies outsourced services to New Zealand because it was a 'significantly cheaper' place to do business. But 'a lot of the stigma' about outsourcing further afield had been broken, Mr Pankhurst said.

A computer programmer in India would earn about $8000 a year compared with between $70,000 and $75,000 in New Zealand, he said.

The internet had also diminished some industries significantly, Mr Pankhurst said. Initially, bookshops, travel agents, music and video stores were affected but now niche and high-end suppliers of goods such as sporting goods, computers and branded fashion items, were selling products online.

Economists were expecting New Zealanders to spend $3.2 billion on online purchases this year, with the figure jumping to $5.4 billion for 2016, he said.

Auckland Flight Centre travel agent Mike van Beekhuizen said he didn't fear for his job as people enjoyed the face-to-face experience of customer service.

"You're making holidays come true for families, people are saving for these big trips. You get an email from them when they come back or they come and visit you and they just tell you about their experiences," he said.

The jobs that will survive were those that required a human touch such as hospitality workers, tourism operators, tradesmen, logistics workers, aged and health care and government workers including politicians.

Peter’s Comment

It’s not all doom and gloom because as one door closes another opens.

A hundred years ago the world was bemoaning the loss of wooden-wheel makers for wagons so really nothing has changed, while everything has changed.

Industries and occupations are lost when more efficient industries and occupations take their place and efficiency ultimately puts money in everyone’s pockets. Granted there can be pain during transition but in the end progress means wealth for more people and that can be seen in the growing range of products and services available.

When the wooden wagon wheel disappeared there were few cars, aircraft or telephones. Radio, television, computers and music tapes and discs were all products yet to be launched. Launching those products was not just a simple matter of inventing them and selling millions. They would have been useless until people had the money to buy them.

Outsourcing is a dirty word to many but it has positive benefits. It helps reduce the cost of goods and services and bring them within the reach of more people.

India, with more poverty and unemployment than any other country in the world, benefits enormously from outsourcing and that is just part of the evolving economic globalization in which ultimately everyone wins.

HOW TO BEAT THE SCAMMERS

Why We Should Scam

the Scammers

How can we stop those ubiquitous Nigerian ploys and other flimflams? Look at it from the perps' perspective

Reply to their scam emails and
waste as much of their time as you can

If you type "Nigerian" into Google, one of the top suggestions for completing the phrase is "scam." We all get them: unsolicited emails promising us a share of some lost fortune sequestered in an obscure place, if only we will help the rightful owner recover it. The "help" usually consists of transferring money to someone you don't know, most commonly in Nigeria or another African country. And, of course, the vast payout never materializes.

It should be a familiar story. In 2006, the New Yorker ran a piece about a New England psychotherapist in his 50s who was contacted by one "Captain Joshua Mbote" to help recover $55 million. He ended up losing $80,000—and, as the scam also involved cashing checks and passing on some of the funds, was sentenced to two years in prison for bank fraud and other crimes. According to Dutch firm Ultrascan, victims of these so-called advance-fee scams lost $9.3 billion in 2009, up from $6.3 billion the year before.

Make them dream about
the money they hope to scam from you
before you turn tire-kicker

So why do the scammers persist in blanketing the world with outlandish propositions, announcing that they are from the very country whose name has become synonymous with online fraud?

Cormac Herley, a computer scientist at Microsoft Research who specializes in security issues, provides a convincing answer in a paper presented at a conference in Berlin and recently published on his website. In it, he analyzes the con mathematically, using an approach called signal detection theory. His crucial insight is to look at the situation not from the victim's point of view but from that of the scammers. Their challenge is to hook only people who will get sucked in deeply enough to send a significant amount of money—the "true positives." They must minimize the effort they devote to "false positives" (targets who might seem like dupes but are suspicious and/or never pay up).

It costs the scammers virtually nothing to spam the world, but it costs them a lot (especially in terms of time) to conduct all the follow-ups necessary to reel a sucker all the way in. The people behind "Captain Mbote" spent six months pursuing their quarry before he started wiring money to them.

A proposal offering a more realistic scenario might generate more replies, but most of them wouldn't pan out. The effort of sorting through them to find the real suckers would undermine the scheme's profitability. Instead, by screaming "This is another absurd instance of the familiar Nigerian scam," the fraudsters are filtering out what to them is spam—responses from suspicious people they don't want to deal with—and "letting through" only those most likely to play along. The fewer potential victims in the world, the more precisely the scammers must target them, and thus the more absurd and easy-to-spot the attacks should be.

The Nigerian scammers aren't alone in using this approach. Phishing attacks, like the urgent emails from the "IT Support Team" requesting our passwords to avert some Internet calamity, are so hackneyed that they likely ensnare only the extremely naive or credulous.

Mr. Herley's analysis of the Nigerian scam suggests a counterintuitive way to fight back. Most efforts to reduce Internet fraud focus on reducing the number of people who reply to scammers—by educating users or by filtering out the scam emails. But some attacks inevitably slip through, and some Internet neophytes inevitably fall prey.

A more effective solution, Mr. Herley suggests, would require considering the goal of the scammers. Increasing the number of responses to their emails, he shows, can reduce profits, as long as those responses come from people who never send money. Such "scam baiters" already exist (the community website "419 Eater," named after the Nigerian law that governs fraud, offers tips and support). The more scam baiters, the lower the average return to the scammers on each attack and the less incentive they have to continue the scam.

Perhaps clever artificial intelligence researchers could create automated scam-baiter bots that would simulate gullible victims, drawing out the interaction as long as possible. The most convincing victim-bot would possess sophisticated knowledge of how the scammers think and behave—precisely the knowledge that tends to elude us when we look at the world only from our own perspective. Similarly, the profitability of phishing scams could be reduced by sending bogus account numbers and other data back to the scammers.

As Mr. Herley's paper shows, what seems stupid can actually be quite sophisticated. It's only by imagining the situation with the roles reversed that we can see what we've been missing.

MORE IN LIFE & CULTURE » By CHRISTOPHER F. CHABRIS and DANIEL SIMONS

Peter’s Comment

This is a radically different approach and the opposite of the advice traditional given on how to handle spammers.

Previously we were told don’t open emails that look suspect and certainly don’t reply to them.

Nigerian scams have come a long way since the days when they used snail mail and postage to trap people. Today it is a low-cost, effective and highly profitable industry. It is the effectiveness that needs to be targeted by scam the scammer proponents.

So we should all give them lots of work to do. We should act dumb, plead for their help to lift us out of our poverty and string them along for as long as we can before they give us up as tire-kickers.

I’ll go for that.

THE NEW ZEALAND TREATY

Rodney Hide:
End the Treaty gravy train
New Zealand Herald - Rodney Hide

The Waitangi Tribunal. From left, Pou Temara, Timothy Castle, Ron Crosby
and Chief Judge Wilson Isaac. Not visible is James Busby's wine.
Photo by Mark Mitchell

New Zealand’s Waitangi Tribunal is our Babylonian priesthood. Its members spend their days poring over a tatty old text seeking guidance for modern-day government.

The funny thing isn't that they do it. The funny thing is that anyone takes them seriously.

Treaty priests have rearranged New Zealand's constitutional set-up, redefined our system of government and stopped government policy dead in its tracks. They've held large-scale projects hostage to the principles their search has uncovered.

James Busby, Official British Resident and
New Zealand's first wine-maker

The Treaty priests are forever teasing and torturing the 176 Maori words that make up the three articles of the Treaty. They are greatly assisted by the Maori language being both very limited and obsolete.

That enables them wide latitude in translation and enables very creative interpretations to be given to the Maori version of the Treaty of Waitangi. The priesthood weighs and measures the "kawanatanga" that Maori ceded in Article 1 against the "tino rangatiratanga" guaranteed in Article 2.

"Kawanatanga" is an entirely new word. The early missionaries coined the term to explain King Herod. The Treaty priests now balance that meaning to determine who owns the radio spectrum, fish that are a 1000m deep, geothermal resources and plant DNA.

It's an extraordinary achievement. It's all the more extraordinary that kawanatanga was minted back in 1840 to explain a King of Judea who lived 2000 years ago.

There are simply not enough words in the Treaty to provide all the guidance the priests seek. No matter. The priests have declared the Treaty a living, breathing document. With a spirit. It's at once sacred and immutable and simultaneously living and evolving. New principles leap from the Treaty. Old ones are constantly re-engineered. Parliament, no less, has declared that the Waitangi Tribunal "shall have exclusive authority to determine the meaning and effect of the Treaty as embodied in the two texts and to decide issues raised by the differences between them".

Captain William Hobson, first Lieutenant-
Governor of New Zealand

The priests have been spurred along by Parliament legislating the "Principles of the Treaty" without detailing what they are and by the courts declaring one principle to be "partnership". Brilliant.

We now supposedly have a partnership between Maori and the Crown, even though neither version of the Treaty mentions it. University of Canterbury law lecturer David Round has succinctly explained why it's nonsense. If Maori truly are the sovereign's partners then they are not the sovereign's subjects.

They are instead equal with the Queen. The only subjects in New Zealand are non-Maori so they must be subjects both of the Queen and of Maori, her partner.

The partnership deal is nonsense. But the priesthood don't have to make sense, they just have to be believed and followed. That's what gives them their power and their force.

Not all Maori can be in partnership with the Crown. There are just too many and it is not practical.

So in practice, only the Maori elite get special status in consultation with the Government and a special say over Government policy. Their agreement to policy is sought and paid for with Government contracts and policy sweeteners.

Quite how the Maori elite get chosen is a mystery. But somehow it happens. And behind the scenes they wield considerable economic and political power.

Signing the Treaty at Waitangi, February 6, 1840

Imagine it. Queen Victoria is recently enthroned in her brand new Palace of Buckingham. Her country is the most industrialized economy the world has ever seen. Her empire stretches around the globe. Maori number fewer than 100,000. They have very limited technology and resources. They have been warring among themselves for more than 30 years. They have killed 20,000 of their own. Another 40,000 Maori are enslaved or displaced. The Musket Wars have overturned traditional tribal territories.

I know, says the Queen, "I will partner up with Maori to govern that far-flung corner of my empire. The Maori and I shall share power. And I will bind my heirs and successors to the deal."

Nope. Never happened. The clear Article 3 promise of "all the rights and privileges of British subjects" was very generous and compassionate. To this day, many peoples of the world wish and dream that they too could enjoy those self-same rights and privileges.

But the priesthood have declared there is a partnership. And Parliament and the Government listen. And so a partnership of sorts there is. The Treaty claims are destined to be endless. There is no agreed list of demands that, once accepted, ends the gravy train.

But Parliament is still all-powerful.

Parliament could simply declare that the final say on what the Treaty means is the clear-cut English text - and that the words mean exactly what they say. That would end it. Overnight.

By Rodney Hide

Peter’s Comment

Rodney Hide is a former New Zealand Member of Parliament and former leader of the New Zealand Act Party. His article on the Treaty of Waitangi, although rather wordy, is basically correct.

The Treaty of Waitangi, drafted on February 5, 1840 and signed the next day, should be recorded in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest enduring document ever written without any understandable meaning or legal standing.

Let’s look at what happened. The architects of the treaty were a missionary, a ship’s captain and a wine-maker. Between them their total legal training amounted to zilch. But that didn’t deter them and they hastily put together a wishy-washy piece of written flim-flam and immediately congratulated themselves on producing the founding document of a new nation.
Continues below

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Unfortunately, due to their ineptitude the treaty had no commencement date, no provision for amendment, no list of interpretations, no expiry date and no means by which it could be superseded, all normal provisions in a binding contract between parties.  

In short, it was not a legally binding document.

I think I can understand how that happened. The sea captain would have been still trying to get his land-legs again after a turbulent crossing of the Tasman Sea. The missionary would have been thinking about the bibles he could exchange for land and the wine-maker would have been making liberal disbursements of his wares among the parties.

And so 172 years later the Waitangi Tribunal has the all-expenses-paid task of sorting out the mess and that may well take another 172 years.

So what is the answer? The legislative answer is simple but the political ramifications may require some intestinal fortitude. An Act of Parliament should be passed revoking the treaty and the revocation should be retrospective to February 6, 1840, but with no forfeiture of settlements already made.

New Zealand has a modern Bill of Rights that is well drafted and recognizes all citizens as equals. 

TRAVEL EMERGENCIES

Emergency Phone Numbers are a worldwide disaster

Don’t have an accident or any kind of emergency while traveling because the chances are that the number you dial for the local emergency services will be wrong.

A check of the worldwide emergency numbers listed by Wikipedia revealed that there is limited international coordination of emergency numbers. 

Depending on where you are in the world and what kind of emergency you experience the correct number to dial could be any one of 72 different emergency numbers. If you try to dial each in turn you may run out of oxygen (or blood) before you get through.

The best known emergency number is 911 due to television publicity for the number, but it is only used in eight countries including the USA where it had its origins in 1968 and Canada, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Jordan, Liberia, Paraguay and Uruguay.

Australia has the the most practical number, even though it is strictly speaking not a number at all. If you are down on your luck downunder in the Lucky Country you simply dial 000. It is easy to remember and easy to find on most phones. Unfortunately, no other country uses this very sensible emergency number.

New Zealand has gone one better than Australia with 111 which is also easy to dial and remember, but is shared only by Sri Lanka.

Continued below . . . .

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Fifty-six countries currently use 112, the most common emergency number, including most of Europe and numerous other scattered countries.

To complicate matters many countries list separate emergency numbers for different emergency services. One country, Egypt has seven emergency numbers for seven different services, while India lists 11 numbers for different services and regions.

In some enlightened countries your call will be redirected to the correct emergency number if you incorrectly dial 112 or 911.

Going traveling? Go happy, go safe. Take these numbers with you.

Emergency numbers from Wikipedia

Wikipedia Notice: This article is outdated. Please update this article (on the Wikipedia website) to reflect recent events or newly available information. (January 2010)

Note: When multiple numbers are listed they are usually for police, medical and fire services but not always in that order.

Africa

Algeria, 17, 14; Chad 17, 18; Djibouti, 17, 18; Egypt, 122, 123, 180; Ghana, 191, 193, 192; Mali, 17, 15, 18; Mauritius, 999, 114, 115, City 19; Morocco, 177, 15; Nigeria, 199; South Africa, 10111, 10177; Tunisia, 197, 190, 198; Rwanda, 112; Uganda, 999; Sudan, 999; Sierra Leone, 019, 999; Zambia, 999, 991, 993; Zimbabwe, 995, 994, 993.

Asia
Afghanistan, 119, 102; Bangladesh, 999; Bahrain, 999; China, 110, 120, 122, 119; Myanmar, 191; Hong Kong, 999; India, 100, 2611, 102, 1298, 108, 112, 101; Indonesia, 110, 118, 119, 113; Iran, 110, 115, 125; Israel, 100, 101, 102; Japan, 110, 119; Jordan, 911 or 112; Kazakhstan, 112; North Korea, 119; South Korea, 112, 119; Kuwait, 112; Lebanon, 112/999, 140, 175; Macau, 999; Maldives, 102; Malaysia, 999; Mongolia, 102, 103, 101; Nepal, 100/103, 102, 101; Oman, 999; Pakistan, 15, 1915, 115/1122, 16; Philippines, 117; Qatar, 999; Saudi Arabia, 999, 997, 998; Singapore, 999, 995; Sri Lanka, 119/118, 110, 111; Syria, 112, 110, 113; Taiwan, 110, 119; Tajikistan, 112; Thailand, 191, 1669, 199; Turkey, 115, 112, 110; United Arab Emirates, 999/112, 998/999, 997; Vietnam, 113, 115, 114.

Europe
Albania, 129, 127, 128; Amenia, 102, 103, 101; Austria, 112; Belarus, 102, 103, 101; Belgium 112; Bosnia and Herzegovena, 122, 124, 123; Bulgaria, 112; Croatia, 112; Northern Cyprus, 112; Cyprus, 112; Czech Republic, 112; Denmark, 112; Estonia, 112; Faroe Islands, 112; Finland, 112; France, 112; Georgia, 112; Germany, 112; Gibraltar, 112/199; Greece, 112; Hungary, 112; Iceland, 112; Ireland, 999/112; Italy, 112; Latvia, 112; Lithuania, 112; Luxembourg, 112; Macedonia, 112; Malta, 112; Moldova, 902, 903, 901; Monaco, 112; Montenegro, 112; Netherlands, 112; Norway, 112, 113, 110; Poland, 112; Portugal, 112; Romania, 112; Russia, 112; San Marino, 113, 118, 115; Serbia, 112; Slovakia, 112; Slovenia, 112; Spain, 112; Sweden, 112 (old number was 90000); Switzerland, 112; Turkey, 115, 112, 110; Ukraine, 112; United Kingdom, 999/112; Vatican City, 113, 118, 115;

Oceania
Australia, 000; Fiji, 911, 9170; New Zealand, 111; Solomon Islands, 999; Vanuatu, 112

North America
Canada, 911; Greenland, 112; Mexico, 066, 065, 068; Saint Pierre and Miquelon, 17, 15, 18; United Sates of America, 911.

Central America and Caribbean
Guatemala, 110, 120, 123; El Salvador, 911; Costa Rica, 911/112; Panama, 911/112; Barbados, 211, 511, 311; Cayman Islands, 911; Dominican Republic, 911/112; Jamaica, 119, 110; Trinidad and Tobago, 999, 990; Nicaragua, 118; Hunduras, 119; Haiti, 118.

South America
Argentina, 101, 107, 100; Bolivia, 110, 118, 119; Brazil, 190, 192, 193; Chile, 133, 131, 132; Colombia, 112/113, 156, 132, 119; Ecuador, 911, 101, 102; French Guyana, 17, 15, 18; Guyana, 911, 913, 912; Paraguay, 911; Peru, 105, 117, 116; Suriname, 115; Uruguay, 911; Venezuela, 171.

MOVING ON

Florida Man Selling

'American Dream' on eBay

Shane Butcher, 29, video game store owner is selling the American Dream on eBay for $3.5 million

By CHRISTINA NG (@ChristinaNg27)

Aug. 11, 2012

"I'm selling my American dream on eBay," Shane Butcher of Tampa Bay, Fla., happily told ABCNews.com.

Butcher, 29, is selling everything he owns for a price of $3.5 million on eBay.

His "American dream" includes the three fully equipped and stocked video game stores he owns, a two-bedroom waterfront townhouse, a waterfront rental condo, three cars and two kayaks.

"There are some things that aren't included. My dog, for instance. My wife and child aren't included either," Butcher said with a laugh.

Butcher got the idea when he heard that a few other people had made similar sales on eBay. He was excited about the prospect of a new challenge and hopes that he can pass on his success to someone else.

"If you build a castle, it's awesome to sell it and then start building another one, hopefully bigger and better," he said.

As part of the deal, he will train the stores' new owner for six months and will even pay one year of the stores' leases and fees so that the owner does not have to worry about them while getting acclimated to the new gig.

"It's something you don't see every day. You don't see people selling their life on eBay," Butcher said. "There's plenty of other weird things you see on there like a grilled cheese with the Virgin Mary's face on it, but this doesn't happen very often."

So far, Butcher said he has one serious potential buyer. He has been corresponding with the person, who is interested in visiting him to see the properties and check out the financials.

"Big corporations will buy out other corporations that are in trouble and for hundreds of millions," Butcher said. "I don't see why someone wouldn't want to buy a business that's doing well."

Butcher does not know what career path he would take next if he is able to sell his American dream, but he does know that there are many places he wants to explore with his wife and 9-month-old daughter.

"There's so many things I haven't seen and you just can't see everything when you're tied down to a business," he said. "I've never seen Mount Everest, Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone National Park--I want to go see things. I have a huge bucket list."

Peter’s Comment

Shane Butcher is obviously a man who thinks well on his feet and appears to have don’t exceptionally well for a 29 year-old.

Being an innovator and dreamer myself, I can put myself on his wave-length and can see him using his $3.5 million in a buy-out of Peter Blakeborough’s Blog.

The blog is a 100% portable business that can be operated anywhere in the world with a lap-top and an internet connection. The financials can be discussed privately, but the blog consistently doubles its readership ever 3 to 4 weeks.

WAR DOGS

The Dog that  Cornered
Osama Bin Laden

When U.S.  President Barack Obama went to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, for a highly publicized, but very private meeting with the commando team that killed Osama bin Laden, only one of the 81 members of the super-secret SEAL DevGru  unit was identified by name: Cairo, the war dog.

Cairo, like most canine members of the elite U.S. Navy SEALs, is a Belgian Malinois. The Malinois breed is similar to German shepherds but smaller and more compact, with an adult male weighing in the 30-kilo range.      

German shepherds are still used as war dogs by the American military but the lighter, stubbier Malinois is considered better for the tandem parachute jumping and rappelling operations often undertaken by SEAL teams. La brad or retrievers are also favored by various military organizations around the world.

Like their human  counterparts, the dog SEALs are highly trained, highly skilled, highly motivated special ops experts, able to perform extraordinary military  missions by Sea, Air and Land (thus the acronym SEAL).

The dogs carry  out a wide range of specialized duties for the military teams to which  they are attached: With a sense of smell 40 times greater than a human's,  the dogs are trained to detect and identify both explosive material and  hostile or hiding humans.

The dogs are twice as fast as a fit human, so anyone trying to escape is not likely to outrun Cairo or his buddies.

The dogs, equipped with video cameras, also enter certain danger zones first, allowing their handlers to see what's ahead before humans follow.

 As I mentioned before, SEAL dogs are even trained parachutists, jumping either in tandem with their handlers or solo, if the jump is into water. Last year canine parachute instructor Mike Forsythe and his dog Cara set the world record for highest man-dog parachute deployment, jumping from more than 30,100 feet up - the altitude transoceanic passenger jets fly at.

Both Forsythe and Cara were wearing oxygen masks and skin protectors for the jump.  Here's a photo from that jump:

As well, the dogs are faithful, fearless and ferocious - incredibly frightening and efficient attackers.

I have seen it reported repeatedly that the teeth of SEAL war dogs are replaced with titanium implants that are stronger, sharper and scare-your-pants-off intimidating, but a U.S. Military spokesman has denied that charge, so I really don't know (never having seen a canine SEAL face-to-face). I do know that I've never seen a photo of a war dog with anything even vaguely resembling a set of shiny metal chompers.

When the SEAL DevGru team (usually known by its old designation, Team 6) hit bin Laden’s Pakistan compound on May 2, Cairo’s feet would have been four of the first on the ground. And like the human SEALs, Cairo was wearing super-strong, flexible body.

Armor and  outfitted with high-tech equipment that included "doggles"  -  specially  designed and fitted dog goggles with night-vision and  infrared capability that  would even allow Cairo to see human heat forms  through concrete  walls.

Now where on earth would anyone get that kind of incredibly niche hi-tech doggie gear?

From Winnipeg, of all places. Jim and Glori Slater's Manitoba hi-tech mom-and-pop business, K9 Storm Inc, has a deserved worldwide reputation for designing and manufacturing probably the best body Armor available for police and military dogs. Working dogs in 15 countries around the world are currently protected by their K9 Storm body Armor.