Population:  23.2 million

Shanghai is the largest city in China and the world’s third largest urban agglomeration. Only Tokyo and Seoul have more people. It is the largest urban area in the world that does not serve as a national capital city. It is ranked as a global city because of its influence in commerce, culture, finance, media, fashion, technology, and transport. It is a high-level command center for the global economy and one of the world’s major financial hubs and transportation centers. It sits on the East China Sea and is one of the world’s busiest ports.

 The city has one of the world’s most impressive, ultra-modern skylines. In the last 20 years it has been the center of the busiest, ongoing construction projects with soaring skyscrapers going up annually. The Jin Mao Tower and Oriental Pearl Tower are among the tallest buildings in the world. Shanghai is the commercial and financial center of mainland China, and ranks fifth in the 2011 edition of the Global Financial Centres Index.  In the last two decades Shanghai has been one of the fastest developing cities in the world with hundreds of thousands of Chinese moving into the city every year attracted by better opportunities there. The three largest service industries are financial services, retail, and real estate. The manufacturing and agricultural sectors accounted for 39.9 percent and 0.7 percent of the total output respectively.

 After spending its first years as small fishing village, slowly rising from village to city and to municipality, Shanghai began attracting foreign traders and investors in the 1800’s. European powers quickly recognized its potential. As more foreigners poured into the city it was only a matter of time before trouble boiled over. The United Kingdom occupied the city during the First Opium War. To avert further trouble, a series of treaties were signed ultimately allowing the United Kingdom, United States, Germany and France to carve out concessions, creating Shanghai’s International Settlement. During the 1930s it became the Far East’s wealthiest city. But it wasn’t to last. During World War II it suffered considerable damage and hardship under Japanese occupation. Then in 1949, after communist victory in the Chinese Civil War, the city’s

international influence declined. But in the 1990s, the economic reforms introduced by Chinese premier Deng Xiaoping resulted in an intense re-development of the city, aiding the return of finance and foreign investment to the city. By the 21st Century, Shanghai was long officially back in business. In 2010 it hosted the World Expo.

Official language: Mandarin Chinese

Land area: 13,902 sq mi/36,006 sq km

Population:  24,035,000

Dominant religion:  Buddhism

Capital: Taipei

Current leader: President Ma Ying-jeou

Taiwan is an island in the South China Sea, about 90 miles (140 kilometers) off the coast of China. It is separated from the Chinese mainland by the Taiwan Strait. The island is the home of the political entity known officially as the Republic of China.

 Han Chinese make up more than 95 percent of Taiwan’s population. Most are the descendants of mainland Chinese who fled to the island when the communists gained control of the mainland following the Chinese Civil War. Native aborigines constitute a very small percentage of the population. There are also other Asian nationals who have come to Taiwan attracted by its strong economy. More than 80 percent of the population live in urban areas.

 Taiwan is one Asia’s strongest economies and one of the main industrial hubs. The country is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of electronics and electrical components. Its factories also produce machinery, motor vehicles, televisions and other consumer goods. Its major trading partners are Canada, China, the European Union, Japan, South Korea and the United States. It has one of the world’s best and most efficient transportation systems.

 The first Chinese settlers began moving to Taiwan in the 500’s. It was officially made part of China in the 1600’s. Japan took control of the island in 1895 following the Sino-Japanese War. After World War II, the Nationalists retook possession. In 1949, the Chinese Communists defeated the Chinese Nationalists. Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalists fled to Taiwan and set up a government in exile. Until the 1970’s, most of the international community continued to recognize the Nationalists in Taiwan as the legitimate government of all of China. But in 1971 the United Nations expelled the Nationalists and gave its seat to mainland China. By the end of the 1970’s most countries, even the major western democracies, had switched diplomatic recognition to Beijing although many continue to have low-level liaison ties with Taiwan. Today, fewer than 25 mostly small, poor countries have full diplomatic relations with Taiwan. A growing number of Taiwanese have called for an official declaration of independence from the mainland Chinese due to the vast ideological and political differences between the two entities. But the government, wary of frequent threats of military action by China, which continues to regard Taiwan as a rebellious province, has, for the meantime, opted for the status quo.

 The Soviet Union suffered brutally at the hands of the invading German armies during World War II. Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania aided Germany in its attack against the Soviet Union. Determined to see to it that the Soviet Union would never again be attacked by a powerful Germany, Soviet dictator Josef Stalin decided that his country needed buffer states that would protect the Soviet Union in the invent that Germany rose from the ashes and tried to attack again. As the Soviet army continued its march across Eastern Europe, pushing the Germans back, it took control of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. Although Stalin promised his co-victors – the United States and the United Kingdom – that there would be free and fair elections so that those countries could determine their own paths the elections were mostly rigged so that the communists would come to power. The Soviets also supervised elections in its sphere of influence in Germany, which became East Germany. By the end of the 1940’s, Stalin had his buffer zone.

 Each of the Soviet satellites had a Soviet-inspired communist form of government. The government controlled the economy and nearly every aspect of its citizens’ lives, including the media. Opposing political parties were banned. No one was allowed to speak out against the government. Citizens were not allowed to travel abroad without permission from the government. The governments frequently used propaganda, portraying the western democracies as corrupt and decadent, to keep its citizens in line. Many of them even incorporated the Soviet trademark hammer and sickle into their national flags as sign of their allegiance to the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

 Although all of the countries were considered sovereign countries, they were frequently subjected to Soviet interference and the Soviet Union exercised a high degree of authority over political decisions in these countries. On two occasions, in fact, the Soviet Union demonstrated just how far it was willing to go to keep its satellites from leaving orbit. In 1956, Hungary tried to introduce political reform and allow opposing parties to freely operate. Moscow sent troops and tanks into Budapest to retake control of the country and expelled the reformist-minded politicians from the government. In 1968, in what became known as the Prague Spring, Czechoslovakia’s communist premier, Alexander Dubcek, attempted reforms, wanting to create “socialism with a human face”. It drew a similar response from Moscow, which feared that it would lose a communist ally.

 In the late 1980’s, when Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev began relaxing restrictions on Soviet citizens, the Soviet satellites saw the perfect opportunity to break free of Soviet influence and retake control of their own affairs. One by one, in seemingly rapid succession, each country began holding free elections, ejecting communists from power. By the 1991, each of the Soviet satellites had dislodged communist rule, effectively ending the existence of the Soviet Bloc.

Official language: Romanian

Land area: 92,043 sq mi/238,391 sq km

Population:  21,086,000

Dominant religion: Christianity

Capital: Bucharest

Current leader: President Traian Basescu

Romania is a country in Eastern Europe. It shares borders with Ukraine to the north, Moldova to the northeast, the Black Sea to the east, Bulgaria to the south and Serbia and Hungary to the west.

 Ethnic Romanians comprise just over 90 percent of Romania’s population. Other ethnic groups living in the country include Bulgarians, Hungarians, Roma, Turks and Ukrainians.

 Romania’s economy is one of Europe’s poorest. This is due mostly in part to decades of government mismanagement when the country was under communist rule. Since the fall of communism, however, the economy has begun to grow. Industry and manufacturing have surpassed agriculture as the country’s main source of economic activity.

 During much of its early history Romania was divided into different principalities that gradually became united. In the late 1400’s the Ottoman Empire seized what is now Romania and kept control the early 1800’s, when Russia gained possession. Russia withdrew in 1834, effectively giving Romania independence. At the end of World War I, Romania gained Transylvania from Hungary. During World War II, Romania, along with Bulgaria, Finland and Hungary joined Germany in its invasion of the Soviet Union. After the Soviets repelled the invasion they occupied Romania and set up a communist government, making Romania a Soviet satellite state.

 Romania suffered harshly under communist rule, especially from Nicolae Ceausescu who plundered much of the country’s wealth so that he and his family could live in the kind of luxury usually denied in the communist world.

 While communism was overthrown relatively easy in most other Eastern European in the late 1980’s, communism’s fall in Romania was somewhat volatile. When demonstrators took to the streets calling for Ceausescu and the communist leadership to step down Ceausescu ordered his security forces to fire on the demonstrators, killing hundreds. Eventually, many members of the security and military defected from the government and joined the rebellion. When it soon became clear that his days in power were coming to an end Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, attempted to flee the country but were captured, put on trial for embezzlement and later executed.

Official language: Polish

Land area: 120,728 sq mi/312,685 sq km

Population:  38,128,000

Dominant religion: Christianity

Capital:  Warsaw

Current leader: President Bronislaw Komorowski

Poland is a country in Eastern Europe, bounded by the Baltic Sea and the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad to the north, Lithuania to the northeast, Belarus and Ukraine to the east, Slovakia and the Czech Republic to the south and Germany to the west.

 Ethnic Poles make up about 95 percent of Poland’s population. The country also has a number of ethnic Belarusians, Germans, Lithuanians and Ukrainians.

 Since the fall of communism, Poland’s economy has grown rapidly. The country has large deposits of copper, lead, salt, silver, sulfur and zinc. It is also one of the world’s leading producers of potatoes and rye and exports items such cars, coal, food products and machinery.

 Poland’s past is wrought with periods of cold relations with its neighbors and frequent conquest by foreign powers. During the 1500’s it had amassed a sizeable empire that included parts of present-day Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine but by the country suffered a downturn and by 1772, the Austria-Hungarian Empire, Prussia and Russia had carved the country amongst themselves. Poland would remain out of existence for nearly 150 years until, following the end of World War I, the three countries that carved it up were forced to give back the land. During the World War II, Poland was the first country to fall to Germany and was once again divided, this time between Germany and the Soviet Union. Poland suffered heavily under the rule of the Nazis, who believed that the Polish and other Slavic peoples were inferior. It is estimated that more than 6 million Poles, more than half of them Polish Jews, lost their lives during German occupation.

 At the end of the war the Soviet Union, which had occupied Poland while pushing back the Germans, installed a communist government and the country became a Soviet satellite state. Its name, under the new communist constitution, was the People’s Republic of Poland. The people of Poland, however, never fully submitted to communist rule and frequently staged strikes and anti-government riots demanding reforms. In 1989, as communism’s grip on Eastern Europe was loosening, Poland held free elections after which the communists finally surrendered power. Later that year the country dropped the sardonic communist moniker “People’s” from it name, becoming the Republic of Poland.

Tofalaria is isolated from the rest of the world and from the rest of Russia. For most of the year, it is only possible to reach the Tofa nation by helicopter or bi-plane. In the coldest parts of the winter, it is possible to travel by truck over frozen rivers. Tofalaria’s isolation does not stop the Russian government and culture from having an effect, however. The Russian government is a huge contributor to the disappearance of Siberian languages. In fact, numerous Siberian languages that have disappeared in the last few generations are thought to have done so purely because of government policies regarding the use of indigenous languages.

Beginning in 1927 and continuing for a few decades, the Communist government had complete power over Tofalaria. They targeted nomads, like the Tofalar, and crushed their herding traditions (”Great Reindeer…”). In the 1950s, elderly Tofalars were told that they could not enter the village store wearing their traditional clothing, and they were not allowed to speak Tofa in the streets. The government eventually issued an order stating that no Tofa was to be spoken- only Russian was allowed. Many older Tofalars remember being discriminated against. Children remember being beaten and punished in school by their teachers for not being able to speak Russian. The youth were forced to shift to Russian, which essentially guaranteed that the next generation would speak Russian instead of Tofa. At this time, the religion of the Tofalars was Shamanism, and even the Shamans were thrown in jail by the government for using the Tofa language in their healing rituals .  When the Tofalars were forced to use a language other than Tofa, it sent Tofa in a downward spiral towards destruction.

Tofa is a language composed of pieces of other languages, built around knowledge of reindeer. Tofa is Turkic in its structure and in some phonemes. Tofa has the Turkic “short vowel phonemes of hard row” (а, о, у, ы) and “of soft row” (э, ө, ү, и). However, Tofa has its own pharyngealized phonemes as well ( аъ, оъ, уъ, ыъ, эъ, өъ, үъ, иъ, әъ, iъ, аа, оо, уу, ыы, ээ, өө, үү, ии, әә, ii). Grammatically, Tofa is an agglutinative language; words begin with a root and affixes can be added. Nouns in Tofa can show number and possession, and verbs can include voice or mood. Tofa has no gender distinction in words. Much of the vocabulary comes from Turkic, Oguz and Uighur, as well as Buryat, Mongolian and Russian. Shaman and reindeer herders both contributed to the language; Shaman used Tofa in their rituals and herders created a classification system for reindeer. They invented single words that were very descriptive so that they could convey messages about their reindeer more easily. For example, a ‘döngūr’ is ‘a male domesticated reindeer in its third year and first mating season, but not yet ready to mate.’ A ‘chary’ is a ‘five year old, castrated, domesticated reindeer that can be ridden’.

Today, less than thirty individuals speak Tofa fluently. As of 2001, there were nine fluent Tofa speakers in one village, Aligdzher, and they were all over the age of fifty. There were five fluent speakers in the village of Nerxa, all of whom were elderly. No one under the age of thirty claimed to have any understanding of the Tofa language. This means that now, ten years later, there may be only one or two speakers of Tofa in the entire world. Tofalar children are still forced to attend boarding schools where they are required to abandon their mother tongue. Language loss happens quickly if the young generations are not learning the language. Once all of the elderly speakers pass away, there will be no one left who knows how to speak this language. This may seem unimportant, but we all need to understand that language and culture go hand in hand. It is obvious that much of the Tofa language was built upon the belief system of the Tofalar, Shamanism, and upon their involvement with reindeer herding. There is a direct link between the language of the Tofalar and their culture. It is suggested that Tofa began to disappear when the reindeer activities declined or that the reindeer activity began to decline and the language followed. Culture and language are completely intertwined for the Tofalar . If a language is lost, a culture is lost. If a culture is lost, then every person in the world has missed an opportunity to learn about the earth a different way and to see life in a differently. If we document these dying languages, not only do we have a way to resurrect the language, but we all have the chance to learn how the Tofalar people and other groups saw the world, and that may be the most priceless information anyone could have. 

In spite of the the law that is governed by the Geneva Convention, there are many countries that have abused prisoners of war.  Such abuses that entailed hideous punishments are well-documented, such as abuses by Germany, Russia, North Korea and Viet Nam.  For instance, prisoners taken by Russians were not released after the war, but kept as forced laborers (called “slave labor”) for may years afterward.  American prisoners were treated brutally by Japan.  United Nations prisoners that were taken by the North Koreans and Chinese Communists during the Korean War were provided little food and medical care, as a result of which many prisoners languished and died in prisons.

On the other hand, the United States treated prisoners of war humanely.  Prisoners of the enemy would surrender willingly, knowing that they would be treated well.  Examples of abuse consisted of brain-washing, including other methods of torture and deprivation.  They would talk continuously to prisoners, forcing them to make admissions that are wrong.

Prisoners in countries like Syria, whose purpose is to establish democracy, are abused by the military, aligned with the dictator, and there were, until recently, prisoners in Myanmar that were subjected to torture and other methods of abuse.

Official language: Bosnia, Croatian, Serbian

Land area: 19,767 sq mi/51,197 sq km

Population: 3,968,000

Dominant religion: Islam

Capital: Sarajevo

Bosnia-Herzegovina is a country in southeastern Europe, in the Balkan Peninsula. It is bordered by Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and bound by Croatia to the southwest, west and north. It is often informally called Bosnia.

 Bosniaks, or Bosnian Muslims, are the largest ethnic group. Serbs comprise the second largest and Croats are the third largest ethnic group. The country also has a small number of ethnic Albanians, Roma and Ukrainians. The majority of the population is rural dwellers. Under the terms of the 1995 peace plan, Bosnia is actually divided into two parts – the Bosniak-Croat Federation and Bosnian Serb Republic – each with its own president and legislature.

 The brutal war for independence in the 1990’s completely shattered Bosnia’s economy and has not yet fully recovered. At this writing, the country is still on the road to recovery.

 Slavs began settling in the area in the late 500’s. From the 900’s to the 1100’s rule shifted between the Byzantine Empire, Croatia and Serbia. The Ottoman Empire took over in the 1480’s, during which time most of the Slavs in the region began converting to Islam. The Ottomans made Bosnia and Herzegovina into one political unit. The Russians drove the Ottoman Empire out and control over the region was given to Austria-Hungary in 1908. After World War I, Bosnia-Herzegovina joined the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in creating Yugoslavia. It was a very fragile union however and by the 1980’s relations between all the groups within the federation became steadily worst. When the Communists, who took power after World War II, gave up power, each ethnic group declared independence, setting the course for a series of wars.

 Many Serbs living in Bosnia opposed independence and wanted to remain part of Serbia. They went to war against the non-Serbs in the country, committing appalling atrocities that had not been seen in Europe since the Holocaust.

 In 1995, representatives of Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia met in Dayton, Ohio for peace plan. Under the peace plan, Bosnia was divided into two, the Bosniak-Croat Federation and the Bosnian Serb Republic. Although still one country, each region would have its own government, including a president. Even to this day, however, despite the peace plan, tensions between the ethnic groups remain extremely fragile and movement between the two regions is very restricted. This is one of the reasons why economic recovery has been very slow.

Official language: Mandarin (Northern Chinese)

Land area: 3,691,943 sq mi/9,562,088

Population: 1,355,350,000

Dominant Religions: Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism

Capital: Beijing

Current leader: President Hu Jintao

China is a large country in eastern Asia. It is the world’s largest country in population and the third largest in land area. Only Russia and Canada cover greater landmass. It is one of the world’s oldest countries, with a history dating back as much as 10,000 years.

 China borders more countries than any other country in the world. It is bordered by Mongolia to the north; Russia, North Korea and the Yellow Sea to the northeast; the East China Sea and Taiwan Strait to the east; the South China Sea to the southeast; Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, India and Bhutan to the south; Nepal and India to the southwest; and Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan to the west. The mighty Himalayas form its entire borders with Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bhutan. 

 More than 90 percent of China’s people live in the eastern half of the country. Western China has far fewer people and resources. Most of the country’s minority groups live in the western half. Most Chinese along the coastal areas are urban dwellers and Shanghai, Beijing, Chongqing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen are among the world’s largest urban areas, having a combined population of nearly 80 million.

 There are more than 50 ethnic groups living in China. Han Chinese make up 92 percent of the population while the rest of the population consists of Kazakhs, Mongols, Tibetans, Uygurs, Zhuang and others.

 China’s economy, one of the world’s largest, is mostly manufacturing-based. It produces more steel than any other country. Its factories also turn out products such as aircraft, automobiles, cement, fertilizer, military equipment, ships and trucks. In recent years many companies, especially clothing and apparel corporations, have been using China as their main manufacturing due mostly to the cheap labor.

 Since the early 1990’s China economy has been growing at near-unprecedented speed but many have complained about the distribution of the country’s wealth. Most of the economic growth has been confined to the coastal areas, especially cities such as Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. As a result, while citizens of these cities enjoy standards of living nearly on par with industrialized heavyweights such as the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Japan much of the population further inland, especially in rural areas, continue to live in Third World conditions.

 Throughout much of its history China has been one of the world’s most powerful and advanced countries. The Qin dynasty, which ruled the country until 206 B.C., created the world’s first paper currency. It also created the Great Wall, the humongous fortification that stretches about 5,500 to keep out invaders.

 However, during the 1200’s, the Mongols swept through and ruled the country from 1279 to 1368. It was during Mongol rule that Europeans became more interested in China. Italian explorer Marco Polo brought back glowing accounts of his journey there.

 Increased contact with foreigners began bringing western influence and humiliation to China. After the First Anglo-Chinese War in 1842 it lost Hong Kong to the United Kingdom. It lost Korea and Taiwan to Japan in the Sino-Japanese War of 1895. An violent attempt by some Chinese to stop the spread of western influence during the Boxer Rebellion resulted in an military invasion by eight countries. Shanghai all but became foreign-occupied.

 More suffering awaited. In the 1920’s, the Nationalists, led by Chiang Kai-shek, began turning on its Communist allies, led by Mao Zedong, igniting a war and in 1931 Japan invaded and occupied Manchuria. In 1937, even as the Nationalists and Communists continued to fight for control of the country, Japan launched a full-scale invasion of China and within a year had occupied nearly all of eastern China. In 1941 China joined the Allies – the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union – during World War II.

 Soon after the war ended, the Nationalist and Communists began a large-scale civil war which ended with Communist victory in 1949. The Nationalists fled to Taiwan and set up a government-in-exile, continuing to claim itself the legitimate ruler of China. During the 1950’s and 60’s Mao Zedong attempted to move China ahead with programs such as the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, both which turned to be disastrous. During that period an estimated 30 million Chinese died through overwork and starvation.

Most western countries continued to recognize the Nationalists in Taiwan as the legitimate government of China but in the 1970’s they began switching diplomatic recognition to the Beijing.

 In the late-1980’s more Chinese began demanding democracy and in 1989, the military brutally crushed a demonstration at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, killing thousands of protestors in what is now known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre. While most of the west harshly condemned the crackdown it was not enough to stop increased relations with China.

 In the 1990’s China instituted economic reforms, leading to rapid economic growth.

The Muppets (as in the XIX century it was communism in Europe) are the new specter that threatens the capitalist world, especially the United States. This was concluded by financial analysts and journalists on Fox Business news in Tuesday morning.

There, Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Ruffo and all the characters that make up the Muppets were accused of being communists.

The new film The Muppets apparent effort to save the theater actors of their birth, but a driver of the Fox television network said it is promoting a campaign against the oil industry.

Economist Eric Bolling, of the “Follow the money”, Fox Business Network, said that the film seeks to discredit the oil business.

“It shows how far the left is going to get our children to manipulate and convince the anti-corporate message,” he said.

In the movie, The Muppets must collect 10 million dollars to save the theater where he arose. The enemy is Tex Richman, an oil tycoon collapse the forum that you want to extract the resource and get more money.

“Of all the films that attack the oil industry, any discussion about the positive aspects of oil: fuel to light a hospital, or heat their homes,” said Bolling.

Dan Gainor, the owner of the news, he asked: “Are you saying that Hollywood liberals brainwash our children?”. “That’s right, Bollin said, though fortunately in America we all love the oil industry. This is why the Ocuppy Wall Street has gone nowhere so far. “

Many websites and U.S. media took advantage, of course, for the charge ironic. “Besides the anti-corporate message, there is a courtship between a frog and a pig, it definitely left something to convince us in inter-species,” wrote Alexandra Petri in The Washington Post.

“Do not laugh, citizens,” wrote Jeff Labreque in Entertainment Weekly.Películas as “Happy Feet”, “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “Bambi” are “Trojan horses” for anti-American publicity. The Guardian, meanwhile, recalled that a month ago The New York Post accused of something similar to the movie “Happy Feet 2″, which was described as a “Karl Marx for children.”

The analysis of the Fox ended with the comment of another economist, Andrea Tantaros, who said: “I just wish that liberals left in peace to our children.”