TidBits: Nuri Vittachi
Nuri is a superb journalist with a very specific gentle hand on the keyboard and gentle expression with the word. He runs FridayEveryday which, as a magazine, contains most interesting and frequently forgotten stories, with relevance for today. His news section, split between China and Hong Kong is right up to date. He is a prolific X commentator, makes short YouTubes and is a popular guest. He writes about China, about Hong Kong and XinJiang where he has told the truth countless times.
Three of his latest on X:
AFTER U.S. SANCTIONS led to major power cuts in Cuba, the community is working with the Chinese help to build a network of solar farms, it was reported yesterday.
“Working with Chinese assistance, this year Cuba is building 55 solar farms to tackle its current shortfall in electricity supply, and plans to build a further 37 by the end of 2028 to cater for increased demand,” said journalist Paul Atkin.
ILLEGAL SANCTIONS Hemmed in by decades of illegal U.S. sanctions, Cuba has been relying on oil from Russia and Venezuela—but now the power plants are aging, replacement parts are hard to get, and their two suppliers have also been hard hit by U.S. sanctions. The Cuban government is working hard to improve existing energy infrastructure with help from Russia.
And the first batch of Chinese solar farms should be generating 1200MW of power by the end of this year, which will make a huge difference, says Atkin.
OTHERS FOLLOWING He also pointed out that many countries were choosing the same clean energy path. “We should note that this development is not peculiar to Cuba, but is becoming a pattern across the global South: 60% of developing countries now have a higher proportion of their electricity generated by sustainable sources than the US does,” he wrote. The switch to renewables is difficult but worthwhile for long term benefits, developing countries have realized. “It cuts costs long term because once the panels are in and the wind turbines up, there’s no need to import fuel,” Atkin said. “The wind blows. The sun shines.”
THE CHINESE TOY MONSTERS known as Labubus are set to get the Hollywood big screen treatment, Hollywood Reporter revealed this weekend.
And the people doing it are the east-west folk who recently took another Asian-themed story, KPop Demon Hunters, right to the top of the global sales charts, in both the movie and the music industry.
Given that the Asian audience is so much bigger than the western one, the entertainment industry is watching the deal closely in the hopes of a truly global hit. Sony Pictures, owner of Spider-Man, bought screen rights to the soft toy, designed by Hong Kong’s Kasing Lu, the Hollywood Reporter newspaper said.
The aim is to produce a big-budget movie which could then be turned into a franchise, combining multiple entertainment formats, plus physical merchandise.
YEARS OF WORK While the Labubu plush toy is seen as an overnight success, in fact, it’s the product of more than a decade of hard work. It was designed by Kasing Lung, a Hong Kong man who flitted between the city and Europe, where he absorbed Nordic legends of trolls for manufacture of books and toys in south China. The resulting little monsters were turned into reality as dolls and books by Hong Kong firm How2Work, an artisan toy maker. After becoming a big hit 2014 in Taiwan, the company launched them in Hong Kong in 2017. In 2019, they made a deal with Chinese Mainland firm Pop Mart, whose extraordinary marketing skill turned it into a mega-hit.
When Lisa from the music group Blackpink showed off her Labubus collection on social media in 2024, global success was confirmed.
HOW TO LOOK CLUED-IN Parents of young children worldwide are poised to do battle in toyshops for the most desirable models as Christmas approaches. Here’s a tip for adults wanting to look clued-in and not embarrass their children: Labubus are not really called Labubus. Labubu is actually the name of one character. Other main characters in the series are the bossy Zimomo, the cute Mokoko and her boyfriend Tycoco, Pato, Spooky, etc. Start doing your homework now.
IN THE 1950s, popular sci-fi author Aldous Huxley realized he had to raise the alarm about something happening in the real world: the people talking endlessly about “democracy” and “freedom” were actually a shadowy power taking a tight grip on humanity. He was more correct than even he could have imagined. ‘WE MUST RULE THE WORLD’
In February 1948, US policy strategist George Kennan had written a top secret document (look up PPS/23) noting the brutally unfair distribution of wealth around the world, particularly with regards to the wealth of the United States and the relative poverty of Asia. Kennan argued that the goal of US foreign policy must be “to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity”.
CIA’S SUCCESSFUL LAUNCH
But how could Washington discreetly control global politics to keep the west rich and others poor? That same year, the CIA (founded in 1947), showed the way, undertaking its first major international operation. It used “democracy” and “freedom” as keywords on a program to prevent a highly popular socialist group from winning an election in Italy in 1948, instead manipulating a pro-Washington leader into power. Thrilled by its success in Italy, the CIA set up branches around the world from 1949, with the Chinese city of Hong Kong, then ruled by British colonials, becoming a key hub in East Asia. (Kennan’s plan would later underpin the 1992 Wolfowitz paper, with the CIA weaponizing “human rights” in the same way as “democracy” and “freedom”).
BEING WATCHED
In the 1950s, these developments were being watched across the Atlantic by the British author, who could see what was going on. Huxley published a non-fiction book called Brave New World Revisited, in which he pointed out that he could see how many of the concerns he had expressed in his dystopian novel Brave New World would become fact. .
“By means of ever more effective methods of mind-manipulation, the democracies will change their nature; the quaint old forms — elections, parliaments, Supreme Courts and all the rest — will remain. “The underlying substance will be a new kind of non-violent totalitarianism. “All the traditional names, all the hallowed slogans will remain exactly what they were in the good old days. “Democracy and freedom will be the theme of every broadcast and editorial — but democracy and freedom in a strictly Pickwickian [bizarrely twisted] sense. “Meanwhile, the ruling oligarchy and its highly trained elite of soldiers, policemen, thought-manufacturers and mind-manipulators will quietly run the show as they see fit.”. [Brave New World Revisited was published in 1958 and is still in print.]
Nuri does not say it in this piece, but the word of the day is peace, and it does not mean peace, but colonial control – Amarynth