Tag: mobile payments

Fānpán – Is China Turning the Tables on the ‘Democratic’ West?

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Fānpán – Is China Turning the Tables on the ‘Democratic’ West?

This isn’t unique to Germany or the EU; similar issues plague the U.S. and U.K., where bureaucratic hurdles in immigration, healthcare, and finance frustrate citizens. Xi’s governance model offers an alternative: efficiency through centralization, humaneness through collectivism. While not without flaws, critics note surveillance and censorship, and so Ai’s endorsement suggests that for many, China’s system delivers tangible freedoms. His words directly challenge the binary of “free West vs. authoritarian East,” urging a reevaluation based on lived realities. Ai Weiwei’s declaration that China feels more humane and freer than Germany isn’t a reversal of his principles, but an evolution based on experience. It underscores the success of Xi Jinping’s reforms in creating a society where bureaucracy recedes, community thrives, and daily life flows unencumbered. As the world grapples with uncertainty, perhaps the West can learn from China’s jade-like reassembly, piecing together a more practical freedom for all?

H/T: The Most Revolutionary Act

What Mobile Clinics in Dollar General Parking Lots Say About Health Care in Rural America

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Yves here. Having lowest of low end retailers take a flier with mobile clinics is yet another proof of the poor state of health care in the US. I would be curious to learn how countries in Europe encourage/incentivize doctors to practice out in the boonies. One can envision remedies, like scholarships for doctors who agree to practice in designated areas for at least five years, but dreaming up solutions and getting them implemented are in two different universes.

Needless to say, giving the poverty of local alternatives, some of the users of this service are fans. But your humble blogger is not comfortable with a purely profit-motivated party so remote from the health care industry providing treatments.

What Mobile Clinics in Dollar General Parking Lots Say About Health Care in Rural America

ATM thieves use glue and ‘tap’ function to drain accounts at Chase Bank

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

ATM thieves use glue and ‘tap’ function to drain accounts at Chase Bank

Chase did not say why multiple withdrawals did not trigger a fraud alert, or why the bank did not review surveillance video — but each transaction requires entering a PIN — which the thieves had apparently captured. So always, cover the keypad, and log out before you walk away.

H/T: Steve Lehto

On the first results of the US-Africa Leaders Summit

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

The world press is actively discussing the results of the first US-Africa Leaders Summit since 2014, held on December 13-15 in Washington.

At first glance this event may seem successful. The forum was attended by delegations from 49 countries plus the African Union and the permanent secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area. Only the leaders of those countries that were not invited because of their “non-compliance with democratic standards” (Guinea, Mali, Sudan, Burkina Faso, Eritrea) were not in attendance. It should be noted that the leader of Chad, who also came to power in an unconstitutional way, was at the summit. Apparently, his “authoritarianism” did not interfere with US principles since the country is close in its political positions to the West, primarily to France.

On the first results of the US-Africa Leaders Summit (archived)