BEIJING -- Beijing-based artist Liu Yi is working on a series of black-and-white portraits he knows will never be shown in a Chinese gallery. His varied subjects - men and women, young and old, smiling and pensive - have one thing in common: They are Tibetans who have set themselves on fire to protest repressive Chinese rule.
Liu wants to paint a portrait of each of the hundred-or-so Tibetans who have self-immolated over the past three years, as a way of bearing witness to one of the biggest waves of fiery protests in recent history. With each brushstroke, Liu is making a heartfelt plea: The burning must end.
"When I'm painting, I'm thinking: 'Enough, enough, don't do this anymore. Stop,'" said the soft-spoken artist who has completed 40 so far. "That's enough."
Liu is rare among his contemporaries for addressing the largely taboo topic. Only a tiny handful of activists from the Han Chinese majority have spoken out, among them the prominent legal scholar Xu Zhiyong.
At the heart of the silence is Han Chinese indifference or even hostility to the Tibetan cause, despite some overlap with liberal Han activists who chafe at authoritarian controls. "We are victims ourselves," Xu wrote in a recent op-ed piece in which he apologized for the silence.
Many among the majority see the immolations as part of attempts to break away from China and wonder why Tibetans aren't more grateful for government development of their region with rail links, expressways, houses and factories.
Han Chinese also tend to see Tibet, with its breathtaking mountain grasslands and yak-rearing nomads, as a wild and unknowable region - but one that fascinates nonetheless. Year-round, Chinese tourists stream into a famous Tibetan Buddhist temple in Beijing to offer incense before snapping up cheap Tibetan jewelry or artifacts in the city's many stores.
Although Han Chinese activists increasingly advocate the preservation of Tibet's pristine environment, most draw the line at political issues, staying mum as Tibetans drink gasoline and douse themselves with it before lighting themselves in calls for religious freedom and autonomy.
Liu hopes to change that.
"I also hope that everyone won't look at it in an ideological or ethnic way, but to pay attention to it from a humanitarian perspective," he said.
Liu chose to paint close-ups of his subject's faces, offering an intimate impression of their every wrinkle, crease, frown or smile, using thick brushstrokes in stark black and white. Many of the subjects are gazing straight at the viewer, creating an arresting effect, especially when the portraits are arranged as a single, large montage.
"You can see that many of them are very young," Liu said as he showed Associated Press reporters his paintings in a recent interview. The works were laid out on the floor of his studio in five rows of eight portraits each. He pointed at two boyish-looking faces in the bottom row and said: "This one is 15, that one is 16."
Tibetan poet and activist Woeser says the self-immolations ''express a form of misery and are an outright protest."
"A lot of Han intellectuals are not willing to accept political demands," Woeser, who goes by one name, said in an interview. "In their consciousness, Tibet is a part of China. They think, 'If you have political demands, maybe what you want is independence, and so on.'"
Tibetan activists say the protests stem from frustration over China's stifling security presence, restrictions on religion and the demonization of their beloved spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. China has said the Dalai Lama instigates the self-immolations to undermine Beijing's economic assistance to the region.
The Apple rumor du jour is that it will release a low-priced phone at the end of the year to address emerging markets like China.
Interestingly, Apple's SVP of marketing, Phil Schiller just did an interview with Chinese paper, the Shanghai Daily. He was asked about Apple making a cheaper phone.
According to a translation from The Next Web, Schiller said, "At first, non-smartphones were popular in the Chinese market, now cheap smartphones are more popular and non-smartphones are out ... Despite the popularity of cheap smartphones, this will never be the future of Apple?s products. In fact, although Apple?s market share of smartphones is just about 20%, we own the 75% of the profit."
It's a provocative comment, but it doesn't shoot down reports of Apple doing a cheaper iPhone. Apple's future is going to be making premium products. But that doesn't mean it won't produce a product that is in the low-end to capture more of the market.
A member of the Cybercrime Center turns on the light in a lab during a media tour at the occasion of the official opening of the Cybercrime Center at Europol headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands, Friday Jan. 11, 2013. The lab is housed in a cage of Faraday and is used amongst others to analyze computer hard disks, mobile phones and smart phones. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
A member of the Cybercrime Center turns on the light in a lab during a media tour at the occasion of the official opening of the Cybercrime Center at Europol headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands, Friday Jan. 11, 2013. The lab is housed in a cage of Faraday and is used amongst others to analyze computer hard disks, mobile phones and smart phones. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
Employees of Europol's Cybercrime Center are seen during a media tour at the occasion of the official opening of the Cybercrime Center at Europol headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands, Friday Jan. 11, 2013. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
John T. Morton, Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) gestures during his speech at the occasion of the official launch of the cybercrime fighting center at the headquarters of he EU police unit Europol in The Hague. The Hague, Netherlands, Friday Jan. 11, 2013. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
Sweden's Cecilia Malmstrom, European Commissioner for Home Affairs, gestures during her address at the occasion of the official launch of the cybercrime fighting center at the headquarters of he EU police unit Europol in The Hague. The Hague, Netherlands, Friday Jan. 11, 2013. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) ? The European Union's police coordination agency opened a new cybercrime unit Friday to combat online offenses from banking fraud to peddling images of child sex abuse.
But as the European Cybercrime Centre, or EC3, formally opened its doors at Europol's Hague headquarters, European Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom conceded it will be playing catch-up with organized crime gangs reveling in a "Golden Age" of cybercrime.
Online criminals, she said, "are ahead of us when it comes to imagination and cooperation."
Europol is fighting back with experts huddled around computer screens in blue-lit "labs," monitoring internet traffic and able to retrieve data users believe they have deleted from their cell phone or computer hard disks.
The agency says online payment card fraud generates an estimated ?1.5 billion ($2 billion) a year, while recent international investigations into pedophiles trafficking child abuse images on the Internet have led to hundreds of arrests worldwide.
Europol expert Valerio Papajorgji said the new center will chase criminals who attempt to conceal their activities in parts of the Internet and online networks not generally accessed by regular users or search engines ? known as the "deep web" and "darknet."
It also will track and tackle malicious software used to steal personal and banking information from people's computers and empty their online accounts.
Europol Director Rob Wainwright called the establishment of the center a milestone in Europe's fight against crime and efforts to deny criminals "the cyberspace and opportunity they are currently exploiting to harm governments, businesses and citizens."
The European center aims to cooperate with other such agencies around the world, and Wainwright signed a letter of intent on cooperation with John Morton, director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, which has a long-established cybercrime unit known as C3.
Morton said cross-border teamwork is key to tackling cybercrime, which knows no borders.
"This level of international cooperation is not just an ideal or something to be wished for but rather a necessity," he said at the opening ceremony in The Hague.
"You literally cannot investigate and prosecute these cases any more ? the large-scale ones ? over the Internet without very strong international cooperation."
Thursday, January 10th, 2013.Author : Max Cohen.4 views.
More and more people are realizing the potential in online business, and that makes Internet promotion a topic of increasing importance. The thing is that a lot of people aren?t sure how to get into Website marketing, but as you have found this article, then you must be trying to figure that out. You should be able to make some additional cash with the tips from this article.
Selling bundled merchandise of similar products at bargain prices is definitely something to consider. Make sure that the terms are stated clearly in all of your marketing literature.
Change around the links you use in your emails. It is all too easy for customers to no longer even see the links that become too familiar. Even something a little bit different in your emails will make your recipient want to read it.
Making and maintaining a CRM or customer relationship management database can help with Internet marketing. This database will help you pinpoint purchases of customers both past and present. Then, you can tailor your communications to showcase accessories or products that are similar to those that customers have already bought from your business.
TIP! Your business website should include a PR page; this will benefit your Internet marketing efforts. You can publish it in online newspapers and magazines if the information is good enough.
Make use of emphasis coding on your website. Change up words or phrases by changing fonts or using bold or italics. This allows visitors to instantaneously perceive the content?s primary message and to clarify your objective.
Find out how people talk about your products, and use this lingo in your own marketing campaigns. People will feel more comfortable with you and your product, because you will be using terms they know and understand. If you use the right wording in your content, you will get better results.
Keep up to date on the various websites that offer services similar to yours. Analyze the other websites and identify what improvements could be made to them. If you see that other websites lack a certain service or element, develop this characteristic on your own website.
When marketing your website, you want to try to be as descriptive as possible. Implementing some purposeful prose can be a wise move. Adjectives are sexy, so use them often to pad your item descriptions. Think up your own adjectives and jargon, and surprise people with your clever interpretations. You should give them the desire to visit your website for your content!
TIP! If your website is for the most part unchanging, you might want to create a blog. Google and the ranks like new content, if you do not provide it, your site will move down in rankings.
A lot of people won?t believe the information you put in your ads. This is because for many years, people have been bombarded with advertising that is misleading or flat out lies. If you want people to believe your business is better than another competitor out there, you need to provide tangible evidence that people can see. Try using before/after pictures, testimonials and reviews. Don?t claim that your product or service does something you?re not able to prove. Your customers will trust your website if all your information is accurate and you are up front about your advertising. Dishonest techniques can lead to distrust and penalties from search engines. This will help you to build a credible, reputable company with a loyal customer base that will provide repeat business for many years.
Include content that is rich and original on your site. This will help the search engines find you and will look good to your visitors.
If you?re going to do any kind of Affiliate marketing, you need to get used to using social media. Facebook is a very popular option, and it?s free! Customers can leave feedback on your products, make suggestions, and ask questions. Twitter can allow you to communicate informally with your customers.
To bolster the credibility of your web business, you should try to land interviews with authorities within your niche who are well respected. Having an authority figure speaking well of your product/business is a great way to entice others to try it. Your site?s traffic will increase due to new visitors coming by after watching, reading or listening to your interview. This increases your reputation and spreads your brand.
TIP! Small business owners may find it difficult to compete with the big guys on the Internet. There are a couple of ways to gain an edge in this market, one being to adjust your prices in accordance with your competition in frequent intervals.
Banner Ads
Try to make banner ads you design look unique and unlike normal banner ads. So try to liven up the way your banner ad looks and you will make people more willing to click on it.
Identify specific actions you want your readers to take in your emails. Suggested actions could be visiting your website, subscribing to a newsletter, ordering a free e-book, purchasing a product or service, and so on. Tracking the actions your customer takes can help you see how successful your email marketing efforts were.
Producing online videos that include tags can help your online marketing campaign succeed. Within the video?s description, be sure to include a link to your website. This will have a big impact on the amount of people who visit your website.
TIP! Partnering with different-minded people can be mutually beneficial to both parties. Your partner can do the same, and you will both enjoy additional success as you reach more customers.
Words like ?limited? add a sense of urgency and uniqueness to your advertisement. A lot of people will go online to do their shopping because they get bored with what is available in their local stores. They are looking for something that is different and unique. If you sell something unique, they know that they must buy it quickly while supplies last.
Affiliate marketing can be problematic, but you can fix it. You should have a clear goal in mind when you throw your doors open for business. If your business is useful to others, tell them precisely why this is the case. If you help other people with their issues, then they will purchase your products and tell others about it, that is what you want.
By studying your competition you can achieve even greater success in your Web marketing. Familiarity with the products of your competitor and good marketing skills equal success for you and will leave your competitor watching gape-jawed as you successfully and profitably win the day. Another way to increase your profits is by offering your goods and services at a lower or comparable price to that of your competitors.
Be aware of all of your competition. Look at your competitors? sites to get a better idea of how they are marketing their products or services. Now, you obviously don?t want to directly steal from them, but when you see what they?re doing to be successful in the niche, you can get a good idea about what you need to do better.
TIP! Offer freebies that are branded with your company and submit those freebies to the websites that advertise those kinds of deals. If you are offering a free e-book, the book should be submitted to the websites that offer e-books for free.
Now that you are aware of how to get started in Internet marketing, you should have an idea of what you are looking to do. Keep it reasonable, but consider what you want to accomplish in the next few months as well as over the next few years. For example, don?t cling tightly to one method and attempt to land on the moon with it. Try out a few ways and inch your way up the ladder.
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