Quote:
Originally Posted by KiraYamatoFan
Copts are a small Christian group in Egypt.
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Not that small. The CIA Factbook estimates Copts represent 9% of the Egyptian population, or about seven million people. (Whoops, Irenicus beat me to it while I was busy reading the weather forecast for the Senkaku islands!)
Japanese Government Considered Eight Plans for Senkakus, Chose Least Assertive
The Noda Government has offered two billion yen (about $25 million) to the private owners of the three islands it will purchase from their current owner. The owner had to be persuaded not to sell them to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government as proposed by Ishihara. It wasn't clear whether a bidding war had taken place, nor why Ishihara did not try harder to enforce Plan D described below, which he claimed was the minimum required for the TMG to withdraw its proposal to purchase the islands instead.
Meanwhile the Government came up with eight plans for what it might do with these newly-acquired chunks of rock, ranked according to how threatening they would be to China and Taiwan. Plan A, which was eventually adopted, calls for doing nothing. Noda himself favored Plan C which would have repaired a lighthouse on one of the islands. Plan D would have implemented Ishihara's plan to build a facility to shelter fishing boats. Noda apparently gave that some serious consideration as well, much to the consternation of his Foreign Secretary and the diplomatic staff. Eventually the Prime Minister was persuaded to adopt Plan A. Ishihara's opinions were not reported.
Plan H called for the stationing of members of the Self-Defense Force on the islands 24/7. In a masterpiece of understatement, the Foreign Ministry staff who drew up the options included a note that read "It is hard to foresee how strongly China and Taiwan would oppose this."
In other news, the Chinese Meterological Administration has begun
publishing the weather forecast for the Diaoyu, as they call them. They already publish forecasts for the weather in the area around the various other disputed islands in the South China Sea. Today's forecast for the Senkakus, according to the
Wall Street Journal, was "partly cloudy with a chance of patrol boats." The comments to this article make for some disturbing reading.