Farewell. The Flying Pig Has Left The Building.

Steve Hynd, August 16, 2012

After four years on the Typepad site, eight years total blogging, Newshoggers is closing it's doors today. We've been coasting the last year or so, with many of us moving on to bigger projects (Hey, Eric!) or simply running out of blogging enthusiasm, and it's time to give the old flying pig a rest.

We've done okay over those eight years, although never being quite PC enough to gain wider acceptance from the partisan "party right or wrong" crowds. We like to think we moved political conversations a little, on the ever-present wish to rush to war with Iran, on the need for a real Left that isn't licking corporatist Dem boots every cycle, on America's foreign misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. We like to think we made a small difference while writing under that flying pig banner. We did pretty good for a bunch with no ties to big-party apparatuses or think tanks.

Those eight years of blogging will still exist. Because we're ending this typepad account, we've been archiving the typepad blog here. And the original blogger archive is still here. There will still be new content from the old 'hoggers crew too. Ron writes for The Moderate Voice, I post at The Agonist and Eric Martin's lucid foreign policy thoughts can be read at Democracy Arsenal.

I'd like to thank all our regular commenters, readers and the other bloggers who regularly linked to our posts over the years to agree or disagree. You all made writing for 'hoggers an amazingly fun and stimulating experience.

Thank you very much.

Note: This is an archive copy of Newshoggers. Most of the pictures are gone but the words are all here. There may be some occasional new content, John may do some posts and Ron will cross post some of his contributions to The Moderate Voice so check back.


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Saturday, September 4, 2010

Medical Diplomacy by China

By John Ballard



Via John Brown's Public Diplomacy...


China Launches First Medical Diplomacy Cruise

By Christopher Albon


Yesterday, the People�s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) deployed its first purpose-built hospital ship on an 87 day medical diplomacy mission. The 10,000 ton vessel, called Peace Ark, will �provide medical treatment to soldiers and officers serving in the Gulf of Aden�, �provide medical treatment to people in five African and Asian countries � Djibouti, Kenya, Tanzania, the Seychelles and Bangladesh�, and �conduct various exchange programs with medical workers in the countries the ship calls at�.


This launch marks a major soft power first for Beijing. The cruise is almost certainly inspired by the successes of similar US medical stability operations conducted by USNS Comfort and USNS Mercy. However, it is important to note that, like US hospital ships, Peace Ark is a duel use vessel. America�s hospital ships were originally designed and built to provide medical care during large scale military operations. Likewise, Peace Ark is exactly the type of ship needed during a major amphibious action against Taiwan.


About Christopher Albon

I am obsessed with figuring out how armies, militias, insurgents, transnational criminals, pirates, and terrorists use, exploit, build, and destroy health systems and the health of populations. I indulge this passion daily as a political science Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Davis. My research has taken me from the streets of Geneva to the flight decks of US Navy warships. At UC Davis, I specialize in international relations, research methodology, and public health.


On January 1st 2008, I launched Conflict Health, an online publication with daily opinion and analysis on armed conflict and public health. Conflict Health is read by experts, policymakers, journalists, and academics in the international relations, defense, and global health communities. I regularly contribute to the United States Naval Institute blog and other publications. In addition, I am a contributing editor at Current Intelligence, an online and print magazine on international issues.


Before coming to UC Davis, I attended the University of Miami where I triple majored in Religious Studies, International Studies, and Political Science.


I live in Durban, South Africa with my wife, Jen.
This guy is tying to get his head around global health while at home large numbers of people have their heads in a dark place, in denial about the state of health care in our own country.
Now comes China... don't get me started...

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