The British Government is a signatory to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol to restrict carbon emissions. The scientific work underpinning this came from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) who claimed there was a scientific consensus that (a) global warming is a major threat to the planet; (b) it is primarily man-made; (c) the cause is carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels and (d) these greenhouse gases trap the sun's heat and warm the planet.
But there has never been such a scientific consensus. Indeed a recent analysis of scientific papers on climate change by Dr Benny Peiser, of John Moores University and Dr Dennis Bray, of the German-based GKSS National Research Centre concluded that dissenters are in a healthy majority. In July 2005 a report from the House of Lords Select Committee on Economic Affair…The Economics of Climate Change Volume 1, HL Papers 1201…included a quote from Professor Reiter at the Institut Pasteur in Paris that 'consensus is the stuff of politics, not science’.
In China there are a million English language teachers suggesting tens of thousands in most major Chinese cities. With this in mind in 2004 my publishing company Academic Inn Books printed 2000 copies of Maggie Makes Amends for the Chinese English Language market. Last year’s Magpie Sagas Prospectus included a recommended retail price of £2.49p and planned to supply stock bundles of two dozen books on a Sale or Return basis to up to four accredited booksellers in each of twenty Chinese cities. The bookseller mark-up will be 50% so Academic Inn Books will have £40 to play with on each Sale or Return bundle and £ 3000 from the placement of all eighty bundles.
I believe that Connie’s illustrations will go down well in China…and that there are Chinese artists whose work would add a freshness to the English Children’s Books Market. So the idea is to develop a network of Academic Inn Books accredited booksellers in China and encourage them to promote Connie’s work while also proposing AIB Publishing Partnerships with Chinese Illustrators for English language publication in Great Britain and Scandinavia.
The Chinese cities selected as AIB Bookselling Centres were Hangzhou, Wenzhou, Ningbo, Shaoxing, Lanxi, Suichang, Lishni, Dinghai, Xiangshan in Zhejiang Province; Chengdu, Yibin, Xichang, Luzchow, Ningnan, Deyang, Chongqing in Sichuan Province; Xi'an and Yan'an in Shaanxi Province; and Ichang and Wuhan in Hubei Province.
Unfortunately the whole project stalled at the end of 2004 when my Cambridge branch of Barclays Bank decided not to release the final £2 500 of funding promised for the Magpie Sagas Project. This wasn’t personal. The bank’s top management got cold feet about exposure to Microbusiness Bankruptcies. So someone revamped their Computer Lending to Turnover Ratio for New Microbusines Lending…the CNML-LTR…and my project missed the cut. The final payment of £ 2000 for printing 2000 copies of the fourth Magpie Sagas book got caught beween Loan Promise and Funds Non-Delivery and it was not until August 2005 that it was possible to replace the Barclays money when a private investor agreed to a 3-year loan of £1800 to myself…trading as Academic Inn Books.
Brian Swinson...a Print Broker in Cambridgeshire who had ordered the books from a printer in Milano Italy ...was caught in the middle and rather foolishly allowed the Magpie Sagas author Bernardine Fiddimore to talk him into delivering the 2000 copies of Book Four to Iden Kennels…her father’s vetinerary business…while pursuing me for the money under the pretext that the books were in Cambridge. Berni then removed 4000 copies of Book Three from their AIB store and since then has refused to discuss her perceived grievances or do a stock count so we can reach agreement on her account balance where her royalties are netted off against payments to Academic Inn Books for sales from her Sale or Return stock.
So instead of attending the October 2004 Book Fairs in Frankfurt and Gothenburg and selling Magpie Books into the Chinese Children’s Books Market in 2005 I have wasted time seeking to sort out Academic Inn Books’ legal position with the Magpie Sagas author…and the illustrator…just to get clear legal title to my Magpie Sagas Publishing Property without which clarity there is little sense in going to Frankfurt, Ningbo, Gothenberg, Bologna or anywhere else. But last October William Franklin & Sons wrote a Draft Prospectus for the sale of eight of the 64 shares in the Magpie Sagas Project…at the offer price of £875 per share this will raise £ 7000…so once the JAK/Cultura deal is in place I can turn again to the Magpie Sagas Project.
In Jiangsu Province Yang Tianshui has been sentenced to twelve years for posting essays on the internet in support of Velvet Action…a peaceful movement by exiles for free elections in China that takes its name from Vaclav Havel’s overthrow of the Communists in Czecheslovakia so it is not surprising that the Chinese Authorities see it as a threat.
Tang is a member of the China Chapter of International PEN and the Chinese Constitution permits the Empire’s citizens to freely express their opinions. So solidarity is in order. Another Chinese Blogger on the wrong side of the law is Night Wolf. He has been charged for posting essays on overseas websites by a court in Guizhou under his real name of Li Yuanlong. Is there an opportunity here for Academic Inn Books to offer Weblog Hosting to Chinese writers based in Zhejiang, Sichuan, Shaanxi and Hubei?
