Press Releases

05/23/2008

Ask AP: Helping Myanmar; India and China's cars

By The Associated Press

They're hungry. They're homeless. And the U.N. says only about a quarter of them have received any aid.

Survivors of the devastating cyclone that hit Myanmar nearly three weeks ago are in desperate need of help. And until Friday, when U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the country's rulers agreed to let in "all aid workers," the country's reclusive regime had been unwilling to allow more than a few such workers into the country.

So why hasn't the U.S. just been flying over the hardest hit areas and air-dropping supplies?
That's one of three questions in this edition of "Ask AP," a weekly Q&A column where AP journalists respond to readers' questions about the news.

If you have your own news-related question that you'd like to see answered by an AP reporter or editor, send it to newsquestions(at)ap.org, with "Ask AP" in the subject line. And please include your full name and hometown so they can be published with your question.
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Why are China and India suddenly huge players in the oil market? Did the Chinese all go out and buy cars in one month and make oil jump through the roof?
Andrew Guenther
Palm Harbor, Fla.
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Actually, oil demand from China and India has grown steadily for several years as their middle classes have expanded. So while that demand is contributing to surging oil prices, it isn't the only factor.

Also at play are worries about future supplies, production disruptions and geopolitical concerns, like unrest in Nigeria, a major oil producer. The dollar's decline has also encouraged some traders to buy oil contracts, betting that future gains will offset weakness in the dollar -- and greater demand for oil contracts pushes prices up further.

Oil production has barely been able to keep up with consumption from the United States, Europe and Japan, so supplies are strained when newcomers like China and India jump in.

With their vast populations, even small changes in spending in China and India can dramatically increase thirst for oil. General Motors Corp. says 10 million Chinese families already can afford a car, and that will rise to 75 million by 2015 -- an eye-popping number, and still just a fraction of the total population of 1.3 billion people. India trails China by a few years but is following the same trend.

Chinese oil producers are trying to increase total global supplies by investing billions to develop oil and gas sources in Africa, Central Asia and elsewhere that others consider too difficult or expensive.
Joe McDonald
AP Business Writer, Beijing
and
Malcolm Foster
AP Asia Business Editor, Bangkok, Thailand
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Why didn't the U.S. just do a massive air drop of storm relief supplies directly to the remote areas of Myanmar to reach the people most in need? Were we really concerned about how the military regime of Myanmar might react?
Elaine Burke
Baton Rouge, La.
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Pentagon officials are wary of air-dropping supplies without permission from the closed regime because that could be considered an invasion. They need permission to fly into a country's air space, U.S. officials say, because they respect sovereignty, whether it's on the ground or in the air.

Officials also say unauthorized air drops are often inefficient, especially if there are no experts on the ground to monitor the distribution of aid. Desperate people could riot over the assistance, and there is the possibility that security forces might confiscate it and keep it out of the hands of the needy.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said he couldn't imagine air-dropping aid without permission from the military regime.
Christine Simmons
Associated Press Writer, Washington
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When I was in college in the early 1960s, my business professor told our class that 5 percent unemployment is considered full employment. Now I read that 5 percent unemployment is considered bad times. What happened? How come 5 percent in the '60s was great and 5 percent in 2008 is bad?
Robert Evans
Sacramento, Calif.
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Today's 5 percent unemployment rate is equivalent to about a 7 percent jobless rate 30 years ago, economists say. Here's why:

There was a big influx of young people and women into the work force a generation ago, but today's labor force is older and more settled into jobs, and female participation has leveled off. Labor force growth in the '70s was close to 3 percent; now it is closer to 1 percent, analysts say. That slowdown in growth has caused the unemployment rate to be lower than it otherwise would be.

That said, economists look at a range of things -- besides the unemployment rate -- to gauge the labor market's health. Employers have been cutting jobs and trimming hours, and inflation-adjusted wages are falling. And one of the reasons the jobless rate dipped to 5 percent in April was because there was a sharp increase in the number of people holding part-time jobs.
Jeannine Aversa
AP Economics Writer, Washington
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Have questions of your own? Send them to newsquestions(at)ap.org.