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After One Tweet To President Trump, This Man Got $69 Million From New York For Ventilators The Silicon Valley engineer, who had no background in medical supplies but was recommended by the White House, never delivered the ventilators. President Trump and Vice President Pence watch New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's daily briefing, during the daily White House coronavirus task force briefing at the White House on April 19. We may all be at home, but that hasn’t stopped our reporters from breaking exclusive stories like this one. To help keep this news free, become a member and sign up for our newsletter, Outbreak Today. On March 27, as emergency rooms in New York and across the country began filling with coronavirus patients struggling to breathe, President Donald Trump posted on Twitter to urge Ford and General Motors to “START MAKING VENTILATORS, NOW!” One of the thousands of replies that the tweet attracted struck an equally urgent tone: “We can supply ICU Ventilators, invasive and noninvasive. Have someone call me URGENT.” Its author was Yaron Oren-Pines, an electrical engineer in Silicon Valley. A specialist in mobile phone technology, he currently has just 75 followers on Twitter and no apparent experience in government contracting or medical devices. But three days later, New York state paid Oren-Pines $69.1 million. The payment was for 1,450 ventilators — at an astonishing $47,656 per ventilator, at least triple the standard retail price of high-end models. Not a single ventilator ever arrived. A state official, speaking on background because he was not authorized to publicly discuss the terms of the deal, said New York entered into the contract with Oren-Pines at the direct recommendation of the White House coronavirus task force. Nearly a month later, New York has terminated the contract, and the state is now trying to recover all of the money it paid the Silicon Valley electrical engineer. Officials refused to say how much the state had been able to claw back. “We are in discussions on a few remaining issues,” said Heather Groll, a spokesperson for the New York Office of General Services, part of the interagency effort to help New York get supplies. Reached by telephone, Oren-Pines said “neither me nor my company is providing any comment on this,” and then hung up. He did not respond to subsequent text messages. The money he received on March 30 was the largest single payment made by the New York Department of Health under an executive order issued by Gov. Andrew Cuomo last month that aimed to streamline the procurement process so that critical medical equipment could reach hospitals as quickly as possible. The episode underscores the extent to which the fear of overrun hospitals prompted politicians around the country — and particularly in New York — to turn to untested and at times unqualified vendors. “We had no choice but to overturn every rock to find ventilators and other needed equipment,” said Rich Azzopardi, a senior adviser to Cuomo, referring to the state’s scramble to find critical medical equipment as the pandemic overtook New York. “States were forced to fend for themselves to purchase lifesaving supplies to combat a global pandemic and with all modeling showing a more severe spread of this virus with more hospitalizations and more fatalities,” Azzopardi said. He added that the state has since been able to meet most of its needs and is now reevaluating some contracts and canceling others, while going through with other contracts as it tries to build up stockpiles to help prepare New York for any future emergencies. Like most states, New York’s procurement rules typically prohibit payments for goods or services until after an order has been fulfilled. But Cuomo suspended those rules last month to meet the urgent need for ventilators, N95 masks, gowns, and other personal protective equipment. A 25-member team now works overtime to vet potential vendors. In some cases, it has begun paying for orders before they are fulfilled. Between March 19 and April 27, the Health Department cut 77 checks for $1 million or more for medical supplies, for a total of nearly $735 million, state records show. Some of the recipients are established health care suppliers, such as Henry Schein, a huge, publicly traded distributor with $10 billion in annual revenue and a long history of contracting for New York state. But the overwhelming majority of the payments were made to an eclectic mix of firms, many with little or no apparent experience in medicine: upscale fashion and other apparel brands; Chinese iron ore and tool importers; a company that sells hair and wrinkle removal products; a number of private equity and investment firms; and even the Qatar Fund for Development, the state-run foreign aid arm of the petroleum-rich Persian Gulf nation. Other states and government agencies also scrambled to strike deals for needed supplies. The California Department of Transportation agreed to pay $12.74 apiece for N95 masks that typically retail for as little as $1.25, while the Federal Emergency Management Agency signed a purchase order for 2 million respirator masks at $7.25 apiece — more than 10 times the price it's paying to buy them directly from 3M — only to cancel after the vendor said it couldn’t deliver. New York City, meanwhile, rushed over the past month to order 214.7 million pieces of personal protective equipment, including N95 masks, gloves, and face shields. So far only 8% — or just 17 million — of those items have arrived. But it was the state government in Albany that proved most aggressive in its acquisitions as it struggled to deal with COVID-19. “I need 30,000 ventilators,” Cuomo said in a press briefing on March 24. “How can you have New Yorkers possibly dying because they can’t get a ventilator?” Three days later, the state issued the second of two payments totalling almost $116 million to a small Brooklyn company called Dome International that rents ventilators and other respiratory devices to hospitals and nursing homes. The company, which has no website, has no record of prior contracting with New York or with the federal government. The deal was for 5,700 ventilators, according to a report by the Albany Times-Union, but the devices were never delivered. A call to Dome International’s co-owner, David Chait, was not returned. But the contract with Oren-Pines stands out even among the motley array of vendors that struck deals with New York state over the past month. It’s unclear how he came to the attention of the White House coronavirus task force, which was established in late January and has featured daily press briefings led by President Trump. The task force also confers regularly on the state of the pandemic, including the availability of ventilators, N95 masks, gowns, and other much-needed medical supplies around the country. “The guy was recommended to us by the White House coronavirus task force because they were doing business with him as well,” said the New York state official. “I think everyone was genuinely trying to help each other out and get supplies.” The New York official added that he was unaware of whether Oren-Pines got a federal contract; federal databases show no record of any such deals. A spokesperson for the White House referred a request for comment to the office of Vice President Mike Pence, who chairs the task force. A spokesperson for Pence referred the query to FEMA. A spokesperson for FEMA said it could not speak on behalf of the White House and that it does not share information about potential suppliers. After this article was published, a spokesperson for Pence, Katie Miller, said in a statement that "The White House Coronavirus Task Force was never informed of this contract and was not involved in it at all." Daniel Acker / Reuters Vice President Pence walks past a group of completed ventilators as he tours a GE Healthcare manufacturing facility in Madison, Wisconsin, on April 21. An Israeli immigrant who graduated from the University of Maryland, Oren-Pines has lived in Silicon Valley since the mid-1990s, public records show, and is named on at least 18 different patents. He has held a variety of jobs in the tech sector, including a recent stint with Google and several years at Crocus Technology, a venture-backed firm that specializes in magnetic computer memory, according to his LinkedIn profile and interviews with former colleagues. Mike Ritter, who supervised Oren-Pines at Google, said that before the pandemic, they had made plans to meet up in Napa this week, but those plans were canceled and the two haven’t spoken in weeks. Ritter said he wasn’t aware of the contract for ventilators but said he knew that Oren-Pines had supplier contacts in Asia. “He's always a go-getter. Anytime there's opportunity, he's always been out there trying to help and make a buck,” said Ritter. In 2013, Oren-Pines cofounded Legasus Networks, a networking solutions company, in the Bay Area. Doug Lee, who’s listed on registration documents as the company’s chief executive officer, said he had no knowledge of any transactions involving ventilators. According to Thao Tran, one of its other founders, Legasus “has nothing to do with medical or ventilators” and has not been active. “We don’t have any products right now.” Oren-Pines’ LinkedIn profile indicates he is the founder and owner of a company called InCommon, described as a consulting and contracting firm for the mobile phone industry. No listing for InCommon could be found in state registries. A review of Oren-Pines’ social media shows he has been tweeting at Trump since 2011 and been a vocal supporter since at least December 2015 when he offered, on the website, to put up a “Trump for President” lawn sign in front of his house. Since late January, Oren-Pines has posted a handful of tweets related to the coronavirus, including one on March 20 listing stock index performance in different countries, showing that only China had made a small gain, and describing the idea that China might benefit from the pandemic as an “interesting conspiracy theory.” A week later, he tweeted in response to the president’s call for ventilators. A tweet posted less than an hour after Oren-Pines’ callout about the ventilators provides one possible clue to his plans. The tweet was from an account belonging to Israeli entrepreneur Segev Binyamin, whose three Twitter followers include Oren-Pines. Offering to supply ventilators to Israel’s defense minister, Binyamin wrote, “I own a Chinese company and have the ability to ship 1,400 machines.” That happens to be almost the exact number of ventilators Oren-Pines contracted with New York state to sell. Reached by BuzzFeed News, Binyamin, whose account also follows Oren-Pines, repeatedly said “I’m not going to comment” before hanging up. Via Twitter / Via Twitter According to Azzopardi, the senior adviser to Gov. Cuomo, the team vetting New York’s coronavirus-related contracts includes officials from the state’s inspector general’s office and the MTA inspector general’s office. Barraged with entreaties from potential vendors, the officials primarily consider whether potential vendors could make good on their promises. Only about 10% of potential vendors have been approved. Oren-Pines, with his bid of $47,600 per ventilator, was one of them. By comparison, the Department of Health and Human Services paid $15,000 apiece for top-of-the-line ventilators made by Philips —and Congress is currently investigating whether that price was too high. “We selected our contracts based on the best value under market conditions that were literally changing every day,” said Azzopardi. A separate deal for 750 ventilators in New York, since canceled, valued each at an even more remarkable $74,666. The state was eventually able to recover the $56 million it had paid to a firm called Trinity Partners LLC. Groll, the spokesperson for the New York Office of General Services, did not answer a series of detailed questions about the transaction with Oren-Pines other than to say it had been “terminated” and that “a bulk of the money was returned to the state.” Source:https://www.buzzfeednews.com/amphtml/rosalindadams/after-one-tweet-to-president-trump-this-man-got-69-million
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emmsana:Yeah.. Did he change his VPN or something |
Police in Nigeria has made it seem like it is a crime to be poor. |
KingAzubuike:Nonsense.. Will you guys stop this carryover from military days that some of you still seems to be hooked on.. The Military as it should be is under civilian authority, they are not in any way superior to hose they are supposed to protect, what they hellis"a governor cannot talk to ordinary captain anyhow"... Let a captain do more than himself na, That is when he would realise this is not 1983. |
Awww # CotenantNIG:I would Dangote, Otedola or One of these top executives in Nigeria catch one fish here, go and cook and see if they die in poverty. |
Davico:As they age... Scotty Kilmer |
Bacteriologist:You are ill informed, a mega city simply means a city state with a population in excess of 10 Million inhabitants, it does not even have anything to do with the level of infrastructures there, Lagos is a struggling mega city as it has many challenges to deal with, so you see, your pictures of New York Manhattan District is faux de parte |
nairalandposter:But still, no need to lock it, even after all these years, it would be nice to have her interviewed but I wouldn't hold my breath since it's apparent she prefers not to be bothered.. So I just spent the past few hours going through this thread in between watching her videos on YouTube and all. She truly did inspire a generation of young Nigerians that grew up in the 80's to the mid 90's. Unfortunately Nigeria, the country she had so much love for seems to have forgotten her, her songs are evergreen, the Nostalgia I felt watching those videos is indescribable, even as Old man wey I be now, it instantly took me back to an 8 year old boy.. What prompted me to even Google the song is this advert Stv has been using to celebrate this contraption 59 years anniversary. It would be nice if she could be interviewed sha.. Would love to hear her thoughts on so many issues. |
Sahara reporters was smart by half, the section of the constitution they quoted deals specifically with the Attorney General, Lawyers I. The house will agree with me that unlike the President having Ministers which is enshrined in the constitution, A governor can decide to go four years without commissioners perhaps except the Attorney General and commissioner of hjustice. Aregbesola did it. Nobody said he was in violation of the constitution simply because he wasn't. |
paxonel:Mary Slessor came to enlighten the folks in calabar and not Africans, the yoru as for example have always elevated and celebrated twins |
What happened in Lagos yesterday is an indication of what’s to come, it has nothing to do with Xenophobia or South Africans but a glimpse of what the middle class should expect from poor Nigerians who are waiting for a reason & an excuse to strike.These people have constantly strolled into the malls year over year, too poor to shop & no hopes of a better tomorrow, sees other people with chubby looking kids rolling shop carts & loading groceries into their cars. They want these things too. Just recently, I noticed my estate introduced armed mobile police personal to join the current one. The need to have this things is a signal that we have a failed society already. These people will not be able to save us. You’d be surprised they’d join in. We are sitting on a nuke. Poor Nigerians are angry and they are not that angry at their government. They are angry at you because: 1. You drive a nice car 2. You travel for summer 3. You shop at Shoprite 4. Your kids, chubby. 5. You live in a fine house. In this economy, how? If you lived through the riots of the mid 90s, you’d understand this is not new. The middle class is always at the receiving end. The people believe Nigerian can never be better, so they want those shiny things you have. At least that would give them some satisfactions. If Nigeria ever gets a Revolution (which I pray we don’t get). It’s going to be the poor versus the seemingly rich. You don’t have to be rich to be a target. You just have to enjoy what others don’t enjoy. Scary times ahead. God bless you people. Enjoy your morning(hopefully). @OluyomiOjo on twitter.
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LibertyRep:I see these kinds of submission a lot on naira land with a lot of accompanying likes, which sums up the fact that this forum has a lot of ignorant folks. How much is the budget of all these states combined.. I will tell you that it is probably less that a borough in NY for example, NY police department lasan has a budget of 6B USD, These states combined I am certain do not have that capacity, you will know Nigeria is a poor country when you compare what we spend vis-a-vis the people we spend it for.. That's already a bad situation but then politicians would still now steal from what is not even adequate in the first place, forget all the hype about the billions of Naira, In real monetary value.. That money isn't just sufficient to begin with. |
bluecircle470:Everybody has a right to choose what struggle they want to get involved in, no body is holding your leg to start this one. |
naijapips04:Bigger than them when they are the only company that has a functioning 5G technology and othersare at least 3 years behind them. Ok |
Fact is US as expected always seeking to protect their own and also now suspicious of the ever growing power and Influence of China is the reason why they continue to frustrate Huawei, all part of the economic war Trump is now pushing aggressively. Fact remains Huawei has an edge over its two main rivals, Samsung and Apple (make better phones spec for spec IMO) and does so with better comparative prices..it pioneered the 5G technology and has boasted other tech companies have about 2 to three years to play catch up.
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jaxxy:Thank you o, The way Naira landers just believe a story once they see it ehn, I think it's about I start selling Miracle water to these folks, always reacting, so gullible. |
Things you may or may not know about Huawei 1. Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. is a Chinese multinational technology company that provides telecommunications equipment and sells consumer electronics including smartphones, headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. The company was founded in 1987 by Ren Zhengfei. Initially focused on manufacturing phone switches, Huawei has since expanded its business to include building telecommunications networks, providing operational and consulting services and equipment to enterprises inside and outside of China, and manufacturing communications devices for the consumer market. Huawei had over 188,000 employees as of September 2018, around 76,000 of them engaged in Research & Development (R & D). It has 21 R & D institutes around the world. As of 2017 the company invested US$13.8 billion in R & D. 2. Huawei has deployed its products and services in more than 170 countries, and as of 2011 it served 45 of the 50 largest telecom operators. Its networks, numbering over 1,500, reach one third of the world's population. Huawei overtook Ericsson in 2012 as the largest telecommunications-equipment manufacturer in the world, and overtook Apple in 2018 as the second-largest manufacturer of smartphones in the world, behind Samsung Electronics. It ranks 72nd on the Fortune Global 500 list. In December 2018, Huawei reported that its annual revenue had risen to US$108.5 billion in 2018 (a 21% increase over 2017). 3. Although successful internationally, Huawei has faced difficulties in some markets, due to cybersecurity allegations — primarily from the United States government — that Huawei's infrastructure equipment may enable surveillance by the Chinese government. Especially with the development of 5G wireless networks (which China has aggressively promoted), there have been calls from the U.S. to prevent use of products by Huawei or fellow Chinese telecom ZTE by the U.S. or its allies. Huawei has argued that its products posed "no greater cybersecurity risk" than those of any other vendor, and that there is no evidence of the U.S. espionage claims. Nonetheless, Huawei pulled out of the U.S. consumer market in 2018, after these concerns affected the ability to market their consumer products there. U.S. measures intensified in May 2019, when an executive order was signed to prevent transactions involving information technology between U.S. companies and "foreign adversaries", and being placed on an export blacklist for violations of Iran sanctions. 4. The name Huawei may be translated as "splendid act" or "Chinese excellence"; Hua can mean "splendid" (literally "flowery beauty" or "China", while wei can mean "action" or "achievement". In Chinese pinyin, it is Huáwéi and pronounced [xwǎwéi] in Mandarin Chinese; in Cantonese, the name is transliterated with Jyutping as Waa4-wai4 and pronounced [wȁːwɐ̏i]. However, pronunciation of Huawei by non-Chinese varies in other countries, for example "Hua Way" or "How Wee" in the United States and "Hoe-ah-wei" in the Netherlands. The company had considered changing the name in English as it was concerned that non-Chinese may find the name hard to pronounce, but decided to keep the name, and launched a name recognition campaign instead to encourage a pronunciation closer to "Wah-Way" using the words "Wow Way".5. In December 2018, Huawei's vice-chairperson and CFO Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Canada on 1 December 2018, at the request of the United States, which accuses her of violating US sanctions against Iran. The U.S. Department of Justice filed formal charges of fraud, obstruction of justice, and theft of trade secrets against Huawei in January 2019. As of the end of 2018, Huawei sold 200 million smartphones. They reported that strong consumer demand for premium range smart phones helped the company reach consumer sales in excess of $52 billion in 2018. Huawei announced worldwide revenues of $105.1 billion for 2018, with a net profit of $8.7 billion. Huawei's Q1 2019 revenues were 39% year-over-year, at US$26.76 million. 6. In its early days, Huawei used reverse engineering to make all of its earliest products. its founder Ren Zhengfei, a former deputy director of the People's Liberation Army engineering corp, founded Huawei in 1987 in Shenzhen. The company reports that it had RMB 21,000 in registered capital at the time of its founding. Ren sought to reverse engineer foreign technologies with local researchers. At a time when all of China's telecommunications technology was imported from abroad, Ren hoped to build a domestic Chinese telecommunication company that could compete with, and ultimately replace, foreign competitors. During its first several years the company's business model consisted mainly of reselling private branch exchange (PBX) switches imported from Hong Kong. Meanwhile, it was reverse-engineering imported switches and investing heavily in research and development to manufacture its own technologies. By 1990 the company had approximately 600 R & D staff, and began its own independent commercialization of PBX switches targeting hotels and small enterprises. 7.As of the beginning of 2010, approximately 80% of the world's top 50 telecoms companies had worked with Huawei. Prominent partners include: • Bell Canada • BT • Clearwire • Cox Communications • Motorola • Orange • PLDT • Portugal Telecom • PTCL • T-Mobile • TalkTalk • Vodafone 8. Huawei is organized around three core business segments: a. Telecom Carrier Networks, building telecommunications networks and services b. Enterprise Business, providing equipment, software and services to enterprise customers, e.g. Government Solutions - see Huawei 4G eLTE c. Devices, manufacturing electronic communications devices. Huawei announced its Enterprise business in January 2011 to provide network infrastructure, fixed and wireless communication, data center, and cloud computing solutions[buzzword] for global telecommunications customers. 9. In July 2003, Huawei established their handset department and by 2004, Huawei shipped their first phone, the C300. The U626 was Huawei's first 3G phone in June 2005 and in 2006, Huawei launched the first Vodafone-branded 3G handset, the V710. The U8220 was Huawei's first Android smartphone and was unveiled in MWC 2009. At CES 2012, Huawei introduced the Ascend range starting with the Ascend P1 S. At MWC 2012, Huawei launched the Ascend D1. In September 2012, Huawei launched their first 4G ready phone, the Ascend P1 LTE. At CES 2013, Huawei launched the Ascend D2 and the Ascend Mate. At MWC 2013, the Ascend P2 was launched as the world's first LTE Cat4 smartphone. In June 2013, Huawei launched the Ascend P6 and in December 2013, Huawei introduced Honor as a subsidiary independent brand in China. At CES 2014, Huawei launched the Ascend Mate2 4G in 2014 and at MWC 2014, Huawei launched the MediaPad X1 tablet and Ascend G6 4G smartphone. Other launched in 2014 included the Ascend P7 in May 2014, the Ascend Mate7, the Ascend G7 and the Ascend P7 Sapphire Edition as China's first 4G smartphone with a sapphire screen.[109] In January 2015, Huawei discontinued the "Ascend" brand for its flagship phones, and launched the new P series with the Huawei P8. Huawei also partnered with Google to build the Nexus 6P in 2015.
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Nigeria Police has to be the most unreasonable police in the world, You see people with a dead man and without investigating the situation conclude these people are responsible for the death of the victim.. And after one identified himself as a Doctor and that they were trying to resuscitate the victim, you said he should know better not to tamper with evidence, I ask.. Evidence of what exactly, that it was happening or what, even if someone had no sign of life in them, A doctors instinct is to try to see if such person can still be saved, so if there were no CCTV, this Police would have charged this men for murder abi. How? This country is 4ked up in so many ways |
manitoba:There is no way one can confirm the building in the video is the same one that's shown being demolished... But trust naira landers to react to unconfirmed stories. |
Like someone said... Life is too short, do u know how many husbands and wives that met in the work place, let her know abeg, what's the worst that could happen. Life is too short bro. |
anibi9674:A mega city simply refers to a city with a population of at least 10Million inhabitants.. Y'all be using that term wrongly So you see, Lagos has been a mega city since at least the mid 90's.. Maybe not the most functional one, but one it is.. |
It is obviously speed up. |
More from our beloved Auto-Makers
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Car Trends come and go mostly...but some are so fundamental to what the car is that their replacement is bound to be controversial.. The Shift Lever is one of them. Car manufactirers in recent times have decided to do away with the traditional shift lever in automatic transmission and replace them with either buttons or rotary knobs..This removes the feeling from holding on to the lever and actually shifting something...opinions are divided on this new trending the automobile industry..Tell us what you think ?
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bluecircle470:It's better you better inform yourself next time, "Jeep" is a brand of vehicle manufactirere that makes SUV's exclusively. Folks here just call any SUV Jeep. Don't be so confident on what you think you know. |
Honorable mentions of Models that have been heavily facelifted in a generation. Lexus LX 570/ Toyota Land Cruiser Lexus GX 470/ Toyota Prado Mazda 6 What other car models with serious mid cycle refresh do you know ? |
Mercedes Benz : E Class. Mercedes also had it's fair share of Midlife Crisis in the aesthetics department for it's best selling sedan...This E Class first introduced in 2009 as a 2010 Model year got heavily revised in 2013, the E-Class was comprehensively facelifted, featuring significant styling changes, fuel economy improvements and updated safety features. Daimler invested close to €1 billion into the development of the extensive refresh, making it likely the most expensive mid-life facelift in the history of the automobile. The biggest change was the singular front lights replacing the twin headlamp design (marking the end of Mercedes's dual headlamps use) with integrated LED DRL's
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The Interior of the Elantra remains unchanged though.
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The back looks good though but the front facia looks like a fish that's about to get caught in a hook, the droopiness is not nice looking. ...But like They have done in the past, Hyundai extensively facelifted its 2019 Elantra sedan model. The 2019 model received new exterior look, safety features, infotainment system with revised center-stack controls. The new redesign will have a trianglar headlight and a redesigned taillights. The pricing and the release of the redesigned elantra will be announced later this year.
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Hyundai : The Hyundai Elantra The 2012 to 2015 Hyundai Elantra was a master piece, the curves on that vehicle coupled with the right pricing made it the best selling hyundai Model in North America, it particularly became a top selling Model in Nigeria too. One would have thought it's replacement would use the same formula but looked liked the guys at Hyundai got intoxicated and tried to go conservative. It went South.. The Model that replaced it has been described as drab and uninspiring.
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Toyota: Toyota Camry. When the 2012 Model year was unveiled in 2011, it faced criticism for it's boring design which has seemed to be the hall mark of Toyota. Bland designs but reliable. The criticism must have been felt by Toyota executives all over that two years into the Model year, Toyota came up with a mid cycle facelifting...some could have confused it for a totally newer model. This update ran for the remainder of the production and was praised for it's much more improved sporty aesthetic.
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or "China", while wei can mean "action" or "achievement". In Chinese pinyin, it is Huáwéi and pronounced [xwǎwéi] in Mandarin Chinese; in Cantonese, the name is transliterated with Jyutping as Waa4-wai4 and pronounced [wȁːwɐ̏i]. However, pronunciation of Huawei by non-Chinese varies in other countries, for example "Hua Way" or "How Wee" in the United States and "Hoe-ah-wei" in the Netherlands. The company had considered changing the name in English as it was concerned that non-Chinese may find the name hard to pronounce, but decided to keep the name, and launched a name recognition campaign instead to encourage a pronunciation closer to "Wah-Way" using the words "Wow Way".