Last chance for us to win shiny medal …
This skating wife …
This skating husband …
We tell big romance …
Me watch both to win Gold!
Last chance for us to win shiny medal …
This skating wife …
This skating husband …
We tell big romance …
Me watch both to win Gold!
Click images for more speed.
China recently opened a new speed train connection between Wuhan to Guangzhou – cutting travel time from 10 to 3 hours.
The new trains reach an average speed of 350 km/h – top speed is 397 km/h. Wow!
This is faster than the Japanese Shinkansen (average 243 km/h) or the French TGV (average 277 km/h).
It is easier for China to built such high-speed-lines – any opposition is swept away and many areas are not as densely populated like Europe.
But Europe as well as the US has foolishly ignored trains as a serious alternative to fuel guzzling air and car travel. There is no wide ranging master plan in Europe to create a high-speed-train-network.
What a shame!
By the way: many European companies helped China to built this high speed train line …
BBC News: China’s 60 years of Communism
A billion fellow humans are under the thumb of totalitarian regime that is brutal and aggressive. The Communists love to parade "their" work for China and how they pushed the country ahead.
All a big lie! The Great Leap Forward killed millions of Chinese. Bad policies and suppression killed some more.
The progress came AFTER China allowed the old enemy Capitalism to take root. It was never Communism that caused progress …
Wall Street Journal - China Squeezes PC Makers
China requires PC makers to put firewalls on their machines to filter certain websites locally. It’s not enough that China constantly blocks many sites like Wikipedia etc. as it suits the tyrannical government – the control will be directly installed on people’s machines.
But I am pretty sure many other governments dreams of equal measures – even here in the so called free west.
The Chinese more and more consider Europe irrelevant in the global game. No surprise, since Europe doesn’t speak with one voice. Almost all European leaders are willing to forget about China’s nasty deeds and policies when it comes to generating trade agreements and deals.
On the other side China is getting more and more protectionist about it’s own economy and building barriers to make it harder for any foreign country to do business.
China is closely tied to the USA – it’s biggest market and debtor. The Chinese hold huge amounts of American debt, plus they sit an a huge cash reserve themselves. This binds those two giant closer together – more than each of them wants to.
I am a huge soundtrack fan. A good score paints images and stories right into my mind – even when I haven’t seen the movie. Because soundtracks follow the great tradition started by Richard Wagner by using themes for moods, characters and places in the movie they have more of a "story structure" compared to normal classical music.
The score for "House of Flying Daggers" (which is a brilliant movie by the way) mixes symphonic elements with Chinese drums and flute. The mood ranges from total tranquillity and beauty to fierce battle scenes.
Highly recommended!
You can listen to excerpts on Amazon.com and obviously buy it there as well: Amazon.com: House of Flying Daggers (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack): MP3 Downloads
I read your eMail – Dalai Lama!
New Scientist: Chinese spy network infiltrated embassies worldwide
BBC News: Major cyber spy Network uncovered
Bad enough that the great Firewall of China suppresses it’s own people. Bad enough that western companies like Yahoo, Google, Microsoft and others support such measures. But it gets worse …
China – like probably every big nation – loves to spy and so they built a giant computer spy bot network. It seems like that China can’t afford or built such a big "weapon" like the American NSA. So they simply infected thousands of other people’s computers and made them their involuntary spy bots.
China is growing ever more paranoid and suppressive. When will this totalitarian regime finally fall?
The story of the Tibetan people is a tragic one and one of most enduring political crises of our days. Since the Dalai Lama had to flee – he tirelessly toured the globe to promote the Tibetan cause. He is the face of Tibet – and no other spiritual leader (apart from the Pope) has so widely recognized like him.
But what will happen when he (and his generation) dies. Will politics return to business as usual and the Tibetan case will simply be history.
Britain has recently accepted China’s rule over Tibet – a sad decision. But China’s stubbornness and the other countries greed to get into it’s markets are a bad Omen for a Free Tibet.
Click image for a larger version.
China is loosing arable land and clean drinking water at an alarming rate. Their pollution is adding huge amounts of dirt and green house gases to the global community. China must act – as well as the US and the Europeans.
But most of all it should start treating it’s citizens not like dirt anymore.
We are used that the Americans are the most wasteful and resource devouring nation on earth. But China is currently overtaking the Americans being number one in so many things: pollution, energy and food consumption.
China’s hunger for concrete, oil, milk and so many other commodities has raised prices and shifted the markets focus to Asia. (India’s rising middle class is also developing a growing appetite.)
It certainly is a great opportunity for other nations to supply the needs of China, but especially with the growing environmental problems the Asian huge hunger for almost everything is more a threat than an opportunity.
But neither the west, nor the far east are really willing to slow down or make serious efforts to cut down their energy, pollution and food appetites.
China defends it’s hunger with the necessity of upgrading it’s vast country up to western standards. And how can the west demand from China not to modernize?
I am really curious how the citizens of Beijing feel now that the 2008 Olympic Games and the Paralympics have ended – and the smog will be coming back.
All environmental actions have only been temporary – just for the games. That means all factories will be working again and the pollution is coming back.
Congratulations China – you did it!
The Olympic Games of 2008 were perfect, smooth and deliciously boring. Your sponsors are happy, because you locked away all protestors and avoided ugly scenes that could spoil all the marketing campaigns of giant global corporations.
And congratulations to your fake artist, real artists, pumped up athletes and your hard-working ones. So many medals and such a fine show.
Nevermind that we found out that that so much was faked and distored. Hey, it’s just a big show. Just like your regime.
A big show to demonstrate your power …
Click image for more Olympic enthusiasm!
It’s ironic: China is the country with the most people – but still many seats at the events stay empty? The organizers said that all events are sold out!
Why?
Either those with tickets can’t get in for security reasons or many tickets given to sponsors are not being used.
But those nifty Chinese communists have a solution! They have special volunteer squads who are filling the empty cheats and cheering their guts out. Looks good on global television!
Today China finally can show off it’s monstrous investment and preparation for the 2008 Olympics. But I am afraid that the Communist Apparatchik simply confuses good and cheerful games with a perfect performance.
Instead of international fun and chaos we get soulless Propaganda.
Already now the mood is spoiled by the Chinese human rights violation, suppression of Tibetan protests, the ongoing support for the murderous regime in Darfur and Zimbabwe and the Chinese condemnation of western support for freedom in their own country. China’s Communists hate foreign "intervention" as they call it – instead of common sense.
I just wait another four years to see the games in London.
China likes to boast of it’s long lasting culture and like to claim that they have been at the front of civilization for thousands of years (nice timeline here) (although India has actually the oldest records of culture and cities).
Anyone remotely interested in history and technology knows that the old Chinese seem to have invented almost everything way ahead of Europe or were never far behind: paper, printing, movable type, crossbows, gunpowder, rockets, compass, blast furnace and cast iron – to name just the most important ones.
China with it’s man- and brainpower seemed to be destined to take over the world, but they didn’t. Instead tiny Britain conquered the Chinese giant with ease …
So what went wrong with the old Chinese?
The games in Beijing are a farce. China should never been chosen as a host. The Chinese communists have thrown thousands of Dissidents and Tibetans into jails to make sure there are no ‘unhappy’ protests.
In recent days there was an uproar by the global media because they don’t have free access to the net in their Olympic press center. Buhuhu! When will these journalists wake up and realize that this is NORMAL for Chinese citizens?
Still the IOC clings to it decisions and plays along with the tyrannical leaders of China.
These won’t be happy games – these will be perfect games without a soul and laughter. For China it’s one huge political PR event – for internal and external propaganda.
But not only the IOC should at least be ashamed of itself. The same is true for all the official sponsors: Coca Cola, General Electric, Johnson & Johnson, Kodak, McDonalds, Panasonic, Samsung, VISA, Omega, Addidas, VW, UPS – to name the biggest.
But these sponsor ‘worry’ that their brand may become ‘tainted’ by the games. Ohhhhh!
Tibetan streets are still ‘tainted’ by Chinese police.
Wow. Once again I recommend these corporate types a vacation in a Chinese prison – there you will learn what real problems are and that their greed is just that greed.
Click Stadium for more poverty.
China is one of the richest countries on earth with a huge amount of cash at it’s disposal. Plus the US owes China loads of money as well.
But still China is a poor country: it’s infrastructure still needs loads of work, concrete and still before it’s anywhere near European or American standards. Social security, pensions and the health systems are in shambles too.
Sure China has a huge Army, but today’s wars are fought with technology, not huge masses of soldiers.
Is anyone surprised why China’s bloody communists are so ruthlessly pushing the country forward and are not in the mood for any compromises on human rights or the environment. They finally want China to finish the Great Leap Forward that Mao and his comrades fucked up many years ago …
But for the sake of progress no tyranny is acceptable. Not even capitalistic communism …
Click images for larger versions.
China currently sees a huge wave of help – private help from Chinese citizens. The government is so annoyed and hindered by that outpouring of private help that they try to discourage citizens from helping each other and hindering the "official" military help.
Well there is a practical and a philosophical reason behind this: first there is enough chaos already, so you don’t want unorganized citizens to block the damaged roads, but the second reason is, that citizens actually might find out that their power can make a difference and they don’t need a suppressive government to run their lives.
Like Burma – you can’t blame any government for floods or earthquakes – but can you blame them for the aftermath. Such events show how fragile China still is. It’s infrastructure isn’t as dense and redundant as in many European countries.
And having friends helping you is important in such events. Ask the poor people of Burma …
I won’t spend a penny for China (because they literally sit on trillions of dollars of cash), but some hard earned cash for Burma.
The Chinese Politburo has certainly learned it’s lessons from Stalinist Russia and Nazi Germany: Counter-Propaganda is important.
During the recent and ongoing protests against Chinese oppression in Tibet – the Politburo was busy sending it’s own message on the streets and flooding threads in Blogs and on YouTube with “angry” Chinese comments. I am pretty sure many “real” Chinese Patriots raised their voices too – but overall the propaganda and stupidity was annoyingly very visible.
And let me point out some “delicious” Chinese hypocrisy …
We have seen in recent years several very angry and violent protests against Japan for it’s war crimes and it’s stubbornness to apologize to the Chinese (and Korean) people. Funny enough China’s own war crimes and genocidal politics against the Tibetan people are ignored.
But that’s always the problem with “Patriots”, they can only see the “others” mistakes not the faults of their own country. Doesn’t matter if it’s China, the US or Liechtenstein …
Most Chinese students protesting in foreign nations should remember this: their right to protest in France, Germany, USA, Britain or “evil” Japan is granted by a democratic constitution that safeguards the right to protest. If you would protest in China against ANYTHING the government wants you to do you probably face very stuff police and legal action.
So in the context of free speech here is my reply to you: Go and fuck yourself and your evil government. Unless you fight, win and establish your right to protest and rule of law instead of tyranny in your own country don’t play your ignorant patriotic games here.
Many nations have one important water life line. India has the Ganges and China has the Yangtze.
Thanks to overpopulation and rampant industrialization the Yangtze is heavily polluted and has the lowest water level in about a 100 years. The building of the Three Gorges Damn didn’t help either.
Many different species of fish have disappeared and the beloved River Dolphins are also almost gone.
But the Chinese Government has hardly done anything to reverse the effect – but the people have started to protest in recent years. In many areas there were public demonstrations against new factories that would pollute the river and the surrounding areas.
But it will take many decades to repair the damage – if it can be repaired at all.
Here is a troubling image: Chinese soldiers carrying monk robes – why? I am pretty sure they are not going to a fancy dress party or converting to Buddhism. So why are these guys haven ALL shaved heads (short hair is normal in the military, but all freshly shaved?) and carrying these robes?
I wouldn’t be surprised if China would be pushing the truth on the propaganda front to make the monks looks as like “aggressors”.
Does anyone know the story behind this?
I am loving this.
China get exactly that kind of publicity it wanted to avoid by carefully orchestration the Olympic Games – especially by locking away ANY critical voice in China.
Now the Olympic Flame has to travel in Chinese style: heavily protected by the police against the “evil” outside world – while everybody inside is crammed into a prison.
But sorry you capitalistic communists: here in Europe we still have freedom of speech and the right to assemble and protest against such people like you.
I am still ashamed that the EU has taken a serious step to scold China or even boycott the games. The IOC has blood on their hands – these greedy old bastards. Can you believe that the International Olympic Committee is more or less a private organization only responsible to itself.
The IOC knew well in advance that China would continue to trample human rights and that the games would be abused as a PR act by the communists to look “nicer”. Amnesty International and many other human right organizations warned the IOC.
From Wikipedia:
Criticism of the 2008 Olympic Games host selection
Some international groups attempted to pressure the IOC to reject Beijing’s bid in protest of the state of human rights in the People’s Republic of China. One Chinese dissident who expressed similar sentiments was arrested and sentenced to two years in prison for calling on the IOC to do just that at the same time that IOC inspectors were touring the city.[10] Amnesty International expressed concern in 2006 regarding the Olympic Games to be held in China in 2008, likewise expressing concerns over the human rights situation. The second principle in the Fundamental Principles of Olympism, Olympic Charter states that The goal of Olympism is to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of man, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity.[11] Amnesty International considers the policies and practices of the People’s Republic as failing to meet that principle, and urged the IOC to press China to immediately enact human rights reform.[12]
Bastards!
Now the Olympic fire will travel from Greece to China – expect a lot of protests on the way. I really really really hope these games won’t take off. Beijing 2008 should be boycotted. How can the world celebrate all the great athletes in country that shots, tortures and suppresses it citizens at the same time?
Let’s stomp out these ugly reports comrades …
It is easy to blame only the evil communist in China for all the censorship and blatant disregard for Tibet’s Freedom.
But Chinese Nationalism is as rampant as the state controlled suppression of the Tibetans. One only needs to remember the extreme rage against the Japanese during the last years. Japan has a lot to apologize for to China and Korea – and never has done so – so some of the outrage was “just”. But it was mostly insanely angry and fueled by Nationalism instead by a call for justice.
Chinese people – like the Russians, Iranians and North Koreans – live in a mental vacuum. They have no real news, only glints of reality and they don’t really know what’s going on in the world. Freedom of speech, public discourse and social experiments are absolutely limited and controlled by the state.
That is why many Chinese people defend their countries “actions” in Tibet as “just” and “fair” on the intranets. They are simply blind and ignorant. Patriotism is an ugly political disease, doesn’t matter if you scream “China! China!”, “USA! USA!” or “Heil Hitler!”.
Another Chinese Wall at work …
China is a police state were any form of protest gets you harsh treatment. Check!
China is run by an corrupt elite that has no liability to the law or to the people. Check!
China is a new colonial power that play dirty tricks to secure it’s resources all over the world. Check!
China is still occupying Tibet and suppressing it’s native population. Check!
China is still polluting the planet on a large scale and does give a shit about environmental protection. Check!
China is exploiting it’s own workers and people under the guise of progress and development. Check!
The great Orange Guru 
It is even more shameful that so many governments and companies are sucking up to the brutal communists to get their “fair” share of the Chinese Boom. There is blood on that money and appeasement doesn’t work with these people.
China today is a huge slave labor camp. Economical progress has brought only little advancements for people’s rights, safety and education. The rule of law still isn’t there. Freedom isn’t there and Democracy isn’t there.
Currently China has about 2100 million Websurfers – and the number is climbing fast. Soon they will have overtaken the US as the #1 of Websurfers.
But too most of us Chinese Internet Users are almost invisible – and not just because of the language barrier (the same applies to many other nations that stay within their language bubble – like Japan or Arabic countries).
China’s Internet is heavily policed and censored – thanks to companies like Yahoo, Microsoft, Cisco and Google content is filtered, websites blocked (most famously Wikipedia) and users are hunted down if they dare to protest too much.
The old High-Tech-Hippie argument that the Internet can’t be tamed or regulated has been proven wrong – and not only by the Chinese Government. Places like Cuba or Iran are also black holes in the net infrastructure.
Information wants to be free – people too …
More? The Economist “Alternative Reality”
Sorry, I am a bit late. Lunar New Year was on February the 8th 2008. Hope you celebrated with some firecrackers and yummy Chinese food?
Oh boy, do I miss celebrating the lunar new year like I did in London (Soho). That was fun – watching the different Kung Fu schools doing their dragon dances while stuffing delicious sweeties into my mouth …
What’s Chinese for “fucking too much snow, because we wrecked the environment with our dirty factories”?
The lunar new year is a huge festival in most Asian countries – it’s really like western Christmas and new years eve in one big celebration.
For China’s millions of migrating workers it’s often the ONLY chance to see their family ONCE a year altogether. This year around 200 million are on the road trying to get to their loved ones – this is a huge number. That’s bigger then the whole population of Russia or half of Europe traveling. And because China is such a big country many people spend days getting home and back to work again.
That is why the snow catastrophe arouses such fierce response from many Chinese stuck at train stations and airports. They only vacation is currently fucked up and China experiences how fragile it’s transport and energy system really is. Many power lines have been knocked out – and the military is desperately trying to help people stuck in the cold to survive. So far 50 people have died.
BBC Essay: In search of a ‘humane’ execution
What do countries like the USA, China and Iran in common? They still believe in executing hardcore criminals – including youngsters
It is hard to believe that in our modern world people still get killed by their Governments. I am deeply against the death penalty – and it’s a good thing that the EU has abolished it.
The BBC has an interesting article (link above) that gives an insight into the search of Michael Portillo for an humane way of killing (no unnecessary pain, etc).
The Christmas tree is labeled as a German invention. But who would have thought that Arab countries and the Chinese go mad for them? German consumers are currently facing a serious price hike, because ‘their’ trees are getting shipped or even flown out to "those foreigners".
So global consumerist culture trumps so called Christian traditions? Frohe Weihnachten …
Chinese woman wins Miss World contest in China. Anyone surprised? It’s almost as predictable as Putin’s landslide win in the Russian Election.
Miss Zilin looks nice – but there were MANY, MANY, MANY more better looking Ladies in that Miss World contest …
Just watching and controlling all these Non-Americans …
The US has over 700 military installations worldwide. In contrast to that India opened it’s FIRST foreign military base in 2006 in lovely Tajikistan (do you know where that is?). China has not a single foreign military base. And on a funny side note the even lovelier country of Kyrgyzstan has a Russian and an American military base.
Not many countries can afford to keep military bases in other nations – and not many nations are willing to have foreign soldiers in their soil. (List of military bases by country)
Many American bases go way back to WWII like those big ones in Japan, Britain and Germany, but also to the cold war like in Turkey, Korea or Spain. Russia has closed down most of it’s bases since the end of the Soviet Union – most of the remaining ones are based in former parts of the Communist Empire. Britain and France have kept some bases in some former Colonies.
But nobody spends as much money, influence and hardware as the USA. Read this excellent article Chalmers Johnson on garrisoning the planet to get some deeper insights.
Comrades: We already rule Wal-Mart and Africa! And America can’t finance any war without us. There is no need for a stinking war …
Faced with such a staggering difference in the balance of power and obsession with keeping the upper hand – is anyone surprised that the US is accused of Imperialism? During the Cold War it made sense for NATO to keep a huge network of bases around the world, but this war is over.
And neither Bin Laden nor China or Russia will be contained by military force.
For terrorists military bases are excellent advertising for American Imperialism and they also make yummy targets to blow up. China understands that going to war is stupid and is way too busy to build up it’s already huge industrial and financial muscles – that is why the US is lending money from the Communists to finance it’s war in Iraq. And finally Russia – who also no longer needs a huge military presence anyway, because it can use it’s energy reserves as much more effective weapon.
Got some change for me Dude? I need to buy some bullets … this whole war thing is pretty expensive you know.
Imperial overstretch can destroy great Nations (here are two great essays related to that: part 1 and part 2). The American infrastructure, social fabric, educational system and manufacturing base is already showing serious signs of underdevelopment. And it’s mighty military has huge recruitment and moral problems.
The military industrial complex is destroying it’s own base. But the rich and mighty can always move on to another country and new wars to fight.
More? No-Bases.org
BBC News: China in Africa: Developing ties
An excellent BBC article about China’s efforts in Africa. Highly recommended when you want to know why the US and Europe are loosing ground to the Chinese long term strategy.
I swear to enrich the capitalists and suppress the masses for the greater good of the party and maybe China.
The great red nation has transformed itself in the total opposite of socialism: workers are suppressed while capitalist robber barons and the party enrich themselves.
I wonder how long they can keep the strings together? Especially when poverty and social differences become harsher and harsher?
China currently produces 70% of the world shoe market. Since it’s killing the shoe industry in Europe they are considering some sort of import tariff. No problem said shoe retailers in Europe – we then simply buy them someplace else – like India or Bangladesh. The lesson: it’s hard to protect your economic sphere against dumping – and even harder when the rest of the world lives and works on a very different and cheaper economic scale.
If you like to know more about the dreadful failure of the so called Tiananmen Square revolution and today’s China please watch this great documentation: The Tank Man.
It tells in great detail the story of a failed revolution and how China’s communists brutally knocked down the people’s will. Sure – we are all amazed by today’s economic boom in China – but still it’s more like a brutal economic progress for the few rich and the party – not for most of the people.
In rural areas the poverty and devastation is unbelievable. Schooling and medical support has broken down in most of the country. Factory workers are denied basic rights – rights the communists used to fight and campaign for. No strikes are allowed, so sick leave is paid and accidents are not covered. It basic and brutal capitalism at work here.
This distorted ’success’ is on one side rebuilding China’s failed infrastructure on the backs of Chinese laborers, while putting the western economies in turmoil. In a strange way both sides are ‘paying’ up to bring China out of the misery of 60 year of stupid communist government.
I still can’t believe that China got the Olympics of 2008.
BBC News: China rules out West’s democracy
BBC News: How China is ruled (excellent background information)
Currently one of the most important political meetings takes place in Peking: the Communist Party’s 17th congress. Here China’s future is discussed and decided by over 2000 delegates from all corners of the red empire. The goal is to build a ‘Building Harmonious Society‘ – whatever that means.
At the moment the workers state is a workers nightmare: no union protection, hardly any enforced labor laws, rampant capitalism, no working health insurance or pension systems. All blown away by the capitalist revolution of the last 30 years.
Nice national harmonious firewall comrade.
President Hu made the usual nice speech – but basically all stays the same: the communist party has a total stranglehold on power, the military enforces their rule, the new oligarchs bring in the money and China plays nice with all countries who own any kind of resources for the future.
And yes, dissenting voice and any form of opposition is still brutally suppressed. Escpecially for the Olympic Games – any form of protest would disturb the fairy tale the Chinese leaders live in.
More? Propaganda 1 and Propaganda 2
The US wants that Iran, North Korea and many other countries give up their atomic bombs. On the other side they recently started new programs to build such weapons of mass destruction (or even smaller tasks like bunker busting). Plus recent events have shown us, that the US adopted a new doctrine to strike first …
Anyone surprised that even more countries want nukes?!