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 …

BBC News: AU treads softly on Zimbabwe

It is easy to hate hate and condemn Robert Mugabe - and he deserves every bit of it. Since the last election it should be bloody obvious to anyone that he is an old tyrant clinging to power by any means necessary.

But African leaders - many of them dubious characters - don’t have the backbone to deal with this monster. Africa loves to hate Europe for it’s colonial mistakes and America for their modern imperialism. But currently it’s mostly Africans abusing other Africans.

Once again it shows that establishing "good systems" like Democracy without a supporting culture and historically grown structures simply doesn’t work.

Especially in Africa tribalism and capitalism make an explosive mixture. Tribal loyalties trump any laws or common sense. But this is also a long term consequence of all these artificial countries in Africa: Europe brutally forced many tribes into artificial "Nations" which never before existed. Many of these mixed up countries are still struggling to "function". Maybe some form of continental reshuffle would be helpful?

BBC News: Mugabe’s Zanu-PF loses majority

Hardly any politician makes my blood boil as much as Mugabe. He is the Messiah that missed his exit and totally ruined his beloved country.

Hopefully the 84 year old will finally retire peacefully?!?

How many years will it take to remove his legacy and make Zimbabwe once again a leading country in Africa? So much blood has been spilled - it will take decades to heal these wounds? And it will take also a lot of good faith and hard work to get it’s economy back on track.

Great work Robert!

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!”.

The Economist: An ugly victory

Russia is a tragedy - after Communism these people would deserve a break from nasty politicians, abuse and false promises. But only the names and labels seem to have changed.

Sure - it looks like Putin has recovered Russia’s economy fortunes - but that isn’t true. Already before his first election it was on a rebound. Today the state controlled economy is back - and the country is even more addicted to oil than the US. Russia’s current upswing is solely based on it’s energy exports. Under Putin all other industries have suffered and repressions are considered worse now than before he took power. So all that talk that he sorted out Russia for good is rubbish.