A bit of politics
Years without cigarettes - ONE!!!! as of today Sunday 4th May 2008 wheeeeee.
Days without Wine - uh oh this is bad, I can't remember, either it's been too little wine to rememb er or too much to remember.
Big disappointment yesterday, I had arranged with friends to get my ears pierced, they were getting tattoos and I was getting my ears pierced but one of them fell ill and the tattoo fest got cancelled boo hiss, I am so doing this and in time for Sparkle.
This week was riot day in Zurich but I gave it a miss this year, theres only so much getting tear gassed you can have before it stops being fun, thats not the politics tho. The politics are me wondering what the trannisphere thinks of the Beijing Olympics? This tranny finds it abhorrent, I'm disgusted that the olympics was awarded to an oppressive dictatorship to whom human rights is an inconvenience. I am incensed at the lies coming from Beijing, the Dali LLama behind the tibetan riots? come off it! believe a regime with a history of torture, execution and organ harvesting, or a man respected for his peaceful views. It wasnt even close to being believable and thats what winds me up the most, some assumption that we are so stupid that they dont even have to try to make up a good lie. Oh how I wanted Gordon Clown to make a statement along the lines of 'We are deeply concerned at the allegations of the Chinese authorities regarding the culpability of the Dali Llama in the recent protests in Tibet, we have offered the assistance of Scotland Yard in the investigation and look forward to the arrival of the evidence' or some such words.
I understand the arguments about being inclusive and you can't talk to someone if you are not talking to them but come on, theres talking to them and theres awarding them the olympics, what a joke, so much for the olympic ideal.
So what triggered my outpouring, it was this: Having a small love affair with the big mountians I have been following the story of the torch going up Everest. Well trying to follow it given Beijings love of media control and manipulation. I've been suspicious from the get go, you don't just take something up Everest, you *attempt* it, now they have shut down the mountain to make sure theres no one around to see whether they do it or not, they are going to fake it, I just know it. In the spirit of the Olympic ideal the have got Nepal to site a military checkpoint at base camp with authority to use force and a mountaineer has already been removed for daring to have a tibetan flag. Damn I am so angry.
and I hope I have no Chinese readers who take offence because I am not having a go at the people of China, on my one trip there I found the ones I met to be lovely but hey, your dictators suck.
Days without Wine - uh oh this is bad, I can't remember, either it's been too little wine to rememb er or too much to remember.
Big disappointment yesterday, I had arranged with friends to get my ears pierced, they were getting tattoos and I was getting my ears pierced but one of them fell ill and the tattoo fest got cancelled boo hiss, I am so doing this and in time for Sparkle.
This week was riot day in Zurich but I gave it a miss this year, theres only so much getting tear gassed you can have before it stops being fun, thats not the politics tho. The politics are me wondering what the trannisphere thinks of the Beijing Olympics? This tranny finds it abhorrent, I'm disgusted that the olympics was awarded to an oppressive dictatorship to whom human rights is an inconvenience. I am incensed at the lies coming from Beijing, the Dali LLama behind the tibetan riots? come off it! believe a regime with a history of torture, execution and organ harvesting, or a man respected for his peaceful views. It wasnt even close to being believable and thats what winds me up the most, some assumption that we are so stupid that they dont even have to try to make up a good lie. Oh how I wanted Gordon Clown to make a statement along the lines of 'We are deeply concerned at the allegations of the Chinese authorities regarding the culpability of the Dali Llama in the recent protests in Tibet, we have offered the assistance of Scotland Yard in the investigation and look forward to the arrival of the evidence' or some such words.
I understand the arguments about being inclusive and you can't talk to someone if you are not talking to them but come on, theres talking to them and theres awarding them the olympics, what a joke, so much for the olympic ideal.
So what triggered my outpouring, it was this: Having a small love affair with the big mountians I have been following the story of the torch going up Everest. Well trying to follow it given Beijings love of media control and manipulation. I've been suspicious from the get go, you don't just take something up Everest, you *attempt* it, now they have shut down the mountain to make sure theres no one around to see whether they do it or not, they are going to fake it, I just know it. In the spirit of the Olympic ideal the have got Nepal to site a military checkpoint at base camp with authority to use force and a mountaineer has already been removed for daring to have a tibetan flag. Damn I am so angry.
and I hope I have no Chinese readers who take offence because I am not having a go at the people of China, on my one trip there I found the ones I met to be lovely but hey, your dictators suck.
posted by Gillian at 6:07 PM
7 Comments:
It's interesting to compare and contrast with Moscow in 1980: just after the invasion of Afghanistan.
Russia wasn't used by The West to out-source their manufacturing base, and neither was it seen as a developing market open to investment. Hmm - there're some vested interests here.
If a lie is repeated often enough it will be believed. The events of Tianamen Square are only known of beyond the sphere of influence of the Chinese state media. They're not trying to convince the world, just their citizens. They are kept in perpetual ignorance of reality.
There's a point where my thoughts might intersect with Isobel's about vested interests. It is very difficult to reprimand a country that you continue to go to with your hand out and open for financing you've become dependant on because you can't control your own spending. I don't know how great the UK debt is in regard to China, but the US has extended its obligation way past reasonable. The US cost for the current Irag/Afghanistan debacle is 3 trillion dollars and mounting. How much of that cost is in actual American dollars?
I don't think you can expect anyone to take any critcism seriously while you are heavily dependant on their assistance for you necessities.
What concerned me more were the reports of a shoot-to-kill policy regarding anyone trying to interfere with the Olympic torch, or anyone trying to disrupt the torch's progress to protest about Tibet.
It's a too way street though Emma, China is equally dependant on it's exports, I would say more so than the west is dependant on China. If forced to, western manufacturers would build new factories and outsource elsewhere. China has to sell to the west to survive. It expects to continue to do so for some years, look at the billions it's invested in the Congo to secure future Cobalt supplies.
You're right about it being a two way street, Gillian. And I never meant to imply it justifies China's actions in Tibet. I was only trying to make the point that the position of greatest leverage is the one everyone seems unwilling to take, precisely because of economic dependancy.In the US, and currently in Australia, that depenancy is far in China's favor. I tried looking at how much of my day to day living makes use of things which support China's ecomony. More than 60% of the obvious, and it gets more difficult, the more undisclosed components or ingredients are involved. Many have sources in China that are nearly impossible to track. Most dog & cat foods, for instance, use a cereal based protein manufactured in China. It isn't on the label at all. I only learned about it after a serious number of pet deaths occurred in Canada and the US and the cause was traced to this ingredient processed in China.
But the trade part of dependancy isn't what concerns me most. It's actually borrowing money outright from China to finance internal government functioning. The US has apparently done just that.
I wasn't defending China's human rights violations. I wanted to point out that any effort to correct that situation requires a great deal of effort to identify all the "bad guys" involved.
I feel a great deal of sorrow over His Holiness, the Dalai Lama. He is in a very untenable position, both as spiritual and political head of his country, and as an individual with a remarable degree of conscience. Often the only thing he has to fall back on is the buddhist concept that everything is impermanent. I find that very hard to practice as faithfully in just the petty disruptions of my own life> Its difficult to imagined I could ever extend it to a point where I could call my "enemy" my friend.
Oh I didn't think you were defending them Emma.
I know what you mean about the pervasiveness of Chinese products, a quick scout around the house is quick surprising. I do wonder if boycotts ever work, for every person who feels strongly enough to take action there must be a couple of hundred thousand who don't give a damn.
LOL.I'd go quite mad if I thought about the numbers. I'm happy to know that sometimes I can count myself as "one less" in accounting the contributions to a problem.
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