The good thing you can say about the Chinese Government is that at least they aren't Islamic fanatics.  After that, it gets a little dicey.

The Olympics will of course showcase modern China, with all dissidents and other undesirables placed beyond the reach of the World media.  We'll get cute little children, that high pitched music and propoganda displays that would make Mao proud.  I am sure their will be sojourns to The Great Wall and other cultural sites.  I expect little mention to the Chinese hosts of Tibet or Tiananmen Square.  We are a bit screwed anyway as they hold a nice marker on our currency.  

A fascinating issue for those in the World who love China anyway is to watch how they've shapped the Mugabe agenda in the U.N.  They gutted any action the UN would take, even to the point of watering down its customary inaction.  The old African song The Lion Sleeps Tonight may still hold true, but the Sleeping Tiger of Asia is awake and on the prowl.        

So, who all agrees with Sharon Stone that the earthquake which has killed so many people in China may have been the result of "bad karma"?

The Basic Instinc actress told reporters that this month's natural disaster, which made millions homeless, may be the result of the Chinese government's policy on Tibet. Amid growing fury over the comments, which were made on the red carpet at Cannes last week but have since reached a worldwide audience on YouTube, the founder of one of China's biggest cinema chains said yesterday that his company would no longer show her films in its theatres.

Now then, the first reaction is to realise that Ms Stone is a moonbat. I think that's a given. Not sure why anyone cares what she thinks about such issues. 

On reflection however, if one believes in God Almighty, then I think it reasonable to accept that all things are possible for him. The Bible makes it clear that God is control of everything on this Earth and so in a way Stone could almost be right in what she says. God punishes the wicked but he does it in his way, at his timing. I do not pretend to know for one second what is in the Almighty's mind - all I am saying is that Christians believe that God is in control of this Earth and all that happens on it and above it and even, yes, below the surface of it. So forget about "Karma" but focus on eternal truth.

First there was the devastating cyclone that hit Burma which may have killed over one million people. Now there is a huge earthquake that has devastated south-western China, killing thousands. In both instances, the governing tyrannies have shown a lack of will to allow "outsiders" onto their soil to help bring aid.  In essence they are prepared to sacrifice their own people in order to preserve their sovereignty. The question is; what should our response be?

The NGO's have been clamouring to gain access. Many foreign politicians have been demanding that Burma in particular allows help in. But the reality is that the Burmese dictators want to keep outside help OUT and unless we are prepared to invade then against their will then we must grant them their wish. I know it's not in vogue but we should stay out where we are not wanted.

China deserves nothing but our withering contempt. It's treatment of Tibet, and many of its own people, it's malign interference in Africa and elsewhere, should NOT be excused just because it can provide cheap goods. Boycotting the Olympics seems a great idea to me - but not to Britain's Mr Bean-look-a-like Foreign Secretary David Miliband who it is reported.. 

"...flatly rejected pressure for a Europe-wide boycott of the Olympic Games in response to China’s crackdown on Tibet. He said he had no plans to attend the opening ceremony himself, but Prime Minister Gordon Brown would be there – along with many other EU leaders."

 

If Miliband had ANY wit, he would at least keep options open but he doesn't and so he immediately shows his hand to the Chinese. They can do AS THEY WANT in Tibet, our principled politicians will be turning up for the global photocall at the Olympics come what may.

Listened this morning on the Today programme to an interview with one Duncan Goodhew, the athlete and swimmer. THe question put to him was if he supported a call for a boycott of the Beijing Olympics as a matter of principle, after the ferocious repression of all independent thought in Lhasa, Tibet in general and the surrounding Chinese areas?

I listened as he trotted out all the old bullshit about how the Olympics were special, and how it brought nations together, and how it was all about competing; and on, and on, until I nearly lost the will to live! In common with just about all naive, self-centred, useful idiots, as the great liberal leader Stalin once called them, he just couldn't divorce the all-encompassing Sporting myth from the cold hard reality that there rules, in China, a singlularly vicious bunch of Stalinist thugs.

The Mecca for all things 'Sporting' is Beijing, and in August this year the dictators of 1.4 billion people will reap their rewards of adulation from the morons who will flock to the various palaces of sporting endeavour, or who will sit glued to their plasma television screens, The many millions will watch the flower of many nations vie for honour in a place where there is no honour; where the very tarmac of the tracks is spattered with the blood of the protesters, who only wanted to be heard!

Sporting prowess divorced from protest and politics?  Yes, and just across there you will no doubt view a full section of flying pigs!

As Her Majesty snipped the blue ribbon, or lost the first suitcase, or whatever our Monarch was forced to go through whilst performing the opening ceremony at T-FIVE, as we sophisticates have learnt to call Terminal Five at Heathrow, I wonder if many pondered the course of this monstrous building, and compared it's progress with another similar, but very much larger structure many thousands of miles away?

As most will have read, or if living anywhere near the western side of London seen, the painful progress of the £4.3 Billion flagship of the B.A.A. empire, complete with integrated facilities for getting lost very quickly. We saw the headlines of the five-year long Planning enquiry, and then watched the birth pangs of the largest bicycle shed in the western world as it slowly rose into the tortured skyline which is our largest airport. We will no doubt read very shortly of the disasters which have yet to happen, from whole holds-full of luggage going to the wrong Continents, to a massed attack of frenzied passengers all trying to reach the exits at the same time.

 In other words, a typical British shambles, camouflaged by a hurried inflation of the expected project costs and an embarrassing stretch of the original project timeline! But, even after all the delays, and cost overruns, and even Lord Foster being allowed to witter on about the "Experience of moving through T-Five" when all most want to do is get out of the damn place, I still kind of like it. I like it because it typifies all that Britain has to offer as we stumble on, smiling grimly despite all the problems, all the bureaucratic and democratic delays, all the lunatic problems and laws foisted on us by a truly Socialistic government which is only interested in Power for Power's sake! We got there in the end, and despite the fiendishly slow progress of construction; despite the fact that it is already out-of-date when it comes to passenger handling; despite all the things which will surely show up as being truly badly engineered and built, I think we've got a better AND MORE HUMAN deal that the people who were shovelled out of the way, whose dreams and homes were trampled into the dust, to build THIS!

The heading above this post is the final line in an extremely funny, but also extremely dirty, song I used to sing during my days at sea. Now you might honestly question the relevance of a rather crude song in a blog which comments on current and political affairs; but if you read on a while, all shall be revealed.

Some time back, I wrote a small polemic on my own site about the pernicious practice of moving factories and production to China, and how we, as a nation and as part of the West, were slowly digging our own economic graves, before being buried by a resurgent Communist China. many ridiculed me then, and perhaps more will do so now. But I am in the age before the twilight of my life, and I can afford to take a long look at my country, and the mistakes we have allowed to be made on our behalf. I have watched as our political leaders flexed their military muscles in affrays both good and bad; good in Sierra Leone, good in Afghanistan, stupid in Iraq. I have watched and read as the voters ditched a successful Conservative Government because it seemed like a good idea, despite the warnings of the pathways of a Socialist government, all of which has come to be true; and further watched as they were returned to power twice more, through a mixture of voter greed and Opposition incompetence.

But through the ten odd years of Labour, and a good few years of the Tories’ as well, I have watched in stupefaction as the British elite have allowed our industries to be decimated in the sacred cause of ‘Shareholder Value”, and other misleading catchphrases. We see an entire car production facility parcelled up and shipped off to China, aided and abetted by government subsidies to the unemployed, because our laws were easily fooled by five spivs who took the money and then ran away. We see the shelves of our supermarkets and D.I.Y. chains laden with goods marked “made in China”, and we also read of the huge recalls of Chinese-manufactured toys because the paint is laced with lead.

We see the pictures of the skyscrapers in Shanghai and Peking, we read of the huge advances in consumer spending within China and of the super-rich spending habits buying Armani, Prada and Rolex.

But what we don’t see is the hidden rifles and boots of the guards who control the semi-slave labour factories where much of the goods are made which now lie, shiny and tantalising, on the shelves of Europe’s shops. We don’t see the huge advances in electronic surveillance which hold such a sinister presence on such innocent things as computer blogs and comment forums. We don’t read of the laws which make the use of filtering networks part of the deal in doing business in or with China! We don’t hear of the unwritten rule in modern China; the one which states,

“Make all the money you want, buy and sell whatever you fancy, and the Party will back you to the hilt! But don’t stray into political thought, don’t even consider the strange Western ideals of ‘rights’ or even of the heresy known as the ‘Rule of Law’! WE, the Chinese Politburo, will decide what you can believe in, we will decide what you will be governed by, and if you veer from the path, you WILL suffer the fate which we smilingly called down on the fools who sat in TIANANMEN SQUARE”!

 

Tainted dog food.     Drug laced children toys.   Hard drives with equipment for spying? 

Can we afford this?

Trojan Found In New HDs Sold In Taiwanhttp:

"About 1,800 brand new 300-GB or 500-GB external hard drives made for Maxtor in Thailand were found to have trojan horse malwares pre-installed (autorun.inf and ghost.pif). When the HD is in use, these forward information on the disk to two websites in Beijing, China: www.nice8.org or www.we168.org. The article implies that authorities believe the Chinese government is behind the trojans. A later article pins down the point of infection to a subcontractor company in China. A couple of months back the Register was reporting on pre-installed malware detected on Maxtor disks sold in the Netherlands. This earlier report was downplayed by a Seagate spokesman." The more recent Taipei Times article says that Seagate admits the problem on its Web site, but a search there turns up nothing.