China Riots: Are Uyghurs The New Tibetans?
I've been to Urumqi and spent some time with the Uyghurs, and have been tracking their fate for years, so here's some information on the China riots that might help you understand a bit more about whats going on there.
Suffice it to say, the Han Chinese are not exactly wild about the idea of multiculturalisum, and what we see happening with the Uyghurs is exactly the same thing their People's Republic has done to the Tibetans. Send large numbers of Han out to your city, appoint them to all of the important positions, so that all of a sudden you are powerless and a minority in your own homeland.
When you hear the Uyghurs referred to as a minority group consider this: the fact is that they were never a minority in their Xhingang homeland (formally known as The Xinjiang-Uyghur Autonomous Region, but now called Eastern Turkistan by those who aspire for an independent Uyghur state). Not until the Chinese government started shipping Han out there, that is. In the ancient silk road city of Kashgar, the second largest Uyghur city after Urumqi, the Chinese Government is bulldozing the old part of the city as we speak, and moving all the Uyghurs out of an area where they have lived for hundreds of years. The Uyghurs have good reasons to be resentful.
The UN and Amnesty International have all documented human rights violations against the Uyghurs, so the Chinese position that they are simply doing the ungrateful Uyghurs a favor by bringing the fruits of modern culture to them is hardly tenable.
According to what I have read from sources in Urumqi, here's what got this all started: Someone in the eastern part of China published a fake story on the web accusing some Uyghur guys of raping a Han woman. A racist lynch mob formed and stormed a toy factory in the east of China where the government had shipped a bunch of Uyghurs to provide extra-cheap labor. Apparently two (some reports say more) Uyghurs were killed and many more were injured. Since it was just some funky Uyghurs who were killed, the authorities apparently dragged their feet in doing anything about it.
Hence the march in Urumqi.
You are probably hearing that somewhere around 150 people have been killed in Urumchi -- but we are somehow not quite hearing the race of those who were killed. All the official footage shows pictures of bloody Han, with the implication that it's Han who make up the 150 people who were killed, and that they were killed by Uyghur rioters.
If this is so....why don't they just come out and say that it was Han who were killed ?
Again, this is only what I have been able to gather from the small amount of info that is trickling out on the web from people on the ground, but apparently the first march (1000-3000 people) was relatively peaceful. Protesters marched through the streets until they arrived at the government offices. They were told to disperse, and when they didn't, police came out and randomly machine-gunned about 150 people. Again, this is just a web rumor, but if it's true, this is where the figure of 150 deaths comes from, and is the key event that we are not being told about. This slaughter (and the following round-up of the usual suspects) is apparently what sparked the violence and trashing of Han property and individuals that followed.
You will also hear the Chinese Government blaming all of this on a woman called Rebiya Kadeer. But the news people have yet to give us much information on her. In truth, she is essentially the Dali Lama of the Uyghur people, and was held in prison by the Chinese for 8 years. During this time (and for some reason the news people rarely mention this either) she was nominated for the Noble Peace Prize four times.
Condoleezza Rice made a visit to China while she was Secretary of State, and the Chinese released Kadeer the day before Condi arrived. Kadeer is currently living in Washington DC where she now heads the Uyghur-American Society. This group has been the primary advocacy group for Uyghurs around the world. You can check their website via this link.
Why are we not stepping in, and why has the US Govt said nothing about abuses against the Uyghurs in the past ? The Uyghurs are Moslems, and after 911, Osama Bin Laden reportedly sent some money to a Uyghur nationalist group in the area. As a result Bush basically told the Chinese that they could do anything they wanted to the Uyghur people and the US would not do or say a thing about it. You may have heard about the 17 Uyghurs in Gitmo, but for years the US Govt has known that they were just a bunch of poor shmuks who were in Afghanistan looking for work and were turned over to our troops by bounty hunters.
Is there a media bias in this story? This might be one way to tell. Uyghur people pronounce the name of their capital Urumqi in three syllables: Ur-ROOM-chee. Han, and Chinese government sources pronounce it in four syllables: Ur-rue-MOO-chee. Listening to how someone pronounces it may give you a hint as to what side of the situation they are approaching the story from.
Violence is a questionable way to resolve any issue, and there is sure to be more from both sides before things settle down. But its clear which side the authorities are on, and interesting to follow the various spins as news from this here-to-fore backwater ethnic becomes more prominent.
China's New Olympic Rules
Ahh, the Olympics: the traditions; the majesty; the competitive spirit; the graceful athleticism and the...the political restrictions?
That's right. China, not satisfied with infringing on their own citizens' rights to protest against the government, or cracking down on claims of independence of different areas, now they have released a list of rules for foreign visitors coming for the Games. These include:
- No printed material that is critical of China
- No rallies or demonstrations
- Olympic Tickets do not necessarily mean an entry visa will be issued
- No smuggling in Opium (since there's no history of opium in China)
- Do not insult the Chinese flag or other national Chinese symbols
- No religious or political banners
Some of these make sense, like the rules of what to do if you get food poisoning, and I'm sure that plenty of host countries have refused entry visas to some people who had Olympic tickets. But some of these count as suppression of what are considered basic human rights.
A persons ability to express his or her opinion is a basic human right and as such does not need to have a specific clause in the Olympic Charter because its place is implicit, said Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee, at a meeting in Beijing in April.
It should be noted that Olympic rules have, for over 50 years, included a ban on political, religious, and racial propaganda on Olympic sites, but that is more about suspending political differences and descriminations than China's version:
The advisory issued by the Beijing Organizing Committee includes a ban on bringing into China anything detrimental to Chinas politics, economy, culture or moral standards, including printed material, film negatives, photos, records, movies, tape recordings, videotapes, optical discs and other items.
China was supposed to, as part of their winning bid in 2001, improve their human rights records.
We're still waiting.
Asshole Fuckface Roundup #43
Welcome to the first ever Asshole Fuckface Roundup. Its never been done before and Im a bit nervous. Ive scoured the weeks news and located the worst people on Earth. Now, I will unveil them for you to sneer at. How will it go? Who knows? Will the judged seek me out and murder me? Odds are high. Yet, I must do this, as God has chosen me. So, wrap yourself in a thick malleable polymer and lets get started.
First up, the horrible Asshole Fuckfaces of the Himalayas.
In early May, the Olympic flame is scheduled to be carried to the top of Mount Everest. The poor Olympic flame has had a rough trip around the world. Everywhere the flame goes, protesters come out in force to convey their anger at China for the violent crackdown in Tibet. But Nepal has come up with a great way to halt any protests that may occur on Mount Everest: Just kill em.
Nepal has given its security personnel permission to shoot pro-Tibet demonstrators during China's Olympic flame climb to Mount Everest's summit early next month.
Well, that should do it. And may I add, that is some strong Olympic spirit.
"About 25 soldiers and policemen have established camps on the mountain and they have been ordered to use force if necessary to stop any anti-Chinese activities," Mod Raj Dotel, spokesman for the home ministry. "This could mean shooting if necessary."
They should use guys from the Chinese Double Trap Olympic team to kill the horrible protesters. That way, they can get some shooting practice while doing something awesome for their country.
All climbers setting out on Everest will also be searched for non-essential materials and anti-Chinese stuff. Any climbers who are found with such heinous material will have their permits canceled.
Also, climbers cannot go above 6,400 meters between May 1st and May 10th. So, its a great time to climb nearly to the top of Everest, only to be stopped by armed Asshole Fuckfaces because some idiots want fire to make some empty achievement.
Next up, some horrible Asshole Fuckfacery happened in the Netherlands. Words cannot do this justice.
Dear Dutch people, why is everyone enjoying the creepy man licking and stroking that boy? Please let me know what might be too far and understand if I dont take my son to Holland. And how jealous is Michael Jackson right now?
Next up, some Asshole Fuckface bondage.
A Tennessee couple was going through a rocky period in their marriage. Rebecca Bargy was stepping out on her man James. Over the past few months, she had engaged in several affairs and spent two nights last week screwing another dude in a hotel.
With a wife banging other dudes and spending nights away from home, its probably not too smart to let her tie you up and ball gag you.
Rebecca Bargy placed duct tape over James Bargy's mouth and eyes, put a ball gag in his mouth and then tied a bandage around his head, leaving only his nostrils showing.
She also tied his hands and legs behind his back. She then left him for 20 hours.
Now that is domination. James died of asphyxiation. Now word on whether or not he came.
Rebecca claims it was an accident and that James requested to be bound and gagged and then left for 20 hours to enjoy the shit out of it. But Police believe Rebecca was screwing a man at a hotel while James slowly died. Although, she did stop in at one point to say hi to James. Im sure that was a nice, tender moment.
Its been a good week for gay hating Asshole Fuckfaces around the world.
Its hard to pick who is the bigger Asshole Fuckface, Bahrain or Singapore.The hit Singapore home renovation show, Find and Design, ran into a little trouble this week when a homosexual couple was featured. The show included footage of the couple and their child living their normal lives. The Media Development Authority was not pleased.
The MDA said the episode, which showed scenes of the couple and the baby, crossed the line because of the presenters congratulations of them and acknowledgement of their existence as a family unit. The presenter apparently acknowledged the familys existence "in a way which normalizes their gay lifestyle and unconventional family setup."
Right. Please don't normalize the freaks. I guess he should have mocked them and maybe slapped them a few times during the renovation. Remind me not to visit Singapore.
The Asshole Fuckfacery in Bahrain makes Singapore look like San Francisco. The Bahrain Parliament has decided to do something about the countrys homosexual problem.
The countrys parliament has just passed a number of new initiatives designed to root out and rid the country of any and all homosexuals.
I believe thats called a witch hunt. Some of the fun tactics will include a survey to determine how many gays and lesbians are running around Bahrain. That should be interesting.
Do you have a penis? Yes or No.
Do you like to rub your penis against other peni? Yes or no?
Have you ever had a buddy-to-buddy cock rub party? Yes or no?
The Parliament also demanded that the Interior Ministry ban all gay foreigners from getting residence permits. And there will be more surprise inspections of massage parlors and hair salons. The government believes those are the two places homosexuals hang out.
Those people are either from the Philippines or Thailand and they come for these two jobs, which they use as a curtain for their homosexual behavior and immorality.
Word. I cant get a haircut without falling into some dude's asshole.
Best of all, teachers will be trained to ferret out gay kids.
Teachers will be trained and asked to watch students carefully for signs of homosexuality. Teachers are told to punish [the children] accordingly if they show any homosexual tendencies.
Well, I already spend 16 hours a day watching children for signs of homosexuality, so maybe I should go get a teaching job in Bahrain. Seriously though, if anyone sees a child playing hairdresser or sodomy, please tell the principal.
Finally, the first FearTheReaper video Asshole Fuckface story.
Consider yourself blessed.
FearTheReaper would like to congratulate all of this weeks Asshole Fuckfaces. You will each receive a bottle of FearTheReaper multi-vitamins.
Asshole Fuckface Roundup #35
Happy Asshole Fuckface day. As I tour the country, speaking of Asshole Fuckfacery of yesteryear, I am often asked, Who was the first? After 84 hours of meditation, I am ready to reveal his name: Ethelred Unraed, King of the English (9781016). In the year 1002, Ethey was experiencing an uneasy truce with the Vikings. Like most Asshole Fuckfaces during a truce, he thirsted for blood.
On November 13th, 1002, he ordered "to be slain all the Danish people who were in England... The English went nuts. On St. Brices day, women were buried up to their waists and dogs chewed off their nipples, children were crushed against doorposts or under rocks and men were cut down with swords. In Oxford, some Danes sought refuge in St Frideswide's Church. They burned that fucker down, along with every Dane inside. The number of dead is unknown, because in the year 1002 not many people were packing calculators. Ethelred was immediately declared the first Asshole Fuckface and a year later the Vikings invaded and Ethey scurried off to Normandy.
Ever since that day, my people have located the Asshole Fuckfaces of the world and forced them into the light. They are nasty creatures. So, put on your rubber apron, this is going to be ugly.
First up, some Asian Asshole Fuckface activity.
Ah, China. If it were possible to make a profit, China would convince people to eat Drano. They could give a shit about humanity or the environment. The country is an environmental disaster and they only respond when excessive pollution results in a loss of business.
Take Lake Chao. Chao is one of Chinas five largest fresh water lakes. As the Chinese economy explodes, so does industry. Around Chao, that means toxins and untreated sewage released into the lake from hundreds of factories. Lake Chao is now one of Chinas biggest environmental disasters and fisheries on the lake have been destroyed.
Thankfully, the Chinese government has a plan. China will release 1.5 million silver carp into the lake. The carp do well in low-oxygen water and eat the algae that grows in toxic, high-nitrogen, polluted bodies of water. Its a win-win! The algae soaks up the pollution, then the fish eat the algae! Yay!
Each carp is expected to have gobbled between 88 to 100 pounds of blue algae when it reaches its adult weight, with each chomp of the sludge helping to clean up the toxic lake.
Once the carp have matured, fishermen will be able to catch them and sell them in markets, at a price 15 times their original cost, giving a boost to the local fishing industry, according to Xinhua.
Wow, thats awesome. But, why not just have people eat the toxins directly? What's wrong with serving up a blue algae cancer pie? Maybe turn the lake into a big Asshole Fuckface soup and let the country come down and slurp away?
Anyway, dont buy fish from China. Actually, dont buy anything from China.
Whats an Asshole Fuckface who works at Fox News to do when confronted with a story about a child molester? Obviously, grab some tape that has something, anything to do with Barack Obama.
Nice work. Expect a lot more pathetic subliminal Asshole Fuckfacery this year.
Sometimes Asshole Fuckfaces kill themselves and for that we should all be thankful.
Meet Ronald Barbour. Actually, you cant, because he jumped off a building. But you can read his goodbye manifesto, because he wrote it up on his blog.
I understand the ______ building is more than 150 feet tall. At the time of my last recon I noticed easy access to the roof that would allow someone to leap to their death to the parking lot below
I understand that over the years since the construction of this building several persons have died by jumping from this structure.
I plan to make such a leap.
Oh, dear. Things must not have been going well for Ronald. Some people dont see anyway out of the hell they are in and are take their own lives. Often, their depression clouds their mind and unable to see that life can get better, they end it.
I have no doubt the Leftist Media will spin my death as that of an insane man with few options left in life who killed himself in desperation. In fact, the objective investigator will notice no signs of depression on my part the last months of my life. I would describe myself as an idealist.
Oh. Fair enough. He killed himself for other reasons. Im sure they are good reasons, because he was a right-wing blogger.
I do this in memory of the several hundred victims on 9/11 who jumped off the World Trade Center as a means of avoiding burning to death, and the over 3,000 American soldiers killed fighting Islamofascism in Iraq and Afghanistan. A parallel reason is a protest against the American Left and the Democrat Party who have stabbed the Armed Forces in the back in the early stages of what is shaping up to be The Third World War.
I don't know how to say this, so I'm going to use a picture.
The monks who set themselves on fire during the Vietnam War died to protest killing. This Asshole Fuckface killed himself because we arent killing enough people. Bye.
Those interested can read Asshole Fuckface's manifesto here:
Next up, you can always count on a gun nut to make it into the Asshole Fuckface Roundup, but this is something entirely new.
Obviously we have been affected by the horrible shootings at Northern Illinois University and Virginia Tech. Schools have altered their security plans and students across the nation are a bit on edge. They were certainly freaked out when an Asshole Fuckface entered a classroom at Elizabeth City State University armed with a gun.
Wang, who teaches history and political science, said Tuesday in a telephone interview he was having a discussion in his foreign policy class when the man came to the door and said he wanted to talk with him.
"Suddenly the man pointed the gun at me," he said.
Wang said he did not know whether the gun was real. "I saw the gun but didn't have too much time to think about that," he said. "The man was serious."
"I was prepared to die at that moment.
Scary shit. And the dude sounded fucking crazy.
The intruder instructed Wang to close the door and then ordered the seven students to line up along the wall. Wang said the man told them that he had been kicked out of school and that he needed a lung transplant.
At one point, Wang said, the man threatened to kill the student who had the lowest grade point average.
First off, welcome to the bottom of the lung transplant list. You also could have blown up a tuna boat because it is equally as relevant. And second, way to help out the grading curve.
Some of the students thought the gun was fake, but Wang didnt because it was pressed against his back. Either way, they couldnt be sure. After 10 minutes security burst into the room and subdued the man. It couldnt have been too difficult to subdue him because he was not actually a real gunman. It was a drill. Apparently it went over very well.
During ECSU's drill, some students sent text messages to their parents, Wang said. Another staffer told Wang that students said they were prepared to jump out of a window.
Hi, lawsuit, my name is everybody. Fake gunman is lucky one of those students didnt bring a gun to school and put a bullet through his skull.
The school apologized, but did explain they had warned students and faculty there would be a drill, via email and text messages. Which is great, because nobody changes their email or phone number.
University Chancellor Willie J. Gilchrist said in a prepared statement that the drill was a learning experience.
Yeah. We all learned that you are an Asshole Fuckface.
Next up, dude goes TJ Hooker Asshole Fuckface on his lady.
What do you do if you are an Asshole Fuckface fighting with your girlfriend and she jumps into her car and tries to take off? Apparently, if youre William Kremer, you dont let it stop your sweet, sweet fighting.
A man fighting with his girlfriend clung to a car roof and punched her through the window as she drove more than a mile on a busy road, hitting several other cars, police said. Both were hurt in the brawl Saturday and were arrested, police Sgt. Manfredo Figueroa said.
Its like good TJ Hooker went though the transporter and was sent to a parallel universe, while evil TJ Hooker was sent to Haverstraw, New York. 98% chance he has a goatee.
Williams lady, Stacey Sperrazza, drove with the air bag inflated for as long as possible. Finally she was forced to stop and William jumped off the car. Then she hit him with the car.
Sperrazza, 37, of Stony Point, was arrested on a felony charge of reckless endangerment. Kremer, 42, of Haverstraw, was arrested on a misdemeanor assault charge.
He was treated for a foot injury, she for eye and head wounds.
No way either of these two ever do meth.
Congrats to all of this week's Asshole Fuckfaces! You each get a FearTheReaper tongue scraper.
Finally, Toddlers Get Access To Date Rape Drugs And Lead
It is a great time to be a kid. When I was young, my parents didnt buy me date rape drugs as a present for Christmas, which means I couldnt fall into a coma and wake up with no memory of what happened. Life sucked like that. We did have lead, but it was mostly in paint, not in toys, backpacks and dishes. Now lead is blowing up big time and its everywhere.
Yesterday we learned that a popular toy named Aqua Dots contains little beads that, if ingested, turn into hydroxy butyrate, a date rape drug.
Scientists say a chemical coating on the beads, when ingested, metabolizes into the so-called date rape drug gamma hydroxy butyrate. When eaten, the compound made from common and easily available ingredients can induce unconsciousness, seizures, drowsiness, coma and death.
Its called teaching kids how to party young.
The toy is also very popular in Australia, where it is called Bindeez, because they are weird. It was named toy of the year at some Australian toy function. But they also like the boomerang, so whatever.
The two U.S. children who swallowed Aqua Dot beads went into nonresponsive comas. A 20-month-old has recovered completely while the other child, whose age was not known, has been released from a hospital after five days and is recovering, he said.
Aqua Dots is a very hot toy for Christmas. I think Chinas plan is to kill us with shoddy products, so obviously we should bomb them.
Meanwhile, a separate recall was announced for 405,000 children's products made in China, most of them toy cars, because of dangerous levels of lead.
Exactly when does this end? Are the Chinese going to spray cyanide on lollipops?
The recalled products include:
Duck Family Collectable Wind-Up Toy, Dizzy Ducks Music Box, "Robot 2000" collectable tin robot and Winnie-the-Pooh Spinning Top and "Big Red"
Great, I've been rubbing "Big Red" on my balls daily for about a year. Lead is especially harmful to young children and can cause brain damage. Brains are sort of important. Putting lead paint on the surface of toys that kids love to shove in their mouth and up their anuses is a pretty bad idea. Last year Mattel recalled 21 million Chinese toys.
Now Consumer Reports is recommending people immediately stop using a variety of products.
Our lab tests detected lead at widely varying levels in samples of dishware, jewelry, glue stick caps, vinyl backpacks, children's ceramic tea sets and other toys and items not on any federal recall list.
Some of the items Consumer Reports listed have not even been included in recalls.
Consumers Union said some of the products it tested included a Fisher-Price blood pressure cuff from a toy medical kit, caps from seven Elmer's Glue Sticks and some duck-shaped backpacks.
The caps were on glue sticks decorated with cartoon characters and were all orange colored.
Huh, I wonder if any caps didnt end up in a kids mouth?
Consumer Reports used lead testing kits that people can buy for home use. After a positive result, they did more testing in a lab. Its obviously great to have a private business telling us which products we should avoid, but wouldnt it be even better if our government stopped these products before they reached little Timmy and he sucked on them for 2 years, turning him into a moron? If only we had an agency called the Consumer Product Safety Commission, none of this would happen, right? Well, not in our Business get to do whatever it wants" world.
The chief of the Consumer Product Safety Commission and her predecessor have taken dozens of trips at the expense of the toy, appliance and children's furniture industries and others they regulate, according to internal records obtained by The Washington Post. Some of the trips were sponsored by lobbying groups and lawyers representing the makers of products linked to consumer hazards.
Mmm, smell that? Its the Ron Paul no government world. Ask that baby how it feels about no regulation after it wakes up from its coma. The CPSC has chosen a brilliant path of allowing businesses to impose voluntary standards and not to take legal action against companies that refuse to recall dangerous products. They work for you!
Bushs choices to lead the CPSC have been, as expected, business folk. Current director Nord was a corporate lawyer for Kodak and previous director Stratton created a foundation, which advocates limited government and supports free-market economic principles. Yay! Ron Paul 08!
Not surprisingly, the CPSC is now blatantly disregarding governmental regulations. But, hey, what agency under Bush isn't?
Government-wide travel regulations state that officials from agencies such as the CPSC should not accept money for travel from nonfederal sources if the payments "would cause a reasonable person . . . to question the integrity of agency programs or operations."
And make no mistake about it, this is something we can lay at the feet of our terrible president. Under Clinton, the chairman of the CPSC only traveled at the expense of the agency or a media organization that wanted the chairman there to announce a recall.
The great thing about CPSC is that under Bush the agency seems to have taken a new role: Actually helping businesses to harm people.
The records also detail several trips that were paid for by lawyers who represent manufacturers in product liability lawsuits.
Nord accepted more than $2,000 in travel and accommodations from the Defense Research Institute to attend its meeting in New Orleans on "product litigation trends," according to her report. The institute is made up of more than 20,000 corporate defense lawyers. In 2004, Stratton attended the group's meeting in Barcelona, at a cost to the group of $915 for his hotel room.
The guys who worked under Clinton were a bit shocked.
Gilbert, the former CPSC executive director, called DRI's contribution toward Stratton's hotel bill in Spain "amazing."
But dont worry, George Bush is going to protect us.
President George W. Bush on Tuesday proposed tougher inspection rules meant to keep dangerous food and other products out of the United States and said he wants broader power to recall food that is unsafe for U.S. consumers.
Maybe you shouldnt put the people who spent their careers working for corporations in charge of agencies who fight for consumers against corporations, you fucking asshole.
Tuesday Tasting: Girls In Gaming
Each week, Ariel Waldman serves a tasting of the latest in sex and tech.
China Company Bans Men-Role-Playing-Women
Aurora Technology, under Shanda Entertainment in China, has banned men from role playing women in their MMORPG, King of the World. Perhaps burned one too many times for mistakenly hitting on any heroine in sight, the company is requiring that anyone signing up for a female character must be gender-verified by webcam. We're not sure if this is gender "verification", or a clever excuse for pr0n, as there is no sight of a ban on women role playing men. Sources say that this fad should fade, as it takes away the entire point of fantasy games by taking away the ability to be someone else.
Feeling Up Fantasy Female Heroines
Always interested in the intersection between sex and video games, Leigh Alexander gives girl characters in games their annual breast examination this week. Analyzing areolas to lack of underwires, she defends the sometimes over-the-top depiction of females in games:
...the gratuitous endowments and high-cut battle skirts, every little plate of waist-cinching, virtually useless armor and every graphic jiggle is as necessary to the genre as the subtle moan of the shambling undead and the high-powered arsenal of the worlds best shooters. And to shamelessly enjoy and appreciate every bare-skinned brawler does not indicate unfairness or misogyny any more than an appreciation for wrench kills or car thievery indicates real-world sociopathy.
Previously, our lovely Posh Suicide provided her views on the double-D debate.
Halo 3 Is Hot For Your Girlfriend
As one of the few females in attendance of the Halo 3 pre-launch party at Microsoft last night, it's obvious that this game is open to receiving any hype it can. Goofy and definitely geeky, a few game-fans got together to make a music video dedicated to their addiction. Featuring horrible oh-so-90's boy band moves, Joystiq warns that "Halo Nights" won't be something you hit replay on. Regardless, we're curious about the mechanics of having sex with Spartan 117.
Where Lowest Price Is The Leash
So now it's War on Dollar Stores.
In China, the fake meds, fraudulent foodstuffs and tarnished toothpaste scares are making very real the danger of turning this whole trade imbalance thing into a global economic disaster of epic proportion. Not only for poor people but for those who enable the low-income lifestyles that some world manufacturing standards have become incongruent with.
Luckily, many of you have been privy to other familiar -- and also catchy -- Wars on. Honestly, who but the criminally elite could forget the political box-office tallies of War on Drugs or the equally memorable War on Terror? These were blockbusters in their own right but War on Dollar Stores will own the trilogy like The Two Towers owned LOTR.
See, just because social inequalities may force you to discount shop, it doesn't mean you have to like it. Or should anyone else for that matter.
Who then, or what, is to blame for the implosion of consumer relations with Our Good Friends® The Chinese?
The Consumer - Incandescent light bulbs sort of fuck up the hydro grid and sometimes fakes get made with poison. What's the problem? Consumers seem to like the idea of buying four of 'em for a buck. Thing is, being the low price leader on environmental decay doesn't seem to be helping out with carbon footprints or cancer. If we want to regreen the earth, we need to get more environmentally sustainable products into the hands of educated consumers who can afford them. A dollar store is more likely to sell a recycling bin than encourage the use of one. WTF?
The Chinese - In China, they found a guy who the government there managed to sentence to death for his role in overseeing pharmaceutical production scams. Harsh. For 'the Worker' or Communist, global perceptions of the sweatshop laborer need to be squashed like beef at a block party. More importantly,as serious as the matter is, nobody should to be killed. The tragedy of dead dogs and cats is enough. We don't need to be adding humans to the list.
Culture - The disposable lifestyles forced upon the poor are made worse when the products that are most affordable and widely available are the most poorly manufactured. This plastic broken shit is loading up the landfills. As freedom-quenching and democratically liberating as it seems to drive forty yards across the parking lot to China Buffet once done flipping through decals at Dollar USA, there simply has to be a better way to bring people together other than feeding them and jamming 2 for $1 firecrackers into their hands before heading home to watch 'the news'.
Santa Claus - The Santa I know would never stuff a sack full of lead-soaked toys down any chimney. It's hard to celebrate and justify excess living during the holidays when so many people have so little.
Michael Bay - Putting him on this list is topical and trendy if not a slightly transparent attempt to get people who give a shit about international trade tariffs to read this far into this. But seriously, what does Michael Bay have to do with tariffs? Americans have a lot more clout when the entertainers step in to get political and wave the tariff flag. It only took a few puffs of smoke from a cigar-chomping Gov. Schwarzenegger to help enact criminal legislation against Chinatown DVD pirates in Canada. If Bay and Spielberg sick the robots on Beijing, all bets are off.
Now before anyone starts firing up the ol' shoe factory downtown in anticipation of a rush to buy local, remember that up until a generation ago, America was the world's sole consumer shopping superpower. Yet as the trend experts, business elite and alcohol-soaked professors have reiterated to us time and time again, for globalization to be efficient and equitable (and to provide developing nations with the basic resources they need) a more modest standard of living for Westerners must be accepted.
In reality, boycotting products for being MADE IN CHINA at this point seems like an exercise in futility. Imagine a dog getting angry because it's chained to a doghouse outside. The dog is angry to be chained, so it stands in the rain, boycotting the doghouse and getting soaked and sick in the process. Furthermore, the Boycott China thing would be more palatable if those trumpeting it didn't have at least a hint of racism in their cries.
Educating ourselves as consumers is ultimately the best way that global citizens can work together to ensure that manufacturers provide us with sustainable and safe products. Demanding more details about the things we buy -- country-of-origin labels on food and access to production and cartage data on goods -- will naturally lead to more informed choices about with whom we spend our money worldwide.
If they can do it with Fair Trade coffee, they can do it with chainsaws.
Why the Fuck is China Still Pulling this Shark Fin Soup Bullshit?
It's hard to write about China without writing a fucking treatise. There are just so many critical avenues down which one can go: female infanticide, sex-selective abortions, baby girls relegated to orphanages, or "Dying Rooms" as they've become known. There's the issue of Tibet, problems of free speech, repression of religious and spiritual groups.
Last year, the Chinese succeeded in driving the rare, white, 20 million-year-old baiji dolphin to extinction in the Yangtze River. Now they seem poised to inflict the same fate on sharks. According to the conservation group WildAid, sharks could face extinction within a generation from overfishing of their fins.
More than 90 percent of shark fin is consumed in China and demand is growing rapidly as the economy develops leading to more sharks being caught, many illegally in areas that are supposed to be protected, according to the group WildAid.
Hammerhead, Great White and Basking sharks were some of the species at risk.
"These animals have been here for 400 million years and they may disappear in one generation, not to provide people with basic food, but for a solely luxury item," executive director Peter Knights told a news conference.
The group said shark fin is becoming cheaper and eaten by a growing number of people in China -- perhaps by around 100 million people a year.
"Precisely the role China plays is one of unsustainable demand. The demand for shark fin soup as it now stands, and as it's set to increase, cannot be sustained by wild shark populations," said Steve Trent, WildAid president.
The hunting of shark fins is wasteful and barbaric. Sharks are caught, their fins are cut off while they are alive, and then they are thrown back into the water where, because they can't swim without their fins, they sink and die a slow, painful, drowning death.
Yum! Totally worth it!
Don't even get me started on tigers in China, where they farm them for body parts, and where poaching and habitat destruction has decimated about 95% of the population.
See what I mean? Kind of hard to write about one Chinese issue without launching into a full-fledged treatise. How the hell did they get the 2008 Olympics?
Zhai jian, pretty animals. See you again...in my dreams.
Sorry Your War With China Didnt Work Out, Idiots
How fucking awesome would it be if we were at war with China right now? Our satellites would have been taken down, our aircraft carriers sunk and the West Coast would be a charred landscape. If only the insane neo-cons could have gotten their way, that is the world we would be living in now.
Communist China has repeatedly declared they will attack Taiwan if the breakaway island declares independence. And the US would be forced to defend Taiwan. In 1971, Richard Nixon brokered a deal, in which the US agrees that there is only one China and its capitol is Beijing. Every President since has supported that policy. The neo-cons attempted to undermine that policy and had they gotten their way, we would have gotten two Chinas and a shitload of dead people.
The independence issue, agrees China experts Richard Bush and Michael OHanlon, is Beijings third railtouch it and you die.
A Taiwanese declaration of independence, they said, Could result in the first major war between nuclear weapons states in history, with no guarantee it would be successfully concluded prior to a major escalation.
The neo-cons retarded attempt to start a war with China centered around the little island called Taiwan. According to Lawrence Wilkerson, an Army colonel who was Colin Powells chief of staff, our neo-cons were encouraging Taiwans leaders to declare independence in 2001. A US diplomat who was stationed in Taiwan at the time has confirmed the allegation.
The neo-cons involved were same bunch of idiots whose policy got us into the disaster known as the Iraq war: Vice President Dick Cheney, Deputy defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, the undersecretary for policy Douglas Feith, future envoy to the UN and angry walrus John Bolton, Crazy Donny Rumsfeld and his intelligence chief Steven Cambone.
The Defense Department, with Feith, Cambone, Wolfowitz [and] Rumsfeld, was dispatching a person to Taiwan every week, essentially to tell the Taiwanese that the alliance was back on, Wilkerson said, referring to pre-1970s military and diplomatic relations, essentially to tell Chen Shui-bian, whose entire power in Taiwan rested on the independence movement, that independence was a good thing.
After the neo-cons would send their asshole, Powell would have to send an envoy to explain that the Defense Department guys were full of shit and to ignore them.
This went on, he said of the pro-independence efforts, until George Bush weighed in and told Rumsfeld to cease and desist [and] told him multiple times to re-establish military-to-military relations with China.
How much of a douche bag do you have to be for Bush to reel you in? At one point, Powell had to ask for a diplomats resignation due to what she was telling the Taiwanese. Therese Shaheen, the chief of the office of the American Institute in Taiwan and wife of Rumsfelds spokesman was telling Taiwan politicians not to believe what the President was saying about supporting the one China policy.
Shaheen, who happens to be DiRitas wife, openly championed Chen and the independence movement, at one point even publicly reinterpreting Bushs reiteration of the one China policy, saying that the administration had never said it opposed Taiwan independence.
Therese Shaheen . . . said dont sweat it, the president didnt really mean what he said, Wilkerson said.
Coming from the wife of Rumsfelds spokesman, Shaheens remarks sent off angry alarms in Beijing.
Powell asked for her resignation.
At what point does undermining US policy become treason? If it can be proved that Cheney was involved he should be impeached - or at least punched in his vagina.
The neo-cons, of course, deny that anything took place. Unfortunately for them, we have learned not to believe a word that comes out of their cunty little mouths. Ill trust the diplomat who was stationed in Taiwan and the guy from the State Department. Now we can all be thankful that we only went to war with Iraq.
Antifreeze: For Arctic-Fresh Breath!
There's this old axiom that "you get what you pay for," and it's admittedly true at some level: there's no point in pretending that a Maserati doesn't have a little more power than a Ford Fiesta. But then again, that's mechanics; since when are essentials held to such standards? Do you really need to buy that gritty organic stuff at Trader Joe's just to ensure that you aren't brushing your teeth with antifreeze? I mean, seriously, shouldn't poison-free soaps just be a given?
China this newest universal-cleaning-agent bungle loose on the world last week, and over the course of days it was seized by Nicaragua and Panama, the latter of which saw 51 deaths last month when cough syrup was uncovered with a similar surprise taste sensation. Yesterday, the offending paste was found in our own backyard, and dollar store patrons are being warned to proceed with caution.
Consumers were advised yesterday to discard all toothpaste made in China after federal health officials said they found Chinese-made toothpaste containing a poison used in some antifreeze in three locations: Miami, the Port of Los Angeles and Puerto Rico...The United States is the seventh country to find tainted Chinese toothpaste within its borders in recent weeks.
Agency officials said they found toothpaste containing a small amount of diethylene glycol, a sweet, syrupy poison, at a Dollar Plus retail store in Miami, sold under the brand name ShiR Fresh Mint Fluoride Paste. The F.D.A. also identified nine other brands of Chinese toothpaste that contain diethylene glycol, some with concentrations of 3 percent to 4 percent.
What exactly is diethylene glycol? It's a thickening agent of sorts, and in a way it's a lot like glycerin in chemical make-up. While glycerin, however, is used to make soaps and shortening and medicines, diethylene glycerol is mostly used in polyester, antifreeze, and gasoline treatment. The thing of it is, diethylene can be cheaper to come by, and who doesn't love a bargain? It's funny how similar chemicals work, thoughjust a small adjustment can make something totally unfit for human consumption. As it turns out, you can't substitute H2O with H2O2, either. Who knew!
So two companies have been linked back to the manufacturing of the toothpaste, and with such reputable and legitimate-sounding names as Goldcredit International Trading and the Suzhou City Jinmao Daily Chemicals Company, I'm surprised I haven't received ten e-mails from them about discount overseas Viagra by now. Anyhow, they're all crying like they thought antifreeze agents were all right as long as the amounts are kept to a minimum, and to their credit the amount found in the toothpaste won't actually kill most people so much as inflict a nice dose of kidney and liver damage. Even so, FDA is putting its foot down by asserting that not only do such things never, ever have a place in ingestibles, but that the entire country needs to shape up and stop sending us poisoned things. The Chinese government has, on pain of trade blacklisting, sprung into action with initial steps toward put ting a recall system in place, but I maintain that their pace is rather slow for a country that doesn't enjoy people starting rumors about all their bananas being infected with SARS.
In the meantime, all I can say is stay away from the bargain-bin toothpaste with the weird Engrish on the label. Sure, it keeps your breath tasty-fresh for less, but at what cost? You can pull all the ladies you want with your delicious fresh breath, but it won't help you much when you are dead.
Before this, _DictionaryGirl_ would totally have bought a toothpaste called Dr. Cool, and then where would she be? Just another statistic. Sad. Uncool, China.
China Wins War Against River
It appears China has finally defeated the Yangtze River, in what has been an epic battle for centuries. According to the state run newspaper China Daily, the river is so polluted that the damage is irreversible. Pollution, damming, heavy boat traffic, pesticides, fertilizers, sewage and freshwater use have all contributed to a sharp decline in aquatic life.
"The impact of human activities on the Yangtze water ecology is largely irreversible," said Yang Guishan, a researcher at the Nanjing Institute of Geography.
The Yangtze is 3,860 miles long, spanning from Tibetan plateau to the sea near Shanghai. It is the longest river in Asia and the third largest river in the world. Since the Han Dynasty, the Yangtze river has became more and more important in China's economy. The establishment of irrigation systems along the river made agriculture very stable and productive. But now, 30% of the Yahgtzes tributaries are seriously polluted and a total of 370 miles of the river is in critical condition.
The report said the annual harvest of aquatic products from the river has dropped from 427,000 tons in the 1950s to about 100,000 tons in the 1990s.
Fishermen along the river said even if they catch some fish from the polluted river, they dare not eat them, said Li Lifeng, freshwater program director of the WWF China.
Currently the river is used for 35% of Chinas fresh water resources. The once green river is now a dark yellow. Hundreds of dams line the river and damage its natural ecosystem by creating too much nitrogen.
Chinas other major waterway, the Yellow River, is also in poor condition. 66 percent of the Yellow River's water is no longer drinkable.
Man-Hating Women Unite
China, that feminist utopia, is apparently doing what it can to make anti-feminist nightmares come true:
China is to create the world's first 'Woman Town' where women make all the decisions and disobedient men face punishments.
[...]
The slogan: "A woman never makes a mistake. A man can never reject a woman's request" will be carved into the town gates.
Charming. Apparently the goal here is to encourage "shopping" (but of course.) That and encouraging sexists to grumble that feminism has finally gone too far.
What it's really about, though, is a realization of Bakhtin's concept of the carnivalesque. According to Bakhtin, the medieval carnival was a kind of pressure valve, allowing regular people to temporarily invert the regular hierarchies of church and state in a defined and safe way that didn't actually change anything substantive. (The opening scene in Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame illustrates the idea -- I'm sure the film's creators had read their Bakhtin.) Kind of the way "casual Friday" doesn't actually do a damn thing to change the way your office works; it's the same ol' same ol', except that you're wearing jeans. Big whoop.
In any case, and for the record, I think it's a stupid-ass idea. But hey, so is Hooters.
Bitch_PhD thinks cutesy sexism is potentially even more obnoxious than the regular kind.
Tattooed Tribe of Chinese Women: Scarred for Life?
Tattooing Chinese women was a coming-of-age ritual that guaranteed marriage in the Li tribe. Up until the 1960s, the women living in isolated areas of the resort island Hainan have been covered from head to toe in a series of intricate geometric patterns that often times represented centuries of their family history. For over 2,000 years these tattoos were considered talismans against evil, and were used to make the tribe's women appear ugly to foreign kidnappers but beautiful to their own kin.
The weeklong process is done by piercing the skin with thorns and rubbing soot mixed with water into the wounds.
While in the past marriage was almost impossible for women without these tattooed designs, the ritual has now become an undesirable practice that limits chances for success in modern times.
Reuters.com reports, "The tattooed women of China are a dying breed."
Fu Renmei is one of the last generation of Li women to be tattooed. She went through the ritual aged 13.
"I was happy! Why? Before, if you didn't have tattoos then your boyfriend would not marry you. My grandmother told me that girls who didn't tattoo would be kidnapped. If you are tattooed you will look ugly so you will be safe," she said.
[...]
Her daughter, Fu Yingwu, says she would never consider getting a tattoo, since in today's China, they are an obstacle to getting a good job, especially in a resort in Hainan.
"I would never want to tattoo because now everyone likes white, unblemished skin. Why would I want to look like an old person with dark skin?," Fu said.
China Kicks Off New Space Arms Race?
Most people associate space weapons with the fantastical vaporware that characterized much of the Reagan-era Strategic Defense Initiative, or "Star Wars" program, primarily envisioning a combination of ground and space based weapons systems designed to thwart a Soviet nuclear attack and assure American supremacy above the planet as well as on it. Part of that weapons program included technology specifically designed to destroy orbiting satellites - a prescient bit of technological savvy given the relative paucity of military satellites at the time, though now the American military, at least, has become highly dependent on satellites for a variety of its activities. The technology was shelved, however, when the last test in 1985 showed that destroying satellites would pose an unacceptable risk to other military and commercial satellites already in orbit, a risk that has likely increased given the huge number of man-made satellites currently in orbit, though alternative means of disrupting satellites may still be under investigation by military research agenices.
China apparently is less concerned with the risk that orbiting space debris poses, and took a first step into space-based warfare yesterday when they demonstrated the ability to destroy a satellite currently in orbit.
The Chinese military used a ground-based missile to hit and destroy one of its aging satellites orbiting more than 500 miles in space last week -- a high-stakes test demonstrating China's ability to target regions of space that are home to U.S. spy satellites and space-based missile defense systems.
The test of anti-satellite technology is believed to be the first of its kind in two decades by any nation and raised concerns about the vulnerability of U.S. satellites and a possible arms race in space.
[...]
Michael Krepon, president emeritus of the Henry L. Stimson Center, another nonprofit involved with security issues in Washington, called the Chinese test a predictable -- and unfortunate -- response to U.S. space policies.
"The Chinese are telling the Pentagon that they don't own space," he said. "We can play this game, too, and we can play it dirtier than you."
Krepon said the Chinese test "blows a whole through the Bush administration reasoning behind not talking to anybody about space arms control -- that there is no space arms race. It looks like there is one at this point."
China has been rushing headlong into a buildup and modernization of its military and this may just be the latest step in that progression. Poised to become the next world superpower, dominance (or at least competitiveness) in space would seem to go hand in hand with that aspiration.
Another arms race in space would be just as costly and pointless as the one with the USSR - and no post hoc justifications for trying to outspend China the way hawks now lionize the unprecedented spending on the Reagan era would seem to justify the tremendous expenditure required for both sides when there are so many better uses for those resources.
This problem should be nipped in the bud, it's time for a comprehensive treaty banning space based weapons for everyone, including the US, before this spirals out of control.
US Military Holds Ongoing Garage Sale For Our Enemies
The military has found a great way to get rid of surplus equipment; sell it to Iran and China! According to MSNBC, sensitive military surplus items are supposed to be rendered useless or sold to buyers who promise to obey U.S. arms embargoes, export controls and other laws. But the Government Accounting Office, Iran and China have discovered it is easy to buy sensitive surplus.
Last year the GAO bought $1.1 million worth of rocket launchers, body armor, surveillance antennas and other surplus by posing as defense contractors. When questioned about their lack of Social Security numbers and a lack of credit history the investigators presented a fake utility bill and said they were victims of identity theft.
They helped us load our van, Kutz said. Investigators used a fake identity to access a surplus Web site operated by a Pentagon contractor and bought still more, including a dozen microcircuits used on F-14 fighters.
In one example of how we are selling sensitive equipment to our enemies, a Pakistani arms broker purchased Chinook helicopter engine parts and sent them to Iran. He did this AFTER he was released from prison, where he had served time for exporting US missile parts to Iran.
Some instances where our military technology was sold to people our president calls, Bad guys.
* Items seized in December 2000 at a Bakersfield, Calif., warehouse that belonged to Multicore, described by U.S. prosecutors as a front company for Iran. Among the weaponry it acquired were fighter jet and missile components, including F-14 parts from Pentagon surplus sales, customs agents said. The surplus purchases were returned after two Multicore officers were sentenced to prison for weapons export violations.
In 2005, customs agents came upon the same surplus F-14 parts with the evidence labels still attached while investigating a different company suspected of serving as an Iranian front. They seized the items again. They declined to provide details because the investigation is ongoing.
* Arif Ali Durrani, a Pakistani, was convicted last year in California in the illegal export of weapons components to the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia and Belgium in 2004 and 2005 and sentenced to just over 12 years in prison. Customs investigators say the items included Chinook helicopter engine parts for Iran that he bought from a U.S. company that acquired them from a Pentagon surplus sale, and that those parts made it to Iran via Malaysia.
* State Metal Industries, a Camden, N.J., company convicted in June of violating export laws over a shipment of AIM-7 Sparrow missile guidance parts it bought from Pentagon surplus in 2003 and sold to an entity partly owned by the Chinese government. Customs and Border Protection inspectors seized the parts nearly 200 pieces of the guidance system for the Sparrow missile system while inspecting cargo at a New Jersey port.
* In October, Ronald Wiseman, a longtime Pentagon surplus employee in the Middle East, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 18 months in prison for stealing surplus military Humvees and selling them to a customer in Saudi Arabia from 1999 to 2002. The Humvees were equipped for combat zones and some werent recovered, Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura Ingersoll said.
* A California company, All Ports, shipped hundreds of containers of U.S. military technology to China between 1994 and 1999, much of it acquired in Pentagon surplus sales, court documents show. Customs agents discovered the sales in May 1999 when All Ports tried to ship to China components for guided missiles, bombs, the B-1 bomber and underwater mines.
Im going to take a stand here and call this a bad thing.
China's Coal Boom Creates Giant Poison Clouds
China is experiencing an unprecedented boom in coal mining (coal? they still have that?) and soon will have over 2500 poison-spewing new power stations and 21,000 mines in production. Smoke, carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide are vomiting out into the atmosphere, spreading cancer and heart and lung disease-making clouds across the Pacific Ocean all the way to California. The clouds are so massive they can actually be seen from space.
It's apparently not so nice in some cities:
"Cloaked in swirling mists of soot particles and smoke, cities such as Chinas coal capital of Datong are entering the coldest period of winter in which demand for power and heating produces the worst pollution...
It is often darkness at noon in Datong, just 160 miles west of Beijing, where vehicles drive in daytime with their headlights on to grope through the miasma...
Cancer rates are soaring, child health is a time bomb and the population, many of whom are heavy cigarette smokers, are paying the price for Chinas breakneck rush to riches and industrialisation an estimated 400,000 premature deaths nationwide because of pollution every year."
Make no mistake, China is really into coal:
"China uses more coal than the United States, the European Union and Japan combined. And it has increased coal consumption 14 percent in each of the past two years in the broadest industrialization ever... Every week to 10 days, another coal-fired power plant opens somewhere in China that is big enough to serve all the households in Dallas or San Diego."
The only way China can afford to provide energy to such its vast population is by using coal, an outdated, cheap energy source. The problem grows exponentially as China's coal production has doubled in the last 5 years.
Link to NY Times online video piece, China's Dark Clouds.
via The Huffington Post
Humans: 1, Baiji: 0. RIP, Baiji.
A six week search of the Yangtze River in China proved fruitless for scientists searching for signs of the baiji, also known as the white dolphin. It has been declared the first large mammal to become extinct in modern times.
For nearly six weeks, Pfluger's team of 30 scientists scoured a 1,000-mile heavily trafficked stretch of the Yangtze, where the baiji once thrived. The expedition's two boats, equipped with high-tech binoculars and underwater microphones, trailed each other an hour apart without radio contact so that a sighting by one vessel would not prejudice the other.
August Pfluger, the Swiss co-leader of the joint Chinese-foreign expedition and founder of Baiji.org, blamed apathy for his foundation's inability to raise sufficient funds to counteract the environmental impact of overfishing and shipping traffic.
The disappearance of the baiji holds up a mirror with a tragic reflection, a reflection of humanitys inability to effectively prioritize on the basis of needs. While millions of dollars flowed into exchangeable «Save-the-Whales»-Programs, the fate of the Baiji and the other freshwater dolphins in Asia remained unheard.
There's the possibility that the dolphin is still to be found in eastern China, but it won't be in the numbers needed for a sustainable population. Even if scientists were able to find a pair to breed in captivity, there must be sufficient genetic diversity in order to maintain a healthy group.
The Baiji.org Foundation will now turn its efforts to the conservation of other freshwater dolphin species, such as the Yangtze finless porpoise.
Unfortunately, it's likely this won't be the last extinction we see in our lifetimes.
Jay-Z Banned from Chinese Stage
When Jay-Z is asked by customs officials whether the purpose of his visit in China is "business or pleasure," Hova will be forced to answer "pleasure." The King of New York's foul mouthed bravado is apparently not welcome onstage in the most populated country in the world.
Currently, on a benefit tour to help raise awareness concerning the world's water crisis, Jay-Z has been banned from performing in China due to lewd content in his lyrical flow. The ban was put into effect by the Chinese Culture Ministry. Speaking to the Shanghai Daily concerning Jay-Z's scheduled performance at the Shanghai Hongkou Stadium on October 23rd, promoter Sun Yun had this to say:
Some of Jay-Zs songs contain too much vulgar language.
China is well known for censoring suggestive material, even requiring rock legends the Rolling Stones to lose suggestive material "Brown Sugar" and "Honky Tonk Women" from their set list before greenlighting the performance.
In other Jay-Z news, with leaked song "Show Me What You Got" getting rotation on the radio now, heralding the imminent Kingdom Come album, Jay has fast-tracked the video. The premier of the video will be this Monday, and features Nascar heartthrobs Danica Patrick and, well, Dale Earnhardt Jr. According to MTV, the mini-movie video has Jay-Z auditioning yet again for Hollywood attention with car and boat chase scenes. Jay should have been considered for the new Bond.
US Finally Has a Legitimate Reason to Bomb China
In one of the most horrible acts ever committed by a country, China has banned The Simpsons from prime time. Beginning on Sept 1st, foreign cartoons will be barred from television from 5pm to 8pm. China claims it is trying to protect the Chinese made animation, such as the wonderful Monkey King. Newspapers are criticizing the move, believing it will not create better animation but just force the Chinese to watch shitty cartoons about really important monkeys.
Current President Hu Jintao has been tightening control over pop culture. TV stations are cutting down on foreign programming, no longer showing scary moves in prime time and forcing hosts to dress conservatively as well as restricting the number of English words they use. Four months ago the government stopped granting publishing licenses for foreign magazines. The number of foreign films is also limited.
Chinese cartoons face an uphill battle. Eighty percent of the Chinese children do not like domestic animation but enjoy foreign cartoons. There is no word from the White House about possible retaliation. Many children in the Midwest are currently wrought with fear that their beloved Monkey King will no longer be shown on American televisions.
Walmart to Pay Lip Service to Chinese Unions
Walmart is the Standard Oil of the 21st century, it's the ubiquitous, omnipotent, corporate octopus, the company that everyone loves to hate. High on the list of complaints about the company is the way its workers are treated, and especially its consistent anti-union stance. Despite repeated efforts by Walmart employees in the US to organize and form a union, the company has successfully avoided any unionization of its workers in all of its stores. Until now. Seeking to gain a foothold in the lucrative Chinese market, Walmart has, for the first time, allowed employees the right to unionize in several of its Chinese, and is even working with the Chinese government to integrate unions into its work force. What's less clear is just how powerful these organizations are going to be, and whether they'll have any bargaining rights at all.
Wal-Mart said it would form an alliance with the government-backed All China Federation of Trade Unions because it wanted to create an effective and harmonious way of facilitating the establishment of grassroots unions at its stores.
The announcement came less than two weeks after Wal-Mart employees established their first union in China, the first time that a union had ever been formed at a Wal-Mart store. Since then, four other Wal-Mart stores in China have also formed unions, according to the government union officials.
Wal-Marts decision surprised observers because while the company had signaled earlier that it would not do anything to stop unions from forming at its Chinese stores, it had never suggested that it would actively participate in backing unionization efforts.
Wal-Marts decision to allow unions comes after years of pressure from the All China Federation of Trade Unions, which has been pushing companies with large foreign investments here to allow unionization, which is required under Chinese law.
At first glance it seems like this would be a huge victory for union activists everywhere, and a reason to keep pushing domestic Walmarts to allow their employees the right to unionize. And some intepretations of the Chinese law that forces foreign companies to allow their employees to unionize indicate that the law itself is significantly slanted towards the benefit of the workers. However, their ability to function as a collective bargaining unit outside the limitations of the law remains to be seen, and therein lies the real power of a union.
Exactly how the unions are being formed and who has control of them is still unclear, and some experts doubt the unions now being formed at Wal-mart will engage in collective bargaining negotiations with the company.
Liu Kaiming, director of the Institute of Contemporary Observation, a labor rights organization based in Shenzhen, applauded the Wal-Mart announcement today but questioned whether it would lead to significant change.
I dont see any bargaining power in the unions in China, Mr. Liu said. The function of Chinese unions is to urge workers to participate in the work, to care about their welfare and to organize recreational activities for them.
Independent unions are banned in China. But the All China Federation of Trade Unions the government-controlled labor union issued a statement earlier this week, suggesting that it would be able to contend with one of the worlds biggest companies.
So it may not turn out to be the panacea that union activists might have hoped, in forcing Walmart to get used to the idea of bargaining with its workers. If Chinese unionized laborers are represented by their government then the situation is virtually unchanged from where it currenrtly stands, with the goverment, and not the workers, setting the terms by which Walmart may operate its stores.
Regardless, at least the precedent has been set for Walmart to work with unionized employees, even if it's not in a form that would be ideal to American union activists, it's a start.
