642: China and Flight MH370

The news released this evening by the BBC, showing satellite images of what is purportedly the wreckage of the aircraft that disappeared on Saturday, confirms that the Chinese have  excellent satellite technology.  One presumes sadly that there is no hope for the passengers and crew of the aircraft.

The involvement of the Chinese satellite service was confirmed by something called the ‘People’s Liberation Army.’

I was interested to read this; since China has an army carrying that illustrious name, one might just be forgiven (if one were an oik, chav or thicko) for thinking that by virtue of the fact, the Chinese people are ‘liberated.’

I doubt if any Chinese citizen (apart of course from the Liberation Army itself and the no doubt substantial secret police) is able or permitted to read decadent and cynical posts such as those that appear on this blog.  If however this is not the case, please would one reader be kind enough to tell me what it feels like to be liberated?  I can assure any reader that liberty these days is a relative, not an absolute state.

Until the next time (after the  cynical laughter has ceased)

639: Ukraine VII (er, and China)

The BBC tells us today that the Chinese are demanding action from Malaysia – since many Chinese citizens were on the aircraft that tragically disappeared on Saturday last.

Whilst of course I sympathise with those who are related to, or friends with, those in the aircraft concerned, I am interested that the Chinese – that is the Chinese authorities, actually have a voice.

Apart from a brief statement last week the Chinese government has had nothing to say - at least publicly, about the Russian thuggish behaviour and/or Russian-inspired thuggish behaviour in Ukraine.

Russia and China in the tragic communist era had many differences; latterly it seems that their domineering governments have much in common.  If you doubt my word, consider their inhumane and complete disregard of events in Syria (and yes, I know that the Russians, finally and grudgingly assisted in connexion with the disposal of al-Assad’s horrible chemical weapons).  A little concerted action (for ONCE) in the UN Security Council could perhaps avert a great deal of misery for the people these ghastly governments claim to represent.

Until the next time

Rants

I see that the president of Tanzania has announced that in future, the rangers who attempt to protect the wild life in Tanzania's national parks will be operating a "shoot-to-kill" policy with regard to the numerous poachers that are operating there.  I fully applaud this announcement: these poachers have killed and indeed are killing, a vast number of elephants for the Chinese ivory trade.  Recently these vermin went so far as to poison a water-hole with cyanide; disgusting.

Even more disgusting some booby announced that such a policy would "infringe" the human rights of the poaching scum.  What utter bollocks!  What "human rights?"  It's so simple: DON'T POACH AND DON'T GET SHOT.  The Chinese government could (but won't) do something about this distressing business; in fact the Chinese government is generally very consistent in being unhelpful - e.g. as in the case of Syria or its support for the repellent "Dr" Robert Mugabe.

Next, the Advertising Standards Authority has decided to ban the Home Office campaign which warned illegal imigrants that they should clear out.  Why?  Just as with the poachers it's simple: DON'T ARRIVE HERE ILLEGALLY - WE DO NOT WANT YOU.

Until the next time

More Nonsense in the Far East

God knows how many times I have written about the utterly bizarre "Democratic People's Republic of Korea" - North Korea to you and me.  Certainly it is a republic - of a sort, though as the ruling dynasty has now reached the third generation, one might be forgiven for viewing it as a sort of monarchical banana-republic.  It is not democratic of course (though I should add I am not much of an enthusiast for democracy, taking as I do the Marquess of Salisbury's view on the matter) and it is definitely NOT "the people's."  It is in the Korean peninsula however, making the name about 25% accurate I suppose.

The idea of a sort of monarchy without any aristocratic principles is depressing; the results speak for themselves.  A tragic (for the people there) situation where a substantial part of the population are near to starvation, whilst the state is ruled by a stupid, inexperienced fat boy, desperate to establish himself as a "strong man" in front of all those silly be-medalled (what for?) generals and the vast ill-equipped army they command.  To this end, the state persists, in the face of universal opposition, in developing missiles and attempting to develop viable nuclear weapons.

Now the silly clown is ranting about making "thermo-nuclear war" something he is of course unable to do; he is able only to upset Mr Ban ki-Moon at the UN and annoy his erstwhile friends, the Chinese. 

There is a nicely-contemptuous article on ZeroHedge.com which suggests that after months of ranting from  Pyongyang, the yawn factor has begun to come into operation.

Hardly surprising - even the silly boy must know that if he were to be foolish enough to try anything, it would most likely be the last time he did.  It reminds me of that famous James Cagney film, where we see Cagney standing on top of a gasometer shouting "Made it Ma - top of the world!" at which he fires his revolver into the gas-holder with predictable results.

Finally, there's usually some interesting information to be had on the Deep Black Horizon blog.

Until the next time

Definitely Worth Supporting

From time to time here I have advocated support of various campaigns launched by the lobbying organisation AVAAZ.

This time the campaign concerns alleged attempts by the likes of the well-known freedom-loving Russian and Chinese governments (together with those of the United Arab Emirates) to impose limitations on the Internet.

As any of my regulars here know very well I am always suspicious of governments as a basic point - there's just too much - and very suspicious when they start sniffing about freedom of communication, so please join me in supporting Avaaz's campaign.  Just click on THIS LINK.

After all, we don't want anything that even vaguely approaches that which pertains in North Korea do we?

Until the next time

A Good Fit

Today it has been announced that China, interested in Zimbabwe's platinum, is planning a substantial investment in the country (or perhaps into the pockets of Mugabe and his fellow thugs).

Meanwhile we have a report about how the Chinese handle criticism.

Overall, there appears to be plenty of common ground for the burgeoning relationship.

Sadly.

Until the next time

Wikileaks

Given that Julian Assange's latest Wikileaks releases have occupied the headlines for the past few days, I felt obliged to scribble a few lines on the subject. These may not be original, but they are after all, my lines!

I am in a bit of a quandary on this one; I recently wrote a piece saying that Politics can be confusing and I am little muddled over Wikileaks. On the face of it, the idea of nasty dealings by governments and politicians being released is most attractive; after all why should these bastards get away with it, I thought to myself.

Today's news (Daily Telegraph) about the list of locations which are vital to the interests of the USA, made me pause for further thought.

Given that Amazon and Paypal have allegedly given in to US Government pressure to cease assisting Wikileaks, I am concerned that provocations such as those provided by Wikileaks could perhaps lead to Internet restrictions, which of course none of us wants.

After all, would you bloggers out there like to operate under the Chinese Government's censorious régime? Remember Google's experience last year... Of course we like to console ourselves with the classic thought "It couldn't happen here," but a few minutes' reflection on the already terrifying extent of the curtailment of our personal freedoms in Western Europe should be enough to tell that indeed it could!

The Telegraph article linked to above includes the following paragraph:

WikiLeaks has already been forced to change its domain name and hop-scotch to servers around the globe after successive companies and countries have responded to American pressure attacking its disclosures over the past week as illegal.

It has also come under repeated cyber-attack, through a tactic known as distributed denial of service in which thousands of computers connect to its servers in a concerted attempt to knock them off-line.

“What we are seeing here are dangerous moves towards a digital McCarthyism,” wrote the group’s founder Julian Assange in a statement on its website.

UPDATE:

The pressure seems to be increasing.

P.S. Normally I would add updates in a different colour, but once again HTM 'Ell refuses to let me do so...

Until the next time.

Chinese Cyber Attacks

Yesterday I mentioned that Google had reported a "massive cyber attack" that took place last December and which originated in China.

More has been reported today on this subject. The report from The Daily Telegraph, includes the following:

[Advised not to go to a Human Rights Conference] He added that in two other cases he had innocently asked public security officials: “How did you know that? I have not told anyone” and was told: “Who do you think we are?”

And:

However, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Affairs ministry said that “Chinese laws prohibit any form of cyber attacks including hacking.”

Once again in the words of the immortal Mandy Rice-Davies "They would say that wouldn't they?"

I am absolutely convinced of the honesty of the last statement, but I do not see what that has to do with the issue under discussion!

Until the next time.

Google News

The first "news" is that the rash of post on this blog is the outcome of a log-jam caused by recurrent problems with Google's "Blogger" which of course hosts this blog and millions of others.

Meanwhile, the French, who have great difficulty in digesting the fact that the Internet, although invented by an Englishman (Tim Berners-Lea) is largely dominated by the USA. The latest crackpot idea from France is a "Google Tax". The report in the Daily Telegraph includes the following:

"Besides Google, the tax would target other large [non-French!]operators in Europe such as Microsoft and Yahoo! whether or not their offices are in France. Google's European headquarters are in Ireland, but under the proposal, the operator would pay a levy every time a French internet user clicks on an advertising banner or sponsored link on its sites."

The article adds:

"Guillaume Cerutti, one of the authors of the report said the tax would put an end to "enrichment without any limit or compensation"."

One always thinks of the old saying "Not invented here" when reading about such French initiatives.

Google is so vast, powerful and influential, that inevitably certain people are apt to spot some sort of global conspiracy. As a result the concept of the "Google Toilet has been born:



Well, a little exaggeration is always good for a smile isn't it?


Finally, following a massive cyber attack which apparently originated in China, Google after demonstrating for over three years great patience with the very proscriptive Chinese Republic, has announced that it will no longer censor its output. This of course means that its presence in China will shortly come to an end - at least on the face of it although I read somewhere today of a very low-key response from China. Perhaps, just perhaps, Google is big enough to influence even the vast Republic of China itself?

We shall of course see.

Until the next time

How to make your country a laughing-stock - or perhaps not...

The easiest way to make a country a laughing stock is to practise some sort of stupid ideology. Good examples of this would be Kim Jong-Il's ludicrous Stalinist state of North Korea, a country which cannot feed itself yet produces missiles and Albania under the rule of the pathetic Enver Hoxha - and of course Pol Pot's Cambodia.

Another state that should be a laughing stock is Saudi Arabia, with its Islamo-Facistic religious régime complete with its own Mohammedan Gestapo, the so-called "religious police" praise its bloody holy name... Of course when you have the world's largest proven oil reserves and stupendous quantities of money, others tend not to laugh so much, but condemning a 75-year-old widow to a whipping? Barbarians for all their revolting holiness.

The tragedy of course is that these perverted states and in the case of Tibet regions, are a nighmare for the persecuted innocents who are not allowed freedom of expression - no laughing matter for those poor souls.

Zimbabwe, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Belarus, Chechenya, Tibet, Russia, China etc. etc. etc.

Until the next time

Effrontery

Yes, effrontery - in other words, a bloody cheek.

I have three instances for you to consider.

First, we have the recent case where in some London play, members of the cast performed something called a "Haka" which by all accounts originates with the Maori natives in New Zealand. The Maoris, or at least their spokesman objected to this performance on the grounds that "it insulted their culture."

Second, the Chinese have protested about the sale of a couple of old bronze figures which they say were stolen from China around 1860. Supposed to be worth around €14 million apiece, the Chinese say that the sale of these sculptures "insults their culture." Indeed some individual representing some sort of Chinese interest actually bid for these items, won the auction and now refuses to pay. The Chinese seem to imagine that the current owner will just give the sculptures back to China! Dreamers.

And finally we have the story from Gibralatar reported today in the Daily Telegraph. Yesterday, the Princess Royal arrived to perform the official opening of a military clinic. The Spanish Government has protested about the visit saying "It is an affront to Spain." Why?

My word, isn't everybody quick to take offence?

The Maoris protest about some dance routine about 10,000 miles away; what the hell has it got to do with them? None of their damned business is it?

The Chinese protest about the sale of a pair of sculptures; they have possibly a bit more of a case, but frankly it was 149 years ago - are they really serious?

The Spanish of course have an absolute bloody cheek. Gibraltar has been British since 1713 - ceded by Spain as part of the treaty of Utrecht. What goes on there is none of their damned business; it is a British colony. As Gibraltarian resident observed:

"As for Spain, well what happens here is none of their business," she commented. "They lost Gibraltar 300 years ago and its time they got over it and left us alone."

All over the world we have countries, groups, religions and individuals taking "offence;" we have the ludicrous situation where prime ministers and presidents apologise for events hundreds of years old.

What's the matter with all these people?

Until the next time.

The Ungrateful Survivor

A big pig in the Snow. Image source: Here

In China there has been an on-line poll seeking "Animals who moved China."

The winner is a pig who amazingly survived burial for 36 days following the colossal earthquake at Sichuan last May.  According to the International Herald Tribune, the animal kept going by eating charcoal and drinking rainwater.

Since its rescue, the pig has been treated like the conquering hero, having been given a new home in a museum.  Unfortunately it seems that the pig's new life has rather changed its character; as the article reports:

"It's gotten fatter and lazier by the day," [the report] quoted staff as saying. "We used to take it out for a walk every morning and afternoon, but it's too lazy -- and too fat -- to do it."

And the pig is getting fed up with visitors, after initially being quite friendly.

"Now it just blocks the door to its bedroom when there are too many visitors outside. It's been increasingly difficult for us to convince it to open the door." 

Animals are like that: I remember as a child spending time trying to make a little "house" for the family cat.  Once "construction" was completed I tried to persuade the cat to enter his new home.  The result was a big fuss and some nasty scratches; a learning experience that has remained with me to this day.

Until the next time