It Says It All...China Trumps America

I just wrote a rather biting post about the irony of a crippled America ravaged by its very own neoconservative, 'free' market dogma. I think I proved my point...

And then I came across this brilliant cartoon that so blithely illustrates just how much the US of A has allowed itself to be screwed most royally by that Empire-in-the-Making, the People's Republic of China...



It really does say it all...

RAVE: Circus Animals Thank Bolivia...and China

I remember being taken by my father to the Boswell Wilkie Circus here in Johannesburg as a young boy in the late 1970s (my mother refused to go along - she's always loathed circuses and zoos). I was excited by the big top, the lights, the music - I was a boy of nine and it was the CIRCUS!

GASP! How that boyish joy changed as the 'show' unfolded...

My excitement soon turned to a pit in my stomach that got larger and larger as the show wore on. I couldn't stand cheering and being 'entertained' by large, beautiful wild animals like elephants, lions and tigers, animals that I knew were meant to be free and in the wild, not tamed and belittled in front of people, turning tricks like poodles. They looked so unhappy, so out of it. I hated it. I knew it was wrong. And I vowed at that age to never again visit the circus. I never have.

The continued use of animals in circuses around the world is a source of SHAME for humanity.

If people were asked which country they believed would be the first in the world to ban all animals being used in circuses, I doubt very much that Bolivia would feature in many people's responses.

But so it is - Bolivia has become the first country in the world to ban all use of animals in circuses or for any means of entertainment.

If, as Mahatma Gandhi once said, the true mark of a society's spiritual enlightenment is how it treats its animals, then Bolivia has just become a far more enlightened nation.

But it gets better...

I was sent a link today (see it at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/8266563/China-bans-animal-circuses.html) in which the Chinese governments has now also banned animals in circuses and, furthermore, has warned the nation's zoos that they too will now be under greater scrutiny as to how they treat their animals.

China?!

Yes, the China that built the ecological catastrophe that is the Three Gorges Dam, the China that is now the world's largest carbon emitter and contributor to global warming, the China that is hardly the darling of many environmental causes. Yes, that China.

And all power to them.

Bolivia and China setting the benchmark for how animals ought to be banned from being used in circuses - who would have thought?

Countries like the United States, France, Germany, Russia, United Kingdom, Sweden, Australia and South Africa lagging behind Bolivia and China on the issue of circus animals...hmmmmm...

I will take these types of blessings from wherever they may come. I'm quite sure the animals feel the same way.

Do you get my point?
 

RAVE: Chinese Citizens Castigate Canada!

First I rave about Portugal today, then Tunisia, and now...China...

China?!! A country of which I am so often so critical, especially with regard to its usually poor record on animal rights and environmental issues? That China? Yes, that China.

And it gets better.

Below is an open letter in full that my mom forwarded to me - she was completely over the moon at the prospect of Chinese citizens showing their enlightenment on an animal rights issue!

The letter is from concerned Chinese citizens to the Fisheries Minister of...wait for it...Canada!

Yes, that Canada - once a nation with a (relatively) proud environmental record, and now fast becoming the World's Environmental Hypocrite of note.


Chinese citizens catigating Canada for trying to import seal products into China...

China showing up Canada for the latter's abominable animal rights abuses regarding the annual (and totally sickening) harp seal slaughter...

China sticking it to Canada on animal rights...

You gotta love it...

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2011年1月12日 北京

An Open Letter to Gail Shea, Canada’s Fisheries Minister

Minister Shea:We are animal loving citizens from across China. We are in the millions in number and are growing by day. Care for the weak, love of life, and striving for the harmony between humans and nature are the unstopped trend of the contemporary time. Living in this era, we feel proud to follow this trend. Yet, your arrival in China and the Canadian delegation you are leading, the second of its kind since last year, for promoting Canadian seal product sale in China, are nothing but an act hindering China’s progress in modernization and civilization. “Do not give others what you yourself do not want” is an ancient Chinese saying. Known to all, Canadian seal products are made out of the blood and flesh of the seal pups and out of the blood and tears of the mother seals. The cruelty of seal products has been condemned by the majority of Canadians and others in Europe and the Americas. How can you peddle this shameful product to China? You have come to China two years in a row to promote the morally repulsive products.

Do you, Minister Shea, realize what kind of wrongs you are committing?

First of all, going out of your way to promote Canadian seal products to Chinese consumers is indicative of your position supporting the racist and cultural imperialistic bias towards the Chinese people held by the sealing industry. The perceptions that “Chinese eat everything” and that Chinese care nothing about animal suffering show how outdated the Canadian sealing industry’s view of the Chinese people is, a view that is reminiscent of the prejudice against non-Western people and non-Western culture held by the West when it was brutalizing the non-Western world in the old days. China has a legacy of compassion for all living creatures. Progress in animal protection in the contemporary era has also been recognized. Based on what can the Canadian sealing industry claim that the Chinese nation is indifferent to animal suffering? Minister Shea, what makes you the advocate of seal product sale in China, products that are hugely controversial and morally indefensible?

Second, the view that Chinese consumers will embrace products of animal cruelty indicates Canada’s complete out-of-touch with reality in China. The world is watching every new development in China in order to be on the same page with China’s breathtaking transformation. Refusing to face reality in China is a sign of arrogance on the part of the Canadian government. Since China initiated its economic reform program, the public environmental protection awareness has been rising. More and more consumers are consuming with a view to protect environment and the ecosystem. The Canadian government and sealing industry, by attempting to dump the seal products on the Chinese markets, show little respect to the Chinese consumers.

Third, by promoting seal products in China, Shea is destroying the good image Canada has long enjoyed in China. Canada is one of the first Western nations that extended diplomatic recognition to the People’s Republic of China. Dr. Norman Beethune, a Canadian surgeon who worked in China during the Second World War, was a hero to the Chinese people. Mark Roswell, a Canadian student-turned comedian, is a celebrity in China. Both gentlemen have helped shorten the distance between China and Canada. Canadian sealing industry is undoing in China what Dr. Beethune and Mr. Roswell have accomplished. You only need to access China’s biggest online portal (http://news.qq.com/photon/tpyk/haibao.htm) and read the more than 16,000 readers’ comments to realize how Canada’s image has been tarnished because of Canadian brutality against baby seals.

Fourth, to China, Canadian seal products are like the opium dumped on China by Great Britain in the early 19th century. Both seal products and opium serve to encourage irresponsible consumer behaviors. Worse still, they can poison young consumers. Opium sold to China did great damage to the bodies of the Chinese consumers. Seal products, a symbol of violence to the weak and of indifference to brutality, can distort the souls and destroy the spirit of the Chinese consumers. As a developed Western democracy, Canada should help China’s progress in civilization. It has NO right to sabotage it by dumping morally objectionable products in China.

Finally, descriptions of seal products sold in the Greater China Region are full of exaggerations and misleading information. What is the scientific basis of the claimed power of the seal oil products? Some seal oil products are made specifically for infants. What are the possible side-effects or consequences if the product is accidentally taken orally by the infant? What is the residue level of harmful elements in the seal oil product, a level that is harmful to health? Canada should be ready all time to take responsibilities for any health consequences incurred by Canadian seal products.Minister Shea and Canadian government, promoting seal products to China is terribly unwise, short-sighted and unworthy. Seal products brutalize defenseless seal pups, sabotage China’s modernization (in moral development), poison and harm Chinese consumers, and tarnish Canadian international image. Dumping the unwanted seal products harms China without even benefiting Canada.

Does Canada want to repeat the mistake of opium dumping Great Britain?

Animal loving citizens of China

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Priceless letter, brilliantly written and ironic to the hilt...just the dig at the British empire and its outrageous 19th-century opium campaign to destabilize China is worth the read.
 
China may continue to have an appalling record in some areas of animal rights and environmental justice, no doubt - but this letter as an example of changes within Chinese society can only bode well for the future enlightenment about animals and the environment in that country.
 
It's frankly what Canada deserves...
 
And all power to the rising number of Chinese animal-loving citizens who don't wish their country to be synonymous any more with being notorious for horrific animal abuse.
 
Do you get my point?

RAVE: Google 1 - China 0

It has been almost three weeks since I last wrote on my blog. Not a good thing. So I thought it best to recapture my blog-writing mojo with a positive rave. I do intend to keep it shortish, given that the subject matter is hardly earth-shattering. And I also need to get back into my groove...

The whole China vs. Google debacle has created quite some media attention in the past few weeks. And, much to its credit, Google eventually decided a few days ago that it would no longer submit to China's draconian Internet censorship laws. And so it set up its China operations in Hong Kong.

Counting against Google is the fact that for quite some years now it sold its corporate 'soul' (do corporations even have souls? The US Supreme Court would probably find reason to believe they do, but, NO, they do not) by acquiescing to China's stringent and flagrantly anti-democratic Internet laws. The reason cited now by Google as its reason as to why it no longer wishes to acquiesce to China is because of the incessant snooping on, or blocking of, the Google e-mail accounts of pro-democracy activists in China by the People's Republic.

You took a long time to find that elusive 'soul', Google - but, as they say, better late than never.

So, why am I happy about this decision by Google? Consider the following:

1. China has an appalling human rights record, whatever its well-oiled PR system in both the East and West might state. Therefore, I'm on the side of pro-democracy activists. Simple as that.

2. China is a bully. Everyone loves to rant and rave about what a huge bully the United States (which it is) but no where as much anger is directed at China. Well, as any kid who was ever picked on at school can vouch, there can be more than one bully on the playground. And China is a bully. As the world whored itself out to China just to get cheaper T-shirts and crappily made (yet still expensive, please note) electronic goods, so China became Sweatshop to the World and an economic powerhouse. And, increasingly, a passive-aggressive bully. Many people swoon over its riches and its monetary clout on the global scene. I, for one, remain sceptical and keep thinking: that's what you get for being a sell-out, Rest of World.

3. I'm frankly sick and tired of China using that adage that 'when in China, the laws of China must be respected.' They use it with such aplomb and such vigour, and it's such a load of absolute hogwash. With that logic, apartheid South Africa would have been justified in its racist policies, simply because they were 'their own laws in their own land'. Uh huh. The old South African regime tried that, but rightly so, it didn't work in the end. Your wise Oriental logic simply doesn't gel, China. Not if your laws stink to high heaven and it offends some of us out here in the big, wide world. So sorry.

4. I'm glad too that Google did not capitulate out of sheer greed. So many economic 'pundits' (you know, those bloodsucking 'experts' and Wall Street sell-outs that proliferate financial talk shows and newscasts on CNN, et al) have pooh-poohed Google's decision as stupid, given how 'huge' the Chinese market would have become for them in the near future. Well, for one, I'm quite sure Google did all their sums and have covered most of their 'Chinese future market realities' quite well. They're not a huge and quasi-monopolistic corporation for nothing.

5. And, for another, it's nice when ethics and good corporate governance trump corporate greed and capitulation to amoral foreign laws. The gesture may be nothing more than 'tokenism' by Google to many, but I'll take the tokens and ride on this train, thank you very much.

6. I like the fact that an American organization has given a middle finger to the Chinese government. It's a small, very insignificant victory in the scheme of things, but it's a victory to be savoured nevertheless. Simple as that too.

People are most mistaken if they think that the decline of the American empire, with all that is so despicable about that, will somehow be replaced by some magical, 'golden' Chinese empire. The current Chinese socio-economic and political reality is farcical in its artificiality and, quite frankly, China simply never lets up on its many, MANY human rights violations.

China the Bully is dangerous, make no mistake about that.

Empire is empire and this 'mercantilist empire', so breathlessly admired by so many in the West, has very dangerous tendencies, particularly with regard to human rights and other core values which I, for one, believe in and hold dear.

I do not trust China. Nor should you. Which is why this middle finger by Google, however cynical or however delayed it may be, etc, is nevertheless something to be cheered about. It's fashionable to deride and to diminish the West these days. So very fashionable. Yet, still today, core Western democratic values are yearned for by so many millions and millions of people, including in China. Very interesting that.

I, for one, will support any initiative that seeks to trump autocracy and human rights abuses with democracy and human rights for all as victorious.

I may live in Africa, but in these things I am proudly Western to the core.

Good for you, Google.