Global Suicide Pact: Darfur Engine, Part 1
By Nicole Belle Thursday May 08, 2008 2:00pm
Glenn Hurowitz recently wondered who's going to help Tibet bring down China, like the Russians were brought down in Afghanistan and the British in India.
International pressure and protest seems to carry no weight among the Chinese. Their government is still arresting monks for "unauthorized gatherings", they're still shooting and killing Tibetans. They've also been shipping weapons to Zimbabwe's dictator, who's currently ignoring the results of an election that voted him and his party out of power. They buy 90 percent of Sudan's exported oil, and sells them small arms destined for Darfur. Darfur, where the Sudanese government is carrying out air attacks against helpless civilian targets. Oh yes, and they're now the world's top carbon polluter, though the US still remains the top carbon polluter per capita.
Yeah, that Chinese government, complete jerks, tyrants, to put it charitably. People are surprised that the Olympic torch protests seem only to have stirred Chinese nationalism, surprised that the Chinese don't understand why people are angry. Still, I think Glenn asks the wrong question. Because who is it that raised China up? The lack of self-awareness in this situation isn't exclusive to the Chinese, people everywhere have an amazing capacity to accept almost anything as normal.
Indeed, let's cut right to the heart of the matter: whom else will we buy our shoes from?
I looked this up once when I was working at my community college paper in 2005. There was an editorial insistence on doing a fashion insert, so I contributed something about sweatshops and the offshoring of clothing manufacture. (I know, total killjoy.) I found a copy of that article in my old files, and according to the research that I'd done at the time, the US had lost over 860,000 textile and apparel jobs since 1993, and China was making 80% of the world's shoes.
Sure, if you have (usually) more money to spend, you can find shoes made somewhere else. But not everyone has that kind of time or latitude. Funny thing, though, now shoe manufacturers are closing down in China. Now that "many factories have to meet social obligations" and workers have been agitating for better pay, manufacturing jobs are slowly starting to leave China as they once left the US. Read on...
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Boycott!
yep.Boycott!
Doesn't sound like such a bad idea now, does it?
adios.have a nice day folks.
well, try to anyways.
"International pressure and protest seems to carry no weight among the Chinese. Their government is still arresting monks for “unauthorized gatherings”, they’re still shooting and killing Tibetans. They’ve also been shipping weapons to Zimbabwe’s dictator, who’s currently ignoring the results of an election that voted him and his party out of power. They buy 90 percent of Sudan’s exported oil, and sells them small arms destined for Darfur. Darfur, where the Sudanese government is carrying out air attacks against helpless civilian targets."
this is a good thought, but the reader needs to step back and look inward. look at america.
how many despots and dictators have we propped up? how many democratically elected leaders have we overthrown? how many international treaties have we spurned? how many people do we imprison? how many military bases do we have across the globe? nuclear weapons? torture? etc. etc. etc.
this is by NO MEANS an excuse for the dastardly chinese policies, but to point the finger at china is humorous. but not funny. we should get our own shit straight before we expect others to.
especially since we support china's economy as much as they support ours. we are partners. we are both complicit in crimes against humanity, and the environment.
mudshark @ 3:
Buy handcrafted Italian shoes?
Make our own moccasins?
My puppies must support the Chinese government. They've tried to destroy my brand new workday shoes. A little more damage and I'd have to buy another pair.
Worse Than Silence On Sudan
Theoretically though we're allowed to speak out against our government's policies.
http://freewayblogger.blogspot.com/2008/05/arsenal-of-democracy-turnouts...
I don't know why we don't speak out more, especially when it's so much fun.
Staying out of wal-mart would do the most damage to China.
Shoes? Every freakin' thing is made in China!
It's a good thing we have an oil man in the White House.
Imagine if we had a peanut farmer instead? What would a jar of Peter Pan cost now?
Weaseldog @ 10:
Oops was thinking about the wrong thread...
Let me start by saying that I'm a raging liberal and I expected to find myself on the other side of this issue BUT I have it good authority from people who live in the country in question that media reports of the Tibet issue are wildly inaccurate. We're talking about the complaints of a noisey, largely expatriot group of Tibets who represent a fringe view about Tibet (which has been part of China many times longer than Hawaii has been a US state). It has been established that there have been ethic lapses by the press using pictures of Nepalese police and calling them Chinese police and that the story of Tibet violence toward Han Chinese has not been reported in our media. Tibetans today (perhaps not during the cultural revolution) have the freedom to practice their religion and enjoy special rights to scholarships and social benefits that other Chinese do not have. Before I get my head torn off, I want to say that I know China is guilty of many injustices and they're definitely horrible when it comes to transparency but just yesterday NPR ran a story on prisons and it turns out that we have twice the per capita incarceration rate that China does. We also torture people and we definitely are bullies when it comes to preserving the interests of our big businesses and our economy. We buy most of our stuff from China and we owe them billions in loans. Our fates are intertwined and we don't benefit from leftover anti-communist sentiments muddling our views of modern China. The Olympics will force transparency in China as will the burgeoning business markets. This will be the way to bring China into the our community of nations NOT by insulting, boycotting, and fomenting rabid nationalism. This view is hard to swallow but in the spirit of this website I feel that all views should be shared.
wijg @ 9:
FIFY
Samson- @ 4:
Excellent point! How many of you profited from Chinese Emerging Growth mutual funds back in the 90's? How many of you still have a stake in these funds? If I had money back then I would have been one of the profiteers. The fact that we chastise everyone else for exactly what we are doing is obscene. Kind of like McCain's philosophy of it's okay for me to break the rules, you better not though. Please, let's point the mirror at ourselves and cure our blemishes before we point it at everyone else.
Seperately, we still should hold some responsibility in keeping American jobs in America. America should have a policy that if you don't honor international human rights standards, we will not allow your goods into our country. Though we have huge debts with these countries, we still have a responsibility to make sure that the goods we consume are not originated through slavery, children, bondage, and uncontrolled pollution.
Uninsane @ 12:
Thanks. I'm curious where you suppose we could get the full story on China vis a vis Tibet? Although I'd like to trust Richard Gere on this issue, he did make "Dr. T and the Women."
Samson- @ 4:
I'm a fan of multi-tasking. I think we should get our shit straight and tell China to get the hell out of the Sudan.
This is gross, liberal ignoramuses lining up behind another campaign for U.S. 'human rights imperialism'... this time targetting China. Well guess what? Life expectancy for the serfs toiling for the parasitic monks in your dreamy traditional pre-Revolutionary Tibet was around 30 years. The country had no prisons - because the punishment for serfs who disobeyed the bejewelled Lamas usually involved the amputation of hands, noses, ears etc. To return monastic serfom to the 3 million or so ethnic Tibetans, the Dalai Lama god-king (who fronts for the CIA's 'Free Tibet' operation) is claiming a territory the size of Europe!
Chinese law exempts Tibetans from the 'one child only' policy that applies to Han Chinese... so much for the bogus claims of 'genocide'! It's not that Han chauvinism isn't real, and doesn't need to be opposed, but lining up behind the former imperialist concessionaires Britain, France, Japan and the U.S. -- not to mention the Wall Street 'humanitarians' who would love to return China to its status pre-1949 is just disgusting.
I could go on... but perhaps you should do your own research before shooting your ignorant mouths off.
Old Billy Hussein @ 16:
me too, it is just a lot more impactful when it isn't hypocritical....
just ask east timor....
Lets not forget just how much of our own foreign debt is carried by China. Bush has a big giant credit card with a Chinese flag on it he swipes at the counter every time congress approves the next $70 to $120 billion for Iraq war funding, 80% of which goes directly to KBR, Bechtel, Haliburton, Blackwater and God knows how many other "friends" on the take. All while our infrastructure crumbles, and workers pack the Mississippi levies with newspaper.
Jack Cafferty was right, but the real thugs are in the white house.
The Baiji, or Chinese River Dolphin, is functionally extinct.
How is it possible to tie "free trade" deals to environmental and labor protections? We need representatives who will do this.
Uninsane @ 12:
Point well taken. It would be wise for us to clean our own house before throwing stones.
Ridiculous- "America should have a policy that if you don't honor international human rights standards, we will not allow your goods into our country." - have you looked at our own country and the many crimes we have committed and CONTINUE to commit(everyone who keeps talking about the situation in darfur seems to conveniently ignore the devasting WAR we've unleashed in Somalia by backing warlords and sending in our agents to route the Somalian nationalists). If other countries had the same policy towards us- there would be no trade anymore. Don't stop trade between people because of their government's actions.
If you don't want to buy goods from a country where you don't like their working standards- THEN DON'T BUY it. Don't get the government involved in these markets- its not your damn decision to stop who wants to buy a chinese made product.
casper46 @ 8:
And wal-mart too so it's 2 birds with 1 stone.
This is bullshit, frankly, and presumes a kind of reductionist dichotomy, that is nationalist in bent (what is my "own shit"?), and denies internationalism. As someone whose had the pleasure to hear underground labor leaders speak, and have read tons of material about left-wing resistance to the oligarchy that is China's Central Committee, I could give a rats ass about the ruling powers that be in China. At the same time, I recognize that the American ruling classes "protests" about human rights in China is disingenuous at best, hypocritical at worst. That doesn't mean what they say isn't TRUE, but rather that THEM (those who support dictatorships in Saudi Arabia, and elsewhere) saying it is the height of absurdity. But this should come as no surprise; competing elements of the ruling class will latch onto whatever popular angry sentiment to channel it into their own power games.
But useful idiots abound, unfortunately, ratcheting up xenophobic and calls for "humanitarian intervention", that great new buzzword that justifies militarism and "peace through war". Its a hell of alot easier than the alternative, which is to attempt to build connections and relationships with those in China who are resisting the Party. A notable example of a group resisting China's terrible labor record is http://www.chinalaborwatch.org/ and http://www.china-labour.org.hk/en/. For daily reports of labor and union resistance, check out the Chinese section of Labourstart ( http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/show_news.pl?country=China )
[Sorry Sean S. This got stuck in the spam filter. I am leaving both posts up since the second one is somewhat different and this one has links-Sitemonitor]
Uninsane - Thank you for your thoughtful comments! A true voice of reason in a sea of knee-jerk reactions in the U.S. media. Now if only someone in the MSM would be brave enough to do a real, first-hand researched story to shed some light on the truth.
The hypocrites who want to boycott China really make me laugh. How about boycotting
yourself for invading Iraq and killing uncounted people.
Chemist @ 25:
Exactly- it doesn't make sense. These types of hypocrites and double-standards are far too common.
Iran for example recently mentioned that they'd be open to full nuclear inspections if Israel's nuclear facilities were inspected as well. Of course no one is ever going to do that.
And also to say that bad working conditions in foreign countries are the only reason US jobs go overseas is really minimizing the problem- it has a lot to do with the rules, regulations, and taxes we have now that serve to make it difficult for many to enter into the market. Many manufacturers also know that the US economy is destined for failure since it has been based on consumption and easy credit(which should be blamed on the Fed, not on consumers truly), so why open up shop here?
How about not selling groceries to politicians who vote for criminal policies?
Last time I was in the U.S. I went into a WalMart store. After seeing the majority of the types that shop that store I can't see them even understanding the word Boycott. You need a cattle prod just to walk down an aisle.
Uninsane @ 12:
the dalai lama and the buddhist monks? is that the noisy fringe group you are talking about?
Free Hawaii!
This is reductionist bullshit, frankly, and turns things into a ridiculous dichotomy between who did what worse. This is kindergarten morality, of the sort small children say when caught doing something bad "Well Billy did it first!". The reality is that both countries have a horrendous record a mile long, if not directly, than through indirect support.
This doesn't mean we have to get stuck being rubes for bourgeoisie elites; when Laura Bush condemns Burma shes being at best disingenuous, at worst hypocritical. But its no surprise that many "human rights defenders" amongst politicians have latched onto the popular outrage against China's policy in order to advance their own agendas. As indicated by the numerous "humanitarian interventions" that America has chosen to get involved with in the past 40 or so years, it behooves the military to connect its case, which is often as far away from "humanitarian" as possible, to popular outrage as a cover for their actions.
If you are concerned about rights violations and labor conditions in China, and DON'T want to be suckered into the increasingly belligerent and xenophobic clarion calls for increased militarism, than I suggest you google some of these organizations; China Labor Bulletin, China Labor Watch, and Labourstart (and click on their China section). There are groups and people, and increased resistance, against the Party's Central Committee, but simply echoing Lou Dobb's ridiculous talking points is going to do nothing but give elites in BOTH countries an excuse to engage in an ever increasing form of brinksmanship where NO ONE is going to win.
boycott the US!
At first I was on the FREE TIBET bandwagon as my initial knee jerk reaction - however like Uninsane I came to view it differently. The switch for me came after a heated discussion I had with Chinese friends. Afterwards I realized I didnt know enough about Tibet or China. So I looked up the history of the 2 countries and found that Tibet ASKED China to come to there aid in the 600's. Over the next FOURTEEN HUNDRED years China ended up chasing several attackers out of Tibet and it was the Chinese that installed the Dali Lama as its ruler and China's representative. That pretty much cinched it for me - Tibet is China's and has been for a very very long time. Therefore it is none of my business.
Chemist @ 25:
It's interesting how industrial and historically colonial powers accuse each other of brutalizing these people or those people, when they are all guilty, even us.
Although the scale of atrocities can differ, the hypocrisy is astounding. We murdered thousands of Filipinos in the early 20th century, but not too many years later we were outraged at the Japanese for butchering the Chinese.
Now as we play imperial games in Iraq and cause hundreds of thousands of deaths, we are outraged at the Chinese over Tibet.
Unfortunately, the propaganda machines of these countries (ex. our MSM) always have to make the motherland look good, and those politically opoosed to it, look bad. Thanks to the ignorance of most people, brought by lack of education, it works.
Dude, if yer gonna bother with the "whom" thing, at least also bother with the preposition at the end of a clause thing.
tehghey @ 35:
LOL
tehghey @ 35:
Dude, thanks for the Coke-on-the-keyboard moment.
FREE TIBET!
FREE NORTHERN IRELAND!
FREE PALESTINE!
FREE BASQUE!
FREE TAMIL!
FREE PUERTO RICO!
FREE QUÉBEC!
Any others?
Um... Free Constantinople!?
Sean S. @ 31:
huh?
did you read my post? do you understand my post? talk about a kneejerk reaction...
i'll dumb it down for your benefit:
we, as a country, have supported dictatorships worldwide, for decades and decades. thus, america getting all holier-than-thou in regards to china, and their human rights abuses, is hypocritical. we can't expect to be the moral leaders of the world when it is so obvious that we do not practice what we preach. further, we are attached at the hip with china, corporately-speaking.
my point is NOT that we should leave china alone and let them continue their aggression and violation of human rights. my point is that if we can't control our own govt/corp how can we assume that we will ever have an impact on china.
Weaseldog @ 5:
he he as we speak my shoestrings are being shreaded in my sheltie pups jaws! second pair of shoes this month!
All of my shoes are made in the USA by Allen Edmonds and Alden.
Also, the Charlie Wilson myth needs to die. He and the Afgans did not bring down Russia, rather the Soviet Union collapsed from within. Wilson did arm the jihadists with American tax dollars. Brilliant move Charlie.
reyvn @ 33:
I hardly ever buy products made in the USA.
Not that I have a choice...
emphasa @ 38:
LOL emphasa. After we Free Tibet, we could invade Turkey and free Istanbul and restore it to Constantinople:
"Istanbul was constantinople
Now it's istanbul, not constantinople
Been a long time gone, constantinople
Now it's turkish delight on a moonlit night"
However, a wiser course of action (also vis-a-vis China) might be found in the following (esp. the last line):
"Istanbul was constantinople
Now it's istanbul, not constantinople
Been a long time gone, constantinople
Why did constantinople get the works?
That's nobody's business but the turks"
With thanks to one of the greatest bands ever: TMBG.
China bashing from C&L STINKS .How about USA's treatment of it's native indians or better yet--stealing(invading) of Hawaii or how about the Phillopines invasion or how about the support--$billions, Military arms to Israel--to kill Palistinians or how about 1 million Iraqies killed ect. Before you blame other countries,look at your own faults.
U American Fools, China puts the pants and shirts on your backs so you can spend it on Bombs. Mind your own affairs,leave the chinese hard working folks alone. If it was not for china--you'd be working 3 jobs to make ends meet and less gun-hoe military .
This is an almost absurd misreading of history. The Dalai Lama was not installed by Chinese forces; he was installed as a political power by what was then the dying remnants of the Mongol empire, which later led to a kind of Charlemagne-esque conversion of Mongolia to Buddhism. In the years after the collapse of the Mongolian empire, and the rise of the Qing dynasty, Tibet had varying levels of interaction not just with Chinese empire, but with colonial forces, notably the British, who foisted a grossly unfavorable treaty on them in the early 1900's.
The increasing wear and tear on the Qing Empire, that convinced the Lama's to consolidate their political power in TIbet in the 1800's in order to stave off possible colonization. With the full collapse of the Qing empire in the Xinhai Revolution, Tibet declared its independence and sought a vaguely secular program of bourgeoisie nationalism. Fast forward past the warlord years, the WWII, and the eventual Chinese Revolution, and we arrive in 1950, with the PLA entering Tibet and the rest, as we know it, is history.
Brad @ 28:
yes lets force them to dine out at some fancy resterant fugem !
JD @ 44:
No They Might Be Giants covered it.
""Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" is a swing-style song, with lyrics by Jimmy Kennedy and music by Nat Simon. The tune is similar to and possibly based on the music for "Puttin' on the Ritz", written by Irving Berlin in 1929.
It was originally recorded by The Four Lads on August 12, 1953. This recording was released by Columbia Records as catalog number 40082. It first reached the Billboard magazine charts on October 24, 1953, and it peaked at #10..."
Glenn Hurowitz recently wondered who’s going to help Tibet bring down China, like the Russians were brought down in Afghanistan and the British in India.
And the US in Iraq?
(did someone say this already?)
B
Thank daddy Bush for pushing through most favored nation trading status and giving China the oportunity to grow and exploit it's people.
He did it in return for China ABSTAINING from the UN vote on the FIRST GULF WAR...
They had a plan to shift thier operation over there after they leave a scorched earth here in AMERICA.
tyree @ 46:
I have a better idea. If the policies are criminal simply hang the guilty.
Problem solved and it would have a DETERENT effect I am sure...
miss_kitty @ 47:
Ha! Thx Miss_Kitty. That's why I keep coming back to this blog. Leave it up to the brilliant regular posters here to fact check everything. I vaguely knew there was an earlier incarnation, but I would say the TMBG is my favorite and part of the soundtrack of my High School days.
We must regain some measure of justice in America.
War criminals
Terrorist (home grown AND in the US goverment)
Treasonists
Destroyers of the constitution
Warpers of the constitution
Torturers
It is up UP US to bring them to the rope of justice.
Weaseldog @ 5:
Puppies make GREAT slippers.
I boycotted them the moment they won the bid to host the games! Seriously as if their current actions are any different now than they were five years ago!
The truth is the oppressed people of China need to stand united and rise together and kill their own tyrants- and wee need to do the same thing in America as this is the only thing that will ever stop this crap once and for all. It will not be very long before the dissidents, disillusioned and angry citizens are rounded up and hauled away into death camps. Just google REX-84 and it will become painfully clear as to what is really going on in America. Fuck China, we have serious problems of our own- and once we kill the elite perpetrators and catch our breath- then we can help the Chinese people overthrow their nasty evil dictators.
I wish the scenario would go down like this- I swear I wish it would. Congress and former presidents need to be stripped of power, influence and assets- then tried and convicted while another group just kills off the banking elite and their families- because one thing history has shown- the apple does not roll far from the tree with elite bloodlines.
There is a very short window for this and it may have passed already- but what I say is the truth- I just wish someone with a great set of balls and the access would take out the pope and the leaders of Israel then we would all have a fighting chance of becoming a truly civilized and culturally diverse and wonderful world and a compassionate species were truly designed to be in the first place.
It had to be said, sorry I know how horrible it sounds and I am expecting all the stooping to their level comments- in my defense I can only offer this post as self defense.
You seem to have a hard time separating out the American government, which only tangentially represents the expressed will of the people residing in it. I do "practice" what "I preach", and knowing and having met underground labor leaders from China, I can assure you I am not "taking a holier than thou" attitude towards anyone. What I am doing is criticizing the nationalist elites of both countries, which you seem to interpret as some how taking a "holier than thou" attitude towards one group (the Chinese ruling class), whilst letting another ruling class (America's) off the hook. Nothing could be further from the truth; but I'm sure these concepts have flown completely over your head.
emphasa @ 39:
Yeah - How about FREE US from the Facist bastards that have run rough shod over our National Heritage??
Regime change begins at home!
Sean S. @ 54:
You mean how the bush admin is making noise about how bad the Burmese Army is handling the Hurricane disaster, when they did such a great job in NOLA?
StevePam @ 52:
I'll remind them of that!
In a sense. But the mistake would be in presuming that just because the Bush admin. has latched onto the rhetoric (in the same way a broken clock is right atleast twice a day), doesn't invalidate the fact that Burma's military junta are corrupt, petty, tin-medal despots. Now of course, the Bush admin. is latching onto this in order to get some bonus points from what will be justified popular anger at the Burmese junta, and to ratchet up their own machinations in the region.
But it would be a serious mistake to make the reductionist, almost Mao-like "the enemy of my enemy is my friend", position that some on here are taking that its "holier than thou" to lampoon the ruling elites of every country, because "our" (how its 'mine' is up to debate) ruling elite is terrible. I'm internationalist and class-based in orientation, so I don't see much difference between ruling elites, no matter how much they try to get one over each other in their bourgeoisie racket. Funny enough, it is possible to be "neither east nor west" and to have everyone in your sights.
Fuck the Communist Chinese government. They are as a group liars and Sino-nationalists who think their shit doesn't stink. We should have done what Macaurthur wanted to do to them.
Don't think for an instant that protests in the West by Chinese students is not coordinated by the Red government, a government which were such protests done in china those kids would have been run over by tanks.
I trust the government of China about as much as a Hassidic diamond merchant who tells me he has a deal for me.
Sean S. @ 58:
Don't forget, Bush denied foreign relief for Katrina victims.
He's a master at condemning people who do as he does.
Actually, yes, they are the group I'm talking about. Highly visible on the world stage but fringe by any other standard.
Samson- @ 30:
See my friends, THIS is the kind of non-sense, xenophobic militaristic claptrap that the rapacious idiots in military's the world over want to hear. I mean nothing says progress like using nuclear weapons on tens of millions of people. This GEM just caps the post off;
I trust the government of China about as much as a Hassidic diamond merchant who tells me he has a deal for me.
Nothing says intelligence like antisemitism.
Sean S. @ 58:
my posts went from 'kindergarten morality' and 'lou dobbs'-like to maoist? interesting. i'm moving up in the world!
you have taken a personal affront to what i wrote, and took my posts as singularly directed at you --which they were not. and the sad thing is, i agree with most of what you have written, despite our slew of insults, slights and jabs at me. i am more in the world system school, a la wallerstein.
my posts were partially directed at the vast majority of americans that chant 'USA USA USA' and point the finger at other countries and call them on their crimes. all the while wholly ignorant of what is done in their names overseas. from neoliberalism to neocolonialism to neoconservatism.
but, more so, i was writing about our govt. the president, the sec'y state, veep, etc. standing behind a podium lecturing others while our govt does the same. and, i agree, like in the case of burma, it does not invalidate other countries' crimes just b/c we do the same or similar. but, it makes it quite hypocritical to hear US govt officials speak out against crimes against humanity in other places when we are doing it at home.
as far as 'holier than thou', and 'practice what you preach', that was directed at the american government, not you.
but, i do believe that if more americans were to pay attention to what our govt does then the more likely we'll be able to change our foreign policy. which would make it easier for the US govt to pressure china on issues like darfur. naive, maybe, but i still have hope.
yet, i fully concede that my posts were poorly written.
and...
i await your insult
:-)
as far as ‘holier than thou’, and ‘practice what you preach’, that was directed at the american government, not you.
No it wasn't. You kept arguing with people throughout this thread that "we" can't criticize because "our" government is messed up. Either you have an inability to use precise language, or your attempting to spin your response post-mortem. Either way, it doesn't look very good.
In regards to Darfur, I've been watching al-jazzera and they made a rather bold prediction: Because of the oil in Darfur (Why do you think the candidates even give a crap about it?) and the fact that the Chinese are everywhere there, the U.S. and other powers are planning to use the genocide as an excuse to back down the Chinese and take control of the oil there under the guise of stopping genocide. Oh, and by the way, WHAT ABOUT THE CIA'S INVOLVEMENT IN FACILITATING THE GENOCIDE WITH WEAPONS!!! WHERE ARE THE CANDIDATES ON THAT?!!! This whole thing is about splitting Sudan and controlling it's oil, pure and simple. With all the other bad things going on in the world, why do you think this gets the attention it does, and albeit, marginal attention, which shows how genocide isn't very high on the government's to-do list.
I took a few liberties here, but you'll get the gist:
International pressure and protest seems to carry no weight among the Americans. Their government is still arresting peace protestors for “unauthorized gatherings”, they’re still shooting and killing Iraqis. They’ve also been shipping weapons to Al Maliki, Iraq’s dictator, who is currently ignoring the reality of the situation in Iraq, in favour of being an American puppet. They buy 90 percent of the world’s exported oil, and sell small arms to just about everyone, and the American government is carrying out air attacks, in many nations, against helpless civilian targets. Oh yes, and they’re now the world’s second biggest carbon polluter, though they still remain the top carbon polluter per capita.
Yeah, that American government, complete jerks, tyrants, to put it charitably. The international community is surprised that international protests seem only to have stirred American nationalism, surprised that the Americans don’t understand why people are angry. Still, I think Glenn asks the wrong question. Because who is it that raised America up? [The backs of the world's poor have.] The lack of self-awareness in this situation isn’t exclusive to just some nations. American, people have an amazing capacity to accept almost anything as normal.
Someone here in Korea, asked me what Canadians make. I couldn't think of a thing. Unless maple syrup counts.
62 Weaseldog Says: Sean S. @ 58:
Don’t forget, Bush denied foreign relief for Katrina victims.
==========================
True. A Canadian Naval Hospital ship was waiting offshore, almost immmediately, but they were not allowed to help until about day 5, or so, after many had died.
So the ugly ghost revived by Kosovo's secession starts to rear his head...
Come on people, bringing down a dictatorship ruling over 1 billion people isn't any better than one ruling over about 20 million, didn't Iraq teach you anything? And look how well off the former USSR is today and tell me with a straight face that bringing down the Soviet Union by external forces was a good idea.
Go on, do it.
emphasa @ 39:
Free Boogiemanistan. infact 2 for one. get um while they last.
I really am sorry that I can't get more worked up about Tibet but when I see the atrocities of the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq what's going on in Tibet seems a small thing. It's not like the Chinese are responsible for a million people dead and 4 million people at a minimum displaced. Isn't there an old saying about cleaning your own house first?
To all the Chinese nationalists trolling blogs to defend your authoritarian regime (Terrible, No BS please, Johnny Comando, Chemist):
We don't need to be given a laundry list of American atrocities; we all know our own history. It's not policed by the government all through our education. Most of us here have read Howard Zinn. This whole website is dedicated to calling out the US government and its follies. Simply because we criticise another country doesn't mean that we absolve our own its failures. (In fact, your admonition that we not point out other countries faults, till we get our stuff straight, is in a way, an admission of your faults is it not?) The point is we know we've got problems and we have the right to deal with them openly. That's evident by the fact that this site hasn't been shut down by W and Co. and never will be. If there was an equivalent of this site in China, it'd be shut down pronto. If China had a Howard Zinn detailing a side of history denied by the government, he'd be shot. That's what really irks me about these commie apologists; their inability to separate the citizen from the state. Anyways, we needn't be blameless to cast blame. Wrong is wrong and we Americans can admit it... (Michael Moore, Olbermann, Mark Twain, Vonnegut, et. al. anyone?)
Alexis de Tocqueville sez "The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults."
Uninsane @ 12:
I totally agree! And glad to see somebody is making sense instead of being polarized and ignorance. Tibet and Chinese Government relationship is complicated. As long as one is buy in the media feed without fact check, historical background check and self examination, i could only think of one word - hypocrisy.
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