Clinton declares global warming to be a hoax

Well, she didn't actually in so many words, but now that I've got your attention ...

She pretty much spit in Al Gore's face. Now will he please go ahead and provide his endorsement for Obama? Meanwhile, let's see if this shameful pandering will get the "Straight Talk Express" and Hillary Clinton anything at the polls ...

But here's some good news. Small cars are now the largest segment in the United States. Who would have thought that the land of the Hummer would kneel before the Asian subcompact. Definitely not the suits at Detroit!

Another well-deserved nail in the coffin for the American auto industry that for years fought stricter emissions standards that would have, ironically, made them more competitive in the global marketplace today. It's sad that the incompetence of the fat-cats is causing misery for ordinary citizens, but life isn't fair. Some 3,500 people get laid off and the CEO of GM gets a $10 million bonus for pulling the company through these "tough times" and goes back to doing what he does best, lining the greasy paws of the likes of Mitt Romney who go around claiming that stricter emissions regulations are what are dragging America's auto industry down. Right ...

Boycott Intensifies

Picture this scenario. Angered by the actions of government relating to the Olympic Games and the Tibet issue, an ordinary citizen begins a resolute boycott of all goods emerging from that country. If you think I'm referring to the ignorant, propaganda-fed sheeple who are boycotting French firms, you're not quite correct. I'm talking about myself boycotting Chinese goods.

What's that you say? How can I begin to boycott Chinese goods when I've always tried to stay away from Chinese goods? The difference is in the strength of the motivation. True, I've always tried to avoid Chinese goods, but usually, if there is no alternative, I might go for the Chinese good anyway. With the recent uprising and brutal suppression of peaceful protesters in Tibet by the thugs and goons running China, my feelings are markedly different. And unlike from CNN, the Chinese will get no apology from me, sincere or insincere ...

Anyway, getting back on track, I bought a digital camera two days ago. The choice was between a Fujifilm S700 and a Kodak EasyShare Z712 IS. They were both about the same price (~$195 including shipping and handling + 2 GB SD card) and same specs (Kodak probably beats the Fujifilm slightly, 12x vs 10x optical zoom, slightly better image stabilizing technology). Mani recently bought the Fujifilm S700 and I saw it in Mexico and it's a pretty decent camera. So that was another incentive for me to buy the Kodak camera, since it would be something different.

BUT ... I knew for a fact that (since Mani had it) that the Fujifilm S700 cameras were made in Indonesia (i.e., not China). I did not know where the Kodak Easyshare Z712 IS cameras were made. It might have been China or it might not have been China. In an ordinary year, this uncertainty may have been enough to get me to buy the Kodak and then if it turned out to be Kodak after all, oh well, too bad, I'll know not to buy Kodak next time.

But this is not an ordinary year. This is the year that China brutally suppressed (and continues to suppress) an uprising in Tibet and follows a year in which the military rulers of Burma with Chinese support brutally suppressed an uprising by monks in their own country. As a result, I went with certainty over uncertainty. I made the effort to go to a local RadioShack, where I noticed that one of Kodak's lower-end model cameras were manufactured in China. This was enough for me to conclude that there was a high-enough probability of the Kodak model that I wanted of being manufactured in China. I came back home and ordered the Fujifilm S700 and feel quite good about possibly denying the Chinese junta an extra $200 into their economy.

It's not just the big-ticket items either. I was at the Davis Co-Op the other day (I usually shop at Nugget Market, which I like a lot more, but Davis Co-Op was on my way home that day and I just needed a few things). I stop to pick up frozen okra and what do I see on the back of the packet? "Product of China". Okra!!!

Needless to say, I toss the packets back into the freezer, put everything else I had bought back on the shelves and left the place. I went to Nugget (as I should have in the first place) and finished shopping. The nerve of those hippies running the Co-Op! God forbid they stock enough Pepsi on their shelves so there would be some left when I got there (only about half their soda space is dedicated to the big, "evil capitalist" brands with the other half being devoted to cola brands I've never heard of). But they seemingly have no problem sourcing food from China to stock their freezers full of it. No wonder this town is sometimes called the "People's Republic of Davis." And we're not talking of exotic tropical fruits here. We're talking okra, which grows plentifully in the United States seasonally and in Mexico year round!

Anyway, this is just the start of my China boycott. The month of May is going to be my China total boycott month. I pledge not to buy ANYTHING made in China during that month. If I cannot find an alternative, I will do without. It's time to send the goons and thugs running China a message! They should know that boycotting is a two-way street ...

Olympic Torch in India: Mission Accomplished

As far the Olympic torch's run in India goes, it was a mission well accomplished. The ruling junta in China intended for the torch to be a crowning symbol to the world of its "arrival" on the world stage or what Chinese propaganda claims to be China's "peaceful rise."

So far, where it has been displayed to the public, such as in London, Paris and San Francisco, it has met overwhelming opposition and disdain. In New Delhi, the torch passed through a sterilized bubble in one of the world's largest cities. China's primary mission of showing off its torch was a resounding failure.

Meanwhile, protesters against Chinese atrocities in Tibet ran their own torch relay in Delhi, a spectacular success that got far more viewers than the official Olympic torch. Somehow, I don't think that this is what the ruling junta in Beijing had imagined would occur. All in all, a good job by the Indian government. It burnished its diplomatic and security credentials (and a possible bid by New Delhi to host the 2020 Olympics) that it could provide the security for the torch's safe relay through the city, but at the same time showed the world the difference between autocratic China and democratic India in light of the numerous protest relays that occurred throughout the city. For once, the Indian government seems not to have messed anything up.

New Delhi, April 17, 2008

Tibetan protesters participate in the parallel relay in New Delhi. (AFP Photo)

The Olympic torch made a strange and lonely procession through central Delhi on Thursday, with the event so overshadowed by fears of the anti-Chinese protests that marred its appearances in other cities that no members of the public were allowed close enough to witness it. Here, officials waited for the torch in front of the presidential palace in New Delhi along a boulevard purged of spectators. - NY Times

Tibetan monks prayed next to their own "Olympic torch" in New Delhi on Thursday before a parallel torch relay to protest against Chinese action on Tibet. Demonstrators lit their own torch at the spot where the ashes of Mahatma Gandhi are buried and mounted a parallel, peaceful torch relay through central Delhi. - NY Times

Hundreds of Tibetan protesters marched through central Delhi shouting "Die for Freedom" hours before the torch was due to be carried through the Indian capital. - NY Times

Our Manchurian Candidates

It's never been in doubt that the Left parties in India openly support their comrades in Beijing. This was the case, in 1962, when they were on China's side in the Sino-Indian war and were full of glee when India lost that skirmish and it is the case today as they try their level best to scupper any solidifying of India's ties with the "devil" (i.e., mainly the United States and Israel). They're held up the Indo-US nuclear deal because a strategic relationship with the United States is unfathomable for them.

OK, despite how much disgust I have for them, they are allowed to voice their views and when they have power, follow an agenda that serves their narrow, outdated mindsets. That's the beauty of India being a democracy and for all the frustration it brings about, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Unfortunately, the Leftists themselves don't seem to get that concept. It's not just the China-style appropriation of farmers' lands for building large industries and firing on and massacring farmers that protested. Revolting as the Nandigram violence was, the drubbing the CPI-M government received from 24 hour media coverage of the massacre, the denunciation by the Governor of West Bengal (who also happens to be Mahatma Gandhi's grandson), the isolation of the party in Parliament on the issue and the ruling by the High Court last November that
"The action of the police department to open fire at Nandigram on 14.03.2007 was wholly unconstitutional and cannot be justified under any provision of the law ... The action of the police cannot be protected or justified on the ground of sovereign immunity ... The action of the police cannot be justified even under the provisions of Criminal Procedure Code; The Police Act, 1861 for The Police Regulations, 1943 ... we direct the State of West Bengal to pay to the victims of the deceased as a result of the indiscriminating police firing on 14th of March, 2007 immediate compensation in the sum of Rs.5 (five) lakhs each ... We further direct the State Government to pay immediate compensation to the persons who were injured and whose particulars have been given the pleadings sum of Rs. not less than 1 (one) lakh each ... We further direct the State Government to pay compensation to the victims of rape who have been duly identified in the pleadings a sum of Rs.2 (two) lakhs each." seemingly would have reminded the Left Parties that they worked within the framework of democratic India, not Communist China.

The message has not clearly gotten through. The West Bengal government banned a peaceful protest rally by Tibetans and their supporters that was to take place a few days ago. Police canceled the protest citing "pressure from above." The [weak] excuse provided by the West Bengal government is that the protests run counter to India's "China-centric policy". First of all, India does not have a "China-centric policy" ... the Left parties may, but they don't represent either India or the Indian government. Secondly, so what even if we did have a China-centric policy. The protest could be anti-Indian policy for all we care. In a democratic society, the people do not have to toe the official government line.

An excellent editorial from the Times of India on the topic:

"Whatever their long-term goals, the fact is that Left parties in India function within the framework of a constitutionally sanctioned parliamentary democracy.

They contest elections like any other political outfit, run administrations in three states and support the current dispensation at the Centre."

"The Indian government has assured China of a safe and incident-free passage for the Olympic torch. It has not suspended the democratic rights — to disagree and protest peacefully — of either its own citizens or that of the Tibetans-in-exile.

That is because we are a democracy, and therefore value human and individual rights and give space for the expression of dissent.

To be sure, West Bengal is part of the Indian union and the state government cannot suspend democratic rights, especially when there is no threat to public order."

"The Left in India is often accused of being more interested in China's well-being than India's.

It only gives more reasons to believe that the accusation is not completely baseless."

My question now is: who will be held accountable? The protests did not take place, but someone in the West Bengal government has to be held accountable for the outrageous abrogation of citizens' political rights.

Meanwhile, the Chinese government had the gall to ask the Indian government if we would ban Tibetan protests all across the country. Oh, wouldn't that make them happy! Thankfully, the central government seems to have given them a fitting reply. The central government has also given them a firm no for being part of the security cordon in New Delhi. What's next? Will the Chinese request access to India's intelligence files?

China had better check its expansionist ambitions at the Himalayas. India is not and will never be a Chinese puppet or be willing to kowtow to its demands, regardless of what some of our own politicians may think.

The Torch Arrives in San Francisco

San Francisco, April 9, 2008

This torch relay is now completely chaotic. The city of San Francisco changed the torch route numerous times, the closing ceremony at the waterfront was canceled (probably because "mighty" China doesn't want to be humiliated again by peaceful protesters) and the Chinese consulate bused in its nationals from all around the region (including from Davis) to project its propaganda of a "harmonious" world accepting the "harmonious" rise of China with the "harmonious" Olympics about to be played. Not everything was harmonious though ...

A man carrying a Tibetan flag is attacked by pro-China supporters awaiting the start of the Olympic torch relay on Wednesday in San Francisco. AFP/Getty Images

I guess old habits die hard. If you can beat Tibetans for peacefully expressing their opinions within Tibet, I guess it's fair game outside Tibet as well. Right?

Protesters [both pro-Tibet and pro-China] waited along the original torch route. City officials rerouted the torch amid worries about a repeat of protests in Europe. - NY Times

One World, Shared Disgust

Everywhere across the world, wherever the Olympic torch goes, people are protesting in a massive show of global defiance and disgust. This post will keep track of protests along the torch's route, as a world stands up and speaks out in favor of human rights and against the crackdown in Tibet, and indeed all across China, as the Chinese government "clears" its streets of potential "troublemakers" ahead of the games. The Xinhua propaganda mouthpiece has labeled these protests as the "vile misdeeds" of a "few Tibet separatists" and that "people welcome the torch." These photos however show one world with one dream, Free Tibet!

Paris, April 7, 2008

"French police grappled with a demonstrator trying to grab the torch. What organizers had billed as an occasion to celebrate the Olympics' sporting ideals of peace and harmony is turning into a contest between China's supporters and critics." - NY Times

Was the IOC really stupid enough to not expect anything like this to happen? I think they fully realized what was going to happen, but chose to mortgage their so-called Olympics values in exchange for rolling around in Chinese money. And the protesters are not politicizing the games. The IOC and China have already did that. China has long been promoting these games as evidence of its "peaceful rise" - never mind the thousands languishing in Chinese gulags or undergoing torture - and as a measure of success of the Communist Party. The IOC and the Chinese government have politicized these games long before the protesters.

"Protesters with Tibetan flags at the Place du Trocadero opposite the Eiffel Tower before the arrival of the Olympics torch relay on Monday." - NY Times

London, April 6, 2008

Chinese security officers (in light blue uniforms) provided security for the torch route in London! What's next, a Tiananmen-style massacre in Trafalgar Square? Gordon Brown should be ashamed of himself for capitulating before the Chinese as such. Source of photo: New York Times

"One protester who broke through the police cordon, David Allen, said his anger flared at the sight of British sports stars being guarded in London by Chinese security men.

“It makes us complicit in the regime’s repression,” Allen said. ”You have to ask: Where were these security men last week? Beating up people in the villages of China, no doubt.”" - NY Times

"Thousands of demonstrators crowded the streets of central London as the Olympic torch was carried through the city on its way to the summer Olympic Games in Beijing." - New York Times