The Old Eighteen

Death toll continues to rise in China, Myanmar

The staggering loss of life in the wake of last Monday's earthquake in China, and the earlier cyclone that hit Myanmar, continues to mount.  In China, the nation is struggling to deal with its worst disaster in 30 years, with the death toll already confirmed at over 28,000, and at least another 10,000 still buried.  It's expected to reach 50,000 before all is said and done.  Landslides have clogged rivers and lakes, threatening to flood towns already ravaged by the earthquake's destructive forces.  Hardest hit by the earthquake is the riverside village of Donghekou, which was annihilated when a mountain collapsed on top of it, burying scores of people.

Meanwhile, in Myanmar, at least 134,000 people are dead or missing, and an already bad situation is being made worse by a tyrannical distatorship more concerned with maintaining its grip on power than with the welfare of its people:

Myanmar's rulers showed off neatly laid out state relief camps to diplomats Saturday while continuing to keep a French navy ship laden with aid waiting outside its maritime border.

The helicopter tour appeared aimed at countering global criticism of the government's failure to provide for survivors of Cyclone Nargis, which left at least 134,000 people dead or missing.

"It was a show," Shari Villarosa, the top U.S. diplomat in Myanmar, said after returning to Yangon. "That's what they wanted us to see."

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown accused authorities in Myanmar of behaving inhumanely by preventing foreign aid from reaching victims. He said the country's regime cares more about its own survival than the welfare of its people.

Mr. Brown said a natural disaster "is being made into a man-made catastrophe by the negligence, the neglect and the inhuman treatment of the Burmese people."

The French ship that was stalled off Myanmar's shores carries small boats that could reach "most of the regions where no one has accessed yet" in the Irawaddy delta, said France's U.N. ambassador, Jean-Maurice Ripert.

Death toll in Chinese earthquake tops 13,000

I haven't blogged about this yet, but Monday's earthquake in central China has taken a heavy toll in human life:

Soldiers, paramilitary police and civilian rescue workers struggled against rainstorms and fog Tuesday to reach thousands of people trapped under the rubble of schools, hospitals and residences flattened by Monday’s deadly earthquake in central China.

The death toll exceeded 13,000 and was expected to rise as rescue efforts continued and the scope of the damage became clearer, particularly in hard-hit Sichuan province. The official New China News Agency reported that more than 18,000 were trapped under debris in Mianyang City. Another 2,000 people were found dead and 4,800 were missing in the little town of Mianzhu, near the quake’s epicenter in Wenchuan county, the news agency reported.

The 7.9-magnitude quake rolled through a half-dozen Chinese provinces and rattled buildings as far away as Vietnam.

One bright spot in this bleak tragedy is the openness with which the Chinese government has managed its response to the disaster.  In the past, disasters like this one were considered state secrets, and little if any information was given to the Chinese public or the outside world.  Hopefully this openness will help to minimize the loss of life, but in any event the death toll in this disaster looks like it's going to get a lot higher before this is all over with.

Click here to find out how to contribute to the Red Cross's efforts to help the relief efforts in China and Myanmar.

Zimbabwe-bound weapons shipment returns to China, undelivered

This is very good news:

A Chinese ship carrying armaments made by a Chinese state-owned company and bound for Zimbabwe has headed back to China without unloading its cargo of bullets and mortar bombs, a spokeswoman for China’s foreign ministry confirmed at a briefing Thursday.

“The Chinese company has already decided to send the military goods back to China in the same vessel, the An Yue Jiang,” the spokeswoman, Jiang Yu, said.

The arms shipment has been a particularly contentious issue in Africa and abroad because of widespread concerns about politically-motivated violence in the wake of disputed elections in Zimbabwe last month.

[...] China’s decision to turn the ship around was welcomed by the dock workers, trade unionists, religious leaders, Western diplomats and human rights workers who have been campaigning since last week to block delivery of the weapons to Zimbabwe.

They had said the weaponry could be used to carry out an even more violent crackdown on Zimbabwe’s political opposition, which is allied with the country’s unionized workers.

[...] The ship had sailed into Durban harbor in South Africa last week. The South African government had already issued a permit to allow the arms to be trucked across South Africa to landlocked Zimbabwe when dock workers declared they would not unload the weapons and an Anglican archbishop persuaded a judge to bar the arms delivery across South African soil temporarily.

The campaign has since pressed other countries in the region to reject the shipment, a call that had gained important backing from Zambia’s president, Levy Mwanawasa, who heads a bloc of 14 southern African nations.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain said in Parliament on Wednesday that he would “promote proposals for an embargo on all arms to Zimbabwe,” without giving further details.

But on Thursday, Jacob G. Zuma — the leader of South Africa’s governing party, the African National Congress, and potentially a future president of South Africa, the region’s most powerful country — said in London that he did not support the British leader’s call for a full-fledged arms embargo, and ruled out military intervention by South Africa in Zimbabwe to solve the political crisis.

“I don’t think we have reached the stage of an arms embargo in Zimbabwe,” he said at a news conference in London, where he held talks with Mr. Brown on Wednesday.

South African participation would be critical in any arms embargo against the Mugabe dictatorship.  here's hoping that the government of South Africa decides to do the right thing, and support an arms embargo once it is proposed.

Nepal threatens to shoot pro-Tibet protestors

Hey, if it works for the Chinese:

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.

"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, said Sunday. "This could mean shooting if necessary."

And the worst Olympic torch relay in history gets worse by the day.

::

(via AMERICAblog)

This needs to happen a lot more often

...and not just in South Africa:

The Chinese ship carrying a consignment of 77 tonnes of weaponry for Zimbabwe left South African waters yesterday after a court blocked the onward overland shipment of the cargo.

South African dockers had refused to unload the arsenal of small arms, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.

But the Durban high court in any case ruled that the shipment could not be dispatched north across the border into Zimbabwe.

Kudos to these South African dock workers, and shame on the Chinese for throwing fuel in the fire in Zimbabwe.

::

(via AMERICAblog)

China snubs CNN apology; Olympic protests hit India

As a response to the group temper tantrum that China is throwing over Jack Cafferty's disparaging-but-true remarks about the Chinese government, CNN issued a lame, half-assed apology for something that deserves no apology whatsoever, clarifying that Cafferty was referring to the Chinese government and not the people of China.  Predictably, this wasn't enough to satisfy the Chinese dictatorship, so the pouting continues unabated:

But Jiang said at a regularly scheduled news conference that the CNN statement lacked sincerity and instead "turned its attack on the Chinese government to try to sow division between the Chinese government and the people."

The head of the ministry's information department summoned CNN's bureau chief in Beijing on Wednesday night to deliver a near identical protest.

Seemingly lost in the midst of all this sturm und drang is the almost comic irony that many Chinese living within the country itself are protesting against stuff on CNN and other western media outlets that they haven't even been allowed to see or hear:

CNN and other foreign satellite broadcasts can be seen only in hotels, offices and housing developments open to foreigners, meaning very few Chinese would have heard Cafferty's original comments.

Censors also block many foreign news sites on the Internet, pointing to an underlying irony of the ongoing protests — that they profess outrage over foreign media reports that their government does not permit them to view.

Meanwhile, in India, the Olympic torch arrived to more protests:

Hundreds of Tibetan protesters marched through central Delhi on Thursday morning shouting "Die for Freedom" hours before the Olympic torch was due to be carried through the Indian capital.

Demonstrators lit their own torch at the spot where the ashes of Mahatma Gandhi are buried, and they planned to mount a parallel, peaceful torch relay through the city's streets. Delhi police had granted permission for the protest but had warned that they would extinguish any torches being carried by protesters.

::

(via AMERICAblog [1,2])

Why I love Jack Cafferty

If you haven't had an opportunity to watch Jack Cafferty on CNN's "The Situation Room," you're missing out - he's one of the few bright spots on a network that has fallen far from what it once was.  Cafferty tells it like it is and minces no words, as evidenced by his recent comments about the government of China:

He was speaking about the U.S. trade deficit with China when he said, according to the transcript, "We continue to import their junk with the lead paint on them and the poisoned pet food and export, you know, jobs to places where you can pay workers a dollar a month to turn out the stuff that we're buying from Wal-Mart."

"So I think our relationship with China has certainly changed," he continued. "I think they're basically the same bunch of goons and thugs they've been for the last 50 years."

But apparently the bloodthirsty tyrants running the Chinese government got their tender feelings hurt by what Cafferty said, and as usually happens when someone says something even mildly critical of China, they started stomping their feet, throwing a temper tantrum, and, lower lips stuck outward in full pout, demanded an apology:

China demanded an apology from CNN on Tuesday after network commentator Jack Cafferty called the country's leaders a "bunch of goons and thugs" and said its products were "junk."

[...] The comments reflect Cafferty's "ignorance and ... hostility" toward China, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said.

"We are shocked and strongly condemn the vicious remarks by Cafferty," ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said. "We solemnly request CNN and Cafferty himself take back the malicious remarks and apologize to the Chinese people."

Yeah, he should apologize to the Chinese government.  Right after they apologize for Tienenman Square, and Tibet, and all the other horrible things that they've been doing to the people under their authority.  And then stop doing them.  And that'll happen shortly after hell freezes.  So Cafferty should stick to his guns and tell the Chinese government to go fuck themselves.

::

(via AMERICAblog)

Made in China

From Yellowdog Granny, here's a bit of editorial cartoon humor about the ugly mess that is the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.  Of course, the last one definitely qualifies as dark humor:

Olympic torchbearer gets manhandled by Chinese security & American police, kicked out of relay for waving a Tibetan flag

And here I was thinking that we had freedom of expression in this country.  The New York Times has an article about the incident, and here's video of the incident from the local ABC affiliate (sorry, no embed).  Also included below are a couple of videos that have been posted on YouTube:

::

(via bollucks at Daily Kos)

Boycott the 2008 Olympics

In the wake of the uprising in Tibet, and sympathetic protests that have marred the Olympic torch relay, a new Zogby poll is showing that a growing number of Americans now believe it was a mistake to allow China to host the Olympics games.  Excerpts:

• 70% of likely voters believe the IOC was wrong to award this year’s summer Olympic Games to China.  A similar poll in May 2007 found that 39% viewed the decision unfavorably.
• 48% think that U.S. political officials should not attend the opening ceremonies of the games.
• 31% believe the United States Olympic Committee should boycott the Olympic Games, with 23% saying that Bush should order a boycott of the games.
• 55% said that they would avoid buying Chinese products whenever possible, and 40% would avoid shopping at stores that prominently feature goods made in China.
• 48% believe that the foreign media will ignore negative stories about China before and during the Olympic Games due to fear of retaliation, such as expelling journalists. A whopping 94% believes that China will try to prevent the foreign media from covering negative stories about China.  And 54% don’t believe that NBC, the network that will broadcast the Olympics in America, will be as aggressive about covering news from China before and during the Olympics as it would be if it weren't airing the games.

My take: I believe that we should be boycotting the Olympic games, not just because of the occupation of Tibet but because of China's general record of human rights abuses against political dissidents, as well as against Falun Gong practitioners and other religious groups, and also because of its belligerent treatment of the people of Taiwan, by threatening to invade the island if its people declare independence and by using economic and political blackmail against other nations to prevent them from giving any sort of recognition to Taiwan.  That, and all of the contaminated crap they import to our country (though they wouldn't be donig that if we would just pay American workers to manufacture more of our products over here).  I doubt that our political leadership will have the courage or the leadership to undertake a boycott, but I will at least give Hillary Clinton credit for calling on Bush to boycott the opening ceremonies.  I think that Barack Obama would do well to follow suit, and he should go further by calling for a full boycott.

I love the Olympics, but I hate the brutal dictatorship of China a lot more.  I hate to say it, but I will probably be taking a pass on watching the games this summer, and I encourage others to take a pass on them as well.

(via AMERICAblog)