No gadgets for Kim

The U.S. Ministry of Commerce is publishing a list of goods banned from being exported to North Korea. (CNN: U.S. takes gadgets away from Kim; The Washington Post: Hitting Kim Jong Il Right in the Cognac). It is supposed to implement a clause in U.N. Security Council resolution 1718, which calls on member countries to stop the export of luxury goods to North Korea. Included is cognac, iPods, Rolex watches, plasma TVs, Segway scooters, cigarettes, Harley Davidson motorcycles and jetskis, among other goodies.

Japan has its own luxury list including beef and tuna. The United Nations, for its part, has refrained from defining what luxury goods are or to provide a list.

The measure is totally ridiculous. As even CNN observes, the Bush administration is acting like a scolding parent, taking away Kim Jong Il's toys. It is probably another move by the U.S. to torpedo the resumption of the six party talks. When the North Koreans agreed in December 2005 to stop their nuclear weapons program, Washington instigated a blockade of North Korean funds in foreign banks. Result: Pyongyang kept away from the negotiating table for almost a year. Now that they are willing to talk again – having detonated a nuclear bomb in the meantime – Washington is pulling another trick out of its hat which is sure to anger Kim.

CNN calls it “the U.S. government's first-ever effort to use trade sanctions to personally aggravate a foreign president”. It may very well result once more in the North Koreans boycotting the negotiations.

The point is Washington doesn't want to negotiate, but wants to put all the blame on the North Koreans.

Whether it is wise, stupid or criminal for Kim to spend millions on cognac and Mercedes-Benz cars while many North Koreans are starving is irrelevant. You don't treat nations like that, at least if the purpose is to get a desirable outcome. Moreover, the black market will ensure that Kim still gets what he wants.

Inviting Kim Jong Il to the White House would do more to solve the North Korean problem than taking away his toys.

Besides, is eating a tuna sandwich while listening to your iPod a 'luxury'? 

NATO's Afghan quagmire

While the civil war created by the U.S. in Iraq is worsening day by day, the NATO alliance is preparing to sink ever deeper into another mess called Afghanistan.

Some people feel Iraq and Afghanistan are different cases. They argue that somehow the U.S. and its allies were justified in attacking Afghanistan because the Taliban shielded Al Qaeda. The society concept of the Taliban was indeed Medieval backwardness and the country harbored a couple of training camps, but the U.S. and later on NATO intervention didn't solve a thing. The Taliban had largely eradicated opium production, while Afghanistan is now once again, under the noses of NATO, a large producer.

The Western countries promised a better society, democracy, education, women's liberation and so on; but Afghanistan is once again sinking back into the morass. Like its infamous cousin in Baghdad's Green Zone, the government of Hamid Karzai only rules in parts of Kabul and has no control whatsoever in other parts of the country.

The drug trade accounts for a third of the economy and permeates the higher levels of government, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime wrote in a report. It says 2006 saw opium cultivation rise by 60% and production by 50%. (BBC News: Warning over Afghan drug economy)

Today, the NATO summit in Riga decided to lift engagement restrictions, so more troops could be deployed in combat. This is exactly the wrong decision! The U.S. and the U.K. are blamed for the mess in Iraq; all NATO member countries will be blamed for the mess in Afghanistan. NATO should leave Afghanistan. It is not the absence, but the presence of NATO troops which is fueling a resurgence of the Taliban. (CNN: NATO signals Afghan reinforcements)

'Almost' Mr. Annan?

Anybody with the flimsiest knowledge of what is going on in Iraq agrees by now that the country is in a civil war. Even columnist Dan Froomkin of the Washington Post has to admit as much. Of course the White House keeps on denying that is has created a horrible mess in Iraq.

So here comes the Secretary General of the United Nations, his Excellency Kofi Annan procrastinating that perhaps, maybe, if nothing happens pretty soon we are almost there.

“Asked by reporters at the U.N. if Iraq is in a civil war now, Annan replied, "I think given the developments on the ground, unless something is done drastically and urgently to arrest the deteriorating situation, we could be there. In fact we are almost there.” (CNN: Annan: Iraqis 'almost' in civil war).

By invading Iraq, the U.S. trampled underfoot all the principles of the United Nations, which was created precisely to prevent such a blatant aggression. Three years ago, Kofi Annan didn't even raise his voice. He is still keeping quiet, although he is at the end of his term and doesn't need reelection.

Of course the U.S. is the largest contributer to the U.N. budget. So there can be only one conclusion: Kofi Annan is a mercenary of U.S. imperialism. He doesn't care about the people of Iraq as long as he can keep the occupant of the White House happy... 

The poor miners of China

In the course of three days, 85 miners died in four separate accidents around the country. Director Li Yizhong of the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS) was not amused. He has been trying to close thousands of small, dangerous mines. Once his inspectors are back in Beijing, they were quietly put back into production by unscrupulous mine owners in collusion with local governments. Li complained that some local governments were willfully flouting national safety regulations.

The local mayors and party secretaries were supposed to get rid of their investments in the coal mines. But they only write a nice report to their superiors and keep on their greedy collusion with the mine bosses.

The Chinese revolution was supposed to end the suffering and exploitation of the proletariat. China today is a materialistic, capitalist society. China is the factory of the world and pretty soon will also be the design center of the world. The forces of production are being developed to their highest level. Every Marxist knows that the relations of production will have to be adapted to the level of the forces of production. No 'harmonious society' here Comrade Hu. Only class struggle, every hour and every minute.

China may be capitalist today, but after capitalism comes socialism and communism. China still has a bright future... 

Shameless Wicked Witch

Granted, there is a big difference between the crimes of aggression, genocide and crimes against humanity of which her husband is guilty and the mere misdemeanor of claiming there is “no professional morality in journalism”.

Still, it’s a blatant lie. Sure, some journalists lack all professional morality. Tabloid journalists just like to dig up dirt. Others even stoop so low as to defend the immoral occupation of Iraq.

But telling an audience of journalism students at Roehampton University in the south-west of London that there is “no professional morality in journalism”, that journalism is “not a noble calling” and that journalists “have no ethics” is disgusting. The Independent called it an extraordinary attack on the media.

The words quoted are those of Cherie Blair, wife of Lord Blair of Kut al-Amara, Her Majesty’s Prime Minister, whose only rightful place is in the dock of the accused at the International Court of Justice.

BBC World Affairs Editor John Simpson apparently presided over the meeting. Now I like Simpson’s books (although he can’t match Robert Fisk) and he went through hell in Northern Iraq barely escaping a vicious bombardment by the U.S. Air Force. So the man must have had quite a bit of courage. In Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran and a dozen other places. But in south-west London, he lacked even the courage of a weasel. Simpson declined to comment, because “it was a private meeting”.

“The Wicked Witch is utterly shameless”, commented Richard Littlejohn, the columnist of the Daily Mail. I don’t know Richard and have never read anything he has written, but a quick Google search turns up he’s a controversial right-wing commentator. So there’s probably not much he and I can agree on, but his characterization of Cherie Cherie is right on the spot.

After all, right wing bastards must have a hell of a lot of experience with wicked witches and must certainly be able to recognize one when they see one. Whereas John Simpson even lacked the courage to stand up to the Wicked Witch.

Wicked Witch Cherie and War Criminal Tony, what a lovely couple!

Read the story in The Independent: Journalists have no morality, PM's wife tells students 

The PhD street cleaner

The number of university graduates has grown fast the last couple of years to more than 4 million this year. The problem is the number of jobs requiring graduates has not kept pace. The result is fierce competition for a job and downward pressure on the salaries of job seekers.

At the end of middle school, the pressure to pass the dreaded university entrance examination is unbearable. Those who fail, bring shame to their families. Those who pass, face four more years of study hell to graduate with the highest honors, to be the number one of the class, ahead of their peers.

Then it’s on to get a PhD, the top in academic achievement. And still, you may end up, literally, on the street…

In Guangzhou, 286 university graduates and post-graduates competed for 11 positions as street cleaners. One PhD, four master’s and six bachelor degree holders were recruited…

On November 25, 535,574 people participated in a national examination for civil servants. 42 people competed on average for each job.

In Zhengzhou, more than 30,000 students stampeded into an exhibition center where a job fair was held, desperate to find a job. Students were just swept along in the throng of people, their feet barely touching the ground, Edward Cody writes in the Washington Post.

Premier Wen Jiabao decided to spend more on education, which of course is a good thing. Spending will go up to 4% of GDP.

But equally important, China will have to find ways to offer all those graduates a decent job. 

Meanwhile in Baghdad…

Yankees Go Home! NOW! That is the only possible first step to start clearing the mess in Iraq. Idiots pretend that if the U.S. and British occupiers would leave immediately, Iraq would be plunged into a civil war. This is a blatant lie and a convenient excuse to prolong the occupation and the slaughter.

“The way you end a slaughter is by no longer feeding it. […] the foreign occupation of Iraq by American and British troops is feeding the violence. Iraq is not on the “edge of civil war”. It is in the midst of it,” wrote Alexander Cockburn on the CounterPunch website. Damn right he is.

What happened in Baghdad recently?

• Shia fighters kidnapped 150 Sunni officials at the Ministry of Higher Education.
  
• Sunni attacked the Ministry of Health, controlled by the Shia.
  
• Sunni car bombs killed more than 200 people in Sadr City, the worst single atrocity since the war began in March 2003.
  
• Shia militia burned down Sunni mosques and went on a rampage in a Sunni district.
  
• More civilians were killed in October than in any other previous month.
  

Did the U.S. troops do anything whatsoever to prevent these atrocities? No they bloody didn’t!

Iraq’s prime minister Nuri Al-Maliki is a dead duck, just like Bush. The two want to meet in Jordan, but Moqtada al-Sadr has warned he will pull his representatives out of the government if al-Maliki meets Bush. The Iraqi PM is equally doomed if he doesn’t meet Bush, because he will be seen as capitulating to al-Sadr. Which means the Iraqi government, which only ruled over the Green Zone anyway under the watchful eye of the U.S. military, is finished.

Step One to a solution: Yankees Go Home! 

The Dutch puzzle

Forming a new Dutch coalition will be a hard nut to crack. Our Northern neighbors held parliamentary elections yesterday. Many party heads will be signing the Beatles tune: “Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away…”. Because now they’re in trouble. Thanks to the Dutch voters.

The reigning coalition of CDA and VVD lost. The voters clearly want something else. While VVD is out, CDA lost three seats, but is still the largest party in the Netherlands.

Did the opposition win? Not the largest opposition party, the PvdA, which lost ten seats, but remains Holland’s second largest party.

The SP won big, but will probably not be included in a new coalition government. The most obvious coalition is CDA+PvdA+ChristenUnie. That’s two losers plus one (small) winner. Great democracy!

Admittedly, the Dutch voters are not afraid to send signals. The Lijst Pim Fortuyn (LPF), which won big just a few years ago, failed to get even a single seat.

Ten parties got seats in parliament, from the left GroenLinks, to the fascist Partij voor de Vrijheid (PvdV) and of course two seats for the Party for the Animals. The left/right balance tilts slightly to the right, but essentially the electorate is roughly split in two, like in Germany, France and many other countries. Or the U.S., although the differences between Republicans and Democrats are minor.

Elections will only lead to small adjustments, because the electorate itself is split. Which means the voters don’t give a clear signal, and ‘the-powers-that-be’ do as they please. That’s not very different from China, so why do Western politicians always complain that China is not ‘democratic’?

On second thoughts, considering the dog slaughter going on in China, the country would be better off having a Party for the Animals… Here we go, two seats in the National People’s Congress! 

The debacle at VW Vorst

Another social drama unfolds in Flanders. The car plant of Volkswagen in Vorst is doomed. Three to four thousand employees will lose their jobs, thousands more working for suppliers of VW will also become unemployed.

The management of VW clearly doesn’t know how to manage. In China they ‘managed’ to lose market share in a big way, from around 50% a few years ago to 18% today. VW is a loser.

So what can the hapless employees do? Well, find a dynamic car manufacturer to take over the factory. Where do you find them? In China! Chery, Geely, FAW, SAIC, they all want to expand beyond the Chinese border. Sure, manufacturing is cheaper in China than in Europe, but they all want to conquer the European (and American) market. They can’t do that by only exporting. They will want to produce in Europe.

Flemish politicians, workers of VW Vorst, get on the Hainan Airlines red-eye flight to Beijing and start talking to the car manufacturers of the future. And damn the Germans! 

The Sun’s fuel

An agreement was signed today at the Elysee Palace in Paris by representatives of more than 30 countries, including those of the U.S., the E.U., China, Russia, India, Japan and South Korea, to build an experimental nuclear fusion reactor at Cadarache, close to Marseille.

Scientists will try to duplicate the work of the Sun on Earth. If successful, within 30 years or so, the process could provide clean and limitless energy, making the burning of oil and gas almost superfluous. Nuclear fusion releases energy 10 million times greater than the burning of fossil fuel. Now that’s something that will reshape the Middle East. On the other hand, by then all the oil in the world might already have been used up.

The promises of nuclear fusion are great but so are the challenges. Ways will have to be found to heat gas to temperatures exceeding 100 million degrees Celsius.

The Greens are skeptical that it will work and would like to spend the money on proven technologies. But it’s better to think long term and try out new technologies and then evaluate whether they are feasible. The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) will initially cost €10 billion. That’s indeed a lot of money, but it’s better to spend it on new technologies than to throw it down the drain in the criminal and futile occupation and so-called ‘reconstruction’ of Iraq.

An important step has been taken today and China is taking part in the experiment. Let’s hope it will work out. It will at least stop the fight over oil reserves… 

Kissinger has spoken

CNN’s QuickVote today asks the question “Do you agree with former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger that a U.S. victory in Iraq is no longer possible?”

The only sensible answer is “Yes, of course”. However, it was never, ever possible for the U.S. to win in Iraq. Rumsfeld & Co of course messed up in a big way, but even if they had done everything “right”, victory for the U.S. would also not have been possible. Because occupation forces can never win, no matter how much “good” they do (and usually they do a lot of bad).

So what about the Allied occupation of Germany and Japan following World War II? Well, that’s different because the fascist regimes of those countries invaded other countries, they were the occupiers in the first place.

Kissinger has only said the obvious and that doesn’t make him clever. He should have said this before the U.S. invaded Iraq… Which of course he didn’t. In 2005 he wrote that victory over the insurgency would be the only meaningful exit strategy. Which of course means a permanently blocked exit until being thrown out by the same insurgency.

But maybe his latest pronouncement will convince a few Republicans that it’s time to cut and run. 

Sloppy Old China Hand

Colleague Jasper Becker of course has plenty of British flair. He gained himself a certain international acclaim with books such as “The Chinese” and “Hungry Ghosts”. I just finished reading his latest book “Dragon Rising” published by the National Geographic Society.

Becker of course is entitled to his opinion, although I profoundly disagree with what he has written in his previously published books. As a ‘veteran’ correspondent having spent 14 years in China one would have expected him to write a summary of China in 2006 for a coffee-table book such the National Geographic had in mind.

It was not to be. Becker sprinkles his latest book with anti-China rhetoric which of course doesn’t need to be substantiated such as writing that China is a militaristic country. Well now, are British troops occupying Iraq or are they Chinese?

Anyway, what is really hard to understand is that there are so many factual mistakes in Beckers’ ‘Dragon Rising’.

• Taiyuan, the capital of ShAAnxi Province?
  
• Mao’s body embalmed in his mausoleum on Tian’anmen Square BEFORE the arrest of the Gang of Four?
  
• A massacre having taken place ON Tian’anmen Square?
  
• The tallest building in Beijing in 1980 had only SIX floors?
  
• China having MORE poor people than Africa?
  
• Establishment of a Shanghai Municipal People’s COMMUNE in May 1949?
  
• China amassing large foreign exchange reserves by … running huge trade DEFICITS?
• GUANGDONG province being better known in English as Canton?
  

The list of blunders is too long for this blog. Becker messed up, luckily it’s only a book. Bush and Blair messed up a whole country…

Claiming to be an Old China Hand and then messing things up so thoroughly equals misleading the readers who turn to the book hoping to gain some knowledge. 

Succeed or quit?

Iraq is America’s second Vietnam. Only an utterly, incomprehensibly stupid and irreparably brain damaged idiot could possibly apply the following ‘lesson’ from the Vietnam war to the Iraq war: “We’ll succeed unless we quit”. So he’ll “stay the course” - of failure.

So does brain-damaged George W. really thinks the U.S. could have won the Vietnam war by not quitting? Idiocy truly knows no bounds.

Like there is the law of gravity (Newton) and the law of relativity (Einstein), there is the law of imperialism (Mao).

“Make trouble, fail, make trouble again, fail again … until their doom – that is the logic of the imperialists and all reactionaries the world over in dealing with the people’s cause and they will never go against this logic. This is a Marxist law. […] Fight, fail, fight again, fail again, fight again … until their victory; that is the logic of the people, and they too will never go against this logic. This is another Marxist law.” (Quotations from Chairman Mao, Chapter 5: War and Peace, quotation 96).

In Iraq, unlike Vietnam, defeat is not an option for the United States, Bush rambles on. As if it was an option before it was forced on the Americans by the Vietnamese people? As sure as it surely will be in the future by the Iraqi people.

Lyndon Johnson ousted his defense secretary, so did Bush. Johnson conducted a rethinking of strategy, so is Bush. Of course there are also differences between the U.S. occupations of Vietnam and Iraq. But that will not prevent the Iraqi people – Sunni’s, Shia’s and Kurds – from driving out the occupiers and ultimately claiming final victory. Defeat will be the only option left to the U.S.

Even sitting together with the Vietnamese president under a giant bust of Chairman Ho Chi-minh, Bush cannot go against the logic of imperialism.

The people fighting the occupation will never quit and they will always succeed in the end. 

5-star fly in the soup

A Hong Kong gentleman named Holman Lau got pretty upset three months ago when he discovered a fly in his bowl of Vietnam beef soup noodles, the South China Morning Post reports today.

The incident happened at the 5-star China Hotel in Guangzhou. A 5-star fly is still a fly of course. Mr Lau demanded an apology from hotel staff and compensation of any medical costs should the-fly-in-the-soup make him ill.

The problem is restaurant waiters have seen these kind of incidents all too often. Who knows? Maybe some crooks are running around with a packet of death flies in their pockets to drop them in the soup and claim compensation? That also happens…

Anyway, Lau go not apology, took a picture of the offending soup with his mobile and went to court claiming 3,466 yuan in compensation. But the court of first instance only granted him 88 yuan because he missed his bus back to Hong Kong following the incident. Still the hotel didn’t pay up and didn’t apologize.

Come back soon for episode two at the Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court. 

Bush ‘doing a Nixon’?

On October 8 I already asked the question in this blog whether Japan’s Shinzo Abe would ‘do a Nixon’, drastically improving relations with China.

Now some in the U.S. are really contemplating doing a Nixon. In 1972 Nixon made a bold move, a trip to Beijing and a meeting with Chairman Mao. From an American perspective he played the Chinese card against the Soviets. And opened the way for the restoration of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and China.

Some in the U.S. are now contemplating to play the Iranian card against the Salafists (that’s Saudi Arabia and Al Qaeda, although neither of them likes to be put in the same category).

Iraq is a mess and the Iranian Mullahs may very well have an couple of ideas to sort things out. Time for the U.S. to make up with Iran? Perhaps. Nixon of course was a gangster and a war criminal, but at least one with a little bit of vision. Bush is a gangster and a war criminal without the slightest bit of world vision. It is very unlikely he will take a bold step and visit Teheran.

Nixon did many things wrong but a least got himself in the history books with one clever move. Bush on the other hand is incapable of doing anything worth remembering in a positive way. 

Put Rummy in the dock

Traveling around the world may not be such a good idea for ex U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Especially not in what he deridingly called ‘old Europe’. Twelve ex-detainees filed a suit against Rumsfeld in Karlsruhe. The alleged offense: war crimes. The ex-detainees and their lawyers will try to prove that Rumsfeld approved what amounts to torture in the prisons of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. Also ex-brigadier general Janis Karpinski (now a mere colonel after being demoted) is willing to testify. She headed the American military police in Iraq when the torture took place.

There are doubts whether Germany will dare to go ahead with the case. The judiciary will not be allowed to decide independently. The separation of powers will go down the drain. Frau Merkel wants to improve relations with Washington. Bringing a former Secretary of Defense to justice is not going to help.

But Rummy will still have to watch out where he puts his blood-stained boots, never to be sure whether when or where he might be arrested as a lowly criminal. A Chinese saying comes to mind: A rat is crossing the street and everybody is yelling “Beat it!”.

Transformed from a Defense Secretary into a rat, it only took a day or two… 

Iraq: if you broke it, fix it!

Lord Blair of Kut al-Amara (as journalist Robert Fisk uses to call him) wants to open talks with Iran and Syria to find a solution for the Iraq mess. Bush and Blair ‘broke’ Iraq by their reckless and illegal invasion. Now it’s a bloody mess and they don’t know how to fix it.

The U.S. and its British dogs should get out of Iraq and let the Iraqi people and the peoples of the neighboring countries solve the problems on their own. They are certainly capable of doing that without foreign interference.

So Blair wants Iran and Syria to help. What makes him think that if those two countries would be so inclined, they would find a solution that would satisfy the American and British occupiers? Because of course that’s what Blair wants. Does he believe that the leaders of Iran and Iraq are fools? Perhaps they will indeed lend a helping hand to drag Iraq out of the mess, but the solution certainly won’t please Blair. 

Gone to the dogs

China is struggling with a doggy problem. The number of pet dogs in China’s big cities has increased dramatically in the past couple of years. In the past, Chinese citizens couldn’t raise dogs. It was illegal, or ‘not done’ which in the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution was about the same thing. Now it is legal so everybody and his dog wants to have… a dog. In Beijing there are now 550,000 dogs.

It is actually a rather good thing, because in that way people learn to care for animals, a social skill which was has been sorely lacking in China in the past.

According to the doggy rules and regulations, you are supposed to register your dog with public security bureaus, pay a one-time registration fee and subsequently a yearly administration fee. Having done that, you also have to have your dog vaccinated.

That’s the theory. Most people don’t bother to register their dog because it is a hassle to take your dog to the PSB, and it costs money to pay the fees. And so people also don’t vaccinate their dog.

Only 3% of dogs in China are vaccinated. The result is that the number of rabies cases is also rising. In the first half of 2006 more than 1,100 people died of a rabies infection. In September alone the death toll was 318. This of course is a legitimate problem that needs to be solved.

But China has a first-world problem (the rising dog population) and is using a third-world method (clubbing them to death) to solve it. That’s not very nice.

Big dogs, ferocious dogs and second dogs are now banned in Beijing. Following the one child policy, there is now a one dog policy. Only one dog per household is allowed.

The solution is to abolish dog registration and the fees that go with it. People don’t bother anyway. But tell people it is absolutely mandatory to have their dogs vaccinated. For the health of the dogs, the dogs’ owners and other people. To help things along, make vaccination free and give out a vaccination certificate to prove that the dog is vaccinated. Then let the police patrol the streets and check the dogs. If they are not vaccinated, take them away from their owners. That way people will learn fast and all the doggies will be happy. 

Another ignominious veto

John Bolton, the U.S. ambassador at the UN, is on the way out. With a Democrat majority in Congress there is no way he is going to get confirmed once his recess appointment expires at the end of the year. Even some Republicans now admit he is the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time.

But before leaving the Security Council with his tail between his legs, he had to raise his dirty hand again to veto a UN resolution condemning the massacre of 19 Palestinians at Beit Hanoun by the Israeli Zionists.

According to Bolton the resolution was “unbalanced and politically motivated”. What about the resolution condemning North Korea’s nuclear test? Wasn’t it also “unbalanced and politically motivated”?

Following the September 11 attacks, Bush said he would make no distinction between the terrorists and those who harbor them. The Palestinians are equally entitled to make no distinction between the Zionists murdering their women and children and the U.S. backing them all the way.

The U.S. gave the green light to the Zionists to perpetrate more massacres. Can anyone blame the Palestinians if they plan to hit American targets? By its despicable foreign policy the U.S. is raising and nurturing what it prefers to call ‘terrorists’ every day, every hour, every minute. 

Abolish the borders

The crime of people trafficking only exists because there are borders. Borders between countries through which money and capital flows nearly unimpeded. But borders remain a serious barrier to the free travel of people.

Since Hainan Airlines inaugurated a direct flight between Beijing and Brussels, the number of visa applications at the Belgian embassy has multiplied. More and more Chinese want to travel to Belgium and the surrounding European countries for tourism. But there are also a substantial number of fake visa applications. Students who pretend to go to study in Belgium, businesspeople who pretend to travel on business to Belgium. Once touched down on the tarmac at Brussels Airport, they disappear. Illegal immigrants paying snakeheads a fortune to cross borders.

The one and only true solution to the problem is very simple. Abolish the borders, let people travel freely. This will not lead to a tsunami of poor people flooding the rich countries. Once there were fears that poor farmers from the South of Italy would flood Brussels. Well, where are they? They can travel freely to Brussels or any place in the EU. Polish people came, saw and many of them still prefer to return to their own country.

Give people the freedom to travel. Abolish visas and give the visa officers an extended holiday in the sun. 

White smoke rising

Yes, white smoke is rising from a chimney in Beijing, but it doesn’t signal the election of a new Pope. It means the central heating system started working again.

The past forthnight it was rather could inside. In Beijing there is a big temperature difference between noontime (+15°) and nighttime (-4°). With no heating, it gets pretty cold at night. But the chimney at the power plant close by started spewing white smoke again and the heating elements in every room slowly started giving off warmth. The temperature inside has risen from 18 to 22 degrees.

Sunshine also helps. The rooms in our apartment catch a lot of sunshine, helping to dispel the cold. The heating will be on until mid-March. Then we’ll experience another cold fortnight before the outside temperature rises quickly to make us turn on the airco. 

The Nazi Zionists

Israeli tank shells killed 18 Palestinian civilians sleeping in their houses, all belonging to the same family, most of them women and children. Another massacre perpetrated by the Nazi Zionists. On the day of the U.S. mid-term elections so it wouldn’t appear on the front pages.

Olmert said “sorry”. If Hitler would have apologized for the Holocaust, would that have settled the matter?

In the Holocaust 6.1 million Jews were murdered by the German Nazis. The Israeli Nazis have still some way to go before they reach 6.1 million murdered Palestinians. But they are doing everything they can to speed things up. Israeli Vice-Premier Liberman wants to expel all Arabs from Greater Israel to create more Lebensraum. What’s the difference from the Nazis expelling the Jews? The Nazis put the Jews in the gas chambers. The Israelis put the Palestinians in the open air prisons of Gaza and the West Bank to be bombed and starved to death. It is a crime to deny the Holocaust of the Jews, but presidents and prime ministers in the West continue to deny the Holocaust of the Palestinians.

Before some sick mind accuses me of being anti-Jew, let there be no mistake. Some Jews are Zionists like some Germans were (or still are) Nazis. Being anti-Nazi doesn’t make you anti-German and being anti-Zionist doesn’t make you anti-Jew. In fact the most observant, Ultra-Orthodox Jews, are as much against Zionism as Hamas or Hizbollah.

Zionism = Nazism. It should disappear from the face of the earth. And the Zionist state of Israel should be expelled from the United Nations and the community of civilized nations. Only then will Jews, Palestinians, Christians and everybody else be able to live in peace in the Holy Land. 

Impeach Bush!

Bush lied again. He said the Republicans would win. They didn’t. The Democrats won the House and most probably the Senate also. And bingo! Everybody is crying out loud for bipartisanship. Did Bush ever want to work together with the Democrats when he didn’t need them? Of course not.

The Democrats on the other hand are as spineless as melted butter. Now that they have the majority in Congress, why don’t they vote to impeach Bush? The Republicans tried to impeach Clinton for misplacing his cigars (and lying under oath, but Bush is lying every time all the time and never even takes an oath). The Democrats still don’t have the necessary majority to impeach Bush, but the attempt itself could split the Republicans. Because they all want to remain in power, and the further they distance themselves from Bush the better. The majority of Americans is sick of their Commander-in-Chief.

Impeach Bush. That’ll make Cheney president… Well then, impeach Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice and drive this bunch of war criminals out of Washington. Then bring them to justice at the International Court.

The Democrats could set the ball rolling. But they won’t. They are a lump of melting butter. 

Something to Crow about

I have recommended Carl Crow’s book “400 Million Customers” to many of my friends. It is an extraordinary book about doing business in China, written in 1937 and still relevant today. It is certainly in my personal Books Top 20.

British author Paul French has written a book about Carl Crow and presented it tonight at Beijing’s The Bookworm. Paul is a gifted and witty speaker. He introduced his research on Crow, how he found out about the existence of the Crow Archives at the University of Missouri and about trying to invent a possible excuse to justify a trip to Missouri. Until a casual acquaintance planned a trip to Missouri anyway and copied valuable material for Paul French.

What I didn’t know was that “400 Million Customers” is the most widely read book on China, translated in several languages. It was reprinted in 2003 and is still available at Amazon. When I read it two years ago, I didn’t know it was such a famous book, but felt it was indeed remarkable.

Now I can’t wait to read Paul French’s book “Carl Crow – A Tough Old China Hand”. If French’s writing is as good as his talking, it’s going to be a hell-of-a-read. 

What a difference!

There are now 100 million websites, up from 18,000 in August 1995, a phenomenal growth in just 11 years time.

It is almost impossible to remember the pre-Web days. When you had to go to the hotel lobby shop to get a newspaper. When you had to go to a bookshop to buy books and for books on China you had to go to Hong Kong. When you had to pay for international long-distance calls. When you couldn’t google anybody. When nobody knew what a blog was. When you had to buy your PC operating system in a carton box. When you had to write letters to mom.

All this changed in 1995. I still remember that August clearly. I believe it was on the 25th. Three breakthroughs in one day! I installed Windows 95 on my PC (yes, those were the days before I broke all my Windows). I bought my first laser printer, an HP Laserjet 4L. He’s getting old, but is still in working order. We brought him to Zhongguancun yesterday for a clean-up. I hope I can still use him a few more years. And yes on that day in August 1995 for the first time I connected my PC to the Internet. It was memorable day.

Today I read De Standaard and De Tijd online before people in Belgium even get out of bed. In fact, I can peruse almost all the newspapers of the world sitting in my home-office. I have convenient access to the biggest bookshop in the world, Amazon.com, where I have ordered hundreds of books in the past decade. Calls to Belgium are much cheaper through VOIP or Skype. With Google and Wikipedia I have a whole treasure trove of information at my fingertips. I have started my own website and blog. And I am a proud user of Linux (after breaking all my Windows). I downloaded my current operating system, Linspire 5.1 through the Internet. I can play around with hundreds of other versions of Linux. Maybe I’ll give Mandriva 2007 a try. No need to run to the store. I can just download it. Writing letters to mom is history, we exchange e-mails. In fact all my work as a China correspondent in the past 8 years has been delivered by e-mail.

Yes, indeed, what a difference 11 years make. 

The killer deserves death

“The killer deserves to be killed,” shouted Shia protesters in Baghdad’s Sadr City, in Najaf, in Dujail and other Iraqi cities. In Saddam’s hometown of Tikrit, thousands of Sunni demonstrators defied a military curfew to protest against the verdict. Saddam’s lawyer, former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, called the trial a travesty.

Saddam Hussein was convicted to die by hanging for a single crime, the order to execute 148 people of Dujail in 1982 after a bungled assassination attempt organized by the current Iraqi president’s party. For the relatives of the 148, justice has been served. Millions of others are still waiting.

Yes, Saddam is guilty of horrible crimes, much more terrible crimes than the one for which he was sentenced to die today in Baghdad. He is guilty of a war of aggression against Iran, started in 1980, which lasted eight years, longer than the first and second World Wars. More than a million innocent Iranians and Iraqis died in that war. But of course, the U.S. supported him in his war against the Iranian Mullahs. He is guilty of gassing Kurdian villages, killing thousands, but of course the U.S. kept silent then. He is guilty of launching the invasion of Kuwait, which the U.S. could not tolerate because it endangered oil supplies. That marked the beginning of the end for Saddam.

Those crimes are much worse than the one he was convicted for today. He should have been brought to justice at the International Criminal Court for invading Iran and Kuwait, not toppled by an illegal U.S. invasion and sentenced by a kangaroo court.

British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett commented: “Appalling crimes were committed by Saddam Hussein’s regime. It is right that those accused of such crimes against the Iraqi people should face Iraqi justice.”

Er, yes. When will Blair face British justice?

U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad hailed the verdict: “A former dictator feared by millions […] has been brought to trial in his own country – held accountable in a court of law with ordinary citizens bearing witness.”

Er, yes. When will Bush be held accountable in an American court of law?

Bush and Blair are guilty of killing 650,000 Iraqis. If they don’t get out of Iraq on the double, they may very well gain the same status as Saddam. Will they face the same verdict?

Millions are still waiting, for Bush, Blair and Saddam to be brought to justice for their most heinous crimes.

In his final, shouted statement to the court, Saddam, however, summed it up: “Long live the people and death to their enemies”, or maybe it was “Don’t push me, boy”? 

The U.S. embassy siege

Today, 27 years ago, on November 4, 1979, three Iranian students, Ibrahim Asgharzadeh, Mohsen Mirdamadi and Habibollah Bitaraf suggested to take over the United States embassy in Teheran for two days as a protest against U.S. support for the Shah. The take-over however got out of control and poisoned U.S.-Iranian relations for the next quarter century. A botched attempt to free the American diplomats cost President Jimmy Carter his reelection and put Ronald Reagan in the White House.

The current Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad suggested attacking the Russian Embassy instead because he believed the Soviet-Union to be a bigger threat.

27 years later relations between the two countries are still deteriorating. War-President Bush would love to launch a war against Iran to topple the second domino of his ‘Axis-of-Evil’.

On October 30, the United States led military maneuvers involving 25 nations in the Persian Gulf. Iran responded by test-firing three long-range missiles.

If the Republicans lose next Tuesday, as they most surely will, Bush, like a wounded animal, might lash out again. 

Bush: a danger to peace

An opinion poll commissioned by The Guardian shows the British believe George W. Bush is a more dangerous man than the president of Iran (62% think he is a danger), the North Korean leader (69%) and the leader of Hizbullah (65%). Osama bin Laden tops the list with 87%. Only 10% of British voters think that Bush poses no danger at all. 71% of British voters say the invasion of Iraq was unjustified.

The British are supposed to be the Americans’ best allies. If 75% believe Bush is a danger to world peace, even a larger share of peoples in other countries will agree. His only true friends are American Christian fundamentalists and Israeli Zionists.

Meanwhile the U.S. government has shut down the “Operation Iraqi Freedom Document Portal” website because it offered info on how to build a atom bomb. Republicans hoped to use the site to find new evidence of the so-called dangers posed by former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s weapons program.

Great! Iran and North Korea face sanctions because of nuclear proliferation, while the U.S. government puts an atomic bomb ‘cook book’ online. The U.S. doesn’t care about nuclear proliferation because its has a tremendous superiority in nuclear weapons. It uses the topic to beat countries it doesn’t like. 

Out of Africa

No less than 40 African heads of state from Algeria’s Bouteflika to Zimbabwe’s Mugabe are gathering in Beijing for the Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). Major roads in the center of Beijing have been blocked to non-summit related traffic. 490,000 government cars and 250,000 private cars are staying off the roads to improve traffic flow for the summit delegates.

The Summit is the largest international conference organized since the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949. More pump than substance, the summit nevertheless cements Sino-African friendship and South-South cooperation. Trade and investment relations will be further strengthened.

The summit concludes on Sunday and Beijing’s traffic will return to normal: traffic jams. 

Study hard or else...

U.S. Senator John Kerry told a group of college students they could either study hard in school or “get stuck in Iraq.” Sounds sensible advise to me. Since the draft was abolished in the U.S. many men and women born in poor families end up in the military because it’s about the only place where they can get a job and earn a living. Then they get send to Iraq and either get stuck there or return maimed or worse, in a body bag. Study well and you may avoid this bloody fate.

Well, what had Bush and his fellow war-criminal Republicans to say about this? “We should agree that every one of our troops deserves our gratitude and respect.” Oh yeah? What for? For invading a sovereign country based on blatant lies? A country without WMD, with no links to Al Qaeda and which would have been better off in 2006 under the presidency of Saddam the Butcher?

82,029 people voted in the CNN Quick Vote as I write these lines. 57% say John Kerry should not apologize for his remarks. The Republicans believe they can use Kerry’s remarks to turn the tide, which is going against them. They are wrong.

Suppose for a minute that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro or Kim Jong Il decide to send their troops to invade the U.S. because they rightly believe the U.S. people would be better off without Bush. Should their troops then “deserve our gratitude and respect”. Well, no they don’t, because invading another country cannot be justified and they would be guilty of the crime of aggression.

That’s exactly the crime the U.S. military is guilty off. The only thing they deserve is to be brought to justice as guilty of the crime of aggression, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Starting with the Commander-in-Chief.