Stock market gurus

The Shanghai stock index fell 8.8% yesterday, the biggest fall in a decade. Stock markets around the world followed suit and of course stock market gurus immediately disgorged nonsense in newspapers and on TV shows.

The Chinese economy was on the verge of collapse,... the growth miracle was coming to an end...

All those stock market gurus forgot a simple fact: the Chinese New Year holiday was over, every Chinese had spent much too much and those owning shares sold a few to put some cash in their wallets. It's as simple as that. If millions of Chinese do that around the same time, stock prices are going to drop a bit. Nothing to get worried about. They will rise again after the next paycheck when investors again have some cash to invest. because they still believe share prices will rise and they will be able to earn a buck.

Stock markets around the world fell, because the gurus forgot the Year of the Pig had arrived. It's common sense, stupid!

To deauthorize

The damn word isn't in the dictionary or my spell checker, because it's pure nonsense. The Democrats in the U.S. Congress now want to deauthorize Bush form attacking Iraq to wash away the shame of voting for the 2002 war resolution. (The Washington Post: Deauthorizing Iraq)

If they really want to “deauthorize” anything they could start with launching impeachment procedures against Bush the war criminal and send him off on Air Force One with a one-way ticket to the International Tribunal in The Hague. But of course they are doing nothing of the sort. They are only trying to attach some meaningless “deauthorization” attachment to some meaningless law.

Anyone who voted for the aggression against Iraq should be disqualified from running for president, including Joseph Biden, Christopher Dodd and Hillary Clinton. We've had enough of the Bush Dynasty, a continuation of the Clinton Dynasty should be equally discarded. What's more, all those so called peace loving Democrats who want to deauthorize Bush from invading Iraq are all to eager to authorize him to bomb Iran to help there Zionist friends in Tel Aviv.

Can deauthorizing Bush bring back the 700,000 Iraqis he has murdered. Or prevent a mushroom cloud above the nuclear reactor of Busher in Iran?

The Democrats are playing games to absolve themselves of supporting Bush. They are guilty of being accessories to war crimes and crimes against humanity. Hillary Clinton should be in the dock in The Hague together with Bush.

Dance of the scorpions

Iran has reiterated it won't scale back its nuclear program, because it rightly considers it has the right under international law to the enrichment of uranium. The nuclear program is a train without a brake, said Iranian president Ahmadinejad.

The Big Powers on the other hand are determined to push for more stringent sanctions to be imposed by the U.N. Security Council.

While Iran proposed negotiations with the U.S. without prior conditions, the Bush administration is still steaming full speed ahead for military action. Everybody and his dog thinks it would be utterly stupid and disastrous to attack Iran and still the neocons and the Zionists are heading straight for the precipice. A couple of American generals and admirals even threatened to resign if Bush orders an attack on Iran. And still the telltale signs of the impending catastrophe are becoming ever more clear.

Imperialism can only lift a rock to drop it on its own foot.

China, Russia and the European countries seem powerless to stop the U.S. war machine. It will be stopped in its tracks by the peoples of the Middle East, Sunni and Shia united against American imperialism. The coming cataclysm will devastate the Middle East, but it may also ring the dead knell for an ever more extended U.S., unable to deliver enough soldiers, cruise missiles and bunker busters to fuel its ravenous appetite for destruction.

Back to work

The week-long Spring Festival holiday is coming to an end today, but there is still a lot less traffic on Beijing's streets than usual. Most migrants take an extended holiday and many Beijingers are still recuperating from a week of partying.

But politics and business will pick up very soon as Chinese New Year fell rather late this year and the meetings of the National People's Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Congress (CPPCC) are coming up next week.

For the first time journalists could apply for accreditation on line but filling out a nifty Excel spreadsheet. We will still have to go to the press center to get our badge, but at least the online procedure saved us one time-consuming trip across town.

All press conferences, meetings and activities will also be announced at the websites of the NPC and CPPCC, whereas previously you had to go to the press center to read the notices pinned on the blackboard. Even the government bureaucracy is now actively using the Internet.

All options

U.S. vice president Dick Cheney has reiterated that “all options” remain on the table if Iran continues to refuse to abandon its nuclear programs. (CNN: Cheney: All options open for Iran) This is nuclear blackmail. Everybody knows the ultimate option on the table is the use of nuclear weapons. This option should not be on the table. In fact, using nuclear weapons is against international law, because its use would inevitably result in massive casualties among the civilian population and severe pollution of the environment with deadly radiation.

Almost everybody is affirming that a U.S. attack on Iran (with or without nuclear weapons) would be a catastrophe and because of this assessment, many people are convinced it will never happen. This is a very dangerous attitude. The Bush administration is without the slightest doubt capable of committing the most outrageous war crimes. And yes, they are stupid enough to do it. Nobody should just sit back and relax while the war mongers in the White House and the Pentagon are preparing to attack Iran.

The U.S. is pushing for more severe sanctions on Iran after the passing of the U.N.-deadline to stop its enrichment activities. There are already two aircraft carrier battle groups in the region. It is easy for the U.S. to manufacture an “incident” to have a pretext to attack Iran.

Cheney criticized China for pursuing military policies at odds with its ambition of a peaceful rise. This accusation is fundamentally dishonest. The U.S. military spending is higher than the combined total of all other countries and the U.S. remains by far the biggest arms merchant. His vice president has no moral right to lecture other countries.

China, Russia and the E.U. should tell Bush and Cheney that if the U.S. attacks Iran, the U.S. would be thrown out of the United Nations, diplomatic relations cut, its bases closed and troops expelled and the property of American companies abroad confiscated.

It is still not too late to stop Bush, but it is time to send a clear signal to the U.S. administration, to Congress and to the American people: Stop this madness, or face severe consequences.

A brave grandmother

Dr Gao Yaojie (79) will finally be allowed to travel to the United States to receive the 2007 Vital Voices Global Women's Leadership Award for Human Rights prize. In the past decade, Dr Gao has waged a brave struggle to expose the immoral blood selling activities in Henan province. Ten of thousands of poor people were infected when they sold blood for money at illegal blood donation stations backed by local authorities.

The central government is aware of the dangers of a further spreading of Aids. It has recently taken many commendable initiatives to combat the epidemic. In an article in The Lancet, Roger Detels of the University of California (UCLA) has highly praised the Chinese government.

But provincial and local governments on the other hand continue to harass anybody who could shed a negative light on their shameful activities. Dr Gao was kept under virtual house arrest at her home in Zhengzhou for 20 days to prevent her to travel to Beijing to apply for a U.S. visa. Her family members were put under pressure to persuade her to pretend to be sick to have an excuse not to travel to the U.S. Her reply: “I cannot lie to the whole world”. Even if George W. Bush would send her a “How to” she would refuse to use it.

Dr Gao was only let go after a direct order from Beijing, but nobody was allowed to accompany her to help her with her luggage.

The intervention from the central government is commendable, but those who put pressure on her in Henan should be severely punished. Those involved in the blood sale scandal should also be brought to justice. All this cannot be just left to the provincial government. The Supreme Procuratorate should sent a team to Zhengzhou to end this lawlessness.

Anti-Americanism rising

Immediately after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, there was widespread sympathy for the U.S. because many innocent people lost their lives. The U.S. even received condolences from its enemies such as Iran and North Korea. Today, anti-American feelings are on the rise all over the world and especially in the Middle East. The attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq have led to the loss of many more innocent lives than the 911 attacks.

The root cause of this rising anti-Americanism is not a violent religion or ideology. It is caused by the actions of the U.S. government. If Saudi Arabia would be a democracy, it wouldn't be a U.S. ally: 79% of the people have an “unfavorable” view of the U.S., according to a Gallup survey. (The Times: Anti-American feelings soar among Muslims, study finds)

The West is not going to know it is winning the war on terror “when the Islamic world rejects radicalism”. The study found out that there is no significant difference in religiosity between moderates and radicals and moreover that radicals earned more and studied longer than moderates.

Opposition against the U.S. is not fueled by radical Islam, but by the injustice of occupation: the occupation of Afghanistan by NATO troops, the occupation of Iraq by American and British troops, the occupation of Palestine by Israeli troops and it will be further fueled by the upcoming occupation of Iran by American troops. If the U.S. would close down all its bases abroad and call all its troops back, anti-American feelings and terrorism would melt away like an ice cream in the blazing sun.

A historic handshake

Exactly 35 years ago today, the then U.S. president Richard Nixon stepped of the plane at Beijing's Capital Airport and was greeted by Chinese premier Zhou Enlai. Later that day he had a meeting with Chairman Mao. The visit and the handshakes had a profound influence on the world. Gradually, hostility between China and the U.S. was replaced by diplomacy and cooperation in some areas.

Remaining differences and disagreements since that historic handshake did not lead to a situation of confrontation that could result in war between the two countries.

Without the personal intervention of Mao and Nixon in the run-up to the 1972 meeting, this would not have been possible. In China, there was a hostile mood towards the U.S. because of the Vietnam war. Except Mao, anybody trying to work for better relations with the U.S. would have been accused of being a agent of U.S. imperialism. In the U.S., anybody trying to open the door to China would have been accused of being a communist sympathizer. In fact, Nixon prepared his trip without informing many people in his own administration or Congress.

A quarter century after the events, a new book by Margaret MacMillan “Nixon and Mao: The Week That Changed the World”, may finally provide some more details on this historic trip and maybe inspire statesmen today to take bold initiatives.

Reaching the bottom

George W. Bush has finally reached his destination. He can sink no lower. Many have said it before: Bush is the worst president in U.S. history. The latest addition to the growing chorus is Al Neuharth, the founder of USA Today. (USA Today: Mea culpa to Bush on Presidents Day).

A year ago he doubted that Bush would ever make the top of his “worst presidents' list”, or put in another way, the bottom, the worst ever president of the U.S. of A. If not impeached, Bush still has two years to go and he already reached the bottom. On Presidents Day (yesterday, February 19 in the U.S.), Neuharth published a mea culpa for his declaration a year ago.

“Is he just a self-touted decider doing what he thinks right? Or is he an arrogant ruler who doesn't care or consider what the public or Congress believes best for the country?”, Neuharth asks himself.

Another bad president, Richard Nixon, resigned. Bush just sticks to the bottom.

Meanwhile, senate majority leader Harry Reid declared that the Iraq war was “the worst foreign policy mistake” in U.S. history. Now was it? It's tempting to say so, just to further rub salt in Bush's combat wounds. Still, it ain't so. First of all, let's not talk about “mistakes”. The invasion of Iraq was not a “mistake” but a war crime and a crime against humanity.

The biggest crime of the U.S. was its founding, in the process practically eradicating the native Indians. That surely counts as genocide. Second the dropping of atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. Third, the U.S. war on Communism, starting with the arming of Chiang Kai-shek, the invasion of Korea and including the Vietnam War. Fourth, its support for the Zionist regime in Israel. Its coming aggression against Iran should rank somewhere in between. And sixth, sure, the Iraq war.

Another example of a wrong question is whether prince Harry should “serve” in Iraq. Well of course he should, just like everybody else, is the first answer that comes to mind. Wrong! He is not “serving” anything at all, least of all his country. Second, if he goes, he will be committing a war crime. It's wrong to advocate the committing of war crimes. No, Harry should not “serve”. British troops should get out of Iraq.

Ten years after Deng

Ten years ago, former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping passed away. In December 1978, he made China change course. Again in February 1992 he pushed reform and opening up even further. The facts in figures are impressive, especially during the ten years since his death. GDP increased from USD4 trillion to USD10 trillion; exports rose from USD182 billion to USD953 billion and the number of city dwellers surged from 370 million to 550 million.

Deng brought China prosperity for some (those who got rich) and hopes of progress for the majority, including the migrants toiling away in sweatshops. But income inequality has risen to record proportions. Although the current Chinese leaders are aware of it and trying to do something about it by pursuing social-democrat policies, the run-away capitalist development of China makes it very difficult to get results.

And finally, Deng's policy and its effects ten years after his death proved Mao right. Deng Xiaoping was indeed a capitalist-roader hidden in the Chinese Communist Party. There can be no doubt about that. Yes, he put China on course to become a world power. For now, China is competing in a peaceful way. The PLA does not occupy even one square meter of foreign territory and has no bases in foreign countries. But if China develops further in a capitalist way, it will inevitably reach the highest stage of capitalism: imperialism. It is too early to write the definitive story on Deng's legacy.

The Year of the Pig!

Last night and early this morning, heavy machine gun fire could be heard all over Beijing, while anti-aircraft tracers lid up the sky. NOT. The sounds and light show was coming from the explosion of benign firecrackers. Well, actually they are not so innocent, because one man was killed in Beijing, two others had an eyeball removed and 270 people got wounded, while the setting off of firecrackers caused 249 fires.

For 12 years there was a ban on firecrackers in Beijing, which was only lifted last year. The police couldn't enforce it anyway. So the ban was rescinded, a good example of the pragmatic approach of China's leaders. According to folk belief, the noise of the firecrackers will scare away bad demons and ensure a good year.

The New Year period is also marked by travel chaos. The Chinese railways expect 156 million travelers on family visits. The traditional temple fairs are equally very crowded affairs, with millions of Beijingers expected to visit them during the holiday week. The year of the pig is supposed to be good for making babies, so expect a little bump in the population statistics.

To the readers of this blog: best wishes for a very happy and prosperous Year of the Pig!

Shadow plays

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a non-binding resolution, 246 in favor by 182 against, opposing Bush's plan to send more troops to Iraq. (CNN: House passes resolution rebuking the president on Iraq) It may very well be a signal that the majority of the representatives of the American people are against a disastrous aggression, but to think that the resolution “will end the fighting and bring our troops home”, as speaker Nancy Pelosi said, is preposterous. If that is indeed the purpose, why didn't Congress order the president to call the troops home immediately and start impeachment proceedings without any further delay?

And Bush, he was too busy even to watch the congressional proceedings on TV...

This resolution is just a game. The Democrats know the majority of the American people is against the war, so they have to do something, especially with the upcoming presidential elections in 2008. But without drastic action, the situation on the ground in Iraq will only deteriorate, the U.S. troops will kill more innocent Iraqi civilians and the number of Iraqi refugees will continue to grow.

Bush has to be stopped now or in a few months he will target Iran with his tactical nuclear weapons. Playing a game of shadows in Congress is useless.

Flight to nowhere

In the good ol' China days, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) used to be called “China Airlines Always Cancelled”. In those same old days, horror stories were the talk of the expats. Unexplained delays, cancellations, bad food, even worse service, were daily occurrences. In China at least things have improved and are still improving further. The CAAC monopoly has been broken up, several state-owned and private airlines compete to attract passengers with punctual departures, gourmet food prepared by Morel's (in the case of Hainan Airlines) and pretty smiling stewardesses.

The worst I experience myself was a three day delay in 1988 of a flight from Chengdu to Lhasa. The bad experience was compounded by the fact that the flight was supposed to leave at 7 a.m., requiring a 5 a.m wake up call at the Jinjiang Hotel. In those days you still had to validate your travel permit to Lhasa at the Chengdu airport security office. When my colleagues and I arrived at the airport, the flight had been canceled, so we returned to the Jinjiang Hotel to spend one more day in beautiful, sunny Chengdu.

The next day, same story, but this time we preferred to stay at the Chengdu Airport Hotel to avoid the commute into town. Stained bedsheets and leaking toilets awaited us. Third day, same thing, resulting in another night at the airport. The next day we had more luck. When I went to check in the departure hall, not expecting any activity, the check-in was open. But there were no seat numbers on our boarding cards. So I ran like a madman to be among the first on the plane to occupy the first empty seat available. Sure enough, a few minutes later the head stewardess looked around, determined that all seats had been taken and commanded the remaining passengers standing in the aisle off the plane to wait (who knows?) a few more days for the next flight.

Now lets fly to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport for an American horror story, datelined February 15, 2007. (CNN: Passengers trapped on runway for eight hours) Even in the old days, CAAC would have been hard pressed to let a planeload of passengers sit on the runway for 8 hours. The Chinese have been unfairly treated by all these expat horror stories. They also happen in the U.S. of A. And while China is constantly improving, that seems not to be the case on the other side of the Pacific.

It's a deal

Negotiators at the Six Party Talks finally reached a settlement. But putting things on paper is one thing, getting them implemented quite another. According to a Chinese diplomat, what the North Koreans want most is “money and respect”. (CNN: China diplomat: North Korea gets 'money and respect').

Money there is plenty of, more than USD300 million in aid, including 50,000 tons of heavy fuel, if North Korea shuts down its plutonium production facility and allows international monitors. Another 950,000 tons will follow if it disables the reactor and declares all its nuclear programs. It can keep the atom bombs it has produced so far.

The first question is whether the North Koreans will ever get anything. In the 1994 Agreed Framework, they were promised two light-water reactors which never materialized. Respect is something they are never going to get from the Bush administration. In fact, the Neocons, led by John Bolton, are already lambasting the agreement as giving in too much to the North Koreans and undermining the sanctions they had pushed through the U.N. Security Council four months ago.

The deal seems to have split the Neocons: Bush says it's good, Bolton says it's bad. Opponents of the deal are likely to create an incident, so the U.S. doesn't has to keep its side of the agreement.

The U.S. wants North Korea to give up its few nuclear bombs and shut down its nuclear reactor. Washington is prepared to play games to get what it wants. Pyongyang is happy to play along to try to retain as much as possible. So that's what it is: playing games. If the U.S. would be really serious in solving the problem, it would stop its hostile policy and establish diplomatic relations with Pyongyang. The deal could have been reached several years ago if Washington wanted it. Today the Bush administration still doesn't want it. But with preparations for a nuclear attack on Iran in full swing, Washington has to keep the North Koreans quiet for the time being.

Condoleezza Rice has said that the deal would not have been possible if they hadn't swung the Chinese over to the U.S. side. Now that is definitely a bad development.

Corruption is free...

Not in China of course, where you risk execution with a bullet in the back of the head. But in Belgium, if and when you are found out, you only have to pay the money back. After that, or even before that, you can start again. Maybe next time you will be more lucky and the police won't find out.

A couple of years ago, some Navy guys wrote invoices in advance so Navy credits could be used up before year's end. This is standard practice in many government departments, because if you don't use up all the money budgeted, you'll get less next year. Nobody wants that. Of course the money should still be used for acceptable purposes. But those guys credited the accounts of friendly contractors who refurbished their properties. They were even so nice to give prince Laurent 150,000 euro to brighten up his villa, who didn't ask how the money was obtained, or so he claims.

A court in Flanders convicted the men involved in the scam. Of course it didn't touch the prince. The top criminal received a jail sentence of three years, but only six months will be 'effective'. The former advisor of the prince, Noel Vaessen, got two and a half years, again only six months 'effective'. Since short jail sentences are not enforced, the men will not see the inside of a jail. They are only supposed to pay back the money. Also the prince will refund his share, although it is not clear where he will get the money for the refund, because he is perpetually short of pocket money.

Google Docs cooperation

Next week I am starting to write a book with a colleague in the Netherlands. The prospect of e-mailing numerous drafts back and forth isn't really appealing. Corrections and amendments will have to be made. This is difficult enough even if you can sit physically together over a couple of beers, let alone thousands of kilometers apart.

Enter Google Docs. During the past weekend I experimented a bit with the web-based software. It looks promising. Two or more people can work together on a document and changes will be immediately reflected. It's still a bit new, so there certainly will be a learning curve. The use of any new software program needs some practice. But Google Docs looks good. You don't even have to make those back-ups because the document resides on Google's servers.

If in the future more applications become web-based, this will be the end of software as we know it. Who will want to spend hundreds of euros for Microsoft Office? Even the free OpenOffice may become obsolete. Word processors of course do have more bells and whistles that Google Docs lacks. Then again, if you even can write a book in Google Docs, what more do you need? But as Mao used to say, if you want to know how a pear tastes, you have to take a bite.

Queue up, please!

With a little pushing and shoving, many Beijingers were made to queue up at bus and subway stops yesterday. Hundreds of volunteers at 345 of the thousands of bus-stops in Beijing tried to get everybody in line, hoping that by August next year, when Beijing organizes the Olympic Games, the bad habit of queue-jumping will have been replaced by an orderly line-up.

Starting yesterday, every month on the 11th, Beijing will have its Queuing Day. The 11th was chosen because “1-1” looks like two people lining up.

The bad habit of elbowing yourself to the front is a relic of a poor peasant society with too many people. It's a survival tactic which is no longer necessary. In the past, when many things were rationed, it was important to get ahead of everybody else or you could end up going home empty handed. But the spectacle of 20 people fighting to get on a bus with 30 seats is rather stupid.

It will still take some time before the civilized habit of lining up will become a natural behavior. Once the volunteers had left, the pushing and shoving started again. Luckily, there are still many queuing days before August 2008.

To vanish or not to vanish

... from the page of time, that's the question!

“This regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time,” is what Iranian president Ahmadinejad said, quoting Ayatollah Khomeini. He never said that Israel should be wiped off the map...

Today, the Islamic Republic of Iran celebrates the 1979 Revolution, when the people of Iran, under the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini, overthrew the dictatorship of the shah and delivered a devastating blow to U.S. hegemony in the Middle East.

The Islamic Republic celebrated successes and suffered defeats. Saddam's Iraq imposed a crippling 8-year war. The U.S. declared its hostility to the “regime of the Mullahs”. Still, Iran is a democracy, not a theocracy. Its democracy certainly has its limits. Candidates are scrutinized by the Islamic clergy and many are disqualified. Even so, the Iranian voters have a choice. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was not the presidential candidate of the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Yet, he won in the elections. Isn't the choice of the American electorate also limited? Sure, there are many candidates, but only two matter. The Iranian voters have a wider choice!

In an interesting article (The Guardian: The new Jewish question), the British-born Jewish historian Tony Judt is quoted as saying: “Israel does exist. It exists just like Belgium or Kuwait or any other country which was invented at some point in the past and is now a fact.”

Very interesting indeed! Belgium and Israel may very well be inventions from the past and may therefore be a fact. And yet, they may also vanish from the page of time! Belgium will vanish sooner rather than later. The monarchy, this evil Medieval institution should vanish from the page of the 21st century for sure. If King Albert II dies, Belgium will vanish. The crown prince is utterly incompetent, his sister would bring Belgium once again under the rule of the Habsburgs of Austria and his younger brother is a corrupt thief. Prime minister Verhofstadt today said he was opposed “to any form of separatism which would lead to the disappearance of the Belgian federation”. He may say whatever he wants, his idiotic utterances will not stop the course of history.

Iran's Ali Larijani (pictured) once again reiterated that Iran's nuclear program is not a threat to Israel. But the Bush administration is still beating the war drum.

Maybe some states have been invented by somebody in the past, but those states could very well vanish in the (not so distant) future. Belgium and Israel will both vanish from the page of time. The United States, the invention of the coyboys, build upon the genocide of the native Indians, will also vanish. If Bush, the war criminal, dares to attack Iran with nuclear weapons, the United States of A. will be relocated to the dustbin of history.

Love doesn't pay...

... the mortgage, the phone bill, the car's gasoline, the fancy restaurant, the hairdresser's, the electricity, the little emperor's school fee, ... [please fill in the blanks] ...

China has moved quite a distance from the good ol' days of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution when two lovebirds loved Chairman Mao ten thousand times more than they loved each other.

“Today's Chinese woman would rather weep inside a new car than smile on seat [sic] of a bicycle”, reads the introduction of a remarkable story in the China Daily of February 6 (China Daily: The high price of love).

“Mei qian mei tan”, freely translated, “No money, no love talk”. Although anything can be negotiated. The Chinese are the ultimate masters of the game of bargaining. Sharing the bedsheets may be a lot cheaper than tying the not. Everything has its price, but the most expensive is ... marriage. Maybe the Chinese boys should tell the girls that marriage is waaaay tooo expensive and that they'll be happy to pay the bedsheets' fee, thank you madam.

Having no car may still be acceptable if this deficiency is fixed within the next 6 months or so, but having no apartment is definitely a no-no. No just-married-couple wants to sleep next door to mom and dad...

Adding to that, there are a lot more marriageable-aged boys than girls and the problem becomes rather insurmountable.

Although Chinese looking-for-a-bride bachelors are still a lot better off than their counterparts in Baghdad...

Tintin in Congo

Will he or won't he? The question is tearing Belgium apart. Some say King Albert II should definitely visit Belgium's erstwhile colony of Congo to congratulate president Kabila for holding democratic elections and forming a new government. Not so fast, others say, let's wait and see... We don't know yet whether Kabila is really building a clean government.

Hogwash! Both sides of the argument are wrong. First things first: king Albert shouldn't go anywhere because the monarchy should be abolished without any further delay, the jolly old chap should be given a handsome pension (even hardline Republicans can't find anything wrong with Albert) and be allowed to travel as an ordinary citizen wherever he wishes to go.

Second, Belgian politicians should stop lecturing the Congolese about what they should or shouldn't do. Just shut up. The Holocaust of the Congolese perpetrated by Leopold II and his ilk is worse than the Holocaust of the Jews.

Third, why would a Belgian king visit Congo again, not Tanzania, or Zambia, or Kenya, or Cameroon?

Fourth, those who favor a royal visit say Albert could deliver a message of "good governance". Surely not his own message, but one drafted by the prime minister. Why do we need the king to deliver the message, can't the prime minister do that? At least his forefathers don't have that much blood on their hands.

Fifth, opponents say, you shouldn't reward Kabila with a royal visit before he proves to be any better than Mobutu. Playing colonial games again: we, the white men, know what's best for the niggers.

The liberals (pro) and the socialists (contra) are all wrong. Albert II should stay away from Kinshasa for ever, never mind what Kabila proves or doesn't prove to be. Let the proud people of Congo decide their own future. Without the meddling of the Belgians.

"The smiling assassin"

“He's always cordial, but he is pretty effective. Sometimes you may not realize what's happening, but it's just him getting the job done”, an official said. And so they call Kim Kye-gwan “the smiling assassin”. (CNN: Pyongyang's nuke envoy dubbed 'the smiling assassin') Isn't anybody getting a diplomatic job done, doing a lot better than Condi Rice? And besides assassinating the lies of the Bush administration, exactly how many real people has Kim assassinated?

The bottom line is, the U.S. diplomats are no match for Comrade Kim. They lose and so they get pissed off. The U.S. violated every commitment it ever made to North Korea. It promised to provide light-water reactors to produce electricity. Nothing ever materialized. When the DPRK agreed at the six party talks to dismantle its nuclear program, the U.S. invented a story about fake dollars to torpedo the talks. Even if..., if..., North Korea would have been clever enough to print fake dollars, what has this got to do with nuclear arms?

The policy of the U.S. is sabotage. The third member of the 'Axis of Evil' is holding out. Iraq is a bloody mess, Iran will be a fatal disaster. Maybe the U.S. itself will collapse before it can attempt to invade North Korea.

In the meantime, smiling Kim Kye-gwan is doing his job. Assassinating nobody. While Bush isn't doing his job of protecting the 'homeland' and playing genocide in Iraq. Bush can only smirk. Kim can smile.

A palace for Sudan

According to Washington Post Op-ed columnist Sebastian Mallaby (The Washington Post: A Palace for Sudan), while visiting Sudan, Chinese president Hu Jintao “demonstrated his contempt for the Western understanding of the world, while 'everybody' was hoping he would “back the West's Sudan policy”.

Mallaby goes on to rambble: “the United States and its allies have flown in food and medicines, provided logistical help and money [...] because tossing babies into bonfires is a crime against humanity.” Nice! Who's is doing the tossing in Iraq? And who is preparing to paint a mushroom cloud in the nighttime skies above Tehran?

Hu called on nations to “respect the sovereignty of Sudan”, Mallaby laments. What's wrong with that? The U.S. certainly didn't respect the “sovereignty of Iraq”. “If a nation slaughters its civilians, harbors terrorists or refuses to cooperate with U.N. weapons inspectors, it forfeits its right to sovereignty.” Isn't that a nice description of the U.S.? Sending its men and women (with or without uniform) to die in Iraq, harboring the world's most famous terrorists Bush and Cheney, and refusing to let U.N. weapons inspectors force it to dismantle its nuclear arsenal?

What exactly is president's Hu's crime while visiting Sudan? “Hu used his trip to cancel $80 million of Sudanese debt, to announce a plan to build a railway line and to visit an oil refinery that China partly owns”. Wow, that's a real Vista.

Mallaby even manages to add that “Hu's visit was a statement that [...] brushed aside the memory of the Rwandan genocide and the Holocaust.” And “Hu was implicitly saying that economic development comes first and that political development is unimportant”. Mallaby is sinking ever more deeper in the swamp of hypocrisy. Wasn't it the West that put economic plunder before anything else? And if Hu would preach a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist Proletarian Revolution to let politics play its prime role, wouldn't Mallaby be the first to castigate it?

“This Chinese understanding of development threatens to undermine the Western one”, Mallaby concludes. Let's hope it does.

State propaganda

The United States is usually described as the land of press freedom. And the Chinese press as only publishing propaganda. Yes, almost anything can get published in the U.S., but the major TV stations and newspapers are also serving as propagandists for the U.S. government.

Here's what Paul Craig Roberts has to say about press freedom in the U.S. (Counterpunch: The US and Israel, the Real Failed States):

“The people are enfeebled because the media no longer has independence. The US media serves as propagandist for the state. It cannot be otherwise in a highly concentrated media run not by journalists but by advertising executives protecting stock values that derive from federal broadcast licenses granted by the state.”

“Like the three monkeys, Congress sees no evil, the media speaks no evil, and the people hear no evil. In the US "news" consists of the government's propaganda. "News" in America is exactly like the "news" in George Orwell's 1984.”

Because of the absence of independent news organizations, the lies and deceit of the Bush administration are underreported. The actions of the peace movement are likewise underreported. The major American media are propagandists of the Empire. But the Internet allows the peoples of the world to get organized to strike back.

The U.S. media are stirring up a frenzy in preparation for the war on Iran allegedly to stop it from acquiring nuclear weapons. But the Iranian negotiator Ali Larijani once again declared that Iran is not seeking to build nuclear weapons. Where could you read that? Not in the major American media. On the People's Daily website: Iran never wants to make nuclear bombs: chief negotiator.

The U.S. top non-diplomat

Up to now, Neocon top fashion girl Condi Rice could hide behind the worst Neocons on the block. She kept herself out of the blowing wind. Commander-in-Chief Bush will take the blame and re-confirm he had been right all along. No more. Dick Cheney could swipe away critical questions with a “hogwash”. No more. Rumsfeld? He's gone... While there are those who have gone and we know where they have gone, there are also those who have gone but it's unclear where they have gone and there are also those who should have gone but are still going.

See, anybody can compose a shitty Rumsfeldian ditty. Well, he's gone too. The spotlight is now on the top Miss. (The New York Times: With Rumsfeld Gone, Critics of War Look to Rice).

The bottom line is: America's top diplomat is not doing any diplomacy. Even the old croc Henry Kissinger is slowly becoming exasperated. America should always be ready to negotiate with Iran and Syria, he uttered. Anybody seen Condi in Damascus or Tehran lately?

America's diplomats of old, Warren Christopher, James Baker, Madeleine Albright, even Colin Powell, were globe trotting all over the world, talking to America's friends, but also to its enemies. Defending the interests of the Empire. Condi is sitting on her pretty ass, doing nothing. Not even defending the interests of the Empire. Apart from her hairdo and fashion clothes, nobody is much interested in Condi.

Even Republican representatives and senators are getting nervous about her lack of diplomatic action. She's finished. One more Neocon going to be gone where many have gone before. Here comes the President of the United States of America... Condoleezza Rice (Draft Condi Rice!). Going, gone...

A Chinese general's view

Beijing Review on February 1 carried an interesting view of international developments by general Xiong Guangkai, former deputy chief of the General Staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army and currently president of the China Institute for International Strategic Studies. (Beijing Review: Adapting to Change).

“By the end of November 2006, there were 593 terrorist attacks around the world, 65% higher than that of the same period of the previous year. They had killed 4,500 people and left more than 9,700 injured, up 55% and 35%, respectively.”

It depends of course what you call “a terrorist attack”, but let's assume the general's figures are correct. It shows that more than 5 years after Bush launched the “war on terror”, things are only getting worse. The military solution isn't working, because it is only converting more 'good' guys into 'bad' guys. This has nothing to do with ideology. The root cause of 'terrorism' is imperialism.

Back to general Xiong: “By December 15, 2006, the UN Security Council passed 78 resolutions, making it the most fruitful year in terms of resolution approvals.” And “in 2006, various regional organizations throughout the world convened over 40 summits, something rarely seen in recent years.”

While the international community is become ever more active, it seems to be incapable to rein in the No 1 rogue state, the major danger to international peace and security: the United States. One problem is that general Xiong and the Chinese leadership don't see the U.S. as a major danger, but as a “constructive partner”. Basically this is a tactic: keeping the U.S. as a friend as long as China is not strong enough to stand up to it. But in the meantime the U.S. is getting a free reign. China could do more to preserve international peace by opposing the warmongering of the U.S.

Liberals and judeophobes

Slate is clearly worried about rising left-wing anti-Semitism. (Slate: Are you a Liberal Anti-Semite?) So how do you know you're an anti-Semite or just a good liberal criticizing Israel's bad policies? That's a question you never dared to ask your mother, right? So here comes professor Alvin Rosenfeld of Indiana University to the rescue with a nifty little questionnaire to settle the matter once and for all.

Please, answer the questions first before reading any further...

My score: 18. Rosenfeld's verdict: You're an anti-Semite! Well, thanks, Honorable Professor, I really didn't know that!

Let's first examine the questions and answers. In 8 out of the 10 questions, a B is definitely the right answer for anyone who is not on the payroll of the Mossad. Exceptions are:

Question 1: Who deserves the most blame for the Iraq war?
a) George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld
b) Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, and Bill Kristol
It's just a dirty trick, because the persons under b) are all Jews. They played their dirty behind-the-scenes role, but that can't absolve the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld trio.

Question 6: What do you think of Joe Lieberman?
a) I liked him OK when he ran with Gore, but he lost me on Iraq, school vouchers, and Social Security.
b) The most dangerous man in the Senate
I don't agree with a) because I never liked him, but b) is not right either. He is not the most dangerous man in the Senate. It's another dirty trick question, Lieberman is Jewish.

By the way, never mind about the c) answers. They are reserved for Bush and Olmert.

The Zionists are always deliberately confusing anti-Semitism with anti-Jew and anti-Zionism. Arab people are also Semites, just like the Jews. So to be qualified to be an anti-Semite, you have to be against the Jews AND against the Arabs. Once at a dinner I was sitting next to an old-fashioned Flemish fascist. (Sometimes you can't avoid bad company...) When I started criticizing Israel, he was jumping up and down with joy, a rather peculiar performance considering his age. Well, five minutes later I started to defend our fellow-citizens of Turkish, Algerian and Moroccan origin, and he almost started vomiting up his dinner.

This guy is an anti-Semite, against the Jews, against the Arabs, no doubt also against the Blacks and the Chinese menace. I am not. I am only against the Zionists, because they are the successors of the Nazis.

Rosenfeld's questionnaire is disgusting, aiming to stick the label of anti-Semite to anyone criticizing the Ziocons.

Refuse to be a war criminal

Next Monday, the court-martial of First Lieutenant Ehren Watada is set to commence at Fort Lewis near Seattle. (The Baltimore Sun: Truth has consequences for soldier of conscience) 1st Lt. Watada is a hero for refusing to follow War-Criminal-in-Chief George W. Bush's order to commit the crime of aggression, crimes against peace, to commit war crimes and to be an accessory to genocide and crimes against humanity. He is the first commissioned officer to refuse deployment to Iraq.

Finally, nearly four years after the invasion, the U.S. Army produces a hero! Because of his heroic conduct, Officer Watada is being court-martialed. He should receive the Purple Hart for exemplary conduct, standing up to his war criminal commander and refusing to become a war criminal.

Officer Watada is also accused of the “use of contemptuous words for the president”, at a time when a majority in the U.S. Congress is publicly uttering “contemptuous words for the president”.

American soldiers 'serving' or having 'served' in Iraq are all war criminals, guilty of the crime of aggression. It is they who should be court-martialed. They have the blood of innocent Iraqi civilians on their hands. Or the blood of Iraqi resistance fighters, who have every right, according to international law and the U.N. Charter, to defend their homeland against the American imperial stormtroopers.

Most of those soldiers are ignorant, stupid, bumpkins who learned in primary school to follow the Commander-in-Chief and never learned to use their brains. It is not their fault. The American Empire never taught them to think independently. But if they want to receive clemency, they should help bring Bush to justice. The world is waiting for the court-martial of George W. Bush!

As the story in the Baltimore Sun points out, war is only legal if authorized by the U.N. Security Council or in self-defense. The U.N. Security Council didn't authorize the invasion of Iraq, nor did Saddam's Iraq ever attacked the United States.

Lieutenant Watada believes no soldier should give a life, or take a life, for a lie. Every soldier has the duty to disobey illegal orders or refuse to violate the Geneva Conventions. It is those who obey who are breaking the law. May this soldier of conscience win his heroic battle.

On the record, please...

French President Jacques Chirac was interviewed by colleagues from the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune and Le Nouvel Observateur. The topic was the environment, which led to nuclear energy, which led to Iranian nukes,... and this Monsieur le Président, didn't want to have on the record. So he called the journalists back to retract and adapt his comments.

The discussion about Iran should be 'on the record' (The New York Times: Chirac Strays From Assailing a Nuclear Iran, Interview 1, Interview 2), so it will be clear for all to see how high the stakes are.

The French president is indeed a bit muddle-headed. Let's examine a few of his comments:

+ “if Iran had one or two nuclear weapons, it would not pose a big danger”. No it won't. But first of all, Iran is not developing nuclear weapons, Ayatollah Khomeini has declared that possession of nuclear weapons is against Islam. The Iranians still take him seriously. Secondly, the bottom line is, no country should possess nuclear weapons, they should all be destroyed, including those of France.

+ “the bomb will be of no use [to Iran]”. No, but if nuclear bombs are of no use, why does France still have them?

+ “what is very dangerous is proliferation”. Yes, and the reason why there is proliferation is because the existing nuclear powers refuse to dismantle their arsenals. If they dump their nukes, other countries will not be so tempted to also try to possess them.

+ Chirac says uranium enrichment is of no use to produce electric power. Yes it is, if you want to produce your own nuclear fuel not to be dependent on foreign countries which may not want to sell it to you. If you know how to enrich to 3% (for power generation), you also know how to enrich to 95% (to make a bomb). It just takes a bit longer...

+ If Iran drops the bomb on Israel, Tehran is going to get razed. That's indeed rather likely, so it was not necessary for the president to retract this comment. The point is, Iran is not going to drop a bomb on Israel. Ahmadinejad doesn't hate the Jews, he hates the Zionists. And there is no bomb which can spare the Jews and kill the Zionists.

+ While Chirac had the luxury to retract his comments or to clarify them, no such privilege was offered to Ahmadinejad. The Iranian president never said that Israel “should be wiped of the map”. That is the translation of the Ziocons. He said the Zionist regime would disappear, like the Soviet regime disappeared. But because Chirac still believes the translation of the Ziocons, he even refuses to talk to Ahmadinejad, who now also has a reason not to talk to Chirac, because he brought up the matter of “razing Tehran”.

+ Chirac believes that if Iran launches a nuclear tipped missile, “Tehran would be razed” before the missile got 200 meters in the atmosphere. It's scary that presidents of nuclear powers are so stupid to believe this. Sure, the U.S. and a few other countries can detect a ballistic missile launch. The problem is, you don't know what it's carrying until it's too late. A bag of confetti or a nuke? You don't know until it comes down. The Chinese launched a missile to destroy one of their satellites. The U.S. detected the launch, but didn't destroy it. You just can't start launching anti-missile missiles against every missile that is launched. And so it will be too late... A mushroom cloud razing one city will be followed by another mushroom cloud in retaliation.

And finally, Monsieur le Président, the U.S. and Israel are much more likely to use the bomb than Iran or North Korea. Better start thinking what you are going to “raze” in that case.