…and it’s time to do something about it.

I’ve been collecting online items about China for years, both positive and negative. And until now, I’ve managed to keep my big mouth shut on this topic. But now things have gone too far.

No, that’s not a headline from the popular Onion news satire website, although it sounds like one. That’s today’s news from the London Times. And, for anyone who’s spent more than 30 seconds studying the history of Tibet, that’s like calling Abraham Lincoln a slaveowner or Hitler a humanitarian. It’s totally insane, but unfortunately that’s what the world has come to expect from the Chinese government. And unfortunately 1,300,000,000 people live under this sick regime.

Let’s take a look at some stories from all over the world about the current Tibet crisis. I’m only posting headlines and links because otherwise we could be here all day:

• China Blasts Dalai Lama, Pelosi on Tibet
• China Lashes Out at Crackdown Critics
• Tibetans appeal for world’s help, but they’re resigned to getting little
• China’s PR Machine Cranks Up Role of Dalai Lama
• Dalai Lama and his allies are out to destroy Olympics, says China

OK, there was rioting in Tibet, about 50 years after being savagely attacked by the Chinese and having their independence and much of their culture taken away. Frankly, one can hardly blame the Tibetans for losing control of themselves every once in awhile. And the Chinese government knows that the Dalai Lama is one of the most peaceful people on the planet, which is exactly why they accuse him of being behind the violence. In actual fact, needless to say, he’s denounced the riots in Tibet, while the Chinese government has claimed that all the people killed were Chinese, conveniently ignoring the far greater number of Tibetans killed by Chinese troops and police.

But that last headline reveals the real fear of the Chinese government: that the upcoming Olympics — a chance for China to “show off” for the world — will somehow be disrupted. They know it would be a real loss of China’s prestige in the world if something like that happened. So let’s make sure it does!

The Chinese government is Communist and displays all the classic paranoia and control of news and people that was evident in the Soviet Union and other examples of the “workers’ paradise”, such as Cuba. And yet China has become an economic powerhouse in the last few decades precisely because they opened themselves up to foreign trade. But they have failed their own people as well as the rest of the world. Let’s look at some of the things they have managed to accomplish while preparing for this Summer Olympics:

• China hushes up Olympic deaths — China has systematically covered up the accidental deaths of at least 10 workers, and perhaps many more, in a rush to construct the futuristic ”bird’s nest” stadium in Beijing for this summer’s Olympic Games.
• State Department warns American spectators at Olympics not to expect privacy — The State Department is advising Americans planning to attend the Olympic Games in Beijing to take care and be mindful that they could be under surveillance.
• Un-bear-able: China’s cruel animal Olympics reach new heights — A black bear perches precariously on a scooter and is forced to drive a circus performer across a tightrope. This shocking image is just the latest picture to emerge from the barbaric Animal Olympic Games in China, a country with a shameful animal rights record.
• Olympics clean-up Chinese style: Inside Beijing’s shocking death camp for cats

In short, no life is safe in China while the Chinese government attempts to “put on a happy face” for the world.

But wait, there’s more.

The Chinese government not only destroys the lives of its own people, but deliberately or negligently allows the lives of people all over the world to be taken or threatened as well:

• Man beaten to death in China for taking pictures — Authorities have fired an official in central China after city inspectors beat to death a man who filmed their confrontation with villagers, China’s Xinhua news agency reports.
• Pollution kills 750,000 in China every year — The figures, almost twice previous estimates, were calculated using a new statistical model. But they have been suppressed until now because the government feared they would cause social unrest, according to reports.
• Filler in Animal Feed Is Open Secret in China — As American food safety regulators head to China to investigate how a chemical made from coal found its way into pet food that killed dogs and cats in the United States, workers in this heavily polluted northern city openly admit that the substance is routinely added to animal feed as a fake protein. (NY Times, April 30, 2007)
• Claims that China paid Bin Laden to see cruise missiles — China paid Osama bin Laden several million dollars for access to unexploded American cruise missiles left over from the US attack on his bases three years ago, a senior alleged al-Qaida agent in Europe has claimed. The alleged agent’s account is contained in the transcript of a secretly taped conversation between supporters of Osama bin Laden obtained by the Guardian. (The Guardian, October 20, 2001)
• Poisoned Toothpaste in Panama Is Believed to Be From China — Diethylene glycol, a poisonous ingredient in some antifreeze, has been found in 6,000 tubes of toothpaste in Panama, and customs officials there said yesterday that the product appeared to have originated in China. (NY Times, May 19, 2007)
• Chinese kill baby to enforce birth rule — China has been shaken by one of the most horrifying cases of official infanticide in recent memory after family planners drowned a healthy baby in front of its parents. (The Times, August 24, 2000)
• China Link Suspected in Lab Hacking — A cyber attack reported last week by one of the federal government’s nuclear weapons laboratories may have originated in China, according to a confidential memorandum distributed Wednesday to public and private security officials by the Department of Homeland Security.
• China threatens to nuke America — A recently-declassified Chinese military document states communist China will first conduct a “Vietnam”-like conventional war against American forces, and then eventually fight a nuclear war against the U.S. homeland. The document, recently translated by an American intelligence agency, was sent by the Chinese army central command to all the regional garrisons and army corps headquarters in China.
• China: Internet users at risk of arbitrary detention, torture and even execution — “Everyone detained purely for peacefully publishing their views or other information on the Internet or for accessing certain websites are prisoners of conscience,” Amnesty International said. “They should be released immediately and unconditionally”.
• Virus from China the gift that keeps on giving — An insidious computer virus recently discovered on digital photo frames has been identified as a powerful new Trojan Horse from China that collects passwords for online games – and its designers might have larger targets in mind.

Enough already. I hope by now you get the picture. Cheap Chinese goods for the world are no bargain when they support death and repression like this. Let’s all try to cut down on our purchase of Chinese-made items, boycott the 2008 Summer Olympics, and let the Chinese government know that “business as usual” is over.

Tags: boycott Olympics, China, Dalai Lama, free Tibet, PRC

OK, I admit it.

I haven’t been talking about it because I hate to feel like I’m complaining, but I’ve been in some pain since last Sunday’s incident with Panther when he sat on my hip. For the first two days or so, my pelvis was completely out of whack, and I must have been walking funny because the pain switched to my ankle. OK, we have elastic braces and things around for that, so I put one on and hobbled around and it started to feel better.

My mistake was doing any hobbling at all, I suppose, because I wanted to be productive since I felt energized again. But instead of setting up my laptop in the bedroom like I had done when Glory was sick, I hobbled into my office and around the house. By Tuesday I was on Vicodin to cut down the screaming (OK, it really hurt at times).

Unfortunately I compounded all this folly with some more. Susan had been planning a special day with the family, including Scott and his girlfriend, and I didn’t want to let her down. Since she wanted to visit a local sake brewery, I came up with the brilliant idea of bringing my camera, so I would have an excuse to bring my new monopod, which is sturdy enough to use as a walking stick, which I needed by this time as the front of my leg now hurt when I walked.

Walking around using the monopod as a walking stick — really a cane, since I put my entire weight on it — seemed to help quite a bit. I took a few decent pictures but I did way too much walking. So by Wednesday night I was on double doses of Vicodin and luckily I found another prescription around. By this time, what with the pills and the stick, I was starting to feel a bit like Gregory House, M.D.

Today I finally actually had a seriously good idea and asked Susan to look up tendonitis, since it seemed to be things rubbing inside my leg that were hurting. Sure enough, staying in bed with an ice pack helped more than anything else I’ve tried. And hopefully, nothing else will come up, because the pain has been keeping me from focusing on writing more than anything else.

Tags: agony, cane, leg pain, tendonitis, Vicodin, walking stick, yikes

Today I was watching Frankenstein movies with Steven (all 3 of them…1910, 1931, and of course Young Frankenstein) and then Susan came home from work. Her old Nokia cellphone literally fell apart (she dropped it a lot) and the law is changing here to force you to use handsfree while driving so I found an insane deal on a new gold V3 RAZR for $90 and gave her my phone, so now we both have Bluetooth for hooking up to the $22 Motorola OEM speakerphone deal I found for the car. Also my old phone (a V505) is very sturdy and has a nonslip coating on it which is perfect for someone who has her hands in fish tanks all day :-)

Tags: bluetooth, cellphone, Frankenstein, handsfree, mobile phone, movies

Tonight I was lying in bed on my side, which I often do to prevent Jennifur walking on my balls in the middle of the night, which she often does otherwise.

At some point I thought I felt Nightstar moving around on the bed. She stepped up and sat down on my hip in Sphinx pose. I was amazed because she never does that; she usually lies down right next to my pillow, under the covers with me, or at the other end of the bed entirely. I actually raised my head for a quick peek to make sure it was her, because Jennifur sometimes sleeps on top of me, but always on my stomach…but she was surely too dark to be Jennifur.

Well, we stayed like that for awhile. Every five minutes or so, I felt the urge to shift around a little, but resisted because I was sure she’d get off if I did…she seemed a bit precarious up there. Finally I couldn’t help myself and rearranged a bit. Amazingly, she stayed on, even rearranging herself a bit. I eventually started falling asleep and that’s when the fun really began.

Suddenly my head began filling with thoughts. I actually saw a page begin to fill up with writing about cats — a whole collection of things I had been planning to write for ages. Cat love; cat promises; cat prayers! And, if you’ve been following this blog for more than 30 seconds or so, you’ve probably noticed that I haven’t been able to write anything for months. Well, here I am at 5:30 in the morning writing now, and I’m seeing words fill up on the page just like it did a little while ago in bed. But wait, there’s more.

I had shifted a few more times and Nightstar stayed right where she was. Suddenly I had a flash…this didn’t really seem like the Nightstar I knew. I remembered Yang was in the room and I know he can sleep through any amount of movement. Steathily I found the tail and raised it up and looked. Even in almost pitch dark, I could see it was definitely a black tail and not a white one!

And yet the fur didn’t feel like Nightstar somehow. So I started counting off cats in my head. Not Yang, not Jennifur. We just weighed Nightstar at 14 pounds and this cat seems awfully light…so it can’t be Agile either. The door was closed, and the only other cat in the room was Panther…but he hasn’t even slept on our bed since 2001, and never on either of us.

Just about then, she (or whoever) jumped off. I couldn’t stand the suspense, so I sat up, put on my glasses, and found my flashlight. I looked on the bed and there was Agile where I had seen him last…with Nightstar sleeping right beside him. Jenni was on her shelf, and since Yang was nowhere on the bed, that meant he was in a box in the closet.

Which left Panther, who was eating from a bowl on the floor after jumping off the bed.

No pun intended (this time, anyway), but this floored me. Clearly Panther — who I’ve never been able to “hear” in all the time he’s lived with us — had sent me all this information for a reason, even sitting on me to make sure I got the message. So 5:30 in the morning or not (and I’m definitely not a morning person), I figured if it was this important to Panther, it was important enough for me to get up and get back to writing.

So here I am again, folks. And all hail Panther.

Tags: animal communication, hypnogogic, Panther, sleeping with cats