Rant du jour: China are a disgrace

[Tooting Gull]

I've just received Amnesty's latest campaign leaflet through the post, they are launching an offensive against China in the build-up to the Beijing Games.

While superficially putting on a front of a tolerant new regime for the cameras, the Chinese are still merrily killing and torturing dissidents of all types behind the scenes.

They are particularly sensitive in tourist areas, and would far rather beat/torture a confession out of an innocent than have an unsolved crime sitting on the books.

How the f**k did this lot get awarded the Games, which are supposed to symbolise harmony and unity. It's an utter disgrace, but hey, if their child labour can rustle up a few cut-price consumer goods in the sweatshops for a while longer, let's turn a blind eye.

 

[REDLAND]

A protester, wearing a surgical mask with a symbol of a crossed-out noose, holds a placard showing a woman about to be executed in mainland China

 

[robbied69]

It's been going on since Mao was leader. He was almost responsible for 70m deaths.

I've just finished reading this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mao-Story-J...2307802?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187774756&sr=8-1

Truly gripping. Living in China during this period must've been unbearable.

 

[Captain Haddock]

Disgrace!

 

[Simster]

It's been going on since Mao was leader. He was almost responsible for 70m deaths.

I've just finished reading this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mao-Story-J...2307802?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187774756&sr=8-1

Truly gripping. Living in China during this period must've been unbearable.

My stepfather read that and found it an astonishing read. He made Stalin & Hitler look like pussy cats. He once condemned 5-10 million people to their deaths by flooding a plateau and not telling anyone he was going to do so. So tens of thousands drowned, and others simply lost their only means of subsistence (their land) to the water.

As for awarding the Olympics to Beijing, surely the Olympic committee is the most corrupt sporting body in the world, so no surprises there eh?

 

[ditchy]

They are seriously worried what the outside world thinks re the Olympics .. Air quality etc is very bad in Beijing ,so in an attempt to cut traffic fumes and traffic conjestion,they simply banned cars with a registration plate that ends in an even number off the road for a month ... Next month its odd .. Overnight have halfed the number of cars in the city !.. anyone caught driving with the wrong number plate gets fined about 10 quid equivilent which is about a weeks wages to average china man !.. Can you imagine Ken Livingstone doing this !

 

[Robot Chicken]

They are seriously worried what the outside world thinks re the Olympics .. Air quality etc is very bad in Beijing ,so in an attempt to cut traffic fumes and traffic conjestion,they simply banned cars with a registration plate that ends in an even number off the road for a month ... Next month its odd .. Overnight have halfed the number of cars in the city !.. anyone caught driving with the wrong number plate gets fined about 10 quid equivilent which is about a weeks wages to average china man !.. Can you imagine Ken Livingstone doing this !

I think Paris tried something similar but it made things WORSE because people bought an old banger with a different registration plate to their main car so they could still drive during that month...

 

[Buzzer]

What really really upsets me is that people wear Chairman Mao t-shirts like some cultural icon. The same people that would moan about Nazi iconography (i.e. the types that ignorantly had a go at Bryan Ferry for saying that he admired Albert Speers achievements).

Oh, and don't forget folks. This was all done in the name of socialism. Loveable, cuddly, take it home and meet your mum, socialism.

 

[Tesco in Disguise]

It's an utter disgrace, but hey, if their child labour can rustle up a few cut-price consumer goods in the sweatshops for a while longer, let's turn a blind eye.

welcome to global capitalism. any questions, ask buzzer.

 

[Tesco in Disguise]

Oh, and don't forget folks. This was all done in the name of socialism. Loveable, cuddly, take it home and meet your mum, socialism.

i'm not sure a tenet of socialism is censorship of the press and extermination of dissidents. it's founded on democracy. don't bad-mouth it just because the chinese couldn't do it.

 

[Buzzer]

i'm not sure a tenet of socialism is censorship of the press and extermination of dissidents. it's founded on democracy. don't bad-mouth it just because the chinese couldn't do it.

I think we'll have to agree to disagree on this, TiD.

 

[Buzzer]

welcome to global capitalism. any questions, ask buzzer.

- a bit uncalled for. I don't go around blaming you for the murder of millions in the glorious furtherance of your beloved socialism. Don't go around making out I'm an apologist for sweat shops.

 

[Uncle Buck]

- a bit uncalled for. I don't go around blaming you for the murder of millions in the glorious furtherance of your beloved socialism. Don't go around making out I'm an apologist for sweat shops.

He is on a mission today...

 

[The Large One]

What really really upsets me is that people wear Chairman Mao t-shirts like some cultural icon. The same people that would moan about Nazi iconography (i.e. the types that ignorantly had a go at Bryan Ferry for saying that he admired Albert Speers achievements).

Oh, and don't forget folks. This was all done in the name of socialism. Loveable, cuddly, take it home and meet your mum, socialism.

Not a form of socialism I could ever recognise.

Of course, if that's what you really think socialism is, it does knock a large hole in your argument against it.

 

[Buzzer]

Not a form of socialism I could ever recognise.

strictly speaking. Probably (alongwith North Korea) the purest form of socialism ever put into practice.

Complete and utter decimation of all but the proletariat. Homogeny of all classes. Banning of bourgeois practices, Banning of all other political parties. Sloganeering and political education from a very young age. Re-education of dissidents. Total government control on all means of production, on all forms of press, on all forms of entertainment to ensure the survival of the revolution.

Sounds just what Marx and Engels were after as far as I can see.

 

[Tesco in Disguise]

- a bit uncalled for. I don't go around blaming you for the murder of millions in the glorious furtherance of your beloved socialism. Don't go around making out I'm an apologist for sweat shops.

i didn't. the facts of the matter are: global capitalism has created sweatshops; buzzer likes global capitalism (and is an authority on the subject).

 

[Tesco in Disguise]

buz, you're making the classic - and dangerous - mistake of confusing socialism with communism. marx and engels were communists. i am a mere socialist.

 

[The Large One]

strictly speaking. Probably (alongwith North Korea) the purest form of socialism ever put into practice.

Complete and utter decimation of all but the proletariat. Homogeny of all classes. Banning of bourgeois practices, Banning of all other political parties. Sloganeering and political education from a very young age. Re-education of dissidents. Total government control on all means of production, on all forms of press, on all forms of entertainment to ensure the survival of the revolution.

Sounds just what Marx and Engels were after as far as I can see.

What you're arguing against, and what the Chinese are doing are two separate things.

And why do you think Marx only wanted to reduce all classes (save the proletariat) by 10%?

 

[Storer68]

strictly speaking. Probably (alongwith North Korea) the purest form of socialism ever put into practice.

Complete and utter decimation of all but the proletariat. Homogeny of all classes. Banning of bourgeois practices, Banning of all other political parties. Sloganeering and political education from a very young age. Re-education of dissidents. Total government control on all means of production, on all forms of press, on all forms of entertainment to ensure the survival of the revolution.

Sounds just what Marx and Engels were after as far as I can see.

Go and read marx and engels first before making stupid statements like that.

 

[Buzzer]

i didn't. the facts of the matter are: global capitalism has created sweatshops; buzzer likes global capitalism (and is an authority on the subject).

You're a f***ing rude knobber at times.

I've never claimed to like global capitalism, I've never claimed to be an authority on it. Please show me where I've professed either.

Sweat shops existed centuries before global capitalism. They've always existed and probably always will. Socialist Russia had them, socialist China had them way before Nike and Gap were there. You knew that already though but you're just blaming global capitalism without even understanding what you mean by that.

Your logic is also flawed and dangerous.

Global capitalism creates sweatshops. I like global capitalism ergo....

If you want a debate then let's debate but if you're going to be a twat then f*** off.