Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Imagine Your Chinatown At Country Size

Most every metropolitan area has a "Chinatown". My own experience has been eating novel sometimes excellent food set in a filthy part of town. But to be accurate, Chinatown came before the filth.

And so it is with the curtain being drawn back on the filth of China which is host of the Beijing Olympics. Cars and factories had to be largely locked down to interrupt the smog-producing emissions that would literally cloud the observance of the competitions. Algae plumes on the sea had to be cleaned up by tens of thousands Chinese so boats would not be seized by the green organic product of sewage and agricultural waste. But not for long. After the last tourists hurry home the generation of pollution will begin again. This is all happening against a recent backdrop of earthqukes and flooding that have been exacerbated by shoddy buildings and tree-denuded mountains and the environmental sin of the ages called Three Gorges Dam.

There are 1.2 billion Chinese and not much else in China-one of the worlds oldest civilization. Trees, animals, fish, insects and plants are either gone or are teetering on leaving the smell and filth of the Chinese hoards. Where did all the flora and fauna go ? The Chinese ate 'em! A recent article on the menus of street vendors include: grasshoppers, sea horses, scorpions, lamb testicles, assorted roasted insects ad nauseam. Why even their show piece signature structure the "Birds Nest" reminds that the Chinese rob swallows of their nests and after minimum prepartion eat a soup with ingredients that include the droppings/leavings of the humble bird.

China is the worlds future if we populate the remaining areas of the earth with China-like densities. Frankly we need a virus . We need to have less Chinese in particular and people in general.

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Sunday, July 22, 2007

Airstrikes In An Urban Area Are Murder

" Baghdad, July 21- American helicopters and warplanes attacked a Shiite area... killing at least 15 people and wounding 10, according to an official at the Iraqi Interior Ministry, who said some of the casualties were women and children".

How many times have we read about collateral death and damage from American airstrikes in Iraq and Afghanistan? What's the difference between a suicide bomber or an American pilot firing a laser-guided 500 pound bomb in a surgical strike in an urban setting? The answer is an American pilot unlike the suicide bomber can be reused. Detonating bombs in an urban setting either by suicide belts, explosive cars etc. or by airstrike is equal to murder.

"Winning the hearts and minds" of Iraqis or Afghans reguires that there be a positive difference between the " enemy" and the " liberator".

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