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November 25, 2007 at 1:08 pm #26329Michael WinnKeymaster
Ten things you didn’t know about the People’s Republic
China’s village and town enterprises employ as many people as the whole US labour force.
The Baltic index for cargo shipping has risen by 130 per cent this year, largely as a result of demand from China.
35 million Chinese travel abroad each year on holiday.
China’s main trade negotiator, Wu Yi, is a 69-year-old grandmother.
China has 15 million pianists.
The Chinese Communist Party has 73 million members.
The Panda brand of cigarette, favoured by the late patriarch Deng Xiaoping, sells for £6 a pack.
China has anywhere from 70 to 110 declared US dollar billionaires (and probably a few others who keep quiet about their wealth).
This year, China has bought stakes in the equity capital firm Blackstone, the brokerage Bear Stearns, Barclays and South Africa’s Standard Bank.
A speech to the recent Communist Party Congress by leader Hu Jintao was entitled: ‘Hold High the Great Banner of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics and Strive for New Victories in Building a Moderately Prosperous Society in all Respects’.
November 25, 2007 at 8:37 pm #26330ExplorerParticipantOne of the things China has in common with the US is the striking similarity between the way the Tibetans have been treated and what the Native Americans of the Western plains went through in the 1800s and early 1900s. There still is plenty to admire about China, though. It seems they’re playing a role in getting the American space program back on track by providing the competition this country hasn’t had since during the Cold War when Soviet competition helped speed up the Apollo program…
December 24, 2007 at 8:30 pm #26332spongebobParticipantI live in China. And I can tell you from firsthand experience it sure as hell ain’t ready for democracy. And neither is Tibet.
If you ask me (and you haven’t), the Dalai Lama, if he is reincarnated, has some explaining to do. The British tried for years to open relations with Tibet in the late 19th early 20th centuries. Not only did the Dalai Lama fail to respond to diplomatic correspondence, he often refused to even open it!
In 1904 when the British invaded Tibet, the Dalai Lama, who is the same guy as the current Dalai Lama according to the Tibetan tradition of reincarnation, sent the Tibetan “Army” to its death. He gave them special magic charms to wear that he said would protect the “soldiers” from British bullets.
The Tibetans were vastly out gunned. Many of them only had primitive matchlock rifles. Some had no guns at all. When the Tibetans poured over their fortifications (a short stone wall), they were mowed down by the British and slaughtered wholesale. The British, appalled at the slaughter, called a cease fire. Survivors, rather than fleeing, walked dejectedly away. The British, impressed with the courage and spirit of the wounded, treated them in their own field hospital and grew in their respect for them. SHOWING THEM COMPASSION THE GREAT BODDHIDARMA OR WHATEVER DIDN’T.
The Dalai Lama fled Tibet leaving his flunkies to negotiate terms with the Brits.
What I wanna know is, where’s the compassion in exploiting his army’s superstitions to send them to their deaths with fake charms? what kind o karma does he have for running away and not bellying up to the bar to pay his tab? why has he never explained this publicly while traveling the world “teaching” compassion? WTF???!!!
And another thing–Tibet was never free and cannot be freed. If the Chinese weren’t oppressing them, they’d be oppressing themselves, which they did before the Chinese invasion. China may be taking the low road in Tibet, but they wouldn’t be if Tibet had taken the high road with Britain 100 years ago.
I have no great love for the politics in China, but in the big picture they’re going the right way. Screw Tibet and screw the Dalai Lama. And I say screw his teachings on compassion until he does a little explaining himself!
And screw Ghandi too. Another guy who caused wholesale slaughter and the foundation of a corrupt democracy plagued by infanticide, superstition, the oppression of women and Islamic fanaticism (referring to Pakistan which was once part of a united India).
But now I digress.
Merry Yuletide, Happy New Year, And God bless that reincarnation of Odin we call Santa!
Spongebob Thornypants
January 7, 2008 at 10:42 am #26334JernejParticipanteven if the assesment is correct, it would still only make one a good democrat.
it evokes reaction, and this is away from one’s own destiny.
while it is interesting education, it is harmfull to stomack, was the thought.look forward. past rules of a small nation … well the nation is less then 1.5 mio humans, so it will struggle against loosing its boundry to bigger nations, and then all special rights cease.
however if current rulers perform great ceremony with great sacrifice, the clan may still feed on in the next century. but with disability to perform great future sacrifices (past the one obvious one), the ceremony will slowly dissolve into oblivion.
so there is no problem, only the stress on being now.yes, the great peace maker. the price is the sacrifice. in every generation for the clan to survive. the act of ceremony is very public.
in balcan when men evoke nationalism in people, such humans are called hawks. ordinary humans, high ideals, and a clan structure on this side. when hawks talk, they call for war. one form of sacrifice to gods.
christians as ex jews stress the importance of other cheek methaphor as a way outside the circle of sacrifice bond. this seems in-obvious in case of lords over mercy.
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