China is a communist country with over 1.31 billion people.
The majority of China's 1.31 billion people are oppressed and don't enjoy the freedoms we have here in the United States of America.
China commits many human rights violations.
China is well loved by American corporations and American consumers because the majority of the 1.31 Chinese will work for pennies on the dollar. This means cheap stuff for us to buy at places like Wal*Mart.
Because we love low prices we Americans seem to turn a blind eye to communist China. This is despite that China is an emerging superpower with nuclear weapons. China's human rights violations rival that of Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
Our endless thirst for low quality and low cost goods is creating an unprecedented economic growth in China that is unsustainable. This threatens not only China's environment but the world's. National Geographic link
China's prime minister recently promised to maintain "socialism for 100 years"
China has a totalitarian style of government and China's 1.31 billion citizens do not enjoy freedom of religion or freedom of the press. A good example of this is a website called Great Firewall of China where you can test to see if your favorite websites are blocked by Chinese censors.
Test to see if your website or blog is blocked by China's censors, click here.
The website of our local paper, The North County Times is blocked. You absolutely cannot access NCT.com from China.
North County Times bi-weekly columnist and developer Michael D Pattinson once wrote in his column that California should be more like communist China.
You can read this astonishing article here, unless you are in China of course.
Leucadia!: Michael D. Pattinson, Communist Sympathizer?
Wikipedia China
Human Rights Watch, China (also blocked by China's censors)
Thanks to rockmycar.com
I'm happy to report The Coast News has not been blocked by Chinese censors. That means "Observations from the Edge" is not blocked by Chinese censors.
ReplyDeleteHow cool is that?
Bob, criticize China's policies in your next article and we'll see how long the Coast News website stays uncensored.
ReplyDeleteNOT!!!
ReplyDeleteAn extremist point of view endorsed by extremist censors, there is NOTHING cool about that!!!
What gives J.P?
ReplyDeleteJust tried www.nctimes.com and www.uniontrib.com and they both come up available and not blocked.
Either my system is different or you blog has changed the political thinking in China overnight!
I tested the NCT 3 times and it came up blocked every time. The UT was not blocked on my test.
ReplyDeleteHmmmmm...?
Just tested NCT.com again and it is blocked.
ReplyDelete???
Ah, if you enter NCT's home url http://www.nctimes.com/ it comes up blocked. But, if you enter a page url then those are unblocked. It's a glitch in China's censorship program. So if you have a friend in China I assume you could e-mail him page links to blocked websites. I wonder how long that will last?
ReplyDeleteSorry JP, my next column will focus on Hillary Clinton and why The United States can't afford another Clinton presidency.
ReplyDeleteAs for criticizing China, in the past I have mentioned the lack of environmental policies, their failing ecosystems, and the destruction asociated with the Three Gorges dam. Most recently I mentioned the extinction of the Yangzi river dolphin.
To test your theory I will craft another Op-ed criticizing the lack of environmental stewardship within Chinese culture.
In today's NCT the opinion staff had a critique of Bond's speech at the Chamber meeting last week. Titled The 'Who's Got the Hook?' award
ReplyDeleteHe received a raspberry.
Yes, and the Army Corps of Engineers also received a raspberry from NCT; they were #1 and James Bond was the last raspberry.
ReplyDeleteArmy Corps of Engineers is way beyond budget and beyond the deadline for completing a study of the coastal shorelines between Encinitas and Solana Beach.
In six years, there have been six new project managers. Part of the problem is that the Army Corps of Engineers does not like what the Marine Fisheries people, and the Dept. of Fish & Game are telling them. The level of "sand replenishment" that the Army Corps of Engineers wants to do will damage protected species and habitat.
What's also interesting is that the traffic report that has been so long in coming is likewise being stalled by the City of Encinitas. Both of these reports have a direct bearing on development projects now in the works, including the proposed seawall at Beacons, and the Hall Property Draft E.I.R. Traffic is an area that is affected by development, and the E.I.R. for the Hall Property does not address it adequately.
Dan Dalager said the report was already completed at the forum in Olivenhein, last October. The traffic study overlay has yet to be released. The Hall Property environmental impact report cannot be addressed correctly without it.
The question and timing of adding more sand to the beaches cannot be addressed fairly without the release of this report by the Army Corps of Engineers.
Good for NCT. Both raspberries are well deserved.
The 'Who's Got the Hook?' award
ReplyDeleteA raspberry to Encinitas Mayor James Bond for his ill-prepared and self-serving State of the Community address last week. Bond blew a prime opportunity to inspire his listeners, seek compromise and usher the city forward. Instead, he devoted fully half of his speech to himself, ad-libbing the same tired tales about his golf game, early retirement from the phone company and election to the council in 1992.
Bond's delivery indicates he has become entirely too comfortable in office. Unless voters see more substance and less stale style from the mayor, they may send Bond right back to retirement in 2008.
The 'Who's Got the Hook?' award
ReplyDeleteFinally ... Thank you NC Times for finally noticing the "emperor of Encinitas" has no clothes, no plan, no vision and is out of touch with citizens of Encinitas. Even his friends and Chamber cronies couldn't penetrate his atrophied sensibilities to make him realize how embarassing his performance and, to a larger extent, his Council behavior have become. The North County Times shares a small portion of this raspberry since they endorsed Bond in 2004. I'm glad they have finally recognized the "naked" truth about our increasingly out-of-touch mayor.
There is a new editor Margo Kellogg at the paper and she was at the event. The old editor never went to anything and rarly challenged the "ruling class"
ReplyDeleteMs. Kellogg is the person that lobbed the raspberry and rosted Jim.
I think the good old boys and their developer croonies,chamber are in for trouble with the NC Times!
Thanks Margo, NCT, and JP, too!
ReplyDelete