With all the Tibet furore, I missed the release of the BBC World Service poll (PDF) measuring views on the positive and negative influence of various countries around the world. The BBC leads with the United States. Not surprisingly, I’m more interested in China. But Americans might be disturbed to know that the world thinks […]
There is some anger being expressed by Chinese citizens about foreign media reporting on the Tibet protests and violence. To a certain extent it is justified. Showing pictures of Nepali security forces beating Tibetan protesters and labeling those pictures as Chinese violence is at best sloppy, at worst a lie. And I keep wondering why […]
An unusual way to learn English:
Could this have been made anywhere but Japan?
Monday, February 25, 2008
There’s a very impressive collection of flags that has been circulating for some time, showing various interesting and disturbing facts about each of the countries involved. I saw it for the first time last night at ProState in Flames. A quick Google search identifies Icaro Doria, a young Brazilian designer, as one of the creators […]
Saturday, January 12, 2008
I don’t watch much TV news. You can Fox it up as much as you like with waving flags, crashing sound effects and wizbang graphics splattering the screen. Or you can dress it up as something very, very serious. It’s still just TV news - about as nutritious as a microwaved dinner. It’s not always […]
Friday, September 14, 2007
If ESWN had not linked to Riverbend’s latest post at Baghdad Burning, I might not have known for another week or so that she had finally left Iraq. She hadn’t written since April. It took me about half an hour to read this last sad letter from a country in ruins. Ten minutes to get […]
There’s another China post coming, but I’ve been a bit lazy about finishing the translation in after-work hours. The Humanaught is to blame for my latest procrastination after he recommended John Pilger’s latest documentary, The War on Democracy. I remembered that recommendation last night, so I headed off here. And, well, that was that for […]
NEWSFLASH: Mattel issued an urgent recall on Monday of its Leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization plastic doll series after the battery-powered talking toys were found to have too much lead in their speeches.
On a more sensible note, the Power and Interest News Report gives a brief history of the SCO and concludes that the […]
Tony Blair said:
May 1997:
Mine is the first generation able to contemplate the possibility that we may live our entire lives without going to war or sending our children to war. That is a prize beyond value…
December 1998:
Earlier today, I gave authority for UK forces to be deployed against Iraq.
Operation Desert Fox was launched at 10 […]
144 countries are party to the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment. One of those countries is the United States of America. The Convention begins:
Article 1
1. For the purposes of this Convention, the term “torture” means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, […]