What's in the News

Fucking idiots.

Foreigners respond negatively only because the context is wrong.  Every person in the entire world, regardless of country, colour or creed, responds negatively when the context is wrong.

Simple example that works for whitey.  Someone walks up and asks, "What's your name?"  Comes off as aggressive.  But someone walks up and says, "Hi, my name's Tiddles, what's yours?"  Everything's peachy.  The extra words create a non-yellow person's English language context.

When people talk about teaching culture in language classes, they should be throwing in simple things like that, like giving equal information before asking, like balance of cultural sense of personhood.  And so on.


Or everyone could just stop pretending that visitors are freakish.  You know the idea that only guilty people suspect everyone else?  What does it mean that Chinese look at everyone else as monsters?

Those posters about what you should or shouldn't say are all good and that, but do you really think the homies will care?

I mean it's forbidden to spit, you are supposed to stop at a red light, cross a road on a zebra crossing, have a shit in a toilet (not on the street)...
We all know that some homies (I'm not saying all) don't give a toss about any of those rules. Why would it be any different now?

"The posters are part of wide-ranging measures the government has taken to clean up China's image during the Olympics. China's communist government and Beijing Olympic organizers have been conducting sweeping campaigns to get citizens to wait patiently in line, stop spitting and improve their driving habits."

Oh, I think some will care. I mean, there is a certain the-loonies-have-taken-over-the-asylum sense to China, but there is also the kind of fear that only a totalitarian regime can instil in people. But the posters crack me up. "Wait patiently in line" Oh, my aching sides....improve driving habits.....ouch, ouch, must stop laughing....Why should China change just because a bunch of big-nosed, round-eyed pale ghosts (which, as far as I know, sums up how we laowai were perceived by the Chinese for centuries) decides to have a spot of five-a-side in Beijing? What will they think of next? Posters claiming that the signs in lifts stating that only 10 people are allowed in them are rules, not loose guidelines? They're taking the fun out of China.
 

http://nyhederne.tv2.dk/article.php/id-13531954.html


This is just too weird. Allow me to sum um the article, as it is in Danish. In Fenzhang, China, a pig was born with the head of a monkey. It sort of jumps around and scares people.
The picture in the article says it all.

Like cloning or just an ugly baby?

http://nyhederne.tv2.dk/article.php/id-13531954.html


This is just too weird. Allow me to sum um the article, as it is in Danish. In Fenzhang, China, a pig was born with the head of a monkey. It sort of jumps around and scares people.
The picture in the article says it all.

Had a good time when you visited Fenzhang didn't you Eric.

No, Acjade, this is an actual freak of nature. No cloning or a baby. A sow gave birth to nine piglets and one looked like that. I'm not eating zhu rou in China ever again....

In Fenzhang, China, a pig was born with the head of a monkey......The picture in the article says it all.

Seems more like an unformed Siamese twin to me.  You know.  Like a two-headed (two-faced) child.  A real Ripley's picture!

AMonk, the thing has cloven hoofs!!! What I find decidedly horrible is that the people did not just smother the poor creature.

But, Eric, pigs do have split (cloven) feet.   Check it out.....

Yes, I know this. I tamed one once. It's just that the cloven feet makes it look very little like an unborn siamese twin and more like something Dr.Moreau and Dr.Frankenstein might have made after a particularly wet evening.

A Uighur Islamic separatist group has taken credit for a deadly bus bombing in Shanghai in May and warned of new attacks in China during the Olympics, a group monitoring threats by extremists on the internet said today.

In a video statement, Commander Seyfullah of the Turkestan Islamic Party claimed credit for several attacks.

They include the May 5 Shanghai bus bombing which killed three; another Shanghai attack; an attack on police in Wenzhou on July 17 using an explosive-laden tractor; a bombing of a Guangzhou plastic factory on July 17; and bombings of three buses in Yunnan province on July 21.

Three people were killed by the explosion on the crowded bus in Shanghai on May 5, police and witnesses said.

The morning traffic rush hour attack in northwest Shanghai also left 12 people injured.
At the time, authorities attributed the blast to flammable materials carried by a passenger.

But Seyfullah said the blast was the work of his group and warned of more explosions to come.

"Through this blessed jihad in Yunnan this time, the Turkestan Islamic Party warns China one more time,'' Seyfullah says in the video dated July 23, according to a transcript from the Washington-based Intel Centre.

"Our aim is to target the most critical points related to the Olympics. We will try to attack Chinese central cities severely, using the tactics that have never been employed.''.

The warnings come just a day after Chinese police claimed they cracked a terrorist cell planning to attack Shanghai Stadium, the venue where the Australian men's soccer team will open its Olympic campaign on August 7.

Australian Olympic Committee spokesman Mike Tancred said it took any terrorist threat "very seriously'' but remained confident in the Chinese government's security plans for the Games.

"The safety of the athletes is paramount to us and there is a security force of 110,000 in China so we are not concerned about any terrorist threat in this country,'' he told AAP from Beijing today.

"We think with the size of the force they have and the knowledge they have, we think they will counter any terrorist problem that might arise.

"There is a very strong presence in the streets in Beijing with the army and the police. There are people that are stationed throughout the Olympic precinct 24 hours a day and I really can't see how any terrorist is going to crack the Chinese defences.''

Australia is sending a team of more than 430 athletes to the China for the Olympics and they will be supported by a staff of 319 officials, including a medical team of 75.

According to global intelligence analysts Stratfor, the Turkestan Islamic Party is another name used by the Islamic Party of East Turkestan (ETIM), an ethnic Uighur and Muslim separatist group seeking to create an independent state out of China's westernmost, heavily Muslim Xinjiang province.

The United States, China and other countries have designated ETIM a terrorist group.

Beijing is wary of ethnic Uighur Muslims living in Xinjiang, who maintain an ethnic identity distinct from the Chinese and have struggled to re-establish the independent state of East Turkestan since their homeland became part of China in 1955.

Rights bodies say the Chinese government is cracking down on them under the pretext of fighting terrorism.

On June 27, Seyfullah released a five page statement, citing a long list of grievances against the Chinese government and calling for attacks on the Olympic Games and other targets in China.

The statement said the use of biological weapons would be permissible and that suicide bombers were ready and willing to carry out operations throughout the world.

"After receiving the order, asking Allah's continual help in this matter, the military commander has made the order to all brothers and sisters in every corner of the world, to move to the action phase,'' Seyfullah argued.

"These brothers and sisters have been waiting for the order and these brothers and sisters are volunteers who would commit suicide bombing when it is time for it.''

The separatist leader went on to urge attacks on Chinese officials, declaring readiness to kill the top leaders, soldiers, police, prison wardens, and accomplices.''

AFP

Yeah...going up against the country with the largest army in the world...splendid idea. Especially since China is internationally famous for taking a calm, collected and peaceful approach to people and groups threatening state security.