China and the Olympics: Don't Rise to the Bait!

The Olympic Torch has passed through San Francisco, despite attempts to extinguish it, and I am glad it finished its North American journey safely. No one was interested in talking about the Olympics in December of 2006, when I raised the issue of freedom of speech for reporters in China for the Olympics. That was the time to pursue a dialogue about some very troubling developments, but no one cared. Suddenly, nearly a year and a half later, my inbox is full of mail about the Olympics and China. There is no shortage of viewpoint or advocacy. Most writers make their point--and well--and there is great diversity of opinion. For my nickel, the time for debate on China’s hosting of the Olympics has long passed. It is not exactly like the news that China is hosting the Olympics is a surprise.

The games themselves have their own separate governance, theoretically separate from national governments. Underlying it all is the idealistic Olympian concept of putting politics aside, and having a "truce" for the sake of citizens from all over the world coming together for the games. When global travel was a rarity, it was also thought that the mere experience of citizens of one country meeting citizens of another country in an atmosphere of friendship would have a salutary effect on the cause of peace between nations. President Eisenhower himself--no stranger to war, politics, or international relations--was a great advocate of people-to-people friendship efforts.

There are severe problems with human rights in China. This is nothing new, and while troubling and continuing, their existence is no surprise either. It seems to me to be a very short-sighted response to suddenly douse the Olympic flame, raise the continuing issue of Tibet to fever pitch, and attempt to inject acrimony between nations where none existed before. When you think about it, this is a clear case of “Let’s you and him fight.” The real question is: "Whose interest does this serve?" Political divisiveness is easy to create, aggravate, and amplify. Let’s not go for the bait.

I took the picture, above, in San Francisco's Chinatown about a year ago. While I didn't take the time to get a good picture, I really like the message.

Supporting Speaker Pelosi on Tibet

Amidst riots in Tibet, the Dalai Lama is again in the news. House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi visited with the Dalai Lama in India on Friday, and China is hopping mad. China is accusing the Dalai Lama of trying to sabotage the Olympic Games in China, and accusing Speaker Pelosi of being a "defender of arsonists, looters and killers." Wilmette calls upon its readers to support Speaker Pelosi's meeting with the Dalai Lama.

"If freedom-loving people throughout the world do not speak out against China's oppression in Tibet, we have lost our moral authority to speak on behalf of human rights anywhere in the world," said Speaker Pelosi.

Last October, the Congress of the United States conferred the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian award bestowed by the US Congress, on the Dalai Lama, who is pictured above with Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senator Robert Byrd, and President Bush. In 1989, the Dalai Lama won the Nobel Peace Prize.

We would note that while the Dalai Lama is a "simple Buddhist monk," he appears to be a thoroughly modern one, with his own website, complete with downloadable audio and video files, in English, Chinese, and Tibetan.

Panda Sanctuaries Need Help after Earthquake in China

Eight two-year old pandas were flown to the Beijing Zoo the other day. They are recovering from post earthquake stress after narrowly escaping death at the Wolong Nature Reserve as a result of the terrible earthquake in China. In Gandsu, China, at the world's largest panda reserve, all 102 pandas are missing.

The Wolong National Nature Reserve, a short distance from the earthquake's epicenter, is the birthplace of the pandas at Washington's National Zoo, Mei Xiang and Tian Tian. Conditions there after the quake were so bad that 5 tons of bamboo had to be flown in so the pandas would not go hungry.

The Wolong Reserve is in very bad need of help. The National Zoo is collecting donations online, as is Friends of World Heritage, where donations are being matched 2/1 by Expedia.com and the UN Foundation. Donations do not just benefit the Giant Panda. The reserves not only provide jobs for local people, they also generate significant tourism, an important source of income for nearby communities.

Five Golden Rings

Is there anything as golden as the five Olympic rings? On the fifth day of Christmas you might like to read the newly released reporting regulations effective January 1, 2007 for reporting "activities carried out by foreign journalists covering the [2008] Beijing Olympic Games and related matters in China during the Beijing Olympic Games and the preparatory period."

I don't think China likes Christmas much other than for the manufacturing business it generates, and they don't like reporters much, either. Come to think of it, they are really bad about Internet freedom, too. Kind of reminds us that on the fifth day of Christmas that there are a lot of people in China who have nothing to celebrate at all.

Lazy Sunday in Wilmette

It's a lazy Summer Sunday in Wilmette. Everyone at our house is tired from working at the Kenilworth Union Church Rummage Sale, yesterday. After so much excitement, today we are looking for something fun to do. But first, we did find this gem while doing the online equivalent of reading the Sunday paper:

"[I]nstead of being vilified, as we were under Bush, the United States is now suddenly bordering on being irrelevant.

Relations with China and Russia have been deteriorating.

China wags its finger at us over our spendthrift ways, and who can blame them for worrying about whether we can ever afford to pay them back?

North Korea sinks a South Korean boat, and the U.S. provides no leadership. Instead, the Obama administration issues what amounts to a tersely worded press release.

Relations with the government we prop up in Afghanistan are, at best, strained.

No U.S. president since Carter has been as crossways with Israel, our one solid Middle East ally.

And on the homefront, unemployment still hovers around 10 percent. Factor in those who have lost hope and have stopped looking, and the jobless rate is in the high teens."
You can read the entire editorial at the Denver Post.

But no need to sit around the house pouting. We are off to The Grove in Glenview, to view the Civil War re-enactors. There is plenty to see and do there (here's today's schedule), and the day is lovely. We are going to take our mosquito repellant with us!

Kenilworth Union Church Rummage Sale Saturday, July 19, 2008, 7am to 3pm

UPDATE: The 2010 Kenilworth Union Church Rummage Sale is on Saturday, July 24, 2010 from 7:00 am to 3:00 pm. See you there!

UPDATE: It's 2009 and time again for Rummage at Kenilworth Union Church! This year's sale is Saturday July 25, 2009 and the time is from 7 am to 3 PM. More info at the KUC website, just click here.

Looking for a cheap family outing this weekend? On Saturday, July 19, 2008, Kenilworth Union Church, in Chicago's north shore suburb of Kenilworth, will hold its annual rummage sale from 7:00 am to 3:00 pm. This is a great rummage sale, so do stop by. Driving directions are here, and you also can take the Union Pacific Metra North Line to Kenilworth and walk 3 blocks east to the church. Another alternative is to take the CTA purple line "el" to the end of the line in Wilmette, which is the Linden stop, where a free shuttle will take buyers to and from the el station during the hours of sale. Further information about the sale is available by phone at (847) 251-4272.

Don't worry about eating, because there will be plenty of tasty treats for an outdoor lunch, all at a very reasonable cost. Since there are plenty of nice things for the whole family at very cheap prices, this could be a fun Saturday outing for the whole family that won't stress a budget that now has to cover the increases in gas prices and food. On the Metra, kids ride free with parents and a ticket for the whole weekend costs $5.00/person.

As usual, there are very strong offering in women's, children's and infant's clothing, treasures (2 rooms), books, linens, decorative accessories, and items for Christmas and Hallowe'en. Other departments include jewelry; toys; sporting goods; housewares (including hardware); electronics; furniture; china and glass; shoes, purses and accessories; menswear; and baskets.

Tip: If you are looking for luxury goods and items that are still in their original packages or with original price tags, do come very early. These items go fast. But if you choose to sleep in, go anyway, as there are usually plenty of very good things to last all day. Around noon or 1:00, many departments will offer an entire bag of items for a dollar or two. This is particularly a deal in the book department and in clothing.

We have seen some items priced as little as 5 cents and quite a selection for a dime. How good is that? Do come and enjoy yourself, take home some new things very cheaply, and enjoy all the benefits of recycling perfectly good items.

Note: Proceeds from Kenilworth Union Church are used for Chicago area charities.

Museum Day: Overewhelmed by the Romans in Cologne

I imagine you were expecting a spectacular photo from Cologne, where I headed after I was done sightseeing in Düsseldorf, but I really like this 2,000 year old glass pig. It dates back to the days of the Romans in Cologne. On earlier visits (and Cologne just keeps pulling me back) I had never had time to see the Römisch-Germanisches Museum, which is located next to the great cathedral, the Kölner Dom. I almost got completely worn out--it took most of a day wandering through the exhibits, and there was a lot to see. So much for my preconceived notion that this was a small museum!

The collection started off with pots from the iron age and Roman stone memorials, and moved on to just about every kind of thing that people owned or used a couple of millenia ago, all conveniently found in or around Cologne.

The glass pig pictured above was only one of a collection of intact glass manufactured in Cologne not long after the time of Christ. The fish to the left also seemed very modern, as did much of the extensive collection. I guess people liked knick knacks even back them.

I particularly enjoyed seeing the everyday items. There were pieces of old Roman sewer pipe, items from a manufacturing shoe shop complete with (part of a) sandal, and lots and lots of pottery. Ever since I studied Latin in school, years ago, I wondered what that wax tablet that the Roman children used instead of paper looked like. I had to wait a long time to see one, but the tabula and stylus, pictured to the right, solved something I had wondered about for years.

With all the bad press about unsafe children's toys from China, I thought it would be timely to post up a picture of what Roman children played with, such as the men on horses with wheels to the left. There were some other little games, too, but I particularly liked these toys, though I imagine they could require strong wrists to play with.

The museum also had a lot of pottery, cases and cases of pottery, any kind you could imagine, particularly a lot of wine pitchers and drinking cups. I guess they had more than they could possibly exhibit, as at one point the museum simply noted that Romans stored their pottery on shelves, such as the example to the right, where the museum had placed a great number of objects.


I've been reading lately how the fork is a fairly recent invention, but as you can see at the left, forks date back to at least Roman times, though I must admit that what is pictured in the middle at the left, looks a lot like an olive fork.

If you find yourself in Cologne, I'd recommend this conveniently located museum. A tip, though, don't make the mistake I did and try going on a Monday: it's closed!

All of the pictures here can be viewed in a large size showing more detail simply by clicking on the picture.

Squeezing Tax Dollars from Turnips

I was quite taken by a number of headlines on Drudge this morning. Citizens' credit scores are falling as they struggle to pay bills, IRS revenue is down 34%, China--America's biggest creditor--is warning us to stop printing money, and Rahm Emanuel's brother suggests that we need a 10% European-style, national Value Added Tax (VAT). It is amazing to me that just as the financial markets decreed that the usual rules regarding extension of credit no longer applied just before the credit meltdown, the White House believes that they can escape the usual rules of economics and squeeze tax dollars out of turnip taxpayers.

What part of the dismal science does the White House fail to understand? Do they seriously believe that, given falling demand for goods, demand will stabilize or increase when prices increase?

Plainly as an American Farmer

Wisdom from China as reported by the AP:
“[Former President George W. Bush] couldn’t speak with flowery language and even made grammatical mistakes but spoke as plainly as an American farmer. [President Barack Obama speaks] “with sweet but empty words.” - Chinese blogger Zhao “Hecaitou” Dezhu

“Learn English from Obama: Instead of saying ‘I want to eat,’ say ‘I am a big supporter of non-hunger.’” – Chinese writer Wang Pei

And have you seen this video of world leaders greeting the Emperor of Japan?

Bears Still on my Mind

Football is over and I am still suffering a little bit after Sunday's Super Bowl. The Chicago Bears cleaned out their lockers today, and left for wherever they spend the off season. With bears still on my mind, I was happy to find this video of the baby pandas in China. That cheered me up some. Then I went searching for a video of the municipal pet brown bears in Berne, Switzerland. I was happy to find this cute video which featured one bear lazily catching marshmallows, one of their favorite past times. That cheered me up, too.

Since I am so much better after my flu vacation, I am sure that soon life will be good again.

Animals and Earthquakes

Did your animals act strangely before the recent earthquakes? I wish I had been awake to notice. Some people report that animals become agitated before earthquakes, and there is a school of thought that insists that animals can predict earthquakes. One unpublished paper on the Internet has a brief review of animal behavior and earthquake prediction in China, although the National Geographic and Nature both feature articles skeptical about the ability of animals to predict earthquakes . MSNBC reports that some animals run away before earthquakes, and PBS has a round-up of links. There even is a webpage devoted to animal behavior and earthquakes.

Assault on Free Speech in San Francisco

There is an free speech issue in San Francisco that has mostly been a local San Francisco story, and it's pretty interesting. It involves the Board of Supervisors of San Francisco, a radio talk show, and you probably won't be hearing about it from the usual free-speech advocates. The talk show host is Michael Savage whose byword is "Libralism is a mental disorder." The person who would like to silence him is the Supervisor of the City of San Francisco, Geraldo Sandoval, a liberal.

Savage, who from all accounts is a reformed liberal bad-boy who counted beat poet Alan Ginsberg as a friend, has a number of pet subjects about which he rants on talk radio. He specializes in outrageous, politically incorrect, material and undoubtedly makes most conservatives feel very liberal, indeed.

Sandoval introduced a resolution, condemning a comment of Savage's as "hate speech," when Savage opined that some immigrants undergoing a hunger strike could die for all he cared. The proposal came before the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, August 14, 2007. Only one board member, Ed Jew, who isn't Jewish, but whose grandfather was an immigrant from China, voted against the proposal, effectively stopping it in its tracks.

"For the record, I do not agree with comments allegedly made by Mr. Savage," said Mr. Jew, "but the First Amendment gives him the right to make those comments," Jew said. For further information, I found an interesting post on Voice of Truth. For more on Michael Savage, you could tune into his radio show in Chicago during evening drive time on 560AM.

Rat Poison for Pets from Menu Foods

Update: Scroll down for additional recalled pet food

If you put rat poison, even inadvertantly, in your products designed for household pet consumption, it might be a good idea to get a really professional PR firm to help when you get found out. For a nearly textbook example of what not to do, just click here.

Don't you think pet owners should be protected from having Chinese wheat products entering our country undetected? I hear China is starting to corner the garlic market, but I sure haven't seen any signs to that effect on any garlic at our local markets.

Poison anyone?

Note: Menu Foods, the firm which made the poisoned products, has a website with a telephone number and links to web pages with the affected products can be found by clicking here. Kind of gives you a whole new perspective on table scraps, doesn't it?

Update 3/31/07: The Food and Drug Administration's webpage with more recall information from additional brands can be found by clicking here.

Chief Illiniwek: Hail (and) Farewell

scroll down for link to video of the Chief's last dance
There is real grief today in the heartland. The University of Illinois, and its alumni love Chief Illiniwek, their symbol for nearly a century. As of next week, Chief Illiniwek will be deader than a doornail, officially extinct, gone every bit as missing as the Native American Illini Confederacy, once the lords of the Mississippi valley.

Chief Illiniwek made his first appearance on Oct. 30, 1926, during halftime of the Illinois-Pennsylvania football game and has been revered ever since. His final appearance will be Wednesday at the Assembly Hall, during halftime of the varsity men's basketball game against Michigan, the final home game this season for the Illini.

The NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) has a perfect track record--right up there with China and other repressive regimes--in denying freedom of speech and freedom of expression to its college members. In the guise of political correctness, the NCAA has worked tirelessly to extirpate all evidence that the USA was once an Indian (or Native American, if you wish) nation, and is currently finishing its assault against the "Fighting Sioux" of North Dakota among others.

The NCAA is a voluntary organization. Theoretically voluntary, that is. Unfortunately, without membership, no college can have a sports program of any stature whatsoever. Any college administrator will tell you that nothing drives alumni contributions for academic programs like winning sports teams, so without NCAA membership the future of an entire educational institution could be in doubt.

With advocates around the world bringing increased attention to the issue of free speech and freedom of expression, it is sad that here in the United States we sit by so idly as "private associations" impose bans as thorough as those in countries with repressive regimes.

RIP, Chief Illiniwek, the Indian Removal is nearly complete. Your loyal fans mourn.

Click here for comprehensive information from the Chief Illiwek Educational Foundation.

Note: With the retirement of Chief Illiniwek, interest in the native tribes of Illinois (after which the State is named) is sure to wane. For further information about the Illini from the Illinois State Museum, just click here. Additional scholarly information about the Native American tribes of Illinois can be found by clicking here.

UPDATE: We've saved the last dance for you! Click here for the official professional video featuring Chief Illiniwek's last dance at the University of Illinois basketball game at the Assembly Hall on February 21, 2007. We will leave the last word on Chief Illiniwek to Charles Kupicella, President of the University of North Dakota who wrote an open letter to the NCAA regarding their attack on the "Fighting Sioux," which you can read by clicking here, although writer CB tips us that this letter is even better.

Dresden and Freedom of Speech

When the silver and tin deposits in the Erzegebirge Mountains in eastern Germany declined, miners turned to wood carving to support their families. While German Christmas markets now feature plenty of wooden items from China, there is still a large German cottage industry manufacturing nutcrakers and other Christmas decorations.

The giant painted wooden candle holder, pictured above, stands guard at the Christmas market in Dresden, a beautiful city with amazing architecture. I felt a little uncomfortable here, remembering from history the allied firebombing in World War II, a strategic necessity but devastating from an artistic viewpoint. The city has bounced back, however, as it also did in 1491 following a great fire, in 1760 following bombardment by Prussia, and an uprising in 1849. Plenty of money appears to be pouring into town, judging from an enormous number of building projects.

On the walk to the Christmas market, I passed an old Communist standing astride his bicycle with a a huge red flag with hammer and sickle waving beside him. He was talking to a couple extremely enthusiastically, with a fervor that only a true believer can muster.

On the walk back to the train, a young street preacher was loudly proclaiming the importance of Jesus, and some people with him were passing out nice little calendars for children with pictures of animals and Bible verses on them.

With Advil, some rest, and a pretty delicious potato pancake for lunch, walking was again becoming a fairly pleasant experience. I felt quite happy to see citizens, silenced for so many years by the Iron Curtain, enjoying their freedom of speech.

Because I saw so little of Dresden, I made a goal to one day return.

Furious Indian Bloggers Dismayed by New Government Censorship of Blogs

Indian Bloggers are furious! There is wholesale blocking of their blogs in India, and their government says its not censorship, it's an "Operation" to counteract terrorists. Worldwide, Indians are dismayed that suddenly they have all the freedom of, say, Pakistan or China.

Blogspot, Typepad, and Geocities blogs are affected. If you are interested in this story most of the information is here. If you click on this link, you will find a long list of links to blog posts which have further information and first hand accounts of the situation.

While indications are that the block is for a limited duration, citizens of "the largest democracy in the world"--complete with plenty of First Amendment-type protections--can barely believe this is happening. And thoughtfully enough, one blogger noted that if terrorists are using blogs to communicate perhaps it might make more sense for government security people to READ those blogs rather than block them.

When Pakistan blocked blogs following the cartoon contraversy, there was virtually no press coverage of the situation. It will be interesting to see whether US media picks up on the story, or whether they will continue to believe that America's vision stops at America's borders.