Ecological Protection with Chinese Characteristics- New Oil Spill in China

China needs oil and thus drills for it. Can anyone image a more doomsday scenario than the Chinese drilling for a compound that when released untreated into nature can potentially wipe out all of the wildlife that it touches? Well maybe the Chinese tinkering with nukes is more upsetting, but those inhabit the oceans may argue.
The thing is that China aside from having horrendous product quality, compounds this problem by caring precious little for the environment and thus we see the results, oil spills, toxic clouds of dust, lack of drinking water and an ongoing rape of her land.
The latest news is that the Bohai bay spill that went unreported for a month since it began has gotten worse. While the US fessed up to her little problems and in the end probably benefited, vz more protective measures and new forms of clean up to be used, the same cannot be said in China.
The most recent news about a new leak springing from the well only portends to future calamities. And the reaction of the Chinese government is none other than to demand an apology to the people of China but what is being done to eradicate or minimize such catastrophes in the future?
None, after all, this is China. My question is that how can a place that has so much history have learned so little about life?
(photo from offshoreenergytoday.com
(also posted http://www.topchinablog.com)

The Reality of Chinese History

China has a long history, of this you shall learn when you come here and you should. At issue, however is that beyond the tedium of hearing your typical person from China prattle on about some rusty old dynasty thousands of years ago. It is with utter precision that they will go on and on about how some dusty old cragged toothed Chinese leader had shepherded his flock and lead them to an advanced state of enlightenment. A claim to which I have serious doubts. My friend Harry lives in a Beijing hutong and has no private toilet, only a communal one. So how is it that the country of China was civilized for so long when the only way to have privacy in modern China is to shit in a bucket by one’s door?
It is such mysteries that one ponders upon setting foot in China. Thankfully, however, there are those who have looked beyond the BS and obfuscation and allow insight into the reality of China past and present. Mylaowai.com is such an author. Below is an excerpt on the reality of the formation of China and her history.

Excerpt from here:
I’m constantly being reminded that China is the most ancient country in the world. It’s something that people are obliged to mention at least once every time they meet a foreigner. “Yes, I do like the new BMW 6 series convertible, did you know that cars were invented in China, the oldest country in the world?” is a fairly normal example. Personally, I wouldn’t be too quick to admit to coming from the country that has been developing longest for the least net gain, but that’s just a personal bias. ‘Five Thousand Years and Still Developing’ might be a catchy slogan, but it isn’t one that I’d want greeting tourists as they stepped off the plane in my country……..
The first actually proven Dynasty, as indicated by actual evidence, was the Shang (1,600 BC to 1,046 BC). However, what is referred to by the Chinese as being a ‘Dynasty’, was really little more than a collection of villages, without much in the way of a unifying power structure. It was, by any meaningful yardstick, no different to Neolithic Europe. The various tribes did apparently possess conceptual art, and scratched pictures of stick figures in shells – the Chinese today claim that this proves that Chinese invented language, but this was no more a language than are chickens scratching their claws in the dust.

continue here
http://mylaowai.com/2009/10/01/happy-birthday-falling-cow/#comments

photo from allposters.com
(also here http://www.topchinablog.com)

Martin Luther King Sculpture Made in China

What a kick in the ass for Martin Luther King and his legacy. A great orator who was gunned down for nothing more than abject fear and ignorance, his legacy is then cemented in Washington by one of the most dictatorial regimes in modern times?
yeah MLK is getting his just deserves, sort of. He will have a nice sculpture in homage to what he has given us, albeit it’s tainted by the hands who crafted it. The US. ever so desirous of giving money to the Chinese, for we do not have the talent to build such things as a sculpture of this type, forked over a little more than U$100 million to the Chinese to do the work for us. I guess MLK probably doesn’t mind, he was kind of a pacifist, but who would hire this regime to lay their soiled hands on the memory of a fan human such as he was?
The only positive thing is that when the sculpture breaks, and it will, it will not kill millions like all the other stuff they are building for us.
[photo wantchinatimes.com]

I Survived the Death Train In China- China’s High Speed Rail

I had no reason to ride China’s ‘widow maker’ or high speed rail, nor did I have a reason to go to Jinan in Shandong province, which reason enough to do so. I’ll blog about it later, the trip I mean but I just want to say that I deserve an accomodation for I rode upon the Chinese death train and lived to talk about it. yeah China is recalling 54 ‘minced meat makers’ but I rolled the dice and came out alive, that’s just how I roll.
The train was clean and a smooth ride, but it’s new so what do you expect? Give it a few months and the place, just as most of China, will look like Flint Michigan without the charm….

30 Cases of Anthrax in China

China’s northeast province of Liaoning has 30 cases of anthrax. The stuff is supposedly linked to cows and coming into direct contact with them. I have my doubts, it’s probably more likely that it has to do with non-existent sanitation or maybe its just karma…

story here