Tian Tian "raped" (aka artificially inseminated) to justify having pandas at Edinburgh Zoo

Call me old-fashioned but what is going on in Edinburgh, under the guise of furthering scientific knowledge and perhaps also of trying to justify the significant cost of keeping two Giant Pandas 'on loan' from the Chinese Government for a time-limited period in the Scottish capital, is nothing more nor less than rape.

We are told that whilst the male, Yang Guang, was "in the mood", his female semi-companion, Tian Tian, apparently is not, despite her hormone levels having been tested and found to have risen to a level appropriate for mating. Despite being "interested", Yang Guang has it seems behaved like whatever is the Giant Panda equivalent of a "perfect gentleman" and not attempted to force himself on Tian Tian and in any case she would probably have resisted his advances if he had tried - despite their cuddly appearance, pandas are apparently quite aggressive creatures.

We are vouchsafed the information that, apart from swapping the two around between their normal quarters, they were "able to interact with a grate keeping them apart" - but still Tian Tian has avoided giving Yang Guang any come hither signs. Like it or not, she seems simply not to be interested. However, the "scientists" (aka "torturers") in charge of this mixture of barbarity or so-called scientific endeavour, are in reality hauling these two unfortunate creatures from one side of the world to the other, courtesy of the tyrannical Chinese Government, thereby colluding in a political game with the two Giant Pandas being no more than pawns in Beijing's influence-peddling. If there was real interest in enhancing to the maximum the chances of these animals breeding then they would be left alone to their own devices in their natural habitat, or at least as close to their natural habitat as possible, not hauling them around the world to be gawped at by the public and forever probed by "scientists".

If these were two human creatures this would rightly be classed as slavery and gross mistreatment of both of them and rape of the female in particular. That is the truth, however much the scientific cloak surrounding this whole circus seeks to mask it.

Hong Kong government scraps Chinese patriotism classes

It is a salutary reminder that democracy, even in the limited version permitted in Hong Kong (both before it was handed back to China in 1997, but even more since then), is only possible and indeed sustainable with the active support of local people. The latest 'spat' involves plans to introduce from 2016 at the latest a mandatory [Beijing-sponsored] curriculum to be taught in all primary and secondary schools, designed it would seem to inculcate (aka 'brainwash') what is being described, probably completely accurately, as naked Communist Party propaganda. [Beijing-appointed] Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying had earlier rejected pleas to meet with protestors opposing the policy, but in an abrupt volte face has scrapped the mandatory aspect of the policy:

"The amendment of this policy means that we are giving the authority to the schools. "The schools are given the authority to decide when and how they would like to introduce the moral and national education."

I note the qualification "if" relating to the introduction of this policy is absent. Whilst it is pleasing that the pressure of public opinion has forced the Hong Kong government to reverse (or at least delay or weaken) its earlier stance, dictated by a largely pro-Beijing elite in the Hong Kong SAR which had supported the election of Mr Leung to his post in March this year, it is clear that it will require continuing vigilance on the part of brave citizens there to ensure that the existing semi-autonomy of Hong Kong is assured in the future.

(As a former resident of Hong Kong I retain a keen interest in developments there.)

Ballet as acrobatics

A quite extraordinary performance of Swan Lake by the Great Chinese State Circus. Perhaps not entirely conventional 'ballet', but very beautiful to watch and demonstrating amazing skills on the part of the two central dancers - balance, dexterity with grace and total confidence in each other.



- a suitably uplifting way to begin the New Year for this blog, I think.

Executions of British citizens abroad and the extradition of British citizens

Let's be clear about this, I am strongly oppposed to the use of capital punishment (i.e. state executions) under any circumstances. Such judicial punishments are formally prohibited in the UK and throughout the whole of the European Union and in many other countries, too.

However, the writ of the British government and of the European Union is severely limited. Other countries have quite a different view (and laws to back it up) on the whole topic of capital punishment - notably the US, Iran and China, to name three, albeit three of the better-known (not to say 'notorious') examples.

Today a British citizen has been executed in China, having been convicted of drug smuggling. The fact that he was smuggling drugs seems not to be in doubt. It is contended by those who pleaded for clemency in his case that he was 'tricked' into carrying a suitcase containing 4 kilos of heroin into China. Some trick! It is further contended that the executed man was mentally unstable and that his [undoubted] crime should be judged in the light of this. To put it crudely, we are being asked to accept that being mentally unstable should be a 'free pass' to commit crimes in other countries and not suffer the punishments that those other countries consider appropriate. Try telling that to the US (or Iran) the next time it executes someone on what we consider ill-judged grounds and see how much notice it takes!

Quite frankly the British government has enough trouble on its hands with its [perfectly deplorable] habit of trashing our own legal system and diminishing the rights of UK citizens within our own borders (things over which it actually has some control), without trying to 'lecture' other countries how they should run their own judicial systems.

Whilst I deplore today's judicial exceution of Mr Akmal Shaikh in China, I do wish the British government would use its political capital on things over which it actually can have some influence, rather than making empty gestures in matters where it succeeds only in making itself (and us) look silly and ineffectual. I refer specifically to the case of Gary McKinnon, a British citizen currently under threat of extradition to the USA and which our own Home Secretary, Alan Johnson, says he has no power to halt on medical grounds. Remind me, which British government was it who committed us to a decidely lop-sided Extradition Treaty with the US? Oh yes, our present Labour government!

Both Mr Akmal Shaikh and Mr Gary McKinnon have been said to have been (in the case of the former) and be (in the case of the latter) suffering from schizophrenia (i.e. what is I understand also known as a 'bipolar disorder') - see (*) below. So it is OK to send Mr McKinnon across the Atlantic to the [not always so very] tender mercies of the US judicial system, because the US is supposedly a fellow-democracy, albeit the country that permitted Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib to happen (with its use of 'water torture' and other, to put it brutally frankly, crimes against humanity), but not OK for a sovereign country such as China, which happens not to conform to our 'prissy' notions of democracy, to follow its own judicial path?

Or what about our oh-so-ethical British government that allowed our knee-jerk unequal Extradition Treaty with the US, supposedly designed to help reduce the risk of terrorism, to be subverted by using it to allow US authorities to pursue British citizens whose only 'crime' (if it is ever judged as such) was against a British company in Britain? I refer of course to the 'NatWest three' who were extradited some time ago to the US on frankly spurious charges (so far as the US is concerned) seemingly with the sole aim of using pressure upon them to get them to implicate others.

Basically we have a British government that makes loud noises about protecting British citizens' rights in situations which it cannot alter, but singularly fails to protect the rights of British citizens when it has the power to do so. And we wonder why some Chinese refer to Britain as a 'paper tiger', or why Britain has today been told by Iran's government that it will have its 'cheeks boxed' if it doesn't shut up?

Why does our current British government even bother? It has, quite frankly, not the faintest notion of what conducting an effective dipolmatic policy entails and its notions of an 'ethical foreign policy' make me want to retch! If the actions of our present Labour government did not make us all, in Britain, look so silly and pathetic I could laugh if it concerned some other poorly-governed country, rather than our own - as it is, all I want to do is have a drink to deaden the horror of being led by such donkeys!

Now to calm myself down after my rather too habitual (of late) 'ranting' against our ineffectual shambles of a Government, may I just remind my fellow British citizens that the ability of our government to protect us when we are abroad is very strictly limited; we no longer live in an era when 'gunboat diplomacy' will be used to rescue us when we do, or are accused of doing, something wrong according to another country. I've visited and lived in a number of coutries which have very different notions to us on matters of crime and justice, including both China and (just to take a couple of other random examples) Malaysia and Thailand. I vividly recall the landing form I had to complete the first time I visited Kuala Lumpur and which bore a red-printed warning about the punishment for 'drug-trafficking' being death; I knew about this beforehand, so I wasn't surprised, but it still came as something of a shock to see it in print. The definition of 'trafficking' was for amounts in excess of 50 grams, if I recall correctly, just as in China. Four kilograms is eighty times greater than that!

Put simply, if you can't do the time (or suffer the consequences, however unfair we may consider them to be) don't do the crime! It really is that simple. Otherwise stay at home.

(*) - a commenter has kindly corrected what I wrote about the mental disorder from which the executed man was said to have suffered; the commenter writes "No. Bipolar is what used to be known as manic depression. Schizophrenia is a level of mania well beyond." However, I do not believe this affects the basic premise of my article.

China-Inverness charter flights?

(PLease see UPDATE at end)

thought this might be a wind-up when I first caught the summary of this story in my Bloglines feed from the BBC website, but when I read the underlying report I can certainly see the logic and maybe it might even happen. It is certainly true that when I worked in Hong Kong many years ago one of my friends and colleagues, a Hong Kong Chinese, was completely infatuated by all things Scottish (not whisky though, because he was almost wholly tee-total) and was obsessed - and I don't think I exaggerate - with finding some plausible [or not] Scottish connection that he could latch on to and in particular he wanted me to try and find a tartan that he could use, so one summer whilst I was back in Scotland I did some research and found that his family name was quite similar to a Scottish name and that it was a sept of the Scottish Clan MacPherson, so I got him a tie of a MacPherson tartan and he was aboslutely over the moon with it. I can well believe, therefore, that there will be a worthwhile number of Chinese with the means and desire to take a visit to what some might see as, in a weird kind of way, their spiritual homeland, even if the 'spiritual' connection is merely a taste for our national product 'whisky'! Funnily enough, I happen to know the person quoted in the article and he is certainly no foolish romantic, simply someone trying to boost the tourism prospects of the Highlands through practical action, particularly when visitors from some other countries (such as the US or Canada) may currently be in decline because of currency and economic fluctuations.

UPDATE: (Saturday 13SEP08 0820 BST) There's a fuller article on this proposal in yesterday's Inverness Courier which addresses some of the issues covered in the comments to this article.

Boris at the party - magnificent!

Fortuitously I read the comments for this post chez Mr Eugenides, otherwise I might have missed this bravura performance by London Mayor Boris Johnson at the post Olympic Games closing ceremony 'handover' celebratory party. Even Gordon Brown seemed to be thoroughly enjoying Boris's seemingly-extemporaneous, but probably carefully-crafted, discourse.

I did however see a part of Brown's own speech at the same gathering, because that's what the BBC was dutifully plugging on its news buletins (on BBC World at least - which is what I was watching here in Spain at the time). No doubt the man means well, and if he'd stopped at the 1'41" mark it would have been fine, but he went on; just look at Seb Coe's face and even David Beckham's - the 'groaning' was of a quite different nature (i.e. 'when will this end?') to what it had been during Boris's tour de force.

(I note that Boris's speech was in fact considerably longer (at 4'11") than Gordon's (at 2'47"), but it seemed quite the reverse.)

'Big Brother' (err... 'Big Sister') - Swedish style

A man in Stockholm was forced to accompany a police officer to the police station and give a urine smaple, because she suspected that he had "unusually large muscles, particularly large arm muscles, which are a sign of steroid use". The urine tested negative for steroids.

An officer at the police drugs unit suggested the arresting officer had been "a bit too ambitious".
(thru Andrew Sullivan)

Is this what we've come to? A maverick police officer armed with far too many powers for the comfort and safety of your average citizen gets bizarre notions into her (in this case) head and frog-marches a perfectly ordinary (if muscle-bound) citizen off for a urine test, 'just to be sure' there is no illegal use of steroids? What next?
- You're too fat, sir - you must be over-indulging in health-damaging fats, carbohydrates or alcohol and will be a charge on the health services in the future. Please accompany me to the station so your blood can be tested. Couldn't happen? Well there have been reports over the past few years alleging that some medical treatments have already been withheld from patients considered obese, not on medical grounds, but because the lifestyle was disapproved of.
- You're too thin, sir - you must be suffering from bulimia. Please accompany me to the station so a psychologist/psychiatrist can evaluate why you are doing this to yourself.

It seems that the advance of the 'Police State' and 'Big Brother' isn't only happening in Britain! Yesterday I read about an even more draconian system being developed in China - where of course the 'one child' policy has already led to female infanticide being practised, particularly in rural areas, and an imbalance in genders with there being too few women for men of similar ages to marry. If you read right to the end of this article you'll see that the US is getting in on the act, too - but of course we knew that already, since the Patriot Act was made law.

It is clear that now a police office needs only the flimsiest of reasons to require one to accompany them to a police station. It is clear also that the police in many countries now regard themselves as existing solely to protect the interests of the 'State', not to protect the citizen. Ask Jose Padilla.

Toxic dentifrice and other tales from China

The scandal of counterfeit products from China receives attention in the Telegraph. This is not a new problem as I recall hearing about similar things happening when I lived in Hong Kong in the 1980s anf the 1990s. Caveat emptor certainly, but better to do your 'due diligence' in advance of purchase.

UPDATE: (Tuesday 10JUL07 08.36 BST) The wages of sin is death, for one corrupt official in China. I deplore capital punishment and wonder whether (no, let's be honest, I believe that) the kind of repressive regime that operates in China is itself at least partly responsible for fostering a climate where corruption like this can exist.

Well, make your mind up! Am I blocked in China or not?

I first came across this site through a post at Tim Worstall's blog some days ago and when I tried it out then I found my blog's URL was blocked, whereas Tim's apparently was not.

Well, I have just come across mention of the Chinese verification site in a new post in Mr Eugenides's blog with the splenetic little one (I refer to his header banner, I have no knowledge of what he looks like [now]) somewhat miffed that he is not blocked. Now I have re-checked my own site again and find I appear not to be blocked. So which is it?

Did my comment to the post where I first noticed it on Tim's blog make the Chinese authorities spring into action and unblock my site? Not very likely I think. Or was it because I host my blog at 'Blogger'? But of course Mr Eugenides does too. Was my speculation in that comment that my being blocked then might either be related to me being 'gay' or because I quite often have blogged about China and socialism in a less than flattering way? Or is the checking site either simply inconsistent in the results it returns or indeed is it a complete waste of time?

I have noticed over the past several weeks that the number of 'hits' to my site seeming to emanate from China has lessened considerably, although these have not disappeared completely. On the other hand I have started to track visitors back quite often to the 'pkblogs' site, which I understand is a way internet surfers in China have found to circumvent the Chinese government's firewall. Perhaps the real answer is that the Chinese firewall is not the secure barrier they had hoped and that 'leakage' occurs (just as it always has with the real Great Wall of China).

The 'year of the golden pig' gets underway in China

More than 150 million people are expected to be travelling home to be with their families in China to coincide with the start of the Year of the Golden Pig, a once every sixty years event - children born during the year are believed to have especial luck (and hospitals are said to be gearing up for a baby boom as a result). The annual Chinese New Year migration is apparently the world's biggest human migration, involving 2.17 billion passenger trips on trains, planes and buses.