A Potemkin Olympic Village

China is evil. Freakin' evil. Of that, there should be no doubt. We all remember Tiananmen Square and the brutal way a student protest was put down there in 1989. Prior to the Olympics, China also put down unrest in Tibet. As the Olympics are happening, China fights Uighur separatists in the western province of Xinjiang -- although there's very little coverage of that.

How should we respond to the oppression in China? President Bush, who never misses an opportunity to kiss the religious right's butt, cast China's entire human rights record as merely religious oppression -- as if China were guilty only of shutting churches.

Of course, part of the problem is that Bush -- who's used his term as president to spend money like a drunken sailor in a strip club -- has basically sold the US to nations like China. It's one thing to embarrass them slightly, it's another to call a criminal regime a criminal regime. Being part of a criminal regime all his own doesn't help Bush's position any, either.



So Bush was solemn when solemnity was called for and, for the rest of his visit to Beijing, acted the way Bush typically behaves abroad -- loud, clownish, and generally a douchebag. There's a reason this guy shies away from diplomacy; he has zero natural ambassadorial talent.

So, the fact that China has mobile organ harvest vans isn't mentioned. Big freakin' buses that go out, capture dissidents and Falun Gong practitioners, execute them, remove their organs, and sell them. China's isn't a wasteful government. If you can kill dissidents and sell their body parts, then literal rolling butcher shops are the answer.

Sometimes, they're able to sell the entire corpse, which is stuffed like a dead horse and put on display in traveling exhibits. Either way, they manage to get rid of a problem citizen and profit from their death at once. It's just good business for a nation that's come more and more to resemble the soulless American corporations that power its rising economy -- profits first, people last. China is the very definition of the modern corporate nightmare.

The environmental damage can't be ignored, either. The only place in the world that may have worse air is Mexico City. China's water comes in pastel shades, from the dyes and chemicals used in manufacturing. In 2005, China admitted that more than 70% of its lakes and rivers were contaminated with pollution. "China's waterways are dying, and its rivers are running black from industrial effluent and untreated sewage," reported the BBC at the time. An estimated 360 million people have no access to safe drinking water.

Given all of this, people are left with a problem -- do you watch the Olympics and support this corporate hellhole?

The truth is, these corporations don't give a damn whether you watch or not. They want you to see their commercials. If you don't want to support China, don't buy the crap. It's that simple. Refusing to watch isn't going to do anything; refusing to shop at Wal-Mart will do a lot more. Sure, China's using the Olympics to portray themselves as wonderfully modern and worldly, but seeing that Potemkin Olympic village isn't going to harm anyone. Believing it is the problem.

The fact is that China is what a corporate world would look like. A world not of citizens, but of consumers. No environmental regulations, no consumer protections, no rights or individuality -- just a pocketful of money to spend on crap made out of lead paint and poison.

It doesn't make any difference to them who wins what medal, who watches what event, who is whose fan. What matters is that you buy the Official Happy Meal of the 2008 Olympics, the Coca-Cola in the commemorative can, the official sportswear made in a sweatshop in Shenzhen. If you don't watch a second of Olympic coverage, it doesn't make a damned bit of difference -- so long as you buy the stuff. Just stay away from crap with the Olympic rings on them and you'll do more than averting your eyes -- athletes aren't eating Snickers bars anyway.

And then, in two years, we can go through all of this again, when the winter Olympics are hosted by Russia. Corporations won't give a damn if you watch those, either.

-Wisco

Technorati tags: politics; China; human rights; environment; Bush; sports; Corporations don't care if you watch the 2008 Olympics -- they just want you to buy Chinese crap from Wal-Mart

A Beautiful Disaster

Like anyone who appreciates film and, especially, photography in film, I have a love/hate relationship with documentary filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl. A visionary fimmaker, Riefenstahl created what many consider to be the best documentary of all time -- Triumph of the Will.

Unfortunately, Triumph of the Will was also a masterpiece of nazi propaganda. This was the genius of the nazi movement -- they understood that the most successful propaganda had to either be really, really scary or really, really cool and they went with cool. Riefenstahl helped build the nazi movement into a national campaign and later claimed she didn't know about all of the horrific crimes the party committed. Her access to the highest levels of the party makes this claim hard to believe. When Riefenstahl died at the age of 101 in 2003, I thought it proved the old saying -- only the good die young.

Another great documentary by Riefenstahl is Olympia, a film about the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Like Triumph, Olympia was pro-nazi, using the Olympics to showcase Hitler's vision of a physically perfect people and casting the nazis as the direct descendants of the ancient greeks who were seen as the creators of western civilization. Nazi design looked Roman for a reason -- you were supposed to see a direct line from Athens to Rome to Berlin. The propaganda had it that Germany was the last, proud stand of the civilization that the Greeks began. Nazi supermen were the next step in the evolution of western civilization.

There may be two kinds of propaganda. There's the N. Korea "Everyone on Earth wants to kill you" model and the nazi/soviet "Trust this government, we're the best thing that's ever happened to humanity" model. Some governments, like the Bush administration, use a little of both -- although, in Bush's case, it's mostly the former.

All of which brings us to the Olympic torch relay. That's all Hitler. He turned the 1936 Olympiad into a "best thing that's ever happened to humanity"-style propaganda outlet. Olympia's breakthroughs in film technology, like mobile tracking cameras on pulleys and cables (which are still used in filming sports today), were meant to show the genius of the Master Race. And the torch relay was meant to symbolize the passing on of the torch of civilization from the ancient Greeks to the modern nazis, not the passing on of the Olympic ideal. Ignited by a parabolic mirror using "the rays of Apollo," the torch supposedly carried the light of civilization through benighted Europe to its new home in Berlin.

In other words, the torch relay has jack to do with the Olympics. It was born as propaganda and continues as propaganda's twin sister, marketing. The Greeks never did anything remotely like this.

So, I wouldn't lose any sleep of the politicization over the torch relay on its way to Beijing. It's nothing but an ad for the 2008 Olympics and a marketing campaign for China. It's meant as spectacle, so kick back and enjoy the spectacle. Adding to the fun is that this spectacle isn't the one that Chinese propagandists had planned for it to be.

Things went bad right off the bat. The lighting ceremony in Athens was disrupted by protesters and things went south from there. From London, to Paris, to San Francisco, the torch relay has been met with protests and chaos. It goes on to Buenos Aires, where protests are likewise expected.

In all of this, the torch has been treated like a fan-dogged celebrity, hiding out in warehouses and taking routes different than had been announced. In a stroke of bad news for the marketing gimmick, Japan has announced it won't allow the torch relay's guards into the country (not surprisingly, they've been accused of being a little too physical in protecting the sacred flame). The torch will travel the streets of Nagano without it's six-foot bodyguards. From there, it goes on to Canberra, Australia where it won't be treated any better than it has been anywhere else -- if that leg happens at all. In a tremendous middle finger to the world, the torch will go through Tibet and up Mt. Everest.

There are few nations on Earth that deserve to have their big marketing/propaganda campaign take such an embarrassing turn as China. The protests are in response to a lot of crap the Chinese government has done over the years. Most high-profile at the moment is the crackdown in Tibet, but supporters of the Falun Gong movement, protestors of the suppression of Muslim Uighurs, and critics of its terrible human rights and environmental record in general are all showing their lack of support.

And, like the 1936 Olympics, Beijing 2008 is a propaganda outlet. It's China's announcement that it's now a nation among nations, not the world unto itself that history remembers. The modern world meets the modern China -- forget the streets filled with bicycles, they've got cars now. It's like Japan, only bigger and without all that democracy and freedom stuff. Friendly, modern China seeks new trading partners and a bigger place on the world stage.

But friendly, modern China is finding that it takes a lot more than a big show to get people to like them. UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown will join German Chancellor Angela Merkel in skipping the opening ceremonies. John McCain, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton all say that Bush shouldn't attend. China is finding that they're as popular as a fart in an elevator right now.

For his part, Bush says he'll attend. It's not extremely surprising -- I mean, what could he say? When it comes to human rights and the rule of international law, he has no moral authority. If he did anything but attend the opening ceremonies and clap like an idiot, he'd be a hypocrite. McCain, who would continue Bush's policies without interruption, apparently has no problem with his own hypocrisy.

In fact, Olympiad XIX is turning into a disaster for China. The whole thing's coming down around their ears. International Olympic Committee chief Jacques Rogge says the Olympics are in crisis, but will rebound.

As much as you or I might hate to see the Olympics politicized like this, remember that it was China who opened the door to that politicization by using the games as a propaganda tool.

And think about how awesome it would've been if the nazi ubermenschen-sponsored 1936 Olympics had gone all to hell and embarrassed Hitler. Jesse Owen was one thing, but having the whole thing turn into one big PR disaster would be another. It might not have changed anything, but it sure would be comforting to know that it happened.

--Wisco

Technorati tags: politics; John McCain; Barack Obama; Hillary Clinton; Angela Merkel; Gordon Brown; nazis; fascism; propaganda; sports; If only Hitler's Olympics had turned out as bad as China's

On the Nobel Peace Prize and the Buggy Whip Industry

It was a bad day for climate change deniers worldwide yesterday, when former Vice President Al Gore accepted the Nobel Peace Prize with the Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Rajendra Pachauri.

According to the Norwegian Aftenposten, "Pachauri said the actual costs of mitigating climate change aren't as high as many might think, especially if they're taken during the next seven years before the consequences of global warming become irreversible. Nor, he said, do emissions control measure need to halt economic growth."

Pachuari was countering a climate change skeptic argument -- one shared by the Bush administration -- that reducing carbon emissions would be bad for economies. It's hard to see the reasoning here. You develop new technologies and new industries and that's supposed to hurt business? Look at the computer boom -- how was suddenly doing everything differently bad for the economy? Even breweries are computerized now. These aren't the concerns voiced by people thinking about the future, they're the concerns of those invested in the status quo. It's the argument of the buggy whip industry against horseless carriages.

In fact, Pachuari pointed out that dealing with the effects of climate change would be more expensive than controlling it. "Where extreme weather events become more intense or more frequent with climate change, the economic and social costs of those events will increase," he told the audience in Oslo. How much did Hurricane Katrina, in purely monetary terms, cost us? More than "three-quarter billion in federal dollars" have been spent just reimbursing local agencies, according to FEMA. Untold hundreds of millions more were spent by insurance companies and other private business. Even more was raised by charities. And it's still not enough. Even if we completely disregard the human cost, there's no way we can afford to do this very often.

Gore's speech was more direct. "We, the human species, are confronting a planetary emergency," he said, "A threat to the survival of our civilization that is gathering ominous and destructive potential even as we gather here. But there is hopeful news as well: we have the ability to solve this crisis and avoid the worst -- though not all -- of its consequences, if we act boldly, decisively and quickly."

He also accused two of the largest emitters of greenhouse gasses -- China and the US -- of using each other's inaction as an excuse for their own. "Both countries should stop using the other's behavior as an excuse for stalemate and instead develop an agenda for mutual survival in a shared global environment," he said.

Gore predicted a policy change for the US, no matter who won the 2008 elections. "I think that they do not accurately represent the wishes of the American people," he said of the Bush administration -- at least, indirectly. "We are in the midst of a process of massive change. The world is coming to grips with this crisis, but we are in a race against time. The United States of America, the natural leader of the world community, should lead instead of obstructing."

In awarding the prizes, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel committee acknowledged that this year's choice of laureates was politically inspired. "The Norwegian Nobel committee rarely raises its voice," he said. "Our style is largely sober. But it is a long time since the committee was concerned with such fundamental questions as this year."

Writes climate activist and actress Laurie David for the Huffington Post, "Rarely also does the largely Norwegian audience break into a standing ovation but it did today after Al Gore's powerful and emotional speech. 'The earth has a fever. And the fever is rising...something basic is wrong. We are what is wrong, and we must make it right.'"

The audience is right, Gore is right, the Nobel Committee is right, and Rajendra Pachauri are right. If there's anything you can do to get the ball rolling here, you should do it.

Go ahead and disregard the folks with the buggy whips.

--Wisco

Technorati tags: politics; climate; environment; Norway; international; UN; Al Gore, Rajendra Pachauri, and the Nobel Prize Committee are right -- the only wrong approach to dealing with global warming is sitting on your ass

Wal-Mart's High, High Prices

First there was poisoned dog food, then lead paint on toys, toothpaste with antifreeze in it, on and on. It's easy to blame China for these things and we should, but the US shares part of the blame. Asked about the safety crisis with chinese imports by Chris Matthews on Harball, CNBC's Erin Burnett did a little truthtelling.

A lot of people like to say, uh, scaremonger about China, right? A lot of politicians, and I know you talk about that issue all the time. I think people should be careful what they wish for on China. Ya know, if China were to revalue it's currency or China is to start making say, toys that don't have lead in them or food that isn't poisonous, their costs of production are going to go up and that means prices at Wal-Mart here in the United States are going to go up too. So, I would say China is our greatest friend right now, they're keeping prices low and they're keeping the prices for mortgages low, too.

Of course, the way she put it suggests that Erin has the priorities of a pre-ghost Ebenezer Scrooge and the value system of a serial killer. I mean, how low can you really say these prices are when they're accompanied by a casualty count? Who's out there brushing their teeth with antifreeze and thinking, "At least it's cheap?"

The truth is that those low prices come with hidden costs. They're artificially low, because of pressure from US retailers. And those hidden costs are environmental, as well. Writes Dave Zweufel, Editor for The Capital Times, "A recent Wall Street Journalstory, for instance, told of a surprise inspection Chinese investigators pulled on a textile plant in southern China, a plant that makes textile material for the likes of American icons Wal-Mart, Nike and Lands' End."

"Villagers near the plant complained that the factory was turning their nearby river water a dark red," he writes. "The inspectors found a pipe buried underneath the factory floor that was daily dumping 22,000 tons of waste water contaminated with dye from its shirt-making operation."

There's really no such thing as "chinese water," any more than there is chinese air. Eventually, that polluted air and water is distributed around the globe. If you don't wind up with poisoned food, you'll wind up with polluted water eventually. And China's water is incredibly polluted. Believe it or not, these multicolored liquids in these bottles are water samples from lakes and streams.



"Decontaminating the water would have cost big money -- hundreds of thousands a year -- and undoubtedly jeopardized the contracts with the Americans," Zweifel writes. "Dumping the dye into the river was much cheaper." Is drinking whatever the hell that red stuff is worth a couple bucks off on a Barbie doll?

The chinese government admits it has a problem, saying that more than 70% of China's rivers and lakes were polluted in 2005. According to a BBC story at the time, "The China Daily newspaper said that about two million people had suffered diseases caused by drinking water with high arsenic content, including cancer."

Speaking to Stefan Stern of the Financial Times, Mary Teagarden, a professor at the Thunderbird school of global management in Phoenix, Arizona, explained things this way, "Wal-Mart squeezes Mattel [the toy maker], Mattel squeezes its supplier, that supplier squeezes its supplier, and at the end of the chain you have a remote business far out in the countryside that takes a different approach. They don't put lead in paint because they are wicked, it's just what works for them. China is so large, and industrialisation has been so rapid, that maintaining any control over multiple sites is extremely difficult." Everyone puts the squeeze on the guy down the line and, eventually, you wind up with a supplier with no one to squeeze -- so they cut costs in other ways or lose the business.

If you keep cutting corners to cut prices, eventually you'll be forced to cut too deep. And that means environtmental disaster, sweat shops, or lax consumer safety concerns --in many cases, in combination.

Luckily, US consumers understand this. A recent AP-Ipsos poll shows that most americans understand that US companies share some og the blame. According to the report, "[T]here was widespread consensus that plenty of blame can be spread on both sides of the Pacific. Eighty-four percent said Chinese manufacturers and the U.S. businesses which sell Chinese products in this country deserve some or a lot of culpability for the problem."

For its part, mega-marketer Wal-Mart has promised to make changes to its toy safety program. They promise that toys will be tested for safety. But Nu Wexler of Wal-Mart Watch says these promises don't go far enough. "Wal-Mart's not addressing the larger problem of why Chinese toy suppliers are cutting corners with lead paint and melamine," he told the Washington Post. "It's because they're under enormous pressure from buyers like Wal-Mart, and they're sacrificing child safety to keep costs low."

And adult safety, pet safety, worker safety, and the environment. As long as american marketers have the same attitude toward consumer safety and China as Erin Burnett -- putting artificially low prices above every other concern -- these problems will continue.

There's an old saying, "You get what you pay for." If you pay crap for something, you get crap -- like antifreeze in toothpaste and water in lovely pastel shades.

--Wisco

Technorati tags: politics; melamine; toys; consumer safety; free trade; environment; Marketers like Wal-Mart force China to cut costs, then pass the savings on to you -- and not in a good way