A Political Glimpse from Ireland

Now I am the last person who should be talking about website design considering the current state of this blog, but it is still a work in progress. That being said I would like to have a look at the current state of the candidates websites in order to determine which website follows the best practice of simplicity. On face value, I have to say that I like Senator Obama’s website because it is clean and simple without a flood of content unlike the other two candidates who seem to have crowded their webpages with all sorts of useless junk. First let us look at Senator McCain’s webpage:

I have to say it looks like a very action orientated website with lots of talk about his healthcare plan while also taking snipes at the democrats. Seriously though, McCain must really be lacking press coverage to put a link on his site “Get the latest from the straight talk express.”. A quick look at Senator Clinton’s website:

You know what, I think I have come to the conclusion that whoever designed the Clinton website must have more than two eyes because it took me 5 minutes to find where I wanted to go. Even from the thumbnail, you can see the exhaustive detail on the site but Hillary doesn’t focus on the issues here. The first thing you see on her site is her need for money, maybe those Debtors are starting to get a little irritated considering she made $10 million in 24 hours after PA and probably hasn’t paid anyone yet. A quick look at Senator Obama’s site:

The irony of this situation is that Senator Obama’s website does not ask for Money overtly like the Clinton website but it keeps things simple focusing on his main message of change while encouraging people to get involved. Therefore for all that it is worth, I hereby grant Senator Obama’s site my personal meaningless award for best website design :).

Well I have decided to create a whole new category today and make two posts in one day because of a conversation I had with a Korean friend of mine this morning. This did not see quite the coverage that it should have got here in the West but some Pro-Chinese demonstrator’s beat up some Pro-Tibetan demonstrator’s in Seoul during the Torch Relay. This video is quite disturbing however I must state that the Chinese people in this video do not represent the whole of China but merely a fringe few who have taken nationalism/patriotism a fair bit too far. This kind of behavior is intolerable and also gives credence to my theory that the nationalistic tendency in China is only increasing rather than abating as the Olympics draws closer. Nationalism/Patriotism can be deadly and I hope people around the world realize that you should be proud of your country but that pride must be balanced with logic, common sense and control. This video is in Korean but you don’t need to understand the language to feel my disgust.

I have to admit that I really was not too clued up on the Jeremiah Wright story and was one of those people who was subjugated to the never-ending bombardment of cut video clips. Yesterday’s Daily Show was great though because it affirmed the one thing that I had been thinking about all day and that is the Main Stream Media is really out of control. Instead of reporting on the issues yesterday, on every single news channel we had stories about Reverend Wright hurting Senator Obama. Now if you were the typical human being sitting at home and everytime you switched the channel and saw an isolated clip of Rev. Wright; it would be pretty easy for you to dismiss the man as a “nutter” as they say here in Ireland. This dismissal might also cause you to believe that Senator Obama is some sort of closet racist that was brain-washed by this man but this is far from the truth.

Having properly listening to what the good Reverend has said, I didn’t find a single problem with any of it. He is the real “straight talker” with some eccentric views I give you that but the one important thing that he stressed was that the differences that make us White, Black, Latino, Indian, and Chinese are what makes the United States of America strong. I thought this man bore some hatred towards white people or the United States but I am happy to say that I have changed my mind. To put it simply: “This dude ain’t that bad.”

Edit(2230 GMT): Given the events of the past day, and Senator Obama’s adamant denouncement of Jeremiah Wright, I will still agree that Jeremiah Wright is not that bad and he has done alot for his community but his hogging the spotlight as seriously hurt my candidate therefore I hope in all sincerity that he stops his “tour” and enjoys the rest of his retirement.

This is going to be the second non-American related post in two days which is a record for me but I just received another email from Mr. Howard Kuff who is one of the few Westerners that have ever been to Tibet and seen the reality of the situation there. Many Chinese have accused Westerners like myself of not understanding the situation and that we should comment once we have visited Tibet. Here is a man who has been there and verifies what the Western Media has been saying about the oppression of the Tibetan people by the government of China.

You can find his website at http://www.changing-history.com, where you can also purchase his book which I plan to do at the end of the month once I get paid since I seemed to have squandered my money on the wonderful world of electronics again. Mr. Kuff further goes on to give his theory as to why China is so insistent about Tibet:

China wants world power. Water is the key to the future. Tibet is the key to the waters of Asia. It will take the World to force China to give this up. Control of water is control of humanity. We are all water and we all share water. China seeks domination. The people of Tibet are simply pawns in China’s quest for power.

I know this sounds a bit hard to believe that water is key to the future but many people overlook the issue of changing environment because it is quite convenient and makes our lives easier but millions of people around the world do not have access to clean water. Water is a key component of our human nature so given the fluctuating state of the global climate; wouldn’t it make sense that sometime in the future as the population of the world expands, that we will start to run out of this precious substance? I think so and given the fact that we just had the first World Water Day on March 22nd, perhaps this is something to think about. Here is an excerpt from the UNESCO World Water Day Report:

According to the Millennium Development Goals Report 2007, an estimated 1.6 billion people must acquire access to improved sanitation over the period 2005-2015 to meet the MDG target on sanitation. If trends since 1990 continue, the world is likely to miss the target by almost 600 million people.

To those of you who still doubt the assertion that China is trying to control the water, I urge you to adopt that as a premise (Also examine Mr. Kuff’s website) and follow along with my argument. Let’s look back at yesterday’s post, the Chinese in essence sold weapons to an unstable and illegitimate government for the sake of money or destabilizing the government. Which ever way you side, neither of these situations would have been good for Southern Africa however I think we can come to the conclusion that China is going to continue to try to flex its power over the coming years in order to make up for years of mediocrity. This is a shame and I hope that the Chinese people will eventually see through the shallow nature of the CCP’s policies. Tibet was free before China and deserves to be free now. The Tibetans are not Chinese and have a unique culture, tradition and understanding of the world. I honestly hope that the world will not fall for the CCP’s tricks in their efforts to cloak their actions with the “peaceful” Beijing Olympics.

This is a beautiful photo I got over at 看不见的西藏～唯色博客, the lady who runs the blog is Tibetan and lives in China and gives us the story on the ground whereas most News outlets are continuously tailed by Chinese policeman when they enter China. I really admire this lady because you cannot dispute what the is saying in there and the worst part of this whole story is that her blog has been hacked into twice with her passwords change because the nationalistic tendencies of some Chinese people cannot be controlled. Seriously, leave this excellent blogger alone and get over the Party Line.

Thanks to the folks at Wikileaks, I have come across an interesting document which is the shipping order for the weapons from Poly Technologies Inc. in China to the Ministry of Defense in Zimbabwe. Now, Zimbabwe has been in the news quite often in Europe because it used to be a British colony back however the country is in a crisis of leadership with the current administration trying desperately to cling to power while the rest of the world wants a change for the people of Zimbabwe. This man is Robert Mugabe, who I will from now refer to as “funny moustache”:

Now the even bigger news, was that despite the fact that that Zimbabwe is experiencing 165,000% inflation as of February. He has managed to pay for a shipment of Arms from the Chinese totaling $245,508. Now I wonder which Swiss bank did he have that money stored in? That shipment included the following (The scanned documents were not that clear so I did my best to reconstruct the cargo):

1. 7.62 x 54mm Ball (What is this for?)
2. 7.62 x 39mm Ball (What is this for?)
3. RPG7 40mm Rockets HE Type G9
4. 60mm Mortar Bombs Type PP89
5. 80mm Mortar Bombs Type W81
6. 80mm Mortar Tubes Type W91
7. 6 Fighter Jets (unconfirmed)

I have a few problems with this whole scenario:

1. Why did South Africa even allow this shipment to proceed all the way from China? I think we can blame president Mbeki for that as he has continuously been soft on President Mugabe because he helped out the ANC during their struggle against the prior Apartheid government. That is no excuse for letting the citizens of your neighbor suffer.
2. What was China thinking? Seriously? Why sell weapons to a truly crazy man like Mugabe? I think the Chinese government made another serious error of judgment in pursuing its non-interventonist policy in Africa. This is terrible to say this but at the moment looking back at the Chinese government’s dealings in Africa, we can truly say that they are motivated by economic gains rather than making a difference to the lives of people in Africa. Sure they perform a few goodwill gestures here and there but if that shipment of arms had landed in Africa, we might be hearing about Mugabe slaughtering the opposition in “defending his government from conspirators”
3. Lastly what is Mugabe thinking? Why does he want these weapons? My theory is that he is either preparing for more drastic measures against the opposition MDC or perhaps he is waiting for the international community to invade Zimbabwe so that he can put up a fight with his dying breath. Given the circumstances at the moment, I am more inclined to believe the 1st scenario but I guess we can thank the powers that be that no arms have gone into Zimbabwe.

People may criticize the United States for lacking a moral compass these days and that may be true considering the massive civilian casualties in Iraq but comparatively speaking, the U.S is nowhere near as bad as the government of China. There are over 300,000 dead in Darfur and the only government that can really do something about it is sitting in their cushy leather chairs and counting the money. My pick (Barack Obama) for the president of the United States said this:

Today we are engaged in a deadly global struggle for those who would intimidate, torture, and murder people for exercising the most basic freedoms. If we are to win this struggle and spread those freedoms, we must keep our own moral compass pointed in a true direction.

Now let’s put this into a nice short summary to simplify the situation:

The People’s Liberation Army (China) which owns Poly Technologies sends a shipment of Arms using the Cosco shipping company which is based in China but has an office in South Africa to the Ministry of Defense in Zimbabwe. Cosco relies on its subsidiary Cosren which is based in Durban (RSA) to unload the shipment and see it on its way to Zimbabwe. The Chinese don’t anticipate any problems (Are you kidding me?) but the Durban Dock Workers refuse to unload the weapons. The ship leaves South Africa to the chagrin of the Chinese government who insists that we should not mix politics and economics (doesn’t that sound familiar…). The ship tried to dock in Angola but is turned away again to have to make the long hard journey back to China with all the cargo “safely” on board.

Now if anyone would like to dispute what I have written today, please do so but read the facts first and I have nicely put the shipping documents in the Downloads section so make use of them before stating your argument. I am honestly ashamed to say that South Africa has a role in this saga and I hope South Africa, the international community and the Chinese government will take a sterner stance with Robert Mugabe so that the people of Zimbabwe can finally put their country back together.