The UK Daily Mail reminds us of the reality of what is going on:
This year, it’s been a game of cat and mouse to evade the secret police and the surveillance cameras so we can meet the survivors of the Tiananmen massacre and hear what happened to them.
It shouldn’t be. Last year, the Chinese announced during the Olympics that foreign journalists would be free to work anywhere in the country – they needed only to apply for a ‘ journalist visa’.
We applied – as a BBC documentary team – but heard nothing for months. Our only option was to travel on a tourist visa.
Just beyond the border crossing at Shenzhen, policemen shouted, yelped into their radios and waved white-gloved hands in the camera lens: clearly, old habits die hard.
Arriving at our hotel in Chengdu in western China, I spotted a man beetling through the front door towards us, talking into his radio. A friendly porter? No, he interrogated our driver about our plans.
The next day I realised that the authorities were going to be really persistent when two plainclothes policemen popped up in the middle of a field of brilliant yellow rapeseed, focusing their binoculars on us from just a hundred yards away.
China can pretend that this never happened and can repress any who wish to talk about it, however the fact that China is a bloody repressive state is a fact and until the day comes when China acknowledges that this will be so.
In addition to the heart attack that Rosie O’Donnell and other 9/11 truthers might be having today over the president’s excellent Cairo speech, I noticed several oddities in the President’s speech that are worth addressing.
Oddity #1 the War coalition.
The president mentioned that 46 states are fighting with us. For years we have been hearing from the media about unilataral action of the Bush administration, suddenly we have 46 states. It’s amazing that so many countries have started to fight in the last 5 months. I don’t remember the White House announcing this.
Oddity #2 The call to prayer:
“I am a Christian, but my father came from a Kenyan family that includes generations of Muslims. As a boy, I spent several years in Indonesia and heard the call of the azaan [the Muslim call to prayer] at the break of dawn and the fall of dusk.”
and
Much has been made of the fact that an African-American with the name Barack Hussein Obama could be elected president.
This was considered so hot that it was downplayed and almost denied during the campaign. In the reviews of this speech it is touted as is his name. How is it the media never noted it during 2008?
Oddity #3 They have killed Muslims? That’s news to us!
Indeed, none of us should tolerate these extremists. They have killed in many countries. They have killed people of different faiths – more than any other, they have killed Muslims. Their actions are irreconcilable with the rights of human beings, the progress of nations, and with Islam.
In terms of the speech saying aloud to a Muslim audience that more than any others Al Qaeda has killed Muslims is vital and important. It is a high point, but it will come as a surprise to many in our mainstream media. From what he have heard reported you would think that the “Iraqi Resistance” are just fighting occupation and it is the US that is slaughtering Muslim’s indiscriminately. Of course that mimiced the words of the president himself in the days before he held office. What a revelation this will be to the US media.
Oddity #4 Palestinian homeland
After going over the history of Jewish suffering; a vital thing to state; and meeting stone silence he says something interesting…
On the other hand, it is also undeniable that the Palestinian people – Muslims and Christians – have suffered in pursuit of a homeland. For more than 60 years they have endured the pain of dislocation. Many wait in refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza, and neighbouring lands for a life of peace and security that they have never been able to lead. They endure the daily humiliations – large and small – that come with occupation.
The president seems to have forgotten that Israel doesn’t occupy Gaza and pulled out on their own years ago. He also forgets that 60 years ago Egypt controlled Gaza and Jordan controlled the West Bank and nobody was calling for a Palestinian state at that time.
Oddity #5 Not from the heart of Texas
In endorsing Democracy the president said this:
Each nation gives life to this principle in its own way, grounded in the traditions of its own people. America does not presume to know what is best for everyone, just as we would not presume to pick the outcome of a peaceful election. But I do have an unyielding belief that all people yearn for certain things: the ability to speak your mind and have a say in how you are governed; confidence in the rule of law and the equal administration of justice; government that is transparent and doesn’t steal from the people; the freedom to live as you choose. Those are not just American ideas, they are human rights, and that is why we will support them everywhere.
Maybe it’s just me but this sounded a whole lot a certain fellow from Texas who the media made fun of for speaking these kinds of principles. For reasons I can’t understand when these come from an inexperienced Chicago Poll they become words of power an inspiration but if we judge by our media they are just mindless platitudes when they come from a President from deep in the Heart of Texas.
It is worth noting that other than a bit of Palestinian fiction most of these oddities stem from media idolatry than anything else. Oh and you should read Israellycool for an excellent round up from various parties in the middle east.
(Actually you should read Israellycool anyways, it’s very good.)
Update 2 Another blogger used this example in a different context but this video fits the media reaction to this speech to a t:
Much of what the president said today President Bush has said in the past. Like the guys around the table the media didn’t react positively until the right person said it.
The attempt to silence critics of president Obama pick of Judge Sotomayor have run into into two large snags. One of them is Rush Limbaugh who the administration foolishly elevated, cowardly ducks, and has actually driven listeners to. His listing of democratic reactions to Janice Rodgers Brown and Alito are devastating to the above the fray arguments.
The second is the Thomas Nast like quality of Judge Sotomayor’s own statements. Boss Tweed knew that even the illiterate in New York understood “Those damn pictures”.
It helped lead to his downfall.
Like the Nast Cartoon pictured Sotomayor’s statement is devastating to her and the White Houses cause because it is easily understood by any person of any education. Some democratic analysts understood this right away. Attempts to spin it or “contextualize” it are doomed because the average person who doesn’t follow politics knows exactly what it means.
Did some quick channel surfing this morning and got a glimpse of Morning Joe. They had Christine Todd Whitman on the TV talking about Nuclear power.
Other than the obligatory “Does Colin Powell belong in the republican party” question the statements on Nuclear were very relevant but everyone there is forgetting something concerning why we don’t get have more clean Nuclear power in the US today. The cause should be loudly proclaimed:
The reason why Nuclear power never advanced were environmental “community organizers” who litigated and protested plants to death supported by Hollywood, liberals and democrats. It was an energy policy driven by a Jane Fonda movie
Just as they want the country to forget which side they supported and appeased in the cold war our liberal friends will do their best to make sure this is ignored or part of one more grandrevision a la the French Resistance/Collaborators.
Why conservative leaders don’t pin this tightly on these guys is beyond me.
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