Beijing Welcomes You

[Crumb]

[JoeP]

Crumb handles it!

[MonCapitan2002]

Of course he can. He is a good man in that respect. Anyhow, I think we have done enough to derail this thread from its initial topic.

Was that Jackie Chan in that video? I thought it was so I tried searching online for more information about the song and video. I learned two things. China has a lot of very attractive pop starlets. The second is that apparently Jackie Chan sings and participated in the making of the song and the video. Who knew he could sing? I certainly did not.

[Julie]

I knew!

He has a song on the disney "mulan" dvd.

[beyelzu]

I don't know what's worse, that he made it


or that you know it

[fragment]

So the football tournament's started.

NZ vs Japan womens' football, 2-all draw. Japan probably deserved to win it, but good on the ferns.

[fragment]

[JoeP]

Did they have to play twice?

* JoeP starts a new line in annoying double-post humour

[fragment]

:shaketechnicaldifficulties:

I think that's my first double post... *sniff* ... I couldn't have done it without y'all...

[Deadlokd]

I'm boycotting the Olympics and their million sponsors. Which means I'll be eating roadkill for the next four years. And wearing Nepalese newspapers.

I can't get over how many people are just accepting these Olympics. These aren't One World Olympics, they're the fucking Censorship Games. The Amnesty International run Chinese Internet Censorship Index is currently running between 30% and 40%. That's the percentage of the internet being allowed through. This is not a friendly country. It's government does not deserve the recognition and endorsement that the Games provide. The decision to go with Beijing just proves, once and for all, that it is the sponsorship dollar and not the good of sport that runs the IOC.

Fuck you Beijing, fuck you Politburo, fuck you athletes without morals, fuck you IOC. Fuck you all for selling out the Tibetans, the disenfranchised, the trodden upon. Fuck you for stomping on the people that dared ask for representation in 1989.

Rock on Olympics. But you can rock on without me.

[fragment]

I support using the attention that comes with the Olympics to highlight political issues, but I don't think personally boycotting viewing them is an effective way for me to make that kind of statement. Not unless it's tied to a coherent political movement driven by the wishes of the oppressed people.

Originally Posted by Deadlokd

Fuck you Beijing...

They've already returned the sentiment.

[MonCapitan2002]

Originally Posted by Deadlokd

I'm boycotting the Olympics and their million sponsors. Which means I'll be eating roadkill for the next four years. And wearing Nepalese newspapers.

I can't get over how many people are just accepting these Olympics. These aren't One World Olympics, they're the fucking Censorship Games. The Amnesty International run Chinese Internet Censorship Index is currently running between 30% and 40%. That's the percentage of the internet being allowed through. This is not a friendly country. It's government does not deserve the recognition and endorsement that the Games provide. The decision to go with Beijing just proves, once and for all, that it is the sponsorship dollar and not the good of sport that runs the IOC.

Fuck you Beijing, fuck you Politburo, fuck you athletes without morals, fuck you IOC. Fuck you all for selling out the Tibetans, the disenfranchised, the trodden upon. Fuck you for stomping on the people that dared ask for representation in 1989.

Rock on Olympics. But you can rock on without me.

Good luck with that. Just bear in mind that you are fighting a battle you will never win. In real life, it is usually the bad guys who win.

[Deadlokd]

Originally Posted by fragment

I support using the attention that comes with the Olympics to highlight political issues, but I don't think personally boycotting viewing them is an effective way for me to make that kind of statement. Not unless it's tied to a coherent political movement driven by the wishes of the oppressed people.

The oppressed people are not allowed to have movements. We saw that in 1989. We saw that in the jailing of Ye Guozhu because he dared question his government over the demolition of his house to make way for the Games.

The problem is that no-one is organising any kind of political resistance that is needed. Everyone is wearing their blinkers. Yup, Bush tried, but if he was serious he'd pull the American team out of the games.

I know my boycott won't do squat, but I have to do something. I've joined Amnesty International. And now I add my singular boycott.

If humans won't care about human rights who will?

Originally Posted by MonCapitan2002

Good luck with that. Just bear in mind that you are fighting a battle you will never win. In real life, it is usually the bad guys who win.

Especially when they have over a million men under arms and the will to use them against their own people.

When the fuck did China get cred?

[fragment]

Originally Posted by Deadlokd

The oppressed people are not allowed to have movements. We saw that in 1989. We saw that in the jailing of Ye Guozhu because he dared question his government over the demolition of his house to make way for the Games.

I said driven by the wishes of the oppressed people, not composed of those people.

If humans won't care about human rights who will?

I care plenty about human rights, I just think that for me to boycott the Olympics would be an exercise in tokenism and deluding myself with a false sense of hand-wringing morality when I'm not actually giving up anything or involved in anything resembling an effective political movement. YMMV and full power to your own decisions on that, but it's kind of offensive to suggest that I don't care when I've thought plenty about this and similar issues.

[Deadlokd]

That definitely wasn't my intention there fragment. I was talking in a general what are the world governments doing, kind of way. I didn't mean it as an attack on you or your stance. I know that what I'm doing is tokenism, but it's better than me doing nothing. I can't go "this is too big, nothing I do will make a difference so I'm just going to suck up the Olympic spirit. Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi!"

As for it being driven by the will of the oppressed, do you think they like living with those restrictions? The point is that they are incapable of doing anything about it. Their Government shoots first and sends the bill to the families later.

[Dingfod]

I watched a program on National Geographic HD this afternoon about "The Bird's Nest", the Beijing Olympic Stadium, design and construction. Fantastic. I would love to see it in person before it (the cheap Chinese junk, no offense, wei yau) falls down.

[Deadlokd]

Cheap Chinese junk.

[Anastasia Beaverhausen]

Is that smog or is it just a really overcast day?

[Deadlokd]

A bit of both probably. That's Hong Kong. Beijing is worse. Just from a health perspective, why would they allow the worlds best athletes to go to one of the most polluted cities on earth? It doesn't make sense.

[fragment]

Originally Posted by Deadlokd

That definitely wasn't my intention there fragment. I was talking in a general what are the world governments doing, kind of way. I didn't mean it as an attack on you or your stance. I know that what I'm doing is tokenism, but it's better than me doing nothing. I can't go "this is too big, nothing I do will make a difference so I'm just going to suck up the Olympic spirit. Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi!"

Fair enough, and I respect that. Just wanted to point out that my position isn't driven by indifference or endorsement.

As for it being driven by the will of the oppressed, do you think they like living with those restrictions?

Of course not, but that's not what I'm talking about.

When I was in India five years ago I visited the museum run by the Tibetan Government-in exile in McLeod Ganj. One display was an attempt to answer a question they get asked quite often, apparently, which was "I'd like to visit Tibet, but I'm not sure I feel good about it while China is in control." The Tibetans response was that they didn't discourage people from visting, but they did want those visitors to educate themselves on the history and current situation - and also to avoid causing trouble for anyone while there (going around asking Tibetans what they think about politics can lead to those Tibetans getting unwanted police attention). As far as Tibetans in exile are concerned, they seem to not want visitor boycotts so much as actual material support (refugees turn up in India with literally nothing) and encouraging our Governments to use diplomatic pressure to get China to negotiate. That's what I mean by political action being driven by the wishes of the people most concerned.

[wei yau]

So, tonight I'm hosting a dinner to watch the Opening Ceremonies on TV. I am doing my best to avoid spoilers on the web.

I'll be preparing a Chinese dinner for the party, as one of the guests is vegetarian, I'm making mostly vegetarian dishes.

Here's the menu:


- Cucumber salad


- Snow pea pods with tofu and black mushrooms


- Szechuan string beans


- Choy sum with soy puffs and bean sprouts


- Steamed eggplant with soy sauce and sesame oil


- Char siu roast pork


- Steamed Chinese sausage and bacon

[JoeP]

I presume everything's to be served cold, wei? Nicely-lit food, anyway. Or are those stock photos?

The "Steamed Chinese sausage and bacon" is one I'm not familiar with. What's Chinese sausage like?

At this point, please ensure serious responses are made as well as responses.

[wei yau]

Actually, only the cucumber salad will be served cold. And yes, these are stock-photos, I've not yet made the dishes. Nor do I intend to photograph them, as they won't look nearly as good.

Chinese sausage is a dried sausage made from pork. It's almost always served steamed. The sausage is fatty and a little on the sweet side. When steamed, it becomes soft and moist and glistens with fat. It's usually sliced on the bias.

The bacon is pork belly that has been cured and smoked. It's very dark and also traditionally served steamed.

In some dishes, the combination of the two are diced and mixed with glutinous rice. Other times, they are cooked with the rice, some mushrooms and some chicken...making for a very flavorful dish. The Chinese sausage is also sometimes steamed within a bun, looks like a Chinese hot dog. But, I usually don't care for that, as the sausage tastes better in thin slices than whole.

[JoeP]

Originally Posted by wei yau

The sausage is fatty and a little on the sweet side. When steamed, it becomes soft and moist and glistens with fat.

Yes, it looked a little fatty in the photos. In fact, it looked like a rolled-up dry-cured ham, not a sausage at all - not chopped, no casing.

Also, 'soft and moist and glistens with fat' ...