Finaly, a thoughtful look at the standard of living in China.
Factoid #1
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...
"We are very angry because the cats are being skinned and then cooked alive..."
"...The paper said people in Guangdong eat 10,000 cats a day."
Factoid #2
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/...
It is estimated that up to 10 million dogs are slaughtered every year in China, many deliberately slowly and cruelly in the belief that "torture equals taste", whilst all suffer the stress and pain of being farmed in concentrated numbers before being killed in a variety of ways which rarely ensures a quick and humane death.
Factoid #3
http://www.guardian.co.uk/...
"A Chinese dissident who dared to claim that human rights were more important than the Olympic Games was sentenced to five years in prison yesterday after being found guilty of subversion. Yang Chunlin, an unemployed former factory worker from Jiamusi..."
Factoid #4
http://chinaview.wordpress.com/...
"In the last seven years 3,000 Christians were killed," said Ulrich Delius, the Asia expert of the German-based Society for Threatened Peoples, which campaigns against all forms of genocide and "ethnocide". The allegations were expected to further increase international concerns that China’s pledged economic reforms are not backed-up by more religious and political freedoms.
Factoid #5
http://news.cnet.com/...
China arrests thousands in Web porn crackdown
My last rant on the insanity of our current Free Trade policy really brought the communist sympathizers out in force, Mao’s little red book in hand. Since it seemed like about half of the comments were meant to inform me that the life of a typical Chinese factory worker / oppressed slave wasn’t all that bad,me being the snarky kind of guy that I am, I had to look up a few facts on my own so that I could do an honest comparative analysis on the Chinese slave’s versus the American factory worker’s standard of living. You can find said facts and sources listed above.
I had postulated that the American worker’s standard of living was far superior to that of their Chinese counterpart. However, after reflecting on factoids one and two, I see now that my postulation only holds true if said workers do not have a hankering for cat or dog meat. In fact if you prefer that your dog meat comes exclusively from canines that have been horribly tortured to death then China really is your country of choice, hands down.
Then there’s the whole matter of free speech. My research demonstrates that the Chinese worker in general is just not ready for that whole First Amendment thing. For crying out loud you have a man over there who willing went to jail for five years just so that he could complain about the Olympics?! Come on pal you have got to pick your battles better than that. And, as it turns out the fellow was unemployed. Looks like I was wrong again, you give those little guys a week off of work and they immediately get into trouble. It just goes to show I suppose that work camps are a good thing.
And then I find out that three thousand Christians have been murdered this decade alone. I’ll bet with a little digging though we’ll find that these altruistic folks simply volunteered to get a head start on that whole organ donor thing. Don’t you know we need cheap imported kidneys, livers, and corneas from China too!
On a much more serious note I read with great concern, and more than a little anger, that those crazy commies in charge over there actually had the nerve to outlaw porn! Where is the outrage? Where are Larry Flynt and Hugh Hefner? Even slaves have rights and personally I draw the line at porn. I can live without the cat meat or ground canine burger. I can even see your point on the Chinese not being ready for that whole free speech thing. In fact I think I can pretty well make it without imported body parts from murdered Chinese dissidents. But when the state comes between a hardworking Chinese fellow and his porn, well that ‘s where I draw the line. I’m afraid my friend I’ll being staying stateside.