Dance, beloved populace!

G2 excelled itself last week, showing it is Britain where T2 is clearly Australia in medals table terms. Charlie Brooker’s column showed clarity and humour beyond the reaches even of these humble bloggers, well Schreiber at least!
Writing on the subject of the Olympic opening ceremony……Perhaps Mr Brooker read previous innit24 posts, urging people not to forget China’s many and deep faults. China is a developing nation, with many millions living in abject poverty in a medieval manner. The citizens have no rights that cannot immediately withdrawn at the whim of an official. The justice system is as transparent as Mr Brown’s calm façade, well that’s clearly nonsense but you see my point. I previously wrote, “Who wants to live in a country where civil servants are the most lethal people!” And I stand by this.
Mr Brooker clearly shows, big parades and shows of national unity are simply that, shows. These events do not occur in free and democratic states, the mark of such states is complete apathy.
Let’s free Tibet and continue to harass China by sending dim-witted officials (Mayors) to bumble as rudely as possible and perhaps take the rest of the Tories with him. Franklin

WHAT WE LEARNED FROM THE WAR

The war is over for now. This is great news for everyone. Firstly, it is great news for the people of the Caucasus (obviously!), but then, it is also good news for us people in “the west”, as the oil market will stabilise again, after going berserk in the past few days. Russia called a halt to military actions this afternoon, however, making clear that it would re-intervene, as soon as it is judge necessary. Dimitri Medvedev, who was relatively quiet during this war, declared that Georgia was sufficiently punished. This is an utterly dangerous statement, who does Mr Medvedev think he is? Is he a one person war crimes tribunal?! But instead of criticising a man, who is criticised by everyone anyway, let us have a look at what we have learned from this terrible and devastating war. 1. We noticed that despite all predictions of having reached the End of History, as many commentators predicted after the fall of the Berlin Wall, history did not quite yet come to an end. A great mind, Chrystin Freeland of the FT, actually says that instead of having reached the End of History, we have entered the New Age of Authoritarianism. I agree. For the first time since the fall of the USSR, Russia fights a war outside its own territory again. (This is true as long as you see Chechnya as Russian territory). No-one was able to do anything against this pointless bombing. Not even David Cameron’s comparison between Russia and Nazi-Germany helped much (apart from reminding Mail readers that we all have to fear a Russian Blitz). Even politicians who actually have some power (in contrast to Mr Cameron), could not do very much. Dick Cheney’s demand that Russian “aggression […] must not go unanswered,” does not really mean much. Nicolas Sarkozy, at the moment the head of the EU, might have had something to do with Russia finally agreeing to a ceasefire, but his role in all this is not quite clear yet. It is not only Russia though, that represents the New Age of Authoritarianism: we see “oil-powers” across the globe turning autocratic. This is the case in many African and Asian countries, but also in South America. We even enthusiastically watch the Olympics in a country that does not value freedom too much. 2. We learned that Mikhail Saakashvili is one of the least clever politicians around. I mean, let’s be honest, attacking a wannabe independent and Russian-backed South Ossetia and thinking that people won’t notice by the world because of the Olympics?! That’s just chuckleheaded, to say the least. Nevertheless, Mr Saakashvili was clever enough to represent himself well in the Western media. Today, people actually forget that it was he who started the war. Yes, Russia’s reaction was wrong and, no doubt, over the top, but it was Georgia that went to war with a semi-independent country that does not want to be part of an “unstable, immature, chaotic, corrupt, but hopeful” Georgia (to use the Guardian’s words). 3. We discovered that Vladimir Putin is most definitively still the macher in Russia. Dimitri Medvedev was not as prominent as his predecessor Putin during this war. There are a few more things we have learned from this terrible and unnecessary war, like how some UK papers preferred reporting about Maddy McCann, Sienna Miller, Stella McCartney and the like on their front-pages instead of the war. However, Mr Franklin and I are trying to keep the blog entries relatively short… Schreiber

Georgia v Russia on the beaches....

The fighting between Russia and Georgia is ceding as I write; tomorrow it is due to move from the familiar territory of Georgian blocks of flats to the less familiar territory of the beaches. Not in true D-Day style but on the manufactured pitches of the volleyball arena in Beijing. In scenes reminiscent of the 1956 Melbourne games when Russia invaded Hungary hours before their water-polo match, their men's volleyball teams will face each other.

The last match ended with Turkey victorious but with one player seriously injured in the bloodiest Olympic contest ever, (discounting the Ancient Greek games littered with lion mauled slaves, but you see the point), monikered the, 'Blood in the Water match.'

So tune in on the 13th August, my money's on Georgia, I never could resist an underdog. Unless of course the Russian withdrawal is on the condition of Georgia taking a fall, they wouldn't, would they? Imagine cheating at the Olympics, who'd have thought it! Franklin

The Chinese Communist Party isn't that bad.....

Stepping off the plane onto pristine tarmac and choking smog it must be easy to miss the signs of a country locked in a bitter fight with its ruling party. In this developing nation surrounded by the latest cellphones and consumer culture, you can see why people may ease their views of the CCP. And yes, China is still developing according to Pascal Lamy the EU Trade Commissioner. It is true that China is opening up its markets, most importantly it’s domestic ones and that it is trying to develop a transparent legal system. I’m sure for the majority of Chinese citizens life is generally agreeable. For those that live in the larger cities, have good jobs and the latest iPhone, life is comparable to a similarly placed Comrade in any developed nation, or even the US. So China is fine, that is unless you choose to believe in the next science Falun Gong, or believe that those pesky monks in Tibet should be able to have their country back (or at least be able to protest against its occupation) or if you don’t think their pseudo-communist ideals are quite the way for a super-power. This is still a country where the civil servant is perhaps the most dangerous person, one infraction of party policy can mean you simply disappear and thousands do. And then you get to news censorship, ever third person in London today has a blog, a concept any Chinese person would undoubtedly find very odd and it’s easy to see why. If you discount every blog that attacks the Government there would only be those inhabited by people who read a newspaper back to front (and I don’t mean Arabs). The BOCOG (Beijing Organising Committee for the Games) displayed its lack of any dignity today releasing a press report so warped by censorship and propaganda it was painful to read. It refers to the tragic incident involving the family of the US Men’s volleyball coach who were attacked and killed. It quickly points out it was a Chinese man who then committed suicide afterwards, crime is so much simpler in authoritarian states, it’s always portrayed as and I quote, as ‘rare and tragic’ and always handled in such a way that closure is immediately had. Further statements such as the ‘police were notified and arrived immediately’ had the sickly stench of propaganda as though this was something that deserves praise! Closing with a statement confirming the safety of the city it certainly seems likely the smog will get you long before a killer will. So would you really want to live in a country where there’s no point in buying a newspaper because it includes less truth than the Mail or where the very people charged with protecting you are actually the most dangerous. So to all the athletes saying it’s really not that bad while drinking protein shakes in their Olympic compound, just think of the peasants thrown off the land to starve or the people that died to give China its Olympic dream. Franklin