The Mountain Speaks
"Any expression that is in line with the Olympic spirit I'm sure will be protected."
"Any
behaviour or speech that is against the Olympic spirit, especially
against the Chinese laws and regulations, are also subject to certain
punishment."
"Dedicated departments [will evaluate punishment for athletes who violate the IOC political protest ban]."
"I think for the athletes to
participate in the Olympic Games, they should follow the spirit and
requirements provided by the Olympic Charter,"
"The
politicization of sports is one of the things opposed by the Olympic
Charter."
Yang Shu, deputy director-general, international relations, Beijing Organizing Committee
 |
| Protesters hold protest posters during a protest against Beijing 2022
Winter Olympics by activists of the Tibetan Youth Association in Europe
front of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) headquarters in
Lausanne, Switzerland, Saturday, Dec. 11, 2021.
(Jean-Guy Python/Keystone via AP) |
China
is known to get really cranky when it is criticized. And there has been
a lot of criticism to date of China. It's exclusive 'ownership' of the
South China Sea, its takeover of once-democratic Hong Kong, its threats
expressed kinetically against Taiwan, its exploitation of Uyghurs for
forced labour, and incarceration of a million Uyghurs in Xinjiang for
re-education, forced sterilization of Uyghur women, its occupation of
Tibet and persecution of Tibetans...the list goes on, to include its
latest forays into hostage-diplomacy.
So
to state that Beijing is in bad odour in much of the world community is
to understate the situation. Beijing feels under pressure to impress
the world community once again with its ability to put on a world-class
entertainment performance with yet another Olympic Games venue for
February of 2022, after the original scheduled for 2021 had been
postponed as a result of the very coronavirus that China itself had
exported to the world at large.
Now
that the games' opening is fast approaching and the deadline for
completion of all the venues and awe-inspiring details meant to showcase
China internationally, authorities involved in preparations for the
Winter Olympics opening are getting a little edgy. The temporary mass
migration of the international community coming to worship at the shrine
of Chinese efficiency and stage production has been denied Beijing once
again; not even local Chinese may enter the environs due to concerns
over the entry of Omicron and its huge infectability.
Beijing
will make the most of this collapsed opportunity to boast of its
artistic/theatrical skills while hosting a world event in sportsmanship.
But it is not prepared to be sportsmanlike about countenancing
political criticism from its invited guests competing in this
world-class event. Beijing will not tolerate being the subject of
complaints, derision, lack of respect, or any hint of dissatisfaction
with its internal affairs, much less its vaunted status globally as it
expands its reach and offers other nations indebtedness in response to
its generosity in allowing their natural resources to further enrich
Chinese GDP.
And
while it is true that in the interests of political neutrality in the
celebration of sports excellence in individual and group performance,
the International Olympics Committee has established rules against
political protests at IOC events, their rules are not quite in the same
spirit and rigid disaffection as that of Beijing's. Whose Olympics
organizing committee has warned of punishments to fit the assault on
Beijing's sensibilities to be meted out to offenders.
So
would Beijing dare to hold any offenders hostage to its rage over
political statements offensive to China? After all, if incarceration is
an option for 'seditious' behaviour as a suitable punishment for those
offending Beijing's authoritarian sense of outrage at the
presumptuousness of its critics, hostage-taking will be in order. A
threat, implied but real, that can be guaranteed to silence anyone
oblivious to their presence in a country known for its unflinching abuse
of international laws while it flaunts its own as supreme.
Toronto's
cybersecurity research group Citizen Lab has reported the vulnerability
that faces visiting athletes through the smartphone app Olympians are
required to download ostensibly to track the state of their health in
identifying COVID infections. The Lab has detected security flaws
whereby personal data of users will be accessible to Chinese security
sources. A list of political keywords identified by the app's code to
reveal who might be disobeying the organizers' edict warning of
repercussions as a consequence of anything political.
In
anticipation of just such complicating, coercive and intrusive events,
the U.S. and other free-world countries whose athletes will be
participating in the Games advised their athletes to make use of "burner
phones" on their Beijing trip in avoidance of surveillance. According
to Zhao Lijian, foreign ministry spokesman, those countries "who are guilty of the charge themselves are accusing the innocent party without any evidence". Oh, for shame!
 |
| The sun sets behind the Olympic Rings atop a tower near the Yanqing
cluster of Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, in Beijing, China, January 19,
2022. (Thomas Peter/Reuters) |
Labels: 2022 Olympic Games, Beijing, Control, Criticism, Olympian Contenders, Political Speech, Punishment, Warning
"Kim Jong Un, you son of a b----. The people are starving to death because of you"
"To have a message such as this appear on a wall in Pyongyang will have been a shock to the authorities and to ordinary people."
Toshimitsu Shigemura, professor, Waseda University, Tokyo
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North Korean Leader, Kim Jong Un, Reuters
|
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that North Korea is short 860,000 tonnes of food for the year, equivalent to approximately 2.3 months of basic foodstuffs. North Koreans report shortages of cooking oil as well. Prices for the limited supply available have risen fourfold, according to Radio Free Asia.
By law, any criticism of the ruling Kim family or of the political party that represents their dictatorship is strictly forbidden. People can be held on charges of sedition or crimes against the state if they are suspected of finding fault with the regime. The punishment is a lengthy period in one of the country's notorious prison camps for political prisoners. Should a case prove to be considered 'extreme', fitting punishment can be a death sentence.
All this results in any manner of graffiti that expresses an anti-Kim sentiment being exceedingly rare. And on the most rare of occasions instances of slogans appearing that attack the North Korean leadership may appear in remote areas of the country. In the capital Pyongyang, however, any such defiant messages are hugely unusual. Only the nation's elite are given permission to live there.
Yet the message "Kim Jong Un, you son of a b----. The people are starving to death because of you", was found written on the wall of an apartment building in the wealthy (by North Korean standards) Pyongchon district, according to the South Korean Daily NK news site. This occurred on December 22, when the ruling Workers' Party of Korea was in session.
Local leaders responded with alacrity, cordoning off the area, and the message was soon erased. But the damage was done, since there were people who had seen it and reported it to Daily NK. The Seoul-based media outlet is operated by dissidents who depend on their compatriots in North Korea to smuggle news to them; a network of undercover 'citizen reporters' located in North Korea and China.
An insider source revealed that North Korean officials are going door to door demanding handwriting samples from thousands of residents of Pyongyang in an effort to find the person responsible for the insulting graffiti targeting supreme leader Kim Jong Un. People in apartment blocks and businesses were forced to give interlocutors samples of their handwriting.
Locals were questioned on their movements on the day in question. The thousands of cameras installed throughout the city since 2011 when Kim Jong Un came to power are being inspected. The border closures linked to the pandemic and severe flooding in recent years have resulted in the impoverished country facing a serious food crisis. But this has not stopped Kim from funding ballistic rocket development and nuclear devices.
In March of 2018, a colonel in the North Korean military was found guilty of writing slogans on the April 24 House of Culture in central Pyongyang, and was publicly executed. It has been pointed out that even the wealthiest North Koreans living in the capital are increasingly experiencing food shortages.
 |
| Kim has acknowledged a 'tense' food situation that could worsen if all of
the crops fail, exacerbating economic problems amid strict self-imposed
border and movement restrictions that have slowed trade to a trickle.
Pictured: File image of men plowing a field in North Korea in July 2017 |
Labels: Crimes Against the State, Criticism, Dictatorship, Food Insecurity, Food Scarcity, Kim Jong Un, North Korea
Burning Retaliatory Bridges
"We don't want to burn bridges, but when someone views our good intentions as indifference or weakness and intends to blow up these bridges in turn, they must know Russia's response will be asymmetrical swift and harsh."
"I hope no one will cross the red line in regards to Russia. And where this red line will be drawn, we will decide for ourselves."
"The practice of organizing coups and planning political
assassinations of top officials [referencing Venezuela and Russian-Ukraine cronies] goes over the top and crosses all
boundaries."
"Russia has its own interests, which we will defend in line with
the international law. If
somebody refuses to understand this obvious thing, is reluctant to
conduct a dialogue and chooses a selfish and arrogant tone, Russia will
always find a way to defend its position."
Russian President Vladimir Putin
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| Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered his annual address to the Federal Assembly in Moscow on Wednesday. (Sputnik/Mikhail Metzel/Kremlin/Reuters) |
The international community has been forewarned. Russian President Vladimir Putin is fed up, disgusted, annoyed, irritated and fuming over criticism he knows has no place in good international diplomatic relations. Russia's internal business is its own, and it will no longer tolerate the sanctimonious criticism levelled at Russia and at him personally. No Western democratic countries come to him, cap in hand, to ask whether they should proceed on a certain course of action, as a courtesy, and he will not grovel and ask permission of his critics to act as he does, for it is his prerogative and his alone.
He made it abundantly clear in his annual address that any source from within the international community that seeks to criticize, to threaten Russia "will regret it like they've never regretted anything before". That's fairly definite, and Vladimir Putin is defining the rules of engagement. As soon as he can decide on delineating them. NATO, the United States, the European Union and their acolyte nations be damned!
He has no idea who poisoned Alexei Navalny with a military-grade nerve agent, restricted to military laboratories. Obviously, Mr. Navalny has made many enemies who resent his having criticized the Kremlin and particularly Mr. Putin himself, enemies who may have decided to eliminate his strident voice. Navalny and Company have unsettled the country, they have much to answer for. Now, he is trying to kill himself by refusing food, to elicit sympathy from among Russians who have no use for him whatever.
 |
| People attend a rally in support of jailed Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny in Omsk, Russia, on Wednesday. (Alexey Malgavko/Reuters) |
And what do Western critics know of Russian history? Of the fact that Ukraine has always been Russia's geography, the borders to which have simply been misplaced and loyal ethnic Russians living in Ukraine have simply remedied a past error, rounding eastern Ukraine, the Donbass back into Greater Russia, where it belongs. As for the Crimean Peninsula, Russian blood lies there, it is part of the heart of Russia, pleasing no end to Russians to have it restored. Complaints from the West? Who cares, what are they anyway, to think they have a right to criticize!
Sanctions have victimized ordinary Russians. The reason they're now living in straitened circumstances is clear enough; they, as part of Russia, have been penalized, victimized, unfairly and unjustly and without reason. The U.S. abandoned its allies in the Middle East, and Russia has stepped back in to bolster support for the fine regime in Syria battling terrorists. There are such things as domestic terrorists of course, and they simply bear the guise of Syrian Sunnis rebelling against the Assad regime.
A deep-sea naval base and an airbase are trifles, but acceptable in exchange for Russia's devotion to aiding a friend in need with military warplane flyovers and the occasional bomb dropped here and there where hospitals just happen to be inconveniently placed. Who knew? As for the terrorists, they deserve to be bombed for their discrediting of a government trying to reconsolidate its geography so rudely invaded by Islamic State.
 |
| Manezhnaya Square is blocked by law enforcement officers
ahead of Putin's annual address to the Federal Assembly, in central
Moscow on Wednesday. (Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters) |
"Some countries have developed a nasty habit of bullying Russia
for any reason or without any reason at all. It has become a new sport." What are they doing so far from home, in Eastern Europe, on our doorstep, interfering with our neighbours, causing panic and concern that would otherwise not arise, destabilizing the entire geography. A military buildup on the border with Ukraine? Who says so! These are military games, practises, to keep our people sharp and in command, given the presence of foreign troops so near at hand, planning god-knows-what interventions where they don't belong... Interfering in our free and open society!
Keep your tiresome, toothless threats of 'consequences' should Russia do this, do that, do the other. It's none of your damn business. Disinvite Russian diplomats, it will be reciprocated. The International Space Station was getting too crowded, Russia will build its own, exclusive to Russia, thank you very much. The EU is excruciatingly short of vaccines? Beg us, and maybe we'll send along some of our highly efficacious Sputnik V. Nostrovia!
 |
| Police officers detain a man during a protest in support of
Navalny in Ulan-Ude, the regional capital of Buryatia, a region near the
Russia-Mongolia border, Russia, on Wednesday. (Anna Ogorodnik/Thie Associated Press) |
Labels: Criticism, European Union, Moscow, NATO, Navalny, Russia, Sanctions, Syria, Ukraine, United States, Vladimir Putin
Courting the UN Vote, Revealing Unsubtle Bias -- It's The Liberal Way
"All the plans offered to us in the past included renouncing
parts of Israel, withdrawing to the 1967 borders and dividing Jerusalem
while allowing refugees to enter Israel."
"This plan offers the opposite. We are not the ones required to give up [territories], the Palestinians are."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
 |
| Canadian Press |
"I've
been very direct with the Israeli leaders. We deplore such actions,
which are going to delay any prospect of lasting peace in the Middle
East."
"So, we should be working while respecting the concept of dialogue. And we are very concerned."
"I have highlighted both publicly and directly to Prime
Minister Netanyahu and alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz the
importance of staying away from measures that are unilateral and our
deep concerns and disagreement with their proposed policy of
annexation."
"We think that the path forward is a
two-state solution reached to by dialogue between the parties involved
and anything that is unilateral action by either side is unhelpful in
the cause of peace."
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
"The comprehensive U.S. Peace Plan is the only viable peace
initiative currently on the table trying to solve the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel has accepted its foundations,
despite concessions which will be required on our behalf. However, the
Palestinians have rejected it outright, once again closing the door on
any option to negotiate a peaceful future."
"While it is
dismaying that diplomats would choose to attack Israel rather than try
to facilitate dialogue between the two sides — or at the very least
urging the Palestinians to return to direct peace negotiations – Israel
will nevertheless remain committed to the U.S. peace plan, in hopes that
we eventually find a way to resolve our differences."
Ohad Kaynar, chargé d'affaires at the Embassy of Israel in Canada
"Annexation
of the West Bank is clearly an issue that most UN members disagree with
and this is likely to be seen favourably by those states still trying
to gauge what kind of Canada they would get on the coveted UNSC [United
Nations Security Council]."
Bessma Momani, Middle East expert, University of Waterloo
"Today's
comments by the prime minister do not change this long-standing
entrenched track record of acting as an asset for Israel."
"Ireland and Norway have not voted against any UN resolutions on support of Palestine during this century."
Karen Rodman, spokeswoman, Just Peace Advocates
 |
| Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, and his wife Sara, with
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, attend ceremonies at the Arc de Triomphe
Sunday, Nov. 11, 2018 in Paris. (Francois Mori/The Associated Press) |
Peace negotiations? They've stalled, the Palestinian Authority refuses
to rejoin Israel at the negotiating table. Time and again. A reasonable
proposal was made to carve out areas in Israel with majority
Arab-Palestinian populations to transfer them to Palestinian rule, while
doing the same with the Israeli 'settlements' in what the world insists
on calling the 'occupied' West Bank, an equal measure of territory that
would be governed and held by Israel. Made part of a potential plan for
peace, that too was rejected by the Palestinians.
Tellingly, the Palestinians with Israeli citizenship living in those
areas of Israel that were proposed as transferable to Palestinian rule,
themselves rejected the proposal, preferring to live under Israeli
governance as opposed to Palestinian. As Israelis, they have their
elected Arab legislators, as Members of the Knesset -- the Israeli
parliament -- who advocate on their behalf and who also agitate to the
extent that some of their actions can be construed as anti-Israel. In
contrast, the Palestinian Authority has made it clear that no Israeli
Jews will ever live among the Palestinians.
Countries of the European Union, Canada and others who insist that
Israel keep sacrificing itself to satisfy the ever-growing demands of
the Palestinian leaders have never had to live under the constant threat
of a neighbour inciting its people to violence against them. Constant
vigilance to ensure that as many of the violent threats that can be
apprehended as possible takes its toll, both on the civilians being
targeted and the security forces tasked with their protection.
In insisting that Israel maintain its laser focus on a peace settlement
without exerting pressure on the Palestinian Authority to do likewise,
Israel's critics are satisfied to hold the Jewish state to account for
not living up to its critics' expectations, while forgiving the
Palestinians all their blatant, obvious efforts to destabilize Israel by
attacking its people with knives, vehicles, rockets and suicide
attacks, expecting nothing better of them and signalling that whatever
they do is justified.
Someone like Justin Trudeau who has mismanaged the governance of a
peaceful, prosperous country like Canada to the extent that east and
west have become disengaged from one end of the country to the other has
nothing whatever to teach a nation of survivors like Israel. Justin
Trudeau, as prime minister of Canada, has constantly exhibited himself
as a selfish narcissist, a thin-skinned ideological partisan, a
hypocrite and vindictive in character.
His personal assault by proxy on the second in command of the Canadian
military, Vice-Admiral Norman, his aggravated harassment of the nation's
former Minister of Justice to flout the law in favour of a Liberal
stronghold in Quebec, his shocking lack of ethics in matters of personal
gifts by influential wealthy government lobbyists, his lack of
leadership in failing to support a vital energy sector in extracting
fossil fuels in part of the country that has traditionally given
financial support to economically weaker provinces, all paint a sordid
picture of failure.
He and the party he represents have nothing whatever to teach the
executive branch of other nations. Not only is Justin Trudeau preciously
sanctimonious, flaunting himself as a theatrical superstar, he is also a
shallow ideologue, an intemperate egotist whose presence on the
theatrical stage would never have done the harm to the country he now
governs that his decision-making has caused to national unity, Canadian
pride and civil functioning. He has succeeded in destroying the
Democratic process in Parliament under guise of a necessary response to
SARS-CoV-2.
His ambition to have Canada under his imprimatur be voted a temporary
two-year seat on the revolving UN Security Council where he believes he
would have access to the movers and shakers of the world as his just
due, directs many of his actions in his preoccupation with prestige for
himself on the world stage. And his statement regarding Israel's
decision to reclaim its heritage rights against the claims of wrongful
ownership of Arab 'settlers' on heirloom Judean land is meant to favour
Canada's UNSC bid with the voting blocs that the UN's Organization of
Islamic Cooperation, the Non-Aligned Movement and the African Group
represent.
Amusingly enough, right in Canada he has opposition to his ambition for
that UN revolving Security Council seat, with a coalition of 100
organizations and people which collectively support 'justice for the
Palestinians', which equates with destruction of the State of Israel, in
their demands for 'right of return', to swamp the population of Israel
with majoritarian Arabs, over and above the million and a half who now
hold Israeli citizenship.
Israeli
soldiers taking position as Palestinian demonstrators gather during a
protest against the expansion of Israeli settlements, in the West Bank
village of Beita, near Nablus, March 2, 2020. Credit: Majdi Mohammed/AP
Labels: Annexation, Canada, Crisis Management, Criticism, Hypocrisy, Israel, Justin Trudeau, Sanctimony
