China's Maritime Navy and Politics of Acknowledgement

Obama, Clinton and Panetta's baiting of China only demonstrates how desperately weak they are and ready to provoke any kind of "war" possible to save their own skins, even WWIII is preferable to them to being busted for looting U.S. Treasury, bankrupting America, War Crimes trials

World News
By Dallas Darling
04/29/2012

When a Chinese admiral proposed a permanent naval base in the Gulf of Aden, to support its anti-piracy operations, the United States was quick to condemn such a suggestion. And as armed naval vessels from the Philippines claim they caught Chinese fishermen poaching over a South China Sea shoal, causing Chinese naval vessels to also become involved, U.S. officials have again reiterated their support in defending the Philippines and its navy. While both nations are at a tense standoff, some even assert that China is wanting to expand its sea power in the region for the purpose of energy exploration.

Chinese military amused at Obama's pathetic posturing

Although these events occurred in the midst of a China-Russian naval drill, one shouldn't be too concerned about how the mainstream press is misrepresenting China's navy. The China-Russian naval drill, including the South China Sea standoff and possible Chinese base in the Gulf of Aden, are all primarily China's desire to again be acknowledged, especially by Western imperial powers that have maintained dozens of colonies and protectorates throughout the Pacific and sea and military bases. China is also wanting to uphold regional peace alliances and provide stability for its own shipping commerce.

The pride of China's maritime trade and exchanges actually started centuries before Western kingdoms sought to explore and exploit the world. Still, the rise of Westernized war ships and sea power was made possible only because of Chinese navigational innovations. As early as the 1st century, Chinese ships were making a long coastwise journey with luxury items, like silk and spices and gems, around Siam and India and Arabia, through the African-Mediterranean region, to Rome. The sea routes were much cheaper and faster and safer than overland routes.(1)

Obama believes Chinese as stupid as he is

These maritime ventures were symbolic of China's trade and commerce and helped develop navigational equipment that benefited much of the world. By the early 15th century, Emperor Zhu Di had employed Zheng He to command China's treasure fleets. Zheng

He was born to a Muslim family and became one of the greatest skilled navigators in the history of sea travel. Seven major voyages were undertaken with hundreds of ships, some three-to four-hundred-foot-long. They were multiple nail-bound with watertight hull compartments, up to nine masts, and with dozens of spacious cabins.

Chinese treasure ships also had sophisticated stern-post rudders of a type that would not be seen in Europe until the early modern period.(2) The maritime ventures stabilized the critical Strait of Malacca, ruled by renegade pirates, and increased trade and commerce. They also spread new ideas and innovations. China shared the magnetic compass and introduced improved navigational techniques to Arab and European kingdoms, like fore-and-aft rigging that sailed into the wind, paddle wheels, and the sleek caravels.(3)

Obama propaganda minister Carney prays for a spot in the bunker, will spout any lie, commit any crime to be included in growing Obama doomsday party

But foremost in China's Eastern philosophies, its rich cultural heritages, and its technological inventions, was the need to be acknowledged and to be recognized by other countries, specifically of its importance and place in the "Western Ocean."(4) This was the real purpose for large-scale maritime and diplomatic-motivated explorations. (According to some naval historians, one expedition, a detachment from Zheng He's sixth expedition, visited America in 1421, along with Australia, New Zealand, the Atlantic coast of Brazil, and the Cape Verde Islands. Such a voyage would be seventy-five years before that of Christopher Columbus.)(5)

"Ambassador" to U.N. and all-around tough guy Susan "Butch" Rice too busy emulating Italian idol Benito Mussolini to even think about "diplomacy" ....

As the U.S. and other Western nations, including the Philippines and Japan, appear overly fearful of China's naval activities, they may instead want to learn several valuable lessons from China's maritime history. Emperor Zheng earned little economic reward from his massive treasure trips, but they did consume much of the nation's timber and other valuable resources for shipbuilding.(6) And within a few generations, reactionary and fearful Chinese isolationists allowed their merchant fleets to wither.

As a new dynasty, the Ming Dynasty, retreated from maritime trade and commerce, Japanese wako marauders so terrorized China's coastline that to this day women in Fuian province hide their faces with blue scarves originally designed to shield the wearer from the lecherous gaze of foreign bandits.(7) Britain and France would later force the Qing Dynasty to trade in opium currency, which devastated China. Other imperial powers, like the U.S., Japan, and Russia, militarily carved China into economic spheres, resulting in numerous Chinese rebellions and resistance movements.

... while Obama fantasizes he is the "new and improved" mentor Dick Cheney

Neither has China forgotten World War I and World War II, both of which were considered European Civil Wars by Chinese officials, and both of which forced China to take sides. A U.S.-led war against communist forces, the Japanese invasion of China and War of Resistance, and numerous Western military engagements and preemptive wars with China's neighbors, have adversely impacted China. Perhaps it is time to allow China to pursue a kind of self-strengthening movement, so as to equalize the balance of power in the Pacific region, helping to bring stability and innovations once again to the world.

Dallas Darling (darling@wn.com)

Dallas Darling is the author of Politics 501: An A-Z Reading on Conscientious Political Thought and Action, Some Nations Above God: 52 Weekly Reflections On Modern-Day Imperialism, Militarism, And Consumerism in the Context of John's Apocalyptic Vision, and The Other Side Of Christianity: Reflections on Faith, Politics, Spirituality, History, and Peace. He is a correspondent for www.worldnews.com. You can read more of Dallas' writings at www.beverlydarling.com and wn.com//dallasdarling.

(1) Bernstein, William J. A Splendid Exchange, How Trade Shaped The World. New York, New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2008., p. 2.

(2) Ibid., p. 100.

(3) Perkins, Dorothy. Encyclopedia of China: The Essential Reference to China, Its History and Culture. New York, New York: Facts On File Publishers, 2000., p. 457.

(4) Ibid., p. 457.

(5) Bernstein, William J. A Splendid Exchange, How Trade Shaped The World., p. 103.

(6) Ibid., p. 102.

(7) Ibid., p. 103.

Any opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The 5^th Estate.

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This news site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.  We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

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Hitler’s Bunker and the Ruins of Berlin : Rare and Unpublished Photos

Obama and his criminals had better peruse these images; now is the time for U.S. taxpayers to see luxury bunkers they have paid for and will never occupy with Capitol Hill elitists who believe they can survive a nuclear/biological catastrophe and emerge to rule what is left of world

Time/Life
04/29/2012

In April 1945, as Russian and German troops fought — savagely, street by street — for control of the German capital, it became increasingly clear that the Allies would win the war in Europe. Not long after the two-week battle ended, 33-year-old LIFE photographer William Vandivert was on the scene, photographing Berlin’s devastated landscape.

LIFE photographer William Vandivert

Between August 1940 and March 1945 American, RAF and Soviet bombers launched more than 350 air strikes on Berlin; tens of thousands of civilians were killed, and countless buildings — apartment buildings, government offices, military installations — were obliterated. Vandivert, LIFE reported, “found almost every famous building [in Berlin] a shambles. In the center of town GIs could walk for blocks and see no living thing, hear nothing but the stillness of death, smell nothing but the stench of death.”

Hundreds of thousands perished in the Battle of Berlin — including untold numbers of civilian men, women and children — while countless more were left homeless in the ruins. But it was two particular deaths, those of Adolf Hitler and his longtime companion and (briefly) wife Eva Braun, in a sordid underground bunker on April 30, 1945, that signaled the true, final fall of the Third Reich.

A new view of a photograph that appeared, heavily cropped, in LIFE, picturing Hitler's command center in the bunker, partially burned by retreating German troops and stripped of valuables by invading Russians

Vandivert  was the first Western photographer to gain access to Hitler’s Führerbunker, or “shelter for the leader,” after the fall of Berlin, and a handful of his pictures of the bunker and the ruined city were published in LIFE magazine in July 1945. A few of those images are republished here; most of the pictures in this gallery, however, were never published in LIFE and vividly illustrate the surreal, disturbing scenes Vandivert encountered in the bunker and in the streets of the vanquished city beyond the bunker’s walls.

Unpublished. An image almost too perfectly symbolic of Berlin in the spring of 1945: a crushed globe and a bust of Hitler amid rubble outside the Reich Chancellery

In his typed notes to his editors in New York, Vandivert described in detail what he saw. For example, of the sixth slide in this gallery, he wrote, “Pix of [correspondents] looking at sofa where Hitler and Eva shot themselves. Note bloodstains on arm of soaf [sic] where Eva bled. She was seated at far end … Hitler sat in middle and fell forward, did not bleed on sofa. This is in Hitler’s sitting room.” Remarkable stuff — but, it turns out, it’s only about half right. Historians are now quite certain that Braun committed suicide by biting a cyanide capsule, rather than by gunshot — meaning the bloodstains on the couch might well be Hitler’s after all.

Unpublished. LIFE correspondent Percy Knauth, left, sifts through debris in the shallow trench in the garden of the Reich Chancellery where, Knauth was told, the bodies of Hitler and Eva Braun were burned after their suicides

Unpublished. In the typed notes (see next slide) that William Vandivert sent to LIFE's New York offices after getting to Berlin, he described his intense, harried visit to Hitler's bunker: "Note and note well," he wrote. "These pix were made in the dark with only candle for illumination ... Our small party of four beat all rest of mob who came down about forty minutes after we got there." Above: A 16th century Madonna and Child stolen from a Milan museum

With only candles to light their way, war correspondents examine a couch stained with blood (see dark patch on the arm of the sofa) located inside Hitler's bunker

Unpublished. An SS officer's cap, with the infamous death's-head skull emblem barely visible. Of this image, Vandivert's notes simply state, "[M]oldy SS cap lying in water on floor of sitting room."

Unpublished. Russian soldiers and a civilian struggle to move a large bronze Nazi Party eagle that once loomed over a doorway of the Reich Chancellery in Berlin.

 
A NOTE ON THE PHOTOGRAPHER: William Vandivert — who at 6 ft. 5 in. held the distinction of being the tallest photographer on staff — shot for LIFE from the late 1930s through the late ’40s. In 1947 he joined Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger and David “Chim” Seymour in founding the legendary Magnum photo agency. (Rita Vandivert, his wife, served as Magnum’s first president.) William Vandivert died in 1992.

Any opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The 5^th Estate.

Images:  Google royalty free unless otherwise attributed.

This news site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.  We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

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76 Percent Support Ban on Cleaning Window Exteriors : Poll - Video

As if these "poll" respondents have the slightest idea of the travails of these abused maids:  Timely "poll" cover-up for fact that maids have been murdered to erase evidence of molestation, rape by employers; one or two "accidents" perhaps believable - but EIGHT?

Agencies
By Deborah Choo
04/29/2012

A resounding “no” to domestic workers cleaning window exteriors.

Indonesian maid Muntik Bani was murdered by her employer

76 per cent of nearly 7,000 respondents that took part in an online poll on Yahoo! were in favour of an outright ban on domestic workers from cleaning window exteriors.

In the poll which ran from Tuesday until Sunday, users were asked to choose “Yes” or “No” when asked if they were in favour of such a law, which was recently mooted by Madam Halimah Yacob, the Minister of State for Community Development, Youth and Sports.

Eight domestic workers have fallen to their death so far this year while cleaning window exteriors in high-rise flats. The most recent incident took place last Thursday when a maid fell from the ninth floor of her employer’s Woodlands HDB flat.

Yahoo! user Shuzhen shared her experience as an employer.

“I have domestic helper, but I never asked them to clean the exterior of the windows! Isn't it silly to clean the exterior since it rains so often in Singapore. Pointless to clean, right?”

Horrific injuries suffered by Indonesian maid Nirmala Bonat at hands of employer:  Now Singaporean "employers" have hit on a way to dispose of evidence of molestation, rape - by throwing maids out of the window, claiming it was "accident"

Yahoo! user Lensgypsy agreed and said, “They are somebody's daughter, somebody's sister, even somebody's mom. Why employers continue to put their maids in jeopardy is beyond me. Are windows that get dirty often that important? If you cannot stand the sight of it, go and plaster it with opaque decorative film and just clean the inside. It's criminal to risk someone's life like that.”

Another user, Bionogue said there is a safer way to clean windows.

Indonesian maid Shazia Masih raped & killed by her animal "employer" in Pakistan

“I've got a part-time house cleaner which comes in weekly. I've gotten her proper tools for cleaning the windows and she doesn't need to lean out at all,” she said.

But user Suakoo defended employers, saying that sometimes domestic workers act without their employers’ instructions.

“When you see a maid climbing up or out to clean the window exterior, you assume that the employer instructed the maid to do so. But that's not always the case. My two Indonesian maids (former and current one) were told on very first day "Do not climb anything to clean the window. Never mind if window is not clean."

But she said her domestic workers went ahead to clean and joked about it, telling her employer someone downstairs had thought she wanted to jump.

Starting next month, all foreign domestic workers will have to undergo a new programme to orientate them about living and working safety in Singapore, announced the Ministry of Manpower recently.

Video:  You Tube


Any opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The 5^th Estate.

Images:  Google royalty free unless otherwise attributed.

This news site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.  We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

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British Red Cross Doctor Kidnapped in Pakistan Found Beheaded - Videos

Like Daniel Pearl, Nick Berg, this story has gagging smell of CIA; perfect timing, new "crisis" and reason for Obama, lackey "mainstream media" to squeal "terrorists" and phony "Al Qaeda" once more while following in Bush/Cheney/CIA's murdering footsteps

Reuters
By Gul Yusufzai
04/29/2012

QUETTA, Pakistan  -

The beheaded body of a kidnapped British doctor working for the International Committee of the Red Cross was found by the roadside on Sunday in the southwestern Pakistan city of Quetta, police and Red Cross officials said.  (Image of Khalil Dale removed at request of IRC).

Khalil Rasjed Dale, 60, was abducted by suspected militants on January 5 while on his way home from work.

"The ICRC condemns in the strongest possible terms this barbaric act," ICRC Director-General Yves Daccord said in a statement. "All of us at the ICRC and at the British Red Cross share the grief and outrage of Khalil's family and friends."

Police discovered Dale wrapped in plastic near a western bypass road in the capital of southwestern Baluchistan province where Baluch separatist militants are fighting a protracted insurgency for more autonomy.

His name was written on the white plastic bag with black marker.

Beheaded body of Nick Berg:  Great timing for Bush/Cheney

"A sharp knife was used to sever his head from the body," said Safdar Hussain, the first doctor to examine the body. "He was killed about 12 hours ago."

Dale had worked for the ICRC and the British Red Cross in Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq before coming to Pakistan. He had been managing a health programme for Baluchistan for almost a year when he was abducted, the ICRC statement said.

"We are devastated," Daccord said. "Khalil was a trusted and very experienced Red Cross staff member who significantly contributed to the humanitarian cause."

British Foreign Secretary William Hague condemned the killing.

"This was a senseless and cruel act, targeting someone whose role was to help the people of Pakistan, and causing immeasurable pain to those who knew Mr Dale," Hague said in the statement.

Daniel Pearl before his brutal murder

 The Pakistani foreign office promised to hold the killers accountable.

"The Government of Pakistan condemns this barbaric act in the strongest terms and is determined to bring the perpetrators of this heinous crime to justice," a statement from the Foreign Office said.

"Pakistan is committed to combat terrorism and the death of Mr. Dale has only strengthened our resolve to eliminate this scourge."

Dale is the third Westerner killed in such a fashion in Pakistan. The others include Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002 and Piotr Stanczak, a Polish geologist, in 2009.

A senior police officer said the Pakistan Taliban had claimed responsibility for the killing, saying a ransom had not been paid.

The Pakistan Taliban have been fighting a bloody insurgency against the Pakistani state since its formation in 2007. It is close to al Qaeda and it claimed credit for a failed car bomb attempt in New York's Times Square in May 2010.

Both Berg and Pearl murders served these war criminals well, creating hysteria and a diversion from illegal Iraq war ripoff, military deaths at about same time Rumsfeld reports 1 TRILLION missing from Pentagon budget

Pro-Taliban militants are also active in Baluchistan, which shares borders with Afghanistan and Iran.

In March, a Swiss couple that had been abducted in Baluchistan showed up at an army checkpoint after eight months of captivity. Militants said a ransom had been paid, but this wad never confirmed.

Four health workers, including two doctors, were kidnapped by militants the week before Dale's disappearance from the Pishin area of Baluchistan, near Quetta. They were freed after a shootout between police and their kidnappers.

And in August 2011, American aid worker Warren Weinstein was kidnapped from his home in Lahore. Al Qaeda later claimed responsibility for the abduction.

Additional reporting by Mahawish Rezvi in ISLAMABAD; Writing by Chris Allbritton; Editing by Nick Macfie/Maria Golovnina.

 Videos:  You Tube

Any opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The 5^th Estate.

Images:  Google royalty free unless otherwise attributed.

This news site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.  We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

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TSA Now Outed for Bestiality - Video

Molesting children and grandparents isn't enough for TSA pedophiles, necrophiliacs:  Now slowly coming out as practitioners of bestiality

KGW Portland
By Susan Wyatt
04/27/2012

Meow the now 37-pound cat has become quite a traveler. The white and orange shorthair gained national attention when he was taken in by the Santa Fe Animal Shelter and Humane Society.

This bewildered puss (right) gets a taste of TSA "hospitality"

The elderly owner could no longer care for him. He had ballooned to 39 pounds.

He and his caretaker flew to New York to appear on "Today" and "Anderson Cooper." He even met actor Hugh Grant while at the Today show.

On the way home, the portly feline - who has already dropped two pounds since being in the care of the shelter - got a patdown by a TSA agent at the airport.

Perhaps they thought a kitty this big has to be carrying some contraband.

 Video:  You Tube

Any opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The 5^th Estate.

Images:  Google royalty free unless otherwise attributed.

This news site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.  We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

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