グラハム ハンコック - スーパーナチュラル

Before being awarded the 2008 Olympic Games by the International Olympic Committee in July 2001, China were given the honour on the condition of fulfilling several promises, including:

(1) Reforming death penalty
(2) Ceasing detention without trial
(3) Ceasing repression of human rights defenders
(4) Removing unwarranted censorship of the Internet
(5) Full freedom of national and international media.
(6) General improvement of the Chinese human rights record.



However, 7 years down the line access to foreign news websites, including CNN, the BBC and the Washington Post, continued to be blocked, and though the games have not yet started, we have just seen all journalists ordered out of Tibet.



And the human rights situation has not just failed to improve, but has actually deteriorated. The Games are being used as a justification to extend the use of detention without trial in Beijing as part of the city’s "clean-up" ahead of August 2008. Meanwhile, human rights activists are increasingly subjected to harassment, house arrest and unfair trials.

Considering the lack of improvement of the most basic of human rights, considering the horrific, brutal crackdown on the Free Tibet protesters, and considering the complicity to the genocide in Darfur, China should feel ashamed to promote the slogan "One world, one dream", and should not be supported in their Olympic hosting.



Boycott the Olympics

Olympic Boycotts have taken place many times. There are a whole list of them here. The most significant, perhaps, was when over 60 nations - including Japan - boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics to protest at the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Many big name celebrities in the US have declared that they will boycott the 2008 Olympics, including Steven Spielberg, and on the international scene, France is considering boycotting these Games.

China will not change their behaviour unless they receive more pressure, so please boycott the Olympics with me.  

On March 10th, thousands of people took to the streets of Lhasa to protest for their freedom, and were met with massive deployment of thousands of Chinese troops. Information is scarce as to what has happened since then, as Chinese authorities have prevented foreign and Hong Kong media from entering and reporting on the region, ordering all resident journalists out.



But we do know that at least 80 protesters have been killed by Chinese authorities, and many hundreds - particularly Tibetan Monks - arrested. In an attempt to quash the protests, police have been firing into crowds, as well as using tear gas and electric cattle prods to disperse protesters. Violence has been escalating from both sides, and there appears no peaceful resolution in sight.



In a bizarre synchronous mirror between political and geological events, a huge 7.2 magnitude Earthquake ripped across Western China, along the Tibetan border on the 21st March, as the protests became more violent and the Chinese embassy in India was invaded.

We have just a few months until the Beijing Olympics begin in August, and unrest is increasing in the run up. China's slogan for these Olympic Games---"One world, one dream"---is a ghastly irony, given Beijing's complicity in the Darfur genocide, and their brutal crackdown on the 'Free Tibet' protests.

  

For China's refusal to put any pressure on Sudan to stop the genocide, they must face a campaign of unremitting shame, and I ask you to join in this effort. They're doing a good job to help us by being an odious, heinous shameful excuse for a regime.



We all know about China's record of human rights abuse, including endorsing child labour to boost its economy; and we know how the Chinese government acts as a fascist regime, censoring freedom of speech and freedom of information. Good examples of this is how wikipedia.org, Youtube, and even Amnesty International are not accessible within China. The Chinese government approach to human rights is despicable at best.



However, the Chinese invasion and oppression of Tibet has been one of their most controversial acts. The Tibetan people have been screaming for freedom for 60 years, and now finally the eyes of the world are resting on China in the run up to the Beijing 2008 Olympics, and at last the Tibetan people have an opportunity for their voices to be heard by the world. They are saying they want Freedom! and finally people are listening.

  

China is Sudan's largest trading partner, and has been their leading weapons supplier over the past decade - weapons that have been used to carry out the genocide taking place there. China has also been the main foreign investor in Sudan's oil industry. China National Petroleum Corp. has a 40 percent share in the international consortium extracting oil in Sudan, and it is building refineries and pipelines, enabling Sudan to benefit from oil export revenue since 1999.

Although most Western oil companies have withdrawn from Sudan under pressure from human rights organizations, Chinese companies have turned a blind eye to the brutal way in which Sudan forced millions of its citizens from oil-rich lands without compensation. Sudan's oil revenue gained from selling it's oil to China is then used to purchase arms from China to continue the killing.



If China wished, they have the potential to stop the genocide almost immediately.source

  

Everyday large scale atrocities are taking place in Darfur, including murder, torture, and mass rape; where rape and other forms of sexual violence are being used as a weapon of war in order to humiliate, punish, control, inflict fear and displace women and their communities. As stated before, 400,000 people have been killed, while 2.5 million have been displaced from their home and made refugees.



Despite the horific atrocities, genocide, and ethnic cleansing taking place, there has been little attention paid to the situation by World Powers. As you may have noticed, the mass media has largely ignored the conflict. Whatsmore, the Sudanese Government has a policy of jailing and killing witnesses of crimes, and obstructing and arresting journalists in an effort to suppress information about these atrocities reaching the outside world.



Though the international community is well aware of the situation, very little help has been given. By 2006 the African Union had sent in 7,000 peacekeepers, however the entire mission was underfunded has done little to stop the genocide. After 4 years, in July 2007 the U.N. finally agreed to send in a peacekeeper force of approximately 20,000 people. However, almost one year later these troops have still not deployed, and there are currently only 9,000 peacekeeper troops in Darfur, many of them African Union troops, and all badly organised and still underfunded.



This is the modern day version of the Holocaust, and almost nobody is working to stop it.

  

Sudan is a country in North East Africa of 39 million people spread among almost 600 different tribes. However there are two distinct major cultures – Arabs with Nubian roots and non-Arab Africans.



In February 2003, two non-Arab militia groups (the Sudanese Liberation Army, and the Justice and Equality movement) began a rebellion, claiming that their people have been neglected and oppressed by the Arab government. In response to the rebellion, an Arab militia group called the 'Janjaweed', backed by the Sudanese government and army began a campaign of genocide against the non-Arab people of Sudan, attacking and bombing farming communities and tribal settlements.

Savedarfur.org claims that as of May 2007, up to 400,000 Darfurians have died as a result of this conflict.

  

1 and a half minute video detailing the stupidity in war

  

So it is obvious the unregulated, uncontrolled existence of the internet poses a threat to those who wish to control the flow of information across the planet.



In 2007 a new virus hit the internet, named 'Storm Botnet'. It spreads through email, and when it gets onto your PC, it does nothing. It just sits there waiting for orders, doing nothing to alert the user of it's presence.

The thing that makes Storm Botnet special is the incredible level of sophistication with which it was programmed. The code continually mutates and changes, while still being able to perform the same functions, but without leaving any signature that allows anti-virus software to stop it. But it also uses incredibly advanced encryption methods for how the 'orders' are sent, that are unique to each infected PC. This level of complexity is far, far beyond anything we have ever seen with viruses before, and it looks like a very well funded, extremely advanced group of some of the most intelligent programmers on the planet made this.



Whats more, estimates suggest that as many as 50million PCs worldwide are infected, possible many more. When given orders to 'attack', the combined processing power of all the infected PCs have the capacity to take entire countries off the internet within minutes.

The Storm botnet previously has attacked the University of California at San Diego, in retaliation for researchers there investigating it.

Nobody knows who made Storm Botnet, or what their intentions are with it. Maybe it is a group of extremely high level malicious programmers who wish to get rich by hiring out the Storm capabilities to the highest bidder? Maybe it was made by an institution that has reasons to want to 'turn off' the internet as and when they like?  

The internet is really something very special. It has risen very rapidly from nowhere to become the main means of communication across our planet. It is the technological equivalent of instant global telepathic communication - any person in any part of the planet can instantly spread information into the global consciousness and to people on any other part of the planet, without regulation and without time limitations.

The internet is not controlled by any particular core group of people - it is unregulated - and therefore anyone can share any piece of information they chose without interruption from higher powers. This allows a much greater freedom of information flow.

Within the mainstream media channels, very little information gets out that contradicts the agenda of the people who own the channel. The unfortunate problem is that huge monopolies own all the mainstream media channels. Rupert Murdoch is an excellent example of this, owning an enormous list of media outlets, which are used to propogate his heavy right wing agenda.



This is where the internet comes in. Were it not for the internet, almost all information flow across the planet would be controlled by a small group of people who own all the mass media. Information about the truth behind the 9/11 attacks would never have been seen were it not for the internet. US Presidential Candidates like Ron Paul would never have been heard of because the mainstream media blacks them out. Anything that those in control of the media do not want us to see would never reach the public eye.



More tomorrow...