Before Fr. Powell was a Catholic priest studying in Rome, he was a Marxist who took on the challenge of teaching English at a Chinese university.

He writes about his experience here.

Problems began to arise almost immediately. First, the university was monitoring my every move. My mail arrived opened. My phone was tapped. I was followed off-campus. Books I checked out of the library were recorded. Visitors were registered before being allowed to come on-campus.

Labels: Catholic, China

China won't allow American tourists to bring Bibles into the country.

So much for those so-called "false" reports that China was going to ban them.

Labels: Catholic, China, Olympics

Thank God for brave people.

55 year old Catholic man Protests Forced Abortions in Tiananmen Square.

He purposely chose Tiananmen Square to remind the world of the brutality of the Chinese government towards protestors.

(If you do not believe the Tiananmen Square student protest in 1989 was brutal, just search Google for Tianmen Square massacre, and select images. Or view some that are not available through Google and other major search engines that do business in China. Please prepare yourself first, and do not watch it while the children are around. Note that the tanks did not stop, and NATO estimates that 7,000 people died.)

May God have mercy on their souls.

H/T Faith and Family Live!

Labels: China, Olympics, Prolife

The day before the Olympics, and China has rounded up several "known protestors" and taken them into custody. The Chinese authorities aren't arresting unruly mobs of people, threatening the safety of passersby with their violent meetings. They are going to old women's houses at 2 AM and rounding up dissidents.

The police deny any arrests have been made, even as AP reporters are speaking to protestors who are at the police station.

Meanwhile, an American in town for the Olympics was killed, and an entire city in Western China is shut down after terrorist bombings.

Let's pray for the safety of innocent civilians - Chinese and otherwise - while the Olympics are going on!

Labels: China, Olympics

I've been pretty outspoken in my criticism of China. The following may shock you:

I buy items that are Made in China.

I have an extremely difficult time finding American made goods to begin with; finding something Made in the USA and affordable is an even greater challenge.

For many items, there seems to be no alternative. Children's shoes, for example. Plastic measuring spoons and cups. Christmas decorations.

When I have a choice, I consciously avoid Chinese made goods.

I choose Papermate pencils instead of the glittery and Pooh- spangled ones; Crayola instead of RoseArt.

It is a classic case of I Would If I Could, But I Can't. Does this make me a hypocrite?

I don't think so. I don't wantonly buy Chinese goods without a thought. I firmly believe that if one has the choice, they should not purchase Chinese goods.

I will not be watching the Olympics, for example. Shoes are a necessity, but synchronized swimming trials? Not so much.

I will still refuse to buy Chinese made goods that I feel are unsafe - things with little metallic charms, red and yellow painted wood.

It's easy to say why bother at all, get what you want. My little partial boycott will not change the Chinese One-Child policy; it won't make life better for any Asian villagers or secret Christians.

But, my choice when added to a million others might start to change the balance of trade between our nations. It might be able to influence products stores choose to carry, or convince an American company that there is a market for USA goods. We are all in this together.

My new policy? Every time I bring a product into my home that was Made in China, I will say a prayer for the workers who produced it, and for God's grace to guide the leadership of the country. And that, I am sure, will change the world.

Will you join me?

Labels: China

HBO is airing the documentary tonight.


Snippets from the synopsis - read the whole thing here.

Through the personal stories of several men, women and children whose lives are impacted by the stolen-child black market in China, China's Stolen Children brings viewers face-to-face with a crisis brought on by the controversial one-child policy, implemented in 1979 to slow the country's explosive population growth. ..

The film is a powerful indictment of the unforeseen impact of the world's largest experiment in social engineering. One man, Detective Zhu, works full-time to locate missing children, with modest success. His latest case involves Chen Jie, a boy kidnapped at 5 while under his grandmother's car...

Legal abortions are commonplace for Chinese families in the one-child era. Moreover, with ultrasound machines allowing parents to determine gender at 4-5 months, many first-time pregnancies are aborted if the fetus is female.

Hooray for DVRs!

H/T Jill Stanek

Labels: China, movies

****UPDATED TO ADD****
In light of this news story, I think my email was not over the top.

China announce stability drive
From the article:

"The Beijing Olympics are approaching and properly carrying out petition and stability work, protecting social harmony and stability, and ensuring the Beijing Olympics go safely and smoothly has become a tough battle that every department at every level must win," said one report of a nationwide video conference on a stability drive that was held on Saturday.

"Now we are entering a state of war," said the report on a local government website in the eastern province of Zhejiang (http://www.dqnews.com.cn)...

... "Our most fundamental demand that is that zero go to Beijing, zero go to the province capital and there are zero mass petitions and mass incidents," a county official in the southwest province of Sichuan said, according to a local official website (http://www.scpc.gov.cn).

That "war" is on citizens who dare protest governmental abuses and corruption.

I love how what the world would call a "despotic crackdown", China calls a "stability drive". Kinda like a blood drive, except instead of helping accident victims, it's running in the streets.

Someone has to say something.

I like The Old Schoolhouse. Every Friday they send out Freebie Fridays, usually a buy one- get one kind of deal. I've even featured a few of the better ones here, including the reading program on my sidebar.

This week they offer an "awesome Summer 2008 Olympic Lapbook/Unit Study!" It "even includes a Bible verse to consider."

This made me a little testy, and I dashed off a too-quick email to the publisher:

I am very disappointed to see you offering an Olympics lapbook, an obvious tie-in to the Chinese Olympics.

China kills babies and forbids Christianity. They still drag people off in the middle of the night and took 2 million people's homes and businesses in order to built their Olympic stadium. Those people were left on the street with nothing. They execute prisoners without fair trials, and sell their body parts.

My children will not be watching the glorification of Beijing under the banner of "sports". I can't even imagine what Bible verse is being pushed to justify this kind of "fun homeschool tie-in".

Shame on you for promoting the Chinese Olympics!

Perhaps I should have cooled off a bit before hitting send... did I go to far? I have had no response.

Labels: China, education, Freebies, Olympics

Previously on this blog, I've decried the fact that America is going to look the other way and head to Beijing for the Olympics. China's human rights abuses, in my opinion, were simply to egregious to ignore. Then the story came out that the Chinese government had kicked almost a two million people out of their homes in order to make the Olympic stadium, and simply bussed them out of town when foreign dignitaries came to visit.

Then Tibet rebelled. The Dalai Lama does not want to secede, they merely want autonomy. They want to practice their religion. Free Tibet protests have broken out around the world. In Paris today, officials had to extinguish the torch twice in order to smuggle it past the protesters.

China exercises tight control of any information its citizens might read. The great Firewall of China effectively blocks any stories, websites, or news that does not line up with the Chinese governments communist agenda. The average Chinese citizen has no idea that the world is rooting for Tibet, the the world criticizes the government for abusing its people, that the world cares about them. Instead, the Chinese government is telling their people that they have found dynamite and plastic explosives in the Buddhist monasteries, and whispers about suicide bombers.

When China became a host city for the Olympics, they agreed to allow the foreign journalists uncensored access to the internet. The Firewall would be lifted, at least for the duration of the event. It might be the only chance for the Chinese people to have unfettered access to the Net. If the Chinese people realized that the world was watching, and for the most part, rooting for an overthrow of the oppressive regime from the inside, what would happen? Could a week's worth of access to the rest of the world change the future of the Chinese people?

I'm for the Chinese Olympics now. It's their only chance.

Labels: China, Olympics

Anyone who has read my blog for longer than, oh, say a week knows that I have it in for China. Specifically, I feel the need to pass on any information I come across regarding the appalling treatment the Chinese citizens are given at the hands of their own government. I can't do much from my little corner of South, USA - but I can stop looking the other way and do a little to inform the public's conscience.

The recalls and dangerous food, toys, toiletries, and medicines coming out of China are a symptom of the real disease: the Chinese government sees people as a commodity. The do not believe each individual is endowed by their Creator with inherent dignity; rather, humans are are pawns to be pushed, pulled, or fooled in order to gain money and power.

As you may or may not know, the Olympics are scheduled to take place in Beijing. I have an anti-Beijing button on my left sidebar - Faithmouse is giving them away free, and will link back to you if you post it.

Steven Spielberg was a consultant on the Beijing Olympics, but recently pulled out, citing China's involvement in Darfur. China buys 70% of the Sudan's oil, and supplies the government with weapons. Since 2006, China opposed sending UN Peacekeepers to the Darfur region to support efforts to stop the genocide that has killed 2 million people - while implying that it is the US and Europe that aren't doing enough to stop it.

Earlier, it was reported that China is stealing homes and lands to make room for Olympics .
I'm not sure if "stealing" is the right word, though, since it is a Communist government and everything belongs to the State.

The argument that the Olympics should not be politicized is a red herring. There is a big difference between disagreeing with a country's politics, and injecting billions of tourism and broadcast dollars into a murderous regime.

Is murder too strong a word? The students at Tiananmen Square were murdered. Political prisoners are routinely executed and their organs sold on the black market (7000 per year). The Dying Room is a documentary that exposes the neglectful killing of orphaned babies (not including the forced abortions).

Justice and liberty are hallmarks of the American Way. Do we love sports so much that we will stand by silently, being entertained on the backs of our brothers and sisters who were tortured, starved, imprisoned and killed? Reminds me of another culture that loved to be entertained:

Labels: China, politics, Prolife, Rants and Raves

China's pharmaceutical industry isn't exactly up to Western standards. The factory that makes a leukemia drug has been shut down after contaminated medicine paralyzed hundreds of people. Shanghai Hualian's cancer drug facility is closed (pending an investigation; however, the Chinese government owns the plant and is doing the "investigating" so don't hold your breath on a a fair and unbiased report.) The license has been revoked, and two officials detained (probably for execution, then China will sell their organs. Business as usual!) (Random Rambling: It is outrageous that our country is going to send over our world class athletes to compete at the Beijing Olympics. I've got an icon on my sidebar from Faithmouse, and she's offering it to anyone who wants to post it.)

This same company also is the only plant in the world that makes the RU486 abortion pill. Of course, that "medicine" is intended to kill. The drug is already dangerous enough:

From Lifesite news

Ultimately, Danco indicated that 840,000 women in the United States have had abortions with its dangerous drug...

Those fatal infections have led to six American women losing their lives following the use of the abortion drug. Also known as mifepristone or Mifeprex, the drug has killed thirteen women worldwide and injured thousands in the U.S. alone.

Here is Danco's letter to providers, warning that 8% of women have heavy bleeding lasting 30 days or more, and of other complicatons. The Population Council has given Danco the sole license to distribute RU486 in the United States. What's the Population Council? It's a pro-abortion NGO funded by the Rockefellers and the Ford Foundation.

The RU486 pill is still being manufactured, imported by Danco Laboratories, and sold to thousands of American women.

In a related story, the man who gave his girlfriend the RU486 drug, causing their unborn baby to die, didn't show up in court. He's charged with first degree murder. Why is it murder when he gives her the pill, but not if she took it herself? How could he murder someone who is not a person? Oh, that's right. It's a baby and a person if the mother wants it to be. Otherwise, it's just tissue.

(Random Rambling: It is outrageous that our country is going to send over our world class athletes to compete at the Beijing Olympics, bolstering their economy and winking at their human rights violations. Not only do they sell human body parts on the black market, obtained from prisoners who were executed without any sort of due process or fair trial, they kill babies in the street, force women to be sterilized, muzzle the media, and don't even allow their citizens to worship God freely. I've got an icon on my sidebar from Faithmouse, and she's offering it to anyone who wants to post it.)

Labels: China, health, Olympics, politics, Prolife, Rants and Raves, Recalls