A Panda is a bear, too, right?

Imagine a portion of Mexico that has been, for some time, populated by an American minority. They speak American English; they consider themselves American. But, the border behind which they live is a Mexican one, recognized by both countries and the world. Then, one day, an overly zealous new Mexican president, decides to break the hold that America has culturally, politically, financially on this region. This new president is intent on taking back Mexico’s land in spite of the people living there. Really, he could care less whether the Americans living there were scared just enough to flee over the border and to find new homes in America, leaving behind their wealth and infrastructures for “real” Mexicans.

Do you honestly think that, when the Mexican tanks rolled into this fantsy, putting Americans in danger, maybe even killing a few, that an American force would not cross the border of Mexico to slap the hand of their weakling military apparatus, giving a message, an obvious message, that America would not stand by and allow Americans to be harmed or put in harm’s way? I think we all know that America, faced with the same circumstances, would have done the same thing. Just remember that, as we all start to point our fingers to indicate Russia’s culpability. Do not forget that Saakashvili, the president of Georgia, was basically thumbing his nose at Russia, daring her to react, expecting, wrongly as he now must realize, that the world would come to his aid if anything happened.

I strongly believe in the principle of ‘it takes two to tango’ when there is a fight. This situation did not begin when the Russian tanks rolled across the Georgian border. It is an incident that warranted international attention long before that. Yes, the situation is much more complex than most people understand, including myself. But, in the climate of the world today, one which seems to really want and need an enemy, Russia is being vilified beyond its own value, vilified almost as if the people running most of the stories in the media’s coverage have taken their moves straight from a 1960s-era playbook.


Chris and I had a very interesting discussion this morning about the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games. I guess they must have been too perfect, so much so that it has brought into question almost their every aspect, allowing the western world to point its finger at China, lifting the curtain of its inner workings, and noting time and again that the impressive show that we witnessed represents, somehow, China’s real, evil self, a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The popular stories here focus on the fact that the masses that performed the intricate dances at the ceremonies were mostly soldiers, enlisted to perform, practicing their choreography for years so that they would be flawless…that the perfect little girl pristinely singing at the beginning was just lip-syncing (because the actual girl who sang the song was not pretty enough to have made the cut)…that the fabulous firework feet that exploded before a helicopter shot leading to the Bird’s Nest just before the beginning of the ceremonies were actually computer-animations, only the last one of which, the one seen from the Nest’s interior, was real. Chris had an interesting thought: if this had been an Opening Ceremony in the US, a ceremony completely staged by Hollywood, and the same sorts of behind-the-scenes stories later surfaced, most people around the world would just have smiled and said “that’s Showbiz.” But, this is evil China, and it is our job to find fault, to point out the extreme human cost of this unexplainable beauty that we will likely not forget. The beauty. The wolf in sheep’s clothing.

I think that the mind automatically calculates the worth of things when we see them. If I were told that the planning stages for the Opening Ceremonies had started three years ago, that the costumes were begun two years ago, and that rehearsing had started a year ago, I would not have been surprised. It looked that polished. But, when you take these figures and they begun to be multiplied by two and three, it seems an injustice somehow, an injustice that some young soldier from the farm was brought to Beijing, his only purpose to repeat the same choreography day in and day out for three years. And these strange injustices are stacked upon the backs of the Chinese, only so that their coming out to the western world will have a blinding sheen. At some point, within the netheregions of the calculating mind, a figure that begins to be too high, and then, ultimately, to be far too high, indicates a kind of sick need for control. It is this sick need that properly illustrates the Party’s influence over the Peoples Republic of China. Same players, slightly different mask. It certainly makes me want to read “Manufacturing Consent” as the Chinese reform a current American propaganda technique, reshaping it and labeling it “Made in China”, this time in just the perfect light, complete with theatrical wind machines, smoke, and maybe even a mirror or two. I mean, isn’t copying the secret to China’s success after all?

There is something about the two themes—Russia and China--that intermingles. I don’t know how. I don’t know why. It’s a taste, though, lingering in my mouth. Something smacks of interrelation, and I can’t be the only one who discerns it.

Russia wants recognition, too; it wants the kind of respect that it had in the world during its communist heyday. I would be interested to know how the people of Russia see this Georgian incursion. I would think that they see it as just and even feel a tinge of pride that the world can do nothing to stop them in their old backyards. In its own way, this little war is a show for Mother Russia herself, a little propaganda boost to make your every day Russian feel virile again. Oil revenue has allowed Russia to pay down her debt, and she doesn’t want China, with whom she has always had rocky relations, even in the old days, to upstage her with some uninterrupted coming out.

The timing of it all is suspicious, is it not? Something smells fishy, though. Georgia’s place in the oil industry definitely raises an eyebrow.

There is a part of me that is beginning to play into the conspiracy theory that the governments of the world have seen the writing on the wall, and know that there is much less oil left in the world than has been previously thought. Now, they are jockeying to firm up their future supply as things begin to get bumpy. China seems to be the last in line to realize this; surely she does not think that her supply from the Sudan is sure enough? It looks like China, always the slow child amongst them all, will be the last one to invade a country in order to sure up future supply demands. Or, do they think they have enough money to continue to push up the price of oil on the world stage? Maybe they have learned from our lack of success in Iraq and have figured the benefit-cost ratio as poor, seeing invasion as an unsure gamble. Hmmmm. They might have something there.