Food I Like

Here are just a few of the food and/or beverage items I love:

• Aloha from Oregon
• Delice de Bourgogne (triple-cream cheese)
• French Press (the right way)
• Yancey's Fancy Buffalo Wing Cheddar
• Yogi Ginger Tea

Christmas 2009

Our new family had a great Christmas this year; Christmas Eve with my family, Christmas Day with my sister-in-law's family on Bainbridge Island. Very relaxing both days, and ate like a fiend (both days).

Scored on the goodies, too; my first pair of honest-to-god jammies since, probably, 1973 or so. I truly am middle-aged.

We are very lucky, indeed.

Slacking...

I've been a real slacking bastard these last few months unless, of course, you consider having a baby slacking. I've heard that sleep deprivation is a big factor to deal with, but they really don't tell you how big a deal it really is. If there's one thing I would stress, it would be that sleepless nights WILL determine how you function for at least the first two months after the baby arrives.

That said, we're managing to get by. The sleep issue is slowly starting to resolve itself, and we're starting to put our lives and our house back together (but very slowly).

The little guy was born 09/20/2009. Good numbers, no? Either way, we're thrilled to have him here. He's been great to have around the house, and we can't believe how lucky we feel to have him. It's going to be an interesting journey for all of us.

I have a real sickness…

Just perusing eBay and dreaming, when I came across this. 

I love this car! 

 

I know it must have cost a small fortune to get it into this condition.  I sure wish my Impala was this nice…

Prokudin-Gorskii’s Color Photos of Russia, 1907-1915

 

Photos: Prokudin-Gorskii’s Color Photos of Russia, 1907-1915 | Newsweek International | Newsweek.com

I had no idea that color photography even existed over 100 years ago.  I’m always surprised to see any color photos from as early as the late 1930s.  The photos in the link above show a pre-Revolutionary Russia, and provide a fascinating glimpse into a time and place that has long since disappeared.  I’m assuming the vast majority of the architecture still exists.

The photos are so much richer than I would have expected to see. 

Beautiful.

Something Wicked this way comes…

The wife and I caught the matinee showing of Wicked at The Paramount theater this afternoon. 

In a word: Amazing

The only thing I knew about the show was that it had something to do with the Wicked Witch of the West from the movie, The Wizard of Oz, which I’ll admit to never having completely seen.

No matter, the show was fantastic; great stages, lighting, costumes, but the best part were the performances.  The songs were very literate and melodic, and the leads had the most amazing voices.  Individually they were great, but when they sang with each other, well…  It’s really hard to convey in words how good they were.  I’ve never heard performers more locked in to each than what I saw today.

Chandra Lee Schwartz played Glinda (The Good Witch from Oz) and Donna Vivino played Elphaba (The Wicked Witch).  They are not to be missed. 

If this show comes to your town, it’s a must see.

I Love The Dead

Sorry to borrow a song title from Alice Cooper but, given the context of this post, I couldn't help myself.

For some reason, I've always been fascinated with history. Of course, history is generally what happened at a specific time to a place and its people, but it also includes how people died and where they were interred.

Because of this, I've always been fascinated with graveyards. I love walking through graveyards, viewing the grounds, reading the headstones or grave markers, trying to get a sense for what that person's history might have been like. It's impossible to encapsulate someone's history with a simple marker (surely more condensed that your standard 140-character Tweet), but sometimes you can find out a person's place in life based on the information provided there at the gravesite.

Mind you, I'm ALWAYS out of the cemeteries well before dark, but daytime viewing is not a problem.

Among the many cemeteries I've been to, some that stand out are those I've visited in Portovenere, Italy; Oxford and London, England; Marblehead, MA; and Vicksburg, MS, to name a few.

It's interesting to see the cultural and historical differences between the various cemeteries. Reading the headstones can indicate what might have been happening in that area during the time the person passed. War, disease, weather. It's all there.

The two most beautiful cemeteries I've been to are those in Marblehead, MA and Portovenere, Italy. Both overlooked the water, whose views have probably provided a calming influence to those visiting the grounds over the many centuries funeral services have been conducted there.

The cemetery in Marblehead contained the remains of numerous Revolutionary War dead (including a black soldier, which I thought VERY progressive for that time in history), and the remains of a woman who was born in 1620, the year the pilgrims landed. The headstones are carved in slate and have lost little, if any, of their original detail. They are as easy to read as they day they were carved. I've visited a cemetery in the mid-West in the early 90s, and I couldn't make out a single word on many of the headstones there. It's a shame that these folk's names, many including Civil War soldiers, are lost to time and weather.

This leads to the next link/article that details additional details of Michael Jackson's final resting place, Forest Lawn Glendale, in Southern California. I'll include the link, and will post the full article in the event the link is broken at some point in the future (nothing lasts forever).

I found the history of the creation of Forest Lawn particularly fascinating.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32648572/ns/entertainment-music/?gt1=43001

updated 2:54 p.m. PT, Tues., Sept . 1, 2009

GLENDALE, Calif. - Michael Jackson’s life played out on a world stage, headlines screaming his every move, frenzy following his footsteps.

His death, memorial and investigation amplified the delirium and prolonged the anguish of family and fans. On Thursday, he is scheduled to be interred at Forest Lawn Glendale in what will be a hidden monument in a mausoleum made of marble and mortar.

There will be only silence. No marquees, no spotlights, no paparazzi.

He will be enveloped by the grandeur of the grounds, the majesty of the buildings and the significance of history.

In the Great Mausoleum, he will join Hollywood legends of yesterday like Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, W.C. Fields and Red Skelton, as well as “The Last Supper Window,” a lifesize stained glass recreation of Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece, and Moses, a reproduction of Michelangelo’s sculpture for the tomb of Pope Julius II in Rome.

On a hilltop nearby, in a building the size of a sports arena, hang two of the world’s largest paintings, “The Crucifixion” and “Resurrection.”

Like so many of the people in it, the park has also become fabled. Founded in 1906 by a group of businessmen on 55 hillside acres in the town of Tropico (later Glendale), there was no forest and no lawn, just a traditional dusty graveyard with granite tombstones and elaborate messages.

By the time Hubert Eaton arrived in 1912 at the age of 31, according to Forest Lawn literature, he had graduated from college in Missouri, punched cattle in Montana and lost a small fortune on a silver mine in Nevada. He took the job as sales manager at the cemetery so he could repay his mine backers.

He convinced people to buy plots before they died. After just a year, he had increased sales 250 percent. After three years, his sales had multiplied so much, he was able to buy a stake in the company and was named general manager.

Despite resistance from his board of directors, monument makers, the community and customers, Eaton eliminated tombstones so grass could be planted and lawns mowed; he renounced the name “cemetery,” changing it to “memorial park”; he started collecting world-class art or detailed reproductions; and he added mausoleums, acres, trees, florist, gift shop and chapels that are used for funerals and weddings.

In 1933, Eaton was the first to combine a mortuary with a cemetery, overcoming opposition from morticians, casket makers, and the state. Today, the Glendale park covers 300 acres and employs 150 people.

The park was divided into sections like Slumberland, Babyland, Graceland and Inspiration Slope. You can find places for immortality, affection, tranquility, mercy, harmony, fidelity and devotion.

A patriotic theme was incorporated in the early 1950s with the Court of Freedom, the Freedom Mausoleum and sections with names like liberty and victory.

For decades, Forest Lawn, like so many other cemeteries, had a whites-only policy, but park spokesman William Martin said he didn’t know what year that ended.

‘Elegance and good taste’
The number of Forest Lawn locations has grown to 10 — Hollywood Hills, Glendale and Covina Hills are the three largest.

“They have a reputation for excellence. They are highly respected in every regard. They take excellent care of their facilities. They handle a high volume of families. Most of their employees are long-term and dedicated to their work. Those things say a lot about a company,” said Ron Hast, executive editor and publisher of the Northern California-based Mortuary Management with Funeral Monitor, who was one of Marilyn Monroe’s pallbearers in services in 1962 at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Martin, who has been communications manager at Forest Lawn Glendale for nearly four years, dodges most questions, including names of famous inhabitants, how many people are interred there or how much room is left. He is even tighter lipped about Jackson.

When asked if there had been increased interest in Forest Lawn since the Jackson family announced its plans, he said, “The public interest has been raised. That’s putting it mildly.”

Hast operated a transportation backup service for Forest Lawn for 25 years. He doesn’t know exactly how many people are there, but it is “tens of thousands.” The celebrity list is long and includes George Burns, Gracie Allen, Walt Disney and Nat King Cole, he said.

Hast said the park is a good fit for Jackson, because they are experts at handling celebrity security “and they will do it with elegance and good taste.”

Scott Michaels, owner of Dearly Departed Tours in Los Angeles, believes Forest Lawn Glendale has a double standard when it comes to celebrities. “They protect their celebrities vehemently, but they brag about them,” he said.

“Not too long ago, they had an exhibit in their museum about celebrities buried in their cemetery,” Michaels said. “These people wanted to be famous when they were alive. Fame didn’t end with their deaths. We still watch their movies. It’s frustrating for some not to be able to pay their respects.”

Martin acknowledged there was a time when Forest Lawn boasted about its celebrity crowd, but no more.

“We don’t advertise, we don’t market it,” he said. “It is just inappropriate.”

Over 70,000 people have been married at Forest Lawn parks. Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman and Regis Philbin and his wife Joy were married at Wee Kirk o’ the Heather church at Glendale.

Privacy for the family
Cemetery Web sites and blogs have been buzzing since Jackson’s family announced the Forest Lawn plan. Hits to Lisa Burk’s blog at www.gravehunting.com have gone through the roof, she said. Interest in him “blows everything else out of the water because he was so internationally known.”

She said if the Jackson family wants privacy, they will get it at the mausoleum. “It’s impossible to get in there. It was before and it will be worse now.”

Even though visitors see a portion of the mausoleum when they go see the Last Supper show — a 10-minute presentation about the stained glass window, put on regularly 365 days a year — most of the multistory building is restricted. It is well monitored and some areas are only accessible with pass keys, Hast said.

Author Mark Masek went to Forest Lawn in mid-August to take photos of the mausoleum for his Web site on celebrity graves, www.cemeteryguide.com.

Two black vans blocked his exit from the grounds, Masek said, and a pair of security guards stood by while he deleted all the photos he had taken. “I fully cooperated and did everything they asked me to,” he said.

In his book “Hollywood Remains to be Seen,” a look at 14 area cemeteries, “I had pictures for every cemetery except the two Forest Lawns,” he said, “because they prohibit commercial photography.”

Finding celebrities and their markers or monuments at Forest Lawn Glendale has kept a lot of people busy over the years. Cybermaps abound with detailed lists, directions and photos. Dozens of books have been published guiding the starstruck to dead stars.

That won’t change. In fact, it would seem Jackson’s presence at Forest Lawn will provide new challenges for everyone involved.

Beer and Brats. What could be better?

With more than a little time to kill, Miguel suggested we head out to Leavenworth for a brat and beer bacchanal.  Sounds good to me.

I drove to Miguel's house last Friday, and we headed out at 9 am.  First stop: Mickey D's for a little breakfast.  I rarely, rarely, rarely go there (I think it's the one of the worst of the big fast food places, 2nd only to Dairy Queen), but I do like the occasional Egg McMufffin or Filet o' Fish.  Bags of garbage delivered, we hit the road and ate as we drove. 

I've only been on Highway 2 during a non-snow season 3 times before, and each time I head out there, I'm always amazed at how beautiful it is.  River and mountain scenes, small towns barely clinging to existence, and depending on the time of year, leaves turning color before dropping to the ground. 

We pulled into town and got parked at 11:30.  Let's get this party started...  Let's eat!  The first place we found that could satisfy our beer/brat urges was a place called Munchen Haus.  I ordered Helga's Giant Kelbassi (1/3 pound, Polish, Beef & Pork).  It came with a small order of German Potato (What would Dan Quayle do here?) salad.  I was given one of those funny little vibrating coasters and was told it would let me know when my order was ready.  To order a beer, I was instructed to walk around the corner, into the patio, and order from the bartender there.  Doing as I was instructed, I walked into the patio and ordered a fantastic beer from Hirschbrau.  I don't remember what it was I ordered, but it was quite tasty.

When I was alerted to the fact that my dog was ready, I walked over and picked it up.  It was huge, and looked grilled to perfection.  The beauty part in all this was that they had the biggest selection of mustards I've ever seen.  If you know anything about me, you know I love my condiments!  They all sounded so good, but there are only so many condiments you can put on a dog before it overwhelms the link.  I went with three different flavors, one one each side of the bun, and one stripe down the middle.  I sprinkled some onions over the top of the entire dog, layered on some sweet relish, a quick squirt of ketchup, and a nice healthy layering of sauerkraut!  Now THAT'S a dog!  It was, in a word, fantastic.  Through the various layers, I could taste the individual mustard flavors, and found them to be some of the best mustards I've had.  The beer was equally good.  I don't remember what we paid for this meal, but it was money well spent.

After stuffing ourselves, we walked around the town.  Lots and lots of places to shop or eat, but not much else.  I guess in a small town that has made itself into a bit of Bavaria, it's not surprising that most businesses are geared completely around tourism.  We walked to the end of town and looked down into the valley were a small river flows past town.  We could see people in the park down below us, and people wading in the river.  With the mountains as a backdrop, the entire scene was idyllic.

OK, enough of that crap, let's get back to the eating and beer drinking.  Where to go, where to go...

Ah, let's head on up to the Italian place for a beer.  It seemed the entire building we found ourselves walking toward was geared mainly to the Italian side of things.  We walked into a meat shop that closely resembled some of the shops we saw while we were in Italy in 2003.  We left the meat shop and headed up the stairs to the Italian restaurant.  Nobody there.  Strange, but it was a little off the beaten path.  Plus, who goes to eat Italian food in a German town?  We got seated at the bar, and ordered a couple beers.  Nothing out of the ordinary, but they were good and cold.  Feeling a bit bloated, we passed on appetizers, and eventually got our bill, paid, and departed for parts unknown. 

Back out into the 92 degree heat.  It was definitely warm, but not miserably so, and the winds kept things comfortable.  We walked to the main square (if you can call it that), where artists of various flavors displayed their work (mostly photography).  We cruised through some of the stores that caught our interest, but nothing compelled either of us to buy anything.  This went on for a while before we decided to get more beer and possibly a bite to eat, though neither of us was hungry.

Are next haunt was a restaurant that is located in the basement of one of the buildings on the main drag, Andreas Keller Restaurant.  Upon entering, we stood and waited to be seated.  And waited.  And waited.  And waited.  We could see 3 other parties seated in a space that could hold quite a few folks.  There were a LOT of empty tables.  The waiter looked at us (the waitees), and indicated that he'd be with us shortly.  Define "shortly".  Finally, he gathered us and seated us in a booth, handed us a couple menus, and disappeared.  We peeled the menus and were appalled at the prices.  I can see slightly higher prices in a tourist town, but these prices were ridiculous.  Given that we weren't all that hungry, it came down to ordering smallish portions, so as not to damage our innards or our wallets.  I decided on the Red Cabbage, Miguel ordered the German Spatzle with mushroom sauce, with each of us selecting a beer worthy of our sophisticated palates.  And then we waited.  And waited.  And waited.  Finally, a staff member came by with some plates, forks, and a tub of what appeared to be stone-ground mustard.  OK, that's all well and good, but what if we didn't order anything that required the mustard.  Do they through it away, or do they take it back to the kitchen and scoop it back into the big mustard bucket?  And then we waited some more.  I told Mike we should leave, which he was willing to do, but I said let's give them 2 more minutes.  4 minutes later, we decided to beat feet and Mike stood up to go, when the waiter started heading in our direction.  Damn!  Now we were stuck.  We should have just told him we were leaving, but we stayed.  He took our order and, suprisingly, it wasn't too long before we had our beer and "food".  My red cabbage was a pile of mush.  I've had pleny of red cabbage in my day (and I love it), but it's never been mushy.  This slop was barely a step above baby food in terms of its consistency.  I didn't expect a huge portion (and in this I was not disappointed), but for $4, it was severely over priced (even if it had been properly cooked).  Miquel's portion of spatzle was no larger than my red goo, and to charge $5 for noodles and an extra $2 for mushroom sauce, was beyond the pale.  This is the kind of restaurant that can screw their customers over because they are likely first-time (and last-time) suckers.  Tourists from far away places will likely never make it back to town, and any tourist that does make a return visit to Leavenworth, would likely never come back to this pathetic excuse for a restaurant.  When the waiter finally returned with our bill, he circled our table 3 times within a 5-minute period, presumably to make sure we weren't skip out on paying the tab.  It was this final treatment that fried my ham.  Oh, and as it turned out, we didn't order anything that required the mustard they brought out to us.  What do you think they did with it?

Cut loose onto the streets of Leavenworth once more, we continued to walk up and down the streets, occasionally stopping into any store that looked interesting.  Once in a while we'd see a dog that would seem nice to meet, so we'd strike up a conversation with the owners and get to meet some cool pooches.  As we walked past one store, I looked in to see custom pancacke griddles.  One had snowflakes embossed in them (all the same design snowflake), so that wasn't too interesting.  Right next to it, there was a pancake griddle that had the heads of 7 different zoo animals.  Knowing that the wife likes pancakes, and we'd soon have a boy to make them for, I had to have it.   For $32, I thought it might be a little more expensive than what I might pay if I were to order it directly from the manufacturer, but I wanted to bring it home with for the wife.  (I did check the price when I got home, and I would have paid $35 for the pan, plus whatever shipping charges I might have incurred.  Shockingly, I got a better deal in the tourist village).

If you've been to Leavenworth for more than 4 or 5 hours, things start to seem a bit repetitious.  With the day winding down, we decided to grab one final beer before heading out. 

We headed back to the place where we started our day.  We skipped right past the hot dog spot, and walked up to the bartender.  I asked the gal behind the counter if they had beer XYZ and she said she didn't think they did.  One of the employees went to check to see if they had any kegs in the back, and when he returned, he reported that they had, in fact, run out.  Oh, well.  I ordered another beer (not nearly as tasty), and after consuming our pints, we got back on the road. 

All-in-all, it was a great afternoon, with only the one unpleasant experience at the Andreas Keller Restaurant. 

The traffic was light, and we got back to Miguel's house around 8:30.  After saying our good-byes, I pointed the wagon in the direction of home and pulled up to the house at exactly 9 pm.  It was a long day, and I was beat.

Oh, and the wife loved the pancake pan.

BECU Zoo Tunes: Susan Tedeschi

The Woodland Park Zoo has a summer concert series each year.  The name of the series is "BECU Zoo Tunes".  Strangely, the concerts are presented by Carter Subaru.  Why is that strange?  Because BECU stands for Boeing Employees Credit Union.  Why then aren't these shows being presented by Boeing?  That would be like "McDonald's ZooTunes", presented by Burger King.  Strange.   Anyway, I've never really followed their concert schedule, largely because most bands who play there are bands I've never much cared for or, in some cases, never heard of.  The few times I've heard whose playing there are bands that are likely (or frequently) played on The Mountain (which means "Blech" in Spanish). 

Somehow the wife scored VIP passes to Susan Tedeschi's concert a few nights ago (August 19th).  I'll admit to being something of a cave-dweller musically (in my opinion, the last "good" decade of music was the 70s), and I'm not a big fan of the blues, so I'm somewhat ashamed (OK, I lied, I don't really care) to say I'd never heard of the woman.

HOWEVER, when someone scores VIP passes, with the weather was as great as it was (mid-80s), and it might well be the last time I get to do something fun with the wife before Junior comes aboard, who am I to say "no"?  What exactly do you get with VIP passes?  Well, you get to sit in roped off section, enjoy nice, comfy adjustable beach chairs (if that's the right description), and get a pretty tasty box dinner, with extra pop and water as desired.  I'm not sure what the passes cost, but it was nice to make use of them.

The opening band was JJ Grey and Mofro.  Again, not a big fan of the blues, but they were pretty good.  JJ Grey sorta reminded me of Billy Bob Thornton (I hope I'm not turning anyone off), but he had a damn good voice, and his band was decent. 

Between sets, the wife and I got up to walk around and stretch the pegs a bit.  On the way back to our seat, I say a woman who looked familiar, but I just couldn't quite place it, until if finally dawned on me that I was looking at a former classmate from high school.  It's been 27 years since I'd last seen her, but I was finally able to dredge up a name.  I've still got it.  Still heading back to our seats, I saw the former Microsoft VP of Windows, Jim Allchin.

Susan Tedeschi's band was really good, and she's got a voice that belies her speaking voice.  She speaks in a sort of high, girly voice, but when she sings, it's a loud, bluesy voice I never would have expected to slip from her mouth.  She's a pretty good guitar player, too.  That she's married to Derek Trucks, a guitarist with the Allman Brother's band, probably doesn't hurt.  I liked the songs a lot more than I expected, even though the only one I recognized was a Beatles cover.  Before I quit here, I have to say one thing: Her sax player ROCKS-THE-HOUSE!!!  Unbelievable.  He really knows how to make that sucker scream, and he got a rousing hand every time he cut loose.

The sound for both shows was mixed really well and was not overly loud.  I suspect that volume has a lot to do with not wanting to disturb the animals at the zoo.  Good thinking.

As we were leaving, I got a good chance to look at the venue, and found the place PACKED!  I was surprised at how old the crowd was, but also surprised at how many little kids were there.  It was nice to look out over the crowd and see friends and families peacefully enjoying a beautiful summer evening.  Relaxing in that type of environment is probably one of the nicest ways to catch a show, and I think the zoo does a pretty damn good job of providing a space where people can spread a blanket, enjoy a picnic dinner (or to-go pizza), and listen to some nice music with friends and/or family.

Bravo, Woodland Park Zoo, bravo.

Older is better

I don’t know why I do, but I love vintage stuff. I’ve been really jonesing lately for old Pioneer audio gear that has no practical purpose in today’s world of all things digital. Honestly, I really can’t stand digital music in the form of a single, downloadable file that you stick onto an iPod or some other such device. I don’t mind the CD, because with the CD, you get the artwork, liner notes, and a CD that you actually OWN. I can see the appeal in the convenience of having your music on a little player you can take with you on a walk, or plug into an adaptor in your car, or home stereo system. I get it, I just don’t like it. I have a single CD player in my car, and I’m totally fine with that.

Why then, do I have an irrational craving for a Pioneer reel to reel tape deck? They are huge, awkward to use, provide less musical fidelity, and are prone to needing to be adjusted for the vagaries of the whole tape format. Couple that with the fact that finding recording media requires a bit of a hunt to get it. Assuming I bought one and had 10” reels on the thing, how much music could I get on a single reel of tape? 5 hours? 6 hours? I have no idea, but if you get sick of what your listening to, to find a different recording on the tape requires fast or reverse forwarding until you find the desired spot on the tape. Think of it as looking for the beginning of a song on the old cassette tape. Fast Forward. Stop. Play. Is that what I was looking for? Nope. Do I need to FF or Rev to find the spot. Repeat ad nauseum until location is found. Does anyone want to go back to that? I love the > or < buttons on CD players. Finding the next track is EASY.

What happens if a tape breaks? Do I really want to put the reel onto a splicing machine? God, no, what a pain! Given that we’re taking about tape, you KNOW there’s going to be tape hiss. Is that what I want to listen to? Not really, but I can live with it, though not ideal. Why then do I want a reel to reel player? Because they look coooool!

Feast your peepers on this bad boy… Sadly, these units run into the many 100s of dollars, and I’m just not ready to shell out that kind of dough for what I suspect might be a passing fancy. Still…

I’ve also gotten hot and bothered about the old Pioneer turntables… Again, what’s with the old stuff? Now, there are many purists who say that a well-recorded, quality wax pressing sounds superior to CDs: they are warmer and richer sounding than CDs sound. I know a number of strides have been made in CD recording technology, so that may not be as true as it once was, but playing albums really is a visceral experience. You pull the sleeve from the 12” album cover, place the disc on the platter, give the disc a good cleaning, then carefully lower the needle down onto the wax, as you sit and examine ever square inch of the album art, reading every word of of the liner notes (including credits). Ahhh! Another afternoon, wonderfully spent.

Lay some ocular heaviness on this bad boy… I knew you could. And…? Yeah, you know you want one…

OK, stepping away from all things stereo, I was looking around the other night for a new fridge. Ours has a tendency to either run too cold, freezing all our produces in the fridge or… run not cold enough so that food goes south faster than we’d like. With a bebe on the way, we need something that regulates its temperature a lot better than what we’ve got going. I start poking around for fridges, and I don’t even know what got me side-tracked, but I found a website that sells restored antique kitchen appliances. OMG!! I want a fully restored 40” gas stove from the mid-50s. I saw some I absolutely loved, but fully restored, these bad boys run anywhere from 3 to 8 thousand dollars. That’s $3,000 - $8,000 for those of you keeping score at home. These stoves look so cool, and have so many configurations that today’s stoves simply do not have. Double ovens, double broilers, some other combination, they made ‘em then to last.

When they are fully restored, they look so good, and would neatly fill up the spot in our kitchen that doesn’t look completely filled by the 36” stove that currently resides there. With all the heavy metal and polished stainless steel, these babies are the Cadillacs of appliances.

I found several websites for companies that restore antique appliances, and one of them touted the benefits of the antique appliances, and I’m sold. Just need to pull together some serious scratch. OK, maybe when I’m back to working. Until then, I can dream, can’t I? Come dream along with me…

I am giddy at this one, because this is a 1954 O'Keefe & Merritt model, in light yellow. Given that our house was built in ‘54 and the kitchen is largely wall-to-wall yellow tile, I can’t think of another unit that would better complement our kitchen than this one. Look at how that baby is lit up. Some units even have salt and pepper shakers built in to the control head.

You can have these appliances restored in a multitude of colors, so whatever strikes your fancy, you can probably get a custom appliance to match (provided, of course, you can come up with the dough for one of these).

As a culture, I think we’ve allowed ourselves to be seduced by all things quick and convenient. Unfortunately, this comes at the expense of quality and esthetics. 99 times out of 100, I will go with the older item, so long as the quality is there. Depending on the item, safety has to be taken into consideration, but I doubt playing a record will cause undue harm to my health.

Can’t wait for the day when I can listen to the reel-to-reel tapes I made from the albums I recorded on my vintage turntable, all while eating something tasty on my vintage, refurbished stove.

Ahh, the good life!

Automotive Obsession

On June 27th the wife and I were heading home from the Greenwood Car Show, when I spied a B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L car up ahead. I could see that it was an older BMW, but couldn't make out what it was.

Before I go any further, I would like to state for the record that I am NOT a BMW fan, especially the current Flame Surface design they've been using these last few years...

I urged the wife to speed up to car so that I could make out on the trunk what model it was. As we approached, I was able to see the badging on the back, and write it down: BMW 3.0 CS. I'd seen them before and had admired them, but this was the first one I'd ever seen in motion, and it was a thing to behold. I was pretty sure, that it would be beyond my financial means, but one can dream, right?

When I got home, the first thing I did was look it up on eBay. As a matter of fact, there was one that was for sale, and it appeared to be in pretty good condition, but with the current bidding price at $24,000, it was well beyond my means.

6 weeks later, here I am pining for one. I just found a website devoted to the entire series of cars (late 60s 2000 C, 2800 CS, 3.0 CS/i/L), which seem to be collectively referred to as "E9".

Call it what you want, I want one!

Three Sheets

Trying to stay cool in the basement, with as little movement possible, I surfed on over to Hulu to see what new and exciting show I might discover. What? What's this? A drinking show?

Three Sheets has a pretty basic premise: send a regular Joe around the world to discover the various alcohols and traditions that are used by various cultures around the world in the consumption of said alcohol. Not terribly complicated, but right up my alley. I just watched the first episode, which was filmed on the South Island of New Zealand (one of my top 5 destinations). It was all good, and I suspect I'll be watching a lot more of these.

What I wanna know is: Why didn't I know about this show before?

Gordon Ramsey's back in action!

I love the GR shows, Hell's Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares. The new season of HK started last week and based on what I've seen, it's going to be a pretty crazy season.

Put a fork in me, I'm done...

Seattle is currently in the midst of a sweltering heat wave, unlike anything ever experienced before. As I type this, it is currently 8:30 pm and a blistering 95 degrees. I suspect that's pretty damn hot for just about anywhere in the country, but in the Pacific Northwest, it's unheard of.

I'm sitting in the basement, where the temperatures usually range at least 10 degrees cooler than upstairs (where the thermostat reads a balmy 88), but it seems nearly as hot down here.

There was an advantage to being down here the other night as the heat wave started to kick in, but after a couple days of baking, there's very little temperature difference between the two regions. I'm sweating like a pig.

Some forecasters are predicting Seattle may hit 101 tomorrow, higher in the interior regions.

Already looking forward to when it again reaches something manageable, like 85...

I'm Rich! I'm Rich!

Just picked up the mail. One of the envelopes was from our local electric utility and stamped "UNCLAIMED PROPERTY". Well, that already sounds pretty good to me.

I rip open that bad boy and find that there's a balance on a previous account on the condo I sold last year.

How much is my windfall? $88.54.

More than I've made all year, and probably all that I'll make all year...

Finally!

This morning was the first time I felt my son kick. The wife had made earlier attempts to get me to feel him, but each time I laid my hands on her stomach, he'd stop moving.

This morning she had me place my hands on her stomach and after a few seconds, I felt what I thought was a hiccup. It was the boy!

Second birthing class...

Did a couple exercises, and watched a "film", in which they showed a woman delivering a baby and... the placenta. I just about fell over and died. I thought it would be clear and flat, but instead it's round and purple/reddish and attached to the umbilical cord. Blech!

I definitely will not be on the business end of things after the baby is delivered.

Am I old? Another great birthday...

I celebrated my birthday yesterday. It was a great day, starting with opening my gifts, followed by heading out to a local pancake house the wife likes. I know, I know, it's my birthday, but I was happy to go along with that, knowing what she was going to sacrifice on my behalf...

After breakfast, we went to the Greenwood car show, which we go to every year. Love it! Took a lot of pictures, but because the wife is in a somewhat compromised state, I pushed through it much faster than I would normally.  Lots of women there, most tortured to the same degree as the wife.  I love old cars.

Afterward, we stopped off at the Fred Meyer to pick up a few bags of potting soil, before coming home to plant the Improved Meyer Lemon plant, which was one of my birthday gifts.

We later headed out to dinner at The Kingfish Cafe, one of my favorite places, and I ate myself into a near food coma. Why do I do that? No matter, the food was great and I enjoyed the best wings I've ever had!

Afterward, we came home to check on the dogs, and to take a little nap. Nap done, we headed out to catch a show of improv comedy. The idea is not exactly something I would have been drawn to, but it was much more enjoyable than I expected. At the intermission, the wife was getting her headache back, and given the long day, we were both exhausted, so we decided to leave and head home.

A great day, and I have the wife to thank for it. Thanks, babe.

Unbelievable: Michael Jackson dead at 50

The wife and I just got back from our doctor appointments, and we talked and listened to a CD on the way home. I just sat down to the computer, fired up IE, and there on the MSN home page was the heading that Michael Jackson had died.

I'm completely blown away. I was not a big fan, but he was such a huge force in the entertainment industry (and relatively young), that I'd expected he'd live at least another 25-30 years.

This will be big, big news for the next few days.

This coming on the heels of Farrah Fawcett's death... A bad day in the world of entertainment.

First birthing class tonight...

Tonight was the first of 8 birthing classes. Pain. The first six are 2 hours long, the last two are 3 hours long. I'm sure we'll get a lot out of them, (I learned a few things tonight and suspect I'll learn more with each session), but it's strange being in a room full of strangers talking about some fairly personal stuff. Not exactly something I enjoy doing.

I'm already a bit nervous about being in the delivery room as it is, I think I'll be terrified by the time we actually get down to show time.

Do salmon skin rolls count?

http://health.msn.com/health-topics/skin-and-hair/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100240557&gt1=31036

Content provided by:

Can Salmon Save Your Skin?

Omega-3 fatty acids may boost your skin’s defenses against UV damage.

By Fiona Kenny, R.D. , EatingWell.com

• Healthy Dinners Under $3 Per Serving
• 15 Minutes to a Healthy Breakfast
• 8 Diet Tips to Beat Temptation

If you spend your summer vacation soaking up the sun, your best defense (second to sunscreen, of course) may be what you order for dinner. Healthy omega-3 fatty acids in oily fish can boost your skin’s defenses against UV damage, explains epidemiologist Adèle Green, Ph.D.

In a study published in the April 2009 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers followed the eating habits of more than 1,100 Australian adults for approximately five years and found that those who ate a little more than 5 ounces of omega-3-rich fish—such as salmon and tuna—each week decreased the development of precancerous skin lesions by almost 30 percent.

The lesions, called actinic keratoses, are a common sign of chronic sun damage and can develop into skin cancer if left untreated.

Scientists think the omega-3s act as a shield, protecting cell walls from free-radical damage. So next time you head to the beach remember your sunscreen and hat, and make reservations at a restaurant that serves great seafood.

More promising findings on eating for healthy skin:

Researchers from Unilever linked consuming plenty of vitamin C-rich foods (such as oranges, tomatoes and strawberries) with youthful skin. Vitamin C’s youthful effects on skin may be due to its antioxidant properties, which help protect against ultraviolet rays, and its role in keeping skin firm via collagen synthesis.

A study of 177 men and women published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition found that people who consumed diets rich in olive oil, vegetables and legumes had the least skin wrinkling while those who ate lots of full-fat dairy and red meat had the most. "Eating foods rich in bioactive compounds (vitamins, phytochemicals) may minimize ultraviolet damage to the skin and improve its appearance," says Mark L. Wahlqvist, M.D., one of the study’s authors and director of the Asia Pacific Health and Nutrition Center at Monash University in Australia.

In one study, scientists in Germany showed that consuming tomato paste rich in the antioxidant lycopene (2 1/2 tablespoons daily for 10 weeks) reduced sunburn by 40 percent.

Research suggests that the nutrient beta carotene may help you stay young-looking by scavenging for free radicals that contribute to skin aging. Good sources of the nutrient include sweet potatoes, carrots, cantaloupe and leafy greens.

Salmon and tuna recipes on Delish:

• Grilled Salmon & Zucchini with Red Pepper Sauce
• Salsa-Roasted Salmon
• Pistachio-Crusted Tuna Steaks
• Smoked Salmon Salad Nicoise

Why? Why? Why?

Or maybe the subject line should be Where? Where? Where?

I'm off for the week until classes start next Monday. I thought I'd be productive and get some much neglected yardwork done. The camelias are in desperate need of some pruning as they are about 9 feet high and need to come down about 2 feet or so, and trimmed up on the front and sides.

I shower, get dressed, and head into the garage looking to tool-up. First things first, I need the extension ladder. Hmmm... it's not here where I last left it. I check the Gorilla racks. I'm not sure how it might have gotten there but, knowing myself, I wouldn't have put it there. Maybe the wife put it there. No ladder.

I search everywhere in the garage and come up empty handed.

This leaves only one possibility: The wife loaned it to one of her friends and didn't bother to get it back. More accurately, the friends didn't bother to get it back to us.

I've gone looking for MY tools only to find them weren't there. Wife moved 'em, didn't bother to return them.

Went to wash the Impala a week ago, and wound up washing the wife's car. While I was about to start that, she headed over to the Impala with a dry rag, and was going run the rag across the hood to get it damp. Get away from that car... Thank god I was paying attention. I told her to NOT do that.

This, my friends, is why I don't allow the wife to touch ANY of my things. If it's not yours, you don't touch it...

Does that make me an ass? Maybe, but at least I know where my things are...

So, no ladder, no yardwork. I suppose I could do other things around the yard, but the buzzkill is complete. I'll work getting the indoors taken care of.

Human Rights in China

I get the occasional hit on my Spaces blog coming in from China via their Baidu search engine.  Not really sure how restrictive their scope is, but I know there's a big push to block all porn coming into China via Google (and, presumably, other search engines).  If China deems all things porn as evil, and struggles to keep a lid on that, one wonders how restrictive they are with regard to accessing worldwide sites documenting China's human rights record. 

Never having been to China, I don't know how pressing a desire the Chinese people have for expanded human rights, but suspect they aren't encouraged to express their dissatisfaction with the way things are.

That said, if someone from China happens across my blog and finds something that sparks a desire for something different (better?), than I am happy to do my part.  I wonder how long it will be before the Chinese government adds my blog to their list of blocked sites.

From Wikipedia (which I suspect is blocked, so I will include their entire entire on "Human rights in the People's Republic of China" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China).

 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

This article is about the People's Republic of China. For Human Rights in China (HRIC), the non-governmental organization, see Human Rights in China (organization).

Since the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, the human rights issue of China has come to the forefront. Multiple sources, including the U.S. State Department's annual People's Republic of China human rights reports, as well as studies from other groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have documented the PRC's abuses of human rights in violation of internationally recognized norms.

The PRC government argues that the notion of human rights should include economic standards of living and measures of health and economic prosperity,^[1] and notes progress in that area.^[2]

Controversial human rights issues in China include policies such as capital punishment, the one-child policy, the policy of Han Chinese cultural integration towards Tibet, and lack of protections regarding freedom of press and religion.

A number of organizations work to create awareness and campaign for change with regard to human rights in China. These include Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Human Rights in China, Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) and China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group (CHRWCG). For more details, see China Human Rights Organizations

Contents

[hide]

• 1 Legal system
• 2 Civil liberties
  • 2.1 Freedom of speech
    • 2.1.1 Impact of the Olympics
  • 2.2 Freedom of movement
    • 2.2.1 Treatment of rural workers
  • 2.3 Religious freedom
    • 2.3.1 Christianity
    • 2.3.2 Tibetan Buddhism
    • 2.3.3 Falun Gong
  • 2.4 Political freedom
• 3 Legislation
  • 3.1 One-child policy
  • 3.2 Capital punishment
• 4 Discrimination
  • 4.1 Ethnic minorities
  • 4.2 Tibet
• 5 Other human rights issues
• 6 International
  • 6.1 Darfur
• 7 Counterarguments
  • 7.1 Reform
• 8 Further reading
• 9 Notes
• 10 References
• 11 See also
• 12 External links

[edit] Legal system

The Chinese government recognizes that there are problems with the current legal system,^[3] such as:

• A lack of laws in general, not just ones to protect civil rights.
• A lack of due process.
• Conflicts of law.^[4]

As judges are appointed by the State and the judiciary as a whole does not have its own budget,^[5] this has led to corruption and the abuse of administrative power.

[edit] Civil liberties

[edit] Freedom of speech

Main articles: Censorship in the People's Republic of China and Government control of the media in the People's Republic of China

Although the 1982 constitution guarantees freedom of speech,^[6] the Chinese government often uses the subversion of state power clause to imprison those who are critical of the government.^[7] Also, there is very heavy government involvement in the media, with most of the largest media organizations being run directly by the government. Chinese law forbids the advocacy of independence or self-determination for territories Beijing considers under its jurisdiction, as well as public challenge to the CCP's monopoly in ruling China. Thus references to democracy, the Free Tibet movement, Taiwan as an independent state, certain religious organizations and anything remotely questioning the legitimacy of the Communist Party of China are banned from use in publications and blocked on the Internet. PRC journalist He Qinglian in her 2004 book Media Control in China^[8] examined government controls on the Internet in China^[9] and on all media. Her book shows how PRC media controls rely on confidential guidance from the Communist Party propaganda department, intense monitoring, and punishment for violators rather than on pre-publication censorship.

Foreign internet search engines including Microsoft Live Search, Yahoo!, Google Search China^[10] have come under criticism for aiding in these practices, including banning the word "Democracy" from its chat rooms in China. Yahoo! in particular, stated that it will not protect the privacy and confidentiality of its Chinese customers from the authorities,^[11] and was criticised by Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders of having "taken on the role of censor."^[12] In October 2008, Citizen Lab revealed that TOM Online's Chinese-language Skype software filtered sensitive words and then logged these messages to a file on non-secure computer servers. Skype president Josh Silverman said it was "common knowledge" that TOM had "established procedures to... block instant messages containing certain words deemed offensive by the Chinese authorities."^[13]

[edit] Impact of the Olympics

Main article: Concerns over the 2008 Summer Olympics

In anticipation of the 2008 Summer Olympics, China faced international criticism regarding its human rights record. China has acknowledged "the need to keep advancing human rights,"^[14] and resumed a human rights dialog with the United States.^[15] A number of foreign protesters were deported from China during the Games.^[16] Others were detained until the closing ceremony and then deported.^[17][18] An unauthorised protest by seven activists protesting about China's involvement in Tibet at the Chinese Ethnic Culture Park, blocking its entrance, was cleared away by the authorities.^[19]

The Chinese government had promised to issue permits allowing people to protest in so-called 'protest parks' during the Games,^[20] but on 18 August it was reported that of 77 applications, 74 were withdrawn, two suspended and one vetoed.^[21][22] Two elderly Chinese women were reported to have been sentenced to "re-education through labour" for having applied for a permit.^[23] The Chinese authorities stated they had no record of the sentences.^[23] Their sentence was suspended subject to proper behaviour, and to restrictions on movement.^[24] Furthermore, many human rights lawyers and political dissidents were rounded up; the armies of migrant workers who built the Olympic stadiums have been encouraged to leave town, lest their dishevelled appearances detract from the image of a clean, modern nation.^[25]

A Chinese lawyer explained, "For Chinese petitioners, if their protest applications were approved, it would lead to a chain reaction of others seeking to voice their problems as well" and an academic observed that: "When you have guests coming over for dinner, you clean up the house and tell the children not to argue."^[25]

Critics also argue that the Chinese authorities failed to live up to their promises on press freedom. ITV News reporter John Ray was arrested while covering a pro-Tibet protest.^[19][26] Foreign journalists also reported that their access to certain websites, including those of human rights organisations, was restricted.^[27][28] International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge stated at the end of the Games that "The regulations might not be perfect but they are a sea-change compared to the situation before. We hope that they will continue".^[29] The Foreign Correspondents Club of China (FCCC) issued a statement that "despite welcome progress in terms of accessibility and the number of press conferences within the Olympic facilities, the FCCC has been alarmed at the use of violence, intimidation and harassment outside. The club has confirmed more than 30 cases of reporting interference since the formal opening of the Olympic media centre on 25 July, and is checking at least 20 other reported incidents".^[30]

[edit] Freedom of movement

For more details on this topic, see Hukou system.

The Communist Party came to power in the late 1940s and instigated a command economy. In 1958, Mao set up a residency permit system defining where people could work, and classified an individual as a "rural" or "urban" worker.^[31] A worker seeking to move from the country to an urban area to take up non-agricultural work would have to apply through the relevant bureaucracies. The number of workers allowed to make such moves was tightly controlled. People who worked outside their authorized domain or geographical area would not qualify for grain rations, employer-provided housing, or health care.^[32] There were controls over education, employment, marriage and so on.^[31] One reason for instituting this system was to prevent the possible chaos caused by the predictable large-scale urbanization. As a part of the one country, two systems policy initiated by Deng Xiaopeng, Chinese citizens must gain permission from the government to travel to the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macao.

Urban dwellers enjoy a range of social, economic and cultural benefits while peasants, the majority of the Chinese population, are treated as second-class citizens, according to an academic at the University of Alberta.^[33] The Washington Times reported in 2000 that although migrant labourers play an important part in spreading wealth in Chinese villages, they are treated "like second-class citizens by a system so discriminatory that it has been likened to apartheid."^[34] Anita Chan also posits that China's household registration and temporary residence permit system has created a situation analogous to the passbook system in South Africa which was designed to regulate the supply of cheap labor.^[35] The Centre for Human Rights and Democracy has alleged that people of Han descent in Tibet have a far easier time acquiring the necessary permits to live in urban areas than ethnic Tibetans do.^[36]

Abolition of this policy was proposed in 11 provinces, mainly along the developed eastern coast. The law has already been changed such that migrant workers no longer face summary arrest, after a widely publicised incident in 2003, when a university-educated migrant died in Guangdong province. The Beijing law lecturer who exposed the incident said it spelt the end of the hukou system: in most smaller cities, the system has been abandoned; it has "almost lost its function" in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai.^[33]

[edit] Treatment of rural workers

In November 2005 Jiang Wenran, acting director of the China Institute at the University of Alberta, said this system was one of the most strictly enforced 'apartheid' structures in modern world history.^[37] He stated "Urban dwellers enjoy a range of social, economic and cultural benefits while peasants, the majority of the Chinese population, are treated as second-class citizens".^[37]

The discrimination enforced by the hukou system became particularly onerous in the 1980s after hundreds of millions of migrant laborers were forced out of state corporations and co-operatives.^[38] The system classifies workers as "urban" or "rural",^[32][39] and attempts by workers classified as "rural" to move to urban centers were tightly controlled by the Chinese bureaucracy, which enforced its control by denying access to essential goods and services such as grain rations, housing, and health care,^[32] and by regularly closing down migrant workers' private schools.^[38] The hukou system also enforced pass laws similar to those in South Africa,^[35][40] with "rural" workers requiring six passes to work in provinces other than their own,^[38] and periodic police raids which rounded up those without permits, placed them in detention centers, and deported them.^[40] As in South Africa, the restrictions placed on the mobility of migrant workers were pervasive,^[38] and transient workers were forced to live a precarious existence in company dormitories or shanty towns, and suffering abusive consequences.^[35] Anita Chan furthers that China's household registration and temporary residence permit system has created a situation analogous to the passbook system in apartheid South Africa, which were designed to regulate the supply of cheap labor.^{[31][32][35][39][41][42]}

David Whitehouse divides what he describes as "Chinese apartheid" into three distinct phases: The first phase occurred during the state capitalist phase of China's economy, from around 1953 to the death of Mao Zedong in 1976. The second "neoliberal" phase lasted from 1978 to 2001, and the third lasted from 2001 to the present. During the first phase, the exploitation of rural labor, the passbook system, and in particular the non-portable rights associated with one's status, created what Whitehouse calls "an apartheid system". As with South Africa, the ruling party made some concessions to rural workers to make life in rural areas "survivable... if not easy or pleasant". During the second phase, as China transitioned from state capitalism to market capitalism, export-processing zones were created in city suburbs, where mostly female migrants worked under oppressive sweatshop conditions. The third phase was characterized by the weakening of the hukou controls; by 2004 the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture counted over 100 million people registered as "rural" working in cities.^[43]

Au Loong-yu, Nan Shan, and Zhang Ping of the Committee for Asian Women argue this system oppresses women more severely than men,^[44] and see seven distinct elements giving rise to what they describe as "the regime of spatial and social apartheid" which keeps rural Chinese in their subordinate status:

1. The repressive regime at the factory level;
2. the paramilitary forces at local level;
3. the ‘local protectionism’ of local governments;
4. the fiercely pro-business and pro-government attitude of the local press;
5. the fiercely pro-business and pro-government attitude of the branches of ACFTU;
6. pro-government local courts; and
7. the discriminatory hukou system.^[45]

They agree that the gradual relaxation of some of the more repressive aspects of the hukou system since the mid-1990s has largely eliminated the spatial aspect of the apartheid; for example, workers can now buy one year permits to reside in cities, and since 2003 the police no longer jail and deport people who lack local hukou passes. However, they point out the still-hereditary nature of the hukou system, and state that the "substance of the social apartheid in general and the hukou system in particular remains intact." Migrant workers are permanently marked as outsiders and remain second-class citizens, and are denied access to good jobs or upward mobility, thus forcing their eventual return to their place of origin.^[46]

Whitehouse sees the analogy to South Africa's apartheid system breaking down in two areas: First, under a system called xia xiang, or "sending down", individuals or even entire factories of urban workers were sometimes re-classified as rural workers and sent to live in the countryside (at lower wages and benefits). By contrast, white workers in South Africa were never sent to work in Bantustans. Second, the ideology driving China's apartheid system was Maoism, not racism, as is South African apartheid.^[43] Anita Chan agrees with Whitehouse on this point, noting that while the hukou system shares many of the characteristics of the South African apartheid system, including its underlying economic logic, the racial element is not present.^[35]

The Chinese Ministry of Public Security justified these practices on the grounds that they assisted the police in tracking down criminals and maintaining public order, and provided demographic data for government planning and programs.^[47]

"Rural" workers are required to have six passes to work in provinces other than their own.^[38] Those without permits are rounded up by police, placed in detention centers, and deported.^[40] Restrictions placed on the mobility of migrant workers were pervasive,^[38] and some transient workers were forced to live a precarious existence in company dormitories or shanty towns, and suffering abusive consequences.^[35] The system, which has targeted China's 800 million rural peasants for decades, has been described by journalists Peter Alexander and Anita Chan as "China's apartheid".^[39][48]

According to Peter Alexander and Anita Chan, China's export-oriented growth has been based on the labor of poorly paid and treated migrant workers, using a pass system similar to the one used in South Africa's apartheid, in which massive abuses of human rights have been observed.^[49]

An article in The Washington Times, reported in 2000 that although migrant laborers play an important part in spreading wealth in Chinese villages, they are treated "like second-class citizens by a system so discriminatory that it has been likened to apartheid."^[34]

The Chinese embassy in South Africa posted a letter to the editor of The Star dated 22 February 2007 , under the title Article on China presents racism rumours as fact, in which a reader stated that "It's pure incitement to proclaim 'Chinese apartheid' in reference to migrant labour being kept out of the cities."^[50]

[edit] Religious freedom

Main article: Freedom of religion in the People's Republic of China

During the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), particularly the Destruction of Four Olds campaign, religious affairs of all types were persecuted and discouraged by the Communists with many religious buildings looted and destroyed. Since then, there have been efforts to repair, reconstruct and protect historical and cultural religious sites.^[51] The US department of state criticizes in its human rights report 2005 that not enough has been done to repair or restore damaged and destroyed sites.^[52]

The 1982 Constitution technically guarantees its citizens the right to believe in any religion.^[53] However this freedom differs from the general concept of "freedom of religion" as recognised in the West, and is subject to restrictions.

Members of the Communist Party are officially required to be atheists.^[54] While many party members privately violate this rule,^[55] being openly religious can limit their economic prospects. All religious groups must be registered with the government. In addition, the government continually tries to maintain control over not only religious content, but also leadership choices.

[edit] Christianity

The government tries to maintain tight control over all religions, so the only legal Christian groups (Three-Self Patriotic Movement and Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association) are those under the Communist Party control. It has been claimed by many that the teachings in the state-approved Churches are at least monitored and sometimes modified by the Party.^{[citation needed]}

The "official Catholic" metropolitan bishop appointed in China in 2007 to replace the deceased Fu Tieshan was not made by the Pope as is customary.^[56] The Catholic Church in particular is viewed as a foreign power in a situation somewhat analogous to that in Post-Reformation England, and so the official church in China is state-controlled; accordingly this overground Chinese church is considered a schismatic group by the wider Church; there exists also an illegal and underground "real-Catholic" community still loyal to the Pope and the wider Church.^[57] According to the Voice of the Martyrs, the growth of organised religious groups in China is tempered by state controls and regulations which prevent the rise of groups or sources of authority outside the control of the Government and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It stated that "Unregistered religious groups [in China] ... experience varying degrees of official interference, harassment, and repression." Its crackdown on Falun Gong is cited as the group being a perceived threat to the regime.^[58]

Because house churches operate outside government regulations and restrictions, and consequently are more numerous than the official or underground-Catholic church (as the latter is explicitly illegal), their members and leaders are sometimes harassed by local government officials. This persecution may take the form of a prison sentence or, more commonly, reeducation through labour. Heavy fines also are not uncommon, with personal effects being confiscated in lieu of payment if this is refused or unavailable. House churches have not officially been outlawed, and since the 1990s, there has been increasing official tolerance of house churches. Most observers believe that the harassment of house churches by government officials arises less from an ideological opposition to religion and support of atheism than out of fears of a center of popular mobilization outside the control of the Communist Party of China.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Tibetan Buddhism

The government now has the power to ensure that no new living Buddha can be identified: the State Administration for Religious Affairs issued a 14-part regulation to limit the influence of the Dalai Lama. It declared that after 1 September 2007, "[no] living Buddha [may be reincarnated] without government approval, since Qing dynasty, when the live Budda system was established.".^[59] When the Dalai Lama announced in May 1995 that a search inside Tibet had identified the 11th reincarnation of the Panchen Lama who died in 1989, Beijing was enraged and reinitiated the search under the supervision of a senior Politburo member. The boy chosen by the Dalai Lama, and the abbot who helped with the choice have both vanished.^[59] The child is believed to have spent the years since he was named under house arrest; all calls for visitation or for his release have been ignored. The Chinese-appointed Panchen Lama is branded a fake by loyalists. ^[60] Examples of the political controls exercised are:^[61]

• quotas on the number of monks to reduce the spiritual population
• forced denunciation of the Dalai Lama as a spiritual leader
• unapproved monks' expulsion from monasteries
• forced recitation of patriotic scripts supporting China
• Restriction of religious study before age 18.

Monks celebrating the reception of the US Congressional Gold Medal by the Dalai Lama have been detained;^[62] Drepung, once a large temple for over 10,000 monks, is now home to only 600; Beijing now restricts total membership in any monastery to 700.^[61]

[edit] Falun Gong

Groups practicing Falun Gong in China before the ban in July 1999

Main articles: Persecution of Falun Gong and Reports of organ harvesting from Falun Gong in China

On 20 July 1999, the government banned Falun Gong, and began a nationwide crackdown of the practice^[63] following seven years of widespread popularity and rapid growth of the practice.^[64][65] A series of appeals and petitions made by practitioners to the authorities in 1999, in particular the 10,000 person gathering at Zhongnanhai on 25 April, eventually led to the decision to outlaw and persecute Falun Gong.^[66]

According to Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Ian Johnson, the Communist Party mobilized every aspect of society to become involved in the persecution, including the media apparatus, police force, army, education system, families and workplaces.^[67] An extra-constitutional body, the "6-10 Office" was created to do what Forbes describes as "[overseeing] the terror campaign."^[68] The campaign was driven by large-scale propaganda through television, newspaper, radio and internet.^[69] Human Rights Watch noted that families and workplaces were urged to cooperate with the government, while practitioners themselves were subject to various coercive measures to have them recant their beliefs.^[70] Amnesty International raised particular concerns over reports of torture, illegal imprisonment including forced labour, psychiatric abuses.^[71][72]

Protests in Beijing were frequent for the first few years following the 1999 edict, though these protests have largely been eradicated.^[67] Practitioners have occasionally hacked into state television channels to broadcast pro-Falun Gong materials. Outside of mainland China, practitioners are active in appealing to the governments, media, and people of their respective countries about the situation in China.

Falun Gong and The Epoch Times have also alleged that the Chinese government and its agencies, including the People's Liberation Army, were conducting "widespread and systematic organ harvesting of living practitioners" specifically at the Sujiatun Thrombosis Hospital in Shenyang. In March 2006, two apparent eye-witness alleged that practitioners detained in the hospital's basement were being tissue-typed, their information stored on computer databases, and then matched with organ recipients and killed to order when an organ was required.^[73] In July 2006, David Kilgour and David Matas published a report entitled "Report into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China" which they say supported the allegations that large numbers of Falun Gong practitioners were victims of systematic organ harvesting whilst still alive, throughout China.^[74] The Christian Science Monitor says the report’s evidence is "circumstantial, but persuasive".^[75]

The Chinese government categorically denied any mistreatment of Falun Gong practitioners, and rejected the report in its entirety. "No one will believe the absurd lies concocted by the Falun Gong cult followers", said a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman.^[76] Dissident Harry Wu, commenting on Sujiatun but not the Kilgour-Matas report, said the two witnesses were "not reliable and most probably they had fabricated the story", and he rejected the totality of the allegations after sending in investigators.^[77] A Congressional Research Service said that there was "insufficient evidence to support this specific allegation," without elaboration.^[78]

U.N. special rapporteur Manfred Nowak, in December 2007 said "The chain of evidence they [Kilgour and Matas] are documenting shows a coherent picture that causes concern."^[79] In November 2008, the United Nations Committee Against Torture made a strong statement on the matter, citing Nowak's note that an increase in organ transplant operations coincides with “the beginning of the persecution of [Falun Gong practitioners]” and who asked for "a full explanation of the source of organ transplants." The Committee stated that it is concerned with the information that Falun Gong practitioners "have been extensively subjected to torture and ill-treatment in prisons and that some of them have been used for organ transplants." They called for the state to immediately conduct or commission an independent investigation of the claims of organ harvesting, and take measures to ensure that those responsible for such abuses are prosecuted and punished.^[80]

[edit] Political freedom

The PRC is known for its intolerance of organized dissent towards the government. Dissident groups are routinely arrested and imprisoned, often for long periods of time and without trial. Incidents of torture, forced confessions and forced labour are widely reported. Freedom of assembly and association is extremely limited. The most recent mass movement for political freedom was crushed in the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989, the estimated death toll of which ranges from about 200 to 10,000 depending on sources.^[81][82]

One of the most famous dissidents is Zhang Zhixin, who is known for standing up against the ultra-left.^[83] In October 2008, the government denounced the European Parliament's decision to award the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to Hu Jia, on grounds that it was "gross interference in China's domestic affairs" to give such an award to a "jailed criminal.. in disregard of our repeated representations."^[84]

[edit] Legislation

[edit] One-child policy

Government sign stating: "For a prosperous, powerful nation and a happy family, please use birth planning."

China's birth control policy, known widely as the one-child policy, was implemented in 1979 by the Chinese government to alleviate the overpopulation problem. Having more than one child is illegal and punishable by fines and jail time. Voice of America cites critics who argue that it contributes to forced abortions, human rights violations, female infanticide, abandonment and sex-selective abortions, believed to be relatively commonplace in some areas of the country.^[85] This is thought to have been a significant contribution to the gender imbalance in mainland China, where there is a 118 to 100 ratio of male to female children reported.^[86][87][88] Forced abortions and sterilizations have also been reported.^[89][90]

It is also argued that the one-child policy is not effective enough to justify its costs, and that the dramatic decrease in Chinese fertility started before the program began in 1979 for unrelated factors. The policy seems to have had little impact on rural areas (home to about 80% of the population), where birth rates never dropped below 2.5 children per female.^[91] Nevertheless, the Chinese government and others estimate that at least 250 million births have been prevented by the policy.^[92]

In 2002, the laws related to the One-child policy were amended to allow ethnic minorities and Chinese living in rural areas to have more than one child. The policy was generally not enforced in those areas of the country even before this. The policy has been relaxed in urban areas to allow people who were single children to have two children.^[93]

[edit] Capital punishment

PRC troops execute prisoners, according to the Laogai Research Foundation.^{[94][dead link]} China is thought to execute more people each year than the rest of the world combined.^{[citation needed]}

Main article: Capital punishment in the People's Republic of China

According to the United Nations Secretary-General, between 1994 and 1999 China was ranked seventh in executions per capita, behind Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Belarus, Sierra Leone, Kyrgyzstan, and Jordan.^[95] Amnesty International claims that official figures are much smaller than the real number, stating that in China the statistics are considered State secrets. Amnesty stated that according to various reports, in 2005 3,400 people were executed. In March of that year, a senior member of the National People's Congress announced that China executes around 10,000 people per year.^[96]

A total of 68 crimes are punishable by death; capital offenses include non-violent, white-collar crimes such as embezzlement and tax fraud. The inconsistent and sometimes corrupt nature of the legal system in mainland China bring into question the fair application of capital punishment there.^[97]

Amnesty International reports state that, in recent years, China has had the highest number of executions of any country. In 2005, it topped the list with 1,770 people executed.^[98]. Figures from 2006 and 2007 are reported to have been 1,010 and 470 executions, respectively.^{[99][100][101]} In January 2007, China's state media announced that all death penalty cases will be reviewed by the Supreme People's Court. Since 1983, China's highest court did not review all cases. This marks a return to China's pre-1983 policy.^[102] In light of these changes, figures from 2007 display a substantial reduction in executions with only 470 reported executions compared with figures from previous years. However, Amnesty International analysts argue that this drop is only temporary since the figure includes only confirmed executions.^[103]

[edit] Discrimination

[edit] Ethnic minorities

See also: Racism in the People's Republic of China

There are 55 recognized ethnic minorities in China. Article 4 of the Chinese constitution states "All nationalities in the People's Republic of China are equal", and the government argues that it has made efforts to improve ethnic education and increased ethnic representation in local government.

Some policies cause reverse racism, where Han Chinese or even ethnic minorities from other regions are treated as second-class citizens in the ethnic region.^[104][105]

There are also wide-ranging preferential policies (i.e. affirmative actions) in place to promote social and economic developments for ethnic minorities, including preferential employments, political appointments, and business loans.^[106] Universities typically have quota reserved for ethnic minorities despite having lower admission test scores.^[107] Ethnic minorities are also exempt from the one-child policy which is aimed toward Han Chinese.

However, the government is harsh toward those that argue for independence or political autonomy, mainly Tibetans and Uyghurs in rural provinces in the west of China. Some groups have used terrorism to push their agenda.^[108]

Five Chinese Uyghur detainees from the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camp, which was itself known for human rights abuses, were released in June, 2007, but the U.S. refused to return them to China citing the People's Republic of China's "past treatment of the Uigur minority".^[109] Critics of the Chinese government claim that it engages in cultural and political suppression of various ethnic minorities, such as Tibetans, and encourages Han Chinese to migrate to areas such as Xinjiang and Tibet to increase those regions' loyalty to Beijing, which results in the indigenous population losing jobs to the new arrivals.

[edit] Tibet

In 1951, the People's Liberation Army entered the region of Tibet. After the failed uprising of 1959, the Dalai Lama fled to India. In 1991 the Dalai Lama alleged that Chinese settlers in Tibet were creating "Chinese Apartheid":

The new Chinese settlers have created an alternate society: a Chinese apartheid which, denying Tibetans equal social and economic status in our own land, threatens to finally overwhelm and absorb us.^[110][111]

In a selection of speeches by the Dalai Lama published in India in 1998, he referred again to a "Chinese apartheid", which he argued denied Tibetans equal social and economic status, and furthered the viewpoint that human rights were violated by discrimination against Tibetans under a policy which the Chinese called "segregation and assimilation".^[112][113] According to the Heritage Foundation:

If the matter of Tibet's sovereignty is murky, the question about the PRC's treatment of Tibetans is all too clear. After invading Tibet in 1950, the Chinese communists killed over one million Tibetans, destroyed over 6,000 monasteries, and turned Tibet's northeastern province, Amdo, into a gulag housing, by one estimate, up to ten million people. A quarter of a million Chinese troops remain stationed in Tibet. In addition, some 7.5 million Chinese have responded to Beijing's incentives to relocate to Tibet; they now outnumber the 6 million Tibetans. Through what has been termed Chinese apartheid, ethnic Tibetans now have a lower life expectancy, literacy rate, and per capita income than Chinese inhabitants of Tibet.^[114]

In 2001 representatives of Tibet exile groups succeeded in gaining accreditation at a United Nations-sponsored meeting of non-governmental organizations. On 29 August Jampal Chosang, the head of the Tibetan coalition, stated that China had introduced "a new form of apartheid" in Tibet because "Tibetan culture, religion, and national identity are considered a threat" to China.^[115] The Tibet Society of the UK has called on the British government to "condemn the apartheid regime in Tibet that treats Tibetans as a minority in their own land and which discriminates against them in the use of their language, in education, in the practice of their religion, and in employment opportunities."^[116]

[edit] Other human rights issues

Worker's rights and privacy are other contentious human rights issues in China. There have been several reports of core International Labor Organization conventions being denied to workers. One such report was released by the International Labor Rights Fund in October 2006 documenting minimum wage violations, long work hours, and inappropriate actions towards workers by management.^[117] Workers cannot form their own unions in the workplace, only being able to join State-sanctioned ones. The extent to which these organizations can fight for the rights of Chinese workers is disputed.^[118]

Although the Chinese government does not interfere with Chinese people's privacy as much as it used to,^[119] it still deems it necessary to keep tabs on what people say in public. Internet forums are strictly monitored, as is international postal mail (this is sometimes inexplicably "delayed" or simply "disappears") and e-mail.^[118]

The issue of refugees from North Korea is a recurring one. It is official policy to repatriate them to North Korea, but the policy is not evenly enforced and a considerable number of them stay in the People's Republic (some move on to other countries). Though it is in contravention of international law to deport political refugees, as illegal immigrants their situation is precarious. Their rights are not always protected.^[120] Some of them are tricked into marriage or prostitution.^[121]

African students in China have complained about their treatment in China, that was largely ignored until 1988-9, when "students rose up in protest against what they called 'Chinese apartheid'".^[122] African officials took notice of the issue, and the Organization of African Unity issued an official protest. The organization's chairman, Mali's president Moussa Traoré, went on a fact-finding mission to China.^[122] According to a Guardian 1989 Third World Report titled "Chinese apartheid" threatens links with Africa, these practices could threaten Peking's entire relationship with the continent."^[123]

In 2005 Manfred Nowak visited China as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture. After spending two weeks there, he observed that it was "on the decline, but still widespread." He also complained of Chinese officials interfering with his research, including intimidating people he sought to interview.^[124]

[edit] International

[edit] Darfur

See also: Darfur Conflict#Criticism of international response

Human rights organizations have criticized China for its supportive relationship with the government of Sudan, which is committing mass killings in Darfur.^[125][126] China is Sudan's largest economic partner, with a 40% share in their oil,^[127] and also sells small arms to Sudan.^[128] China has threatened to veto UN Security Council actions to combat the Darfur crisis.^[129]

China has responded to these criticisms by arguing that, "As the Darfur issue is not an internal affair of China, nor was it caused by China, to link the two together is utterly unreasonable, irresponsible and unfair."^[130]

In July 2008, the BBC reported that China is training fighter pilots for and selling army lorries to Sudan, in violation of the 2006 arms embargo.^[131]

[edit] Counterarguments

China's counterarguments come primarily from the idea of "Asian values"^[132] and the need to create a "harmonious society",^[133] where the welfare of the collective should always be put ahead of the rights of any individual whenever conflicts between these arise. It is the responsibility of the government to ensure that this is achieved and in some cases, even persuade or force individuals to make sacrifices for society. A strong and stable authority would be required in order to regulate the potentially conflicting interests of the public and enforce a compromise. Governments with curtailed authority would fail to take on such a responsibility.

China (along with a few Asian countries) often point towards the rapid social deterioration, the increasing geographic, religious and racial segregation, the alarmingly rising crime rates, family breakdown, number of industrial actions, vandalism and political extremism in Western societies, which they believe to be a direct result of an excess of individual freedom – “Too much freedom is dangerous.”^[134] These issues they argue are all violations of human rights and should be taken into account when assessing a country's human right records. Furthermore, the government criticizes the United States, which publishes human rights reports annually, by insisting that the United States has also caused human rights abuses such as the invasion of Iraq.^[135]

The PRC government also argues that the notion of human rights should include economic standards of living and measures of health and economic prosperity.^[1] On cultural grounds they argue that as the economic, cultural and political situations differ substantially between countries, a universal 'one-size-fits-all' definition of human rights should not apply internationally.

[edit] Reform

In March 2003, an amendment was made to the Constitution of the People's Republic of China, stating "The State respects and preserves human rights."^[136] In addition, China was dropped from a list of top 10 human rights violators in the annual human rights report released by the U.S. State Department in 2008, while the report indicated that there were still widespread problems in China.^[137]

Since 1988, the Chinese government began direct village elections to help maintain social and political order whilst facing rapid economic change. Elections now occur in "about 650,000 villages across China, reaching 75% of the nation's 1.3 billion people," according to the Carter Center.^[138] In 2008, Shenzhen –which enjoys the highest per capita GDP in China– was selected for experimentation, and over 70% of the government officials on the district level are to be directly elected.^[139] However, in keeping with Communist Party philosophy, candidates must be selected from a pre-approved list, most of whom are Communist party officials. ^[140]

[edit] Further reading

• Cheng, Lucie, Rossett, Arthur and Woo, Lucie, East Asian Law: Universal Norms and Local Cultures, RoutledgeCurzon, 2003, ISBN 0-415-29735-4
• Edwards, Catherine, China's Abuses Ignored for Profit, Insight on the News, Vol. 15, 20 December 1999.
• Foot, Rosemary, Rights beyond Borders: The Global Community and the Struggle over Human Rights in China, Oxford University Press, 2000, ISBN 0-198-29776-9
• Jones, Carol A.G., Capitalism, Globalization and Rule of Law: An Alternative Trajectory of Legal Change in China, Social and Legal Studies, vol. 3 (1994) pp. 195–220
• Klotz, Audie, Norms in International Relations: The Struggle against Apartheid, Cornell University Press, 1995, ISBN 0-801-43106-9
• Knight, J. and Song, L., The Rural-Urban Divide: Economic Disparities and Interactions in China, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-198-29330-5
• Martin III, Matthew D., "The Dysfunctional Progeny of Eugenics: Autonomy Gone AWOL", Cardozo Journal of International Law, Vol. 15, No. 2, Fall 2007, pp. 371–421, ISSN 1069-3181
• Seymour, James, Human Rights in Chinese Foreign Relations, in , Kim, Samuel S., China and the World: Chinese Foreign Policy Faces the New Millennium Westview Press, 1984. ISBN 0-813-33414-4
• Sitaraman, Srini, Explaining China's Continued Resistance Towards Human Rights Norms: A Historical Legal Analysis, ACDIS Occasional Paper, Program in Arms Control, Disarmament, and International Security, University of Illinois, June 2008.
• Svensson, Marina, The Chinese Debate on Asian Values and Human Rights: Some Reflections on Relativism, Nationalism and Orientalism, in Brun, Ole. Human Rights and Asian Values: Contesting National Identities and Cultural Representations in Asia, Ole Bruun, Michael Jacobsen; Curzon, 2000, ISBN 0-700-71212-7
• Wang, Fei-Ling, Organizing through Division and Exclusion: China's Hukou System, Stanford University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-804-75039-4
• Zweig, David, Freeing China's Farmers: Rural Restructuring in the Reform Era, M. E. Sharpe, 1997, ISBN 1-563-24838-7
• The silent majority; China. (Life in a Chinese village), The Economist, April, 2005

[edit] Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} "Human rights can be manifested differently". China Daily. 12 December 2005. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-12/12/content_3908887.htm.
2. ^ "Progress in China's Human Rights Cause in 1996". March 1997. http://www.china.org.cn/e-white/prhumanrights1996/index.htm.
3. ^ "Belkin, Ira" (Fall, 2000). "China's Criminal Justice System: A Work in Progress" (PDF). Washington Journal of Modern China 6 (2). http://www.law.yale.edu/documents/pdf/Chinas_Criminal_Justice_System.pdf.
4. ^ "Varieties of Conflict of Laws in China". 25 November 2002. http://www.humanrights.uio.no/forskning/publikasjoner/wp/2002/02/working_paper-Varietie.html. Retrieved on 2009-02-06.
5. ^ Yardley, Jim (28 November 2005). "A young judge tests China's legal system". http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/11/28/news/judge.php. Retrieved on 2006-08-23.
6. ^ "Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration." [1]
7. ^ "China jails rights activist outspoken on Tibet". http://www.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUSPEK10194620080403.
8. ^ [2] Media Control in China published in Chinese in 2004 by Human Rights in China, New York. Revised edition 2006 published by Liming Cultural Enterprises of Taiwan. Accessed 4 February 2007.
9. ^ [3] "The Hijacked Potential of China's Internet", English translation of a chapter in the 2006 revised edition of Media Control in China published in Chinese by Liming Enterprises of Taiwan in 2006. Accessed 4 February 2007
10. ^ "Sanity check: How Microsoft beat Linux in China and what it means for freedom, justice, and the price of software". http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/hiner/?p=525.
11. ^ Gunther, Marc. Tech execs get grilled over mainland China business: Yahoo, Google, Microsoft and Cisco, facing attack in Congress, say they're doing more good than harm in China." CNN. 16 February 2006.
12. ^ "China: Internet Companies Aid Censorship". http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2006/08/09/china13940.htm. Retrieved on 2007-02-06.
13. ^ China 'spying on Skype messages', BBC News (3 October 2008)
14. ^ China devoted to improving human rights - minister
15. ^ China Set to Resume Human Rights Dialogue - washingtonpost.com
16. ^ "Olympics protester returns to UK". BBC News. 15 August 2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7562264.stm. Retrieved on 2008-08-22.
17. ^ "UK Tibet protester deported home". BBC News. 25 August 2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7580718.stm. Retrieved on 2008-08-26.
18. ^ "China deports US Tibet protesters". BBC News. 2008-08-25. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7580381.stm. Retrieved on 2008-08-26.
19. ^ ^{a b} Audra Ang, Associated Press (13 August 2008). "8 Tibet activists detained after protest near Olympic venue, British journalist seized". http://news.uk.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=9208254. Retrieved on 2008-08-19.
20. ^ "China 'to allow Olympic protests'". BBC News. 23 July 2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7521321.stm. Retrieved on 2008-08-22.
21. ^ Bristow, Michael (2008-08-18). "China 'yet to approve protests'". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7567703.stm. Retrieved on 2008-08-22.
22. ^ Audra Ang (18 August 2008). "China has not approved Olympic protest requests". Associated Press. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/OLY_CHINA_PROTESTS?SITE=SCCOL&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT. Retrieved on 2008-08-19.
23. ^ ^{a b} "Chinese women 'face labour camp'". BBC News. 20 August 2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7572033.stm. Retrieved on 2008-08-22.
24. ^ Peter Simpson (21 August 2008). "Elderly pair punished for wanting to protest". South China Morning Post. pp. A5.
25. ^ ^{a b} Andrew Jacobs (20 August 2008). "Too Old and Frail to Re-educate? Not in China". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/21/sports/olympics/21protest.html. Retrieved on 2009-05-09.
26. ^ "Activists held over Games protest". BBC News. 2008-08-13. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7557771.stm. Retrieved on 2008-08-26.
27. ^ "Web curbs for Olympic journalists". BBC News. 30 July 2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7532338.stm. Retrieved on 2008-08-26.
28. ^ "Hundreds of websites still censored at Beijing Olympics". Los Angeles Times. 2008-08-05. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/webscout/2008/08/hundreds-of-web.html. Retrieved on 2008-08-26.
29. ^ "Rogge urges China to keep foreign media freedoms". AFP. 24 August 2008. http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iXmzlCbGH43nO0lzYAWpSHGiqBhg. Retrieved on 2008-08-26.
30. ^ Callick, Rowan (26 August 2008). "Games fell short of standards". The Australian. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24240947-2722,00.html. Retrieved on 2008-08-26.
31. ^ ^{a b c} Macleod, Calum. "China reviews `apartheid' for 900 m peasants", The Independent, 10 June 2001.
32. ^ ^{a b c d} David Pines, Efraim Sadka, Itzhak Zilcha, Topics in Public Economics: Theoretical and Applied Analysis, Cambridge University Press, 1998, p. 334.
33. ^ ^{a b} Luard, Tim. "China rethinks peasant 'apartheid'", BBC News, 10 November 2005.
34. ^ ^{a b} Macleod, Calum and Macleod, Lijia China's migrants bear brunt of bias, The Washington Times, 14 July 2000.
35. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Chan, Anita, China's Workers under Assault: The Exploitation of Labor in a Globalizing Economy, Introduction chapter, M.E. Sharpe. 2001, ISBN 0-765-60358-6
36. ^ "Racial Discrimination in Tibet (2000)". Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy. http://www.tchrd.org/publications/topical_reports/racial_discrimination-2000/housing/06_restrictions.html.
37. ^ ^{a b} Luard, Tim (10 November 2005). "China rethinks peasant 'apartheid'". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4424944.stm. Retrieved on 2008-08-22.
38. ^ ^{a b c d e f} "Chinese apartheid: Migrant labourers, numbering in hundreds of millions, who have been ejected from state concerns and co-operatives since the 1980s as China instituted "socialist capitalism", have to have six passes before they are allowed to work in provinces other than their own. In many cities, private schools for migrant labourers are routinely closed down to discourage migration." "From politics to health policies: why they're in trouble", The Star, 6 February 2007.
39. ^ ^{a b c} "China's apartheid-like household registration system, introduced in the 1950s, still divides the population into two distinct groups, urban and rural." Chan, Anita & Senser, Robert A. "China's Troubled Workers", Foreign Affairs, March / April 1997.
40. ^ ^{a b c} "The application of these regulations is reminiscent of apartheid South Africa's hated pass laws. Police carry out raids periodically to round up those tho do not possess a temporary residence permit. Those without papers are placed in detention centres and then removed from cities." Waddington, Jeremy. Globalization and Patterns of Labour Resistance, Routledge, 1999, p. 82.
41. ^ "HIGHLIGHT: Discrimination against rural migrants is China's apartheid: Certainly, the discrimination against the country-born is China's form of apartheid. It is an offence against human rights on a much bigger scale than the treatment of the tiny handful of dissidents dogged enough to speak up against the state." "Country Cousins", The Economist, 8 April 2000.
42. ^ "...China's apartheid-like system of residency permits." Yao, Shunli. "China's WTO Revolution", Project Syndicate, June, 2002.
43. ^ ^{a b} Whitehouse, David. "Chinese workers and peasants in three phases of accumulation"PDF (73.5 KiB), Paper delivered at the Colloquium on Economy, Society and Nature, sponsored by the Centre for Civil Society at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2 March 2006. Retrieved 1 August 2007.
44. ^ "We further identify seven elements of the repressive regime at the national, municipal and local levels, and argue that the combined results of these elements have given rise to a kind of spatial and social apartheid which systematically discriminates against the rural population, with women being the most oppressed." Au Loong-yu, Nan Shan, Zhang Ping. Women Migrant Workers under the Chinese Social ApartheidPDF (2.01 MiB), Committee for Asian Women, May 2007, p. 1.
45. ^ Au Loong-yu, Nan Shan, Zhang Ping. Women Migrant Workers under the Chinese Social ApartheidPDF (2.01 MiB), Committee for Asian Women, May 2007, p. 20.
46. ^ "Since the middle of 1990’s the hukou system has been gradually relaxed. First, rural residents were permitted to buy a temporary (usually one year) urban residential card, which allowed them to work legally. The fees for such permits gradually decreased to a fairly affordable level. Beginning from 1998, parents have been able to pass down their hukou either through the father’s or the mother’s line, hence the triple discrimination against rural women has been alleviated. In 2003, after the uproar surrounding the death of Sun Zhigang alarmed the authorities, the laws on jailing and repatriating ‘undocumented’ people (those failing to produce local hukou) were abolished. Thus the spatial aspect of the apartheid has now largely been eliminated. However, the substance of the social apartheid in general and the hukou system in particular remains intact. The permanent mark of being an outsider and second class citizen remains, and prevents migrant workers from achieving significant upward mobility in cities. Most decent jobs are still reserved for people who possess local hukou. Migrants can only get badly paid jobs. They still have no future in the cities, and may only work there for some years and then return to their home village." Au Loong-yu, Nan Shan, Zhang Ping. Women Migrant Workers under the Chinese Social ApartheidPDF (2.01 MiB), Committee for Asian Women, May 2007, p. 11.
47. ^ "The hukou system has been criticized in some quarters and has been called 'the equivalent of and apartheid system between rural and urban residents' (China Labor Bulletin, 25 February 2002). However, the Ministry of Public Security has continued to justify the hukou system as an instrument for keeping public order (the ministry said it allowed the police to track down criminals more easily) and for providing demographic data for planning and program formulation." Laquian, Aprodicio A. Beyond Metropolis: The Planning and Governance of Asia's Mega-Urban Regions, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005, pp. 320-321.
48. ^ "Country Cousins", The Economist, 6 April 2000.
49. ^ Alexander, Peter, & Chan, Anita Does China Have an Apartheid Pass System?, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 30.4 (2004)
    China's household registration system (HRS) maintains a rigid distinction between China's rural population, that is people who have a rural hukou (household registration), and urban residents, who have an urban hukou. Movement of rural people into the cities is restricted, and they require a permit to stay and work temporarily in any urban area. If caught without these permits, people with a rural hukou could be placed in a detention centre, fined, and deported back to their home village or home town (that is, 'endorsed out', to borrow a South African expression). Those with a rural hukou who obtain a temporary employment permit to work in an urban area are not entitled to the pensions, schooling, unemployment benefits, etc. enjoyed by those who have an urban hukou. There are, in short, some obvious and significant similarities between the two countries, but a closer examination is required before we can consider equating China's pass system with what operated in apartheid South Africa." ..." The combination of these four factors may explain why China has developed a quasi-apartheid pass system. The fact that it has such a system underlines the reality that China's export-oriented economic growth has been built, in large measure, on the labour of poorly paid and appallingly treated migrant workers. In China today, as in apartheid South Africa, the pass system is associated with massive abuses of human rights, and its retention should be opposed."
50. ^ "Article on China presents racism rumours as fact". Embassy of The People's Republic of China in the Republic of South Africa". http://www.chinese-embassy.org.za/eng/zt/thirdeye/t299146.htm.
51. ^ Trevor H.B. Sofield and Li, Fung Mei Sarah:Tourism Development and Cultural Policies Annals of Tourism Research, 25 (2), 1998, pp. 362-392
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53. ^ "Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of religious belief. No state organ, public organization or individual may compel citizens to believe in, or not to believe in, any religion; nor may they discriminate against citizens who believe in, or do not believe in, any religion. The state protects normal religious activities. No one may make use of religion to engage in activities that disrupt public order, impair the health of citizens or interfere with the educational system of the state. Religious bodies and religious affairs are not subject to any foreign domination."Constitution of the PRC", People's daily China
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[edit] References

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (April 2008)

• "Country Cousins", The Economist, 8 April 2000.
• "Dalai Lama honours Tintin and Tutu", BBC News, 2 June 2006.
• "From politics to health policies: why they're in trouble", The Star, 6 February 2007.
• "Online encyclopedia Wikipedia founder raps firms aiding China censorship" , Associated Press Financial Wire, 8 March 2007.
• "Profile: The Dalai Lama", BBC News, 25 April 2006.
• "Tutu calls on China to 'do the right thing' in Tibet", International Campaign for Tibet, 1 June 2006.
• United States Congressional Serial Set, United States Government Printing Office, 1993.
• "What do we expect the United Kingdom to do?", Tibet Vigil UK, June 2002. Accessed 25 June 2006.
• Au Loong-yu, Nan Shan, Zhang Ping. Women Migrant Workers under the Chinese Social ApartheidPDF (2.01 MiB), Committee for Asian Women, May 2007.
• Chan, Anita. China's Workers Under Assault: The Exploitation of Labor in a Globalizing Economy, M.E. Sharpe, 2001. ISBN 0765603578
• Chan, Anita & Senser, Robert A. "China's Troubled Workers", Foreign Affairs, March / April 1997.
• Ching, Frank. China: The Truth About Its Human Rights Record, Rider Books, 2008. ISBN 9781846041389
• Elliott, Mark C. The Manchu Way: The 8 Banners and Ethnic Identity in Late Imperial China, Stanford University Press, 2001. ISBN 0804736065
• Goble, Paul. "China: Analysis From Washington -- A Breakthrough For Tibet", World Tibet Network News, Canada Tibet Committee, 31 August 2001.
• Laquian, Aprodicio A. Beyond Metropolis: The Planning and Governance of Asia's Mega-Urban Regions, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005. ISBN 0801881765
• Lasater, Martin L. & Conboy, Kenneth J. "Why the World Is Watching Beijing's Treatment of Tibet", Heritage Foundation, 9 October 1987.
• Luard, Tim. "China rethinks peasant 'apartheid'", BBC News, 10 November 2005.
• Macleod, Calum. "China reviews `apartheid' for 900 m peasants", The Independent, 10 June 2001.
• Neville-Hadley, Peter. Frommer's China, Frommers.com, 2003. ISBN 0764567551
• Robinson, Thomas W. & Shambaugh, David L. Chinese Foreign Policy: Theory and Practice, Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198290160
• Rosenthal, A.M. "China's 'Apartheid' Taiwan Policy." The New York Times, 4 December 1995.
• Snow, Phillip. "Third World Report: 'Chinese apartheid' threatens links with Africa", The Guardian, 20 January 1989.
• von Senger, Harro. "Chinese culture and human rights]" (online available: pdf). In: Wolfgang Schmale (Hrsg.): "Human rights and cultural diversity: Europe, Arabic-Islamic world, Africa, China". Goldbach: Keip, 1993, pp. 281–333
• Waddington, Jeremy. Globalization and Patterns of Labour Resistance, Routledge, 1999. ISBN 0720123690
• Whitehouse, David. "Chinese workers and peasants in three phases of accumulation"PDF (73.5 KiB), Paper delivered at the Colloquium on Economy, Society and Nature, sponsored by the Centre for Civil Society at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2 March 2006. Retrieved 1 August 2007.
• Wildasin, David E. "Factor mobility, risk, inequality, and redistribution" in David Pines, Efraim Sadka, Itzhak Zilcha, Topics in Public Economics: Theoretical and Applied Analysis, Cambridge University Press, 1998. ISBN 0521561361
• Yao, Shunli. "China's WTO Revolution", Project Syndicate, June, 2002

[edit] See also

Human rights portal

People's Republic of China portal

• Human rights in Hong Kong
• Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
• Ecological migration
• Empowerment and Rights Institute
• The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China
• Internet censorship in the People's Republic of China
• Human Rights in China (organization)
• Tangshan Protest
• Laogai
• Re-education through labor
• Charter 08
• Black jails
• Xinfang
• Open Constitution Initiative

[edit] External links

• Review of China by the United Nations Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review, February 7, 2009
• MacLeod, Calum, China reviews 'apartheid' for 900 m peasants, Jun 10, 2001, The Independent, London
• Human Rights in China by China Internet Information Center, under the administration of the China State Council Information Office.
• Human rights can be manifested differently by XinhuaNet
• UN Human Development Report 2003 on China by the United Nations Development Programme
• 2004 Human Rights Report on China by the United States Department of State
• JURIST China - Chinese law, legal research, human rights
• Olympic Watch: Human Rights in China and Beijing 2008 - Campaign for human rights improvements in China before the 2008 Olympic Games
• Human Rights In China - International NGO based in New York and Hong Kong
• Human Rights Watch: China and Tibet
• International Federation for Justice in China
• International Freedom of Expression eXchange - monitors freedom of expression in China
• The China Support Network
• Support Democracy in China
• Status of Chinese People
• China Human Rights
• Wei Jingshen Foundation
• Who shows more respect for human rights? - Editorial published by the People's Daily