Grey Dawn in the Land of the Dragon

This whole Olympic thing has been mostly fun. Some great drama, some stupid drama, a lot of medals and happy stories and fake little girls lip synching. China certainly looked good, a modern nation on the cusp of being a superpower. Last night, I even asked a chinese national friend of mine if, upon his return to China, he planned to become a party member, to which he answered in the affirmative. It wasn't a political question, I was just curious, and overall I'd say that these Olympics have made me soften my views on China and its future.

Then I saw this. The Chinese Government has sentenced two 70 year old women to a year of "re-education by labor" for having the audacity to apply for a lawful protest permit. Let me explain: Chinese authorities, anticipating protests and such as part of the Olympics, decided to head things off before they could get out of hand and declared that protesting could be legal if the protesters applied for a proper permit and limited their activities to designated areas. So that's what these evil old ladies did, they lawfully applied for a permit. They didn't protest at all, permit or no, they merely applied, and in response to this application they have be sentenced, without trial, to a year of hard labor. Which I think we all agree makes perfect sense.

What, exactly, were these old ladies intending to protest? The brutal occupation of Tibet? The Chinese dealings with the genocide in Darfur? The elimination of MSG from the nations takeout menus? Nothing so tame and mild. These aged anarchists were seeking proper compensation for the confiscation and destruction of their homes, which apparently happened as part of the 40 billion dollar construction project China undertook in order to host the Olympics. These ladies have apparently tried for 6 years with no luck to have their complaints answered, and they decided things were so desperate that they were attempting to protest their treatment.

Think about that. How many protests in history have ever actually worked, especially in authoritarian nations like China? How many protests of 2 old ladies have ever accomplished anything? But these two old ladies were so desperate they decided their only hope was to stand around and hold signs or something. And the authorities apparently decided that was too fucking dangerous, and so they're shipping these old broads off to break rocks or sew wallets or whatever they do to "re-educate" such demon spawn. Good luck, China, these gals look really fucking dangerous.

Fuck you, Chinese Government.