Another way to Immigrate to America!!!

I read the Yahoo News about how a luxury home is being maintained as a birthing location for Chinese nationals who would like to give the gift of American Citizenship to their yet unborn Children. Their modus operandi is simple, get pregnant in China travel to US when they are few weeks from delivery and give birth here. This way the child becomes an American Citizen, the parents can't be removed. The government here will be forced to give them green cards and they will bring the rest of their extended family. A neat strategy to take over the country, infiltrate, immigrate, and populate. China wants to be the superpower in the world and what better way than to takeover the existing superpower by overpopulating the nation with their people.

Book Review: Into the Den of the Bear and the Lair of the Dragon on a Motorcycle

Epic biker’s odyssey
Into the Den of the Bear and the Lair of the Dragon on a Motorcycle by Werner Bausenhart; Legas, Canada; Price: Rs.900; 203 pp

Cross-country biking is not new to two-wheeler aficionados across the world. Men and mobikes taking off to far-flung destinations is old hat for intrepid and free-spirited souls who wish to explore the world. One such adventurer is Dr. Werner Bausenhart, a former professor at the University of Ottawa, who during the past decade has biked across the Americas and travelled down the west coast of Africa.

“Motorcycle adventure travel is mainly a man-thing, although lately a few women seem to have been bitten by the bug as well. It is a disease without a cure. The symptoms are well known, but not well understood, particularly by the female half of the population. We, the sufferers, need space; no, more than that: we need the vista of wide open spaces. We need adventure as a fish needs water. We need a bit of danger in our lives to add zest to an otherwise prosaic existence,” writes Bausenhart, the author of this travelogue. The ambitious eventful excursion on two wheels took Bausenhart across two of the largest countries in the world — Russia (the eponymous den of the bear) and China (the dragon’s lair). Refreshingly Bausenhart’s thrilling adventure narrated in this book began after his retirement from Ottawa University which he served faithfully for 27 years — proof there’s a lot of life after retirement.

The Russian leg of the 31,686 km journey on a BMW R 100 GS PD began in London and ended in Vladivostok via Moscow, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, and Khabarocsky, and return was via Beijing, Kashgar, Islamabad, Tehran, Ankara, and Istanbul — an eight month long odyssey.

Liberally peppered with route maps, monochrome photographs and illustrations, this book is an easy and entertaining read. Conversations with a multitude of locals, fellow travellers on the road and policemen and inevitable haggling with border officials provide useful information on local cultures and practices of each country.

“Although the highway to Minsk was excellent, I did not make much time, since at every little town I was stopped by their traffic police, only to admire my motorcycle and to make conversation. This I loved. This was the very purpose of my journey, to meet the locals. In Minsk I was chased by a city cop on a motorcycle for no apparent reason. He pulled me over at a traffic light, and with a smile pointed out at his motorcycle: it was a BMW, the same type and year as mine, but in police livery. The two of us went through an instant ritual of male bonding, a ritual that was to be repeated again and again throughout the trip. After all boys will be boys, no matter what nationality and where they may meet,” writes the author.

Like Bausenhart’s earlier books 8 Around the Americas on a Motorcycle and Africa Against the Clock on a Motorcycle, this comprehensive travel diary would particularly interest the multiplying tribe of bikers — majority of whom entertain ideas of hitting the highways full throttle. A series of vignettes and a tour d’ horizon of societies and cultures en route, mark the meandering jaunt.

Indeed as one pours over lengthy paragraphs, it’s arguable that the unique selling proposition of this travelogue is the valuable advice it contains on required documentation, bike maintenance, road and riding conditions and how they affect the motorcyclist, sea crossings by air/ sea freight and basic security precautions. A concluding appendix of hard data provides details of exact distances between towns, camping sites and most importantly, includes the author’s rating of hotels in which he lodged.

On the down side the book could have done with professional editing, production, and colour — instead of black and white — photographs. Nevertheless for the growing tribe of subcontinental bikers, Bausenhart’s recitation of an epic odyssey is certain to prove inspirational. It demonstrates that anyone with the ability to win friends and influence people can do likewise. All it takes is a bike, a bit of money, and lots of time.

China's Lies: Worthy of a Olympic Gold Medal

At the recent Dragon Boat, Kite and Lantern Festival, I was given this booklet: "Green Olypic Games" - Beijing's Promise by someone trying to propagate the wonderful things Chinese government had done in a step towards saving and cleansing Beijing's environment for the 2008 Olympics. The book first printed in 2007 (400,000 copies) by the Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, China, has been widely circulated across the world makes quite an impact on the lay reader. Unless otherwise well-informed any reader of this book will immediately turn an ardent admirer and supporter of China. Printed in soothing colour combinations with beautifully composed, evocative pictures the book comprises of five parts each dealing with a different aspect of China's eco-friendly initiatives: Green Olympic Games; The Green Promise; Green Actions; Green Services and Green Personalities.

The book starts off with lofty statements of Beijing's promise to provide a Green Olympic Games to the world. How the Chinese government decided to close down huge polluting enterprises such as the Beijing Coking Plant which is the main provider of raw material for Beijing's energy supply. The company which employed 10,000 people was closed down and here is one place where the people who actually lost their jobs saying that it was a good thing to close down the factory. "Now for the sake of the city's environment, we are moving, and it hurts but it's for the good of the society," says factory master Zhang Xiwen who perhaps retained his job or maybe not. This is not stated in the book.

After going through the book and its lofty world-saving statements, I rubbed my eyes in disbelief and to make sure what I knew was true and the book was just propaganda I did some research on the internet and was shocked by what I found. Here are some facts about China's pollution statistics:

"China has probably already overtaken the US as the world's leading emitter of CO2, and the country's ecosystems are displaying climate change's consequences: Arid northern China is drying out, the wet south is seeing more and more flooding, and, according to a June 2007 Greenpeace report, 80 percent of the Himalayan glaciers that feed Asia's mightiest rivers could disappear by 2035. Such a development would jeopardize hundreds of millions of people who depend on the rivers for their livelihood." - Writes CS Monitor
"The World Bank reports that 16 of the 20 most polluted cities in the world are in China" - Wikipedia
According to World Health Organisation, 760,000 people die prematurely each year in China because of air and water pollution.
In 1997, the lower Yellow River did not flow 230 days out of the year, an increase of over 2000% since 1988
15 to 20 percent of higher plant varieties in China are endangered. 40,000 species.

There are lots of statistics available about China's role in polluting the air, water and soil of this earth. Searching the internet will yield loads of information. Some sources I have used to compile this blog are given below.
And the Reality
As I said earlier the reality in China is quite different. Here are some pictures of AP which reveal the bleak environmental scenario in China. They are self-explanatory.

"Guangzhou: Illegal motorbikes confiscated by police in an effort to curb air pollution await destruction at a recycling company". How much pollution this recycling effort will cause is completely out of focus of the world.

Lanzhou, Gansu province: A resident takes a water sample from the polluted Yellow river". The river color looks red, as if full of blood, but it is full of chemicals and according to scientists it would probably take a few centuries to make the water usable for any purpose.

This image from Reuters struck a terrible chord with me on China and the life of China’s next generation. This is a photo of a man cleaning up dead fishes, over 120,000 pounds of dead fish in Wuhan, Hubei province that died due to pollution and the weather. China must do all it can to control this dangerous spread in pollution, before we know it, it will devour our country.

Great Propaganda
Indeed one must admire and learn from Chinese government about good public relations and propaganda. They have printed 400,000 copies of this book and are distributing it across the world, especially in the developed world as publicity material so there will be no voices of dissent about China. The packaging and production of the material is so slick and smooth that one will definitely fall for it.

Sources of Information for this article:
CS Monitor
Water and Environment
Mother Jones.com
Econbrowser.com
Wikipedia
China's Pollution