Watch the Video, Before Continuing

So this article made me laugh.

Firstly, the guy obviously wasn't serious about the suicide attempt, otherwise he wouldn't have been waiting for them to inflate the giant balloon.

Therefore, the man pushing him should be convicted of attempted murder, as there's no justification for 'helping him on his way,' as he wasn't intending to be on his way in the first place.

Secondly, both of them being prosecuted isn't surprising.  I have to wonder whether this wasn't simply an exercise on behalf of the chinese though - I find it hard to believe that they care about an individual enough to employ inflatable cushions for every once in a lifetime high-diver.  Afterall, communists aren't exactly known for being particularly touchy-feely about, well, anything; I'm certain he'd have been violently apprehended, or 'taken care of,' before he'd jumped anyway.

Anyway, the guy pushing him is a dick - but at least they can share a prison cell together for the rest of their lives.  (Again, communists aren't exactly known to be lenient with punishment, regardless of crime.)  Perhaps the pushee will find out why the pusher felt it necessary to be an ass.

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Also, in this article, comes this peach of china versus the world thinking:





"China and Asia dominated world trade for 1,500 years, so maybe we are just returning to equilibrium, where the short period of western domination will be seen as little more than a blip".




(I particularly enjoy the reference to china initially, and then tacking asia onto the phrase, after china, to make it seem as if the statement is not directly addressing china, but asia as a whole, while simultaneously dismissing asia as irrelevant to the conversation at hand. Fleet footed double meaning trickery!)




I've mentioned before that the chinese are brainwashed (as we all are, in differing ways but similar ends) to think that the chinese have been repeatedly wronged by the west, and to a certain extent their immediate neighbours, (although they conveniently forget the wrongs of their neighbours when a 'united front,' needs to be shown to competitors) conveniently forgetting their own wrongdoings. Indeed, it would seem that all chinese wrongdoings have been forgotten to chinese historians, so infrequent and mild are their own mistakes. Not ten seconds after destroying countless acres of land for their water projects to the north, were the environmental impacts of such projects forgotten. Not to mention that they now espouse their green credentials - hypocrisy run rampant.




However I take issue with the extract above, not just for the patriotic fervor, but for the fact it's based in pure fantasy. The European powers dictated 'world trade,' (what was world trade before global telecommunications? A few trade ships and some spices?) from the sixteen hundreds onwards, with Spain, France, Portugal and Great Britain leading the way.




Before this, 'world trade,' as the right dishonorable (see: stupid) chinese representative Mr. Tandon phrases it, did not exist.




No Mr. chinese man, one cannot dominate world trade that does not exist, and if you do happen to count the ten barrels of spice X that were traded in 500 A.D I laugh at your pathetic attempts to create a past where you have global relevance.




The point being, back then, no country was 'dominant,' in world trade, in the way that america and Europe were, and china now is.




Grow up and eat some dimsum.