when hitler came to power and systematically began to elimiate the jewish people, other governments, citizens of other countries and the press were silent. the olympics were allowed to go to germany and hitler’s great nation was celebrated.

the parallels that can be drawn between the current chinese government’s treatment of its own citizens and those of other nations (e.g. Tibet and Sudan) and hitler’s germany are numerous and startling.

same atrocities and complacency different nations and decades.

However, thanks to the international exposure of the inhumane treatment of abandoned babies (mostly girls) in China’s orphanages, followed by the continued efforts of those of us who have adopted internationally from China to help those left behind, the number of baby girls being abandoned now has gone way down. It used to be very difficult for Chinese families to officially adopt abandoned children in their own country. The government’s rules have loosened up, and now most of the babies that parents are unable to keep for whatever reason are being adopted domestically. Most the the abandoned babies now are boys who have significant health problems.

At one time it was illegal for birth parents to take children they were unable to keep to orphanages, which is why babies were abandoned. As far as I know, this policy has not been revised, but I am not up to date on this issue.

I would like to point out that a preference for male babies is the case in almost all cultures around the world. The practise of abandoning baby girls to die is an ancient one in Asia. The practise of selling Asian baby girls into slavery/sexual subjugation is also an ancient one, that still thrives. European civillizations don’t have a good track record for their treatment of females either, and there is still an active sexual slave trade in this country.

Gee, I never imagined making these kinds of posts to a gossip blog!

I am glad that the Olympics was in Beijing. Finally more of what the government in China does is uncovered. Maybe this will prevent them from completely destroying the Tibetan race and it’s culture.

@back to back: i don’t believe beet was attacking chinese people, she is highlighting serious moral and ethical issues that exist with the chinese government as more mainstream journalists should be doing. american news tends to cover only local or national issues because international news doesn’t bring in the ratings. consequently, many americans are truly unaware of the chinese government’s abuses.

unfortunately, i have to agree with just saying, the us is not stellar in the human rights arena. we have significant room for improvement.

we stopped buying any and all products from china when so many of them were filled with lead. this commitment makes christmas incredibly difficult considering most toys are made there. but we will stick with it because sometimes the only way for an everyday citizen to effectuate change is through his/her spending.

interesting perspective klorofylling, i think you make an excellent point. if journalists are beaten and censored, we can hope they will tell their stories when they return home and their gags are removed. So that the chinese government’s abuses will be more prevalent in the media, particularly its two faced stance on darfur.

I have been watching the Olympics. I am proud of our athletes and want to support them because quite frankly there is no way in hell I have ever been or ever will be so dedicated to anything, particularly exercise.

Did anyone else catch during the opening ceremonies that originally some 2000 costumes were supposed to be black but the director didn’t like the look. So within FORTY EIGHT (48) hours they were changed to green. NONE of the commentators made the connection to the amount of effort that took the underpaid child laborers of the country. That really pissed me off, it was like “wow, those costumes just magically appeared isn’t that amazing?!”