fei
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Post by fei on Oct 12, 2020 11:17:45 GMT 10
Example 2: Medecins Sans Frontieres Anti-gunners on steroids but think nothing of hiring the local warlord AKA UN Peacekeepers to provide armed "security" for their teams along with a few underage prostitutes for a little "post op" recreation! www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-44523086MSF also are notorious for using Chuggers for fundraising. There have been numerous investigations on chugging organisations. In a nutshell, the owners make an absolute killing by hiring backpackers to solicit donations from pedestrians. They are paid collectors, not volunteers. The cut they take is astounding. The backpacker gets around 10%, the owner and coprorate structure takes around 80%, leaving almost nothing for the charity. What is particularly deceptive are the claims that 'all funds go to the charity'. This is notionally true. 100% of your money goes to the charity. The chugging company then sends an invoice to the organisation for fundraising fees. As a rule it is 95% of the first years donation, 50% of the second and 25% of the third year. As most people end their monthly donation within the first year, the charity generally gets very little. Most of your money goes to a rich piece of sheet who lives in Sydney. Its the same for those Lions Club etc mints they sell for a dollar at the banks etc. My brother contacted them to see how he could help out by getting some for sale at his business, but decided against it when the rep straight out bragged about how much commission he got for every unit sold. As it turns out, the charity only got something like 6c in every dollar.
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fei
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Post by fei on Oct 9, 2020 23:55:51 GMT 10
I'd say its more just the grand gesture / empty promise that anyone who has ever lived in China or worked with Chinese companies is all too aware of. Basically, all levels of society operate on a basis of appearing to do the right thing, and often making promises they have no intention of ever honouring, in order to ensure that they look good and don't lose face. Everyone knows that the government will make a grand statement with a lot of pomp and ceremony, but chances are nothing is ever implemented, as the policy is passed on from national to provincial to municipal level, often ending up with the lowest level (least funded) government departments expected to implement whatever was promised. Just look at all the promises that were made when China joined the WTO in 2001. Many have yet to be carried out, unless of course they will result in working to China's favour.
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fei
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Post by fei on Oct 9, 2020 11:31:58 GMT 10
That makes sense for the CCP. They produce most of the world's solar panels and a large number of wind turbines. Not needing to import gas and coal is of strategic importance for them. I seriously doubt they care about climate change. Exactly! The fact that they will phase out fossil fuels by 2060 is just in time for when crude oil is supposed to start being in serious shortage (ie. at current usage levels, there are enough proven reserves for 40 years use). The city I live in has subsidies for electric vehicles so has huge uptake, almost all buses are electric, trains are all electric, and the government is now encouraging people to install solar panels in the countryside (although nothing in the cities). While they are posturing about being a green government, reality is they are preparing everyone for low fossil fuel availability, but meanwhile also stockpiling as much oil as they can get while its still relatively cheap.
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fei
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Post by fei on Sept 30, 2020 11:39:59 GMT 10
The Turks are supporting Azerbaijan, which is a very sore point in Armenia, as the Turks killed several hundred thousand Armenian civilians during and after World War 1 due to them supporting the modernisation and breaking up of the (Turkish) Ottoman Empire.
Hopefully the Russians and Iranians can bring their presence to bear on forcing a quick resolution (Muslim Iran supports Christian Armenia, rather than muslim Azerbaijan).
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fei
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Post by fei on Sept 25, 2020 16:12:11 GMT 10
These little guys will get seriously chopped up if they are ever ordered to fight on the ground in Tibet / Ladakh ! Having personally observed Chinese conscripts living and operating in these areas over an extended period of time I can tell you they are seriously outclassed by the Indian troops stationed there. Really? I would be willing to bet the CCP has quietly thrown a bunch of money at ex-US military/foreign troops to update their military doctrine and provide training to upskill their troops. I wouldn't underestimate the development of the Chinese military. The US government obviously quietly (at least previously quietly) treats China as a rising threat. I don't see why we should not consider them as a threat. Erik Prince (formerly head of the Blackwater private security firm) is head of a Hong Kong based company working with government in Xinjiang Province to provide "security" training. Not sure how that sits with the sanctions the US has put in place against various Xinjiang related companies and officials, but maybe his sister being a Trump insider (Secretary of Education) provides protection against the sort of investigations the FBI has been doing against people found to have links to the Chinese regime? I bet the US military aren't particularly happy that ex-US servicemen are providing that kind of training for their erstwhile enemies.
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fei
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Post by fei on Sept 24, 2020 14:37:58 GMT 10
Best to stay out of CCP territory. Is your career really worth risking your freedom and your life for? Career is almost finished and hasn't really been a reason for being here anyway. Wife is Chinese, and while we have been spending more and more time in Aus every year since the kids were born, her family issues have also been mounting, and basically require her to be in-country to deal with each time. Have been engaged in winding everything down, divesting assets etc for the past several months. Now in the process of applying for wife's re-entry visa and then our family entry permit (big backlogs for both of those), then can try to find air tickets. One of my mates was able to get back to Aus before the strict entry requirements came in. It took his wife and daughter (who didn't have the visa issues we're having) almost four months to get back to Sydney though. They've had all sorts of issues shipping their household goods back, getting their money out etc too. Long story short, aim to be back in Aus by year's end. Hopefully nothing major kicks off before then.
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fei
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Post by fei on Sept 22, 2020 22:23:14 GMT 10
War drums are definitely beating now; who knows how much is real and how much is for show though?
Yesterday one of my mates asked in our Aussie chat group if anyone has contingency plans for getting out of China at short notice in case of war. All the usual suspects answered, but most people said he was just being alarmist (same as they did when I warned we would go into lockdown in late January). He reckons our best bet would be an overland convoy into Myanmar (Burma), Laos etc, but I reckon a long line of expats in cars heading out would be stopped pretty early on.
I guess we would be throwing ourselves at the mercy of DFAT, hoping some evacuation plans would be put into action. Would probably end up in detention somewhere instead, with the guards reading out all the inflamed FaceBook posts my mate makes about China.
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fei
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Post by fei on Sept 20, 2020 19:34:12 GMT 10
Went through the list for both my usual life (apartment in the city) and then the BOL (ie. wife's family's farming village 100km out in the boonies).
In the city we score pretty poorly, just having the food stocks and bug out plan, although have several friends and neighbours with medical skills and stocks.
In the boonies, we have pretty much everything, apart from the medical stuff and weapons. The village in the boonies is easily defensible though, and with all the relatives and others back there, would have the manpower to mount a decent defense without firearms.
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fei
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Post by fei on Sept 20, 2020 19:24:59 GMT 10
The Indos sunk a Chinese fishing vessel in the same area a few years ago. Will be interesting to see what happens this time. Always wonder how many of these intrusions are for domestic Chinese audiences -- ie. stir up anti-foreign sentiment in China to get people looking away from things closer to home. Was having dinner with friends last night and was surprised that one guy who is usually staunchly supportive of the (Chinese) government, brought up all the things that China has been up to this year and was very annoyed that the "government was stirring up trouble that the ordinary people will have to deal with".
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fei
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Post by fei on Sept 19, 2020 13:46:09 GMT 10
It's an interesting situation. There's little support for them, but the CCP is holding that Indian land and not giving it back. They are continuing their island building and militarization of Spratleys. They are contintuing to get nations to switch recognition from the Republic of China to the CCP. The CCP is playing the long game and they are winning. Yes a lot of bullshit emanating from Western Leaders but no real pushback! The Chinese are laughing their arses off! Basically the same situation as the western attitude to various middle eastern despots. We need their oil (or the consumers in China / products from China), so look the other way most of the time. Every so often the pollies make waves and appear to be doing something, but how much of it is of consequence and how much is for show?
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fei
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Post by fei on Sept 19, 2020 13:43:34 GMT 10
It's interesting. These kind of shows take such a narrow view of what circumstances the 'prepping' is meant to address. The scoring system reflects that. In other parts of the world there are people living in what we would categorise as serious SHTF circumstances, long term, and making a go of it. And they do it with about 5% of the 'preps' in that list. Prepper dogma would suggest all these people should not be alive. Morale, resilience, familiarity with ones AO, a small network of reliable friends and keen improvisation skills seem to be the real factors that sort the wheat from the chaff when bad things happen for a long time. Yep, when you see how the million or so Indians in the Mumbai slums live, you would think they are doing it hard. There was expected to be a massive casualty rate from COVID in the slums, however, it seems that by working together to keep all the communal facilities disinfected (something like one toilet per 1,000 people) and getting everyone educated about symptoms etc, there has been a very low infection rate.
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fei
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Post by fei on Sept 19, 2020 13:22:49 GMT 10
I saw a similar tool on Kickstarter or other such crowdfunding site a few years ago. From memory, they were trying to raise $50k or so to "develop" one of these tools for widespread use and were going to sell if for about $30 each. I guess some people just have to much money they need to spend.
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fei
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Post by fei on Sept 10, 2020 23:03:11 GMT 10
Now this makes me vomit:- "A British-born Australian citizen living in China who describes claims of ethnic cleansing of Uighur Muslims as “baloney” has emerged as a new star in Chinese state propaganda.Is this bloke claiming an Aussie Pension and a British Pension also? Former London Metropolitan Police officer Jerry Grey, 62, lived in Australia for nearly 20 years working as a manager for Chubb Security in Brisbane, Sydney and Adelaide before taking a redundancy.He obtained a teaching certificate and planned to travel while teaching English. He arrived in China in 2004 but loved it so much he ended up staying after his contract finished, and soon found himself married.Mr Grey now lives in Zhongshan in the southern province of Guangdong with his wife, Ann Liang Yuhua."www.news.com.au/world/asia/they-sing-and-dance-aussie-retiree-trashes-claims-of-uighur-repression-in-chinese-propaganda/news-story/fd4749b7bbf0e26949f19a6d13c04083The comments section area was interesting - someone else was in that province too - didn't see anything either!!! Guess if you don't see it, it doesn't exist. Xinjiang is a big province with lots of desert and empty space between towns and cities. I wonder how far off the tourist trail they went? (I've had a few colleagues over the years who have grown up in Xinjiang; all were Han Chinese, no Muslims, but all said that "things' happen there all the time).
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fei
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Post by fei on Sept 10, 2020 22:49:00 GMT 10
Have been lurking for a while, but had to sign in to tell everyone that as per above^^^ I work in China, with a bunch of fat wankers who fiddle with their phones non-stop all day! Most of them are in their mid-thirties though, so I guess can't really be classified as young. China still has compulsory conscription for all males upon completion of year 12 (unless there is two or more sons, in which case only one needs to do it). Reality is that very few people actually do any service though, as they are often pretty shortsighted the time they finish school, and therefore don't meet the sight requirements. I reckon this is only partly due to playing on phones though, but more likely also due to doing homework in poor light until the wee hours for 5+ years at middle and high school.
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fei
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Post by fei on Aug 28, 2020 15:18:29 GMT 10
Now that is funny, the fate of an entire country, over 2000 miles wide, derived from a minute long video! Kinda like "All of Australia is burning!" earlier this year or "The kangaroo is being hunted to extinction" back in the '80s. Yep a gunman running from the scene of a shooting without being apprehended instantly by either one of the 3 or 4 response vehicles reflects this pretty well. I don't in any way condone what happened, but to be fair, the cops apparently didn't know what exactly had happened at the time he was trying to surrender. They knew there had been a shooting on that road and were driving up to check it out. People are allowed to open carry in Wisconsin and they knew there were armed men around guarding buildings, plus had spoken to this guy earlier in the day when he was helping clean up after the previous days' riots. They were focusing on the other people on the street, some armed, some still smashing stuff up. Probably couldn't hear what he was trying to tell them through the walls of the armoured vehicles either. I'm sure if Aussie cops (or cops in other parts of the US where there is no open carry) saw this guy, they would have scooped him up straight away.
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fei
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Post by fei on Aug 27, 2020 11:20:06 GMT 10
I wonder if the couple who stood on their steps with a pistol and AR15 whilst the racist BLM mob trespassed on their property had shot a trespasser, would they be in jail now? As it turns out the pistol was inoperable, so some of the charges against the lady had to be dropped. Both of them are lawyers and have the best legal team, so will probably get off scot-free apart from getting their weapons taken off them. Meanwhile, was watching the videos from the Kenosha shootings last night. Will be interesting to see what happens to the shooter, seeing as he is a minor (17 years old) and the two latter shootings were when he was being attacked. The guy whose bicep he shot off has already been proven to have been armed with a pistol in multiple photos and videos of the attack. Presumably will be able to claim self-defence.
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fei
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Post by fei on Aug 27, 2020 11:15:30 GMT 10
Wow. Looks like the pic from my year 11 or 12 geography exam 30 years ago. I wonder what is taught in high school geography these days?
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fei
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Post by fei on Aug 27, 2020 10:54:02 GMT 10
21 Days of eating only what you grow, done properly. He's got an extensive garden, trees galore. I like that he put the challenge in the hardest times [winter]. This was an interesting experiment. Looks like they came out of it pretty well, although he did lose a few kg over the three weeks. Will be interesting to see how things go when they do it again, but with some more preparation.
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fei
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Post by fei on Aug 19, 2020 11:10:52 GMT 10
Maybe not specifically for propaganda purposes, but probably had free tickets available. Its friggin hot in many parts of China now, with Wuhan being one of the "three furnaces" that gets 40+ temps every year. Overcrowding is the reason I don't go to the water park here. As it turns out, seems most people in China believe the government propaganda that the virus came from overseas, and that China doesn't have it now; while the rest of the world is so poorly run that millions of people are dying from it.
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fei
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Post by fei on Aug 18, 2020 15:24:28 GMT 10
That would be Dr John on YT at a guess. We went on Vit D back in Jan or Feb when he identified a correlation. I'm not a supplements person by and large but that seemed like cheap insurance. Yep, Dr John Campbell. A pommy ER nurse who also happens to have a doctorate of medicine and has taught nursing in a range of third world countries. Was watching every day to start with, but became repetitive. Good for a catch-up with the latest info every once in a while though. www.youtube.com/c/Campbellteaching/videos
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