Several Asian News: NKorea and SKorea; China and Mrs. Royal

After yesterday I blogged about two Cubans who wanted to get out the paradise, also yesterday was announced that 2 NKoreans have defected in a boat:

Four North Koreans have defected to South Korea by boat and are being questioned
by intelligence officials, news reports said Wednesday.
The four arrived on a small wooden boat in waters off Yeonpyeong Island near South Korea’s western sea border with the North late last month, the Chosun Ilbo daily reported, citing an unnamed government official.
Defections by boat are rare, with the vast majority of North Koreans fleeing to the South traveling by land through China and Southeast Asia.
The North Koreans have expressed their wish to defect to South Korea and were being questioned by intelligence officials, the Chosun Ilbo and the Yonhap news agency reported.
Neither the National Intelligence Service, South Korea’s main spy agency, nor the Korea Coast Guard could confirm the reports.
South Korean officials are usually reluctant to talk openly about North Korean defectors, wary of the safety of their relatives still in the North. North Koreans reportedly face harsh punishment by their hardline regime when their relatives flee the country.
The number of North Korean defectors has risen steadily in recent years as they seek to escape chronic food shortages and political oppression.

What??!! What are they saying? Are they mad??

North Korea keeps abducting South Koreans and denying it. South Korea does not fight for them, but is going to seize the land of descendants of collaborators with the Japan conquerors during the period 1910-1945. Of course, Japan conquered the Peninsula and had been accused of proved abuses. But that was 50 years ago!!! And NKorea is abducting SKoreans NOW.

Anyway there are [a lot of] NKorean supporters in South Korea. Especially in unions.

Other news:

• China invites US food inspectors.
• Explosion in China: 20 miners dead, 10 trapped in central China coal mine explosion. «China’s mines are among the deadliest in the world, with an average of 13 miners dying every day in accidents. Explosions are frequent in Chinese coal mines, whose seams often hold pockets of gas. With coal prices high to feed the booming economy’s energy demand, mine operators often ignore safety regulations to boost production«. Oh, you workers’ defenders, leftists of the world, how on earth this can happen in so a beautiful paradise… Why you’re not burning Chinese flags and doing other peaceful actions to stop this real opression? AS I posted here, there are increasingly more deaths in China because of lung disease, for the same reasons.
• what China does about abortion: A massive forced abortion campaign is ongoing in China’s Guangxi Province, according to China Aid Organization. «One Christian lady, Ms. Linrong Wei, 7 months pregnant, was dragged into the hospital from her home on April 17 at 8:45 AM (Beijing time) by ten officials from the Population and Family Planning Commission in Baise City, Guangxi. Her husband Yage «James» Liang was formerly a pastor in the government-sanctioned TSPM church before he became a House church pastor a year ago,» the CAA said. CAA said it has eyewitness reports of 40 other pregnant women who were forcefully moved to the Youjiang District People’s Hospital of Baise City on the same day to perform forced abortions. Eyewitnesses told CAA that pastor Liang’s wife was pregnant accidentally and they wanted to keep this baby because of Christian principles, said CAA, adding that «Ms. Wei was injected with medicine to induce birth at 11 AM on April 17.»[I remember that I posted some months ago about a Chinese mother who was forced to have an abortion … because she was not married. CMinor then, pointed me this article about forced abortion in China. A must read.]
• Japan gives $2.1B to stem climate change.

And today we are following the French elections: Ségolene was marvelled with the quickness of the Chinese justice. Uff, yeah, they kill inmediately, even in buses to make possible the growing organ market… What happens with French and Chinese? Chinese head of the censorship was awarded Chinese first and more important medal because he is a fan of Chirac!

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China, Human Rights, Japan, North Korea,South Korea Women’s rights

The Apes’ rights

A lot of people laughed or were deeply worried when it was known that Zapatero’s party was supporting that the apes should have the same rights as the humans.
Now it is Austrian activists the ones who want chimpanzees to be considered humans:

In some ways, Hiasl is like any other Viennese: He indulges a weakness for pastry, likes to paint and enjoys chilling out watching TV. But he doesn’t care for coffee, and he isn’t actually a person — at least not yet.
In a case that could set a global legal precedent for granting basic rights to apes, animal rights advocates are seeking to get the 26-year-old male chimpanzee legally declared a «person.»
Hiasl’s supporters argue he needs that status to become a legal entity that can receive donations and get a guardian to look out for his interests.
«Our main argument is that Hiasl is a person and has basic legal rights,» said Eberhart Theuer, a lawyer leading the challenge on behalf of the Association Against Animal Factories, a Vienna animal rights group.
«We mean the right to life, the right to not be tortured, the right to freedom under
certain conditions,» Theuer said.
«We’re not talking about the right to vote here.»

Thank God…

Hiasl, a 26-year-old male chimpanzee looks through the glass at his enclosure at an animal sanctuary in Voesendorf, south of Vienna, on Friday, May 4, 2007. Austrian animal rights advocates are waging an unusual court battle to get the chimpanzee legally declared a «person.» Hiasl’s supporters argue that he needs that status to become a legal entity who can receive donations and get a guardian to look out for his interests. (AP Photo/Lilli Strauss)

Hmmm, a chimpazee can receive donations and get a guardian… I wonder what is the real motive for this activism.

When this was discussed in Spanish Parliament, some people investigated about the project called «Great Ape». Its supporter, called Singuer, said this:

Q: You wrote in «Practical Ethics«: Killing a chimpanzee is worse than killing a human being who, being an innate intelectual disabled, would never be able to be actually a person«.
A: We have to be really sure that it is disabled person, so if a boy is not able to recognise people, nor to establish social relations, nor to enjoy his life, whereas the chimpanee has a much richer and more complex life that that human being that is deeply handicapped, I believe that then it is a loss of more little importance to kill that human being that a chimpanzee».

So it seems that «practical ethics» are no ethics at all.

I am not in favour of torturing animals -in fact, you can see how a person is with humans if you see how he treats animals- or in making them any kind of harm. But legislations already have measures that punish people if they are mistreating animals. This type of measures are more of a phylosophic type than really needed. I mean, being considered as humans is not going to prevent them to be harmed. If there are people who torture other humans, kill, maim, what is the real protection for them?

No, the problem with these measures is that they are considering as more ethical the mistreatment and killing of disabled humans than the killing of a chimpanzee, something which is also bad. They are practically advocating for the euthanasia of disabled people but to respect a chimpanzee, to allow the law to give it donations and to name him a guardian. Don’t know but these type of measures always seem to be more motivated by money -imagine you’re the guardian of a famous chimpanzee who receive a lot of donations: you’re the one to administer his money, … with no opposition from his part, his family, etc.- than about real considerations for animals.

And then they tell you «he is not going to be allowed to vote». I bet they were going to vote much more reasonably than some humans…

More in Jules Crittenden, h/t Gateway Pundit.

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Austria, Human Rights, Spain