(via. OFK) Good for Spielberg

Hollywood director Steven Spielberg’s decision to quit the Beijing Olympics over the Darfur crisis is drawing condemnation by China’s state-controlled media and a groundswell of criticism from the Chinese public.

Last week, the American director withdrew from his role as an artistic adviser to the opening and closing ceremonies of the Summer Games, accusing China of not doing enough to press for peace in the troubled Sudanese region.

Officially, the Chinese government has not directly criticized Spielberg by name, expressing only “regret” over his decision. But the state-run media and the public have been far less restrained.

In newspaper commentaries and lively Internet forums, they have expressed outrage, scorn and bewilderment that China’s Olympics have come under international criticism from Spielberg and others.

While I applaud a celebrity criticizing China’s human rights records, one thing that bothers me is that the criticism never reaches atrocities and abuse within China proper. Typically it is restrained to places like Darfur and Tibet (technically part of China, but many disagree). What seems to be stopping people from talking about abuses within China?

If you were North Korea and you have 22 North Koreans in the other Korea late for their execution, what would you do? Just ask

North Korea requested the repatriation of 22 North Koreans whose boats drifted into South Korean waters in the West Sea on Feb. 8, a South Korean government official admitted Monday. The government has been under pressure to explain why it turned the 22 back to the North the same day they arrived in the South, without interrogating them individually even for just a few hours.

According to the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff, North Korea contacted the South through the international standard radio frequency for commercial vessels around 8:20 a.m. on Feb. 8, asking the South to send back two drifting North Korean vessels. At that time, the 22 North Koreans were being transferred from their rubber boats to a South Korean ship. It was about three hours after they were first spotted at 5:10 a.m.

According to the South Korean constitution, these 22 are considered ROK citizens. Wouldn’t the choice of whether to stay in the south belong to the 22 Koreans? You can read the gruesome details of their fate in OFK post. It is becoming less of a case of negligence and more of a deliberate action to send the drifters back to the North.

(Via. Marmot’s Hole) What the hell? A girl with a penchant for lighting fires claims she was the real arsonist behind the recent burning of Sungnyemun. Among the reasons, th recent repatriation of 20 North Korean defectors. I do not think I have to explain why arson should not be a protest tactic.