Gerhard Schroeder Spreading Christmas Joy in China

(By Ray D.)

Santa Gerd is Coming to Town: It's Christmas Time Again for the Chinese

In Beijing they are making a list and checking it twice. And frankly, Germany's Chancellor doesn't really care whether the Chinese have been naughty or nice.

Last year Santa Gerd promised his Sino-Socialist brothers a high-tech nuclear reactor...for peaceful purposes of course! After all, the Green elves had made it impossible to use the Hanau reactor back home in Germany. So Santa Gerd laughed his jolly laugh and forgave his Chinese fellows their human rights violations and aggressive threats against Taiwan. After all, it was the season of giving.

This year Chinese leaders are planning to present Santa Gerd with an even bigger Christmas wish: They want the EU weapons embargo lifted and they don't want to make a single concession on the issue of human rights. (In case you forgot: That is the same embargo imposed after the Communist government brutally suppressed the Tiananmen Square protests.) According to the German press, the Jolly Old Chancellor supports lifting the weapons embargo and has made that clear on several occasions in the past, despite opposition from the German Bundestag, the United Kingdom and the United States. He does have at least one staunch ally who supports him on this: France.

Perhaps the "peace" Chancellor knows something that we don't. Maybe the Chinese Communist dictators have undergone a true change of heart. It could be that they need the weapons for peaceful parades and not for threatening Taiwan or suppressing citizens in regions like, say, Tibet. Surprisingly (or perhaps not surprisingly), the German "peace" movement, for which "Free Tibet" is a near holy cause, has been deafeningly silent on the arms issue. It appears they are content to trust the "peace" Chancellor and currently too numb drowning themselves in Gluhwein to really care. After all, as long as China's leader isn't named 'George W. Bush' there just isn't a reason to hit the streets.

One thing is certain: Lifting the weapons embargo would be a huge gift from Santa Gerd to the German weapons industry, some of whom are already illegally trading with China as they did earlier with Saddam's Iraq. According to the ARD program Monitor:

The German firms MTU and Deutz AG have produced arms products in China without permission for years. These include engines for tanks, submarines and destroyers. The same submarines and destroyers that were used in threatening maneuvers off the coast of Taiwan.

Lifting the weapons embargo would also fill the stockings of many German companies currently trading with China. Beijing would certainly show greater favor to German businesses should they get their Christmas wish. Santa Gerd seems to hope that Germany, the world's leading export nation, the nation that keeps on giving, might be able to trade its way out of the stagnation brought on by his government's economic mismanagement, mammoth bureaucracy and repeated tax hikes.

Well, folks, I said it last year around this time and I will say it again:

"For the past 2 years, members of Schroeder's Socialist-Green coalition government have incessantly criticized the US for its military campaigns and alleged human rights abuses in Afghanistan, Iraq and at Guantanamo Bay. Then they turn around and make these types of deals with China because they are lucrative for German industry... do I smell hypocrisy here?"

It will be interesting to see how the Chancellor treats Iraqi Prime Minister Allawi on his upcoming visit to Berlin. Hopefully, he will be in the same spirit of giving...but I wouldn't bet the farm on it...Santa Gerd will likely be too busy forging weapons deals and spreading holiday cheer with Communist dictators to lend a real hand to an emerging Middle Eastern democracy.

Comments

[vanessa]

Consequently, Schröder/SPD are still in free-fall:
See here.

[WhatDoIKnow]

All you need is a lonely wacko and the whole discussion goes down the drain :-(

[Pato]

someone please advise young christian that the US invasion of both afghanistan and iraq has left the US with a true east/west choke-hold around tehran's throat. US invades iraq, leaving the borders relatively open on full damn purpose. Jihadis pour in and get slaughtered as they take on US 18 thru 21 yr old boys and girls.
In the meanwhile the "eu" spends the last 12 months wanking iran to no avail. NOTHING has been accomplished by the "eu" socialist "carrot" in the eyes of the mullah freaks in tehran. they have simply continued on their nuke building. "we KNOW the iranians" the world is told by france, germany et al "we can handle it".
No one should under estimate the effective ferocity and pure destruction that a combined US air and naval bombardment of multiple nuke sites simultaneaously within Iran. The heads of the brave mullahs who just graduated 200 new 15 yr old suicide bombers would roll so fast that their head gear would fly off, leaving them in tatters.
christian- it is great to be proud of one's country. there is nothing wrong with that in the least bit. In fact germany indeed has had allot to be proud of. However, positive contributions to the world's growth, economic brilliance and peace in modern times, and the bringing of either peace or democracy to ANY country is not one of those items. The german state could start on that path anytime, and no one would complain.
Continue to be a proud german, however don't fall so quickly for the mis-directed insanity that has permeated your current government. You indicate that it is unlikely that a islamist would be-head a german. what the hell makes you say that? I recommend that you DO go take that walk in damascus or tehran. The please give us all a field report of your progress. However, I think we'd see you dribbling in an orange jump-suit on tv before you returned.

[gary]

Hey, Victor,

You say, "The transistor, airplanes and electricity are note american inventions or major developments."

I assume you meant to write they're NOT American inventions. Sorry, pal, they are.

The transistor was invented by Bell Labs in New Jersey in 1954. The Wright Brothers invented the first powered flying machine a century ago in Ohio. As for electricity, Ben Franklin established that it existed in 1790-something, and two American inventors, Edison and another guy whose name escapes, invented direct current and alternating current at the turn of the last century.

Now, a quiz: The following were invented where: telephone, television, plexiglass, computer, computer chip, PET scan, CAT scan, vulcanized rubber, mass production, moon landings, plastic, latex, nylon, rayon, the phonograph, laser, electric light bulb, movies, GSP, nearly every major medicine of the last 50 years, air conditioning, frozen food, electric guitar, steam boat, wireless communication (garage door openers, remote controls, those sorts of things), records (45s, albums), stereo, FM radio, Velcro, and on and on and on ...

Waiting to hear, Victor.

[Pamela]

I don't think Christian is a whacko. Actually, I agree with him on a few things, specifically the surrender of German sovereignity to the EU. I share his appreciation of Germany's cultural heritage and his disdain for multiculturalism and socialism.

A few other things I have problems with as stated above and as many other posters addressed more elequently than I, but no he is not a whacko and not a Nazi.

[Victor]

@gary

Shockley/Bardeen/Brattain weren't the first to invent the principle of transistor, they
were the first to patent it.

http://www.oppisworld.de/zeit/erfinder/transist.htm

"1928: Theoretische Erkenntnis des Transistorprinzips - Julius Lilienfeld, Deutschland"
"1934: Feldeffekt-Transistor - O. Heil, Deutschland"
"1939: Effekt des sog. pn-Übergangs in Halbleitern - Walter Schottky, Deutschland"

The Wright Brothers are known for making the first controllable, powered heavier-than-air flight.
Emphasis on "controllable"

Airplanes existed long enough before. You are ignoring Karl Jatho, Wilhelm Kress
and Gustav Weißkopf.

So, what about electicity.

Electricity cannot be invented, because it already exists.

Let's see who discovered electricity or invented something related to it:

- William Gilbert coined the modern Latin word electricus (1600)
- Otto von Guericke invented an early electrostatic generator (1660)
- Robert Boylestated stated in 1675 that electric attraction and repulsion can act across a vacuum
- Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz produced eletric sparks by charging brimstone (1672)
- Benjamin Franklin invented the lightning arrester in 1752

That are just some excerpts from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity

and

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elektrizit%C3%A4t

Victor

[Victor]

Oh.

And television was invented by Manfred von Ardenne.
But I know that a lot of inventions come from America,
thank you, it would just be nice not to ignore other
countries efforts.

[Victor]

telephone - Ok
television - Manfred von Ardenne (Germany)
plexiglass - invented at the same time by Germany, Spain, Great Britain (1928), brought to market by Röhm
computer - Pascal, Babbage, Leibniz , Hollerith, Zuse, Turing
computer chip - first integrated circuit by TI (maybe earlier, but still USA)
PET scan - Washington University in St. Louis
CAT scan - built in the United States by a British and South African
vulcanized rubber - invented in 1843 by Goodyear (USA)
mass production - Ford and Evans, that's ok
moon landings - ...
plastic - "Polyvinylchlorid" by Victor Regnault (born in Germany, died in France) in 1835
latex - it's a natural material ..., but LaTeX was invented by Donald E. Knuth ;-)
nylon - ok
rayon - Georges Audemars (Switzerland), Hilaire de Charbonnet (France) and Cross/Bevan/Beadle (UK)
the phonograph - named by Edison, but not the first one to build it (Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville in France was the first)
laser - USSR (Nikolai Basov and Alexander Prokhorov)
electric light bulb - Heinrich Göbel (Germany, in 1854)
movies - too broad
GSP - Generalized System of Preferences? What the hell?
GPS - yeah
nearly every major medicine of the last 50 years - to broad
air conditioning - John Gorrie, ok
frozen food - to broad
electric guitar - Rickenbacker? Seems to be an american corporation
steam boat - Claude de Jouffroy d'Abbans (France) in 1783, Jonathan Hulls (UK) in 1736
wireless communication (garage door openers, remote controls, those sorts of things) - to broad
records (45s, albums) - yeah
stereo, FM radio - ok
Velcro - velour and crochet, invented by George de Mestral (Belgian in Switzerland)