What cost your DVD player?

You might think it was cheap, “Made in China” on the back, bound to be cheap and good value for money. Considering there is no real alternative, you had to buy it anyway, didn’t you?

At what cost, though?

Would the freedom of over one billion people be cheap enough?

Would the wholesale torture and killing of millions of be more than enough?

Would the enslavement of 100’s of millions by a comparative handful of the rich and powerful be enough?

Think China, because that’s how you got your cheap DVD player, and your cheap TV, and your cheap shoes, and your cheap clothing, and your cheap everything else that makes your “cost of living” so cheap and affordable.

Think again! Think China where all those “cheap” things come from. Are they cheap for the poor people who are slave-driven to produce them?

Think China!!

What is the Chinese totalitarian dictatorship “government” doing to the world? “Buying it up” is the answer. Using the money you gave them to keep their people enslaved producing all those cheap goods you love to buy at a whim, “Yeah, it’s so cheap, and look at the quality”.

How did they do it? They’ve managed to do what Hitler and Stalin did, but in much larger numbers.   Ridding themselves of all dissent by murdering people who oppose them. While we turned a blind eye – “It’s their business isn’t it. What they do in their country’s their business, not ours". Or so they, the dictatorship keep telling us.  Hundreds of millions, not the 7 or 8 million that Hitler disposed of .Or the 20 million that Stalin exterminated. NO, hundreds of millions have been disposed of for being Christians, Falung Gong, democrats, opponents of the regime, whistleblowers who hate the corruption they live under, or just hating a legal system that allows no defence against an all powerful dictatorship.

And now, what are they doing? Liu Xiabo has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Most people consider this to be the greatest honour a person could ever be given whilst still alive and on this Earth, but not the Chinese dictatorship.  Not only is the laureate in prison for advocating greater democracy in China, but the dictatorship have his whole family under “house arrest” and therefore unable to leave China to accept the prize on his behalf. So, an empty chair will symbolize Liu Xiabo’s imprisonment and hopefully the world will awaken to the plight of the Chinese people who struggle from day to day under the political might of their “compassionate” totalitarian dictatorship.

So, please think again, and “THINK CHINA”.

Now in Greece.....

For anyone reading this - my wife and I have moved to live in Kerkyra, Greece. BUT, I hope to be making more posts here soon about life in China, including Hong Kong.