Tuesday, Dec 29, 2009
Reality of global influence
Guardian: China's execution of Akmal Shaikh enrages British leaders
China executes British citizen for drug smuggling. As Britain and the US lose influence, decisions will increasingly be made out of a Christian context.
Posted by stillthinking @ 10:02 AM (1225 views) Add Comment
21 Comments
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1. little professor said...
Not sure where you're getting the Christian angle from, stillthinking. The U.S. is one of the most fundamentalist Christian countries in the world, and yet it executes many of its own citizens, often those most vulnerable in society such as those suffering from mental illness.
The largest religion in China is Buddhism - a faith which certainly doesn't support the taking of life in any circumstances, unlike the Bible which is full of stoning to death goodness
This case has nothing to do with religion.
2. shipbuilder said...
Not forgetting the millions who would in a flash support such 'justice' in the UK.
3. mrmickey said...
Lets not be naive here, with a bit of help from a Sun campaign a good proportion of the UK population would vote for a return of the death penalty for certain crimes.
4. letthemfall said...
A piece of news to make us feel sick to the pits of our stomachs. Yet after the standard protests the economic courtship will continue as before.
5. mander said...
The execution of Akmal Shaikh for smuggling 4kg of heroin takes us back to Genghis Khan's times. Executions take place in case of killing other person not for drugs smuggling.
6. the number cruncher said...
150 years ago the British killed thousands of Chinese for not allowing them to sell opium. Our moral authority is no doubt very low in the minds of the average Chinese citizen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_Wars
7. fallingbuzzard said...
We could also stop trading with China or stop buying any goods produced in China if we were so inclined. I doubt we would though.
8. fallingbuzzard said...
@6, yes thats true, we have a bit of a history of traficking
9. alan_540 said...
... and if we stopped buying Chinese goods maybe we'd start manufacturing what we needed in this country again. By the way I've noticed that increasingly more stores are displaying price labels marked up in euros as well as sterling. Are we being softened up for entry into the euro I wonder?
10. the number cruncher said...
The First Opium War was attacked in the House of Commons by Gladstone, in one of his first speeches; "a war more unjust in its origin, a war more calculated to cover this country with permanent disgrace, I do not know."
We are still living with that 'permanent disgrace' and no doubt this figures highly in the debate in China about British drug smugglers.
I am against capital punishment and more thoughts go out to his family.
11. Materialistic Weasle said...
Does anyone get the impression from the way this has developed that China no longer believes the Uk is a country worth taking any notice of ?
12. Dan1 said...
I think thats a lie. I dont believe for a second it enraged British Leaders.
Not widely reported , but requests for medical asistance and Mental Health Asessment were repeatedly refused at both the time of his offence and since his imprisonment.
In case he wasnt bluffing about Bi polar.
This was as much to do with the new superpower giving the finger to the old colonial power as anything else.
China have the worlds worst human rights record. Deservedly so.
The death penalty was banned in the UK because of the Inevitability of error. In every country where the death penalty exists, innocent people have been executed by the state. Those of you who support the death penalty, must also accept the inevitability of innocent people being murdered by the state. This man should have gotten LIFE imprisonmnet in a chinese jail. Which would have been a fate worse than a quick death.
13. mr messy said...
this guy was dealing in drugs and he was killed by drugs. you live by the sword and you die by the sword, maybe this wishy washy cowardy government should learn from the chinese , this would then let descent working people get on with their lives instead of being fearful of their homes, cars . ect being broken into and old people able to go out at night without being scared
14. icarus said...
Learn from the Chinese? They execute circa 15,000 a year, many for minor crimes. They also harvest and sell organs from those executed. In the recent past the method of execution has been designed to ensure that the required organ(s) is/are not harmed.
15. montesquieu said...
I have zero sympathy for this idiot. He should pay the price for heroin smuggling if he was stupid enough to do it. The Opium War reference is pertinent, most people in the UK have not a clue over Britain's aggessive acts worldwide in the days of empire building, to support our self-declared 'right to trade'. Just as most Americans don't have a clue about their own repression of other peoples (eg 101 military interventions in their 'back yard', central and south america, in the 20th century a lot of them to install or prop up US- friendly dictatorships).
It's the first execution of an EU citizen in 50 years, out of many thousands a year so we can hardly claim the Chinese are 'after us' in any sense - they are merely following the rules of their own justice system.
What pisses me off most though is David Miliband's bleating over this supposedly bipolar heroin trafficker being executed in China, sat alongside his government's willingness to send an apparently far more fragile Gary McKinnon (the pentagon hacker) to face the not far off equal depredations of the US justice system, without even demanding any evidence or seeking reassurance on sentence.
Have we ever had such hypocrisy from any Government in modern times?
16. Dan1 said...
Montesquieu,
'I have zero sympathy for this idiot. He should pay the price for heroin smuggling if he was stupid enough to do it.'
What about the young girl in the favela, in Rio, whose family are held at gunpoint, and the teenage girl is used as a mule, to take drugs to a country who do not take any mitigating circumstances into consideration?
And may well execute you regardless? Or give you life imprisonment?
Should she be held responsible for her actions?
It is the Chinese State who are at fault. No other.
17. paranoia blue said...
Oh, so let’s “capitalise” in Iraq, Afghanistan etc……….
NB I’m think - in certain circumstances – “capital punishment” is quite appropriate, if not, let the world “disharm” immediately!
NB Corporal punishment, is no bad idea, either, if we want to control – at brat-roots – the inevitable social unrest………….. hmmm there again, our direly inept leaders deserve all that they get!!
Sadly, it is usually the weakest that suffer, so please in this uprising – lets focus our ire on those who really should suffer,…and perhaps have a “capital case” to answer.
NB You know whom I mean!!
18. mr g said...
What's this got to do with HPC?
19. paranoia blue said...
mr g @ 17
We stone you to death, and take possession of your dwelling!
20. Mr G said...
PB@18
Thanks for your answer but, simple soul that I am, I fail to see any relationship in this article to HPC!
21. smugdog said...
Smug Druggling Zzzzzzzzzzzz