Will there be a vigil in UK? or, People are insane

People in the West seem to be really fond of holding vigils or paying tributes whenever some kid gets into trouble and/or dies. Here's one more cause they can gladly take to their hearts. But let me tell you the whole story first.

So there was that guy in Xi'an. He was studying in the conservatory,never touched any politics, was a bright, quiet and respectful kid... and now he's to be executed. Why? Let me show you...

You see, Yao Jiaxin was described as a "promising young musician". October 20th, 2010 he was driving through Xi'an in the evening, going home to eat his evening meal and struck the cyclist. Maybe Yao was thinking about all the music he played that day, maybe he was just tired, but did not notice her in time.

The cyclist was lucky. She had suffered just minor injuries, and although she did had a fracture in her leg, it was nothing that could not be healed quickly. Young Yao jumped out of his car, rushed to the woman he struck...

... and that's where things went to all the Seven Hells. That "gentle, intelligent kid", that "promising young musician" noticed that the woman was trying her best to memorize his license plate. Well, everyone would have done that, right? You expect the person who strikes you with their car to answer for that, at least give you a lift to the hospital...

Now, young Yao was taking none of that. He took the knife and killed the woman. With extreme prejudice.

He later explained that "fear over endless requests for compensation" pushed him into the crime.

--- Xinhua

"Kind and intelligent", huh? That's why the spoiled brat was given the death sentence. And spoiled brat he is, as 21-year old student driving his own car is either doing good business or, you guessed it right, a spoiled brat. Also his actions speak louder than words – only someone who was sheltered from real life would commit such crime for such a stupid reason. Because the rest of Chinese drivers in the same situation would take the woman to the hospital and try to help as much as they can.

So you can ask: Am I nuts to link this story and all those tributes to and vigils for all those kids who die after trying to breathe pure helium, or riding on the piece of foam right into the pole that the foam was torn from, or just dying from the unconfirmed cause... Well, I'm not nuts. I merely want to say that the world is dangerous place when you're not thinking about consequences your actions will have. Like, you know, not trying to breathe inert gases; not trying to remove the protective pads from the pole you may run into; not doing drugs...

What I am trying to say, all these cases have one thing in common: Kids do not think about the consequences of their actions, be it killing someone or breathing inert gas. But while Chinese court chose to send a clear message to them ("Kill someone and you'll be executed"), in the West Yao will be counseled because of his "psychological trauma". Oh, and there were calls to ban helium because it may be dangerous. Every time some teen kills him- or herself out of sheer stupidity they would venerate the "smart kid", hold a vigil and call for the ban on yet another thing. Maybe educating the children would be a better idea, no?..

Is it just me?.. Or is this somewhat stupid?..

US Department of Transportation have just put in place new set of rules for airlines. While browsing through it, I saw that they increased the compensation for the passengers bumped from overbooked flights. Now maybe I am stupid. Maybe I am just plain dumb. But in the name of Cthulhu would the whole industry do something like this? If they have to bump people from flights every goddamn time due to them constantly overbooking, maybe it's time to do something really, really innovative? Like what everyone and their uncle were doing for decades? Like selling no more tickets than there are seats on the goddamned plane?

I would not call the Chinese very creative (education focused on memorizing tends to curb the creativity), but they do know that you do not sell more tickets than you have seats. Russian airlines are sometimes just plain nuts and always greedy, but they do not overbook either. Air Asia (a Malaysian low-cost carrier) will make you pay for everything, but... yep, they do not overbook. I have nagging suspicion that even (in)famous Ryan Air (aka "5-pound ticket, 100-pound additional fees") does not overbook... So why should US airlines hate passengers that much?.. One more reason I'm not going to US...

"It's all your fault, white swine!", or Strange psychology of asylum seekers

In continuation of the previous post:

I just came over the report about riot in the Australian detention centre/refugee camp. They managed to set fire to the facilities, and when the firefighters came (because they tend to show up when there's a fire):

They had had roof tiles and other pieces of furniture being hurled at them by some of the detainees, so it was impossible for them to extinguish the blaze.

"But with the riot squad protection they were able to do that."

via BBC News - Rioters torch Australia asylum seeker detention centre.

Now that's something. More and more it looks like the refugees feel that Western countries must provide them with asylum, food and everything else. Oh, and surely there's no need for due process – Western governments must feel guilty that these people were displaced (especially if it's due to the tribal infighting – everybody knows that West is to blame for that!) and immediately provide them with citizenship and piles of cash.

I fail to see any logic. I can understand that their life in their home country sucked to the point that it was better to flee than to try to cope with that (civil wars and dictatorships do that to people – just open any of the history books and the proof is there). What I fail to understand is, why these people feel entitled to anything when they show up on your doorstep uninvited and proceed to riot? Quite often they fail to integrate with the society of the country they came to and start demanding special treatment. It's like if that bum from the sewers came to your house, crapped in the kitchen and demanded that you give him booze. You'd call the police the very moment he squatted in the kitchen, right? But if the same guy came to your door and asked you to call an ambulance because he's really ill, you'd do it right away, wouldn't you? Now, the asylum seekers tend to behave like that bum in the kitchen and act surprised when they are treated accordingly. Did you know that there's entire breed of politicians of Turkish origin in Germany who were elected under the slogan "Stop Turkish immigration!"? The thing is, those are from the first wave of immigrants who chose to integrate into the German society and culture and they are against the second-wave immigrants, who do not want to integrate and demand special treatment – while at the same time hurting the image of Turkish immigrants in general (honour killings anyone?). Now it all makes sense, doesn't it?

And all that's needed to (somewhat) ease the tension is for refugees remember the old saying: "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." Because when you're not behaving like drunken bum who thinks that everybody owes him, but like a person who wants to find a new home... well, I'd think they would look at you differently. And throwing things at firefighters – who are there to save you from burning to death in the fire you started yourself – definitely is not helping...

Journalism and Idiotism, or (Non-)white are always right?

'I hate two things. One's racism, the second's niggers.'
––– Some unknown idiot.

You know, I should give up reading the newsfeeds. Seriously, it only leads to frustration and anger. Like today when I came upon several articles about oh-so-poor refugees and that idiot who was a press secretary for the Federal Migration Service of Russia. Basically there are two things that make me furious...

The first one is those asylum seekers and illegal immigrants. I do understand that their lives were quite possibly in danger in whatever countries they came from, but I fail to see why my country must take them. Ok, we took them and they get sent to the designated facility. Now take a look at these "persecuted" people here. Don't look that starving, do they? And I call bullshit on their complaints about being transported "in the car boot". See, I happen to be familiar with the vehicles that law enforcement uses in Russia, you get to see them in the street. It may be a rather cramped compartment in the back of the jeep, but it's not "boot". And 100 km is not considered that far in Russia either. I had to go 40 km to work every morning, by the way, and the conditions were not much better (overcrowded trains where it's impossible to find a seat were the best mode of transportation, alternative being vans that can take up to 4 hours to go these same 40 km due to the constant traffic jam on the only road). So basically they are getting roughly the same deal as every one in Russia (I'm not including Moscow because Moscow is a country of it's own). But of course their plight will be noticed as they are refugees, and anyway who'd care about those pesky, white Russians? That's British journalism for you – when it comes to reporting something from Russia you can trust them to show usfrom the worst possible angle (and there would be some outright lies just to spice things up).

But of course nothing is simple in the situation. While it would be attractive to blame everything on the refugees, the system is still faulty. While some stories may be exaggerated, and some mishaps be explained bu inadequate funding and outright laziness of the refugees (I can not believe that they can't fix at least some things themselves!). There are still too many idiots working in that system. And when I say idiots I mean outright racism.

Just yesterday BBC published the interview of the Russian federation's Federal Migration Service press secretary Constantin Poltoranin. In which interview this idiot babbled about how he's not sure about "survival of the White race". And then promptly resigned the same day. While some of his concerns are legitimate (many people feel that all that tolerance business is being taken too far), he still has no right to say anything like this. While many people in Moscow may be surprised by this revelation, there are a lot of people in Russia who are not white (by gods of Seven hells, I do not have to go far, all I have to do is look at my wife who is definitely not white, which never made her any less beautiful!). The point is, Russia has more than 120 nationalities, from Russians and Ukrainians to Han Chinese, and every racist politician deserves being shot on sight. Instead they let them deal with the refugees and resign after uttering racist remarks, when they should be tried and jailed for such remarks (yes we do have a law just for this sort of thing, and I think it must be applied in this case).

To sum this up, I think that refugees are stupid – they did not do the research, never tried to consider whether they will be welcome in Russia (we do have enough of our own problems, after all), but it's not the stupidity of criminal sort. They are, after all, desperate, but that does not mean that we should let them use our country as a stepping stone to Europe (where I suppose they'd happily live on welfare). But they definitely deserve humane treatment, which the system have failed to provide. And seeing my taxes paying for this sort of criminal negligence, cretinism and plain old racism enrages me.

We'll give you answers for the questions you never had, or British science is so British

I can't say for the rest of the world, but in Russia the words "British scientists" makes most people laugh in anticipation of some stupid piece of "research". They would work on the perfect way to eat toast, for Cthulhu's sake! Because seriously, Nobody in this world have ever had a jam sandwich! But that sandwich was but a small demonstration of capabilities of British science! Now they're on to something really big...

On Christianity and common sense, or You can not have it both ways.

One of my big vices is that RSS reader I keep open all the time. You see, I do not watch TV that much, and after our TV set started acting up I stopped it altogether. Also, leather (fake or natural) is not the best material for the sofa... but I digress.

Anyway, I was skipping through The Guardian's RSS feed when this article have caught my attention. It's a story about Chinese woman who had stupid name (something like 'Cool baby', for schmuck's sake!), had shitty boyfriend and also was apparently one brick short of a full house.

And we call ourselves sapient… or The abominable Mr Bean

Mr Bean fights two farmers, who catch badgers, paint them pink and sell them to the pet shop. But our retarded hero bravely makes some stupid faces and crashes the farmers' lorry into the police van driven by Hitler. Hitler promptly arrests the farmers and charges them with… something. Mr Bean makes more stupid faces, badgers snigger and there is much rejoicing.

That's the cartoon they forced on us on the plane while flying from Ningbo to Harbin. A goddamned Mr Bean cartoon. Clearly human beings are anything but sapient. Most of them, anyway.