[corruption] shot in the head

In my usual western way, I read about Zheng Xiaoyu, the former head of the country’s food and drug administration being sentenced to death for accepting bribes and allowing shoddy medicines on the shelves. Even though Radio Free Asia said:

In China’s judicial system, a death sentence passed in an intermediate court is automatically subject to review by a higher court and the supreme court. However, appeals courts in practice rarely overturn such high-profile convictions.

… nevertheless I sort of thought that once all the publicity was out of the way and China had shown the world it cared about this, that the man would slip away somewhere ignominious, to pop up some months later. Not a bit of it:

China executed its former top food and drug regulator on Tuesday for taking bribes to approve untested medicine, as the Beijing leadership scrambled to show that it was serious about improving the safety of Chinese products.

The Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court carried out the death sentence against Zheng Xiaoyu, 62, the former head of the State Food and Drug Administration, shortly after the country's Supreme Court rejected his final appeal.

This is mighty fast. They must really want "in" to the American market. And over on the Chinese government website, they're running a poll on whether you think the decision was right. Yes 57.5%; No 35%. What i really like here is the 7.5% who clicked on No Comment.

Imagine if the corrupt pollies in the U.S. and Britain were all to be executed next week. How many would be left in the government?

[name change] don't "chastise" me

The squadron was formed at RAF Scampton during World War II on March 21, 1943 with the purpose of attacking three major dams on the Ruhr in Germany: the Möhne, Eder and Sorpe. The plan was given the codename Operation Chastise and was carried out on 17 May 1943. The squadron had to develop the tactics to deploy Barnes Wallis's "Bouncing bomb".

The commander of 617 Squadron Wing Commander Guy Gibson was awarded the Victoria Cross for his part in the raid. The Squadron's badge, approved by King George VI, depicts the bursting of a dam, in commemoration of Operation Chastise.

After the raid, Gibson was banned from flying and went on a publicity tour.

I want to know why Gibson was banned from flying? Can anyone tell me?

[giuliani] don't know what to think now

This is one case where the comments are more interesting than the main text. It's about Rudy Giuliani and his hero status:

According to angry FDNY firefighters, Mr Giuliani's campaign for the Republican Party's presidential nomination next year is based upon false pretences. They say front-runner Mr Giuliani has no right to cloak himself in the mantle of 9/11, still less to claim his track record on terrorism issues in New York qualifies him to become the next president.

It then goes into the yeas and nays of the whole business and my first reaction [and I state that I don't think Giuliani qualifies for president because of his transvestite capers but then again - who am I to say?] was that the supposedly bi-partisan criticisms were a bit thin.

It seemed to me a bit of a beat up.

Sure politicians are going to claim credit for one or two heroic actions when they've let the whole infrastructure rot for years before - it's in the nature of the job and which pollie is guiltless?

Here are some back and forth reactions:

# "Bipartisan"?? my back side!!!...all these unions are as liberal as they get!!

# No one has more right than the firefighters to call Rudy on his actions as mayor. His self righteous attitude, patting himself on the back, and false claims about what he did to fight terrorism speak for themselves. He wasted years when he could have updated the firefighter's communication system.

# It's like a Private commenting on how a General does his job, the private has no clue.

# These guys are just jealous. So what if he screwed up the radio thing, everyone makes mistakes, and so what if he made some money on 9/11, who wouldn't have?

And then one which hit home with me. I have no way of verifying it and don't know what to think:

# The idea that Guiliani is some kind of hero from Sept 11 is a complete joke. Not only did he do nothing, he was a traitor on that day. There were 2 or 3 journalists that Guiliani told prior to the collapse of WTC7 that they were going to purposely bring that building down. I think one was Tom Brokaw - TV personality, also a print journalist I think for New York Daily News.

It's very well documented. He knew in advance that WTC7 was going to come down. and he said so and then on the ground police were telling people with megaphones to clear back from the building in the minutes before the collapse and even saying that it was going to come down. That building was evacuated and nobody died in it (that we know of). But Rudy knew it was coming down in advance, the police knew, it was purposely evacuated.

That means it was demolished purposely just as Dan Rather said on live tv when it happened.

That means they had explosives in the building all up & down to make it come down at near free-fall speeds and directly down on its own foot-print … and then we have all the firefighters & citizens inside the buildings who witnessed the explosions going off.

People Magazine and the New York Times quoted people from the inside telling of it just before the collapse. There are audio recordings of the firemen who died talking of it. One survivor, William Rodriguez, lived to tell about the 2 explosions he witnessed inside the building.

Bottom line - Rudy Guiliani is a traitor and the firemen's lives were sacrificed. Rudy was in the command center in WTC7 when it happened. He knew what was going on. He played along. The firemen know from their internal communications networks that the whole thing was a fraud and that their fellow firemen were sacrificed. And they were told very strongly to keep quiet about it. This is why they're so upset. [Wally, By The Rivers Of Babylon, July 12th, 2007]

Predictably:

# It is election time. Told you before that the fun and games will begin and they have. Giuliani is a politician and is running for for nomination for president on the republican ticket. The unions are very anti-republican. Think you can figure out what is going on here.He was mayor on 9-11 and was responsible for the strategic part but that is all. He acted on what his advisors told him, fire and police commissioner and the head of emergency management. Still he did well but not enough to qualify him for the presidency.

[country spread] one last time

I misled you slightly in posting this, as the true state of my country share, the typical situation, is pretty well reflected below. The small percentages constantly change though. How about your spread?

[aircraft] ten greatest in history

They had to be dominant in their day but not too far back - the Kitty Hawk, for example, is historic but hardly great. Balloons, Zeppelins, helicopters, ulta-lights and so on are not included. Here is my list and why:

1] Supermarine Spifire - the hero of the Battle of Britain - didn't win it alone but dominated [Br]

2] Concorde- the sleekest and swiftest - it had its day [Br-Fr]

3] Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 - couldn't be touched for performance - it outclassed everyone [Ru]

4] B-52 Stratofortress - Vietnam - the machine with the big shoulders - one of the greatest workhorses ever [US]

5] Boeing 747-400 - revolutionized air travel [US]

6] de Havilland Mosquito - innovative, made of wood, annoyed the hell out of the Germans [Br]

7] Hawker Siddeley Harrier - vtol can't be sneezed at - great little craft [Br]

8] Messerschmitt Me 262 - many say if it had come into the war earlier, the result might have been different[Ge]

9] Piper Cherokee - put flying within range of the common man - grassroots plane [US]

10] F111- still dominates the Asia/Pacific area in revamped form [US/Au]

Had a lot of problems leaving out the Panavia Tornado [It/Ge/Br]. The Airbus was not included because it crashes all the time and is a French/German administered hotch-potch. Couldn't fit in the Lancaster or the Junkers.

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Readers point me to the DC-3 and the Hurricane.

[all time] good people

Well, the post on the Top Ten Horses' Backsides did not get the response I'd hoped for but here's hoping the Top Ten Good People will.

Your criteria can be your own and mine are that the person must have had great character and great fibre - in other words, be a "good guy or girl". But that's not enough - he or she must have heavily influenced people.

A problem is someone like Nurse Cavell - heroine to the Brits but not to the Germans. Or Marconi -influential but what about the man? Or Richard Branson - a British icon but what is his contribution to world society? Or Jackie Gleeson - hugely popular but was he a nice man and was he influential down the ages?

With all that in mind, my top ten are:

1] Jesus of Nazareth [natch - but not because of divinity - I'm judging Him as a man];

2] Any saints of any religion who suffered for their faith;

3] Salvation Army [despite their religious slant, they were always there in time of need in many countries and aid was given freely];

4] Sakharov/ Solzhenitsyn [great, inspirational men under great duress];

5] Dr. Livingstone [the sheer humanity and learnedness of the man - opposed slavery];

6] James Cook [decent man, opened much of the world and countered scurvy];

7] Abraham Lincoln [despite the negatives behind the scenes - great man];

8] Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi [inspirational to more than Indians];

9] Florence Nightingale [nursing service angel].

10] Richard Branson [how an entrepeneur should be]

Couldn't find room for Aung San Suu Kyi, Dian Fossey, the Curies, Nurse Cavell and Joan of Arc and left out many noted philanthropists on the grounds that quite a number of these actually work for the dark side.

What are yours?