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Posted on 07/06/2008 10:59:44 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
BEIJING -- First there was the freak snowstorm in February. Then the Tibetan riots in March. Then in rapid succession the controversial torch relay, Sichuan earthquake, widespread flooding and an algae bloom that's tarnishing the Olympic sailing venue. Just when it seemed that nothing else could go wrong this year in China, the locusts arrived.
Locusts? What is going on here? The litany of near-biblical woes would seem to lack only a famine, frogs and smiting of the first born.
The Middle Kingdom's parade of problems has threatened to put a major damper on China's anticipated moment of glory less than five weeks before the start of the 2008 Beijing Games.
"This sure has been a weird year," said Ma Zhijie, 20, who works in a coffee shop. "There are so many disasters, it's hard to know what's happening."
Authorities have been working overtime to tackle, contain and spin their way out of each new setback. But the volume of calamities this year would challenge any government, let alone one that has staked so much on pulling off the perfect Olympic Games.
This week, China sent out an all-points bulletin for exterminators. About 33,000 professional pest killers were quickly dispatched to Inner Mongolia in hope of preventing a cloud of locusts from descending on Beijing during the Games.
The vermin apparently hatched a month early because of warmer-than-usual weather and already have eaten their way through 3.2 million acres of grassland in three areas of the countryside. With the capital only a few hundred miles away and the Chinese leadership in no mood to take chances, about 200 tons of pesticide, 100,000 sprayers and four aircraft have been thrown into this battle against the bugs.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Once the brimstone starts falling from the sky, it’s time to get out.
“You, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you ... and you! Kill bug or DIE!!”
That ought to be just great for the athletes' lungs and lymphatic systems.
OUCH !!
Seems that Old Mother Earth is hitting China pretty hard this year...
By the Chinese Calendar
2008 is the Year of the Rat,
which is also known by its former name of Wu Zi.
Watch for flying rats.
and it is headed this way. remember when the sky was blue?? now it is a little blue with a lot of china-talka makan??? desert.
You know, I thought Sharon Stone really lost her mind for good when she said that karma was the reason for the earthquakes in China due to the atrocities committed by the Chinese gvt against Tibet and it’s people. Then flooding followed, then the smog, the the algae and now the locusts. Suddenly I can’t help myself thinking that by some twisted reasoning Sharon might have something there.
Heck they have China Frog Legs in our local fish market case whats next Chocolate Covered Locusts?
Nothing tops the biggest calamity of being a communist regime.
This is probably nothing new...this kind of stuff takes place in China all the time...we’ve just not known about it.
Really, this isn't anything but a reporter stringing a series of unrelated events into some grander narrative to sell a story.
You don’t mess with God or Buddha. He can come and get you! Watch for major changes in China after the Games. They will try to divert their people with wars of conquest. North Korea, Viet Nam, India, will become under China’s cross hairs. Will the US stop them? No! We have too much invested in China. They own too many of our stocks and bonds. How would Wal-Mart survive a Red China boycott? We will do nothing until its too late and war comes to our two lands. This time I think we may well lose. Could the nation take the lost of five of our major warships? Would we fight if it means the Loss of LA, Seattle, or San Francisco? (OK maybe San Francisco). Do we have the will of the citizens of 1941? I think not.
If the Yangtze River turned to blood, would anyone notice given its level of pollution?
Just a rant of mine on our new “Friends” in Red China. I have long believed there will be war between us in time. Lets hope I am wrong and China will change on her own into a democratic state. I will not hold my breath.
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