Chinese Team Heading for Coldest Spot on Earth

LMCBoy writes "Dome A is the highest point on the Antarctic Plateau, and it has never been reached by humans. It is thought to be the coldest place on earth, and is certainly among the most remote. Yesterday, a team of Chinese explorers set out from Fremantle, Australia to reach Dome A and set up a robotic weather station which will monitor the local conditions for up to five years. The team is expected to arrive at Dome A in early 2005."

Comments

Re:This voyage isn't a joke, it's serious stuff...

[WIAKywbfatw]

Sorry, youare calling me "stoopid"? Isn't that a bit like Donald Rumsfeld and John Ashcroft calling Karl Marx a fascist?

Reread my post (assuming that you actually did read it the first time): see that bit where it says "they do what they do because it furthers their long-term objectives, not because it wins them short-term positive press coverage"? I know that there are some words there longer than two syllables long, but do you really need me to explain what that means as if you're a five-year-old?

Pay particular attention (sorry, two long words there: ask an adult if you get stuck) to the phrase "short-term positive press coverage", and especially (yep, that's another long one) the word "press".

Now think about how much free press there is in China. (Here's a hint: next to none, if any at all.) So, when I said press I was referring to foreign press, those media that cater to people who aren't Chinese. How much "we're so much better than you and here's how" coverage do you see in your paper or on the news about what mesage China's selling today? (Here's another hint: next to none again.)

China hosting the Olympics is more about the message that the Central Committee of the Party wants to sell to its people than it is about the message it wants to sell to anyone else. Same with just about any other story that you care to mention.

You say that they control their media and that it's all about national pride? No shit, Sherlock. The first rule about running a dictatorship (whichever end of the political spectrum it is at) is controlling what people see, hear, read and hence think. He who controls the past controls the future. (Hey, there's a tip: go read 1984 because you might learn something valuable. In fact, go read any book, because if anyone needs to feed their mind it's obviously you.)

The Chinese (as in the Peoples' Republic of China) "publish[es] military statistics in the Taiwan media"? Well, given as Taiwan has a free press, and a free press that's not buddy-buddy with China (PRC), I doubt your assertion that China (PRC) is the one doing the publishing, or even that the free press is acting in a Quisling-like fashion and printing every last word that China wants to see printed.

Of course, I've no doubt that when China carries out a major military exercise in the Formosa Strait or tests a new missile system that the free press in Taiwan don't have too many more pressing news stories to cover, but there's a difference between reporting a potential threat and churning out propaganda for the other team, which is what you're suggesting.

And, beyond a few words, I won't even start to waste my time explaining what "short-term" means. Suffice to say that we in the West live in a 24-hour news cycle, where yesterday's news is forgotten almost as soon as it rolls off the presses, whereas in China, much like in any dictatorial society, the same underlying message is sold to the masses again and again and again, day after day after day...

But, hey, thanks for dropping by and producing such a lucid, well-thought out argument. Repeat after me: "Better to keep your mouth closed and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt."