I watched an inspirational brawl from my apartment yesterday.

[HEyHEY]

So, because the 60th anniversary of China is this week, the government has decided the best way to celebrate is to become the kind of oppressive assholes they're know to be. So, part of that has been "Cleaning up the streets" so any vendor or such on public property is being harrased to move and having their wares confiscated. Like, they'll roll up in a van and throw a food merchants cart in the truck and then just take off, leaving him fucked.

Well, underneath me there's a hair-cutting place. It's run by about 10 Chinese and all of them are easily under 22. Well, they had their sign on the sidewalk the other day and the cops came and tried to take it. Some pushing and shoving ensued and they police left it. So, they put it out again today and this little band of stooges that work for the cops come along, they're like 18-year-old cadets. They have no authority but are used as muscle.

So, these smug little shits come by with some real cops to get the sign. The same argument ensues and the "muscle" starts trying to bully them. These hair boys were having none of that and they started shit-kicking the little goon squad. Then the cops got involved and they began fighting with the cops too. Then OTHER people from the neighbourhood started helping the hair-cutters. It was like the last scene in do the right thing. My neighbourhood stood up to a bunch of corrupt, oppressive cops and wailed on them.

Then a few of them got arrested and that was scary. But, last night the arrested ones were back, so I guess they didn't get in too much trouble. They were all out there till about 1:00 am singing and celebrating their victory. I have so much respect for these kids, man. All of us at the foreigner bar next door offered to by them a round. This government is in some trouble. Cause, it seems, many people are just getting sick of their bullshit. When they were practicing for the parade this week they had the nerve to tell people living along the route they weren't allowed to look out their windows. UNREAL. One day this place is gonna blow.

[BlooInBloo]

1. "It was like the last scene in do the right thing." - hahahaha!

Of course, I'm sure it'll be sad in a few days when they're imprisoned or dead. These braveheart moments never seem to work out well in the end. :(

[HEyHEY]

4. Nah, if anything was gonna happen to them it woulda happened already

The fact they got released says alot.

[vadawg]

2. problem is when it blows, the government has the tanks and the army

i remember the tiannaman square protests and people saying this is the start of the fall of the chicoms, then came the tanks. Hopefully your neighbours enjoy their victory and it dosent come back to haunt them.

[HEyHEY]

3. Yeah, but the tanks were brought in from outside beijing

The regular beijing army wouldn't obey the orders to clear the square. So, they went and got a garrison from far away and told them a bunch of lies on the way to the square. So, you see it's not as simple for the government as you'd think.

[vadawg]

6. yeah it is, you dont think they wont just pull an armoured division from the russian border

tell them its a (fill in your own ethnic/religious/political group) uprising and that they are killing innocent people and let the armoured division clean up. you got to remember that in china same as a lot of places theres enough ethnic tensions that its easy to get one group to get revenge on another in the guise of putting down a rebellion..

[Hardrada]

7. This sort of thing was done by Tsarist Russia and by the Roman Empire also.

Didn't save them in the end. The cossacks, brought in from the outside of course, turned against the police goons in Petrograd and there went Tsardom!!

[vadawg]

8. problem is a lot of fucking people die whilst its happening

we got no idea how far the current government would go in order to hold onto power, they got a lot of people in their country that means they can afford to kill a lot in order to maintain power. anyway it goes an uprising would be a hell of a mess..

[HEyHEY]

12. It's not as bad as all that

China realizes it can't pull that kind of stuff off anymore. It's counterproductive to everyone. Look at the Urumqi riots, for instance. That COULD have been a massacre of troops on civilians, but it wasn't.

[HEyHEY]

10. It's a different china now

They could try all that, but they know if they did they'd be fucked. It would hurt their economy, then the ethnic groups would turn on each other and there'd be bedlam. Plus, the powers that be are constantly losing their grip. Which is why they try these stupid little power mind-fuck games.

[knowbody0]

5. awesome!

one question, why do they not want them to look out their windows? who is the parade for?

[HEyHEY]

11. It's for the 60th anniversary of the country

They didn't want them looking out their windows cause the parade is supposed to be a big secret until it happens. They don't want people knowing what it will look like.

[loudsue]

9. Here's hoping the day will soon come when people all over the world

will be done with oppressive, corrupt governments, and when we will be able to come together and solve the world problems without all the military and authoritarian bullshit. Where we can have peace on this earth, and stability, and where we can figure out how to feed, clothe, shelter, educate and help one another instead of trying to bully each other, or steal from each other.

The day will come. We just have some work to do.