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Not at all!
In general the Chinese sympathize with Ukraine but do not oppose Russia, do not support war, and advocate a peaceful solution.
China will not publicly support Russia's attack on Ukraine.
The Beijing Winter Olympics will be remembered not just for China's efforts to impress the world amid criticism of its human rights record, but also for the Olympics that marked the sharpest escalation of strategic tensions between Russia and the West since the end of the Cold War background.
Indeed, the great-power standoff over Ukraine and endless speculation over whether Russia will invade has clouded international events celebrating sport and solidarity as usual.
The Winter Olympics ended as fighting escalated in eastern Ukraine. If the threat of Russia's use of force against Ukraine a few weeks ago was more of a speculation and often contentious, the risk of a real conflict now is much higher.
In resolving the crisis, Russian President Vladimir Putin has shown unprecedented confidence in finding a solution that benefits his country. His confidence may be based on a few cards: a crumbling Ukrainian economy, Russia's formidable military and a new trump card: China.
First, the two leaders signed a long-term deal worth $117 billion to ship Russian oil and gas to China. In the event of an invasion, the agreement enables Moscow to mitigate the U.S. threat of halting the operation of Russia's Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Europe.
Second, this joint statement formalizes China's political support for Russia's strategy against the West. Importantly, for the first time, China has expressed support for Russia's opposition to NATO expansion.
Both sides opposed further expansion of NATO and called on the North Atlantic Alliance to abandon its ideological Cold War approach and respect the sovereignty, security and interests of other countries.
In a speech at the Munich Security Conference over the weekend, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi reinforced that message and supported the Russian-favored Minsk Accords, a political settlement for the divided pro-Russian region of eastern Ukraine.
While Russia would not need Chinese military assistance in any potential invasion of Ukraine, Beijing's political and economic support is encouraging for Putin. In return, Beijing will receive tangible benefits from Moscow.
First, by agreeing to support Russia against NATO, Beijing gained Moscow's reaffirmed support over Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory. In fact, China may use Russia's approach to Ukraine as a model to pressure Taiwan to unify or invade the island outright.
Second, China can now rely on Russia to counterbalance the new AUKUS Security Agreement (AUKUS) between the US, UK and Australia.
Third, Xi may use his friendly relationship with Putin to exercise power at home. Later this year, the Chinese Communist Party will hold its 20th party congress - a watershed moment in Xi Jinping's rule. Putin is revered in China as a strong leader, so it may be important to Xi Jinping to consolidate his support as he tries to secure his return to power.
At the moment, time is on Putin's side - a huge strategic factor that the West does not have. And the deeper the hostility between Russia, China and the West, the closer the relationship between Beijing and Moscow is likely to be.
Unlikely, but not impossible.
Both nations, although being rivals, have a crap ton of money invested in the other, and are heavily reliant on each other economically. If there WAS an incident in the South China Sea, it would be resolved diplomatically.
If they couldn’t resolve anything diplomatically, they would go to war. A Sino-American war would escalate to WW3. Many people would die, and when one side is losing, they would unleash the nukes. (Which is why nuclear powers do NOT fight other nuclear powers).
I hope this answers your question.
USA and China in a hypothetical Cold War II:
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Symptoms of an enlarged prostate gland (benign prostatic hyperplasia, or BPH for short) are most of often mild at first, but usually will get more bothersome over time. It's very reasonable and safe to just keep an eye on it until it becomes bothersome enough to justify further treatment.
If the symptoms are getting worse, you and your doctor can then discuss medications. If you begin to have serious complications like urinary retention, it may be time to have a surgical procedure.
In follow-up visits every six to twelve months, your primary care doctor or urologist will measure your symptoms and perform a physical exam (including a digital rectal exam). He or she may also do a bladder scan after you use the bathroom to urinate to be sure your bladder is emptying as it should. This test measures what is called "post void residual."
Your doctor also may order blood and urine tests. Blood tests could include a blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and creatinine to check your kidney function and a prostate specific antigen (PSA). He or she might also ask for a urine sample to be sure there is not any prostate inflammation or infection.
Lifestyle changes
Between visits to the doctor, you'll be encouraged to make simple changes in behavior that can help to ease urinary symptoms whether you choose treatment or not. Your doctor will recommend changes you can make to reduce symptoms, including:
- Avoid drinking fluids in the evening.
- Avoid drinking a lot of fluids before going out in public or starting a trip.
- Urinate when you first get the urge.
- Go to the bathroom on a timed schedule, even if you don't feel a need to go.
- When you go to the bathroom, take the time to empty your bladder completely. This will reduce the need for subsequent trips to the toilet.
Some prescription and over-the-counter drugs, such as antihistamines and decongestants, may affect urination. You may be able to reduce the effects by changing the dosages, changing when you take them, or switching to medications that cause fewer urinary problems.
¶ 11:08 AM 0 Comments
I’m an American citizen, and have lots of Korean friends who were born here. In the Philippines, I have noticed that they are very rude to all Filipinos. One time in a resort that I stayed in Cebu, I was waiting by the elevator lobby and a SK lady was coming her way to the elevator lobby. When the elevator doors opened, I walked in and soon as I did that, that SK lady rudely shoved me and cut me off. This SK lady picked on the wrong Filipina, an Filipina-American I might add. So, I yelled at her and said, “Excuse you, what the fuck are you doing?! You just can’t be fucking rude to everyone in this hotel bitch!” Boy, she looked at me terrified and didn’t expect that I was gonna fight back. And then I told her, “You mother fuckers are visitors to this country and you better be best on your behavior or you might meet people like me who won’t accept your rude ass.” She looked at me puzzled with her same terrified look. I added, “I know you can understand, you assholes watch enough American shows to understand me.”
I told my Korean-American friends about my encounter. They laughed so hard because they knew I don’t take crap from anyone. But they expressed their apologies saying that those SK tourists in the Philippines are very racist and ignorant and obviously never lived in the US to encounter other ethnicities/nationalities to have a better judgement. I said, “That’s fine, but in general, we shouldn’t be rude to anyone no matter what class or race they are from.”
So to my brothers and sisters in the Philippines, fight back and don’t take that crap from any rude SK or any other foreign tourists or anyone else for that matter.
I’m going to give you a very blunt and honest answer. So blunt that it makes me cringe writing it down… and yet it’s the truth. Warning: I’m about to write a whole bunch of stuff that can be considered racist. It’s definitely stereotyping. Yet like I said, it’s unfortunately true.
Like the other answer here mentioned, it depends on the kind of foreigner.
- White Caucasian - whether we’re talking about North American or European (or Australian or New Zealand), if your partner is a white/caucasian person then that’s almost always considered a great catch for a Filipino… especially if it’s a Filipino man hooking up with a white girl. Long story short, white foreigner = top of the food chain when it comes to choosing partners. Plus points if they’re actually attractive and close to your age range.
- Fancy Asian - there was a comedian by the name of Ali Wong who coined the term “Fancy Asian” which basically grouped together the 3 most powerful/influential east Asian peoples, namely Japanese, Chinese and South Koreans. If a Filipino manages to score a pure-blooded Japanese, Chinese or South Korean partner then that’s considered a step up, almost as high a step up as nabbing a white foreigner. Plus points if they’re actually attractive and within your age range. Double plus points if they actually speak English.
- White Hispanic - this primarily means Spanish people, but it basically includes any fair-skinned person of hispanic descent. We can also include Italians here as well (which as far as Filipinos are concerned are still considered “white”). Filipinos were under Spanish rule for centuries, so it’s almost a group stockholm syndrome where Filipinos developed an admiration for their captors. Till this day, the ability to speak in straight Spanish will immediately raise the “market-value” of any Filipino. It’s also considered a high compliment if someone remarks that you look Spanish. So if you end up nabbing a Spanish partner? Great job.
- Black Americans - or Black Canadians, or Black English (UK). Basically any black partner from a first world country. Still considered a step-up for a Filipino to have a black partner as long as they come from a first world country…. though not quite as impressive as grabbing a partner from the top 3 races I mentioned.
- Latinos/Latinas - something we need to admit is that Filipinos generally consider fairness of skin to be an asset. Fair-skinned latino/latina is considered a great catch (which is why white hispanics are listed as #3) whereas darker skinned latinos/latinas will only be considered a good catch primarily for them being foreigners (and thus exotic).
I’d say those top 5 are the partners a Filipino/Filipina can have where most other Filipinos will look at them with awe and respect… mixed in with a hefty dose of bitterness and envy as well. They’re considered a step-up for a regular Filipino to have a partner like them (regardless of whether it’s true or not), especially if you’re not a rich Filipino.
However, there are other foreigners that Filipinos don’t take too kindly to. Most southeast Asian foreigners are considered relatively equal to Filipinos in terms of dating value. So getting a partner who’s Thai or Cambodian or Indonesian doesn’t really cause much reaction. It’s neither a step up or a step down. More like a step to the side.
However, there are a few races that Filipinos consider a step down. Primarily would be Indians and Middle-Easterners. Grab a partner like that and most Filipinos would look at you with a befuddled expression, like they couldn’t understand why you’d settle for one of them instead of just going for another Filipino. Then you’ll get a lot of backhanded insults about how your partner probably smells bad or whether you only eat curry at home.
I’m also unsure how African blacks fit into the picture, as in black people from Congo or Ghana or something. Generally, Filipinos don’t find dark skin attractive but exceptions are made for black Americans because they’re from a first world country. Having a black partner from a third world country would be considered a step down for most Filipinos I think, although there are a good number of Filipinos who think having black genes mixed in your family line would produce more athletic children.
EDIT: Based on a number of comments I’m receiving, it seems I need to clarify a few things:
- First, the points I raised above do not reflect my own personal views on the matter. I’m merely describing the general reactions I’ve observed from Filipinos while living in the Philippines for 20+ years.
- The views I described above are based on Filipinos living in the Philippines. It’s not quite as applicable to Filipinos living in other countries.
- The views I described above are generalized, meaning not all Filipinos will feel that way. Generally, you’ll find the more upper class Filipinos are less in awe of foreigners as they mingle a lot more with them and have more opportunities to travel abroad. Unfortunately, majority of the Philippines’ population live below the poverty line, so foreigners are a bit of a novelty to most.
- I grew up in the Philippines but am only quarter Filipino by racial background. I was mostly treated as a mestizo (mixed blood) when I was in the Philippines though there were a few times I was mistaken for a full foreigner, and on many occasions I was on the receiving end of the scenarios I presented above.
- Physical appearance, personality, age, financial status and family/culture background will obviously all affect the choice of partner as well as the gossip surrounding that choice. But the scenario I’m trying to answer here is assuming that everything else is equal, so that we’re only considering race. The question I’m trying to answer here is this: How would dating a foreigner differ from dating a co-Filipino considering everything else about them is equal other than their race?
- Lastly, racism is present in all countries. What I described above might paint the Filipinos in a racist light but to be honest, I’ve found racism in the Philippines to be very benign compared to a lot of other countries I’ve visited. At least their racism isn’t expressed in verbal or physical abuse… which is more than I can say for a lot of other countries. In fact, I’ve faced far more abusive racism in the US (and some European countries) than I ever did in the Philippines. Yet the racism I’ve faced is nothing compared to the stories I’ve heard from my Filipino friends who work in middle-eastern countries.
I had a dog when I was a kid that was scary smart. His name was Jason when we got him, but I preferred to call him Bob. Bob Dog to be exact.
I refer to him as scary smart because we quickly learned we couldn’t say certain words around him. A LOT of words—likely 1,000+.
We got him when I was in the 7th grade and right away he seemed more like a brother than a dog. Within a day or two, he picked up on the standard words/phrases like “Walk”, “No”, and “Come here, Boy!”
We then noticed that he started picking up on when we would discuss leaving the house (which cued his sulking) and when he was going to the vet. We started spelling some of the basic things like “Go for a walk,” that would set him off.
This is when scary smart started.
He continued to understand more things we were saying. He would react sadly when we talked about me going off to college. He would react happily when I would tell mom I was going to the store, as that meant dog treats and a possible ride in the car if it wasn’t too hot.
In short, he started reacting accordingly to our conversations. If we discussed going on vacation, he became sad. If we disagreed about something (even in normal, calm tones) he would seek to intervene between us by wagging at each of us and trying to ensure all was well.
Once we realized he could understand what we were saying, we started spelling out more words we didn’t want him to hear, like “V-E-T V-I-S-I-T. But being the super-smart guy that he was, he quickly learned what we were spelling. If we spelled out B-A-T-H he would run and hide under the bed.
It came to the point that if he’d done something wrong or you needed him to do something, you could calmly (with no voice-inflection of any kind) tell him and he would respond appropriately. It was like talking to a human; you knew he understood what you were saying.
Friends were always blown away because he’d growl at strangers if he didn’t like what they were saying. “How does he know what I’m saying?” most would ask. “Trust me, he does,” we’d respond. It got the point that mom would get mad at me if I said something in front of him that she didn’t think he would like.
And it wasn’t based on intonation; if someone got animated or sounded angry in telling a story, he wouldn't react as long as he knew it wasn't aimed at us.
We began to think of him as not our dog, but another member of our family, and a highly beloved one at that. I found myself talking to him about my day.
He lived to be 16. This was him at about 13 after his body had started to age quite a bit. He eventually died of cancer of the nasal passages after mom moved to Florida.
We loved each other like brothers. He passed in 1989, and I miss him every day.
I think he knows this.
I’ve read a story once of a man called Thomas Fuller. Thomas wasn’t his given name when he was born, nor was his last name Fuller — born around 1710, the was snatched up and sold as a slave in 1724, aged fourteen. From there on out, until the end of his days, he was a piece of human property.
No one ever bothered to teach Fuller how to read or write. He remained illiterate his entire life. He nonetheless had tremendous brainpower — he could count like no other, out of the top of his head. Like Dustin Hoffman’s character in the film Rain Man, the enslaved man could solve incredibly complex sums and equations in his head and do so rapidly. The tribe to which Fuller had belonged, known as the Bassari, famously used to have "specialists who were trained in the memorization of sums”. It is likely that as a child, before being enslaved, he was trained as one.
Whatever the origins of his intelligence, Thomas Fuller was a brilliant man. Unlike Hoffman’s “idiot savant” character, the African math prodigy was by no means mentally challenged, having a sharp mind, excellent social skills and the ability to more or less run his master’s plantation for him. When Fuller was already in his seventies, he met a businessman who had come with some associates from Pennsylvania after having heard of his mental prowess..
The visitors asked him several questions to gauge his intellect. First they asked Fuller:
“How many seconds were in a year and a half?”
“47,304,000,” answered Fuller, without skipping a beat.
Next, they asked him his age in seconds:
“How many seconds had a man lived who is 70 years, 17 days and 12 hours old?”
“2,210,500,800 seconds,” answered Fuller.
One of the men disagreed, saying his own calculations didn’t allign with the slaves’ calculation.
Fuller responded: “Massa, you forget de leap year.”
They recalculated, taking into consideration the leap year, and found that now their numbers alligned perfectly with Thomas Fuller’s assertions.
The men had met Thomas Fuller when he was already seventy years old, well past his prime. Still, he impressed the plantation’s learned visitors — despite being a slave who had received no formal education since the age of fourteen, his mental abilities in mathematics were still superior to those of the much younger white gentlemen who came to see him.
“How much brighter this man would have been, had he been given proper education,” one of the men remarked, thinking out loud.
“No, Massa, it is best I had no learning, for many learned men be great fools,” replied Fuller with a wink. Stories like his make one think. How many brilliant minds have been born in places where the conditions were simply not there for them to shine? History has had, and will continue to have, many Thomas Fullers. Their names forever lost to the sands of time, their great abilities never fully developed or put to good use.
Mother Teresa is widely celebrated as a paragon of selflessness and charity, known for her work with the poor and sick in India. But did you know that there's a darker side to her legacy?
For starters, Mother Teresa's methods were often criticized for their questionable effectiveness. She famously denied pain relief and medical treatment to patients, believing that their suffering was a form of spiritual purification. This approach was so extreme that some patients reportedly died in agony without receiving basic medical care.
But that's not all. Mother Teresa had close relationships with some of India's most corrupt politicians, including a notorious dictator who gave her millions of dollars in donations. Some have suggested that she turned a blind eye to the human rights abuses of these leaders in exchange for their financial support.
And then there's the fact that Mother Teresa was a bit of a media darling, with a carefully crafted image that often concealed the harsh realities of her work. In fact, some former volunteers have accused her of exploiting their labor and withholding information about the true nature of her organization.
Of course, there are those who will defend Mother Teresa to the end, pointing to the good she accomplished and the lives she touched. But it's worth remembering that even the most saintly figures have their flaws and limitations. So the next time someone brings up Mother Teresa in conversation, just remember: there's more to the story than meets the eye.
This is a Real Story: Facebook
3 year ago, Zuckerberg got disappointed at the current justice system. so he decided to do something to change it for the better, his research lead him to the San Quentin program, This program aimed at educating prisoners so they have shot at a better life when they get out.
Zuckerberg did not waste a moment to become a part of it so, he supported and funded that program. He even visited the San Quentin prison to see the differences it hade made.
To his surprise, It was success with many of the prisoners and one of them named “Aly Tamboura” stood out from the rest. He was sentenced 14 years in prison and he thought that all hope was lost for future but feeling of Motivation arose in him when Mark Zuckerberg came on a tour of the prison.
Zukerberg personally met and told Tamboura how impressed he was by his efforts.
and even encouraged him to apply at facebook. that feeling of approval from Zuckerberg stayed with him long after.
He worked day and night to learn how to code and become as good at it, as possibly could.
When Aly got released, he got a job at Facebook. he even met Mark after joining the facebook.
To Tamboura’s shock, Mark remembered him and congratulated him on making it this far.
Today, Tamboura is Manager of Technology for Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.
“Second chances are given to prove that we could be better even after we fall.”
Everyone deserves a second chance to Clean Up their Mistakes.
Brendan Fraser has won the Best Actor Oscar for his role in the movie "The Whale". This is a significant achievement for Fraser, who has had a challenging career in Hollywood.
The actor has struggled with personal issues, including a serious back injury sustained during the filming of "The Mummy" franchise, and he has also spoken out about facing sexual assault in the industry.
Despite these challenges, Fraser has continued to work in the industry and has recently received critical acclaim for his performance in "The Whale".
The film, directed by Darren Aronofsky, tells the story of a man named Charlie (played by Fraser) who is morbidly obese and confined to his apartment.
The movie explores themes of redemption and forgiveness, and Fraser's performance has been praised for its emotional depth and sensitivity.
The article also discusses how Fraser's win is a sign of changing attitudes in Hollywood. In recent years, there has been a growing movement to promote diversity and inclusion in the industry, and Fraser's win is seen as a step in the right direction.
The actor's career resurgence is also seen as a testament to his talent and perseverance, as well as a reminder that even in a challenging industry, success is still possible.
