Saturday October 9, 2010, 5:42 am
sad

Saturday October 9, 2010, 8:07 am
Noted ~ Thank you

Saturday October 9, 2010, 8:09 am
Sadly these countries are likely under the same cosh albeit economic!

Saturday October 9, 2010, 8:11 am
The reality is more likely the economic stranglehold such a nation as China has over these countries much like huge corporations buy US elections for their own greedy ends so does China buy the compliance of other nations. Japan also gave a good example of such corruption by buying the votes of small countries with everything from economic aid to the provision of prostitutes for delegates to the IWC (according to various reports on this and other sites)in it's pursuit of legalising its current illegal commercial whaling carried out under the guise of research! The US and UK have and continue to exert force of arms on other countries to extract compliance. Catch 22 is alive and well! Very few countries can claim any exemption from this kind of criticism!

Saturday October 9, 2010, 3:29 pm
This is so unnecessary. It goes far beyond sad. And yet, I am at a loss to figure out how a person like me can change our world. How can we change fear and prejudice so that others are not afraid of the ideas and thoughts of any person? So what if they influence others? They could do so much good, and yet countries attempt to silence the few brave among them. Tragically sad! I realize that this story is about a native of China, but this happens in every country when those in power become afraid of the thoughts and spoken words of another. Individuals have been silenced throughout history by those in power. This man won the Nobel Peace Prize and should be hailed by every country on this planet! Chinese politics have nothing to do with this. This man won it and the fact that he is Chinese does not warrant ignoring him for his achievements, which are great! Whether the election was corrupt or not, this man achieved something more than any of us have and deserves recognition. I think these nations were wrong to ignore his achievements. They were small-minded, jealous, and cowardly to ignore him.

Sunday October 10, 2010, 7:25 pm
It's laughable that African media depicted awarding the prize to Xiaobo an attempt by the west to educate the rest of the world in human rights whereas last year's award to Obama was lauded. If ever an attempt on that front were to be made it would have been in awarding the prize to a western leader. Hypocrisy wins the day again!

Sunday October 10, 2010, 8:02 pm
i hate the spammers as much as injustice!

Sunday October 10, 2010, 11:58 pm
China has good reason to feel embarassed over the award. Since their own repressive regime created the conditions which brought this gentleman to prominence.

Monday October 11, 2010, 4:23 am
Although of course there are lots of human rights violations both in China and in many African countries, I must also agree though with the African media and the African leaders on that the West often has very much of double standards.

The Western world is often very quick in criitizing human rights violation in other parts of the world, but largely turning the blind eye to their own violations of human rights, both domestically and abroad. And the same goes for the West turning the blind eye to human rights violations in countries where they have a lot of money or resources to gain for themselves. There is still very much of a self-rigtheous, self-centered and imperialist view on the rest of the world from the West.

Not saying that Liu Xiaobo shouldn't have the prize, we should always highlight human rights violations of course. But with the same standards applying, we should also have Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld prosectuted for American war crimes in Iraq and for the torture and illegal imprisonment at Guantanamo, we should demand that America impose sanctions on and stops all cooperation with the regime in Saudi Arabia, whose human rights record is comparable to that of Iran - and for that matter, we ought to reprimand France for their violations of the humans rights of Romas. And there are so many more examples of human rights violations by the West too, that goes unreprimanded - too many to list!

Monday October 11, 2010, 12:33 pm
noted

Monday October 11, 2010, 1:57 pm
Of course Africa is silent because they are on the Chinese Bribe/Payroll! China moved in years ago making crooked deals so gain access to Africa’s resources; one of them was (with the approval of CITES – big betrayal) to allow the killing of elephants = aka ivory trade.

African and Chinese leaders have much in common; in a nutshell: give a damn about their people, dump on the environment, kill animals for superstitious beliefs and don’t care if they extinct. A man like Liu Xiaoba is a thorn in their eyes.

Monday October 11, 2010, 2:09 pm
It frightens me that so many countries are kowtowing to China...at the expense of animal and human rights.

Monday October 11, 2010, 5:35 pm
Everyone on earth is entitled to freedom, as long as he/she is not harming others.

Tuesday October 12, 2010, 4:36 am
The article says it all.

Tuesday October 12, 2010, 5:03 am
Good article. The Africans wouldn't dare to rejoice with the new Nobel Peace Laureate - they neither have the backbone nor the inclination. I wonder how long it will take before they realise that the Chinese will loot and pillage their resources and then leave Africa in the lurch. It has happened before and it will happen again - African and Chinese mentalities have much in common - they are also both ruthless!