Saturday, Februrary 23, 2008

I know--long time, no write. Just rest assured I've been busy being tortured all the time, and also doing IT work. I am back in the United States and have been since Thanksgiving 2007 (November 25th or so). So now I can say with some assurance that right now, at least, it is fellow Americans who are torturing me.

As to what happened in China, I can say with some confidence that I was tortured by Chinese citizens as well as American citizens abroad, but mostly Chinese citizens. Whether this was at the behest of the American government (i.e., the American government initiated it), or whether it was China's initiative, I do not know. I do know that there is no possible way that such violence against me could have taken place for so long (with me documenting it all) without the Chinese government at least knowning what was going on. I do not know if American citizens and Chinese citizens (and governments) worked together in China to torture me; this is certainly a possibility.

What I do know is that I have been tortured in both countries, and that China had some complicity in it. I know the Chinese police were very corrupt; one particular officer actually put something in the water he gave to me while I was waiting in the waiting room of the station. My feeling is that both China and America are corrupt in the sense that they do criminal actions to innocent civilians and violate human rights.

I went to China to escape the unprovoked and undeserved daily torture I experienced in America, inflicted by fellow Americans at the behest of criminals in the American government and military. (Side note: While in China and walking by some kind of conference for US and Chinese military leaders, one US military type [replete in badges and medals] gave me the good ol' mafia hit sign and grimaced menacingly at me. I did not respond.) Instead, in China I experienced even more brutality and oppression.

In China there are many good people and I made many friends. I came to China with the best intentions, wanting to start a new life and teach English and be free of torture. To the extent that the Chinese government allowed me to enter their country, secure a job, and find a place to live, I am grateful. However, to the extent that the Chinese government allowed and/or participated in actions against me that resulted in permanent vision and hearing damage, permanent knee joint damage, scars, torture and misery, and I am greatly angered.

I am sorry to have learned the hard way that corruption still rules the governments of our world, be they American or Chinese governments or others. Now, after having experienced torture and maiming in both countries, I can conclude that America is perhaps the "less brutal and corrupt" of the two; but unfortunately this is not saying a whole lot. And I am not sure whether it is because the perpetrators in America are kinder, or whether it is the democratic system of America that restricts, to at least some extent, the evil they can do. I am glad to be back in America where at least there are the trappings of democracy, if not the full realization of democracy's promise.