Met & metters, please to meet Mekabambam, Old Harbour self-proclaimed “diva”. Always ah sey shi pretty bad, and inna dance in di most ridiculous outfit…Unnuh please tell mi if ah some ting wrong wid mi or what? Unnuh speak up because mi sick fi si har, shi inna everyting…

China Doesn’t Think The U.S. Is That Awesome
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Although both Beijing and Washington consider the U.S.-China relationship to be the most important in the world, distrust of each other’s long term intentions has grown to a dangerous degree, says a new report from Brookings. The New York Times reports on what the Chinese really think:

U.N. Shocker: Chinese Workers Underpaid
Kenneth Rapoza
Contributor
The senior leadership of the Chinese government increasingly views the competition between the United States and China as a zero-sum game, with China the likely long-range winner if the American economy and domestic political system continue to stumble, according to an influential Chinese policy analyst.

China views the United States as a declining power, but at the same time believes that Washington is trying to fight back to undermine, and even disrupt, the economic and military growth that point to China’s becoming the world’s most powerful country, according to the analyst, Wang Jisi, the co-author of “Addressing U.S.-China Strategic Distrust,” a monograph published this week by the Brookings Institution in Washington and the Institute for International and Strategic Studies at Peking University.

The United States is no longer seen as “that awesome, nor is it trustworthy, and its example to the world and admonitions to China should therefore be much discounted,” Mr. Wang writes of the general view of China’s leadership.

NYT also notes that it is “rare for a Chinese analyst who is not part of the strident nationalistic drumbeat to strip away the official talk by both the United States and China about mutual cooperation.” Wang is considered a Chinese foreign policy insider from his positions on advisory boards of the Chinese Communist Party and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He is also director of the Center for International Strategic Studies and dean of the School of International Studies at Peking University.

Selected comments from Wang, again for emphasis, a Chinese foreign policy insider:

America’s “meddling” in the South China Sea territorial disputes by asserting freedom of navigation concerns there is particularly disturbing to Beijing.

In Beijing’s interpretation, many of Washington’s latest actions in Asia, including the decisions to deploy U.S. marines in Darwin, Australia, encourage Myanmar (Burma) to loosen domestic political control, and strengthen military ties with the Philippines, are largely directed at constraining China.

While the Obama Administration has reassured the Chinese leadership that it has no intention of containing China, the U.S. Navy and Air Force have intensified their close-in surveillance activities against China. At times, U.S. spy planes and ships are so close to Chinese borders that the PLA is seriously alarmed at operational levels. The Chinese military leadership views these activities as deliberately provocative.

Leading Chinese observers continue to view U.S. policy toward China as aimed to “Westernize” and “divide” the country.

It is now a question of how many years, rather than how many decades, before China replaces the United States as the largest economy in the world.

Many Chinese political elites suspect that it is the United States that is “on the wrong side of history.”

It is a popular notion among Chinese political elites, including some national leaders, that China’s development model provides an alternative to Western democracy and experiences for other developing countries to learn from.

The China Model, or Beijing Consensus, features an all-powerful political leadership that effectively manages social and economic affairs, in sharp contrast to some countries.

Clearly, Wang is not one to beat around the bush.

The Brookings report (read it) comes as China announced it will join Russia in naval war games starting later this month in the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea, reportedly to promote regional cooperation and check U.S. influence.
The U.S., meanwhile, will be conducting military drills with the Philippines a few weeks from now near disputed territory in the South China Sea. The Philippine government is also rebuilding a seaport in the Spratly Islands, a site analysts say could easily become a U.S. military outpost.

WELL RIHANNA ALWAYS LOOK GOOD..BUT DI SCRAPE OUT HAIR A DOE KNOW A TINK TUH MUCH HAIR DEH PAN ONE SIDE

Broken Codes

by La Shawn Barber

I recently began reading Dan Brown’s blockbuster novel, The Da Vinci Code. I found it to be a gripping mystery filled with page-turning cliffhangers. No wonder this book has sparked such a reaction.

Many novelists have written copycats, hoping to strike similar gold. On the other hand, countless Christian writers and theologians have fought an uphill battle trying to set the historical record straight. Darrell Bock is one of them, and he debunks Brown’s ideas in his new book, Breaking the Da Vinci Code.

Many have wondered why biblical scholars would take such an interest in fiction, but Brown asserts many spurious claims about Christianity, and his charges must be answered. Among his assertions:

Jesus Christ, a mere man, was married to Mary Magdalene, one of his followers.
Christ’s deity was invented by a group of men centuries after his death.
The church in Rome entered into a 2,000-year-old conspiracy to hide these and other “facts.”
The artist Leonardo da Vinci, among others, knew these secrets and planted clues in some of his paintings.
Whether contained in a novel or in a non-fiction book, such allegations are an affront to Christians and must be dealt with in a reasoned and biblical manner. Bock formidably rises to the challenge as he exposes the flaws found in the pages of The Da Vinci Code. Bock’s 188-page refutation, which includes a helpful bibliography and glossary, is concise and offers a solid biblical defense of the faith.

A professor of New Testament Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary, Bock presents seven “codes” that are implied or explicitly stated in Brown’s book. He methodically breaks down the codes and separates fact from fiction. In explaining his methodology he writes, “Our research for uncovering the validity of these codes will focus on the 325 years immediately following the birth of Christ, for the claims of the novel rise or fall on the basis of things emerging from this period.”

Fans of The Da Vinci Code often dismiss Christians’ concerns by singing a chorus of “It’s only fiction.” However, they overlook that the bestseller does contain a misleading brief section entitled “Fact” at the front of the book: “All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate.”

Bock responds by asserting: “No longer is The Da Vinci Code a mere piece of fiction. It is a novel clothed in claims of historical truth, critical of institutions and beliefs held by millions of people around the world.”

One “historical truth” found in Brown’s novel is that Jesus was not only married to Mary, but that he fathered a child with her. Bock examines the biblical canon and extrabiblical sources to demonstrate that Jesus and Mary were not married. This is vitally important because, according to the Bible, Jesus Christ entered finite time as a human to do his Father’s will, not to marry and to sire a child. Instead, Jesus came to die on a cross to pay for the sins of those he came to save.

Despite its inaccuracies, Brown’s book has proven useful in the cultural debate. In a Christianity Today article entitled “The Good News of Da Vinci,” Bock writes:

[T]he popularity of… the book… points to our culture’s continuing fascination with Jesus. And even when that curiosity borders on the perverse, we need to be engaged in the conversation…

Christians are called to be ambassadors of Christ and proclaim his lordship to the world; thus they must stay engaged and stand firm against secular culture. As Breaking the Da Vinci Code confirms, Darrell Bock is faithful to that call.