Oriental despotism

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.[1]

 - Alphonse Karr (Les Guêpes, January 1849).

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[1] Usually translated as “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”  These words appeared following the Revolutions of 1848 and one month after Louis Napoleon (returned from exile in England) was elected by a landslide vote as president of the Second Republic of France on December 10, 1848.  Three years later (on December 2, the anniversary of his more famous uncle’s coup in 1804) he staged his own coup and revised the 1848 constitution.  Exactly a year later (also the anniversary of the first Napoleon’s victory at Austerlitz), he started calling himself Napoleon III, Emperor of France.

Harper's "diplomacy" meets China's "diplomacy"

Note our Prime Minister’s unequivocal tone … compare Harper on Putin, on Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, on Crimea, on Ukraine, on Israel, on the Likud Party, on Netanyahu, on Gaza, on Hamas … on China’s hacking of Canada’s National Research Council. 

It would appear that Canada’s warlord has confronted ancient Chinese warlords, who wield power as they see fit.  And so Kevin and Julia Garratt, a missionary couple from Vancouver, have gotten caught up in a “diplomatic” tangle.