Today China sent some astronauts into orbit, adding to their arrogant posturing over their Olympic Games. The Chinese media are also bragging about the nobler communist model of economics, in comparison to the economic crisis in the United States.

Quite a few things are wrong with China's view. First, China has spent many decades in the dark ages. It was not long ago that the tyrant Mao Tse Tung (old spelling) initiated the so-called Cultural Revolution, which was a nation-wide period of murder and injustice. In the meantime, the much-maligned United States went to the moon and back.

Second, the Olympic Games are always bigger and better each time they are held. It is getting out of hand. Countries are saddled with the need for scandalous extravagance, all for the sake of pride. The brilliance of the Chinese opening ceremony left me cold, as have done the previous ceremonies.

Third, the economic model current in China is not communism, but capitalism. Chinese have always been astute capitalists. It didn't take long for them to revert, once Mao had gone. If the United States goes down, the world will go down, including China.

The only thing vaguely communist about China is its dictatorship—and you can have a dictatorship in any country, communist or capitalist.

Even in tiny Fiji. On a smaller scale, the dictator Frank Bainimarama has committed civil rights abuses not dissimilar to those committed by Robert Mugabe. Now the Polynesian despot is going to the United Nations to preach to them, and is upset that the prime minister he deposed, Laisenia Qarase, has got there first with a document designed to refute everything the army officer is about to say.

Going to the United Nations will not confer upon Fiji any sense of legitimacy; rather it will expose its illegitimacy. Better for the leader to stay home and say nothing, thus giving the world the opportunity to think he is wise.

Posturing is not limited to the bad guys. Everyone does it. It is a sign of human nature, which is manifestly evil and in need of saving. Who is going to save it? Keep reading.