Critics of China ought to know the line which must not be crossed.
There is more than meets the eye in the high-profile trial, conviction, and meting out of an 11-year sentence of Liu Xiao Bo, the Chinese intellectual dissident who had been the "brains" befind Charter 08, a naive, simplistic "Western Moon is Rounder" promotion of a purported Manifesto which sought to ape and transform China into a "Western Model" of democracy.
The glove of Western-style democracy, as naively propounded by Charter 08, simply does not and cannot fit China, in my view.
The context by which this trial and conviction of Liu Xiao Bo has to be gauged from a Chinese perspective, based on Chinese values and priorities, its history, and its state of civil society, which is clearly defiant and resistant to foreign, especially Western interloping, meddling, and interference.
The more the heads of states of Europe hector and insult China and its officials, the more stiffened and defiant China and its peoples are against the West.
Gweillos from the West are naive if not ignorant if they spin the case as one predicated in unbriddled freedom of expression and the rights to ideas, which under Western "Europeanized" notions of basic fundamental freedoms, brooks no infringement by the state.
Liu Xiao Bo was not simply convicted by his ideas and writings, but by the fact that in expressing these ideas, he manipulated, machinated, and used the West and especially Western media and official institutions, whether as an actor or a tool, to destabilize and attempt to overthrow the Chinese government, over its substance of one-party rule.
This is a path of divergence which clearly placed Mr. Liu in the path an "irreconciliable critic" of China acting in bad faith,and serving as a bludgeon on behalf of the West.
This is a devious subterfuge by the West, and by coat-tailing behind Western China bashing and Chinese demonization, Liu Xiao Bo is a "han jian, " i.e. a traitor, a "colonial."
No matter how unhappy or critical a Chinese national is about Chinese governance or about its officials or about its system of one-party Communist Party rule, in the eyes and honest view of a Chinese citizen, a line must not be crossed and the principle of national sovereignty and Chinese dignity must not be abriged in and by "coat-tailing," or riding the waves of the West, especially its media and official institutions, as a bludgeon and hatchet to attack China from the outside.
Liu Xiao Bo understood this as a Chinese yet he sided with the West, and sucked up to the West by betraying this basic fundamental tenet which all Chinese understands.
In the case of Liu Xiao Bo, he was deliberately calibrating, dribbling, leaking, massaging the Western news media as a shill, an amplifier, a broadcast disseminator to attack and destabilize China from the outside. In so doing, he insulted not just the national sovereignty of China, but also collectively caused the collective Chinese people "lose face" in the outside world.
Given China's horrific history of Western imperialist meddling, bullyng, and extra-territorial occupation and carving out of Chinese soil, heaping insults upon the Chinese peoples, metaporized by the insulting street signs at the gates of foreign concessions and colonies, e.g. in Shanghai, a century ago, with "No dogs and Chinese allowed," the stiffening resistance an anger of the Chinese peoples over the "nefarious" acts of Liu Xiao Bo must be understood.
In the eyes of the gweillos and Western news media, Liu Xiao Bo is a "dissident," a victim prosecuted and persecuted for his ideas.
In the eyes of the Chinese peoples and its officials, Liu Xiao Bo is a "han jian," a traitor, an Western ass-licker, a "Western Moon is Rounder" compradore, a naive, craven "Western Fart is more fragrant" colonial, who worships "Western-style" democracy, which has proven to irreconcialiable, unworkable, and impossible under the unique circumstances and conditions of China.
"Let a hundred flowers bloom; let a hundred ideas contend"....... but please, don't use, ride, or be used by the West as a weapon or tool, wittingly or unwittingly, to try to destabilize, demonize, and bash China, especially on the outside.
To all Chinese, this is a "no-no." Comprende ?
Conider one of the perspective from a Western expat in China, who sees this in context, yet refused to get off his "high horse" from a white knight's perspective. His blog at Huffington Post is set forth in the link below:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-doctoroff/a-chinese-dissidents-conv_b_403766.html
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Analysis - Barack Obama's First China Trip - Why the West just Don't Get it about China's Own Path
Martin Jackques, a UK based writer, has the following take on President Barack Obama's first trip to China. His analysis is one of the few rare ones from Westerners who grasp China and seek to understand the civilization.
Understanding ChinaThe West has gotten it wrong on China for decades -- even as it embraces a market economy, it has shunned Western-style freedoms. And its power is only growing.
By Martin Jacques
November 22, 2009
The dynamics of President Obama's trip to China were markedly different from those evident on visits made by President Clinton and President George W. Bush. This time the Chinese made clear that they were unwilling even to discuss issues such as human rights or free speech. Why? The relationship between the countries has changed: America feels weak and China strong in their bilateral ties. This is not a temporary shift that will reverse itself once the U.S. has escaped from its mountain of debt. Rather, it is the expression of a deep and progressive shift in the balance of power between the two nations, one that is giving the Chinese -- though studiously cautious in their approach -- a rising sense of self-confidence.
Nor should we be surprised by the Chinese response. They may have appeared more conciliatory on previous visits by American leaders, but that was largely decorative. The Chinese have a powerful sense of their identity and worth. They have never behaved toward the West in a supplicant manner, for reasons Westerners persistently fail to understand or grasp.
Ever since the Nixon-Mao rapprochement, and through the various iterations of the Sino-American relationship over the subsequent almost four decades, there has been an overriding belief in the West that eventually China would become like us: that, for example, a market economy would lead to democratization and that a free media was inevitable. This hubristic outlook is deeply flawed, but it still prevails, albeit with small cracks of self-doubt starting to appear.
The issue here is much deeper than Western-style democracy, a free media or human rights. China is simply not like the West and never will be. There has been an underlying assumption that the process of modernization would inevitably lead to Westernization; yet modernization is not just shaped by markets, competition and technology but by history and culture. And Chinese history and culture are very different from that of any Western nation-state.
If we want to understand China, this must be our starting point.
The West's failure to understand the Chinese has repeatedly undermined its ability to anticipate their behavior. Again and again, our predictions and beliefsabout China have proved wrong: that the Chinese Communist Party would fall after 1989, that the country would divide, that its economic growth could not be sustained, that its growth figures were greatly exaggerated, that China was not sincere about its offer of "one country two systems" at the time of the hand-over of Hong Kong from Britain -- and, of course, that it would steadily Westernize. We have a long track record of getting China wrong.
The fundamental reason for our inability to accurately predict China's future is our failure to understand its past. Although China has described itself as a nation-state for the last century, it is in essence a civilization-state. The longest continually existing polity in the world, it dates to 221 BC and the victory of the Qin. Unlike Western nation-states, China's sense of identity comes from its long history as a civilization-state.
Of course, there are many civilizations -- Western civilization is one example -- but China is the only civilization-state. It is defined by its extraordinarily long history and also its huge geographic and demographic scale and diversity. The implications are profound: Unity is its first priority, plurality the condition of its existence (which is why China could offer Hong Kong "one country two systems," a formula alien to a nation-state).
The Chinese state enjoys a very different kind of relationship with society compared with the Western state. It enjoys much greater natural authority, legitimacy and respect, even though not a single vote is cast for the government. The reason is that the state is seen by the Chinese as the guardian, custodian and embodiment of their civilization. The duty of the state is to protect its unity. The legitimacy of the state therefore lies deep in Chinese history. This is utterly different from how the state is seen in Western societies.
If we are to understand China, we must move beyond the compass of Western reality and experience and the body of concepts that has grown up to explain that history. We find this extremely difficult. For 200 years the West, first in the shape of Europe and then the United States, has dominated the world and has not been required to understand others or The Other. If need be it could always bully the latter into submission.
The emergence of China as a global power marks the end of that era. We now have to deal with The Other -- in the form of China -- on increasingly equal terms.
China, moreover, is possessed, like the West, with its own form of universalism. It long believed that it was "the land under heaven," the center of the world, superior to all other cultures. That sense of self, which has engendered a powerful self-confidence, has been persistently evident over the last 40 years, but with China's rise, it is becoming more apparent as the country's sense of achievement and restoration gains pace. Or to put it another way, when the presidents of China and the United States meet in Beijing in 2019, with the Chinese economy fast approaching the size of the American economy, we can be sure that the Chinese sense of hubris will be far stronger than in 2009.
But long before that, we need to try and understand what China is and how it behaves. If we don't, then relations between China and the United States will never move beyond the polite and the formal -- and that will be a bad omen for the future relationship between the two countries.
Martin Jacques is the author of "When China Rules the World: the End of the Western World and the Birth of a New Global Order."
_____________________________________________________________________
Here's another link to Martin Jacque's blog:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-11-21/why-america-must-learn-to-bow/
Understanding ChinaThe West has gotten it wrong on China for decades -- even as it embraces a market economy, it has shunned Western-style freedoms. And its power is only growing.
By Martin Jacques
November 22, 2009
The dynamics of President Obama's trip to China were markedly different from those evident on visits made by President Clinton and President George W. Bush. This time the Chinese made clear that they were unwilling even to discuss issues such as human rights or free speech. Why? The relationship between the countries has changed: America feels weak and China strong in their bilateral ties. This is not a temporary shift that will reverse itself once the U.S. has escaped from its mountain of debt. Rather, it is the expression of a deep and progressive shift in the balance of power between the two nations, one that is giving the Chinese -- though studiously cautious in their approach -- a rising sense of self-confidence.
Nor should we be surprised by the Chinese response. They may have appeared more conciliatory on previous visits by American leaders, but that was largely decorative. The Chinese have a powerful sense of their identity and worth. They have never behaved toward the West in a supplicant manner, for reasons Westerners persistently fail to understand or grasp.
Ever since the Nixon-Mao rapprochement, and through the various iterations of the Sino-American relationship over the subsequent almost four decades, there has been an overriding belief in the West that eventually China would become like us: that, for example, a market economy would lead to democratization and that a free media was inevitable. This hubristic outlook is deeply flawed, but it still prevails, albeit with small cracks of self-doubt starting to appear.
The issue here is much deeper than Western-style democracy, a free media or human rights. China is simply not like the West and never will be. There has been an underlying assumption that the process of modernization would inevitably lead to Westernization; yet modernization is not just shaped by markets, competition and technology but by history and culture. And Chinese history and culture are very different from that of any Western nation-state.
If we want to understand China, this must be our starting point.
The West's failure to understand the Chinese has repeatedly undermined its ability to anticipate their behavior. Again and again, our predictions and beliefsabout China have proved wrong: that the Chinese Communist Party would fall after 1989, that the country would divide, that its economic growth could not be sustained, that its growth figures were greatly exaggerated, that China was not sincere about its offer of "one country two systems" at the time of the hand-over of Hong Kong from Britain -- and, of course, that it would steadily Westernize. We have a long track record of getting China wrong.
The fundamental reason for our inability to accurately predict China's future is our failure to understand its past. Although China has described itself as a nation-state for the last century, it is in essence a civilization-state. The longest continually existing polity in the world, it dates to 221 BC and the victory of the Qin. Unlike Western nation-states, China's sense of identity comes from its long history as a civilization-state.
Of course, there are many civilizations -- Western civilization is one example -- but China is the only civilization-state. It is defined by its extraordinarily long history and also its huge geographic and demographic scale and diversity. The implications are profound: Unity is its first priority, plurality the condition of its existence (which is why China could offer Hong Kong "one country two systems," a formula alien to a nation-state).
The Chinese state enjoys a very different kind of relationship with society compared with the Western state. It enjoys much greater natural authority, legitimacy and respect, even though not a single vote is cast for the government. The reason is that the state is seen by the Chinese as the guardian, custodian and embodiment of their civilization. The duty of the state is to protect its unity. The legitimacy of the state therefore lies deep in Chinese history. This is utterly different from how the state is seen in Western societies.
If we are to understand China, we must move beyond the compass of Western reality and experience and the body of concepts that has grown up to explain that history. We find this extremely difficult. For 200 years the West, first in the shape of Europe and then the United States, has dominated the world and has not been required to understand others or The Other. If need be it could always bully the latter into submission.
The emergence of China as a global power marks the end of that era. We now have to deal with The Other -- in the form of China -- on increasingly equal terms.
China, moreover, is possessed, like the West, with its own form of universalism. It long believed that it was "the land under heaven," the center of the world, superior to all other cultures. That sense of self, which has engendered a powerful self-confidence, has been persistently evident over the last 40 years, but with China's rise, it is becoming more apparent as the country's sense of achievement and restoration gains pace. Or to put it another way, when the presidents of China and the United States meet in Beijing in 2019, with the Chinese economy fast approaching the size of the American economy, we can be sure that the Chinese sense of hubris will be far stronger than in 2009.
But long before that, we need to try and understand what China is and how it behaves. If we don't, then relations between China and the United States will never move beyond the polite and the formal -- and that will be a bad omen for the future relationship between the two countries.
Martin Jacques is the author of "When China Rules the World: the End of the Western World and the Birth of a New Global Order."
_____________________________________________________________________
Here's another link to Martin Jacque's blog:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-11-21/why-america-must-learn-to-bow/
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Barack Obama's First State Visit to China - Form over Substance
Here's my maverick "3rd space" blog about the first state visit of Barack Obama to China:
My read of BARACK OBAMA (BO), after ten (10) months in the White House, is that his strength and forte is in the domestic front. And on the international arena, he is not up to par with say a Richard Nixon.
I gauge his international trips since he became President. There's quantity but little quality. He reportedly made more foreign state visits in the brief period since he took office at the White House than his predecessor, W. Bush.
Obviously, compared to Dubya, BO is a lot smarter and savvier; but that is a very low bar.
Compared to Bill Clinton, BO is less agile and nimble on the affairs of international politics and diplomacy. Bill Clinton can knock your socks off with his charisma and Southern bubba charm. Bill Clinton can drink your booze, steal your wife, undress her, go to bed with her, take your money, and you would still applaud him and yell, "Ding Hao ! Ding Hao."
In comparison, BO appears to be "over-programmed," stiff, professorial, and went by the teleprompter, and go by scripted plays.
He did not exude the "cool" or "folksiness" of a Bill Clinton, a real "charmer" who can look you straight in the eyes and say, I never had sex with your wife..." even though his hands are in her crotch. :-)
BO clearly needs to practice with foreigners, especially Asians, short of his limited experience as a Punahou High kid.
That Town Hall meeting in Shanghai, was designed more for the Amerikan domestic audience back home. It fell flat, not only because on the Chinese end, the pool of students selected to serve as the audience and the visual backdrop, were over-programmed, lack spontaneity, and worse, too dumb, timid, and "ke-qi" to be effective to ask the right overarching questions about US-China relations, some of which we have argued and debated here among us.
And unfortunately, by my experience doing "Amerika Watching," and astutely observing the nuances, demeanor, and symbolism, I think BO succeeded on this first foray into Asia-Pacific to the extent that he tried to project that he is ready to re-set the button in Amerikan international relations, yet could not come up with anything "concrete" by way of substantive change.
The following issues were unresolved:
1. The issue of Okinawa and removal of Amerikan troops from its forward base in that island.
2. The issue of Amerikan trade sanctions against Chinese tires and steel imports to which Chinese premier Wen Jiabao called "protectionism" which was placed at the front-burner.
3. The issue of colossal deficits that Amerika is strapped with, with no end in sight, and the reverberations and adverse consequences in the global financial system and its stability.
4. The issue of mutual respect, reciprocity, and comity to which Asia-Pacific nations, not just in APEC, ASEAN, but the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
BO went with the following priority issues on Amerika's plate, hoping for China's cooperation:
a. Help in the Korean peninsula to denuclearize North Korea;
b. Help in Pakistan and Afghanistan in Amerika's fight against Al Queda and the Taliban;
c. Help in Iran with respect to Iranian nuclearization;
d. Help in balancing US trade deficits with more and more Chinese goods entering Amerika than vice-versa.
e. Help in Climate Change in terms of China's carbon emissions and greenhouse gas problems.
f. Help in Myanmar, Darfur, with regard to the issues presented by the domestic Gweillo human rights lobby.
g. Help to re-start the dialogue with the Dalai Lama over the issue of Tibet/Zizhang.
On a. through g. above, BO got very little substantive during this trip.
In legal jargon, it means, "no go;" an agreement to "talk further" down the line.
All in all, it was a trip to appease the domestic constituency.
To me, what is really very revealing about the First Family is the following:
I. The absence of Michelle Obama as a presidential spouse in this first Asia-Pacific state visit, relative to Michelle's presence in the European trip, with two daughters in tow.
II. The relative brief visit, relative to other state visits. Already, many pundits have criticized BO and Michelle's state visit to Africa, especially Ghana, as being tepid, lackluster, and lacking in empathy. It was a whirlwind "PR" tour without the heart and the guts. Clearly, the First Family's "uppity" outlooke remains "Eurocentric," focused on the gweillo "white people."
Will BO change ? Let's hope he is as smart and agile as Bill Clinton.
I miss the guy Bill Clinton. Even though I won't trust my wife being present when he shows up. :-) Bill Clinton can charm the socks out of you.
My read of BARACK OBAMA (BO), after ten (10) months in the White House, is that his strength and forte is in the domestic front. And on the international arena, he is not up to par with say a Richard Nixon.
I gauge his international trips since he became President. There's quantity but little quality. He reportedly made more foreign state visits in the brief period since he took office at the White House than his predecessor, W. Bush.
Obviously, compared to Dubya, BO is a lot smarter and savvier; but that is a very low bar.
Compared to Bill Clinton, BO is less agile and nimble on the affairs of international politics and diplomacy. Bill Clinton can knock your socks off with his charisma and Southern bubba charm. Bill Clinton can drink your booze, steal your wife, undress her, go to bed with her, take your money, and you would still applaud him and yell, "Ding Hao ! Ding Hao."
In comparison, BO appears to be "over-programmed," stiff, professorial, and went by the teleprompter, and go by scripted plays.
He did not exude the "cool" or "folksiness" of a Bill Clinton, a real "charmer" who can look you straight in the eyes and say, I never had sex with your wife..." even though his hands are in her crotch. :-)
BO clearly needs to practice with foreigners, especially Asians, short of his limited experience as a Punahou High kid.
That Town Hall meeting in Shanghai, was designed more for the Amerikan domestic audience back home. It fell flat, not only because on the Chinese end, the pool of students selected to serve as the audience and the visual backdrop, were over-programmed, lack spontaneity, and worse, too dumb, timid, and "ke-qi" to be effective to ask the right overarching questions about US-China relations, some of which we have argued and debated here among us.
And unfortunately, by my experience doing "Amerika Watching," and astutely observing the nuances, demeanor, and symbolism, I think BO succeeded on this first foray into Asia-Pacific to the extent that he tried to project that he is ready to re-set the button in Amerikan international relations, yet could not come up with anything "concrete" by way of substantive change.
The following issues were unresolved:
1. The issue of Okinawa and removal of Amerikan troops from its forward base in that island.
2. The issue of Amerikan trade sanctions against Chinese tires and steel imports to which Chinese premier Wen Jiabao called "protectionism" which was placed at the front-burner.
3. The issue of colossal deficits that Amerika is strapped with, with no end in sight, and the reverberations and adverse consequences in the global financial system and its stability.
4. The issue of mutual respect, reciprocity, and comity to which Asia-Pacific nations, not just in APEC, ASEAN, but the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
BO went with the following priority issues on Amerika's plate, hoping for China's cooperation:
a. Help in the Korean peninsula to denuclearize North Korea;
b. Help in Pakistan and Afghanistan in Amerika's fight against Al Queda and the Taliban;
c. Help in Iran with respect to Iranian nuclearization;
d. Help in balancing US trade deficits with more and more Chinese goods entering Amerika than vice-versa.
e. Help in Climate Change in terms of China's carbon emissions and greenhouse gas problems.
f. Help in Myanmar, Darfur, with regard to the issues presented by the domestic Gweillo human rights lobby.
g. Help to re-start the dialogue with the Dalai Lama over the issue of Tibet/Zizhang.
On a. through g. above, BO got very little substantive during this trip.
In legal jargon, it means, "no go;" an agreement to "talk further" down the line.
All in all, it was a trip to appease the domestic constituency.
To me, what is really very revealing about the First Family is the following:
I. The absence of Michelle Obama as a presidential spouse in this first Asia-Pacific state visit, relative to Michelle's presence in the European trip, with two daughters in tow.
II. The relative brief visit, relative to other state visits. Already, many pundits have criticized BO and Michelle's state visit to Africa, especially Ghana, as being tepid, lackluster, and lacking in empathy. It was a whirlwind "PR" tour without the heart and the guts. Clearly, the First Family's "uppity" outlooke remains "Eurocentric," focused on the gweillo "white people."
Will BO change ? Let's hope he is as smart and agile as Bill Clinton.
I miss the guy Bill Clinton. Even though I won't trust my wife being present when he shows up. :-) Bill Clinton can charm the socks out of you.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
California's Disgraceful Anti-Chinese Past
California legislative bill, entitled AJR 42, has passed both the California Lower Assembly and the Senate. It is awaiting Governor Arnold Swazenegger's signature. It was the brainchild of Assembly Appropriation Committee chair, Kevin De Leon and he co-authored that with first term Assemblyman Paul Fong.
Consider the following editorial in a California daily newspaper, the Sacramento Bee. Amazingly, there is hardly any coverage by other daily newspapers in other cities in California, notably San Franciso and Los Angeles. Why not?
http://www.sacbee.com/editorials/story/2020469.html
Editorial: A disgrace from California's past
Published: Monday, Jul. 13, 2009 - 12:00 am | Page 15A
Last Modified: Monday, Jul. 13, 2009 - 8:13 am
We didn't know. We weren't part of it.
That's what many newcomers and younger Californians can justly say about the century-long exclusion of the Chinese from legal immigration, citizenship and ownership of property.
They had no part in making citizenship illegal for Chinese laborers who mined the Mother Lode, worked farms and built the transcontinental railroad and levees – a situation that changed only in 1943. And many can honestly say that they didn't know that non-citizen Asians have been able to own property in California only since 1952.
They can reasonably say that they were not involved in the local ordinances and burnings that drove the Chinese from Sacramento and towns in the Sierra foothills, the Sacramento Valley and the Delta in the 1880s.
So why not just let that history go, move on?
This is a live question today because California legislators have passed a bipartisan resolution to "express regret for past discriminatory laws and constitutional provisions."
This isn't mere symbolism. The debate itself has been valuable. The reality is that California and the nation today face heated discussions about immigration – and can learn from Chinese immigrant experience. We need to understand it, confront it and not fall into the same traps that ensnared earlier generations of Californians.
For a century, California went out of its way to enshrine anti-Chinese sentiment in law. Even The Bee promoted that disgraceful agenda.
California's 1879 Constitution declared that Chinese were "dangerous to the well- being of the State." Among other things, it called for removal of Chinese from city limits. Californians lobbied Congress to pass the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, which blocked Chinese laborers from the United States, the first U.S. law to limit immigration by race. California then passed the Alien Land Law of 1913, prohibiting Chinese from buying land.
Congress repealed Chinese exclusion laws in 1943. But California pressed on. In 1943 and 1945, new laws strengthened powers to seize property. Only in 1952 did things change.
Faced with few legal options for entry, Chinese immigrants took matters into their own hands. Since a U.S. treaty with China exempted merchants from the Exclusion Act, a 1906 report notes that "the Chinese gain unlawful access to this country by constantly declaring to be merchants." A tiny store in Sacramento, for example, listed 22 partners and 21 silent partners. Other Chinese immigrants would adopt the identity of a merchant or the child of a merchant (an arrangement known as "paper father and paper son").
Assembly Concurrent Resolution 42 should not be the end of this discussion. It should be the beginning. California educators should now explore including material on the treatment of Chinese in our students' textbooks, and the state should consider an official memorial that will remind this and future generations of what can happen when bigotry overrides respect for all.
More Information
What you can read
Philip P. Choy, "Canton Footprints: Sacramento's Chinese Legacy" (2007)
Jean Pfaelzer, "Driven Out: The Forgotten War Against Chinese Americans" (2007)
Hiroshi Motomura, "Americans in Waiting: The Lost Story of Immigration and Citizenship in the United States" (2006)
Daniel J. Tichenor, "Dividing Lines: The Politics of Immigration Control in America" (2002)
Consider the following editorial in a California daily newspaper, the Sacramento Bee. Amazingly, there is hardly any coverage by other daily newspapers in other cities in California, notably San Franciso and Los Angeles. Why not?
http://www.sacbee.com/editorials/story/2020469.html
Editorial: A disgrace from California's past
Published: Monday, Jul. 13, 2009 - 12:00 am | Page 15A
Last Modified: Monday, Jul. 13, 2009 - 8:13 am
We didn't know. We weren't part of it.
That's what many newcomers and younger Californians can justly say about the century-long exclusion of the Chinese from legal immigration, citizenship and ownership of property.
They had no part in making citizenship illegal for Chinese laborers who mined the Mother Lode, worked farms and built the transcontinental railroad and levees – a situation that changed only in 1943. And many can honestly say that they didn't know that non-citizen Asians have been able to own property in California only since 1952.
They can reasonably say that they were not involved in the local ordinances and burnings that drove the Chinese from Sacramento and towns in the Sierra foothills, the Sacramento Valley and the Delta in the 1880s.
So why not just let that history go, move on?
This is a live question today because California legislators have passed a bipartisan resolution to "express regret for past discriminatory laws and constitutional provisions."
This isn't mere symbolism. The debate itself has been valuable. The reality is that California and the nation today face heated discussions about immigration – and can learn from Chinese immigrant experience. We need to understand it, confront it and not fall into the same traps that ensnared earlier generations of Californians.
For a century, California went out of its way to enshrine anti-Chinese sentiment in law. Even The Bee promoted that disgraceful agenda.
California's 1879 Constitution declared that Chinese were "dangerous to the well- being of the State." Among other things, it called for removal of Chinese from city limits. Californians lobbied Congress to pass the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, which blocked Chinese laborers from the United States, the first U.S. law to limit immigration by race. California then passed the Alien Land Law of 1913, prohibiting Chinese from buying land.
Congress repealed Chinese exclusion laws in 1943. But California pressed on. In 1943 and 1945, new laws strengthened powers to seize property. Only in 1952 did things change.
Faced with few legal options for entry, Chinese immigrants took matters into their own hands. Since a U.S. treaty with China exempted merchants from the Exclusion Act, a 1906 report notes that "the Chinese gain unlawful access to this country by constantly declaring to be merchants." A tiny store in Sacramento, for example, listed 22 partners and 21 silent partners. Other Chinese immigrants would adopt the identity of a merchant or the child of a merchant (an arrangement known as "paper father and paper son").
Assembly Concurrent Resolution 42 should not be the end of this discussion. It should be the beginning. California educators should now explore including material on the treatment of Chinese in our students' textbooks, and the state should consider an official memorial that will remind this and future generations of what can happen when bigotry overrides respect for all.
More Information
What you can read
Philip P. Choy, "Canton Footprints: Sacramento's Chinese Legacy" (2007)
Jean Pfaelzer, "Driven Out: The Forgotten War Against Chinese Americans" (2007)
Hiroshi Motomura, "Americans in Waiting: The Lost Story of Immigration and Citizenship in the United States" (2006)
Daniel J. Tichenor, "Dividing Lines: The Politics of Immigration Control in America" (2002)
Friday, June 12, 2009
It is about time ! More than a century later after the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, official California apology in state legislature being proposed
The history of ethnic Chinese immigration into California is a blemished and sullied record of ethnic and Chinese discrimination and anti-yellow racism.
At one time, a Chinese cannot testify in a court of law against a white criminal defendant, because he or she is not adjudged to be human.
In 1882, after much bashing from white settlers in the competition accompanying the Gold Rush, a Chinese Exclusion Act was passed effectively barring any new Chinese immigration into America, and California, with the exception of students, merchants and diplomats.
It was not until 1943, during World War II that Congress repealed the discriminatory exclusion laws against Chinese immigrants and to establish an immigration quota for China of around 105 visas per year.
The repeal was grounded by consideration of World War II, as Japanese propaganda made repeated reference to Chinese exclusion from the United States in order to weaken the ties between the United States and the KMT forces of Generalissimo Chiang Kai Shek and his military forces.
In addition to the general measures preventing Asian immigration, the Chinese were subject to their own, unique prohibition.
And this had long been a source of contention in Sino‑American relations. The Immigration Act of 1924 stated that aliens ineligible for U.S. citizenship were not permitted to enter the United States, and this included the Chinese.
Many white Americans have never owed up and 'fessed up to this sordid and disgustingly racist past. In fact, there is historical amnesia and moralizing which often distort and spin the story of a past.... blocked out and blockaded by the gatekeepers of mainstream American news media.
But for the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the whole demographic landscape of California would have been wholly different today.
Well, thankfully, a Chinese-American legislator from a suburb of San Francisco, Paul Fong,of Mountain View, California, has not forgotten the past. He has introduced legislation in the California State Legislature seeking a formal official apology on behalf of many of our Chinese immigrant ancestors who were horrifically dissed, insulted, and banned from entering America all because of the color of their skin.
http://www.mercurynews.com/topstories/ci_12572795
California should apologize for persecution of Chinese immigrants, legislator says
By Jessie Mangaliman, Mercury News staff
California should formally "express regrets" to the Chinese immigrants who were historically persecuted and abused while they helped build the Golden State's railroads, mines and agricultural fields, said a state legislator who is promoting legislation that would lead to the first-ever government apology to Chinese-Americans.
Assemblyman Paul Fong, D-Mountain View, the grandson of a Chinese immigrant who was interned at Angel Island, said his goal is to eventually convince the federal government to also issue an apology, and then legislate redress for the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, which specifically barred Chinese immigrants from the U.S. It was repealed in 1943.
The first Chinese immigrants to California — who called it "gam saan," or Gold Mountain — faced discriminatory laws that prevented them from marrying or owning property. They were paid less and taxed more while children were denied access to public schools. They were forced out of towns, and in one case in San Jose's old Chinatown, burned out of their enclaves. And at Angel Island in San Francisco Bay, the "Ellis Island of the West," tens of thousands of Chinese immigrants were detained for months, and sometimes years, separated from their families.
"Those who know history will know that those laws were discriminatory," Fong said. "Those who don't know will be informed of it for the first time."
At a news conference Thursday afternoon, joined by leaders from civil and immigrant rights groups, and historical associations, Fong said he's seeking public support for the resolution, ACR 42. Assemblyman Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles, is a sponsor.
The resolution states: The "Legislature deeply regrets the enactment of past discriminatory laws and constitutional provisions which resulted in the persecution of Chinese living in California, which forced them to live in fear of unjust prosecutions on baseless charges, and which unfairly prevented from earning a living."
If he gets the state apology, Fong said, he will seek federal redress for the people interned in camps that operated from 1910 to 1942 at Angel Island. However, he did not say how much he wanted the government to pay.
When the U.S. government issued a 1988 apology for the World War II internment of 120,000 Japanese and Japanese-American citizens, it paid reparation of $20,000 for each individual who was interned.
"I was hoping that when the government apologized for the internment of Japanese-Americans, it would eventually apologize for the Chinese exclusion," he said.
Redress movements are rarely successful. Efforts for redress for the enslavement of African-Americans, and the massacre and displacement of Native Americans, have been in circulation for years.
For Eddie Wong, executive director of the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation, it isn't reparation but public education that counts.
"It's a point of respect," he said. "I'm not discounting the need for redress, but if the history and contribution are acknowledged in textbooks and pop culture, that's the ultimate reward."
Fong's legislation is scheduled for a hearing June 26 before the Assembly Judiciary Committee.
"Such recognition is long overdue," said Helen Zia, author of "American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People," a 2001 book that examines the history of Chinese and other Asian immigrants to the United States.
Many people think that the Chinese-Americans are recent immigrants, she said, and are unaware of their long history in the state and the country.
"A bill like this would recognize that history and acknowledge what happened," Zia said. "An apology is really symbolic," she said, but without it, the struggle of early Chinese immigrants would "go missing in history."
Contact Jessie Mangaliman at jmangaliman@mercurynews.com or 408-920-5794.
At one time, a Chinese cannot testify in a court of law against a white criminal defendant, because he or she is not adjudged to be human.
In 1882, after much bashing from white settlers in the competition accompanying the Gold Rush, a Chinese Exclusion Act was passed effectively barring any new Chinese immigration into America, and California, with the exception of students, merchants and diplomats.
It was not until 1943, during World War II that Congress repealed the discriminatory exclusion laws against Chinese immigrants and to establish an immigration quota for China of around 105 visas per year.
The repeal was grounded by consideration of World War II, as Japanese propaganda made repeated reference to Chinese exclusion from the United States in order to weaken the ties between the United States and the KMT forces of Generalissimo Chiang Kai Shek and his military forces.
In addition to the general measures preventing Asian immigration, the Chinese were subject to their own, unique prohibition.
And this had long been a source of contention in Sino‑American relations. The Immigration Act of 1924 stated that aliens ineligible for U.S. citizenship were not permitted to enter the United States, and this included the Chinese.
Many white Americans have never owed up and 'fessed up to this sordid and disgustingly racist past. In fact, there is historical amnesia and moralizing which often distort and spin the story of a past.... blocked out and blockaded by the gatekeepers of mainstream American news media.
But for the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the whole demographic landscape of California would have been wholly different today.
Well, thankfully, a Chinese-American legislator from a suburb of San Francisco, Paul Fong,of Mountain View, California, has not forgotten the past. He has introduced legislation in the California State Legislature seeking a formal official apology on behalf of many of our Chinese immigrant ancestors who were horrifically dissed, insulted, and banned from entering America all because of the color of their skin.
http://www.mercurynews.com/topstories/ci_12572795
California should apologize for persecution of Chinese immigrants, legislator says
By Jessie Mangaliman, Mercury News staff
California should formally "express regrets" to the Chinese immigrants who were historically persecuted and abused while they helped build the Golden State's railroads, mines and agricultural fields, said a state legislator who is promoting legislation that would lead to the first-ever government apology to Chinese-Americans.
Assemblyman Paul Fong, D-Mountain View, the grandson of a Chinese immigrant who was interned at Angel Island, said his goal is to eventually convince the federal government to also issue an apology, and then legislate redress for the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, which specifically barred Chinese immigrants from the U.S. It was repealed in 1943.
The first Chinese immigrants to California — who called it "gam saan," or Gold Mountain — faced discriminatory laws that prevented them from marrying or owning property. They were paid less and taxed more while children were denied access to public schools. They were forced out of towns, and in one case in San Jose's old Chinatown, burned out of their enclaves. And at Angel Island in San Francisco Bay, the "Ellis Island of the West," tens of thousands of Chinese immigrants were detained for months, and sometimes years, separated from their families.
"Those who know history will know that those laws were discriminatory," Fong said. "Those who don't know will be informed of it for the first time."
At a news conference Thursday afternoon, joined by leaders from civil and immigrant rights groups, and historical associations, Fong said he's seeking public support for the resolution, ACR 42. Assemblyman Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles, is a sponsor.
The resolution states: The "Legislature deeply regrets the enactment of past discriminatory laws and constitutional provisions which resulted in the persecution of Chinese living in California, which forced them to live in fear of unjust prosecutions on baseless charges, and which unfairly prevented from earning a living."
If he gets the state apology, Fong said, he will seek federal redress for the people interned in camps that operated from 1910 to 1942 at Angel Island. However, he did not say how much he wanted the government to pay.
When the U.S. government issued a 1988 apology for the World War II internment of 120,000 Japanese and Japanese-American citizens, it paid reparation of $20,000 for each individual who was interned.
"I was hoping that when the government apologized for the internment of Japanese-Americans, it would eventually apologize for the Chinese exclusion," he said.
Redress movements are rarely successful. Efforts for redress for the enslavement of African-Americans, and the massacre and displacement of Native Americans, have been in circulation for years.
For Eddie Wong, executive director of the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation, it isn't reparation but public education that counts.
"It's a point of respect," he said. "I'm not discounting the need for redress, but if the history and contribution are acknowledged in textbooks and pop culture, that's the ultimate reward."
Fong's legislation is scheduled for a hearing June 26 before the Assembly Judiciary Committee.
"Such recognition is long overdue," said Helen Zia, author of "American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People," a 2001 book that examines the history of Chinese and other Asian immigrants to the United States.
Many people think that the Chinese-Americans are recent immigrants, she said, and are unaware of their long history in the state and the country.
"A bill like this would recognize that history and acknowledge what happened," Zia said. "An apology is really symbolic," she said, but without it, the struggle of early Chinese immigrants would "go missing in history."
Contact Jessie Mangaliman at jmangaliman@mercurynews.com or 408-920-5794.
Monday, May 18, 2009
As the 20th anniversary of June 4th Tiananmen approaches, a Chinese Scholar looks at human rights from within Chinese history and through Confucius
Richard Low, a retired Chinese-American professor, wrote the following thoughtful piece which is worth reading and analysing as China goes through its 20th anniversary of June 4th Tiananmen, and the debate continues about "human rights" as seen through "Europeanized" lenses. Mr. Low has a different perspective worth noting:
"Sixty years ago, in the hopes of creating a better world, world thinkers came together to devise international standards for how we should live and governments committed to uphold and guarantee the rights and freedoms set out in these standards for the people of their nations.
Despite the fact that there has been progress in the area of human rights around when the world, there still exist many observable instances of human rights violations."
In China, it is just the opposite.
It was not the people nor the thinkers who had ever given any thought to human rights. It was the ruler who, in order to rule them, must first have accepted the so-called Mandate of Heaven which required him/her to serve the ruled with love (or human-heartedness) and justice. This scheme got started when Zhou Dynasty (1122-770 BCE) took power by defeating the brutal and repressive Shang Dynasty (?1766-?1122 BCE). So it was a ruler's duty or obligation to provide human care or service to the ruled. Why so? It was because during that period one of the very popular maxims circulating among the people says, "People are the foundation of a state. When the foundation is firm and solid, the state will enjoy peace and harmony."
But what would this foundation be like and how to build it? Then, there came Confucius (557-497 BCE) who proposed a Great Universal Society (Datong) or Utopia, as given below:
When the Great Way prevails, the world belongs to all. Men of great virtue and talent are selected (or elected) who will foster mutual trust and promote universal understanding. Thus, men do not regard as their parents only their own parents nor treat as their own children only their own children. Sufficient provision is secured for the aged till their death, employment assured for the able-bodied, and funds provided for the loving care of the young. The widowers, widows, orphans, the childless, and those who are disabled by diseases or mishaps are adequately cared for. Each man has his duty, and each woman her hearth. While they detest those who throw away things wastefully, they do not hoard things for their own self-gratification. Disliking idleness they labor, but not alone with a view to their own advantage. In this way, selfish acts of cheating and profiteering are discouraged. Hence, their front doors need not be locked.
Such is the State of Universal Peace and Harmony for All
- The Book of Rites (Li Ji)
Except for the few decades when Mao Zedong tried to replace Confucius,through his shameful Cultural Revolution, with Marx, Confucianism has guided China politically and ethically for over 2,000 years - even during the 300 some years of occupation by the Mongols and the Manchus. Now that Mao has passed away, the new regime has gradually brought Confucius back, and once again the Chinese become the only people on this planet who have enjoyed the same living civilization continuously for such a long time.
So, if the Chinese government ever violates any of the human rights, all that the UN or the so-called NGO has to do is to ask if it still respects the Mandate of Heaven and remembers Confucius's teachings. After all, a sense of shame is considered one of the most important virtues for being a virtuous gentleman (Junzi).
Unfortunately, Westerners do not seem to possess this kind of culture in their history. Thus, even when Jesus told them to love their enemies and bless them that curse them and so on, more Christians were killed by Christians than by the pagan Romans when the Roman emperor Constantine (306-337), tired of the unending heated debate over Trinitarianism, decided to take it as the Christian doctrine of the West, according to the great historian Edward Gibbon in his "Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire" and, then, the bloody fights betweeen so-called Christians during the period of Reformation resulting "in the death of 10-20 million," according to the "Bible Handbook" by Henry Halley (1951).
So, it is no wonder that "some governments have used the concepts of human rights and democracy to their own advantage and used it to advance their own political agendas."
How about some governments using the United Nations "to their own advantage" and "to advance their own political agenda?"
Well,it seems that perhaps the United Nations may need a total reform!
The above thoughtful posting by Mr. Low should be read in tandem with the following link:
http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/email/obstacles-to-the-progress-of-human-rights-in-the-world
"Sixty years ago, in the hopes of creating a better world, world thinkers came together to devise international standards for how we should live and governments committed to uphold and guarantee the rights and freedoms set out in these standards for the people of their nations.
Despite the fact that there has been progress in the area of human rights around when the world, there still exist many observable instances of human rights violations."
In China, it is just the opposite.
It was not the people nor the thinkers who had ever given any thought to human rights. It was the ruler who, in order to rule them, must first have accepted the so-called Mandate of Heaven which required him/her to serve the ruled with love (or human-heartedness) and justice. This scheme got started when Zhou Dynasty (1122-770 BCE) took power by defeating the brutal and repressive Shang Dynasty (?1766-?1122 BCE). So it was a ruler's duty or obligation to provide human care or service to the ruled. Why so? It was because during that period one of the very popular maxims circulating among the people says, "People are the foundation of a state. When the foundation is firm and solid, the state will enjoy peace and harmony."
But what would this foundation be like and how to build it? Then, there came Confucius (557-497 BCE) who proposed a Great Universal Society (Datong) or Utopia, as given below:
When the Great Way prevails, the world belongs to all. Men of great virtue and talent are selected (or elected) who will foster mutual trust and promote universal understanding. Thus, men do not regard as their parents only their own parents nor treat as their own children only their own children. Sufficient provision is secured for the aged till their death, employment assured for the able-bodied, and funds provided for the loving care of the young. The widowers, widows, orphans, the childless, and those who are disabled by diseases or mishaps are adequately cared for. Each man has his duty, and each woman her hearth. While they detest those who throw away things wastefully, they do not hoard things for their own self-gratification. Disliking idleness they labor, but not alone with a view to their own advantage. In this way, selfish acts of cheating and profiteering are discouraged. Hence, their front doors need not be locked.
Such is the State of Universal Peace and Harmony for All
- The Book of Rites (Li Ji)
Except for the few decades when Mao Zedong tried to replace Confucius,through his shameful Cultural Revolution, with Marx, Confucianism has guided China politically and ethically for over 2,000 years - even during the 300 some years of occupation by the Mongols and the Manchus. Now that Mao has passed away, the new regime has gradually brought Confucius back, and once again the Chinese become the only people on this planet who have enjoyed the same living civilization continuously for such a long time.
So, if the Chinese government ever violates any of the human rights, all that the UN or the so-called NGO has to do is to ask if it still respects the Mandate of Heaven and remembers Confucius's teachings. After all, a sense of shame is considered one of the most important virtues for being a virtuous gentleman (Junzi).
Unfortunately, Westerners do not seem to possess this kind of culture in their history. Thus, even when Jesus told them to love their enemies and bless them that curse them and so on, more Christians were killed by Christians than by the pagan Romans when the Roman emperor Constantine (306-337), tired of the unending heated debate over Trinitarianism, decided to take it as the Christian doctrine of the West, according to the great historian Edward Gibbon in his "Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire" and, then, the bloody fights betweeen so-called Christians during the period of Reformation resulting "in the death of 10-20 million," according to the "Bible Handbook" by Henry Halley (1951).
So, it is no wonder that "some governments have used the concepts of human rights and democracy to their own advantage and used it to advance their own political agendas."
How about some governments using the United Nations "to their own advantage" and "to advance their own political agenda?"
Well,it seems that perhaps the United Nations may need a total reform!
The above thoughtful posting by Mr. Low should be read in tandem with the following link:
http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/email/obstacles-to-the-progress-of-human-rights-in-the-world
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
What's good for the goose is good for the gander - HKG Democrats criticized Macau for banning their entry -- look what the Brits in UK are doing too !
Recently, I read about how a group of HKG Democrats drew international media attention, especially in the Western press, about how some of them were barred from entry to MACAU and prevented from disembarking from the piers after attempting to take the HKG-Macau ferry.
The ostensible reason, of "shit-disturber" mau-mau legislator such as Leung Kwok Hung (aka as "Long Hair Leung"), that hippie-looking serial protester in the HKG legislature who is constantly a sore in the butt for HKG's Chief Executive and a hemmorhoidal "pain" on the backside of Beijing, is that the rights of free speech and freedom of assembly, and as their extension, the freedom of dissent, is guaranteed under the "one country, two systems" policy of CHINA.
Well, we have also heard from Jackie Chan, the "kung fu" movie actor, who was roundly excoriated for his "foot in mouth" remarks about the Chinese people needing "control" or "regulation;" further, Jackie Chan noted that "chaotic" environment of HKG where "luan" as he described it is not something that he is sure the Chinese need.
Well, look across the United Kingdom, the cradle of the Magna Carta of Human rights. See what the Brits just did in declaring an American radio "talk show jock," Michael Savage, a blabbermouth of an extreme arch-conservative who hates immigrants, advocates nuking Iran, "persona non grata" and barred him from entering Great Britain.
Savage, in his usual raging "fire and brimstone" screaming and hectoring, from his pulpit in San Francisco, the "chi-chi" capital of American uber-liberals, lefties, and greenies, is crying "persecution" and infringement of his free speech rights.
Savage is threatening to sue the British government.
Doesn't this show shades of HKG's blabbermouth "Long Hair" Leung, otherwise known as Leung Kwok Hung, and his raving and ranting against Macau for declaring him "persona non-grata" and banning him from visiting Macau ?
Read on the story about Michael Savage, our San Francisco version of a "Long Hair" Leung, otherwise known as Leung Kwok Hung.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/nov05election/detail?entry_id=39618
What's good for the goose is good for the gander.
Now the Brits know what Jackie Chan is talking about, and may even comiscerate with poor Jackie Chan, whose butt was kicked all over the place, from the "honorary whites" and "Western farts smell more fragrant" constituency in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore.
Touche. Touche. Touche. YAU MO KAU CHO AAHHHHH !
The ostensible reason, of "shit-disturber" mau-mau legislator such as Leung Kwok Hung (aka as "Long Hair Leung"), that hippie-looking serial protester in the HKG legislature who is constantly a sore in the butt for HKG's Chief Executive and a hemmorhoidal "pain" on the backside of Beijing, is that the rights of free speech and freedom of assembly, and as their extension, the freedom of dissent, is guaranteed under the "one country, two systems" policy of CHINA.
Well, we have also heard from Jackie Chan, the "kung fu" movie actor, who was roundly excoriated for his "foot in mouth" remarks about the Chinese people needing "control" or "regulation;" further, Jackie Chan noted that "chaotic" environment of HKG where "luan" as he described it is not something that he is sure the Chinese need.
Well, look across the United Kingdom, the cradle of the Magna Carta of Human rights. See what the Brits just did in declaring an American radio "talk show jock," Michael Savage, a blabbermouth of an extreme arch-conservative who hates immigrants, advocates nuking Iran, "persona non grata" and barred him from entering Great Britain.
Savage, in his usual raging "fire and brimstone" screaming and hectoring, from his pulpit in San Francisco, the "chi-chi" capital of American uber-liberals, lefties, and greenies, is crying "persecution" and infringement of his free speech rights.
Savage is threatening to sue the British government.
Doesn't this show shades of HKG's blabbermouth "Long Hair" Leung, otherwise known as Leung Kwok Hung, and his raving and ranting against Macau for declaring him "persona non-grata" and banning him from visiting Macau ?
Read on the story about Michael Savage, our San Francisco version of a "Long Hair" Leung, otherwise known as Leung Kwok Hung.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/nov05election/detail?entry_id=39618
What's good for the goose is good for the gander.
Now the Brits know what Jackie Chan is talking about, and may even comiscerate with poor Jackie Chan, whose butt was kicked all over the place, from the "honorary whites" and "Western farts smell more fragrant" constituency in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore.
Touche. Touche. Touche. YAU MO KAU CHO AAHHHHH !
"European Price" as U.S. dollar declines; the New York Times will cost US$ 2 for each print newspaper for weekdays and US$ 6 on weekends starting June
Setting aside all these "culture food fights" raging within America, from same-sex marriage, legalizing marijuana use, animal rights, banning foie gras in French restaurants, banning plastic bags, and a carbon tax imposed on one's excess carbon footprints and emissions, Many Americans are not thinking straight and focusing on the fundamental issues that face their society from within.
Forget the pain and hemorrhaging suffered in terms of human fatalities and casualties in two wars, i.e. Iraq and Afghanistan, with consequences, social and economic, and yes, psychic, in the form of war-shocked returning troops suffering "post-traumatic stress syndrome" and readjustment to peacetime and the bleak jobs market at home.
Forget the Wall Street bailouts, the handouts to big banks, and the handouts to the auto industry, CHRYSLER and GM, included.
Forget the joblessness and the hollowing out of America's core economy. Forget the unemployed and underemployed college graduates increasingly stressed out and distressed.
Forget the housing meltdown, and the credit crunch, forcing "Johnny Six Pack" and "Soccer Jane Mom" to go belly-up and bankrupt.
The sage of Omaha, Warren Buffett, already prophesied that the U.S. is primed to face an inflationary spiral which is bound to impact the U.S. economy in the form of rising prices. INFLATION. INFLATION. INFLATION with the capital "I."
Somehow, no one is thinking straight and applying some common sense that all these financial borrowing and leverating, and all these bail-outs and economic stimuli packages from the government, will eventually have to be paid for sometime, somewhere by somebody.
And from the looks of things, it will be the ordinary folks in Main Street who will bear the burden.
Consider the latest.... faced with dwindling circulation and an erosion of its advertising base, America's premier newspaper, the New York Times just announced that it will cost US$2 to obtain a copy its daily newspapers, and US$6 a copy for its Sunday edition.
What kind of desperado act is this ? Yao Mo Kao Cho ahhhhh !!!!
GIMME A BREAK.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9808NR81&show_article=1
Is this now "Europe pricing" now working its way into America ?
In Western Europe, we all know how they gouge consumers with prices which are downright obscene. e.g. US$ 10 for a soggy, miserable looking "bockwurst" sausage in a miserable looking bun.
Unfortunately, this model, i.e. the "European pricing" model, appears to be the trend which is increasingly happening in America.
The U.S. dollar ain't worth beans pretty soon.
Hoard up on the yuan (renminbi), fellas.
The professor of doom and gloom, Noriel Roubini,and his fellow professor from New York University Stern School of Business, Matthew Richardson penned the following op-ed article, which appeared in the WSJ. You be the judge.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124147831175584985.html
Forget the pain and hemorrhaging suffered in terms of human fatalities and casualties in two wars, i.e. Iraq and Afghanistan, with consequences, social and economic, and yes, psychic, in the form of war-shocked returning troops suffering "post-traumatic stress syndrome" and readjustment to peacetime and the bleak jobs market at home.
Forget the Wall Street bailouts, the handouts to big banks, and the handouts to the auto industry, CHRYSLER and GM, included.
Forget the joblessness and the hollowing out of America's core economy. Forget the unemployed and underemployed college graduates increasingly stressed out and distressed.
Forget the housing meltdown, and the credit crunch, forcing "Johnny Six Pack" and "Soccer Jane Mom" to go belly-up and bankrupt.
The sage of Omaha, Warren Buffett, already prophesied that the U.S. is primed to face an inflationary spiral which is bound to impact the U.S. economy in the form of rising prices. INFLATION. INFLATION. INFLATION with the capital "I."
Somehow, no one is thinking straight and applying some common sense that all these financial borrowing and leverating, and all these bail-outs and economic stimuli packages from the government, will eventually have to be paid for sometime, somewhere by somebody.
And from the looks of things, it will be the ordinary folks in Main Street who will bear the burden.
Consider the latest.... faced with dwindling circulation and an erosion of its advertising base, America's premier newspaper, the New York Times just announced that it will cost US$2 to obtain a copy its daily newspapers, and US$6 a copy for its Sunday edition.
What kind of desperado act is this ? Yao Mo Kao Cho ahhhhh !!!!
GIMME A BREAK.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9808NR81&show_article=1
Is this now "Europe pricing" now working its way into America ?
In Western Europe, we all know how they gouge consumers with prices which are downright obscene. e.g. US$ 10 for a soggy, miserable looking "bockwurst" sausage in a miserable looking bun.
Unfortunately, this model, i.e. the "European pricing" model, appears to be the trend which is increasingly happening in America.
The U.S. dollar ain't worth beans pretty soon.
Hoard up on the yuan (renminbi), fellas.
The professor of doom and gloom, Noriel Roubini,and his fellow professor from New York University Stern School of Business, Matthew Richardson penned the following op-ed article, which appeared in the WSJ. You be the judge.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124147831175584985.html
Monday, May 4, 2009
The Silk Route trade between the Middle East and China renewed and growing
Linkage between the Middle East and China, in commercial as well as cultural ties, with China's Hui minority in Xinjiang Province as hub, has grown dramatically as reported by the following blog:
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinajournal/2009/04/27/middle-east-looks-east-to-china/
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinajournal/2009/04/27/middle-east-looks-east-to-china/
Sunday, May 3, 2009
The head of the World Health Organization --- answers critics ---defends HKG's quarantine;; Margaret Chan: "you ain't seen nuthing yet" - 2nd Wave ?
Many in the Western news media ratpacks are "pooh-poohing" the draconian methods applied by Asian-Pacific countries against the spread of the swine flu.
"Overblown" seems to be the theme of the carping.
CNN's "talking head" Jack Cafferty (remember him during the Beijing Olympucs Games torch relay run-up and his racist comments") is once again one of those white "jackasses." Counting dead bodies, Cafferty once again shot from his mouth, claiming that the "old flu" bug alone already claimed 13,000 American lives this year alone, compared to one death chalked up to the swine flu:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/05/03/MN3B17CKP7.DTL
Hong Kong doctor Margaret Chan, who now heads the World Health Organization, would have none of this "dumbed-down" raving and ranting by these gweillo ratpacks. She gave a press conference setting up the record:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e6260d9a-37d4-11de-9211-00144feabdc0.html
"Overblown" seems to be the theme of the carping.
CNN's "talking head" Jack Cafferty (remember him during the Beijing Olympucs Games torch relay run-up and his racist comments") is once again one of those white "jackasses." Counting dead bodies, Cafferty once again shot from his mouth, claiming that the "old flu" bug alone already claimed 13,000 American lives this year alone, compared to one death chalked up to the swine flu:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/05/03/MN3B17CKP7.DTL
Hong Kong doctor Margaret Chan, who now heads the World Health Organization, would have none of this "dumbed-down" raving and ranting by these gweillo ratpacks. She gave a press conference setting up the record:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e6260d9a-37d4-11de-9211-00144feabdc0.html
Will Wolfram Alpha come out and eat the lunch of Google ?
Find out about the buzz over Wolfram Alpha and why this new upstart software can eat the lunch of Google as a more versatile search engine ?
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/an-invention-that-could-change-the-internet-for-ever-1678109.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/an-invention-that-could-change-the-internet-for-ever-1678109.html
Fortress Australia - Aussie Premier Kevin Rudd bulking up its own military on rise of CHINDIA (China and India)
Who's kidding who, Mr. Kevin Rudd ?
Fundamentally, Australia still sees itself alligned with Europe and America and is the bulwark state acting as Asia policeman for the Europeans and North Americans.
In the face of an emerging CHINDIA, i.e. China and India, and the increasing role China and India play in the world's geopolitical stage, Aussies are getting skittish about their role as America's "junior policeman" providing the containment rim to curb a rising CHINDIA.
And here we are seeing the rationale and justification of a "bulking up" of Australia's military by a whooping US$ 72 billion, spread out over 20 years. That's a lot of 'baksheeh' , folks.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0503/p99s01-woap.html
Shades of that "white supremacy" world hegemony at play. The Aussies are always ambivalent and confused about whether they are Asians or Europeans.
And understandably, upon seeing a weakening Uncle Sam (or Uncle Obama), Uncle Kevin is preparing for contingency.... just in case.
Uncle Kevin may speak Mandarin; but his heart is screwed on the wrong place. And it shows lately in his political posturing in the international stage.
Fundamentally, Australia still sees itself alligned with Europe and America and is the bulwark state acting as Asia policeman for the Europeans and North Americans.
In the face of an emerging CHINDIA, i.e. China and India, and the increasing role China and India play in the world's geopolitical stage, Aussies are getting skittish about their role as America's "junior policeman" providing the containment rim to curb a rising CHINDIA.
And here we are seeing the rationale and justification of a "bulking up" of Australia's military by a whooping US$ 72 billion, spread out over 20 years. That's a lot of 'baksheeh' , folks.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0503/p99s01-woap.html
Shades of that "white supremacy" world hegemony at play. The Aussies are always ambivalent and confused about whether they are Asians or Europeans.
And understandably, upon seeing a weakening Uncle Sam (or Uncle Obama), Uncle Kevin is preparing for contingency.... just in case.
Uncle Kevin may speak Mandarin; but his heart is screwed on the wrong place. And it shows lately in his political posturing in the international stage.
Triple whammies of global financial meltdown, drug cartels violence, and now..... swine flu whack Mexico
Lately, the people of Mexico, some 110,000,000 (110 million) masses of them, are going through a hellacious time.
It is a sad state of affairs. And the pandemic of swine flu could not have happened at a worse time. Right smack at a time of Cinco de Mayo (May 5th)... Mexico's National Independence Day, a festive celebratory occasion.
The triple whammies of the global financial meltdown triggered by Wall Street and Canary Wharf have unleashed a first wave of tsunami striking at the heart of Mexico's economy. This horrific scenario is worse than the SARS crisis which whacked HKG, Singapore and China before because then, the global financial system was intact, and there was not the added mess created by the pandemic of drugs, heroin, cocaine growing and smuggling which have now beset Mexico and their American and Canadian customers.
With the price of oil plunging, Mexico's oil industry, a major source of state revenues, has been hurting....as demand has shriveled and global oil consumption shrunk.
Furthermore, because of incessant demand and the rampant abuse and ingestion of drugs by the "gringos" in the North, i.e. namely Americans, there erupted an internecine war which has heated up inside Mexico by rival drug growers and smugglers.
The rival drug gangs were emboldened by a weak anti-drug law enforcement policy and a weak U.S.-Mexican border which experienced rampant smuggling of drugs being smuggled from one way across the border from Mexico; and from the other way across from the U.S. to Mexico.... money laundering and high-powered weapons and assault rifles.
There is a largely unreported "hot war" among rival drug cartels inside Mexico which has wracked the Mexican citizenry caught in the crossfire, and the Central government in Mexico is frantically fighting very hard to stomp out the violence.
The U.S. President Barack Obama knows that Americans and American drug users, gun stores, and American proclivity to buy high-powered assault weapons compound and add to the problems of Mexico's fight against the cross-border drug cartels.
And now...... here we go with the horrific news and perilous pandemic of the swine flu.
This is the third hugh wave of the "tsunami" which struck this sad country of 110 million peoples.
With the news of swine flu afflicting Mexico...... tourism, which is one of its biggest source of cash revenues, is now dead. Hotel occupancy in resort destinations like Cancun, in the Caribbean side of the country, is now down to single digit occupancy, i.e. 7% to 8%.
Cross-border traffic and weekend visitors across the U.S.-Mexican border have virtually come to a complete standstill.
Cruise ships which have provided Mexico's coastal port stops... from Puerto Vallarta, Acapulco, Mazatlan, Cabo San Lucas, Zihuatenejo, Conzumel, with steady streams of dollar-spending tourists have stopped plying these ports of call as cruise destinations because of the fear of the swine flu.
Read on the story on how much damage this triple whammy has wrought upon the peoples of Mexico:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/05/03/MNC317CR8L.DTL
It is a sad state of affairs. And the pandemic of swine flu could not have happened at a worse time. Right smack at a time of Cinco de Mayo (May 5th)... Mexico's National Independence Day, a festive celebratory occasion.
The triple whammies of the global financial meltdown triggered by Wall Street and Canary Wharf have unleashed a first wave of tsunami striking at the heart of Mexico's economy. This horrific scenario is worse than the SARS crisis which whacked HKG, Singapore and China before because then, the global financial system was intact, and there was not the added mess created by the pandemic of drugs, heroin, cocaine growing and smuggling which have now beset Mexico and their American and Canadian customers.
With the price of oil plunging, Mexico's oil industry, a major source of state revenues, has been hurting....as demand has shriveled and global oil consumption shrunk.
Furthermore, because of incessant demand and the rampant abuse and ingestion of drugs by the "gringos" in the North, i.e. namely Americans, there erupted an internecine war which has heated up inside Mexico by rival drug growers and smugglers.
The rival drug gangs were emboldened by a weak anti-drug law enforcement policy and a weak U.S.-Mexican border which experienced rampant smuggling of drugs being smuggled from one way across the border from Mexico; and from the other way across from the U.S. to Mexico.... money laundering and high-powered weapons and assault rifles.
There is a largely unreported "hot war" among rival drug cartels inside Mexico which has wracked the Mexican citizenry caught in the crossfire, and the Central government in Mexico is frantically fighting very hard to stomp out the violence.
The U.S. President Barack Obama knows that Americans and American drug users, gun stores, and American proclivity to buy high-powered assault weapons compound and add to the problems of Mexico's fight against the cross-border drug cartels.
And now...... here we go with the horrific news and perilous pandemic of the swine flu.
This is the third hugh wave of the "tsunami" which struck this sad country of 110 million peoples.
With the news of swine flu afflicting Mexico...... tourism, which is one of its biggest source of cash revenues, is now dead. Hotel occupancy in resort destinations like Cancun, in the Caribbean side of the country, is now down to single digit occupancy, i.e. 7% to 8%.
Cross-border traffic and weekend visitors across the U.S.-Mexican border have virtually come to a complete standstill.
Cruise ships which have provided Mexico's coastal port stops... from Puerto Vallarta, Acapulco, Mazatlan, Cabo San Lucas, Zihuatenejo, Conzumel, with steady streams of dollar-spending tourists have stopped plying these ports of call as cruise destinations because of the fear of the swine flu.
Read on the story on how much damage this triple whammy has wrought upon the peoples of Mexico:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/05/03/MNC317CR8L.DTL
Swine flu blues ... while China and HKG act vigorously and vigilantly, gweillos fulminate and attack quarantine as draconian and excessive
The difference in responses and the regimens between China, Singapore,and their Asian-Pacific neighors relative to those government officials in America and Europe demonstrates a major policy and mind gap between the gweillos/ Westerners/Europeans and the Chinese about sleuthing, containing, and eliminating viruses and the spread of communicable diseases.
This difference of approach is based on a fundamental divergence in attitude about worrying about the collective good as an overarching imperative and utmost priority as opposed to worrying about individual rights in the name of privacy and a Europeanized version of "civil liberties" and so-called "human rights."
This fight against the swine flu is playing out with a clear divergence in draconian measures imposed by China and the "PC" position practiced by some Western officials. The Chinese, in my opinion, have had more experiences with containing contagious disease, and their record has always been about the "collective good," i.e. "da qu mien;" not "PC" nor "PR" spin.
Given the Chinese experience and history with SARS, avian flu, and other epidemic, do you blame them ?
In my book, the science of epidemiology is one which is "hit and miss" and requires some luck, and some science. Sleuthing to find the cause and spread of contagious disease is not an exact science.
Respectful scientists can differ; but I would much rather go wrong on the side of overcaution than to go wrong on the side of carelessness and laxness.
China has 1.3 billion inhabitants; and it has some of the densest and most populated cities in the world. Cities like Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen are hubs for international travellers. And given that the swine flu is ascertained to have originated and flared up outside of China, it is logical and prudent for China to act vigorously and vigilantly.
Already, Chinese authorities have quarantined at least 50 Mexican nationals suspected of carrying the swine flu virus and isolated them in their hotels in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou.
This shut-down and draconian measures were executed because the country cannot afford to lose on this. Besides, there does not appear to be a tinge of racism in this.
Anyone with these symptoms or contact with someone with the swine flu are immediately quarantined. And these include Taiwanese, Indians, Singaporeans, Koreans, Japanese, Sri-Lankans, Arabs...... and not just Europeans, Mexicans, Americans. It is the Western news media which are hyping on this controversy and protests by the Europeans and American health authorities, as well as the Mexican foreign minister.
Rather than overemphasize on individual rights, and despite all the fulmigation, Chinese authorities are doing what they have to do in order to fight the spread of this virus, which may have the tendency of mutation and morphing into a more virulent and deadly strain.
Look at the "lock-down" in Mexico city; the Mexican foreign minister has no cause nor bases to protest.
Read the latest about the quarantine inside China inside China, i.e. Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou.
These are densely populated cities, not unlike Mexico City. Cities with over 10 million people packed in subways, streets, alleys, food places.
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Sunday/NewsBreak/20090503153119/Article/index_html
More to the story from MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30471035/
Amazingly, the Red Cross through Atlanta's Center for Disease Control, has a website which also explained the method of containing the spread of viruses, and in it, the use of quarantine is advocated.
http://www.redcross.org/preparedness/cdc_english/IsoQuar.asp
Overall, when you are fighting a fire, or trying to catch a criminal, or fighting an epidemic... you have to do what you have to do.
I think Americans are dumb and stupid and always play the "PC" side.
It applies in identifying suspects in crime and never mentioning their race.
Hey, if the serial bank robber on a crime spree preying on victimns is a Black, White, Brown or a Yellow..... you need to have that information on race in order to catch him. It is only good common sense.
Again, with regard to the swine flu, if more Mexicans come in contact with the virus from Mexican city, is it not logical to identify and isolate them more as potential carriers of the virus ?
Again, we must underscore that along with Mexicans and Europeans, China and HKG are also quaranteeing Taiwanese, Malaysians, SIngaporeans, or anyone who came in contact or were close to the Mexican traveller afflicted with the Swine Flu on that China Eastern Airlines flight from Shanghai to HKG.
That's not "PC;", i.e.playing "political correctnes"; but that is the right thing to do.
HKG epidemiologists ought to be applauded for being thorough and vigilant. HKG's Wanchai, Central, Tsimsatsui, Causeway Bay, Mongkok, Yaumatei, and other densely populated districts are too perilous to take a chance. Imagine if the virus spreads through contact on the underground MRT, or onto the trains headed to Shenzhen and the Pearl River Delta region. All hell freezes when that happens.
Compare Americans with their "PC" bullshit. They have not even introduced thermal imaging equipment at their airports processing international travellers. They even asked their border guards across the U.S.-Mexican not to wear masks in order to be "PC." Wait until the Swine Flu mixed up with the HIV-AIDS virus. Imagine AIDs mixed with the swine flu.
All hell will freeze. When that happens, my butt will be outta San Francisco pronto.
You can have this chi-chi city by the Bay full of loonies, crazies, and uber-liberals. Yesterday,while the rest of the world is fighting this viral scourge, some San Franciscans in the streets were vigorously protesting eating "foie gras" and paraded before a French restaurant, proclaiming that eating "foie gras," i.e. goose liver, is abusing the geese.
Gimme a break.
SingaBore (the derisive term for Singapore) may suck; but better suck than be sorry. :-) I say, worry about the "da qu mien," the collective good.
This difference of approach is based on a fundamental divergence in attitude about worrying about the collective good as an overarching imperative and utmost priority as opposed to worrying about individual rights in the name of privacy and a Europeanized version of "civil liberties" and so-called "human rights."
This fight against the swine flu is playing out with a clear divergence in draconian measures imposed by China and the "PC" position practiced by some Western officials. The Chinese, in my opinion, have had more experiences with containing contagious disease, and their record has always been about the "collective good," i.e. "da qu mien;" not "PC" nor "PR" spin.
Given the Chinese experience and history with SARS, avian flu, and other epidemic, do you blame them ?
In my book, the science of epidemiology is one which is "hit and miss" and requires some luck, and some science. Sleuthing to find the cause and spread of contagious disease is not an exact science.
Respectful scientists can differ; but I would much rather go wrong on the side of overcaution than to go wrong on the side of carelessness and laxness.
China has 1.3 billion inhabitants; and it has some of the densest and most populated cities in the world. Cities like Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen are hubs for international travellers. And given that the swine flu is ascertained to have originated and flared up outside of China, it is logical and prudent for China to act vigorously and vigilantly.
Already, Chinese authorities have quarantined at least 50 Mexican nationals suspected of carrying the swine flu virus and isolated them in their hotels in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou.
This shut-down and draconian measures were executed because the country cannot afford to lose on this. Besides, there does not appear to be a tinge of racism in this.
Anyone with these symptoms or contact with someone with the swine flu are immediately quarantined. And these include Taiwanese, Indians, Singaporeans, Koreans, Japanese, Sri-Lankans, Arabs...... and not just Europeans, Mexicans, Americans. It is the Western news media which are hyping on this controversy and protests by the Europeans and American health authorities, as well as the Mexican foreign minister.
Rather than overemphasize on individual rights, and despite all the fulmigation, Chinese authorities are doing what they have to do in order to fight the spread of this virus, which may have the tendency of mutation and morphing into a more virulent and deadly strain.
Look at the "lock-down" in Mexico city; the Mexican foreign minister has no cause nor bases to protest.
Read the latest about the quarantine inside China inside China, i.e. Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou.
These are densely populated cities, not unlike Mexico City. Cities with over 10 million people packed in subways, streets, alleys, food places.
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Sunday/NewsBreak/20090503153119/Article/index_html
More to the story from MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30471035/
Amazingly, the Red Cross through Atlanta's Center for Disease Control, has a website which also explained the method of containing the spread of viruses, and in it, the use of quarantine is advocated.
http://www.redcross.org/preparedness/cdc_english/IsoQuar.asp
Overall, when you are fighting a fire, or trying to catch a criminal, or fighting an epidemic... you have to do what you have to do.
I think Americans are dumb and stupid and always play the "PC" side.
It applies in identifying suspects in crime and never mentioning their race.
Hey, if the serial bank robber on a crime spree preying on victimns is a Black, White, Brown or a Yellow..... you need to have that information on race in order to catch him. It is only good common sense.
Again, with regard to the swine flu, if more Mexicans come in contact with the virus from Mexican city, is it not logical to identify and isolate them more as potential carriers of the virus ?
Again, we must underscore that along with Mexicans and Europeans, China and HKG are also quaranteeing Taiwanese, Malaysians, SIngaporeans, or anyone who came in contact or were close to the Mexican traveller afflicted with the Swine Flu on that China Eastern Airlines flight from Shanghai to HKG.
That's not "PC;", i.e.playing "political correctnes"; but that is the right thing to do.
HKG epidemiologists ought to be applauded for being thorough and vigilant. HKG's Wanchai, Central, Tsimsatsui, Causeway Bay, Mongkok, Yaumatei, and other densely populated districts are too perilous to take a chance. Imagine if the virus spreads through contact on the underground MRT, or onto the trains headed to Shenzhen and the Pearl River Delta region. All hell freezes when that happens.
Compare Americans with their "PC" bullshit. They have not even introduced thermal imaging equipment at their airports processing international travellers. They even asked their border guards across the U.S.-Mexican not to wear masks in order to be "PC." Wait until the Swine Flu mixed up with the HIV-AIDS virus. Imagine AIDs mixed with the swine flu.
All hell will freeze. When that happens, my butt will be outta San Francisco pronto.
You can have this chi-chi city by the Bay full of loonies, crazies, and uber-liberals. Yesterday,while the rest of the world is fighting this viral scourge, some San Franciscans in the streets were vigorously protesting eating "foie gras" and paraded before a French restaurant, proclaiming that eating "foie gras," i.e. goose liver, is abusing the geese.
Gimme a break.
SingaBore (the derisive term for Singapore) may suck; but better suck than be sorry. :-) I say, worry about the "da qu mien," the collective good.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Mexico's foreign minister reacts angrily to China's quarantine and suspension of flights to and from Mexico City as "discriminatory"
China and four other Latin American countries, i.e. Cuba, Argentina, Ecuador and Peru were angrily denounced by the Mexican foreign minister for undertaking draconian measures to fight the spread of the swine flu.
From Mexico city, the foreign minister angrily advised Mexican nationals not
to travel to China. This was partly in response to draconian measure undertaken by HKG's health officials to quarantine and isolate the Mexican traveller and other foreign tourists in Wanchai's Metro Park hotel, after the Mexican traveller was found to be contaminated by the swine flu after enplaning from Shanghai to HKG flying via China Eastern Airlines.
At the same time, four other Latin countries stopped and suspended Mexican airlines from flying to and from their countries.
These include Cuba, Argentina, Ecuador and Peru.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N02360932.htm
From Mexico city, the foreign minister angrily advised Mexican nationals not
to travel to China. This was partly in response to draconian measure undertaken by HKG's health officials to quarantine and isolate the Mexican traveller and other foreign tourists in Wanchai's Metro Park hotel, after the Mexican traveller was found to be contaminated by the swine flu after enplaning from Shanghai to HKG flying via China Eastern Airlines.
At the same time, four other Latin countries stopped and suspended Mexican airlines from flying to and from their countries.
These include Cuba, Argentina, Ecuador and Peru.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N02360932.htm
Draconian Quarantine in HKG Metropark Hotel in Wanchai --- better be safe than regrets; European guests #*@#!#@
Given HKG and China's past experience with SARS and Avian Flu, the health officials are taking no chances with the swine flu.
The quarantine and lock-down of all hotel guests at Wanchai district's Metropark Hotel after a Mexican national who flew in from Shanghai to HKG after catching swine flu and spreading it on his China Eastern Air flight from Shanghai to HKG is causing a lot of consternation among European guests in the hotel.
Let them fulminate.
Better be safe than have regrets later.
Click on how HKG health authorities are managing this pandemic:
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSHKG2279
The density level in Hong Kong is at par if not worse than in Mexico City, the latter with 20 million in population.
And certainly, across the border in Shenzhen and the Pearl River Delta, there is no room for mistake.
It is imperative that Chinese officials be ever vigilant in taking steps to curb the spread of this swine flu virus. No room for mistake.
The quarantine and lock-down of all hotel guests at Wanchai district's Metropark Hotel after a Mexican national who flew in from Shanghai to HKG after catching swine flu and spreading it on his China Eastern Air flight from Shanghai to HKG is causing a lot of consternation among European guests in the hotel.
Let them fulminate.
Better be safe than have regrets later.
Click on how HKG health authorities are managing this pandemic:
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSHKG2279
The density level in Hong Kong is at par if not worse than in Mexico City, the latter with 20 million in population.
And certainly, across the border in Shenzhen and the Pearl River Delta, there is no room for mistake.
It is imperative that Chinese officials be ever vigilant in taking steps to curb the spread of this swine flu virus. No room for mistake.
The debate between simplified vs. traditional Chinese characters is a non-issue; in fact all Chinese are learning global languages including English
You be the judge.
There is a simmering debate among ethnic Chinese as to whether to use and adopt simplified Chinese or traditional Chinese characters as the "lingua franca" for the 1.5 billion peoples around the world who use, speak, or write Chinese.
To many in the Huaren community overseas, the debate is really moot.
Many of us are fluidly adapting to both simplified Chinese characters, or jiantizi, to the traditional characters, fantizi, with ease.
Piece of cake.
On top of that, the facility and fluency in English, Spanish, and other world languages are increasingly pervasive and prevalent.
I would suggest that Arabic, Farsi, Russian and Hindu are languages that all Huarens in the Diasporic communities all are adapting to.
In a world of globalization, where cultures, businesses, and media are intersecting and evolving, it is imperative that there be impetus to open the door for more languages fluency and adaptation. To close that door to the windows of other cultures is a death knell and not the way to go.
Look at the debate between simplified Chinese and traditional Chinese in the link below:
http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/02/chinese-language-ever-evolving/
There is a simmering debate among ethnic Chinese as to whether to use and adopt simplified Chinese or traditional Chinese characters as the "lingua franca" for the 1.5 billion peoples around the world who use, speak, or write Chinese.
To many in the Huaren community overseas, the debate is really moot.
Many of us are fluidly adapting to both simplified Chinese characters, or jiantizi, to the traditional characters, fantizi, with ease.
Piece of cake.
On top of that, the facility and fluency in English, Spanish, and other world languages are increasingly pervasive and prevalent.
I would suggest that Arabic, Farsi, Russian and Hindu are languages that all Huarens in the Diasporic communities all are adapting to.
In a world of globalization, where cultures, businesses, and media are intersecting and evolving, it is imperative that there be impetus to open the door for more languages fluency and adaptation. To close that door to the windows of other cultures is a death knell and not the way to go.
Look at the debate between simplified Chinese and traditional Chinese in the link below:
http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/02/chinese-language-ever-evolving/
Friday, May 1, 2009
Amid swine flu panic, white racism goes viral directed against Mexicans
The Chinese have been through this before.... with SARS, Avian Flu, the Hong Kong flu, the Taiwan flu etc. etc.
Anytime there is a virus epidemic which flares up, there is invariably an acompanying strain of racism virus which also flares up. and white supremacy and racism comes out of the woodwork.
Consider how some American radio talk show jocks are saying about the swine flu; this outbreak is more pervasive, vicious, and reckless than is being reported:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30467300
Consider another radio talk show host in Boston, Massachusetts and what he said about Mexicans:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/05/01/severin_suspended_for_comments_about_mexican_immigrants/
Remember the recent "peanuts" salmonella contamination which erupted in a warehouse of an American peanut farm and processor in Arkansas ? Or the salmonella poisoning in American-grown lettuce in California's farms ? Or how about "mad cow disease" when the disease erupted in the U.K. and then spread to Canada ?
Did we ever hear the same raving and ranting cacophony or racist diatribes from Asians or the Chinese about this contamination and toxic poisoning erupting in the WEST ? Did the Chinese call "Mad Cow Disease" the "The British virus"?
Talk about double standards. Hubris. Hambug. Haughtiness.
Anytime there is a virus epidemic which flares up, there is invariably an acompanying strain of racism virus which also flares up. and white supremacy and racism comes out of the woodwork.
Consider how some American radio talk show jocks are saying about the swine flu; this outbreak is more pervasive, vicious, and reckless than is being reported:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30467300
Consider another radio talk show host in Boston, Massachusetts and what he said about Mexicans:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/05/01/severin_suspended_for_comments_about_mexican_immigrants/
Remember the recent "peanuts" salmonella contamination which erupted in a warehouse of an American peanut farm and processor in Arkansas ? Or the salmonella poisoning in American-grown lettuce in California's farms ? Or how about "mad cow disease" when the disease erupted in the U.K. and then spread to Canada ?
Did we ever hear the same raving and ranting cacophony or racist diatribes from Asians or the Chinese about this contamination and toxic poisoning erupting in the WEST ? Did the Chinese call "Mad Cow Disease" the "The British virus"?
Talk about double standards. Hubris. Hambug. Haughtiness.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Carnage in Holland - Euro went berserk plows through 20 targeting Dutch royals in parade
An overheated European society gone amuck.
As if the scourge of swine flu contaminating the world and threatening public health is bad news enough, a man going amuck plowed through 20 spectators in a parade in Holland targeting the Dutch royals, killing 5 Dutch.
Sign of our times.... Europe crumbling from within.
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Car-Careers-Into-Crowd-Watching-Dutch-Queen-Beatrixs-Royal-Motorcade-in-Apeldoorn-Holland/Article/200904415272530?lpos=World_News_Carousel_Region_1&lid=ARTICLE_15272530_Car_Careers_Into_Crowd_Watching_Dutch_Queen_Beatrixs_Royal_Motorcade_in_Apeldoorn%2C_Holland
As if the scourge of swine flu contaminating the world and threatening public health is bad news enough, a man going amuck plowed through 20 spectators in a parade in Holland targeting the Dutch royals, killing 5 Dutch.
Sign of our times.... Europe crumbling from within.
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Car-Careers-Into-Crowd-Watching-Dutch-Queen-Beatrixs-Royal-Motorcade-in-Apeldoorn-Holland/Article/200904415272530?lpos=World_News_Carousel_Region_1&lid=ARTICLE_15272530_Car_Careers_Into_Crowd_Watching_Dutch_Queen_Beatrixs_Royal_Motorcade_in_Apeldoorn%2C_Holland
Western hubris over the effectiveness of airport thermal imaging machines vs. swine flu detection
Let's face it.... the installation of thermal imaging machines in Asian-Pacific international airports to screen air passengers for fever is one measure being undertaken to detect and prevent the spread of the swine flu.
Asians are quantum leaps ahead compared to the Americans in using these US$ 50,000"Made in Singapore" machines built by Singapore Technologies Electronics.
To their discredit... and American hubris, none of these machines are being used in U.S. airports... from Los Angeles to Chicago, Atlanta to New York City.
Nada. None. No thermal imaging machines.
Yet, many Europeans and Americans including those from the World Health Organization (WHO) are poo-pooing the effectiveness of these machines in detecting swine flu.
See what they have to say:
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.f2748afa0a7f6e5a9ac54f23fbbf5942.41&show_article=1
Asians are quantum leaps ahead compared to the Americans in using these US$ 50,000"Made in Singapore" machines built by Singapore Technologies Electronics.
To their discredit... and American hubris, none of these machines are being used in U.S. airports... from Los Angeles to Chicago, Atlanta to New York City.
Nada. None. No thermal imaging machines.
Yet, many Europeans and Americans including those from the World Health Organization (WHO) are poo-pooing the effectiveness of these machines in detecting swine flu.
See what they have to say:
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.f2748afa0a7f6e5a9ac54f23fbbf5942.41&show_article=1
Playing the West like a virtuoso with a fiddle - the Dalai Lama plays the "America Card" in campuses from Berkeley to Boston on a "Shangri-la" theme
By "westernizing" his relentless campaign riding on the wave of 'China Bashing" and "Chinese Demonization" in the West, the Dalai Lama is increasingly getting bold and reckless in his gambit to re-establish his theocratic rule in the land of his birth.
Trouble is.... the more he spun... and the more he captures the imagination of Westerners..... the more he raised hackles and resentment from the Chinese inside and outside of China, including many Huarens in the ethnic overseas Diaspora.
This devious political monk is trying to "westernize" his fight, while he is finding that his base inside China and inside Zizhang (aka Tibet) province is fast eroding and evaporating.
The Dalai Lama is worshipped in the West; his market is in the West where he is treated like a rock star, more popular than Mick Jagger. But inside China, his name is now mud.
Desperate times call for desperate moves.
From his base in Dharamsala, the political monk in saffron robe, backed by his Western backers, are relentlessly scheming, planning, scripting, staging, and amplifying their "bad-mouthing" and vicious "China bashing" and "Chinese demonization" campaign, and pressing all the buttons to attempt to cajole, pressure, and arm-twist Chinese officials to allow his theoracy the right to re-implant its roots anew in once feudal Zizhang, aka Tibet.
The footprints are evidencing the pushing of the "I" word, i.e. Independence, while mouthing superficially the "A" word, i.e. autonomy.
Since early last year, in the lead-up to the Beijing Olympics Games opening on August 8, 2008, the vicious campaign to derail and "bad-mouth" China, orchestrated by Western governments, with their news media flacks and ratpacks, with the Dalai Lama as "prop" to burnish and validate their PR war, has been incessant and relentless.
And this year, in the lead-up to China's 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1, 2009, the game plan is already being executed.
The scripted, rehearsal "trial run" of the Dalai Lama, with his "bad-mouthing" campaign was carried last week, first with a visit to California, with stops in liberal campuses in Santa Barbara and in Berkeley.
The "PR" campaign is disingenious. Talk "spirituality;" but do "politics" in action.
And stick it to China with that mischievious laughter that is insidious to White people. White folks love a bald man in monk's robe mouthing subtle esoteric "words of wisdom"
But the signs in Europe are not conducive to the Dalai Lama. Germany's Merkel... then Britain's Brown, and now France's Sarkozy are all caving and shifting course. From the blind support heretofore extended to the Dalai Lama, they are now changing colours and reaffirming China's sovereignty over Zizhang (Tibet) province.
That being the case, the Dalai Lama is now looking to the Barack Obama White House and the liberal Obamaniac bandwagon and constituency in America for his support.
The eye on the prize is to finniggle a "photo-op" with Barack Obama in the White House to burnish the cause of the Dalai Lama and Team Tibet-Shangri-la.
And last week, the launching of this new "PR" campaign on the lead-up to October, 2009 saw its first dress rehearsal in California, first in Santa Barbara and next in the San Francisco Bay Area. The road show wound its way to another Obamaniac bastion, the Boston school area around Harvard, MIT and Boston College.
The ostensible purpose is to promote Tibetan buddhism and spirituality, the hidden agenda to to push Tibetan-Shangri-la independence and the restoration of the Lama theocracy in Zizhang Province.
In the politically putrid environment that is America today, with its economy in near collaspe, and with Johnny Six-Pack and Soccer Jane Mom in dire financial straits, their kids with a college degree facing joblessness, and God knows what is in store... as more corporate banruptcies and bank failures erupt, the notion of a "Spiritual Demi-God" in the form of a stereotypical Swami who can levitate and give ad-hominems are indeed very uplifting and lends a palliative away from economic and spiritual pain.
And here goes the Dalai Lama... with a cult-like "Rock Star" status, and the Westerners lap it all up. :-) There's indeed Nirvana in t'ham t'har SHANGRI-LA!
The land where the Lamas can levitate and lend succor to those stressed out and sitressed from the vulgarity and vacuousness of Western living. Westerners are up to their "yin-yang" in despair, and any relief from someone who appeared and seemed mystic, mythical, and exotic is deemed appropriate and desirable, and certainly much better than alcohol or valium.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/04/30/in_local_visit_dalai_lama_takes_firm_stance_on_china/?page=full
After reading the above, try reading the following blog:
http://www.georgekoo.blogspot.com/
Trouble is.... the more he spun... and the more he captures the imagination of Westerners..... the more he raised hackles and resentment from the Chinese inside and outside of China, including many Huarens in the ethnic overseas Diaspora.
This devious political monk is trying to "westernize" his fight, while he is finding that his base inside China and inside Zizhang (aka Tibet) province is fast eroding and evaporating.
The Dalai Lama is worshipped in the West; his market is in the West where he is treated like a rock star, more popular than Mick Jagger. But inside China, his name is now mud.
Desperate times call for desperate moves.
From his base in Dharamsala, the political monk in saffron robe, backed by his Western backers, are relentlessly scheming, planning, scripting, staging, and amplifying their "bad-mouthing" and vicious "China bashing" and "Chinese demonization" campaign, and pressing all the buttons to attempt to cajole, pressure, and arm-twist Chinese officials to allow his theoracy the right to re-implant its roots anew in once feudal Zizhang, aka Tibet.
The footprints are evidencing the pushing of the "I" word, i.e. Independence, while mouthing superficially the "A" word, i.e. autonomy.
Since early last year, in the lead-up to the Beijing Olympics Games opening on August 8, 2008, the vicious campaign to derail and "bad-mouth" China, orchestrated by Western governments, with their news media flacks and ratpacks, with the Dalai Lama as "prop" to burnish and validate their PR war, has been incessant and relentless.
And this year, in the lead-up to China's 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1, 2009, the game plan is already being executed.
The scripted, rehearsal "trial run" of the Dalai Lama, with his "bad-mouthing" campaign was carried last week, first with a visit to California, with stops in liberal campuses in Santa Barbara and in Berkeley.
The "PR" campaign is disingenious. Talk "spirituality;" but do "politics" in action.
And stick it to China with that mischievious laughter that is insidious to White people. White folks love a bald man in monk's robe mouthing subtle esoteric "words of wisdom"
But the signs in Europe are not conducive to the Dalai Lama. Germany's Merkel... then Britain's Brown, and now France's Sarkozy are all caving and shifting course. From the blind support heretofore extended to the Dalai Lama, they are now changing colours and reaffirming China's sovereignty over Zizhang (Tibet) province.
That being the case, the Dalai Lama is now looking to the Barack Obama White House and the liberal Obamaniac bandwagon and constituency in America for his support.
The eye on the prize is to finniggle a "photo-op" with Barack Obama in the White House to burnish the cause of the Dalai Lama and Team Tibet-Shangri-la.
And last week, the launching of this new "PR" campaign on the lead-up to October, 2009 saw its first dress rehearsal in California, first in Santa Barbara and next in the San Francisco Bay Area. The road show wound its way to another Obamaniac bastion, the Boston school area around Harvard, MIT and Boston College.
The ostensible purpose is to promote Tibetan buddhism and spirituality, the hidden agenda to to push Tibetan-Shangri-la independence and the restoration of the Lama theocracy in Zizhang Province.
In the politically putrid environment that is America today, with its economy in near collaspe, and with Johnny Six-Pack and Soccer Jane Mom in dire financial straits, their kids with a college degree facing joblessness, and God knows what is in store... as more corporate banruptcies and bank failures erupt, the notion of a "Spiritual Demi-God" in the form of a stereotypical Swami who can levitate and give ad-hominems are indeed very uplifting and lends a palliative away from economic and spiritual pain.
And here goes the Dalai Lama... with a cult-like "Rock Star" status, and the Westerners lap it all up. :-) There's indeed Nirvana in t'ham t'har SHANGRI-LA!
The land where the Lamas can levitate and lend succor to those stressed out and sitressed from the vulgarity and vacuousness of Western living. Westerners are up to their "yin-yang" in despair, and any relief from someone who appeared and seemed mystic, mythical, and exotic is deemed appropriate and desirable, and certainly much better than alcohol or valium.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/04/30/in_local_visit_dalai_lama_takes_firm_stance_on_china/?page=full
After reading the above, try reading the following blog:
http://www.georgekoo.blogspot.com/
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Swine Flu pandemic spreads -- is it cause for alarm ? Some tips to avoid catching the virus
Here's what you need to know about Swine Flu :
Q: How do I protect myself and my family?
A: For now, take commonsense precautions. Cover your coughs and sneezes, with a tissue that you throw away or by sneezing into your elbow rather than your hand. Wash hands frequently; if soap and water aren't available, hand gels can substitute. Stay home if you're sick and keep children home from school if they are.
Q: How easy is it to catch this virus?
A: Scientists don't yet know if it takes fairly close or prolonged contact with someone who's sick, or if it's more easily spread. But in general, flu viruses spread through uncovered coughs and sneezes or — and this is important — by touching your mouth or nose with unwashed hands. Flu viruses can live on surfaces for several hours, like a doorknob just touched by someone who sneezed into his hand.
Q: In Mexico, officials are handing out face masks. Do I need one?
A: The CDC says there's not good evidence that masks really help outside of health care settings. It's safer just to avoid close contact with someone who's sick and avoid crowded gatherings in places where swine flu is known to be spreading. But if you can't do that, CDC guidelines say it's OK to consider a mask — just don't let it substitute for good precautions.
Q: Is swine flu treatable?
A: Yes, with the flu drugs Tamiflu or Relenza, but not with two older flu medications.
Q: Is there enough?
A: Yes. The federal government has stockpiled enough of the drugs to treat 50 million people, and many states have additional stocks. As a precaution, the CDC has shipped a quarter of that supply to the states to keep on hand just in case the virus starts spreading more than it has so far.
Q: Should I take Tamiflu as a precaution if I'm not sick yet?
A: No. "What are you going to do with it, use it when you get a sniffle?" asks Dr. Marc Siegel of New York University Langone Medical Center and author of "Bird Flu: Everything you Need To Know About The Next Pandemic." Overusing antiviral drugs can help germs become resistant to them.
Q: How big is my risk?
A: For most people, very low. Outside of Mexico, so far clusters of illnesses seem related to Mexican travel. New York City's cluster, for instance, consists of students and family members at one school where some students came back ill from spring break in Mexico.
Q: Why are people dying in Mexico and not here?
A: That's a mystery. First, understand that no one really knows just how many people in Mexico are dying of this flu strain, or how many have it. Only a fraction of the suspected deaths have been tested and confirmed as swine flu, and some initially suspected cases were caused by something else.
Q: Should I cancel my planned trip to Mexico?
A: The U.S. did issue a travel advisory Monday discouraging nonessential travel there.
Q: What else is the U.S., or anyone else, doing to try to stop this virus?
A: The U.S. is beginning limited screening of travelers from Mexico, so that the obviously sick can be sent for treatment. Other governments have issued their own travel warnings and restrictions. Mexico is taking the biggest steps, closings that limit most crowded gatherings. In the U.S., communities with clusters of illness also may limit contact — New York closed the affected school for a few days, for example — so stay tuned to hear if your area eventually is affected.
Q: What are the symptoms?
A: They're similar to regular human flu — a fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. Some people also have diarrhea and vomiting.
Q: How do I know if I should see a doctor? Maybe my symptoms are from something else — like pollen?
A: Health authorities say if you live in places where swine flu cases have been confirmed, or you recently traveled to Mexico, and you have flulike symptoms, ask your doctor if you need treatment or to be tested. Allergies won't cause a fever. And run-of-the-mill stomach bugs won't be accompanied by respiratory symptoms, notes Dr. Wayne Reynolds of Newport News, Va., spokesman for the American Academy of Family Physicians.
Q: Is there a vaccine to prevent this new infection?
A: No. And CDC's initial testing suggests that last winter's flu shot didn't offer any cross-protection.
Q: How long would it take to produce a vaccine?
A: A few months. The CDC has created what's called "seed stock" of the new virus that manufacturers would need to start production. But the government hasn't yet decided if the outbreak is bad enough to order that.
Q: What is swine flu?
A: Pigs spread their own strains of influenza and every so often people catch one, usually after contact with the animals. This new strain is a mix of pig viruses with some human and bird viruses. Unlike more typical swine flu, it is spreading person-to-person. A 1976 outbreak of another unusual swine flu at Fort Dix, N.J., prompted a problematic mass vaccination campaign, but that time the flu fizzled out.
Q: So is it safe to eat pork?
A: Yes. Swine influenza viruses don't spread through food.
Q: And whatever happened to bird flu? Wasn't that supposed to be the next pandemic?
A: Specialists have long warned that the issue is a never-before-seen strain that people have little if any natural immunity to, regardless of whether it seems to originate from a bird or a pig. Bird flu hasn't gone away; scientists are tracking it, too.
___
EDITOR's NOTE — Lauran Neergaard covers health and medical issues for The Associated Press in Washington.
Q: How do I protect myself and my family?
A: For now, take commonsense precautions. Cover your coughs and sneezes, with a tissue that you throw away or by sneezing into your elbow rather than your hand. Wash hands frequently; if soap and water aren't available, hand gels can substitute. Stay home if you're sick and keep children home from school if they are.
Q: How easy is it to catch this virus?
A: Scientists don't yet know if it takes fairly close or prolonged contact with someone who's sick, or if it's more easily spread. But in general, flu viruses spread through uncovered coughs and sneezes or — and this is important — by touching your mouth or nose with unwashed hands. Flu viruses can live on surfaces for several hours, like a doorknob just touched by someone who sneezed into his hand.
Q: In Mexico, officials are handing out face masks. Do I need one?
A: The CDC says there's not good evidence that masks really help outside of health care settings. It's safer just to avoid close contact with someone who's sick and avoid crowded gatherings in places where swine flu is known to be spreading. But if you can't do that, CDC guidelines say it's OK to consider a mask — just don't let it substitute for good precautions.
Q: Is swine flu treatable?
A: Yes, with the flu drugs Tamiflu or Relenza, but not with two older flu medications.
Q: Is there enough?
A: Yes. The federal government has stockpiled enough of the drugs to treat 50 million people, and many states have additional stocks. As a precaution, the CDC has shipped a quarter of that supply to the states to keep on hand just in case the virus starts spreading more than it has so far.
Q: Should I take Tamiflu as a precaution if I'm not sick yet?
A: No. "What are you going to do with it, use it when you get a sniffle?" asks Dr. Marc Siegel of New York University Langone Medical Center and author of "Bird Flu: Everything you Need To Know About The Next Pandemic." Overusing antiviral drugs can help germs become resistant to them.
Q: How big is my risk?
A: For most people, very low. Outside of Mexico, so far clusters of illnesses seem related to Mexican travel. New York City's cluster, for instance, consists of students and family members at one school where some students came back ill from spring break in Mexico.
Q: Why are people dying in Mexico and not here?
A: That's a mystery. First, understand that no one really knows just how many people in Mexico are dying of this flu strain, or how many have it. Only a fraction of the suspected deaths have been tested and confirmed as swine flu, and some initially suspected cases were caused by something else.
Q: Should I cancel my planned trip to Mexico?
A: The U.S. did issue a travel advisory Monday discouraging nonessential travel there.
Q: What else is the U.S., or anyone else, doing to try to stop this virus?
A: The U.S. is beginning limited screening of travelers from Mexico, so that the obviously sick can be sent for treatment. Other governments have issued their own travel warnings and restrictions. Mexico is taking the biggest steps, closings that limit most crowded gatherings. In the U.S., communities with clusters of illness also may limit contact — New York closed the affected school for a few days, for example — so stay tuned to hear if your area eventually is affected.
Q: What are the symptoms?
A: They're similar to regular human flu — a fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. Some people also have diarrhea and vomiting.
Q: How do I know if I should see a doctor? Maybe my symptoms are from something else — like pollen?
A: Health authorities say if you live in places where swine flu cases have been confirmed, or you recently traveled to Mexico, and you have flulike symptoms, ask your doctor if you need treatment or to be tested. Allergies won't cause a fever. And run-of-the-mill stomach bugs won't be accompanied by respiratory symptoms, notes Dr. Wayne Reynolds of Newport News, Va., spokesman for the American Academy of Family Physicians.
Q: Is there a vaccine to prevent this new infection?
A: No. And CDC's initial testing suggests that last winter's flu shot didn't offer any cross-protection.
Q: How long would it take to produce a vaccine?
A: A few months. The CDC has created what's called "seed stock" of the new virus that manufacturers would need to start production. But the government hasn't yet decided if the outbreak is bad enough to order that.
Q: What is swine flu?
A: Pigs spread their own strains of influenza and every so often people catch one, usually after contact with the animals. This new strain is a mix of pig viruses with some human and bird viruses. Unlike more typical swine flu, it is spreading person-to-person. A 1976 outbreak of another unusual swine flu at Fort Dix, N.J., prompted a problematic mass vaccination campaign, but that time the flu fizzled out.
Q: So is it safe to eat pork?
A: Yes. Swine influenza viruses don't spread through food.
Q: And whatever happened to bird flu? Wasn't that supposed to be the next pandemic?
A: Specialists have long warned that the issue is a never-before-seen strain that people have little if any natural immunity to, regardless of whether it seems to originate from a bird or a pig. Bird flu hasn't gone away; scientists are tracking it, too.
___
EDITOR's NOTE — Lauran Neergaard covers health and medical issues for The Associated Press in Washington.
Is it "ultra-nationalism" or is it cleansing China and its people of a genuflecting, craven "neocolonial mentality" - the "yellow monkey" syndrome
The residues of Western imperialism and colonialism a century after gunboat diplomacy, the Opium War, the establishment of foreign concessions and colonies in China and Asia continue to linger and linger and morphed into new viruses of "neo-colonialism" and "neo-colonial mentality" among ethnic Chinese and their fellow Asians.
This proposition is no less true with Asians from the ASEAN countries, whose mentality remains weaned on the notion that "Western means Superior;" or what I have often derisively belittled as "The Western Fart smells more fragrant" mentality.
I have been in China many times and in many high-end luxury hotels, the disparate treatment being accorded by Chinese hotel staff towards Western guests, relative to Chinese guests or other non-Western guests, are dramatically and qualitatively different.
It is not just that "suck up" "kiss White ass" attitude which continually annoys me, especially in the country of one's own roots.
Yellow people should cleanse themselves of any residue of this craven, sick "colonial" and "neo-colonial" suck-up mentality.
Lately, you will noticed that among Western bloggers, including those European, UK and White students, scholars, and visitors to China, living in China... there remains this hubris, arrogance, and condescending attitude that somehow, the ethnic Chinese is less than or inferior to the Westerners.
And many ethnic Chinese, inside and outside China, cravenly and passively accept this "inferior" status.
These days, a few bloggers in the net, myself included, many ethnic Chinese living overseas, are beginning to sound off and raise hackles about this.
We are being branded and tagged as "ultra-nationalists" or "ultra-patriots" or "extremists" by many Western pundits and their Chinese "gungadins" and "spearcarriers" inside and outside China.
Let's not kid ourselves.... among China's current officialdom... there remains a lot of "compradores" and "colonials" in their midst.
The seeming attitude is: " West is infinitely superior; West is absolutely better. We must imitate the WEST."
As Huarens in the ethnic Chinese overseas Diaspora, we must call these Chinese officials on this "yellow monkey syndrome" be they from Beijing, Taipei, HKG or Macau.
This campaign to rid China and its people of the "residues" of Western imperialism and colonialism in China and the rest of Asia will take generations. And all Huarens must be vigilant, persistent and relentless in fighting for the humanity and self-dignity of the Chinese and their fellow Asians... under the principles of mutual respect, reciprocity, and non-interference in each country's internal political affairs.
Western hubris, arrogance and bullying must be curbed and exorcised.
The proponents who agree with the authors of "China is not happy" have a point. All decent Chinese with an iota of sense of Chinese history and civilizational roots in their vein have a right not to be happy, but be unhappy at some of the social cultural winds of the "yellow monkey syndrome" blowing inside China today.
This proposition is no less true with Asians from the ASEAN countries, whose mentality remains weaned on the notion that "Western means Superior;" or what I have often derisively belittled as "The Western Fart smells more fragrant" mentality.
I have been in China many times and in many high-end luxury hotels, the disparate treatment being accorded by Chinese hotel staff towards Western guests, relative to Chinese guests or other non-Western guests, are dramatically and qualitatively different.
It is not just that "suck up" "kiss White ass" attitude which continually annoys me, especially in the country of one's own roots.
Yellow people should cleanse themselves of any residue of this craven, sick "colonial" and "neo-colonial" suck-up mentality.
Lately, you will noticed that among Western bloggers, including those European, UK and White students, scholars, and visitors to China, living in China... there remains this hubris, arrogance, and condescending attitude that somehow, the ethnic Chinese is less than or inferior to the Westerners.
And many ethnic Chinese, inside and outside China, cravenly and passively accept this "inferior" status.
These days, a few bloggers in the net, myself included, many ethnic Chinese living overseas, are beginning to sound off and raise hackles about this.
We are being branded and tagged as "ultra-nationalists" or "ultra-patriots" or "extremists" by many Western pundits and their Chinese "gungadins" and "spearcarriers" inside and outside China.
Let's not kid ourselves.... among China's current officialdom... there remains a lot of "compradores" and "colonials" in their midst.
The seeming attitude is: " West is infinitely superior; West is absolutely better. We must imitate the WEST."
As Huarens in the ethnic Chinese overseas Diaspora, we must call these Chinese officials on this "yellow monkey syndrome" be they from Beijing, Taipei, HKG or Macau.
This campaign to rid China and its people of the "residues" of Western imperialism and colonialism in China and the rest of Asia will take generations. And all Huarens must be vigilant, persistent and relentless in fighting for the humanity and self-dignity of the Chinese and their fellow Asians... under the principles of mutual respect, reciprocity, and non-interference in each country's internal political affairs.
Western hubris, arrogance and bullying must be curbed and exorcised.
The proponents who agree with the authors of "China is not happy" have a point. All decent Chinese with an iota of sense of Chinese history and civilizational roots in their vein have a right not to be happy, but be unhappy at some of the social cultural winds of the "yellow monkey syndrome" blowing inside China today.
Monday, April 27, 2009
The "Cult of the Dalai Lama" warps the Western-European view and distorts their view about Tibet,their mythical spiritual non-existent "Shangri-la."
The "cult of the Dolly" is intensifying in the WEST.
In these trying tough times when civil society is unraveling in Europe, the United Kingdom and in the United States of America, the spiritual vapidness and emptiness of white European people, faced with a bleak dire economic future, the financial collaspe of Wall Street and Canary Wharf, American and Europeans are gasping for some air, succor, and some upliftment from their politically putrid society in dire economic times of high-stress.
The cult of the Dolly," exuding that faraway land of Nirvana, of spiritual upliftment and levitation, of the "Swami" who can bring relief, like Rollaids and those hemmorhoid tablets, has become the mantra for many white people from America and Europe. And many are naive but obsessed with Oriental mysticism and spirituality.
The bald man in saffron rope fits that stereotype of a "spiritual demi-God" and "Superhuman." And those "lame-brained" Hollywood moguls, hooked on dope, in their white supremacist ignorance, provide top billing to that Holy Man and keep spinning this "snake oil" pitch about the mythical, non-existent "Shangri-la." The imagery is spun along this naivite ..... The Messiah or the spiritual monk who can uplift the Westerners from their abject life of vulgarity, vacuousness, vapid spirituality in a political putrid environment. In horrifically bad times, this fanatical worship becomes a "cult."
Just look at some of the spin evident in the latest news media in American media scripting, spinning, and shaping their story of the Dolly.
The "cult of the Dolly" defies logic. And for us Asians.... it just points to the dumb insularity, and racialistic naivite of many whites living in the WEST, especially Europe, America, Canada, Australia. Only on the issue of the Dolly, this racism is a maniacal, obsessive blind worship of a bald man whose feet are to be smelled... never mind that the Dolly is a glutton whose gall bladder was recently removed because of a high-fat diet on high-choleterol meat.
And here our MAN from Dharamsala is proclaiming a life of poverty, asceticism, and spirituality which the White Man absolutely adores and blindly worships. Never mind that high-fat diet and the gall bladder operation. Let's be blunt.... our monk from Dharamsala is not "homeless" but living "high" off of CIA subsidies and peddling "snake oil" to a putrid WEST.
In turn, those who are critical of the Lamas and their feudal history are attacked; and in that offensive, the Western fanatics behind TEAM TIBET SHANGRI-LA conjure up all those imagery of the yellow horde... those slin-eyed, demons and devils from the Hans, led by Athila the Han, who are torturing their Holly Man, their Moses and his flock.
Rubbish.... fanaticism, like the cults which spring up from time to time here in America... from Hollywood's stereotypical imagery of the spiritual "Swami" to a bald-headed monk who can levitate and mouth "words of wisdom" albeit in broken English and with a strong accent. :-)
But try convincing a blind Dolly worshiper in the WEST that there's hypocrisy in this silly "Cult of the Dolly."
You will be lucky if you don't get crucified and get nailed to the cross of American hysterical public opinion. For being a heretic. For promoting heresay.
Dumb society. Dumb politics. A society of ignoramuses, thieves, scoundrels, and cultural philistines.
Welcome to Amerika... an increadingly "dumbed-down society" and a politically and culturally putrid environment. It shows in publications like the New York Times with their "China bashers" working within that news organization.
And here the Americans are accusing China of having a "closed society."
Incidentally, didn't the Chinese go through their own "Cult of Mao Zedong" in its recent contemporary history.
Instead of the "Red Guards," just change the color to "Saffron." They are one and the same except as to choice of colours.
Click on:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/opinion/27iht-edchina.html?hpw
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/26/BAHP17961C.DTL
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j8MUYDcv-2gpNVzEJF-6qtlTWP5w
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gUdUvyJms9c7N7yBCMNL3yAcsIKwD97QI1UG1
In these trying tough times when civil society is unraveling in Europe, the United Kingdom and in the United States of America, the spiritual vapidness and emptiness of white European people, faced with a bleak dire economic future, the financial collaspe of Wall Street and Canary Wharf, American and Europeans are gasping for some air, succor, and some upliftment from their politically putrid society in dire economic times of high-stress.
The cult of the Dolly," exuding that faraway land of Nirvana, of spiritual upliftment and levitation, of the "Swami" who can bring relief, like Rollaids and those hemmorhoid tablets, has become the mantra for many white people from America and Europe. And many are naive but obsessed with Oriental mysticism and spirituality.
The bald man in saffron rope fits that stereotype of a "spiritual demi-God" and "Superhuman." And those "lame-brained" Hollywood moguls, hooked on dope, in their white supremacist ignorance, provide top billing to that Holy Man and keep spinning this "snake oil" pitch about the mythical, non-existent "Shangri-la." The imagery is spun along this naivite ..... The Messiah or the spiritual monk who can uplift the Westerners from their abject life of vulgarity, vacuousness, vapid spirituality in a political putrid environment. In horrifically bad times, this fanatical worship becomes a "cult."
Just look at some of the spin evident in the latest news media in American media scripting, spinning, and shaping their story of the Dolly.
The "cult of the Dolly" defies logic. And for us Asians.... it just points to the dumb insularity, and racialistic naivite of many whites living in the WEST, especially Europe, America, Canada, Australia. Only on the issue of the Dolly, this racism is a maniacal, obsessive blind worship of a bald man whose feet are to be smelled... never mind that the Dolly is a glutton whose gall bladder was recently removed because of a high-fat diet on high-choleterol meat.
And here our MAN from Dharamsala is proclaiming a life of poverty, asceticism, and spirituality which the White Man absolutely adores and blindly worships. Never mind that high-fat diet and the gall bladder operation. Let's be blunt.... our monk from Dharamsala is not "homeless" but living "high" off of CIA subsidies and peddling "snake oil" to a putrid WEST.
In turn, those who are critical of the Lamas and their feudal history are attacked; and in that offensive, the Western fanatics behind TEAM TIBET SHANGRI-LA conjure up all those imagery of the yellow horde... those slin-eyed, demons and devils from the Hans, led by Athila the Han, who are torturing their Holly Man, their Moses and his flock.
Rubbish.... fanaticism, like the cults which spring up from time to time here in America... from Hollywood's stereotypical imagery of the spiritual "Swami" to a bald-headed monk who can levitate and mouth "words of wisdom" albeit in broken English and with a strong accent. :-)
But try convincing a blind Dolly worshiper in the WEST that there's hypocrisy in this silly "Cult of the Dolly."
You will be lucky if you don't get crucified and get nailed to the cross of American hysterical public opinion. For being a heretic. For promoting heresay.
Dumb society. Dumb politics. A society of ignoramuses, thieves, scoundrels, and cultural philistines.
Welcome to Amerika... an increadingly "dumbed-down society" and a politically and culturally putrid environment. It shows in publications like the New York Times with their "China bashers" working within that news organization.
And here the Americans are accusing China of having a "closed society."
Incidentally, didn't the Chinese go through their own "Cult of Mao Zedong" in its recent contemporary history.
Instead of the "Red Guards," just change the color to "Saffron." They are one and the same except as to choice of colours.
Click on:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/opinion/27iht-edchina.html?hpw
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/26/BAHP17961C.DTL
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j8MUYDcv-2gpNVzEJF-6qtlTWP5w
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gUdUvyJms9c7N7yBCMNL3yAcsIKwD97QI1UG1
The countdown to the dwindlling diminution of American print newspapers amind losing circulation and losing advertisers
The writing is on the wall.... the steady decline of print newspaper circulation all across America... and how many heretofore major print newspaper organizations such as the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Gannett are facing the looming prospect of dwindling circulation and advertising, and running out of cash.
As I took my public transporation this morning on my way to work in San Francisco downtown, there was a young Latino street worker handing out free copies of the San Francisco Examiner, a tabloid-size free newspaper that is now besieging the San Francisco Chronicle... the latter losing money steadily and facing the prospect of continuing economic woes and hemmorrhaging.
American newspapers, as we know it, are likely to be completely transformed in the forseable future. These "red inks" can't go on forever.
Picture the scenario as reported in the net:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/US-newspaper-circulation-sees-apf-15039695.html?.v=6
Here's a breakdown of the List of American daily newspapers and their dwindling circulation:
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003966608
Let's face it..... Fact is today our American Johnnys and Janes are no longer reading print newspapers... nor care to be informed nor stay informed.
As I took my public transporation this morning on my way to work in San Francisco downtown, there was a young Latino street worker handing out free copies of the San Francisco Examiner, a tabloid-size free newspaper that is now besieging the San Francisco Chronicle... the latter losing money steadily and facing the prospect of continuing economic woes and hemmorrhaging.
American newspapers, as we know it, are likely to be completely transformed in the forseable future. These "red inks" can't go on forever.
Picture the scenario as reported in the net:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/US-newspaper-circulation-sees-apf-15039695.html?.v=6
Here's a breakdown of the List of American daily newspapers and their dwindling circulation:
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003966608
Let's face it..... Fact is today our American Johnnys and Janes are no longer reading print newspapers... nor care to be informed nor stay informed.
Retirement pension plans - the "safety net" and "eggs nest" accorded American workers now besieged and under severe stress and getting wobbly
The grim economic news today is being compounded further by the spread of swine flu and the potential health hazard of a global virus pandemic which threatens humankind.
Everyone is getting very skittish and paranoid about the Swine Flu; and public health officials all over the world are closely monitoring, mobilizing, and organizing massive publc health resources to combat the spread and contamination of this public health scourge.
That said, with clear problems surging to the forefront about public health, there is clearly a systemic breakdown and hugh crisis confronting the globe, and most especially the developed nations in the WEST, of colossal proportions.
It extends beyond joblessness to the collaspe of health care coverage, costs of insurance, and now the looming crisis of corporate failures and bankruptcies and how these would impact the millions of aging and retired workers in American and European companies.
This crisis is particularly acute in America's auto industry.
With GM, Chrysler poised to becoming insolvent, and bankruptcies looming, we are facing an "out of control" Mack truck, without brakes careenng out of control in the highway.... and that is the pension plans and benefits which heretofore have borne the burden of taking care of retired auto workers, and their suppliers from top to bottom of the "food chain."
It is estimated that for every American automobile that is being manufactured and head out from Detroit's assembly line, a gross figure estimated to be around US$ 1,500.00 must be paid to provide the pension benefits of those retired auto workers who no longer work the assemblies. They called these "legacy costs"; and they are a a burdensome drag which is making the U.S. auto industry belly up and become uncompetitive.
All down the auto industry labor food chain, there is tremendous stresses and pain being felt. Legacy costs, labor costs, materials costs, and the overall systemic collaspe of the Western-European economic system of unbriddled greed and unfettered capitalism.
In sum, with the looming meltdown and collaspe of GM and Chrysler, we are looking down the line at the collaspe of America's pension system, both publicluy-financed federal social security of its state counterparts, such as the one in California called CALPERS.
Worse, those private pension plans previoulsy guaranteed under The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., a government agency created (after lobbying by the United Auto Workers) in 1974,insuring these corporate pension plans, are getting wobbly and facing prospects of insolvency.
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation currently insures 29,000 pension plans -- down from 114,000 plans in 1985.
As the population of many developed countries age and keeping getting older, including Japan, Europe, and the United States of America, we are looking at the dire prospects of a collaspe of pensions systems, as we know them, and the social safety net heretofore guaranteeing that retiring workers are taken care of.
Read further:
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Story?id=7424473&page=1
Everyone is getting very skittish and paranoid about the Swine Flu; and public health officials all over the world are closely monitoring, mobilizing, and organizing massive publc health resources to combat the spread and contamination of this public health scourge.
That said, with clear problems surging to the forefront about public health, there is clearly a systemic breakdown and hugh crisis confronting the globe, and most especially the developed nations in the WEST, of colossal proportions.
It extends beyond joblessness to the collaspe of health care coverage, costs of insurance, and now the looming crisis of corporate failures and bankruptcies and how these would impact the millions of aging and retired workers in American and European companies.
This crisis is particularly acute in America's auto industry.
With GM, Chrysler poised to becoming insolvent, and bankruptcies looming, we are facing an "out of control" Mack truck, without brakes careenng out of control in the highway.... and that is the pension plans and benefits which heretofore have borne the burden of taking care of retired auto workers, and their suppliers from top to bottom of the "food chain."
It is estimated that for every American automobile that is being manufactured and head out from Detroit's assembly line, a gross figure estimated to be around US$ 1,500.00 must be paid to provide the pension benefits of those retired auto workers who no longer work the assemblies. They called these "legacy costs"; and they are a a burdensome drag which is making the U.S. auto industry belly up and become uncompetitive.
All down the auto industry labor food chain, there is tremendous stresses and pain being felt. Legacy costs, labor costs, materials costs, and the overall systemic collaspe of the Western-European economic system of unbriddled greed and unfettered capitalism.
In sum, with the looming meltdown and collaspe of GM and Chrysler, we are looking down the line at the collaspe of America's pension system, both publicluy-financed federal social security of its state counterparts, such as the one in California called CALPERS.
Worse, those private pension plans previoulsy guaranteed under The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., a government agency created (after lobbying by the United Auto Workers) in 1974,insuring these corporate pension plans, are getting wobbly and facing prospects of insolvency.
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation currently insures 29,000 pension plans -- down from 114,000 plans in 1985.
As the population of many developed countries age and keeping getting older, including Japan, Europe, and the United States of America, we are looking at the dire prospects of a collaspe of pensions systems, as we know them, and the social safety net heretofore guaranteeing that retiring workers are taken care of.
Read further:
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Story?id=7424473&page=1
Friday, April 24, 2009
While the New York Times goes broke, a UK blogger writes a circumspect piece about China's smart move to publish in English- The Global Times
Here's a thoughtful circumspect piece from a UK blogger based in Shanghai, who is a correspondent for the the UK-based Telegraph, who correctly observed the smart move by Chinese news publishers to expand into the English-language news market.
The Chinese are coming.... the Chinese are coming...... and the China bashers in the Western news media..... watch out !
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/malcolmmoore/blog/2009/04/21/the_chinese_governments_smart_media_move
It makes sense after all the China-bashing being spade out in buckets from the Western press, including the grey lady of American newspapers, The New York Times, loaded with "China bashers" within its organization.
Incidentally, the New York Times is teetering and fast running out of cash.
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2009/04/22/new-york-times-hemorrhaging-money
What does it look like for the future of the New York Times ? Here's what a Businessweek report said in January, 2005... some four years ago; since then, the Grey Lady's financial situation has worsened; and the money woes exacerbated :
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_03/b3916001_mz001.htm
The Chinese are coming.... the Chinese are coming...... and the China bashers in the Western news media..... watch out !
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/malcolmmoore/blog/2009/04/21/the_chinese_governments_smart_media_move
It makes sense after all the China-bashing being spade out in buckets from the Western press, including the grey lady of American newspapers, The New York Times, loaded with "China bashers" within its organization.
Incidentally, the New York Times is teetering and fast running out of cash.
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2009/04/22/new-york-times-hemorrhaging-money
What does it look like for the future of the New York Times ? Here's what a Businessweek report said in January, 2005... some four years ago; since then, the Grey Lady's financial situation has worsened; and the money woes exacerbated :
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_03/b3916001_mz001.htm
Crime pays in America and Misdemeanants caught with drugs are no longer being prosecuted in one California county
I have written below this blog about the increasingly distressed and wacko state I live in.... the State of California.
Dysfunctional and broken, this once great state, America's most populous and most innovative at one time, is careening like a mad truck with a mad driver at the driver's seat.... without much fiscal discipline, rampant looting and piracy of the likes worse than on the Somali coast, and a morally bankrupt and spiritually vapid social culture.
Consider that marijuana laws in California are no longer being enforced. They are talking about legalizing marijuana and taxing the cannabis growers and users as a tax revenue stream to help California's distressed state government fiscal budget.
April 20, i.e. 4-20, the cult "Free Marijuana" smokefest orgy, came and went; and the campus of University of California in Santa Cruz, as usual, saw thousands and thousands of American youths free-basing, bonking out, and getting high on reefers and other drugs, hallucigenics, and alchohol.
Consider that in Contra Costa county, across San Francisco Bay, the city that used to know how and on the "cutting-edge," the district attorney of Contra Costa just announced that because of budget cuts, he will no longer have the staff nor prosecutors to prosecute criminal defendants accused of committing certain misdemeanors, among them those accused and charged with misdemeanor drug possession and drug use. Read further about this banality and perversity that the Post-Dr. Spock generation since the Vietnam War has spawn:
http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_12200786?source=email
Dysfunctional and broken, this once great state, America's most populous and most innovative at one time, is careening like a mad truck with a mad driver at the driver's seat.... without much fiscal discipline, rampant looting and piracy of the likes worse than on the Somali coast, and a morally bankrupt and spiritually vapid social culture.
Consider that marijuana laws in California are no longer being enforced. They are talking about legalizing marijuana and taxing the cannabis growers and users as a tax revenue stream to help California's distressed state government fiscal budget.
April 20, i.e. 4-20, the cult "Free Marijuana" smokefest orgy, came and went; and the campus of University of California in Santa Cruz, as usual, saw thousands and thousands of American youths free-basing, bonking out, and getting high on reefers and other drugs, hallucigenics, and alchohol.
Consider that in Contra Costa county, across San Francisco Bay, the city that used to know how and on the "cutting-edge," the district attorney of Contra Costa just announced that because of budget cuts, he will no longer have the staff nor prosecutors to prosecute criminal defendants accused of committing certain misdemeanors, among them those accused and charged with misdemeanor drug possession and drug use. Read further about this banality and perversity that the Post-Dr. Spock generation since the Vietnam War has spawn:
http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_12200786?source=email
Jackie Chan's remarks about the Chinese needing to be "controlled" sparks furious debates inside and outside of China - you be the judge.
Even the "greybeard" of American mainstream print journalism, the New York Times, has picked up the debate about Jackie Chan's remarks at the Boao Forum a few days ago at Hainan island.
The question ought to be framed more appropriately:
"Is Western-style democracy, or participatory democracy, American-version, the path that the Chinese people must aspire to and undertake to achieve ?"
Rather, the Western news media, as usual, has distorted, misframed, and spun the topic of debate with dashes of "China bashing" and as usual, reported, scripted, dramatized, and amplified the issue through their warped, biased, filtered lenses.
And to think that the "honorary whites" among the Chinese in the Diasporic communities, and some of those "Western farts are more fragrant" types from Taiwan and HongKong, are tugging on the coattails of the Western 'China Bashers' in this new wedge issue to diss, insult, and "mau mau" China and the Chinese people.
Incidentally, when is Gordon G. Chang going to write his sequel, "The Coming Collaspe of China" with "The Coming Collaspe of America, the UK, and Europe" ?
And to think that the greybeard NYT, teetering on collaspe itself, with less than US$ 34 million in cash available to keep it afloat, is using him as a "talking head" resource in its news forum. No wonder the NYT is collaspsing together with the false prophets of "Collaspsing" hit-literature targeting China and the Non-West.
http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/23/controlling-the-chinese-people/#more-5441
Let a hundred flowers bloom.... let a hundred ideas contend !!
And let's see whether or not it is the WEST or the EAST which is left standing.
The question ought to be framed more appropriately:
"Is Western-style democracy, or participatory democracy, American-version, the path that the Chinese people must aspire to and undertake to achieve ?"
Rather, the Western news media, as usual, has distorted, misframed, and spun the topic of debate with dashes of "China bashing" and as usual, reported, scripted, dramatized, and amplified the issue through their warped, biased, filtered lenses.
And to think that the "honorary whites" among the Chinese in the Diasporic communities, and some of those "Western farts are more fragrant" types from Taiwan and HongKong, are tugging on the coattails of the Western 'China Bashers' in this new wedge issue to diss, insult, and "mau mau" China and the Chinese people.
Incidentally, when is Gordon G. Chang going to write his sequel, "The Coming Collaspe of China" with "The Coming Collaspe of America, the UK, and Europe" ?
And to think that the greybeard NYT, teetering on collaspe itself, with less than US$ 34 million in cash available to keep it afloat, is using him as a "talking head" resource in its news forum. No wonder the NYT is collaspsing together with the false prophets of "Collaspsing" hit-literature targeting China and the Non-West.
http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/23/controlling-the-chinese-people/#more-5441
Let a hundred flowers bloom.... let a hundred ideas contend !!
And let's see whether or not it is the WEST or the EAST which is left standing.
The housing bust in America's bubble real estate market has yet to bottom out as the rate of foreclosures and vacancies soar
The housing bust in the U.S. has not bottomed out yet.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aDIhJH3j1sjg&refer=us
The statistics are grim ---- 19 million homes sitting empty as reported by Bloomberg
News is even grimmer when you consider that just for the first quarter of
2009 alone, California is seeing another 350,000 homes under Notices of
Default and the start of bank foreclosures. It is a mess out here in
California.
The tax revenues in America'a most populous state have shrunk so much; but the State legislators don't have a clue to handle this fiscal mess, except to raise taxes, take care of themselves, collect their paycheck and keep raising campaign funds for
their next election. Mr. Hollywood, Governator Arnold Schwazenegger is incompetent, ill-equipped to tackle the state's financial woes. He is talking Green, but the wrong kind of Green. The silly stuff... not the real stuff.
In California's housing market, Notices of Default when served upon these 350,000 homes mean that the distressed homeowners have stopped paying their monthly mortgage payments.
Compounding the problem is rising joblessness. Unemployment figures are shocking. And these have not factored in nor counted those who have stopped looking or those in deep despair and given up.
The latest figures for California reported a staggering 11.2% unemployment rate. The dire straits of joblessness has impacted not just the blue-collar sector but the high-tech sector. In Silicon Valley, the unemployment rate is 11%.
The U.S. credit card market is now a bloodbath, with more American consumers financially stressed while some banks are charging some credit card holders 15% or more in annual interest in credit card interest for credit card debts. The rates vary with those card holders carrying big balances, even though they may be paying timely installments; nonetheless, they are being charged more.
The Barack Obama White House yesterday convened an emergency meeting with some major credit card companies and lenders to try to stem the rising tide of rising credit card defaults. Given the hefty credit card rates being charged, many Americans are dead broke and can't pay their bills. There is no end in sight given America's profligacy.... borrowing, keep borrowing.
And as you know...... Americans, such as "Johnny Six Pack" and "Soccer Jane Mom"
depend on credit cards for their daily expenses.
Americans, as a whole, have little savings. They spend and spend and spend, on credit. :-) And many are now financially strapped.... with joblessness, layoffs, and no prospect of relief.
We have not seen the worst yet.
To make matters downright nasty, many Americans are trying to pick a fight with China and India, assessing these two Asian countries for taking away jobs and sticking it to the WEST with cheap imports, cheap labor, toxic products and what they are blindly saber-rattling as "unfair trade."
They accused Indians of slave child labor; the Chinese of manipulating their currency. Yet they look at themselves for the mess they themselves caused by their lifestyle of profligacy, greed, and lack of discipline. Worse, the new generation of American youth is being dumbed down with a broken education system which breeds idiots more than functioning workers.
The only growth industry today is working as a security guard, joining the U.S. military, or trying to break into "American Idol" in song and dance escapism. Hollywood is crass, vulgar, and vapid of any creative ideas... and the industry is going down the toilet with no signs of any hope but dope.
Just stay away from that dope, beer and alcohol, buddy. Stay clean. And stop bonking and doping away.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aDIhJH3j1sjg&refer=us
The statistics are grim ---- 19 million homes sitting empty as reported by Bloomberg
News is even grimmer when you consider that just for the first quarter of
2009 alone, California is seeing another 350,000 homes under Notices of
Default and the start of bank foreclosures. It is a mess out here in
California.
The tax revenues in America'a most populous state have shrunk so much; but the State legislators don't have a clue to handle this fiscal mess, except to raise taxes, take care of themselves, collect their paycheck and keep raising campaign funds for
their next election. Mr. Hollywood, Governator Arnold Schwazenegger is incompetent, ill-equipped to tackle the state's financial woes. He is talking Green, but the wrong kind of Green. The silly stuff... not the real stuff.
In California's housing market, Notices of Default when served upon these 350,000 homes mean that the distressed homeowners have stopped paying their monthly mortgage payments.
Compounding the problem is rising joblessness. Unemployment figures are shocking. And these have not factored in nor counted those who have stopped looking or those in deep despair and given up.
The latest figures for California reported a staggering 11.2% unemployment rate. The dire straits of joblessness has impacted not just the blue-collar sector but the high-tech sector. In Silicon Valley, the unemployment rate is 11%.
The U.S. credit card market is now a bloodbath, with more American consumers financially stressed while some banks are charging some credit card holders 15% or more in annual interest in credit card interest for credit card debts. The rates vary with those card holders carrying big balances, even though they may be paying timely installments; nonetheless, they are being charged more.
The Barack Obama White House yesterday convened an emergency meeting with some major credit card companies and lenders to try to stem the rising tide of rising credit card defaults. Given the hefty credit card rates being charged, many Americans are dead broke and can't pay their bills. There is no end in sight given America's profligacy.... borrowing, keep borrowing.
And as you know...... Americans, such as "Johnny Six Pack" and "Soccer Jane Mom"
depend on credit cards for their daily expenses.
Americans, as a whole, have little savings. They spend and spend and spend, on credit. :-) And many are now financially strapped.... with joblessness, layoffs, and no prospect of relief.
We have not seen the worst yet.
To make matters downright nasty, many Americans are trying to pick a fight with China and India, assessing these two Asian countries for taking away jobs and sticking it to the WEST with cheap imports, cheap labor, toxic products and what they are blindly saber-rattling as "unfair trade."
They accused Indians of slave child labor; the Chinese of manipulating their currency. Yet they look at themselves for the mess they themselves caused by their lifestyle of profligacy, greed, and lack of discipline. Worse, the new generation of American youth is being dumbed down with a broken education system which breeds idiots more than functioning workers.
The only growth industry today is working as a security guard, joining the U.S. military, or trying to break into "American Idol" in song and dance escapism. Hollywood is crass, vulgar, and vapid of any creative ideas... and the industry is going down the toilet with no signs of any hope but dope.
Just stay away from that dope, beer and alcohol, buddy. Stay clean. And stop bonking and doping away.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
China's "Soft Power" Initiatives in the Americas and in International Finance - "The Beijing Consensus"
Pundits are seeing a shift in global finance initiatives. What used to be the dominant role of the U.S. especially in its own backyard, in Latin America, in the Caribbean, is no longer what it used to be.
Flushed with US$ 2 trillion in foreign reserves, China is smartly and adroitly applying its financial clout on the global stage. Click on a report from the Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/22/AR2009042203823.html
Flushed with US$ 2 trillion in foreign reserves, China is smartly and adroitly applying its financial clout on the global stage. Click on a report from the Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/22/AR2009042203823.html
Musings of a Chinese-American on EARTH DAY - April 22, 2009 - Coming down to Earth from Space
It is cool to be Green on Earth Day, i.e. April 22, 2009.
This morning, as soon as I got off my Metro rail station in downtown San Francisco, California, a sales lady was giving away cans of free canned cat food in downtown San Francisco. Just a few footsteps away, a completely "zonked out" street bum was wallowing in a street corner.... drugged and overdozed with heroin in his veins.
No one seems to care and everyone is on the frenetic pace to go to work and make money. At Starbucks... the talk on EARTH DAY is how to curb using plaster bag, and calibrating one's carbon footprints to reduce human pollution.
In San Francisco, if you are not an animal (except human beings)lover, i.e. whether cat, dog, lion, or bear..... or you are not Green... or part of that bandwagon obsessed with reducing your carbon footprint on this earth, or ride a bike, or worship the Dalai Lama, or support same-sex marriage.... you are an exception, a despicable disgusting traitor to the uber-liberal tradition of "chi-chi" San Francisco.
One must be "Green" these days to be an American or you risk being lynched for being a damn traitor to the Cause of Al Gore.
It is no strange wonder that Former Vice-President turned "Global Warming" Czar Al Gore has relocated his home and landed in San Francisco, hyping and promoting his campaign against global warming and from where he left off after his Nobel Prize prize after producing that blockbuster earthling Green movie titled the "Inconvenient Truth."
All in all, it pays to be Green these days in the West, and especially in California.
It is cool to jump into that bandwagon. The advertisers are using buzz words. Even the travel industry is hyping eco-tourism and Green hotels... whatever the word means. Green just sounds so hip.
Even our governor, Mr. Hollywood, Arnold Scharzenegger, "Mr. Muscleman," "The Governator" is hooping it up as the Green governor of California. Arnold drives two hummers...muscle cars, one fueled by hydrogen and the other onhe fueled by renewable biofuels.
Isn't that wonderful ?
Never mind that the jobless in California has skyrockted to over 2 million in a state of 35 million inhabitants.
The unemployment rate is now a whopping 11.2%; and in Silicon Valley, it is an unprecedented 11%... the highest since 1964. These doube-digit unemployment rate does not even count nor factor in those unemployed who have stopped looking and fallen through the cracks. This is about blue-collar to white-collar, low-tech to high-tech workers... all distressed and jobless in tough economic times.
Joblessness has become so critical that the shock waves have swept the credit market and further depressed California's home foreclosure mess.
Californians are broke; and it shows in their state's fiscal mess... left to fester and rot. In the meantime, state legislators are talking up a storm by raising taxes and bridging the widening fiscal gap between revenues and expenditures wth more taxes and creative public accounting.
Who cares ? It is only "OPM," or ehhhh, so to speak "Other People's Money."
As I write this, for the first quarter of 2009, in the first three months of 2009 alone, there are more than 350,000 California homeowners who can't keep up with their mortgage payments and have received Notices of default in their home payments. Another 120 days and these default notices will be tracked and chalked into that distressed foreclosure mess, with banks taking over ownership from these distressed California homeowners.
Nationwide, there were for the first 3 months of 2009 more than 2 million Americans who have lost their homes because they can't afford to make house mortgage payments...... that's equivalent to one in two Singaporean inhabitants who have been rendered "homeless."
At this juncture, on this EARTH DAY, here is how I am musing about in this THIRD SPACE, i.e. Spatium Trientis.:
1. Americans need to get back to Earth, and really do the basic, earthly stuff... and reprioritize their goals. Come down to EARTH, for Pete's and Mary's sake, Dude.
As lofty and cool and hip on this EARTH DAY to think green, do green, reduce carbon footprints, go solar, stop using plastic bags, ride a bike, and grow organic vegetables..... fact remains that the United States, the United Kingdom, and Europe are breaking apart and have more earthling problems beyond all of this chic GREEN stuff.
How about coming back to EARTH, and talking and doing basics.
2. Fix the goddamn broken education system in the WEST.
When Johnny and Jane can't do the basic rudimentaries of reading, arithmetic and writing in simple English, there is a hugh colossal mess in the WEST.
As the world of globalization, the learning curve is steadily dumbing down and going further "dumbed down" in the Western system of education.
Johnny and Jane can't compete with their counterparts from India, South Korea, Singapore, Japan, and yes... China.
Read up on what Thomas Friedman, New York Times columnist wrote about Americans and their sick educational system... dumbed down, and careening to more mediocrity and underachievemnt:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/22/opinion/22friedman.html?em
3. Accept that the WEST, led by Americans and the Brits, have a serious social pandemic of drugs, drug addiction, and alcohol abuse. The social consequences are staggering. It shows in the economic meltdown and its dire fallout.
Having observed the serious social consequences of drugs and drug abuse here in the WEST, it is a mess to which Western youth, all across the board, from the inner cities to the exburbs, are afflicted with..... it is a testament to the harsh reality that our schools in the WEST have become "combat zones" for violence, often releted or stemming from drugs and rampant drug abuse, alcohol abuse, and the social consequences of addiction.
White people in the WEST are in complete self-denial that alcohol and drugs are a epidemic in the WEST which has wracked the basic fundamental fabric of Western societies.
But the "PC" norm nowadays, it appears, is more slackening ... more marijuana. More beer. More "bong" parties, more booze.
Not only is "bonking" affecting our Great White Hope of last year's Beijing Olympics, Michael Phelps, caught "bonking away" with a water pipe in an off-campus bong party in South Carolina.
If Michael Phelps is not free from the bong, guess where the rest of the white boys and girls are ?
Two days ago, American youths just went into a "marijuana" dope binge and happily engaged in 4-20. In campuses such as University of California Santa Cruz or University of Colorado in Denver, students and the campus "hangers-on" were openly doping and smoking marijuana, and defiantly pushed for "free marijuana," and "legalizing marijuana."
In California's state legislature, a legislator representing wacko San Francisco is openly pushing to legalize and tax marijuana as a source of state revenues to bridge California's widening fiscal shortfall. Tax marijuana sales to pay for social services... the promoters of legalizing marijuana are clamoring.
That's the WEST for you. Dumbling down and falling apart. Imploding from within from its own banality, vulgarity, and inanity.
Time for some tough talk on this EARTH DAY.
It is great to talk GREEN on EARTH DAY.
It is even more important to admonish the WEST to come down to EARTH and deal with the mess in their own backyard on this EARTH DAY.
This morning, as soon as I got off my Metro rail station in downtown San Francisco, California, a sales lady was giving away cans of free canned cat food in downtown San Francisco. Just a few footsteps away, a completely "zonked out" street bum was wallowing in a street corner.... drugged and overdozed with heroin in his veins.
No one seems to care and everyone is on the frenetic pace to go to work and make money. At Starbucks... the talk on EARTH DAY is how to curb using plaster bag, and calibrating one's carbon footprints to reduce human pollution.
In San Francisco, if you are not an animal (except human beings)lover, i.e. whether cat, dog, lion, or bear..... or you are not Green... or part of that bandwagon obsessed with reducing your carbon footprint on this earth, or ride a bike, or worship the Dalai Lama, or support same-sex marriage.... you are an exception, a despicable disgusting traitor to the uber-liberal tradition of "chi-chi" San Francisco.
One must be "Green" these days to be an American or you risk being lynched for being a damn traitor to the Cause of Al Gore.
It is no strange wonder that Former Vice-President turned "Global Warming" Czar Al Gore has relocated his home and landed in San Francisco, hyping and promoting his campaign against global warming and from where he left off after his Nobel Prize prize after producing that blockbuster earthling Green movie titled the "Inconvenient Truth."
All in all, it pays to be Green these days in the West, and especially in California.
It is cool to jump into that bandwagon. The advertisers are using buzz words. Even the travel industry is hyping eco-tourism and Green hotels... whatever the word means. Green just sounds so hip.
Even our governor, Mr. Hollywood, Arnold Scharzenegger, "Mr. Muscleman," "The Governator" is hooping it up as the Green governor of California. Arnold drives two hummers...muscle cars, one fueled by hydrogen and the other onhe fueled by renewable biofuels.
Isn't that wonderful ?
Never mind that the jobless in California has skyrockted to over 2 million in a state of 35 million inhabitants.
The unemployment rate is now a whopping 11.2%; and in Silicon Valley, it is an unprecedented 11%... the highest since 1964. These doube-digit unemployment rate does not even count nor factor in those unemployed who have stopped looking and fallen through the cracks. This is about blue-collar to white-collar, low-tech to high-tech workers... all distressed and jobless in tough economic times.
Joblessness has become so critical that the shock waves have swept the credit market and further depressed California's home foreclosure mess.
Californians are broke; and it shows in their state's fiscal mess... left to fester and rot. In the meantime, state legislators are talking up a storm by raising taxes and bridging the widening fiscal gap between revenues and expenditures wth more taxes and creative public accounting.
Who cares ? It is only "OPM," or ehhhh, so to speak "Other People's Money."
As I write this, for the first quarter of 2009, in the first three months of 2009 alone, there are more than 350,000 California homeowners who can't keep up with their mortgage payments and have received Notices of default in their home payments. Another 120 days and these default notices will be tracked and chalked into that distressed foreclosure mess, with banks taking over ownership from these distressed California homeowners.
Nationwide, there were for the first 3 months of 2009 more than 2 million Americans who have lost their homes because they can't afford to make house mortgage payments...... that's equivalent to one in two Singaporean inhabitants who have been rendered "homeless."
At this juncture, on this EARTH DAY, here is how I am musing about in this THIRD SPACE, i.e. Spatium Trientis.:
1. Americans need to get back to Earth, and really do the basic, earthly stuff... and reprioritize their goals. Come down to EARTH, for Pete's and Mary's sake, Dude.
As lofty and cool and hip on this EARTH DAY to think green, do green, reduce carbon footprints, go solar, stop using plastic bags, ride a bike, and grow organic vegetables..... fact remains that the United States, the United Kingdom, and Europe are breaking apart and have more earthling problems beyond all of this chic GREEN stuff.
How about coming back to EARTH, and talking and doing basics.
2. Fix the goddamn broken education system in the WEST.
When Johnny and Jane can't do the basic rudimentaries of reading, arithmetic and writing in simple English, there is a hugh colossal mess in the WEST.
As the world of globalization, the learning curve is steadily dumbing down and going further "dumbed down" in the Western system of education.
Johnny and Jane can't compete with their counterparts from India, South Korea, Singapore, Japan, and yes... China.
Read up on what Thomas Friedman, New York Times columnist wrote about Americans and their sick educational system... dumbed down, and careening to more mediocrity and underachievemnt:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/22/opinion/22friedman.html?em
3. Accept that the WEST, led by Americans and the Brits, have a serious social pandemic of drugs, drug addiction, and alcohol abuse. The social consequences are staggering. It shows in the economic meltdown and its dire fallout.
Having observed the serious social consequences of drugs and drug abuse here in the WEST, it is a mess to which Western youth, all across the board, from the inner cities to the exburbs, are afflicted with..... it is a testament to the harsh reality that our schools in the WEST have become "combat zones" for violence, often releted or stemming from drugs and rampant drug abuse, alcohol abuse, and the social consequences of addiction.
White people in the WEST are in complete self-denial that alcohol and drugs are a epidemic in the WEST which has wracked the basic fundamental fabric of Western societies.
But the "PC" norm nowadays, it appears, is more slackening ... more marijuana. More beer. More "bong" parties, more booze.
Not only is "bonking" affecting our Great White Hope of last year's Beijing Olympics, Michael Phelps, caught "bonking away" with a water pipe in an off-campus bong party in South Carolina.
If Michael Phelps is not free from the bong, guess where the rest of the white boys and girls are ?
Two days ago, American youths just went into a "marijuana" dope binge and happily engaged in 4-20. In campuses such as University of California Santa Cruz or University of Colorado in Denver, students and the campus "hangers-on" were openly doping and smoking marijuana, and defiantly pushed for "free marijuana," and "legalizing marijuana."
In California's state legislature, a legislator representing wacko San Francisco is openly pushing to legalize and tax marijuana as a source of state revenues to bridge California's widening fiscal shortfall. Tax marijuana sales to pay for social services... the promoters of legalizing marijuana are clamoring.
That's the WEST for you. Dumbling down and falling apart. Imploding from within from its own banality, vulgarity, and inanity.
Time for some tough talk on this EARTH DAY.
It is great to talk GREEN on EARTH DAY.
It is even more important to admonish the WEST to come down to EARTH and deal with the mess in their own backyard on this EARTH DAY.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)