For writing a brave and beautiful post about the joys of two women expressing their love for one another. Awesome.

Could be.

It would be a shame, but I began to wonder earlier this week when I noticed how many sleazy-type ads it was broadcasting, like questionable health remedies that aren’t sold in stores. That’s a sure sign they were having trouble luring respectable advertisers. It’s still a welcome relief from right-wing talk radio, and I am really hoping this won’t spell its demise. But I suspect it will….

SmartMoney has a smart article for those eager to invest in China. A key point is that (surprise surprise) business in China isn’t like it is in the West, and when it comes to corporate governance, the Chinese can seem “like gawky adolescents.”

The Celestial Kingdom was the world’s hottest market in 2003. But the growth spurt might soon come to an abrupt end. While Chinese stocks are like late-1990s dot-coms on amphetamines, the country’s equity markets are rife with debt-plagued, corrupt companies on the brink of collapse. For some, the only lifeline has been the steady stream of investment capital pouring in from U.S. investors. If that spigot were to close — as it has many times over the years — China could suffer a full-fledged financial meltdown, one that could spread to other developing economies in Southeast Asia.

For many reasons that we’ll enumerate in a series of articles in coming weeks, China remains a very high-risk marketplace, with fragile legal institutions and lax regulation — a fact many investors seem to be ignoring amid the incredible run-up.
….

Talk to any China expert, and inevitably guanxi will come up. In Mandarin, it means “powerful connections.” When guanxi is invoked, the rule of law goes out the door. Power is the arbiter of all business transactions in China.

Obviously, this presents a problem. “There’s no transparency in such a system,” says William Gamble, author of “Investing in China” and president of Emerging Market Strategies, based in Providence, R.I. “I’m not always sure if my connections are better than the next guy’s connections. And what if my connection goes away for some reason? The problem in China is that, without a reliable and enforceable legal system, there’s nothing to limit [those with the most power].”

The potential result: “A country filled with Enrons,” says Gamble. “It could be a disaster.”

Again, I go back to my experience as a PR manager in China, and I have to agree — at least with the guanxi part. I’d never worked anywhere else where the first question potential clients asked was, “Do you have good connections with people in the government?” That’s what matters, and these companies are willing to pay big bucks for anyone who can “open doors.”

I don’t necessarily agree with the article’s other point, that China could be standing on the brink of a total meltdown. I think that’ll happen eventually, but things look too good and under control right now. Famous last words?

There were so many articles and posts last year about fears of China’s economy overheating. Then the issue died away, and for a few weeks some were painting a different scenario, one of deflation. Now things have come full circle, and there’s a whole new wave of article on how inflation threatens to rear its ugly head as China’s money supply grows.

It was the fourth consecutive week that the People’s Bank of China was unable to sell all its bills, indicating that investors expect inflation or interest rates – or both – to rise markedly.

Central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan gave one of the grimmest assessments yet by a Chinese official of the risks that the economy might overheat.

“There are problems in economic activity, with investment demand expanding too fast, money and credit growing too quickly, and inflationary pressures rising,” he said in a statement in The Financial News, the bank’s newspaper.

China’s inflation is important to the US and Europe because it could start to affect prices in the US, especially as China bids up the price of oil and other commodities. And if the boom is followed by a bust, the result would very likely be an even greater wave of exports as China’s consumers lose their buying power.

Private economists differ on the likelihood that China will be able to brake its economy gently to a more sustainable pace. The question is whether China can avoid a recession that would cause a wave of corporate failures, non-performing bank loans and perhaps social unrest.

I won’t take sides or make predictions. I’ll only say that I hope the government acts responsibly to control this trend. The last thing it needs right now is a recession, which could bring China’s economic miracle to a grinding and painful halt.

A fundamental rule of media training is you never wear clothing on television that can distract the viewer — no polka dots, no flashy stripes or vivid patterns. So who’s decision was it to have our president this evening don a technicolor tie that kept changing color magically every split second throughout the press conference?

Don’t believe me? Here’s a great shot of our leader falling a sleep at his own press conference while his magic tie sparkles. (Photo is via Atrios; click to enlarge.)

The Magic Tie aside, this press conference was a disaster. Even with a script in front of him Bush is wobbly at best. But when he’s thrown to the sharks and is totally on his own, he’s a catastrophe. No, make that a tragedy. He wandered aimlessly from talking point to talking point, with no direction, without answering the questions, without focus or insight. Nothing new. Same old messages about how bad Saddam was and how somehow this is part of the war on terror. No remorse. No regret. No admission of any mistakes. At one point, he truly looked like a deer caught in the headlights and I had to get up, it was so embarrassing. he actually told the reporter, more or less, that because of the pressures of the press conference he couldn’t think fast enough to come up with an answer. (Can you imagine Clinton or Reagan saying that? Or even George Bush Sr.?)

The very worst moment was when Bush was asked why he had to go with Dick Cheney to testify in front of the 911 commission. You had to see it to believe how evasive and frightened Bush appeared. And this man is the Lord of the Universe. And he needs to sit on Dick Cheney’s lap. Imagine Clinton refusing to testify in front of a commission unless he could go in with Al Gore.

If you missed it, several blog luminaries blogged it as it was taking place, notably Pandagon and Kevin Drum (and don’t miss the comments).

Watching Bush tonight was almost as depressing as watching John Ascroft a few hours earlier testify before the 911 commission. Bush was just pathetic. Ashcroft, true to form, was despicable. (Shorter John Ashcroft: “Not our fault. Clinton’s fault.”)

Anyone but Bush. Anyone but Bush.

Update: Do not miss the best post-mortem of this truly wretched event.

Also, Saletan of Slate fisks the speech. Precious.

Interesting piece on China’s efforts to control the Internet looks at how people are getting around the Great Firewall, what China’s doing to stop them and the dilemma China faces as the net becomes a part of daily life there.

Sample:

With the help of overseas ‘hactivists’, however, Chinese are finding ways around China’s Great Fire Wall. New software, such as ‘Roaming without Borders’, can be easily downloaded in China, and allows users to surf freely. “Everyone is using it,” says a writer, who says Chinese are openly passing the programme around. “And the government can’t trace the IP address.” She says the software has been in existence for about two years and that it’s continuously getting better. “I can get any information I want,” a well-known political dissident told me recently, smiling broadly. A few months ago he was says he was unable to access sensitive sites, reliant on foreign friends to give him news about China.

If you live in China, chances are this is familiar stuff, but it’s nice to see the word spreading.

I have to wonder what Randall Terry, founder of the infamous Operation Rescue, thought when his son told the world this week that he’s gay.

It’s hard to point to one moment when you begin to come out to yourself, but if I had to, I’d go back to a night seven years ago, when I was 17. I was home from boarding school in my old bedroom at my parents’ house in Windsor, N.Y., where my friend “Johnny” and I had just finished fooling around. Suddenly he asked me, “Do you think we are bisexual or gay?” The question so stunned me, I didn’t know how to respond. I mean, we had been having sex for ages, but I’d always believed I couldn’t be gay: I was the son of Randall Terry, a major leader of the Christian right’s antiabortion movement and now a leader in the fight against marriage for same-sex couples. I’m 24 now and I’m still figuring out my own story.

I guess it goes without saying that this didn’t sit too well with Randall, world-renowned for labelling family planning counselors and abortion doctors as “baby killers.” (He’s recently made it to the forefront again, lobbying for Bush’s constitutional amendment against gay marriage.)

True to form, he has repudiated his son in no uncertain terms via the world’s most reactionary news syndicate.

I am still in a state of shock; I have been grieving for days. My son, Jamiel Terry, was paid $5,000 by Out magazine (to appear April 20, 2004, on newsstands) to write a story about being Randall Terry’s homosexual son. I pray my following words help other grieving parents and serve as a warning to moms and dads of small children to be unflinchingly and unashamedly diligent to protect their children from predators, and bring a reality check to those exploiting my son.

So right off the bat, he tells us his son was bribed, paid to write the coming out article by predators who are exploiting the young man. Gays are villains who brought about this dastardly act of exploitation. They are so dangeous, in fact, it is imperative you guard your children against them. (Personally, i suspect his son was thrilled to write the piece, and not motivated only by money.)

Randall Terry’s article is a long whine, and a rather patheitc effort to distance himself from his son and make one overriding point — that it’s not his fault that his foster son ended up gay. It’s shrewd. It tries to sound compassionate, but its intent is to lay blame on others and make it perfectly clear he had nothing to do with his son’s situation.

In the closing lines, he lets it all hang out, shamelessly telling the whole world that his son is nothing but a scoundrel and a bum. I have to say, I’ve never before seen a father write such things about his child, adopted or otherwise.

My son is being paraded around as the latest homosexual “trophy” that had the guts to “come out.” What they aren’t telling you – and this grieves me to my core – is that by anyone’s standard – homosexual or heterosexual – my son’s life is in shambles. He was recently arrested for DWI; he is knowingly writing bad checks on a closed bank account; he dropped out of school; he doesn’t have a job (and refuses to get one); he bounces from house to house living off other people; he’s racked-up huge bills for friends and family that he cannot pay; he’s been taken to court by former friends to get him to pay money he owed them; he’s lied to his friends, telling them his “famous dad” was going to send him money to pay for his debts (I get calls or e-mails from college friends looking for money); he has “borrowed” money from countless numbers of my friends; he has a trail of wrecked friendships and family relationships because of deceit, money fraud and crossed boundaries….

This is an odd and disturbing story. I see it as confirmation that Randall Terry is the sack of shit I always thought he was, and that his messages of love and compassion are just window dressing for a man motivated by anger and hatred. He’s hit a new low — something I didn’t think was possible.

Links are via Wonkette, who should be read daily.

Excellent follow-up links here and here.

I remember being in Munich in 1985, at the 40th anniversay of the end of World War II. Something that stuck in my heart was walking by a business run by an elderly German man — I think it was a bakery or a butcher — and in the window he had put up a huge sign. All it said were the words, “Wie war das moeglich?” — “How was it possible?” I knew that he lived through it, saw the insanity with his own eyes. The sign said everything; there was no answer, only the question.

How was it possible, for rational people to allow “Hitler the guttersnipe” (Churchill’s description) to turn their world asunder and bring their great nation to the very edge of chaos and ruin? Wie war das moeglich?

Those are the thoughts that leapt to mind moments ago as I read a tender and agonizing description of life during the culture revolution. The writer is telling the story of Tian Ying, business editor of China Daily, and her recollections of that dark and incomprehensible period.

Tian Ying wrote that she and her contemporaries hardly talk about the Cultural Revolution but “… some tiny things, a notebook, a picture, or a plastic book cover, often remind me of bitter experiences and the sudden disappearance of a friend, a teacher, or a relative. It was a night in June, 1966. All my school friends were sitting in the classroom reviewing for the coming examinations for university admission. The room was as hot as an oven. I dearly wanted to go out and enjoy the cool breeze. A voice suddenly broke the silence through loud speakers. It was announced that classes, starting the next day, would be suspended so that students and teachers could concentrate on the current Cultural Revolution.”

…. [T]wenty years later, in Hong Kong, she wrote about the tragic fate of Schoolmaster Mo, “…who was loved and respected by the students as he was a learned and kind old man.” The Red Guards punished “bourgeois authorities and reactionaries” so Mr. Mo had to pull weeds from the playground, under the blazing sun, in a dirty T-shirt and shorts. His hair had been cropped. When Tian Ying last saw Mr. Mo, his legs were bleeding as he was severely whipped by the Red Guards. Shortly after, Mr. Mo committed suicide. “As the fanaticism of the movement intensified, the thrust of the criticism was switched to high governmental authorities,’’ Tian Ying wrote. In early August, the Red Guards received a commendation from Chairman Mao for exposing and condemning, “…all landlords, imperialists, revisionists, and their running dogs.” Inspired, Red Guards took to the streets brandishing the little red book of Mao’s Thoughts. That became known as the Red August Movement.

But there is something that Tian Ying said she will never forget. “One day in Red August, my elder sister, already married at that time, was attacked by a group of Red Guards on her way to work. They were patrolling the streets looking for ‘survivals of feudalism, capitalism, and revisionism.’’ At that time, those who dressed well were regarded as people of that kind. They cut her hair, tore her skirt, and chopped the sandals with an axe. They also gave her a severe beating to “help her wipe out bourgeois ideas.’’ When I opened the door for her, I was shocked to see her legs bleeding and her head covered with a towel. Knowing she wanted to stay at our home for a few days in case the Red Guards decided to chase her again, I said, after a few seconds of hesitation, “No, you can’t. Mummy and I have suffered enough. We cannot take more.’’ After she left, I buried my face in a pillow and cried bitterly. That scene, my own sister limping away to an unknown fate because I denied her sanctuary, is etched in my memory. She did not blame me. But I blamed myself…” That is the dagger in Tian Ying’s heart.

History is so important, and I spend so much of my time (too much, actually) poring over history books. But nothing ever comes close to hearing it told by those who actually lived through it. And I read the words of Tian Ying, and all I can do is wonder, like the old German shopkeeper, Wie war das moeglich? I know I’ll never fully know the answer, but the question will not go away. As with all of man’s incomprehensible acts of inhumanity, the question remains, to haunt us, to eat at us, to obsess us, forever.

Good news:

CHINA plans to start handing out free condoms at all entertainment venues in a bid to stem the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS, state media reported today.

The government will also distribute new syringes and methadone, a substitute drug used to treat morphine and heroine addiction, the China Daily said, citing the health ministry.

The measures are aimed at addressing prostitution and intravenous drug abuse, which are the two top causes of HIV/AIDS transmission in China, according to the paper.

The plans have not encountered universal approval, as some officials and citizens fear that they will simply encourage activities that lead to the spread of the deadly virus, the paper said.

While the paper reported no timetable for the measures, they appeared to be long-term projects still far from realisation.

For instance, it will be another two years before the central province of Hubei completes the installation of condom dispensing machines at all entertainment venues and hotels.

A step in the right direction and something they should have initiated 10 years ago.

Related post: The indescribable tragedy of AIDS in China

Yet another “plight” post of a victimized group in China. This time it’s hepatitis B carriers who, according to what I’m reading over at Asian Labour News, are being treated worse than lepers. Stephen’s two posts on the topic are here and here, but it is absolutely essential that you read the comments, especially to the April 5th post. As you read them, you can hear an outcry of despair from desperate, hopeless people whose lives have been destroyed for no reason.

The Chinese government is unfairly stigmatizing a huge number of its citizens who are hepatitis B carriers– more than 120 million, 10 percent of the population — by turrning them into an underclass who cannot get jobs and who face discrimination on a level that you and I can scarcely imagine.

The comments of the victims of this insanity are among the most heartbreaking testimonials you’ll ever read in regard to the insanities of the Chinese government. There is no room for reason, for compassion, for science, for listening; the government is influenced only by dogma, superstition, irrational fears and misinformation.

These are the exact same factors that for so many years influenced China’s policy on AIDS: when someone was found to be infected, the very first thing the government did, by law, was contact their employer. Inevitably, the person was fired. Insane. Exactly the wrong thing to do. (I once wrote a long post on China’s idiotic and utterly ineffective approach to AIDS, if you want to know more about it.)

China is now getting better about AIDS, but only because its earlier approach has been such a spectacular failure that China is on the verge of becoming the next Africa when it comes to AIDS infection rates. The second reason why things are improving is the international outcry, with leaders like David Ho and Bill Clinton making highly visible efforts to help end the CCP’s pig-headed policies of the past and to make a real effort to help eradicate AIDS instead of just stigmatize its victims.

Maybe this is what the hepatitis B issue needs. Right now, these victims have no voice and no face; reading their comments on Stephen’s blog woke me up. Let’s hope the outcry continues and amplifies. When it comes to the CCP, calm discussion and rational explanation count for nothing. It’s only when you hit them on the head with a hammer, in public and in a manner that forces them to realize they’re in deep shit — only then do they take serious action. (Anyone remember SARS and what it took to get them off their asses?)

I know there have to be some real human beings in the government, some party members with compassion and brains and common sense. Are they ignorant of this crime against humanity? Are they unaware of the plight of one-tenth of their country’s population? And if they are aware (as common sense tells me they must be), is there really no one willing to do anything about it? What will it take?

Actually, my source of deepest frustration when I write about devastating topics like this is not that I don’t understand how the Chinese leaders think. It’s that I understand too well. I have personally dealt with the obtuse Chinese bureaucrat who can only think the thoughts that he’s been told to think and who seems oddly incapable of entertaining other points of view. (I promise, we in the West don’t know what this is like until we encounter it face to face.) If you want to discover what frustration is, try arguing with a Chinese bureaucrat.

Okay, I didn’t mean to rant so much, but if this utterly depressing topic isn’t worthy of a rant, what is? Again, I urge you to read Stephens post and its comments, and tell me if you aren’t moved to feel the deepest compassion — and the most profound anger. (You’ll also be well served to read the original post by Fiona Pollard that originally got Stephen writing about this topic. This post, too, has some fine comments.)

All those lessons the Chinese leaders learned (supposedly) about SARS and AIDS…. Can this alleged new wisdom not be applied to this other horror, to righting the unwarranted miseries of its 120 million hepatitis B carriers? Maybe not, but I can’t go to bed tonight if I don’t at least make my voice heard about it.

UPDATE:

Thanks to a reader’s email, I’d like to recommend some charities that fund research and awareness about hepatitis B:

http://www.hepatitisresources-calif.org/hepfi/donate/index.htm
http://www.hepb.org/02-0084.hepb

The same reader tells me the following links could be quite useful to readers who might want to know more about hepatitis B:

http://www.who.int/inf-fs/en/fact204.html
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/hepatitis/
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/hepatitis/a/fact.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/hepatitis/c/fact.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/hepatitis/c/faq.htm#1b
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/hepatitis/b/fact.htm
http://www.hepb.org/02-0173.hepb
http://catalog.com/fwcfc/livingwithhepb.html
http://www.hepb.org/02-0595.hepb#ques9
http://www.hepatitisresources-calif.org/hepfi/living/liv_diagnosis.html#hep_B
http://www.hepb.org/2-00-02-34.hepb
http://f.webring.com/hub?ring=hepring
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Estates/9350/hblist.html
http://www.comeunity.com/adoption/health/hepatitis/index.html
http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/hepb_ez/index.htm
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/hepatitisb.html
http://www.hepnet.com/hepb.html
http://www.google.com/search?num=20&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&safe=off&q=Hepatitis+B&btnG=Google+Search