STOP EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!
Daniel Craig is the next Bond!
I don’t know who he is either, but he’s blonde…..

October 11, 2005 @ 7:06 pm | Comment

I saw it on Drudge. Blonde — James blonde.

October 11, 2005 @ 7:18 pm | Comment

Fitzroy Maclean (the real James Bond) is spinning in his tomb.

October 11, 2005 @ 7:26 pm | Comment

I’ll say this much for Ian Fleming: Silly as his books were, he was a Rembrandt of Disinformation.

October 11, 2005 @ 7:41 pm | Comment

Update on the big headed boy(encephalus) in Sichuan.

This past Sunday the boy had surgery to allow the fluid in his head to drain in a proper way. The surgery was successful. I went to Chengdu the afternoon of the surgery and saw the boy and talked to the surgeon.

The boy will need time to see if he will be able to recover his mental facilities as the swelling of his head did compress or prevent the growth of his brain tissue (this is a layman’s take on the situation).

There has been some publicity on this case and a Chengdu TV station is preparig a TV report. Unfortunately, they seem to want to make me the center of the report instead of the boy’s plight and the need for medical system to take care of its own people.

One thing I have learned about Chinese from this experience is that many Chinese at all levels of society greatly appreciate sincere acts of kindness from wherever they come.

October 11, 2005 @ 7:45 pm | Comment

So Pete, will you reveal to us your role in this event

October 11, 2005 @ 8:09 pm | Comment

That is “mental faculties.”
And make that “kindness and generosity.”

My role is just of a person who learned by happenstance that there was a child and family in need and I have tried to do something about it including at this point footing the bill for the surgery.

October 11, 2005 @ 9:13 pm | Comment

Two year ago, there was also a moving story about a Chinese girl with an incurable disease coming to America for medical treatment. The financial sponsor in the US was incapable for the medical cost just after the 3 year old and her mom arrived. After finishing all the instance noodle they brough from China, they ended up as beggars in Chinatown in New York. Many Americans and local Chinese community offered helping hands. The girl had her treatment at Standford medical center in California.

October 11, 2005 @ 9:52 pm | Comment

MAY I BACKSTEP JUST ONE MOMENT

Can I go back for a moment to the last thread?

“What Social Problems Can Democracy Solve?” ZT asked in that thread. I haven’t quite gotten over his words yet, so can I go back to them?

It dejected me to read on. ZT wrote: “Are there are lot of problems in Chinese society today, a lot of ills? Of course there are, and some of them are rather serious. But can this drug called “democracy” cure all those ills?”

And ZT’s concluded: “Not only can they not solve any social problems, they’ll create new ones. Then why are they still singing praise for that “miracle drug”? I think, they deliberately want to weaken and destroy China.”

A long, long time before ZT, the Peking Duck Website, the People’s Republic, or even Karl Marx or the English language for that matter, there was a Greek named Pericles. This is what Pericles said in ancient times in defense of Athens, which invented democracy. The words are as true today as on the day he spoke them:

“Our political system does not compete with institutions which are elsewhere in force. We do not copy our neighbours, but try to be an example. Our administration favors the many instead of the few: that is why it is called democracy.”

“The laws afford equal justice to all alike in their private disputes, but we do not ignore the claims of excellence. When a citizen distinguishes himself, then he will be called to serve the state, in preference to others, not as a matter of privilege but as a reward of merit; and poverty is no bar…”

“The freedom we enjoy extends also to ordinary life; we are not suspicious of one another, and do not nag our neighbour if he chooses to go his own way. But this freedom does not make us lawless. We are taught to respect the magistrates and the laws, and never to forget that we must protect the injured. And we are also taught to observe those unwritten laws whose sanction lies only in the universal feeling of what is right.”

“Our city is thrown open to the world; we never expel a foreigner. We are free to live exactly as we please, and yet we are always ready to face danger. We love beauty without indulging in fancies, and although we try to improve our intellect, this does not weaken our will. “

“To admit one’s poverty is no disgrace with us; but we consider it disgraceful not to make an effort to avoid it. An Athenian citizen does not neglect public affairs when attending to his private business… We consider a man who takes no interest in the state not as harmless, but as useless; and although only a few may originate a policy, we are all able to judge it.”

“We do not look upon discussion as a stumbling-block in the way of political action, but as an indispensable preliminary to acting wisely. We believe that happiness is the fruit of freedom and freedom that of valor, and we do not shrink from the dangers of war.”

ZT’s words in the last thread left me with a sick dejected feeling in my heart and I closed out of the Peking Duck site and went my way wondering why I was wasting my time. But Peracles words, which I happened to stumble across today, so much more ancient, are so much more true, and leave me feeling a renewed humanity, a sense of hope, and a gladness to be alive. It was so good to stumble across those words and know there was a time and a place when minds weren’t so petty and so trite.

William R. Stimson

October 12, 2005 @ 2:01 am | Comment

It dejected me to read on. ZT wrote: “Are there are lot of problems in Chinese society today, a lot of ills? Of course there are, and some of them are rather serious. But can this drug called “democracy” cure all those ills?”

And ZT’s concluded: “Not only can they not solve any social problems, they’ll create new ones. Then why are they still singing praise for that “miracle drug”? I think, they deliberately want to weaken and destroy China.”

I think this is one of the biggest differences between the two ‘sides’ who often argue here.

Westerners who have grown up in functioning democracies see it as obvious and self-evident that democracy is the best form of government (as Winston Churchill said “democracy is the worst form of government … except for all the rest”), while Chinese people can’t see the benefits.

And it is difficult to explain the benefits: does democracy in the Phillipines really help combat corruption and social inequality? Do the regular fights in the Taiwanese legislature help provide a stable system of government?

I do believe democracy helps – but i’m not as eloquent as Pericles so won’t argue about it in this comment. However, i think it’s a lot easier to (for example) justify how capitalism helps the economy of a country than to justify how democracy helps the government of that country …

October 12, 2005 @ 3:04 am | Comment

Richard, you’ve got to fly to Bangkok to sort out your work permit? Didn’t your company sort that out for you before you arrived? That’s a bit crap.

P.S. When are you going to update the Peking Duck template to show your new location? You’ve still got a ‘Back in the USA’ logo at the top!

October 12, 2005 @ 3:07 am | Comment

Pericles was not just talking about “democracy”. (Jerome, perhaps you could have emphasised this point more.) He was certainly not talking about “democracy” as some kind of abstraction. If you read his passage carefully, you’ll see he was principally describing an open society with a rule of law.

One of his essential qualifiers was:

“But this freedom does not make us lawless.”

October 12, 2005 @ 4:44 am | Comment

Oh wait, sorry, I mean William, not Jerome.

October 12, 2005 @ 4:46 am | Comment

Democracy has nothing to do with it. The problem here (In China) is that the opposite of democracy is not autocracy, it is authoritarianism.

China’s problems stem fom the fact that it has a government that is trying to hold on to power by increasing its level of control on the people, NOT because said government was not chosen democratically.

You can change the leaders, but unless you change their ways as well, nothing has been gained.

October 12, 2005 @ 5:53 am | Comment

Daniel Craig?

October 12, 2005 @ 5:55 am | Comment

ACB,

I tend to agree with what you said.
“Democracy” as an abstraction is neutral. Hitler was democratically elected, but Hitler’s Germany was lawless.

(Actually Hitler’s Germany was more anarchic than is generally believed. So is China.)

October 12, 2005 @ 6:00 am | Comment

Anybody heard anything about a similtaneous chicken-run by a reasonably large number of Chinese bankers getting the hell out of Dodge?

October 12, 2005 @ 9:51 am | Comment

FSN9, I hope it’s just a rumor. That’s exactly the sort of thing needed to ignite the tinderbox, what Roland Zhang called the “sea of gasoline” that is China’s economy. I really hope it’s not true, it would be a disaster. It would make the country more unstable than a thousand Taishis.

October 12, 2005 @ 10:35 am | Comment

Richard, you’ve got to fly to Bangkok to sort out your work permit? Didn’t your company sort that out for you before you arrived? That’s a bit crap.

P.S. When are you going to update the Peking Duck template to show your new location? You’ve still got a ‘Back in the USA’ logo at the top!

My company never said a word to me about the visa; they said they’d take care of it when I got here. So here I am in Bangkok, and who am I to complain?

To change the graphics above would cost me some money, as it was all done by the site designer Sekimori, so for now I’m afraid it’s staying as is. I agree, it’s dated but it’s not the top of my list right now.

October 12, 2005 @ 10:47 am | Comment

i think it’s a lot easier to (for example) justify how capitalism helps the economy of a country than to justify how democracy helps the government of that country …

No question. And democracy can only work when there is an agreement among the people to make it work, and that calls for a degree of education. Maybe China and a lot of other places (like Iraq, where we’re trying to force-feeding democracy) aren’t ready for full-blown Western democracy, but I believe people crave for representation and to have a say in their destiny; for it’s wretched faults, democracy is, as you and Churchill say, the lesser of all the other evils out there.

October 12, 2005 @ 10:54 am | Comment

Richard

No offense or anything, but exactly how badly do you need money. You blog is starting to look like a billboard.

October 12, 2005 @ 12:33 pm | Comment

It is painful but we have to admit that Chinese and many other societies are not civilized enough to fully enjoy the benefit of democracy. History demonstrates time and time again that a civilization can be stagnant for a long long time or even decline. That was the case for China for the past several hundred years….

October 12, 2005 @ 1:40 pm | Comment

Hey Richard, the google ads are skewing your post boxes and the whole right hand margin is gone. At least on my Firefox browser.

Where did this banker rumor start?

And William, ZT was one of our long time friends, if you didn’t know, who simply tries to instigate, as opposed to have a real position, or dignity for that matter.

As for Pericles, well, here’s a little devil’s advocacy:

“Our political system does not compete with institutions which are elsewhere in force.”

Well, this sentence elides the fact that democracy IS competition. To say it doesn’t compete with other institutions is true in that the Greeks listened to the rule of democracy (e.g. the Senate, no women, no slaves, no etc.) and the rest of government honored that. But there is competition – Pericles seems to be making a soft sell.

“Our administration favors the many instead of the few: that is why it is called democracy.”

Only 10-20% of Athens residents were native males, the only ones able to be citizens – and therefore be accorded full civil, religious and political rights. Slaves had to pay just to be allowed to reside in Athens.

“then he will be called to serve the state, in preference to others, not as a matter of privilege but as a reward of merit; and poverty is no bar…”

Slaves couldn’t own land, they couldn’t participate in religious festivals, they couldn’t do anything political and were denied some civil rights.

“The freedom we enjoy extends also to ordinary life; we are not suspicious of one another, and do not nag our neighbour if he chooses to go his own way.”

Unless your neighbor is your physical property.

“Our city is thrown open to the world; we never expel a foreigner.”

Foreigners were called “Metics”. Despite mandatory military service and paying taxes, they could not become citizens. This limited, obviously, social mobility.

Pericles sounds more like Xinhua to me.

October 12, 2005 @ 2:14 pm | Comment

Don’t forget Pericles was a conniving politician and rhetorician. These words really were propaganda for the state, because he was the state. He appealed to low income citizens, as did his rival Cimon, to gain political control. The Greek equivalent of flying over a NASCAR race in Air Force One.

So ZT is putting on his rose colored glasses. I suggest we keep ours in the drawer.

October 12, 2005 @ 2:17 pm | Comment

Double T said:

History demonstrates time and time again that a civilization can be stagnant for a long long time or even decline. That was the case for China for the past several hundred years….

Hey, don’t rag on the Qing. Manchus rule.

October 12, 2005 @ 2:43 pm | Comment

Folks,Sorry for the problem in the firefox.I just fix it.
post boxes and the whole right hand margin are fine both in IE and Firefox now. It’s an experiment with adsense.

October 12, 2005 @ 2:51 pm | Comment

ABC, jealously gets you nowhere!

October 12, 2005 @ 3:03 pm | Comment

Don’t forget that Pericles never actually spoke such words!
It’s funny- I spoke what I could remember from his funeral speech to my history class on Monday (trying to inspire them to love history as Athenians were pushed to love their city.
What’s I found pretty funny: I saw the post with it quoted, not reading the beginning or who wrote it, and felt that it was defending China- foreigners are free to come (not look around theough), poverty isn’t looked down upon unless one isn’t trying to get out of it , people for the most part living the lives they want (just not the kind I’d like to live), willingness to defend the state trhough courage. I don’t agree with the similarity, but thought it would be an ingenious way for the Devil to use the Bible for his own purposes…

October 12, 2005 @ 4:27 pm | Comment

Oh god Richard, be careful with those things. I’m having trouble reading between the ads.

October 12, 2005 @ 5:44 pm | Comment

GOOGLE ADS OR NO GOOGLE ADS?

Ads or no ads, I don’t know…

But clicking on the icon and reading the Google ad site, I’m a little put off. It strikes me there are some things in life that are not about “revenue potential.” I have a website too, http://www.billstimson.com, but I don’t want to “discover its full revenue potential,” as Google suggests I should. I don’t want to use it to make money. I feel there are some things more important than making money.

I’m a nobody. I slave away in life to get by. I want to dedicate my web site to what’s more important to me than that. There can be enormous potential in what doesn’t make money, what isn’t about making money. I want to explore that side of life. I find vast profit in the unprofitable. Much of what is not financially profitable is priceless — like clean water, clean air, a clean conscience, or a clean heart. I’ll try to go for that side, and let the other one take care of itself, as best it can. People keep telling me I’m poor, I should earn more money. But in ways they don’t see, I feel I’m rich. I’m happy with what I have.

William R. Stimson

October 12, 2005 @ 8:30 pm | Comment

Hi Bill. A very generous friend took the time to help set up the Google ads, and this is the first time I saw them. Right now they may be a bit too obtrusive, and I’ll talk about that with my “IT Manager.” For now, please bear with me. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with trying to make a little money from my site now thatit has an established readership (I want it to pay for maintenance – like maybe a new site design next year – and subscriptions, and maybe a gift for my guest bloggers, and I don’t expect to make more than $30 a month or so). So again, bear with me and I’ll see if we can make the ads less intrusive.

October 12, 2005 @ 9:53 pm | Comment

Careful, William. Those kinds of sentiments could be interepreted as dangerously, er, communist, by Uncle Sam, where discovering your full revenue potential is constitutionally mandated and a sign of full participation in society.

October 12, 2005 @ 10:01 pm | Comment

How much money do you need Richard, to get those horrible ads off the site? I am sorry, I know it is your site, but isn’t google helping maintain the great wall?

October 12, 2005 @ 10:03 pm | Comment

I don’t wanna sound negative, but just in case you did not know, I would not encourage anybody to contact the satellite company listed on the homepage. There are hundreds of satellite companies in Shanghai, and most are just looking for a chance to screw foreigners hard core. Anyone in Shanghai who needs a satellite can send an e-mail to me, I know a guy who is honest and reliable.

October 13, 2005 @ 12:06 am | Comment

And how are we supposed to know that you’re not going to rip us off Kevin?
😉

October 13, 2005 @ 12:19 am | Comment

Don’t worry, I don’t get any kickbacks from the guy. Just a friendly word of advice 🙂

October 13, 2005 @ 12:55 am | Comment

A post written by a famous online Chinese poster called “Math”. This is copied from forum.offtopic.com. Please do not delete it, as I think it is interesting.

———————————-
I very much dislike the word “fre3dom”.

I very much dislike the word “fre3dom”. I believe that the strict definition of fre3dom should be that when a person is deciding, he/she has N choices, where N>=2. Then it is appropriate to define “degree of fre3dom” as a continuous variable (your degree of fre3dom is 21.3, while mine is 10.3). But many humanity majors today use the word fre3dom as a binary variable, whose value is either 1(you have fre3dom) or 0 (you have no fre3dom).

Furthermore, it is appropriate to say that there are different kind of fre3doms, and one may have more degree of this fre3dom than that fre3dom compared to someone else, and vice versa. Unfortunately, humanity majors can’t make out all these complexities and only use the word “fre3dom” in a very naive and simplistic sense.

I agree that human beings seek fre3dom, and animals seek fre3dom as well. But I also believe that, humans and animals also have the tendency to seek a lack of fre3dom, or non-fre3dom. You don’t believe me? Well, when I was in the army in Guangdong, I used to observe the cows in the stable. And I saw that when a male cow was trying to pursue a female cow to mate, he was willing to do any disgusting thing. For example, when the female cow started to ur1nate, the male cow would catch those streams and drink it all. Well, we humans do similar things as well. For example, when a pair of lovers marry and have children and have family, this process is simply a process of seeking non-fre3dom: A person clearly has a much larger degree of fre3dom when he/she is single and has no kids or family.

I remember some American named Henry Patrik or something said something like “If I have no fre3dom, I’d rather die”. But I very much dislike that phrase. If I have no fre3dom, I certainly do not want to die. My 5 years in the Army in Guangdong is the most “non-free” experience in my life, but I miss those 5 years the most. And if I have a chance, I would send my son to the Army for a few years as well.

In fact, whether in America or China, the situation is similar: you are not so free at work, but much more free at home.
So I can say that we are “enduring a lack of fre3dom in exchange for more fre3dom”. I think we can call that lack of fre3dom “labor” or “going to work”. And we can call that fre3dom as “consuming” or “enjoying yourself”.

In America, you can curse at Bush on this forum, in China I can curse at Hu J1ntao on the Strong Nation Forum. In America, you can be arrested or monitored by writing some things supporting Laden. In China you will not be, but you can be arrested or monitored by writing some other things.

So it is quite hard to judge which country has more degrees of “posting-on-the-Internet fre3dom”. And similarly, it is hard to judge which country has more degrees of other fre3doms. America may have more degrees of this fre3dom, but China may have more degrees of that fre3dom. Also, different types of fre3dom have different priorities to different citizens. But I examined one type of fre3dom, “effective fre3dom”, and I concluded that China has a very large degree of effective fre3dom, perhaps more than the USA. To see this post from before:

“China Has A Very Large Degree of Effective fre3dom”
http://forums.offtopic.com/showthread.php?t=1590377

Another question I often pose is that: If you take any country in the world, and militarily surround it, and let the whole world break diplomatic ties with it, and impose strict sanctions on it, and continue that for 30 years, what do you think will happen to that country, to its government, and to its citizens? Well, that’s how China was treated from 1949-1970. That’s how the USSR was treated back then, and that’s how North Korea is treated today. So when historians talk about the USSR, they intentionally “talk up” stal1n’s purges, and “talk down” how the entire Western world was surrounding it with hostile forces. Those historians sound as if the world is loving the USSR, helping the USSR, kissing the USSR, and stal1n is persecuting people. Of course, I have said before that stal1n’s Purges could be justified anyway in a previous post:

“I Believe It’s Possible That stal1n’s “Purge” of Army Generals Was Justified”
http://forums.offtopic.com/showthread.php?t=1784222

So, perhaps my advice to some humanity majors and democracy-lovers is that, if you want to talk about “fre3dom”, at least use another word, or please define it more concretely like I did in this post, otherwise I will be very irritated when I hear someone say the word “fre3dom” and I may be induced to do destructive things.

October 13, 2005 @ 12:59 am | Comment

“Math’s fan”:

Thanks for editing words like ‘fr3edom’. That’s much appreciated mate.

October 13, 2005 @ 1:24 am | Comment

This math person really has something against humanities majors… did some sociology major score with some girl he had a crush on? Or did they just have the cool parties and not invite the math department?

October 13, 2005 @ 1:29 am | Comment

I majored in humanities. Math found out was I was doing with his mom, and he has never talked to humanities majors since.

October 13, 2005 @ 1:33 am | Comment

And he threatens to be destructive if he hears the word fre3dom abused too often… what could account for all this?

I know what it is. He did math at Georgetown. That would drive anybody nuts. Poor bastard.

October 13, 2005 @ 1:34 am | Comment

I believe that the strict definition of fre3dom should be that when a person is deciding, he/she has N choices, where N>=2. Then it is appropriate to define “degree of fre3dom” as a continuous variable (your degree of fre3dom is 21.3, while mine is 10.3).

Man, that will so not get you laid.

October 13, 2005 @ 1:35 am | Comment

Ah haha. Great line Dave. Classic.

October 13, 2005 @ 1:39 am | Comment

On a more serious note, Fang L1zhi was an astrophysicist. No humanities major he, no sir.

I get the funny feeling he’d think Math is an idiot.

October 13, 2005 @ 1:43 am | Comment

“Well, when I was in the army in Guangdong, I used to observe the cows in the stable. And I saw that when a male cow was trying to pursue a female cow to mate, he was willing to do any disgusting thing. For example, when the female cow started to ur1nate, the male cow would catch those streams and drink it all. Well, we humans do similar things as well.”

I have to personally say that I never had to bring out my barnyard animal mating tactics, but then again, I was a history major.

October 13, 2005 @ 2:05 am | Comment

For example, when a pair of lovers marry and have children and have family, this process is simply a process of seeking non-fre3dom: A person clearly has a much larger degree of fre3dom when he/she is single and has no kids or family.

You’re absolutely right, Math. Please get married so you will no longer be free to write.

October 13, 2005 @ 2:08 am | Comment

if you’re already married, go have more kids. Quickly!

October 13, 2005 @ 2:08 am | Comment

dave,

More pick up lines, for Math to try on the American girls as long as he’s suffering in America:

1. “I am erect and stable.”

2. “My family will ostracise me if I do not get married by age 30.”

3. “If you marry me I can give you face.”

4. “I will be wealthy enough to get a loophole around the one child policy.”

5. “I want a woman who can do many numbers.”

6. “I can be very convenient for you.”

7. “Freedom is destructive, I want my lover to punish me if I disobey.”

October 13, 2005 @ 4:17 am | Comment

I like the pun (as usually, not intended, I’m sure 🙂 you guys throw at our mathematician. But you’ll have to admit freedom does have some strange twists and turns: for instance, you have to struggle to obtain it and once you have it, you will have to fight to keep it. Freedom does not come for free.

As for the rest of that post, I remember what that “effective freedom” in China was he is referring to: it was measured in square kilometers !!!. Maths all the way down.

October 13, 2005 @ 5:00 am | Comment

Ivan, your point #7 might actually work. Question is, is Math prepared for the results?

October 13, 2005 @ 1:03 pm | Comment

Freedom does not come for free.

Lao Lu, you should consult the work of the philosopher and economist Trey Parker who determined that fre3dom actually costs a $1.05. I bet Math would find that interesting too.

October 13, 2005 @ 2:47 pm | Comment

First–to Davesgonechina–Math’s post was about sociology, not getting laid, so why do you reply with posts about getting laid? Just FYI, I’ve found that the people who talk about sex the most are the people who also are most deprived with regards to sex. Perhaps you would like a rendezvous with a nice Chinese girl? Just $500 for you Mr. Foreigner…

Second: Math’s post actually made sense. Quantifying freedom and other terms is, in most cases, vastly more beneficial for the societies involved than resorting to black and white judgments. Human beings naturally quantify things, so why shouldn’t we quantify things such as freedom? Then phrases that we all like using, such as “limiting freedom” or “expanding freedom” would make more sense and we could more accurately plot the freedom limitations of all gov’ts across the world.

And with regards to dave, please don’t be offended by my joking… in all fairness, Math’s post was pretty nerdy… but I’ve seen way nerdier guys than that get laid haha

October 13, 2005 @ 4:57 pm | Comment

t_co, you’re missing context here. Math has posted his other essays here before. He has never actually engaged in discussion, but simply dumps this stuff here. I’ve resorted to low-brow teasing because there’s really no other way to deal with someone who simply says “you are all very stupid, I will provide the answer” and then walk away. He’s a dick, so I make fun of him.

He doesn’t address what anyone else has said, he attacks humanities majors for some mysterious reason, and his article on effective fre3dom, as Lao Lu pointed out, is based entirely on whose country has more square kilometers of territory. If you think that’s a reasonable argument then I have no choice to summarily dismiss you along with Math, and his “fan”.

There’s a reason that social sciences aren’t simply a matter of quantification. If we did as Math suggested, where my fre3dom is a 20.6 and his is 18.5, how would we calculate that? We would have to identify discrete units of fre3dom – problematic, this, like utiles in ethics – and then assign points to them. Who decides whether being able to submit a newspaper column criticizing the government gets 2 points or 4? Who decides if its worth more or less than the fre3dom to leave my apartment and buy eggs? You end up with an arbitrarily determined set of rules and weights and measures – this is why the Enlightenment eventually collapsed under its own weight. Its precisely because these systems require interpretation that we are now stuck in the quagmire called postmodernism.

There’s a reason that thinking that mathematics can solve all your social ills is juvenile and dangerous. Totalitarianism is born that way.

October 13, 2005 @ 5:17 pm | Comment

I like the math formulae to calculate freedom, and it deserves some comment. But when we start dismissing human freedom as an ephemeral equation and not as an aspiration to fulfill basic human rights, we miss the big picture. It just takes the lazy way out to deny rights to others. With that kind of talk the idea of communism would never have had such resonance in the first place.
Glad we aren’t still talking about the meaning of life in any event.

October 13, 2005 @ 5:49 pm | Comment

Further toward what dave said:

Owen Barfield (1952); “…those…who are driven by an impulse to reduce the specifically human to a mechanical and animal regularlity, will continue to be increasingly irritated by the mother tongue and make it a point of their attack…..If therefore they succeed in expunging from language all the substance of the past…and finally converting it into the species of algebra that is best adapted to the uses of indoctrination…a long and important step forward will have been taken in the selfless cause of the liquidation of the human spirit.”

October 13, 2005 @ 11:40 pm | Comment

Besides endeavoring to measure some kind of quantifiable “effective freedom” in bike-able distance, Math is also the one who claimed that the economy of the US is less efficient than China’s. Evidence? In the US five guys are required to change the contents of a candy machine, while in China it only takes three.

This is not a serious person, the best route is to ignore him, hopefully in the future he will dump his wares in some other pond.

October 13, 2005 @ 11:53 pm | Comment

Slim,

Those remarks about the candy machines sound like an invitation to light bulb jokes.

How many Chinese Communists does it take to change a light bulb?
Forty thousand. One to break the bulb and 39,999 to monitor the internet to deny that it ever happened.

October 14, 2005 @ 3:36 am | Comment

On the drug democracy:

A drug won’t help you or even harm you if you don’t use it like the doctor told you.

October 14, 2005 @ 3:40 am | Comment

Shulan, do you get your democracy from a doctor, or a street dealer?

October 14, 2005 @ 9:21 am | Comment

Fortunatly it was legalized here some years ago, so I go to the doctor. Even better than that is that the medical ensurance here pays it all. It’s legal and free. Great. isn’t it?

October 14, 2005 @ 9:34 am | Comment

THIS IS SERIOUS STUFF!!

According to NPR, “Archeologists in northwest China have found the remains of a bowl of millet noodles prepared about 4,000 years ago. ”

Ahh…this proves once again that Chinese were the pioneers of the culinary art. And I think this invention is so totally greater than the four great inventions….What do you think?

October 14, 2005 @ 1:15 pm | Comment

Ivan
Your answeer to How many Chinese Communists does it take to change a light bulb is wrong.
It’s 0.
Communists don’t believe in counter-revolutions.

October 14, 2005 @ 6:47 pm | Comment

Regarding the story about Chinese bankers getting the hell out … check out the following web address. You’ll have to read Chinese though.

It claims that 42 bankers, including such people as the heads of various branches of the 4 govt. owned banks … all fled China during the recent national holiday.

Comments anyone? Confirmation? Check out the following story:
http://web.wenxuecity.com/BBSView.php?SubID=currentevent&MsgID=114471

and also
http://web.wenxuecity.com/BBSView.php?SubID=currentevent&MsgID=114420

October 14, 2005 @ 8:15 pm | Comment

Wow, with all those ads I could barely find the thread!

October 14, 2005 @ 10:26 pm | Comment

And Richard, did you know you’ve got a “Support the RNC” banner running across the top of the page–right under where it says “Proud Member of the Reality-Based Community”…?

October 14, 2005 @ 10:36 pm | Comment

Just bumped into this story at ChinaHerald about a legal dispute in Shanghai, that eventually became a street fight after the courts ruling wasn’t carried out by the authorities:

CH: law – Trouble at Xiaonanguo
http://tinyurl.com/dkyaz
FT: Gang attack on restaurant puts the heat on China
http://tinyurl.com/b5qd7
Shanghaiist: Extra! Extra! Dancing Fighting in the streets
http://tinyurl.com/8ozft

Seems there needs to be done a lot about that legal system.
Choose your buisnesspartner carefully, the courts won’t help you in case you disagree.

October 15, 2005 @ 3:58 am | Comment

“That’s all folks. That’s ALL, folks!
Eh-be-de-eh-be-de-eh-be-deh, I SAID THAT’S ALL FOLKS! PLEASE!”

Porky Pig, captured by the Chinese Space Program

October 15, 2005 @ 4:43 am | Comment

On what Tetsuaki said, about the 4,000 year old Chinese noodles:

As we all know, China is the cradle of noodles. But under the influence of American hegemony, many Italians try to interfere in the internal affairs of China, claiming to be the inventors of Italian cuisine.

The Ministry of Deranged, Foaming-At-The-Mouth-Paranoid-Nationalists of China, objects in the strongest terms to all attempts by Foreign Black Hands to interfere in China’s Internal Noodles.

And we know Paul Newman’s pasta sauce is a covert American operation to foment a Tomato Revolution in China. Therefore we object to Paul Newman ever visiting Chinatown.

Sincerely yours,
Ivan, the Official Spokesman of the Ministry of Deranged. Foaming-At-The-Mouth-Paranoid-Nationalists of China.

October 15, 2005 @ 5:10 am | Comment

You America! You….

…oh hell. I’ve just returned home drunk now, so let me do my best to try to impersonate a Deranged Chinese Nationalist in a drunken state – which is pretty close to the natural state of all deranged Chinese Nationalists:

“You want to weaken China! All America are always against China! You America hegmony, you always against China! China is victim, many Foreigner come and make shame on China since 1840, China stand up in 1949, China hate foreigner, China fight all Foreigner after China stand up in 1949! China a poor country today because of Foreigner! AHHH!
(Bobbling my head around and shouting and weeping….)
AHHH! ALL FOREIGNER WANT TO MAKE CHINA WEAK! AHHH! In China, we cry and we weep, we shed many tears, we are always sad and bitter on how the Foreigner make China weak!

AHHH! AHHH! (Tossing my head back and forth, and shouting and weeping and crying a lot.) AHHH!
China still suffer from Foreigner!
All China problem, all from Foreigner!
AHHH! Foreigner make China have many weeping and tears and crying in sadness!

AHHH! Foreigner make China sad!
AHHH! We all love Chairman Mao because he is not Foreigner! AHHH!
China still very sad, now, because of Foreigner! AHHH!

(Now I am weeping more, in the most dramatic way, just like all those “historical” programs on CCTV)

AHHH! I cry, I weep even more, because many Foreigner hurt China!
AHH! AHH! AHH!

And this is why I love the Communist Party. AHH! AHHH! (Now I am weeping even MORE, over all of the bitter memories of what the Foreigners did to China.) AHH! I weep, and I cry a lot! And so, I know why I must love the Communist Party!

October 15, 2005 @ 11:23 am | Comment

PS, as you can see above, sometimes I make the most sense when I’ drunk…..

October 15, 2005 @ 11:31 am | Comment

classy.

How clever of you, imitating a drunken retard while being a drunken… man.

October 15, 2005 @ 11:50 am | Comment

To Ivan:

Contempt is so easy.

And this –

“It is painful but we have to admit that Chinese and many other societies are not civilized enough to fully enjoy the benefit of democracy.”

Oy. I guess ethnocentrism by any other name still smells like hot-buttered arse, to me.

October 15, 2005 @ 7:22 pm | Comment

Aiyah, Ivan! :-0

I know Russians are rightfully associated with great writing as well as hard drinking, but that doesn’t mean you should attempt to mix the two while swimming in the Duck Pond! 🙂

October 15, 2005 @ 7:46 pm | Comment

Come on people … has no one looked into this banking thing? If it’s true, it’s one of the biggest stories this year in terms of China’s stability. If 42 senior bankers really did all go on a business trip to Hong Kong together, and then scatter across the globe to meet their families who had already got out of the country … then it could signal a major crisis looming for China. Remember some of the threads on Peking Duck talking about how a banking crisis could be the number one threat to the Communist Party and to peace and stability in general? If the average Chinese person loses confidence in the banks … the only way the government is going to be able to keep the banks afloat is by passing laws forcing people to deposit money, and forbidding them to withdraw it … and what do you think that would do to their popularity? Either that, or revert to their communist past …

This story has also appeared on sina.com … a mainland Chinese news source … so it’s not as if people in China aren’t going to hear about it.

However … so far I haven’t heard a peep about this story in any English language media/blogs. Has ANYONE heard anything?

October 15, 2005 @ 10:07 pm | Comment

Corrupt officials run away all the time. It is a problem, but any one instance would hardly topple the regime.

The worse problem, in fact, is those that doesn’t run away. Those with enough power are carving out their own economic empires under the name of privatization.

This is what happened to Russia when it democratized. Didn’t work out too well for them, either.

October 15, 2005 @ 10:46 pm | Comment

Come on people … has no one looked into this banking thing?

Maybe we’ve lived through a few more Chinese chatboard rumors than you … 😉

Related note, did any of you see that post a few months back on ESWN concerning the Chinese student who was studying in Canada while his father was arrested for corruption?

Suddenly the student realized the high life he was living in Canada – the car, the apartment, the luxuries, the bottomless pocket money – was all paid for with money gained illegally.

His relatives urged him to stay in Canada, and keep the money the father had moved there. The student aganized over the knowledge that the money rightfully belonged to someone else back in China, but in the end he could not give up the wealth.

October 16, 2005 @ 12:25 am | Comment

403201 … you’re naive. If this story turns out to be true, it’s not just one corrupt official running away … it’s an organised flight of a large number of senior bankers at the same time. This would signal major problems in China’s banks … there would have to be a reason for them to flee like this. For example, if China’s leadership suddenly realised that they had been completely misinformed about the state of China’s banks by their own officials …

Of course, this may all turn out to be untrue … but, if it turns out to be true, and you underestimate its importance … then you’re a first class fool. 403201?

October 16, 2005 @ 7:08 am | Comment

Size and scale, dude. Size and scale. China has 700 billion in forex reserves alone. If the fourty-odd people can dig up a big enough chunk to matter, then they would be powerful enough to not need to run away.

October 16, 2005 @ 7:10 am | Comment

Koizumi to the shrine today. Its going to be tough for the Central Propaganda Department, what do the papers run with SZ-6 or Koizumi?

October 16, 2005 @ 6:36 pm | Comment

Koizumi to the shrine today. Its going to be tough for the Central Propaganda Department, what do the papers run with SZ-6 or Koizumi?

SZ-6 at top, Koizumi at second. This is a great “1-2” punch. We are good at this.

October 16, 2005 @ 6:59 pm | Comment

403201 … thanks for confirming that you’re a fool. You clearly have no idea just how bad a state China’s banks are in. Go and do some reading on the matter, and then come back and say something. Until you’ve got some information in your head on the subject, it’s clearly not worth discussing the matter with you. Go. Read. No … don’t give me another rubbish answer off the top of your head. Read. Inform yourself.

October 16, 2005 @ 8:10 pm | Comment

As promised, today’s Guardian has an article explaining the Benjamin Joffe-Walt article from last week.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1593599,00.html
“Mr Joffe-Walt is 25. His main experience as a journalist has been gained in six months working for a South Africa newspaper, This Day, until it ceased publication in November 2004, and an overlapping period as a stringer, a freelance correspondent, for a British newspaper, the Sunday Telegraph. For the latter he filed stories from all over Africa, including Darfur. He has won several awards: young journalist of the year from the Foreign Press Association in London, in November last year, and the CNN African print journalist of the year award in June this year. He has been runner-up in two other awards. He started work for the Guardian on September 1.”

October 16, 2005 @ 9:09 pm | Comment

I think Ivan had it right, about a guy scared out of his wits “seeing” more than was really there. Bad reporting and it’s good they are offering the time and space to correct it.

More from the article:

Mr Lu, who had undertaken to put them on the right road, insisted, according to Joffe-Walt, on going all the way to Taishi, despite being asked three times to leave the car. Joffe-Walt’s report, available on the Guardian website, tells vividly what happened there. Mr Lu was pulled out of the car and severely beaten. The driver, the interpreter and Joffe-Walt locked themselves in the car for safety. Joffe-Walt was punched through the window. They were detained and questioned, and left convinced that Mr Lu was dead.

In Shanghai again 24 hours later Joffe-Walt filed his first-person eye-witness account. Indeed, working against a tight deadline on Sunday for Monday’s edition, he filed 3,500 words in a graphic stream-of-consciousness narrative in which, in the greatly cut-down version that was published, he said: “My head was spinning. I was in a mixed state of shock at what had happened to Mr Lu and utter fear for my life.”

He filed only an hour before deadline, which left little time for interaction with the desk. He was not specifically questioned by the desk in London about some of the details in his description. He was not asked how far he was from Mr Lu when the latter was being beaten. He was not asked how clearly he could see the things he was reporting he had seen. At the same time Joffe-Walt failed to communicate to the desk the condition he was in then and was still in at the time of writing. He was still convinced at that time that Mr Lu was dead. I shall come back to that.

When it became clear that Mr Lu was alive and his injuries were not consistent with what had been described, relief among readers over his survival was mixed with serious concern about the grave flaws thus revealed in the report. The Guardian recalled Joffe-Walt to London, via Hong Kong where he was interviewed by the Guardian’s diplomatic editor, Ewen MacAskill, who had been sent there for the purpose. MacAskill and Watts, who had been recalled from leave, have spoken to all the people who were with Joffe-Walt in Taishi, including Mr Lu. The Guardian arranged for Mr Lu to have a medical examination and scan. They revealed no serious injuries.

All witnesses agree that Mr Lu was severely beaten, and Mr Lu has confirmed that that was the case. In London, Joffe-Walt has been seen by a succession of Guardian editors. I think it is true to say that they have all developed some sympathy for Joffe-Walt, despite the fact that his report had threatened the credibility and integrity of the Guardian’s reporting in China.

I have interviewed Joffe-Walt, mainly in two sessions, for a total of more than three hours and I am sure that it is right to stop short of the wholesale condemnation of him that the matter may appear to invite. Joffe-Walt having expressed repeated apologies for what he had done and its implications for the Guardian, and indeed for the pro-democracy movement in China, said: “This was a situation in which I honestly, for the first time in my life, thought I would die.”

October 16, 2005 @ 9:18 pm | Comment

My problem, and I said this on my site today, is not so much with the young reporter but with the Guardian. Why are they sending a 25 year old with seemingly little experience into one of the more dangerous and important reporting jobs in the world?

October 17, 2005 @ 1:11 am | Comment

I agree simon; I was dumbfounded when i heard their correspondent in shanghai was 25 years old and inexperienced.

Okay, let’s move to the new thread.

October 17, 2005 @ 2:29 am | Comment