Durian Nation: Glocally Speaking

Potholes in Kaohsiung

The photo says it all.

Interestingly, I just finished editing a paper on extreme desertification which occurred during the Tang Dynasty in the Tarim Basin or China’s part of the Silk Route.

The cause … major but temporary atmospheric shifts over Europe and westward movement of the Siberian High [pressure system].

So much for people and industrialization.

Really quite interesting stuff and the guys know their history for geoscientists.

Bored?

Go back and look at the pothole.

Libertarians choose a candidate: Is this my man?

A two party system is all about answering the question “Of these two candidates' platforms, which do I like least?

Michael Badnarik doesn’t have a chance, of course.

Still, I have always dreamed of having viable third, fourth or even fifth choices as a voter.

The PRC, history and PC games online

When history violates China’s censorship committee

China has banned a Swedish-made computer game accused of "distorting history and damaging China's sovereignty," by showing Manchuria, Tibet and Xinjiang as independent nations, state press said yesterday.

The computer game, "Hearts of Iron," made by the Stockholm-based games developer Paradox Entertainment, also showed Taiwan as a part of Japan, Xinhua news agency said, citing a censorship committee under the Ministry of Culture.

"All these severely distort historical facts and violate China's gaming and Internet service regulations," the ministry said. "The game should be immediately prohibited."

All websites are banned from releasing the game and copies of the game on CD-ROM will be confiscated.

Sellers will be punished, it said. Internet bars that provide downloads of the game or fail to stop surfers who download, install or play the game, will be fined or even ordered to stop business, it said.

The People’s Daily and the prison ‘saga’ in Iraq

Like a dog with a bone.

The People’s Daily is digging deep, I mean deep to continue the drum beat on international sensibilities.

The photo of, I guess, UN prisoners, is good.

By the way, America was part of the “Police Action” in the Koreas.

“Police Action in Iraq sans UN” catchy, eh?

I hope the historians at home have ‘captured’ the pic for posterity.

Nevertheless, the “People’s” Daily has managed to find a woman, “Ms. Zhou Yuanmin, once an interpreter among China's POW administration staff and now a veteran editor of People's Daily” (Gosh, that was handy) to bring “us back to the once gun smoke-filled battlefield, and [enlighten] us as to which country [China], after all, is the one respecting human rights and democracy.”

You bet! Check my ‘theft’ from Asia Media.

CHINA: Taskforce 'monitoring students and dissidents ahead of June 4' Mainland police have set up a taskforce to clamp down on students and political dissidents in the run-up to the 15th anniversary of the June 4 Tiananmen Square massacre

South China Morning Post
Saturday, May 29, 2004

But I digress.

The kindly commandants created libraries, in English! Talk about broad minded and culturally sensitive, too.

Our POW administration respected religious customs of different countries and ethnic groups, and allowed prisoners to celebrate Christmas, Thanks Giving Day and Islamic festivals. [Ed. Please, work on the spelling.]

Islamic festivals?

Now, really.

There is no doubt in my mind that one might manage to find the odd Indian soldier as a prisoner, but a follower of Islam in the Korean War? Let’s see the footnotes.

It must have been a ‘jovial world.’

Ms. Zhou particularly mentioned the "prisoners' Olympics" staged in November, 1952, which were participated by 500 people. Wearing sports suits from China, prisoners competed in track and filed, boxing and basketball. Some black Americans talented in sports staged a really fantastic show. [Ed. See the spelling comment, above and grammar, here. While you are at it, try to conceal the racism a bit better.]

I’m not getting close to that mistake.

Interrogations?

Our Volunteer cadres never beat or abused prisoners who made mistakes, but talked with them. If they really made serious mistakes, they would be placed in confinement, at most for one week. Our political commissars personally talked with some officer prisoners who were from the West Point, telling them not to set themselves against China because the Chinese and American peoples were friends. [Ed. Grammar really is important in propaganda work.]

Why from just “the West Point?” That sounds vaguely discriminatory to me.

Then, there was the obligatory mention of possible US bombings of POW camps. Who knows? The camp might have been located rather close to a genuine target. Precision bombing was just nothing like the stuff, today.

International praise?

In May 1952, Ms. Filton from Britain, a renowned lady of peace and winner of Stalin Prize, visited the camp accompanied by Comrade Liao Chengzhi. She made wide contacts with the prisoners and after returning home wrote articles highly praising the humanitarian spirit displayed by the Chinese army in their treatment of POWs. According to the Korean Armistice Agreement signed in Panmunjom, before the two sides of war send back each other's prisoners, a large number of UN Red Cross workers visited and investigated the camp. They stayed for several days and didn't find any slightest breach of the Geneva Convention by our army.

The Stalin Prize. Wow!

Now, there is a must loose gift … kinda like hardened fruitcake. It’s just gotta go.

Finally, some folks did not go home.

It happens and the Chinese saw the opportunity, first.

University level courses in conversational English based upon factory work.

“Visionary.”

Finally, I have seen “grass-roots” level mandates to promote democracy at the village level to “improve the Party’s style of work.”

Visionary …

Kerry

There's just something about that tie.

Loved the flag ... nice suit.

What a day. The server was down for far too many hours. Two significant papers got edited and I still have only the vaguest notion of the contents.

• Summer and winter distribution and malformation of coccolithophores in the East China Sea

• Isotopic Composition of Carbonaceous Material in Metamorphic Rocks from the Mountain Belt of Taiwan

Plus, my own work ...

But, I feel much better.

I read this in the NY Times about Kerry’s speech in Seattle, the first of what appears to be a series outlining his position on, among other things, foreign policy.

This I liked, a lot … re terrorists.

If such an attack appears imminent, as commander in chief I will do whatever is necessary to stop it. Some believe that Al Qaeda would use an attack to try and influence the outcome of the November election. Well, I have a message today for Al Qaeda and for any terrorist who may be harboring these illusions: We may have an election here in America, but let there be no doubt, this country is united in its determination to defeat terrorism.

And we will never be deterred in our exercise of democracy.

So this is my message to the terrorists. As commander in chief, I will bring the full force of our nation's power to bear on finding and crushing your networks. We'll use every resource of our power to destroy you.

Kerry also said some other things that got my attention. I looked to find the full transcript.

The NYT noted that “A full transcript and video are at nytimes.com/politics.”

Oh, yeah? Where?

And another thing I did not like was the way the authors slipped into an extract of his speech without using quotation marks. Whatever happened to the block indent?

The NYT is supposed to be pedantic when it comes to punctuation. But, they still have their problems, I suppose.

That tie … I got it.

It’s not red enough and there is no blue. The rest is OK just loose the squares.

Incidents, incidents, incidents

"Incident” must be the most important noun in the vocabulary for the editors in Beijing. Still on a roll, the People’s Daily had this to say.

The incident of the "September 11" 2001 terrorist attack has thoroughly exposed the weak point of the United States, making the country a target of attack by the world anti-US forces. As early as before the "September 11" event, some American newspapers and magazines had pointed out: Due to the resentment of the world people, fight against America has become a global phenomenon. Instead of making self-examination, the US rulers seek deterrent force for the world's sole superpower. This move can only anger the world. US counter-terrorist war has made more enemies for itself and its followers. On March 12, 2004, the Boston Global News (Website) wrote: The Bush administration was reluctant to see that the anti-US forces have developed to a climax since the end of the Vietnam War.

I must say, their use of webnotes is improving dramatically.

Still, if this was an incident, what do you call that?

Nevertheless, I will give good folks good credit for their deeds.

China kicked off a nationwide campaign yesterday to fight unsafe blood collection and supplies, a big cause of the rapid spread of infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and hepatitis.

"I was shocked that all three AIDS patients, to whom I randomly spoke in Ditan Hospital on World AIDS Day last year, were infected with HIV through unsafe blood transmissions," Gao Qiang said.

Gao, the executive vice-minister of the Ministry of Health, made the remarks at a national television conference to start the campaign.

Sadly, the effort has been marred.

Three blood centres in Hunan, Guangdong and Chongqing were reported by the Ministry of Health to have collected too much blood from as many people as possible at low prices and then sold the blood to factories or even hospitals at much higher prices.

The down side to the free market with Chinese characteristics.

... Why does a factory need blood?

Tough love?

Caning, the Malay way.

At a school in the northern city of Taiping, about 600 children aged 9-12 watched as prison guard Jigeira Singh beat a life-sized stuffed effigy that had been strapped to a wooden frame. He told them he had been trained to strike with his rattan cane at 160 kilometers per hour (100 mph) and produce a force of at least 90 kilograms (200 lbs) on impact.

Go here for the China Post photo and here for the China Post text.

Some more photos.

Clearly, my “loony” idea of corporal punishment of moms and dads meting out baby taps on baby butts for baby infractions is mild, indeed.

The return of mere scandals

Life appears to be getting back to normal what with the scandals getting more play.

Celebrity snafus …

Several days ago, Mike ‘Air’ Jordon popped in for a couple of minutes on the Taiwan leg of his Nike promotion tour. The fans were not happy at all for the literally two minute appearance after paying so much money to the legend by buying shoes or tickets at impossible prices. Apparently, a few expressed some satisfaction in being gouged …

But many fans were irate because they paid up to NT$6,500 for Jordan's latest shoe to get a shot at being selected to attend Saturday's show, while others paid up to NT$20,000 to scalpers or online to get a pass.

P.T. Barnum would be proud.

Black Gold ...

On any given day it seems, some bureaucrat will be indicted for something and Kaohsiung has more than it’s fair share. Think of Chicago of during the “roaring twenties.”

Former Kaohsiung City councilor Yang Min-lang (楊敏郎), who fled to China to avoid jail after being convicted of receiving bribes last year, will return home in July to face justice, his wife claimed yesterday.

Yang's wife, Lina Chen (陳麗娜), who has registered to run in the upcoming Kaohsiung City Council by-election as a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate, claimed that Yang "definitely" will return home as soon as he finishes his doctoral studies in business management at Xiamen University in Fujian Province.

I can only imagine what might be taught in the business college at Xiamen.

I can’t wait to see the title of his dissertation thesis: Enron: Capitalizing on their mistakes and avoiding jail time.

Not much has happened today

Taiwan is pretty quiet. The earthquakes have been minor so maybe the two tectonic plates this island straddles may just be turning over in their sleep. Just off the coast nearby, sorta close in on the mainland, and really far away from the island, things have been a bit more exciting.

Apparently, the Chinese and Taiwanese Air Force have been playing chicken in the air space over the strait, again. The Chinese have complained and the Taiwanese have blown them off. I guess diplomacy has taken to the air, literally.

In other real diplomacy, an N. Zed lawmaker was upset after having suffered a rebuke from the Chinese diplomatic corps for having been invited and then having the temerity to actually attend the inauguration.

That guy is just got to start doing something about his thin skin. It happens in D.C. all the time. In fact, the People’s Daily has noted the latest such instance. It had to do with US weapons sales to Taiwan.

Finally, church goers have been rounded up over the year in Anhui Province. Zhao Wenquan

… was detained in the village of Hegou in the eastern province of Anhui on May 9 after more than 4,000 people attended the festival, a crowd ten times larger than at most church gatherings, the U.S.-based China Aid Association reported.

Zhao, who is over 60, has been charged with disturbing social order and organizing an illegal religious gathering, said the group, based in Glenside, Pennsylvania. Another dozen leaders in Zhao's church are in hiding, it said.

But, there is some good news. The People’s Daily is still riding high on the Iraqi prison scandal. Curiously, there was no mention of the arrests in Hegou.

I guess an editor can’t cover every little thing. Besides, the writing has improved.

Maybe he ought to think about blogging. He could call himself Beijing Bill.

Or, if the author is a she, perhaps Beijing Betty.

You know, something catchy like the Japanese did with Tokyo Rose.

Them what bark and them what really, really bite

Personally, barking ‘dogs’ always get my immediate and undivided attention.

Today, the newspapers were full of China’s official ‘reaction’ to the inauguration here in Taiwan with words like “completely annihilate” to get Taiwan to wake up and smell the rocket fuel.

Old man Lee was the one who first drew the comparison between barking dogs and China just a few days ago.

More closely, it appears that one and all are busy realigning themselves with the new political realities.

As for the barking dog statement …

Ruan Ming (阮銘), a visiting professor at Tamkang University and former special assistant to former Chinese Communist Party secretary-general Hu Yaobang (胡耀邦), concurred with the official's idea, citing former President Lee Teng-hui's (李登輝) comment on China's May 17 statement that, "barking dogs don't bite."

"China even informed the U.S. before it really barked," Ruan noted.

There is just something about an Alpha Male and the pack mentality.