Durian Nation: Glocally Speaking

Summer Pulse ‘04

Wow.

This from Xinhua: “US drill test of new strategy”

Elsewhere, as in the Gweilo, there were reported moves about the US Navy deciding to have an open sea “workout.” Scroll to the “Big Stick” entry.

According to Xinhua:

Seven of the 12 aircraft-carriers of the US Navy will gather in the West Pacific in mid-July as a part of months-long military maneuvers, code named "Summer Pulse '04," which include surface joint operations, anti-submarine and submarine operations, sea-and-air joint operations and harbor visits, according to the paper.

The maneuvers, which started in early June and lasts until August, involve more than 50 warships, 600 aircraft and 150,000 servicemen from various services, and take place from the Atlantic, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, the Gulf and the Indian Ocean, to the Pacific. It is said to be the largest war game ever held.

"The timing and the choice of areas indicate that these maneuvers have multiple purpose[s]. The major purpose of the exercises is to try out the new Asia-Pacific strategy of the United States," said the article.

The US Asia-Pacific strategy is a long-term and consistent one, which is to maintain peace and security under US domination, obtain commercial access to this region, ensure free navigation and prevent the rise of any hegemonic force or alliance, it said.

I love the way the article undermines itself: maintain peace (under US domination) obtain commercial access, ensure free navigation and prevent the rise of any hegemonic force or alliance.

Just who are in the sights of a 50 warship, 600 aircraft and 150,000 body contingent bent on war games? God knows. I don’t.

Pirates!

Yeah. That’s it.

Pirates ...

Kerry picks Edwards and the U Theatre

Well, the race has certainly gotten a lot more lively with Edwards as the VP nominee.

I can only imagine what the blog world has already said.

It is a smart move for Kerry. My continuing concern is Kerry’s continuing oscillation. Perhaps Edwards can lessen that to some degree in the coming months.

Maybe the ticket should be reversed, Edwards/Kerry.

Still, I would be very much interested in what the pair had to say about Taiwan. It’s one of those single issues, personal things for me.

While the verdict is out on that one, the verdict is in on this one: U Theatre.

That’s a great pic. Too bad there isn’t any sound to go with it.

As for the evening program, there were no loin cloths.

But, there were drums and gongs, both big, as in three or four and even five feet in diameter.

I had always read about the various gongs but this was the first time I got to see and hear the action.

The range of the different timbres of the gongs was much wider than I had imagined. Clearly, a lot had to do with the striking of the gong from truly light, deft touches to ear rattling clangs.

Those folks just didn’t use drum sticks on the gongs, they used mallets about five feet long with what appeared to be a felt covered tips about the size of a small pumpkin.

This is where the dance came into the show. Imagine six well muscled men twirling and striking the gongs and drums in an hour long, tightly choreographed set of dances that were very much part and parcel of Tai-chi.

Should you read further into U Theatre’s web site, you will find just how deeply steeped the troupe is in Buddhism and the historical foundations of Chinese dance and martial arts.

If I had to complain, it would be about the supporting cast. They were absolutely crucial to the effective execution of the program but were shunted off to the side of the stage to make room for the performing artists. The lady who runs the troupe obviously was in control and directed from that “pit” at the side of the stage. The singers got no real space and the other assorted percussive instruments were fairly well obscured from view. Too bad. Really.

I suppose this is really the ‘fault’ of the National Theater and its limited stage.

Now, here’s a real beef.

At the very back of the stage there is a massive pipe organ. Imagine pipes three flights tall!

There was no attempt to camouflage or otherwise hide the beast. Now imagine the stage dimly lit to accentuate the bodies and the drums and gongs only to be reminded of those great huge pipes shining silvery white in the backdrop. Not good because the tubes dwarfed the men and their huge drums and staves.

I mean really. There were six guys wielding sticks, six foot long things, and using them as cudgels which worked because the routines were tightly executed. And then through it all … my eyes drifted upward to those dang pipes.

Don’t get me wrong, the organ, the king of the symphony and the piano, its queen. Still, the ambiance was compromised, severely.

All in all, it was a really good show. I just wish someone might read my mind when it came to the nuts and bolts of stage management and stage presentation.

Yeah. I know. It’s too expensive.

This race is going to get expensive as well.

“Hanjian” (a traitor to China)

On this, I groove and flow. Robbed from the Gweilo.

In parsing the term, “Han” (the basic foundation of the ethos that is Chinese, … “I am of ‘Han’ ancestry,” etc.) and “jian” (a Chinese ideograph that incorporates the use of the character of a “woman” coupled with another radical “gan” that morphs phonetically and has to do with armaments and interference), “hanjian” alludes to the idea of some sort of disloyal/traitorous activity against China.

This is way kuwel.

I should check with my history pal just to make sure, still I feel pretty safe in opining that the writer of “Manufactured lies …” is a jingoist fool. More accurately, the writer is a racist, but that is just my take on the matter.

To brass tacks: you decide

The big thing is that the little thing has a big thing with the US and “think tanks.” You know R&D and the like.

Gosh. Welcome to the club.

Parenthetically, the writer might be better off examining what little might be above the navel as opposed to what is not so very pronounced below it.

Still, I just love the way the writer throws dates around.

1863. That was about the time that a Major in the British Army ended a decade plus civil war in China and sustained the Manchu throne from other great power incursions until its final collapse in 1912. (Best estimates are that 20,000,000 died in that civil war.) Imperialism has its uses, I guess. Oh. Major “Chinese” Gordon lost his head, literally, at Khartoum some years thereafter if I remember correctly. Certain circles have a re-occurring “head” thing.

1936. That date is something of a mystery to me. Why would the writer include the Xian Incident, I suppose, the year in which Chiang Kai-shek was kidnapped and then released to ultimately create a marriage of convenience between the KMT and CCP to stop Japanese aggression? I guess it makes a certain sense, if isolated from a larger analysis. I guess it is a “white” thing.

1937. OK, easy enough. The Rape of Nanjing and the start of WWII, assuming you are not “white” and interestingly, I also date the start of WWII at 1937 and I am “white.” Still, there were some tigers flying around, they were white and Christ almighty, bet one of them was from Texas. Nah, not really, just folklore, I guess. Further, the Communist Party in China did undergo a further re-organization in the hopes that the KMT might carry their water, so to speak, when it came to fighting the Japanese.

1949. Again. OK, easy enough. “China stood up” and then marched squarely into the jaws of first failure with the “great leap” only to conclude with the “Cultural Revolution” where the nation was reduced to “spot” cannibalism. Go read Hungry Ghosts by Jasper Becker. (Please, refrain from making that book available to the young or the emotionally unbalanced.)

1954. Vietnam? The “approval” of the PRC Constitution? Purge of dissident CCP party members, Gao Gang and Rao Shusi? The Geneva Conference on Korea and IndoChina? The first Taiwan Straits Crisis or the signing of the US/ROC Mutual Defense Treaty? Dang. I forgot. That was a big year! No matter. I wasn’t even born.

1989. CCCP/PRC? Flip a coin. Mikhail Gorbachev visited Beijing and announced that the CCCP died. Shortly thereafter, thousands of people at Tiananmen died as well.

2004. Aside from a bare-knuckled political brawl here in Taiwan, is the writer trying to tell me something?

So, what am I to think about the writer’s concluding remarks? Take a gander.

The writers of lies and distorters of facts in the USA think tanks have no morals, they have loyalty only to distortions and to the creation of lies to support the distortions to feed the American public with dis-information about China and to feed the frenzy of hate that is the USA anti-China Congress.

Treachery is a crime in the USA, a criminal act, with a punishment to fit the terrible crime.

Treachery is a crime in China, a criminal act, with a punishment to fit the terrible crime.

The USA is a manufacturer of treachery in other places.

With that kind of logic, what’s a ‘mother’ to do?

“Child, have you ever thought about a career in politics?”

Kerry’s realistic path

While I’ve been happily buried, editing a tome, racing to meet a deadline, so much has occurred in my absence. You would think the world would have the common decency to wait for me to keep up.

Kerry’s editorial in the Washington Post was a really something I did not want to hear from the “presumptive Democratic nominee for president.” Where does the Post get this kind of mealy-mouthed terminology? “Presumptive” … there was a day, many years ago when the Post strode with fearful might such that a President was reduced to abdication. (Lucky for him.) Still. Go figure.

Kerry put it in a nut shell and do note the following quote is part of a larger three paragraph thought:

… The best way to do that is to vest friends and allies in Iraq's future.

On the economic front, that means giving them fair access to the multibillion-dollar reconstruction contracts. It also means letting them be a part of putting Iraq's profitable oil industry back together. In return, they must forgive Hussein's multibillion-dollar debts to their countries and pay their fair share of the reconstruction bill.

We should also give them a leadership role in pursuing our wider strategic goals in the region. …

“Friends and allies,” “them,” given a leadership role in “putting Iraq’s profitable oil industry back together.
Sounds like payola to me.

I am not happy.

Previously, I have noted some positive things Kerry has mentioned (go dig around for the one or two in my unorganized posts).

Still, I am not happy.

Kerry wants to ‘spread the wealth’ with a group of free loaders.

Not good politics from the presumptive nominee.

Grim

If true, its just another reason to stay.

CAIRO, July 3 (Xinhuanet) -- A militant group claimed in a statement posted on an Islamic Website Saturday that it had beheaded a US Marine of Lebanese descent who had been taken hostage in Iraq.

"We inform you that (Wassef Ali) Hassoun, the Marine of Lebanese descent, has been decapitated," said the message issued by the group, Jaish Ansar al-Sunna.

Pan-Arab satellite TV al-Jazeera reported on June 27 that Iraqi militants had allegedly kidnapped Hassoun and threatened to behead him unless Iraqi prisoners are released.

Beijing, back in the saddle again

In the wake of the extremely large demonstration in Hong Kong and reported by just about everyone with a keyboard, Beijing is getting back to basics.

BEIJING, July 2 (Xinhuanet) -- China firmly opposes irresponsible comments by any foreign country which interfere in Hong Kong affairs, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue here Friday.

Zhang said this when asked to comment on the remarks of deputy spokesman of the US State Department Adam Ereli that the steps and scope of Hong Kong's democratization should be decided by the Hong Kong people and government.

Zhang said that Hong Kong affairs are China's internal affairs. Since Hong Kong's return to China, the principles of "one country, two systems", "Hong Kong people governing Hong Kong" and a high degree of autonomy have been comprehensively implemented and Hong Kong people's rights and freedom have been fully safeguarded, she said.

China has always held that Hong Kong develops a democratic system which conforms to its own conditions, she said. Only when the political institutions of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region develop in a gradual and orderly manner according to the Basic Law, can they meet the long-term interests of Hong Kong people from all walks of life, and be conducive to the long-term prosperity and stability of Hong Kong society, Zhang said.

As you can see from the short response, Hong Kong can “develop” just so long as it adheres to the Basic Law promulgated in Beijing.

So much for “Hong Kong people governing Hong Kong” …

Hong Kong

Much closer to home, folks are watching the events in Hong Kong like it was their own.

It does not look good.

Aung San Suu Kyi, …

… the Nobel peace laureate under house arrest in Myanmar, will be free to contest elections after a constitutional convention finishes its work, Indonesia's foreign minister said on Wednesday.

Well, that is hopeful.

But, I just don’t see it happening.

Still, I can tip my hat to the lady.