OK, I admit it. I liked The Family Circus when I was a kid. And I became a fan of horror writer H.P. Lovecraft several years later.
At last, the circle is complete:
My favorites are A Blinding Glare, The Bleak Mountain Wind and A Warning.
Russia Hedges its Bets
Russian weapons sales to Beijing. Russian participation in Chinese wargames. A Sino-Russian territorial agreement. An observer might be forgiven if he were to conclude that the Russians were busy engaging in an appeasement policy.
Numerically, the Russian position is not strong. While their population dwindles, the number of Chinese is over a billion. Weapons sales may bring in hard currency to the Russian economy, but at the price of eroding Russia’s technological edge over its former adversary. Its own population in the Russian Far East is quite small (7.2 million), while there are anywhere between 500,000 to 1,000,000 legal and illegal Chinese immigrants living there. Meanwhile, China’s three neighboring provinces can boast of 105 million people…
It is not without irony that Russia should support China’s revanchist claims over Taiwan, since Russia herself possesses territories that were also taken from the Chinese in the 19th century. Perhaps they hope that by feeding the crocodile, he will eat them last. I therefore note with some interest that the Russians have been making overtures to the Japanese of late:
…risking accusations of infidelity from Beijing, Putin has spent the past three days in Japan, China’s old enemy and regional rival and a country with which Russia is technically still at war. He promised to build a pipeline linking Japan to Siberia’s oil. He encouraged further investment in Russia. And he was conciliatory over the hot-button issue of the Kurile islands, known in Japan as the Northern Territories, seized by the Soviet Union in 1945 and which Tokyo wants back.
"We will be doing everything possible to solve this problem," Putin said. "We are fully determined to work to solve all the issues we face." He even listened with apparent equanimity as Japan’s Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi urged Russia to handle weapons exports to China "in a careful manner."
Taipei Times, Two-timing the Chinese with Japan gives Putin good options. Nov 26, 2005.
The day may yet come when Russia regrets its support for the Chinese war machine. Its Far Eastern territories have much-coveted resources AND lebensraum. Courting Japan will be necessary if Russia wishes to maintain the balance of power in Asia.
Jessica Simpson and Tabloid Culture
Living in Taiwan, I can honestly say that I’ve never seen Jessica Simpson’s MTV show. Never seen her music videos played here. I don’t see her on the covers of Taiwanese fan mags. Heck, it’d be hard to even FIND People Magazine here, even if you wanted a copy.
The news then, in case you haven’t heard it, is that she’s getting a divorce.
And that’s why I pity everyone living in America right now. For the next 6 months, if not longer, you’re going to see tabloid headlines in the grocery stores about someone else’s broken marriage that you’d rather not see. The story will be impossible to avoid on the soft TV news programs. The MSM will somehow work the story into their legitimate reporting, while Barbara Walters will conduct breathlessly earnest interviews about the subject during prime time.
As for me, I was mercifully uninformed about the whole "Bennifer" thing when it came and went, and I’m sure that this will be no different. Sometimes, ignorance IS bliss.
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Bruce Lee in the Balkans
Why on earth would the Bosnians raise a statue to a gong-fu star from Hong Kong?
"He’s far (enough) away from us that nobody can ask what he did during World War II, during World War I, or what his ancestors did under Turkey. He’s…not Catholic, not Orthodox, not Muslim. Bruce Lee is part of our idea of universal justice – that the good guys can win."
– The Taiwan News, Bosnians agree to honor Bruce Lee, Nov 24th (sorry, no link).
There’s something admirable in efforts to find heroes that everyone can agree upon.
UPDATE (Apr 22/06): Reason Magazine has the latest regarding this story:
Just hours after the monument was unveiled, a group of rowdy teenagers defaced the statue and stole the nunchucks, leaving the site littered with wine bottles.
Ah, human nature. (Hat tip to The Belmont Club.)
Chinese Tourists and Taiwan
Lately, there’ve been proposals to allow Chinese tourists to visit Taiwan. Seems to me that this would ease the way for a decapitation strike – I recall reading long ago that the Russians sent a planeful of Spetsnaz troops disguised as tourists as part of their initial invasion of Afghanistan.
But if it happens, The Taipei Times printed a "Top Ten Things Not to Say to a Chinese Tourist." Here’s a few of my favorites:
7. Five thousand years of Chinese history, and all you have to offer us are a couple of pandas?
6. Welcome to Taiwan. Please don’t spit.
5. Simplified characters are for simple people.
4. Mr. Hu, tear down that wall!
1. We DID want to "retake the motherland" – until we visited the place.
Mr. Bush Goes to Church
A Chinese Christian church, that is. Not one of the underground churches (that is to say, a REAL church), but a state-registered "patriotic" one. Still, it was a nice show of support for religious freedom in a country that desperately needs more of it.
One story I read had this to say:
"I think we’re at a turning point. In years past, (underground) family churches were mostly in the countryside, but more and more intellectuals are turning to Christianity…We also believe that the churches will play a role in China’s democratization."
(From the Nov 21st ed of The Taipei Times, Bush’s visit shows plight of underground churches. Sorry, no link.)
This is markedly different from the West, where it seems that the intelligensia bears open hostility towards Christianity. Another story I read some time back talked about China’s intellectual "Christian sympathizers" – intellectuals who are not Christian but nontheless look favorably upon Christian thinking on morality. There are currently 40-80 million Christians in China, and it’s entirely possible that they could help to reform the country in positive ways.
That is, if the Butchers of Beijing don’t come down on them like a ton of bricks, like the North Koreans:
…five (Christian leaders), accused of being "Protestant spies" and who refused to abandon their religious beliefs, were bound hand and foot and made to lie down before being crushed by a huge steam roller…
Some of their fellow parishioners assembled to watch the execution "cried, screamed out or fainted when the skulls made a popping sound as they were crushed beneath the steam roller."
Axis of Evil? What makes you think that?
Taiwan the Model
(With apologies to Mohammed & Omar of ITM.)
Kudos to President Bush for his kind words about Taiwan being a model for democracy. I don’t know if Americans realize how much the Taiwanese value their encouragement. Recall the reaction to the words of another great American president:
"One day, my Soviet jailers gave me the privilege of reading the latest copy of Pravda. Splashed across the front pages was a condemnation of President Reagan for having the temerity to call the Soviet Union an "evil empire." Tapping on walls and talking through toilets, word of Reagan’s "provocation" quickly spread throughout the prison. The dissidents were ecstatic. Finally, the leader of the free world had spoken the truth – a truth that burned inside the heart of each and every one of us."
– Scharansky, Natan. The Case for Democracy. p 138
The pro-unification China Post wasn’t cheering when they heard Mr. Bush’s words, though. Taiwan? A Model? Democracy? Humbug!
"Is Taiwan’s "model" so wonderful as President Bush has depicted? Let’s not get too giddy. The fact is, Taiwan has not "delivered prosperity to its people" for almost a decade, thanks to the political implosion brought about by "embracing freedom at all levels."… Taiwan may not be a convincing example for the mainland to emulate, at least as far as economic prosperity is concerned. Apparently, President Bush had a political axe to grind."
They sure don’t sound too happy about Taiwan "embracing freedom at all levels" now, do they? In fact, they sound downright resentful. Because Taiwan isn’t their model – Beijing is.
Old Communist “Heroes” Return
I have asserted that the games we play influence our thinking; I will go further and state that the stories we are told as children, and the people we choose to regard as heroes are no less important in defining who we are, and what we aspire to be.
One of the most inspiring moments in my lifetime was when the Russians began tearing down the statues of the communist leaders who had made the Soviet Union a hell-on-earth. It’s disappointed to hear that Putin’s government is quietly raising them again.
"Earlier this month, with little fanfare but plenty of dreary symbolism (the statue of Feliks) Dzerzhinsky was returned to a place of honor in Moscow…This is the man who…(was the father of) the Cheka (secret police), …the founder of the gulag, and whose people tortured and killed millions to create Lenin’s dream state."
(From Eleanor Randoph’s NYTs story, Soviet henchman returns to position, reprinted in the Taiwan News. Sorry, couldn’t find a link to the column in either paper)
You become what you worship, a pastor once told me. No doubt Iron Feliks would have approved of this:
(From Wikipedia’s entry on Viktor Yushchenko).
UPDATE (June 12/06): A little quote from communist secret policeman Iron Felix:
"There is nothing more effective than a bullet in the head to shut people up."
Oh! Oh! Let’s build a statue in his honor!
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Taxis, Terrorists and Tykes
Kat over at The Middle Ground wrote quite a good satire:
Meanwhile, Sandmonkey has a pretty funny take on Egyptian taxi drivers, and why he hates kids.
2008 Olympic Mascots
The names for Beijing’s mascots for the 2008 Olympics are the "Five Friendlies". Here’s a link to a blog that depicts the mascots enjoying some fun-filled communist-style events:
UPDATE (Apr 15/06): Don’t forget to check out Forced Sterilization Football, Hu Flung Falun Gong, the Organ Transplant Relay, and the Tibetan Dissident Biathalon.
China also has (non-Olympic related) cyber-cop mascots, too.