The Australian election rapidly approaches. For those of us exiled from the motherland thanks to ruinous high marginal tax rates, we have the option of voting any time. Indeed the nice lady from the AEC informed me that Hong Kong is the second biggest polling booth overseas after London. And so it is time to make a decision.
Firstly some history. As a lad I grew up in a household where free thinking was encouraged. Despite being firmly ensconced in a bastion of blue-ribbon Liberal-hood, my folks were always keen to support the underdog, being either the Natural Law Party or the erstwhile Save A Life A Day Party. The Labor Party might have been a long running joke (save those golden few years of Keating-ism) but the Liberal Party was worse: they were solicitors rather than unionists and thus a far more worrying proposition. This combined with attendance at a "socialist" (Gucci and champagne variety) Jewish youth group which was short on substance but long on substances firmly entrenched my views in the left hand column...to some extent. Somewhere deep inside me the capitalist pig-dog had always been strong and my worship for all things Mammon meant on certain issues I titled to the right instead. Thus I entered that blurry period known as university as a socially liberal but economically conservative actuary in training. The world was my oyster and I didn't even like shellfish.
From that blessed moment that I earned the right to vote, I faithfully stuck with the Labor party for the first few times. Hawke-y was likable enough and not screwing things up to badly and the best the Liberals could offer were Peacock and, mum, Howard. Then came the Keating/Henson contest, which was a spectacular story of political suicide by the Liberals. I met my wife and he imposing 6 foot 4 inch father, full of Hungarian incredulity that anyone could ever vote Labor. I think he likes me because even though he saw me as a Communist (in the very worst sense of the word) he didn't bash me into next week when we first met. Indeed amongst their friends I became something a novelty, the token Labor-item in a sea of Liberalism.
Then came the Howard GST election and suddenly I found myself slowly dragged to the siren call of proper tax reform despite his social conservatism. For the first time in my life, in the confines of that curtained booth, I was ticking the box for Liberals. In a dreamlike state I dropped the ballots in their box, safe in the knowledge that it was a once-off that could be corrected three years hence. Unfortunately Labor then did its level best to make itself unelectable, going into the next election with big Kim Beazley and very little in the way of policy. Then of course came the events of September 11, which redefined the lines of politics forever. Right and left have come to mean different things from times past, and I found myself firmly in the "right" camp on the wars on terror and Iraq.
Before I go on I must digress for a minute for the benefit on non-Australian readers. In the Golden Land our elections are based on a Parliamentary system: we vote for a local representative and a separate vote for the Senate, based on party lists. The party with the majority of House of Representative seats takes power; the Senate is voted for with each state as an electorate, thus usually leaving the Democrats (a motley crew whom at one stage threatened to become a legitimate party until they kicked out the one leader who had any sense, Meg Lees) with the balance of power and disproportionate say over the running over the country. In each case votes are based on a preferential system. So for your local rep there may be 5 candidates, which you number from 1 to 5 in order of preference. Whichever candidate has the least number 1 votes is eliminated and those votes second preferences are distributed amongst the others, and the process is repeated until there's a winner. What this tends to mean is regardless of whom you vote for, the key is whether you put the Liberal or the Labor candidate as the higher number.
And so finally we come to this election. For once Australia actually has a reasonable choice to make. The Labor party (narrowly) opted for Mark Latham, a fiery type but an ideas man and one with great potential if only he could ignore opinion polls for a few minutes. On the other hand is John Howard, whom is now 9 years in and not likely to see out the term before handing off to his deputy, Peter Costello. Much like the US election, Howard has staked out the hawkish war on terror stance, whereas Latham at least has had the sense (John Kerry, are you listening?) to argue that Iraq is a sideshow and more resources need to be deployed closer to home to fight against terror (I disagree with the view, but at least its a semi-valid argument). Thanks to years of good fiscal management plus an economy that seemingly can defy gravity forever, both parties have a Federal Budget with surpluses and debt under control. This makes a marked contrast to the US case. The Liberals can argue they have been competent economic managers, although Labor from times past have an equally valid claim. Now the parties are spending like drunken sailors in the usual sops to key interest groups, but a totem of Australian politics (wrongly) remains not to let the Budget slip into deficit.
The reality there is very little difference between the two parties when it comes to the economy. Interest rates will likely rise slightly regardless of who wins. The economy seems likely to continue on it gentle rising path, a housing bust notwithstanding. And as a small trading nation Australia will remain economically hostage to the winds of growth and the vagaries of oil prices. In times past this would have meant the election would have switched to focussing on those domestic mainstays: health and education (although largely a State responsibility). But this time is different. There is a war going on. The two parties have made their stances relatively clear. Latham's silly promise to withdraw Australia's small Iraq force by Christmas blew his chance to shut the issue down. So that combined with the Liberals' reasonably solid track record mean they are more likely to get my vote.
BUT it isn't that simple. Amazingly my cast-iron blue-ribbon stretch of electorate has turned into a marginal electorate. This is due simply to a rich merchant banker's ham-fisted efforts to push out the sitting Liberal member, succeeding in stealing the endorsement by massive branch stacking and pissing off large chunks of the voting public. Combine the Australian tall-poppy syndrome with the displaced candidate's quixotic decision to run as an independent and the seat, for the first time in over 100 years, will actually be close. Ironically just when my vote matters the Liberal candidate repulses me, clearly seeing the seat as a stepping stone to greater things rather than showing any interest in the needs of the community he will theoretically represent.
And thus it is highly likely I will split my vote this time around. Nothing makes a party take notice of a seat, especially a previously safe one, than losing it. So I'm likely going to vote for Peter King, preferencing the Labor lackey ahead of Malcolm Turnbull. I might agree with him on the republic, but otherwise I cannot stand his imperial manner and brute force political tactics. I think I'm doing the Liberal Party a favour: the last businessman they elected in Wentworth snatched defeat out of the jaws of victory. However for the Senate I am likely to vote for the Liberals. I hate Howard's social conservativism but admire his economic credentials, and I fervently hope that in 18 months time Peter Costello will assume the reigns and lead the party back to the centre on social issues as well.
I keep saying likely for one very good reason: in all political campaigns the unexpected often happens and swings the vote. In these modern times that is more likely than ever, especially both on the security front and the economic front.
"...in all political campaigns the unexpected often happens and swings the vote."
Do you think this is true? I am not sure if I have really ever seen evidence of this in other countries' elections (other than the Florida voting ballot extravaganza). Generally, from the sidelines, a lot of elections look very clear-cut, and indeed in many countries where you vote for the party and not the candidate, it seems there are almost never any surprises.
But you're a good lad for absentee voting. I should get my ballot in the mail any day now.
Helen, This is an unusual election in Simon's electorate. The result will be almost totally party independant due to a long story involving bloodletting, Machiavellian intrigue, bribery, corruption (hey let's throw in sex and porn as well) etc bewteen two members of the governing party.
I'm proud to say you are a chip off the old block. Scary when you actually agree with your adult child and for all the same reasons. Is this nature versus nurture, nuture versus nature or something even more spookey?
As a left leaning anarchist I have followed your logic and understand your conclusion. However i am disappointed that, as an actuary, you have neglected to do a risk analysis. Who to vote for local has been well canvassed. The question in the Senate is who do you think will win the lower house? Once you answer that question you vote for the oppose in the Senate. Unless... If Labor wins and the Libs control the Senate will they do a Fraser and bring down the government. On the othe rhand it is impossible for Labor to control the Senate. The Greensare as nutty as the Democrats. Conclusion. A vote for Labor in the Senate is a vote to continue the good times.
Here endeth the lesson!
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Asia by Blog is a twice weekly feature, posted on Monday and Thursday, providing links to Asian blogs and their views on the news in this fascinating region. Please send me an email if you would like to be notified of new editions. Previous editions can be found here.
Now on with the show...
Hong Kong, China and Taiwan
Google responds to the China news censorship story, although many, including Fons and Andres, are unconvinced.
The US Senate passed the North Korea Human Rights Act this week, although there has been very little coverage of it in the mainstream press. The full text of the act is available via here. Marmot looks at the responses in Korea.
North Korea officially declares they have nukes. As a deterrent, of course. Also should the South call the North's bluff? (via Kirk).
A memo to North Koreans: if you're going to invade an embassy, don't make it a Canadian one.
In order for Japan to get its permanent seat on the UN Security Council, China has helpfully laid out the barriers it sees, which Chinese Suburbia has helpfully scored.
Even ex-Kamikaze pilots don't like being compared to suicide bombers. Gordon has no sympathy for them.
At least one tourist got out of North Korea to visit Beijing.
Sean looks at the massive task of reforming Japan's Postal Service (even if it doesn't interest voters much), which is actually the world's largest financial institution amongst other things. As he points out, the Government should heed the lessons of California's energy crisis and learn the difference between privatisation and deregulation.
SE & other Asia
Brad DeLong eloquently fisks a stupid article pleading for a boycott of products made by Indian labour; as Richard points out you could easily substitute China for India.
Conrad reports on the trial in Malaysia of alleged maid-beater Yim Pek Ha and her reverse insanity defence. More reports on the case at ALN.
India can teach the US a thing or two about voting.
Via The Acorn comes a brief look at The Economics of Terrorism. I'd be interested to see further analysis of this - if economics can explain terrorism it can no doubt also help to provide answers to defeat it.
And as always the old truism "Sex sells" makes it obligatory to look at what economics has to say about sex and diseases (make sure you read the comments as well).
Hong Kong's newest jester, Long Hair Leung, is already pushing his first self-created "crisis". He is refusing to use the standard oath of office when the LegCo is sworn in, instead intending to introduce his own wording. He'll be heading to court to protest his right to make the rules up as he decides under the cloak of "freedom of political belief", rather than follow the Basic Law that he pretends to defend.
Long Hair's election and his actions since are achieving only one thing: exposing LegCo for the joke that it is. He will do far more damage to the institution than Beijing could ever hope to do itself.
When Beijing says they intend to take a "bigger role" in Hong Kong affairs, it can only mean one thing: the nice guy act is over and its clampdown time again. The relatively poor showing of Democrats in the election would no doubt have also encouraged those that care in Beijing about their troublesome southern city. What it really means going forward is Beijing's previous aloof approach to HK affairs is over and the next Chief Executive will be reminded his duty will be to do Beijing's will, not represent the people of HK. There is zero chance of universal suffrage in 2007/8 and the chances for 2012 are getting slimmer as well.
Hong Kong is going to gain a firmer understanding of the "one country" part of the famous "one country, two systems" slogan.
Asia by Blog is a twice weekly feature, posted on Mondays and Thursdays (the latest edition is here). You can be notified by email when it is updated, just drop me an email at simon-[at]-simonworld-[dot]-mu-[dot]-nu. Now without futher ado it is time to look at the highs and lows of China and Asia over the past month:
China, Taiwan and Hong Kong
Politics
Jiang Zemin has bowed to the inevitable. Now Hu Jiantao have no more excuses on delivering reform. With the peaceful rise of Hu Jintao, Richard has a good look on what it all means, although CDN contends Hu has sold his soul. At the same time some things haven't changed (the article in question can be found via here). Adam also notes the frustrating lack of coverage for such an important event.
Asia Media covers the trial of the 2 authors of a book on China's peasantry and the difficulties they face. Metanoiac has more on this.
Tom Plate covers the thoughts of a retiring US naval commander on the Asia-Pacific region.
The home of the "laissez-faire" economy is becoming more monopolistic by the day, says Tom. He also covers HK's pathetic response to the challenge issued by Singapore's elder patriarch, Lee Kuan Yew. Perhaps because LKY is right. There's more on the whole thing at CSR Asia.
China's soft power is growing and Peking Dork says it signals the end of any chance of Taiwan independence. Dan Drezner looks at China's growing influence as a regional power; thinking about one small aspect of the US's current approach to China it seems the US isn't sure whether to treat China as a threat or opportunity.
Stephen looks at China's warning to its Uighur population. With China getting ready for the 2008 Olympics, Stephen also looks at the likely losers in the run up to the event. Ironically for the IOC their attempt to force improvement China's human rights record looks likely to backfire.
HK's elections are done: full results at ESWN. Looking at the results are Pieter who sees this campaign's dirty tricks as a sign of maturing democracy; Phil who looks at the disappointing Democrat Party results (much as he predicted) and the ballot box stuff-up and says if its a choice between conspiracy and stupidity, well you know which wins. Chris has some interesting ideas on the apathy concerning this election and that the current system is of London's design, not Beijing's. Andrea says China will clamp down on HK regardless of the result. Tom looks more deeply into the winners and losers. ESWN explains and defends HK's functional constituencies by saying "experts" are needed to defend each interest group and commonly elected politicians are unable to grasp the issues. Which is complete baloney. Countries such as the UK, USA and Australia seem to manage just fine without special interest groups directly electing members of Parliament. ESWN's example of the financial services candidate (an "colourful" fellow elected with 275 votes, whereas it took over 60,000 votes to get a directly elected seat. In other words one stockbroker's vote is worth 218 "ordinary" votes) fighting for minimum conditions is the perfect example against these seats. The investing public loses out to the stockbrokers who create their own self-determined minimum commissions. If the small stockbrokers are worried about "collusion" in the long term, collusion in the short term isn't the answer. Proper anti-trust and competition laws are. Special interest seats perverse democracy by making those lawmakers answerable only to that sector, to the exclusion of the broader society they should actually serve.
A detailed look at the difference between the existing and proposed (but shelved) Article 23 laws in Hong Kong.
China's quietly taking advantage of America's distractions in the Middle East and asserting control in Central Asia.
Urban health is getting worse in China, for the obvious reason: living in Chinese cities with the worst air pollution does more damage to an average Chinese person's lungs than smoking two packs of cigarettes a day No wonder so many Chinese smoke.
The Black China Hand says the Qing dynasty was China's best.
Matthew says Chinese might actually be easier to learn to read than English and fewer native Chinese speakers suffer dyslexia compared to alphabet based languages.
Ancient martial arts and the world's oldest profession meet on the streets of modern HK.
ESWN says its no wonder most Chinese tourists avoid the USA.
In the misplaced vitriol department, China is calling for Westerners' blood. And forget about the West interfering in Asia; look at China's interference in the West.
Supernaut has an article on the "truth" of the Cultural Revolution.
Information
Is Google helping China censor the Net? Extensive discussion here (both links via Richard) and Adam's thoughts here. Of course we looked at this a while back and Tom explains why it is a fallacy. Tom has further analysis which is sceptical of many of the claims made. Fons also has a realistic look at the issue while Andrea takes issue with Google. Fons also says the Chinese filters are leading to capacity problems and slowing the net in China.
Andrea from T-Salon has posted on the story on the Free Culture Chinese translation project. It's an amazing story of collaborative effort by Chinese bloggers and could be the first of many such projects to come. She hopes more people in the world can understand the kind of positive changes that the Chinese are trying to bring in China. So do I. And lest you think the CCP aren't taking blogging seriously, read this.
Cracking down on pirated copyright has lead to an example being made of a US citizen, says Fons, and it is the price of crossing a sometimes murky line.
Hong Kong's media may be engaging in self-censorship, or perhaps they've decided they are finally interesting in decent programming? It's effectively Government owned TV anyway.
Life is about to change for South Korea's sex workers but at least the US military are doing their bit. Meanwhile in Japan there are moves to outlaw sex for teenagers. Jodi looks at the issue and the state of sex education in Japan. Nichi Nichi also has more. Marmot has all things sex and p0rn in Korea covered, so to speak, including the battle royale of Japanese p0rn queens.
John Kerry's got at least one foreign leader's support.
Now you can enjoy the finest of North Korea in the comfort of your American home.
Japan is potentially using the threat of China as a stalking horse for other changes; Joe Jones (thanks for the links) has more on potential changes in Japan's defence policy and Jodi believes it is unnecessary provocation.
I've covered the Jakarta bombings "The War", "Responses and Reactions" and finally "More on Jakarta". I strongly recommend you read the comments and follow the trackbacks to those posts for more. ESWN has photos. Myrick says even Indonesia's intelligence chief thinks its laws are too weak. Jodi and The Swanker look at the question of why - both are must reads.
In the wash-up from SBY's Indonesian election win, Myrick sees a rapid disintegration in the opposition forces and the collapse of Golkar and Jakartass sees business as usual. As you'd expect the Swanker has more on the results and this: You can add the name Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to the pantheon of misfits, megalomaniacs and kleptocrats that have taken residence in Merdeka Palace as President of the Unitary Republic of Indonesia.
Myrick looks at the overturning of the convictions of the Bali bombers. While the Bali bombers aren't in prison; they're in Starbucks. Or maybe window-shopping.
Indonesia isn't taking the threat of terror in the Straits of Malacca seriously.
Singapore's censorship policies are doing there job. Under threat of libel the Economist caves in and Myrick reflects on this and his own self-imposed censorship. Singabloodypore rejoices in the "new" Singapore and has an open letter to the new PM.
Via Mr Brown comes twoviews on Singapore's newest back-to-the-past monopoly, this time in the media. Hicky has a great take on the whole debacle. Indonesia takes a backward step in imitating Singapore.
Islamic terrorists deliberately target countries like Indonesia. And Singapore is holding on to a group of JI terrorists in what Myrick thinks is a good use of Singapore's ISA.
Rajan looks at Malaysian PM Abdullah's speech on Independence Day and wonders about Malaysian patriotism. He also has comprehensive coverage of the release of Anwar and its aftermath. He says justice was done, but that doesn't mean that the Malaysian judiciary is now independent nor that Anwar is a saint. He's got a few years to cool his heels, which isn't that surprising.
Xiaxue's amusing rant about Singapore's small pool of models, although perhaps it's because Singapore's a city-state of only 4 million.
Miscellany
Amongst others, both India and Japan are pushing for UN Security Council permanent membership. The Acorn has a look at the massive politics involved. Arthur Chrenkoff also has a detailed look, including an innovative solution. Niraj looks at Pakistan's efforts to block India.
And so with summer finishing in two days it is time for the seasonally challeneged Mid-Autumn Festival, a time for pyrotechnics, burning plastic and impossible crowds. Fumier takes you through the intricate parts of this happy time. If anyone's interested, I'll be at Victoria Park this evening celebrating. I'm the one with the lantern.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that any vending machine will always have friggin' Lemon Diet Coke left long after everything else has gone. It cannot be coincidence that the only person in this office who drinks that vile liquid is a Frenchman.
I hate that crap. Almost as much as I hate the fake, sicky-sweet nastiness of this Vanilla Coke nonsense that people seem to not be buying, yet Coke still is making.
Much has been made of China's invitation to the G8 meeting in Washington this Friday. There has been a massive US focus on fixed exchange rates in general and China's in particular and this will form one of the main talking points at the meeting. Except China won't be in the meeting itself. China's Minister of Finance and PBoC's Governor will only attend the dinner after the main talks. It's a long way to go to have the American's tell you off and to eat rubber chicken. Regardless, China will make the same points it has been repeating on this issue. They will re-iterate their longer term intention to float the currency when conditions are right; that they are working hard to bring about a soft landing to control inflation pressures and create a more sustainable rate of growth; that they are also working hard on getting other macroeconomic settings right; that the financial sector reform in dealing with bad debts and other microeconomic reforms continue apace; and that the time to float the yuan will be once these issues are sufficiently dealt with and not before then.
The US has a very fine line to tread at the meeting, particularly with the election campaign entering its final phase. They need to be seen domestically to continuing to bash pressure China on the issue, despite the consequences. China should be praised for the good nature it takes this pressure. After all, China is one of the largest buyers of US dollars and has prevented the currency going into free fall (along with the Bank of Japan); China is one of the largest buyers of US Treasuries (again along with Japan) and has thus helped keep US interest rates low and helped stimulate the housing refinance boom and keep the US consumption-inspired recovery going; and China is one of the largest trading nations with America and Wal-Mart's largest suppliers. Some thanks.
The reality is even a revaluation of 15-20% in the yuan would do little to dent China's competitive advantages in trade. China (despite some bottlenecks) has a vast amount of labour and is starting to effectively direct capital to take advantage of that. It has far lower living standards and costs of living, enabling it to employ that labour cheaply. What such a revaluation would do is cause untold damage to a fragile and bad-debt laden financial system and drag literally millions just coming out of poverty straight back into destitution. The reality is China's currency peg at the moment is more about controlling domestic pressures, especially inflation, than about being a tool for international trade. Indeed China's terms of trade have turned: in the first four months of this year China actually had a trade deficit of almost US$11 billion. The world economy is improving at the same time as China is trying to engineer a soft landing, and China is dealing with its own rising inflation rate. So the upward pressure on the yuan is easing regardless.
Japan and Europe have long realised that the yuan peg is more important in fighting inflation and keeping China solvent. Hopefully after the election, if not before, America will realise the same.
Corruption and bribery are inherent in centrally planned economies, says the SCMP's Jake van der Kamp. He comes up with the simple formulation that the level of bribery is directly proportional to the degree of state involvement in that industry. Furthermore the only solution is not more official announcements of clampdowns but rather less state involvement in that industry. He uses the new survey by Transparency International to make the point (chart in the extended entry). While the survey is looking at levels of bribery in certain sectors, it has an extremely high correlation with the degree of central planning and/or direct government invovlement (as compared to regulation) in that sector. Van der Kamp argues, correctly, that this correlation is not co-incidental. The killer graph:
Corruption is predominantly a public-sector phenomenon. Governments are not subject to that slave master, the profit and loss account. They are much less careful than private-sector businesses about the money they spend and the return they get on that money. There is thus much more fat for corruption to feed off where there is public-sector involvement than where there is not.
It should not be surprising, then, that a government that still maintains a heavy hand on the productive sectors of its economy should find itself seriously plagued by corruption. It is actually inevitable.
The problem for Governments such as Beijing is tackling the problem with oft-repeated pronouncements and heavy punishments of those caught is it simply drives up the "price" of the activity, in this case the amount of the bribe, to compensate for the risk. It is exactly the same economic dynamics that drive the illegal drugs trade.
There is a silver lining. Money used in bribes stays out of the hands of Government, by definition, and remains "hidden" and usually spent rather than saved. This money is removed from the inefficient public sector and gainfully (albeit illegally) used in the private sector instead. I'll let van der Kamp have the final word:
I shall grant you it is a perverse thing that economic efficiency should have roots in public theft but then, as the Russian economy has demonstrated, in the formative stages of a market economy there is not much distinction between private enterprise and criminal enterprise.
If they could just get this guy over to the Standard, I'd be switching my subscription immediately.
In the first column 0 represents high perceived levels of corruption, 10 represents no perception of corruption. The second column relates to the size of bribes, based on the percentage of respondents answering any particular sector as the "biggest" bribe areas.
Richard and Adam have some constructive criticisms of the Living in China e-zine & aggregator; read both sets of comments too. Update: Phil responds.
Dan and Pieter have thoughts on China joining the G7.
There's been much made of Google's "censorship" in China. Tom has looked at this previously, and he now has further analysis which is sceptical of many of the claims made. Fons also has a realistic look at the issue while Andrea takes issue with Google. Fons also says the Chinese filters are leading to capacity problems and slowing the net in China.
NOTE: I'm toying with the idea of setting up an email notification list for when AbB is updated. Please let me know if you'd be interested in such notifications.
Just wanted to make you aware of The White Peril, a blog written by an American living in Japan. Pretty good stuff, although I can't say I always agree with him.
The CCP have helpfully released a policy document outlining how all the various organs and arms of Government need to work to keep the Communist Party in power forever. This involves everything from reminding the People's Liberation Army that it's main task is to defend the Party, not the country; that the media exists to promote the Party; that the judiciary exist to preserve the status quo; that Marxism remains the guiding ideology (seriously); and will continue to follow its independent foreign policy of "peace" (of course Taiwan isn't foreign so force is OK there). There's blather about rule of law and socialist democracy to boot. But the reality is simple: unless Beijing can get serious about tackling endemic corruption, bring the fruits of the coast's economic boom to the vast rural poor and manage the strains of that economic boom the CCP will not survive. If they can, and they are canny political operators, then they will rule for some time yet.
I can't figure out the logic here, perhaps. Nothing I read in that article even mentioned the People's Liberation Army, let alone a Polite Licence to Administrate. The article you linked to is just standard communist rhetoric- inspired political theory at best (or while reading under the influence), innocuous at worst.
Posted by chriswaugh_bj at September 28, 2004 02:02 PM
Chris: I've not linked to it because I cannot find links to it, but part of the policy document involves the PLA being told that it's primary duty is to support the Communist Party's rule. The rest of the drivel represents a formalisation of where the Party wants to go, along with the usual talk of socialist democracy and clamping down on corruption. Like many things in China, you need to sift the rhetoric for the true meaning.
Cleared up, thanks. My quibble was the link provided, which, as I said, mentioned nothing about what you said.
Still, it's no surprise that the PLA's job is to protect the party first, we've all known that for about 15 years now, if we hadn't figured it out earlier. Same old bullshit, really. Thanks, anyway.
Posted by chriswaugh_bj at September 29, 2004 10:51 PM
What are Hong Kong's army of domestic helpers actually worth to the economy? Around HK$13 billion a year. That equates to over HK$50,000 per person, a sizable contribution. The helpers are estimated to spend around HK$800 a month in Hong Kong (the monthly minimum wage is HK$3,270); 36% care for children, saving employers HK$2.1 billion a year in child care fees; 10% care for the elderly, saving HK$2.5 billion for families each year in nursing care. The helpers remit most of the rest of their salary back to their home countries; in the Philippines these remittances are the largest exports at US$6.5 billion a year.
The best part for Hong Kong is this:
According to Dr Vivian Wee of the South East Asian Research Centre at Hong Kong University: "The government saves an unbelievable amount. They haven't invested in the care of the elderly or childcare.''
Despite this, Hong Kong has twice cut the minimum wage for maids since 1997. The latest cut last year of HK$400 a month co-incided with a new "training levy" (read tax) of the same amount. Domestic helpers are still discriminated against in a myriad of ways. They are ineligible for permanent residency after being in the SAR 7 years, whereas foreign professionals can claim it. They get a maximum 2 weeks to find another job if terminated. They can be terminated at any time, basically without cause. They cannot bring any family members to HK. They cannot work outside of their employment contract. Many people ignore or look right past these people as if they are almost less than human. They are often treated disgracefully, abused and treated like an underclass.
Yet without them Hong Kong would not be the low taxing "free" economy that is today. It is built partly upon this army of low wage earning helpers that replace or supplement many of the normal functions of Government. Great way to say thanks, isn't it?
and the 'flip'side - no pun intended - a mate of mine has just been totally screwed by his thieving filipina amah. she had it way too good - living in, looking after 2 lads who eat out regularly, have no kids, and paid her well over the minimum. last week they found out that, contrary to being at a friends house for a few days in HK, she is in fact in the phiippines, and will not be coming back. at the same time, he has just found out that she has been taking money from his bank account. when he phoned her in the philppines, she admitted to everything - stating she had hepatitis c as her reason for stealing over 20 thousand dollars and leaving the country. unsurprisingly, she has provided no medical proof of this. this is a lady who, whenever we were around for bbqs, would be invited to join us at the table. we always helped her tidy up - she was a good laugh, seemingly very kind, and had zero reason to do the dirty. he has essentially been completely kicked in the bollocks. the police (both western and chinese) said that in 99.99% of cases of domestic thefts from expats, the amah did it. this is because westerners are way too trusting. feel sorry for the filipinas? nah, fuck em, they can't be trusted.
That's unfortunate, but like any circumstance where you are an employer you need to also be careful to maintain some discretion and distance. Why did she have access to bank accont details? I'd also say you are always going to get bad apples in amongst a large group, such as 240,000 helpers. For the large part they do their jobs diligently and well.
The Webb Site has a good review of the faults and problems with the Hare Proportional Representative voting system that is used in Hong Kong's LegCo elections. The current system favours "short [party] lists, 1-person lists and lunatics". The recent results bare that out. Well worth a read.
China, in times past, was well known for being a haven for Jews. Shanghai in particular at one stage had a thriving Jewish community. Chinese people respect Jews as smart people who have a knack of making money; a kind of respect for the stereotype rather than a fear of it. It was and is a big contrast to Europe and other places. However those communities dispersed in the chaos after the rise of the CCP. The Standard has reprinted an LA Times piece on a smaller community that was based in Harbin and now the city is spending money restoring the main synagogue and Jewish cemetary to help with PR and tourism. It includes the factoid that Harbin has the biggest Jewish cemetary in Asia. Bet you didn't know that.
I am curious as to what it is like to be Jewish in different places; how easy is it to get kosher food? Are bosses amenable to time off for religious holidays? How does the press treat Israel and Jews in general?
Posted by Rachel Ann at September 28, 2004 03:38 PM
I was once in a Jewish youth group and we had a Rabbi attend a session. He asked a simple question: why are you a Jew? The standard answer because of my mother was excluded. Why else? There were many answers. Because of the Holocaust. Because of anti-Semitism. Because of the constant attacks on Israel. All fine answers, the Rabbi said, but interestingly they all dwelt on the negative. No one answered because of the joy of the Festivals and Sabbath. No one said because of the history and culture. No one said because of the link between the past, present and future. In other words, no one looked at the positive reasons to Judaism. It's a lesson that stuck with me, even as I grapple with the great concepts of God and religion. Since that time I've always been conscious of it, that Judaism is something to celebrate and not just defend.
Soon Yom Kippur begins. This Day of Atonement is something of a misnomer - as I mentioned previously the entire period between Rosh HaShannah and Yom Kippur is a time for atonement but also reflection and looking forward to the year ahead. Yom Kippur represents only the final part of that process. It is the day where the looking back stops and the looking forward begins.
Yom Kippur involves fasting for 25 hours (and forgoing certain other life-and-death events). No drinks, no water, no food. Yet surprisingly it is only a minor part of the festival and not the focus at all. So long as you prepare properly hunger and thirst do not become issues. The preparations are simple: avoid salty foods and caffeine, eat only moderate meals and make sure you're well hydrated before hand. Like all Jewish festivals there is food - the celebratory feast at the end. But that's a whiles away and there is much to do before then.
Tonight's Kol Nidre prayer is the most solemn in all Judaism. Tomorrow evening the final service, lasting about an hour, involves a final pleading to God to inscribe us all in the Book of Life before finishing with a final blow of the Shofar (ram's horn). Traditionally God shuts the Book at the end of this final service and the fates are sealed for a year. Some consider that God pays particular attention to this service, replacing Elijah in sitting in every congregation (he is God, after all, so he can get around) and watching Himself. Others say the shule becomes like the Holy of Holies in the Temple in Jerusalem, the holiest place in Judaism. Even most irreligious Jews make the effort to attend Kol Nidre and this final Nilah service. Call it the insurance service.
Back on Rosh HaShannah I asked you to think about the year past and the year ahead. It is one thing to say "I'm going to be a better person this year" but it also completely useless. When one takes stock of your life it is all to easy to gloss over the faults and dwell on the good. It achieves nothing. What is vital is to take an honest look at yourself, warts and all, and decide on a firm action plan to improve what you don't like AND to keep what you do. Yom Kippur represents the final day of the 10 day process of doing just that. It is not the end; you cannot wake up tomorrow and forget. Instead Yom Kipper marks the end of the period of thinking and marks the beginning of the period of doing. It's time to take the action plan and start implementing it. That's not to say the plan cannot be amended or improved upon during the year. But it does mean it is time to move from theory to practice, from why to how. And that's the hard part. So you can use Yom Kippur to help you make that transition by thinking about all you've reflected on from the past 10 days and spend the next 25 hours (fasting optional for non-Jews) thinking about how you're going to make it work.
At the same time it is a good time to take stock of the wider world around you. This is a world where this can happen, or this, but also where good deeds can be done like this, and where there is hope and lessons learnt. Likewise within all of us there is the constant battle between bad and good. Yom Kippur represents the time where you close the books on that battle for the year just passed and prepare for it for the year ahead. Just like the world itself, it is a never-ending battle that must always be fought. How you play that battle will determine what you do about the world you in live in, the people you live with and the things you do about it.
It's worth thinking about for at least one day a year. It is yet another wonderful reason to be Jewish. Because for one day a year you are forced to confront it all and deal with it, where it can be far easier to avoid and simply live without living. Because our way of life in this enlightened modern era of plenty and freedom is something to be celebrate, not just defend.
errrmmmmm - i'm not remotely religious, but shouldn't the answer to "why are you a jew?" be because you believe in God but you don't believe jesus was the son of God?
surely the ceremonies, festivals etc should be merely ways of expressing this belief, obeying God's law and worshipping him. In themselves they don't make you jewish any more than going to church makes you christian - you have to actually believe in the version of events as espoused by the religion. if you go to church without believing in god and christ then you're just a sad git who has nothing better to do on a sunday morning than go to church (or in the case of judaism please substitute in synagogue and saturday).
giving answers like the holocaust, anti-semitism and attacks on israel are no more relevant than the festivals if you don't believe in God at the beginning. it'd be like saying you're christian because of the crusades, or protestant because of the spanish inquisition. meaningless answers.
I agree in parts with Giles, the first words out of your mouth when asked why you are a member of a religion should always be about faith, not ceremonies and certainly not to be defiant.
You could say that you believe in the religion or you could say how you became a member of it, but at the end of the day it shold be about faith, "I am a ..." "Because I believe"
If you take away all of the ceremonies and all of the festivities and all of the sadness and the joys of the past, at the core there is still faith.
If you do not believe and you do not have faith then you are just playing a part.
Without wanting to be offensive, I would say that if your answer as to why you are a member of religion is because of hatred or past opression, then you're missing something important and have been listening to the wrong preachers and speakers.
Religion should never be about defiance, if you define yourself by who you hate and who holds hatred towards you, then you need to look in the mirror and ask yuorself what would you be if nobody hated you and if you had nobody to hate, would you still be able to go on.
Hold your faith in your heart, whatever religion may be, because if all else is stripped away and your faith still remains, then you can proclaim the I believe.
Simon,
I am so sorry I missed your beautiful post before I posted and left the blog world for the day. It is truly inspiring. I would have linked to it, and I'm sorry I did not.
Giles; Judaism isn't about not believing in Jesus anymore than it is about not believing in zeus or whoever...it is, to me at least, believing in the Laws that G-d gave us and feeling these laws were eternal and everlasting, and that these laws are beautiful and for our benefit and that following them brings us gifts.
Posted by Rachel Ann at September 26, 2004 06:04 AM
Thank you for posting this. I feel a bit culturally estranged from Jewish company here in Beijing, to say nothing of missing my family at this time, but you made me remember that it's in the heart and life.
Yom Tov
Posted by Ellen Sander at September 27, 2004 06:59 AM
rachel ann - that's my whole point. religion should be about belief, not about defining yourselves because of events in the past.
at the start of the post simon refers to being asked by a rabbi when young why he was jewish - the answers given were "becuase of the holocaust, because of anti-semitism, because of attacks on Israel". thinking those are bad makes you jewish then i'm jewish too!
my point is to define yourself as part of any religion you have to believe in that religions version of god / the world / reincarnation / etc etc.
the fact that the holocaust happened and was horrific is not a defining reason to be jewish, any more than liking the ceremonies and festivals makes you jewish.
Giles - I thought it is obvious that belief is the first element in adhering to any religion. But that is not the limit to any religion. Judaism, for example, is far more than simply following a few festivals and the like. The story at the start is about what deines you as a Jew in addition to belief in God and Torah.
RP points to the story of an American professor (of English Literature) whom has made it a course requirement to enter a voting booth. A little while back Conrad took issue with Cathy Seipp's assertion that those who don't vote are idiotic and lazy, arguing that not voting is a rational decision. I've found here at work it is an issue that can stir the passions of any American, who sees the idea of compulsary voting as an attack on their fundamental rights and a threat to all they hold dear.
It seems ironic in an age when the liberal democracies of the world are in engaged in a battle (both literally and of ideas) that so many members of these democracies do not vote. In Hong Kong, where democracy is emerging and under threat, the turnout in the LegCo elections just scraped over the 50% mark. In the US Presidential elections struggle to get even half the electorate to vote. Why is it these liberal democracies fight so hard to spread these values that half of their voting populations do not use themselves?
What it comes down to is voting a right or an obligation? If it is a right then choosing not to exercise that right is absolutely acceptable. If it is an obligation there is no such choice.
All systems of Government involve social contracts between the governed and the governors. In a democracy the contract is a complicated interaction between various institutions and differs in application from place to place. However in all democracies there are common elements. One of these, for example, is the rule of law: citizens accept and submit themselves to the enforcement of laws by courts and police. Voting is the same: as part of the democratic contract it is incumbent on all eligible citizens to live up to their end of the bargain. Just as a court summons creates an obligation for a citizen to appear, so does the call to vote. Waiving this obligation is an abdication of one's responsibility under the democratic system and it robs the elected of a proper mandate to rule. It hobbles the notion of democracy and represents a breakdown in that social contract.
Unfortunately too many view democracy as something of a menu, where many parts can be picked and choosen as they like. That erodes the very basis of the system, one of the key elements that allows the citizenery to exert their limited control over those that rule. If you fail to live up to that then you have no right to take issue with the results. Furthermore some argue free will allows for non-voting, which is obvious claptrap. Democracy does confirm many freedoms, but always with limits; and they also use coercion. You are not free to choose to shoot your fellow citizen. You are not free to abuse free speech to impeach someone else's character without basis. You are not free to speed as fast you can on the road. You must pay tax. You must obey the law. The idea doesn't stand up that not voting is allowed because of free will. Otherwise we are living in anarchy, not democracy. For those that argue that limits on freedoms come into play only when they impact someone else, not voting falls in the same category. By not making any choice the non-voter robs a democracy of legitimacy and thus affects everybody. There are many reasons people choose not to vote: antipathy or ambivalence to the candidates, laziness, ignorance, or a combination of these. None are legitimate excuses for avoiding your end of the social contract.
Voting is an obligation, not a right that can be waived. If it is worth fighting for then it is worth doing and it is worth making it compulsary.
Freedom is a right. That by-God includes the freedom to vote or not vote as I see fit. People who advocate stripping away free men's rights, as you do in this post, are a far greater threat to liberty than those who do not vote.
Freedom is not a right at all. Freedom is a value. People have a right to freedom but again with limits. Untrammelled freedom leads to anarchy.
I addressed your concern in the main post. All "rights" and values have limits, even in the land of the free and home of the brave. As even you would accept, rights ARE restricted as I explained in the post. Each society decides upon the extent to which these rights and freedoms are restricted by such things as laws, social norms and the like. Sometimes these decisions are made by the governed, and sometimes by those that govern. But otherwise you are going to need to take issue with the concept of law in general and the criminal code, libel laws and constitutions to start with in detail. That is exactly what these are: partial restraints on freedom.
I cast the reasoning in terms of voting being an obligation as part of the social contract of being a member of a democratic state. Those that do not vote are a far greater threat to liberty because they undermine the very basis of that freedom. If you want to opt out of living in freedom there are (unfortunately) plenty of countries that will take you. Otherwise all you do by not voting is not live up to your side of the bargain.
So dear Conrad when you're ready please re-read my original post and consider adressing what I actually said, rather than what you think I said. Voting is an obligation, not a right.
Freedom is most assuredly a right. Go read Locke and voltaire, I haven't the time to conduct an introductory course in political philosophy here.
As for voting being an obligation, obligations exist when free men volutarily assume them. I have damned sure not assumed any obligation to turn up at the polls when I prefer not to.
Furthermore, voting is an act of political expression and no legitimate goverment of earth has the right to compel any form of political expression by its citizens.
Fortunately, I am from a country with a consititution that protects against meddling rights usurpers, which I why, when the next election rolls around, I can tell those presumptuous enough to try to foist unwanted "obligations" upon me, that they can kiss my American ass.
Simon, I thought that was an interesting post, even if I don't agree with you. Compulsory voting allows some "democracies" to proclaim that dictators have been reelected with 99.9% of the population voting for him. Making it compulsory makes me nervous. On the other hand, I subscribe to the belief that failing to vote deprives you of your right to complain!
Freedom of speach also means freedom to be silent, I'd rather not vote than vote for somebody who was the lesser of two mad men.
If voting was compulsory in the US you would see a lot of protest votes for minority candidates. You might get a racist candidate polling highly simply because he wasn't a main stream candidate, and in countries where there is proportional representation this would lead to greens, radicals and mega liberals getting a slice of the power.
People who don't vote have no right to complain, but they have the right to announce quietly that they think all of the candidates are poor.
Simon: Part of the democratic contract should be the right to freedom. Voting in a political act. The government shouldn't force its citizenry to vote simply because they have an "obligation" to vote.
Freedom to do something, such as voting, should also work the other way round - freedom not to do that. Free speech doesn't mean you must speak out, neither does free association means not you must be part of any organization. The right to vote should also include the right not to vote.
Forcing people to vote increases protest votes - aimed at fringe groups that isn't from the mainstream parties.
As for turnout, if you see in Hong Kong - what the people of Hong Kong are voting for is an opposition, not an government. Even so, turnout was much higher than the previous LegCo elections. In places, like Iran, where elections are pointless and hopeless, turnout is very, very low. In addition to that, people tend not to come out to vote for something important, instead of periodic, mundane elections (i.e. the recall election in California recorded a rather high turn-out, considering its not election season).
Not voting = abstention. That's always been a legitimate alternative to voting when you either don't like any of the options, or have no preference over which one prevails, or for other political reasons. It happens frequently in the UN, corporate stockholder referendums, etc. It's just that in those cases, you actually specify that you abstain, instead of simply not showing up.
Having said that, I share your concerns that low participation in the democratic process may endanger it. Perhaps we should put "abstain" on the ballot, if it isn't already there, and encourage people to officially register their disatisfaction/disaffection.
I disagree that non-voting deprives me of the right to complain. I wrote a post about this on my blog, which is linked on my sidebar ("Sacred and Profane" section, On Voting).
I also disagree that voting should ever be made obligatory, because I view it primarily as an act of conscience, not a government-mandated ritual.
Having said that, I'm not keen on condemning democracies that do oblige their citizens to vote. Such obligations make me uncomfortable, true, but not uncomfortable enough to react in an alarmist fashion. I have to trust that folks know what they're doing when they accept those social contracts. And if they don't, and feel so moved, here's hoping they'll toss out the old contract in favor of a better one.
My two cents,
Kevin
Posted by Kevin Kim at September 27, 2004 02:02 AM
it's true that non-voting doesn't deprive you of your 'right' to complain, but if you don't even bother to take part in the process and then whine about the result, who really cares what you think anyway?
Posted by Prince Roy at September 27, 2004 05:37 AM
i couldn't be bothered to read all the post to be honest6, so this is a comment merely on the final 3 lines.
what happens if none of the major parties espouse a policy that i want? in the uk at the last elction all 3 major political parites were in favour of the euro, and none were going to hold a referendum before introducing it. i personally am in favour of it, but believe a referendum should be held first, as many other european countries did, as it is a major move to give up your currency and thus control over monetary policy.
by forcing mew to vote you would have forced me to vote for a policy that i didn't believe in.
thus i abstained - and went to the pub instead.
freedom means you have the right to abstain, or to be apathetic, and not vote if you want. that's what democracy is all about.
Democracy does not include the right to abstain and to not care. Often the state is able to compel and coerce actions from its citizens for a greater good, for example jury duty, traffic laws and taxes. These are things that you cannot choose to abstain from; likewise voting should be the same. If it's OK for a Government to compel tax paying it is absolutely legitimate to compel citizens to vote. If you don't like the choices on offer, you can either choose the least worse or go and run yourself.
I agree with Giles last comment. Not voting when there is no real choice is acceptable in democracy. Forcing a choice where there is none is not necessarily democracy. Remember the movie Moon Over Parador. The same dictator ran in the election as the Red Dictator and the Blue Dictator. One soldier asks the other which color he will vote for this year. "I think I will vote for the Blue this year"
Simon - You must pay tax. You must obey the Law. Read the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America. When laws are unjust and taxes are punitive, it is the right of the governed to disobey those laws, not pay their taxes. When government "evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security."
If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.
And the US is a republic, NOT a democracy. (Debatable these days I know but still valid for the first century after Washington).
Simon - I read your last post after composing my subsequent post.
I find it hard to believe you advocate the government's absolute right to compel people to do things. The forefathers of the US spent a lot of time debating the Tyranny of the Majority and made every effort to limit the tyrannical tendencies of Democracy. This is the problem with many emerging democracies these days. It is one and done as in one election and a new dictatorship, approved by the majority.
Did you know the income tax was ruled as uncontitutional by the US Supreme Court and thus the Consitution of the US had to be amended to institute it without challenge. Worst thing ever for limited government. After all, excise taxes and tarrifs eventually are counterproductive in that marginal revenue is decreased as rates are increased. So these taxes are self limiting. The income tax is self limiting but only at very high levels and then only after long periods of time. In the meantime it can be used to raise massive amounts of money. It has enabled the most expansive government expansion and infringement of rights in the US in its history.
simon it sounds increasingly like you actually don't want to ever see a vote at all but simply have a totalitarian system where the government decides everything and the population has no choice but to toe the line.
you use the analogy of tax paying as the evidence of the government compelling the popualtion to do something, but that is not relevant as it is tax paying that allows the government to exist at all, and the fact that we pay taxes simply shows that we are happy to fund the services etc provided by the government.
when a tax is unjust then people exercise their democratic right and do not pay it, as was beautifully illustrated by the Poll Tax in the UK which was patently unjust and provoked riots and civil disobedience. It ultimately brought down Thatcher. The tax was repealed. That is people exercising their democratic right to NOT pay taxes if they feel they are unjust. In the same way they have the right to not vote if they do not support, or care about, any of the options on the ballot paper.
I'd agree that voter apathy is a problem, but nonvoting isn't always the result of apathy-- also something I cover in my essay. I'm not satisfied with a "lesser of two evils" approach to voting. Others might be OK with that, and that's fine. But for me, I feel it'd be dishonest to vote for a candidate I didn't actively endorse.
If you go to a restaurant where menu items A through Z feature crap as the theme ingredient, you leave the restaurant. The fact that the restaurant has a door is part of what a restaurant is. By the same token, so long as nonvoting remains an option in America, then nonvoting is PART of the democratic process, not "opting out of the process" as some might contend.
My worry, should a must-vote law be implemented in the States, is about the irony of promoting freedom and democratic values by eliminating freedom from a crucial part of society's machinery.
For the record: my two best American friends disagree with me. They feel, each for different reasons, that voting is a moral duty, not merely a privilege attached to living in a democracy (or republic, etc.), so I get excoriated all the time for this.
One commenter asked who would care about my opinion if I didn't vote. He'd be surprised.
Here's a question: what's the difference, if any, between not voting at all, and going to the polls and not voting for anyone listed-- or writing in only fantasy characters as a protest?
My point: I don't have to "register" my protest by coming to the polls; I can do that just as easily by not voting. Voter turnout is as relevant to the electoral process as voting is.
Kevin
Posted by Kevin Kim at September 27, 2004 11:19 PM
There's an amusing thought. If the US compelled all eligible people to vote the winner of the election could be Mickey Mouse. Or Britney Spears.
Especially in this election when all they have to run against is a chimp and a poodle.
I heartily agree with kennycan's last comment. Shit Sandwich A or Shit Sandwich B?
Think I'll go for pizza.
Kevin
Posted by Kevin Kim at September 28, 2004 02:24 PM
I know I'm late in coming back to this, but for what it's worth let me ask the question again: why should something as important as voting be voluntary where paying taxes and jury duty is not?
Good question. Wish I'd been a poli-sci major, so I could give you an intelligent reply to that.
I think you'll find that the tax issue provokes its own debate in American society. After all, you've got libertarians who'd say that taxation is outright theft, and for them, there'd be no reason to tie the voting issue (a question of the machinery of democracy) to the tax issue (a question of thieving injustice).
The same might be said of jury duty: apples and oranges, because jury duty is something that only might happen, and it's arguably not directly linked to the larger machinery of the democratic process. There aren't huge debates about jury duty in the States because it simply doesn't figure much in the public consciousness.
I suppose you could reply that the above is hairsplitting, and maybe that'd be right. My point isn't really to offer an opinion on your question (I haven't thought it through yet), but to demonstrate how and why the issue might be considered complex by sincere minds (just as I hope my own case shows that it's possible to abstain from voting for reasons other than apathy).
Will have to get back to you on this. My superficial answer is probably somewhere in the "apples and oranges" arena: voting, precisely because of its prominent role in a democratic society, is intimately tied to questions of personal freedom vis-a-vis the government in a way that taxation and jury duty are not. Involuntary jury duty doesn't directly lead to elected officials; neither does taxation (though you could certainly argue that a candidate's stance on taxation can affect whether he gets elected!).
Question: is the mandatory nature of the vote in Australia sanctioned by the national constitution? I ask because the US Constitution guarantees a trial by a jury of one's peers, so there's a solemn understanding that, sort of like a military draft, we might be "called to service." This imperative, too, is disanalogous with some American conceptions of voting.
Will chew this over. In the meantime, perhaps some poli-sci/law folks would like to step in with more technically astute answers...?
Kevin
Posted by Kevin Kim at September 30, 2004 01:46 PM
Kevin, I fear we're down to a party of two on this one. Nevertheless I reread your voting piece today (during which I noticed no link to my site on your sidebar. We really need to talk) and I completely disagree with you. To me it seems like the ultimate cop-out to declare that neither choice suits and thus not voting is valid. It is an abdication of responsability and it is taking the easy road. I appreciate you've put thought into it, but nevertheless in the end often democracies come down to choises between things - there is never going to be the perfect choise and instead it comes down to compromising. It's not pure, but it's the system.
In Australia compulsary voting is not in the constitution, but it is supported bipartisan-ly (perhaps because the conservatives aren't sure if making it voluntary would really support them, as convention wisdom attests).
To address your apples and oranges, surely jury duty and taxes are also two integral parts of the system. I agree not everyone is called up to jury duty at once, but when it does happen there is no element of volunteerism - in fact it is impossible to imagine a jury system working without compulsary jury duty (self-selection and all that). Excluding your libertarian utopia the same applies to taxation. And they were just two examples dashed off late last night.
Finally one could turn the apples argument to my advantage - voting is such a crucial part of the system it has to be compulsary, even if nothing else is. I await your response with itnerest...plus anyone better qualified to weigh in as well.
My basic alignment on the issue is this: as much as possible, in as many situations as possible, it's better to make choices without coercion than with coercion. Forced redistribution of wealth, for example, violates this principle. Being obliged to give to charity violates this principle. Forcing me to take financial/personal care of the man who slaughtered my family would violate this principle (to use an extreme example of taking a "moral" course of action-- practicing Christian charity to one's enemy-- but not because one wants to). Forcing me to eat pizza with onion or hamburger with onions, when what I want is something onion-free, would also violate this principle.
There's far more moral worth to voluntary moral action than to "involuntary moral action," if such a term isn't oxymoronic. Many, in fact, would argue that freedom and moral action imply each other. This is why I reject the notion of the obligatory vote: it strips my action of its morality by shoving me to the voting booth.
Ostensibly, this coercion is in the service of a higher cause-- the continuation of democracy-- but there a vicious solipsism about that setup that bugs me. I still think it's ironic that democracy should require such an undemocratic impetus.
The argument that "voting is so important that you should do it" (given the difference between should and have to) is a good one, and it's one that my best friends use against me all the time. That argument, in itself, has a great deal of force: I have to respect the convictions of anyone who says that. What poisons the argument, from the American perspective, is the unjustifiable move from "voting is a moral duty" to "you will vote or you'll be fined/jailed/punished somehow."
What you still haven't demonstrated, for me, is how non-voting constitutes "opting out of the process" in America. It's certainly "opting out" in Australia, because it's illegal. That's pretty clear-cut. If this is how Aussies like it, then I'm OK with it, too. But the Aussie situation isn't the American one; the histories (and, I'll venture, the political philosophies) are too different. Many countries argue that America is too quick to apply its way of thinking to other countries, but that argument works in the other direction, too.
So I'd submit that arguments in support of obligatory voting in Australia can't and don't apply to the American situation. I'd further submit that, if your argument is based in abstract notions of what's moral, then you'd have to address the question of whether "coerced moral action" (CMA?) can even be counted as moral.
As to the latter, I'll anticipate an objection: I'm aware that American government and society feature plenty of CMA. We could lump taxation and jury duty and a host of other things into this category. But if we head off in this direction, we'll spend eternity nitpicking each other's countries' inconsistencies and hypocrisies-- none of which require much digging to find. It's a fruitless direction to pursue, because we'll only end up discovering what we already know: we contradict ourselves and contain multitudes.
If the basic question is: Should democractic society have involuntary suffrage?, I'd have to say Nay, for the reasons highlighted above: CMA, especially for such important choices as the election of our local and national officials, doesn't make moral sense. If a vision of morality doesn't feature the element of choice, it's an inferior vision, in my view.
Am still mulling over the jury duty/taxation thing.
In times past when I was working in Australia I had the great pleasure to work with two fellow aficionados of the game Rock Paper Scissors. This ancient game (I believe it started with the cavemen) dictated much of our day. At random times a game would start with a pre-arranged number of face-offs (somewhere between 7 and 15 was the norm). The stakes were often high. Who would buy lunch? Who would go to a particularly boring meeting? The normal massive decisions of the working day. Sometimes it would be played for the joy of the game itself. Yes, we were purists.
So today's report on the formalisation of the sport is a step forward. The official organisation and website are up and running. There's the world championships coming up this weekend, which unbelievably is NOT being shown on local TV. I would like to officially start the push for the sport to join the greatest show on Earth: the Olympics. The beauty is it is one sport where drug testing is completely unnecessary. Indeed drugs are likely a hinderance to the sport.
Beijing, here comes RPS. Lads, I'll see you on the podium. I'll be the guy you're looking up to.
the chinese literal translation goes like this: rock, scissors, cloth. don't ask me how the hell the cloth bit came into the picture. probably something was lost in translation.
it is scissors paper S-T-O-N-E! GRRR... why is it 'em north americans have to spoil it all!
Posted by the letter b at September 24, 2004 11:18 PM
good to see the rest of the world is finally catching up...used to hear it referred to as just "rocks and scissors"...obviously that was a little limiting
The SCMP is reporting that China has arrested a researcher for the New York Times whom, it is alleged, broke the story of Jiang Zemin's retirement and this trafficked in state secrets:
Outspoken journalist Zhao Yan has been detained for leaking state secrets to foreigners, just days after his employer The New York Times broke the story of Jiang Zemin's retirement, sources say. Zhao, 42, joined The New York Times as a researcher three months ago after quitting his job at China Reform magazine. He was detained in Shanghai last Friday and is being held in Beijing, his family says.
A New York Times colleague said Zhao told his supervisor he had been "invited by the secret police for tea" three days after the newspaper ran a front-page story, on September 7, on Mr Jiang's plan to resign from the Central Military Commission. The resignation was officially announced on Sunday. But Zhao turned off his mobile phone and went to Shanghai instead, with some friends, according to a colleague. He switched on his phone again a few days later and within about an hour the secret police had tracked him down at a restaurant and detained him.
New York Times foreign editor Susan Chira confirmed that Zhao had been working for the newspaper, but stressed he was not the source of the information.
It is a well known Chinese police tactic to use mobile phones to track down locations of wanted people. The ubiquitious device is not as innocuous as it seems. Despite taking a battering the NYT, for better or worse, is still considered one of America's and the world's major newspapers. Breaking the news of Jiang's retirement, which had been much speculated about prior to the meeting last week, was a good story but not a ground breaking state secret. It was made public knowledge only two days later. Arresting a staff member is not going to help with China's PR in America nor with the NYT. China has made a mistake.
Didn’t BBC TV news once have a reputation for being vaguely watchable? Or was it always as bad as it is this evening? The lead item, the kidnapping in Baghdad of three luckless civilian contractors, has been turned into a soppy human-interest story. The American pair have had their throats cut already, conveniently leaving a Brit (why else would it be the main story?) to boost the BBC’s ratings. Poor Kenneth Bigley’s brother and family are interviewed at length – newly discovered experts on hostage crisis management, terrorist negotiation tactics and large areas of UK foreign policy. Let murderous fanatics decide who should be in Iraqi prisons, they plead, and they will free our brother. It is as ridiculous as it is understandable, yet the BBC reporter just sits there nodding and feeling their pain, like those dribbling saps who did exclusive interviews with the saintly bimbo Diana. It’s all her fault. She turned this country from the land of the stiff upper lip – the nation that stared Nazi-occupied Europe in the face without blinking – into a place where unbridled emotion is a virtue, politicians cry on camera, and people leave piles of flowers and teddy bears at the scene of every mishap. And anthropomorphic lunacy has made fox-hunting a crime. I am getting homesick. Oh, to stroll down to the gai see and watch old Mrs Wong take her razor to a chicken's neck!
Thanks for putting that up! I hadn't taken a look at Hemlock in a long time. Time to visit again. Is it just me, or are 90% of the great asian blogs in Hong Kong?
Sadly Britain's Labor governemnt has gotten its claws into the BBC. This government is going to kill what once was the worlds most trusted source of information.
I was in England a year or two ago (shudder, no repress the memories, repress, repress) and thought that Channel Four, one of the independant news stations was good, they did a lot of hard hitting documentaries and didn't pander to political whims.
With the peaceful rise of Hu Jintao, Richard has a good look on what it all means, although CDN contends Hu has sold his soul. At the same time some things haven't changed (the article in question can be found via here). Adam also notes the frustrating lack of coverage for such an important event.
Urban health is getting worse in China, for the obvious reason: living in Chinese cities with the worst air pollution does more damage to an average Chinese person's lungs than smoking two packs of cigarettes a day No wonder so many Chinese smoke.
Is Google helping China censor the Net? Extensive discussion here (both links via Richard) and Adam's thoughts here. Of course we looked at this a while back and Tom explains why it is a fallacy.
A final look back at the HK Legco elections and results. And Tom says newcomer Albert Cheng takes a stick to the HK Democratic Party.
Hong Kongers are overworked and underpaid, waiting until the boss goes, not enough holidays, bad health and all want to quit. The world's most competitive economy ranks third of five Asian nations in corporate governance.
Taiwan's asking its citizens to cut back on milk tea to help pay for its weapons program.
Korea and Japan
Life is about to change for South Korea's sex workers but at least the US military are doing their bit. Meanwhile in Japan there are moves to outlaw sex for teenagers. Jodi looks at the issue and the state of sex education in Japan. Nichi Nichi also has more.
GI Korea explains why Japan has a much better image in the US compared to Korea. Tony explains Koreagate 2.0.
Yet another imperialist exploiting a poor country for oil, although do oil and nukes mix?
In the wash-up from SBY's Indonesian election win, Myrick sees a rapid disintegration in the opposition forces and the collapse of Golkar and Jakartass sees business as usual. As you'd expect the Swanker has more on the results and this: You can add the name Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to the pantheon of misfits, megalomaniacs and kleptocrats that have taken residence in Merdeka Palace as President of the Unitary Republic of Indonesia.
Amongst others, both India and Japan are pushing for UN Security Council permanent membership. The Acorn has a look at the massive politics involved. Arthur Chrenkoff also has a detailed look, including an innovative solution. Niraj looks at Pakistan's efforts to block India.
Anyone want to study in university in Shanghai? Plus all the Britney you could ever want courtesy the anti-p0rn Chinese media.
If you can't beat 'em, make 'em join. The Disney company, always first with innovative marketing techniques, has found a way to develop its brand in China: use the Communist Youth League.:
"In one session, we teach them to draw Mickey Mouse -- they're all amazed by that," said Irene Chan, vice president for public affairs at Hong Kong Disneyland...China limits the number of overseas films that can be shown and restricts foreign TV programming, which means most mainland consumers do not have deep awareness of Disney stories.
Another domino falls before the might of the Mouse. It won't be long before a million phones ring with "Its a small world" around China.
In times past it would have seemed perverse for two such different organisations to be working together for commercial gain. Today it's par for the course.
Disney is a walled fantasy kingdom that shuts out the real world and exists apart from the normal rules of civilisation, it also has the ability to re write history to suit its own needs and to brainwash millions of people into believe its version of world events.
Over the last few days I've looked at China's problems with oil: firstly with its Russian supplier (although there's a political angle to that) and second in developing a strategic reserve. Now Arthur Chrenkoff notes that America's foray into the Middle East isn't about securing its own oil supplies, but denying China's.
Please send flowers courtesy of Gloria Arroyo, because the chances are the Philippines will be economically 'dead' in 2 years. They're living on borrowed time*.
This goes all the way to the top. The US Department of Defence are clamping down on dissent. A group of Democrats set up a website to help with voter registrations including pointing to the official site. The Pentagon, which runs the site to help expats and military abroad vote, banned particular ISPs from getting access to the official site to prevent hacking. So now the Democrats are complaining and the Pentagon has told them to go away. It does seem perverse that an overseas voting site would be blocked at 27 ISPs (including Yahoo Japan, Wanadoo in France, Telefonica in Spanin and China Telecom) when there are cheap solutions to partition that server from the rest of the DoD.
However Pentagon spokeswoman Lieutenant Colonel Ellen Krenke said the blocks were not related to the election nor designed to silence Democrat voting abroad. "It would stop the Republicans, too, right? It's both sides. We're not just letting a certain party through,'' Krenke said. So at least the Pentagon are even-handed in their disenfranchicement of US voters.
I was able to get to this site via the HK American Consulate, get my form for registration and mail it in - http://www.fvap.gov/index.html
Are we in HK supposedly one of the disenfranchised? If so, when did this happen as I did all this about 9 days ago.
And why the Department of Defense website for voting? The website above seems to be the correct site and DoD seems an odd place for voting info, even if we are overseas.
I'm wondering what part of the world Helen is in if the majority of American expats are Democrats? In Europe and the Middle East, the majority are--by far--Republican.
It appears that Hong Kong's courts have finally yielded to the need to generate additional income and are now staging their first theatrical product: the absurdist case of Koo Siu Ying. She lived with tycoon Lim Por-yen for 46 years and had two kids with him. The relationship broke down in 2002. Now she claims she was his "third wife" and HK$574 million he gave her was not a loan but rather a gift. He is counter-claiming it was a loan and he is now owed more than HK$1 billion. Either way that's a lot of shekels. But the case has been sidetracked by an important issue: can she call herself a wife or even a concubine?
"She's obviously not a wife in the Western sense,'' Justice Stuart-Moore said Tuesday. "She's probably not a wife in the Chinese sense. She may be a concubine in the Chinese sense. We need proper evidence on this and what the obligations are to a concubine.
"My understanding of a concubine is someone who joins a household and understands they will be looked after for the rest of their lives. "The question of whether a husband should look after a concubine is one which needs to be determined.''
His Honour's method for solving this puzzle, one that no doubt touches the lives of many Hong Kongers?
Two experts on Chinese custom law should be flown to Hong Kong from London...first-class and put up at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel because this would not be a great hardship in comparison with the amount of money involved in the case.
I am absolutely sure that somewhere in the 1.3 billion people living just over the border in China there are experts on these customs, too. I'd even go as far as to suggest they don't need to be flown first class and put up at a fancy hotel to testify.
Apparently it's not just the rich that are different to you and I. Senior judges are too.
With Indonesia's changing of the guard the Jakarta Post looks at Why Megawati lost despite having the (large) benefits of incumbency. They argue it came down to a rejection of the permissiveness under Megawati i.e. she turned a blind eye to corruption; her limited intellectual weight, especially when she embarassed herself in debates against SBY. In the editorial's words, reflect[s] the strong yearning for change that exists among Indonesians, as well as the prevailing opinion that this nation deserves leadership, which adheres to moral principles, imbued with a more respectable intellectual quality.
SBY has a lot to deal with. First on his plate is the mess of fuel subsidies that the current high oil price are costing the Government a fortune. Next he has a long list of promises to make good, especially in tackling corruption and reforming the Government. This includes a reform of the judiciary and the legal system. His biggest problem will be he was sponsored by a smaller political party with less than 20% of the seats in the Parliament. He will need to come to some kind of accomodation with his Golkar opponents if he is to deliver on his agenda. Otherwise he will become yet another politician elected in hope but unable to deliver.
Japan is currently making a concerted push for a permanent seat on the UN's Security Council. There are plenty of obstacles, not least China's strained relationship with Japan. China has recently reshuffled its senior diplomats in Japan and is slowly warming to its erstwhile occupier and enemy number one. But there is a long way to go before there can be a genuine rapprochement between these two great Asian powers. For example senior Japanese politicians, for domestic political reasons, each year visit shrines to the war dead that include war criminals. That naturally provokes outrage from China and other Asian countries. Also much of Asia is still waiting for a true show of contrition from Japan for its actions in and before WW2, again something that Japan has been reluctant to do for domestic political reasons.
However the outlines of some kind of grand bargain is emerging where several of these issues can be used together to move forward. China at this point would not allow Japan to become a permament member of the Security Council. Japan finds it impossible to apologise for WW2 and avoid veneration of its war dead. The possible deal could be this: Japan formally apologises and undertakes to avoid provocations in return for China accepting and even pushing for Japan's seat at the UN. This should help Japan's domestic political pressures as there is an obvious benefit in being considered a modern world power with a seat at the big table in return for the apology. And it could help China by having a second Asian nation (with perhaps India as well) as a major power in the UN. It may furthermore lead to even better relations between China and Japan, Asia's most crucial relationship.
It might be a long shot, but the potential is there.
Marc Faber has an interesting take on China's currency policy, its purpose and where it is headed. A touch Machiavellian but not completely unbelievable either: it argues that China's currency policy may not have simply an economic aspect but a broader competitive and geopolitical purpose as well. I wouldn't rule it out as an option in the back of China's mind, should things get to that. For example during an invasion of Taiwan.
I have had the pleasure of spending the afternoon at our new office testing the equipment and systems before we move on Monday week. I categorically did not write down the passwords for all 12 systems - that would be a breach of company policy. I absolutely did not share my password with the IT man helping me testing the systems - that would be a breach on company policy. Most amazingly, almost everything actually worked.
In other news, EMI kindly replied to my polite inquiry. The form letter tells me the copy protection technology is to protect their fat profits and outdated business model from the scourge of online music sharing. This is the only reason music sales have declined in recent years, rather than the appalling output of the industry. The new technology protects EMI's overpaid and pampered artists so they can continue to produce formulaic music and support the record industry's fat profits. The good news is they are working hard to ensure all EMI releases play on multiple devices such as CD players, computers, car stereos, DVD players etc. Silly me thought that is what CDs were already meant to be able to do. Even better, the technology does not, however, prevent the making of an analogue copy for legitimate personal use. I assume by analogue they mean LPs or cassette tapes. Unless your CD cannot be played on your Hi-fi system, in which case this isn't true either. The very best news they leave to last: We are working closely with developers on new software that supports secure transfer to portable devices. Of course by then they will have pissed off so many customers it won't matter.
I am having the final laugh. My brother has purchased the same CD sans copy protection in Australia and is delivering it to Hong Kong in person this week. You will not defeat me, EMI. It will be mine, oh yes, it will be mine.
Indonesia has a new President. Myrick says Goodbye Mega and welcome to SBY, whom he sees as a likely improvement on the ineffectual Megawati.
What is remarkable is Indonesia has conducted a peaceful and secure democratic election despite mind-boggling complexity. Over 100 million votes spread across an archipelago of 17,000 plus islands spreads over 5,000 kilometres. Despite tensions in areas as diverse as Aceh and Jakarta, the voting went off without a hitch. International observers report the voting was free and fair. This was the first time the Indonesian President was directly elected by the people. This is a country that only saw the end of the Suharto dictatorship in 1998.
What an outstanding achievement. Indonesia has proved that a moderate Islamic country can be democratic (Turkey is another example). All that tosh of democracy not being "compatible" with Islam has been proven to be bunk. Chalk it up as a win for the good guys and especially Indonesia.
Not so hasty. Turkey is not a democratic country in the Western sense. The army intervenes from time to time in order to ensure the continuation of the secular state. Perhaps that is the best we can hope for, a kind of forward looking secular authoritarianism.
I think the Indonesain army keeps an eye on things as well. One issue that has received little airplay about SBY is that he is ex army. Still I wish them well and hope that Indonesia doesn't do a Howard and launch a preemptive attack on Australia
Like it or not, oil is the lifeblood of economies. Countries such as China, growing rapidly but without much in the way of resources itself, know that it remains their Achilles heel. China is now taking the next natural step in protecting and diversifying its exposure to this volatile market: it is establishing a strategic oil reserve.
China consumes 5.8 million barrels of oil a day. Assuming this figure remains constant (which it won't), to create a 3 month reserve of petrol they will need to buy 522 million barrels of oil for the reserve. This is more than 19 days of all of OPEC's maximum production capacity. While the reserve won't be ready until 2007, it will be another factor to underpin a strong oil price. The real question will be under what conditions will the reserve be released? Will China use it to smooth out price fluctuations or use it only as a true emergency backup?
For all those suffering various internet blockages, here's a comprehensive guide for getting around it (via Hicky).
NOTE: I've added to the left sidebar a section for the Asia by Blog series. There is a link to the latest edition and a link to the archive of all previous editions.
UPDATE: Welcome Instapundit readers. This update is posted twice weekly, on Monday and Thursday, and a monthly summary is posted here and at Winds of Change. While you're here, feel free to have a look around the rest of the site.
Love your blog! I'm an Asian in New York City and my website is mainly spoofs & parodies. It's cool to be able to click on (clink!) a site that gives a roundup of Asian news.
Posted by Marvillou at September 21, 2004 12:16 AM
The HK Government is planning to introduce anti-racial discrimination laws. While exemptions exist for small business, none (as far as I understand it) exists for the Government itself. So I would assume there is a prima facie case for the domestic helpers of Hong Kong to launch a lawsuit against the HK Government for its disgusting helper tax, where the very lowest earning non-Hong Kongers have to pay a tax of HK$400 a month even though locals earning the same amount do not (the threshhold is HK$108,000 for locals; helpers minimum wage is HK$3,270/month).
True, but given the minimum wage was cut by the exact same amount with the clear implication that the wage cut was to compensate for the levy, it's a tax in everything but name.
You want to know what scares China? This. The one thing China hates about its position in the world is its reliance on overseas sources of energy and particularly oil. That is why it has gone to such huge lengths to win over a massive Russian oil pipeline against tough competition that suffers a simliar complex: Japan. It leads to rushed messages of reassurance from China's Government that "everything's OK" and "we trust the Russians" because really they have no other choice. It also explains why China is so reluctant to back sanctions against Sudan over Darfur.
Jaing Zemin's passing of the baton is considered a good thing for Hong Kong. No longer a pawn in the power games at the top, Hu Jintao is considered more open to Hong Kong's democratic aspirations. That's likely to prove to be complete cr@p. Hu's overarching theme is to improve the CCP's governance of China to help retain its grip on power, not to loosen it. But with far more pressing problems and HK safely back in its box now the Legco elections have passed and the 2007/08 elections a distant prospect, Hong Kong is likely to fade back into the obscurity it so richly deserves in China's polity. China's pre-election charm offensive is likely to be toned down, but so long as Hu manages to keep his mouth shut Hong Kong will drift along focussing on what it focuses on best: money.
It didn't take long for Legco's newest member, Leung "Long Hair" Kwok Hung, to turn to farce. Followed by the weekend walk in Victoria Park where he provoked a clash and refused police help, taunting and encouraging his detractors to effectively bring it on.
His election proves the contempt people treat Legco with. We can be thankful Legco doesn't actually do anything so this idiot cannot do any serious damage.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that public servants work differently to you and me. I had the pleasure of spending an hour and a half waiting in a small room with 25 others in the Australian consulate for the pleasure of paying an outrageous sum of money to ensure my new son is able to claim his Australian citizenship and thus passport at further ludricous expense. The visa section is only open from 9am-12 noon; having finished my appointment at 11:45am I looked at the room full of hopefuls clutching their pink numbered slips and fully expected a riot to begin once the hour of 12 was reached. That's the reason the (only) official sits behind bullet-proof class - a room full of angry Cantonese and Australians is not a pretty sight.
This seuges nicely with Jake Van Der Kamp's column in today's SCMP. Jake is one of the few reasons to actually spend hard earned cash on the paper and today's column looks at that age-old topic of HK public servants' and their salaries. Historically this group had high wages and great perks as it was considered a "hardship" posting for the boys from Whitehall. Once the localisation of the public service began tey quickly enshrined into law conditions forbidding a drop in standards. This has lead to the absurd situation where HK's public servants earn measurably more than their private sector equivalents. From the article:
At the beginning of last year the General Chamber of Commerce commissioned a comprehensive civil service pay survey from Watson Wyatt Worldwide.
The survey covered 69,000 government employees in 76 civil service job families excluding disciplined services, teachers and occupations unique to government. It then compared these to the closest equivalent private-sector jobs.
The results showed such a huge gap that the chamber decided to soft-pedal the findings. The chamber likes to maintain warm relations with civil servants but there was a danger here of the sudden appearance of icicles. It therefore highlighted only a single skewed finding that showed a 17 per cent excess in civil service pay...
The P50 and P75 refer to levels of pay within job categories. P50 assumes that you compare the mid-range of pay within any government job category to the mid-range of pay within the equivalent private-sector category. P75 assumes that you measure the mid-range for government against the top quartile of the private sector...the chamber chose the P75 comparison for its figure of a 17 per cent excess in government pay. It said: "We recognise that the average civil servant should be compared with the better performers in the total workforce."
can think of several reasons why it should be the other way round. Let us not quibble, however. We shall simply take the P50 measure instead of the P75 and we now have civil service pay at a 34 per cent excess over the private sector.
And now for the real figure. We shall make it a like-for-like comparison, P50 instead of P75, and on the basis of total remuneration - salary, cash allowances, housing, medical, educational, home travel, annual leave, retirement and all other benefits for both government and private sector.
We now have civil servants paid 229 per cent more than private-sector employees. Take special note that this is 229 per cent more than, not of, private sector pay. At maximum pay levels the discrepancy is even greater, 264 per cent.
There's more, and it's worth investing HK$7 to buy the paper and read the whole thing. There are two interesting things here. Firstly the power of the public service is such that the survey stats were skewed into the most favourable light possible and still showed public servants earned 17% more than private sector jobs. A more accurate figure, covering total compensation, shows public servants earning more than 2.5 times more than private sector workers. Hong Kong might have a low tax rate, but it supports a bloated and mightly overpaid civil service. If HK's people were more widely aware of these numbers I'd imagine the pressure to cut them would be unbearable. But in the best traditions of Yes, Minister, the public service are astute and adept at avoiding truth. That's what they're paid for, after all. Secondly Jake's conclusion is telling. He graphs the growth in HK's GDP vs the growth in public servants' compensation. The gap is yawning after 1997. While many like to bleat about overpaid CEOs and corporate types, at least in Hong Kong there's a far better case against the poorly performing public servants and their exorbitant compensation.
In my next life I could do plenty worse than coming back as a Hong Kong public servant.
Amen. A-meeeeeeeeen. Please, I can't even stand the acronym CBS anymore. Can't someone arse someone off on someone's blog? Please? Like a mud-slinging thing or something, so we can go back to our regularly scheduled blogging? Please?
The horse is not dead until accountability is reached. CBS is counting on simply being to outlast your patience, and while I am COMPLETELY SICK of this story, your sentiment still gets on my nerves a bit.
Also remember the idea that this may go much deeper than CBS. And then it will certainly get very interesting again.
And the subversion of our media to influence a presidential campaign IS important.
I think you've done a fantastic job on exposing CBS and following through. I also agree that until they admit their mistake and are held accountable for their fraud this story should be pursued...BUT not at the expense of all the other important issues facing the world at the moment. Like my final two links to Volokh point out, there's an election rapidly approaching with scant debate on the key issues of where either candidate intends to take the USA in the next four years. Iraq continues, the Jakarta attack on the Australian embassy happened, the Iranians are moving closer to going nuclear, North Korean negotiations are a mess and so on.
Additionally for many in the blogosphere and wider community is (and has been, thanks to your work and others) obvious that these memos are forgeries. CBS and Rather have been discredited. Their actions since have only discredited themselves further. The pressure should be maintained, as should the rage. BUT the world hasn't stopped while this goes on.
The story is important in exposing media bias and has potentially further to go if the fraud goes further than it now appears. BUT the story has blown out proportion, partly because it was the blogosphere that broke the story. The idea that the media is being subverted to influence a presidential campaign is nothing new, it's just that this time it has been caught out in a particularly blatant example. The kudos has been appropriate, and it has been a big coup, and it is progress for blogging. I admire your doggedness and originality in pursuing the story. But as you have just said, you are "COMPLETELY SICK of this story" too. So I wonder why my sentiment gets on your nerves when it appears we agree?
It's time to get some perspective and to start talking about the other important issues again, too. That's my point. Chasing this story to the end is vital, but not to the exclusion of all else. There's too many other important things going on.
Inevitably the question of China's currency has been dragged into the US election campaign. The problem is the short-sightedness of US labour and manufacturers - they need to be careful what wish for. The benefits of a more "level" playing field in currencies would be far out weighed by the giant crashing of not just China but likely much of Asia and potentially the world's economy. And I'm not being melodramatic for the sake of it.
Firstly it should not be surprising that China has a comparitive advantage in manufacturing. The combination of capital that has flooded the country with the vast pool of cheap labour naturally leads to an ability to better compete. Secondly the bleating about unfair exchange rates with Japan in the 1980s achieved little, especially when Japan's bubble burst and then endured 14 years of stagnation. Thirdly China and Japan are the two largest purchasers of US Treasury bonds; these purchases have added to demand for this paper and thus kept interest rates low. This in turn helped supported the great mortgage refinancing wave that kept the US economy afloat during the recession of 2001-3, along with the Feds extra-ordinary money printing efforts. China doesn't seem to get much thanks for that.
All that aside there is one major factor in floating the yuan that is often overlooked: it would lead to the meltdown of China's financial system. Beijing recognises the mess its banks are in and is working to set things right. But it is impossible to undo literally decades of poor lending decisions and bad loans. It takes a combination of banking reform, law reform, introduction of proper credit and risk controls, rooting out corruption, creating enforcable property rights and battling cultural norms (eg the common practice of favours for the well-connected) and more besides. Indeed reforms and bad habits continue side-by-side, especially with the provincial banks that are dominated by provincial Governments. Until recently China's concept of banking was a piggy bank directing Government money as the Government dictated. Pricing (ie interest rates) was often not a factor at all. The system is a mess but a vital cog in China's economic machinery.
At the same time China has been the world's major source of economic growth in the past few years. It has accounted for as much as 1/4 of all the increase in the world's economic growth in the past few years. It can be argued that China actually helped stave off an even more forceful readjustment in US manufacturing with its strong and rapid growth.
As is so often the case, what you don't hear in this debate is from the winners in the US. There are two sides to every coin. The major beneficiary in the USA of China's cheap exports have been US consumers. Wal-Mart alone brings in US$8 billion of products from China a year. It doesn't bring in product that it doesn't think it can sell. So the US manufacturing lobby is asking for two things: a deliberate crashing of one of the world's major sources of growth, a country that has been able to lift huge numbers of people out of poverty in the most widespread and rapid gathering of better living standards in history; AND it wants US consumers to pay more for goods and services so it can subsidise manufacturing, plus likely higher interest rates and/or the prospect of slower economic growth to boot.
Sometimes self-interest can do more harm to yourself than good.
You got that right! Just to focus on a small bit of that, whenever someone goes off on a WalMart rant, I ask them this: "At what point does a company do so well that it is no longer just successful, but evil?"
Microsoft, Wal-Mart, and before them it was IBM and the automakers. Someday, someone will come along with a better business model for the times and knock WalMart out like WalMart did to KMart, who did it to Sears, and so on and on and on.
What thanks does China get for investing in US Treasury Bonds? The most stable guaranteed return in the world. A good related question might be why they invest so much skimmed wealth outside of China, instead of funding solutions for the rural economy, which threatens the continuation of economic development even more than floating the yuan would.
Your tag line is a superb one, applicable to many conundrums of international economic and political contention. However, there are more than two sides to every coin.
At the end of the day I do agree with your salient point that it is not the right time to float the yuan.
The 1986 Plaza accord was a pledge by the G-7 to devalue the $ esp vs the JPY. Japan bubbled and then broke and the US went - 87 crash (drop interest rates), 89 crash, S&L crisis, banking crisis (Citibank nearly went belly up) drop interest rates to 3%. Japan did go belly up and it is still not entirely clear that they are out of the woods.
1930-33 Competitive devaluations as well as trade wars exacerbate the Depression. One reason why it was "GREAT".
Stock trade of the year: short any airline with significant numbers of HK passengers.
Seriously, though, I heard the main objection to phones on airplanes came not from civil aviation authorities, but from the mobile phone companies. Something about the phones jumping from base station to base station too rapidly.
Posted by Eric Lien at September 19, 2004 02:56 PM
Mrs M and I attended a "literacy night" at JC's new school. After cracking the usual one-liners ("I'm a bit old to learn to read" always gets teachers) it was down to business. An hour later and I was amazed: where I had thought reading a book with the kids was simple, it turns out to be a complicated minefield. What the teachers couldn't say but meant was to use common sense: set aside time to do it, no distractions, let the kids use the pictures to work out the story themselves and don't use p0rn magazines as a reader.
What really struck me was the other parents. There were 50 people in the room and with the exception of BL I was the youngest male there. I am in my early 30s; some of these men looked like they could have been my father rather than father of a 4 year old. It scares me to think I'm closer in age to the kids than I was to some of the men in the room last night.
speaking as a new father who is now the wrong side of "early 30s", i'd just like to say, on behalf of all of us, fuck off young whippersnapper. you're just jealous because you spent your late 20s and early 30s changing nappies, making up milk bottles and desperately trying to catch up on sleep, while we spent our late 20s and early 30s, man's peak partying years, eating too much, drinking too much, staying out too late and then staying in bed till midday with our better-halves (be they better-halves just for the day or on a longer-term basis) practising our baby-making technique, so that when we could afford to not have to get up in the middle of the night or with the lark because of our screaming offspring, we could then have children.
Tung Che-hwa is growing a political brain of sorts. He has ruled out re-introducing the controversial Article 23 security legislation after the recent HK elections, citing "the society must have basic consensus on this issue." It's promising he didn't immediately try and capitalise on the good showing of the pro-Beijing parties to ram through this legislation.
It's a slight problem when your proposed anti-discrimination law is discriminatory itself. 95% of Hong Kongers are Han Chinese and like any society with such a huge majority of one race (see Japan for an even worse example) racism doesn't just exist, it's often not even considered unusual. Those that suffer the worse are the SE and South Asian workers that form the backbone of HK's army of helpers and menial labour. "Foreign professionals" (read Westerners) have different rules and are treated to far more subtle forms of racism. But that's for another time.
There are two main problems with the proposed law. Firstly discrimination against mainland immigrants will not be included in the bill's scope. The reason? Because they are Han Chinese, so it is considered a "social" form of discrimination rather than a racial form. Who knew some forms of discrimination are better than others? The other problem is the 3 year exemption for any business with 6 or less employees. As to why small businesses are able to discriminate when it's not acceptable for larger businesses or the general public is hard to fathom. The excuse "More than half of the companies in Hong Kong are small ones. Will the legislation help ethnic minorities in finding a job? I don't think so,'' is baloney. It certainly won't help them as it stands. It really makes no sense at all. There's no increase in paperwork or any cost for the business. All they have to do is give non-Chinese people a fair chance. Why do they need an exemption for that?
You cannot legislate people's opinions away but you can certainly give victims of racism the tools they need to fight it.
Tom looks more deeply into the winners and losers in HK's recent election.
There's now a HK politician with a blog, says Andrea.
ESWN explains and defends HK's functional constituencies by saying "experts" are needed to defend each interest group and commonly elected politicians are unable to grasp the issues. Which is complete baloney. Countries such as the UK, USA and Australia seem to manage just fine without special interest groups directly electing members of Parliament. ESWN's example of the financial services candidate (an "colourful" fellow elected with 275 votes, whereas it took over 60,000 votes to get a directly elected seat. In other words one stockbroker's vote is worth 218 "ordinary" votes) fighting for minimum conditions is the perfect example against these seats. The investing public loses out to the stockbrokers who create their own self-determined minimum commissions. If the small stockbrokers are worried about "collusion" in the long term, collusion in the short term isn't the answer. Proper anti-trust and competition laws are. Special interest seats perverse democracy by making those lawmakers answerable only to that sector, to the exclusion of the broader society they should actually serve.
Marmot was comprehensively over the North Korean mountain moving efforts (as opposed to the natural kind) although he is sceptical of North Korea's explanation. Budaeuchigae explains why it took NK several days to telling its side of the story and finds they were planned, not accidents. Oranckay uses this as a chance to look at NK's provincial make-up and Marmot looks at the surprisingly simple NK geographical naming policy.
Japan is potentially using the threat of China as a stalking horse for other changes; Joe Jones (thanks for the links) has more on potential changes in Japan's defence policy and Jodi believes it is unnecessary provocation.
Gord talks about kids, the lack of protective services and cultural differences in Korea.
Tony says South Korea's President is a good joke-teller, especially in a country that does this. It makes the blog block seem positively mild.
SE Asia
Islamic terrorists deliberately target countries like Indonesia. And Singapore is holding on to a group of JI terrorists in what Myrick thinks is a good use of Singapore's ISA.
Conrad details the plight of the Hmong people and follows up with Laos's attempt to establish normal trade relations with the US.
They say Latin is a dying language. But it's time to look to the future. The good people at Deutsche-Welle, the German taxpayer funded news network, have established the 30th 31st (thanks Bre) language to its site: Klingon.
Some would argue Germans often seem like they're from another planet anyway. I wonder how you say "George W. Bush is a war-mongering Imperialist despot ruining the Earth" in Klingon? It must be in there somewhere.
Trotting out the old "Western" democracy doesn't work in Asia line, CCP chief Hu Jintao addressed the nation last night. Instead of political competition, the monopoly on power by the CCP will fight abuse and corruption by doing a better job of policing itself.
"History indicates that indiscriminately copying Western political systems is a blind for China."...Strengthening the party's ability to govern is the nominal focus of its annual leadership meeting in Beijing...
But the weeks before the gathering of the Central Committee have been consumed mainly with infighting over the fate of Jiang Zemin, China's military chief and Hu's predecessor...Jiang told a recent high-level party meeting that he is prepared to retire...but they said it was unclear whether he intends to do so now.
The senior levels of the CCP are so busy with the Jiang/Hu battle that serious issues such as the economy, gaining control over the provincial governments, Taiwan and corruption are not being addressed. This meeting will pay only lip service to really fighting the main threat to the CCP's hold on power - the disaffection of the population with "power abuse and corruption" by cadres.
I am not a history professor, but Hu's statement that China's experiment with Western political systems have been a failure is surely a contestable statement. The only time China tried to apply any sembelence of Western systems was during the rule of the Nationalists and even then they hardly had what could be recogonised as functioning political system. The subtly of Hu's statement is in that common trait of linking democracy with that traditional bogeyman, "the West". Democracy is not a Western ideal or concept. It is the political system largely practicised by Western countries, which not co-incidently have become the world's strongest economies with the highest living standards. In truth Maoism and Communism have proved to be China's blind alleys. China's political system can be called whatever you like but in reality it exists as a monolithic one-party state, where the lines between party and state massively blurred.
China has benefited massively from the opening up of its economy to the world, to competition and to market forces. It can do the same if it opens up its political system too.
You'll despise me. I'm the stranger who chats to everyone!
(P.S. Don't worry, I normally pick my "targets" pretty well... and I also back off very quickly when I sense that people don't feel like chatting.) Oh, and you're safe, since I'm not bound to head over to your neck of the woods any time soon. (I wish though!)
The SCMP is reporting the Hong Kong Tourist Board have missed a massive source of new tourists: Vietnamese illegal immigrants (IIs):
Vietnamese men are being sold what a police officer described as "travel packages to Hong Kong prisons" as gangs prey on those desperate to escape poverty, a court was told yesterday...
"The defendant committed this offence because of the bad economic situation in Vietnam and it is expected that by serving a prison sentence in Hong Kong, they can at least get themselves a bed and earn a wage," he [the prosecutor] said...
Judge Line said it was a very sad state of affairs that "prison in this country is better than an ordinary life elsewhere" but added that it made sentencing difficult.
It costs about HK$800 a day to keep a prisoner. Free board, free medical, free food and a modest wage for a couple of years is enough to entice these people. Indeed compared to some of the hostels and working conditions here prison isn't a bad way to go.
If only the HK Tourism Board would wake up and cut out the middle-man. They could organise these tours themselves.
A new survey says 'Yum cha' can boost mental health, with 82% of respondents "happy" and 80% of them going to Yum Cha at least once a week. There is a direct link: anyone who sees a Yum Cha restaurant in action understands how crazy the world can be.
Tonight is the start of Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish New Year. It is usually a time of family and celebrations and that most typical of Jewish traditions: feasting. This year we will be having a quiet one with just ourselves instead and it is one of only two times of the year I can honestly say I feel homesick. Nevertheless we will be dipping our apple in honey and eating our raisin challah.
Jewish New Year is an important time in Judaism. The Sunday School story says from now until Yom Kippur in 10 days time the Book of Life is opened and God weighs your prospects for life, love, wealth and success in the year ahead depending on your conduct, prayer and repentence. More prosaically I use it as a time to reflect on the year that was and to look ahead to the year that will be. It is a time to take stock and each year it is a time to say to oneself "I am amazed that X, Y and Z happened this year". It is a time to think about your life, how you live it and how you relate to others. One of the great things about Judaism is it is about the relationship between people as about the relationship between people and God. Rosh HaShannah is that time of reflection and anticipation.
Interestingly Yom Kippur, the day where all Jews fast (ie no drinking nor eating) for 25 hours, is the time for final repentance but also the final time to think ahead for the year to come. On Kol Nidre, the solemn prayer recited at the start of the fasting, we say that "all vows we have made in the previous year we hearby renounce". It has caused Jews no end of grief over the centuries as it has been taken to mean no Jew can be taken at their word. But any reading of the text makes it clear that this prayer only relates to personal vows - in other words, resolutions. So Judaism has a mechanism of never letting you break a New Year's resolution - if you haven't been able to fulfil it, you renounce it at the last minute. It doesn't make the vows any less worthwhile. It means they need to be re-affirmed if you still intend to uphold them. The prayer forces you to look back and forwards at the same time.
Even if you aren't Jewish, very few of us ever stop and take time to take stock of our lives. Take a few minutes tonight and do just that. It's worth doing at least once a year.
Shana Tova and may you be inscribed in the Book of blogging Life for the year to come.
Update: Also see the lessons Roadrunner has to teach (via Joe, who adds his own twist). And RP rightly hopes for a boring day.
Have fun and enjoy. We will be celebrating as well as it is one of my kids' birthday. According to Jewish tradition, I believe (though not sure) this is the best date for birthday. Yes?
Yom Kippur can only attone for transgressions of man toward G-d. There is no absolution for injustices against fellow men w/o compensation for damages and forgiveness.
Shana Tova from a lonely Jew in Beijing. There is a lay synagogue (no, that's not a Jewish house of ill repute, chongwen) here, but no rabbi.
Nice essay, but I've heard always the Kol Nidre interpreted another way: it is to console those Jews who converted to another religion to escape persecution that their vows can be renounced they are still welcomed and honored as Jews. May you be well and blessed in these Days of Awe.
Posted by Ellen Sander at September 16, 2004 03:52 AM
Thanks for all the good wishes.
Aaron is completely right; where a wrong has been done, Kol Nidre does not absolve one from that. The absolution only applies to personal vows (eg I'm going to lose weight) and those between man and God (eg I'm going to pray more).
Ellen is also right; historically Kol Nidre was a time for persecuted Jews to renounce vows they made falsely so they wouldn't be killed by the Inquisition. It comes under the vows between man and God clause. Thankfully these days there is no need for that and Kol Nidre can assume a more metaphysical meaning.
The nature of this blog has changed significantly since it started. A large part of the reason for starting this site was to keep in touch with family and friends back in Australia while we enjoyed our time in Hong Kong. These days, much to my family's chagrin but no doubt many others' delight, there are few updates on the family. I've started a separate blog that will purely be updates on our family and adventures here in HK. If you would like access to it please send me an email at simon[at]simonworld[dot]mu[dot]nu and if I don't already know you please tell me why you'd like access. I'll send you the site by return email.
I am often asked about my frequent posting. The nature of my job is I spend a minimum of 11 hours a day stuck in front of my computer screens. There are bursts of activity separated by periods of (comparative) quiet. It's a perfect environment for blogging*. It takes little time and is unobtrusive. It never gets in the way of work because a post can be left to one side as needed. I am and have always been a news junkie (not to mention a large part of my job to be on top of current affairs and events) and this outlet allows me to reflect my thoughts on what I see and read. The many great blogs out there have exposed me to a wide variety of topics and opinions I ordinarily would not have been exposed to. In constantly trying to better understand the world I have found blogs and blogging an invaluable resource and I hope in a small way to add to that collective knowledge. My regular blogging a reflection of my interests in this city, this region, politics, and events as they happen.
I find it easy to write and that each post doesn't take long to create. Usually once I've hit upon a topic the words come quickly although sometimes I'll have drafts that I work on over time, such as this. But blogging isn't literature and spending hours finely crafting a post is not worth the time nor effort. I'd much rather spend that time looking at other sites and seeing what others have to say. I am not so arrogant as to think mine is the only opinion that matters. If you don't already have one, try starting one yourself. It's easy and it doesn't take much time at all. It is a great way to keep engaged in the world and keep your concentration as well as honing your writing and comprehension skills. In a world where there are vast amounts of information available for consumption blogging helps you better evaluate, sort and process that information.
In other words I've got a lot to say and I will keep on saying it. Sorry, George.
* This is also why I only usually blog during the week. Outside the office there are far more important things to do.
Besides the self-inflicted wounds of the Democratic Party in HK elections and a few logistical cock-ups, the one angle the media has been able to latch onto is the election of Leung "Long Hair" Kwok-hung (you can see a photo here). A man best known for wearing chic Che Guevara t-shirts (an ironic mockery of what the man actually stood for) and making a fuss over anything and everything, he has now become part of the system he "struggles" against. This co-opting usually signals the beginning of the end of any activist's career. The smart ones are able to turn it into a political career, occassionally even one of substance. But if you are starting out as a "Marxist revolutionary" who's a political superstar best known for being against everything but for nothing, in Communist China's capitalist outpost, the odds are stacked against you.
Things will go one of two ways with Long Hair. He'll be out on his ear after 6 months for doing something or other - this is the most likely scenario. After all, revolutionaries don't make their names by attending committee meetings. Indeed the SCMP reports this is exactly what he predicts himself:
Long Hair" Leung Kwok-hung yesterday predicted that he might not finish his term in the Legislative Council because of his anti-establishment attitude and regular clashes with the law.
"Being a revolutionary and a legislator has no contradiction. As a revolutionary, I oppose the government but not the system, although sometimes it is the system which is the root of the problem...Fundamentally, the ultimate way to bring about change is outside the legislature."
The alternative is he slowly becomes part of the system he purports to so dislike. Time will tell which it will be.
All of this is in aid of a single thing: Slate has a long article on Long Hair that is well worth reading. It concludes Maybe the fatal flaw of Democrats, in Hong Kong as in the United States, is that against a street-fighting foe, they refuse to take the low road. They are too polite, which is entirely accurate and besides the point. The journalist had the privilege of enjoying an ale of two with Hemlock:
Of course, Long Hair's take on what happened in the election is self-serving—he's an activist, a gadfly who relishes the role of fighter and who can afford to be one, unlike members of the higher-profile democratic parties who must work within the system and have more to lose.
But then I remembered the afternoon I spent a few days before, sitting in Staunton's Bar beside the Mid-Levels Escalator on Hong Kong Island with Hemlock, the British expat whose delicious and vicious blog is the best source anywhere for inside information on Hong Kong's social and political life—he's Hong Kong's answer to James Wolcott.
As I was drinking with Hemlock, he gave me the long and unpleasant rundown of the dirty campaign tricks allegedly pulled by the mainland since the beginning of the campaign season in March.
Following up on my post that Indonesia refuses to ban JI, partly because it also engages in charitable works, comes this interesting look at Hamas and their non-terrorist activities. That said, it doesn't matter if it's Mother Theresa, if the group engages in terrorism as part of its activities there is enough reason to close it down completely. There are no mitigating circumstances for murderers.
I agree completely. Just like cigarette companies think they can keep selling poison and its okay if they do some "charity" and "don't smoke" advertising.
Just like you said: "There are no mitigating circumstances for murderers"
China has 236,000 rich people, according to a new survey. Rich is defined as having at least US$1 million in assets. This is a 12% increase from the previous year. While that's impressive India recorded a 22% increase. To put that in context, the US had at least 6.5 million millionaires in 2003.
China also had 68,000 road deaths in the eight months to August. To get rich in China isn't glorious - it's hazardous to your health.
In many Western countries white collar crime is considered a "softer" crime; for example in fraud no-one gets "hurt" except for big banks and insurance companies that can afford to lose a little bit. It's a lie, of course.
China has been clamping down on corruption and white collar crime in recent years. It is also preparing to launch IPOs of two of its largest state-owned banks, Bank of China and China Construction Bank, next year and is desperate to clean them up as much as possible before the sale. So how does China deal with white collar criminals? It executes them. China liberally uses capital punishment, although the exact number is a State secret. It sure makes the saying "crime doesn't pay" ring true.
One of Giles's muses, Attila the Gun, has finally decided to spare all of us at work his non-stop political rantings and channel them into a blog instead. Go give The Shining City a visit, especially if right-wing Regan-worshipping gun-loving Republicanism is your thing. Only Ghenghis Rant to go.
I don't know much about Indonesia's politics. But WTF are they talking about in saying there is not enough evidence to ban JI, the group behind the recent Jakarta, Marriott and Bali bombings? Ducking and weaving for political gain doesn't wash: elections or not, the first step in dealing with terror is calling it by name. Some are saying it is not so simple because JI also does good deeds and has moderate elements. Just like Hamas.
On another note the ICG has a report saying Salafism could actually act as a brake on terror.
Perhaps this has something to do with the United States refusing to cooperate with the Indonesian (or any other) authorities in the war on terror. Remember Hambali, the alleged mastermind of JI and al-Qaeda's main guy in SE Asia? The mastermind that has been sitting in US custody for over a year and the Indonesians haven't been able to get access to question him.
Do you expect a fairminded judge to accept a US intelligence agent to speak for Hambali in court?
I disagree. The US is reluctant to turn over Hambali because they have little faith in Indonesia's legal system - a perfectly understandable concern if the Bali bombing trials are anything to go by. The US in fact has offered Indonesia help in clamping down on extremist terror but Indonesia has been only half-hearted in accepting it. That is why Indonesia, far more than Malaysia and other SE Asian countries, remains a focus for terror groups.
Huh? Checking US State Dept. Travel Warnings shows that southern Thailand, Malaysia, and the southern Philippines are all accounted for.
There was a warning issued for Indonesia a few days before the latest blast telling Americans not to hang out at places that look American. Most of the warning though deals with kidnap gangs (Abu Sayaf) operating in the east across the Malaysian, Philippines and Indonesian borders and the usual sectarian violence in Aceh, Papua, and Malaka, not JI terrorism.
Beyond not handing Hambali over to the Indonesians, they wouldn't even let the Indonesians question him directly while he was in US custody. The best the Indonesians could get was to pass questions to the US Intelligence and then wait for US Intelligence to give them answers back. And this is part of why the prosecutors had such difficulties with the Bali bombing case. Take away your key conspirator and prosecutor's cases tend to go "poof".
Sigh... given that only a few weeks ago Indonesian officials were still saying that JI didn't exist, I guess it has to be considered progress that a ban is even being discussed.
Don't let the fact that you know nothing whatsoever about Indonesia from standing in the way over a nothier mindless anti-American rant.
The current government won't ban JI because Megawati (1) is a demonstrated weakling who (2) has made appeals to the Islamic right a fundimental part of her campaign and therefore (3) she is fearful of doing anything that might upset them.
Megawati's current vice-president is Hamzah friggin' Haz for Christ sake, the self professed "close friend" and defender of JI leader Bashir.
First Jakarta, now reports two Australians have been kidnapped in Iraq. Which is kind of puzzling, because all Australians working in Iraq have been accounted for. Furthermore the kidnappers haven't named their "hostages" despite telling Australia they have 24 hours to leave Iraq or the hostages will be killed. Which makes rash claims that Howard will "be under pressure" look premature at best and stupid at worst. The good news is Mark Latham continues to follow the path of common sense in agreeing there can be no negotiations with terrorists.
Let's hope this is a hoax.
As always Arthur has more. And there are some heartening words for Australians in this thread at LGF.
The ABC interviews an expert saying to take this seriously. There's a money quoted with my emphasis:
You should be taking it very seriously. Many of these groups make claims, many of them have carried them out, although there is hope after all in certain cases, such as in the case of Corporal Wassoon, who was reported executed, it turned out that was frankly a lie.
I've heard of the secret Islamic army before, but there's so many groups they're a dime a dozen and they always tend to shift...
unfortunately I think Australia's in this position today largely because the Philippine Government and the Spanish Government previously caved in to such blackmail.
Thanks Spain and Philippines.
UPDATE: Map of the alleged kidnapping here and the contingency plan has been activated.
UPDATE 2: Morning in Iraq and still no news. It's sounding more like a hoax at this stage.
UPDATE 3: We're getting towards noon in Iraq and still the claims are unconfirmed; meanwhile Iraqi terrorists manage to kill more of their countrymen, women and children, including a school.
Like these guys would have stopped kidnapping people and killing them if the Philippines hadn't given in?
And I don't see where Spain fits in... unless you mean throwing a government out of power that refused to listen to the people and lied to them as caving in to terrorists.
And by all this, should the US and the world be heeping praise on the Syrians for ending the kidnap gang reign in Lebanon (y'remember when Ronald Reagan negotiated with radical Islamic kidnappers and illegally sold arms to the Iranians as part of caving in to "Islamo-fascists"?)
It's pretty simple really. The Philippines negotiated with and gave in to the kidnappers, effectively rewarding and encouraging them to continue. Kidnapping may have continued but the Philippines decision made it guaranteed to happen and happen often.
As for Spain that's a complicated one, but at least part of the result of the new Spanish Government and their immediate withdrawal from Iraq was again an encouragement and reward for terror. I'm not second-guessing Spain's electorate. I'm just saying the result had consequences on other nations, in this case Australia.
As for your Syrian example it is obviously spurious - Syria itself engages in kidnapping and other forms of torture and terror itself. It may have stopped Lebanon's civil war but at huge and ongoing cost. If you were going to cite an example, why not cite the North Korean plight of South Korea "kidnapping" their nationals?
Syria engages in kidnapping of foreign nationals? Huh? Where's the evidence of that one.
And the kidnapping has stopped in Beirut because the Syrians put an end to the nonsense. It didn't stop because everybody refused to negotiate with the terrorists, because the US under Reagan did.
And if the kidnapping in Iraq wouldn't have stopped if the Philippines didn't "cave in", then how can you say the Philippines' actions caused any results for Australia? The Philippines would have everyone pulled out of Iraq now anyway, they'd have a citizen dead, and the kidnappers would still be on a rampage regardless.
As for North Korea, that is spurious. Though it has led North Korea to close diplomatic and travel ties with the third-party country involved. (Vietnam, I think.)
The compartively poor showing by the Democrats in the LegCo elections has seen China pleased with its handy-work and recriminations beginning amongst the Democrats. Poor planning, stupid tactics, needless last minute panic and poor politics all combined to enable the Democrats to shoot themselves in the foot. From hundreds of thousands of marchers in July they were unable to capitalise on the political momentum and convert it into votes.
The Democrats need to learn a few lessons. Firstly they need to learn how to play politics. They could do worse than study how effective both China and their proxies, especially the DAB, played the game. They need to have confidence in the voters of HK and stop putting petty egotistical disputes above the need to maximise votes. And they need to reflect on the lack of clear mandate they have for the next 4 years. Perhaps the result was a blessing in disguise: if it can force the Democratic Party into becoming a true political party rather than a collective one-purpose party then in the long run HK may be better off. But that's a big if.
UPDATE: Reactions from around the traps:
* Conrad isn't impressed with the process nor results.
* Chris is more upbeat about the results and quirks.
* Phil on both the disappointment for the Democrats and the turn-out.
* ESWN says the headlines differ to the reality in the reporting of the results.
* Fumier congratulates the real winner and notes the fractional gerrymandering in the system.
* Hemlock reviews and hastily packs his bags.
* Tom takes aim at Ming Pao and their equivalence between Chinese police and Human Rights Watch actions in the lead up to the poll.
"Perhaps the result was a blessing in disguise: if it can force the Democratic Party into becoming a true political party rather than a collective one-purpose party then in the long run HK may be better off. "
--End Quote--
Exactly! Emotions can only get one so far, and that is now proven for the democrats.
Lee has much planning and thinking to do. Yeung Sum is proving to be a "girly-man" for the democrats. Of course, that is just my opinion.
*This post has been updated and shifted to the top of the page.*
Please also see my earlier entries The War and Responses and Reactions, including some great comments with additional information.
* Arthur Chrenkoff has a good summary of further developments and reactions.
* Shaky has a link to demonstrate the size of the bomb - bigger than that the hit the Marriott last year - and video footage of the likely source of the explosion. Video can be linked via here. The owner of the van is being questioned.
* The most disturbing development to date is reports a second terror cell is active and ready to strike. Australian and the USA are warning about specific threats to the Rusana apartment block in Jakarta as a possible secondary target. On the other hand, New Zealand says it's business as usual.
* Australia's election campaign restarted with the first debate. Mark Latham: "The other thing we've got to recognise is that the war against terror, it will take at least three years to win it." It's going to take a lot longer than just three years, mate. And as for the arguement Iraq made Australia a target, read this first.
* In a bizarre twist, the 5 year old Australian girl injured in the blast is now being claimed by two fathers.
* Rajan eloquently explains why appeasement of JI isn't possible. There isn't an alternative.
* Gnu Hunter: "It's a risky business, this reducing risk."
* Tim Dunlop agrees that the bombing is unlikely to change votes in Australia's election.
* The Professor, who shares my despair over misplaced priorities, thinks he's found the "root cause" of the problem.
* The Swanker has a thoughtful post reflecting on JI, Indonesian Islam and the bombing.
* Chas points out the lack of real compassion so far and notes: J.I, who have claimed responsibility are not Islamists. They are terrorists. Bernard Slattery got it right in 5 words.
* Adrian proves what idiots Bondi bankers can be. On behalf of the rest of us BBs, Adrian, I'm sorry you had to put up with that.
* Catallaxy notes the bombing wasn't only directed at Australia, but had a dual purpose: In the case of Jakarta, the terrorists are trying to intimidate both the Australian government - to get out of Iraq - and the Indonesian people - to get into Sharia law.
Glenn Reynolds' Instapundit is the central blog of blogs, the divine linker. Like major media, his is the first amongst equals and thus usually the one who determines the agenda of the blogosphere in terms of politics. He has earned that position through respect, constant good work and interesting linkage. So it comes as a major disappointment that there is not a single mention of the Jakarta bombings on his site. Others such as Michele and the Command Post team did report on it but the major central clearing house of the blogosphere ignored it, as did many others.
Now I realise the blogosphere is abuzz with the exposure of the faked CBS memos. For more just look through Instapundit and follow the links, starting here. Blogs have proved themselves worthy in exposing a fraud; it's a blow both for blogs as a new medium and in breaking the story itself. However the world hasn 't stopped. A few articles have metioned blogs and exposing them to a greater audience. But the world hasn't changed. We are three years on from America's eyes being opened to the changed reality of the world. There's a famous dictum that generals always fight the last war - that is, each is fought based on the patterns of the previous conflict. But this battle is nothing like the Cold War. The Cold War was a clear us-and-them mentality based, to a large extent, on a common set of rules and beliefs. Now the war is a fragmented, nebulous and ongoing engima. There are wars within Islam, between religion and secularity, between and within the West, to name but a few. Everything is changing in rapid and unpredictable ways.
Australia, rightly or wrongly, has been a strong supporter of the USA in this new war. Following the events of 9/11 (but also the earlier terror attacks such as the earlier WTC bombings and the bombings of the American embassies in Afica) many nations pledged support for the USA. However few followed through in joining what became the "Coalition of the Willing". Joining this alliance did not involve a quid pro quo: it was simply considered fighting for what is commonly believed to be worth defending. America has always been the main embodiment of those values: liberal capitalist democracy.
But America can make itself hard to love. Feelings of support that the world showered on America are reciprocated at times like now. It doesn't matter that no Australians were killed. What matters is terrorists killed innocent people in a clear attempt to attack a Coalition member. The US Government quickly pledged support and sympathy, as was to be expected. That too is not the point. What matters is what the American people themselves believe. Using the major media and the blogosphere as (an admittedly imperfect) proxy, there has been some expressions of sympathy and interest, but far broader indifference and ignorance. Instead there's much concern over whether George Bush dodged a medical 30 years ago and whether the proof was faked. I agree it is an issue. So is John Kerry's Vietnam record. But there are nowhere near as important an issue as what does need talking about. Where are Bush and Kerry planning to take America in the next 4 years? What are they planning to do in the war on terror? On Iraq? On helping allies like Australia? On defeating Al-Qaeda, JI and their ilk? There seems to be a major case of not seeing the forest for the trees at the moment in American polity. The losers are not just Americans, but the world.
It's hard to disguise my dissapointment and disgust. Obviously different frames of reference mean different events are viewed with different priorities. But in terms of relativities an Al-Qaeda offshoot attempting to destroy an ally's embassy would normally rank as an important news story. Clearly these are not normal times. I am still a firm believer that what America and Australia are doing is right both in the war on terror and in Iraq (although I don't believe the war in Iraq is directly related to the war on terror; rather it was an indirect linkage based on maintaining some sence of global law, giving UN sanctions teeth, backing up efforts to disarm potential holders of WMD and genuinely trying to transform a despotic and twisted Middle East country with potential flow-on effects to others in the region).
Despite its unilateralists tendencies, America isn't alone. Just as that means receiving support from allies, it also means reciprocating. And support isn't always in the form of money, military might or men. Sometimes it's as simple as a link on a blog.
UPDATE: In reference to the memo scandal, Glenn disputes his "centrality" in the blogosphere. He's right, to a degree. While he might hate the analogy, he's the New York Times (or perhaps WaPo) of the blogosphere: he doesn't always break the story but he sets the agenda and acts as a focal point. There are very few issues in blogging that live for long regardless, but if Glenn isn't linking it then it is likely a non-issue before it started.
I'm not telling Glenn or anyone else what to put on their sites. It's their site, their money and their effort. Rather I'm using him as a key example of the widespread (with some significant exceptions) apathy that's greeted the significant events of Jakarta last week. While Australians may have a great reputation with Americans, this kind of ignorance, when terorrists make an attempt on Aussies, from their key ally in the war is part of the reason the feelings are not always reciprocated to the same extent.
UPDATE 2: Kevin gets it, too. I should note that while I've generalised, there are many Americans who recognise and sympathise and are talking about Jakarta (in this example). However the broader point remains.
UPDATE 3: * An article detailing the contested paternity of injured 5 year old Manny Musu. Embedded Update: It turns out the Australian is her father but it looks like a messy custody battle is coming.
* The SMS message warning of an attack came third-hand, via an Australian businesswomman in Jakarta.
* Australia is accelerating plans to move its embassy in Jakarta.
* AFP Commissioner Keelty says there's a chance only a single bomber was responsible, rather than the 3 floated earlier.
* The Straits Times is saying JI has been split over the bombing.
* Police have an early lead with the chassis number of the van used in the bombing.
* The bombers have left suicide notes to their parents.
* Indonesia's police suspect as many as 10 more suicide bombers may be ready with a second set of attacks.
FINAL UPDATE: Glenn has corrected his overlooking of Jakarta with a generous link back to here. I tried to avoid making him the sole subject of my frustrations, but when you've got a lightening rod as an icon...it is a lightning rod, isn't it?
Welcome Insta-visitors; please have a look around.
Glenn Reynolds' Instapundit is the central blog of blogs, the divine linker. Like major media, his is the first amongst equals and thus usually the one who determines the agenda of the blogosphere in terms of politics. He has earned that position through respect, constant good work and interesting linkage. So it comes as a major disappointment that there is not a single mention of the Jakarta bombings on his site.
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I think I'm a bit harsh on IP sometimes--after all, he's just one guy, a human being with preferences and prejudices about what to post, what to skip--but it is things like this that prevent me from being the huge fan of him that so many other bloggers are. I just do not like his selection process as much as that of other bloggers.
'tis a shame that more attention has not been given to the significance of the jakarta bomb. but i am not surprised. australia is, after all, at the "arse end of the world".
perhaps more attention will be given if howard loses the election (fingers crossed that he does lose, in my case), and the usa will suffer a blow in the form of another nation withdrawing its troops from iraq. however the blogosphere's ranks of political pundits is dominated primarily by right- and ultra-right- leaning bloggers, who may gloss over the issue, so as not to give it too much exposure.
the usa will be so heavily absorbed in its own election. come october 9, that the outcome, howard or latham, will not find much space in the news media as well.
in the time that i have been living in Spain, however, australia has made the front page of 'El Pais' three times: Downer accusing spain for increasing the threat of terrorism worldwide; ian thorpe at the olympics, and; the jakarta bomb which earned a full page complete with the image you posted.
we are now not only a nation of sports lovers, but a nation more involved in the war on terrorism than any nation on continental europe (excl. russia).
I must comment again that the CBS memos story should not be seen as trivial. The details regarding GWB's long-ago service are certainly trivial. But if a major and very powerful media outlet like CBS are seen as using forged documents to influence an election that is not at all trivial.
Issues of media integrity, whether CBS, BBC, or Al-Jazeera, will be absolutely vital in the struggle against terrorism.
I do think the Djakarta bombing and Indonesia in general should definitely be receiving more attention here in America. The recent interesting events in North Korea probably should also be receiving more attention.
If Howard does lose, I think the American media will make a great deal of it, because it will be seen as a blow against Bush. If the Jakarta bombing could be spinned as more specifically anti-Bush it would have gotten more attention here.
Australians, and Australia in general, are very, very favorably regarded and appreciated in America. Much more so than Americans are in Australia.
Posted by Toppenish at September 13, 2004 07:36 AM
Toppenish: I agree the CBS memo story is significant in exposing media bias and a fraud. My point is the world is not a one issue place. I'd like to think people who blog and follow the news are capable of dealing with several issues at once, rather than single mindedly focus only on the memos to the exclusion of all else. It simply seems there's been a loss of perspective.
Ilyka's right that Glenn is only one person and cannot always be expected to "get it right", and as I said in the post some significant US blogs are covering the story. But from what I can gather this isn't just off the radar of bloggers, it's not even a story in "big media".
That's why Toppenish, you're right. The US may view Aussies very favourably, but the return view is favourable but not quite as solidly so, particularly because of events like this.
If we Americans are showing signs of apathy towards terrorism that isn't directly inflicted upon us, it's the same apathy that plagued and blinded us before 9/11. I certainly hope it isn't on the rise...
The Jakarta bomb suffers from a key lack-of-interest point: it's in Indonesia, which is a Bad Place™ in the American mind.
Most Americans view Indoneisan attacks the same way they view terrorist attacks in the Philipines - not a surprise. It's unfortunate the Australians were attacked in another bombing on a SE Asian island (like Bali). But Americans have already written off Indonesia as a Terrorist Place - which makes the story sad, but not surprising.
I'm not going to touch the war-terrorism-allegiance aspects, but I will say this: just this past weekend I read an article about the war in the Sunday Times, written by blogger Andrew Sullivan. It was well-written, informative, a good style...but the point is, blogs are NOT journalism. Bloggers can be journalists, oh yes, but blogs take one view-the bloggers. So if Dan Rather runs a blog, fine. But at that point, it's a blog, not journalistic gospel.
It's why I avoid political blogs, right-wing, left-wing, no-wing. I want my opinions to be my own, not shaped after a centralist bloggers. Too many people, I think, take political blogs as the stance, as the truth, as "the way it is", when the truth is, it's only the way it is for THAT blogger. Bloggers have no responsibility to reflect the truth, and if history teaches us nothing, it's that some of them often don't.
Instapundit's success is due to his linking to other blogs as well as his own. He's like the entrance door to the world of political blogs. The CBS story is major because it reveals in detail why the mass media can't be trusted. Similar revelations have shown the BBC and the New York Times to be equally flawed. The poster above who says she won't read political blogs might as well say that she wants to be fooled. The only way to find the truth is to root it out, and that's what blogs can do.
Re your telling Americans yet again why you hate us and why the world hates us--you know what? I used to care, and now I don't. Feel free to hate us. If you don't want to work with us to maintain your own freedoms, well that's your choice. I'm tired of pundits telling us how bad we are, and how everyone would like us so much better if only we did this or that (like mentioning you more in our newspapers). In fact, wasn't I just writing about newspapers in the previous paragraph? If so, then read again what I wrote about them. End of rant.
Now that you've been linked to Instapundit, you're on my bookmarks bar. So to those who don't like political blogs, keep in mind that you're missing out on a lot of material.
Posted by Promethea at September 13, 2004 11:44 PM
I couldn't disagree more with Promethea - It is crucial that we in the U.S., and particularly the U.S. public, reciprocates the friendship shown by Australia and other nations who stand with us in the war on terror, regardless of dissenting voices in those countries. We must be as angry with terrorism when Australia and other free nations are attacked as when we in the U.S. are attacked. Terrorists and pacifists must be shown that we stand with our friends, both as national policy and in public opinion.
Ironically, the terrorists show great savvy in using public opinion to force their agenda around the world. Were Promethea's point of view to predominate, we would basically cede the international mass media to Al-Qaida and those too afraid to fight. Simon's call for more attention to attacks on Australia is a powerful and pointed wake-up call to all of us in the United States.
Maybe I'm being entirely too black-helicopterish here, but my perception has been that coverage of terrorism worldwide gets very short shrift from an American media strongly aligned with Mr. Kerry - perhaps because an American populace confronted with clear and constant stories of such danger will be "misled" into thinking that Mr. Kerry's lack of resolve concerning the issue might be a danger for us.
In short, unless we pick our news sources carefully, we're not getting the news. We're getting a presentation.
So, please do not take this lack of reaction as comment on our thoughts concerning you. It reflects, instead, the priorities and philosophies of our liberal press. To them, your story is disquieting, and so must be avoided.
Count me as another American grateful for Australian support in the War on Islamofascism. Please accept my condolences for the dead and wounded in last week's embassy bombing. To whatever extent those lives were lost because of Australia's political courage, we Americans (especially if we support the Bush/Blair/Howard policy line) must shut up and accept some responsibility.
If you are driving a car in which someone is injured or killed, though the accident is not your fault, you would not let a bereaved family member or friend of the victim(s) pick a fight with you, would you?
While it does not excuse the relative paucity of coverage in the US media (what could?) I'll just echo what some other commenters have said by noting that geography is destiny in the MSM's eyes. A strong wind close by counts for more than a terrorist massacre far away. And the fact is the media paid relatively little attention to the bombing of our own embassies in 1999.
After the Atocha bombings in March I brought flowers to the Spanish Embassy and stood in line to sign the condolence book. I admit that after the elections there I sort of wondered why I had bothered. But the victims of that attack had no say over how they died and they surely deserved my paltry show of respect, even if the Spanish electorate as a whole did not.
How much more so, then do Australians merit a sincere show of support on our part? I no longer live in Washington, but via this blog at least I can say something to that effect. If you give me an address, I'll even send flowers.
I sorta agree with Promethea, and sorta not. One does get tired of hearing how other nations hate you, or disdain you, but at the same time a show of support by us to our friends after they are being attacked is needful.
We are primarily concerned with our closer circle, and our MSM is a filter that often obscures for the benefit of illegitamate goals (and this is why the CBS memo is so important. One of the mainstays of the terrorists is getting destroyed), but Australia is a good friend in dire hurt, and we should stop from our busy lives to express our deep concern for them, and our gratitude for their courage.
May the God of Mercy watch over those souls lost, and those still living in need. And may the God of Justice bring vengeance down upon the evil ones who afflicted the innocent without cause in Jakarta.
As Prometha above said: The poster above who says she won't read political blogs might as well say that she wants to be fooled.
*Shrugs*. Whatever blows your skirt up, babe. I just prefer to get my news from real journalists, not blogs. Life is too short to get imbued with people's opinions that should be taken as fact.
Now, if you'll excuse me, there are a load of personal blogs I would like to check before I sit down and watch the BBC news. You know. THe real news.
I'm grown up enough to have my own political opinions, I don't need a blogger to feed mine to me.
I was deeply moved by your piece and sincerely regret my, and my countryman's, ignorance on this issue. Please accept my apologies and be aware we are primarily focusing right now on trying to make sure that all the victims of the past few years did not die in vain. The current Tet offensive replay in Bahgdad should prove that our enemies know the stakes of this election as well.
Posted by wayneseib at September 14, 2004 02:34 AM
"Most Americans view Indoneisan attacks the same way they view terrorist attacks in the Philipines - not a surprise. It's unfortunate the Australians were attacked in another bombing on a SE Asian island (like Bali). But Americans have already written off Indonesia as a Terrorist Place - which makes the story sad, but not surprising."
You are totally correct and however I wonder as you're typing those words you consider Indonesia a more effective location to combat global terrorism than Iraq? Indonesia has been the host of more terrorist activities (and I'm taking a generalist opninion on the defintion of 'terrorist'), save for Israel/Palestine and Russia in the last few years. Furthemore, more Australians died in Bali, per capita, than total number of people who perished on 9/11. So regardless of the location of the terrorist activity, the significance on the people impacted should be the same.
I just wish I read more from Americans who realised that if this is truly a global war on terrorism, then more global references are needed. Australia is poised to elect a new govermnent that will withdraw our troops from Iraq.
President Bush acknowledging PM Howard is one thing. But actions speak louder than words. Australia, Australian interests, and sadly Australia's reputation has gone downholl since we became involved in the Iraq invasion/liberation; not just in the Middle East, but in Asia and Europe as well.
Australia's geography and history relates to those two continents, so perhaps it's time people started thinking about where we came from, because where we're headed doesn't look like too much fun.
Maybe my opinion doesn't count. I am one of those Australians who has been told: "well if you don't like it here, then leave"... which is exactly what I did. Five percent of Australians call another country 'home' ... the highest rate in the developed world.
But I still have a vote, and a hope that Australia will return to the happy, no-wuckin-furries place it use to be :)
Check out the 9/13 comments thread called The Horror Brigades on littlegreenfootballs.com re the kidnapping of Australians in Iraq. You'll find that Americans and others greatly admire Australians.
Little Green Footballs is an important website for information regarding the War on Terror (Islamofascism) not generally covered in the mass media. Remember, the American mass media hasn't accepted the fact that terrorism a real threat to civilization--that's why they don't pay much attention to foreign massacres and kidnappings.
Posted by Promethea at September 14, 2004 12:36 PM
HK's elections are done: full results at ESWN. Looking at the results are Pieter who sees this campaign's dirty tricks as a sign of maturing democracy; Phil who looks at the disappointing Democrat Party results (much as he predicted) and the ballot box stuff-up and says if its a choice between conspiracy and stupidity, well you know which wins. Chris has some interesting ideas on the apathy concerning this election and that the current system is of London's design, not Beijing's. Andrea says China will clamp down on HK regardless of the result.
ESWN also discusses the subtexts that outsiders might have missed.
The world's biggest city is coming to the Pearl River Delta...
Dan Washburn's now in Inner Mongolia and his amazing journey (and journal) continues.
Big changes are coming to the world of industry and especially textiles; Single Planet is arguing against the end of tariffs, although I completely disagree. Judge for yourself.
Korea and Japan
What the hell blew up in North Korea last week? Marmot has an extensive post with plenty of links and details; it wasn't nuclear, says James. Jodi's got more as does FY and RiK. Kimchee GI asks why the US is withholding data from South Korea on this? Kevin suggests: China wanted Hong Kong pretty badly, maybe we can talk them into annexing North Korea - by force.
I've covered the Jakarta bombings "The War", "Responses and Reactions" and finally "More on Jakarta". I strongly recommend you read the comments and follow the trackbacks to those posts for more. ESWN has photos. Myrick says even Indonesia's intelligence chief thinks its laws are too weak. Jodi and The Swanker look at the question of why - both are must reads.
You know, I have been thinking about this Simon. You start with:
The posts that matter by Asian blogs...
But it is not - it is, according to your new rules, the people who link to back to this site and I think that is not quite right. Whether you link to a story is an editorial decision you make, and people trust and respect you for that and read you because they like your decisions.
By placing the you link to me and I will link to you caveat this excellent round up risks becoming a link swapping lovefest in the eyes of some readers.
I am the recipient of three track backs on this (thank you) but I want that to be because I wrote something considered by you to be of interest, not because I remembered to return the track back in a one liner post every time you do a new round up.
Simon,
Actually I most certainly am not "arguing against the end of tariffs"!
My post merely highlights an issue that is going to have a massive impact on many developing countries. My final paragraph summed it up on an even keel, with "I sense that a real crisis is about to unfold in many Asian, African and Caribbean countries. It is also not China's fault. China did not create...the global trade system." (A bit paraphrased from the original!)
It's interesting you bring that up. I was worried about it becoming solely a link-fest rather than what I found interesting. I actually had intended to drop it as of last week but I must have used an old template and that final line was still there. The linkage thing was only meant ot be a one-off rather than an ongoing part of the series. But thank you for pointing it out - as of the next one it will be gone.
Mark - fair enough. I must admit I wasn't quite sure how to present it but I thought I had detected a tone that suggested you were against dropping tariffs. If I'm mistaken then I apologise; that's why I had the "you decide" in there.
Simon,
Might have been a sniff of a tone there. Just a sniff.
The issue is really about the West loving free trade when thinking of exports, but then demonizing countries who reverse the flow.
And it is about the West not really caring very much when free trade slaughters the innocents.
- Mark
If I may say so Windsofchange.net has several briefings dedicated to various parts of Asia and is worth looking at. I am contributor so I am of course biased though :-)
Oh I don't know, I think Simon is fairly discriminating about his linking. He certainly doesn't link to me every week, even though I link to him even less (but then Simon doesn't write about Indonesia very often).
A survey has placed teachers as China's best regarded profession. Then comes scientists, doctors, soldiers, policemen, public servants, engineers, lawyers, entrepreneurs, farmers, athletes, artists, correspondents and workers. No mention of politicians, funnily enough.
Two decades after China created a Teachers' Day, which falls on September 10, teaching, once considered undervalued and underprivileged, has come to be regarded as one of the best professions in China, as teachers are well-paid and have two-month paid holidays each year.
The "developed" world could learn from China's example.
On the weekend the SCMP reported a dispute between Google Hong Kong and local media outlets. The crux of the dispute is local media groups do not want Google's Chinese news site to aggregate their sites, claiming it is a breach of copyright. The nice lady from Google said simply that Google will exclude any news outlet from its news pages that would like to get in touch with them. But she also said:
It was "very rare" for publishers to ask to be removed from the Google website, which she said was a convenient vehicle to channel readers to their websites."
It seems Hong Kong's media prefers their websites to dwell in obscurity. I hope they enjoy living in the past century while the rest of the world passes them by.
Finally the HK elections have been run and won. The Democrats didn't do as well as they expected and Beijing's charm offensive paid off. The regular bunch were returned, in other words. The media are emphasing the record turnout, 1.7 million voters or just over 50% of those eligible. There was a ballot box stuff-up that will raise hackles but was actually harmless. But it will give the democratic purists something to grumble about, so everyone's happy.
It seems everyone is missing the major issue. A total of 1.7 million voted, or only 53% of those eligible. The barest majority of HK voters could be bothered to exercise their rights. The rest, either deliberately or through apathy, expressed their feelings about LegCo in the best way possible: by staying away. It is not a solid endorsement of the new lawmakers and their body. If more people thought LegCo could make a difference the turnout would have been far higher. That it was not a clear vote of no-confidence in the LegCo itself.
To some extent I disagree - it was a 10% increase in voters on 4 years ago which is an encouraging sign. Also, people are not voting for a government so much as they are an opposition. As Peaktalk righttly points out in the article he tracks back to you with, the scandals had a dampening effect - as he says, the issues will bring people out, the scandals will keep them home. It also seems some people went home when there were no ballot papers left in some polling stations.
This Sunday sees the HK LegCo elections. The Economist neatly summarises the contradictions at play:
But even if the Democrats and their allies fall short of a majority, most polls predict that they will win 26 or 27 seats (a gain of some five) and possibly a majority of the total votes cast—which is why the Chinese authorities are so worried this time. Their reaction to such a result would most likely be a continuation of their good cop, bad cop tactics—they are too smart to risk outright repression. While they may try to win over hearts and minds by replacing Mr Tung, they will be doubly determined to reintroduce the shelved anti-subversion bill at an opportune time.
More importantly, success for the pro-democracy camp would reaffirm the view in Beijing that further political concessions would cause Hong Kong to slip away on a path to independence, just as Taiwan has. And that is something the current regime in China can never allow, because it could, Mao forbid, spill over into calls for freedom on the mainland itself.
Even when democrats win they loseand most Hong Kongers know it. It's part of the stunning bind China finds itself in, between dealing with HK's democratic aspirations and the Basic Law on one hand; and containing the people of China itself and maintain the CCP's grip on an unstable political structure.
After what has been a torrid few days it's best to finish the working week with a link to Harry's new project: Killer-fact.com. Start with buying a beer in the Gaza strip and then move on to the Quizzes. I imagine Harry is the kind of guy you want on your team during those pub trivia nights.
The first part of the coverage of the Jakarta bombings is here.
Yesterday's bombing in Jakarta was the first clear attempt to attack specifically Australians rather than "Westerners" in general in Indonesia. Perhaps that explains why much of the blogosphere is dominated with another story: the likely forging of documents on George Bush's military service. In a coup for bloggers, it was quickly identified as a likely forgery through the work of LGF (who has extensive background with fonts), Powerline's prolific coverage, Kevin and In DC's forensicanalysis. While that's an important issue, it somehow seems trivial compared to the deliberate attack on a staunch US ally in the war on terror in the world's largest Muslim country. As James points out, even within the context of the US election it doesn't seem particularly important, except for embarassing major media and proving the value of bloggers. Especially with both an Indonesian Presidential election next week and the Australian one in a month. Personally I think this is unlikely to have much impact on the Australian election for several reasons. Firstly no Australians were killed, and while the Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman I saw last night was correct in saying victims of terror have no nationality, it is a harsh reality that a lack of Australian deaths will make this play very differently to Bali. Secondly because it happened outside of Australian territory comparisons with Spain are further limited. Lastly this was not a surprise attack: there have been terror warnings for some time on Indonesia and this was the third bombing (after Bali and the Marriott) there in 3 years.
Also a clarification. As Michaelpoints out my picture yesterday was of the Australian flag against an adjacent building to the Australian embassy. A broader picture with the embassy is here.
Let's round-up reactions:
* Roger L. Simon brings some perspective to this in the context of US politics.
* Tim Blair continues his excellent coverage with a set of links of reactions here and here.
* Yobbo notes the SMH didn't waste any time with a tasteless poll. He also notes some of the reactions from the left. As I predicted, it's all about "I question the timing." Even Mark Latham had the decency to halt politics for two days.
* I noted this yesterday but the comments string to Ken Parish's disgusting post is "interesting" in the worse sense. Especially the observation by "Gareth" that an instant straw poll saw the bombing having no change on 51% of voters, more Liberal on 25% and more Labor on 23%. As I said yesterday, net net this will not change the politics of the election. Gianna thinks it offers Howard a way out of Iraq...should he want one.
* I agree with Tim Dunlop and John Quiggin that hopefully the politicians will refrain from political opportunism, on both sides of the fence. There's no evidence at this stage of anyone trying to "cash in"...indeed Latham said Asked whether he thought the attackers were trying to influence the election, he said: "Seven or eight people have just died in the worst of circumstances. I'm not going to be making any party political observations ...Obviously in the circumstances, we will be suspending normal campaigning activities." Thank God for common sense.
* The Professor knew the reactions before they happened. He's not buying the SMH again, either.
* Arthur Chrenkoff has compiled a thorough summary with his worthwhile analysis of the situation. It beats anything I've read in the major media so far.
* Some links from non-Aussies: Dean, Kathy Kinsley, Jodi at Asia Pages with quote of the day, Rusty, Jeff Quinton, John (who says now is a time for anger), Blogs of War, Grupo Utopia, Captain Ed who thinks this was an attempt to sway Australian voters but it won't work, and Six Meat thinks this points to an even higher chance of an "October surprise" for the US elections.
* Gnu Hunter wants the SMH to stop hindering the police and also hopes (likely in vain) the usual pundits can withhold their bile for a few days like the pollies have.
* Mike Jericho has photos and notes that the usual right wing attack dog, FOX News, this time failed miserably, as did Drudge.
* Via Bernard Slattery comes Andrew Bolt's spot-on facing up to the reality of terror, and it was written pre-Jakarta.
* Currency Lad looks at the Left's reaction to the bombing: Within a few hours, yesterday's bombing of the Australian Embassy in Jakarta was transformed by several left-wing commentators into a collective bout of callous and infantile rage over what it might mean for them, for their increasingly pathological desire to see the Prime Minister of Australia destroyed...
We're going to revert to regular programming soon.
UPDATE:: The daughter of an Australian policeman was critically injured.
Additionally there's been very little mention of Malaysia so far in all of this, despite the two main suspects being Malaysian nationals. This war doesn't respect international boundaries and the hunt for these terrorists will need the full co-operation of the Malaysians as well as Indonesians.
UPDATE 2: Some people don't get it. You cannot negotiate with JI for two reasons: they are coercing you to the table, by negotiating you encourage their actions and reward their terror, and most importantly there's nothing to negotiate. Not to mention what are JI's demands? Ending Westerner civilisation as we know it. Don't know about Mr Deegan, but I'm not really prepared to give that up. Ozguru's got more and so does Tim Blair, including a new SMH poll that is at least pointless rather than tasteless. At least the Australian public is clear on their thoughts...
UPDATE 3: Currency Lad says Indonesian police had a bomb threat before the explosion.
I can understand the father's feelings regarding negotiantion, though I disagree with them. However, as a mom who will in the near future be sending two of her sons into the army, I can really understnad where he is coming from. Where one of my sons captured by the terrorist (and I know in this case it is a matter of his son being killed) I know that I would want the Israeli army to do anything to bring him back. But I know that would be wrong as well. My love for my children would most, if not overwhelm logic, give it a good run for its money.
So I don't want to critcize dads and moms for their emotional outbursts; it is the government that has to make the hard decisions, even if their populace disagrees.
Posted by Rachel Ann at September 10, 2004 02:43 PM
Hi Simon--I discovered your blog for the first time yesterday through trying to find out more about the Jakarta bombing which indeed was a story not given much prominence in the American press/ blogosphere. The reasons you give for why this event will probably, we hope, have little impact on the Aussie elections are the same as the reasons this event will probably not be a big story in America.
Also important, I think, is the impact this might have on Indonesian politics. So far I haven't seen this much discussed on English-language blogs or in the press.
The Bush NG documents thing does seem amazingly trivial on the surface but it is very important in the matter of blogosphere vs major media credibility here in the US. Dan Rather, to much of the American blogophere, is the very embodiment of big media arrogance.
Posted by Toppenish at September 11, 2004 08:14 AM
Great work Simon. On the Malaysians, its believed that the two suspects have been in Indonesia for quite a few years as their home country is no longer hospitable. Malaysia has been very cooperative in the War on Terror - even when that loonie Mahathir was condemning the US publicly its security forces were very active in trying to eradicate JI. Malaysia isn't a weak link in the War on Terror, in some cases it may have been a little too aggressive.
The ruling party UMNO, under Mahathir and to a lesser degree Badawi, hasn't been hesitant to use the internal security act. They've used it on domestic political opponents as well as on terror suspects. They've jailed several members of the PAS and DAP parties without the public production of any evidence that they were linked to terrorism. (Singapore's ISA arrests, by contrast, were followed by weeks and weeks of announcements detailing the detainees links to JI and actual terror plots).
The PAS are odious Islamist nutbars and it would be an economic and social disaster for Malaysia if they ever gained power - but most of them are more interested in things like banning interest-baring securities, alcohol and 'explicit' advertising than they are in fighting jihad.
I just want to echo the sentiments of bloggers in asia and thank you for your excellent coverage of the '9 people who were killed on the 9th of the 9th' (hmm, a Christian conspiracy theorist could read a lot into that).
this evening i conducted a search of global terrorist attacks worldwide since 9 September, 2001 (three years ago today). I was saddened by the lack of information about the Bali bomb in 2002. Some lists and timelines - and a lot of bloggers - have neglected to even honour it a mention.
Now that I am living in Europe, I have a new perspective. Granted the Spanish should be more aware of the attack in Madrid on 11 March, 2004, but many people have little knowledge that a bomb in Bali claimed as many lives (approx) and should be remembered in equal measure.
The internet is a way to record and document our generation's history in a lasting way.
What you are doing is helping to record our history. Just make sure everything is backed up on your server :)
Finally, I want to say that one sad outcome, imho, of this so-called war on terrorism (why is it being fought in Iraq and not in the places which are actually suffering?), is that the world has become so horribly divided since 9/11. It's not just about Labor v Liberal or Democrat v Republican, but also essential alliances and world institutions that are being mocked and dismantled around the world.
In the words of Han Solo: "I have a bad feeling about this"
Usually the problem is the plane is circling pointlessly, running late and annoying passengers against their will rather than at their request. It's good to be the President of France.
1. China's Olympic medallist touring party went to Macau yesterday and came out winners without even entering a casino. Stanley Ho and the Greater Good of Macau gave the 50 visiting Chinese atheletes HK$5 million to share amongst themselves. What wasn't reported was it was all in gambling chips.
2. A mainland economist says China's restrictive credit policies are leading (inevitably) to corruption. Firms with good connections are btter able to obtain loans in the more difficult lending conditions. The irony is the better connected firms are the state-owned ones and they are crowding out more efficient private companies as a result. So the result of the tightening of credit is the worst firms survive while their private competitors struggle. Another unsurprising perversion of incentives in China's semi-market economy.
3. Migrant labour, long a source of cheap workers, is finally starting to benefit from China's economic boom by being able to become more choosy over jobs. ALN has been coveringthis storyextensively.
4. In the lead-up to the 4th plenum of the CCP's Central Committee (ie a real decision making meeting) authorities have arrested over 30,000 potential petitioners. Dont' want the powers-that-be getting to hear from the people they're meant to serve. Imagine how many will get rounded-up when something really important happens...like the Beijing Olympics. I'm going for 100,000 as a starter.
The advent of workable internet telephony like Skype has got the local monoplist PCCW running scared. They've sent a letter to all broadband customers telling them why Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services will lead to the end of civilisation as we know it, or at least cutting into the lucrative franchise PCCW has. The arguements boil down to this:
1. It's tricky to install (not true)
2. It hasn't been tested
3. It may slow down your broadband speed
4. You cannot make emergency calls
5. Callers cannot be traced
Given the high costs of international telephony that still exists, PCCW are right to be scared. But stupid scare tactics like this only demonstrates how scared they are about this disruption to their business model. They'd be better off figuring out how to deal and embrace VoIP than preaching doom and gloom about it.
Actually, none of those are true, except number 5, which is true. It has been tested and running in many countries (including here in the UK). It may slow down broadband, but only if you add more than one voice call over VoIP. You can make emergency calls, only it's related to the problem of number 5-if you can't speak to the operator, they may not know where you are.
I think they too should embrace VoIP like a lot of other operators. Sure technology is scary and evolution terrifying. It's what the Neanderthals thought, and look what happened to them.
(ooooh...I get an archaeology AND a telecom bit in one comment! It IS going to be an interesting day!)
I just mentioned this before I read your rant (at the bottom after some boring stuff).
Actually, it's not Skype they're worried about, but rather City Telecom's new service (which I think gives you a phone rather than using your computer).
To be fair to PCCW, point 4 is that you can't make calls if the power fails. Which is true, because your broadband connection would drop. However, there is a small possibility that you might have a mobile phone that you could use, so it's not really a big worry.
It won't be long before the first "I question the timing" slurs start. In the interim, the bombing of Australia's embassy in Jakarta serves to remind us that terrorism has not been defeated. At the same time Bali bombers are sipping Starbucks. Indonesia is a battleground in this war and its Government and police need to act like it.
UPDATE: Tim Blair is following the story with plenty of links. Ken Parish belittles himself and the victims with the first "JI working for Liberals" jaunt; Chas seems to be heading down the same line. Off the blogroll with Ken. Ozguru wonders about the Starbucks Bali Bomber now. More at LGF, Yobbo and Chrenkoff. Yobbo also has the answers to "why the islamic extremists hate us so much". Conrad reports on a friend who felt the blast. Macam-macam says Australia's travel warning has been upgraded as does Myrick. Rajan says Indonesia is the weak link in the war on terror.
At the SMH "blog" Counterspin (with no permalinks, entry titled "Early Jakarta analyis") quotes Scott Burchill's off-the-cuff reactions (with my responses):
1) Another intelligence failure? For all the co-operation over the Bali bombing, the intel on JI is either not being shared with Australia or it doesn't exist. Given ONA received a funding boost after the WMD fiasco, it must be ASIS's turn to be rewarded for failure.
It's far too early to tell. It took the US 3 years to finish a thorough inquiry into the intelligence failures of 9/11. In this case we are talking about the actions of an extremist group operating on foreign (non-Australian) soil but their backyard. There are protocols and procedures for working with the Indonesians. Or is Mr Burchill saying we should trash that and do our own investigating in Indonesia? That'd go down well.
2) All of the attacks on Western targets since 9/11 have taken place on Howard's watch. How does this make him the strongest candidate on national security? Mr Downer might also like to start thinking about "root causes" - if he wants to help bring this to an end. Mouthing off about the evil and barbaric people behind these attacks helps no-one.
Linking the attacks to being on Howard's watch borders on the absurd. Does it make him the strongest "national security" candidate? Ever since Latham's home by Christmas gaffe on Iraq troops the ball's been in Latham's court to prove he's up to the task. Say what you like about Howard, no one doubts he's solid on national security. Some argue he's too solid, but that's another matter. The issue is Latham's to prove, not Howard's. To further demonstrate the ridiculousness of the arguement, you could say everything nasty in WW2 happened on Churchill, Chifley and Roosevelt's watch.
3) The effectiveness of JI seems relatively undiminished despite the Bali prosecutions and Hambali's arrest. This is very bad news.
4) Megawati and SBY have continued to deny they have an Islamist problem - in SBY's case he denies the very existence of JI in Indonesia. Canberra may want to reconsider the view that he is their favoured candidate in the forthcoming second presidential ballot. A massive case of denial remains.
JI does seem to still be effective; this is a fair point. Likewise Indonesia's political leadership has collectively ducked confronting Islamist extremism in their country. This is in fact the crux of the issue. Until the Indonesians start confronting this menace Australia will be hamstrung in its fight.
5) Is this the attack on the Australian election or the Indonesian one?
Does it matter? The bombing will have little impact on Indonesia's election. In Australia it could cut both ways: it may bolster Howard's national security bravado but it could also boost Latham's arguement that Howard has made Australia a target. Like in the US, it is unlikely to actually influence the small number of undecided voters. The swing voters, while concerned about global events, are far more concerned over their mortgage bill, their kids' schools, the health system and tax cuts. That's just how it is.
UPDATE 1.5:Let's see if the media can call terrorists by their name this time (via TB). So far the SMH can, the Independent can't, Reuters can (just, via a quote)...
UPDATE 2: This post has been moved to the top of the page...more in the extended entry.
I've never been a fan of the Aussie flag, with its Union Jack. But I firmly believe in everything that flag stands for and why we need to defend those values from those that seek to destroy it. We can be thankful that (at least so far) it appears no Aussies have been seriously hurt or killed, but we must extend our deepest sympathies to those Indonesians that have. There will be a time for anger, but not yet. Now is a time of sadness and mourning. The only good that may come out of this is the Indonesian Government may see fit to really crack down on JI and the Islamic extremists - they are callously murdering Indonesians without qualms. Regardless of your politics, it is clear this an enemy that cannot and should not be appeased.
Thank you for posting that photograph. Somehow, even with all the great analysis you posted, it is that image of the flag in front of the bombed out embassy which will stay with me.
Simon, just so you know, I linked to you here today on my blog. For some reason, trackbacks are not automatically happening and I am both too busy and probably too ignorant to figure out why.
Just to clarify, a common mistake I have seen even BBC make, that the building in the background not the Australian embassy, but a highrise office tower next door to it.
The Aussie embassy, a white, angular building you have probably seen in TV coverage, was designed at an angle and elevation to avoid worse case damage in the event of such a blast. Which explains that of the seven+ buildings damaged by the blast, the embassy building sustained the least damage (apart from the gate).
Still, this photo is a haunting image reminiscent of iconic images of the stars and stripe on 11 September, 2001.
Moving right along ...
It's a real shame that the beautiful people of Bali are again forced to suffer damage to their tourism industry. Balinese, like the innocent passers-by, and decent security guards in Jakarta yesterday, do not deserve to suffer in a magnitude that no Australian could possibly fathom.
The target might be Australia, but the casualties are Indonesian. There are a lot of ordinary folk in Jakarta today, burying their loved ones and wondering how the f*** they got involved in this mess.
ESWN shows you the quickest way to get arrested in China, even if it's not in the right language.
In the misplaced vitriol department, China is calling for Westerners' blood.
Adam looks at the mess the Beijing Olympics organisers are making but misses the subtly of the "Olympics in Hong Kong" push - it's another part of China's charm offensive for HK prior to this weekend's elections. By Monday the idea will be dead and buried.
Forget about the West interfering in Asia; look at China's interference in the West.
China's police returns serve in Legco candidate's Alex Ho hooker case and ESWN says the Democrats made all the mistakes.
With China getting ready for the 2008 Olympics, Stephen looks at the likely losers in the run up to the event. Ironically for the IOC their attempt to force improvement China's human rights record looks likely to backfire.
Matthew says Chinese might actually be easier to learn to read than English and fewer native Chinese speakers suffer dyslexia compared to alphabet based languages.
Now you can enjoy the finest of North Korea in the comfort of your American home.
George Bush did not mention Korea in his list of countries supporting the US in Korea. FY suggests perhaps Korea didn't want to be mentioned and at the realities of Korean and Asia's security.
GI Korea wonders why South Korea keeps getting surprised by the obvious.
Myrick has another example of Singapore using courts to do political dirty work and Hicky looks at the Nelson Mandela angle. Mr. Brown reflects on the difference between Singapore's new leadership's words and deeds.
More on the Anwar release. Rajan says justice was done, but that doesn't mean that the Malaysian judiciary is now independent nor that Anwar is a saint.
Via Mr Brown comes Xiaxue's amusing rant about Singapore's small pool of models, although perhaps it's because Singapore's a city-state of only 4 million.
NOTE: Remember to link back to this post and I'll add you to the next one. Details on how to Trackback are here. If you're still stuck or confused, leave a comment instead.
Ellen Sander vigorously denies her husband Joe Bosco's involvement in deleting the discussion of my China story (http://urielw.com/china2/ ) on Peking Duck:
-----------
I know this not to be the case! After several e-mail exchanges about Wittenberg and his web site, Richard asked Joseph if he should take Wittenberg's comment down. Joseph told Richard to make the call himself and do whatever he thought best. Richard took it all down. That's the whole story.
But it's not quite the whole story. Sander studiously avoids any reference to Peking Duck proprietor Richard's own words, quoted in the story she denounces (she provides no link, but it's at http://urielw.com/bosco.htm ): "Joseph convinced me that debate on this point would not be productive and could cause unnecessary harm."
But the question of whether the discussion was deleted at Bosco's or Burger's initiative is a minor point. Sander also entirely neglects the primary offense against free speech principles here: the foul-mouthed attacks that she, Bosco and Burger have waged in their quest to discredit the scrupulously true and honest report I have written of my China observations.
Emulating her husband, Sander speaks of my disgruntlement, my defamations, my ineptness, my culpability, my contempt, my lengthy documented rant, my fulminating online rant, my revolting diatribe and my slander. But nowhere have she or Bosco questioned the accuracy of even one specific item from the mountain of detailed observations I present to readers.
Bosco's comments have made clear that his relations to the school authorities, his access to Communist Party officials, his regular appearances on Chinese TV, are near and dear to his heart. The man is conflicted. And the slanders are self-evidently his. That he does not even pretend to justify his slanders is a measure of his brazenness. His siding with corrupt and secretive Chinese officialdom against a Westerner who has been thoroughly open is a betrayal not only of fundamental American principles. It also betrays idealistic Chinese students and others who somehow admire the U.S. and its people as embodying the spirit of open debate.
How naive does the US Government and NASA think we are? The Genesis space probecrashes. The media dutifully follows the NASA line. And of course the real story is missed.
What did the probe find? More proof the Apollo moon landings were faked? Does NASA think we can be fooled again*? Why has there been a pick-up in activity in Area 51 recently? What did Genesis find about the JFK assassination? (Not this, I'm sure). No doubt the Jooos are involved.
AFP reports that Monica Lewinsky is heading for a China promotional tour. The hook is she is asking US$1 million per interview. Great story. Shame it isn't true.
The CSM has a report on the internet and improving online freedom in Asia. The article asserts while many Asian countries are trying to censor and control the net:
[the] free-wheeling and expansive nature of the online world has proved difficult to control, pushing Beijing and similar governments in the region to make concessions...
China's massive firewall is already showing cracks under the weight of the Internet's expansion. The pressure has come from innumerable sources, including an onslaught of weblogs, open-source directories, and projects like Wikipedia, an "open-content" encyclopedia.
China's not alone. South Korea is metioned, including the estimate that South Korea blocked 18,000 pages last year. The number will be far higher this year with the blockage of video of the Korean Iraqi hostage beheading. Interestingly Mongolia has an open Government internet forum, where If they stick to basic courtesy, those with Internet access in the vast reaches of Mongolia can discuss public policy online, and be certain the prime minister will read the message boards at least once every two weeks. The forum's input is often discussed at Cabinet meetings and other policy-making venues. Now that's participative democracy.
From the article
"In Burma, the report says, public Internet connections are rare, "partly for reasons of poverty but mostly because of the military regime's harsh crackdown on freedom of expression.""
And interestingly they are the first country in the region to offer e-passport and e-visa - http://www.visa.gov.mm/
Posted by Preetam Rai at September 9, 2004 04:58 PM
First it was translated, now it is becoming required reading in universities. I should start charging...I'm not sure how using the work in academia fits under the CC licence. I am happy to take up a guest lecturing spot (all expenses paid) instead.
According to Mrs M, JC has never been as happy as she has been boarding her school bus each morning. Aged 3.5 she is, in her own words, a big girl now. And her sister PB has just started at pre-school as well. Which leads me to lament the rapid passing of time and how quickly they grow up and grow frustrated as my questions as to how the school day was are batted away with a grunt, just like my brother and I used to do.
Having kids of my own helps me daily to understand my parents far better. Inevitably I am becoming like them, to some extent, despite many childhood protestations to the contrary. Because when it comes to parenting, your own parents are the only ones you've had the chance to learn from.
Welcome to the one and only edition of Blogwatch at this site. Today we look at a Hong Kong blog by George Adams called NOT The South China Morning Post which bills itself as the online satirical blog newspaper for Hong Kong committed to press freedom.
This site is a re-incarnation; during its hiatus the world of blogging emerged, much to Mr. Adam's disgust. In December I gave the site a plug and thought it held promise based on the good work of the first version. How wrong I was. And I'm not the only one.
The entries are in reverse chronological order and there is repeated linkage to other sites, exactly like blogs. The posts themselves are repetitive and revolve around either crude Photoshopping, slagging the SCMP or slagging fellow bloggers. I welcome anyone who can tell me the difference between NTSCMP and blogs, except that most blogs avoid bright yellow backgrounds and have a modicum of design nous. The pathological hatred of blogs at the NTSCMP is because bloggers have surpassed them in both content and interest.
For a "satirical" site it posts an interesting challenge: finding anything that is satirical. Satire is irony, sarcasm, or caustic wit used to attack or expose folly, vice, or stupidity. Insults are not caustic wit. Whining that Spike magazine is making the same obvious jokes as you site is not satire. What's worse is the NTSCMP seems incapable of seeing it; like many self-proclaimed satirists it cannot see the self-parody it has become. It is happy to subject all and sundry to its purview while taking itself far too seriously.
The original had satire and wit (it can be viewed in part here); the new version is desperate grasping at former glory. Undeservingly condescending it has all of 150 readers a day to show for 8 years of effort. Protestations of "quality not quantity" won't wash either. If a site has been as good as it thinks for that long it's readership would be something more akin to Randall's - a favourite target of NTSCMP. Most ludicrous of all is the enmity with which the NTSCMP treats other blogs. When it re-emerged many bloggers welcomed the new NTSCMP and could have remained a constant source of support and readers. Instead he chose to attack the very people that would have otherwise served as his fans. That has left him with a solitary fan and a spot in cyber-obscurity. I am looking forward to the rumoured print edition. It will be fascinating to see how it fares against Spike and if it manages to stay around as long as its competitor...but I fear it won't.
If it's solipsism rather than sophism you're after, I heartily recommend the NTSCMP blog for your daily dose of supercilious and sanctimonious smart-arsey.
I haven't bothered to click over in ages but is "doctor" Adams really claiming that he's being plagerized by the tedious Spike. Jesus, that's sad. It's like complaining that Mr. Tung is stealing your political ideas.
Taking a look, I see NTSCMP slams you almost as much as me. Funny, I never heard you'd pissed in his morning coffee.
Your assessment is right on the money, and as such, you'll probably get slagged by George in revenge. Let's see if he can conjure some real satire if he does.
I find it curious that someone could have such a profound dislike for blogs. I mean, blogging seems like a rather innocuous hobby -- some people like to read 'em, others don't. I'm not going to bad mouth the NTSCMP -- I don't like to bad mouth anyone's website unless he or she badmouths me first -- but I just don't see how it represents a more productive investment of ones time and energy than, let's say, your blog, or Conrad's, or even mine for that matter (OK, perhaps more than mine). I mean, yeah, I guess we could spend less maintaining/updating our sites and more time feeding the hungry, nursing the sick, doing peacekeeping duty in Afghanistan, etc. Given that most of do what we do for fun, however, and to the best of my knowledge, Dr. Adams isn't paying for anyone's bandwidth other than his own, I don't see where he gets off telling other Internet users what they should or shouldn't be doing with their websites. Or, perhaps better put, given that he's perfectly free to bash whichever website and/or launch vicious personal attacks on whoever he likes, I don't see why anyone should care what Dr. Adams tells them to do/not do with their own sites.
Posted by The Marmot at September 8, 2004 11:43 PM
Marmot: you're right, but I just figured Adams could do with someone turning the spotlight on him for a brief period. It's the least we could do given his pathological obsession with blogs, particularly Randall's, Conrad's and mine.
"Blogboy" pointed me to this thread at Icered. It engages in the new sport of blog bashing, albeit at an amatuerish level.
I have a simple challenge for those so intent on rubbishing the HK blogging community. Put up or shut up. It is extremely easy to start a blog - go to Blogger and follow the step-by-step instructions to have your own blog going within minutes. Then you can live up to your bravado by actually showing the rest of us your outstanding abilities to write and commentate. I await your dazzling wit with bated breath. It is apparently so easy and the competition isn't fierce, so the world will be your oyster while you blog up a storm.
Alternatively I'd like an answer to this question by "Confused": Since you guys seem to dislike bloggers so much, would it be fair to ask why you waste so much time and effort actually accessing and reading the blogs, surely not just so you can critisise them? If you don't like them, don't read them. The only answer was from "Fair-point" with the inane: Confused - could it be that there's so little English writing on HK we'll look at anything? And they're so bad they're funny and great fun to mock??? Long live this crap! If "Fair-point" is looking for English writing in HK, they are welcome to use the HK Library. For the rest of the bashers it seems they have a love-hate relationship with blogs. They purport to hate them but cannot help but constantly look at them. Why? Because it is far easier to destroy than create.
It is hard for many to imagine the huge amount of importance China places on hosting the 2008 Olympics. It is widely seen as a chance for China to show the world it is no longer a third world country of peasants but rather an emerging world power. Since the 2001 decision to give Beijing the games China has had an open chequebook for all things Olympic. Until now. As part of efforts to slow China's economy, the Olympics infrastructure budget is being cut. It's a blessing in disguise because the last thing Beijing needs is more white elephant projects. There is no doubt Beijing will make a success of the Games; there's too much national pride on the line for any other result.
Embarrassingly this week there is a seminar on investment opportunities in the Beijing Olympics for HK companies. Many of the projects that have been cancelled were the ones being hawked around HK at this seminar. Oops. The end result is China is proving to no longer be a third world economy: cutting back largesse on the Olympics and having a more realistic construction program.
You may be interested to know that hk blogs are being discussed (and in many cases, mocked) at http://www3.icered.com/icered/home/forum/threadList.jspa?forumID=55&threadID=65427&tstart=0
The SCMP reports on a "survey" that says there is a correlation between earnings and hair loss. Not coincidently, the "survey" was paid for by a hair-loss centre and it was conducted on the internet, meaning it was a completely unscientific survey. The results said 95% of those earning over HK$45,000 a month suffer hair loss and the legal and accounting industry were the worst affected. That the survey is self-selecting (richer people are more likely to be internet surfers and those suffering hair loss are more likely to answer surveys on the topic) and the results conflict with the doctor quoted in the same article doesn't seem to grab the "reporter's" attention. The doctor says:
Betty Kwan Ka-mei, a private doctor in family medicine, attributed the problem to genetic and environmental factors.
She said people could suffer hair loss because of illness, as side effects of medication and maternity, too much stress, poor diets and misusing hair-care products and treatments - such as having perms too frequently. She particularly warned women against crash-dieting. "Nutritional deficiency is one of the factors leading to hair loss, such as lack of enough iron, protein and calories to support the normal functions of the body," Dr Kwan said.
But she warned that treatment was harder for people with a family history of hair loss. "If it is genetic, people have to accept it as it is," she added.
Treatments included balanced meal plans and medicated gel to stimulate hair growth. But Dr Kwan said she warned people against some oral hair-rejuvenation drugs, which could cause side-effects such as impotence, water retention and foetal abnormalities. (my emphasis)
Here's the real story. These hair clinics can be dangerous, with nasty side-effects for some of the treatments. A balanced diet is the solution and accepting that hair loss is partially genetic. But there's not much money in that, is there?
So rich lawyers are losing their hair. The SCMP can fill a page in its filler section. And the hair loss centre gets a full page of advertising dressed up as news. This is called a win-win situation in the media game.
For hair loss, Dr Kwan gave me 15 gel-pills of DL-Alpha-Tocopheryl Acetate and a small bottle of Minoxibil. HK$600 (inclusive of consultation fee which is normally HK$200)
Posted by PuzzledWhite at December 8, 2004 08:45 PM
I'm pleased to say my magnum opus has been translated into French and linked in Arabic and Estonian, not to mention all the other links from various sources. Thanks to everyone who linked to the post...even you, "Dr." George. You could use it to improve your blog, if your arrogance permits.
NYT is reporting that Jiang Zemin, head of the PLA and erstwhile President, is about to relinquish his posts over to President Hu Jintao.
Jiang Zemin, China’s military chief and senior leader, has told Communist Party officials that he plans to resign, prompting an intense and so far inconclusive struggle for control of the armed forces, two people with leadership connections say...But people here who were informed about a bargaining session under way at a government compound in western Beijing said it remained unclear whether Mr. Jiang genuinely intended to step aside, or if he would do so on terms acceptable to Mr. Hu.
This power struggle has been going on since Hu assumed the Presidency and has wide-ranging implications. The article goes into details but essentially Hu and his new generation of leadership are thought to be more open to reform, less didatic on Taiwan, better relations with the region, improved control over the provincial Governments and thus better control over the economy, tackling corruption and doing more to help balance the gap between the rural poor and urban rich.
The real question is what is Zemin's quid pro quo? He is not likely to be giving up his posts and control without getting something significant in the bargain. And if this shifting of power finally occurs, Hu Jintao will no longer have any excuses and he needs to finally deliver on the promise and hope invested in him.
China's basketball superstar Yao Ming might earn millions, but he's saving money where he can...like in deodorant. Random prize for the best caption...
Today China has published a white paper on a new social security system. Since China started on the road to capitalism ("Socialist market system" in the parlance) in the early 1980s China has struggled to adapt its previous arrangements to new realities. Now China is facing a double whammy: its aging population, made worse by its one-child policy; and its growing army of unemployed and potentially unemployable people.
However the key quote is:
The white paper pointed out the fact that China is the biggest developing country with a large population in the world, and its economic base is weak and the development between regions and between town and country is unbalanced.
That makes an itneresting contrast with the more regular China economic dream that is constantly marketed and believed by the West. China's leadership realises it needs to deal with the disparity between rural/urban and rich/poor in a rapidly changing society. Despite being Communist in name, in fact the gap between the haves and have-nots is growing and shows no signs of abating. The CCP knows its power base remains with the vast peasantry and it needs to help lift their economic lot.
The full text of the White Paper is here. While the US still argues about its Social Security program, Communist China is pushing ahead with private accounts for old age pensions and encouraging companies and employees to take more of the burden in providing for themselves. There's plenty more in the document that makes for interesting reading. The areas addressed are age pensions; medical insurance; unemployment insurance; work-place injuries; maternity insurance; "social welfare" for the elderly, widows and orphans; assistance for ex-servicemen; social reflief, which includes a "minimum standard of living" for city dwellers; housing security; and social security in the rural areas.
The conclusion seems realistic:
After years of experiments and practice, a social security framework with Chinese characteristics has taken initial shape. However, China still has a long way to go to develop its social security services to a satisfactory level. The aging of the population will put more pressure on the old-age pension and medicare expenditure, while the progress of urbanization will make the establishment and improvement of a social security system covering both urban and rural areas more urgent. More employees of non-state-owned businesses and people employed in a flexible manner will be covered by the social insurance system as employment forms become more diversified...
To press ahead with the improvement of the social security system is an important task for the Chinese government in its efforts to build a moderately prosperous society in a comprehensive way.
In its drive to become rich, China's Government is keenly aware of those that are left behind. The white paper contains plenty of worthy statements and solid ideas. One can only hope the words will turn into deeds.
In its latest push against online indecency, China is now threatening to jail certain sites that attract too great a readership. Depending upon the site's traffic sentences range from living under compulsory surveillance, detainment, taking into custody by the police, to various terms of imprisonment and life imprisonment.
I guess that sort of makes sense. I mean, if you are concerned that a blog gets so much traffic that it becomes a de facto newspaper and your government is all about restricting access to information and controlling the press, it makes sense in that context.
China's efforts to manipulate this weekend's HK elections have culminated in yesterday's visit to HK of all China's Olympic gold medallists. This is is to "repay the Hong Kong people for their support of our Olympic athletes". In other words to repay the patriotic fervour that enveloped Hong Kong during the weeks of the Games. Except Hong Kong had its own team in the Olympics and there are literally hundreds of other cities in China proper that are far more deserving of a visit of these athletes. I really wonder if any voters are thinking of voting for the pro-Beijing parties because of this?
Despite this ostensibly being about sport, there was a second act to the farce yesterday. A reporter for a Falun Gong linked TV station was barred from a press conference of the athletes. She was told her question would not be answered even though she was a part of the HK press corp. Her question was to be "whether high cash rewards have helped improved Chinese athletic standards and whether China, as a third world country, can afford such high monetary rewards," which is a damn fine question worthy of an answer. Of course this is the same third world country that send man into space for no good reason.
There is a lesson in all of this: the bravery of gold medal divers Guo Jingjing and Tian Liang. They are preparing to go where no Hong Konger has been prepared to go for weeks: its public swimming pools. Now that's patriotism.
But HK should be thankful: it's far better to suffer a charm offensive than the more typical Chinese offensive in sensitive political times.
Gord says in Korea even foreign drug users are discriminated against, but in this case it's hard to feel sympathy for them.
South Korean lawmakers are now claiming Chinese territory, even though there's the small matter of North Korea (with its traditions in prostitution), history, a treaty and the PLA in the way.
Singapore's censorship policies are doing there job. Under threat of libel the Economist caves in and Myrick reflects on this and his own self-imposed censorship. Singabloodypore rejoices in the "new" Singapore.
NOTE: Remember to link back to this post and I'll add you to the next one. Details on how to Trackback are here. If you're still stuck or confused, leave a comment instead.
simon i\'m sorry. i completly forgot how to trackback! i\'m gonna re-learn and do it right by the end of the night. i\'m just a little fazed by a 14 hour work day. sorry!
i don\'t know what i\'m doing wrong. i\'m doing this all through a proxy as the ban which i thought was over when i lived in seoul has come back to haunt me here in busan...sorry simon! you are linked to my site although i guess i messed up with the trackback. i guess it\'s time to open the window...:)
The Guardian's China reporter has recounted China not living up to its promise:
It felt as though China had broken its Olympic promises on day one. In securing the bid for Beijing to host the 2008 games, the city's representatives pledged that the world media would enjoy full freedom to report all aspects of China.
Yet less than 24 hours after the Olympic flag was handed to Beijing's mayor last Sunday, there I was - the Guardian's China correspondent - detained and harassed for covering a peaceful demonstration that challenged the government's position on Tibet.
My press pass was confiscated, and I was led away for questioning, accused of conducting an "illegal interview". My colleague - Sami Sillanpaa, a Finnish journalist - had the memory card of his camera seized, erased and made permanently unusable.
He goes on to hope that China will improve its attitude to the media, both foreign and domestic, as the Olympics approach. Superficially that might even happen. However in the meantime I suggest Mr. Watts takes a reality pill. Mock outrage and provocations will not help his cause. The Athens Olympics proved that years of adverse publicity count for naught once the Olympics start. And I am happy to wager right now that the number of stories on China's human rights conditions will be a tiny fraction in those two weeks. The Olympics market themselves as a time to forget the realities of the world for a small space of time.
In the interim hopefully the Guardian will address their nievete. They may even wake up to reality in time for the 2008 Beijing Games.
I've found a company that's just reported growth of 47.5% in the second quarter and 36% for the full first half over last year's revenues. Admittedly SARS was a factor. However there's an even greater factor: de-regulation.
Macau's gambling sector grew 80.3% in the quarter and spending by tourists outside of gambling grew by 133%. Macau saw the arrival of 51% more visitors in the year to July, totalling 9.25 million visits. The Government raked in an extra 8.8 billion pactacas (US$1 billion) in revenue, up 45% over last year, from it's 35% tax on gross gambling revenue. Perhaps the HK Jockey Club should stop bleating about its continuing decline in revenues and begging the Government for tax breaks and start thinking about dealing with the competition that is coming from Macau. And perhaps the SAR Government could learn from Macau's example in degregulation and the positive effects it has had.
Only the other day I was talking about product placement in blogs. Then I discover it's already happening and that Richard has been receiving free books and DVD for his consideration and possible review. My offer still stands.
Some pictures (in the extended entry) just beg for a caption contest. It gives new meaning to "one up, one down". The saucy looking thing on the right is 19 years old and her story is here. But they forgot to report the real tragedy of the situation: the woman on the left lost the ability to smile after a particularly bad session of watching CCTV.
There are currently two methods of people earning money from their blogs. The first is to ask for it. The second is to run advertising, usually in the form of banner ads. But bloggers need to think outside the box...let's take a leaf out of our friends in the movie industry and talk about what will no doubt become the next big revenue generator in blogging: product placement. Imagine reading this from your favourite blogger:
...so there I was, sipping my Pepsi and eating my KFC. It was the perfect day to go to that fabulous family entertainment venue, Ocean Park. With my trusty Sony digital camera we drove the sleek but remarkably fuel efficent Honda...
Glenn Reynolds is clearly the leader in this game with his constant digital camera reports and reviews. Any marketer with some savvy would realise that bloggers and thier audience are "early adopters", establisher of trends and able to generate publicity for their product. It's been going on in radio for years. Most Hollywood movies involve some kind of product placement as early as the scripting stage.
All this is my way of saying I can be bought. At the moment I'm opening three product categories:
Beer
Nappies
Sports cars
Any potential sponsors are welcome to email me. I will require a working, non-returnable free sample of the product you expect me to endorse. It would help if you could write what you want me to say, just to cut down on the effort and so that I can really match my message with yours. I'm open to other product categories too. No need to be too fussy. Contact me ASAP and watch your sales jump.
Record companies are worried. Their cozy cartel has for years got away with overcharging for their product with flimsy rationales. But their political savvy and star power have enabled them to keep Governments from cracking their scam. So the market did something about it and created first Napster and then peer-to-peer networking. The cartel was threatened. Why? Because the marginal cost of their product, information, is almost zero. Even allowing for some fancy packaging and a CD, the total profit captured from music is huge. But sharing of music could undermine this business model.
Thus the cartel were facing the same problem as those in movies and TV did with the advent of the VCR. There were two possible responses. Look at the lessons of the VCR age, embrace the new technology and remake their business model to move with the times. Or they could attack, spread fear and try and undermine their customers. Guess which path they adopted. Copy protection became the catchcry, combined with legal action and threats.
Except the world moved on. The CD, while still a medium of choice, has quickly been replaced by MP3 players and iPods as the delivery mechanism for many music consumers. Less bulk, longer battery life, convenience and yes, compatability with peer-to-peer networks meant a combination of the internet and technology created a new product that was quickly and widely adopted.
All this is going somewhere. Yesterday I bought two CDs. Bought them with cash. They are now mine. As I understand copyright law I possess "fair use" rights. A similar example would be that once I buy a book, I can photocopy small exercepts, or lend it to a friend. However EMI has installed "copy protection" on the CDs I bought. They have sold me a defective product of inferior quality while charging me the same price as the higher quality non-protected product. Defective, I hear you say? The CD cannot be played in my car CD stacker. The CD cannot be played on my computer without installing EMI's software, which contains a virus that corrupts part of my computer as part of their "copy protection". So I cannot actually play my CD on CD players in the car and computer, even though that is what they are designed to do. Additionally I cannot take the songs that I have purchased and put them on my MP3 player so that I can listen to it on my way to work. In other words EMI have breached my copyright rights and sold me a dud.
There's a certain amount of irony at play too. I disabled Kazaa a couple of months ago. After spending a fruitless hour last night trying to get the music that I had paid legitimately onto my MP3, I re-installed it. So EMI can feel proud they've forced me back into Kazaa's arms. Then I spent a few minutes Googling how to get around the copy protection and it appears it is not that difficult (although I have not yet tried it). I found a forum full of help and information. At one stage I even went through EMI's online site on all of this. There was a helpful section of quotes from overpaid crack addicts telling me why this copy protection is so vital for protecting their lifestyle for the greater cultural good. There was also a section pointing to legal download sites for music. The HK site is blank.
So the end result is this. In their zeal to protect their out-dated business model, the record companies have instead forced me into doing the very things they were seeking to prevent. At the same time they are preventing me from exercising my legal rights in "fair use" of copyright product AND they have sold me a defective product.
It is absolute bullshit. If you are looking for another fileshare program that doesn\'t give you all the spyware/advertisement issues that Kazaa does try Ares. You can get it from download.com (c-net) and since I switched over I have noticed a decrease in those fake mp3 files that play part of the song and then give you garbage noise and pop ups and spyware... just an idea.
Thanks Joel...I'd also like any hints as to how to actually do the ripping to get around the protection. I've got Easy CD Creator and can see the music files but at this stage cannot seem to turn them into MP3s on the hard disc.
Hey, if your CD's contain the CD logo that states that they comply to the CD specification and they don't contain a warning, then that's a breach of several laws because they are claiming that they complay to the Philips CD specifications, you can actually contact EMI and ask them to give you a CD that has no copy protection on it, other people have done this and recienved non copy protected CDs through the mail.
You could also line out from your hi fi and record this to HD then burn it to CD, but that takes about an hour and a half per CD beacuse you have to play them all the way though and put in the breaks etc.
I was warning about this about a year ago with Music and DVDs, looks like I'm not the only person to complain about conspiracies.
Simon, how interesting. I also spent the morning researching the "fair use doctrine" with respect to posting photographs. Funny how we seem to be on similar wavelengths today.
there's a bunch of ways to circumvent the (actually really ineffectual) copy-protection. (i'm on a mac, but the principles are pretty much the same for pc) you can use iTunes to import the song/cd in any format you like. for some reason it isn't affected by emi-copy protection. or you can use roxio toast for cd burning, import the cd as a disk-image (you use this for burning a byte-by-byte true version of an original cd) and export as aiff (or wav on pc) cd-rom, then import into itunes and export as mp3. or if you stick the cd in, when it appears on your desktop (mac) or directory (pc) you can just drag all the music files to a new folder.
The trick with all of these is you aren't trying to play the cd as music, but treating it as a series data files. Hope this is of some use
Heh heh... you mean the WWE. Vince McMahon has lost two lawsuits against the World Wildlife Federation and the courts finally stripped the World Wrestling Entertainment of it's WWF title belt.
I'm going to make an offer. If you send a trackback ping to this Asia by Blog series, I will look to include a relevant post of yours in the following edition. I'm also going to cut back on the number of links in each edition to prevent this from getting too big; there is so much good blogging going on that it becomes a matter of quality rather than quantity.
So now looking around the far reaches of Asian blogging...
Hong Kong, Taiwan and China
A look at the struggle at the top of the CCP, via Richard. Adam has another article on the rivals at the top and information on China's internet blocking policies. Richard also points out some observations by Matt Yglesias on meeting some Falun Gong protesters in New York. Perhaps co-incidentally there's also the pointer from Richard to the Two Americas China's.
ESWN and CDN have a helpful guide to what keywords are banned in China. Fons says the list shows the futility of China's censorship efforts.
UPDATE: Giles has asked how about trackbacks. I refer you to point 6. But to explain - a trackback is a way of telling someone you've linked to their post in your own post. In this case, you might post something saying "Simon's newest Asia by Blog is up" with a link to this post. If you are using MT or Wordpress the software works out how to send the trackback itself. If you are on Blogger, you can use the manual trackback pinger. Where it asks for the Trackback URL, you can find that by clicking on the Permalink on my original post and going to the bottom section titled "Trackbacks:" or alternatively click on the "Trackback" part next to the Permalink and Speak Up buttons on the original post. Cut and paste the TrackBack URL and make sure you include the permalink to your post as well, plus an excerpt and title of your post. If you've done it properly when you come back here you'll see a little line at the bottom of this post saying "XYZ linked with Blah Blah Blah." I've now added the manual trackback pinger to the Trackback section of the posted by line and to the Trackbacks section of the Permalink.
Stay tuned next week for what that on/off key does.
I've not stopped by in a while and I dropped by only to have my breath taken away.
You're site is beautiful! Aside from your wonderful banner I like the triptych asian-themed screen sidebars.
As for the Bali-bomber going out for coffee with one of the ministers, that's not surprising. Trials that are postponed, go on forever and investigations that die a slow painful death before charges are dropped are more the norm than the exception.
Lets look at the Estrada's and the Marcos' in the Philippines as 2 great examples. At least the acquitted Bali bomber has not run for office...yet!
Speaking of the Philippines, it is also common there to have many sets of Godparents and lots and lots of Tito's/Tita's or aunty's and uncles. So many people are called aunty and uncle that I in fact thought, when I first arrived, that everyone was related to everybody else.
10:56 02Sep2004 RTRS-Malaysia court acquits jailed Anwar of sodomy
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 2 (Reuters) - Malaysia's highest court overturned a sodomy conviction against jailed rebel politician Anwar Ibrahim on Thursday, raising the prospect of his quick release after years of jail on what he calls trumped-up charges.
Before his jailing in 1999, Anwar was a lightning rod for disaffected Malays, the country's majority ethnic grouping which dominates politics, and turned against the then prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, who was instrumental in both his rise and fall.
This could be a solid sign that Malaysia is shaking off the last vestiages of its previous ruler Mahatir and moving forward. Early days but encouraging nonetheless.
UPDATE 2:A full article from AP. Reuters are reporting the prosecutor has said they will not pursue an appeal to the overturned conviction.
I refer you to point 6. But to explain - a trackback is a way of telling someone you've linked to their post in your own post. In this case, you might post something saying "Simon's newest Asia by Blog is up" with a link to this post. If you are using MT or Wordpress the software works out how to send the trackback itself. If you are on Blogger, you can use the manual trackback pinger. Where it asks for the Trackback URL, you can find that by clicking on the Permalink on my original post and going to the bottom section titled "Trackbacks:" or alternatively click on the "Trackback" part next to the Permalink and Speak Up buttons on the original post. Cut and paste the TrackBack URL and make sure you include the permalink to your post as well, plus an excerpt and title of your post. If you've done it properly when you come back here you'll see a little line at the bottom of this post saying "XYZ linked with Blah Blah Blah." I've now added the manual trackback pinger to the Trackback section of the posted by line and to the Trackbacks section of the Permalink.
Interesting article on China's statistics and their lack of robustness. A HKUST economist tried to reconstruct the private consumtion figures in China's GDP number. He used the same official guidelines in using the household spending surveys. But his numbers were different to China's National Bureau of Stats (NBS). The best part are the conclusions reached:
Holz drew the following conclusions:
China's published GDP value in any particular year isn't comparable to that of any other year.
An official annual GDP growth rate of x percent in a particular year doesn't imply that final demand -- the sum of consumption, investment and net exports -- in that year is x percent higher than in the previous year.
The official GDP statistics may be using wrong population data, overestimating rural population (which consumes less) and underestimating urban population (which consumes more).
Using separately released official population statistics, one would find GDP in 2002 was perhaps several percentage points higher than the reported figure of 8.3 percent.
The NBS does not discuss its methods. The major problem is that lack of consistency between the different years' data. Even worse, the inconsistencies are completely unpredictable and cannot be verified with other data, partly because the other data is also unreliable. The last conclusion is very interesting: China's economy was probably overheating far more than was widely acknowledged.
The reason this mess has come about is simple: the NBS is not interested in accurate numbers. The NBS is interested in giving the right numbers to match the expectations of the leadership of the CCP. Politics drives the stats rather than the other way around. The key is the stats office says what it thinks people want to hear, rather than what is happening in reality. Does this matter? Yes. It's like someone driving a semi-trailer with a muddy windshield and faulty speedometer. With China's economy becoming more important not just to Asia but the world's economy, it should unsettle everyone that no-one has a clue as to what China's economy is really doing.
That's the whole point, RP. They don't. In fact the decisions are often self-fulfilling prophecies because the stats office makes the numbers fit the decision.
In fact the decisions are often self-fulfilling prophecies because the stats office makes the numbers fit the decision.
You can use the same for the factbook from CIA(www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/). It's full of bullshit and sure CIA needs those so-called "factbook" to aid its decisions.
The key is the stats office says what it thinks people want to hear, rather than what is happening in reality.
Cannot agree more. When you have decided to believe that Chinese government is the "enemy", you want to believe anybody who is critique China. I saw too many of them....
Politics drives the stats rather than the other way around
I am a Chinese and I live in USA. I was amazed to see how few people know about China, and worst part is, those people who don't know a thing about China want to impress people... My suggestion is if you want to look smart, talk to some real Chinese first.
The CIA had an opening for an assassin. After all of the background checks, interviews, and testing were done there were three finalists - two men and one woman. For the final test, the CIA agents took one of the men to a large metal door and handed him a gun.
"We must know that you will follow your instructions, no matter what the circumstances. Inside this room you will find your wife sitting in a chair. You have to kill her." The first man said. "You cant be serious. I could never shoot my wife!"The agent replies, "Then you?re not the right man for this job."
The second man was given the same instructions. He took the gun and went into the room. All was quiet for about five minutes. Then the agent came out with tears in his eyes. "I tried, but I cant kill my wife." The agent replies, "You dont have what it takes. Take your wife and go home."
Finally, it was the womans turn. Only she was told to kill her husband. She took the gun and went into the room. Shots were heard, one shot after another. They heard screaming, crashing, banging on the walls. After a few minutes, all was quiet. The door opened slowly and there stood the woman. She wiped the sweat from her brow and said, "You guys didnt tell me the gun was loaded with blanks. So I had to beat him to death with the chair."
Last night's headwetting and blogger meet up was, if I say so myself, very successful. OrdinaryGweilo.com, Shaky, Shandyman, Giles, HKMacs and Phil were all there and judging by the consumption of alcohol there will be another sometime. No, we didn't drink here but East Central got a good workout.
The unlinkable SCMP has the scoop of the century...amongst the sports trying to join the Olympic circus is one played around the world:
The organisers of a Japanese hide-and-seek competition that has become increasingly "professional" since it was first staged five years ago are calling for the event to become an official Olympic sport.
The event was first held in 2000 and was designed to attract tourists to Mikata, where they would search for residents. "We decided to hold a second competition for `professional' teams - four hiders and one seeker - and because it is so popular we now think that it should become an Olympic sport," Mr Taniguchi said.
The town has set up the official Japan Hide and Seek Association and is lobbying to have the sport included in the 2012 Olympics. Held in a patch of woodland measuring 500 metres by 100 metres, seekers earn one point for the first opponent they discover, continuing up to four points for the fourth member of the other team. Hiders, on the other hand, lose points for their team when they are located.
"To be successful, the competitors have to be able to run very fast to start with and then be able to keep very still when they find a hiding place," said Fumio Kiyama, one of the organisers. "That might sound easy, but there are lots of mosquitoes out there and it was very hot." But the competitors - perhaps with an eye on the gold medal at a future Olympics - tend to be very tight-lipped about their tactics, Mr Taniguchi said.
The only problem is awarding the medals if the hiders aren't found.
**This post will remain at the top for today. Please scroll down for the rest of today's guff.**
Like many things on the net, blogs are free forms of entertainment. Compared to other media such as newspapers and magazines this is an absolute bargain. You spend HK$60 going to the movies; you spend $25 on some trashy magazine that reprints Spectator articles. And then you read blogs, that provide new content daily and constantly. For free.
One of the very earliest blogs I started reading and to this day enjoy immensely is Jim's Snooze Button Dreams. He makes you laugh, he makes you think and he makes you grateful that he chooses to share his wit with the world. And he just found out he's lost his job. Jim is not the kind of guy to ask for help. But I implore you to consider hitting his tipjar (in his sidebar on the right), as I just did, as a way of saying thank you to him for the quality of the product he produces. Skip the next Hollywood blockbuster and give Jim the movie admission price instead*. Skip the newspaper for a week and donate that cost instead. If you spread the small donation you make over the number of times you read his blog in a year, it's the biggest bargain this side of Wal-Mart. So in the words of Ben Stiller: "Do it."
It's not charity; it's saying thanks. And what with the way karma works and all that, it will be repaid with interest one day.
* If you really want to see it, I'll get it for you on DVD far cheaper anyway. Email me details and I'll send it to you once you show me a Paypal receipt for Jim.
The blogging of the Republican convention is rapidly rivalling that of the DNC, which isn't saying much. Luckily Paul gives you a taste of what it's like. Otherwise for real behind-the-scenes action check out Jeff's variousreports and exclusives.
Shanghai has realised the recent crackdown on internet p0rn in China has closed off an avenue of learning for the city's students. So it is going to do something about it: start lessons on "real love".
"Stories and poems on love written by well-known authors, Chinese and foreign, ancient and contemporary, have been added to middle school textbooks in a special unit titled 'Love is like a song', an unprecedented endeavour," Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday. The literature includes work by Russian poet Pushkin, excerpts from Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre" and Chinese love classics written by ancient and contemporary writers...
"In Chinese society, however, love, both spiritual and physical, remains a traditional taboo and a topic seldom touched on in the Chinese curriculum, though it is a factor widely believed to divert students' attention from study."
This is anything but an "unprecedented endeavour". If they want an example of teaching "real love", try this.
I thought the small league of HK English language bloggers was a hell of a niche. Turns out the Telegraph has found an even smaller one: expat HK poets. I no longer feel so obscure.
A quick lesson in economics for the HK Government. If you issue HK$20 billion in debt, it is not correct to then say your budget deficit is only HK$5.3 billion instead of the true figure of HK$25.3 billion.
If only I were the HK Government I could borrow my way to great fortune and declare myself a millionaire. The problem, the HK Government will find, is the money they borrow doesn't come for free. They have repayments to make, so in reality all they have done is recieved a chunk of money now in return for paying a bigger chunk of money over the future. Has anyone in the SAR Government studied high school economics? Apparently not.
![[boomerang]](http://simonworld.mu.nu/boomerang2.gif){kind=small}
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