Ana the Imp

Hey, James, read my review of The Plantagenets<...

2012-05-28T16:24:15.697-07:00
Hey, James, read my review of The Plantagenets. :-))

Silesia beware!

2012-05-28T16:23:27.375-07:00
Silesia beware!

Calvin, do you get much EU news in the States?

2012-05-28T16:23:01.995-07:00
Calvin, do you get much EU news in the States?

Yun Yi, a Tellytubbie is a rather endearing charac...

2012-05-28T16:21:52.947-07:00
Yun Yi, a Tellytubbie is a rather endearing character from a TV show created for children by the BBC. The picture directly under Wen Jiabao is Po, one of a gang of four!

CWB, I was there too, on a day trip from Hong Kong...

2012-05-28T16:15:20.702-07:00
CWB, I was there too, on a day trip from Hong Kong. It was different from the latter, though catching up fast. Communism is no more than a fig leaf justifying the rule of a self-perpetuating oligarchy.

Thanks. :-)

2012-05-28T16:11:03.572-07:00
Thanks. :-)

CB, yes I know what a terrible tragedy Virginia su...

2012-05-28T16:09:51.609-07:00
CB, yes I know what a terrible tragedy Virginia suffered in what some of my Southern friends are pleased to call the War of Northern Aggression. My romantic sensibilities have always led me to identify with the Confederate cause at a level going well beyond the vexed question of slavery.

So far as the EU is concerned I would be delighted if my country took on the role of South Carolina, the devil take the consequences!

This was a man, moreover, whose sexuality, for all...

2012-05-28T12:11:11.670-07:00
This was a man, moreover, whose sexuality, for all his military militancy, was as ambiguous as that of England’s Edward II.

But without the hard implement through the fundament.

Dennis, "It's a mistake to think that all...

2012-05-28T11:50:13.860-07:00
Dennis, "It's a mistake to think that all China's leaders are the same. ", i am convinced that the change of china will be always depend on those leaders who have open mind, rather than on chinese majority people. this, is certainly one of those "chinese characteristics".

Dennis, you must heard the "communism with ch...

2012-05-28T11:47:35.204-07:00
Dennis, you must heard the "communism with chinese charactertics", a slogan that government use to shut up people's voice since 1949. one of contemporary chinese philosopher said, that the unparalleled "strange" political "happenings" during new china was really a sick fetus of the marriage of communism and confucianism. i take "confucianism as what they mean "chinese characteristic".

ana, democracy will never come to china, that's right. and china will still survive for very long time, with its chronic fatigue syndrome, which never will be cured, bmho.

ana, i am convinced that you know china better tha...

2012-05-28T11:32:14.381-07:00
ana, i am convinced that you know china better than i do. i have not clue what "Tellytubbie" means. i do have sina weibo, but almost never go there at all. information tires me.
i don't usually involve politics, but by far, 4 of my articles are disappeared from my sina blog. hopeless!
you are right to say that "I do not think that democracy will come to China any time soon."

Ana, after seeing your response, it occurred to me...

2012-05-28T10:40:56.508-07:00
Ana, after seeing your response, it occurred to me that we in Virginia once had a similar problem. In the June of 1788, our legislature narrowly voted (89 to 79) to join the USA. In the May of 1861, our legislature voted (88 to 55) to "unjoin" the USA. The NEXT day the US Army occupied Northern Virginia, and within 3 days the US Navy blockaded our coast (have you EVER heard of a national military that moved this fast?). Over the next four years our farms, towns, and cities were looted and burned. When our men and boys opposed this, they were shot and/or killed (on a more personal note - in my father's family, 4 of the 5 boys died (during a single battle) defending our city - later all of their land was taken. Their mother died in the rented basement of what had been HER mansion).

Virginia felt that being a member of the [American] Union was no longer beneficial, as the heavily populated (w/recent immigrants) Northern states voted for tariffs (call them sales taxes) that disproportionately benefited the North at the expense of the South. Let's hope that if the UK decides that being a member of the [European] Union is no longer beneficial, that it won't be destroyed as we were.

I had always understood that the majority of these...

2012-05-28T01:41:02.146-07:00
I had always understood that the majority of these state-imposed internet filter were relatively easy to bypass, but I don't really know to what extent this is true.

The only thing I can note, is that having visited GuangZhou a years or so ago, I was truly surprised by the almost complete lack of visibility of Communism in daily life, quite the contrary in fact. I only saw one tiny little red flag during the whole stay, not a single uniform, and life was outwardly geared towards Western consumerism - huge shopping malls with all the usual shops. Indeed the majority of the population would not have been out of place in any major Western capital, with their T-shirts, Jeans and ipods/phones. There also seemed to be a tremendous desire to re-connect with their historical past, to the extent that previously run-down/destroyed sites were being renovated and reconstructed.

It would seem very difficult under this sort of population pressure to prevent a continuing trend of more openness and freedom of expression, and thus some kind of democracy - whatever your definition of that might be.

PreuBens Gloria

2012-05-27T18:38:37.751-07:00
PreuBens Gloria

consider it done

2012-05-27T18:18:33.172-07:00
consider it done

The wheel of propaganda turns once more. The EU m...

2012-05-27T17:30:51.959-07:00
The wheel of propaganda turns once more. The EU must be down to its last chips.

Put him on to me, Anthony; I'll mentor him on ...

2012-05-27T16:24:42.586-07:00
Put him on to me, Anthony; I'll mentor him on Western decadence in general!

Not just the importance of face but the sensitivit...

2012-05-27T16:23:20.561-07:00
Not just the importance of face but the sensitivities of Chinese history, particularly the nation's experience at the hand of Westerners in the era of the Unequal Treaties. Thanks, Dennis; I respect your insight here. The thing that amazes me about Dame Hilary and others of her kidney is that they are allowed to occupy such a sensitive high office knowing nothing at all about the world in general, and nothing about China in particular. Only historians should handle foreign affairs! Some hope.

Tony Blair took a advice from a panel of experts on the history and politics of Iraq before the disastrous invasion of 2003. Sorry; he did not take advice; he ignored the advice.

An interesting study indeed, Richard.

2012-05-27T16:16:53.593-07:00
An interesting study indeed, Richard.

John, I'm twenty-five years old; I will be twe...

2012-05-27T16:15:47.966-07:00
John, I'm twenty-five years old; I will be twenty-six this summer. I have never had a vote on the EU, even though it has an impact on so many areas of my life. Mother and Father did when they were students. That was in 1975. Then they voted yes; now they would vote no. I agree with you; they were deceived; the people of this country in general were deceived. Things cannot go on like this.

FC, I do not think it wise to pull stuff off the i...

2012-05-27T16:11:31.804-07:00
FC, I do not think it wise to pull stuff off the internet, at least without considerable cross-referencing; there is simply too much misinformation. Please believe me that I always research the topics I write about. You may not like my conclusion but I try to be as fair and as objective as I can be.

It was systematic, please google Pan-Turkism and i...

2012-05-27T15:54:35.965-07:00
It was systematic, please google Pan-Turkism and it's ideology, it's similar to Nazism.
Also there were similar people in Turkey, such as the Butcher of Van.
Please be sure to research the topic properly before making a judgement.

Thank you.

We voted to go in, we voted to stay in, and we whi...

2012-05-24T23:52:50.050-07:00
We voted to go in, we voted to stay in, and we whine about everything that goes on: in.
How strange.
Yet, the EU was always about political union and central control.
Mr Cameron, as with all the political "leaders", is firmly under the EU thumb.
Even the leader of UKIP is dependent upon the EU for his daily bread (and whine).
The best we can hope for is economic Armageddon within the EU, leading to its death. But even then I just know it will live-on, as a shining beacon leading ships of state onto the rocks.

I am in communication with a university student fr...

2012-05-24T21:33:31.232-07:00
I am in communication with a university student from China on YT who's English is pretty fair, at least much better than my Chinese which is 'Zero' we exchange East/West perspectives on many issues. It seems that there has been considerable change in china especially for the younger generations, not to western standards but some progress non the less; I mentor him on 'American decadence'.

"I do not think that democracy will come to C...

2012-05-24T19:58:15.778-07:00
"I do not think that democracy will come to China any time soon."

I don't think that it will ever come to China, not in the way that we understand democracy. But I think that we will begin to see "democracy with Chinese characteristics" sometime during the next but one iteration of the Chinese leadership.

It's a mistake to think that all China's leaders are the same. Mao Zedong was a vain, arrogant mountebank, and so were Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin, but my impression of Zhu Rongji and his successor, Wen Jiabao, is that they are decent men who actually care about the welfare of their fellow countrymen.

Yes, they're communists, but the Communist Party of China isn't going away anytime soon, and I detect a gradual trend towards a more liberal form of governance, culminating in the "democracy with Chinese characteristics" that I alluded to earlier.

I might mention that lecturing China in public about its human rights record, as Hillary Clinton is wont to do, is seriously counterproductive. I would have thought that the head of foreign affairs of the most powerful country in the world would know about the Chinese and the importance of face.