Mentality of a single during holidays

Some of you probably has experienced what I have experienced recently, as the 2009 New Year Eve is fast approaching - the loneliness and isolation which you would otherwise not feel if Eve is not imminent. Truly, we are all social beings and with prolonged isolation we would all be looking for somewhere to belong and be a part of. That is why we humans have evolved to congregate, to socialize and to do things as a whole. And, with the advent of technology, this evolution is now taking place in the virtual world. In nature, it is often much easier and less stressful both physically and mentally to survive in a group than as an individual. This hypothesis can be easily proven by the great civilizations that only bestow upon a complex society of highly stratified and diverse social structure, which would only occur if people gather together, as compared to hunter gatherer type of foraging bands. Members of a privileged civilization are often easier to survive when it comes to enduring through life or couping with disasters; whereas, individuals often fall when it comes to the testament of time. This is sole the reason why singles like me feel a sense of isolation and loneliness during the holidays, why we frantically make phone calls minutes before the day is about to end, so the next day may end with the warm presence of friends and families. None of us are immune but some may be less sensitive than others. We all envy at those with immunity yet we know their fallacy and vulnerable entity as time surpasses.

For that, I wish you all a Happy New Year 2009, and may your dream, resolution and goal come true!

Six lives in a new China

An excellent, albeit short, 6-part series from CSM on the impact of China's economic reform after 30 years. China has truly changed for better or for worse, and let's just hope that one day, the change may not only be superficial but something which is more serious, such as enabling greater human rights and closing in the gap between the rich and the poor.

1. An entrepreneur agrees: 'To get rich is glorious'
2. Free expression grows in China (just don't talk politics)
3. A Westerner grows up in China
4. A Chinese peasant goes to town on capitalism
5. Earnings wither in the Chinese countryside
6. Pastor's private worship puts him under public scrutiny
China's Communist Party cautiously celebrates its reforms

Cross strait security

With the all out opening of trade, via air and sea, in the recent weeks across the Formosa Strait, and the panda politics this week, the true intention of the People's Republic of China and its politburo has yet to unfold. Despite what may seem like a "gesture of good will" and a "great leap forward" on closing in the two opposite political spectrum between the arch rivals, the question of the unification is still a very sensitive issue. It seems by the free exchange of trade and tourism, the hostility of a militaristic take over long envisioned by the P.R.C. may long be forgotten. Yet, what the P.R.C. failed to realize is the tenacity and resilience of the Taiwanese and its current government, Kuomintang, when it comes to the sovereignty of the Republic of China. Especially after the Japanese occupation and the retreat of K.M.T. to Taiwan in 1949, resisting thought control and uprooting the restriction on unequivocal human rights were and still are the two most important issues which Taiwanese relentlessly strive to uphold, albeit the often clash of violence, accusations, mass demonstrations and riots beseeching the reigning government. So, if China really is for a peaceful reunification it has to sincerely showcase its benevolence to the people of Taiwan, not undermining the issue with threat, accusation, defamation, imprisonment and execution of the many human rights advocates in China. To further showcase its goodwill, China should one day in the near future relinquish the thousands of missiles aiming to strike at Taiwan and ease up the dry and meaningless threat to the pro-independence group in Taiwan, whose only intention is to let the millions of voices to be heard at the international arena. Only when there is foreseeable peace could Taiwan unconditionally embrace the true unification.

We are all hoping for a peaceful reunification, but given the horrible track record of the current totalitarian regime in China, who would believe anything it says without the suspicion of a much more harmful and sinister intent? The Republic of China was built on the foundation of unequivocal rights and it shall stay that way until the end of the time.

Merry Christmas, you're working

That's my Christmas this year and perhaps the next if I ever decide to continue down the road of no return, i.e., the Ph.D. program. Merry Christmas, you're working for those hard working graduate students. :)

Cheers!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year '09

I wish you all a pleasant, fulfilling and merry Christmas and a happy New Year. Cheers to you all, and may you find solace and comfort in the reunion of families, relatives, friends and colleagues during this wonderful holiday season.

Cheers!

speed_demon

The environmental impact of a raging Big Red Machine

Overgrowth, and overly exerted, these are the current trends of the ever-so-thirsty industrial might of China. Unfortunately, the over razing of its farmlands, together with deforestation, water contamination, air pollution and over population, foretells an impending disaster brewing slowly in the background, one that would eventually unleash hell to the inhabitants of the "Middle Kingdom." Let's just hope the Chinese government can slowly adjust and compromise for the better, and not let the overwhelming growth and hollow capitalism stifle the souls of its next generations.

I strongly believe China do have a chance to be better, to alleviate its environmental disasters, looming social crisis, and to overcome the corruption entwined in a one-party system, if it is willing. Although being scrutinized from all international fronts, China has the privilege to witness what other industrial mights can't - the consequence of an industrial society and its impact on land, air and sea. These are what other powers, e.g., Great Britain, USA and European Union, can never dream of, let along relive in. China, on the other hand, has the full knowledge of the consequences and can alter its course if needs be, and that is why it should not disregard the experience of others, but learn from their mistakes and improve upon them.

Here, I list below a series of major articles from the New York Times on the environmental impacts and tolls of a booming China. Enjoy!

Part I: The Overview
Part II: China's Water Crisis
Part III: The Activist
Part IV: Three Gorges Dam
Part V: Energy Rules
Part VI: Wildlife Threatened
Part VII: Polluting Trucks
Part VIII: Farming Fish
Part IX: Two Steel Towns
Part X: A Green Olympics?

Of course, these are one-year-old articles, but most of what they said are still very true and will likely be current until China starts cleaning up its acts. :)

Are bad bosses killing you?

Found this insightful article, just published in the G&M yesterday. Quite an article illustrating the detrimental effect of what a bad boss can do to an employee personally, mentally and physically. This reminds me of the Ph.D., which, by definition, hinges on the selection of a good supervisor with the successful outcome of your Ph.D. solely depends on how much your supervisor knows and what she or he can contribute to your research. A supervisor acting like an outsider, oblivious to your research, is one whom can shorten your life faster than the chain-smoking hobby which you would otherwise not take. The path towards a Ph.D. is full of impediments and pitfalls. Walking down the wrong one you may just as well not waste four years of your life pursuing the intangible goal.

Of course, the real successful ones are the ones to treasure and bow to, but how many are these, and what is the typical percentage of failure? I have personally witnessed too many examples of Ph.D.'s gone wrong, and I just pray to God that the decision which I'm about to make is the rightful one and one which I shall walk until the leeway opens. Cheers!

Are bad bosses killing you?

TAVIA GRANT

Globe and Mail Update

November 25, 2008 at 3:33 PM EST

Bad bosses aren't just annoying. They may also boost the chances of employees having heart attacks, a study finds.

The longer an employee works for a leader who is inconsiderate and uncommunicative, the greater the risk of developing heart disease, according to the Swedish study of 3,122 male workers published in the Occupational and Environmental Medicine journal.

In fact, someone who has worked for a bad boss for at least four years raises the risk of heart disease by 64 per cent, said Anna Nyberg, the study's lead researcher and a psychologist at Karolinska Institute's Department of Public Health Sciences in Stockholm.

A good boss, conversely, lowers the risk of a heart attack.

The study claimed to be the first to show evidence of the link between managerial behaviour and heart disease among employees.

Previous research has shown lousy leadership can cause increased depression and mental illness among staff.

To help be better bosses, managers must clearly explain goals so that employees understand what they are supposed to do, Ms. Nyberg said.

“We haven't done this [study] to put blame on managers but to find a way to enhance the work environment. Managers are just as stressed as employees,” she added.

Nonetheless “bosses who are inconsiderate and who don't respect or appreciate the time and energy that their employees put into their job or who don't clearly define how the employee's efforts contribute to the company are causing a great deal of stress within their team,” said Canadian workplace specialist Beverly Beuermann-King in a release.

“Our stress reactions build over time and can go from the good to the bad, to the very ugly. We can start out by working harder to please, but after a while we can't keep up that pace and we start to have headaches, neck pain, stomach upset, restless sleep or we become tense and less patient,” Ms. Beuermann-King said.

Eventually, it can spiral into health problems such as insomnia and depression and, for some people, the increased risk of heart attacks and strokes.

“Providing structure, information and support can absolutely counteract this stress and help employees find the right strategies to deal with today's work pressures,” Ms. Beuermann-King said.

15-minute of fame a bit too long?

I got bored tonight after all the 24/7 working regime, which my amazing roommate still practices endlessly, so I decided to check out the young adult group here at Emmanuel Baptists. This Sunday night was an illustration of the "49 Up" documentary from the legendary producer Michael Apted. An amazing footprint of the participants at each critical stage of their life, every 7-year. It was a combination of awe and joy for some, and sorrow and regret for others, but the general outlook, I think, was neutral on the basis that the successful ones compensate the uneventful stories of not so fortunates. We have few people living the lives of their dream. We have the lonely academic, who eventually found his love at his early forties. We have grandparents, educators, lawyers, labours, housewives, and even a homeless person, whom in the span of 7 years, transformed into a political party candidate. This documentary is truly one of a kind, a critical examination of our own lives, the purpose it sustains, and the final optimistic outlook endowed upon us.

I say once again that we are to "work to live, but not to live the work," and may the binding and 24/7 working hour come to an end in the future yet to come.

It is true, we all had or will have our fifteen minutes of fame, but for some that stretches eons.

What truly scares me is the reminiscence of what I will become after living with my roommate, a post-doctoral researcher from China, after almost one year. Once I have taken on the step of Ph.D., my future in four years would be foretold as I will be a slave to the workaholic fashion of a Chinese Ph.D. candidate. Basically to fulfill the regiment of a 24/7 working schedule and be enslaved by the number of publications which you must sustain in order to abide by the agreement between you and your supervisor. Now, that is sad, by definition, sad. :(

Is there anyway to go around it?

Working 24/7

So far in my life I have met two post-doctoral researchers, one playful, one workaholic. The playful one has a girlfriend, a life, friends, colleagues and professors to support. He has a steady job in a well-known communications company in the Lower Mainland, Vancouver. The workaholic is alone, emotionally desperate, single, no friends beside other colleagues, no friends besides the work circle, lives the life of a prisoner (not kidding, literally like a prisoner) and is bounded to his research. I just sincerely hope that once I have walk down this path of being a doctoral student that I would not become a workaholic, working 24/7, but enjoying life and what has been given to us, the privileged earthlings, from God.

I sincerely hope that the research I will endow upon will not bind me but free me from all eternity and beyond. May God, the Almighty, provide me with the strength to carry on the work I do but not to imprison what are rightfully mine.

First generation immigrants

After befriending with a few true first generation immigrants from the weekly bible study, I can finally feel how privileged and lucky I am to be a "fake" first generation immigrant. We are the privileged bunch with a strong foundation in root even before our migration towards the foreign work force. How privileged are we exactly? Some of us even have living expense(s), real estate(s), account(s), car(s) and family member(s) all within grasp, all registered under our names, all under our reach even before we take on a formal job, even before we can experience the hardship of earning money, even before we start supporting a family of our own. If that is not called privilege, what is? The "fake" first generations are even "worth" more than an average Canadian from a Caucasian family! I have seen too many children, sons and daughters of the first generation gone to waste, wasting their lives away under the lavish and extravagant lifestyles of their "privileged" class, only to fall back to the cushion of a system protecting them so well, without ever having to oblige on support themselves. I only sincerely wish that the path which I will stroll on in the next month or two would not forsake the hopes and dreams of my guardians, my bloodlines, and my generation. May I cherish, nourish, and flourish what has being put forth from now until the end time beyond.

Let's not forget, forever that we are the privileged bunch!!! And, may we return the favor one day so our lineage may trickle unhindered until the end of time.

Dawn of a New Era and good riddance to Old!

After the eight-year turmoil under George W. Bush, the American people has finally waken up by electing the honourable Mr. Barack Obama as the forty-forth President of the United States. Effectively putting an end to the dwindling and stagnating era of Mr. Bush, his Republican and business cohorts, and bringing forth a new dawn for the land of hopes and dreams that American once was decades ago. I salute to you, Americans, for your boldness, tolerance and enthusiasm when it comes to the betterment of the next generation in this twenty-first century.

On the other hand, McCain and Palin campaign is falling apart. Good riddance!

The resurgence of anti-Western sentiment in China, thank you Wall Street!

Old sentiment being bloated into a disproportional size, especially after the recent rock n' roll of Wall Street and the global finance sector. Well, what can you do? Being patriotic is one thing, but being brainwashed by the corrupted doctrine is another. Wake up, China!

A lot of the Mainlander I are all quite anti-West. But for their purpose of getting a Westernized education, understand some Western ideologies before heading straight back home to patronize their country, that ain't so bad. Especially, when most of them are already either middle or upper class citizens in China, turning a blind eye on the impoverished and injustice may serve them well when job-security hinges on no whistle blowing. Even I would say "why not?" But then again that is capitalism at its finest. ;)

Meltdown boosts anti-Western forces in China

GEOFFREY YORK

From Friday's Globe and Mail

October 16, 2008 at 8:43 PM EDT

BEIJING — For the hardliners in China's Communist Party, the global financial crisis has been a golden opportunity to gloat about China's rising power.

“China should no longer be sympathetic and kind toward the United States at this rare moment,” said a commentary this week in Ta Kung Pao, a newspaper in Hong Kong with close links to the Communist Party.

“It should seize the opportunity to teach the United States a lesson,” the newspaper declared. “At the very least, the United States should be made to suffer a little bit more, so that it will learn to be more modest and prudent in the future and treat other countries as equals.”

Since the United States could need financial help from China to get out of its crisis, China should use the chance to extract American concessions on key political issues such as Taiwan and Tibet, the newspaper added.

Although the newspaper is financed by Beijing, the commentary probably does not reflect the mainstream views of China's Communist leaders. But it suggests how the financial crisis is boosting the confidence and influence of anti-Western forces in China, including the old-guard factions that are resisting free-market reforms.

While the Chinese leaders have been muted in their public response to the financial meltdown in the United States, a behind-the-scenes struggle can be glimpsed in the Chinese media. Pro-market liberals are urging Beijing to push ahead with more economic reforms, despite the crisis. Others are exploiting the crisis to proclaim the supremacy of the Chinese system, with its heavy state controls.

The debate comes at a critical time for the country. As it prepares to celebrate the 30th anniversary of its first steps toward free-market capitalism, China still has an unfinished agenda of incomplete reforms. Rural land is still not privately owned. Energy prices are set by the government. The nation's currency is not freely traded. Key sectors such as banking are still dominated by state-controlled companies.

The financial crisis is prompting China to rethink its future. Many liberals are worried that China will use the crisis as an excuse to ditch the reform agenda. They fret that the anti-reform forces could cite the U.S. bailout plan as proof of the need for state dominance in the economy.

“If we take emergency action as normal practice – and second-guess our belief in the free market for China – we might delay China's own market reform,” Hu Shuli, founding editor of Caijing, an influential Chinese financial magazine, said in an editorial this week.

“The current crisis is yet another test. Can we continue the reform? Can we draw a clear line between market and government? The answer will determine China's future.”

A similar note was struck by Ha Jiming, chief economist of China International Capital Corp. “China's future hinges on reforms,” he wrote this month. “Given the latest developments in the global economy, China's reforms have come to a new starting point ...”

But many other Chinese commentators said the financial crisis was evidence that China should not “blindly embrace” liberalism. “Many of the problems of the free-market system have been fully exposed,” said a commentary in Xinhua, the state news agency. “China should take a lesson from the American crisis and be cautious.”

On Chinese websites, some people are citing the crisis as the symbolic moment of China's ascendancy to superpower status, just as the Second World War marked the ascendancy of the United States. “The economic crisis this time is a redistribution of the economic powers of the world,” one person wrote on a website. “China has to be prepared for … a new order.”

The Chinese media gave prominent coverage to a conference in Beijing this week where speakers attacked the United States and globalization in the wake of the financial crisis. One conference organizer said China should “play a leading role” in a “new financial structure” to replace the existing global system. Another participant called for a “multipolarized world,” – code for a system without U.S. dominance.

Willy Lam, a political analyst and professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said the financial crisis will encourage the Chinese government to maintain the status quo – rather than pursue reforms – over the next two years.

“The Chinese leadership is putting its emphasis on stability and growth, not reform,” Mr. Lam said in an interview.

“The leadership is reasonably satisfied with the situation. It seems to have proven that the Chinese model is correct. It feels confident that the cautious policy is the right policy.”

The look of love

A classic from Diana Krall. We all need a little bit of love these days, especially to endure this financial disaster. :)



"The Look Of Love"

The look of love is in your eyes
A look your smile can't disguise
The look of love is saying so much more than just words could ever say
And what my heart has heard, well it takes my breath away

I can hardly wait to hold you, feel my arms around you
How long I have waited
Waited just to love you, now that I have found you

You've got the
Look of love, it's on your face
A look that time can't erase
Be mine tonight, let this be just the start of so many nights like this
Let's take a lover's vow and then seal it with a kiss

I can hardly wait to hold you, feel my arms around you
How long I have waited
Waited just to love you, now that I have found you
Don't ever go
Don't ever go
I love you so

An end to the big red machine?

In the global arena of international trade, a weakening of a gigantic economic power would eventually affect all other major players, irrespective of how strong their economy may be or pretend to be. China, being a net exporter to sustain the North American consumers, would undoubtedly feel the pinch in the oncoming years, when consumers reign in their buying instincts and shun away from Wal-Mart. Indeed, the red machine is hitting speed bump and will halt sooner or later despite what other "experts" may say.

Big red machine hits speed bump

GEOFFREY YORK AND ANDY HOFFMAN

From Monday's Globe and Mail

October 12, 2008 at 10:45 PM EDT

BEIJING AND TORONTO — Less than two months after the excitement of the Beijing Olympics, the economic news from China has suddenly taken a turn for the worse.

Auto sales are slumping. The stock market is nose diving. Developers are offering heavy discounts to promote their unsold houses and apartments.

Even in an economy that is still expected to grow at an impressive 10 per cent this year, the hints of trouble are worrisome. And the problems are concentrated in industries such as construction and automobiles, which have major implications for the commodities that Canada produces.

The slowdown in China is already causing a drop in global commodity prices. This slump could continue for the next year or two, analysts say.

“When you add it up, it's bad news for commodity prices in the short term,” said Arthur Kroeber of Dragonomics, a research firm specializing in the Chinese economy.

“Commodity prices had unrealistically high expectations of Chinese demand built into them,” he said. “We had to have a correction. It will be really bad for the next year, as we see an unwinding of those unrealistic expectations.”

Shares of Canadian mining companies have been decimated in a matter of weeks on the sudden grim reality of falling Chinese demand for commodities. Teck Cominco Ltd., in the process of closing a $14-billion (U.S.) takeover of Fording Canadian Coal Trust, has seen its shares lose nearly a third of their value in a week.

“Everyone's mindset has been affected. This is the most severe thing we've ever seen. You and I have never seen anything like this. Basically, no one in the market has seen anything like it, “ Don Lindsay, Teck's president and chief executive, said in an interview.

The latest data from China are not encouraging. China's passenger car sales, which had grown by 18.5 per cent in the first half of this year, have now declined for two consecutive months. Sales fell by 6.2 per cent in August and a further 1.4 per cent in September.

The property sector is equally weak. Apartment prices have dropped by 10 to 20 per cent in many Chinese cities, and real-estate websites are filled with promotions from developers offering discounts to potential buyers. A leading Chinese financial magazine, Caijing, describes the nation's property market as “a grim scene of slow sales, price cuts and failed land auctions.”

The price cuts have been heaviest in southern Chinese cities such as Guangzhou and Shenzhen, where real-estate prices have dropped by up to 40 per cent in the past year. But even in Beijing, after the Olympic boom, preconstruction sales of residential units fell 76 per cent in September from the same month of last year.

The slump in auto sales and housing construction is having a serious impact on commodities such as steel, copper, iron ore and coking coal. Half of China's steel demand is derived from the property market. Copper wiring in new apartment buildings is a major source of Chinese demand for copper.

“If consumers sit on the sidelines for three months waiting for housing prices to drop, the short-term impact could be fairly severe as people try to clear inventories,” said Howard Balloch, a former Canadian ambassador to China who now heads an investment bank in Beijing. “There's a price correction going on, and core demand is slowing down.”

Chinese consumers are nervous about the market meltdowns and other economic trends, he said. “They're less willing to take on auto financing. They'll delay all sorts of discretionary spending.”

In the long run, however, commodity prices will be pulled back up by China's underlying trends, including the massive migration of rural people to its cities and the government's huge investment in infrastructure such as subways and trains, Mr. Balloch said.

China insisted Sunday that its “overall economic situation” is still good. “The economy is growing quickly and the financial sector is operating steadily,” the ruling Communist Party said in a statement at the end of a four-day meeting of its Central Committee. “The basic momentum of the country's economy remains unchanged.”

But the party admitted that “contradictions and problems” exist in the Chinese economy. “We must enhance our sense of peril and actively respond to challenges,” it said.

The growth of China's manufacturing exports has been slowing because of the weakening of U.S. demand. The Chinese government is trying to boost domestic demand by cutting interest rates, and Mr. Balloch predicts that it will take other measures to stimulate the economy.

Others are highly skeptical that the government will be able to counteract the effects of the U.S. slowdown and the global financial crisis. “The government can't just spend its way out of this,” said Michael Pettis, a finance professor at Beijing University.

“Many of the government's tools simply don't work any more,” he said. “My guess is that commodity prices will soften for the next two years. They were extremely sensitive to the high growth expectations.”

The unprecedented seven-year bull run in commodities, which has been a key driver of the strong Canadian economy, appears all but over.

Analysts are now ratcheting back their commodity price assumptions on the belief that a global economic slowdown will sap demand for resources such as copper, nickel and coal.

Canaccord Adams, a major player in the mining sector, particularly in the junior mining space, slashed 2009 copper price estimates last week from $3.34 (U.S.) a pound to $2 a pound, a decline of more than 40 per cent.

“Global demand is slowing and that includes China. The copper market and commodities in general have had a really good run here,” Canaccord Adams analyst Orest Wowkodaw said in an interview. “Unfortunately, we think we're going to take a pause in the sense that the consumption levels have to come down given the global slowdown we think is happening. The equities are being revalued as an investment class.”

In the hardest evidence yet of the slowing demand, Russian steel giant OAO Severstal last week said it is cutting steel production by as much as 30 per cent because of the sudden shift in industrial demand.

“Demand for all commodities has to slow if credit is tight. There is no way that investment and growth can continue in the levels that we've seen in this type of environment,” Mr. Wowkodaw said.

Financial chaos bites the dragon

I feel this is worth a post, even at 2:21 AM in the morning. :)

Yes, nowhere is immune to the ongoing financial disaster we're seeing down in the state, not even my own shares of mutual fund. :)

Financial chaos bites the dragon

GEOFFREY YORK

From Friday's Globe and Mail

October 10, 2008 at 1:35 AM EDT

BEIJING — For more than a decade, Yang Zhong has profited from the capitalist system. The 39-year-old Beijing businessman earns a comfortable income by buying and selling stocks on Chinese stock markets, the ultimate expression of confidence in global finance.

But his latest investment – about $160,000 that he sunk into Chinese stocks this spring – is looking increasingly disastrous. He estimates that he has lost almost 70 per cent of his money as China's markets have plummeted.

“Look at one of the stocks that I bought, Chongqing Brewery,” he said yesterday, pointing gloomily to the giant electronic screen at a trading hall. “I bought it at 35.9 yuan and now it's at 8.21 yuan. My money has disappeared.”

His losses are now so severe that they have spilled over into his other investments. He was planning to buy a new apartment, but he cancelled the purchase.
A Chinese man walks past a billboard promoting a new property development under construction in Shanghai on Oct. 9, 2008.

“I'm worried that the declines will continue,” he said. “The global financial crisis will affect the lives of the Chinese people sooner or later. In my opinion, the Chinese stock market won't improve for the next three years at least.”

The glum mood is spreading across China's financial community as the global market meltdown continues. A slowdown in its exports, a slump in its construction industry and a collapse in its stock markets have dented China's self-confidence at a crucial time when it was expected to be an engine of world growth.

A year ago, the Beijing trading hall of China Galaxy Securities Co. was a crowded and noisy place, bustling with the excited activity of new investors and traders. Dozens of people stood in queues every day to open their first trading accounts.

Yesterday it was a much more subdued and morose scene. The queues had disappeared. Investors sat quietly in chairs, talking in low voices or watching in silence as their stocks lost value.

Many of China's small-time investors are “recession virgins,” as some analysts call them. They've only seen the boom years. They've never experienced an era when the world is slipping toward a recession, with banks collapsing and markets tumbling. While most Chinese remain confident that their economy will survive, their nerves are rattled.

Qi Fan, a 72-year-old pensioner, says he invested 100,000 yuan (almost $17,000) in the Chinese stock market from his pension income and his savings. Now he has less than a third of his money. The main Shanghai market index has lost two-thirds of its value in the past year, and it plunged a further 9.5 per cent this week after a brief recovery last month.

“Most of us investors are upset and feeling depressed,” Mr. Qi said yesterday. “I have no confidence that the Chinese markets can recover in such a terrible international situation. The U.S. economy is in serious trouble now, and I think an international depression is inevitable.”

He fears that the damage will go far beyond the stock market. “I think China's economy will definitely be affected by the global problems. A sharp drop in exports to the U.S. will affect a lot of exporting companies, and unemployment will follow. What can I do now? I feel helpless.”

Another investor, a 35-year-old man who gave his surname as Wang, said he managed to get out of the stock market near its peak. But he predicted years of stagnation in Chinese markets. He calls it a “war of resistance” against the crisis – borrowing a term from China's war against Japanese invaders in the 1930s and 1940s.

This siege mentality, in turn, could dampen China's economic growth. “In a climate like this, people will tend to postpone their spending,” said Michael Pettis, a finance professor at Beijing University. “The people I know are very worried, very aware of it and nervous about it.”

Many Chinese commentators are eager to blame the United States as the villain of the current crisis. State newspapers, attacking the “greed” of Wall Street bankers, have accused Washington of a lax monetary policy. Some Chinese media have proclaimed the end of U.S. global dominance.

Most analysts expect China's economy to keep growing at a substantial pace for the foreseeable future, but that growth could slow to 7 or 8 per cent next year, down from the current 10 per cent, as China suffers a slowdown of export growth and a sharp decline of 15 to 20 per cent in property prices.

“The blood of the global economy has begun to freeze right from its heart – the United States,” said Ha Jiming, chief economist at China International Capital Corp., in a research note yesterday. He predicted a deceleration of China's economic growth for at least the next three years.

With a report from Yu Mei in Beijing.

Happy Melaween everyone!

Or should I say a melamine-infested Halloween? I'm sure you are very much aware of what's happening with this melamine business in China. Seriously, when are we going to learn that no safe food and produce ever come out from China? Contrary to what the Chinese may say or argue, a country which bases its constitution on an atheistic doctrine is a country of no morale, no conscience and no virtue to speak of. This is especially true for a place where religious freedom is severely handicapped and any religious practice, unless sanctioned by the state, being abolished without any regards. When capitalism outweighs the already eroding morale value, a disaster of unforeseen magnitude is usually waiting to emerge, just is the case with the Sanlu milk tainting scandal.

Put it another way. The ultimate motive of China is to poison and rid of the free-thinkers, dare takers and freedom fighters, by any means necessary, even if it would result in death to its own people.

China, Space Weapons and US Security

An article I found online that may be of interest to some of you. At least it is to me since it has something to do with the security of the Republic of China, i.e., Taiwan. Enjoy~

China, Space Weapons, and U.S. Security

Author:	Bruce W. MacDonald

Council on Foreign Relations Press

September 2008

• DOWNLOAD THE FULL TEXT OF THE REPORT HERE (1.6 MB PDF)

Overview

China’s successful test of an anti-satellite weapon in 2007, followed by the U.S. destruction earlier this year of an out-of-control U.S. satellite, demonstrated that space may soon no longer remain a relative sanctuary from military conflict.

As the United States, China, and others increasingly benefit from the information that military and intelligence satellites provide, the temptation to attack these satellites provides troubling potential for instability and conflict in space that could dramatically affect U.S. military capabilities on earth.

In this Council Special Report, Bruce W. MacDonald illuminates the strategic landscape of this new military space competition and highlights the dangers and opportunities the United States confronts in the space arena. He recognizes that advancing technology has likely made some degree of offensive space capability inevitable but calls on the United States to draw upon all instruments of U.S. power, including a reinvigorated space diplomacy, to lead in establishing a more stable and secure space environment. To this end, he spotlights a series of pragmatic policy, programmatic, and diplomatic steps the United States should take to strengthen its security interests in space and help reduce the chances that the military benefits of space will be cut off when the United States may most need them. In addition, these steps would serve important U.S. and Chinese economic interests and open new channels of communication and understanding between the mid-twenty-first century’s likely two leading powers. This timely report breaks new ground in thinking about the space dimension of U.S. security interests and its growing effect on U.S. security in the twenty-first century, and will be especially useful to those who are unfamiliar with the role of space in U.S. security.

The Author

Bruce W. MacDonald is an independent consultant in technology and national security policy management. From 1995 to 1999, he was assistant director for national security at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy as well as senior director for science and technology on the National Security Council staff. Earlier, Mr. MacDonald was a professional staff member on the House Armed Services Committee and was defense and foreign policy adviser to Senator Dale Bumpers (D-AK). He also worked for the State Department as a nuclear weapons and technology specialist in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, where he led the Interagency START Policy Working Group, served on the U.S. START delegation in Geneva, and dealt with space and missile defense issues. He also supported the OSD SALT Task Force as staff scientist at System Planning Corporation. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a senior director of the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States. Mr. MacDonald holds a BSE from Princeton in aerospace engineering and two master’s degrees, also from Princeton—one in aerospace engineering, specializing in rocket propulsion, and a second in public and international affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School. He has authored a number of technical and policy papers and reports.

Pot head or exhibitionism?

Seriously, how degrading the federal NDP candidates are? Is the honourable Jack Layton the only literate in his party of scoundrels and thieves? You better choose one Jack, otherwise, we the electoral body would have to choose one for you. Pot head or exhibitionism, you decide?

Yes, the Election is coming up for Canada's next prime minister, and sadly it'll probably be a replay of the last election.

Karma Police - Radiohead

A classic from Radiohead in their "Ok Computer" album. Quite impressive in beat, rhythm and music composition, I love it! Like their "House of Cards," feels like you are in a trance. :)



Karma Police
Arrest this man
He talks in maths
He buzzes like a fridge
He's like a detuned radio

Karma Police
Arrest this girl
Her Hitler hairdo
Is making me feel ill
And we have crashed her party

This is what you'll get
This is what you'll get
This is what you'll get
When you mess with us

Karma Police
I've given all I can
It's not enough
I've given all I can
But we're still on the payroll

This is what you'll get
This is what you'll get
This is what you'll get
When you mess with us

For a minute there
I lost myself
I lost myself

Phew, for a minute there
I lost myself
I lost myself

For a minute there
I lost myself
I lost myself

Phew, for a minute there
I lost myself
I lost myself

Home - Michael Buble

I dedicate this song to those of you who is either away from home or does not have the privilege to enjoy the daily reunion which would otherwise be possible if you are a part of the functional family, for whatsoever reason unforeseen or otherwise. That being said, I think I'm also within this bracket I defined. Anyways... ;)



Michael Buble

Another summer day
Has come and gone away
In Paris and Rome
But I wanna go home
Mmmmmmmm

Maybe surrounded by
A million people I
Still feel all alone
I just wanna go home
Oh, I miss you, you know

And I've been keeping all the letters that I wrote to you
Each one a line or two
"I'm fine baby, how are you?"
Well I would send them but I know that it's just not enough
My words were cold and flat
And you deserve more than that

Another airplane
Another sunny place
I'm lucky I know
But I wanna go home
Mmmm, I've got to go home

Let me go home
I'm just too far from where you are
I wanna come home

And I feel just like I'm living someone else's life
It's like I just stepped outside
When everything was going right
And I know just why you could not
Come along with me
'Cause this was not your dream
But you always believed in me

Another winter day has come
And gone away
In even Paris and Rome
And I wanna go home
Let me go home

And I'm surrounded by
A million people I
Still feel all alone
Oh, let me go home
Oh, I miss you, you know

Let me go home
I've had my run
Baby, I'm done
I gotta go home
Let me go home
It will all be all right
I'll be home tonight
I'm coming back home

After Glow of Games, What Next for China?

Another well articulated article from NY Times. Read on, I say.

After Glow of Games, What Next for China?
By JIM YARDLEY
Published: August 24, 2008

BEIJING — The elaborate closing ceremony that ended the Olympic Games on Sunday also ended nearly a decade in which the ruling Communist Party had made the Games an organizing principle in national life. Almost nothing has superseded the Olympics as a political priority in China.

For Chinese leaders, all that effort paid off. The Games were seen as an unparalleled success by most Chinese — a record medal count inspired nationwide excitement, and Beijing impressed foreign visitors with its hospitality and efficiency. And while the government’s uncompromising suppression of dissent drew criticism, China also demonstrated to a global audience that it is a rising economic and political power.

But a new, post-Olympic era has begun. The question now is whether a deepening self-confidence arising from the Olympic experience will lead China to further its engagement with the world and pursue deeper political reform, or whether the success of the Games and the muted Western response to repression will convince leaders that their current model is working.

“China was eager to present something that shows it is a new power that has its own might,” said Shen Dingli, a professor at Fudan University in Shanghai. “It has problems, but it is able to manage them. It has weaknesses in its institutions, but also strengths in those same institutions.”

Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee, declared Sunday afternoon that selecting Beijing as a host had been the “right choice” and that the event had been a bridge between China and the rest of the world. “The world has learned about China, and China has learned about the world,” Mr. Rogge said. “I believe this is something that will have positive effects for the long term.”

To a large degree, the Beijing Games reflected the might of the centralized power of China’s authoritarian system: The stunning sports stadiums contributed to a $43 billion price tag for the Games that was almost completely absorbed by the state. China’s 51 gold medals, the most of any nation, were the product of a state-controlled sports machine. Those successes are one reason that some analysts doubt Chinese leaders will rush to change the status quo.

“They have earned a tremendous amount of face because of the Olympics,” said Hung Huang, a media executive in Beijing. “They are going to ride on that for a while. We don’t have a culture that is pro-change. China, by nature, has got to be provoked to make changes. The economic reforms came about because we were desperately poor.”

Indeed, for all the attention to the Olympics, 2008 also marks the 30th anniversary of China’s initial embrace of the market reforms that have powered the country’s rapid economic rise. As the population becomes more urban and wealthy, the leadership will probably have to contend with rising expectations and demands for better services. Liberals in China have hoped this anniversary would inspire new reforms, especially to a political system still marred by corruption and a lack of transparency.

But critics say that the Olympics have underscored the deep resistance within the Communist Party to becoming more tolerant of dissent. The party had faced a procession of crises during the prelude to the Olympics: the violent Tibetan protests that began in March, the protests during the international Olympic torch relay, and the devastating May earthquake in Sichuan Province.

Protests seemed inevitable during the Games, and the authorities initially seemed to signal more openness toward legal dissent when they announced three designated protest zones in city parks.

But those zones remained empty. Chinese citizens made formal applications to protest, but none were approved during the Games. Two elderly women who applied to protest about a land dispute were sentenced to a labor and re-education prison camp. Meanwhile, eight Americans were among a group of foreigners jailed after they tried to demonstrate about China’s Tibet policies. The authorities released the Americans on Sunday and placed them on a flight to Los Angeles as the closing ceremony began.

“For the Chinese authorities to sentence them at all shows the government’s insecurity and intolerance of even the most peaceful challenges to its authoritarian control,” Students for a Free Tibet, a New York-based advocacy group, said in a statement.

Even so, the Communist Party most likely won the overall public relations battle, given the enormous television coverage, largely positive, that the Olympics brought to Beijing. David Shambaugh, a China specialist at George Washington University in Washington, said the Games were a “win-win” for the party and bolstered its international image. But Mr. Shambaugh said that success would be more meaningful if it increased national confidence in a way that allowed China to move past simmering historical grievances that erupted this year, especially during the Tibet crises.

He said the Games should help China put a symbolic end to its self-described “century of humiliation” that saw the country weakened by foreign intervention that began during the second half of the 19th century. “I would hope that we would look back at this as a major threshold of when China ditched all its baggage of the historical narrative of aggrieved nationalism,” Mr. Shambaugh said, “and just rewrote that narrative and began to act with more confidence about itself and its role in the world.”

No issue poses a more immediate test than Tibet. In October, the Chinese authorities are expected to meet with representatives of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader. The Communist Party renewed that dialogue after the March crisis, but some analysts questioned whether Chinese officials had agreed to the talks merely to defuse international criticism in advance of the Games. With the Olympics now concluded, China’s willingness to engage in real negotiations will be closely watched.

“That’s going to be a really good test case,” Mr. Shambaugh said.

Beneath the sphere of geopolitics, many analysts were impressed with ordinary citizens in Beijing during the Games. The authorities had worried that the angry strain of nationalism that erupted during the Tibet crisis might mar the Games with local crowds jeering other teams. But little of that came to pass.

Fans even enthusiastically greeted the return of Lang Ping, a volleyball legend in China who now lives in the United States and coaches the United States women’s volleyball team — and guided the United States to a victory over the Chinese team.

Yu Zhou, a Beijing native who is now a professor of geography at Vassar College, returned for the Games and described the positive public mood and welcoming attitude as proof that enhanced national self-esteem would serve as a moderating influence on China. “I would like China to be more confident,” Ms. Yu said. “I think that would make China and Chinese become more tolerant and open.”

Any Olympic host city experiences a blend of letdown and relief once the torch is extinguished, and Beijing is likely to be no different. Major problems will need attention. The relatively blue skies during the Games were achieved only by restrictions that removed two million vehicles from the streets of Beijing and forced the temporary shutdown of many factories around the region. The city’s air pollution, which ranks among the worst in the world, will return when the restrictions are lifted after the conclusion of the Paralympics in late September.

“Beijing will return to being, well, cloudy — full of smog,” said Mr. Shen, the Fudan University professor.

He predicted that the Olympics would raise public expectations. He said Beijing residents, having enjoyed startlingly nice weather during the Games, will demand that officials find ways to keep the skies clearer.

He said the Games would bolster national confidence and help “make China a more normal country.” But he added that the country still had many problems and should not try to hide them or pretend they did not exist.

“With its increase of wealth, China is entering a stage where it needs to have better transparency, good governance and more accountability,” Mr. Shen said. “This Olympics is a good start for us to think about how China is strong — and where we are weak.”

Viva La Vida - Coldplay

It's here! The official Viva La Vida video from Coldplay. :D

If you are interested in the original post, go here.

Is Beijing cheating its way throughout the Olympics?

How could they do that? Being an honest host and all, and abide by the regulation and standard set by the I.O.C.? But with nationalism, pride and arrogance seriously endangered, a little bit of Chinese tweaking wouldn't hurt at all. Especially after miming at the opening ceremony, you would have thought Beijing would have learned a lesson. But, hey, if they can go by once without suspicion and detection, why not do it all the way? Especially considering the advantage of being the authoritarian host. Cover-up is just a piece of cake and could happen without a stir from the critics.

Why do they cheat? I seriously doubt on the effectiveness of cheating when you consider China trains its athlete as young as 4 on his/hers designated sport! In any case, Beijing may have not rigged the Game, but then someone is saying otherwise.

Is He Kexin really underage? That would be extremely hard to prove, given it is "a walk in the park" for the authoritarian regime to rigged the Game. Truth shall be told, 20 years from now. Just like the good ol' Soviet days when taking steroids is a sport. :P

Too Old and Frail to Re-educate? Not in China

Once again, I've been quite busy in recent weeks so don't have time to digest the news and present a more meaningful view of what's happening in China. In any case, here's a decent article on the recent event in Beijing regarding the erosion of rights. China has yet to fulfill and abide by what it has argued so fervently prior to bidding for the Olympics in Beijing - that of alleviating suppression and enhancing individual rights, the rights to congregate, the rights to religious freedom and the rights to freedom of speech and assembly. Has it done that? You be the judge!

Too Old and Frail to Re-educate? Not in China
By ANDREW JACOBS
Published: August 20, 2008

BEIJING — In the annals of people who have struggled against Communist Party rule, Wu Dianyuan and Wang Xiuying are unlikely to merit even a footnote.

The two women, both in their late 70s, have never spoken out against China's authoritarian government. Both walk with the help of a cane, and Ms. Wang is blind in one eye. Their grievance, receiving insufficient compensation when their homes were seized for redevelopment, is perhaps the most common complaint among Chinese displaced during the country’s long streak of fast economic growth.

But the Beijing police still sentenced the two women to an extrajudicial term of “re-education through labor” this week for applying to hold a legal protest in a designated area in Beijing, where officials promised that Chinese could hold demonstrations during the Olympic Games.

They became the most recent examples of people punished for submitting applications to protest. A few would-be demonstrators have simply disappeared, at least for the duration of the Games, squelching already diminished hopes that the influx of foreigners and the prestige of holding the Games would push China’s leaders to relax their tight grip on political expression.

“Can you imagine two old ladies in their 70s being re-educated through labor?” asked Li Xuehui, Ms. Wu’s son, who said the police told the two women that their sentence might remain in suspension if they stayed at home and stopped asking for permission to protest.

“I feel very sad and angry because we’re only asking for the basic right of living and it’s been six years, but nobody will do anything to help,” Mr. Li said.

It is unclear why the police have detained people who sought permission to protest. Some political analysts say the police may be refusing to enforce the government’s order, announced last month, to allow protest zones. Chinese lawyers and human rights advocates also suggested a more cynical motivation — that the authorities were using the possibility of legal demonstrations as a ploy to lure restive citizens into declaring their intention to protest, allowing the police to take action against them.

When the International Olympic Committee awarded the Games to Beijing in 2001, ignoring critics who said China should not be rewarded for repression, its president, Jacques Rogge, offered assurances that the Games would invariably spur China toward greater openness.

But prospects dimmed even before the opening ceremony, when overseas journalists arrived to discover that China’s promise to provide uncensored Internet access was riddled with caveats. The ensuing uproar did persuade the government to unblock some politically sensitive Web sites, but many others, including those that discuss Tibet and the banned spiritual group Falun Gong, remain inaccessible at the Olympic press center.

The announcement that the police had set up protest zones was first greeted as a positive if modest step that could allow Chinese a new channel to voice grievances otherwise ignored by party officials and the state media.

“In order to ensure smooth traffic flow, a nice environment and good social order, we will invite these participants to hold their demonstrations in designated places,” Liu Shaowu, the security director for Beijing’s Olympic organizing committee, said at a news conference. He described the creation of three so-called protest zones and suggested that a simple application process would provide Chinese citizens an avenue for free expression, a right that has long been enshrined in China’s Constitution but in reality is rarely granted.

But with four days left before the closing ceremony, the authorities acknowledge that they have yet to allow a single protest. They claim that most of the people who filed applications had their grievances addressed, obviating the need for a public expression of discontent.

Chinese activists say they are not surprised that the promise proved illusory. Li Fangping, a lawyer who has been arrested and beaten for his dogged representation of rights advocates, said there was no way the government would allow protesters to expose some of China’s most vexing problems, among them systemic corruption, environmental degradation and the forced relocation of hundreds of thousands of residents for projects related to the Olympics.

“For Chinese petitioners, if their protest applications were approved, it would lead to a chain reaction of others seeking to voice their problems as well,” Mr. Li said.

During the past two decades, China has embraced a market economy and shed some of the more onerous restrictions that dictated where people could live, whom they could marry and whether they could leave the country. But with political dissent and religious freedom, the government has been unrelenting.

In theory, the Communist Party allows citizens to lobby the central government on matters of local corruption, the illegal seizure of land and extralegal detentions. In reality, those who arrive at Beijing’s petition office are often met at the door by plainclothes officers who stop them from filing their complaints and then bundle them back to their hometowns. Intimidation, beatings and administrative detentions are often enough to prevent them from trying again.

Daniel A. Bell, who teaches political theory at Tsinghua University in Beijing, suggested that Western political leaders and rights advocates were naïve to think that the Olympics would lead to looser restrictions. Although Chinese have come to enjoy greater freedoms in the past two decades, progress has been largely stalled in the years leading up to the Olympics as officials worked to ensure that nothing would interfere with them.

In recent months, the pressure has only intensified: scores of rights lawyers and political dissenters have been detained, and even the armies of migrant workers who built the Olympic stadiums have been encouraged to leave town, lest their disheveled appearances detract from the image of a clean, modern nation.

“When you have guests coming over for dinner, you clean up the house and tell the children not to argue,” Mr. Bell said.

While the demands of Ms. Wu, 79, and Ms. Wang, 77, the protest applicants, might be seen as harmless, they threatened to expose the systemic problems that bedevil the lives of millions of Chinese. Like many disenchanted citizens, the two women, former neighbors, were seeking to draw attention to a government-backed real estate deal that promised to give them apartments in the new development that replaced their homes not far from Tiananmen Square. Six years later, they are living in ramshackle apartments on the outskirts of the city, and their demands for compensation have gone unanswered.

On Monday, when they returned to the police station to follow up on their protest applications, the women were told they had been sentenced to one year at a labor camp for “disturbing public order.” For the moment, the women have been allowed to return to their homes, but they have been warned that they could be sent to a detention center at any moment, relatives said.

Officials say that they received 77 protest applications but that nearly all of them were dropped after the complaints were “properly addressed by relevant authorities or departments through consultations.”

At a news conference on Wednesday, Wang Wei, the vice president of Beijing’s Olympic organizing committee, was asked about the lack of protests. He said it showed the system was working. “I’m glad to hear that over 70 protest issues have been solved through consultation, dialogue,” he said. “This is a part of Chinese culture.”

But human rights advocates say that instead of pointing the way toward a more open society, the Olympics have put China’s political controls on display.

“Given this moment when the international spotlight is shining on China, when so much of the international media are in Beijing, it’s unfathomable why the authorities are intensifying social control,” said Sharon Hom, the executive director of Human Rights in China. “The truth is they’re sending a clear and disturbing message, one they’re not even trying to hide, which is we’re not even interested in hearing dissenting voices.”

Let the games be doped, why not?

With China dominating over other competitors in the Beijing Olympics, the fervent training routines and massive investment of its domestic athletes has finally paid off. It is no longer a game of spirit and sportsmanship, but rather a mockery of sports investment and budgetary overhauls, with more fundings more returns and vice versa. The reigning champions, China and USA, are a showcase of this glorious system. Especially China, with its 1.3 billion potential participants and a wealth of bank roll, it can afford multitudes of 24/7 militaristic training per athlete for over 600 athletes, without putting a dent on its national budget. So are the athletes really amateurs? Or, are they whole bunch of hormone-driven chimpanzees synchronized to the movements of a specific sport after gazillion rehearsals? Sadly this is the reality, so do not be surprised at the outcome of the XXIX Summer Olympiad.

Let the games be doped? I say why not? At least it'll be more balanced this way, don't you think so? ;)

China's Leaders Are Resilient in Face of Change

Another well articulated article from NY Times on the changing face of China and the inherent problem of a one state system. For those of you who can't go around NY Times' impulsive registration, I'm quoting this article in full. Hopefully it is not plagiarism since I'm too lazy to summarize. :)

One thing to note. No wonder you see people from China coming abroad with a wealth of substance. The upper echelon has already siphoned off enough materialistic goods from the lower that they're no longer deemed useful. The exploitation of the lower class is nothing new and exists since the very beginning when a civilization emerges. However, as civilization progresses, you would've thought the exploitation would diminish, as is happening across the North America and Europe. Unfortunately, it becomes a healthy norm when everybody does it, as is evident in China.

Sadly, even the educated class is turning a blind eye, ignoring rights and being spoon-fed by the party. The day they wake up is the day when TRUE freedom arrives in China.

China's Leaders Are Resilient in Face of Change

BEIJING — As Beijing was starting construction on its main Olympic stadiums four years ago, China’s vice president and leading political fixer, Zeng Qinghong, warned the 70 million members of the ruling Communist Party that the party itself could use some reconstruction.

Mr. Zeng argued that the “painful lessons” from the collapse of other Communist parties in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe could not be ignored. He said China’s cadres needed to “wake up” and realize that “a party’s status as a party in power does not necessarily last as long as the party does.”

Mr. Zeng, who is now retired, was alluding to the pressures of economic liberalization, political stagnation and globalization that many analysts have argued would ultimately topple one-party rule in China. The Olympics also posed a pressure point as some analysts wondered whether the expectations and international scrutiny brought by the Games might help crack open another authoritarian political system — as happened in Seoul in 1988.

But if the Olympics have presented unmistakable challenges and crises, the Communist Party has proved resilient. Public appetite for reform has not waned, but the short-term byproduct of the Olympics has been a surge in Chinese patriotism that bolstered the party against international criticism after its crackdown on Tibetan protesters in March and the controversy over the international Olympic torch relay.

Economic and social change is so rapid in China that the Communist Party is sometimes depicted as an overwhelmed caretaker. But in the seven years since Beijing was awarded the Games, the party has adapted and navigated its way forward, loosening its grip on elements of society even as it crushes or co-opts threats to its hold on political power.

The party has absorbed entrepreneurs, urban professionals and university students into an elite class that is invested in the political status quo, if not necessarily enthralled with it. Private capitalists may be symbols of a changing China. But the party has also clung tenaciously to the most profitable pillar industries and the financial system, and it is not always easy to distinguish the biggest private companies from their state-run counterparts in China’s hybrid economy.

Faced with public anger over corruption, Chinese officials are now required to attend annual training sessions in a nationwide, if not always successful, program to raise competency. And if officials have long since abandoned efforts at Maoist-style thought control, the propaganda machine can still stir up nationalist passions, or shut them off, depending on the party’s priorities.

“This is a very reflective party,” said David Shambaugh, a political scientist at George Washington University and author of “China’s Communist Party: Atrophy and Adaptation.” “They are adaptive, reflective and open, within limits. But survival is the bottom line. And they see survival as an outcome of adaptation.”

The ultimate question is whether adaptation alone is enough. Many analysts say that the lack of democratic reform is inhibiting China’s economic efficiency and that reforms are needed to confront issues like stark inequality and environmental degradation. Thousands of protests erupt every year over illegal land seizures and official corruption. The Tibet crisis revealed Chinese nationalism as a major political force, even as it exposed unresolved domestic issues about freedom of religion and minority rights. To some analysts, the harsh official response to Tibet revealed an insecure, defensive leadership.

“The party doesn’t have self-confidence in its legitimacy,” said Zhang Xianyang, a liberal political analyst in Beijing. “So the government overreacts in the face of social turbulence. I think the regime is not as strong as outsiders and the common people think.

“But they are not as weak as they feel themselves.”

Party Business

For the Communist Party, China’s selection in July 2001 as host of the 2008 Olympics was a political and historic coup: a gift they could deliver to a thrilled citizenry and a new focal point, seven years in the distant future, that could be used to rally national pride.

Inside the party, leaders were intently focused on the viability of their system. The party faced no organized opposition; none is allowed. But the leadership, fretting about historical trends, had commissioned exhaustive autopsies of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern European governments. By June 2001, a month before the Olympic announcement, the Communist Party’s Central Committee organization department, which oversees party promotions and training, had published a blunt report that revealed deep public anger and recommended “system reforms” to address problems of official corruption and incompetence.

China’s economy was soaring, and the country was preparing for entrance into the World Trade Organization. But if free trade could boost China’s exports, the party report also warned that deeper integration into the world economy “may bring growing dangers and pressures, and it can be predicted that in the ensuing period the number” of public protests “may jump, severely harming social stability.”

The dismantling of the planned economy had already presented an ideological challenge: What to do about the emerging class of capitalists who were rapidly accruing wealth? Admitting capitalists struck old-guard Marxists as apostasy, but it made smart politics for a party leery of any group’s emerging as a rival for power. Less than two weeks before the Olympic announcement, Jiang Zemin, who was president at the time, chose the party’s 80th anniversary to declare that capitalists should be invited to join its ranks.

Reformers hoped private businesspeople might one day prove a force for democratization. But today, together with the flow of party officials into the business sector, the mixing of money and power has rendered sharp distinctions about the state and private sectors less meaningful than they seem in the West. Businessmen have established closer links to the government and the party to get access to state bank loans and tap into the network of officials who control land and government contracts. College students eyeing a career in government or academia often make the same calculation.

“The party seems happy with that,” said Bruce Dickson, a China scholar at George Washington University and author of the new book, “Wealth Into Power: The Communist Party’s Embrace of China’s Private Sector.” “They are not looking for die-hard ideologues. They want to co-opt people into their system. And they’ve been far more successful than people realize.”

Beyond managing the rise of private enterprise, the party also faced the collapse of much of the state-owned economy.

The state’s share of the economy fell to about 35 percent in 2006 from 80 percent in 1997, according to a recent analysis in China Economic Quarterly. But that declining share does not reflect declining influence. The party’s analysis of the collapse of the Soviet bloc faulted post-Communist countries for rushing too recklessly into privatization. To preserve the party’s pre-eminence, senior officials adopted a policy of selling off small enterprises with lower profit margins while keeping a grip on the biggest industries.

Today, the state still exercises effective control over natural resources like oil, gas and coal; oil refining; production of steel and ferrous metals; telecommunications, transportation and power generation; and the financial system.

Arthur Kroeber, managing editor of China Economic Quarterly, said officials had injected competition into the state sector by pitting state-owned entities against one another without surrendering control over strategic industries.

“They have retained all the industries that have huge scale and large cash flow,” he said.

Change Agent

If anything has been a change agent in Chinese society, it has been the Internet. In 2001, China had 26.5 million Internet users. Today the figure is 253 million, the most in the world. One of those millions is a software engineer named Lu Yunfei, who joined the crowds at Tiananmen Square on the night Beijing won the Olympics.

The next year, Mr. Lu began surfing the Web and soon stumbled across news accounts of a visit by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan to a war shrine honoring Japanese soldiers, including some accused of atrocities in China. Infuriated, he became one of the legion of the country’s cybernationalists.

“I made a U-turn in my life as a result of the Internet, as a result of freedom of information,” said Mr. Lu, now 33. “The patriotism movement is a result of the development of the Internet.”

Freedom of information always has been considered essential in liberalizing China, and the Internet has disseminated amounts of information once unthinkable. Despite an Internet fire wall and tens of thousands of censors, dissidents still post petitions that once would have gone unheard. Farmers post videos of demonstrations on YouTube.

But nationalism also has flowered online into a complicated force that the party has often managed to cultivate for its own purposes. In 2005, amid a diplomatic standoff between China and Japan, thousands of Chinese protesters held raucous anti-Japan demonstrations in Beijing, Shanghai and other cities. Initially, the government condoned the outbursts, even though such protests are illegal. But eventually, as the protests expanded, the police shut them down.

This year’s Olympic controversies pushed Chinese nationalism onto a world stage. In the days after the Tibetan riots, state media carried hours of coverage of ethnic Tibetans assaulting Han Chinese as well as television documentaries praising economic policies in Tibet. When Western leaders began calling on China to show restraint as it suppressed the uprising, Chinese nationalists rallied to the party’s defense online.

The patriotic anger intensified in April after the ugly anti-China protests that marred the Olympic torch relay in London and Paris. Voices preaching moderation, or questioning the government’s responsibility in the Tibet crisis, were drowned out. As happened three years earlier during the anti-Japan protests, officials initially gave tacit approval to the fervor and even a boycott of the French retailer Carrefour before reining things in to create a more harmonious image ahead of the Games.

Harnessing Pride

For the Communist Party, nationalism has always been a central justification of its rule. Schoolchildren are taught a heroic narrative of the party as the savior of China in 1949 and the savior of Tibet from feudalism and economic backwardness. If Westerners often view China through the prism of the Cultural Revolution and the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, Chinese are taught about the Opium War and the colonialist advances into China by Japan and the West.

“Nationalism and patriotism mean love your country,” said Mr. Zhang, the political analyst. “The Communist Party was so clever because they linked nationalism to loving the party. They said the party was the same as the country.”

Li Datong, a former editor of a top state-run magazine who lost his job after clashing with propaganda authorities, said officials in charge of mass media and the Internet try to leave little to chance. He said the country’s army of censors dipped anonymously into the Internet debate by paying part-time writers 5 mao, or about 7 cents, to steer public opinion and monitor the tone of debate online.

“Their job is to post articles on the B.B.S. to balance public opinion,” Mr. Li said, referring to the Bulletin Board System where many Internet users interact. “The netizens call them the 5 mao party. If they get a post on a B.B.S., they get 5 mao.”

Mr. Lu, the cybernationalist, said Chinese patriots made distinctions between country and party. During the Tibet crisis, he used his Web site to highlight provocative postings criticizing the Western news media or Tibet separatism, as part of the nationalist outpouring backing the party. But in recent weeks, the Internet has also been filled with angry posts — many later censored — blaming the government for a recent energy agreement with Japan.

When it comes to the Olympics, though, Mr. Lu’s interests and the party’s seem inseparable.

“For ordinary Chinese, even if they can’t really articulate it, they feel the Olympics are a very important opportunity for China to demonstrate state power,” Mr. Lu said.

Beijing welcomes you (not!)

With a glamorous image and an extravaganza ready to unroll at 8:00 PM Beijing time (5:00 AM PST) today, everything in the Chinese capital is deemed to overwhelmingly exceed anticipation from worldwide audience and foreign dignitaries. Who can argue with that? With over 40 billion spending, a polished face is what the P.R.C. is aiming for and that's exactly what we will get. Partly thanks to the numerous visa denials to foreigners perceived as potential troublemakers, and the evictions of domestic low-income laborers, Beijing 2008 will be a memorable, yet restricted sport event enjoyable by some but mostly rejected by the conscience few.

Is the door to Beijing really wide open? Or, will it be selectively permitted only to the "friends" of China? The answer to this question will emerge as the Game unrolls... ;)

A hooray of broken promises

With less than one week to go, we are now witnessing Beijing at its finest. With a total mockery of the incompetent I.O.C. and a hooray of broken promises, Beijing has truly outdone its predecessors. It has achieved the impossible, combining nationalism, political hypocrisy, landscape transformation and dissidents purge, all within a mere span of seven years. The unprecedented nationalism, parallel to Hitler and his 1936 Olympics parade, surfaced during the international leg of the Olympics torch rely, when pro-Tibet supporters clashed fiercely with die-hard Chinese patriots in an attempt to disrupt the rely. The torch incident, together with the continuous foreign media criticisms of China, spawns a new generation of nationalists, perceiving China to be amongst hostile powers, when it is in fact not. China's political hypocrisy, illustrated over its attempt to impose sovereignty on both Tibet and Taiwan during the rely, further contradicts its promise not to politicize the game. Its unique landscape transformation of a million projects over Beijing, similar to how the Communists Russia pulled off its 1980 extravaganza, is yet another superficial showcase boasting at how great P.R.C. is, when it is in reality riddled with corruption, scandal, unjust, oppression and exploitation, so to benefit the elite few. Finally, the decades of comprehensive dissident purging campaign and limited political freedom will for sure guarantee an effective, yet smooth, running game. Seriously, with missiles overcasting on the sky above the Olympic venues, networks of surveillance cameras scanning the city, hidden microphones eavesdropping on unsuspected tourists, thousands of undercover police officers searching thousands of cars and trucks entering the city, what can possibly go wrong? Especially when Red Guard lookalike civilians have been called on to defend the motherland, the odds of going wrong is nearly as infinitesimally small.

Despite the hooray of broken promises, is the "true" Olympics spirit still in existence ? When you consider the overwhelming commercialization of the Game and the fight over who wins what, the spirit is long gone even before the Game begins. Olympics is no longer a celebration of the human body and form, but a vehicle for the multinationals to mass disseminate their products and a lucrative tourism opportunity for the hosting country. In the end, isn't a profitable bottom line and personal wealth the final goal to attain to?

Why China Has the Torch? That is a good question. Let us hope the hooray of broken promises will one day be amended, so the people of China may enjoy the true meaning of Olympic Games - that of freedom, equality, and unequivocal human rights.

A queuing gone horribly wrong

For a moment I thought the queuing day imposed by the authoritarian regime is going to have an effect. But apparently not! When push comes to shuffle, a seemingly normal routine can easily disintegrate into something chaotic, as is proven here. Beijing should have known that "an old habit dies hard," and is nearly impossible to eradicate overnight. Same goes for the cumulative effect of pollution. You cannot expect to erase pollution overnight, unless a miracle occur. But then, considering an atheist China, miracle is indeed in short supply there.

An Olympics without the fanfare

China has come a long way since it won the bid to host the 2008 Olympics. It has bribed its way to secure the bid, stifled its opponents, intimidated those who speaks the truth, repressed and tarnished the outspoken activists domestic and worldwide. Now, with the venues all complete, the disposable workforce are evicted so their slums maybe face-lifted to a representable China. In the name of security, a city is now in complete lockdown mode, stripped away all its vitalities so the slightest chance of "supposed" terrorists attack would be unfold before its too late. In addition to the ridiculous Visa rules, the government has also imposed numerous restrictions on foreigners so their whereabouts and intention would not pose a threat to national security. So that its brainwashed citizens, upon interacting with a foreigner, would still abide by and not question the authority. To further the alienation, it has even gone great length to create a manual devising citizens as to how to identify a terrorist and react to in case of a terrorist event, and even set up designated areas for government-sanctioned "protests," bringing closure to the total farce of hosting the Olympics.

Is Beijing ready for Olympics? Yes and no. It is ready with world-class sports venue and a polished image ready to shine, but with an alienated hospitality and pretentious warmth, it is hardly ready to embrace the worldwide audiences, foreign dignitaries, and critics. Maybe an Olympics without the fanfare, synonymous to its torch rely, is exactly what Beijing is looking for, considering the effort it has so far vested in.

An Olympics without the fanfare is truly an event worth watching. Just think about it, the athletes will be able to concentrate without any distraction. How nice is that? :)

Two noticeably prominent media blogs on Beijing Olympics are Middle Kingdom from Geoffrey York and BBC's James Reynolds' China.

Viva la Vida

Live the Life, or something like it.

In a turbulent world of ever changing pace, live the life may not be as glorious and casual as it seems. First, a compromise must be made between life and what is supporting life. Second, different people may have different perception in living the life. Despite personal background, opinion, political, racial and religious differences, it is important to shed a hectic schedule and embrace "Viva la Vida." Only after the full compliance would one dawn the true meaning of life, a life which materialistic possession paves way to frustration, puzzlement and death. Where euphoria contrasts materialism and emerges only after the full surrender of lusting senses.

Live life to the fullest,
Despise all that endangers it,
Protect the cherishing moments,
Engrave the everlasting memory.

"Viva la Vida!"



Artist: Coldplay
Album: Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends (2008)

I used to rule the world
Seas would rise when I gave the word
Now in the morning I sleep alone
Sweep the streets I used to own

I used to roll the dice
Feel the fear in my enemy's eyes
Listen as the crowd would sing
"Now the old king is dead, long live the king"

One minute I held the key
Next the walls were closed on me
And I discovered that my castles stand
Upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand

I hear Jerusalem bells a-ringing
Roman cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror, my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field
For some reason I can't explain
Once you'd gone there was never
Never an honest word
That was when I ruled the world

It was a wicked and wild wind
Blew down the doors to let me in
Shattered windows and the sound of drums
People couldn't believe what I'd become

Revolutionaries wait
For my head on a silver plate
Just a puppet on a lonely string
Oh, who would ever want to be king?

I hear Jerusalem bells a-ringing
Roman cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror, my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field
For some reason I can't explain
I know St. Peter won't call my name
Never an honest word
But that was when I ruled the world

Ohh...

Hear Jerusalem bells a-ringing
Roman cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror, my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field
For some reason I can't explain
I know St. Peter won't call my name
Never an honest word
But that was when I ruled the world

Ooh...

Social networks, a tool to keep 'you' in check!

I was meant to write this piece earlier after having read CS Monitor's article on a premier social network site, Facebook. But it never took off, until recently. When someone dearest of mine starts addicting to Facebook. Notice I jolt down "addicting" instead of "using." It is one thing to "use" the network to "connect," it is another thing to spend 15-hour day on such networking.

Humans are inherently hierarchical social beings. It's a scientifically proven fact that socializing brings forth the survival of the fittest, given chance to parenthood and the passing of the genes. Specifically, we are hierarchical social beings since we tend to socialize amongst known companion of similar background, interest and social hierarchy. In modern days, socializing means opportunities, jobs, love, and perhaps even marriage for some. But to socialize face-to-face in person, one has to be bold, reckless and perhaps a bit of luck in order to turn a thin thread of initial impression into a firm, trusting relationship, the course of which is a challenging hardship, but with fruitful rewards.

With the advent of Internet, the traditional method of face-to-face contact is no longer a requisite. Being tangible is no longer the "norm," when a simple access to the Information Highway would do. Anonymity becomes the new icebreaker between strangers and catchy topic on a forum instantly transforms into the new Mecca in the digital era. An era where a connection happens in a split second on a social network. It feels great to be connected with friends, interwoven in a vast network of supposed relationships and befriend with strangers whom may share only the slightest of interests. The persuasive power of a social network is tantamount. Its irresistible charm of connecting friends is as sweet as it gets. All these "virtual" friends sure to keep you company and instill a sense of utmost belonging when they're in fact hollow, intangible and merely imagination at work. I learned this lesson when I stupidly registered an Orkut account (similar to Facebook, but from Google,) and started dressing it up like Barbie dolls, and repeatedly logging in to see who left a message. Fortunately, with the cumulative experience of first-hand gaming addiction, the onset withdrawal instinct surfaced just as my journey began down the path of no return. I pulled away from social network and never looked back.

So I say, be careful. Social networking is addictive especially when curiosity overcome self restraint. Not only does it keep you in check, it is also addictive, especially with the whole complement of site renovation and photo uploading capabilities, it is as dangerous as online gaming. If there is still time, my suggestion to the regular user would be to pull away from social network and do some real, constructive, tangible network. At the end of day, you would feel better and thank me a thousand times over. :)

Angels, angels, where art thou?

A peace of mind shall befall on the seeker of the holy guardian.

Angels, angels, where art thou? Art thou not the one whom everyone seeks and sought after? Behold, thou shalt come uninvited, ambush and slay thy enemies. Thou shalt protect and comfort thee until the end of days. Thou shalt use thy omnipotent self to safeguard thee biddings down the mortal road. I know that life won't break me. That when thee come to call thou won't forsake me. Loving thou whilst I'm alive and healthy I will abide forever.



Song：Angels
Singer：Robbie Williams

I sit and wait
does an angel contemplate my fate
and do they know
the places where we go
when we´re grey and old
´cos I´ve been told
that salvation lets their wings unfold
so when I’m lying in my bed
thoughts running through my head
and I feel that love is dead
I’m loving angels instead

and through it all she offers me protection
a lot of love and affection
whether I’m right or wrong
and down the waterfall
wherever it may take me
I know that life wont break me
when I come to call she wont forsake me
I’m loving angels instead

when I’m feeling weak
and my pain walks down a one way street
I look above
and I know ill always be blessed with love
and as the feeling grows
she breathes flesh to my bones
and when love is dead
I’m loving angels instead

and through it all she offers me protection
a lot of love and affection
whether I’m right or wrong
and down the waterfall
wherever it may take me
I know that life wont break me
when I come to call she wont forsake me
I’m loving angels instead