Absurdity, Allegory and China

Though details are still emerging, it seems that Sweden’s TV4 has lost the contract as sole broadcaster of the Nobel Prize ceremony after it was learned that CCTV (China Central Television) and Shanghai Media Group violated the ‘no censorship’ clause by cutting a speech by the Nobel Foundation chairman, Marcus Storch . Michael Sohlman, Executive [...]

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While talking is better than not talking, the guarded hope that some are spilling forth today should be even more tempered than it already is. There are certain conversations I would have if I must: with the police if it were to keep me out of jail; to a person with a gun if it [...]

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For those of you who read this blog, you might be asking (but maybe not), “Why hasn’t he been writing about the torch? He followed it through the heat of Muscat and the heavily secured stadium in Islamabad. But what happened to New Delhi, Bangkok, KL and Jakarta?” Well, frankly, it was getting boring. Bangkok [...]

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Yesterday afternoon I watched the video of the April 19, 2008 anti-CNN demonstration in Los Angeles by a large group of Chinese supporters, many of them mainland students on ‘student visas’ in the US. I thought, “Good for them”, they get a chance to see how freedom of speech really works – a minority opinion [...]

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There is an ever-growing list of books and authors writing on the ‘new’ China, and while I do not claim to read much of it, I am always reading about China, though often the works I read are not focused, per se, on the new. One of the newer books I particularly like is Peter [...]

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In the continuing media wars, the China Daily reports The Foreign Ministry Wednesday summoned CNN’s Beijing executives to lodge a solemn representation for failing to apologize for insulting remarks by one of its commentators…. “Journalists should abide by ethics, and don’t have the privilege to slander or rail at anybody or any government”, Liu [Foreign [...]

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On July 2, 1991 President George Bush, Sr. nominated Clarence Thomas to the US Supreme Court. At the time I was rebuilding pianos and worked alone in a small shop in a small town west of Washington DC – far enough away at that time to still be rural, though close enough to be able [...]

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There seems to be some rumblings of a boycott against all things French, as a response to what is perceived to be unbelievable insults and security violations related to the Olympic flame’s stagger through Paris. Carrefours seems to be the biggest target. I am left to wonder what percentage of goods in any given Carrefour [...]

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Beijing Olympic flame arrives in Pakistani capital: w/photo fm Xinhua (China) He’s back on the plane. Jiang Xiaoyu stepped off the torch jet in Islamabad holding high the lantern. A few days back I wondered what had become of Jiang, since he seemed to have disappeared after the abbreviated San Francisco leg. Good to see [...]

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I am unsure what to say about Legs 8 and 9 other than it sounds as if things went without a hitch, according to both Chinese official media and the externally-generated accounts. It must have been warm – the relay through Muskat was an evening jog which included 3 women out of the total field [...]

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