Archive for the ‘Thoughts’ Category
Carrefour in China
As you may heard in the news, Chinese national extremists are boycotting Carrefour in China as the response of protests of torch relay in Paris.
Now here's a chance to see how the boycott in happening in China.
I've always said, Chinese, especially those extremists are no threats to the World. Why? Those people only dare to throw bottles and rocks to shops in China and their chinese owners, oh, and chinese who shopped in Carrefour recently.
But wait, what kind of patriotists can throw bottles and rocks to against their fellow countrymen?
That's only because they know they won't be punished for being "patriotic" in that way. They dare to boycott Carrefour, but no one's willing to protest the Chinese government's deal with Airbus, which is another French company.
If my memory serves me right, in the past ten years, only one protest application was approved by the Public Security Bureau in China. I think that was in anti-japanese raid around 2004, in Beijing.
All other protests you saw from news reports, are "illegal", and those protestors know that there's no way that their protests can be approved.
There's more report on the situation in China in Bear's Blog Chinese.
About ... free trade deal with China
Aunty Helen Clarke is in U.K.. Yesterday she appeared on Hardtalk, BBC's flagship interview programme. It's only 30 minutes long, but a lot of issues were discussed, from republican movement to carbon neutral, and also hot on the agenda, the free trade deal agreement. Read more
About ... the Craccum incident
If you don't know what I'm talking about, here's news: a group of organised Chinese student stole hundreds of University of Auckland's Craccum magazine yesterday morning, because there was a tiny (about 1/4 of an A4 Page) "Fa Lun Gong related" ad in the magazine.
They plan to tear down that page and return the rest of the magazine. Read more
About ... Beijing Olympics
Although some people always say that sports games should not to be politicised, but let's face it, it's impossible to separate two apart - people mix sports and politics all the time.
I can throw you a dozen of examples to prove this: 1936 "Hitler" summer Olympics, 1980 winter and summer Olympics, which America boycotted the games, Munich massacre and to NZers, the recent visa restrictions that stopped number of Fiji sport teams ... and much more.
Whenever there's a protest broke out, the Chinese official's stand is "any attempt to politicise the Olympic games will ultimately fail because it againsts the will of sports-loving people."
However, what I saw is, if there was anyone attempting to politicise Olympic Games, the first one must be Chinese government itself - this game is far more than a game for Chinese Government, it's a event where it attempts to buy global respectability.
The games was also used in propaganda campaign inside China and excuses to force ordinary people to sacrifice their freedom of speech or property.
It is so politicised that the government won't allow any flaws of this game to get exposed to the World, just like this accident most of you probably have never heard about it until now.
The point is, just like commercialisation of Olympic Games, it will also get politicised from time to time. Every one has the right, the freedom to express their opinion and execise what they think like boycott the game or praise it, so I don't think it's wrong to get politics involved in the Olympic Games, and I am very disappointed on New Zealand's attempt to stop kiwi athletes from commenting on political issues.
The choice of whether to comment on the game and/or related political issues should up to each athlete's individual conscience, the last thing we need is a nanny state telling Kiwi Olympians what is right or wrong.
However, I'm not saying which side in this highly disputed game is right: only the time would tell who stands on the moral high ground.
About ... severe cold weather in China
Most up to date information from China says that due to the improved weather condition, most stranded passengers in major train stations are now on their way home.
The problem is, it's New Year's Eve today. In Chinese tradition, tonight is the night of family union. When I was young, Chinese New Year Holiday was always the happiest time, you get lots of good food, presents (most time this means Cash in the Red envelope), just like the importance of Christmas for youngsters here.
But now it seems a lot of people may not able to make it on time and see their child's happy face.
The word "home" has a very special place in the hearts of Chinese People, especially for the migrant workers. In most cases you only get to see your family, your wife or your husband and your children once a year, and now is a time.
In rest of the year, they work long hours for low pay, they save every hard earned cent - never spend more than housing and food cost, so they can bring more money home and hope to get their child a better life, and we can cheaper goods from China.
They are the powerhouse of the booming Chinese economy and yet they received a lot of unfair treatment. When they lived in the tents outside train stations in sub-zero temperature, I saw no one in the local government ever considered somethine like "maybe we should open covered stadiums, schools and get all the empty hotel rooms for them".
Another news says a train was running without air conditioning, food, and water. When the train finally stopped for waterfor more than ten hours, while the trainmen can get off the train and have their food, passengers were prohibited from leaving the train.
It's such a shame for the Chinese authority, what a poor management.
My best wishes are with the people still on their way home, hope them could have a peaceful, and joyful Chinese New Year of Rat with the warmth of their home.
About ... How we remember Sir Edmund Hillary
I don't quite like the idea of create a new national holiday for him. It is very appropriate that we can have a day every year to remember Sir Ed's achievement and reflect on ourself. But the reality is, in those days every holiday we got will eventually become commercialised ---Sir Ed Day sale on now!
If the holiday is really the way to go, all commercial activities must banned on that day.
Rename Auckland International Airport is a better idea. It is very symbolic - with every departing and landing aeroplane, Sir Ed's name and spirit fly with them, high above Mt Everest and the sky.
Also as Auckland is the gateway for most visitors to New Zealand, rename the Airport could help the country to introduce its best to the world.
We can just follow the New York JFK Airport, rename Auckland report to Edmund Percival Hillary International Airport, airport code EPH.
If rename of Auckland Airport isn't possible, we could look at other things such as a mountain or a river in the country.
By the way, his state funeral will be held tomorrow in Auckland, it will be broadcast live on TV ONE. more details here.
The statue of Sir Edmund Hillary gazes towards Mt Cook, New Zealand's highest Mountain.
(Photo Copyright: Jonathan Keelty, released in Wikipedia under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License)
