Liberal-oriented columns, commentary and archived articles on national and international news, politics, and the communication arts--with emphasis on China--by Joseph Bosco, author, journalist, director and actor; Professor of Drama and Communications at Beijing Foreign Studies University, Beijing, China. 

Wednesday, December 31, 2003

A Progress Report

Being the staunch liberal--some would say radical--Democrat that I am, I am going to let the Center for American Progress be my missive to the New Year to dawn in less than four hours here in the Middle Kingdom ( If you haven't already blogrolled America's newest and perhaps best liberal think-tank, then this is my Holiday gift to you!):
2004: The Road Ahead

The Progress Report examines the challenges of upcoming year.

NATIONAL SECURITY

WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION: The WMD-inspecting Iraq Survey Group – minus David Kay – is set to release its final report on the search for WMD this coming February. Although the Bush Administration used the imminent threat of WMD as the premise for going to war in Iraq, the previous interim report released by the ISG last September "found no evidence that Iraq had taken significant steps to build nuclear weapons or produce fissile material after 1991. No evidence that aluminum tubes had been used to enrich uranium. No proof that two trucks carrying laboratory equipment had been designed to produce biowarfare agents, as the president had claimed. No smallpox, anthrax, or VX. No chemical or biological weapons ready to fire in 45 minutes--indeed, no poison gases or germ weapons at all." Progressives need to hold the Administration accountable for the intelligence failures leading up to its WMD claims – and refuse to allow conservatives to say there is “no difference” whether WMD are found in Iraq after all. An aggressive examination of the report and its findings is necessary to redirect resources toward existing threats in the future. Progressives must champion a powerful national security strategy that will best protect Americans and stop the spread of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, while demonstrating the concrete harm to the American people caused by pre-emption and unilateral action.

IRAQ: The Iraqi Governing Council and the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq (CPA) agreed to hand over power to a transitional government in Iraq no later than July 2004. Before that happens, Progressives need to define a strong and sustainable course for U.S. actions in Iraq that utilizes international experience in nation building and charts a realistic course for advancing democratic values and institutions in the region. At the same time, Progressives need to participate actively in the debate over transforming the military to help adapt its roles, size and scope on the battlefield and in post-conflict situations.

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY: This past year saw the advent of the preemptive war, but the Administration is dangerously ignoring pre-emptive peace. In a report titled "Changing Minds, Winning Peace," a State Department advisory group found "the United States today lacks the capabilities in public diplomacy to meet the national security threat emanating from political instability, economic deprivation and extremism, especially in the Arab and Muslim world" in large part because "public diplomacy is absurdly and dangerously underfunded." The NYT reports, "The government's public-relations drive to build a favorable impression abroad — particularly among Muslim nations — is a shambles, according to Republican and Democratic lawmakers, State Department officials and independent experts. They say the effort, known as public diplomacy, lacks direction and is starved of cash and personnel." Despite this, conservatives still give public diplomacy short shrift, just this year attempting to cancel programs such as Radio-Free Europe, "one of the cheapest, most effective and most popular tools of U.S. public diplomacy." Progressives must press for a renewed commitment to public diplomacy throughout the world to help stem a rising tide of anti-Americanism.

ACCOUNTABILITY: A number of troubling controversies continue to go unanswered and progressives must not let the collective memory dim. Halliburton must be held accountable for overcharging the government by as much as $61 million. The Justice Department must aggressively continue its investigation into who in the White House breached national security and leaked the name of a CIA operative. And the Administration must answer questions about why it allowed a drug company CEO and longtime business associate of the President to "craft" key portions of the Medicare bill.
The above is just the start of a great roundup of the important issues before us. Me? Right now I'm going out to have some fun in Beijing!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

(Note: There are many neat things about living in China, just one of them is getting to have 3 Happy New Years. One, in just about 3 hours. Two, 13 hours after the first one (I'm speaking about the one in Times Square, New York). Then the Chinese Lunar New Year and Spring Festival almost a month later!!!
 

9:03 PM / Editor / permalink    0 comments  




Better To Be Careful Now Than Sorry Later

So far so good on the SARS front; the central government is doing everything--perhaps even too much--in its preventive measures against a potential full-force return of the disease. Here's the view from the Beijing bureau of The New York Times in an article by Jim Yardley:
BEIJING, Dec. 30 — Perplexed medical experts from China's Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization have ordered new rounds of tests for a man suspected of having SARS because previous results have been so contradictory that they cannot reach a diagnosis.

"We can't confirm that the patient is a SARS patient or that he is not," said Dr. Julie Hall, the SARS team leader in the organization's office in Beijing. She said his test results have "really been a mixed bag of negatives and positives."

On Tuesday, Dr. Hall said the Ministry of Health agreed to allow W.H.O. laboratories outside China to conduct additional tests on blood and other samples from the patient. She said the samples could be shipped out as soon as Wednesday, though she did not yet know when the testing would occur or at which labs.

New tests are also planned at the provincial health department in the southern city of Guangzhou, where the sick man is hospitalized, and at two laboratories in Beijing affiliated with the Chinese Center for Disease Control. Dr. Hall said those tests could be delayed a few days as researchers await a shipment of control materials.

The decision to conduct more tests came after a long Tuesday meeting in Beijing between Chinese and W.H.O. experts, and also followed a confusing day in which a provincial health official in Guangzhou told a news agency that test results had caused the upgrading of the case from suspected to confirmed.

"The case has been confirmed," Feng Shaoming, the health official, told Agence France-Presse. "Our experts at the Center for Disease Control have made many tests and they are all positive."

But by early Tuesday evening, W.H.O. officials said that it was still too soon to give a diagnosis on the case and that it remained unconfirmed. The Ministry of Health said in a daily update on its Web site the status of the case was unchanged.

The handling of this case is being watched particularly closely given the harsh criticism directed at China for its early handling of the original SARS outbreak. The first person believed infected by SARS came from a suburb of Guangzhou in November 2002. Government officials initially covered up the existence of the disease as it spread through the population.
For the full story, with a good accounting of all details, read it in The New York Times
 

8:01 PM / Editor / permalink    0 comments  




WilsonGate: An Update

It is being said that Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the United States attorney chosen to lead the investigation into the WilsonGate affair when Ashcroft recused himself, will be tenacious in pursuit of the truth. I have some serious doubts, but first let's go to the story. Here is some of what people who should know are saying, in an article in today's The New York Times:
CHICAGO, Dec. 30 — For some who had still wondered whether Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the United States attorney here, would really be as aggressive as had been rumored when he arrived a few years ago from New York, the answer came this month.

Mr. Fitzgerald announced that he was prosecuting former Gov. George Ryan, a Republican, in a scandal that had been swirling around long before Mr. Fitzgerald got here and that many people thought would never touch the most powerful politicians in Illinois. But there Mr. Fitzgerald was, a week before Christmas, ticking off the details of a 91-page indictment against Mr. Ryan, seemingly from memory.

That, even Mr. Fitzgerald's former opponents in the courtroom say, is classic Fitzgerald: dogged, dispassionate and endlessly prepared.

"He doesn't let anything go," said George Santangelo, who represented John Gambino, identified by the authorities as a crime family captain, in a case prosecuted by Mr. Fitzgerald. "We duked it out for about three years, and it was quite a duking session. Let me put it to you this way: If John Ashcroft wanted any favors on this one, he went to the wrong guy. This guy is tough."

After Attorney General Ashcroft chose to recuse himself from an investigation into who gave the name of a Central Intelligence Agency officer to a newspaper columnist, Mr. Fitzgerald was appointed on Tuesday to lead the investigation. Announcing the assignment in Washington, James B. Comey Jr., the United States deputy attorney general and a friend and former colleague of Mr. Fitzgerald, described him as "Eliot Ness with a Harvard law degree and a sense of humor."

Kenneth M. Karas, a co-chief of the terrorism unit in the United States attorney's office in Manhattan who worked with Mr. Fitzgerald for many years, put it this way: "His brain is like a mainframe computer." ...
All well and good, both his friends, colleagues and even former adversaries are trumpeting that Mr. Fitzgerald is indeed the man to dig until it hurts in search for the leaker from within the very administration for which he works. A sterling resume, however, seldom reveals the kind of courage necessary to bite the hand from which its subject feeds. I am not alone in that thought.
But Frederick H. Cohn, a lawyer who represented a defendant against Mr. Fitzgerald in the embassy bombings case, wondered whether anyone who worked within the Justice Department could truly divorce himself from the subtle pressures that might come along in a case like this.

"He is a bulldog," Mr. Cohn said. "If anybody from inside the Justice Department has to do it, he'll be as good as anybody. That said, it would be my feeling that it should have been someone from outside."
It is my feeling also; we shall see...

In The New York Times
  

7:26 PM / Editor / permalink    0 comments  




The Terrorists Have Already Won

If this continues, the terrorists have already won. Shutting down our normal, modern life is what they want. Many thousands of people just died in Iran because of a catastrophic blow delivered by the hands of nature, yet we run because of the relatively low cost in lives from a blow delivered by the hands of a small group of world-class criminals? An example: When confronted with a snarling dog, or many other aggressive creatures, if you turn and run or try to hide, you are lunch. If you stand your ground and stare that same dog in the eyes without fear, it will almost always slink away with a whimper. These murdering human dogs are no different. They smell and see our fear and they are emboldened all the more. They want to eat your lunch, dinner, and breakfast too if you hide and let them.

We are Americans. When did we start running away from enemies? When did we start believing that we should change our way of life because some yapping, anachronistic beast from days long past comes out of its last hiding place to confront us out of desperation? We are America, the land that is inclusive of every ethnicity on this spinning rock: are we now going to close down the very river of diverse humanity that made us what we are just because some wild, rogue criminals might kill a few of us? Do we want to enter another year with hope, or fear? I know my choice. Do you know yours?
The Department of Homeland Security said yesterday that it will restrict private flights over Las Vegas and New York as a precaution for New Year's Eve.

Private aircraft will be banned from flying over the Las Vegas strip, Hoover Dam and Times Square. U.S. officials ordered tighter patrols of airspace over Washington and New York last week, when the Homeland Security Department elevated the nation's alert level to "high" out of concern that terrorists might try to hijack planes and crash them into high-profile targets or set off a "dirty" bomb. Flights also were restricted last week over downtown Chicago. ...

In New York, "anti-sniper teams" will be stationed on downtown rooftops and police wearing radiation detectors and carrying metal detectors plan to inspect partygoers carrying large packages or backpacks, a police spokesman said. City and military police will patrol the sky over Manhattan. Utility covers and mailboxes will be sealed in the 10-block Times Square area.

"Certainly it's going to be an intensive security detail," said New York City Police Department spokesman Kevin Czartoryski "Everyone entering the [Times Square] area is subject to a search. If they're carrying a backpack, they will be definitely be searched."

In Las Vegas, a city that U.S. officials have identified as a possible target by terrorists, sharpshooters will be stationed on rooftops and the military will assist with air patrols over the strip, where 350,000 people are expected to ring in the New Year, officials said.

"The only place in America where there will be more people celebrating will be Times Square," said Greg Bortolin, a spokesman for Nevada Gov. Kenny C. Guinn. "Security is going to be much tighter than it was last year."
In the Washington Post...
  

5:57 PM / Editor / permalink    0 comments  




Another Victory for a Free Press

No one will say this too loudly or too prominently, but this retreat is a direct result of people becoming informed about what their leaders are up to on the hush and hustle side of capitalism. It's in the Washington Post: Military Ends Halliburton Deal To Supply Gasoline to Iraq.
The Pentagon said yesterday that it will end an arrangement with Halliburton Corp. to import fuel to Iraq, a contract that had been criticized by government auditors and Democratic members of Congress.

A military unit that already supplies fuel to the armed forces in Iraq will assume control of the import and distribution of gasoline, kerosene and cooking gas into the country and will find new private contractors through competitive bidding, the Defense Energy Support Center announced.

Pentagon officials said that the change had been under discussion for months and that the timing was not related to allegations that KBR, the Halliburton subsidiary that held the contract, had overcharged the government at least $61 million by buying more expensive fuel from Kuwait instead of Turkey.

"They have the expertise," Glenn Flood, a Pentagon spokesman, said of the military's energy group. "At this point, we need that expertise."
Right. If you believe that, I have some ocean front property in Arizona I want to sell you. Instead, why not read the rest of the story in the Washington Post...
  

4:52 PM / Editor / permalink    0 comments  




All Gawd's Children Got Religion These Days?

Before reading the rest of this post, you have to keep this in mind: Folks lie more about sex and religion than anything else other than income taxes or fishing. Okay, now, David Brooks is writing about some foolishness he calls: The National Creed. Read a bit of this mish-mash, then we'll skip down to the money graphs which just might scare you into joining me in China!
George W. Bush was born into an Episcopal family and raised as a Presbyterian, but he is now a Methodist. Howard Dean was baptized Catholic, and raised as an Episcopalian. He left the church after it opposed a bike trail he was championing, and now he is a Congregationalist, though his kids consider themselves Jewish.

Wesley Clark's father was Jewish. As a boy he was Methodist, then decided to become a Baptist. In adulthood he converted to Catholicism, but he recently told Beliefnet .com, "I'm a Catholic, but I go to a Presbyterian church."

What other country on earth would have three national political figures with such peripatetic religious backgrounds? In most of the world, faith-hopping of this sort is simply unheard of. Yet in the United States, we simply take it for granted that people will move through different phases in the course of their personal spiritual journeys, and we always have. ...
We'll skip the middle, silly part that is all willy-nilly foolishness about all Americans being under one big sunny tent when it comes to beliefs about god: Where was Mr. Brooks when Waco went burning down?
The small groups movement, from which President Bush emerges, emphasizes intimate companionship and encouragement. Members of these groups study the Bible in search of guidance and help with personal challenges. They do not preach at one another, but partner with each other.

The third effect of our dominant religious style is that we have trouble sustaining culture wars. For some European intellectuals, and even some of our own commentators, the Scopes trial never ended. For them, the forces of enlightened progress are always battling against the rigid, Bible-thumping forces of religion, whether represented by William Jennings Bryan or Jerry Falwell.

But that's a cartoon version of reality. In fact, real-life belief, especially these days, is mobile, elusive and flexible. Falwell doesn't represent evangelicals today. The old culture war organizations like the Moral Majority or the Christian Coalition are either dead or husks of their former selves.

As the sociologist Alan Wolfe demonstrates in his book, "The Transformation of American Religion," evangelical churches are part of mainstream American culture, not dissenters from it.

So we have this paradox. These days political parties grow more orthodox, while religions grow more fluid. In the political sphere, there is conflict and rigid partisanship. In the religious sphere, there is mobility, ecumenical understanding and blurry boundaries.

If George Bush and Howard Dean met each other on a political platform, they would fight and feud. If they met in a Bible study group and talked about their eternal souls, they'd probably embrace.
That's it! Well, almost. There is this one lady out there...? But, it sure is looking like it's going to be Clark for this agnostic/shamanist/humanist/sun-worshiper--he's lying less dangerously than the other two.

In The New York Times...
  

4:07 AM / Editor / permalink    0 comments  




The unmistakable Sound Of The Other Shoe Dropping?

We said months ago that there would be another shoe dropping in the WilsonGate affair; plop, goes a Bass Weejun.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Attorney General John Ashcroft will recuse himself from an investigation into who leaked the name of a CIA operative, Justice Department sources said Tuesday.

The investigation will be headed by the U.S. attorney in Chicago, Patrick Fitzgerald, who will report to Ashcroft's new deputy, James Comey, the officials said.

It was not immediately clear why Ashcroft made the decision.

Investigators want to know who leaked the name of Valerie Plame, an undercover CIA officer, to syndicated columnist Robert Novak in July. Plame is married to former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, who has said he believes his wife's identity was disclosed to discredit his assertions that the Bush administration exaggerated Iraq's nuclear capabilities to build the case for war.

The leaker could be charged with a felony if identified.

The FBI has interviewed more than three dozen Bush administration officials, including political adviser Karl Rove and press secretary Scott McClellan.

The interviews have extended beyond the White House to other government agencies. The Defense and State departments and the CIA itself also are part of the probe.

The focus, however, remains on the White House, two law enforcement officials said on condition of anonymity. While the initial, informal interviews have yielded no major breaks, the FBI is satisfied that the dozen agents assigned to the probe are making progress and have not encountered any stalling tactics, the officials said Thursday.

So far, no grand jury subpoenas have been issued, they said.

Boxloads of documents have been forwarded to the FBI team, including White House phone logs and e-mails. More documents are being produced, as the contents of individual items sometimes lead agents to request additional materials, one official said.

Wilson said he had no idea why Ashcroft chose to recuse himself now. He speculated that Ashcroft, who has long ties to members of the president's staff, simply wanted to make sure that any findings at the end of the investigation are not tainted by even the suspicion of conflict of interest.

"I would have no idea whether a report has emerged that led him to recuse himself," Wilson said in a telephone interview Tuesday. "I have always said, as some senators have argued, that the administration needed to take a good hard look at this."

He declined to express satisfaction over Ashcroft's recusal.

"It's not a question of whether I'm happy about it," he said. "The crime that was committed was not committed against me or my wife, but against my country. It's the country that's the victim in this."
Of course, it can certainly be deduced that this action is preparatory to an eventual white-wash that would not be sullied by having Ashcroft's name on it.

The New York Times
  

3:35 AM / Editor / permalink    0 comments  




As Good A Day To Die As Any Other, But Say It With Love And Compassion

With so much death in the news, and on my mind, I thought an article in The New York Times by Jane E. Brody, Facing Up to the Inevitable, in Search of a Good Death, was worth noting and passing along. The writing is crystal clean but softly so, the knowledge is invaluable. Here's how it starts:
The year was 1958, I was 16 and my mother was lying in a hospital bed connected to all sorts of tubes and was dying of cancer. As her life slipped away, a nurse slapped an oxygen mask on her face and asked me to hold it. There was no chance for either of us to say goodbye or 'I love you.' I carry this medicalized memory of my mother's death with me to this day.

I am hardly alone. Cicely Saunders, the founder of the first modern hospice, said, "How people die remains in the memories of those who live on."

Experts on end-of-life care say that my mother's death was handled wrong, all wrong. Chalk it up to ignorance back then. But 45 years later, despite a greatly enhanced understanding of what happens to a person near the end of life, little has changed in the way most people die in hospitals or nursing homes.

All too often, life is prolonged in pain or discomfort, with medical interventions and instruments precluding an opportunity for loved ones to say goodbye.

Such was the case for 22-year-old Dave Fulkerson, who was hit by a car while he was jogging with his girlfriend. In the intensive care unit, his family was not allowed to see him for three hours. By then, he was no longer able to talk. Further, only one person was allowed in for five minutes every two hours. Eventually, his frustrated girlfriend went home, and his parents fell asleep in the waiting room, only to be awakened by a nurse and told their son had died.
The way that I heard the words informing me that my 57 year-old, perfectly healthy father was dead haunts me, torments me, turns the center of me into shivering, quivering black dread and panic still, and it has been 28 years ago this week. Those words came from a loved one who in her pain wanted to hurt someone who loved him as much as she did so that perhaps in a moment of great need I would love her the way I loved him. It did not work. Read the rest of this article in The New York Times...
  

2:58 AM / Editor / permalink    0 comments  




Take This Test and Find Out What You Are

folknik
You are a Folkie. Good for you.


What kind of Sixties Person are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

  

1:21 AM / Editor / permalink    0 comments  




The Ad Campaign: Clark Brings a Big Gun Into the Race

Doctor Dean has Al Gore, a fine man, and a good politician; General Clark has Bill Clinton, an extraordinarily complex man, and a great politician. Well, at least he has him on TV. General Clark is the first of the Running Dems to use the image of Mr. Clinton, the only two-term elected Democratic President since FDR. As noted by The New York Times, that is the biggest gun in the arsenal. No, it is not an endorsement. But, if President Clinton doesn't publicly disavow his prominence in the TV spot, it just about the next best thing to an endorsement.
This 30-second advertisement from Gen. Wesley K. Clark began running yesterday in New Hampshire and will start soon in South Carolina, Oklahoma and Arizona. It is the first commercial of the Democratic presidential primary campaign to use the image of Bill Clinton.

ON THE SCREEN: The commercial opens with a black-and-white still photo of General Clark standing in an industrial kitchen with a cook, then goes to a photo from his Army days, in which he has clasped the shoulder of a black soldier. The commercial then switches to color and shows President Bill Clinton walking across a stage at the White House and hanging a medal around General Clark's neck. In the background applauding is Hillary Rodham Clinton. The commercial then goes back to black-and-white still images, showing General Clark with older people, with a war veteran and with children.

THE SCRIPT: Text on a black screen: "What if we could have a president?"

Male narrator: "What if we could have a president who in his lifetime has seen ordinary people do extraordinary things? Because he believed in them. Who was decorated for valor and service to our country. Who helped negotiate a peace."

Text on screen: "Helped negotiate the Bosnia peace accords."

Male narrator: "And has dedicated his life to protecting our country. Because like you, he believes America is ready to do great things. A new American leader."

Text on a black screen: "Wes Clark for President. Democrat. www.clark04.com."

General Clark: "I'm Wes Clark and I approve this message."

ACCURACY: General Clark, the former supreme allied commander in Europe, received multiple decorations in his 34-year military career. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Mr. Clinton in 2000. The commercial does not mention that just months before that ceremony, Mr. Clinton's administration relieved General Clark of his command.

SCORECARD; While the Democratic candidates are jousting for Mr. Clinton's blessing, General Clark receives it in living color. The addition of Mrs. Clinton is icing on the cake. The message is unmistakable: General Clark is ready to step in as commander in chief.
The New York Times
  

12:10 AM / Editor / permalink    0 comments  



Tuesday, December 30, 2003

Things Are Booming For The Rich

Mr. Krugman is back reminding us that America is still heading down two paths economically: one for the rich and another one for everybody else. Which, of course, is exactly how the haves would have it if they could keep having things their way: a class-based society. In fact, just to taunt those muscle-heads from the right, Mr. Krugman actually typed the phrase "Class Warfare!" into his CPU. Can you hear that thin, shrill wailing and gnashing of broken teeth? Yep, it's those right-nutters railing at the fates that rendered their worst enemy too smart for them to answer back with facts instead of more stale old ad hominem bluster.
It was a merry Christmas for Sharper Image and Neiman Marcus, which reported big sales increases over last year's holiday season. It was considerably less cheery at Wal-Mart and other low-priced chains. We don't know the final sales figures yet, but it's clear that high-end stores did very well, while stores catering to middle- and low-income families achieved only modest gains.

Based on these reports, you may be tempted to speculate that the economic recovery is an exclusive party, and most people weren't invited. You'd be right.

Commerce Department figures reveal a startling disconnect between overall economic growth, which has been impressive since last spring, and the incomes of a great majority of Americans. In the third quarter of 2003, as everyone knows, real G.D.P. rose at an annual rate of 8.2 percent. But wage and salary income, adjusted for inflation, rose at an annual rate of only 0.8 percent. More recent data don't change the picture: in the six months that ended in November, income from wages rose only 0.65 percent after inflation.

Why aren't workers sharing in the so-called boom?
It's a very sobering question, which Mr. Krugman answers in his inimitable style of wordsmithing in today's The New York Times...
  

9:14 PM / Editor / permalink    0 comments  




People's Daily: China may participate in reconstruction of Iraq

This analysis and commentary piece, while it speaks of events earlier in the week and month, was published today in the People's Daily. Apparently China has reason to believe it will not be excluded from reconstruction contracts in Iraq.
On December 23, US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld indicated that the Pentagon didn't prohibit China from participating in Iraq's postwar reconstruction. But earlier, US attitude was not like this. On December 9, US Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz issued a memorandum, declaring that the United States would prohibit those countries which opposed the Iraq War from participating in the activities of bidding for Iraq's reconstruction, China was then in the 'black list'. On December 15, US President George W. Bush again announced the list of countries that could participate in the bidding for the contract worth US$18.6 billion for Iraq's reconstruction, again China was not in the name list. For a while, whether China could participate in Iraq's reconstruction became a topic of concern to the people.
This commentary goes on at some length to explain the background of already contracted obligations pre-war Iraq had with Chinese firms, and then continues explaining the situation of the moment and what China reasonably expects it to be in the near future. It is well worth reading in the People's Daily...
 

5:27 PM / Editor / permalink    0 comments  




People's Daily: Saddam confesses to stealing billions before ouster

Some days I choose to blog the state-owned news media in China even on international stories; I do this for a couple of reasons. One is that they are almost always brief and directly to the point. The other is that it is in contrast to what I read in the western media, and contrast is the spice of intellect the same as it is in art. Without light and shade, everything would be grey and virtually invisible. The same is true with ideas and information; there must be something in contrast or very little would be discernible in your mind from anything else--just a mass of grey ideas. Think about it. Oh, I also love the hyperlinks sprinkled throughout, little nuggets of basic information that come in handy when reading a short news story.
Saddam Hussein has acknowledged depositing billions of dollars abroad before his ouster and has given interrogators the names of people who know where the money is, a member of the Iraqi Governing Council said in remarks published Monday.

The U.S.-appointed council estimates that the Iraqi dictator seized $40 billion while in power and is now searching for that amount deposited in Switzerland, Japan, Germany and other countries, Iyad Allawi told the London-based Arab newspapers Al-Hayat and Asharq al-Awsat.

"Saddam has started to give information on money that has been looted from Iraq and deposited abroad," Allawi told Asharq al-Awsat. "Investigation is now concentrated on his relationship with terrorist organizations and on the money paid to elements outside Iraq."

Allawi said Saddam, who has been questioned by American interrogators since his capture this month, gave names of people who know where the money is deposited and also know the location of arms and ammunition depots used by insurgents in attacks against the coalition forces and the Governing Council.

In similar remarks to Al-Hayat, Allawi said Saddam had confessed to "important matters," a reference to the smuggling of billions of dollars abroad.

"We have asked international legal and specialized companies to follow up the money he (Saddam) has deposited in Switzerland, Germany, Japan and other countries which is estimated at around $40 billion under fictitious companies' names," Allawi told Al-Hayat.

Allawi spoke to Lebanese journalists during a private visit to Beirut last week.
People's daily
  

4:50 PM / Editor / permalink    0 comments  




28,000 bodies...!

The mind boggles; the heart aches; the belly quivers because it is not you or your loved ones but could be within the next moment, day, week, month or year.
Rescuers have pulled from rubbles about 28,000 corpses that were buried after the powerful earthquake hit the southeastern Iranian city of Bam on Friday, state radio reported Tuesday.

State radio quoted a local official as saying that the final toll will probably top 30,000.

Earlier, officials from Kerman province said 25,000 bodies have been recovered following the quake which measured 6.3 on the Richter scale.

Only 2,000 people have been pulled out alive from the ruins.

Meanwhile, state radio quoted President Mohammad Khatami as saying that the government has promised to reconstruct the historic city of Bam.

"The town of Bam must reappear on the map of Iran," Khatami said during a meeting at Bam airport.
People's Daily
  

4:20 PM / Editor / permalink    0 comments  




Death & Destruction & Gawd

Every day there is so much death and destruction in our news: be it war, suicide bombers, high school kids with automatic weapons, new diseases we know little about, airline crashes, careless safety management, nature. There are many who will say such things as, "It is god's will; we must not question his wisdom. He works in mysterious ways; God's will be done." What!? My question then is simple, or rather it is a demand: If all of this is god's will, let's fire his butt and get a new one! This one is having too much fun playing sadistic games. Criminy, if this is his will, then he is as psychopathic as any serial killer, or thrill murderer I ever interviewed, studied or read about.

I'm serious. If all of this is some god's will, then goddamn him to his own eternal hell because he's a stone-cold killer without motive or cause. Give me a god who is better than man. Not one like man, who murders and destroys out of anger, wrath, vengeance, jealousy ( "Thou shall have no other gods before me" ), deterrence...etc. Those are human traits! If I want to worship a human, I want it to look and act like Jane Fonda or Debra Winger or Elisabeth Shue or more directly to the point, any one of about a dozen young, beautiful Chinese ladies in my "Media & Foreign Policy" classes (now that's wishful thinking and self-delusion on a par with God-believers). But I can rant on till the albatross flies backwards and it will have no consequence, the mayhem and suffering will not abate one whit.
As of Monday morning, the death toll from Tuesday's gas blowout rose to 234 in Kaixian County in southwest China's Chongqing municipality as more bodies were found in nearby mountainous villages, according to the local government.

An investigation team was busy working while environmental protection staff, health and epidemic prevention workers, and over 1,000 soldiers, armed police and militia, continued their rescue work.

Kaixian County has received over 10,000 quilts sent by the Ministry of Civil Affairs and over 300 tons of food, medicine and other donations from neighboring areas.

On Sunday morning, some 600 officials with 125 vehicles had been organized by the local government to help local residents return home as the blowout had already been contained. Villagers living near the gas well are expected to go home Monday.

The accident took place at 10:00 p.m. on Dec. 23 at a natural gas field in Kaixian county, operated by China National Petroleum Corporation, when a well burst and released a high concentration of natural gas and sulfurated hydrogen.

In five villages near the gas well, the bodies of poisoned animals, including 2,275 rabbits, 866 pigs, 241 ducks, 476 chickens and 38 dogs were found and buried.
People's Daily
 

3:26 PM / Editor / permalink    0 comments  




China: Up, Up & Away!

It seems that China is serious about spurring a space race--and why not? It beats to hell and back the rest of the world's current obsession: War. Yes, yes, I know that space exploration and its technology can and probably will have military by-products and applications for the PLA. Again, I ask: Why not? Defense capability is an obligation of government, all governments. On the other hand, unilateral offensive capabilities are choices or options of a government that warrants close scrutiny by all other nations. I believe there is only one nation on earth that is far and away preeminent in that category, and it is not China.
China launched a high-altitude orbiting satellite into the preset orbit successfully Tuesday morning, using a Long March 2C/SM carrier rocket, according to witnesses at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China.

Witnesses said the "equatorial orbiting" satellite, named Probe No. 1, was launched at 03:06 a.m. Tuesday from Xichang in Sichuan Province.

Tracking reports from the Xi'an Satellite Monitor and Control Center showed the launch was successful. The satellite had entered an orbit with a perigee of 555 kilometers and an apogee of 78,051 kilometers, and at a gradient of 28.5 degrees.

Probe No.1, the first satellite of the Double Star Project, is the highest orbiting satellite China has ever launched. The apogee of its orbit is more than twice as high as the geosynchronous orbit.

Weighing 350 kilometers, the satellite is expected to work in space for 18 months.

Proposed by Chinese scientists in 1997, the Double Star Project is the first China-Europe joint satellite probe program.

This is also the first time that China cooperated with developed countries with its own space exploration programs.

The design and manufacture of the platform and the assembly of Probe No. 1 were carried out by the Space Technology Institute of the China Aerospace Technology Corporation. Its probe equipment were developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and eight European scientific research institutions.
Read the rest of the story in the People's Daily...
  

1:20 PM / Editor / permalink    0 comments  




We grieve, But We Cannot Quit

Death does not take a holiday in Iraq. While much of America was watching the NFL Playoff schedule take final shape (not in China, though, damn!) coalition troops were fighting, dying and killing. That will put a damper on things NFL--even Brett Favre's banner day that spoiled the Vikings party (highlights, sometimes, on CNN Asian Edition). War is truly hell when it becomes so commonplace that we can speak or write about combat fatalities and football in almost the same breath.
Two American soldiers died in Iraq, the United States military announced today, one in an incident involving suspected rebels and another from an undetermined illness at a medical facility.

In Baghdad on Sunday, a soldier from a First Armored Division task force was killed and five other soldiers were wounded when an improvised explosive device detonated during a patrol east of the Karadah district of the capital at about 10:13 a.m.

The wounded soldiers were evacuated to military medical facilities, Central Command said in a statement today, but no other information was available.

The soldier who died from an unknown illness, from Task Force Ironhorse, was being treated at a medical center about six miles west of Bayji, between Tikrit and Mosul. Medical personnel immediately attended to the soldier, who was not identified, but were unable to revive him, Central Command said.

The incident is being investigated, the command said.

In an incident in the northern city of Mosul on Sunday, three Iraqis were killed and two American soldiers were wounded when a search for insurgents set off a firefight. Suspected members of the Ansar Al Islam militant group threw a grenade and fired on soldiers of the Second Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, searching a home for insurgents, the command said.
In The New York Times...
  

1:54 AM / Editor / permalink    0 comments  



Monday, December 29, 2003

The World’s Smallest Political Quiz

Want to have a little fun in your surfing away from too much good eats and good scotch and good company (well, not all of it's good company--unless you're in China and your in-laws and family are in the states) during the holiday season? Then click on over to a website/weblog called Advocates for Self-Government, an unabashed, crusading organization for Libertarianism, an economic, political and sociological philosophy that many liberals and conservatives--from far left to far right--share parts of even though most don't know it or if they did wouldn't admit to it in polite company.

On the site you will find a link to: The World's Smallest Political quiz. Take the quiz--it won't take but a minute, there are only 10 questions--and find out what you really are on the question of political philosophy, although it's more sociologically metaphysical in my way of looking at such matters, but that is getting too academic. You might surprise yourself and you might not. Whichever, learning or confirming what you are, is not a bad thing to do.

My results did not surprise me at all, here take a look. In truth, while this is kind of fun, the underlying question asked and maybe answered cannot be overstated in its importance to the world in which you wish to live.

While you are at the site--which might be awhile, there are a number of fun, interesting, enlightening links to play clickity click with. One is: Polling firm gives Quiz to America. The page that brings you to is very instructional if you really are in the punditry business.

Anyway, give it a look if you have any interest in such things (my guess is that you can't help yourself from taking a peek). Enjoy.
  

10:05 PM / Editor / permalink    0 comments  




News On The Valerie Plame Leak Investigation, Finally

The Valerie Plame WilsonGate affair and subsequent investigation has been out of the press for awhile. So, out of sight, out of mind? No, it appears that the story and investigation has been bubbling, boiling and roiling just under the radar. In fact, things look even more ominous for Shrub & Twigs with each quiet turning of the screw. Thanks to Calpundit for noticing something that was right under my nose--or mouse actually--even though I am on the other side of the globe from the scene of the crime. From the Washington Post:
The Justice Department has added a fourth prosecutor to the team investigating the leak of an undercover CIA officer's identity, while the FBI has said a grand jury may be called to take testimony from administration officials, sources close to the case said.

Administration and CIA officials said they have seen signs in the past few weeks that the investigation continues intensively behind closed doors, even though little about the investigation has been publicly said or seen for months.

According to administration officials and people familiar with some of the interviews, FBI agents apparently started their White House questioning with top figures -- including President Bush's senior adviser, Karl Rove -- and then worked down to more junior officials. The agents appear to have a great deal of information and have constructed detailed chronologies of various officials' possible tie to the leak, people familiar with the questioning said. ...

But sources said the CIA believes that people in the administration continue to release classified information to damage the figures at the center of the controversy, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV and his wife, Valerie Plame, who was exposed as a CIA officer by unidentified senior administration officials for a July 14 column by Robert D. Novak. ...

Sources said the CIA is angry about the circulation of a still-classified document to conservative news outlets suggesting Plame had a role in arranging her husband's trip to Africa for the CIA. The document, written by a State Department official who works for its Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), describes a meeting at the CIA where the Niger trip by Wilson was discussed, said a senior administration official who has seen it.

CIA officials have challenged the accuracy of the INR document, the official said, because the agency officer identified as talking about Plame's alleged role in arranging Wilson's trip could not have attended the meeting.

"It has been circulated around," one official said. CIA and State Department officials have refused to discuss the document.

On Oct. 28, Talon News, a news company tied to a group called GOP USA, posted on the Internet an interview with Wilson in which the Talon News questioner asks: "An internal government memo prepared by U.S. intelligence personnel details a meeting in early 2002 where your wife, a member of the agency for clandestine service working on Iraqi weapons issues, suggested that you could be sent to investigate the reports. Do you dispute that?" ...

White House officials profess to be unconcerned about the outcome of the investigation. Some administration officials said they believe charges will eventually result, although it could be as long from now as 2005. A Republican legal source who has had detailed conversations about the matter with White House officials said he "doesn't get any sense at all that they're worried or concerned, or that they're covering up."

Still, the White House is eager for the findings to emerge soon, or wait until after the November election. "The only fear I've heard expressed is that the investigation will be too slow or too fast and will kick into a visible mode in a way that is poorly timed for the election," the Republican said. "If they prosecuted someone tomorrow, I don't think the White House would care. And they can do it in December 2004. They just don't want it to become an issue in the election."
Give the whole article a read, in the Washington Post
 

2:45 PM / Editor / permalink    0 comments  




Give Me That Old Time Liberalism

He will speak like Democrats used to. She will speak the words we need to hear from a citizen leading the still greatest experiment in Freedom the world has ever known. He will remind us that we are a people who believe in freedom so much we will pay the price of an open society rather than accept the slavery of a closed one only for some dubious promise of safety. That is not America. She will tell us that the lesson of 9/11 wasn't how vulnerable we are. America has always been vulnerable to those who will use our freedom to strike us. But how often has it happened? Rarer than hen's teeth. He will say that the lesson of 9/11 was and is how a great and open nation of free people living free have the embedded durability of our cherished system to shake off everything from a great Civil War, to the two wars to end all wars, the assassination of presidents and great citizen leaders, even the stealing of elections, and still the ship of state will right itself every time and remain the envy of all people who dream of living free.

With a clear and ringing voice she will have us remember that there was honor in never striking first. He will say that there was greatness in climbing up from the bloodied ground and striking back with justice and the unquestioned might of a nation united.

Those days can not come again, but the principles can, we just need real leaders who truly believe in the American way. We need men and women of vision; we do not need men and women who vent in rage and revenge and bully talk! We are America. We beat Hitler and Tojo at the same time, and we did it with unquestioned right on our side. We did it with absolutely no brag, or arrogance from the White House or the houses of state.

We cannot let anyone change us because we are afraid of being hit first. When did we become the bloated silver-spoon on the school playground that cried for sympathy and railed in self-pity and self-righteousness when he was sucker-punched by some loudmouth bully? Give us back our honor and our freedom—give us back men and women who know that being an American means that we have to live and act above the fray of lesser nations with old, corrupted systems.

Give us leaders who have the superiority of the rule of law and rationality, not the rule of arrogance and born-again true-believers of intolerance who revel in their dependency only upon their own kind. Give us men and women who are not afraid to be wrong and say so. Give us leaders who talk and lead out front, not preach and hide in back. Give us leaders who lead with big ideas, not small ideology. Give us leaders who love words and books and art and all the things that lift up our eyes and minds to see and know what we can become, not what we have been. Give us leaders who have known war and peace and love peace more because they saw the blood and felt the fear.

But mostly give us leaders who know that above all America is a state of mind, not a state of mine or yours, or us or them...then no one but the most base and evil will feel the need to strike it down because it is not theirs. But when they do, give us leaders that will lead us openly as we strike back with deliberate pace, united, with right and might.

Where? Please tell us where such men and women are to be found today when we need them more than even breath itself? Because to breathe the air of fear and hatred, the air of isolation and incivility, is to not live and breathe as Americans at all.
 

2:14 PM / Editor / permalink    0 comments  




Blogging The Earthquake In Iran

That estimable Weblog Boing Boing has a roundup of earthquake blogging in country. I will post part of it here, and say "great work, folks." This particular post was produced by Xeni Jardin.
The recent earthquake in Bam, Iran may have claimed as many as 40,000 lives by some estimates. Sorting through the Persian blogosphere, you'll find a number of sites where residents and expatriates are posting about this tragedy, and its impact on their country's future.

Hossein Derakshan has yet to sound out on his English-language site, but there's a post on his Farsi blog for those who read Farsi. Among the English-language sites where posts are already out: Persianblogger.com, Pesmanesque, Days of My Life In California, Iranian Truth, Iranfilter, Eyeranian, HumanFirstThenaProudIranian. Many more are listed here, including blogs written in Farsi (there are probably more than 12,000 of them -- here is a good background piece on the Persian blogosphere, from Wired News). And finally, Doug Rushkoff (not Persian) has this to say.
Boing Boing
  

1:51 PM / Editor / permalink    0 comments  




Friedman Gets The Cure In Poland

Thomas Friedman has found that rarest of spots on this earth, a place where America, and Americans, are not dirty words. Believe it or not, it's Poland, the butt of too many bad jokes over the decades. This is not surprising to me, I have always had a fondness for all things Polish. My only son is half Polish; his mother is 100 percent a daughter of Poland. But this isn't about me and Poland, it's about Poland and America. Let Mr. Friedman tell you all about it.
WARSAW.

I found the cure.

I found the cure to anti-Americanism: Come to Poland.

After two years of traveling almost exclusively to Western Europe and the Middle East, Poland feels like a geopolitical spa. I visited here for just three days and got two years of anti-American bruises massaged out of me. Get this: people here actually tell you they like America — without whispering. What has gotten into these people? Have all their subscriptions to Le Monde Diplomatique expired? Haven't they gotten the word from Berlin and Paris? No, they haven't. In fact, Poland is the antidote to European anti-Americanism. Poland is to France what Advil is to a pain in the neck. Or as Michael Mandelbaum, the Johns Hopkins foreign affairs specialist, remarked after visiting Poland: "Poland is the most pro-American country in the world — including the United States."
You must read the rest of this column in The New York Times...
  

3:11 AM / Editor / permalink    0 comments  




The Bastards Are Blowing Up Children: We Grieve and Shudder at the Loss of Innocents But We Cannot Quit

I would say we have the answer as to how much affect Saddam Hussein being captured in a hole in the ground without firing a shot in defense of himself would have on the war: Zilch, Nada. Zero. None. If anything, the sons of bitches appear to be invigorated, even more determined. So the killing will continue. But the numbers and time are on our side; we will kill many, many more of them than they will kill coalition forces.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Guerrillas detonated a powerful bomb in a busy Baghdad shopping district on Sunday, killing a U.S. soldier and two Iraqi children, and another U.S. soldier died in an attack on a convoy west of the capital.

The ambushes came a day after coordinated suicide bomb, mortar and machinegun attacks in the holy city of Kerbala killed 19 people -- five Bulgarian and two Thai soldiers and 12 Iraqis -- the deadliest strike on foreign troops since the capture of Saddam Hussein.

The Baghdad attack, which targeted U.S. vehicles driving through the Karada shopping area, wounded five American soldiers, eight members of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps and an Iraqi translator.

"A soldier from the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment and two Iraqi children standing nearby were killed when the IED (improvised explosive device) detonated as a convoy was passing,'' military spokesman Captain Jason Beck said.

"At this stage we don't know how serious the injuries are.''

Beck said the explosion occurred at around 10:15 a.m. (2:15 a.m. EST) when the streets of Karada, a bustling area of shops and stalls, would have been crammed with people.

Northeast of the flashpoint town of Falluja, another bomb attack on a convoy killed one soldier from the 82nd Airborne Division and wounded three, the U.S. Army said.

MOUNTING DEATH TOLL

The attacks raised to 212 the number of U.S. soldiers killed in action since Washington declared major combat over on May 1. Attacks appear to be continuing at a consistent pace despite the capture of former dictator Saddam Hussein on December 13.

Bulgaria's Defense Ministry said a fifth Bulgarian soldier died from his wounds on Sunday after a suicide car bomb attack on Saturday that destroyed the Bulgarian military headquarters in Kerbala and wounded 27 soldiers.

But Sofia said it remained committed to its pledge to help Washington fight global terrorism. "We once again declare our firm will to fight all attempts to destroy the values of humanity and civilization all over the world,'' Deputy Defense Minister Ilko Dimitrov told a press conference.

Thailand also said it had no plans to withdraw medical and engineering troops from Iraq. "As of today, there is no change in our presence there as the morale of our troops remains high,'' Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said in Bangkok.

IRAQI OFFICIALS TARGETED

In the Kurdish city of Arbil in northern Iraq, gunmen killed three bodyguards of Jawamer Atia, deputy director-general of security at the local interior ministry, during a bid to assassinate him on Sunday, the city's police chief said.

Five people, including Atia, were wounded in the attack.

Near Mahmudiya, south of Baghdad, gunmen opened fire on a car carrying foreign contractors working with the Ministry of Electricity, killing two Iraqi security guards, police said. A British official said a British contractor was shot in the leg in the attack and was recovering in hospital.
The New York Times
  

2:34 AM / Editor / permalink    0 comments  




You Guess: Top ten domestic news stories in 2003

What were the top 10 domestic news stories in China? Under the maxim that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, the western media should say thank you for the compliment being paid it by its colleagues in the state-owned media in China. So, test your geopolitical IQ and see if you can guess the "winning" events in China. When you are stumped, go click and read all about it.
China's Xinhua News Agency has selected out the top 10 domestic news stories in 2003, including election of new leaders, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic, successful spaceflight of Shenzhou-5 and the latest gas field blowout in southwest China.

Election of new government leaders was a big event for China in 2003. In March of this year, China held the First Session of the 10th National People's Congress and elected new government leaders including President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao. New CPPCC leaders were also elected at the First Session of the 10th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) held in March.
Okay, so they give away 4 out of the 10 upfront. Now you guess the rest... in the People's Daily
  

2:01 AM / Editor / permalink    0 comments  




The People's Daily: China seals up gas well, investigation continues

In a country where mining accidents of every type are tragically far too frequent, the blowout of the natural gas well near Chongqing is horrific and it is being reported so. But, like every other nation in a time of disaster, for those who have to work in its immediate aftermath, there is that special sense of camaraderie and achievement at every small level of success in dealing with the tragedy. It is the same here, in the ancient, but so new Middle Kingdom.
After two hours of struggle to pump mud into a gas well which blew out Tuesday in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, emergency teams and technicians finally sealed it off Saturday morning.

Preparations for the capping operation started Friday evening at the gas field. Reporters were ordered to stay at least four kilometers away.

The operation, originally set for 10:00 am Friday, was postponed by one day in order to complete the evacuation of non-essential personnel.

Over 100 medical workers and anti-chemical warfare corps soldiers started a large-scale disinfection of the gas blowout site and eight nearby villages soon after the capping operation was completed Saturday morning.

Samples of plants and water were taken away for examination by the local environmental protection department.

Local people might be allowed to return home within days, after the environment is cleaned and strict protection measures are taken, local officials said.

Meteorologists also expressed optimism.

"Breezes and moderate rain in the next three days will be helpful for preventing the spread of the gas fumes," said Qiao Lin,a senior engineer with the Central Meteorological Station.

"Such weather will also help pollutants sink into the earth in areas near the gas field," Qiao said, but warned that rain would also make soil pollution worse.

With seven more bodies found in nearby areas Saturday, the gas blowout, the worst of its kind in the country, has thus far killed 198 people and poisoned over 9,000 others in Kaixian County, some 337 km northeast of Chongqing.

Of the dead, 196 were local villagers who were overcome by toxic fumes, while two were workers at the gas field, according to the rescue headquarters.

But it is feared the toll may rise as further work to search for survivors and identify casualties will be carried out in a more thorough way now that the gas leak has been contained.

More than 42,000 local people were evacuated from their villages after a high concentration of natural gas and sulfureted hydrogen quickly spread to areas within 10 km after the burst on Tuesday night.
People's Daily
  

1:30 AM / Editor / permalink    0 comments  




The People's Daily Critiques George Bush's Performance in 2003

What's good for the goose, must be so for the gander. The People's Daily, as part of the traditional wrap-up of a year of news-making that is so popular in the west, places its reflective spotlight on the American president. I find just the notion to be endearing, and also revealing of how far China has come in its "engaging" of the west, taking its rightful place as a player on the world's stage of nations. The essay is long, but quite revealing. I will give you a taste, and then you click into the rest of it.
For America, 2003 is a year full of domestic and foreign events. The Bush administration, like a ship on a sea, rocked at first due to ignorance of the depth of water, then pulled along hard in sweeping waves, but rode out storms finally. In a weekly broadcast speech on December 13, President Bush summed up his government work with a smile---the implementation of medical security law is a "milestone" event; the tax-cut plan is driving the economy to a positive direction; and victory has been achieved in the war to topple Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, so 2003 is doubtlessly a 'fruitful' year. While the tunes of out-of-power Democrats are less pleasant, and even the achievements in medicine, taxation and anti-terrorism boasted by Bush are "seriously flawed", not to mention other aspects. Republicans led by Bush are "leading the country toward a wrong direction".

The Bush administration came upon snags when the year just began. A war was looming large and "Iraqi factors" triggered turbulences in every side. Oil price soared and Wall Street stock remained slack, putting a recovering economy in danger. Determined to settle accounts with Saddam, Bush yet met troubles upon each step. The international community's criticism of American "unilateralism" poured in like waves, putting Bush in a mindset of "vexation".

But heart-hardened Bush was dead set on ousting Saddam. The coalition army, a dozen thousands in number, rushed for Iraq on March 19, and US tanks drove into Baghdad 20 days later. As expected, the war was a poorly matched one, but it went beyond people's expectation that Saddam's armed forces, boasting hundreds of thousands of regular troops and over 1 million mixed troops, collapsed and scattered at first blows. On May 1, Bush flew to the "Lincoln" aircraft carrier near the West Coast on his way home and announced the end of major military operations in Iraq. Polls showed his popularity leapt to 70 percent.
There are many good things about living away from one's country for a spell, one of the most important is to learn how your country is viewed from a totally foreign perspective. Whether you are a Bush supporter or not, a Democrat or a Republican, you should read this essay in full, you just might learn something--the very least you will learn is how someone on the other side of the globe from you perceived the same events you did.

People's Daily:
  

12:47 AM / Editor / permalink    0 comments  




From the People's Daily: Anti-SARS Action Plan Unveiled in Guangzhou

Here is a brief story on the anti-SARS preparedness of the provincial government of Guangdong.
Anti-SARS Action Plan Unveiled in Guangzhou

South China's city of Guangzhou has unveiled its anti-SARS emergency plan for the upcoming Spring Festival, a time when travel sharply increases.

The plan stipulates that anyone whose temperature is above 37.5 centigrade with coughing and difficulty in breathing should not be allowed to ride the trains.

Such individuals are also required to be sent to the hospital immediately.

Guangzhou was the origin of the killer virus and the worst-hit region during the SARS outbreak in early Spring.
People's Daily
  

12:09 AM / Editor / permalink    0 comments  



Sunday, December 28, 2003

From The People's Daily: Suspected SARS case no cause for alarm

It is the responsibility of a free press to keep watch on the press itself in these days of "transparency," therefore it is incumbent upon professional journalists who honed their skills in the west to use those very same skills in the service of the China we have come to love. The very best way we can do that is to not only cover the SARS story--if it becomes one--but to cover how the story is covered by our colleagues in the state-owned press. Here is the current status of the story as reported today in the People's Daily:
Suspected SARS case no cause for alarm

A leading Chinese scientist said in Guanghzhou Saturday that it was unnecessary to be alarmed at the report of China's first suspected SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) case since July.

"It is not unexpected that a few cases of suspected SARS have been reported, since it is not likely that the SARS virus will die out so soon after its emergence," said Prof. Zhong Nanshan, director of the Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Diseases, who has been fighting SARS since late last year.

"Nevertheless, this new suspected SARS case should arouse our attention," Zhong said.

A 32-year-old freelance TV station worker was confirmed Saturday by the Chinese Ministry of Health to be a suspected SARS patient in this capital of south China's Guangdong Province.

"The case does not seem to be infectious, and the patient is recovering very quickly," Zhong said. "But anyone who has long-lasting fever symptoms or lung inflammation should see a doctor immediately."

"His condition is stable," said a doctor at the No. 8 People's Hospital where the suspected SARS patient is receiving treatment in quarantine. His temperature has been normal over the last three days, the doctor said.

However, the health authorities and doctors have yet to know how the patient became infected in the first place.

Wang Zhiqiong, deputy head of the Guangdong provincial health department, said that the patient claimed that he had not left Guangzhou or eaten wild animal meat for one month before hospitalization.

The health authorities have strengthened protection of local medical workers. The patient's living environment and residence have been sterilized to counteract possible infection.

In another development, the health authorities in Shanghai, China's biggest city, have been on high alert after Guangdong reported the country's first suspected SARS case since July.

"We are fully prepared for any SARS epidemic," said Zhang Shengnian, director of the Shanghai M