|
April 14, 2005Wish You Happyby 'Cicero' at April 14, 2005 5:12 PM
From: "The chinaese womem" While it's entirely possible this spam did not come from China, it plays on the country's reputation. China is perceived as teaming with poor, overlooked peasants who are willing to work for desperate wages. China's official rhetoric that trumpets their expanding economy and improving standard of living appears to be a lid clattering on a vast roiling pot of growing discontent. And Chinese discontent is pouring over the pot's rim into the Western press. The New York Times recently published a report about a village in southeastern China where up to 60,000 villagers have protested and rioted against factory pollution:Thousands of people rioted this week in a village in southeastern China, overturning police cars and driving away officers who had tried to stop elderly villagers protesting against pollution from nearby factories.The government quickly labels the protesters as 'agitators.' Remember the teetering Soviet regime calling pro-Democracy protestors 'hooligans' in 1991? Perhaps China's ruling elite can take a lesson from the Soviet experience: 'Agitators' and 'hooligans' they may be; but there's a cause behind their actions, one to reckon with. It's interesting to note that the cause of the Huaxi Village riot is essentially clean air, and a decent environment to to live in. I wonder if the pro-Kyoto people detect a slight whiff of irony in this report. Kyoto would cut China a lot of slack with environmental regulation, compared to the United States, because China is a developing nation. Do you consider yourself an environmentalist? Do you have some solidarity with Greenpeace? If you do, then the Kyoto agreement literally stinks. Huaxi's 60,000 people are genuine environmental activists, living the industrial nightmare. Kyoto is not on their side. Not at all. They probably never even heard of it. I have another friend who went to Beijing last summer on many occasions. He said he never really saw Beijing because of the smog. He compared it to San Francisco's fog. His eyes burned and his lungs labored. Even his taste buds were dulled. "I couldn't wait to go home," he told me. I have other acquaintances who are in some way doing business with China. They all admit that there's little choice other than to manufacture there, in order to stay competitive. And I concede that probably half the things in my tidy home came from The Polluted Continent. But perhaps we're deluding ourselves into thinking that through sheer hyper-economic transformation, China will join the world as a positive force. That's far from guaranteed. Being a global economic player for the first time in its history is allowing an isolated, communist regime to transform into a nationalist, autocratic one, with international influence. The environment loses in either case. One thing that autocratic regimes prove beyond a doubt is that environmentalists are a secret, toothless society under their rule. Think of Soviet mega-projects, like turning the Aral Sea into a poisoned desert; or Ceausescu turning the Romanian countryside into a wasteland; or Saddam draining the southern marshes of Iraq; and China's vast worker-ant projects like Three Gorges Dam, displacing one million and flooding a whole region. Growing unrest in China's interior, where the majority of people are not a part of the economic miracle, does not bode well. I am not one of those people who thinks China can just be a democracy and everything becomes hunky-dory. In the past couple of decades, two nations -- China and India -- have exceeded one billion citizens. That's a first for this planet. Megapopulations are a new phenomenon. The social stresses and strains that result are going to be unprecedented, with wild, unpredictable results. China and India have recently been making friendly overtures to each other. I imagine the idea is for China to provide industry, and India brains. China is already headed to be the world's greatest consumer of oil. They're starting to jostle with western countries for energy and raw materials. Their hunger will grow, no matter who's in charge over there. I would like to see people calling themselves environmentalists take a stand on this. Stopping seal clubbing is not going to change the world. Signing on to feel-good accords like Kyoto accelerates environmental destruction in places like China. Taking a stand with the villagers of Huaxi -- if only a symbolic gesture -- would be a step in the right direction. In the end, we should all do business for child and survival. Tracked: April 18, 2005 4:54 AM
Meta China post from Simon World
Excerpt: There is so much going on involving China at the moment I've compiled a listing of some key posts: 1. The Huaxi riots. 2. The China/Japan tensions. 3. Wish you happy - China's environment and its consequences. 4. China's stresses, buildups and futures ...
Comments
Another fine piece, Cicero. And as we've seen over the past 2 weeks, the Chinese government is happy to channel some of that angst into nationalism with a hostile edge. Winds has covered China's Growing Nationalist Movement - that article also discusses the country's potential futures, and what sorts of questions to ask as we try to predict what's coming next. Simon World contributed some thoughts of his own, too. See also The Daily Demarche's The China Syndrome - 2015 and Beyond
#2 from Kai Jones at 6:10 pm on Apr 14, 2005
See http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/006232.html#006232 for an interesting story about connecting direct producers of clothing to the consumers via ebay, which cuts out all the middlemen and gets the money straight into the hands of the producers.
#3 from Foobarista at 6:19 pm on Apr 14, 2005
One thing this shows rather profoundly is the connection between clean government and a clean environment. China already has plenty of environmental laws and regulations on the books, but they are completely ignored by local officals, who are universally on the take. The culture of Chinese officialdom is such that only corrupt officials rise to positions of responsibility, since the few incorrupt officials are not trusted by their peers (as they may turn in someone in one of China's many anti-corruption purges). So, the only way to fight this eco-disaster is ultimately to change the culture of Chinese bureaucracy. And that requires a change in the government system itself.
#4 from praktike at 10:28 pm on Apr 14, 2005
I have written a reponse to this post here on the Gristmill blog.
#5 from a at 1:59 am on Apr 15, 2005
A clean enviroment only starts to get important to people at a certain level of prosperity. China is reaching this level. This is actually proof that China is growning wealthier. China is in reality also a capitalist society so they will start to clean up a lot sooner than real communist countries as the bureaucracy gets a much smaller cut of the proceeds. I wouldn't be surprised if Beijings air will be breathable by 2008. The government quickly labels the protesters as 'agitators.' Unlike what goverments do in the West. They only insinuate that they are agitators. One thing that autocratic regimes prove beyond a doubt is that environmentalists are a secret, toothless society under their rule. Depends on how autocratic the regime is. Everybody was toothless under Stalin including enviromentalists but they did got some traction in Hungary or Saddam draining the southern marshes of Iraq; Saddam drained the marshes for a military purpose. Had nothing to do with economic reasons. It would be like claiming that capitalists are anti enviroment because the US used agent orange to deforest Vietnam
#6 from Nortius Maximus at 3:27 am on Apr 15, 2005
Bravo, Praktike.
#7 from Raymond at 12:37 pm on Apr 15, 2005
Yeah Praktike, nice additions. Foobarista
And you should see their "rights" to freedom of assembly and association ! The soviet consitutuion had its good points too, but in a land of rule by terror, such paper is just propaganda. Even the name of leftist states are propaganda. peoples democratic republic of ... They are not for the people, not democratic and not a republic, do we really expect it to get any better from there ? You should see how they structure the legalese around the forced labor system, called the laogai.
A ruse to avoid western regulations against forced slave labor products, and sadly, the west accepts the ruse.
The branch of the loagai system run by the PLA is especially horrific.
Poison air, rule by fear, say the wrong thing, and your making plastic trinkets in a laogai forced labor camp. A regular heaven on earth in the orient, ya just gotta love it. It also underscores the bravery of those "agitators" hmmm ?
#8 from a at 4:35 pm on Apr 15, 2005
China already has plenty of environmental laws and regulations on the books, but they are completely ignored by local officals, who are universally on the take. [sarcasme]Thank god this is different in the rest of the world.[/sarcasme] Why are they not a republic? They are as far as i know not a monarchy (outside North Korea) Those "agitators" are Chinese middle class. They are not the kind of people you send to prison. (they bribe themself out of jail) I covered the Huanxi riots with plenty of links and information. Interestingly in China the State Environemnt Protection Agency (SEPA) is starting to become more assertive in standing up to previously indominable ministries such as Water Resources (dams). In the last two years since the new guard took over SEPA has been given more tools in terms of laws, extra funds and political support in taking on the development ministries. China's leadership is aware of the importance of the environment. At the same time they are even more aware of the importance of spreading the economic boom from the coast to the poorer rural interior, and big infrastructure and development projects are the chosen methods. I'll expand more on Monday at my site.
Post a comment
Here are some quick tips for adding simple Textile formatting to your comments, though you can also use proper HTML tags: |
You're Reading an Individual Post!
If you want to head to the main blog page, just follow the "Main" link in the navigation up top underneath our blog's name. Or click here:
Winds of Change.NET Home
Winds of Change Library
Support VictoryPAC
Recent Entries
· A Completely Non-Hostile Question About Liberal v. Conservative Thought
· WGN On The Air · ABC And The Brown Palace - The Brown Palace's Side · Blackwater, Again · Department of Hmmmmm.... (Economics News) · Hillary's Speech · What Really Happened In Ossetia? · Silencing Citizens Should Concern Us All · Blackwater Pix · Some Election Links · Slate Strikes Again · The Problem With Journalists · Timetables · Blackwater · Beauchamp Again?
Support Winds of Change.NET!
Your support & assistance is greatly appreciated, and makes a difference!
The Winds Crew:
Town Founder: Joe Katzman joe {at} windsofchange. net Joe's Normblog Interview Left-Hand Man: Marc 'Armed Liberal' Danziger armed {at} windsofchange. net A.L.'s Normblog Interview Other Winds Marshals 'AMac', aka. Marshal Festus (AMac@...) Robin "Straight Shooter" Burk 'Cicero', aka. The Quiet Man (cicero@...) David Blue (david.blue@...) 'Lewy14', aka. Marshal Leroy (lewy14@...) 'Nortius Maximus', aka. Big Tuna (nortius.maximus@...) Other Regulars 'Callimachus' (callimachus@...) 'Demosophist' (demosophist@...) Rev./Maj. Donald Sensing 'Molon Labe' (molon.labe@...) 'Neo Neo-Con' Tarek Heggy (tarek@...) Semi-Active: Arthur Chrenkoff 'Gabriel Gonzalez' (in Paris) Tim Oren (tim@...) Trent Telenko (trent@...) Posting Affiliates Athena: Terrorism Unveiled Chester: The Adventures of Chester Dave Schuler: The Glittering Eye Grim: Grim's Lair et. al. Joel Gaines [Russia] Michael Totten MILblogging.com: The MilBlogs directory Murdoc [Military] Situational Awareness team [Military] Nathan Hamm [Central Asia] Randy Paul [Latin America] Robert Koehler [Koreas] Robi Sen [India & S. Asia] Nitin Pai [India & S. Asia] Simon [China & E. Asia] Yehudit: Kesher Talk Regular Topic Briefings: Andrew Olmsted [Iraq Weekly] Joel Gaines [Iraq Weekly] Security Watchtower [GWoT Mon.] Peace Like A River [GWoT Mon.] Colt [GWoT Thu.] John Atkinson [Alternative Energy] Peter Wolfgang [Alternative Energy] Omri Ceren [Hatewatch] Emeritus: Adil Farooq (adil@...) Celeste Bilby (celeste@...) Dan Darling Gary Farber (gary@...) Hossein Derakhshan (hoder@...) T.L. James (tljames@...) Robin Burk (robin@...)
Winds of Change.NET Blogkids & Affiliates
· The Argus: covering Central Asia · Canis Iratus: Glen Wishard · Correct-Amundo: Tech & society · Discarded Lies: Ev & Zorkie · The Flying Kiwi: Donovan Janus · The Glittering Eye: Dave Schuler · Gumptionology: Nortius Maximus · Hot Needle of Inquiry: 'Jinnderella' · Laughing Wolf: C. Blake Powers · Out The Mazoo: 'Mazoo' · Power and Control: M. Simon · Praktike's Place: 'Praktike' · Random Probabilities: Robin Burk · Siberian Light: covering Russia · The Spirit of Man · Good News From the Front · WATCH/: covering the war on terror
Archives By Category
-FEATURES: 48 Ways to Wisdom (24)
-FEATURES: Diaries & Roundups (10) -FEATURES: Military Transformation Uplink (12) -FEATURES: New Energy Currents (20) -FEATURES: Reader Highlights (2) -FEATURES: Regional Briefings (166) -FEATURES: Sufi Wisdom (158) -FEATURES: The Bard's Breath (32) -FEATURES: Winds of Discovery (6) -FEATURES: Winds of War [WoT] (445) 4 HA: 4th-Gen Warfare (103) 4 HA: al-Qaeda (159) 4 HA: Crime, Organized (26) 4 HA: Evil Exists (110) 4 HA: Intelligence/Spycraft (100) 4 HA: Military (522) 4 HA: Nukes, Poisons, Germs (135) 4 HA: Statecraft (29) 4 HA: War on Terror articles (706) Best Of... (179) BIZ: Business & Organizations (132) BIZ: Economics (97) BIZ: Energy (72) CIVIS (231) CIVIS: Copyright Wars (25) CIVIS: Drug Wars (18) CIVIS: Edu-Kooks (76) CIVIS: Free Societies (291) CIVIS: Hall of Shame (162) CIVIS: Hatred Rising (114) CIVIS: Journalism & Media (405) CIVIS: Spirit of America.NET (31) CIVIS: War Within the West (309) COLUMNISTS: M. Simon (13) COLUMNISTS: Tarek Heggy (33) GEO: Afghanistan (78) GEO: Africa (104) GEO: Asia (116) GEO: Aussies & Kiwis (20) GEO: Canada (68) GEO: China (86) GEO: Europe (180) GEO: France (71) GEO: India-Pakistan (112) GEO: Iran (223) GEO: Iraq (962) GEO: Israel (247) GEO: Koreas (64) GEO: Latin America (63) GEO: Middle East (255) GEO: Russia (78) GEO: Saudi Arabia (64) GEO: Sudan (36) GEO: U.K. (70) GEO: U.N. (60) GEO: U.S. of A (502) HUMANITY (88) HUMANITY: Art & Culture (159) HUMANITY: Art - Music (32) HUMANITY: Art - Poetry (6) HUMANITY: Christianity (52) HUMANITY: Heroes & Achievements (229) HUMANITY: History (125) HUMANITY: Islam (182) HUMANITY: Judaism (136) HUMANITY: Love (32) HUMANITY: Philosophy (49) HUMANITY: Spirituality & Religion (72) HUMANITY: Zen & Buddhism (28) Humour (195) Misc. (42) NET: Blogosphere (395) NET: Cyber-Security (16) NET: Grid Computing (3) NET: Spam (24) NET: The Internet (36) NET: The Open Source Meme (17) Personal (191) SCI-TECH: Biotech & Medical (83) SCI-TECH: Eco-tech (81) SCI-TECH: Nanotech (27) SCI-TECH: Science (111) SCI-TECH: Space (75) SCI-TECH: Technology (144) SPORTS (45) SPORTS: Baseball (75) Trends (64) USA: America Catch-all (19) USA: Anti-Americanism (6) USA: California Politics (7) USA: Conservatives & GOP (32) USA: Dem Party Renewal (72) USA: Domestic Issues (51) USA: Elections (92) USA: Grand Strategy (15) USA: Homeland Security (106) VictoryPAC (3) Winds of Change.NET (51)
Archives by Date
August 2008
July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 Joe's Old Archives, By Title: April - June 2002 July - December 2002
Winds Blogroll
Top Prospects
Support VictoryPACSP Normblog (LHP) SP Solomonia (RHP) RF Mader Blog CF Donklephant LF Harry's Place C Critical Mass 1B Tigerhawk 2B Gideon's Blog SS Alexander the Average 3B Democracy Arsenal UT INF Pundita DH Counterterrorism Blog PEN Liberals Against Terrorism CL Gates of Vienna MASCOT Huffington's Toast MGR Robert Tagorda GM Conservative Grapevine Humour Blogs · Cox & Forkum (cartoons) · Day By Day (cartoons) · User Friendly (cartoons) · AllahPundit (satire) · Scrappleface (satire) Religious Blogs · Conscientia (baha'i) · Unlearned Hand (bud) · Eve Tushnet (cath) · Muslim Under Progress (isl) · Ideofact (isl) · Kesher Talk (jew) · Rabbi Lazer Brody (jew) · Rishon Rishon (jew) · Rev. Donald Sensing (prot) Other Team Memberships · Command Post [All] · No End But Victory [All] · AlwaysOn [JK] Blog Services · NZ Bear's Ecosystem · Blogstreet · Daypop Top 40 · Technorati · Movable Type.org · Write A Better Blog More entries coming! |
http://www.windsofchange.net/windsopcentre-cms/trackback.cgi/4419
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference
"Wish You Happy"