We celebrate the western Easter (incidentally, not our Orthodox Pascha) with news from around the world:
- via IHT, we hear the opinion of Zhang Qingli (张庆黎), the party secretary in charge of Tibet: "The Communist Party is like the parent to the Tibetan people, and it is always considerate about what the children need. The Central Party Committee is the real Buddha for Tibetans."
- Bin Laden threatens the EU for implicitly endorsing the Danish cartoons. The message features a cartoon of a spear hitting the map of Europe and blood spilling around. Very professional for a terrorist message.
Sometimes, you may think the bad guys stand a chance (like, when Hitler came close to ruling all Europe; or when all the world hates the American war machine and may think Bin Laden can be excused on some points). But fear not --- the bad guys are driven by their extreme ideology, so they are bound to do something extremely stupid sooner or later (like attacking Russia, or picking a fight with mostly neutral Europe).
By the way, if you're in the US or the UK, there's a high chance that you haven't seen the Danish cartoons, since the press here never actually showed them. To see what the rest of the world sees in their papers, go here. Personally, I like this one the most:
- If you're not watching the exchange rates, let me tell you that 1 EUR is close to 1.6 USD these days. We all remember the days when 1 EUR was 0.8 USD, no?
It's funny how the funds, banks and Journals can get excited about the stocks going up a bit every once in a while. Guys, those prices are in dollars! A better option for your money might be a European company heading to bankruptcy.
People (e.g. Muthu) sometimes wonder how to build a perfect research environment, and what it would take to move us all somewhere else (Europe). I never had a very good answer to that, but these days I often think I will not be interested in tenure in the US.
![[home]](http://people.csail.mit.edu/mip/images/home.gif){kind=small}
22 comments:
I clicked the IHT link and found the picture quite weird: What's the relation of the picture to the text? What impression that readers will get by a simple glimpse of the picture and the title? Did IHT editors do this on purpose?
the media of USA professionally distort the truth of sturt of Tibet, what's intention of this plot which is secretly planned by some countries? i think it's obvious.the western media attack Chinese government together,that is habitually action. but AS a outstanding young theorical computer scientist,i think detecting the truth more easier than you publish a paper on SODA
Are you applying for positions in European universities? And are you interested in returning to Europe at all? There are specific European reintegration programmes that would make you even more attractive for European CS departments. Moreover, with your profile, I really believe that you ought to apply for funding under the Ideas programme or from the European Science Foundation.
The media of the US, Canada, EU, Latin America, Africa, Japan, South Korea etc professionally distort the truth about Tibet. It is only such manipulation that makes people not understand that China only means good by subjugating another population, throwing its leaders into exile, forbiding them from practicing their religion, and bringing in its own Han citizens to take over the place.
It may seem amazing, but the Chinese in China actually believe that, all the way up to party leaders... I suppose if they want to turn everybody into the perfect communist citizen, ethnicity doesn't matter.
Luca, thanks for the pointers. I need to stay in the US for a few more years due to personal constraints. But I am very actively thinking about returning to Europe on a 5-year time scale...
Bai, if anything, your post merely tells us that we should be cautious about the media reports, which of course all of us already know (I am including you). But what makes you so confident that the Chinese media is benevolent and doesn't distort this Tibet incident for its own good?
I'm the anonymous #1.
Bai: I understand your feeling, but making a statement without solid evidence is not so convincing (and dangerous to oneself too in the sense that (s)he may rush into wrong ideas in general).
MiP: You didn't respond to my questions and I'm still wondering your opinions. It's really weird for me to see a news about current China with a picture taken in Nepal. (For those of you who didn't notice this, pls read the caption of the picture.) I'm not claiming that "media of USA professionally distort ...", at least not from this IHT link. But MiP: Would you think that the picture is a bit misleading for readers who just glimpse the title and the picture? I understand that there are many things one can say about the unfortunate ongoing event in China from different perspectives, and one may think that some perspectives are way more important than others, but I'm still curious about your opinions on the IHT picture itself.
If you'd like to share, I also wonder your personal opinions on Iraq War. If it's considered bad for one country to control the internal riot, then how do you think US went to *another* country for a bunch of "reasons" all of which are apparently wrong as seen and reported by all major US media at this moment. To be frank, during the years in US, I even heard arguments like "Saddam is evil so we should go to kill him". Anyone who takes this argument even a little bit, I must say that unfortunately I totally disagree with you at this point.
It is because MIP thinks that Nepal is a part of china.
Anon 1, if you have an issue with the IHT, I suggest you take it up with them. I understand they illustrated a story about China with a photo from Nepal (which is not nice, but also not 100% senseless, given that no journalist is allowed in Tibet now). But I am merely citing the piece for Zhang Qingli's quote. If you're suspicious about the quote, I suggest you Google it, and you will find other references.
BTW, if you are reading between the lines of item #3, or if you ever ask me in person, you may learn that I am not such a huge fan of the US, nor its current leaders.
It is because MIP thinks that Nepal is a part of china.
Yeap, and the religion of the Buddhist monks is Islamism, and Iraq is that big island in the Pacific next to New Zealand.
Fortunately, I went to grade school on a different continent.
I think what Chinese government did wrong is that they should have killed 90% of the tibetans and drove the rest of them into the "tibetan reservations" in deserts at first. That's what we called "legitimacy" and the whole world would be all satisfied.
Mip:Tibet is part of China but seems you don't think so . How the original people of Tibet is subjugated by Chinese Government? because Tibet is not a slavery society since there has been liberated ?because the rail and road are bulit by Government？how do you think a "leader”who meet with G.Bush to talk about how to separate Roumania?
who ever forbid Tibet people keep their religion? you can go to Tibet ,have a look and to see if there accord your imagination about Tibet.
you need know the history of Tibet why Tibet is part of China, this vedio give your quick lesson: http:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9QNKB34cJo
btw,it seems you don't think European bring people to take over Indian's home where you stay now is wrong thing?
anonymous: you can see the evidences here:
http://zixibai.blogspot.com/2008/03/evidences.html,
you can check the resource from these "justic，independent,free" meida whether are the liars.
Bai Song, the fact that nobody in the western world thinks like you should make you think hard about how your opinions are influenced by the careful brainwashing done by the Chinese government and media.
Many of us diagree with what Britain has done to India, what the US has done to the native populations here and to Iraq etc. In fact, many of us have a very bad opinion of the US, the UK and several other countries.
But even compared to the US, China is centuries behind in understanding that the strong guy can't just force his will on the weak guy.
Tibetans are a different people, ethnically, culturally, and linguistically different from the Han. If you ask them, they don't want to be part of China, even if China builds a railroad for them. But of course China would not consider running a popular vote to ask the Tibetans.
And sure, the people of Tibet are free to practice their religion. But they're not allowed to have state jobs or go to university if they are caught going to a Buddhist temple. That's what China understands by freedom.
MIP, do you speak
Chinese? If you do, then you
should know that
what Zhang really
said is that he is the father
of all Romanian people. He is
a little crazy, I know.
-Anon who understands Chinese
MIP, The fact is there are different values between me and western people like you , We have different understanding about democracy, freedom, and human right. It’ s brainwashed if people agree with Chinese Communist Party, it’s rational and free thinking if people against CCP, Is that point? Nobody said CCP is always right .CCP have made many mistakes in the past . we criticize corruption, misconduct etc. China is changing ,strong more and more. But some country is afraid of this changing.
We never think the US GOVERNMENT can represent the major of US citizen, UK only is puppy of USA thought UK don’t really want to be, but he need protection and satisfy his greed. That is very naive viewpoint if you think China is leading by someone ‘s willing, we lack of strategy to broadcasting what is real China, we lack of strategy to make western people understand China.
Right, Tibet is different , Tibetan keep their cultural and language. Tibetan highly improved their living condition , the average life of Tibetan improved from 35 to 65, 80% herder have lived in house,The GDP increase more than 10% every year since 10 years ago, the QingZhang railway is totally 1956 KM , it’s technically very great project .it’s Engineering miracle. That’s impossible Tibet is out of China , Latin American is ethnically, culturally, and linguistically different from European in USA, why not run a vote in Latin Amercian to see what’s going on? How about blacks, Amish, Hawaii?
Bai Song, what you fail to understand is the right to self-determination. If China wants to run a communist experiment, they are free to do so (in fact, many people here argue that the US democracy is broken; there is no all-good system, and each country is allowed to experiment).
But if Taiwan doesn't want to take part in your experiment, leave them alone to try their own thing. If Tibet doesn't want to partake in something that the Han people want to try, why should they be forced to do so?
The least that China can do is to let the leaders of Tibet be Tibetans, not Han, and let them run the province in a real autonomous fashion.
The fact that the living standards of Tibetans improved is no argument. They improved in the whole world, and maybe a Tibet run by Tibetans would also be doing quite well.
Think about this: North Korea is doing very badly and people are starving. Would it be Ok for China to send its army there, and take over North Korea? I'm sure the takeover would improve their living standards.
Your examples are meaningless: Latin America consists of several countries that can do whatever they want; Hawaii joined the US when it wanteed to do so (think of Puerto Rico: they have the right to become a US state, but they voted not to do it); and the Amish can do exactly what they want on their land (they never interact with the US government).
Like most immigrants/visitors, Mihai has not bothered to learn anything about American history. To say that Hawaii became a US state because it wanted to is quite a controversial statement. The kingdom of Hawaii was overthrown by the US government in the 1890's mainly because US fruit corporations wanted to control the land there.
MIP, Tibet became a part of China in 1350s (Yuan Dynasty period),The Emperor Genghis Khan has setup special organization to manage military and political affairs of Tibet, China haven’t been interrupted to manage Tibet since that time as sovereign state. Tibet never be a independent nation or a part of another country in the history. China legally execute national sovereignty inTibet base on International Law.
1. The Right of peoples to self-determination(the right of national
self-determination)
Based on “Charter of the United Nations” and other resolutions of The right of peoples to self-determination, the subject of the right of national self-determination include following three types:
a. A nation who is controlled by colonizer under colonial rule and the nation is fighting for national liberation and independence.
b. A nation who is invaded by foreign military force and under be occupied state
c. People of the sovereignty
For country who is single nationality, the subject of the right of national self-determination is the single nationality. For multi-nationality country,if any nationality who is ethnically,religious,linguistical minority does not have the Right of national
Self-determination.(RoNSD)
1.1 For condition b, the RoNSD is the right for nation who will throw the colonial dominion off, To establish or recover the sovereignty of nation.
1.2 A state have the right freely to determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.
1.3 From Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples(General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV) of 14 December 1960): Any attempt aimed at the partial or total disruption of the national unity and the territorial integrity of a country is incompatible with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
2. TaiWan issue
First, To think about Hongkong, HK is still capitalistic society, hongkong is freely keeping their political system, economic system . please refer to “one country two system ,unify China” theory system , that means there is no question Taiwan can freely choose to keep their political system, economy system , etc. Taiwan is part of China that is definitely nonnegotiable issue ,please refer to the charter of United Nations ,other relational resolutions of UN and International Law if you have any question.
Secondary, do you really know what is going on in TaiWan? do you know the election of leader of Taiwan province which attach a voting about “should TaiWan join UN?” in 22,March ,please check the result. Both of Tibet and Taiwan, you start from wrong preconditions, so you have wrong concludes. Who will be leaders of autonomous government of Tibet is decided by our democratic election procedure. I think you don’t know what is real Tibet at all, Tibet’s history ,Tibet’s actuality. Most of western people keep naïve imagination about what situation Tibet is. DaLai group is tool that is used by some country ,Dalai group love to be used of course. Most of Wetern people ‘s imagination is derive from someone’s compile.
What you hear the story about people ‘re not allowed to have state jobs or go to university if they are caught going to a Buddhist temple ,it just happened before the Tibet was librated by Chinese government.
Your example is seriously meaningless , Because you totally mixed North Korean and Tibet up ,They are totally different, you get a very ridiculous preconditions, you still set Tibet is not a part of China, the country where you living sent the army to invade North Korean. Whereas,we respect the North Korean have freedom to choose their way, we don’t oppose Taiwan is capitalism.
I truly loved the picture that you posted ... But, were you aware that the two covered ladies are your mama and sista? I guess you should not get offended since your support for freedom of speech encompasses the right of publishing cartoons depicting romanian women (and boys) as "cheap whores for everyone including terrorists" (stereotype commonly spread in europe). romania is willing to slave for the other european countries in order to join the impotent european union. On the other side, Tibet is proudly evolving as part of a modern China.
Recommendation: take control of your ego and focus on tcs cute boy ... that way you can at least guarantee that you sound smart :)
Man, this kind of post sure draws a lot of retards...
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