Posts by Russell Brown
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I wish there was a chinese “public address” so I could read their threads.
It's SkyKiwi, although its audience is younger than ours.
Unless you can read Simplified Chinese text, you won't get anything out of it, but on past form it'll be roiling with declarations of Chinese nationalism from angry young men, along with some more moderate voices.
Anyone who can read it and would be minded to provide a digest in translation should, of course, go right ahead.
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The New Yorker has a relevant -- and fascinating -- review of a new book about the Dalai Lama.
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It is a misquote. Key did not say 2010 was the "earliest date for tax cuts", nor did he say "the earliest a National-led government could deliver tax cuts would be April 2010.". He said "It could be that sort of distance away, notwithstanding any changes we might make. We have always argued about phased-in tax cuts, not a big-bang approach. Assuming it was in Budget 2009, then generally speaking the start would be in April 2010."
Fair enough. So he couldn't remember exactly what he'd said in one of his meandering, overly-qualified answers. It still isn't occasion for claiming the journalist got the date wrong.
With the economy threatening to tank and the public crying out for some relief it makes sense to bring the cuts forward in a mini-budget.
Which is what he should have said.
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My take on it is that the Chinese have too many possibly errant provinces across the country (Taiwan being the obvious one) that to start to give up control/independence here becomes fuel for a much broader fire.
That's how it looks to me. And they don't seem to have the imagination to manage their way out of it.
The nightmare scenario would be a large-scale replay of the breakup of Yugoslavia.
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I forgot to add a few more interesting links to the main post till just now, so here they are:
A group of Chinese intellectuals has appealed to the Chinese government "to admit that its policy of crushing dissent in Tibet and blaming the ensuing violence on the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, was failing." Many young Chinese, on a strictly governed media diet, can't understand why the world is picking on them. They believe the West is glossing over the deaths of ethnic Chinese.
The Times interviewed people in Sichaun province, who were nervous and despairing:
“I believe they can never win their independence, because no big country backs them and they have no army,” said a shop owner, “and I believe we cannot win their hearts.”
This story from a Canadian paper underlines the fact that the problem is not purely territorial. Ethnic Tibetans in China proper feel the same grievances as those in the TAR; grievances that won't be satisfied by political reform in Tibet itself.
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The more I read/hear about Tibet, the more the Dalai Lama's call for significant degrees of autonomy seems apt.
Yes, it seems the obvious solution. It would be messier in the adjacent provinces, which also have an ethnic mix, but are universally regarded as part of China proper.
Tibet has broadly been considered part of the empire for centuries - before the times of the Dalai Lamas even by some accounts (since the time of the Mongols).
Chinese nationalism is nothing if not sweeping. People are only half-joking when they refer to Tokyo as "the Eastern Capital".
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Er, Israel would be the better comparison surely? The Palestinians had the Israeli's forced upon them, just as the Tibetans have had the Chinese forced upon them.
It's not even that simple. Some Tibetans were eager for the Chinese to come in -- for obvious reasons -- and Tibet itself wasn't recognised as a separate nation. The young Dalai Lama attended the 1945 National People's Congress and was hailed as a friend by Mao. But Mao famously quipped "religion is poison", and inflicted his brutal state secularism on the Tibetans.
I'm not aware of the Fijians having Indians forced upon them. (Actually, I'm ignorant of how the Indians came to be in Fiji. I presume it was as cheap labour?) <standsbyforschooling>
It's hardly a perfect comparison, but many native Fijians do feel the Indians were forced on them. My point was that we wouldn't overlook targeted ethnic violence there. It seems that Han Chinese have been murdered in the past two weeks, and I don't find that any prettier than protesters/rioters being shot by Chinese soldiers.
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Bill has a point.
Back in the day of the State House, the NZ Govt & Banks would be favourable towards private building on the State House Model.
Creating the egalatarian myth.How is it a myth? They're bloody good houses. I live in one: it passed out of public ownership in the early 50s, during one of the period policy windows, and I imagine its provenance did make it easier to get a mortgage back then.
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Damian Christie negotiates the decolletage to join IT playboy Seeby Woodhouse and John Key at the launch of Woodhouse's new carbon-offset company, Green Carbon.
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Bill English has just been quoted on the radio talking about "Helengrad-style housing". Clearly, the decision has been made to hit back hard, if not constructively.
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