Jonathan Alpart

There are no more vivid impressions on life than those from your childhood and I can still remember mine about China. Books like The Story About Ping and The Seven Chinese Brothers fascinated me with their watercolor prose and mythological timelessness. I can also remember a time as a very young boy when I was in the garage with my father. He was fidgeting with some cheap gadget he had recently bought and then cursed in frustration as it snapped in half. He handed me the pieces to investigate and there I had my first experience with “Made In China” as I read it off the back of one of the fragments. “Made In China?” I inquired. “Yes,” my father kvetched, “everything made in China is crap.”

The term “Made in China” really started in 1978, when Deng Xiaoping opened up several Special Economic Zones along China’s eastern coast. In these zones, for the first time since the dominance of Mao, regular citizens were allowed to openly engage in business. It is no surprise that some of these SEZs, such as Shenzhen, quickly became a place where the adventurous type could find his fortune. Despite the traditional Chinese stance denouncing traders as the lowliest class, the Chinese as a people have always been natural entrepreneurs. Like my father calls them, they are the Jews of Asia. (Like from all great minds, his wisdom often seems contradictory.)

How times have changed since the days when almost all Westerners had only a few simplistic evocations of China: the exciting and mystical exoticism of storybooks and kung fu movies, the cold, gray symbolism of Communism, poverty and leftover feudalism and, more recently, the image of billions of blissfully ignorant smiling factory workers producing the low-end products gracing endless shelves at Wal-Mart. The rising influence of China a.k.a. The Sleeping Giant is now impossible to ignore and therefore our ideas must evolve and grow along with China else we will be forever trapped in a child-like and perhaps dangerous fantasy.

Growing numbers of people are well aware of this phenomenon. What else could explain the exponential jump in American students of Mandarin Chinese? Individual states in the US have seen students studying Mandarin increase from practically zero to thousands in just the past few years. The so-called “Third Wave” of international expatriates is at its crest as droves of job hunters and thrill-seekers make the trek once overwhelmingly made in the opposite direction. The popularity of Hong Kong, Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese film, music, art and books has been slowly but surely growing in the West, making the Japanese Manga/Anime craze of yesteryear seem downright conventional. Just recently, a handful of Chinese rock bands just capped off a nationwide tour in the US, playing their last show as headliners at the Chinese Culture Festival in Washington D.C.

Of course, one only has to open a newspaper or turn on the television to get a picture of what is happening in China these days. More so than ever before, nearly every political decision made by the Chinese government is talked about and milled over by countless editorials and talking heads. More interestingly, what used to be only criticism has begun to develop into praise, even envy, of the way the Chinese do things. For example, Thomas Friedman, a columnist for the New York Times that frequently used to bemoan the Chinese reluctance to improve human rights and the environment, now can be seen applauding the Chinese system for its success in getting quick and practical results – especially in contrast to the currently bedraggled partisan politics in the States.

Undoubtedly so, many things Chinese are not met with open arms. In fact, many people’s perceptions of China are still so much like the foggy and unknown (and therefore threatening) concepts previously mentioned. For example, recall the recent Chinese company’s purchase of Hummer. Many Americans were aghast to behold the loss of a quintessential American icon: the bold, braggartly and bombastic SUV once driven by the Governator himself. Cable news scaldabancos from coast-to-coast enlivened the fears of many Americans: China is an unstoppable colossal firebrand that, if it is anything like the West was centuries ago, will utterly destroy us. The best expression of this was relayed to me by my friend who was chatting with a cowboy in a bar in Texas. As my friend ordered his beer, the older roughneck said: “Hopefully I won’t be alive to see it, but one day you’ll be payin’ for that beer with Chinese dollars.”

So, let’s put this all to rest. First of all, most Chinese wouldn’t believe you if you told them that China would soon become the world’s superpower. It would be akin to telling a geek in high school that one day he would be a rich and suave playboy. “But I can barely get a date now,” he would lament. Most Chinese don’t see what we see – a fast rising economy and world influence projected by a media saturated with their successes. Instead, they see the China of everyday life and recent past: dirty, poor and still in many ways backwards.

Assuming that China does become Number One, that old cowboy was right about one thing: he won’t be alive to see it and it’s perhaps likely that neither will many of us. Although upwards of half of the general populations of developed nations like the USA and Japan believe that China already is or soon will be the world’s superpower, experts estimate that even if this occurs, we still have another forty years or so. Their journals and articles are littered with language like “not anytime soon” and “nowhere close.” So if you are waiting to pay for that beer with “Chinese dollars,” by that time it’ll be a real flat one.

OK, so worst case scenario: we wake up tomorrow and the Chinese are our new overlords. At this point only one question would remain: how bad is it? Well, historically speaking, not too bad. The Chinese have also been a world superpower many centuries ago. Although they would demand tribute from surrounding areas, they were never too aggressive. China’s borders have pretty much been the same throughout the ages, meaning they were never too interested in vast conquests or takeovers. China, or Zhongguo in Chinese, literally means “The Middle Kingdom”. Could this be because they are so focused on their own business? One can only hope.

   I wrote this article two years ago but I think it is just as relevant today, if not more.

I had just finished a quick two-week teaching gig in a hectic Chinese suburb called Jinhua and I was on my way to Hangzhou to visit a friend of mine. The Chinese have a saying: shang you tian tang, xia you su hang – “above there is heaven, below there is Suzhou and Hangzhou”. Hangzhou was the capital of China a thousand years ago during the Song Dynasty, the Golden Age of China. Hangzhou is well known for its abounding natural beauty, gorgeous women and hot, humid heat.

Upon meeting my friend she hooked me up with a dormitory room to stay for the night. I would be sharing it with two Chinese students. When I first entered the room it was empty, so I just placed down my bags, took a shower and split. After dinner with my friend I came back to the room and met my two bunkmates for the night. One of them excitedly exclaimed that he knew I would turn out to be a foreigner because I had so much stuff (and I thought I had packed light!) Their English names were Draco and, interestingly enough, Galaxy. They told me they didn’t want to choose “ordinary” English names.

Within a few minutes after the introductory formalities I had a feeling that I might have a good yuan – “predestined relationship” – with these two. They told me, in a very Chinese fashion of modesty, that their English wasn’t good. They attributed their lack of proficiency to an ignorance of American culture but that they were eager to learn. I told them they should ask me about anything they like, then I threw out this disclaimer: “But I don’t really like American culture. I think it’s too materialistic.”

We almost immediately started chatting about Deng Xiaoping’s liberalization of the economy in 1978. I was astounded by their openness and readiness to discuss such an academic matter. After all, we had just met. Deng allowed businesses and individuals to have freedoms which were previously forbidden under Mao’s rigid Communist ideology, helping China to rapidly become the economic powerhouse which we regard it as today, as well as lifting millions out of extreme poverty. Galaxy told me that he thought such policies were good for China because they raised the standard of living for the Chinese, although he thought they should slow down the growth within a short period, mainly because of the drastic side effects of such rapid development. Draco, however, was more cynical. He was wary about this “so-called freedom,” as he put it. It turns out their English wasn’t too bad, by the way.

They listened with fascination as I told them what really happened at Tiananmen Square in 1989, about the student protests and the government-led massacre. They told me that despite the government suppressing anyone from having open dialogues about it and that their parents never discussed it with them they still retained their suspicions.

Not wanting to give them false information, I took out a pamphlet I’d acquired from some pushy Falun Gong members at the LAX airport in Los Angeles a few weeks previous: “The CCP [Chinese Communist Party]: A History of Violence.” They scoffed when they saw it was from Falun Gong but they read it anyway. Despite its questionable source, perhaps it was closer to the truth than anything they’d known.

“Why do they scoff at Falun Gong?” I wondered. I told them that I didn’t know much about it but that I did know that it was surrounded in controversy.

“Falun Gong is crazy,” said Draco. “They don’t go to doctors when they get sick.”

I told them about Veggie Heaven in Austin and about all the Falun Gong “propaganda” that cover their walls and windows.

“They are probably controlled by the Falun Gong,” he answered.

“You mean the Falun Gong paid for the opening of the restaurant?” I asked.

“Maybe, but I meant Falun Gong controls their minds.”

“Why do you think the CCP is so concerned about Falun Gong?”

I already knew the answer to this. Throughout China’s long history, it has been religious uprisings that have continuously posed a threat to the dynasties and governments. The CCP represses organized religion and definitely is not happy about a “cult” that boasts of millions of members, claiming to have even more than the CCP itself.

“Because they threaten the CCP’s power. Any government would do the same.”

“What about the pictures in Veggie Heaven depicting people being tortured and beaten in the street?”

“It’s not true. That doesn’t happen.” He believed that although the CCP has killed a “few” Falun Gong members, they only do what is minimally necessary to maintain their power to ultimately keep stability in the country. “Falun Gong people hurt themselves. It’s justified that the government controls them,” he said.

I asked Draco if maybe that what he claimed to know about the Falun Gong was similar to his knowledge of the Tiananmen Square incident, in that many truths had been censored and distorted by the government. He seemed annoyed by this question so I didn’t press the issue. By this time it was past midnight and they had to wake up early for class, so we all said good night, turned out the lights and retired to sleep.

In no time at all the Chinese desire for the material comforts of capitalism became dangerously apparent. I was being eaten alive by mosquitoes. The shoddy sealing of the walls and windows was more porous than the US-Mexican border. No matter which way I tossed and turned, no matter how I covered myself with my inadequately sized blanket, the mosquitoes would not stop. My arms, shoulders, neck, ears and face were all covered with itchy bites. After nearly an hour of vainly suffering in silence, I noticed that Galaxy was tossing and turning too.

“Psst. Are you awake?” I whispered.

“Yes.”

“Are the mosquitoes biting you too?”

“Yes!”

Then Draco shot out of bed. We were all being bitten. We turned on the lights and started swatting at them. I almost broke my bedpost because I angrily smacked two gigantic ones. Soon we were all out of our bunks, hopping around the room like mad, making sure every last one of them was dead. We each must have killed at least twenty. My hands were gooey with blood and exoskeleton. At this point I realized that the red spots all around the room on the walls and ceiling weren’t part of a bad paint job. I asked them if this was the first time that this had happened here.

“We just moved in.”

On June 4th, 1989, hundreds of civilians were shot and trampled to death as a result of the Chinese government’s crackdown on the pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China.

In the West, this fact is ubiquitous. Ask most Westerners what they think about when they hear “China” and chances are that they will mention this incident. And we all know that in China the truth of this event has been heavily distorted. This simple fact leads many to believe that the Chinese media is a complete farce, while conversely, the Western media is a beacon of freedom and objectivity. As an American having lived in China for the past seven months and also having personally gone to Tiananmen Square on June 4th, 2009, I can tell you that this is not the case.

Before reading, I would advise you to educate yourself about what happened there on that fateful day and, more importantly, the events leading up to the protests and subsequent attack. The main issue here is that we tend to look at this incident in isolation from a very complex society and history in which it is contained.

June 4th, 2009: After my final English lesson, I scrambled home to get my passport and camera and then headed to the Square. I felt like “something” would happen there and I had to see for myself. As I got on the number 59 bus near my apartment, my thoughts raced and my heart pounded. Will the bus be re-routed from the Square? Should I hide my camera in the secret compartment of my messenger bag, or have it out in the open to not raise suspicion in case I am stopped? As a foreigner, will I be allowed anywhere near the Square? Will I be questioned, searched, detained or worse? Will there be another protest or, God forbid, an assault? Will my life in China be in danger, both figuratively and/or literally? As soon as I arrived, however, I realized how foolish I had been.

At around 9.30pm I got off at the Qianmen stop which is three stops from my apartment. It is as close as you can get to the Square by bus. The street scene seemed normal enough: cars haphazardly parked along near the street, shoppers toting their tote bags, restaurant and store owners closing up shop. What struck me first was that I saw a group of foreigners (in China, of course, we call non-Chinese “foreigners”) walking down the street. One of them was an elderly woman. Going the same direction, my instinct was to follow close behind, as I figured any attackers would hesitate to be violent around an old woman. I am laughing at myself now.

I approached the Square. To my surprise, there were very little soldiers inside. By little, I mean like 20 at most. And it’s a BIG square. Several city blocks. 100 acres. Actually, the biggest public square in the world. I looked around for something more. Tanks? No. But there were a few buses in the center. The actual Square itself was shut down (as it is every night) but the surrounding streets and sidewalks had civilians milling about everywhere. It was a quiet evening with pleasant weather. What better place and time to take a casual walk, so it seemed.



At this point I considered taking out my camera. I got a rush of fear and adrenaline. I looked around for a good place to take a quick snapshot. Then get the hell out of there, I thought. I looked over my shoulder and saw a group of three Chinese civilians. One of them had a rather large and noticeable Canon and was taking photos left and right all fancy-free. I approached them and asked them if it was OK to take pictures. “Sure,” they replied, “it’s always OK to take pictures here.” Suddenly, a gate on the Eastern side of the Square opened and a group of soldiers started marching in our direction. My heart dropped.

I was amazed at what happened next. The man just started photographing the soldiers like he was on safari. I asked him again if it was OK and he looked at me like I was stupid. Obviously it was OK. So I started taking photos of them too. I even had the flash on. They didn’t seem to mind at all. If anything, they straightened up their posture for a better picture!



By the way, you should know something about these Chinese “soldiers”. I would say that 80% of them look younger than 21. Unless they are martial arts experts, they don’t look to be threatening at all. I would equate them to shopping mall security, except that at least these kids are in shape.



Dumbfounded, I walked further down the street. I saw two kids play kungfu fighting. I stopped to take a picture and they both turned and smiled for me. Couples holding hands. Teenagers loitering. And lots and lots of people with cameras.



Why so many cameras? Were they there too, like me, hoping to achieve some kind of amateur journalistic glory? Again, no. They were just participating in a much beloved Asian pastime: taking pictures in front of things.



It was just like any other night. People posing and flashing the “peace” sign (although here the V means “victory”). Just tourists taking pictures.



Periodically, a police van drove by. One drove towards me. Surely I had aroused suspicion with my unusual wandering and frequent photo-taking of the Square and the soldiers around and within. I held my breath as the police van drove past. Right past me. I gazed into the lightly-tinted windows into the back of the van. Bloodied and beaten dissidents? No. No one except the driver and his partner.



The only confrontation with the authorities I had was when I was going through the underpass to get from Tiananmen Square to the front gate of the Forbidden City. The tunnel to get into the Square was blocked by a very unassuming yellow rope. Two young soldiers stood guard. Feeling free by now, I took out my camera and attempted to take a picture. The soldier approached me slowly and said in clear English: “I am on duty; no picture.” OK, no problem.



Another time, I tried to photograph a group of Chinese friends reviewing a picture they had just taken of the Square. This shot would’ve been particularly interesting because a solider was standing right next to them looking at the picture as well! When I took out my camera, the solider simply stepped aside as to not obstruct my shot. Not at all my intention, but it was definitely better than what I feared might be the alternative.



I had seen enough – it was time to go home. Excited, I called my friend Vicky and told her about my experience. It was nothing like I had imagined. I have lived here for seven months and I have never personally seen anything resembling government repression or police brutality. In fact, I have actually seen less of a police presence here than I would see back in the States. Cops don’t carry guns, for example. On a side note, take a walk down the Beijing bar street Sanlitun and you may be shocked by the virtual lack of police, especially if you compare it to the police state* that is 6th Street, Austin, TX on a weekend night. But this day in Beijing was different, right? But more importantly, let me tell you more about my good friend Vicky.

Vicky (her English name) is one of my best and oldest Chinese friends here. She is very westernized. She likes the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Rage Against the Machine. As a matter of fact, we play in a rock band together. She drinks and she smokes. She curses in English more than I do. But, she is also a proud member of the Chinese Communist Party. She loves China. She has tried to justify the Tiananmen crackdown to me once in a conversation. And she was recently interviewed by CNN. Please watch this video. I will wait.



It may not be entirely obvious to you, but as someone who has lived here and knows Vicky I can tell you with confidence that her meaning was completely distorted. I will give you one flat-out lie as an example. CNN’s Emily Chang mentioned that “Many Chinese are afraid to express controversial views. CNN asked dozens of people to speak on camera for this story. Only three said ‘yes.’” Vicky told me that prior to the interview she told CNN that she has plenty of friends that would be willing to participate, but was ignored. Anyways, who are these “people” that CNN asked? Who knows how hard they tried to find people to come forward? If this is not framing then I don’t know what is.

The ironic thing is that nothing that CNN broadcast in the final cut could be seen as any subversive threat to the Chinese government, yet it was presented in a way as if Vicky and the others took a big risk being there.

What did they quote Vicky as saying? “My father said, ‘I don’t want to explain this because you’re too young.’” OK, so they equate talking about Tiananmen to the birds and the bees? Astonishing!

How dare we criticize China’s youth (from an arm’s length) for being apolitical and only concerned about making money! China still has millions who can barely afford to eat. 20 years ago, they had nothing to lose. Now, they have a lot more. Besides, if Obama was not Obama, can anyone honestly say that the vast majority of America’s youth today would be any different than their cynical and uncaring selves like they were during the Bush years? Or even before for that matter? And who cares more about money than Americans? Where else would Chinese learn about the virtues of chasing money? One only has to watch an American television channel for a brief time to understand what is worshipped there.

How dare we expect more from China’s youth? What good have protests, such as the countless ones against the Iraq war, done nowadays? Can we really blame the Chinese?

Are we really to expect that the Chinese government wouldn’t try and control the Square? Are they supposed to just let potential terrorists or demonstrators run rampant? No matter what happened 20 years ago, it is ludicurous to demand that the Chinese government not have any security there. Any government in the world would do the same. Not to prevent a “protest,” but to prevent any number of random dangerous potential things from happening. I mean, really.

What kind of banal questions did Emily Chang ask? “Do you think students these days care about politics? Do they care about freedom?” How is this considered journalism? I don’t know what is more sad, the fact that she asked these questions, or the degree that she felt like she needed to dumb down the interview in order to cater to a jarringly ignorant American audience.

I asked Vicky by email to give me more details about what took place in the interview. By the way, she got to do the interview through her connections at the magazine she works for, The Beijinger. A CNN rep had asked someone at the magazine to look for someone suitable and that person then asked Vicky. So, here are some things that she told me:

On the interview in general

“I knew what the purpose of this interview would be…I’ve heard lots of bad things about CNN, I still wanted to see how bad they could be through my own eyes.”

“I also asked the lady [CNN's Emily Chang] if they would do the cutting [editing] part just for their own good. She told me sincerely, like: ‘we always try to express people’s ideas truthfully.’”

“I felt like it wasn’t about me as an individual, it was about how Western people would perceive Chinese youth. So I was careful about all the questions they asked and tried not be fooled or misled.”

“I felt it wasn’t the right time to defend China or the Chinese government, because the Western media has a lot of misunderstanding about these things…the first thing to should do was to get rid of those misunderstandings, so I decided to just admit our [China's] mistakes and try to explain how it could happen and at the same time to compare us with other governments in order to tell them that there is no big different [sic] between Chinese and other governments.”

“I also told them China needs better PR people.”

On the Tiananmen Incident

“It was a tragedy for sure, people haven’t forgotten about it, neither has the government…I bet the government didn’t know exactly what it should do to handle that problem [the '89 protests]. The government was founded in 1949, at that time they were busy solving problems like social backwardness, poverty and starvation, foreign invasion and, of course, the people’s eager desires to live in communist country (that was the idea at the beginning, anyways).”

“After the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution…increasing pressure from the bad relationships with other countries in the world, who already considered Communism as evil…the government had no experience to deal with the internal contradictions properly. All they had was the old experience from Republic of China governed by Chiang Kai Shek, who did the same things [violent crackdowns] to student protests.”

“Also, the population has always been a big problem…when there are too many people in some places, it will always extend the influence of [controversial] issues. I’ve heard from people who were actually there, that those soldiers were smiling and shaking hands with those students at the beginning of the protest. How old do you think they were? Probably just as the same age as those students, 20 or 21. They are just human beings.”

“Like the Kent State Protest, do you think American soldiers knew how to deal with that? I really doubt it. That was quite the same thing, but just because we have more people here, more people died.”

“It doesn’t matter if it’s Communist or Capitalist, as long as it’s government, it will do things for their own good.” (Vicky said she mentioned this several times during the interview.)

It goes without saying that none of these ideas were expressed in the interview.

And finally:

“At the end of interview, they asked me to repeat my sentence that I had said earlier: ‘I’m a communist, but I still criticize the party. I love my country, but I don’t have to love the government.’ Of course they didn’t show it in the video.” (Italics added.)

At least the Chinese admit to censoring the media. The West so hypocritically proclaims that we have a free and honest press, a stark contrast to the propaganda disseminated by the Chinese. If this is true, how could the New York Times use the word “blanketed” when describing the police presence in the Square on that day? [UPDATE: THE NEW YORK TIMES JUST CHANGED THE HEADLINE OF THIS STORY. IT USED TO BE Police Swarm Tiananmen To Bar Protests," which is a huge exaggeration if not a direct lie.] Why was every related article only about the unknown dead, the cover-up, the lingering anger, the house arrests and the oppression, instead of showing the other side? The side that Vicky tried to express, the side that shows that the Chinese government tried to handle the situation as best as they could? The side that Westerners would never understand, that China, just at the turn of the 20th Century, was still being ripped apart by the Powers and that the inexperienced government was responsible for the stability of an extremely large, sensitive and impoverished country? The side that you would never see unless you could be here? I’m not trying to defend what was indeed a massacre. Think what you will about what happened, but what ever happened to objectivity? Why does the Western media try so hard to portray China as a scary and totalitarian place, possibly a threat, and one that is so “opposite” to us?

• How can we point the finger at China about human rights, when we ignore, justify and censor our own sins concerning torture?
• How can we chastise China for imprisoning “dissidents”, when the PATRIOT Act allows the U.S. government to detain indefintely and without trial just for being labeled a “terrorist”, as well as warrentless searches, and countless other violations or our freedoms? Tom-a-to, tom-ah-to.
• What about the U.S. involvement in the Tlatelolco Massacre of university students in Mexico City, just ten days before the 1968 Summer Olympics, which has been virtually ignored by our media?
• How can we harp on a tragedy that happened 20 years ago in a foreign country, while we are still trying to fix our own deadly gaffe in Iraq?

Speaking of Iraq, Thomas Friedman, a columnist in the New York Times, recently wrote an article about he and President Obama yukking it up telling jokes and then talking seriously about the hornet’s nest that is the Middle East. The majority of the article are direct quotes from the President himself. To sum up, he was talking about Palestine and other Arab states needing to “hold up a mirror” to reflect on their past and current mistakes in foreign policy. But what about America holding up a mirror and looking at herself?

Must I quote Jesus Christ to drive the point home?

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brothers eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?” (Jesus in Matthew 7:3, NIV).

*You may think I’m being hyperbolic, but then again you’ve probably never partied in China before.

Some other interesing links:

Ed Morrison, New York Times

Nicholas Kristof, New York Times

China Law Blog post from “Dan”

Since I started my job working at a joint-venture pizzeria in Beijing, China, I have met quite a few people from all over. Embassy employees celebrating their children’s birthday, rowdy study-abroad students, international high school kids, travelers, tourists, scientists, engineers, etc. It’s a mixed bag.

Surprisingly enough, many of the Americans I meet are not from “international” or “cultured” places like New York City of Los Angeles, but many of them are from the South or Midwest: Kansas, Illinois, Alabama.

A large party of about fifteen seniors came in the other night. I was shocked when they told me that they weren’t here for business. They were just here to look around. They were from Alabama, mostly. My stereotypes were thrown out the window. They relished in telling me, unprovoked I must add, about how beautifully different China was than how it is portrayed in the media.

To paraphrase: people here are nice, accommodating and polite. People take pride in their country, their own behavior and their treatment of foreigners. Sure, the driving may be erratic and the toilets are mostly, err, holes in the ground, but these people took it all in stride. They seemed to be very happy and excited to see China for themselves and to realize that it’s demonization in the media is false.

I met a father and daughter from California the other evening. He had won a vacation for two from his company for good job performance. I rarely meet travelers with such a good attitude. They were just there to learn and have a good time. When we ran out of Stella Artois, they didn’t complain at all and willingly downgraded to a Tsingtao. The father again felt the urge to tell me how China is so different from the perception of it that we have in the States: a dirty, chaotic, dangerous (if not hostile) place that is completely different from us down to the deepest and most fundamental values. A place where a bastardized version of communism and corruption rules over a inconceivably vast nation of billions of automatons.

Come here and see for yourself.

My guess is that the first public Christmas celebration in Baghdad is more retaliation for the shoe-throwing incident.

I think this event takes the cake for “Most Disgusting Photo Op Of The Year”

Despite what your beliefs may be on the (I will choose my words carefully) “merits” of  ”bringing” Democracy to Iraq, how can we not draw the line there?  Why should Iraqis celebrate Christmas?  They are M-U-S-L-I-M-S.  This really is adding insult to injury.

  How to excuse this?  Well, I guess Christmas really is a secular holiday.

As the vote count came to an end, I roused myself out of bed and got on my computer. It was November 5th, 11:00 AM in Beijing, China. My friend, who is also in China, called me on Skype and told me to watch the live feed from MSNBC. We watched together, hands virtually held, as Obama becoming the first African-American President of the USA was streamed across the globe. Whether or not you agree with his politics or not, you have to admit that it was an incredible moment in American and World History. I immediately called my parents via Skype and did a jig for them using my web-cam.

That night I went to the Wudaokou District (well-known for students, expats and bars) with one objective: find Americans to party with. I strolled into Pyro’s Pizza and saw a swarm of drunk youth dancing to the incessant beat of Shakira’s Hips Don’t Lie. Mission: Accomplished.

A few tequila shots and pitchers of Tsingtao later, I was ready for the New America. I had made some new friends: a guy from Chicago, a girl from Berkeley, a dude from Manchester, another guy from New Hampshire (I believe) and a Chinese guy named “Hugo”. We had all been brought together by chance, but on that night, we were united. By what, exactly? The hope that Obama inspires? The change that he promises to bring? The serendipity of our meeting? The alcohol flowing through our veins?

No matter, it was a happy occasion for all (especially the bartenders). When I woke up the next morning, however, I had a deep and uneasy feeling. I’m talking about something more than my awful hangover. Has America already forgotten the horrors of the past eight years, lost in a sea of optimism and denial? Is Obama’s meteoric rise to power possibly a bad thing, considering that people now seem to feel that America has purged itself of our past mistakes?

When I read the outpouring of self-congratulatory Facebook “status” updates after Obama’s confirmed win, I was reminded of the words of the Chinese philosopher Laozi:

The wicked leader is he who the people despise. The good leader is he who the people revere. The great leader is he who the people say, ‘We did it ourselves.’

Is this difference between “wicked” and “great” an absolute, or is it merely an illusion in the eyes of the people?

We should ask ourselves:

• Will Obama repeal the PATRIOT Act?
• Did Obama not also vote for the Foreign Intelligence Communications Act that gives immunity to telecommunications companies that colluded with the government’s illegal wire-tapping?
• Will Obama indeed prove to differentiate himself from the alternate reality of a McCain Presidency?

We can only hope that Obama meant what he said in his victory speech and that the American people themselves will heed his call.

My dad forwarded me an e-mail with some political goodies. The first is a video of my friend from my childhood that I have not seen in years. As you can see, he is doing great things:



Now, here is a chain letter that I found to be very poignant and to the bone. It’s great that this message can be sent to so many people so quickly. I’m not quite sure who this Tim Wise character is but I agree with him completely.

This is Your Nation on White Privilege
By Tim Wise
9/13/08

For those who still can’t grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.

White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because “every family has challenges,” even as black and Latino families with similar “challenges” are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.

White privilege is when you can call yourself a “f*ckin’ redneck,” like Bristol Palin’s boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you’ll “kick their f*ckin’ a$$,” and talk about how you like to “shoot sh*t” for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.

White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.

White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don’t all p*ss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you’re “untested.”

White privilege is being able to say that you support the words “under God” in the pledge of allegiance because “if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it’s good enough for me,” and not be immediately disqualified from holding office–since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and the “under God” part wasn’t added until the 1950s–while if you’re black and believe in reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because the Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school, requires it), you are a dangerous and mushy liberal who isn’t fit to safeguard American institutions.

White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you.

White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union, and whose motto is “Alaska first,” and no one questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you’re black and your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she’s being disrespectful.

White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the work they do–like, among other things, fight for the right of women to vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child labor–and people think you’re being pithy and tough, but if you merely question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college and the fact that she lives close to Russia–you’re somehow being mean, or even sexist.

White privilege is being able to convince white women who don’t even agree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate anyway, because suddenly your presence on the ticket has inspired confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a “second look.”

White privilege is being able to fire people who didn’t support your political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you must be corrupt.

White privilege is when you can take nearly twenty-four hours to get to a hospital after beginning to leak amniotic fluid, and still be viewed as a great mom whose commitment to her children is unquestionable, and whose “next door neighbor” qualities make her ready to be VP, while if you’re a black candidate for president and you let your children be interviewed for a few seconds on TV, you’re irresponsibly exploiting them.

White privilege is being able to give a 36 minute speech in which you talk about lipstick and make fun of your opponent, while laying out no substantive policy positions on any issue at all, and still manage to be considered a legitimate candidate, while a black person who gives an hour speech the week before, in which he lays out specific policy proposals on several issues, is still criticized for being too vague about what he would do if elected.

White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict in the Middle East is God’s punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you’re just a good church-going Christian, but if you’re black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism and its effect on black people, you’re an extremist who probably hates America.

White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a “trick question,” while being black and merely refusing to give one-word answers to the queries of Bill O’Reilly means you’re dodging the question, or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.

White privilege is being able to go to a prestigious prep school, then to Yale and then Harvard Business school, and yet, still be seen as just an average guy (George W. Bush) while being black, going to a prestigious prep school, then Occidental College, then Columbia, and then to Harvard Law, makes you “uppity,” and a snob who probably looks down on regular folks.

White privilege is being able to graduate near the bottom of your college class (McCain), or graduate with a C average from Yale (W.) and that’s OK, and you’re cut out to be president, but if you’re black and you graduate near the top of your class from Harvard Law, you can’t be trusted to make good decisions in office.

White privilege is being able to dump your first wife after she’s disfigured in a car crash so you can take up with a multi-millionaire beauty queen (who you go on to call the c-word in public) and still be thought of as a man of strong family values, while if you’re black and married for nearly twenty years to the same woman, your family is viewed as un-American and your gestures of affection for each other are called “terrorist fist bumps.”

White privilege is when you can develop a pain-killer addiction, having obtained your drug of choice illegally like Cindy McCain, go on to beat that addiction, and everyone praises you for being so strong, while being a black guy who smoked pot a few times in college and never became an addict means people will wonder if perhaps you still get high, and even ask whether or not you ever sold drugs.

White privilege is being able to sing a song about bombing Iran and still be viewed as a sober and rational statesman, with the maturity to be president, while being black and suggesting that the U.S. should speak with other nations, even when we have disagreements with them, makes you “dangerously naive and immature.”

White privilege is being able to say that you hate “gooks” and “will always hate them,” and yet, you aren’t a racist because, ya know, you were a POW so you’re entitled to your hatred, while being black and insisting that black anger about racism is understandable, given the history of your country, makes you a dangerous bigot.

White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and experiencing racism and an absent father is apparently among the “lesser adversities” faced by other politicians, as Sarah Palin explained in her convention speech.

And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world opinion, just because a lot of white voters aren’t sure about that whole “change” thing. Ya know, it’s just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more years of the same, which is very concrete and certain.

White privilege is, in short, the problem.

In my Gmail account there is a thin and pleasant looking “Sponsored Link” banner from the ACLU that is sarcastically asking me if I am a terrorist. Naturally, I click it. (Does that make me a terrorist?) I begin to wonder and make connections between all these stories I am hearing about the NSA, and far overreaching powers of the current Administration.

W. was 5th in the box office in opening weekend!

Through my cynical and critical youth during the “Bush Years”, I developed a bold though sometimes erratic social consciousness. There have been, oh Lord, many-a-times when I have been three sheets to the wind where I have made inappropriate jokes regarding, well, I’m actually afraid to say it…

But dare I say YES, to Barry Goldwater, a conservative and a republican, mind you, who said that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice? When we will wake up and realize the clownishness of this political circus and actually pay attention to the things that are happening in our country?

Christ, do you realize that just me writing this article could, TECHNICALLY (and I also believe, just maybe, potentially) get me taken away in the middle of the night, imprisoned without trial or lawyer indefinitely, with possibility of not being in contact with even family, and waterboarded, or worse?

Yes, this has happened. Yes, this happens. Yes, this is happening. Yes, this will happen more.

I’m going to China and ironically I feel more secure there. Despite the fear we are fed everyday I have never been afraid of terrorists except for one exception (09/11/2001) and have always been more afraid of the US government. Please just don’t give me a hard time at the airport. I love America but I am not a terrorist. I am an anti-terrorist. I believe we, the American People, the Great We, whatever, we should stop terrorizing others, and them, you know, THEM, should stop terrorizing us, especially, because we are decent people, we are just numb, and we have a really big country with lots of resources and lots of people willing to work really hard for a living, well, a lot of us anyways.

And as I’ve grown older I’ve realized that violence begets violence. You cannot fight fire with fire. All that old wisdom is right. Even Star Wars.

I was really, really impressed with Joe Biden at the VP debate. That really isn’t saying much since Sarah Palin is just a bitchy comedic act whose “small town values” make “To Kill A Mockingbird” seem more like “To Kill A Moose.”

But seriously, what he said was something that I really needed to hear to understand American politics, and people in general. To paraphrase: “Never question the motives of people. Only their judgement.”

I love America and that’s why I’m leaving her. America is sick. She is too full. She eats too many cheeseburgers and is clogged with gasoline resin and IKEA furniture. She doesn’t understand the world anymore because she just stuffs herself. Our country has become fat and lazy and it’s no wonder the rest of the world is gaining on us. But why look at it as gaining on us when we should look at is as gaining with us? I guess I hope to learn about the world and come back home to make the world the better place, even if it’s just in my little own way.

It’s good that both sides can take a break from the drudgery of campaigning to have some fun. It’s my opinion that this was the best debate!

    

Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.

– A.J. Liebling

Opinions aside, 9/11 “Truthers” are some of the most vitriolically hated political sub-group in the nation. Their ideas are so troublesome and controversial in today’s society that proponents are immediately and spontaneously repressed, no matter the place.

Even solid players on the left like South Park and Bill Maher lampoon and angrily demonize them. It seems they cannot go anywhere without being dismissed as crazy, childish, idiotic, disrespectful to the families of those that died, even apologists for Al-Qaida.

Technology, such as the omnipresent YouTube, now enables them to spread their concern to every corner, every computer, every dorm room and office on the planet.

And it can seem disturbingly convincing.

Personally, the theory claiming that 9/11 was an “inside job” is simply too horrific for me to believe. Accepting that as fact would require me to start taking Paxil everyday. But my rational brain just won’t let me stop thinking about it. And that is exactly what makes web video technology such a strong tool for Truthers.

On Sept. 11th, 2008, a prominent chunk of TV ad space was bought up by featured programs showing “personal” video footage of the attacks taken by “real” people. The only purpose of said programming was to stir and thicken up our sentimental societal glue and did not answer any deep questions about those powerfully influential events.

Meanwhile, an influx of online video, mostly links to unearthed news footage, has been turning heads.

Using your high-speed internet cable, 2000 gaziga-hertz processor and high-resolution color monitor, it takes you the time it takes to eat a popsicle to watch all of these (believe them or not) striking videos.

Real videos, taken of real events, shot by real people and watched by real people in real time. Hopefully you watched a linked video just now and if you did, you can’t tell me that it didn’t make you at least wonder, which is exactly what the Truthers want and are now able to accomplish.

Truthers are so feared, denied and hated that they are thrilled if someone is “open-minded” enough to spend a spatter of seconds to watch any one of these videos. To them, the proof is in the pudding. Thanks to technology, everyone can get a free sample.

And that’s one example of the power of technology on politics.