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Genaro Flores.
AnonymousSince our seminar began, my wife is constently pointing out East Asia issues in the news. What I found particularly interesting during the last natural disaster in East Asia, 7.5 earthquake, was the lack of communcation our community has with regions that control so much of our financial assets. What I mean is that all the visuals from China's affected area was coming from the local Korean channel as opposed to affiliates working with U.S local channels.I find this strange since China appears to be a world player and holds many of the U.S money. I would think we would have a closer connection with this part of the world. Does anybody have comments or more info on this issue?
AnonymousLos Angeles Times, Wednesday, May 21, 2008
"Quake threatens a culture's future"
One of the many ethnic minorities living in China are the Qiang people, numbering about 300,000. But with last week's earthquake, the survival rate of the Qiang is in question as almost all lived within 100 miles of the earthquake's epicenter. Times staff writers interviewed an elderly couple who had walked about 12 hours from their devastated village, traveling for the first time outside of their village. They had known no life other than their remote village, so were at a loss as to what to do next. Some of the Qiang villages are so remote that aid workers had not reached them yet, even after one week. Aside from reducing the population of the group, the earthquake may well destroy their culture. Only about one-third of the Qiang speak the languge, which is part of the Tibeto-Burman group, and linguists worry that many of those who speak it may have perished. Among the young Qiang, few speak it, choosing Mandarin Chinese instead. As the survivors move to the cities, the chances of preserving their culture becomes even more difficult.
AnonymousThis smog is a Global problem that needs to have a response from our world leader and world powers. The United States and China are two of the biggest contributors to the problem and need to be the ones to take a stand. The United States has been dragging its feet on this issue for a long time, but we as voters need to help force the issue. I think it will be quite some time before China has an opportunity to take action. They are still growing so fast that it is difficult for them to put resources toward develpment and better control of the smog. Plus they have a government the is less inclined to act on the behave of its people because they simply have higher priorities right now. This is where a Democratic government needs to show its worth. To show the world that the government if working at the will of the people and for their good.
AnonymousThis is so different from previous disasters!
So much of China has opened up to journalists this year because of the Olympics. NPR reporters were in Chungdu in April and returned in May -- in time for first hand reporting on the earthquake. Would it have gotten such exposure if not for the Olympics?
How far have the Chinese moved from the secrecy and tight control viewed with the hurricane disaster that continues to unfold in Myanmar?[Edit by="jchristensen on May 27, 10:31:13 PM"][/Edit]
AnonymousMay 12, 2008
Sichuan, China
So many famlies lost a child, an only child, the child that parents and grandparents alike had focused all their attention on. What is to become of the broken hearts and deams of those adults? Will the mothers have another child? Will the family have the resources to give to the second child what they had already given to the first who is now dead? If the child is a daughter not a son, how they react?
But, what about the orphans, those children who survived? Will Chinese families adopt them? Will extended-family members reach out to their kin? Will these orphans languish in orphanages or struggle on the streets of Chinese cities?
Will these Chinese children suffer the same fate as the children in Russia and Bulgaria -- no one of their own culture to adopt them? Americans do step in to "rescue." I have several friends who have adopted baby girls from China and Viet Nam over the past decade. I have an older cousin who adopted two brothers who had lived on the streets of Guatamala's capital city after the earthquake in 1976.
In one of our lectures we learned that Japanese families would adopt a male from another family if they did not have a suitable [bloodline] heir. After an earthquake, do the Japanese of today adopt the orphans? Is that a totally different scenario?
Being a participant of the USCI East Asia Seminar has made me think and question in a different way.
clay dubeMy brother is a nutritionist and he received the attached pdf from one of his nutritionist pals. I don't know who the photographer is, but the shots are sharper than the ones I took of these same Beijing street vendors on numerous visits since 2004. The photographer has also labelled most of the items available for sale.
These street stalls are located on a street that intersects Wangfujing near the end of the pedestrian street. It's a major destination for Chinese and foreign tourists.
AnonymousI am not sure that my post should be under this heading but I will post it anyway. As some may or may not be aware, the bee population in America is facing extinction. The desease is known as CCD (Community Collapse Disorder). It works almost as an AIDS virus in the bee communities and its affect on humans is that fewer of the crops we come to depend on are not getting pollinated. Now the US is hard on the trail of trying to save the bees we do have left, however guess who has faced this extinction and has now learned to cope without these pollinators? If you said China, you would be right. Apparently back in the late 1800's and early 1900's a province of northern Sichoun (spelling may be off) decided to continue their use of pesticides over their crops and as a result all the bees were wiped out. Today, the Chinese farmers use a method of pollinating. It is a method in which they (humans) play the role of the bees. If the US had to do without bees we are looking at a cost of nearly 90 billion dollars to do it ourselves, so the US government is well aware of the importance to save the bees and hopefully now you do to.
More at http://www.pbs.org
Anonymous"Once again, I am surprised at the swift, non-debatable action of the government and at the resigned and trusting attitude of China's citizens. It is certainly a different country from the U.S.!" reads this post. But is this attitude changing, and if it is, what role is the Internet itself playing in this change?
rueben gordon
AnonymousAdd locusts to China's list of calamities
Riots -- check. Earthquake -- check. Flood -- check. Plague -- check. Such a concentration of woes in this high-profile year has fanned rumors and superstition.
By Mark Magnier, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
July 3, 2008
BEIJING -- First there was the freak snowstorm in February. Then the Tibetan riots in March. Then in rapid succession the controversial torch relay, Sichuan earthquake, widespread flooding and an algae bloom that's tarnishing the Olympic sailing venue. Just when it seemed that nothing else could go wrong this year in China, the locusts arrived.
Locusts? What is going on here? The litany of near-biblical woes would seem to lack only a famine, frogs and smiting of the first born.
The Middle Kingdom's parade of problems has threatened to put a major damper on China's anticipated moment of glory less than five weeks before the start of the 2008 Beijing Games.
"This sure has been a weird year," said Ma Zhijie, 20, who works in a coffee shop. "There are so many disasters, it's hard to know what's happening."
Authorities have been working overtime to tackle, contain and spin their way out of each new setback. But the volume of calamities this year would challenge any government, let alone one that has staked so much on pulling off the perfect Olympic Games.
This week, China sent out an all-points bulletin for exterminators. About 33,000 professional pest killers were quickly dispatched to Inner Mongolia in hope of preventing a cloud of locusts from descending on Beijing during the Games.
The vermin apparently hatched a month early because of warmer-than-usual weather and already have eaten their way through 3.2 million acres of grassland in three areas of the countryside. With the capital only a few hundred miles away and the Chinese leadership in no mood to take chances, about 200 tons of pesticide, 100,000 sprayers and four aircraft have been thrown into this battle against the bugs.
the article goes on
AnonymousChina tightens visa restrictions as Olympics near
Instead of the anticipated crush of visitors, tourism is down and some observers fear the restrictions may present a long-term business obstacle.
By Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
July 1, 2008
BEIJING -- It was a farewell dinner, Chinese-style.
A dozen people seated around a large table awkwardly picked up morsels of food from a revolving platter and sipped from tall bottles of room-temperature beer. There was a joyless quality to the evening as the dozen or so assembled guests, Britons, Canadians and Americans who had come to China to teach English, contemplated their imminent departure on account of visa restrictions.
Businesses in China take a pre-Olympics hit
"I tell them not to say they're being deported," said Diana Wan, manager of the Shane English School. "This is Chinese government policy. There is nothing we can do about it until after the Olympics."
As the Summer Olympics draw near, foreigners are discovering that the welcome mat they had expected is being abruptly rolled up. Thousands of foreigners have been kicked out before today's deadline as a result of tough new visa policies. Those forced to leave include nondiplomatic support staffers at embassies, migrant workers, freelance writers, artists and students.
Exactly how many foreigners must leave China remains unclear because the government has released minimal information about the changes in visa policy. About 110,000 foreigners are registered as Beijing residents, and about the same number are living and working in the capital with tourist, student or investor visas. Many of those visas expired at the end of June and will not be renewed.
At the same time, most Chinese embassies and consulates are no longer issuing visas with more than 30-day validity and prospective tourists now have to show hotel reservations, plane tickets and other documentation.
Among the persona non grata are many young Westerners attracted by low rents, a lively cafe and bar scene and the buzz of living behind the former Iron Curtain, qualities that made Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, an expatriate favorite last decade.
"We wanted to get into the way of life here," said 24-year-old Natan Doyon, who moved from Britain last year with his girlfriend to teach English to Chinese children. He says his pupils were so upset when he told them he couldn't renew his visa that they begged, "Don't go. We'll help you hide."
He and his girlfriend now plan to try Vietnam.
So many English teachers are being forced to leave that many of the private language schools, the rage lately for children of the upwardly mobile, are closing down for the summer. With only three native English speakers left on its staff, Shane is cutting its summer camp in half and might curtail its fall program. Shane, which is owned by a British chain, advertises that it provides native English speakers.
AnonymousI caught most of this documentary hosted by Ted Koppel on Discovery. It seems that in lieu of the Olympics alot of programming (and movies) are being geared towards CHina. Koppel decided to focus on the economy of China which is good since most people (including myself) struggle to grasp just how communist China is. Part one of the doc. show how China's economy is growing-basically becoming the world's factory. The second part of the documentary, called "MAOism v. MEism" explains how China's growing economy is resulting in massive migration to industrialized centers (I believe the city was Chongquing), which in turn is resulting in old norms being challenged, including many communist beliefs. Did anyone else catch the show? Any opinions? I think this would be great for a economics class.
AnonymousI read an article in the LA Times some months ago that approximately 25% of the smog that gets trapped in the L.A. basin is from China. If this is accurate it is quite disturbing. This shows that China's growth is affecting our health because of their lack of environmental regulations.
AnonymousI also noticed this show and TVO'd it. The third show talks about "the void left by communism and Confucianism." However I haven't been able to watch it yet. I will let you know about my reaction.
AnonymousHBO is showing a documentary this week called China's Stolen Children. According to the show, 70,000 children are stolen or kidnapped. So many, in fact, that the government can't keep up and there are private "missing children" finders. The problem comes from the one child policy. People want children and can't legally have them, so they buy them. Organized crime is involved. You have to be 20 to get married, and have to be married to get a permit, and have to have a permit to legally have a baby. If the baby is illegal, he/she can't go to school, etc. The show follows one such unregistered baby's parents' search plus some others. Because of the one child policy, females are aborted leading to an imbalance in numbers between the sexes. The child that was stolen that was the primary focus was a boy. The husband's parents, he said, can't forgive him for destroying their hopes for the future. The wife's mom was watching the child so she has feelings she can't resolve. It's all very tragic and interesting. It really sheds a lot of light on the implications of the one child policy.
AnonymousTwo Killed in Bus Explosions in China
I assume that their are many Chinese citizens who are upset with thier government, but I can't recall having heard anything about terrorist organizations within China. Today, in Kunming, two explosions happened on two different buses injuring 14 and killing 2. Authorities believe it may be the work of Islamic separatists in China!!! Should I be shocked by this? It makes sense that some people in China would be islamic, after all there is a major islamic influence in that area, but I just never put two and two together. Has anyone heard any mention of terrorist groups within China?