I found this set of interesting satirical cartoons on my friend's blog, which I am posting here for your viewing pleasure. I don't know who the artist is and hence I am not able to attribute it.

Labels: china

I just saw this report on BBC news about the Chinese PRC government and the selection of the next Dalai Lama.
This is so effing hilarious! What... now the commie heads are going to decide on who can reincarnate as whom?

Okay folks, maybe you can use this to your advantage. Just write in to the PRC's State Administration for Religious Affairs to request for your choice of reincarnated being.

Hmmm... I think I will request to be reincarnated as a tall, tanned, hunky and drop-dead gorgeous East Asian (Japanese, Chinese, etc) model-type of gay man.

Labels: china, politics, religion, tibet

Okay, enough about Singapore for the time being.

There were two articles I read recently that got my attention.

The first one was written by Theresa Tan of the Straits Times and was part of a multi-page feature on China's (notably Hainan in this feature) preoccupation of having male progenies over female. Story after story spoke of the desperate measures some couples resort to get a son or a village full of bachelors who are bearing the brunt of an ever decreasing pool of potential brides.

However, the bright spark was the story of the Yao couple, two peasants who are practically living hand to mouth. But what set them apart from their peers is that they have been accepting unwanted and discarded baby girls and have brought them up with hardly any outside help. Sometimes, even going by with only two meals a day, usually plain noodles or buns, but the girls would get three meals of rice and other cooked dishes.

In time, some friends and relatives chipped in by either adopting some of the girls or helping to take care of them.

"Boys and girls are the same. Both are lives".

The other is an op-ed that was written by Uzodinma Iweala for the New York Post entitled "Stop Trying To 'Save' Africa".

It is an interesting and different perspective of the whole "Save Africa" cause célèbre that is currently all the rage in first-world western nations.

His contention is that there seems to be a certain throwback to the old colonial days when missionaries were sent to Africa to introduce them to education, Jesus Christ and "civilisation."

No doubt such help is appreciated by those receiving it, but the imbalance inherent of such a programme seems rather obvious. You have the spot light cast on Bono, Madonna, Angelina Jolie or some other celebrity while Africans regardless of the amount of work they do for their brethrens are cast either as props or supporting actors.

I have to admit that my image of Africa has been coloured by the very campaigns and programmes that were set up by well-intentioned celebrities or political personalities to alleviate some of the problems they face. To me, it seems Africa is a helpless continent that needs external intervention to save them from themselves.

Yes, I, an Asian who is a descendant of the very people who were once the subject races of "well-intentioned" British colonialist have unknowingly bought into this neo-colonial belief of western superiority over the backward and infighting tribes of Africa.

And I believe that it is this very idea of western cultural and intellectual superiority that colours a lot of their views and foreign policies regarding Asia, Africa and the Middle-East. The IMF and the World Bank are prime examples.

This leads to the question of whether colonialism as we know it in history is really over. Are our minds, ideas, cultures, beliefs and perspective still colonised by the west. It seems the answer is a resounding "yes".

Then this would bring up the next few questions that remain to be answered: Is it for the better? Will the world be forever divided inequitably between the west and the rest? And is Uzodinma Iweala too unrealistic for his own good?

Labels: africa, china, human interest, international, politics

Oh my fucking gawd... I can't believe this. Almost makes me ashamed to be a Chinese.

To cut to the chase, police raided a brick factory in Shanxi owned by the son of the local Communist Party. There they found workers who have been held virtual prisoners and were practically slaves. They had to work 20 hours a day with no pay and with only bread and water for food. They don't even have water to bathe and all them smelt foul and were so caked in dirt that it could be scrapped off with a knife. A few of them are so traumatized that the only thing they can remember is their first name.

It's so ironic that a communist country that is supposed to champion the poor proletariats end up being like the very greedy and inhumane capitalist and bourgeois they used to vilify and persecute.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6733045.stm

Labels: china, human interest

Thank god people still remember. Though they died without achieving much, at least they are not forgotten. I guess that's where Hong Kong differs from Singapore - the people there are very politically aware and they care.



The slogan on the t-shirt above says in Chinese, "The People Will Not Forget".

Click on the picture for other photographs from the memorial service in Hong Kong that was attended by tens of thousands of people. It's an annual thing and it's always well attended.

I am curious, if something of this magnitude happens close to Singapore like how Tiananmen in Beijing happened so close to Hong Kong, will we Singaporeans remember or even bother to remember 18 years after the fact? I know quite a number of Singaporeans were upset over the whole event as it played out on our TV screens then. I had learnt from the Straits Times that some Singaporeans had placed protest wreaths at the doors of the Bank of China building next to the present Fullerton Hotel while some port workers unfurled banners and shouted "Merdeka" (freedom) at some arriving PRC-Chinese merchant ships.

It was the day youthful ideals met the death blow of adult real politics and entrenched interests.

Maybe we Singaporeans move on quickly. Maybe we find that this event really has nothing to do with us. Then again, I may be wrong. For all I know, Singaporeans still do remember and some small numbers do commemorate this event in their own small way.

For me, it was one of a few defining moment in my own political awareness and it still stands out in terms of horror, shock and indignation; especially the images of human remains (students and other Chinese) after the military and their tanks have finished them. And it's probably why I still get perturbed when people start to cosy up to the PRC government or become an apologist for them.

BBC News - Witnessing Tiananmen: Clearing the square

BBC On This Day - 1989: Massacre in Tiananmen Square

Tiananmen Square, 1989 - The Declassified History

Virtual Museum of China '89

Labels: china, history, hong kong, politics

AP Entertainment: Chinese Web site to launch show on gay issues with gay host

Wah... China so progressive one meh? What happened to all those Asian values that LKY and his ilk sprout once in a while to justify some of their policies?

Interestingly, it seems that this progressive stance on homosexuality is common in countries where a majority of the people speak Chinese: China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. The only anomaly is of course you-know-where lah.

So is the concept of Asian values a myth? Does it really exist or is it a political/social catch phrase thought up by some leaders to justify certain repressive policies, their hold on power, and etc. (Note: This is a rhetorical question. No need to answer it. Of course it you want to, I can't stop you lah)

Maybe some of our policy makers are conflating their "Christian Values" with "Asian Values".

Labels: china, lgbt, tv