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ashtanga-warrior

Listed below are comments made by ashtanga-warrior between Tuesday, 27th May 2008 and Friday, 25th July 2008.

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Terrorism threat 04:09am on 25 Jul 2008 Baysidetina: Your English is not good enough yet. I speak three laguages and being able to transmit the same "feeling" in another is totally possible but it takes the right environment, lots of effort and practice.

I am surprised at all the people critizicing the translation, the bottom line is we all know is bad English but when reading it whe can make sense of it in our heads. (we can translate it into proper English in our heads). English doesn't have as many restrictions like in Chinese ??? (near synonims) As long as it has the same meaning we are used to "missusing it".

My opinion is that the people who did that list are not the best security professionals in the world. Why do you feel the need to justify it? Look around the BBC coverage of other countries they will call on everything that makes no sense
National sentiment 11:46am on 16 Jul 2008 Having lived in China for a while, I find that for the most part the Chinese find it hard to believe that some "foreigners" or "westerners" discuss our own country's problems in the same way we do about the Chinese.

For example I openly say that Bush should be impeached, Guantanamo closed, the war in Irak should stop, lobbying made illegal etc. but for all the problems I see in American society I still respect the country and it's citizens as I know these actions do not represent the views of many and sometimes of most of its people.

I strongly believe that being able to see and come in contact with all kinds of information, being allowed to question it, and becoming aware of world issues is the best competitive advantage any person or nation can have (and has had all through history) In the end creativity trumps everything, and by creativity I don't mean figuring out ingenious ways of getting rich but truly creating something that further pushes the envelope and forces us to see things from a different perspective.

I always try to promote this among my friends here in China, and I believe many of them knowing I have no bad intentions seem to be more and more open to discussing some of these issues.

Totalitarianism is by design not able to accomplish anything else than forced discipline, Stalins regime collapsed, Mao's regime collapsed even if todays rulers claim to be their heirs (???).

I can only speak for myself, but whenever I bring up any of these issues I always do it with the intention of helping the Chinese becoming more effective in the world, so that when regulations are enforced and salaries go up they will be able to stay competitive.

NOT ALL OF US (AND I WOULD ARGUE MOST OF US) ARE NOT TRYING TO HARM CHINA WHEN DISCUSSIN THE HUGE PROBLEMS CONFRONTING SUCH A COMPLEX COUNTRY!
Xinjiang in mind 07:33am on 17 Jun 2008 James:

I would like to hear your toughts on all the comments you are receiving. I am specially curious to know if all the Chinese flooding the website to defend everything the goverment does makes your work harder? does it make you want to give in and give them something they would like? How is the people around you? How do you personally feel with all of this (seeing so much death, destruction, sorrow, solidarity, people of all sorts, the responsibility of covering such an important time)?

I personally find it hard when I am in China not to feel isolated when people are so unwilling to discuss the negative aspects of things, and I am not referring to political things but rather simple situations that arise in everyday life.

Aside from "sensitive" issues, I have made great friendships in China and except for the ocassional xenophobic I have had a great time. Teachers, friends and people I meet during my travels are usually extremely helpful, polite and curious, for me it has been the country where I have been treated the best and the worst.

A curious fact:

My language teachers have been trained to teach Chinese as a foreign language in what are considered the best schools for this, but when I told them I planned to speak fluent Chinese and almost like a local they laughed and said it was impossible for foreigners to do this. I have only met three Chinese that believe it is possible for a non native speaker to speak perfect Chinese and that is because they have seen people that can do it.

Other people in your blog have said that bridging the cultural gap is impossible ( I have friends in India, Denmark, Korea, the U.K, the US and China, and we understand each other just fine) . I personally have never heard such an absurd thing and it probably reflects the lack of confidence those people have in themselves to do it.

Maybe they should say: We have been isolated from the world for a long time and we need time to adjust and understand how the international community (both east and west) work, instead they claim no one understands them becasue people don't agree with them for the sake of agreeing. What is sad is that as long as people like that exist there will hardly be peace in the world because to them differences matter more than what we have in common.

France and Germany vowed to destroy each other less than a century ago and now people can travel work and trade freely, The US "bought" more than half of Mexico and today we have full diplomatic relations along with NAFTA, the English commited horrible abuses in India and still they both welcome each other (an Indian company just bought two of the most prestigious English car brands: Jaguar and Land Rover, they bought them from Ford), and no one in England protested for that. Maybe China should move on in relation to similar issues.

Another curious thing is that they appeal to thousands of Chinese history to serve as an excuse for all kinds of things when they have only been alive for a few decades not to mention that their current political system and ideology is imported (quite recently also) The great ancient chinese philosophers should not be used to justify all kinds of actions.

PS If you think there is no criticism in the West towards itself go watch any of these:

American History X
Sick'o
Farenheit 9/11
Bowling for Columbine
The corporation
Malcom X
JFK
Ghandi
Rwanda (History of a gencocide by David Hazan)
The pianist
The recent movie (produced by HBO for the TV) that talks about what happened in the state of Florida during the 200 US presidential election.

You may also look in you tube to the argument bill clinton with a fox news anchor. Inquire about the US groups that fight against illegal discrimination for same sex couples, groups that are trying to stop the war in Iraq, protestors in London just yesterday calling Bush a war criminal (the BBC reported this even though the UK is actively participating in the war and a close ally of the USA), groups fighting for the rights of immigrants, groups fighting against what is going on in Guantanamo, the footage released of US torture techniques(the ones with the drowning that they say don't qualify as torure), doctors without borders, human shields etc......

In understaning western coverage you must understand that it is not as homogeneous as it is in China for example BBC Vs Fox News. I think you are lacking some context (which is understandable as a lot of things are blocked in China and things are filtered to show what is convenient) To me the main goal of an education is to build the ability to discriminate between right and wrong fair and biased, not to memorize stuff by rote and have people agree over most things (the ones that have a voice).

Gandhi wrote in his autobiography when referring to his responsibility (to communicate unbiased truth) in managing a newspaper:

"In the very first month of Indian Opinion, I realized that the sole aim of journalism should be service. The newspaper press is a great power, but just as an unchained torrent of water submerges whole countrysides and devastates crops, even so an uncontrolled pen serves but to destroy. If the control is from without it proves more poisonous than want of control. It can be profitable only when excercised from within. If this line of reasoning is correct how many journals in the world would stand the test? But who would stop those that are useless? And who should be the judge? The useful and the useless must, like good and evil generally go on together, and man must make his choice."

Keep up the good work James.

Those of you who do not like it please contribute with facts and constructive criticism or get your news somewhere else.
Earthquake impact 10:25pm on 27 May 2008 I carefully follow what happens in China, I have lived there alone and with a Chinese family, I have a decent command of the language (about 4,000 words) and have studied China's history from 2000 bc to this date (I could study it for ten more years and still be scratching the surface).

I have had great experiences as well as difficult ones, I have seen the newly prosperous and the oppressed. To me China is not better or worse than any country in the world (or more unique or any of the other common adjectives). We should replace nationalism or ethnocentrism or racism, xenophobia or whichever of this feelings is stronger in your country and instead think in terms of human kind not countries and political parties.

When people comment or attack a certain policy of my government (Mexico) or a political leader, I don't take it either as an attack on my country or on myself. Sometimes this doesn't seem to be the standard in China though....

I wish there was more thoughtfull discussion on this blog, mistakes and criticism generate change. For example bush disastrous policies have made him the least popular president, open criticism (has anyone seen the little bush show?) has also helped the democrats win the majority in the house of representatives and the senate. This open discussion of the ERRORS will probably cost the Republicans the elections too.

This is not about whether China is good or bad (even less so it's inhabitants) It is about helping the country evolve by recognizing it's achievements and bluntly calling in it's abuses and mistakes.

Too often I see people justifying actions taken by their government with the US invation of Irak, Hitler or other western tyrants (Mexico has certainly had its share). To me one tyrant does not justify another all should be equally condemned whether they come from my own country or the other side of the world.

I look forward to the day when we can stop blindly defending a concept or a person and really extend ourselves to each other.

As Ziggy Marley says:

Love is my religion...
I don't condem I don't convert this is the calling have you heard...

Keep up the good work James!

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