happy new year! In 23 days, it will also be Chinese New Year (no, not vietnamese tet or "korean" new year or even lunar new year-- it's Chinese New Year because the Chinese invented the lunar calendar), and it will be the YEAR OF THE DRAGON!
The Fairbank Report...(如意報告)
**NB: Signed articles represent the opinions of the respective
authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of THE FAIRBANK REPORT/RUYI BAOGAO (如 意 報 告).
31 December 2011
新年快樂 2012
happy new year! In 23 days, it will also be Chinese New Year (no, not vietnamese tet or "korean" new year or even lunar new year-- it's Chinese New Year because the Chinese invented the lunar calendar), and it will be the YEAR OF THE DRAGON!
30 December 2011
Greedy Govt Plutocrats
From http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/heardinthehall/136380728.html
Councilwoman Marian B. Tasco is retiring Friday, but only so she can collect a $478,057 pension check and return to work Monday, when she will be sworn in for her seventh term.
Tasco was one of six Council members to enroll in the city’s controversial Deferred Retirement Option Plan, better known as DROP. She did not immediately return a request for comment.
Plan participants trade a lower lifetime pension for a large one-time lump sum payment, but they are supposed to retire when they get that check.
Several elected officials, however, exercised a right approved by two city solicitors to run for election, retire for a day, collect their DROP payments, and return to work.
Tasco was one of six Council members to do that. But DROP enrollment became such a political liability that participation in the plan played a role in the decisions of four other Council members - Frank DiCicco, Donna Reed Miller, Jack Kelly and President Anna Verna - not to run again. Councilman Frank Rizzo lost his reelection bid in part because he was enrolled in DROP.
Taco may have paid a price, too. She was widely expected to replace Verna as president, but as the DROP controversy grew, Tasco’s candidacy for the leadership spot faded. Instead, Councilman Darrell Clarke, who is not enrolled in DROP, will be the next president.
DROP allows participants to pick a retirement date four years in the future. That decision freezes their yearly pension payment and prompts the city to deposit an amount equal to their payment in an interest-bearing account. At some point before the end of the four years, the employee retires and collects the lump-sum check.
When DROP was introduced during the Rendell administration, it was thought that it would cost little or nothing.
But a study by the administration of Mayor Nutter said DROP had cost the city $258 million over 10 years. A later study paid for by Council put the pricetage at $100 million over 10 year.
Nutter proposed abolishing DROP, but Council instead chose to modify it to reduce its cost.
Contact staff writer Miriam Hill at 215-854-5520, hillmb@phillynews.com or @miriamhill on Twitter.
Click here for Philly.com's politics page.
Councilwoman Marian B. Tasco is retiring Friday, but only so she can collect a $478,057 pension check and return to work Monday, when she will be sworn in for her seventh term.
Tasco was one of six Council members to enroll in the city’s controversial Deferred Retirement Option Plan, better known as DROP. She did not immediately return a request for comment.
Plan participants trade a lower lifetime pension for a large one-time lump sum payment, but they are supposed to retire when they get that check.
Several elected officials, however, exercised a right approved by two city solicitors to run for election, retire for a day, collect their DROP payments, and return to work.
Tasco was one of six Council members to do that. But DROP enrollment became such a political liability that participation in the plan played a role in the decisions of four other Council members - Frank DiCicco, Donna Reed Miller, Jack Kelly and President Anna Verna - not to run again. Councilman Frank Rizzo lost his reelection bid in part because he was enrolled in DROP.
Taco may have paid a price, too. She was widely expected to replace Verna as president, but as the DROP controversy grew, Tasco’s candidacy for the leadership spot faded. Instead, Councilman Darrell Clarke, who is not enrolled in DROP, will be the next president.
DROP allows participants to pick a retirement date four years in the future. That decision freezes their yearly pension payment and prompts the city to deposit an amount equal to their payment in an interest-bearing account. At some point before the end of the four years, the employee retires and collects the lump-sum check.
When DROP was introduced during the Rendell administration, it was thought that it would cost little or nothing.
But a study by the administration of Mayor Nutter said DROP had cost the city $258 million over 10 years. A later study paid for by Council put the pricetage at $100 million over 10 year.
Nutter proposed abolishing DROP, but Council instead chose to modify it to reduce its cost.
Contact staff writer Miriam Hill at 215-854-5520, hillmb@phillynews.com or @miriamhill on Twitter.
Click here for Philly.com's politics page.
Posted by Miriam Hill @ 12:31 PM Permalink | 4 comments
27 December 2011
RIP Comrade Jin Zhengri (Kim Jong-il)
Fairbank Report... Live from Pyongyang, DPRK... Current temp is 32 F; snowing
Funeral for Comrade Jin Zhengri...
Live broadcast at http://media.theage.com.au/news/world-news/live-kim-jongils-funeral-2861705.html
Funeral for Comrade Jin Zhengri...
Live broadcast at http://media.theage.com.au/news/world-news/live-kim-jongils-funeral-2861705.html
26 December 2011
PRC Govt, Please Remember Your Revolutionary Heritage...記住你的革命文物
From the epic stage drama The East is Red (1965)
23 December 2011
21 December 2011
ameriKKKan military thugs
From Xinhua News Agency
WASHINGTON, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Eight U.S. soldiers deployed to southern Afghanistan were charged on Wednesday in connection with the death of a fellow Chinese-American soldier in October, the American Forces Press Service reported.
Danny Chen, a 19-year-old infantryman assigned to Company C, 3rd Battalion of 25th Infantry Division, died on Oct. 3. His body was found in a guard tower in southern Afghanistan with "an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound" in his head, the report said.
The U.S. Army has charged eight of Chen's fellow soldiers in connection with his death: 1st Lt. Daniel J. Schwartz, Staff Sgt. Blaine G. Dugas, Staff Sgt. Andrew J. Van Bockel, Sgt. Adam M. Holcomb, Sgt. Jeffrey T. Hurst, Spc. Thomas P. Curtis, Spc. Ryan J. Offutt, and Sgt. Travis F. Carden.
All of the accused are assigned to Company C, and posted to Combat Outpost Palace in southern Afghanistan, U.S. military officials were quoted as saying. The charges include dereliction of duty, maltreatment, involuntary manslaughter, assault consummated by battery, and reckless endangerment.
No further information was disclosed by the report about the real causes of Chen's death, or if it was a suicide.
The death of Chen, from Chinatown of New York, shocked local Asian-Chinese communities, which urged the U.S. military to launch a thorough investigation into the incident.
U.S. military official revealed to Chen's family that he had been subjected to physical abuse and ethnic slurs by his superiors, who dragged him out of bed one night and across the floor when he failed to turn off a water heater after showering, according to a report published by the New York Times in October.
This is the second such incident in the past year after the suicide of another Chinese-American soldier Harry Lew, a Marine from California, who killed himself in April in Afghanistan. Investigators found that Lew was subjected to a brutal hazing by his fellow Marines, who were ordered court-martialed in October.
20 December 2011
Shay Stevens of NPR, the Worst News Reader Ever?
While she has an excellent vocal chord, her perennial inability to read the news is driving us crazy. She's probably dyslexic because she constantly transposes words. Then she would get really nervous and make incoherent noises.
Last night, she said the Dow went up by 100 points when in fact the index dropped by 100 points.
Last night, she said the Dow went up by 100 points when in fact the index dropped by 100 points.
19 December 2011
The Rise of the "Righteous Cloud": 金正恩
18 December 2011
North Korea's Jin Zhengri (Kim Jung-il) Dead @ 69
SOUTH KOREA ON STATE OF ALERT
SOUTH KOREAN MARKETS CRASH
DEDICATED TO THE HEROES OF WUKAN, CHINA!
Chairman Mao Zedong once said:
"We have the right to make rebellion!"
"To make revolution is no crime!"
"革命不罪" (geming buzui)
UPDATE ON WUKAN REVOLT, 2011
Source: http://blogs.mcclatchydc.com/china/2011/12/images-from-wukan.html
Images from Wukan
I am on my second day in Wukan, the village that has rebelled against government control on China. (My story from last night can be found by clicking here.) Some images from today:
Mourners at funeral service for Xue Jinbo
Mourners at funeral service for Xue Jinbo
An abandoned government building in Wukan
Crowd at memorial service-rally in Wukan
Crowd at memorial service-rally in Wukan
Mourners at funeral service for Xue Jinbo
Mourners at funeral service for Xue Jinbo
An abandoned government building in Wukan
Crowd at memorial service-rally in Wukan
Crowd at memorial service-rally in Wukan
14 December 2011
OCCUPY WUKAN!
From the Telegraph, UK
Rebel Chinese village of Wukan 'has food for ten days'
The rebel Chinese village of Wukan, which has driven out the Communist party, has resorted to smuggling in food past a police ring of steel which has cut off its population of more than 20,000.
Thousands of Wukan's residents gathered for a second day in front of a triple-roofed pagoda that serves as the village hall Photo: MALCOM MOORE
By Malcolm Moore, Wukan
5:23PM GMT 14 Dec 2011
60 Comments
Villagers say that they have enough supplies to hold out for only 10 more days.
Wukan has been encircled by the police cordon since Sunday, after a failed attempt by 1,000 armed police to capture the village. No food or water is allowed in, and no villagers allowed out.
But the villagers were unbowed yesterday, and their leaders said they had seen signs that the government would “blink first”.
“We have an old saying here,” said Chen Liangshu, one of the villagers, referring to the legendary aggression of the Wukanese and their neighbours. “In heaven there is the Thunder God, on earth there is Lufeng and Wukan.”
Trouble in Wukan has been brewing since September, after the fishing village revolted at an attempt to take one of its last parcels of farmland and give it to a major Chinese property developer, Country Garden.
However it was the death of 43-year-old Xue Jinbo, one of the village’s 13 temporary representatives, in police custody that pushed Wukan into its current fury, and saw the last of the village’s dozen Communist party officials flee. His family believe he was murdered.
Thousands of villagers have held daily protest meetings outside the village hall since the news broke on Monday.
Almost all the village’s roadside restaurants are shut, but at the market around half the stalls are open. “We think we can last for 10 to 12 days,” said Zhang Xiaoping, a stall owner.
“We are using a corridor to the next village to smuggle in meat and vegetables on the back of motorbikes, but each trip takes an hour,” she added.
Wukan’s fleet of fishing boats has also been shut in. One fisherman, who asked to be named as “United Wukan”, said he had already cut down to two meals a day and was prepared, like everyone else, “to starve myself to death”.
Wukan used to make a tidy sum from fishing, and was originally happy to sell off its farmland. But in recent years, a combination of pollution and large trawlers has diminished the fishery.
The gap between the rich and poor in the village has also upset many, with at least a hundred families, including those of the former party secretary and village finance chief, living in palatial mansions, all built on farmland. By yesterday, almost all the rich families had also retreated out of the village, while the ones who remained refused to comment on the protests, shut in behind high walls and strong steel gates.
So far, the police have not made any further attempts to retake Wukan, and the village’s temporary leadership said negotiations with the government are now under way.
The local government sent a relative of Zhang Jiancheng, one of the four Wukan villagers still being held by local police, to offer a deal, according to Yang Semao, a village representative. It was refused.
“We turned down the offer,” said Mr Yang. “We want them to admit responsibility for the bloodshed when the riot police beat us in September, admit that we have a legal complaint, admit that the village representatives are a legal negotiating team, and to return all of our land to us, for us to split evenly among the villagers.”
11 December 2011
08 December 2011
China's Communist Princes
From: http://charlesrowley.wordpress.com/2011/11/26/chinas-princelings-dishonor-the-red-revolution/
China’s princelings dishonor the red revolution
“State controlled media portray China’s leaders as living by austere Communist values they publicly espouse. But as scions of the political aristocracy carve out lucrative roles in business and embrace the trappings of wealth, their increasingly high profile is raising uncomfortable questions for a party that justifies its monopoly on power by pointing to its origins as a movement of workers and peasants. Their visibility has particular resonance as the country approaches a once-in-a-decade leadership change next year, when several older princelings are expected to take the Communist Party’s top positions. That prospect has led some in Chinese business and political circles to wonder whether the party will be dominated for the next decade by a group of elite families who already control large chunks of the world’s second biggest economy and wield considerable influence in the military.” Jeremy Page, ‘Children of the Revolution’, The Wall Street Journal, November 26, 2011Let me illustrate this tale of Chinese hypocrisy, by reference to the family Bo.
Grandfather, Bo Yibo was a famous revolutionary, who helped lead Mao’s forces to victory and who was a founding member of The People’s Republic of China. He was purged by Mao during the Cultural Revolution, but was subsequently rehabilitated.
Bo Yibo’s son, Bo Xilai is currently Communist Party Secretary of Chongqing and a member of the Politburo. He is tipped for elevation to the Politburo standing Committee once President Hu Jintao is replaced by Xi Jinping in 2012.
Bo Yibo’s grandson, Bo Guagua is, as we would say in the southern United States, ‘somethin’ else.’
Bo Yibo appears to have led an exemplary life exhibiting an austerity of lifestyle appropriate for the Red Revolution. Even so, during the first few decades after Mao’s 1949 revolution, the children of the Communist chieftains lived privileged lives, growing up in walled compounds and attending elite schools, such as the Beijing No. 4 Boys’ High School, where Bo Yibo’s son, Xilai, and several other current leaders studied. Now families of China’s leaders send their offspring overseas at young ages, often to top schools in the United States, Britain and Switzerland, to make sure that they will later access the best Western universities.
Now one might think that such indulgence would be beyond the financial means of any leader in Communist China. The modest salary of a senior minister such as Bo Xilai, for example, is supposedly 140,000 yuan per annum, or $22,000. Somehow, these modest salaries multiply, perhaps by atheistic providence, into significant fortunes. For example, in 2010, the Chinese learned through their internet that the son of a former vice president of the country – and the son of a former Red Army commander – had purchased a $32.4 million harbor-front mansion in Australia. He must have saved extremely hard to make that sum out of a salary that borders on the poverty level in the United States!
This brings me back to ‘somethin’ else’, Bo Guagua, grandson of Bo Yibo. I have singled him out for attention because he is the princeling of all princelings, among the younger generation.
Bo Guagua grew up in a rarified environment, closeted in guarded compounds, driven around by chauffeurs, and schooled partly by private tutors and partly at the prestigious Jingshan school in Beijing. In 2000, his father, Xilai, then only mayor of the northeastern city of Darlian, sent his 12-year-old son to the British preparatory school of Papplewick, at a fee of $35,000. One year later, Guagua became the first person from mainland China to attend Harrow (annual fee of $30,930). Five years later, in 2006, by which time his father was China’s Commerce Minister, Guagua went to Oxford University to study PPE (annual cost $26,000). His current postgraduate studies at Harvard University run out at $70,000 per annum.
A question surely of relevance to China’s workers and peasants, is how Bo Xilai could dip into his supposedly shallow Communist Party pockets for $600,000 in education fees in foreign lands. How many Chinese peasants could emulate that remarkable financial miracle?
In the meantime, Bo Guagua has become a poster-boy for personal indulgence, at a time when his father is controversisally attempting to revive the revolutionary spirit of Mao Zedong:
“One evening early this year, a red Ferrari pulled up at the U.S. ambassador’s residence in Beijing, and the son of one of China’s top leaders stepped out, dressed in a tuxedo. Bo Guagua, 23 was expected. He had a dinner appointment with a daughter of the then-ambassador, Jon Huntsman. The car, though, was a surprise. The driver’s father, Bo Xilai, was in the midst of a controversial campaign to revive the spirit of Mao Zedong through mass renditions of old revolutionary anthems, known as ‘red singing’. He had ordered students and officials to work stints on farms to reconnect with the countryside. His son, meanwhile, was driving a car worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and as red as the Chinese flag, in a country where the average household income last year was about $3,300.” Jeremy Page, ibid.Is this a case of blatant intra-familial hypocrisy or what? No wonder Chinese censors are working overtime to filter out ’inappropriate’ news from the internet. Do I hear the clanking of chains as the Ghost of Mao Zedong rises from his grave to lead a new Red Revolution? Apparently, many of China’s princelings have their ears tuned for that sound. That is one reason they send their children to the West to prepare for the End of Days, when 600 million peasants march on Beijing to initiate a China spring.
05 December 2011
FR Endorses Ma Ying-jeou's Re-election
On January 14, 2012 -- only six weeks from today -- the people of Chinese Taipei (AKA Taiwan or Republic of China (ROC)) will vote in their 5th presidential election. The Kuomintang (KMT) is represented by incumbent President Ma Ying-jeou (pinyin Ma Yingjiu), and the main opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is led by Tsai Ing-wen (pinyin Cai Yingwen).
While Ma carries the baggages of incumbency, the Fairbank Report endorses him because he represents stability in the Taiwan Straits. Oppostion leader Tsai and her Party are carelessly provoking China, and this could lead to war. Ma, on the other hand, has taken a pragmatic approach toward bilateral relations with the Mainland. His administration has worked with China to effect direct flights between Chinese Taipei and Mainland China. He has worked with the Mainland to bring in millions of Mainland Chinese tourists to the island -- as our staff members can testify to during their recent visit to Taiwan.
Ma's anti-independence stance in addition to his practical policies toward China ensure peace, economic growth, stability and natural convergence across the Straits.
Tsai Ing-wen, on the contrary, represents uncertainty and gratuitous pugilism that are neither good for the region nor for the wider world, which is already mired in political and economic difficulties.
While Ma carries the baggages of incumbency, the Fairbank Report endorses him because he represents stability in the Taiwan Straits. Oppostion leader Tsai and her Party are carelessly provoking China, and this could lead to war. Ma, on the other hand, has taken a pragmatic approach toward bilateral relations with the Mainland. His administration has worked with China to effect direct flights between Chinese Taipei and Mainland China. He has worked with the Mainland to bring in millions of Mainland Chinese tourists to the island -- as our staff members can testify to during their recent visit to Taiwan.
Ma's anti-independence stance in addition to his practical policies toward China ensure peace, economic growth, stability and natural convergence across the Straits.
Tsai Ing-wen, on the contrary, represents uncertainty and gratuitous pugilism that are neither good for the region nor for the wider world, which is already mired in political and economic difficulties.
03 December 2011
Problems in Contemporary Chinese Political Economy
Early last month (November 2011), a putative "school bus" with a capacity for nine people was carrying over 60 preschool and kindergarten children in a rural Mainland Chinese town. The bus got in an accident, and as we in the West can only imagine, many children died and suffered injuries.
In reaction, the local government has purchased five American-styled school buses (the yellow behemoths). But these new buses are to be used to ferry TEACHERS from home to school. Here is a poignant reflection by a Chinese netizen on this and related issues. His reaction speaks volumes on the contradictions in contemporary Chinese political economy.
From Chinasmack.com
Original Chinese text
他们对医疗不重视，因为他们有高干病房； 他们对教育不重视，因为他们的孩子留洋； 他们对食品安全不重视，因为他们有特供食品；他们对堵车不重视，因为他们出行警车开道； 他们对国家未来不重视，因为他们妻儿已经移民美国！ 他们对维稳很重视，因为他们怕失去这些!这就是我们的领导！能买光全世界的飞机，却买不起一辆校车；能把卫星送入太空，却造不一座小桥；能给别国花数亿， 却不肯多几所小学；一年能吃掉几十艘航母，却逼着孩子捐出午饭钱。真是量中华之物力，结老爷之欢心，聚十三亿之艰难，供数人之享乐，无话可说，强作欢颜。 甘肃幼儿园校车车祸丢的是性命还是民心
English translation
They don’t attach importance to medical care, because they have special wards for government cadres; They don’t attach importance to education, because their children study abroad; They don’t attach importance to food safety, because they have specially provided food products; They don’t attach importance to traffic congestion, because they have police to open the road for them; They don’t attach importance to the country’s future, because their wives and children have already emigrated to the United States! They attach importance to stability, because they are afraid of losing these things! This what our government leaders are like! Able to buy all the world’s airplanes, yet can’t afford a single school bus; Able to send satellites into space, yet unable to build a single small bridge; Able to give other countries hundreds of millions to spend, yet unwilling to build a few more primary schools; Able to spend several tens of aircraft carriers worth of money on dining, yet force children to donate their lunch money. Truly taking the material resources of the Chinese people, the hardships of 1.3 billion people, for the enjoyment of the few. There’s nothing that can be said, one can only force a laugh. Does the Gansu kindergarten school bus accident result in the loss of life or the loss of the people’s hearts?
In reaction, the local government has purchased five American-styled school buses (the yellow behemoths). But these new buses are to be used to ferry TEACHERS from home to school. Here is a poignant reflection by a Chinese netizen on this and related issues. His reaction speaks volumes on the contradictions in contemporary Chinese political economy.
From Chinasmack.com
Original Chinese text
他们对医疗不重视，因为他们有高干病房； 他们对教育不重视，因为他们的孩子留洋； 他们对食品安全不重视，因为他们有特供食品；他们对堵车不重视，因为他们出行警车开道； 他们对国家未来不重视，因为他们妻儿已经移民美国！ 他们对维稳很重视，因为他们怕失去这些!这就是我们的领导！能买光全世界的飞机，却买不起一辆校车；能把卫星送入太空，却造不一座小桥；能给别国花数亿， 却不肯多几所小学；一年能吃掉几十艘航母，却逼着孩子捐出午饭钱。真是量中华之物力，结老爷之欢心，聚十三亿之艰难，供数人之享乐，无话可说，强作欢颜。 甘肃幼儿园校车车祸丢的是性命还是民心
English translation
They don’t attach importance to medical care, because they have special wards for government cadres; They don’t attach importance to education, because their children study abroad; They don’t attach importance to food safety, because they have specially provided food products; They don’t attach importance to traffic congestion, because they have police to open the road for them; They don’t attach importance to the country’s future, because their wives and children have already emigrated to the United States! They attach importance to stability, because they are afraid of losing these things! This what our government leaders are like! Able to buy all the world’s airplanes, yet can’t afford a single school bus; Able to send satellites into space, yet unable to build a single small bridge; Able to give other countries hundreds of millions to spend, yet unwilling to build a few more primary schools; Able to spend several tens of aircraft carriers worth of money on dining, yet force children to donate their lunch money. Truly taking the material resources of the Chinese people, the hardships of 1.3 billion people, for the enjoyment of the few. There’s nothing that can be said, one can only force a laugh. Does the Gansu kindergarten school bus accident result in the loss of life or the loss of the people’s hearts?
See What Happened When You Legalized Gay Marriage?!
Unholy, unnatural...
Photo source: Chinasmack.com
Photo source: Chinasmack.com
27 November 2011
26 November 2011
Don't Cry for Me (Inner) Mongolia!
From China Got Talent 2011
If you understand Mandarin Chinese, this Mongolian kid will make you bawl like a baby...
25 November 2011
Krazy Korean Parent
From the Korea Herald
Police apprehended a student Thursday for allegedly murdering his mother, having been unable to deal with her increasing academic expectations, and leaving her body to rot for months in their apartment.
According to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, the high school senior, 18, stabbed his mother, 51, in the throat with a kitchen knife in March and left her body to decompose in a room for eight months.
“I was afraid of the severe punishment I was going to receive when my mother found out that I forged my grades to say I was 62nd in the nation during the next day’s Parent Teacher Night,” confessed the student.
The names of the student and his family members were undisclosed to the media.
Authorities said the student confessed that his mother constantly pressured him to be “first in the nation,” and to “go to Seoul National University’s School of Law.
Police say that the mother resorted to violence and other means of torture including withholding food or sleep, when his grades failed to meet her expectations.
Authorities found that the student had been forging his report cards since middle school and his actual pretest scores put the teen academically within the nation’s top 4,000 students. Police also found that his self-graded scores of the College Scholastic Ability Test earlier in the month put him in similar outstanding ranking.
Police found that the young man had sealed the room door with glue as the odor from the decomposing body began to grow.
The student was caught after his estranged father, who recently returned after walking out on the family five years ago, called the police after detecting the putrid odor.
By Robert Lee (robert@heraldm.com)
Police apprehended a student Thursday for allegedly murdering his mother, having been unable to deal with her increasing academic expectations, and leaving her body to rot for months in their apartment.
According to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, the high school senior, 18, stabbed his mother, 51, in the throat with a kitchen knife in March and left her body to decompose in a room for eight months.
“I was afraid of the severe punishment I was going to receive when my mother found out that I forged my grades to say I was 62nd in the nation during the next day’s Parent Teacher Night,” confessed the student.
The names of the student and his family members were undisclosed to the media.
Authorities said the student confessed that his mother constantly pressured him to be “first in the nation,” and to “go to Seoul National University’s School of Law.
Police say that the mother resorted to violence and other means of torture including withholding food or sleep, when his grades failed to meet her expectations.
Authorities found that the student had been forging his report cards since middle school and his actual pretest scores put the teen academically within the nation’s top 4,000 students. Police also found that his self-graded scores of the College Scholastic Ability Test earlier in the month put him in similar outstanding ranking.
Police found that the young man had sealed the room door with glue as the odor from the decomposing body began to grow.
The student was caught after his estranged father, who recently returned after walking out on the family five years ago, called the police after detecting the putrid odor.
By Robert Lee (robert@heraldm.com)
23 November 2011
22 November 2011
Sultry Joanna Wang (王若琳)
Irreverent Taiwanese-(Chinese-) American crooner... Much better voice than Nora Jones.
21 November 2011
In another life, you'd be my girl
Dedicated to the ones that got away:
Daisy, YHC, Rosie P., Annie, R. Hiro., the Malaysian-Chinese chick in g school and the Japanese chick in g school.
Daisy, YHC, Rosie P., Annie, R. Hiro., the Malaysian-Chinese chick in g school and the Japanese chick in g school.
20 November 2011
DOWN WITH THE ONE PERCENT, INCLUDING THOSE CONTROLLING THE CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY!!!!
Brilliant! Using the Party's song against the Party!
12 November 2011
Los Ancianos Malos: King Yeongjo of Chosun (Chaoxian) Korea
Locked his son, the crown prince, in a rice box to die of thirst and starvation...
From http://koreajoongangdaily.joinsmsn.com/news/article/article.aspx?aid=1966865
A prince is suffocated at the Rice Box Gate
The killer ― perhaps the murderer ― was a king. Yeongjo, one of Korea’s greatest kings, was decisive, famous for a rigid righteousness. He also had one of Korea’s longest reigns, 52 years. According to his detractors, however, the decisiveness that marked his youth and maturity turned to arbitrary, stubborn senility as Yeongjo advanced in age.
The victim is known to history as Sado-Seja, Yeongjo’s favorite son and the designated crown prince. Yeongjo ― perhaps wise enough to see his approaching senility, perhaps merely following a tradition of abdication in old age common among Korean kings ― had retired to the Mulberry Palace in the west of Seoul and turned over the daily administration of government to Sado-Seja, who lived in Changgyeong Palace near the East Gate.
Those who have read King Lear can guess what came next: The court was split by factionalism. Inevitably, two groups coalesced around the two centers of power: one urging the king to retake his throne, one urging the prince to consolidate his heritage, each in advance of their factional interests.
The King’s group, out of power, whispered in Yeongjo’s ear that his son was overtaxing the people. Indeed, his tax collectors were little more than brigands. Worse, he had developed insatiable sexual appetites. His agents combed the kingdom for the prettiest women, married or not, and brought them to the palace for his pleasure. Now, it was said that he even had plans to kill the old king, his father, outright, and seize the throne.
The king ordered his son brought before him for punishment. And here is where Yeongjo’s Confucian Korea and Shakespeare’s England are different. Sado-Seja submitted to this order. This in itself suggests he was the injured party, the dutiful son. Had he been a schemer expecting what came next, or been planning to seize power, he would surely have refused. Once in his father’s power, he was formally stripped of office, sealed up in a rice chest and left before Seonim Gate in the hot July sun, without food and water. This, they say, was the suggestion of the prince’s own sister.
How could a sister be so heartless? The princess claimed in her memoirs that her plan was only to shock Sado-Seja, who had grown paranoid, back to his senses.
It took the prince nine days to die. After 21 days, they opened the chest. His body showed no decomposition, and was strangely cold.
This was taken by many as proof from heaven of his innocence. The old king supposedly repented what he had done, but too late. The nation suffered through an erratic last few years of his reign. When Yeongjo died, his grandson, feeling the capital’s ground polluted with the injustice, refused to enter the royal palace, and planned to move the government to Suwon.
Through the same haunted gate, the depraved ruler Yongsan-gun passed in 1506. Korea’s Caligula, said to torture virgins after sleeping with them, said to have driven his sister to suicide with his incestuous passions, passed through on his way to exile and imprisonment on Gyodong Island.
The unlucky gate is now sealed. But you can visit it by taking the No. 4 subway line to Hyehwa Station and walking west through the grounds of Seoul National University Hospital to the east wall of Changgyeong Palace. It is the gate just south of the main entrance to the palace.
Admission to Chongmyo will entitle you to stroll north, across a bridge, and into the Changgyeong Palace grounds. Seonim Gate will then be directly to the east, your right.
11 November 2011
A Massive Talent
Singing Katy Perry's "The One that Got Away." His country twang makes the song even more robust.
Music Break: Another Great Youtube Talent Discovered by Us!
Only 1416 views so far. Because of this cool Fairbank Report, this yt video will hit thousands in a few days. Enjoy!
West Covina PD = Gestapos of the San Gabriel Valley
Hey West Covina taxpayers, see your $$$ at work!
WEST COVINA, Calif. (KTLA) -- A viral video spoofing what appear to be West Covina police officers has city officials furious.
The video has received more than one million his on YouTube since it was posted in June, and it also appeared on Will Ferrell's "Funny or Die" website.
It pokes fun at police harassment, but some city leaders in West Covina are not laughing.
The video shows five men dressed as West Covina police officers, wearing what look like police uniforms and driving two patrol cars with lights and sirens.
They pull over an unsuspecting driver, take out their guns and begin to yell at him.
The 'officers' shout "Where's the little girl?" and "You know what we're talking about!"
The very confused and shaken driver puts his hands in the air and insists, "I don't know!"
Finally, one of the officers steps closer to the driver, points at him, and laughs, "There's the little girl!"
After that, the supposed police officers drive away while shooting their guns in the air. It's not clear if actual ammunition was used.
09 November 2011
Lawlessness in China
From the Taipei Times
Chinese muggers sever Taiwanese man’s hand
The family members of a Taiwanese tourist who was injured by thieves in China yesterday accused the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) of reacting too slowly in response to the assault, in which his hand was cut off by Chinese muggers who wanted his watch and ring.
Hu Chi-yang (胡其揚), was assaulted on Friday during a family visit to Putian, Fujian Province, where he was accosted by three robbers who repeatedly slashed his left wrist with a knife to take his ring and watch.
“When I asked the foundation how I could reach my father in Putian, they told me to ask the local airport after I get there,” Hu’s daughter Hu Yi-ling (胡怡玲) said at a press conference in Tapei yesterday.
She said that although her father managed to return home safely on Tuesday without any assistance from the foundation, his left hand remained in China, where local police were keeping it as evidence.
The family wanted to bring the victim’s severed hand back to Taiwan, but Chinese police told them that they needed to keep it for evidence.
The foundation said it did its best in handling the case. It said it did not send anyone to the scene of the crime because it handles a lot of cross-strait disputes every day and was not informed about the severity of the victim’s injuries.
“We have tried our best to ask for assistance from our counterpart, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits [ARATS],” foundation spokesman Maa Shaw-chang (馬紹章) said. “We have limited ability, as we do not have a representative office in China.”
“We sympathize with the victim,” he said.
Maa said the foundation would keep working with its Chinese counterpart to apprehend the perpetrators of the assault and help the Hu family handle related insurance issues.
After it discussed the case with ARATS officials yesterday afternoon, the foundation said Chinese officials confirmed that Hu Chi-yang’s hand was being kept as evidence by local police.
According to the foundation, ARATS officials said the police had told them that they had obtained Hu Chi-yang’s permission to keep his hand after he underwent surgery on Friday.
Additional reporting by Su Yung-yao
Chinese muggers sever Taiwanese man’s hand
The family members of a Taiwanese tourist who was injured by thieves in China yesterday accused the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) of reacting too slowly in response to the assault, in which his hand was cut off by Chinese muggers who wanted his watch and ring.
Hu Chi-yang (胡其揚), was assaulted on Friday during a family visit to Putian, Fujian Province, where he was accosted by three robbers who repeatedly slashed his left wrist with a knife to take his ring and watch.
“When I asked the foundation how I could reach my father in Putian, they told me to ask the local airport after I get there,” Hu’s daughter Hu Yi-ling (胡怡玲) said at a press conference in Tapei yesterday.
She said that although her father managed to return home safely on Tuesday without any assistance from the foundation, his left hand remained in China, where local police were keeping it as evidence.
The family wanted to bring the victim’s severed hand back to Taiwan, but Chinese police told them that they needed to keep it for evidence.
The foundation said it did its best in handling the case. It said it did not send anyone to the scene of the crime because it handles a lot of cross-strait disputes every day and was not informed about the severity of the victim’s injuries.
“We have tried our best to ask for assistance from our counterpart, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits [ARATS],” foundation spokesman Maa Shaw-chang (馬紹章) said. “We have limited ability, as we do not have a representative office in China.”
“We sympathize with the victim,” he said.
Maa said the foundation would keep working with its Chinese counterpart to apprehend the perpetrators of the assault and help the Hu family handle related insurance issues.
After it discussed the case with ARATS officials yesterday afternoon, the foundation said Chinese officials confirmed that Hu Chi-yang’s hand was being kept as evidence by local police.
According to the foundation, ARATS officials said the police had told them that they had obtained Hu Chi-yang’s permission to keep his hand after he underwent surgery on Friday.
Additional reporting by Su Yung-yao
08 November 2011
06 November 2011
OUTRAGE: 7-YR OLD GIRL FORCED TO DANCE IN NIGHTCLUB!!!!
From the Daily Mail, UK
Schoolgirl, 7, forced to work as nightclub dancer to support her disabled parents
By Daniel MillerLast updated at 4:22 PM on 4th November 2011
At the tender age of just seven she is forced to work four nights a week as nightclub dancer to support her disabled parents.
While her schoolmates are tucked up warm in bed, Huang dons a leotard and high heels to perform in front of guests at the seedy club near her home in Urumqi, Mongolia.
Off to work: Seven-year-old schoolgirl Huang Doudou supports her family by working as a nightclub dancer
Huang was forced to step up when both her parents were left disabled - and she now supports the whole family.
Brave Huang said: 'It's fun but I don't finish until 11 o'clock at night and then I have to do my homework for school the next day.
'I like dancing and sometimes I get tips which helps pay the bills. Sometimes I get tired but it is a very good job.'
Doudou waits with her mother before going on stage at the seedy club. she performs four times a night, four nights a week for £80 a month
Poverty: Huang's mother does her hair before they set off on the hour-and-a-half journey to work. The family live in a small rented flat that is less than 12 square metres in size
The family live in a small rented flat that is less than 12 square meters in size and is divided into two rooms.
Four times a week Doudou and her mother travel by bus to the restaurant where she dances, a journey that can take over one and a half hours.
She goes on stage at around 9pm and dances three numbers before heading back home and finishing off her homework.
05 November 2011
FR Catapulted Cain's Campaign
On 9/17/11, this Fairbank Report featured a Herman Caine video; six weeks later, Mr. Caine, a virtual unknown back in September, now tops the polls for the Republican Party's nomination for President of the United States. The Power of You!
http://fairbankreport.blogspot.com/search/label/herman%20cain
http://fairbankreport.blogspot.com/search/label/herman%20cain
01 November 2011
"We are the one percent": LMAO!!!
You've got to be kidding me!
http://westandwiththe99percent.tumblr.com/
Staff members of the Fairbank Group are all members of the One Percent Club. We all have more things and money than we need. Tax us!
31 October 2011
28 October 2011
26 October 2011
China Should Ask for European Territories in Exchange for €
Now that Europe is on the brink of bankruptcy and collapse, the People's Republic of China should give the Europeans a dose of their own medicine from a century ago. China should demand a piece of Portugal, Spain, Greece, Italy, and France in exchange for bailout money, which China has plenty of.
Alas, the Chinese won't do it. They are too nice for their own good.
Alas, the Chinese won't do it. They are too nice for their own good.
23 October 2011
The Singaporean "Justice" System
A video that LEE KWAN YEW and his ruling PAP Party do not want you to see.
22 October 2011
Nicole Seah Xueling: Brains & Beauty
Here's the Brains part of Nicole (above)
We worship at the shrine of Nicole Seah...
21 October 2011
Today's Asian Kids Are So Epic!
"Cute"
While some netizens have accused him of being gay, he's just a "pretty boy" who has classical
Update: His name is "Calvin Her." Yep, he's a Her. LOL!
Sic Semper Tyrannis
Muamar Gadaffi found in rubbish-filled pipeline.
Injured on the chest.
Somehow shot in the head and died.
Injured on the chest.
Somehow shot in the head and died.
18 October 2011
Nicole, Will You Please Marry Me?
I still can't get over Singapore's most beautiful and popular politician, Miss Nicole Seah (佘雪玲). She has the beauty of a
My editor, Mr. Fairbank, describes her as having the audacity of Margaret Thatcher, the gravitas of Angela Merkel, the charm of Evita Peron, the heart of Mother Teresa, and the beauty of Han Ga-in.
Bian-lian Huang (fairbankreport@gmail.com)
16 October 2011
Singapore's Nicole Seah -- A Future Prime Minister
With her good looks, intelligence and poise, Nicole, aged 24, could have easily won a seat in the Singaporean Parliament had she sided with the ruling PAP party. But she did not take the easy route. She campaigned on the ticket of a small opposition party, the National Solidarity Party and became its spokesperson.
She is one of the brightest young people we have come across. Although she "lost" the May 2011 election, she will be a forceful presence in the island-state's politics. And, if fair elections were to exist in Singapore in the coming years, its future Prime Minister!
She is one of the brightest young people we have come across. Although she "lost" the May 2011 election, she will be a forceful presence in the island-state's politics. And, if fair elections were to exist in Singapore in the coming years, its future Prime Minister!
15 October 2011
down with global KKKrapitalism!
Wall St protests spread to global stage
A “global day of protest” is planned for Saturday in at least 868 cities in 78 countries. Organisers say they are broadly in favour of greater democracy in global financial and political systems.
“Undemocratic international institutions are our global Mubarak, our global Assad, our global Gaddafi,” said a statement from Egality, an activist group that is helping co-ordinate the global protests.
Shimri Zameret, a co-ordinator for Egality, said that events such as the Arab spring, the student-led protest movement in Chile and Spain’s indignados , or outraged, who have been demonstrating against joblessness and austerity measures, were all part of the same global movement demanding greater democracy and fairness.
The inspiration for Saturday’s protests is the Occupy Wall Street movement in the US, which began in New York last month with the occupation of Zuccotti Park in downtown Manhattan, but has since spread to cities including Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Atlanta and San Francisco.
More
On this story
The Occupy Wall Street movement has come under criticism for lacking a clear agenda. Many of those planning to attend the London rally emphasise that they would have more specific ideas and proposals.
“[We are] reclaiming space in the face of the financial system and using it to voice ideas for how we can work towards a better future. A future free from austerity, growing inequality, unemployment, tax injustice and a political elite who ignores its citizens, and work towards concrete demands to be met,” said Occupy LSX, the demonstration’s organiser.
Organisers say the London protest will adopt the same format as the US occupations and will attempt to remain in the square for as long as possible.
Because Paternoster Square, is privately owned, however, the police may have the power to remove activists who try to set up camp there.
The police said they were aware of the protest and that “appropriate policing was in place”. The LSE and Goldman Sachs declined to comment on Saturday’s planned events.
In New York, 14 protesters were arrested on Friday as they marched towards Wall Street, police said. But a larger showdown was averted on Friday morning after the owner of Zuccotti Park, Brookfield Properties, postponed a move to clear them out for cleaning.
Brookfield Properties had told the demonstrators to leave the park by 7am Friday so the area could be cleaned. Brookfield had asked the New York Police Department to clear the park and the administration of Michael Bloomberg, New York mayor, had said protesters must leave temporarily.
Shortly before the 7am deadline, however, the city said Brookfield had put off the cleaning operation.
A statement from Cas Holloway, New York deputy mayor, said: “Brookfield believes they can work out an arrangement with the protesters that will ensure the park remains clean, safe, available for public use and that the situation is respectful of residents and businesses downtown, and we will continue to monitor the situation.”
Occupy Wall Street participants had called Brookfield’s cleaning plans an “eviction” and urged their supporters to come to the park early Friday morning for a “non-violent action”. The group also organised clean-up crews that worked on Thursday to sweep and mop the park ahead of the deadline.
“The fact they backed down is a clear sign that this movement is demonstrating a lot of power,” said Yotam Marom, who has been living in Zuccotti Park over the past month.
Unions, celebrities and politicians have come out in support of the movement’s calls to regulate the financial sector, reduce economic inequality and end what they say is an overly close involvement between corporations and politics.
“Aside from our personal feelings about corporate greed, we found out yesterday that our union had endorsed Occupy Wall Street,” said Richard Addeo, a 60-year-old electrician from New Jersey who came out on Friday with fellow members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. “We have to honor what they say and we also believe in it.”
Last week, President Barack Obama said the protests “express the frustration” of ordinary Americans with the financial sector.
Some corporate executives have also said they understand protesters’ grievances. Laurence Fink, chief executive of BlackRock, said on Thursday that he was “very encouraged” by the protests and surprised they had not occurred sooner. He said that it would also be foolish to “turn our back on this protest movement.”
But the movement has drawn criticism as well. John Paulson, the hedge fund manager, said in a statement this week: “Instead of vilifying our most successful businesses, we should be supporting them and encouraging them to remain in New York City and continue to grow.”
Mr Paulson’s Manhattan home was one stop on a “millionaires march” organised earlier this week by community activists to call on the richest Americans to “pay their fair share”.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011. You may share using our article tools.
Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.
Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.
OneRepublic's "Stop and Stare" -- best cover ever!
Another great talent publicized by the FAIRBANK REPORT!
13 October 2011
12 October 2011
Bo Xilai: China's JFK?
From The Independent
Bo Xilai, China's most charismatic politician, makes a bid for power
Speculation mounts that China's Mr Cool may become a contender
By Clifford Coonan in Beijing
Monday, 8 March 2010
Bo Xilai: has been a big-city mayor, provincial governor and trade tsar
The tall, dapper and smiling Chinese leader looked presidential as he pulled up at the front entrance of the Great Hall of the People, waving photographers and waiting reporters away. Senior members of the Politburo never enter through the front door. But this is Bo Xilai. And when the popular Bo, the mafia-busting Communist Party chief in the south-western city of Chongqing, arrives for the annual National People's Congress, there is a whiff of change. "He is very cool. He's Bo, no?" said one passer-by. At the vast People's Congress which opened in Beijing on Friday and continues until Sunday, Bo is enjoying a moment of celebrity.
It could be a sign that the "princelings" – the children of the 1949 Maoist revolutionaries – are gaining even more political traction in the Chinese power structure. It is an open secret that Mr Bo is seeking promotion to the powerful 9 member Politburo standing committee, the top rank of the leadership, and China watchers believe he is a serious contender.
At 60, Bo is comparatively young, and has done it all in China: he has been a big-city mayor, provincial governor and trade tsar. He is seen as a maverick but even more unusually for a leading Chinese politician, he oozes charisma and charm.
He is also Communist royalty: his father, Bo Yibo, was the last of a group of party leaders who consolidated their power in the 1980s and 1990s, oversaw the Tiananmen Square massacre, and are known as the "Eight Immortals".
The question of whether Bo will rise to the top of the Communist hierarchy is significant because the battle for these posts coincides with a moment when China's new-found international power is upsetting US and European leaders. There are growing concerns about the distorting effects of China's currency, while inside China, rampant corruption and the gap between rich and poor are fuelling protests.
When it came to trade tensions over European socks and Chinese-made bras, Mr Bo has already demonstrated his tough side, facing down the then EU Trade Commissioner, Peter Mandelson. Some say his media-conscious publicity-seeking side will work against him. But this is a man who is no stranger to adversity.
When he was 17, during the Cultural Revolution, he was imprisoned along with members of his family for five years, after which they were placed in a labour camp for another five years. During the Cultural Revolution, Bo's father was imprisoned and tortured for ten years; his mother was beaten to death.
Bo worked at the Hardware Repair Factory for the Beijing Second Light Industry Bureau before he was admitted to the Peking University Department of History, majoring in world history. He later graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree. In 1982, he graduated from the Postgraduate Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences with a Masters.
His father was in charge of a Red Army unit called the "Shanxi Suicide Squad for the Liberation of China", which fought first against the Japanese and then against the Kuomintang in the Civil War, which led to the Revolution of 1949. His son, Bo Guagua, is at Oxford, his picture a fixture on Chinese celebrity websites as he squires willowy beauties to various balls.
Meanwhile, back home Mr Bo likes to present himself as a champion of the ordinary man and a very modern Maoist. In Dalian – the Garden City – one of China's prettiest and most financially successful cities, statuesque women astride horses patrol the city's precincts. Bo Xilai, according to local legend, used the tallest people to help rebrand one of China's burgeoning cities when he was Dalian's mayor.
Last year he also became China's best-known "red texter", sending out 13 million text messages to mobile-phone users bearing quotes from Chairman Mao including: "What really counts in the world is conscientiousness". Recipients relayed the messages 16 million times.
Bo Xilai, China's most charismatic politician, makes a bid for power
Speculation mounts that China's Mr Cool may become a contender
By Clifford Coonan in Beijing
Monday, 8 March 2010
Bo Xilai: has been a big-city mayor, provincial governor and trade tsar
It could be a sign that the "princelings" – the children of the 1949 Maoist revolutionaries – are gaining even more political traction in the Chinese power structure. It is an open secret that Mr Bo is seeking promotion to the powerful 9 member Politburo standing committee, the top rank of the leadership, and China watchers believe he is a serious contender.
At 60, Bo is comparatively young, and has done it all in China: he has been a big-city mayor, provincial governor and trade tsar. He is seen as a maverick but even more unusually for a leading Chinese politician, he oozes charisma and charm.
He is also Communist royalty: his father, Bo Yibo, was the last of a group of party leaders who consolidated their power in the 1980s and 1990s, oversaw the Tiananmen Square massacre, and are known as the "Eight Immortals".
The question of whether Bo will rise to the top of the Communist hierarchy is significant because the battle for these posts coincides with a moment when China's new-found international power is upsetting US and European leaders. There are growing concerns about the distorting effects of China's currency, while inside China, rampant corruption and the gap between rich and poor are fuelling protests.
When it came to trade tensions over European socks and Chinese-made bras, Mr Bo has already demonstrated his tough side, facing down the then EU Trade Commissioner, Peter Mandelson. Some say his media-conscious publicity-seeking side will work against him. But this is a man who is no stranger to adversity.
When he was 17, during the Cultural Revolution, he was imprisoned along with members of his family for five years, after which they were placed in a labour camp for another five years. During the Cultural Revolution, Bo's father was imprisoned and tortured for ten years; his mother was beaten to death.
Bo worked at the Hardware Repair Factory for the Beijing Second Light Industry Bureau before he was admitted to the Peking University Department of History, majoring in world history. He later graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree. In 1982, he graduated from the Postgraduate Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences with a Masters.
His father was in charge of a Red Army unit called the "Shanxi Suicide Squad for the Liberation of China", which fought first against the Japanese and then against the Kuomintang in the Civil War, which led to the Revolution of 1949. His son, Bo Guagua, is at Oxford, his picture a fixture on Chinese celebrity websites as he squires willowy beauties to various balls.
Meanwhile, back home Mr Bo likes to present himself as a champion of the ordinary man and a very modern Maoist. In Dalian – the Garden City – one of China's prettiest and most financially successful cities, statuesque women astride horses patrol the city's precincts. Bo Xilai, according to local legend, used the tallest people to help rebrand one of China's burgeoning cities when he was Dalian's mayor.
Last year he also became China's best-known "red texter", sending out 13 million text messages to mobile-phone users bearing quotes from Chairman Mao including: "What really counts in the world is conscientiousness". Recipients relayed the messages 16 million times.
11 October 2011
Mainland Chinese Actress 马雅舒 -- Ma Yashu
When she was 35 years old last year, she played the role of twenty-something Sang Caiqing in the TV drama "Pretty Maid." And she actually looked the part. So epic! So cute!
08 October 2011
HOW PRESCIENT WE WERE!!!
06 January 2006
Who's the Girly Man Now?
Volte Face: As recently as two months ago, California's governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, passionately pushed for fiscal restraints and accountability. Rebuffed by the voters in last November's special election, he is now giving the people what they want and can ill afford: more, more, and more spending on pet projects. Yesterday, the governor outlined a 10-year $225 billion plan to improve and build new schools, courthouses, roads and water delivery systems.
How does the governor plan to pay for all these nice and shiny things? Borrow the money from Wall Street. Why prioritize when you can borrow. Why practice restraint when you can borrow. Why not cater to every interest group when you can borrow.
What happens when the bills come due? Well, Arnold, Maria and their gaggle of kids will be long gone from the statehouse when the invoices arrive in the mail. Why worry now when you can pass the buck to someone else and to the next generation.
In a way, we can't blame the governor. He tried to work with the legislators, and they rebuffed him. He went to the people, and they rebuffed him. Now he's just giving the uneducated voters of California what they deserve: fuzzy math, more debt and general fiscal sloppiness.
God help us all.
Jonathan Fairbank
Editor-in-Chief
THE FAIRBANK REPORT
Ka-Ching for Illegal Aliens!
In the dead of a weekend night, California governor Old Fart Jerry Brown stealthily signed legislation, which was sponsored by One-bill Gill Cedillos (a socialista suprema), to provide $$$ for illegals to attend colleges and universities. By the way, California is broke.
07 October 2011
06 October 2011
LEE WEILING: WHY I CHOOSE TO REMAIN SINGLE
The following piece by Lee Weiling, the daugther of Singapore's founding father, Lee Kwan Yew, is fascinating in several regards. It is fascinating because today many professionals choose to remain single -- with all the freedoms and heart aches that this decision entails. It is equally fascinating because it is about the life choices of a successful public figure from an exceedingly wealthy and powerful family -- again with all the privileges and heart aches that come with her status.
Lee Wei Ling: Why I choose to remain single
April 6, 2009 by admin
By Lee Wei Ling, for the Sunday Times
05 April 2009
ST link
My father became prime minister in 1959, when I was just four years old. Inevitably, most people know me as Lee Kuan Yew’s daughter.
My every move, every word, is scrutinised and sometimes subject to criticism. One friend said I lived in a glass house. After my father’s recent comment on my lack of culinary skills, another observed: ‘You live in a house without any walls.’ Fortunately, I am not easily embarrassed.
As long as my conscience is clear, what other people say of me does not bother me. Indeed, I am open about my life since the more I try to conceal from the public, the wilder the speculation becomes.
My father said of my mother two weeks ago: ‘My wife was…not a traditional wife. She was educated, a professional woman… We had Ah Mahs, reliable, professional, dependable. (My wife) came back every lunchtime to have lunch with the children.’
Actually, my mother was a traditional wife and mother. She was not traditional only in one respect: She was also a professional woman and, for many years, the family’s main breadwinner.
One of my mother’s proudest possessions is a gold pendant that my father commissioned for her. He had a calligrapher engrave on the pendant the following characters: ‘xian qi liang mu’ and ‘nei xian wai de’.
The first four characters mean virtuous wife and caring mother. The second four mean wise in looking after the family, virtuous in behaviour towards the outside world.
My mother lived her life around my father and, while we were young, around her children. I remember my mother protesting gently once about something my father had asked her to do.
‘It is a partnership, dear,’ my father urged.
‘But it is not an equal partnership,’ my mother replied.
The partnership may not have been exactly equal at particular points in time. But over the years, especially after my mother’s health deteriorated after she suffered a stroke, my father was the one who took care of her. She clearly indicated she preferred my father’s care to that of the doctors’, in itself a revelation of the quality of his care.
He remembers her complicated regime of medications. Because she cannot see on the left side of her visual field, he sits on her left during meals. He prompts her to eat the food on the left side of her plate and picks up whatever food her left hand drops on the table.
I have always admired my father for his dedication to Singapore, his determination to do what is right, his courage in standing up to foreigners who try to tell us how to run our country.
But my father was also the eldest son in a typical Peranakan family. He cannot even crack a soft-boiled egg – such things not being expected of men, especially eldest sons, in Peranakan families.
But when my mother’s health deteriorated, he readily adjusted his lifestyle to accommodate her, took care of her medications and lived his life around her. I knew how much effort it took him to do all this, and I was surprised that he was able to make the effort.
If my parents have such a loving relationship, why then did I decide to remain single?
Firstly, my mother set the bar too high for me. I could not envisage being the kind of wife and mother she had been.
Secondly, I am temperamentally similar to my father. Indeed, he once said to me: ‘You have all my traits – but to such an exaggerated degree that they become a disadvantage in you.’
When my father made that pendant for my mother, he also commissioned one for me. But the words he chose for me were very different from those he chose for my mother.
On one side of my pendant was engraved ‘yang jing xu rui’, which means to conserve energy and build up strength. On the other side was engraved ‘chu lei ba cui’, which means to stand out and excel.
The latter was added just for completion. His main message was in the first phrase, telling me, in effect, not to be so intense about so many things in life.
I knew I could not live my life around a husband; nor would I want a husband to live his life around me. Of course, there are any number of variations in marital relationships between those extremes. But there is always a need for spouses to change their behaviour or habits to suit each other. I have always been set in my ways and did not fancy changing my behaviour or lifestyle.
I had my first date when I was 21 years old. He was a doctor in the hospital ward I was posted to. We went out to a dinner party. I noted that the other guests were all rich socialites. I dropped him like a hot potato.
In 2005, while on an African safari with a small group of friends, one of them, Professor C.N. Lee, listed the men who had tried to woo me. There were three besides the first. Two were converted into friends and another, like the first, was dropped.
I am now 54 years old and happily single. In addition to my nuclear family, I have a close circle of friends. Most of my friends are men. But my reputation is such that their female partners would never consider me a threat.
More than 10 years ago, when there was still a slim chance I might have got married, my father told me: ‘Your mother and I could be selfish and feel happy that you remain single and can look after us in our old age. But you will be lonely.’
I was not convinced. Better one person feeling lonely than two people miserable because they cannot adapt to each other, I figured.
I do not regret my choice. But I want to end with a warning to young men and women: What works for me may not work for others.
Many years ago, a young single woman asked me about training in neurology in a top US hospital. I advised her to ‘grab the opportunity’.
She did and stayed away for eight years. She returned to Singapore in her late 30s and now worries that she may have missed her chance to get married.
Fertility in women drops dramatically with age, and older mothers run the risk of having offspring with congenital abnormalities.
Recent studies show also that advanced paternal age is associated with an increased risk of neurodevelopmental disorders in offspring, such as autism and schizophrenia, not to mention dyslexia and a subtle reduction in intelligence. Men can also suffer from diminished fertility with age although there is wide individual variation.
I would advise young men and women not to delay getting married and having children. I say this not to be politically correct. I say it in all sincerity because I have enjoyed a happy family life as a daughter and a sister, and I see both my brothers enjoying their own families.
The writer is director of the National Neuroscience Institute. Send your comments to suntimes@sph.com.sg
Lee Wei Ling: Why I choose to remain single
April 6, 2009 by admin
By Lee Wei Ling, for the Sunday Times
05 April 2009
ST link
My father became prime minister in 1959, when I was just four years old. Inevitably, most people know me as Lee Kuan Yew’s daughter.
My every move, every word, is scrutinised and sometimes subject to criticism. One friend said I lived in a glass house. After my father’s recent comment on my lack of culinary skills, another observed: ‘You live in a house without any walls.’ Fortunately, I am not easily embarrassed.
As long as my conscience is clear, what other people say of me does not bother me. Indeed, I am open about my life since the more I try to conceal from the public, the wilder the speculation becomes.
My father said of my mother two weeks ago: ‘My wife was…not a traditional wife. She was educated, a professional woman… We had Ah Mahs, reliable, professional, dependable. (My wife) came back every lunchtime to have lunch with the children.’
Actually, my mother was a traditional wife and mother. She was not traditional only in one respect: She was also a professional woman and, for many years, the family’s main breadwinner.
One of my mother’s proudest possessions is a gold pendant that my father commissioned for her. He had a calligrapher engrave on the pendant the following characters: ‘xian qi liang mu’ and ‘nei xian wai de’.
The first four characters mean virtuous wife and caring mother. The second four mean wise in looking after the family, virtuous in behaviour towards the outside world.
My mother lived her life around my father and, while we were young, around her children. I remember my mother protesting gently once about something my father had asked her to do.
‘It is a partnership, dear,’ my father urged.
‘But it is not an equal partnership,’ my mother replied.
The partnership may not have been exactly equal at particular points in time. But over the years, especially after my mother’s health deteriorated after she suffered a stroke, my father was the one who took care of her. She clearly indicated she preferred my father’s care to that of the doctors’, in itself a revelation of the quality of his care.
He remembers her complicated regime of medications. Because she cannot see on the left side of her visual field, he sits on her left during meals. He prompts her to eat the food on the left side of her plate and picks up whatever food her left hand drops on the table.
I have always admired my father for his dedication to Singapore, his determination to do what is right, his courage in standing up to foreigners who try to tell us how to run our country.
But my father was also the eldest son in a typical Peranakan family. He cannot even crack a soft-boiled egg – such things not being expected of men, especially eldest sons, in Peranakan families.
But when my mother’s health deteriorated, he readily adjusted his lifestyle to accommodate her, took care of her medications and lived his life around her. I knew how much effort it took him to do all this, and I was surprised that he was able to make the effort.
If my parents have such a loving relationship, why then did I decide to remain single?
Firstly, my mother set the bar too high for me. I could not envisage being the kind of wife and mother she had been.
Secondly, I am temperamentally similar to my father. Indeed, he once said to me: ‘You have all my traits – but to such an exaggerated degree that they become a disadvantage in you.’
When my father made that pendant for my mother, he also commissioned one for me. But the words he chose for me were very different from those he chose for my mother.
On one side of my pendant was engraved ‘yang jing xu rui’, which means to conserve energy and build up strength. On the other side was engraved ‘chu lei ba cui’, which means to stand out and excel.
The latter was added just for completion. His main message was in the first phrase, telling me, in effect, not to be so intense about so many things in life.
I knew I could not live my life around a husband; nor would I want a husband to live his life around me. Of course, there are any number of variations in marital relationships between those extremes. But there is always a need for spouses to change their behaviour or habits to suit each other. I have always been set in my ways and did not fancy changing my behaviour or lifestyle.
I had my first date when I was 21 years old. He was a doctor in the hospital ward I was posted to. We went out to a dinner party. I noted that the other guests were all rich socialites. I dropped him like a hot potato.
In 2005, while on an African safari with a small group of friends, one of them, Professor C.N. Lee, listed the men who had tried to woo me. There were three besides the first. Two were converted into friends and another, like the first, was dropped.
I am now 54 years old and happily single. In addition to my nuclear family, I have a close circle of friends. Most of my friends are men. But my reputation is such that their female partners would never consider me a threat.
More than 10 years ago, when there was still a slim chance I might have got married, my father told me: ‘Your mother and I could be selfish and feel happy that you remain single and can look after us in our old age. But you will be lonely.’
I was not convinced. Better one person feeling lonely than two people miserable because they cannot adapt to each other, I figured.
I do not regret my choice. But I want to end with a warning to young men and women: What works for me may not work for others.
Many years ago, a young single woman asked me about training in neurology in a top US hospital. I advised her to ‘grab the opportunity’.
She did and stayed away for eight years. She returned to Singapore in her late 30s and now worries that she may have missed her chance to get married.
Fertility in women drops dramatically with age, and older mothers run the risk of having offspring with congenital abnormalities.
Recent studies show also that advanced paternal age is associated with an increased risk of neurodevelopmental disorders in offspring, such as autism and schizophrenia, not to mention dyslexia and a subtle reduction in intelligence. Men can also suffer from diminished fertility with age although there is wide individual variation.
I would advise young men and women not to delay getting married and having children. I say this not to be politically correct. I say it in all sincerity because I have enjoyed a happy family life as a daughter and a sister, and I see both my brothers enjoying their own families.
The writer is director of the National Neuroscience Institute. Send your comments to suntimes@sph.com.sg
03 October 2011
30 September 2011
29 September 2011
PR CHINA's Celestial Palace
From Xinhua News Agency
BEIJING, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- China's first space lab module Tiangong-1, or Heavenly Palace-1, blasted off at 9:16 p.m. Beijing Time (1316 GMT) Thursday in a northwest desert area as the nation envisions the coming of its space station era in about ten years.
The unmanned module, carried by the Long March-2FT1 rocket, will test space docking with a spacecraft later this year, paving the way for China to operate a permanent space station around 2020 and making it the world's third country to do so.More than ten minutes after the blastoff, Commander-in-chief of China's manned space program Chang Wanquan announced the launch's success at the control center in Beijing.
The success of the launch, however, is just a beginning, and the real challenge is space docking, said Yang Hong, chief designer of Tiangong module series.
DOCKING TESTS
Unlike previous Chinese space vehicles, the Tiangong-1 has a docking facility which allows it to be connected to multiple space modules in order to assemble an experimental station in low Earth orbit.
The Tiangong-1 will orbit the Earth for about one month, awaiting the arrival of the Shenzhou-8 unmanned spacecraft. Once the two vehicles successfully rendezvous, they will conduct the first space docking at a height of 340 kilometers above the earth's surface.
The Tiangong-1 flies at a speed of 7.8 kilometers per second in orbit, which leaves ground-based staff an error of less than 0.12 meter to control the two vehicles to dock in low gravity. China has never tried such test and could not simulate it on the ground.
After two docking tests with the Shenzhou-8, the Tiangong-1 will await Shenzhou-9, to be followed by Shenzhou-10, which will possibly carry a female astronaut, in the next two years, according to the plan for China's manned space program.
If the astronaut in the Shenzhou-10 mission succeeds with the manual space docking, China will become the third nation after the United States and Russia to master the technology.
President Hu Jintao watched the launch from the Beijing Aerospace Flight Control Center on Thursday, two days before China's National Day, witnessing the latest endeavor of China's manned space program since 1992.
Hu told the engineers, commanders and other workers at the control center to do every job in a "more aborative and meticulous" manner to ensure the success of the country's first space docking mission.
Other members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, including Wu Bangguo, Jia Qinglin, Li Changchun, Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang and Zhou Yongkang, were also present.
Premier Wen Jiabao went to the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center to watch the launch process with He Guoqiang, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.
Chinese people were inspired by the successful launch.
"The Tiangong-1 has gone into the dark sky! We Chinese are on the way to inhabiting the vast universe," wrote Qichaoxiguanghai on Sina Weibo, China's most popular microblog service provider.
"I heard the news of the Tiangong-1's launch from the radio on a ship to Yangzhou," wrote microblogger Xingfufeiafei. "I am proud to share the pride that shakes the world. The pride of our nation is once again deep in my heart."
THREE PHASES
With a room of 15 cubic meters for two to three astronauts to conduct research and experiments in the future, China's first space lab module is hardly the size of any palace.
But its name Tiangong-1, or "Heavenly Palace-1," speaks of a dream home from Chinese folklore, long envisioned as a secret place where deities reside.
Thanks to an economic boom that has continued since the end of the 1970s, the Chinese government approved and began carrying out its three-phase manned space program in January 1992.
The first phase, to send the first astronaut to space and return safely, was fulfilled by Yang Liwei in the Shenzhou-5 mission in 2003. After another two astronauts made successful extravehicular activities in the Shenzhou-7 mission in 2008, China entered the second phase of its space program: space docking.
If the previous two steps succeed, China plans to develop and launch multiple space modules, with a goal of assembling a 60-tonne manned space station around 2020 in which Chinese astronauts will start more research projects in space.
Premier Wen said at the launch center that the breakthrough in and command of space docking technology marks a significant step forward in China's "three-phase" manned space program.
He encouraged all the participants in the program to do a good job to "win the vital battle of space docking."
The success of Thursday's launch of the Tiangong-1 also eased the pressure on China's space engineers following an unsuccessful lift-off in August when a Long March-2C rocket malfunctioned and failed to send an experimental satellite into orbit.
To acquire a new and bigger rocket capable of loading a future space station's components that will be much heavier than the Tiangong-1, research and development on a carrier rocket that burns more environmentally-friendly liquid-oxygen-kerosene fuels is in progress.
The Long March-5 and -7 carrier rockets with a payload to low Earth orbit of more than 20 tonnes will take test flight as early as 2014, said Song Zhengyu, deputy chief designer of rocket for China's manned space program.
China's progress in space technology is stunning. The Tiangong-1 will dock three spacecraft one after another, which will cost less time and money than docking experiments the U.S. and Russia did.
The space station now still functional is the International Space Station (ISS) initiated by the United States and Russia, which cooperate with other 14 nations at about 360 kilometers above the earth.
However, as the U.S. ended its space shuttle program after the Atlantis' last mission in July, the ISS is scheduled to be plunged into the ocean at the end of its life cycle around 2020, when China is expected to start its era of space station.
INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION PLATFORM
Zhang Shancong, deputy chief designer of the Tiangong-1, told Xinhua that the module carries special cameras which will take hyperspectral images of China's vast farmlands to detect heavy metal pollution and pesticide residue as well as plant disease.
Moreover, scientists on the ground will also conduct experiments on photonic crystal, a new material expected to revolutionize information technology, in the low-gravity environment inside the Tiangong-1 as these experiments would be extremely difficult to conduct on the earth's surface.
"China is clearly becoming a global power and its investments in areas like technology and exploration reflect this," said Peter Singer, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Brookings Institution.
"It is a natural result of the growth in political and economic power and is to be expected," Singer said in an interview with Xinhua conducted via email.
"What remains at question is what kind of presence China will play on the international stage, cooperative, working with international partners, or going it alone?" Singer said.
The scholar, however, can find an answer to his question from the words of Zhou Jianping, chief designer of China's manned space program.
Zhou told Xinhua that China will turn its future space station into an international platform for space research and application to share space achievements with partners.
"The Chinese nation has pursued peace since ancient times," Zhou said. "China's ultimate intention with the space program is to explore space resources and make use of them for mankind's well-being."
According to Wu Ping, a spokesperson with China's manned space program, scientists from China and Germany will jointly carry out experiments on space life science at the Shenzhou-8 spacecraft.
A U.S. astronaut on the Atlantis's final mission has said China's first experimental space station will be a welcome addition to the international brotherhood.
"China being in space I think is a great thing. The more nations that get into space, the better cooperation we'll have with each," astronaut Rex Walheim said during an interview with Reuters.
So far China's Long March rocket series has successfully sent more than 20 satellites into space for the United States, Australia, Pakistan and other countries and regions.
One Chinese scientist and five international peers have also participated in Russia's Mars-500 Program, a ground-based experiment simulating a manned expedition to Mars.
(Zhou Erjie, Ma Shukun, Shi Shouhe, Liu Jie, Zhang Chunxiao, Xu Zhuangzhi contributed to the story.)
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