On May 19, 12:19=A0am, Lproud...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:
> On May 18, 1:04=A0pm, chatnoir <wolfbat3...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
>
>
> > On May 18, 8:30=A0am, Jim Walsh <jimNOwalsSPA...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
> > > Earthquakes and other natural disasters are a-political; they strike
> > > regardless.
>
> > > Unlike Burma, where the leader****p committed crimes against
humanity, =
the CCP
> > > did most of the right things. The key correct decision was not to
hide=
the
> > > facts (a common failing in previous cases: i.e., SARs.) Allowing the
C=
hinese
> > > media the re****t the news live was a huge breakthrough. The second
cor=
rect
> > > decision was for the leader****p to rush massive resources to the
scene=
..
>
> > > (Sadly, the CCP was unwilling to accept foreign experts -- like the
do=
g teams
> > > from Japan -- early enough so they could save lives.)
>
> > > Undoubtedly, the Chinese media could have been more aggressive (the
ha=
bit of
> > > following the Party Line is hard to break). For example, some
building=
s that
> > > should have survived the quake collapsed as a result of poor
construct=
ion and
> > > the Chinese media could have investigated such things to learn if
negl=
igence
> > > or dishonesty or both were involved.
>
> > > --
> > > Love, Jim
> > > (I often delete parts of the previous post and I often remove
excessiv=
e
> > > crossposts.)
>
> > With a bit of dread and caution no doubt!:
>
> >http://tinyurl.com/5mlady
>
> > headline:
>
> > The World
> > When the Kremlin Tried a Little Openness
>
> > By PHILIP TAUBMAN
> > Published: May 18, 2008
> > A dash of openness can be a dangerous thing in an autocratic state.
>
> > James Hill for The New York Times
> > POST-GLASNOST ****traits of Soviet leaders still lay abandoned in
> > Pripyat, near Chernobyl, in 2006. Viktor M. Chebrikov, left, led the
> > K.G.B. in the 1980s.
> > Mikhail Gorbachev discovered this two decades ago when his campaign to
> > inject some daylight into Soviet society doubled back on him like a
> > heat-seeking missile.
>
> > Now China=92s leaders are playing with the same volatile political
> > chemistry as they give their own citizens and the world an
> > unexpectedly vivid look at the earthquake devastation in the
nation=92s
> > southwest regions. The rulers of cyclone-battered Myanmar, by
> > contrast, are sticking with the authoritarian playbook, limiting
> > access and even aid to the stricken delta region where tens of
> > thousands of people were killed by the storm.
>
> > While China=92s response to its natural catastrophe is certainly more
> > humane, and is only a small step toward openness, it could set in
> > motion political forces that might, over time, be unsettling. That=92s
> > especially true in an age of instant communications, even in a nation
> > like China, which tries to control Internet access.
>
> > =93When you start opening up and loosen controls, it becomes a
slippery
> > slope,=94 Jack F. Matlock Jr., the American ambassador to Moscow
during
> > much of the Gorbachev period, said last week as he watched the events
> > in China. =93You quickly become a target for everyone with a grievance
> > and before long people go after the whole system.=94
>
> > Chinese leaders are well aware of the Soviet experience. The bloody
> > crackdown against the democracy movement in Tiananmen Square in 1989
> > seemed motivated in part by fears that a relaxation of repression
> > would lead to a replay of Soviet turbulence in China. It was no
> > accident that China was the first country to translate and reprint Mr.
> > Matlock=92s 1995 account of the demise of the Soviet Union, =93Autopsy
o=
n
> > an Empire.=94
>
> > And China has taken a different reform path, in effect offering its
> > people robust economic growth, with a degree of responsiveness when
> > problems can be blamed on local officials, in exchange for continued
> > one-party rule. Playing up the response to the earthquake, even as
> > China restricts coverage of repression in Tibet, could prove a shrewd
> > move, rather than one that cascades into instability.
>
> > Still, it is worth recalling a time when a little openness flew out of
> > control.
>
> > As a correspondent and bureau chief for The New York Times in Moscow
> > in the late 1980s, I had a ringside seat to observe the slow
> > disintegration of the Soviet Union under Mr. Gorbachev. The collapse
> > of the Soviet empire and dissolution of the Communist Party were not
> > exactly what he had in mind when he took power in 1985 and launched
> > his twin policies of glasnost (greater openness) and perestroika
> > (political reform).
>
> > As events unfolded, it was like watching a scientist start a nuclear
> > chain reaction that races out of control, eventually consuming him and
> > all those around him.
>
> > Mr. Gorbachev realized his country was rotting from within, paralyzed
> > by repression and ideological rigidity, a backward economy and a deep
> > cynicism among Russians about their government. =93We can=92t go on
livi=
ng
> > like this,=94 he told his wife, Raisa, hours before he was named
Soviet
> > leader, he recalled in his 1995 memoirs.
>
> > But he clearly had no inkling of where his initiatives were headed
> > when, shortly after taking office, he broke new ground for a Kremlin
> > leader by mingling with citizens in Leningrad and giving unscripted
> > interviews.
>
> > In those early days of glasnost, it was hard to tell whether the
> > changes were purely superficial or the start of something more
> > profound.
>
> > One day in late 1985, Allen Ginsberg, the American beat poet,
> > unexpectedly turned up at the Moscow bureau of The Times, bearing a
> > package from Yevgeny Yevtushenko, the Soviet poet. It was the text of
> > a speech that Mr. Yevtushenko had given to the Writer=92s Union.
>
> > Serge Schmemann, my colleague, described it a few days later in a
> > front-page story: =93The session was a closed one, but even so the
> > poet=92s strong words against distortion of history, against
censor****p,=
> > self-flattery, silence and privilege in the world of letters were
> > strikingly bold.=94
>
> > As glasnost gathered force in the years that followed, it ripped away
> > the layers of deceit that were the foundation of the Soviet state.
> > Each step undermined the authority of the party and the
> > government. ... (cont)- Hide quoted text -
>
> > - Show quoted text -
>
> Still dreaming that China will break up. You have no idea how much the
> Chinese people respect the PLA. They truly live up to their name. A
> people's army.
No way you can read that from what I posted!
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