If you had an apple tree in your backyard, would you eat those apples?
Or would you instead mulch those apples, give them to an apple farmer who would use the mulch to grow his/her trees, and then sell the apples back to you?
Personally, I find the former option much more appealing. The current water plan that we have been fed is the same as buying your own apples back from the fruit grower. This occurred to me as I was walking to the bakery and the butcher the other day. It had been raining most of the morning, not particularly heavily but steadily, and water was flowing through the gutters at pace. As I watched the water flowing into the stormwater drains, I couldn't help but wonder where that water was going. Then I realised that most of it would flow into the Yarra and then into Port Phillip Bay and the Bass Strait, where it will become seawater. Funnily enough, it is from the Bass Strait that the proposed Victorian desalination plant will be drawing the seawater to be desalinised in order to solve our water crisis.
This strikes me as somewhat ironic. There are two other related issues that add to my overall confusion. First, the government refused to include water collection tanks in the plans for the redevelopment of Spencer St. Station, yet is more than happy to shell out for the more environmentally suspect desalination plant. Not only does the desalination plant increase the salinty of the surrounding ocean, produce salty sludge, and kill microscopic marine life, but it also requires a great deal of electricty to run. I am unaware if a water tank does any of these things. Furthermore, the construction of a desalination plant is more expensive than the retrofitting of domestic dwellings with water tanks.
Second, the government refuses to upgrade water treatment plants to enable the treated sewage to be used in agriculture. This is a failing both of the government and the citizenry. We, as a people, fail to realise that world leading metropoli of the world are drinking recycled water (e.g. Singapore). Moreover, I wash my vegetables before I cook or eat them to remove small bugs, dirt, or manure that is used as fertiliser from the vegetables I buy (not to mention any chemically produced fertiliser). How would washing vegetables to remove any treated human waste be any different?
Those of you aware of our state's water crisis will have noted that I have not addressed the construction of the north-south pipeline. To use a rather hackeyed, but readily understandable, cliche- this is robbing Peter to pay Paul. Not only do Victoria's regional areas already struggle under the weigh of stricter water restrictions than Melbourne, but the environments that require this water to survive are actually outside the metropolitan boundary. Who would have thought?
The time has come for us to re-evaluate our water crisis. Are we as a state going to tackle this problem in a progressive and dynamic manner that allows for continued sustainable water management, or are we going to allow a self-interested government to peacock projects that may prove to be white elephants? We need to ensure that the resources given to us freely are not squandered in the pursuit of questionable politics.
Friday, 21 November 2008
Friday, 14 November 2008
Neocha
It has been some time since I have posted here. I guess I've been doing other things: writing, marking, reading, admin. All these things keep me away from here, which is, after all, nothing more than a distraction that I can pretend is somewhat constructive.
I've recently been looking at an interesting Chinese SNS designed for independent musicians, visual artists, photographers, and designers- just about everyone with a creative mindset, really.
Neocha (新茶) has got some really good stuff. I've been listening to some of the music and chatting with some of the producers about why they have a Neocha site. When I get some more detailed results, I'll post them here. I've also started talking to one of the co-founders of the site, Sean Leow, whose been quite helpful. There are a few tidbits of information about Neocha here and there, but sometimes they can be quite difficult to find.
They also publish an occasional webzine called "Blow Up" (放大) with featured interviews, artwork, and music. It seems to me that it's quite well put together, but I don't know much about multimedia design, so I'm not the best placed to judge. Nonetheless, it looks cool. If you're interested in Chinese independent music, you can listen to it online at their website, or you can download albums released on their online music label. I've been going through it a little lately and am suitably impressed.
I'd be interested to know if any of the bands featured will come to Australia, or whether anybody has thought about using Neocha as a resource to bring Chinese bands over here. I imagine one would have to find a market for them first, and this might prove to be quite difficult with a relatively strong local music scene and with the poor taste of the great unwashed. Anyway, perhaps there is scope for a Chinese indie music show on an independent radio station. People might suggest Internet radio, and I suppose in Australia this might be a viable alternative. It would certainly be cheaper to produce, or perhaps easier.
Listen, and find something you like.
I've recently been looking at an interesting Chinese SNS designed for independent musicians, visual artists, photographers, and designers- just about everyone with a creative mindset, really.
Neocha (新茶) has got some really good stuff. I've been listening to some of the music and chatting with some of the producers about why they have a Neocha site. When I get some more detailed results, I'll post them here. I've also started talking to one of the co-founders of the site, Sean Leow, whose been quite helpful. There are a few tidbits of information about Neocha here and there, but sometimes they can be quite difficult to find.
They also publish an occasional webzine called "Blow Up" (放大) with featured interviews, artwork, and music. It seems to me that it's quite well put together, but I don't know much about multimedia design, so I'm not the best placed to judge. Nonetheless, it looks cool. If you're interested in Chinese independent music, you can listen to it online at their website, or you can download albums released on their online music label. I've been going through it a little lately and am suitably impressed.
I'd be interested to know if any of the bands featured will come to Australia, or whether anybody has thought about using Neocha as a resource to bring Chinese bands over here. I imagine one would have to find a market for them first, and this might prove to be quite difficult with a relatively strong local music scene and with the poor taste of the great unwashed. Anyway, perhaps there is scope for a Chinese indie music show on an independent radio station. People might suggest Internet radio, and I suppose in Australia this might be a viable alternative. It would certainly be cheaper to produce, or perhaps easier.
Listen, and find something you like.
Friday, 12 September 2008
Neocha & Oblivion
I found this site the other day. It features Chinese indie music. I'm still exploring it now, but should have a better idea of how it works soon.
I'll let you know what I think of it when I've spent more time there.
At the moment there doesn't seem to be enough time to do anything. Not only am I trying to work, research and write a thesis, and keep up a social life of some description, but also I'm trying to resist the temptation of playing Obivion.
This game has invaded my life. Every time I open this thing up I lose hours at a time, getting a level up fix, finding some item, killing some... thing. It's invaded my life and I don't know what to do about it! Argh!
I'll let you know what I think of it when I've spent more time there.
At the moment there doesn't seem to be enough time to do anything. Not only am I trying to work, research and write a thesis, and keep up a social life of some description, but also I'm trying to resist the temptation of playing Obivion.
This game has invaded my life. Every time I open this thing up I lose hours at a time, getting a level up fix, finding some item, killing some... thing. It's invaded my life and I don't know what to do about it! Argh!
Thursday, 21 August 2008
Laziness, fraud, Olympics
I've been a bit lazy when it comes to updating the blog. In some respects I've been lazy, in others I've been busy writing other things and haven't found the time to say anything of any interest (to anyone, including myself).
I've been reading a great deal of stuff on the Olympics, Tibet, censorship in China and I've had enough. What I continue to find interesting is the state-sponsored fraud perpetuated by China regarding its star gymnast He Kexin (何可欣). Stryde, we salute you.
So here I do my bit for freedom of information and the international rules of gymnastics. The first two images are screenshots of the Baidu cache, the third shows the url of the original xls files:
I've been reading a great deal of stuff on the Olympics, Tibet, censorship in China and I've had enough. What I continue to find interesting is the state-sponsored fraud perpetuated by China regarding its star gymnast He Kexin (何可欣). Stryde, we salute you.
So here I do my bit for freedom of information and the international rules of gymnastics. The first two images are screenshots of the Baidu cache, the third shows the url of the original xls files:
Tuesday, 22 July 2008
Chinese emotional issues
Discussions about China seem to bring out the worst in everyone.
Have a quick read of the following article from the Far Eastern Economic Review. It tells the story of the "50 Cent Party" and how it functions of the Chinese Web. The article is fairly non-judgmental and merely relates the practice of opinion management as is practiced by the Chinese Communist Party. It also provides some examples of smaller institutions that have employed similar measures, such as Nanjing University.
Now look at the comments that follow. They are full of emotionally-based posturing and argy-bargy.
ICBMs! Danger! China is not practicing multicultural diversity in the same way as the US! Horror!
On the other hand...
Foreigners don't understand China! Angst! Foreigners bully China! More Angst! [Wave fist]
Really, more often than not people who comment on articles in the electronic press dress up emotional outbursts as textual analysis and criticism. When one thinks about it, the court of public opinion is poorly named. Rather, it should be termed the kindergarten sandpit of public opinion.
Have a quick read of the following article from the Far Eastern Economic Review. It tells the story of the "50 Cent Party" and how it functions of the Chinese Web. The article is fairly non-judgmental and merely relates the practice of opinion management as is practiced by the Chinese Communist Party. It also provides some examples of smaller institutions that have employed similar measures, such as Nanjing University.
Now look at the comments that follow. They are full of emotionally-based posturing and argy-bargy.
ICBMs! Danger! China is not practicing multicultural diversity in the same way as the US! Horror!
On the other hand...
Foreigners don't understand China! Angst! Foreigners bully China! More Angst! [Wave fist]
Really, more often than not people who comment on articles in the electronic press dress up emotional outbursts as textual analysis and criticism. When one thinks about it, the court of public opinion is poorly named. Rather, it should be termed the kindergarten sandpit of public opinion.
Friday, 11 July 2008
Art, Pornography, Squabbling
It's been some time since I last posted here. I've been writing other things, the quality of which is debatable. Nonetheless there has been something that has caught my eye in the press recently. (Or rather not so recently any more.) That is the squabbling over the Bill Henson and child pornography.
I feel as though I need to have my two cents here, along with the rest of Australia. The photographs that are taken by Henson are of nude children. We all know that. But the debate rages over whether or not these images are either a) pornography, or b) exploitative of children. I'll tackle the former first.
This photo taken by Henson and it is this photograph that caused the original outcry.
The photograph is not presented in a sexual manner. It is, rather, a picture of innocence which is highlighted by the nakedness of the subject.
The next photograph comes from a child beauty pageant. (I pinched it from here.)
In this image, it is quite clear that the subject is being presented as an object of desire. The clothing, make-up, and hair-do create a miniaturised version of a glamour model, almost reminiscent of a soft-porn shoot.
If one objectively compares the differences between the two photographs, particularly in context with other photographs from the same collections, it becomes clear that it is the latter that over-sexualises children, not the former. It has been the public statements of people like Hetty Johnson, Kevin Rudd, etc. who have sexualised the Henson images by creating an association between the images and sex where one did not previously exist. In essence, they have turned a photography exhibition into a child porn show by dint of their own actions. Consider this, if paedophiles were unaware of Henson before, or were aware but did not consider his work as sexually gratifying, I'm sure they do now.
On to the second point. The question remains whether Henson is exploiting a child in his work. One could argue that this is so, simply on the basis that the child cannot make the decision to be photographed him/herself and therefore the parent and Henson are exploiting the child. However, if we do use this line of argument, children in advertising, regardless of the product which is being sold must also be being exploited. In this case, they are still too young t make the decision themselves, so it is the advertising machinery and the parent who are responsible for the exploitation. Thus, one cannot argue that Henson has exploited children unless one concedes that all images or films of children are also exploitation.
If Australia is to avoid its tag as the nanny state, we must avoid this ridiculous over-governance of small issues, particularly by narrow-minded philistines. Children must be protected from predatory behaviour, but we must exercise proper judgment on what is considered predatory. Instead of bickering about art, we should be focusing on larger issues such as climate change, fixing public services such as transport and health, and maintaining a peaceful and prosperous world.
I feel as though I need to have my two cents here, along with the rest of Australia. The photographs that are taken by Henson are of nude children. We all know that. But the debate rages over whether or not these images are either a) pornography, or b) exploitative of children. I'll tackle the former first.
This photo taken by Henson and it is this photograph that caused the original outcry.
The photograph is not presented in a sexual manner. It is, rather, a picture of innocence which is highlighted by the nakedness of the subject.
The next photograph comes from a child beauty pageant. (I pinched it from here.)
In this image, it is quite clear that the subject is being presented as an object of desire. The clothing, make-up, and hair-do create a miniaturised version of a glamour model, almost reminiscent of a soft-porn shoot.
If one objectively compares the differences between the two photographs, particularly in context with other photographs from the same collections, it becomes clear that it is the latter that over-sexualises children, not the former. It has been the public statements of people like Hetty Johnson, Kevin Rudd, etc. who have sexualised the Henson images by creating an association between the images and sex where one did not previously exist. In essence, they have turned a photography exhibition into a child porn show by dint of their own actions. Consider this, if paedophiles were unaware of Henson before, or were aware but did not consider his work as sexually gratifying, I'm sure they do now.
On to the second point. The question remains whether Henson is exploiting a child in his work. One could argue that this is so, simply on the basis that the child cannot make the decision to be photographed him/herself and therefore the parent and Henson are exploiting the child. However, if we do use this line of argument, children in advertising, regardless of the product which is being sold must also be being exploited. In this case, they are still too young t make the decision themselves, so it is the advertising machinery and the parent who are responsible for the exploitation. Thus, one cannot argue that Henson has exploited children unless one concedes that all images or films of children are also exploitation.
If Australia is to avoid its tag as the nanny state, we must avoid this ridiculous over-governance of small issues, particularly by narrow-minded philistines. Children must be protected from predatory behaviour, but we must exercise proper judgment on what is considered predatory. Instead of bickering about art, we should be focusing on larger issues such as climate change, fixing public services such as transport and health, and maintaining a peaceful and prosperous world.
Friday, 30 May 2008
Two Sides of China
Reading through China Digital Times this morning, two articles came to my attention that illustrate two sides of China. On one hand, when we think of the Middle Kingdom, we conjure images of the violence of the Cultural Revolution and the corruption of the early reform period. These images are strengthened by an underlying sense of Orientalism, xenophobia, and more generally the fear of the unknown. These photos of riots at the Northern Auto Mechanics School in Handan, Hebei show that sometimes these fears are not unfounded. The uproar began after a teacher allegedly beat a student during military training. Photographs and an article in Chinese can be found here:
http://news.wenxuecity.com/messages/200805/news-gb2312-614851.html
China Digital Times provides an English summary of the events as well as a slideshow of photographs from the school.
On the other hand, the Sichuan earthquakes have revealed the positive side of patriotism and nationalism that became so ugly in the wake of the Tibet uprising and the Olympic Torch relay furor. People are willing to give all that they can both financially and in terms of volunteering their time to help their countrymen get back on their feet. China Digital Times has captured the spirit of the Sichaunese affected by gathering together jokes initially collected by the blogs and SMS in China.
I've reproduced some here:
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2008/05/humorous-spirit-of-the-sichuan-people/
http://news.wenxuecity.com/messages/200805/news-gb2312-614851.html
China Digital Times provides an English summary of the events as well as a slideshow of photographs from the school.
On the other hand, the Sichuan earthquakes have revealed the positive side of patriotism and nationalism that became so ugly in the wake of the Tibet uprising and the Olympic Torch relay furor. People are willing to give all that they can both financially and in terms of volunteering their time to help their countrymen get back on their feet. China Digital Times has captured the spirit of the Sichaunese affected by gathering together jokes initially collected by the blogs and SMS in China.
I've reproduced some here:
* A friend told me that he was riding his bicycle at the moment [of the earthquake] at the city’s central square, and saw Chairman Mao [statue] waving to him… He was so shocked he fell off his bike, and then realized it was an earthquake.
* An old man in Beichuan, dragged out by a Russian rescue team. The first thing he said was “This is one hell of an earthquake, it shook me all the way to a foreign country!”
* Four old ladies were in the middle of playing a game of mahjong, and noticed the table was shaking badly. They did not say anything, went to find some cardboard, put it underneath the table and continued their game.
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2008/05/humorous-spirit-of-the-sichuan-people/
Monday, 12 May 2008
Saturday, 26 April 2008
Tuesday, 15 April 2008
Tibet, well balanced
Use this link to read a fair and balanced op-ed thast focuses on the Tibet issue. I think that it is fantastic
Wednesday, 9 April 2008
China and Demonisation
This article by Daniel Bell has recently come to my attention. For those of you who can't be bothered to read it, I'll give a quick summary here. Bell criticises the tendency of the Western press to demonise China. He admits that it is important to cover such issues as the Tibet riots because the Chinese press isn't able to, but that there is a dearth of coverage of the positive developments. He lists improvements such as increases in personal freedom, increased acceptance of homosexuality, and economic improvement as cases in point.
Bell also mentions negative news coverage of China, such as its involvement in the Darfur is reported whereas Japanese and Russian involvement is ignored by Western news outlets. Furthermore, comparisons to the Nazi Olympics are useless hyperbole; China is not out to start a world war and has no genocide policy.
Bell calls for some self-reflection, lest we create overly-antagonistic relations with the Chinese. China is not some sort of 'Evil Empire' out to swallow the world. At the risk of being labeled an apologist for the regime, I ask why it is that musicians (such as those who appeared at last week's V-festival), journalists, and semi-educated protesters single out China for attention that is deserved of many other nations of the world. It would seem to me that we are still dominated by xenophobia and a style of issue-populism. Is it any wonder the producers of the videos that I posted earlier this month feel set upon by the Western media?
A couple of years ago I was part of an Australian university student delegation to China. We were traveling with Hon. Greg Hunt MP (yes, that is his real name) who expected us to be a bunch of China-bashers. Consequently, his welcome speech in the forum of the Beijing Hotel urged to stand up for our beliefs and be proud of Australia as a nation. In a return address, from one of the students present, we did just that. Laurie intimated that we were proud Australians and we stand up for our beliefs, but we weren't anti-China.
Yes, China needs to improve aspects of its social policy. But to demonise China is a mistake that serves neither China nor the rest of the world any clear purpose. Anyway, I must go, so I apologise for the weak conclusion.
Bell also mentions negative news coverage of China, such as its involvement in the Darfur is reported whereas Japanese and Russian involvement is ignored by Western news outlets. Furthermore, comparisons to the Nazi Olympics are useless hyperbole; China is not out to start a world war and has no genocide policy.
Bell calls for some self-reflection, lest we create overly-antagonistic relations with the Chinese. China is not some sort of 'Evil Empire' out to swallow the world. At the risk of being labeled an apologist for the regime, I ask why it is that musicians (such as those who appeared at last week's V-festival), journalists, and semi-educated protesters single out China for attention that is deserved of many other nations of the world. It would seem to me that we are still dominated by xenophobia and a style of issue-populism. Is it any wonder the producers of the videos that I posted earlier this month feel set upon by the Western media?
A couple of years ago I was part of an Australian university student delegation to China. We were traveling with Hon. Greg Hunt MP (yes, that is his real name) who expected us to be a bunch of China-bashers. Consequently, his welcome speech in the forum of the Beijing Hotel urged to stand up for our beliefs and be proud of Australia as a nation. In a return address, from one of the students present, we did just that. Laurie intimated that we were proud Australians and we stand up for our beliefs, but we weren't anti-China.
Yes, China needs to improve aspects of its social policy. But to demonise China is a mistake that serves neither China nor the rest of the world any clear purpose. Anyway, I must go, so I apologise for the weak conclusion.
Friday, 4 April 2008
Mao Zedong
A good film about China's Cultural Revolution is Morning Sun. It is quite amazing to see and hear the story of China during that bloody period of history through the ears and eyes of Red Guards, Black Liners, heroes and bastards because it shows how not one person was left unscathed.
Considering how the Cultural Revolution panned out, it is quite easy to think of Mao Zedong as a crazy old bastard, bent on ruling China with an iron fist. In fact, it is ridiculously easy, considering the disaster that was the Great Leap Forward, and the various anti-rightist campaigns that dated from the Yenan period right through to the end of his life.
However, there is a recent book that seeks to reevaluate this position on China. Rather uselessly, I have forgotten the title of the book and rather lazily I can't be bothered looking for it. Nonetheless, I've been doing a bit of thinking about Mao myself. It is quite possible that Mao was a man who truly believed in socialist theory as a means of keeping China safe from foreign incursion and making it great once more. This ties quite closely into the "Century of Humiliation" and his insistence at the founding of the People's Republic in 1949 that China has 'stood up.' Despite the failures of that theory in agricultural and industrial sectors on their application, it was always going to be very difficult for him to relinquish what was his life's work and ideology.
One might find parallels with John Howard, who was unable to accept that his increasingly right-wing and conservative policies were no longer relevant to Australia, or indeed wanted. However because we have the ability as a democratic nation-state to remove outdated policy-makers at a convenient juncture, the balance can be restored. There was, and is, no such balance in China- remember Liu Shaoqi.
Tuesday, 1 April 2008
Tibet's Sovereignty
As I was going through some old notes this afternoon, I came across this article which I had copied down last year as an example of how non-officialised information is transmitted throughout China via P2P and blogs.
Professor Ge Jianxiong from Fudan:
"If "China" means the land of the Tang Dynasty, the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, which was ruled by Tubo/Tufan (吐蕃), does not count. Tubo/Tufan was a sovereignty independent of the Tang Dynasty. At least it was not administered by the Tang Dynasty. Otherwise, there would have been no need for Tang Taizong to marry Princess Wencheng to the Tibetan king; there would have been no need to erect the Tang-Tubo/Tufan alliance tablet. It would be a defiance of history if we claim that since the Tang Dynasty Tibet has always been a part of China - the fact that the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau subsequently became a part of the Chinese dynasties does not substantiate such a claim ... " (From Letters from China blog)
Letters from China also has links to the Chinese article. I've not been able to access the China Review article, but it is still possible to read articles on Netease and QQ. Follow the links if you can read Chinese.
What was interesting at the time I first read these was the appearance of the articles themselves in China where the official line is quite clear about the status of Tibet as a Chinese territory. Now, with recent events in mind, I am more interested in whether Professor Ge has made a reappearance in the news, whether of his own volition or through the general public outing him.
Professor Ge Jianxiong from Fudan:
"If "China" means the land of the Tang Dynasty, the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, which was ruled by Tubo/Tufan (吐蕃), does not count. Tubo/Tufan was a sovereignty independent of the Tang Dynasty. At least it was not administered by the Tang Dynasty. Otherwise, there would have been no need for Tang Taizong to marry Princess Wencheng to the Tibetan king; there would have been no need to erect the Tang-Tubo/Tufan alliance tablet. It would be a defiance of history if we claim that since the Tang Dynasty Tibet has always been a part of China - the fact that the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau subsequently became a part of the Chinese dynasties does not substantiate such a claim ... " (From Letters from China blog)
Letters from China also has links to the Chinese article. I've not been able to access the China Review article, but it is still possible to read articles on Netease and QQ. Follow the links if you can read Chinese.
What was interesting at the time I first read these was the appearance of the articles themselves in China where the official line is quite clear about the status of Tibet as a Chinese territory. Now, with recent events in mind, I am more interested in whether Professor Ge has made a reappearance in the news, whether of his own volition or through the general public outing him.
Friday, 28 March 2008
Tibet and the Media
The recent Tibet uprisings have been quite horrible. But it is the ensuing debate across the international media and posting of individual commentators that has been most revealing. Sloppy reporting by the Western press and Chinese government propaganda have ensured that it is unlikely that the question over Tibet's sovereignty will ever be resolved satisfactorily.
On one hand. Western media has been very sloppy in its reporting of the uprisings.
This has led to the Chinese feeling that they are being persecuted by the Western media in a deliberate campaign against Chinese. This is not an uncommon feeling to Chinese friends of mine, who have discussed issues as wide -reaching as separatist movements and CD piracy with me in terms of the United States "attacking us." The reason that they feel that this is a deliberate campaign is most likely due to a familiarity with campaigns from government-controlled Chinese media and perhaps perceptions of the Western media as being a professional and perhaps infallible source of information.
The official line that China is part of Tibet is perhaps best summed up by this video.
The producers of this video present some facts of Tibetan/Chinese history whilst conveniently forgetting other parts. For instance, Tibet was an independent state from the late 600s through to the early 1200s. As there are with the Turkic nomads to the North and West of Han China, there are noted instances of marriages between the imperial/royal dynasties of China and Tibet. This indicates that even if Tibet was not treated as an equal by the Chinese of the time, it was at least accorded the respect of being an independent state and, perhaps, a threat. Furthermore, it was not until the Yuan dynasty that Tibet was brought into the Chinese Empire. The Yuan, of course, were Mongols. So I would ask the purveyors of the second video shown above whether they would perhaps like to return Tibet, or even greater China over to the control of Ulan Bator.
Of course, such an argument is a facetious one, akin to having Texas and California granted independence or returned to Mexico, or perhaps even returning Normandy to Norway or Acquitaine to the British throne. It is not my purpose to provide a solution to this problem, but rather to show the foolishness of relying on such historical arguments in a situation such as such.
In any debate, there are opinions that differ from that which might otherwise be expected. To illustrate, I leave you with this interesting article from China Digital Times. Read it, it does appear to be a voice of reason amongst a cacophony of posturing.
On one hand. Western media has been very sloppy in its reporting of the uprisings.
This has led to the Chinese feeling that they are being persecuted by the Western media in a deliberate campaign against Chinese. This is not an uncommon feeling to Chinese friends of mine, who have discussed issues as wide -reaching as separatist movements and CD piracy with me in terms of the United States "attacking us." The reason that they feel that this is a deliberate campaign is most likely due to a familiarity with campaigns from government-controlled Chinese media and perhaps perceptions of the Western media as being a professional and perhaps infallible source of information.
The official line that China is part of Tibet is perhaps best summed up by this video.
The producers of this video present some facts of Tibetan/Chinese history whilst conveniently forgetting other parts. For instance, Tibet was an independent state from the late 600s through to the early 1200s. As there are with the Turkic nomads to the North and West of Han China, there are noted instances of marriages between the imperial/royal dynasties of China and Tibet. This indicates that even if Tibet was not treated as an equal by the Chinese of the time, it was at least accorded the respect of being an independent state and, perhaps, a threat. Furthermore, it was not until the Yuan dynasty that Tibet was brought into the Chinese Empire. The Yuan, of course, were Mongols. So I would ask the purveyors of the second video shown above whether they would perhaps like to return Tibet, or even greater China over to the control of Ulan Bator.
Of course, such an argument is a facetious one, akin to having Texas and California granted independence or returned to Mexico, or perhaps even returning Normandy to Norway or Acquitaine to the British throne. It is not my purpose to provide a solution to this problem, but rather to show the foolishness of relying on such historical arguments in a situation such as such.
In any debate, there are opinions that differ from that which might otherwise be expected. To illustrate, I leave you with this interesting article from China Digital Times. Read it, it does appear to be a voice of reason amongst a cacophony of posturing.
Thursday, 20 March 2008
Future Music Festival is Crap
People have been saying that the Australian festival scene is dead. But I think that it is merely moving on. Festivals are being changed by the music that is showcased and the people that attend. Of course, I can only speak as far as Melbourne is concerned so perhaps it is more accurate to say that the Melbourne festival scene is changing.
Take for instance the Big Day Out. BDO has had a bit of a hard time in Melbourne lately, being shifted around from venue to venue in the wake of the refurbishment of the show grounds. Last year's, at Princess Park, was a success. The bands were great, the crowd good, and the venue comfortable. This year, at the Flemington Racecourse, the bands were still great but the sound suffered at times. The crowd was worse than last year, with more people so far gone that one wonders why they bothered to show up at all. And the venue was a disgrace. Dusty, filthy, and with very little natural shelter. I suppose that's what happens when you stage a music festival in what is essentially a gravel car park. But overall, it was still a Big Day Out and lots of fun.
Future Music festival was shit. The big draw card for me were The Chemical Brothers, but it was their set that epitomised all that was wrong with it as a whole. Their set lacked energy, lacked passion, and lacked the spark that the Chems have become famous for. And it is little wonder, considering the crowd that gathered on the hill of the Sidney Myer Music Bowl to watch. Who were they? For the most part they were pissed bogans, dressed in their finest fluoro, munching pills and getting pissed on vodka and lemonade. Rather than being a feature of the day, the high point and climax, The Chemical Brothers were reduced to being background muzak to the inane conversations of rednecks more interested in getting fuck-eyed and belting out a horrid rendition of 'Jesse's Girl' than being sucked in to a mind-bending set. Is it any wonder that The Chemical Brothers didn't even finish their allotted time and scarped as soon as they were given the chance to get off stage.
I suppose that festivals are somewhat like nightspots. A bar with gains a reputation for a good atmosphere, good music, etc. and people begin to go there more often. Then, as word spreads, more people come, including those who ruin the atmosphere for others. This has happened with the company Future Music. Future Music in Australia have encouraged the fluoro singlet and shirtless muzza brigade so as to extract the most amount of cash without a thought to the music. They have become the worst type of greedy corporation, one without morals or guidance to allow the continued survival of their industry.
So I'm on the lookout for new festivals and places to go without Melbourne's most unsavoury elements. Or perhaps I should find a new hobby, such as picking my toenails and flicking the jam at people.
Take for instance the Big Day Out. BDO has had a bit of a hard time in Melbourne lately, being shifted around from venue to venue in the wake of the refurbishment of the show grounds. Last year's, at Princess Park, was a success. The bands were great, the crowd good, and the venue comfortable. This year, at the Flemington Racecourse, the bands were still great but the sound suffered at times. The crowd was worse than last year, with more people so far gone that one wonders why they bothered to show up at all. And the venue was a disgrace. Dusty, filthy, and with very little natural shelter. I suppose that's what happens when you stage a music festival in what is essentially a gravel car park. But overall, it was still a Big Day Out and lots of fun.
Future Music festival was shit. The big draw card for me were The Chemical Brothers, but it was their set that epitomised all that was wrong with it as a whole. Their set lacked energy, lacked passion, and lacked the spark that the Chems have become famous for. And it is little wonder, considering the crowd that gathered on the hill of the Sidney Myer Music Bowl to watch. Who were they? For the most part they were pissed bogans, dressed in their finest fluoro, munching pills and getting pissed on vodka and lemonade. Rather than being a feature of the day, the high point and climax, The Chemical Brothers were reduced to being background muzak to the inane conversations of rednecks more interested in getting fuck-eyed and belting out a horrid rendition of 'Jesse's Girl' than being sucked in to a mind-bending set. Is it any wonder that The Chemical Brothers didn't even finish their allotted time and scarped as soon as they were given the chance to get off stage.
I suppose that festivals are somewhat like nightspots. A bar with gains a reputation for a good atmosphere, good music, etc. and people begin to go there more often. Then, as word spreads, more people come, including those who ruin the atmosphere for others. This has happened with the company Future Music. Future Music in Australia have encouraged the fluoro singlet and shirtless muzza brigade so as to extract the most amount of cash without a thought to the music. They have become the worst type of greedy corporation, one without morals or guidance to allow the continued survival of their industry.
So I'm on the lookout for new festivals and places to go without Melbourne's most unsavoury elements. Or perhaps I should find a new hobby, such as picking my toenails and flicking the jam at people.
Wednesday, 12 March 2008
Xinjiang: A signwriter's paradise/hell
From China Digital Times.
It's good to see that the dogmatic China we all know and love is not yet dead.
Thursday, 28 February 2008
Links
I just thought that I might add a few links to the blogs of Chinese cyberlebrities I have been studying recently:
Muzi Mei
Furong Jiejie
Xiao Pang
Back Dorm Boys
Friday, 22 February 2008
There are a lot of strange people on the Internet
One thing that strikes me about wandering through cyberspace is the never ending column of weirdos that I encounter.
One that springs to mind at the moment is Muzi Mei, Chinese sex blogger. I'll not repeat her story here, because it has repeated far too often before。 Needless to say, her choice of communication was groundbreaking in China and she is almost singlehandedly reponsilbe for th explosion in popularity of blogging in that country. Or at least that is what hyperbolic commentators insist upon. It is not my purpose to debate here whether or not that is the case, but one oddball has gone on to spawn many other oddballs.
One of which is this person. It appears that s/he has some sort of a rescuers syndrome going on, and is intent upon saving Muzi Mei through artistic critique. Furthermore, the URL seems to be at odds with the goal of the page as described by the text. 'funstuff_69" and religious moralising don't normally go hand-in-hand.
Muzi Mei has also caused copycat sex bloggers such as Furong Jiejie to appear. Furong Jiejie is a rather boring and plain narcissist, who gets hits by being controversial. She does this by making ridiculous claims vis a vis censorship or her own beauty.
I suppose that is the beauty of cyberspace, each gets to be their own.
Wednesday, 30 January 2008
Summer... gone...
It's been a while since I've checked in here. I've been working and haven't found the time to sit down and scribble away to whoever it may that actually reads this. Not much has happened over the past few weeks except that I've had to knuckle down and finish a few reports. It has been tough and my favourite month of the year, January, has just disappeared. I have always loved January because it's all about the beach, Summer festivals, and fun in the sun; but this year I've barely moved from the computer. I feel robbed.
I did go to the Big Day Out on Monday. It was fantastic. Rage, Bjork, and Pnau were all fantastic fun which distracted from the dust and the heat of the afternoon in the Flemington Racecourse car park. Anyway, I'll be back again soon. I've too much to do today.
I did go to the Big Day Out on Monday. It was fantastic. Rage, Bjork, and Pnau were all fantastic fun which distracted from the dust and the heat of the afternoon in the Flemington Racecourse car park. Anyway, I'll be back again soon. I've too much to do today.
Thursday, 10 January 2008
New perspectives
I watched an old documentary last night called The Beyond Within. It tells the story of LSD from its synthesis, to its use as a psychotherapeutic drug in British mental hospitals in the 1950s, experiments on an unwitting American population by the CIA during that same period, to its use as a recreational drug during the 1950s, and the eventual moral panic that ensued following its release on and unsupervised use by members of the general public.
What was most interesting about the film was not so much the story of the drug itself, but the philosophical and theological arguments that surround its use. There are a number of sides to the discussion. The first, represented by Ken Kesey author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, holds that the drug unlocked creative potential in humanity that would have otherwise lain dormant. Linked with this point of view is that of Timothy Leary, who saw it as a way to reclaim spiritualism in the increasingly materialistic and power-hungry society that he saw the United States as having become. Included in this general group is Aldous Huxley, who, after an experiment with mescalin, became an I believer in the expansive power of psychedelic drugs.
The documentary shows a number of experiments conducted to investigate the meaning of the experience of the drug. One, a filmed experiment that before the release of the film had not been shown to the public, showed a British MP who was required to answer a series of questions before being administered the drug. At regular intervals he was asked more questions as well as to describe elements of his surroundings. Each time he was able to complete the tasks, but said that he was unable to describe the colours of his surroundings for lack of vocabulary. Also, he was not concious of things having succession, but very concious of time. When interviewed for the film 30 years later, he explained his experience. Rather than spending a few hours sitting in his drawing room occasionally removed to a place of euphoria, he spent an infinite amount of time in another time and place. He hadn't spent a few minutes or hours in that place, but months or years, occasionally interrupted to answer a few questions in his drawing room. Interestingly, he argues that control of the drug is necessary because of the social and health problems that it is capable of causing.
This is a view shared by the discoverer of the drug, Albert Hoffman. In The Beyond Within, he points to the fact that similar substances used by other cultures, such as peyote, are always used by under the supervision of a shaman. For the modern world, he believes that the shaman is the psychotherapist, pointing to a decade of successful use during the 1950s as a therapeutic drug. However, he concedes that the youth movement of the 1960s hijacked the substance leading to its unfair demonisation at the end of that era. A similar point of view was put forth by a representative of the NHS, who tells the audience that although there are dangers to the drug, such as psychotic episodes, these usually occur as a result of the street manufactured status of the drug and that the difference between the users of the 60s and the 80s was that the former were using it to discover things about themselves and that the latter were using it as escapism. Thus part of the problem is in intention. Of course drugs can be abused. However this does not mean that they are incapable of providing the transcendental experience. Sex has been viewed in the same way. For some societies it has been a part of mysticism, and it too can be abused. One need only think of sex addiction or of the increasingly perverted material that can be sourced from the Web.
For many of those users, the experience that they described as having was termed as being 'religious' in character. This is a point of view that has been labelled invalid by philosophy professors both then and now. A study by Walter Pahnke, entitled Drugs and Mysticism showed that the experience of taking LSD was no different from that of a religious visitation. This conclusion was reached by taking a number of students studying to enter religious orders and administered either psilocybin or a placebo to them, before asking them to complete a survey of their experience after the affect of the drug had worn off. This survey was then sent to religious scholars who determined the veracity of the experience. However, the contrary argument posits that the LSD experience is bereft of the obligations and dedications of the recipient of a genuine visitation. In that case, the recipient has contributed to society and to a cause, earning the experience as part of their efforts. Consequently the visitation is contextualised as a visit from a heavenly presence. The LSD user has no such contextualisation, so even if they were in the presence of God, they would not know it.
The use of religious language is to describe an experience that is otherwise indescribable. It is symptomatic of the lack of vocabulary that we have already seen with the aforementioned filmed experiment. It is described as such because it is an experiment that is similar to that which we learn to believe as being religious. This is congruent with peyote use in Mexican Indian religious ceremony. The peyote is used to send the recipient on a spiritual journey to allow him/her a new perspective on the world.
In this way LSD can be seen as a tool for reconstructing reality. The difference between a good and bad trip is that of unsanity and insanity, of the sublime and madness. In each case we catch a glimpse of the Real. Freud, Jung, Lacan, et al. have showed us that reality is constructed and LSD allows us to tear down that construction and reassemble it in an alternate form. Hence its use as a therapeutic agent. It works by removing the natural filters that are in place between our senses and our conciousness. The overwhelming messages are uncensored reality, sight, smell, sound, taste, touch- everything is Real.
For Leary, the drug offered a chance to reshape the world, "the kids that take LSD, they're not going to become your grey-haired, whiskey-drinking generals to wage war; they're not going to become your grey-haired, whiskey-drinking CEOs who add to the materialism of society." However, as is rightly pointed out, the same problem arises here as it does with the religious experience. The very society that Leary rejected was the one that allowed him to flourish. He was tearing up Rousseau's social contract without a thought as to how society would continue to function in its aftermath. Who would run the hospitals, power plants, and produce the necessary tools to survive on a scale required by the modern world.
Aldous Huxley requested an injection of LSD on his deathbed. Before he died he wrote "Try LSD." Surely LSD is capable of providing a transcendental experience, but the same has been said of ecstasy and marijuana. Sometimes we all need a different perspective on life, the universe, and everything, but we cannot forget our obligations to others for a world. We cannot all be holy fools travelling the world with our begging bowls, because then there would be nobody to beg from.
What was most interesting about the film was not so much the story of the drug itself, but the philosophical and theological arguments that surround its use. There are a number of sides to the discussion. The first, represented by Ken Kesey author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, holds that the drug unlocked creative potential in humanity that would have otherwise lain dormant. Linked with this point of view is that of Timothy Leary, who saw it as a way to reclaim spiritualism in the increasingly materialistic and power-hungry society that he saw the United States as having become. Included in this general group is Aldous Huxley, who, after an experiment with mescalin, became an I believer in the expansive power of psychedelic drugs.
The documentary shows a number of experiments conducted to investigate the meaning of the experience of the drug. One, a filmed experiment that before the release of the film had not been shown to the public, showed a British MP who was required to answer a series of questions before being administered the drug. At regular intervals he was asked more questions as well as to describe elements of his surroundings. Each time he was able to complete the tasks, but said that he was unable to describe the colours of his surroundings for lack of vocabulary. Also, he was not concious of things having succession, but very concious of time. When interviewed for the film 30 years later, he explained his experience. Rather than spending a few hours sitting in his drawing room occasionally removed to a place of euphoria, he spent an infinite amount of time in another time and place. He hadn't spent a few minutes or hours in that place, but months or years, occasionally interrupted to answer a few questions in his drawing room. Interestingly, he argues that control of the drug is necessary because of the social and health problems that it is capable of causing.
This is a view shared by the discoverer of the drug, Albert Hoffman. In The Beyond Within, he points to the fact that similar substances used by other cultures, such as peyote, are always used by under the supervision of a shaman. For the modern world, he believes that the shaman is the psychotherapist, pointing to a decade of successful use during the 1950s as a therapeutic drug. However, he concedes that the youth movement of the 1960s hijacked the substance leading to its unfair demonisation at the end of that era. A similar point of view was put forth by a representative of the NHS, who tells the audience that although there are dangers to the drug, such as psychotic episodes, these usually occur as a result of the street manufactured status of the drug and that the difference between the users of the 60s and the 80s was that the former were using it to discover things about themselves and that the latter were using it as escapism. Thus part of the problem is in intention. Of course drugs can be abused. However this does not mean that they are incapable of providing the transcendental experience. Sex has been viewed in the same way. For some societies it has been a part of mysticism, and it too can be abused. One need only think of sex addiction or of the increasingly perverted material that can be sourced from the Web.
For many of those users, the experience that they described as having was termed as being 'religious' in character. This is a point of view that has been labelled invalid by philosophy professors both then and now. A study by Walter Pahnke, entitled Drugs and Mysticism showed that the experience of taking LSD was no different from that of a religious visitation. This conclusion was reached by taking a number of students studying to enter religious orders and administered either psilocybin or a placebo to them, before asking them to complete a survey of their experience after the affect of the drug had worn off. This survey was then sent to religious scholars who determined the veracity of the experience. However, the contrary argument posits that the LSD experience is bereft of the obligations and dedications of the recipient of a genuine visitation. In that case, the recipient has contributed to society and to a cause, earning the experience as part of their efforts. Consequently the visitation is contextualised as a visit from a heavenly presence. The LSD user has no such contextualisation, so even if they were in the presence of God, they would not know it.
The use of religious language is to describe an experience that is otherwise indescribable. It is symptomatic of the lack of vocabulary that we have already seen with the aforementioned filmed experiment. It is described as such because it is an experiment that is similar to that which we learn to believe as being religious. This is congruent with peyote use in Mexican Indian religious ceremony. The peyote is used to send the recipient on a spiritual journey to allow him/her a new perspective on the world.
In this way LSD can be seen as a tool for reconstructing reality. The difference between a good and bad trip is that of unsanity and insanity, of the sublime and madness. In each case we catch a glimpse of the Real. Freud, Jung, Lacan, et al. have showed us that reality is constructed and LSD allows us to tear down that construction and reassemble it in an alternate form. Hence its use as a therapeutic agent. It works by removing the natural filters that are in place between our senses and our conciousness. The overwhelming messages are uncensored reality, sight, smell, sound, taste, touch- everything is Real.
For Leary, the drug offered a chance to reshape the world, "the kids that take LSD, they're not going to become your grey-haired, whiskey-drinking generals to wage war; they're not going to become your grey-haired, whiskey-drinking CEOs who add to the materialism of society." However, as is rightly pointed out, the same problem arises here as it does with the religious experience. The very society that Leary rejected was the one that allowed him to flourish. He was tearing up Rousseau's social contract without a thought as to how society would continue to function in its aftermath. Who would run the hospitals, power plants, and produce the necessary tools to survive on a scale required by the modern world.
Aldous Huxley requested an injection of LSD on his deathbed. Before he died he wrote "Try LSD." Surely LSD is capable of providing a transcendental experience, but the same has been said of ecstasy and marijuana. Sometimes we all need a different perspective on life, the universe, and everything, but we cannot forget our obligations to others for a world. We cannot all be holy fools travelling the world with our begging bowls, because then there would be nobody to beg from.
Wednesday, 2 January 2008
Rethinking Ned Kelly
I've recently finished reading The True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey. In the past I have been wary of fictional works that glorify the Kelly Gang as heroes of the common man. Let's not forget that despite the romanticism, Ned and Dan Kelly, Joe Byrne, and Steve Hart were criminals. For the most part, I have been turned off this interpretation of Kelly by the unthinking idolatry of bright-eyed teenagers who get carried away with folk tales, seemingly forgetting that banks were robbed, cattle duffed, and people killed. Even Robert Drewe's Our Sunshine, which is a fantastic read itself, failed to convince me. Carey's work, although at times slips into an overly-apologetic interpretation of the actions of Kelly, has made me reassess my view.
I often forget that during the late nineteenth century, much of the colony of Victoria was frontier country. The strong civil law and government that is in place in the now state of Victoria was fledgling and, particularly in the rural areas of the High Country where the history of the Kelly Gang takes place, was dependent on the individuals who were employed to enforce them, i.e the police. Additionally, the power-holders of this outpost of the Western world were large-scale private landholders, known as squatters. The name squatter harks back to the manner in which many of them acquired their land; that is, before a regimented system of land allocation was implemented, they wandered out into the bush and claimed the land for themselves by putting up fences. For the most part, these men were not poor men- some had reserves of wealth and those who were able to retain their land had strong connections to the governments of the colonies of Victoria and New South Wales. That is not to say that life was without its hardships; building a cattle station in rural Victoria was beset by dangers including the indignant indigenous population, drought, and escaped criminals. However, once entrenched, their close connections with government and loose civil structure allowed corruption to flourish and the squatters began to take the form of a landed gentry. In contrast were the poorer free settlers and descendents of convicts. In a Land Act of the time (which name I have forgotten) they were allowed to select and purchase Crown Land, thus becoming known as selectors. However, much of the rich soil was already owned by the squatters and this particular Land Act required the selectors to grow a certain amount of grain in areas that were not suited to doing so. This is eerily similar to the disastrous grain policy that Mao Zedong implemented in 1950s China. A great many of these poorer residents were of Irish descent and therefore a conflict between the squatters and the selectors began to take on the flavour of the Irish troubles of the same century. What Carey's novel has managed to achieve is to illustrate how the conflict between the two groups, the corruption of the power-holders and the difficulties of the poorer classes helped shape the lives of Kelly and the development of the colony as a whole. It is quite marvellous.
Apart from kindling an interest in Victorian history, the book also got me thinking about how sheltered the modern urban life is. There are so many layers between our lifestyle and the most base level of existence. We have a number of systems set in place that create and protect our society, cutting us off from the survivalist nature of early humans. Many of us would not be able to survive without specialist butchers, machines, the code of laws etc. that we take for granted today. This was no more evident than it was in The True History of the Kelly Gang, wherein the ordinary people did everything for themselves, hunting, farming, building, etc. skills that very few modern people have mastered as a collection.
Similarly, in the modern world there are still frontier nations that lack these structures such as East Timor and Papua New Guinea. The difficulty that these nations have had in setting up these required civil institutions demonstrate the hard work and genius of men like Sir Redmond Barry who were required to enforce the law and ensure the survival of these institutions. This is where other works fall down. In Carey's work a judge is written as apologising for the sentence that he is required to give by law and one feels that he is doing so because despite the individual suffering of the receiver of the sentence, it is necessary for the good of the colony.
Despite my initial apprehension, The True History of the Kelly Gang has become one of my favourite reads.
I often forget that during the late nineteenth century, much of the colony of Victoria was frontier country. The strong civil law and government that is in place in the now state of Victoria was fledgling and, particularly in the rural areas of the High Country where the history of the Kelly Gang takes place, was dependent on the individuals who were employed to enforce them, i.e the police. Additionally, the power-holders of this outpost of the Western world were large-scale private landholders, known as squatters. The name squatter harks back to the manner in which many of them acquired their land; that is, before a regimented system of land allocation was implemented, they wandered out into the bush and claimed the land for themselves by putting up fences. For the most part, these men were not poor men- some had reserves of wealth and those who were able to retain their land had strong connections to the governments of the colonies of Victoria and New South Wales. That is not to say that life was without its hardships; building a cattle station in rural Victoria was beset by dangers including the indignant indigenous population, drought, and escaped criminals. However, once entrenched, their close connections with government and loose civil structure allowed corruption to flourish and the squatters began to take the form of a landed gentry. In contrast were the poorer free settlers and descendents of convicts. In a Land Act of the time (which name I have forgotten) they were allowed to select and purchase Crown Land, thus becoming known as selectors. However, much of the rich soil was already owned by the squatters and this particular Land Act required the selectors to grow a certain amount of grain in areas that were not suited to doing so. This is eerily similar to the disastrous grain policy that Mao Zedong implemented in 1950s China. A great many of these poorer residents were of Irish descent and therefore a conflict between the squatters and the selectors began to take on the flavour of the Irish troubles of the same century. What Carey's novel has managed to achieve is to illustrate how the conflict between the two groups, the corruption of the power-holders and the difficulties of the poorer classes helped shape the lives of Kelly and the development of the colony as a whole. It is quite marvellous.
Apart from kindling an interest in Victorian history, the book also got me thinking about how sheltered the modern urban life is. There are so many layers between our lifestyle and the most base level of existence. We have a number of systems set in place that create and protect our society, cutting us off from the survivalist nature of early humans. Many of us would not be able to survive without specialist butchers, machines, the code of laws etc. that we take for granted today. This was no more evident than it was in The True History of the Kelly Gang, wherein the ordinary people did everything for themselves, hunting, farming, building, etc. skills that very few modern people have mastered as a collection.
Similarly, in the modern world there are still frontier nations that lack these structures such as East Timor and Papua New Guinea. The difficulty that these nations have had in setting up these required civil institutions demonstrate the hard work and genius of men like Sir Redmond Barry who were required to enforce the law and ensure the survival of these institutions. This is where other works fall down. In Carey's work a judge is written as apologising for the sentence that he is required to give by law and one feels that he is doing so because despite the individual suffering of the receiver of the sentence, it is necessary for the good of the colony.
Despite my initial apprehension, The True History of the Kelly Gang has become one of my favourite reads.
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