Bao Tong: Fortune-telling for the Beijing Olympics

Bao Tong at his Beijing home, April 2008. Photo: RFA

鲍彤：金牌
一定很多，不可乐而忘忧
替北京奥运算命之一

Fortune-telling for the Olympics
I see many gold medals but no carefree atmosphere…
Bao Tong

北京快办奥运，结局将会如何？
What kind of a Games can we expect in Beijing?

我不想预测中国奖牌的总数。奥运属于地球村。在某些国家里，国家的价值和作用，常常被无限放大。但奥运是和平，是友谊，是人与人互相学习的学校，不是国家与国家 “较劲”的舞台。把金牌数目，当作“国家崛起”的筹码，是幼稚的。 “国家至上”可以和慈禧太后或者义和团之类相匹配，不能体现奥运精神。尤其是主办国，一旦掉进“我国至上”的泥潭，就会在道义上丧失东道主的资格。我国的运动员和教练员，勤劳辛苦，这次奥运会，一定会得很多金牌银牌铜牌，但奖牌再多，不应该成为乐而亡忧的理由。

Bao Tong: Guizhou and the grandfather ghosts

So who has the power to “deploy police force” whenever they want to? It certainly isn’t ordinary Chinese people, nor is it a democratically elected government. It is a pack of bureaucrats nominated by the Communist Party, whose names have been picked out of a mechanical “election” process, who have been given a franchise on state power; with no competition.

— Bao Tong on the Guizhou unrest

2008-07-05
鲍彤评论：贵州省委书记一篇有普遍意义的讲话

On a remark by the Guizhou provincial Party secretary that merits everyone’s attention
by Bao Tong

瓮安县最近出了人命，案情离奇，众说纷纭。我也是一个”不明真相”的人，越听越糊涂。但是，贵州省委书记石先生7月3日的一席话，我听懂了。

Recently, a person died in Weng’an county. The details of the case are unclear, and many different versions are floating around. I too am one of those who don’t know what really happened. The more I hear, the more confused I become. But I did understand one thing, and that was a comment made on July 3 by Mr Shi, the Guizhou provincial Party secretary.

他的话，被公布出来的虽然只有寥寥几段，但是有重量，有深度，切合实际，对整个中国，有普遍意义。

Only a few fragments of his comments were actually reported, but those that were carry great depth and weight, striking close to the heart of the matter, and are worthy of the attention of the entire nation.

The Tibetans you’ve never heard of

Who hasn’t heard of Tibet? And who outside of Asia can even pronounce “Uyghur”?

Millions of Uyghurs (pronounced “WEE-ger”) live in China’s northwesternmost province, Xinjiang. They, like the Tibetans, are a religious as well as an ethnic minority; they have chafed under Beijing’s heavy-handed rule for the last six decades; and Chinese authorities have faced persistent accusations of repression and abuse against them. But the latest news is that Chinese authorities have closed a Web site aimed at promoting understanding between Han Chinese and ethnic Uyghurs following allegations that the site was linked to foreign “extremists,” the site’s owner said.

One more detention in Burma

You read it here less than two weeks ago: Burma’s military government detained a noted comedian, Zargana, after he went on a private mission to aid millions of victims of Cyclone Nargis. Now they have detained a prominent journalist who was working with Zargana, Zaw Thet Htwe.

Do they protest too much?

Soviet dissidents used to say the surest sign that an air crash had occurred back in the USSR was a sudden surge in official reporting on air disasters abroad. A plane would go down, and suddenly the airwaves were alive with grisly, fiery footage of Western crashes, from Illinois to Edinburgh—with no mention of what had just happened in Minsk. It’s no wonder, then, that North Korea-watchers grew mightily curious when Pyongyang’s official press began running detailed reporting this month on how to avoid bird flu and how North Korea had no cases of the deadly virus to report.

Burma: Buddhist relief efforts expand

RFA’s Burmese service had this interview with Thigadu Sayardaw, a senior figure in Burmese Buddhism, whose organisation is helping as much as possible with the relief effort for those made homeless by Tropical Cyclone Nargis:

Interviewer: Could you please tell us the situation of the cyclone victims that the Thidagu group is helping?

Sayadaw (senior monk): We started on May 9. On June 9, our aid work completed one month. So I made the end-of-the-month list. We have been helping Bogalay, Mawlamyaing Gyun, Pyapon, Amah, Kungyan-gon, and Day-da-yeh townships. When we’re done with Day-da-yeh, we will have worked with over one thousand monasteries. Also in the villages that are in the area of the monasteries, we assign one monk and one leader of the village and distribute through the monks for the use of everyone in the village rice, oil, salt, chili peppers, onions, blankets, mosquito nets, and clothing.

Who’ll stop the pain? Part 2

“The most suffering animal on the earth invented for itself: laughter.”—Nietzsche

I’ve often wondered what makes people laugh in the more repressive or deprived countries on this Earth. After 18 years of work on Burma and North Korea, among other Asian countries, I still don’t have an answer—although I do know of one man who gets a lot of laughs in Burma. His legal name is Maung Thura, and he makes a living as a dentist. His stage name is Zargana, and on stage is where he comes alive as a comedian. His is deeply, darkly funny, and much of his humor translates emphatically and hilariously into English. Little of what Zargana does, however, amuses the military government, which has for weeks stalled and obstructed delivery of international aid to victims of Tropical Cyclone Nargis, which struck May 2-3, killing 78,000 people and leaving a further 56,000 missing. Zargana was whisked from his home in recent days by officials working for the Burmese junta, after he spent days collecting and distributing aid for the millions of Burmese left homeless or alone after the storm.

The joy of modern appliances in North Korea

Oh, the magic of modern conveniences!

Back in the American 1970s, realtors used to write “ALL MOD CONS” in flyers to indicate the presence of life-changing, labor-saving devices such as electric washers and dryers, and (don’t swoon) gas ovens. Then along came the slow-cooker, and suburban homemakers took off for paying jobs in the city. At least where I lived, that is. Without reliving my entire polyester-clad, ABBA-soundtracked, red-headed American childhood, I wish to make the following point: Sometimes a single household appliance can shift the world on its axis. And right now, Korea-watchers are pondering precisely this possibility.

Sichuan: Anger at local officials in An county

I would say, the wrath of heaven is merciless but the officials in our county are even more merciless.
— Resident of An county, Sichuan

The soldier on relief work in this interview is saying that there are basically no more signs of life in Beichuan county, Sichuan, where two-thirds of the population was killed in the quake.

“Everyone has moved out now. The only people left behind are the ones dealing with the corpses because there are so many of them.

Sichuan: Town menaced by subsiding mountain, lakes

May 22, 2008
by RFA Cantonese service reporter Hai Nan

In the countryside near Mianzhu city, Sichuan province, the earthquake has cut off major communication routes, leaving people to struggle across the deep valleys on foot as best they can. Many are now on the move to enquire about loved ones. One woman anxiously scans a hastily pasted series of lists on a wall near a high school in Hanwang township.

“My son was staying with relatives at the time of the earthquake. I haven’t seen them since,” she says, her eyes desperately combing the notices giving information about those found by rescue teams. The stench of bodies still permeates this remote mountain township