Make sure you check out this chart at the link above as you complete your China quiz (due Thursday). You can access the BBC China Profile here.
Will there be a change in how China is ruled under new leader Xi Jinping? Here's how the NY Times covered a historic trip to a remote, poverty striken village:
LUOTUOWAN, China (1/26/13) — Never before has grinding poverty had such a shiny silver lining. At least that is how the 600 corn farmers who inhabit this remote mountain hamlet in north China are feeling in the weeks since Xi Jinping, China’s new leader, dropped by to showcase their deprivation.
(From Teaching Comparative)
The photo almost says it all. The version on the right showed up in Iranian
media. The original US broadcast is on the left.
By the way, think about seeing best picture Argo for an extra credit film review option when we get to Iran, where the film has not appeared in any cinema.
Yesterday was the primary for the special election to fill the 9th congressional seat vacated by Jesse Jackson, Jr. who has been found guilty for breaking campaign finance laws.
Does this case make you sad, mad or make you just not care.
After
Jesse Jackson Jr. announced his resignation from the House, Independence USA,
the “super PAC” created by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York, has tried to
seize a “distinct window of opportunity” by making gun control an issue in the
special election to pick Mr. Jackson’s successor. The group has run television
ads in the Chicago market every day since Jan. 30 and spent over $2.1 million on
the campaign so far. Here
is a breakdown of how that money has been spent.
WonkBlog (Washington Post) does an excellent job explaining the loomingsequester. It has multiple graphs and short explanations for each. Basically
this is the fiscal cliff revisited and would impact a lot of people. Government workers (the beaurcracy) without released funding from Congress' purse will be furloughed
on a regular basis.
Questions to consider:
1) is it okay to have a large debt 2) are we becoming too beholden to the
Chinese (think how quiet Obama has been on Chinese hacking) and the Japanese for
their loans to us 3) which is better - across the board cuts or tax raises or
both?
Here
is the impact to each individual state remembering that the totals will
occur only if the sequestration is allowed to run its course completely without
a budget fix.
Two passings in the past couple of days remind us of how good governing can get done from citizens committed to governing over politics.
Mary Ann McMorrow, 1930-2013 (By Jennifer Delgado, Chicago Tribune)
When Mary Ann McMorrow was a Cook County assistant state's attorney in the 1950s, a supervisor told her that a male colleague would argue the points in a legal brief she had prepared for the Illinois Supreme Court.
Women just didn't go in front of such high-ranking judges, the male supervisor said.
But she didn't let the setback stop her. She would go on to break gender barriers throughout her career, including serving as the first woman on the Illinois Supreme Court and its first female chief justice.
"When I went to law school, women couldn't even dream of such a thing," Justice McMorrow said in 2002, shortly after being voted into the court's highest position. "I hope this would forever indicate that there's nothing that limits women in any job or any profession."
Justice McMorrow, 83, died Saturday, Feb. 23, at Northwestern Memorial Hospital after a brief illness, said her daughter, Mary Ann McMorrow. She declined to disclose the illness.
A native of Chicago's Northwest Side, Justice McMorrow was one of three children raised in St. Stanislaus Kostka Church, her daughter said.
As a child, she became a gifted pianist after practicing on the piano her father gave to her mother as an anniversary gift. She graduated from Immaculata High School and later Rosary College, now Dominican University, in River Forest.
Justice McMorrow enrolled in law school on the advice of her mother, who believed her daughter could argue all kinds of viewpoints after hearing her debate with friends and around the house.
Although she was the only woman in the 1953 graduating class at Loyola University Chicago School of Law, her peers elected her class president and associate editor of the law review, family said.
"When she talked about law school, she talked about it quite fondly," her daughter said. "She said the men treated her with respect with just a few exceptions."
After graduation, Justice McMorrow worked for a law firm before she was hired as an assistant state's attorney in Cook County, where she became the first woman to prosecute major felony cases.
There, she met her husband, Emmett, a Chicago police lieutenant. The two married in 1962 and had one daughter.
In 1976, Justice McMorrow was elected to the Cook County Circuit Court and then, a decade later, to the Illinois Appellate Court. She was the first woman to lead the appellate court's executive committee.
Later, she was elected as the first female justice in 1992 to the state Supreme Court and then its chief justice in 2002, She retired four years later. Throughout that time, she received awards and praise for her work.
Very few women were a part of the legal field before Justice McMorrow, who became a role model because she did so well with the opportunities she was given, said federal appeals court Judge Ilana Rovner, a longtime friend.
"That gave the impetus for the hiring of other women," Rovner said. "She was a trailblazer and a very fine human being."
In a statement, Chief Justice Thomas Kilbride called Justice McMorrow "top-tier" and said she was an inspiration to all lawyers across the state for her "courage, perseverance, wisdom and character."
Outside of her career, Justice McMorrow was active in all kinds of charities and foundations. Faith was a huge part of her life, as was her church, St. Mary of the Woods. She loved the opera and going out with friends to different restaurants. She was always in search of a good chocolate dessert, her daughter said.
"A lot of restaurants knew that and had desserts waiting for her," her daughter said.
Justice McMorrow was also known for her kindness and compassion. She stayed connected to the legal community after retirement and mentored young women wanting to become lawyers or judges, said Illinois Supreme Court Justice Mary Jane Theis, also a friend.
Although she was a pioneer, Justice McMorrow often told those around her she had no intentions of breaking such barriers as a lawyer or during her 30 years serving the Illinois courts.
"I just simply tried to do my best in every task that was presented to me," she said.
C. Everett Koop, ex-surgeon general, dies at age 96
(Politico)
C. Everett Koop, who raised the profile of the surgeon general by riveting America’s attention on the then-emerging disease known as AIDS and by railing against smoking, has died in New Hampshire at age 96.
An assistant at Koop’s Dartmouth institute, Susan Wills, said he died Monday in Hanover, where he had a home. She didn’t disclose his cause of death.
Koop wielded the previously low-profile post of surgeon general as a bully pulpit for seven years during the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations.
An evangelical Christian, he shocked his conservative supporters when he endorsed condoms and sex education to stop the spread of AIDS.
He carried out a crusade to end smoking in the United States - his goal had been to do so by 2000. A former pipe smoker, he said cigarettes were as addictive as heroin and cocaine.
Koop’s impact was great, although the surgeon general has no real authority to set government policy. He described himself as “the health conscience of the country.”
“My only influence was through moral suasion,” Koop said just before leaving office in 1989.
By then, his Amish-style silver beard and white, braided uniform were instantly recognizable.
Out of office, he switched to business suits and bow ties but continued to promote public health causes, from preventing childhood accidents to better training for doctors.
“I will use the written word, the spoken word and whatever I can in the electronic media to deliver health messages to this country as long as people will listen,” he promised.
In 1996, he rapped Republican presidential hopeful Bob Dole for suggesting that tobacco is not invariably addictive, saying Dole’s comments “either exposed his abysmal lack of knowledge of nicotine addiction or his blind support of the tobacco industry.”
Although Koop eventually won wide respect with his blend of old-fashioned values, pragmatism and empathy, his nomination in 1981 met a wall of opposition from women’s groups and liberal politicians.
Critics said Reagan selected Koop, a pediatric surgeon from Philadelphia, only because of his conservative views, especially his staunch opposition to abortion.
Foes noted that Koop traveled the country in 1979 and 1980 giving speeches that predicted a progression “from liberalized abortion to infanticide to passive euthanasia to active euthanasia, indeed to the very beginnings of the political climate that led to Auschwitz, Dachau and Belsen.”
But Koop, a devout Presbyterian, was confirmed after he told a Senate panel he would not use the surgeon general’s post to promote his religious ideology. He kept his word.
In 1986, he issued a frank report on AIDS, urging the use of condoms for “safe sex” and advocating sex education as early as third grade.
The chairman of the ethics committee in Russia’s lower house of
Parliament temporarily relinquished his authority on Wednesday after bloggers
posted a raft of documents on the Internet showing him as the owner of expensive
real estate, including a luxury oceanfront apartment in South Beach, part of
Miami Beach, as well as valuable property in Russia that he did not list on
required disclosure forms.
Pekhtin
The chairman, Vladimir
A. Pekhtin, insisted in a televised statement that he had done nothing wrong,
and that his voluntary surrender of authority over the ethics panel would last
only for the duration of an investigation that he said would clear him.
But the documents, some of them easily available public property
records, showed Mr. Pekhtin’s name on the deeds of at least three properties in
Florida, including the South Beach apartment bought last year for nearly $1.3
million…
___________________
Use this site to complete your Russian quiz, due Monday.
A searing portrait of a country in disarray, and of the man at its helm,
from "the bravest of journalists" (The New York Times)
Hailed as "a lone voice crying out in a moral wilderness" (New Statesman),
Anna Politkovskaya made her name with her fearless reporting on the war in
Chechnya. Now she turns her steely gaze on the multiple threats to Russian
stability, among them President Putin himself.
Putin's Russia depicts a far-reaching state of decay. Politkovskaya
describes an army in which soldiers die from malnutrition, parents must pay
bribes to recover their dead sons' bodies, and conscripts are even hired out as
slaves. She exposes rampant corruption in business, government, and the
judiciary, where everything from store permits to bus routes to court
appointments is for sale. And she offers a scathing condemnation of the ongoing
war in Chechnya, where kidnappings, extrajudicial killings, rape, and torture
are begetting terrorism rather than fighting it.
Sounding an urgent alarm, Putin's Russia is both a gripping
portrayal of a country in crisis and the testament of a great and intrepid
reporter
Putin's Russia: Life in a Failing Democracy is available at Amazon.com for as little as $4.27 used. I will give extra, extra credit for leaving a legacy and donating your book.
Red China Blues: My Long March From Mao to Now -- Jan Wong
Jan Wong, a Canadian of Chinese descent, went to China as a starry-eyed Maoist
in 1972 at the height of the Cultural Revolution. A true believer--and one of
only two Westerners permitted to enroll at Beijing University--her education
included wielding a pneumatic drill at the Number One Machine Tool Factory. In
the name of the Revolution, she renounced rock & roll, hauled pig manure in
the paddy fields, and turned in a fellow student who sought her help in getting
to the United States. She also met and married the only American draft dodger
from the Vietnam War to seek asylum in China.
Red China Blues is
Wong's startling--and ironic--memoir of her rocky six-year romance with Maoism
(which crumbled as she became aware of the harsh realities of Chinese
communism); her dramatic firsthand account of the devastating Tiananmen Square
uprising; and her engaging portrait of the individuals and events she covered as
a correspondent in China during the tumultuous era of capitalist reform under
Deng Xiaoping. In a frank, captivating, deeply personal narrative she relates
the horrors that led to her disillusionment with the "worker's paradise." And
through the stories of the people--an unhappy young woman who was sold into
marriage, China's most famous dissident, a doctor who lengthens penises--Wong
reveals long-hidden dimensions of the world's most populous nation.
In
setting out to show readers in the Western world what life is like in China, and
why we should care, she reacquaints herself with the old friends--and enemies of
her radical past, and comes to terms with the legacy of her ancestral homeland.
(From APGov.org) Apparently Russians are so used to corruption in the streets that they've installed dashboard cams to catch crooked cops and scam artists in the act.
The dash-cams also allowed us to see amazing footage of the Russian meteor strike. Here's the Daily Show's Russia Briefing complete with Russian dash-cam Supercut.
_______________
Transparency International, a global organization that studies corruption and advocates for government transparency, ranked Russia 146th out of 180 countries in its Global Corruptions Perceptions Index, which measures the perceived level of corruption in countries and territories around the world. While Russia's ranking improved slightly in the following years, jumping to 133rd place out of 176 in the 2012 survey, Transparency International conculded that the country still suffers from every form of corruption.
A young man beating a woman on a Moscow street, while the police and bystanders looked on without intervening. It was reported last year that a third of Russian woman are subject to domestic violence and that it kills as many as 14,000 women annually.
New Posts on Google Docs Page
To see the rest of the story on the Russian Punk Rockers Protest Prison Wish (with full video of the act that resulted in 2 years in a prison camp), access the class Google Docs Page. Also, new there today, power points on Teaching Russia's Tandemocracy 2010; China Notes 2011; A Man Like Putin 2013 and the CCP Today.
As we evaluate and critique the judicial systems in non-liberal (democracies?) at best in Russia and China, news of the day on the challenges to the Voting Rights Act in Alabama and coming to SCOTUS next week in Shelby County v. Holder, No. 12-96, make us realize the importance of an independent judiciary and a citizen's right (not privlege) to cast a ballot.
Thanks, as George W. Bush would say, "the internets," and the Youdia of AP government blog sites, here are a few posts that caught my eye:
No Jedi's too? (From APgov.org)
The British Humanist Association is selling these ads that appeared on London's double-decker busses (click to embiggen).
Would this ad create wide-spread outrage in the UK, the US?
I wonder what it says on the Knight Bus?
_____________________________________
(From Teaching Comparative blog)
Unofficial religion in Russia
This topic is probably peripheral to the main
themes of Comparative Government and Politics, but if your students are
especially interested in Russia, Russian religion, or Russian history, this
might be intriguing. The video is 25 minutes long and reminds me of reports on
the CBS program "60 Minutes."
Less than three decades ago, it would have been unthinkable for a
Russian premier to have exchanged public expressions of solidarity and goodwill
with the head of the country's Orthodox Church.
For years under
communism the institution had been suppressed, its priests harassed by the
authorities, its churches closed or given over to communal secular pursuits, its
devotees scorned for their 'superstitious' adherence to doctrines that the state
and the party regarded with deep suspicion.
Indeed, the Soviet Union was
the first nation to have elimination of religion as an ideological objective and
tens of thousands - if not hundreds of thousands - of people paid very dearly
for their beliefs as a consequence.
But things have changed...
From its foundation in the 10th century when the
Orthodox Church broke from Roman Catholicism, its power and influence grew until
it became central to the nation's very identity, synonymous with Holy Mother
Russia. Now, its champions will tell you, after the barren wilderness years of
Soviet hostility, the Church is merely reclaiming that rightful pre-eminence...
But there is more to this closeness than just mutual admiration.
Physical signs of the Orthodox Church's resurgence can be found all over Moscow
where a massive state-funded programme, worth billions of roubles, to restore
hundreds of Orthodox churches is currently underway.
Though the
initiative is undoubtedly returning some of the Russian capital's ancient
architectural wonders to their full glittering glory, it has caused some to
wonder whether the Church should be choosing its friends more wisely.
Some even talk darkly about corruption, about the less-than-transparent
way publicly funded reconstruction projects have been contracted out, about the
oddly commercial relationships of certain Church institutions and the
controversial use of taxpayers' money for church related projects in what is
still officially a secular country.
This analysis of Russian politics comes from Nick
Hayes, a professor of history (especially Russian) who holds the university
chair in critical thinking at Saint John's University in Collegeville, Minn.
Despite Vladimir Putin’s victory in the presidential election last
year, long-promised and delayed reforms of education, social welfare, health
care, infrastructure investment and taxation have gone nowhere. Meanwhile, the
Russian parliament is working on legislation that would ban blasphemy, the use
of foreign words and phrases in the Russian language, and “homosexual
propaganda” from the press.
It is the season of non-issues in Russian
politics…
[Putin's] decision to embrace the ban on U.S. adoptions
underscores his political vulnerability. Ever since his announcement in fall
2011 that he would run for a third presidential term and basically dump the
erstwhile President Dmitry Medvedev and his liberal entourage, Putin has turned
to the hard-line Russian right for his base of support…
The controversy
over adoption plays out in the nationalist angst in Russia over its demographic
decline. Life expectancy rates remain at Third World levels. Russia reached
below-zero birth rates decades ago…
The Pew Research Global Attitudes Project
recently asked people in seven countries about their governmental preferences.
The results might mean that Russian political values (and political culture) are
changing. Compare these results with what your textbook has to say on the topic.
Should we rely on a democratic form of government or a leader with a
strong hand?
Which is more important, a good democracy
or a strong economy?
Trying to keep track of the methods by which
Russian legislators are elected is as difficult as keeping track of how regional
administrators are selected. In the early years of the Russian Federation, half
of the Duma was elected proportionally and half from single-member districts.
Then in 2003, the system was changed so that all members of the Duma were
elected proportionally. Now, it seems, that for the next elections at the end of
2016, the original system of half proportional and half single-member districts
will be used.
For those of us in the USA, these changes are baffling.
After all, the last major change in elections was 1914, when U.S. Senators had
to face voters directly. That change required a Constitutional amendment. For
all the grousing about the Electoral College, no changes have been made. So,
Russia changes its electoral system on whims or the exigencies of contemporary
politics?
My questions center around "What changed?" What changed
between 1999 and 2003 to make proportional elections more attractive to the
ruling elite? What changed between 2003 and 2013 to make proportional elections
less attractive?
President Vladimir V. Putin has ordered a major change in the rules
for parliamentary elections, a move that could help solidify his power and
influence toward the end of his current term and insulate him from dwindling
public support for United Russia, the party that nominated him and currently
holds a majority in Parliament.
United Russia
logo
At Mr. Putin’s direction, half of the 450
seats in the State Duma, the lower house of Parliament, would be filled using a
proportional system based on votes for parties, with each party then filling its
allotted seats. The other half would be filled by direct election of individual
candidates, creating a potential opening for independent campaigns.
The
new system, which the Central Election Commission is expected to unveil in the
next several weeks, replaces a system of strict party-list voting. It would be
the second major change to the parliamentary voting process in less than a
decade and essentially amounts to a return to a system that had been in place
through 2003…
But while the prospect of individual candidacies suggests
a liberalizing of a political system often criticized as heavily tilted in favor
of Mr. Putin and the governing authorities, history shows that they can actually
have the opposite effect.
This is because individual candidates endorsed
by the majority party tend to have a huge advantage in name recognition and
resources in local races, and because candidates who run locally as independents
can often be enticed to join the majority party when the new Parliament is
formed, using perks offered by the presidential administration…
(From APGov.org)
Meet Mr. Zhirinovsky
As the Russian parliament prepares to vote on a law that would restrict smoking in public places, the leader of the country's Liberal Democratic Party has called for additional regulations on excessive eating and sexual activity.
According to the The Moscow News, Zhirinovsky proposed the radical restrictions in a live interview with Business FM Radio. "We need a different formula," he said. "Smoking is to be banned everywhere but in your own car if you close all the windows and stay there alone as well as in your own apartment if there is nobody else there. Shut all the windows and get yourself poisoned." "We need eating restrictions. Our people are overfed and too fat. Sex should also be restricted to one time per quarter through issuing licenses, quotas or coupons," Zhirinovsky added. "People have too much sex, they eat, smoke and drink too much and die 20 years earlier. Everywhere – in Europe, America or Japan - they live longer. Why should we perish?"
The anti-smoking law bans smoking in public places such as restaurants, schools, government buildings, stadiums, railway and bus stations and hospitals. Russia's lower house of Parliament approved the bill Tuesday and the upper house is expected to pass it within the next week. Before Tuesday's vote, Zhirinovsky threatened to expel all smokers from the Liberal Democratic Party. "In the Liberal Democratic Party, no one smokes, and those who do — we'll throw them out," he said. "And nobody drinks alcohol and there's no sort of debauchery,"
Note: Russia's Liberal Democrat party is NOT similar to Britain's. While Britain's a centrist party, Russia's Liberal Democrats are an ultranationalist and far-right.
Tomorrow Ch. 9 Russia test, where the presidency is a bit different. For example, the Russian president can pass law by decree. But before we do, we should reflect back on the U.S. President's we honor today.
At one time a day to honor George Washington, then another day was added to laud
Abraham Lincoln, now it's one day to honor all 43 -- love 'em or leave
'em.
As CitizenU.com wrote:
Most of us learned our U.S. history by
way of presidential stories.Washington began it all.
Jefferson purchased
Louisiana then hired Lewis and Clark.
Jacksonian democracy resulted in a
chaotic inaugural.
Lincoln saved the Union.
Roosevelt gave us a New Deal
and then saved the world.
Kennedy brought sex appeal, and so began a
revolution.
Nixon broke our trust.
Reagan made us feel good
again.
The threads that weave our American story invariably include one
of our forty-three Masters of Ceremony, one of our Chief of State, one of our
Presidents. For this reason we honor our Presidents today.
President's
Day, at one time only a day to celebrate Washington, is now dedicated to
remembering much more. A strong single executive has guided the rich tapestry of
American history. Our story is wrapped in Presidents’ stories.
The
President of the United States truly matters. Yet citizens matter too. Perhaps
this is why our presidential candidates expend so much energy these days.
Without us, their stories become less important.
Happy (belated) President's
Day. For a holiday bonus two points, blog here your favorite presidential quote captured here. And by the way, do you think the Youdia film poster was liberal, moderate, or conservative in the based on the quotes they chose?
_________________
Traditional Government Assisgnment:
Identify any presidential liberalor conservative quote and explain what makes it liberalor conservative. Do you agree or disagree with the quote? Answer here in the comment section (3 points, due Monday, 3/4.
Enjoy the Communist Party Valentine's found by a former student of mine last year, while you think of if Valdimir Putin, as returned president of Russia, has a Soviet-style Cult of Personality following today in Russia.
The number of Russians who believe the country is in the grip of a Soviet-style
cult of personality centred around Vladimir Putin, the prime minister, has more
than doubled in the last six years, a poll has shown.
The poll, conducted by the independent Levada Centre, comes as Mr Putin
prepares to return to the Russian presidency next May
for a controversial third term amid signs that he sees himself as a Charles De
Gaulle father-of-the-nation like figure.
The survey was conducted last month and revealed that exactly one quarter of
Russians believe that such a cult does exist, while a further thirty per cent
said they saw increasing signs that such a cult was emerging.
The findings reflect a big swing in public opinion.
In 2004 when Mr Putin was president only ten per cent of those asked said
they thought that a cult of personality had grown up around him.
Since then, Mr Putin's dominance of state TV and of the country's political
life has only grown however, and his supporters have been increasingly vocal
about casting him as the man who saved Russia from the chaotic 1990s and
restored national pride.
_______________
Some examples:
Putin targeted Virgin voters in this 2012 campaign ad. One Minute News' story above, full version of ad below.
Ken Wedding (in 2010) posted this compilation of the Cult of Putin that is still
going strong in Russia, even if the economy is not:
Karmin Tomlinson, who teaches in Oregon City, OR, sent along these hints
for understanding part of the Putin mystique.
While the new Party leader in China can't say "rule of
law," he did talk about keeping power within a "cage." Perhaps
Chinese dissidents should talk about cages rather than constitutions.
Reformers
Aim to Get China to Live Up to Own Constitution
After the chaos of the Cultural Revolution, the surviving
Communist Party leaders pursued a project that might sound familiar to those in
the West: Write a constitution that enshrines individual rights and ensures
rulers are subject to law, so that China would never again suffer from the
whims of a tyrant.
The resulting document guaranteed full powers for a
representative legislature, the right to ownership of private property, and freedoms
of speech, press and assembly. But the idealism of the founding fathers was
short-lived. Though the Constitution was ratified in 1982 by the National
People’s Congress, it has languished ever since.
Now, in a drive to persuade the Communist Party’s new
leaders to liberalize the authoritarian political system, prominent Chinese
intellectuals and publications are urging the party simply to enforce the
principles of their own Constitution.
The strategy reflects an emerging consensus among advocates
for political reform that taking a moderate stand in support of the
Constitution is the best way to persuade Xi Jinping, the party’s new general
secretary, and other leaders, to open up China’s party-controlled system. Some
of Mr. Xi’s recent speeches, including one in which he emphasized the need to
enforce the Constitution, have ignited hope among those pushing for change…
Through the decades, party leaders have paid lip service to
the Constitution, but have failed to enforce its central tenets, some of which
resemble those in constitutions of Western democracies. The fifth article says
the Constitution is the supreme authority: “No organization or individual may
enjoy the privilege of being above the Constitution and the law.” Any real
application of the Constitution would mean severely diluting the party’s power.
It is unclear whether the latest push will be any more
successful than previous efforts…
Deng Yuwen, an editor at Study Times, said he had so far
only seen talk from Mr. Xi. “We have yet to see any action from him,” Mr. Deng
said. “The Constitution can’t be implemented through talking.”
And since taking power, Mr. Xi has appeared more concerned
with maintaining party discipline than opening political doors. In remarks made
during a recent southern trip that have circulated in party circles, Mr. Xi
said China must avoid the fate of the Soviet Union, which broke apart, in his
view, after leaders failed to stick to their socialist ideals and the party
lost control of the military…
Nonetheless, talk of constitutionalism has become daily fare
on literati Web sites like Gongshiwang, a politics forum. Typical was a Jan. 24
essay that ran on the site by Liu Junning, a political scientist, who seized on
Mr. Xi’s most recent remarks on “caging power” and traced the concept to the
Magna Carta and the American Constitution.
“Constitutional governance is restricted governance,” Mr.
Lui wrote. “It is to tame the rulers. It is to shut the rulers in a cage.”
Thanks to Kristan Crawford for finding this link from The Guardian UK about the linguistic standard of the presidential addresses has declining. The State of our State of the Union is apparently much dumber. Using the Flesch-Kincaid readability test the Guardian has tracked the reading level of every state of the union.
From the high average reading level (21.6) of addresses given by James Madison to the lowest average reading level, George Herbert Walker Bush (8.6) some interesting analysis here .
However, while maybe lacking high linguistic level, the White House boasted last night's speech as having never before seen enhancements, including charts, graphs and interactive discussions with policy administrators.
Below is a word cloud from last night's SOTU address:
In the Soviet Union (and Tsarist Russia before it) any organization, from stamp
collectors to football players, from knitters to gardeners, was run by the
government (or the Communist Party in the USSR). In the People's Republic of
China, any organization outside the Party or the government is suspect and
likely to be persecuted.
Independent civil society is a threat to the
power and control of the powers that be. In Putin's Russia, as surveillance,
nationalism, obedience, and official religion are becoming more and more
important, uncontrolled civil society organizations are less and less welcome.
A country doctor, a tiny, dilapidated village hospital, an
indifferent health bureaucracy — and now, coming to the rescue, volunteers from
distant Moscow, bringing furniture, equipment, money and, maybe most important,
good cheer.
In the background, though, is the parliament — weighing a
law to bring any volunteer activity under the purview of the state, on the
theory that people who organize themselves to do good work are a threat to the
state’s power.
The past year or so has seen an upwelling of a trend
unprecedented in Russia — people getting together on their own to help others in
need. Personal initiative, always suspect here, is suddenly taking off…
The rapid emergence of volunteer efforts, fueled in large part by social
media, coincides with the eruption of public political protest — and that’s not
by happenstance. There is an overlap between the political opposition and those
who have become fed up with a corrupt government that delivers little and who
have decided to take matters into their own hands.
Legislation to
regulate volunteers has been introduced in the State Duma, or lower house of
parliament, by President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party. Backers say it
will ensure that volunteer activity conforms to the government’s priorities and
doesn’t conflict with Kremlin policy.
Officials aren’t the only ones
hostile to volunteerism. Russia’s Soviet past, when the government controlled
all aspects of life, has left it with a population that is accustomed to the
idea that the government should provide for its citizens and that is suspicious
of volunteer organizations. A 2012 poll found that more than half the population
disapproves of them...
As we begin our
look into the Post-Communist World, we need to start with the basics in this
three part intro assignment:
Part One:
In your C6
(5) CountryGroups, Access the constitutions of current day Russia and China and
create a compare/contrast chart with the U.S. Constitution. List and explain a
minimum of 5 comparisons and 5 contrasting observations. (similar to what we did
for Great Britain).
You will write an "I am not a Marxist" essay from the
eyes of three leading Communist leaders. I will explain in
class. DON'T HAVE TO DO
______________
From Political Warrior
(3/1/11)
Unsettling? Foreign Policy reports on how Russia,
China...and the U.S. view events in Egypt:
One of the principal bases
of U.S. foreign policy under President Barack Obama has been to create as
constructive relations as possible with Russia, China, and other great powers.
The administration had some degree of success in 2010: notably the Russia
"reset" policy and managing inevitable trade and other tensions with rising
China. But 2011 looks set to be more challenging as events continue to unfold in
Egypt after the mass demonstrations that ousted President Hosni Mubarak and as
the United States, Russia, and China all prepare for elections in 2012.
The populist revolutions in the
Middle East are prompting reactions in China. The reactions illustrate the fears
of the authoritarians in China.
Well-Oiled Security Apparatus in
China Stifles Calls for Change
Two months of upheaval in the
Mideast have cast doubt on the staying power of all authoritarian governments.
But in China calls for change are so far being met with political controls
wielded by authorities who, even during a period of rising prosperity and
national pride, have not taken their staying power for granted.
The
nearly instantaneous deployment of the police to prevent even notional
gatherings in big cities the past two weeks is just one example of what Chinese
officials call “stability maintenance.” This refers to a raft of policies and
practices refined after “color revolutions” abroad and, at home, tens of
thousands of demonstrations by workers and peasants, ethnic unrest, and the
spread of mobile communications and broadband networking.
Chinese
officials charged with ensuring security, lavishly financed and permitted to
operate above the law, have remained perpetually on edge, employing
state-of-the-art surveillance, technologically sophisticated censorship, new
crime-fighting tools, as well as proactive efforts to resolve labor and land
disputes, all to prevent any organized or sustained resistance to single-party
rule...
Chinese Move to Stop Reporting on
Protests
Chinese police, citing newly
enacted restrictions on journalists, have moved to forcefully prevent foreign
reporters from covering public protests that have been largely nonexistent,
establishing “no reporting” zones in Shanghai and Beijing and, in one case,
beating a videographer and injuring two other reporters…
Why
China Is Nervous About the Arab
Uprisings?
As protests swept the Arab
world, toppling two regimes, the Chinese government has strengthened its
elaborate security apparatus with crackdowns on human rights lawyers and
activists.
On the Chinese Internet, anonymous calls for a "Jasmine
Revolution" -- modeled after the pro-democracy demonstrations in the Middle East
-- have been squelched by authorities. Words like "Egypt" and "Tunisia" have
been blocked on some Web searches and social networking sites have been made
inaccessible.
Unlike Arab countries with deteriorating economies, China
has experienced rapid economic growth in the past decade. Is that keeping a lid
on broad discontent in China? If that is the case, why is the Chinese government
so nervous? Could popular protests of a similar scale sweep China in the near
future?...
Vladimir Putin in 2010, when he was Prime Minister, before the 2012 shift back to President.
_________________
BEIJING – A mystery blogger who appears to have close access to the daily activities of China's new leader may be the leader himself, say China watchers.
The blog "Study Xi Fans Group" has posted pictures of Communist Party Secretary General Xi Jinping's trip to northwest China along with detailed updates about his busy schedule.
To Americans used to the flood of minutiae issued to the White House press pool about President Obama, similar outpourings from China's government may seem like nothing unusual.
But in China, a close-up look at the leader of an organization long steeped in secrecy is a revelation all by itself. The activities of the party elite are normally reported in a carefully scripted manner, often delayed by a few days, by the state-run media.
The fawning and somewhat dull reporting on the blog is raising speculation on the Internet that China's leader, or rather his aides or bodyguards, are behind the accounts.
The anonymous blogger denied the rumors Tuesday.
"I'm not a Party member, nor a government official, nor do I have anything to do with General Secretary Xi's team," said a statement on the blog, which appears on the government sanctioned website used for Twitter-like postings.
The statement noted that other leaders such as Obama and Russian leader Vladimir Putin, "all have their fan groups, it's my right to be a fan of who I want."
Media analyst Jeremy Goldkorn doesn't buy that explanation.
"My instinct says it's something fake, like most things are here. Somebody in or close to the system is doing it, but that doesn't necessarily mean Xi's people are doing it," said Goldkorn, whose "Danwei" website translates Chinese media articles into English.
Obama's official Twitter account has almost 27 million followers. In China, the ruling Communist Party blocks Twitter but similar sites that allow people to post messages and opinions have grown hugely popular.
If you, like me, thought that the British Empire had a bigger influence in the
UK than other parts of the world, think again.
But, once past the second most popular language in Britain, the colonial
influence is obvious.
What do these statistics say about Cameron's
recent proclamation that the UK is not a European country?
It's probably
worth noting that the second most-spoken language in the UK is used by only 1%
of the population. Cultural homogeneity is not being threatened.
Polish is England’s second language, according to statistics
published Wednesday, a dramatic illustration of the wave of immigration that has
brought nearly 1 million Eastern Europeans to the U.K. over the past decade…
Poles began arriving in Britain en masse after 2004, when eight Eastern
European nations — Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Lithuania,
Latvia, Slovenia, and Estonia — joined the European Union, a development which
would eventually give their citizens the right to move freely across the
continent…
The new population has wrought changes across Britain,
from Polish beers like Zywiec or Zamkowe Jasne served alongside
British brews at London pubs to Polish food including pulpety and
delicje now common across the aisles of major U.K. supermarkets…
Punjabi was England’s third language… Urdu… was the fourth. Both
languages are native to the Indian subcontinent, as are Bengali and Gujarati,
which come in at fifth and sixth respectively.
Arabic, French, and all
forms of Chinese are also counted among England’s commonly-spoken languages…
Industrial or Liberal democracies, like the UK and the US have an emphasis on civil rights and liberties, as well as a rule of law and competitive elections.
"A liberal democracy is a form of representative democracy in which elected representatives who hold power are limited by a constitution that emphasizes protecting individual liberties, equality and the rights of minority groups. Among the many liberties that might be protected are freedom of speech and assembly, freedom of religion, the right to private property and privacy as well as equality before the law and due process under the rule of law. Such constitutional rights, also called liberal rights, are guaranteed through various controlled institutions and statutory laws. Additionally, the constitutions of most contemporary liberal democracies prohibits majoritarianism, which is rule by the will of majority, when it harms those in the minority. "
We can compare, contrast and test this definition in light of current events in comparative countries on the issue of gay rights.
First, on Tuesday MPs in the UK approved same-sex marriage
in England and Wales in a key Commons vote, despite the opposition of almost
half the Conservative MPs.
The Commons voted in favour of the Marriage
(Same Sex Couples) Bill, by 400 to 175, a majority of 225, at the end of a
full day's debate on the bill.
Prime Minister David Cameron has described the move as "an important step
forward" that strengthens society.
Voting lists show that 136 Conservatives opposed the bill.
Deputy Prime Minister and Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg said: "I genuinely
believe that we will look back on today as a landmark for equality in Britain.
"Tonight's vote shows Parliament is very strongly in favour of equal
marriage.
"No matter who you are and who you love, we are all equal. Marriage is about
love and commitment, and it should no longer be denied to people just because
they are gay.
"The Liberal Democrats have long fought for equal marriage. It is party
policy and I am proud that the Liberal Democrats are part of the coalition
government that are making it happen."
MPs were given a free vote on the bill, meaning they were not ordered to vote
a particular way by party whips.
Their decision to back the bill at second reading signifies that they approve
of it in principle. The legislation will now receive more detailed parliamentary
scrutiny.
Last month, President Obama became the first US president to mention the word "gay" in an inaugural address. While the United States is not a comparative country, the president's statement last week on women in combat and gay boy scouts can be used to evaluate actions of a liberal democracy.
When we study Mexico, we might analyze the regime as either a developed industrial democracy or a Newly Industrialized Country (NIC). But from recent actions in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, a Supreme Court ruling opened the door for gay marriage. A show of a liberal democracy?
Contast the above with recent developement in the Russian State Duma:
While many countries, including the United States, are fighting
discrimination based on sexual orientation, Russia seems intent on intensifying
it… the state Duma passed the first reading of a bill prohibiting distribution
of “gay propaganda” to minors, which opponents fear would make gay pride
marches, demonstrations for gay rights and public displays of affection by
same-sex couples illegal. Moscow already bans gay pride parades on the grounds
that they might set off public disorder…
The national bill follows the
passage of similar laws in St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk and three other cities,
tapping into an ideology promoted by President Vladimir Putin and his circle
that combines anti-Westernism, Russian exceptionalism and conservative Orthodox
religious beliefs…
In most of the western world, the movement centers around the, "it gets better" mantra. But in a comparative policy world, it can also get worse. Take Nigeria for example:
Gay Marriage Could End Humanity, Nigerian Pastor Says
(VOA) ABUJA — A prominent Nigerian pastor this week said gay marriage could wipe out the human race within 20 years. This comes as the Nigerian parliament sends a bill to President Goodluck Jonathan that would make gay marriage an offense punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
Pastor Enoch Adeboye heads the Redeemed Christian Church of God, a mega-church in Lagos, Nigeria's largest city. The church has 6,000 parishes around the world and the president of Nigeria attends his sermons.
Last weekend, the pastor weighed in on an issue that is barely controversial in Nigeria - gay marriage. He called gay marriage an “evil” and that, if it is allowed, no one will have babies and the human race will die out.
Right now, gay marriage is not recognized anywhere in Nigeria but it’s not a crime either-not yet anyway.
Late last year, the Nigerian parliament passed a bill that will make gay marriage, or ‘abetting or aiding’ gay marriage punishable by up to 14 years in prison. The lone voice of dissent among lawmakers said homosexuality is already a crime in Nigeria, so the bill is redundant.
In China's political culture, forgive the phrase, but it kinda goes both ways. As The Economist reported last year:
ZHEN AI used a conventional method to uncover the truth about her husband’s “business trips”. She logged on to his computer. But what Ms Zhen, who was three months pregnant at the time, found was beyond her imaginings. She saw photos of her husband in some of China’s most exotic settings—Tibet, Hangzhou and Yunnan province—with another man. The pictures of them together in bed were particularly devastating.
Ms Zhen, who is now 30 years old and prefers to use a pseudonym, is one of an estimated 16m straight women who are married to gay men in China. Zhang Beichuan, a scholar, estimates that more than 70% of gay men marry straight women. Using census data from 2011, Mr Zhang estimates that somewhere between 2-5% of Chinese men over the age of 15 are gay, or between 11m and 29m. The women who marry them are known as tongqi, which might be translated as “homo-wife”, using “homo-” for same.
Tolerance is on the rise in major cities. Shanghai had its fourth Pride festival in June. Earlier this month the national ministry of health announced that lesbians will be permitted to donate blood.
Yet intolerance still prevails. Homosexuality was only removed from the health ministry’s list of mental illnesses in 2001. In rural regions, the belief that homosexuality is a treatable disease is still widespread.
It did not occur to Ms Zhen that her husband could be gay, though there were signs. She recalls inadvertently resting her hand on his arm during a movie date. “I felt him flinch, but he endured it”, she says. Though confused by his lack of intimacy, she found his considerate nature to be endearing. She hoped the passion would grow after he proposed. What followed instead was an icy marriage, frequent business trips and a perfunctory sex life.
After finding the photos, Ms Zhen found temporary solace in an online tongqi support group. Luck again abandoned her. This month, her signature joins 50 others on an open letter accusing the website tongqijiayuan.com of scamming its members out of 90,000 yuan ($14,000) in total. Ms Zhen lost 2,000 yuan. “We’ve realised [the site’s] owners were taking advantage of our fragile emotions and low social status,” the joint letter reads.
It is especially difficult for Chinese men to come out to their families. Traditional beliefs about the importance of maintaining bloodlines permeate society, which regards homosexuality as unfilial. Yang Shaogang, a Shanghai-based lawyer who specialises in tongqi cases, counselled five women last year after they contracted HIV from their husbands. The only way to prevent this sort of tragedy from befalling such women, he says, is calling for more tolerance so gay men won’t feel forced to enter marriage in the first place.
In recent years some have found a solution, of sorts. Chinagayles.com, a website with some 153,000 members, helps gay men meet lesbian women for matrimonial purposes. Individuals upload personal details, such as monthly income, hobbies and Zodiac signs. Some seek cohabitation without sexual contact. Others want children.
Zhuang Xiang, a 30-year-old accountant from Shanghai, came to understand why he was drawn to boys when he was 17. On flicking through a gay comic book in a shop, he had his great “a-ha!” moment. He met his boyfriend in 2004. And then he married his lesbian wife in 2009. He and his wife don’t live together, but they visit each other’s parents once a week. Mr Zhuang even keeps some of her clothes on display at home, in case of unannounced visitors.
Mr Zhuang says he is lucky to live in a big city like Shanghai, where such a solution is possible. But he wants to live in a country where gay men are accepted. His parents have started to talk about a grandchild. Mr Zhuang and his lesbian wife will likely get a forged certificate of infertility. Keeping up the appearance of their marriage feels like a never-ending battle, he says. But sometimes lies are more sensible than the truth.
And then there's Iran....
Blindfolded Mahmoud Asgari, 16, left, and Ayaz Marhoni are publicly hanged in Mashhad, Iran, in 2005 on charges related to sodomy.
Homosexuals are inferior to dogs and pigs, says Iranian cleric
The Guardian (UK)
An influential Iranian cleric who is entitled to issue juristic rulings according to the Sharia law, has condemned western lawmakers involved in the decriminalisation of homosexuality, saying those politicians are lower than animals.
"If a society commits a new sin, it will face a new punishment," he said while interpreting Qur'anic verses about prophet Lot whose tribe Isalmic scholars say was punished by God for sodomy. "Problems like Aids did not exist before."
Citing the Qur'an, Javadi-Amoli said politicians who pass laws in favour of homosexuals are lower than animals. "Even animals ... dogs and pigs don't engage in this disgusting act [homosexuality] but yet they [western politicians] pass laws in favour of them in their parliaments."
Homosexuality is punishable by death according to fatwas issued by almost all Iranian clerics. Until recently, Lavat (sodomy for men) was punishable by death for all individuals involved in consensual sexual intercourse.
But under new amendments approved recently in the Iranian parliament the person who played an active role will be flogged 100 times if the sex was consensual and he was not married, but the one who played a passive role will still be put to death regardless of his marriage status.
Despite the horrific punishment for homosexuals in Iran, the gay community in the country is alive underground and has won some recognition by coming out in defiance of the regime.
In September 2011, a group of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Iranians launched a campaign on Facebook, highlighting the discrimination against sexual minorities in Iran where homosexuals are put to death.
