Humph

When we came out of class today a woman was lying in wait. She hurried over, all smiles, and started eagerly talking to us. All went well until she asked if we were American and we had to disappoint her as we were British, Australian and German. She was, you see, after a teacher and she wanted American English. Which is silly as the differences between that and British English are so slight that it would only affect the speech of a very advanced student. However it does illustrate how keen they are to get English teachers- jobs will literally hunt you!

We bought some cakes today. Chinese cakes tend to look fantastic but disappoint on further inspection. They can be a bit tasteless and green tea in a cake? Really? However the ones we had today, wrapped in cute boxes, "taste our beautiful happiness", actually had an agreeable flavour (not sure it was of beautiful happiness lol) as well as looking fancy. I've bought a few from that shop now which is probably not very healthy. But they are quite cheap and, well, I can resist everything except temptation...

I got a letter today:D Coming in from munching on cake outside in the sun, I spotted the Queen's head peeking out from the pile of letters dumped on the table, which is our mail delivery, and hurried over to find it was for me! It's not the first letter I've received but it is a very novel feeling to rip open an envelope and deal with handwriting. I felt very colonial, receiving it :P

I thought I'd comment on Liu Xiaobo winning the Nobel Peace Prize. The government has harrumphed a bit, which is understandable as he is a convicted criminal. Mainland China has not given a reaction, at least to me, mostly because I suspect that the majority of the population have never heard of the Nobel prizes. They are probably more concerned with feeding their families. And I doubt they have heard of Liu Xiaobo although this is probably due to censorship. News of the Nobels was blacked out here. However in Hong Kong there have been marches in support of releasing Liu Xiaobo. Intriguingly, Daisy's teacher asked her for her opinion on the matter and told Daisy that whilst she herself did have an opinion, she was not about to voice it. So I suspect the well-educated have a good idea of what is going on. Also interestingly, I heard that there have been calls from Party elders for the censors to be reined in. Believe it or not, freedom of speech and a free media is enshrined in the Chinese constitution although there has been debate over how to "implement" this. I think it is fairly obvious how to "implement" this- stop censoring... However I suspect that it is inevitable that the censors will diminish- but in China's own time. Liu Xiaobo, for those who don't know him (X is pronounced like a sh), is an advocate of free speech and signed Charter 08. Charter 08 was a charter calling for freedom of association/expression/religion (basically every human right China currently infringes) written in 2008 and released on the 60th anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights. There have been many such documents but this is the one that has stood out. Liu Xiaobo was sentenced to 11 years for "inciting subversion of state power". Apparently he was also at Tiananmen Square in 1989. Weren't we all. Now it was all very laudable, particularly seeing the price Liu has paid, but the Nobel Peace Prize is for someone who "shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses". Are you telling me that Liu is the person in the world at present who has done the most in pursuit of said goals? No, he's not. The reason he won the prize is to have a dig at China. Let's face it, the 5 members of the slection committee, all Norwegians, are going to know dangerously little about China and understand it even less. All they know is that Nasty China puts Poor Little People in gaol and that Liu was standing up for Democracy! And Freedom! The fact that the only other Chinese person to have won the Peace Prize is the Dalai Lama (if you can call him Chinese) only strengthens my suspicions that Chinese government Bad, Innocent citizens Good. When in actual fact the situation is a lot murkier. The Dalai Lama aims to establish a feudal theocracy in Tibet- hardly laudable! Liu Xiaobo is a convicted criminal. Hu Jintao, the Chinese president, has worked tirelessly to improve the relations between North Korea and South Korea- will he even get a nomination?

In my humble opinion, the lack of human rights here is merely a growing pain. In the not too distant future, I can see even the Great Firewall crumbling. But it will happen in China's own time, as it happened to us in our own time. Arrogant Westerners scolding the Chinese government should eat a slice of humble pie and concentrate on their own problems.

Edit: Just drawing this article to your attention: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-10/13/c_13555559.htm It is an English language article published on the website of Xinhua- China's news agency. Interesting quotes include (highlighting and comments are mine):

"The professor explicitly rejected the Norwegian body's argument that Liu's struggle for human rights, especially the freedom of speech, and a Western parliamentary democratic system in China is a prerequisite to world peace.
Many countries that have long followed the Western political system, such as the United States, Britain and Norway, have been among the most aggressive military powers in the last 50 years, occupying and starting wars in others countries like Iraq and Afghanistan, he noted." Ouch.

"Many in the West still believe that their system is the best in the world and has to be exported to all other countries". We do rather think our way is best.

"China has made remarkable progress in human rights, such as plugging starvation, curbing crimes and promoting food safety, which are "important not only for a developing and still poor country like China, but for developed countries as well," Kolstad said.
"In this way, the Western world can learn human rights from China," he added." It's true that the human right to food is more important that to free speech... Lol to the last sentence though...

"It is also simply unfair to label China as an undemocratic country, he stressed, explaining that China adopts "another kind of relationship between those in power and the people."- fair point.
"The parliamentary system with more parties is not the only way to give people influence on political decisions and the future of their country. We have to accept that other countries choose other political and democratic solutions, based on their culture and level of development," he said." True.
"I do not know if it is more democratic to have a system where presidential candidates have to be extremely rich to run for presidency," he added." Ouch at how true that is...

"I therefore think it is unfair to give a Peace Prize to the opposition and dissidents in China instead of giving it to the president, as in the U.S." Fair point.