News Stories

[LeoXiao]

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

The Cultural Revolution may have destroyed or damaged a great deal of artefacts, but a civilisation's culture is greater than the sum of its physical relics. It resides in the collective memory of an entire nation. And that is not an easy thing to erase from history's weave.

I think that a lot of the political repression also created a sort of materialism (a lot of Chinese talk about "not being political", and wear it like a label) which in part leads to the blatant arrogance and superiority you speak of later in the post.

There is a growing feeling of invincibility among many Chinese nationals today, reminiscent of the kind of arrogance among Japanese during the 1980s. And this, in my opinion, is feeding a kind of superiority complex that multi-racial, multicultural countries like Singapore need to be very wary of. In championing certain values, are we unconsciously allowing such feelings of superiority obstruct our ability to understand the sensitivities of minority groups?

I'm not so sure we aren't. It's particularly instructive when, for example, a young (Chinese) intern at my newsroom had to be reminded that not all Malays are necessarily Muslim. That is the kind of ignorance we ignore at our long-term peril.

I agree entirely. In fact, I mentioned the Cultural Revolution because what it did, IMO, was not so much destroy Chinese culture (which would be, like you said, very difficult), but transform people's present understanding of it into something very twisted. For instance, I find that Mainland Chinese are simply strange (for lack of a better word) in their behavior compared to Taiwanese or overseas Chinese people, and I suspect highly that this "altered mentality" is a direct result of the damage incurred from continuous oppression.

The owner, who was apparently offended by my friend's apparent scepticism, brashly reminded him of the size China's population: "How many people are there in China? One billion people! And you dare question the viability of my business?"

Hm, this reminds me of "With 800 million people, how can there not be struggle?"
I may be going a little too far with this, but I don't think it's a trait of "Chinese culture" or even a sense of cultural superiority to be so "brash", as you put it. It seems, to the contrary, to be a hollow threat, more along the lines of "we have one billion people, WTF are you going to about that?"
Going back to the 1960s, that was a time where such accusations and threats, no matter how baseless, could be thrown at you by anyone and if it got bad, end with execution, utter humiliation, or suicide. I think that people from the mainland have gotten used to this kind of behavior, and are still stuck in this combatative mentality. Even when the Cultural Revolution is over, they still apply it in dealings with other people, including those they do business with.
- So basically, I'd say it's not so much the ancientness of Chinese culture that's the problem; rather some unfortunate circumstances that messed up people's collective psychology.

[flying ^]

Some interesting news on wikileaks (not yawn-inducing to me this time)

http://blogs.forbes.com/andygreenber...-from-assange/
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/...7185W620110209
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/...7193Y120110210
http://www.stalbertgazette.com/artic...template=cpArt

[Vexx]

Brian Jacques, author of the Redwall Series, died of a heart attack on Feb. 5, 2011. He was 71 years old. He is survived by his wife, two sons, and one granddaughter. Born June 15, 1939 in Liverpool, England. At age 10, upon completing an assignment to write a story about animals, he was accused of lying about the origin of the story by a teacher who couldn't believe a 10-year-old would write that well.
The first Redwall novel was published in 1986. As of February 2011, the 22nd novel in the series has been announced for publication in May. His novels have sold more than twenty million copies, have been translated into 28 languages, and have been produced as an animated series.

[ganbaru]

Mubarak Refuses to Step Down
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/11/wo...t/11egypt.html

[ChainLegacy]

Originally Posted by ganbaru

Mubarak Refuses to Step Down
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/11/wo...t/11egypt.html

To oversimplify matters : that dude's gotta chill out.

[ganbaru]

Originally Posted by ChainLegacy

To oversimplify matters : that dude's gotta chill out.

It probably all depend on what the army will do...

[MrTerrorist]

LA cricket: Club helps tame Compton's mean streets

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by ganbaru

Mubarak Refuses to Step Down
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/11/wo...t/11egypt.html

This article (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/11/wo...er=rss&emc=rss) exemplifies something that has always been a deep flaw in US foreign policy - our tendency to ally with a *PERSON* rather than a *country*... and often that person runs an autocratic government. It has bit us in the ass ever since WW2 and long after it became obvious it was a stupid and lazy way to operate.

[killer3000ad]

Predictive text error leads pair of friends to argument and then a fatal stabbing

Neil Brook intended to send 27-year-old Witkowski a joking message,"What are you on about mutter?". Mutter is local slang for behaving in an antisocial/vulgar manner. However the predictive text feature of his phone resulted in "mutter" replaced with "nutter", a term meaning deranged. That set it off and the pair exchanged increasingly heated messages which lead to the subsequent meeting, fight and fatal stabbing of Witkowski.

Personally I don't use the predictive text much as it always felt like someone was leading me on with a leash held by an invisible hand.

[yezhanquan]

Originally Posted by killer3000ad

Predictive text error leads pair of friends to argument and then a fatal stabbing

Neil Brook intended to send 27-year-old Witkowski a joking message,"What are you on about mutter?". Mutter is local slang for behaving in an antisocial/vulgar manner. However the predictive text feature of his phone resulted in "mutter" replaced with "nutter", a term meaning deranged. That set it off and the pair exchanged increasingly heated messages which lead to the subsequent meeting, fight and fatal stabbing of Witkowski.

Personally I don't use the predictive text much as it always felt like someone was leading me on with a leash held by an invisible hand.

Always double-check your messages before you send them. It's just basic common sense.

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by yezhanquan

Always double-check your messages before you send them. It's just basic common sense.

Of course we're talking about the cream of the gene pool here... two people who got mad enough over a half-assed text message to fight to the death. "Common sense" was probably underspecc'd during character creation.

[Archon_Wing]

Well, clearly the guy proved himself to be deranged. :/ Who does that kind of crap, geez.

[ganbaru]

After Mideast, should Russia and China worry?
http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNew...71A0A020110211

[Ravenblitz]

Tanker with $200 million in oil hijacked off Oman

so oil price gonna skyrocket... really no protection on these valuable goods what's the use of the EU coalition patrolling on this part of the ocean

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Ravenblitz

Tanker with $200 million in oil hijacked off Oman

so oil price gonna skyrocket... really no protection on these valuable goods what's the use of the EU coalition patrolling on this part of the ocean

The oil price is already set to move upwards when people start buying and hoarding when Egypt and Tunisia started their revolutions. The tanker hijack will only prompt a temporary mass-scalp to make oil more volatile than it already is (pun unintended).

[GundamFan0083]

Now that's what I call a tourist attraction!

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/02/1...#ixzz1Dbv7LPYU

[ganbaru]

Originally Posted by GundamFan0083

Now that's what I call a tourist attraction!

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/02/1...#ixzz1Dbv7LPYU

More of a ''odd and silly news'' no ?

On some thing more serious, Mubarak Steps Down, Ceding Power to military
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/12/wo...t/12egypt.html

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by ganbaru

More of a ''odd and silly news'' no ?

On some thing more serious, Mubarak Steps Down, Ceding Power to military
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/12/wo...t/12egypt.html

Not like anything is going to change....Mubarak used to be backed by the military. He is simply handing the power back to them.

[Netto Azure]

Well...I just seriously hope all those billions of US Dollars we have invested will bring about the "Democracy" Bush talked about. u.u

[flying ^]

Originally Posted by Netto Azure

Well...I just seriously hope all those billions of US Dollars we have invested will bring about the "Democracy" Bush talked about. u.u

The Purple Finger Effect