Asian Values

Screenshot of today's Google Alert on "Islam"
I haven't written about Islam for a while, so here goes.  I subscribe to Google Alert for "Islam" which tosses up a couple dozen articles a day.  Above is a screenshot of today's Alert. Note this — right next to an article on the "peaceful nature" of Islam there's a story about a Somalian apostate from Islam who, it turns out, is in danger of his life (at the hands of his family) for leaving the religion.  And then an article about the "true image" of Islam, which the article informs is is "peace and tolerance", right after which is one about forced conversions to Islam.  What's going on here? Is it a case of you say potaito and I say potahto? Each to their view? One's terrorist is another's freedom fighter? No, it is not.  For the statements about the "peaceful" and "tolerant" nature of Islam are just that. Statements. They are ipse dixit statements…

I'm posting this article not really because of its main point, interesting as it is, but because it has a dear sweet and sad little film embedded about half way down. An SCMP film by Lea Li about Xiaoguancheng village (小关城). (pron: siao gwan cherng… more or less). Just three hours southwest of bustling Beijing it's as poor as can be. As poor as China was when I first arrived in the seventies. People,getting by, or not, on a few hundred dollars a year.  We noticed this when we took a car trip around south-west China. You just have to wander a few hundred yards off thebrand new multi-lane freeway and you're in a different world. Poor villages, more Xiaoguanchengs.  Of course China has made huge strides in lifting hundreds of millions out of poverty. But there are still the left behinds. The Xiaguanchengs. 
https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3021667/trumps-wto-move-feeble-answer-china-challenge
LATER: I googled "Xiaoguancheng" and note that this film made a bit…

Hong Kong police given carte blanche to suppress arrest. 
I was bored by the first press conference of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office (HKMAO) in Beijing last week. I am scared by the latest one held on Tuesday. Clearly, there will be a serious escalation in the application of force across the city, but it will not involve PLA troops. That may actually be worse for Hong Kong. HKMAO spokesman Yang Guang said: "Police's resoluteness and preparedness deserve the greatest respect and admiration." My guess is that Hong Kong police have been given unconditional support and carte blanche to suppress unrest and protests without the fear of subsequent punishment. That means more arrests and unrestricted application of non-lethal force. That is a boost to police morale but a danger in encouraging excessive use of force.
We saw the results on Monday. Police fired more than 800 rounds of tear gas, 140 rubber bullets, and 20 sponge-tipped rounds, which almost equalled their total …

Something I did not know about: accelerationism.
The thread linked below [1] suggests a cognate in "increase the contradictions in society" of Marxism. And that I do know about from my studies in China in the seventies.  And I wonder, by the way, if it has something to do with the demonstrators in Hong Kong. Chaos  ➡️  Destroy ➡️ Rebuild.  My comment on reading the El Paso shooter's manifesto [2]. He hates both Democrats and Republicans. As well as Hispanics, of course. He makes no bones about that, but it's because, he says, they harm the environment and reduce the likelihood of universal health care. He is an environmentalist, an eco-warrior. He hates big corporates. He's surely as much a Leftie as the stated "Hard-Right hater".  And, yes, a white supremacist. He believes that “diversity” means keeping races separate. So all of that is hateful. But as much, arguably more, Leftist as Rightist. He says explicitly that his views predate Trump and have n…

We wake up this morning to our morning newspaper blaring the headline “CITY GRIPPED BY ANARCHY”.
Insanity more like.
(BTW, for English readers, the South China Morning Post is a good and reasonably neutral source of information.  It is not behind any paywall. ie, it’s free to read it and has pretty good articles and interesting columnists).
We’ve had our views published in the Post, Jing and I, as have many others, with the tide running pretty solidly against the ongoing violence and chaos. Let alone “anarchy”.  We have our Chief Exec, Carrie Lam, talking about Hong Kong being “destroyed”, for goodness sake.
We were all on the side of the protesters when they were against the Extradition Bill (反送中). But now it’s not clear what they want. Their demands are -- if not inchoate -- already substantially granted, or else simply unreasonable.
What are the demonstrators after?
Alex Lo in his column My Take,  has done us a favour by summarising them. Alex Lo is no Beijing toady, no reflexive s…

/snip: "The Zhou dynasty is the origin of Chinese civilisation. The rite of passage means you have become an adult who should help the family and contribute to society," says Peng. "People have to have self-discipline and manners. If [the youth] keep pursuing only what is popular and have no life goals and value system, their old age will be filled with regret."
China's ancient rituals brought to life by video project hoping to educate next generation and foreigners