The Religious Bureau of China recently issued a Regulation on the Reincarnation of Buddha. Here is a digest of it.
Article 4. A Buddha can not reincarnate when any of the following conditions is met: …
(2) the local city government does not permit such reincarnation.
and
Article 10. Before a candidate assumes Buddha’s position, an official from the government agency that issues reincarnation permissions shall read the permission, and the candidate shall obtain a certificate issued by the Buddhism Association of an appropriate level.
The certificate shall be made in accordance with a national standard by the Buddhism Association of the national level. All issued certificates shall be registered in the Religious Bureau of China.
July 5, 2007
Professor
Kenneth Mack ‘91
The following op-ed, Which side is Brown v. Board on?, written by Harvard Law School Professor Kenneth Mack ‘91 , was published in the Los Angeles Times on July 4, 2007.
As the Supreme Court wrestled with race-conscious school assignments in Seattle and Louisville, Ky., last week, the justices drew historical figures into the debate. In the most heated bits from the various opinions, each side accused the other of contradicting the objectives of the individuals who laid the groundwork for Brown vs. Board of Education.
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透视：一则没引起特别关注的新闻
读了一条新闻，心里就火起，就想骂人。
国家教育部新闻发言人王旭明在新闻发布会上表示，不提倡媒体报道”贫困生呼吁社会捐助”。他说，相信这样的事是真的，可能 有几个、几十个甚至几百个都不以为怪。关键是无论是大学生还是媒体，要以宣传主流、宣传国家政策为己任。这是7月3日中国新闻社的报道。国务院新闻办对这 些新闻发言人作过多次培训，不知道是怎么培训的，今天还会公开说这样的”混”话。对于贫困生上不起大学的媒体报道，教育部发言人曾咬牙切齿地训斥媒体是无 知，其实，”无知”的才是这些新闻发言人，他们早该下台了。
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Chinese internet media have been focusing on the Shanxi Brick Factory case recently.
A week ago, SINA reported that 31 slave workers had been rescued from a brick factory in Hongtong, Shanxi province by police. Workers were so badly treated–15-hour-intensive working, watched by safeguards, food of lowest possible expenses, and severe torture for any attempt to flee–that the report labeled it as a “modern slave” case.
Yesterday (June 13th) a post appeared on a major Chinese BBS (”Tianya” Forum) in the name of 400 fathers, reporting their children be kept laboring by a similar brick factory in Shanxi province. The post was given much credibility, as on the same day a governmental media Henan TV reported that concrete evidence had found and publicly accused Shanxi police’s refusing to investigate.
What was stated in the post and reported by Henan TV aroused great rage. Among the 580,000 viewers of the post, tens of thousands of commented with their anger towards the evil owner of the brick camp, their sympathy for the child slaves, and their resentment towards the government with folded arms.
山西黑砖窑事件续:疑有上千孩子被骗卖做奴工
2007-06-13 08:38:17
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印花税风波
简述: 财政部官员先辟谣,宣称不提高印花税,接着政府突然宣布印花税从1%提高到3%,引起股市大幅度下跌.
新闻线索: 辟谣–出尔反尔–内幕–查办? (more…)
In Mainland China, excellent students can not go to Universities simply because the educational resources are so scarce. The lack of education resources becomes a serious problem for the government, considering education’s traditional role of facilitating social democracy. From the 1990s to the early 2000s, the government has strive to resolve the problem, but to no avail. In 2005, it turned to universities in Hongkong and Macao, hoping that they would contribute more resources. The new strategy succeeded–although partially. Seeing the success, the government now turns to Taiwan.
Taiwan has more educational resources than it needs. It will be a blessing for the Taiwan universities to have extra students, for they will be able to open more courses and support the research. And it will equally benefit the government–the government of Taiwan complains for the heavy burden of supporting unnecessary educational institutes.
However, recent news shows that the DDP government has declined the Mainland China’s offer to send students to Taiwan.
DDP’s decision also messes up a good opportunity for Taiwan to compete with Mainland China in terms of political institutions. People in Taiwan have long waited for an opportunity to “educate” Mainland Chinese why the political institutions in Taiwan is desirable. Such an opportunity is hopelessly hard to find, for the only way for the Mainland Chinese to compare is to live under democracy and experience it. (As is said in an article by Long Yingtai, a famous Taiwan writer, “democracy is above all a style of life.”) Considering the dismal probability for the two governments to reach an agreement of free immigration,little can be done in terms of this “education”. Here comes this precious opportunity to exchange students. Taiwan now can show the younger generation, from which the future political and business leaders will grow, the style of life that people in Taiwan will defend at the cost of their lives–according to Long Yingtai. But the DDP government turns it down. After so many years of waiting for opportunities to compete with Mainland China , DDP withdraw from the battlefield like a coward.
Scandals of Higher Education
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/20011
The enduring theme in the US Higher Education is equality–although people may disagree in what aspect equality should be addressed . Sex, race or class? Some writers consider this situation problematic, because one aspect could be used to misdirect people’s attention.
“In the transformed world of what was once an old boys club, “feminism,” he writes, “is what you appeal to when you want to make it sound as if the women of Wall Street and the women of Wal-Mart are both victims of sexism.” In fact, few of the former are victims of sexism and many of the latter are victims, first and foremost, of poverty. In short, Michaels thinks the academic left willfully misses the point —that the big obstacle to equal opportunity is not race or gender, but class.”
I have a similar observation on Chinese Higher Education. There are at least two themes today: freedom and equality. The freedom theme is intentionally avoided in public discussions, while the equality theme is welcomed.
在和平时期煽动的民族主义是恶棍的最后避难所
……
国家独立和人的解放是近代民族主义的两大支柱，为近现代世界留下了民族主义和自由主义两大政治遗产。或者说，抵抗外族的武力入侵及其暴力欺压的斗争，只有当争取民族独立（包括自决、自治等权利）与争取人的自由（包括平等、民主等权利）相一致时，民族主义才具有道义正当性和积极意义。然而，反殖民的斗争一旦 放弃了“人的解放”的ziyou zhuyi目标，就将陷于“国家至上”的极端民族主义泥潭，反侵略战争的胜利也将随之变成Du * Cai *的胜利……它将淹没人类的共同价值和破坏国际正义，混淆自由与Du * Cai *、人性和反人性、战争与和平、正义之战和不义之战之间的实质性区别，使善与恶、真与 假、公正与不公、文明与野蛮等基本道义原则失去意义。而为Du * Cai *者民族主义付出最大代价的只有人民，其代价之大几乎就是“人的毁灭”——不仅是生命和财产的 代价，更是彻底丧失的尊严和自由的代价。
……
在日益全球化的世界上，激进民族主义往往成为抗拒全球化的野蛮价值和邪恶制度的避难所，既会造成本民族的自戕，也将对普世人权与世界和平构成严重威胁。……在全球化的背景之下，最愿意高举民族主义旗子的政权，……North Korea、Cuba……
和平时期的民族主义，特别是Du * Cai *国家的民族主义或爱国主义，它既是一种自我膨胀的虚幻群体意识，也是一种为转移内部危机而夸大外部危险的统治策略，它是官*方*故意制造的外部威胁幻想，也是民间相信官*方*爱国主义幻想的盲目——国力弱小时产生封闭排外的夜郎自大和崇洋媚外的自卑自贱，国力强大时就将在盲目Du * Cai *意志的主导下，走向对外扩张的大国沙文主义、本民族文化至上的原教旨主义或民族精神的法西斯化。
也就是说，Du * Cai *政权在和平时期煽动的民族主义，已经不是“善恶双刃剑”，而只是单刃毒剑——恶棍的最后避难所，既是政客们弄权的意*识*形*态*工具，也是一个心智不成熟的民族坠入蒙昧深渊的标志。
California Supreme court, in a 34-page ruling,overturned a lower court decision and unanimously upheld that federal law is clear on insulating Internet providers and Web sites against lawsuits for the inflammatory statements of others. (more…)
Obviously the “harmonious society” is a term of euphemism to emphasize pacifying possible rebellious intentions against the ruling party. And the party has correctly identified one of the sources where such intentions come from: inequality, or another word, the gap between rich and poor. The question is, whether it is possible for the New Millennium Plan to narrow the gap. (more…)