User Comments - Tal

Posted on: Do You Know That Girl?

Nice to see you dig Roy Orbison as well as the King pete, but shouldn't that be "the kind I'd like to meet"? ;)

Posted on: Is China Scary?

@tvan
I haven't seen "The Fog of War", it does sound most interesting. I will look for it online.

I do agree that the defeat of Japan (in WW2) was a desirable outcome by the way, obviously the world has been a better place (for a time) since that happened, and obviously US involvement was crucial to that, and I honour the memory of all who lost their lives in that endeavour. I cannot agree though that the use of nuclear weapons (or indeed the wholesale firebombing of Japanese cities) was necessary. In the end it comes down I suppose to what is considered a morally or ethically justifiable way to "win" a war. That first link I posted (that you seem to find objectionable) makes the good point that to select cities (such as Hiroshima and Nagasaki) as targets, knowing that civilian casualites and suffering would be immense, makes little sense. Unless of course the motivation for such attacks is not the usual one trotted out (saving American lives, ending the war quickly, etc), but instead sending a message to other potential foes (Soviet Union) and the world. "Don't mess with us, we're the boss from now on and this is what we can do."

Posted on: Is China Scary?

@tvan
我的第一个超链接多一半是废话妈？怎么会呢？对我看样子那个网站的文本是列出实事的。没事，我知道有的美国人不喜欢接受那时候的真相。

老实说，我发现这个课文的主题一点天真。解释为什么，我希望我用一点英文可以，恐怕我的中文对这个题目不够好。

We tend to talk about these things as if the current model of global capitalism (exported around the world by western powers over the last 2 centuries) will last forever. As if yesterday it was the British Empire's turn to be the 'global superpower', today it's the US, tomorrow... surely China! In fact this is all an illusion.

Global capitalism (based as it is on non-renewable energy sources) is inherently unsustainable. This simple fact is invisible to almost everyone, because humans (like all animals) are inherently unable to visualise a long-term future and adjust their behavior (as a species) accordingly.

The industrial age which has allowed so many of us to live luxurious lives in the fossil fuel fairy castle for a while, is moving into its final phase and will be over within a generation, maybe two. Questions of which nation (if they still even exist in the form we know them now) is 'global superpower' will then largely be meaningless, (imho).

Posted on: Is China Scary?

Footnote: the real reason(s) the US dropped atomic bombs on Japan are not necessarily the standard ones given. There is argument to suggest that it had more to do with facing down the Soviet Union and establishing the pax Americana, (for which read US world economic and strategic dominance.)

P.S. And yeah too right xiaophil, loading up the vocab page right now.

Posted on: Not So Silent Night

miantiao, I hope you know I like and respect you... err, most of the time (lol). But I really don't get why you're letting rip with this kind of unpleasantness so much of late.

What are you doing man? Are you hitting the bottle?

Please dude, give it a rest. You were hardly ever like this when I first got to know you here, and it was a pleasure then to read your posts and learn from you.

To see you attacking a new user, (and a little girl for crying out loud!), in the way you have done is really embarrassing and distasteful.

I am NOT trying to flame you here in any way by the way, so please don't come at me with fists flailing. I would just love to see you chill out and be 文明客人!

Posted on: Is China Scary?

Life is fair?? Err... um... looks like I've got this whole being alive business all wrong, I'd better go back to basics! lol

Posted on: Is China Scary?

@yingshilangbu
I wanted to say something like 'childlike patriotism/nationalism'. 老实说，我的中文不怎么流利，很可能我选的话不真合适。

Now of course you'll want me to be specific about what I mean by that. 其实，我看这件事情有五花八门的表现。

For example when I first came to China in 2004, I noticed a lot of very strong anti-Japanese feeling. There were even crowds throwing stones at Japanese buildings at that time, Japanese people being threatened and/or assaulted in the street if I remember rightly.

It seemed to me at the time that the Chinese authorities were not doing much to discourage this feeling in the people. It could even be said that they perhaps thought it was useful, a good way to make people feel passionate about China, about being Chinese.

I tried to discuss this issue with Chinese colleagues of mine, (I teach English at a Chinese University.) These were educated people, and the discussion I hoped would be objective and dispassionate. It did not turn out that way though.

One man in particular seemed to express the simmering rage of all when he told me that as a foreigner this had nothing to do with me, that the Japanese 'had done nothing to me'.

Personally for most of my life nationalistic fervor has never been a feeling I can really find in myself. Albert Einstein said: 'Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.' This is my own feeling. But when I spoke disparagingly of nationalism in this way they most certainly did not see the point I was trying to make or feel in any way like that.

'What is wrong with nationalism?' he asked me with blazing eyes! 'Don't you love your family?' a lady asked me. No one was impressed that to me 'family' means the whole human race!

Mao's 'Red Guards' have never really gone away it seems to me; they're still everywhere in China, jogging beside the Olympic flame in blue tracksuits, prowling the internet looking out for dissent, hacking and blogging and spying for 我们中国, a phrase that Chinese people use in their speech so naturally that they clearly give no thought to how it sounds to a foreign ear.

Posted on: Is China Scary?

“中国可怕吗？你们觉得中国人没有友好吗？”

中国朋友喜欢单纯地问西方人这些问题。

怎么回答呢？当然不会吧！

可是，真相就是中国的政府是可怕的，中国人幼稚的民族主义可怕，大部分的中国人很容易被政府控制可怕。

其实这个“中国可怕吗”的问题比较天真的，而且也许一点不诚恳的。

Posted on: Amusement Park

哎哟，我非常喜欢那首歌，现在我知道你是Cohen粉丝我就可以宽恕你什么事！；）

Posted on: Amusement Park

真，我就偷懒呀！不用老打自己！；）