Singapore's Growth

Singapore seems to be going round and round in a vicious circle of chasing growth and workers to service the growth. Last year the population growth was more than 5% which heavily heavily clogged the facilities, requiring even more expansion of the infrastructure and therefore more workers to build them.

When I posed the question, the answer is always there isn't enough workers and Singaporeans are not willing to do some of the jobs. Perhaps this is only partly true. It may be true of jobs requiring special skills but if Australians are willing to do labouring jobs at high pay, surely some Singaporeans will too. Neither would want to work for the money that the Bangladeshi workers get. So is the policy merely to get things done cheaply? Is Singapore boasting of high average income only because those hundreds of thousands earning low income are not counted ?

The next question is, how much growth does Singapore really need ?

A universal question

(Published in SMH 29 September 2008)

Mary-Anne Toy ( "Milked to the degree of danger", September 27-28)

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/milked-to-the-degree-of-danger/2008/09/26/1222217517678.html

asked a most relevant question about how a nation that can spend billions on a space venture such as the space walk cannot ensure the safety of milk powder for its vulnerable babies. Sadly this is a question that can be asked of many nations. Even the US, the most powerful nation on Earth, was unable to rescue its own citizens in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Closer to home, we should also question how we could allow so many Aborigines to live in such a parlous state of existence. If we cannot understand our own inability to fairly appropriate our resources, how can we comment on others?

Kin-Mun Kan

Paul Keating on World Order (and China)

I am easily irritated by the constant whinge in the media about the failings of China. I have often said that one would appreciate China better if the rise of that nation is assessed in terms of its history, especially recent history.

Former Prime Minister Paul Keating is one person who has a great sense of history. And is reflected by what he wrote about China in his recent article (“Keating’s New World Order in The Age http://www.theage.com.au/national/keatings-new-world-order-20080823-40yz.html )
the relevant paragraphs of which are quote below :

. . . We can see with this the twenty ninth Olympiad, the questioning of China and the resentment at its pretensions about being one of us. Even, becoming one of us! The Western liberal press featured, generally in critical terms, the world-long torch relay, juxtaposing all that it represents and is good about it, with what it sees as China's democratic defects, viewing it almost exclusively through the prism of Tibet.

Saying, almost, that the aspirations of this massive nation, a quarter of humanity, a legatee of a century of misery, dragging itself from poverty, is somehow of questionable legitimacy, because its current government's attitude to political freedoms and in specific instances, human rights are not up to scratch. Ignoring the massive leaps in progress, of income growth, of shelter, of the alleviation of poverty, of dwindling infant mortality, of education, of, by any measure, the much better life now being experienced by the very great majority of Chinese.

In a Western and elitist way, we have viewed China's right to its Olympic Games, to its 'coming out', its moment of glory, with condescension and concessional tolerance.

The Western critic feeling the epicentre of the world changing but not at all liking it, seeks to put down these vast societies on the basis that their political and value systems don't match up to theirs. . . .

Good on you, Paul !

Brunei

When I told my friends about my recent trip to Brunei, I had expected, with all the hoo-hah about human rights in Tibet, that they would not be too impressed with the fact that the Sultan was an absolute monarch, one of a few left in the world.

No, none had expressed any disgust like they had done over China in Tibet. They couldn’t care less. But some cautiously mentioned that it was a Muslim country, hinting that it was something to be feared.

What annoyed most was it confirmed my suspicion that the issue over China and Tibet was not human rights. It was fear of the Chinese. The R word, R for racism.

"Chinese Nationalism"

Prof Wang Gungwu's interesting article on "Chinese Nationalism - Pride and Pitfalls"

http://a-collection-of-articles.googlegroups.com/web/Chinese%20Nationalism%20ST%20080806.pdf?gsc=J4KrTgsAAADNTRvf3BOLn8fFpJa0Sn9H

inspired this letter to the Straits Times (9 August 2008)

PROFESSOR Wang Gungwu made an intriguing comment in his article on Wednesday, 'Chinese nationalism: Pride and pitfalls', that the international media were astonished by the strong reactions of better-educated Chinese youth in support of China during recent events.

This should not surprise anyone as leadership, including members of the Chinese communist movement, has often come
from the intellectual class.

They were more likely to form visions of their nation's future and see the shortcomings of the society they lived in.

In the present context, many Chinese students living abroad saw the double standards engaged in by the media when they singled out China for sins which many other nations also commit.

They also set an impossibly high standard of international code of conduct for China which they themselves would have trouble meeting in similar circumstances.

The media's worst mistake was to brand the Chinese students blind followers of the Beijing communists when all the students wanted was to show their love of their country.

Brunei

We had a short trip to Brunei. I was curious about a place that has an absolute monarch, no income tax and friendly to Singapore.

It was as expected a quiet and tidy place with little signs of ostentatious wealth apart from what we were told the Sultan bought (the 100-odd Rolls Royces) and built (the Palace and the Mosque). We had few complaints from the local Bruneians. Who would, with free education and health services?

It is a place forgotten by the world, or perhaps ignored. No demonstrators (locals or overseas busybodies) to protest about anything.

John Macarthur would be proud !

When the Camden council blocked the building of a Muslim school in the fringe of the town, it inspired one hate activist Kate McCulloch to say that the well known Camden pioneer of the wool industry John Macarthur, would have been proud of them.

Well, she was wrong as far as the Macarthur descendants are concerned. They wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald of 31 May, 2008 :

“In two places in Saturday's Herald, Kate McCulloch was quoted as saying "The Macarthurs will be proud of us" ("Am I the new Pauline Hanson? I hope so", May 31-June 1). We write as direct descendants of John and Elizabeth's daughter Mary Isabella.

No one can say what their reaction would have been. But we can say that they were first-generation Australians who sought to continue to honour their cultural heritage in a new place and valued education for their children.

We can't know what Elizabeth and John would have thought, but we do know that Mrs McCulloch's racism is not representative of our own views and we like to think it would not have been representative of the Macarthurs either.

Hugh Finlay and Kate, James, Georgina and Isabella Macneil Woy Woy”

Descendants of John Macarthur, we take our hats off to you all !

China - A Western Change of Heart ?

Give credit where credit is due, the media has suddenly decided that China is not such a bad place after all.

"China's soft heart" The Australian, 24 May 08
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23742593-28737,00.html

"Quake that changed a Nation", The Australian, 24 May 08
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23746659-28737,00.html

The change of tune was remarkable, as pointed by Jonathan Eyal of the Straits Times (24 May 08)

"ALTHOUGH few governments care to admit it publicly, Western nations are now re-evaluating their China policies.

The exercise may not result in radically different policies, but it could lead to a more nuanced approach towards Beijing in the months to come.
Relations between China and Western countries have seldom experienced so many ups and downs in such a short period of time. They reached a low ebb in March and April, when the Tibet riots led to unruly protests during the Olympic torch relay in London and Paris.

But then came the Sichuan earthquake, which revealed another face of China, that of a nation united in bereavement but ruled by a government determined to protect its citizens.

The intensity of the Sichuan rescue effort and the relative openness in reporting the disaster impressed Western public opinion.

Criticism of China stopped just as suddenly as it had begun, and the same Chinese leaders which a CNN journalist only recently dismissed as 'a bunch of goons', are now being regarded as heroes.

'Grandpa Wen' - as Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao who directed much of the rescue effort came to be called - received almost as much adulatory coverage in the West as he did in his country's Internet chat rooms.
The difficulty of managing a relationship which now resembles a roller-coaster was evident this week, as the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, continued his tour of Europe.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel - who last year received him with much pomp - was nowhere to be seen.

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown arranged a meeting with the Dalai Lama on neutral grounds, rather than at his official residence.

'The Dalai Lama - An Inconvenient Guest' is how a British newspaper summed up the situation. There is a wide consensus in Western capitals that the old policy of publicly shaming China has not worked. But what troubles Western politicians most is the emergence of a new Chinese nationalism to which there seems to be no immediate answer.

Such nationalism was again in evidence this week when, immediately after the three-minute silence for the quake victims, ordinary people in Tiananmen Square erupted in chants of 'Go China, Go', the refrain made popular during the Olympic torch confrontations last month.

For many years, Western analysts dismissed China's surging national pride as just a by-product of official propaganda.

But now there is a growing realisation that this nationalist tendency is both genuine and permanent, and that it has assumed a clear anti-Western bent, which could start influencing China's foreign policy in the years to come.

What is to be done?

'We must persuade the Chinese people that justifiable pride in their country is perfectly compatible with friendship to the West,' mused a French diplomat during recent discussions on this topic.

In theory, that is clearly the best answer. But no Western country knows how to do it.

One practical outcome, however, is already evident: experts on Chinese nationalism are now being recruited by all Western governments. "

Expected use of the Mobile phone ?

It is almost amusing to read in the Australian (Rowan Callick, "Calamity transforms the face of China")

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23737501-25837,00.html

about how China could no longer hide their natural disasters because of the mobile network. Similar views have been expressed elsewhere in the Western media.

Perhaps they have forgotten that the mobile phone network was built by the Chinese government. Or are they implying that the Chinese government did not know what mobile phones could be used for until one day when the earthquake struck and it was too late ?

Wake up, Rowan, it is called the Information Age and technological progress.

Alternate Views on Tibet China

It is hard to find anything in support of China these days. Watching the TV one would easily conclude that it must have gone from the Sick Man of Asia to the Bad Boy of the World.

But are there alternative views on the matter of Tibet ? Plenty on China Daily online, but most people would simply disregard them out of hand.

Lately there are some articles from more respectable sources out of Europe and the USA. Such as

Whitbeck's "Hypocrisy over Tibet"

http://a-collection-of-articles.googlegroups.com/web/Whitbeck%20-%20Hypocrisy%20over%20Tibet.pdf?gda=9wBJjVcAAACF5i0uTJ6STiN5tcobIpz88kyVT50Y3v6UIEKEUPfrl-G2sVwGLF-i21hNBTL4y6MCqbA1vORZ0pcupp78DgrLRySewvC0CjnYqDSnY9uOb0xg22m2FwBFf91XlOZZeQ0&gsc=Pq7mwBYAAABysr6fRy-Go8PzxNP-0nJVA0pdQ4U5FOg87d5GlWLCNQ

Chossudovsky "Tibet Human Rights PsyOp"

http://a-collection-of-articles.googlegroups.com/web/Chossudovsky%20Tibet%20Human%20Rights%20PsyOp.pdf?gda=oTG-Q10AAACF5i0uTJ6STiN5tcobIpz88kyVT50Y3v6UIEKEUPfrl-G2sVwGLF-i21hNBTL4y6N40vP9HiJZN11QJ4XCus17wXKWGq1zaPJ2-NL5nPQXfs1M8pNy7OuaKy1lcv2vgI8&gsc=Pq7mwBYAAABysr6fRy-Go8PzxNP-0nJVA0pdQ4U5FOg87d5GlWLCNQ



A collection of such articles can be found at

http://groups.google.com.au/group/a-collection-of-articles/files?hl=en&upload=1

Red Flag waving Chinese alarmed Bob Brown

Green leader Bob Brown commented critically on the large number of Chinese Olympic supporters and the sea of red Chinese flags, associating them with Beijing’s Communism. Perhaps Bob Brown should be reminded that many people love their country and are proud to be hosts to the Olympics without necessarily endorsing the politics of their leaders. Certainly, many Australians who waved the Aussie flag and supported the Sydney Olympics were, like Brown himself, much against the politics of the then Prime Minister John Howard.

Tibet and the Olympics

Over the past weeks the mass media have reported extensively about the protests that were disrupting the Olympic Torch relay in Paris, London and San Francisco. The reports were overwhelming sympathetic to the Tibetan dissidents' cause. Unfortunately there have been little if any analysis of the facts surrounding the issue. (for an alternate view, see Stockwell's http://members.tripod.com/~journeyeast/myth_and_reality.html )

On Sunday 14 Apr 2008 thousands demonstrated in Sydney in protest against the media and in support of Tibet as an integral part of China. Perhaps confirming the claim of bias, the Sydney Morning Herald did not report the event, while the Australian Chinese Daily devoted an entire front page to it. Instead, the SMH had a lengthy article on the blog anger, an event largely ignored previously, perhaps only attracted to it after Singapare PM Lee Hsien Loong's recent speech on the subject. (http://www.straitstimes.com/STI/STIMEDIA/pdf/20080411/PMLEESPEECH.pdf)

Multiculturalism Anyone?

Former Labor leader Mark Latham commented in his regular column in the Australian Financial Review recently that racism was behind the objections to the building of a mosque in Camden in western Sydney.

A reader commented quite curtly and perhaps cryptically (8 Apr 2008) -

Not an original comment and certainly not a constructive one. If so, what is the next step? As Kay rightly put it, (9 April 2008)

Perhaps Layton is one of those who does not want it to work.

Tibet Now ?

Howard's Legacy?

A group of aboriginal youths was asked to leave a backpacker hotel in Alice Springs because of the colour of their skins. Apparently the excuse was that there was complaints from “Asian tourists”. Strange that tourists going to central Australia would object to facing real life aborigines.

Australians are known for their ability to stand up and speak out and even defy world opinion, such as with Kyoto and the refugees issue. Why is it when asked to commit as racist act the person responsible is so quick to comply? Well trained by John Howard, perhaps ?