h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well, I've had to put my Dell PC in a box, and it ain't coming out until the Olympics is over, which is a pain.

Plus my choice of Nintendo Wii games has become very limited.

Avoiding Chinese goods is going to be tough, especially when it comes to clothing. But I'm going to try. I'm buying winter clothes at the moment; I'll have to pay a bit more and go with local products or pay a bit more than that and buy European.

Have any of you read Wild Swans : Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang?

If not, it will give you a good understanding of China, and why the people are like they are, even this long after Chairman Mau. Most of us have not experienced that kind of fear.

I am not sure boycotting goods will make much difference (except to how you feel) as there will always be other markets to take up the slack. I feel the more interaction Chinese people have with the outside world the better. They have been a closed country for such a long time, and the older people still carry with them the fears from the past. The younger people are facing new problems. Just an opinion.

That isn't to say I feel any support for China in any way shape or form, I don't. I hate what they are doing in Tibet. I certainly think the carrying of the torch could have been much better handled here in the UK. It was a fiasco.

Take a look at a video put up by John the Gardener to get a clearer idea about Tibet.

Broadcast on Channel 4 on 31 March:

http://video.google.ca:80/videoplay?docid=7982410976871193492&q

Websailor

Webbie, experiencing fear of a brutal regime is no excuse for marauding gangs of flag-waving thugs to attack little old ladies and small children *in another country*, purely because they have a different understanding of what is right.

I based my entire academic career on China and I have the bookshelves to prove it. Dozens of books on the subject - some of them even in Chinese. I am too angry to speak rationally on the subject of China right now. There were ten thousand pigs on the loose in my city yesterday, representing the very best their ancient culture is now offering the world. I regret the absence of what once was, and I can't begin to express just how hurt I feel.

Ivan, If it appeared I was making excuses for what happened please be assured I wasn't. I just feel that a lot of people out there do things under duress.

I am not going to argue with someone who clearly knows a great deal more about it than I do, so I shall say no more.

Websailor

I might also add that my understanding of the fear generated by totalitarianism comes from stories my mother and grandmother have told me. It's the fear that comes with having half the family taken away and most of them murdered; it's the fear that comes when there's a 'free referendum' in which the 'yes' box is vast and the 'no' box is small and there's a man with a gun watching what you do... It's that sort of fear that drove my grandmother to walk across Europe at the age of 26, during a war, with my infant mother on her back. The effects of totalitarianism don't differ; wherever the evil regime is, the result is the same.

It's that sort of thing that makes it so hard for me to see young people who are so brainwashed as to be unable to understand that there are alternative views of anything at all. The slightest sign of an alternative view and they were threatening me...

Sorry Webbie, that was a simulpost.

Yes, I am a bit worked-up. I seem to have inherited an aversion to massed red flags and nationalistic claptrap.

I had read some of your posts before about your background, and I can totally see why you are so cut up about it. I have never experienced that kind of fear, but being fearful by nature, I can get the feel of it, just from your words.

You would think that after all these years we would be seeing less of this, yet we seem to be seeing more.

Did you look at that video? I would be interested to know what you think. I have seen about half of it, but just haven't had the time to watch all of it, hopefully I will tomorrow.

I am signing off in shortly as my other half is making 'switch off' noises, but I will check in tomorrow.

Take care,

Websailor

I haven't tried the video; I'm on dial-up. One day that will change... In the meantime, I don't bother with videos or audio files.

My basic view of the world is that some individuals are good, but people (in the mass) are crap. Yesterday's events have reinforced that belief. I shall shortly wander off and water my garden. Plants are better than people.

Blimey - I'm not surprised you have an aversion to massed red flags, Ivan. It makes your passive stand in the face (literally) of such aggression this week all the more admirable. I applaud you for it

Websailor.. I suspect nationalist claptrap will grow ever louder, simply because there are more people than resources on this wee planet now, and conflict is bound to increase. By clubbing together (by religion, culture or nationality) we increase the chances of our individual survival. Human nature.

Fb

Thanks, Fb. All I did was stand still in the face of a hell of a lot of noise and flailing about, but it was what I had to do. To quote the most sensible thing Luther ever said - 'Here I stand. I can do no other.'

The supreme irony was that out of all the non-Asian bystanders with 50 metres, I was probably the person with the most detailed knowledge of China. The abuse I copped was hurled at the person most able to see (even if not to accept) the Chinese viewpoint.

And yes, I think nationalism is on the rise again. There are echoes of the 1930s coming from all sorts of directions. I'm not happy about this.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23595689-2702,00.html

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23595686-5013404,00.html

It was a sad day.

And that's how my face has been looking all day, Fb.

I no longer have even the slightest desire to visit China. I guess this means I wasted four years of my life... I could have been studying something else instead.

What a terrible impact all this has had on you, Ivan Take some time out and reflect on the positive things of your studies... there must be some? No learning is entirely bad, surely?

I appear to know more about dignified behaviour than the current crop of Chinese students, that's one thing I know for certain.

Anyway. At this time tomorrow I'll be sitting around with my mother and sister, in Adelaide, necking large amounts of brandy. I'll be there for a week and a half. This break might help me regain perspective and cheer me up a bit.

Ivan, I hope you can cheer up. I watched a programme on China last night which was fascinating. Unfortunately I wasn't able to see all of it as it was very late. I hope to catch it on iPlayer. Why are good programmes always on late? There is much about their way of life that is good, and improving all the time. I just wish there was a middle way between their military discipline and our sloppy way of doing things now. I was struck very much by their simple desire to educate their children and have a better life just as we strive for.

Oh, and I don't consider the programme was designed to whitewash the bad side of China, and make it look good for the Olympics. I think there is much to be hopeful about and I don't think you should abandon your interest. People like you visiting, with a good knowledge of both past and present, is what is needed. As for the Chinese students I think they were probably revelling in being able to behave badly, something that would have been cracked down on viciously in their own country.

I feel about your view of people as a whole. In every country, and every nationality there is good and evil, and it is wrong to allow ourselves to judge on the basis of the bad all the time.

I would have given up on conservation years ago if I had let that feeling get the better of me, but I have two sons, and I have to remain positive for their future, if not my own.

I hope your mini break will help you come back to us with a bit more optimism.

Take care,


Websailor

I'm not actually that bothered by either the good or the bad in people. It's the abundant stupidity in people that gets me down... So I'm rather glad I have no investment in the future of this place. I have no children. I only have to be concerned with the here-and-now, not the future; I'll do whatever I can to combat stupidity and ignorance in the present and leave the future to look after itself.

I sometimes wish I could just think about the here and now as so many people do, but I haven't managed it yet.

You are young still, and you do have a future even if it doesn't look like it at the moment.

Take care,

Websailor

I know I have a future - at age 37 one is fully aware of this - but I don't give a toss about what's going to happen down the track once I'm gone. Someone else's problem. With any luck it'll be a world free of both totalitarianism and religion, but that's not my concern. I just want an idiot-free life right now. This requires the elimination of people who stop dead at the top of escalators, and of people who get startled by the need to pay at the checkout and only then start fumbling for cash, and... But I won't go on.