Horse’s Mouth is posting a series of remembrances of the June 4 massacre.:

An endless line of army trucks had now jammed Chang’an Avenue. For a moment there was complete silence. Then, little by little, the people collected again and inched their way toward the trucks until they could touch them. They begged, they cursed, they swore. "You’re the People’s Army, you can’t open fire on the people!" some protested. Others were sarcastic, saying, "You’re very good at killing unarmed civilians! You’ve turned yourselves into killing machines for those old bastards! But when they finally die, you’ll all be executed!" Then a hoarse voice began to lead the crowd in singing the "Internationale." We all wept. The soldiers were stone-faced; you could see from their eyes the stupidity, the apathy, the cruelty.

Global Voices online has started online profiles of bloggers nominated for the Freedom Blog Awards. The first profile is on Glutter.

For the next few weeks, we’ll be offering profiles of bloggers
nominated for the Reporters Sans Frontières weblog awards. This profile
is part of the series. Please visit the RSF voting page and vote for your favorite blogs. - Your friendly editors

Via Tomorrow, a fictional report on what an outbreak of avian flu could look like in the journal Nature:

25 January 2006 Escaping from hell
Apologies for the long delay in posting. The past few weeks have been chaos. I was out with WHO teams from dawn to dusk as they tried in vain to stamp out the outbreak with drugs. People fell sick all over Hanoi and 1 in 50 of them died. Many of the worst affected felt fine in the morning, but were dead by lunchtime — blue in the face, gasping for air. At the overcrowded hospital, I saw victims collapsing, suffocating in their own lung fluid, blood streaming from their noses and gums. Others had longer ordeals, tortured by encephalitis as the virus ate into their brains, or overwhelmed by multiple organ failure. Panicky authorities transported corpses out to the fields by truck and burnt them on open pyres.

A good reason to support the Adopt-a-blog project (via China Digital Times):

Chinese-run websites have until the end of May to register their sites or face being shut down as part of a new government campaign to police the Internet, a leading portal announced on Saturday.

The registration drive is an effort by the Ministry of Information Industry to clamp down on fraud and other "unhealthy" activity on the Internet, the portal Sohu.com said.

Note to Singapore bloggers: just in case the ‘.gov’ in the IP addresses didn’t tip you off - the Straits Times bluntly explains that big brother is watching (via Buttermilk):

‘According to the Ministry of Information, Communications
and the Arts, the Government keeps an eye on all feedback it gets
online, including blogs. "However, it is not practical, if not
impossible, to keep track of everything that goes on over the
Internet," stressed a spokesman.’

Implied: ‘. . . much as we would like to!’

‘Could
like-minded people—say, opposition sympathisers—get together after
reading one another’s blogs? There is little evidence of that for now,
but it cannot be ruled out.’

No doubt Gabriel
would tell me not to conflate the organs of the state with the state
itself, but sometimes the fingerprints of the state are too thick and
grimy to ignore. ‘Opposition sympathisers‘? ‘Cannot be ruled out‘? Very interesting
choice of words. (Compare: ‘Could Democrat sympathisers get together
after reading one another’s blogs? The possibility cannot be ruled
out.’)

Tak at the Old Revolution mentions a reason why Americans should also be upset by the frequent visits by Japan’s politicians to the Yasukuni shrine.:

14 class A war criminals, including Hideki Tojo, the generalissimo of Japan’s military who was sentenced to death by the Tokyo War Crime Tribunal (note: did not die in battle). He, for example, approved the infamous 731 Unit, which conducted experiments on humans to develop germ and chemical weaponry and in the process murdered at least 3,000 Chinese, Koreans, and Allied POWs. He also ordered the attack on Pearl Harbor (which means he’s not only Hitler but also Osama, to stretch the historical parallel way too thin). (emphasis added)

Cowboy Caleb is creeped out by the new gay condominium being built in Singapore.

Then I went to look out of the window to ruminate on how there is no hope for the human race, and I suddenly realize I’m staring at that (aka the Pink Dollar Project). I don’t mind lesbians, but gay men frighten me. A lot.

Personally, if I were gay I’d worry that the Pink Dollar condo project may be an easy way to get the get the gay community all in one place for an impending crackdown. After all, homosexuality is still illegal. Still, the city state is full of contradictions.

Publius Pundit has a roundup of Australian blogger reaction to the 20-year sentence given to Australian Schapelle Corby for smuggling pot into Bali, Indonesia. And, while not suggesting innocence, Publius Pundit sees injustice in the verdict.:

Dictator Soeharto, thief of $40 billion and killer of 500,000, the
man of The Year Of Living Dangerously’s rivers that ran red with blood
in 1966, gets a mild ailment in his dotage, sending him to the hospital
and everyone in the supposed new reformasi democrasi government is at the old dictator’s side, wishing him well, bringing him flowers.
Worse
yet, the vile Abu Bakar Bashir, one of the world’s foulest terrorists,
a man in the same league as bin Laden, Zarkawi, Hambali, Zawahri and
Granda, got all of two and a half years’ jail for murdering 200 mostly Australian tourists on Bali three years ago.
What the hell does that say about Indonesian justice? 20 years for pot,
2 years for terrorist mass murder? Twenty year sentences for
Australians who damage Bali by bringing in pot, 2 year sentences for
Indonesians who kill Australians by blasting them away with bombs? It’s
obvious some kind of injustice is going on, even if Schapelle Corby is
as guilty as they come.

Cathartidae 2.0 points to a report on ugly behavior by a South Korean shopkeeper in Cebu:

I guess when you have a steady stream of suckers Korean travelers on package tours that involve the Korean tour guide taking all of the tourists to local Korean-owned businesses, these same businesses can afford to do things like banning locals from their shop.

One of my favourite smart bloggers, Daniel Drezner, has a roundup of research providing a level-headed view on outsourcing.

Japundit notes the case of a man who won’t be among the lucky one percent of accused who are accquited:

A man in Fukuoka, Japan who is on trial for murdering his wife’s niece during a confrontation with police has been spending his time in detention sending threatening letters to the judge.

The man, Tadashi Kawamura, 39, is due to receive a ruling on his case in the Fukuoka District Court on Thursday. During his trial he had shouted at witnesses, and he reportedly sent the letters because the case hadn’t proceeded as he expected it would.

From Macam Macam:

Indonesia’s aspirations to political stability received a body blow as two bombs ripped through a busy Saturday morning market in the town of Tentana, central Sulawesi, killing at least 19 people and wounding many others.  This part of Sulawesi island has been recovering slowly from major inter-communal violence in 2000.  Whether these attacks mark the start of a new phase of hostilities remains to be seen.

John at Sinosplice has discovered the new DVD boxset of all six Star Wars theatrical movies:

I saw this on sale as well, but I’m waiting for the deluxe edition with the Holiday Special and Ewok TV movies.

In an open letter by 125 relatives to President Hu Jintao, said the government’s recent accusations against Japan for failing to acknowledge its World War II atrocities were meaningless because it has not apologized for its own transgressions.
"You and your predecessors have wiped the memory of the June 4 massacre from the books and have covered up this despicable event from history," the letter said.
"In this you have been very successful. You have been more thorough than those Japanese right-wing plotters who have tried to erase the history of the Nanjing massacre."

(Via Horse’s Mouth.)

If you’re looking for a mate, it’s common sense to at least try to make yourself look attractive.

Howard W French notes that China’s most recent attempt to improve relations with Taiwan will unlikely generate much support on the island. Despite the friendly gestures, to the Taiwanese the mainland remains an ugly suitor with an unduly aggressive personality:

Whatever their feelings about popular mores next door, Taiwanese are united across political lines in their disdain for China’s heavy-handed authoritarianism, weak rule of law, official corruption on a vast scale and yawning gap between rich and poor.
“The fact is, the mainland’s economy is not as good as Taiwan’s yet,” said Chen Kongli, a professor at the Taiwan Research Institute at Xiamen University, in China. “And they think the political democracy is not as advanced on the mainland as in Taiwan. These are the two things the Taiwanese people are most proud of, their economy and their democracy.

If China wants a marriage with Taiwan, it had best make itself a more pleasant potential spouse:

David W.F. Huang, vice chairman of Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, said: “In 50 years’ time, people may change perspective, but only if China genuinely changes, if China becomes a true democracy, which means at least that it should tolerate a difference of opinion, like Canada, which gives Quebec a choice, so long as it respects certain procedures. The problem is that China will not do that.”

UPDATE: ESNW provides a translation of a similarly themed and more important article from - amazingly - the Communist Party-controlled China Youth Daily.:

Whereas a New York Times columnist might have written an article about the China-Taiwan situation in terms of abstract dualities such as democracy-totalitarianism, capitalism-socialism, nationalism-separatism or independence-unification, Lung Ying-tai proposes a more concrete and personal approach.

…the people of Taiwan never thought they had to "separate" from the government on mainland China, because they have never belonged to or obeyed that government.
From the viewpoint of a military "superpower", the attitudes of the people on the island of Taiwan may be scorned.  But if you want to understand the people of Taiwan, then these ingrained historical feelings and psychological mindset ought to the first basic lesson for any understanding.
People in Taiwan are accustomed to living in a democratic system.  This means that the democracy system holds the same place in their daily lives as as daily necessities such as tea, rice, cooking oil and salt.

La Vida Lawyer recounts a Filipino bureaucrat’s philosophy:

"What is the most important rule in life?", Mr. Bureaucrat, a career officer in a government agency, blurted as he swang his club and sent the golf ball 200 yards away. I managed only to shrug my shoulders, not knowing that Mr. Bureacrat was about to give me his life lessons with a swing."Never stick your neck out for anyone," he declared as we walk towards the golf ball in the green.

Well back in my blogspot days, I mused that Schapelle Leigh Corby - an Australian now being tried for drug smuggling in Indonesia - was possibly guilty of something worse than smuggling pot. I said she may have been guilty of stupid business practices:

..there seems to be no market rationale for what she allegedly did. According to the United Nations 2004 World Drug Report (large pdf file
pp. 378-380) cannabis costs US$1.10 per gram in Indonesia and US$19.20
per gram in Australia. Effectively, it would lose almost 95% of its
value as soon as it were delivered.

Anyone who would smuggle drugs to Bali is an incredibly large dumbass.

Jakartass, however, seems to think she may have been servicing a niche market:

I surmised on Tuesday that Australians in Bali may prefer their own home grown. Apparently, I was right.

A
Balinese drug dealer who has spent time in jail said he had smoked the
Australian ’skunk’ many times with friends from Italy, Germany and
Australia but had never bought or sold any.

He recognised the marijuana as Australian as it was made up of large
flowers or buds, while the marijuana he sells from Aceh in north
Sumatra or from Malang in East Java has much smaller buds and a lot of
leaf mixed in.

The history of Glutter.org, awaiting a democratic Hong Kong…

From the first link:

SANTA CRUZ — China doesn’t want you to know about Yan Sham-Shackleton.
She’s the 30-something graduate of UC Santa Cruz whose blog has been nominated by Reporters Without Borders for a free speech award.
Yan’s blog, at www.glutter.org, touches on the democratic movement in Hong Kong, human rights violations in China and Taiwan independence.

The Swanker welcomes the planned tsunami early warning system as a way to prevent loss of life, although he sees some hazards emerging from the reconstruction effort:

Initial infrastructure costs are estimated at around US$120 million,
with almost half of the funds coming from Germany.  A small investment
for long-term peace of mind to help ensure that a humanitarian disaster
of the magnitude of December 26 will never again break on Indonesian
shores.
Unfortunately, there seems to be less foresight in the sourcing of materials to rebuild homes for Acehnese survivors:

The timber for the new houses is being logged illegally in the mist-shrouded mountains rising in the distance.

I wrote about this a few weeks ago.
Less than two years ago, some 200 people died when a landslide and
flashflooding struck the famous orang utan resort of Bukit Lawang,
situated in the highlands of Gunung Leuser National Park on the border
between Aceh and North Sumatra provinces.  Rampant deforestation of the
hillsides was blamed as the prime culprit. 

Over at the Old Revolution, a fascinating look at Japan’s new blog-based journalism and its prospects:

News blogs have been the rage of late not only in the U.S. but also around the world. The incursion of blogs into public space, however, has had different impact in different countries.
In Japan, with a relatively closed system of print journalism (a legacy of the wartime propaganda machine), one would expect that blog journalism is taking a different path. (For a good overview on this topic, see Japan Media Review’s article last year on the discussion of ethics among journalist-turned bloggers).
I just encounterd a blog provacatively titled “The-Net-will-Kill-Newspapers Blog” (with the word “kusanone” 草の根, or “grassroots” in its url). Its author, Tsuruaki Yukawa, is a senior journalist at Jiji Press, a major news agency in Japan.
Fed up with the world of Japanese journalism, Yukawa began blogging last year with one simple wish: how to merge “grassroots journalism” with traditional news media.

Discovered through Andrea, a very sharp blog on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations from the Aseanist. Here are his/her thoughts on the embarrassment of Myanmar/Burma’s impending presidency:

I’m starting to wonder, though, whether a Myanmar presidency might be a good thing for ASEAN. First, it will force the member states to internalize fully the costs of carrying the junta. A boycott by its most prominent non-Asian dialogue partners and a possible delay in implementing E.U.-funded regional integration projects would drive home to member states capitals how much of a liability Yangon has become for the region. Second, it could remind the member states that they have to generate their own resources for ASEAN as soon as posssible. The organization remains so dependent on outside funding and support that a Western boycott is a real threat. It shouldn’t be for any self-respecting regional organization. Finally, a boycott could actually be a welcome respite from the diplomatic circus of meetings and fora and dialogues that can be distracting from the task of making tough decisions about integrations.

Of course, all this is a little like putting lipstick on a pig. I don’t think a Myanmar presidency is desirable. But there can be a silver lining.

Don’t shed a tear for South Korean makers of tear gas and other anti-riot gear. While the downturn in protest activity from the heady days of the 80’s and 90’s has cut local sales, Korean companies have always been adept at exporting.

South Korean makers of tear gas and water cannons, used by riot police to quell demonstrations, are turning to foreign police agencies for sale to replace shrinking local demand, police and company officials said Thursday.
“Companies that make police equipment contact us for help in their marketing to foreign police,” said Park Jung-joon from the National Police Agency, who deals with overseas relations.
“They invite foreign police officers over and ask us to demonstrate how to operate the equipment,” he said.

The Communist Party seems to have learned little from its mishandling of information during the 2003 Sars outbreak.

From the Horse’s Mouth:

Yesterday Imagethief mentioned that China’s media had reported on cases of Bird Flu, but failed to say anything about the recent Foot-and-Mouth outbreaks…
Today the Taipei Times has a report that Chinese authorities have locked down access to villages outside of Beijing to halt the spread of Foot-and-Mouth disease…
Apparently the Chinese government didn’t learn a damn thing from SARS, because they still insist on being ignorant rather than warning the public when serious health issues pose a risk to the people.
When will losing "face" to take a backseat to losing lives in China?

Horse’s Mouth may actually be too kind on the CPC. If this report from the Google News-approved Recombinomics is to be believed, China’s media isn’t reporting on the avian flu either:

The report above would seem
to indicate a news blackout of some sort was in place for Qinghai
province.  The sequence of events is cause for significant
concern.  Initial reports
of dead geese at the Qinghai Lake Nature Reserve indicated that 178 bar
headed geese had died, but not of bird flu.  Recent media reports
indicated that the dead geese were H5N1 positive and the OIE report of
May 21 indicated there were 519
dead waterfowl involving five species, including the bar-headed geese.
Official comments from China
indicated the 519 deaths were isolated and there were no deaths in farm
birds or people.  Promed then carried a report
indicating 6 people had died and the Chinese language report
indicated they were tourists and the names and point of origin of 4
fatalities were given.

Rebecca MacKinnon weighs in on Nicholas Kristof’s NYT piece on how blogs may bring down the Chinese communist Party - respectfully and forcefully arguing that the opposite may be true:

The point is, democracy isn’t the only thing that can sprout and grow on the internet. So can intolerance, xenophobia and belligerence.

And those qualities – which are permitted and even encouraged by the government to fester in Chinese cyberspace – may help the Chinese Communist Party stay in power. Last fall I wrote a long rant in response to cyber-utopians (whose ranks Kristof appears to have joined) and connectivity idealists like Thomas Barnett (of The Pentagon’s New Map fame) in which I warned:

Don’t assume that the expansion of freedom of speech in Chinese cyberspace will necessarily strengthen international peace and brotherly love between China and other countries - the opposite is also possible.

Recent anti-Japanese protests certainly make that clear. The fact that Chinese cyberspace was cheering right after the 9/11 attacks (as Kristof himself reported) is another stark example.

Don’t expect the Chinese blogosphere to bring down the Chinese Communist Party any time soon.