主题：美国精英对美国选票制度的批判。 -- dolong
Conference of Mayors 是 市长会议
water mains 是 自来水总管道
crumbling pipes 是 破裂的水管
Society of Civil Engineers 是 土木工程师会议
错了请轻拍
道教算是中国最弱势的宗教了，现在比外来的基督教弱多了。
http://www.china.com.cn/international/txt/2010-11/09/content_21302992.htm
中国网 china.com.cn 时间： 2010-11-09
英国《星期日泰晤士报》7日刊登多米尼克· 劳森的文章，题为“那么，是谁害怕黄祸？”文章认为，中国人因为深知教育的价值和勤奋刻苦的美德，以及改善经济状况的目标而具有—种原始性的勃勃生气；而欧洲人因不安地感到了自身的衰退而心生恐惧。
文章认为，威绩落在华裔学生后面的白人学生没有抱怨不公平，西方的政治领导人应该以这些白人学生为榜样。以下为文章摘要。
英国人的社交礼仪会让某些常识变得不可明说。例如，将成功归于勤奋是不得体的。相反，人们觉得，认为是运气或天赋所赐更有礼貌。
一个月前，平等与人权委员会发布了一份题为《英国有多公平？》的报告。报告对教育予以特别关注，并且声称， “有证据显示，学习成绩仍与社会经济背景有密切联系”。报告从种族、性别和收入（收入一项根据的是学生是否有资格在学校免费用餐）各方面分析了学生的学习成绩。
然而，在该委员会的学习成绩排行榜上，排名第一的并非家境富裕的白人学生。排在榜首的是“没有资格在学校免费用餐的华裔女生”。第二位则是“有资格在学校免费用餐的华裔女生”。
在我大女儿的学校这个小天地里，我看到了这种现象。这个学校一直以来在学习方面抓得很紧。近期有大量华裔女孩入学，将学习强度提高到了更高水平—一在一个竞争环境中，这会产生全面提高学习成绩的效果。
但是，没有出现以下情况：威绩落在华裔学生后面的白人学生抱怨不公平的贸易行为。也许，当我们的公司在全球市场这更广泛的领域内与中国竞争时，我们的政治领导人应该以这些白人学生为榜样。
西方“黄祸论”再抬头
美国中期选举因前所未有的炮轰中国浪潮而丑态毕露，尤其是一些茶党候选人——例如克里斯蒂娜·奥唐奈——的行为。奥唐奈坚称，中国“精心制定了一项取代美国的战略计划”。
她不愿详细解释，只是神秘兮兮地说：“我有很多话想说。我多么希望我不知道我已经知道的一些秘密信息。”她这是试图吓唬选民，但她的咒语的效力不足以使她为共和党人赢得特拉华州。
不应该对中国的贸易顺差瞠目，更不用说发动贸易战了。虽然奥唐奈的话听上去很极端，但也没比很多较主流的候选人极端多少。从某方面看，这是可以理解的：“黄祸”这一观念从未完全从美国政治中消失，在经济困难时期，往往会气势汹汹地再次抬头 ——例如 20世纪80年代早期经济萧条时，虽然当时是指控日本“操纵货币”以及“向出口商提供不公平的补贴”。
两项指控都有一定正确性，今天的中国也在这样做。但是，现在谁还会说日本制定了一项具有政治目的的工业战略并试图接管世界？
苏格兰启蒙运动的天才亚当·斯密和大卫·休谟 250年前就曾阐明，重商主义内部始终埋藏着导致自身灭亡的种子。
贸易壁垒并不可取
筑起贸易壁垒是所有应对之策中最糟糕的一种，美国从20世纪30年代的惨痛代价中汲取了这—教训，这正是对大萧条岁月有着清晰个人回忆的罗纳德·里根往往否决企图对日本树起贸易壁垒的国会议案的原因。
我们应该希望贝拉克·奥巴马显示出类似的坚持原则的决心，因为类似议案几乎必然会呈送到他的面前。奥巴马还应该对以下事实予以深思：他的政府对中国轮胎征收惩罚性关税不仅招致中国对美国的家禽制品出口商采取报复行动，而且，此举没有对国内企业产生有利影响，受益的是泰国和韩国企业，它们的产品如潮水般涌入，取代受阻的中国轮胎。
事实上，在过去几年中，中国的贸易顺差一直在逐步减少，至少就其占GDP比重而言。2UU7年，中国的经常项目顺差在 GDP中的比重超过lO%，但预计今年将降至5%以下——真的，不应该对这一数字瞠目，更不用说发动贸易战了。
在很大程度上，这种失衡状态反映了中国人作为一个整体比我们这些身处西方发达世界的人更倾向于储蓄这一事实。在中国当局受到为其公民提供更完善社会保障的压力的情况下，在中国成为（这是不可避免的）更完全意义上的消费型社会——在今年前10个月，通用汽车公司向中国人出售了200万辆汽车，是 2007年全年的两倍——后，这很可能会有所改变。
出问题的不是中国
毋庸置疑，在本周将于首尔举行的20国集团峰会上，美国和欧洲将再次要求中国采取力度更大的措施，减少贸易顺差。也许，戴维·卡梅伦——就在此次峰会前夕，他将率领一个规模庞大的英国贸易代表团访华— 将能够得到一些关于中国可能有何反应的有用线索。
卡梅伦将带撒切尔夫人的外交政策顾问鲍威尔勋爵一同前往北京，这是明智之举。鲍威尔勋爵6日在柏林举行的一场会议上警告称，目前，在欧洲内部，人们以 “对无力（与中国）竞争以及中国征服传统的欧洲市场和垄断世界上的原材料感到焦虑”为时髦，这会带来风险。
然而，强行规定企业不得让雇员每周工作超过 48 小时的欧盟对一个拥有13亿人口、企业没有受到此类障碍约束的国家能够取得的成就深怀恐惧，是不足为奇的。在很大程度上，让我们害怕的不是他们，而是我们对自己的了解。
问题不仅在于，中国人、尤其是城市中的中国人因为深知教育的价值和勤奋刻苦的美德以及改善经济状况这一不言而喻的目标而具有—种原始性的勃勃生气；欧洲各地，人们都不安地感到了自身的衰退，这让我们心生恐惧。（编译余申芳）
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: November 30, 2010
Josh Haner/The New York Times
Washington Embassy, People’s Republic of China, to Ministry of Foreign Affairs Beijing, TOP SECRET.
Subject: America today.
Things are going well here for China. America remains a deeply politically polarized country, which is certainly helpful for our goal of overtaking the U.S. as the world’s most powerful economy and nation. But we’re particularly optimistic because the Americans are polarized over all the wrong things.
中国驻美国华盛顿使馆 给 北京中国外交部的电报，高级机密.
标题：今天的美国
正文：美国这边发生的事情对中国很有利。美国现在政治上深深陷入分裂（族群，自由派和保守派）状态，这对我国取代美国成为最强大的国家很有帮助。我们现在非常乐观，因为他们在一些错误的事情上看法分裂。
There is a willful self-destructiveness in the air here as if America has all the time and money in the world for petty politics. They fight over things like — we are not making this up — how and where an airport security officer can touch them. They are fighting — we are happy to report — over the latest nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia. It seems as if the Republicans are so interested in weakening President Obama that they are going to scuttle a treaty that would have fostered closer U.S.-Russian cooperation on issues like Iran. And since anything that brings Russia and America closer could end up isolating us, we are grateful to Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona for putting our interests ahead of America’s and blocking Senate ratification of the treaty. The ambassador has invited Senator Kyl and his wife for dinner at Mr. Kao’s Chinese restaurant to praise him for his steadfastness in protecting America’s (read: our) interests.
Americans just had what they call an “election.” Best we could tell it involved one congressman trying to raise more money than the other (all from businesses they are supposed to be regulating) so he could tell bigger lies on TV more often about the other guy before the other guy could do it to him. This leaves us relieved. It means America will do nothing serious to fix its structural problems: a ballooning deficit, declining educational performance, crumbling infrastructure and diminished immigration of new talent.
The ambassador recently took what the Americans call a fast train — the Acela — from Washington to New York City. Our bullet train from Beijing to Tianjin would have made the trip in 90 minutes. His took three hours — and it was on time! Along the way the ambassador used his cellphone to call his embassy office, and in one hour he experienced 12 dropped calls — again, we are not making this up. We have a joke in the embassy: “When someone calls you from China today it sounds like they are next door. And when someone calls you from next door in America, it sounds like they are calling from China!” Those of us who worked in China’s embassy in Zambia often note that Africa’s cellphone service was better than America’s.
But the Americans are oblivious. They travel abroad so rarely that they don’t see how far they are falling behind. Which is why we at the embassy find it funny that Americans are now fighting over how “exceptional” they are. Once again, we are not making this up. On the front page of The Washington Post on Monday there was an article noting that Republicans Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee are denouncing Obama for denying “American exceptionalism.” The Americans have replaced working to be exceptional with talking about how exceptional they still are. They don’t seem to understand that you can’t declare yourself “exceptional,” only others can bestow that adjective upon you.
In foreign policy, we see no chance of Obama extricating U.S. forces from Afghanistan. He knows the Republicans will call him a wimp if he does, so America will keep hemorrhaging $190 million a day there. Therefore, America will lack the military means to challenge us anywhere else, particularly on North Korea, where our lunatic friends continue to yank America’s chain every six months so that the Americans have to come and beg us to calm things down. By the time the Americans do get out of Afghanistan, the Afghans will surely hate them so much that China’s mining companies already operating there should be able to buy up the rest of Afghanistan’s rare minerals.
Most of the Republicans just elected to Congress do not believe what their scientists tell them about man-made climate change. America’s politicians are mostly lawyers — not engineers or scientists like ours — so they’ll just say crazy things about science and nobody calls them on it. It’s good. It means they will not support any bill to spur clean energy innovation, which is central to our next five-year plan. And this ensures that our efforts to dominate the wind, solar, nuclear and electric car industries will not be challenged by America.
Finally, record numbers of U.S. high school students are now studying Chinese, which should guarantee us a steady supply of cheap labor that speaks our language here, as we use our $2.3 trillion in reserves to quietly buy up U.S. factories. In sum, things are going well for China in America.
Thank goodness the Americans can’t read our diplomatic cables.
Embassy Washington.
读者评论1
If it were even close to reality -- that U.S. trains are an internationallaughing stock -- that an Arizona Kyl puts lunatic partisanship ahead ofnational interest -- that most Congress people openly take money that all know are corporate bribes -- that U.S. schools die -- many American leaders live nowhere near any reality-based world -- well, good thing you just made this all up.
Recommend Recommended by 927 Readers
读者评论2
I work with Indians, Japanese, Europeans (and even a few Brits) and our (American) need to tell ourselves we are GREATEST has gone beyond a culturalstatement of national pride (in our geography, our industry, our consitution) and has become comparative to others and delusional.
I am deeply confused how we elect people with almost no understanding of theworld. How have we become suckers for bullies, shouters, those who take pride in not being educated, criers, liars and the like. Really? What will
historians being saying in 100 years of us?
Still, being abroad makes we appreciate SO much what America was, is and can be. So I won't give up and I will wish I was home everyday. But in the meantime I see Indian confidence rise, European cynicism become justified, and wonder, how can it change?
Recommend Recommended by 896 Readers
--
You think things are great now? Just wait until 2012! We'll dazzle the world!
In 2012, China will have a chemical engineer as president, and a PhD economist as premier. Meanwhile, we have a real chance of electing a Sarah as president. And whoever the vice-president is, I guarantee you (s)he will
not have a PhD.
Recommend Recommended by 687 Readers
2012年，中国的总统（主席）是化工工程师，中国的总理是经济博士。而我们美国可能选上 Sarah Palin（前阿拉斯加州长，Tea Party领袖，很多美国人觉得她是个Joke）当总统。
[URL=http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/articles/2010_08_27/science.opms.r1000093
]美国科学杂志：92％博士后认为，学术界关系网是关键（key）[/URL]
The Postdoc Experience: Taking A Long Term View
By Laura Bonetta
August 27, 2010
Establishing a network of colleagues who can provide guidance and supportand help open doors is key to a successful postdoc experience, according to 92 percent of this year’s survey respondents.
现在美国的教授职位太少了，各州都有财政危机，public大学都在减少开支，而老教授因为对经济前景担忧也不退休，年轻博士后的压力越来越大了。
市场上机会越少，关系越重要，难道美国学术界也要像中国看齐吗？
Julian Assange
因为言论没有能量(power)，才有言论自由。西方社会的言论不会对权力产生影响（Western speech, as something that rarely has any effect on power），而中国的言论对政治权力有很大的影响。
问答实录link： http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/12/03/wikileaks.assange.qanda/index.html
[FLASH]http://www.youtube.com/v/zttMj_pV1Tw[/FLASH]
看9秒到11秒处右边那面旗子上的星星的变化，这之间有剪接。
底下还配了笑声。
一条CNN读者关于Xiaobo Liu炸药奖的评论
The difference is our political dissidents are not a threat to ourgovernment, because these people are often powerless. However we givefinancial and political support and media coverage to people like Liu Xiaobo all around the world, that makes them a threat to their states.
http://community.nytimes.com/comments/www.nytimes.com/2010/12/11/world/europe/11nobel.html?sort=newest
blinded1
USA
December 10th, 2010
8:16 pm
I came to America more than 20 years ago, not to pursuing the American Dream
, but only for being able to breath freely. When I was in China, I
encouraged my students to join other demonstrating students to show their
solidarity and to learn from the society classroom. In the early month of
June, 1989 I, as well as the vast majority of Chinese students and scholars
in US walked onto streets to protest and condemn Chinese government’s
crackdown on peaceful student demonstration in Beijing, and donated money
for the students’ course. I want to see China to be a modern, democratic
and free country with her citizens enjoying every right a human being
entitled to. But such Chinese society should be made and defined by the
Chinese people, no defined or pressured by any foreign influence, and
particularly it should no be a puppet state or colony of foreign nation(s).
I will not hesitate to criticize or condemn the CCP and Chinese government
whenever I see its action harmful to the interests of China nation and
Chinese people, neither I will keep silent because such actions are come
from ‘democratic, free’ countries.
I don’t consider Liu Xiaobo’s advocating for 300 years’ colonization as
big offense, mostly a sensational show off for publicity. However, his
willingness to be a second-class citizen of Western nations does not
represent the interests of 1.3 billion Chinese people. His accepting money
from the National Endowment for Democracy establishes himself as a foreign (
particularly, US) agent whose only purpose is to sabotage the sovereignty
and integrity of China nation. Since its creation by CIA, did NED have done
anything that is beneficiary to foreign people it pretends to ‘help’ other
than assisting US government to fortify America’s global hegemony position.
Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize committee is smart enough to praise Liu Xiaobo
for his ‘human rights activism’ not for promoting world peace, because Liu
has nothing to brag about peace activities, if not the opposite. But please
enlighten me what ‘human rights’ activity he has done, or simply because
he is jailed by Chinese government? A award for democracy maybe more
relevant for Liu, but then he is only one in 100,0000 on Tiananmen Square,
and one in millions in China in 1989 went on streets to protest.
It is no surprise that the Nobel Peace Prize committee has a political
agenda in picking up Liu. The problem is that it picked a wrong person. Many
Chinese dissidents are more qualified than Liu, and many have done great
deal to help the poor people and the society. In the chorus launched by US
government and mainstream media condemning Chinese government’s attempt to
block the Award ceremony, many equating China as Nazi Germany, a good
observer can detect the missing components, a supporting voice from the
Chinese, in China and overseas – a startling contrast to the solidarity
between oversea Chinese and west media in the wake of Tiananmen Square
students demonstration crackdown in June 4, 1989. US may be used to imposing
‘regime change’ over foreign sovereign nations without the support of
endogenous people. However, China is not Iraq and US dare to use the same
strategy it used in Iraq and Afghan to China. This is why Liu Xiaobo is
useful and important. Unfortunately (or fortunately based on personal
judgment) Liu does not resonate a big echo of his voice/thoughts in Chinese.
I will say it is a dream trying to make regime change without the support
of majority Chinese people.
Today’s US the press environment is increasingly suffocating. The
mainstream media have hijacked honest journalism, instead filled news
reporting with twist and manipulations and lies. Free press without
objectivity and factuality has no difference from propaganda and brainwash.
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