Another quick note at the end of this holiday weekend to mark yet another story that shouldn’t be overlooked: Protests have broken out across China after the country’s strict zero-Covid policies appear to have delayed firefighters responding to a deadly apartment fire Thursday night in Urumqi, the capital of China’s Xinjiang region, which lies in the country’s vast northwest.
Last night my wife and I attended a guided tour of an exhibition of contemporary works by Ukrainian artists. It was held in an abandoned automobile showroom next to the city’s largest cemetery here in Cologne. At the end, we went outside to another building that housed a huge video screen on which President Zelenskiy spoke of the trials and suffering of the Ukrainian population at the hands of Russia.
The screen was composed of roughly 50 boxes each of which flashed with images too horrific to be shown as stills. Each image remained on the screen for one second, two at most. They were each so horrid, so painful, so graphic that the effect was quickly overwhelming and I had to turn away. The Germans in the room did not.
The artworks in the main building provoked contemplation – they were images and sculptures of the type one is accustomed to seeing in a museum or collection, political, yes, but familiar in their forms and methods.
The immense screen of suffering and carnage housed in the smaller, darker building was aggressively confrontational – heartbreaking, provocative, undeniable – real to the point of pain, washed as it was in the blood and tears of Ukrainian citizens.
And their suffering continues, even as we stood before that screen we knew, all of us gathered there, that this was happening now, even as I turned away to walk out into the cold, wet night there was no turning away for the millions who last night, today, tomorrow, face the relentless pounding horror being visited upon them by Russia, the madman Putin, and those across the globe who give him aid and comfort.
Will those who make this killing possible, as many Germans did immediately following World War Two, assert they did not know or could not resist, the extermination of millions by their government?
Last night, in this German city that welcomed Adolf Hitler in March of 1936 as he marched across the Rhine with 20,000 soldiers to reclaim authority over the Rhineland, an act he was forbidden by treaty from doing, one can well imagine these children and grandchildren of those who stood and cheered the Nazi soldiers as they crossed the river, recognized what is happening in Ukraine for what it is.
Professor Timothy Snyder has organized a fundraiser to provide air defense against the Iranian-made Drones bombing Ukrainian cities. It is called, Shahed Hunter, and can be found here: https://u24.gov.ua/shahedhunter
Thank you for taking time from your holiday weekend to acknowledge the plight of the long suffering Chinese people. They have the right to be heard -- to cry out from the depths of totalitarian control and abuse.
6 months ago, who would have predicted popular widespread protests in Iran and China. Certainly not me. Both brutal dictatorships not afraid to use harsh measures to put down "insurgencies". Any predictions about which authoritarian leader will next find his country facing widespread unrest. I vote for Putin.
Heather, thank you for this wonderful synopsis of what I saw last night (Sunday in India...) on social media, WAPO, NYT and news streaming. I was astonished and really moved by what I was watching. Students and other protesters holding up white blank sheets of paper to protest what you have described. The lockdowns have been going for THREE YEARS all over China. I read that in Shanghai, the largest city in the country, there were thousands of protestors. This is really incredible. On June 4, 1989 I watched on TV the protests at Tianamen Square (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Tiananmen_Square_protests_and_massacre) and subsequent massacre. Most of the demonstrators were young students. My heart is with the people of China. They are speaking loud and clear to the entire world and to their government, enough is enough! Thank you, Heather, as always.
It’s human nature to want to have self-determination and to breathe freely. Democracy offers hope for those things and more. I pray our country doesn’t lose a grip on what our Declaration declares as it’s aim to provide “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”
As we all grieve for so many across the globe who are struggling for fundamental rights, the clarion call repeatedly sounded for “Democracy and the rule of law” and for “Freedom of expression” understandably might focus the mind on our own 2020 election and on the knowledge that had only 40,000 votes, give or take, from Wisconsin, Arizona, and Georgia gone to Trump, he still would be President.
Consequently, however hopeful we might feel about the 22 results, a bit further down the road, Republicans plausibly could regain control of both chambers of Congress and also win the White House, conceivably precipitating both a near-fatal weakening of American civic institutions and also a Presidency eager and able to consolidate power, wherein the rule of law could be subjugated to an individual.
Adding conceivably unsettling state and local outcomes to the fray, I find it hard to imagine the stakes could be more pressing to justify staying in the fight post-election to protect the key mechanisms of democracy both at home and abroad.
The collapse of the East German government, breach of the Wall and subsequent unification of Germany was remarkable for its relative bloodlessness. in short order, the entire Soviet Union collapsed, leaving individual countries to chart their own courses forward. Most grassroots rebellions, regardless of what triggers them, come at very considerable cost to the protestors, as autocratic governments swing into action to suppress them by ever increasingly draconian steps, usually involving arrests, incarcerations, and killings. Recent events in Iran, Russia, China all include brutal government action against protest arising from events intolerable to the public. And, history has shown that protest CAN lead to regime change, if the movement is sustained, supported by the broad majority of the population and adequately resilient to absorb the punishment by the regime and it's military, paramilitary, police force and any other arm of government capable of going to battle against the civilian population. The price of regime change is often loss of life on a large scale in the course of turning public opinion to the point that the regime is simply ignored and loses the capacity to control the public with violent repression. It seems that only a small fraction of uprisings reach critical mass and result in regime change.
My Iranian friend, in tears, is telling me about the messages her cousins in Iran send her about the brutality and torture that is happening there right now, as well. The young people are being deliberately shot in the eyes with rubber bullets to blind them and taken to prison to be systematically raped and tortured. But the courageous young people continue to protest. The courageous Ukrainians continue to fight the depraved Russian army. ....While half of America is devoted to Trump....
Outbreaks of democracy in Iran, now China, and even, judging from its last election, in the good old US of A! There’s popular anti-war rumblings in Putin’s Russia added to his floundering, failed invasion of Ukraine. And Ukraine! An entire nation of democracy-loving heroes!
The forces promoting fascism and autocracy are being met by spontaneous movements toward open democracy that are going to be difficult, maybe impossible, to contain.
2023 is shaping up to be a very interesting time in human history.
A big problem for the Communists is that their Covid vaccine doesn't work very well, a difficult problem in a society with a large number of elderly who aren't in wonderful physical shape to begin with. A massive die-off wouldn't look too good, particularly in a society in which the old are venerated.
Bad news for the ChiComs = good news for the rest of us.
Xi’s harsh authoritarianism has major downsides in a country with diverse provinces, major industrial centers, and a population less and less willing to subsist in poverty.
Xi’s single-minded approach to Covid is his latest Achilles’ heel. He has shut down cities with multimillion populations for weeks in an effort to ‘wipe out Covid.’ This has caused massive personal inconvenience and economic disruption. Also, it means that Chinese haven’t developed Covid antibodies and, thus, are more susceptible to current Covid outbreaks.
China has produced several pandemic vaccines that are less effective than Pfizer and other Western vaccines. Though these could be purchased, Xi’s nationalism refuses to acknowledge that Chinese vaccines are second rate.
Now there are unprecedented protests in Xi’s police state. Also, the just-in-time supply of products to Apple and others is disrupted and an increasing number of companies are looking for more stable suppliers elsewhere in Asia.
I have stated earlier that the nature of Xi’s authoritarianism is likely to diminish the rate and scope of China’s economic development over the long run [‘China 4 feet rather than 8 feet tall’]. You are already seeing this happen.
I was part of an American Environmental group that visited Southern China in 2013. Almost a decade ago when development was opening and tourism as well as educational exchanges and global economic expansion were taking place. We started in Shanghai and traveled deep into rural areas, as well as towns. Yunaan Province. High into the mountains, rice paddies and rural communities. Both American and Chinese groups had jointly developed a rural environmental alliance. The paperwork bogged down in the system. We funded it and started paperwork and sponsorship and both Chinese and American environmentalists were committed. The contrast of economic and social development was stark in some areas, but we did have an experienced Chinese guide. We believed we could work together. It was a hopeful time. And then a disappointing time.
Xi not only admires Mao but in intent on achieving the same level of control. I have viewed his strict Covid policies as partially his form of a "cultural revolution" allowing him to take stricter control of the country and finding those that he can rely on to implement his power consolidation.
What we may be seeing is the reaction of young people realizing that there ability to have free discussion cut off and sensing dictatorial suppression. I am afraid that the reaction of Xi's government
Last night my wife and I attended a guided tour of an exhibition of contemporary works by Ukrainian artists. It was held in an abandoned automobile showroom next to the city’s largest cemetery here in Cologne. At the end, we went outside to another building that housed a huge video screen on which President Zelenskiy spoke of the trials and suffering of the Ukrainian population at the hands of Russia.
The screen was composed of roughly 50 boxes each of which flashed with images too horrific to be shown as stills. Each image remained on the screen for one second, two at most. They were each so horrid, so painful, so graphic that the effect was quickly overwhelming and I had to turn away. The Germans in the room did not.
The artworks in the main building provoked contemplation – they were images and sculptures of the type one is accustomed to seeing in a museum or collection, political, yes, but familiar in their forms and methods.
The immense screen of suffering and carnage housed in the smaller, darker building was aggressively confrontational – heartbreaking, provocative, undeniable – real to the point of pain, washed as it was in the blood and tears of Ukrainian citizens.
And their suffering continues, even as we stood before that screen we knew, all of us gathered there, that this was happening now, even as I turned away to walk out into the cold, wet night there was no turning away for the millions who last night, today, tomorrow, face the relentless pounding horror being visited upon them by Russia, the madman Putin, and those across the globe who give him aid and comfort.
Will those who make this killing possible, as many Germans did immediately following World War Two, assert they did not know or could not resist, the extermination of millions by their government?
Last night, in this German city that welcomed Adolf Hitler in March of 1936 as he marched across the Rhine with 20,000 soldiers to reclaim authority over the Rhineland, an act he was forbidden by treaty from doing, one can well imagine these children and grandchildren of those who stood and cheered the Nazi soldiers as they crossed the river, recognized what is happening in Ukraine for what it is.
Professor Timothy Snyder has organized a fundraiser to provide air defense against the Iranian-made Drones bombing Ukrainian cities. It is called, Shahed Hunter, and can be found here: https://u24.gov.ua/shahedhunter
This article explains the project in more detail: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/28/russia-wins-by-losing-timothy-snyder-on-raising-funds-for-ukrainian-drone-defence
Thank you for taking time from your holiday weekend to acknowledge the plight of the long suffering Chinese people. They have the right to be heard -- to cry out from the depths of totalitarian control and abuse.
6 months ago, who would have predicted popular widespread protests in Iran and China. Certainly not me. Both brutal dictatorships not afraid to use harsh measures to put down "insurgencies". Any predictions about which authoritarian leader will next find his country facing widespread unrest. I vote for Putin.
Heather, thank you for this wonderful synopsis of what I saw last night (Sunday in India...) on social media, WAPO, NYT and news streaming. I was astonished and really moved by what I was watching. Students and other protesters holding up white blank sheets of paper to protest what you have described. The lockdowns have been going for THREE YEARS all over China. I read that in Shanghai, the largest city in the country, there were thousands of protestors. This is really incredible. On June 4, 1989 I watched on TV the protests at Tianamen Square (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Tiananmen_Square_protests_and_massacre) and subsequent massacre. Most of the demonstrators were young students. My heart is with the people of China. They are speaking loud and clear to the entire world and to their government, enough is enough! Thank you, Heather, as always.
It’s human nature to want to have self-determination and to breathe freely. Democracy offers hope for those things and more. I pray our country doesn’t lose a grip on what our Declaration declares as it’s aim to provide “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”
As we all grieve for so many across the globe who are struggling for fundamental rights, the clarion call repeatedly sounded for “Democracy and the rule of law” and for “Freedom of expression” understandably might focus the mind on our own 2020 election and on the knowledge that had only 40,000 votes, give or take, from Wisconsin, Arizona, and Georgia gone to Trump, he still would be President.
Consequently, however hopeful we might feel about the 22 results, a bit further down the road, Republicans plausibly could regain control of both chambers of Congress and also win the White House, conceivably precipitating both a near-fatal weakening of American civic institutions and also a Presidency eager and able to consolidate power, wherein the rule of law could be subjugated to an individual.
Adding conceivably unsettling state and local outcomes to the fray, I find it hard to imagine the stakes could be more pressing to justify staying in the fight post-election to protect the key mechanisms of democracy both at home and abroad.
The collapse of the East German government, breach of the Wall and subsequent unification of Germany was remarkable for its relative bloodlessness. in short order, the entire Soviet Union collapsed, leaving individual countries to chart their own courses forward. Most grassroots rebellions, regardless of what triggers them, come at very considerable cost to the protestors, as autocratic governments swing into action to suppress them by ever increasingly draconian steps, usually involving arrests, incarcerations, and killings. Recent events in Iran, Russia, China all include brutal government action against protest arising from events intolerable to the public. And, history has shown that protest CAN lead to regime change, if the movement is sustained, supported by the broad majority of the population and adequately resilient to absorb the punishment by the regime and it's military, paramilitary, police force and any other arm of government capable of going to battle against the civilian population. The price of regime change is often loss of life on a large scale in the course of turning public opinion to the point that the regime is simply ignored and loses the capacity to control the public with violent repression. It seems that only a small fraction of uprisings reach critical mass and result in regime change.
My Iranian friend, in tears, is telling me about the messages her cousins in Iran send her about the brutality and torture that is happening there right now, as well. The young people are being deliberately shot in the eyes with rubber bullets to blind them and taken to prison to be systematically raped and tortured. But the courageous young people continue to protest. The courageous Ukrainians continue to fight the depraved Russian army. ....While half of America is devoted to Trump....
Outbreaks of democracy in Iran, now China, and even, judging from its last election, in the good old US of A! There’s popular anti-war rumblings in Putin’s Russia added to his floundering, failed invasion of Ukraine. And Ukraine! An entire nation of democracy-loving heroes!
The forces promoting fascism and autocracy are being met by spontaneous movements toward open democracy that are going to be difficult, maybe impossible, to contain.
2023 is shaping up to be a very interesting time in human history.
Very interesting developments, perhaps a sign that even government officials are weary of lockdown.
A big problem for the Communists is that their Covid vaccine doesn't work very well, a difficult problem in a society with a large number of elderly who aren't in wonderful physical shape to begin with. A massive die-off wouldn't look too good, particularly in a society in which the old are venerated.
Bad news for the ChiComs = good news for the rest of us.
Xi’s harsh authoritarianism has major downsides in a country with diverse provinces, major industrial centers, and a population less and less willing to subsist in poverty.
Xi’s single-minded approach to Covid is his latest Achilles’ heel. He has shut down cities with multimillion populations for weeks in an effort to ‘wipe out Covid.’ This has caused massive personal inconvenience and economic disruption. Also, it means that Chinese haven’t developed Covid antibodies and, thus, are more susceptible to current Covid outbreaks.
China has produced several pandemic vaccines that are less effective than Pfizer and other Western vaccines. Though these could be purchased, Xi’s nationalism refuses to acknowledge that Chinese vaccines are second rate.
Now there are unprecedented protests in Xi’s police state. Also, the just-in-time supply of products to Apple and others is disrupted and an increasing number of companies are looking for more stable suppliers elsewhere in Asia.
I have stated earlier that the nature of Xi’s authoritarianism is likely to diminish the rate and scope of China’s economic development over the long run [‘China 4 feet rather than 8 feet tall’]. You are already seeing this happen.
Your “quick notes” are always way more important than that description and are much appreciated!
I was part of an American Environmental group that visited Southern China in 2013. Almost a decade ago when development was opening and tourism as well as educational exchanges and global economic expansion were taking place. We started in Shanghai and traveled deep into rural areas, as well as towns. Yunaan Province. High into the mountains, rice paddies and rural communities. Both American and Chinese groups had jointly developed a rural environmental alliance. The paperwork bogged down in the system. We funded it and started paperwork and sponsorship and both Chinese and American environmentalists were committed. The contrast of economic and social development was stark in some areas, but we did have an experienced Chinese guide. We believed we could work together. It was a hopeful time. And then a disappointing time.
Compare & contrast Xi Jinping's Covid 19 policies with the successes & failures of South Korea. Yesterday, I had just read an article by Michelle Cortez & Herein Kim from Bloomberg News Daily "This Nation [South Korea] Was Ready for Covid-Now It's Eyeing The Next Threat" https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-24/this-nation-was-ready-for-covid-now-it-s-eyeing-the-next-threat
Xi not only admires Mao but in intent on achieving the same level of control. I have viewed his strict Covid policies as partially his form of a "cultural revolution" allowing him to take stricter control of the country and finding those that he can rely on to implement his power consolidation.
What we may be seeing is the reaction of young people realizing that there ability to have free discussion cut off and sensing dictatorial suppression. I am afraid that the reaction of Xi's government
is going to be bloody and violent.