CHINA: What Is The Significance Of Premier Hu’s Interview With Foreign Journalists Before The Olympics?

Radio Australia (English), Connect Asia,
0700 hours, 4.8.08, Item 2.

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Chinese President Hu Jintao has given a rare interview to a group of foreign journalists, one week ahead of the Olympic Games.  The unprecedented media conference was held as Olympic organizers lifted some internet restrictions on the international media covering the Games.  Nasya Bahfen reports:

NB:  “Before last week Chinese President Hu Jintao had never given a press conference either at home, or abroad, in which reporters were allowed to ask questions. But in a rare sign of media nous by the Chinese government, Mr Hu has addressed the carefully selected question of a small group of foreign journalists in Beijing, one week from the start of one of the most politicised Olympic Games in recent years.  China’s human rights record in Tibet and Xinjiang, as well as media restrictions imposed by Beijing, mean the country is under the global spotlight like never before.  Mr Hu told foreign journalists there were bound to be differences in the way those issues were viewed by China, and by other countries.”

Mr Hu “(Speaking in Mandarin)”

Interpreter:  “It is only inevitable that people from different countries and regions may not see eye to eye with one another on some different issues and I think in this context, we should enter into consultations on an equal footing to narrow our differences and expand our common ground on the basis of mutual respect.”

NB:  “The twenty or so foreign journalists at the press conference were treated to a bit of humour, with Mr Hu saying that if pressed, he would choose to represent his country in ping-pong.”

Mr Hu “(Speaking in Mandarin)”

Interpreter:  “I have a special interest for table tennis and swimming.  If I were to choose what kind of event I would like to take part in, I would choose table tennis.  But I would like to let you know that since the line-up of the Chinese table tennis team is already finalised and made public it seems that my wish could not be granted.”

NB:  “So the reporters were treated to the rarest of sights – a Chinese president smiling, talking and cracking a joke with international media, even if it was a pretty lame one. And this week, the Chinese authorities appeared to allow some leeway, after earlier turning its back on a promise to let foreign journalists covering the Games complete access to the internet.  Reporters at the Olympic press centre were able to visit a few previously banned websites including those of Amnesty International, Reporters without Borders and Deutsche Welle.  But access to others remained blocked, including any sites linked to the Tibetan government in exile, and the Falungong movement.  Mr Hu insists journalists covering the Games will be able to do their jobs.”

Mr Hu “(Speaking in Mandarin)”

Interpreter:  “China’s door of opening up to the outside is always wide open no matter during the Olympic Games or after the Olympic Games, we will as always welcome foreign reporters and journalists to come to this country to cover what is happening here.”

NB:  “But of course they have to abide by the media laws of the Chinese government – as one German reporter found out, when he tried to ask an un-approved question of Mr Hu, on human rights.  The Chinese president paused briefly, before declining to respond.”

他的英文名是I.M. Pei，是不是很有意思？取华文名的头个英文字母，拼凑成易听易记的英文名字，这么一来可以堂堂正正地用自己的中文名在国际建筑业打滚，而无需取个什么Tom还是Dick。I.M. Pei 又有“I am Pei”的双重意思，多好玩。

人如其名，照片中他的架式坦然却不失稳重、自得却不放纵、自信却不高傲。复古的黑色圆镜框，架在其他老头子的鼻梁上会显得老土，戴在他脸上却显得童心未泯。

认识他，因为今天采访莱佛士城庆祝落成21周年，而这座具时代意义的地表建筑物，是贝聿铭设计的。

当时莱佛士地铁站周围的建筑物都很老气，如政府大厦和莱佛士酒店这两个邻居都是古典建筑风格。贝聿铭大胆地采用铝和几何设计来呈献现代感，为这一带注入一股现代活力。

有人批评为“a tin can with holes punched in the sides”，他不以为然。1986年莱佛士城软开幕时他来新，受访时说，洋灰在新加坡的气候下容易发霉，铝才够耐。

也有人批评莱佛士城内部空间的设计太过复杂，很容易让人迷失方向。他愉快地承认：“我自己也会（在这里）迷路。”

他解释说：“这是城中城的概念（a city within a city）。不会令你迷路的城市是个无趣的城市。 这里是一个城市。你别把它想成是狮城大厦。……大型空间要够复杂才能维持人们的兴趣。”

(This is a city within a city. If you’re in a city that you don’t get lost in, that’s a dull city. This is a city. You shouldn’t think of it as Plaza Singapura. … … Complexity is necessary to sustain interest in a large space.)

了不起的中国人。

Aliens abduct US tabloid

STORIES TAKE FLIGHT: Then Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush displays a copy of Weekly World News on May 3, 2000, aboard his campaign plane. — PHOTO: AP

WASHINGTON – After 28 years of over-the-top headlines, stories of Elvis sightings and insider reports that members of the United States Congress were aliens, the Weekly World News (WWN) tabloid is folding. Launched in 1979, it modestly touted itself as ‘the world’s only reliable newspaper’.

It was the only journal in the US, if not the world, to report on how a US judge ordered an oversexed hamster to have a vasectomy or how the French ordered that extra-marital affairs be made obligatory.

The tabloid gave its readers cult figures such as Bat Boy, the half-bat, half-human whose cave-dwelling experience led to his being roped in to help hunt for Osama bin Laden after the Sept 11 attacks on the US.

But it all came grinding to a halt when the publisher, American Media Inc, announced in a short statement that the tabloid would roll off the presses for the last time on Aug 27, although an online version would continue.

No reason was given for the closure of what television network ABC described as the ‘magnificently trashy supermarket tabloid’, although falling readership and advertising revenues are strongly suspected.

Printed in black and white on poor quality newsprint, the tabloid sold up to 1.2 million copies a week in its heyday back in the early 1980s.

Today, its readership is a fraction of that – around 80,000 – with most readers buying the paper at the supermarket, where its screaming headlines have graced check-out magazine racks for decades.

Probably double that number of shoppers browse through the tabloid while they wait in line to pay for their shopping, before shamelessly putting it back on the rack.

‘What will Americans read in supermarket check-out lines?’ wondered the Sun Sentinel, a serious newspaper in Florida.

Some have speculated that the rise of the Internet has contributed to the passing of the tabloid, by giving mouse- click-easy access to the world of the weird and wonderful.

But Mark Miller, who wrote for the paper for five years – and was responsible for the hot scoop about France making hanky-panky mandatory – wondered if the Internet could have played a role.

‘I’m not sure WWN readers know how to use a computer,’ the former stand-up comic said.

He and other writers were told to invent wacky stories and then present them as if they were real.

He added: ‘We gave the stories bylines and included quotes from experts. We made up the quotes and the experts and added research – that we made up – to lend credence to the story.

‘I never used one real expert.’

Serious media have joined the lament for the paper that broke the story that US Vice-President Dick Cheney was a robot.

An opinion piece in the Kansas City Star said: ‘In its 28 years of publication, the Weekly World News has got many scoops, leaving the rest of the mainstream media so far back in the dust that they didn’t even try to catch up.

‘Who can forget the revelation that the CIA was keeping Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden prisoners in the same cell, and that they’d fallen in love?’

The highly respected Washington Post said: ‘Maybe WWN played fast and loose with the facts but somehow it captured the spirit of the age – and did it in headlines as perfect as haiku: Dead Rock Stars Return On Ghost Plane.’

Miller said: ‘All media are doing more and more pop culture, and WWN was an important pop culture endeavour.’

He said that he, too, mourned the passing of the paper that ‘let writers give free rein to their imaginations and warped minds – saving us a fortune at the therapist’s’.

AFP
]]> http://chiongster.wordpress.com/2007/08/15/wwn/feed/ 0 chiongster http://chiongster.wordpress.com/2007/07/04/%e6%89%93%e5%87%ba%e6%9d%a5%ef%bc%81%e5%a0%95%e5%87%ba%e6%9d%a5%ef%bc%81%e6%b5%81%e5%87%ba%e6%9d%a5%ef%bc%81%e5%b0%b1%e6%98%af%e4%b8%8d%e8%83%bd%e7%94%9f%e4%b8%8b%e6%9d%a5%ef%bc%81/ http://chiongster.wordpress.com/2007/07/04/%e6%89%93%e5%87%ba%e6%9d%a5%ef%bc%81%e5%a0%95%e5%87%ba%e6%9d%a5%ef%bc%81%e6%b5%81%e5%87%ba%e6%9d%a5%ef%bc%81%e5%b0%b1%e6%98%af%e4%b8%8d%e8%83%bd%e7%94%9f%e4%b8%8b%e6%9d%a5%ef%bc%81/#comments Wed, 04 Jul 2007 08:00:54 +0000 chiongster http://chiongster.wordpress.com/2007/07/04/%e6%89%93%e5%87%ba%e6%9d%a5%ef%bc%81%e5%a0%95%e5%87%ba%e6%9d%a5%ef%bc%81%e6%b5%81%e5%87%ba%e6%9d%a5%ef%bc%81%e5%b0%b1%e6%98%af%e4%b8%8d%e8%83%bd%e7%94%9f%e4%b8%8b%e6%9d%a5%ef%bc%81/ ]]>

从照片看来，组屋已受水龙卷袭击，但其实水龙卷到了浅滩必定寿终正寝。可见照片可以误导。

是我sua-gu，原来这样的天然迹象每年至少一两次。

… “But for many people, including many who will never eat there, Chez Panisse is a much larger enterprise than a restaurant. It is a standard-bearer for a system of moral values. It is the leader of a style of cooking, of a social movement, and of a comprehensive philosophy of doing good and living well. It is also a work of art-the work of many, the masterpiece of one.” …

We are Virginia Tech.

We are sad today, and we will be sad for quite a while. We are not moving on, we are embracing our mourning.

We are Virginia Tech.

We are strong enough to stand tall tearlessly, we are brave enough to bend to cry, and we are sad enough to know that we must laugh again.

We are Virginia Tech.

We do not understand this tragedy. We know we did nothing to deserve it, but neither does a child in Africa dying of AIDS, neither do the invisible children walking the night away to avoid being captured by the rogue army, neither does the baby elephant watching his community being devastated for ivory, neither does the Mexican child looking for fresh water, neither does the Appalachian infant killed in the middle of the night in his crib in the home his father built with his own hands being run over by a boulder because the land was destabilized. No one deserves a tragedy.

We are Virginia Tech.

The Hokie Nation embraces our own and reaches out with open heart and hands to those who offer their hearts and minds. We are strong, and brave, and innocent, and unafraid. We are better than we think and not quite what we want to be. We are alive to the imaginations and the possibilities. We will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears and through all our sadness.

We are the Hokies.

We will prevail.

We will prevail.

We will prevail.

We are Virginia Tech.

印尼东爪哇的家庭教育电台主办了画画比赛，题目是：把丹麦皇族画成猪。

70多名中学生与幼稚园的小朋友参加了这项比赛，优胜作品不但可得860新元奖金，还可以被送到丹麦和雅加达的丹麦大使馆。

大人吵架，干什么把小孩扯进来？为什么用狭隘的固执，玷污小孩天真无邪的心灵？教小孩去恨人，实属造孽。躲在小孩的肉顿身后向敌人丢臭鸡蛋，还有更懦弱更可耻的行为吗？

宗教啊，多少人以你的名义，做了蠢事。