June 4th Memorial Demonstration - Toronto

Twenty-one years after the fateful day when students all over China rallied for freedom and democracy, Chinese people all over the world still continue to remember and grieve over what has been lost that day and what will surely come in the future. There can never be a definitive answer to who is right and who is wrong, but what is sure is that popular representation is what China need more than ever. Let us not forget the dreams of those brave students.

Changing news stories isn't nearly as awesome as change Getter

Ian Bush, 22 year old and dead from a shot to the back of his head, but that's not the point here.

For the first time, I saw a news story being changed within a day of the initial report.

This morning, CBC Radio 1 reported an incident where a police killed a son of a woman in BC in an act of self defence. The women went ahead and filed a lawsuit against the police, not with the intention of prosecuting the officer, but rather to draw attention to cases like this where the killing could have been prevented and to encourage change in the police's internal structure. Upon hearing from the police that there are plans to refine this internal investigation system of the police, she promptly dropped the lawsuit, acknowledging that the financial burden is also a bit too much at the moment for her. At least this is what is said in the initial version of the story.

Thoughts on the recent Kyrgyzstan coup/revolution

Facts:
-Bakiev has low approval ratings and was not elected
-Financial inflation and privatization of electricity contribute to above
-US and RUSSIA both have strategic bases in Kyrgyzstan
-US need the base to transport troops to Afghanistan

Speculations:
-Since old regime allowed for US to continue operation their base and new regime gave no conclusive answer, it could be the case that US hopes for the coup to fail
-Russia has openly supported the coup leader, so it might be the case that they are giving Russia benefits. A new base perhaps?
-The majority of the people support the coup leader, complicating the situation for US, who always try to support the democratically elected government
-Since coup is currently claiming to be government, we might see US trying to negotiate with their leader
-It is unlikely that US will give any direct help to the old regime because of point mentioned two bullets above.

On Nozick and the Essential Contradiction of the Idea of "Individual Rights"

Pic isn't really that related, but seems to be on the surface level.

What makes an individual if his rights are given by the state? Is this really radical individualism? Even it more individualist if there were no government at all and everyone would either have to live and fight, or cower and die? In this sense, isn't the idea of indivualism be completely contradictory to the notion of rights? How can people be individuals if their rights are given and ensured by an external force? Conversely, how can people have rights, if everyone are truly individual and uphold their own livelihood and future with nothing but their own power, which in the process may stop other people from being able to do the same?

Democracy and popular participation

Pic unrelated.

I was doing a bit of research on the media's portrayal of the 2010 Olympics and its surrounding issues from 2001 to 2010, I noticed that very strangely, people who live in a democratic society seems to have no bloody clue about how the system work, or even things that are happening that may drastically affect their lives or the kind of things and issues that are directly against their beliefs and ideal, but due to the general ignorance, no one is doing anything about.

￥500/kg(or $160/lb) Beef Sold in China

Recently in China, various super markets started to appeal to the high-end luxury consumers by importing various food products from other countries and sell them as luxury food items in China. As the market becomes more saturated with numerous small super markets intended to appeal to the general public with the main strategy of lowering prices, competition between stores rose and big companies soon began to realize the much higher potential for profit at the other end of the spectrum. Thus, the luxury super markets are born.

Various stores such as the "International", the "BHG" and "Olé" import their products from countries over the world and redistribute them for a much higher price. According to reports various items like import fruits from Thailand sold for 100s of yuan per kg, imported European bread sold for 10s of yuan per loaf and even imported beef from Australia being sold for nearly five hundred yuan are now becoming a common sight in these luxury stores.

To put that into perspective, one US dollar is equal to 6.82 yuan. Which means that import fruits with price tags of up to $44/kg or $97/lb or higher(from a 300 yuan price), bread sold for $7.3 per loaf and beef sold for up to $73.22/kg or $161/lb are being sold as luxury items in China, where the average wage is approximately ￥1500 or $220 a month.

This may seem like a shocking development in the Chinese economical structure, but in reality, it was only a matter of time before the businesses recognized the business opportunities the growing upper middle class provided. With newfound wealth the demands for high quality products imported from foreign provided business with nearly limitless opportunities for profits. As of now, China is the world's second largest consumer of luxury products, having just surpassed in the most recent survey. Additionally, a research survey published by Abrams Research recognizes China as the largest potential market for future luxury products. At this rate it's no wonder why there's market for those beef.

But still, $161/lb beef?

Holy. Shit.

Sources: http://news.sohu.com/20091021/n267576727.shtml;http://www.abramsresearch.com/files/abrams_research_luxury_industry_survey_0609.pdf

Time in China, Time well Quarantined.

Quick post about my time spent in quarantine. How I got here? Had a cold and it turned out to be swine flu, so when I got back to China, boom, I was in the hospital for islolation. Overreaction much aside, this is pretty understandable, seeing what happened the last time China got a pandemic. Now, I'm just hoping to get out of here asap and actually do something.

Pictures after the break.

EDIT:
As promised, here are some pictures of my room in the hospital. Size is fairly good and accomadation is decent. I'm, of course, the only person in the room so it does get a bit boring quickly, but meh, that's just nitpicking. The food is decent and is usually served with soup. There's a TV mounted on the wall, but as you can see from the pictures, the colors are quickly fading and makes it a bit of a chore to watch. Air conditioning is a huge plus and the bed is decent. Enjoy the pictures.


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