 - Last login: 7 hours agoLaodan
- laodan is a 56 year old guy from Wisconsin, USA.
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THE WAY THINGS ARE: The meaning of life is to be found in thinking about what is reality and the beauty of reality is to be found in our DNA's memorization of all forms that have been successfully retained along the four billion years of evolution of the principle of life on Gaia our earth. In the end what I mean to say is that beauty is something objective and what we call ugliness is then simply our unconscientious feel of something evolution did not retain.
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China Digital Times & My Friends, What Do You Want From Us?
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Apr 13, 12:31pm
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•http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2008/04/...
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My Western Friends, What Do You Want From Us Chinese?
in China Digital Times via China Herald.
(A Chinese response to the protests against the Olympic Games Torch Relay. The following text is quoted from cbc forums, via C'est la vie blog)
What do you want from us?
When we were called "The sick man of Asia", we were called peril,
When you bill us the next superpower, we are called the threat.
When we closed our doors, you smuggled drugs to open our markets,
when we embrace free trade, you blame us for taking away your jobs.
when we were falling apart, you marched in your troops and wanted your fair share,
when we are putting the broken pieces together, "Free Tibet" you scream! "it was invasion".
So we tried communism, you hated us for being communist,
So we embraced capitalism, you hate us now for being capitalist.
Then we have a billion people, you said we're destroying the planet,
Then we limit our numbers, you say it is human rights abuses.
When we were poor, you thought we were dogs,
When we loan you cash, you blame us for your debts.
When we build our industries, you call us polluters,
When we sell you goods, you blame us for global warming,
When we buy oil, you call that exploitation and genocide.
When we were lost in chaos and rampage, you wanted the rule of law for us,
When we uphold law and order against violence, you call that violation of human rights.
When we were silent, you said you wanted us to have free speech,
When we are silent no more, you say we are brainwashed.
Why do you hate us so much? We ask.
"No". You answer, "we don't hate you".
We don't hate you either Bud, but do you understand us??
"of course we do", you say, "We have CNN, BBC, and CNBC".
But why, do we still feel, you western people are not happy with us.
What do you really want from us??
My friend, What do you really want from us??
 My Western Friends, What Do You Want From Us Chinese?
Ho, Ho!
Hum.. I certainly understand what is being meant in this poem and I certainly also understand where the anger comes from that, rightly so, underpins those words.
I fear that the Euro-centrism that animates so much of the Western discourse about democracy and human rights will not even permit or allow Westerners to hear what is pronounced in the words here above. But I nevertheless urge my white race-fellows to open their eyes, their ears and their minds and harts to what our yellow-race friends are asking us here.
I humbly believe that we Westerners have no moral ground to stand on that would justify us to start lecturing others and especially the Chinese. On the contrary our history shows us that from the crusades on, passing through the great discoveries, then enslaving Africans and exploiting non Europeans along so many centuries we have killed and plundered on a scale never seen in human history.
There is nothing in our historic behavior that could justify our present moral superiority; we should be ashamed of that history of ours. The proceeds of our plundering over so many centuries helped us to industrialize and modernize. But now that we impose on the whole world to follow us on the road of modernity we should remember that morality was never our stronghold and we should thus avoid lecturing those who only recently entered modernity. And we should also refrain from envy at the sight of the Chinese beating us at our own game. It's we Westerners who bullied them in following us into modernity.
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