Global Voices Online » 2007 » May

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Myanmar: Photos and Links Roundup

May Hnin Phyu · 16:44

This week I came across a few good photos from Myanmar Bloggers so I compiled them as photo and link round up post.

This image is from fifty viss blog where blogger Aung Kyaw posted his collection of billboards and poster messages seen around the country.

Billboard - 50Viss
Poster around Myanmar
Image via: Fifty Viss

I’ve noticed how pervasive these “desire(s)” are in online and print publications in Burma. From what I’ve heard, not even an Internet chatroom can get away without posting the “objectives”, “desire(s)” and “national causes” of the country. No publication would be complete or legal without this stamp of approval (namely the dictates of the government).

Blogger Barnyar posted the recent photos of the flood and resulting damage around Yangon city after the heavy rains a few days ago. May11 also mentioned that the rain has been going on since 30th April till 4th May and there is even news about the possibility of a storm hitting the city.

Yangon Rain - Banyar
Flooded car park and damaged phone boot
Image via: Barnyarbanyar

Mr.Pooh has composed a poem relating the rain and his far away lover.

Kothurein compares his childhood rainy day experiences with what he feels now.

A small compound of our house filled with rain up to our knees. So my brother, sister and I turned a two-foot-long wooden tub, which had been intended to store the water, into a boat for us to have a ride around the house. (The only problem was that snails also liked to take a ride in the tub.)

Now, twenty years later, I no longer get excited when it pours day after day. Rather, I get upset about all the mud and rain, especially at rush hour.

Across the globe, Bluegyi posted the photos of his trip to British Museum where he discovered an ancient artifact from Burma.

Museum - bluegyi
British Museum
Image via: Bluegyi

It is also good to read about Gyittu's challanging engineering career and why she chose to become one.

When I entered the workforce 4 years ago, I had great ambitions of becoming a great engineer. Now, as I struggle in climbing the corporate ladder, I witness how engineers are becoming the “tortoise” of that world. In MNCs, many engineers moved to Marketing, Sales, and Management fields in order to climb higher at the fastest rate.

I joined engineering out of interest and passion and those factors are what kept me motivated in this endless rounds of projects. Solving the mystery behind each circuit, each problem is what kept me going in this job.

And I'm ending this week round up with photos from May11 about Shwe Dagon Pagoda Kason Festival.

Shwedagon1 - may11
Shwe Dagon Pagoda at night

Shwedagon2 - may11
Kason Festival at Shwe Dagon Pagoda
Images via: emotionalcorner

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Trinidad & Tobago: The Enigma of V.S. Naipaul

Jonathan Ali · 14:08

lingua → es

Sir V.S. Naipaul reading in Trinidad - image courtesy caribbeanfreephoto.

He is the single most gifted and important writer ever produced by Trinidad and Tobago, and, arguably, the English-speaking Caribbean, having written such classics as A House for Mr Biswas, A Bend in the River, and The Enigma of Arrival. He is also the most controversial writer to have come out of the Caribbean.

Recently, Nobel-prize-winning author Sir VS Naipaul paid a visit to Trinidad and Tobago, the country of his birth, the place from which he migrated as a young man to England, where he has lived ever since. He was in Trinidad as a guest of the University of the West Indies for a week of celebrations (April 16 to 20) in honour of the 75th year of his birth.

Naipaul has an infamously tortured relationship with Trinidad, and this visit was his first official visit in over 15 years. It was also his first official visit since winning the Nobel Prize in 2001. Yet despite this, and the extensive media coverage, the Trinidadian blogosphere was fairly quiet over Sir Vidia’s return.

Those who did blog had mixed feelings about the visit, and in particular, the actions of Naipaul’s wife, Lady Nadira Naipaul. Georgia Popplewell, writing at Caribbean Free Radio, thought the “Evening of Appreciation” held on April 18 was a “near-disaster”, yet went on the 20th to hear Naipaul read and sign his books. She was impressed by the reading:

Naipaul’s reading style isn’t particularly good, in the classic sense, but his stilted, slightly quaint delivery is oddly effective, and easy on the ear. Even his attempts at reading the Trinidadian dialect which he rendered so adeptly in his early novels — and which is clearly now so alien to him — worked, after their own manner. It was also remarked by at least one member of my party that Half A Life [one of Naipaul’s more recent novels] sounds better read aloud.

But then the book-signing left a bitter taste in her mouth:

When the reading was over, Lady Naipaul leapt to the front of the stage and assumed command of the proceedings. “The book signing begins now!” she announced. “Form a queue. And only new books will be signed. That is the form.”

What form was this? we wondered. My heart went out to the throngs clutching their well-thumbed copies of early Naipaul novels and first editions which, on being subjected to the newness test by an advance guard comprising Naipaul’s agent, Gillon Aitken, and Lady Naipaul’s daughter, Maliha, were deemed too old for signing, and turned away.

Over at Trinidad Media Arts & Culture, Raymond Ramcharitar also remarked on Lady Naipaul’s handling of the book-signing, after what was an obviously enjoyable reading, both for Naipaul and the audience:

[T]he crowd of about two thousand, who had surged out of their seats, bore down on [Naipaul] to sign their books at UWI’s Sport and Physical Education Centre on Friday 20, and Mrs Naipaul’s voice rang out: “No old books, please. Only new books.” I’m not sure if she said “please”, but it killed the moment. Vidia had read from Miguel Street, displaying what sounded and looked like a few minutes of unforced happiness—a real treat from a man whose favourite adjectives to describe his process include “painful” and “exhausting”.

Jeremy Taylor, meanwhile, gave the “Naipaul circus” a very wide berth. He wondered why Naipaul bothered to accept the invitation to come to Trinidad in the first place:

Why did he fall for it, I wonder, given his well-known disdain for his once-native land? Does he secretly crave reconciliation, a prophet finally honoured in his own country? He can't need the money, surely. Or the dubious glory and attention. It can only be that he enjoys performing.

And he is surprised that other people were surprised by Naipaul’s often boorish behaviour during his visit:

[A]nyone who knows anything about Naipaul — which should surely include Trinidad's literati, academics and literature teachers — should have known what role the great man most likes to play. Oscar the Grouch has nothing on the old Naipaul. Once he was asked by an interviewer what the little coloured dot means on a Hindu woman's forehead, and he replied that it means her head is empty.

Finally, yours truly had only one observation to make about the whole affair. It concerned the answer Naipaul gave to a reporter’s question. When asked about the hardships he had to suffer during his career, Sir Vidia replied that he regretted nothing, and that he would do it all over again. A newspaper headline the next day proclaimed: “Naipaul vows: Despite hardships, I’ll do it again”, which prompted me to ask:

He will do it again? At the age of 75? That's going to take some doing. Or perhaps they think he'll do it in his next life. What with Naipaul's cozying up to the religion of his birth in recent years, maybe they think he believes in reincarnation?

Which makes one think: if the oldest daily newspaper still in existence in Trinidad and Tobago can make such an error in a headline, is it surprising if Naipaul has nothing but contempt for the land of his birth?

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Malawi: feel-good factor, bumper harvest, and vampire stories

Steve Sharra · 12:38

Having just returned from a short visit to Malawi, it is almost impossible not to write about the general sense of optimism the country is awash in especially in the cities, among the middle class. The one thing that no one fails to mention is the strength of the economy, which has been rising since the current president, Dr. Bingu wa Mutharika, was elected in May 2004. The maize crop is promising a very high yield, and tobacco, Malawi’s biggest foreign exchange earner to date, is fetching good prices at the auction floors. President wa Mutharika’s biggest project so far has been the Shire-Zambezi Waterway, seen as a way to open up the land-locked country through the Shire River which flows into the mighty Zambezi River. The plan is to create a direct sea route to the Indian Ocean. In the last two weeks a memorandum of understanding has been signed amongst the countries involved in the project: Mozambique, Zambia, and Malawi herself.

The Shire-Zambezi Water-way, bumper harvests and press freedom

It will therefore be of no surprise that Malawian blogs are also in on the feel-good factor. The blog Anti-Bakili Muluzi captures this sense of hope with a comment on the signing of the Shire-Zambezi Waterway memorandum of understanding:

At first when I heard President Bingu wa Mutharika pronouncing his dream about the Shire-Zambezi waterway, I thought it was one of the jokes presidents make when addressing mass rallies. When I heard it for the second time, I really believed the power of dreaming in colour.

It was last week when I saw this dream slowly coming to light with the signing in ceremony of the memorandum of association for the implementation of the project. No wonder, the President's dream is really in colour. Thumbs up not only to the President but also to the people of Malawi. Congratulations to Malawi's development.

Cryton Chikoko adds to the atmosphere of hope in Malawi, observing that the good maize crop harvest is coming after severe droughts in recent years that caused starvation among many ordinary Malawians:

It cannot be disputed that Malawi is going through a period of change. I am talking about economic change. In the next 5 years, if everything accelerates along the same way, we are going to see significant changes in the country - the social life our people will improve.

It is encouraging to see remarkable attempts by donors to stop the vicious circle of debt repayments being stopped by the cancellation of our debts.

What with the grace of God who has given us enough rains for our agriculture-based economy. We have experienced a good harvest for our staple food maize in the past two years. This has assured us, for the first time after a long time of starvation for most of our people, of enough food. This is a great development for most of our people who starving has been part of their lives.

Chikoko ends his post with remarks on rumours that Malawi is now bartering its surplus maize with sugar from Zimbabwe, to help Zimbabwe, which is suffering from acute shortages of maize. The Malawian newspaper, The Daily Times quotes the Malawian Minister of Finance, Goodall Gondwe, as denying the rumor, saying that Zimbabwe is going to pay in cash, not in sugar.

And the sense of optimism is not restricted to the economy and food security only; it is also extended to press freedom, as Victor Kaonga, Global Voices Author, writes in a post to commemorate Press Freedom Day on May 3:

Honestly speaking, I find Malawi to be much better now than it was years ago. It is also much better than some countries which claim to have the press freedom for ages. But as the fight for more freedom rages on, we cannot keep quiet but fight on and ensure that our audiences and readers get the best information we can possibly manage to provide.

Elsewhere, I salute those who have suffered for the freedom. Many have also died. This is how risky our job can be. My parents had to warn me against being a journalist because as I was growing up in primary school, journalists were taken to be 'spies.' And you know the risk a spy faces!

Interview with the Vampire; Sugar profits

Be that as it may, it will be false to end there and leave the impression that every single Malawian is full, fat and happy. Malawi is still experiencing problems, one of which has always been human safety. Hastings Maloya writes about rumors of a vampire that is said to be going about Ndirande and other Blantyre townships, terrorizing people. Maloya also lists other problems that have wrought terror into the hearts of Malawians, including the defilement of young girls:

Just come to think of it; a 57-year old man defiles a six-month old baby. A seven-year old girl is defiled by her own teacher, let alone a headmaster. And a woman has her arms chopped by her husband or has her private parts disfigured by someone who was supposed to be her lover.

How about issues of well-dressed men caught with private parts in their bags. Talk of news of unknown assailants removing women’s breasts and gouging their eyes. Then there is the-now famous Ndirande vampire who has the audacity of changing locations in Blantyre and targeting innocent women at will. The stories are endless and they do not make good reading. Each passing day we realize that Malawi is not as safe a place to live in as it was supposed to be especially for women and children.

Maloya ends by commending President Mutharika for suggesting that there be detention camps to incarcerate people convicted of these horrendous crimes. Maloya is not the only Malawian blogger to comment on the illusive vampire; Joe Mlenga writes about being visited by the vampire in his dream, and writes about the strange claims that have been made about it:

The beast/apparition/spiritual being has been terrorising people for the past year and two women have been killed and several other people have been left injured.

People say the culprit is a tall man with a mask who goes about in white underwear. The clergy says it is a spiritual being, while some herbalists say the police are in the know because they haven't allowed the traditional leaders to attack the ‘ghost' with their charms!! Some local chiefs in Ndirande were last month arrested allegedly for being behind the monster. And there have been many other interesting claims over ‘ownership' of this supernatural entity.

For blogger Austin Madinga, the news of economic success in Malawi comes with a hidden side. He comments on how the sugar company Illovo is reported to have made billions of profit, but notes that inside that success story is the possibility that the company is ripping off Malawians:

Recently in the news, Illovo Sugar Malawi reported that it had made K6.8 billion pre-tax profit. After tax profit was K4.8 billion up from K2.8 billion in the previous year. It is reported elsewhere that Illovo Malawi contributed the most to Illovo Groups profits ahead of all the others (South Africa, Zambia, Mozambique, Tanzania and Swaziland).

Now someone tell me that local Malawians are not being riped off by Illovo! In the next few months, I bet, Illovo will increase their sugar prices ‘due to rising production costs' yet they are making such obscene profits on the backs of the poor. Shame!

TV on your computer: Joost

It is rare for the Malawian blogosphere to go for even a week without news of technological innovations. Clement Nyirenda writes about Joost, an application that lets people watch TV on their computers:

Today, I received a Joost invite, courtesy of Adi wong. Joost is a new way of watching TV on the internet. It gives you all the things you love about TV, including a high-quality full-screen picture, hundreds of full-length shows and easy channel-flipping. With Joost, you are in complete control-no need of schedules, you watch what you like at anytime. Besides that, Joost combines the TV experience with your traditional online activities such as chat, instant messaging, search etc. Joost is completely free, and works with most modern PCs and Intel Mac-based computers with a broadband connection.

Clement closes his post by mentioning that so far Joost is by invitation only. He welcomes requests for invitations by dropping him a line on his blog.

Paudah Paf writes about the ICT Association of Malawi, ICTAM, and announces that the executive committee of the association met recently with the cabinet minister responsible for ICT, who has booked for them an appearance on national TV:

The association has been registered in Malawi and our Executive committee met the the Minister responsible for ICT and hse [sic] booked us an appointment with the National TV carrier, Television Malawi!
We'll have a stand at an upcoming IT fair to espouse our vision and more people join everyday.

As we build up to the inaugural General conference I feel this tremendous sense of belonging…Truly the pioneering spirit is an arduous but very rewarding one.

Journalist quits national radio station

And finally, after months of silent battles with his bosses at the national broadcaster, the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation, Malawian journalist and blogger Joe Mlenga announces on his blog God is Good that he has finally resigned from the radio station, and will soon be heading to South Africa:

It's like taking a plunge into an unknown abyss when one resigns from a job that they have been at for nine years. Talk about leaving a comfort zone.
I quit MBC three weeks ago and it was a stressing moment. My superiors said I should change my mind because the broadcaster has big plans for me. Considering how I have been pushed around for the past six months or so, I fail to see what these plans are because I felt my input was no longer appreciated, and I had to jump or be pushed overboard.

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Guatemala: Town's oldest school to be demolished…and teachers on strike

Renata Avila · 05:00

lingua → fr · zht · zhs

Public school teachers in Guatemala will protest “again” today, and this time they will ask for “amnesty.” They want the government to eliminate the sanctions imposed on them, because they took illegal actions when they were “on strike”. Such illegal actions took place just before Holy Week break, which was the second time in the year. They were not asking for a better system or nicer schools, but for a raise of 12% in their salaries. This is a contrast with two situations:

1. In San Pedro La Laguna, a group of teachers are working for free, supporting a little school located in the middle of town, a school that the Mayor of San Pedro wants to demolish.

That was denounced [ES] by blogger and journalist Claudia Navas:

El alcalde de San Pedro La Laguna, Guillermo Magdalena Batz González, abusando del poder que le otorga la municipalidad, intenta cometer una arbitrariedad al pretender derrumbar la Escuela Oficial Urbana Mixta Humberto Corzo Guzmán, para construir en su lugar un mercado, con lo cual limita la posibilidad de muchos niños y niñas de estudiar, viola además sus derechos humanos y los de toda la población

The mayor of San Pedro La Laguna, Guillermo Magdalena Batz González is abusing his position in the municipality by arbitrarily trying to demolish the Co-ed Urban School Humberto Corzo Guzmán, and trying to build in its place, a market. This will limit the possibility that many children have to study, which violates their human rights and those of the entire village.

Her opinion is supported by Blogger Pablo on “depuis d´Europe [ES]” where he narrates the whole story and contrasts it with the protests of teachers.

El país ya tiene suficientes problemas, para venir a acarrear uno mas y este que es tan sin sentido (según mi punto de vista) de querer hacer un mercado en lugar de una escuela…”

The country has enough problems already for another one to be solved and this one is senseless (in my opinion) to build a market in place of a school

2. Even when they are “on strike” the Ministry of Education will give them PC´s for US$100.00 with Windows Software, and a lot of bloggers discussed the topic:

Javier Aroche [ES] said:

Es falta de visión por parte de las autoridades a cargo del proyecto, que bien pudieron optar por el uso de Software Libre y con el dinero ahorado en Software comprar más equipo. Lo que me da tristeza es que en realidad no exista un grupo de promotores del Software Libre que haya podido hacer esta propuesta al Gobierno

It is a lack of vision by the authorities in charge that they did not consider Free Software for the project, because with the savings they would have been able to buy more equipment. But I am sad because here there is no group promoting free software, that could have made a serious proposal to the government

This opinion is supported by the post of Ermita [ES]:

Para quienes creen que el tema de software libre y open souce es cuestión de filosofías o de extraños gustos informáticos, me pareció interesente continuar en la linea de presentar números interesantes para los tomadores de decisiones

For those who might think that free software and open source is just a philosophy or weird informatic tastes, it is interesting to show interesting statistics for the decision makers”.

Also, there´s a debate on whether they deserve or not the benefits of such system. Luis Figueroa [ES] said that if the government will sponsor those teachers that had been on strike, it would be a waste of money even when costs only US$100.

…si se les va a dar una compu a los maestros s que han estado en huelga, a esos que chantajean a los tributarios, a esos que hacen pancartas mucas, a esos que creen que tienen derecho a vivir del presupuesto del Estado…pues yo digo que darles compu a esos maestros, aunque sea una compu de US$100, es un desperdicio

In Albedrio [ES], the author argues that is absolutely absurd to think in a country lacking in public education that a modernization process and building capacities of teachers is urgent.

Es totalmente absurdo pensar que un país carezca de educación pública…La modernización de la institución y la capacitación de sus empleados son urgentes

So, the education scenario in Guatemala is: teachers are concerned about themselve worried about the Ministry giving them a raise, as well as an amnesty for their wrongdoings and cheap computers. On the other hand we have kids staying at home while they should be at a school, learning only with Microsoft software, and parents facing situations such as the one described by Bloggers in San Pedro La Laguna.

1 comment · »»

Taiwan: Olympic torch relay-through Taiwan or not?

I-fan Lin · 02:55

2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China will have a fabulous start: the route of the Olympic torch relay will be the longest in the history (85000 miles, 130 days). However, the plan was rejected by Taiwan on April 26, 2007. The current proposed route related to Taiwan can be seen on BBC news: the Olympic torch was supposed to be relayed from Pyongyang (North Korea) to Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam) to Taipei (Taiwan), and to Hong Kong and Macau (China). It will then be brought to other cities in China, including Lhasa in Tibet.

Taiwan's officials said Taiwan wanted to participate as part of the ‘international' route. For example, Taiwan would like to join the Olympic torch relay if it is relayed from Pyongyang to Taipei, and to Ho Chi Minh City. If Taiwan relays Olympic torch to Hong Kong and Macau, as Jiang Xiaoyu, the executive vice president of the Beijing Olympic organizing committee, said, Taipei might be referred to one of ‘the overseas Chinese cities' like Hong Kong and Macau.

tzuhuai objected the Taiwan's officials' rejection:

政府只不過是為了某種程度上的政治考量才去拒絕，作秀程度大於真正的實質意義！……體育界的人士說的好：讓政治歸政治、體育歸體育！本來就不能混為一談。越是這樣的逃避拒絕，對岸還沒矮化我們我們救自我矮化了，我們應該要正面回擊才是！而不是一直用以前的手法、手段，去逃避對岸的措施！對岸越是想矮化我們，我們應該要讓國際知道台灣的聲音、地位以及特有性！而不是每每在國際舞台上自我退出，喪失許多珍貴的機會！

The government's rejection was kind of based on their political benefit. They wanted to show off instead of understanding the essential meaning of the rejection…..What people working in athletics said is right: let politics argument go to politics, and let athletic activities go to athletics! Politics and athletics should not be mixed together. When we tried to reject or evade, we would be repressed before China represses us. We need to fight back! We should not always use the same methods to evade China's repression. As long as China wants to repress us, we should let the world know Taiwan's voice, position, and identity instead of leaving the global society and losing the valuable opportunity.

On the other hand, Chen, Yung-Chih supported this decision made by Taiwan's government.

由Temple Preah Vihear我們便可瞭解到，無論任何形式之「默示」都有可能造成國家領土的損失；既然這樣，當瀕臨絕種動物之跨國運送活動須像CITES公約組織通報的情況下，大陸當局主張將團團與圓圓送到台灣不必向CITES公約組織通報之舉動時，以及，奧運聖火離開台灣後隨即轉向香港或澳門等一國兩制之地區時，我們是否該思考一下，我們是否落入了「默示」的圈套裡了呢？聖火不是完全不能來，但是唯有進出台灣均行經第三第對台灣之現況才是最有利的處理方式！

From the case concerning the Temple of Preah Vihear we know that any kind of ‘acceptance' is possible to result in territory lost. As a result, when China said they could give Taiwan two pandas, which are endangered animals, without informing CITES and when China proposed to relay Olympic torch to Hong Kong and Macau, which are under the principle of ‘one country, two systems,' after Taiwan, we need to think about if this action is a trap of ‘acceptance.' Olympic torch can come to Taiwan, but it is advantageous to Taiwan only if it is not relayed to any cities in China before or after Taiwan.

Norya II talked about the effect of international media coverage of the story:

國際媒體也都精確而不含糊的指出，支那聖火的傳遞路線是將台灣矮化為屬於支那一個地區的路線，因此，讓國際人士更加知道原來台灣與支那是二個不相同的國家。

International media pointed out accurately that the current relay route proposed by China implies Taiwan is part of China. The reports can let people in other countries understand that Taiwan and China are different countries.

In China, some bloggers were not happy about Taiwan's rejection because they though it was an alternative claim that Taiwan and China are different countries. For example, in maozhuxi1312's article:

陈SB及那些妄图搞分裂的激进派,告诉你们,地球就一个,中国也只有一个,它的名字叫”中华人民共和国”.回头掂量一下自己,害怕的话就早早的归顺,顽抗到底,是死路一条!

To Chen Shui-Bian (Taiwan president) and other secessionist: there is only one earth, and there is only one China. It's name is People's Republic of China. How about going back and weighing yourselves? If you are afraid, then you should submit yourselves to China. If you want to resist, it is a dead end!

In addition to the blame and threat, maozhuxi1312 analyzed why Taiwan rejected:

其实这样的结果在刚刚听说圣火路经台北市的时候,就可以预知.
台湾目前正搞正名化，主体化，而在奥运火炬问题上早就有明确态度，从第三国进，再从第四国出。那么目前的这个路线与台湾的想法差距比较大，我们说是意识形态也好，是防止矮化也罢，反正是谈不拢的，既然早知道谈不拢，它拒绝又有什么奇怪的，体育本身就有政治性，我们协商的对象竟然是个民间组织，这样怎么可能不失败，毕竟目前代表台湾人的是台湾政府。如果务实的化，真的想促进两岸关系，这些问题又算什么问题，从那里进，从那里出又有什么关系，释放些善意难道就那么难？

This result could be predicted when I knew the Olympic torch was planned to relay to Taipei. Now Taiwanese are talking about name-rectification and identity, and they already showed their principle: relaying from and to other countries. The current route is different from what Taiwanese thought about. We can say it is due to ideology or avoiding repression. The route will not be accepted at the end. Since we already knew it cannot work, it is not strange that Taiwan's government rejected. Athletics itself is political. If what we are working with is a civilian organization, why will it not fail? Now it is Taiwan's government representing Taiwanese. To be pragmatic, if we want to improve the relationship between China and Taiwan, the route should not be a problem. What's the matter about relaying from or to where? Is it that difficult to show the goodwill?

There is a Chinese idiom ‘yin zhen zhi ke,' which means drinking poison to quench thirst. It seems that China plans to set up this kind of difficult condition for Taiwan. Taiwanese hope to join the Olympic torch relay because Taiwan has been isolated from the international society because of China for so long. dAb said:

我的腦海裡在幻想著…未來台灣代表隊出場的時候說不定只能孬屈地舉著中國台北的牌子。雖然我並不是所謂的台獨派或國統派，但我不認為有誰可以接受；或是有誰應該能夠接受這樣的可能性。所以新聞至此，我茫然失措。

In my imaginary…it is possible that our athletes need to take the label of ‘China Taipei' in the Olympic Games. Although I cannot be categorized into ‘pro-independence' or ‘pro-union,' I do not think who can accept this condition or who should accept this possibility. Reading the news, I am confused and do not know which side I should support.

In the middle of all the controversies, maybe we should read the story about how Olympic torch relay was first proposed. In 1936, before World War II, Nazis government in German gave birth to this modern Olympics symbol–a series of torch-bearing runners carrying the inspirational flame cross country to the stadium for the lighting ceremony. Was it political? The torch relay were planned to link Olympiad's origin and its modern rebirth in the Aryan ideal. Based on the book ‘Nazi Games' written by American historian David Clay Large, the relay was turned into an advertisement for Nazi across southeastern and central Europe, a region coveted by Nazi. The seemingly innocuous torch relay to Berlin prefigured the naked aggression to come.

There is a Taiwanese proverb ‘when blind people eat dumplings, they know the number (of the dumplings that have been eaten) in their minds.' I am sure both Taiwan's and China's officials know why they made this and that decisions. Although the slogan for 2008 Olympic Games in Beijian is ‘one world, one dream,' both Taiwanese and Tibetan seem to have different dreams from China's.

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