China has successfully lifted poverty on millions of its citizens as it is beginning to embrace capitalism. Another victory that China gained in the 21st century is the honor to host some hundred decades-old Olympics in its capital, Beijing.
However, China’s vows to commit several drastic changes are proven questionable. Despite its attempt to curb air pollution by ceasing construction work and limiting the number of vehicles allowed to operate, it is not doing enough to stop the arrests and repression of the vulnerable public dissenters. [1]
It is believed that China’s worsening human rights record is spurred by the effort to maintain a good image to the international community by barring outspoken criticism toward the government. It seems that they are getting the opposite reaction.
Chinese troops are accused of using violent force on Tibetan protesters and foreign journalists and reporters do not have complete access to cover regions near the Chinese-Tibetan border. [2]
Another step that China decided to do that received a condemnation from Olympic Watch is the conviction and arrest, of Hu Jia, who openly criticized the Chinese government to the European Parliament and said that the people who hold the political offices are the ones responsible for human rights violations. [3]
Looking at some of China’s human rights cases, one may conclude that China excels at embellishing the country with the latest technology and lavish modern buildings as the economy has become the fastest-rising one in the world. But when it comes to addressing the unfair treatment of its citizens, the government fails to come up with a conclusive defense regarding the issue.
Despite international calls and threat to loosen up with the issue and threats from the most influential world leaders, China still stubbornly does not concede.
So, whatever happens to China’s promise of “be open in all aspects”?when pro-Beijing demonstrators chant “Go China!” are they already satisfied with the high technology development and the newly-born capitalism but ignoring the fundamental rights of its people?What about the labor camp and other severe punishments?BBC News, 04-02-08, “Olympics ‘worsening China rights’”.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7325754.stmOlympic Watch, 03-04-2008, “Olympic Watch Condemns Hu Jia’s jailing as IOC heads to Beijing.”
http://www/olympicwatch.org/news.php?id=116Washington Post,04-21-2008 “China Falls Short on Vows for Olympics. ” by Jill Drew and Maureen Fan.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/20/AR2008042002044.html
Wong Fu Productions Came To Town:Three Young Filmmakers Portray Ordinary Matters Through Short Movies
April 21, 2008
Wong Fu Productions paid fans at the university a visit as part of a celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month to talk about the background of their two-year old independent filmmaking company and screen their projects.
Fans and spectators, who were predominantly Asian Americans, quickly swarmed in and almost filled up the Baltimore Room in the Stamp Student Union to witness the projects and the three young men that make up Wong Fu Productions: Wesley Chan, Ted Fu, and Phillip Wang.
The trio met in a class at the University of California, San Diego and after checking each other’s video projects, they became interested in working together with the video projects and things began more serious.
Chan, who was inspired after seeing the movie “The Motel”, incited the idea of making a short movie with Fu and Wang and submitted it to a movie festival in San Diego. Luckily, their movie was selected. They were thrilled by the news and thus they were motivated to make more short films and take on bigger things.
Their short films and projects are now available on DVD and it is also accessible on YouTube. Before the time of social networks explosion such as MySpace and Facebook, the only means of communication and advertising their work was through their own Web site and the only way viewers could see their videos was by requesting their appearance in schools and colleges. It turned out that they received numerous e-mails.
The trio’s films are about regular things that occur in human life and the themes vary from love, to stereotypes, to teenage comedy and many other things.
“ I just make the films based on loads of inspirations that I saved up,” Chan said. “It’s usually just something that I see,” .
The production house has become their full-time job where they spend about 80 hours a week and meet growing clients. In the period of 2006-2007, they already made a tour to about 50 schools, not to mention they also traveled as far as Canada. Not only do they make short movies, they have also done music projects for independent artists. But they prefer making movies with friends as their actors and actresses.
Even though the goal of the production is to represent independent Asian filmmakers, it does not mean that their movies are strictly about and only involve Asians.
“ We’re really not trying to be exclusive when we make our movies. I think a lot of our videos are pretty diverse.” Fu commented.
“It’s just that most of our friends are Asians, to be honest,” Wang added.
Wang later made a joke about how they came up with the name Wong Fu. Wong Fu was a nickname given to Wang when he was in middle school.
“ I thought it was cool because the name sounds like Kung Fu,” Wang laughed.
Ronnie Cheng, a sophomore Letters and Sciences student started becoming one of their loyal fans after watching one of their most desired video Yellow Fever, The most acclaimed video “Yellow Fever” is a documentary-type comedy about why Asian girls like white guys.
“ I became inspired after watching their movie. It made me consider that filmmaking might be something I want to do,” Cheng said.
Another spectator, a junior Criminal Justice Larry Phu also joined the big crowd in Baltimore Room.
“What’s interesting about these guys is their films are culturally different. They incorporate their Asian culture into their short movies”.
When they were asked what they see themselves in 5 years, Fu said he just wanted to be happy.
Rising oil prices vs Tree huggers
April 7, 2008
Many Americans are flustered by the current oil price that soared more than 5 cents in the past two weeks [1]. However, the group of citizens who might be benefited from this big factor of the slumping economy is the environmental advocates. They could finally sigh a relief and say: Thank God, it’s about time!
Katrin Klingenberg has gone as far as building a house that can be heated with a 10 100-watt light bulbs as a means of skimping her electricity bill as a result of fuel scarcity. [2]
General Motors has paired up with a division of Shell Oil to establish a hydrogen-fueled station and the property is now opened in White Plains. [3]
The rising oil price has imprinted a huge impact on many aspects of everyone’s lives, and people are eventually forced to shift their gasoline reliance on other fuel alternatives such as ethanol, fossil fuel, hydrogen or biodiesel as the gas price is not going down anytime soon. The bright side is the effects of global warming will be diminished if Americans take advantage of the country’s unfortunate economic condition to keep up with the alternatives habit and environmentalists use the opportunity to charm everyone with their proposal of lessening the consumption of gasoline that produces greenhouse gas and encourage them to start walking or riding bikes to travel on short distance. This way, our generation and the next generation to come will be able to live in a friendly and enduring environment.
[1] CNN, 04-06-2008, “ Gas prices hit another record”.
http://money.cnn.com/2008/04/06/news/economy/_prices/index.htm?postversion=2008040615
[2] The Washington Post, 04-05-2008, “ Wary of Waning Power Supplies, Eco-Minded Architects Build a Better Box” by Katherine Salant.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/04/AR2008040401791.html
[3] New York Times, 03-16-2008, “ Hydrogen Fuel Station Opens in White Plains” by Diana Marszalek.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/16/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/16hydrogenwe.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=fuel+alternative&st=nyt&oref=slogin
HISTORY CHANNEL, ENTERTAINING AND EDUCATING
April 3, 2008
It’s surprising that History Channel still has its appeal to college students. The TV station successfully entices an audience, who are unlikely to be interested in taking history classes, to actually watch these shows on a daily basis.
Innovative shows with great narratives and fascinating effects that enhance the outcome of the shows draw in the crowds of younger generation. Adam Rizvi, a sophomore Computer Engineering major, enjoys watching “Ancient Discoveries” on Mondays.
“ I really like ancient history because I’m interested in ancient temples and gods like the Greeks and Egyptians,” said Rizvi. “ The show makes it very interesting.”
After watching the show, people would be startled just by how surprisingly civilized and high-tech the ancient societies turned out to be. It can change our perception of the primitive and barbaric life to the kind of life that might have been more developed and better educated than societies of today.
History Channel does not strictly focus on ancient archeology or ancient war that people would expect when they hear the word “history”.
Besides covering all mentioned above, it also covers a great deal on other historical things such as natural and unnatural disasters, unrevealed mystery, technology, aliens and UFO, etc.
The show “Shockwave” reiterates about videos of tremendously deadly and catastrophic events captured by cell phone cameras, home videos, surveillance cameras or news cameramen.
“ It focuses on different types of disasters with greater details computer graphic to explain what happened,” said a Finance junior Adam Optican. “ They interview people who are involved in it, I think it’s really cool,”
Zachary De La Cruz, Junior Communication major, who watches History Channel at least three to four times a week favors History’s Mysteries as the best show on the channel.
“It talks about a lot of topics and major mysterious places in history such as area 151, UFO, Easter Island, etc.” De La Cruz said.
Not only political figures, warfare, cultural and world history dominate the shows on History channel. It also evolves around science and technology.
“ I think history and engineering are a good combination,” David Bond, an Engineering junior, remarked about the show “Engineering an Empire” that narrates the establishment of temples, fortresses, and palaces in the ancient empires. “I buy the DVD to make sure I don’t miss any episodes,” Bond added.
To others, the channel is also something interesting to watch if there are no good shows on TV.
“If there’s nothing much going on on TV, I’ll watch something on History channel” said Adriana Regalado, a sophomore Kinesiology major. “ I don’t have any particular favorite show, but I find shows from controversy of religion, archeology, history of gangs, to Marilyn Manson serial killers. It surprises me that these things actually happened and the way they present it is really interesting. It makes me feel smart,” Regalado laughed.
History channel encourages audience from variety of backgrounds and fields to pay more attention to the past. If History Channel keeps up their inventive shows and visual portrayal of the past, students may not need that history class that is just nap time.
US Security: Another Threat to Civilians in Iraq?
April 3, 2008
Do not always expect photographs of friendly US army officers giving out candies to Iraqi children or US troops working closely with Iraqi guards to fight bravely for the sake of our nation. In some cases, the presence of the US troops just worsen the lives of civilians in Iraq.
One of the most vital cases that people should be aware of is the Blackwater Security Company case, in which 17 Iraqi civilians were indiscriminately and fatally shot. [1]
Another brutal case is the allegation of one US soldier of raping and shooting an Iraqi woman after killing her family. Kerosene was then poured on her body. [2]
Not to mention, 25 Iraq civilians were killed in a province in western Iraq, including 18 children, hospital officials, and family members during a US raid which was meant to target insurgents on their attempt to plant bombs. [3]
For the first and last cases, the US troops just wanted to avoid any deadly attack from the insurgents, all right, but should we say that they need to be more meticulously aware of their targets? Isn’t it going to create more tension and hatred among the Iraqi civilians whose hopes to live peacefully are then shattered by the unnecessary and unfortunate occurrences that shouldn’t have had happened? It’s like the eternal world of accidents that they have to live in, everyday is a new kind of danger that they have to face, even from the people with whom their lives are entrusted.
[1] BBC, 10-14-2007, “ Blackwater Guards Were ‘Fired On’ “ .
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7044214.stm
[2] CNN, 08-07-2006, “ Investigator: U.S Soldier poured kerosene on raped, slain Iraqi.”
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/08/07/iraq.familyslain/index.html
[3] Washington Post, 10-18-2005, “ Iraqis Say Civilians Killed in U.S Raids” by Ellen Knickmeyer.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/17/AR2005101700808.html
