Sunday, September 26, 2010

Islamic Issues - 伊斯蘭问题

San Francisco Chronicle reported that "Texas textbook board curtails mentions of Islam".
The Texas State Board of Education adopted a resolution Friday that seeks to curtail references to Islam in Texas textbooks.

The board approved the one-page nonbinding resolution, which urges textbook publishers to limit what they print about Islam in world history books, by a 7-5 vote.

The board in recent years has become a battleground for social conservatives and liberal watchdogs, each accusing the other of imposing ideological agendas on what about 4.8 million public school students learn in Texas classrooms.

This treatment of one of the main religions and important cultures in the world is very disturbing.  It is not only short-sighted and stupid, it is also the very mechanism of fostering religious fanaticism.

I remembered that a while ago, I mentioned the ill-treatment of Islam in China.  So soon, it's time to report that behavior in the US.


舊金山紀事報报道了“得克薩斯州教科書董事會限制提到伊斯蘭”。

德克薩斯州教育委員會週五通過一項決議,旨在減少在德克薩斯州的教科書中引用伊斯蘭教。
董事會7-5表決批准了1頁的不具約束力的決議,敦促教科書出版商,以限制他們在世界歷史的書籍印有有關伊斯蘭教的文字。

該委員會在最近幾年已成為一個社會保守派和自由派監督者的戰場,他们互相指責对方強加其意識形態議程于德州公立學校的約 480萬學生。

這種对待世界上的一個主要宗教和重要文化的方式是非常令人不安的。它不僅是短視和愚蠢的,也恰是促進宗教狂熱的機制。

我記得前一陣子,我提到在中國伊斯蘭教的遭遇。這麼快,已是時候向大家報告,类似的在美國的行為。

Explosion / 爆破 / Ausbruch
Explosion © Matthew Felix Sun




Thursday, September 16, 2010

Media as Gatekeepers? - 媒體把關?

An acquaintance of mine in China told me that her friend was in a minor discomfort because he failed to detect a false advertisement in the newspaper he was asked to read, in order to stem out unacceptable contents.

This story amazed me. Protecting consumers is important but it is quite unfortunate that Chinese society and government lay the burden on the already jittery media's shoulders. Media should not shoulder this burden. It is as impractical as unfair. It is the entities who buy the advertisements should be held responsible, like what we have in the US.

我的一個在中國的熟人告訴我,她的朋友有一個輕微不愉快。一份他應邀閱讀,以遏止不可接受的內容的報紙上,出現一個可能的虛假廣告,而他未能及時察覺。

這個故事令我驚訝。保護消費者很重要,但很不幸的是,中國社會和政府的把負擔壓在本已緊張的媒體的肩上。媒體不應該承擔這個責任--這既不切實際又不公平。應該是廣告購買者負責,像在美國這樣。

Division / 割裂 / Teilung
Division © Matthew Felix Sun

Friday, September 10, 2010

Development Is the Indisputable Truth / 發展才是硬道理

Late Chinese strongman Deng Xiaoping once claimed: "Development is the indisputable truth". This is the root of what had gone wrong since they abandoned Mao's ideological driven policies. Instead of striving to improve people's life on all front, economically, politically, environmental, etc., Deng's theory aimed at the wrong goal. Chinese leaders have been chasing this relentless growth in last thirty years but failed to make sure its citizens benefit the most from such development. The country now has overtaken Japan and became the second largest economy in the word but the country is at the brim of breakdown. The income inequality, the environmental disaster, the corruption, the political prosecution are still rampant. People's life has improved dramatically, particularly those city dwellers, comparing to that in Mao's era but it is not enough.

Their policy actually is not dissimilar to the trickle down policy the Republicans are champion.

Instead of trying to make the quality of life as the goal of national policies, they aim at economy growth itself. Without improving people's life, any economic growth is meaningless.

Their policy only serves stock market and Wall Street.


已故中國強人鄧小平曾稱:“發展才是硬道理。”這是自從他們放棄毛澤東的思想政策後,許多錯誤的根源。不從經濟,政治,環境等各方面努力改善人民生活,鄧小平的理論指向錯誤的目標。中國領導人在過去30年中一直在追逐經濟的增長,但其未能確保其大部分公民從中或益。中國現在已經超過日本,成為第二大經濟體,但他們處於破裂邊緣。收入不平等,環境災難,腐敗,政治控制仍然比比皆是。人民生活,特別是那些城市居民,與在毛時代比有顯著改善,但僅此是不夠的。

他們的政策其實是與共和黨提倡的涓滴政策相同。

不是試圖使提高人民生活質量為目標,他們的的國家政策追求目標是經濟增長本身。如果不改善人民生活,任何經濟增長是沒有意義的。

他們的政策只是對股市和華爾街有利。

Lake / 湖 / See
Lake © Matthew Felix Sun
http://www.matthewfelixsun.com/

Monday, September 6, 2010

小学生的遗书 / Elementary School Student's Testament

There is a widely distributed "will" written by a Chinese elementary student facing a big storm. The authenticity of this will is hard to determine but even if it's a fiction, it still constitute a good read - hilarious and heart tagging.

Below is the Chinese text and the English translation follows:

有一個廣泛流传的一个面臨的一個大風暴的小學生的“遗书”。遗书的真實性很難確定,但即使它是小說,它仍是一個良好的讀物 - 很好笑也很让人心酸。

下面是中文原文,英文翻譯随后:

今天乌云压压狂风暴雨倾盆大雨,天上打着雷,一只小鸟都看不到,小树要也弯下了腰。河流变成了大河流,水都流到我 们家院子里了。爸爸的摩托车也被水淹没了~到处都是水,很多大人在外面排水。听大人们说,这次发大水,是100年才能遇到一次的,听说山峡大坝都放水了, 我很害怕,我不会游泳,我怕我会被大水冲走,爸爸妈妈我很舍不得你们,虽然以前我不听话,你们经常打我。

我的床上席子下有2张100块的钞票,上次去看望外婆的时候,她偷偷塞给我的,让我不要让妈妈知道,如果我被大水冲走了,就捐给我们学校手牵手希望小学的同学们吧。

上次数考试赵子刚最后那道选择题是我故意告诉他选D,其实我知道正确答案,我选的是A。就因为那次他的MP3有周杰伦的新歌,他不传给我。

我喜欢副班长,不知道算不算老师说的早熟,我喜欢让她帮我背英语单词。

如果我被大水冲跑了,我的QQ宠物要记得一定要喂饱,给它吃圈圈冰淇林就可以了,我的元宝不多了。我玩的蛮荒游戏马上满级了,让赵子刚帮我练满级 吧,希望他不要上次考试我将错误答案告诉他,因此恨我,还有不要上语音,游戏里的老婆不知道我是小学生。还有植物大战僵尸最后3关的通关秘籍在电脑的F盘 里。

张老师,上次期中考试的考卷家长签名是我找表哥签的,计算机教室讲台上那只鼠标也是我搞坏的,我不是故意的。

隔壁孙爷爷家的花盆里,丢满了我不喜欢吃的鸡蛋黄,每次我只吃蛋白,蛋黄全丢在孙爷的花盆里。仙人掌上的那个洞也是我做实验用笔捅的,孙爷我再也不这样了。如果大水没把我冲走,我给买个仙人球。

Today, dark clouds are heavy and it is very storm and the rain poured down. There are many thunders and no birds could be seen, even trees bend their waists. River turns into a large river, and the water flow into our courtyard. Dad's motorcycle is also under water ~ water everywhere, and many adults in the outside are trying to drain the water. According to the grown-ups, this kind of storm only occurs once in 100 years. I heard that even Three Gorge Dam was releasing waters to the downstream. I am afraid I might be swept away, since I could not swim. Dad and Mom, I am very reluctant to leave you, though in the past I did not heed you therefore you always beat me.

Under my bed mats there are two
100 Yuan bills, they were from grandma, when I last visited her she sneaked them to me, and told me not to let my mother know. If I were washed away, please donate it to our school's Hope School partner to help the kids there.

During last math test, I intentionally told Zhao Zigang that the answer to the last multiple-choice was D, in fact, I know the right answer, I chose A. Because he had Jay Chou's new song on his MP3 player but he wouldn't pass it to me.

I like deputy head of our class - I don't not know if that was what the teacher called
precocity or not. I like it when she helped me with English vocabularies.

If I were swept away by the flood, remember to feed my pet on QQ - just ice-cream circle would be sufficient since my ingot is running out. I'll advance to a new level in the "Wild" game immediately, and let Zhao Zigang practice and help me to advance, hoping that he will not hate me for telling him the wrong answer in the last exam. In addition, don't go on "Voice" since my wife in that game didn't know that I was an elementary school student. The cheating secrete for the last three hurdles in the "Zombie and Plant Fighting Off" game is stored in F drive of the computer.

Teacher Zhang, after last midterm exam, my parent's signature was signed by my cousin and it was I who broke the mouse of the computer on the classroom podium but I did not mean to.

The flowers pots of Grandfather Sun next door are full of egg yolks I threw there, since I don't like them. I only eat egg white and I throw egg yolks into Grandfather Sun's flower pots. The hole on the cactus was my experimenting with a pen, and tell Grandpa Sun that I would not do it no more. If the flood did not wash me away, I'll buy him a cactus.

Dirge / 輓歌 / Elegy
Dirge © Matthew Felix Sun
www.matthewfelixsun.com