Letture Interessanti: Round Up

Con questo commento raccolgo un'ulteriore selezione di articoli secondo me meritevoli di essere letti, presi dalla sezione "Letture Interessanti" qui a destra, divisi per argomenti.

TERREMOTO IN SICHUAN:

CNReview ospita una lista di organizzazioni di soccorso per l'emergenza in Sichuan.
Crossroads ha una lista simile, altri modi per contribuire con un aiuto economico si trovano cliccando sul banner della croce rossa cinese in alto a destra.
Blogging for China propone anche le considerazioni di un volontario cinese che con un gruppo di amici è andato nelle zone colpite per dare una mano.

"I haven’t closed my eyes for two days. I’m a student from Wuxi’s Professional Health Institute...I really am not used to those Sichuan provincial leaders. We’re chewing on bread rolls, and our beloved PLA Army, Armed Police warriors… they’re chewing only on dried instant noodles. But those leaders are eating two warm dishes and rice. At lunch I saw the premier while he was resting, and he was only eating a roll and salted vegetables. I cried at that moment...The parking lot is the most tragic of places, none of us want to be there. Because we see those injured mothers, staring at their children’s already cold bodies. We grief, and hate ourselves for being so helpless. But we really can’t help, we can’t life those rocks. All that we can do is bring those mothers and fathers a warm blanket on this frigid night."

Chinadialogue ha un articolo di Cleo Paskal su come difendersi dai rischi ambientali.

"the three R’s, are:
• Reinforcing mitigation and adaptation before the event through good planning, communication and regulations;
• Executing an effective rescue during the crisis;
• Supporting a long-term regional recovery to lessen the disruptive social and economic impacts.

By looking at this graph of vulnerabilities, it becomes clear that some of the richest countries are also among the most wanting of counter-measures. In the US, Hurricane Katrina exposed failures on all six fronts...It is also telling what happened to coastal southeast China in the summer of 2006. By August 11, it had been hit by eight typhoons...Here, China failed in reinforcing (government), in part through replicating the US in allowing development in flood prone-areas, but it came through in rescue (government)."

Three Gorges Probe si chiede se la Diga delle Tre Gole col suo peso sia una delle cause della potenza devastante raggiunta dal terremoto, insieme ai movimenti della placca indiana e alle proprietà geologiche del terreno nell'area colpita.
In un altro articolo di TGP si analizzano i dati causati dal terremoto alle dighe circostanti l'area.

Cercando di chiudere con una nota positiva, una minuscola goccia nell'oceano rappresentato dalla tragedia del terremoto, China Daily ha un articolo su una ragazza di etnia han salvata da un ragazzo tibetano e due Qiang.

TIBET:

Nicholas Kristof si è recato nelle regioni tibetane del Gansu e Qinghai, nonostante il divieto delle autorità cinesi, per investigare sulla situazione.

"the recent anti-Chinese protests spread across a larger area in traditional Tibet than is sometimes realized. This was, in effect, a popular uprising against Chinese rule throughout Tibetan areas, and the region is still seething...The Dalai Lama and pro-Tibetan Westerners were far too leisurely about condemning Tibetan brutality, and America came across as hypocritical for apparent indifference when the victims in Tibet were Chinese...But even where protests were entirely peaceful, the repression has been merciless...At Labrang Monastery in Xiahe, almost 10,000 feet high in the mountains, more than 220 Buddhist monks were arrested and beaten, local Tibetans said. The great majority has been released, but some are still hospitalized because of injuries. Some monks are hiding in the mountains, and they are all terrified...Living standards have improved," the herdsman conceded, yet he had joined the demonstrations against Chinese rule. His priority, he said, wasn't wealth but freedom to worship the Dalai Lama."

(UPDATE 18/05: è uscito un altro articolo di Kristof sul suo viaggio, anche questo molto interessante, forse più del primo)

Il prof. Zhang Boshu (张博树) della Chinese Academy of Social Sciences di Pechino ha pubblicato un articolo sul passato recente del Tibet, interessante, oltre che per quanto scritto, anche perchè sembra smentire il fatto che in Cina ci siano limiti insuperabili a ciò che si può scrivere (il prof. arriva a scrivere che "Tibetans have already made preparations for a democratic political system. Shouldn't the central government in Beijing make similar preparations?"):

"In 1962, the Panchen Lama, who was ranked as a "national leader" wrote a letter to Premier Zhou Enlai expressing his deep sorrow at what he had seen and heard of the suffering of the Tibetan people...I might as well quote from it here:
"Formerly Tibet was a dark and barbarous feudal society but there had never been a shortage of grain like that, especially since Buddhism permeated the society, everyone rich and poor, had the custom of helping the poor and giving alms. People could easily support themselves as a beggar, so we never of anyone ever having starved to death."

With opening and reform, especially since the early 1990s and the turn of the new century, the Chinese economy has grown very quickly. The central government has also certainly invested a lot of capital in Tibet...The overall economic level of Tibet improved considerably as a result. However the political structure remained the same as before...in Tibet there is no true religious freedom...An even more deadly consequence of the strict control of religion have been breaks in the transmission of Tibetan Buddhism...since 1959 this continuous process has been interrupted. From the 1980s to the present, although on the surface religious activities have been renewed, it has become hard to find a trace of the very core of the religion...Beijing may not completely trust the statements of the Dalai Lama because overcoming political enmity built up over a long time will take time and face-to-face communication. However, indiscriminately demonizing the other side, charging that the Dalai is the commander in the "Tibet independence camp"...can only put the Dalai Lama in a difficult situation (while he is trying to put pressure on radical forces among Tibetans) and put the Chinese communists into a political dead end (frozen into the rigid face of the dictator ), giving up the freedom of maneuver needed in political negotiations. Isn't this an extremely stupid way to behave?! "

Per un saggio approfondito e competente sulla storia del Tibet recente rimando al sempre valido (e ormai celebre nella blogosfera) articolo di Wang Lixiong.

ALTRO

Qualche altra segnalazione degna di nota:

The Emergence of Real Trade Unionism in Wal-Mart Stores propone una serie di traduzioni da blog cinesi di dipendenti di Wal Mart in merito alla recente costituzione di sindacati all'interno della compagnia.

Infine, per non dimenticare, Dui Hua smentisce che la pena attribuita a Hu Jia sia stata più lieve del solito, come affermato dai media governativi cinesi e avanza ipotesi sui motivi nascosti dietro la celerità di tale sentenza.