European Tribune - Comments - LQD: A Ground's-Eye View of the Sichuan Earthquake

LQD: A Ground's-Eye View of the Sichuan Earthquake | 25 comments (25 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: reading Heaven's Will in the numbers (none / 0)

An excellent opinion piece in Le Monde:

Le Monde.fr : En Chine, le Parti tremble, par Guy Sorman - Asie-Pacifique		Le Monde.fr: In China, the Party quakes, by Guy Sorman - Asia-Pacific
Un tremblement de terre, selon la tradition populaire chinoise, n'est pas seulement un accident naturel. De tradition, tout tremblement de terre est annonciateur de mouvements profonds qui affecteront la société. On se souvient encore en Chine, et je m'en souviens pour y avoir assisté, que le gigantesque séisme du Hebei en 1976, qui avait ébranlé Pékin, précéda de peu le décès de Mao Zedong. Il eût été difficile aux Chinois, à cette époque, de ne pas relier les deux événements, à la manière dont on croyait naguère que les catastrophes naturelles anticipaient toujours sur la mort de l'empereur régnant.		An earthquake, according to the Chinese folk tradition, is not only a natural occurrence. From tradition, any earthquake east heralds profound movements that affect society. It still remembers China, and I remember to have witnessed the huge earthquake of Hebei in 1976, which had shaken Beijing, shortly before the death of Mao Zedong. It would have been difficult for Chinese at that time not to link the two events, the way we once believed that natural disasters were anticipating still on the death of the reigning emperor.
Quelque quarante ans plus tard, le Parti communiste est parvenu à réduire en poussière la plupart des institutions religieuses, à anéantir les monastères bouddhistes et le clergé taoïste; mais les croyances populaires sont restées intactes, plus solides que jamais peut-être, tel un ultime rempart de la pensée individuelle contre l'idéologie totalitaire officielle.		Some forty years later, the Communist Party has managed to reduce dust in most religious institutions, to destroy monasteries and the Buddhist clergy Taoist, but the popular beliefs remained intact, stronger than ever perhaps, as an ultimate bulwark of individual thought against the totalitarian ideology official.
Il est certes trop tôt pour deviner comment les victimes du Sichuan et le peuple chinois vont interpréter la récente catastrophe, mais la réaction rapide, claironnée par les médias officiels et apparemment efficaces, des secours publics aux victimes est significative.		It is certainly too early to guess how the victims of Sichuan and the Chinese people will interpret the recent disaster, but the rapid reaction claironnée by the official media and apparently effective, public assistance to the victims is significant.

Whole thing worth reading.

A language is a dialect with an army and navy.

by marco (cowannar at gmail punkt com) on Tue May 20th, 2008 at 11:42:52 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Some 40 years later (none / 1)

I didn't know we were already in 2016.

When the capital development of a country becomes a by-product of the activities of a casino, the job is likely to be ill-done. — John M. Keynes

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue May 20th, 2008 at 11:44:14 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Some 40 years later (none / 1)

Maybe it was the association between 4 and death that influenced his arithmetic.

A language is a dialect with an army and navy.

by marco (cowannar at gmail punkt com) on Tue May 20th, 2008 at 06:21:30 PM EST
[ Parent ]

LQD: A Ground's-Eye View of the Sichuan Earthquake | 25 comments (25 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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