PUBLIC OCCURRENCES

On Song Binbin. 在宋彬彬.

2012-02-15T13:01:00.004-05:00

For the conclusion to her recent writing, graciously translated by Mr. Weimin Mo, I sincerely commend Song Binbin.

她最近的写作慷慨为民莫先生翻译的结论，我真诚地赞扬宋彬彬。

China's Great Wall of Silence: The Murder of Bian Zhongyun.

2012-02-13T12:13:00.008-05:00

Below is the original Chinese and then the English translation, courtesy of Weimin Mo, of the conclusion to the recent writing by Song Binbin, aka Song Yaowu, aka Yan Song. I post this now and will comment after having had a chance to think about it:

四、我的反思和道歉

　　４０多年过去了，我曾一次次地问自己，为什么会参与写女附中的第一张大字报？答案是，在那个年代自己满脑子想的都是保卫党、保卫毛主席，不让资本主义复辟，都是响应党的号召批判修正主义教育路线，自觉地在阶级斗争的大风浪中经受锻炼。后来，我逐渐认识到，尽管文革是全国性的运动，但具体到我们学校，这张大字报实际上起的是拉开学校文革序幕的作用。我参与写了，就应当承担责任。作为女附中的一名学生，我永远忘不了１９６６年８月５日这一天。校长被自己的学生殴打折磨致死，这是女附中的奇耻大辱，也是我和许多同学心中无法解开的结。我从内心感到深深的自责，我不能原谅自己那天的阻止不力和反应迟缓，正当盛年的卞校长因受尽自己学生的凌辱和折磨而失去了生命，卞校长的丈夫失去了妻子，卞校长的儿女失去了母亲。我想利用这个机会，向“八五事件”中不幸去世的卞仲耘校长表示最深切的悼念，向她的家人和所有“八五事件”中受害的校领导及其家人表示深深的歉意。文革后，我一直想去看望王晶尧先生，当面表达我的歉意。但是，我的处境又使我不能不谨慎行事。２００６年清明期间，几位同学去看望了王先生，向卞校长的遗像献花以表达我们４０年来的思念、哀悼与歉意。我想去又不敢去，我不想因自己的敏感身份，给老人带去刺激和哀伤。

　　女附中的“八五事件”，是长期以来“阶级斗争教育”的产物。当时，工作组因为犯了压制群众革命的错误而被撤走，党报社论号召群众自己解放自己，自己起来闹革命。因此，绝大多数同学想的也是怎样才能跟上革命形势的发展。８月５日，学生发起游斗所谓“黑帮”，出现了暴力局面，导致卞校长不幸去世。“阶级斗争教育”让我们大多数人在看见校领导被施暴时，虽然心里同情，但不敢说什么，更不可能站出来坚决反对。一些无力的劝阻虽暂时缓解了事态，但根本无法制止新一轮的殴打折磨。现在我认识到，这种对生命的集体性漠视也是发生悲剧的重要原因。最后我想说的是，我对上述所说的每一句话负责。我将以对母校、对文革受难者、对历史负责的态度，继续进行反思。我更期望我们的民族、我们的国家永远不要再发生那样的动乱和悲剧。

写于２００７年１２月，２０１２年１月改定

The rest of her article is just her recalling and explaining about what happened more than 40 years ago. According to what she said in the article, she was used and messed up by those who tried to exploit the anniversary celebration of her Alma Mater in spite of the fact she had warned them and insisted that only her academic accomplishments should be mentioned. It sounds credible. The above is the last part of the original. The following is the translation:

Over the past 40 years or so, more than once I asked myself why I would be involved in the making of the first large-character poster of my school [at the beginning of CR]. The answer is that at that time my mind was filled with the ideas of how to defend the Party and Chairman Mao, and how to stop capitalist restoration – all in response to the Party’s call to criticize the revisionist line in education and the call for young people to self-consciously experience the tempering of the stormy class struggle. Later on, I came to realize that even though C.R. was a nation-wide political movement, specifically the large-character poster I was involved in played the matter-of-fact role of starting the C. R. in our school. I was part of it. Therefore, I should be responsible for it. As a student at that time of the girls’ school, I can never be able to forget the day of August 5, 1966. The fact that its principal was beaten and tortured to death by its students is not only the greatest ignominy to the girls’ school, but is also the knot which is so difficult to untangle inside me and many of my fellow students. I’ve been blaming honestly myself and unable to forgive myself for delinquency in stopping the violence and insensitivity in response to it, which eventually led to the fact that Ms. Bian, while in the prime of her career, lost her life as a result of suffering unspeakable humiliation and torture at the hands of her own students, the fact that her husband lost his loving wife, and the fact that her children lost their mother. I’d like to take this opportunity to express my deepest regrets to Ms. Bian who fell victim to the August 5 Event. I’d like to apologize to her family and all other administrators and their families who suffered alot during the August 5 Event. When the C.R. was over, I thought of going to see Mr. Wang Jinyao, her husband, to show my regrets in person. Unfortunately, my situation forced me to be extremely careful. In 2006 around Memorial Festival, some of my friends went to see Mr. Wang and present bouquet to Ms. Bian’s picture to express their reflective thoughts over the 40 years as well as regrets and mourning. I wanted to go with them, but I didn’t go, for concerning that my controversial role at that time might further upset him or cause more pains.

The August 5 Event of the Girls School was offspring of the education of class struggle. While the working team sent from above was found to have committed an error, that is, suppressing the revolutionary enthusiasm of the masses and was driven out of school, the Party’s media added fuel to fire by calling on people to rebel and liberate themselves by making revolution. As a result, many of the students were thinking how we could catch up with the development of the revolution. On August 5, 1966, some students came up with the idea of rallying and tackling the “sinister gang” head-on. It culminated in violent actions and eventually led to the unfortunate death of Ms. Bian. The education of “class struggle” eventually influenced us in such a cynical way that most of us might feel sympathetic witnessing the school administrators being tortured, but no one dared to speak our mind, to say nothing of standing up against the violence. Our weak persuasions might have slow down the development, but were never able to dismiss effectively the forthcoming rounds of torture and beating. Now I understand, this kind of collective negligence of life is one of the critical causes of this tragedy. Finally, I’d like to say, I am responsible for every word I said above. I will continue to reflect on the past from a perspective that is based on the fact that I share the responsibility for my Alma Mater, for the C.R. victims, and for the history. Above all, I hope this kind of turmoil and tragedy will never happen to our nation, to our country again.

2012-02-12T12:49:00.001-05:00

The joy experienced by many over Jeremy Lin is eclipsed today by the sadness shared by many more worldwide over the death of popular song singer Whitney Houston. She was 48 years old.

The Joy of America.

2012-02-11T12:42:00.003-05:00

There is much joy in New York City today because of Jeremy Lin, and because New York City is located in the United States of America.

Jeremy Lin is a 23 year old professional basketball player for the New York “Knickerbockers” (“Knicks”). He is American, born in Los Angeles, and is of Chinese descent. Lin graduated from Harvard. The saying is, “You can always tell a Harvard man but you can’t tell him much.” Well, you can’t tell a Harvard man on an NBA basketball court. There are too few of them.

Harvard is not why there is so much joy over Lin; nor is China. There is so much joy over Jeremy Lin, first, because he has succeeded (America does not take to failures, especially New York Americans). Last night Lin scored 38 points against the Los Angeles “Lakers,” outscoring their star player Kobe Bryant. In his three previous games Lin scored 23, 28, and 25 points.

Second, Lin has created so much joy because his stellar performances have been so unexpected. Out of Harvard, Lin was not selected by any NBA team. He played minor league basketball for teams named the Reno “Bighorns” and Erie “BayHawks.” Americans love underdogs to succeed. It is part of the American dream that one can be born in a log cabin and grow up to be President (Abraham Lincoln), born to a white woman and African man and grow up to be President (Barack Obama), born poor in Scotland, immigrate to the U.S. and become a millionaire (Andrew Carnegie). And so: of Chinese descent, athletically handicapped by Harvard, out of Reno and Erie, lights up the Lakers with 38 points? Yeah, Americans are going to go nuts over that.

There was another feel-good story in American sports this past football season. Tim Tebow, as good a human being as there is, proved his doubters wrong by leading his NFL team, the Denver “Broncos” on a long winning streak that culminated in reaching the playoffs. Tebow however was voted the best player in the country when he was in college. He was still under-appreciated in the NFL but was not the nobody from Harvard that Lin was.

The stories of Jeremy Lin and Tim Tebow are all the more welcome this year because of the Penn State scandal. It has been the worst year in American sports. Lin and Tebow have brought joy to people in a country founded on the pursuit of happiness.

2012-02-11T11:13:00.002-05:00

2012-02-11T10:54:00.001-05:00

Jared Dudley (@JaredDudley619): OMG!!!!!!! Jeremy Lin is putting on a show!!!!!!! This is a Great story, the man was sleepin on his teammates couch! now MSG is chanting M-V-P!

Swin Cash (@SwinCash): All my lovely fans on Weibo in #China have Jeremy Lin fever & rightfully so...He is an example of staying ready, when your opportunity comes

Chuck D (@MrChuckD): It is unbelievable I've never seen anything like this before..in basketball It's like some move Jeremy SHO Lin Occupies the NBA heGotGame

Candace Parker (@Candace_Parker): I don't want to leave this game.....dude Jeremy Lin!! OMGGGGGGGG...

Boomer Esiason (@BOOMERESIASON): In a bar in Tarrytown, everyone cheering for Jeremy Lin. I've never seen anything like it. #Lin-tastic.

Twitter posts from ESPN.

2012-02-11T10:10:00.002-05:00

Jeremy Lin.

China's Great Wall of Silence: The Murder of Bian Zhongyun.

2012-02-10T11:18:00.000-05:00

Here's the link to Song Binbin's writing:

http://cnd.org/my/modules/wfsection/article.php%3Farticleid=31501

China's Great Wall of Silence: The Murder of Bian Zhongyun.

2012-02-10T09:37:00.003-05:00

If you google Song Binbin the fifth text entry and the first five images are from Public Occurrences. Because Song has occupied so much time and space here I publish the following email now pending the details:

Hi, Benjamin:

I've noticed and read the article Song Binbin published in 2012 Rememberance "Words I've Waited for More than 40 Years to Say". She apologizes for what happened during the Cultural Revolution. I would say her apology is sincere but not in depth. When I find time, I'll translate the last part of her apology. Mainly she tried to make understood her complicated and contradictory thoughts all these years including being used on the anniversary of her alma mater.

2012-02-09T13:38:00.001-05:00

“Your Majesty, Your Royal Highnesses, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Mix a powerful imagination with a logic in absurdum, and the result will be either a paradox or an Irishman. If it is an Irishman, you will get the paradox into the bargain. Even the Nobel Prize in Literature is sometimes divided. Paradoxically, this has happened in 1969, a single award being addressed to one man, two languages and a third nation, itself divided.”

What brilliant use of language by Karl Ragnar of the Swedish Academy in his presentation address at the Nobel ceremony.

Alejandrina Cabrera

2012-02-08T14:20:00.001-05:00

The Arizona Supreme Court today upheld Judge John Nelson's ruling that Ms. Cabrera is ineligible to appear on the ballot for City Council in San Luis because of her lack of fluency in English. See post here January 28.

2012-02-08T11:01:00.000-05:00

To: B.H.

From: B.H.

To Do:

1. call shrink, ask for prescription for "uppers."
2. google "painless ways to commit suicide."

2012-02-08T10:50:00.001-05:00

To: B.H.

From: B.H.

To Do:

1. google "painless ways to commit suicide."
2. call shrink, ask for prescription for "uppers."

2012-02-08T10:45:00.001-05:00

"We are alone. We cannot know and we cannot be known."
-Samuel Beckett

2012-02-08T08:47:00.002-05:00

Boy oh boy there seem to be a lot of women not getting raped in Manhattan.

2012-02-06T11:56:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens. No writer in the English language was more attuned to the misery caused by the Industrial Revolution, no writer could describe it as he could. It was the alloy of humor that he added to every story that separates Dickens from other chroniclers of woe. It is a distinctive, irresistible English humor.

To Charles Dickens.

Chula Vista

2012-02-03T15:24:00.002-05:00

Chula Vista won the Little League World Series!

The town I grew up in was so small it didn't have Little League baseball. They called it "midget" league. I think that has scarred me.

Chula Vista

2012-02-03T15:21:00.002-05:00

Beautiful.

Chula Vista

2012-02-03T15:20:00.000-05:00

Holy mackerel, Chula Vista looks pretty nice.

2012-02-03T15:15:00.003-05:00

Now if you add Chula Vista to the job gains in November and December 2011 then you get up to 603,000, more than the population of Washington D.C.*

*Changed Feb. 4 based on the Labor Department's revised increases for November and December.

2012-02-03T11:30:00.003-05:00

Continuing our series "Popular Economics" the United States Department of Labor released its monthly jobs figures today. The unemployment rate fell to 8.3%, the third straight month of job gains.

8.4 million jobs had been lost since the beginning of the recession in 2007, more than the entire population of New York City. Last month 243,000 jobs were added. That's the size of Chula Vista, California.

China.

2012-02-02T12:55:00.008-05:00

I wrote extensively about “Arab Spring” throughout the first half of 2011 and as can be seen in the sidebar some of those posts are among the ten most-read since Google began providing stats in 2009. I never received one email from an Arab or Arab-American.

Six years ago I began writing on China. Some of those posts are also among the most-read. I have received many emails from people in the PRC, from Chinese-Americans, from Chinese in the Diaspora.

It seems to me the Chinese people want to know, they want to be heard, and if the vessel for communication is foreign-registered so be it. When Public Occurrences was blocked in the PRC I still heard from people there, although not as much. In the last half of 2011 however, as the Chinese regime began clamping down on the internet, and on dissidents, things have noticeably dried up. When I wrote here offering to help Ai Weiwei I was told “It is hard to find someone who will write to you” from China. Hu Jintao has made purifying Chinese culture of foreign influence his project for his last year in office. More dissidents and activists have been arrested; microblog users must now register using their real names. Chinese governments have shown again and again throughout three thousand years of rule that there are no limits to their efforts at repression. Time and again, as in Tiananmen, they have won. They are winning now.

Imgage: "Sorrow while Traveling," Ni Zan (1301-1374).

"Get on board, dick!"

2012-01-29T14:12:00.008-05:00

The above phrase is taken from the infuriating-comic conversation between Italian Coast Guard official Gregorio De Falco and Costa Concordia captain Francesco Schettino the night of the disaster. An audio recording of the conversation, released in the days afterward, riveted people worldwide, especially in Italy. Almost immediately Italians began printing tee shirts emblazoned with the phrase.

The phrase has become metaphor for Italians. Embarrassed by their economic plight, by the comic disaster of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's tenure, even by World War II, some Italians see the better angel of their soul in De Falco and the worser in Schettino. Vada a bordo, cazzo! means to Italians, let's clean up our economic act, let's get on board with new "technocrat" Prime Minister Mario Monti, let's act responsibly as De Falco did, not cowardly as Schettino did, and as we did in World War II.

The Italian people are seeking their collective soul in the aftermath of the Costa Concordia. Good for them.

2012-01-28T11:17:00.016-05:00

The American state of Arizona has, since statehood, had an “arm’s-length” relationship with immigrants from Mexico. Illegal immigration is as contentious a political issue there as anywhere.

Arizona’s state constitution requires, as do the laws in many other states, official state business be conducted in the English language. American law, whether state or federal, of course requires non-English speakers be afforded access to basic governmental functions: children must be taught in a language they can understand in public schools; those accused of crimes must be provided interpreters in court. For example.

Comes now Alejandrina Cabrera, American citizen, City Council candidate:

“I speak little English, but my English is fine for San Luis.”

-Alejandrina Cabrera.

The bird in the air-pump for Ms. Cabrera is that San Luis is located in Arizona in the United States of America where official business, like City Council business, must be conducted in the language which Ms. Cabrera speaks little, and where state law requires elected officials read, speak and understand same.

In America, this is the stuff of which lawsuits are made.

Ms. Cabrera’s access to the ballot was challenged by some of the burghers of San Luis on the basis of English proficiency. Lawyers were obtained. A hearing was held before a judge:

By Mr. Minore, counsel for Alejandrina Cabrera:

Q: Where did you go to high school?

We interrupt to reflect upon an adage of American court practice: “A lawyer should never ask a question to which he does not know the answer.”

Thus was birthed the “Alejandrina Cabrera codicil:" “A lawyer should never ask a question his client does not understand.”

A legal frisson was birthed a twin to the codicil and the judge immediately halted the proceedings. An Expert was appointed.

The expert's opinion was that Ms. Cabrera did not understand English well enough to conduct City Council business.

That wasn’t the end.

The expert was from Australia via Brigham Young University (How? By what conspiracy of the gods did this happen?) and spoke in the distinctive Down Under patois. Ms. Cabrera averred that the expert’s accent caused her to not understand. This was an imperfect defense. Ms. Cabrera’s in-court non-answer to her lawyer’s question evinced unfamiliarity with American English. She was now conceding the same with the Australian variant. An expert from

Canada

, eh?

No expert from Canada. Judge John Nelson ruled that Alejandrina Cabrera’s name be taken off the ballot.

La causa Cabrera pushes several buttons among Americanos. For those of us with impressive criminal rap sheets it is chastening reminder to lie down and take a powder. For normal people it is also aggravation: why can’t she learn English well enough? It seems apodictic to most Americans that all Americans, City Council candidates or deliverers of pizza, should speak, write and understand English.

For abogados though…Ohhh:

Is ballot access a fundamental American right? Sort of?
If the English-challenged can become American citizens how can they be denied access to the ballot…for being English-challenged?
How is it legal for the English-challenged to be permitted to vote for candidates but not be candidates themselves?
Has the constitutionality of that Arizona law requiring office-holders to be English proficient ever been challenged?
How English-challenged is too English-challenged under the Arizona law? The Constitution?
Does the Arizona law apply to office-holders and office-seekers?
Would Ms. Cabrera still be afoul of the law if she were allowed to appear on the ballot, got elected, took a crash course in English and became proficient before being sworn in? Ohhh.
If the Arizona law is unconstitutional--even if only “as applied” to Ms. Cabrera’a situation, can the law be changed (and changed it would have to be if it were found to be unconstitutional) and still accomplish its intent to require English proficiency?

Counsel for Ms. Cabrera said he didn't know if he would appeal.

China

2012-01-25T09:04:00.004-05:00

"Murder:" The email yesterday is one of the few times that term has been used, other than here, to characterize what was done to Bian Zhongyun. Weili Ye for example titled her article "The Death of Bing* Zhongyun." "Killing" is a more common term. Baby steps.

*Weili is a big fan of American crooner Bing Crosby and was being playful with the title in tribute.**

**I do have a talent for making enemies.