Do people really believe what they read in the papers?
Do they?
I hope not.
I have read a lot of commentaries about brain washed Chinese people are, how blindly patriotic they are, exhibiting irrational nationalism, etc etc..China/communist sympathizer, simply because these people offer a view which is different from the main stream media's stand on China bashing and free Tibet. Whatver happen to free speech, which they accuse is lacking in "communist" countries?
With the disaster in Myanmar a few days ago and a the earth quake in China hours ago, reading the news is just plainly annoying. When these heart breaking, catastrophic natural disasters are happening, the media... (or can we extend it to the "West" by proxy?) had unbelievably xxxx (fill in the blanks! )
Reports were largely absent or relegated as small section in page xx , until one free commuter paper picked up the issue and appealed for mass donation to help Myanmar. Hardly a handful of newspapers had paid attention, until uhh.. there is something interesting to say about the "junta", the military government preventing aid from pouring in. I see (yes, "see". Reading them one by one would only make me angry) more articles about human rights issues in Myanmar, than human life issues. Where were these human rights activists/journalists blah blah blah when the monks marched on the streets a few months ago? Where was the support? Now is the time to really save lives, and all I hear is talk. Talk about the "right" to intervene, "right to protect". What rubbish. Talk is cheap. And "intervening" when a country is down and facing such a big disaster is just so "convenient". I did not know whether to laugh or to cry when I saw comments such as "If the junta do not want to save their own people, why help them?" And when I see news about "rejection of aids", I thought, how naive.
Interestingly, there were also articles about the difference between "Burma" and "Myanmar". It is funny how these people insist on calling another country by a name which they prefer, instead of the name the country wants to be known of. "Burma" being less formal, preferred by freedom fighters!? What rubbish about Myanmar being the name preferred by the "junta". (Just say the truth-Burma being prefered by the Brits because that is how they called their "colony".) The next time someone tell me "My name is Robbinson, call me Robbin", I will tell him that does not sound appropriate, not proper.. blah blah... and insist on calling him "Rob". CONDESCENDING, in full capital letters, bold font!
It is sad, isn't it. When the passion in writing about human suffering and human lives pale so much compared to" human rights", "democracy", freedom of speech .. blah blah blah."Obviously, people who are too well fed may find it difficult to understand human life issues.
Perhaps a full stomach and endless cheap booze cause people lack the imagination and empathy about people's sufferings? Look at the cries about India and China causing the increase in food prices. "Oliver, you have eaten too much! Food price is increasing!" How dare those Indians and Chinese eat so much!
These two billion people in (JUST) 2 countries want to eat as much as the people in US and Europe? Who do they think they are? We need grains to make biofuel for the cars!!
(This is how he looked before becoming PM. Being PM uglify you.)