In my quest for books about China and dragons, I found this book at one of the local bookstores. It rang a bell, as something I had wanted to read years ago. Based on the subject matter, I was almost afraid to read it, for fear of nightmares. However, I am very glad that I did. I know very little of Chinese history and culture, and I am finding few books that are straightforward about the subject.

Iris Chang, an American history scholar and journalist of Chinese descent, performed meticulous research in writing about the fall of Nanking to the Japanese Imperial Army in 1937. Nanking, (the old spelling), is now called Nanjing, (the postal spelling), Nanching, (Wade-Giles), or Nánjīng, (Pinyin, the western spelling of the Mandarin Chinese). The city is the capitol of the Jiangsu Province in southern China, and is a city rich with history and culture. The city is located in the lower Yangtze River valley and delta, and has served as a capital of China during several historical periods. Nanking, (Nanjing), was the capital of the Republic of China before the Chinese Civil War in 1949.

At present, the city has an urban population of over five million, and is the second largest commercial center in the East China region, after Shanghai. The city serves as a seat of government for the providence, yet is almost as autonomous as a province, in and of itself. The city was awarded the 2008 Special Award of the United Nations, Habitat Scroll of Honor and National Civilized City. Despite its defeat in 1937, the city has prospered and become an international area of commerce and business in the years since the war. However, the City’s defeat and subsequent occupation was a holocaust that is barely mentioned in American history books—even though it remains a stumbling block in today’s Sino-Japanese relations, as well as Japan’s relations with the Koreas and the Philippines.

The Sino-Japanese War, which began in 1937, was included as a part of World War II, yet began long before America’s or Germany’s involvement in the war. The Chinese were, at the time, having their own difficulties between the Communist faction led first by Sun Yat-sen, and the Nationalist faction lead by Chiang Kai-shek. (There is a lot more to that than this, but, in the interests of brevity, this is the basics, as I can find them.) Therefore, at the time of the war, the area of Shanghai and Nanking were under control of the Nationalist government, which was later defeated by the Communist forces lead by Mao Tse-tung in the Civil war of 1949.

As a part of the overall Japanese surrender in 1945, Japanese troops surrendered to the Republic of China, giving Chiang Kai-shek control of Taiwan, as well as all of the land of China not under the control of Mao Tse-tung. Confused? You aren’t the only one! Anyway, that is the beginning of the story, as I can understand it.

The defeat of Shanghai by the Japanese Imperial Army led directly to the defeat of Nanking, as the Chinese soldiers were ill-trained, as young as 14 years of age, and ill-equipped with hand grenades and swords to battle the Japanese tanks and machine guns. Chang Kai-shek, who realized after the fall of Shanghai that the defeat of Nanking was inevitable, pulled his army out of Nanking—or as much of it as possible—in order to buy time to reorganize and re-equip by drawing the Japanese army deeper into Chinese lands. He did so under the advice of his German advisors, who felt that trading territory for time would enable the Nationalist troops to re-equip and reform, thus setting the stage for the defeat and subsequent murder of the civilian population.

The story of the holocaust of Nanking is told by Ms. Chang through three points of view—the Chinese civilians, the Japanese soldiers, and from the viewpoint of a group of mixed foreigners who set up a Safe Zone to help save as many Chinese civilians as possible. These eyewitness accounts paint a picture of destruction, rape, and murder that is unprecedented and largely unknown by the western world.

From the Chinese civilian point of view, the reign of terror began with the shelling of the defenseless city. Rumors began of the wholesale killing of civilians and villagers as the Japanese army moved toward Nanking. The Chinese built air raid shelters with mud/sand sides and bamboo roofs—it offered only some protection from flying shrapnel. Wounded began to fill the hospitals, and the population began to flee. Escape from the city was difficult due solely to geography. Nanking lies within a bend of the Yangtze River, effectively cutting it off from the west and south, unless one has access to a boat. Despite these difficulties, many people escaped by boat, fleeing ever westward in their terror.

Finally, as the Japanese reached the very gates of the city, most of the city’s wealthy, or those able, had escaped, approximately one half of the city’s population, leaving only the poor, along with refugees from Shanghai, who had not the means to escape further. This left approximately 500,000 people in the city, (exact numbers are not known, but these numbers are based on estimates made after the war.)

During the great exodus, a group of very brave foreigners composed of missionaries, doctors, journalists, and businessmen, formed a Safe Zone for the protection of Chinese civilians, despite the Japanese refusal to recognize such an area. The Safe Zone included the area between the grounds of the one hospital left in operation, (under the direction of Dr. Robert Wilson), the Ginling Women’s Arts and Science College, (under the direction of Minnie Vautrin, a missionary and educator), and the home of a German businessman, John Rabe. When the mayor of Nanking left the city, he gave all the available rice and flour to John Rabe, a German national and leader of the Nationalist Socialist Movement in Nanking, who was also the leader of the Safe Zone.

Once the Japanese entered the gates of the city, wholesale murder and rape ensued. The civilian population was shot in the back as they ran from the Japanese soldiers. They were captured, house by house, and murdered by sword, stabbed by bayonets, beheaded, raped, shot, burned alive, dismembered, and left to lie on the streets of the city. The atrocities are too numerous to note as an individual basis, but the International Military Tribunal of the Far East estimates that 300,000 civilians were murdered and 80,000 women were raped.

It is here in the book that Ms. Chang becomes overwhelmed by the sheer staggering numbers of horror. While reading the book, one gets a feeling that Ms. Chang becomes unable to adequately express the depth of her horror and outrage, as the book becomes strangely flat and unemotional. She turns to the stories told by the foreigners who had stayed in the city to help the civilian population.

Their stories are equally as heartrending, but, since they discuss individual cases, and perhaps told only their view as they saw the holocaust happening, one is able to get a better picture of the thousands of individual lives lost or ruined forever. An American missionary, John Magee, stayed behind to take film and first hand photographs of the Nanking massacre, while Rabe and another American missionary, Lewis Smythe, along with Minnie Vautrin, recorded the details in their diaries, which they then shared with the world. John Rabe and Lewis Smythe filed complaints against the Japanese soldiers with the Japanese ambassadors, who did nothing— the ambassadors were not in any control of the troops looting and burning the city, or murdering the population. From John Rabe’s diary

“The slaughter of civilians is appalling. I could go on for pages telling of cases of rape and brutality almost beyond belief. Two bayoneted corpses are the only survivors of seven street cleaners who were sitting in their headquarters when Japanese soldiers came in without warning or reason and killed five of their number and wounded the two that found their way to the hospital.

Let me recount some instances occurring in the last two days. Last night the house of one of the Chinese staff members of the university was broken into and two of the women, his relatives, were raped. Two girls, about 16, were raped to death in one of the refugee camps. In the University Middle School where there are 8,000 people the Japs came in ten times last night, over the wall, stole food, clothing, and raped until they were satisfied. They bayoneted one little boy of eight who have [sic] five bayonet wounds including one that penetrated his stomach, a portion of omentum was outside the abdomen. I think he will live.”

In contrast, the stories told by the Japanese soldiers are curiously devoid of any emotion—as if they had not been killing people, but slaughtering chickens, instead. The Japanese were under the “All” orders—“Kill all, loot all, burn all”. Under the command of General Matsui, whose orders to treat the civilians humanely were overridden by the orders of Prince Asaka, (the brother of Emperor Hirohito), the Japanese soldiers ran amok. There were contests between the soldiers to see how many people they could behead in one day. Even the Japanese Army newsletter published pictures of the winners of the contest.

To General Matusui’s credit, as he began to comprehend the full extent of rape, murder, and looting in the city, he grew increasingly dismayed. Although confessing his regret to a civilian aide, in his message to the press, Matusui stated, “I personally feel sorry for the tragedies to the people, but the Army must continue unless China repents.” It was February before the rescue camps were forcibly evacuated by the Japanese, and the atrocities began to cease. Both General Matsui and Prince Asaka were recalled to Japan. Matsui immediately retired, but Prince Asaka remained on the Supreme War Council until the end of the war. He was promoted to the rank of general, but held no further military commands.

At the end of the war, very few of the Japanese soldiers or generals were tried for war crimes perpetrated in China, unlike the trials at Nuremburg. Along with the emperor and his family, Prince Asaka was granted immunity from prosecution. Many of the perpetrators of the massacre are free men. Ms. Chang blames the decision to let them remain free on the Americans, who were more interested in creating an economically strong Japan after the war, to prevent communist China from becoming an economic power. Not only that, but factions within the Japanese government deny that the holocaust even took place. References to the Rape of Nanking are not made in many American textbooks, other than as a single line that it occurred. No reference is made in the Japanese history textbooks.

Ms. Chang was obviously very haunted by her research, for she committed suicide in November, 2004. Her research, although certainly painstaking, did not include research made in Japan, but included sources located in the US and Nanking only. For this, she was roundly criticized, which possibly lead to her subsequent suicide. Mrs. Chang felt that the CIA, as well as other Japanese factions, was directing the efforts at discrediting her work.

There is much more to this story than meets the eye, and Ms. Chang’s work is notable for its historical perspective, as well as for the controversy it generated upon its publication. It isn’t a warm fuzzy book, but one that leaves me with more questions than answers. Why were the perpetrators never prosecuted?

As an adjunct to this book, I watched a documentary-style film about the massacre. The documentary is titled “Nanking”, and it may be watched at no charge at IMDb.

Thank you for stopping by!

Continued from Hope for the Future. To start from the beginning, click here.

The Parade of Nations is one of the longest-standing traditions of the Olympic Games, and one of the most defining icons of the Games.

Procession with a Twist

This time, the Parade is a bit different. No longer alphabetical, the countries come in order of increasing script complexity of their names, written in simplified Chinese. As a result, countries whose names begin with "Ma-" found themselves near the front of the procession, the Chinese character for the sound requiring only three strokes, while the first character in the Chinese name for the United States, Mei Guo ("Beautiful Nation"), requires nine strokes, placing it far later in the procession.

As covered extensively in news outlets, Iraq's Olympic team met with dire qualification problems as the Iraqi government threatened to disband the Iraqi Olympic Committee on grounds of a violation of election procedures. Tensions were high as the Iraqi athletes, headlined by sprinter Dana Hussein, hung in limbo while politicians tussled. In the end, the Iraqi Olympic Committee held elections under the watchful eye of the IOC, and a last-minute lifting of the ban meant that 4 proud Iraqi athletes could fulfill a dream they've been working toward for 4 years.

Indicative of a newfound international political awareness, the crowd burst into thunderous applause as the team entered, giving them an unmitigated Olympic welcome.

Reactions were a bit more cautious for France. Olympic relations were a bit strained, as French president Sarkozy publicly announced a personal boycott of the Opening Ceremonies as a statement of political disapproval regarding China's human rights issues and actions regarding Tibet. As expected, this not only miffed the Chinese government, but the Chinese people as well. Taking the high ground, they ignored him. Sarkozy went back on his word, quietly rescinding his ultimatum and attending the Opening Ceremonies.

However, the 91.000-strong audience graced them with an extremely diplomatic level of applause, more than was offered for a number of other delegations.

Great applause greeted the Australian and US teams, barely a day after Bush's scathing political criticism, but the entire audience held its collective breath as the towering visage of Yao Ming appeared at the end of the Parade. Carrying the Chinese flag proudly aloft, Yao was greeted with a roar from a standing crowd. Even the cheerleaders, having maintained a dancing human wall for over two hours, perked up visibly as he passed. Soon after his entrance, he was joined by a small boy. Originally supposed to accompany Yao from the beginning of his procession, Lin Hao, a tiny Chinese hero, was initially barred from entry to the stage when a guard did not recognize the plainly dressed boy.

Lin Hao achieved instant fame in the aftermath of the devastating Sichuan earthquake, which claimed an estimated 70,000 lives, which he survived. Amazingly, the 9-year-old wriggled out of the rubble, and while injured, turned around and dug two classmates out of the rubble. Asked why he did this, he answered: "I am a class leader. I am a hall monitor. They were my responsibility." Afterwards, he led a small group of students, including his two sisters, on a 7-hour trek to Dujiangyan, maintaining a minimum of morale by singing songs.

As the procession ended, speeches were made by the president of the IOC and the mayor of Beijing, the latter highlighting, surprisingly, the "green" aspect of this Olympic Games, and emphasizing that these Opening Ceremonies represented the fulfillment of "Bai nian meng xiang": A century-old dream. His speech concluded with two phrases sure to be heard often in Beijing: "Beijing welcomes you" and "One World, One Dream" -- the namesake motto of the fuwa Olympic mascots and the official motto of the 2008 Olympics, respectively.

The Final Eight

As the speech ends, the flag of the People's Republic of China is hoisted, and all eyes turn toward an entrance to the stage, as the first of the last 8 torchbearers enters the stadium. All 8 were keystones of China's Olympic history.

Xu Haifeng: Winner of the first-ever Olympic medal for China, in 1984 for shooting.

Gao Min: One of the most well-known names in China, she won gold in springboard diving in back-to-back Olympic Games, first in 1988, and again in 1992. Widely regarded as the finest woman in the sport, she is the only female diver to score more than 600 points in the event.

Li Xiaoshuang: The only Chinese gold medalist in the men's gymnastics all-around, his gymnastics fame in China is surpassed only by the final torchbearer.
[ Update: Now one of two Chinese gold medalists in the men's gymnastics all-around, he shares the distinction with Yang Wei, the 2008 champion. ]

Zhan Xugang: Chinese weightlfters are rare, as the nation is not known for excellence in the sport, but Zhan Xugang is an exception, with back-to-back golds in Atlanta and Sydney.

Zhang Jun: The Chinese have proven themselves dominant in the somewhat eccentric sport of badminton, and Zhang Jun is one of their stars, earning back-to-back golds in mixed doubles in Sydney and Athens.

Sun Jinfang: She led the Chinese women's volleyball team to a five-gold grand slam of the Olympics, World Cup, and World Championships -- a feat unparalleled by any other team in history.

Chen Zhong: Wrapping up the list of back-to-back golds, Chen Zhong holds such a distinction in the heavyweight women's division of taekwondo, a relatively new Olympic sport and one virtually unknown in China.

As Chen Zhong mounted the podium steps to hand the torch to the final torchbearer, a collective breath was held as viewers around the world anxiously awaited the surely spectacular lighting of the Olympic torch. However, Chinese viewers were doubly excited, as the man who now held the torch is possibly the greatest sports legend in Chinese history.

Li Ning earned instant worldwide fame in 1984, when he took three gold medals, two silver medals, and a bronze medal in gymnastics, outshining his feat just two years earlier of winning six of seven available medals at the Sixth World Cup. Though Xu Haifeng holds the distinction of winning China's first Olympic medal, it was Li Ning who sparked Olympic fever and kickstarted the Chinese Olympic medal race, then went on to found the sporting goods company that makes the official clothing of the Chinese Olympic team.

Arise

In a gesture fit for a national legend, an estimated 4 billion people watched him gracefully soar into the air, high above the floor of the Bird's Nest, to pause mysteriously near the bottom of the scrim. As the crowd looked on in awe, Li Ning began running across the vertical surface of the scrim as a huge scroll symbolically sped him along. Unfurling behind him, it depicted the traditional artistic expression of xiang yun, clouds in ancient Chinese mythology which not only brought luck, but were able to bear the heroes of ancient China aloft, sending them soaring into the sky like gods.

The xiang yun bore Li Ning gracefully around the entire circumference of the Bird's Nest. But, his epic run also served an ulterior purpose. As the crowd watched his progress, the colossal Olympic torch was surreptitiously hoisted over the top of the Bird's Nest and secured in position on the scrim, near the beginning of his journey.

The engineering wizardry behind such a feat -- quietly moving a 38 m tall, 30-ton torch over the stadium and securing it high above the audience on a vertical wall -- is astounding, described by NBC's Bob Costa as "magic."

However, such a display paled in comparison to the original proposal, deemed too dangerous and complex to ensure perfect reliability.

The Bird's Nest has been used again and again in the symbolism of the Opening Ceremonies, and as a grand finale, the lighting of the torch was originally to be accomplished via an enormous phoenix, bursting with flame, flying towards the Bird's Nest to alight on its surface, lighting the torch with its body.

Even knowing this, it cannot be denied that Li Ning's aerial circuit, ending in the midair ignition of the Olympic torch, stunningly capped off a night of truly awesome spectacle in the most literal sense of the superlative. This was an event that will see no parallel for decades to come, an awe-inspiring show of what the most populous nation on Earth can accomplish with virtually unbridled vision and a relentless drive to impress a planet.

China's long journey began five millennia ago. After spending much of its history as a world superpower, it felt the crushing shame of being relegated to the role of whipping boy, ostracized and alienated not only from the Olympics, but from the in-crowd of geopolitics, pummeled by racism, political demonization, and economic exploitation. At the Olympics, it strives to show the world, and its own people, the glorious might of the world's oldest surviving nation, a people who have endured and triumphed over the full spectrum of human experience.

It is said that Napoleon Bonaparte once uttered the phrase "Quand la chine s'eveillera, le monde tremblera." : When China awakes, the world will tremble.

China has awakened.

Continued from Part 2: Glories of the Past. To start from the beginning, click here.

A dazzling recreation of an imperial theatre materializes from the stage, complete with legions of dancers, costumed and decorated in a Westernized rendition of traditional Chinese stage opera. Though curious in his choice of application, Zhang Yimou subtly demonstrates his visual fusion of cultures as an introduction to his grand act.

A herald proclaims the traditional edicts of the imperial court, and once our eyes feel fully saturated with the rich, visual smorgasbord of dancers upon a floor covered in watercolors of the ancient Chinese court, the scene disappears just as quickly as it appeared.

Our Children

A wide swath of green appears, each blade of grass swaying in the wind. At its center, a concert grand piano, rendered almost insignificant by the verdant field of humanity surrounding it. Lang Lang sits before it,

A symbol of a new China, Lang Lang is an international superstar of classical piano. He is also an embodiment of the siren song of March of the Brave Militiamen: we shall arise from hardship into glory.

Estranged from his mother and pushed relentlessly by his father, Lang Lang combated early bouts of depression and personal hardship to rise to an international stage overwhelmingly dominated by European prodigies. Inspired to touch the keys by a classic Tom & Jerry cartoon, Lang Lang began his piano education when he was 3 years old, and won his first competition at the age of 5. I myself studied classical piano for most of my life, and during a qualifying competition for the 1995 World Piano Competition at the Curtis Institute of Music, I had the chance to meet him in person, as he was studying at Curtis at the time.

Since then, I've had the privilege of seeing him in concert twice, the last time at the University of Michigan's Hill Auditorium, one of a handful of music halls in the world with perfect acoustics. In the intervening ten years, the classical music scene in China has changed immensely. As Zhang Yimou surely recognized, the man is a symbol of the cultural openness of China's revitalized youth, a generation that, supported by China's One-Child Policy, has pushed itself outside of the former confines of Chinese cultural insularity, and embraced a world of culture with an intensity that has stunned observers both domestic and foreign.

As such, Lang Lang is accompanied by five-year-old Li Muzi, only beginning her journey in the world of classical piano. The grassy field around them disperses, as if by wind, into a cloud of white light, forming a giant white dove, a symbol of the Olympics.

The lights disperse again, and swirl into human winds of change, framing a whirlwind procession of images of China's newfound openness to the West. Again, a physical manifestation of China's sociopolitical evolution since the end of Mao's reign, a demonstration and promise of hope. The performance ends with a quiet reorganization, and the dove's edges blur and collapse to form a miniature Bird's Nest, bringing us, one hour and 3,000 years later, to the present, and more importantly, to the moment of the Opening Ceremonies, seen by many in China as a spectacular introduction to true modernity.

After a moment of peace, a kite appears. Contrary to NBC's commentary, Beijing has never been known as the City of Kites, though kites often fly over Tiananmen Square, flown by young and old alike.

As we are distracted by the colossal kite, a forest silently appears beneath it, unveiling two masters of the ancient discipline of taijiquan (taiji for short).

As much a mental discipline as it is a physical discipline, taiji is widely practiced in China by both young and old as a way to keep fit and build mental balance. Ambient nature sounds fill the stadium as the forest pulses around the taiji masters, symbolizing the traditional unity with nature that taiji is fundamentally based upon. Taiji has, at its core, the principle of action without effort. In high-speed battle forms, taijiquan's fluidity of movement and lack of straight-line force serves to transform its practitioners into constant manipulators of opponents' joints and movements, emphasizing the rather counterintuitive concept of action through relaxation. As a martial art, taijiquan is based upon deflecting, exploiting and initiating attacks by flowing around opponents and redirecting their energy against them, a self-defense discipline based on unity rather than opposition.

As the forest fades away, the two masters are joined by a legion, 2008-strong, of expert students of the ____— wushu school, a major martial arts school near the legendary Shaolin Temple which teaches a combination of traditional taijiquan and Shaolin-style bare-hand wushu.

This becomes apparent when their wondrously coordinated routine seamlessly changes pace, blending in the trademark hand slaps, fast multidirectional straight-line palm techniques, and flying falls of Shaolin-style wushu. Moving with stunning physical and temporal precision, the 2008 dancers use no floor markings and no central direction, relying on nothing but a hyperawareness of the practitioners around them. Forming a perfect circle around a circular staging area, the practitioners at once represent one of the oldest Chinese symbols of unity and harmony, and create a protective shield for the children who appear within, a pear orchard utopia in miniature.

Rebirth

The backpack-wearing schoolchildren, led in a lesson by their teacher, raise their voices in song:

The climate has warmed
The ice floes have melted
The farmland has shrunk
The birds have disappeared

We have come to plant trees
We have come to plant grass

As water swirls around the Nest, projected onto the scrim, the children splash a wondrous color palette upon the shan shui hua, transforming it not only from a classical representation of ancient tradition into a modern expression of the joys of children, but a metaphorical transformation that China's growing environmental awareness aspires to.

As color is restored to the shan shui, the children and taiji performers look aloft, playing the role of humanity, having worked hard to restore beauty and prosperity, looking expectantly to await the return of the birds.

And return, they do. In what can only be described as an emotional outburst, a teeming multitude of multicolored birds races upward across the scrim of the Nest, representing not only a glorious return of natural prosperity, but China's escape from the nest of its own insularity.

In every possible way, the Olympics truly is a turning point for the nation of China.

Three taikonauts descend from somewhere above the stage, dimly lit, floating in space. China is immensely proud of its taikonauts -- "taikong" is the technical term for "outer space" -- who made possible its membership into an elite international club: spacefaring nations. They are the beginning of what China hopes will be an extensive space program, spearheaded by the Chang'e 1 Plan -- China's Apollo program. Reaching towards Earth, we find the Earth also reaching up towards these taikonauts. Hoisted by no powered machinery, the Earth rises via pure muscle power as 100 stage hands silently lift the globe 20 meters in 40 seconds. Composed of a translucent membrane stretched over nine bronze rings connected by high-tension wire, the globe expands from a compact, flat disc into a gigantic spherical lantern, supporting the artificial weight of 40 performers held tightly against its surface.

As Sarah Brightman and Liu Huan, a new Chinese music phenom, take a lofty stage and begin their duet, 2008 smiling faces materialize around the lantern globe assumes the image of the Earth. As joyous music sounds, the smiles spread, infectiously, to the scrim of the Bird's Nest, speeding to surround the audience with a universal, albeit cliche, symbol of hope and joy.

At the apex of this buildup, the air around the Bird's Nest explodes with what is by far the most spectacular fireworks display I have ever seen -- and I still remember the millennial New Year's celebrations. Waves upon waves of crimson and gold might stand on their own at any other venue, but this is the finale to the artistic portion of the opening ceremonies, and they serve only a supporting role to the vast array of fireworks vying for our attention above the Bird's Nest. As if we required any reminder, the five Olympic rings explode in fiery glory amidst the display, hinting at the grand venue of the colossal spectacle.

The main spectacle was over, and China was rightfully confident in its ability to dazzle the world. For all of its symbolic exhortations of unity, harmony, and hope, though, the artistic performance could only metaphorically refer to those concepts. The Parade of Nations would demonstrate them.

Continued in Part 4: An Awakening.

Boston.com has a beautiful photo gallery showcasing some of the best scenes in the Opening Ceremonies.

For more Olympics coverage, drop by the Olympics group.

Continued from Part 1: A Joyous Celebration.

A scroll unfurls in grand fashion, as if by magic, revealing a blank canvas amidst a swirling menagerie of traditional Chinese patterns.

Paper

Arguably the most important and most famous of China's great inventions, paper brought about an intellectual revolution. Before paper, the Chinese were no strangers to flexible printing media. While Western nations recorded their lives on papyrus and parchment, Chinese royalty and nobility wrote their records upon scrolls of fine silk, or juan.

Cai Lun served the Emperor from 105 A.D. till his death in 121 A.D. It was during this time that wood-pulp paper was born. A cheap alternative to silk, it soon found widespread appeal among not only royalty and nobility, but among the lower class. It hailed a paradigm shift in the social order, as literacy was no longer a privilege of the rich and powerful, slowly finding its way into the minds of countless lower class.

Dancers appear, alighting upon the blank paper scroll like the mao bi brushes of a group of artisans. One of the wenfang sibao, the four treasures of the scholars, the mao bi, accompanied by the yantai (ink slate), juan (silk scroll), and zhang (seal) formed the cornerstones of learned Chinese society. These were the weapons of knowledge, the tools of art. While rich in sculpture, relief, and a myriad array of other art forms, Chinese culture places waterbrush painting in a unique position of great artistic esteem.

A painting is not simply a visual product, but a fundamental expression of the artist. Each brushstroke tells a story, a work of art in and of itself. The most famous form of waterbrush painting is the shan shui hua, an emotional expression of the stunning beauty of China's lush riverside cliffs. A single brushstroke can at once define an entire mountain and a single leaf, each stroke an expression of not only the artist's skill, but of his vision, his emotional connection to the subject of his work.

As such, it is fitting that the Opening Ceremony employs people as the brushes themselves, flowing across the paper, composing a quiet symphony of ink. The first strokes feel almost calligraphic as the dancers let their vision slowly unfurl like a new flower, soft swirls of tumbling water, spilling from an unseen cliff. Bold strokes announce the presence of distant mountains, a symbol of the grandeur of the artist's vision, and uniting shan and shui, completing an epic, though simple, vision of one of China's most prized legacies.

Their strokes are accompanied by a virtuoso on the gu qin, one of the oldest instruments of traditionally pentatonic Chinese court music. This particular instrument is itself a piece of history. Crafted during the Tang Dynasty, it is the famed millennium-old Taigu Yiyin -- a Chinese Stradivarius, an instrument without equal. The notes plucked from it are traditionally inspired by the Confucian principle of harmony and the Taoist principle of following the flow of nature, a powerful and subtle testament to the aspirations of the Chinese people.

As the stage is bathed in radiant gold, a lone brush ventures forth, and with a single bold stroke, creates the final piece of the shan shui hua: the Sun.

Printing

The scroll gives way to zhu jian, a predecessor of both silk juan and paper, dating to before 400 B.C.

Surrounded by the legendary 3,000 disciples of Confucius, led by a royal herald chanting the lun yu -- the original words of Confucius -- the massive bamboo slats give way to one of the most stunning performances of the ceremony, and another of China's four great ancient inventions: movable type.

Invented concurrently with paper, movable type printing allowed the easy reproduction of countless ancient works: books of philosophy, great literary masterpieces, medical texts. However, while paper gained widespread adoption almost immediately, the use of movable-type printing remained a luxury of the nobility until almost a millennium after its invention.

As the text rippled, the massive LED screens to either side echoing their movement through rippled water, mirroring the sometimes-fluid sometimes-chaotic evolution of Chinese script. Suddenly, the waters calm, and he, harmony, appears in a form common to the most ancient Chinese script known. For simplicity, it is often defined as "harmony," but in subtler literary usage, he describes "harmony within, and peace unto others." As it fades back into the sea of time, a second character appears, this time, the classical zhuan ti (round script) form of "harmony." Finally, as the seas boil and crash, the modern form of "harmony" appears, flanked on either side by its ancient counterparts, a symbol of China's union of past and present -- a physical representation of the Taoist wisdom of "he xie shi hui", a harmonious society with the peace and power of flowing water.

A line winds its way across the type blocks, extending onto the scroll as a stunning rendition of China's most famous achievement: Great Wall of China. The Great Wall, or Chang Cheng ("Long Fortress Wall"), was created to rebuff the invasions of Mongol hordes. However, it lost its military utility after the Mongols breached it, then instead of a cultural erasure, assimilated themselves into Chinese culture, a curious process later echoed by the Manchurians of the Qing Dynasty.

Out of respect for Manchurian cultural edicts, Han China relinquished control of ancient Manchuria, extending all the way to Lake Baikal, to the Manchus, who claimed it to be their ancestral birthplace. This left it unprotected by the might of the Han army, and was absorbed by Russia in 1858 under the Treaty of Aigun. The region changed hands again during World War II, as the Japanese seized the region from the Russians. Under Stalin, Russia regained control of the region, now the home of Vladivostok and Khabarovsk.

Another transformation occurs. The Great Wall is symbolically swept away as peach blossoms burst from the type, blanketing the stage in a wondrous explosion of pink. While beautiful in and of itself, the peach blossom holds deep significance in Chinese philosophy. A peach blossom arbor is a traditional symbol of utopia, a place where one can isolate oneself from the vigors and ravages of the imperfect world, and reflecting inwardly in the tranquil beauty of the peach blossom.

As this image stamps itself into the collective psyche of the audience, 2008 performers burst forth into this grand utopia, unveiling possibly the greatest surprise of the ceremony: there was no machinery moving the blocks, there was no computerized wizardry. The flowing sea of time was created using hydraulics of muscle, bone, and sinew.

896 moves. This was the full extent of the performance just witnessed. Practicing for almost a year, the 2008 performers, each almost exactly 1.7 m tall and of consistent body weight, drilled their routines endlessly, to the point where the entire performance was an exercise in muscle memory, muscles which moved with inhuman coordination up to 1.5 times per second.

The scene fades away as Zhang Yimou allows the audience time to let this astounding realization set in.

The Compass

Before we even catch our breaths, the stage is reset, and a lone dancer appears in green and gold, surrounded by her flowing robes carving graceful lines in the air around her to the ancient song, Yang guan san die, its lyrics derived from a classic Tang Dynasty poem of farewell, by the esteemed Wang Wei.

Update: This dancer was the first alternate for this performance, trained in the event that the primary dancer fell ill. Tragically, during a late trial run, the primary dancer stepped off of the shan shui hua, and onto thin air, as the secondary tier was out of sync. Falling 3 meters, she landed on a steel support rail, instantly paralyzed from the neck down.

Supported by a human multitude representing the people of China, the dancer stands upon the shan shui painting created just moments before, and while beckoning the world to China, fades offstage, replaced by China's greatest ancient explorer: Zheng He.

"Zheng He xia xi yang": Zheng He explores the sea to the west.

Making his first Pacific journey in 1405, Zheng He made a total of seven expeditions into the Pacific, reaching modern-day Mozambique on his last journey in 1430. Unlike Columbus, Zheng He's goal in exploration was not trade, nor was he striving for conquest like Magellan. Rather, his explorations were intended to be a grand tour created expressly to showcase China's might and bring Chinese innovations to the nations of the world, such was China's might at the time.

He appears surrounded by thousands of performers comprising his fleet, his journey guided by the compass, or zhi nan zhen (south-pointer), in his hands. China's traditional compasses have always been in the shape of soup spoons, as Chinese soup spoons balance naturally on a single point, providing a convenient, near-frictionless pivot upon which the compass can freely spin.

As his fleet sails around him, the roiling Pacific ocean appears above the audience, projected onto the scrim of the Bird's Nest. As we look on, the ships ripple into colossal oars, continuing the theme of unification as a fleet of individual ships becomes a team of oars, which in turn, becomes the hull of Zheng He's flagship, a cohesive unit surging towards greatness.

Gunpowder

Throughout the opening ceremonies, the Chinese have lit the sky on fire with firework after firework. Using a total of 33,866 fireworks, China punctuated every celebratory gesture with a dazzling demonstration of the last of their four great inventions: gunpowder. From giant's footprints to smiling welcomes, from a spark of life to seemingly endless showers of bright crimson and gold, China has shown that fireworks are still very much in its blood, and that it is still innovating in an art it had mastered long ago. The Opening Ceremonies marks the world debut of caseless microchip-controlled fireworks. Due to the relative fragility of the Bird's Nest's scrim, the Chinese used compressed air cannons, not explosive rockets, to launch its full complement of fireworks. Detonation altitudes were precisely controlled by firework-mounted microchips, resulting in a firework display with unmatched precision and perfect safety.

However, a very different set of fireworks held far greater, albeit invisible, significance for the Olympic Opening Ceremonies.

Beginning at 4 pm, Beijing time, on 08.08.08, the Chinese military initiated an artillery bombardment outside the southwestern limits of Beijing. The Chinese were determined to guarantee the success of their extravaganza, acts of nature be damned. Over the course of eight hours, straight through the Opening Ceremonies, the Chinese military fired 1,104 artillery rockets into the atmosphere outside Beijing, stopping an intensifying thunderstorm in its tracks. As dazzling fireworks held an audience captive, a dimmer fireworks show was holding nature itself captive far outside the Bird's Nest. As the Opening Ceremonies concluded, the crowds dispersed, the Chinese finally loosed their reins, and rain poured across Beijing.

Continued in Part 3: Hope for the Future

For more Olympics coverage, drop by the Olympics group.

15,000 performers.
300,000,000 dollars.
The greatest spectacle the Olympics has ever seen.

A Joyous Introduction

The Opening Ceremony announces itself with panache: a flame ignites, racing around the Bird's Nest, leaving a trail of sparks and dazzled eyes in its wake -- a dimming of the lights, only ten times more effective. Streaking across the stadium, it seems to ignite the stage in light as it echoes the impression China will strive to make on the Olympic stage.

Our eyes are drawn to the stadium's stage as 2008 drummers, 2008 soldiers of the People's Liberation Army, materialize from the darkness in a cascade of light, flowing seamlessly from that first ignition. China has repeatedly declared this opening ceremony the most spectacular in Olympic history, and with the first thunderous roar of the drums, it shows us it aims to make good on its promise. Fou drums, a traditional Chinese instrument dating back three millennia, is its expressive medium of choice. Dated to 500 B.C., the earliest fou drums were little more than low-grade food and wine vessels, fired from clay. Fou vessels played double duty as rhythm instruments for those too poor to afford the woodwinds and string instruments of the nobility. By the time B.C. became A.D., fou evolved into specialized instruments, and came into their own as an instrument of primal expression, their pounding a symbol of the common man whose use spread throughout every social class. Just before the Qin emperor unified the warring states of China, it was the fou drum which set the beat of his royal edicts and his consultations with royal advisers.

The roar of the drums fade and the waves of light decay until the stage is darkened in anxious silence, a breath that the nation has collectively held for a century.

A number appears, shining in stark elegance as a precise array of incandescent drums: 60.

As it disappeared into the darkness, a new number was assembled: 50.

40.

30.

20.

Mandarin characters seamlessly appear above the Arabic, noting China's late entry into the modern world.

10. 9. 8. 7. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1.

A Thunderous Welcome

The Bird's Nest explodes in cascading rings of fiery light, glowing crimson and gold, the traditional colors of Imperial China, exclamation upon exclamation of unadulterated joy melded with a joyous remembrance of China's mighty imperial days. China has always been proud of its ancient history, and this occasion is better than most to showcase such pride in spectacular fashion.

As if taking a breather, a cool blue bathes the stage, but the ecstatic celebration misses no more than a beat as the drummers raise their arms and voices.

A master of balancing gravitas with theatrics, Zhang Yimou created the drum setpiece, like the entire Opening Ceremonies, as a bridge between cultures. The performance is a jigsaw puzzle of cultural tributes: their foreheads streaked with red, an ancient tradition of southern China, their ritualistic dances a hallmark of northwestern villages along the Huang He, China's mighty Yellow River, and their ritualistic chanting a staple of many ethnic minorities. These combine in one display, in one body, each drummer a representation of the joy heard by the unified voice of the Chinese people.

A primal heartbeat echoes through the stadium as the drummers' hands pound upon their instruments, creating a spectacle of sound and light alluding to grand celebrations in both the ancient imperial court and the farmer's field. As light pulses across 2008 drums, their voices rise in a forceful chant of the words of Confucius: "You peng zi yuan fang lai, bu yi le hu."

"Friends have come from afar, we are overwhelmingly joyous."

Journey of a Giant

Footsteps ring out across Beijing, emblazoned across its sky like impressions stamped into the heavens. Twenty-nine Olympic Games. Twenty-nine steps. Each progressing more chaotically than the last, a methodical stroll snowballing into a furtive rush towards the Nest. As much a physical progression as a temporal and cultural progression from its fall from grandeur, to self-imposed ostracization, to a joyous return, and finally to the present day -- its conclusion announced by a spectacular shower of gold, enveloping the audience in a long-overdue, albeit exaggerated, display of pomp.

Not only a symbol of China's Olympic aspirations, but a remarkable show of humility and respect, portraying all of Chinese history as but a journey to this moment -- not just the Olympics, but this moment in every facet of China.

Peace & Unity

The explosion condenses towards the stage, coalescing into a blue fountain of light, focusing its exuberance into a scintillating core, fading to reveal a delicately brilliant rendition of the five Olympic rings, over 40,000 LEDs glittering in inky blackness, a transition as abrupt as any in the ceremony.

Apsara, or feitian in Chinese, flit across the stage, representing one of China's great ancient philosophies: Buddhism. With its sisters Taoism and Confucianism, Buddhism has shaped China's history -- helping to define its reign as an ancient superpower. One of the greatest relics of ancient Chinese Buddhism resides inside the Dunhuang Caves -- the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas. Nestled within shrines carved in the 4th century A.D., hidden in desert cliffs along the Silk Road, frescoes and statues of Buddhas and feitian cover the walls, bringing peace and happiness to over sixty generations of only the most devoted pilgrims. Symbolically bringing peace and harmony to the Games, the feitian frame the rings as they slowly levitate, coming to float silently in midair, a quiet reminder to China as much as to the rest of the world, of the grand event that is underway and all that has led up to it. It hangs motionless: a moment of peace, a gesture of respect towards the symbolic significance of the Olympic Games, before the relentless tide of celebration inexorably pushes the spectacle towards yet another sensory overload.

Crimson and gold, symbols of Chinese greatness, bathe the stadium as a child's voice rings out, accompanying a procession of small flag bearers who have materialized at one end of the stage. Representing the 56 ethnic minorities of China, the children walk across the stage, their faces and strides filled with nervous excitement.

Ethnic minorities have been woven into Chinese history since before its First Emperor. Political alliances were often forged between minorities through marriage, the most famous of which was the marriage of Princess Wencheng, an adopted daughter of the first Tang emperor, to Songzan Ganbu. Ganbu, a Tibetan hero, sent a marriage proposal via messenger to the princess with, among other treasures, a quarter-ton of gold as tribute. According to legend, the Emperor devised a series of physical riddles to determine the worthiness of the political alliance.

The messenger completed the riddles, and the marriage proposal was accepted, uniting Tang China with ancient Tibet.

"One World, One Dream" is the theme of this Olympics, so it comes as no surprise that, with every act, Zhang Yimou's masterpiece reiterates the overriding declarations of unity, hope, and progress.

56 symbols cross the Bird's Nest.
56 ethnic minorities clutching a single flag.
56 pairs of bright, glittering eyes and 56 smiles representing the future of China, and of the world.

The flag is passed to soldiers of the People's Liberation Army -- a gesture as incendiary as it is grand, as controversial as it is poignant. The passing of such symbolic leadership and control sends a dual message: one of solidarity with Western concerns and an affirmation of China's self-defined will.

March of the Brave Militiamen

The anthem tugs at the heartstrings of every Chinese citizen over the age of 15. March of the Brave Militiamen is at once a celebration of the Chinese will, a reminder of its painful recent history, and a most potent symbol of nationalistic pride.

Written during Japanese invasion in World War II, the song was at once a battle hymn and message of hope. However, the anthem has long since transcended such historical trappings, and has become a universal expression of the Chinese condition. It is hopeful, but not exuberant. It is a call to action, but also a simple declaration of hardship.

One thing is clear. China has taken its core refrain to heart: Arise! Arise! Arise!

[ continued in Part 2: Glories of the Past. ]

For more Olympics coverage, drop by the Olympics group.

A summary of the questions posed by the Newsvine community, and the corresponding answers provided by Adrienne Mong, NBC News' Beijing Producer.

Thanks for the opportunity, Adrienne.

The death toll in China is almost unfathomable. Obviously the toll is sure to climb even higher - but by how much? I know it would be nearly impossible to accurately depict what the future holds for the earthquake's body count, but if you could make a guess, where would it lie?

Good luck over there and my best wishes to all those affected.
-Brandon Kiser

Hi Brandon - thanks for taking part. I'll be here for the next couple of hours to answer (or try to answer!) questions about the quake.

I don't think anyone could guess the final count, but very early on the Chinese authorities said they thought the death toll would exceed 50,000. The number missing as of today is nearly 34,000 so it's probably not too difficult to expect the final death count will be 80,000 or thereabouts. A key challenge for relief/rescue workers has been to reach some of the more remote villages. We've all heard about towns like Beichuan (which is the town that was so destroyed it most likely will be rebuilt somewhere else) or Yingxiu (near the epicentre and where the majority of its 10,000-odd residents were killed). But there are tens of thousands of small communities -- with as few as a few dozen residents -- littered all over the mountainside. And given that Sichuan is so densely populated - nearly 90 million people - it's not surprising the death toll would be so high.

We've seen two very different approaches to disasters of massive scale in Asia the last month. The government of Myanmar has received a great deal of criticism for their handling, but I've read that the response to the disaster in China has resulted in a surge of civic pride and volunteerism. First, have you seen such a surge, and if so what do you think its long-term impact will be for China?
-spiffie

Definitely we have seen an incredible turnout of ordinary Chinese wanting to help in any way or fashion. All the media in China -- web, newspapers, radio, and local, provincial, national tv -- have been broadcasting wall to wall coverage of the quake, and the images of tremendous suffering and loss have really moved people. I'm not sure how to explain why a tragedy of this scale would inspire national pride, but within the context of all that's happened this year (the winter storms over the new year, the Tibet unrest, the torch relay protests, looking ahead to the Olympics this summer), nationalism/patriotism in China seems to have gained momentum -- although this current display of civic pride, as you call it, seems much more constructive than the nationalist sentiment expressed over the torch relay and Tibet.

Also, I think one has to consider that the Chinese are enormously proud of what they have achieved in nearly 30 years of unprecedented political stability (Tiananmen Square notwithstanding) and rapid economic growth. Despite all the pitfalls of this kind of development and urbanizations (eg, pollution and environmental degradation or the widening economic gap), people here in general are proud of how far their country has come. And they're proud of the fact that they think they can emerge from this natural disaster with minimal outside assistance.

One hopes that long term this feeds into a natural evolution of nation-state confidence that is more productive and constructive than simply rabid nationalism. And for the younger generation, the so-called Balinghou (those born after the 1980s) who have been characterized as being self-centered and indifferent to politics and the concept of a civil society, it's quite possible this will provide them an opportunity to participate in a great civic effort and engage them with greater Chinese society in a way they have not had to before.

One last thing to bear in mind is that volunteerism is not new to the Chinese. It has a long if somewhat patchy history, but during the country's turbulent times you still saw it in plenty of evidence amongst the elite and the overseas Chinese -- many of whom would send money back home to families or to rebuild their own communities.

The most interesting aspect to all this will be whether there is a greater space allowed - by the current government - for civil society elements to develop and flourish, eg, NGOs or independent organizations.

Thanks for responding. I think this part would be very interesting to see:

The most interesting aspect to all this will be whether there is a greater space allowed - by the current government - for civil society elements to develop and flourish, eg, NGOs or independent organizations.

Especially given those organizations roles in American civil society.
-spiffie

I echo Brandon's thanks for this opportunity, Adrienne.

There are reports of foreign rescue teams working alongside Chinese teams. In light of the recent political fervor concerning Tibet and China's human rights record, what can you tell us about the social dynamics between the two groups? I understand that the Chinese have rigorously controlled disaster-zone access for non-rescue personnel, but have there been limits imposed on foreign rescue teams?

In many towns, the destruction has been almost total. However, in places like Chengdu, the physical damage has been minor. We've heard many wrenching stories of those who've seen their lives obliterated, but can you tell us anything about the sentiments of those who've been directly affected, but whose lives need not be rebuilt? How are they coping with the change?

Perhaps as an extension of spiffie's question, how do you think the quake -- with its financial, emotional, and physical tolls -- will impact the Chinese government's political strategies, both as the rescue/salvage effort continues and in the long term?
-Jack Huang

Wow, you are all asking great but tough questions!!

We have not seen many foreign rescue teams ourselves although when I was trailing Ian Williams one day last week, we ran into a group of American structural engineers who had happened to have China visas and hopped on a plane as fast as they could to come out to review/assess the devastation. They were travelling with an engineer from Shanghai, and everyone seemed to work quite well. I have heard that the team of Japanese experts who arrived quite early on experienced some difficulty owing to the language barrier, but generally we have not heard of any impediments facing the foreign rescue teams.

If you were to drive around Chengdu today, as we did, you wouldn't think anything had happened here. Of course, there are lots of tents set up in the parks, but these are not quake victims or survivors, simply local residents afraid to stay in their own homes because of all the aftershocks. I spoke to a woman in Chengdu today who said that she thanks heaven every day that Chengdu was spared. The city, as you probably already know, is home to 11m-12m people and hundreds of high-rises.

I'm not sure I am answering your last question, but one area in which central govt policy I expect will be affected is propaganda/media. Clearly, they have learned from the Tibet example and from watching neighbouring Myanmar. Their responsiveness to the media (as opposed to their responsiveness to the disaster) was unusual -- the fact they have been open with the casualty figures and updating them in daily press conferences, the relative ease with which the local and foreign press have had in travelling pretty much anywhere that wasn't considered dangerous, and of course the amount of coverage given over to the quake. And so far the results have been positive for the Chinese government so it will be interesting to see whether this is a one-off experiment or whether it heralds a shift in attitudes towards media.

As for rescue/salvage efforts, I think that strategy would only change if the Chinese people felt that rescue efforts were too slow. So far there has been no indication of that.

Thank you so much for being here.

My query is that we know so little and it's rather frightening that every time we hear about the death count it goes up by factors of 10.

Do you have any idea of how much damage has really been done, or is the count just going to continue to rise?

Thanks again,

Forest
-Forest Browne

The damage has been documented pretty well so far, again, by the Chinese authorities. They estimate businesses - both state and private - will have lost $9.5 billion. Some 5 million people are homeless (as our Beijing correspondent Mark Mullen notes, that's about the entire population of Atlanta, Georgia). Numerous power grids are off-line although they're making headway in repairing some of them. Clean water supplies are also a problem in some areas. And of course tens of thousands of buildings have been flattened and many more damaged.

And as I said to Brandon earlier, the death toll will continue to rise although it's not clear just how much.

Hi Adrienne, I am so happy you are there.

If you are reading this, please take some very serious notes on the attitude of the PLA. I am quite interested in the fact that the PLA allowed a Japanese Special Forces Unit into the disaster zone and run a rescue mission. This is huge news! Is the PLA actually becoming a modern army working for the people? Is the PLA actually performing the necessary tasks of rescue for the people?

I bring this up only because the PLA has never, in my opinion, reconciled the gilt of Tienanmen Square. Judging from these pictures, it would indicate that the PLA has moved on to a new purpose. I only hope this is true. If it is, then there is hope for Tibet.

please see this link
-uncleandy

Despite the heart-warming pictures we've seen of the PLA helping those in need, I don't think you should ever underestimate the purpose and use of the People's Liberation Army. They serve the state.

Remember this is a natural disaster, not some political calamity, and the Chinese govt is very effective at mobilizing resources - including the PLA - to help its people in this context. And what better way to do it than by using a standing army of 2.2-2.3 million? I don't mean to denigrate the soldiers' work; they have performed amazingly and we hear all the time from the laobaixing (ordinary people) that the Jiefang Jun ("liberation army") is good. Particularly up in the hills, the countryside folks are very grateful for the PLA troops and their rescue/recovery/rebuilding efforts.

Hi Adrienne,

Can you tell us if relief aid is getting through? Which organizations are they letting in and are doing the best work?
-KSoze

There doesn't seem to be any problem for relief aid to arrive in Chengdu. In fact, we covered a delivery of USAID cargo of specialized rescue equipment the other day, accompanied by a team of experts, which included two battalion chiefs from Los Angeles and Fairfax Counties. The state-run news media reported just today that Chinese Customs will expedite all shipments of relief materials arriving.

I'm not entirely clear on how many foreign aid groups are able to come here, but many of the major groups from Europe, Russia, and Japan are here. There are also many smaller local NGOs run by foreigners, which have been active in tracking survivors, particularly children.

Although we've seen China's president, is there a provincial leader in Sichuan, someone who is from this area and knows the extent of the damage? Will China allow relief workers to come and stay for as long as they are needed?
-caroaber
Excellent question. This is a true disaster, think of the Titanic, however, the PLA has the ball, what will they do with it? The resources are there, will they request them? They know everything they need to save lives is at their finger tips, all they need to do is dial the phone.
-uncleandy
China must be pushed to accept help in the guise of lessons learnt and it is a face saving exercise worth pursuing. We should not get comfortable with over 50,000 deaths destructive earthquakes. We must prepare for the big one.
-Beauty
China has been accepting foreign aid, having received donations from numerous Western nations, including the US's contribution of half a million dollars.

It seems that the Chinese have learned from both the their Tangshan and the US's Katrina disasters, and have applied such lessons here.
-Jack Huang

Sichuan's Vice Governor, Li Chengyun, has been holding press conferences almost daily, during which he details the latest casualty figures and losses as a result of the quake. But the Chinese media focus has been, of course, Premier Wen Jiabao or President Hu Jintao and their visits to the quake-stricken areas.

Relief workers will be allowed to stay up to a point. Most NGOs who have worked in China are very savvy about the political sensitivies working here, but it will depend on how much the authorities -- whether they are provincial or central -- want to maintain control.
It also depends, in part, on how perceptions may change over time. Now that the focus has shifted from rescue to recovery, if people begin to feel that the pace of reconstruction is too slow, they will express that -- and that of course is something the central govt does not want to see happen. Nor will they want outsiders to witness that.

And, yes, Jack, I think the leadership in China pays very close attention to how other countries have managed their own disasters. Even after Tangshan, the govt issued very wide-ranging and strict building codes. However, as with many things in China, effecting policy is not enough. Executing them and enforcing regulations pose the real challenge.

These were mountainous regions, were there entire villages that simply slid away? What about the dams, are they holding up? What devastation.
-Double Demon

Oh absolutely entire villages were swept away. We were driving towards Beichuan one day when I lost a lens cap from shooting out the window. We stopped to retrieve it, and as I walked out of the car towards it, I saw a group of people standing by the side of the road overlooking a valley. Some of them were crying, and my curiosity got the better of me. It turned out that among them was a couple who had just returned that morning from Shaanxi Province, where they worked in a coal mine (Sichuan provides an overwhelming number of migrant workers who fan out across China, especially to the south and coastal regions to earn what they hope is a better wage). Fifteen of their relatives had died when a part of the mountain just fell into the valley below during the quake. The youngest member was a 3 month old baby, the eldest was a 72 or 73 year old grandfather. Needless to say, it was heartbreaking. And as I've said before there were many of these tiny hamlets full of small communities dotted all along the valley and hillside.

The dams so far seem to be holding up. But there are growing concerns about some thirty-odd "lakes" that were created from rockfall and landslides that blocked the rivers here. There's a lake near Beichuan which has apparently doubled in size in the last four days. And we're entering rainy season so people are very worried about finding a way to drain these lakes so they don't overflow and flood the surrounding areas.

Thanks for this opportunity to tell you how we feel and ask you our questions. I feel so much respect for the Chinese people, and compassion for the victims, their families.

I was struck by the devastation, and force of the earthquake, and the reports by earthquake engineers from San Francisco, which underwent a similar force earthquake in 1906. How will this disaster change building practices in China, or will it? Are earthquake building regulations on the books now? Will they be written for the rebuilding effort?
-Marilyn L

The Chinese govt issued new building codes after the Tangshan earthquake in 1976, which killed a minimum 240,000 people, but there's some debate over whether they are up to date. Especially in light of the country's massive building boom witnessed the past decade.

Having adequate building codes aren't enough, however. Enforcement is an issue, particularly at the local level, as corruption is widespread. The other challenge is building quake-proof (or however quake-proof you can make a structure) for a reasonable cost. It's expensive to design and construct a building that can withstand a 7.9 quake.

So as with many areas of policy for the central govt, they may enact a whole new set of building codes, but whether those codes can be enforced is an entirely separate question.

Adrienne,
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your reporting. It is not easy under the circumstances. I was 7 years old when my dad was stationed in Alaska during the 1964 earthquake. I really didn't know what was going on but I soon realized it was not good.

I pray for the people of the region who are going through this tragedy. Keep up the great work and please be safe.

One question, I have seen what appears to be decontamination operations taking place. Can you tell what these operations are attempting to prevent?

V/R
Robert
Maryland
-Robert-286928

Not unlike other cultures, the Chinese are very uncomfortable with the notion of unburied dead or bodies decomposing in the open. Ordinary folk are extremely sensitive to suggestions that they could be contaminated by being in contact with dead bodies. In addition to teams of disinfecting teams, we also see trucks of workers spraying down vehicles that come from quake-affected areas. Yesterday a toll booth served as a disinfecting/fumigating station; they sprayed our jeep. Whenever we ask them what they're doing, they say they're trying to contain the spread of disease.

Many health experts argue that there is no risk of contamination or disease from a decomposing body. The health risk really comes from the lack of sanitation and clean water plus cramped living conditions for the survivors.

I'm curious as an Asian "faced" reporter from the west, do you see a difference in the way your interviewee respond to you vs. other western media reporters? What about off mike/camera, do you see/feel difference from the local folks you talk to or spend time with?

Finally, in your opinion, is this (your Asian physicality) an advantage or disadvantage from the perspective of reporting?

Thank you!
-Jeff Cheng

Rightly or wrongly, I am treated differently here because I look Asian, but more importantly I can speak Chinese so automatically that gives me access that someone who doesn't speak Chinese cannot have. The Chinese people are incredibly appreciative when non-Chinese speak their language (although in my case they probably wonder why I don't speak well enough!), and they repay this with friendliness and garrulousness. This is also true with many western journalists I know here who are fluent Chinese speakers; they have no problem interviewing people. If anything they probably enjoy a certain advantage -- the novelty factor means someone might be curious enough to be willing to be interviewed. As for the camera, the Chinese respond like anyone else: some people love it, some people are terrified by it.

As for an Asian or Chinese appearance, sure, there's an advantage as a journalist in China. You can blend in when you need to or stand out when you need to. It all depends on the situation.

Great reporting. I wish you'd take a trip to New Orleans and Mississippi to report on how well an industrial giant of a nation recovers from a natural disaster and takes care of its people. We could compare our efforts and progress to those of the Chinese and Burmese.
-Howard-286873

Thanks for your support. I only know New Orleans and that was pre-Katrina -- a great town with wonderful colour, and one day I hope to get to Mississippi. Katrina obviously should have taught us many lessons. Our Beijing correspondent Mark Mullen -- who hails from New Orleans and covered Katrina -- wrote an interesting blog about this very comparison. Please check it out on worldblog.msnbc.msn.com

Hello Ms. Mong! It seems almost impossible to believe that something so terrible and life shattering can happen and affect so many people. One element of this disaster that really tears at my heart is the thought of the families that have lost children (often their ONLY child) and the children who have lost their family and are now alone. Have authorities begun to determine how many children are now orphans as a result of this disaster and how they will be cared for? Might there be opportunities to adopt any of these now familyless children and provide a loving home for them?
-GCB-286869

The authorities face a tremendous challenge in trying to ascertain which children are really orphans. We have heard anecdotes of parents losing children in the rush to escape the quake aftermath -- I mean losing as in misplaced, not dying. There are children whose parents may not have been able to find them yet. All this will take time, and relief workers are doing everything they can in the meantime to provide emotional care and support for these children. Adoption is a possibility, of course, but with the new regulations regarding foreign adoptions of Chinese children, I don't know how easy it will be for non-Chinese to adopt - even in this instance.

Hi Adrienne, I was wondering with such devastation do you think the government will reconsider it's view on one child per family? Will the outpouring of foreign aid do anything to change the climate on human rights?
-Curious In North Carolina

Hard to say whether this disaster and the loss of so many children will change the one-child policy. We revisited a family that had lost their only child, a 13 year old girl, when her school collapsed last Monday. And we asked the mother whether she felt the one-child policy was unfair. She didn't seem overly concerned with the issue -- of course she's still grieving and of course she is just one voice, but we haven't heard criticism of the family planning policy in response to the quake ... yet.

My gut tells me the Chinese govt won't change its position. They take a pretty long view on this issue -- China has too many mouths to feed. I think if people get upset, it will be over the construction of the schools.
Btw, this isn't to say there isn't antipathy to the one-child policy in general. Last year, riots broke out in a town in Guangxi province (in the south) over this. It turned out local officials had been turning a blind eye but suddenly decided to enforce it by increasing the fines on families who had more than one child.

GOOD MORNING!

CAN YOU PLEASE TELL ME WHAT IS BEING DONE TO HELP THE PANDAS IN WOLONG AND THE FEW PANDAS THAT YOU HAVE IN CAPTIVITY AND IN THE WILD? CAN YOU TELL ME THEIR CONDITIONS RIGHT NOW?
-GRACE-286920

Well, as I read all your questions, local television here in Chengdu was broadcasting live from Bifengxia, where a handful of the giant pandas from Wolong had just arrived. We've been trying to follow the Wolong pandas' fate ourselves and, in many ways, it's been like trying to uncover a state secret. This is no fault of the Wolong reserve staff; I just think, given the state of the roads and communications in general here, information has been difficult to verify.

As far as we know, all but two of the giant pandas have been recovered from Wolong. Some of them are still in the Wolong area - though not at the reserve itself, but the live broadcast I just saw suggests they're being moved. It's not clear where the cubs have been moved, but they're all rumoured to be safe.

The Wolong reserve staff are keeping a blog in Chinese, and numerous other sites have photos of the pandas' reaction to the quake. They either fled up into the mountains or they climbed up the highest point in the reserve (trees).

One of the difficulties is feeding them. The reserve normally relies on a regular supply of fresh bamboo from outlying areas, and given that the one-lane road -- very dodgy at the best of times -- has been unpassable, the staff have had to feed the pandas rice porridge and grass. So if they are all being moved temporarily, then that's probably a good thing since it means they'll be able to get fresh bamboo!

Dear Ms. Mong: Since much of the devastation is in rural areas, is China letting the international press in to cover the story? Is CNN the only American broadcaster on site? I see stand-ups from HK and Beijing but other than CNN and some British journalists, I don't notice anyone else. Is China blocking coverage?
And thank you for pronouncing Beijing correctly with the hard J.
Jennifer McDevitt
-Jennifer McDevitt

This has been one of the interesting developments -- experiencing relatively free access as a western journalist. The authorities here revised the foreign media regulations last year; effective 1 January 2007 foreign press were no longer required to obtain govt permission to travel anywhere in China. Apart from Tibet and Xinjiang, we can travel throughout the country freely. The generally open climate -- and remember this is relative to what it was before 1 Jan 07 -- meant that foreign journalists had unprecedented access. This changed with the Tibet unrest. The last time I was in Sichuan was in March, and we were stopped in several different places and prevented from travelling into the Tibetan areas within Sichuan. But this again changed with the quake.

We have run into the occasional roadblock, but they have been easy to get around. And a couple of days ago, the Sichuan govt requested that all foreign journalists register with the provincial authorities. It seemed to be a matter of course; in practice we have not been stopped anywhere so long as we have this Sichuan press pass.
There have been plenty of international press -- every major hotel chain in Chengdu has been booked up by them. And so far I have not heard of any coverage being blocked. Many tv broadcasters have brought their own portable satellite dishes, which allow them to beam a live signal or transmit video from pretty much anywhere.

Hello, I've heard a lot of conflicting reports that the Chinese people are being aggressive with the "outside" sources that are coming into help and report on the destruction. Do you know if this is true? If so, do you know why they are reacting this way to people that are trying to help them recover?

Thank you.
-Heather13

Good question, Heather. We have experienced a couple of incidents wherein the local people reacted negatively to our presence. Once we were with our western correspondent and western cameraman so we attracted a great deal of attention, much of it unwanted. The other time it was just me and my Chinese researcher, but when the rescue workers found out we worked for a foreign media organization they became very suspicious.

Both of these incidents came as a result of the fallout from western coverage of the Tibet unrest and torch relay protests. Unfortunately, a small number of western media outlets made some grave errors in their Tibet coverage (eg, mistakenly identifying Nepalese troops beating on Tibetan protesters as PLA soldiers), and this was quickly seized on as an example of western media bias against China. The reaction to the torch relay in Paris and London, followed by the western press coverage about these events, also generated a lot of ill-will amongst many Chinese. So some people here are very sensitive about the way in which they might be portrayed by the foreign press.

Hi!
They say 4.8 million people are homeless. Yet they will be able to house all these people fairly soon. The homeless correspond exactly to the whole population of my country, Norway. I can't imagine how anyone can be able to house so many people quickly. How is this being done? It's not just housing, they need new schools, roads, shops, sewers and water supplies...
-Erik the Read-161455

The Vice Governor of Sichuan today announced that they would try to provide temporary shelter for 98% of the quake survivors who are now homeless. Premier Wen Jiabao has ordered a quarter million of temporary steel homes (like the ones housing construction workers on building sites) to be set up by the end of June. They hope to increase that number to a million within three months. Materials for prefabricated housing are being gathered now to prepare for these temporary homes. (Last year we met a group of local officials from Katrina-affected areas who were looking to buy China-manufactured prefab houses that could be built in a day.)

But you're right, reconstruction is not just about homes. It's about roads, schools, and basic services. Roads will take a while, but they have been able to clear a good number of them. Shops -- well, in the town of Xiang'e up in the hills, I saw lots of little old ladies with tables set out on the side of the road, piles of rubble behind them, and they were selling toilet paper, lighters, packaged biscuits, candies, etc. I don't think enterprising folk will have a problem recovering!

It also looks like they are making progress in restoring power and telecoms. We were impressed with how much coverage our local cell phones were getting in most places. (China Mobile has been especially aggressive -- see http://blogs.wsj.com/chinajournal/2008/05/22/getting-back-on-the-line-in-sichuan/?mod=hpp_europe_blogs)

For a time, the media was putting forward the idea that Beijing was aggressively engaged in relief efforts because "the world was watching" and maybe even to embarrass Bush, by outdoing his performance in the wake of Katrina.

What was the media basing this assertion on?

Could it be that they are just trying to do the right thing for the people? If so, wasn't it a little irresponsible to make baseless assertions like that?
-Gary-286983

Gary, you raise a very good point. For all its faults, the central govt in China is actually quite responsive to natural disasters. (Although there are some people who might argue the authorities didn't respond quite as quickly during the winter storms that swept half of the country over the Chinese New Year.) And, despite its desire to maintain power, the central govt also has to maintain a certain amount credibility with its people and, as a result, is accountable to its people.

But one can't ignore the fact that the quake happened in the wake of Myanmar's cyclone so China's govt officials would have had the opportunity to witness international reaction to how the miltiary junta was handling the relief/rescue situation next door. Plus, they have just been through the whole Tibet situation, which did not leave them in good standing -- either overseas or at home.

Hi Adrienne,
Will you tell us what relief channel we can contribute to that will be the most direct and benefit the victims the quickest.
Thanks.
-C Sun

One of the resources for figuring out where to donate or how to assist directly is to check out a local English language magazine called Chendoo: http://www.chengdoo.com/

They offer some guidance on this.

There is also this website I came across, which has a column on the right-hand side listing what aid organizations are working in the quake-affected areas and what they need:

http://www.china-crossroads.com/

Good Morning:
It was good to see Ian Williams report the other night about American engineers helping families get back in their homes. Some of the engineers are helping folks understand the difference between safe hairline cracks and true structure damage.
Do you see alot of Americans in China helping quake victims?
-Blogger Anna

There are many more than you would expect, considering that Chengdu is home to many Americans working or studying in China. And there are some small NGO-type organizations run by Americans or involving American volunteers who have been active in the recovery efforts. On an official level, the US government has contributed roughly $3 million for relief/rescue efforts, which includes aid cargo, rescue equipment and rescue/recovery expertise.

Our entire little community, Chinese or American, has been trying to help by donating as much as we can during a relief fund-drive organized by all Chinese organizations locally. However, reports, rumors are starting to trickle in thru the Internet about corruption/embezzlemeent of relief fund/supplies. In China, most of the donations will have to go through the official channels to the victims. So, we are gravely concerned where our donations may end up with.
Now, we have to decide on which charity we should send our donations to so that the money will be used most effectively for the earthquake relief.
Chinese embassy?---official
Chinese Redcross Society?---official, too, kinda!
American Red Cross? --- rumor has it that the CEO was/is earning as much as 650,000 in annual salaries!
Canadian Red Cross?
Hongkong Red Cross?

We want a reputable charity that charges little or no overhead, is directly involved with the relief efforts, and is strong enough to demands responsibility and results from the Chinese authorities.
Please, Please Please give us some suggestions!
-Sean-286990

It's smart of you to be wary of embezzlement/corruption; many people here are very concerned about relief funds being misdirected. Many Chinese-language websites have suggested the Red Cross of China. But please also see my response to CSun above.

Can you provide a local map of the areas with the town names affected. To say Chengdu, Sichuan province is akin to saying Houston, Texas. There is no understanding of the distances or locations to the epicenter or damage areas. This information would be published if it were California.
What is the situation at Chengdu airport are incoming flights arriving? what about departing flights. I have read the trains are reserved for emergancy services and outbound flights are fully booked. What about the Chengdu hospitals we hear that many refuges are flooding into the city and hospital services there are full too, meaning only emergancy not elective services are being rendered.
What is being done for housing refugees in Chengdu?
-CS

I have been trying to find this website I came across yesterday that is tracking quake statistics for Sichuan and the surrounding provinces which were affected but am not having much luck, sorry! It had lots of maps.

As far as we know, Chengdu airport is operating as normal. There has been a mad crush to get out over the past few days, owing to growing fears about aftershocks, and outgoing flights have been overbooked Hospitals do not seem overly busy in Chengdu itself. Local stadiums and parks have been turned over to house/shelter some refugees, but by and large it seems that most homeless people are still gathered around the quake zone and not in Chengdu itself.

Since I can't find the website I mentioned, here is another option. The BBC World News site has a good local map with the affected towns higlighted:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7400614.stm

Ms Mong Is it really bad as it is shown on television or is it worse on the ground, and how can I help the people there, such as by sending clothes?
-carmendrivera

It's pretty bad; you can't exaggerate the kind of devastation and loss we have seen here. And there's always this lingering fear there may be many more people suffering in the more remote areas.

We have seen huge banks of donated clothing, but I am sure more is welcome. Please see my response below to CSun about organizations that can use aid.

Adrienne, I am a citizen journalist for Wikinews, a sister site to Wikipedia, as our website is occasionally blocked by Chinese authorities.

I was wondering if you have faced any censorship covering the earthquake, especially since the past months with the whole Tibet situation?

Thanks.
-AutisticPsycho

We have not experienced any censorship covering the quake, but Tibet was an entirely different matter. Not only were we denied access as journalists to any of the Tibetan communities, the reporting we were able to do was blocked on our website, www.msnbc.com, for the first few days.

Oddly enough, after about a week, everything was accessible -- including an uncut interview Ann Curry from the Today show conducted with the Dalai Lama during his visit to the US in March. At the same time, the BBC News website (English language) was unblocked for the first time in years.

Adrienne
The most amazing thing to me is that I've been hearing about the outrage of the people that some buildings collapsed while others, such as government buildings, are still standing. Yesterday, I heard a mother and father accuse the government of "murdering" their children. The reason I'm so surprised is that here in the US we hear that Freedom of Speech is repressed in China. Yet, this sounds like the very kind of freedom of speech we allow in the US. Do you think the Chinese government is being more tolerant of the mourning people during this tragedy, or this really more like the average freedom the Chinese people have? Will this type of freedom of speech, being covered so widely by the worldwide media have repercussions for these people eventually, or do you think this is going to be the basis for more freedom of expression for the Chinese people?
-Mickie

Mickie, I'm glad you asked this question. Without a doubt, the Chinese govt is not a fan of freedom of speech, but (1) China is a big country and there are many voices, too many to clamp down, especially with the spread of technology; and (2) the central govt is accountable to its people on a certain level, eg, in order to stay in power, the leadership has to maintain some credibility with its people. [There are many articulate, better-informed specialists than I who will tell you that one of the reasons the leadership chose this path of economic development (socialism with Chinese characteristics) is because they realized they had to make a trade-off with the people: economic freedoms in exchange for political freedoms.]

There is room for people to voice criticism, but as always it depends on who and what is being criticized. So there may be repercussions, but in this case with the poor quality of construction and so many deaths of a single generation, the leadership doesn't have much wriggle room.

------- Original Article --------

The death toll from last week's powerful earthquake has jumped to more than 51,000 -- a loss of individual lives that's nearly impossible to fathom. In her reporting from Sichuan Province, Adrienne Mong has brought some of the initial chaos into clearer focus, telling stories of both despair and hope.

On Friday, May 23, starting at 10:00 a.m. ET, Adrienne will be available to answer Newsviners questions about her experiences covering the earthquake. Feel free to post your questions here in advance.

If you are planning to fly over the Thankgiving holiday, be sure to figure out if yours are part of the 70-or-so airports that have whole body imaging (WBI) machines.

These are your stimulus dollars at work: in March, TSA began deploying 450 advanced imaging technology units which were purchased with American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds; they expect to have 1,000 deployed by the end of next year. FYI: TSA has 10,000 employees with "secret" clearances.

Despite Department of Homeland Security assurances that its airport screening methods are "risk based", Jim Harper at the Cato Institute quotes a March 2010 GAO report in making his case that risk assessment is sorely missing from DHS/TSA procedures (emphasis added):

[I]t remains unclear whether the AIT would have detected the weapon used in the December 2009 incident based on the preliminary information GAO has received. . . . In October 2009, GAO also recommended that TSA complete cost-benefit analyses for new passenger screening technologies. While TSA conducted a life-cycle cost estimate and an alternatives analysis for the AIT, it reported that it has not conducted a cost-benefit analysis of the original deployment strategy or the revised AIT deployment strategy, which proposes a more than twofold increase in the number of machines to be procured.

No risk assessment. No "cost-benefit" assessment, even with a doubling of machines.

In a similar vein, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) has petitioned the D.C. Court of Appeals to review three DHS/TSA actions— one failure to act, one agency Order, and one agency Rule. EPIC called for a 90-day formal rulemaking process on WBI technology in May 2009; the Agency ignored them. EPIC believes that the body scanner program violates Fourth Amendment rights.

DHS/TSA has not performed a risk assessment or a comprehensive privacy assessment on WBI technology; the later is required by law. According to EPIC:

Courts have required that airport security searches be ;minimally intrusive, well-tailored to protect personal privacy, and neither more extensive nor more intensive than necessary under the circumstances to rule out the presence of weapons or explosives.

In spite of clear Fourth Amendment implications, DHS/TSA has invested millions on technology that they sold to Congress as being for "secondary" scanning of passengers who had aroused suspicion. Now they are sending passengers through WBI machines willy-nilly and are using an invasive pat-down as disincentive to the opt-out process.

[S]tarting tomorrow (30 October 2010), we're going to start searching your crotchal area" -- this is the word he used, "crotchal" -- and you're not going to like it."

"What am I not going to like?" I asked.

"We have to search up your thighs and between your legs until we meet resistance," he explained.

"Resistance?" I asked.

"Your testicles," he explained.

'That's funny," I said, "because 'The Resistance' is the actual name I've given to my testicles."

He answered, "Like 'The Situation,' that guy from 'Jersey Shore?'"

Yes, exactly, I said. (I used to call my testicles "The Insurgency," but those @!$%#s in Iraq ruined the term.)

I pointed out to the security officer that 50 percent of the American population has no balls (90 percent in Washington, D.C., where I live), so what is going to happen when the pat-down officer meets no resistance in the crotchal area of women? "If there's no resistance, then there's nothing there."

"But what about people who hide weapons in their cavities? I asked. I actually said "vagina" again, just to see him blush. "We're just not going there," he reiterated.

I asked him if he was looking forward to conducting the full-on pat-downs. "Nobody's going to do it," he said, "once they find out that we're going to do."

In other words, people, when faced with a choice, will inevitably choose the Dick-Measuring Device over molestation? "That's what we're hoping for. We're trying to get everyone into the machine." He called over a colleague. "Tell him what you call the back-scatter," he said. "The Dick-Measuring Device," I said. "That's the truth," the other officer responded.

Crony Capitalism
About the profiteering: American Science and Engineering, Inc. reports record profits and a quarterly dividend. It makes both mobile and stationary backscatter x-ray machines that the Pentagon has deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan ... and that TSA and local law enforcement is using in the U.S. Yes, there are mobile vans roaming U.S. streets that contain wide-area backscatter x-ray equipment.

AS&E has been in TSA's pocket since 2005. A month after AS&E's CEO testified before Congress about the importance of backscatter x-ray units to security (July), TSA awarded a $722,000 contract to AS&E "to upgrade its Z(R) Backscatter personnel screening system. Under the terms of the contract, AS&E will deliver an advanced Z Backscatter personnel screening system to the TSA for extensive testing and evaluation."

Clearly, AS&E's partnership with TSA has been lucrative for the company. Notice stock price and when dividends start. The stock price image above-right is from Google.

It's All Theatre

On the first anniversary of 9-11, Charles C. Mann wrote in TheAtlantic (emphasis added):

It is now a year since the World Trade Center was destroyed. Legislators, the law-enforcement community, and the Bush Administration are embroiled in an essential debate over the measures necessary to prevent future attacks. To armor-plate the nation's security they increasingly look to the most powerful technology available: retina, iris, and fingerprint scanners; "smart" driver's licenses and visas that incorporate anti-counterfeiting chips; digital surveillance of public places with face-recognition software; huge centralized databases that use data-mining routines to sniff out hidden terrorists. Some of these measures have already been mandated by Congress, and others are in the pipeline. State and local agencies around the nation are adopting their own schemes. More mandates and more schemes will surely follow.

[Bruce] Schneier is hardly against technology—he's the sort of person who immediately cases public areas for outlets to recharge the batteries in his laptop, phone, and other electronic prostheses. "But if you think technology can solve your security problems," he says, "then you don't understand the problems and you don't understand the technology." Indeed, he regards the national push for a high-tech salve for security anxieties as a reprise of his own early and erroneous beliefs about the transforming power of strong crypto.

[...]

"The trick is to remember that technology can't save you," Schneier says. "We know this in our own lives. We realize that there's no magic anti-burglary dust we can sprinkle on our cars to prevent them from being stolen. We know that car alarms don't offer much protection. The Club at best makes burglars steal the car next to you. For real safety we park on nice streets where people notice if somebody smashes the window. Or we park in garages, where somebody watches the car. In both cases people are the essential security element. You always build the system around people."

And that's exactly NOT what DHS/TSA is doing with WBI technology. Most of the "security" measures implemented at U.S. airports post-9-11 are theatre: visible use of technology to convince Americans that their government is "doing something" to "protect them." We know that "do not fly lists" are a joke. And Jeffrey Goldberg (TheAtlantic) makes the case that the theatre is misplaced:

By the time terrorist plotters make it to the airport, it is, generally speaking, too late to stop them. Plots must be broken up long before the plotters reach the target. If they are smart enough to make it to the airport without arrest, it is almost axiomatically true that they will be smart enough to figure out a way to bring weapons aboard a plane.

Schneier concurs. Back in January, he told NPR that WBI systems do not "detect low-density explosives."

It doesn't detect explosives that are thin. You know, it's really very limited as to what it detects. It may or may not have detected the underwear bomber. We don't actually know.

It's simply theatre.

Just Say No. Opt-Out day is next Wednesday.

More at IWillOptOut.org.

We hear it in the news, we see photos of the result of it and tombstones are left in the wake of it. No matter who you are you have a right to be just that...YOU! Being laughed at, called names, living in fear...living in terror...want to win the fight against terrorism, then stop ignoring bullying, because rather it is a race of people, a country, a community or one child living in terror it has to stop. If these threats were made against a country it would be Terrorism, but when it is one person we call it Bullying. No matter what you call it, it has to stop.

The two top reasons for bullying in schools today are for lack of athletic ability and for homosexuality or the belief that one is homosexual. I started gathering stories of bullying. The stories below we told by someone actually knowing the victim or was the victim themselves.....

A young man with harmless crushes that never grew into more. He was no threat to anyone, a kind soul for sure. Attacked by two men in the shadows of an alley. Never showing violence towards anyone, only being a victim of it. Never haven even shown any type of attraction to his attackers, yet, to them he should feel pain. He should feel hurt. As they beat him up, two against one, a cowards game they played. This attack would not be looked upon blindly. A hero came to his rescue letting the men know that he had allies too. Unfortunately, though love and bravery lives in the open, hate and cowards hide in the dark. Bullets flew later outside of his home and he fell to his death. The ground stained with the blood of someone who did no harm to anyone as those who pulled the trigger where never caught and to this day, nineteen years later, they walk among us free and never brought to justice for the crime they did. He will not be forgotten, for this day we share his story. Today we share the tragedy of his death and that we could not have him here with us today. What would he say about the iphone? Would he have been an inventor of one of the must have applications we all download everyday? Would he have been a patron of one the airports that one of the airplanes of 9/11 took off? Would he have spotted the box cutters? Could he have changed history? Instead of letting him live his life was take away because of how he loved.

---

She is a beautiful girl. She tells her family she is gay and they cannot accept it. They talk to a male friend of theirs and ask her if he will date her daughter and "turn her straight." She is angry, he tries and tries but fails. One evening she is walking out of a gay club. He follows her, beats her in the parking until she receives massive head injuries. She was taken to the ICU. Her parents met her there, told her that she was not to press charges, because they had hopes that he would still take her. Posts went out on facebook wishing her well, people posted right under the announcement as to what happened to her. "Well, it is a sin to be gay according to the Bible." People ignored the violence against her, ignored the clear sin of hate and further attacked her. They justified the attackers actions of violence and harm with the Bible.

----

Two lesbians sitting at a private party with friends. One of the men came over to one of them and said, "I want to eat your p...." something that should not be said to anyone at anytime. The girlfriend to the girl this was said to stands up and asks him to apologize. He says, "No." four of his friends stand up and attack the girlfriend taking that told him to apologize. As he was beating on her, they screamed at them both "You freaks." Five men beat on an innocent woman. Her girlfriend was able to hold one back after a struggle, but could not fight them all off. They broke her nose, busted her ribs, spit on her. They turned to the other girl and said that she just needed to get "F^&*ed by the right man. Before they could carry through on that, help arrived. The wives to these men showed up and put an end to it.

---

These are three stories that I have I didn't read on the news. These are stories that were not reported but are clear signs of violence against the LGBT community purely for being who they are. Families condoning it, Bible used to justify it, straight men turning behaving like sexual predators, not homosexuals, straight me. Every one of these stories I have spoke to someone directly involved in it. I didn't have to search hard either. Imagine how many people in your world, in your life that may have fallen victim to bullying. If your child is gay and has not told you, goes to school and the other kids know (because kids are perceptive), they are bullying him/her, beating them, spiting on them, and you are a parent standing up against the State of California for trying to take measures against bullying....the hole time this being a protection for your own kid and you don't even know it....how would you feel?

If you are so anti-gay do you think your child will feel comfortable coming to you and telling you they are gay? No. Do you want them to be going through this persecution silently, and even persecution by you as a parent and not even know it? You can say you are anti-gay, but I will tell you right now many of you that are...have a child that is gay and is scared to tell you because of your views. As you are screaming hate and persecution for other's you are also doing so for your own child and don't even know it.

Now I am not saying that every child is living in silence, don't be ridiculous, but I promise you there are a large number that are. In my community of LGBT friends I can tell you roughly 90% of them did not come out until after they were out of their parents home. Some of them, their parents still don't know. I dated a girl once, she ended up in the hospital, when she was in there all she wanted was me, while under the influence of the medicine and not with clear thought she kept asking for me. This was how her family learned she was gay. They asked her when she was awake who I was, she was forced to tell them. Imagine, your child in a hospital bed in pain, she was on life support for a short time, and at that moment learning your child is gay. Learning that your child has had someone in their life that they care about and you didn't even know it. Lets take it a step farther. Imagine your child being murdered because they are gay. You are a parent fighting against anti-bullying, you learn at your child's funeral that some of the kids at their school murdered them because they were gay, and you didn't even know it.

Think this could not possible be you? Think your child could not possibly be gay? My parents thought the same thing. They were wrong. 90% of my LGBT friend's parents, thought the same thing, they were wrong. So, would you be for the bullying if the target was your own child? Would you fight against measures to stop it if you knew that? Is that a risk you are willing to take? Of all the parents fighting against it, I assure you there is at least one that has a homosexual child and doesn't even know it, probably more. Do you want to be that parent?

A couple of weekends ago, I took a day trip down to Wightman's Farms in Morristown, NJ for a bit of typical fall fun: corn maze, random pumpkin stuff, and apple picking. There aren't any photos of apple picking because I was too busy, well, picking apples.

Enjoy.

Foto-Friday is a feature of the NV Photography Group:http://photographers.newsvine.com/

Greetings, fellow Viners! This is my first Foto-Friday, so if there's a guideline I'm not following, feel free to let me know.

Anyway, I took a trip up to Lake Placid, NY (in the Adirondacks) this past weekend. I didn't have much time to venture out of the town, so I got what I could of the fall foliage transition (and some photos by a small lake in the area). Enjoy.

In my quest for books about China and dragons, I found this book at one of the local bookstores. It rang a bell, as something I had wanted to read years ago. Based on the subject matter, I was almost afraid to read it, for fear of nightmares. However, I am very glad that I did. I know very little of Chinese history and culture, and I am finding few books that are straightforward about the subject.

Iris Chang, an American history scholar and journalist of Chinese descent, performed meticulous research in writing about the fall of Nanking to the Japanese Imperial Army in 1937. Nanking, (the old spelling), is now called Nanjing, (the postal spelling), Nanching, (Wade-Giles), or Nánjīng, (Pinyin, the western spelling of the Mandarin Chinese). The city is the capitol of the Jiangsu Province in southern China, and is a city rich with history and culture. The city is located in the lower Yangtze River valley and delta, and has served as a capital of China during several historical periods. Nanking, (Nanjing), was the capital of the Republic of China before the Chinese Civil War in 1949.

At present, the city has an urban population of over five million, and is the second largest commercial center in the East China region, after Shanghai. The city serves as a seat of government for the providence, yet is almost as autonomous as a province, in and of itself. The city was awarded the 2008 Special Award of the United Nations, Habitat Scroll of Honor and National Civilized City. Despite its defeat in 1937, the city has prospered and become an international area of commerce and business in the years since the war. However, the City’s defeat and subsequent occupation was a holocaust that is barely mentioned in American history books—even though it remains a stumbling block in today’s Sino-Japanese relations, as well as Japan’s relations with the Koreas and the Philippines.

The Sino-Japanese War, which began in 1937, was included as a part of World War II, yet began long before America’s or Germany’s involvement in the war. The Chinese were, at the time, having their own difficulties between the Communist faction led first by Sun Yat-sen, and the Nationalist faction lead by Chiang Kai-shek. (There is a lot more to that than this, but, in the interests of brevity, this is the basics, as I can find them.) Therefore, at the time of the war, the area of Shanghai and Nanking were under control of the Nationalist government, which was later defeated by the Communist forces lead by Mao Tse-tung in the Civil war of 1949.

As a part of the overall Japanese surrender in 1945, Japanese troops surrendered to the Republic of China, giving Chiang Kai-shek control of Taiwan, as well as all of the land of China not under the control of Mao Tse-tung. Confused? You aren’t the only one! Anyway, that is the beginning of the story, as I can understand it.

The defeat of Shanghai by the Japanese Imperial Army led directly to the defeat of Nanking, as the Chinese soldiers were ill-trained, as young as 14 years of age, and ill-equipped with hand grenades and swords to battle the Japanese tanks and machine guns. Chang Kai-shek, who realized after the fall of Shanghai that the defeat of Nanking was inevitable, pulled his army out of Nanking—or as much of it as possible—in order to buy time to reorganize and re-equip by drawing the Japanese army deeper into Chinese lands. He did so under the advice of his German advisors, who felt that trading territory for time would enable the Nationalist troops to re-equip and reform, thus setting the stage for the defeat and subsequent murder of the civilian population.

The story of the holocaust of Nanking is told by Ms. Chang through three points of view—the Chinese civilians, the Japanese soldiers, and from the viewpoint of a group of mixed foreigners who set up a Safe Zone to help save as many Chinese civilians as possible. These eyewitness accounts paint a picture of destruction, rape, and murder that is unprecedented and largely unknown by the western world.

From the Chinese civilian point of view, the reign of terror began with the shelling of the defenseless city. Rumors began of the wholesale killing of civilians and villagers as the Japanese army moved toward Nanking. The Chinese built air raid shelters with mud/sand sides and bamboo roofs—it offered only some protection from flying shrapnel. Wounded began to fill the hospitals, and the population began to flee. Escape from the city was difficult due solely to geography. Nanking lies within a bend of the Yangtze River, effectively cutting it off from the west and south, unless one has access to a boat. Despite these difficulties, many people escaped by boat, fleeing ever westward in their terror.

Finally, as the Japanese reached the very gates of the city, most of the city’s wealthy, or those able, had escaped, approximately one half of the city’s population, leaving only the poor, along with refugees from Shanghai, who had not the means to escape further. This left approximately 500,000 people in the city, (exact numbers are not known, but these numbers are based on estimates made after the war.)

During the great exodus, a group of very brave foreigners composed of missionaries, doctors, journalists, and businessmen, formed a Safe Zone for the protection of Chinese civilians, despite the Japanese refusal to recognize such an area. The Safe Zone included the area between the grounds of the one hospital left in operation, (under the direction of Dr. Robert Wilson), the Ginling Women’s Arts and Science College, (under the direction of Minnie Vautrin, a missionary and educator), and the home of a German businessman, John Rabe. When the mayor of Nanking left the city, he gave all the available rice and flour to John Rabe, a German national and leader of the Nationalist Socialist Movement in Nanking, who was also the leader of the Safe Zone.

Once the Japanese entered the gates of the city, wholesale murder and rape ensued. The civilian population was shot in the back as they ran from the Japanese soldiers. They were captured, house by house, and murdered by sword, stabbed by bayonets, beheaded, raped, shot, burned alive, dismembered, and left to lie on the streets of the city. The atrocities are too numerous to note as an individual basis, but the International Military Tribunal of the Far East estimates that 300,000 civilians were murdered and 80,000 women were raped.

It is here in the book that Ms. Chang becomes overwhelmed by the sheer staggering numbers of horror. While reading the book, one gets a feeling that Ms. Chang becomes unable to adequately express the depth of her horror and outrage, as the book becomes strangely flat and unemotional. She turns to the stories told by the foreigners who had stayed in the city to help the civilian population.

Their stories are equally as heartrending, but, since they discuss individual cases, and perhaps told only their view as they saw the holocaust happening, one is able to get a better picture of the thousands of individual lives lost or ruined forever. An American missionary, John Magee, stayed behind to take film and first hand photographs of the Nanking massacre, while Rabe and another American missionary, Lewis Smythe, along with Minnie Vautrin, recorded the details in their diaries, which they then shared with the world. John Rabe and Lewis Smythe filed complaints against the Japanese soldiers with the Japanese ambassadors, who did nothing— the ambassadors were not in any control of the troops looting and burning the city, or murdering the population. From John Rabe’s diary

“The slaughter of civilians is appalling. I could go on for pages telling of cases of rape and brutality almost beyond belief. Two bayoneted corpses are the only survivors of seven street cleaners who were sitting in their headquarters when Japanese soldiers came in without warning or reason and killed five of their number and wounded the two that found their way to the hospital.

Let me recount some instances occurring in the last two days. Last night the house of one of the Chinese staff members of the university was broken into and two of the women, his relatives, were raped. Two girls, about 16, were raped to death in one of the refugee camps. In the University Middle School where there are 8,000 people the Japs came in ten times last night, over the wall, stole food, clothing, and raped until they were satisfied. They bayoneted one little boy of eight who have [sic] five bayonet wounds including one that penetrated his stomach, a portion of omentum was outside the abdomen. I think he will live.”

In contrast, the stories told by the Japanese soldiers are curiously devoid of any emotion—as if they had not been killing people, but slaughtering chickens, instead. The Japanese were under the “All” orders—“Kill all, loot all, burn all”. Under the command of General Matsui, whose orders to treat the civilians humanely were overridden by the orders of Prince Asaka, (the brother of Emperor Hirohito), the Japanese soldiers ran amok. There were contests between the soldiers to see how many people they could behead in one day. Even the Japanese Army newsletter published pictures of the winners of the contest.

To General Matusui’s credit, as he began to comprehend the full extent of rape, murder, and looting in the city, he grew increasingly dismayed. Although confessing his regret to a civilian aide, in his message to the press, Matusui stated, “I personally feel sorry for the tragedies to the people, but the Army must continue unless China repents.” It was February before the rescue camps were forcibly evacuated by the Japanese, and the atrocities began to cease. Both General Matsui and Prince Asaka were recalled to Japan. Matsui immediately retired, but Prince Asaka remained on the Supreme War Council until the end of the war. He was promoted to the rank of general, but held no further military commands.

At the end of the war, very few of the Japanese soldiers or generals were tried for war crimes perpetrated in China, unlike the trials at Nuremburg. Along with the emperor and his family, Prince Asaka was granted immunity from prosecution. Many of the perpetrators of the massacre are free men. Ms. Chang blames the decision to let them remain free on the Americans, who were more interested in creating an economically strong Japan after the war, to prevent communist China from becoming an economic power. Not only that, but factions within the Japanese government deny that the holocaust even took place. References to the Rape of Nanking are not made in many American textbooks, other than as a single line that it occurred. No reference is made in the Japanese history textbooks.

Ms. Chang was obviously very haunted by her research, for she committed suicide in November, 2004. Her research, although certainly painstaking, did not include research made in Japan, but included sources located in the US and Nanking only. For this, she was roundly criticized, which possibly lead to her subsequent suicide. Mrs. Chang felt that the CIA, as well as other Japanese factions, was directing the efforts at discrediting her work.

There is much more to this story than meets the eye, and Ms. Chang’s work is notable for its historical perspective, as well as for the controversy it generated upon its publication. It isn’t a warm fuzzy book, but one that leaves me with more questions than answers. Why were the perpetrators never prosecuted?

As an adjunct to this book, I watched a documentary-style film about the massacre. The documentary is titled “Nanking”, and it may be watched at no charge at IMDb.

Thank you for stopping by!

You know?, seems like every time there is a news article that has to do with gay people we have to face yet again the slew of stock comments from the opponents of gay marriage. I thought, what better time to address some of those stock arguments that they always mention. This is going to be long, so my apologies right now.

Stock argument no. 1: God said 1man + 1woman

Hold it there buster. If you are going to use the bible, then you better be ready for it to be turn around on you. Let’s start with Kind David. The bible clearly says that he had several wives and concubines. Actually, the bible talks more about men having several wives than the opposite. So technically, the bible condones polygamy. Now, King David was not the only one, there is a whole bag of Godly heroes that had several wives, and they are still held as role models. So, no, the bible does not speak conclusively about 1 man + 1 woman.

Stock argument no. 2: God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve

The Hebrew word “ādām” used in Genesis 1-3 is not a name: it either means “humanity” or “the man”. Same for the word eve, it means female. So, Adam and Eve were not persons; they did not exist. Adam and Eve are literary inventions meant to symbolize humanity in its male and female form. Yes, literary creations just like Don Quixote, Sherlock Holmes, Cinderella, Jekyll and Hyde, the Count of Montecristo , Carrie, Hamlet, Superman, and many other famous literary characters.

The bible is a wonderful book, but it is not a historical account, nor is it reliable as a historical document. What is most insulting of all is the fact that my pastor took the time to explain that to me. Why didn’t your pastor do the same? The resources are all there. Why is he insisting in keeping you ignorant?

Stock argument no. 3: Leviticus, Leviticus Leviticus…

Once again, if you use the bible, you better be ready to have it used against you. Leviticus also says that if you disrespect you parents you should be put to death; you should also face the same fate if you: Eat shell fish, use blended fabrics, commit adultery, and several others. If you do not follow those, then you are a bigger hypocrite than I am, because you are picking and choosing what to follow and what not to. This is a direct violation of Lev 19:12. Thou shall not swear falsely by my name, nor profane the name of thy God. Since those provisions are ALL made by God and you do not have the authority to pick and choose.

Furthermore, Jesus Himself said that He came into the world to make the law new. That means that all those provisions from Leviticus that you are so fond of quoting were cast aside by Jesus Himself. Since they were made obsolete 2000 years ago when Jesus walked the earth, why are you still hell-bent in quoting them?

Lastly, Leviticus 4:2 says To be ignorant of what we are bound to know is sinful. These days we have a better understanding of human sexuality and human psyches. God, through psychology and psychiatry, has given us a better understanding of the human condition and we are responsible to learn from it and adapt our thinking and behavior; so if you are going to argue that Leviticus is still current; then you are still responsible for your sin of ignorance.

Stock argument no. 4: Two men and/or 2 women cannot procreate

The procreation argument… I love this one because I have yet to find anyone who will take me on this one. Let’s say for a moment that you are right and marriage is about procreation. Can you please explain why there is NOT ONE SINGLE amendment that reads something like this:

"In order to protect the sacred marriage institution and the procreation responsibilities of the partners, marriage in this state shall consist of a man and a woman of procreation age, who, having been tested, can prove they can procreate. "

If marriage was about procreation, why not go after people who can procreate and DO NOT? Gay people cannot marry in most states after all. Why is it that the people that cannot marry and cannot procreate are the ones targeted for an amendment that seeks to “protect” the procreation aspect of marriage?

Stock argument no. 5: The intolerance of gay people

Now, now, try as you may, that argument is the same argument that an abuser will try to use against the one he is abusing. Yea, we see through that. A man will hit a woman and the moment the woman strikes back, he starts accusing her of abuse.

Gay people have been the victims of murder, oppression, beatings and calumnies. The law and the bible have been used against us for hundreds of years. Who did that? What sector of the population championed this kind of behavior against gay people? What kind of reception did you expect to receive? Are you saying we were being tolerant when we were taking your abuse and remaining quiet? Are you saying that we were being tolerant every time one of us was killed like a dog, or bashed with a 2X4, or bullied in school, or thrown out of our homes at 15, or lost (or denied) our families, jobs, homes, careers, salaries, friends etc. and we didn’t say anything? Are you saying that now that we are not taking your abuse we are NOW being intolerant? Truly, are you expecting that argument to stick?

Have you ever heard of the phrase "You reap what you sow"?

Stock argument no. 6: What's next, Polygamy & Bestiality?

Well, I have 2 points to make on this one:

1. Mormons have practiced polygamy for over 100 years. To this day, there is an orthodox group of them that practices it; where is your rage against that? Even then, they have not looked to make it legal in any state. If the Mormons have shown no interest in making polygamy legal, and they are the ones with the most to gain; NEITHER WILL GAY PEOPLE. GET IT THROUGH YOU THICK SKULL. Putting that one on the gays does not make it sound more convincing.
2. Bestiality has been practiced for hundreds of years by both straight and gay people. Now go and read point no 1 and make some correlations.

Stock argument no. 7: Marriage for Straights & Civil unions for gays; fair isn't it?

The Supreme Court already ruled that separate but equal is neither. You might not like it, but the SCOUTS were very clear on this; you cannot create separate institutions for percentage of the population based solely on the fact that your impressionable little heads and your fragile little egos cannot bear the thought of THOSE people drinking of the same fountain.

So, it's either civil unions for all, or none. You don't have to believe me, just read the decisions. See Plessey v. Ferguson, which introduced the 'separate but equal' doctrine. Follow it up with Brown v. Board of Education, Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States and Green v. School Board of New Kent County, which dismantled the 'separate but equal' doctrine. And don't forget the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Guess you just have to read now… and look, just so you don't have excuses, I have provided you with links.

Stock argument no. 8: Marriage is a sacred institution ordained by God

First of all, marriage has 2 elements: Secular and sacred. A marriage is only sacred if you go in front of a representative from a god and swear in front of him. Since the state does not recognize any god, when you go to get married by a judge, there is nothing sacred about it because the justice of peace will not invoke the name of a god, but the name of the state. (S)he will marry you By the power invested in me by the state of [insert your state here]

To call "sacred" a marriage performed by a representative of a secular government is in direct violation to what Exodus 20:2–5 says:

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. Do not have any other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God.

So if you insist on equaling civil marriage to the sacrament (or covenant) of marriage you are committing the sin of idolatry.

Furthermore, gay people are NOT lobbying any church for the right to marry; we are lobbying the government, the overseers of the SECULAR institution of marriage. We expect the government to treat us like any tax payer. Church and God have nothing to do with that expectation. And let me give you one more, if marriage is a “sacred institution”, then: why is divorce legal, and also, why is there not one single church that will marry you without a license from the state? And why is it that the state WILL marry you without needing permission from a church?

Stock argument no. 9: Churches will be forced marry gay people

The scare tactics never end, do they? If we believe that there is a separation of church and state, why would the state infringe upon that doctrine 200 years after it was instituted, and with no prior conviction of doing so?

Think about it, if there is any, ANY group that is well versed in their constitutional rights is the church; at least when it comes to the government’s responsibility to leave them alone. I say that way because the church has not understood the basic principle that freedom of religion carries with it freedom FROM religion, and they have consistently poked their noses into the people’s business and will continue to do so while at the same time demanding to be left alone.

That being said, the constitution clearly states that the government shall not infringe on the church’s right to do business as they see it fit. The church knows that very well, but it is still crying wolf because it brings attention to them and it sounds plausible. Trust me, there is not a church that will see that happen and not file a federal lawsuit and win it.

Stock argument no. 10: Gays can marry someone of the opposite sex

Oh, the joys of being ignorant. No, truly, life is so much simpler that way.

Gay people expect the right to marry anyone of their own CHOOSING just like any heterosexual person. If you would not like your mother picking up a wife/husband for you (and God knows she would probably do a better job than you) then you have no right to tell anyone they cannot marry anyone they CHOOSE.

If you CHOSE your wife/husband, then I have the same right to CHOOSE my gorgeous hunky husband and it is a matter of law; just wait for it.

Stock argument no. 11: The "will of the people..."

Of all the ones I've discussed so far, this is the one that most troubles me. I just keep hearing all these arguments for the "will of the people" and I smile with a mix of contempt, sadness and amusement that should be insulting to many. Truly, what is the "will of the people"?

Seems to me that these days we have turned the "will of the people" into a sort of mob rule in which things that are unpopular are put to the will of a mob worked up into a frenzy by someone powerful with an agenda. What is most insulting of all is the fact that people do not see through the fact that they are being manipulated. Amazing!

Let’s take a look at other great moments on “the will of the people”:

• 1850’s: The will of the people was to save the institution of slavery
• 1900’s: The will of the people was to deny women the right to vote (even women agreed)
• 1940’s, 50’s & 60’s: The will of the people was to preserve segregation and the ban on interracial marriage
• During World War II it was the will of the people that Japanese-Americans were kept in concentration camps
• In the 2000 election, Al Gore won the popular vote. Yes, it was the “will of the people” to have President Gore

So I ask, where did we get this idea that it is the job of the masses to decide who gets a certain right and who doesn't?

You know? Forgive my bluntness but I learned several things in school:

1. Officials are elected to make the laws and judges appointed to ensure the laws are fair to everyone
2. It is the responsibility of the majority to ensure that they do not step on the rights of the minority
3. The moment you put the rights of a population for vote, then you open the door for everyone's rights to be put to popular vote. Do we really want to go there?

Lastly, the constitution is there to protect the minorities from the tyranny of the majority. What do you think is going to happen when the Supreme Court gets all those "marriage protection amendments" that were passed by the 'will of the people" to take the rights of a minority? No, really, what do you think is going to happen?

Stock argument no. 12: Sodom and Gomorrah blah, blah, blah...

Classical Jewish texts concur that God did *not* destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because their inhabitants were homosexual. Not at all. Rather, the cities were destroyed because the inhabitants were nasty, depraved, and uncompromisingly greedy. Classical Jewish writings affirm that the primary crimes of the Sodomites were, among others, terrible and repeated economic crimes, both against each other and to outsiders. Saying "God killed them because they were gay" is, to say the least, not the Jewish teaching on the subject. (http://www.iwgonline.org/docs/sodom.html)

Consider this:

1. What are the chances that 100% of the male population of a village is gay? That doesn't even happen at the Castro!
2. If all the males in the city were gay, why did Lot offer females to calm them down? I can just hear the response of the crowd: What, you want us to give them a makeover? Was Lot taking advantage of the fact that he had a horde of gay males that could help his daughters get really hot and then be able to marry off the poor ugly things? Surely he would not offer females to a pack of horny gay males...
3. If the story of Sodom and Gomorrah was truly about homosexuality, then why does Ezekiel 16:46-50 say the following?:

This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty and did abominable things before me; therefore I removed them when I saw it.

Apparently some people love to quote the bible but do not read it...

Stock argument no. 13: We do it for the children. Children need a mom and a Dad in the house

What I like about this argument is the fact that when looked on the surface, it is hard to disagree with it. Actually, this argument was used very effectively during the Proposition 8 campaign in CA. But on closer inspection it starts to crumble. Let me explain:

1. While there is no denying that a multi parent home is a beautiful thing, the nation's 50% divorce rate automatically tells us that many more children are growing up in single parent households than ever before and that there are more children living in single parent homes than there are not. So if the goal is to give children a mom and a dad, why isn't divorce a target? Afterall, it is divorce what is denying childrent the presence of a mom and a dad at the home. Gay peole are not kidnaping parents and holding them for ranson to spite the kids.
2. Study after study has consistently challenged the notion that having 2 parents of the same sex is detrimental to the well being of a child. Here is what just 2 of those articles say (Click on the links for complete texts):
   • The American Academy of Pedriatics issued a report on their magazine PEDIATRICS (Vol. 109 No. 2 February 2002, pp. 341-344) that concludes "Although gay and lesbian parents may not, despite their best efforts, be able to protect their children fully from the effects of stigmatization and discrimination, parents’ sexual orientation is not a variable that, in itself, predicts their ability to provide a home environment that supports children’s development."
   • In the same magazine, This time on the July 3, 2006 (Vol. 118 No. 1 July 2006, pp. 349-364) there are the results of a study titled The Effects of Marriage, Civil Union, and Domestic Partnership Laws on the Health and Well-being of Children. In it, the study concludes in part: "Conscientious and nurturing adults, whether they are men or women, heterosexual or homosexual, can be excellent parents. The rights, benefits, and protections of civil marriage can further strengthen these families."

Furthermore, I offer in evidence the fact that after exhaustive study and consideration, the sate-wide ban on gay adoption in the state of FL has been declared unconstitutional in great part because the proponents of the law have failed to convince several judges that a gay person is not as good a parent as anyone else.

So let's forget about the emotional arguments and the scare tactics for a second. The fact is that there is not ONE SINGLE study, in a peer reviewed publication, done with the outmost scientific rigor that can be quoted as saying that a child raised by 2 people of the same sex is detrimental or conducive to ill effects. Furthermore, every study quoted by those who shield behind this stock argument is based on science that is at least 30 years old or older. This means, that they are relying heavily on research that is OUT OF DATE and already proved obsolete by newer studies.

So, let me be the one asking the questions for a second:

Are you truly doing this for the children? I ask this because every study conducted on modern times has proved you wrong time after time. Not only that, but by trying to block gay people from even adopting or having access to their children you are effectively working against these children you so love to pretend that you care. Children are still growing up in orphanages, foster homes and the streets; every respected child psychologist, pediatrician or child care professional has spoken on the benefits of being reared by a loving adult, but you continue to denounce those studies. So, are you working FOR or AGAINST those children?

Your behavior will give us the answer.

Stock argument no. 14: Marriage is not a right. The constitution says nothing about it

Well, for once we are going to agree, in principle. But let me ask a couple of things:

If marriage is not a right, what and why are you so intent in using state constitutions to exclude people from having a right that is not there? See? YOU put those rights into 40-something constitutions around the nation in the form of an exclusion. That means that at one point or another those exclusions could (and will) be overturned and then marriage will be a right written into our nation's constitution and also in the constitutions of those states. So first of all thank you for ensuring that marriage rights will be something that will be added to the constitution.

Then, let's talk about Loving vs. Virginia, the 1967 Supreme court decision that declared Virginia's anti-miscegenation statute, the "Racial Integrity Act of 1924", unconstitutional, effectively ending all race-based legal restrictions on marriage in the United States. In this decision, the court states in part:

Marriage is one of the "basic civil rights of man," fundamental to our very existence and survival.... To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State's citizens of liberty without due process of law. The Fourteenth Amendment requires that the freedom of choice to marry not be restricted by invidious racial discrimination. Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the State. (emphasis added)

And in that little paragraph your argument crumbles like blue cheese. See? you might argue that the constitution doesn't say anything about marriage being a right but the Judges of the Supreme court respectfully disagree with you and have been disagreeing since 1967. While the constitution might not have the word marriage in it, the SCOUTS found that there is an implicit protection in the constitution that protects people from anyone infringing on their right to choose their spouse. In finding this implicit protection, they have effectively inserted marriage into the constitution and there is no court in this country, no matter how conservative, that will overturn that precedent. Now, add this precedent with the fact that you have inserted marriage rights language into over 50% of the state's constitutions, and the word marriage is about to make a grand entrance to the constitution; shepherded by you.

Now, don't start claiming that we started this when the SCOUTS, quoting Loving vs Virginia say:

To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as sexual orientation embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State's citizens of liberty without due process of law. The Fourteenth Amendment requires that the freedom of choice to marry not be restricted by an individual's sexual orientation. Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another (or the same) race or gender resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the State.

You started this battle, so don't blame us when the SCOUTS overturn all those precious "marriage protection acts."

Whale Wars From A Fisherman’s Perspective (What do you think of the Sea Shepherds?)

Whale Wars is Animal Planets television show about an organization called the Sea Shepherds. The Sea Shepherds have taken up the self imposed mission of stopping the Japanese whaling fleet from killing whales off of Antarctica for their annual research quota. The Japanese researchers are dedicated to the ongoing science mission to answer the ultimate question, “Are whales delicious or just damn tasty?” The Sea Shepherd’s 3 vessels include the Steve Irwin, Ady Gill, and the Bob Barker. When Bob was asked why he bought a boat for the Sea Shepherds he said he always wanted a boat named after him and, “The price was right.’ Ohhhh.

Ok, so don’t laugh, saving whales isn’t funny but you might enjoy a fisherman and lifelong mariner’s perspective of that crazy tv show. A lot of my fellow fishermen might call me weird but I like the Sea Shepherds, I want one of those cool sweatshirts. I love whales, anybody who harms them on purpose deserves all the harassment and misery anybody can heap upon them. The entire civilized world has banned commercial whaling, why can’t the Japanese do the same? I find that countries failure to adhere to any ban and complete failure to support fisheries conservation measures to be offensive. That said Whale Wars the show does make me crazy. Who in the heck throws things these days? The Japanese are using security crews and LRADS (big sound cannons that cause nausea and headaches).

I know the Sea Shepherds have to be primitive, escalating to rockets and long rifles can’t be the goal. They can however do so much better without much in the way of new technology. The Japanese have escalated to using the LRAD as an offensive weapon, they use those things on Samali pirates. Anybody who comes after me had better think twice before they consider pointing one of those things. They use one of those things on me they are not going to like what happens next. The first offensive weapon I am recommending to the Sea Shepherds is the air cannon. A few good air cannons with the right ammunition would make all the difference in this war.

I would personally be firing a mixture of cockroaches and yesterdays lunch. Cockroaches can be bred in captivity and yesterdays lunch is brewing up nicely right now. Roaches don’t mind air travel at all and with a few turds to stand on during the flight they should arrive in fine shape to cause mayhem. In the whale processing factory that kind of vermin would be perfect. I mean flees, ticks, and crotch crickets would be good too, but what if they broke loose on your own boat? You’re probably thinking to yourself, “Yeah JJ, but what do you know about air cannons?” I know for a fact they are really fun, especially with an unlimited number of targets.

I discovered this fact on a crab boat named Oceanic in Russia, on our last day on the grounds in 2000, our processing ship the Rybok Chukotki got out fifteen cases of eggs for their annual egging of the last boat to deliver. Tied to that 330 foot ship, with their 165 crew to our 7 men, and the fact that it towered over us like we were a toy boat it was a foregone conclusion that we were screwed. Our crew was authorized to use all force available, but even with the assistance of our sister ship the Shelikof (1999’s victim) the situation was still dire. When I came on deck my crewmates were being pelted with everything but the kitchen sink. I came from the engine room with my new contraption and nobody even noticed me.

It was a pipe of 1 ½” diameter screwed into a 2” ball valve with a 2” hydraulic hose about 14 feet long for an air chamber. A little air hose connected to the vessels air system was all that was needed to charge the hose up to 175 psi. When the ball valve was opened all that air would shoot out of the pipe at once carrying anything with it a long ways at high velocity. I cut up a bunch of oranges and pushed them down the pipe with a broom handle. Worried for the safety of the opposition I unloaded the first shot over the stern. It was spectacular juice, peels, and seeds all fanning out like a giant shotgun blast. Suddenly I was surrounded by people that wanted to help.

We quickly organized into a firing and loading team. The 3 decks of the ship toward us were lined with targets. My heartless spotter held no distinction between participants and observers and directed me to fire on any that looked like they were standing close together for maximum effect. He would point and I would jump out and fire, crowded railings would disappear in what looked like a rolling wall of orange mist and peels. I took the first 6 shots, they tell me in those shots half the crew of the Rybok was hit, most were staring in disbelief as the cannon blasted them. My loading crew was laughing so hard they could barely work. I turned the gun over to the guys to fire because I wanted to see and I didn’t want to hog all the fun.

A quick assesment left me laughing, but also with the impression that while we were hammering, them this battle would not be won with oranges. A trip to the galley turned up cafeteria sized cans of purple beets and little red potatoes. The perfect load was a red potatoe for wadding and a full pipe of beets. The opposition collapsed, within 15 shots there was nobody left but the fire hose guy. By following the track of the water and shortening up on pressure we were able to arc a few shots into his location and apparently he got a red potatoe right in the head. After that we never saw anybody, we wanted an official surrender so we directed fire on the wheelhouse 7 stories above and painted it purple with beets. Then we shelled the ship with arcing shots of M and M’s and skittles raining them over every inch of the ship. “Taste the rainbow b!tches,” was the battle cry.

Yes air cannons are an excellent offensive weapon but a good defense is needed as well. My recommendation for a good defensive weapon is big garbage bags full of oxygen and acetylene with a good fuse. They make a floating bomb, thrown overboard lit they cause a lot more discomfort than an LRAD. They can be left behind, with an appropriate fuse length a ship miles behind you can get a big surprise. They would be most effective at night and too much fun for both crew and home audience. Imagine the chaos in the whaling fleet after you drop a few of those babies right in the middle of them at night. With the correct mix of oxy to acetylene they really do give a good window rattling bang. I was going to include instructions on how to accomplish that, but have decided that might not be wise as they are quite dangerous. Anybody that came after me would get a lot worse than what I have outlined here. So let’s go Sea Shepherds, get cracking, or am I going to have to come over there and show you how it’s done?

So that is what I think of the Sea Shepherds. Tell me what you think of them. I really want to know. I put up some polls for fun and I welcome anyone’s comments for, against, or neutral in the matter.

It's official, I despise GAY MEN. For that matter, I don't really like GAY WOMEN either.

Amazing fashion sense? Ecstasy filled orgies? Great hair? I want it all.

But, now? I draw the line. I can't deal with a recent study that shows gay men are, on average, thinner than straight men. I couldn't even bring myself to read the article. I saw the headline and I was immediately disgusted.

How dare they? How can they do this?

On top of demanding equality in the land of freedom? On top of asking to be able to marry the person that they have fallen in love with? On top of trying to be able to adopt children and raise them in a loving environment?

How dare they?

The least they could do is be a bit overweight. They could look like an old high school football coach. They could look like the plumber that has his ass hanging out of his pants. They could look like the executive that always has his suit jacket unbuttoned.

But no!!!!!! They have to be in better shape than I am.

I can't compete with that. How are the women I'm trying to sleep with going to differentiate between a guy that's straight and ready to get them drunk in the hopes of groping them, albeit clumsily, in the car in the local watering holes parking lot and a guy that looks like he's got it all together and he's thinner then the possible drunken mistake they're going to make?

It can't happen.

There's no chance for a guy like me.

I'm in my mid thirties and recently divorced. Heading back in to the dating world, I'm looking for every edge I can.

Too many drinks? I'm there. Lowered standards because they've just been dumped? I'm your guy. Trying to teach their boyfriend a lesson? I'm sitting right here. Looking to get married and trying out every guy in the place just to see if he could be "the one"? That's me.

I'll take them all. I just need an opening.

You're angry? Me too. You're hurt? Me too. You're just trying to get someone to fondle you to make you feel better about yourself? That's me. I can do it all.

Now, here comes Joe Gay walking by and he's got great shoes, his hair looks amazingly messy, his shirt is the latest style, that belt buckle just tops off the outfit. Before you know it, the women are talking and relating to this guy because he's everything they want. Except, he's trying to pick up the same guys she is. Before it's too late, I'm out. I can't even buy her a drink because she's so wrapped up in conversations about the mall and what happened last week on The Real Housewives of New York to even realize that she's not going to get anything from this guy other than fashion advice (your bag doesn't match your shoes) and a couple of good recipes.

How dare they?

So, I can set my sights on another woman sitting to the left of me. Beautiful, long black hair, great body, perfect smile. She's the one. She sits quietly, sipping her drink and waiting for the guy that's going to sweep her off her feet.

TADA, I'm here.

Wait a minute. Here's an equally attractive woman walking up and sitting to the left of this one. They smile and each lean in to give the other a kiss that says they're more than just co-workers meeting to blow off some steam.

Damn it. Foiled again.

With all of these great looking homosexuals, how am I supposed to score?

I'm hoping that the government will wise up and let them all marry. That way the single people will be able to recognize those miserable sad souls that gave their life to another, because all of these thinner guys are ruining my dating life.

Though the traditions have slipped for music and movies, I'm keeping the faith for the old annual Newsvine Decides columns. For Gamevine, that means picking the best Games of the Year for 2009.

Sequels sequels sequels! The beloved and hated industry trend paid big dividends this year, as several key franchises came out swinging this year with anticipated and highly-paid follow-ups. The potential present in many first iterations was fulfilled in several games this year, which promises more new ideas to come.

And while 2009 was bursting with big games, one of the stories of the year is how full the start of 2010 already looks. Many games were pushed back, as publishers hoped for better a better financial outcome along with avoiding the freight train that is Modern Warfare 2.

Similar to our categories from the last few years, the awards this year will be separated by Genre along with several special categories. Below, all of the categories will be listed in the Comments. Any Newsviner can make as many nominations as they'd like, and from there votes will determine the winner of each category. Remember: nominate early, so your choice has a chance to get plenty of votes. If you're reaching for games to nominate, check out the Top Reviewed Games from Metacritic. At the very least it's a good place to mine ideas.

That said, there are a few ground rules:

• Any duplicate nominations will be deleted to avoid confusion and duplicate votes. Please check to make sure your nomination hasn't already been cast before you hit the Submit button.
• Make sure you cast your nomination under the correct category. This will also result in a deletion. I'll determine if a game is out of place, but feel free to chime in if you disagree.
• Talk about the votes below the main nomination threads. We encourage discussion, and you can even make a good argument for your nomination, but don't do it inside the nomination threads. Those will be deleted.
• If you disagree with a ruling, bring it up... respectfully. Long-time readers know this has been a problem in the past. I'm more than willing to listen to disagreement, and consider it, but once a ruling has been finalized, further discussion will be deleted.
• Feel free to recommend new categories! Many categories in this and past year's Newsvine Decides columns were due to users thinking of things I didn't. I always like seeing what the commenters come up with and opening a dialogue about those topics, so don't be shy.
• You can vote for as many in each category as you'd like! If you can't decide which game you want to win between two or three nominations, vote for all of them.

In two weeks, a results article will be posted, and in it each of the winners of the respective categories will be the nominees for Game of the Year. That poll will determine the winner of "Game of the Year" for Newsvine Decides 2009.

But, this year I'm bringing a twist. The highest-voted Genre game that didn't win any individual Genre categories will be included in the running as a Wildcard candidate. So if you're afraid of your favorite game being overshadowed, it could still make the running.

So with that said, the Genre categories are as follows: Action, Adventure, First-Person Shooter, Fighting, Platform, Puzzle, Racing, Rhythm/Music, Role-Playing, Sim, Sports, Strategy

As usual, we'll also hold several specialized categories:

Most Innovative - This is the game that you felt took "gaming" to the next level with its creativity.

Most Visually Stunning - This is the game that made your jaw drop with its gorgeous graphics. Verisimilitude isn't a requirement (there were some beautiful stylized games this year) but it helps.

Best Writing/Story - This is the game that made the most of its world and the characters in it through spectacular writing and storytelling.

Best Voice Acting - Voices in games were once a rarity, but now they're ubiquitous... and that's not always a good thing. Truly great voice acting can take a game to the next level.

Best Music/Sound Design - Music is a more subtle part of gaming, but it's certainly important. Distinct from Voice Acting, this is the category that adds ambiance. Avoid nominating "Music/Rhythm" games for this category, or else it will basically be the same award given out twice. Instead, we want to award the music or sound effects created specifically to add to a game's feel.

Best Cinematics - A well-produced cinema sequence can add layers to a game's story, and immerse the player in the experience even when they're not directly controlling the action on-screen. This category covers the game that made you feel like watching a great film.

Best Multiplayer - This category is the best to enjoy with your friends, be it a party game, an online mode, or a game purely built for multiplayer enjoyment.

Best Kid/Teen Friendly Game - This category goes to the games that are best to play with the younger ones around. To qualify, it must be rated between EC (Early Childhood) and T (Teen). No M-rated games allowed.

Best Downloadable Content - This is the only category open to games that weren't necessarily released this year. What DLC kept you invested in a game after its release the most this year? Remember that this could be for a game released this year, or prior.

Best Game (Short Work) - Picture this category like the Oscars one of the same name. This is any game that is intentionally shorter than other games, meant to be a bite-sized piece of gameplay. It can be episodic or just a brief bit of game.

Best Game (Arcade/Network/WiiWare) - This category covers new ground for games, the small experiences. These are games designed specifically to be sold through online networks at a lower price than retail. Note that this category does not include ports of older titles such as the Wii Virtual Console, remastered Arcade titles on Xbox Live, or PS1 games sold through the PlayStation Network. Now that full games 360/PS3 games are being sold through their respective systems, keep in mind that this category does not include them either.

Best Game (Remake) - With older games gaining respect, they're more frequently being remastered and released on newer consoles. That's where this category comes in, for the best old title that's been given a facelift or new features. Note that this category also does not include pure ports of older titles. To be a remake, it must include significant additions to the original.

Best Handheld Game - It's taken a while for developers to understand, but handheld games are a different animal entirely. They need to be easy to pick up, learn, and put down again. Pick out which handheld game took your thumbs by storm this year.

Best System - The sum of its parts and perhaps more, this category goes to show how you feel about the systems in general this year. Which won your hearts and minds?

Best Developer - Developers sometimes crank out one or two huge titles in a year, but the impact can be startling. This requires you to look behind your favorite games to who made them and reward consistent quality among the creators.

Best New Character - Establishing new IP is hard, but we saw some launch this year that have the potential to last for years. Which new character do you think has the legs to star in several more games?

Biggest Surprise - This award can refer to any piece of news in the games world that shocked you this year; it doesn't have to be a game itself, but it can be.

Most Anticipated of 2010 - It's early yet, but which game of the upcoming year has you most excited?

So now that you're aware of the categories, what do you do? Nominate, vote, and watch out for the winner. I'll be making a thread below for each of the categories up for awards. If you have a game in mind that you want recognized, find the appropriate category and reply within that comment thread with your pick if it's not already there. Make sure you vote for your own nomination! As usual, I'll wait a few days before contributing any nominations or comments myself.

Happy voting, and game on.