Steve Kelman on Politics, Culture, and Life, 12.27.2021
Harvard Kennedy School prof, moderate Dem, pro free speech/anti cancel culture, pro tax rich, pro Israel.
Fox ignores decline in deaths from vaccination
Fox noted this morning that deaths from covid are down by half from last year at this time. Thanks to natural immunity, the report stated. Astonishingly, no mention of vaccination.
Chinese businesspeople in Hong Kong elected to legislature
A significant number of new elected delegates to Hong-Kong's legislature are business people from China. Rich Hong-Kong business people have always been the strongest backbone of support in Hong-Kong for China. Now they are not even from Hong-Kong.
Taiwan shouldn’t imitate China demands for apologies
Taiwanese groups in Los Angeles have asked for an apology from the NFL over a map of countries cooperating with NFL teams, where one of the countries is China and the map of China includes Taiwan. Taiwanese shouldn't imitate the over-sensitivities of Chinese sports fans.
Kids wearing pyjamas to school The Times has a long article on difficulties at a Pennsylvania high school readjusting to life in school after prolonged remote learning. Many students wear pyjamas to school, like they did when they were studying remote. A teacher refers to the necessity of "recivilizing" the students.
Genocide in Xinjiang?
There is a long article in the Times today about new legislation banning products made with forced labor from Xinjiang. My guess is that these claims are exaggerated. But, at the risk of provoking outrage, what I mainly want to protest against is the use of the word "genocide" to characterize what is taking place there. There is good evidence of prohibitions against some expressions of religious belief in Xinjiang, possibly examples of forced sterilizations (though the Chinese note birth rate doesn't seem to be going down). But nobody is being murdered. Bad, but let's avoid the word "genocide."