Steve Kelman on Politics, Culture, and Life, 5.9.2022
Steve Kelman, Harvard Kennedy School prof, moderate Dem, pro free speech/anti cancel culture, pro tax rich, pro-Israel. Research improving gov performance, China interest. Blog reprints Facebook posts
Spider man in China
The latest spider man movie will not be showing in China, where these movies have been extremely popular, after Sony pictures pictures rejected a demand to remove images of the Statue of liberty from the movie.
“Democracy with Hong Kong characteristics”
In an official statement on the Hong-Kong "election" for Chief Executive by the Hong-Kong affairs office of the Chinese government, they actually said, with a straight face, that the election was an example of "democracy with Hong-Kong characteristics." The "election" had only one candidate. The candidate got over 99% of the votes.
Trust in science
Georgetown prof Don Moynihan shared a graph on percentage of people with a "great deal of trust" in science by party affiliation. Until 2000 Republicans actually had somewhat greater trust. Then started to diverge. In recent years the gap has grown to be huge.
More on Fox and administration disinformation office
Fox is continuing its rants on the administration's disinformation office. Today they had a woman from China saying that the office was like the propaganda department of the Chinese Communist party. Mask mandates, move over!
US investors in China talk about “maximum risk”
The South China morning post reports on a conference by an organization of US businesses investing in China. One participant talked about the risk of a "catastrophic collapse in US China relations." " Now is the time of maximum risk in your business lifetimes with China."
MyPillow in Republican ads
A right wing Republican governor candidate in Arizona endorsed by trump has featured MyPillow man in her ads.
Ukraine bigger story on Sweden than US TV news
The lead story on Swedish TV news tonight was on the destruction of a school in Ukraine. Ukraine I think is a somewhat bigger story on Swedish than US news. Partly they are closer to Sweden, also there is more attention to foreign news in a small country. But we are the ones who are a great power facing off against Russia.
American Airline CEO acknowledges poor performance
There is an amazing full page ad in today's Miami Herald from the airline pilot Union in the form of a memo to the American Airlines CEO saying that the "perational performance of the airline has been consistently poor for years," including flight delays and cancelations above average. I am short of tethered to American Airlines through their frequent travel program, this is quite an indictment. If I were a normal member of the public, why would I fly them?
Historic bazaar in Xinjiang turned into faux Disneyland
Satellite images show that over the last month the grand bazaar in kashgar in Xinjiang has been demolished. It will probably be replaced by a faux Disneyland like area that does not reflect traditional Uighur culture. (There is something similar to this In Beijing just South of Tiananmen square.)
Steve Kelman on Politics, Culture, and Life, 5.9.2022
When I traveled around China in October of 2019, I noticed similar Disneyland like areas in multiple locations. Instead of restoring and preserving old architecture, they make something fake like a movie set. It's not just the Uighurs that are the victims of this, even the Han are. Tourism in China was geared towards domestic consumers even before the pandemic locked everyone else out. The idea that fake is just as good as new pervades Chinese life & perhaps it is a hangover from the Cultural Revolution...or maybe the tendency was always there since much of Chinese art consists of emulating old masters and not doing original contemporary work.