This is for Emue, but feel free to read it too:
Emue, it was an amazing afternoon. He's a fabulous man and it was a fabulous talk. Nearly two hours and he didn't once refer to his notes, and he was so fluent and fluid and knew all about the world and what was going on everywhere and kept it all light and funny and made it all so compelling and interesting. I'll summarise his arguments later, but I'll start with the highlights.
Those were at the end when it was thrown open to the public: (obviously, this is only an approximation of what was actually said, but it'll give you the gist of it!)
1) Emily Lau said "I'm so very cross with you! Why did you work so hard to defeat my Democracy Bill when you were Governor?" and he said "Emily, I'd like to start by apologising. I was wrong. You were right. All I can say in my defence is that, like everyone else back then, I believed HK wasn't interested in politics and that your Bill wouldn't work! Everything that has happened since has shown how wrong we all were and I'm so sorry now that I had a hand in bringing you down, and for demeaning this vibrant, fiesty and beautiful country in the way that belief did!"
2) A young Mainlander stood up and said "How can you say China is not a Democracy when everyone there supports a One-Party System." and he replied "I'd have more faith in your argument if China were to actually put that belief to the vote!" and everyone applauded. And then he spoke directly to the young man and said "If this is a new argument coming out of China, stop it now. In English, unlike Chinese, words mean what they mean and you can't make them mean what you want them to mean, so don't try!"
3) A young Mainland woman said "My generation in China is being raised to believe in what we used to think of as "The American Dream" - that we should have everything our hearts desire and have it immediately. How should we go about changing this?" Oooh, boy, Chris then came out with this huge tirade against American consumerism and "I want" capitalist attitudes and said this was behind everything bad that was happening to the world today! And how we should all just simplify and think about the consequences of our actions. And then he went on to talk about how the world needed to expand attitudes beyond simple consumer materialism to encompass a much wider and more just belief systems. He didn't exactly endorse religion and spiritualism, but it was implied.
4) Oh, and I noticed to my horror that when Chris Patten criticised China, all the cameras were immediately switched off. Isn't that horrible that lowly camera operators have the power to censor this way! And what he said about China was so important too! (More on that later!)
But the talk itself was great too:
Main Points
2) that the most important issue in the world today is global warming, and the answer is greater globalisation, international combined action, political change, greater communication, and a change of political will.He began by saying the role of the student was to be a Constructive Troublemaker! And that studies weren't just about getting degrees but also about developing a broad-based, wide-ranging general knowledge and an awareness of global affairs, acceptance of the self as Global Citizen, and the commitment to the development of a mode of intellectual enquiry that was built on a base of good humour and hope.
Then he went on to world politics, saying he was himself being "A Constructive Troublemaker"!
The issues he raised were, roughly, as follows.
Then he went on to world politics, saying he was himself being "A Constructive Troublemaker"!
The issues he raised were, roughly, as follows.
1) we have all been thrust into a New World but the reasons for why this happened is different in each country, e.g. Europe: Fall of the Berlin Wall; China: the Policies of Deng Xiao-Ping; USA: September 11th, 2001! etc, etc, etc.
3) Bush was a dangerous fool and isn't it great that he's going! Oh, and that, because of him, America had lost any right to Moral Authority ... and lots of stuff about the immorality of Guatanano Bay and torture and the illegality of what was happening in Iraq and the criminal stupidity constantly demonstrated in this war etc, etc, etc.
4) We need to get Bush's Cronies out of the various International Agencies like UN and WTO and let them be the forces for good they were designed to be!
5) no matter how much we all dislike it, what happens in America impinges on our lives so we need to follow what is happening.
6) we are on the verge of a global meltdown and that whoever wins tomorrow's election is being handed a poisoned chalice.
7) that the worst thing Obama/McCain can do is to handle the crisis by turning his back on globalisation and instigating Protectionist and Isolationist Policies ... because that how that's how America handled the Wall Street Crash of 1927 and managed to turn a what was, in reality, simply an Economic Slump into a complete global melt-down that ended in the rise of Fascism and Militarism, and thus World War II.
8) much criticism of the G7 Nations
9) said how G7 had to stop treating China and India like "guests who get invited only for afternoon tea." and get them "around the table".
10) that DONA offered the first real chance of reducing Third World poverty, and how it was genuinely tragic that it had failed, and how the G7 Nations appeared to have sabotaged it for their own ends.
11) China is adding to the problems of the world by not "stepping up to the plate" as a proper world power; by continually demonstrating their lack of Moral Authority through poor policing of products and exports, corruption, and improper food and product standards; that they were encouraging the rest of the world to reject Globalisation through their lack of product standards and their human rights abuses and, coupled with the stuff mentioned earlier, how the country had to develop more transparency of governance and give the media and such the freedoms to report on their failures, etc, etc, etc.
12) some strange stuff about how Chinese Communist Party was currently dividing in on itself because different factions believed that if they did X, they would lose control of the economy and thus lose power, while others believed if they did Y or Z they would also lose control of the economy and thus their power base ... and that each faction was correct because whatever they did they were destined to lose control of the economy and thus power. It was very convincing and I think Chris believed that China should just accept that they couldn't keep up the stranglehold and just let it go!
13) and it ended with praise for HK for what it did right, like how vigilant we are about preserving Freedoms of press, thought, assembly, etc, etc
There was a lot of other stuff too, but I'll have to rack my brains for those ... so that's all for now.
All round, a really good talk and a really fascinating man. Thanks for making me go in your stead!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment