Great Expectations

Europe has praise and great expectations for Barack Obama’s administration, reports the VoA’s London correspondent. Nobody more than Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s slightly hysterical president:

“We are anxious to see him get to work so we can change the world with him.”

A bit more understatement might be in order. In the first place, the new administration needs to reform America and restore its confidence in itself. If there is some time left besides, America’s new president can still help changing the world. The Economist of January 17 already sounds some notes of caution, like this one:

[Mr Bush, in 2000] presented himself as a centrist – a new kind of “compassionate conservative”, a “uniter rather than a divider”, an advocate of a “humble” and restrained foreign policy. The Economist liked this mixture enough to endorse him in 2000. – printed ed., Jan. 17 2009, page 23

And late in 2008, the Economist endorsed Barack Obama.

For everyone going overboard with enthusiasm now, this is essential food for thought. You see, if even the Economist, first published in September 1843 to take part in a severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward, and an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress can err that profoundly, so can an electorate, and any public.

For sure, Barack Obama has the makings to become a great president. But Europe’s stark enthusiasm will probably cool down much faster than America’s.

And that’s only natural. Americans will care most about rebuilding America itself, and they probably see the gravity of the situation. European’s expectations, as so aptly expressed by Sarkozy, are about “changing the world” with America. About foreign affairs, that is.

But there will be more change within America than in its foreign policies.

Obama may be less keen on building a “League of Democracies” than Robert Kagan, John McCain’s foreign policy advisor. Obama will also be more careful not to offend anyone without need than his predecessor.
But New York Times columnist T. Friedman put things into perspective in November: “The minute Obama has to exercise U.S. military power somewhere in the world, you can be sure that he will get blowback.” Much of the current neocon relativism looks like wishful thinking – Krauthammer’s view that Obama is vindicating Bush is probably out of proportions, but so are Europe’s expectations.

Maybe this piece by the Economist again puts the beginnings of America’s new foreign policy approach best:

[Obama] needs to explain that, although his America will respect human rights and pay more heed to the advice of others, it will not be a pushover: he must avoid the fate of Jimmy Carter, a moralising president who made the superpower look weak. — printed ed., Nov. 8 2008, p. 14

Let’s hope that Nicolas Sarkozy has some really cool and precise plans. America got more real again during the past three or four years, concerning global politics. Now it’s Europe’s turn to get real, too. That could really be the beginning of a renewed, wonderful trans-atlantic partnership.

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Related: Barack Obama – a choice out of fear and hope, Nov. 5, 2008

Russian Gas Flows again…

… says Interfax, quoted by the billboard at the train station. It will probably take a day or longer before it actually arrives in Slovakia. It’s a bit like the first telegram from Kolkata (Calcutta) to London – I read somewhere that it took hours, probably in the 1860s or 1870s.

The world is only small when we don’t need to walk it.

In Moscow, even a short walk in the street can still take too long. Stanislav Markelov, a Russian human rights lawyer renowned for his work on abuses in Chechnya was shot to death Monday by a masked gunman who followed him from a news conference, officials said. Anastasia Baburova, a young journalist who tried to intervene also was gunned down. Here is an incomplete and disputed list of journalists who reported on Chechnya and were killed.

Lasantha Wickramatunga, 1958 – 2009

Editor and Reporter with The Sunday Leader, Sri Lanka.

Assassinated on January 8.

His posthumous testimony »

Net Nanny: Hermit Needs a Break

News for Kids, s/on –>

Dear Children,

Hello Children

don’t be worried. Hermit is very ill, but everything is under control. The poor benighted serf suggested that we should commemorate August 29, 1842, as a day of  China’s liberation from serfdom, because it was a big punch against feudalism.

Of course, he can’t be with you now, dear children. But don’t worry. Thanks to Chinese science, he will be restored.

After that, our television station’s party secretary will pay a few visits to his sickbed and help him to repent, and Hermit will be a healthy, self-strengthening member of our society again. Until then, we’ll take good care of him.

Hermit needs a Break

Maybe after some years of self-criticism and administrative labor, he will even be back!

<– news for kids, finish, s/off.

Movie Censorship – First and Second Ratings

From the China Journal, today:

[A new rating system] might start with a relatively simple “two rating” first — some films that failed the first round of censoring might gain access to the mainland under a different “rating.” How it would work remains unclear for now. But a second rating would probably leave room for some movies that would otherwise fail to meet the censor’s tough requirements on sex, violence and political content.

Tough requirements on sex, violence and political content? Gimme the budget, movie producers! JR will deliver.

Voice of Germany Chinese Department in Translation, More…

Xinhuanet, on December 22, published a report on the hearing at the Bundestag (German parliament, on December 18), concerning the Voice of Germany (Deutsche Welle) controversy. It starts with a detailed account of who was invited to the hearing, and ends with the remark that the opponents of Zhang Danhong, among them Wei Jingsheng, issued “a stream of non-specific criticism”.

Xinhuanet: Wei Jingsheng had to admit that he had never listened to the Deutsche Welle programs.

Then again, according to an article by Wei Jingsheng on December 28, this wasn’t news:

As a matter of fact, I have said from earlier on that I would not listen to the broadcast of the Deutsche Welle’s Chinese service that has been speaking on the CCP’s behalf.

The Social Democrats’ parliamentary group considers the allegations concerning the Chinese department’s government-friendliness invalidated (entkräftet).

Prepare your Inaugural Coverage – Carefully

Only four more days to go, dear anchor people at all the television stations all over the world, and don’t think of it as a piece of cake. Don’t think that simply because your studio guest is, for example, a fashion expert from Vanity Fair, it will be an apolitical and festive exchange of impressions about peoples’ appearances.

Brigitte Quinn reported from president Bush jr.s 2005 inauguration, and her fashion expert Judy Bachrach… umm… didn’t quite stick to the script.

Just wondering. Will Judy Bachrach be back this coming Tuesday? And what will she say about this year’s party?

She could repeat herself:

How about a modest party, just like FDR. I’m sure you’ll agree he was a pretty good president with a fine sense of what’s appropriate and what’s not.

I guess Ms Bachrach was referring to the economic crisis at the time of FDR’s first inauguration.

Voice of Germany Chinese Department in Translation

After Zhang Danhong had lost her position as the Voice of Germany (Deutsche Welle) Chinese Department’s deputy manager earlier, Matthias von Hein, head of the department, was removed in December, according to the German Journalists’ Association (a labor union’s) website. More information on the case of Zhang Danhong is here.

Net Nanny: From Germany with Love

She remained a member of the department, but has got into another controversy since after interviewing herself on the Voice of Germany’s website, reports the Frankfurter Rundschau. That’s to say, an intern took the role of asking the questions previously written by Ms Zhang herself, according to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

The Frankfurter Rundschau quotes the Deutschlandfunk, one of Germany’s two nationwide radio stations, as saying that original reports in German had been sugarcoated in Beijing’s favor when translated into Chinese. Allegedly, Tibetan protests became violent riots, and protesters became separatists in Chinese.

The Voice of Germany’s general manager, Erik Bettermann, dismissed blanket condemnations, but said that some reflection on the journalistic quality of the Chinese Department’s work was certainly worth some thought.

Matthias von Hein, who had worked in Beijing during the 1990s before becoming head of the Chinese Department, will be moved to the central editorial department.

Within the cultural committee of Germany’s parliament, social democrats tended to be more supportive of the Voice of Germany, while Christian Democrats and Liberals wanted more time and more information to evaluate the work of the station.

Ulrich Wickert, son of a former German ambassador to Beijing, and Erik Bettermann will review several thousands of old news articles, translated back into German from their Chinese translations. As far as news about the torch relay, last years protests (or riots, make your own choice) in Tibet and the earthquake in Sichuan are concerned, interim results suggest no misconduct – according to supervisors of the station itself, anyway.

Zhang Danhong may not have shown the qualities she should – I think it’s too early for a final verdict -, but given that interview with herself, she probably knows how to sob on both sides of the microphone. The last woman who could do that was Patsy Cline.

Related: Unharmonious days, Nov. 14 »

Related: Unharmonious, update »