I’m almost a Model Worker, but I’ve been Misunderstood

China Smack won Danwei‘s Model Worker of the Year Award 2012 in the blogs and websites category. That happened in June, and one of the runners-ups – in the current affairs and commentary category – is this blog. I had noticed the link to my blog back then, but never reacted, because I somehow thought that it was only the initial step in the process of choosing blogs.

I’m very grateful for the inclusion of this blog, but have to take issue with the description of its probable cause:

Reportage of insider riffs within the Party, recently peppered with an increasing number of translations. This German blogger describes his attitude towards the CCP as “cold-warlike”.

That’s how misunderstandings happen. What I wrote under “About” is this:

When it comes to politics, this mission statement may help to describe my blogging approach. By semi-official Chinese standards, my attitude towards the Chinese Communist Party would be cold-warlike.

That’s different, isn’t it? I mean, since when are semi-official Chinese standards JR‘s standards? Am I Hu Xijin?

Either way, it’s great to get a mention like this, even if some bloggers still don’t quite understand JR.

Please have a look at the blogs and sources listed there. Three likely choices I’d make myself would be Rectified Name (without commenter sections, unfortunately), Beijing Cream, and Seeing Red in China.

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Bill Clinton: Don’t Stop Thinking of Tomorrow

Campaign speeches that ought to be watched and read are rare, but here is one. Bill Clinton is proud of his country’s “liberal”, “conservative”, and bi-partisan achievements alike, and he has a message for Republicans who purge Republican politicians who might be prepared to cooperate on crucial issues:

Democracy doesn’t have to be a blood sport, it can be an honorable enterprise that advances the public interest.

The central message was his endorsement for president Obama. But to me as an outsider, Clinton’s remarks about democracy are important.

His speech also seemed to explain why Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan couldn’t really take off in the opinion polls after Republican convention in Tampa. It probably wasn’t because people “didn’t get to know Romney personally” – it was because they didn’t get to know from Tampa what Romney/Ryan actually intend to do.

Can’t judge if Clinton fills the gaps – left open by the Republicans – accurately. But he seems to make sense of them.