Tuesday, December 27, 2011
New March廣告 (警察抓小偷篇)
So cute! New March is really cute and full of life. The commercial has a lot of story and it is fun.
I went to check the new March from Nissan a few days ago. I like it a lot. We don't have a lot of choices in colour though. They only have black, white, silver, grey and grass green. I think the green one is the only colour I would choose.
Monday, November 21, 2011
Reading_Tintin in Tibet
This time Tintin and Milou set out for adventure in search for Chang. They survived the difficult situations on their way to Tibet. They found Chang in the end. I love this little story of friendship and steadfastness. Usually Tintin is always in the big plot such as cracking the criminal plans. This time, with no criminal mind behind all these problems, is a mission of rescue. I find it courageous and purely noble. Hope I will never give up my dreams just as Tintin never gives up.
Friday, April 08, 2011
Reading Nine Lives
I have never been to India. Reading this book, I travelled through this vast land and discovered there are still so many things to learn about India apart from the booming economy.
Nine lives are nine ways to pursue God/peace/truth and happiness. The power of religion is really amazing. I enjoyed every story.
If I have to choose, I like the one of Tibetan monk the most. Using the force to defend your dream and your religion is necessary at that time. He was forced to continue the killing. A poor soul! I felt the sadness of his story and I was so moved.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Who to choose? Jacob or Edward?
I went to watch New Moon yesterday.
It's the second movie of the Twilight saga. I went to cinema to see the last one. It's great.
I like the second movie more than the first one. The conflicts between the werewolf and the vampire is so cool. Loved by these two "men", Bella needed to make the choice and she chose Edward, the vampire. I know she would choose Edward and we all know she would break Jacob's heart.
However, I would choose Jacob. Jacob is so cute and tender!
It's the second movie of the Twilight saga. I went to cinema to see the last one. It's great.
I like the second movie more than the first one. The conflicts between the werewolf and the vampire is so cool. Loved by these two "men", Bella needed to make the choice and she chose Edward, the vampire. I know she would choose Edward and we all know she would break Jacob's heart.
However, I would choose Jacob. Jacob is so cute and tender!
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Book Assessment
The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order
The summary
After the Cold War, the world politics would be multi-polar and multi-civilizational while nation states remain the most pivotal actors in world affairs. Although there are other alternative paradigms for the future of world politics, such as “one harmonious world”, “two worlds”, “184 states, more or less” and “sheer chaos”, the civilizational approach can solve the others’ deficiencies and incompatibility. Seeing the world affairs from the fault lines of civilizations can maintain the simplicity of the paradigm because there are only 7 or 8 major civilizations. Moreover, this approach can predict the emerging conflicts.
There are 7 or 8 civilizations: Sinic used for the common culture of China and the Chinese communities, Japanese, Hindu, Islamic, Orthodox, West, Latin American and perhaps African civilizations. Civilizations, since ancient times, have encountered, competed against one another, and interacted with one another. After the Cold War, the West is overwhelmingly dominant. Nonetheless, the gradual change will occur. The power of western civilization is going to decline relatively to the other civilizations, especially to Asian civilizations, i.e. China. The decline of West would be slow, not linear and simultaneous with the indigenization of the other cultures. Soft power is power only when it is backed up by the hard power. The process of indigenization is manifest in the revival of religion, especially in Asian and Islamic countries. Because the political identity and the authority are disrupted by the social-economic modernization, people come to the religion to seek for a sense of identity and a sense of community.
Cultural identity has become the central factor of a country’s association and antagonism after the 1990s. The states are concerned about their own cultural identity meanwhile people are also seeking identity and security. There are five reasons for the conflicts among different cultures and the cooperation among same civilizations. First, people have multiple identities. People differentiate themselves according to their cultures, which infers to the fact that the conflicts between the cultures are getting more serious. Second, the social-economic modernization contributes to the importance of cultural identity. Third, the affiliation to one group makes the differentiation between this group and others necessary, which is all relational. Fourth, although the conflicts between civilizations originated still from the traditional sources of conflicts: the territory, resources and relative power, the conflicts between the civilizations involve also cultural issues. Five, it’s natural to hate for people need enemies. Hence, the conflicts are everywhere.
Inter-civilization relations tend to have conflicts. The dangerous clashes in the future would stem from the interaction between Western arrogance, Islamic intolerance and Sinic assertiveness. Both Asian and Islamic civilizations are emphasizing their superiority to the Western culture. They manifest most their cultural differences among the other civilizations. Asian assertiveness comes from the economic growth, which enhances the government. Asian values or Asian affirmation includes four elements. First, Asian superior economic performance would eventually enable Asian countries to surpass the West in world affairs. Second, the economic success comes from Asian cultures, not from the Western cultures. Third, East Asians have many things in common in their civilizations despite the acknowledgement of the differences. Four, Asian values are the model for non-Western countries. The population growth in Muslim world has in turn provided the recruits for fundamentalism and for insurgency. The Muslim countries want to modernize but not Westernize. Although the Islamic insurgency shares many commonalities with the Protestant Reformation, the Islamic insurgency touches almost every Muslim society, which is much bigger in scope. The insurgency came from the economic growth during the oil crises and is propelled by the demographic growth after the control of petroleum waned. Governments use the Islamic Resurgence as a tool but are also conditioned by the Resurgence.
There are three issues that the West differs from the non-Westerners increasingly. First, the West wants to maintain military superiority with aid of non-proliferation measures. Second, the West promotes the human rights and tries to impose the political values and other moral standards such as human rights and democracy on other countries. Third, the West tries to maintain its cultural integrity by restricting the number pf non-Western immigrants or refugees. The ability of the West to pursue these goals depends on the conflicts that will reshape the global politics. The conflicts would come by two forms: fault line conflicts at micro level and core state conflicts at macro level. The Muslim-non Muslim clash would be prevalent in fault line conflicts.
The Gulf War was the first post-Cold War resource war between civilizations. Fault line wars have several characteristics. Fault line wars are lengthy and bloody. They are communal conflicts betweens different cultural states or groups. Fault line conflicts are about the struggle of territory or control over people. They are protracted wars. The Muslims are the central actors in fault line conflicts because of historical hatred, rapid demographic growth and recent democratization.
The West needs to renew itself in order to counter the relative decline vis-à-vis the other civilizations. Western universalism is dangerous because this idea would confront the assertiveness of other cultures. The West should maintain its military and technological superior capacities and recognize that the interventions done by the West are the most perilous source of conflicts in a post-Cold War world. In the future, to avoid the civilizational conflicts, no civilization should intervene in the affairs of others. The United Nations would also need to go under institutional reforms to embody the relative decline and rise.
The critic
Huntington wrote this book, The Clash of Civilizations, to counter the arguments proposed by Francis Fukuyama in The End of History . I think it’s interesting to see what is coming next after the Cold War because there are so many uncertainties. On one hand, he succeeded in arguing that the history does not end at democracy’s victory over communism or other regimes. On the other hand, I think there is a misinterpretation of other cultures in Huntington’s argument. I don’t think that the differences among the major civilizations are actually the future sources for conflicts. Huntington, in my eye, has had a skeptic perception towards the other civilizations. Why can the other civilizations not be the peace breaker? Why can these emerging economies and civilizations not just enjoy the confidence of their success? The non-West can enjoy the success and stand up to voice their point of view without wanting to invade the world. The label of “anti-American” does not mean an eventual war between the West and non-West.
In page 127, Huntington talked about the convergence of similar cultures. He said, ‘In East Asia, home to people of six different civilizations, arms buildups gain momentum and territorial dispute come to the fore.’ He mentioned that Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore are increasingly oriented toward China. Moreover, Koreas are moving towards the unification. I don’t agree this part. He simplifies the world into seven or eight civilizations in order to portray the world in another way. I think this is also a way to observe the relations among and within states, but the over-simplification is dangerous. Even within the same civilization, conflicts are not extinct. Even between the broader Chinese culture, Taiwan, Singapore and China have often frictions and possibility of use of force. Sharing the same culture does not lead to a common goal.
I like the idea of the return to religion. La Revanche de Dieu, as Huntington mentioned, comes from the French scholar, Gilles Kepel. Kepel first published this book in 1991. He thinks that after 1975 the movement back to the religion has gained enormous force because of the collapse of political ideologies, crumbling of the economic prosperity and laxity of “social glue ”. The return is not toward a general religion but to a strict and pure religion, which emphasizes the text, such as Koran and Bible. Any kind of religious movement, joined by the young, educated and modern “army”, can right now seize the power from the top and mobilize the crowd from the bottom. All these movements also provoke new conflicts on the old controversy: the denominational cleavages.
At the same time, I came to understand the reasons why the West is tightening their policies regarding the immigrants. The demographic growth differs from the West and the non-West. The Muslims, the Africans, the Latino Americans and the Asians (Indians for example) will outnumber the Western population in a few years. The United Kingdom will be a Muslim country in a few years. Such a fact or trend is shocking for the West. The West is tightening the control of immigrants because the Western countries are afraid that they would lose control over the resources and the wealth.
The summary
After the Cold War, the world politics would be multi-polar and multi-civilizational while nation states remain the most pivotal actors in world affairs. Although there are other alternative paradigms for the future of world politics, such as “one harmonious world”, “two worlds”, “184 states, more or less” and “sheer chaos”, the civilizational approach can solve the others’ deficiencies and incompatibility. Seeing the world affairs from the fault lines of civilizations can maintain the simplicity of the paradigm because there are only 7 or 8 major civilizations. Moreover, this approach can predict the emerging conflicts.
There are 7 or 8 civilizations: Sinic used for the common culture of China and the Chinese communities, Japanese, Hindu, Islamic, Orthodox, West, Latin American and perhaps African civilizations. Civilizations, since ancient times, have encountered, competed against one another, and interacted with one another. After the Cold War, the West is overwhelmingly dominant. Nonetheless, the gradual change will occur. The power of western civilization is going to decline relatively to the other civilizations, especially to Asian civilizations, i.e. China. The decline of West would be slow, not linear and simultaneous with the indigenization of the other cultures. Soft power is power only when it is backed up by the hard power. The process of indigenization is manifest in the revival of religion, especially in Asian and Islamic countries. Because the political identity and the authority are disrupted by the social-economic modernization, people come to the religion to seek for a sense of identity and a sense of community.
Cultural identity has become the central factor of a country’s association and antagonism after the 1990s. The states are concerned about their own cultural identity meanwhile people are also seeking identity and security. There are five reasons for the conflicts among different cultures and the cooperation among same civilizations. First, people have multiple identities. People differentiate themselves according to their cultures, which infers to the fact that the conflicts between the cultures are getting more serious. Second, the social-economic modernization contributes to the importance of cultural identity. Third, the affiliation to one group makes the differentiation between this group and others necessary, which is all relational. Fourth, although the conflicts between civilizations originated still from the traditional sources of conflicts: the territory, resources and relative power, the conflicts between the civilizations involve also cultural issues. Five, it’s natural to hate for people need enemies. Hence, the conflicts are everywhere.
Inter-civilization relations tend to have conflicts. The dangerous clashes in the future would stem from the interaction between Western arrogance, Islamic intolerance and Sinic assertiveness. Both Asian and Islamic civilizations are emphasizing their superiority to the Western culture. They manifest most their cultural differences among the other civilizations. Asian assertiveness comes from the economic growth, which enhances the government. Asian values or Asian affirmation includes four elements. First, Asian superior economic performance would eventually enable Asian countries to surpass the West in world affairs. Second, the economic success comes from Asian cultures, not from the Western cultures. Third, East Asians have many things in common in their civilizations despite the acknowledgement of the differences. Four, Asian values are the model for non-Western countries. The population growth in Muslim world has in turn provided the recruits for fundamentalism and for insurgency. The Muslim countries want to modernize but not Westernize. Although the Islamic insurgency shares many commonalities with the Protestant Reformation, the Islamic insurgency touches almost every Muslim society, which is much bigger in scope. The insurgency came from the economic growth during the oil crises and is propelled by the demographic growth after the control of petroleum waned. Governments use the Islamic Resurgence as a tool but are also conditioned by the Resurgence.
There are three issues that the West differs from the non-Westerners increasingly. First, the West wants to maintain military superiority with aid of non-proliferation measures. Second, the West promotes the human rights and tries to impose the political values and other moral standards such as human rights and democracy on other countries. Third, the West tries to maintain its cultural integrity by restricting the number pf non-Western immigrants or refugees. The ability of the West to pursue these goals depends on the conflicts that will reshape the global politics. The conflicts would come by two forms: fault line conflicts at micro level and core state conflicts at macro level. The Muslim-non Muslim clash would be prevalent in fault line conflicts.
The Gulf War was the first post-Cold War resource war between civilizations. Fault line wars have several characteristics. Fault line wars are lengthy and bloody. They are communal conflicts betweens different cultural states or groups. Fault line conflicts are about the struggle of territory or control over people. They are protracted wars. The Muslims are the central actors in fault line conflicts because of historical hatred, rapid demographic growth and recent democratization.
The West needs to renew itself in order to counter the relative decline vis-à-vis the other civilizations. Western universalism is dangerous because this idea would confront the assertiveness of other cultures. The West should maintain its military and technological superior capacities and recognize that the interventions done by the West are the most perilous source of conflicts in a post-Cold War world. In the future, to avoid the civilizational conflicts, no civilization should intervene in the affairs of others. The United Nations would also need to go under institutional reforms to embody the relative decline and rise.
The critic
Huntington wrote this book, The Clash of Civilizations, to counter the arguments proposed by Francis Fukuyama in The End of History . I think it’s interesting to see what is coming next after the Cold War because there are so many uncertainties. On one hand, he succeeded in arguing that the history does not end at democracy’s victory over communism or other regimes. On the other hand, I think there is a misinterpretation of other cultures in Huntington’s argument. I don’t think that the differences among the major civilizations are actually the future sources for conflicts. Huntington, in my eye, has had a skeptic perception towards the other civilizations. Why can the other civilizations not be the peace breaker? Why can these emerging economies and civilizations not just enjoy the confidence of their success? The non-West can enjoy the success and stand up to voice their point of view without wanting to invade the world. The label of “anti-American” does not mean an eventual war between the West and non-West.
In page 127, Huntington talked about the convergence of similar cultures. He said, ‘In East Asia, home to people of six different civilizations, arms buildups gain momentum and territorial dispute come to the fore.’ He mentioned that Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore are increasingly oriented toward China. Moreover, Koreas are moving towards the unification. I don’t agree this part. He simplifies the world into seven or eight civilizations in order to portray the world in another way. I think this is also a way to observe the relations among and within states, but the over-simplification is dangerous. Even within the same civilization, conflicts are not extinct. Even between the broader Chinese culture, Taiwan, Singapore and China have often frictions and possibility of use of force. Sharing the same culture does not lead to a common goal.
I like the idea of the return to religion. La Revanche de Dieu, as Huntington mentioned, comes from the French scholar, Gilles Kepel. Kepel first published this book in 1991. He thinks that after 1975 the movement back to the religion has gained enormous force because of the collapse of political ideologies, crumbling of the economic prosperity and laxity of “social glue ”. The return is not toward a general religion but to a strict and pure religion, which emphasizes the text, such as Koran and Bible. Any kind of religious movement, joined by the young, educated and modern “army”, can right now seize the power from the top and mobilize the crowd from the bottom. All these movements also provoke new conflicts on the old controversy: the denominational cleavages.
At the same time, I came to understand the reasons why the West is tightening their policies regarding the immigrants. The demographic growth differs from the West and the non-West. The Muslims, the Africans, the Latino Americans and the Asians (Indians for example) will outnumber the Western population in a few years. The United Kingdom will be a Muslim country in a few years. Such a fact or trend is shocking for the West. The West is tightening the control of immigrants because the Western countries are afraid that they would lose control over the resources and the wealth.
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