[Mb-civic] [Mb-civic SO IMPORTANT - MICHAEL re TIBET

Mon Mar 13 02:56:31 PST 2006

           Barbara        "Tournament of Shadows"  Meyer/Bryser   You may 
find  this book of interest.  Tibet is a focal point in the race to win "The 
Great Game."  in Central Asia.     "The Game" began  in the 1800's and 
continues, even to this very day.     Marylouise  (Sillman)

>From: "Barbara Siomos" <barbarasiomos38 at msn.com>
>Reply-To: mb-civic at islandlists.com
>To: mb-civic at islandlists.com
>Subject: Re: [Mb-civic] SENDING AGAIN - SO IMPORTANT - MICHAEL
>Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2006 03:34:18 GMT
>
>To make a long long story short...... I suppose this is their excuse for 
>running over the Tibetan people.
>
>peace,
>barbara
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Michael Butler
>Sent: Sun, 12 Mar 2006 16:00:28 -0800
>To: Civic
>Subject: [Mb-civic] SENDING AGAIN - SO IMPORTANT - MICHAEL
>
>Sending again-so important
>Michael
>------ Forwarded Message
>From: autoreply at economist.com
>Date: Sun, 12 Mar 2006 17:11:28 -0500
>To: michael at intrafi.com
>Subject: An article for you from Michael Butler.
>
>
>- AN ARTICLE FOR YOU, FROM ECONOMIST.COM -
>
>Dear Michael Butler,
>
>Michael Butler (michael at intrafi.com) wants you to see this article on
>Economist.com.
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>
>HOW THE OTHER 800M LIVE
>Mar 9th 2006
>
>China's leaders are aware of the problem in its rural areas. They are
>terrified of the solution
>
>A SPECTRE is haunting China--the spectre of rural unrest. The leaders
>of the Communist Party know it, and fear it as only the inheritors of a
>revolution born of rural desperation can. This week, as China's supreme
>legislative body (aka the rubber-stamping National People's Congress)
>met for its annual ten-day session, addressing the plight of the
>country poor was at the top of its agenda. But worrying about something
>and curing it are two very different things.
>
>It is not just that China's farmers have missed out on the double-digit
>growth that has transformed urban China and turned its richest cities
>into some of the most dynamic in Asia. The real problem for the
>leadership is that, in some ways, the lot of the rural poor has got
>worse. The old communist system offered a life of terrible drabness,
>but at least it guaranteed certain basics, including free or nearly
>free health care and education. As China has become more of a market
>economy, those support systems have largely collapsed.
>
>
>At the same time, many farmers have lost their livelihoods. The rapid
>growth of the cities has resulted in their land being seized for
>development with little or no compensation. Many of the most violent
>disturbances in recent months have come not from laid-off factory
>workers, as in the past, but from farmers protesting about these
>depredations. Communism may be nearly dead in all but name in China,
>but it survives in the form of one last taboo: the fact that the right
>of individuals to own agricultural land is tenuous at best. And the
>local governments that control most of that land do not administer it
>well. Perennially strapped for cash, because so much of it is consumed
>in the long bureaucratic trickle-down from the central government to
>the counties, they are more or less forced to squeeze farmers as hard
>as they can.
>
>Beyond recognising the problem (China's prime minister, Wen Jiabao,
>called it a "deep-seated conflict" that "cannot be ignored"), this
>week's congress approved a 15% increase in the money earmarked for
>agricultural development, rural services and the like. But even though
>the amount to be spent has now risen to 340 billion yuan ($42 billion),
>or 8.9% of the entire budget, China's vastness makes it trivial. Some
>800m people still live in the countryside, so the new spending amounts
>to less than an additional $7 a year each.
>
>What more could the central government do? Most obviously, it could
>introduce a proper system of land rights. If that remains an
>ideological bridge too far, for the time being at least, it could at
>least fund its provinces adequately, which would mean that the poorer,
>more rural ones could afford to treat farmers better. That would
>involve inter-province transfers at a much higher rate than now.
>
>Finally, it could do a lot more to encourage efficient government by
>provincial and local governments. A big part of the problem is that
>these lower tiers of government are run incompetently. The reason is
>hardly a mystery. With a press that is muzzled (and, if anything,
>getting tamer, thanks to a media crackdown directed from the very top),
>officials are in no sense accountable to the people whose lives they
>control.
>
>THE REMEDY THAT DARES NOT SPEAK ITS NAME
>How, though, to make officials accountable? China does hold some highly
>constrained elections for village councils. For many years, it has
>talked of extending the election system upwards to townships, to
>counties and perhaps higher. There have even been some electoral
>experiments at township level. For the present, however, the Communist
>Party, intent on retaining its monopoly of political power, will try to
>spend and manage its way out of trouble. History suggests that it will
>fail. The spectre in China's countryside will not be laid to rest until
>Chinese leaders accept the need for democracy.
>
>
>See this article with graphics and related items at
>http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=E1_VGDPQRQ
>
>Go to http://www.economist.com for more global news, views and analysis 
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