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Archive for the 'EastWest' Category

Buffet on China

Tuesday, May 6th, 2008

Billionaire Warren Buffet at his annual shareholder’s meeting this week warned about getting too sanctimonious in criticizing China. Via The Standard (HK).

Berkshire Hathaway chairman Warren Buffett issued strong support for the Beijing Olympics saying any effort to boycott the games would be “a terrible mistake.”

“The United States had a similar history of human rights trouble. A black man’s vote once counted as only of a white man’s vote and women were not allowed to vote at all, but in the end those issues were resolved,” he told a crowd of 31,000 in Nebraska.

Good for Buffett, one of the few folks putting things in historical perspective, something news outlets in the States fail to do.

Vice-chairman Charlie Munger via the Wall Street Journal was even more emphatic:

[Munger] didn’t pull any punches. For critics of China, “ask yourself the question: Is China more or less imperfect as the decades have gone by?” Mr. Munger, a professed admirer of Asian cultures, said. “The answer is that China is moving in the right direction. I think it’s the worst thing to pick on something about somebody you don’t like and obsess about it.”

No Dogs or Frenchmen

Monday, April 21st, 2008

You have to give China’s citizens credit — when they’re unleashed (no pun intended) and able to express their dismay, they can get creative. Over at Shanghaiist, they have the latest sign to make the rounds, declaring on the taxicab: “refuse to carry frenchmen and dogs.”

Of course all good moviegoers and Bruce Lee fans will recognize this as a nod to the film “Fist of Fury” where Lee kicks down the hated sign, “No dogs and Chinese allowed.”

Roland Soong of ESWN did a good post in helping to decipher whether this sign was authentic or not. Though given the current climate, accuracy isn’t exactly first on peoples’ list of priorities.