New York Times columnist Tom Friedman bows to no man in his enthusiasm for all things Chinese, and regularly titilates his readers with stories of how China is rapidly catching up to, and will soon outstrip the US in economic and technological achievement.
Ying Ma poured some cold water on Friedman’s ideas here a couple of days ago, citing high-speed rail as one area where China’s apparently rapid progress isn’t all that it seems. Like many Chinese achievements of recent years, its rail projects have been plagued by corruption and corner cutting, and the results haven’t lived up to the hype.
As if to underscore Ma’s point, one Chinese ‘bullet’ train crashed into another, stationary one yesterday – on a bridge, of all places, causing a couple of carriages to topple over the side. At least 35 people are dead.
Mass-transit accidents happen all over the world, of course, but China’s rail network is one of Friedman’s favorite hobby horses (see here and here, for example). Yesterday’s accident is a reminder of the chaos and carnage that are often the by-products of what Friedman likes to call China’s ‘moon shots’.
The heading on Ma’s piece likens Friedman to Walter Duranty for his gullibility, but a better comparison would be Homer Simpson in the Monorail episode. If China’s rail bosses ever need a test-driver for some hastily built 300mph death-trap, they know who to call.
Pulitzer-Winning Lies
After 70 years a Pulitzer committee is reexamining Walter Duranty's Stalin whitewashes in the New York Times. How bad were they? See for yourself.
Arnold Beichman
AT LONG LAST a Pulitzer Prize committee is looking into the possibility that the Pulitzer awarded to Walter Duranty, the New York Times Moscow correspondent whose dispatches covered up Stalin's infamies, might be revoked.
In order to assist in their researches, I am downloading here some of the lies contained in those dispatches, lies which the New York Times has never repudiated with the same splash as it accorded Jayson Blair's comparatively trivial lies:
"There is no famine or actual starvation nor is there likely to be."
--New York Times, Nov. 15, 1931, page 1
"Any report of a famine in Russia is today an exaggeration or malignant propaganda."
--New York Times, August 23, 1933
"Enemies and foreign critics can say what they please. Weaklings and despondents at home may groan under the burden, but the youth and strength of the Russian people is essentially at one with the Kremlin's program, believes it worthwhile and supports it, however hard be the sledding."
--New York Times, December 9, 1932, page 6
"You can't make an omelet without breaking eggs."
--New York Times, May 14, 1933, page 18
"There is no actual starvation or deaths from starvation but there is widespread mortality from diseases due to malnutrition."
--New York Times, March 31, 1933, page 13
No comments:
Post a Comment