Tory Shepherd,
What kind of person ignores a dying two-year-old girl?
It’s hard to pick the most disturbing moment. Is it when the van hits two-year-old Yueyue, pauses, then drives off? Is it the mother and small child who detour around her prone body? Or is it the sheer number of people who clearly see her and do nothing?
The video of the Chinese toddler, who wandered away from her mother and into trouble, makes you heartsick. It makes you question humanity. It makes you want to shake those people - shake them until their teeth rattle.
... it makes you wonder whether a similar evil negligence could happen here, or whether life is cheaper in places where it’s so much more abundant...
We can hope that nothing like this would happen here, we can be horrified from a distance. But we can’t be complacent.
Actually the most disturbing moment is when journalists ask the myopic questions at the expense of the bigger questions.
The answer to the question "what kind of person ...?" is the person we are surrendering economic and military supremacy over to.
It's the kind of person that pollyannic imbeciles like Kevin Rudd thinks we can control with a
regional and global rules-based order.
It's the kind of person Prime Minister
Julia Gillard and Treasurer
Wayne Swan have already fatalistically conceded defeat to and are left pondering what the "Asian Century" holds in store for them.
It's the kind of person who laughs at Western follies of diversity and trade-induced economic decline.
Tanveer Ahmed,
A flare of power rises in the East
The government's announcement that they will hold an inquiry into the importance of Asia to Australia is testament that, from learning their languages to sending them our diplomats, what Asians think of Westerners has never been more important.
While the ravages of colonialism and Western perceptions of the East shaped so much of the modern, developing world, recent history, and the century ahead, is more likely to be shaped by Asian cultures peering at, and perhaps even imposing their views and prejudices on, the West...
Chinese tourists now flock to Europe and are told by their guides not to consume the local food as they meditate on the wonders of medieval architecture and the region's slow economic decline...
...there are growing fears that we are living through the twilight of Western predominance...
What happens in the minds of Asians ... matters. It is important to us because it will surely spill over into our suburbs and our boardrooms. If we play our cards right, they might even find us exotic and desirable.
So that's it? Our national security is now a crapshoot dependent on the whim of Asian empathy? This is insane.
What I find disturbing is the ideologically-driven paralysis that cannot question our trade policies because it might offend another country or be seen as discriminatory.
What I find disturbing is the kind of person who thinks that making China rich is a good idea, or that they will be a benevolent superpower who won't be tempted to exert their power once they are dominant.
File under: when a van is a metaphor.
With three more Australian deaths over the weekend and another seven wounded, how long will it be before both our political parties realise they are sacrificing the lives of young Australians for no purpose?
