Comments on Tony Blair’s Speech at Labour Party Annual Conference

Picture from an online chat with the Prime Minister, September 28, 2005.

Comments on Tony Blair’s Speech at Labour Party Annual Conference Britain, China, America and Iraq The best cultures are sorting themselves, in order to reinvent themselves, and to co-exist. Study of Britain’s Institutions with China and America Great Britain’s New Outlook and Aspiration The Labour Party Annual Conference took place in Brighton, England this past Tuesday, September 27. The C-SPAN broadcast shows the fine eloquent delivery of an in-depth speech by Prime Minister Blair. This registers him as a quality statesman, not like many politicians who are whining banalities without thinking or analysis. Tony Blair outlined and assessed the British past glories and future struggles, and gave a positive and pragmatic ring and encouragement in a very stately delivery. He urged the British not to dwell on the past glory, but look forward with the advent of China and India marching forward with a new step. He urged the British to profit and go along with new stratagem of social denominations and cultures and not to stay ‘inertia’, so to grow together. He praised that even though many people live still in poverty, the masses are slow to complain. Unless Britain’s values to match this grace, this pace, take sacrifices, reinvents itself, builds on its strength, self virtues, “We Will Fail”. The complaints and resistance for change will simply become ‘Idle sentiment.” During the London Bombing, the American news press corps followed Bush’s trip, but didn’t do a good service in presenting London or Britain. This Conference serves a good backdrop for Britain, facing the great challenge of renewal in the new millennium. London is rising from a challenge. He is proud of London. Quotes from the speech: “And then London, scene of triumph and tragedy in successive days in July. And throughout both, it remained indomitable.” “It is a privilege to be Prime Minister of such a country with such a capital city. The city of the Olympic Games for Britain in 2012.” “And let me tell you what won the bid.” “Yes, we had a magnificent team led by Seb Coe, a great London Mayor who backed it to the hilt, a country behind us. But what won it was London itself. A London with pride in its past, but with eyes fixed on the future. A London that said to the world: We’re proud of our diversity: proud to stand before you on our merits; proud we are an open, dynamic, outward-going city full of life, locking horns with modernity and doing it with enthusiasm.” “And when terrorism struck, the same pride and confidence asserted itself, to the envy and awe of the watching world.” “London, that day, did Britain proud.” “This is a country today that increasingly sets the standard.” “Not for us the malaise of France or the angst of Germany.” America lacks speakers with good imagery, and is in need of great thinkers like Tony Blair to build the New Iraq Though America has Britain as an ally, in Iraq fighting terrorism, gradually, America has become inadequately meshed with the new social structure that is taking place as Iraq transforms itself. 8.5 million voted. The Society is willing and ready to make changes. America’s hard work is paying off. The new stage of planning for social stability and infrastructure must be built on ‘fixed’ established social institutes, not ‘transient, mobile’, makeshift values. A stable theory needs to be hammered out, to be developed, and to be incubated with the value system of the Iraqi people. According to their own news report, the Iraqi people do not need to be patronized by American officials. Americans are needed because they can get the Congress to come out with hundreds of billions of dollars and the PM can come and get checks signed by President Bush.

According to a Washington Post report by Glenn Kessler, many people Karen Hughes spoke with recently said the core reason for the poor U.S. image remained U.S. policies, not how those policies were marketed or presented.

According to Abdel-Rahman Rashid, a prominent writer and head of al-Arabiya satellite television, Hughes "will face an important decision: repair the U.S.'s reputation, which is nearly impossible, or modify the country's policies, also almost unfeasible."

Suggestion for the third track system for Iraq. The first one being the military to keep terrorists at bay, the second one being political for planning elections and constitution, what the U.S. foreign policy lacks is a third track that should include America's objective modern professionalism, which is well respected, not just political rhetoric. The best American values should be combined with the best Islamic values to bridge the best of the U.S. with the best of Iraq. To quote Rumsfeld, "if we are not careful, for each insurgent we kill, we may create many more insurgents". There should be a self-sustainable environment and culture in Iraq, without the U.S. being in their way.

This level of work should be accounted for, as hundreds of billions have been spent so far, not all of it accounted for. American citizens are generous, but fear more government debts after Hurricane Katrina, the increasing total can make the US in half of a trillion dollars in debt. The reform does not need $200 billion so much, as it needs an overhaul of the communication and logistics system. Despite the first rate federal works in meteorology predicting the storm, there was not a concerted effort between federal, state and local governments. Given the current state on August 31, for the president not to be present at the flood zone for two days after the storm hit is understandable, because he would have been in the way of relief efforts, and he still needed to concentrate on running the country and rallying the navy to fight the war on terror. Even if the U.S. can muster their might to get countries like China to pay, and to balance the book in the trade deficit, it is still far short with large bills unpaid. On web sites in China, people are jeering America for writing checks, and asking China to lend them the money. They are upset that the U.S. has asked China to forget about Saddam’s debt to China, some billions of dollars. China ordered 2600 Boeing planes over 20 years. Taiwan’s $15.2 billion military purchase from the U.S. is getting ready to be fulfilled. A country still needs ‘momentum’ to grow. If China’s economy is to fall, with a hard landing, America’s trade partner won’t be able to pay Boeing. If China’s economy falls, the financing for US housing won’t be so affordable, as interest rates will go up dramatically. The American economy will be stymied. There will be no free flow of capital. In the U.S., there already is a high rate of inflation and unstable gas prices, and sky rocketing natural gas bill that eat up a family’s spending. Without housing equity, and with reduced consumer spending, the economic pendulum will be stopped. Americans will not be able to afford medical services and insurance for dental care, with monopolies subjecting people to unfair charges that are beyond middle class affordability. Citizens in earthquake fault areas can not count on any federal governmental assistance, yet Californians contributed a large proportion of tax dollars to the federal budget, this is spent on disasters in other regions, but California rarely seems to get any federal attention when there is a crisis.

The US has climbed out of recession since the 1990s, and China’s economy is growing at a ferocious 9% pace. America’s economy was sustained and shielded from suffering an aging industrial sluggish period like Japan since 1986. So, China and Chinese immigrants saved the US from being an aging beauty, and injected the U.S. with China’s youth and momentum. If the South gets all of the federal subsidies to rebuild, but does not innovate, it will stagnate, and the U.S. will permanently lose the competitive edge and rank number 2. If government cuts the budgets so deep it hurts the infrastructure and takes all the good projects away, it will become a hollow bureaucracy, and many sorry tears are to come as a third rate third world country.

The strength of the Chinese ancient government is that, depite its flaws, the system was well designed, the bulk of it ran very well, and sustained itself for many centuries. The challenge for the U.S. is to pinpoint, identify, and resolve its weaknesses, and define its foreign policy so that it can be sustained for the long term.

On Global Terror Tony Blair respects Islamic values. “There is no second class in Britain. But when Muslims come to this country, must have a sense of duty, and respect Britain’s values.” Grievances must be addressed by ‘politics’, not by ‘Terror’. “Today, of course, we face a new challenge: global terrorism. Let us state one thing. These terrorists do not, never have and never will represent the decent, humane and principled faith of Islam. Muslims, like all of us, abhor terrorism. Like all of us, are its victims. It is, as ever, only fringe fanatics we face. But we need to make it clear. When people come to our country, they have and should have the full rights we believe in. There should be no second-class citizens in Britain. But citizenship comes with a duty: to give loyalty to our nation, its values and our way of life. If people have a grievance, politics is the answer. Not terror.” Burgeoning flower China, old “Sun Will Never Set” British Empire. China still lived under the shadow and suffered the psychological scars of Nationalist shame and humiliation of signs such as “Dogs and Chinese are not allowed to enter”. This was the sign in the Shanghai Huangpu Park on the bank of Bund. Now Chinese stroll in the park, watching the glistening Dong Fang Ming Zhu, Eastern Pearl, Three huge Red Purple Jewels fallen onto green jade Fields of Plate. As Tang poem, “Big and small pearls fallen onto the jade plate.” China Becomes Stable Only After the Selfless Dedication of Many Old Nationalists, in the Untold Tales since 1839 Britain with its mighty navy cracked open Chinese trade in the 1830’s and subjected China to be under the Unequal treaties, the first such treaty was in Nanking, giving benefits to Britain. This colonial act ushered in many countries subsequent invasions such as in 1860 when France and England together burned and looted Peking Royal Versailles-like Palace of Yuan Ming Yuan. This was condemned by Hugo, an ousted pro-left wing parliament member himself. Russia and Japan followed the suit and joined the invasions. So China was under the dark ages for quite a long time. China was finally rescued by the western educated Nationalist elites, and they fought a war against the Qing Dynasty and formulated the Republic of China, the first such Republic in Asia. Assimilation after Annihilation Though Britain is the old colonial aggressor and economic occupier, they didn’t become the conquerors like the whites in the America Continent. The reason is that China had a civil governmental system and a clear way of becoming the administrators, and the written language which the Indian natives didn’t have. Many cultural gems were embedded in folklore, but also in books. Oral history can’t sustain the culture’s existence in the face of great annihilation. If the Japanese were successful in winning WWII, by now, Japan would not have existed, because of the strong cultural assimilation of the Chinese people. It is best that they wanted to keep Japanese tradition, a derivative of the Chinese, or a morsel of the original Chinese flavor, all to themselves, this is to “preserve themselves, not be assimilated” by China’s mainland. During Blair’s visit to China, China gave him preferred trading status, after he pleaded his case that he Britain had contributed more to the growth of the Chinese economy than the other newer EU members in the competitive bid. Blair appealed to the Chinese, on that the Britain was the one that contributed first, so that south country should not preempt the trade benefits with China now. The PM Urges Britain to Move with the Rising Tide of the Third World in New Remake of the World Order Social solidarity is the only way, not resisting globalization. Education is the number one priority in government. People who come to Britain to work to make Britain strong. This reminds me of many highly educated Chinese and the number one students from Central University all contributed to America’s science and research and has helped make America the leading edge. America has reaped China’s best minds and harvested on many families’ best minds and resources to send them to the U.S. to advance and to serve the U.S. America’s success is built on the Chinese ancient virtue of the education system, which is the most humane and egalitarian system because it allows even the dirt poor farmer’s children to become prime ministers as long as they were willing to study and articulate themselves, the Central Government would use them, via the Examination System. Russia serf and Indian’s Caste system locked classes into dead end hopeless limbo. Philosophical words on Governing: Compare Tony Blair and the Nationalists Only people at the top and responsible can reflect and have such a comment. For the short span when some of the best Nationalists who governed in China and Taiwan, this held true, but they were robbed and ultimately China’s people were robbed with graceful governance, instead they were pelted with disgraceful movements, incited by poet Mao and the third rate actress psychologically unhappy Mao’s wife, who ruined the country and assaulted a good government who was trying to stand up against foreign aggression and domestic insurgents. “Government is not a state of office but a state of mind. A willingness to accept the burden of true leadership. And when you govern, so much can be done. Think of the things the headlines rarely touch. The first ever proper law on domestic violence. 1 million pensioners homes insulated. 350,000 miners with compensation. Paid holidays for all workers. Equalising the law on consent and civil partnerships. And do you know how many visits to Britain’s museums last year? 34 million. Why? Free museum entry.” John Edwards is reproaching the Labor insurance funds that were taken out of Labor Secretary Elaine Chou’s fund, funds for workers compensation, and health etc. First $70 million, and $12 million later. So the Labor department has been raided clean to pay for the Hurricane Katrina. Tony Blair made a remark about not in being in the Dickens Era, but the social welfare system still linger during that era, and desperately needs to be revamped. To quote Blair, “For 8 years I have battered the criminal justice system to get it to change. And it was only when we started to introduce special ASB laws, we really made a difference. And I now understand why. The system itself is the problem. We are trying to fight 21st century crime – ASB, drug-dealing, binge-drinking, organised crime – with 19th century methods, as if we still lived in the time of Dickens. The whole of our system starts from the proposition that its duty is to protect the innocent from being wrongly convicted. Don’t misunderstand me. That must be the duty of any criminal justice system. But surely our primary duty should be to allow law-abiding people to live in safety. It means a complete change of thinking.” Compare to Korea, and Japan. Korea has an Asian Mutual fund guru and venture to help set up South Korea’s Pension system. Japan’s cabinet gets the Parliament to pass legislation to privatize the old secure sectors such as banking and pensions, stored in the Postal trust system. Korea made headlong progress while Nationalists in Taiwan’s magic economic work has lost the shine. Nationalists built Taiwan to be the leader of Asian four Little Dragons, and already had $13,000 in per capital, when S. Korea had only $6,500. Now S. Korea is $14,000 practically has more than doubled, but Taiwan still sinking in inertia after Lee Deng Hui roiled and raided the entire nationalist system as a fake Nationalist chairman, but just relentlessly sold out every value and ruined the reputation and the hard work. The once-rich Philippine country has also become starkly poor and people are still selling individual cigarettes and live off trash tents, without their own economic projects. This shows that American subsidies do not always work.

Federal good government workers do not get due credit

Rita turned Cameron, Louisiana to splinters and submerged it. Without evacuations, 9000 people and cattle would all have been under water and there would have been heavy fatalities. But there was little damage during Rita because of the lesson of Katrina. For news reporters who jeered at Bush’s precautions and overkill in Rita as a waste of gas for a photo-op, their professionalism and news quality need to be discussed, and ethical standards should be scrutinized.

The rating for the news reporters are lower than the president. The fact is that the American people trust the news reporters less than the president. This should be alarming to the news reporters.