http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008571814_charity30m.html?syndication=rsshttp://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/2008/12/29/2008571487.gif
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
No money, no insurance, no mercy
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008571814_charity30m.html?syndication=rsshttp://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/2008/12/29/2008571487.gif
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
A New Kind of Venture Capitalist Makes Small Bets on Young Firms
A New Kind of Venture Capitalist Makes Small Bets on Young Firms
Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times
Fred Wilson, co-founder of Union Square Ventures, gave a keynote last week at Web 2.0 Expo.
From the day he founded Etsy in 2005, Rob Kalin refused to raise money from venture capital firms to expand his company, which hoped to bring the sale of handmade crafts from small local fairs to the international marketplace of the Web.
He met with several top firms, but they all wanted a 20 percent stake in his start-up company, and he was hesitant to give an investor that much. When one of his board members advised him to visit Fred Wilson at Union Square Ventures in 2006, he went grudgingly, certain the meeting would turn out like the others.
Instead, Mr. Kalin was impressed when Mr. Wilson said he would settle for less than 5 percent of the company in the first round of fund-raising.
Union Square Ventures has built its portfolio making small bets on young companies.
“We say, ‘Let’s go on this ride together,’ and if we do get great traction, we’ll try to invest in a second round as well,” said Brad Burnham, who co-founded the firm with Mr. Wilson.
As Mr. Kalin soon discovered, the small initial stake was not the only thing that distinguished Union Square from its competitors. Grounded in a philosophy of discipline and openness, the three-partner firm focuses on services that use the Web to change a market rather than simply make it more efficient.
The partners become active in the management of their portfolio companies, and they make a point of personally using the products of those firms, which currently include the Web darlings Twitter and Meetup.
“It never feels like they’re doing this for someone else’s money,” Mr. Kalin said. “They love the challenge.”
Union Square’s nurturing approach and keen eye for promising ideas have made it a magnet for Web entrepreneurs. At the Web 2.0 conference in New York last week, Mr. Wilson drew excited whispers — and more — from participants.
“I waited as if he was a very good-looking girl,” said Fabio De Bernardi, a London entrepreneur who slipped him a business card and hoped to pitch a shopping site.
Mr. Wilson has a particular celebrity in technology circles because of the blog he has written since 2003, A VC, which gets 25,000 visits in an average week, according to Sitemeter, a research firm. In addition, readers of TheFunded.com, a social networking site for entrepreneurs, rated him their favorite venture capitalist in 2007.
“In New York, Fred has got a following like John Doerr or Michael Moritz on the West Coast,” said Moshe Koyfman, a principal at Spark Capital. Mr. Doerr and Mr. Moritz are two of Silicon Valley’s most successful venture capitalists.
Union Square’s reputation has been burnished by its track record of helping entrepreneurs sell their companies in a tough environment. Three companies financed by Union Square have already been sold for big profits. Yahoo bought Del.icio.us, a Web bookmarking service, in 2005 for a reported $30 million, returning Union Square seven times its investment after only nine months. In 2007, Google bought FeedBurner, a service to help bloggers track their R.S.S. feeds, for a reported $100 million, and AOL bought Tacoda, a behavioral focusing service for online advertisers, for a reported $275 million.
The Union Square partners are quick to tamp down hype about their magic touch. The firm is just four years old, and their first fund is less than halfway through the typical life of a venture capital fund, which means losses in some holdings could still offset some of the early gains.
“It could easily turn around,” Mr. Wilson said.
His caution comes from experience. During the dot-com boom, Mr. Wilson was a partner at Flatiron Partners, which invested in high-profile start-ups like Kozmo.com, TheStreet.com and the Industry Standard.
“We got successful very quickly. People were saying we were the best V.C. firm,” Mr. Wilson recalled. But when the boom ended, many of the firm’s companies flamed out, and Flatiron wrote off one-third of its investments.
In 2003, over breakfasts at French Roast, Mr. Wilson and Mr. Burnham, formerly with AT&T Ventures, discussed quitting the venture business. Instead, the pair decided that what they really needed to do was form a different kind of firm geared to the special needs of the new crop of Web companies.
Mr. Burnham had spent his career investing in companies that made chips and routers, which differentiated themselves from competitors through groundbreaking technology.
Web services start-ups, on the other hand, use simple, off-the-shelf technologies and cost very little to get up and running. Their business advantage comes from their Web sites’ artistic design and ease of use, and their challenge is attracting and retaining users.
“That’s a different business than the historical bread and butter of the V.C. industry,” said Mr. Burnham. “So we had to change.”
Mr. Wilson and Mr. Burnham decided to make very small initial investments, often less than $1 million in a first round of financing, in exchange for 5 to 12 percent of the company, instead of the usual 20 percent. Then, if the company did well, the firm would invest more in future rounds.
Because they join companies so early, they take a hands-on approach to building them and seeing them through the growing pains of start-ups. They have kept their team small, adding just one partner, Albert Wenger, and they must all agree before they make an investment, so no one can point fingers when they make mistakes.
In the case of Etsy, Union Square has taken an active interest in the company through four rounds of financing. Mr. Wenger, an engineer who made a personal investment in Etsy before joining Union Square, essentially served as Etsy’s chief technology officer until the company hired one, running all tech-related meetings.
Mr. Wilson coined Etsy’s slogan, “Buy Handmade.” At one board meeting, when Mr. Kalin presented a long list of fancy new features he wanted to add to the site, Mr. Wilson stood up and crossed each one off the list. Instead, he advised Etsy to focus on creating a bare-bones site that worked well.
Although Etsy had a business plan when it came to Union Square Ventures, the partners are sometimes willing to take a chance on a team with a good idea but no clear path to making money — which does not seem so different from the anything-goes investing of the Internet bubble.
Twitter is one example. The service, which lets users send short messages with updates on what they are doing, is popular with a tech-savvy crowd but crashes frequently and has not figured out a way to earn significant revenue.
“People are too impatient,” Mr. Wilson said, defending his investment. “I’ve made more money in my career investing in very early-stage companies where the business model was not clear. No revenue, just a product, but it was clear people would use it.”
He and his partners are avid users of the Web 2.0 technologies in which they invest, which they say is essential to understanding how the services work and why people use them. They also embrace the values of openness and sharing that drive these services. The firm has invited entrepreneurs to submit pitches via podcast, which are then put up on Mr. Wilson’s blog, giving competitors easy access. Mr. Wilson’s blog posts receive 20 to 200 comments from readers, which the partners mine for investment ideas and research. One-third of their investments grew out of these comments, including Twitter, FeedBurner and Zemanta, Mr. Wilson said.
Union Square’s investment strategy will continue to be tested. It is much harder to find promising Web start-ups now than three years ago. There are so many services and so much more capital financing them, and users have less time and attention for new offerings.
The partners said they planned to look at how Web services might transform sectors not yet touched in a big way, like education and the environment.
“We have only begun to investigate the impact of information technology on behaviors, habits, needs. We believe it can be profound,” Mr. Burnham said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/22/technology/22venture.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=all
Thursday, August 28, 2008
In Texas School, Teachers Carry Books and Guns
In Texas School, Teachers Carry Books and Guns
Rex Curry for The New York Times
Barely 100 students attend classes at Harrold, a tiny town in north-central Texas. But the school board's decision to allow teachers to carry concealed weapons has drawn national attention.
HARROLD, Tex. — Students in this tiny town of grain silos and ranch-style houses spent much of the first couple of days in school this week trying to guess which of their teachers were carrying pistols under their clothes.
Harrold School Superintendent David Thweatt pushed for the policy to arm teachers with concealed guns. "Country people are take-care-of-yourself people."
Rex Curry for The New York Times
The police recently shut down a drug-producing laboratory in this house near school property. But many residents say they are not worried about crime.
“We made fun of them,” said Eric Howard, a 16-year-old high school junior. “Everybody knows everybody here. We will find out.”
The school board in this impoverished rural hamlet in North Texas has drawn national attention with its decision to let some teachers carry concealed weapons, a track no other school in the country has followed. The idea is to ward off a massacre along the lines of what happened at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999.
“Our people just don’t want their children to be fish in a bowl,” said David Thweatt, the schools superintendent and driving force behind the policy. “Country people are take-care-of-yourself people. They are not under the illusion that the police are there to protect them.”
Even in Texas, with its tradition of lenient gun laws and frontier justice, the idea of teachers’ taking guns to class has rattled some people and sparked a fiery debate.
Gun-control advocates are wringing their hands, while pro-gun groups are gleeful. Leaders of the state’s major teachers unions have expressed stunned outrage, while the conservative Republican governor, Rick Perry, has endorsed the idea.
In the center of the storm is Mr. Thweatt, a man who describes himself as “a contingency planner,” who believes Americans should be less afraid of protecting themselves and who thinks signs at schools saying “gun-free zone” make them targets for armed attacks. “That’s like saying sic ’em to a dog,” he said.
Mr. Thweatt maintains that having teachers carry guns is a rational response to a real threat. The county sheriff’s office is 17 miles away, he argues, and the district cannot afford to hire police officers, as urban schools in Dallas and Houston do.
The school board decided that teachers with concealed guns were a better form of security than armed peace officers, since an attacker would not know whom to shoot first, Mr. Thweatt said. Teachers have received training from a private security consultant and will use special ammunition designed to prevent ricocheting, he added.
Harrold, about 180 miles northwest of Dallas, is a far cry from the giant districts in major Texas cities, where gang violence is the main concern and most schools have their own police forces. Barely 100 students of all ages attend classes here in two brick buildings built more than 60 years ago. There are two dozen teachers, a handful of buses and a football field bordered by crops.
Yet the town is not isolated in rustic peace, supporters of the plan point out. A four-lane highway runs through town, bringing with it a river of humanity, including criminals, they say. The police recently shut down a drug-producing laboratory in a ramshackle house near school property. Drifters sometimes sleep under the overpass.
“I’m not exactly paranoid,” Mr. Thweatt said. “I like to consider myself prepared.”
Some residents and parents, however, think Mr. Thweatt may be overstating the threat. Many say they rarely lock their doors, much less worry about random drifters with pistols running amok at the school. Longtime residents were hard-pressed to recall a single violent incident there.
Others worry that introducing guns into the classroom might create more problems than it solved. A teacher tussling with a student could lose control of a weapon, or a gun might go off by accident, they said.
“I don’t think there is a place in the school whatsoever for a gun unless you have a police officer in there,” said Bobby G. Brown, a farmer and former school board chairman whose two sons were educated at the school. “I don’t care how much training they have.”
His wife, Diane Brown, added: “There are too many things that could happen. They are not trained to make life-and-death-situation judgments.”
Mr. Thweatt declined to say how many teachers were armed, or who they were, on the theory that it would tip off the bad guys. He also declined to identify the private consultant who provided teachers with about 40 hours of weapons training.
Most critics question whether teachers, even with extra training, are as qualified as police officers to take out an armed attacker.
“We are trained to teach and to educate,” said Zeph Capo, the legislative director for the Houston Association of Teachers. “We are not trained to tame the Wild West.”
Texas gun laws ban the weapons on school property. But the Legislature carved out an exception allowing school boards to permit people with concealed handgun licenses to carry their weapons. No local district had taken advantage of the exception until the Harrold school board acted.
Debbie Ratcliffe, a spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency, said the state’s hands were tied. “We have really tried not to get involved in this,” Ms. Ratcliffe said. “Frankly, it’s a matter of local control.”
Gun-control advocates say, however, that while the school district may be complying with state gun laws, it appears to be violating the education statute. That law says “security personnel” authorized to carry weapons on campuses must be “commissioned peace officers,” who undergo police training.
“It seems to us not only an unwise policy but an illegal one,” said Brian Siebel, a lawyer in Washington for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
The school district has countered that teachers are not “security personnel” and so do not need to become peace officers.
As a general rule, the seven school board members — a collection of farmers and oil workers led by an ambulance medic — have referred all questions from reporters to Mr. Thweatt. But one member, Coy Cato, gave a short interview. “In my opinion, it is the best way to protect our kids,” Mr. Cato said. Asked if others in the community shared his view, he said that he had not taken a poll, but “I think so.”
Still, several residents complained that the board made little or no effort to gather public opinion on the matter. Some said they did not hear about the plan until reporters started asking questions about it in early August.
Mr. Thweatt said the board discussed the proposal for nearly two years and considered several options — tranquilizer guns, beanbag guns, Tasers, Mace and armed security guards — but each was found lacking in some way. “We devil-advocated it to death,” Mr. Thweatt said.
That discussion went unnoticed by many parents.
Traci McKay, a 34-year-old restaurant employee, sends three children to the school, yet said she had not heard about the pistol-carrying teachers until two weeks before the start of the semester. She was stunned.
“I should have been informed,” Ms. McKay said. “If something happens, do we really want all these people shooting at each other?”
Ms. McKay said Mr. Thweatt had yet to explain why a town with such a low crime rate needed such measures. She is afraid, however, that her children might face repercussions if she takes up a petition against the idea.
“We are pretty much being told to deal with this or move,” Ms. McKay said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/29/us/29texas.html
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Fourth Olympics in Third Sport, U.S. Pentathlete Is a First
Fourth Olympics in Third Sport, U.S. Pentathlete Is a First
BEIJING — Sheila Taormina of the United States is the first female athlete to compete in the Olympics in three sports. At age 39, she views herself as an old lawnmower, sitting in the garage.
“When you pull the string, you don’t know if it’s going to start or not,” Taormina, who is from Livonia, Mich., said with a laugh. “But when you get it going, it cuts the lawn just as well as any other mower.”
At the 1996 Atlanta Games, Taormina won a gold medal as part of the United States’ 4x200-meter freestyle swim relay team. At the 2000 Sydney Games and the 2004 Athens Games, she participated in the triathlon. On Friday, she will compete in the modern pentathlon — the horseback riding, fencing, pistol-shooting, swimming and running sport invented by Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympics, as a way to simulate a soldier delivering a message under duress.
Not so long ago, Taormina reminded reporters, women were considered to have peaked athletically at 15 or 18. Even now, many believe it takes an athlete 10 years to master a sport. Could she master five in three years to become Olympic caliber?
“I want to see what’s possible,” Taormina said.
Yet her story is also darker, more complicated.
In extending her Olympic hopes beyond a decade, Taormina has also struggled with a kind of emotional pentathlon related to overwhelming stress, financial anxiety, a stalker, a lack of confidence and the nagging question of whether her latest quest has been worth it.
At times, she admits, she has grown crabby, bitter, unable to trust others. “Life is supposed to be a joy,” Taormina said. In her prayers, she has asked, “At what point is going after a goal not worth it?”
“I was very much on the verge of where it wasn’t worth it,” Taormina said. “Somebody can probably even have a good argument, ‘Sheila, it wasn’t worth it, what you’ve done?’ ”
She never believed she would participate in the Summer Games. She was only 5 feet 3 inches and considered herself an average person, the youngest of eight children. Olympians always seemed like “giant superheroes.”
A collegiate swimmer at Georgia, Taormina earned a master’s degree in business administration and worked in the automobile industry. A friend named Joel Thomas qualified for the 1992 Barcelona Games and won a gold medal as an alternate on the United States’ 4x100-meter freestyle swim relay. It dawned on Taormina that average people do make the Olympics. If she worked harder, perhaps she could, too.
She won a relay gold medal in Atlanta, but did not feel complete satisfaction. It was “just a relay,” and she had swum the slowest leg.
So she moved onto the triathlon, finishing 6th at the Sydney Games and 23rd four years later in Athens. That career, though, was scarred by a widely reported stalking incident that began in the summer of 2002, with a call from a man posing as a professional triathlete. Flowers began to arrive, along with Fed Ex packages and phone calls and notes threatening violent sexual acts.
Taormina moved to Florida, outside Orlando. The man followed her. She said she struggled to get the legal system to take the case seriously. A judge suggested she must have led the man on, Taormina said. At one point, she asked the police, “Do I have to be hurt before you do something?”
Eventually, the man was arrested on a parole violation. In 2003, he was sentenced to five years in prison. He was released in January of this year, and Taormina said she had not heard from him since he went to jail. But the incident left her feeling she could not train and feel safe. “I started noticing I didn’t really enjoy people as much, trust them as much,” she said.
After the Athens Olympics, Taormina retired from the triathlon, only to learn that no woman had competed in the Olympics in three sports. So she began obsessively chasing another challenge, like the tail of a kite.
“I love cigarettes and gambling,” she said. “If I didn’t do this, I’d be a smoker and a gambler.”
In the winter of 2004, Taormina decided to try cross-country skiing. She bought skis and waxes, only to find herself training mostly alone for three months on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, worrying what would happen if she fell and hit her head. Who would find her? One day, she thought she saw bear tracks.
“I’m going to be eaten alive out here,” she told herself.
Time for a new pursuit.
In 2005, Taormina phoned the United States Modern Pentathlon Association. She had upper body strength from swimming, lower body strength from cycling and endurance from both. Maybe this was the sport for her.
There was much to learn. Taormina had never held a gun. Or fenced. Or ridden a horse. She did not even know whether a horse slept standing up or lying down. The first time she grabbed an épée sword, she held it with two hands, as if it were a tennis racket.
She struggled to find a coach, and a corporate sponsor. She nearly defaulted on her mortgage and wound up selling her house for $40,000 under its appraised value. Lew Kidder, her longtime triathlon coach, told her to quit feeling sorry for herself. “This is your dream, nobody else’s,” he said. “Nobody owes you a thing.”
Taormina kept going, buffeted by self-doubt: Where do I fit in? Will I be good enough?
Coaches screamed at her, she said, impatient with her lack of technical expertise. She felt enormous pressure and stress, saying she became borderline depressed. She would go home after training and cry, telling herself, “I can’t take this.”
She trained herself to exhaustion, physically and mentally, and at one point, Taormina said, her parents begged her to give up modern pentathlon. She calls the time “the ugliest of the uglies.”
But she began seeing Peter Haberl, a sports psychologist with the United States Olympic Committee. The clouds of anxiety began to lift. If she did not make the Olympic team, so what, she began to tell herself. All she needed was a good cup of coffee in the morning.
“It’s a fun quest,” Taormina said, “sticking my neck on the line, to see if it’ll go well or not.”
Either way, she said, she has pushed so hard that she will need some “mental recovery” after the Olympics and time to “see what relaxation is all about.”
“I will have no problems retiring,” Taormina said. “I’m actually excited about what it’s going to feel like to enjoy people.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/20/sports/olympics/20longman.html
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
余秋雨—专向孩子们瞪眼的“英雄奴才”
不可救药的民族中，一定有许多英雄，专向孩子们瞪眼。”——鲁迅
“以万物为刍狗”的天灾，固然可怕，但更可怕的是人祸，特别是“视孩子如草芥”的人祸，犹不可赦。川震中七千多所中小学校舍的倒塌，上万孩子葬身于 豆腐渣工程。孩子之死的震撼，绝不亚于大地震的摧毁。于是，校舍豆腐渣变成海内外瞩目的大问题，问责之声来自四面八方，其中，死亡孩子的家长们的含泪责问 尤其痛切：要让那些幼小的亡灵得到安慰，就必须让自己的孩子死得明白，让那些黑心承包商和腐败官员受到惩罚，让校舍质量纳入法治的轨道，以确保此类悲剧不 再重演。由于当地官权对家长们的问责采取敷衍甚至压制的态度，家长们开始以集体请愿的方式表达诉求。
在稳定压倒一切的独裁中国，由于官权与民权的严重失衡，由于没有新闻自由和司法独立，民众的权益诉求得不到体制化表达，更得不到体制化的舆论救济和司法救济，走投无路之下，权益受损的民众只能诉诸于体制外抗争，所谓的“群体性事件”大都是这种体制外抗争。
基于保住乌纱帽的利益驱动，地方官权向来害怕群体性事件，总要采取各种手段进行弹压，先用劝说和收买的软办法，不起作用后就用分化和镇压的硬手段， 甚至动用黑社会力量来“平事”。对于川震中死了孩子的父母们的请愿，当地官权企图通过软硬两手加以阻止。在动用警察的硬手段的同时，也要用悲情劝阻的软方 法。先有绵竹市委书记四次当街跪求请愿家长，后有文人余秋雨“含泪劝告请愿家长”。虽然，官员之跪和文人之劝，皆是企图以悲情之态阻止家长们的请愿，但两 相比较，官员的下跪，不管真假，起码做到了表面的谦卑——以屈尊之态来打动请愿者。而文人的劝告却拿大道理压人，冠冕堂皇的泪光中闪动的却是冷血。与其说 是悲情的劝说，不如说是居高临下的指责；与其说是体恤灾民的动容，不如说是文化戏子的“鳄鱼泪”，其底色不过是奴才式的聪明。
从古至今，中国御用文人的无耻是没底的，在争宠竞争中，比的就是谁的脸皮更厚。而当下中国，据说是躬逢盛世，所有的丧事都会自动变为喜事，所有的灾 难都有益于“兴邦”，御用文人又怎能不在盛世中前赴后继地献媚，怎能放过丧事变喜事、多难兴邦的大好时机，在众目睽睽之下来一场比媚竞赛。就在网民痛斥余 秋雨无耻之时，又出来个山东省作协副主席王兆山，他的心胸比“三个代表”更宏大，居然要代表死于地震的亡灵立言，写出《江城子·废墟下的自述》：
“天灾难避死何诉，主席唤，总理呼，党疼国爱，声声入废墟。十三亿人共一哭，纵做鬼，也幸福。银鹰战车救雏犊，左军叔，右警姑，民族大爱，亲历死也足。只盼坟前有屏幕，看奥运，同欢呼。”
这首除去标点还不到80个字的词，完全继承了由“汉大赋”开创的阿谀文风，满篇都是“主席”、“总理”、“党国”、“民族”、“十三亿”、“军叔” “警姑”、“奥运”。面对如此壮观的救灾场面，埋在废墟中的亡灵怎能不“纵做鬼，也幸福”！又怎能不梦想在地下“看奥运，同欢呼”！
把灾难讴歌成庆典是独裁中国的救灾传统，王副主席的词可视为这一传统的当代典型，其脸皮之厚和无耻之勇，确实超越余秋雨的“鳄鱼泪”。然而，奴才也 有智愚之分，献媚也有高下之别。愚蠢的奴才大都五音不全，常常让颂歌跑调；聪明的奴才则嗓音纯正，唱得高雅委婉。听王余二奴才的颂歌，便知王愚而余智，其 献媚技巧之高下，毒化社会的效果之大小，天壤也。
王副主席有胆无谋，一颗红心，只顾献媚，却全然不顾社会效果，其喜庆式媚笑过于赤裸，结果弄巧成拙，只能招致清一色的反感。而余秋雨智勇双全，既摸 透了圣上的心态，也充分考虑社会效应，其悲情式含泪媚态，犹抱琵琶半遮面，委婉含蓄的“鳄鱼泪”，化毒汁于无形，还真能赢得一部人的支持。
也许，二奴才之别，源于王副主席的稚嫩和余秋雨的老道。王毕竟是第一次现身于重大公共事件，也就只能靠赤条条的肥胖来扬名。而余已经在“文化媚旅”中跋涉数年，历练出一副好奴才的娇俏身段，每次登台作秀，都能赢得王公贵族的掌声。
余秋雨劝告之恶毒，就在于他用眼泪来输出最恶劣的观念——几千年未变的国家主义逻辑。在中国，这种国家主义逻辑，古代是“为圣上分忧”家天下逻辑，当代是“为党国分忧”党天下逻辑：制造敌人、党国至上，权力冷血，奴才谢恩。
首先，党国逻辑就是制造敌人的逻辑。尽管，如今的中国早已加入到全球化进程之中，已经是世界眼中的“崛起大国”了，但余秋雨的警惕性很高，透过纷纭 复杂的国际关系，还是看出了“我们的敌人遍天下”，特别是在党国“空前团结”、“众志成城”、“全力以赴”、“奉献大爱”的全民救灾中，境内外的敌对势力 更要“鸡蛋里挑骨头”。于是，余秋雨向请愿的家长们发出警示：“那些已经很长时间找不到反华借口的媒体”，又开始借助豆腐渣工程来进行反华宣传了；“历来 不怀好意的人”，正等着党国出错。为了加强他对“反华媒体”、“历来不怀好意的人”的指控，他还归纳出四点诬陷性的说法：“1、是天灾，更是人祸；2、官 方宣布，这事法院不受理；3、五个境外记者拍摄这种场面时被公安“短时间拘留”，询问他们的身份；4、难道地震真使中国民主了吗？”
余秋雨不愧经过文革御用写作班子“石一歌”洗礼的写手，他对于党国利益之所在，甚至比中共新闻发言人还敏感、还有责任心，也更熟悉用大帽子压人的套 路。他先用请愿家长的情绪激烈和警察的态度温和的对比，来凸显家长们的不讲理和党国警察的讲理。次用正在为反华势力提供炮弹来恫吓请愿的家长们。在中国， 谁都知道，被反华势力利用的人，绝没有好下场。即便不进班房，也要遭受其他惩罚，党国卫道士更要强加道德污名。余秋雨的“含泪劝告”，已经给请愿家长们扣 上了“被境外反华势力利用”的大帽子了。
我不知道余秋雨心目中的“反华媒体”是哪家，也不知道余秋雨眼中的“历来不怀好意的人”都是哪些人。但余秋雨的这类虚拟指控，非常符合虚构敌人的党 国逻辑。余秋雨的指控对今日党国的价值在于，在官权统治效力大幅度下降而民间权利意识大规模觉醒的国情下，党国官员也未必敢于公开发出这样的恐吓，而余秋 雨不但想党国之所想，更敢言党国之未敢言。君不见，绵竹市委书记在劝阻请愿家长时，宁可四次当街跪求，也没有给家长们扣上 “被境外反华势力利用”的大帽子，但余秋雨却拿着大帽子招摇过市，真可谓党国的“好奴才”。正如鲁迅所言：“哈儿狗往往比它的主人更严厉。”
其次，党国逻辑是“恩人政治”。在中国，天灾后的救灾也好，人祸后的平反也罢，都是“皇恩浩荡”、“感恩戴德”和“歌功颂德”的大合唱。
不错，胡温政权在救灾中的表现比SARS危机、大雪灾时要好，特别是温家宝的快速反应和奔走各重灾点，固然留下令人感动的时刻，也得到了外国媒体的普遍赞扬，但那不过是胡温的职责所在，并不能成为民众匍匐谢恩的资本，更不能成为党国大员高居救世主地位的理由。
的确，大陆媒体在此次大灾难的表现远胜过以前，但本质上仍然是党国“喉舌”，只看看官方主要媒体的救灾报道，仍然是令人作呕的歌功颂德。党国大员前 往灾区几天，主要新闻时段的头条就都是他们的面孔；军队在重灾区的救灾行动，在媒体上都要变成闪亮的“军功章”。“感谢党和政府，感谢子弟兵”的声音充斥 媒体，而灾民的问责之声和家长们的请愿却被遮蔽。遭遇大天灾之中国仍然重复着制度性人祸。
在此背景下，余秋雨的劝告中所浸满的，与其说是悯民之泪，不如说是愚民之尿。他先拿十三亿和国家说事，胡说什么“你们所遭遇的丧子之痛，全国人民都 感同身受。十三亿人在同一时间全部肃立，默哀三分钟，这肯定是人类历史上最浩大、最隆重的悼念仪式。”次拿佛教说事，瞎瓣什么“在全国哀悼日，一位佛学大 师对我说，有十几亿人护持，这些往生者全都成了菩萨，会一直佑护中国。我想，你们的孩子如果九天有灵，也一定已经安宁。”
我不知道十三亿人是否都对“丧子之痛”感同身受，也不知道死人变菩萨的玄妙佛理，但我知道，大地震的最大受害者是那些家破人亡的灾民，当最为紧急的 救人阶段过去之后，在接下来的救灾中，最为重要的工作就是帮助灾民重建家园和抚慰死难者家属的心灵。而对于自己的孩子死于豆腐渣工程的家长们来说，最大的 抚慰不是经济补偿，而是彻底查清这类人祸的原因，依法严肃惩办主要责任人。
然而，中国特色的救灾必定是党国至上，党国总理喊出“多难兴邦”口号，已经巧妙地把受灾的主体由灾民转化为“邦国”，把民众受难和举国救灾转变为 “兴邦”。由此，灾民变成凸显党国恩德的道具，救灾变成实现党国兴盛的工具，余秋雨的劝告正是这种逻辑的产物。在余秋雨的劝告中，读不出任何“感同身 受”，只能读出敦促家长们快快“谢主龙恩”：那些死于豆腐渣工程的孩子，即便死得再冤枉，家长即便再痛心，现在也该知足了。因为胡温政权为大地震的死难者 举行了“人类历史上最浩大、最隆重的悼念仪式。”享受到如此“最最最”的礼遇，你们只有感恩戴德的义务而没有追究罪责的权利。
何况，躬逢能够“坐稳了奴才地位”的盛世，如果享受了“最最最”的礼遇还不知足，还要请愿追究，那就不配做党国的奴才，也就不值得党国的体恤，结果恐怕是连现在的奴才地位都坐不稳了。
第三，党国逻辑是推卸责任。每有天灾人祸，面对民间的问责之声，党国体制的应对大致采取两种策略，一是软功夫，尽量寻找借口推卸责任；实在推卸不掉 的，先用经济补偿封口，再找两个低级官员做替罪羊，而涉及党国体制的实质性问责必将不了了之。二是硬功夫，对于那些不依不饶的执着问责，党国必然动用专政 机器进行压制，一面封锁相关信息，一面对不服从者实施暴力封口。
余秋雨是文人，当然不可能派警察压制请愿家长。他最擅长的是软刀子杀人，用貌似合理的说辞帮助党国卸责。他先用“过程论”来安抚请愿家长，劝他们别 着急，慢慢来，等救灾大业取得决定性胜利后再追究责任也不晚。他说：“我希望有关方面能在搜救生命、挖掘遗体之后尽力保护校舍倒塌的实物证据，以便今后进 行司法技术调查。但在目前，不能急躁，因为还有更危急的事。”
次用“大天灾”不可免和国际专家的说辞来为党国卸责：“因为，无论怎么说，这次大灾难主要还是天灾。当然也有未倒的房屋、幸存的学校，……已经有好 几位国际地震专家说，地震到了七点八级，理论上一切房屋都会倒塌，除非有特殊原因，而这次四川，是八级！”“有了这个主因，再要论定房屋倒塌的其他原因， 就麻烦得多了，需要有较长时间的科学检测和辩论，而且要经得起国际同等级的灾测比照。”
第四，党国逻辑是“国家荣誉”至高无上，高于个人、也高于生命。为了维护这种至高无上的荣誉，个人权益轻如鸿毛，草民生命也算不了什么。所以，当家破人亡 的家长们化悲痛为问责之时，余秋雨却要求他们化悲痛为牺牲。在余秋雨看来，大灾之后，与党国关注的堰塞湖、卫生防疫、大量灾民安置、人口大幅度流动等问题 相比，家长们的丧子之痛算不了什么。只有把“党国荣誉”放在首位，让个人诉求让位于政府救灾的大局，家长们才称得上“识大体、明大理的人”。而在党国忙于 救灾的时刻，家长们的群体请愿，往轻里说是闹情绪、使性子，是不识大体不明大理的小肚鸡肠；往重里说是为了个人利益而罔顾党国大局，不体谅国家和政府的难 处，结果只能给党国添乱。
为了让自己的党国逻辑更有说服力，余秋雨还给家长们戴上“杰出表现”、“主人”和“最高荣誉”的高帽。什么“你们受灾以来的杰出表现，已经为整个中 华民族赢来了最高尊严。” 什么“你们要做的是以主人的身份使这种动人的气氛保持下去，避免横生枝节。一些对中国人历来不怀好意的人，正天天等着我们做错一点什么呢。”也就是说，为 党国大局计，就必须把救灾的“动人气氛”保持下去，以“防止历来不怀好意的人”的破坏。为了“动人气氛”的保持，家长们就应该逆来顺受、忍辱负重，而请愿 问责就是“横生枝节”，给“历来不怀好意的人”的提供攻击党国的把柄。
余秋雨为了党国利益的免受危害，他不光会用“被境外反华势力利用”的大帽子吓人，还会用“杰出贡献”、“主人”和“中华民族最高尊严”的高帽哄人，真可谓“棒杀”和“捧杀”的双管齐下。
余秋雨恰恰忘记了，中外的灾难历史所提供的主要教训有二：1，再大的天灾和再难的救灾，政府的救灾职责并不能成为牺牲国民基本人权的理由；即便是政 府救灾做的很好，也不能构成强迫灾民出让基本权益的理由。因为，全力救灾和尊重国民基本人权都是政府的职责所在，为了救灾而牺牲国民人权，不仅是政府的严 重渎职，而且将继续制造远比天灾更恶劣的人祸。2，人祸比天灾更可怕。因为，天灾难免，人祸本可避免却没能避免，特别是国家权力制造的人祸，无疑是道德之 恶与制度之恶的叠加，必须进行追究。而国家权力仍然用权力强制来掩盖这种人祸，就是恶上之恶。
救人、捐款等善举是救灾的第一步，化悲痛为问责是救灾的第二步，而且是推动制度改革、防患于未然的最重要一步。只有充分的问责、透明的信息和动真格 的追究，才能让大灾变成制度改革的动力，也才能让重建家园的过程变得公正、高效、温暖。所以，对大地震凸显的豆腐渣工程，无论是社会各界的问责，还是学生 家长们的请愿，非但不会影响救灾和重建，反而是救灾和重建的最为重要的组成部分。从汲取教训的角度讲，揭开豆腐渣工程的黑幕，追究人祸的责任人，是远比物 质上的重建家园更重要的重建。因为，在这样的揭露和追究中，冤死的孩子亡灵得到安慰，灾民的正当权利得到尊重，灾民的权益诉求得到表达，灾民的权益受损得 到救济，由此带来社会正义的伸张和制度改善。
此次举国救灾中，有许多感人的故事，也涌现出一些救灾英雄。然而，在当下中国，党国体制不变，政权的贪婪也不会变。于是，中共的救灾，既要忙于自我 表扬，也要忙于自我遮丑，救灾中的人性光辉必定要被“伟光正”据为己有。所以，经过短暂的民间自发的救灾和媒体突破禁令的报道之后，救灾及其报道都被纳入 党国逻辑，按照几十年不变的陈旧惯性运行。党国主旋律要求正面报道为主，媒体上的英雄主义就泛滥成灾。救人不是基于人性之善，而是基于党国的伟光正和胡主 席温总理的教导，而当自发的人性光辉变成党国脸面的贴金时，效果只能适得其反——主旋律越突出，可信度越低下；道德调子越高亢，英雄越廉价。
在党国主导的英雄主义赞歌中，甘当党国卫道士的余秋雨，也应该算是“另类英雄”，为了党国大局而敢于冒天下之大不韪，专门向冤死的“孩子们瞪眼”的“英雄奴才”。
刘晓波 2008年6月20日于北京家中（《人与人权》2008年7月号）
http://boxun.com/hero/200807/liuxb/2_1.shtml
“以万物为刍狗”的天灾，固然可怕，但更可怕的是人祸，特别是“视孩子如草芥”的人祸，犹不可赦。川震中七千多所中小学校舍的倒塌，上万孩子葬身于 豆腐渣工程。孩子之死的震撼，绝不亚于大地震的摧毁。于是，校舍豆腐渣变成海内外瞩目的大问题，问责之声来自四面八方，其中，死亡孩子的家长们的含泪责问 尤其痛切：要让那些幼小的亡灵得到安慰，就必须让自己的孩子死得明白，让那些黑心承包商和腐败官员受到惩罚，让校舍质量纳入法治的轨道，以确保此类悲剧不 再重演。由于当地官权对家长们的问责采取敷衍甚至压制的态度，家长们开始以集体请愿的方式表达诉求。
在稳定压倒一切的独裁中国，由于官权与民权的严重失衡，由于没有新闻自由和司法独立，民众的权益诉求得不到体制化表达，更得不到体制化的舆论救济和司法救济，走投无路之下，权益受损的民众只能诉诸于体制外抗争，所谓的“群体性事件”大都是这种体制外抗争。
基于保住乌纱帽的利益驱动，地方官权向来害怕群体性事件，总要采取各种手段进行弹压，先用劝说和收买的软办法，不起作用后就用分化和镇压的硬手段， 甚至动用黑社会力量来“平事”。对于川震中死了孩子的父母们的请愿，当地官权企图通过软硬两手加以阻止。在动用警察的硬手段的同时，也要用悲情劝阻的软方 法。先有绵竹市委书记四次当街跪求请愿家长，后有文人余秋雨“含泪劝告请愿家长”。虽然，官员之跪和文人之劝，皆是企图以悲情之态阻止家长们的请愿，但两 相比较，官员的下跪，不管真假，起码做到了表面的谦卑——以屈尊之态来打动请愿者。而文人的劝告却拿大道理压人，冠冕堂皇的泪光中闪动的却是冷血。与其说 是悲情的劝说，不如说是居高临下的指责；与其说是体恤灾民的动容，不如说是文化戏子的“鳄鱼泪”，其底色不过是奴才式的聪明。
从古至今，中国御用文人的无耻是没底的，在争宠竞争中，比的就是谁的脸皮更厚。而当下中国，据说是躬逢盛世，所有的丧事都会自动变为喜事，所有的灾 难都有益于“兴邦”，御用文人又怎能不在盛世中前赴后继地献媚，怎能放过丧事变喜事、多难兴邦的大好时机，在众目睽睽之下来一场比媚竞赛。就在网民痛斥余 秋雨无耻之时，又出来个山东省作协副主席王兆山，他的心胸比“三个代表”更宏大，居然要代表死于地震的亡灵立言，写出《江城子·废墟下的自述》：
“天灾难避死何诉，主席唤，总理呼，党疼国爱，声声入废墟。十三亿人共一哭，纵做鬼，也幸福。银鹰战车救雏犊，左军叔，右警姑，民族大爱，亲历死也足。只盼坟前有屏幕，看奥运，同欢呼。”
这首除去标点还不到80个字的词，完全继承了由“汉大赋”开创的阿谀文风，满篇都是“主席”、“总理”、“党国”、“民族”、“十三亿”、“军叔” “警姑”、“奥运”。面对如此壮观的救灾场面，埋在废墟中的亡灵怎能不“纵做鬼，也幸福”！又怎能不梦想在地下“看奥运，同欢呼”！
把灾难讴歌成庆典是独裁中国的救灾传统，王副主席的词可视为这一传统的当代典型，其脸皮之厚和无耻之勇，确实超越余秋雨的“鳄鱼泪”。然而，奴才也 有智愚之分，献媚也有高下之别。愚蠢的奴才大都五音不全，常常让颂歌跑调；聪明的奴才则嗓音纯正，唱得高雅委婉。听王余二奴才的颂歌，便知王愚而余智，其 献媚技巧之高下，毒化社会的效果之大小，天壤也。
王副主席有胆无谋，一颗红心，只顾献媚，却全然不顾社会效果，其喜庆式媚笑过于赤裸，结果弄巧成拙，只能招致清一色的反感。而余秋雨智勇双全，既摸 透了圣上的心态，也充分考虑社会效应，其悲情式含泪媚态，犹抱琵琶半遮面，委婉含蓄的“鳄鱼泪”，化毒汁于无形，还真能赢得一部人的支持。
也许，二奴才之别，源于王副主席的稚嫩和余秋雨的老道。王毕竟是第一次现身于重大公共事件，也就只能靠赤条条的肥胖来扬名。而余已经在“文化媚旅”中跋涉数年，历练出一副好奴才的娇俏身段，每次登台作秀，都能赢得王公贵族的掌声。
余秋雨劝告之恶毒，就在于他用眼泪来输出最恶劣的观念——几千年未变的国家主义逻辑。在中国，这种国家主义逻辑，古代是“为圣上分忧”家天下逻辑，当代是“为党国分忧”党天下逻辑：制造敌人、党国至上，权力冷血，奴才谢恩。
首先，党国逻辑就是制造敌人的逻辑。尽管，如今的中国早已加入到全球化进程之中，已经是世界眼中的“崛起大国”了，但余秋雨的警惕性很高，透过纷纭 复杂的国际关系，还是看出了“我们的敌人遍天下”，特别是在党国“空前团结”、“众志成城”、“全力以赴”、“奉献大爱”的全民救灾中，境内外的敌对势力 更要“鸡蛋里挑骨头”。于是，余秋雨向请愿的家长们发出警示：“那些已经很长时间找不到反华借口的媒体”，又开始借助豆腐渣工程来进行反华宣传了；“历来 不怀好意的人”，正等着党国出错。为了加强他对“反华媒体”、“历来不怀好意的人”的指控，他还归纳出四点诬陷性的说法：“1、是天灾，更是人祸；2、官 方宣布，这事法院不受理；3、五个境外记者拍摄这种场面时被公安“短时间拘留”，询问他们的身份；4、难道地震真使中国民主了吗？”
余秋雨不愧经过文革御用写作班子“石一歌”洗礼的写手，他对于党国利益之所在，甚至比中共新闻发言人还敏感、还有责任心，也更熟悉用大帽子压人的套 路。他先用请愿家长的情绪激烈和警察的态度温和的对比，来凸显家长们的不讲理和党国警察的讲理。次用正在为反华势力提供炮弹来恫吓请愿的家长们。在中国， 谁都知道，被反华势力利用的人，绝没有好下场。即便不进班房，也要遭受其他惩罚，党国卫道士更要强加道德污名。余秋雨的“含泪劝告”，已经给请愿家长们扣 上了“被境外反华势力利用”的大帽子了。
我不知道余秋雨心目中的“反华媒体”是哪家，也不知道余秋雨眼中的“历来不怀好意的人”都是哪些人。但余秋雨的这类虚拟指控，非常符合虚构敌人的党 国逻辑。余秋雨的指控对今日党国的价值在于，在官权统治效力大幅度下降而民间权利意识大规模觉醒的国情下，党国官员也未必敢于公开发出这样的恐吓，而余秋 雨不但想党国之所想，更敢言党国之未敢言。君不见，绵竹市委书记在劝阻请愿家长时，宁可四次当街跪求，也没有给家长们扣上 “被境外反华势力利用”的大帽子，但余秋雨却拿着大帽子招摇过市，真可谓党国的“好奴才”。正如鲁迅所言：“哈儿狗往往比它的主人更严厉。”
其次，党国逻辑是“恩人政治”。在中国，天灾后的救灾也好，人祸后的平反也罢，都是“皇恩浩荡”、“感恩戴德”和“歌功颂德”的大合唱。
不错，胡温政权在救灾中的表现比SARS危机、大雪灾时要好，特别是温家宝的快速反应和奔走各重灾点，固然留下令人感动的时刻，也得到了外国媒体的普遍赞扬，但那不过是胡温的职责所在，并不能成为民众匍匐谢恩的资本，更不能成为党国大员高居救世主地位的理由。
的确，大陆媒体在此次大灾难的表现远胜过以前，但本质上仍然是党国“喉舌”，只看看官方主要媒体的救灾报道，仍然是令人作呕的歌功颂德。党国大员前 往灾区几天，主要新闻时段的头条就都是他们的面孔；军队在重灾区的救灾行动，在媒体上都要变成闪亮的“军功章”。“感谢党和政府，感谢子弟兵”的声音充斥 媒体，而灾民的问责之声和家长们的请愿却被遮蔽。遭遇大天灾之中国仍然重复着制度性人祸。
在此背景下，余秋雨的劝告中所浸满的，与其说是悯民之泪，不如说是愚民之尿。他先拿十三亿和国家说事，胡说什么“你们所遭遇的丧子之痛，全国人民都 感同身受。十三亿人在同一时间全部肃立，默哀三分钟，这肯定是人类历史上最浩大、最隆重的悼念仪式。”次拿佛教说事，瞎瓣什么“在全国哀悼日，一位佛学大 师对我说，有十几亿人护持，这些往生者全都成了菩萨，会一直佑护中国。我想，你们的孩子如果九天有灵，也一定已经安宁。”
我不知道十三亿人是否都对“丧子之痛”感同身受，也不知道死人变菩萨的玄妙佛理，但我知道，大地震的最大受害者是那些家破人亡的灾民，当最为紧急的 救人阶段过去之后，在接下来的救灾中，最为重要的工作就是帮助灾民重建家园和抚慰死难者家属的心灵。而对于自己的孩子死于豆腐渣工程的家长们来说，最大的 抚慰不是经济补偿，而是彻底查清这类人祸的原因，依法严肃惩办主要责任人。
然而，中国特色的救灾必定是党国至上，党国总理喊出“多难兴邦”口号，已经巧妙地把受灾的主体由灾民转化为“邦国”，把民众受难和举国救灾转变为 “兴邦”。由此，灾民变成凸显党国恩德的道具，救灾变成实现党国兴盛的工具，余秋雨的劝告正是这种逻辑的产物。在余秋雨的劝告中，读不出任何“感同身 受”，只能读出敦促家长们快快“谢主龙恩”：那些死于豆腐渣工程的孩子，即便死得再冤枉，家长即便再痛心，现在也该知足了。因为胡温政权为大地震的死难者 举行了“人类历史上最浩大、最隆重的悼念仪式。”享受到如此“最最最”的礼遇，你们只有感恩戴德的义务而没有追究罪责的权利。
何况，躬逢能够“坐稳了奴才地位”的盛世，如果享受了“最最最”的礼遇还不知足，还要请愿追究，那就不配做党国的奴才，也就不值得党国的体恤，结果恐怕是连现在的奴才地位都坐不稳了。
第三，党国逻辑是推卸责任。每有天灾人祸，面对民间的问责之声，党国体制的应对大致采取两种策略，一是软功夫，尽量寻找借口推卸责任；实在推卸不掉 的，先用经济补偿封口，再找两个低级官员做替罪羊，而涉及党国体制的实质性问责必将不了了之。二是硬功夫，对于那些不依不饶的执着问责，党国必然动用专政 机器进行压制，一面封锁相关信息，一面对不服从者实施暴力封口。
余秋雨是文人，当然不可能派警察压制请愿家长。他最擅长的是软刀子杀人，用貌似合理的说辞帮助党国卸责。他先用“过程论”来安抚请愿家长，劝他们别 着急，慢慢来，等救灾大业取得决定性胜利后再追究责任也不晚。他说：“我希望有关方面能在搜救生命、挖掘遗体之后尽力保护校舍倒塌的实物证据，以便今后进 行司法技术调查。但在目前，不能急躁，因为还有更危急的事。”
次用“大天灾”不可免和国际专家的说辞来为党国卸责：“因为，无论怎么说，这次大灾难主要还是天灾。当然也有未倒的房屋、幸存的学校，……已经有好 几位国际地震专家说，地震到了七点八级，理论上一切房屋都会倒塌，除非有特殊原因，而这次四川，是八级！”“有了这个主因，再要论定房屋倒塌的其他原因， 就麻烦得多了，需要有较长时间的科学检测和辩论，而且要经得起国际同等级的灾测比照。”
第四，党国逻辑是“国家荣誉”至高无上，高于个人、也高于生命。为了维护这种至高无上的荣誉，个人权益轻如鸿毛，草民生命也算不了什么。所以，当家破人亡 的家长们化悲痛为问责之时，余秋雨却要求他们化悲痛为牺牲。在余秋雨看来，大灾之后，与党国关注的堰塞湖、卫生防疫、大量灾民安置、人口大幅度流动等问题 相比，家长们的丧子之痛算不了什么。只有把“党国荣誉”放在首位，让个人诉求让位于政府救灾的大局，家长们才称得上“识大体、明大理的人”。而在党国忙于 救灾的时刻，家长们的群体请愿，往轻里说是闹情绪、使性子，是不识大体不明大理的小肚鸡肠；往重里说是为了个人利益而罔顾党国大局，不体谅国家和政府的难 处，结果只能给党国添乱。
为了让自己的党国逻辑更有说服力，余秋雨还给家长们戴上“杰出表现”、“主人”和“最高荣誉”的高帽。什么“你们受灾以来的杰出表现，已经为整个中 华民族赢来了最高尊严。” 什么“你们要做的是以主人的身份使这种动人的气氛保持下去，避免横生枝节。一些对中国人历来不怀好意的人，正天天等着我们做错一点什么呢。”也就是说，为 党国大局计，就必须把救灾的“动人气氛”保持下去，以“防止历来不怀好意的人”的破坏。为了“动人气氛”的保持，家长们就应该逆来顺受、忍辱负重，而请愿 问责就是“横生枝节”，给“历来不怀好意的人”的提供攻击党国的把柄。
余秋雨为了党国利益的免受危害，他不光会用“被境外反华势力利用”的大帽子吓人，还会用“杰出贡献”、“主人”和“中华民族最高尊严”的高帽哄人，真可谓“棒杀”和“捧杀”的双管齐下。
余秋雨恰恰忘记了，中外的灾难历史所提供的主要教训有二：1，再大的天灾和再难的救灾，政府的救灾职责并不能成为牺牲国民基本人权的理由；即便是政 府救灾做的很好，也不能构成强迫灾民出让基本权益的理由。因为，全力救灾和尊重国民基本人权都是政府的职责所在，为了救灾而牺牲国民人权，不仅是政府的严 重渎职，而且将继续制造远比天灾更恶劣的人祸。2，人祸比天灾更可怕。因为，天灾难免，人祸本可避免却没能避免，特别是国家权力制造的人祸，无疑是道德之 恶与制度之恶的叠加，必须进行追究。而国家权力仍然用权力强制来掩盖这种人祸，就是恶上之恶。
救人、捐款等善举是救灾的第一步，化悲痛为问责是救灾的第二步，而且是推动制度改革、防患于未然的最重要一步。只有充分的问责、透明的信息和动真格 的追究，才能让大灾变成制度改革的动力，也才能让重建家园的过程变得公正、高效、温暖。所以，对大地震凸显的豆腐渣工程，无论是社会各界的问责，还是学生 家长们的请愿，非但不会影响救灾和重建，反而是救灾和重建的最为重要的组成部分。从汲取教训的角度讲，揭开豆腐渣工程的黑幕，追究人祸的责任人，是远比物 质上的重建家园更重要的重建。因为，在这样的揭露和追究中，冤死的孩子亡灵得到安慰，灾民的正当权利得到尊重，灾民的权益诉求得到表达，灾民的权益受损得 到救济，由此带来社会正义的伸张和制度改善。
此次举国救灾中，有许多感人的故事，也涌现出一些救灾英雄。然而，在当下中国，党国体制不变，政权的贪婪也不会变。于是，中共的救灾，既要忙于自我 表扬，也要忙于自我遮丑，救灾中的人性光辉必定要被“伟光正”据为己有。所以，经过短暂的民间自发的救灾和媒体突破禁令的报道之后，救灾及其报道都被纳入 党国逻辑，按照几十年不变的陈旧惯性运行。党国主旋律要求正面报道为主，媒体上的英雄主义就泛滥成灾。救人不是基于人性之善，而是基于党国的伟光正和胡主 席温总理的教导，而当自发的人性光辉变成党国脸面的贴金时，效果只能适得其反——主旋律越突出，可信度越低下；道德调子越高亢，英雄越廉价。
在党国主导的英雄主义赞歌中，甘当党国卫道士的余秋雨，也应该算是“另类英雄”，为了党国大局而敢于冒天下之大不韪，专门向冤死的“孩子们瞪眼”的“英雄奴才”。
刘晓波 2008年6月20日于北京家中（《人与人权》2008年7月号）
http://boxun.com/hero/200807/liuxb/2_1.shtml
Thursday, June 26, 2008
An epic Bill Gates e-mail rant
Full text: An epic Bill Gates e-mail rant
Sometimes, software isn't so magical. Even for Bill Gates.
For the opening piece in our series on Gates leaving daily life at Microsoft, one goal was to give a clear picture of the Microsoft co-founder's role inside the company, as a gauge of the impact his departure will have. As part of that, I went back through the internal e-mails turned over in the antitrust suits against the company, looking for new insights into his personality.
Read on past the jump for one of the gems that turned up, showing Gates in the role of chief rabble-rouser. (Original document: PDF, 5 pages.) It shows that even the Microsoft co-founder -- who champions the "magic of software" -- isn't immune to the frustrations of everyday computer users. Keep in mind that this was more than five years ago, so it doesn't necessarily reflect the specific state of things now. At the bottom, see what Gates said when I asked him about the message last week.
---- Original Message ----From: Bill Gates
Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2003 10:05 AM
To: Jim Allchin
Cc: Chris Jones (WINDOWS); Bharat Shah (NT); Joe Peterson; Will Poole; Brian Valentine; Anoop Gupta (RESEARCH)
Subject: Windows Usability Systematic degradation flameI am quite disappointed at how Windows Usability has been going backwards and the program management groups don't drive usability issues.
Let me give you my experience from yesterday.
I decided to download (Moviemaker) and buy the Digital Plus pack ... so I went to Microsoft.com. They have a download place so I went there.
The first 5 times I used the site it timed out while trying to bring up the download page. Then after an 8 second delay I got it to come up.
This site is so slow it is unusable.
It wasn't in the top 5 so I expanded the other 45.
These 45 names are totally confusing. These names make stuff like: C:\Documents and Settings\billg\My Documents\My Pictures seem clear.
They are not filtered by the system ... and so many of the things are strange.
I tried scoping to Media stuff. Still no moviemaker. I typed in movie. Nothing. I typed in movie maker. Nothing.
So I gave up and sent mail to Amir saying - where is this Moviemaker download? Does it exist?
So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated.
They told me to go to the main page search button and type movie maker (not moviemaker!).
I tried that. The site was pathetically slow but after 6 seconds of waiting up it came.
I thought for sure now I would see a button to just go do the download.
In fact it is more like a puzzle that you get to solve. It told me to go to Windows Update and do a bunch of incantations.
This struck me as completely odd. Why should I have to go somewhere else and do a scan to download moviemaker?
So I went to Windows update. Windows Update decides I need to download a bunch of controls. (Not) just once but multiple times where I get to see weird dialog boxes.
Doesn't Windows update know some key to talk to Windows?
Then I did the scan. This took quite some time and I was told it was critical for me to download 17megs of stuff.
This is after I was told we were doing delta patches to things but instead just to get 6 things that are labeled in the SCARIEST possible way I had to download 17meg.
So I did the download. That part was fast. Then it wanted to do an install. This took 6 minutes and the machine was so slow I couldn't use it for anything else during this time.
What the heck is going on during those 6 minutes? That is crazy. This is after the download was finished.
Then it told me to reboot my machine. Why should I do that? I reboot every night -- why should I reboot at that time?
So I did the reboot because it INSISTED on it. Of course that meant completely getting rid of all my Outlook state.
So I got back up and running and went to Windows Update again. I forgot why I was in Windows Update at all since all I wanted was to get Moviemaker.
So I went back to Microsoft.com and looked at the instructions. I have to click on a folder called WindowsXP. Why should I do that? Windows Update knows I am on Windows XP.
What does it mean to have to click on that folder? So I get a bunch of confusing stuff but sure enough one of them is Moviemaker.
So I do the download. The download is fast but the Install takes many minutes. Amazing how slow this thing is.
At some point I get told I need to go get Windows Media Series 9 to download.
So I decide I will go do that. This time I get dialogs saying things like "Open" or "Save". No guidance in the instructions which to do. I have no clue which to do.
The download is fast and the install takes 7 minutes for this thing.
So now I think I am going to have Moviemaker. I go to my add/remove programs place to make sure it is there.
It is not there.
What is there? The following garbage is there. Microsoft Autoupdate Exclusive test package, Microsoft Autoupdate Reboot test package, Microsoft Autoupdate testpackage1. Microsoft AUtoupdate testpackage2, Microsoft Autoupdate Test package3.
Someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable? The file system is no longer usable. The registry is not usable. This program listing was one sane place but now it is all crapped up.
But that is just the start of the crap. Later I have listed things like Windows XP Hotfix see Q329048 for more information. What is Q329048? Why are these series of patches listed here? Some of the patches just things like Q810655 instead of saying see Q329048 for more information.
What an absolute mess.
Moviemaker is just not there at all.
So I give up on Moviemaker and decide to download the Digital Plus Package.
I get told I need to go enter a bunch of information about myself.
I enter it all in and because it decides I have mistyped something I have to try again. Of course it has cleared out most of what I typed.
I try (typing) the right stuff in 5 times and it just keeps clearing things out for me to type them in again.
So after more than an hour of craziness and making my programs list garbage and being scared and seeing that Microsoft.com is a terrible website I haven't run Moviemaker and I haven't got the plus package.
The lack of attention to usability represented by these experiences blows my mind. I thought we had reached a low with Windows Network places or the messages I get when I try to use 802.11. (don't you just love that root certificate message?)
When I really get to use the stuff I am sure I will have more feedback.
When we were concluding our interview last week, I showed Gates a printout of the e-mail and asked if he ever got Movie Maker to work. Gates noted that Microsoft plans to include Movie Maker as part of Windows Live, so people will get the program when they download that online package. The company isn't confirming that officially yet, but's not a complete surprise. See this Wikipedia entry and this related post on LiveSide.net. (Site temporarily down as of Tuesday morning.)
As for the message, Gates smiled and said, "There's not a day that I don't send a piece of e-mail ... like that piece of e-mail. That's my job."
Update: Dave Ross of KIRO-AM/710 in Seattle did a dramatic reading of the message on air Wednesday morning. Click here to access the audio.
Related post: Intel makes news for avoiding Windows Vista.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Muslim Voters Detect a Snub From Obama
Muslim Voters Detect a Snub From Obama
As Senator Barack Obama courted voters in Iowa last December, Representative Keith Ellison, the country’s first Muslim congressman, stepped forward eagerly to help.
Skip to next paragraph 
Alex Brandon/Associated Press
Barack Obama spoke at the Apostolic Church of God in Chicago on Fathers’ Day. Mr. Obama has visited churches and synagogues, but he has yet to appear at a single mosque.
Mr. Ellison believed that Mr. Obama’s message of unity resonated deeply with American Muslims. He volunteered to speak on Mr. Obama’s behalf at a mosque in Cedar Rapids, one of the nation’s oldest Muslim enclaves. But before the rally could take place, aides to Mr. Obama asked Mr. Ellison to cancel the trip because it might stir controversy. Another aide appeared at Mr. Ellison’s Washington office to explain.
“I will never forget the quote,” Mr. Ellison said, leaning forward in his chair as he recalled the aide’s words. “He said, ‘We have a very tightly wrapped message.’ ”
When Mr. Obama began his presidential campaign, Muslim Americans from California to Virginia responded with enthusiasm, seeing him as a long-awaited champion of civil liberties, religious tolerance and diplomacy in foreign affairs. But more than a year later, many say, he has not returned their embrace.
While the senator has visited churches and synagogues, he has yet to appear at a single mosque. Muslim and Arab-American organizations have tried repeatedly to arrange meetings with Mr. Obama, but officials with those groups say their invitations — unlike those of their Jewish and Christian counterparts — have been ignored. Last week, two Muslim women wearing head scarves were barred by campaign volunteers from appearing behind Mr. Obama at a rally in Detroit.
In interviews, Muslim political and civic leaders said they understood that their support for Mr. Obama could be a problem for him at a time when some Americans are deeply suspicious of Muslims. Yet those leaders nonetheless expressed disappointment and even anger at the distance that Mr. Obama has kept from them.
“This is the ‘hope campaign,’ this is the ‘change campaign,’ ” said Mr. Ellison, Democrat of Minnesota. Muslims are frustrated, he added, that “they have not been fully engaged in it.”
Aides to Mr. Obama denied that he had kept his Muslim supporters at arm’s length. They cited statements in which he had spoken inclusively about American Islam and a radio advertisement he recorded for the recent campaign of Representative Andre Carson, Democrat of Indiana, who this spring became the second Muslim elected to Congress.
In May, Mr. Obama also had a brief, private meeting with the leader of a mosque in Dearborn, Mich., home to the country’s largest concentration of Arab-Americans. And this month, a senior campaign aide met with Arab-American leaders in Dearborn, most of whom are Muslim. (Mr. Obama did not campaign in Michigan before the primary in January because of a party dispute over the calendar.)
“Our campaign has made every attempt to bring together Americans of all races, religions and backgrounds to take on our common challenges,” Ben LaBolt, a campaign spokesman, said in an e-mail message.
Mr. LaBolt added that with religious groups, the campaign had largely taken “an interfaith approach, one that may not have reached every group that wishes to participate but has reached many Muslim Americans.”
The strained relationship between Muslims and Mr. Obama reflects one of the central challenges facing the senator: how to maintain a broad electoral appeal without alienating any of the numerous constituencies he needs to win in November.
After the episode in Detroit last week, Mr. Obama telephoned the two Muslim women to apologize. “I take deepest offense to and will continue to fight against discrimination against people of any religious group or background,” he said in a statement.
Such gestures have fallen short in the eyes of many Muslim leaders, who say the Detroit incident and others illustrate a disconnect between Mr. Obama’s message of unity and his campaign strategy.
“The community feels betrayed,” said Safiya Ghori, the government relations director in the Washington office of the Muslim Public Affairs Council.
Even some of Mr. Obama’s strongest Muslim supporters say they are uncomfortable with the forceful denials he has made in response to rumors that he is secretly a Muslim. (Ten percent of registered voters believe the rumor, according to a poll by the Pew Research Center.)
In an interview with “60 Minutes,” Mr. Obama said the rumors were offensive to American Muslims because they played into “fearmongering.” But on a new section of his Web site, he classifies the claim that he is Muslim as a “smear.”
“A lot of us are waiting for him to say that there’s nothing wrong with being a Muslim, by the way,” Mr. Ellison said.
Mr. Ellison, a first-term congressman, remains arguably the senator’s most important Muslim supporter. He has attended Obama rallies in Minnesota and appears on the campaign’s Web site. But Mr. Ellison said he was also forced to cancel plans to campaign for Mr. Obama in North Carolina after an emissary for the senator told him the state was “too conservative.” Mr. Ellison said he blamed Mr. Obama’s aides — not the candidate himself — for his campaign’s standoffishness.
Despite the complications of wooing Muslim voters, Mr. Obama and his Republican rival, Senator John McCain, may find it risky to ignore this constituency. There are sizable Muslim populations in closely fought states like Florida, Michigan, Ohio and Virginia.
In those states and others, American Muslims have experienced a political awakening in the years since Sept. 11, 2001. Before the attacks, Muslim political leadership in the United States was dominated by well-heeled South Asian and Arab immigrants, whose communities account for a majority of the nation’s Muslims. (Another 20 percent are estimated to be African-American.) The number of American Muslims remains in dispute as the Census Bureau does not collect data on religious orientation; most estimates range from 2.35 million to 6 million.
A coalition of immigrant Muslim groups endorsed George W. Bush in his 2000 campaign, only to find themselves ignored by Bush administration officials as their communities were rocked by the carrying out of the USA Patriot Act, the detention and deportation of Muslim immigrants and other security measures after Sept. 11.
As a result, Muslim organizations began mobilizing supporters across the country to register to vote and run for local offices, and political action committees started tracking registered Muslim voters. The character of Muslim political organizations also began to change.
“We moved away from political leadership primarily by doctors, lawyers and elite professionals to real savvy grass-roots operatives,” said Mahdi Bray, executive director of the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, a political group in Washington. “We went back to the base.”
In 2006, the Virginia Muslim Political Action Committee arranged for 53 Muslim cabdrivers to skip their shifts at Dulles International Airport in Northern Virginia to transport voters to the polls for the midterm election. Of an estimated 60,000 registered Muslim voters in the state, 86 percent turned out and voted overwhelmingly for Jim Webb, a Democrat running for the Senate who subsequently won the election, according to data collected by the committee.
The committee’s president, Mukit Hossain, said Muslims in Virginia were drawn to Mr. Obama because of his support for civil liberties and his more diplomatic approach to the Middle East. Mr. Hossain and others said his multicultural image also appealed to immigrant voters.
“This is the son of an immigrant; this is someone with a funny name,” said James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, who is a Christian who has campaigned for Mr. Obama at mosques and Arab churches. “There is this excitement that if he can win, they can win, too.”
Yet some Muslim and Arab-American political organizers worry that the campaign’s reluctance to reach out to voters in those communities will eventually turn them off. “If they think that they are voting for a campaign that is trying to distance itself from them, my big fear is that Muslims will sit it out,” Mr. Hossain said.
Throughout the primaries, Muslim groups often failed to persuade Mr. Obama’s campaign to at least send a surrogate to speak to voters at their events, said Ms. Ghori, of the Muslim Public Affairs Council.
Before the Virginia primary in February, some of the nation’s leading Muslim organizations nearly canceled an event at a mosque in Sterling because they could not arrange for representatives from any of the major presidential campaigns to attend. At the last minute, they succeeded in wooing surrogates from the Clinton and Obama campaigns by telling each that the other was planning to attend, Mr. Bray said. (No one from the McCain campaign showed up.)
Frustrations with Mr. Obama deepened the day after he claimed the nomination when he told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee that Jerusalem should be the undivided capital of Israel. (Mr. Obama later clarified his statement, saying Jerusalem’s status would need to be negotiated between Israelis and Palestinians.)
Osama Siblani, the editor and publisher of the weekly Arab American News in Dearborn, said Mr. Obama had “pandered” to the Israeli lobby, while neglecting to meet formally with Arab-American and Muslim leaders. “They’re trying to take the votes without the liabilities,” said Mr. Siblani, who is also president of the Arab American Political Action Committee.
Some Muslim supporters of Mr. Obama seem to ricochet between dejection and optimism. Minha Husaini, a public health consultant in her 30s who is working for the Obama campaign in Philadelphia, lights up like a swooning teenager when she talks about his promise for change.
“He gives me hope,” Ms. Husaini said in an interview last month, shortly before she joined the campaign on a fellowship. But she sighed when the conversation turned to his denials of being Muslim, “as if it’s something bad,” she said.
For Ms. Ghori and other Muslims, Mr. Obama’s hands-off approach is not surprising in a political climate they feel is marred by frequent attacks on their faith.
Among the incidents they cite are a statement by Mr. McCain, in a 2007 interview with Beliefnet.com, that he would prefer a Christian president to a Muslim one; a comment by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton that Mr. Obama was not Muslim “as far as I know”; and a remark by Representative Steve King, Republican of Iowa, to The Associated Press in March that an Obama victory would be celebrated by terrorists, who would see him as a “savior.”
“All you have to say is Barack Hussein Obama,” said Arsalan Iftikhar, a human rights lawyer and contributing editor at Islamica Magazine. “You don’t even have to say ‘Muslim.’ ”
As a consequence, many Muslims have kept their support for Mr. Obama quiet. Any visible show of allegiance could be used by his opponents to incite fear, further the false rumors about his faith and “bin-Laden him,” Mr. Bray said.
“The joke within the national Muslim organizations,” Ms. Ghori said, “is that we should endorse the person we don’t want to win.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/24/us/politics/24muslim.html?hp=&pagewanted=all
Monday, June 16, 2008
How Angel of Sichuan Saved School in Quake
How Angel of Sichuan Saved School in Quake
SANGZAO, China — The students lined up row by row on the outdoor basketball courts of Sangzao Middle School in the minutes after the earthquake. When the head count was complete, their fate was clear: all 2,323 were alive.
Shiho Fukada for The New York Times
Classes at Sangzao Middle School, where all 2,323 students survived the earthquake, are held in tents set up on the basketball courts until the school gets rebuilt.
Photographs by Shiho Fukada for The New York Times
Ye Zhiping, the school’s principal, knew the building was shoddy, so he pressed the county government for $58,000 to upgrade it. If he hadn’t, he said, “I would be the one responsible.”
Shiho Fukada for The New York Times
Students collected their belongings from the school, which was still standing, although it suffered some structural damage.
The New York Times
Some 10,000 students were killed in Sichuan Province.
Parents covered in blood and dust hugged them and cried. So did the school principal, Ye Zhiping.
“That was the single most joyful thing,” he said.
Given that some 10,000 other children were crushed in their classrooms during the devastating quake on May 12, the survival of so many students in Sangzao counts as a minor miracle.
Students and parents credit that to the man they call Angel Ye.
Nervous about the shoddiness of the main school building, Mr. Ye scraped together $58,000 to renovate it in the 1990s. He had workers widen concrete pillars and insert iron rods into them. He demanded stronger balcony railings. He demolished a bathroom whose pipes had been weakened by water.
His school in Peace County probably withstood the 8.0-magnitude earthquake because he pushed the county government to upgrade it. Just 20 miles north, the collapse of Beichuan Middle School buried 1,000 students and teachers.
Mr. Ye’s tale sheds light on the lax building codes in this mountainous corner of Sichuan Province and what might have been done to address well-known shortcomings. In his case, a personal commitment and a relatively petty amount of cash sufficed to avert tragedy.
“We learned a lesson from this earthquake: the standards for schools should have been improved,” Mr. Ye, 55, said in an interview. “The standards now are still not enough.”
Mr. Ye not only shored up the building’s structure, but also had students and teachers prepare for a disaster. They rehearsed an emergency evacuation plan twice a year. Because of that, students and teachers say, everyone managed to flee in less than two minutes on May 12.
“We’re very thankful,” said Qiu Yanfang, 62, the grandmother of a student, as she sat outside the school knitting a brown sweater. “The principal helped ease the nation’s loss, both the psychological loss and the physical loss.”
The Chinese government estimates that more than 7,000 schoolrooms collapsed in the earthquake. The destruction has prompted grieving parents to take to the streets to demand investigations, and that in turn has become the biggest political challenge to government officials in the aftermath of the earthquake. The police began clamping down this month on the protests.
It has been difficult to establish responsibility for the school collapses partly because it is unclear in many cases which level of government is responsible for the original school construction and for ongoing inspections.
The building codes Mr. Ye criticized had been set by the central government in Beijing, he said. While county education officials did not take the initiative in improving Sangzao Middle School, they acceded to Mr. Ye’s requests and gave him money, he said.
Huang Zhichun, an official in the county’s education department, said in a telephone interview: “Based on the fact that so many schools have collapsed, the standard is not good enough. The central government sets the standard.”
Government officials in Beijing and Sichuan have said they are investigating the collapses. In an acknowledgment of the weakness of building codes in the countryside, the National Development and Reform Commission said on May 27 that it had drafted an amendment to improve construction standards for primary and middle schools in rural areas. Experts are reviewing the draft, the commission said.
They could do worse than consult with Mr. Ye. A squat man who speaks in sharp bursts, he now lives with his wife in a refugee camp of green tents on the school’s basketball courts. He started working at the school 30 years ago as an English teacher and has taught in every classroom. Some students say he is more playful than the teachers.
Sangzao is a farming town of 30,000 where merchants sell vegetables from blankets on the road. It has two middle schools, one administered by the township, where a dormitory collapsed during the earthquake, and the other administered by the county. Mr. Ye works in the second. Families from across Sichuan send their children there because of its reputation.
A large billboard on the school grounds lists the names of 90 students who earned top scores on a national exam last year. The school is one of the largest in Peace County. It has a half-dozen dormitory buildings and two classroom buildings, all five stories or lower. One of the classroom buildings was constructed after 2000, the other between 1983 and 1985.
The older one worried Mr. Ye when he became principal 12 years ago.
It is a four-story, white building with large, tinted-glass windows and blue, metal railings running along balconies onto which classrooms open.
“Quality inspectors were supposed to be here to oversee construction of this building,” Mr. Ye said. “When the foundation was laid, they should have been here. When the concrete was put into the pillars, they should have been here. But they weren’t. In the end, no government official dared to come inspect this building because it was built without any standards.”
Mr. Ye walked down the hallways with a visitor and pointed to the corners where the ceiling met wall. He said workers had stuffed trash into those crevices to seal them. In addition, the surfaces of the walls were coarse rather than smooth, a sign of shoddy construction, he said.
The balcony railings were originally made of cement, not metal. They were shaky and a foot too short, Mr. Ye said. They also lacked vertical pillars for support.
“I was among the first teachers who moved into this building, and I was pretty young,” Mr. Ye said. “Our awareness of safety wasn’t the same as now.”
He said his attitude changed after he became principal.
“If I knew there was a hidden danger, and I didn’t do anything about it, then I would be the one responsible,” he said.
From 1996 to 1999, Mr. Ye oversaw a complete overhaul. He said he pestered county officials for money. Eventually the education department gave $58,000. It was a troublesome process because the county was poor and thus tight with money, Mr. Ye said, but officials saw the need to ensure the safety of children.
So the renovations began. Most crucial were changes made to concrete pillars and floor panels. Each classroom had four rectangular pillars that were thickened so they jutted from the walls. Up and down the pillars, workers drilled holes and inserted iron reinforcing rods because the original ones were not enough, Mr. Ye said. The concrete slab floors were secured to be able to withstand intense shaking.
Structural engineers and earthquake experts outside China who have examined photos of collapsed schools point to two critical flaws: a lack of adequate iron reinforcing rods, and poorly built, hollow concrete slab floors.
Mr. Ye said construction codes improved after 2000, and buildings are now supposed to be rated a 6 or 7 on a scale of earthquake resistance.
“But we see from this earthquake that the standard should be lifted to 11 or 12,” he said.
Each classroom in the main school building holds about 60 students. Each room is now a frozen tableau of 2:28 p.m. on May 12. Backpacks and textbooks are scattered all around. A bag of oranges sits on a desk.
Students said they dove under desks when the tremor hit. Then teachers led them onto the basketball courts outside.
“Many parents ran to the school afterward,” said Yang Shihui, 40, an English teacher. “One mother started hugging her daughter and saying, oh my daughter. The daughter was fine. It was actually the mother who was covered in dirt and bleeding.”
Mr. Ye was in a city 30 miles away when the ground began shaking.
“On my way back, I saw that many buildings had been seriously destroyed,” Mr. Ye said. “I was pretty concerned. But when I saw that all of my students were safe, I was very happy.”
These days, students dart in and out of the school to grab textbooks, ducking beneath a thin blue ribbon with a handwritten sign that says “Danger.” To them, the building seems sturdy enough.
But Mr. Ye said it will be torn down, never again used for classes.
Monday, June 9, 2008
含泪劝告请愿灾民
含泪劝告请愿灾民 (2008-06-05 19:38:05)
余秋雨
昨天从海外一些媒体看到，灾区一些家长捧着遇难子女的照片请愿，要求通过法律诉讼来惩处一些造成房屋倒塌的学校领导和承包商。从画面上看得出，警察们 正用温和的方式劝解，但家长们情绪激烈。由此，那些已经很长时间找不到反华借口的媒体又开始进行反华宣传了，诬陷性的说法有四点：
1、
2、
3、
4、
为此，我要含泪向这些请愿灾民作如下劝告——
你们所遭遇的丧子之痛，全国人民都感同身受。十三亿人在同一时间全部肃立，默哀三分钟，这肯定是人类历史上最浩大、最隆重的悼念仪式。悼念对象，就有 你们的孩子。在全国哀悼日，一位佛学大师对我说，有十几亿人护持，这些往生者全都成了菩萨，会一直佑护中国。我想，你们的孩子如果九天有灵，也一定已经安 宁。
校舍建造的质量，当然必须追究，那些偷工减料的建筑承包商和其他责任者，必须受到法律严惩。我现在想不出在目前这种情况下，还会有什么机构胆敢包庇这些人。你们请愿所说的话，其实早已是各级政府和广大民众的决心。但是，这需要有一个过程。
因为，无论怎么说，这次大灾难主要还是天灾。当然也有未倒的房屋、幸存的学校，但这有多方面的因素，不能仅仅从一个角度来论定。已经有好几位国际地震专家说，地震到了七点八级，理论上一切房屋都会倒塌，除非有特殊原因，而这次四川，是八级！
有了这个主因，再要论定房屋倒塌的其他原因，就麻烦得多了，需要有较长时间的科学检测和辩论，而且要经得起国际同等级的灾测比照。我希望有关方面能在 搜救生命、挖掘遗体之后尽力保护校舍倒塌的实物证据，以便今后进行司法技术调查。但在目前，不能急躁，因为还有更危急的事。
堰塞湖的问题是悬在几十万人头上的凶剑，卫生防疫问题也急不可待，灾区上上下下所有的力量还在气喘吁吁地忙于救灾，人口大幅度流动，一切都处于临时状 态，因此，确实很难快速腾出手来处理已经倒塌的校舍建筑质量的法律问题。我想，你们一定是识大体、明大理的人，先让大家把最危急的关及几十万、几百万活着 的人的安全问题解决了，怎么样？
你们受灾以来的杰出表现，已经为整个中华民族赢来了最高尊严。你们一定不会否认，这些天来，无论是中国的各级政府、军队、武警、医生，还是全国各地和 世界各国的救援者、志愿者都尽心尽力、令人感动。只有当这些里里外外的多重力量不受干扰地集合在一起，才能把今后十分艰巨的任务一步步完成。因此，你们要 做的是以主人的身份使这种动人的气氛保持下去，避免横生枝节。一些对中国人历来不怀好意的人，正天天等着我们做错一点什么呢。
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Hotmail blocking emails
Hotmail blocking emails
April 7th, 2007
Sending emails from a web application can be annoying. Email providers will likely toss your email in the junk folder, if you’re lucky!
Hotmail was rejecting our email recently, but we managed to fix that with the help of SPF.
In this day and age, it is pretty common for emails that come from a web application to get incorrectly flagged as junk/spam. In the battle against spam, many email providers have taken a shoot first ask questions later approach. I can’t say I blame them.
But totally rejecting email from a web application, that is originating from a server that is not on any spam blacklists, seems a bit excessive. This is what Hotmail was doing to us recently.
So what’s the solution?
From what I can tell, there isn’t a single solution that will work 100% of the time with Hotmail. If there was that would probably defeat the purpose of their Sender ID system. But I can tell you what we did to get unblocked.
Sender Policy Framework (aka SPF)
SPF is simply a TXT record in your domain which states which servers have the right to send email on behalf of the domain. We had used SPF records in the past for our domains, but we noticed that Hotmail still treated our email as spam. When we switched DNS servers recently as part of our server migration, I didn’t add in the SPF records because it didn’t seem to help much in the past. From what I can tell though, things are different in Hotmail-land now!
For gmail, everything was working fine, but by looking at the headers on the email coming from our application you could see the following:
Received-Spf: softfail (google.com: domain of transitioning do-not-reply@redzoneleagues.com does not designate 64.79.213.26 as permitted sender)
So google does look up the SPF record on the domain, but wasn’t blocking our email. Ideally though I want the Received-Spf to be a pass and not a softfail.
How do I make an SPF record?
First off, you will need to be able to edit your DNS entries for your domain. If you don’t know what a DNS is or how to edit it, then you’re going to have problems with this exercise.
Next you can go to Microsoft’s page for generating SPF records here. Answer the questions on the pages and at the end they will give you the string of text that you need to put into your domain. It will look something like: “v=spf1 a mx ~all” but will vary depending on your answers. Edit your domain and add a DNS record of type TXT with the string generated from the SPF tool. Consult your DNS administration documentation if you are unsure how to do this.
Once you are done that part, I recommend you use dig to validate your TXT records on your domain. For example: dig example.com txt
How do I know it’s working?
To test this I just had my web application send me an email again to my gmail account. This time I got the following:
Received-Spf: pass (google.com: domain of do-not-reply@redzoneleagues.com designates 64.79.213.26 as permitted sender)
Sweet.
I did all this but Hotmail is still blocking me!
Hotmail doesn’t use SPF directly. Hotmail will do a SPF lookup on your domain and cache it. So even when you do get your SPF records all hooked up, don’t expect immediate results. They plug this data into their Sender ID system to figure out if they like you or not. They claim that SPF alone won’t allow or block you, but from what I can see it definitely can’t hurt. It could take half a day or so to get your record updated so you need to be a bit patient.
I did all this and waited patiently, but Hotmail is still blocking me!
This was all we needed to do in order to get our email to get past Hotmail’s blockers. Of course the email still goes into the junk folder, but at least our users can still read it. Having your users add your email to their address book or Hotmail “Safe-List” corrects that problem easy enough.
If you’re still getting blocked then you should verify that your server isn’t on any blacklists. Try this tool just to be sure that you are not on any lists. If you are, then good luck getting off it :(
Update – April 11th, 2007
One thing I forgot to mention… You can also send an email from your domain to senderid@microsoft.com asking them to add your domain to their safe list. When I had first did this with my redzoneleagues.com email address it bounced right away with the following:
This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification
Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:
senderid@microsoft.com
Technical details of permanent failure:
PERM_FAILURE: SMTP Error (state 12): 550 5.7.1 Your e-mail was rejected by an anti-spam content filter on gateway (205.248.106.32). Reasons for rejection may be: obscene language, graphics, or spam-like characteristics. Removing these may let the e-mail through the filter.
This of course was not good. I then emailed them with another email address and actually got a response back from Microsoft a couple of days later saying they added our domain. So perhaps this actually did help us after all. Give it a try if you’re still having problems getting through to hotmail.
Some other potentially helpful links:
I hope this helps anybody who is fighting with Hotmail and getting through their blockers. If you have any more tips let us know!
6 Responses Follows
http://weblog.redlinesoftware.com/2007/4/7/hotmail-blocking-emails
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Chinese Are Left to Ask Why Schools Crumbled
Chinese Are Left to Ask Why Schools Crumbled
Du Bin for The New York Times
UNEQUAL DAMAGE. Xinjian Primary School in Dujiangyan was destroyed, while a kindergarten, at left, and a hotel were barely damaged.
Correction Appended
This story was reported by Jim Yardley, Jake Hooker and Andrew C. Revkin, and was written by Mr. Yardley.
China Photo Press
Nine fourth graders survived in a class of 48, part of which was photographed in June.
Liu Bowen for The New York Times
‘THERE IS DEATH EVERYWHERE’ Soldiers uncovered a student’s body at Beichuan Middle School, one of scores of schools that collapsed. Beichuan was one of the towns hardest hit on May 12.
DUJIANGYAN, China — The earthquake’s destruction of Xinjian Primary School was swift and complete. Hundreds of children were crushed as the floors collapsed in a deluge of falling bricks and concrete. Days later, as curiosity seekers came with video cameras and as parents came to grieve, the four-story school was no more than rubble.
In contrast, none of the nearby buildings were badly damaged. A separate kindergarten less than 20 feet away survived with barely a crack. An adjacent 10-story hotel stood largely undisturbed. And another local primary school, Beijie, catering to children of the elite, was in such good condition that local officials were using it as a refugee center.
“This is not a natural disaster,” said Ren Yongchang, whose 9-year-old son died inside the destroyed school. His hands were covered in plaster dust as he stood beside the rubble, shouting and weeping as he grabbed the exposed steel rebar of a broken concrete column. “This is not good steel. It doesn’t meet standards. They stole our children.”
There is no official figure on how many children died at Xinjian Primary School, nor on how many died at scores of other schools that collapsed in the powerful May 12 earthquake in Sichuan Province. But the number of student deaths seems likely to exceed 10,000, and possibly go much higher, a staggering figure that has become a simmering controversy in China as grieving parents say their children might have lived had the schools been better built.
The Chinese government has enjoyed broad public support for its handling of the earthquake, and in Sichuan on Saturday, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon of the United Nations praised the government’s response.
But as parents at different schools begin to speak out, the question of whether official negligence, and possibly corruption, contributed to the student deaths could turn public opinion. The government has launched an investigation, but censors, wary of the public mood, are trying to suppress the issue in state-run media and online.
An examination of the collapse of Xinjian Primary School offers a disturbing picture of a calamity that might have been avoided. Many parents say they were told the school was unsafe. Xinjian was poorly built when it opened its doors in 1992, they say, and never got its share of government funds for reconstruction because of its low ranking in the local education bureaucracy and the low social status of its students.
A decade ago, a detached wing of the school was torn down and rebuilt because of safety concerns. But the main building remained unimproved. Engineers and earthquake experts who examined photographs of its wreckage concluded that the structure had many failings and one critical flaw: inadequate iron reinforcing rods running up the school’s vertical columns. One expert described the unstable concrete floor panels as “time bombs.”
Xinjian also was ill-equipped for a crisis. An ambulance and other rescue vehicles that responded after the earthquake could not fit through the entrance into the school’s courtyard. A bulldozer finally dug up beneath the front gate to create enough overhead clearance. Parents say they believe several hundred of the school’s 660 pupils died.
“It is impossible to describe,” said a nurse standing on the rubble of the Xinjian site. “There is death everywhere.”
Schools are vulnerable to earthquakes, especially in developing nations where less attention is paid to building codes. The quake in Sichuan Province has already claimed 60,560 lives, and some of the flattened schools, especially those buried under landslides, could not have stood under any circumstances. The government has not provided a public list of those schools, but one early estimate concluded that more than 7,000 “schoolrooms” were destroyed.
China has national building codes intended to ensure that major structures withstand earthquakes. The government also has made upgrading or replacing substandard schools a priority as part of a broader effort to improve and expand education. Yet codes are spottily enforced. In March 2006, Sichuan Province issued a notice that local governments must inspect schools because too many remained unsafe, according to one official Web site.
Nothing is more central to the social contract in China than schools. Parents sacrifice and “eat bitter” so their children can get educations that lead to better lives. In turn, children care for their parents in old age. As in Manhattan, affluent Chinese fight to gain entrance to top schools from kindergarten onward.
But the families who sent their children to Xinjian are neither wealthy nor well connected. They are among the hundreds of millions still struggling to benefit from China’s economic rise. Many lost their jobs when a local cement plant shut down. Some sought work in more prosperous areas, leaving their children behind to attend school.
Angry parents at several destroyed schools are beginning to stage small demonstrations. On Wednesday, more than 200 Xinjian parents demonstrated at the temporary tents used by Dujiangyan’s education bureau, demanding an investigation and accusing officials of corruption and negligence.
One of the parents, Li Wei, said his son was one of 54 students who died in a class of 60 fifth graders. He said education officials told the demonstrating parents that the bureau had reported safety concerns to municipal leaders in the past. But their complaints were ignored.
“We want to bring justice for our children,” one father said the day before the protest. “We want the local officials to pay the price.”
Poor School, Long Neglected
The earthquake struck on May 12 at 2:28 in the afternoon as 20 fifth graders were rehearsing a dance on the basketball court in front of the school. Fourth graders were outside for gym class. When nearby shopkeepers rushed over, the children were standing on the court amid a cloud of dust. “They weren’t crying,” said Chen Chunmei, 35, the manager of a shopping strip beside the school. “They were in shock.”
The main building was decimated. Parents, neighbors and nearby college students arrived to find awful carnage. Ma Qiang, a decommissioned soldier living across the street, described a sickening scene.
“We were standing on the bodies of dead children, pulling out other children,” he recalled days later. He stood in the rubble and held his hand level with his head. “The concrete was this high. On the top was a boy, and two girls below him, and another boy under them, who was dead. It took four hours to dig them out.”
For hours, this ad hoc rescue team formed a line and passed along bricks or chunks of concrete in an attempt to clear debris. Bodies of children were piled on the sidewalk across the street. By late evening, paramilitary officers arrived and ordered the parents and others to withdraw outside the school gate. Many parents considered this a tardy response that was a stinging reminder of Xinjian’s low standing.
“A lot of our students came from the mountains,” said Deng Huiying, the former long-time principal. “Their parents were migrant workers.”
Xinjian is in the heart of the city of Dujiangyan. The lack of damage to the yellow-tiled kindergarten next door or to the Beijie Primary School a five-minute walk away has served as a reminder that proximity is not the same as equality.
Beijie is the city’s elite primary school, designated as a provincial-level “key” school, boasting the best facilities and the finest teachers. The kindergarten, meanwhile, was built and controlled directly by the city government of Dujiangyan. For years, Xinjian was controlled by a smaller, local township government, which had far less money and did little to improve the school.
In recent years, China’s central government has gradually abolished primary school tuition and other fees to ease burdens on farmers and migrants. Beijing has also increased its payments to local governments for education, but the main burden remains on local authorities, and many find themselves strapped for cash or siphon it off.
When Xinjian was built in 1992, many parents worked for the Dongfeng Cement Factory. Company bosses donated 40 tons of cement. But that was not enough. “Everybody knew they didn’t have enough cement,” said Dai Chuanbin, an older man familiar with the project. “So they used a lot of sand.”
Parents say the township government cut costs further by hiring farmers to do the work instead of trained construction crews. One former school official recalled that workers poured the foundation during such heavy rains that it collapsed. Another foundation had to be poured.
The school opened in 1993 and would quickly be overrun with students. The detached annex was rebuilt in 1998 after inspectors deemed it substandard. Ms. Deng, the former principal, recalled that nearby construction work in May 2006 caused the flooring in the main school building to shake violently. But she said she never had reason to believe the building was structurally unsound and never filed any written complaints with higher officials.
“If I’d thought the building was unsafe, there’s no way I would have let the kids stay there,” she said. When she saw the collapsed building, she fell on the ground, sobbing.
Several parents tell a different story. They say Ms. Deng and other school officials told them that the building was aging and unsafe, though they could provide no written proof. One father was told that Xinjian would soon be closed. Another, Zhu Junsheng, 44, claimed that Ms. Deng filed a report with Dujiangyan’s education bureau complaining about the building.
“The education bureau said there was no money,” said Mr. Zhu, sitting in front of a blue tent in a refugee camp a block from the school. “They didn’t care.
“I just want to say: The government didn’t do its job.”
Nearly two weeks after the earthquake, Mr. Ma, the decommissioned soldier, keeps returning to the rubble of Xinjian. He smokes cigarette after cigarette and has not changed out of the Che Guevara T-shirt and blue jeans he wore on that frantic afternoon.
“That’s where government officials send their children to nursery school,” he said, pointing to the undamaged, yellow-tiled kindergarten.
Mr. Ma saved several children the day of the disaster but cannot shake the memory of one girl. Her leg had been pinned beneath a heavy concrete slab. Two small cranes had failed to free her. Her body temperature was quickly dropping. So Mr. Ma told her father, “She can keep her leg or her life.”
The father was led away. Mr. Ma used a serrated knife he kept in his jeans. He said the job took three cuts across the girl’s shin. “She will hate me when she is older if she has trouble with love,” he said with a grim smile.
He does not know the girl’s name. “I have dreams every night,” he said. “She was very pretty. Very strong.”
Deadly Engineering Shortcuts
Techniques for fortifying buildings to withstand earthquakes have been clearly understood for decades. Use high-quality concrete. Embed extra iron rods. Tie them tightly into bundles with strong wire. Ensure that components of floors, walls and columns are firmly attached. Pay special attention to columns, which are the key to having a building sway rather than topple.
Engineers are already trying to assess how much of the destruction on May 12 should be attributed to faulty construction during China’s long and often helter-skelter building boom. The earthquake was so powerful, measuring at least 7.9 in magnitude, that a certain amount of damage could not be prevented. But engineering experts say Xinjian and some other schools in Sichuan were especially vulnerable.
Six structural engineers and earthquake experts asked by The New York Times to analyze an online photographic slide show of the wreckage at Xinjian concluded, independently, that inadequate steel reinforcement, or rebar, was used in the concrete columns supporting the school. They also found that the school’s precast, hollow concrete slab floors and walls did not appear to be securely joined together.
The widespread use of cheap, hollow slab floors is significant because numerous buildings with the same flooring collapsed during another Chinese earthquake in 1976, which devastated the city of Tangshan and killed at least 240,000. (A few buildings with the same flooring also fared poorly during the 1994 earthquake in Southern California.)
“If the hollow core slabs are not adequately tied to the lateral frames, which seems to be the case in the photos, the structures are likely very flexible and would undergo large deformations under severe ground motions,” said Mary Beth Hueste, an associate professor of engineering at Texas A&M University, in an e-mail message.
When such components are not securely joined, they are “extremely dangerous, like time bombs,” said Xiao Yan, an expert in earthquake-resistant designs at the University of Southern California.
The most pronounced failing at Xinjian seemed to be inadequate steel reinforcement of the concrete columns supporting the school, experts said. There were too few rebar reinforcing rods and too little of the thin binding wire that holds the rebar together. And, critically, the steel bindings attaching the concrete flooring slabs were inadequate.
Xiaonian Duan, an engineer specializing in earthquake resilience for Arup, a multinational design consulting company whose head office is in London, said that concrete flooring panels fall apart during an earthquake if not strongly attached, “like we see Legos collapse.”
The Chinese government has known that many schools, especially in rural areas, are unsafe. Since 2001, the State Council, China’s cabinet, has budgeted roughly $1.5 billion for a nationwide program to repair dangerous schools in rural areas. In 2006, Sichuan Province’s government issued an urgent notice calling for localities to stop using substandard primary and middle schools.
“Unsafe buildings are the major hidden danger of school safety at present, and in recent years, accidents with death tolls and injuries were caused by collapsed schools,” the provincial notice warned.
Dr. Xiao toured the disaster zone after this month’s earthquake and found that many of the problems at Xinjian were common elsewhere. He said one reason for the widespread damage was that buildings in the region were not required to meet China’s most stringent standards for seismic protection. He also noted that China rates overall building design codes from 1 to 4. Buildings rated 1 are considered “important” and must meet stricter design requirements. But the system rates schools only as a 3, which means no additional design protections are needed.
In the aftermath of the quake, a handful of bricklayers and builders have visited Xinjian Primary School out of professional curiosity. A builder from nearby Meishan City recognized the faulty columns and flooring problems. Then he picked up a chunk of concrete from the rubble and rubbed it in his hands.
“The ratio of sand and concrete isn’t right,” he said. “It fell down because of cheap materials.”
In Search of Justice
The parents of Xinjian Primary School posted an online petition last Wednesday. They demanded justice for their children. Local police officials have promised an investigation, but the parents are not satisfied. They intend to protest again.
School represents hope in China. The parents do not express it exactly like that, but they saw education as their children’s only chance. The cement factory that employed many parents — and provided cement for the school — went bankrupt in 2002. They now collect small welfare payments and hold down odd jobs to support their families.
Liao Minhui had aspirations for his daughter. He knew that Xinjian was considered inferior and that a better school might help her find a better life. So he tried to wheedle her into Beijie, the elite school. He said he offered thousands of yuan to gain her admission, to no avail. She died in the Xinjian rubble.
“I tried very hard,” Mr. Liao said. “I tried to get help from every well-connected friend I have. Everything there is the best. The teachers are the best. The facilities are the best.”
Jiang Xuezheng, 41, is a small, wiry man whose simple manner betrays his country upbringing in a village about 200 miles away. He has sold fruit in Dujiangyan for nearly a decade to support his family back in the village. But to do this, he lived apart from his son for eight years.
So last year, Mr. Jiang also paid to try to win his child admission to a city school. He chose Xinjian. To him, a peasant, a city school like Xinjian represented a step up. He paid a $1,400 fee to make the switch. His 9-year-old boy was admitted in September.
“My parents are still in the countryside, but I wanted my son to live with me,” said Mr. Jiang, bowing his head and weeping. “I waited for eight years. Finally, I was together with my son.
“And then tragedy happens.”
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: May 28, 2008
An article on Sunday about the collapse of poorly built schools during the May 12
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on April 19th, 2007 at 03:05 PM I'm curious - when you say 'blocking', do you mean that you were always recieving rejections, or that your emails just disappeared? I'm having issues today with my domain's emails never even showing up in the hotmail inbox even though I see it hit the hotmail mx without any issue.
on April 23rd, 2007 at 01:53 AM Sorry for my delayed response... My emails just disappeared. It sounds like you are having the same problem I was having. Does the domain you're having problems with have an SPF record setup? p.s. I'm a big fan of joelonsoftware.com :)
on April 23rd, 2007 at 02:29 AM Read it. http://www.iis-aid.com/articles/iis_aid_news/are_hotmail_cutting_their_own_throat i think its a general problem with hotmail. We all should sue them for this...
on April 23rd, 2007 at 10:09 AM Marc - thanks for the reply. I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who is seeing this. It's also good to see that Ramiro feels my pain. We recently added two new email servers into our configuration, which were added to SPF early last week. Still, today, we have no such luck sending emails. I will try emailing the address you mentioned to get this domain added to the 'safe list'. It's pretty ridiculous, as I would expect a standard rejection if they weren't going to accept my mail. Thanks again, and I'm glad to hear that you like JoS!
on April 24th, 2007 at 12:51 AM
When Microsoft emailed me, they asked me to do the following, which might be useful for you:
From your mail server telnet to mx1.hotmail.com 25
If you can connect then do the following:
If you can do all that from your mail server, but your email still isn’t getting through, then I would definitely suggest contacting Microsoft support.
You should also try that with your hotmail account instead of randomtestacct@hotmail.com to see if it gets through.
Good luck!
on November 1st, 2007 at 02:34 AM
I came across another page which might be of use to some people today:
SenderID Support
By using that page you can add your domain to the SenderID program if you have a valid SPF record. For our domain we do have a valid SPF record, but of course the SenderID program couldn’t figure it out. I’m waiting to hear back from Microsoft, but I’ll keep you posted here.