[IP] Re: Jay-Z, Starbucks Symbolize China's Real Problems: Wi

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: steven cherry <steven@panix.com>
Date: January 29, 2007 4:27:10 AM EST
To: dave@farber.net
Subject: [IP] Re: Jay-Z, Starbucks Symbolize China's Real Problems: Wi

Dave, I happen to be in China this week (Shanghai, not Beijing), and  
so this discussion is of special interest. James made a rhetorical  
error by choosing the Louvre or any museum. A better question would  
be whether we would put a Starbucks right in front of the Lincoln  
Memorial or the Vietnam wall of names. But Pesek isn't really  
concerned with the Forbidden City, it's China's "clampdowns" against  
Starbucks and Jay-Z that concern him.

Well, not actually clampdowns, since, as Pesek acknowledges a  
paragraph later, "Starbucks is up against a popular movement to toss  
its single outlet out of the Forbidden City." Which is it? China is  
too repressive and needs more "grassroots activism" but has too many  
"popular movements"?

But Pesek doesn't really care about Starbucks and Jay-Z either;  
they're just hooks on which he can hang his not-very-original rant  
against China. Indeed, his only original point seems to be wanting to  
tell Chinese bloggers what to say and do. "It would be nice to see a  
groundswell of support for clamping down on those offering pirated  
DVDs inside the Forbidden City." Well, it would be equally nice to  
see American bloggers call for a clampdown on the sale of pirated  
DVDs on the streets and subway tunnels of Manhattan.

"They should call for action on China's graying skies and polluted  
rivers." Of course, China is already doing quite a lot to clean up  
its graying skies and polluted rivers. Of course it's also doing  
quite a lot to pollute them in the first place, but it's also trying  
to have an entire 19th-century-American industrial revolution, and a  
20th century computer revolution, all at once. Yet by 2015 or so,  
China hopes to have five model eco-cities for itself and the world to  
learn from (I'm here finding out about one of them). How many will  
the U.S. have?

"They should address the corruption that keeps China's 10 percent  
growth from trickling down to those who most need it." Interesting  
point. How much of America's anemic economic growth has trickled down  
to those who most need it last year, or over the past five years for  
that matter?

Pesek writes that "As an American, you wouldn't catch me in an  
overseas McDonald's or KFC. Yet I rarely mind stepping into a  
Starbucks on a brisk morning in Beijing". It's an interesting double  
standard; it's not as if what Starbucks serves is any healthier than  
MacDonald's; arguably less so in fact. From top to bottom, Pesek's  
commentary seems all about form without substance.

China has real problems, and it's working on them. Many of them  
involve some tough choices, such as the clean hydropower of Three  
Gorges Dam that displaced millions of people and greatly altered one  
of the largest river basins in the world. Censorship is another of  
those tough choices. We may not agree with all of the choices it's  
making. The more discussion of them, the better, by journalists, by  
bloggers, by the government itself. But let's have real, informed  
discussion, not pointless anecdote and mindless commentary.

 Steven

--
   Steven Cherry, +1 212-419-7566
   Senior Associate Editor
   IEEE Spectrum, 3 Park Ave,  New York, NY 10016
   <s.cherry@ieee.org>  <http://www.spectrum.ieee.org>


At 2:39 PM -0500 1/24/07, David Farber wrote:
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: Christian Huitema <huitema@windows.microsoft.com>
> Date: January 24, 2007 2:38:41 AM EST
> To: dave@farber.net
> Subject: RE: [IP] Re: Jay-Z, Starbucks Symbolize China's Real  
> Problems: Wi
>
> James Seng wrote that he doesn't "see a Starbuck inside Louvre  
> Museum." Actually, according to the web site of Starbucks in France  
> (http://starbucks.fr/en/store_locator.htm) there is indeed one:  
> Starbucks Musée du Louvre - Allée du Grand Louvre - 75001 Paris.  
> Open and close at the same time as the museum...
>
> -- Christian Huitema


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