Left Flank

Tion Kwa captures in one neat essay how unsettling Beijing's opening ceremony appeared to free, modern East Asians.

What I found particularly disquieting about the opening ceremony in Beijing was the mass sublimation of individuality in the service of the state. The conformity to script and attention to stage direction by a cast of thousands, while awe inspiring, also represents a negation of the creativity of self-expression. Of course, there is choreographed order in Western dance and music as well. But there was something about the Chinese government's ability to stage-manage so many thousands so precisely that set this show apart from anything undertaken even by Cecil B. DeMille or Las Vegas.

No one would suggest that Zhang Yimou, the Chinese filmmaker who directed the opening night gala, or the other choreographers and artists involved were simply out to score a point for communism. But, while the Chinese authorities wanted the Olympics to showcase a China that is industrializing, modern, and prosperous, it unwittingly put on a display that recalled the Mao-era mass parades in Tiananmen Square, albeit with much advanced technology and pyrotechnics.

It is not easy to think of such a display as being in line with modern norms. The Chinese economy may be more market-oriented today than ever before, but, because the Communist Party is still in charge, China remains out of sync with those parts of Asia and the rest of the world where communism has long since come to be viewed as an anachronistic oddity.

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Dominique Moisi argues that Russia's recent invasion of Georgia is imperialistic, not cold war, behavior.

The current crisis in the Caucasus does not mark the return of the Cold War, nor is it likely to mark the start of open warfare between Russia and the West; it is, more simply, the return of the traditional imperialism practiced by the Russian Empire more than a century ago.

China is, with the exception of Tibet, a satisfied and confident status-quo empire. Russia by contrast is a revisionist imperialist power, whose lack of self-confidence is returning to haunt the world.

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I'm in no way defending the LPGA and its new English-language policy. Defend the game of golf? The sport that has only recently allowed non-whites even to appear with a golf club unsupervised? Damn, there just aren't any dream jobs that don't actually require learning, or commitment, out there anymore.

Padraig Harrington, who has won the last two majors, wondered if the LPGA Tour is taking on too much. Like others, he wants to know how much English a player is supposed to learn to be «effective.»

«Surely if you can say, 'Hello,' that's English. Is that good enough?» he said. «Who draws the line about how many words you've got to know in English? What if you have a person who genuinely struggles with learning a new language; they have a learning disability? That's tough to ask somebody with a learning disability, who might have found golf as the saving grace in their life, to ask them to learn a different language or else you can't play.

«There's a lot of different issues to that,» he said. «It's a big step to actually put it out there.»

Pardon me if I just don't see the problem, when my students stress over a single, picayune grammar rule or word that might appear on a test, or just don't speak because they tremble at the thought of an error. Or, normal people need to go to classes for skills training.

Here's a solution:

In the case of the South Koreans, hiring a full-time interpreter for every event would be a good start to solving the precarious situation in which the LPGA Tour and its membership currently find themselves.

But fining, docking access to tournaments, etc.? Aren't there laws against that sort of discrimination in the US? What is the inverse-GITMO exception for bad corporations where onerous American laws don't apply to foreigners? If an adult (or coterie of groupies arrayed around their sugar beast of burden) can't figure out the trade-offs of learning a foreign language in a foreign country, or an American association can't objectively understand what its foreign membership has to deal with in their mutually-advantageous roles, well, corporations rise and fall pretty quickly. Who needs an LPGA?

Shut up, you whiners!

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I'm voting for Barack Obama, not just because I'm a registered Democrat, but because, based on his acceptance speech, he is the better choice. Firstly, I respect a man who says he doesn't want a nasty fight, but who will debate his opponent. Secondly, Obama's rhetoric struck a chord with themes I believe in. Lastly, he nailed it.

There's also this bemusing endorsement by The Economist of John McCain, which also, ironically, causes me not to respect the Republican candidate.

Mr McCain used to be a passionate believer in limited government and sound public finances; a man with some distaste for conservative Republicanism and its obsession with reproductive matters. On the stump, though, he has offered big tax cuts for business and the rich that he is unable to pay for, and he is much more polite to the religious right, whom he once called «agents of intolerance». He has engaged in pretty naked populism, too, for instance in calling for a «gas-tax holiday». If this is all just a gimmick to keep his party's right wing happy, it may disappear again. But that is quite a gamble to take.

Two months remain before the election, more than enough time for Mr McCain to allay some of these worries. He needs to spend less time reassuring evangelicals that he agrees with them about abortion and gay marriage, and more time having another look at his tax plans. The old John McCain attacked Mr Bush for his tax cuts, which he said were unaffordable. The new John McCain not only wants to make the Bush tax cuts permanent, but wants to add to them by virtually eliminating estate tax (something that would benefit a tiny number of very rich families, like his own). He also proposes to slash corporation tax. People on middle incomes would see little benefit. Independent analysts agree that Mr McCain's plans would increase an already huge deficit.

Hawkish foreign policy, irresponsible tax cuts, more talk about religion and abortion: all this sounds too much like Bush Three, the label the Democrats are trying to hang around the Republican's neck. We preferred McCain One.

I like the Barack OBama that doesn't come in flexible marketing versions.

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