Seven Jewish Children

BBC has vetoed to broadcast a radio version of Caryl Churchill's 'Seven Jewish Children' which was a response (and fundraiser) to the Israeli onslaught in Gaza and again impartiality was their raison d'etre. A cry of echo I hear of BBC also pulling the plug for the Gaza appeal.

The play centres around dialogues between parents and custodians of seven Jewish children through the ages of Holocaust leading to the invasion of Gaza. There is a strong suggestion that after historic traumas suffered under the hands of the Nazi's they have started to wave their own 'superiority'

'Tell her we are better haters. Tell her we're the chosen people. Tell her I look at one of their children covered in blood and what do I feel? Tell her I feel happy that it is not her' ends the play.

It is not so much a psychoanalysis of Israeli Jews as an outrage of what is happening in Gaza. Churchill never claims that this is the absolute psychological effects of WWII reflected in Gaza, she is simply drawing parallels as she sees them. Nor is it a definitive version of these parallels, there are many more. A counter argument/play could be produced.

I am not Jewish and cannot account for it on their behalf but after watching a presentation of this 10 minute piece I was shocked to hear some other Jewish friends of mine call it 'anti-semetic'. I feel that it is the 'anti-semetism' label has become red card, wave it and you're out. Surely, holding Israel accountable for what is a humanitarian wrong-doing and Zionism is anything but anti-semetic. If this is braodcasted then BBC would have the responsibility for those who can give a counter argument. And what is the BBC so afraid of? A bit of discussion? Well facilitate and chair it!

香港的位置 HK-a mere cameo in China.

Propaganda is rife in Hong Kong but what is so great is that these government romanticisms (even more so since 97) are open for debate and challenges, if only the people in HK dare. Do we question central government's decisions? Are we in any way influential in that process? How much power does Legco really have? And who is fighting for our right to elect our own head of state? And, in the end, are we asking for independence even tho nationalism is still a mother's milk to HK? How can we assert ourselves in the ever-advancing Republic that is China?
Been checking out http://www.plastichk.blogspot.com/
Come on Kongers don't limit these debates to radio airwaves and the internet. We only have another 38 years left until Central governemnt can say 'One country, two systems' is not working. The democratic party's absence from LegCo. for those 5-6 years after handover has already done irrepairable damage. The people who, in my mother's opinion, were pioneers of social democracy in her student days are now mostly slated, redcued to players of tabloid scandals or anti-governmental pests... sigh.

Dream. Think. Speak. Act.

EFL

'Are you waiting for the 11C?' asked a lady in her mid-40s in Chinese, leaning slightly too close to me. And for a split second I hesitated, not because I wasn't sure which bus I was waiting for but because I wasn't sure which language to reply in. After 15 years in the UK, I often find myself more comfortable expressing myself in English than in Cantonese, which in a sense is my first language. But at that precise moment, to answer in English to another Chinese seemed unnatural, if not a little arrogant. Most Chinese people I know over here, seem to go through the same thing, as well as the fact that I am always a bit unsure as to which dialect they would speak in, they are from Shanghai, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and HK, clumped together in the British dispora. I glanced around, as if checking to see if she was really talking to me, and having ascertained that 'yes Gabby, it's you she's talking to', I finally answered, in Chinese, 'I'm waiting for the 11A, 11C is on the other side of the road.'

Chinglish!