• 234 Posts
  • 22 Comments
Joined 5 months ago
cake
Cake day: June 26th, 2024

help-circle
















  • This is maybe a devastating example why centralization and central planning is a bad and dehumanizing act for individuals in a society. There is a good documentary about China’s so-called “Ghost Children”. These are those who were born as younger siblings during China’s One Child policy.

    The documentary was made in 2014. It shows how quickly things can change, and how people suffer now and then due to bad politics.

    It’s really worth your time.

    China’s Ghost Children – (video, 36 min)

    Second or third children born illegally during China’s One Child Policy - implemented between 1979 and 2015 to curb the country’s population growth by restricting many families to a single child - are banned from marrying, having children or simply boarding a train. Condemned to a non-life, these ghost children do not officially exist according to the Chinese state. ARTE Reportage goes in search of these ‘Haihaizi’, those children who should not have been born.

    [Edit typo.]















  • Imprisoned Iranian Nobel Peace Laureate Narges Mohammadi Denied Urgent Medical Treatment — (Archived)

    The Islamic Republic of Iran is deliberately withholding critical medical care from renowned Nobel Peace laureate Narges Mohammadi, who is unjustly imprisoned in Tehran’s infamous Evin Prison for her courageous and peaceful human rights advocacy.

    Mohammadi is suffering from serious cardiac issues, long-standing gastrointestinal disorders, and most recently, painful spinal injuries. Iran’s prison authorities have not allowed her to receive full or proper treatment for any of these medical issues.

    “Iranian authorities are not only unlawfully depriving a Nobel Peace laureate of her freedom but also jeopardizing her life by denying her essential medical care. Narges Mohammadi’s deteriorating condition underscores the Islamic Republic’s brutal and lawless treatment of human rights defenders,” said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI).




  • The PRC intentionally deflated private companies that it felt needed deflation (e.g. construction sector)

    The PRC didn’t “intentionally deflate” private companies, not in the construction sector nor in any sector.

    The property crisis in China may have a few reason, but one of them clearly is the failure of a centrally-planned economy. The state was putting in ever more money in a market without demand. The result are ‘ghost towns’ and unfinished buildings that are often in such a poor state that they must be demolished. Problem is that many ordinary Chinese people already poured their savings into property that never get build. (One detail here: such pre-payments in China typically run much higher than in the Europe and the U.S. as a share of the purchase price. It’s not very funny for the people effected.)

    China doesn’t ‘intentionally deflate’ private companies but will be forced to direct more state-owned money to solve the issue as private foreign creditors aren’t an option. They won’t return to a Chinese property bond market where they’ve lost already more than USD 10 billion. And there is a risk that a lot of those private companies which have already been engaged for some time will again lose money. In the future, however, China would need more private businesses. More market, less state. A country that is more open to the world. Such a policy would support Chinese people in the long run. It’s just that most observers aren’t too optimistic that this will happen anytime soon.