{"id":2063,"date":"2008-05-16T08:37:29","date_gmt":"2008-05-16T12:37:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=2063"},"modified":"2008-05-16T08:40:35","modified_gmt":"2008-05-16T12:40:35","slug":"china-on-the-mississippi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/china-on-the-mississippi","title":{"rendered":"China on the Mississippi?"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I write about how the NYSun<\/a> is the Official Newspaper of Gil Roth, please keep in mind that I’m referring to its arts, culture and sports writing. Its op-ed section, on the other hand, can get pretty wacky.<\/p>\n

Take today’s piece by Gordon Chang, for example. A Communist-Made Disaster<\/a> discusses how the huge death-toll from the earthquake in China can be chalked up to policies of the communist party (he doesn’t blame the earthquake itself on the party; that’s India’s fault) and the local corruption that the regime breeds.<\/p>\n

Mr. Chang seems to be arguing that a democratic system would push for regulation of building standards, deter public officials from skimming off or mis-allocating taxpayer funds, and allow the people to hold the government responsible for building safer schools.<\/p>\n

All of which made me wonder, “Has Mr. Chang heard of New Orleans?”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I write about how the NYSun is the Official Newspaper of Gil Roth, please keep in mind that I’m referring to its arts, culture and sports writing. Its op-ed section, on the other hand, can get pretty wacky. Take today’s piece by Gordon Chang, for example. A Communist-Made Disaster discusses how the huge death-toll … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “China on the Mississippi?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[128],"class_list":["post-2063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-orleans","tag-new-york-sun"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-xh","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2133,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/thats-one-fierce-embrace-you-got-there","url_meta":{"origin":2063,"position":0},"title":"That’s one fierce embrace you got there…","author":"Gil","date":"July 14, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"A few weeks ago, I goofed on NYTimes writer Nicolai Ouroussoff's starchitecture rimjob about planned cities. I contrasted it with a second NYTimes article that discussed the moral quandary of taking commissions from dictatorships. In yesterday's NYTimes, Ouroussoff managed to top himself, going gaga over the starchitecture in Beijing, conflating\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Architecture"","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8655,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-113-palimpsest","url_meta":{"origin":2063,"position":1},"title":"Episode 113 – Palimpsest","author":"Gil","date":"April 6, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show: Michael Meyer - Palimpsest \"When you look at the history of northeast China, it's all successive regimes that have tried to import their version of civilization into this area, and they've all failed.\" When he was a kid in Minnesota, Michael Meyer papered his walls with National\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/16842769440_f3a3152bcf_o-e1508243855680.jpg?fit=892%2C781&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/16842769440_f3a3152bcf_o-e1508243855680.jpg?fit=892%2C781&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/16842769440_f3a3152bcf_o-e1508243855680.jpg?fit=892%2C781&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/16842769440_f3a3152bcf_o-e1508243855680.jpg?fit=892%2C781&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1441,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/lifes-rich-pageant","url_meta":{"origin":2063,"position":2},"title":"Life’s Rich Pageant","author":"Gil","date":"April 9, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Design Observer has a neat article about Rem Koolhaas and his CCTV building in Beijing. I'm on record -- as much as this blog serves as record -- as saying that there's no goddamn way that building is going to stand up. But evidently it's at 14 stories and rising.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Architecture"","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":938,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/one-shot-at-history","url_meta":{"origin":2063,"position":3},"title":"One Shot at History","author":"Gil","date":"May 3, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I find the figure of Lee Harvey Oswald fascinating. The more facts we know, the less of a complete picture we get of the guy. Ron Rosenbaum has a neat essay on the JFK assassination theorists in his big collection, The Secret Parts of Fortune, that (to me) forms a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics (explicit)"","block_context":{"text":"Politics (explicit)","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/politics-explicit"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1795,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/china-syndrome-part-2467","url_meta":{"origin":2063,"position":4},"title":"China Syndrome, Part 2467","author":"Gil","date":"November 24, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"For a one-party dictatorship, China's government is remarkably ineffective at getting the locals to follow orders: \"Understanding is not adequate, responsibilities are unclear, measures are not complementary, policies are incomplete, investment doesn't arrive, and coordination is ineffective,\" China\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s premier, Wen Jiabao, complained bitterly.","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1530,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/regulatory-overkill","url_meta":{"origin":2063,"position":5},"title":"Regulatory Overkill?","author":"Gil","date":"May 30, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"[Excerpted from this month's From the Editor column at my magazine.] In last June's From the Editor page, I wrote about a scandal involving Chinese \"innovation,\" namely a rip-off that literally involved scraping a western company's name off of cell-phone chips and painting a Chinese company's name on them. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2063\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}