bbc michael buerk
October 2008 
Olympic Games 2008 in Beijing and China Bashing
Posted on Jul 31st, 2008
by 
Albert
Albert
Olympic Games 2008 will start soon, next week in Beijing.
Michael Buerk from BBC chairs a live debate examining the moral issues behind one of the week's news stories: combative, provocative and engaging. The Panel can be listened to.
The Moral Maze
When the Olympic flame is lit in Beijing on August the 8th, the focus will be on much more than the sport. China is now judged to be the world's 4th largest economy and is predicted to be the largest by 2050. But what has been the price of this economic boom?
China is accused of mercilessly plundering Africa in its vast appetite for natural resources and to turning a blind eye to human rights abuses in regimes such as Iran and Burma in favour of its business interests. So is China growing too fast turning it into to a 21st century global superpower with ruthless economic colonialist tendencies? And if so what are our moral obligations to stop them? Or has China bashing become a new Olympic sport - a modern day manifestation of the 1950's "Yellow Peril"? And is the panic being driven by our own fears about the declining power of the West alongside an irrational fear of an Eastern culture who's traditions and moral norms we little understand?
PANEL: Michael Buerk (Chair), Melanie Philips, Clifford Longley, Claire Fox, Michael Portillo.
My own take on this complex isssue is we need new forms of journalism and public communication in these global value spheres. Communities like the WELL did it .
BUT:
New global realities , large scale systems change, geopolitcal shifts and the emerging new multi-polar worlds needs new voices and lenses which seldom come together : neither in the bloggosphere and other virtual deevlopments nor in conventional journalism and media orbits.
I am adding some excerpt of a post of me to the SDi related learning forum.
" I see it as big challenge to communicate...without watering down spiral and integral standards - the whole complexity of such events in the public spheres. Journalists as Roger Cohen, Fareed Zakaria, Parag Khanna, Mark leonard, Gabor Steingart et al. have begun at least to adress again and again the global nexus and putting it into the light of emerging futures.
US Strategy guy Thomas PM Barnett -known as afficionado of Sino American Joint ventures - see here:
Recasting the Long War of Joint Sino-American Venture
drops this short notice in his blog:
Beijing and masking-up for the Games
A bit cynical? Not necessarily. However, as always lots of qualified explanation needed...A new journalism, how to be defined exactly - is needed. And he comments about Fareed Zakaria`s work this way:
Zakaria: a serious style emerges
Of course announcing already his own 2009 book: GREAT POWERS: AMERICA AND THE WORLD AFTER BUSH
My strong wish for completely new chapters in development of Spiral Dynamics Integral is to create new venues for transformative media and these emerging public spheres of geopolitical realities and global strata. "
Michael Buerk from BBC chairs a live debate examining the moral issues behind one of the week's news stories: combative, provocative and engaging. The Panel can be listened to.
The Moral Maze
When the Olympic flame is lit in Beijing on August the 8th, the focus will be on much more than the sport. China is now judged to be the world's 4th largest economy and is predicted to be the largest by 2050. But what has been the price of this economic boom?
China is accused of mercilessly plundering Africa in its vast appetite for natural resources and to turning a blind eye to human rights abuses in regimes such as Iran and Burma in favour of its business interests. So is China growing too fast turning it into to a 21st century global superpower with ruthless economic colonialist tendencies? And if so what are our moral obligations to stop them? Or has China bashing become a new Olympic sport - a modern day manifestation of the 1950's "Yellow Peril"? And is the panic being driven by our own fears about the declining power of the West alongside an irrational fear of an Eastern culture who's traditions and moral norms we little understand?
PANEL: Michael Buerk (Chair), Melanie Philips, Clifford Longley, Claire Fox, Michael Portillo.
My own take on this complex isssue is we need new forms of journalism and public communication in these global value spheres. Communities like the WELL did it .
BUT:
New global realities , large scale systems change, geopolitcal shifts and the emerging new multi-polar worlds needs new voices and lenses which seldom come together : neither in the bloggosphere and other virtual deevlopments nor in conventional journalism and media orbits.
I am adding some excerpt of a post of me to the SDi related learning forum.
" I see it as big challenge to communicate...without watering down spiral and integral standards - the whole complexity of such events in the public spheres. Journalists as Roger Cohen, Fareed Zakaria, Parag Khanna, Mark leonard, Gabor Steingart et al. have begun at least to adress again and again the global nexus and putting it into the light of emerging futures.
US Strategy guy Thomas PM Barnett -known as afficionado of Sino American Joint ventures - see here:
Recasting the Long War of Joint Sino-American Venture
drops this short notice in his blog:
Beijing and masking-up for the Games
A bit cynical? Not necessarily. However, as always lots of qualified explanation needed...A new journalism, how to be defined exactly - is needed. And he comments about Fareed Zakaria`s work this way:
Zakaria: a serious style emerges
Of course announcing already his own 2009 book: GREAT POWERS: AMERICA AND THE WORLD AFTER BUSH
My strong wish for completely new chapters in development of Spiral Dynamics Integral is to create new venues for transformative media and these emerging public spheres of geopolitical realities and global strata. "
Access: PublicTagged with: BBC. Michael Buerk, Large Scale Psychology, Olympics2008, China, Beijing, Thomas Barnett, Fareed Zakaria, Parag Khanna
Yes I agree. Somehow the ‘mass media’ never comes across as truly serving the information needs of the masses; quite the contrary. I simply don’t trust the reports [now] having observed how they usually serve the interests of specific entities while pushing down other weaker interests. It’s much like the ‘mass marketing’, traditional capitalist approach.
How to communicate to masses in sincerity? That is a very valid question that I’ll have to do my best to think about. I think that networks that prove themselves legitimate sources and that are willing to do a bit more than just blog and let go might be the way. For example, blog post and email and referrals also?
Really early stage thinking, but I’d say the more personal touch would make the difference. And directly focussed articles and summaries?
Interesting subject to explore. Thanks for writing. sherri
The basic challenge -so it seems to me and a growing number of globally aware citizens , professionals and players -is to change perspectives in depth.
A new world is arising.
Periodicals like the ONline Publication
www.theglobalist.com
are only the tip of newly emerging media landscape which does not only change the outfit. Interactivity, online Presence, Blogging etc. Not to mention the Metaverse with SL etc.
They express a new understanding of the global world. Transatlantic countries shaped for one century how the world is to be seen and defined.
Now the huge Asia Pacific and Mideast Epicenters plus BRIC states (Brazil, Russia, India, China) are emerging. And what about the African continent?
Collective attention in the media is shifting from West to East and North to South.
So even the term “masses” has to be redefined.
The Tibet Conflict –how can it be understood? No Peacenik from the Dalai Lama Orbit can explain it. No Chinese Journalist or scientist or poltician too.
Media are lenses for worldviews.
In Mideast Don Beck, Elza Maalouf, Said Dewlabani and the Palestinean leaders of Fatah are doing excellent work in an truly integrated approach of meshworking.
See:
http://www.che-mideast.org/
The so called clashes of civiiozation are not understood rightly by most people.
So the real 800 pound gorilla is not in new structures of media. Its in the in depth understanding of the underlying tectonic shifts of world realtiies.
Once again I recommend this presentation of Don Beck given at State of the World Forum some years ago:
Stages of Social Devlopment: The Cultural Dynamaics that Spark Violence, Spread Prosperity and Shape Globalization