dagblog - Comments for "Knife attack at train station leaves dozens dead in south-west China"

P.S. There's been plenty of

artappraiser — Wed, 12 Mar 2014 01:28:09 +0000

P.S. There's been plenty of examples of crazy people executing knife attacks in China with numerous casualties in the recent past.

But they didn't see this response, noted by Osnos: A message in wide circulation declared, “We are all Kunmingers.”

P.P.S. Holy smokes, look at what I just found serendipitously just now by googling "Mongol knives" before I hit "save" on this comment:

http://www.gokunming.com/en/forums/thread/8493/tonghai_or_mongol_type_kn...

Note it's from 9 months ago.

Yes! That is what I was

artappraiser — Wed, 12 Mar 2014 00:54:49 +0000

In reply to The comparisons Osnos makes

Yes! That is what I was thinking too, moat. Well said!

We will probably not be able to get the real "iconography" here for quite a long time because of the government's need to control the narrative. Though I think the Chinese powers-that-be would be wise to be explaining such things honestly in international anti-terror meets, even if still trying to spin another public narrative, I suspect their pride will not allow them.

The comparisons Osnos makes

moat — Tue, 11 Mar 2014 23:48:50 +0000

In reply to From the author who wrote the

The comparisons Osnos makes with the Soviet experience with ethnic division is interesting.

His perspective strengthens my suspicion that the use of short swords to do the killing was part of the message rather than it being a case of violent intentions making do with less powerful weapons.

There is a grammar of violence being used here that is difficult to understand.

People going through security

artappraiser — Tue, 11 Mar 2014 22:30:07 +0000

In reply to Knife attack at train station leaves dozens dead in south-west China

People going through security at Tiantongyuan north station on Line 5 of the Beijing Subway this morning pic.twitter.com/WKiI4EwWuW
— Offbeat China (@OffbeatChina) March 7, 2014

Rumor on Weibo: The name of a Uighur passanger on the crashed plane was "mosaiced" on released name list pic.twitter.com/cr4OZz4D87
— Offbeat China (@OffbeatChina) March 8, 2014

Do you remember how we ended

Verified Atheist — Fri, 07 Mar 2014 14:12:50 +0000

In reply to I don't know AA but it is a

Do you remember how we ended up beating the aliens in Independence Day? That was my tribe (i.e., the nerds) thankyouverymuch.

and Just sayin'...

Verified Atheist — Fri, 07 Mar 2014 14:10:39 +0000

In reply to Environmental adaptation.

and

Just sayin'…

From the author who wrote the

artappraiser — Tue, 04 Mar 2014 19:50:29 +0000

In reply to Knife attack at train station leaves dozens dead in south-west China

From the author who wrote the "Letter from China" column @ The New Yorker for years:

After 3/1: The Dangers of China’s Ethnic Divide
By Evan Osnos, News Desk @ newyorker.com, March 3, 2014

Violence as savage and public as the massacre that took place at a Chinese train station on Saturday shocks the chemistry of a country in a way that years of more remote, simmering conflict do not. Acts of such spectacular violence exert unpredictable forces on the public and on the leaders who are charged with protecting it, transforming judgments of when and how to use force and decisions about what can be sacrificed in the name of security, as well as the definitions of citizenship, patriotism, and innocence. Rarely do they leave anyone better off than they were before.

When eight assailants armed with foot-long sabers set upon men and women in the southwestern city of Kunming, killing at least twenty-nine people and injuring a hundred and forty-three, they struck in a place and a manner that nobody in China had anticipated. For all its epic history of bloodshed, the People’s Republic is unaccustomed to this kind of threat against citizens going about their daily lives, and, by day’s end, the attack was seared into public consciousness in a way that, since 9/11, has become customary for these moments around the world: it is the 3/1 incident. A message in wide circulation declared, “We are all Kunmingers.”

Chinese authorities say the attack was “orchestrated by Xinjiang separatists [....]

Environmental adaptation

artappraiser — Tue, 04 Mar 2014 18:22:28 +0000

In reply to Environmental adaptation.

Environmental adaptation means adapting, changing to new situations and new threats. That would mean not sticking with exactly the same thing that was an appropriate response to human society's environment of 200+ years ago, that would mean altering it according to new needs.

Environmental adaptation.

Resistance — Tue, 04 Mar 2014 17:34:33 +0000

In reply to Pod-people are genetically

Environmental adaptation. Guns protect our species.

Edited to add Nobody messes with these

Pod-people are genetically

PeraclesPlease — Tue, 04 Mar 2014 14:09:10 +0000

In reply to A TOS violater !!!! Try

Pod-people are genetically modified? If only we'd had guns.... ;-)