Posted on 11/26/2012 3:53:26 PM PST by BlueDragon
In the era whose secret he uncovered, a journalist's office would have looked just like the one where Yang Jisheng works now. The tiled floor, the grimy window panes, the desk piled two feet high with papers, envelopes and books. The Mao-era radiators. The cigarette ash and the dust.
Under Mao Zedong, Yang's good fortune was to find a job as a reporter with China's state-run Xinhua news agency. His misfortune had been to see his father die of hunger in 1961, at the height of the famine that killed an estimated 36 million people:
"When my dad died, I thought it was just my family's problem. I blamed myself because I hadn't gone back home to pick wild plants to feed my dad. Later on, the governor of Hubei province said millions of people had died. I was astonished," Yang says.
In the 1990s Yang, by now a senior editor at Xinhua, used his status to secretly research the truth about the famine in 12 different provincial archives:
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
I’m not seeing Terence P. Jeffrey’s claim in the following article reflecting the current debt clock (above post)...
Looks like some turkeys have been getting their wish, permanent get-out-of-jail-free cards, Merry Christsmas, and a Happy Birthday with lot's of presents, all rolled into one.
image from 2011
“Yang Jisheng: The man who discovered 36 million dead.”
Heh. I thought this was going to be about some guy looking into our recent election numbers.
We react with horror when we read 20th century’s history of concentration camps, mass starvation and deaths at the hands of the communists in China, socialists in Germany, the Maoists in Cambodia. These were all political regimes that demanded top down control by the state, enforced at the point of a gun. Millions and millions died for opposing the state, more died as innocent bystanders who just wanted to live and be left alone. We wonder how could the people let this happen?
Just don’t look at America’s truly innocent that just wanted to live their lives but never had a chance to take their first breath. The numbers are comparable.
We now call this euphemistically “health care” and some claim it is a right. Will we ever look back on our history and wonder how could the people let this happen?
Sounds like America’s left- ridicule anyone who questions Obama’s bogus economic figures...
I don't know. Perhaps someday, some remnant will realize. I'm wondering if or when that time comes, if that number will be as great as those who now see it, as you say.
China's past famines (not experienced nationwide?) were result of lack of proper vision, as Yang Jishen explained it. Government taking too much, leaving the people with scraps.
"for where there is no vision, the people perish"
and I've heard it said there is an art to taxing enough, but not too much, which if properly utilized, can help make way for greater prosperity for [nearly] all.
That was actually pretty funny. I propose if a Chinese national find wholesale voter fraud, and he can prove it, he be awarded full citizenship rights (as long as he denounces the Communist party. 'dem china commies, they were once big on the public denouncement sort of thing)
Will we ever look back on our history and wonder how could the people let this happen?
.
We must hope......
On that, let’s link Rummel from this thread in case anyone reading is unfamiliar with his work documenting democide.
Democide: The murder of any person or people by a government, including genocide, politicide, and mass murder.
More people were killed in the 20th Century by democide than by war. *Six* times as many, per Rummel.
20TH CENTURY DEMOCIDE
http://hawaii.edu/powerkills/20TH.HTM
55 million babies since Roe vs Wade are the US tally according to some figures.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.