Month: June 2004

6/4

Hong Kong Crowds Mark Tiananmen Square Killings (New York Times)

1989: I remember cutting out on my college summer job to read all of the news magazines emblazoned with that emblematic man in front of a tank photo. I felt that I needed to know a lot more.

1995: At a roundtable discussion at a study abroad at Hong Kong University, I got a snooty fatherly lecture from Alan Lee essentially saying that we had no business poking around Hong Kong politics, and that they knew better. Well, of course they would know better, but I thought the whole point of a study abroad was to go somewhere and find out more about the place. Martin Lee, by being far more pessimistic about the Basic Law, was far more supportive.

1997: Graduation from law school was on 6/4. Some East Asian professor from Columbia was the honorary degree recipient; never directly mentioned the significance of the day. Very curious.

2004: Fifteen years later, a cycle curves back onto itself much like the Chinese zodiac. Some people were threatened, many were scared, some became more wealthy and powerful, many became emboldened. No one can deny that many people were killed, and it is up to some to make sure that it is not repeated.

Reunion

I’m currently at Alma Mater to attend reunion events, but should have realized that my Saturday reunion plans are about to be de-railed by a dental appointment that I should have known was going to mess me up – so I should cancel, if I’ve any sense (and, likely I don’t). The weather’s nice, I’m on vacation, I ought to relax, but I’m not very good at it. Ugh. (I must be obsessed about blogging if I’m doing it right now, but the beauty of being on campus is the incredibly easy access to internet terminals; and it’s not like I’d blog from my computer at work).

There were links I meant to link to, since the Times had one or two interesting articles. Rather surprised by CIA Director George Tenet’s sudden resignation, but shouldn’t have been. Read a Vanity Fair article on Bill Clinton’s post-presidential life (good grief, was my reaction) and am not eagerly awaiting his book. Etc.

Back to trying to relax.