Does the truth really matter?
Today, what did I do, oh yeah. I had lunch with Yumi at this really great Yunnan Province Styled resturant. Its from the place I visited during New Years break. The food was really really really good. If my folks and brother ever come to this country, they will love the food. Thats for sure. So many good places here. However, I think my mom wouldn't be able to deal with all the spicy stuff. Oh, and the MSG will cause problems maybe. I just need to remember how to say, "Don't use MSG."
After lunch, I came back here and spent alot of time on Chinese practice. Peter showed up with Nick. Nick just got back from meeting his dad in Hong Kong. He brought back a bunch of junk. Included were some footballs that Peter and Nick were showing people at English Corner. We started chatting. The topic of Koizumi's apology came up and I said that its a good thing just in general. Then Peter said, "Not when the chinese government censors it." Um...what? Apparently, the chinese have censored the entire apology. I just looked on the China news website...no mention of the apology at all. Mother... How can they censor it. It was at an international forum......AAARGGH!
This led us onto the topic that, "Does the truth really matter?" Apparently, Peter was chatting with a Foreign English Teacher online today or yesterday and he said that one of his classes he talked to his students about the Japanese Textbooks and how they gloss over the truth of wartime atrocities and he asked his students, "Does the Truth really matter?" And all the students said, "Hands down! It matters." So, the teacher showed them footage of the Tiannamen Square Massacre. The kids just sat there. "So...does the truth matter when you know nothing about it?"
People my age in China have no recollection of this event. Amy has heard of it, but thats it. Freaky. Nick mentioned that when he was teaching in Inner Mongolia, he tried doing a project, Design Your Own Country. Most of you computer geeks out there are aware of this website. You can choose your country's name, type of government, population, size, and many other things as well. I created one a while ago. I think it was a Totalitarian regime or something. It was quite humorous. But anywho, his students loved this project. Most of them really got into it. Then his supervisor told him, "You can't do that type of lesson here." Why not? The kids love it. Apparently, since it was a private school he was at, no problems arose, but the people said that if he had down that at a Public/Government Run School, the poop would have hit the fan. Craziness.
Oh, I just check the China website again, a new article has been posted. "A Look Back: The Anti-Japanese War 1937-1945". Great! I thought they were supposed to be trying to make positive turns to the stressing of Japan-China ties, not sabotaging them. I guess the government will continue to do this kinda shit until Japan doesn't get a seat on the UN council.
Something that has been busting my balls have been the fact that for some reason some people in this house leave lights on all over the place and leave the TV and DVD player on when not in use. I just shut the two applicances off. And I think they have been on for the past couple hours with no one using them. And the house people wonder why our electricity bill is so damn high.
Oh, good news, the DVDs are at the Lincoln Park Post Office right now. My bro has to go pick them up.
The rest of today I spent just studying and hanging out. Good nite all. Sleep well.