枯荣双树

Face and Connection are two most noticeable concepts to understand in Chinese culture. Face stands for personal dignity and social recognition, while connection determines one's capability to accomplish a task, and especially how much social resources he can collect to finish it. In another word, if a Chinese has good connections, he can get whatever he want with the help of others by giving him face. China is a country with long history and famous for proper manners, as the Confucianists told us to "to give a plum in return for a peach", in modern term is to return a favor with a favor. By giving others face when they come to you, another time when you need a favor others will also give you face, Chinese connections can be built based on this assumption, and our ancestors taught us not to fail to see whole for the part, so once connections were built, one can benefit from them for his whole life time, but if one accidentally make others lose face, the action may ruin the long term connections and change people's good feeling about you. For above reasons Chinese put face into a remarkable high position in their social intercourses.
When Chinese deal with foreigners, sometimes they showed too much hospitality, although from a good will, it's always make foreigners feel uncomfortable, and because foreigners don't know the importance of face-saving in Chinese culture, they will complain about their uncomfortable and make their Chinese host feel losing their faces, and this is a classic mistake which always cause embarrassment and misunderstanding in China.
The way to make connections in China is the same way to make friends. Chinese people are basically friendly. When you get to know Chinese people, they will take you to eat Chinese food, spend Chinese holidays, or go to Chinese culture events, see what they do, and learn why they did it, is really helpful for you to understand the culture. Another good way is to plan a trip with your Chinese friend to some place more inside China, other than big cities like Beijing, Shanghai or Shenzhen, during the trip you will definately see and get to know a lot. When you and your Chinese friend get really close, it's also a good choice to spend a holiday or festival with his family. If you truely understand the importance of face and make no mistakes, it's reasonable to believe you can develop a strong and sustainable network of connections here in China.

If corrption can be imputed to absolute power, losing faith and position trade history, and suppose Steven N.S. Cheung was right about corruption cannot be fully wiped out, then the way to alleviate corruption, or let's say it in another way, to stop corruption from devastating our nation and our people, is not as simple as just to increase the allowance of government officials. We cannot choose another history or change the current one, and since it takes a long time and collaborative efforts for Chinese to find a faith again, practically we should focus on how to deal with absolute power.
Lacking of supervision has everything to do with absolute power, and based on the analysis above we know the current supervision is neither effective nor efficient. There are two possible solutions to develop necessary supervision on government power, one is reform from inside of the system and the other is from outside. Reform from inside of the system means the Party should resume the political reform which they stopped after 1989. Now in all Communism regimes China was lagged behind Vietnam in political reform, and 20 years after Tian'anmen Incident China had only make some experiments of democratic election in village level, compared to topdown reforms Vietnam adapted. China has a large group of Conservatives and the pursue of stability requires a gradual reform, instead of a radical one, and from history we can see the secretary general of CCP was deeply influenced by old comrades in high positions, so CCP may not possibly collapse like the former CCCP Soviet Union did. If the political reform was just in time before corruption bring this regime down, then there will be a third party to supervise the behavior of the government and terminate the status quo that the Party equals to the government. CCP claimed that current system of People's congress Council is selected by the people and can represent people's benefit, but the truth is neither do we know the so-called People's Representative, let alone his political view, nor does he know about our benefit. In most circumstances the Party choosed two candidate already and held a symbolic election that participants have been told to select one of them as their "Representative", regardless of who they really want to choose to represent their benefit.
Consider the degree of difficulty for a systematic reform, we should also rely on outside motivations of public pressure and foreign denouncement. It was proved that public pressure, especially via internet, was a good way to disclose and deal with corruption, because internet breaks the news blackout and regional restriction, and internet can change a certain corruption happened even in a small place nobody knows to a head-line news with national attention, it helps to accelerate the process of handling corruption and for fear of losing people's support or central government's trust local official will sacrifice the unlucky one to ease people's fury. Public pressure didn't work every time but at least provide a channel for ordinary people to challenge corrupted government officials. Key to utilize public pressure is the proper extent, if pressure evolve to a riot then the only consequence is no doubt a brutal suppression. Foreign denouncement can also play a positive role on stopping corruption, since Chinese government cares about oversea comments and don't want to be diplomatically isolated again. For a long time Chinese economic development relied on increasing foreign direct investments (FDIs), and corruption among one of the major concerns for foreign investors. CCP don't want foreign denouncement to intimidate foreign investments and lose confident on Chinese investment environment. As a growing developing country which was also pointed to be biggest beneficiary in recent financial crisis, China was not getting used to give out orders, and rather to be a good listener to the outside world, so a continuous international pressure helps to set up alarm to the government and reduce conservative influences.
An important thing for us ordinary people to do is to cultivate an uncompromising attitude towards corruption. We should not only throw away our own corruption ideas but also tolerate corruptions happened before us no more. Chinese suffered a lot in history not because they were untamable but because they are too tolerable about anything, even their freedom and happiness. They tend to rely on not thinking and do whatever authorities told them to do, and most of revolts were trying to seek for a better leader to rule them. They were easily be satisfied by something to eat and some place to stay, regardless how bad the food tastes and how shabby the place is. If individual don't fight for his own right, then nobody else will, and if you think corruption is not your responsibility, then nobody should be responsible, and leave the situation get worse and worse. In my pointview stop corruption is a collaborative work and if people believe in themselves and dedicate to this work, we can get together to make a change, to give evidence to what Chairman Mao said 79 years ago about little fire can lit up the whole grassland, which he himself might not expected to be used to go against corruption in the regime he founded.

Absolute power is the hotbed for corruption. Steven N.S. Cheung had a great metaphor that if you put a beautiful naked woman in his bathtub, it's impossible  for him to be not excited. He thought a clarification of individual property right is the key to stop corruption, but he also mentioned that corruption is hard to be exterminated when the society is going through a trasition. That's because any form of government control create the opportunity for corruption, as long as government control exists, corruption cannot disappear. He believed that in order to carry on the transition government should respect interest groups, and compansate their lost during the trasition, if government don't do that, they will corrupt to cut the lost. Transition in China and Russia made some people rich, some people poor, but from a overall perspective was good for the country to develop. I suspect his intention to legitimate the corruption and that's because economists have their own boss to back them up. Steven N.S. Cheung, who was among the most famous economists in China had gained recognition from the Party for his praise of China's economic reform. His theory considered corruption as a reasonable cost for economic reform, and his solution to alleviate corruption is to raise allowance for government officials, just like other institutional economists talking about black market. I agree with his opinion that government control may cause corruption, but reform from economic field alone cannot solve the problem that government get more and more powerful, then how much allowance should we increase to satisfy offcials' appetite? Steven N.S. Cheung compared corruption in China to Indonesia, Thailand and India, drew the conclusion that China was not the worst, but what will happen if China keeps developing in a strange social structure I mentioned before? Hard to guarantee that we won't be the worst in the near future. With the developing trend of rich government and poor people in China, I cannot expect corruption to be reduced, and also the strange social structure determined that the economy was doomed to lack of vitality, especially after financial crisis and default in Dubai had hitten Chinese private enterprises really hard and government took this opportunity to reunify certain industries like mining and real estate for SOEs (State Owned Enterprises) to actualize monopoly.
If we dig deeper to find a reason for corruption here, I would like to discuss about faith in China, the problem is Chinese people lose their faith since the Culture Revolution. Before Culture Revolution, Confucianism defined the social behavior and gave different people their roles, so people had a basic consensus about do and don't, but Chairman Mao wanted to overturn this convention and built up his own authority of an emperor in the name of Communism. By that time Chairman Mao himself was considered as god, even in Tibet, after his perish people began to awake from the lie and idolatry, and questioned the propoganda of Communism, with the development of open-up and few people got rich, Chinese lost their faith for anything except money and own benefit. Lacking of efficient legal system and ethical principals blinded people and they made money by all means. Their remaining conscience was engulfed piece after piece by the flood of Chinese market economy and the struggle for survival in this strange society, like Professor Zhiwu Chen in Yale once said, Chinese has a typical unhappy life. Historically atheism make most Chinese don't believe in next life, distinct with Christians, Buddhists, even Muslims, Chinese decision-making process only involves profit before one's eyes, they don't and don't want to trust responsibility, karma or "the Ten Commandments". Government officials know they cannot hold their position forever and the worry about termination of the tyranny forced them to prepare for themselves and their families, and corruption can save them for a way of escape. When people notice corrupted government officials gamble in Macao and Las Vegas, buy houses in Hongkong, Tyoko and New York, their only hope for the government evaporated with steam. The faith crisis also created an phenomenon that when local people had conflict with local government, they went to Beijing to find a solution, but most of the time they were sent back home and had a much more miserable ending.
It seems that punishments in China for corrupted official are very severe, sometimes they will even be sentenced to death, but people who familiar with the system know that this differs with the current position and connections. The higher you position are, the more possible you have a complicated network of connections and for fear of your capture will bring more officials, expose more scandals, and further humiliate the government and the Party, the person who is in charge of the investigation may receive a phone call from central CCP administration and order him to move the corrupted official to manage another place or remove his current post, depending on how much attentions his corruption draw. Long words short, as long as government officials don't touch the baseline, corruption is a manageable mistake. Unjustness punishment helps to encourage misbehavior, which we can find evidence in financial field. Nick Leeson, who took down Barings Bank, paid back his mistake by stay in prison in Singapore for three years and a half. He wrote a book afterwards and got remarkable reward from his best-seller and copyright of the following movie.
A rather unusual interpretation of corruption in China is to attribute the fault to Capitalism, people who hold this bizarre idea believe that private ownership and unjust distribution cause corruption and Capitalism should be blame for the crime. They tend to rely on Socialism and Communism to cure the disease. Let alone the absurdity that Communism can be achieve, what can we promise to happen in a system never really exist?

宋思明被查出问题，同时接到海藻进医院的消息，马上驾车去看望海藻。监视他的警员见他有逃逸的意向马上跟踪进行跨路抓捕。宋思明心急如焚，但是一路上浦东大道在修路，花木路在修路，罗山路在修路，龙阳路在修路，南浦大桥在并引桥，他发现根本无处可逃，陆虎就算是变型成为霸天虎也无路可走。
只能眼睁睁的看着警车在后面慢慢靠近，沉默的被协助调查。
画面一转，郭海萍买的房子轰然倒塌，政府介入调查，发现该开发商的股东竟然是以宋思明为首的政府官员们。最终决定掩盖事实真相，迅速将资金转移。
由于郭海萍联系不到宋思明，所以只能和苏淳联合业主们进行维权。政府采取将领头的人请进去喝咖啡，并通过他们家属所在单位领导施加压力等方式进行分化，最后达到大事化小，小事化了的目的。
宋思明的妻子在接到宋思明被逮捕的消息后，马上联系MARK，其实MARK才是最终BOSS。宋思明所有的堕落其实也是因为MARK的唆使，他不但收中国人的钱，并收MARK所代表的丑国政府的钱，并为他们做事。宋思明夫人在MARK的帮助下从境外账户里拿出1500W，通关系找路子，并威胁相关人员，如果见死不救就全部招认，大家一起鱼死网破。宋思明最终被定性为监管不利，但由于在任期间政绩卓著，经济尤其是房地产经纪发展迅速，所以调任杭州市市长秘书。
这一切海藻并不知道，她在医院里怀念小贝的栗子，怀念那已经失去的孩子。一想到小贝，眼睛里就一阵一阵的酸楚；一想到孩子，心里就一阵一阵的疼痛。然而怀念终究是怀念，她也曾轻声的问过自己，如果能重新来过，她还会这样选择吗？结果她悲哀的发现，答案依旧是肯定的。
1个月后，宋思明将海藻转到杭州医院，他真的很疼惜他认为这个将第一次交给自己的女孩。今天就是海藻要出院的日子，他为此特地到马路对面去买了她最喜欢的礼物。然而就在他过马路的时候，一辆飞驰而来的轿车将他撞向了半空，据当时目击者说起码飞了30多米。镜头渐渐拉近…肇事车驾驶座上小贝的表情是那么的木然，就像在那个雨夜看到海藻和宋思明从那所房子里出来上车一样的木然，木然的让人心疼。
小贝进了监狱，但是他什么都不说。其实他的车是MARK找人给他的，虽然宋思明出来了，但是毕竟知道了太多东西，那面的意思留不得。所以MARK敏锐的捕捉到了小贝的情绪，并唆使人成功的挑起了小贝复仇的情绪，最终不留痕迹的将宋思明这个隐患消灭。
海藻在知道这个消息后并没有哭，她已经非常坚强，或者说她的心早已不是自己的。她不知道她的心脏为什么还在跳动，也不知道什么时候会停止跳动，也不想知道。现在她生命中最重要的2个男人，一个死了，一个不想见她也永远不会原谅她。她约MARK在杨浦大桥上见面，因为她手里有宋思明和MARK的犯罪证据。这是宋在预感到要出事前给她的，她想用这个来换取MARK营救小贝出狱。她想这是她能够为小贝做的最后一点事了。
第2天，在黄浦江上发现一具女性浮尸，警方经过重重排查最终将犯罪嫌疑人圈定为MARK，MARK辩解说海藻是约他了，他也去了，海藻情绪很不稳定，他还在劝海藻明天会更好，但是海藻很悲观，结果他发现他的汉语水平无法很好的表达劝解的意思，于是就郁闷的做起了俯卧撑，在做到第3个的时候海藻忽然就跳下去了。他还以为是天太热，海藻下去游泳消暑去了，就没报案。另外经侦队在处理宋的遗物时发现了蛛丝马迹，种种可能都指向了MARK。
由于熬不过和谐国超人性化得审讯，MARK全部招认，但是丑国方面严重抗议，总统奥巴牛更是亲自出马，说侵犯丑国人权，要引渡MARK回国。我国政府经过慎重研究，虽然表示深表遗憾、严重谴责，但还是让奥巴牛将MARK接走。并且鉴于设计国家机密泄露，颜面受损，所以将涉及人员无声抹除。
几日后，小贝在监狱里被自杀。官方声明可能是因为躲猫猫引起的被自杀，并拒绝家属探视，直接火化。
六月的江洲，下起了大雪。白茫茫的大地一片干净。
评论：看过《蜗居》的朋友们都知道，《蜗居》和《奋斗》一样都是属于事与愿违的写实电视剧，本来是要宣传海萍靠奋斗来获得幸福，不过大部分女性观众都希望找到像宋思明一样有权多金又多情的政府高官来包养自己获得幸福，而Mark这个好心老外的角色被诠释的让人不知道为什么就是喜欢不起来，而且强烈怀疑他是那种“满嘴仁义道德，满脑男盗女娼”的坏人，上面这个山寨版的结局结合了很多社会上真实发生的事件（堵车、政府对付维权、出事的官员调职、杭州车撞人、俯卧撑、躲猫猫），如果是真的话，那无疑《蜗居》这部片子会更加写实、更加精彩，我只能说一句话—天涯有高人啊！

People talk about corruption a lot in China, actually corruption is now a sever problem faced by Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and the policy makers in the Party know that if they cannot find an effective way to stop corruption, they might be trapped into a stuation which their old counterparty Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) experienced 60 years ago. After the endeavor of two administrations, this problem remains to endanger stability, which the Party cares the most here, and become more like a malignant tumor than dermatosis to the Party. CCP has a glorious history of developing from no more than 40000 people to millions and defeated KMT, established a new China and ruled it for 60 years, why this mighty power cannot defeat corruption? Some may say China don't have democracy, others may argue democratic countries like India also have sever corruption issues. I think different countries have different situations, since I'm not an India expert, I cannot comment on their situation, but I have developed some unmature ideas about things happened in China, and I try to discuss about how to cure.
To talk about orgins of corruptions in China I have to trace back to Chinese history. In the ancient time Chinese emperors believe agriculture is more important than commerce, and if you don't want to be a farmer forever, the best way to rise your social class is through hard working on study Confucianism and pass the exam to be a government official. Since then government officials have big power in the place they rule and all big landlords wanted to develop good relationship with them. Although landlords were rich, their social status were not well-recognized, they were afraid of officials to deprive them of their wealth, so they always be generous to the officials with money and use this connection to earn more money. In Ming and Qing Dynastry the commerce developed quite well and merchants wanted more politic influence, while more and more wars and uprisings emptied the treasury, so the government started a mechanism through which merchants and landlords can be government officials after them "donate" certain amount of money to the government, then things began to go beyond control, and some local governors started to trade official positions illegally for money. After the emperors realized their officials were not competent and such positon-trade already inflenced the social stability they started to take actions to punish corrupted officials. In Ming Dynasty the most cruel punishment for corrupted officials is to cut a hole in his head and put mercury inside until the full skin was separated from the body, and the emperor will also arrange a house searching and confiscate the property. Compared with Ming Dynasty, Qing Dynasty has bigger corruption problems, there were a social saying that three years of province governor equals to five thousand kilograms of silver. The hard corruption in the end of Qing Dynasty also contributed to the following revolution and the born of Republic of China. After several years of war and chaos in China KMT leaded by Chiang Kai-shek took control, and just before his plan of military and social reconstruction there came the Japanese. Chiang Kai-shek and Chinese people were not ready for this war but still struggled for the victory eight years later. During this painstaking process Chinese people suffered a lot and by the end of the war China was on the edge of bankruptcy, central government had a loose control of local situation and corruption, especially from relatives and clan of Chiang Kai-shek also eroded this nation; meanwhile CCP supported by Soviet Union accumulated enough strength and started a civil war to "liberate" the country. By that time "stop corruption" was among one of the main political solgans held by CCP propoganda, and ironically they started their corruption sooner after the born of People's Republic of China.
Most of CCP members came from farmers and they said they were servant of the people, but just like their Soviet comrades, they never acted like they said. The Party was born with a strict hierarchy and the leaders like Mao Zedong always enjoyed a privilege so he could focus on developing his trickery. After CCP was in charge of China their officials for the first time was exposed to absolute power and weak supervision, and through Culture Revolution Chairman Mao initiated a Stalin-style Great Purge to eliminate all his opponents, intimidators and dissenters. From then on Communism replaced Confucianism, and Chinese people had lost their freedom and the right to comment on the government, China became a kingdom again and Chairman Mao became an emperor. Compared to the unnatual death of tens of millions Chinese people during this time, corruption seemed not to be a big deal. Mao died in 1976, and Deng Xiaoping took the imperial crown. In his tenure he accpeted the suggestion by Zhao Ziyang and Hu Yaobang, started open-up economic policies and redressed the mishandled political persecutions, and China began to encourage economic development; in the same time Deng suppressed a peaceful student sit-in and parade for freedom and democracy in Tian Anmen Square in order to stabilize the political situation. Consevative political attitude with aggressive economic growth formed a strange social structure in China and provided root for corruption. In Mao and Deng's time corruption was not a huge issue that central government should take seriously and not many people know about first corrupted officials like Liu Qingshan and Zhang Zishan, but in Jiang Zemin's administration corruption became a common problem and people began to notice. It started first in military, as Chairman Mao's strategy is military should be guided by the Party, not the government, so local government don't have jurisdiction on troops. Jiang Zemin as the new leader of China eagerly needed the support from military, and he choosed to close one eye on his generals who also acted as businessmen and started old school money for position trades. Then things began to go wild, officials in local government decided to follow the trend and corruption was a undertable rule to run in bureaucracy. This was also the time many officials began to quit their government position and use their old connections to do their own businesses. Although under the pressure of the people when they face the situation that rich are getting richer and poor are getting poorer, government still couldn't stop increasing corruption and most corrupted officials moved their assets and properties abroad. Now we can find a unique situation in China that some government officials take their position in China alone while their whole family are already immigrated to another country. People don't trust their government because when they ask people to love and devote for their country, they move their own family out.
Corruption is rather a structure problem than ethical issue. Chinese government fail to stop corruption for their unwillingness to reform their political system and give way to the interest groups. From Chinese history people believe corruption was from top down, there was a saying that people who stolen a hook get killed and people who stolen a country become a duke. Chinese culture emphasis collective instead of individual, and in a system when everybody are taking bribes while you don't, your existance will be a threat to collective benefit and others will get together to pull you down. If you melt into the system, you will also benefit from corruption and use the money to corrupt your supervisor to get promotion. That's how corruption become a channel and undertable rule to follow when you want to survive in bureaucracy. People may wonder why all those supervision departments and anti-corruption bureaues in government don't work as they are suppose to fight with corruption, actually in China all this supervision departments and anti-corruption bureaues can only supervise the government which are below them, and they have no jurisdiction on government on their same level. For instance provincial supervision departments may investigate corrupted town governors or city governors, and city/town supervision departments may investigate village governors in question. When province governor corrupted, the only authority who can take action is the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party (CCDICP), a commission in the Party, which in principle deals with 34 province-level administrative areas including 23 provinces, 5 autonomous regions, 4 municipalities and 2 special adiminstrative regiones (actually only has jurisdiction on 22 provinces not include Taiwan, 5 autonomous regions and 4 municipalities in mainland), you can imagine how low-efficient and symbolic it is. There are so many corruptions all over the country, and the Party leaders determine CCDICP to choose which one it should deal with, so people consider the corrupted government officials punished by CCDICP more because of their political misbehaviors rather than economic crimes. The other possibility for the CCDICP to take action is to follow the new leader's will to transfer power from his high-ranked officials who he inherit from his predecessor to people he can trust, and the usual way is to nitpick their misbehaviors or excavate their historical mistakes. You might wonder what if they have no misbehaviors and a clean history, but an old Chinese saying tells us that you can always find a crime if you want to accuse someone, let alone most of these high-ranked officials are for real impeccable (A Chinese political joke said that if you shoot all government officials you might kill some innocents, if you shoot half of them you must let go some guilty ones).
Even if we agree in China the Party supervise the government on corruption issues, then who can supervise the Party? Even 60 years ago before CCP had taken power somebody asked the same question about who will supervise the Party and Chairman Mao, we find once again the answer is nobody. Someone might pointed the supervisory function of the so-called 8 demoncratic Parties in China (CCP defined them as the participators of the government and the supervisors of the Party), so far as I know they played a very limited role in Chinese politics, they can only supervise whatever CCP give them to, but with the important areas they have absolutely no right to criticize and judge, and the appointment and removal of their leaders needed the approval of CCP, so they are basically 8 puppets. The government official know that their baseline is not to make political mistakes, and all they care about is their political future, not the social welfare and wellbeing of others. When Lincoln talked about the government, he describe it as a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, but without the proper supervision and punishment from the people, the government itself cannot achieve this goal.

岁末年初的两个月是我休假兼读书的时间，一般都远离喧闹的大陆，远走他乡，两耳不闻中国事，一心只读我想读的书。连每天的上网时间也限制在一个小时之内，当然，电子邮件是不能不打开的，这毕竟是我同外界最常用的联系渠道。
仅仅这两天，就有十几位读者通过邮件发来了“命题作文”：某某地方被强制拆迁、机场滞留而不能回来的同胞、深圳颁布了如此荒唐的访民规则，还有福建三位因言获罪的朋友身陷大牢，当然，更多的是关于广州番禺的垃圾焚烧厂……
出国前到将要受到垃圾焚烧厂影响的丽江花园去看朋友，问一位房产公司的代理如何看垃圾焚烧厂，他无奈地说，政府说没有毒，只不过夏天会有垃圾臭味吹过来，不过，别担心，不只是丽江花园的居民闻得到，估计有三十万人的居民都受到影响。
我大吃一惊，广州闷热的夏天已经够呛了，再加上垃圾的味道？这是二十一世纪正在崛起的中国南方最大城市的体味？为什么要在这个地区建立垃圾焚烧厂？我走过世界上那么多城市，有哪一个现代化城市里的三十万——或者说三万居民，在夏天到来的时候，会和焚烧垃圾的味道共处？做出此项决策的官员们，你们的嗅觉是不是有毛病？
单单嗅觉出毛病还关系不大，但很显然，他们的眼光也出了问题。就我在广州买房后的短短十年经验来判断，不到十年，番禺垃圾焚烧厂附近的区域将会成为另一个人口集中的繁华区域，到时受到垃圾臭味袭击的人口就不是三十万或者四十万了。可为什么官员们做决策时如此的鼠目寸光？
有人说了，人家眼睛盯着钱袋，不用看到更远。再说，现在建，到时可以再搬迁嘛。是啊，正如我对中国城市的观察，马路上施工过的新土还没有干，就又被扒开了，不停地埋管子，换设备，都是垄断企业一声令下，你不更新设备，断你的气！结果，水泥地和柏油马路几乎被翻熟了，当然，据经济学家说，每“翻”一次马路，GDP也会跟着翻滴。只是可惜了纳税人的血汗钱。
不过，对广州番禺的垃圾焚烧厂，我一直不太介意。原因很简单，在这么近居民区的市区范围内建立垃圾焚烧厂，不可能不触犯众怒，到时民意难违，有好戏看，我就打酱油路过，或者围观一下，最多做两个俯卧撑。果然，昨天广州就出现了大批居民上访的情况。我想这一下领导应该听到民众的声音了吧？
据说昨天上访过程中出现一个很牛的现象，一名警察走进举着各种标语牌的静坐的人群中，要求上访的群众推选五位代表进去见领导。结果，群众异口同声地喊道：你们选五位领导出来见我们！
在邮件中看到这样一句话，我简直被彻底雷倒了，几乎是目瞪口呆，多牛逼的主人翁精神啊，多牛逼的二十一世纪的广州啊，多牛逼的公民啊——这种公民，怎么能够咽得下垃圾的臭味？
不过，当晚看到的消息和邮件却令人沮丧，公仆们没有出来见“主人”，口气反而越来越强硬。同时，一封老友的电子邮件证实缺乏政治嗅觉的不是那些领导，而是我杨恒均，“目光短浅”的也不是决策者，而是我老杨头。
朋友在信里告诉我，垃圾焚烧厂涉及到一些大人物的利益，大到能够让广州当局挺起腰板，大到连汪洋都不能挺起腰杆；和厦门PX不同的是，厦门民众有开发商的支持，而番禺这里，本来就是广州比较没有地位的人集中居住的地区，以前都是农民的地方，更不用说背景了。
朋友说，这次估计没有办法扭转他们的决定了，有钱的想办法搬家吧，没有钱的可以买口罩，或者适应几年，鼻子也就习惯了。至于说是否有毒，也只有政府说了算，对于我们这些和屁民一个级别的垃圾民来说，只有等到能够“开胸验肺”，或者毒死几个给他们看看，估计才会有效果，不过到那时，现在的决策者早就赚得满满当当地退休了，新上任的也正好想建新的垃圾场，从而从新分配利益……
朋友的来信话锋一转，大有推不倒政府决策就向我老杨头撒气的架势：你小子，整天鼓捣什么民主自由和法治啊，这么重要的有关民生的事，你躲得远远的，你即便不回来和我们一起上访，也应该写点什么吧？你真让人失望……
各位，朋友说到这个份上，还让我如何静下心来读书？其实，你知道我每个月收到要求我关注的上访，希望我写文章呼与鼓的信件有多少吗？我就是每天去一个地方，每天写一篇博文，都远远不够。而且，说心里话，我那些博文真有什么作用吗？真能够帮助到上访者吗？
我知道看我文章的大多是和我一样的无权无势的人。我写博客，他们留言，通过这个方式，展示我们这些无权者的权力。仅此而已。
再说，经过对全国各地上访的观察，我感觉到上访的作用实在是很微弱的。这么多年全国各地风起云涌的上访，掌握权力的人真正解决了几个问题？而更可悲的是，那少有的几个被解决的问题，上访者最后得到的，远远少于他们付出的。更不用说，能有几个上访的案子真正推进了规则、法律和制度的完善？
可是，上访却是我们这个神奇国度里民众唯一能够使用的办法，也是一种和写博客一样的“无权者的权力”。盼望开明的皇帝，祈求大公无私的包青天，跪求良心发现的“父母官”……我一直在思考这个问题，也一直在写这个问题，我不是不去上访，而是想找到更加有效的“上访”办法。我甚至不忍心多看中国目前的那些上访案子——它们只让我看到了以眼泪和血汗铺成的上访路，以及掌握了权力者的傲慢和无耻。
在这种不受限制的权力面前，除了和你一样，跪下来祈求，否则，我也没有什么办法。所以，我唯有继续写博客，继续看书，继续走我的路，希望有一天，我能够看到上访的希望，或者其他的希望——所以，对不起了，各位，今夜，我继续读我的书……
今天晚上我读的书中除了两本世界哲学，一本小说之外，还有一本是长达1000页的美国前总统克林顿的自传《我的生活》，很吸引人，一直看到深夜两点多钟，仍然不想睡觉，正准备放下书时，被一句熟悉的话吸引了——
在克林顿竞选胜利在握的时候，他的竞选车队经过一个不起眼的小镇子。这个小镇子的居民实在太少，团队没有安排在这里停留造势。当车队经过镇子旁的大路时，司机看到路边远远有几十个民众在那里等待，好像要上访的民众。当时克林顿忙了一天，已经累坏了，车队继续前进，不准备停下来。
就在接近那堆人群时，克林顿看到了那队人，他随即命令车队立即停下来，然后，他领着夫人希拉里走下车，后面跟着自己的竞选团队，来到几十个美国市民中和他们讨论自己的经济政策和环保、医疗改革，一一回答民众的提问和质疑……
克林顿为什么要下车？他看到了什么？那些美国民众给他下跪了？写了肉麻的欢迎标语？还是他需要在这里拍下亲民的镜头？都不是，当时那稀稀落落的民众挺胸抬头，趾高气扬，歪歪斜斜地站在路边，没有喊口号，也没有标语——不，他们写了一个牌子，就像昨天广州上街的市民举的那种牌子，只是美国市民举的牌子上面写着：“给我们八分钟，我们给你八年！”
克林顿看到的就是这一句话，这句话触动了掌权者的神经，于是，他谦卑地走下了竞选大巴，像一个仆人走向自己的主人那样。是的，那些人不是来请求和他见面的“访民”，而是要给他下指示，听他解释自己的政策的“选民”；他们不是来恳求他如何制定政策，惠及民生的，他们是来告诉他，该做什么，不该做什么；不管你多忙，你都应该停下来，听听他们的意见，说说你的政策，他们满意了，他们将选你当总统，将把权力交给你，将让你未来八年住在白宫里！
这个故事我其实早就听说过，但第一次看到克林顿讲述，并且是在我的朋友们在广州上访了一天无果，在我想为中国的访民们寻求更好的解决之道，在我准备用自己的博客“上访”的深夜里……
给我们八分钟，我们给你八年！在这样一句简单的话语面前，傲慢了几千年的权力顷刻间低眉顺眼下来；在这样一句简单的话语背后，我们深深地认识到，解决腐败的绝对权力的唯一办法是解决权力的来源问题……只要不是你手里的选票把他们推到权力的宝座上，即便你已经把自己当公民，把自己当主人了，喊出了连美国公民都喊不出的“你们选五个领导出来见我们”的无与伦比的名句，又能怎么样？
你还真以为自己是主人啊？
杨恒均 2009/11/23

 

点评：在中国上访是一种无奈的选择，中国的老百姓受那些“拦轿喊冤”的戏说电视剧影响太深，应该看看周星驰的《九品芝麻官》里到京城喊冤的下场。自古官官相卫，这个道理大家不会不知道，但都存在梦想，梦想着自己是一个特例，梦想着自己是出现在新闻联播里被总理亲切问话解决问题的人，可是……到了北京后等待他们的就一条路—被有关部门遣返，而中国中央地方两级分制的管理模式也意味着地方上的事始终是地方上自己解决，而解决的方式方法都由上访者控诉的地方政府自己来定，至于满不满意，那就由不得你了。现在网络的出现给大家有一个泡影，以为可以以集体抵制的方式来影响政府，但殊不知中国如此之大，政府最恐惧的就是不稳定，所以政府最大的任务就是维稳，如果不死人惊动不了中央，那么维稳宗旨下的地方政府无疑会将集体抵制看成刁民的犯上作乱，那么结果可想而知。由此我想到纪录片《劫后天府泪纵横》中一位地震中被豆腐渣校舍压死自己孩子的母亲对试图阻止队伍上访游行承诺要彻底查清的时候说的一句话“查你妈妈的X”，虽然粗俗，但是代表了老百姓对地方政府的态度，只不过这部纪录片虽然在纽约时代广场公映并赚取了无数美籍华人的眼泪，纪录片主人公们所要求的公道和说法至今依然杳无音信，而就在奥巴马总统刚刚结束访华，四川的维权人士黄琦却因为试图为在去年四川大地震倒塌校舍中死亡的学生的父母提供法律建议而被判入狱3年，罪名是触犯中国“国家机密”法。没有选票，没有民主，作为中华人民共和国主人翁的中国人民就将始终生活在被人民公仆鱼肉、被利益集团宰割的深深无奈中，甚至连一声叹息都是多余的，而越来越麻木的神经会让中国人民相信“现有的国家统治方式是最好的”，甚至去幻想能得到一个说法，比无奈更可怕的，是无知无觉，或是看客的冷漠。

     给人带来惊喜的美国传奇总统奥巴马匆匆来到中国又匆匆离去，中国的普通民众似乎热情不高，但媒体和异议人士都给予了巨大的热情，不断的用不符实际的愿望来期许这位总统给中国人民以惊喜，但结果再一次证明了政治是一场秀，就像中共在上台前给中国人民的许诺和民进党的信誓旦旦一样，随着时间的推移都以破灭告终。

     现今社会充满了混乱与不安定感，中国的统计局长对国进民退视而不见矢口否认，但多数老百姓从金融危机后美国政府的举措上看到国进民退的国际潮流。就在大家还来不及对山西和内蒙煤矿业国进民退额手称庆的时候，就传来东北大型国有煤矿的矿难消息，老百姓又一次沦为了牺牲品。如果按吴晓波先生所说的煤老板蒙受损失是因果报应，我不知道这次的矿难又是谁的因果报应，诚然煤老板赚的是黑心钱，他们与政府勾结破坏了官场风气，牺牲了环境和人民的生命安全，但这并不代表就要将煤矿由“安全”和低效的国有企业来运营，煤矿的改革不是以完善制度环境和政府的廉洁自律而是以加强行业垄断断绝私有企业生存空间的形式完成，这不仅仅是这个行业的悲哀，也是中国当下的经济和政治总体格局的悲哀，再看看房地产市场，彪高的房价和不计成本的央企地王使首次职业者的梦想成为泡影，大多数的私营地产企业现在走起了中国五六十年代的公私合营模式，房地产泡沫显而易见，但不断增长的二次购房和投资购房推着首次职业者一起，为国企的经营不善收益不佳来买单，现在的房地产已经成为一个高风险的矛盾体，一方面政府害怕像美国次债危机的情况出现而加强对银行贷款的审查，央行据传也要用货币手段（加息）来减少涌入楼市股市的热钱（我认为宏观调控在中国的可能性远小于银监会的行政手段），另一方面如果房价下跌的过快那么大量的银行坏账会直接导致银行倒闭以及影响政府最害怕的GDP增长，基于这个预期，部分投行人士甚至预言房地产市场是中国2010年增长的主要因子，因为除了房子，中国的内需似乎小的可怜，按郎咸平说的，中国人不是太有钱了，而是太穷了。有钱的中国人在香港、日本大肆买房、在澳门豪赌，让当地人抱怨连连，但中国人口最多数组成的农民在金融危机造成的浪潮中丧失了在深圳做出口加工的工作，不得已回到老家，或者丧生在东北的煤窑里。奥巴马总统可能不清楚发生在这个拥有悠久历史的国度的这些事，他对中国的印象可能仅仅限于大量的出口损失了美国的工作机会、在国际事务上的不作为，以及令人惊奇的在金融危机中巍然不动，当然，也许还包括对达赖的始终不能释怀和动辄将异议人士投入囹圄，他怀着一种矛盾的心态来到中国，试图在经济上的仰仗和政治上的合作还有对开放自由民主的美国精神的坚持之间做着平衡，在上海他看到了噤若寒蝉的青年学生，尴尬的美国大使不得不借着网友提问的由头结束了不痛不痒的学生提问，但如果你是来中国需求理解和合作，按照中国文化你先要对中国的现状表示认同，奥巴马的低姿态得到中国领导人的首肯，而这也揭示了为什么他不出意外的以一些希望回答了网络管制的问题，同样对中国政府和达赖的对话他也提出了希望，他的心里或许也知道他的希望和异议人士对他的希望虽然热切程度有所不同，但结果往往殊途同归。索罗斯在布达佩斯作未来之路的演讲时提到以美国为代表的国际资本主义和以中国为代表的国家资本主义，并推测随着中美在推动世界经济发展中的角色质换，中国为代表的国家资本主义会被越来越多国家接受，也会带来更多的国际纠纷，这位以投资见长却总是以哲学家自称的金融大鳄在经历过纳粹和苏联独裁统治后受到卡尔波普尔的影响提出了反身理论，他认为现实社会的经济增长受到政治的巨大影响，而市场参与者的错误判断总是会改变市场的方向，在关于未来的预测中他对中国同样寄予厚望，但这个希望寄托在中国的领导人比奥巴马更加有远见卓识，且不论这个希望实现的可能性有多大，这个提法与中国数千年的兴衰历史不无关系，就是将一国的兴衰寄托于君王的英明程度，不知道崇尚开放社会的索罗斯为什么和奥巴马一样对独裁妥协，也许现实社会的利益关系远远超出了我们想当然的幼稚念头。

     民族问题曾经让前苏联头疼不已，现在中国也一样，西方人和奥巴马总统也许无法完全理解中国人的民族情结，加藤嘉一在亲身探访了西藏之后，发出如下感言“我只是在默默地思考，任何国家和民族都有自己选择体制的权利。‘一个民族等于一个国家’的世界统治方式本质上远远合理于大家沉淀于理想主义讨论的，替代联合国的‘世界政府’的迎来。当然，我说的也是理想，比乌托邦或理想国还不现实，现实中的世界充满着权力政治和暴力统治，所以大国主张和谐。我们人类还将在国家与民族这两个矛盾体之间生存下去。为了解放自己，还会奋斗下去。但有一点是肯定的，‘现有的国家统治方式是最好的’这一思维方式极为危险。但同时，广场的明亮也告诉我，现在我们无法找到代替国家的统治方式，人类还不具备着更加高尚的智慧和想象力。”他所说的和索罗斯所谈的共同点在于国家的统治或是国家资本主义都是一种次优选择，但因为最优选择无法实现，或者现在无法认知和判断，或者永远无法实现，但“存在即合理”却往往成为现实主义者面对生活种种不公的借口，像加藤公所说的，这种思维方式无疑是危险的，那么在超越了“存在即合理”的想法之后，却又很容易堕入盲目质疑、完全绝望或依托外部力量的可悲境地，但对于中国这样一个大国来说，寄希望于奥巴马是不现实的，中国的异议人士前仆后继，但在他们决定对得起自己的良心的时候，他们就注定了要孤军奋战。老百姓寄希望于政府来解决腐败和贫富分化也是不现实的，因为欺骗起家和镇压维稳的历史注定制度内的改革无法完成这个任务，看看非政府组织透明国际(Transparency International)的最新《全球腐败报告》，比腐败更邪恶的，是索罗斯提出的为讨好独裁国家而支持其压迫人民和牺牲民主。那么，中国人民的出路在哪里呢？在你我的坚持，坚持不与现状妥协，坚持斗争，坚持事实和真相，一个人的力量是微薄的但却又是可贵的，如果中国人自己都不坚持的话，我不相信还有谁会带给中国人幸福，是党吗？是奥巴马吗？还是历史上国民党政府曾寄予希望的“国联”？台湾人民选错了民进党还可以重新开始，内地的中国人应该学习他们的坚持精神，坚持自己选择体制的权利，为自己谋求幸福。