Mao Zedong’s Anti-Pollution Face Mask

BEIJING â€" With air readings of “hazardous” or “very unhealthy” seemingly the new normal, antipollution face masks are becoming a common sight on the streets of China. Even Mao Zedong has donned one. At least his image has, in doctored photos circulating online to widespread amusement (Mao, of course, died in 1976.)

I first spotted the joke when my 10-year-old came home from his state school on Monday with a forwarded image from his classmates on the We Chat app they all use. It showed Mao’s giant portrait above the Gate of Heavenly Peace, just north of his embalmed body in the Mao Mausoleum in Tiananmen Square, doctored to show a large bluish-white mask over the lower half of his face. His eyes were squeezed shut and his normally immaculately combed-back hair was flapping in the breeze. (By Tuesday noon, the image was apparently being censoredso it’s unclear how long the joke will survive on th blogosphere, but it has already spread widely. Here are some examples from Sina Weibo, a microblogging platform, if the link still works.)

Of course, Beijing recently experienced a sandstorm with strong winds, a traditional weather event for which residents have long donned face masks. Yet it’s clear that the joke is also about pollution, which has become one of the most sensitive social and political issues in the country.

Also, giving “Grandfather Mao” a facemask is bordering on sacrilegious in a country where many view him with almost religious awe and the government extols him as a hero and the founder of the nation. Mao’s face is on China’s paper currency to this day.

Some people reposting the image were taken aback at their own audacity.

“I know it’s not good to forward this but, , really” funny, wrote @Running Villa, using a yellow giggling face w! ith a hand over the mouth in place of the word funny.

“The wind is big,” wrote @Sun Wei. “But this kind of facemask won’t keep out PM 10,” referring to the larger particulate air pollution (people are more worried about smaller particulate that can enter the bloodstream from the lungs, known as PM 2.5.)

“Grandfather Mao should wear a mask, we can’t let the old man suffer any longer,” wrote Pure Ripple Sister.

Last week, chinadialogue, an environmental online magazine, called the efforts by the government’s Ministry of Environmental Protection to protect the environment “utterly disappointing.” It noted that in 2011, “the number of environmental protests increased 120″ percent.

Why the mess

“The key reason is the nationwide worship of GDP figures,” chinadialogue wrote, and: “The peole can no longer overlook the government’s failure to act on the environment.” (Here it is in Chinese, too.) Giving Mao, the hallowed ex-leader, an anti-pollution face mask suggests that’s true.

Who Studies Abroad, Who Stays Put and Why

American students are twice as likely as their British counterparts to consider foreign study, according to a new report.

While 56 percent of students in the United States said they’d like to head overseas, only 20 percent of young Britons said the same. The perceived barriers were largely the same: students from both nations felt they didn’t have adequate information about options, and were also worried about finances, visas and homesickness. On the other hand, most did not see language barriers as a big deal.

Their goals were slightly different, though. British students considered overseas studies for professional reasons, while Americans were seeking fun, travel and the chance to explore other cultures.

The “Broadening Horizons” report by Education Intelligence, the British Council’s research arm, worked with the National Union of Students in the United Kingdom and Zinch in the United Sates to poll 10,000 students.

Of course, what people say they want to do in polls and what they actually end up doing are different matters.

Many American students may say that they would like to go overseas. But according to the Institute of International Education, only 1 percent of U.S. students study abroad during any academic year. (About 14 percent of U.S. undergraduates have studied abroad at some time.)

In comparison, the European Commission estimates that about 10 percent of European students are currently studying abroad. They do so largely thanks to financing from programs like Erasmus, but also because for most Europeans a handful of different countries are all within a few hours of home.

While statistics vary on the details of who ends up where! , the larger picture is clear: More students are crossing borders than ever before. According to Unesco, there are 3.4 million students on the move each year all over the world, and that number is expected to grow.

The mass migration has divided the world into “receiving nations” (mostly rich, Western, immigrant-heavy nations that import students) and “sending nations” (mostly developing nations that export students). Traditional receiving nations are seeing record-high inflows of foreign students: United States (more than 700,000), Britain (more than 430,000) and Canada (more than 100,000). Meanwhile, the major sending nations are still generally in Asia: China, India and South Krea top the list.

But that line is blurring. China, the biggest sending nation, is also receiving more than 260,000 foreign students a year, according to the Ministry of Education.

Have you studied overseas, or thought about it What would stop you from going â€" and what would push you to make the leap

Those Who Love South Africa Ask If It’s Existentially Violent

Faced with a recent spate of high-profile incidents of violence, Nelson Mandela’s wife, Graça Machel last week broke the usual silence of the former first couple and said that South Africa was “an angry nation.”

Speaking at a memorial service for a Mozambican taxi driver who died after police dragged him through the streets tied to the back of a van, Ms. Machel warned that her adopted country was “on the precipice of something very dangerous with the potential of not being able to stop the fall.”

The ruling African National Congress immediately tried to downplay Ms. Machel’s warning. ANC spokesman Keith Khoza said “it doesn’t help to point fingers.” And President Jacob Zuma, perhaps attempting to sooth tempers, tried to remind people that South Africa was not “an inherently violent place to liv in.”

There is a kind of endless reckoning about the fate of South Africa. Many white South Africans have always believed South Africa was just that - inherently violent. Indeed, some of them participated in that violence in the most degrading and ordinary ways during the long years of apartheid - and when apartheid ended, many of them left, often to places like Australia or comfortable suburbs in America.

But many stayed behind too, or even returned, believing - sometimes forcing themselves to believe, over and over again - that the core of their country was peaceful. After all, they point out, had it not been, it would have descended into civil war immediately following the fall of apartheid, or even more recently. Crime levels would have continued to climb. South Africans would have retreated further and further into their ethnic and racial enclaves.

But those things have not happened, for the most part. On the criminal side of things, the statistics paint an optimistic picture compared to years past. Crime levels have been dropping fairly steadily since the early 2000’s, and more dramatically still since peak levels around 1995. Murders have declined by roughly 25 percent since 2002. Socially, though South Africa is still a divided country, it is less divided than it once was, I believe, by vast margins. Most South Africans I know have not retreated further into their ethnic enclaves but have instead gone out into the world (both at home and abroad) seeking contact with others.

And yet, many worried observers continue to ask: is South Africa more dangerous than ever Perhaps, more importantly, is the danger now of an existential variety, as opposed to mere criminal opportunism The comments at the end of this recent Huffington Post piece about para-Olympian Oscar Pistorius’s shooting his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, written by a public relations consultant are indicative of the kind of hand-wringing taking place.

It didn’t help when police shot and killed striking miners in August in what amounted to a massacre. Several of the miners were shot in the back trying to flee. Then there was the recent gang rape and murder of 17-year-old Anene Booysen, the revelations about a death squad operating in Durban and the case of a 29-year-old man accused of raping a 2-year old infant.

Sadly, there is a palpable sense among many people that the country is on a dangerous trajectory toward a violent confrontation - with the past, with itself, and with its own varied and complex sense of identity and values. It’s a topic that’s close to my heart. I liv! ed there ! for several years. Many of my closest friends still do. I married a South African. My children will one day share a connection with that country that I hope will be unbreakable.

But friends I know who once thought they would never leave have started to question the wisdom of that choice. In a recent letter, a friend wrote:

SA is not in too great shape right now. Many if not most of the ministers in Cabinet also regularly seem mired in scandal, with corruption and misappropriation of public funds reaching epidemic proportions. We should and could be doing a lot better than we are.

And later, “Maybe this is part of the growing pains of a country that is still angry, coping with a huge legacy, increasingly frustrated, and struggling to deal with its challenges. I’m not trying to be complacent myself, and while I agree that there is an alarming sense of ‘drift,’ some things just don’t match the doom and gloom I read. It seems as if we are shutting politics ot of our minds and just going on with our lives.”

Part of the chasm that has emerged in understanding South Africa is that experiences can vary so widely, and so intensely. Some people who have lived there for years have never had any problems. Others come for short visits, only to be attacked, robbed or raped.

An American friend who has lived in South Africa for 15 years recently wrote, “I have only ever known a few people that have been stabbed or shot, and those all took place in [America].”

And despite that somewhat reassuring fact, he has changed his plans to buy a house in South Africa until - if ever - the political and economic situation improves.

But he’s a foreigner. The problem for South Africans is that they have to find a way to move ahead with each other. And that is what Graça Machel and others are worried about.

“The level of anger and aggression i! s rising,! ” she said, “This is an expression of deeper trouble from the past that has not been addressed. We have to be more cautious about how we deal with a society that is bleeding and breathing pain.”

“Bleeding and breathing pain” - such a poignantly sad and tragically accurate description of a country on the brink of something. Exactly what that something turns out to be is in the hands of each and every South African who feels that pain.

Scott Johnson is the author of the forthcoming memoir “The Wolf and the Watchman” about life with his CIA father, to be released by W.W Norton in May, 2013

A More Opaque British Government

LONDON â€" British governments sometimes seem inclined to offer unrequested advice to countries in the so-called developing world about their commitment to Western democracy. But in recent weeks, the question could be inverted: how open is British society itself

On two fronts, the British authorities have been pressing to restrict public access to and knowledge of judicial proceedings.

The first battle line was drawn when Foreign Secretary William Hague formally applied for parts of the inquest into the poisoning death of the former K.G.B. officer Alexander Litvinenko be heard behind closed doors, presumably to shield both Britain’s MI6 intelligence service and Britain’s relationship with Russia from scrutiny.

Then, last week, the government of David Cameron pressed ahead in the lower House of Commons to introduce legislation that would enable secret civil court proceedings in national security cases deemed to be too sensitive for public airing.

As Human Rights Watch observed last December when the parliamentary process got under underway, “the much criticized Justice and Security Bill would widen the use of secret hearings known as “closed material proceedings,” or CMPs, in the civil courts on national security grounds, excluding the person affected and their lawyer from the courtroom. Parts of the judgments would also be kept secret, meaning someone could be found guilty without being told what they were guilty of. Such hearings would undermine a basic principle of justice: the ability to know and challenge the case against you. A second part of the bill would also prevent disclosure of material showing the United Kingdom’s involvement in wrongdoing by other countries.”

Last week, the government defeated parliamentary efforts by the Labour opposition to build new safeguards into the bill. The Conservatives, the dominant partner in the gov! erning coalition, secured those victories with the help of many among the junior Liberal Democrats - but at some cost to the smaller party’s credentials as the guardian of civil liberties.

As I explore in my latest Page 2 column in The International Herald Tribune, almost three years of partnership with the Conservatives have challenged the Liberal Democrats to distance themselves self from their partners-in-government if they are to avert humbling setbacks at the 2015 national election.

But the party’s inner tensions became clear at the weekend at the Liberal Democrats’ spring conference, when two prominent members quit in protest at the party’s support for the proposed legislation on secret courts, which must now be debated by the House of Lords.

The upper chamber “ow has an opportunity to insist that judges be given more power to defend the interests of justice and that closed material procedures are a measure of last resort,” The Observer newspaper commented Sunday in an editorial. “Only the Lords can prevent what is, in effect, a perversion of the course of British justice.”

IHT Quick Read: March 11

NEWS President Hamid Karzai leveled particularly harsh accusations against the United States on Sunday, suggesting that the Americans and the Taliban had a common goal in destabilizing his country. The comments cast a shadow on the first visit by Chuck Hagel as defense secretary. Alissa J. Rubin and Thom Shanker report from Kabul.

An account of how the United States came to use a drone strike to kill the terrorist leader Anwar al-Awlaki, who was born in New Mexico, highlights the perils of a war conducted behind a classified veil. Mark Mazzetti, Charlie Savage and Scott Shane report from Washington.

As their country pospered, South Koreans have largely shrugged off the constant threat of a North Korean attack. But breakthroughs in the North’s missile and nuclear programs and fiery threats of war have heightened fears in the South that even small miscalculations by the new and untested leaders of each country could have disastrous consequences. Martin Fackler and Choe Sang-Hun report from Seoul.

The cardinals who enter the papal conclave on Tuesday will walk into the Sistine Chapel in a single file, but beneath the orderly display, they are split into competing lineups and power blocs that will determine which man among them emerges as pope. Laurie Goodstein and Elisabetta Povoledo report from Vatican City.

Radical Islamists in northern Nigeria have killed seven foreign construction workers who were kidnapped in February, a significant escalation of extremist violence in Nigeria’s continuing jihadist insurgency. Adam Nossiter reports from Dakar, Senegal.

Myanmar’s main opposition party ended a congress over the weekend with the party’s leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, calling for a “good relationship” with the powerful military. She vowed to infuse new blood into the party, which is still recovering from more than two decades of persecution under military rule. Thoms Fuller reports from Yangon.

Florian Homm, a flamboyant former hedge fund manager who spent the last five years in hiding, was arrested in Italy and faces extradition to the United States on securities fraud charges which could expose him to a lengthy prison sentence, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said. Jack Ewing reports from Frankfurt.

China’s economic surge â€" and vast wealth inequality â€" have bred a new type of matchmaker, referred to as love hunters. Brook Larmer reports.

EDUCATION In Hong Kong, students who are neither Chinese nor foreigners from wealthy families fall between the city’s two main school categories. Calvin Yang reports from Hong Kong.

The list of German politicians accused of plagiarizing doctoral theses continues to grow, almost two years after the spectacular flameout of one of the country’s most popular politicians at the time, Defense Minister Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg. Christopher F. Schuetze reports from The Hague.

ARTS Philip Clissett, the humble chair maker, inspired some of the leaders of the Arts and Crafts movement and left a lasting legacy in the world of craftsmanship. Alice Rawsthorn writes from London.

SPORTS ave Whelan’s soccer career ended when he was injured in the 1960 F.A. Cup final, but the club he now owns, Wigan, is headed to Wembley Stadium for the semifinals of the tournament this year. Rob Hughes reports from London.

England took another step toward its first European Six Nations grand slam in a decade, but it was a distinctly stuttering one as it defeated the underdog Italy, 18-11, at Twickenham on Sunday. Huw Richards reports from Edinburgh.

The Geneva Auto Show’s Green Lining

With growing consumer interest in green vehicles and a pledge to build a European Union-wide network of electric charging stations, many Europeans are looking forward to the next generation of cars.

“The automobile industry is going through its biggest changes since the car was first invented in the 19th century,” said Yves Vandewalle, a local French politician who is promoting green cars.

At the Geneva auto show, one of the most important dates on the European automobile calendar, big manufacturers and small boutique producers are debating the future of the car.

And not all arguments are green.

Ten percent of all the cars exhibited at the 83rd International Motor Show in Geneva, running from March 7 to March 17, are eco-friendly, organizers said.

“It is clearly evident that these vehicles are now completely integrated into the product offerings of the manufacturers and areinteresting to all the visitors to the Motor Show and not just to those who are involved in ecology movements or those who are only technology-oriented!” said Maurice Turrettini, the president of the car show in a statement.

Organizers at the show consider a car green if it generates less than 100 grams per kilometer driven.

The cars that make the list are all-electric, plug-in hybrid, non-plug in hybrids and some very efficient conventional vehicles. Some of them are well-known models that come from big carmakers in Europe, Asia and North America and from small European designers.

“The electric cars there are mostly concept cars,” said Christopher Tan, the editor of the German green car website, GrueneAutos.com.

Still, as the curvaceous female models adorning many of the car displays can attest, the car show is firmly rooted in its macho tradition, which ! includes gas-guzzling SUVs and outsized limousines.

“The big carmakers are still relying on their cash cows,” said Mr. Tan.

Although BMW is exhibiting the concept all-electric BMW i3 and hybrid BMW i8 cars, Mr. Tan says the carmaker’s focus is still elsewhere.

Mercedes-Benz, too, is vamping with its roughly $500,000 SLS AMG electric drive (apparently the fastest EV built in series). For ordinary consumers interested in green luxury, it is showing the new A 180 CDI BlueEFFICIENCY.

Volkswagen, Europe’s biggest carmaker, is exhibiting the widely heralded XL1, a slick two-seater that, burning just 1 liter of gasoline for 100 kilometers driven (over 250 mpg), is possibly the most fuel efficient car built in series. At a reported 50 units built, however, the term “series” might be an overstatement. That together with the fact that Volkswagen has not come up with a sticker price yet shows that this marvel of efficiency is not yet consumer-ready.

French carmakers are showing movement on the green car front in Geneva. The Citroën C-Zero (for zero-carbon) and the Renault Zoe are both pure electric cars built in series and available to consumers.

The Renault Twizy, also on display at the a! uto show,! has been popular since it hit the showrooms last year. With its open cockpit and its single seat, the Twizy looks more like a car from the future (it is licensed as a street-legal quadricycle) than many other designs at the car show.

Next to the models from the big carmakers, design and engineering firms are showing vehicles that are looking further into the future.

The Yvelines department in France, a region just east of Paris, is known to be a national hub for automotive and engineering firms. The department is supporting four prototypes exhibited in Geneva.

Besides electric drive trains, these concept cars feature wireless charging, autopilot and automated valet parking.

One day you will be able to press a button on your smart phone and a car will automatically drive to your address and pick you up, explained Mr. Vandewalle, vice president of economic development in the Yvelines department.

“We are paving the roads of the future,” he said.

The Geneva Auto Show’s Green Lining

With growing consumer interest in green vehicles and a pledge to build a European Union-wide network of electric charging stations, many Europeans are looking forward to the next generation of cars.

“The automobile industry is going through its biggest changes since the car was first invented in the 19th century,” said Yves Vandewalle, a local French politician who is promoting green cars.

At the Geneva auto show, one of the most important dates on the European automobile calendar, big manufacturers and small boutique producers are debating the future of the car.

And not all arguments are green.

Ten percent of all the cars exhibited at the 83rd International Motor Show in Geneva, running from March 7 to March 17, are eco-friendly, organizers said.

“It is clearly evident that these vehicles are now completely integrated into the product offerings of the manufacturers and areinteresting to all the visitors to the Motor Show and not just to those who are involved in ecology movements or those who are only technology-oriented!” said Maurice Turrettini, the president of the car show in a statement.

Organizers at the show consider a car green if it generates less than 100 grams per kilometer driven.

The cars that make the list are all-electric, plug-in hybrid, non-plug in hybrids and some very efficient conventional vehicles. Some of them are well-known models that come from big carmakers in Europe, Asia and North America and from small European designers.

“The electric cars there are mostly concept cars,” said Christopher Tan, the editor of the German green car website, GrueneAutos.com.

Still, as the curvaceous female models adorning many of the car displays can attest, the car show is firmly rooted in its macho tradition, which ! includes gas-guzzling SUVs and outsized limousines.

“The big carmakers are still relying on their cash cows,” said Mr. Tan.

Although BMW is exhibiting the concept all-electric BMW i3 and hybrid BMW i8 cars, Mr. Tan says the carmaker’s focus is still elsewhere.

Mercedes-Benz, too, is vamping with its roughly $500,000 SLS AMG electric drive (apparently the fastest EV built in series). For ordinary consumers interested in green luxury, it is showing the new A 180 CDI BlueEFFICIENCY.

Volkswagen, Europe’s biggest carmaker, is exhibiting the widely heralded XL1, a slick two-seater that, burning just 1 liter of gasoline for 100 kilometers driven (over 250 mpg), is possibly the most fuel efficient car built in series. At a reported 50 units built, however, the term “series” might be an overstatement. That together with the fact that Volkswagen has not come up with a sticker price yet shows that this marvel of efficiency is not yet consumer-ready.

French carmakers are showing movement on the green car front in Geneva. The Citroën C-Zero (for zero-carbon) and the Renault Zoe are both pure electric cars built in series and available to consumers.

The Renault Twizy, also on display at the a! uto show,! has been popular since it hit the showrooms last year. With its open cockpit and its single seat, the Twizy looks more like a car from the future (it is licensed as a street-legal quadricycle) than many other designs at the car show.

Next to the models from the big carmakers, design and engineering firms are showing vehicles that are looking further into the future.

The Yvelines department in France, a region just east of Paris, is known to be a national hub for automotive and engineering firms. The department is supporting four prototypes exhibited in Geneva.

Besides electric drive trains, these concept cars feature wireless charging, autopilot and automated valet parking.

One day you will be able to press a button on your smart phone and a car will automatically drive to your address and pick you up, explained Mr. Vandewalle, vice president of economic development in the Yvelines department.

“We are paving the roads of the future,” he said.