teohjitkhiam > Recent Status Updates

"There is an instructive parallel between the course of events in England and America between 1685 and 1688. On opposite shores of the Atlantic James II..ruled in a fashion calculated to alienate..The King bypassed Parliament, and..the colonial Assemblies. The King incited religious hysteria by openly favoring the tiny Catholic minority in England..and..colonies where Catholics were prominent office-holders."

"Chinese leaders believe in scientific progress..since 1949 have set out dynamic visions for the future..based on this faith. For Western leaders, it is..more about maintaining..the status quo..preferable to..future radical rupture..seeking to preserve but not to transform..Chinese leaders still talk of the ‘perfecting’ of the socialist system..‘Perfection’ is almost a taboo word for..democratic political systems."

"In a sense, Madison..may have been addressing long-dead political opponents from the North. Nobody had ever guilt-tripped Madison successfully. In 1829–30, however, he..not only refused to accept the power of a nonslaveholding majority to decide how to tax his “species of property,” but..revealed his resentment..that he should pay higher taxes because some northerner (or westerner) claimed to have cleaner hands."

"China has traditionally defined its diplomatic interests in ways that look like the same sort of concentric circles emanating from Xi..China does not so much have alliances like the United States does..but is attracted to mutual definitions and understandings of material interests that link with its own internal priorities..There is also the issue of how unified these partners are in their interaction with China."

"As a result of the Glorious Revolution and..Williamite
campaigns in Ireland and Scotland and..the War of the Spanish Succession, Britain was now unquestionably Europe's dominant maritime and colonial power. It was evident that all the rival colonial empires were now in a strikingly weak position..and..there was no longer any viable basis for strategic collaboration on the part of the other..powers against Britain."

"By the 1980s, Africa was renowned for its..army dictators and one-party presidents who strutted the stage enforcing their personal control, tolerating neither opposition nor dissent, licensing secret police to silence their critics, cowing the press, emasculating the courts, and making themselves exceedingly rich. Once in power, their abiding preoccupation was to stay in power, employing whatever means..necessary."

"In the North, the property tax was essentially a local tax, with assessment and collection machinery that functioned even when the states were relying on..other revenue sources..In the South..property tax was essentially a state tax. With local governments relying on fees, fines, licenses, and poll taxes..there were no regular assessment and collection procedures apart from..ones..established for particular levies."

"The idea that there was a political truth that the Party was pursuing and that would practically unleash the potential of the country was something that did not change even after Mao’s death..One day, the truth would be found. But until then, there was the continuing struggle, the pursuit, the aspiration to get better and better..and to continue seeking the ‘perfecting’ of modernity, with Chinese characteristics."

"..long turn-around times in transoceanic trade..stimulated refinements in credit practices to smooth..long chains linking a network of domestic suppliers..with overseas customers..Barbour suggested..familiarity with the bill of exchange may have encouraged acceptance of other forms of paper..By the end of the [17th] century..London..look set to overtake Amsterdam as Europe's major entrepot..and market for capital."