From Russia with Love

Received the following email from Stephen:

“Dear Folks,

It goes almost unnoticed that the dissident Soviet writer, Nobel laureate Alexander Solzhenitsyn, died last Sunday of heart failure in Moscow. The obituary, apparently was overwhelmed by the upcoming Beijing Olympic Games, didn't even catch the headlines of most Chinese media.

But it has everything to do with Russia's twin-brother - Communist PRC.

The dissident criticized the Soviet Union as cruel and suffocating "under the malevolent and unyielding nature of communism." He even went further to attack the revered 'god' of USSR, Lenin (while his counterpart Mao's portrait is still overlooking the Tinanmen Square with a wicked smile as of today).Neither did he show any sympathy towards the country which offered him the new citizenship, the US, during his 20-year exile. He viewed the West & US in general as morally weak, limp & flaccid, materialistic and suffering from "the spiritual impotence that comes from living a life of ease."

A friend once puzzled, why I as a Chinese (by race), sometimes criticize the PRC Government "almost like CNN" (in his own words)? This posts a very critical question: should race be more important than social justice?Solzhenitsyn once wrote of his life: "It is history's sorrow, the grief of our era, that I carry about me like an anathema."

Perhaps all Chinese, when they celebrate the first Olympic Games held in their ancient forbidden city, should ask this question:

Why there is no Chinese Solzhenitsyn?
Why no Chinese Gorbachev?
Or is it a "history's sorrow, the grief of our era?"
Can anyone volunteer an explanation?

Your pal,
Stephen”

(Aug 8 , 2008)