LFS Lessons Asia

Thai protesters have returned home, but reconciliation efforts have fallen flat:

In Bangkok, nearly 500 kilometers, or 300 miles, to the southeast, a sense of normalcy has covered over the wounds of the red shirts’ long occupation of the city center, which ended on May 19 with a military assault in which about 90 people died.
(In the provinces), home to many who protested in Bangkok in April and May, critics of the government have retreated into silence.
In a prison interview here, Natthayot Phajuang, a red shirt leader who is serving a six-month sentence, said the continuing detentions were making it difficult to find common ground.
“If he wants people in the country to love each other in harmony again,” he said of Mr. Abhisit, “he shouldn’t use prison to separate us.” » The full New York Times article – By Seth Mydans – Published: August 31, 2010

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• Would prime minister Abhisit’s party, which hasn’t won a nationwide poll since 1992, be in power if their “yellow shirted” supporters had not hijacked the airports and held them hostage for 8 days in 2008 stranding hundreds of thousands of travelers?
• None of the yellow shirts have been convicted for shutting down the airport, including Kasit Piromya, the current foreign minister who took part and reportedly said the protest was “a lot of fun.” » The full New York Times article. – By Thomas Fuller.
• Abhisit’s Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban says (the 8 day) blockade of the two airports last year “caused no damage to aviation” so charges are baseless. » The full Bangkok Post article..
• Is Thai law biased? Thai Supreme Court rulings are based on the military created constitution.

Thailand’s army-backed government is now wielding overwhelming surveillance, imprisonment, censorship and other “state of emergency” powers across much of this Buddhist-majority Southeast Asian nation. The United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship, commonly known as the Red Shirts, acknowledge that they have been strangled and are struggling to stay alive. Thousands of cameras are to be installed all over Bangkok, making it probably the most heavily surveilled city in Asia.
“The government’s use of terrorism charges to go after Red Shirt leaders, as well as Thaksin, is inappropriate for what was mostly a peaceful political movement that did not target civilians,” said the Belgium-based International Crisis Group on July 5.
The emergency decree, described by the ICG as “draconian,” conveniently also” grants officials immunity from prosecution,” the ICG said. » The full Asia Sentinel article – By Richard S. Ehrlich – July 8, 2010

• WWS – World Wise School – The Blind Men and the Elephant -
  Overview | Students will develop sensitivity to others’ points of view.
  – Students will understand the importance of having as much information as possible before coming to conclusions. Go to this Building Society Lesson Worksheet.
• The Learning Foundation – Making Good Laws: “Is the Thai Constitution credible?” -
  Go to this Building a Healthy Society and Law Lesson.
• The New York Times – Learning Network – Democracy in Action -
  Overview | Students consider words that reflect their knowledge and opinions about democracy. Go to this Building a Healthy Society and ESL Lesson.
• The New York Times – Learning Network – Examining Military Coups Around the World -
  Overview | Students consider military coups and their aftermaths, research famous coups… illustrating those events, and write letters from the perspectives of ousted leaders examined during class. Go to this Law and Society Lesson.

China Is Wordless on Traumas of Communists’ Rise

CHANGCHUN, CHINA
In what China’s history books hail as one of the war’s decisive victories, Mao’s troops starved out the formidable Nationalist garrison that occupied Changchun with nary a shot fired. What the official story line does not reveal is that at least 160,000 civilians also died during the siege of the northeastern city, which lasted from June to October of 1948.
“Changchun was like Hiroshima,” wrote Zhang Zhenglu, a lieutenant colonel in the People’s Liberation Army who documented the siege in “White Snow, Red Blood,” a book that was immediately banned after publication in 1989. “The casualties were about the same. Hiroshima took nine seconds; Changchun took five months.” » The full New York Times article – By Andrew Jacobs.

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• World Wise School - Worksheet – Students will learn to identify and modify generalizations -
  This activity introduces students to the difficult concept of generalization so that they will challenge generalizations made about people… Go to this Building Society Lesson.
• The Learning Foundation – “Did Li Qingyou Break the Law?” – Simplified Mock Trial Lesson -
  Red Guard, Li Qingyou’s statement: “Our mentality was that when Chairman Mao waved his hand, we would move, and whatever he said, we would do.
  - We took their money, gold, silver, and things and gave it to the government.”
  - Pin Dueng was one of the landowners described as ’rich’ in Li’s statement, and has accused Li of stealing his things and has brought the case to court. Go to this Simplified Mock Trial.
• The New York Times – Learning Network – The Second Draft of History -
  Overview | Students draft entries about a recent historical event for a history textbook using two specific sources of information. They then compare their entries and examine the differences. Go to this Media and ESL Lesson.

Religious Rights

The debate over building a Muslim community center so close to where terrorists claiming to act in the name of Islam killed more than 2,700 people has attracted the intense views of political and religious leaders, victims’ families and pundits.
Many of them expressed a welter of mixed feelings in interviews this week on street corners, in stores and in mosques: Some said they felt embittered or hurt by criticism of the project, and of Islam in general, yet understood opponents’ misgivings. » More in this New York Times article – By Paul Vitello – Published: August 19, 2010

President’s Role
“As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as
everyone else in this country,” President Barack Obama said during an annual White House iftar dinner, marking the breaking of the daily fast in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. “That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan in accordance with local laws and ordinances.”
“It is not his role as president to pass judgment on every local project,” White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton said in an e-mailed statement. “But it is his responsibility to stand up for the constitutional principle of religious freedom and equal treatment for all Americans.” More from this Bloomberg article – By William McQuillen – Published August 16, 2010

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• The New York Times - Learning Network – Democracy in Action –
  Overview | Students consider words that reflect their knowledge and opinions about democracy. They then work in groups to research countries that have recently transitioned to democratic forms of government. Their learning is further enhanced by reflecting on what has transpired in these countries to date. Go to this Building Society and Law Lesson.
• The New York Times – Learning Network – The Fight for Human Rights -
  Overview | Students explore the concept of human rights by developing and defending their own ‘Bill of Human Rights’ and by writing a reflective essay that compares their notions of human rights and the protection of them to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Go to this Law and Building a Healthy Society Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network – Resources for Teaching the Constitution –
  Go to this Building Society and Law Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network – Responding in Kind –
  Overview | Students explore events in which people choose kindness in the face of cruelty and write personal essays about their own experiences. Go to this Building Society and Law Lesson.

BEIJING — The Chinese government has called for an end to the public shaming of criminal suspects

Public shaming of the accused and the condemned has been a long
tradition in China — one that the Communist Party embraced with
zeal during episodes of class struggle and anticrime crusades.
Although public executions have been discontinued, provincial cities
still hold mass sentencing rallies, during which convicts wearing
confessional placards are driven though the streets in open trucks.

The public response, at least on the Internet, has tended toward outrage, with many postings expressing sympathy for the women.
“Why aren’t corrupt officials dragged through the streets?” read one posting. “These women are only trying to feed themselves.” But much of the anger has been directed at the police, who are a focus of growing public mistrust. Although corruption among the police is rife in China, the disdain has been further heightened by a series of widely publicized episodes involving the torture of detainees, suspects who mysteriously died in custody and innocent people jailed on trumped-up evidence.
One man spent 10 years in prison for murder after the police extracted his confession — only to be freed when his supposed victim turned out to be alive. »The full New York Times article By Andrew Jacobs – Published: July 27, 2010

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• The New York Times – Learning Network – The Fight for Human Rights -
  Overview | Students explore the concept of human rights by developing and defending their own ‘Bills of Human Rights’ and by writing a reflective essay that compares their notions of human rights and the protection of them to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Go to this Law and Building a Healthy Society Lesson.
• The Learning Foundation – “Did Li Qingyou Break the Law?” – Simplified Mock Trial Lesson -
  Li Qingyou’s statment: “Our mentality was that when Chairman Mao waved his hand, we would move, and whatever he said, we would do.
  - We took their money, gold, silver, and things and gave it to the government.”
  - Pin Dueng was one of the landowners described as ’rich’ in Li’s statement, and has accused Li of stealing his things and has brought the case to court. Go to this Simplified Mock Trial.
• World Wise School - Worksheet – Students will learn to identify and modify generalizations -
  This activity introduces students to the difficult concept of generalization so that they will challenge generalizations made about people… Go to this Building Society Lesson.