Marion's Miscellaneous Musings

History is in the Eye of the Beholder

This is a statue, much larger than life, of Chiang Kai-Shek, first president of Taiwan. There is much admiration of him at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Center, not only about his leadership and founding of the country, but also his writing and philosophy. I wish I could have had more time to wander around.

It was interesting in more ways than one: In recounting his life, our tour guide said only that he moved the capital from Nanking to Taipei...not one word about losing mainland China to Mao Tse-Tung (or Mao Zedong, depending on how you transliterate the Chinese sounds which do not have an exact duplicate in English.) I'm sure the mainland Chinese have their own ideas about Chiang Kai-Shek.

I had a Russian boy living with me briefly in the fall of 2001. I asked him a loaded question: Who was at fault when the US spy plane and Chinese plane collided the previous spring? Without even thinking, he answered "The US," and added "The Americans are always at fault."

It is what you are taught.

The protestants may call it "The Reformation", but it is known among Catholics as "The Breakup of the Church."

I remember reacting very strongly to the Ayatollah Khomeini calling the US "The Great Satan" when it was very clear to me that the evil was on his side of the fence.

And, I wonder what historians in 100 years will say about US politics in the last 25 years. I just have to laugh at pundits who say that historic things happened, it is way too soon to tell what is important and what is not. (Other than the obvious, like planes diving into towers.)

posted by Marion @ 11:22 PM