China's raisin'um right

[MyopicJoe]

Who says China isn't ready to embrace American values?

http://1x.com/?viewpic=18186&popphotos=1
(school girl gives a beggar woman the middle finger)

[tutusue]

Re: China's raisin'um right

I didn't anticipate being as disturbed by the photo as I turned out to be. God, that's just so...sad.

[lavagal]

Re: China's raisin'um right

I think to myself, that's someone's daughter. I think that about both of them. And as a mom, that makes me sad.

[MyopicJoe]

Re: China's raisin'um right

/nod at both TS and LG

I think to myself, that's someone's daughter. I think that about both of them.

That's rather perceptive. Their faces have similar bone structures too. That little girl could be looking at a future version of herself. A twist of fate and one has a life of privilege, the other a life of desperation.

[MyopicJoe]

Re: China's raisin'um right

It seems this picture is actually from Bandung, Indonesia. My bad for not fact checking (I found the picture via BoingBoing who which labeled it Chinese). If you look through the comments, quite a few people noticed the mistake. That makes me glad.

[Random]

Re: China's raisin'um right

It seems this picture is actually from Bandung, Indonesia. My bad for not fact checking (I found the picture via BoingBoing who which labeled it Chinese). If you look through the comments, quite a few people noticed the mistake. That makes me glad.

*sniffles*

They sure do grow up fast.

[Leo Lakio]

Re: China's raisin'um right

Who says China isn't ready to embrace American values?

Actually, you can find references to this gesture centuries before America even existed, in ancient Roman and Greek writings, as well as in Italy.

[Random]

Re: China's raisin'um right

Actually, you can find references to this gesture centuries before America even existed, in ancient Roman and Greek writings, as well as in Italy.

From what I hear, the "middle finger" gesture comes from a time when they punished captured enemy archers by cutting their middle finger, making it hard to pull and hold the bowstring..

The archers would launch their arrows and gestured to the enemies showing they still have their middle fingers.

[Jim75]

Re: China's raisin'um right

So that little girl might actually be an archer.

[MyopicJoe]

Re: China's raisin'um right

Actually, you can find references to this gesture centuries before America even existed, in ancient Roman and Greek writings, as well as in Italy.

I wasn't thinking so much about the gesture as the attitude, but that attitude isn't uniquely American. It's just a consequence of one group of people who have more wealth and power than another. So it's a universal thing. A basic human condition.

The archers would launch their arrows and gestured to the enemies showing they still have their middle fingers.

Haha, what an interesting origin.

So that little girl might actually be an archer.

Archer in a schoolgirl uniform...that's so anime

[Walkoff Balk]

Re: China's raisin'um right

Why would she think that she's Number One? Does she only believe in half of "peace"?

[Random]

Re: China's raisin'um right

Haha, what an interesting origin.

Yeah, that's what I get fo' watching Joe Moore many moons ago.

[matapule]

Re: China's raisin'um right

I didn't anticipate being as disturbed by the photo as I turned out to be. God, that's just so...sad.

I'm going to stick my neck out here. I'm suspicious by nature. I want to know the whole story behind the photo. The photo was posted to elicit a response, which it has done on HT. But the photo may be taken out of context. I'm not ready to condemn until I know the whole story, the expanded picture. I refuse to be manipulated until I know the details. I don't always believe what I am shown as absolute fact. However, I would like to find the beggar woman and give her a few coins and a hot meal. That is "anga fakatonga" (the Tongan nature).

I am now putting on my teflon shorts. That's what Matapules are for, to take the heat.

[Random]

Re: China's raisin'um right

I'm going to stick my neck out here. I'm suspicious by nature. I want to know the whole story behind the photo. The photo was posted to elicit a response, which it has done on HT. But the photo may be taken out of context. I'm not ready to condemn until I know the whole story, the expanded picture. I refuse to be manipulated until I know the details. I don't always believe what I am shown as absolute fact. However, I would like to find the beggar woman and give her a few coins and a hot meal. That is "anga fakatonga" (the Tongan nature).

I am now putting on my teflon shorts. That's what Matapules are for, to take the heat.

Maybe it's the Chinese "shaka" sign.

[MyopicJoe]

Re: China's raisin'um right

I want to know the whole story behind the photo.

It's important to question every picture. All of photography is a lie. Its visual accuracy gives the illusion of reality; a quote taken out of context.

The photographer has been coy about the context (plus her English isn't very good). She's leaving it for people to interpret however they wish, though she does add her bias.

Some people think the girl is flicking the photographer, from the apparent direction of her arm. Some people claim to be Indonesian and say they're tired of professional beggars, that this girl is flicking off one who's wearing a dress that's too clean and obviously faking it.

The aspect I focused on is differences in social class and life experiences. That this girl is too young to know what it's like to be desperate, terrified, and broken. She lives in a different world and thus has the luxury of mocking those less fortunate.

I tend not to give beggars money directly, because I don't know how they'd use it. I rather donate money to a worthy charity.

Once a young guy came up to me and asked, "Hey man, could I have a few dollars for lunch?" To which I smiled and replied, "No, but thanks a lot."

I appreciated his offer to trade money to assuage any guilt I was feeling, but I was feeling pretty good about myself that day.

Maybe it's the Chinese "shaka" sign.

Haha. Such a smart@$$