Guo Degang · Guns · Dream Project

September 2010 Issue, Hi Art

Affairs about Guo Degang, guns and the Dream Project happened in three counties. They are different from each other, but all of them have more or less reflected the relationship between citizens and the government’s authority from various aspects.

Recently, Guo Degang’s house encroached on the public green space. A reporter from the local TV station went there to do an interview but was beaten by Guo’s student. After that Guo expressed his dissatisfaction at the reporter’s intruding without permission, cursed Beijing Television Station with rude words and said that his student’s deed was entirely reasonable. A few days later, CCTV seriously criticized Guo with several successive parallel sentences in its programme News Studio, saying that ‘between venting his anger and accepting social responsibility as a public figure, he has habitually chosen the former. Vulgar, pulp and kitsch, Guo, the well-known cross-talk actor, is so ugly in front of citizens.’ Successively, Xinhua News Agency published a commentary ‘Public Figures Should Be Self-respecting under Supervision’ which pointed out ‘It is public figures’ duty to be kind to the public and to the society.’ Then People’s Daily also commented on that in ‘Literary and Art Workers Should Be in Charge of Common People’s Spiritual and Mental Construction’, ‘It is natural for literary and art workers to take charge of common people’s spiritual and mental construction, no matter in active or negative manners. If they overlook that point and blend themselves with people poor in dignity, then not only the actor himself and his audience, but also the whole occupation and industry will suffer from his deeds.’ Recently Guo’s books and audio-visual products have been removed from big book stores and video shops, and staff from Audio-Visual Department of Beijing Book Building expressed that they did so in accordance with relevant notifications.

On June 28th, the U.S. Supreme Court supported the demand made by McDonnell, a Chicago citizen, of purchasing guns, with 5 voted for it and 4 against. The verdict stated that provisions about purchasing guns by citizens in the Constitution are also applicable to other laws in each state all over America. In America, guns are as common as daily necessities such as kitchen knives in Chinese families. For Americans guns are more than weapons; they symbolize citizens’ rights. The Chinese saying ‘Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun’ will not work in America. The Second Amendment of U.S. Constitution made in 1791 states, ‘People’s rights to possess and carry guns must not be infringed.’ In America, which has 170 thousand gun shops, almost everyone has a gun; there are 250 million various guns privately owned, and 7 billion bullets are sold out per year. Tom King, Chairman of New York Pistol and Rifle Association, said that they had serious laws on guns, but laws were only of use to law-abiding people; what kill a fellow were not guns but people. Up to now, 17 countries, such as England, France, Germany and America, allow their citizens to possess firearms, among which Switzerland permits the possession of semi-automatic rifles.

Recently, the Dream Project has been voted down by the Congress of Vietnam. The project was put out by Nguyen Tan Dung, Prime Minister as well as the member of Vietnamese Communist Central Committee. According to the plan, 56 billion dollars will be invested in the construction of a south-north high speed railway connecting Hanoi, the political center, and Ho Chi Minh City, the economical center, together. In the light of Vietnamese laws, any projects with a budget above 1.9 billion dollars have to be approved by the congress. In August, 2009, the government had signed a primary Cooperation Intension with Shinkansen, a Japanese company, through Vietnam National Rail Corporation. After a year’s preparation, the proposal of the project was submitted to the Congress for deliberations. However, to people’s surprise, severe dispute still arose during the 7th Session of the 12th Congress, and at last the proposal was rejected, with 185 of 427 attendants voted for it, 208 voted against and 34 abstained. The opponents’ reason was that the project would cost a lot and hence impose heavy burden to citizens; besides, the railway ticket would be too expensive to benefit peasants well. Since 1993, representatives in Vietnam Congress have been chosen under national direct election; they are full-time or part-time. Full-time representatives account for a quarter of the total, and the percentage is on the rise. In 2002, Vietnam Congress adopted the Query System, and since then the officials have to be challenged by representatives at various levels, with even the ministers so awkward as to sweat and stammer. Since 2008, the process of Query began to be broadcasted live to all citizens, which has forced officials receiving queries to use their authority with extreme caution.

Zhu Wei

Sunday, August 15th, 2010

郭德纲 . 枪 . 梦工程

《HI艺术》2010年9月刊

郭德纲、枪、梦工程是发生在三个国家不同的三件事，但它们却从不同层面多多少少地反映出了公民个体和公权力之间的关系。

前一阵子郭德纲住宅侵占公共绿地，当地一家电视台前去实地采访，遭其徒弟殴打，事后郭对记者私闯民宅表示不满，直斥北京电视台“装孙子”，称弟子打人完全合理。数日后，中央电视台在《新闻直播间》节目里用几个连续的排比句对此进行了狠批，指郭德纲在“个人私愤和公众人物的社会责任之间习惯性地倒向私愤，在我们身边更多的公民面前这位公众人物如此庸俗、低俗、媚俗的表现是多么地丑陋。”紧接着新华社发表评论《公众人物面对监督要自重》，评论指出：“公众人物善待公众，善待社会，是应尽之责。”紧接着《人民日报》发表评论《文艺从业者对普通人的精神和心灵建设荷负责任》，文章指出：“文艺从业者们无论主动还是被动，都先天地对我们这个时代普通人的精神和心灵建设荷负责任，一旦轻视了这个责任，一旦真的把自己混同于人格上的穷人，那么受伤害的不仅是观众，演员本身乃至这门职业、这门艺术也会受到伤害。”近日在北京的各大图书音像店已经买不到郭德纲的书籍和光盘，北京图书大厦音像部门的工作人员表示，是收到了相关通知才这样做的。

六月二十八日，美国最高法院以五票同意四票反对的结果，支持了芝加哥公民麦克·唐纳购买枪支的诉求。判决书称，宪法中有关公民购买持有枪支的条款同样适用于全美各州法律。枪支在美国就像中国家庭里的菜刀和普通物品一样，枪支的意义已经超越了武器，而是一种公民权利。枪杆子里面出政权这句话在美国是行不通的。一七九一年，美国宪法第二条修正案中这样写道，“人民持有并携带武器的权利不得侵犯。”在美国几乎人人都有枪，枪械专卖店多达十七万家，美国私人拥有各类枪支二点五亿支，每年美国销售七十亿发子弹。纽约手枪与步枪协会主席汤姆金表示，我们有非常严格的枪支法律，枪支法律只对守法的人有用，限制枪支无济于事。杀人的不是枪，而是人。到目前为止，在全世界英国、法国、德国、美国等十七个国家都允许公民拥有枪支，其中瑞士还可以允许持有半自动步枪。

近日越南“梦工程”在越南国会遭否决，梦工程是由越南总理、越共中央政治局委员阮晋勇发起的，计划斥资560亿美元打造一条连接北方政治中心河内和南方经济中心胡志明市的南北高铁。据越南法律，凡预算在19亿美元以上的项目必须经国会批准，早在二??九年八月，越南政府便经由越南国家铁路公司和日本新干线公司达成初步合作意向，经过近一年的准备，才于今年五月正式将此案提交国会审议，不料十二届国会七次会议期间大家依然面红耳赤，最后427名与会议员，以185票赞成，208票反对，34票弃权，提案被否决。被否决的原因：造价高，公民负担重，票价高，广大农民受益不大。自一九九三年以来，越南国会代表便采取全国直选，越南国会代表分专职和兼职，其中专职代表占四分之一，近年还有趋势逐步上升。二??二年越南国会质询制度实施以来，国会代表对各级官员们的质询真刀真枪，直至把部长们问得“额头冒汗，结结巴巴”；二??八年国会质询向全国民众全程直播，迫使受质询的官员在公权力的使用上不敢有丝毫闪失。

朱伟

2010年8月15日星期日