南方周末开天窗

星期三[2009年11月19日]上市的《南方周末》虽然全文刊登了奥巴马的访谈，却有另外两篇有关奥巴马的文章临时被中宣部撤下来。结果《南方周末》开来一整版的天窗，在开天窗的地方，《南方周末》打了自己的宣传标语：在这里，读懂中国。这一期的《南方周末》真正让中国人读懂中国了，只是美国人奥巴马一定还读不懂，他很可能要纳闷，为什么《南方周末》问的那些问题甚至比上海那些挑选的大学生问的还要幼稚？

史天健和他的实证研究

未普评论：史天健和他的实证研究
2011-01-05

丁东说，“2010年是中国痛失思想家的一年”。中国选举与治理网近日推出一篇题为“逝去的生命，永存的灵魂”的文章，讲的就是在2010年去世的朱厚泽、谢韬、李普、蔡定剑和史天健的故事和他们为后人留下的遗产。

史天健是美国杜克大学政治学系终身教授和中国清华大学政治学教授。他于12月25日因罕见的疾病突然散手人寰，终年仅59岁。史天健在美国哥伦比亚大学攻读政治学博士期间，师从中国问题专家黎安友（Andrew Nathan），与安迪结下了亦师亦友的关系。黎安友在追悼史天健时说，在政治学研究领域，史天健的实证研究已经攀上了顶峰。

史天健的实证研究就是通过问卷调查获取的数据，来解释中国的政治文化、政治变迁和民众的政治行为。他是第一个使用多级代表抽样样本在中国本土开展大规模社会民调的教授，中国的政治转型理论因而得到丰富和发展。就这一点而言，史天健无疑在中国政治学研究的历史上留下了丰厚的遗产。

早在1988年12 月，史天健就开始搞他的实证研究了。那时，史天健作的是关于北京市民政治参与的民意调查。这个调查提到，中国仍处于从没有选举到有限选举的转型期，选民还不具备改变政府或一党专政的框架的能力；但是，政治并不局限于单方面地执行政党政治。这个调查为他的博士论文《北京的政治参与》提供了依据，该论文 1997年由哈佛大学出版社出版。

为了搞实证研究，史天健这几年马不停蹄地在中国各地奔波。与其说他是政治学者，不如说他更像是用脚跑学问的社会学家。他的某一次调查就涉及了3200个样本抽样，覆盖了全国150个市县，每一个市县做了四个居委会四个村的抽样。专家说，按照现今的学术标准，这是最高质量的抽样调查。

但是史天健从第一手调查资料得出的一些结论，有时却受到既来自中国知识界也来自美国学界的批评。中国境内一些人认为他为中国政府说话，太政治正确，而美国学界一些人则认为他太不政治正确，特别是他的关于中国民主供求差距不大的结论，让美国学界的人大跌眼镜，认为这不符合人们对中国民主现状的基本认识。

另外，史天健的关于中国人的民主价值观的调查与结论，也让外界感到意外。他说80%的中国人认为民主比专制好，但他们脑中的民主，却是孔孟的执政为民的民本思想，而不是西方的权利归民的民主。史天健说，“原来中国人想像的民主是这样的。不少人会失望，但这是我调查所得，不是我的个人观点”。

我倒是认为，不谈史天健的结论，他的关于中国人的民主价值观的实证调查至少说明几个问题：第一，中国民众对民主的认识，存在著许多误区；第二，中国民众的民主再教育仍然是一个相当艰巨的任务；第三，中国的政治转型是一个漫长的过程。关于政治转型的艰巨与漫长，史天健实际上早就意识到了。他说，如果我们想要在中国推进西方式的民主，就要塌下心来认真地研究一下，它的问题在哪里，我们要对其作一些什么样的改善，才能使其在我们国家发展。

无论史天健的政治观点如何，他赢得了所有人的尊敬。一些人尽管不认同他的观点但敬重他对中国的现实关怀和脚踏实地的调查与研究。王军涛在史天健骤逝的第一时间便写文悼念，他说，“跳出意识形态战场，尊重学术结果——这样的品质让史天健赢得知识界‘各门派’的普遍尊重”。此话不虚。清华大学政治系教授刘瑜跟史天健观点不同，但非常尊重史的严谨与扎实的研究，她说，史天健的观点不是一拍脑袋的随意感慨，而是踏踏实实做经验研究、言出必有据的。

在海外自由生活自由做学问的人，有时难以理解像史天健那样的学者在中国搞调查面临的困境。史天健的友人在追忆他的文章中，透露了一些信息，可能有助于人们对那种困境的理解。李炜，自称是史天健的小喽罗，自从1988年筹建中国民意调查中心时，就结识了史老师，他说，在做政治参与调查时，史天健有时很激恼，因他关注的题目被官方从问卷中删掉，想做的调查总被审查机构拖死，那时，他就会格外的轴；轴的执著，轴的不合国情。

史天健的固执说明他一直试图坚持他的学者本分，这正像张鸣对他的评价的那样，史天健跟歌德派学者不同，从不主动往权势者那边靠，不颠倒黑白，变著法儿取悦某些人。跟许多海外学者一样，他关心中国，关心中国的变化，一心希望中国变好，即使有批评，也是通过研究的方式表达，守著学者的本分。

史天健的实证方法为政治学研究作出了重大贡献，而他的一些观点则引发不少争议和批评，但史天健并不介意批评。他说，“我非常希望有人跟我辩论。但用学术辩论，用资料跟我说，能说服我最好。不要老是用意识形态挂帅。”遗憾的是，他还没来得及与批评他的人当面辩论，就驾鹤西去了。呜呼！

April 11, 2011

Poetry for Everyday Life

By DAVID BROOKS

Here’s a clunky but unremarkable sentence that appeared in the British press before the last national election: “Britain’s recovery from the worst recession in decades is gaining traction, but confused economic data and the high risk of hung Parliament could yet snuff out its momentum.”

The sentence is only worth quoting because in 28 words it contains four metaphors. Economies don’t really gain traction, like a tractor. Momentum doesn’t literally get snuffed out, like a cigarette. We just use those metaphors, without even thinking about it, as a way to capture what is going on.

In his fine new book, “I Is an Other,” James Geary reports on linguistic research suggesting that people use a metaphor every 10 to 25 words. Metaphors are not rhetorical frills at the edge of how we think, Geary writes. They are at the very heart of it.

George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, two of the leading researchers in this field, have pointed out that we often use food metaphors to describe the world of ideas. We devour a book, try to digest raw facts and attempt to regurgitate other people’s ideas, even though they might be half-baked.

When talking about relationships, we often use health metaphors. A friend might be involved in a sick relationship. Another might have a healthy marriage.

When talking about argument, we use war metaphors. When talking about time, we often use money metaphors. But when talking about money, we rely on liquid metaphors. We dip into savings, sponge off friends or skim funds off the top. Even the job title stockbroker derives from the French word brocheur, the tavern worker who tapped the kegs of beer to get the liquidity flowing.

The psychologist Michael Morris points out that when the stock market is going up, we tend to use agent metaphors, implying the market is a living thing with clear intentions. We say the market climbs or soars or fights its way upward. When the market goes down, on the other hand, we use object metaphors, implying it is inanimate. The market falls, plummets or slides.

Most of us, when asked to stop and think about it, are by now aware of the pervasiveness of metaphorical thinking. But in the normal rush of events, we often see straight through metaphors, unaware of how they refract perceptions. So it’s probably important to pause once a month or so to pierce the illusion that we see the world directly. It’s good to pause to appreciate how flexible and tenuous our grip on reality actually is.

Metaphors help compensate for our natural weaknesses. Most of us are not very good at thinking about abstractions or spiritual states, so we rely on concrete or spatial metaphors to (imperfectly) do the job. A lifetime is pictured as a journey across a landscape. A person who is sad is down in the dumps, while a happy fellow is riding high.

Most of us are not good at understanding new things, so we grasp them imperfectly by relating them metaphorically to things that already exist. That’s a “desktop” on your computer screen.

Metaphors are things we pass down from generation to generation, which transmit a culture’s distinct way of seeing and being in the world. In his superb book “Judaism: A Way of Being,” David Gelernter notes that Jewish thought uses the image of a veil to describe how Jews perceive God — as a presence to be sensed but not seen, which is intimate and yet apart.

Judaism also emphasizes the metaphor of separateness as a path to sanctification. The Israelites had to separate themselves from Egypt. The Sabbath is separate from the week. Kosher food is separate from the nonkosher. The metaphor describes a life in which one moves from nature and conventional society to the sacred realm.

To be aware of the central role metaphors play is to be aware of how imprecise our most important thinking is. It’s to be aware of the constant need to question metaphors with data — to separate the living from the dead ones, and the authentic metaphors that seek to illuminate the world from the tinny advertising and political metaphors that seek to manipulate it.

Most important, being aware of metaphors reminds you of the central role that poetic skills play in our thought. If much of our thinking is shaped and driven by metaphor, then the skilled thinker will be able to recognize patterns, blend patterns, apprehend the relationships and pursue unexpected likenesses.

Even the hardest of the sciences depend on a foundation of metaphors. To be aware of metaphors is to be humbled by the complexity of the world, to realize that deep in the undercurrents of thought there are thousands of lenses popping up between us and the world, and that we’re surrounded at all times by what Steven Pinker of Harvard once called “pedestrian poetry.” 

南社中的海门人 -- 陆曾沂

南社中的海门人

　　高广丰/文

　　今年11月13日是南社成立百年纪念。说到南社，许多人可能只会想到柳亚子，联想到毛泽东主席的《七律 · 和柳亚子先生》和《浣溪沙 · 和柳亚子先生》，想到柳亚子这位南社领袖与毛主席的深厚友情。其实，南社包括的人员非常广泛，当年曾经将许多从事资产阶级革命文化活动的有志之士团结到了民族革命的旗帜下，在南社1100多名社员中，也包括了7名海门人，他们是：刘炎（字继彤）、陆曾沂（字冠春，号秋心，别署南梦）、陆棫人、沙世杰（字凤千）、茅祖权（字咏熏）、袁圻（原名葆良，字怀尚，号剑侯）、黄亚康。

　　我们现在能够知道的，恐怕只有茅祖权和陆曾沂。

　　茅祖权（1883-1952）其人，《海门县志》（1996年版）有传，此不赘述。

　　陆曾沂（1884-1927）是南社中的活跃人物。南社历史上有过18次“雅集”，每次人数只有10多人、20多人，最多一次也只有39人，而陆曾沂就参加过三次。柳亚子1911年写的《饮中八友歌》的“八友”中，就有陆曾沂。现存的陆曾沂5首诗歌中，其中《梦中遇柳亚子道及朱屏子》说“俗世翩翩逢柳七，劳人草草话朱三”，他把南社的创始人柳亚子和朱少屏亲切地唤作“柳七”、“朱三”，表达了无限的思念之情，可见他们非同一般的关系。

　　陆曾沂和柳亚子的关系还可追溯到1902年在爱国学社的同学关系。陆曾沂18岁考中秀才后，抨击科举制度是“此数千年智驱术驭之术也”，于是来到上海寻求新路。这时蔡元培正在上海创办中国教育会，表面上是办教育，暗中却在鼓吹革命。1902年，中国教育会为南洋公学罢学学生组建爱国学社，陆曾沂进入爱国学社学习，师从蔡元培、章炳麟、黄炎培，并结交了比他小两岁的柳亚子，成为莫逆之交。

　　与陆曾沂关系密切的南社社员，还有后来成为国民党元老的于右任。于右任在上海主办《民呼报》，就是请陆曾沂协助的。《民呼报》实际上是同盟会掌握的报纸，对辛亥革命起了宣传鼓动的作用。清政府为此曾声言要挖掉于右任的眼睛，于是于右任将报纸改名为《民吁报》表明眼睛自行挖掉，不必有劳“贵手”。《民吁报》被禁后，于右任又办了《民立报》，仍请陆曾沂做助手。陆曾沂在报上发表了许多宣传革命的文章，其中包括一些有关海门的消息。陆曾沂还在报上首创“斗锦楼小说”，由他写第一章，然后先由他点将，被点者续写第二章，这样依次点将续写，最后仍由陆曾沂收笔。参与“斗锦楼小说”创作的南社社员有于右任、邵力子、叶楚伧等八人。这一别开生面的小说创作方法，一时成为时尚，各报纷纷仿效。

　　陆曾沂鼓吹资产阶级革命的手段，除了办报外，还进行小说创作和翻译。于右任说他“每撰小说，灌输主义，海上各报购稿者踵相接”。其中《双泪碑》在《时报》馆出版，时人评为“时报馆诸小说，此为第一”。

　　他翻译的小说《葡萄劫》，叙述希腊斗士不堪土耳其侵略，揭竿革命，光复故土的故事。

　　后来陆曾沂致力于教育事业，先后在上海务本女校、南洋中学、城东女学任教，用资产阶级革命思想教育学生，于右任认为“生徒多为之化”。辛亥革命后，他拒绝海门有人想选他当议员，而继续从事教育事业，曾任复旦大学教务及中学部主任。1927年南京政府召任其为参军兼秘书，未赴任而病逝。于右任在撰写的墓志铭中称赞他“一生不轻然诺，不苟取与，不苟合流俗，所为诗文，均寄慨遥深”。

　　（希望通过本文的发表，征集到其他几位南社社员的资料）

柳恽《江南曲》赏析

发布时间： 2007-6-25 11:32:39 被阅览数： 545 次 来源： 中国国学网
文字 〖 大 中 小 〗 ）

汀洲采白蘋，日落江南春。洞庭有归客，潇湘逢故人。

故人久不返，春华复应晚。不道新知乐，空言行路远。



柳恽，字文畅，生于宋泰始元年(465年)，卒于梁天监十六年(517年)。祖籍河东解州(今山西运城)，南朝梁著名诗人、音乐家、棋手。

柳恽父柳世隆，南齐尚书令，左光禄大夫、侍中。兄柳惔，梁尚书左仆射。柳恽从小深受父、兄影响，勤奋好学，少有志向，才华出众，远近闻名。齐竟陵王萧子良闻其名识，请他在朝中当法曹行参军，并极赏识之。齐武帝时，官至太子洗马，后因父丧辞官回乡。

从齐武帝开始，萧齐宗室内部不断相互倾轧、残杀。齐和帝中兴元年(501年)，雍州(今湖北襄樊附近，刺史萧衍带兵进攻建康(今江苏南京)，柳恽“候谒石头(今南京)”，主动投诚，封为冠军将军、征东府司马。当时齐东昏侯还未投降，士兵还在苦战。柳恽陈书请求攻下石头时，先收图籍，宽大为怀，怃恤百姓。萧衍点头同意，让柳恽西上荆州(今湖北江陵县)迎接齐和帝萧宝融，并任命他为相国右司马。柳恽开端效忠萧梁王朝。

梁天监元年(502午)萧衍建立梁朝，柳恽为侍中，与仆射，著名史学家沈约等共同定新律。以后在朝中，历任散骑常侍、左民尚书，持节、都督、仁武将军、平越中郎将、广州(今广东广州)刺史。又“征为秘书监、领左军将军”。曾两次出任吴兴(今浙江吴兴县)太守，“为政清静，人吏怀之。梁天监十六年(517年)卒，享年53岁。赠侍中，中护军。
　　
柳恽是齐梁时有成就的诗人之一。他年轻时以擅长赋诗闻名，晚年在吴兴任官也作许多诗篇。名篇《江南曲》是作者在汉乐府诗的影响下，创作的有代表性的五言诗。诗描绘妻子见到久别的丈夫，半喜半忧的复杂心理：
　　
诗中刻画人物心理细致，景情交融，特别是起句为后人赋诗中奉为典故引用。《江南曲》一直和吴筠的《小垂手》及梁简文帝的《夜曲》一起，被视为五言律诗的滥觞。
　　
柳恽的其他诗句，如《捣衣诗》中的“亭皋木叶下，陇首秋云飞。”《从(梁)武帝登景阳楼》中“太液沧波起，长扬高树秋。”诗以素物抒发作者的思想感情，颇有影响，并为论诗者鉴赏。又如《独不见》风格别具，写失意惆怅之情。柳恽的诗句是梁五言宫体诗的代表作。风格自然朴素，深挚含蓄，毫不雕饰。
　　
柳恽的大半生是在宫廷和贵族周围度过的，他的诗句不免附合君主贵族的兴趣。诗中描绘宫廷花草、树木、服饰等，来满足皇帝贵族的娱乐要求。梁武帝每次举行宴会，总要让他赋诗，他们互唱互和，以诗助兴。柳恽的诗句广为流传。著名文学家王融把他的诗句写到书斋的墙壁和执着的白团扇上。柳恽晚年与文学家吴筠关系甚密。吴筠诗文具有清拔之气，人称“吴筠体”。在吴兴柳恽“召(吴筠)补主薄，日引与赋诗。”他们相互赠诗，以表友人之情。柳恽的诗风清新秀美，格调也比较健康，在当时诗坛上有一定影响。柳恽的诗文收在《柳吴兴集》中，共12卷，南宋末尚存1卷，已佚。他的少量诗文散见于《艺文类聚》、《初学记》、《玉台新咏》中。近人严可均《全上古三代秦汉三国六朝文》辑其文1篇，逯钦立《先秦汉魏晋南北朝诗》辑其诗18首。
　　
柳恽少时学琴，其父是闻名于世的弹琴高手，他深受指点和熏陶，以后他又拜著名的琴手嵇元荣、羊盖为师。他天资聪颖，琴技精湛，天下闻名。一次萧子良在院内摆酒设宴，将晋代宰相谢安曾用过的鸣琴摆在一侧，请柳恽弹奏，他以娴熟的技艺奏出悦耳动听的琴声，使在场的人都陶醉了。萧子良赞叹说：“卿巧越嵇心，妙臻羊体，良质美手，信在今辰。岂止当世称奇，足可追踪古烈。”又一次，柳恽赋诗未就，以笔敲琴，附近的客人过来，用筷子一起敲打，琴中发出悲哀的音乐，使柳恽为之一惊，于是制为雅音。从此敲琴演奏便开始了。柳恽弹琴善于推陈出新，他论述琴法，“以今声转弃古法”。著有《清调论》。
　　
柳恽善下围棋，是著名的棋手。梁武帝也最好围棋，他命柳恽负责在全国范围内进行棋品的评定。柳恽品定棋谱，作《棋品》3卷。他评定棋手名次优劣，登格者共278人。柳恽自己名列第二。这是我国古代围棋史上一次规模最大的评定棋手等级的盛会。柳恽还是博射高手。博射是古代一种游戏，他“发必命中”。
　　
柳恽还精医术，通晓医学精妙之道。还擅长占卜，著有《卜杖龟经》。可惜他的著述均己散佚。
　　
柳恽是南朝齐梁时著名诗人、琴手、棋手，以多才多艺著称天下。梁武帝赞赏他说，“吾闻君子不可求备，至如柳恽可谓且美，分其才艺，足了十人。”

National Velvet

While reading about Elizabeth Taylor recently, I learned from her early movie "National Velvet" that Velvet is actually a female name. For several years I used an email address that contains the word "velvet," and I never realized it had any female connotation. How much confusion and misunderstanding could that have caused? I first learned the word from the phrase "Velvet Revolution" and the theme song of the movie Godfather, "Speak Softly Love," sung by Andy Williams ("Wine-colored days warmed by the sun / Deep velvet nights when we are one.")

A nice parody

[per alex's gtalk status]

This is just the start and it never fucking ends

http://inanities.org/2011/03/this-is-just-the-start-and-it-never-fucking-ends/

Posted on March 2, 2011 by Sarah Carr

After reading this gem in the New York Times, we prevailed on Thomas Friedman to provide us with a part two. And here it is.

Future historians will long puzzle over how I was given an international platform to freely pontificate on the Arab people and be remunerated handsomely for it. It is true that I am not the only person in the world who formulates dubious theories based on scant or no evidence which I then harangue people with. Other people do it. They are called taxi drivers. But they are not as rich as me and haven’t been awarded three Pulitizer Prizes.

Since I’ve been here in Egypt I’ve been putting together a list of “the-absolutely-irrelevant forces” that have captured the captive Arab mind and ignited the simmering coals of the instant garden BBQ that is the Middle East. You might ask why, since I am in Egypt, I don’t ask an Egyptian – possibly two Egyptians – about what inspired them to completely ignore my theories on the Arab peoples and take to the streets. The answer is this: I am Thomas Friedman and I write a column in the New York Times.

I started my last extremely important column with an introduction in which I listed tyranny, rising food prices, youth unemployment and social media as the “big causes”. Rather than just stop there, I did a Google “surprise me” search and chose five of the random results for my special “mix of forces” which inspired the Arab mass revolts. These included Barack Obama, Google Earth and the Beijing Olympics.

But there are other critical factors integral to an understanding of my bollocks theory on the Middle East. Here they are:

MY MOUSTACHE – Americans have never really appreciated what a radical thing I did in growing a moustache, long the symbol of Arab male virility. I’m convinced that when Arab men catch a glimpse of my moustache as they bring me my breakfast in my hotel they are inspired and say to themselves: “Hmmm. Let’s see. He’s middle-aged. I’m middle-aged. He’s slightly tanned. I’m roughly the same colour. His name is Thomas. My name is Hussein. He is a prick. I sometimes act like a prick. He is not president of the United States. I am not president of the United States. Lincoln is the capital of Nebraska. Water boils at 100 degrees centigrade. He has a moustache. I have a moustache. Both our moustaches have no voice in my future”. I’d put that in my special mix of hallucinogenic drugs and ingest it.

HOME SHOPPING NETWORK.com – While Facebook has gotten all the face time in Egypt, Tunisia and Bahrain, don’t forget the Home Shopping Network which has never been particularly relevant to any Arab state but let’s shoehorn it in anyway. A big issue in Bahrain- particularly among nobody at all – has been access to home solutions. On Nov. 27 2006, the Washington Post ran this report from there: “Mahmoud, who lives in a house with his parents, 97 siblings and their uncountable number of children, said he became even more frustrated when he looked up the Home Shopping Network and saw huge numbers of spring cleaning ideas for the home. ‘We are 1798 people crowded into one small house, like many people in the southern district,’ he said. ‘And you see on Home Shopping Network how they have the best solutions for mess and free shipping.’ Bahraini activists have encouraged people to take a look at the crafts section of the website, which has $5 shipping on Cricut machines.

ISRAEL – The Arab TV network Al Jazeera has a big team covering Israel today. They frequently report Israeli incursions on Palestinian towns, illegal settlements on Palestinian land, Israeli killings, torture and illegal detention of Palestinians as well as Israel’s continual transgression of international law. I will ignore this and focus on a few incidents of domestic housekeeping (and include a completely irrelevant reference to Google maps!) in order to prop up my theory and ignore the fact that if Egyptians are in any way inspired by anything that happens in Israel, it is their ability to identify with Israeli oppression of the Palestinians. When you write a column for the New York Times and your name is Thomas Friedman, well, that’s what you do.

THE COOPER’S HILL CHEESE-ROLLING AND WAKE NEAR GLOUCESTER – Gloucester and Egypt both have G in their names. Today Gloucester is the host of this event and Egypt is still living on foreign aid. What do you think Egyptians thought when they watched the dazzling opening ceremony of the 2008 Cheese-Rolling competition? It was another wake-up call – “in a way that America or the West could never be” – telling young Egyptians that something was very wrong with their supermarkets, argues Whata Loadofbollox, who teaches recreational pot pourri mixing.

THE MUBARAK FACTOR – Former Egyptian president Hosny Mubarak introduced a new form of government thirty years ago, something I, and others, have dubbed “enlightened Western-friendly leader” and others call “oppressive, corrupt dictator in bed with the West”. It says: judge me on my foreign policy towards Israel, not how I treat my own people. Every Arab could relate to this. Chinese had to give up freedom but got economic growth and decent government in return. Arabs had to give up freedom and got the Arab-Israeli conflict and my columns and books in return.

Add it all up and what does it say? It says you have a major US newspaper whose editor either has low standards or is taking backhanders so that my stuff gets published. It says that I am a huge, pompous twat. And it says that the difference between a good day a bad day for informed New York Times readers will continue to hinge on whether they open the opinion section and see my face staring out smugly at them.

March 19, 2011

Warren Christopher, Ex-Secretary of State, Dies at 85

By ROBERT D. HERSHEY Jr.

Warren M. Christopher, the secretary of state in President Bill Clinton’s first term and the chief negotiator for the 1981 release of American hostages in Iran, died Friday night in Los Angeles. He was 85.

A spokeswoman for O’Melveny & Myers, the law firm where Mr. Christopher was a senior partner, confirmed his death, according to The Associated Press.

Methodical and self-effacing, Mr. Christopher alternated for nearly five decades between top echelons of both the federal government and legal and political life in California. Among other things, he served as administration point man with Congress in winning ratification of Panama Canal treaties, presided over normalization of diplomatic relations with China and conducted repeated negotiations involving the Middle East and the Balkans.

At home, Mr. Christopher developed a reputation as an expert in urban riots, investigating racial unrest in Detroit and in the Watts district of Los Angeles and later heading a 1991 commission that proposed major reforms of the Los Angeles Police Department following riots prompted by the beating of a black motorist, Rodney King.

As a political operative, he headed Mr. Clinton’s 1992 search committee for a vice presidential running mate, settling on Al Gore, and subsequently directed the transition team of the president-elect, acting as an establishment counterweight on a team dominated by Arkansans new to the national scene. Eight years later, when Mr. Gore was running for president, he directed the search resulting in the selection of Senator Joseph I. Lieberman for the second spot on the Democratic ticket.

When the election stalemated, Mr. Christopher supervised the recount of disputed votes in Florida before George W. Bush emerged the winner by decision of the Supreme Court.

Mr. Christopher was in overall charge of the Florida recount effort, although much of the legal strategy was devised by a team of lawyers led by David Boies, the prominent corporate lawyer, and Ronald A. Klain, Mr. Gore’s former chief of staff and a onetime partner of Mr. Christopher’s at O’Melveny & Myers.

Mr. Christopher came under criticism at the time, and later in “Recount,” the 2008 HBO dramatization of the Florida vote dispute, over a lack of legal and political aggressiveness against Mr. Bush’s legal team, led by a former secretary of state, James A. Baker. The movie, in particular, portrayed Mr. Christopher as overly concerned with the niceties of the law while Mr. Baker was waging a bare-knuckled campaign on all fronts.

Mr. Klain said that was an unfair characterization. “Like all dramatic portrayals, they sought dramatic tension by exaggerating people’s personalities,” he said on Saturday. “People often confused Chris’s reserved style and personal sense of propriety with a lack of fierceness on behalf of his client. That would be a mistake.”

He said it was Mr. Christopher’s decision to challenge the Florida result, even as most Republicans and some prominent Democrats were urging Mr. Gore to concede. “People don’t remember how controversial that effort was. Without Chris’s stature and credibility, I’m not sure we would have gotten as far as we did,” Mr. Klain said.

Mr. Bush’s ascension to the White House was decreed by five Supreme Court justices, Mr. Klain insisted, not by any flaw in Mr. Gore’s legal strategy or Mr. Christopher’s leadership. “In all the years since then,” he said, “no one has come up with any workable strategic advice on how we could have gotten one of those justices to switch.”

Though widely admired for his even-handedness and equanimity — he was once described as every husband’s ideal for a wife’s divorce lawyer — Mr. Christopher was accused by detractors of lacking passionate, big-picture diplomatic vision. Even friends and associates, to whom he was known as Chris or sometimes as “the Cardinal,” said they could not discern a guiding geopolitical philosophy, regarding him as more a consummate tactician than a conceptualizer.

At the time he was named secretary of state, The New York Times reported a one-time State Department official who worked with him as saying, “If we were in a meeting on a crisis, no one would turn to Chris and say, ‘You put together the strategy memo.’ But everyone would want him to read it because he’d be very good at implementing it.”

Mr. Christopher appeared not to disagree. “My task had been to serve as steward, not proprietor, of an extraordinary public trust,” he wrote in “Chances of a Lifetime: A Memoir,” published in 2001. But he bristled at criticism that Mr. Clinton’s penchant for consultation and his own eagerness to listen had made for seminars, not decisions. “The president’s desire to consult and my Norwegian taciturnity didn’t prevent us from making the right judgments,” he said of one occasion.

Warren Minor Christopher was born Oct. 27, 1925, in the farming hamlet of Scranton, N.D., one of five children. His father, a local banker, suffered a stroke that the family believed was the result of overwork from his unsuccessful efforts keep the bank solvent during the Depression. The elder Christopher died four years later at 53 after the family moved to California.

The unabashed New Deal liberalism that young Warren embraced during this formative period remained with him throughout his career even though he made his financial fortune representing I.B.M., the Lockheed Martin Corporation and other major companies for O’Melveny & Myers, the most traditional and prestigious of Los Angeles law firms and which he eventually led.

Always impeccably dressed and unfailingly polite, Mr. Christopher told an interviewer while secretary of state that “I always thought that I would do things in a conservative way to maximize the progressiveness of my policy positions.”

While attending Hollywood High School he delivered newspapers several hours each day and, he told friends, he felt discriminated against because of his family’s difficult financial circumstances. His entered the University of Redlands at 16 but World War II intervened and he wound up in a Navy officer program at the University of Southern California, soon to serve as an ensign in the Navy Reserve on an oil tanker in the Pacific.

Mr. Christopher, who as a diplomat came to embody a reluctance to use force, supported Truman’s use of atomic bombs on Japan but later expressed doubt as to whether all alternatives had been fully explored.

After earning degrees at U.S.C. and Stanford’s law school, Mr. Christopher won a clerkship with William O. Douglas, during which he helped draft book chapters for the libertarian Supreme Court justice.

He joined O’Melveny & Myers in 1950, soon became an adviser and speech writer for California’s newly elected governor, Edmund G. Brown, and was credited with coining the term “responsible liberalism.”

Mr. Christopher, made a partner at just 33 in 1958, was named by Governor Brown to the commission investigating the 1965 Watts riots. This brought him to the attention of President Lyndon Johnson, who in 1967 brought him back to Washington, until January 1969, as deputy to Attorney General Ramsey Clark.

Here, as he focused on racial unrest in Detroit and Washington, he formed a relationship with Cyrus R. Vance, who, on being installed as secretary of state seven years later, recommended that President Jimmy Carter ask Mr. Christopher again to take leave from O’Melveny & Myers and become No. 2 at state.

As deputy, his first major task was to shepherd through the Senate the Panama Canal treaties that, in exchange for returning sovereignty to the Central American territory, gave the United States the right, if necessary, to reopen the canal militarily.

But it was his agonizing and prolonged negotiations for the release of 52 hostages held in the American Embassy in Tehran for more than a year after the 1979 revolution for which Mr. Christopher’s tenure is most vividly remembered.

Late in 1980 Mr. Christopher shuttled between Algeria, which had become a mediator, and Washington and finally brokered a deal under which the hostages would be released in return for an unfreezing of Iranian assets and a lifting of sanctions.

Even after the agreement was signed on the last full day of the Carter presidency, Iran disavowed a vital element in it, and Mr. Christopher wrote in a 2006 article about lessons learned in dealing with what he called the souk-like “bazaar behavior” of Iranian negotiators.

“To bring them back in line, I directed the pilot of my plane, on a telephone line that I knew was tapped, to warm up the engines. The Iranians quickly dropped their claim and a day later the hostages were released,” he wrote.

Mr. Christopher, usually reserved and unemotional, wept at the ultimate success.

During the captivity, an American military rescue operation failed, and when Mr. Vance resigned, Mr. Carter passed over Mr. Christopher, the logical successor, in favor of Senator Edmund S. Muskie.

But Mr. Christopher loyally remained, and a few months after the hostages were released pointed to what he said was the value of patient negotiation.

“I am thankful to have served a nation so quietly strong that it could preserve its honor, not by retaliation or vengeance, but by preserving the lives of the hostages,” he said.

After giving way to Madeleine Albright after one term as secretary of state, Mr. Christopher again returned to O’Melveny & Myers and civic and political life in California. He served as president of Stanford’s board of trustees and was a longtime director of the Southern California Edison Company.

He occasionally spoke out on international issues, urging in an Op-Ed in The Times in late 2002 that President George Bush rethink “his fixation on attacking Iraq” and turn his attention to what he considered graver threats, such as North Korea.

“Even if the optimistic predictions of quick victory prove to be accurate,” he wrote more than two months before the invasion, “we would then find ourselves absorbed with the occupation of Iraq and efforts to impose democracy on the fractious elements of that country.”

Mr. Christopher is survived by his wife of 54 years, the former Marie Wyllis, a teacher, and by their three children and five grandchildren. He had a fourth child from an earlier marriage.

Martin Jacques: Understanding the rise of China

Speaking at a TED Salon in London, economist Martin Jacques asks: How do we in the West make sense of China and its phenomenal rise? The author of "When China Rules the World," he examines why the West often puzzles over the growing power of the Chinese economy, and offers three building blocks for understanding what China is and will become.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the "Sixth Sense" wearable tech, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at http://www.ted.com/translate.



"good theory, arresting presentation fused with reason and passion" was my comment on Renren.

王立军证实文强临刑前日曾与其谈话50分钟

2011-03-12 02:28:00　来源: 京华时报(北京)　

核心提示：坊间盛传，在文强被执行死刑前一天，王立军亲自到看守所探望，王立军回应称传闻属实，临刑前日曾与文强谈话50分钟。他还表示，被称为打黑英雄是社会的悲哀。

重庆代表团内，作为今年新增补的人大代表，重庆市公安局长王立军最初几天并没引起太多关注。

3月6日，大会进行政府工作报告审议，王立军受命发言时，驻会记者们才猛然发现了这个涉及众多热点新闻却很少接受媒体采访的重庆市公安局长。

昨天，王立军接受本报专访，讲述他眼中的重庆打黑，讲述重庆警务创新，也讲述食品安全背后他的震撼与愤怒。

谈食品药品安全

“现在三代人守一个单亲链条。食品、药品安全问题，我们这一代不考虑，下一代怎么办？”

本次两会，首次以人大代表身份亮相的王立军，领衔提交的“关于制定‘食品、药品安全犯罪法’，以严刑峻法惩治食品、药品领域严重犯罪的议案”受到多方呼应。最终，十二个省、市、自治区439名人大代表联名提出了该议案。

据悉，这是1983年以来有据可查的联名代表人数最多的一份议案。

>>对话

京华时报：你是一名公安局长，为什么会特别关注食品、药品安全问题？

王立军：去年2月时，我还不知道我今天能作为一名人大代表坐在这里。我的一个科研课题专门研究人体结构，DNA等等。我跟一些专家学者，走了药厂、工厂、小作坊、加工厂、塑料大棚、养殖场，发现食品、药品安全的问题触目惊心。

京华时报：怎么触目惊心？

王立军：一些工厂得戴着防毒面具才能进，在一些地方，苍蝇都不往肉上落。我们架了五六台摄像机在油菜花地里，观察发现有农药的（地方），蜜蜂都不去采蜜。特别是去年我到一些小幼儿园、福利院考察，见到很多残障儿童。非常震撼。

京华时报：他们的残障跟有毒食品有关？

王立军：至少80%以上与有毒食品有关。我见过的现场太多了，自然灾害的，成千人的死我们去抢救，凶杀现场死五个、八个的也见过，但是见到这些孩子，他们那种惨烈地活着的场面让我震撼。当时是为了研究，但过程中我觉得这个问题涉及到的健康和民生更重要。所以提了这个议案。

京华时报：听说这个议案最终有400多代表签名？

王立军：实际上有500多个代表，有一部分没录进去。仅仅四天时间，还仅仅是12个省，（我）没有全部推开去（介绍议案）。这说明什么？说明问题的严重和大家的深恶痛绝！现在三代人守一个单亲链条。食品、药品安全问题，我们这一代不考虑，下一代怎么办？

谈重庆打黑

“一个社会如果产生英雄，实际上是这个社会有病，这是社会的悲哀。”

坊间盛传，在文强被执行死刑前一天，王立军亲自到看守所探望，两人的谈话长达50分钟。正是这次会面，让文强从心事重重到恢复平静。有没有这次会面？王立军对文强说了些什么？

>>对话

京华时报：你怎么看老百姓叫你打黑英雄这事？

王立军：一个社会如果产生英雄，实际上是这个社会有病，这是社会的悲哀。

我为什么不接受采访，（因为）一旦成为焦点，对我来说是一种压力。形成压力，没有意义。一个人在社会当中想要很好地服务，首先应该学会沉潜。沉潜代 表了一种专注，像抢注商标似的抢注热点有什么意义？能专注才能冷静思考、理性思考。我们的承载力和可融性很小，能力也很弱。这种情况下如果还把精力放到别 的上面去，没有意义。因为你所做的事情，人们为了肯定你，支持你，把它冠以很多的英雄主义色彩，自己千万要冷静。

京华时报：你跟文强最后谈了50分钟的说法是属实的吗？

王立军：其实不要只关注这50分钟，再往前想半步，在那么漫长的时间里，我和文强的谈话仅仅是这50分钟吗？我和文强的谈话仅仅就这一次吗？不会。但是这50分钟恐怕是他生命进入倒计时至关重要的50分钟，让他多了一份平静和从容。（谈话）这里面有人性化的元素。

京华时报：你和他聊了些什么？

王立军：他之前很焦虑，第二天释然了。这就说明啊，我是犯罪学研究所所长对了。这就说明我是心理学教授就对了，（说明）我是社会心理研究室主任也对了，（说明我是）现场心理研究中心主任也对了。

京华时报：为什么？

王立军：只有这种职业，能让一个人很释然地对待一些事情，让一个人能平静下来，或者事态能够平和下来。仅仅有责任感还不够，需要有一种职业感。必须强调职业感。

京华时报：怎么对待文强的特殊性呢？

王立军：文强，他有他的社会资历和社会阅历，他的能力、他的智商，甚至说他有他超常的一部分。作为一个职业者，理解社会的时候不可能用一个公式解决所有问题。从学术的角度讲，应该用诸多的公式来应对一个问题、一个人，就好办了。

京华时报：有人猜测他的平静源于死刑方式和家人安顿？如果涉秘，您可以不回答。

王立军：你所理解的警察，实际上只有三分之一。还有三分之一，永远不能说。还有三分之一，没有办法说，因为你没做成。他家里面是没问题的，他对家人 的一种期待，对组织上提出的一些合情合理的要求，不仅仅是文强，任何人，我们国家都应该维护他的权益。一个人犯罪不等于家人都犯罪。

京华时报：打黑过程中有哪些犯难的时候？

王立军：外界可能会觉得惊天动地、出生入死。这其实是警察被人不理解和理解的结合点。不理解的是做了这么多高难的动作，有生命之危险，错综复杂，高难高压。但是理解的就是说：哦，只有这样才是警察，这才是一个合格的警察。

它只是一种工作。就好像一个杂技演员一样，他们给人们造成悬念的动作实际上对他自己是很平淡的一件事。

京华时报：那请你告诉我一个真实的警察重要的是什么？

王立军：警察这个职业是一个抛物线。就像发射神七，飞多高不重要，飞多久不重要，能回来很重要，要找到那个最佳的结合点很重要。警察的志向、目标？重要。更重要的是你应该知道老百姓的需求，他们在想什么，应该关注那些弱势群体。这是落点。

京华时报：作为新一任的重庆公安局长，文强案给你什么样的思考？

王立军：内除积弊，外消积怨。内部的积弊不除，外面的社会积怨就不会消失。

谈警务创新

“这不是改革，只是勤务方式的一种转化。有的人为了让自己提升，做了一件事，马上说自己是改革。不要那样。”

本次两会中，重庆市委书记薄熙来在回答治理官员的问题时出语严厉：“对于官员，严是爱，宽是害。”

事实上，与打黑同步，重庆也展开了一场警务创新。其中，去年2月起,该市展开交巡警合一改革，在全市部署交巡警警力近万，对社会治安进行24小时不间断管控。

>>对话

京华时报：把原来坐机关的干部赶到街头去当交巡警，是否有压力？

王立军：首先说，这不是改革，只是勤务方式的一种转化。有的人为了让自己提升，做了一件事，马上说自己是改革。否定了别人，（就）说是改革，不要那 样。很简单，就是要适应社会需求。社会需求改变了，还干吗老是用建国初期的方式？如果说这种转变让人们失去了职务、失去了收入，增加了风险，它本身就是一 种失败！恰恰我们这种勤务、机制、体制的转型，让人们职务没失去，收入没减少，形象还提升，百姓还称赞，这不很好吗？

京华时报：有没有人不理解，觉得你太强硬？

王立军：在历史的进程当中总会有人去破题。不然社会就不是发展的。这是一个概念。第二个就是，这种阵痛是让个人失去了还是得到了？待遇降低了吗？收入减少了吗？社会没受益吗？百姓不称赞吗？不是。

京华时报：衡量这种创新的标准是什么？

王立军：有些人事情还没干，先把理想说出来了。有的人刚起步就把结果说出来了。有的人事情还没干完，经验就研究出来了，多可怕。我们基本上不说。实践是检验真理的唯一标准。老百姓说好的时候它肯定是好的。

谈学术、家人

“防弹衣？可能吗？重庆社会治安那样吗？那我还在重庆干吗？”

公安局长之外，王立军的另一重身份是西南政法的博导，研究领域为无创伤解剖、刑事现场鉴定等。

本次两会，他的这一学者特质充分体现。“DNA、RNA、线粒体……”不时从王立军嘴里蹦出来。小组讨论时，他还同一位医学界代表现场讨论起了这些专业问题。

>>对话

京华时报：你怎么平衡公安局长和学者这两个身份？

王立军：我把学术看得很重，因为它能提升我的职业，帮助我理解社会、研究社会。和大家一起共事的时候，文化的承载力和科技的力量才能让人感觉到公信 力。作为一个公安局的负责人，我就是一个班长。什么是领导？下完命令之后他一页一页翻资料，这是领。什么是导？自己先一寸一寸地走，防止有闪失。领导这两 个字就是这个意思。

京华时报：时间安排得开吗？

王立军：我好像整个的时间，没有什么业余不业余的。

我已经把我的学术完全融入到职业里了。两者是互补的。不像有人想的，我就单纯去搞研究。

京华时报：除了之前谈到的这些身份，你还是一个父亲。

王立军：我肯定不是一个好爸爸，（我需要）更多的时间去履行社会责任，把家人舍弃了。

京华时报：多年打黑，有传闻说你平时穿防弹衣，更有一些人很担心你家人的安危。

王立军：防弹衣？可能吗？重庆社会治安那样吗？那我还在重庆干吗？不会。这都是人们在猜测。公安局长都是那样吗？至于（我的）家人，应该说（他们）是安全的。