"Ms Kwan Goes to Washington", from Hersh | Page 2 | Golden Skate

"Ms Kwan Goes to Washington", from Hersh

seniorita

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Jun 3, 2008
Olympia, what was Michelle´s master thesis? Maybe i ll get ideas if I want to be a diplomat in the very far future.:cool:
 
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Jun 21, 2003
...and has worked so hard on a Master's degree (though granted it seems to have been about the Olympics),...

Olympia, what was Michelle´s master thesis? Maybe i ll get ideas if I want to be a diplomat in the very far future. :cool:

According to the Hersh article, Michelle's master's thesis centered on "how the Beijing Olympics became a vehicle for a form of international relations." (I searched the Fletcher School site for further information, but could not find anything more that is accessible to the public. :) )

If Michelle had the boldness to really get into the nitty-gritty, she certainly had a front row seat. There was a world-wide backlash against the selection of Beijing as the site of the 2008 Olympic games, with several European counties threatening an outright boycott over human rights issues (in particular free press issues), on China's support for totalitarian regimes (especially at that time Sudan), and about it's treatment of the people of Tibet. In the end, the chancellor of Germany went to the opening ceremonies -- with reluctance -- the prime minister of England boycotted the opening ceremonies but agreed to show up at the close to receive the torch for the London Games in 2012, and China flat out told the French President that he was not welcome.

U.S. President Bush was caught in the middle. He could not refuse to go, because the U.S. owes China $US 1,000,000,000,000,000 and counting. So after hemming and hawing Bush decided to go to the opening ceremonies but to boycott the closing ceremonies -- that'll teach 'em! He then scheduled a very public meeting with the Delai Lama to further poke China in the eye.

He also halfway-but-not-really insulted the President of China by only providing him lunch on his official visit, whereas when the Prime Minster of Japan visited the next month he not only got a state dinner but a trip to Bush's ranch in Texas. At the state luncheon for President Hu, Michelle was the "lovely and accomplished Chinese-American success story" to charm the visitor with, while Kristi Yamaguchi filled that role when the Japanese PM came to town. (Figure skating rules! Too bad the old Prussian-Polish empire is gone -- I believe Alissa Czisny (Czisnecki?) is available).

Anyway, Bush did not attend the closing ceremonies, and the official U.S. delegation was led by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Michelle was part of that delegation, along with the Ambassador to China and assorted big-wigs (but not too big -- that would send the wrong message). Then Russia picked that week to invade Georgia, so Secretary Rice had to skip the closing ceremones anyway to hurry home and issue "stern warnings" and statements about "viewing with alarm" on behalf of the U.S. State Department, leaving Michelle and the others to wave the stars and stripes on their own in Beijing.

As an aside, Michelle had to get permission from her professors at the University of Denver to skip classes for the trip. One of her professors had taught Condoleezza Rice thirty years before, back when Ms. Rice was a student (and ice skater) at the University, and her father the Dean. (Dean Rice was an outspoken critic of the Viet Nam War, by the way. His daughter was much more hawkish.)

I hope Michelle's paper gave a candid bird's-eye view of all that, rather than just platitudes about how sport can bring people together, blah, blah, blah. :)
 
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seniorita

Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 3, 2008
well about the boycotage of various presidents, we were brainwashed daily also too. The greek one went anyway.
But too many new info, Alisa has a poland root?:)
Mrs Rice was a skater? competitively?
and how much money IS THIS?> $US 1,000,000,000,000,000 ,:eek: more than our depth?
I didnt know Bush has a ranch but if i come as a President to US I want a visit to the big Disneyland Toni went, not a ranch.:cool:
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Condoleezza Rice skating. :)

http://0.tqn.com/d/figureskating/1/G/y/X/-/-/riceskating1967.jpg

In this article (scroll down for excepts from a book in her own words) she says that she started skating when he parents used the skating rink as a babysitter. They would drop her off at the rink and pick her up later in the day when they finished their graduate classes at the University.

She says she had a difficult time because she was very tall with long legs and her knees would get stiff when she got nervous in competition.

http://figureskating.about.com/od/africanamericanskaters/f/rice.htm

About Alissa Czisny's name, I have never heard of the name Czisny before,. I think it is very unusual. Here is what Alissa herself said about it in a question and answer with children (first question).

http://www.usfsa.org/Magazine.asp?id=57&issue=32361
 

seniorita

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Joined
Jun 3, 2008
thanx :) Alica is almost all North European!
“I believe I may have learnt more from my failed figure-skating career than I did from anything else. Athletics gives you a kind of toughness and discipline that nothing else really does."
I can be a Condoleezza Rice then from my failed gymnastics career:party:
 

janetfan

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May 15, 2009
thanx :) Alica is almost all North European!
I can be a Condoleezza Rice then from my failed gymnastics career:party:

Condoleeza Rice was perhaps the worst Sec of State and least qualified Natl Security Advisor in the history of American govt.
She was hired by Bush Sr because someone needed to teach junior how to pronounce the names of the capitol cities of foreign countries.

She did well at this and never let on how little jr knew about the world.

The rest led to some of the worst and most failed foreign policy in the history of the USA.
 

seniorita

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Joined
Jun 3, 2008
^ok then I ll tell my dad to hire you as my assistant.:) Although I know geography myself.
 

janetfan

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May 15, 2009
^ok then I ll tell my dad to hire you as my assistant.:) Although I know geography myself.

See, you are a grownup with a good education. You don't need me or Condi Rice to teach you basic things most students learn by the time they are 15.

But what does your father have t do with it, unless he is Bush Sr :think:
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
Math, I think you have one fact that's a little off. The dean of the School of International Studies was Josef Korbel, who was the father of Madeleine Korbel, later Madeleine Albright, Rice's predecessor as Secretary of State. Korbel indeed taught and mentored Rice, though both Korbel and his daughter were Democrats (the other political party, for you non-U.S. folk), while Rice is a Republican.

Alas, yes, Rice helped preside over the foreign policy disaster of the Iraq War.
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
^ But I am pretty sure that Rice's dad, the Rev. John Wesley Rice, was assistant dean of the college of liberal arts at that time.

About Republicans and Democrats, when the Reverend Rice took an interest in politics in his native Birmingham, Alabama, he was forced to become a Republican because African-Americans were not allowed to join the state Democratic party.

This was challenged, with partial success, at the 1964 national Democratic convention in Atlantuc City. (I was there as a Fanny Lou Hamer delegate. :) )
 

CARA

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Oct 16, 2009
Country
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Condoleeza Rice was perhaps the worst Sec of State and least qualified Natl Security Advisor in the history of American govt.
She was hired by Bush Sr because someone needed to teach junior how to pronounce the names of the capitol cities of foreign countries.

She did well at this and never let on how little jr knew about the world.

The rest led to some of the worst and most failed foreign policy in the history of the USA.

I am beginning to understand why this site in general discourage mixing skating and politics. Assuming you are joking, what you mentioned still offend me.

Hey, at least Bush knew there were only 50 states in the Union, rather than "57" states like our current "dear leader" believe. Nor did Bush denigrate the vast majority of US citizens as "bitter cringers" touting guns and religions. I am neither Christian nor a gun-owner, but I couldn't believe the arrogance with which then candidate Obama looked down upon my fellow Pennsylvania citizens. :scowl:

Nothing this man has done since has changed my mind. I'm pretty sure I could say Mr. Obama as one of the worst presidents with many facts to back up when his term is up. But hey, that's just my humble opinion.
 

seniorita

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Joined
Jun 3, 2008
^:laugh:

I dont eat pickles but as an outsider observer that I am, Mr Obama is far more popular and respected by the general public in this side of the ocean than team Bush, the reasons are pretty much known, but anyway , i m just the messenger. Me, I would vote for Michelle anyway.:)
 

janetfan

Match Penalty
Joined
May 15, 2009
I am beginning to understand why this site in general discourage mixing skating and politics. Assuming you are joking, what you mentioned still offend me.

Hey, at least Bush knew there were only 50 states in the Union, rather than "57" states like our current "dear leader" believe. Nor did Bush denigrate the vast majority of US citizens as "bitter cringers" touting guns and religions. I am neither Christian nor a gun-owner, but I couldn't believe the arrogance with which then candidate Obama looked down upon my fellow Pennsylvania citizens. :scowl:

Nothing this man has done since has changed my mind. I'm pretty sure I could say Mr. Obama as one of the worst presidents with many facts to back up when his term is up. But hey, that's just my humble opinion.

I disagree with everything you wrote but see no reason to take it personally. We just have different politics and are entitled to our own opinions.

Too bad Rice never taught junior how to pronounce "nuclear." :)
 

CARA

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Oct 16, 2009
Country
United-States
^:laugh:

I dont eat pickles but as an outsider observer that I am, Mr Obama is far more popular and respected by the general public in this side of the ocean than team Bush, the reasons are pretty much known, but anyway , i m just the messenger. Me, I would vote for Michelle anyway.:)

It makes sense. Mr. Obama's governing philosophy in general is far more closer to socialized and/or social democracy prevalent in Europe. In addition, "polished," "articulate," and "liberal" Mr. Obama is far more agreeable to liberals European media. Thank goodness, Mr. Obama is not a "bumbling," "inarticulate cowboy"! ;)

(e.g., majority of journalism major are liberal-democrates. One study indicates more than 90 % of journalists in US votes for democrates. I assume the ideological inclination of Europe to be similar. So much for the objective-neutral media coverage. :disapp:)
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
I don't want to continue the discussion of contemporary politics, so as not to cause distress to anyone.

But I can't let pass Mathman's remark about having taken part in that earlier convention as a Fannie Lou Hamer delegate. How wonderful, Math! Hamer is one of my great heroes, as is Bob Moses, the CORE worker who did so much to help get voters registered in Hamer's home state of Mississippi that year. He could share your screen name, Mathman: he is the founder of the Algebra Project, designed to teach math literacy to low-income children. He believes that math literacy is in a way the civil rights issue of our time, and I am inclined to agree with him.

For those of you who are too young or who are from elsewhere, one main goal of the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and the 1960s was voting rights. If people can vote, they can change the laws. This is why in many states in the South, African Americans were intimidated and otherwise kept from registering. Dr. Rice's father was one. Fannie Lou Hamer, a Mississippi sharcropper (a kind of tenant farmer), was another, and there were hundreds of thousands more. The Civil Rights movement used all sorts of nonviolent tactics, including marches, voter registration drives, and masterful publicity, to convince the Federal government to enact a law that would ensure the voting rights of all. They succeeded in 1965. I won't go into the whole story here, but it is one of the most breathtaking achievements in American history. Another of my heroes, John Lewis, was an activist from that time. An indication of our progress: he is now a longtime member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
 

janetfan

Match Penalty
Joined
May 15, 2009
I don't want to continue the discussion of contemporary politics, so as not to cause distress to anyone.

But I can't let pass Mathman's remark about having taken part in that earlier convention as a Fannie Lou Hamer delegate. How wonderful, Math! Hamer is one of my great heroes, as is Bob Moses, the CORE worker who did so much to help get voters registered in Hamer's home state of Mississippi that year. He could share your screen name, Mathman: he is the founder of the Algebra Project, designed to teach math literacy to low-income children. He believes that math literacy is in a way the civil rights issue of our time, and I am inclined to agree with him.

For those of you who are too young or who are from elsewhere, one main goal of the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and the 1960s was voting rights. If people can vote, they can change the laws. This is why in many states in the South, African Americans were intimidated and otherwise kept from registering. Dr. Rice's father was one. Fannie Lou Hamer, a Mississippi sharcropper (a kind of tenant farmer), was another, and there were hundreds of thousands more. The Civil Rights movement used all sorts of nonviolent tactics, including marches, voter registration drives, and masterful publicity, to convince the Federal government to enact a law that would ensure the voting rights of all. They succeeded in 1965. I won't go into the whole story here, but it is one of the most breathtaking achievements in American history. Another of my heroes, John Lewis, was an activist from that time. An indication of our progress: he is now a longtime member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Thanks for sharing Olympia and very impressed by mathman's activism.

Nice thoughts and stories about human rights and dignity will rarely upset fair minded people.

For that it takes figure skating officials and judges. :yes:
 

seniorita

Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 3, 2008
Oh I missed this part before, Mathman you got elected*?? :) (i see you shared Michelle ambitions? :))
* I dont know what delegate means, sounds cool though.

He believes that math literacy is in a way the civil rights issue of our time, and I am inclined to agree with him.

Tonight I m gonna search more about this, what a great phrase.
 
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