Once more we meet this week –
I'm very glad you're here because this story will not show up on any of the TV channels carrying the Olympics. I'm even surprised it made THE WASHINGTON POST because it's an untranslated book in two volumes – about 1100 pages – that's blazing a trail around the world. The title given by the author – a member of the Communist Party, is "Tombstone." Possibly because the author, Yang Jisheng, lost his father in 1957 during "The Great Leap Forward" ordered by Chairman Mao.
During that time Yang says 37 million people died of starvation and disease. [Congressional Committees estimate the number closer to 70 million.] Peasant farmers were ordered to make steel in backyard smelters. They stopped growing food by Party command. Bur this disaster never "officially" happened. Chinese history books speak of three years of 'natural disasters' – they 'naturally' occurred during the time of centralized economic chaos demonstrated earlier in the Soviet Union and other Communist locales; some of our politicians today believe they also can ignore the laws of supply and demand – and the most they do is crush productivity. It's the old story of those who will not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. I fear we stand on the brink of such another period.
During the opening sequences of the Olympics, we've seen many times the huge portrait of Mao Zedong hanging on the major building dominating Tiananmen Square where as many as three thousand idealistic young Chinese died in June of 1989. In China it's called the June 4th Incident. (六四運動)How ironic for the whole world to be watching the largest population on the planet with this huge portrait of Mao overlooking the 1989 tragedy – and his name is never mentioned. Those who know China best say the older people know well who's responsible and speak of it in private – but never where others can report them to the police.
China – the "Middle Kingdom" – as it describes itself; in the center of it all, is also undergoing a quiet transformation that will not stay that way forever. China has, and has had for over two decades, more students studying abroad than any other country. These students know what's going on in the world. The Communists cannot keep the genie in the bottle forever. Let Bible believing Christians marshal our prayers for the nation, for the Christians who continue to undergo persecution, no matter what says the official reports. It's no great leap to understand if the government can order cars to be driven on alternate days – or factories to be totally shut down while the games go on to try and reduce the smog, then much more in the way of control and persecution can be carried out under the guise of 'requiring' law and order. Let us pray earnestly for our brothers and sisters in the Lord, living under totalitarian control.
IN HIM,
Jack Buttram
http://www.jebcovoice.net/audio/jama08-14-08.mp3
http://www.jebcovoice.net/scripts/jamt08-14-08.doc
"JUST A MINUTE"
"WHEN CHINA STARVED"
Just A Minute – "I call this book Tombstone," author, Yang Jisheng, writes on the first page of an as yet untranslated book rocketing around the world clandestinely. It's a gripping account reviewed in the Washington Post by weekly columnist Anne Applebaum. She's a veteran journalist who says the two volume, eleven hundred page book establishes without doubt Chairman Mao was the major architect of that utter disaster.
Ironic, isn't it the world is observing this major news story in a city which hangs a huge portrait of Mao on its key building – but his name is never mentioned. It's because, she says, the older population knows who's responsible for this horrible secret but doesn't want to talk about it.
Yang is compared with Solzhenitsyn who died last week – but Yang stayed in country as a Communist. He says the book, published in Hong Kong where it sold out immediately, is a memorial to his father who died – probably of starvation – in the 50's. Is that why it's called "Tombstone" – or possibly, Yang sees his own fate.
<> I'm Jack Buttram
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