Ordinary Gweilo

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It writes itself

Mar 17, 2004

"As long as I keep focusing on French perfidy, Beijing’s ham-handedness and Thai girls, this site practically writes itself. Watch."

Indeed, Conrad, indeed [link deleted – site no longer available].

Conrad is foaming at the mouth because Spain’s new prime minister was quoted in The Guardian expressing an opinion on who should be president of the United States:

Spain’s prime minister, José María Aznar, and Italy’s prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, are unequivocal in their support of Mr Bush, as are many eastern European countries and former Soviet republics. But opinion in Spain, as in Britain, is divided. The Spanish opposition leader in the general election this Sunday, the socialist José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, said yesterday: "I think Kerry will win. I want Kerry to win."

Hardly headline news – right-wing leaders want Bush to win, left-wing leaders want Kerry to win. Of course, were Mr Zapatero to have said that after he had become prime minister then it would have caused controversy. Heads of government do not express opinions on who they want to win in other country’s elections. However, I think we all knew that Margaret Thatcher was a fan of Ronnie Reagan, and Tony Blair got on well with Bill Clinton even if they were careful exactly what they said about each other.

I think Conrad should take back control of his site before it writes more nonsense like this:

While Spaniards may have shown themselves amenable to outside interference in their elections, Americans are not. This little monkey needs to keep his mouth shut.

Right. The Spanish people only voted for the socialists because their country was bombed – or could it have anything to do with the prime minister taking his country to war when 90% of the population were against it? Democracy is like that sometimes, however much George Bush loves you.

As for interference in the US election, perhaps Conrad has forgotten that neither the Democrats or the Republicans have yet nominated their candidates for president, the election itself is more than six months away, and this ‘endorsement’ will probably do Kerry more harm than good.

Posted in Politics

8 responses to “It writes itself”

giles

Mar 18, 2004

i agree entirely. conrad has totally lost the plot. he also has developed a paranoid streak – he views everything as somehow a slur on the u.s.a., it’s policies or its president without for once thinkg about the fact that the u.s. expressed it’s disapproval of one country’s leader not just in words but by invading it.
as you said the spanish people never wanted to be involved, and it was heading for a pretty close run thing before the bombings anyway.
and why should the spanish pick how to vote based on whether the americans would like it, cos it’s fucking certain the americans would never consider another country’s position or point of view when casting their own votes at home.

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Chris

Mar 18, 2004

What struck me was that the comments in response to Conrad’s piece were almost entirely supportive. I fear that the right-wing blogs (and possibly the left-wing blogs, though I don’t see them) exist in a world of their own, encouraging each other to be more extreme and hysterical, and losing all sense of perspective in the process.
If you analyze this particular story, it was picked up by a right-wing anti-Kerry website that is desperate for stories that denigrate Mr Flip-Flop. Bloggers like Conrad obediently follow the party line.
Remember that nonsense from Matt Drudge about Kerry’s “affair with an intern”? There’s plenty more to come.

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dave

Mar 18, 2004

Conrad is just being a good Republican, and pushing the party line. There’s no thought involved. Expect him to get even worse as the election cycle moves towards November.

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Chris

Mar 18, 2004

Hilariously, Conrad’s site not only writes itself, but he doesn’t even bother to read the stuff he reprints. He is still arguing that Zapatero made this comments after he was elected even though it is there in black and white on his site:

just four days before he swept to victory

I pointed out his error, and he responded thus:

Chris, he’d already been elected, only the formalitiies remain. Sama sama as we say in Indonesia.

Formalities like actually having the election, counting the votes, stuff like that.

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fumier

Mar 19, 2004

It’s a great pity that the commenters on Conrad’s site are letting the site down. It’s like an echo chamber in there.
The explanation is in the location of his readers, as shown on SiteMeter at: http://www.sitemeter.com/default.asp?action=stats&site=s15conrad&report=30.
The vast majority are from the US and are logging on to read others mirroring their own opinions. The site could now almost be described as a US site based in Hong Kong rather than a Hong Kong blog.
There seems to be no room for an alternative opinion or for rational argument. Conrad has the dilemma of endangering a stunning traffic figure of 2,000 per day or of reintroducing some real discussion into his site. (Quite how you do this apart from keeping away from those topics which excite these people, however, I do not know.)
I hope Conrad manages to resolve this as his site is a benchmark for Hong Kong bloggers, to whom he himself has always been very generous with his support. Conrad’s writing on Hong Kong and China can be excellent (on domestic US issues I cannot judge), which is how I first became a reader.

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boy

Mar 19, 2004

I’m an American blogger living in Hong Kong, and I don’t support Conrad’s views, and I said so in the comments to that particular post.
I think he’s failed to analyze the Spain electorate and the culture that was pretty much lied to by their leader.
I’m quite sure his gaze is too narrow on issues of American politics.

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TT

Mar 21, 2004

I disagree, Conrad offers an opinion on many issues. Heck, that’s what blogging is all about.
His comments on HK and China are excellent and I, for one, enjoy his no-nonsense approach.
He is the exact opposite of holier-than-thou and wannabe-intellectual bloggers like Adam at brainysmurf who spend half their time with their head up their ass and take themselves far, far too seriously.
Gweilo Diaries is hugely entertaining. hence the large readership.

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Chris

Mar 21, 2004

I have no problem with Conrad offering opinions, and he provides some interesting perspectives on many subjects. What I find boring is stuff recycled from anti-Kerry websites topped up with (to use your phrase) holier-than-thou comments about Americans never interfering in other countries’ elections. Especially when he gets his facts wrong!

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