In its second innings, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government has unveiled its showcase scheme — providing rice at Rs 3 a kg, at one fifth the market price, to 260 million people, or one fourth of India’s population.
Back on the basis of the inclusive India plank, the government’s agenda for the next five years, unveiled on Thursday, includes 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament and assemblies.
Also on the agenda are 50 per cent reservations for women in local bodies — inspired by Bihar’s successful experiment, initiated two years ago.
In her first address to Parliament, President Pratibha Devisingh Patil unveiled welfare schemes like houses for the poor in rural and urban India that will cost the government a lot of money.
The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act alone, introduced by the Manmohan Singh government in its first avatar, cost the exchequer Rs 40,000 crore over the last three years.
The cheap rice scheme is estimated to fatten the subsidy bill — the difference between the price at which rice is bought by the government (Rs 15) and the price at which it will be sold (Rs 3) — by nearly Rs 17,000 crore.
“These initiatives were possible because high growth generated more resources. It is, therefore, imperative that our growth momentum is resumed,” Patil said.
She listed management of the economy as the government’s “immediate priority”,
“My government is determined to work harder and better to realise these goals,” she said, describing the election results as a mandate for “inclusive growth, equitable development and a secular and plural India”.
The roadmap unveiled by Patil emphasised upon combining economic reforms with enhanced public investment to spur growth and consolidation of flagship programmes like Bharat Nirman, apart from enhancing the government’s accountability.
She also unveiled a 22-point agenda for the government that would be initiated within the next 100 days. The government’s first policy statement carried the stamp of the Congress and its manifesto for the 2009 Lok Sabha polls. Unlike 2004, when the UPA’s National Common Minimum Programme carried the imprint of the Left as well, this time, the Congress’ dominance is reflected in the Presidential Address as well.
In its first term, the UPA government could not pursue insurance sector reforms that included increasing the foreign direct investment (FDI) cap from 26 per cent to 49 per cent because of stiff resistance from Left parties.
The bill to amend the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Act to raise the FDI cap in the private sector insurance companies is pending in the Rajya Sabha.
The President took up internal security on early in her address. She said a policy of “zero-tolerance” towards terrorism would be pursued. “Stern measures to handle insurgency and left wing extremism will be taken,” she said.
Patil also said New Delhi sought to “re-shape” relations with Pakistan depending upon Islamabad’s “sincerity in confronting terror groups on its soil launching attacks against India”.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Wake-up call for the future
The world will celebrate the 38th World Environment Day (WED) on Friday.
The WED theme for 2009 chosen by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) is “Your Planet Needs You! Unite to Combat Climate Change.”
World Environment Day was established by the UN General Assembly in October 1972, to mark the opening of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment, and the adoption of the Human Environment Declaration in June of the same year.
Another solution, adopted by the General Assembly the same day, led to the creation of the UNEP.
From 1974, the UNEP annually chooses a theme for world environment day to boost worldwide awareness of the environment and enhance political attention and action.
With the development of industrialisation, humans created great wealth by making use of fossil fuels such as coal and crude oil, which has also brought on serious environmental problems caused by the emission of greenhouse gases and other pollutants.
According to a UN report, the density of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has increased significantly due to human activities since 1750 and the density of carbon dioxide has reached the highest level in some 6,50,000 years.
The UN report estimates that natural disasters including floods and droughts will become more frequent and stronger than ever as glaciers all over the world have shrunk greatly due to climate warming.
The UNEP called on people to take concrete actions in this year’s WED theme because it is of great significance for individuals to be aware of environment protection, besides the efforts of governments, enterprise and organisations, in the face of climate change.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in a message to the 2009 WED, said “The economic and financial turmoil sweeping the globe is a true wake-up call, sounding an alarm about the need to improve upon old patterns of growth and make a transition to new era of greener, cleaner development.”
The WED theme for 2009 chosen by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) is “Your Planet Needs You! Unite to Combat Climate Change.”
World Environment Day was established by the UN General Assembly in October 1972, to mark the opening of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment, and the adoption of the Human Environment Declaration in June of the same year.
Another solution, adopted by the General Assembly the same day, led to the creation of the UNEP.
From 1974, the UNEP annually chooses a theme for world environment day to boost worldwide awareness of the environment and enhance political attention and action.
With the development of industrialisation, humans created great wealth by making use of fossil fuels such as coal and crude oil, which has also brought on serious environmental problems caused by the emission of greenhouse gases and other pollutants.
According to a UN report, the density of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has increased significantly due to human activities since 1750 and the density of carbon dioxide has reached the highest level in some 6,50,000 years.
The UN report estimates that natural disasters including floods and droughts will become more frequent and stronger than ever as glaciers all over the world have shrunk greatly due to climate warming.
The UNEP called on people to take concrete actions in this year’s WED theme because it is of great significance for individuals to be aware of environment protection, besides the efforts of governments, enterprise and organisations, in the face of climate change.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in a message to the 2009 WED, said “The economic and financial turmoil sweeping the globe is a true wake-up call, sounding an alarm about the need to improve upon old patterns of growth and make a transition to new era of greener, cleaner development.”
Medical scam just got bigger: PG seats for Rs 2cr
The TOI report on MBBS seats sold for between Rs 12 lakh and Rs 40 lakh by two private colleges in Chennai barely exposes the tip of the
iceberg. The scam gets bigger, more brazen as medical graduates embark on specializations that are necessary for a successful career. The price this year for a post-graduate seat in radiology in most leading private colleges across the country is Rs 2 crore while in cardiology, gynaecology and orthopaedics are priced around Rs 1.5 crore.
The main reason for such high rates is the dearth of seats for PG programmes. The average ratio of undergraduate (MBBS) seats to those for post-graduate is 100:29. In effect, nearly 32,000 doctors graduate from medical schools across the country every year, and the number of PG seats available to them is roughly one-third of the requirement.
Across India, there are 9,085 seats for clinical courses like cardiology, radiology, orthopaedics and gynaecology; a mere 662 seats for pre-clinical courses such as anatomy and physiology, and 1,303 seats in para-clinical programmes like pathology, micro-biology and forensic medicine. Of these, a large percentage are in private institutions which enjoy the freedom to charge hefty donations — which means, a bright MBBS graduate with no means to pay has few options.
``In India, only 80 doctors can become cardiologists in a year, while in the US, there are 800 positions to train cardiologists. As for kidney specialists, the US has more nephrologists of Indian origin than India has. India has only 60 seats for nephrology,'' said a Bangalore-based surgeon, who has been fighting for transparent admission procedures in admissions to graduate and post-graduate seats.
``Overall, less than 10% of the graduating medical batch gets PG seats through the general (government) pool,'' said the surgeon. Most PG seats, in simple terms, are auctioned or sold to the highest bidder. It's a system of exploitation that finds its eventual victim in the patient.
A senior doctor says, ``I agree the authorities can't increase seats easily because they don't have that many faculty members. But we need to make necessary amendments to the existing law to meet our growing demand. In the US, even an 80-year-old surgeon is legally authorized to do a brain surgery but here we ask a 60-year-old to retire from teaching,'' he said.
Another senior expert, who has held prestigious posts at the national level, says he has urged the UGC to hold centralized examinations like JEE for admissions to both MBBS and PG courses. ``It's a national shame to commercialize education. Besides, death of merit affects the quality of medical education. When money is paid, these colleges ensure that the exit is definite. The students pass, qualified or not,'' he said
iceberg. The scam gets bigger, more brazen as medical graduates embark on specializations that are necessary for a successful career. The price this year for a post-graduate seat in radiology in most leading private colleges across the country is Rs 2 crore while in cardiology, gynaecology and orthopaedics are priced around Rs 1.5 crore.
The main reason for such high rates is the dearth of seats for PG programmes. The average ratio of undergraduate (MBBS) seats to those for post-graduate is 100:29. In effect, nearly 32,000 doctors graduate from medical schools across the country every year, and the number of PG seats available to them is roughly one-third of the requirement.
Across India, there are 9,085 seats for clinical courses like cardiology, radiology, orthopaedics and gynaecology; a mere 662 seats for pre-clinical courses such as anatomy and physiology, and 1,303 seats in para-clinical programmes like pathology, micro-biology and forensic medicine. Of these, a large percentage are in private institutions which enjoy the freedom to charge hefty donations — which means, a bright MBBS graduate with no means to pay has few options.
``In India, only 80 doctors can become cardiologists in a year, while in the US, there are 800 positions to train cardiologists. As for kidney specialists, the US has more nephrologists of Indian origin than India has. India has only 60 seats for nephrology,'' said a Bangalore-based surgeon, who has been fighting for transparent admission procedures in admissions to graduate and post-graduate seats.
``Overall, less than 10% of the graduating medical batch gets PG seats through the general (government) pool,'' said the surgeon. Most PG seats, in simple terms, are auctioned or sold to the highest bidder. It's a system of exploitation that finds its eventual victim in the patient.
A senior doctor says, ``I agree the authorities can't increase seats easily because they don't have that many faculty members. But we need to make necessary amendments to the existing law to meet our growing demand. In the US, even an 80-year-old surgeon is legally authorized to do a brain surgery but here we ask a 60-year-old to retire from teaching,'' he said.
Another senior expert, who has held prestigious posts at the national level, says he has urged the UGC to hold centralized examinations like JEE for admissions to both MBBS and PG courses. ``It's a national shame to commercialize education. Besides, death of merit affects the quality of medical education. When money is paid, these colleges ensure that the exit is definite. The students pass, qualified or not,'' he said
ICC T20 World Cup kicking off today
The ICC World Twenty20 tournament is kicking off today with England to be facing the Netherlands in the opening match at Lords.
England are feeling positive ahead of their first Group B match following a convincing win over the West Indies in a warm up game on Wednesday.
Captain Paul Collingwood said, "We know we're going to have to play to our absolute potential to get to those semi-finals, but there's a lot of confidence around at the moment and it's all good - there's a real feelgood factor in the team."
England will look to improve their record in the limited overs tournament after only winning one game in the inaugural cup in South Africa two years ago.
India are favourites to win and they face Bangladesh in Group A on Saturday.
The group stages are made up of the top 12 cricket-playing nations in four groups of three.
The top two from each group go through to the Super Eights made up of two groups of four.
The semi-finals consist of the top two teams in those groups and will be played at Trent Bridge and The Oval.
The final takes place at Lord's on Sunday 21 June.
England are feeling positive ahead of their first Group B match following a convincing win over the West Indies in a warm up game on Wednesday.
Captain Paul Collingwood said, "We know we're going to have to play to our absolute potential to get to those semi-finals, but there's a lot of confidence around at the moment and it's all good - there's a real feelgood factor in the team."
England will look to improve their record in the limited overs tournament after only winning one game in the inaugural cup in South Africa two years ago.
India are favourites to win and they face Bangladesh in Group A on Saturday.
The group stages are made up of the top 12 cricket-playing nations in four groups of three.
The top two from each group go through to the Super Eights made up of two groups of four.
The semi-finals consist of the top two teams in those groups and will be played at Trent Bridge and The Oval.
The final takes place at Lord's on Sunday 21 June.
Cancer in Winter, Optimism in Spring
The grass in the backyard has come in dark and deep. The flowering trees in my neighborhood — magnolia and crab apple, dogwood and weeping cherry — are all billow and burst. Meanwhile, the robins hold sunrise conclaves on the front lawn, and the night birds gab and gossip past midnight.
I think I know how those birds feel.
After a very long winter of radiation and hormone treatment for my prostate cancer — a winter that sometimes felt as if it might never end — I, too, find myself giddy with the rush and optimism of spring.
I got the results late last month of my first post-treatment PSA blood test, and it measured less than 0.1. (PSA, for prostate specific antigen, is a way of determining whether prostate cancer is present in the body.) I know deep down that this is only the first of many tests to come — the next one is scheduled for three months from now — but “less than 0.1” is suddenly my new favorite number.
Besides that test result, there are other signs of personal renewal. The hair between my navel and my knees, defoliated by radiation, is growing back, and my radiation “tan” has just about faded.
I’ve stopped using any kind of man-pad for incontinence — I’d forgotten that wearing underwear can actually feel airy — and the random clandestine trickle is a fair trade for the sense of freedom. I still exercise my bladder muscles, though, and when I have to go, I have to go.
When I met with my oncologist the other day, my vital signs were more a reflection of the old me, before cancer. My blood pressure was 110/70 and my pulse 61, but I weighed 219.4 pounds — about 20 pounds more than I’m used to.
Lupron, the hormone used in my treatment to suppress testosterone (the fuel for prostate cancer), led to a weight gain of 25 pounds or so. But the dual gambits of having a buzz cut and wearing my shirts outside my jeans lead people to act shocked when I say that I need to lose 20 pounds. Of course, they could be faking it for my sake.
I had my last Lupron shot two-and-a-half months ago, and my testosterone level has crept back to 364; between 241 and 827 is the normal range. With that increase, my prodigal libido has finally skulked back home, like a muddy and randy mutt that’s run off for a couple days. I’ve even started running again.
Not that everything is perfect. My sex drive is back, but erectile function is still a work in progress. And even now, 10 months after the surgery to remove my prostate, I get stray twinges where I was cut.
And as good as I feel these days, my energy level is still erratic. When the sun goes down, I usually start sinking, too — into my armchair in the den. And on Friday nights, at the end of the workweek, I’m about as perky as an extra in a George Romero zombie movie.
In those moments, though, I remind myself that I’m still a patient — and will be for a long time. And that there are still plenty of lessons to be learned and talked about.
But as I run in the park near my house at dusk, huffing and scuffing through the pink and white petals — and trying to sweat off those 20 parasitic pounds —I don’t feel like a patient.
As lacrosse and soccer practices wind down, as old couples and young couples stroll, and as the dogs keenly sniff at each other, I simply feel like myself. And I haven’t felt that way in a long time.
I think I know how those birds feel.
After a very long winter of radiation and hormone treatment for my prostate cancer — a winter that sometimes felt as if it might never end — I, too, find myself giddy with the rush and optimism of spring.
I got the results late last month of my first post-treatment PSA blood test, and it measured less than 0.1. (PSA, for prostate specific antigen, is a way of determining whether prostate cancer is present in the body.) I know deep down that this is only the first of many tests to come — the next one is scheduled for three months from now — but “less than 0.1” is suddenly my new favorite number.
Besides that test result, there are other signs of personal renewal. The hair between my navel and my knees, defoliated by radiation, is growing back, and my radiation “tan” has just about faded.
I’ve stopped using any kind of man-pad for incontinence — I’d forgotten that wearing underwear can actually feel airy — and the random clandestine trickle is a fair trade for the sense of freedom. I still exercise my bladder muscles, though, and when I have to go, I have to go.
When I met with my oncologist the other day, my vital signs were more a reflection of the old me, before cancer. My blood pressure was 110/70 and my pulse 61, but I weighed 219.4 pounds — about 20 pounds more than I’m used to.
Lupron, the hormone used in my treatment to suppress testosterone (the fuel for prostate cancer), led to a weight gain of 25 pounds or so. But the dual gambits of having a buzz cut and wearing my shirts outside my jeans lead people to act shocked when I say that I need to lose 20 pounds. Of course, they could be faking it for my sake.
I had my last Lupron shot two-and-a-half months ago, and my testosterone level has crept back to 364; between 241 and 827 is the normal range. With that increase, my prodigal libido has finally skulked back home, like a muddy and randy mutt that’s run off for a couple days. I’ve even started running again.
Not that everything is perfect. My sex drive is back, but erectile function is still a work in progress. And even now, 10 months after the surgery to remove my prostate, I get stray twinges where I was cut.
And as good as I feel these days, my energy level is still erratic. When the sun goes down, I usually start sinking, too — into my armchair in the den. And on Friday nights, at the end of the workweek, I’m about as perky as an extra in a George Romero zombie movie.
In those moments, though, I remind myself that I’m still a patient — and will be for a long time. And that there are still plenty of lessons to be learned and talked about.
But as I run in the park near my house at dusk, huffing and scuffing through the pink and white petals — and trying to sweat off those 20 parasitic pounds —I don’t feel like a patient.
As lacrosse and soccer practices wind down, as old couples and young couples stroll, and as the dogs keenly sniff at each other, I simply feel like myself. And I haven’t felt that way in a long time.
My Brief Life as a Woman
As my wife and I sat on the couch one night this past winter, reading and half-watching the inevitable HGTV, I started sweating hard and my face got so fevered and flushed that I felt as if I were peering into an oven.
I turned to Deb and said, “Man, I’m having a wicked hot flash.” And she said, “Me, too.” Then we laughed. You laugh a lot — unless your hormones are making you cry — when you’re having menopause with your wife.
I was in the middle of treatment for an aggressive case of prostate cancer last winter, and it included a six-month course of hormone therapy. My Lupron shots suppressed testosterone, which is the fuel for prostate cancer.
When your testosterone is being throttled, there are bound to be side effects. So, with the help of Lupron, I spent a few months aboard the Good Ship Menopause with all the physical baggage that entails. It’s a trip that most men don’t expect to take.
The side effect that surprised me most were the hot flashes — not that I got them, I was expecting that, but by how intense they were. They often woke me in the middle of the night and made me sweat so much that I drenched the sheets. In midwinter I’d walk our miniature poodle, Bijou, wearing shorts and a T-shirt. I sometimes felt as if Deb could fry eggs on my chest. (It’s also a bit disconcerting when your hot flashes are fiercer than your wife’s.)
When it comes to hot flashes, ladies, I salute you. After my brief dalliance with that hormonal phenomenon, it seems to me it’s an under-reported condition. And it’s certainly under-represented in the arts. Where are the great hot flash novels or movies? How come there’s not a Web site or magazine called “Hot Flash Monthly”?
Hand in hand with the hot flashes came the food cravings. I lusted after Cheetos and Peanut Butter M&M’s, maple-walnut milkshakes, and spaghetti and meatballs buried in a blizzard of Parmesan. Isn’t it funny how cravings very rarely involve tofu, bean curd or omega-3 oils?
Then there was the weight issue. During the six months I was on Lupron I gained about 25 pounds. That was partly a byproduct of the cravings, but it also stemmed from the hormonal changes triggered in my body.
And I hated it, hated it, hated it. I had never had to worry about my weight, and I began to understand why media aimed at women and girls obsess over weight so much. It was strange and unsettling not to be able to tell my body, “No,” when it wanted to wolf down a fistful of Doritos slathered with scallion cream cheese.
When I wasn’t devouring a king-size Italian sub or smoldering from a hot flash, it seemed that I was crying. The tears would usually pour down when I got ambushed by some old tune: “Sweet Baby James” and “Fire and Rain” by James Taylor, “That’s the Way I’ve Always Heard It Should Be” by Carly Simon and, yes, “It’s My Party” by Lesley Gore. Not only was I temporarily menopausal, but it appeared that I was also turning into a teenage girl from the early 1970s.
There were other side effects, too, like headaches and fatigue. But when I started drinking Diet Coke for the first time in my life, my son Owen couldn’t take it anymore. He said, “Dad, are you turning into a chick?”
So, what else did I learn during my six months of hormone therapy?
Even though I only got to spend a brief time on the outer precincts of menopause, it did confirm my lifelong sense that the world of women is hormonal and mysterious, and that we men don’t have the semblance of a clue.
And, guys, when your significant female other bursts into tears at the drop of a dinner plate or turns on you like a rabid pit bull — whether she’s pregnant, having her period or in the throes of menopause — believe her when she blames it on the hormones.
One more thing. I don’t really know whether menopause likes company — you’d have to ask my wife that — but I do know that it really, really likes HGTV and Peanut Butter M&M’s.
I turned to Deb and said, “Man, I’m having a wicked hot flash.” And she said, “Me, too.” Then we laughed. You laugh a lot — unless your hormones are making you cry — when you’re having menopause with your wife.
I was in the middle of treatment for an aggressive case of prostate cancer last winter, and it included a six-month course of hormone therapy. My Lupron shots suppressed testosterone, which is the fuel for prostate cancer.
When your testosterone is being throttled, there are bound to be side effects. So, with the help of Lupron, I spent a few months aboard the Good Ship Menopause with all the physical baggage that entails. It’s a trip that most men don’t expect to take.
The side effect that surprised me most were the hot flashes — not that I got them, I was expecting that, but by how intense they were. They often woke me in the middle of the night and made me sweat so much that I drenched the sheets. In midwinter I’d walk our miniature poodle, Bijou, wearing shorts and a T-shirt. I sometimes felt as if Deb could fry eggs on my chest. (It’s also a bit disconcerting when your hot flashes are fiercer than your wife’s.)
When it comes to hot flashes, ladies, I salute you. After my brief dalliance with that hormonal phenomenon, it seems to me it’s an under-reported condition. And it’s certainly under-represented in the arts. Where are the great hot flash novels or movies? How come there’s not a Web site or magazine called “Hot Flash Monthly”?
Hand in hand with the hot flashes came the food cravings. I lusted after Cheetos and Peanut Butter M&M’s, maple-walnut milkshakes, and spaghetti and meatballs buried in a blizzard of Parmesan. Isn’t it funny how cravings very rarely involve tofu, bean curd or omega-3 oils?
Then there was the weight issue. During the six months I was on Lupron I gained about 25 pounds. That was partly a byproduct of the cravings, but it also stemmed from the hormonal changes triggered in my body.
And I hated it, hated it, hated it. I had never had to worry about my weight, and I began to understand why media aimed at women and girls obsess over weight so much. It was strange and unsettling not to be able to tell my body, “No,” when it wanted to wolf down a fistful of Doritos slathered with scallion cream cheese.
When I wasn’t devouring a king-size Italian sub or smoldering from a hot flash, it seemed that I was crying. The tears would usually pour down when I got ambushed by some old tune: “Sweet Baby James” and “Fire and Rain” by James Taylor, “That’s the Way I’ve Always Heard It Should Be” by Carly Simon and, yes, “It’s My Party” by Lesley Gore. Not only was I temporarily menopausal, but it appeared that I was also turning into a teenage girl from the early 1970s.
There were other side effects, too, like headaches and fatigue. But when I started drinking Diet Coke for the first time in my life, my son Owen couldn’t take it anymore. He said, “Dad, are you turning into a chick?”
So, what else did I learn during my six months of hormone therapy?
Even though I only got to spend a brief time on the outer precincts of menopause, it did confirm my lifelong sense that the world of women is hormonal and mysterious, and that we men don’t have the semblance of a clue.
And, guys, when your significant female other bursts into tears at the drop of a dinner plate or turns on you like a rabid pit bull — whether she’s pregnant, having her period or in the throes of menopause — believe her when she blames it on the hormones.
One more thing. I don’t really know whether menopause likes company — you’d have to ask my wife that — but I do know that it really, really likes HGTV and Peanut Butter M&M’s.
Thousands Gather in Hong Kong for Tiananmen Vigil
Throngs of men, women and children gathered at a park here on Thursday evening for an enormous candlelight vigil to mark the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square killingsThrongs of men, women and children gathered at a park here on Thursday evening for an enormous candlelight vigil to mark the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square killings.
organizers said that 150,000 people joined the vigil, tying the record set by the first anniversary vigil in 1990 and dwarfing every vigil held since then. The police estimated the crowd at 62,800, their largest estimate for any vigil except in 1990, which they put at 80,000.
Even before the vigil began at 8 p.m., the tens of thousands of people assembled represented the largest crowd for the annual event here in recent years. The only crowd since the early 1990s that came remotely close was in 2004, when the fifteenth anniversary of the military crackdown coincided with a surge in pro-democracy sentiment in Hong Kong.
Throughout the park, banners in Chinese demanded the vindication of the students and other Beijing residents who perished during the Chinese government crackdown against the protesters. There were people of all ages, from grey-haired retirees to young children whose parents accompanied them to explain why they felt so deeply about an event that took place before they were born.
Yvonne Chow, a middle-age social worker, said that she had come to the vigil every year for two decades and was heartened to see the turnout on Thursday night.
“I am very happy that people have not forgotten the massacre in Tiananmen on June 4,” she said. “I am very sad because it destroyed our hopes for democracy.”
Brian Cha, a 35-year-old interior designer, said that while the 20th anniversary was an important one, he also came because he was angered by recent comments by Donald Tsang, Hong Kong’s chief executive, who suggested that critics of the crackdown should also take into account China’s many successes since 1989.
Carrie Ho, a 35-year-old marketer, said that she came to the annual vigil for only the second time partly because of the Hong Kong government’s decision to bar some activists from entering the territory in recent weeks. The government’s action undermined freedom in the territory, she said.
In 2004, organizers estimated the crowd at 82,000, though the police then gave a lower estimate of 48,000. That had been the largest vigil since 1991, when 100,000 attended.
Heavy rainstorms dumped 1.45 inches of rain on Hong Kong early Thursday morning, but the streets dried and the skies cleared through the day. The crowds gathered under cloudless skies and a nearly full moon that rose past the skyscrapers to shine down among the park’s palm trees.
When a large crowd showed up in 2004, it was after public pressure had forced the government to retreat from plans to impose stringent internal security legislation sought by Beijing. The local government has not sought since then to reintroduce the legislation.
The push for democracy has lost some of its impetus in Hong Kong over the past five years, as the economy has improved and as Mr. Tsang, who is more politically adept, has taken office.
The success of Hong Kong residents in halting the internal security legislation in 2004, however, had an indirect affect on allowing the vigil here to grow to the huge size it was this year.
“Prisoner of the State,” the secret journal of Zhao Ziyang, the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in the two years leading up to the Tiananmen Square crackdown, has just been published here and has immediately sold out. Mr. Zhao’s posthumous revelations about discord at the top of the Communist Party on how to respond to the student protests — he opposed the crackdown — have revived discussion of the events 20 years ago and Chinese-language copies of the book from Hong Kong are said to have been smuggled to the mainland.
In an addition to the usual schedule of the vigil, the organizers played an excerpt from a recording that Mr. Zhao made of his journal. Mr. Zhao defended the students in Tiananmen Square, saying that they wanted the Chinese Communist Party to correct its wrongs but did not seek to overthrow it.
Bao Pu, one of the three translators and editors of the book, said in a lunch speech at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club here on Thursday that it would have been much harder to publish the book here if the internal security legislation had been approved. He attributed the government’s retreat to a huge march here on July 1, 2003, with a crowd that police put at 350,000 and organizers at up to 700,000.
“Those people who were on the streets that day made a contribution,” Mr. Bao said
organizers said that 150,000 people joined the vigil, tying the record set by the first anniversary vigil in 1990 and dwarfing every vigil held since then. The police estimated the crowd at 62,800, their largest estimate for any vigil except in 1990, which they put at 80,000.
Even before the vigil began at 8 p.m., the tens of thousands of people assembled represented the largest crowd for the annual event here in recent years. The only crowd since the early 1990s that came remotely close was in 2004, when the fifteenth anniversary of the military crackdown coincided with a surge in pro-democracy sentiment in Hong Kong.
Throughout the park, banners in Chinese demanded the vindication of the students and other Beijing residents who perished during the Chinese government crackdown against the protesters. There were people of all ages, from grey-haired retirees to young children whose parents accompanied them to explain why they felt so deeply about an event that took place before they were born.
Yvonne Chow, a middle-age social worker, said that she had come to the vigil every year for two decades and was heartened to see the turnout on Thursday night.
“I am very happy that people have not forgotten the massacre in Tiananmen on June 4,” she said. “I am very sad because it destroyed our hopes for democracy.”
Brian Cha, a 35-year-old interior designer, said that while the 20th anniversary was an important one, he also came because he was angered by recent comments by Donald Tsang, Hong Kong’s chief executive, who suggested that critics of the crackdown should also take into account China’s many successes since 1989.
Carrie Ho, a 35-year-old marketer, said that she came to the annual vigil for only the second time partly because of the Hong Kong government’s decision to bar some activists from entering the territory in recent weeks. The government’s action undermined freedom in the territory, she said.
In 2004, organizers estimated the crowd at 82,000, though the police then gave a lower estimate of 48,000. That had been the largest vigil since 1991, when 100,000 attended.
Heavy rainstorms dumped 1.45 inches of rain on Hong Kong early Thursday morning, but the streets dried and the skies cleared through the day. The crowds gathered under cloudless skies and a nearly full moon that rose past the skyscrapers to shine down among the park’s palm trees.
When a large crowd showed up in 2004, it was after public pressure had forced the government to retreat from plans to impose stringent internal security legislation sought by Beijing. The local government has not sought since then to reintroduce the legislation.
The push for democracy has lost some of its impetus in Hong Kong over the past five years, as the economy has improved and as Mr. Tsang, who is more politically adept, has taken office.
The success of Hong Kong residents in halting the internal security legislation in 2004, however, had an indirect affect on allowing the vigil here to grow to the huge size it was this year.
“Prisoner of the State,” the secret journal of Zhao Ziyang, the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in the two years leading up to the Tiananmen Square crackdown, has just been published here and has immediately sold out. Mr. Zhao’s posthumous revelations about discord at the top of the Communist Party on how to respond to the student protests — he opposed the crackdown — have revived discussion of the events 20 years ago and Chinese-language copies of the book from Hong Kong are said to have been smuggled to the mainland.
In an addition to the usual schedule of the vigil, the organizers played an excerpt from a recording that Mr. Zhao made of his journal. Mr. Zhao defended the students in Tiananmen Square, saying that they wanted the Chinese Communist Party to correct its wrongs but did not seek to overthrow it.
Bao Pu, one of the three translators and editors of the book, said in a lunch speech at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club here on Thursday that it would have been much harder to publish the book here if the internal security legislation had been approved. He attributed the government’s retreat to a huge march here on July 1, 2003, with a crowd that police put at 350,000 and organizers at up to 700,000.
“Those people who were on the streets that day made a contribution,” Mr. Bao said
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