Li Peng, the former Chinese premier derided as the stone-faced “butcher of Beijing” for his role in the bloody crackdown on the Tiananmen Square democracy movement in 1989, died on Monday in the Chinese capital. He was 90.
Mr. Li’s death was announced by Xinhua, the state-run news agency, which gave no specific cause.
Born to Communist revolutionaries in the early years of the Chinese civil war and educated as a hydroelectric engineer in the Soviet Union, Mr. Li rose to the top ranks of the Communist Party, serving as a bridge between the old guard and the more technocratic leaders who succeeded them.
He served 10 years as prime minister and then five years, until his retirement in 2003, as chief of the National People’s Congress, the country’s party-dominated, rubber-stamp Parliament.
Mr. Li, a wooden presence on television, was never widely loved by the Chinese public, but he wielded great power late in his career as a top-ranking member of the secretive Politburo Standing Committee, the country’s leading center of power. That he survived at such a rarefied level suggested that he was more politically adroit than his stodgy public image indicated.
Mr. Li is most widely remembered as the forbidding official in a Mao suit who appeared on television in May 1989 to announce the imposition of martial law in urban Beijing and to denounce leaders of the giant pro-democracy protests that had occupied Tiananmen Square in the heart of the city. They were enemies of the Communist Party, he declared, who imperiled “the fate and future of the People’s Republic of China, built by many revolutionary martyrs with their blood.”
Historians have debated how much personal responsibility Mr. Li bore for the army’s assault on students and workers beginning late on June 3, 1989, when tanks and troops with automatic rifles opened fire, killing hundreds if not more as they plowed toward Tiananmen Square. The troops took the square early on June 4.
Scholars have also debated Mr. Li’s role in the removal and permanent house arrest that spring of his more liberal rival, Zhao Ziyang, the Communist Party general secretary, who was nominally of a higher rank. Mr. Zhao had advocated negotiating with the students and opposed using the army against them. Mr. Zhao died in 2005.
Source :NY Times
4 則留言:
Dr. Rajendra Kapila
Dr. Rajendra Kapila, a distinguished infectious diseases expert who taught at New Jersey's Rutgers University, died with COVID-19 in India in April. As conspiracy theories surrounding the circumstances of Kapila's passing are spreading and India is facing a mounting crisis in battling Covid virus.
The Hindustan Times reported Kapila died in a New Delhi hospital on April 28 at age 81, after returning to India with his wife in late March. He was reportedly meant to fly back to the U.S. by the second week of April, but had tested positive for COVID-19 on April 8.
India is currently grappling with a spiralling surge in COVID-19 infections.
雜交水稻之父｜「吃飯靠兩平，一靠鄧小平，二靠袁隆平」
90歲的袁隆平為江西人，父母也是知識分子。袁隆平1949年考入重慶相輝學院農學系，主修遺傳育種學。據指，他終身投身高產水稻的研究，是因1960年內地因大躍進失敗造成大飢荒，袁隆平目睹路邊躺着餓至骨瘦如柴的飢民屍體，深受刺激下立志要解決中國的糧食問題。
袁隆平在增加糧食產量上有極大貢獻
90歲「雜交水稻之父」袁隆平逝世，令這名讓「一粒種子改變整個世界」的科學家再受廣泛關注。畢生致力研發高產高質水稻的袁隆平，成功將水稻由畝產300公斤提升到過千公斤，甚至培育出適合在耐鹽鹼地或沙漠地栽種的海水稻，對解決人類溫飽有極大貢獻。他獲中國工程院院士與共和國勳章等榮譽外，民間亦有「吃飯靠兩平，一靠鄧小平，二靠袁隆平」之說，可見其深得民心。
資料顯示，袁隆平在1960年7月，在農校試驗田意外發現一株特殊性狀的水稻，試種後發現其子代有不同性質，推論到該株應為天然雜交水稻，自此他即專心研究水稻的雜交優勢，發展大幅提升產量的水稻品種。
不過，他的科學研究曾在文化大革命時遭到衝擊，其實驗田被人惡意破壞。
經過逾三千次試驗失敗後，袁隆平於1973年從全球過千品種中篩選，首次成功培育出「三系雜交水稻」，將畝產由300公斤提高到500公斤以上，同年宣告中國秈型雜交水稻「三系」配套成功。翌年成功選育出產量較普通水稻高兩成以上的雜交水稻「南優2號」供大面積生產。
1979年，三系雜交水稻技術作為中國首個科研技術獲介紹到美國。至1981年，袁隆平成為中國第一個獲得「國家特等發明獎」的科學家。1988年，全國有1.94億畝農田栽種雜交水稻，佔全國水稻面積近四成。
之後袁隆平繼續在雜交水稻上深研，於1997年啟動超級雜交水稻研究，2013年至2020年間，先後4次打破水稻畝產世界紀錄，去年以第三代雜交水稻「叄優一號」，造出早晚兩季平均畝產達1530.76公斤的新紀錄。
袁隆平去年獲中共總書記習近平頒發「共和國勛章」。
一般水稻外，袁隆平也致力開發適合在耐鹽鹼的海水稻，於2018年更在杜拜沙漠實驗種植，最高畝產超過500公斤。
2000年後，袁隆平開始朝轉基因水稻研究，並將兒子袁定陽送到香港中文大學專攻轉基因。
目前，內地超過一半水稻也採用袁隆平的雜交水稻品種，全世界則有20%的水稻是用袁隆平的雜交技術。由於他在解決世界糧食安全和短缺有卓絕貢獻，也有聲音認為他應具有諾貝爾和平獎的候選資格。
醉心解決人類糧食問題的袁隆平，不太重視虛名及財富。由於他大幅提升稻米產量，在內地民間便有「吃飯靠兩平，一靠鄧小平，二靠袁隆平」之說，但遭袁隆平一再謝絕，強調不能與推動改革開放的鄧小平相比。
至於媒體曾評價以袁隆平的科研貢獻，身價當值千億元人民幣。袁隆平對此回應：「用財富衡量科學家價值太低級、太庸俗。」他過去也曾分享對金錢的看法，強調錢財要來得正路，該用時不要小器，但自己穿衣服只求樸素大方，飲食但求衞生和營養。
不過，近年也有聲音認為，外界對袁隆平的評價過高，忽略了其他在雜交水稻有貢獻的科學家，甚至在網絡出現神化或個人崇拜袁隆平的現象。
內地三農專家李昌平於2011年更向袁隆平發公開信，以常規種子價平、抗災害力強、耗用農藥肥料少等理由，呼籲袁隆平還農民自由選擇種子的權利。
《蘋果》資料室
袁隆平予世人的啓發:致力於雜交水稻技術的研究
「有的人死了，他還活着。」這是中國詩人臧克家為紀念一代文豪魯迅而寫的著名詩句。此時此刻，對於當今中國絕大多數人來説，這句詩用來悼念和讚揚剛剛逝世的中國「雜交水稻之父」袁隆平院士可謂十分恰當。
袁隆平生於1930年，1953年畢業於重慶的西南農學院遺傳育種專業，到湖南安江農校任教。初任教師不久後，袁隆平開始做研究。1960年中國全國性饑荒深深刺激了袁隆平，讓他深切體會到「民以食為天」的樸素道理。從這一年開始，他轉向研究水稻，立志做出一番事業。
1966年文革爆發，整個中國前所未有地突出政治掛帥，科學研究普遍被踐踏，袁隆平一度遭受批鬥，被列為「牛鬼蛇神」 的候選人。但即使如此，他依然頑強地堅持研究。所幸的是，當年他寫的論文《水稻的雄性不孕性》獲得國家科委的認可和支持，讓他得已繼續從事研究。這既是那個極左時代的一個幸運，又有力説明袁隆平不畏外部壓力，對於科學研究的專注。
正是這種異於常人的專注，持久的付出，和自身天賦，讓袁隆平在水稻研究上大獲成功。早在1981年，即中國改革開放初期，袁隆平就已憑藉水稻研究，獲第一個國家特等發明獎。以世俗眼光觀之，那時的袁隆平已經是功成名就，完全可以享受生活，甚至啃老本。但袁隆平不是這樣的人，或者説他早已脱離低級趣味，不願躺在功勞簿上。他繼續孜孜以求，數十年如一日地從事研究，一生堅持做一件對中國和世界重要的事情，最終取得一個又一個的卓越成就，大幅提升了水稻產量，有效幫助中國乃至世界化解了最為基本的糧食安全及短缺問題。
恰如中國著名科學家、首都醫科大學校長饒毅所説，「依據科學理論、繼承科學傳統、努力農田實踐、敢於研究創新——袁隆平帶領他的團隊長期認真的工作帶來了水稻的增產，也造福了中國和世界。」中國大陸流行這樣的一句話：「吃飯靠兩平，一靠鄧小平，二靠袁隆平」。這句話雖被袁隆平謝絕，但確實在某種程度上反映出中國民眾對於袁隆平研究貢獻的高度認可。
公開資料顯示，袁隆平為中國研究與發展雜交水稻的開創者，致力於雜交水稻技術的研究、應用與推廣，發明「三系法」秈型雜交水稻，成功研究出「兩係法」雜交水稻，創建了超級雜交稻技術體系。
1995年袁隆平被選為中國工程院院士，並在2006年4月當選美國國家科學院外籍院士，2018年當選中國發明協會首屆會士。他2000年獲得國家最高科學技術獎，2004年獲得沃爾夫農業獎，並在2013年獲得第四屆中國消除貧困獎終身成就獎。
（CGTN／澎湃新聞）
Ronald Dworkin obituary
Brilliant philosopher of law who put human dignity at the centre of his moral system; Ronald Dworkin, who has died aged 81, was widely respected as the most original and powerful philosopher of law in the English-speaking world. In his books, his articles and his teaching, in London and New York, he developed a powerful, scholarly exegesis of the law, and expounded issues of burning topicality and public concern – including how the law should deal with race, abortion, euthanasia and equality – in ways that were accessible to lay readers.
Dworkin studied philosophy (under Willard Van Orman Quine at Harvard University and, informally, with JL Austin at Oxford University) and law at both Oxford and the Harvard Law School. He worked as clerk to the great US judge and legal scholar Billings Learned Hand and as a practising associate in the Wall Street law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, before teaching law at the Yale and later the New York University law schools, as well as at Oxford and later University College London.
This broad education and training, sharpening the analytical skills of a quite exceptionally powerful intellect, enabled him, even as a precocious young man, to challenge the most eminent figures in the world of law and jurisprudence, including Hand and HLA Hart, the renowned exponent of legal positivism – considering the social basis of a law separately from its merits – at Oxford. Perhaps Dworkin's greatest achievement was his insistence on a rights-based theory of law, expounded in his first and most influential book, Taking Rights Seriously (1977), in which he proposed an alternative both to Hart's outlook and to the newly minted theories of the Harvard philosopher of law John Rawls.
He chose to divide his life almost equally between Britain and the US, with a townhouse in London and an unusual 19th-century mews cottage just off Washington Square in New York, as well as a third home, on the island of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, where he enjoyed sailing.
張貼留言