Good story, good comments. Check it out.
July 18, 2006
The Discussion: 2 Comments
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Good story, good comments. Check it out.
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
A peculiar hybrid of personal journal, dilettantish punditry, pseudo-philosophy and much more, from an Accidental Expat who has made his way from Hong Kong to Beijing to Taipei and finally back to Beijing for reasons that are still not entirely clear to him…
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1
By Raj
Couldn’t resist responding to that thread. I’d just seen “Carry on Cleo”. 😀
July 18, 2006 @ 4:35 pm | Comment
2
By Ahmet
I read the coments thread and I have to add my two cents to the observations. First, the US is far, far from perfect. It’s a racist, classist society with plenty of corruption, violence and ignorance. It’s also full of opportunity, a fantastic system of higher education, and a system of law with the mandate of the governed. In comparison, China is merely developing (used to be called third world) nation with aspirations of being a super power.
I find that many of the developments are superficial. The 2008 Olympic “fever” is a good example. How does a nation that doesn’t have any health care for its citizens or real legal system, and has greatest difference between rich and poor justify spending unbelievable amounts of money on mere entertainment just for a PR opportunity? The same question applies to its space program.
As for cultural differences regarding spitting, the lack of queus, extremely poor driving conditions, a completely different set of rules for personal civility, throwing trash everywhere……all of them are behaviors that can be modified when, and if the Chinese people realize the benefits of changing it for themselves. Until then, these behaviors will remain as mere annoyances to some and major aggravations to others (I fall into both camps depending on my mood for the day….i admit it).
Perhaps the most troubling thing about China is lack of education of substance…..the lack of study for the sake of study…..the lack of open discourse about anything. It seems that so much of education is purely vocational in nature. When the public is not allowed to access information in an unfettered way, when someone cannot satisfy their curiosity, imagination is stifled. It seems to me that since this has gone on for generations, the curiosity itself has started to disappear.
My previous comments have ranged from outrage to idealism, but I do hope the we can somehow pressure our business and political leaders to make decisions that do not further enable to the thugs that run China to continue to consolidate their power, despite the apparent short term economic expediency.
July 20, 2006 @ 7:59 pm | Comment