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Same for our GOP, who are now returning many states to Jim Crow voting policies to stop black voting.
For JTAB, I've been aware of Uighur matters all along, but didn't want to write a book-length post that lists every caveat. Our long history of crimes, discrimination and systemic racism against Black citizens is the stuff of legends for which we have a long way to go before Reagan's smoke about our nation being "a shining city on a hill" is more than just a myth. Our treatment of Native Americans approximates a case of genocide. Our own backyard needs a lot of cleanup and replanting.
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And they have no sense of irony. As we Americans were encouraged to keep patronizing our local Chinese restaurants, in China they were turning away Black customers, presumably scapegoating them as carriers of the Covid-19 virus.
"Last April, authorities in the southern city of Guangzhou, which has China’s largest African community, launched a campaign to forcibly test Africans in the city for the coronavirus, and ordered them to self-isolate or quarantine in designated hotels. Landlords evicted African residents, forcing many to sleep on the street, in hotels or in shops. Some restaurants refused to serve Black customers."
Last edited by jtab4994; 06-21-2021 at 02:12 PM..
Reason: Added quotation marks to the italicized paragraph.
It's great. Much better than living in a shack in the mosquito-infested countryside.
I also prefer living in a flat to living in a detached SFR, but it really depends on the location.
It's certainly not for anyone who builds their identity on a romanticized version of the white picket fence, or 180 acres of woodland "American Dream".
However, I grew up mowing 2 acres of "American Dream" lawn and tending another 180 acres of mixed farmland and woods. No nearby neighbors. Police and fire response time measured in hours. Couldn't have any real friends (they were all far beyond biking distance) until I got my license, and even then it was a long drive to get anywhere. We had a barn full of machinery (and junk we accumulated) for taking care of everything.
I live in a town now, and that's better. I can walk to fun stuff and the beach. Still, I hate landscaping (hated mowing and gardening as a kid, hated my landscaping and mowing jobs, and hate doing it on my own home now) and wasting time on all the individual systems a homeowner needs to maintain a "homestead". I just hate paying someone else to do it even more. I still have a garage half-full of junk necessary to take care of the yard. (What little I do)
I love living in a flat in Taipei. There are parks and playgrounds everywhere, tons of places to play, eat, and shop within a short walk. Mass transit everywhere, so a car is completely unnecessary. Construction is steel-reinforced concrete and that does NOT transmit sound like stick-frame houses or low-rise apartments here in America do. I lived in a 1950's wood frame walk-up in Boston where the upstairs and downstairs neighbors could have conversations with each other through my apartment floor and ceiling. Close the windows in a 1950's Taipei mid-rise and you can't even hear the city outside, and you wouldn't even know you had neighbors if you didn't see them in the common hallway. Everything you need fits in your closet. No string trimmers, no lawn tractors, and no wasting time on any of that.
All that said, Shanghai is not Taipei. Apartment living in China might suck. Can't say, never done it.
Last time I was there was in February 1996, my 3rd trip. As I watch Video's today of China, it's hard to believe my eyes how fast it's all happened!
When they do something in China it seems to be all done in a big way and fast, fast, fast as if the planet were to die tomorrow.
When they decided to put an Interstate Highway System in China, to rival ours, fast, fast and Done!
When they decided to put high speed rail lines around the country, again, fast, fast, and Done!
In a recent Economist magazine I was stunned at all the museums they have over there, and they plan to add hundreds of more museums in China!
What will they think up next? I'm pea green with envy, given we don't even have one high speed rail line in this country up and running.
I think one reason they can do things so fast, is not dealing with Nimby's and historical preservationists!
Yes, the air pollution, which they're working on, is certainly not to be envied.
Well, aside from a brutal, dystopian state that is leveraged beyond anything seen in economic history and is in the opening stages of a terminal, precipitous demographic decline? I mean, hey, if you can admire a country that enjoys its prosperity because of brutal worker exploitation and wholesale intellectual property theft--not to mention its genocidal policies in Western China--then knock yourself out.
If Chinese thought there was a future in China, they wouldn't be getting their money out of the country in a torrent. That's because the 25 years of explosive economic growth was a bit of a blip, the result of the economic benefits of suddenly only having one child per couple. However, the imminent hangover is going to be awful.
Tell you what. Find a citizen of Hong Kong to tell you how they now feel about being part of China. That is, if you can find a place to talk that is away from a security camera, a microphone, or the watchful eyes of a security agent. Tell them how enviable they feel.
Or, even better, watch these rather than a bunch of bling in breathless propaganda. The country will pretty much crack under the weight of its contradictions.
Same for our GOP, who are now returning many states to Jim Crow voting policies to stop black voting.
For JTAB, I've been aware of Uighur matters all along, but didn't want to write a book-length post that lists every caveat. Our long history of crimes, discrimination and systemic racism against Black citizens is the stuff of legends for which we have a long way to go before Reagan's smoke about our nation being "a shining city on a hill" is more than just a myth. Our treatment of Native Americans approximates a case of genocide. Our own backyard needs a lot of cleanup and replanting.
It doesn't take a long post to acknowledge "Uighur matters" and other human rights abuses in a totalitarian state. Pre-emptively blowing it off with stuff like "Not sure if they have any sort of racism in China..." and then claiming you knew about the racism all along is rather confusing.
This discussion boils down to the age-old question of power. Unchecked power is more efficient. Checks and balances are inefficient.
However, in practice the level of corruption - graft, bribery, various abuses, etc. - is more widespread in regimes where power is not counterbalanced. The poster who claimed that China doesn't have to deal with corruption holds a very naive and idealistic view of authoritarian power. Xi Jinping's massive (and quite publicized) anti-corruption campaign has been ongoing for nearly a decade. Of course, while it endeavors to root out the considerable corruption endemic to China, it has also been used as a convenient tool for sidelining Xi's political rivals - which is, of course, corruption in itself.
The problem is that open and transparent societies, or those places where power is shared, have more of their deficiencies identified, and then corrected. But where power is unchecked, those holding power conceal more of their shortcomings, oppressing those who would reveal them.
With few exceptions (Singapore, and the occasional monarchy with a relatively benighted leader at the moment), low levels of corruption correlate with democratic openness, whereas the most corrupt regimes are almost always those that brutalize their people.
They don't have to deal with the special interests and their corrupt money flowing to politicians. They basically have a one person rule which makes things so much easier instead of our cast of hundreds. They are free to make decisions for the good of the majority instead of who has the most influence and money.
China is eating our lunch and will continue to do so until we are all speaking Mandarin.
The Chinese in China are the human equivalent of ants or bees. Highly efficient and working towards a common goal. That is all well and good if you live in an ant hill or bee hive. But we are talking humans. Some day they will have enough of this.
What is to be envied about China? Their handling of the pandemic
What is not to be envied about China? Their handling of the pandemic.
The first time my daughter went to China, to attend Szechuan University (on a scholarship provided by the Chinese government via the SUNY system, which we did appreciate), she lived in Chengdu. She reported that ALL the packaged food in the grocery store was expired. She learned to find little family-owned restaurants where you could eat for about the equivalent of a buck, and she first became a vegetarian when she was there.
She did say that China is the most capitalistic place she has ever been. They are all about making money. One practice, which made her angry, was that a rich person will come into a restaurant and order more food than they can possibly eat and leave it on the table, just to show how rich they are.
I dont think it is to show how rich they are, it is a cultural thing. If you have guests you want them to have "enough" to eat and the host should not be mean and stingy because that is not welcoming. It is the same reason some cultures provide the best foods they have for their visitors.
The food is left on the table yes, sometimes when there is a party of businessmen for example, or when it is inconvenient to take home the leftovers. However, when eating as a family or group which all know each other, then doggie-bags are almost always taken back home. I am not saying your daughter was wrong but maybe misinterpreted the custom.
A third world country without many social services (like family credits, help with food tokens, etc) each person has to make a living for their family as best they can. It is only with the advancement of society that you get governments helping the poorest and raising them to a higher level. It is probably the same thing in India and other underdeveloped countries, everyone is scrabbling to make a living so money is always important. Far more than in countries like the UK where there is an unemployment benefit for those out of work.
I am a veggie too, and it is difficult if you eat out. People dont seem to understand you can have a restaurant dish without meat - although it IS getting better as time goes on. I survive on fairly boring restaurant vegetable dishes, tofu, and rice. In the West maybe it is 25% of people are veggies so that is a large market. No Macdonalds or KFC have veggie burgers yet, even in Beijing.
This discussion boils down to the age-old question of power. Unchecked power is more efficient. Checks and balances are inefficient.
However, in practice the level of corruption - graft, bribery, various abuses, etc. - is more widespread in regimes where power is not counterbalanced. The poster who claimed that China doesn't have to deal with corruption holds a very naive and idealistic view of authoritarian power. Xi Jinping's massive (and quite publicized) anti-corruption campaign has been ongoing for nearly a decade. Of course, while it endeavors to root out the considerable corruption endemic to China, it has also been used as a convenient tool for sidelining Xi's political rivals - which is, of course, corruption in itself.
The problem is that open and transparent societies, or those places where power is shared, have more of their deficiencies identified, and then corrected. But where power is unchecked, those holding power conceal more of their shortcomings, oppressing those who would reveal them.
With few exceptions (Singapore, and the occasional monarchy with a relatively benighted leader at the moment), low levels of corruption correlate with democratic openness, whereas the most corrupt regimes are almost always those that brutalize their people.
I think we need to recognise that corruption occurs everywhere in all governments. The media is controlled in a more easily identified way. Everyone knows the media is controlled in China, but not everyone knows the media is controlled in other countries - but it is. Epstein entertained many rich people, but where is the fall-out? What of his death? It will never come and will be quietly forgotten, overlooked. Large organisations like the Catholic Church bury their mistakes and forgive their sinners.
Rich people always pay for favours. There are always minorities who get picked on. There are always bullies who think they can throw their weight around, and there is not that much difference between the police forces of both US and China, Russia, or most other countries
In the end, you live with what you have and thats the bottom line. If you are rich enough or have the connections to get out, then if you dont like it, you leave.
Why do we say our country has fewer flaws than another country? Probably because we like to live here, and so we put up with the flaws in the system. Just like when you have been married long enough, you put up with a lot of rubbish until it gets too much.
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