We were supposed to complete our 4th week, but due to this whole Panda fiasco, I’ve decided to boycott the remainder of my trip and head home. A bit lagged, I awoke this morning at 4:50, baked me a pizza, and reflected on this past month. And how if they just took me to the Special Place of Pandas like I asked them to in the first place. . .
And then I come back to this. A global food crisis, America complaining about $4 gas, Hillary winning Pennsylvania, Chinese boycotting CNN, and most importantly, South Korea could be ashes before I ever get the chance to date a local South Korean girl. How depressed would that make you?
Then I started thinking about all the people I met during the last few weeks. Trying to piece together the conundrum that is Tibet, China, and the rest of the world who believes they know better. And the only thing I could come up with is that those of us who speak out aren’t qualified to do so.
From the east coast, to the north, to the south coast, to central China, one thing was consistent. No one could directly answer the question of Human Rights and what exactly it meant. All the basics seem to be there. If you want a cell phone, internet, to purchase a car, a home, clothes or a sack of rice, you could if you had the money. Same as where I come from.
If you need health care, an education, or want to read the news, you can get it. And while not a single one of the more than 15 hospitals I went into had hand soap in the restrooms, the medical care was there and apparently good enough for people to be walking out on their own. Which is the main goal anyway, isn’t it? If you were going to die, it was because you got stuck in traffic.
If you want a good education, chances are decreasing that you’d have to fly overseas to get one. Those that went to Europe and the United States for their education have since returned and are now teaching the homegrown. And here’s a novel thought. The only international business school in the entire country which makes it mandatory to learn golf, can be found on the southern island of Xiamen. I think its genius. Admit it. You wish you thought of that too. However, here’s the catch for you nurses. Seven days a week in China should net you a few hundred dollars a month. If you don’t like it, get another job.
Should you want to read the paper or watch the news, it’s there for the taking. So long as you can buy or steal the paper, or have a TV. But I can’t promise the quality of the source or the information. For those of you who watch your daily news, FOX news, or read your local liberal kindle, you can’t make the same promise. And if you really wanted to know something, you reach for your cell phone or go to a local phone booth, and you call your friends or family overseas. Or send them an email. Many of the locals have friends or family in San Francisco, where the excitement and opportunity to experience a different life in America recently met the chance to show pride and honor of their home country. Only to clash with the ignorance of those who still have a “Free Tibet” bumper sticker on their ’89 Subaru Wagon and lack the basic understanding of the Sino-Tibetan relationship and the countless years of history that shaped it. What a tarnish on your American experience.
I still struggle to understand this agenda. Four months ago Tibet wasn’t an issue. Now you can’t turn on the television or open a newspaper without seeing something about a protest. Why are you still protesting Human Rights in a country you’ve never visited, occupied by people who have never before had as much freedom as they do today?
I am truly embarrassed for the French. Who else would attack a paraplegic? Yet the current boycotts throughout China over the French grocery chain, Carefour, primarily hurt the 99% Chinese employees selling the mostly Chinese-made products. But the point is taken.
And I’m truly embarrassed for the Americans. The international press successfully generalizes the anti-Sino perspective across the greater population. I sit here and try to convince myself that it’s a minority of ignorant individuals doing the shouting, probably because they like to hear the sound of their own voice when in fact they have no idea what they’re screaming about or fighting for. I’m inclined to believe they too have a false impression of life in China. And the international community is laughing. If we can’t manage 300 million people, what makes us think we can successfully lead 1.4 billion? For a country that has failed to take care of their own, we Americans remain convinced that the rest of the world is doing it wrong and we have the better way.
We don’t. And if I see one more hippie camped under a “Free Tibet” banner asking for donations, I’m gonna kick them in the mouth and take their money. If you want to make a difference, get on a plane, go to Lhasa, and help ma’ and pa’ rebuild their shop. As an incentive, if you can find Tibet on a globe, I’ll give you half your money back.
On the other hand, my news source for the last month has been the only English newspaper in the country supplemented by State-controlled television. So maybe I’m getting it wrong. But what I am sure of is that these are a harmonious people who play the same game each day to feed and clothe their family. What separates them from you and I? They smile at their neighbors, and absolutely everyone is a guest in their home.
What could make for a better close to this trip but to pick up my suitcase with a gigantic wet spot on the front. I dismiss it to the fault of the rain, and imagine my surprise to find it still so prominent and vulgar the following morning. Utilizing my trustiest investigative tool, I give it a thorough sniff and am violently thrown back by what is the unmistakable scent of a big pot of spicy cooking grease with spicy grease sprinkled with spicy whole black pepper corns soaked in spicy grease. I can feel the cancer develop in my esophagus as I type.
They’re really taking this whole Karma thing too far.
And then I come back to this. A global food crisis, America complaining about $4 gas, Hillary winning Pennsylvania, Chinese boycotting CNN, and most importantly, South Korea could be ashes before I ever get the chance to date a local South Korean girl. How depressed would that make you?
Then I started thinking about all the people I met during the last few weeks. Trying to piece together the conundrum that is Tibet, China, and the rest of the world who believes they know better. And the only thing I could come up with is that those of us who speak out aren’t qualified to do so.
From the east coast, to the north, to the south coast, to central China, one thing was consistent. No one could directly answer the question of Human Rights and what exactly it meant. All the basics seem to be there. If you want a cell phone, internet, to purchase a car, a home, clothes or a sack of rice, you could if you had the money. Same as where I come from.
If you need health care, an education, or want to read the news, you can get it. And while not a single one of the more than 15 hospitals I went into had hand soap in the restrooms, the medical care was there and apparently good enough for people to be walking out on their own. Which is the main goal anyway, isn’t it? If you were going to die, it was because you got stuck in traffic.
If you want a good education, chances are decreasing that you’d have to fly overseas to get one. Those that went to Europe and the United States for their education have since returned and are now teaching the homegrown. And here’s a novel thought. The only international business school in the entire country which makes it mandatory to learn golf, can be found on the southern island of Xiamen. I think its genius. Admit it. You wish you thought of that too. However, here’s the catch for you nurses. Seven days a week in China should net you a few hundred dollars a month. If you don’t like it, get another job.
Should you want to read the paper or watch the news, it’s there for the taking. So long as you can buy or steal the paper, or have a TV. But I can’t promise the quality of the source or the information. For those of you who watch your daily news, FOX news, or read your local liberal kindle, you can’t make the same promise. And if you really wanted to know something, you reach for your cell phone or go to a local phone booth, and you call your friends or family overseas. Or send them an email. Many of the locals have friends or family in San Francisco, where the excitement and opportunity to experience a different life in America recently met the chance to show pride and honor of their home country. Only to clash with the ignorance of those who still have a “Free Tibet” bumper sticker on their ’89 Subaru Wagon and lack the basic understanding of the Sino-Tibetan relationship and the countless years of history that shaped it. What a tarnish on your American experience.
I still struggle to understand this agenda. Four months ago Tibet wasn’t an issue. Now you can’t turn on the television or open a newspaper without seeing something about a protest. Why are you still protesting Human Rights in a country you’ve never visited, occupied by people who have never before had as much freedom as they do today?
I am truly embarrassed for the French. Who else would attack a paraplegic? Yet the current boycotts throughout China over the French grocery chain, Carefour, primarily hurt the 99% Chinese employees selling the mostly Chinese-made products. But the point is taken.
And I’m truly embarrassed for the Americans. The international press successfully generalizes the anti-Sino perspective across the greater population. I sit here and try to convince myself that it’s a minority of ignorant individuals doing the shouting, probably because they like to hear the sound of their own voice when in fact they have no idea what they’re screaming about or fighting for. I’m inclined to believe they too have a false impression of life in China. And the international community is laughing. If we can’t manage 300 million people, what makes us think we can successfully lead 1.4 billion? For a country that has failed to take care of their own, we Americans remain convinced that the rest of the world is doing it wrong and we have the better way.
We don’t. And if I see one more hippie camped under a “Free Tibet” banner asking for donations, I’m gonna kick them in the mouth and take their money. If you want to make a difference, get on a plane, go to Lhasa, and help ma’ and pa’ rebuild their shop. As an incentive, if you can find Tibet on a globe, I’ll give you half your money back.
On the other hand, my news source for the last month has been the only English newspaper in the country supplemented by State-controlled television. So maybe I’m getting it wrong. But what I am sure of is that these are a harmonious people who play the same game each day to feed and clothe their family. What separates them from you and I? They smile at their neighbors, and absolutely everyone is a guest in their home.
What could make for a better close to this trip but to pick up my suitcase with a gigantic wet spot on the front. I dismiss it to the fault of the rain, and imagine my surprise to find it still so prominent and vulgar the following morning. Utilizing my trustiest investigative tool, I give it a thorough sniff and am violently thrown back by what is the unmistakable scent of a big pot of spicy cooking grease with spicy grease sprinkled with spicy whole black pepper corns soaked in spicy grease. I can feel the cancer develop in my esophagus as I type.
They’re really taking this whole Karma thing too far.
