just saw what the populace of china does to help- people two year old girl lying in the road after getting hit buy a mini bus .nobody stopped to help her and where were the parents gerrrrrrr like the driving all about me me me
redlights are for other people not me GERRR

 

that is sad.
the article I read also mentioned that earlier that year, a man was sued by the government for helping an injured man because that was "their job"

a screwed up policy.

 

I wouldn't worry about China overtaking us right now, you need healthy GDP growth. They have smoke and mirrors. Their economic collapse will make ours look like a minor blip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbDeS_mXMnM

 

I have been following the story of Yue Yue, the two year old who was run over by two vehicles and ignored by numerous passer-bys. As many of you probably know, she died a week later, on Oct 22. Her death and the circumstances surrounding it has created a firestorm here in China with many people from various walks of life having their say. Bottom line is that the Chinese are disgusted with what they have become as it has highlighted the missing morality of society.

From what I have been reading, it appears that more and more people have become reluctant to hold out a helping hand to strangers in trouble because too many of them have been successfully sued as being the cause of the problem. One case involved a guy who saw an old woman fall down in the street and stopped his car to help her and then take her to a hospital. She later claimed he hit her with his car and got a lot of money out of it. There are many more examples similar to this, so in a way can understand why nobody stops to help anybody anymore.

As a result of Yue Yue’s death, there have been many rounds of panel discussions around the country to see what can be done about this problem. To quote: “Efforts should be made to lift the morality of the whole society and the conscience of everyone and to avoid similar things from happening again”. The Peking University’s legal aid center has confirmed that their students and alumni can get assistance if they are sued for helping others. Draft regulations are now in place aiming to protect the rights and interests of those who help people in distress. Unless the accuser can offer evidence that helpers are at fault, good Samaritans will be exempt from liability. Those who bring false accusations against helpers must also make a public apology and may even be detained in cases of fraud.

There is a lot more, but have cut it short and just provided the highlights.

OK, on to new subjects:

Seven schools in Shanghai, one private and six public schools next year are going to be teaching their students how to play golf. 13 other middle and primary schools across the country are also planning on including golf courses in their corricula next year. The reason is that golf is seen as an effective way for students to learn patience and resilience. This is not an optional course, but will be compulsory for every pupil in the first, second, third and sixth grades. Apparently the golf course already offered in some schools is popular with the students with lots of positive feedback from parents.

One private school started golf lessons two years ago and now has an amateur gold team of over 10 members. One mother said she started her kid in golf on weekends when he was only 4. He is now 7 years old. Golf here is not just seen as a sport, but also because it has social attachments.


In a previous post I mentioned that the Chinese were going to restrict the exports of rare earth. Since then read many more articles about that and it now appears that the restrictions are going to be tightened even more.

Discovered that some of the Chinese, particularly the men have a defective X chromosome. This causes their faces to very quickly turn red when alcohol is consumed. Have noticed this with a lot the Chinese men here that drink.

As I walk around, particularly at work, often tell women to go through a door ahead of me. Generally there has been resistance with the women telling me to go ahead of them. Have now 'educated' some of these women to the western way and make them go through the door first. Now they are used to this I asked them how they like the western way of treating women. All of them told me they like it.

A couple of months ago was stopped on the sidewalk by a guy selling skins. These were all skins from jaguars and similar exotic animals. I can imagine the problems I would have at any customs had I bought one and tried to take it home. Probably would end up in jail.

As mentioned repeatedly, the drivers here are crazy. Taxi drivers are crazier. A few weeks ago took a taxi and en route to my destination there was an accident where a bus and a car had a fender bender and were blocking at least two lanes. Not a problem for my taxi driver, because he just drove up onto the sidewalk and horn blaring, forced the pedestrians out of the way so that he could drive around the accident. Last week was in another taxi and there was a long line of traffic stopped for a light. That did not slow down my driver, because he drove on the sidewalk, around all the stopped traffic and got back on the road at the light. Not a cop in sight.

Recently was in a shoe store and happened to notice a few pairs of shoes with a 'Ross Dress for Less' tag on them. That really got my attention. The Ross tag was for $50 but could have bought them here for about $15. Now we know where the stuff that Ross and similar stores go to when they can't sell their discounted items.

The other day saw the longest Hummer I have ever seen. It even had two rear axles. That reminds me. Many of the larger trucks here have two front (steering) axles.

Was talking to a teacher here recently. She told me that electronic calculators are not allowed for most kids until high school and some even later then that. That seemed like a good idea to me as it forces the kids to use their brains. The kids here spend a lot more time in school daily than their western counterparts.

Here is something that many Canadian and American government organisations could copy. Public confidence in civil servants has been declining, mainly due to the bad way the public is treated. Here in China there are 6.78 million civil servants of which 60% work at the grass roots level. These people over the next 5 years are all going to be receiving training in ethics and similar subjects in an attempt to cut down on the growing public anger against corruption in public offices. There is also supposed to be more transparency. Hey, Obummer, you want in on this?

Every day in the local newspapers there is talk about the international economy and how lack of overseas sales are causing bigger and bigger problems for Chinese companies. Companies are going out of business already. There is growing fears about a real estate meltdown, with some real estate brokerages already shutting down outlets. The price of pre-owned homes are at a record low. One prediction I read was that within a few months that around 3,000 outlets will soon close leaving around 50,000 real estate brokers facing redundancy. Vehicle sales are going down every month lately.

Interesting story in a newspaper recently about a small diesel engine manufacturer. In 1946 the Weichai Power Co Ltd was founded as a small diesel engine factory and is now one of the largest auto parts suppliers in China. The story told about the ups and downs of the company and how in 1998 it was in deep trouble. Three years ago the company aquired the French diesel engine and gearbox maker, Moteurs Baudouin. This company is a century old engine manufacturer with a good reputation in Europe. They now sell their integrated engine all over Europe. Maybe you will see their engines in your part of the world soon.

Last week saw some brand new trucks parked at work. They were almost the size of a Dakota and had 4 doors. All were 4 wheel drive with locked front hubs. Definitely diesels with that distinctive cold engine diesel rattle when they started up. Noticed that the gear shift for the 4wd was to the right of the main gear shift. In big letters on the grill was JMC. Not GMC. I checked on the internet and these trucks may have Isuzu diesel engines in them. Nice looking trucks.

And now for something different. Allow me to quote:
“The two combatants scream high pitched cries as they leap towards one another. One slips out of an attempted headlock to flip his attacker over, judo style. The spectators howl.
These gladiators have no weapons but their jawa and legs, exoskeltons for armor and a glass arena the size of a takeout box for a coliseum”.

We are talking cricket fighting. This 'sport' started in the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and is still popular. It was the pastime of imperial aristocrats that later won favor among commoners. There are around 4 million cricket fighting fans in China and about 300 companies producing cricket fighting equipmet. Annual cricket sales are around $63 million dollars. Ordinary crickets cost about $1.60, but super soldiers can cost in the thousands.

Great gladiators must be treated to banquets of ginsing, crabmeat and sheep liver. They should relish these fine feasts in elaborately carved percelain jars and digest their meals in a tiny wooden bed. These itty-bitty crawlers are allowed to enjoy conjungal visits from a harem of female crickets on the night before a big fight. Satisfying their libido is integral to helping them focus during combat. The fighting season starts when the insects fully mature in late September and ends in mid November.

 

Here is a subject that will create varying emotions for many of you.

Chinese tradition going back thousands of years is to eat dogs. Now various animal welfare groups in China (yes, they do exist) are challenging this old tradition. They are citing health reasons and have started an relatively large bunch of advertising in newspapers and various social campaigns to stop this happening. This has irritated meat traders and fans of this cuisine and a bit of a war has started.

From what I can gather, eating of dogs in China go back to the Neolithic Age. Eating dogs, especially in winter, is sociably acceptable as people believe that the meat has medicinal qualities and can help combat diseases such as cold. In Compendum of Materia, the encyclopedic work on traditional Chinese medicine written during the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644), four prescriptions containing dog meat were recorded. Eating dog meat is especially popular among some ethnic groups, such as Koreans. It is part of their traditions, part of their ancient way of life.

More and more Chinese are now raising dogs as pets and online exposure of torture and slaughter have raised the netizens anger. One animal protection group recently saved about 800 dogs from meat traders. A dog meat festival in Jinhua, east China has a history going back 600 years and was canceled permanently after animal rights groups launched an online campaign to protest the brutal slaughter of dogs at the festival. Some restaurants, especially Korean, no longer sell dog meat. Various groups are now pushing for the government to get involved and stop all eating of dogs and cats. That is going to be difficult because many consumers do not think dog meat is any different from pork or mutton.

 

Hi Stan. Thanks or the update! VERY interesting stuff.

On the subject of dog meat; I have no problem with it. Meat is meat, tho I am curious as to what it tastes like. As with ANY animal, their demise should be ethical and as painless as possible.

 

Stan -
Your observations of life in China are extremely interesting & written in a fashion that would make a great travel book . One that i & many others would buy !
if you took video of this and narrated it i`m sure you would find a vast audience for it !
GREAT JOB- THANKS & KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK !

I FEEL PRIVILEGED TO BE ABLE TO READ IT !

CLAUDE
KD8NXN

 

^^^ I'm with Claude! ^^^

And he MUST be as impressed as he says he is... he even used spell check!

 

Wow, Stan - - your life must be interesting and sometimes a bit un-nerving. So many things we don't know about goes on over there that is a bit scary. Take care, my friend. And thanks for your great rendering of your observations of the differences in our countries.

Bob

 

I never got to spend enough time in one place to really get into what was going on locally. In and out, maybe find a nice place to eat in the process.
Travel is great since you get to see what others consider normal. Chinese drivers aren't much worse than anywhere else in the world. some places are better, but not many.
I think the morals of the world have gone down hill all over, not just china.

 

They send all the bad drivers to the US

 

Stan, thanks for the report. Its great to get your views on life there.

1--Thats too bad. My Uncle flew "The Hump" during WWII and went back to China around 1974. He felt like the normal people were very honest. Guess time has changed.
2--At least the BLM "finally" gave Molycorp permission to drill in CA. Still going to be awhile though.
3--My 18yo niece cannot do mult or div on paper. She has to use a calculator because thats what she used in school.
4--Need to send madhat some of that cricket protective gear. He takes good care of his crickets.

Kinda interesting subject and a good one to argue about with people when I am in the mood.
I have a little problem with eating dog meat but absolutely no problem with eating horse meat. My Aunt is totally the oposite. And my Grandmother would eat anything but goat (she had a cart pulled by them).
Like you said, "As with ANY animal, their demise should be ethical and as painless as possible".

 

Thanks everybody for all your kind comments.
Claude, is that you? Never seen you write so well.
Bob, can't say I have ever been in a scary situation here. Going to be interesting once my wife gets here and takes a few taxi rides with me. Have already told to just relax because the taxi driver does not want to dent his car, scary and unnerving as the ride may be.

When I started to write about China I had absolutely no idea what I wrote about would be of such interest to so many. Too cold to do any real exploring at the moment, but once summer rolls around, will get out more and let everybody know what I discover. Will post something else tomorrow.

 

Every year I become more and more disgusted at the blatant way the media slant the news to suit their agenda. Of course politicians are even worse. Years ago the media stopped reporting real news and news only. Now that I am living in China I have been made even more aware of the differences in the way news is presented. The western media continuously slam China and attempt to portray it as everything China or the Chinese government do as being bad. Even before I moved to China I questioned some of the garbage I read. Now that I live in China and am reading the news from a Chinese perspective, I can see things from the other side more clearly. Is one side more right than the other? Probably not, but have seen and read many things over the years that have turned me against the Western media. Actually all media, but more so the Western.

Have just read an interesting article written in a Chinese newspaper by an American novelist, documentary filmmaker and investigative journalist. His name is Andre Vltcher. Am now going to quote some of the things he says that I am in agreement with, plus mix in a few of my own comments. I was born in South Africa, grew up there as well as a few years in Uganda and Kenya. Went to boarding schools in Kenya and Uganda also. Even as a kid I witnessed the whites doing humiliating things to blacks that did not sit right with me, so this article hit home for me.

The attacks against China from the western media such as the BBC are intensifying. Some of the things I read are as though they are shooting from the hip. The question needs to be asked, why is some Western media continuously demonizing China, particularly for it's role in Africa? There appears to be several reasons for this.

Go back over the last 200 years and take a look at what European countries and the United states has done to Africa. The brutality against the Africans has been criminal, ranging from the massacre of more than 7 million Congolese by Belgians during the reign of King Leopard II to German genocide in today's Namibia, British massacres in eastern and southern Africa and Italian crimes against humanity in Ethiopia. In fact, no country in Africa escaped being crushed under the boots of European colonialists and people of every country had to endure their cruelty, humiliation, slavery and even extermination.

China has gone into Africa as a friend and are being attacked by the western media for this. What China is doing in Africa has forced the West, well aware of it's crimes, to sit up and take notice because it knows that it could quickly “lose the continent”. It appears that demonizing China is now the main goal of Western propaganda. The West is promoting it's own politico-economic system as the only one possible in the world.

The following are direct quotes from the article:

China is a socialist country despite it's market economy. It doesn't copy the Western development model. What the Western media are doing reflects how unwilling Western countries are to share the profits with non-Western countries.

Wherever China offers a helping hand, and that is of course the case in Africa, western governments and media accuse it of following it's own interests, exploiting the rich natural resources in the continent and 'working with local dictators'. To the western media, there is nothing China can do well. When China wants to build a railway it is trashed “for wanting to plunder natural resources”. The same accusation is leveled when it builds roads too. When it wants to build state buildings, Western propaganda mills begin spinning yarns that it is “corrupting local goernments”.

But when China lends a helping hand to indisputably charitable and humanitarian deeds, like fighting maleria in East Africa, the Western media suddenly become silent. In fact, many anti-Chinese propagandists in poor and developing countries are actually funded by the West. Members of the academia and media who undergo frequent “training courses” are flown to the UK and the US, paid princely amounts of money per day – in short, they are pampered. In countries where many journalists live on $100 a month or less, a trip to Europe or North America could mean an increase in the standard of living for years to come.

Most of the NGO's in the developing world (and that includes Africa and southeast Asia) are expected to be antagonistic to China or at least not to follow China's example or discuss the “China model” of economic development. The West is actually well aware of China's good intentions. China is “dangerous” precisely because it is different and it is not doing what the Western powers did in Africa.

African people are confused. I have spoken to many Africans working on Chinese projects in Kenya and elsewhere, who said that they were grateful to the Chinese. Many of them said that this was the first time they were treated like human beings by foreigners. At the same time, local people read reports in their own media (most of them do nothing else but spread Western propoganda) relentlessly criticizing China. The Western media, skillful as they are, know where to sting. They have perfected their skills over long years and are particularly effective in Africa, over which the West has ruled for centuries. Europeans know well the mentality of the African people and how to manipulate it. For the west, to attack China on African issues is nothing less than a war for survival – or more precisely, for the survival of it's global order and it's colonial control over the continent.

Since the west is defending it's control over the lives of the African people and plundering of resources, China should not hold it's punches. It has to speak louder and clearer, on behalf of those around the world who for centuries had no voice. And it should start to ask the West some uncomfortable questions.

End of quote.

Bet you do not see any of the above in any western or UK papers.

 

Some of it may be "in part" due to past practices on part of China regarding their own propaganda machine.

I believe that our lack of understanding of their system is largely their fault due to the heavy censorship that they used to impose.
Bad example, but not that long ago, if you tried to talk to a Chinese farmer standing out in a field about his government,
he would have yelled at you to get away for fear of being seen talking to a foreigner without a govt agent around.

However, a lot of our attitude is ingrained.
My Father was in Korea and Vietnam. You can understand that his perception of the Chinese is that they have tried to spread and
force Communism as much as the Russians.
He understands that the US may have done some questionable things to spread our agenda but you will never be able to
convince him that their rational was nearly as honorable as ours.

We have been brought up to believe that our way of life and our freedoms are far better than theirs.
Many years ago, with their population and lack of resources, maybe their system was the only way to keep millions more of dying of starvation.
They have certainly made progress.

I have a 35yo niece (in-law) who was imported as a wife from China.
She is highly educated and has continued her education since arriving here 8 years ago.
She is smart and knows her history. You mention Tiananmen Square and she can bring up Kent State and other US incidents.

With that said, she loves the States and would never go back to China permanently because of the opportunities afforded here to somebody willing to work hard.
She loves that she can visit China and return to the States on a whim, something that was very difficult to do even 8 years ago.
She also loves that in the US, she can have practically unrestricted access to research on subjects like Tiananmen Square
that used to be highly censored in China.

Her parents are well off (by China standards) and own two apartments, one they live in and the other they rent out.
Her Father and Sister were allowed to visit Seattle last year, her Mother was not, papers were not in order or something.
The first thing her Father wanted to do was drive a car because they are going to be able to get one this year.

I feel like I do have to agree with you though on a lot of our current portrayal of China but while our system is far from perfect,
I still believe it is the best there is.

"Eat your green beans, there are a million children starving in China" (a favorite saying of Moms in the 50's and 60's).
Times have changed so maybe our point of view needs to change as well.
Maybe they are no longer the "enemy" that I was raised to pity and distrust.
We sure do have a lot of other ones to choose from.
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