I DUG MY WAY TO CHINA

When I was kid on the beach at Nantasket, Mass. we all dug holes in the sand. We were told that if we dig far enough we will come to China. I started digging and earlier this month I made it to China (by way of American Airlines). This was not my first time in China, but it was my first time landing north of Canton and this is what China really is. Not Hong Kong, not Shenzhen or Guondong.

Getting off the plane was like stepping into a time machine. Not one that takes you back to earlier centuries during the different dynasties such as the Ming and the Qin. No way. Once you arrive at the Shanghai Airport you have stepped into the future. The architecture is mind blowing, each building is a work of art and a major incarnation of someone’s imagination. Beautiful and apparently, functional (except the government buildings which are pristine and colorless) one out does the next one.

At night these structures light up the sky. They are not like Las Vegas where billboards and signs dominate. No, these building are unique in their lighting so that you must walk and look up as you are dodging the traffic. The traffic in China is also mind blowing. Not there are there so many cars, motor scooters, motor coaches, bicycles – there are - and they all want to make a right or left turn anytime anywhere in front of anything and the pedestrians are just walking in front of them hoping they will miss them.

We saw some of the amazing archtiecture with the Olympic coverage. That was Beijing, but Beijing being the last stop on our tour was just typical of the major cities in China we visited prior to coming to Beijing.

To get to Sochou, a quaint town of about two million people, we took a bullet train that got us there at 145 mph. That is not Amtrak! Sochou is a city of Venice like canals, exceptional gardens that do take you back to the dynasties of China. The motor bus that drove us back to Shanghai drove along smooth,  pot hole free roads. Along the way we saw hundreds of high rise apartment buildings that will house the new middle class Chinese. New subways are being dug everywhere (maybe to Nantasket).

Next stop Xi’an. Xi’an is famous for the discovery of the Terra Cotta army in 1976. A simple farmer was digging a well (no, not to Nantasket) and made the discovery. He now gets paid to sign his autograph in tour books at the gift store. Note: There are 3.1 billion people in China and as many gift stores.


Getting to the airport for the flight to Xi’an was also a step into the future. We travelled on a train with no wheels at an amazing speed of almost 300 mph. It ran on magnets. Smooth and quiet. It is one of only two magnet trains in the world but the only one being publicly used.

There are thousands of these terra cotta soldiers and there are no two alike. It is amazing. Xi’an also has the last remaining city wall that surrounds the entire (old) city. It is a fantastic walk and provides for wonderful vistas of this city. There is construction everywhere. The center of the city sports a wonderful tower that is quite beautiful. There is also a Chinese Muslim community with a mosque. The mosque is nothing like what you would imagine. The area has beautifully maintained gardens and the minarets are pagoda like. Ninety five percent of the population is of Han decent. The remaining five percent is made up of 52 other descents.Talk about being a minority!

Beijing is the most conservative of the three cities. After all the “Forbidden City” is there, Tiananmen Square is there, the Great Wall is there, the Chinese National Museum is the and it is the seat of the government.

However, when you walk through the pedestrian mall next to the Beijing Hotel which is just to the side of Tiananmen Square it is Vegas, baby – that is it is a large area with all the upscale stores and solidly lit to attract attention. There are also stores dedicated to sweets, various and sundry shops that sell everything from expensive jade carvings, pearls and yes, Rolex watches – even though there is a Rolex store on the promenade to real first class junk!

But when it comes to the visuals of the city you are taken aback by the Bird’s Nest Stadium and the Water Cube. The whole Olympic area is other worldly. Traffic is a little saner, but not much! In the midst of all this is the Hutong District. An old area with a quaint center. The houses are small, the streets are narrow and there is one “happy room” for three families. Yet, the little house that I visited could sell for one half million dollars – it is about 10 by 20. The government owns the land, but the people own the house.

The Chinese like to say that they opened the gates in 1976 – after the Cultural Revolution. This country’s infrastructure is amazing, and it was accomplished in about one generation. BUT, the people are still controlled as to where they can live or must live. The news is ALL controlled by the government. The CCTV (China Central Television) supplies all the news channels. The China Daily, the English newspaper is very limited in the internal content. I read it daily to get the latest baseball scores. It wasn’t till after I got home I learned about the truckers strike in Shanghai. I learned about the jailing Ai Weiwei, a dissident artist. That story never made the news. And when I asked the guide where the young man stood that stopped the tank – he said they never saw the photo. That photo was famous worldwide, except for where it was taken.

You have to weigh the thrills of climbing the Great Wall, walking through the Forbidden City, experiencing Shanghai to benefits of being able to come home.

WHO SAYS GOVERNMENT CAN’ T DO A GOOD JOB, THAT PRIVATE COMPANIES CAN DO IT BETTER?

I wasn’t going to get political till the campaign got under way but seeing what is happening around the country is pissing me off. Seeing people acting against their own self interest scares me. Seeing history being rewritten by the likes of Michele Bachman and Sarah Palin that is even scarier because there are many who are buying their distortions. Let’s face it, Newt Gingrich really wants you to believe that he cheated on his wife while she was stricken with cancer and in the hospital because he loved America too much. He was loving America one  American slut at a time. 

For years – since Ronald Reagan – we have heard that government can’t solve problems, government is the problem. I know he wasn’t talking about the rise of Hitler. I know he wasn’t talking about the great depression or the interstate highway system. He could not have been talking about Social Security for the eldest part of our society, or the National Health Institute or even the Internal  Revenue Service. He could not have been talking about the US Army, the US Air Force, Marines or Navy – even the postal service gets the job done, under government supervision. We are protected by the FBI, the CIA, the FDA and other agencies without any consideration for having to pay a dividend to stockholders.

Locally, your fire department is government run. In one community, not long ago they did privatize the fire department and the department let a  house burn down while the firemen stood there because the owner didn’t pay  his $50. What happens when you have to call Dirty Harry’s Police Services? 

When you add “for profit” to public services you get less service, higher costs to feed the profit motive. In the recent healthcare debate it was documented that private insurers use only 70% of their income to provide services while Medicare (that boogy man entitlement) has an overhead of 2% or less. Imagine what kind of healthcare we would get if we all paid premiums where 98% of them would be used for services.

Here is another one you will love. They want to privatize prisons. Can you imagine how small an offense you will have to commit to be sent to Sampson and Son Incarceration, Inc.? They don’t make any money unless the prison is full. Don’t pay your credit card on time, go to jail. If it is government run, we try to keep people out of jail, rehabilitate, etc.  The immigration law in Arizona keeps their private prisons full!  The prison companies are a growth business paying good dividends. Are we then going to outsource executions, too? They can sell the cable rights for a profit.

Then there is the argument that we don’t want a government employee making decisions for us. Don’t call 911 when you need it because that government employee is going to decide whether to send the ambulance or not – as government employee they have choice but to do so. BUT, if they were employees of a private company they would have to decide whether it is cost effective to send that ambulance based on distance, or is it another firm’s area or maybe the injury, according to the employee handbook, is not severe enough.

Your medical claims, under private services, are always denied at first. Then you have to go through the appeal process because it is better for their stock holders if they don’t pay. There is the profit motive that could kill you. So, is a government trained employee who is taught to serve the public better than an employee who gets a bonus for not providing services?

Mr. Reagan did us all a disservice by making sure we hated government. Yes, we should be vigilant about government. Understand the role that government plays and the roles that ONLY government can play. For the past two centuries our government has done a pretty good job – it could it have done better, of course, but here we are anyway!

Remember, when they take away our public services they take away our rights to them. Privatize schools, we have no right to education, privatize health, we have no right to healthcare. Privatize police we have no right to security. You decide!