Central Pooling

The sprinkling fire coming from my pores
Speaks of unrequited majesty
Bleeding green ooze followed by
Bone deterioration and weakening ores
Cells struggling under tar pulling
Dying arms and fists up into the air
Emaciated little bundles of flesh
Too dull to snap falling back
The earth confiscated what was once
Flying around mazed and incomplete
Oily rainbow pool at the center
Rippling out reverberating endlessly
Never reaching another entity

China, Japan, America

Last week Japan’s minister of finance declared that he and his colleagues wanted a discussion with China about the latter’s purchases of Japanese bonds, to “examine its intention” — diplomat-speak for “Stop it right now.” The news made me want to bang my head against the wall in frustration.

You see, senior American policy figures have repeatedly balked at doing anything about Chinese currency manipulation, at least in part out of fear that the Chinese would stop buying our bonds. Yet in the current environment, Chinese purchases of our bonds don’t help us — they hurt us. The Japanese understand that. Why don’t we?

Some background: If discussion of Chinese currency policy seems confusing, it’s only because many people don’t want to face up to the stark, simple reality — namely, that China is deliberately keeping its currency artificially weak.

The consequences of this policy are also stark and simple: in effect, China is taxing imports while subsidizing exports, feeding a huge trade surplus. You may see claims that China’s trade surplus has nothing to do with its currency policy; if so, that would be a first in world economic history. An undervalued currency always promotes trade surpluses, and China is no different.

And in a depressed world economy, any country running an artificial trade surplus is depriving other nations of much-needed sales and jobs. Again, anyone who asserts otherwise is claiming that China is somehow exempt from the economic logic that has always applied to everyone else.

So what should we be doing? U.S. officials have tried to reason with their Chinese counterparts, arguing that a stronger currency would be in China’s own interest. They’re right about that: an undervalued currency promotes inflation, erodes the real wages of Chinese workers and squanders Chinese resources. But while currency manipulation is bad for China as a whole, it’s good for politically influential Chinese companies — many of them state-owned. And so the currency manipulation goes on.

Time and again, U.S. officials have announced progress on the currency issue; each time, it turns out that they’ve been had. Back in June, Timothy Geithner, the Treasury secretary, praised China’s announcement that it would move to a more flexible exchange rate. Since then, the renminbi has risen a grand total of 1, that’s right, 1 percent against the dollar — with much of the rise taking place in just the past few days, ahead of planned Congressional hearings on the currency issue. And since the dollar has fallen against other major currencies, China’s artificial cost advantage has actually increased.

Clearly, nothing will happen until or unless the United States shows that it’s willing to do what it normally does when another country subsidizes its exports: impose a temporary tariff that offsets the subsidy. So why has such action never been on the table?

One answer, as I’ve already suggested, is fear of what would happen if the Chinese stopped buying American bonds. But this fear is completely misplaced: in a world awash with excess savings, we don’t need China’s money — especially because the Federal Reserve could and should buy up any bonds the Chinese sell.

It’s true that the dollar would fall if China decided to dump some American holdings. But this would actually help the U.S. economy, making our exports more competitive. Ask the Japanese, who want China to stop buying their bonds because those purchases are driving up the yen.

Aside from unjustified financial fears, there’s a more sinister cause of U.S. passivity: business fear of Chinese retaliation.

Consider a related issue: the clearly illegal subsidies China provides to its clean-energy industry. These subsidies should have led to a formal complaint from American businesses; in fact, the only organization willing to file a complaint was the steelworkers union. Why? As The Times reported, “multinational companies and trade associations in the clean energy business, as in many other industries, have been wary of filing trade cases, fearing Chinese officials’ reputation for retaliating against joint ventures in their country and potentially denying market access to any company that takes sides against China.”

Similar intimidation has surely helped discourage action on the currency front. So this is a good time to remember that what’s good for multinational companies is often bad for America, especially its workers.

So here’s the question: Will U.S. policy makers let themselves be spooked by financial phantoms and bullied by business intimidation? Will they continue to do nothing in the face of policies that benefit Chinese special interests at the expense of both Chinese and American workers? Or will they finally, finally act? Stay tuned.

Ross Douthat is off today.

By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: September 12, 2010

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/13/opinion/13krugman.html

typical trouble between the sexes, thought example

I don’t appreciate him not calling me when he says he is going to call me and every time he does it he has some reason and he says sorry and I say it’s ok don’t worry about it love but how many times can he do this and it will still be ok? How many times can he do this before he thinks he can just not call me back and say sorry and everything will just be ok? How many times can this happen before he takes me saying it is ok for granted? How many times can he do this before he thinks I should always just say it is ok? How many times do I have to think about this before I say fuck it? The time might be approaching. He fails me so much, can he possibly stop or change? I am not saying that there shouldn’t be allowances made and I am not saying that I want him to not feel free, like if for some reason I couldn’t call him back when I said I would I don’t want to have to worry about him being crazy upset about it, but if do it again and again and again, I might understand him being upset. I am the only one who can be at fault here. He can not call me back again and again and the only person who can be at fault is me if I get upset about it. What I want is to be done with this relationship. I don’t want to be done with him; I love him with my whole heart, but I want to be done with caring so much about it. I want to be done with wondering if he is the perfect man for me. I want to be done with wondering if he could possibly be all the things I want and need him to be. I want to be done with wondering if he could be strong enough to be with me. I want to be done wondering if he is mature enough to handle such a relationship as we have. I want to be done with wondering how serious he is about this relationship. I want to be done with wondering how long it will take before we at least get engaged. I want to be done wondering how long it will take before we get married. I want to be done wondering about all this. If it were meant to be wouldn’t it just be and I wouldn’t have to worry about it? There are countless other people who are able to make this happen but I can’t seem to get a guy to marry me. Is there some trouble with me or do I just keep picking the wrong guys who could see themselves with me in the long run but aren’t actually ready to make that step of commitment. And if they are not ready shouldn’t that be a sign that they might never be ready and I should leave them behind and learn from the relationship? He doesn’t think he has to do what he says and he thinks I should always be understanding about it then he thinks he can just put me and my feelings on hold and deal with them when he is available. This is in no way good for me. I lay there like a naked slab of meat for him to jerk off to and this is how he treats me? Fucking fabulous. It is likely that all men fail, almost all the time.

China plans to track Beijing citizens…

China plans to track Beijing citizens through their mobiles

Human rights campaigners have expressed concerns over plans to track every mobile phone user in Beijing through global positioning technology.

Chinese media reported this week that pilot schemes were being introduced for an "information platform of real-time citizen movement" to help with traffic management.

Li Guoguang, deputy director of the Beijing municipal science and technology commission, said the project would be used to tackle congestion by allowing officials to monitor the flow of people through the transport system.

"To some degree, [it] can effectively increase citizens’ travelling efficiency and ease traffic jams," he told the Beijing Daily.

He added that citizens would be able to buy the information, although more sensitive information – such as the location of individuals – would not be available.

But while Beijing’s roads are increasingly congested, experts say there are plenty of ways to assess and manage traffic and suggest the project is bound to be used for security purposes too.

"Certainly the use of the platform will not be limited to gathering traffic information. Officials in other areas, such as anti-terrorism and stability maintenance, will also find it useful," Chen Derong, professor of wireless communications at the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, told the South China Morning Post.

"I think despite the excuse of traffic control this is part of the escalation of the use of technologies to control social discontent," said Wang Songlian of the Chinese Human Rights Defenders network. She pointed out that last year the government introduced compulsory registration for anyone buying a sim card.

"A lot of activists have said their cell phones are already tracked by security forces. They use it to locate where people are and whether other activists are going there," she said.

But she added: "For ordinary people, the government is worried about social unrest. Often there’s a spark somewhere and everyone gathers and puts out information. By registering people and tracking them, it enables them to find out about particular protests and punish individuals."

China National Radio said the municipal government hoped to start the project in two parts of the capital within the first half of this year.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/04/china-tracking-beijing-citizens-mobiles

The Dalai Lama Addresses China’s Cultural Genocide

http://blogsofwar.com/2008/03/16/the-dalai-lama-addresses-chinas-cultural-genocide/

Tibet’s leader in exile, the Dalai Lama, has continues to point to the inevitable failure that all who rule by force must eventually face.

I am deeply concerned over the situation that has been developing in Tibet following peaceful protests in many parts of Tibet, including Lhasa, in recent days. These protests are a manifestation of the deep-rooted resentment of the Tibetan people under the present governance.

As I have always said, unity and stability under brute force is at best a temporary solution. It is unrealistic to expect unity and stability under such a rule and would therefore not be conducive to finding a peaceful and lasting solution.

I therefore appeal to the Chinese leadership to stop using force and address the long-simmering resentment of the Tibetan people through dialogue with the Tibetan people. I also urge my fellow Tibetans not to resort to violence.

_________________________________

please go to this website; it is extremely good.

http://blogsofwar.com/category/china/

How revolutions happen: Patterns from Iran to Egyp

Revolutions can be short and bloody, or slow and peaceful. Each is different, though there are recurring patterns – including some that were on show in Egypt.

Trotsky once remarked that if poverty was the cause of revolutions, there would be revolutions all the time because most people in the world were poor. What is needed to turn a million people’s grumbling discontent into a crowd on the streets is a spark to electrify them.

Violent death has been the most common catalyst for radicalising discontent in the revolutions of the last 30 years. Sometimes the spark is grisly, like the mass incineration of hundreds in an Iranian cinema in 1978 blamed on the Shah’s secret police.

Sometimes the desperate act of a single suicidally inflammatory protester like vegetable salesman Mohammed Bouazizi in Tunisia, in December 2010, catches the imagination of a country.

Even rumours of brutality, such as the claims the Communist secret police had beaten two students to death in Prague in November, 1989, can fire up a public already deeply disillusioned with the system. Reports that Milosevic had had his predecessor, Ivan Stambolic, "disappeared" in the weeks before the Yugoslav presidential elections in 2000 helped to crystallise Serbian rejection of his regime.

Chinese template

Death – though in this case non-violent – also played a role in China in April 1989, when students in Beijing hijacked the officially-sponsored mourning for the former Communist leader, Hu Yaobang, to occupy Tiananmen Square and protest against the Party’s corruption and dictatorship.

Continue reading the main story
Revolutions: Iran to Egypt
Iran: Jan 1978 – Apr 1979 Tiananmen Square: Apr – Jun 1989 East Germany: Sept – Nov 1989 Russia: 19-21 Aug 1991 Indonesia: 12-21 May 1998 Serbia: Sep – Oct 2000 Georgia: 2-23 Nov 2003 Ukraine: Nov – Dec 2004 Lebanon: Feb – Apr 2005 Iran: Jun – Aug 2009 Tunisia: 17 Dec 2010 – 14 Jan 2011 Egypt: 25 Jan – 11 Feb 2011 But although the Chinese crisis set the template for how to stage protests and occupy symbolic city-centre squares, it also was the most obvious failure of "People Power".

Unlike other elderly dictators, Deng Xiaoping showed energy and skill in striking back at the protesters. His regime had made a billion Chinese peasants better off. They were the soldiers sent to shoot down the crowds.

Protests against Suharto’s "re-election" in Indonesia in March 1998, culminated in the shooting of four students in May, which set off a round of bigger demonstrations and more violence until more than 1,000 were dead.

Thirty years earlier Suharto could kill hundreds of thousands with impunity. But corruption and the Asian economic crisis had imploded support for his regime. After 32 years in power, his family and their cronies were too rich, while too many former backers were getting poorer – a poverty they shared with ordinary people.

Continue reading the main story
“
Start Quote
Revolutions are 24-hour-a day events – they require stamina and quick thinking from both protesters and dictators”
End Quote What collapses a regime is when insiders turn against it. So long as police, army and senior officials think they have more to lose by revolution than by defending a regime, then even mass protests can be defied and crushed. Remember Tiananmen Square.

But if insiders and the men with guns begin to question the wisdom of backing a regime – or can be bought off – then it implodes quickly.

Tunisia’s Ben Ali decided to flee when his generals told him they would not shoot into the crowds. In Romania, in December, 1989, Ceausescu lived to see the general he relied on to crush the protesters become his chief judge at his trial on Christmas Day.

External pressure plays a role in completing regime-change. In 1989, the refusal of the Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, to use the Red Army to back East European Communists facing protests in the streets made the local generals realise that force was not an option.

The United States has repeatedly pressed its authoritarian allies to compromise and then, once they have started on that slippery slope, to resign.

Sclerosis

Longevity of a regime and especially the old age of a ruler can result in a fatal incapacity to react to events quickly.

Continue reading the main story
“
Start Quote
Graceful exits are rare in revolutions”
End Quote Revolutions are 24-hour-a day events – they require stamina and quick thinking from both protesters and dictators. An elderly inflexible but ailing leader contributes to the crisis.

From the cancer-stricken Shah of Iran via the ailing Honecker in East Germany to Indonesia’s Suharto, decades in power had encouraged a political sclerosis which made nimble political manoeuvres impossible. As Egypt reminds, revolutions are made by the young.

Graceful exits are rare in revolutions, but the offer of secure retirement can speed up and smooth the change.

In 2003, Georgia’s Shevardnadze was denounced by some as a "Ceausescu" but he was let alone in his villa after he resigned. Suharto’s generals had ensured he retired to die in peace a decade later – but his son "Tommy" was imprisoned.

Often there is a hunger among people to punish the fallen rulers. Their successors, too, find retribution against the old leader can be a useful distraction from the economic and social problems, which don’t disappear with the change of regime.

Oxford historian Mark Almond is the author of Uprising – Political Upheavals that have Shaped the World.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12431231

CHINA (Tier 2 Watch List) Human Trafficking

Trafficking in Persons Report 2008

CHINA (Tier 2 Watch List)

The People’s Republic of China (P.R.C.) is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation and forced labor. The majority of trafficking in China occurs within the country’s borders, but there is also considerable international trafficking of P.R.C. citizens to Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and North America, which often occurs within a larger flow of human smuggling. Chinese women are lured abroad through false promises of legitimate employment, only to be forced into commercial sexual exploitation, largely in Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, and Japan. There are also many cases involving Chinese men and women who are smuggled into destination countries throughout the world at an enormous personal financial cost and whose indebtedness to traffickers is then used as a means to coerce them into commercial sexual exploitation or forced labor. Women and children are trafficked to China from Mongolia, Burma, North Korea, Russia, and Vietnam for forced labor, marriage, and prostitution. North Korean women and children seeking to leave their country voluntarily cross the border into China, but some of these individuals, after they enter the P.R.C. in a vulnerable, undocumented status, are then sold into prostitution, marriage, or forced labor. While it is difficult to determine if the P.R.C.’s male-female birth ratio imbalance, with more males than females, is currently affecting trafficking of women for brides, some experts believe that it has already or may become a contributing factor.

Forced labor, including forced child labor, remains a significant problem in China. Children as young as 12 were reportedly subjected to forced labor under the guise of “Work and Study” programs over the past year. Conditions in this program include excessive hours with mandatory overtime, dangerous conditions, low pay, and involuntary pay deductions. In June 2007, a Guangdong factory licensed to produce products bearing the 2008 Olympics logo admitted to employing children as young as 12 years old under similar conditions. Some children, particularly Uighur youth from Xinjiang Province, have been abducted for forced begging and thievery in large cities. Overseas human rights organizations allege that government sponsored labor programs forced Uighur girls and young women to work in factories in eastern China on false pretenses and without regular wages. Involuntary servitude of Chinese nationals abroad also persisted, although the extent of the problem is unclear. Experts believe that the number of Chinese labor and sex trafficking victims in Europe is growing in countries such as Britain, Italy, and France.

The government of the P.R.C. does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. Nevertheless, China is placed on Tier 2 Watch List for the fourth consecutive year for its failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat human trafficking from the previous year, particularly in terms of punishment of trafficking crimes and the protection of Chinese and foreign victims of trafficking. Victims are sometimes punished for unlawful acts that were committed as a direct result of their being trafficked—such as violations of prostitution or immigration/emigration controls. The Chinese government continued to treat North Korean victims of trafficking solely as economic migrants, routinely deporting them back to horrendous conditions in North Korea. Additional challenges facing the P.R.C. government include the enormous size of its trafficking problem and the significant level of corruption and complicity in trafficking by some local government officials. Factors impeding progress in anti-trafficking efforts include tight controls over civil society organizations, restricted access of foreign anti-trafficking organizations, and the government’s systematic lack of transparency.

During the reporting period, the Chinese government established a new Office for Preventing and Combating Crimes of rafficking in Women and Children and released its long-awaited National Action Plan to Combat rafficking in December 2007, which details anti-trafficking responsibilities implemented by 28 ministries and appoints the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) as coordinator of the Chinese government’s anti-trafficking efforts. However, there are no plans for resources to be allocated to local and provincial governments for the implementation of the plan. Additionally, the action plan covers only sex trafficking of females, and does not address labor trafficking or male victims of sex trafficking. As host to the Second Coordinated Mekong Ministerial Initiative Against Trafficking (COMMIT) Summit in December 2007, China joined other ministers in signing a Joint Declaration to work together to implement the Sub-regional Plan of Action.

Recommendations for China: Provide adequate funding to local and provincial governments to implement the new National Action Plan; increase efforts to address labor trafficking, including prosecuting and punishing recruiters and employers who facilitate forced labor and debt bondage, and providing protection services to victims of forced labor; revise anti-trafficking laws to criminalize all forms of labor and sex trafficking, in a manner consistent with international standards; establish formal victim identification procedures; increase efforts to protect and rehabilitate trafficking victims; actively investigate, prosecute, and convict government officials complicit in trafficking crimes; conduct a broad public awareness campaign to inform the public of the risks and dangers of trafficking; provide foreign victims with legal alternatives to removal to countries in which they may face hardship or retribution; and adhere to its obligations as party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, including by not expelling North Koreans protected under those treaties and by cooperating with UNHCR in the exercise of its functions.

Prosecution

China sustained its record of criminal law enforcement against traffickers over the reporting period, though government statistics are difficult to verify. P.R.C. law criminalizes forced prostitution, abduction, and the commercial sexual exploitation of girls under 14 through Article 244 of its Criminal Code. Article 41 of China’s revised Law on the Protection of Minors, in effect since June 2007, now prohibits the trafficking, kidnapping, and sexual exploitation of minors under the age of 18. Prescribed penalties under these criminal statutes are sufficiently stringent and include life imprisonment and the death penalty. However, Chinese law does not prohibit commercial sexual exploitation involving coercion or fraud, nor does it prohibit all forms of trafficking. The law prohibits the employment of children under the age of 16, but the government had not adopted a comprehensive policy to combat child labor. While Article 244 of its Criminal Code bans forced labor by employers, the prescribed penalties of up to three years’ imprisonment or a fine under this law are not sufficiently stringent. Additionally, Chinese law does not recognize forms of coercion other than abduction as constituting a means of trafficking. MPS reported investigating 2,375 cases of trafficking of women and children in 2007, which is significantly lower than the 3,371 cases it cited in 2006. These statistics are likely based on China’s definition of the term “trafficking,” which does not include acts of forced labor, debt bondage, coercion, or involuntary servitude, or offenses committed against male victims. In September 2007, an MPS official indicated that the number of reported cases of sexual exploitation and forced labor increased from 2006 to 2007. Chinese law enforcement authorities arrested and punished some traffickers involved in forced labor practices and commercial sexual exploitation, but did not provide data on prosecutions, convictions, or sentences.

Forced labor remains a significant problem for Chinese at home and abroad. During the reporting period, there were numerous confirmed reports of involuntary servitude of migrant workers and abductees in China. In November 2007, police in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, discovered six migrant workers who were victims of forced labor. Police found and arrested the trafficker several months after the case was opened. In March 2008, 33 slave laborers from seven provinces, many of whom were mentally challenged, were discovered locked up in a 30-square-meter room of a residential building in Harbin. Police continued to search for the trafficker responsible in this case. In May and June 2007, several cases of forced labor in brick kilns in China’s Henan and Shanxi Provinces were revealed, involving over 1,000 farmers, teenagers, and children being held in confinement, subject to physical abuse and non-payment of wages. According to news reports, brick kiln operators claim to have paid off local officials and there are unconfirmed press reports that some local authorities have resold rescued children to factories elsewhere. The Chinese government has not demonstrated concerted efforts to investigate, prosecute, and punish government officials for complicity in trafficking.

Protection

China made incremental progress in victim protection during the reporting period. The government, with the assistance of UNICEF, built a new shelter to provide trafficking victims in Yunnan Province with short-term care, but there remain overall an inadequate number of shelters for victims of trafficking. There continue to be no dedicated government assistance programs for victims of trafficking. China continues to lack systematic victim identification procedures to identify victims of sex trafficking among those it arrests for prostitution and to refer them to organizations providing services. It does not have a comprehensive nationwide victim protection service, but has taken some steps to improve intra-governmental coordination and cooperation in vulnerable southern border provinces. While both the MPS and Ministry of Civil Affairs run shelters, the two ministries do not share information or coordinate their efforts.

While China has made increased efforts to better identify and protect trafficking victims through enhanced cross-border cooperation, protection services and victim identification procedures remain inadequate to address victims’ needs. Women found in prostitution are, in many instances, treated as criminals for acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked. Although the MPS has provided expanded border and police training to help border officials spot potential trafficking victims and assist in their repatriation, the quasi-governmental All-China Women’s Federation reported that ongoing problems require NGO intervention to protect trafficking victims from unjust punishment. The MPS runs three Border Liaison Offices along the border with Vietnam, which has led to an increase in some cross-border cooperation in victim repatriation, and opened one new Border Liaison Office along the border with Burma during the reporting period. Local governments in southern border provinces often rely upon NGOs to identify victims and provide victim protection services due to the lack of resources. Trafficking victims are generally returned to their homes without extensive rehabilitation. All of the victims of forced labor discovered in brick kilns were repatriated to their homes without access to counseling or psychological care, and three victims suspected of being mentally disabled were lost by authorities during the repatriation process. The government does not provide foreign victims with legal alternatives to removal to countries in which they may face hardship or retribution. Some trafficking victims have faced punishments in the form of fines for leaving China without proper authorization. China continues to treat North Korean trafficking victims solely as illegal economic migrants and reportedly deports a few hundred of them each month to North Korea, where they may face severe punishment. China continues to bar UNHCR from access to the vulnerable North Korean population in Northeast China.

Prevention

China made efforts to prevent trafficking in persons this year. In July 2007, the ACWF co-sponsored a Children’s Forum that brought together children from across the country to discuss ways to prevent the trafficking of vulnerable youth. The government did not conduct any broad public awareness program to inform the public of the dangers of trafficking. With the assistance of NGOs, the Ministry of Education undertook outreach efforts to some villages and schools, providing information on what trafficking is, how to avoid being trafficked, and providing emergency hotline numbers. The Chinese government, through the ACWF, has also conducted training for law enforcement agencies and border entry-exit officials to raise awareness of trafficking. Though it took some steps forward, China still has not taken adequate measures to prevent internal trafficking for sexual exploitation or forced labor, nor did it take measures to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts or child sex tourism. China has not ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol.

http://guangzhou.usembassy-china.org.cn/trafficing-in-person_report_2008.htm

Greetings new members!

I have been watching that over the past couple of weeks Everyday Adrenaline has been taking on a lot of new members and I am wondering, where are you all coming from? I would like to know more about you. Where did you hear about this site and what are you doing here?

AND

WELCOME!

a class today

Things seem to be going very interestingly for me. I have my new job which I like very much, to my boyfriend’s disadvantage, well not really; I am just supposed to go back in a short time and if I am too happy here maybe I won’t go back. This is the problem I suppose. But I don’t want to talk about that. My classes are so interesting sometimes; I get to talk about basically anything I want; there are rules about discussing politics but sometimes, a lot of the time, it is appropriate and I really enjoy hearing what they have to say, as long as I move on quick enough or don’t make it too obvious that I am ridiculously interested in what they’ve got to say, not any more than a normal teacher should be anyways. English corners sometimes are the best because you have a lot of different students in one classroom of all different ages, well, all adults, mostly, and from different backgrounds with different ideas about the world; they vary so much it is astounding but I suppose like any other country. It is like my students are my specimens in my great social experiment but I am both the active scientist and the passive observer. I love it. For example today I had an English corner on marriage, very interesting I tell you. Some of the women felt like there is no such thing as real love, that it only seems like it before marriage then after marriage it turns into something else; one woman even said her husband loves her son more than her. And I was like, pardon me if I am rude, but do you feel like a tool? Can you believe I said that to her? Well if you know me I am sure you can believe it. And she said yes, she feels like a tool. One man said if you believe in true love then you will have it and if you don’t then you won’t and that young men don’t believe in true love but old men do. One student wanted badly to be a football player for his province but he is too old now and he was not picked because his leg was hurt at that time and it crushed his dream. First of all, I think the way China does sports needs to change; people only get one chance here to play and it is completely unfair; and I think this guy is only 27 so he isn’t even too old but in China he is; it is so whack. He needs to have another dream and his new dream is that he will make a big influence on a group of people; I can’t remember exactly what he said now but it certainly left a big impression on me and made me a little dreamy on the inside, seeing as how I have the same ambition. So I guess he was right about something else; he said women are easy to make dizzy, easy to happiness and easy to love. I really don’t agree with him but he is right in a lot of ways, just not that all women are this way but certainly a lot of them are. A lot of the women were able to acknowledge the inequality between men and women in marriage, both in the past and still today with regard to a woman being limited to the domestic sphere after marriage. Oh so many things to think about with a class like this and this is why I love this job. I get a group of people, all willing to talk to me and answer any question I want and it is a different culture than the one I grew up in which makes it even more interesting to study; I would like to study every culture but here I am with this one and the window/door is open so big for teachers here to attempt to truly understand this way of life. I can study my culture and my country sure, but I must study others. I really like that one boy student though, I really do.

that guy

There was a man who once claimed to be able to ride a bike with no handle bars. Well, my friends, I just one uped his ass. I can ride a bike with no wheels. Yes, it does take a lot of imagination, but that is all I have left.

Side note. Global Economy. People are worried that we are going to be taken over by the Chinese. I’m not. But I also drink, smoke and eat unhealthy. I suppose I should worry about dying at 35. But, I’m not. We should all just work together. But we dont. We have crazy people all around us. Every country. News likes to just make them seem bigger than they are. There not. Money, that seems like it is important. Chinese might think so, we own them quite a bit. Lets see if they will shake ups upside down to take our lunch money. We are the country that shoots the bullies. Then becomes the bully. Then is like, everything back to normal, right mates. Just sweep that under the rug we will. Sorry. But it could also be because corporations have a major say in our country. What I am trying to say is, I have got a friend in Jesus. Seriously. Best prices on dro.

So that was my first post ever. I understand that it is mostly incoherent, and a jumble of thoughts, that may or may not be lacking emotion. What I say to you good sir or madam, time for tea?