lotus & pine

"I'm a Fed at an Army Hospital during 2 hot wars!"

2011-08-04T04:16:00.003+08:00

What I knew about the military, about bureaucracy, about hospitals and about war has been transmogrified through direct experience. This cannot be taken lightly. And I dare not throw it away casually.

It occurs to me (just now) that the "para-ethnography" I convinced myself I was doing is not valid until I actually write something. There are few notes, but I have saved every post-it in a pile.

As I close the chapter on this life transforming experience, it is time to share what I have seen and felt. Please dare me to write, she asks herself. This experience, combined with the year at uChicago, has produced new vital energies, new faiths. I dare not waste the fruits of change. I dare not.

NEWS FLASH: Freelance china-hand turns geeky academic turns Army civilian

2011-08-04T03:56:00.004+08:00

I am just going to dive in here with a timeline, jogged from the recesses of my mind.

April 2009: University of Chicago offers me a fullboat to sail into another masters.

September 2009: I return to Chicago and dive into 'the school thing'

October 2009: Realization UofC is not like other grad school

November 2009: Acclimatization to workload

December 2009: Pain threshold increased

February 2010: Embracing low esteem

April 2010: Loving the Burn

May 2010: Neurons burnhing holes through my skull

June 2010: Flying colors on coursework

July 2010: My baby (the thesis: Cheng Guan Regulations:Managing Urban (Dis)Orders in Reform Era China) was born.

August 2010: Walking down the aisle at Rockefellar Chapel with the diploma in hand and parents in the audience

October 2010-November 2010: Yunnan-Bangkok-Yunnan

December 2010: Mom's Wedding!

January 2011: Haul stuff from 4 corners of earth to single apartment in DC

February 2011: Started work in my office with a door at the Dept of Social Work at Walter Reed Army Medical Center

August 2011: 6 months herding very nice social workers & administering the close of the hospital and standing it back up at National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda. No more green. No more blue. All Purple all the time!

So this is what I got for today. I am committed to starting to renegotiate my digital visibility. I am settled here after 6months so that is not an excuse. I have reaquainted myself with the laptop at home after the half-year sabatical to that is not an excuse. AND I need to write! AND process the piles of information I encounter each day!

OK I ALSO NEED TO WRITE UP THAT THESIS. (note: capital letters)

Fallows in Xizhou

2009-04-24T18:55:00.002+08:00

My most favorite Atlantic blogger, author and old China hand has been in Xizhou. Yes, the tiny village I lived in for a few years.

James Fallows was in Xizhou!

This is his view of the fields just beyond Xilin Yuan, the cultural retreat hotel where I once worked. I was proudest when I created the first bi-lingual vernacular architecture exhibit about Xizhou's Bai architecture in tandem with the wonderful Yang Yang. Ah, the memories.

But the POINT IS that a famous author was lured to Xilin Yuan and I would do lots of strange things in order to hear his impressions of everything Yunnan. This picture is used in comparison to his re-entry picture of thick particulate matter in the Beijing atmosphere. Yes, Yunnan is cleaner than your treasured capital city. What else are your impressions Mister Fallows? I am so curious to hear your impressions. I think I may be daring enough to email him. Stay tuned...

Westernmost City in China...under the knife

2009-03-24T22:09:00.003+08:00

Like all other old towns across "the Other China," the mud brick structures of Kashgar's old town are slated for de-population. Half of the city residents live in the old town, apparently an intimate, safe, comfortable place for the region's non-Han Chinese Uighur Muslims. But as the WSJ reports, 25% of those residents are being "relocated with a Red smile" to other parts of the town in anticipation of demolition.

Opposing attitudes of local residents: fight or play along

"They want us to live like Chinese people but we will never agree," said a 48-year-old woman in a red jacket and brown head scarf, who declined to give her name. "If we move into the government apartments, there are no courtyards and no sun. Women will need to cover up to go outside and we will have to spend money to finish decorating our rooms. This is our land. We have not bought it from the government."

A 60-year-old man with a neat beard and a wool hat expressed his disapproval as he walked to evening prayers along a narrow road that would soon be widened to 20 feet under the government's plan. "If the government gives me money, I will go. Everybody is unhappy about this, but government is government, we can do nothing," he said.

(Image via www.hittheroad.cn)

South Africa Bends Over

2009-03-24T10:12:00.003+08:00

"We are shamelessly succumbing to Chinese pressure; I feel deeply distressed and ashamed."
- Archbishop Desmond Tutu

UPDATE via NYT 12h later: Peace Conference Canceled

Organizers of a peace conference that was to have been attended by five Nobel Peace Prize winners in Johannesburg said Tuesday that they had canceled the conference after the South African government denied entry to the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual leader and one of the Nobel laureates.

From WSJ (via IOL) :

Outrage has greeted the government's ban on a visit to South Africa by the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader, who was due to take part in a 2010 World Cup-organised peace conference in Johannesburg on Friday. The Dalai Lama was invited to speak at the conference, whose line-up includes the Nobel Peace Prize committee from Norway and Charlize Theron and Morgan Freeman, who plays Mandela in a movie about the Rugby World Cup in 1995.
...

Over the past two years, South Africa has been China's key trade partner in Africa, accounting for 20.8 percent of China's trade with Africa, while Chinese foreign direct investment in South Africa was about $6 billion (R60bn), and South Africa's foreign direct investment in China came to $2bn (R20bn).

Compare these two statements and we may be looking at the beginning of a New World Order.

Linguistic Rebellion: Grass Mud Horse

2009-03-24T09:58:00.003+08:00

So here it is, the new "character" created to embody Chinese retalliation against internet censorship. It is not a real character and there are several pronunciation suggestions : jia4 or yu2. This is the new Chinese language or the new Chinese protest?

This is an invented character that encapsulates/represents the "mud grass horse", a mythical internet creature whose pronunciation "cao ni ma" is a homonym for, well, "f*#k your mother." According to Shanghaiist, "The 艹 radical refers to 'grass' (草), 尼 resembles 泥 and both are homophones, while 马 is the character for 'horse'."

We have all been following this because it is a deliberate attempt by Chinese netizens to catch the internet moniters and censors off-guard. This homonymn tactic is pretty clever and portends many changes. Hilarious, as well....

From the New York Times, March 11, 2009:

A YouTube children’s song about the beast has drawn nearly 1.4 million viewers. A grass-mud horse cartoon has logged a quarter million more views. A nature documentary on its habits attracted 180,000 more. Stores are selling grass-mud horse dolls. Chinese intellectuals are writing treatises on the grass-mud horse’s social importance. The story of the grass-mud horse’s struggle against the evil river crab has spread far and wide across the Chinese online community.
...
The grass-mud horse is an example of something that, in China’s authoritarian system, passes as subversive behavior. Conceived as an impish protest against censorship, the foul-named little horse has not merely made government censors look ridiculous, although it has surely done that.
It has also raised real questions about China’s ability to stanch the flow of information over the Internet — a project on which the Chinese government already has expended untold riches, and written countless software algorithms to weed deviant thought from the world’s largest cyber-community.

World Bank Says....China OK for now

2009-03-24T09:08:00.010+08:00

From Foreign Policy magazine's blog, Passport

The Good News for China
Elizabeth Dickenson, Wed, 3.18.2009 - 9:03am

The World Bank published its quarterly update on China today, and the news is mixed -- but much better than what most countries are hearing. In summary:

While China's real economy has been hit hard by the global crisis, it is still holding up."
The bank predicts a growth rate of 6.5 percent -- lower than the "magic" 8 percent that mythically promises to prevent social uproar.
But while the news is not all good, why is no one noticing that the silver lining is, well, gold? China's banks are "largely unscathed," the report finds. Says the World Bank country director for China, David Dollar:
China is a relative bright spot in an otherwise gloomy global economy...Shifting China's output from exports to domestic needs helps to provide immediate stimulus while laying the foundation for more sustainable growth in the future.”
Given the brutal global context, sounds like victory for China to me.

And for a direct link to the inside of David Dollar's head, check out his World Bank blog here. It is so cool that the World Bank allows and promotes their senior staff to write blogs and interact with commentators.

A selection of his recent posts:

Reading tea leaves for signs of China's recovery
Discussing China's new growth model: the role of consumption
Mongolia: Stretching your legs as far as the blanket allows
China’s 4th quarter GDP: glass half full?
Considering China's options in weakening global economy
China’s economic year of living dangerously
China’s reform: 'Change the system, open the door'
30 years after China’s reform, students have more opportunities
On exchange rates, think multilaterally
How can China use its foreign reserves to help?

China bloggers all agree...

2009-03-23T12:07:00.001+08:00

Richard at Peking Duck:

Everyone seems to agree that Kunming is one of the most enjoyable and relaxed cities in all of China, and I want to say they’re right. Aside from the highway insanity, every minute here has been magical. The food is beyond belief and as cheap as food can be without being free. The people seem unhurried, laid back and eager to help lost foreigners. I could retire here. Today. Lisa says the only place in China even more relaxed is Chengdu; I’ll find out in a few days. A near-perfect trip so far.

Keeping my eye on the food ball

2009-03-23T11:14:00.004+08:00

Campbell and Esselstyn suggest ways Obama can change the health debate, and keep our eye on the real causes of health and preventative cures for illness.

The No. 1 cause and cure of America's health care crisis is right under your nose - it's what you put in your mouth.

Unfortunately, the scientific findings on diet and disease are marginalized by the political power of huge, mutually reinforcing commercial interests - meat, dairy, sugar, drugs and surgery.

These industries are desperate to sell a solution that obscures their part in the problem. If they can convince people that the cause of our health crisis has nothing to do with eating unhealthy food, and everything to do with increasing access to drugs and surgery, Americans will spend trillions more on health care without improving their health. That's what happens when you leave science out of public policy.

T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D., is professor emeritus of nutritional biochemistry at Cornell University. He is co-author of "The China Study."

The China study is an amazing piece of science that concludes, basically, that the more protein (meat and dairy) we eat, the more likely we are to get all sorts of diseases. It is a direct correlation. Anything over 10% protein in a diet will certainly dramatically increase risks of fatal disease. Learn more at Wiki, but read the actual book if you can.

I am also pleased to announce Green Kunming, fresh organic veggies delivered to my neighborhood, twice weekly. 40rmb/5kg. Direct from my favorite organic farm, Hao Bao.

Recycling: Global Scrap

2009-03-23T09:26:00.008+08:00

It seems the global demand for recycled products is shifting...downwards.

Things once bound for export and re-use are heading to landfills.
Prices for recyclables are down. Good for buying. But what if there is no customer?
China seems to be refusing international waste shipments. Chinese companies making products out of recyclables seem to enjoy the price drops, but are having a harder time finding domestic suppliers. Chinese retail recyclers are seeing their deposit rates fall as people elect to repair and patch broken items once bound for the recyclers.

ANECDOTE: Yesterday, I went to visit the woman (and her small child) who perch outside my complex collecting recycling. This is the woman who had no idea how to recycle old clothes. She knew exactly what to do with the overflowing bag of Qing Dao beer bottles.

10 Bottles.
Original price each (with beer): 4rmb
Cost recovery per bottle: .2rmb
Actual beer cost: 3.8rmb
Actual total cost recovery: 2rmb (used for 2 one-way bus fares)

I think I had a dream last night about our throw-away society.

I thought about the average amount of stuff we have as compared to my grandma's generation that grew up during the Depression. My grandma had ONE DRESS that she wore for 20 years. My grandma saved every scrap of fabric and spread every last bit of butter off the wrapping. She made food at home rather than go out.

On the New Hard Times: A NYT video of a13 yo Oak Park, IL kid interviewing his 78 yo grandma, reflecting on the Depression, then and now.

I blame Old Navy. Over the last 10 years, Americans (and indeed citizens of the world) have come to expect their clothes to last for a year. They buy dozens of cheaply produced t-shirts knowing they are quickly bound for the trash heap as soon as the Fashion changes or the bad quality starts to show. At the second hand market here in Kunming, I found vintage clothes, but nothing truly well-preserved. The days of good quality for the masses might be gone.

But the same thing is happening in electronics. The race to get the best fanciest newest fangled devices is making quite a global mess, spreading the "e-waste" to distant corners of the world to be disassembled by desperate people looking to make some cash at the expense of their health.

From Time Magazine:

A lot of exported e-waste ends up in Guiyu, China, a recycling hub where peasants heat circuit boards over coal fires to recover lead, while others use acid to burn off bits of gold. According to reports from nearby Shantou University, Guiyu has the highest level of cancer-causing dioxins in the world and elevated rates of miscarriages. "You see women sitting by the fireplace burning laptop adapters, with rivers of ash pouring out of houses," says Jim Puckett, founder of Basel Action Network (BAN), an e-waste watchdog. "We're dumping on the rest of the world."

A 13-photo slideshow of Guiyu, a poisoned village working for that money, as seen above.

The city of Guiyu is home to 5,500 businesses devoted to processing discarded electronics, known as e-waste. According to local websites, the region dismantles 1.5 million pounds of junked computers, cell phones and other devices a year.

Guiyu — and places like it in India and Africa — fluorish because it is far cheaper to break down e-waste there than it is in the developing world, where companies must follow strict guidelines.

According to Guiyu's own website, the e-waste business generates $75 million a year for the town.

If the above figures are to be trusted, each family averages over $13,000 US dollars a year for their part in recycling our e-waste. I wonder... If there was a health care system that was responsive to the massive environmental degradation and human health consequences, would the benefits still outweigh the costs? Would there be a role for government safety regulation? Or are we destined to have a permenment eco-underclass of people destined to remain well-paid, but suffer sickness and early death? Are we satisfied now with our new Blackberry?

Speaking of gross, excess consumption...!

Cans Seurat, 2007
60x92"

Depicts 106,000 aluminum cans, the number used in the US every thirty seconds.

I recently came across the work of Chris Jordan. His photographs depict volumes of things: incarcerated prisoners in the US, jet trails, oil barrels... He is trying to put massive quantities in visual scale. This one is particularly clever, but they are all impressive and worth looking at. Each photo has detail pictures so you can see how insane these numbers look when given a physical presence.

Bamboo Behind the Bamboo Curtain

2009-03-14T15:50:00.007+08:00

This is a joke, an inside joke...with myself.
I was cleaning the house, moving the heavy glass vase with thick bamboo roots into my bedroom. As the sun set, the curtain was drawn...and this concept popped into my head.

The Bamboo Curtain was a term I first encountered in my studies of East Asia back in college.

According to Wikipedia:

The Bamboo Curtain was a euphemism for the east Asian version of the Iron Curtain. As a physical boundary, it was marked by the borders around the Communist states of East Asia, in particular those of the People's Republic of China that were shared with non-Communist nations, during the Cold War. As such, this term did not include the Chinese border with the eastern Soviet Union, North Korea, or Mongolia.
Today, the term is more often used to refer to the tightly-guarded borders of Burma.

The term came back to full force with Robert Kaplan's article for the Atlantic magazine in September 2008.

Lifting the Bamboo Curtain
Robert Kaplan in the Atlantic

As China and India vie for power and influence, Burma has become a strategic battleground. Four Americans with deep ties to this fractured, resource-rich country illuminate its current troubles, and what the U.S. should do to shape its future.

Here are some other things on my Burma Reading List:

Drowning: Can the Burmese People Save Themselves?

George Packer in the New Yorker

A Political Prisoner:

Hnin Se is tall and slender, with black hair flowing down her back; she cuts it short during times of crisis. She maintains the outward calm that is typical of the Burmese, but once, when I asked how the rule of the generals could ever end, she hissed, “Kill them all.” She grew up in a fishing village in the Irrawaddy Delta. Her mother was a teacher and her father owned an ice factory; he took to drink and left the family, but not before encouraging his daughter’s artistic temperament. By the age of six, Hnin Se had read “Gone with the Wind” in Burmese. At fourteen, she was sent to Rangoon to continue her education, and for years she picked up dried fish and rice sent by her mother to the Rangoon jetty and sold them in Aung San Market to support the family. She was in her third year at Rangoon University, and just beginning to write fiction, when the events of August, 1988, took place. She saw police driving students into Inya Lake—where many drowned—and beating and shooting others who tried to escape. “As a nineteen-year-old girl, I might not have any knowledge about democracy,” she said, “but I had the sense to distinguish right from wrong.” In 1991, she distributed poems protesting the government’s refusal to let Aung San Suu Kyi, who had won the Nobel Peace Prize, travel to Oslo. Hnin Se was arrested and sent to Insein. When she first laid eyes on the prison, she smiled. “I was already a writer, and I thought this would be a new experience,” she said.

A Monastery:

On a hazy Sunday morning in February, at the beginning of the hot season, we drove out of Rangoon, across the wide, sluggish Hlaing River, into a marshy landscape dotted with low-slung industrial buildings. Just off the highway, down a dirt road lined with banana trees and palm groves, was a village of five hundred families. Next to a muddy lily pond stood a monastery—two stories, with a rusted metal pagoda-style roof and walls of reclaimed boards and woven thatch. In these cramped quarters, monks ran a school for three hundred students, including sixty orphans. Hnin Se and four friends from her book club were helping to support the school, and had raised about a thousand dollars.
....

A visitor arrived: a matronly woman from Rangoon with oversized glasses had come to pray, as she did every Sunday. Seeing us, she bowed obsequiously. The abbot told me that she was a member of the regime’s civilian mass movement, and that she was sent to keep an eye on him.

James Fallow's running blog on Burma...

My wife and I have been to Burma several times over the last twenty years. The first time was in the summer of 1988, around the time of the August 8 uprising and subsequent bloody repression of monks and students. The most recent was a little more than a year ago, a few days before another bloody round of repression. Like almost everyone who has been in the country, we have viewed its regime as a peculiarly pre-modern and backward form of evil. It does not seems capable of thoroughly-organized evil and repression, as in the old Soviet system. Rather it displays a benighted, superstitious, and almost unthinking indifference to whether its people suffer and die.

A minor illustration would be the decision that effectively bankrupted many Burmese people and helped bring on riots 20 years ago. This was the out of the blue decree that most denominations of Burmese currency, except those in "lucky" denominations like 45 and 90 kyat, would be valueless. The major illustration is of course its refusal to allow relief workers from around the world to spare tens of thousands of Burmese people disease and likely death in the wake of the cyclone.

...and vintage Atlantic, Burma: A Special Supplement , 22 articles, stories and essays about Burmese Entertainment, Contemporary Burmese Art, and the Concept of Neutralism, among others. As they self-describe, it is "a 70-page supplement on Burma—covering arts, culture, politics, and more—written mostly by Burmese and published by The Atlantic in 1958."

...and a quick (well-reported) doom and gloom, out on the streets piece from the Washington Post with no by-line from August 2008.

I try to keep up on Burma, since it is right next door to Yunnan. Perhaps these articles will satisfy some curiosities since it seems my next Southeast Asia border run will not take me southwestward towards the tropical mountain border to Burma.

Need a nurse in Taiwan?

2009-03-13T10:07:00.003+08:00

There is a clinic in Taiwan that has been fined for using nude portraits of the nurses to attract customers. I bet it worked.

(via artbaba)

The Asian in American Art

2009-03-04T18:30:00.006+08:00

Franz Klein (1910-62): Post-War abstractions
Mary Cassatt (1844-1926): Japanese composition and printing techniques
Ad Reinhardt (1913-67): Estatic minimalism seeking trancendence through abstraction

The Guggenheim Museum in New York City has a fascinating exhibit on display Jan30-Apr19, 2009 called The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia, 1860–1989.

This exhibition traces how Asian art, literature, and philosophy were transmitted and transformed within American cultural and intellectual currents, influencing the articulation of new visual and conceptual languages.

I happened upon an advertisement for this exhibit reading New York Magazine, a guilty pleasure for sure. When the website loaded, I was not impressed with the formatting in particular and the text blocks were squeezed on the left side. After reading the narrative, I craved pictures, slideshows, videos of the things they were sharing. I wanted to SEE Ezra Pound's manuscript of his translations of Chinese poet, Li Bai, written despite his total inability to read or speak Chinese. I enjoyed the Martha Graham video of her collaboration with Japanese sculptor Isamu Noguchi in the work, Frontier. I was happy to see Georgia O'Keefe and Arthur Dove who played with the concept of landscape, fuseing the pastoral or natural with the patterns of the mind.

The artists of Asia have spiritually-realized form rather than aesthetically invented or limited form, and from them I have learned that art and anture are Man's environment within which we can detect the essence of man's Being and Purpose, and from which we can draw clues to guide our journey from partial consciousness to full consciousness. -- Morris Graves

Then, scanning my friend Kat's company newsletter, RedBox News, I came across a review of the exhibit by Brooklyn-based author Ellen Pearlman. She does a great job tracing the outlines of the exhibit.

Some catchy lines:

...The Third Mind proposes a new art-historical construct––one that challenges the widely accepted view that American modern art developed simply as a dialogue with Europe...

...To truly understand China’s role requires a separate show focusing on the origins of Chinese influence in Japanese art and tracing it all the way to up through modern times...

Osnos to Vietnam

2009-03-03T10:05:00.003+08:00

I am on a visa that requires me to leave and re-enter the country every 90 days. Yunnan borders Laos, Burma, Vietnam.... so after a 12h bus ride, I could theoretically wake up in Norther Vietnam, say, tomorrow. As I currently scheme to make a living, I am considering another trip to Sapa across the border in March or April.

That is why it was so exciting to see Osnos' posts about his trip to Vietnam last week. He noticed a swiftly-implemented helmet law that is decreasing head injuries by 30%. (China, take note!) He noticed that Vietnamese translators had granddaughters who craved the new Miley Cyrus biography and the Vampire series books in English. And he noticed that China has claimed natural domination in the region for thousands of years, thus diminishing the reveberations of the "American War" that are so quickly fading into touristic memory.

I need to get back to Vietnam. But first, I want to study my Google Earth to remind myself that vast metal detritus of American ordinance still scars the Vietnamese countryside. I want to review that whole French War, American War, Chinese War historical progression. I wonder how Vietnamese industry and trade and tourism are being affected by the economic slowdown to the North.

Two faces of Sapa.
So many little girls... So many faces...

Dali, a quick trip

2009-03-02T17:54:00.003+08:00

I am always amazed that Dali continues to remodel, renovate and reconstruct itself. I am amazed that the construction industry and the government continue to find new places in need of total overhaul. First in 1999, it was the reconstruction of the "ancient city wall." I remember the main drag being retrofitted with Parisian style lampposts a while back. I remember the huge marble arch erected over Foreigner Street commemorating the worldwide reputation of Dali last year.

Now the government has turned its gaze to, perhaps, the most famous street in Dali. The "Third Moon Street" is home to the ancient (and aptly-named) Third Moon Festival. For centuries, people from far and wide have come to Dali to race horses and trade goods for two weeks during the third lunar month. It is also well known to tourists, local officials and surprised evening strollers as the Red Light District. Should that be in capital letters? In Dali, perhaps this cracked, dusty hill boulevard of sex work and off-key karaoke should remain in lowercase. Soon, the revelers and service staff will be strolling on new pavement to the burbling sounds of new sidewalk waterways.

As I was leaving my house on the mountainside, I have to cross a new 8 lane highway. A few years ago, this was a 2-way dirt road lovingly called 'the old road.' Today, this is quickly becoming the swift road with few lights that cuts the time from the new city of XiaGuan to the old town of Dali to 20 minutes. In many ways, this road is awesome. I have to cross this road to get into town. I know it can be dangerous trying to cross in the best of times, and with adverse conditions such as scalding sand whipping down the mountain, it can be quite trying.

I was not surprised to see this funeral parade crossing skittering to the center island. They were wearing white head scarves, blowing crude trumpets and carrying the tent-like coffin. They were circling the body, clapping and chanting. I could not help but wonder: "Is this the way old people in Dali are dying? or Is this the way young people are dying in Dali?"

Highway safety, people. I hear it all the time: Country bumpkins have no culture. They have no idea how to follow traffic regulations. Whine, whine, whine. Yes, they are new to big fancy highways. Especially when those highways cut through their old pedestrian-friendly towns, their traditional market trekking patterns and their sacred ancestral lands. I have heard people whisper about ghosts of vehicular homicide victims stalking Dali, unsettled by their method of demise. Instead of griping about how people do not know how to cross the street, maybe there is a way to encourage safe crossing by, oh I don't know, traffic lights, cross walk enforcement, signs, warning bells, creating detours on market days.... I know there are ways to keep people from dying while walking across an 8 lane highway. Combined with increased car ownership and growing road rage, pedestrian health in should remain a priority in an ever-complicating China.

This is the beautiful Blue Mountains. They are not blue, usually green with trees or grey with rain and snow. This is the March 1st snow cover atop the 4000m peaks. I love these mountains for their height, their depth, and their simple unfolding magnificence.

What China Wants from Obama

2009-02-24T17:31:00.004+08:00

This is a really interesting group of folks, mostly professors and analysts, discussing their perceptions of Chinese expectations of Obama. Some excerpts below.

Chinese + Democracy= We do not know yet...
Daniel A. Bell, political scientist

Most students recognize that change must come, but democracy is now more often blamed for political instability and economic inefficiency. Hence, they and many intellectuals are turning to China’s own traditions for inspiration. Democracy with Chinese characteristics is still the slogan, with more debates centering on the Chinese characteristics.

China and The US are in the same boat, kind of.
Andy Xie, economist

What happens in Florida and Arizona can have a significant and immediate effect on jobs in Guangdong. For example, when 70 percent of the furniture sold in the United States is made in China, any downturn in the housing market (fewer buyers of new furniture) means layoffs in China. The United States lost three million jobs since the subprime-mortgage debacle. China has lost 20 million.

Respect, Save, and Modernize Traditional Dwellings
Michael Meyer, preservationist and writer

If Hillary Clinton were to step away from photo-ops at the Great Hall of the People and walk 200 yards south past the edge of Tiananmen Square, she would enter Dazhalan — a half-square mile of 114 hutong, or lanes. Home to 57,000 people, this 800-year-old neighborhood exemplifies the sort of urban planning that many American cities seek to recreate, featuring narrow, car-free streets enlivened by a tight-knit community. Mrs. Clinton should visit the area while it’s still there; wide roads are slated to pierce through the heart of this historical center, where a new boutique mall and a Wal-Mart already shadow its edges.

AND another story about imminent destruction of Qing Dynasty dwellings in Shanghai, ironically perilously located in the recreated Qibao district that showcases a (new) "old-style" neighborhood. This story also has some good links to other WSJ articles about demolition of historic properties, a video of the Liu house in Shanghai, and general dissatisfaction among property owners bought out by encroaching construction.

2009-02-23T14:28:00.003+08:00

It seems 20 million migrant workers in China are unemployed. Maybe they are all waiting for an unlikely phone call offering a job back on the coast...

We are all from Dream City

2009-02-15T18:48:00.004+08:00

This piece is truly amazing, thick, thoughtful writing by Zadie Smith on Obama.

Zadie Smith is usually amazing. I saw her speak once. She signed my paperback copy of White Teeth that somehow got sent on permanent loan to a former neighbor. I loved that book: a portrait of families in England, one like hers (Jamaican/British) and one Muslim-British. Now she is back writing about these identity concepts is ways that make the imagination sparkle just reading.

"The conclusions Obama draws from his own Pygmalion experience, however, are subtler than Shaw's. The tale he tells is not the old tragedy of gaining a new, false voice at the expense of a true one. The tale he tells is all about addition. His is the story of a genuinely many-voiced man. If it has a moral it is that each man must be true to his selves, plural."

2009-02-15T16:59:00.007+08:00

Things that have been keeping me interested:

A Recycling in China Blog natural resources, recycling culture, news commentary from Shanghai. And, a doom-and-gloom look at the scrap industry recession hitting China.

China on the Wild Side, a Time Magazine photo essay of disaffected, experimenting Chinese youngsters qnd related article by Rian Dundon.

Migrant workers flooding back home over the New Year holiday starting to get nervous about shrinking employment prospects in the East and the perilous future of life back in their rural hometowns. Now that is is over... how are they faring?

And now the worst drought since 1951, before my parents were born? This is a great overview of Water in China. This has not been a great lunar year and it threatens to get worse... Global joblessness seems on track to derail so much...

My new favorite classy China writer, Evan Osnos, has jumped off the New York Times ship and aboard the New Yorker. Based in China, he travels and reads and does excellent reporting for both articles and a great new blog. I especially enjoyed his visual on the hundreds of massive hydroelectric dams that may (or may not) be contributing to the seismic instability of the entire southwest of China (where I live and freaked out when feeling tremors from the 5.12 quake north in Sichuan.) He also has a nice Blogroll that took me in some new directions.

And finally, Starbucks has launched "South of the Clouds" the first domestically-produced coffee blend from (you guessed it!) Yunnan beans. That's right. Starbucks is trying to turn Chinese coffee into the next Chinese tea. I dream of the possibilities. This is a great review of articles on Starbucks in China- from object of disdain (think Forbidden City location, now defunct) to object of pure desire, to the point of dozens of Starbucks look-alike coffeeshops actually creating a bigger market for coffee in general and expanding the caffination levels of dozens of millions of Chinese folks who need something stronger than tea.

New Year and Back to Work

2009-02-15T15:52:00.007+08:00

As I mentioned to a friend, I have been living like it is still the holidays. A very long holiday. Say, November, December, January... and now February is threatening to be as exhilaratingly unscheduled and loose.
But no! I say.
There are pressing things to be attended to, not the least of which is writing informal thoughts that result from media and cultural exposure. I need to keep writing and I am ready to try to win back my audience, um, you.

The New Niu Year in Images

2 1/2 Months Later.... The Dawn of A New Era

2009-01-21T15:16:00.005+08:00

I woke up today after drowsily falling into sleepful bliss post-inauguration speech last night.

What a day!

I have also been checking up on photos and blogs and articles about "This Moment" and how the world is drastically different today.

Here is an article from my new favorite pundit John Heilemann from New York Magazine about how Obama is going to forge a path towards unity, to the potential chagrin of people in his party, by using the new progressive grassroots and Republican pragmatist allies. What fun.

I am also reminded (again) that Barack is just a man, but strong in vision and fortitude of purpose. I am thrilled today to honor his consistency and deep morality.

On a personal note: I posted some images of my dad's new Mansion on the Hill on my facebook page today. You can check them out here.

Non-Plussed

2008-11-07T15:11:00.001+08:00

Brooks, looking forward to an Obama administration.

Walking into the Obama White House of my dreams will be like walking into the Gates Foundation. The people there will be ostentatiously pragmatic and data-driven. They’ll hunt good ideas like venture capitalists. They’ll have no faith in all-powerful bureaucrats issuing edicts from the center. Instead, they’ll use that language of decentralized networks, bottom-up reform and scalable innovation.

I can't help but think that I would be proud to be one of those people one day.

Three Ashleys

2008-10-28T19:22:00.004+08:00

For better and worse, my namesakes become part of the political rhetoric.
And to think, I was Obama's Ashley. I guess I will settle for being Obama's Ashley in China!

The Logic of Subjectivity

2008-10-28T15:24:00.007+08:00

Not much time to think about non-translating things right now, but these caught my eye.

It seems David Brooks is on to my new ideas and even sees a place in the world for me!

My sense is that this financial crisis is going to amount to a coming-out party for behavioral economists and others who are bringing sophisticated psychology to the realm of public policy.

While I may be focusing on entrepreneurial subjectivity in the Chinese periphery, I still think there is something to be said generally for looking seriously into HOW people perceive risk and stability and commit Errors of Perception that can being entire economies to their knees. All this is about HOW you look at the problem, according to Brooks. POINT: Subjectivity Matters.

And Tom Friedman usually makes me feel good about studying entpreneurialism.

Ultimately, we can’t bail our way out of this crisis. We can only grow our way out — with more innovation and entrepreneurship, which create new businesses and better jobs.

This editorial has a very good illustration of what government-held banks may mean for the future of financial risk-taking and credit. 'The new, the small, the foreign and the risky' are all at serious risk of becoming categorically un-creditworthy in the new world order. The US Congress will generally engage in risk-averse behavior and could get itself into some pretty sticky favors or even outright corruption. POINT: Protect Entrepreneurialism and Innovation!

From the Deep Thought Files

2008-10-28T10:46:00.002+08:00

Is America really ready to move 'beyond this politics of division'?
Are Americans really paying attention to political words?
And are they really ready to stand up (and walk out of their call center job in Indiana) to protest disgusting lies and savage desperate politics?

Damn. Go Indiana!

Good News

2008-10-24T14:40:00.003+08:00

As the campaign seems to have hit a tipping point...

As I am busy translating (ie. working!) another calligraphy course...

As autumn rains pour and my new roommate takes a nap....

Here are several things that inspired me today:

Fiercely Good People Winning Awards!

NYT: Chinese Activist wins European Human Rights Award

Hu Jia, a soft-spoken, bespectacled advocate for democracy and human rights in China, was awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, Europe’s most prestigious human rights prize. Last year, Mr. Hu testified via video link before a hearing of the European Parliament about China’s human rights situation. Weeks later, he was jailed and later sentenced to three and a half years in prison for subversion based on his writings criticizing Communist Party rule. Mr. Hu has been one of China’s leading figures on a range of human rights issues, while also speaking out on behalf of AIDS patients and for environmental protection.

“Whatever he does, he always stands in the forefront,” Mr. Teng said in an earlier interview. “Everything he wrote, everything he said, is straight from his heart. We have poor people and marginalized people in society whose voices are being muzzled. Hu Jia was trying to be the spokesman for the unheard voices.”

Packer: Burmese Journalist wins Media Foundation Courage Award

There’s one journalist in Burma who, through guts and guile, somehow finds a way to write real news stories: Aye Aye Win, the country’s A.P. correspondent. At a rare government press conference after last year’s suppression of the monks’ demonstrations, she kept pressing a police official for information about how many people had been killed.

Yesterday Aye Aye Win was awarded the Journalism and Courage Award of the International Women’s Media Foundation. The ceremony took place at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria; the winner’s remarks, which had to be delivered in absentia, make me slightly ashamed of the slackness and mediocrity of most American journalism: “I have pledged to work as a journalist in my own country, Myanmar, to serve the people and country with a firm belief that a free and independent press is vital to a free society…Journalism in Myanmar is a risky business. Anyone in my country, particularly journalists, can at any time be arrested, interrogated and charged without any sound reason. A knock on the gate at midnight unnerves and traumatizes our lives.”

Looking for a job?

2008-10-18T17:30:00.004+08:00

This job posting just arrived in my email inbox from the State Department. Let me know if you want the details.

The Department of State: Office of WMD Terrorism is looking for a Nuclear Smuggling Operations Specialist.

I actually considered becoming a Nuclear Smuggling Major at Cornell. Damn.

Organic Farm: 10. 12

2008-10-15T19:41:00.002+08:00

More pics here on Facebook!

It's Starting

2008-10-12T01:20:00.003+08:00

! i am picking up many happy birthday wishes on the networks !
! happy 25th !
! kisses and hugs !

more later...after bed!

Politics

2008-10-12T01:17:00.006+08:00

Fallows is right on so many things, especially Obama on China:

Obama really needs to raise his game when it comes to answering questions about US interactions with China. He fell back on the same old lame "they're manipulating the currency" argument, as simplistic and misleading a slogan as those on other issues he criticizes from McCain.

Nate at 538:

It's as though you could see avatars of Steve Schmidt and John Weaver perched atop John McCain's respective shoulders, wrestling for control of his message.

This is eerily similar to an earlier post I wrote speculating that J.S. McCain has indeed been pulled into multiple parts by his warring campaign advisers.

Me Two Weeks Ago:

McCain has turned into a human talking points memo... a broken record... a canned act... a puppet. His mistake is continuing to rely on a team that is internally split; one side is the maverick who wants to champion his departures from party line (ie. immigration) and the other side is the Bush-style-red-button-pressing-Rightist. He is bound to come across as schizophrenic, unsteady and disingenuous (at best).

Have you been everywhere, man?

2008-10-11T17:59:00.002+08:00

This is a fun game for traveling down memory lane.
It seems Johnny Cash has me beat...by a long shot!

---------------------------------------------------
(I have been, I think, to all the places in bold. Copy the list, bold your places or pass it on!)

Reno, Chicago, Fargo, Minnesota, Buffalo, Toronto, Winslow, Sarasota, Wichita, Tulsa, Ottawa, Oklahoma, Tampa, Panama, Mattawa, La Paloma, Bangor, Baltimore, Salvador, Amarillo, Tocopilla, Barranquilla and Padilla.

Boston, Charleston, Dayton, Louisiana, Washington, Houston, Kingston, Texarkana, Monterey, Ferriday, Santa Fe, Tallapoosa, Glen Rock, Black Rock, Little Rock, Oskaloosa, Tennessee, Hennessey, Chicopee, Spirit Lake, Grand Lake, Devils Lake and Crater Lake.

Louisville, Nashville, Knoxville, Ombabika, Schefferville, Jacksonville, Waterville, Costa Rica, Richfield, Springfield, Bakersfield, Shreveport, Hackensack, Cadillac, Fond Du Lac, Davenport, Idaho, Jellico, Argentina, Diamantina, Pasadena and Catalina.

Pittsburgh, Parkersburg, Gravelbourg, Colorado, Ellensburg, Rexburg, Vicksburg, El Dorado, Larimore, Atmore, Haverstraw, Chatanika, Chaska, Nebraska, Alaska, Opelika, Baraboo, Waterloo, Kalamazoo, Kansas City, Sioux City, Cedar City and Dodge City.

saturday notes

2008-10-11T12:55:00.005+08:00

Last night, I actually met a sub-prime mortgage investment banker who was fired from Bear-Stearns in London. He is now in Kunming trying to learn Chinese. The grass really is greener over here on the other side. His temperament was strikingly, um, fierce and antsy. He really hated getting advice from the Icelandic guys who always tried to tell him how to invest. Ha! They are all done now. And they wish they spoke Chinese....

AND

I will post this here for now, but will come back to it. I have been telling people for weeks that we should just buy all the damn poppy in Afghanistan, infiltrate, deprive them of the revenue, save our cash, and maintain the largest national warehouse of opium. Then Christopher Hitchens has to go and actually write the article (this week!) that lays out the logic in a contextual way. I just spout. See Sudarshan, this is no joke! This is How We Win In Afghanistan.

Here:
I happen to know that this option has been discussed at quite high levels in Afghanistan itself, and I leave you to guess at the sort of political constraints that prevent it from being discussed intelligently in public in the United States. But if we ever have to have the melancholy inquest on how we "lost" a country we had once liberated, this will be one of the places where the conversation will have to start.

AND

China is going to announce major land-ownership reform in the next few days?!

As the population ages and the workforce shrinks, agriculture will need to be modernized.
As the country modernizes, urbanization will draw people off the land.

I have been thinking about this issue for a long time. Wow! And now, on the 30th anniversary of the Reform and Opening, Wen is looking for a way to inject some energy into the rural economy, to incentivize efficiency and offer a pathway into the cash economy for those 800 million farmers tied firmly to their subsistence plots (by a precarious red government string, of course) What an exciting time!

Voting, Crisis and Laundry

2008-10-10T16:49:00.005+08:00

I have been busy the last few days... getting back into my routine, going to pilates class, four loads of laundry (by hand!) doing research on Yunnan, having a send-off for a friend headed back to the States, celebrating birthdays.... regular life stuff. Oh and thank you to the Cook County Board of Elections for sending me all my fancy absentee ballot materials to my email inbox. How nice of them.

Here are a few interesting things I have come across lately:

George Packer's profile of real voters in Ohio, people talking about how they are organizing, not voting, undecided... The whole spectrum is represented, in their own words! Captivating.

I have made friends with an Icelandic kid who rides around Kunming everyday. One day his country's financial meltdown might make sense to him. I wonder if this is the first of many casualties.

Perhaps we can all feel better that some portfolio managers are taking note of the low stock prices and seem eager to get back in the buying state of mind. Perhaps fear really will trump logic? This NYT article looks at how people are reacting.

Steve Coll at the New Yorker takes a short look at how we got here in the first place.

People don’t generally panic in the sunshine. They panic in the dark. And we are in the dark about what assets and liabilities are truly held in what has been properly labeled the “shadow banking system”--the global aggregation of hedge funds, privately placed debt securities, and the hedging or insurance contracts known as credit default swaps.

And in China...
Chinese banks had to write-off more than 300$US billion in stocks and bonds when the big collapses occurred. They seem to think this is a drop in the bucket. China needs the United States to not collapse.
But their are certainly many many opportunities in this mess for them, not least among them the chance to buy into cheap foreign companies, a strong rationale for a strong continued government hand at the wheel of the macro-economy, and a growing understanding of why China is indeed a major player in the health and future of the US economy. Their optimism looks something like reassurance.

Prime Minister Wen: "So long as people of all countries, especially their leaders, can do away with hostility, estrangement and prejudice, treat each other with sincerity and an open mind, and forge ahead hand in hand, mankind will overcome all difficulties and embrace a brighter and better future," he said.

"China, as a responsible major developing country, is ready to work with other members of the international community to strengthen cooperation, share opportunities, meet challenges and contribute to the harmonious and sustainable development of the world," he said.

Asia Times: "In the past, China has been blamed for the low-degree of internationalization of its financial industries. Now it seems we are profiting from this 'fault,' according to XinHua commentary.

"Our not-fully-open financial system and not-fully-convertible currency saved China from being rattled during the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis. And now again this seems to be a strong dam to protect us against the current financial tsunami," an economics researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) said.

This picture is for my mom.
She bristles at Barack's finger pointing.
There is much blame to be assigned.
Go Get 'Em Barack!

As John Falls, So Shall We Stand

2008-10-04T20:42:00.006+08:00

Why is John McCain acting so angry and delusional? Why is Sarah Palin so frustratingly evasive? Why are both sides lying or exaggerating about so many issues and policies? I am happy to hear that Barack is staying steady in his tone and climbing in the polls. It seems McCain (or McCain 2.0, depending on your beliefs in body-snatching) is doing himself in each time he opens his mouth. But as I have noted before, McCain has turned into a human talking points memo... a broken record... a canned act... a puppet. His mistake is continuing to rely on a team that is internally split; one side is the maverick who wants to champion his departures from party line (ie. immigration) and the other side is the Bush-style-red-button-pressing-Rightist. He is bound to come across as schizophrenic, unsteady and disingenuous (at best).

I like this video of Maddow; you can see McCain being described as 'Uncle Ziggy in the ZigZag Express' by Newsweek's Jonathan Alter. Watching McCain blame Barack for the financial crisis has helped me realize how purely delusional he really is. Thank goodness Barack can use it to highlight the fact that 'John must be feeling panicked.' An irrational panicked old man for president will hopefully scare the centrists over the fence to the side of all that could be good in the world.

UPDATE: This profile of McCain in Rolling Stone is captivating. He comes across as entirely consistent... in his blind ambition, disregard for others, complete lack of humility and inability to stand up for anything. SCARY!

AND: Frank Rich has put together a compelling rationale explaining why Palin is Cheney with lipstick. SCARY!

AND: Apparently, Barack is going to hit John on the Keating incident in a big way. As Joe would say, "What is past is prologue." I hope the chickens are coming home to roost.

Shangri-La and Beyond

2008-10-04T15:21:00.005+08:00

I have put together some photos from our recent trip up north to Zhongdian, Lijiang and Dali. You can visit my Facebook page to see more pictures here to get sense of what we were up to in Paradise!

Earmarks for All (& I Love Ezra)

2008-10-02T19:08:00.007+08:00

This post over at Foreign Policy Magazine's blog, Passport, seems to sum up the ridiculousness of McCain's hollow, out of proportion rants against 'earmarks' and 'pork barrel spending.'

I remember working in the Governor's Office and encountering many kinds of earmarks. There was money for roads and bridges, schools and hospitals, stadiums and community centers. I remember thinking that everyone must have one of these projects in their backyard. And I thought about the Governor teaming up with Mayor Daley to go to Washington to ask for federal dollars for the regional public transportation network. When I actually worked for the regional commuter transportation agency, the Governor said no to a state-funded bailout package. I guess my point it that sometimes federal funding of infrastructure and community projects should come from the federal government, but there should be a mechanism for the Feds to work with State and Local authorities to prioritize, manage, monitor and evaluate projects on a case-by-case basis.

Hell, I live in an increasingly inequitable country where the State government continues to get subsidized infrastructure loans from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank at below market interest rates just because they ask for them. In China, hundreds of subsidized kilometers of roads and rail track are laid each year while the government holds $518 billion in US Treasury Bonds and fails to make any noticeable investments in education, poverty reduction, social security or health care.

I will take some earmarks any day, thanks.

UPDATE (10/03): Apparently, Ezra was having some similar thoughts. He has, of course, gathered some interesting sources that illustrate my point exactly.

The "how-a-bill-becomes-a-law" lesson from last night's bailout bill vote is pretty simple: Pork.

McCain loves to condemn pork, but the fundamental reality of lawmaking is that pork is how bills get passed. Brad Plumer wrote a great article on this for The New Republic back in 2006:
"The point is this: Any big-government program on the progressive wish list will likely prove even more difficult to pass than the 1986 tax reform or 1993 budget. Single-payer health care? Card check for unions? Reductions in carbon emissions? It won't get done without an orgy of earmarks to entice the inevitable skeptics in Congress. That won't be pretty, but if the price of, say, universal insurance is a bit of borderline corruption here and there, it's a tradeoff worth making."
Like a lot of McCain's posturing, his war on pork makes for good headlines and bad governance. If he were anywhere near as dogmatic on earmarks as he claims to be, it's impossible to imagine him passing any major legislation. Ever. Or voting for any major legislation. or approving budget bills and spending. Or having a working relationship with Congress. Or getting reelected, as every district in the country finds crucial programs and infrastructure subsidies are being cut.
Meanwhile, whenever the topic turns to earmarks, I always suggest that folks go play around the the Sunlight Foundation's interactive earmarks map. Earmarks are rarely obviously wasteful. Rather, they're small appropriations that exist beneath the urgency level that would merit federal consideration. So districts and states elect individual representatives and one of their side jobs is to push through local priorities. Those priorities may be odd, but relatively few are obviously wasteful. Type in my hometown of Irvine, and the nearest earmark is in Long Beach: $450,000 to outfit the children's hospital. Near to that is Mission Viejo, with $400,000 for the Neonatal and Pediatric Intensive Care Unity. And a tick over from that is Huntington Beach, which got $50,000 for an afterschool arts education program for low income youth. It's easy to talk about cutting studies on bear DNA. It's a bit harder to explain why you want to cut children's hospitals and afterschool programs. And it's nearly impossible to then say how you're going to pass bills after you do.

Go West!: Philanthropist Entrepreneurs in Western China

2008-10-02T16:48:00.005+08:00

James Fallows took a trip out to the rural West of China where cities are rare and desert landscapes dominate. He and his wife happened upon a fascinating project that has evolved over many years- Taiwanese entrepreneurs who decided to invest in the lives of poor rural children on the mainland. This is an example of people with no direct interest thinking about equity and equality and opportunity in ways that hopefully may become more pervasive.

Here are some excerpts from his story:

On Western China:

If I were running a travel agency, I would skip the likes of Beijing and Shanghai and send foreign visitors out toward these western villages, where they would see aspects of China beyond its urban spectacle and manufacturing prowess.

In the villages, people effectively live in a different century.

This is not the China that most foreigners read about or experience on visits, but its isolation and poverty are important parts of any understanding of China.

On Sayling Wen, entrepreneur, founder of Inventec:

In 2000, he developed a new and very powerful passion: to save the poor people of western China. He had a new idea: western China would have to become fully modernized—brought into parity with Shanghai and Beijing—by 2010. Soon he had written a manifesto called Develop Western China in Ten Years, which was published in English and Chinese, and he steered Inventec’s money toward sites in the west.

On Kenny Lin, engineer, researcher and manager:

The hardship that stunned him most was the powerlessness of rural people against brute natural misfortune. “Oh God, help these simple and innocent children out of the poverty, deliver them from the tortures of the lack of rain,” Lin wrote.

The Story:
These two men made a grand scheme replete with grand gestures. They planned to transform 1,000 rural villages into globally integrated 'internet villages' and worked with western schools on exchange projects. They made grandiose plans for a hotel, resort, conference center that would welcome easterners in a non-confrontational setting where they could learn about the economic reality of their fellow compatriots.

THEN ONE OF THE GUYS DIED...

The management of the resort was turned over and the eco-tourism, international exchange vision was scrapped in favor of a lure-Chinese-businessmen and tourists model.

The internet villages that were training the village kids to dream of an urban lifestyle instead has been refocused to help lure global business to western China.

And the company has also ventured into 'outright philanthropy' where kids apply for a stipend that essentially covers their public school fees and boarding costs ($115/year). In exchange, the kids are required to research and write about aspects of their rural life. As Fallows puts it, 'They are essentially paid to become bloggers.'

The essays are available at WestChinaStory.com; One middle-school student writes about the “moment of joy” when the family wheat crop is ready for harvest. A high-school boy tells about how great it was when his school got a basketball to play with outside. Another, about learning Tibetan dance. Another, what is hard but satisfying about herding sheep. It might sound maudlin, but having met some of these children, I take their accounts as alive, hopeful, human.

Some 2,200 rural students now earn their keep through this kind of blogging, supported by half a million dollars in donations mainly from Taiwan, Hong Kong, the United States, and a few businesses in mainland China. My wife and I signed up to “hire” a number of blogging students from the school that welcomed us. (On the site, you can not only see all of the students’ essays in Chinese and their pictures but also choose students to sponsor at 800 RMB, or about $115, per year.) I’d like to know what becomes of them.

It is fascinating to see this kind of homegrown philanthropy, one that recognizes the huge burden that the Chinese public education puts on poor families. I remember meeting an American woman in Zhong Dian years ago who had set something like this up specifically for girls in Sichuan and Yunnan. This kind of story makes me hopeful that more people will understand the bifuricated nature of China- East and West- and the great growing inequalities that threaten to undermine any hope of gender and class equality going forward. I personally will continue to think about the modes of development that are most likely create opportunity for rural kids and families.

Home Sweet Home

2008-10-02T11:46:00.002+08:00

There is so much to write about from the trip these last two weeks. I have stories...photos...musings! But I realize that I have so much to do in the next few days to catch up on my (growing) To Do List.
Being away from a computer for so long makes it harder to jump back in, but....
1) The world continues to be fascinating
2) I can't help myself from diving into the news
3) My little Vaio is chugging along alright for now
4) My new b-day presents from my mom (mini-flatscreen + dvd player) helps draw the line between work and audio visual entertainment
5) I am really excited to finish some work in order to get back to musing on the places I have been recently and even places I wish I had gone

SO, look for pictures soon and stories soon after. I will be putting my nose to the grindstone.

Final Crows Arrived and We're Off!!

2008-09-21T05:06:00.002+08:00

Consuella and Diane have both arrived safely and all is well. Consuella had a good day yesterda ybeing introduced to Kunming's scenery. Mom had a nice dinner with the Xizhou family. Diane made it through a monsoon in Shanghai. It is warm and sunny and we are heading off Right Now to the ceiling of the world to test our high elevation chops and medidate on boutique hotel verandas overlooking a sacred mountain. What an adventure! More later....

I am sipping Gin and (Lemon) Juice with my Mom In KUNMING!!!

2008-09-19T01:16:00.002+08:00

she is here. she is talking about things she read in magazines. things about the election. brain development. china. she cracks me up. she likes my apartment. and we really are drinking gin and juice.

Morning Show Madness: McCain 2.0

2008-09-17T18:38:00.004+08:00

I was just scanning the news to see how depressed I could get about the economy when I stumbled upon this pastiche of McCain on every single morning show. Apparently, John is taking a populist turn: praising workers, dissing executives. But, I scratch my head and think.... You are an Anti-Regulator and so much of this crisis started with deregulation and loopholes that he supported. Workers (and unions) depend on RULES that PROTECT them from Greed and Corruption. It makes me kind of ill to watch this, but here goes... John McCain becomes a populist with a very very rigid set of talking points.

And: notice at 2:12, he says, "dead-a-little." Does this mean John is rigged up as the spokesperson for some mysterious man behind the curtain? Will the real Wizard of Oz please stand up!

UPDATE:

From Steve at the Washington Monthly
To hear John McCain tell it, when it comes to the Wall Street crisis, he deserves credit, not for taking steps to prevent it, but for knowing it was coming.
On CBS's "The Early Show" yesterday, McCain said, "[T]wo years ago I warned that the oversight of Fannie and Freddie was terrible, that we were facing a crisis because of it, or certainly serious problems.... [T]he influence that Fannie and Freddie had in the inside-the-beltway, old-boy network, which led to this kind of corruption is unacceptable, and I
warned about it a couple of years ago."

Evidence to support McCain's gift of foresight is surprisingly thin. In fact, evidence to the contrary is much easier to come by.

ABC's Jake Tapper found an interview McCain did in New Hampshire, shortly before the Republican presidential primary, on the seriousness and the dimensions of the subprime mortgage crisis. McCain conceded that he didn't see the mortgage crisis coming.

"I don't know the dimensions of this. It's hard to know what the dimensions are.... [I]n this whole new derivative stuff, and SIBs and all of this kind of new ways of packaging mortgages together and all that is something that frankly I don't know a lot about.
"But I do rely on a lot of smart people that I have that are both in my employ and acquaintances of mine. And most of them did not anticipate this. Most of them, I mean I can find some that did. But, a guy that's on my staff named Doug Holtz-Eakin, who was once the head of the Office of Management and Budget, said that there was nervousness out there. There's nervousness. There was nervousness that we had such a long period of prosperity without a downturn because of the history of our economy. But I don't know of hardly anybody, with the exception of a handful, that said 'wait a minute, this thing is getting completely out of hand and is overheating.'

"So, I'd like to tell you that I did anticipate it, but I have to give you straight talk, I did not."

Funny, he seems to have a far different message now. I wonder why that is?

ANOTHER MCCAIN REINVENTION UNDERWAY.... Yesterday, on the "Today" show, John McCain rejected the notion of government intervention to support AIG, saying, "I do not believe that the American taxpayer should be on the hook for AIG." NBC's Matt Lauer asked, "So, if we get to the point, in the middle of the week when AIG might have to file for bankruptcy, they're on their own?" McCain replied, "Well, they're on their own."

This morning on "Good Morning America," McCain took a far different line on the bailout. "I didn't want to do that. And I don't think anybody I know wanted to do that. But there are literally millions of people whose retirement, whose investment, whose insurance were at risk here," McCain said.

It was yet another reminder that when it comes to addressing trying economic times, McCain has to pretend he never believed all of the things he's always believed.

A decade ago, Sen. John McCain embraced legislation to broadly deregulate the banking and insurance industries, helping to sweep aside a thicket of rules established over decades in favor of a less restricted financial marketplace that proponents said would result in greater economic growth.
Now, as the Bush administration scrambles to prevent the collapse of the American International Group (AIG), the nation's largest insurance company, and stabilize a tumultuous Wall Street, the Republican presidential nominee is scrambling to recast himself as a champion of regulation to end "reckless conduct, corruption and unbridled greed" on Wall Street. [...]

McCain hopes to tap into anger among voters who are looking for someone to blame for the economic meltdown that threatens their home values, bank accounts and 401(k) plans. But his past support of congressional deregulation efforts and his arguments against "government interference" in the free market by federal, state and local officials have given Sen. Barack Obama an opening to press the advantage Democrats traditionally have in times of economic trouble.

This is more than just about giving Obama an opening; it's principally about McCain trying to reinvent himself on the fly, hoping no one notices.

[In 1999], McCain had joined with other Republicans to push through landmark legislation sponsored by then-Sen. Phil Gramm (Tex.), who is now an economic adviser to his campaign. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act aimed to make the country's financial institutions competitive by removing the Depression-era walls between banking, investment and insurance companies.
That bill allowed AIG to participate in the gold rush of a rapidly expanding global banking and investment market. But the legislation also helped pave the way for companies such as AIG and Lehman Brothers to become behemoths laden with bad loans and investments.

McCain now condemns the executives at those companies for pursuing the ambitions that the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act made possible.

In other words, McCain personally gave the financial industry a green light to do exactly what they did. And now he's outraged.

It's precisely why McCain's economic message has been so oddly incoherent this week. Turning on a dime, he's gone from supporting fewer regulations to supporting more, from supporting less oversight to supporting more. McCain is slamming Wall Street execs for playing a dangerous game after McCain helped throw out the rules.

McCain said during the Republican primaries, "The issue of economics is not something I've understood as well as I should." He continues to prove it with each passing day.

In case anyone was wondering....

2008-09-16T20:13:00.003+08:00

I have been camped out her in Kunming this week, not posting much. When I read the news, I am starting to get weary. Watching the US economy implode is not a fun activity. I sit at the bar with friends lamenting the future of the world. There are so many cynical people here who really think McCain is going to win. I literally cry in my whiskey.

I did my part this week and registered for an absentee ballot with the Chengdu Consulate. There was something very exciting about applying for a ballot in China. Apparently, Cook County is the only county in Illinois that will allow you to vote via email. My friend from Texas has to fax it in.

In other news... I have been preparing for the arrival of my mom and her two lovely lady friends. We are going to take a 10 day trip up into the mountains of Shangri-La and wind our way back through Lijiang and Dali, back to Kunming. I have made a makeshift bed out of foam and thick quilts for my mom to sleep on. I have filled the house with flowers. I am really excited to show them my city and take a break together. I live in semi-retirement at this point, but I know they really need a break from the hectic Chicago work-a-day lifestyle.

It is strange to think that just three weeks ago I was sunning on the beaches of northwest Sumatra and soaking in an entirely new environment. It will be good to go up high into the Himalayas for a change of scenery.

This picture makes me laugh. There was an old school desktop just sitting on the beach. The boats were bobbing out on the ocean, the breeze was blowing... and then the modern world jumped into view. Makes me happy to leave my computer by itself some days.

McCain vs. The World

2008-09-10T00:12:00.003+08:00

It seems that McCain and his foreign policy team have taken a very Cold War-era approach to the rest of the world. In simple math, it goes something like this... Georgia=good, Russia=Bad. According to McCain's chief foreign policy guy, Randy Scheunemann, Russia and China are not our allies and pose serious threats the the United States and democracy in general.

I like the way Ezra responds to this madness:

One thing worth keeping in mind about great power conflicts is that they're rarely inevitable. At times, France and England have been at war, and at times they've been allies. A lot of it has to do with how leaders interact with each other, and whether they aggressively court conflict or publicly seek a constructive relationship. If you court conflict, soon enough, the other country does, and both sides build up a narrative of slights and provocations -- many of them quite real -- that lead to war and discord. But it is a choice: You can decide whether you want a relationship defined by transgressions and stare-downs, or whether you want a relationship where the overriding narrative is of alliance and both sides work to play down points of disagreement. Scheunemann, here, is courting conflict, and as McCain's chief foreign policy adviser, that's a pretty good indicator for how a McCain administration would look.

One of McCain's ideas - a league of democracies - is supposed to counter the perceived threat of a Russian or Chinese veto in the United Nations Security Council. While I think there are critical issues where a Chinese veto stymies progress (eg. Burma), the Security Council does a great deal to serve the interests of the United States.

Yglesias puts it well:

The UN Security Council mechanism by design prevents any country from taking action that is deemed contrary to the vital interests of the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Russia, or France. This causes some very real problems. It’s important to note, however, that it’s a completely two way street and, historically, the U.S. does more vetoing than any other country. I think it would make a lot of sense for the United States to propose shifting the Security Council from a unanimity rule to some kind of qualified majority rule. But what Scheunemann seems to be contemplating (a world in which the US does get to protect its vital interests, but Russia and China don’t) is going to be a non-starter in Moscow and Beijing for obvious reasons.

And at the end of the day, each country is going to do what it is going to do:

If the U.S. were to try to invade Burma in the face of Russian and Chinese opposition, in the context of new great power tensions, you’d just wind up with a bloody proxy conflict not with vast new humanitarian benefits. The problem, at the end of the day, is with the underlying pattern of facts — SLORC is terrible, Burma is close to China, China sees defending Burma’s sovereignty as important, and China is a big and important country these days. Given those facts, there’s no great procedural fix no matter what you do with the UN Security Council. But the Security Council mechanism, as currently operating, has a lot of value in other domains that would be lost if we cast it aside in pursuit of a fantasy that doing so would somehow allow us to completely brush off opposition of other major countries to certain proposed military adventures.

Thou Shalt Not Cook On T.V.

2008-09-09T18:51:00.003+08:00

I love Thailand. After weeks of protests across the country, the Prime Minister was finally forced out of office for...hosting a cooking show.

Dieting: Save My Soul and Our Planet!

2008-09-08T01:01:00.003+08:00

I remember the first time I heard the Dalai Lama say that in order to find inner peace Americans should eat less. Now we have the United Nations saying we should reduce meat consumption in order to slow global warming. And, sure science says a reduced calorie diet extends life by up to 1/3, but these days who knows if that is a good thing.

Look for Illinois

2008-09-07T23:44:00.002+08:00

A little statistical analysis goes a long way. It seems that governors in small states have higher approval ratings because "In a large state, there will be more ambitious politicians on the other side, eager to knock off the incumbent governor; small states often have part-time legislatures and thus the governor is involved in less political conflict."

I include this not only because Gov. Palin seems to follow this trend, but because Gov. Blago (my former boss) seems to have hit a new and lowest low. Yikes!!

Sino Space Walk Planned

2008-09-07T23:37:00.002+08:00

While my mom and her two lady friends will be here in China, there are bound to be some fun newspaper reports to take home for souvenirs. It's like they planned it or something....

Palin's Jeramiah Wright?

2008-09-07T23:09:00.002+08:00

It seems that Republican VP candidate Palin has some interesting 'religious mentor' issues in her closet as well. I wonder if the Democrats will mention it (probably not) and what the Republicans would have to say in her defense. Ideas: She was not in the pews that day. She does not subscribe to these extreme views of her pastor. America (and Wassilla, AK, even) are bastions of sin and only the saved will survive the wrath. What bittersweet revelations...

Kroon placed Zephaniah in a modern context, warning that the sinful habits of Americans would invite the wrath of God. “And if Zephaniah were here today,” Kroon bellowed, “he’d be saying, ‘Listen, [God] is gonna deal with all the inhabitants of the earth. He is gonna strike out His hand against, yes, Wasilla; and Alaska; and the United States of America. There’s no exceptions here — there’s none. It’s all.’”

Thanks to Andrew Sullivan and the Atlantic

Bangkok Bliss

2008-09-07T22:35:00.002+08:00

I put a few photos of my recent trip through Bangkok here on my Facebook page. It was the first time I had the chance to navigate the city on my own, but there were the usual stops to Chatuchak JJ Market and stunning views of the river. Enjoy!

Indonesia Pictures

2008-09-04T20:33:00.003+08:00

I have posted a few of the pictures from my trip to Indonesia on my Facebook page. I plan on posting more so stay tuned, You can click here to take a look! If that does not work, just go to my Facebook page and scroll down on the left to my picture album called Awesome Aceh.

Melting Machines

2008-09-03T16:50:00.006+08:00

I wish I could say it has been a great 24 hours, but I have been battling with technology. I hate to admit this, but I am not that great with computers and my technical Chinese (How DO you say compressed air?) is lacking. Yesterday. I noticed my precious laptop running sloooow and hooooot and getting angry with sudden shut downs. As you may well imagine, my computer is my lifeline to the outside world. I NEED it. So, I set off in search of a can of compressed air to blow out the piles of Kunming dirt nad dust that must have been accumulating.

At the computer bizarre, I found weak little vacuums and screen cleaner. Then, I found someone who seemed to know what I was talking about. She somehow convinced me that a can of air with some 'detergents' was just what I was lookin' for. Sure! It says it is used to clean precision instruments and that is exactly what this hardworking laptop is to me. So I took home the spray and blasted the chemical mist into the vents and around the keys to 'remove the dust and dirt'...BUT seconds later I realized the spray was melting my computer!!!! MELTING, like the Wicked Witch of the West. I scrubbed, to no avail. My heart sank.

After a few drinks with friends who came over and consoled me that the most precious, expensive thing I own was not dead.... I realized a few things: I cannot afford a new laptop so must make this work; I should NEVER trust Chinese computer people again unless they know me; I really really really love and depend on this machine; I CAN reinstall Firefox and solve one of the random scary 'crash' issues I have been facing today; When the fan stopped, I realized perhaps I need to go to a professional for help on that one; AND my old laptop has a lovely grey-ish talc powder patina on the entire keyboard that will forever serve to remind me how careless I am not to have done an 'allergy test' like they advise on the bottles of hair dye.

I am trying to remain calm in the face of random shut downs, sticky keys and crashing programs, but I wanted to write this on the computer as long as it is staying on and functioning for a few minutes. I hope on my life this is not the last dispatch from Old (Nuclear Bomb Tested) Faithful.

UPDATE: The NYT today posted a recall notice on Vaios. Funny, my model is not included but it does remind me that other people have melting computers as well.

Rove in New Obama Ad?

2008-08-31T23:47:00.001+08:00

Karl Rove:

With all due respect again to Governor Kaine, he’s been a governor for three years, he’s been able but undistinguished. I don’t think people could really name a big, important thing that he’s done. He was mayor of the 105th largest city in America. And again, with all due respect to Richmond, Virginia, it’s smaller than Chula Vista, California; Aurora, Colorado; Mesa or Gilbert, Arizona; north Las Vegas or Henderson, Nevada. It’s not a big town. So if he were to pick Governor Kaine, it would be an intensely political choice where he said, `You know what? I’m really not, first and foremost, concerned with, is this person capable of being president of the United States?

Interestingly, the Richmond Metropolitan Area is about twice the size of Alaska. And three years are more years than two. Ezra is the best.

David Brooks: Desperate, Weird and Confused

2008-08-31T21:24:00.004+08:00

Wow. David Brooks, the Left's favorite conservative, has been on a raucous tirade lately full of lazy thinking and vitriol. This is my take on several recent columns, one on US politics and two on his recent trip to China. I think David could have benefited from my company as he was traipsing through western China looking for the real story.

This week his column was an attempt at satirizing Obama's DNC acceptance speech. His growing cynicism is second only to the McCain choice of Palin. I have a particular gripe with this insinuation that Obams is only a candidate for younger voters without a sense of history:

"We meet today to pass the torch to a new generation of Americans, a generation that came of age amidst iced chais and mocha strawberry Frappuccinos®, a generation with a historical memory that doesn’t extend back past Coke Zero."

And this one that suggests Democrats simplify Republicans when it is really the hard-core Republicans who have chosen to simplify complicated issues, descend into sensationalistic smear tactics and resist coming to terms with their sheep mentality on a war of choice:

"For we are all one country and one American family, whether we are caring and thoughtful Democrats or hate-filled and war-crazed Republicans."

His bitterness and cynicism about Barack's life story is pitiful. As the child of a single mom myself, like many many Americans, I know this is a character defining trait. Being a pioneer within his own family, is not something to be ridiculed. Sicko.

I dare someone to write a column about the RNC and McCain using only facts that shows everyone who McCain and his new Rove strategists are. I bet it would be even more scary than this piece of bologna from Brooks.

On August 11th, his column was about the "collectivist" society of China that will serve as a new model for global governing and economic growth that may outpace Western individualism. He was in Chengdu, Sichuan during the Olympics, spouting some racist pop psychology based on a single book of shoddy science called How Asians Think. I was shocked, but thankful to see so many comments setting him straight.

From my personal experience here in China, I have several quick observations I can share:

Hierarchy, imposed and enforced in many incarnations over the centuries, should not be mistaken for collectivism.

Chinese people can be some of the most celebrity-obsessed, name-obsessed people. The word for 'famous' translates as 'has a name.' People want to be in the number one school, the number one program, the number one country in gold medals.... There is a distinct '#1 or die' mentality here that confuses his concept of collective society.

I am not sure David experienced getting on a bus or buying a train ticket or getting a job. Chinese people could not give a rip about people who are not in their family, extended social network, or happen to be #1 in a useful position. There is no standing in line here and grandmas throw elbows just as much as the rest of us as we struggle to get a seat on the bus. People push and scramble to get ahead here and they usually do not care who gets knocked down in the process.

Finally, his assertion that the Olympics were a display of China's Eastern, collective power is so off-base.

"The ceremony drew from China’s long history, but surely the most striking features were the images of thousands of Chinese moving as one — drumming as one, dancing as one, sprinting on precise formations without ever stumbling or colliding. It was part of China’s assertion that development doesn’t come only through Western, liberal means, but also through Eastern and collective ones."

As a former ballet dancer, I can say that getting lots of people to move in unison is not as hard as it looks. In jest, I suggest that perhaps the Opening Ceremony committee, headed by famous director Zhang Yimou, was convened under Robert's Rules and each and every dancer, performer and singer sat around a big table discusing their choreographic options. Brooks is delusional if he cannot see that that ceremony was the result of a highly competitive audition process and the show was in preparation for at least 4 years. Come on!

The Human Side of David Brooks:

The week after the 'collectivist vs. individualist' train wreck, it looks as if David actually got out to talk to some real folks in the earthquake region in Sichuan. He must have had a real shock and his humility comes through.

These were weird, unnerving interviews, and I don’t pretend to understand what’s going on in the minds of people who have suffered such blows and remained so optimistic. All I can imagine is that the history of this province has given these people a stripped-down, pragmatic mentality: Move on or go crazy. Don’t dwell. Look to the positive. Fix what needs fixing. Work together.

In my own experiences, I have also discovered a pervasive lack of expressed sentimentality here. I believe there are many factors: political oppression, media censorship, community surveillance, lightning-speed economic development and the physical and emotional losses that come with powerlessness in the face of change, and on a lighter note, a culture where showing your teeth is looked down upon and the same applies to tears. The Chinese word meaning 'to bear hardship' literally translates as 'to eat bitterness.' Chinese people tend to swallow everything, for better or worse.

Friedman paints us a picture

2008-08-31T20:30:00.003+08:00

Thomas Friedman's postcard from Guangzhou would read like this:

“Dear Mom and Dad, this place is so much more interesting than it looks from abroad. I met wind and solar companies eager for Western investment and Chinese college students who were organizing a boycott of an Indonesian paper company for despoiling their forest. An ‘Institute of Civil Society’ has quietly opened at the local Sun Yat-sen University. The Communist Party is trying to break the old mold without breaking its hold. It’s quite a drama. Can’t wait to come back next summer and see how they’re doing ...”

China as laboratory for Western clean energy companies...
Politburo member allowed to experiment with “mind liberation”...
A move from “made in China” to “designed in China” to “imagined in China”...
Southern China is no longer the low-cost producer in Asia; Vietnam and Western China now beckon...

And the Point: "The problem for the ruling Communist Party is this: China can’t have a greener society without empowering citizens to become watchdogs and allowing them to sue local businesses and governments that pollute, and it can’t have a more knowledge-intensive innovation society without a freer flow of information and experimentation."

Where are the China foreign policy folks coming up with ideas about HOW the United States can learn about and support these processes of social, legal, educational and political transformation?

Illicit: The implications of illegal trade

2008-08-31T17:54:00.010+08:00

NYT: "Gone are the days when Mexico’s drug war was an abstraction for most people, something they lamented over the morning papers as if it were unfolding far away."

As I take a break from my reading of Illicit: How Smugglers, Traffickers and Copycats are Hijacking the Global Economy by Moises Naim this pops up on the NYT.

I was in the middle of the chapter on the drug trade, reading an example on Mexico City. A construction company owner tried to uncover the root cause for high turnover for his drivers. He realized that a single border crossing with a load of narcotics could earn the driver nearly a year's salary! He got interested in the financing of such runs and soon hit his drivers up for a piece of the profits, since "it was only fair that he share." He continued to act as a financier and concluded that the construction business was more dangerous to his personal safety. He felt that, as a low-level actor, neither the government nor the high-profile drug bosses would get him. It seems this NYT article has uncovered a worsening of the situation in Tijuana for innocent civilians and families.

Point: High profile criminals are only the tip of the iceberg. "The diffusion of the drug business into the fiber of local and global economic life is harder to fathom, let alone combat. It is this pervasive global mainstreaming of the business that the fight against drugs is up against today." p.67

Point: Last paragraph of the NY Times article reminds me of the reaction to the recent Kunming bus bombings last month. Two women at my yoga class embodied this polarized response. One woman was shaking her head, planning to keep off the public buses. The other woman just laughed: "What are you gonna do? Life has to go on."

Note: The book, Illicit, could have used some of the ethnographic touches that make this article vivid. While I am only just getting into it, I wish Naim could have done a bit more storytelling. The writing style is a bit laborious, but the evidence and argument are truly fascinating. The Chinese translation is translated, notably, into traditional characters that are only used in Taiwan and Hong Kong. I wonder if you can find it on the mainland...

(Again!) Oh No, Not Again

2008-08-30T16:34:00.006+08:00

I am doing the Saturday afternoon news junkie thing and suddenly the fan starts to tip back and forth... the plants start to shake... I know living anywhere has risks, but having felt the tremors of the Sichuan earthquake the first time under exactly the same circumstances, I can only pray that it was in my head.

UPDATE 7:00pm:
It's official. The AP says, "China's official Xinhua News Agency says a 6.1 magnitude earthquake has struck Sichuan province. There were no reports of casualties. Xinhua said Saturday the earthquake hit 31 miles southeast of Panzhihua city, near the border with Yunnan province On May 12, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake in Sichuan province killed nearly 70,000 people and left 5 million homeless. "

The initial reports of the May 12th earthquake from the AP were 900 dead. I hope the 'no casualties' reports hold true this time. I have to say my heart was racing and I froze to make sure everything was really shaking, then I jumped up and ran to the bathroom for safety. In this 6th floor walk-up apartment made of concrete blocks, I was truly panicked and reminded how utterly devastating it would be to experience another massive natural disaster. Oh, and it took me a few minutes to reconcile these thoughts as I recalled the anniversary of Katrina today and a giant storm aiming for the Gulf Coast in the states.

UPDATE Next Day:

Official (early) Reports Say... An earthquake about six miles deep killed 25 people, injured 192 people, damaged or destroyed more than 100,000 homes and affected at least 440,000 residents, state media said on Sunday.

It added that 656 schools had also been damaged and that heavy rain and difficult terrain were hampering rescue efforts, with mobile telephone communications patchy. State television showed pictures of houses with large cracks in their sides, broken tiles on the road and people receiving medical attention under tents.

I was again in the living room reading on a lazy Sunday afternoon... and the shakes started again today. I called a friend who was running out of his apartment. This is normal and we will all have to adjust, but I must admit that it is a bit unsettling to have felt each and every one of these things. I am slightly envious of my friends who are in a taxi or playing basketball and don't feel a thing.

In Transit No More

2008-08-27T03:15:00.003+08:00

I am back in Kunming after 10 days of mad dash exploration and deep experiential vacationing. I have so many cool pictures and stories, but I have to sleep first.

I cannot help but share my favorite ad from my favorite ad campaign that I captured on the gangway to my flight from BKK to KMG. This is a series of clever mental twists from HSBC about economic perspective; I only see them in the Bangkok airport. Lovely.

Obama-Clark '08?

2008-08-18T01:03:00.002+08:00

Just checking in on the state of world affairs as I drift to sleep here in Bangkok. Came across this incredibly articulate, clear explanation about what the USA should do about the Russia-Georgia conflict. He looks straight-forward, sounds clear and concise...

I had a nightmare the other day where the headline was Obama Picks NY Senator for VP, but I would much rather see a real straight-talker like Clark out there bashing McCain and proposing ideas about how to get us out of this mess.

Here's a link to the transcript of you would rather read it. 'Night.

2008-08-17T23:37:00.003+08:00

still life
at chatuchak weekend market

Krun Tep

2008-08-16T19:13:00.003+08:00

Made it to Bangkok safely, no problems. When I arrived a the airport, I was overwhelmed by the plethora of yummy convenience store goods for a late night snack. At the Kunming airport in the departure lounge, there is one measly store. I felt like I had arrived in heaven. I always do. Got a grilled sandwich with bleu cheese and chicken. Yum. I went up to the departures area to catch a cab who could avoid the tollway fees. Sneaky, but I bargained him down to 300 baht, less then 10$ for a rip-roaring race to the pier on the other side of the river where Park has a top-floor place overlooking the Chao Priya River.

This morning, Park took me along to (yet another) mall for a ritual Starbucks and to the science class supply store. Beakers, model hydrogen cell car kits, mortars and pestles, plastic wombs with demonstration babies...everything I could possibly need, really. Then we took the klong canal boat to the shopping district. Park left me to fend for myself in the commercial jungle and I think I did alright. I found a great store with kitchy clever everything called Loft. Wind-up toys, silkscreened pillowcases, sheets of fancy paper, Design within Reach style doodads of all sorts.... I had a field day just looking. Then the bookstore for guilty pleasures (ie. People/Star/Us magazines) and a plethora of huge design coffee table books. I spent hours catching up on Britney and getting a huge dose of interior design. Ahhhhhhh.

When I noticed the clouds forming, I decided to start my trek back home. Walk to the canal boat, tuktuk taxi to the pier, river ferry across the water. It was the first time I made that trek alone! With no cell phone, I just had to trust my instincts and hope for the best. With not a single wrong turn, I was home in an hour. Park was watching BBC. Hearing English news, then turning it off, is so satisfying.

This is the scene from the apartment, overlooking the Golden Temple. Off to dinner down the alley to catch the end of the emerging pink cloud Disney Thailand scene. It is good to be back.

My last minutes in Kunming (for 10 days)

2008-08-15T20:26:00.003+08:00

This makes me miss Chicago.

2008-08-15T14:42:00.003+08:00

The HuffingtonPost is starting a Chicago-centric blog that promises to be quite the thing. Even John Cusack is blogging on the best city in the world.

Trenchant Olympic Headlines

2008-08-15T11:13:00.006+08:00

I could not resist posting these headlines from the special Olympian section of the official English language newspaper, China Daily.

A rather long headline: Unfancied Chinese Fencer Springs a Surprise to Win Gold
(I cannot confirm the existence of unfancied as a real word.)

Helping me with English vocabulary: Ready for a Riposte

And the plain strange: Mine's a Gold Watch, Can Get Satisfaction, First Loser's Winning Way and Unheralded Fencer Saves Day

Here are some others I enjoyed.

Olympians and Migrants: Scenes on the public square.

2008-08-14T20:44:00.004+08:00

A weightlifter straining on top of the Beijing 2008 logo. I could not help but see a hint of a metaphor for China itself, struggling to show the world its power to amaze while struggling with several homegrown issues like terrorism, 'human liberties' (as Treasury Secretary Paulson euphemistically calls them) and internal colonialism. Whew.

Then for some reason last night the Chinese badminton team was playing the, er, Chinese badminton team.

And I snapped this shot of the migrants and local guys taking it all in.

The Olympic Spirit

2008-08-13T17:31:00.006+08:00

Ah, the ao-yun-hui has blown up in full effect here in Kunming. When I walk out of the gym each night onto the sprawling pedestrian area filled with new sparkling malls equipped with giant tv screens, I have been lucky enough to catch some of the Olympics. I do not have a tv at home, so being in a public space with hundreds of Kunming folks all gazing up at the incredible athletes feels quite amazing.
I could not help but stop and join in; the New World Sinobright had called us all out of our homes to share in the Olympic spirit.

I found myself watching the US-China womens basketball the other day; it was a blowout of massive proportions (something like 100-50), but the Kunming crowd still cheered when their team made a rare shot in the waning minutes of the game. Last night we were all watching the mens weightlifting. The crowd murmured in disbelief when the French guy made the 185kg lift on the first attempt! We all held our breath when a South Korean lifter succumbed to the weight as his ankle crumpled underneath him. We giggled when an Azerbaijan athlete lifted the gigantic barbel up to his shoulders, then suddenly before he tried to lift it in the air, he threw it down at his feet in defeat. He just could not see a way to hoist it up.

As I walked into the gym last night, everyone was watching an interview with one of the gold-medal-winning Chinese mens gymnastics teammates. The guy was so incredibly moved by his success. His eyes were welling with tears. He was a champion his country would forever celebrate. His joy and emotion was projected on the 50ft. screen for all of us to witness.

The latest gossip involves the Chinese rowing team. They were part of the national strategy to win the most medals and beat the USA. Well, one of the men failed to show up at a qualifying trial; he did not even launch his boat. He went AWOL from his team. The speculation is that they tested positive for doping and were told not to show up, lest they tarnish the national image and show China's willingness to cheat to win. It would not be a good image.

It is nice to be able to enjoy the ambient Olympics, seeping into the psyche from all directions. Seven years of preparation and hype... Rarely do I have much in common with the migrant workers and garbage collectors, but on these nights we can all sit together in the open air to cheer, sigh and gasp together.

And, I do have to say the mens beach volleyball events are pretty fun to watch...

We have a word for this...

2008-08-09T18:25:00.005+08:00

Journalist Martin Bashir says what is on the minds of oh so very many men here in Asia.

Speaking at the Asian American Journalists Association annual banquet in Chicago, he said:

"I'm happy to be in the midst of so many Asian babes.

"In fact, I'm happy that the podium covers me from the waist down."

The sexualization of a room full of professional Asian women by a man paid to observe and write makes me feel slightly more sympathetic for all my "Asia-phile" male friends out here just trying to maintain. The funny thing is a Chinese man might be caught saying the exact same thing about a room full of 'foreign babes' but he would likely have the dignity to say it at the reception.

See: Foreign Babes in Beijing, by Rachel DeWoskin

View Out My Window

2008-08-09T17:16:00.003+08:00

As I was making a cup of late afternoon coffee and waiting for the water delivery man to arrive, the rain had halted its heavy sprinkling and people noises were emerging. I looked out my window to this sight that made me giggle out loud. A man golfing on a door mat, with no balls. He disappeared for a moment, and reappeared with a handful of leaves he sprinkled on the door mat. Two curious kids paused to watch him practice his real swing on imaginary balls.

Part of me wondered what this scene was telling me. It does show something about the development of the luxury economy of which golf is a part. It might show that practicing in the alley of the complex is cheaper than going to a course or that he is a new golfer or that the summer rains are stifling for someone who would rather be golfing. I like to think it means that even golfers can be part of the neighborhood culture in China!

If you can zoom in (just click on the photo), you can still see the wet pavement and the leaves on the doormat.

Terrorism, Pollution...and now, Crime.

2008-08-09T17:02:00.003+08:00

This is the first news we have of the murder of an American tourist and subsequent attacker suicide at the Bell Tower in Beijing. Yet another reason I am not in Beijing....

Beijing 2008, or Why I am not at the Olympics

2008-08-09T16:19:00.002+08:00

This is a picture taken by Atlantic writer James Fallows from his window in Guomao, Beijing on August 7th, the day before the Opening Ceremony. It seems the weather was not, er, cooperating with the team of weather engineers.

Looks like the Beijing I remember escaping in the spring of 2006.

Blacklisted from China

2008-08-09T16:03:00.002+08:00

It is reassuring to know that the Chinese leadership is noticing, translating and reading academic publications about sensitive subjects. I can vouch for the amount of effort that goes into an academic translation and I applaud their dedication.

It is unsettling to continually be reminded WHY they care so much. My heart goes out to the sinologists out there who are banned from getting back in, exiled to Taiwan. I have often thought about how to keep my nose out of this kind of trouble, but I still find myself drawn to the unflattering, underside of Yunnan. Maybe someday I will be dangerous enough to research and write in a way that exposes the dirty linen.

Secretary Paulson: Making Sense without Hard Numbers

2008-08-09T15:26:00.004+08:00

Basic Argument: "The inextricable interdependence of China's growth and that of the global economy requires a policy of engagement."

On the Economy: "Approaching Beijing through economic issues of interest to both countries is an effective way to produce tangible results in economic and noneconomic areas."

On US Politicians: "The challenge for Washington is to understand China's perception of its self-interest, identify opportunities to persuade China that its interests and those of the United States often are the same, and narrow real differences whenever possible."

Strategic Economic Dialogue Accomplishment #1: "U.S. passenger flights to and from China will more than double by 2012, and air-cargo companies from both countries will enjoy full liberalization of the industry, including the lifting of restrictions on the frequency and price of flights, by 2011."

On Diplomacy Tactics: "U.S. officials are more effective when they understand the Chinese people's perspective." "Encouraging communication across stovepiped bureaucracies maximizes results. "

Market Approach to Emissions Limits: The Strategic Economic Dialogue "helped [the Chinese EPA] gain broad support among the senior Chinese leadership, paving the way for Beijing to announce at the third SED meeting, in December 2007, that it would develop a nationwide program on sulfur-dioxide-emissions trading in the power sector. This was a meaningful step toward using market forces to address pollution and provide cleaner air in China. [comment: We can't even agree to this in America!] The move will also expand U.S. export markets and create jobs for U.S. environmental companies, which lead the world in developing the kinds of technologies necessary for such a program."

A Warning to the Fear-Mongers: "Americans who worry that China might overtake the United States are worrying about the wrong thing. They should instead be concerned that Beijing may not make key reforms or that it will face significant economic difficulties down the road. Serious troubles in China's economy could threaten the stability of the U.S. and global economies."

On Inequality and Trickle-Down Economics: "One indicator of this inequality is enrollment rates in China's provincial high schools, for which parents must pay fees. Earlier in the reform era, there were only small differences in such rates across provinces, but by 2003 enrollment was nearing 100 percent in the wealthier provinces, compared with less than 40 percent in the poorer ones. With China's social stability anchored in the belief that the wealth boom will eventually filter down to everyone, continued growth remains Chinese leaders' most important priority."

On the Tough Road Ahead for Chinese People: "Individual Chinese [are trying] to compensate for the country's thin social safety net, limited options to finance major expenditures such as education, and few investment options other than bank deposits. Demographics will only exacerbate these trends: as China's population ages, the traditional source of support in retirement -- children -- will become increasingly scarce."

On Green Civil Society: "Approximately 1,000 disputes over environmental protection occur each week in China. Environmental damage there is so severe that according to World Bank estimates, the combined health and non-health costs of air and water pollution in China amount to $100 billion a year, or about 5.8 percent of the country's GDP."\

On the Ten-Year-Eco-Plan: "The United States and China are already cooperating on joint research on alternative and renewable fuels for transportation and on efforts to improve the water quality of China's rivers, lakes, and streams."

On 2009 and Beyond: "On every major economic, political, and security issue, the path that China chooses will affect the United States' ability to achieve its goals. This will also be true under the next U.S. administration."

Henry Paulson, Jr.
U.S. Secretary of the Treasury

Foreign Affairs, September/October 2008

Why I will not be a professor in China....

2008-08-09T15:09:00.003+08:00

Or why it pays to be a graduate student in America? This reminds me of the relatively low status of academics in China. I remember a few years ago hearing about a Chinese government-sponsored program to reverse the brain drain out of China by paying (relatively) mega-salaries to returnees with PhDs from the USA. I remember thinking that might produce a female professor in Beijing making far more than her professor husband who did not go abroad for the advanced degree. What fun!

True, Tredding Water or Retrograde?

2008-08-09T14:40:00.002+08:00

Reading this post below reminded me that being a working mother is quite possibly one of the most difficult jobs in the world. Being in China for ten years has opened my eyes to the pace at which a policy of 'gender equality' can be turned back in the collective consciousness. Remember when Mao said that women hold up half the world? That was his justification for putting women to work in plain blue suits, just like men. Women were expected to enter the fields and the factories and, in turn, were recognized as (rhetorically) equal partners in the building of a new Socialist China.

When I came to China in the late 1990s, I started to hear something different. Young college girls were talking about getting married and staying at home. The rise of the post-1979 one-child generation and the 'Little Emperor' mentality that came with it made women feel like being a stay-at-home mom was the easiest, best path to being a good woman. I found young women who felt both empowered and slightly guilty that they were adamant on finding a job and living independently after graduation. Most of those women are married now, balancing a career with the pressure to have that one kid already!

I am not prepared to give a full commentary on the state of gender equality and advancement in China, but I do know that the Communist/Socialist ideal of gender equality has been slowly eroding and traditional gender roles are entrenched in the hearts and hands of the majority of Chinese women. Perhaps as labor costs rise, factories leave China and equal rights remain elusive and un-litigated, women in China will be facing an increasingly uphill battle to build a career, compete against traditional patriarchal values AND struggle to nurture their small families.

Working women hurt their families

by Ingrid Robeyns on August 8, 2008

A study conducted by sociologists from Cambridge University seems to suggest that the support for working mothers is weakening. The researchers compared survey results from the 1980s till recently, and found “growing sympathy for the old-fashioned view that a woman’s place is in the home, rather than in the office”, caused by “mounting concern that women who play a full and equal role in the workforce do so at the expense of family life.”

Pantai Sumur Tiga

2008-08-08T11:04:00.004+08:00

I am going to be visiting this corner of the world next week!

I have made a wildly irrational decision to travel to Aceh, Indonesia via Bangkok next week. My friend Mercedes from Cornell is wrapping up a UNDP job, has been in-n-out of Indonesia for 10 years, speaks fluent Indonesian, knows where all the best (swimsuit allowed) beach bungalows are (see exhibit A), and has no idea if/when she will be back. Life beckons her out of Asia and I figured, Why not spend half my savings on a trip to a post-civil war post-tsunami country where Sharia reigns and it is the height of summer?!

You know me, I rushed to buy tickets.

New Country Alert

2008-08-07T13:58:00.004+08:00

I am going to Indonesia !!! more later....

McCain the Disgruntled Former Media Darling

2008-08-07T13:25:00.004+08:00

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/07/the-elitist-cel.html

Apparently lots of people are starting to look closely at the mis-characterization of McCain as a normal, one-of-us kind of guys who is so radically down to earth compared to that granola-bar-eating-mint-gum-chewing Obama.

Who announced his presidential bid on Letterman?
Who loves being on the Daily Show? (13 times!)
Which candidates wife likes $3000 German dresses, and told Vogue that she "might" switch to an American designer if her husband wins?

Didn't Hillary say this was coming? Where IS she?

2008-08-04T10:17:00.004+08:00

WOW. I woke up this morning after a strange dream of brunch with Snoop Dog and decided to crawl around on the news sites for a while to re-enter reality. Apparently, John McCain's new slew of ads have been causing quite a stir. I went to YouTube to check them out first hand.

In a world craving a strong, stable USA, Barack's popularity across the world is portrayed as superficial and un-American. The citizens of the world do not want more war. They do not want more corporate rules bending. They do not want more vitriol and hostility. They do not want more trickle down economics. They do not want more hypocrisies. They do not want more torture and more 'suspension' of the rights granted under the gold standard legal system that still may have a chance to be a shining beacon of justice. It is not that complicated or mysterious or surprising that the opinion of the 'rest of the world' is leaning towards Obama.
Is this really something that scares the American People?!?

I noticed a strong characterization of Barack as an elitist, a health nut, a basketball fan (the horror!), a media darling.... Dear heavens! Do we all have amnesia or has John McCain suddenly given up traveling on his wife's jet, sold off his multiple houses, stopped wearing 300$ Italian shoes and retracted all his statements that explicitly state that he has run for president, not because of a larger sense of patriotism and service, but due to raw ambition (look it up)? John McCain graduated 790th out of 795 at the War College. He was a bad student. He accidentally shot off major artillery while his fighter plane was still on the carrier. He was a mediocre solider. He has an infamous temper that has made him a joke in the Senate. "I think he is not fit to be president"- Rep. John LeBoutillier R-NY. He was an ineffective senator. When we talk about elitism, I think there is something to be said for someone who has taken full advantage of his service and sacrifice by re-writing his record: Bad student. Mediocre soldier. Ineffective senator. This plays down to the American People and teaches us that mediocre is better than exceptionally talented. This is how Bush the Second has trained the American people to disdain oratory, wonkiness and achievement.
Isn't this something that should scare the American People?!?

High Dali Summer: rice, corn and tobacco

2008-08-03T21:41:00.003+08:00

Torch Festival in Xizhou

2008-08-03T21:28:00.002+08:00

I just put together some photos from the 2008 Torch Festival out in Xizhou and posted them on my Facebook page.
A friend put it well when she said, "In the south they play with water. Up here, we play with fire!" The glimmer in her eyes, dreaming of towering infernos and firecrackers, reminded me of many a Fourth of July spent with my dad launching bottle rockets out of metal pipes to see how far they might fly.
The festival is weighed down with conflicting origin myths. I prefer the one about the ancient king who was trying to consolidate power. He allegedly gathered the rulers of the six surrounding kingdoms for a banquet, then burned them all to ash. There are others that involve princesses, swarming pests, raging bulls, suicides... I like the power play version myself. When I asked my Chinese mom what the festival was all about she looked at me quizzically. It is apparently a tradition not to be questioned, just to be followed. I also asked why she was not making a torch to bring. She (again) looked at me askance, "Well, we have no small kids in the house, so why would I?"
This is the first time I realized that the Torch Festival was kind of like modern Christmas. Details started to fall into place. The gathering of family members. The collection of special materials. The man's traditional job of preparing the tree. The women and children folk making paper decorations. Gender roles. Ritual worship of a conifer tree. There there is giant mesmerizing fire, but no presents which is the real twist! The first time I enjoyed the festival someone told me that the men !fight! to get the falling flag from the ceng dong because it is an omen for a son. This time there was a real fight. Two young men both had a stranglehold on the flag and the masses shifted away as the hyped up brawlers spilled to and fro across the littered courtyard. I saw laughter in people's eyes and I recognized that perhaps this festival is as important to the men of the village as it is to the kids.
I had fun taking the pictures and I hope you enjoy them, too! Check it out.

White Party in Dali

2008-07-13T16:28:00.004+08:00

It has been a wet week, but finally things seem to be turning for a few days. I am going back to Dali tonight in preparation for a blow-out birthday bash for the owner of the BirdBar, the home of bohemian artists who escaped from Beijing and the North. The premise of the party is simple: it starts late and everyone has to be dressed entirely in white. It should be a lovely experience.

As so many many beloved people have left Yunnan in the last month, it will be nice to have those of us that can't break free all together for a night of revelry and celebration.

Elder Bai woman at the Tang Mei Temple in Xizhou

2008-07-11T18:33:00.002+08:00

2008-07-11T18:00:00.002+08:00

It has been a long slow two weeks... getting used to the monsoon-speed of life here in Kunming. You never know if the day is going to be hijacked by a sudden, incessant downpour, like Today! I decided to do some productive things such as arrange my plants to catch the rain, make a delicious red bean-olive-roasted vegi-pasta salad, and catch up on my internet news reading.

My slow day might be best explained by my night last night which essentially began at midnight. A poker game. A bottle of Jameson. And a 100rmb buy-in. How can I put this 100rmb into perspective? How about a short list of expenses here in Kunming...

1 bottle Jameson = 105rmb (on insider discount)
1 loaf raisin walnut bread = 12rmb
1 cappuccino = 15rmb
1 box Wheaties = 50rmb
2 dozen fresh roses = 10rmb
1 (pirated, new release) DVD = 6rmb

I came out ahead with 200rmb at the end of the night, which would buy me everything on this list. I guess the Jameson is a sunk cost, but I do have half the bottle left. The only thing I lost was sleep.

2008-06-28T00:00:00.004+08:00

Back from Dali

2008-06-27T22:58:00.003+08:00

I have just returned to Kunming from a week-long getaway back in my old stomping grounds of Dali. About 4 1/2 hours northwest of Kunming, Dali is my heart's home in China. My simple room-apartment still looks over the expansive peaks of the Cang Mountains. As I walked home after a public coal-fueled shower yesterday at sunset (no sun, no passive solar power, no hot water at home), the clouds were like a white mink stole, nestled around the curves, then a fluffy crown sat atop the tops of the mountains. It was spectacular.

When I mentioned how beautiful the clouds looked today, our driver for the trip back to Kunming asked incredulously, "You have lived here for so long and you still notice the beauty of the mountains?" He was insinuating that one "gets used to" living at the foot of a chain of eighteen 4000m peaks in a sharp emerald hue with the freshest spring water plummeting down the valleys. I was surprised to hear this from a local, but I later discovered he lives in Xiaguan, the new concrete city of 1m people 15km from Dali Old Town. Figures.

It rained a lot, but I did get some things 'accomplished' during my week.

* Started reading Oracle Bones by Peter Hessler, author of River Town and former WSJ reporter. This book was a Christmas gift from Aunt Beth and I have been saving it for a time when I needed fresh eyes to see China, a time when astute observation about the changing China was needed. I am so glad I waited.
He starts the book in 1999, the first year I came to China and chronicles the life of a young American in Beijing. I was in Shanghai, but we experienced the same protests after the Chinese embassy bombing in Yugoslavia (all signs point to CIA covert-op), the first massive public demonstration of the 'gong fu secret cult not to be named' went live coordinated in toto via cell phone causing Beijing to ban said cult movement, and the run-up to the PRC 50 year anniversary. It was a big year. I cannot wait to keep reading. Thanks so very belatedly Aunt Beth.

* Read a slew of new-for-Dali magazines from 2007. I read an outdoor adventure magazine and lusted after the diversity of the American national park landscapes. I read several Style magazines and it seems the celebrities are still having lives and wearing clothes. I read a Business Week and an Economist and realized how much I miss intelligent news bundled together and written well. The there was the Australian gossip mag from 2006 (um...it was before my first coffee...)

* I had several delicious meals including: an apple walnut blue cheese salad, XinJiang muslim noodles, tacos, fresh asparagus, baked spaghetti, and pricey in-season wild mountain mushrooms.

* I helped my friend, David the Juggler, with his circus act. All those years of ballet taught me to rehearse and practice in front of people, break the routine into sections and practice them out of order, and face away from the mirror sometimes during practice. It was fun to watch this certified ball master invent, choreograph, and dance his 3, 4 & 5 !!! ball routine.

* I had some quality poker time till the wee hours of the morning. The first night was for 10rmb (1.25$) and lasted for hours. The second night was several lightning-speed 50rmb (7.15$) games with winner take all. Mei.zi jiu (plum wine) infused evenings tend to assist people with letting go of their money. Amazingly, I rescued my reputation with a last game win with nothin' but a single high Jack. Next time I go back, I think a ladies night session of 80 Points will be in order.

* I actually picked up a pen and paper to write some thoughts about the spring on paper. It really has been a doozy of a season, so it was quite excellent to have the mountains, the rain, and some quiet time to scribble and scrawl. David and I have great talks about how things work and why things are the way they are and what is worth thinking about and doing. Lots of fuel to add to my scribblings.

I did not open my computer once for a week. It has been over a year since that has happened. The curse of my generation. In Dali, I find myself thinking of all things non-digital. It is restorative.

When we got back in to Kunming, we headed straight to opening night at the all-you-can-eat buffet started by my friend from Burma. The food was astoundingly good. Thai, Indian, Italian, Salads, Soups. I have to say my favorite was the Ginger Dal with yellow lentils. I miss legumes. For a full-on splurge of 48rmb (7$), I thought it would be a good way to reward myself for tearing myself away from Paradise.

Things I Miss

2008-06-18T23:13:00.003+08:00

I hate to admit it, but there are some things about home I have been missing...

1. A Cafe de Luca chicken, brie, honey panini
2. Sitting in the Borders for hours with piles of magazines
3. Summer blueberries
4. Outdoor music concerts
5. Huge spinach salads (sweet or savory!)
6. Radio in my own language
7. Sunday dinner: pork chops, mashed potatoes, green beans
8. Watching the NBA Finals with my family on the couch
9. Blue sky beach days
10. Driving with the windows down and breathing easy!

Sunshine? What?

2008-06-18T15:23:00.002+08:00

The sun is finally out after days of showers and we watched the dismal defeat of the Lakers.

I am thinking about a trip to Mongolia...or maybe Inner Mongolia next month. My friend Roelandt was just up there because his friends from across the world chose to meet there for a reunion. He said it was a blast; days of mosquito blizzards and wading through piles of cow shit. Sounds lovely, right?

I imagine a feeling of coming home; the plains stretching out as far as the eye can see, the birds and bugs in greater numbers than people, renegade nomads with motorcycles instead of horses... It seems like it might be a welcome contrast to the madness of big city Kunming for a few days.

Rest In Peace, Uncle Mike.

2008-06-12T22:12:00.001+08:00

Like a bird
Singing in the rain,
Let grateful memories
Survive in time of sorrow.

—Robert Louis Stevenson

Closer than You Think

2008-06-12T21:50:00.003+08:00

What's Going On When Ashley Starts A Blog?
(multiple choice question)

1. Her personal life is too exciting to keep it all to herself.
2. After years in China, she finally realized how far away she is.
3. Being notified of her poor communication skills, she decided to try something new.
4. She is (finally) in love with the internet.
5. A hard-copy journal is impractical for the jet-setting type.
6. Her love of design needs a (weight-less, cost-less) outlet.
7. Interesting things worth sharing happen over here.