Red China...
About the only true red that one tends to see anymore is the red eyes from the male dominated Bijuo dinners. China is no longer full of the reds as Americans once feared. No, the reds have been replaced by the almighty capitalists consumption and each time I visit a new city I see more and more of the same thing, rows and rows of shops selling horrible clothes at prices that these people cannot afford, and the shops are not full of the people that are briskly walking down all of the streets.. Lots of window shopping but so little of the real spending that one wonders how the shops actually manage to keep themselves in business.
Perhaps it is like this because of low overhead, but there seems to be something else totally amiss about the Chinese and their idea of socialism. It is just very difficult to quantify all of it together and come up with a valid theory.
Here is what is at issue
1. Most of the people in this country are dirt poor.
2. This system should work that everyone is taken care of, no matter what the cost because it is the People´s Republic.
3. The public officials that are supposed to be providing the services for the people are not poor, but they are driven around in Audi´s, Volkswagon´s and Mercedes.
4. The concept of the amarketplace is being driven out by the mall concept because the less than acceptable merchants are individuals, not corporation.
5. The use of propoganda to the people is of astronomical levels. The World Cup is the greatest example of this. Before the world cup, never any mention of soccer anywhere. The football pitch was usually empty. Now that World Cup fever is here on the tele, it is amazing to see just how these people act like they have enjoyed the sport for all of these years.
And there is more, but I must say good night... Hard to believe its one of my final days here in Hunan.