You live where!!??
Where do you draw the line between being paranoid and being really perceptive where you pick up on unspoken things that you think poeple are thinking? Is there such a thing as women's intuition? I have always thought so and during our week in Japan I believed that I was picking up on some unspoken vibes from people to do with the fact that we live here in Ch*na. Vibes are ever so subtly communicated in an eyebrow, a slightly longer than necessary pause, a half smile or tilt of the head or a slightly exaggerated tone of voice. It was kind of a surprise, but I'm certain that a few people, after asking where we live, reacted with a somewhat thinly veiled "you're kidding right?" kinda vibe.
It got Wurly and me talking about the world's view of Ch*na. At the end of the day, (I've really got to stop using that phrase) I guess we only know what we're told. Even living in a country does not mean that we completely understand what's going on. And our sources of information can be questionable to say the least if we rely on mass media for our impressions of different countries. I think that since we've been here we have both made an effort to really try to find out about the place we are living in and to find ways in which we can contribute and leave it slightly better than we found it, even if it's only for one out of 1.3 billion people.
Another thing we discussed was the difficulties in running any country of the size of this one. I think there are a lot of problems here, but things are no doubt very different (better?) than they were even 30 or 40 years ago. And if you really want to, you could find some similarities between Ch*na and the US, even Ch*na and Australia. Couldn't governments of all three countries be accused of less than humanitarian behaviour towards its citizens and those of its neighbours, friends and enemies?
posted by nancyshack @ 10:26 am
3 Comments:
yes, exactly - both the US and China are huge countries, and huge countries typically have huge problems managing their affairs and keeping people in line (obviously a focus of China). Just think of other big countries - both in land size and population - India, Russia... lots of problems with corruption, abuses, poverty, bad infrastructure and services - the US is notorious for its bad (expensive) health sector, and poverty, poor education (of the rest of the world), and its meddling in world affairs that it probably shouldn't be involved in - ie central America, Cuba, the Middle East etc etc... why should America be considered superior to China?
There are a lot of myths fed into public circulation from both sides - East and West, and while we know not to believe everything we hear about China or the US living here, I also knew not to believe everything I heard while living in the west...
Far out, people are strange.
I have a Chinese flatmate now (and will soon have two) so I'm interested in this. I'm trying to be open and interested (which I am) but also trying to find out their impressions of both Australia and their own coutry.
But I'm generally interested in the country as I reckon it's going to have a huge influence on the world in the coming years - and I want to try and understand it a bit more.
I also love the poms - and love beating them in sports they invented. But they're generally good poeple.
My theory is that all countries are f*cked up in their own ways. China, Australia, USA ... And we all have our good points as well.
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