Author Topic: Members Travel Topics & Photos Discussion  (Read 2369 times)

Walter Johnson

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Re: Members Travel Topics & Photos Discussion
« Reply #24 on: July 06, 2014, 08:14:03 pm »
Hi GO

I got back on saturday after what were very interesting travels. I still need to figure a workaround for the fotos but I can relate some of my impressions. Anyone under about 30 years can speak english, but not well enough to have an in depth conversation and striking up conversations on trains that are very crowded, so people I spoke to were mostly other foreigners and mostly businessmen. But locals I could chat to were sales clerks and store managers in stores like jewelers where there they had more of the time and space and inclination to allow me to strike up a conversation. Gathering from the locals as well as the foreign business people operating american european companies out of china I gathered that we are led to believe a number of myths that are either outdated or just wrong.

People dont despise the government the way we do in the west. They think the federal/central govt and president is doing a geat job and are patriotic because of the progress they believe in. Their complaints are more about local level crooked county officials. The news story of the policeman who was killed by a mob was not accurate or representing anything that can be generalised. It was not a police proper but an equivalent of what you call TSA I think, but not organised federally but somethng locally. Some squad of thugs who clear out poor people for big business to do development. There are TV ads to try and educate people that they need to move out of old areas so they can be demolished and into the new zones of high rise buildings which are kind of far away.

Minimum wage is about $225 USD a week. Thats the going rate and rising, so what we are led to believe about a dollar a day or so is way out of date. People who think they can not shift to a domestic market away from an export market are wrong. There are Bentlys and BMW's all over the place and at least seven swiss watch stores for every seven-eleven. Shifting to a domestic market economy is seen as part of the solution to the pollution problem. I cant say I can see how that works, since producing the power and the products still causes pollution regardless of who buys it. There are TV ads talking about the plans to reduce pollution by the govt, I dont know how successfully it will work.

I went into china and returning by bus and by high sped jet boat, the place looks large like australia or usa on a map but much of it is mountainous and theres a shortage of flat and farm land. I think this is the real problem because that land is getting taken up with industrial devleopment, and that is all being modernised they say. The apple and nike stereoptype of slave labour is not representative because of already being forced to give better conditions and the workers want to meet and beat targets on their own to get bonusses. Thats what I have been told, and it seems legit since theres certainly a fetish for designer labels whether its in high end malls or street stalls selling cheap copies.

The girl in the foto above with the shark is typical of 99.9% of women there, all slim. Is it a better diet or a shortage of food or both is the question. They are definitely moving to importing more and more food, and how that will work out seems to be the real key to me. Keeping in mind they mostly own the land and the farms in other countries and continents they get the food from unlike us who just import the foods on the open market. Climate change, fresh water scarcity, etc seems to point to competition coming at some point for the food. Then again I look at many other places the same way including our own food supply and I come back to believing in self sufficiency being the only sure way to survive if and when supplies are strained.

« Last Edit: July 06, 2014, 09:18:34 pm by Walter Johnson »