"Chinese Tests Reveal Lead in Children Near a Plant", NYT 9-28-09

As usual, China’s headlong rush to develop has injured the most vulnerable. A recent article in the New York Times revealed that half the number of children tested who lived near a battery plant had elevated lead levels in their blood. Last month it was revealed that more than 1,300 children living near a manganese processing plant had elevated lead levels. Prior to that 850 children living near a lead and zinc smelting factory had elevated lead levels, some of which, 174, had to be hospitalized. How many other children in China have been poisoned by lead?

NYT 9-28-09

September 2, 2008

Typing this entry while sitting in a 747 that just passed to the south of Osaka and Tokyo heading into the Pacific. Listening to blues provided by United and the lyrics are about a nineteen year old woman whom the singer cannot satisfy. Went to the main museum in Shanghai which is housed in a very modern building in the middle of a park (the People’s Park) which used to be the race course for the British. The city is broken into various districts, which include the French Concession. This is a reminder of the various powers that controlled Shanghai in the past. In addition to the French, there were the British, German and American concessions. Drove to the airport with Mabel who is a strong Hillary supporter. She said women have had their rights increased greatly recently. Learned yesterday McCain picked Sarah Palin as his running mate. He must really feel confident of winning the presidency to have elevated someone without any foreign policy experience to a heart beat from replacing 72 year old man. Arrived at O’Hare where a rapper got on the train taking us to Terminal 1. He was really good and was banging against the window of the waiting area to keep time. There were numerous Chinese on the train with us. They looked at him like he was crazy. Just like a young Chinese said to me in Beijing when the crowds at the Beijing subway station had me gaping in awe, I thought to myself about the Chinese reaction “Welcome to America”.

September 1, 2008

Mabel met us at the domestic terminal in Shanghai. Very pleasant and capable. Visited a garden built by a wealthy Chinese businessman that was beautiful. Went from there to a museum dedicated to Jews who had been in Shanghai. Many Jews fled Nazi Germany and Austria and landed in Shanghai because of the munificence of a Chinese diplomat. Hitler told the Japanese to kill all the Jews in Shanghai but the Japanese refused to carry out the order. From there went to a bookstore carrying books in English. Purchased numerous books about Chinese law, including one on the Chinese Constitution, which states in part that
Article 2
All power in the PRC belongs to the people.
Article 5
No organization or individual is privileged to be beyond the Constitution or the law.

Shanghai turns out to be more accessible than Beijing. It is split in half by the Yangtze, but the subway is very good. We took it to meet a friend of my wife at a huge building which housed one of the largest malls I have ever seen. Every name brand and some great local Chinese brands were represented in the mall. We then went to the Grand Hyatt with its lobby on the 54th floor. The lower floors were offices. The view was spectacular at night. I said to my wife’s friend that it is not enough to copy what the US and other countries have done and do it better and cheaper. What China must now do to take a leadership position in the world is be creative and come up with something new and then the world will come even more to its door step rather just seeing a huge market where western goods and services can be sold. What happened to the China that invented gunpowder and the magnetic compass among other things?

August 31, 2008

Sitting in the van coming back from a cruise down the Li River with our guide Macy. The road is lined with rice fields. Very reminiscent of Vietnam. The bus station where we waited had pictures of Clinton, Carter and Bush 41 who had also taken the same trip down the river. Spoke with an Englishman named David on the boat who is a businessman back in England on holiday with his American wife. He said he would be a Republican in the US because they are more pro business. I pointed out to him that the American economy normally does better under the Democrats as seen with how the economy performed under Clinton versus Bush 43. Perhaps the most interesting part of the conversation dealt with China’s relationship to the US. China’s economy may eventually suffer from the downturn in the American economy because the American consumer is consuming less. In fact, the only good part of the American economy right now is its exports. Perhaps China can turn to its internal market which is expanding or to the Indian market to make up the difference. The road is not particularly good (it is bumpy) and the van has seen better days, all of which makes it difficult to type. The drivers here are insane. They do not know the meaning of “courtesy of the road”. The bus in front of us just left a young girl off in the middle of the road blocking our van and then just pulled off, all of this on the main road through a fairly large city. Nevertheless, I have seen very few accident scenes during he entire trip. The scenery during the trip down the Li was breathtaking, with hills rising out of the river, and one gorgeous gorge after another. Small craft would approach the boat we were on. The first time this happened I felt I was on the USS Cole, until I realized one person held onto the boat and the other person was trying to sell us something. I gave our tour guide Macy the book by John Kenneth Fairbanks to read so she could get some perspective on her own country. I’ll ask her about what she read later. A grey Porsche Carrerra just drove by. There were also some very expensive looking single homes in Guilin. Macy is our tour guide and she is about 26 years old. She said her parents had arranged a marriage for her. The boy came from a good family and had a good job. She did not marry him however because he was not handsome like me. She also is not a member of the Communist Party because she is too “independent”. We are now flying to Shanghai. The airport was a joke. There was a continuous uproar coming from the Chinese waiting for the plane. It was similar to the enormous amount of noise at the Chinese restaurant last night where my wife ordered chicken’s feet. Not realizing what she had ordered until it arrived, she proceeded to share my dinner.

August 30, 2008

Flew from Guangzhou (Canton) to Guilin where we arrived and found neither tour guide nor luggage. The luggage arrived later that evening and our tour guide about one hour after we arrived in Guilin. We were taken to a hill that provided an extraordinary view of the city and the surrounding area. Four porters carried me up the 500 foot hill in shifts of two. The trip cost $30.00 which was paid to the head man who was not involved in hauling me up the hill. After he left I gave a further tip of $14.00 to the four men who had hauled me up the hill. We then went to a cave which contained some of the most beautiful stalactites (going up) and stalagmites (coming down) in the world. Unfortunately the cave had been commercialized with a light show, music and steam. We were then taken to a restaurant which served authentic Chinese food according to Macy our guide. The restaurant was noisy and crowded and served food which was unrecognizable. We returned to the hotel where we freshened up, having been on the go since 6 AM. The next stop was a boat rig up the Li River, where we saw trained cormorants with ropes tied around their necks diving in the water and bring fish back to their master in a bamboo boat, where he disgorged the fish into a basket. It got a little boring after the 15th dive and was only relieved by young people swimming in the river late at night. Our tour guide said she drank from the river when she was a little girl.

August 29, 2008

Today is my birthday. My wife had a lovely card for me. Do not feel 66. Visited Three Gorge Dam which required climbing 241 fairly steep steps. Took it one go while wife and others had to stop numerous times. Could not see the dam very well because of the fog. It is the largest hydroelectric dam in the world, and a major source of pride for the Chinese. Perhaps the most interesting thing we saw were the ship locks, which consist of five locks about one mile from the dam. The locks will enable ships to completely traverse the Yangtze. Our guide was named Max and he said he was a relocate who was “very happy” (a phrase we heard repeatedly) with his relocation. He said the government paid for half of his new apartment. When repeatedly pressed during a Q and A on the bus about persons (particularly older ones who did not want to leave their ancestral homes) who did not want to be relocated, his answer reflected his lack of understanding how a court system works. He kept stating that the government had a wheel that it used to determine what someone’s compensation should be. He did not understand the concept of petitioning the government to redress a wrong, regardless of how much compensation might be offered.

August 28, 2008

Took a trip in a sampan up a tributary of the Yangtze from what used to be Wuhan. There are an enormous number of different nationalities on the boat, i.e. many Germans from Groeningen University who are studying sports training, and who were at the Olympics, numerous Poles, two Spanish couples sitting at our table along with an Australian couple, and a few Americans. Spoke with a Pole who said he knew everything about Obama. He said Obama’s mother came from Africa and his father from Indonesia. He said Obama had been educated at a Muslim school in Indonesia and was mentored by the head of the Communist Party in the US. So much for America being the only place for an ignoramus. More importantly, there was a discussion on the boat after the sampan trip about the plus and minuses of the Three Gorges Project. Aaron, the Chinese person who led the discussion, said there was opposition by farmers, environmentalists and engineers before the decision was made to go ahead with the project, but the final arbiter was the government, and once the decision was made, he was not aware of anything in the media about further opposition. One of the tour guides said that the youth did not object to the project (they were offered better places to live as well as better jobs) as much as the older people who were giving up ancestral lands. This same tour guide said her city of Wushan was now underwater. She had lived in a flat 48 square meters with shared bathroom. She now has two bathrooms in her flat and three bedrooms. She had to take out a ten year loan to pay for the new flat. Welcome to the world of capitalism. A German in the audience said there were always people who objected to any governmental project, but the courts dealt with these complaints. I pointed out to this gentleman that there was no such method of airing protests in China. Interestingly enough, Aaron the tour guide said he opposed the project because of the impact it was having on the appearance of the gorges. He said now, with the increased water level, they look completely different, and not necessarily for the better. The water of the river is full of detritus. It is hard to tell what makes up the detritus, but it appears to be in part raw sewage. If the dam is creating a much slower moving river, it is not hard to imagine that the increased industrialization and urbanization along the river is creating a very toxic mixture that does not bode well for the future. The gorges themselves were spectacular, and offer a rare beauty not seen anywhere else. A constant mist on the top of the gorges provides a sense of mystery and serenity.