I haven't been blogging in a while. It hasn't been because I was busy. I slowed down and then stopped because I didn't feel I had anything to say about anything that somebody else hadn't already said many times over on the Internet. As well, I was spending my spare time fretting (Chinese wives and my job situation was doing this to me) and studying languages.
I observed a lineup of cars waiting to get into a parking lot. Most of the cars were coming off a one-way lane and had to make right turns to join the line. Some drivers, however, were cutting into the lineup by driving down a lane meant for bicycles. So mainland Chinese I thought to myself.
Coming back to China – I had spend much of August in Canada – it took less than 24 hours for me to find the driving habits of the locals very unacceptable. In Canada, drivers have to be patient but are paid off by faster moving traffic. In China, the drivers are impatient and the result is unnecessary traffic snarl-ups and slower overall speeds for everyone.
I am reading two books in a row entitled "What's Wrong with China?". One of the books, written by Rodney Gilbert, was published in 1932. The other book, written by Paul Midler, was just recently published. The book published in 1932 is particularly harsh in its view of the Chinese. Midler is too but he does try to say sometimes what is good about the Chinese. The effect on me of reading the two books has been to turn me into a bit of a hothead. One particularly egregious bit of driving by the locals while I was driving caused to me chase them down, drive beside them and honk my horn at them. These books also make me want to leave this country even more than Xi Jing Ping already has.
Anyway, fifteen years is enough to waste of one's life in China.
Whenever this current dynasty falls, it would be a moment of great satisfaction for the rest of the world. For the mainland Chinese people, it would be an opportunity, but it would be one that they would most certainly squander. The Chinese people being what they are, the best result that the world could hope for would be if the Chinese isolated themselves from the world again. Though the Chinese people can be of benefit to the world, the middle kingdom is not an entity that is of use to anyone.
September 10th was Teachers Day. If this is an international holiday, I wouldn't know and I am too lazy to find out. What I do know, is that it is observed in China, and that I have three things I can report about it. First, on the evening of September 10th, my son Tony was swearing. He told me he was swearing on account of a two hour event that was held at his school to mark the day. It was "so boring" he said and the students couldn't escape. Secondly, I chuckled to myself when I saw video on the bus of the local Communist Party Chairman being shown speaking to a bunch of teachers. I should have anticipated that. For I seen Chairman Li Xiao Ming always being shown speaking at every important Wuxi conference and visiting locals on special holidays. His ubiquitousness on Wuxi transit video screens has become a running joke between me and another foreigner at my school. The locals seem oblivious to it. Thirdly, I can say that anything done for me on this day seems very undeserved. I haven't done much teaching this year. What I have done is talked and performed for students with heavy doubts about the educational value of any of it.
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