I and My Country, Interesting History, Creative Inner Tension, Common Scene, National Day Preparations, I Can Vote

• The one student I had for a recent Speaker Corner's class told me that for the 70^th anniversary of the founding of the PRC there was some Chinese patriotic movie playing in the cinemas. I and My Country (我和我的祖国) , the student went on to tell me, had an all-star cast and was going to depict the 70 years of the PRC so far. I immediately asked if the film would mention the many traumatic events of its history like the killings of the landlord classes that took place in the countryside, collectivization, the purging of corrupt officials in 1951, the great famine caused by Mao, the Cultural Revolution, the Tiananmen Square incident, to name a few. She answered that the film wouldn't, but that it would celebrate Hong Kong coming back to China and the launching of some satellites in space.

• China currently is a country with an interesting history but a boring people. How I wish it could go through a stretch of having dull history and producing interesting culture.

• What is happening in Hong Kong does show that the Chinese people are capable of fighting among themselves. If this inner conflict could somehow be turned into a creative energy, there could be a flowering of Chinese culture that would astonish the world. Alas, the Chinese Communist Party wants to stamp out this inner tension. All I can do is pray that somehow in China a leader of genius emerges who could harness this tension. Europe flowered and conquered the world because it wasn't an empire but a bunch of smallish states competing with each other. And within each country there were competing seats of power. Holding Europe together was the Christian faith. But the point is that Europe was not one party trying to control everything... If the EU existed five hundred years ago, the Americas would still be undiscovered.

• Walking home from work one evening, I came upon a gas-powered scooter lying on its side.. Its headlight was still on and so it must have been in an accident with a car that was stopped on the other side of the road. People were standing around but I couldn't determine who the drivers were. It is not an uncommon scene for me; an aspect of living in China.

• I was thinking to not report or comment on what I may or may not see as far as things being done for the October 1, 2019 National Day which marks the 70^th anniversary of Mao declaring the People's Republic. But, I have an urge to blog. So. So far, as of September 27^th, I have seen red lanterns being hung from street light poles and five-star flags being put up in apartment complexes. It is galling to see the flags being put up in my complex because there is a basketball hoop there that's been needing a new backboard for a few months.

• I applied online, had a ballot couriered to me and so I will be voting in the upcoming Canadian Federal Election in the Chilliwack riding. I can tell you now that I will be definitely voting against Justin Trudeau. I'd vote for the Bloc Quebecois candidate but I doubt that the BQ is smart to run candidates in Western Canada. As Mordecai Richler imagined many years ago, if the BQ ran candidates in Western Canada, they would have picked up seats. Quebec leaving confederation is probably a more popular in the West than in Quebec.