Eleven Grabs a Shovel and Pours a Pail; UpDates from the West Countries; Avoiding Controversy Up to a Point;

• During the Qing Ming Weekend, I saw, on my wife's phone, videos and photos of the Chairman holding shovels and pouring a pail into a ditch. Clearly propaganda, were these images, to show the Chairman in action and being heroic. I immediately thought of those pictures I had seen of Chairman Mao and his sidekick holding shovels at the beginning the Great Leap Forward... Let's hope millions of Chinese don't die this time.

• I have been getting updates from family and friends in Canada. There have been a few deaths in Manitoba. Maybe one in Brandon, but the authorities aren't giving out exact locations in their reporting. My brother is still working. My mother, who is in her 80s, is phoning in grocery orders. My mother told me that lots of people are getting laid off.

• My wife warned me to not say anything controversial (or in her words: silly) on Chinese social media. As I said in the previous entry, I am staying away from controversies involving China on WeChat. I am only posting controversial things about the the cold civil war going on in the West. So, lots of unflattering memes about Biden, Clinton and Pelosi.

• What do I want to do after this thing is over? Do I want to go back to Canada? Do I want to stay in China? It may well be that I will have to go back.

• I really need to start corresponding with people who are of a like mind. If you want to a Catholic, you don't need to talk to only people who say that all priests are pathological.

• I went to buy bread at the bakery in my area that I always go to, and I heard the clerk serving me tell her co-workers that she was dealing with a laowei (foreigner). (I know it is trite of me to make a note of this after so many years of living in China, but I am thinking hard about my relationship with it these days.)