I was living in a vacuum in America
My roommate is a soccer fanatic. I guess many Europeans are. He woke up at 4 am this morning to see a live broadcast of two soccer powers, Real Madrid and Barcelona. Chinese TV plays lots of soccer matches on their sports channels. I have to admit living with such a passionate soccer fan has ignited interest I have not had since I was little. So sometimes I will watch a game and ask him questions: What is offsides? What is a red card for? What is the strategy? Who are the best players and teams?
One wonderful thing is that Chinese TV also plays some NBA games. I had a chance to watch my favorite team, the Phoenix Suns, play a few times. That was great. Yesterday some of my English students took me Pizza Hut for a party. One of the students is going to the University of Chicago for two years and he also got a $5000 dollar scholarship. That is really rare for Chinese students to get such a nice deal. His father happens to be rich and own a big company in Shenzhen, one of the Special Economic Zones, set up initially by the Chinese government to experiment with market economics in the 1980s or so. This student admitted to me that his father pulled some strings to have him go that school. He also said he pulled some strings to make him look like one of the top students in his Chinese University.
This is what I have discovered to be one of the realities of China. Either I was living in a vacuum in America, or the ethical standards we take for granted in America are not the same here. People can buy drivers licenses even if they do not even know how to drive. You can get out of straights if you pay the right police officer. And you can be sent down the river if someone in a powerful position does not like you. Who wins government contracts are decided before the bidding has started. Anyway, its part of life in China.
After our party, we went bowling. It was my first experience bowling in China and I had a great time. It was a modern looking bowling facility and as big as any I have seen in the US. There were a good deal of Chinese playing. Each game per person cost 15 yuan, or about $2 US.
I started reading another book in my pastime called Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. This was recommended to me by a guy who had about 10 years Wall Street experience and came with me to China last summer. He was a real capitalist who believed in market economics. Anyway, from his perspective I can see why he recommended the book. It seems to espouse that making money is a virtue.
But experience learned from China and the former Soviet Union have shown us that socialism and communism does not seem to account for human nature. Without some incentives, desire or hope to meet their wants and needs people become stagnant and unmotivated.
How do we make decisions in our lives? Do they not come through a filter of values, principles, morals, experiences etc? What are virtues? Are they not guideposts that help us to make decisions in our lives?
My teacher in Chinese class asked us in Chinese, huo zhe you meiyou yisi? Which means "Is your life interesting?" I thought that is a great question that we should ask ourselves everyday. Why? To make us look at what we are doing with ourselves. To not let time go by without making the most of it every way we can. To strive for higher levels of consciousness, understanding and feeling.
One wonderful thing is that Chinese TV also plays some NBA games. I had a chance to watch my favorite team, the Phoenix Suns, play a few times. That was great. Yesterday some of my English students took me Pizza Hut for a party. One of the students is going to the University of Chicago for two years and he also got a $5000 dollar scholarship. That is really rare for Chinese students to get such a nice deal. His father happens to be rich and own a big company in Shenzhen, one of the Special Economic Zones, set up initially by the Chinese government to experiment with market economics in the 1980s or so. This student admitted to me that his father pulled some strings to have him go that school. He also said he pulled some strings to make him look like one of the top students in his Chinese University.
This is what I have discovered to be one of the realities of China. Either I was living in a vacuum in America, or the ethical standards we take for granted in America are not the same here. People can buy drivers licenses even if they do not even know how to drive. You can get out of straights if you pay the right police officer. And you can be sent down the river if someone in a powerful position does not like you. Who wins government contracts are decided before the bidding has started. Anyway, its part of life in China.
After our party, we went bowling. It was my first experience bowling in China and I had a great time. It was a modern looking bowling facility and as big as any I have seen in the US. There were a good deal of Chinese playing. Each game per person cost 15 yuan, or about $2 US.
I started reading another book in my pastime called Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. This was recommended to me by a guy who had about 10 years Wall Street experience and came with me to China last summer. He was a real capitalist who believed in market economics. Anyway, from his perspective I can see why he recommended the book. It seems to espouse that making money is a virtue.
But experience learned from China and the former Soviet Union have shown us that socialism and communism does not seem to account for human nature. Without some incentives, desire or hope to meet their wants and needs people become stagnant and unmotivated.
How do we make decisions in our lives? Do they not come through a filter of values, principles, morals, experiences etc? What are virtues? Are they not guideposts that help us to make decisions in our lives?
My teacher in Chinese class asked us in Chinese, huo zhe you meiyou yisi? Which means "Is your life interesting?" I thought that is a great question that we should ask ourselves everyday. Why? To make us look at what we are doing with ourselves. To not let time go by without making the most of it every way we can. To strive for higher levels of consciousness, understanding and feeling.
posted by Mark at
5:45 AM
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