Alas, this brand new year of 2008 with all the Olympic glory and the obligatory house cleaning to welcome foreign guests.
Many have asked how I could still remain hopeful. It's a human weakness of mine, I often confessed. Even with statistics one could look at the myriad of the numbers in different ways. Beijing has supposedly the worst pollution among the world's capitals, yet once in a while the wind would come and blow the dust away. Like this early December day when the company I work for organized 100 employees to participate in the AIDS Day Great Wall Hike. It was windy and chilly but the sky was gorgeously blue. And there were many enthusiastic young faces smiling and excited because they were participating in an AIDS Day event.
The pessimist in me saw a turnout not big enough. The optimist caught a bright glimpse of the future in which more in China would be caring, activistic, and creative. (Check the hikers from the condom company!)Yes, despite the smog and the taking in of honest people hope still persists. History tells us that the right shall eventually prevail. The kids will grow up, and we will grow stronger and wiser ourselves.
Time is our best friend.
Happy new year!
2 comments:
we'll see whether the ruling party is right in pursuing economic before political reforms. at least history appears to be on their side. taiwan, singapore and hk all began under some forms of autocratic rule with economic liberalization that eventually turned into their modern democratic forms with a middle class [embodied by those cute taiwanese housewives] sprung forth by the economic liberalization. the main point is that political stability is paramount before any evolution can take place. even the united states had to resort to a bit of autocratic rule during the civil war to maintain some semblance of stability in order for the nation to progress forward and eventually "democratize" for all citizens.
Agree to a certain degree. With the exception of possibly Singapore, Taiwan, HK and the US all had had a tradition of dissidents before the autocratic rule loosened. Right now it's all quiet on the Chinese front. But on the other hand, everything in China is evolving with Chinese characteristics...
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