Look at what's happening in China

[ElsewheresDaughter]

Run time: 05:51 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4As-dVqbQI   Posted on YouTube: June 25, 2006 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: January 11, 2008 By DU Member: ElsewheresDaughter Views on DU: 779

 

[Vilis Veritas]

1. Thank you for posting this.

We will be watching this tonight at my home. It made me cry.

The first time I went to China, my wife got ill and while she was in the hospital getting checked out, I waited outside. I was literally surrounded by people who told me similar tales only not this bad. This was back in '97 so maybe it had not progressed to where we were. The main theme I heard on the street corner that day was simply, 'Don't let anyone tell you different, we love Americans because they care about people.'

Most Americans do care about people. I only wish our government was a government by the people.

Peace.

[Vilis Veritas]

2. I guess Human Rights

in China is not an issue. So long as we give them favored nation status and cater to their leaders, China is an American issue.

:shrug:

[YOY]

3. Evil evil evil

evil bastiches.

[L0oniX]

4. Corporations need Chinese slave labor and land so they can give CEO's millions in bonuses.

[Warpy]

5. The West End of Boston, late 50s to early 60s

It was one of those neighborhoods of four to six story brick and wooden tenements. There was a certain amount of crime, but there was a tremendous amount of vibrancy as people crowded together in old buildings with few amenities learned to live together. Most were renters, slumlords having rushed in by the end of the Depression, buying everything in sight, making only minimal repairs, and using property as their cash cow, milking everything they could from it.

That was when the developers came in, waving cash. People were evicted and the whole West End was razed. It is now a bleak landscape of high rise luxury apartments called Charles River Park. It is an unpleasant experience to walk though, as there is little of interest at street height but guarded doorways to ugly, boxy buildings. It's as warm and vibrant as a moonscape.

That's what all this makes me think of, that "urban renewal" craze we went through in big cities 50 years ago that dispossessed people with so little to lose that some of them lost it all, just to make room for a few shiny buildings that would house 1/10 of the population at maybe three times the income.

Boston learned from that experience, learned that urban renewal that threw people out on the street and razed entire areas that had developed tremendous character to replace them with yuppie warrens that have developed no character at all in the past 50 years was not the answer. Massive highway projects cutting through other "slums" were canceled, and preservation became more important than redevelopment.

Undoubtedly China will catch on eventually, that what made their cities and culture great were the people, not how many shiny new buildings there are.

[truedelphi]

6. I left the Bay Area because it was so darn depressing

TO live in a huge metropolis where there is little about communities.

If you said hello to someone you didn't know you felt they were probably gonna yank out their phone and dial 911.

When San Anselmo flooded on New Year's of 2006, one of the Marin County Supervisors groused that people who became aware of how fast the flood waters were rising didn't check on neighbors, or call their neighbors using their cell phones. They just made sure their family got out safely and probably, because they don't even know their neighbors, they didn't bother to call.

When I was growing up everyone knew each other and really looked out for each other. And where I live now is like that too.

[Warpy]

8. I've always clung to shabby neighborhoods in the inner city

for a large number of reasons, not the least of which is that poor folks tend to know one another and offer support when it's needed. They can also spot problems early and let other people know what's going on.

One of the things my dad wanted me to do before he died was move out of my present shabby area into something more befitting what he thought was my station in life. I told him the truth, that this was the safest area of a very dangerous city, and there was no way I was going to budge.

So here I sit until I leave the country. I'm sure I'll end up in an equivalent part of Mexico, an inner city area where people tend to sit out on their patios on hot evenings and shoot the breeze with people passing by.

[truedelphi]

9. That can be very true, & it sounds like you've made a wise choice

[lovuian]

7. China and Russia are true evil empires

they are killing off their own people in the hundreds of thousands

true evil