[Oe List ...] Jaime for Thursday ST

[via OE]

Ni hao, y’all


 
It was not unexpected but it stillcame to me as a surprise.  Several southernStates in North America reportedly poised their economies to attractinvestments from China.  
 
The son of a moneyed Vancouvermagnate spent a bundle to get his son wedded to a model, complete with privatefireworks that required a public permit and cost a fortune.  Of course, we knew as was anticipated that HKwealth ran into Vancouver and Toronto after the 1997 turnover of the territoryto China by England.  
 
In my lifetime, I was acquaintedwith three civilizational dreams.  Thefirst was a royally militant one, asserting an Aryan sense of regal superiorityacross the planet when the upper lip in the observance of afternoon teafollowed the declaration that the “sun never sets on the British Empire.”  This represented the European dream started byMacedonian Alexander when we led his troops to dip lances on the Indus waters,and the Caesars constructed their viaducts into the piazzas of Rome.
 
The second came with GI Joe afterWWII; in the Pea Eye, it came with Thomasite at the turn of the 20thcentury, teachers who did not mind being an arm of an imperial design alongwith the evangelical Midwest Protestant missionaries.  “The light upon the hill” was acharacterization from Boston, later called American exceptionalism, and a deepsense of “manifest destiny” on bringing liberation to the oppressed, relief tothe destitute and freedom to the downtrodden.  At first, that is.  
 
Later, we forgot the oppressed andthe double-d.  After General Dwight asPresident Ike on his way out of office warned of the close affinity of corporatemanagement to military might, Uncle Sam’s grunts and State’s policy wonks surreptitiouslybecame the brawn and brain of the country’s oil exploration and drillingconcerns.  The American Dream becameAl-Jazeera’s favored punching bag. Individual drive for wealth got stymied as the 15/85 percent dividebecame a 1/99 gross inequality.
 
Current President Xi Jinping usedthe phrase “China Dream” in his speech after he was elected into office, andjoined six others including the country’s Prime Minister in the StandingCommittee of the Politburo.  Hisadministration vowed to pursue and engage the nation to a China Dream.  As a foreigner residing in the country, I amoften asked why I chose to be in China after my contract was already completed.  I answer through the three points Iunderstand to be constituent of the China Dream.
 
One, the dream involves more thanthe 85 million members of the Communist Party of China, critical as they aresince their sense of responsibility includes the proper governance of the land,rather, it involves the 1.39 billion Chinese in country as well as thosedispersed across the planet.  Retiredcolleague and literacy acceleration guru Lucille Chagnon, in the reading andwriting anthology she uses for her “each one, teach two” courses, quotes an oldChinese proverb: 
Tell me, I forget.
Show me, I remember.
Involve me, I understand.
Similarly, the CPC aims to involveeveryone in the dreaming.
 
Two, the dream diffuses thetension brought by the Huquo individualregistration (huji system ofhousehold registration) that pits the formerly dominant countryside against thenew urban dwellers.  It was nothistorically intended to pit one internal group against another as it was toidentify and designate one’s provenance and place of official residence, aswell as record immigration and movement of the increasing mobile workforce.  A similar practice was followed in Japan,North Vietnam, the Koreas, and Russia (South Korea stopped the practice in2008, and earlier, the propiska ofthe USSR).  While the intention was notcontradictional, the system spawned an informal but actual caste system thatfavors urban registrants.  The dreamvisualizes a leveled playing field.
 
Third, the dream requires that alltrade and commerce with people outside the sovereign territory be on a win-winarrangement.  It does not serve China’sinterest anywhere in the world if their investment flourishes at the expense ofthe host economy.  If China advances, somust also be the case of the countries in commercial and trade relationshipswith China.  In the free-market realm,China reads the financial report bottom line, gleans for lessons from the localpolitical process, but does not interfere with it one way or the other.
 
After the Tiananmen Squareincident of 1989, Party stalwart Deng Xiaoping made it clear to reformers that“some folks will get richer before others” as he opened the floodgates of themarket to private investments.  Hereportedly told his audience that they could make as much money as they wantbut to leave the politics alone to the pros. The China Dream began at his instigation.
 
The Party had not been idle.  Prosecution of high profile charges oncorruption were made.  Tremors accompanyChina’s vision of the future but its journey begins at the center.  “Zhong” is the fifth cardinal point, thecenter, the same word that identifies the people.  In the dream, we are on to a Journey to, of,and for the Center, y’all!


j'aime la vie
pinoypanda2031 at aol.com

yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today. participate. In all, celebrate!

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