Extremes of Two Nations

* Extremes of Two Nations *

US and China are two countries of extremes to each other. It could be the difference in their cultures, their wealth, and/or changing of wealth. It would be best for both countries to move at least 10% away from their extremes.

Spending.
US. Like no tomorrow.
China. Saving for fear of begging in the street.

Health Care.
US. Encourages folks to be lazy, so they get free health care.
China. If you do not pay in yuan, you die.

Foreign countries.
US. Either my puppet or my enemy.
China. Non interference.

Environment.
US. Our pollution is not too high (translation: pollution per capita is).
China. My pollution per capita is not high (translation: total pollution is).

Human rights.
US. Killing for the name of liberty! or keeping our weapon suppliers rich.
China. Lifted 300 millions from poverty. Is this basic human right?

Military might.
US. New carrier with two nuclear generators.
China. 0 carrier.

Justice system.
US. Spent millions and let the guilty free.
China. One bullet for 99.99% guilty and warn millions.

Sports.
US. #1 in all sports. Get them at all costs.
China. Let's get 100 Walmart shoppers and have a race to see which nation is fitter.

Natural resources/farm land.
US. Can support double the current population.
China. Can support half the current population.

Politics.
US. Do everything for votes.
Capitalists act like communists by providing generous welfare.
China. If you do not listen, you disappear.
Communists act like capitalists by giving prime priority to business.

Education.
US. We've most Nobel's prize winners.
China. Our 6th graders can beat your college graduates in science and maths.

Model for youths.
US. If you give me one good model, I give you 10 bad models (like married politicians with outside affairs).
China. If you give me one bad model, I give you 10 good models.

Gun control.
US. Need guns for the wild, wild cities.
China. Thanks NRA for allowing us to sell them to your citizens.

View each other.
US. Job snatcher, banker.
China. Job provider, loaner.

My ridicule.
US. Nothing.
China. Me and my ridicule 'evaporate' from earth.

Father of China's rocketry

He passed away at 98.

The description of his life in Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qian_Xuesen or just click here.
I just finished a book on him by Iris Chang. It was translated from English to Chinese. A very fascinating life.

99.9% chance he was not a communist when he was in US. He was a dedicated scientist.

The joke of the century is the witch hunt of communists in US and drove Tsien back to China to help China to develop missiles. It speeds up China’s missile development by at least 10 years when China did not know how to build good bicycle.

Did Middle East and N.Korea benefit from his initial work?

The book mentioned one or two flaws in his life. I believe he needed to do to secure political stability and  funding for his work.

China and environment

Recently there have been some discussion on China’s rapid development, industrialization, increased pollution and destruction of environment such as deforestation.
China, as a developing country, can do so much. It has done its share so far. It is unfair to say China is the world polluter #1 or #2. You need to take out pollution due to production of goods for export. Then, you calculate pollution per capita. From this calculation, US is #1 and China is way, way down. China pollutes only 1/4 of US on per capita basis.

* It is #1 or #2 in most renewable energy such as solar, hydro and wind energy.
* China is blessed with coal, but lacks oil resource. Coal generates heat via burning the carbon and it can never be cleaned even with the best technology from the west/US, which can improve less carbon monoxide and acid-rain-causing SO2.
* The better quality of coal is in the north east. Transporting coal from this area to urban cities adds pollution. It is more effective with barges.
* Grid to distribute energy in China is primitive at best. It needs a lot of technology from the west/US plus its own development to exploit and copy/enhance the technology. Made In China on grid technology is idealistic but still has a long way to go.
Hydro and nuclear generators when strategically located would cut down the grid dependency and transportation of coal for certain area.

A wind farm is idle due to it is not connected to the grid.

* Nuclear generation is very aggressive, but it is a small percentage of the total output of energy. All are foreign technology. China copied and developed the pebble nuclear technology which is promising for safety/cost but its capacity is very limited.
* The priority to highways (auto) and some air transportation should take a back seat to public transportation such as subways, trains, HSR…The recent cut in gas subsidy is a good measure.

* It has transformed a small scale of semi desert to livable land in the north west. The big impact will be from the diversion of water from south to north/west. This semi desert will turn to oasis easier than real desert. Will see the cost/benefit.

* China has about 1/4 of the average water per capita and Bijing about 1/30.

How ironic the #1 polluter of the world (based on per capita) accuses China, which does not even make to the top 10?

Powerful word

What is ONE word to be accused of discrimination 5 times?

"Ugly"

to a ugly, old, black, fat lady.

It is not the 'word' but to 'whom' you speak to, no matter it is true or not.

My judgement on Mao

Celebration of 60th China.

This is my respond to a FM's post.

The following is my point of view of Mao as an overseas Chinese and I’m sure it will be quite different from Chinese in mainland.

* Interesting to compare Mao to Washington. I believe Washington had a easier time and he did not govern too long. His influence is far less than Mao to his citizens.

* ‘70 good and 30 bad’ is more political and would be sounded off from folks like Deng. The reverse (70% bad and 30% good) is more accurate for most historians I guess.

Mao is great in the beginning and poor in his governance and policy like purging the ‘rightist intellectuals’, Big Leap Forward (backward for me), Cultural Revolution (Counter-CR to me)…

It could be the Peter’s Principle – when some one becomes incompetent (governance in Mao’s case) when promoted from a position (founding China) s/he is competent.

He did raise the spirit of a nation (after hundreds of years of humiliation) while millions were starving to death.

My simple conclusion. Mao is a national hero with reservation and his time made him one. He has vision, talents… The folks surrounded him did not provide good guidance esp. in governance, or he did not want to listen to others’ opinions. Chou could have helped China more if he could influence Mao more. When Mao became semi God, he ignored that he would be judged harshly by history.

He has strengths and weaknesses of a human being. He should not get all the blame and glory. His advisors and his citizens should bear some of the blame.

All leaders should be judged by his benefits to his citizens and his nation's cultures. Based on this, I do not think Mao is a good leader even he is a national hero.

His era is a lesson for China, if not for the world.

Nobel 'Peace' Prize

Gladly we accept Nobel Prize for Obama.
For nothing he did during his nomination.

Potentially he holds the key for peace -
By not pressing the button to destroy the world with our nuclear weapons,
Or not sending the nuclear carrier to enforce his kingdom,
Or for buying peace with money like no tomorrow.

Practically Deng saved a million from starving every year.
Not a nomination nod for this short guy.

Not destroying is more important than saving life.
Or Black is a better color than Yellow.

Wake up, you idiot committee.

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According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize should be awarded to the person who:

“

during the preceding year [...] shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.[1]

”

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The Norwegians use 'Peace' Prize as a political tool to influence world affairs. Their yardstick is based on a rich country like Norway, so they oppose developing countries like China. The Prize should be given to where the credit is due. Period.

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Why China will have more Nobel science winners.

(Some stat from Joe)

* Education. 6 million college grade a year. 1.5 million kids studying aboard. 10 times. US science graduates including science PhDs.

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Why China will not have Nobel science winners soon.

* Education stressed on taking tests, not creative thinking (good and bad).

We do not have the space/guidance to do experiment when we're young. The most we did could be a simple radio. As a middle class, we never have to do any house work or use any machine/tool - the most I used is a screw driver once.

* Research facilities and faculties are just enhancing to the world standard.

* Effect of losing a generation of education due to Cultural Revolution is still with us, but hopefully disappears for ever.

Most top scientists are well-rounded and have good guidance from their family. Most are good in music, arts...

* Like Japan, pure research is too costly. Concentrate the effort on commercial products.

* Judging from the age of science recipients, it takes about 15 more years for China's scientists to be in the frontier stage of research.

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Interesting but arguable facts.

* Dali Lama is the only one born and educated in China to receive a Nobel prize if he is considered a Chinese citizen.

* The Chinese writer winner is a French citizen and his works are censored in China.

(The above two are most likely political as the committee wants to give prizes to the enemies of China.)

* The current Nobel winner is from Hong Kong. He is not educated for early education in China then and a Chinese citizen by takeover.

* The Chinese winners who are citizens of foreign countries should be counted as 50% Chinese at most - I estimate about 70% of science PhDs in US were born in foreign countries.

* The second generation of Chinese winners who were born in a foreign country should be counted as 25% Chinese - just for the family education from their Chinese parents.

Tang Monk

Buddhism is the most respected religion to me. Compared to the ever-lasting religious wars between Christians and Muslims, Buddhism is pretty tame. However, we have conflicts in Tibet and at least two leaders (Canton and HK) live in rich folks’ style with drivers for their expensive cars. There must be some rules against this kind of life style.

I am reading a book on the historical event of the Tang Monk’s Journey to the West. It is written by a modern scholar commenting and with some educated guesses. It is fascinating. The book’s ISBN 978-986-6873-48-5 in traditional Chinese. I found the following.

* The ancient text was written about 1,400 years ago. We can still understand most of the text and almost 100% with the author’s comments and occasional educated guesses. The author needs to translate the modern terms for city names, nations, local terms at the time…

* Ancient language is short. It could be due to the expensive paper and ink (or bamboo and carving at earlier time). It must be more enjoyable at their time. I guess we only have modern way in writing in longer and easier to understand form in Qing time.

* Ancient China has record history over 2,000 years ago I guess but not so in many ancient civilizations like India. Tang monk translated the Hindi text to Chinese. Now, India translated back the same text to Indian language so they can understand the history, culture and geography at that time.

Thanks for our heritage!

* The facts and wisdom of Tang monk are quite different what were described in the popular friction, which is one of our top four literature classics.

* Ancient India is quite advanced. The Arabian numbers actually was invented in India. We call it Arabian as it is the country that passed the idea to Europe. If we do not progress, we let others pass us by and India is a good example.

* Most likely, most modern musical instruments were invented in Middle East and passed to Europe, India and China which have their own individual modifications. Just from the book.

—- thanks for reading my book report and I hope my teacher would give me a passing grade —–