Jason is not always right

Two things will drive me crazy watching the Olympics this year:

1) The worldwide Media is going to paint a picture of an ugly China.  Every injustice and social issue that china has will be spotlighted one by one as if each one was the beginning of the end of the world.  (I am not saying that the problems are real.)  Sensationalistic news reporting will be at it’s best.  I am going to kick the next person I hear call China, “Red” China in the shins, hard.

2) Domestic media will paint a picture of China that is perfect.  Every single injustice and social issue that does exist and plague the Chinese people will be swept under a humongous Olympic-sized rug.  Thousands of Chinese with smiling faces and full stomachs will sing a thousand praises to communism, Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping and the great Motherland.

I don’t blame China for their biased media and I don’t blame the national media (NBC) for wanting to give their audience a good show.  I just know I am going to wrythe and squirm every time I see a blatently exaggerated or half-truth reported to the world as reality.  The world is ignorant and will eat it up.

So I have no problem with being green.  Okay, that is a lie.  I have a lot of problems with how people “attempt” to be green, but overall I think I side with Captain Planet.  But there is a huge lingering problem with the whole thing, and it all boils down to this question:  What does green mean?

I am in the office chair manufacturing and design business, and in our industry “green” is in.  But it is new.  No one really knows what they are talking about when they say they attain this mystic goal.  If they do know what they are talking about, you can assume the person or people they are talking to really don’t know what they are talking about, or the definition of “green” is different for the both of them.  In our industry you are green if you are certified green.  But which certification?  There are a half dozen already floating around out there.  They all show that you are trying to be green, but do they really prove that you are green?  And what does that even mean?

To illustrate the point, I introduce the following excerpt from an article in the Taiwan Review on solar energy:

In February this year, Taiwanese company E-TON Solar completed installation of solar panels that provide power for London’s City Hall. The total installed capacity of E-TON’s panels now equals some 50,000 kilowatt hours each year–or 1.5 percent–of the building’s electrical needs. That may not sound like much, but it will prevent more than 28,000 kilograms of carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants from entering the atmosphere each year. Moreover, the project demonstrated the feasibility of retrofitting uniquely designed buildings with solar cells, a task that was not easy given the structure’s domed roof and “eyelash” shading system.

50,000 kilowatt hours each year equals 1.5% of the building out-put, correct?  So that means that 3,333,333 kilowatt hours of energy are consumed by that building every year.  And using solar panels is saving 50,000.  Great, I think…  Who in the world even knows what that means!  I am not stupid, but I guarantee the average American (British, Taiwanese etc…) does not have a clear grasp on what that number means.  Now to my favorite example.  The article goes on to explain that by saving 50,000 kilowatts of energy every year, although a mere 1.5% of the buildings consumption, 28,000 kilograms of carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels are spared from being spewed out into the atmosphere.  Now who, without lying can really say they have any idea what that means?!  28,000 kilograms eh?  I think I ate that much gummy candy back in high school, but I can’t remember.  I don’t think the labels were in kilograms back then.

My point (if there is one mixed in all the sarcasm of the above paragraph) is that if we are really going to make a difference (regular people that is) we need to be a) speaking the same language, and b) using metrics that make sense to the lay-person.

BEIJING (AP) - In a matter of days, hundreds of thousands of visitors from more than 100 countries will flood into China’s capital, where non-Chinese faces are still a rarity in some neighborhoods.

The Beijing Olympics will be the largest gathering of foreigners in China in recent history - the biggest foreign influx since the Mongol invasion - and a social experiment of sorts for a country that is overwhelmingly monochromatic.

Having been to China a few times and living in Taiwan for a couple years, I can relate to the “white foreigner in China” reaction from many Chinese who have not had the opportunity to get up close-and-personal with foreigners.  Although in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai where there are literally millions of foreigners, there will not be much “surprise” for most Chinese.  Plus, most tourists, even the most daring don’t linger far from the “tourist friendly” areas of any part of China.

This will however be a very interesting social experiment, as the AP aticle linked to below states.  Foreigners, especially Europeans and Americans are used to being able to do whatever they want when they want, and you can’t so that in China.  Traffic is a good example.  In the U.S., when an idiot, or an airhead wanders into the street into oncoming traffic, cars stop.  Red lights, stop signs, these things are followed for the most part.  They hardly mean anything in China.  Stepping out into traffic in China WILL get you to a hospital quickly.  Traffic is only a part of it, an example of the differences between East and West.  There are much more important and serious things that can get an ignorant Westerner in trouble.

Not to be a downer, most of the interaction should be nothing more than a lot of fun.  I wish I could be there to take it all in.

Source: Beijing Readies for Influx of Foreign Visitors, AP

People will always seek after their own best interest.  I love to see developing countries succeed and grow.  As I see China grow economically at a frenetic pace, I cheer them on from the side-lines.  In my own experiences, the act of being a cheerleader sometimes blurs my vision.  I am usually quick to jump to the defense of the Chinese government and their un-American way of doing some things.  I usually prescribe to the two steps forward, one step back philosophy of progress.  When people ask me what I think about all of the injustices of China’s social restrictions and lack of personal freedom, I sometimes turn a blind-eye to individual rights and focus only on the good of the country as a whole.  I believe in a balance between the two.  (With a little more weight leaning towards individual freedoms.)  This brings-up the main question from the article I found in the Jakarta Post today.

“Independence is a psychological issue. Liberty is a spiritual issue. It is the freedom to evolve without any intervention from anybody.”

“The urban Chinese in the mainland of China today are more prosperous than ever before. But are they free to evolve psychologically and spiritually? They are confronted with the state ideology of communism as the sole yardstick.”

Yes, the people of China are far better-off than they were 20 years ago.  However, I would also say the people of China could be much better-off if their government worried about them, and not JUST their GDP.

How free does wearing Nike, driving Mercedes and playing golf make you if you have to trade religion, freedom of expression and a say in governement to get it?  Governement wants you to think that psychological independance can be had without “actual” independance, but I am not so sure.  I know a lot of educated people in China that, at least on the outside, seem to be okay with giving-up certain freedoms for economic growth and prosperity.  But the more we talk about the loss of those freedoms, the more they seem to talk themselves out of the propaganda ingrained responses and share their real feelings.  I can only imagine what the Chinese people who are currently along for the ride (as long as the economy is scorching, you can have our freedoms!) will say and do when China runs into it’s next inevitable mini-slump or mini recession.

Indonesia’s independence: An unfinished business

Although if I knew more about US politics I probably would have formed an opinion on Nancy Pelosi much earlier, but with her comments of late, it is quite easy to make-up my mind and be judgmental. I write that I hate judgemental people, but when you say something so bizzarely stupid (allowing people to assme you really are stupid) perhaps you deserve to be judged.

“Pelosi, who made her bones in national politics on the issue of human rights in China, says “the games should go on,” and that if the decision is ultimately made by the president and other world leaders to lend their “aura” to the ceremonies then they get some “change” from the Chinese in return.”

As I read through this article linked to below as well as a half dozen other similar posts I could only think to do the following: To my friends in China and every other country on the face of the earth for that matter, I apologize for the severe ignorance of a handful of our countries leaders. Please just try and laugh-off our inability to act like real humans. You must understand that we are in our own little world over here in North America protected by our ignorance. You won’t have to worry about “Big Dumb America” for too much longer, because at this rate our country will suck pretty soon and no one will even care what we say.

source: http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/04/09/872055.aspx

Disclaimer: Whenever I write or say something like this I always have “concerned” friends contact me and make sure I am ok, and remind me that America is really a blessed land. I agree, but that does not make it infallible. I also agree that China has issues of its own that are serious issues and should be addressed. But there is a right and a wrong way for the US to “help,” as we like to call it. This is a venting post. I hope you don’t mind.