Posts by Chris Waugh
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Judith Collins seems to have learned really well on her trip to China last year. Frame it as going after something nobody disagrees with, but phrase it to cover a wide variety of stuff you might want prefer wasn't out there, classic CCP move. Yes, we do need to keep a close eye on her.
And:
But do the lefties who wanted Al Nisbet’s unpleasant, unfunny newspaper cartoons put down with the full force of law have any moral high ground of their own here?
No, they don't.
-
Hard News: A plea for sanity on the…, in reply to BenWilson,
Oh, just thought of Tiantongyuan, on the northern outskirts of Beijing. Apparently it's the world's largest subdivision. Anyways, it's huge. I've only ever passed through, but it looks ok if you can tolerate ridiculous rush hour traffic that even sees queues stretching hundreds of metres just to get in the subway station. To the south is suburban Beijing stretching in to the city, the other three sides are the usual semi-rural, semi-light industrial urban fringe. Doubt I'd enjoy living there, it looks like high-density gone malignant.
-
Hard News: A plea for sanity on the…, in reply to BenWilson,
So he’s in a very densely populated area that somehow seems to have very little soul. How much of the city is like this?
Sounds strange. I can imagine some of the farther flung housing developments being a bit like that, but mostly because they're too new to have developed any character or soul or community. I have seen an area on the southern edge of Daxing in the exurban south of Beijing that is a bit like that, but it's alongside a highway, has regular bus service, some local services (shops, schools, etc) and a large park and is 1km north of the Wild Animal Park (so if you're bored and can't be bothered going far, go play with the lions... um... well, it's a pretty cool park, anyway). Some of the farther flung developments along the old Beijing-Tianjin highway seem very similar, as does where my brother in law lives on the eastern edge of Yanjiao - he's got a big coal-fired power station over the road. But then again, there are at least basic local services, there is public transport, and it's not far to more exciting stuff. Where I lived in the heavy industrial western edge of Taiyuan about, umm, 12-ish years ago was kinda the opposite. It had stacks of character if you like coal, steam engines still being used industrially, steel foundries, and the like. The buses came once every half hour along the main road that was really just a long, thin gap between the buildings that felt like it hadn't been maintained since the Xinhai Revolution, but minibuses and illegal motorbike taxis filled the gaps, or I could walk through a slum for 10 minutes and then be in a slightly nicer residential area. There wasn't much in the way of shops or restaurants, let alone anything more interesting, but enough that I had all the necessities of life within a 5 minute wander. Certainly wasn't hard to get out and do stuff, anyways. I've certainly never seen anywhere in China where you've needed your own transport - everywhere I've been even a bicycle is just a little extra convenience. Out here in my wife's home village we have easy, convenient public transport - although this village is far from remote, and that certainly isn't the case in all of rural China. Still, all the rural areas I've seen have had public transport of some form or another nearish enough. We only got a car when my wife got pregnant. We don't need it, but it does make travelling with child a lot easier - especially getting to and from the village. Among other things, we didn't really like the idea of standing in the Chinese New Year rush home queue for the bus to Yanqing on the shady side of Deshengmen in mid winter trying to keep the wee one warm.
China's cities seem to have a "love them or hate them" thing going. When I was in Tianjin half the expats I knew loved Tianjin, the other half wished they were in Beijing (I was the only one who did anything about that, though - the others just sat in Ali Baba's bar whingeing then jumped on the train out soon as they could on the weekend). Many of us in Beijing and Shanghai fall victim to the local rivalries - us Beijingers loathe Shanghai and Tianjin, the Shanghailanders swear Shanghai is paradise in earth and scorn the dusty, barren Northern Capital. But even so, Chinese cities tend to either have you falling in love with them or hating them, sometimes both. I remember one woman who said she loved Beijing, but couldn't cope with it for more than 6 months, it was just too intense. I feel a similar way about downtown Hong Kong - I can imagine me living on Lantau riding the ferry in to work in Central (perhaps living in the New Territories and commuting by MTR, but that's just nowhere near as cool as riding a ferry to work), but I don't think I could live in Kowloon or the north shore of Hong Kong Island.
Anyway, my China experience has me contradictorally dreaming of having our own backyard for my wee one to run around in and swearing by the advantages of urban density. Suburban sprawl just doesn't seem to help build healthy, vibrant communities.
-
Hard News: A plea for sanity on the…, in reply to J Browning,
we live in a different world now
Not really. Science and technology have advanced, ideologies spouted by the ruling classes have changed, but people remain people. You can learn as much about modern society from ancient Greek, Chinese and other classics as any modern writing.
If so few people visit their elderly, get to know their neighbours or pick up litter we need to ask why. People still need the same community our ancestors always did, so why are they so disconnected? Perhaps the answers to that question could be the cult of the individual and consumerism and Prosperity Doctrine - both in the evangelical Christian version and the secular consumerist edition - that have predominated in public discourse for so long. There's nothing wrong with owning stuff or being rich, but there's something better in being actively engaged in one's community. But you know that, being active as you are in a variety of community groups.
I don't think this argument entirely belongs elsewhere because my experience suggests community functions better in a denser environment. Where I live in southeastern downtown Beijing all green space is communal. Some people have walled off small areas to grow their own flowers or even food, but there is no "tragedy of the commons" - the elderly, the kids, parents/caregivers of young babies and their charges, etc gather in the communal areas and hangout, swap gossip/news/advice, help each other out... y'know, what neighbours in a healthy community do. Similar things happen up where I am today in my wife's home village, but in wider spaces, it being the countryside. I struggle to see how that could happen in the car-dependent sprawl this current National government seems to think is the only way to go.
-
Hard News: A plea for sanity on the…, in reply to J Browning,
Well done; you seem to be illustrating my point quite nicely on your own.
I'm sorry, but your point seems rather confused to me. The story I linked to would seem to show the opposite of individualism - people engaging with their community and working to help those less fortunate than themselves, not because they can profit from it, but it's because what people, being social animals, do.
Nobody's pretending to be all one big happy family, but:
most people in our city don’t even know who they live next door to, let alone who lives on the other side of town.
is a serious problem that can be easily remedied by dropping all the individualist nonsense we've been fed since 1984 and re-engaging with each other.
-
Hard News: A plea for sanity on the…, in reply to Jim Welch,
Just because some people are selfish doesn’t mean everyone is.
Exactly. And what really leaped out at me from that story:
"It is great that the Government is stepping in but we need to help our own communities too. That's the way life used to be and somehow we've lost track of that," says Farrelly. "I hope people can look at what has happened at Randwick Park School and be inspired to find the people around them who need help.
[my emphasis]
-
Misty morning, Yanqing County.
-
And the Herald has noticed, too. Congratulations.
-
Hard News: A plea for sanity on the…, in reply to J Browning,
Most people care about themselves and themselves alone…
Speak for yourself. Last I checked humans were still very much social animals and naturally put the needs of the group ahead of those of the individual. Individualism, to put it politely, is the aberration.
-
Capture: Autumn lite, in reply to Geoff Lealand,
I thought it had been taken over by the Theosophical Society, to whatever strange things they do behind locked gates.
We draw inspiration from the great philosophies and religious traditions from around the world including the Platonic tradition, the Judaeo-Christian and especially Vedic teachings which seem to enlighten all the traditions.
The aim is to discover and realise the truth about one’s self and the unity that lies within creation. This study leads to the conclusion that all religions and philosophies reflect differing aspects of the one truth. There is no need to leave behind one’s own tradition.Hmmm....
