John Fitzpatrick. About New China, the Koreas, Myanmar, Thailand, and also about Japanese and Chinese writers and poets. The main emphasis is on North Asia and the political tectonics of this very important, powerful, and many-peopled area.
Saturday, 4 March 2017
In general, in First World or other states, for quite awhile, no one has been very upset about people who do extremely well...good luck to them...but since the crash GFC2008 onwards the situation has changed...and it has changed to the extent that the CEO of Uber can berate one of his own drivers for not having the right skills to do anything better, for not going to the right school, for not having the right connections etc and thus having to be a dickhead worthless cunt driver...and the opinion of the CEO is quite common amongst the Achievers. In real life, apart from some passing angst and a form of respect, no one cares if you do well or poorly because it doesn't matter, and you don't matter to them...but as the elite grow more greedy, and resources designed to meet your needs are stripped away for the benefit of the few, then there comes great social trouble.There has to. As has been noted, people didn't vote for Brexit or for Trump because it was a good idea, they voted that way because they were desperate...and better to take to the streets with a vote than a gun, for now.
Living in Thailand during the last rebellion there, it was interesting to note how little we actually need government. The government had been kicked out of 'government house' or parliament and the place was taken over by rebels for about 6 months. The government folk, from Prime Minister down, just either had holidays or worked from home or from offices at the airport (handy) and nothing actually happened. The Government certainly wasn't going to raid or storm the rebels with police, armies or SWAT teams, because if they did, someone would get hurt...and Thais love Thais and taking over the buildings etc is an acceptable form of the expression of democratic freedom.If one accepts that an actual government is just a bunch of people who aren't totally important, then things just go along as things do. Mind you, eventually the rebels went home and the army took over but very few folk were hurt, which is the main thing. Imagine that scenario in China, London or New York...the personages and the importances of the government is so ridiculously delusionally self-important, that many would have been killed and many more hurt. What kind of sick society would do that to its own people?
When folk from Shanghai meet, they often give a very slight nod of the head as acknowledgment to each other. When people from Shanghai point at something, they just point at something, as we do. When folk from Beijing meet, they often give a slight rise to their head in acknowledgment of the other, they don't nod. Basically, they 'nod up' in recognition rather than down. When people from Beijing point at something, their finger goes from their chin to the direction, showing that they have thought about it.
It is not easy to be 'on time' in Melbourne. There is traffic, although not of the bizarre nature of 'who gives a fxxk Sydney Transit Management'. This desire to be 'on time' means that people try really hard to be on time and 7.15pm on Tuesday means exactly 7.15 pm on Tuesday. North of Cairns 7.15pm on Tuesday could, in fact, mean any Tuesday within about a month...but here it means exactly 7.15pm on this Tuesday. Culture...dear me...when I hear the word Culture...
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