Monday morning I will meet with the Travel Clinic doctor at Concord Hospital so that I can get any last minute immunizations. I hope to see the Three Gorges area of the Yangtze and Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai while I am over there. I may even go to Thailand and Mongolia, but did not put this on my form.
I have made plane reservations that will bring me from Boston to San Francisco for $149.65 on February 2; from San Francisco to Seoul, South Korea for $576.20 on February 6 (leaving SFO on Feb. 5); and from Seoul to Chanchun, China--my final destination--for $366.15 on February 11. That seems reasonable.
This morning I read the chapter called "Money" in Peter Hessler's book, River Town. Everybody in China was very open about money and discussed their salaries, rent, etc. very openly when Hessler was there. I am comfortable saying that it is more than a month's salary for me to get myself to China for this experience and new job! (Maybe a year from now this Yankee will be even more forthcoming.)
The yuan goes a long way. A very good lunch for four people can be had for ten US dollars in Changchun.
My driveway in Concord, NH, goes slightly down hill toward the street between two late nineteenth century duplexes. As I rolled toward the street, suddenly a hawk appeared and he screeched to a halt mid-air, slipping above my car just in time...or so I thought. The dashboard was covered with tiny, downy feathers. I stopped the car to see if the bird was okay. I looked back up into the part of our driveway where the cars park. No sign of the hawk. I looked again and he had landed with another bird in his talons. This was all the explanation that I needed. As I walked toward him, he lumbered off to my neighbor's yard.
A couple weeks ago as a friend and I drove up the dirt road that leads to Knights' Pond in Alton, an Owl swooped down crossing a few yards in front of our car.
The Chinese together with the Romans saw the Owl as the bird of ill-omen. In China the Owl was common in burial ceramics of the Han-dynasty, which was contemporary with the Roman Empire and to which the Chinese had extensive trade relations. [1]
In China, it is a lucky sign to see or hear songbirds or red-colored birds or Swallows. [2]
Though held in esteem in China, where peacocks were once kept as symbols of status and wealth by the ruling families, the peacock receives only scorn from the rest of the world. [3]
In Asia, Cranes are symbols of longevity and immortality. The White Crane can fly to the heavens and it is a Chinese symbol for "wisdom" and is sometimes called the "heavenly" or "blessed" Crane. Cranes were vehicles of the gods and in China fly them to the "Isle of the Immortals", the legendary home of the eight immortals. A Crane's eggs were used in magic potions to grant eternal life upon its drinkers. [4]
Should I subscribe meaning to my experience this morning with the Cooper's Hawk or with the Owl?
This blog will become more of a travel journal after I get on a plane to San Francisco on February 2. In the meantime, I will try to help you learn about China through some of the sources that I am exploring. I am half way through Peter Hessler's River Town and about a tenth of the way into John Pomfret's Chinese Lessons. The former is edifying and the latter, a terrifying account of the Cultural Revolution's victims. Hessler writes for the New Yorker. Pomfret is an interesting journalist who writes for the Washington Post.
The biggest lessons from Hessler are a) don't look in the Kleenex in a country where one in four people die of lung disease and b) it is possible for a cab driver to honk in excess of 500 times during a fifteen minute trip. As an opponent to Hydro-Quebec's developments and a life-long opponent of large dam projects, his section on the antediluvian Yangtze River is fascinating and insightful. This is a place that I plan to visit.
I wanted to share this with you, too, from Bill McKibben's interview in Grist with James Hansen:
BM: There are also a lot of people who say that it doesn't matter what the United States does, because China now has the greatest emissions and its emissions are growing the fastest.
JH: China is taking the right steps to move toward carbon-free energy. They are now number one in the world in production of clean energy technologies: solar power, wind power, and nuclear power. Also, China stands to suffer greatly from global climate change because China has several hundred million people living near sea level and the country is already experiencing large damaging regional climate disasters.
There is no doubt that China will want to move rapidly toward clean carbon-free energies. When the United States realizes that it must impose an internal fee on carbon emissions, it should not be difficult to get China to agree to do the same.
Also, it is important to recognize that the United States is responsible for three times more of the excess (human-made) carbon dioxide in the air today than any other nation, with China being second. [My emphasis.] The much greater responsibility for accumulated human-made emissions is true despite the fact that China's population is three times greater than the United States'. So there is no reason to expect China to act first to reduce emissions.
However, there are advantages in beginning to act rapidly. China is investing heavily in clean energies, and it is likely that they will recognize the merits of imposing an internal carbon price to spur development and implementation of clean energies. The United States risks becoming second-class technologically and economically this century if it does not stop subsidizing dirty technologies and instead move toward progressive policies such as fee and green check, which will stimulate development of clean energies.
Dr. James Hansen is the director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Adjunct Professor at the Columbia University Earth Institute. Bill McKibben is an American environmentalist and writer who frequently writes about global warming and alternative energy and advocates for more localized economies. I wrote my college thesis about him and his family and he serves on the Board of Advisers for Project Laundry List.
A piece that was part eulogy, part editorial ran in today's Nashua Telegraph, written by veteran environmental reporter, David Brooks. In it, he bares his soul,
I confess that despite my willingness to spend time and money on home efficiency – including installing a solar water heater on the roof long before the state gave rebates for it, which has helped cut our electricity use in half over four years – my household is a PLL failure. We haven’t reduced our dryer use at all.
Hauling wet clothes downstairs and outdoors is such a hassle and hanging them on a line inside the (largely unheated) guest room next to the washroom dries them so slowly that I’ve occasionally had to rewash cotton T-shirts that started smelling musty.
Those are feeble excuses; after all, my little old grandmother dried clothes on a line all her life. Laziness has won out, I fear.
If Project Laundry List sticks around and gets stronger, though, maybe it will convince me.
I am all full of piss and vinegar as I read this epitaph. It is an epitaph not so much for Project Laundry List, but for a nation that has seen "the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness."
As I head to China, where the government sometimes just tells you what to do imperially and imperiously, I must say that I am tired of the Project Laundry List approach that I have tirelessly espoused--the "positive approach to change" baloney; the no guilt trip for you; it is all about choices, honey, and you are doing some good things for which we are very proud of you.
Only in a country where everybody is supposedly accepted and free (everybody's mind is so open, their brains are falling out) would a whole branch of psychology develop to look at social marketing and behavioral economics. Only in a nation oblivious to the most obvious of inconvenient truths would there be an annual conference put on by ACEEE that deals with tactics for behavior change. When is it going to be all right to say, you know what you need to do, dammit, stop with the excuses and get to work? I hope that day is coming.
One of the things I plan to do when I am in China is visit Three Gorges. My interest in Three Gorges Dam arises out of my long-term interest in Hydro-Quebec's large dam projects in North America. I first started paying attention in 1991, when I was an eleventh grader at Phillips Exeter Academy.
This past Sunday evening, a friend of mine and I watched Still Life (2006). It was fascinating. I was at the premier of Up the Yangtze (2007) in Montreal at the Canadian Film Board. My friends are making a movie about the Romaine River (next on HQ's chopping block) and there is already a tribute to Mike Robinson, a colleague of mine from Keewaydin-Temagami.
Tomorrow, I plan to speak with Peter Bosshard, the Policy Director at International Rivers, who has just returned from Europe. There are a lot of reasons to be concerned about large dams. Here is one big one:
…Fan Xiao, chief engineer of the Sichuan Geology and Mineral Bureau, told the South China Morning Post that landslides are inevitable because elevated water levels significantly increasing the internal moisture of surrounding banks, making them soft, loose and unpredictable.
"It's like dipping a piece of bread in milk. The deeper you go, the more difficult it is to hold on," Fan said. Yong, a Sichuan-based geologist, clarifies Fan's warning:, "When the dam reaches 574 feet (the capacity mark achieved Tuesday), it will push the region's geological instability to the fringe of catastrophe." [Source: ThirdAge.com]
I hope that I learn a lot about their dams and proposed hydroelectric projects while I am in China. As one friend of mine joked, now that I have been on the front page of The Union Leader for my dam work, it is really time to get out of the Granite State!
My blog is only a couple weeks old and already the religious fanatics in Amerika are trying to breathe fire on what I am doing. See Resisting the Green Dragon: A Biblical Response to One of the Greatest Deceptions of Our Day. I look forward to living in a nation where I can quietly practice my Catholic faith without the blather of these lunatics interfering with my appreciation of the Creation and our Blessed Savior, Jesus Christ Our Lord. [Note: This video is not actually a response to my blog.]
I am planning to spend some time with my friend Paul in Seoul, South Korea. He is a devout Christian and sent me a PowerPoint with this message:
It is very pleased to be known you so far. The Lord be with your new adventure in China. Let's keep in touch and someday we may meet each other... Enclosed pls find my spiritual life story. It is my personal gift to you heartedly. Grace and peace from God, Savior and Lord, be to you always.
I can stomach this sort of devotion to God, but not this group's nonsense. Maybe this is what the Chinese are guarding against?
+ + +
Since the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949 by the Communist Party of China, Catholicism, like all religions, has only been legally permitted to operate under the supervision of the state. All worship must legally be conducted through State-approved churches belonging to the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, which does not accept the primacy of the Roman Pontiff.
The Chinese Constitution reads:
Article 36. Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of religious belief. No state organ, public organization or individual may compel citizens to believe in, or not to believe in, any religion; nor may they discriminate against citizens who believe in, or do not believe in, any religion. The state protects normal religious activities. No one may make use of religion to engage in activities that disrupt public order, impair the health of citizens or interfere with the educational system of the state. Religious bodies and religious affairs are not subject to any foreign domination.
Which do you think has greater religious tolerance and freedom, China or the United States? Is the Rosary a normal religious activity? Is making a movie about climate change a normal religious activity and/or does it interfere with the educational system of the state?
The last time that I moved and began a new job was in February 2002. My first day of work required that I fly to DC and meet my boss, former Commissioner Nancy Brockway, at a National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners conference in Washington, DC. It was Valentine's Day, 2002.
My job at Perfect English in Changchun will begin on Valentine's Day, as well, with an all day training. I have been asked to read a book on learning English as a second language and nearly everybody that I speak to recommends Peter Hessler's River Town. I watched an hour of the BBC's Wild China with a friend on Monday evening. It was Programme 4: Beyond the Great Wall. The imagery, the people, the depictions of the fierce climate along the Silk Road left me breathless. I am certainly flying off into the Middle Kingdom. Luckily there is a guide to life and teaching there.
I am getting some CDs from Irene Rawlings that will give me a cursory introduction to the complexities of Mandarin. What else should I be reading and watching and thinking about?
