China Politburo Civics: How it Works, Kind of

Mssrs. Who, When, Woo, She and, of course, the Lees 

The Politburo is nominally appointed by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China but the practice since the 1980s has been that the Politburo is self-perpetuating. The Politburo consists of 24 people and nine of them sit on the Standing Committee. These nine people are very powerful and control most of what happens in China.

Mr. Hu (pronounced Who)

Mr. Hu Jintao is the General Secretary and Chairman of the CPC Central Military Commission. Since the abolition of the post Chairman of the Communist Party of China in 1982, the General Secretary has been the highest ranking official of the party and heads the Secretariat, Politburo of the Party and its Standing Committee.

Since its founding, the most important position in the PRC has been that of the General Secretary (known as Chairman before 1982). The Communist party and its leader hold ultimate power and authority over state and government.

Recently, the General Secretary has held the authority of Paramount leader in China. Also, China is a single-party state that General Secretary holds the highest political position ranking in the PRC, which is the most powerful position in the Chinese government.

Mr. Wen (pronounced When)

Mr. Wen Jiabao is the Premier and the Party Secretary of the State Council of the People's Republic of China. The Premier is the highest administrative position in the Government of the People's Republic of China. The Premier is responsible for organizing and administering the Chinese civil bureaucracy. This includes overseeing the various ministries, departments, commissions and statutory agencies and announcing their candidacies to the National People's Congress for Vice-Premiers, State Councillors and ministry offices. Apparently, the Premier does not have authority over the People's Liberation Army, but the Premier is the Head of the National Defense Mobilization Committee of China which is a department of armed forces redeployment. In recent years, there has been a division of responsibilities between the Premier and the General Secretary of CPC wherein the Premier is responsible for the technical details of implementing government policy while the General Secretary gathers the political support necessary for government policy.

Mr. Wu (pronounced Woo)

Mr. Wen is the third ranked official, though. Mr. Wu Bangguo, who we seldom hear about, is the second highest official. He serves as Party Secretary and Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. He serves as China's top legislator and was preceded by Li Peng.

Mr. Peng's daughter, Li Xiaolin, is a current legislator and the center of some recent controversy for a controversial proposal she made that was juxtaposed by a blogger with her wearing a US$1,990 pink pantsuit from Emilio Pucci. Her proposal? Establish a "morality file" on each citizen so as to “discipline everyone and make sure everyone has a sense of shame.” Currently, she is the only female CEO of a Hong Kong Stock Exchange-listed company, China Power International Development (SEHK: 2380). In 2009, CPID acquired 63% equity interests in Wu Ling Power making hydro 18.73% of its total installed capacity, the highest of any of the Chinese independent power producers. This protects the company from the costs of coal power in China, and makes its overall profile cleaner.

In November 2012, the 18th Politburo Standing Committe (PSC) will take office. If previous precedent is followed, seven of the current PSC members will retire having exceeded the age of 67. Only Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang are expected to retain their seats.

Mr. Xi (pronounced She)

Xi Jinping, part of a group of "princelings" or the clique called the Crown Prince Party, is expected to take the position currently held by Mr. Hu Jintao. His recent, high-profile trips abroad to numerous nations, including the United States, all but assure that he will take the reigns later this year.

Xi married Ke Lingling in the early 1980s. After about 3 years, they were divorced, due to personality clashes. Xi married the famous Chinese folk singer Peng Liyuan (彭丽媛) in 1987.

Peng Liyuan, a household name in China, was much better known to the public than Xi until his political elevation. The couple frequently live apart due to their largely separate lives. They are sometimes considered China's emerging star political couple. They have a daughter named Xi Mingze (习明泽), who enrolled as a freshman at Harvard University in the Fall of 2010 under a pseudonym.

Mr. Li (pronounced Lee)

Li Keqiang is currently Deputy Party Secretary and first-ranked Vice-Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China and is predicted to assume Mr. Wen's positions come November.

The Xi-Li administration is likely to be dominated by two factions.  Hu Jintao's Communist Youth League faction and the Crown Prince Party (or "Princelings") are seen to be the two dominant factions within the leadership.

In an article by Cheng Li of the Brookings Institution, four additional individuals have more or less secured their membership in the next PSC: Vice Premier Wang Qishan, Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang, Organization Department head Li Yuanchao, and Propaganda Department head Liu Yunshan.

Other prominent figures that are speculated to be top figures in the 5th generation include newly-appointed Chongqing Party Chief Zhang Dejiang, Shanghai Party Chief Yu Zhengsheng, Guangdong Party Chief Wang Yang, Tianjin Party Chief Zhang Gaoli, State Councilor Liu Yandong, Secretary General of the State Council Ma Kai, Chief of the General Office of Communist Party Ling Jihua, Minister of Public Security Meng Jianzhu, and Hebei Party Chief Zhang Qingli.

Many people believed that Mr. Bo Xilai would also join this elite group. Mr. Bo has experienced some political setbacks over the last several days that have garnered international attention. They may be the subject of a subsequent post.

Vanzetti is Dead!

I am feeling a little like a bad dad. It was with some trepidation that I decided last week to enter the group of people who enslave animals for their own enjoyment (i.e., become a pet owner). Now, it seems my ineptitude and lack of training as a fish father has cost the life of my littlest one. Vanzetti is dead.

Who was Vanzetti? Vanzetti was a fishmonger born in Villafalletto, Cuneo province, Piemonte region, Italy, and arrived in the United States at age twenty. His last words:

I would not wish to a dog or to a snake, to the most low and misfortunate creature of the earth–I would not wish to any of them what I have had to suffer for things that I am not guilty of. But my conviction is that I have suffered for things that I am guilty of. I am suffering because I am a radical and indeed I am a radical; I have suffered because I am an Italian and indeed I am an Italian...if you could execute me two times, and if I could be reborn two other times, I would live again to do what I have done already.

I am sorry, Vanzetti. 

A Smattering of Chinese Experiences

The Adorable Chinese Student 


Yesterday, I had coffee with an International Baccalaureate math teacher who works at the same school as I. She is in a sling because she hurt her harm. I asked her if her students ever teased her and she looked shocked. "No," she said. "They offer to carry my books and are very respectful." 


Hearing this, I pulled a note from my pocket that I had received at the end of class on Wednesday. I arrived for the Wednesday class a few minutes early to locate the classroom because it was my first time teaching this particular class. Once in the courtyard of the school, I asked a girl whether Class 28 was on the first floor of Building A or the third floor of Building B. Admitting that she was not really sure, she sent me in the wrong direction which had the only consequence of requiring me to walk a little farther--soemthing this almost 40 year-old body does not resent.


At the end of the class, the girl presented me with a really good piece of candy and a note that read as follows, "Sorry for giving you the wrong direction! I'm a student of Grade 3 [equivalent to a high school senior in America] and I must have remembered the class arrangement of grade 1 wrong. Wish that I didn't cause that much trouble. (I told the students to find you the moment I found I was wrong, did they find you in time?) My apology again~ Here's a "map". {MAP} Wish that may be of help. Have a nice day. [Smiley face] Sincerely, Amy."

Gold Fish, My New Friends!

I have five new pets. Niccolo and Dante are the bottom-feeders; Sacco & Vanzetti are the pair of bright red fish; Sophia is the beautiful, elegant black one with a fan-tail; and, finally, there is Ursula, who is quite gorgeous in her own right. You will be hearing a lot more about the adventures of this new Italian naval force in the coming days. They were purchased at a huge market that has countless tea shops in the basement and hundreds of exotic flowers for sale on the second floor. The first floor is an assortment of fish-tanks, fishbowls, fish gear, and fish that would blow the average mind.

You can see this fish bowl that I bought which is 26 cm high and 42 cm in diameter. It was made in a famous place and fired dozens of times as they added color after color. More details coming in a subsequent post.


Snow Removal: "The Chinese Really Like to Dig"

There was a man who lived in Changchun for a while who liked to say all sorts of dreadful things about the Chinese. One of his favorite expressions was, "The Chinese really like to dig." With this generalization, I might be forced to agree if only because of the large amount of digging that I have witnessed.

You may remember some time back that they were installing new pipes around my building and I watched in amazement as small, smiling men hurled shovels full of dirt from six foot deep trenches that stretched for hundreds of feet.

Well, the late winter snow--like New England, all of our snow seems to be falling right now--has given me another occasion to look on with amazement. Most of the snow removal in this city of four million people happens by hand. Specifically, it happens at the hands of the three million or so "countryside" people or peasants who are issued bright orange vests and a shovel. These happy crews involved in meaningful group work make their way methodically down the roads and alleys of this great city.

Ping-Pong and Badminton

Ping-pong and badminton are popular pastimes here. Yesterday, I went with two Chinese friends and a fellow American to play badminton for an hour and a half. It was great fun and I am none the worse for wear today. I snapped a shot of the ping-pong hall at Jilin University. There were young and old. One young kid with a coach was particularly fun to watch. When he was done, there was a whole ritual for the care and storage of his racket. Two old men rallied at a pace that made me tired to watch. They were practicing the same move over and over again. You could see the strain in their hunched shoulders when finally the ball would go bouncing off in some unintended direction.

Street Food and Market Food

Last week, I went to a huge market and was particularly interested in the food offered at one particular stall. I will not attempt to name the delicacies here for fear that would be indelicate and upset the reader, but all of it is internal and some of it might just be tendons.

 In contrast, some of the arrays of orchids for sale were stunningly beautiful.

There is lots of great street food. There are at least five or six of "nut stands" in my school's neighborhood. Chestnuts and pine-nuts, walnuts and almonds, as well as countless exotic nuts are for sale. Steam rises from the roasted chestnuts, which, in winter, are kept beneath a red velvet cloth so they retain their heat and moisture. In this case, the blanket looks like it was supplied by Luis Vuitton.

This waffle-like honeycomb shaped street food (below) has contributed to my expanding waistline. Last night, more than one person commented that I looked like I was getting bigger. I am afraid so. Time to avoid the wheat again?

Baked sweet potato (or, in direct Chinese translation, "ground melon") is a healthy snack. This man sits in the cold selling them by the bag full on Guilin Lu. Beside him, a woman hocks ribbons for girls' hair.

Making Comments on This Blog

Dear Friends,

While I appreciate the emails that I receive, often times your fellow readers would benefit from your shared excitement and your thoughts and opinions, as well. I know that it is difficult to figure out how to make a comment. If you click on the circled hyperlink at the bottom of a post that says--all too often--"0 comments" then a comment box will open up. If it says 75 comments, you can do the same thing!

I hope this is a helpful tip. Please share my blog with one friend this week. Thanks for your support.

Alexander Lee
Changchun, Jilin, PRC

Drones in China?

Yemen? Most American kids cannot pronounce it, let alone point to it on a map.

What if I was plotting to overthrow Obama in coastal China? Would he be sending drones to get me? I am not plotting that, by the way, but I won't send for an absentee ballot if he does not reverse the Holder holding. The Attorney General of the United States, in the long tradition of John C. Yoo and forsaking the long tradition of RFK, stood before a group of law students and dared to say that there is a difference between judicial and due process? Is this even defensible, Professor Dycus?

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More Thoughts on Thinking

Shiho Fukada for The New York Times

Zhou Youguang's Take

In today's New York Times there is a remarkable profile of an incredible man. Zhou Youguang should be a household name in China. He is 106 years old. As a Chinese language learner, I have immense respect for this man, who invented Pinyin. According to the Times, "Mr. Zhou is the inventor of Pinyin, the Romanized spelling system that linked China’s ancient written language to the modern age and helped China all but stamp out illiteracy."

This is what he had to say about fostering creativity in the Communist system in a 2010 book of essays: “Inventions are flowers that grow out of the soil of freedom. Innovation and invention don’t grow out of the government’s orders.”

Responses to readers responses

Remember, my question was, "What do you think about how we think different [sic] than one another?"

Chris Nevins response was anthropological:

My short answer is yes and no, but the 'no' is second intentionally. Yes, there are social and cultural differences that account for meaningful differences among the ways all sorts of differing groups think, let alone nationalistic ways. But, no, we do not think differently in more existential ways. There is a universal culture that trumps other essential frameworks in ever so slight ways. 'Emic' versus 'etic,' and I guess I come down on the 'etic' side, though if you ask me tomorrow I might have a different answer.

Chris references something I don't know much about so I will simply provide the reader a bibliography--"emic" vs. "etic":

• Creswell, J. W. (1998), Qualitative Enquiry and Research Design: Choosing among Five Traditions, London, UK: Sage.
• Goodenough, Ward (1970), "Describing a Culture", Description and Comparison in Cultural Anthropology (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press): pp. 104–119, ISBN 978-0-202-30861-6.
• Harris, Marvin (1976), "History and Significance of the Emic/Etic Distinction", Annual Review of Anthropology 5: 329–350.
• Harris, Marvin (1980), "Chapter Two: The Epistemology of Cultural Materialism", Cultural Materialism: The Struggle for a Science of Culture (New York, NY, USA: Random House): pp. 29–45, ISBN 978-0-7591-0134-0.
• Headland, Thomas; Pike, Kenneth; Harris, Marvin (eds) (1990), Emics and Etics: The Insider/Outsider Debate, Sage.
• Jahoda, G. (1977), "In Pursuit of the Emic-Etic Distinction: Can We Ever Capture It?", Basic Problems in Cross-Cultural Psychology (Y.J. Poortinga, ed.): pp. 55–63.
• Kitayama, Shinobu; Cohen, Dov (2007), Handbook of Cultural Psychology, New York, NY, USA: Guilford Press.
• Nattiez, Jean-Jacques (1987), Music and Discourse: Toward a Semiology of Music (Musicologie générale et sémiologue, 1987). Translated by Carolyn Abbate, ISBN 978-0-691-02714-2.
• Pike, Kenneth Lee (ed.) (1967), Language in Relation to a Unified Theory of Structure of Human Behavior (2nd ed.), The Hague, Netherlands: Mouton.

Donna Schnur Birholz wrote an anthropological response, as well:

I think the question which needs answering first is what you mean by "think." Are you speaking of values, beliefs, hierarchy of principles inherent (for the Chinese, and then conversely, for Americans)? Are you speaking of the actual steps in one's reasoning process, or of the rationale for those steps?

And then of course, there's the acknowledgement that there are significant differences in the way those within a group will order their values/beliefs/hierarchy of principles. Some of that reflects subculture membership, and sometimes even with a control for those subculture memberships, we will find that there are differing values/priorities.... Although we are more likely to find agreement about what the "general you" should be prioritizing/valuing (whether the individuals would be making the same choice or not).

The "think differently" argument often made about the Chinese, is that they prioritize the general good, rather than the individual good - family/ancestral respect, rather than separate, individual accomplishment, and that any individualization must be justified by the benefits for the greater good of the group [family, region, country] .... I'm not sure how much anthropological research has been done in the area, I suspect very little peer-reviewed work since the revolution, although work prior to then might be illuminating .... and of course, the question would also be how that has been changed by generations of communist rule. [/anthrogeek rambling]

 

Counterfactuals: Thoughtful Thoughts on Thinking

“It’s impossible to think different [sic] in a country where you can’t speak freely. It’s impossible to think different [sic] when you have to worry what you put on the Internet will either be confiscated or you will be arrested. It’s impossible to think different [sic] where orthodoxy reigns. That’s why we remain the most innovative country in the world.”

-Vice President Joe Biden

The New York Review of Books has a fascinating interview with Chinese public intellectual Ran Yunfei this weekend. Mr. Ran says that the way to combat a society where everything they teach you is fake is, "to learn how to argue. Too few public intellectuals in China have learned to argue logically. They don’t know how and end up cursing each other all the time." Ironically, he makes a condescending, ad hominem observation about dissident artist Ai Weiwei in the next sentence. If you can overlook this irony, which is difficult, then you might accept his simple statement that logic is a powerful tool for combating mythology. I think Mr. Ran's own logic is faulty. He seems to be saying that if you use logic, you can effectively combat mythology. In fact, in the example that Mr. Ran uses of Ai Weiwei, it is truth and moral consistency, not logic, that are really the powerful weapons. "To defend freedom you can’t use methods that destroy freedom."

As an aside, it is worth noting that public intellectuals in the United States are really no better than in China, except that many of them are not intellectuals at all--Rush Limbaugh, Larry Summers, Newt Gingrich, Tom Friedman, etc. They savage their ideological opponents and participate in internecine skirmishes, too. They frequently throw logic to the wind and invent their own Lei Feng-Wang Jie-Liu Wenxue-Lai Ning tales, too. Think Christopher Columbus-George Washington-Horatio Alger, Jr. Howard Zinn did a good job at pointing out some of the pervasive mythologies of our own education system.

Before I precede, it is necessary to define what a counterfactual conditional is. In short, it is a conditional (or "if-then") statement indicating what would be the case if its antecedent were true (although it is not true). An example, provided in the Wikipedia article on counterfactual conditionals is, "If Oswald did not shoot Kennedy, then someone else did."

Joe Biden's counterfactual proposition is that, "If China did not suppress certain kinds of speech, then it would be the greatest innovator in the world. Since the United States is the most permissive with speech, we lead the world in innovation." Besides the total lack of logic here and the Vice-President's differently [sic] use of grammar, this statement (in the epigraph above) betrays a dangerous simplification of thought that rather exaggerates the impact of impairing freedom of the press/assembly/speech/religion on the freedom of thought.

As I am about to begin teaching a skills development class that seeks to prepare Chinese students for college and deft engagement in the world of ideas, I am intensely interested in the question of whether Chinese people actually think differently than Americans. Linguists have made such claims for decades and foreign experts here in Changchun frequently parrot some version of what Biden purports. I must say, I do not feel constrained. This is a topic that must be discussed publicly, not just in Sichuanese tea houses.

It is already being discussed by many talking heads. The insufferable, smug Tom Friedman, who is foreign affairs' columnist for the New York Times, recently interviewed Bill Gates on exactly this topic. After Mr. Friedman got done self-plugging his six year-old book, I was no longer really listening, but I did play through the whole interview.  Mr. Friedman has long believed that, “In China today, Bill Gates is Britney Spears. In America today, Britney Spears is Britney Spears-and that is our problem.” (Thomas L. Friedman, The World is Flat. 2006) The recent passing of Apple's chief innovator showed that in China, Steve Jobs was Justin Bieber and that Britney Spears like Bill Gates is just not that important. Or, as Heather Chandler put it, "Grow up Heather, bulimia's so '87."

Clyde Prestowitz offers a good analysis of this big interview--"big" mostly for the egos involved. He observes that Steve Jobs was the innovator and that Gates "knows about negotiation and standard setting and business strategy, but he's never been an innovator." In other words, Gates is more like Harvard's Larry Summers, a privileged opportunist who aptly sits on the board of a company called Square, than Albert Einstein, who was, unarguably, one of the most innovative modern minds despite being a product of one of the most repressive regimes in human history (aka Nazi Germany). What do you say about that, Joe Biden? Is Einstein the exception that makes the rule or does, as I might posit, repression of expression breed innovation? Do China's policies, in fact, have the unwanted effect of creating people like Ai Weiwei, Zhang Ping, Ran Yufei, and Gao Xingjian? That is an inquiry Li Changchun might want to fund.

It seems to me that Prestowitz's greatest service is pointing out that, "If America is suffering from declining competitiveness and rising trade deficits, innovation, according to the elite, is the philosopher's stone that will turn everything around." Poppycock though it may be, I do not want to be distracted by this more serious discussion about whether America's culture of innovation, if it exists, is likely to lead to further national success. As I mentioned, I am concerned mostly with the question of how most Chinese people think differently than most Americans, if they do think differently at all and if such generalizing is even a worthwhile exercise.

Before I go further, though, let me ask you, my reader: What do you think about how we think different [sic] than one another?

Er Yue Er (二月二)

On the second day of the second month of the lunar year, you should eat a dragon's head and get your hair cut. Don't worry Uncle Bob and Uncle John, I did not cut my hair during the first month and day of the lunar year. Such a decision would not portend well for your futures, but on Thursday, I did get a haircut and eat a pig's ear!

Since dragon's are hard to come by, the Chinese have decided that eating any part of a pig's head will suffice.

Look at the size of that ear!

As regards the haircut, the unfortunate part is that it cost me 50 yuan. I asked for san shi (30 yuan), but when I came out of the place where they wash your hair they seated me in a 50-yuan chair. I mildly protested, but I did get the best haircut I have ever received. You can't tell from this picture!

Beware of the Chinese Censers, They Stink

My father's great phobia is being trapped in a Yankee Candle or soap store for more than ten minutes. He hates scents and smells. My friend Theresa is no different. After a few minutes at an incense peddler's shop in the Pangjiayuan Antique Market, which is Bejing's most famous flea market, she needed a break. I was in seventh heaven. The shopkeeper summoned a woman who spoke English and when I told them that I just wanted to learn about this, they began the ritual.

There are many ways to burn incense. It comes in coils and sticks, which are commonly sold in the places that sell funky turquoise jewelry and patchouli in the West. It also comes in a powder form. Before some bright person figured out how to make the sticks and coils, one would simply light a trail of powder on fire or...

The elaborate way to burn incense, to which I was happily exposed, involves seven tools and a comparable number of jars and dishes. In this picture below, the blue dishes each have a unique purpose. The one that the man is using has a screen upon which you set the charcoal and then you heat the charcoal.


Obviously, in ancient times the coal was probably removed from a fireplace, but today he uses a lighter that is akin to a blowtorch.When the coal is ready, he uses special metal chopsticks for moving it.



For over two thousand years, the Chinese have used incense in religious ceremonies, ancestor veneration, Traditional Chinese medicine, and daily life. Agarwood (沈香; chénxiāng) and sandalwood (檀香; tánxiāng) are the two most important ingredients in Chinese incense. Copious amounts of each were on hand at this little shop. The two little blue dishes of the same size in this picture below are for these two substances. The cup next to them holds seven tools. I am not clear on all of their uses.

When the coal is hot, you bury it in another pot full of fine sand. The flat golden tool here is for tamping it down into a pyramid and then you use another tool to make a hole, like a volcano, at the top of the sand pyramid, down to the burning coal.

Finally, a little screen is removed from the smallest container and set on top of the "volcano." The sandalwood or other incense is sprinkled atop and the room is soon filled with a wonderful smell. 

To learn more, I suggest that you visit Peace & Harmony: The Divine Spectra of China's Fragrant Harbor.

Latin Mass in Beijing

Credit: DIY China Travel

It was 4:59 when I rolled over and the alarm was set to go off in a minute. I was bunked above a Chinese-American who lived somewhere in San Francisco, but not in China Town. Across from me on the top bunk in this hostel was a Guatemalan. "Are there a lot of Chinese people in Guatemala?" I asked, displaying my ignorance.

"Yes...and Koreans. So many Koreans now," he tells me, but that was last night and now it is time to get up and do something I am not sure I am allowed to do so I put the book, which I am not sure I am allowed to be reading, into my backpack and close the locker. I check out of the hostel, which involves waking the man on the couch in the lobby. He, in turn, wakes somebody else and I am awarded my fifty yuan security deposit. The room itself was only fifty yuan for this one night--a steal for Beijing. The man at the desk says, with his hands more than his mouth, "Go out the door and turn right." I do this, which means that I am headed in the wrong direction.

Eventually, at about 5:45, I get my bearings and I am one subway stop (di tie zhan) from where I need to be, a station called Xuanwumen. I decide to keeping walking. I am going to Mass.  This, I am sure, is permissible. The Lonely Planet (damn, I hope they are right!) announces a Latin Mass at 6 AM daily. Where I am cloudy is whether there will be Chinese people there or all foreigners. Am I allowed to worship in the same place as Chinese Catholics? Are these really Catholics? For my part, I am a tourist--a voyeur of the praying class, attending something greater than a charade and something less than a consecrated Mass. I arrive on time. I decide not to talk to anybody. Then, if somebody decides that I am not supposed to be there, I can say that I never had any fellowship with my Chinese brethren.

I sit in the pew in the back, which allows me a good view of the altar and of the elderly woman who comes in close to 6:30 and douses her hair with the holy water in the font by the door. She fixes her hair and waddles down the side aisle, vaguely conscious that she is being watched. There is a white cupboard in the back that looks like a top-loading freezer. It, too, is full of holy water and in the midst of the Mass another woman comes back to fill her bottle. She looks at me as if to say, "What are you doing here and why I are you looking at me?"

They are already chanting in Latin when I arrive. I am the only white person. There is a woman also in the back pews who is as old as Mary. She never gets off her knees and never opens her eyes. Everybody else rhythmically chants and sits, stands, bows, etc. according to the order of the Mass. I am unfamiliar so that even when I go to receive the Eucharist, I don't know what to mumble except, "Amen." There is no wine--only a wafer that fills me with the Holy Spirit. I sit down and wait for the other communicants to eat this bread, drink this blood. Another Mass (in Chinese) is set to commence at 7:15PM. People are coming in and people are going out. Fairly certain that this whole alien experience is through, because the priest and deacon have momentarily slipped out of view, I myself slip out the door and into the courtyard.

God is there to meet me. I have taken a photograph of God once before--in 1996, while photographing a rainbow and milli-seconds before I was hit by lightning. The negative came back and there was a brown streak in the air. Today She is here in her fullness as the moon, shining through some tree branches, above the cross. You can't tell that she is there from this photograph, which I took with my shitty new Nikon. Sometimes you just know. He doesn't tell me to run for President of the United States. He does not bellow at me, "Repent, sinner." No, She just watches quietly and there is a peace that settles on Xuanwumen.

I left my gloves on the pew, which I don't realize until I am on the subway to the Military Museum. When I had announced my plan to my friend of Latin Mass at 6 AM ("insane!") and then a visit to the Military Museum, he reacted sarcastically, "Onward Christian Soldiers." He then needled, "The Reformation passed you by, didn't it?" It was not really a question. We re-visit how Thomas More burned people at the stake and Isabella y Ferdinand carried out the Inquisition. I say that I admire Catherine of Aragon and sometimes the apple does fall far from the tree.

This devout atheist friend is in the midst of a sympathetic biography of Thomas Cromwell and half-way through the Showtime series, called The Tudors, which appeals to the prurient interest. I am unashamed; I, too, have watched More burn heretics and Henry VIII masturbate into a tray. It was delicious rubbish; history enlivened.

Is it really any wonder that there are so many atheists when you contemplate the atrocities that have been done in the name of the Father and the Holy Ghost?

"Běijīng’s South Cathedral was built on the site of the house of Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci, who brought Catholicism to China. Since being completed in 1703, the church has been destroyed three times, including being burnt down in 1775, and endured a trashing by anti-Christian forces during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900." Read more: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/china/beijing/sights/religious-spiritual/south-cathedral#ixzz1mtshPyAR

Official Trailer: Drying for Freedom

Infamy Headed My Way 

Someday I might be famous. Yesterday, I taught Todd. He is twelve and very famous.

"Where are you famous?" I asked the middle schooler who attends Northeast China's most prestigious middle school.

"At my Primary School I was famous," he said. "I enjoy the feeling of being famous."

"Why?" I asked.

"Because all of the teachers say hello to me," he said.

"How do you know it is not that you are just very friendly?" I asked this budding car company designer and entrepreneur, who came to his first class with a portfolio of pencil drawings of new cars. "Is it that you are tall or maybe very good at English?"

Anyway, I might be famous, too. Drying for Freedom has been accepted into its first film festival. Details are coming Monday. Please watch the new, very excellent trailer:


Drying For Freedom: Official Trailer from WhiteLanternFilm on Vimeo.

Panda Diplomacy: Unrefined Gas

A visit in large part focused on energy deals ends with bamboo-scented vapors in a Chongqing zoo

Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper looks at a panda being held by his wife Laureen at a zoo in Chongqing Feb 11, 2012. 

Moments before the panda bitch-slapped the visiting prime minister, knocking his spectacles to the bench, the adorable cub dropped some natural gas on Laureen's lap. It was a classic moment of pong-ping diplomacy.

Newly appointed special ambassador to China's funny-bone, Dashan, might have observed, "If you read-with-care the caption above, taken verbatim from China Daily, you will notice the misplaced modifier. Is Laureen really married to a panda?"

Harper's look of disgust in response to the out-stretched palm of this wild animal was rivaled only by Laureen's expression--a rare combination of is-there-anything-you-won't-make-me-do-for-the-cameras and we-never-had-a-child-that-was-this-heavy-and-wiggly.

According to observers, Laureen's husband is said to have declared, "We are also committed to mutually beneficial economic relations. And that's what we are going to pursue." It is unclear that Laureen is on board with the plan. Her aides have already started making arrangements for Peng Liyuan to hold a wolverine during her 2013 visit to Alberta.

Harper came to sell uranium to China. We can all be giddy that a newly negotiated protocol "will allow the shipment of Canadian uranium directly into China. Some 50 million pounds of uranium is expected to ship from Cameco's operations to China over the next 15 years."

Despite challenges such as lower uranium prices and the Fukushima nuclear meltdown that rocked Japan last year, this company saw revenue rocket from $673 million in the fourth quarter of 2010 to $977 million in the final quarter of 2011 - a jump of 45 percent. Gross profits in the fourth quarter also climbed to $353 million, up from $252 million compared to the same time last year.

It is widely recognized in Nanking, Formosa, and throughout Northeastern China that what happened at Fukushima in 2011 was just karma for all the terrible things Japanese people did seventy years ago and for which they have yet to apologize. Nothing like that is projected to happen in the Middle Kingdom. State planners and the engineers of China's fourth generation of leadership have guarded against it. Earthquakes and other natural disasters that could lead to similar nuclear "events" are being carefully managed by Hydro-Quebec and China Three Gorges Corporation, according to the women on CTGC's leadership team. Tibetan and other Buddhist clerics differ about the karmic toll of Mao's extermination of the Four Pests, but most agree it is not likely to result in a Fukushima or Hiroshima-type accident.

Harper came to sell oil to China. We can all be ecstatic that China could start receiving Canadian oil as early as 2016 if a pipeline project from Alberta to Canada's Pacific coast goes ahead. As moral relativist Joe Nocera cynically notes in the op-ed pages of the Old Grey Lady, nothing anybody ever does really matters so the United States ought to suck the tar sands dry before China gets a lick. Anything less demonstrates a failure of democracy and a strategic blunder of epic proportions.

Voluntary Poverty: "You don't know how lucky you are..."

I am back in the PRC, boy. I had a wonderful time with friends and family while back in America. I was sad to leave but also happy to return to China.

Among the highlights of my trip home, much of it spent dressed in a my blue tangzhuang, was a tea party that I had with Liza Poinier, Bruce Clendenning and their two children. I am feeling very blessed and was particularly excited to hear how many of you have been reading my less and less frequent posts. I promise to get better about it again, spurred on by your appreciation.

Pictures courtesy of Liza Poinier and her broken tripod.

As you may know, my travel experience with Continental (United) was less than fantastic. This morning I was able to weasel a $50 gift certificate out of them, which I am sure is non-transferable and may have an expiry date, but it does at least make me whole for the meals we ate in Narita and for transportation costs of retrieving my bags personally from the Changchun International Airport.

I am also waiting to get my $5.30 back for the AAA-discount on my business class train trip to New York City. I can get a really nice dinner for that amount here.

An earlier post promised that I would try to live as frugally as possible for a couple months, but truth-be-told when I sat down to blog about living on 100yuan a week, I had nothing new or of interest to say. It is possible for sure, but the inconvenience and humiliation of being poor are the same here as they are in America. For instance, instead of spending to retrieve my bags from the airport, I would have had to wait three days for toiletries and clean underwear as the airline arranged for delivery by a courier. I would not have been on an international flight at all, if I was truly poor. That point is not lost on me, either. I would not have been able to have several meals at restaurants with friends who I missed while I was gone. Instead, I would have had to invite them to my house for meals and even this would have been rather more costly than just cooking for myself. It is very easy to contemplate being poor for a couple months when you just got three pair of new shoes for Christmas.

In truth, I think it will be far more interesting for you, my readers, if I do spend my money--taking Mandarin lessons, traveling about, buying tea, and dining out. What would Dorothy Day say? The vow of voluntary poverty taken by my friends at The Catholic Worker has always been something I have struggled to understand.

The Aims and Means of The Catholic Worker state:

"The mystery of poverty is that by sharing in it, making ourselves poor in giving to others, we increase our knowledge and belief in love." (Dorothy Day) By embracing voluntary poverty, that is, by casting our lot freely with those whose impoverishment is not a choice, we would ask for the grace to abandon ourselves to the love of God. It would put us on the path to incarnate the Church's "preferential option for the poor."

What do you think of this idea? Post comments.

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The MIM

The other extraordinary thing that I did on my sojourn home was to visit, with my parents, the Museum of Musical Instruments (MIM). If any of you find yourself in Phoenix or environs, I highly recommend this state-of-the-art museum.  As I did not have my camera, I will have to rely on the MIM itself for some visual support of my claim that this is the best new museum I have been to since the National Museum of the American Indian opened its galleries in the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House in lower Manhattan in October 1994.

Set up by continent and then by nation, the museum is, as its website brags, the "most extraordinary museum you will ever hear." The dragon that greets you in the foyer was to be deployed during the following week in a celebration of The Year of the Dragon. In the experiential room, I got to play a gong and Gene Autrie's nickelodeon. It was just so much fun. I was like a kid in a candy store.

A Dog-sled Trip

NOTE: I refer to Public Service Company of New Hampshire as PSCO (pronounced piss-ko) because the head of the Poetry Society of New Hampshire informed me that they have longer claim to the acronym usually used, PSNH.

Governor John Lynch of New Hampshire gave his state of the state yesterday. In this final big address, he said, "We should not dismiss out of hand hydro power from Canada. We should be open to exploring approaches for accessing this power. But the proponents of Northern Pass need to listen better. This project cannot happen without local support. And it should not happen with eminent domain." Now Governor Lynch has never been hailed as a brave and decisive leader. This speech was widely viewed as being more strident than his past ones; however, I want to look at what he really said here. The following is my analysis. Though my disgust with the Lynch years is no secret, I want to be fair. I hope my New Hampshire readers will take me to task if I have over-stepped.

Days after nominating Bob Scott and Mike Harrington to replace Hon. Clifton Below and Hon. Tom Getz on the Public Utilities Commission and knowing full well that eminent domain issues will be decided by the courts and not by his policy pronouncements, Lynch effectively signaled here that his New Hampshire will be happy to figure out a way to act as a corridor for Canadian power to reach southern New England markets. While he should be commended for not calling it renewable or green, the fact that he does not think it should be "dismissed out-of-hand" transparently shows his predisposition towards Canadian hydro, if not the necessary transmission lines that will carry it hither and yon.

He can say that this project cannot happen without local support, but PSNH (together with Hydro-Quebec) has nearly limitless financial ability to lean on the six hold-out landowners who are keeping this project from marching forward. I think this is a classic case of Gov. Lynch pretending like he is taking a firm position, but not actually using the power actually afforded to the constitutionally-second-weakest-Governor-in-the-nation.

Why do I say this? Not because Lynch and PSCO CEO Gary Long have enjoyed a long friendship, but because where he could really make a difference is standing up to the premiers and other New England governors at their periodic meetings. He could depart from the Cheney Administration and the Obama Administration and actually offer a realistic, green energy policy that gets away from large generation projects and shifts to the conservation and efficiency measures long touted by McKinsey. Additionally, I posit this because he has cautiously not gone to the bench for Consumer Advocate Meredith Hatfield (who, in full disclosure, is not only one of my best friends, but also the most diligent, nonpolitical advocate that I know--often to my own frustration) and Lynch has nominated two people for the PUC who should be easy to get past the [censored] on the Executive Council. If Lynch was really interested in shaping energy policy, he might have nominated different people.

Bob Scott is a military man, friendly, a talented manager, and a good listener. He has done the bidding of PSCO on the scrubber and on other projects for years as the Director of Air Resources ("the Chief Air Head" as his predecessor Ken Colburn used to self-identify) in the Department of Environmental Services. The vacancy he leaves at DES will be another important decision.

Mike Harrington is a free-market capitalist ideologue, an active Republican who supported the son-of-a-pugilist John Stephen in 2010, and an institutionalized bureaucrat at the commission (located in the old state mental hospital). He may want to deregulate and take the generating resources away from PSCO and may share Lynch's "deep" feelings about the 5th Amendment Takings Clause, but has had years to extract better behavior from PSCO, working with and for Tom Frantz in the Electricity Division of the Commission. There is no evidence that giving him the reins will force the dogs to gee or haw.

The activists and environmental organizations, who slept on their hands during the small window when they could have recommended to Lynch a more courageous set of new Commissioners, will almost inevitably need to work with these two gentleman. I only know Mr. Scott and he is a good manager and a good man. What I am saying here is not meant to disparage either him or Mr. Harrington, but to paint a clear picture of the landscape into which the dogsled seems to be sliding. The Lynch legacy will be a continuation of the status quo. The Commission will not veer in a new direction, but continue its slow progress towards the growing whole in the ice.

Hon. Amy Ignatius

The greatest hope for stopping Northern Pass lies in his nomination of current commissioner Amy Ignatius as the Chair. She is an independent thinker and capable lawyer. She will, rightfully, continue the legacy of judicious care and fairness that is the legacy of Tom Getz, but may be capable, despite her marriage to Lynch's chief lawyer, Jeff Meyers, in the post-Lynch years to recognize that every decision--no matter how much one would like to play above the fray--is political and has political ramifications. The Fox News "fair and balanced" approach to regulation that Getz and Frantz, especially, have prided themselves on is also the yang of their long reign. Ignatius' brother is a columnist for the Washington Post, which means she has a very direct line to the power brokers of the nation and access to the big picture issues that shape national energy policy.

She has a fierce intellect; tremendous loyalty to the Governor (that has tested our friendship in the face of my open disdain for his leadership style); less pre-existing ties to the electric industry than her predecessor, who will return to private practice at a firm which does work for PSCO; and an even deeper knowledge of the interplay between the New England states from her time as the Executive Director of the New England Conference of Public Utility Commissioners. (From what I can discern, every reputable, major law firm in NH, except Preti, does some work for PSCO.)

So, in sum, Governor Lynch's feisty speech did not really have teeth. The opponents of Northern Pass should brace themselves for PSCO wielding strong influence at the Commission as they continue to look for ways to force Canadian hydro down our dry throats.

Misadventures cum adventures

In addition to weathering a bad flu that also affected my vice-principal, I have had one misadventure after another that has kept me from faithfully blogging since about Christmastime. Right now, I am writing from the cozy living room of my sister's apartment in West Roxbury, Massachusetts. It is Spring Festival and the tumultuous Year of the Dragon has commenced sans fireworks in America...though, I was able to let off my first cherry bomb before the sojourn home.


Harbin: "Rooms to rent for fifty cents"

I went to Harbin the week prior to my departure for Spring Festival.

Luckily, Shannon and I, who would be joined by our friend from Heilongjiang Province the next day, found seats on the green train. Our twenty yuan tickets for the two-and-a-half hour ride were for standing room only, but an elderly man pushed me into his seat violently (with a smile), insisting that he was a smoker and therefore standing in the aisle would work well for him. Shannon perched on the edge of a seat filled with students from Ji Da (Jilin University). I sniffled and learned to play the "landlord game" with a deck of cards and three middle-aged men, who viewed me with both admiration and derision.

I called the sinohotel.com people twice to make sure that we could arrive late, as the train from Changchun did not arrive until around midnight. We got there easily enough, but I was beginning to really suffer from a head cold that was part of the aforementioned flu. We popped into a cab and headed away from the station. It was not long before it became clear that the cabbie did not know where to take us. We gave him a small fortune and he disappeared into the night, leaving us at the doorstep of a hotel that had "no room in the inn." We hailed  a second cab that knew where our reservation was, but we found the attendant sleeping behind the check-in counter. Groggily, she reported to us that the room had been given away. We walked out into the frigid night, discovering a hostel and several more hotels that had been battened down for the night. Around 1:30AM we found ourselves in a warm, well-lit Kentucky Fried Chicken. While I went to the bathroom, Shannon tried her Mandarin out on the only two patrons--a pair of students studying for a test. They knew a place where we could stay for forty yuan a night. We walked about forty-five minutes and found it. I might have had a breakdown had we not.

The next morning, I slept till about 10AM. Lu came up from Changchun in the morning, as we should have done, and met us at the hotel. We went to the drugstore and then lunch, before taking a bus to the Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival. This was, in addition to being five degrees colder than the rest of the city, one of the most amazing feats of human ingenuity, creativity, and engineering that I have ever witnessed. I don't have pictures, though, as we decided to do a tubing ride down the hillside and my camera bounced out of my pocket. Apparently, it landed in the bowels of the tube where a subsequent rider found it, but said person failed to turn it in. After the festival, we had a nice dinner and went to bed.

We also visited the famous Russian Orthodox Church, St. Sofia's, which was a gallery of early photographs of Harbin and a concert hall for a decent performance of choral music that had commenced already when we entered. Strange to pay admission to gain entry to a house of worship, but this is officially atheist China.

The sign at the entrance to the haunting premise of Unit 731.

The next day, we went to Unit 713 in the outskirts of Harbin. Certainly, the United States Holocaust Museum displays are more professionally rendered, but--to slip into the superlative again--I have never been to a more haunted place than this. Unit 731 was a covert biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that undertook lethal human experimentation during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) and World War II.

There was a diorama of Chinese citizens crucified in a circle and Japanese persecutors watching through binoculars and in gas-masks as a plane with a chemical bomb swooped in to drop its poison. There were meat hooks for human viscera and pictures of the frostbite experiments. There were empty mustard gas bombs that still turn-up unexploded and sicken people. It gave me a better understanding of the deep-seated hatred of the Chinese for the Japanese. That no official acknowledgement of this has come from the Japanese is certainly a tragedy.

Flight Home

I left Changchun on schedule to come home to America for a visit. I flew to Shanghai and then left Shanghai on time, as well. We got to Narita (the Tokyo Airport) twenty minutes late. Air Nippon representatives flagged down the seven people connecting to Newark, NJ, at the end of the ramp as we exited the plane, explaining that we would not be able to make our connection. The Spaniard was rude. The Chinese-American with the New York baseball cap was profane. Three students and I agreed to the detainment for a while, then mutinied, rushed up the stairs, cut the line, and plummeted down the elevator to the gate. The plane was still there, but the door was shut and we watched as it pulled away, as we pleaded for the Continental/United staff to let us on.

As it turned out, Narita was wonderful. The airline put us in a hotel with tiny, very highly-equipped rooms and there was a spa. We all slept in after a great, authentic Japanese dinner.

Pagoda in Narita-san. Learn more.

The next morning we met the Chinese-American Cornell student and the URI student, who was returning from a month-long visit to her boyfriend and walked into downtown, touristy Narita. We bought some bean cakes and went to a huge, famous Buddhist temple, capping it off with a lunch of unagi (or eel).

It was pure magic to watch as the restaurant workers sat at a long table, plucking writhing eels from a bucket, pinning their heads to the table, and then chopping them up while they were still alive. They de-boned them and, like Gaul, divided them in three parts before piercing them with skewers and handing them off to the cooks, who would grill them before throwing the finished, delectable product into bento boxes of rice. We hurried back to the hotel and got to our plane in plenty of time, learning that ANA or Air Nippon had failed to re-book us for the next day after Continental (United) denied us the ability to board our original flight.

Fen and maoed

The coins in China are called jiao, but their nickname is Mao, for the late Great Helmsman despite that his mug only appears on the paper currency. One-hundredth of one RenMinBi (RMB) is called a fen. There are no coins of this tiny denomination any longer. The "mao" is equivalent to the dime.

A nickel is five cents and a dime is ten cents. The expression "nickel and dimed" is similar to the expression "death by a thousand paper cuts."

In her book, Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich moved from Florida to Maine to Minnesota, taking the cheapest lodgings available and accepting work as a waitress, hotel maid, house cleaner, nursing-home aide, and Wal-Mart salesperson.

When I return to Changchun in February, I will spend the remainder of the 29-day month and March living on as little money as I can, scrupulously reporting to all of you on this experiment. I will not embed as either a fu wu yuan (service personnel) or as an ai yi (housecleaner), nor would my employer, employment or the Chinese Foreign Affairs bureau allow it. My language ability limits my ability to communicate with the truly poor, but I will do my best to share with you about how the other half lives in China.

I will do things that really poor people and Third World denizens do, like hang out my clothes. (Watch this video of a couple people in New York decrying the clothesline and then see this ABC News story about a "poor woman" who left 2 million to the Salvation Army.) You can expect more on the mechanics of this experiment in the future. Here is a little economic overview that helps set the stage.

Challenges Ahead

The International Monetary Fund (IMF), in a recent staff report, describe the challenges and realities thus:

Focus. The consultation examined the macroeconomic outlook, the potential for a property price bubble, the risks to the banking system, and the policy measures underpinning the 12th Five-Year Plan. The mission drew on the work of the FSAP—to connect financial sector reform to macroeconomic rebalancing—and of the spillover team—to trace out the international implications of rebalancing in China.

Macroeconomic Policies. The ongoing withdrawal of monetary stimulus is fully appropriate but a greater weight should be given to the use of higher interest rates and nominal appreciation in tightening monetary conditions. A continued steady decline in the fiscal deficit is also warranted, accompanied by a reorienting of tax and expenditure policies to support consumption.

Risks. The main near-term domestic risks to the outlook are from higher-than-expected inflation (most likely from domestic food supply shocks), a property bubble that inflates and then bursts, or a decline in credit quality linked to the post-crisis expansion in lending.

Rebalancing. There has been much progress on a number of fronts and the 12th Five-Year Plan lays out a comprehensive strategy to advance the transformation of China’s growth model. To achieve these goals, a range of measures will be needed including improvements in the social safety net, policies to raise household income, a liberalization of the financial system, a stronger currency, and increases in the costs of various factors of production. A successful rebalancing, with policy changes on all these fronts, will generate positive spillovers to the global economy.

Financial Liberalization. Financial reform holds significant promise in contributing to the needed transformation of the Chinese economy. Over the horizon of the 12th Five-Year Plan, reforms should seek to secure a more modern framework for monetary management, improve supervision and regulation, deepen the channels for financial intermediation, transition to market-determined deposit and loan rates, and open the capital account. In all of this, a stronger renminbi will be an important complement.

Understanding the 12th Five-Year Plan will also be part of my assignment.

Minimum Wage in China

As some of you may know, I was on the board of Burlington, Vermont' Peace & Justice Center when they were rolling out the first major livable wage study in the nation. Understanding wages will be one topic that I discuss here. Is "Communism with Chinese characteristics" just a cynical and authoritarian version of Western capitalism? As we approach the November changes expected when seven of nine politburo members step down, how will the economic system here adapt to insure that the Revolution continues (i.e. continuous reform and opening) and that the people are served by their government instead of the people serving their government?

The average minimum wage for most the People's Republic of China rose by 21.7% by the end of September 2011, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security reported. The city of Shenzhen, next to Hong Kong, guaranteed the highest minimum wage of 1,320 yuan ($207; £130) a month. Beijing offered the best hourly rate of 13 yuan ($2). (See BBC News.)

The cost of living for expatriates, though, is higher in Beijing than in the Big Apple. Housing in China is widely viewed as out-of-control. There are scores of empty tenements and shopping malls, though, and about half of the population is still rural. Half of these people still live on a dollar a day, depending on how you calculate it.

The Wealth Gap

As in United States, the income gap in China is a source of national embarrassment. Michele Geraci at Zhejiang University explained it well in a well-researched piece printed in China Daily last February. As my own country wrestles with the issues raised by Occupy Wall Street, questions of income disparity are front-and-center around the world.

As fascinating to me, though, is the ancient culture of China and people's sense of their own place in the world. The disgusting displays of wealth here shock me. Are the majority of the proletariat ("proles," for short), pacified or comfortable with the Moutai drinking class? If so, why? This blog will continue to talk about fur coats and green coats; Hummers and bikes; corn meal and caviar.

China's National Winter Games in Changchun?

Xinhua, the Chinese national paper, reports on Monday:

A total of 12 foreign referees will officiate in the 12th Chinese National Winter Games which is scheduled to start in northeast China's Jilin Province on Tuesday.

"Most of the domestic judges are from northeast China and Beijing, where winter sports are well developed, so we hope these overseas referees can help ensure fair play at the upcoming games," Wang Fuhai, an official with the organising committee, told Xinhua on Monday.

These overseas recruits, who are from Canada, Italy, Switzerland, Norway, Russia and South Korea, will all work on ice, officiating in speed skating, short-track speed skating, figure skating and ice hockey.

The National Winter Games will conclude on Jan. 13th.

Today is Tuesday, but none of my web searches and none of my Chinese friends can find any information about these competitions here in my city. There is another Xinhua story from December 28th:

While the organizing committee puts the final touches on the event, athletes are carefully devising their strategies as they aim for medals and national titles.

The ten-day tournament will cover 14 events, including speed skating - both long and short track, figure skating and so on. A total of 115 gold medals will be on offer, the most ever. The local Jilin delegation will participate in three events.

The organizers have rebuilt the facilities, and they have 32 snow making machines in case the natural fall is not strong enough to provide top competitive conditions. The event also aims to set new records in being economically frugal.

The opening ceremony will be held on Jan 3, showcasing northern hospitality from a region dominated by winter sports culture.

 I want more information. Can you help? My boss wants hockey tickets.

My Year-End Appeal to All Readers

Dear Friends,

I wanted to let you know of this initiative by the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests to conserve 5,800+ acres of land at the Balsams. As a supporter of this project and an opponent of Northern Pass, it is very exciting to know that this could happen very soon because it extinguishes a proposed right-of way that may otherwise be granted to Northern Pass.

If $850,000 is donated by January 15^th, the Forest Society will purchase conservation restrictions on most of the undeveloped parts of the property. As you can see, bringing this project to completion will require a substantial financial effort on the part of the Society, its friends, and others who care about this spectacular landscape. I am supporting this effort, and hope that you will also consider a generous gift.

There are several ways to make a gift:

1. Through the web at this link:

 www.forestsociety.org/balsams

2, By mailing a check to:

Forest Society-Balsams Project

54 Portsmouth Street

Concord, NH 03301

3. To make a stock gift, please contact Cheryl Lee Bozek at Cambridge Trust at 603-369-5055

4. To make a pledge, please contact Susanne Kibler-Hacker at 603-224-9945 x 314 or skh@forestsociety.org

You can track the progress of this project at this link: http://savethebalsamslandscape.blogspot.com/

Many thanks!

Alexander Lee