Posts

NGOs Valuable in Developing World

The days are still quite hot here in Shanghai (even thought the temperature have been down quite a bit…walking around yesterday in Chongming Island, I didn't sweat nearly as much as I expected). Now, speaking of the walk yesterday, I trekked about 5 hours into the rural parts of the island, away from any public buses or major roads (I was actually lost…didn't know the geographic scale of things…expected the island to be much smaller), and found out that the difference between the parts near the major roads and the true countryside is quite glaring. While high rise apartments are built near major roads to accommodate increased number of mainland Shanghainese who move to the Island to get away from the city, the same amount of luxury is not shown at all in the villages. Sure, the houses are much nicer than the ones in really poor parts of China, but in terms of the simple interior décor (no AC, wooden chairs, traditional kitchens, few electronics), it can be said that the rapid

The Inefficiency of Corporation-provided Healthcare

The recent healthcare reform launched by President Obama in the U.S., I believe, have not gone as far as it can possibly (and, in my opinion, necessarily) could go (even though it is already facing tough resistance from many). Rather than just providing a government alternative to insurance package offered by private companies, shouldn't there be something else other than just the supply side that need to be looked at? To be specific: what about how the best insurance option is chosen and purchased? Considering that a large number of people in the US get there insurance from their employers (i.e. they don't choose the insurance, their bosses do), maybe it would be wise to change that structure much more so that the employees receive the greatest benefits while bypassing the step where the bosses weighs the economic costs to their companies. Of course, the merit of companies providing their employees heath insurances has the benefit of attracting more capable workers. However,

Personal Triple Dilemma...

Just a personal update: just bored at home after coming back home from Nanjing yesterday...I received a notice from the company in Japan this morning saying that the documentation I need to start visa application is ready and have been mailed to me here in Shanghai and the mail would reach me in 2 to 3 days via EMS...oh great, what a timing...long enough for to be bored waiting for it at home, but too short for me to go on the road again if I want to start the visa application ASAP...sure, there are plenty of places I can go around Shanghai for 2 to 3 days, but considering the hot weather here in the city and its actually cooler near the water here, I doubt that I would actually want to go anywhere geographically close to the city amidst the sweltering heat... Yet, blowing constantly in front of AC at home isn't the solution either. Not to mention that I am already running low on food reserves here (already eating cookies for breakfast, lunch, and dinner...they are running out too)

On the Day of 9/11, Americans Should Reflect on Their Own Actions

Again, we are approaching an anniversary of September 11th, that day which dramatically and suddenly changed the focus of the world and its balance of power. That day which caused America to begin its losing fight against an abstract concept that is Islamic extremism. To this day, America continues to think that an equally abstract idea that is "democracy" can be militarily extended to foreign territories and defeat entrenched cultural values that previously had no interactions with. Perhaps, just as Mao foresaw decades ago that war is a battle of ideologies rather than armament or military training, he probably would still be surprised that a country, even one so firmly confident in its own systems as the US, can be so stubborn in enforcing its own ideas on obviously "ungrateful" subjects…perhaps only the American view of the equally foreign and hostile-sounding Chinese ideologies can be used as an illustrative example. It reminds of this one class I had back in

How Can an Agricultural State Escape the Cycle of Class Struggle?

ok, sounds Marxist...sorry, but there is no better way to phrase the issue...really, on this particular problem, it really is about economic class...not class in a classic Marxist terminology of proletariat vs bourgeois, but the creation of class within a group long considered to be united within a single class by most classical Marxist historians: the petty peasantry...but thinking about the cycle of Chinese dynastic history the other day while reading about Mao's debauched attempts at escaping that cycle (a move that cost China 300 million lives and pushed the great military strategist into the ranks of the world's worst nation-builders) really allowed me to see the fault of considering even peasantry of same initial economic status to be a single economic class.