Final Thoughts

My final thoughts on China. Well, I made it back to the good ole USA on Monday the 18th. I arrived in San Francisco about 4 hours before I left!! Yay for the international date line. My cousin picked me up in Phoenix and I went to Tucson to see my family there. I was not able to make it to Benson because my cousin had some last minute issues come up. I arrived at my parents new house in Camp Verde on Wednesday. It has been pretty nice here. The weather has been hot enough to swim and it is just wonderful up here.

Looking back on China, it was definitely a different experience. I do not know if I would do it again and I will most likely never live abroad. All the foreign countries I have visited have made me appreciate the US more. Something interesting about a lot of the Chinese people i talked to is that they seemed to indicate to me that it was all right to 'hurt' and misplace people as long as it was for the better of the country. For example, the government sent in buses to Shanghai and Beijing and then sent the homeless people to the countryside. I asked some of the Chinese people what they though of this and they said it was alright as long as it was for the better of the country. They also had to move a lot of people when they built the Bird's Nest and Water Cube. Again, my Chinese friends said that this was alright as long as it was for the better of the country. Finally, I also asked them about free speech. My opinion is that if protesters are not being violent, then they should be able to say what they want. However, the Chinese I talked to said that it is OK for the government to regulate speech because many of the Chinese are uneducated and do not 'know' what they are saying. To me, the Chinese government has too much control of their people. A lot of the responses I heard to my questions seemed almost 'rehearsed.' I know I can not put my Chinese friends at fault because they only know what the government allows them to know.

If you don't like politics, don't read the following two paragraphs:

The other day I was listening to Rush Limbaugh and he played a clip of Joe Biden's circa 1980 presidential campaign slogan. In this ad, Biden said (paraphrasing) that we must show the world what America used to be. He seemed to indicate that many foreigners in the 1980s did not like our country. However, after being in China for two months, I got the impression that many Chinese people like our country and the Western standard of living. Then Rush also played a clip of Obama saying close to the same phrase as Biden. I am no politician, but I think Obama and Biden need to leave the country and talk to foreigners before making these generalized claims. I know there will always be some people who do not like our country, but that doesn't mean 'the entire world' does not like us.

On Friday, Rush played a clip of Obama in which he said, "China has spent $40 billion on infrastructure such as new airports, sea ports and train stations." This is true, but then Obama went on to say that corporations are going to move to China because of all these improvements. I do not know if Barry Obama has been to China, however, I have and from what I could tell, the train stations are not as nice or 'good' as ours and the airports are on par with our international airports. Remember, these are just my opinions and I am just using my right to free speech.

Finally, I am going to keep this blog as a 'life' blog and continue to write about my last year in college.