I tend to disagree with Andrew Sullivan about 40 percent of the time. His blunt comment today in regard to North Korea is why he’s still one of my very favorite columnists, no matter how wrong he is about George W. Bush: “The deeper problem, I should also say, is neither Clintonian appeasement nor Bushie toughnesss. It’s the hideous regime in North Korea, one of the most evil on the planet.”
Can’t say it any better than that. Sullivan is so brilliant, so spot-on about so many things. What will make him see the light about George W.? Sullivan has been one of my heroes for years, so I will hold out hope that he’s just going through a phase.
The funniest, best written book review I have read in years. I was laughing out loud, something I rarely do nowadays.
Beijing’s frigid weather is back after a few days above 25 degrees Fahrenheit. I’m here late at the office because I just hate that moment when I step outside and am assaulted with icy wind. Time for me to bite the bullet. Later.
Once a gweilo always a gweilo? Two different schools of thought are available today here and here.
A screaming comes across the sky….
In an act of senseless masochism, I began this week to read Thomas Pynchon’s often acclaimed and seldom read Gravity’s Rainbow. Everyone knows that G.R. is obscenely difficult to read (no fewer than 400 characters are introduced, most in the first 100 of it’s 770 pages), and most who make the attempt give up before they get to the hundredth page. It’s easy to see why. Although each sentence is a masterpiece in itself, it is simply too much for even the most febrile of minds to absorb. Turn to any page and read any sentence and you will see what I mean. Okay, I just turned randomly to page 277 and chose the first sentence upon which my eyes alighted:
The pebbled beach is crowded with families: shoeless fathers in lounge suits and high white collars, mothers in blouses and skirts startled out of war-long camphor sleep, kids running all over in sunsuits, nappies, rompers, short pants, knee socks, Eton hats. There are ice cream, sweets, Cokes, cockles, oysters and shrimps with salt and sauce. The pinball machines writhe under the handling of fanatical servicemen and their girls, throwing body-english, cursing, groaning as the bright balls drum down the wood obstacle courses through ka-chungs, flashing lights, thudding flippers….
Every sentence is like this, brimming with imagery and brilliance. It’s always compared to Ulysses, the other book readers love to give up on. I figure if I can get through all of Henry James’ The Golden Bowl and actually enjoy it, maybe I can excavate my way through this mental minefield. I only have 755 pages to go.
Slate magazine’s Tim Noah must have read my post earlier today on fawning writers stepping over themselves to redefine Bush’s deficiencies as virtues. Great article.
My desk is always shockingly messy with stacks of papers, floating business cards, dog-eared notebooks, assorted pens and pencils, not to mention the post-it notes and phone number sheets stuck haphazardly on the walls. “A messy ofice means a messy mind,” one of my old employers used to lecture me. And yet, whenever I did manage to clear off my desk, I couldn’t really work at peak performance until the chaos was restored. Now The Economist vindicates my MDS (messy desk syndrome) and shows why it may not be a problem after all.
Do we really need yet another breathless “analysis” from Peggy Noonan of why Americans love George W. Bush? Has anyone chronicled how many of these puff pieces she has churned out, each one eerily reminiscent of the last with some added nuance? Now it’s his uncomplicatedness. It simply astounds me to see the sheer volume of Wall Street Journal columns and editorials banging on this worn-out drum. The similarity between these odes makes one wonder whether they are being manufactured by computer — how else could they be so formulaic? Each starts by posing the question (based on a huge and untested assumption) of why Bush is enjoying such a great love affair with “the American people.” They then write lovingly of his attributes while minimizing his inadequacies — often, in fact, turning these faults into attributes. (Note how Noonan right away admits he started off “wobbly” but that’s actually a good thing; after all, us average Americans, we’re all kinda wobbly in new situations. It’s just them slick democrats who show up all polished and slick and profesional-like. Know what ah mean?) Needless to say, they all stress how wholesome and good the Bush White House is compared to its slimy predecessors. It’s columns by numbers (as in, when we were kids and did Paint by Numbers).
It’s not that Noonan doesn’t have some valuable insights, as usual, and her writing style is certainly to be envied. It’s just that the Chinese water torture approach adopted by virtually all the WSJ pundits, not to mention Andrew Sullivan and Mickey Kauss, could use an overhaul. I’ll let it rest because I could go on at lengths horrific to contemplate. Last word: for those seeking a more well-rounded portrait of our 43rd president, a good place to start is here.
Hearbreaking description of forced prostitution in a developing Asian country in The Gweilo Diaries’ January 3rd post. Threw me into a mini-rage — you know, the impotent fury type. Yes, as I frequently note, this is an up-and-coming nation, but it still has a long way to go.
Interesting viewpoints expressed by China Hand on the same New Republic article by Jerry Kurlantzick that I recently sent to all my friends on the imminent implosion of China’s economy/government. There are definitely several schools of thought on this, but I have to say after living in Asia for nearly two years I side more with Kurlantzick, at least for now. All it would take to get the egg shell cracking is a run on the banks. When everything is based on the government borrowing to support creaky SOEs it is essential to keep the money where Hu and Jiang and Company can lay their hands on it. Everything in China is hard to do….except to open a bank account, which anybody can do with minimal bureaucratic stress. It’s getting money out of China that one finds far more challenging, especially when 100-RMB notes are the highest the government prints. (Later on I’ll descibe what banking is like here in Beijing. Oh yes, they have a ways to go….)
I have no authority to write about this topic, being neither economist, lawyer or political historian. But I know what I see. And what I see is that China is doing an absolutely sensational job in becoming the world’s manufacturing leader, based on its plethora of cheap labor. As to their becoming the next economic juggernaut, eventually overtaking the US, all I can say for now is that I am quite skeptical. It doesn’t take long for a newcomer here to see the vast disparity between the miniscule island of wealthy and the vast ocean of poor. Yes, there is a middle class evolving, and they are certainly this nation’s greatest hope. But they still have relatively puny spending power. And then, there are the Chinese spending habits — or rather, non-spending habits. The average Chinese saves as much as 40 percent of his income, I have been told, and while there seems to be a new Louis Vuitton and Ermenegildo Zegna boutique opening up on every other block, I literally never see anyone buying the merchandise. Window shopping seems to be the national pastime, and many of these shops are filled with lookers. Ikea, which has managed to brand itself here as a high-end furniture chain, has become such a popular hangout after work and on weekends that families have been known to bring picnic baskets and camp out on the model furniture. But precious few buy the stuff. Yes, there are more Mercedes and BMWs on the roads than there were a few years back, and the quality of life has soared, at least in the large urban areas. But again, it’s such a teensy drop in the world’s biggest population bucket, and all you have to do is head west toward the farms to see how life is for the vast majority of Chinese, who are peasants. How the government manages to juggle the disparity between this 90 percent poor farmer versus 10 percent up-and-coming Chuppies will be intriguing to watch. It is a potentially explosive situation, as students of revolution know.
I admit I am something of a dilettante when I write about these things, but I have been reading and listening as much as I can, and I do make sure to observe living conditions and attitudes wherever I am. Based on my own common sense, I see major headaches for the government in the not very distant future. Major, like mega-migraines.
Get me my smelling salts! It is actually a few degrees warmer today (i.e., less bitterly cold), and I am feeling less and less like a soldier of the Sixth Army at Stalingrad in 1942. Let’s just see how long it lasts.