i wonder how a chinese national feels about china... (yep, i'm still at it!! coz there are still people out there asking me about the trip)
i think it's sad... how china has turned out. the country has kinda overtaken it's people. you arrive there and you look around. it's big, yes, it also has all the tall nice buildings and big big roads, highways, etc. all signs of progress and development. and then you look again... and you see the people. the people in not-very-fashionable garments, with ankle high stockings, cycling on a flimsy black and silver coloured bike which doesn't look very new....
it feels as though the country is undergoing major renovation for the upcoming olympics... trying to make itself look powerful and prosperous.... and then to the villages they went, picked up the people and dropped them in the city. totally not in sync....
whatever growth they have tried to portay... doesn't look too convincing... doesn't look sustainable...
and the worst thing is it feels like everybody is out to con u!!! an extra dollar today is all they aim for... repeated business??? that's not important... sigh...
like a very wise friend would say.... it's not internalised... the vision of the country to be great, the desire to improve continuously, is not internalised...
wonder how the country would be about 5 years from now...? would it be as powerful as everybody tot
2 comments:
i don't think China is doing the wrong thing though...you can't change people overnight. Education takes time. So how else to improve the quality of life but improve the infrastructure first?
This is the first step, and it's now up to each individual to learn for themselves, to upgrade their skills, and also learn about social manners. This is going to take awhile. As everyone knows, it is very difficult to change human's behaviour.
There is also a portion of the population who is complaining that the government is not improving the life of the population, which I think, your friend is one of them. These are the people who felt being left out. They complained that it's not internalised, ie, they're not receiving the benefits. However, what do they expect, the money to be given to them freely? Some complained that only the big cities, eg, Beijing and Shanghai are the only cities that are receiving the benefits. They should understand that it takes time to upgrade the infrastructures of each and every cities in China. And again, it's also up to them, to create wealth in their own cities. For instance, do you think it's fair if ALL the funds from tax collected from Kuala Lumpur is used to built roads and buildings in Kelantan? How would the people in KL feel that their hard earned tax monies are not used to upgrade their own cities. Of course this is the extreme example, the rich should help the poor by "donating" some of their monies away.
Another point to note is that, these people should understand that they can't just sit and wait for the money to be doled out to them. If they want to be rich, they must earn it.
With regards to the people trying to con u…it's a tactic that works in China for the simple reason that there is such a big population/market. You only need to con everyone only once, and u'll still be a billionaire. They're smarter than you think. There's also a possibility that they don't realise as there are so many new customers everyday that they didn't realise that they are not having repeat customers.
Of course, that's not what I would advocate, as it's not ethical. And it wouldn't work for the truly large companies, as the company would need consistent billion dollar revenues to sustain themselves.
The important point to note is that a government can only provide the infrastructures or opportunities for the population to improve their quality of life. It's up to each individual of the population to seize the opportunity, earn the wealth and improve their quality of life themselves.
And I believe the growth will continue for the next five years, as there are still so many things to be done. The government can simply continue to build infrastructures for all other cities in China. It's not even an issue of low productivity, or lack of innovation, ie, they don't have to very smart to keep growing. They are still an infant, in economic terms.
agreed. changes takes time.
agreed. govt can only provide infrastructure and opportunities and it's entirely up to the people to seize the opportunities.
disagreed. my friend is not one who is complaining just coz he is not receiving the benefits.
maybe i'm an idealist. and i do believe that sequence of change is important. because of limited resources, you can only choose 2 out of 3 : fast/ cheap/ quality. i suppose money is a lot of the times limited. so, quality or time?
sometimes, there is really no choice. because there are expectations to meet, datelines to adhere to. but i think a lot of times, when "fast and cheap" is chosen, quality is greatly compromised. and the subsequent re-work required to right the wrong is 1) frustrating 2) demoralising 3) expensive and time consuming.
right first time?
maybe too much of an idealist...?
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