Check your listings for a replay, the second part of an amazing 4 part
tale is on & recording
right now. It's called
The People's Republic of Capitalism. Powerful, moving, honest, scary... it's a big picture look at an epic consumer driven revolution on our planet. It's not how you feel about it, it's
happening and it's time we took a look at whatever
it is between American Consumerism & Foreign Labor.
It's all the fault of Jon Stewart. He was his adorable, hilarious self and out walked Ted Koppel & a little black dog. Who is a really funny guy. I love it when that happens on The Daily Show. He said the network had threatened the poor pooch, if we didn't all tune in and watch his series. When he got to the seriousness of the interview, I was mesmerized by his telling of his experiences. (
Is it the hair? am I just sucked in because he's a familiar face? because he does have one of those trustworthy faces, ya know. Of course, Jon Stewart is a trustworthy news source & he seems to like Ted... and) I wanted to hear more about the growing middle class of Chinese who are shopping for Ethan Allen furniture at almost 1:1 with the Americans.
So I watched it in the wee hours of today... holy freaking mother of jesus, mary
& joseph!
We're fabric. We're bound. We rely almost exclusively on some part or 'nother made/assembled/processed by cheap labor, provided
joyfully by Chinese citizens. Never mind that the folks can't even afford to purchase what they're putting together for Waldemart or Ethan Allen. Never mind that people spend half of their meager $600 annual income to send their daughter to boarding school in the city, to get a life beyond the harvesting of lotus root to sell at the city's market.
Wal-Mart is upscale in China. It's where the cool folk, who can afford to emulate Americans, spend their money. They have just as many middle class people, benefiting from jobs provided them by American corporations, as America does. They live in big beautiful houses and drive BMWs and have big two door refrigerators. And still the things they buy are made/assembled/processed by their neighbors, right down the road. The ones without electricity or plumbing. And I can't even wrap my head around the big perspective, the earth wide ripple of cause & effect...
tonight, I shall enjoy:
Part 2: MAOism TO MEism — Thur., July 10, at 10 p.m. ET/PT
Chongqing is a city of 13.5 million people — it could be the most populous city that most Americans have never heard of. The largest migration in human history is underway as millions of peasants are on the move from China’s countryside to its booming industrialized cities.
The central government has plans to increase Chongqing’s population to 20 million. This population redistribution, combined with the emergence of capitalism, is having a dramatic effect on Chinese culture. In this episode, we'll profile a cast of characters in and around Chongqing to examine the central issues of traditional values, religion, sexuality and political freedom.
I'm tellin' ya, check it out. It'll rock your world. And he's got great hair :)
I turn the intended pocket for aforementioned backpack into a supercoolphone cozy...
I take blue pictures of the cows, Lenny & Lenny, across the street...
and blue pictures of the waterfight happening just outside my bedroom window...
And I listen to three Harry Potter books while walking the dog; no matter how amazingly brilliant the delivery by Stephen Fry, the same really horrible stuff still happens. Every time. I cry a lot. I've now moved on to Dune, read by someone sounding amazingly like Steven Hawking, without the hardware.
City Cows bring me joy. A gentle lowing at dusk sends me giggling ♥
I just wanna look at them and take their pictures...
And I wanna make up funny stories about their days.
I called them Hamburger and Helper.
Scotty recommended Lenny & Squiggy, which led to Hayden recommending Lenny & Carl. I think they shall be called "Lenny & Squiggy" and "Lenny & Carl"
