It all starts with an article describing how thieves were stealing power lines, one end got caught in a truck, 8 or so towers were pulled down, and tens of thousands lost power. It was in China, and apparently it is fairly common. But, the real gold was when the article said "missing manhole covers are a common hazard in Beijing." People can get a couple of bucks for the scrap steal, so they steal manhole covers. They steal the cover to manholes and leave holes in the road or sidewalk, not clear which, or if both, for people to fall into. What a country. Did I mention about the manhole covers?
The main surprise revolves around Beijing hosting the Olympics in 2008, of which you may know I am not a fan of. In Greece they wasted billions, I do mean wasted, on security. I can't imagine the bill in China for security and replacing and guarding the manhole covers. Just think about the risk to athletes and tourists who are not used to such hazards. It could be a tragedy on the scale of the Hindenberg or something. Luckily China is already a police state and they have gotten those crazy Falun Gong practitioners under control.
It is not that I don't believe that poor ass Americans wouldn't steal manhole covers if they had the chance. It is just harder here to find a place to sell the cover where someone down the line won't eventually be like "that is just wrong." Of course, it is sometimes hard to conceive of the sheer scale of the urbanity of Eastern China, where a million people in a city means nothing. The anonmynity that is creeping over the country could lead to even worse lawlessness. The more the central government weakens, the more people can move around and get lost in the system, in which a criminal class would/will thrive. China is too large to modernize fully.
Try to think about people stealing manhole covers in as many countries as possible and try to think where it is a feasible pursuit.
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8 comments:
I remember reading an article about one of the former satellite states of the Soviet Union (one of them -stans I believe) where a bridge was stolen for the scrap metal.
I'm not sure that China is too large to modernize fully. I do believe that their government can't support/manage full modernization. The country is too big for such highly centralized control. If there were a move to a less authoritarian government with more local control, then it could be pulled off. In that situation it seems that it would be just as likely that some areas of the country split (don't really know enough about the country, though. I feel that it is too big, but it has been big for awhile. I don't know the level of animosity different areas of the country might have for each other)
The problem that is that there is already too much decentralization. You have provinces the size of small countries that are competing against eachother. Every province wants its steel plant and its own television plant/company. I've read about neighboring provinces not accepting any competing goods from neighboring provinces and such. The improvement of the American economy, and subsequent absorption of Chinese goods, has overshadowed these past problems. Being out of the academic world a bit I am unsure of how financial decentralization to the provinces and how their finances are currently. It used to be a huge issue.
I need to look into this.
It is interesting how China is heedlessly striving to reach a Western economic model and essentially abandoning communism instead of creating a new way. Politically they are definitely not becoming democratic though.
Maybe the missing manhole covers are being used by the Chinese Olympic discus squad to practice.
Besides provinces competing, doesn't China have a number of "free economic zones" (or whatever they might be called) that are mostly unregulated by government and taxes. (Believe discussed in "The End of Nation States" and "No Logo")? Sure they are giving money to some poor people as a result, but that lack of regulation I think mostly screws over the people who work there, but gives money/power to those that are allowed to operate with the free zone. Those zones, in addition to the provincal problems, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the potential "bad" position of China's banks (only made it about halfway through book on China and their banks), there is a lot that could happen. The US is not in a position right now to deal with any sort of situation or there, be it political/economic/military.
i also think the olympics is a huge waste of money. and 3rd world countries like china are definitely ill-equipped to pull it off. is coke going to ship in the millions of gallons of clean water necessary for the athletes?
not to mention that the olympics being held there is a sad symbol to china that all of their human rights abuses are ok. im not sure who i trust less, the us govt or that of the chinese.
i wonder if it's easier to steal manholes in china cuz their covers arent as heavy as ours in the states are.
less of symbol and more of a message from the rest of the world.
We sent the message awhile ago when Clinton (I believe it was under him) gave them Favored Nation Trading Status. They get to keep exploiting their people, we get cheap goods.
Also, I read today that China has said it is working on small steps to unpeg the yuan (base it on more than just the dollar - so not "unpeg", but repeg). Glad I ordered my new laptop yesterday.
well that was more of an economic thing. the olympics are supposed to be a celebration of global humanity. inhumane countries shouldnt be celebrated.
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