But I've always loved stories that reflect how big cities can aslo each be an amalgamation of many small towns and small town stories. Like Mexico City. It's not a city of 22,000,000, it's a gathering place of these cool colonias and barrios - it's hundreds of villages brought together under one vibrant, colourful roof. Defining the character of a city is as impossible as defining the greatest song in the history of rock and roll (which, by the way, is a tie between The Eagles' "Hotel California" and Oasis' "Wonderwall")
Early this morning I had breakfast with a local philanthropist who is a friend of a friend of the cousin of a friend's friend :) So, as it turns out, yesterday when we were working with the Beijing Red Cross and loading all of our materials for shipping, one of their executive directors was there observing. And she is friends with the guy I had breakfast with today. And she was so moved at meeting us and seeing this great direct foreign aid money at work that she relayed her impressions to this guy. And he was moved...to the point that he wrote a check today for ¥100,000 for the effort.
That's some awesome karma :) Serious high fives all around!!!!!
Speaking of karma, everyone here is laughing about the Sharon Stone situation - they see it as an amusement, a welcome diversion from the Tragedy (I've made a decision to capitalize it from here on), and CCTV has given the story serious legs (they've even slapped a pair of Nike Cortezes on it, letting it run hard and strong for a while). The media here are no dummies - each shot of Ms. Stone is less flattering than the one before. She looked to be approximately 98 in the last shot I saw of her on TV this morning. As you may have heard, she had ALL of her films banned from China two days ago after making the brilliant statement (which clearly reflected her fine breeding and evolved global consciousness) that the earthquake was "karmic retribution for China's position and actions regarding Tibet."
Again, really trying hard to abstain from editorializing about world politics while writing from Mainland China, but, exsqueeze me, how about if Sharon Stone looks at her own country for a bit? Really, is the US, in any way, shape or form, a nation and society that should be criticising others? Isn't that tantamount to Burger King telling Jenny Craig that her Chicken Kiev entree has is too low in potassium? Am I missing something here? They have 100 million people without even a shred of the most basic human dignity health insurance, they...okay, I won't begin a 900-word rant. I'll leave it at that for now. Just don't criticise your neighbour for not trimming his hedges when your yard is completely covered in dog poop, okay?
Taking some time during a much-needed early morning run to reflect on stuff, I thought about Emerson (well, I also thought about a big bowl of Vietnamese bun cha and maybe a Polish Zywiec beer or two). I remember from when I taught an integrated History/English American Studies course at a great prep school near Washington, DC, his powerful words: "Every man is my superior in some way. From that I learn of him."
It's easy to say "Oh, yeah, I embrace that. Yep, Emerson. Heavy-duty stuff," but that's usually a load of salted carp as people in the First World have a very strong tendency to believe that people in the Third World, are just so far behind, so antiquated. Someone once said to me "I can't believe that people actually drive bicycles in Beijing - can't they afford cars?" Really.
This fundamental unhinging of reality (it's no less than that) scares the pants off me. In the First World, I always overhear business people speak and they say "No" and "Problem," more than anything else. But in the Third World I hear "Possibility," and "Intriguing.". The lingua franca of business is less pan-global than people think; there has been little evolution of a functional Esperanto in world commerce. Instead, we interact nationally, and regionally and we reflect this in how we speak.
I find myself doing the same thing and the end result is that in Latin and South America, in developing Asian nations and some of the former Eastern Bloc countries I speak in that self-same encouraging, proactive, forward-looking patois.
Everything here in Beijing is forward-looking. Beijingers are no dummies. They're savvy, great negotiators, a bit guarded and a very strong-willed, in a positive way. This truly is the Chinese version of Jay McInerney's 1980s Gotham, of which he wrote in his masterwork, "Bright Lights, Big City.". The fashion scene here in Beijing is becoming world-class. All of the major fashion brands and houses have established a solid foothold in Beijing and they did so before expanding to the Mumbais and Bogotás of the world. People here - especially women - dress well and dress for the occasion.
I think that the world will be very pleasantly surprised when they come to Beijing in 70 days to celebrate sport and life and hope for the future.
Which is how they need to come. Period.
ANS
