usa

Since my internet connection, or china, is so slow, I think I have to post this twice. Anyway, What I wrote the last time was something along the lines of this:

China's censorship is well known and acknowledged. However, most people in america believe that they live in a 'free country'. Yes Lin'an is boring, and yes, sometimes I think it may be okay to return to us, but then I read something like this:


"Thank you, Bush. Thank you, U.S.A.," a jubilant Iraqi-American told a camera crew in Kansas City for a segment about reaction to the fall of Baghdad... Under the Bush administration, the federal government has aggressively used a well-established tool of public relations: the prepackaged, ready-to-serve news report that major corporations have long distributed to TV stations to pitch everything from headache remedies to auto insurance. In all, at least 20 federal agencies, including the Defense Department and the Census Bureau, have made and distributed hundreds of television news segments in the past four years, records and interviews show. Many were subsequently broadcast on local stations across the country without any acknowledgement of the government's role in their production.

No, I'm never coming back to America. Thank god for free press.

Anyway, in China news, Hu Jintao (aka HJ) has officially replaced Jiang Zemin (JZ) as Chairman of the State Central Military Commission. As some of you may know, JZ officially retired from his last post earlier this month. It was the end of an era in China. The new younger, communistcapitalist China has now taken hold. CCTV showed the official voting of the national congress on TV. It was great. They had the equivalent of 'Sunshine, Lollipops" playing while they showed the individual members vote. What I hadn't realized before is that the minority members actually come to Congress in their traditional clothing. All the world's a stage I guess. Especially China. Anyway, HJ's speach reaffirmed JZ's stance of upholding peace and protection for the people, for the country, and I didn't catch the last one because my Chinese is at that special stage where it takes me approximately 5 seconds to realize what people are talking about. By then I've missed about a third of the conversation since the Chinese speak so quickly.

In Lin'an news I woke up to snow yesterday. I was actually excited when I woke up because I could tell it was bright outside. I thought it was sunny, threw back my curtains and was met with rolling hills of snow. It all melted later that day. No, it wasn't sunny or warm, it's just that snow would rather melt than stay in Lin'an. Good idea. Now it's just cold and polluted here. Yet again.