Reflections on China

I first came to China in February 2009. Wide eyed. I came to teach English at a college. My initial contract was for just over four months, and I came back after the summer holidays. I've considered staying on for another semester when my current contract is over, but some things have occured in the last week or so which has made me reconsider. And I am growing angry about some things that I see here.

Let me expain a little. I have at all times been thankful for the Chinese authorities for allowing me to have this amazing experience. I don't want to cause any trouble, but I feel I need to tell my truth about some things. I've said it is a paradox. On the one hand something is wonderful, but entwined in that wonderment is the negative. For example, I love the street stalls for food. They cook fresh food, to your choice off the back of old rattly tricycles, trucks, or some other wheeled contraption. The food looks and tastes terrific. You can ignore in some sense what back home in our own country would cause healt department officials to almost have apoplexy! I can deal with that. But what I cannot abide is that all the rubbish is dumped at the feet of the stall holder. Egg shells, packaging, peels, old skewers, bowls, and other general rubbish is left right where it was thrown. And it is left there or thrown in the garden.

The same garden of which the Chinese show great pride is filled with an assortment of waste. It looks grosse. It is dirty and unhealthy. It looks disgusting.

See the paradox?