Democracy and China, Hotdogs and Ice Cream

Thanks to the lovely post by Pilar on some of the foreign perceptions of us 'commies' in China, I am reminded about a question I asked an Uncle about 7 years ago.

I once asked my Uncle what he thought of Democracy, and why China couldn't, wouldn't be Democratic, and he said "It would be like asking 1.3 billion people whether they would like to eat hotdogs or ice cream. "

That is to say, I don't honestly believe that western perception of what human rights are and their attached extreme importance, are what matters the most in the minds of an average, rural, Chinese farmer on a daily basis. I suspect that the majority of people who are self-righteously 'campaigning' for 'human rights' in Tibet right now do not understand the level of extreme poverty that plagues rural China. It's wrong, but there it is. In the States, living a hand-to-mouth existence just means to get paid badly. It may also mean that you are a boho artiste who spends the majority of your income on recreational drugs. It may ALSO mean that your are a black single mother with three kids, all of whom have to stay home alone for most or part of the day, depending on their age, as you work your minimum wage job far away in the next town. What hand-to-mouth doesn't mean is plucking ube straight out of the earth with your bare hand (if you've done this before you'll know that gloves are recommended, because the ube root has these tiny tiny hairs that make your skin itch. But, oh wait, you can't afford to buy a rubber glove!) and eating it that night for dinner after you've washed it in an untreated water source. What it doesn't mean is surviving off farming a piece of land smaller than the average suburban American backyard.

Let's get it straight: democracy is for people with money. People like Senator Hillary Clinton, who, at the drop of a hat, can inject several million dollars into her campaign fund when things go wrong, no sweat. Democracy is for people who have enough to eat, whose children go to school, who tastes meat, protein for chrissakes, more than once a year. Call me an idiot woman (hah I am reminded of that Dylan song Idiot Wind), but I do feel somewhat offended when people tell me China is eeeeebil because it is not democratic, that it 'doesn't respect human rights.' It's a cheap shot, because I deeply believe that Chinese people have had enough of bloody revolutions, bloody wars, bloody politics. We've had a 3000 year history of mostly infighting, wars, and this is not the time for another bloody revolution. I'd safely say there is a solid percentage of Chinese in China who would trade in their right to be represented in the government for cut-and-dry economic development. Bacon on the table, or, rice in the bowl. We do not need any more unrest. We need time and space to continue to develop, to improve the lives of every one of those 1.3 billion people our borders contain.

Apathy may be the greatest accomplice of evil, but until I see every single snotty, wet-behind-the-ears, verbose activist who at heart could not give a fuck about China or the Chinese put down some money for the economic development of rural China, including Tibet whose HDI is well below the national average I may add, I will ignore all this ridiculous hot wind about boycotting the Olympics.

Tibet probably needs schools and public healthcare much much more than it wants the vote. The vote cannot secure these things. Money can. (I can also be pithy and say money can also secure the vote, but, perhaps, this is not the venue to be talking about that.) The Chinese government is aware of it's own peril in this regard as well. It currently is taking severe economic measures to curb inflation and overheating. Deng Xiao Ping is lauded for his economic reform policies because he knew the communist government could not drift away from the basic tenet of governance - the way to continued power is surely through the nation's stomach. My only hope right now is that the Chinese government continues to heed this, to improve the lives of all the Chinese, to prevent our country from fracturing. Race hate is sometimes just about having enough to eat, and wanting to get rid of some perceived 'different' group in order to take care of your own.

Until half of the Chinese population has actually tasted ice cream, and the other half has tasted hotdogs, and they can each rant and rave about the relative qualities of both, I rest my case. Anyone want to foot the bill for half a billion ice creams? I think not.