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Trip Start
Aug 17, 2008
1
15
Trip End
Sep 24, 2008
Newark,
New Jersey,
United States
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
As it turns out, I was lucky that I wasn't fast enough on the draw. A financial analyst returning from an investment business trip, he caught me up on all the financial fiascos of the past few weeks. I didn't do the best of jobs keeping up with the news during the past few weeks. While I did hear that Brady got hurt and our next VP might be a Tina Fey look-alike, I hadn't heard the full extent of Wall Street's woes. I wonder what else I missed. And how much wealth is now missing.
The distant anxiety of having to find a job in this market gives way to a more proximate anxiety as the flight drags on. I have to figure out what the heck I'm going to write to conclude my blog. I quickly begin to dread the thought of having to package six weeks of experiences into 500 words of "this is what I learned" summation. In fact, I've learned a lot.
I've learned that the Chinese drink milk from unrefrigerated plastic pouches. I've learned to loathe soft-seats and love soft-sleepers. I've learned how to stupefy Chinese hawkers with an authoritative sho men do bu yao (anything you have I will never want). I've learned to appreciate blue sky. I've learned that the worse Asian food smells, the better it usually tastes. I've learned that when you buy a cat in China, they put it in a bag for you. I've learned that squatters (toilets) aren't that bad, unless they're on a train and then they're just not realistic. I've learned that Cambodian children are really good at tic-tac-toe and American geography. I've learned shady massage parlors do in fact steal your money, but will give it back when you ask for it. I've learned that riding a motorcycle through pandemonic streets is a lot of fun. I've learned to endure the wafting smells of burning trash, burning incense, hanging chickens, and motorcycle exhaust. I've learned to drink beer with a glass of ice and never from the bottle. I've learned to not buckle you seatbelt unless you want the taxi driver to yell at you for insulting his driving. I've learned that any combination of 40 chickens, 10 puppies, 5 people, and an endless list of piled inanimate objects can fit onto a single motorcycle. These small lessons, more than any story I've blogged about, reveal the true nature about Asia.
But as a political science major, I should also comment on what I learned about their political systems. I wasn't sure what to expect when visiting an authoritarian country. If I were to believe the rhetoric of most of our American leaders, life without democracy is miserable and anyone under the yoke of oppression yearns for a freedom. I'm just not sure how to balance that wisdom with my own experiences in Asia. Almost everyone I met or observed was definitively happy. They were content with the lives they were leading and did not seem to think much or at all about the freedoms they lacked. So how could this be? Things begin to make more sense when you unravel Democracy into its three constituent parts: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Without question, 20th century Asia witnessed unimaginable loss of life. I still cannot fully come to terms with the amount of suffering the Chinese, Cambodians, and Vietnamese have experienced during the 20th century. Let me give you a sense of scale (all these numbers are rough approximations). In China, the Civil War killed 3 million, the Great Leap Forward 30 million, the Cultural Revolution 3 million, 1 million in the Korean War and untold millions more from purges and forcible collectivizations. In Cambodia, one in four people died during the Vietnam War, the Killing Fields, and the following civil war. In Vietnam, 3 million died during US War and another half a million during the war against the French. Much of that misery resulted directly from Communism's callous disregard of human life. But today, life seems no longer threatened to the same dizzying degree. In the past twenty years, all three countries have opened up their systems and have begun to place higher value on human life. This change was by no means inevitable or irrevocable, but it's here nonetheless. So for now, the Chinese, Cambodians, and Vietnamese can happily enjoy their fundamental right to life.
But more than life, they have also exercised their right to the pursuit of improving their lives. China's special economic zones for economic development have spread throughout the country. Though President Hu and most of China may never admit it, Adam Smith stands above Marx and Lenin in the Chinese Pantheon. As in China, Vietnam has forsaken its hard Communist line in favor of economic prosperity. Women zip around with Louis Vuitton helmets on their BMW motorbikes, Gucci bags in tow. Billboards canvas the streets and highways advertising every thinkable Western company or luxury. Many signs do not actually advertise a product, but a job. Outside Hanoi, a billboard for the YYZ Zipper Company (half of your zippers in your closet are made by them) offered lucrative jobs for entrepreneurial Vietnamese. Even bucolic Cambodia has benefited from recent economic growth. I saw more Lexus SUVs in Siem Reap than I do in Upper Saint Clair. Meanwhile my tour guide Lucky, after many years of hard work, can now finally afford a piece of land to raise his family. And while we all know the adage that wealth cannot buy happiness, in this case the newfound ability to pursue wealth has fundamentally improved the lives of the people I met. And for that, they are happy.
While recent history has afforded the rights of life and the pursuit of happiness in these countries, the right to liberty still lags behind. Cambodia ostensibly offers the most open political system, but it is by no means an exemplar of liberty. The only thing more common than Cambodian election billboards is rampant corruption. According to Transparency International, Cambodia ranks a miserable 166nd of 180 countries. In comparison, Vietnam is 121st, China is 72nd, and the US is 18th. But at least they have multi-party elections. China and Vietnam are still single party states with either sham elections or none at all. Freedom of press is tenuous or non-existent. The rule of law is either ignored or improvised. But yet, the people are still on the whole happy.
It would be tempting, then, to say that perhaps liberty is not as important as the other two inalienable rights of our Declaration. But that conclusion would be wrong for three reasons. First, while I did see a representative sample of the countries I visited, I did not observe the whole population. The Chinese government demarcates Tibet as off-limits to almost all foreigners . The Falun Gong and many other banned groups are relegated to the shadows and prisons of China. The Montegnard tribes simmer in constant unrest in the highlands of Vietnam. Currently several parts of central Vietnam are also off-limits. And of course, staunch pro-democracy advocates cannot speak too loudly without attracting unwanted government attention. Surely these people are not happy without their liberty.
Second, it was often very easy to forget that I was traveling through non-democratic countries. Partly this was due to the first reason - I did not see those who suffered most from governmental excesses. But it is also due to the nature of the governments as well. As Adam explained to me, the governments do not choose to enter the everyday lives of their people. Police stand on corners, but do not enforce traffic laws. There are few laws about safety restrictions, business regulations, or the sanctity of written contracts. The laws that do exist are not enforced consistently or wholeheartedly. It seems, in fact, that the sole purpose of government is to only maintain power without ever exercising power. Unlike in the US, there is no moral or ideological imperative of governance beyond the existence of government. While these authoritarian governments actively squash liberty with censorship and perpetual rule, they also passively undermine liberty by their failure to fill the power vacuum in everyday life. Because the government will only intervene to preserve its own narrow interests of survival, China paradoxically suffers from both too much and too little liberty. Until that paradox is resolved, we will continue to see dual headlines of political repression and safety scandals in China. More importantly for this discussion, this mode of authoritarianism works subtly. You have to look hard to find the government's excesses while all around you see the government's recesses. For this reason, the paucity of liberty in these countries is less salient than the improving conditions of life and the pursuit of happiness. But less salience does not equate to less importance.
Third and I think most importantly, no one self-identifies primarily as either a citizen of a democracy or a non-democracy. Sure, your political leanings are important to your identity. Just look at how Red or Blue people have become during this election. But, to take the example of Governor Palin, she is a hockey mom first and VP candidate second. People juggle many identities, but their political identity takes a distant second when placed in the light of their family, friends, job, and home. In Asia, people are farmers, laborers, students, and merchants first. They are mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, and grandparents first. They are sports fans, tai chi practitioners, and chess players first. Do they want more liberty? Absolutely. But in the meantime, they are happy for the gains they have made yesterday, the lives they have today, and the promise they hold for tomorrow.
These jumbled thoughts swirled around in my mind until finally I fell asleep somewhere near the North Pole. Soon enough, we had landed and I found myself corralled into lines at customs. An older man a few spots in front of me argued heatedly with a customs official. Yes I have agricultural produce and no I don't need to declare it. Trust me, it's got no disease. Damn Feds won't leave me alone! Behind me, a television blared Fox News' analysis of President Ahmadinejad's speech at the UN. A couple in matching sweaters and khaki pants stood ensorcelled until one broke the mesmerized silence. We should just nuke the bastard. A man in a Yankees cap and jacket cackled in approval. A British couple sighed before moving on. To my right, a Hispanic and a Black customs agent jived with each other while on a self-declared break while an Asian family stood in front of them looking lost. One gave a sharp but playful punch to the arm of the other. I'm on a break dawg! You help dem out. Reaching the immigration official, I showed him my papers but all he cared about was my favorite football team. Pittsburgh's tough man. Gonna have a good season, but my Giants got them beat. For sure. I couldn't help but smile. It was good to be back in America, land of a colorful people and even more colorful language.
I want to thank everyone who has kept up with this blog. It's been a lot of fun to write and I hope at least a little fun to read. I've enjoyed and appreciated all your comments and support. I'm currently working on organizing my pictures through Google. I've over 2,000 to sort through and will be choosing the best ones to put on the web. You can see what I have organized so far at http://picasaweb.google.com/JasonStern242. It will definitely be a work in progress, so periodically check back to see what I've added.
Comments
Welcome Home
YOur messages have been great and I will look forward to more when you take off again!
Nana