Re.: farmers' lives, Frank McCourt wrote Angela's Ashes, I advise you all to
read it if you haven't already. (You can easily skip the movie to watch
something better.)
What Roger says is true, and I have been often surprised by those who
exalted the bucolic side for political reasons, see all along the '70s and
''80s with marginal fringes up till today.
On 6/20/07, Roger Day <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> the prisoners of the Chinese brick factory made interesting witnesses
> - kidnapped off the streets to work in factories. It's almost a re-run
> of the British Industrial Revolution.
>
> I've always been ambivalent towards industrialisation: on the one
> hand, the peasant was removed from the feudal land system and placed
> in a far more flexibile system with the possibility of change within
> the collectivisation ferment, but there's also the exploitation and
> the horror. I am not one of those who believe that rural life outside
> either the old-style lord-of-the manor or the newer style commuter
> houses, was and is all that rosy. For the average peasant farmer life
> was and is bitter and hard, without honour, little happiness or
> warmth. I for one do not pine for those days; I saw my grandfather's
> generation of rural workers as hard-bitten, cynical and brutalised as
> any. He came from a generation whose mortality rate was something like
> 70%, and that was without WW1 intervening.
>
> I wonder what the death figures for under Mao as opposed to the latest
> industrialisation phase?
>
> I regard the improvements to workers conditions in China as coming not
> a day too soon. Maybe inevitable? Who knows. I also think as
> industrialisation spreads around the globe, workers wages will level
> out, and the global corporations will have no place to turn to find
> cheap wages. Of course, that's if the resultant industrialisation
> doesn't kill the planet first.
>
> As for the Green bit, the West could help by setting an example.
>
> Roger
> On 6/20/07, Patrick McManus <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > Andrew -Thanks -sock it to them!!I was just reading an old article
> about
> > the improvement to Chinese workers conditions -which was mainly opposed
> by
> > the multinationals from around the world
> > Lovely fresh air here today -will send some as an attachment
> > Cheers P
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> > Behalf Of andrew burke
> > Sent: 20 June 2007 00:44
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Snap: China
> >
> > China, I am packing up little pieces of you
> > ready to leave your sures and doubts,
> >
> > ready to look over my shoulder with
> > a postscript wave and wonder.
> >
> > China, it is dark under this tree and the moon
> > cannot penetrate your greedy industrial smoke.
> >
> > I'm waiting to see how much poetry is in
> > the Dragon Boat Festival - Does it _always_
> >
> > have to be about food, China? It's Qu Yuan's
> > death that's important, yesterday and today.
> >
> > Can we learn from history, Big Panda?
> > If you go out on a weak limb, it will break.
> >
> > China, too much America is not good for you.
> > Follow your own Confucius-Marx mix.
> >
> > China, where's your Green Card?
> > Where's your Green Party?
> >
> > Let them learn Mandarin, China -
> > you've got enough people to swing it.
> >
> > Don't let them seduce you with their beads
> > and mirrors. You're worth more than that.
> >
> > I buy your trinkets and Good Luck charms
> > but I don't buy your Western ways.
> >
> > This world is a hall of mirrors,
> > keep your eyes peeled.
> >
> > It's not just currency that's counterfeit.
> >
> >
> > (Apologies to Ginsberg) All comments welcome.
> >
> >
> > Andrew
> > http://hispirits.blogspot.com/
> > http://www.inblogs.net/hispirits
> > http://www.flickr.com/photos/aburke/
> >
> >
> > --
> > No virus found in this incoming message.
> > Checked by AVG Free Edition.
> > Version: 7.5.472 / Virus Database: 269.9.0/853 - Release Date:
> 18/06/2007
> > 15:02
> >
>
>
> --
> My Stuff: http://www.badstep.net/
> "In peace, sons bury their fathers. In war, fathers bury their sons."
> Roman Proverb
>
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