Blog Marco

According to Yahoo!...

China launched a Web site, www.linese.com, on Saturday offering free Chinese lessons and materials to promote the study and use of the language abroad.

China can make rain.

When he's not tending cherry orchards outside Beijing, Yu Yonggang can be found behind the twin barrels of a 37mm anti-aircraft gun, blasting shells at passing clouds.

Yu is one of 37,000 peasants enlisted by the Chinese government to help produce rain in parched areas. The 45-year-old farmer works with China's other trigger-happy rain men to water the crops, break up damaging hailstorms and put out forest fires. After a sandstorm blew through the capital in May, he lobbed shells and rockets skyward to coax rains that washed sand and grit from city streets.

Now Yu and the other rainmakers face their toughest challenge: making sure it stays dry for the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The idea is for the peasant gunners to work with meteorologists watching radar in the capital. Together, they will hunt pregnant rain clouds and pound them with rockets containing silver iodide. The hope is that any moisture will fall before the clouds can threaten the parade of athletes and lighting of the Olympic flame at the new National Stadium.

Was on the tour bus in Shanghai, China when I noticed these two people playfully running around.

Had the digital camera out, White Balance set to Auto. Using the 50mm f1.4 set to f2. Due to the rapid transition of the shot across my window, the lens didn't quite focus on the right spot - if you look carefully the background it sharper than the subject.

As far as I know, the focus was set to Continuous mode - since the subject was moving, so maybe I simply pushed the button then the focus rectangle was over the background.

My 1986 edition of World Book details Communism as "a term that has several meanings. It can be a form of government, an economic system, a way of life, or a goal or ideal. Communism is also a set of ideas about how and why history moves, and in what direction it is headed. these ideas were developed mainly by Lenin from the writings of Karl Marx. Lenin was a Russian revolutionary leader of the early 1900's. Marx was a german social philosopher who lived in the 1800's."

Why do I want to explore this topic anyways?

It was when I was in China that I realised that I didn't know enough about Communism even though I thought I did.

Wikipedia entry on Communism

It can be argued that China is on a thin line between Communism and Socialism. It is said that both Communists and Socialists seek public ownership or control of the principal means of production. But while most socialists favour peaceful methods to achieve their goals, the Communists have often prepared to use force. (Tibet... wink wink - There was actually a Current Affairs program in Australia that played a segment about Tibet - See below for TRANSCRIPT... )

In Shanghai and in Beijing it is apparent that there is a Socialist Government in control as there is ruling that no private entity can own any land. All land is rented out to the people, as the land is owned by the government. The government also enforces a one child policy to control their population numbers.

The following question lingers in my mind - if China was a Socialist Government, why are there still beggars on the street?

Wikipedia article on Socialism

Anyhow, one can argue that the Australian government is a Socialist government... "Socialist ideologies tend to emphasize economic cooperation over economic competition; virtually all envision some sort of economic planning." We pay our taxes, some of it get distributed in our Social Security System... they make laws to protect us, the consumers and laws to protect Aussie companies from overseas competition.

Who am I to say it's a bad system? Then again, Communism, Socialism and Capitalism all has their own scales ranging from extremism to moderate and mild applications and all their different theories... That I can't be bothered to look at...

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TRANSCRIPT:
China and Tibet's spiritual struggle Broadcast 3/9/2005

As China celebrates the 40th anniversary of the creation of the Tibetan Autonomous Region, Beijing and the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet, the Dalai Lama, are in a contest for control of the Tibetan soul. The decade-long clash centres around the Panchen Lama, the person who will one day lead the search for the Dalai Lama's reincarnation. China installed its choice for Panchen Lama, and the boy chosen by Tibetan Buddhists has been hidden by China for years.