Just got back from a Spring exposition; and I'm thoroughly given PAUSE...

[UTUSN]

(I submit that this is a rare breed: A genuine GENERAL DISCUSSION copycat thread---not a Lounge copycat thread.)


With all the talk about how undocumented immigrants are invading and stealing 'Murrican jobs, how the country is going broke, how everything is Made in China, how China OWNS Mexico AND the U.S.---how China will some day call-in the debt and the whole U.S. will be taken over by the Chinese-----------

Well, the theme of the exposition was: China. Chinese acrobats. Replicas of the statues that were dug up, of an entire army of an emperor's soldiers, each one individualized. Replica of the Great Wall. The young acrobats were SO 110% and BEAMING, it was hard to think some of these thoughts.

There was a replica of a Chinese village, somewhere. Didn't see it today. Maybe tomorrow. Food food food.

[jkshaw]

1. Sounds wonderful, where is it being held?

[Warpy]

2. I saw an exposition of Chinese technology many years ago

One of the things they had was a draw loom. When you walked into the room, you saw the contraption that was made out of what looked almost like scrap lumber that had been sistered together so many times when it had broken that you could barely see what the original design was. It was a total piece of crap.

Then I saw what the two weavers were producing on it. Oh, my.

I went out of there feeling very small and very untalented.

There was also a master woodworker who was producing miniatures of Chinese historical buildings with a saw that looked like a length of copper wire that had dings put into it with a rock stretched between ends of bent bamboo. One of his projects was a thousand year old design of a roof system that would withstand strong earthquakes. The walls would fall but the roof would stay on. He had it on a shake table to demonstrate, and by golly, it worked.

There was a massive bronze casting in the middle of one room with bronze balls around the edge and cast frogs with open mouths ringing the bottom. Whenever there was an earthquake, they could tell where the epicenter was by looking at which frog was holding one of the balls. The epicenter was thataway.

I sincerely hope they don't lose any of this stuff in their rush to modernize. What they already had was truly astonishing.

[El Pinko]

3. There are some people who resent the success of other nations...

...but not all of us who want to stop offshoring and lopsided trade have an axe to grind against the Chinese or Mexicans. I love Asia, and I love Mexicans. But I do think it is in America's national interest to enforce the border by punishing employers who hire illegals, and to create incentives for keeping good jobs here. And I'm sorry, but we probably need higher tarriffs to protect US industries from cheap imports. Not talking Smoot-Hawley, but at least something to make the playing field a little more level.

Here is a list of nations by Current Account Balance. The US is dead last, with an annual deficit of $747,100,000,000.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_current_account_balance


Other countries protect their domestic industries, when did doing so here become such a heresy?

[UTUSN]

4. Yes, I've been in the defense against Mexico-flaming so much, yet the "axe to grind" posters HAVE

penetrated my pool of thoughts, apparently, to the point that I was given pause at this exhibition, therefore lessening my appreciating completely what I was seeing.

[El Pinko]

5. By the way, I was raised in El Paso (80% Mexican and Mexican-American)

..so the hysteria of places in the midwest who are freaking out because their communities are suddenly not COMPLETELY lily-white anymore seems pretty silly to me.

Mexicans, both legal and illegal were always the bulk of my hometown, and it just didn't seem that bad to me. For the record, El Paso has the lowest violent crime rate for a city its size in the whole US, and that's with a median income of only about $20K, far below the national median.

I think fear of the loss of cultural superiority is a big factor for those people.

To me, all I care about is protecting and increasing good-paying jobs for Americans (and I include Mexican-Americans and legal migrants when I say that).

Allowing a huge pool of people willing and able to work for peanuts can only create downward wage pressure for everybody on the lowwer half of the wage scale.

It's not the only thing that's broken, but it is a part of the reason wages are so stagnant for working people.



It's not that Americans "won't do those jobs". Lots of American women would love to work as hotel maids, they just can't afford rent on $3.50/hr.

[UTUSN]

7. "El Paso - lowest violent crime rate" ---------Is it an urban myth that this is because

there is lithium in the water supply there?

[El Pinko]

8. I've never heard of that. Our drinking water comes from the Hueco bolson...

...which is supposed to be a very good aquifer, though agriculture may deplete it as the Rio Grande's flow is sapped by dams upstream.

I think the main thing is just that we have a very laid-back culture and materialism and ostentation is not as important here as it seems to be in other cities.

This seems true for both the Mexican and anglo cultures here. The city is predominantly catholic, democratic and there is less of a fundamentalist presence than in other cities.

People for the most part are warm and kind and look out for their neighbors.

People who pass through characterize it as an ugly backwater, but once you live here a little while it really grows on you.

My only problem is that the dry climate really does a number on my sinuses, and you have to use a lot of moisturizer to keep your skin from cracking.



The flip side of the violent crime thing is that property crimes are relatively high, especially car thefts. Stolen cars can easily be taken over to Mexico and stripped or resold...

Obviously, there is no perfect place to live, but after growing up in EP, it was quite a culture shock living in LA and Miami, both of which are much more high-pressure towns where you are routinely treated in a really callous way

by people you meet. I like the mellow lifestyle here and the low cost of living. The sun shines 340 days a year, but it's not hellishly hot like Phoenix - can't beat it!

[UTUSN]

9. Google is amazing. Here's a sample article from '71, plus the Search link

*******QUOTE*******

Google Search for "lithium El Paso": http://www.google.com/search?q=lithium+El+Paso&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-US&ie=utf8&oe=utf8



http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,905404,00.html

The Texas Tranquilizer
Monday, Oct. 04, 1971

By legend Texans are a grandiose breed with more than the natural share of megalomaniacs. But University of Texas Biochemist Earl B. Dawson thinks that he detects an uncommon pocket of psychological adjustment around El Paso. The reason, says Dawson, lies in the deep wells from which the city draws its water supply.

According to Dawson's studies of urine samples from 3,000 Texans, El Paso's water is heavily laced with lithium, a tranquilizing chemical widely used in the treatment of manic depression and other psychiatric disorders. He notes that Dallas, which has low lithium levels because it draws its water from surface supplies, has "about seven times more admissions to state mental hospitals than El Paso." But state mental health officials point out that the mental hospital closest to Dallas is 35 miles from the city, while the one nearest El Paso is 350 miles away—and the long distance could affect admission figures.

But FBI statistics show that while Dallas had 5,970 known crimes per 100,000 population last year, El Paso had 2,889 per 100,000. Dallas (pop. 844,000) had 242 murders, El Paso (pop. 323,000) only 13. Dr. Frederick Goodwin, an expert on lithium studies for the National Institute of Mental Health, doubts that "lithium has these magical properties in the population." Others are not so sure. If lithium does have anything to do with the relative peace in El Paso, what would it do for other cities like New York and Chicago?

********UNQUOTE*******

[El Pinko]

10. Thanks, that was interesting!

Maybe there's something to it. Who knows? I ain't knockin' it.

:)

[Beregond2]

6. China

That's all well and good, but it doesn't alter the fact that we ARE massively in debt to China.