Passed Through Guizhou

Flying down south to a different part of the country.  Normally I hug the seaboard.  This time I’m cutting a pathway to Burma.  I think I passed through Guizhou once years ago when I was in my twenties. Unfortunately I won’t have much of any time to explore or sample the cuisine. 

I just finished Naomi Klein’s “This Changes Everything.”  I didn’t enjoy much of how it was written at the beginning.  Eventually I cam to appreciate both the thoroughgoing nature of the critique and eventually the art of her writing.  From sighing at the predictability of every paragraph, I noted some of the suspence in her final chapter concerning maternity. It struck as the sort of galvanizing inevitability that my children would likely rally round and a discomfort at my own, stayed inertia. 

Bounced to biz, I can say that the Air China inflight meal up here in the land of comfy seats,  overcooked dim sum, does nothing to burnish Air China’s reputation as flagship carrier for the Chinese civilization.  Strong turbulence  suddenly.  James Fallows pointed out that pilots in China are not allowed by the Air Force, to change their flight plans, even in the case of turbulence. 

I’ve a pinched something in my neck.  I don’t usually have such aches.  Did I fall asleep at an odd angle?  Did I carry something the wrong way?  I keep stretching my neck against the seat, pushing my neck backwards, in hopes that something will somehow crack back into place.  But I merely stretch the muscle a bit.  When I hit this hotel, I may have to dive into a shower. 

If China is to conquer the world, I certainly hope they park their melodramas at home.  I have no choice but to consider the stupid movie up above my head.  Some idiot in a turquoise blue blazer has been running from one scene to another with a predictably amazed look on his face.  He as just hit by a car while riding a scooter.  I hope that’s the end of him.  Orders to cease and desist electronic devices are not being enforced up here. 

Getting here I thought I was slick going through the “My plane is already boarding” queue at the airport.  Everyone was trying to cut the line, insisting their plane was leaving in five minutes rather than ten. I got my luggage laid out for the checking, crossed through and waited.  Ten bins emerging later, I realized that subsequent people had just thrown their stuff at the head of the inspection line.  I yelled at the kid manning the queue, pointing it out.  “Hey if everyone just ignores you and there is no enforcement than what’s the point?”  Yeah.  Stricter enforcement.  I’m not sure that’s what I really want to rally round.