My
friends are hard at work in the house behind mine. The group I successfully had cease and
desist on Sunday are back at it, drilling, sawing, pounding. China’s remarkable urbanization of
rural workers building the cities they will eventually come to live in
themselves, is well described in this fascinating Economist summary article,
“Building the Dream." http://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21600797-2030-chinese-cities-will-be-home-about-1-billion-people-getting-urban-china-work
Indeed. Two
thirds of the nation, (1/6 of the planet or so) all 弃农经商[1] Immediate evidence a mere watermelon’s
throw behind me.
Close the windows, put on the headphones. I have no ground from which to
complain. Who am I to stop the
greatest urbanization project human kind has ever witnessed. But come next Sunday, if they so much
as hold a rasp up to the light, they’re gonna hear from me.
Ah, but I’ve got Booker Little in my ears and he sounds
beautiful and with a bit of preparation I can’t hear the builders at all. I’ve come upon Mr. Little, who hailed
from Memphis Tennessee through my pursuit of bass players. I have been planning to mention and
eventually will, Reggie Workman, who, of course played with Coltrane on many of
the classic releases from the early 60s.
I will get around to writing about Reggie Workman, who sounds great in
my ears just now, swinging with the New York drummer turned attorney, Pete La
Roca whose been featured here before, Workman lead from the workmen and on to the trumpet
player who heads this session, Booker Little.
Before Reggie Workman I'd discussed the bass player Doug
Watkins who died tragically at the age of 27 in 1962. You need a different adverb I suppose to describe the death
of surging virtuoso with the striking looks, who passes at the age of 23. Booker Little came up in Max Roach’
band in the wake of Clifford Brown’s passing. He died not long after this set I’m listening to,
appropriately titled “Victory and
Sorrow” off the album “Booker Little and Friend,” recorded in 1961. The cause was complications from uremia, otherwise known as kidney failure. Apparently Max Roach was so shook up that another great brass
luminary associated with him should pass so young, he wondered if he was somehow a jinx
for trumpet players. Amazing to
consider making a lasting impact on a tradition, by that fledgling age.
I’m a member for the Pacific Council on International Policy
and my only real connection, as all the events for the Council take place on
the other side of the Pacific, is the China news summaries I receive, compiled
by the inimitable Bob Kapp, former head of the U.S. China Business Council. And I love this list because it
regularly brings in a dozen new news sources, like the Economist article above,
that I might not normally consider.
Today’s trawl included an interesting piece on how China’s search
efforts for the Malaysian Airlines jet have revealed that her blue water navy
will run out of gas, projecting power much beyond Hainan. China has no official allies with whom
it can count on for refueling stations, should relations with our favorite
hegemon, turn sour. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/22/us-china-navy-idUSBREA3L1P120140422
It is interesting to consider who it might be that will
actually assume the role as China’s first proper treaty ally. Perhaps it will be in Tanzania, after building this fuel station. Not that lack of allies ever stopped the Japanese Imperial
Navy from projecting its power across this continent. But China’s behavior in the South China Sea with Vietnam,
and the Philippines, will not lead to any trusted affinities, any time soon in their immediate neighborhood.
Meanwhile Oliver Stone was in town, chiding the Chinese to
come to grips with their own history and approach a Chairman with a fair, no
holds barred, critique. The hapless
moderator tried to turn the subject to more moderate matters and Stone told her
she was missing the point.
"You talk about
co-production but you don't want to face the history of China. You don’t want
to talk about it," Stone said.
"Three times I've made efforts to co-produce in this country and
I've come up short. We've been honest about our own past in America, we've
shown the flaws."
Only partially true, but important nonetheless. I once wrote a candid, farcical
screenplay about Mao, that will never be made. I can sympathize. Oliver missed the memo on the niceties
of Chinese hagiography and the importance of stability over all else, but
that’s not a bad thing. Sometimes
its good to have a bull in the China shop.
Finally, I often quote a stat I learned a long time ago that United
States enjoys 1/5 the population of China, living on five times the arable
land. Raw geographic
comparisons of approximate comparability notwithstanding, most of China is mountainous,
desert like and not capable of sustaining people. This article in the China Dialouge blog adds insult to
the injury of the aforementioned juxtaposition. Apparently nearly 1/5 the arable land in China is polluted
according to an official quality report, published last Thursday. One can only imagine this is going to
get worse, before it gets better. Hence
people leave the countryside and a life of cultivation to improve their lot,
but also, presumably, because 1/5 the land doesn’t yield any more. Or worse, it does, and people poison
themselves, daily. So much further
to go . . .
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