@JanJal: Okay, I take your points - although I don't see how greed has kept us from war - in fact it hasn't, there are wars in many places - anyway it's impossible to change the past. As for stability, elites ruin it both among nations and within them, sooner or later, and it seems obvious to me that this can't go on into the future, which is really the only important question.
I could go on, but I know I'm drifting from the topic at hand.
@Mike: I agree with you about everyone losing with a 'rogue' nuke owning state, but the terminology of 'rogue state' masks a lot of bs, similar to the division of the world between 'free world' and...enslaved or communist or whatever term has been used by US leaders since about 1945. Is the US a rogue state? I leave the question open. And I think that we have all been losing since nukes were first created to arm maniacally-paranoid 'big boys', as well as others, in the defense of the competitive economic greed that runs the planet, sponsored in virtually every way by those who are benefiting from it...
OK, we're trailing away from the point here, mea culpa - but my point is, none of these bastards can be trusted - and that is not paranoia.
@ Geezer: True, but business folks have a tendency to take a short-term view, and so are not always concerned with the consequences. Bird in hand, etc.
This sort of thing scares me more than Kim, because Kim is not going to start a war, and the US government has demonstrated, many times in the recent and not-quite-recent past, that it is willing to do so, and there's no doubt that it's got a large plurality, or perhaps majority, of the world's nukes.
Should be easy to buy a train ticket in Shilin, although perhaps not as easy during the week beginning May 1, International Worker's Day. If not, I think there will be a lot of buses.
@ Vicar: Afraid you're right. Influence of 'success', drive for 'modernity', etc. - crystalization of older class-driven values in rationalized, largely monetary terms, leads to short-term thinking. Later, when 'the past' becomes a socially-significant commodity, the syndrome gets reversed, especially for upper-middle classes and upper classes. But already the past has postcard and tourism value for many, while academics flop around trying to figure out what he past 'really' was, and understand what it means for the future.
Seems to me this all might be good, but I rather wish the city would dedicate more money to the solution of the problems of those who are in real need.
Not quite what you'd call a jumping place, but not bad at all for rather standard US-type meals, not overly expensive, and with a really good salad bar that's cheap, or free with most dinner dishes after 5:30PM. You can get a bottle of beer or even wine if you really want to, but I've never seen anybody do it - maybe that's just to take out. Chinese Christian run, and they hire people with physical disadvantages, who are pleasant and helpful. Frequented by foreign (mostly North American) Christians and Chinese Christians - was started by a Canadian couple associated with Bless China (previously, Project Grace), who are no longer here, but no religious pressure or any of that. Steaks are nothing special, and I avoid the Korean dishes, which I've had a few times but which did not impress me.
As a shop and bakery, it's very good bread at reasonable prices, of various kinds (Y18 for a good multigrain loaf that certainly weighs well over a pound. Other stuff too, like granola and oatmeal that is local, as well as imported things, including American cornflakes and so forth, which some people seem to require.
Large portions, seriously so with the pizza, which is Brooklyn/American style, I guess. Convivial, conversational, good place to drink with good folks on both sides of the bar, especially after about 9PM.
Flurry of small new 'support' airports slated for Kunming
发布者Better spent elsewhere.
Seven billion yuan Green Lake area renovation to take three years
发布者@ Vicar: Afraid you're right. Influence of 'success', drive for 'modernity', etc. - crystalization of older class-driven values in rationalized, largely monetary terms, leads to short-term thinking. Later, when 'the past' becomes a socially-significant commodity, the syndrome gets reversed, especially for upper-middle classes and upper classes. But already the past has postcard and tourism value for many, while academics flop around trying to figure out what he past 'really' was, and understand what it means for the future.
Seven billion yuan Green Lake area renovation to take three years
发布者Seems to me this all might be good, but I rather wish the city would dedicate more money to the solution of the problems of those who are in real need.
Flurry of small new 'support' airports slated for Kunming
发布者Can't see how we need any more airports.
Announcing the winners of the Springtime in Kunming photo contest
发布者Some REALLY nice photos!