- Capitalism and Alternatives -

Something to think about

Tonight my father had invited our neighbours that live just across the street from us to have a little christmas drink. The father was from Boston and his wife was from China. Well, in the course of our conversation she mentioned that she was a little girl during the Chinese revolution. Her parents had been jailed because they worked for the university and she (at that time she was 11) lived on the streets of Shanghai with her older brother and sister. They were given nine yen (one american dollar) per month for food. All they could afford was cabbage. Well, two years later, her parents were released from jail and the family reunited and was forcibly moved to the mountains in the north of China. The father was paralyzed from the torture he had undergone; missing the skin from his buttocks because he was forced to sit on hot metal. All of his books were burned but he was still able to teach his son physics and engineering who then taught it to his sister. She went to University and got a degree in engineering because that is all she knew; she had only been in school until fourth grade. Last year her mother died from standing in line for eight hours in the rain at the American embassy in Shanghai trying to get a visa. Realy bloody shame. Of course, none of this matters because it is nothing more than anecdotal evidence and China, as many socialists here will tell you, is not "pure communism." Oh well.

Follow Ups:

• Communism is, in a word, hope. Nikhil Jaikumar DSA Massachusetts December 30 1999 (3)
  • do you not wonder that perhaps there is something wrong with communism? David USA January 10 19100 (1)
    • Economic necessity is a slavemaster as cruel as any Stalinist Nikhil Jaikumar DSA MA, USA January 10 19100 (0)
  • You are wisened beyond your years my friend Lark January 10 19100 (0)
• And something else to think about Stoller December 30 1999 (0)
• That's not news MDG December 30 1999 (0)