As a Canadian, living under martial law is unheard of. We simply do not have such situations that warrant martial law. After 30 years, I still have strong memories and impressions of living under martial law in Beijing, 30 years after the Tiananmen Square killings. Who wrote and rewrote what history is for others to debate. My impressions and memories remain intact, burned into my brain, forever.
As I talk to people in China it is very useful to understand general level salary levels. These are average starting salaries for entry level university grads. These do vary depending on the cost of living.
These salaries are very variable. In all cases I used the highest average. None of these mean much comparing one country to another, as expenses such as housing vary greatly.
With four fancy pieces of paper from three universities and one from a college, I consider myself educated. It is with dismay that I find obtaining employment difficult, both for myself and for many around me. It is not that we are lazy, oh no. We are at risk of sacrificing a generation of workers, in what I see as a structural change in long-term employment. We must critically look at the implications of high unemployment amongst young people. Whether there should be changes, or not, I cannot say, But to do nothing is unacceptable.
Xavier Ovando of Montreal uses a two-plunger ear protection to protect his hearing during a Montreal protest march. Maybe more Canadians should join him.
We in Canada are not prone to protest. On the contrary we Canadians are more pacifists, and some say worse, that we have no backbone. Maybe the current economic recession will help change our attitudes. Our young people are getting slaughtered when they leave school, and what should they do? Be passive and simply accept it? No, this cannot do. It was interesting to me when average Canadians started taking up the cause of Quebec students, who are protesting tuition fee increases. Do they belie a more significant rot in our society? Should we average Canadians in the rest of Canada join?
The migrant worker says the the university student: You spent money to go to college, yet your income is the same as me who did not go to college!
There must be more to this story, but ironically I find this cartoon very funny! Workers earning the same as university grads. Mao would be happy. We see this happen here as well. Friends here in Toronto, Canada have been telling me that trades and construction workers are doing well, but university grads are starving for jobs. One hopes that education will return as being valued by employers. When I cannot say.
Beijing People's liberation Army and university students face each other
During the time I spent in Beijing as a student, cozily nestled amongst Chinese students, eating at their same cafeterias and freely visiting their dorms, I did not once see any violent actions. From my personal account, this protest was 100% non-violent, which makes the very violent response from the government all the more terrible.
Can you fit 1 million people into Tiananmen Square?
Some topics are so foreign to Westerners that to encounter something so blatantly different is like running head first into a brick wall. Such is the case for modern Chinese history. I talk specifically about the student movement of May 4 1989 in Tiananmen Square
I am torn by writing because I have contradictory feelings at odds with each other. On one hand there is undisputable proof from eyewitness accounts and news footage that the events did occur and many people were killed. On the other hand, it was 20 years ago, so why bring up such an old and tired topic.
Chinese farmer with a traditional hoe. Notice he is not fat.
There are some government social systems that affect society so profoundly that without it we would be much worse off. In Canada, I would recommend our universal healthcare system. China’s hukou system is the mirror opposite, a tool to suppress and control the movements of China’s rural population.
