I'd like to live in France (I'm here on holiday)...sometimes I wish I didn't have to go back home, though I know it's impossible
Sophie...what are you doing inside?? go take pictures and POST them So anyone around here know anything about China?
- Neha aha well I AM going to collioure tomorrow and I'll try and post them but this isnt my computer (it's a bit weird too) and I don't know howww to Oooh China!! At my school 9 girls get to go on a 12 day trip there, I couldnt afford it but they are so lucky! I think they go to Beijing for most of it. My dad's been there, haha I found a load of his old flashcards with stuff like 'Where is the train station' on them in Mandarin, he couldnt say it so he had to randomly show people the cards...mmm very helpful info for you there
lol, my sis is off on a 10 day trip somewhere around June-and she's like tell me something about the place, I told her I'll visit China in my dreams tonight and debrief her tommorow.. Though China is a completely different culture and a communist country, and it's colonized Tibet, and they can't have more than 1 kid, and the kids are left behind with the elderly people in the villages while the parents work in the cities. That's all I know about the place. lol
Ooh yes. The one child rule. Did that in geoggers...god it still seems weird to me. No brothers, sisters, cousins, aunties, uncles, only one set of grandparents....I always thought it would be a bit strange to be an only child, let alone a country's worth. Did you hear about the Granny-police - they check their neightbours to make sure they arent pregnant, ask them Qs, no joke..and you have to pass a written test, be 24 or over, and be married before you can have your child. Strrraange imo
It's strange, but I can understand why it's done. There's about a billion and a half people in China so they kind of have to keep the population in check.
Can't find the beginning of the bit about 'aboot'...but where I'm from we do say 'aboot' instead of about! And 'doon toon' instead of 'down town' and 'reet' instead of 'right'. xxx
I understand why they do it, without the one child rule the whole country would end up with terrible living standards and they'd go broke basically. 1 in 5 of the world pop. today is Chinese. But jeesh when we saw an article on the girl babies dumped/murdered it made me cry
So naturally the people who don't say aboot are labeled with that stereotype. Shows how reliable stereotypes are. Anyway, it is still snowing, which sucks. Last night, George Strombolopolous (the most awesome guy on Canadian TV) reminded us that at the first ever Blue Jays home opener, it snowed, back when they couldn't close the roof because that stadium hadn't been built yet. That was on April 7th, 1977. According to him, as much as he doesn't like winter, snow is acceptible up until April 7th. But if it snows after that, he'll be pissed. And so will I.
I didn't see snow til I was 13, we never get that much in Kent... Ha and if an inch falls the whole country grinds to a halt, we get severe weather warnings, the transport system collapses, the schools shut...it's great for us
Shadow-We're reaching that mark...but we have the Family Planning Programme for two kids, so that's not that bad. Sophie-You wouldn't believe how people kill girls here...babies I mean,they think girls are a curse, I've experienced the prejudice and it sucks to be on the receiving end.
i remember when the population of earth was 5.5 billion, it now crests 7.2 i believe. that's a lot of people in such a short time. it is said that the earth can withstand from 500,000,000 million to possibly 1 billion humans. the problem is that we use old sunlight(ie coal and such) to extend the daylight into night which in turn steals our resources faster. so population control will have to be addressed. you are just south of me, Rei, can't wait for summer, or spring for that matter. April and snow ugh, though up in Labrador I came out to snow in July, put a whole knew meaning to a few curses I screamed into the heavens. lol
^Neha - flipping hell yeah I knew it was also bad in India but phew, a curse?! Charming.. I know you're nowhere near Kerala, but isn't that a successful example of the Family Planning? now the women only have 2 or 3 kids instead of 5 or 6, so their living standards stay high, infant mortality rates low, and the literacy rate's really high as well
yup....Kerela is one of the best examples of Family Planning, and the literacy rate is 98% overall-which is excellent, lol, and the girl-guy ratio is actually 900 something girls for every 1000 boys!
whoa 98%.. Hehe kerala is one of my GCSE case studies to learn, I should probs already know that! case studies are interesting when they ARENT in Britain..compare 'coal industries in Cardiff' with 'the Yangtze river in China' I know which one I prefer
lol, our case studies are mostly in Environmental Science- like Silent Valley, Kerela; Chipko Movement, Garhwal, Beej Bachao Andolan, Tehri; TBS checkdams, Rajasthan(these guys have actually brought back around 10 rivers to life!)... Still, I like case studies as long as there are no dates involved..lol, but there usually are..
I did studies in the high arctic, broke my heart seeing human's pollution scattered around even up there. such clear water and in the depths you'd see a barrel or a pepsi can. they have this graveyard of old tractors and bulldozers that they used to build the station. it being not financially feasible to ship them back down south, so they left them there. seems so alien, all that rugged beauty tarnished by man-made steel. I guess if you don't see a lot of it, it isn't deemed important enough to take action on. sad that is
Traditionally girls were a good sum of income here, you wouldn't believe the huge sums of money (well huge for peasants) that were demanded as the dowry (bride money) when the girl got married off. It all went to the girl's father. Because of this girls were certainly not a curse, although they didn't always have many rights, either. Thank God this kind of thing is dying out. Education is a big thing.
Castles-I've done case studies on the Poles too, and I totally understand. I mean, we pollute our environment here, and the ozone is getting depleted there, and basically, global warming is mostly affecting the Poles, thereby causing other problems. But do humans care? No! They still throw garbage on the ground next to a dustbin with a Use ME written in BIG BOLD letters on it! Becca-I'm packing my bags and flying over......but you don't happen to have an evil mother-in-law, who prefers boy grandchildren, do you? Madhoca-lol...funny ain't it? One places tradition is the total opposite of the other end. The girl's family has to pay dowry here, at least had to-it's dying out thank God! I mean even after marraige the groom would ask for more money nd stuff. Would you believe it? There have been cases where women-newly wed too, have been burnt because their families did not pay more dowry? It sucks! Therefore the government has made it illegal to ask for dowry-but people "pay" dowry anyway, because they feel that a groom who doesn't ask for dowry has some flaw in him, or that their daughter's future may be jeopardised! Weird! Thank God for the Women Empowerment Movements!
Don't have a mother-in-law. No one here prefers boys over girls, unless it is just a personal preference. Girls can do everything boys can do over here. (With the execption of a (duh) few umm...physically things (LOL). But girls/women can have babies!)
lol, I'm coming over..; You know what's said to a woman when she's newly married and enters her in-laws house? "May you be the mother of hundred sons." That's how biased they are, and then we pray to the Gods, most of them who are Ma Saraswati, Ma Laxmi, Ma Vashno Devi, all women, and even the rivers(we think rivers equal Gods, Ganga's waters are considered to be holy and washes away the sin of all who bathe in them) except Brahmaputra are all female.
I'm a Christian. It sounds complicated! If I could, and I could convince the hubs, I would let you come and hang with us for a week or something. Just for the cultural experience. But it would be super expensive!
