China

Did any of you see the one hour program on China, aired on ABC with Bob Woodruff? For obvious reasons I had an interest, but what struck me at the end was, you don't need to adopt a child from China to realize, the Chinese will become a very important people to each of us. We are very inter-linked by our economy. Many here complain about the jobs we have lost in the manufacturing sector, yet, we exported 3 trillion dollars to China last year. We also saved 600 billion dollars over these last 20 years because we were able to by things cheaper. China shipped more in one day recently than they had in all of 1975 or 1978 (can't remember which year they said). They also are one of the biggest buyers of our Treasury bills, helping fund our increasing debt. We sure do love to spend money here don't we? Due to this, China has a great interest in our economy not tanking.

A story relayed to me this week once again got my blood boiling toward some in the church. My bookstore buyer was mentioning she was selling these rubber bracelets that say "Pray for China", I believe in response to the earthquake. Her customer, I'm presuming a Christian, said "why do we want to do that, they've stolen our jobs, ect....Hmmph. After I showed this women the picture of my son, I think I'd have a few choice words for this "christian". I wasn't even lookng for them, but happened upon another website that happened to be selling these wrist bands, so I bought ten. If you want one, I'll send it to the first ten to respond-free.

Last thought. During this piece, it spent a few minutes talking about China's influence in Cambodia. Having been there twice, I once again thought it interesting that school kids are spending 1-2 hours each day learning Chinese. Now, in China, it seems that so many want to learn English, yet in Cambodia, the way out is to learn Chinese.

As I close this blog, I am grateful and blessed to know Xuehui, XiXi, Hannah, Makenna, Sean, Jordan, Kevin and others who have and will have an impact on my life...forever.