Posted by
AJH on Wednesday, June 04, 2008 4:06:00 PM
Anyone who travels to far flung places will soon realize that there are millions of people who do not share the same perspectives, world views and values as many Americans. This is especially true when it comes to environmental stewardship.
In India and China, for example, toxic waste is regularly dumped into open ditches. Raw sewage is spread on open fields. Corn is a popular plant in China, but the cornfields smell bigtime.
In the summer of 2005, I went to China with a good friend of mine. It was a sort of scouting expedition. He was thinking about teaching English there on a permanent basis. With a wife and three daughters, it was an important decision in his life. I had always wanted to go overseas, but was nervous about going by myself to a strange land, so I decided to go with him.
The trip was one of those once-in-a-lifetime, legendary things. There are so many stories to tell. I really should write a book or two about it. My adventure were often larger than life and sometimes over-the-top. It was wild. We spent about a month teaching English at a summer camp and traveling around central China. I love China and the people, but man are there issues.
For example, water quality is beyond disgusting. Imitating my students, I decided to try washing my clothes. After I hung them on a makeshift clothesline in a common area, I was hoping they would dry in a day or two. It was extremely humid and muggy during this time. The next day when I checked on my clothes, I noticed a distinct smell coming from them. All sorts of bacteria was growing in the clothes, coming from the water I had washed them in.
There are no standards. There are no chlorine treatment plants. If there are any environmental laws on the books, there is little or no enforcement. It is very much the law of the jungle. That's why it was not surprising to me when melamine was found in pet food here, imported from China.
The concepts of personal hygiene and customer service are foreign to China. Most restrooms, even in the big cities, do have neither toilet paper nor hand soap. Shaking a person's hand always made me nervous and I avoided it as much as possible.
In Jiaozuo City, where we were staying for a time, people were selling all kinds of produce. One day I decided to buy one of the small watermelons from a vendor on the main street corner near our hotel. (Please note that describing the building as a hotel is being kind and generous.) I took it back to the hotel, into my room and promptly ate it. It was good and quite refreshing.
Later, I shared this with our American friend named Peter. He then relayed to me that I probably shouldn't eat anything that grows directly on the ground.
While we were out shopping, Zhengzhou I think it was, I was standing near an overhang when liquid from above began hitting my shoulder. Immediately Peter said I probably should not be standing there. Anything coming from a building is highly questionable because people just discard things onto terraces and roofs without regard, whether its chemicals or who knows what.
After touring a huge complex with historical sets and buildings for films and televisions, we set out walking to a nearby restaurant. (It is called Television City, I think.) I was not looking forward to the climb up a large hill to eat strange and highly suspect food. After hiking around the studio lot, I was very tired. It was muggy and hot. Thankfully, I wasn't alone and somehow I managed to hitch a ride in one of the vans. We were the first ones to arrive.
I was sitting there waiting and watching. Just before lunch, this middle-aged Chinese woman came out of the tiny kitchen with a canister of something, just like you see here for applying pesticides and herbicides. She began spraying God-knows-what around the tables and chairs. It was probably DDT or something worse. I don't know what it was, but the good news was the meal was fine, at least I didn't get sick.
I was rather surprised that it took about two and half weeks for many of us to start becoming ill off the questionable food from the hotel. Even some of the Chinese students were complaining about the food. One explained to me that this wasn't real Chinese food and that if I wanted to experience the real thing, I should visit his house sometime.
And don't get me started on the trains! (If you ever go, get the “soft sleeper” not the “hard sleeper.”) Given all of this whining, I still think China and the Chinese are very cool. They simply don't think the same way we do. Their culture is very different. The people have learned to accept putting up with a lot. Americans don't do this very well, which is good for the most part, in my opinion.
One of the major struggles in the 21st century will be convincing nations like China and India to commit to environmentalism. The Third World just has different priorities. As the developing world emerges into wealth and prosperity, the problems will only magnify. When I began complaining about gross things were, I was reminded by my good friend Carl that if I though was bad, I should go to India some time.