I don’t write blogs. Well, I wrote one blog about my plucky red chicken MaryAnn standing up to a group of turkeys, so I’m not sure that counts. Most of the time I lurk quietly through the various articles and, depending on the amount of vitriol in direct connection to the amount of weed on hand, I usually just drop in and comment, especially when this group veers into the absurd. I love dark humor and everyone must admit, this is the place for some incredibly inky giggles.
That being said, I just flew in from a month + in Shanghai so please excuse me right off the bat for any thing really stupid that comes out. And I want to keep this brief, my pillow is murmuring sweet nothings in my ear. My husband’s family is in Shanghai, long time natives and a ginormous family. They have all recovered from the Cultural Revolution despite not being allowed to join the communist party. (A long story for another blog?)
my husband and I were there for a month. We saw very little of Trump in the news, except to be mocked using his own language. What we did see was a visible lack of any American products in grocery stores, in restaurants, in markets. (we visit regularly, so the difference to us was markedly apparent.) and the few items we did find were so expensive ( ti quail la, in horrible ping yin) they were essentially sitting on the shelf saving a spot for something more popular, less American, to come along.
There are 27 million consumers in Shanghai alone and products are filling the spaces in from New Zealand, Australia, Brazil, Africa, India, EU and lo and behold, Israel, among the many seeking access to that market. Everyone in the world is making a killing in this city alone while our chief fraudster and his band of angry tariff masters in Beijing are ineffectually waving the threat of more tariffs at them. To say this is not effectively stifling anything but our future market growth in China is blatant mendacity. Not to mention all the loves and kisses it’s generating among the populace.
Iowa farmers, sorry, you and your soybeans are fucked. They are coming in by the bushel from South America mas barato. Unimpeded by those pesky tariffs.
Midwest cattle, not when Japan can undercut you with fresh Kobi steaks cheaper, fucked, fucked, and more fucked.
Wine and beer companies: they’ve removed every vineyard and brewery in favor of cheaper NZ and Aussie wines, mate. I ate in five star restaurants catering specifically to the Chinese. Nary a Budweiser nor a California Chardonnay to be found. Whoa, so fucked.
and the cars they are producing in China run cleaner, with better safety features and amazing technology..And the Chinese are eating them up because our cars, well, our cars are more expensive than a Lamborghini coming in on the cheap from the EU. Car companies, you be fucked big time. All my relatives (close family relations, out of a hundred plus people, one guy has an old Buick which he has to replace with a hybrid because of tightening pollution standards in the city.
so there you have it I saw 21st century infrastructure everywhere. I saw cities being built in Shanghai (they call them neighborhoods). I saw a market, and a country essential to global peace moving silently on without even looking back.
So, that’s how I spent my month. Missed you guys Back to lurking…..