Leslie Stahl of 60 Minutes recently did a report about China's new problem…a shortage of girls. Here's a link to the article:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/04/13/60minutes/main1496589.shtml
Apparently, China's One Child Policy has led to an unexpected, but not unforeseable, problem: too many men. Since China is a male-dominated society and families can only have 1 child apiece, they go to extreme lengths to make sure that their child is a boy. This has resulted in a 100 to 150 girl-boy ratio; 150 boys are born for every 100 girls.
Now the government is trying to fix the problem, which the experts in the article say could be China's undoing. I think it's tacit in the article that what could be China's undoing could be the United States' savior.
Think about it. The United States' economy will soon be no match for China's. That's the message you get from the media, right? And what happens when China is a bigger economic power than the US? America's position in the world will be reduced.
Well, hell, no country can stay on top forever, can it?
I think that what is really telling in this article is this quote:
""This girl said she thinks Americans are "conceited" to have more than one child. In China, she said, "We're supporting the Motherland by having less.""
I can't tell you how creepy that sentiment is to me. Not just because China has about 1 billion people who appear to all have the mentality of working together so their Motherland can become a superpower, but for other reasons. This mentality breeds a serious disregard for individual rights.
I have a Chinese friend who's been in the US since she was 10. She's now 28. One day, she was marvelling at China's progress and how China was going to overtake the US, and I said, "But gosh, isn't it horrible that they're forcibly sterilizing and aborting women, even women who are 9 months along?"
"No." What the f*ck?
"Are you kidding me?"
"No. Why should the rest of the country have to suffer because one ignorant cow can't stop having babies?"
"So you think it's ok for a woman to be tied down to a table and have someone do worse than rape to her? To have them put their hands on her body like that?"
"Yes. She shouldn't have gotten pregnant."
Ever since then, I have felt a little bit different about my friend. Like I don't respect her as much. I can't have that much respect for someone who thinks it's ok to do that to someone - to hurt them like that. You know that if someone tried to do as much to her in China, she wouldn't think it was so simple as she does now.
And that friend and I have grown apart. I'm not sure how much of a loss that is. She always was pretty selfish -- I mean, our friendship was always all about her and what she wanted and if I wasn't willing to comply with her needs and demands, then I was just SOL. I could go on and on about this one…I'm sure she's changed now. I'm just not sure how much I care.
But do you see what's so creepy about this? That mentality says that people aren't people. They are just things. Cogs in a wheel. What counts is not the invidividual, but the whole. The many, not the few. I'm not saying people shouldn't be willing to sacrifice a bit for the greater good; I'm saying that the sacrifices that they're required to make shouldn't include forcible sterilization and violence on par with rape being done to them.
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