China Under Pressure

A picture from our trip to Ethiopia. Shown here, Jerry, a licensed electrician from our group is astounded at the exposed and very unsafe mess of wires coming from the high voltage power lines into the local high school in Zwai. When asked why they don't secure the wires safely, the administrator said, "It would cost too much money." The fact of the matter is, in most places in the world, money is worth more than human life (perhaps because it's more rare). And that is tragic.


I've been thinking lately about China.

From the news I've been reading, it seems that China is going to be pressured to make some wholesale reforms this year, mainly because of the international scrutiny of the world because it is hosting the 2008 Olympic Games. It's been a tough year for China, in terms of its public image. I've made a partial list:

• April - Tainted pet food containing the toxic chemical melamine is believed to have caused kidney failure in dogs and cats across North America, with at least 14 pets dying because of the chemical.


• June 1 - The FDA warned consumers to avoid using toothpaste made in China because it may contain a poisonous chemical used in antifreeze.


• Aug. 19 - Mattel recalled 9 million toys manufactured in China after the toys were discovered to contain unsafe levels of lead and other chemicals.


• Aug. 29 - China publicly executed its former head of the Food and Drug safety for accepting bribes.


• Feb. 19 - The US Olympic Committee, wary of food quality in China following recent incidents of tainted products and reports of the heavy use of drugs and insecticides in food production, announces its plans to transport tons of meats and other foods for US athletes in its own US training camp in Beijing.


• Feb. 19 - Steven Spielberg resigns as artistic adviser to the Olympic Games. China supplies guns and weapons to military leaders in the Sudan in exchange for exclusive oil drilling rights. China, which needs millions of gallons of oil to operate its nation, has entered into an "unholy" partnership with a pariah Sudanese government accused of fostering genocide in its western Darfur region.

So that's a bad year.

And it is clear that in response, China is making some changes, but they seem to be changes based upon fear of public opinion to appease the global marketplace, not because they believe it's the right thing to do. Perhaps that's okay. Martin Luther King once said something to the effect of "My goal is to help rid the white Southern racist of the hatred in his heart, but in the meantime, I want to be sure there are laws so he can't lynch me."

I see his point. Right now, China is trying to clean things up to improve its global standing and avoid shame - which are fine motivators, but it's not the end goal. The goal is for China to be a society that respect human life enough to throw money at it. After all, a culture throws money at things it values (case in point: In 1997, former presidential candidate John Edwards made history by winning a 25-million dollar lawsuit against Sta-Rite, a North Carolina company that knowingly manufactured and distributed a defective pool drain cover that severely hurt a three-year old girl. And even if you hate how litigious our society is, you have to admit that when a company knowingly does something dangerous and it results in a child being hurt, then the company should be punished. Cynics might disagree, but it seems that monetary award is a reflection of our value on human life).

Some would say that the ethos of China is one that does not value human life. For example:

• Decades of brutal treatment under communist leaders tends to erode a public sense of the importance (or even possibility) of justice and equality.


• Years of collectivization diminishes the bright shine of the individual and drive to empower the unique and creative gifts of the individual.


• A frenzied race for global competition in the marketplace causes morality to take a second-place to money (if you have any doubt about this, think about the Chinese Black Market for software).


• Years of government imposed sanctions on child-bearing has created a consistently anti-female, pro-infanticide and pro-gender-specific abortion culture that has left China with a male/female ratio that is bizarrely out of whack with natural patterns.

Which is why it's good news that China's underground house-church network of evangelicals is spreading like wild-fire. Though the Communist Party all but destroyed the Protestant and Catholic churches when it took over in 1949, scholars estimate that the country now has at least 45 million Christians.

Which means that Revival (even more than Olympics) could be the the force that changes China from the inside out.

Barack Obama - Yes We Can

I have never seen anything like this. You can read more about the poetical impetus for this moving video by reading will.i.am's blog here.

Rap Lyrics Explained Via Charts and Graphs

Warning to Readers: If you are easily offended by rap music, or are not familiar with the genre, then please do not click on the following link. But if you are, please click here for laughs.

Tieche February Newsletter

Editor's Note: Every month, Nicole's grandparents (who are in their 80s) send out a monthly update about their lives. The email string has turned into a family sharing session, of sorts. I thought I'd post my latest monthly update, along with a few pics.

Well, I'm busy getting ready for the spectacle that is Super Bowl Sunday – a national holiday of sorts where we, as Americans put aside all our differences, come together and celebrate the meaningless distraction that is professional sports, feed our already-great addiction to entertainment, and actually celebrate and encourage the vices of gluttony and intoxication!

But it’s fun! BTW - for a fun flashback, you can see the Top 10 Most Famous Commercials here.

January Update:
The Tieche Clan spent the first part of the month in sunny, tropical Michigan, where the only thing lower than the temperatures is the public’s trust in Detroit’s mayor. But it was fun hanging out with Nicole’s family.

One of the best parts was that out closest friends, the Zimans, drove in from Chicago (where Jonathan is going to seminary) with their little girls to spend four days with us. This meant that we had a house with five children under the age of five. The kids played well together, and it was really cool making snow men with them, playing hide-and-seek, wrestling and building forts and the like.

Justus:
Justus tried to impress the ladies by crooning into his play microphone, which was a Christmas gift from Bumpa (his grandpa, otherwise known as Bob/Brad/Dad). The girls were unimpressed, so Justus just turned up the volume. They remained unimpressed.

I have to work with him on courting techniques. I’ve tried telling him that the ladies love guys that are funny, but the only joke he knows is “chicken banana.” He says the words “chicken banana” and then laughs hysterically. He understands that they don’t go together at all – and that his verbal word play is an exercise in absurdity. It’s very developed and nuanced humor, if you think about it. The problem is, it’s not really that funny. So.

Jaelle:
Jaelle is growing, though not as fast as her brother. Justus was in the high 90s in height percentiles for his age – still is. But Jaelle is in the 19th percentile, which means she is “petite.” I was hoping she’d be about 6’1” with a killer jump serve and a great net game, but apparently that dream is now dead. That’s okay. I suppose it’s better for the girl in the family to be short and petite and for the boy to be big and tall. It’s better socially. I definitely wouldn’t want Justus to be petite. He’d have to overcompensate and would turn out like Prince, or perhaps Tom Cruise. And then he’d have to either wear lace shirts or give millions to Scientology. And that’s not the kind of life you want for your boy.

Jaelle is learning to eat solid foods, and by solid foods I mean “really mushy foods that aren’t really solid at all, so I don’t know why doctors refer to them by such a scientifically inaccurate label.” She is doing better, though her mastication is messy. And after a solid month of not sleeping through the night, we moved her to her own crib in another room, and now she’s sleeping through the night. Which is good for everyone, and GREAT for Nicole.

NICOLE:
Speaking of Nicole – she is doing quite excellently at her job. She did so well, in fact, that the president of PartyLite USA, the President of this multi-national company, flew into Sacramento to meet with some leaders and requested to meet Nicole and have her talk about what she’s doing to be so successful. Nicole was then asked to train a whole region of leaders about some aspects of the business. Keep in mind, this is a company with 40,000 employees, and the President singles out Nicole. Pretty rad.

This month, Nicole and I are going on three dates (!) which makes me more than ecstatic.

So that’s life with the Tieches.

Picture Time!

Shown here, my daughter attempting to choke down some rice cereal. Most of it ended up on her bib.


Justus attempting to take a bath in his baby sister's ducky bath tub.


Shown here, Michaela is checking the status of Justus' intestines with a pen light.


My son, the Fonz. Notice underneath his shirt, my son is wearing his green Diego pajamas, which he refused to take off when dressing that morning.


Left to Right (ironically, from youngest to oldest) - Jaelle, Brielle, Justus, Michaela, Eliana. I don't think you can handle this much cuteness.


Frosty, the anorexic snowman.