China

I think I have really learned to appreciate the country of China. Once I read in a book about how as responsible consumers we should really question where our products, goods, and foods really come from. I believe that it was called something like "the point of inception".

For example, if we go shopping at our favorite retail outlet, or favorite coffee shop... I wonder how often we would think about "Hmmm... where this product is really from?" It might sound weird to think about on a regular basis, but to really question the work ethics, the people, the low income, the transportation, the hand-picking, the cleanliness, the manner in which things are created --can you imagine that? These days with the world economy opening up more and more, China has become a country that is known for being a supplier of cheap goods and cheap labor.

Free reign .. I mean free range chicken, organic food...and all that good stuff. I think we definitely live in a more health- conscious world these days. But back on topic to China. In my traveling in China last year, I have had the privilege of traveling into the lives of people that I might have never met, were it not for my love of two things. One of my loves I have learned is really the pursuit of justice and my other love is compassion. In many ways, both of these things are really intangible. However, sometimes in order to get to the point of understanding the need for justice or the need for compassion, I find that we have to really live in the culture and be like those that we are surrounded by to really embrace and understand who we are talking about. Thus, bringing me back to China.

On my journey in China last year, I have met this friend who is a journalist. She is Asian Canadian, more specifically Korean Canadian, and I just recently came across her most recent article she published titled, "Progress Threatens China's Leaping Gorge". It is pretty neat to type someone's name that you know into an internet search and find them working on some cool things around the world. It brought me back to China in an instant. The three gorges project continues to be a major impact in these water regions that affect the rest of the country's power as well as the rest of the world waiting to see how it unveils.

When I was in middle school, my Uncle Alfred sent me a year's worth of China Today, a monthly magazine on current events in China. I remember at the time I really didn't care much for it, in fact I thought it was wasteful that he spent his magazine subscription money on that instead of the latest teen magazine for me. Sometimes life is like that. I find that it took me quite a long time to really appreciate my own culture and ethnic identity and come full circle to a point where I can embrace it. Not so much because of what is around me but because of what I have learned of the rich complexities of my own people, of my own culture, and having traveled to the "Motherland". I have seen that there is great depth in the people who live in this country far far away from where I am writing this from.

Till then, we will journey to another part of Judy's ramblings. Good night and peace be with you.