2006 Soap Box Archives

China

What is happening in Beijing China is almost beyond description.
There are literally thousands of new building projects going on
And with the Olympics coming in O08 there is a sense of urgency about
getting the job done.

Capitalism is alive and well in China and don't let anybody tell you any
different. Chic hotels and upscale stores, fancy restaurants and high
fashion boutiques are all over the place.

Tourism is booming as people from America, Europe and the rest of the world are coming to China to see the ancient sites and experience the hospitality the new China affords.

There are fourteen million people living in Beijing and there are
seven million bicycles. There is a near catastrophe at every busy
intersection as buses, cars, motorcycles, bicycles and pedestrians converge
on a few feet of pavement at the same time, missing serious bodily harm by
mere inches.

Beijing is full of interesting sights. The Forbidden City is a royal palace
with two thousand rooms, endless courtyards and gardens where the Emperor used to hold forth with his wife and family and several hundred concubines and consorts. And if he had slept in a different room every night it would have taken him twenty seven years to sleep in all of them.

The Great Wall of China is a little over an hour's drive away and
to actually see it and walk on it is an experience I'll never forget.

China definitely has a lot of problems to solve before it takes its place as
a full-fledged citizen of the modern world. They have an unparalleled
pollution problem and the noxious stuff lies in a gray blanket over the city
and even drifts South to add to the already pandemic problem that South
Korea has.

There is a government rule that says a couple can only have one baby and in the rural areas if that baby happens to be a girl she may well be allowed or even encouraged to die in infancy as the parents want a boy child whose
obligation it will be to take care of the parents when they are old.

The problem has gotten so bad that there is a shortage of marriageable women in China and if a couple's first child is a girl they are allowed to have
another child.

And the girls can be pretty choicy as to who they marry and many times look for some security before they betroth themselves to some boy.

The boys are desperate and leave the farm to seek their fortune in the
cities where the building boom has made paying jobs readily available. It
has created a conundrum with no end in sight. It seems that the central
government, in its attempt to curb China's rampant population growth has
made the problem worse. Doesn¹t that always happen when man gets involved in God's business?

The true Christian church has had to go underground in the People's Republic of China. The government fears the spread of Christianity to the point that the Chinese can be jailed or worse for professing faith in Jesus Christ.

So Christians meet in small groups in the homes of fellow believers. I guess
the government just doesn't realize that you just can't put out a two
thousand year old fire. But I'm sure they'll find it out one day.

The bad things notwithstanding China has made strides in the last few years. They've found out that only capitalism works and that¹s a lesson well
learned.

Pray for our troops.

What do you think?

God Bless America

Charlie Daniels

 

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