Your Questions About Green Living

How do you suggest we get this country back on track?

How can we fix our economy, the housing market, the huge debt, the war in Iraq, social security, health care, security flaws, environmental issues, diplomacy, our relations with other countries, American’s jobs being sent to China, poverty, illegal immigrants, border security, education and the corrupt government who we are trusting to fix our problems. How are we going to fix all of these issues and get our country back after 7 years of complete incompetence in our government?
KRR- I know the sky is not falling but how are we going to fix these problems?

Might it be hard for Westerners to understand Chinese “Human Rights”?

Based on historical evidence from over the past two thousand years or so, Chinese culture places a much lower value on human life than that currently found in Western civilization. As the Chinese population continues to grow, and resources begin to shrink, this cultural viewpoint is likely to maintain its influence. Thus, China could easily commit a few million troops to overrun any area it might choose, without regard to loss of life. Likewise, the CCP can eliminate any dissidents seeking to “modernize” the culture (as in “globalization”), with little repercussions. And, widespread deaths in coal mines and industrial accidents, or from short-cutting quality control (e.g. the powered milk and lead painted toys scandals) are seen as common business practices with acceptable losses of human life.

Might this cultural factor (disregard for Human Rights, as well as the environment) be so contrary to the viewpoints embedded in Western cultures that it could generate misjudgments during political/economic negotiations?

Do you know of any other examples where this has recently occurred?

Might it be totally unreasonable for Western countries to expect ANY progress in the area of Human Rights and environmental issues, so long as China continues to have such an immense and expendable population, and extremely little motivation to head in that direction?
CHN – Thorough response, thanks.

Patrick – I can understand Traditional Mandarin. However, you type in the bastardized form of Chinese created by the CCP. 很遺憾，您無法讀取真實中國.
Sailor – You refer to a simple question as being “silly.” I’m not sure why you didn’t understand the question. Individual perceptions of the world and one’s values vary according to cultural upbringing. I was inquiring as to whether Chinese culture/history is so diametrically opposed to Western culture/history in regards to the value of human life, that it might lead to great misunderstandings during attempts to mutually improve the environment (such as curtailing the use of coal-fired power plants) and settle issues of human rights (such as invoking due process of law).

How do you solve this critical reading question?

Passage:
India is part of the Asian subcontinent and is home to over 1 billion people. Only China has a larger population. A little over half of India’s land is suited to agriculture, but about 65 percent of Indians are farmers or farm laborers. They raise rice, wheat, cotton, cattle, sheep, and water buffalo. To increase output, the government instituted irritation and land reclamation projects. Newer types of crops and fertilizers have also been tried. India is one of the nations benefiting from the Green Revolution. Unfortunately, the initial high hopes for the Green Revolution have proved to be illusory because of the high costs for the seeds and fertilizer and the environmental issues arising from the massive use of pesticides.

Question:
The author probably introduced the statistic about the size of the India’s population
A.) in order to set up a comparison with China‘s population
B.) because it is an interesting fact
C.) to provide background for the discussion for the Green Revolution
D.) to show the seriousness of the need for food in India
E.) to provide context for the number of Indians who work in agriculture

According to my review book, the answer is D… But where in the passage, is this answer supported??
Also,
—– the activities of her employees, the director refused to — their methods.
A.) Disarming..condone
B.) Appplauding—question
C.) Repudiating—reward
D.)Handling—oversee
E.) Approving—arrogate

I believe the answer is C, but my review book says B…. Am I wrong?

Do you think we have ignored China’s Blatant disregard for human rights and fair trade long enough?

They seem so bully and walk over any country at will and show absolutely no restraint in environmental or political issues. The are so bold they as much as spit on everyone in the free world and yet our Government acts like their lap dog. Why is that?
George Bush Sr went over to China and Puked on their leader. Nixon was a Chinese lapdog too. Both Republican

Why does the US have to keep buying toys from China?

and don’t say because it is cheaper, which is a given.
It is a shame that in this free enterprise and great country that we live in that we have to rely on other countries to provide these services. There are people out there that would rather work in a factory than McDonalds isn’t there?? The foremost cause of all the environmental issues in the world I would have to say is from the cheap and meaningless plastic pieces of crap you see on the shelves and everywhere these days. We need to get back to the old fashioned high quality toys and parts that don’t fall apart after 2 minutes in a 3 year olds hands.