Governments Everywhere Are the Problem
I was riding home on the bus today and struck up a conversation with a Jewish man from Iran. I commented that, while the US and Iranian governments don’t like each other very much, every person I had ever met from Iran (not many, but a few) was a very nice, congenial person. He commented that governments are usually the problem, not the common people, a statement I wholeheartedly agree with.
He went on to say that, at first, he didn’t like Ronald Reagan (he was an older gentleman), but he eventually came to like Reagan. He said, “I especially like one thing Reagan said about the government: ‘The nine most frightful words in the English language are, “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help”’”. The Gipper was certainly accurate and even the Iranians know it. My new Iranian friend was a very nice man.
As many of you know, I spent about 10 years teaching in China (from 2011-2022). I did most of my teaching in universities, some in lower grades, and to this day (I left almost one year ago), I talk with former students there often. I loved those students. There was a purity and sincerity in them that hadn’t yet been corrupted by communist treachery. At least in most of them. I stayed as long as I did for one reason—the students. That is the ONLY reason.
I have absolutely nothing good to say about the Chinese government, bureaucrats, or even business people—anybody who gets even a whiff of power. Their government gave me nothing but grief the whole time I was there. The last two Chinese bosses I worked for (and I worked for western companies the first eight years I was in China) cheated me, lied to me repeatedly, and stole thousands of dollars from me. I sued one of them, but the Chinese judge, in an utterly ridiculous decision, let the man keep everything he had stolen from me. Gave me back absolutely nothing. It isn’t just me the government there screws. Thousands of foreigners are leaving/have left China in the last few years because of Xi Jinping and the corrupt, oppressive, thieving government and system he has created. It’s really a shame. The kids—at least until they grow up and learn differently—are so good. Too many of their parents, and their whole government, are unadulterated trash.
Some of you following my substack know of Mike Coutts (see our combined video podcasts on the Video Podcast page). Mike is from Canada; he was my “boss” the first five years I was in China (2011-15), until the government, for absolutely no good reason, ran me out of the country. Mike often came down here to Thailand during school breaks. Well, in December 2019, he traveled here for his winter holiday—and then the Wuhan virus hit and he got stuck here. Even though he still has the same position he held in 2019, he hasn’t been able to get back to China to do his job. The Chinese government has demanded he go through the entire process of getting a work visa, from the very start, even though he had been working there over a decade before 2019. Now, to go back, he has had to get all his documents in order again—an incredibly troublesome process which I know from experience—and he has had to make countless trips to Bangkok (two hours from here) to try to get the paperwork he needs to return to his job. That’s the Chinese government.
The latest farce Mike had to endure was last week. His school (in Dalian, China) told him the government was demanding he prove where he had lived for the last year before they would give him a work visa. Mike made another bothersome trip to Bangkok. He showed his passport to the (supposedly) appropriate people. It clearly shows he hasn’t left Thailand since he entered in December, 2019, three and a half years ago. “Nope, sorry, this isn’t good enough proof.” “Then how do I prove where I’ve lived for the last year?” Mike asked. Nobody could answer him. How DO you prove where you’ve lived the last year? It is utterly stupid. That is the Chinese bureaucracy. People who have no ability whatsoever to think for themselves or make decisions. That’s also communism and what the Democratic Party is trying to bring to America.
Mike’s school may have it finally worked out and it looks like he might be able to return to China in a month or so. But he told me that this is it. He has had all of China he can stand. It’s a shame. He’s done a great work there. I did a great work there. But Xi Jinping doesn’t want us. That is the most racist government on earth, horribly oppressive. Stay out of China, folks.
The common people most places are nice, decent folk. Governments are the problem. That is true in America, too. At least Americans can elect new people, though they rarely seem to. What a sad world we live in now.