If this is Paradise, I Wish I Had a Lawn Mower

I apologize for going so long between updates. This past month has been eventful, stressful, but I finally feel like I've settling back down. My biggest news, and saddest news is that my Grandmother died on November 2nd after a long struggle with Parkinson's. I flew back to America for three days to be with my family and despite nearly two weeks of exhaustion, I am very glad I went back. As my Grandmother lived in Cincinnati, I don't think any of my friends ever got to meet her. She was an amazingly kind and thoughtful person who I was lucky to know for the first 24 years of my life. There was a nice writeup in the Cincy paper about her that you can read here if you would like: http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071105/NEWS0104/711050378/-1/all
It's a nice write up, even if they missed a couple of points (for example, my grandparents met when my Grandma was in her mid twenties, not in childhood, and I'm pretty sure my Dad has never said the words "Toot her own horn" before but aside from that it's very nice.

Back in China, life has been going pretty well. I've continued branching out and making some friends which has livened things up a bit. Last week I made my triumphant return to the KTV with three of the other foreign teachers and two Chinese college students who my friend Sandra met on a bus. We'd been having a perfectly enjoyable time singing such classic tunes as "So Much for my Happy Ending" and "Superstar" when one of the girls asked me out of the blue if I think that Tibet is a part of China. I have an unofficial list of topics that I never, ever bring up with Chinese people, but this was the first time someone brought it up with me. I was hesitant but they insisted that I tell them the truth which was: "Well technically, yes Tibet is a part of China, butIthinkitshouldbeabletobeitsowncountry." They took it pretty well and I'm still here so it went about as well as it could have. It was awkward but certainly more fun than hanging out with this one guy I met, who while he's perfectly nice, spends a significant amount of our conversation time telling me things I learned my first day in China, and acting shocked if I know them, and then answering his own questions with a smirk about what my life is like in America (for example: "Zack, what do you like to eat in America?" "Well I-" "I think you must eat pizza and hamburgers ever day. But you shouldn't, it's bad for health, haha.") In all fairness I've been eating way more pizza and burgers in the past two weeks than I think I have in my last two months in Minnesota. I guess I've been missing western food, but I'm back on the Chinese food track now. I would love to see a vegan restaurant open up in Shanghai to revolutionize the Chinese impression of American food.

The biggest change for me lately is in the way I've been getting to my classes/unhealthy western restaurants: I have a bicycle! My friend Brahm brought up that he was going to get one last week and after laying my eyes on an orange beauty that cost roughly one tank of gas for my car back home, I was sold. It's already one of the best exchanges of money for goods and services that I've made in years as it has completely opened up the city to me. My apartment is outside of the city "center" so unless I wanted a 40 minute walk (which I did want fairly often) I was stuck paying 7RMB for a taxi to take me to my desired location. I am having illustrious fantasies about going back to Minnesota, selling my car, repairing my old bike, and converting to two wheels at least until gas prices go down. Some days teaching wears me out so much that I don't get very much exercise so I sleep restlessly, but now by biking everywhere I've saving money and getting a much needed workout daily, and sleeping great too. Brahm and I took off last weekend and biked about 20 minutes outside of the city which saw the landscape quickly transform from roads, shops and apartments to green vegetable fields, farmhouses and chemical plants of in the distance. It was beautiful and if it hadn't been dusk I would have some pictures to show for it.

Biking has also been a good way for me to burn off the anger I've been feeling towards our nation's insurance policies. My parents recently received a substantial bill for three doctor's visits I had this past summer that supposedly were going to be covered by my insurance company, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota. The caring individuals at the company I entrusted to insure my health were kind enough to deny coverage because they determined my condition to be pre-existing. The timing of this screw-job coincided well with my first viewing of "Sicko" and has me as angry as I've been since the "If you're not with us, you're against us" days. I had a long conversation with a worker at Blue Cross (Jessica, I think her name was) who sounded very bright and chipper and did her best to maintain her spunk while I peppered her with questions like "So if someone had a brain tumor two years ago, it went into remission and was completely cured, and then she signed up for your health care plan, and it came back, you wouldn't cover her, right?" "Well, I would think it would be different if it was a brain tumor..." Jessica, it wouldn't be. You would let the tumor grow and if the patient decided to have it removed, you would let that person spend the rest of her life paying off the bills. And some jack-ass would take the extra $12,000 his company saved and by a seventeenth jet-ski to cruise around in on the lake in front of his four story house. Guys, this is so supremely screwed up. I've wondered why my friends here from England and Canada talk so delicately about America when they are around me: though feel bad for me because I'm an American. Then you have the Chinese, so many of whom build their lives around saving enough money to one day go to America so they can be rich and happy, or so their children can be rich and happy, and it makes me want to cry. My friend Daisy, who loyal readers may remember as my closest friend from my Wuxi days, recently contacted me because her father is dying from Lou Gehrig's disease. He was recently prescribed Rilotek, a drug that can reduce the pain of ALS and at times lengthen one's life up to six months, but her family is unable to afford it because of the cost. Desperate, she contacted me to see if there was any way I could find the medicine in America at a cheaper cost. After doing some research I discovered that the medicine would actually cost more per month to buy in America than it would to buy it in China. This is the same Chinese medical system that was ready to kick me out on the street when I was unable to control my bodily functions last April when I had food poisoning, because I would not pay them five times the regular price for IV fluid. I used to use that story to show how China is so far behind America, but the truth is they are near bosom brothers. And telling Daisy that as an American, I would could unfortunately be of no help in her quest to help her father, was damn near heartbreaking.

I am a college graduate from a middle class family, I can't get coverage for a mild ailment, and now I'm in a hole financially. What about the millions of people who are not middle class who have diabetes or cancer and on top of that are single parents trying to raise their kids? How is this a winning system? If you've seen Sicko, Michael Moore repeatedly asks Canadians, French and English people if they have to pay anything for their medicine or for their doctor's visits, and every person gives the exact same unsure smile that basically asks "You're joking, right?" As Americans we are so tied down by debt that we don't have the freedom to travel, read a book, or even spend time with our families because we are so busy working. This system does NOT work for us. Every other developed western nation has figured out that people are not meant to spend their lives being bogged down by debt, or disabled by illnesses that they don't have the means to fix. They should be exploring the world, swimming in the ocean or spending time with their loved ones. Why is this SO hard to do? It's a classic example of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer and if that isn't injustice I don't know what is. With the 2008 elections coming up, I'd been holding out hope that Hilary Clinton would be able to save the system and save our lives, but she's not to be trusted anymore. If you're interested in reading more "factual" information on the subject, check out the following link: http://www.thepresidentialcandidates.us/labels/health%20care.html and be sure to see where the US ranks in the World Health Organization's list. To give credit where credit is due, at least we're better off than Cuba.

Vote Obama.

"When Politicians become nothing but major corporations, posing as humans, real humans lose."
-Anti-Flag