Coughing up…

Expert, texpert, choking smokers, don’t you think the joker laughs at you?
John Lennon

Today, the last day of 2016, I find myself in the rather delightful environs of Frigg Cake, a somewhat upmarket establishment located in the ‘Coffee Village’ of Dongguan, an area just off the main square that seems to consist of twenty or so coffee shops and suchlike. I had a rather pleasant stroll over here this morning meeting, en route, my favourite security guard. Last year, his English lexicon consisted of the words ‘I love you!’ which he would say every time I passed his booth. In the last nine months or so, he has enlarged his vocabulary by some 25% to include the word ‘f***’. These days, instead of greeting me with the overwhelmingly positive ‘I love you’ all I get is ‘f*** you’, to which I normally respond ‘f*** you too’ followed by a high five. Such a pleasant start to a new day…
Pondering the name of this particular establishment, one hopes that the first word is meant in the sense of a noun, although it must be admitted that ‘Frigg’ is not a particularly common name in this part of China. At base though, I feel that all is fine and dandy as long as it is not meant to be used as a verb as the image thus conjured is perhaps just a little too disturbing to contemplate.
The music this time seems to consist of the very pleasant tones of Katie Melua and some gorgeously nostalgic Ink Spots numbers, both of which are far more welcome to my delicate ears than the usual raucous racket they tend to play in such establishments as this in China. The main reason for choosing Frigg Cake as my haunt for today is the strict ban imposed on smoking in these premises. After suffering much in my usual watering holes of Hey!!! Cyber and Cochan, I decided enough was enough and to cease frequenting such pungent environments in favour of far more salubrious environments such as this.

The last few days have been a tad colder in South China and this has led to crowds of people turning up in the Cochan almost every member of which seemed to want to light up a cigarette. Now, personally, I have no problem if people wish to pay out their hard-earned lucre on ridiculously expensive packets of small, white, toxic sticks which they then intend to set light to in order to inhale noxious fumes from, thus imbibing a range of carcinogenic chemicals into their lungs causing all manner of damage... that is their prerogative. Far be in from me to interfere with other’s choices in such matters. The problem comes when this nihilistic and self-destructive indulgence is imposed on others, particularly on my not-so-good self.
Yesterday, I did endeavour to avoid the worst of the smoke by pulling up the neck of my fleece jacket to cover my mouth and nose. This had merely a negligible effect so I then switched on a nearby free-standing fan and directed its blast in the general direction of the smoking hordes, all to little avail though. The task was as hopeless as King Canute’s doomed attempt to turn back the North Sea, the plumes of exhaled cigarette smoke continued to waft in my general direction from the mouths and the cigarette tips of a multitude of impassively impervious smokers.

Unfortunately, Such situations are oft experienced in the Middle Kingdom, but there is some hope on the horizon. According to several news sources, the Chinese government are set to impose a nationwide ban on smoking in ‘public places’ and refreshment establishments from the 1^st January 2017. Given the imminence of this deadline and the complete, profound and utter indifference of the smokers here, one would imagine something, as the saying goes, has to give.
Up to now, even though well aware of the damage being done, the Chinese government have been very reluctant to address this problem. Some cynics say that this is because smoking is such a huge source of revenue for said government, the smokers coughing up huge sums each year, that any desire to stub it out has been overwhelmed by the greater desire to continue to tax the 350 million or so smokers in this country. The temptation for the government not to act is actually twofold here, as they not only take the taxes but, amazingly, they also produce the cigarettes in the first place. China has a state owned tobacco monopoly known as the STMA. Since it was founded in 1982, everything involving tobacco including production, marketing, imports and exports has fallen under the jurisdiction of this monopoly.

China loses something in excess of one million people each year to smoking. It seems to this flaneur to be something of a strange situation when a people’s government has been so actively involved in making a huge profit out of the deteriorating health, and even the deaths, of its own population. The good news now though is that it now seems that they have finally turned over a new leaf. After many ifs and butts, and many attempts to endlessly drag out the process, the government have finally decided to attempt to extinguish the habit, at least to some extent.
One cannot help but wonder though, given the ubiquity of smoking here, and the quite blatant insensitivity of the smokers, just how effective this ban will be. Personally, I wouldn’t hold my breath… Like so much legislation here, it is one thing to pass the law, quite another for that law to be enforced. I have been in many a café now where signs are displayed quite prominently but are completely ignored by the recalcitrant smokers. In a police station recently I was pleased to see a large and very clear ‘no smoking’ sign above the counter. I was not quite so pleased to see however, immediately below said sign, a policeman puffing away without the slightest concern, apparently completely impervious to the theoretical strictures placed upon him.

China has many, many laws, those responsible for creating such things being quite active in their zeal to reshape society but, in practice, much of this legislation is just ignored by the general population. A few minutes in a taxi will very quickly demonstrate the completely laissez-faire attitude to the rule of law here. On the roads, the rules and guidelines are ignored to such an extent that one wonders why they bother at all. Seeing bikes, cars and even lorries coming the wrong way down a dual carriageway is not unusual here, if the driver of said vehicle feels he can take a short cut by acting in such a way then he will. The legal implications will not have even crossed his mind.
Given such an attitude, I am generally pessimistic about the effects of the smoking ban but...the next week will tell. I will happily apologise for my pessimism if I prove to be incorrect, but I fear no apology will be necessary.
Back in the Frigg Cake I continue to enjoy the lack of tobacco smoke and the generally pleasant atmosphere, even if the music has now gone over to a slightly more cacophonous jazz, it is still not as intrusive as the more commonly suffered rock. It is, admittedly, a tad more expensive here, but given a choice between paying a few more yuan for a coffee and having to imbibe second-hand smoke for two hours whilst I create one of these efforts, I think I will increasingly select the former.

Life's a beach.......

Today’s slightly pre-Christmas blog comes from what would be a delightful Coconut Grove Hotel located on the Hainanese coastline just East of Wenchang. I say ‘would be’ as, at the time of writing, the immediate environs seem to be suffering from the effects of some local stubble burning and there is a somewhat pungent smell about the place. My room looks out directly onto the South China Sea, but the potentially pleasant view is diminished to some extent by the aforementioned haze to the extent that one can barely see the island 600 metres away, let alone the horizon. At the moment, I am not sure if this is a temporary phenomena or more a permanent state of affairs. Seeking further information from the reception staff yielded little or no insight, just the usual emotionless expressions and disinterested shrugs.

This is something of a shame as most everything else about this location is really very pleasant indeed. The hotel is well named ‘The Coconut Grove’ as it is located within a veritable forest of coconut trees. The whole area is a fecund mass of verdant and copious growth, so much so that the experience of walking though it is somewhat akin to enjoying the tropical plant section in Kew gardens or a few hours in the Eden Project but on a much, much larger scale. I must have walked five or six kilometres this afternoon and, apart from the odd basic dwelling, the inland side seemed to consist of an almost infinite variety of flora and fauna with quite literally more coconuts and mangoes than you could shake a stick at.

Butterflies would flutter by, some tiny little things with delicate, pale yellow wings, others were about half the size of my hand with pitch black, velvety wings adorned with large red spots like bloodshot eyes. I inadvertently walked through a couple of thick spider’s webs, a worrying experience given the size of some of the insects on this island. One’s imagination took flight at the thought of the monstrous arachnids that may have been lurking in the shadowy undergrowth nearby, just awaiting their chance to pounce on unsuspecting passers-by like myself.
At one stage I did actually partake of one of the coconuts which were being offered by a roadside peddler. She seemed to be a somewhat passionate woman, much given to haggling very aggressively with her customers. In my particular case the first price I suggested to her, six yuan (slightly less than $1), seemed to be acceptable and she immediately, and rather skillfully, sliced up the coconut. I found myself partaking of the delicious juice within barely thirty seconds of ordering it. In the meantime, the woman herself carried on arguing with the rest of her clientèle. For my part, if there is one lesson I have learnt in life that I could and would pass on to my readers it is that one should rarely argue with an angry woman, but particularly avoid said pastime if the female in question happens to be in possession of a machete and knows how to use it…

After a couple of kilometres I turned down another path that led back down towards the beach. The jungle was very thick at this point and the path only a couple of feet wide, but I was drawn on by the increasing volume of the sound of the waves of the South China Sea lapping up against the spartan seashore.
The beach itself was an odd mixture of the most pristine sand and huge amounts of carelessly discarded debris of all sorts. This particular strand would have appeared to be something of a tropical paradise if it wasn’t for the sheer amount of flotsam and jetsam either washed ashore or simply thrown away by the locals. There is a peculiarity in Chinese culture that I have noted on many an occasion whilst here: the care and respect that they treat their own environs with contrasts completely with the absolute disregard for shared surroundings. It is curious how commonly one sees this environmentally disastrous attitude expressed throughout the land. Rubbish and detritus matter not if they are deposited somewhere, anywhere, outside of one’s own house or car it would seem. I blame Confucius myself, and all that ‘filial piety’ nonsense he was so fond of espousing.

The sheer scale of the debris was interesting in and of itself. All manner of discards from used mattresses to farm implements, fishnets (of the angling variety rather than female hosiery...) to plastic containers, curious industrial metal hangers to worn out tyres, a vast cornucopia of chaotic chattel cast aside with nary a thought as to any consequences.

Dotted about the beach were also numerous holes, some a mere half or even a quarter of an inch, others as wide as four or five inches. I guessed that these might be the domains of the crab population and only paused for a seated break on the beach in a spot that was relatively free of them. Even then, after only a few seconds, I noticed that a particularly curious crustacean was espying me via his beady eyes which extended a fraction of an inch or so above his head, having popped out of his humble abode to work out just what was going on in the neighbourhood. This was one of the bigger crabs, perhaps three or four inches across, with a brownish green body adorned with red spots across the front. I say ‘front’ somewhat warily, as the crabs themselves don’t seem to understand where their front is actually located. The multiple, smaller gray crabs walked much in the fashion so popular amongst the crab population and would lurch off very quickly to the side. If they were particularly alarmed, they seemed to have the ability to stand up on just one side and run at high speeds in this upright position. A strange and slightly disconcerting sight.

Gazing out upon the beach from my somewhat nervously maintained vantage point, the panoramic view reminded me of my boyhood and watching endless films of American Marines storming up the beaches of exotic tropical islands led by the ever-present and seemingly bullet-proof John Wayne. Japanese snipers would be waiting in the tops of the coconut trees for a chance to take a pot-shot at one of our American allies but would be felled with a dull and satisfying thud by the sharp-shooting skills of one of our trans-Atlantic heroes.

After all this excitement, I was more than ready for some satisfying sustenance. Hainan Island is famous for both its fish and its chicken. The first I rarely eat but will do so when not much else is available, the second I steer clear of completely. At the roadside though, and particularly in the vicinity of the restaurants, there were many small vegetable plots where the locals were taking advantage of the puberal and prolific nature of the soil. The restaurant I settled on actually asked me to simply pick whichever vegetables, mainly greens and salad, that I fancied. This was then prepared with garlic and herbs and offered up with a bowl of rice for around 15 yuan (about $2). It literally could not have been fresher, within seconds of being picked the leaves were sizzling away in the wok.

Existence here on Hainan is very, very pleasant, particularly in such small resorts as the one I am currently staying in. Occasionally I think of life in the UK at this time of year, of the crowded shopping malls filled with heaving, frantic and frenzied masses of frenetic present purchasers desperately trying to acquire something appropriate in the way of a gift to the mind numbingly and ubiquitously tedious accompaniment of John Lennon, Wizard, Madonna, Paul McCartney, Slade, Wham etc., etc., etc., or even, God forbid, sickly sweet and soporifically sonorous Christmas carols.

Yes, life is good here in far flung Hainan away from such tedious traditions. In the last ten years, I have managed to avoid spending all but two Christmas holidays in the UK. Each of those reminded me of why I dislike the whole unpleasant ‘festive’ season in the first place.
Long may these escapes continue!

A merry Xmas to all...

Irrational Exuberance…..

“But how do we know when irrational exuberance has unduly escalated asset values?”
Alan Greenspan

This week’s episode come from the small but delightful Green Tea Cake which, strictly speaking, isn’t really a café at all but more a bakery with the possibility of having a green tea thrown in if customers should so desire. They do a rather scrumptious red bean loaf here for a very reasonable 7 yuan. Probably not the healthiest thing in the World, but a very pleasant indulgence nevertheless. The wifi connection is relatively strong and, for the most part, it feels like a little haven of peace in the day to day madness of this manic metropolis.
Life in China is intense, perhaps a little too intense for some tastes. People’s attitudes are often very direct which does, I have to admit, take a bit of getting used to. In the city centres, they often seem to live in an almost constant state of agitation, an ongoing struggle to get ahead in whatever terms ‘getting ahead’ is meaningful to any particular person: getting in front of the car in front, getting over the zebra crossing first, getting to the front of the queue, any queue, by fair means or foul. It is quite routine here for the person behind in line to demand whatever they want even as the shop assistant is dealing with the person at the head of the queue. In almost any other country that I have visited over the years this would be considered ill-mannered at best, here it is so normal that the locals scarcely bat an eyelid.

This manic freneticism is perhaps nowhere more desperately expressed than in the Chinese Stock Markets. China has two main markets, the Shanghai Securities Exchange, which has been in existence some four decades now, and the much more recently founded Shenzhen Stock Exchange in Guangdong Province. Since being in China, I have kept a weathered eye on these two and have been somewhat amazed at just how drastic the daily gyrations are. Vertiginous price movements in a given share are nothing unusual in these markets. Such drastic movements in an upward direction are looked upon very positively by the authorities here. On the other hand, a ten per cent move downwards can lead to further selling being suspended for the day. It’s a free market, but with Chinese characteristics...
Originally, I had been tempted to examine the possibilities of investing here but, after a few weeks of investigating just how the system ‘works’, I have come to realize that any semblance of a relationship between the price of a given share and the underlying reality of the business in question is purely coincidental.

Many moons ago, in the dot com boom at the turn of the century, I found myself caught up in much of the ‘irrational exuberance’ referred to by Alan Greenspan. Fortunately, by nature, I tend to have a very strong sense of caution and often display more than average skepticism when it comes to such mass indulgences. I remember being criticized at the time by a friend who explained to me that I ‘failed to understand the new paradigm’. What he meant was that the old rules relating to valuations of companies no longer applied. Caught up in the spirit of the times, so many people actually believed this to be the case. Personally, I did indulge a couple of times, but was fortunate to have been taught the value of stops (prices at which you automatically sell if a position is going against you) by another friend who shared my skepticism. This allowed me to walk away with a very decent profit. Others were not so fortunate and found it hard to let go when the bubble finally burst.

Much the same sort of situation, at least as far as the psychology goes, applies to the Chinese markets of today. I examined multiple shares, looking at their earnings, or more often the lack of them, their PE ratios (price/earnings), their debt, their growth and the actual nature of the industry or business they were involved in. A normal PE would be in the region of 10 to 20, much above that and the price begins to look a little frothy. British shares tend to the lower end, American towards the higher, but the range isn’t huge, at least not when compared with China.
What I found is that some of the ratios in China would be in the 30’as or 40’s, with some reaching into the several hundreds. I looked into the nature of the underlying securities to try to understand how such prices could be justified and found... car manufacturers, travel agents and electric plug makers. Such companies as these may grow, but the possibility of them justifying such huge PE ratios is more or less zero.
One of the problems for China is that the average investor here tends to have little experience and even less knowledge. The market is commonly viewed as simply another form of gambling, an activity much beloved in China (even if technically illegal), rather than a means to invest in a business. In Europe, the UK and the US, the biggest influences on prices are the major institutions and hedge funds, professional investors all. In China, it is Joe Bloggs on the street.
To put it simply, the market reflects a tidal wave of irrational speculators but very, very few informed investors.
In light of these investigations, any temptation to find a means of investing in such madness quickly disappeared. This bubble is so huge that when it bursts, as indeed it must, the sound of the explosion is going to reverberate around the globe.
Back in the Green Tea Cake, I find myself struggling to resist the temptation of some of the gorgeous dangao (cakes) on offer. China has grown much in recent years and there is a general sense of prosperity about this part of the World. Beneath the surface though, the threat of the investment bubble, the real estate bubble and, perhaps the biggest of all, the credit bubble that supports the whole house of cards lies simmering away in the background (Just how many metaphors can a lazy flaneur mix in one sentence?...). With these things one never knows just when lightning will strike, but strike it will. Given the vast amounts of capital involved in each of these situations, this is likely to be bigger than the dot com catastrophe or even the 2008 financial crisis. At times, tis a scary old World…

Down the aisle...or down the garden path?

“Have you ever wondered why so many items of women’s clothing don’t have pockets?” Esther Vilar

This week, I find myself in the rather dark , albeit friendly and relaxed environs of Cochan Coffee in the bustling business district of South Dongguan. These Chinese cafés seem to work to a recipe that demands the ubiquitous presence of music continuously blaring away in the background. Some, like C café, have a tape that consists of about three songs only and loops from dawn to dusk and beyond. Others, like Hey!!! Cyber, feel that Western Rock is an appropriate background to the enjoyment of a cup of coffee. They are sadly mistaken, of course, but that same recipe is repeated day in and day out. This particular café specialises in somewhat softer Western Pop and seems to actually change the music on a daily basis. Such practices come as something of a relief. Listening to tapes looping again and again has something akin to the effects of the infamous Chinese water torture on me and brings on an almost irresistible temptation to place a booted, size 14 foot, through the offending apparatus.
The Chinese, or at least it seems to me, are dominated by custom and practice, even when that custom and practice are no longer applicable or, worse yet, were not a good idea in the first place. All societies have expectations of their constituents, ways of being and acting that seem fitting and appropriate within that society. In China, perhaps, those expectations are nowhere more prevalent than in the area of marriage and reproduction. Every person within the society carries the weight of expectation that at some stage, the earlier the better, they will pair off and create multiple replicas of themselves. Not that China is lacking in such replicas, currently they have some 1.38 billion of them and going up. One area that China is definitely not to be found wanting in is people…

The weight of these expectations in China has been keenly felt since the age of Confucius and his emphasis on filial piety. The ‘rightness’ of getting married and having children is scarcely ever questioned within this society, even though the country suffers from severe problems of massive overpopulation. At some stage, usually without much personal consideration at all, the average Chinese will feel it is almost a duty to fulfill his/her society’s expectations and thus lock their lives into a certain, pre-determined course for decades to come.
One of the relatively good things about China though though, is the relative simplicity of the marriage contract. People are general married via a secular ceremony carried out by a local official. Chinese females, being female, often insist in many of the trappings of Western style weddings: white dresses, bridesmaids and all the rest of the paraphernalia associated with celebrating the capture of a husband. Despite all this, if the marriage fails (which they are increasingly likely to do in China, just like almost everywhere else), it is relatively easy for the couple to divorce. If both parties are agreed, this can be done in a weekend. Even if they disagree, the process is still much simpler than that which is ‘normal’ in the West.
If the husband had a property before the marriage, there is no question of it being shared with the wife after a divorce, especially if she has made no contribution to the acquisition of that property. The split is relatively equitable. Children are provided for, if necessary, but beyond that there is no onerous obligation on the part of the husband to sacrifice his financial well-being to his now ex-wife.
Perhaps this is an area where we in the West could learn from the Chinese and the way that marriage and divorce are handled here, at least in the legal sense. Given the lack of even-handedness in divorce law in the West, there is clearly a need for some re-adjustment before men start to give up on the idea of marriage altogether. Indeed, exactly this is happening in America at the moment. In previous decades, 70% of those of marriageable age would, indeed, be married. That figure is now barely 50% and going down fast. The main reason for this is appears to be that men are now perceiving marriage as a ‘bad deal’. One wonders what took them so long?
Given current legislation in most Western countries, almost all the risk of marriage is taken on by the male, almost all the reward given to the female. This becomes even more so if the couple divorce. Whether or not she has contributed to financing the property the couple live in, the wife will tend to end up benefiting if they separate. Unlike in China, no consideration is given to the simple fact that she has not contributed and she is deemed, simply because of the fact of living there, to be entitled to at least a share of the said premises, sometimes the whole kith and caboodle. This same situation often applies to the husband’s wealth, even when the wife has made no contribution whatsoever, she can still expect a ‘nice little earner’ from the settlement.

The blatant inequality of the law in such situations has led to the creation of a new career path for females in the US, although admittedly similar situations have occurred in many cultures over the centuries. The phenomena is known as a variation of ‘hypergamy’ and consists of a process of ‘marrying up’ through a range of husbands, gradually moving up in social class, and gaining greatly from the settlement each time the female divorces yet another man who has become surplus to requirements. If there have been children from the previous marriages, so much the better for her. The courts will have awarded her generous settlements which, essentially, will allow her to live out her days without the need to actually work ever again. The same, of course, cannot be said for the ex-husbands. They often find themselves working all the hours for the next few decades in order to pay maintenance to their former wife to keep her and her new lover/husband in some degree of comfort. Failure to do so, at least in the US, can lead to incarceration.

Given such a situation, is it any wonder that more and more men are rejecting marriage altogether? Even a ‘successful marriage’ will entail restraining their options in almost every area in life simply for the reward of providing a female with house, home, financial support and replicants. As Pete Duel asked, somewhat incredulously, in the role of Hannibal Heyes, ‘That’s a good deal?’
Back in the Cochan the musical accompaniment has changed to a relatively pleasant, and markedly less intrusive, classical composition. The early morning crowd of stressed and smoking men has disappeared into their offices and the clientèle now largely consists of middle-aged housewives, perhaps the partners of those very men who previously occupied the place, contentedly passing the time of day with their friends. Tis a hard life for some...

Rebel Without A Cause...

"Leisure is the Mother of Philosophy".
|Thomas Hobbes

This week’s blog is brought to you from perhaps my favourite port of call of the moment, the Hey!!! Cyber Cafe just off the main square in South Dongguan. The coffee is reasonable and reasonably priced, a comparative rarity for China. The décor is wonderfully minimalist and the staff are friendly and helpful. The only downsides are the constant muzak, in this case an icky pop/rock selection of current Chinese favourites, hence particularly tiresome, and the fact that despite many signs to the contrary a host of customers who insist on smoking. This is perfectly normal in China where such rules are routinely ignored if inconvenient, much like zebra crossings, traffic lights and theoretically pedestrianized zones. There is the world of difference here between what is supposed to happen and what actually happens.
Throughout my life I have felt myself to be something of a rebel, someone who finds it not only convenient to ignore certain rules but actually has great difficulty understanding their significance in the first place. This has been both a blessing and a curse. A blessing in the sense that I have been happily free from the pressures that many feel to conform to some arbitrary norm, but a curse in that I sometimes inadvertently break some social convention or rule, much to the annoyance of people I value as friends. Given this, I find myself somewhat divided in my feelings about the attitude of so many Chinese citizens, and their ubiquitous and routine flouting of rules and conventions. In some ways I find it really quite annoying, as with the smokers right now, in others there is something actually quite liberating about their refusing to do something just because someone, somewhere has made up a rule about it.
In this particular discussion I take no position, have no guidelines and admit myself quite bereft of recommendations, let alone answers, but during my travels these thoughts have often occupied my mind. I ponder this question often, it goes to the heart of the nature of governance and even the need for governance at all.
I must admit to finding myself confounded and confused, befuddled and bemused as to whether the imposition of strong governance is a good thing in that it imposes an amount of ‘civilized’ behaviour and standards on the citizens governed, or a bad thing in that it limits, sometimes to a quite extraordinary extent, liberty and expression.
It seems I am not alone in my discombobulation, this question has vexed many a philosopher since the beginnings of what passes as civilization. The great 17^th century English thinker Thomas Hobbes stated: “During the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that conditions called war; and such a war, as if of every man, against every man.”

His fear was, that without the control of law and governance, man would revert to a condition of internecine and ongoing war, each person, family, tribe and group struggling with and against each other. Given the ongoing state of the World over the centuries since he wrote those lines, it is difficult to disagree with him.
A couple of millennia previously, the Greek dramatist Sophocles had put it perhaps even more simply: “There is no greater evil than anarchy.”

The country I find myself in at the moment, the People’s Republic of China, brings these questions sharply into focus. There is an odd admixture here between very strict laws in any area in which the government feels the possibility of a threat to its authority, the ban on any meaningful protest and the constant, paranoid monitoring of every action on the internet being obvious examples, combined with a completely laissez-faire approach to law enforcement in general. The smoking ban in cafés is an obvious example of laws that have been passed but remain completely unenforced. The roads here are perhaps the most anarchic I have ever seen in a theoretically civilized country, drivers tending to do whatever happens to enter their heads at any given moment without the slightest consideration of others around them or concern about rules, laws or regulations.
As sino-advocates never tire of reminding us, Chinese civilization goes back some five thousand years or more, but the results of this ‘civilization’ are hard to see in the day to day behaviours of people here, particularly when they are in a position of power or behind the wheel of a car.
An opposing view to Hobbes was put forward by the much-admired American writer Henry David Thoreau who advocated the freeing of people from the constraints of government when he said: “That government is best which governs least. The best government governs not at all"

He has a point, and one that is supported by many in America who consider themselves libertarians in the sense that they feel their freedoms should be protected from interference from government. In their view, the US government should be as small as possible or even, ideally, non-existent. For my part though, I must admit to a certain alarm at the thought of a complete lack of governance. It would seem clear that Thomas Hobbes had a valid point in relation to the probable result of complete freedom.
So, given that we need to have some form of governance for civilization to exist at all and for us not to live in constant fear of anarchy and/or violence from our fellow man, the question becomes what form of government should we have and how is it to gain legitimacy in the eyes of the populace.
I quoted Tony Benn on this issue last week, but perhaps this would be an appropriate occasion to give the full text as it makes several interesting and valid points: “In the course of my life I have developed five little democratic questions. If one meets a powerful person--Adolf Hitler, Joe Stalin or Bill Gates--ask them five questions: “What power have you got? Where did you get it from? In whose interests do you exercise it? To whom are you accountable? And how can we get rid of you?” If you cannot get rid of the people who govern you, you do not live in a democratic system.”

Such thoughts often occur to me when faced with living in the quixotic and paradoxical China or holidaying in the semi-anarchic corruption of Thailand. Just where do such governments gain their legitimacy? And how is this legitimacy ever tested? Authority is often enforced through the arms of the state such as the police or the military, but is this, as W.W.W. McNally once pointed out, simply a case of the police being the biggest gang in town with access to the most resources?
Such questions leave me vexed and perplexed on a regular basis. In all humility, I have to admit to having no answer but merely the desire to fathom the depths of these conundrums, to attempt to arrive at some kind of valid position, if not a solution.
For anyone interested in such arcane but fascinating debates I would recommend checking out the Harvard lectures of the excellent Michael Sandel. He has the habit of asking the most obvious of questions and demonstrating again and again that the answers themselves are nowhere near as obvious as the questions.

Back in the Hey!!! Cyber I take another sip of their reasonable Americano and look around at my fellow customers. In some ways at least, I have to admit to finding them pleasingly pragmatic. Over the past 150 years or so the Chinese have seen many systems of governance come and go, from Emperors to Democrats, from Fascists to Communists, to arrive at the present ambiguity whereby those in power pay lip service to communism, or at least to ‘the Party’, but in reality follow policies that are in themselves simply pragmatic in nature. Perhaps China is the first country to arrive at a solution to the endless political debates that have divided men seemingly forever. They seem to have reached a point that perhaps can be best described as post-politics, or at least post-idealism. Sadly for those of us who still have some vestige of belief in political ideals, perhaps that is the best that the human race, with all its greed, its violence and its irrationality, is actually capable of?