I want it all...

As I write these words the beast from the east has rendered Norfolk’s weather somewhat more akin to Siberia’s. In the past few days the temperature here has been down to -10 at times and never breached zero. Costas coffee house is a warm haven but a struggle to get to. I managed to unexpectedly assume a horizontal position en route when I slipped on some ice cunningly disguised beneath a layer of pleasantly fluffy snow.
It feels good after four months of global gallivanting to get back to my local cafe again. Costas themselves had rather annoyingly cancelled all their newspapers save the Sun (not sure that particular publication falls under the category of newspaper) before I left, but after receiving a large volume of complaints and becoming aware that people were also voting with their feet, I happily discovered that the Telegraph, the “I” and the Daily Mail have all been reinstated. Happy days...
I read in the ‘I’ that Jeremy Corbyn has just given a speech wherein he reversed his position of four decades of steadfast opposition to the EU to embrace the notion of joining ‘a’ customs union. As ever, the speech in reality is so general as to be meaningless as far as anything practical is concerned, but it does denote the taking up of a position so antithetical to any position he has taken before that one wonders how such blatant hypocrisy can be countenanced even by his most gullible supporters (and there are quite a few of those!). It seems that the reasoning is that although it represents a 180 degree volte face it does have the one benefit of allowing the possibility of the government losing a vote on the customs union in Parliament. In short, it is as blatant a piece of political cynicism as one could imagine. The possibility of power, of an election being called and Jeremy winning it, means that as far as he is concerned it is fine to adopt a position that all his political life he has been firmly opposed to. Power corrupts, and the desire for power can corrupt completely.

In China, Xi Jingping it seems has decided that a mere 10 years in power may not be sufficient for him. After the disaster of the Mao years when the geriatric leader continued to control China long after he was capable of making sensible decisions. This occurred mainly due to a managed ‘cult of personality’ when his thoughts were made into a kind of gospel in the form of a little red book. His words were incritically read by millions of gullible young red guards (and, interestingly, by John McDonnell....Labour’s shadow chancellor). Mao's final ten years in particular, a period known as the cultural revolution, were so damaging that the very social fabric of China was undermined with many people murdered for even the slightest perceived criticism. Xi Jinping has likewise benefitted the Chinese nation with a volume of his ‘thoughts’ to be incorporated into Communist Party Doctrine and disseminated amongst the general public. Now, apparently, Xi feels that ten years of power may not be enough for him and wishes to remove the legal obstacle of a maximum of two five year terms that the Party put in place at the end of Mao’s reign. Power corrupts, and the desire for power can corrupt absolutely.

Nicolas Maduro, Socialist leader in Venezuela, has called elections to further extend both his riegn and the extent of his powers. After having problems winning the normal elections, despite some blatant rigging, he decided to restrict the influence of the elected National Assembly and instead create a new constituent body only part of which was to be elected. This effectively meant that even if he clearly lost an election he would remain in power thanks to the built in majority from the non-elected parts of the assembly. Neat, eh!? Recently, members of the constituent body voted to put leasers of the opposition on trial for treason.  Power corrupts, and the desire for power can corrupt absolutely.

Another article tells of us of the activities of the leader of North Korea and his father,

Kim Jong Il and Kim Jong Un. Apparently worried that their own people might one day rise up against them, they illegally secured Brazillian passports and obtained visas from whatever embassies they could in Pyongyang in order to have a chance to make good their escapes if it proved necessary. This seems to be a common theme in communist countries, the leaders often live in fear of their populace and hence seek to control them by whatever means neccessary. Hence the CPC in China always being so concerned about ‘social stability’, basically code for the slightest sign of opposition to their rule.

It is a common trait of such folk on the left to seek control. It is often not just power that they want but absolute power, unchallenged and unlimited. With this comes the notion of ensuring that any contrary voice is controlled or silenced. It has been interesting to hear Corbyn’s responses lately when he talks about the press. He has been stung numerous times now by attacks in the press, mainly due to his connection with some very dubious characters in the past, spies, terrorists, antisemites, religious extremists, etc. The compromising nature of much of this information is somewhat inconvenient to a would be prime minister so the revelations have been a source of some irritation to poor Jeremy. His subsequent unspecified threat of “change is coming” sounded somewhat chilling. Asked to give details he would merely say that media bosses were “right to be worried” about the possibility of a Labour government. The threat was couched in language as chilling as the Beast from the East...
In China, the reaction on social media sites such as Wiebo to the notion of removing the two term limit on Xi Jinping was not particularly positive. As ever though with such left wing hierarchies, the authorities didn’t interpret this as a signal that perhaps they should reconsider but merely a sign that such criticism should be blocked, banned, rooted out or circumvented by all means available. Pooh bear, the oft used characterture for Xi Jinping found himself banned once again along with phrases such as ‘two terms’ or ‘extended rule’. Mysteriously, even the letter ‘N’ got banned for several hours!?

Maduro’s reaction in Venezuela to criticism is much of a muchness for a socialist/communist system. The group Human Rights Watch reports “the accumulation of power in the executive branch and the erosion of human rights guarantees have enabled the government to intimidate, censor, and prosecute its critics" and went on to say that that broadcasters may well be censored if they criticize the government.”
Socialism is often sold as the politics of compassion whereas, in reality (as the history shows) nothing could be further from the truth. What it craves is control and power, preferably of the unlimited variety. The common factor in all these cases is that not only do such people as Jeremy Corbyn, Xi Jinping, Nicolas Maduro or Kim Jung Un crave power but that they crave unlimited power. Not for them the unwarranted restrictions of terms, constitutions, elections or even press criticism, that is for wooly liberals and their like. They want it all...and they want it now.
Back in Costas I am finishing off my americano and girding my loins for the trudge back across the common. Hopefully this time I can at least remain vertical for the whole journey. Despite it being incredibly cold in the past few days, the snow lends this part of the World an intense beauty that is really quite unique in its own way. I have missed the place...

On the road again...

After a somewhat elongated gap, this blog now continues from the ancient English town of Thetford, snuggled comfortably amongst the extensive forests of North Suffolk and South Norfolk. At one time, the town of Thetford had the honour of being the sixth largest in England but ... that was long, long ago, back in the times of the Angles and the Saxons. One can still find a motte and bailey castle here, built by William of Normandy no less, the bastard King who took over England in 1066 and imposed the archaic system of monarchy and lords that still besets this benighted land to this day. Basically, the system was designed to take as much of the land as possible from the natives and put it in the hands of their Norman conquerors. Oddly, many people who consider themselves patriotic Englishmen will vehemently defend these ancient injustices, apparently unaware that they are not English in the first place, but simply a system imposed by those who vanquished their forefathers in 1066. 

For my part, I am very much looking forward to resuming my travels in the coming months. The first port of call is likely to be Dongguan, in Guangdong province, which holds a place in British history as the scene of much of the fighting in the Opium Wars of the mid 19th century. As bringers of culture and civilisation to the rest of the planet, the British sought to insist that the Chinese take opium from Turkey and India in payment for that much sought after commodity, in Britain at least, tea. At the time, due to the social problems that we are only all too well aware of in this day, the use of opium had been made illegal in China. The British, in their beneficence, believed that the importation of this drug was a necessity to improve the rather one sided balance of payment deficit with China.  

The problem for the British was that, despite the industrial revolution, the Chinese felt that they had little to offer China and displayed a somewhat high-handed disdain for the baubles that the UK produced. This attitude was not overly welcome to the British, as they had a need of the tea which was produced in such an abundance in China. When the Chinese refused their entreaties, the British started illegally importing opium into China. When challenged, they organised an incident which led to the opium war, a hopelessly one sided affair whereby a relatively backward Chinese military was easily defeated by the far more 'advanced' forces of the West (the US and the French also felt a need to back the importation of opium into China). 

Interestingly, for those who enjoy the history of such matters, this is how the British came by Hong Kong. It was part of the settlement agreed (read 'imposed') on the Chinese at the conclusion of the First Opium War, as part of the treaty of Nanking. I was in the UK at the time the Brits handed back Hong Kong, yet oddly much of this history remained unreported. I wonder why? 

The journey to China is a long one, something like eleven hours to Beijing, followed by another three to four hours down to Guangzhou. Such gargantuan expeditions have to be approached in a very relaxed frame of mind to make them bearable. The avoidance of rushing and a healthy disdain for the ongoing sense of urgency that queuing in airports tends to engender, is more or less obligatory if one wishes to arrive in a relatively unstressed state of mind.  

This will be my fifth visit to China; each time there seems to be some improvement in the less pleasant aspects. From a purely subjective point of view, the aspects that I have found particularly challenging have been firstly the pollution levels, which can be unbelievably bad by Western standards: the casual expectorating in the streets; and the chaotic traffic which seem to obey just the two rules: Rule one - there are no rules. Rule two - see rule one. 

To be fair though, it has been noticeable that in each of my visits some level of improvement was apparent in each of these problems. The pollution, whilst still bad, seems to be getting better. Xi Jin Ping and his government seem to have made something of a priority out of that issue and the effects of this attitude are readily apparent. It is no Garden of Eden as yet, but every year it seems somewhat better than the previous.  

The expectorating, likewise, seems to improve each time. Maybe it is just me, but the experience of dining al fresco in one of the many excellent restaurants of Chang An was often rendered somewhat less than pleasant by the sound of, or even the sight of, folks indulgently gobbing in the immediate vicinity. Such actions were by no means limited by age or sex. Sometimes one would observe apparently young and healthy females quite unashamedly sharing the content of their bronchial tubes with all and sundry. Last year, the occurrences of such reprehensible anti-social behaviour were much less than in 2013. I am sincerely hoping that this a similar improvement will be observed ... 

Finally, driving. What can one say above driving in China that hasn't been said many, many times before? It has to be seen to be believed. The sheer callousness of the Chinese motorists to all others that share the road and, in particular, to pedestrians is hard to appreciate unless one has actually experienced it directly. They are, not to put too fine a point on it, absolutely awful. Now, as with the other problems, they do seem to be improving, but it is only a relative improvement; they still have a long, long way to go before they reach anything approaching a sensible standard.  

Having said all that, the positives generally outweigh the negatives, and so I find myself looking forward with some anticipation to finding myself in the Middle Country once again (Zhong Guo, as China is known to the Chinese, literally means the middle or central country. This is because, in ancient times, the Chinese considered themselves to be at the very centre of civilization. Oddly, this same irrational belief in the relative importance of one's own land and culture seems to affect almost every nationality around the globe. Something to do with education, I am guessing).  

China has an ancient and venerable culture, many aspects of which one can still see and experience to this day. Tis true that in the rush to 'modernize' much has been laid waste or buried under a mountain of concrete, but ideas, philosophies and cultures often take more eradicating than the clumsy implementation of five year plans can manage, though if persisted in long enough, such short-termism can, eventually, destroy even the most venerable of systems. 

For now though, and in the next few days, there are many odds and sods to tidy up before the  re-commencement of my travels. For the last five months this nomadic flanneur has not been particularly nomadic, apart from a brief sojourn to Madrid to visit a friend and one or two trips within the UK. So it is with a tinge of excitement that I find myself once more to be in a position to resume nomadic activities and indulge in the finer flanneurial arts once again.