Chinese Profit Margins and the World’s Largest Human Migration

Travelling in China this spring I stayed in hostel dormitories for 25 Yuan a night (around 4$). Though you might have to put up with other guests snoring, the hostels are neat, clean, and almost always have a nice atmosphere about them. In addition, the hostel will provide you with clean bed sheets, a towel, free Wi-Fi, a safe locker, a fully stocked bathroom, and in some places a welcome drink. In whichever country you are, that kind of deal can only mean a business philosophy of very tight profit margins…

Being able to do business with such tight margins is one of the key strengths behind what is fast becoming China’s global economic take-over.

 [A view of one of China's main economic locomotives; Guangzhou in the Pearl River Delta]

The Road to Shangri-La

In 1933 the English writer James Hilton published the novel Lost Horizon. In it, he describes the mythical place of Shangri-La; it is a mystical, harmonious valley, gently guided from a lamasery, enclosed in the western end of the Kunlun Mountains. It is a permanently happy place isolated from the outside world. For us today, the name of Shangri-La has become synonymous with any earthly paradise, but certainly evokes, as they say, imagery of oriental exoticism.

 

Sounds like a place you might want to visit? Of course! And that’s exactly why this mythical place in the mountains is now in existence. Whether it is the place Hilton was referring to – his book describes a place far away from Beijing in the mountains, of which there are sure to be quite a few – it will never again be as genuine as it is right now. The developers and the tourist trail they're about to create will see to that.

The Road Not Taken..!

One of my favorite poems. A poem about not following were others have led, but trusting your own instincts, believing in yourself, how hard it may be..

An appropriate poem for the mindset of one of our times great activist for democracy. 21 years have passed since she received the Nobel Peace Prize for her struggles, and now, finally, she is able to leave her country for her peace prize lecture, and still be able to travel home without the fear of forced excile, which the military regime wants.

Aung San Suu Kyi has been and is an admirable and inspiring fighter for openness, freedom of speech, freedom of thought and democracy through non-violence, despite that she would have every right to be angry of everything the military regime has taken from her and her people.


Now that she's finally released from her house arrest, and has been elected to parliament, she can look back on the hard and less traveled road she chose, and see what both her people and the rest of the world sees, that the choice she made in 1988 has made the whole little difference so far. The road is still long, perilious and hard, but every step made is one less to take.. An impressive person in the struggle for democracy.. A woman in a worldformat.. I can only take a bow for her in utter admiration.. 

Music and Butterflies...and a Thousand Images

I love music. This is despite the fact that I don’t seem to have any easily identifiable musical talents myself. I also love that it’s a universal thing for music to have certain effects on people – across age, class, culture or other. It matters little that I don’t seem to like every type of music. Every type and variety of music will be palatable, and more, to someone. Diversity; living in a world which contains many worlds, that diversity can only be described as a universal richness.

It’s not only that music can make me feel good, or help me work through various types of emotions and frames of mind – whether good or bad or something in between. Music summons memories and fashions vivid visions of situations of the past. It brings forth details of where or with whom I was at the time of remembrance. I often even remember - to an extent that can surprise me – detailed accounts of what I was thinking or what my outlook on life was in certain moments which spring to mind when I hear certain songs. Music to me is not about relaxation. It’s about reflection.