IllinoisDave

Do we know how Mars got the way it is? Do we know that humans or an equivalent entity didn't do to Mars in the very distant past what we're doing to Earth right now? Are we really willing to bet the future of this planet on humans having no effect and thus do nothing? Do we really know that turning into a lifeless orb of dust and ice is inevitable?

I think especially as the Olympics approach and as China becomes more and more of a player on the world stage,thus more intertwined with the US, we're going to see more of this type of journalism. I think a lot of the media that's late in getting on the China bandwagon is starting to realize they need to catch up. They'll start having anyone with a keyboard or a microphone chime in with a story about China, whether or not they've even been there or whether they know anything about China or it's culture. "Go watch Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and give me a story about China." Now I don't know if David Brooks has been close enough to China to even get a whiff of a Shanghai dumpling. For all I know, he has. If so he sure didn't bother to look too far under the surface. If not, then his article is just a hint of what's to come I'm afraid. As we all know, the real China and it's people are much more complex and enigmatic than anyone who's never been there can possibly comprehend. Hell, we prove on this site almost daily that it's even hard for some of us who've been there multiple times. But that won't deter editors and news directors from demanding juicy stories on the new "It" topic,reality be damned. In this day of "get their attention in the first 30 seconds or two paragraphs," it's pretty difficult to do a country and culture like China justice. I think some could try a little harder though. The Chicago Tribune for one has done a series of stories about China that seemed to be fairly well done. At least they've actually had reporters in country so at least they make that effort,which is to be applauded I guess. And as I write this ABC News is running the latest in a series of stories about life up and down the Yangtze and the economic disparity between different segments. It seems pretty accurate but who knows? I'm a little conflicted by all this because while I welcome any effort to shed light on a country that I've come to know just a little and like just a lot, if that light is distorted it kind of defeats the purpose. Just my 50 cents or so.

Not disagreeing with your analysis but I think you have the wrong David Brooks. This is David Brooks,journalist, not author. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Brooks_(journalist)

Hey Dave, just saw this post. We also got the duplicate letter, which I thought was strange, but ended up getting the SS card a couple of weeks after that. Have you received your card yet? Hank, I was just on my way to update our SSA experience. Thanks for asking. A couple days after we got the letter we went back to the same local SSA office to see if they could at least tell us the number since it was past 30 days. This time we got a very friendly and helpful clerk who gave us the number along with a printout that showed what it was,no problem. Then a couple days after that the card finally came in the mail. Figures. Of course it had her Chinese name, given name first,family name last. So we decided to try a different office to get a replacement card in her married name. Again, this time we got a very friendly and helpful clerk. We told her what we wanted to do, she said OK, asked for all our documents,copied them, typed some stuff into the computer, had Christine sign a piece of paper and that was that. She said we should get the card within two weeks, if it doesn't come in 30 days yada yada and we were out of there in 10 minutes. She even let us keep the original card, which surprised me. So the moral of our story is that sometimes impatience doesn't pay. Based on my misunderstanding of what folks here were telling me, I was hellbent on getting her name on the card the way we wanted it, English name followed by married name. I was sure that I had the rules and regulations on my side. As it turns out, if I had only asked to have her Chinese name followed by her married name, or the clerk had suggested that,we probably would've avoided a lot of hassle. Add to the fact that we ran into a less-than-friendly clerk that day and we had a recipe for failure. Mostly my fault though. Live and learn. Hey Dave Merry !! When it is all said and done it will have her name how?? In what order again, sorry but I know I will need to know this soon I hope! Happy Holidays to you as well. It should have her Chinese given name (first name) followed by her Chinese family name as her new middle name (her maiden name, I forgot to mention that),followed by her married last name (my last name). Sorry for the confusion. I hope this doesn't make it worse. Maybe this will help. OLD Yang Wei Chinese family name. Yang, for example Chinese given name. Wei, for example NEW Wei Yang Smith Chinese given name... Wei Chinese family name... Yang Our married name... Smith

They have a way of doing that.

A Civil Surgeon of Chinese ethnicity. We found a male Taiwanese civil surgeon very close to where we live. He has a small office and his wife has a dentistry practice in the same building, actually a small house. It was a great comfort to Christine to have someone who spoke Mandarin, if only for this simple step. He was very knowledgeable about the whole procedure. She needed a booster shot for one of the injections,which cost us $110. His fee was $60. So I guess it was pretty expensive for us compared to what others paid.

Hey Dave, just saw this post. We also got the duplicate letter, which I thought was strange, but ended up getting the SS card a couple of weeks after that. Have you received your card yet? Hank, I was just on my way to update our SSA experience. Thanks for asking. A couple days after we got the letter we went back to the same local SSA office to see if they could at least tell us the number since it was past 30 days. This time we got a very friendly and helpful clerk who gave us the number along with a printout that showed what it was,no problem. Then a couple days after that the card finally came in the mail. Figures. Of course it had her Chinese name, given name first,family name last. So we decided to try a different office to get a replacement card in her married name. Again, this time we got a very friendly and helpful clerk. We told her what we wanted to do, she said OK, asked for all our documents,copied them, typed some stuff into the computer, had Christine sign a piece of paper and that was that. She said we should get the card within two weeks, if it doesn't come in 30 days yada yada and we were out of there in 10 minutes. She even let us keep the original card, which surprised me. So the moral of our story is that sometimes impatience doesn't pay. Based on my misunderstanding of what folks here were telling me, I was hellbent on getting her name on the card the way we wanted it, English name followed by married name. I was sure that I had the rules and regulations on my side. As it turns out, if I had only asked to have her Chinese name followed by her married name, or the clerk had suggested that,we probably would've avoided a lot of hassle. Add to the fact that we ran into a less-than-friendly clerk that day and we had a recipe for failure. Mostly my fault though. Live and learn.

Brooks seems to be kind of obsessed with what he calls the "memorization-based elite" and whether they can organize an innovative information society. Given our own current "teach the test" mentality forced on our education system via "No Child Left Behind," maybe we should have the same concerns.

China's population policy is based on political judgements, not the ability of the planet to support increased population. The carrying capacity of Earth is far beyond today's population. Most famine is caused by political repression. Most "drought" is a direct result of misallocation of resources. Malthusian propaganda aside, let's not turn this into a political thread, OK? P.S. Planet Earth doesn't possess a "self", it's an inanimate object. It's doesn't "heal", it is a constantly changing eco-system of almost unimagineable dimension. Every human on earth could live in an area the size of the state of Texas. Population density would be approximately that of the City of San Francisco. This would include streets, stores, parks, government buildings, residential lots.... all of it. Our planet is HUGE, as anyone who has travelled overseas should know. I've been away from the computer for a few days. I'm sorry I've missed so much,including some very interesting "facts". "The carrying capacity of Earth is far beyond today's population." Really? How far beyond? Estimates put the number of malnourished people on Earth at around 850 million. Tell them that there's plenty of Earth left for them to subsist on. "Most famine is caused by political repression." Most? I doubt that very much. Political repression may exacerbate a famine as in North Korea. But the underlying cause of nearly all famine is a basic shortage of food. I would say most of those shortages are due to weather-related causes,over-population of the area or a combination of the two. "Most "drought" is a direct result of misallocation of resources." Again. Most? Come on. Unless someone's discovered a way to misallocate rainfall, this is a pretty dubious statement as well. "Malthusian propaganda aside, let's not turn this into a political thread, OK?" Mathusian propaganda? I'd say that's a political statement in and of itself. "P.S. Planet Earth doesn't possess a "self", it's an inanimate object. It's doesn't "heal", it is a constantly changing eco-system of almost unimagineable dimension." Main Entry: eco·sys·tem Pronunciation: \-ˌsis-təm\ Function: noun Date: 1935 : the complex of a community of organisms and its environment functioning as an ecological unit If that's the definition of an inanimate object, I'm Billy Graham. Since the Earth was a mere babe, and without the help of us humans,forests have been burning down and growing back even more lush than they were before. If that's not healing itself, then what is? You're right, it is a constantly changing eco-system. Part of that constant change is trying to keep up with the destruction caused by humans. Unfortunately, as humans are wont to do, we're winning, which also means we're losing. And you're right about it being "almost" unimagineable. Funny thing about "almost" though, it's only good in horseshoes, hand grenades, and some elections. B) The Earth is imaginable because it's finite and so are it's resources.

Very insightful and well said. B)

That is great! CONGRATULATIONS!! No more waiting for you.

I see now. I like your timeline. Thanks. You've got a good start on yours.

I see now. I like your timeline. make sure you you sign/ date the attachment, and put a header as to your names Good point. We didn't to that and had no problems. But still a good thing to do.

Ours didn't fit so we just wrote "SEE ATTACHMENT 1" in the space and put the address on a separate sheet of paper,labelled it " G-325A ATTACHMENT 1" and "BENEFICIARY ADDRESS" or something like that. Then we put a tab at the bottom labelled "ATTACHMENT 1." We needed more than one attachment for our 129f,hench the numbers. You may need the same.

CONGRATULATIONS DAVE AND JING!!

Congrats Ty! In an amazing coincidence, I had a dream last night that Christine's SSA card wouldn't come in the mail again today. Guess what? That's right. No card. Weird huh?

Good luck to you both!

It's too bad more governments and religions don't see this writing on the wall and wake up and realize that this is where the Earth is heading as long as humans remain on the course we're on now. IMO,as long as countries like India keep reproducing at a rate that their own country can't sustain and certain religions continue to advocate endless reproduction, human-kind is doomed to this fate. Over-population will inevitably lead to the self-healing of the Earth you mention unless we've already pushed past the point of no return with global warming and we're all fried to a crisp before we can kill enough of each other to ward off famines and wars.

Ditto to that!

Most of my time was spent in big cities like Shanghai or Shenzhen or touristy places where Westerners are pretty common. But I would experience what Dennis did mostly along the small back streets in Shanghai where Christine's Mom lived. If we stopped somewhere to shop or talk to someone, first one person would stop and stare and then another and another etc. I never minded it, I kinda felt a little honored in a way that these people would find little ole me so interesting (or more likely, so strange) I always just smiled at them. Some smiled back but most just kept looking or went on about their business. And how could I complain? After all, I was doing virtually the same thing the whole time I was in China. I found almost everything and everyone fascinating. So I'm sure I did just as much staring at others as they did at me.

An interesting article on adoptions in China. Some surprising and heart-breaking info and statistics. http://www.reason.com/news/show/123021.html

I think sometimes we Westerners confuse being "standoffish" to just plain minding their own business. I found the vast majority of people in China to be very friendly and helpful when personally engaged. Aside from the hawkers, yes most kept to themselves. But I took it to be more of a polite curiosity than being standoffish. Some stared, sure, but in a way that didn't really make me all that uncomfortable. In this country, if we see someone who's unlike 99.9% of the people we're used to seeing, the chances of us wanting to invade their space are much higher than in China IMHO. We think nothing of letting our curiosity get to the point that we just go up to someone and start asking questions. In China, not so much.

Thanks. We just sent in AOS/EAD/AP yesterday so it'll be awhile before we have to worry about this. But it's never too early to start being reminded right.

OK no razzing Dave.

CONGRATULATIONS!