Civics 101

[frank1538]

We were watching a little of the Kerry speech last night, and KK, the 20 year old, asked who he was and what he was saying. I told her that this man wants to be president. Not knowing the Chinese word for president, I said that he wants to be America's boss.

 

In order to try to condense what Kerry was saying, I said that this man thinks that America is a good country, but he also thinks that Bush is not a good boss.

 

Her response shocked me. I don't know if using 'boss" tainted her thinking, but she asked if this man was afraid that Bush would kill him for saying this. I said of course not, not in America where the people decide who should be boss. The concept of free elections was totally alien to her.

 

Maybe this is understandable given the fact that KK is a newly arrived young foreign person who is concerned more with adjusting to life and friends than to grasping political concepts, but it certainly surprised me.

[tonado]

You should tell her that Kerry wants to be the leader of USA, just like Jiang Zemin for China. "Boss" sounds like a dictator.

[warpedbored]

Bing and I were watching one of her Chinese channels on TV last night. CTTV I think. Lately they have been saturated with Kerry campaign ads. Haven't seen any Bush ads on there. Bing said "I think maybe Kerry good". She has a hard time though understanding why americans care so much about politics. She says in China people don't care because it doesn't make any difference.

[Robert S.]

It is shocking when they say something like this, but it should not be surprising unless we forget Tiananmen Square. My 20 year old daughter said something nearly the same the other day, talking about if someone made trouble for the local government they could be killed and if someone asked what happened to them people would just shrug and say "they go away." I told her I did not believe this still happened nowadays, thinking about various famous dissenters over there that you read about sometimes, but I guess unless you are well known you might turn into a non-person. Really we probably ought not to be talking about this.