Dice is the game

Everywhere you go people enjoy playing games, especially drinking games it seems. One of my favorites is "Liar's Dice." In this game you play with five dice that you pass around the table and try to makes pairs, three of a kind, four of a kind or five of a kind. The other players tell you what they have and you either believe them and accept the dice to either roll them again or directly pass them on to the next player, But you have to call something higher than the player before. If anyone ever gets caught lying or some incorrectly guesses that someone is lying then you have to drink. I learned this game in Central America and I brought it with me here to China. Or at least the notion of it.
I wanted to play it the other night in the restaurant across the street, but I didn't have any dice. Luckily Chen Hui was there. He volunteered to get some. I tried to tell him I would go look but he insisted. After about 30 minutes without his return, I went out to look for him, but had no success. Finally after another 15 minutes he showed up with three dirty, tiny dice. I asked him where he had gotten them and he said that he looked in about 20 different shops and finally bought some off a couple of guys playing in the street. I wanted to pay him back and so I asked him how much they had cost. He told me not to worry about it, three yuan was nothing between friends.
We started playing "liar's dice" and I began to notice a problem. We were drinking way too fast. With three dice the odds were too low of having anything decent. We went through five 32 ml beers in 10 minutes. I got up and said I would go look for some more dice. Chen Hui said he would come with me. This is a good thing since I speak only three phrases in chinese "Where is the bathroom," "Hello," and " I would like another beer." The first time Chen had gone to look for dice he went out the restaurant and turned left. This time I turned right.
If you have never been to China, or other developing nations the streets all look kind of similar. The buildings lining the streets are an undeterminable blend of houses and shops. People sell food, clean clothes, and fix motorcycles in shops that look very similar. I asked Chen if I should approach one old lady that was standing on the other side of what appeared to be a counter about 25 feet from our restaurant. He said I don;t think she will have anything but go ahead. I walked up to here and asked her in my broken Chinese if she had any dice. She pulled out two huge jars of dice and said which kind would you like. I looked at Chen with a smile and said just two please. They were one yuan a piece. I paid the lady five.

Did China's growth skip a stage?

The only quote I remember from Jurassic Park is when Dr. Malcom says "All they ever thought about was, "Could they do it?" They never stopped and thought about "Should they do it?" They stood on the shoulders of giants, and so they didn't really earn the knowledge." He was of course referencing the DNA cloning techonolgy. And I would like to pose a similar question about China. Do they really understand the economic development that they now wield? The U.S. and Europe created the Industrial revolution that brought us the modern factory, and all of the luxuries that it can produce. But, since then it has been an arduous process to get where the U.S. is today. Full of depression and recessions, and development fueled by consumption and wars. The point is it took the West along time to get where it is. China on the other hand is catapulting ahead at lightening speed, but they did not really invent any of the techonology that now fuels their economy. Yes, part of the benefit of open markets is rapid development, but "can it be too rapid?" In the coming years China is going to have to tackle it's horrible pollution problem, they are going to have to gradually fix the accounting systems of their businesses, and they are going to have to address the social impacts of a generation brought up under the one child policy. They are also going to have to tackle the U.S. in Asia if they ever want to dominate the region. Can they do this without really providing any innovation to the world? Can they do this by simply transitioning to a consumption centered economy, and buying all of the rest of the world's excess? Will they be able to continue their "peaceful rising" with all of these issues? I don't know.

First Blog

Here we go, this is my first blog. I am a newbie to the community, but I hope that it works out. I hope to use this as a stepping stone to just creating my own web page and publishing items there. I am a big L liberal. I believe in the power of hte market. I believe that for the most part human beings are rational, but they are also "self-seeking with guile" when it comes to achievement. All this means, is that we have the drive to shape other's perceptions in ways that will benefit ourselves. I believe that an open, well funded education system is the most important instituition in the world. A strong education system leads to improvement in human capital which is ultimately the root of all success. I believe in the rule of law. This doesn't mean that I think all laws are just, but when there is a law it should be followed. This goes back to my foundation built upon Hobbes' "Social Contract" and that man must give up certain rights for security. I do not believe that the federal government should have carte blanche to interfere in our lives, but tha tit should intervene in matters where there is non-rivalry or non-excludablity (public goods) or there is a moral justification. That is me in a nutshell. Take it for what you will, and I hope you enjoy.