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At Lawrence Tech, we’re havng the entire entering class read Thomas Friedman’s best-selling book The World is Flat, which emphasizes the role of the internet not only as a reference book but as a signboard - ordinary citizens can spread messages as well as read them. Spreading messages, in turn, makes it possible to form groups and gather strength outside traditional political avenues of change, and grass-roots democracy is coming ever closer.

George has taken a step in that direction with his development of CitizenSpeak, software which facilitates democratic communication and is already in use. Now his work has been recognized: he is the first winner of the new Pizzigati Prize, established in honor of the brilliant but short-lived Antonio Pizzigati, a strong believer in open software for the nonprofit community. I strongly encourage you read the details at

http://www.pizzigatiprize.org/

Proud Dad

The Many Uses of Close-Order Drill

Those of us with real-life experience of marching have often noticed that soldiers marching in rigid ranks stopped being a military tactic about the time of the Battle of Waterloo, but marching continues to be part of military basic training all over the world.

Why stop there? Many parents credit high-school marching bands with giving their children some sense of teamwork and even obedience. Here in China, there’s more.

Example 1 – I was intrigued, while riding a bus past a restaurant, to see the entire waiter force out front, lined up at attention for inspection- females front rank, males rear. As I watched, they made a reasonably smart left face and marched off to their duty stations.

Example 2 – This morning I found a force of several dozen, later growing to about 250, people in camouflage uniforms. These turned out to be the entering freshman class at Wenzhou University, here for orientation. Military-style marching and instruction is apparently a standard part of beginning college and sometimes high school, and is conducted by a vanload of real PLA soldiers detached for the occasion from whatever border or musical (see other entry) duties they may have. The idea is not to produce a reserve force of millions but simply to use drill as a means of bringing all the new students together and, once again, promote teamwork.

Are We a Little Touchy on This Subject?

Notes from CCTV-9, the English-language state-run TV channel:

The Chinese Foreign Minister visited Montenegro as part of a European tour which also included Latvia, and spoke highly of Sino-Montenegran relations, noting particularly the support for the one-China policy.

A visiting African head of state was welcomed in Beijing by Hu Jin Tao, with thanks for supporting the one-China policy.

Apparently Chad suggested involving Taiwan in UN peacekeeping efforts; the lead story was the Chinese reaction to the effect that the UN is an organization of nations, not parts of nations- basically UN mail should be sent to Beijing, not Taipei.

The first joint Russian-Chinese military maneuvers took place, with news footage of various ships, aircraft, and land weapons, with explosions, to practice to be ready for terrorism and separationism.

The new head of the Taiwanese Kuomintang party was given a long and complimentary story (“incorruptible”, energetic) (Taipei personality, ha, ha), and the People First Party visit to the Mainland got good coverage; the Taiwan Independence parties never get mentioned

Here’s what’s new for this year’s trip to sunny Wenzhou for the special one-month all-about-the-USA course I teach.

Back up the Nanxi River: The local hosts graciously offered a tour to an ancient village for up the river, literally at the end of the road. Off we went, to find the road being replaced and getting pretty rough as we got higher. After a long ride we hit a smooth patch which climbed and climbed and climbed, through many switchbacks. Finally, as advertised, we reached the end of the road – really. It absolutely and finally stopped at a really tiny village. The pictures show our car in the village parking space and the only way in and out.

The little joke was that it was the wrong road, as most of the village agreed after turning out to see a foreigner. All the way back down, going back and forth on the switchback, we reviewed navigation. The right road did show up, and back up we went in a different valley. We did find the village, 700 years old, built in the Y of two streams meeting. The parts are connected by ancient bridges (see picture), and a feeling of total isolation. The roads are only ten or twenty years old; before that people walked for miles up and down mountains.

River The river itself was very quiet, perhaps two feet deep in the deep parts, but it paid to look at the bamboo on the shores. Bamboo is serious stuff here – 6 to 8 inches in diameter, and thirty feet tall in spots. The bamboo, and other plants, were bent double in the downstream direction. In a bizarre sight, there were hundreds, perhaps thousands, of pieces of cloth in the trees up to a height of about six feet, all on the upstream side. Apparently the typhoon which hit Zhejiang Province about ten days ago caused huge flooding, which caught people’s laundry and washed it all downstream. It went on for miles.

TV: The state-run TV has been giving huge coverage to the sixtieth anniversary of the end of World War 2, specifically the Japanese surrender to the Chinese. There have been stories every day on observances, including a museum exhibit on the Nanjing Massacre and a one-hour TV spectacular with multiple choruses, literally a cast of thousands, for the occasion. There were so many singing soldiers I wondered who was out watching the borders. The criticism of Japanese lack of acknowledgement of war crimes has been very open and repeated constantly.

The next exciting question is whether Northwest will go on strike just when I’m due to fly home. Stay tuned.

My father Harold (as opposed to my brother and my grandfather and my cousin…) is teaching in China for a month and is blogging his trip. You can keep up with his trip at Sinoblog.

From my father:

I went to California and came back � flew to LAX, bus to a place called Van Nuys, on to Edward�s to be there for his foot surgery and subsequent convalescence � T-28 keys were hidden, but hot tub and computer worked fine, and night at the opera was wonderful. Train to San Jose, and stayed with Harold and Soyoung. Their apartment is very well-chosen for their purposes and their hospitality was extremely kind. Steve and Susie Hotelling had the three of us, along with Joan and Ben and their children, over, so I got some catching up done with some of the brilliant young sprouts of the family tree.

Harold�s car is great, and I ought to know because it took me 2,875 miles home, with stops at Katsuko�s in Arizona and James�s in Kalamazoo. En route saw dead coyotes, Cadillac Ranch (10 Cadillacs buried at the same angle as the side of the Great Pyramid), Milky Way (dark skies at last), DeSoto (car), clear view of Arizona mountain at 60 miles, genuine Oklahoma dust storm, famous Amarillo steak house (72-ounce steak is free if you eat it in two hours � no, I didn�t try), good value for money at Motel 6, grungy motel which shall be nameless, and 1,700 miles of the old Route 66 AND four chapters written during the trip. Good to be home.

Ed sent along a video of him taking off in his plane (9.2 MB). While I don’t know the exact model, I do know that he was able to match the serial number of this plane to one he had flown in his flight school. I guess it’s not exactly new to him, but it looks like fun. I’m sure Ed has a lot more to say about his plane, and I’ll post that information when I get it.

Dylan’s grandmother Barbara took these pictures of him:

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Even with 25 years of doula and Lamaze work, I don’t often get to come home from a birth and ooze spirituality from the normalcy of it all. Dylan’s birth was special because it was my first grandchild AND it was normal. Thanks to Claire’s inner strength and peace and the patience of her doula, Chris, Dr. Nehra and her nurses, Claire labored HER way, and brought forth her child without unnecessary interventions, using her strengths and inner wisdom to birth her child. She has been a magnificent mother, reading to Dylan, playing the piano for Dylan and playing classical music for them both to sleep by in his growing months. At the birth, she was equally magnificent as a mother, going into that part of her that trusted birth and her ability to give birth to her child. Dylan chose to come early. He was smart enough to know that his umbilical cord was imbedded into his membranes and he was born healthy, although half the size of any children I ever gave birth to.

He spent some time with Mommy but then had to spend observation time in the special care nursery. With Apgars of 9 & 9, weight 5# 4 oz., length 18.5 inches and a calm and peaceful personality, he arrived at 7:42 am. I am blessed with new knowledge about birth because of my incredible daughter and her wisdom and I look forward to the wisdom I gain from little Dylan in the days ahead.

Mama Hotellin’

I’m lucky to be able to announce the birth of my nephew Dylan Allen Parton. He was born this morning, November 9th, at 7:42am to Claire Hotelling and Justin Parton. He is 5 pounds, 4 ounces and 18 1/2 inches and had Apgar scores of 9 and 9 (which I understand to mean he’s totally healthy). Because he was a little early, he’ll be in the special care unit for 8 hours.

As described by my mother: “Dylan broke his bag of water last night because he was doing well and ready to be born. At birth they discovered why he did this, his umbilical cord was embedded in his membranes. Claire birthed beautifully and had a totally normal birth except for the baby being taken to the special care unit.”

Claire is fine, although exhausted, and resting up. Pictures will be posted soon.

Well, after three weeks of waiting, I finally got my LSAT score emailed to me. The test is scored from 120 (you spelled your name right) to 180 (you prabably cheated). My score was a 167, which is one point higher than the median score that the University of Michigan has seen in its incoming students the last three years. So now all I have to do is sign up with the LSDAS (Law School Data Assembly Services), get my letters of recommendation, write my personal statement, come up with funds to apply to law schools, and actually go through and apply, then wait many many weeks for a reply. See? It’s just that easy.