Posts by fulltimestudent

10

China's Dying Villages and the Problem of Land Use

by fulltimestudent in

the chinese newspaper, the people's daily (english, web, edition) has images of a dying 800 year old village, that illustrates some trends and problems in modern china.

it is not typical of all the problems causing urbanisation in china, but does illustrate some.. the village is dacan ancient village, located in yuxian, in north china's shanxi province.

it is surrounded by mountains.

fulltimestudent

As families move to cities, and their former homes are abandoned they start to deteriorate:

10

China's Dying Villages and the Problem of Land Use

by fulltimestudent in

the chinese newspaper, the people's daily (english, web, edition) has images of a dying 800 year old village, that illustrates some trends and problems in modern china.

it is not typical of all the problems causing urbanisation in china, but does illustrate some.. the village is dacan ancient village, located in yuxian, in north china's shanxi province.

it is surrounded by mountains.

fulltimestudent

If you lived here, everything would be carried by hand, as this women who seems to be carrying drums of water:

In a typical village there is unlikely to be any reticulated services. That is no electricity or water or sewerage services.

I would also imagine that its a constant battle to maintain some semblance of neatness:

10

China's Dying Villages and the Problem of Land Use

by fulltimestudent in

the chinese newspaper, the people's daily (english, web, edition) has images of a dying 800 year old village, that illustrates some trends and problems in modern china.

it is not typical of all the problems causing urbanisation in china, but does illustrate some.. the village is dacan ancient village, located in yuxian, in north china's shanxi province.

it is surrounded by mountains.

fulltimestudent

We have some idea of personal life from this view:

Whereever possible, the entry will be through a courtyard with the living areas grouped around that feature. Often the outside area is the centre of family life.

10

China's Dying Villages and the Problem of Land Use

by fulltimestudent in

the chinese newspaper, the people's daily (english, web, edition) has images of a dying 800 year old village, that illustrates some trends and problems in modern china.

it is not typical of all the problems causing urbanisation in china, but does illustrate some.. the village is dacan ancient village, located in yuxian, in north china's shanxi province.

it is surrounded by mountains.

Let's explore the village. What did people do here for a living. The PD does not discuss the problem, but if its like hundreds of other similar villages, the villagers would have scratched out a living on small plots of land in the surrounding valleys and gullys. We can imagine the difficulty in helping these villagers achieve a better standard of living. Which brings up the reason why the population is dropping. People would prefer to earn more money as migrant workers in the larger eastern cities. Their kids stay behind, cared for by the granparents. Not a desirable social circumstance. Villages like this cannot organise better schools either. That's why in another thread it shows a trend to area schools caring for kids from the small neighbouring villages.

But let's explore this village:

This wide angle lens view allows us to 'feel' what it's like to live here. On the right hand side we note some terraces, that may still be used as gardens. On the left hand side a large concrete apron that some enterprising official has had built. There is a large metal pole that may serve both as a flag pole for national celebrations, with a probable loud speaker and a floodlight. A few vehicles, a semblance of prosperity does reach the villages, or perhaps the cars belong to visitors or to the village government. The village council is elected by the registered residents of the villages.

The houses look substantial as they are built from stone. As we can see from a closesr look.

10

China's Dying Villages and the Problem of Land Use

by fulltimestudent in

the chinese newspaper, the people's daily (english, web, edition) has images of a dying 800 year old village, that illustrates some trends and problems in modern china.

it is not typical of all the problems causing urbanisation in china, but does illustrate some.. the village is dacan ancient village, located in yuxian, in north china's shanxi province.

it is surrounded by mountains.

fulltimestudent

The Chinese newspaper, The People's Daily (English, Web, edition) has images of a dying 800 year old village, that illustrates some trends and problems in modern China. It is not typical of all the problems causing urbanisation in China, but does illustrate some.

The village is Dacan ancient village, located in Yuxian, in north China's Shanxi Province. It is surrounded by mountains. And the first image I've selected illustrates the access to the village:

This is typical of the landscape and its where the Chinese Communist Party took refuge (at the end of the fabled 'Long March.'), after being driven out of south China by Jiang Jie-shi (Chiang Kai-shek), after the death of Sun Yat-sen, who had brought the then small CPC into his larget Guomendang (KMT).

After the 1937 invasion of China by Japan, this is the area where the communists were able to fight a guerilla war against the Japanese. A struggle that was likely more passionate and successful than the anti-japanese war fought by Jiang Jie-shi, and his Guomendang. American General, Joe Stillwell, who was the American C.O. in East Asia called Jiang a 'peanut' and accused him of being afraid to fight the Japanese, and in contrast ultimately praising the Communist war effort.

But you can see (from this pik) why the Japanese found it difficult to penetrate the mountainous terrain in which the communists took refuge.

But that was then. Now such villages are dying. The PD article states:

Eight years ago, there were 85 households and more than 320 villagers, but now there are only 11 households and 17 residents, with the oldest being 90 years old and the youngest 50 years old.

43

Russian Parliament Approves Military Action in the Crimea

by ABibleStudent in

why did russian president vladimir putin ask the russian parliament to approve using military forces to keep the peace in the crimea, instead of asking the un?

why did the russian parliment pass a law approving military force instead of asking for the un to send peace keeping forces to the crimea (http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/01/world/europe/ukraine-politics/index.html?hpt=hp_t1)?.

is russia spiralling into a totalitarian dictatorship like germany in the 1930's and the soviet union from 1920's - 1990's with information control and coercive tactics?

fulltimestudent

DJS-

What Obama should be doing with some plausible deniability is what I stated earlier: having conversations with potential insurgent groups for the purpose of arming them. Or suggest that such conversations are going to be held. Meet force with force and present the potential for the very last thing Vlad wants.

But isn't this how the conflict started in the first place?

"... having conversations with potential insurgent groups for the purpose of arming them."

The USA was a major player in the so-called 'color revolutions' and in the 'Arab Spring.' And certainly in Tibet (and likely Xinjiang) where the DL became a paid agent of the CIA. Also Afghanistan, where the world now lives with the dangerous animal the USA let loose on the world.

These interferences seldom do anything for the people who live there. In point of fact the interference usually cause the death of hundreds of thousands of people.

44

Jehovahs Witnesses make a big deal about following first century christianity, so please explain this.

by smiddy in

where in the christian greek scriptures do disciples of christ record how many hours a month they preached.. " " " " 10 hours for women and children and slack husbands with no ambition.

" " " " do they record how many back calls / return visits they made in a month.. " " " " have they set down how many bible studys they had in a month.. " " " " do they have pioneers ,special pioneers , aux.pioneers , with goals to reach each month.. " " " " do they have d.o.

, c.o., zone servants , etc.etc.. " " " " where in the christian greek scriptures is the word " organisation" applied to christianity.

fulltimestudent

An aside -

Outside of the traditional Christian sects of Catholicism, the Orthodox churches, the Coptics and the Syriac type churches of west Asia, no modern Christian group reflects the first century Christians. (There were not many by the end of the first century, anyway).

Modern European churches reflect the medieval traditions of Lutherism. Modern American churches and their ilk reflect modern Americanism, the Jws in particular.

Rutherford seems typical of his era, his connections to modern American business methods via William Heath who was connected to Coca Cola, may be seen, I suggest, in the publicity seeking methods he established. Turning the previous smaller scale get-togethers of the Russel era into much larger publicity seeking functions, with controversial statements (e.g. Millions now living will never die) designed to get maximum publicity. Knorr seems like a hard-driving businessman, who organised "Yahweh's people" - the way Joe R, had foreseen in his slogan," Advertise, Advertise, Advertise the King and his Kingdom", while he left the theology to poor Freddy. Coca Cola missionised a product into an international household brand. Rutherford, Knorr and their successors have been less successful.

The Jws, organised to within an inch of their lives, reflect modern American thought, not the first century.

My statements are assertions - I'm not going to waste my time demonstrating them to be true. Just think about it.

72

CO's & DO's age 70+ to be laid off on 9/1/14

by williamhconley in

jw
friends

in a private conversation with a c.o.

friend from north carolina, he told me yesterday that they just got a letter that all traveling overseers (do's & co's) age 70 & up are going to be laid off on 09/01/2014.

they will be asssigned to local congregations and further details are pending.. .

and another Saturnalia celebration:

and, I understand that young serving men (usually slaves) may have worked naked.

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and a wall painting (from Pompeii) of a bunch of guys playing a dice game:

Images from: http://bjws.blogspot.com.au/2013/12/the-roman-mid-winter-festival-of.html

chosen solely because I had it on file, not neccessaarily for its authoritative status.

72

CO's & DO's age 70+ to be laid off on 9/1/14

by williamhconley in

jw
friends

in a private conversation with a c.o.

friend from north carolina, he told me yesterday that they just got a letter that all traveling overseers (do's & co's) age 70 & up are going to be laid off on 09/01/2014.

they will be asssigned to local congregations and further details are pending.. .

fulltimestudent

I thought that Christians never retire from being Christians.

Ummm! Wrong Again.