China- Firecracker or guided missile?

Like Paris, Beijing has been the sprawling cultural and political center of China for centuries. As the West’s successive and ultimately successful waves of reform and advancement accelerated, Chinese leadership and its civilization deteriorated. Confronted by the West’s superior technological and legal systems, the Chinese response was to ignore or arrogantly pretend it didn‘t matter. The Great Wall afforded no protection from good ideas! (The Japanese, on the other hand, got busy, launched their industrial revolution and were able to catch up in several generations.) The first 50 years of the Twentieth Century was consumed by war against itself and Japanese incursion. Under Mao, the country was united by force. But Mao was imprisoned by his silly and completely fruitless ideology, and China went backwards both in absolute and relative terms, compared to the West and Japan. A big, crude man, Mao could organize an army but had no clue how people and nations create wealth. Despite his complete failure to find a way forward for his nation, the Chinese leadership honored him with a large mausoleum at the edge of Tienamen Square. The leadership that followed in his has been much more successful. Like its economic fortunes, the skyline of Beijing has changed markedly over the past 30 years. Up and up! Huge, new towers of steel and glass have been and are being constructed, but the spiritual center still remains the Forbidden City, the palace completed in the early 15th century and the golden globe-topped Temple of Heaven. Can the leadership keep this guided missile on track? Time will tell.

The Jews of Shanghai

In the roughly 100 years subsequent to the first Opium War, Shanghai, not Hong Kong, was at the center of the British business enterprise in East Asia. The Opium Wars had resulted in foreign “footprints” within the city, in zones called concessions. These were essentially extra-territorial pieces of Great Britain or France, which were governed by the laws of these foreign nations. The construction of magnificent buildings, still evident(two photos), along the Huangpo River in downtown Shanghai(The Bund) testify to just how profitable these foreign enterprises had become. During these salad days, enterprising Jewish businessmen had erected a stately, neo-classical synagogue in the French concession(1 photo). But as the clouds of the Second World War gathered in the late 1930’s, the forces of destruction and disorder were about to bring down the curtain on this commercial party. To those who were willing to see, the Jews of central Europe were facing a catastrophe. But by 1938, few nations were willing to accept Jews seeking refuge from the Nazis. China, terribly weak and disorganized, and ravaged on its own soil by Japan, remained open to one last wave of foreigners. Those with enough resources to buy a ticket on the Lloyd Trentino Line could find passage from Genoa or Iraq to Hong Kong and Shanghai. This group came not to invest, but to save their lives: These were the refugees who formed the Ohel Moshe Synagogue(address number 62). The future U.S. Treasury Secretary Michael Blumenthal, lived at number 61. Most survived the war, and then dispersed to the West. (Also shown is a shot of modern Shanghai, taken while crossing Suzhou Creek.)

Saigon-The new Bangkok?

Vietnam is an epitome of the rising tide of Asian development. And Saigon is at its center. Saigon is a river town about 15 miles(as the crow flies) from the mouth of its namesake river where it meets the South China Sea .Topographically, the city is as flat as a pancake and sits just a few feet above the river. The river is deep enough to accommodate large ocean-going freighters, going in both directions. It is busy with all kinds of traffic, including hydrofoils going to Vung Tau. These weave their way among the gravel and sand barges. A new concrete bridge spans the river near downtown. The skyline is now crowded with high-rise apartments and modern business towers. There is even a tower with a heli-port. The town center has been cleaned up quite a bit and even the Rex Hotel has undergone a major facelift. European luxury brands have taken over its ground floor and are visible at street level. The old opera house has been given a fresh coat of paint. Gone from view are the dense aggregations of young women wearing traditional pajama-style garments. Blue jeans and sport-shirts are the uniform, everywhere. Development in the north is also active but seems not quite as flamboyant as in the south. The UN has designated Ha Long Bay as a world heritage site and hotels have sprung up in the proximate city of Hon Gai to accommodate visitors. The limestone deposits, spread out over many square miles, form unusual shapes and are covered with vegetation. This is worth seeing. The future for Vietnam seems bright, if the freedom to produce and create can be sustained, not restrained. The people are industrious. There is land for farming, abundant seafood, plenty of rain and strong sun.

Cambodia A rising tide...

Cambodia hasn’t been a very good place to live for quite a number of years. But there is hope that it will rise from the ashes of its glory years and its people will prosper. Southeast Asia is moving forward and the rising tide is raising all the boats. Our ship docked in Sihanoukville, which is the country’s main port. There is evidence of development here, including a Ramada hotel and a new casino and hotel complex is nearing completion. Interestingly, the port contained a single wind-turbine. The central market is a tangled mass of vendors in a darkened, covered structure and there is little of interest to buy. The streets are broken, the sidewalks, non-existent, and the infrastructure is dilapidated. But there are cell-phone towers! We spent our day at the Village des Enfants, an orphanage housing about 140 kids aged about 5-20. The orphanage is supported by the government and some foreign organizations. The French society ADOS has apparently been a major sponsor, but Japanese groups have sponsored the library and even the US Navy has recently refurbished a small gazebo. These children are clean, appear well-nourished, clothed and all had shoes. They put on several dance performances for us. The facilities are clean, much cleaner than most of the town.