Thanks for the response Raoul. Yes, I too seem to be here for the long haul. And, like you, I sometimes feel as thoug my empathy for what I witness drags me too far down. But we can't avoid it can we? One amazing thing about China is that its shortcoming are far too transparent. In that context I have to often remind myself that what I'm witnessing is not so different than what I may, or have in some cases, witnessed in other parts of the world. Even in America for example it is estimated that more than a million children go to bed hungry every night. And throughout the world.......well, you know the deal - human suffering, man's inhumanity to man, the relentless and shocking degradation of the planet. Well, some of us just haven't got the ability to turn a blind eye to it all; especially in the light of the truth that if we could all work together to solve some of these problems we could start to turn things around.

But also like you Raoul I haven't the cash flow to make that kind of difference. We can only tell it like we see it and meanwhile do our best to help out where we can. This is why I'm a firm believer in "The Hundredth Monkey Syndrome."

At one time there was an institute called "The Hundredth Monkey Institute." (HMS) They were very low key and in fact so low key that they still very will may exist. Stated simply, their purpose was to elevate consciousness. Kind of like Buddhism if you break it down to its bare bones. The concept behind HMS stems from the obversation of a startling change in a tribe of monkeys on an island off the coast of Japan. For many years yams were daily brought to this little island so that the monkeys would have a proper diet. The yams would be dumped on to the sandy shore. One day something remarkable happened. One young monkey picked up a yam and took it the shoreline and washed the sand off it. Over a period of time the monkey created the amazing change that all the members of the tribe were now washing the sand from the yams. It didn't happen quickly. The first to follow suit was that monkey's aunt - the mother quite adamently refused and resisted. But ultimately she, like the other stubborn ones, gave in and found how satisfying it was to eat a yam free of sand.

Now, here's the kicker. Shortly after a hundred or so monkeys began washing their yams, the monkeys on another island where yams were also provided started doing the same thing! Thus the belief that elevating consciousness is the key to the planet's survival and the key to what Buddhists call "right action." And who knows? There very well may be a magic number that creates a sea change here on our planet. Suddenly X amount of people "get it," and wham things start changing for the better quickly. One can hope.

So yeah, we can't all follow the example now being set by Bill Gates and Warren Buffet - bless their charitable hearts. But we can hope that by setting good examples and educating others in terms of the possibilities that exist for a kind and caring society, and for a planet that can be healed of the harms we've caused, that we will create some kind of snowball effect.

Yes, you are so right Raoul, charity doesn't seem to be high on the list of importance for the rich of China, nor even for the newly created middle and upper middle classes. Yeah, the East of China and the West of China are as different as night and day. China's leaders plead with the wealthy and successful to share the wealth, In fact, Deng Xioping's (sp.) belief was like Reagan's - the old "trickle down" theory. Not.

It gets harder and harder for me to keep my trap shut the longer I stay here. When I was much younger, had I not made the break from the mainstream in America and moved off to the woods for 11 years and lived a fairly solitary life for several years after that, my mouth probably would have gotten me into serious trouble. It could happen here too because now I find myself walking a tightrope in that regard. Albeit, I refuse to shut my eyes or my mouth that so wants to report what my eyes see.

And so I babble away.........blah, blah....and have my secret hopes to accompany my not so secret hurts.