The rich/poor gap
This morning, I read this article (one of the headline articles on Yahoo, which automatically pops up on my computer) about the growing gap between rich and poor in China. I would recommend giving it a read; I think it’s a pretty well-written article.
This is something I’ve been able to observe here, even in my short time so far. In Beijing and Chengdu, I saw technology and relative wealth to rival that of the U.S., but last weekend, on a trip to Nanchong, a city a few hours away, I saw the other side of this. Farmers’ houses, some even made of mud and mud-bricks, which Eunice told me was a sign of the poorest farmers. CCTV9, the English channel, features shows on travel, art, culture, and other things that tell about a growing number of rich elite in this country, but even just a thirty-minute walk away from campus brings me in contact with manual laborers (“workers”), women and men digging through trash to get the recyclable paper or plastic bottles in order to get some money from turning them in, farmers who definitely don’t buy designer shoes or hand-tailored silk clothes or BMWs.
A couple Sundays ago, a lady at the Jiangyou church was talking to Eunice. She was a social worker from Beijing and was talking about her recent trip to Gansu Province, north of Sichuan, sandwiched in-between Sichuan, Qinghai (which borders on Tibet), and Inner Mongolia. The farmers in Gansu, the social worker said, were the poorest in China, and she said that she was afraid that if something didn’t happen soon, there might be an uprising.
There are definitely big differences between the “haves” and the “have-nots,” between businesspeople who send their kids to private schools and the less affluent, some of whom can’t even pay the fees to send their kids to primary school (elementary school). Thoughts to ponder. And definitely to pray about.
Tags: China, Jiangyou
Christina
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