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From Magic City Morning Star R.P. BenDedek
At any rate, I finally sat down today to fix a few of the problems. While restoring one particular file [PUQI (Chibi City) Follow up photographs], I began thinking about the innocence of youth. This brought to mind an article I read earlier today in The Sunday Mail, a Newspaper in my home state of Queensland. Entitled: Families taking back our streets, it was written by Daryl Passmore. He writes:
This story brought back many fond memories of my childhood, and a reminder of how distant, restrictive and fearful people have become in the suburbs. Such is not quite the case in China. In the west, paedophilia is not only a re-occurring theme in the newspapers, but constantly in everyone's mind, to the extent that, in my home state, parents with tiny naked children at beaches often get into trouble because they are seen to be encouraging the presence of 'perverts'. In the article I published at Magic City today, I ended with a photograph of some boys swimming in the river at PuQi. I had put the camera on zoom lens to capture the crowd of bathers in the river. I wasn't in the position to 'aim' the camera, but I was aware that at least some of the bathers were naked. When I finally saw the photo on my computer (my camera viewer doesn't work), I saw that I had captured a shot of a boy 'relieving' himself in the river. It has always struck me, that in China, with its' high moral values, it is a common sight to see males swimming naked in the rivers. At YiChang, in the space of 10 minutes, I saw that 6 out of 9 boys in three groups, and aged between 12 and 20+, were completely naked, in full view of all the tourists walking the esplanade. Recently in the news, there was an article in which some women in a particular city, lodged a complaint against half a dozen men who were swimming naked in the river. These middle aged men had been doing this every Friday afternoon since they were teenagers, and this was the first time someone had complained. Well, it turns out that there are no laws in China against swimming or sunbaking naked. It is in this respect, still an innocent country, living without the numbing fear of 'stranger danger'. The Sunday Mail article about retaking the streets, is a reminder of simpler days, when people were more innocent in their thinking, and more relaxed in their behaviour. I don't make a call here to renew 'skinny dipping', but I think we all have allowed ourselves to be taken over by the 'fear' that 'media articles' generate. I remember years ago, talking to a Phillipino about the coup in Manila, and he told me that despite the western press coverage, the whole event occupied no more than one city block. Despite our western perception of chaos, life went on 'as usual', according to my friend. I think that just as 'we cannot see the forest for the trees', sometimes we see a forest where there are just a few trees. Perceptions are very real things, and while often legitimate, they are not always indicative of the 'whole truth'. In the article that I worked on today, I included some photographs of the Roman Catholic Church and its' staff at PuQi. I've read so many articles on 'Christianity in China', and they tend to be rather negative when it comes to discussing the 'official' churches. I think however, that a lot of the perceptions of the 'official' Roman Catholic Church in China, is based upon our 'anti-communist' agenda, and the history of 'communism' in China. From my dealings with the priests at PuQi; from their individual stories and the progress of the church in the last 20 years, I know that they are genuine people of the Christian 'Faith'. Their 'zeal for the Lord' is real, as is their love and generosity. It saddened me to read a Roman Catholic article in which the official church in China was said to be 'heretical', and therefore (according to Catholic Doctrine), not able to enter the Kingdom of God. It is a sad thing when individuals are negatively labeled under a 'group title' that derives from perceptions arising from 'generalised' situations. It's rather like saying that since the terrorists are fundamentalist Muslims, that all fundamentalist Muslims are terrorists. In this age of technology, we have been saturated with all manner of negative emotions pushed on us by those who do so in order to serve their particular agendas. The media likes sensationalism, for it sells newspapers and attracts higher paying advertisers. Activist groups like to make mountains out of mole hills, in order to focus attention on their 'causes'. But in the process, we get distracted by the noise and commotion, and forget, that the whole world is not negative, violent, destructive, or abusive. We see a few gnarly trees, and think we are looking at the forest. Maybe we should take time to look at the forest again, and note that not everything therein is dangerous.
Email: rpbendedek@hotmail.com
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