Some idle pondering about our ever shortening attention span in this glorious age of freedom of the tweet brought to mind these wise, wise words from the great Polish poet Vislava Szymborska (you would not believe how long it took me to realise how to spell her name!)

After every war
someone has to clean up.
Things won’t
straighten themselves up, after all.

Someone has to push the rubble
to the sides of the road,
so the corpse-laden wagons
can pass.

Someone has to get mired
in scum and ashes,
sofa springs,
splintered glass,
and bloody rags.

Someone must drag in a girder
to prop up a wall.
Someone must glaze a window,
rehang a door.

Photogenic it’s not,
and takes years.
All the cameras have left
for another war.

Again we’ll need bridges
and new railway stations.
Sleeves will go ragged
from rolling them up.

Someone, broom in hand,
still recalls how it was.
Someone listens
and nods with unsevered head.
Yet others milling about
already find it dull.
(The complete poem - translated from the Polish by Joanna Trzeciak)

I naturally hear a lot of China bashing and generally I don’t mind much so long as it’s the CCP being bashed. Even if some (or many) of the things said about the good old party aren’t true, both of us know it has justly (or rather, very unjustly) earned it’s reputation

What I can’t stand is the bashing of the Chinese people as apathetic and willing to trade freedom for money. whenever I read something like that, which is everyday in one version or the other, some individuals I know come to mind : The one who makes music, the one who started a small business, the one who volunteers in a hot line for troubled youths, the one who organizes community events around the neighbourhood, the one who is educating young people to appreciate their natural environment, the one who is concerned about her own child’s education, the one who went to Sichuan after the quake, the ones who blog…

None of them is inclined to take to the streets in protest, or even sign a petition. All of them are building a civil society from scratch and deserve much respect for that. Photogenic it’s not, and takes years. All the cameras have left to another war.

 Luckily, after all the wars, the Chinese still preserve sense of patience. Not as much can be said for many of the critics.