tomorrow is my second shot at getting a decent score on my GRE but I got suckered into watching another documentary. To Have and Have Not talked about how China might change as a result of new membership in the WTO. Really good one. Partly showed how all the glitz and glamour of Beijing and Shanghai was a front for impressing the rest of the world, while the country's majority still lives in poverty in the farm areas. Even getting from the farms to the city requires crossing a border that's as bad as INS. They don't want migrant workers going to cities. But rice farmers are continuously getting taxed so their livelihood doesnt enable them to support their families. They end up sneaking into the city and working for low pay at city construction sites while their daughters go into prostitution. While they're there, they live where they work, on those construction sites. China is one fuckt up government. Some argue that WTO membership will revitalize the country and a country doing better economically thru trade will naturally improve things like human rights abuses and dealing with poverty. Others say that the gov't has never admitted to these abuses and never will, so they won't be making efforts to improve anything in that area. There's enough Chinese around the world now. We really should be helping the poor people back "home." Man, I haven't written an Amnesty letter since 1997...probably time to start again. Guess my career blinded me for a while.