17 November 2010

Happy Divorce Village

"!+!=!"

All Things Considered, again, you blossom like a lotus flower. Today, a British woman (not Robert Siegel) reported on the recent phenomenon of increased divorce rate in China (send your Curriculum Vitae to China c/o China). The rate has doubled in the last decade; now, almost one in five (one in five!) Chinese marriages end in divorce (up from about one in ten (one in ten!)). (American divorce rate still lingering somewhere around 700% (USA#1!).

But here's where it gets interesting fascinating:

A correlation is being drawn between the rate increase and the blossoming of the single-child generation (the British lady, who is not Robert Siegel, informs us that this, in China, is referred to as the Post-Eighties generation (the Me, who is not a British lady, informs us that, in My Mind, they are really into grunge music and irony)).

China begins to enforce population control. One kid, citizens, just the one! And this, according to the British lady, went along just swimmingly until a nation of only children grew up and couldn't love each other

I love this story and I hate this story. I love this story because it makes so much sense. Think of the single children that you know and love (sorry, Carol, everyone's thinking of you (also, you're welcome, Carol, you self-involved nightmare)) and then imagine that China was populated solely by them (Carol(1,000,000,000)=China). Yikes!

I hate this story because I didn't predict it. I didn't say, "you know, scholars, one day China will be completely populated by spoiled little jerks (Carol, seriously though, we love you) that won't know how to compromise. There is nothing quite as lovely as welding the rebar of opinion, waiting a decade or so, watching as a news story comes along and pours the concrete, and then, one summer day, as you sit in your lawn chair and sip iced tea, you watch China cross your bridge one single-child at a time. 

Alas, I welded no such rebar. 

The good news, however, the British lady (not Robert Siegel) continues, is Happy Divorce Village. A gated community where––

Sorry, public radio. I did not have a "driveway moment" this time around. Sometimes I have to take the key out of the ignition and go to work.

I think, though, scholars, you'll agree that perhaps it's better this way. Happy Divorce Village. Period. How could it possibly be better than its name and all that its name implies?

Also, new GM stock, something, something. Remember the previous post? Neither. Do. I.

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