|
April 17, 2004
Mexicans and
Chinese…Bilingualism and “Democracy”
By Richard
Baldwin/HispanicVista.com
Last week, we were
talking about the diversity of the
Hispanic sector in the US. And my opinion
was that diversity is good for not only
the Hispanic sector, but for the whole
country.
I had not meant to
do more on this subject at this time, but
lo and behold, I came across an article
in the China Daily (an organ of the
Chinese communist government) that gives
their opinion on this very matter. The
title is "From Mexicans to Chinese;
from bilingualism to
"democracy". The quotes are
theirs.
There is no author
listed and a statement says that this
"represents the view of the author
only". But, of course, in China
nothing is printed unless it conforms to
the party line. Regardless of the recent
economic freedoms in modern China,
politically it is one of the most
monolithic nations in the world . .
. and the largest.
A lot of comparisons
are given to the Mexicans in the US, and
particularly in California. They state (I
use the plural here for everything in
China is done by committee):
· The Mexicans
by and large do not identify themselves
with mainstream Americans, whether they
were born there or outside the United
States.
· The
population of Mexicans in America have
reached a critical mass at which point
politicians have to cater to their wishes
and enact laws favoring their group if
they want to be successful in their
political campaigns, even if the
enactment of such laws are not in the
larger interest of mainstream
Americans. [Wow! Governor Arnold,
are you listening?]
· Sooner or
later they will have a Mexican-born
governor in . . . California.
· The whole
situation will thus spiral down until the
entire state (California) will become a
province of México in the long run due
to demographic changes alone.
You might wonder
where this is leading, but the issue
becomes clear in comparisons with
Mainland China to the more diverse
Taiwan. "That's why the calls from
the Chinese mainland government to the
Taiwanese residents to work for the
unification of China have essentially
fallen on deaf ears." You indeed
have it right there!
In the Chinese
situation, diversity is death to the
system. And indeed trying to maintain a
one party, one thought system while
opening up to the world economy is a very
tricky thing to pull off. But, as I
pointed out before, diversity is the root
of the greatness of the US. And in
México, we are so diverse that it is
amazing that we can make anything work.
(Sorry about the little joke.)
But it is the tail
end of the article that really makes
their point:
"These
bookworms who actually believed that
there is such a thing as democracy in the
world didn't really understand politics,
which is a game only possessors of the
dirtiest minds can win as the present
instance with the Chen-Lu [who survived
an assassination attempt and won the
recent election] shooting fabrication is
showing us."
There you have it.
Diversity in language, culture or even
thought is the mortal enemy of a
monolithic society. But one wonders how
far China will be able to go down this
dual road, with elements of a
"1984" type political system
and maintaining a strong energetic
economy.
Now to be realistic
here, we should not forget Thomas L.
Friedman's recent comments about China
being poised to "run over
México" like a steamroller. And
China is doing a number of things that
are unique to a communist-based system.
Maybe they have learned from México's
experience in that one of their main
goals for the economy of China is to
create a strong internal market. And they
have learned some imperialist things
also, like purchasing overseas plants and
critical resources to protect their
economy at home. China is becoming a
large investor in México recently.
But in the long run,
monolithic societies like China reach a
point that they run out of steam.
Remember the lightning collapse of the
Soviet Union? But México can't afford to
simply wait until that happens. We have
the steamroller to think about first.
And now we know
where Professor Huntington from Harvard
gets his wacky ideas. But in the spirit
of diversity, I guess we will have to put
up with him. Too bad.
(Author’s note:
The dateline of the referenced story is
13 April 04, and they are www.chinadaily.com.)
_______________________________________________
Richard N.
Baldwin T., a HispanicVista.com (www.hispanicvista.com)
contributing columnist, lives in
Tlalnepantla, Edo de México E-mail at: R1041643422@aol.com
|
