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July 14, 2007 - Guyuan, China

Return of Accountability

Or, Open Pits Abound

Living here in China going on 11 months my perceptions about certain things have definitely changed.

I no longer spit out little bits of gristle and fat - sometimes I even go out of my way to order it on kabobs - when eating meat.

I have convinced myself that drinking milk out of a small plastic bag is the norm.

And I keep a sharp eye out for open-manhole covers, pits and general construction projects.

A 50 meter stretch of sidewalk requires Super Mario agility - you very well may have three open manholes, a new trench for the cable being installed and a few missing paving stones to top it off. Consider it part of the challenge or the exotic allure of a Northwestern Chinese city.

In fact, the road directly in front of the Junior and Senior School has been a gigantic 2-meter deep pit for the last 2 months. Safety measures?

umm...

Well, at least the dirt will cushion your fall.

Recently I realized that in America there would have been droves of lawsuits with these sort of obstacles - and how frivolous most of them are - does it really take that much more attention to avoid such things?

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