R.P.BenDedek is from Brisbane Australia and is the author of 'The King's Calendar: The Secret of Qumran' at http://www.kingscalendar.com His academic articles set forth Apologetics for and results of his discovery of an "artificial chronological scheme" running through the Bible, Josephus, the Damascus Documents of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Seder Olam Rabbah.
He writes photographic 'Stories from China' and social editorial commentaries, both at KingsCalendar, and as a contributing newspaper columnist. He currently teaches Conversational English in China and in addition to his English Lessons at KingsCalendar, he has created specific sites for Students of English.
I am an Australian living in rural China, and whilst I admit to total ignorance of the realities of Communist attitudes and treatment of 'religious threats', I can state with certainty, that Catholic and Protestant Churches do exist in China, and have significant following.
I recently came across a new Catholic church at Chibi (near Hong Hu in Hubei where I live), which has only been going for two years. It has over 200 members, and they informed me that there are around 10,000 members at the main church at PuQi (20 miles away, Population about 130,000). I will be visiting PuQi and joining the congregation at Chibi this Christmas Day. There is also a small Protestant Community in Chibi.
As for the Communist government's fears of instability due to a lack of complete control, my personal observations are that it is only the Government which is holding this country together, and despite western belief that the Government is actively trying to hinder democratisation of China, from what I have witnessed, the birth of democracy in this country, if premature would result in not only chaos, but the very likely prospect of civil war, as various factions seek to dominate their local areas.
I came here with a western take on communism, but have been shocked to discover my viewpoints changing as I observe that the centuries old culture of China does not lend itself easily to self-discipline, order, independent thought, or anything approaching an interest in anything other than just 'being happy'.
I realise that this is an over simplification, but (and without prejudice to the issues of 'torture' and 'political prisoners'), the 'realities' of the situation in China must take precedence over 'western philosophical concepts'.
The following is an MSN conversation I had with my brother today:
THIS IS LIFE IN CHINA.
Brian says: did I say about the medical today in e-mail?
ICQ 341707930 says: NOTHING ABOUT MEDICAL
Brian says: ok, well I am now 3cms shorter, 5kgs lighter, 1 months younger and I think I may be pregnant
ICQ 341707930 says: oh you were examined by a chinese doctor
Brian says: they push you through 6 to 8 doctors in 15 minutes, chinese get told to wait
Brian says: doctor could not reach up to see how tall I was so she pushed my head down lower so am now 3cm shorter
they wrote wrong DOB so now 1 month younger
their scales say I have lost 5kgs in 4 weeks
they did ultra sound so guess I am pregnant
x-rays, eye test, reflexes, heart, ECG, etc etc all in 15 minutes hahahahah
eye test is a series of "E" in different directions and you have to say which way. They gave up on me when I was giving right answers on second smallest line hahahaha
New story for your message board if you wish. "Chinese Dentist Visit" Susan had to go to the dental hospital today (and remembering she is Chinese), it was not an easy task.
There were no clear signs to assist her in her search for treatment. There was however a board with pictures and information on the names of 30 resident Dentists for you to select from.
First she had to pay 8 rmb to register as a patient, then she had to go upstairs and see a Dentist whose name she had randomly requested.
After telling them the problem she was sent back down stairs to pay another 15 rmb to have an x-ray (but which was actually a photo) of the bad tooth.
She then proceeded back up stairs to have her tooth drilled out, subsequent to which she was given a needle to kill the pain!!!!!!
The tooth was then packed, and she was given a prescription to be filled out down stairs at a cost of 185 rmb.
Having paid that, she had to go back up stairs so that the Dentist could request that she come back next week to have the tooth removed.!
Hi, it seems that a visit to the Doctor in China is just as fun as the Dentist visit. It was only 6rmb to Register to see a doctor (but you cant choose which one). Very unnerving as the visit was for my wife and she needed to see a "woman's" ObGyn Doctor. This is not a problem, for on the 4th floor it says "Gynocolgy Dep" so we gathered we were in the right place. Hmmm, very strange when there are 6 "treatment" rooms which have male patients coming and going for treatment??? And there are the other rooms. 1 marked Office, 1 marked "Do Work, Do not disturb" and the other 2 rooms are "Speciblist Diagnos Rooms 1 & 2". (Yes, my spelling here is verbatim!)
Wife saw a doctor and like the Dentist we now have to go down stairs and pay 15rmb so the Doctor can check her condition. Doctor then says she needs some "medicine" to help locate the problem with my wife, this costs another 230.9rmb (back downstairs of course). Once we have paid for the "medicine" we are told that "doctor has gone for lunch, please come back at 1pm. Glad wife was not dying!
At 1pm we return and were told she will need a needle and that it will take about an hour? Turns out to be an IV Drip which took close on 3 hours to administer. Is the problem fixed now? No way! Come back tomorrow and we will give you a "SPECIFIED".
All together we wasted 7 hours including the 20 minute bus trip both ways to get there, and all of this after I told wife this morning that she probably needs a " SPECIFIED ". The marvels of modern Chinese medicine!
