View from out on the water

In China, the seascape and landscape are changing fast.

What to make of all of it?

 New York, London,  Rio, Cairo . . .all these cities are lands of dramatic contrasts, too. If the statistics below are to be believed, China's GINI index is not as bad as that in South Africa, Brazil, and Nigeria, and only a tad worse than that in the US  . . . but the short-term prognosis for equality in all these places is grim. Important as market reforms have been, I hope that China doesn't embrace too quickly what some might see as the excesses of the West and Mid-East.

According to the Economist about a year ago, "China scored 0.474 for 2012, having peaked at 0.491 in 2008. Many sceptics (and some substantial research) suggest China's inequality is actually far greater." The authors go on to suggest that the good news is that at least some data are being released and the Chinese leadership is paying attention.

These figures and images are still rolling around in my head as I reflect on the fabulous few days my foreign teacher friends and I enjoyed in Hainan. We were fortunate to be there. Soft sea breezes greeted us in Sanya Dongtian Park and we strolled for hours along the water's edge at Tianya HaiJiao. We swam. On the horizon this way and that were glittering ultra-modern buildings. But from the street and a boat, we could see into the living quarters of many who were having no vacation. Wealth concentrated here and here was not being experienced over there. The disparities within the city were stunning, and the urban/rural disparities are even more so.



http://www.economist.com/news/china/21570749-gini-out-bottle

Gini index defined by Wikpedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gini_coefficient
The Gini coefficient measures the inequality among values of a frequency distribution (for example levels of income). A Gini coefficient of zero expresses perfect equality, where all values are the same (for example, where everyone has the same income). A Gini coefficient of one (or 100%) expresses maximal inequality among values (for example where only one person has all the income).