Thread on Invisible China: Scott Rozelle and Natalie Hell's illuminating and scary deep dive into rural China's ills and stark inequality. No matter how bad you think it is, it's worse there---more like a developing country than a global superpower. 1/n

2/Rozelle rolled up his sleeves to understand the CN most only see from plane or train windows. Issues in health and education, bringing down human capital of 300m rural Chinese, could trap it in middle income status.

Think future like Mexico/Turkey now, not Korea/Taiwan
3/Most focus on impressive elite universities and high schools topping int'l rankings, but CN average education levels are abysmal.

Only 30% of China's working age pop completed high school--last place for all middle income countries, worse than many poor countries!
4/TIL a startling fact: school in CN through grade 9 became free & mandatory only in 2006! Even today high school is not free in CN! Want to go through grade 12? Pay fees of 10-15x incomes for poor rural areas. Instead they drop out to work unskilled jobs. Xi has promised to fix
5/No country has escaped middle income trap below 50% HS grad rates, and avg for successful countries (now high income) is 76%. Why? HS skills not important for repetitive assembly jobs, but w/o ability to learn & basic skills in math and reading, can't do more productive jobs
6/Even worse, many of these HS attainers go to "vocational schools" that on average give ZERO useful career skills and NO measured improvement in math/reading. Literally teaching people VHS and tube TV repair. Gov spent tons to build nice facilities, but it's wasted
7/The invisible human capital disaster starts early. 50% of rural CN toddlers/infants are developmentally delayed, parents don't know need to talk/interact. So sad.
PLUS, 60% of rural Chinese kids have at least one of:
-Anemia from malnutrition
-Worms
-Bad vision but no glasses
8/ Fixing anemia, worms, and vision would be super cheap, costing less probably than a few miles of largely unused expressway, but little to nothing is being done.

Lots of progress in recent years boosting HS numbers and building, but China will need decades to catch up.
9/Worrying: CN school rates today same as Mexico when it ran out of surplus labor. Wages rise, ppl lose jobs, can't get new one b/c factories move where cheaper. In MX, result was rise in informal econ & crime. CN not Mexico, but risk is real
10/Why should rest of world care? Rozelle & Hell argue that economic fallout of stagnating China would be global, esp hurting CN supplier countries, and lead CCP to use more strident nationalism/bellicosity to retain support of a left behind populace---a dangerous cocktail. FIN

More from World

With historical Data and explanations, I will want to DISAGREE with what you said here ma'am Or at Least Reframe what you said because what you said can be used to refer to a lot of scenarios.

Who are the "Citizens of Nigeria" you claim are not ready because they are...
(/1)


Not demanding good governance?.

If by this you mean the Vast majority of Nigerians that are in the lower class should demand for good governance, then I hope you know this can never be effective.

Why?

It is virtually impossible for the lower class citizens to gather and...

Demand for good governance. What do they know that they want to demand? The few among them that are "enlightened" will have their voices drown out by the many that are not. I hope you know that there will always be the ignorant, evil men (hired assassin, political thugs) and also

Good men, the proportion of good men to the ignorants and evil men in this social class is low. Therefore l, gathering to something meaningful will be low.

How will they even gather? Through elections? I also hope you know that the wicked political leaders will not just fold...

Their arms and not defend their rulership from being overthrown. They will surely sow misinformation, spread lies aimed at misleading the masses. This particular social class, that are also numerous will be easy to swallow such lies and cajoled. Buhari was sold to us as a...

You May Also Like

महाभारत की कहानी कौन नहीं जानता।लेकिन क्या आपको पता है कि महाभारत के ज्यादातर पात्र किसी न किसी श्राप में फंसे थे।अगर ये श्राप न होते तो कदाचित महाभारत की कहानी कुछ और होती।हिन्दु पौराणिक ग्रंथों में विभिन्न श्रापों का वर्णन मिलता है व हर श्राप के पीछे कोई कहानी अवश्य होती है।


आइए आज जानते हैं महाभारत कथा में वर्णित कुछ श्रापों के बारे में।

1) राजा पाण्डु को ऋषि किन्दम का श्राप

एकबार महाराज पाण्डु शिकार खेलने वन गए।झाडियों के पीछे कुछ हिल रहा था। मृग है सोचकर राजा ने बाण चलाया जो जाकर ऋषि किन्दम और उनकी पत्नी को लगा।वे दोनो रति-क्रीड़ा में लिप्त थे।

जब राजा ने उन्हें देखा तो बहुत दुखी हुए कि ये मुझसे क्या पाप हो गया।बहुत क्षमा याचना के बाद भी किन्दम ऋषि ने पाण्डु को श्राप दे दिया कि जब भी वो किसी स्त्री को काम भावना से स्पर्श करेंगे उसी क्षण उनकी मृत्यु हो जाएगी।पश्चाताप करने, वे सिंहासन पे अन्धे राजा धृतराष्ट्र को बैठाकर...


..स्वयं अपनी रानियों कुंती व माद्री के साथ वन चले गए।पांडवों का जन्म भी कुंती को ऋषि दुर्वासा द्वारा दिए गए मंत्र से हुआ था जिसमे किसी भी देव का स्मरण कर उस देव से कुंती,पुत्र प्राप्त कर सकती थी।एक बार माद्री पे मोहित हो जब पांडु ने उसे स्पर्श किया,उसी क्षण पांडु की मृत्यु होगयी।


2) उर्वशी का अर्जुन को श्राप

महाभारत युद्ध से पहले जब अर्जुन दिव्यास्त्र प्राप्त करने स्वर्ग गए तो वहां उर्वशी नाम की अप्सरा उन पर मोहित हो गयी। अर्जुन ने जब उन्हें अपनी माता के समान बताया तो यह सुनकर उर्वशी क्रोधित हो गयी और अर्जुन को श्राप दे डाला कि तुम नपुंसक की भांति...