Young Men And Fire

Young Men And Fire

(an elliptical nod to Norman Maclean's excellent book about the Mann Gulch Fire : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Men_and_Fire. Probably worth noting that despite the lessons of the event, and his book, his son got to write four more books about similar tragedies.)

"Li’s problem is not only that he is poor and struggling to save enough money to buy an apartment of his own; it is that in China there are simply too many men. This is a country where marriage confers social status, and where parental pressure to produce grandchildren is intense. Bachelors like Li are dismissively branded as “bare branches” for failing to expand the family tree.

But as any forester knows, bare branches pose a danger, and not just to themselves."

We're all likely to have to work a little harder to put out fires and smash the patriarchy, I reckon.

(Also, wouldn't it be nice if a certain 21st Century blogging service could implement block quotes?)

Soundtrack - It's Raining Men: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4x6leDGV7gs


https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/world/too-many-men/

Comments

  1. Gaffer VenarApril 26, 2018 at 2:03 PM

    I won't plus a WaPo article at all because of their overly aggressive paywall, but wanted to say that I oh, so very much agree with you about block quotes.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Geo. TirebiterApril 29, 2018 at 4:07 PM

    they're dining on the banquet of their own intentions. congratulations on eating a mouthful of dust. I always thought that those 2 nations were suffering from a mental illness when it came to childbirth. I have friends that scored twin girls from China in the 90's. They originally paid for one girl but when they got to the orphanage, they said, do you want her sister? They were shocked that their child had a twin, but lucky for them, they did have the ability to pay.

    ReplyDelete

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