There two basic parts of the spying. One is the National Security Agency’s (NSA) programs to monitor virtually all electronic communications in America.

The second part is of the spying is aimed at overseas communications, including Hong Kong and China. The entire spy network goes under the acronym PRISM.

According to Snowden Chinese military, businesses, and universities were targeted.

The NSA spying grew out of the Patriot Act which was passed after the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. Supposedly it was to be used to prevent a similar attack. Since there  hasn’t been another major event, it is possible it has been successful. But since everything is done is secret, the public will never know.

Predictably those on the left who hated the Patriot Act while Bush was president, now find it more acceptable under Obama, even though Obama’s reauthorization of the Act in 2011 strengthened its spying mandate.

The U.S. has often claimed that Chinese hackers are attacking U.S. institutions. China has always denied it, but recently an exact building was identified as a source of much hacking.

It seems the eavesdropping scandal grows every day. A few days ago it was revealed the  recent G8 meeting was spied on by the British government.

Then Snowden revealed that NSA retained its captured communications much longer than it claimed. Every day brings new revelations about the number of servers involved, and the types of data being collected grows larger.

The legality of PRISM is in dispute. The government says it is legal. Everyone involved,  including Obama, are absolutely unrepentant for  it. It looks like it will be with us forever.

The U.S. constitution barely mentions the bureaucracy, and NSA is a bureaucracy. It was created by the government and follows the dictates of the government. It’s easy enough to follow the letter of the law when you’re the one writing it.

However legality does not translate into morality.

Secretly listening to the conversation of others or reading their mail is universally considered immoral. PRISM is the government version of reading the mail of others.

Many of us can not imagine the government spying on its own people. We were brought up believing things like that only went on in totalitarian countries like the USSR or East Germany.

The NSA programs were carried out in secret. The citizens who are being monitored had no say-so about it. There was no public debate.

America is supposed to be the land of freedom. Leaks of classified information happen often. Usually there are no consequences for the leaker. For some reason Snowden felt the need to flee the country after his leaks were made public. This says much about the state of freedom in America today.

One must question the value of the NSA data mining. We are told it was to help protect us from terrorism. Yet they failed to detect the Boston bombers. They were fairly open about their radicalization, and the Russian government fingered them. Still nothing was done. The massive date grab wasn’t used to monitor them.

Just as important, now that other countries have discovered the U.S. is monitoring their communications it may have an adverse reaction in diplomacy, mutual cooperation, and trade.

Most people agree that there are certain things that a government must keep secret, including spying activities on other countries. This has a legitimate national security value.

But spying on its citizens emails, credit card transactions, phone calls, and even photographs is not a legitimate government function. The argument is made that if one has nothing to hide, there should be no reason to oppose it. This of course is specious. A citizen has the right and expectation of privacy.

Many of Snowden’s  detractors have taken to attacking him personally, knowing that the spying doesn’t sit well with most Americans. They have attacked his education and motives for releasing he information. Some have even implied he is in the employ of China.

So is Snowden a hero or a traitor? The answer is as complicated as the facts that are involved. He shouldn’t have released info about government spying techniques. It compromised our national security and damaged relations between countries. That was traitorous.

But his release of information on NSA spying on all electronic communications by all Americans was something we should know about. For making that known Snowden is a hero.

I noticed my shirt was wet from sweat and I had used a half pack of tissues wiping perspiration from my face. She didn’t have a drop of sweat anywhere.

As I continued my walk I noticed no Chinese were sweating, even those who were walking much faster than me.

I’m sure Chinese know how to sweat. I’ve seen shirtless construction workers with the sun gleaming off their sweaty hard bodies. But today with the temperature at 34 and the humidity at 95, no one seemed to sweat.

When I returned home even my shorts were wet from perspiration. Sea was chopping veggies in the kitchen. The air conditioner was off. Still, no sweat.

Apparently the Chinese have a higher tolerance to hot weather. This seems like an advantage to me.

I don’t like it. If any people have an advantage, it should be white people. Do you agree?

Over the years I’ve tried literally hundreds of different cigars. I’ve smoked $30. Cubans. I’ve smoked $0.02 Laotians that were grossly over priced. I’ve smoked everything in between.

At some point I discovered I enjoy a Punch brand Rothschild with Maduro filler and Maduro wrapper most of all. Since Cubans are illegal in America the Punch cigars sold there are made in Honduras.

In my opinion Cuban cigars are not as good as others made in the Caribbean. My theory is when Cuban cigars were banned in America, the best growers and makers moved from Cuba to places with similar climate and soil. Now they make the best cigars in the world.

Punch Rothschilds Maduro/Maduro are not expensive. That is another reason I like them.

I brought an unopened box with me when I returned to China a few months ago. Now they are gone except for one. I am debating when and where to enjoy it.

Lotus root soup is best if slow cooked over charcoal in a giant clay jar. I’m sure everyone has seen the brown jars sitting outside restaurant doors.

All soup is best enjoyed when the weather is cool. This year we didn’t have many cool days, so it wasn’t until February that I went out in search of lotus root soup.

Usually lotus root soup is a fairly simple dish to make. It’s basically pork bones, red dates, a slice of lotus root, and water. My favorite place added all sorts of additional ingredients to its soup including mushrooms, ginger, potting soil, and floor sweepings. They would keep two clay jars fired up at all times. Lotus root soup was one of their specialties, and they seemed to sell a lot of it.

When I rounded the corner I was horrified to see the restaurant was gone. A hardware store was in its space. Not to worry, I knew of two additional places that made lotus root soup, and began walking toward them.

My trek was for naught. Both places were under new owners and no longer served lotus root soup.

It made me wonder why lotus root soup is getting so hard to find. The only thing I can think of is global warming is causing less soup to be consumed by making fewer cool days when soup is best. Global warming must be killing lotus root soup. Damn.

I have always maintained that if you took the average Chinese person into the average

Chinese restaurant in America, they wouldn’t know they were eating Chinese food.

The food in American Chinese restaurants has been highly altered to better match American

tastes.

Chinese food is very distinct from American Chinese food.

My favorite American Chinese dish is mu shu. It is classically made with pork, but I usually

request chicken and my request is always honored. The meat is cooked with garlic,

mushrooms, and soy, then served with raw bamboos shoots, onion, and thin pancakes.

Last night we had Dragon Boat dinner with some friends at a neighborhood cafe. Even

though they had a large picture menu with some English I didn’t order.

One of the dishes was my old friend mu shu pork, American style. I made a pig of myself eating

it.

I guess I like American Chinese food more than Chinese Chinese food.

I’ve never seen him stop sweeping to talk to someone. He even sweeps while he smokes. No cigarette breaks.

One day we had a downpour. He put on his umbrella hat and continued sweeping during the storm. He was completely soaked in seconds. In addition to sweeping, he cleared debris from the sewer tops so the water could run off the sidewalks and streets.

I’ve often wondered why he has not received a promotion of some kind. Maybe he’s happy as things are.

First of all I began my journey back to China from America. I’ve spent that last 4 weeks in Flat Rock, North Carolina, and believe me, going back to Shenzhen from the bucolic countryside was eagerly anticipated.

I changed planes in Chicago, and that’s where my luck turned from good to exceptional. Checking my email, I got a message from Terry Hasshold of England. He informed me, “Your Email has won (£1,373,420 pounds) in our British Promotion.contact us for details via: lottery_britishnational@ymail.com Sir Edmond Newton.”

Imagine the smile on my face when reading this news. This comes to more than 2 million USD. Visions of Ferrarris began dancing in my head.

But that was only the beginning of my good fortune. Reading on down the list of emails, I came across one from Mrs.Mona-Saeedi who said, “Please forgive me if I intrude your privacy, we do not know each other but it does not matter. what matters is transperency between us in this deal. I am Mrs.Mona-Saeedi, a Muslim woman. I have sent you this message for an inheri tance/business deal. please contact me on my personal email for more details: mrs.mona_saeedi274@outlook.com.”

Quickly putting 2 and 2 together, I thought I might use some of my lottery prize money to invest with Mrs.Mona-Saeedi, thus increasing my newfound wealth.

Unfortunately my flight was called before I could respond to these messages, so I had to wait until I arrived in Shenzhen to reply. Believe me, the long flight seemed even longer than it actually was due to my anticipation and excitement.

During the flight I wondered if I should find new friends in China, as the current circle is not in the same economic class I am in now. Quite frankly, some of them are embarrassments. Maybe an upgrade in my social status would be in order. Should I abandon La Casa in favor of the Four Seasons’ clubs and lounges? Where can I find a good tailor? What is swankiest address in Shenzhen? I don’t drive, so how much to hire a chauffeur?

I tried to take a nap while pondering these and other questions on the 16 hour flight, but was too excited to sleep.

Finally the plane arrived in Hong Kong. After purchasing a box of expensive Cuban cigars at the Duty Free store, I made my way to to Shenzhen, arriving about 21:00. I quickly fired up the computer and sent messages to both Terry Hasshold and Mrs.Mona-Saeedi. I am anxiously awaiting their replies as I look forward to the new life I will soon be living. I doubt I’ll be able to sleep tonight.

I come from a family of farmers, and I’ve always heard rain is good, though I’ve always questioned this. Still, I was a bit concerned. Could it be possible that plants actually need rain as my grandfather told me? Maybe, maybe not. He was old. How much could he actually have known?

When I fired up my p.c. this morning the little weather icon said it would be warm with a 30% chance of a thunder shower. Nothing unusual there. There were similar predictions many days over the past several weeks, and it never rained.

But in the unlikely case that my grandfather was right, and plants actually need water to thrive, I decided to make it rain today.

How did I do this? Easy. I purposely went out without an umbrella.

As soon as I hit the street there was a light drizzle. It didn’t last very long, and didn’t even wet the pavement. I continued my umbrella-less walk.

I choose a route that kept me close to overhangs and cafes where I could take shelter in bad weather. The sky got darker. There were occasional lightening flashes.

Suddenly it hit. A full fledged thunder storm. I ducked into a café to read until it passed.

The storm didn’t last very long. It began at 14:40 and ended by 15:10. Still, a lot of water fell from the sky. I feel certain the sidewalks were cleansed of baby piss, the sewers were flushed, and the trees were watered,

So all the farmers and street cleaners of Futian can thank me for this weather event. I am available for banquets, honoraria, and light worship.

Newly elected Premier Li Keqiang said on March 14, the biggest development potential for China lies in the process of urbanization. China is a country where about half of its people are still living in rural areas decades after the biggest urbanization wave in history began.

According to the Global Times, the vice premier has had a life long interest is urbanization, and considers its continuation imperative to healthy economic growth.

Li was quoted in People’s Daily saying, “Urbanization is not about simply increasing the number of urban residents or expanding the area of cities., More importantly, it’s about a complete change from rural to urban style in terms of industry structure, employment, living environment and social security.”

What does this mean? Simply put, urbanization is the process of country people moving to cities in attempts to better their lives. What do rural immigrants into the cities hope to find in their new homes? Mainly relatively high paying jobs, but the lure is not just economic. Immigration is also a result of loss or degradation of farmland and pastureland due to development or land grabs, conflicts, the attractions of anonymity, proximity and ease of mass transport, and the opportunity to assert individualism.

Cities offer a larger variety of services that aren’t available in rural areas. Supporting the provision of these services requires workers, resulting in more numerous and varied job opportunities. Elderly individuals may be forced to move to cities where there are doctors and hospitals that can cater for their health needs. Varied and high quality educational opportunities are another factor in urban migration, as well as the opportunity to join, develop, and seek out social communities.

Cities are a cause of, and a response to, world economic growth. Cities, both large and small, are at the heart of the fast changing global economy. Writing in 2012, Li noted that urbanization is a “huge engine” powering China’s growth. Generally, urbanization is viewed as a positive for a society or an economy, but like most everything it is neither all good, nor all bad.

Li noted that China’s urban population of just above 50 percent is “much lower” than the 80 percent average in developed nations. Li’s championing urbanization has been a central theme of his career. As he once said, “Urbanization is not about simply increasing the number of urban residents or expanding the area of cities. More importantly, it’s about a complete change from rural to urban style in terms of industry structure, employment, living environment and social security.”

Asian urbanization has been studied in depth in Thailand. Professor Iam Thongdee of Mahidol University in Bangkok found Thai farmers are seen as poor, stupid, and unhealthy. As young people flee the farms, the values and knowledge of rice farming and the countryside are fading, including the tradition of long kek, helping neighbors plant, harvest, or build a house. He found Thais are losing what they call Thai-ness, the values of being kind, helping each other, having mercy and gratefulness. A similar pattern may be emerging in China.

In addition to the disappearing long kek, Thailand urbanization has also resulted in massive increases in other problems such as obesity, disease, pollution from dirty cooking fuels and primitive stoves, and poor access to clean water and sanitation. In addition urbanized populations are exposed to modern environmental hazards, such as air pollution, exhaust fumes, food poisoning, and industrial pollution.

City life, especially in modern urban slums of the developing world, is hardly immune to pestilence or climatic disturbances such as floods. Yet they continue to attract migrants. Examples of natural disasters include the 2011 Thailand floods and 2007 Jakarta flood. Urban areas are also far more prone to violence, drugs, and other urban social ills.

The cost of living in cities is usually very high when compared to country life. While it is probable that earned income is much higher in a city, the cost of living can eat it up, sometimes leaving the urban immigrant living a poorer lifestyle that before his relocation.

There are other drawbacks to urban living in China. Many find a lack of housing, and an infrastructure that has not kept pace with population growth. Others decry the lack of property and other rights because of the Chinese hukou system. Estimates run as high as 60% of newly urbanized people in south east Asia live in slums without power or running water. They are subject to poverty, crime and disease.

A study recently released showing the quality of urbanization of 246 Chinese cities using a number of social and economic criteria. Shenzhen came in at the top of the list with a score of 77.63%. It was followed by Beijing and Shanghai. The CPC called for the country to “noticeably enhance urbanization quality.”

City populations are growing faster than city infrastructure can adapt. This can be addressed by the government re-allocating resources to adequate infrastructure development, including roads, hospitals, water treatment facilities, and schools. Adequate living spaces and good sanitation must be made affordable to even the most poor.

Social services must be developed and developed to be able to cope with the new and growing problems resulting from urban poverty. Medical attention must be available. Slum dwellers need police protection from the base elements of society. Schools and universities must give equal treatment to the children of immigrants.

The government must enable the immigrants to participate in being members of society. They should not be forced into invisible corners and then overlooked.

The pace of growth in China’s cities is at risk of slowing, according to Nicholas Eberstadt, a demographer China’s workforce may shrink, with the number of 15-24 year-olds forecast by the United Nations to decline by almost 62 million people in the 15 years through 2025. The one child policy must be examined.

All of these things require scarce government resources. Li has a daunting task ahead of him as he attempts to make urbanization a benefit to both immigrants and to all of society.

It was announced that the European Union wants Cyrus to impose a one time levy of 6.75% or 9.9%, on all bank accounts in the island nation. Accounts over 100,000 Euros would pay 9.9%, smaller accounts, the smaller amount. Accounts of foreigners would be included, as would those of businesses. The demand was made on Saturday with a vote by Parliament set for Sunday. The Sunday vote was pushed back until Monday, which is a bank holiday.

The news media has reported a run on ATMs across the country where customers can withdraw 400. Euros each day. Most quickly ran out of cash to dispense. The announcement set off an immediate scramble among top European officials, with reports that the European Central Bank was pressuring Cypriot authorities to hold the vote without delay.

Cyprus agreed to vote on the unprecedented tax on bank deposits in exchange for a 10 billion euro ($13 billion) aid package for the country. Cyprus has received several aid packages since a global financial slump hit the EU in 2009. The levy is expected to yield some 5.8 billion Euros.

At their peak, Cypriot banks had assets totaling eight times the country’s 17.5 billion Euro economy. Those numbers have prompted accusations from some European countries, primarily Germany, that Cypriot banks serve as money laundries for dirty Russian cash. Russians are estimated to have some 20 billion Euros sitting in Cypriot banks. Some politicians are using getting at this filthy lucre for an excuse to partially justify the tax.

Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the president of the group of euro area ministers, declined early Saturday to rule out taxes on depositors in countries beyond Cyprus, although he said such a measure was not currently being considered.

Cyprus’s newly elected president, Nicos Anastasiades, said taxing depositors would allow Cyprus to avoid implementing harsher austerity measures, including pension cuts and tax increases, of the type that have wreaked havoc in neighboring Greece.

That thinking appealed to some Cypriots, including Stala Georgoudi, 56. “A one-time thing would be better than worse measures,” she said. “Procrastinating and beating around the bush would be worse.” As usual, politicians expect the people to sweep up after the mess they made, and some unthinking individuals like Georgoudi accept it with hardly a blink.

The fact is that Cyprus, and most of the rest of the world, finds itself in trouble because of poor financial and political management by its government. Governments over-spend, over-borrow, over-tax, and over-promise as they lurch from one crisis to another. They talk like this single time levy will solve the current financial crisis, but will it?

If the money is taken out of the accounts before the banks re-open Tuesday, who will have even a scintilla of confidence they government won’t find another reason to make a new levy sometime in the future? How many people will close their accounts completely and move their money to places where this is seen as less likely to happen.

Even if the levy is defeated in Parliament, the mere fact that it was seriously considered will cause many, including foreigners, reconsider keeping their money in Cypriot banks. How will that effect the economy?

What business will deposit money in Cypriot banks, knowing an amount that what might represent its annual profit may suddenly disappear at the whim of the government. This plan, or even its threat, may well be the death knell for banking in Cyprus. In turn, that could create havoc and hardship for both business and individuals.

Beyond Cyprus, the EU has demonstrated it is willing to dip into the personal assets of people with little or no warning in an emergency. That has to have cautious people everywhere wondering if they should re-arrange their finances to be less exposed to such chicanery. This could lead to a future slowing of business as assets are shifted to more defensive positions.

From time to time in America a suggestion to tax retirement savings is thrown around. As recently as April, 2012, the U.S. House of Representatives was toying with the idea of for a sort of tax or levy on retirement savings accounts that were supposed to be safe from taxation. From small seeds such as a seemingly innocent discussion, a giant oak tree may someday grow.

It is hard to see exactly how this bit of lunacy will play out, but it’s not hard to see what caused it – irresponsible governments who manage their economies two steps below moronically. So far have been few protests in Cyprus, but eventually people will have enough of irresponsible, stupid and corrupt governments. The time to clean house will arrive.