Isidingo - The Need

In Communism's ideal the government governs the people and protects them from the greed of the businessmen. In Capitalism's ideal, businessmen and greed rule and the left-over crumbs may fall down to the poverty-stricken below. Communism believes that basically man needs to be protected from this avarice and Capitalism forces it upon him. Communism says "man can be better" and Capitalism says "man's a greedy bugger anyway so let's play to that".
Many western societies today enjoy the benefits of this Communist ideal and indeed so does Hong Kong. No, it's not the form of Maoist doctrine that was used on the mainland China but a very watered-down version of social responsibility in certain areas of its governance, as provided by the British.
Hong Kong is the land of millionaires. Yet it provides for those who cannot provide for themselves with a comprehensive social insurance scheme, free education up to a certain level, and heavily subsidised housing.
Where it does not protect people is in the market place, and this needs to be urgently addressed. There needs to be an enforced minimum wage to stop the exploitation of workers.
Unions need to be organised and recognised and rules set for the process of collective bargaining. This is not happening because of the government's reluctance to interfere in business.
This means that people are working 10 to 12 hours, seven days a week for a pittance while the captains of industry buy private planes for themselves and their friends.
This reluctance to interfere in business is taking its toll on Hongkonger's health too, in that while pollutant spewing factories have been hounded out of the territory there is nothing to stop them springing up across the border and poisoning our air. And I really mean poisoning our air. People with young children are leaving Hong Kong for cleaner air.
This is hurting the territory as there is a huge talent gap in the service industry sector. But I expect it won't be long until that gap is filled by enterprising locals. One thing I really admire about Chinese is their ability to look and learn. There is no doubt that this century will be China's.
What struck me about the differences between the communist system and that of capitalism was my recent trip to India. Tsarval always says to me that when I look at systems I need to see where they started, and where they are now. So India started out colonised and inherited a capitalistic system. Driving through the streets of New Delhi is an amazing experience but at the same time it is horrifying. The streets are filled with stray animals and beggars. This is the detritus of human society. Children are sold into slavery, girls into sexual slavery and marriage where they are passed around from husband to male in laws because of the shortage of men.
There is an interesting parallel here between China's one child policy and India's attempts to curb its rampant population growth. But that deserves a posting all on its own.
It is abundantly clear that the imperialist society of Britain left little in the way of social infrastructure for the Indians, more or less like in South Africa, only with much worse effect. This in turn means no education and the continuation of practices such as the primitive caste system. Under a communist government this caste system would have been destroyed. The inequality between men and women would have been wiped out to a large degree. How much potential and how many lives have been wasted because of the simple greed and arrogance of a capitalist ideal?

Labels: China, Communism, hong kong, India