四千萬中國人是穴居的？

四千萬中國人是穴居的？



在網上讀到一篇美國人寫有關中國的”奇聞“！



【American Enterprise Institute（AEI）】Why we need not envy China～Jonah Goldberg
Up to 40 million Chinese people still live in caves. That’s more than the populations of Texas and Illinois combined. In fairness, a fraction of these caves are apparently pretty nice, complete with electricity and well-compacted dirt floors. But that’s grading on a curve because, well, they’re still caves.

Meanwhile, 21 million Chinese live below what the Communist party calls the “absolute poverty” line. That sounds pretty good if you have in mind our poverty line, which is just under $11,000 per year for an individual and roughly $22,000 for a family of four.

The absolute poverty rate in China is $90 a year, or $7.50 per month. And 35 million live on less than $125 per year. Hundreds of millions of Chinese live on $1 or $2 a day.

Michael Levy, who recently wrote a book on his stint as a Peace Corps worker in rural China (yes, China still asks for Peace Corps help), put it well in an interview with NPR: “Imagine that there’s a country exactly like the United States. Exactly the same size. It’s got the same cities. It’s got the same number of rich people and poor people. It’s just like us. And now add 1 billion peasants. That’s China.”

And yet that’s the country President Obama insists we need to emulate. “Everybody’s watching what’s going on in Beijing right now with the Olympics,” then-candidate Obama told an audience in Virginia in 2008. “Think about the amount of money that China has spent on infrastructure.

Their ports, their train systems, their airports are vastly superior to us now, which means if you are a corporation deciding where to do business you’re starting to think, Beijing looks like a pretty good option.”

Obama has returned to campaign mode and his fear-China refrain. To listen to Obama, China’s beating us in some sort of infrastructure race. “Folks in Congress are also going to get a chance to decide . . . whether our construction workers should sit around doing nothing while China builds the best railroads, the best schools, the best airports in the world.”

Maybe we could use more infrastructure spending, but China’s got nothing to do with it. The reason China has invested massively in infrastructure is simply that it has relatively little of it. America has 5,194 airports with paved runways (the only kind I use, how about you?).

That’s more than 11 times China’s 442. In fact, you can add up the paved airports of the next 10 countries combined, and America beats them with more than a thousand airports to spare. We have nearly twice the roadways China does and almost three times the railways.

Ah, but China is investing in high-speed rail! Which, we are told, will help us win the future. Except that China has, in the words of London’s Financial Times, “slammed the brakes” on its high-speed rail program for a slew of safety and economic reasons.

What people don’t often mention is that we have the best freight system in the world (in Europe, they move people on rails and cargo on roads; we mostly do the opposite because we’re so much more spread out).

That’s why Warren Buffett — the president’s favorite billionaire — has invested massively in freight rail. Alas, switching to high-speed rail in the U.S. would seriously threaten the efficiency of our system.

Obviously, China’s a formidable economic player, and a growing military and diplomatic power. But only a fool would trade our problems for theirs (even though Obama has reportedly told friends he envies the president of China for having an easier job).

China’s health and safety standards are abysmal compared with America’s. China’s air is crunchy, its rivers often flammable. Their housing bubble could make ours look like a minor correction. Demographically, China is still on target to get old before it gets rich.

Moreover, China’s social fabric is in dire need of repair. Just consider the recent horrifying footage of a two-year-old toddler who was struck by two vehicles and was left to die in agony in the middle of a busy street as passersby ignored her.

The New York Times reported this summer that, in some regions, it is common for officials to snatch newborn babies from parents — and sell them. Indeed, China has a thriving market in children. And do you really think our problems with income inequality are worse than China’s?

Oh, and let’s not forget: It’s still an autocratic police state.

Obama is hardly alone in his effort to mythologize China in order to justify expansion of government. Times columnist Tom Friedman — who has written often of his envy for China’s authoritarian system — begins his new book comparing the unreliable escalators at his neighborhood subway station with a glitzy convention center in China, in order to suggest that China is winning the future. It’s as instructive as comparing his mansion in Bethesda, Md., to a Chinese CAVE.


以上是我讀完明報每週六刊登的：外地評論摘要：《不必眼紅中國》 後，急急找出原文來閱讀。明報既然指是摘要，因此明報沒有將原文嘲笑中國：『四千萬中國人是穴居的！』都翻譯出來。


【明報專訊】《不必眼紅中國》美國企業研究所（AEI）11月4日評論文章 作者：Jonah Goldberg 中共指中國有 2100萬赤貧人口，若中國貧窮線與美國一樣那還好，只是中國赤貧的定義是年收入少於 90美元，另外，還有 3500萬人每年的生活費少於 125美元。有作者形容，中國等於是美國的翻版，再加 10億農民人口。

總統奧巴馬堅持我們要學習這個國家。中國大力投資基建，因為中國很缺乏。美國有 5194個機場有鋪設好的跑道，是中國的 442個的11倍以上。美國機場的數目，較隨後 10個國家總和多 1000個。我們的公路差不多是中國的兩倍，鐵路長度約是中國 3倍。

中國大力投資高鐵，有人說這是未來致勝的幫助，但中國的高鐵計劃因安全及經濟效益而「急煞車」。大家忘記美國擁有全世界最好的鐵路貨運系統，這是為什麼巴菲特大量投資鐵路運輸。


將美國的問題與中國交換？
中國是強大的經濟體系，軍事和外交實力不斷冒升，但只有傻瓜才會希望將美國的問題與中國交換。中國的醫療和安全水準與美國有天淵之別，中國的空氣污濁，對比起中國的樓市泡沫，美國樓市只屬小調整，中國人口老化較財富來得更快。

還有中國的社會問題，嬰兒光天化日被車輾過，沒有途人施以援手，還有販賣嬰兒等。美國的貧富懸殊是否較中國嚴重？遑論中國是專制的警察國家。

美化中國的不只奧巴馬，還有《紐約時報》專欄作家弗里德曼經常羨慕中國的威權體制，他以美國失靈的自動電梯，比較中國先進現代化的展覽中心，說明中國將於未來勝出。拿他漂亮的家與中國的貧民區比較一下，也一樣很有啟示。


Jonah Goldberg 何許人也？ 照維基百科有以下記載：

【維基百科】Jonah Jacob Goldberg (born March 21, 1969) is an American conservative syndicated columnist and author. Goldberg is known for his contributions on politics and culture to National Review Online, of which he is editor-at-large. He is the author of Liberal Fascism (2008), which reached #1 on the New York Times Best Seller list.

He appears on such television programs as Good Morning America, Nightline, Hardball with Chris Matthews, Real Time with Bill Maher, Larry King Live, Your World with Neil Cavuto and most recently the Glenn Beck Program and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He is also a frequent participant on bloggingheads.tv.


【維基百科】The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI) is a conservative think tank founded in 1943.

Its stated mission is "to defend the principles and improve the institutions of American freedom and democratic capitalism—limited government, private enterprise, individual liberty and responsibility, vigilant and effective defense and foreign policies, political accountability, and open debate."

AEI is an independent nonprofit organization supported primarily by grants and contributions from foundations, corporations, and individuals. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C.


AEI 是美國保守派陣營的 think tank 智庫，而這位訪問美國的 AEI 學者兼名嘴 Jonah Goldberg先生說：『有四千萬中國人是穴居的』，相信是指中國西北黃土高原獨有的“窯洞”式住宅群。


【百度百科（簡體）】我国是一个窑居比较普遍的国家，从新疆吐鲁番、喀什，甘肃兰州、敦煌、平凉、庆阳、甘南，宁夏银川、固原，陕西乾县、延安，山西临汾、浮山、平陆、太原，河南郑州、洛阳、巩县以及福建龙岩、永定和广东梅县等地区。

陕西窑洞主要分布在陕北，指陕西省延安、榆林等地的窑洞式住宅。它建在黄土高原的沿山与地下，是天然黄土中的穴居形式，因其具有冬暖夏凉，不破坏生态，不占用良田，经济省钱等优点，被当地人民群众广泛采用。陕北窑洞有靠山土窑、石料接口土窑、平地石砌窑多种，一般城市里以石、砖窑居多，而农村则多是土窑或石料接口土窑。主要形式有地坑窑、沿崖窑、锢窑。

窑洞是中国西北黄土高原上居民的古老居住形式，这一“穴居式”民居的历史可以追溯到四千多年前。在中国陕甘宁地区，黄土层非常厚，有的厚达几十公里，我国人民创造性利用高原有利的地形，凿洞而居，创造了被称为绿色建筑的窑洞建筑。窑洞一般有靠崖式窑洞，下沉式窑洞、独立式等形式，其中靠山窑应用较多。

过去，一位农民辛勤劳作一生，最基本的愿望就是修建几孔窑洞。有了窑娶了妻才算成了家立了业。男人在黄土地上刨挖，女人则在土窑洞里操持家务、生儿育女。窑洞是黄土高原的产物、陕北农民的象征，它沉积了古老的黄土地深层文化。

据初步统计，自解放至今，中国的窑居群众总数达一亿一千万，目前仍采取窑方式者则有四千万人之多。其分布区域以经济欠发达的中西部为主，很多贫困户居住的土窑，年久失修，由于暴雨洪水、滑波泥石流等自然灾害造成窑洞房屋年久失修濒临倒塌，广大窑居人民群众随时面临着生命危险,希望知情者告知群众，不让他们的生命安全受到威胁。


當然中國仍然有很多方面確是不足，中國仍然是一個發展中國家，偏遠的貧窮省市城鄉居民，仍然住在簡陋的屋子確是事實。美國卻是居於發達國家之中的首位，兩黨政府歷來都不惜向外舉巨債，利用豐厚財源給予公民優越福利，力保護執政權。要把中國和美國比較，是如拿金蘋果與小橘子之間的比較，這位 Goldberg先生應該清楚明白得很。


而且文章中說：『總統奧巴馬堅持我們要學習這個國家（中國）。』是美國人自己說的，奧巴馬屬於民主黨，雖然維基百科沒有明說他是共和黨人，但卻有提及他屬於 conservative syndicated，故此希望 Goldberg 先生不要把美國的民主攻和黨爭烈火，燒到中國來。


再者，Goldberg先生 與 Tom Friedman先生 之間，看來有著嚴重的意見分歧，前者揶揄後者在馬里蘭州的大宅時，也不用把中國西北部黃土高原別具特色的“窯洞”式住宅，混為一談。


美國就是充滿著這一些保守愛國的寫稿佬名嘴，他們在大眾傳播的 networks 網絡上接受訪問，在報章雜誌發稿，總誓要語出驚人誓不休，因為這就是他們的賣點！ 至於廣大的美國民眾，懵閉閉咁就信以為真，有四千萬中國人是 caveman 哈哈哈！



後記：
有腦的中國商人，應該趕快到美國舉辦來華參觀“穴居人 Caveman” 的特式旅遊團，還把這位 Jonah Goldberg先生聘請為穴居旅遊大使，專責推廣這個 Caveman 穴居人之旅。包括：居住不同星級的“洞穴”套房，品嚐不同級別的穴居“cuisines”，和中國穴居人小孩婦女拍照。





伸延閱覽：
Why we need not envy China by Jonah Goldberg AEI.org
不必眼紅中國 雅虎新聞網
Jonah Goldberg 維基百科
American Enterprise Institute AEI 維基百科
窑洞（簡體） 百度百科