Everybody Loves Sustainable Development
我从本溪回来了。这次出差时间不长——第一天在会议室听会，第二天半天在乡的项目点参观（还在火车上过了两个晚上）——比我预想的要好，有一些见闻。
我喜欢坐火车（也喜欢乘飞机），但火车站并不一定是让人喜欢的地方。还好，北京站的环境和秩序还不错，尤其是比起后建成的北京西站（一个又大、又脏、又乱、让人头疼的地方，据说还是腐败的豆腐渣工程，我一点儿不怀疑），要好很多。我所乘坐的列车应该是到丹东的，但候车室的电子显示牌上写的是“K27次，开往平壤”，让我有一种莫名的“国际主义”激动。上了车，灯光昏暗，没法按计划读我准备的文章，于是发了几条短信、吃了点东西后，就躺下，拿出了特意带的念珠一边诵念起来（因为自己一人乘火车，心里多少有些忐忑），一边准备睡。早上4点多，我到了。
明珠大酒店的霓虹灯在这一天的这个时候竟然不亮！以至于我在离它一二百米远的地方却需要向两个人问路才找到它。会议主办方安排我住的单人间中有一张大单人床，I love it!
在会上，听到很多人很多次地提到“可持续发展”。如果越来越多的中国人认识到“可持续发展”的重要性，当然是一件好事。但究竟什么是“可持续发展”？拿我自己来说，我并不敢说我真的清楚。政府、媒体、普通人在语言中越来越经常使用这五个字（类似的情况还有另两个字——“生态”）但这并不表明人们对其有真正的认识（更不应该想当然地这样认为），很多情况下，可能这只是一种话语模仿（更可怕的情况是思想的抑制）。如果能有一个公开、自由的社会讨论，大家把“可持续发展”对于自己到底意味着什么进行思考、表达、交流和探讨，哪怕这场社会讨论的结果找到的是“具有中国特色的”“可持续发展”，那也一定比不明其意的鹦鹉学舌更有助于中国的“可续”的“发展”。
I have more about this trip to write, but the writer-wanna-be now feels it unaffordable timewise (at least tonight)—it needs a lot of time to externalize what I felt and thought and yet more time to refine the language. I will write more in the next few days.
Have you seen the full moon tonight?
4 Comments
The URI to TrackBack this entry is: http://www.dreamsofwhitetiles.com/gaoxuesong/wp-trackback.php/18
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Leave a comment
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
I like your writing style. It flows smoothly with unnecessary words. Last week I made a short visit to my home. Mom has been sick for a couple of weeks. Her old back pain was torturing her again. But she is now better. Of course I did not report this to Jessica and Kunchok. Now I have to adjust my work hours in my weekly report to THF–I have to make up 8 hours per day for working on something. I hate this report but have to do this silly work for the next several weeks. Visiting home is always a happy thing. I visited my project sites and found the villagers did an impressive job.
Qinghai Normal University once more asked me to join its Tibetan English program. I refused it again, but deep in my mind I’m debating… Kevin also asked me why I was so reluctant to join it. He thinks teaching is a great rewarding job (if you are content). I agree. But I don’t want to lose the relative freedom I have (or I’m trying to have). Monica at Bridge said that she would want to meet me in Dec, and Bob suggested I apply for Winrock… Once again my head was spun like a mani pray wheel…
Comment by N — 11/29/2004 @ 2:09 pm
用多重否定容易让人有点晕——I believe you meant to say “It flows smoothly without unnecessary words".
其实，在你言之前，我正曾想对我的语言进行一下自我批评……哈
Comment by Xuesong — 11/30/2004 @ 10:27 am
Oooops, you found my mistake. I meant to say what you said. I sent you several messages but never got responses. Now my cell phone is not coperating at all. Recently my mind is occupied by the movie “Kangding Qingge". We borrowed its VCDs and were every night. I watched it until 6 a.m. yesterday and 2 a.m this morning, finally finished! I was quite disappointed with the ending– a tragedy. It’s another unproductive day today! I’m working now. Talk to you soon.
Comment by N — 12/1/2004 @ 8:48 pm
Seems like you wrote the above comment a little while right before I sent you the message in the cab last night. If so, good, we thought of each other almost at the same time.
But lately your mind was occupied by 康珠 more of the time. Hmmm…
Comment by Xuesong — 12/2/2004 @ 8:52 pm