Maobama

According to Gateway Pundit, while Mitt Romney is campaigning throughout the United States, Obama is going on yet another world tour, collecting millions in foreign donations in Sweden, Switzerland, France and Communist China.

When the Nephew and his Chinese girlfriend returned from Shanghai, they brought us many gifts.  Among them was a tee shirt with a picture of Obama wearing a Mao cap.  The writing was in Chinese.  She said the English translation was “Maobama.”

We had a good long talk last week, as the Nephew and “Gigi” helped me with my algebra studies.  Our family, being good Conservatives, welcomed this young lady with open arms, but we weren’t sure to whom we were opening arms.  From the little we gathered, she wasn’t pleased with Chinese politics, but we didn’t want to be impolitic and ask something that was none of our business.

I brought with me some souvenirs for “Gigi” from the Colonial Fair at Ringwood State Park on July 4^th:  an 18^th century lady’s night cap, a market purse, a white coin purse embroidered with silk from China, a parchment copy of the Declaration of Independence, a paperbound copy of the Declaration and the U.S. Constitution from the Cato Institute, a lady’s tricorn hat, which I personally decorated myself, and some Tea Party tee shirts.

We laughed and put on each other’s hat:  the Mao she gave me and the tricorn hat I gave her.

They showed me a bamboo-scrolled copy of the Art of War, imprinted in English on one side and Chinese on the other.  I also showed her The Little Red Book (“Quotations from Mao”).  She said it’s actually easier for Chinese to read the symbolic language than it is to read English, because one symbol can convey a hold sentence, where one long word conveys only one idea.

She had nothing good to say about Chairman Mao, or the Communist Party in particular.  She said that back in college her three roommates joined the party but that she didn’t.  The Nephew seemed particularly surprised to hear the news; I would have thought she’d have told him.  But no matter.

He asked her why not.  She looked rather angry and said she told her roommates they were idiots.  Gigi says that, like here, young people in China don’t pay much attention to politics.  Joining the Party is pragmatic; if you want to get ahead in China, you must.

She spoke about the 25 million people Chairman Mao killed and the heritage he destroyed during the Cultural Revolution.  Every Chinese family kept a written family history, dating back thousands of years.  But along came the Revolution, and every family was forced to turn over their family history books, which the Communists subsequently destroyed.

The current Chinese generation is happy to play video games and watch movies.  She says the video games are like a narcotic to them.  Here in America, narcotics are the narcotics.  I told her the American attitude towards politics was much the same and that normally people don’t get involved; they don’t even know for whom they’re voting.  I told her about Agenda 21, and the plan to herd people into planned communities.  She didn’t look too surprised.  I explained that’s why the Tea Parties had been organized – to combat our growing bureaucracy.  She looked dubious.

In China, she told us – as we already knew – no one owns any land.  But they are allowed to own their apartments or condominiums.  They can sell them in exchange for another.  But – after 70 years, the Chinese government takes the apartment back.  In other words, following the strict letter of Marxist law, her parents cannot leave their apartment to “Gigi.”

There is no religion there.  Apparently, my Nephew has been trying to convert “Gigi” to Christianity, but she is naturally skeptical.  Personally, I’d like to convert her to freedom, first.  She seemed quite pleased with the pink tee shirt I gave her that had the American flag and the word “freedom” in glitter.

I find it funny that Obama has gone to China, or is going there, to recruit donations for election in a free country.  Will he see the many tourist shops that carry the Maobama tee shirt with his face on it (wearing a Mao cap)?  He’ll be flattered, no doubt, not realizing that it’s a mockery.