Corruption and Intelligence

China is showing a bit of it's corruption in style. Apparently during the Opening of the Olympics there was a little girl "singing", only she wasn't singing. She was lipsinking to the real singer who was forced to hide behind the curtain due to her "ugliness". Also a couple of the Chinese gymnasts are underage, due to the fact that their "passports" have ages that are over the age limit they are allowed to perform. What people may not realize is that a Chinese passport rarely has their actual birthdate. First of all many Chinese people do not know their actual birthdates, as the birthdate they celebrate is from the lunar calendar not the solar one. Also it is very easy to get someone to put the "wrong date" on your passport, whether by mistake or on purpose. Finally there are a large number of seats at the Olympics that aren't full. Many sold out before the competitions even began but a lot of the people who originally bought the seats for much lowered prices aren't showing up for the events, therefore there are a lot of people standing in line outside the events that could sit in the seats but are being told that all the seats are sold out. This is typical China for ya!

As for intelligence, my dad read me a line in the paper today from a woman who was looking for an intelligent person and was told to lower her standards and try to date people who haven't finished their education. Unfortunately this didn't help her. I think this is very true, unfortuantely in the US the majority of people who don't finish their education really aren't educated, or very intelligent. However in many other countries (like China and India) there are way too many people who aren't educated who are extremely bright. This is due to the fact that school is paid for by the government through the end of high school in the US whereas in China one has to pay for every single year of education, from elementary school on. They have no free public schools, or schools paid for by taxes. Thus I have managed to find, on my trips and in my husband, a large number of extremely intelligent people who haven't finished middle school, forget high school.