a thirtieth story...'other people's shoes'

 Standing in other people’s shoes is hard.  Typically they don’t fit very well.  They rub and it’s uncomfortable.  But imagine a minute, Jia Li.  Jia Li is a seventeen year old Chinese girl.  For the sake of convenience let’s say her name translates into English as ‘beautiful and good’. 

Jia Li’s feet are so small – they were bound as is the Chinese custom when she was very young – she is in fact able to stand in virtually anyone’s shoes.  Well I never!  And what’s more, I do not mean only in the Literal Sense.  Jai Li may have very small feet, but she also has a very BIG heart and an Open Mind.  Moreover, she has round almond eyes, a cute button nose, sensual lips, gently sloping shoulders, perfect skin, supple breasts, a flat stomach, firm buttocks, shapely hips and fabulous legs.  What a knock out!

And she can speak fifteen different languages, and would have no problem reading this short story.

Gulp!!

So where does she live and what’s her number? I hear you say.  Well, here’s the rub: I’ve just made her up.  So sorry. 

Although, before I apologise any further, China has a population of over 1.3 billion covering almost 10 million square kilometres of land mass.  Perhaps Jai Li exists after all. 

Again for the sake of convenience let’s say she does.

Now we’re talking!

And it’s nice to share some of my experiences of Jai Li.  She’s one helluva girl!!

Do you know she started a petition to abolish the Confucius Peace Prize?  It has so far been unsuccessful, and you may ask why, but consider the following: the Confucius Peace Prize was awarded for the first time way back in 2010.  It exists to this day to promote ‘world peace from an Eastern perspective’.  Now this is hilarious for anyone with a notion of what peace really means and with a passing knowledge of Chinese politics, home and abroad. 

Jai Li opposed the Confucius Peace Prize because she felt the sentiment behind it was balderdash.  And then in 2011 Vladimir Putin received the award.  She had seen for herself that peace from an ‘Eastern perspective’ involved putting people down, keeping them quiet and wantonly executing those that don’t (often from one yard with a pistol in the back of the head).

What else?

Well, Jai Li has also helped out in a rural health centre not far from her home in Sichuan province.  The Chinese government has spent close to 125 billion dollars over the last three years alone on health care.  However, rural health centres like the one where Jai Li works are still back in the nineteenth century, or at best chronically underfunded and overrun.  Way to go!

Also in the last three years Sichuan province suffered a catastrophic earthquake.  68’000 people died.  Many others were injured.  And still many Chinese men and women have no idea of what kind of healthcare provision they are entitled to.

Once again, Jai Li, has been working tirelessly on their behalf.  Jai Li might be the Chinese Florence Nightingale.

She might also be the Chinese Harper Lee.  Again, Jai Li understands the importance of trying out other people’s skin.  As a consequence of her many experiences – including working in the rural health centre in Sichuan province – she knows, above all, that human beings are fragile; that they need to be shown love, kindness and compassion over anything else.  This is why Jai Li is training to become a teacher.  She wants to impart the wisdom of Atticus Finch to as many little Chinese as possible.  And, guess what?  It’s not as hard a job as it sounds, all they need do is just learn a single trick.

That said, many of the members of the Chinese government seem never to have been taught this single trick growing up, or at least they have forgotten it during their rise through the political ranks.  Moreover, across the world in the affluent areas of society, teaching and practice of this single trick is often regarded as bogus!  How many job specifications these days advertise for kindness?  Some industries would sooner employ someone with great filing skills.  Jai Li knows the people in charge of the wellbeing of her countrymen and women are borderline psychopathic.

Listen:

Jai Li is only seventeen.  But she understands small things can make a big difference.  For instance, she can smile with her eyes, and when you meet her you can see a universe in them, full of possibility - remember, she has an Open Mind.  Moreover, Jai Li is a very tactile girl, she knows touch can heal and that touching people makes them feel real - remember too, she has a BIG heart.  And she loves you as much as she loves me.  Her love for us both is uncritical but also fair.

She has fifteen different languages and great filing skills as added extras!

Nevertheless, if you reading this as a head of recruitment in a major national or international firm, and Jai Li sounds like the perfect ambassador for your brand, or indeed a nice bit on the side to work your front desk, you more than likely won’t be able to find her. People like Jai Li have a tendency to crop up in unusual places, they just appear in our midst.  Search all you will but after a while you’ll be forced to concede you are wasting your time.  And Time is Money.  Don’t waste it!

Of course, Jai Li has been an unpaid volunteer at the rural health centre in Sichuan province – she understood she had something unique to offer and felt obliged to help, but without ever desiring anything in return except for her patients to get better. 

The Chinese government’s 125 billion dollars couldn’t buy enough Jai Li’s for all the tea in their own goddamn country!