A Voyage in the East

Yesterday when I was returning from Xi'an I thought that I had hit pay dirt. I was browsing through the magazine store at Xi'an International Airport when I came across a truly precious item, for a news starved foreigner: a copy of economist magazine. I instantly decided to part ways with 8 of my hard earned dollars and contently made my way to the airport gate. I was particularly intrigued by the headline: What China needs to learn from Mao. Thoughts of the lessons of the cultural revolution danced through my head. I was anxious to know what the Economist thought China had to do to succeed in the future. I get on my plane and begin to browse through it as the plane soars over the Chinese countryside. I look in the index and see that the article about China is on page 28. I flip to page 26. I turn the page, excitement racing through my vains. I see page 30 and a neatly cut page. Obviously some bureaucrat had spent their day with a pair of scissors cutting the page out of hundreds if not thousands of Economist magazines.