No such thing as a free lunch

Last night I went out with my Chinese dialect group contacts. We went to a noodle shop where we watched the noodles being made. The flat round pastry is for the dumplings - so you get to see how the dumpling began and ended (they were really good). The noodle-making was a longer, more strenuous process. The dough was pounded, kneaded, tossed into the air. Eventually the strings appeared. This was all done by hand with no implements. The noodle soup was very filling and I couldn't get close to finishing it. I felt guilty that I was under-appreciating all the work involved.

The title of this entry is a bit ungrateful and was largely done to be catchy. I finished an article on collaboration over a week ago - and it has proved helpful in explaining my study. I am now working on one on American NGOs. I promised to have it done by Friday. After struggling on how to organize the article I decided to focus on nonprofit - government relations. I am simply summarizing tax exemptions, filing requirements, lobbying and the like, and letting the reader compare. The internet (especially the IRS website) makes it easy for any reader to access more than enough details to satisfy their curiousity. (Tan who is translating my questionnaire is involved with the Chinese schools. We have had lots of discussions on US NGO membership, fund raising, and other familiar issues) .

Yesterday Anwar Ibrahim announced that he enough MPs were willing to cross-over so he could start a new government. The effort seems stalled today. Today is a public holiday and who knows what is unfolding behind the scenes. I frequently hear admiration for the American two-party system. Which brings me back to the above paragraph - the amount of transparency. Of course there is the issue of the present administration's lack of transparency, but under the circumstances it seems better to focus on what is working. After all both countries share a lot of what isn't working.