Today is a big day for Tracy and Tess as Caroline Alter is hosting a coffee and tea get together this moring for all of the neighbors to meet Tess. Although, I think everyone in Taylors Estates has met Tess at least once.
Now that the holiday's have passed we have settled into a nice little routine that we hope will continue for some time to come.
I was just reading an article in the WSJ this morning about smoking in China and it reminded me of how many people I noticed smoking while we were in China.
The cigarette and tobacco industry in China is state run and maintains a monopoly effectively excluding all foreign brands. According to the article, smoking related deaths and illness are on the rise as 35% of the adult population in China smikes, compared to 21% in the US.
What's more companies are targeting the youth market and as a result China estimates that 1/3 of all Chinese, 29 or younger will die because of a smoking related illness.
On the flip side, tobacco is really fueling development and growth in rural places like Yunnan province and Kunming. Kunming's sports complex, which I remember seeing, was funded entirely by money from Chinese tobacco, and the highway heading south of Kunming was built with tobacco money. 50% of Yunnan Province's tax base comes from tobacco taxes. So it's really hard to criticize the tobacco industry given all it does for development in rural China, but hopefully other less damaging industries will flourish in China. But that's the magic bullet aropund the world. Don't even get me started on the environment....
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I was reading that the Beijing marathon has many runners smoking during the race
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