Amateur Brain Surgery

The Nurse admires China and wonders at their tolerance of Western interference

The global economy is – inevitably – moving us towards a global morality.  And the Western world appears to have stormed the moral high ground. 

Snug in her cell watching the Olympics, The Nurse hopes the event will send a great big wave of worldwide goodwill in China’s direction. She’s sick and tired of the media’s constant China bashing. And she’s  rendered truly nauseous by The West’s assumption that they know best.

We’re hardly angels and Western culture is far from utopian. The UK has been running amok frittering away the world’s resources since the mid 1800s and we’re still polluting like there’s no tomorrow. The US has been guzzling gas on a mammoth scale for a century and culture change there is also extremely slow. Yet we persist in criticizing China for not changing fast enough.  

Quite apart from that The Nurse - from the safety of her cell - sees the madhouse outside and wonders whether Western society is worth aspiring to.

She seriously doubts the Chinese are desperate to emulate the UK’s youth problem, knife and gun shenanigans. Or the country’s preoccupation with getting utterly drunk every night of the week. Inane-to-the-point-of-horror TV game shows, sitcoms and soap operas. An endless parades of idiot celebrities. A half-literate population and a cripplingly amoral housing ‘market’.

Perhaps people in glass houses should throw fewer stones. Or no stones. Instead, The Nurse recommends that we send China positive vibes and concentrate on putting our own house in order. It’d be nice if our esteemed leaders had the humility to question whether holding the high moral high ground is the same thing as deserving it.

It’s a wonder the Chinese are so tolerant. They must find The West’s poking, prodding and patronising – punctuated by repeated howls of protest – sooooo irritating. Quite frankly, it makes The Nurse wince with embarrassment.