Turning rights

I had a brilliant idea today to go with a friend to Ikea for lunch. Yeah, us and 1.3 billion other people. It was fun, the food was good, and it was packed. On a Wednesday afternoon. Go figure.

Was it worth it? Yes.

On the way home I had a brief but interesting conversation with our cab driver.

Him: "So what country are you from?"

Me: "America."

Him: "Oh, America's a good country."
Me: (wanting to be polite and not feeling especially homesick at the moment) "China's good, too."

Him: (smirking into rear-view mirror) "Humph."

Me: "Well, I mean, it's getting better and better."

Him: "China has no human rights."

Me: "Oh, um," (awkward pause) "Mumble, mumble, mumble." Thankfully, I can always count on someone crying to excuse me from a conversation, awkward or not. Trying to redirect the conversation: "Shenyang doesn't have many parks or places for kids to play. People make money building apartments and high-rises, but there's not a lot of money in building parks."

Him: "See, even if the regular people on the streets want parks, they have no way of building them. No human rights!"

Hmmmmm... I'm not so good at redirecting a conversation.

It was interesting to see that this was so much on his mind. I think that most people go about their day-to-day lives without much complaint, but when it comes down to it, a lot of people feel like their hands are tied. If there's a problem, there's not much they can do about it because change has to come from the top down. A lot of change is happening, and there are improvements being made in many aspects of life. But it's true that the 老百姓 or regular people on the streets don't have much power or control-- or rights, once you come down to it.