The Anus of the Earth may be in Shanghai

Which way is the human condition to work out?

Is it this picture from downtown Shanghai during the recent USS Lassen visit in 2008 representative?


Or is it the more touristy picture (below) what we may see during the Olympics in 2008?


The idea is that the amount of pollution in China is bad. In this case Shanghai is a really big city (8th biggest in the world?), and at the terminus of the Yangtze River, and the last decades or so pollution is worthy of report.

So which way is it to be? Is the Chinese government and propaganda and maybe even NBC promoting their Olympics’ contract to give us one picture? Or is to be more like the recent USS Lassen picture showing what an unhealthy place Shanghai and the Yangtze River have become.

As one who used to enjoy a view of the East China Sea from my front door porch in Okinawa (about a yard and a half square) , now I wonder just what mess is being dumped into the East China Sea I swam and snorkeled in? Even laying on the paultry Kadena AFB Okinawa beaches that bordered on it seems less appealing.


Shanghai is in a lot of movies since movies began. And the attention and stories continue.