Hello from Shanghai China!  I am in China for a fewdays to visit some of the factories that we work with to import music and soundproducts.  China is a busy, modern country that really has been impactedby Western culture.  Signs of our culture are everywhere.  Big Americanname brands are very popular and the malls look more American every  day. It seems that over the past five years of coming here that the people evendrive with a little more respect for the rules of the road and it seems that insome ways, the people have been softened up a bit, or allowed to becomemore real…….more individual.  It’s a subtle thing, but Ican see change taking place in the country with my limited number of visitsover the past few years.

However, it is still a communist country.  Thegovernment has control over just about everything.  I mean SERIOUScontrol.  You wouldn’t think that anyone could control personalcommunication between one citizen and another.  But, due to some recentpolitical unrest, the government has shut down access to Twitter, Facebook, andsome other networking sites.  It’s not really too scary (orsurprising) that they would take this action.  What is scary is that froma technological standpoint, they CAN.  If China can do it, so can ourgovernment.   That is a pretty sobering thought. 

I just posted a few pics from the first day of ourtrip.  I hope you enjoy them……..and maybe, just maybe, myAmerican GoDaddy-based blog site will still be able to auto-forward the postingto my Facebook account, hahaha…..

There’s always a workaround, right?

I hope you are all well.  I have a live chat window onmy site at www.chriswardonline.com.  I will be online most evenings between 9-11, so that will be your morningsbetween 8-10 CST.  Maybe I will see you there!

Be blessed, and be thankful for the freedom that you have.

Chris