Interesting. I fell down at the edge of the road, and my right foot was hurt. I thought it was not a big deal but after visiting PLA 85 Hospital and did X-Ray exam, it turned out the fifth right small bone was broken – well, not a serious broken, just a leak at the end of the bone.
Anyway, it is a bone break, and the doctor put gypsum around my foot, and ask me to stay home without going anywhere, and don’t step out of the room. It makes 4 to 6 weeks to recover.
Well. Since it has to be that way, it has to be that way. I am not a patient. My middle school teacher joked: all patients are very patient. He is absolutely right. I am very patient now. There are long “vacation” waiting for me.
Anyway, I don’t expect to stay at home too long. I suspect that I will appear at office next Monday afternoon for the management meeting. I am going to get a 300 RMB wheelchair from Baixing.com, and Wendy has been kind enough to agree to send me to our office building. I never feel so happy about the fact that we choose a building with wheelchair access path. My type of work is OK with just a computer, but I would rather stay in the office surrounded with friends. Face to face connection is also much more productive than facing computer alone.
Yifan’s Reaction
My darling YIfan saw me jumped out of hospital with one leg. He was so amused that he laughed very happily. Then he kept repeatedly saying: “Daddy. Walk. Differently”. We asked him to tell us how daddy walks. He happily jump around…
The Road
Well. Since I have enough time to spend, I can start to write more blogs about the society, and write down a lot of thoughts, including the recent arrest of my friend Dr. Xu Zhiyong.
The reason I fell was, there is a small difference in height between the edge and the road – the bricks part and the dark asphalt part. According to the standard, these two should be exactly fit each other, as in every road in Shanghai.
What brought my attention was, the owner of the news stand where I fell told me, he saw at least tens of people falling here, and many are more serious then I was (I didn’t know I broken my bones, because I still cold walk). I am going to report it to related government agencies and media tomorrow to rise people’s awareness. But what I bitterly aware is, it won’t have any effect anyway, and I am generally laughed at to be naive in the current Chinese society. If I insist on improving the situation too much, as Xu Zhiyong did, I may cause a lot of trouble for myself.
Anyway, you may expect more blog entries in the next few days before I get back to work.
P.S. I didn’t blog too much since I don’t have Internet access in the last few days, and after I leave office, I don’t have Internet access. The Internet service didn’t work and we called China Telecom four times, but no one came although every time they promise to come to fix it.
Sorry for your foot, but happy to see you will write more in these a few days.
I’m very curious how quick that road can be fixed with effert from a person like you. Usually a small potato’s yell would be just neglected. Let’s wait & see.
I don’t have any confident that the road can be fixed at all. But inspired by Xu Zhiyong, I kept doing a lot of things like this in the last few years.
Martin Luther said: “Even if tomorrow is the end of the universe, I will still water my apple tree today”. – never give up hope even though hope is not feasible at all.
Lu Xun of China said: “In sealed room with no fresh air, and a lot of people are still sleeping in it. Even if you wake them up, they cannot do anything with the room, why bring the pain to them. However, if you wake up all the people, maybe there is a chance to break the room”.
Many times in the US, even in our small city where I know the mayor and city councilors, telling them of road hazards, bushes blocking intersections, places where there are frequent car accidents that need stop signs, scary brown water coming from the tap after rainstorms, nothing gets done. But I think the feeling is different in the US. I think that if I wanted to really complain, to write to lots of people, to start a protest, or to get newspapers involved, then it is more likely to work–only I don’t want to spend the time to do all that.
What I don’t think is that I have no chance of helping, and I don’t think it would be dangerous for me to do all that. I don’t ever think the state would arrest me. Is that the difference?
Another idea just popped up from my mind: What if you sue some government department for the faulty road, and ask for a claim? Will that be a harder kick on the “sealed room”? Many years ago I read a news, saying some Japanese got pneumonia, and they sue their government for having not done enough on air pollution control, which amazed me so much! I really wonder when similar things can happen in China, and more importantly, people takes it for granted, rather than a news.
Of course I can 100% understand if you wouldn’t take this action. You should spend your precious time on your professional area. Law is not your expertise. You’ve actually done a lot.
Salute – for your sense of responsibility to this “no-fresh-air” society.
Ouch! I’m sorry to hear that happened to you, Jian Shuo :-(
I well-remember from having broken my ankle a few years ago, the awareness that life truly can change in an instant.
Knowing you, I predict that you will find your unexpected loss of mobility to be a very interesting situation, and that you will learn some important lessons about flexibility, humility (from having to ask and rely on other people for help in circumstances where you are used to being independent) and the relativity of hardships (as uncomfortable and inconvenienced as we may be by something like a broken bone, there are of course always many people with far greater handicaps to endure)
Do follow your doctor’s advice and stay off the foot for as long as possible so it can mend well and quickly. You’re young, and I’m sure your bone will be back to normal very soon.
Fast-healing thoughts coming your way from here!
Hello JS,
Sorry to hear about your accident. But am looking forward to your blog.
Regarding the problem with the uneven pavement, given the current situation, I think it is easier if you get some cement and patch up the gap yourself. Don’t bother waiting for the government folks to do something about it, you have a better chance of finding condoms on the Pope.
JS,
Sorry to hear about your incident, but confining at home for 4-6 weeks for you is a wishful thinking. My guess is that you will be on the go next week, well on wheelchair at least, to your office. Do be careful and do not go overboard!
I don’t know how much good it is to sue the government here in Shanghai, but if you have the time to do so, I will cheer for you. Sometime I feel very badly for the Chinese citizens here for having to put up with so much craps the government officials ruled. They don’t even bother to complain to the pertinent department. They said there’s no use fighting with the goverment. I think it otherwise though. If enough people complain officially and openly, their voice might be heard.
It’s not just China where things don’t work. Earlier this year I went on vacation to New York City and was amazed at the state of the metro system. It’s old and dirty, we even saw rats there! A New Yorker said the East Side of the city looks better because that’s where the mayor lives!
Wish you a speedy recover.
建硕,
祝愿早点好起来。
开心的好起来。
:)
cheery
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