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" just another accident statistic"
posted Monday, 3 January 2005
According to China's National Statistics Bureau (NSB), the population will reach 1.3 billion on Thursday! <LINK>(Actually, the story gets a little confused and says 1.3 million. In that case, I saw the entire population of China today. They were in front of me in the bank!)
Anyway, I want to know exactly what time the little mite will arrive! I would hate to celebrate the poor kid's arrival too early or too late. The fact is they haven't the faintest idea what the population is.
Although they have just completed a census, I don't know a single person who was asked to contribute and census takers are customarily as welcome as tax inspectors. The one-child policy has led to people being somewhat coy about admitting to the precise numbers in their families and there are possibly hundreds of thousands of people who don't exist.
Also, I am betting they couldn't even begin to count the migrant workers. Estimates for those run anywhere between 80 and 120 million. But you can bet your last yuan that the average migrant worker ain't about to volunteer demographic information. So, what I want to know is how, in the middle of all this vagueness, they can be so precise with the date of the 1.3 billionth arrival.
Or perhaps its just more Chinese government bullshit.
Anyway, I want to know exactly what time the little mite will arrive! I would hate to celebrate the poor kid's arrival too early or too late. The fact is they haven't the faintest idea what the population is.
Although they have just completed a census, I don't know a single person who was asked to contribute and census takers are customarily as welcome as tax inspectors. The one-child policy has led to people being somewhat coy about admitting to the precise numbers in their families and there are possibly hundreds of thousands of people who don't exist.
Also, I am betting they couldn't even begin to count the migrant workers. Estimates for those run anywhere between 80 and 120 million. But you can bet your last yuan that the average migrant worker ain't about to volunteer demographic information. So, what I want to know is how, in the middle of all this vagueness, they can be so precise with the date of the 1.3 billionth arrival.
Or perhaps its just more Chinese government bullshit.
1. a reader left...
Thursday, 6 January 2005 10:06 am
I totally agree with your view of the census. I was the only one I know
that was counted, along with my wife and kids - and we aren't Chinese. The
population is at least 1.5 billion.
Wally