She always asked me, "Why do so many Chinese people know about the west while the people in the west have such little understanding of China in such an age when information flows freely?

When you pick up your phone you expect to get a dial tone and a clear connection for your call. You don't care if the call is being routed through fiber optic cables or bounced off a satellite.

Trains usually offer a much nicer environment, including more leg room, better air, and more opportunity to move around and get your blood flowing.

Challenging our not, if a new path is open and seems interesting enough, I have no choice but to pursue it.

If you assume, and we do, that these operations are necessary to keep people alive, then you have to accept those kinds of compromises in order to keep the aid flowing.