Confessions of an American

I did it. I ate in a Mr. Donut in Shanghai. And I may well go to Starbuck’s here in Beijing. This has me so upset that I’ve already blogged about it over at the Boston Globe travelblogue (Steve Yost’s term, I think) but I haven’t expiated the sin yet. (AKMA undoubtedly will explain to me all the ways that sins aren’t/can’t be expiated. And sorry to be missing out on the POMO blogthread – it’s just too hard to focus on it while so far away. No that makes no sense and yet it is The Truth.) I will undoubtedly blog about it again.

But beyond the brand name globalism, what do we do about the fact that all large cities share the same international semantics: sidewalks, streets, traffic lights, tall buildings, smog, noise while you’re trying to sleep, crowds, lines, corner kiosks, hydrants, cars cars cars cars cars? You want your globalism? I gotcha globalism right here…

Categories: Uncategorized dw