The floods in the Yangtze River basin are the worst in 44 years. Official figures indicate that more than 2,000 people have drowned and 13. 8 million have been driven from their homes. Crops have been destroyed on 4. 5 million hectares, 3% of China's total cropland. Some factories have had to shut. The transportation of goods and people has been disrupted. The overall effect on China's economy will be felt for many months.

Floods during the monsoon season in southern China are a regular occurrence. But there's a human hand in this, in the form of deforestation and intensive land development. The Yangtze basin is home to 400 million people. With such a density of population, the human pressure on the land is intense. The Yangtze basin has lost 85% of its original forest cover. The forests once absorbed and help huge quantities of monsoon rainfall, but now there's much greater runoff into the river.

The construction of buildings and roads in the basin is increasing at a staggering pace. And land hunger is forcing more and more homes to be built on the river floodplain. The extent of factory construction also defies the imagination. By a rough estimate the size of the industrial workforce in the basin would be at least 50 million. With the average factory in the private sector employing fewer than 120 people, this means half a million factories. Collectively these homes and factories cover a vast area, further reducing the capacity of the land to absorb rainfall.

Due to higher global temperature and more intense monsoons, the Yangtze basin may well be one of the areas getting some of the additional rainfall. We can expect even worse floods in the years ahead. If the basin adds another 100 million people, as projected, in the next few decades, China will need to build another 25 million homes. As industrialization continues at a rapid pace, factory and road construction will also continue, further reducing the area of land that can absorb water and increasing the amount that will ultimately flow into the Yangtze.

With the international community unable to agree on a meaningful effort to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, rising atmospheric levels of this greenhouse gas promise even higher temperatures for more evaporation, more rainfall and even stronger monsoons. The 400 million Chinese living in the basin are beginning to feel directly the effects of altering the environment. This should be a warning to the international community to begin working together to lower greenhouse gas emissions before climate change affects even more people.

What was the purpose of Earth Day? How did it start? These are the questions I am most frequently asked.

Actually, the idea for Earth Day evolved over a period of seven years starting in 1962. For seven years, it had been troubling me that the state of our environment was simply a non-issue in the politics of the country. Finally, in November 1962, an idea occurred to me that was, I thought, a virtual cinch to put the environment into the political "limelight" once and for all. The idea was to persuade President Kennedy to give visibility to this issue by going on a national conservation tour.

I flew to Washington to discuss the proposal with Attorney General Robert Kennedy, who liked the idea. So did the President. The President began his five-day, eleven-state conservation tour in September 1963. For many reasons the tour did not succeed in putting the issue onto the national political agenda. However, it was the germ of the idea that ultimately flowered into Earth Day.

Six years would pass before the idea that became Earth Day occurred to me while I was on a conservation speaking tour out West in the summer of 1969. At the time, anti-Vietnam War demonstrations, called "teach-ins", had spread to college campuses all across the nation. Suddenly, the idea occurred to me — why not organize a huge grassroots protest over what was happening to our environment? I was satisfied if we could tap into the environmental concerns of the general public and infuse the student anti-war energy into the environmental cause, we could generate a demonstration that would force this issue onto the political agenda. It was a big gamble, but worth a try.

At a conference in Seattle in September 1969, I announced that in the spring of 1970 there would be a nationwide grass-roots demonstration on behalf of the environment and invited everyone to participate. The response was electric. It took off like gangbusters. Telegrams, litters and telephone inquiries poured in from all across the country. The American people finally had a forum to express its concern about what was happening to the land, rivers, lakes and air — and they did so with spectacular exuberance. For the next four months, two members of my Senate staff, Linda Billings and John Heritage, managed Earth Day affairs out of my Senate office.

It was obvious that we were headed for a spectacular success on Earth Day. It was also obvious that grass-roots activities had ballooned beyond the capacity of my U. S. Senate office staff to keep up with the telephone calls, paper work, inquiries, etc. in mid-January, three months before Earth Day, John Gardner, Founder of Common Cause, provided temporary space for a Washington, D. C. headquarters. I staffed the office with college students and selected Denis Hayes as coordinator of activities.

Earth Day worked because of the spontaneous response at the grass-roots level. We had neither the time nor resources to organize 20 million demonstrators and the thousands of schools and local communities that participated. That was the remarkable thing about Earth Day. It organized itself.

The world is graying. Among the 500 million people around the world over the age of 60, one-fifth or 120 million of them live in my country. Aging has become a serious social issue here.

In 1995, the number of Chinese senior citizens increased to 9. 76 percent of the country's total population. This figure is increasing at an annual rate of 3 percent. At this pace one in every ten Chinese will be elderly by the year 2000.

The aging of a country's population to a certain extent reflects socioeconomic development, so perhaps this trend can be seen as an indicator of China's modernization. However, it also brings many problems.

Chinese Characteristics

Compared to other countries, China's aging sets some new firsts:

— The absolute number of China's senior citizens is the largest in the world. Now numbering 120 million, this number will exceed 130 million by the end of the century, and reach 400 million in 2040, almost the same as China's total population in 1949.

— China's population started to age only at the end of this century, almost half a century later than developed countries in Europe and America; but once China become an aging society, the proportion of elderly will increase very quickly. Because of a rapid drop in deaths in the past half-century and because of a drop in the birth rate as well by the year 2025, the proportion of China's elderly to the population will be six to seven percent higher than the world average. By 2040, China will have 400 million senior citizens, 28 percent of all Chinese. Such a rate of increase will be rare elsewhere in the world, and it will cause a disproportional ratio between the aged and dependent population and the able-bodied workforce.

There is a rich supply of traditional sightseeing, vocational and special tourist projects. Theme parks made remarkable headway in meeting market demands and coping with the needs of the international market. A case in point is the China Friendship Tour first introduced in 1992.

Rapid Increase in the Number of Tourists

Domestic tourism rose in the early 1980s and reached in peak in the late 1990s. It has contributed greatly to China's development of tourism. This period also saw a steady increase in the number of people visiting the border areas or overseas.

In 1997, the number of domestic travelers rose to 644 million, producing an income of 211.27 billion Yuan. In the meantime, 5.32 million Chinese went overseas as tourists.

Also in 1997, China received 57.59 million people visiting the country, or 31.83 times over the 1978 figure, taking the fifth place in the world. China made US $ 12.07 billion from tourist business, ranking eighth in the world (compared to 41st place in 1978).

Sunrise Industry

Tourism has become an important source of non-trade foreign exchange revenue. In 1997, China's tourist earnings in foreign exchange made up 6.6 percent of China's export value. The total tourist revenue as a percentage of GDP rose steadily to 4.16, reaching over 10 percent in certain provinces.

The booming tourist industry has created more job openings. In 1997, the industry had a total staff of 1.34 million, plus 6.7 million people who worked for the industry indirectly.

Tourist development has spurred the development of transportation, building and telecommunications industries, and has given birth to many new industrial sectors. Throughout the country, some 3 million people have said good-bye to poverty through involvement in tourist businesses, making up 4.29 percent of the 70 million poverty-stricken population.

The tourist industry has also played a positive role in meeting the cultural needs of the public, carrying forward national culture and achieving the sustainable development of resources.

For a Chinese retiree, life can be enjoyed only if it is secure.

Now the country's pension scheme, initiated in the mid-1980s, has pledged to give a secure life to some 102 million urban and 45 million rural elderly.

The final goal is to provide for every retired person in China.

Until recently, social insurance was regarded as unnecessary in a country where parents live with their children for care and support.

However, the growth of the number of aged, now numbering 103 million, has eroded the traditional way.

Family planning has also made it impossible for a couple to look after four aged parents, especially in rural areas where the aged have no reliable income.

Urban retirees get pensions from former employers according to their years of service and are comparatively better, off.

But in the fledgling market economy, enterprises can lose money or even go bankrupt and thus be unable to provide a decent life for retirees.

Even those with prosperous businesses complain about their inferior living standards under pensions.

The insurance system was designed to shift the burden of payment from individuals or single enterprises to the whole of society.

How many times have you heard the expression that most people spend more time planning their vacation than they do planning their lives? I would expand that expression by adding that most people spend more time "thinking" about their vacation than they do thinking about what's important in their life.

While rest and relaxation are a must in living a balanced life, it's not what we were created to do. After all, the surrender Master Creator took his R&R (Rest and Recreation) on the seventh day, only after six days of "definitely directed thought."

Wallace D. Wattles, wrote "There is no labor from which most people shrink as they do from that of sustained and consecutive thought; it is the hardest work in the world". And yet it is the first and primary labor of achievement.

Mr Smith is well known in Washington because of his many social blunders'. He always likes to attend the various social functions because he -wants/ to expand his circle of friends. Whenever he is invited, he goes, unless he is ill.

Recently he received an invitation to a fashionable banquet.

Although he did not know the hostess, he accepted the invitation. He was secretly very pleased, because he felt that his reputation as a desirable guest was growing. ,

When he arrived at the banquet ball, he found that about one hundred people had been invited. He-began to move around the hall. He spoke to other guests; whether he knew them or not.4- He soon realized that he had never, met any of the other people present, although they seemed to know each other .At dinner, he was seated beside a very dignified woman5.

The woman tried to be friendly even though she had never met Mr Smith before. She spoke politely, whenever he spoke to her. Between the first and second course6 of the meal, she turned to Mr Smith and said, "Do you feels that gray-haired man at the end

of the table? The one with the glasses.

"Ah, yes. Who is he ,asked Mr Smith.

"He's the Secretary of the Interior she replied.

Mr Smith said: "So that's the Secretary of the Interior! I'm afraid that I find very little to admire about him8, although he is the Secretary. "

The woman stiffened9 and did not reply. Smith continued in spite of her coldness. "I really can't see how he received his appointment, unless he is perhaps a relative of the President."

"It hardly matters whether you like the Secretary of not," she said. "He was chosen because-the President thought he was the man for the job"'. If-he does the job well, you should have no complaint."That's just 'it, "persisted Smith. "No one does the things he does, unless he is a complete fool.'""

"Sir I "said the woman in all her dignity. "Do you know who lam?"

"No. "Replied Smith.

"I am the Secretary's wife, she said coldly. Mr Smith was flabbergasted12, but he went on in spite of his embarrassment. "Madam, do you know who I am?" "No, I don't." the woman replied.

"Thank goodness J "exclaimed Mr Smith, as he quickly left the table.

In the office bearing on its door the legend and in smaller letters down in the left-hand corner the name M. Bodkin

Sandy Miller, M. Bodkin's secretary, was waiting for her overlord to return from lunch.

He came in at this moment , greeted her with his customary cordiality, cast a loving glance at the robust girl on the desk and took a seat.

It is difficult to say offhand what ought to be the aspect of a production adviser at a prominent Hollywood studio. Of Monty you could only state that he did not look like one. His pleasant, some¬what ordinary face suggested amiability rather than astuteness. In the west end of London — say at the Drones Club in Dover Street, of which he was a popular member — you would have encountered him without surprise. In the executive building of the Superba- Llewellyn he seemed out of place. You felt he ought not to be there. Ivor Llewellyn, the president of the organization, had this feeling very strongly. There was an ornamental lake on the Superba- Llewellyn lot, and it was his opinion that his production adviser ought to be at the bottom of it with a stout brick attached to his neck. Though not as a rule a lavish man, he would gladly have supplied brick and string free of charge.

So great is our passion for doing things for ourselves, that we are becoming increasingly less dependent on specialized labor. No one can plead ignorance of a subject any longer, for there are countless do-it-yourself publications. Armed with the right tools 5 and materials, newlyweds gaily embark on the task of decorating their own homes. Men, particularly, spend hours of their leisure time installing their own fireplaces, laying out their own gardens; building garages and making full Some really keen enthusiasts go so far as to build their own computers. Shops cater for the do-it- craze not only by running special advisory services for novices, but by offering consumers bits and which they can assemble at home. Such things provide an excellent outlet for pent up creative enter unfortunately not all of us are born handymen.

Some wives tend to believe that their husbands are infinitely resourceful and can fix anything. Even who can hardly drive a nail in straight are supposed to be born electricians, carpenters, plumbers chances. When lights fuse, furniture gets rickety, pipes get clogged, or vacuum cleaners fail to operate women assume that their husbands will somehow put things right. The worst thing about the do-it-< game is that sometimes even men live under the delusion that they can do anything, even when the; repeatedly been proved wrong. It is a question of pride as much as anything else.

Last spring my wife suggested that I call in a man to look at our lawn mower. It had broken do\ previous summer, and though I promised to repair it, I had never got round to it. I would not hear

20 suggestion and said that I would fix it myself. One Saturday afternoon, I hauled the machine into the j and had a close look at it. As far as I could see, it needed only a minor adjustment: a turn of a screw 1 little tightening up there, a drop of oil and it would be as good as new. Inevitably the repair job was not so simple. The mower firmly refused to mow, so I decided to dismantle it. The garden was soon littered chunks of metal which had once made up a lawn mower. But I was extremely pleased with myself.

traced the cause of the trouble. One of the links in the chain that drives the wheels had snapped. After new chain I was faced with the insurmountable task of putting the confusing jigsaw puzzle together < I was not surprised to find that the machine still refused to work after I had reassembled it, for the : reason that I was left with several curiously shaped bits of metal which did not seem to fit anywhere. I up in despair. The weeks passed and the grass grew. When my wife nagged me to do something about or told her that either I would have to buy a new mower or let the grass grow. Needless to say our house is surrounded by a jungle. Buried somewhere in deep grass there is a rusting lawn mower which I have to repair one day.

My new telephone number in Hong Kong is 8681818. It's in the book2, though quite possibly under my first name, since most people east of Suez think it odd that we write our names as we do, and so assume our Christian names to be our surnames, and vice versa.

But that's a marginal point. What I wanted to relate was how the gift of this particular telephone number came to pass.

It was not the number with which this apartment was blessed when it came on market. That was 258528 - in local terms, a very bad number, and maybe one of I reasons the place was such a steal'.

It is all to do with the vague and confusing homophonies present in the Canto tongue. Cantonese has nine distinct tones tor every sound. The tonal difference can very slight to foreigners, but the meanings they serve can be very different The SOLI we pronounce as gow4, for example, can mean "nine" or "dog." or else a term of go sexual intimacy. To greet a Cantonese lady out walking her poodle, by commenting the magnificence of the beast is, frankly, to invite trouble.

The homophonies stretch lo the words used to express numbers too. The number 4, for instance — set — can be said with only a minute tonal difference lo means t word for "death''. So 4 is an unlucky number. A neighbor w-ho lives on the 4th floor No. 44 MacDonnell Road acquired her apartment for several thousand dollars und the usual price. No one but a gweilo5 — a white barbarian — could stomach its number fatal attraction.

And as with house numbers, so with telephone numbers. The original numb assigned to my apartment. 258528. Expressed in Cantonese means roughly, "You w not get rich, you will definitely never get rich." Since all Cantonese have no great wish than to amass fortunes before they die, such a phone number, sounding so summit to such a sentiment, is unthinkable.

Thus alarmed, I put all this to an operator at Hong Kong Telephone. "Nonsense she said, "You're a gelid. What would you care? Keep it."

I lowered my voice. "Look here." I argued, "if you were married to me" -— snorted with icy amusement — "would you keep such a number?"

There was a pause. Mr. Simon," she hissed, "if I were unlucky enough to t married to you, I would get that number out of the house quickly. It's a terrible number. I get you a new one. Double quick time. Good number. I promise!"

Early next morning technicians swarmed into the apartment, did something t the lines, and handed me a card. I had a brand-new number: 221383 yih - yih - ya saambaat-saam*1. The first phrase is innocuous, but the second means "lifcmone; life," without any qualifying negatives. A first-rate number, just as the operator has promised.

On March 23, 1839, the initials "OK." were first published in The Boson Morning Post. As an abbreviation for "oil correct", a popular slang misspelling of "all correct" at the time, OK steadily made its way into the everyday speech of Americans.

During the late 1830s, it was a favorite practice among younger, educated circles to misspell words intentionally, then abbreviate them and use them as slang when talking to one another. Just as teenagers today have their own slang based on distortions* of common words, such as "newt" for "cool" or "DZ" for "these", the "in crowd" of the 1830s had a whole host of slang terms they abbreviated. Popular abbreviations included "KY" for "No use" ("know use"), "KG" for "No go" ("Know go"), and "OW" for all right ("oil wrights").

Of all the abbreviations used during that time, OK was propelled into the limelight when it was printed in was picked up by contemporary politicians. When President Martin Van Buren was up for reelection, his Democratic supporters organized a group of gangsters to influence voters. This group was formally called the "OK” Club", which referred both to Van Buren' s nickname "Old Kinderhook" (based on his hometown of Kinderhook, New York), the opposing Whig Party made use of "OK" to denigrate2 Van Buren ' s political mentor, Andrew Jackson. According to the Whigs, Jackson invented the abbreviation "OK" to -cover up his own misspelling of "all correct".

The man responsible for unraveling the mystery behind "OK" was an American linguist named Allen Walker Read. An English professor at Columbia University, Read dispelled* a host of false theories on the origins of "OK", ranging from the name of a popular army biscuit (Orrin Kendall) to the name of a Haitian port famed for its rum4 (Aux Cays) to the signature of a Choctaw chief named Old Keokuk. Whatever its origin is, "OK" has become one of the most popular terms in the world, and certainly one of America's greatest lingual exports.