Third World America Poem by anais vionet

I lived in Shenzhen, China, for my 6th and 7th grades - China was *AMAZING*.

In China, blond hair is unusual, I stood out like neon and touching blond hair was considered good luck.

In a train station, if I stood still, I could draw a curious mob - especially in the provinces like Heubi and Shanxi. I was in more than a few selfies but people were polite and respectful.

China is much more advanced than the U.S..
Everything is new, clean and modern - the Internet is faster. Most trains are bullet trains that travel 325kph (>200mph) . There are more than 10 new, gleaming cities larger (and newer) than New York.

An App called WeChat (used on your phone) runs the world. Imagine Facebook, iMessage, PayPal and Uber combined - with that one App you could do anything.

At restaurants, you paid your bill at your table using WeChat from a QR code that the electronic corner of your table displayed.

Cameras are everywhere - if you break a law like jaywalking and *BBBZZZZ* you get a text and the fine is deducted from your WeChat account - all automatically.

Public TV screens, located on corners, show recent violations with the perps picture and the fine they paid - again, automatic.

Does this sound Orwellian? Well, maybe, but Chinese police don't kill people - or even engage people for minor offenses.

America, you're broke and on the edge of being a third world country.

Yeah, yeah, I know that China is free-market-communist and certainly imperfect - but if you saw China, you'd be impressed and you'd know the ugly truth - America has squandered it's wealth on military macho and forty years of war. China's last, small war was in 1980 (With Vietnam who they beat in 3 weeks and 2 days) .

Middle America looks almost bombed-out with closed businesses (even before the pandemic) - but in China, you can't look anywhere without seeing building cranes - like a forest of trees. A physical illustration of Americas loss of wealth.

I LOVE America - it's sad to see.