All those cars on traffic-clogged streets, and McDonalds and Wal-Mart are signs of progress?

Too bad that the Chinese haven't learned from the foolish mistakes that we have made.

Yes,when people have freedom and income and education, they CHOOSE to eat at McDonald's and shop at Wal-Mart, they learn to speak English, and they Google information about BYU! It might be charming for those who are not stuck in poverty to visit millions who are, but it's clearly not how the Chinese choose to live when they get a chance to do otherwise. And frankly I don't see a mass movement of rich liberals moving to more primitive economies so they can live their dream of having small carbon footprints. Like Al Gore, they demand that laws be enacted to force OTHER people to make those sacrifices, while they continue to fly on private planes and burn up the energy of an aircraft carrier to power their homes.

Frankly, there is a very simple and relatively cheap solution to global warming worked out by a couple of scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Lab, and featured in last month's issue of WIRED Magazine. It would cost only $1 billion a year, or 1 cent per gallon of gasoline bought by US drivers. Period. It is NOT a problem, and does NOT require us to live in poverty.

Nice to see Pres Samuelson is cruising around the world, but when does he ever visit the campus he is in charge of? In 3 years at BYU I have not once seen him on campus except for the 1st devotional of each fall semester.

Mark B; I agree with you. It's interesting that Wal-mart and McDonalds were noted as some of the signs of progress. It's also great to see that people have abandoned those pesky bikes that "overwhelm" cars on the street.

Funny how over here we are increasing our biking and lowering our fast food consumption as we learn the health benefits of doing so, and we consider it progress.

When I was at Brigham Young University I saw President Samuelson on campus on multiple occasions. He conducted many devotionals, and he held question and answer session with students and also had a campus wide activity on a Wednesday evening.
Actually, I have seen him on BYU campus on multiple occassions of late in broadcasts of the CES Firesides.
I actually had a class at BYU with Merrill J. Bateman. It was Book of Mormon and he co-taught the class with Jeffrey Marsh since on many occasions he had to be at meetings in Salt Lake City or elsewhere. At one point President Hinckley sent him to a religious freedom conference in Indonesia.
I am sure President Samuelson spends much more time on campus than you give him credit for. However, I think you forget that BYU views the world as its campus and so you do not have to be in Provo to be advancing its goals.
Personally I thought it was interesting that President Samuelson had succeeded Elder Nelson.

I am thrilled that President Samuelson has been in Jinan. My husband and I spent the 2006-2007 school year teaching English at Shandong Normal University and are now in the process of returning to Jinan to teach at Shandong University. This busy city is becoming our second home. The people are great. We have kept in contact with many of our students, some of which are presently in the UK and the USA studying. We've enjoyed living and working among the citzens of China. They are a wonderful enthusiastic people. The Kennedy Center's China Teachers Program gave us the opportunity to meet and love the Chinese people. Hurray for President Samuelson and Elder Nelson for their work in Jinan.

Way to go Raymond Swenson. Well put - and - you are right!