And I think that in so many ways, this little local story, repeated in towns and villages throughout China, hundreds of thousands of times a year, every year, reveals far more than just a human interest story in Guangdong.
It reveals the truly ingrained, endemic, nature of the corruption that riddles China from the highest levels of the politburo to the lowest levels of family life. It demonstrates the immensity of the challenge of transforming an inherently rotten "communist" state - one of the worst regimes in history - into anything even approaching "modernity".
It emphasises the impotence of any claim to power the national government purports to wield outside of Beijing; local cadres are far too happy to exploit the disintigrating, but still entrenched, bureaucratic structures betrothed by Mao - a hangover from the cultural revolution when, for over a decade, the whole country was convulsed in a violent frenzy of self abuse and destruction.
It lays bare the monstrosity that was communist China and, equally, the revolting consequences of unfettered individualism.
It sheds light upon the Chinese peoples' long thwarted but indomitable desire for security, prosperity and a stable future.
It provides insight into the underlying, twisted, history that drives today's unholy scrabble for individual monetary gain - from peasant to president - throughout modern China and yet, also, highlights the long suppressed passion, entrepreneurial spirit and family fidelity of an ancient people.
It speaks to the near impossibility of reconciling the seemingly intractable contradictions that riddle society.
It underlines the complexities and fragilities of a nation held together by the barest of bonds......
And, still, the mere fact that we are reading this news, lends great hope to the dream that this great country will, once again, and against all odds, find the strength to sustain the momentum of the change which has, is and will continue to, transform the lives of it people.
</ soppy, drivelling, soliloquy >
Woof
