Transcript - Izzit.org

man at peace with himself who, day in and day out, is driven to succeed. His name isJimmy Lai… and this is his amazing story.Jimmy Lai was born in Guangdong Province, in the city of Guangzhou – once calledCanton. He was five when Mao Tse-Tung’s Communist Revolution reached the area.His family’s property was stripped away, their lives decimated.JIMMY LAI: It was very confused time for kids. I didn’t know what was going on. Iwas maybe four. Well, we were unfortunate because our family was rich family, sonaturally, when you are rich, you become the enemy of the people. When I knewanything, I knew that the adults were very busy either being sent to labor camp. Youknow, for instance, my mother only came back during weekends to take care of us. Afterweekends, she had to go back to labor camp. And at that time, you know, me and mytwin sister and my eldest sister- only three of us were still in Canton in the house. So, wewere young kids…left with us. We had to cook ourselves and all that. We just had tosurvive, struggle, as a kid. Although, you know, luckily we were kids, so we didn’t knowanything better.NARRATOR: Jimmy was nine when he went to work in a railway station – carryingluggage.JIMMY LAI: It was an experience that was very educational for me. It changes mypurview of the world. One day I was carrying the baggage for a guy. After, gave me,you know, gave me some tips, he felt into his pocket and gave me a bar of chocolate. Ihad the bar of chocolate in my hand, I turned, and I was so hungry, you know, I turnedand I bite, and it was so tasteful! It was, it was amazing. And so I turned and I askedhim, I said, “What’s this?” “It’s chocolate.” I said, “Where you from?” He said, “HongKong.” I said, “Hong Kong must be Heaven because I never taste anything like that.” Sothat really, that was, that trigger my determination to go to Hong Kong. And then fromthat day on…I pestered my mother to allow me to escape.NARRATOR: The taste of chocolate fueled young Jimmy Lai’s imagination, althoughhe could not have imagined the dramatic differences between his homeland and thefreedom in Hong Kong.JAY RICHARDS: Communist China in the 1950s and ‘60s had a command and controleconomy, in which entrepreneurial decisions and visions, and choices were not preserved,or not respected.FRANK HANNA: When no one can rely on the rule of law and the rights of property,pure logic tells you not to invest too much of your time, and energy and resources intoany property.PETER BOETTKE: The biggest impediment to economic growth is when people feelthe threat of confiscation of their gains, from wealth-creating activity through eithergovernment or other private actors. And so, for example, in the third-world, there’s a2