A great many strange things have happened in the past few days ... perhaps not as many as may be transmitted by the feeling that accompanies one or two strange happenings, but nonetheless ... something is happening.
I was sitting with my friend Himmler one evening. His woman Jodie and roommate Wu Tong were in attendance and we were focusing hard upon the twin challenges of the Primary and Starcraft. My phone was dead. Wu Tong comes into the living room, smells our sweat and says:
"sascha, call for you ..."
Its my girl, Yu Shi, on the other end, crying and very upset. Her dog had been confiscated by some cracker-ass peasants in my neighborhood. For those not in the know, i live in the sticks outside of Chengdu and for me cracker denotes anyone with buck-teeth, tendency to yee-haw, funny hair, smothered in innocent moral failings aka ignorance etc....
So i call up these peasants and ask them how they want to solve the problem.
They say: "Gei Qian Saa!" which means, gotta pay me fool!
Two or three dudes take turns on the phone. I can tell its an assembly of quarter-intellects. Discussing anything with crackers is tedious at best, infuriating at worst. I lose my temper after the fourth or fifth unanticipated yee-haw burped into the receiver and slam the phone down.
I call Yu Shi and be like: chill. call up your media people and have them meet you tomorrow at 11:30. I'll call the police and have them roll through my house right now (i was in the city, she was at my home) and we'll have the crackers meet us at noon. We'll tell them we got the money and they should bring the dog.
So I boogie home and meet the cops. They are pretty much useless. I should go into "China style cops and robbers" shit here but basically imagine a corrupt and lazy force that is only motivated by fear from reprimands emanating from the murky heights of the Party. And they love paperwork. Anyway they take her down to the station -- its midnight by now -- and after all sorts of bullshit, including asking her what she's doing with a foreigner (typical) they tell her alright, you can walk home now.
But these men are cowards. So i get on the phone and say: you dumb son of a bitch bring her home. So they do. (I know I sound like a badass, but its my blog suckas).
The next day the media show up and they are all geared up Spies like Us style. Its great. They have a camera in a bag and they pretend to be Yu Shi's buddies. I disappear, because my work is done. If a foreigner presses to hard here in China, xenophobia rears its ugly head.
The crackers show up with their wives and old mothers. A whole Yee-Haw gang. They say point blank: if you don't give us 1800RMB (250USD), we'll keep the dog. The cops show up. The media reveal themselves. Now begins the bullshit session.
Now a bullshit session in China is really something to behold. Logic and reason have no place in the session. Its ad hoc improv style arguing with the combatants bringing up Chairman Mao, the Three Represents, The role of the Peasant vis a vis the role of the Young Girl in building a New China, word play (by crackers no less ...). Anyway in the end, the cops say give the crackers 100RMB and take the dog. The crackers point to their mom and say: she spent so much time taking care of this dog. They point to the wives, they made special dog food for him. They demand a gratitude fee for not slaying and eating the dog. They haggle. All this is on camera, by the way.
The dog's name is Lei Feng, who was a Communist Hero: the model man in the socialist society. The cracker served in the Lei Feng Regiment of the 8th Route Army. He brings this up, gets emotional and decries the decadent path of the New China.
I am currently trying to get a copy of the report that aired two nights ago to put it up here. You won't need to understand anything.
On the way back to our house, dog in tow, a call comes in from another hysterical girl who lost her dog in the neighborhood as well. She says maybe Yu Shi found her dog, switched his collar, then lost him again. For real.
Yu Shi decides yesterday that she can't take care of Lei Feng anymore, because she has no time or place for him and so she calls this woman up. She happens to be a translator of English and German and I need a translator. We bond over doggie biscuits and tea. The translator might take Lei Feng home in a day or two.
Last night, another girlfriend of mine calls up hysterically and says her home was broken into. She lost her computer, camera and wallet.
Meanwhile, Yu Shi is back on the job, as a reporter for the Economic Daily. She has two jobs: to infiltrate the traffic police by pretending she is a small child trying to cross a busy street. The traffic police tell her that they have to first consult with the leaders before they can leave their offices and head to the street to control traffic. This is all caught on tape and reported the next day. Today there is a picture of those same pigs out on the street, attempting to do their job.
Her other job was to attend a meeting about the small protest in Pengzhou against a planned chemical factory that will affect the water supply. The meeting -- held by the leaders of the paper -- was to inform all reporters to stay away from Pengzhou, not to talk about it, send SMS about or do anything. Because the project is a pet of the Provincial Governor Zhang Zhong Wei.
International media and Cantonese media reported on it instead.
Sichuan is the epicenter of all that is cracker.
Meanwhile, my homie Boogie is back in town with his mom. He is looking ot me to aid him in a visa hunt. The guy we all used to go to for visas had his office in Beijing raided and all passports, including Boogie's, were confiscated. There has been no word as of yet.
A German photographer and an English writer asked me to help them with visas over the past few days as well.
Another Econ Daily reporter called me up and tried to get me to agree that CNN's "apology" for Jack Cafferty's statements wasn't actually an apology at all. I said: "Bitch we got the First Amendment!" Unfazed, she pressed on till I finally said: Yes, it is an apology, but I know it doesn't suit well with the nation's victim campaign, so write whatever the hell you want. She said thanks and offered to buy me dinner today. She didn't quote me in the paper and the headline said: CNN: "regret, does it mean apology or sorry?" In Chinese there is a slight distinction between some of these phrases. What they want is for Cafferty to kow tow. I just shake my head sometimes. there truly is no lack of bullshit in our world.
Meanwhile, my cats gave birth the other night, outside in the rain. I didn't realize until this morning when i walked downstairs and my neighbor said: hey, yer cats gave birth, pointing to a wriggling furball in the grass. I trip and take the three kittens and spend the rest of the morning trying to find them a safe place. They end up in my closet, wrapped up in my chupa -- a very useful fur-lined Tibetan cloak. I have two cats. The one that gave birth watched the kitties, while the other attacked male cats in the area with a ferocity I have never seen. She is also pregnant and gave birth to one giant kitten last night that died. The two cats are taking turns nursing the three kittens.
Last night as I took a break from all of this craziness with my pipe and some Buddha, a fourth kitten comes squirming out of the grass and mewls up at me. I trip some more and take this Lucky lil bastard up into the closet. He immediately went for the nipple. He is doing fine.
There is more going on. Really, I haven't even told half. But this is enough to let you know that this week has been very eventful -- and I feel the pattern coalescing around me, even if I am clueless as to its purpose, design or frame of mind.
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Tell that b*tch to chill!
Its time to concede Hillary.
I like to believe that the universe works according to my whim. My decision to stay here in China until after the Olympics and then boogie to Portland in September seems to be in line with all that is transpiring in the world.
In September, I will see if it is at all possible to influence the politics of the nation. After November, when Obama -- if all goes according to my whim -- becomes the first mulatto president of the US, then I will see what institutions and tools are already in place to help unify and marshall the American people.
It can happen. Kennedy created the Peace Corps to take our asses out into the World, what will Obama create to bring our asses back home to re-make the American Dream in the image of the people who dream it?
"Let's do this, girl!"
I like to believe that the universe works according to my whim. My decision to stay here in China until after the Olympics and then boogie to Portland in September seems to be in line with all that is transpiring in the world.
In September, I will see if it is at all possible to influence the politics of the nation. After November, when Obama -- if all goes according to my whim -- becomes the first mulatto president of the US, then I will see what institutions and tools are already in place to help unify and marshall the American people.
It can happen. Kennedy created the Peace Corps to take our asses out into the World, what will Obama create to bring our asses back home to re-make the American Dream in the image of the people who dream it?
"Let's do this, girl!"
Monday, May 5, 2008
The Word
I have tried to emphasize the need for us to turn back to home and see what we can do there instead of sticking our under-educated noses into everyone else's business. This column here by Thomas Friedman lays down what we already feel.
On Brainwashing
In China, indoctrination of the youth begins very early. At age 6, young kids are given their first Chinese Reader to learn the vast collection of characters, poems and proverbs that make up the Chinese language. The book begins with a small rhyme about flowers and their need for the sunshine, then goes into the people and their need to deeply love the Communist Party as an analogous sentence. Important vocab includes:
Re Ai: literally Hot Love
Gong Chan Dang: Communist Party
Hua: Flower
Yang Guang: Sunshine
Later, most children read the story of San Mao, one of the hundreds of thousands of street urchins and orphans that crowded the streets of many a Chinese city right after Japan's surrender and before the final victory of the Communist Party over the Nationalist Party in 1949.
In the first chapter of this book, published in 1959, the trials and struggles of San Mao and his street brothers are listed: starvation, freezing, no shelter, no family, short-hard lives ahead of them.
The landlords scorned them. The Nationalists, described as Guo Ming Dang Fan Dong Pai -- which means "the Nationalist Reactionary Group" (students of Communism will recognize the belief in the inevitability of the Socialist Utopia) -- are primarily to blame for their plight, through mismanagement, corruption and callous disregard for the People in general.
And the American Devils "wu yuan wu gu da si tamen" which means beat them (the orphans) to death without rhyme or reason.
The book is actually a collection of comic-book style depictions of the orphans and the capitalist pigs, foreign devils and anti-Revolution traitors who torment them. The Communist Party and Mao Zi Dong are the saviors of the orphans ...
It goes on. In Middle school there is Si Xiang Ping De class, which translates into Philosophical Tenets or Moral and Philosophical Laws ... Students love this class because it does not count toward their final grade and there is no homework. Its only purpose is to indoctrinate the children in Communist Party Thought. There is little mention of the great Chinese philosophers, unless something they wrote blends well with the Communist Party Rhetoric.
In high school and university, there are the Deng Xiao Ping Theory and Mao Zi Dong Important Thought classes. Similar to Si Xiang Ping De except more focused on the individuals who exemplify the Communist Rhetoric.
At work, most Dan Wei (work units) are ruled over by the Party Secretary of that particular company, area or office. There are regular meetings that deal with what is and is not correct according to the Party and what Important Campaigns are currently underway.
In the Tibetan regions for example and in those regions that border them, like Chengdu, Party members were instructed to go into every monastery, every Tibetan area and begin wholesale, hardcore re-education. This involves having Tibetans break, spit on and denounce pictures of the Dalai Lama, mass arrests, beatings and criticism sessions and, most horrifying, a call for all of the People to keep their eyes open for suspicious characters and report them to the relevant authorities.
It is the Cultural Revolution of the New Millenium. The Party is so terrified of the future ... it truly is fitting that in China, the land with the most amazing and glaring contradictions I have ever witnessed, the Ruling Elite will be most terrified during their most dramatic moment of triumph.
Re Ai: literally Hot Love
Gong Chan Dang: Communist Party
Hua: Flower
Yang Guang: Sunshine
Later, most children read the story of San Mao, one of the hundreds of thousands of street urchins and orphans that crowded the streets of many a Chinese city right after Japan's surrender and before the final victory of the Communist Party over the Nationalist Party in 1949.
In the first chapter of this book, published in 1959, the trials and struggles of San Mao and his street brothers are listed: starvation, freezing, no shelter, no family, short-hard lives ahead of them.
The landlords scorned them. The Nationalists, described as Guo Ming Dang Fan Dong Pai -- which means "the Nationalist Reactionary Group" (students of Communism will recognize the belief in the inevitability of the Socialist Utopia) -- are primarily to blame for their plight, through mismanagement, corruption and callous disregard for the People in general.
And the American Devils "wu yuan wu gu da si tamen" which means beat them (the orphans) to death without rhyme or reason.
The book is actually a collection of comic-book style depictions of the orphans and the capitalist pigs, foreign devils and anti-Revolution traitors who torment them. The Communist Party and Mao Zi Dong are the saviors of the orphans ...
It goes on. In Middle school there is Si Xiang Ping De class, which translates into Philosophical Tenets or Moral and Philosophical Laws ... Students love this class because it does not count toward their final grade and there is no homework. Its only purpose is to indoctrinate the children in Communist Party Thought. There is little mention of the great Chinese philosophers, unless something they wrote blends well with the Communist Party Rhetoric.
In high school and university, there are the Deng Xiao Ping Theory and Mao Zi Dong Important Thought classes. Similar to Si Xiang Ping De except more focused on the individuals who exemplify the Communist Rhetoric.
At work, most Dan Wei (work units) are ruled over by the Party Secretary of that particular company, area or office. There are regular meetings that deal with what is and is not correct according to the Party and what Important Campaigns are currently underway.
In the Tibetan regions for example and in those regions that border them, like Chengdu, Party members were instructed to go into every monastery, every Tibetan area and begin wholesale, hardcore re-education. This involves having Tibetans break, spit on and denounce pictures of the Dalai Lama, mass arrests, beatings and criticism sessions and, most horrifying, a call for all of the People to keep their eyes open for suspicious characters and report them to the relevant authorities.
It is the Cultural Revolution of the New Millenium. The Party is so terrified of the future ... it truly is fitting that in China, the land with the most amazing and glaring contradictions I have ever witnessed, the Ruling Elite will be most terrified during their most dramatic moment of triumph.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
HK Torch Relay
here is a column i wrote for Antiwar.com that will not get published:
On Friday the torch arrives in Hong Kong. Demonstrators from around the world are arriving ahead of time to take advantage of this opportunity: after Hong Kong the flame will be traveling through Mainland China, where security will be extremely tight. This may be the last chance for demonstrators to make a statement that will be heard on the international stage.
This Friday is pivotal for the well-being of the Games. If protestors manage to disrupt the flame – and get beaten by patriots and police for their efforts – the tense atmosphere that has been gathering around the Beijing Olympics since March will reach a new and perhaps irreversible height.
Several pro-Tibetan groups are forming an alliance and have organized strategies to disrupt the torch’s path. As seen in other cities, small groups harassing the flame along its path has proven to be successful. Hong Kong has seen its share of city-wide demonstrations. Pro-Democracy marches in Hong Kong attracted up to 500,000 people and the city is much more open, educated and liberal than its massive cousin to the west.
Although the true democratic nature of Hong Kong can be debated, the people consider themselves blessed with more political freedom than Mainland China and have taken to the streets to defend that freedom.
In 2005, when the WTO Ministerial was held in Hong Kong, the local security forces were not prepared for the organized, determined efforts of the protestors. The anti-WTO protestors managed to disrupt the talks and undermine the legitimacy of the body. The locals discussed the issues openly, in the papers and in the streets – and many of them were supportive of and sympathetic to the anti-WTO movement. Obviously, protesting against an international trade body and protesting against the Motherland are two very different things, but Hong Kong is accustomed to free speech and political activism. It is possible to discuss issues there and not get beaten for it.
That might change very quickly if the local security has not learned the lesson of the WTO protests in 2005. A failure to contain any demonstrations could be disastrous for Beijing’s Big Party.
The tense atmosphere will be ripe for an act of rebellion during the Games, which could be provocative enough to cause great problems – including the cancellation of the Games.
The image of the Black Power Salute at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City is an image that much of the world knows and remembers. At the time, the two American athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, were expelled by the International Olympic Committee for violating the Game’s apolitical stance. They also faced death threats and were ostracized at home in the US.
The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and 70s in the US was successful in some ways, unsuccessful in others. This is not the only example of the Olympics becoming a forum for international politics, but it is the most similar to what Beijing may face in the coming months.
Imagine if an athlete -- Buddhist, French or otherwise – wins a medal and displays a picture of the Dalai Lama, or a medallion with his picture, or the Tibetan flag during the medal ceremony.
Pro-China demonstrators have already shown that they can and will resort to violence and threats to suppress the opinions and free speech of others, no matter what country they are in . In Beijing, if an act of “rebellion” were to be televised around the globe, such as the Black Power Salute, it is not out of the question to expect nation-wide demonstrations and riots. Chinese fans in Beijing and locals would be compelled to express themselves.
Chinese government spokeswoman Jiang Yu praised Chinese students “defending the integrity of the torch” in South Korea – what would the government do to those who would defend national integrity at the risk of disrupting the Games?
It is safe to say that any athlete pulling a Tibetan Power Salute will be expelled immediately. The question is not the consequences for the athlete, but the reactions of the Chinese. The Olympics, Tibet and the West are very emotional topics for some Chinese. There is no discourse on these topics, as many have already discovered. The potential for violence is palpable. It happened with the Japanese during the Asian Cup, which they won after defeating the Chinese team in the final, and it is happening to Carrefour now.
The real issue here can be illustrated very succinctly by comparing what happens in Hong Kong on Friday – and the Chinese government’s response to it – and what happened in San Francisco when the Olympic Torch arrived there.
The US did an excellent job of providing a forum for all opinions – pro- and anti-China – while protecting the flame and allowing everybody to get a look at it. This is what a free and modern society can do: have the strength to allow dissension and discussion without violence and repression and still get the job done.
Chinese students abroad are considered brainwashed because, so far, the ability to discuss the issues in a rational manner has not been demonstrated. On Friday we may learn how rational or irrational things can get here. The consequences for hopeful athletes around the world could be dire.
On Friday the torch arrives in Hong Kong. Demonstrators from around the world are arriving ahead of time to take advantage of this opportunity: after Hong Kong the flame will be traveling through Mainland China, where security will be extremely tight. This may be the last chance for demonstrators to make a statement that will be heard on the international stage.
This Friday is pivotal for the well-being of the Games. If protestors manage to disrupt the flame – and get beaten by patriots and police for their efforts – the tense atmosphere that has been gathering around the Beijing Olympics since March will reach a new and perhaps irreversible height.
Several pro-Tibetan groups are forming an alliance and have organized strategies to disrupt the torch’s path. As seen in other cities, small groups harassing the flame along its path has proven to be successful. Hong Kong has seen its share of city-wide demonstrations. Pro-Democracy marches in Hong Kong attracted up to 500,000 people and the city is much more open, educated and liberal than its massive cousin to the west.
Although the true democratic nature of Hong Kong can be debated, the people consider themselves blessed with more political freedom than Mainland China and have taken to the streets to defend that freedom.
In 2005, when the WTO Ministerial was held in Hong Kong, the local security forces were not prepared for the organized, determined efforts of the protestors. The anti-WTO protestors managed to disrupt the talks and undermine the legitimacy of the body. The locals discussed the issues openly, in the papers and in the streets – and many of them were supportive of and sympathetic to the anti-WTO movement. Obviously, protesting against an international trade body and protesting against the Motherland are two very different things, but Hong Kong is accustomed to free speech and political activism. It is possible to discuss issues there and not get beaten for it.
That might change very quickly if the local security has not learned the lesson of the WTO protests in 2005. A failure to contain any demonstrations could be disastrous for Beijing’s Big Party.
The tense atmosphere will be ripe for an act of rebellion during the Games, which could be provocative enough to cause great problems – including the cancellation of the Games.
The image of the Black Power Salute at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City is an image that much of the world knows and remembers. At the time, the two American athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, were expelled by the International Olympic Committee for violating the Game’s apolitical stance. They also faced death threats and were ostracized at home in the US.
The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and 70s in the US was successful in some ways, unsuccessful in others. This is not the only example of the Olympics becoming a forum for international politics, but it is the most similar to what Beijing may face in the coming months.
Imagine if an athlete -- Buddhist, French or otherwise – wins a medal and displays a picture of the Dalai Lama, or a medallion with his picture, or the Tibetan flag during the medal ceremony.
Pro-China demonstrators have already shown that they can and will resort to violence and threats to suppress the opinions and free speech of others, no matter what country they are in . In Beijing, if an act of “rebellion” were to be televised around the globe, such as the Black Power Salute, it is not out of the question to expect nation-wide demonstrations and riots. Chinese fans in Beijing and locals would be compelled to express themselves.
Chinese government spokeswoman Jiang Yu praised Chinese students “defending the integrity of the torch” in South Korea – what would the government do to those who would defend national integrity at the risk of disrupting the Games?
It is safe to say that any athlete pulling a Tibetan Power Salute will be expelled immediately. The question is not the consequences for the athlete, but the reactions of the Chinese. The Olympics, Tibet and the West are very emotional topics for some Chinese. There is no discourse on these topics, as many have already discovered. The potential for violence is palpable. It happened with the Japanese during the Asian Cup, which they won after defeating the Chinese team in the final, and it is happening to Carrefour now.
The real issue here can be illustrated very succinctly by comparing what happens in Hong Kong on Friday – and the Chinese government’s response to it – and what happened in San Francisco when the Olympic Torch arrived there.
The US did an excellent job of providing a forum for all opinions – pro- and anti-China – while protecting the flame and allowing everybody to get a look at it. This is what a free and modern society can do: have the strength to allow dissension and discussion without violence and repression and still get the job done.
Chinese students abroad are considered brainwashed because, so far, the ability to discuss the issues in a rational manner has not been demonstrated. On Friday we may learn how rational or irrational things can get here. The consequences for hopeful athletes around the world could be dire.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Sleeveless Tendencies
First off ... looks like the fervor might be dying down. we shall see. Does anyone else see the parallels between the Games and the Primary? We are down to the last few states and it is getting crucial -- for china they are down to the last few cities on the torch relay. But even if the West backs off and the Games go smoothly, it will go hard for those who raised their voices ...
My Shifu got the job doing security for the Games -- he was hired as a team leader and starts o the 9th. At the last second there were still doubts, because he is "short and carries himself with too much humility"... i suggested they test him. So they tested his english and his gong fu ... he was hired on the spot cuz he took out a bar full of englishmen and cussed em out as they flew out the windows ... hehehe
there once was an Emperor of China who was gay and had a lover with whom he was infatuated. One afternoon, they were lying together amidst the silk and gold and the Emperor's sleeve was caught under his lover's body. Instead of waking his lover, he slipped out of his sleeve and went to do whatever it is Emperors do in the afternoon ...
Ever since, "sleeveless" has become a byword for gay lovin. in Chinese pinyin it is called:
duan xiu zhi pi ...
Here is a picture of my homie Ripitus gettin some ink ... sans sleeves.
My Shifu got the job doing security for the Games -- he was hired as a team leader and starts o the 9th. At the last second there were still doubts, because he is "short and carries himself with too much humility"... i suggested they test him. So they tested his english and his gong fu ... he was hired on the spot cuz he took out a bar full of englishmen and cussed em out as they flew out the windows ... hehehe
there once was an Emperor of China who was gay and had a lover with whom he was infatuated. One afternoon, they were lying together amidst the silk and gold and the Emperor's sleeve was caught under his lover's body. Instead of waking his lover, he slipped out of his sleeve and went to do whatever it is Emperors do in the afternoon ...
Ever since, "sleeveless" has become a byword for gay lovin. in Chinese pinyin it is called:
duan xiu zhi pi ...
Here is a picture of my homie Ripitus gettin some ink ... sans sleeves.
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