love atcha

here are some pics of my kitties. there are three surviving kitties and the two sisters take turns licking and caressing the lil kitty-cats. i believe the white one is the mom. I have already thought up a fairy tale based on Auntie Lickems, Mommy and the three adventurous furballs. I cannot comment back or comment on most people's blogs from here, just know i be sendin love atcha ...

I, like God, do not play at dice ...

which is a lie. I actually do roll the dice often and play cards most every week. But i still dont believe in chance. This may seem ridiculous, but i can see the cards in the deck sometimes. The only evidence I have for this very ephemeral ability is the plus/minus column. in six years or so of cards and dice, I am comfortably in the black.

I have been made the project manager for Odyssey's new Sichuan Guide, so today i meet with Kempinsky Hotels to try and get them to sponsor a bit of the cost. They have a new train service coming out soon, the Tangula Trains -- I will be struggling with the other kittens for a shot at the Tangula nipple: a five-day luxury ride from Beijing to Lhasa or Lijiang.

I may have to shave my mullet down for this meeting.

Chinese activism

this is about Migrant Workers jumping from buildings to protest corrupt ass developers who refuse to pay salaries. its a spoof in Sichuan Dialect.

Ba bu Ba Si

I am down with Sichuan Hua.

holla at me

does anyone out there work with alternative fuels/renewable energy on a large scale -- research, investment, development, promotion over breakfast at the sunny side up on lyndale can ya feel me ???

i bet there are at least five peeps reading this. anyway. this story and others like it have me very excited and optimistic. i'm tellin you ... we all goin green.

here is a story that's pretty funny: China and India being "more green" than the US. Oh my Lord is that hilarious. but its an interesting point. China and India are polluted nations and its getting worse. but they head to open air markets for their food and ride bikes. it has to do with economic choices rather than green choices. If everyone in China could get a car, they would.

The fusion of economic choices with environmental choices can create a very fine society: making green living desirable because it represents modernity, consciousness and conjures up images of sci-fi Utopias ....

I wish i knew more. so holla at a ninja!

Xenophobia

China is really making it hard for the foreigners these days. All visas are a big pain in the ass -- my main man in Beijing, a guy that for years was able to get us visas, had his office ransacked and all foreign passports confiscated.

People who have been here for years and have good relations with the government -- businessmen and women with big money and influence -- are getting hassled by the cops left and right. Random racist attacks on foreigners are worse than they have ever been.

At the same time, one must realize that this is basically still a small group of cops and fools behind a lot of this. The vast majority of the people are cool and curious and friendly and hospitable. But the minority -- as in Burma/Myanmar -- is reverting back to the Old Days when foreigners were devils and dogs and Asians were heroes of culture and wisdom fighting against the barbarian tide.

Is this only an Asian thing? I have been to a few other countries and anti-foreigner rhetoric is always there, but in my experience the anti-foreigner racism of Asia is one of the more rock-solid in the world.

In the States we have racism along color lines, but not necessarily ethnic lines ... it is a blurred edge no doubt, as different colors usually mean different ethnicities. In Europe, anti-foreigner sentiment seems confined to the Old and New Right ... but its starting to seep into the mainstream. I suppose Outsiders have always been hated, its always there.

The bullshit reason-less hatred I am subjected to at times in China has made me more of a nationalist than I would have ever become on my own. I am still not a Fortress America proponent ... but the world is filled with regular people with their heads down trying to make ends meet and dominated by loud-mouthed demagogues who see nothing but differences between us all. It makes me want to retreat and blow things up at the same time.

"We need to run these crazy baldheads out of the town ..."

If anyone has anything to say, holler.

who's the cracker?