We Need Your Help

I was thinking about young Chinese this morning. Last night i was chillin with Li Du, Zachary Mexico and Liang Kegang in a KTV establishment. It was a young PSB dude's birthday and he wanted me to come out and drink with him cuz we have been chillin together during this Holland Heineken House gig.

We showed up and he brought beer and girls. These girls were some busted looking young semi-professional call girls. They sang pretty, poured beer and lit smokes. The PSB guy really wanted us to take some of the girls home, because his buddy owned the KTV joint and could make a little cheddar, and i suppose just to get all of us in one big dirty group. Anyway, my man Li Du sang some awesome Cui Jian songs about Chinese society and politics.

The PSB kid and the girls listened blankly as we told them that Cui Jian was a homie -- Li Du still kicks it with him -- and that he is the Godfather of Chinese Rock.

Got me thinking.

Today there are a few stories out there: this blog post about the ChiComm Troll and why it is important to combat him/her. All of us in China know this troll; I like to call him Captain China. Basically its the kid that mindlessly spits the Party Line, because, according to this story:

...many Chinese editors are steering clear of negative stories during the games either because they think their readers are disinterested in anything that might dull the positive spirit or to do their bit for a successful Olympics.

"Every Chinese journalist is a Chinese citizen. For the Olympics, there is a common consensus, often on a subconscious level, that they should make sure everything goes smoothly," Mr. Shi said. "They must defend their own country."

So i thought about why?

Why exactly do we care or need to say anything to Chinese about themselves?

And after a bit of thought, I realized it is because we need their/your help. This is an age of awakening across the board and China is rising up and "awake," but only in certain aspects.

We cannot afford to have this nation of 1.3 billion people rise to power as ultranationalist, brainwashed slaves to the CCP version of "The Man."

We spend enough time trying to stay awake in our own country, fighting off The Man and trying to spread the truth. If we have to fight off the Chinese as well, it will go bad for us. In the end, Western tycoons are smiling wide and lending the Chinese tycoons a hand in keeping their people down and censored; obedient and enthralled.

Why do you think China is the world's factory?

Its all about cheap, obedient labor.

Friedmann has found his issue

He is just hammering away, hammering away at the alternative, renewable energy grid that would bring the US out of its doldrums. No mercy. I remember being annoyed with good ol TF for some of his views on globalization and war in the middle east, but he's got this one nailed. his issue is important and his thoughts are clear: every column rips into the opposition and drops knowledge on what we can do. props.

speaking of getting ripped (i know i link to the NYT a lot, but hey, they got good stuff these days), McCain gets the proverbial "second orifice" from Frank Rich in this one. I laffed pretty hard at some of the statements .. not meant to be that funny, but you know there was more behind the statement that Rich left out cuz he ain't offensive.

it just keeps gettin thicker

ya'll don't even know.

I went to Hanyuan the other day and just got back in the Du. I was planning on staying a month there, but things didn't work out that way. On the way to Hanyuan I got a call from my man Philly in Beijing and he said:

"yo, that security job you wanted for the Olympics? well its on. Git yer ass to Shanghai with a suit on for an interview pronto."

I hung up and looked at Fraggle Beanmilk -- my companion and right hand fraggle -- and was about to say somethin, when the phone rang again:

"Herro! Is thees Ma Shan? We have big job fo U."

Now i get to write 15 stories about Chengdu over the next five weeks. Word is bond. So i will be on the road, protecting the torch with my Master Li Cuan (Philly gave him a job a month ago) and writing stories about the Du all the way up till the O-limp-iks. I was about to let Fraggle Beanmilk in on this, when the phone rang again. (i ain't playin):

"Herro! Is thees Ma Shan? We have big job for U."

Now they want me to write a BOOK on the Du -- tentatively titled: Laowais See Chengdu! Now I will probably change the title and all ...

And this all happened on the road to Hanyuan, where I am researching for a book on (secret shit can't let ya'll know).

So i finally get to Hanyuan, and here's what's goin on:

"Wang Tao's in the livin room, eatin cherry pie
Gramma Gongfu's in the kitchen pluckin chicken up to fry
Shiye's in the courtyard beatin up some budding hoz
I'm out front with Beanmilk feelin good down to my toes ...

Justa swingin ... Swingin ..."

(name that tune, and i'll buy you a scepter)

So you know. things is gettin deeper. My man Big Tenz thinks that a broad conflict is about to go down between China and the rest of the world, cuz China is playin hell with anyone who wants to come in/stay by being real pricks about the visa. Plus, of course all this recent nationalism and such ... and we can't neglect the various disasters and heavenly portents that spell doom for us all in 08.

Seems like i'll be in the thick of it. wish me evasive tactics.

When I get to a safe spot with herbs and coffee, I'll give you the low down on Hanyuan.

serendipity

i just got back from Beichuan a few minutes ago. Beichuan was near the epicenter of the earthquake, so most of the villages in that area were destroyed or flooded. I met groups of people from Xuan Ping -- a village near Beichuan that was flooded -- scattered throughout the disaster area.

One man was building semi-permanent drywall dwellings in Dujiangyan and fell off of a roof. He was recuperating in the field hospital set up by the German Red Cross.

Another woman was nursing her baby in Mianyang's Jiu Zhou stadium with the rest of the Beichuan refugees -- 50,000 of them on the 18th, now down to 4000 -- while her husband was working buildings dwellings in Mianyang.

Outside of Beichuan itself, Xuan Ping locals were rushing in and out of the "quake lake" area scavenging clothes, crops and other useful things in preparation for flooding that might occur soon. With thunderstorms brewing in Sichuan after a week of sultry days, the dam might just break this weekend.

I also met a Daoist monk outside of Beichuan in Huangtu Village whose house was destroyed. He was waiting patiently for the government to solve other more pressing issues -- like possible flooding -- before they got around to him and his family.

It is ironic that everyone is really impressed with the organization and efficiency of the relief effort. I have been here for eight years and although China has grown exponentially -- and Chengdu with it -- I always considered this place to be bordering on chaos, with red tape, corruption and outright laziness putting a damper on what could have been even more explosive growth.

There is a difference between the chilled out bureaucratic wrangling of the day-to-day life in China and the focused zeal with which Chinese carry out national projects and goals.

Beichuan refugees are now also being sent en masse to factories in Shandong and Guangdong Provinces to work and make money while the rebuilding phase takes over. Many of their children are also being sent to other provinces to continue their all-important studies.

It is raining in Chengdu.

"If it keeps on raining, the levee's gonna break, if the levee breaks, momma we got to go ..."

We felt it comin ...

My friend Rachel wrote the day before the quake: "I feel like the world is shifting"

if ya'll check the first few lines of my post "The Illusion of Coincidence" you'll see that there was something in the air ...

just to embellish a bit: yesterday was Buddha's birthday.

The plates that caused this earthquake are the Tibetan plate rubbing againt the Sichuan basin (Tibet and Han rubbing against each other).

Earlier this year this area was hit with snowstorms.

Aba Prefecture, where the earthquake was centered, was the site of Tibetan protests in March.

China has invited the Dalai Lama to attend the Games.

The world is indeed shifting. How can one not be spiritual at a time like this?

A tremor, again, as I write.