Yo

I think i really dropped it on this one ... peep it and holla back!

(Do i need to translate any American slang for you people? -- i just assume everyone knows what "dropped it" and "peep it" mean ...)

Trolls.

Anyone who has written or who reads about China issues has encountered the ChiCom Troll. I didn't realize there was such a distinct term for these people, i always called them "brainwashed fanatic spittle round the mouth haters" -- anyway here is an introduction to trolls that made it into the NYT.

Basically, for web savvy cats, all this is old news: the troll that "trolls" the web looking for his issue of consequence, unloading his trollish essence all over the post/article/thread etc then moving on to troll another site.

There are "cracker white supremacist trolls, anti-liberal republicunt trolls, sappy-crispy hippy trolls, yamaka-sportin jewish trolls" and so on.

this link right here concerns itself with the ChiCom troll.

PS the rest of this dude's blog is ... trollish.

Some ill from the Du

My man Chengduxi, who put up my Auryn tattoo back in the day -- had to get it recolored by Poh in Pai, but so what -- he's got his sights set on the art scene .. he was once a drummer, still is, now he paints and generously puts it up for us to peep. (Chinese language only, but the images are universal, yo ..)

and here are a couple pics from my new home in the Dirty Du (Chengdu for ya'll not in the know).



my fragrant lil hybrid jasmine ...



Gimpy, the one that made it



and this one's for Mika, who wished it ...

Hu Jintao Steps Up

It is a beautiful morning here in Beijing. The sun is blinding white, reminding me of a graveyard shift I pulled in Alaska once.

We were driving up to Ketchikan from Bellingham (on a fishing boat) and I watched the sun come up while passing through one of the countless channels between the countless islands off the west coast of Canada and the US. A school of porpoises appeared, surfed the boats wake, then disappeared. In the distance I saw a school of Orca, their distinctive dorsal fins rising up out of the silver ocean. I heard children laughing and the mountains shone with glee. Watching a sunrise is like watching a birth. Hope and happiness are the primary emotions i feel.

I watched today's sunrise framed by a newly built hotel near the Silk Market in Beijing. I will bring my camera tomorrow for the graveyard shift and pray that the world gives birth to twins ...

Hu Jintao gave a "rare press conference" yesterday, accompanied by a supposed lifting of the ban on certain web sites. As of now, BBC Mandarin is still blocked. In true political fashion, politician Hu lamented the politicizing of this grand political event, the Olympic Games.

Not only have the Games been political since way way way back -- in the form of a truce at the very least -- but China has been at the forefront of politicization.

This is, am i wrong? China's great Coming Out Party, a political event. Chinese athletes are expected by their government to win it all, fulfilling a political goal. Dissidents and protesters are being suppressed or channeled into "Designated Parks," a politically astute move, no? Visas and such are curtailed, hotel rooms tapped and Internet sites blocked -- politically motivated defense mechanisms all.

So picture me laughing, yet again -- at those silly political humans who would block the rising of the sun. Only the moon can accomplish that great feat ...

Moral Authority?

Its not hard to imagine how China manages to get away with being one of the more brazenly oppressive nations to hold the Olympics in recent times. The USSR was able to do so, but only with half the world boycotting and in 1936, Nazi Germany's Olympics were held before boycotts were widely used as a means of protest.

Boycotting China does not seem to be in the cards, although a postponement or outright cancellation of some events might be.

In the end, money talks. Rogge and the IOC most likely got paid. And when the heads of state consider boycotting the Opening Ceremonies, I am sure companies like the sports and media giant IMG and British mining concern CMG will take the politicians aside and whisper a few words ...

To Big Business, the will of the people is naught but an annoying buzzing, augmented only slightly by media blitzes and peep-voiced blogs like this one. China pays off the parents of children killed by the quake and corrupt construction firms and compensates Hakka farmers forcibly removed from their home because they know it works. Same goes for "the moral authority" of the West. Free Tibet indeed ...

What did you think was gonna happen?

The fools of the world who believed Chairman Rogge and the Chinese BOCOG are to blame for their foolishness.

There are several stories out there: The frog and scorpion, the fool and the snake ... whoever thought that the Games would change the nature of the snake, was probably dreaming of dragons ...

One Last Roast

Indeed, I wrote a lot about how perfect my "Leaving" is, as it comes almost to the day when i arrived 8 years ago. I spoke a lot about how everything seems pre-ordained.

Well, now I am beginning to experience what that actually means. These days in Beijing will be a further searing of my soul to the point where i will wonder what exactly it is that i believe. Who exactly I am.

My patna Beanmilk told me today that I have to leave, before i become too Chinese. She said this after that post "The Good News Is" ... what she means is that my original self is American, and the longer I stay here, the more Chinese I become. This Chinese sense of self is, in her words "originally not yours" so I should and have to leave and go back to the US in order to recover that which I am. Or else I will be wrestling with this "foreign" entity in me till it pops out my chest in a bloody mass ... she says me wrestling with myself in that post is proof that i need a rest from all this.

Last night a friend asked me rhetorically: "Who are you?" because I spoke German to one kid, American to another, Chinese to another and so on ...

I welcome all of this. When i was young, Whitman's poem "Song of Myself" had a great impact. I am German and Turkish because the blood of those people runs through me. I can't help any Turkish-ness or German-ness which I display.

America is a state of mind, a set of principles, a way of living that is as much a part of me as any blood relationship I have. But it is because I lived as an American. Surrounded by America, feeding on the tit of America, raised by a True American, I can only be a chip off that block.

Now, after 8 years in China, a whole new set of mind states, principles and ways of living are filtering through my self.

After suckling at the Chinese tit for so long, can I walk away and wipe my mouth with no effects whatsoever?

I think not.

And why would I: In my song of myself I too contain multitudes, I contradict myself and in the end can be nothing but me myself and I.

So these next few weeks will be my final roast above the spit of China.

Grease me up, yo!