October 11th, 2009
Update 1 Feb 2010
There are several sections for you to explore! And don’t forget to scroll down! Some postings are for friends only. To have access, register and you will have access after login.
I am a Rat!
Beijing air quality:
- see the pages in the right hand column to have background information on what AQI and API means, also the impact on your health; see also some overview tables
- search for blog entries to have further comments on pollution in Beijing
About me:
- see in the right hand column information about this blog
- see my brief – also in Chinese – and the article of a book talking about me
- “the” movie: http://blog.strategy4china.com/?p=2847
Posted in Letting steam off | No Comments »
February 20th, 2010
A bit confusing as a name… “The Place” (in Chinese: shi mao tian jie) is located next to CBD and on Dongdaqiao Lu, close to the famous Silk Market (or Silk Street if you prefer the old name).
My activities are often all in that area so I go there nearly daily: my gym (California Fitness, in The Place), our karaoke (SOHO Shangdu), my Chinese school (Hanwei Plaza) plus several massage place all in walking distance. In the area there are many (new) restaurants, including in The Place (with the biggest buffet in Asia, plus Indian, Vietnamese, Japanese, Chinese, …). Just discovered other ones in SOHO Shangdu and in Prosper Center (basement). Next door there is also a new movie theatre. So, enough choice.
The Place is now a popular tourist destination, many buses stop there for the tourist to look at the huge screen. While huge and impressive, it’s quality is rather soso (not a BARCO…). People all come to take some quick pictures. Not sure it brings money to the coffee shops (at least 3) and the mall.
The huge screen also serves as a roof for frequent entertainment and commercial activities: ice skating, pop groups, car exhibitions, 3G mobile promotion, etc.
The biggest problem there: no taxis during the week between 5 and 9pm. So I normally have to walk home or grab one of those pedicabs…
Posted in China views | No Comments »
February 19th, 2010
And she does not sing “Poker Face”: it’s: “Liar’s Face”
China is getting paranoid, obviously bureaucrats realize some people are really upset with “certain issues”. Like the milk scandal, the new-rich, the astronomical greed by the real estate sector (read: those who have the right guanxi), worker’s exploitation (slavery is sometimes a better word). Too many things people are not supposed to talk about.
One can wonder if they will succeed to stem the flow. The clever people find a way around the New Great Wall. But others are happy to remain uninformed as they only care about playing computer games and … discovering carnal pleasures.
See here part of article dated 12 February 2010, “Innocent websites suffer in Beijing’s anti-porn push” by Stephen Chen in the SCMP:
More than 130,000 websites have been closed in the mainland’s crackdown on internet pornography, although less than 12% of them were actually pornographic.
The figures, buried in a Xinhua report meant to hail the success of the anti-porn campaign, prove a long-held suspicion that the central government is using pornography as a pretext to suppress Web freedom.
Since December, the Communist Party’s Central Committee has ordered the country’s state-owned internet service providers, such as China Telecom, China Mobile, and China Unicom, to examine every website on their servers, an anonymous senior party official in charge of cyberspace told Xinhua.
The official said the telecommunications operators sniffed through more than 1.8 million websites. By Wednesday, more than 136,000 had been shut down.
Among them, “16,000 contained pornographic or sexually explicit contents, and among these, 11,000 were accessible by mobile phones”, the official was quoted as saying.
Porn-free websites were shut down because they were not “officially registered”.
Mainland internet regulations require websites to apply for a government certificate before opening to the public. The process is time-consuming and often abused by corrupt government officials. For years, many small websites, especially non-commercial ones built and maintained by individuals, have skipped the registration process.
At about the same time that the anti-pornography campaign was launched, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced an amendment to the registration regulation. An individual citizen who did not have a business licence or government approval was no longer eligible to register.
Posted in MAC and IT | No Comments »
February 18th, 2010
As reported by the SCMP on 18 February…
Three women have been caned in Malaysia under Islamic law for the first time.
Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said the sentences were carried out on February 9 in a women’s prison outside Kuala Lumpur after a religious court found them guilty of having sex out of wedlock. Two of the women were whipped six times.
“It was carried out perfectly,” Hishammuddin said. “Even though the caning did not injure them, they said it caused pain within them.”
His comments signal that the mostly Muslim country is now prepared to flog a mother of two for drinking beer, despite the international criticism that the case has sparked.
The case will fuel a debate over rising “Islamisation” in Malaysia, where religious courts have been clamping down on moral offences as well as a ban on Muslims drinking alcohol that had rarely been enforced.
“I hope this will not be misunderstood so much that it defiles the purity of Islam,” Hishammuddin said. “The punishment is to teach and give a chance to those who have fallen off the path to return and build a better life in future.”
Yeah yeah, bunch of muslim hypocrites. In what century are those people living? Then they are surprised we hate them – no problem, they hate us, the infidels, too.
I am proud to be an “infidel”.
Reason enough to kick those people out of our countries. We have no place for you.
Malaysia is a sad case. In the past I liked that country. Now, add them to the blacklist.
China is bloody right to curtail any of those in Xinjiang. Europe could learn from the Chinese, for once. But then lazy Europeans should also start picking fruit and doing other jobs they look down on and have to leave to immigrants. The USA are not better, just see why they need all those Latinos to do the hard jobs.
Another conclusion: here we have bad stuff too. But at least they don’t cane people for drinking beer of having fun in bed.
Posted in Letting steam off, Unhappy with China? | No Comments »
February 18th, 2010
I haven’t been back in the Olympic Forest Park but I was told the gate on the West Side is now open and the statue can now be seen. The gardening was never completed, for obvious reasons (obvious to us!).
Cleaning up my many documents I stumbled on two documents:
- Publication dated September 2008 of the Belgian-Chinese Economic and Commercial Council, with an interview of the artist. The story told is part hilarious and part sad. A complete distortion of the facts, nothing ever happened that way. Just to suit some (famous) people in Belgium who have selective amnesia. I use the story of the project as an illustration on ”How to do successful lobbying in China and how consulting companies can be the victim of dishonest foreign counterparts”. The story is very popular and I used it in several EMBA seminars.
Download: 080901strebelle.pdf
one the seminars on lobbying
- A Chinese publication that reports the signing of the agreement covering the donation by The Kingdom of Belgium to the City of Beijing, ceremony held on 14 August 2007 at the Beijing Municipal Planning Commission. Pictured are Ambassador Bernard Pierre and myself.
Download: http://blog.strategy4china.com/wp-content/uploads/070814art.pdf
More details about the sculpture, search this blog…
Posted in 2008 Beijing Olympics, biz, economy and more | No Comments »
February 17th, 2010
On 13 February evening we had the by now traditional “nianyefan”, the Chinese New Year’s Eve dinner. Our home office was again reshuffled to accommodate 20 or something guests, a mix of several nationalities. As usual, the Chinese tend to mostly sit in the large kitchen…
The star of the evening was of course Daisy, the cute little baby (good job John!).
Some pics – maybe later more through our special photographer Charles.
I was just over my Beijing cold and killed whatever germs with loads of red wine. The next day John and Kevin were down with another sore-throat version. Seems the virus is going around in Beijing in circles. Also, it is rumored there are many with the piggy piggy version.
Thanks to all for the company, the fun, the many nice bottles and great chocolate you brought us!
Posted in Family | No Comments »
