Another storm in a teacup, sorry, coffee mug. For me, misplaced shortsighted and even nationalistic Internet ramblings. Rui Chenggang, anchorman on the English channel of CCTV is triggering a storm on the Internet by his views that the coffeeshop in the Forbidden City is an insult to Chinese culture. To note here that the coffeeshop is (now) discreetly blended in in the environment. I would fully agree with him if there would be an ubiquitous logo – there is no such sign. China Daily also posted a reaction and different view from Beijing Youth Daily – calling it an over-reaction. Especially as it is not the only outlet: there are several “real Chinese” food & beverage facilities in the complex.
Reminds me of the hoopla around “protesting against celebrating Christmas in China”. So, was Indonesia right when they prohibited any Chinese celebrations in the recent past (now revoked)?
The anchorman and his followers should stop with their tunnel vision that smell like typical nationalistic demagogy. Instead they better pay more attention to the rich Chinese culture and traditions that are still largely ignored by the younger generation (who adores visits to KFC, yuk, not me). Just recently Beijing Today published a reply from their “Chinese advisors” to a letter asking why some Chinese men grow long (left) pinky nails. They simply did not know and gave a lousy answer. (I leave it up to you to figure out the right answer). China Daily is regularly publishing interesting articles explaining more about Chinese traditions, superstitions, beliefs and other. Yes, as they write, the young need “the guiju wisdom of compasses and squares”.
I wonder if Rui Chenggang knows about all that. Does he know why Chinese families traditionally keep two large porcelain vases in their house? Seems like foreigners are more interested in China’s rich heritage than many locals spending evenings in Coco Banana mixing Chivas, green tea and smoking (and not even dancing). I prefer by far watching the old folks and their fan dancing on the streets near Worker’s Stadium.
So sorry that those laoweis also celebrate Christmas – which for me is more a family get-together than a religious event.
But I will also celebrate Chinese New Year with the traditional jiaozi. Bon appetit.

Did you know what the world is most interested in about China? Disappointing really (and it will for YOU when you Google and end up right here): girls, sexy massage, girl penis (sic) and the like. I just can’t believe it myself, looking at the search word analysis of my hits. It does not exactly improve my opinion on how people use the powers of the Internet. As the vast majority of visitors are NOT local Chinese people (many of the 130 million something surfers are too busy with online games and Chinese chat, blogs of superstars, etc.), “foreigners” do not score so well.
Maybe I should start a porno website (specialized in Chinese girls). Sure I will have lots of hits and maybe I can stop doing this tiring consulting and 2008 Olympics blablabla.
Just kidding. Anyway, you are now suspicious about the “other” Gilbert and you know I won’t tell you anyway. And I DENY the rumors about that site with…. and the…

My efforts to learn Chinese continue. At least the intent is there, remaining however isolated from implementation. The week flies by and the course book sits sadly undisturbed next to me.
Just read an encouraging article: language experts say it takes 2,200 hours to really speak fluent Chinese – that is 40 hours a week for 13 months. At my speed of 1-2 hours a week it will thus take I will 20 to 40 years. Way to go Gilbert!
But Flemish people are known to be stubborn. Maybe Flemish Capricorn Rats must be even worse.
Serious? Me? Well, some friends confided in me. They said I always look so serious. A real serious businessman. Oh boy. I must have a masters degree in faking it, or better, succeeding in separating my public official life from not-so-serious boy Gilbert. So I go out in disguise just like Spiderman or Batman (what a pathetic comparison!) and nobody recognizes me. Maybe better, some of you might be shocked, hahaha. Anyway, from now on you are warned.
The good thing is (?) the people I wanted/expected to read the blog mostly don’t. So, I can write more freely.

[edited 18 January]
Sad month for the poor US soldiers. The cap of 3,000 casualties was reached and 20,000 soldiers are wounded and scarred for life. What will become of the families left behind and what will happen to the disabled? The Vietnam war legacy is not a good indicator. And for what?
Oh yes, the media are so negative and only report bad news. Iraq has now democracy, sort of. They can now continue to kill each other in a “free” land. So, if “victory” was declared some years ago, why send 20,000 more of troops? Are the hundreds of Iraqi people killed every month also made-up stories by the press?
A war for the wrong reasons, an invasion badly prepared and implemented. All those clever agencies watching the country were either clueless or their warnings were not taken seriously. Probably both. Many people knew the sectarian violence was a huge threat. Is the world a safer place? Surely not.
What to do? Difficult question. Leave Iraq or pour in more young people to be killed or maimed? Well at least the government who messed it all up is still in place and is now facing the music. More Americans finally realize it all went badly wrong. Somebody will have to clean up the mess. Solution: spend more billions of tax payers’ money to develop a new nuclear bomb. Find the logic here.

Not even to mention…
According to the UN in early January, the death toll for Iraqi civilians was 34,452 in 2005, plus 36,685 wounded. Of course some will not agree, just as they did with poor Blix who could not find “weapons of mass destructionwas not credible and could not be trusted”. And for sure, don’t show the body bags being shipped back home, nor (too much) the grieving families. Repeating the horror scenes of 9/11 is however OK. Hmmm. Sounds so familiar to us, looks like here they been exporting not just microwave ovens, but also certain government officials? Sanitizing information, “you are with us or against us (=traitors, unpatriotic, etc.)”, dictated truths. But this time, it’s NOT over here. Guess here some people must be “LOL”. They must feel vindicated in their policies.