Beijing has set up the “Beijing Center to Report Drug Abuse” just recently. Their e-mail address:
bjgajjdc@sohu.com and contact number: 010-83552022/83552012
I had sent a report to the Center about the increasing drug trade in Sanlitun and the negative impact it has on the image of Beijing, the expatriate community and the tourists. Now you can freely buy drugs, pirated DVD and afterwards get a “sexy bar visit”, all thanks to Chinese and dark-skinned touts roaming free.
The South China Morning Post published some sharp articles on the drug trade in Beijing and the indignation of the African community:
2 July 2006 “Beijing’s new street hustlers” and 2 July 2006 “African community fears backlash over drug dealers” – both by Peter Simpson
Not all Africans are drug traders and many fear all black people will be suspected to be in drugs, fights, scams. All explained in the SCMP articles. The journalists and others tried to report the drug trade and other dubious activities to the local police. They were not interested.
I sent my e-mail, no reaction yet. But I don’t give up and I am still passing my comments to the Beijing authorities who are digesting it all. The wheels of the bureaucracy turn slowly – everywhere.
Lip service with the usual Beijing style. Media articles of drug dealers being executed, international drug day, etc.
But hey! the police just LOVES those black-skinned people, also, you don’t want to have the nice police accused of racism, do you?
Anyway, silly me. The police is just too busy with the REAL problems: cleaning up the Internet, cutting scenes from movies, shutting down blogs. Internet screening is becoming worse by the day. Finally some businesspeople are getting very upset by the problems – not even being able to download normal e-mails.
I would not be surprised one day there will be a serious backlash from the international community. It will be very interesting to see how it will be by 2008 – and during the Olympics. I am not exactly part of the optimist’s club. As far as I understand from the foreign media they are preparing themselves for a good scoop.
While it is often so pathetic the way they are getting paranoid, it is sad for Beijing.
Yesterday I watched the DVD “Memoirs of a Geisha”. Never mind what one thinks of the movie in itself, our family was just wondering for what sensible reason the movie could not be shown in China. Bad Chinese girls really, going to bed with Japanese actors. Disgrace for the country. Imagine, with Japanese! Horror. (*)
No problem for our Japanese guests here however, they can go to Sanlitun, just get out of a taxi and the touts will promptly arrange “sexy massage” with all the trimmings. They can increase their stamina by buying some drugs with our friendly dark-skinned friends before heading for the massage. And in case of need, I am sure they can buy some real good blue DVD to get inspiration. And no need to look for it, it will come to them. That’s service!
By the way, I wanted to write about the daily thunderstorms we are having lately in Beijing (we are rather happy with that). The highest authorities are now clamping down on any media writing about “public emergencies” (to include accidents, public health crises, social unrest and natural disasters). Chinese journalists expressed strong resentment against the draft law that has provisions for heavy fines, despite officials’ assurances it would apply only if a report caused “serious damage”.
So I am having second thoughts. Is a thunderstorm a “public emergency”? Hmmm…. tough question. Better safe than sorry. Look, we have perfect weather here, blue sky, no polluted Internet and so much more.
(*) On a more serious note, it all tells a lot about cultural differences and clumsy politics by the Japanese government. While it has funded tremendous financial assistance for China’s development it has failed to address its war history, upsetting both China and South Korea. In China, the word Geisha is assimilated with prostitution but in Japan it is seen as “skilled persons”, going through rigorous training. I see nothing wrong with multi-national casts of actors. One can argue Chinese don’t look like Japanese but I found the Chinese actresses trying to perform reasonably well even if some aspects of their Geisha interpretation conflict at times with the traditional Japanese concept of the “skilled persons”. Also, would the American public be shocked if a famous US actress would be cast in a role of a “prostitute”?