The former House speaker who joined the crowd to viciously attack Bill Clinton over the Monica affair? Well, he now admitted in an interview he was having an extramarital affair exactly at the same time. Hypocrites, guys like Newt. Still feel much more sympathy for Bill, at least he was more of a normal human being. And more competent, that being the easy part – what cannot be said of certain “others”. Newt, belongs to the same category that do gay bashing while flirting around with boys, or attack drinking while living on the bottle. I still prefer for this matter countries like France where the private live (and mistresses) are of little concern to the public. Or even China – all is swell as long as they don’t show it off too much or have too many mistresses at the same time. Or offend the wrong people. Going back to the McCarthy story, some of the key people turned out to be not very straight either and liked the bottle a lot. Of course that sounds very familiar in many other countries. And, as said, at least in the USA they can talk about it and make movies. Years later, of course.
Month: March 2007
Don’t forget history!
Jiang Jian, president of China Red Cross Qufu Hospital and NPC deputy: “A good nation is one that does not forget history”. (China Daily 16/3/07)
Of course he was referring to Japan and its (renewed) denial of the horrible things they did over sixty years ago, upsetting not only China but other countries in the region. I don’t understand them. They have a lot to learn of the Germans. On the other hand I think some individuals over here must be very happy with the stubbornness of those Japs. So, nobody will have time to sit back and wonder why here there is not stubbornness but general amnesia (imposed by you know who) over their own history. See an early entry on this blog on what “expressions” are forbidden in the media. Just imagine people asking for justice, indemnification and clarification for the many who were tortured or lost their lives and possessions during the fifties and then the seventies (so, much more recently!). Too many innocent victims.
History, according to Jiang, must be very selective indeed. It’s like pages are ripped out of history books. One day it will come back. Will it? Sometimes I wonder. Chinese tend to forget their own history unless it involves “bad” foreigners.
Not that China is alone. Selective memory exist in other countries, even in the USA. Remember McCarthyism (Joseph McCarthy), prohibition, imprisonment of innocent people of Japanese descent, etc. On the other hand, Hollywood makes movies about all that, to be fair; one would never see this over here. Indeed, just saw a movie on HBO about Joseph McCarthy (“Citizen Cohn”*), quite scary as it reminds me too much of what happened here in the seventies.
Some notes:
Wanted to check out Joseph McCarthy on Wikipedia but it was “unavailable” (again!). Yeah, yeah. But as we say in China, there is a “backdoor” for everything. Seems the debate about that witchhunting period is far from concluded. Even the Kennedy clan liked him. Figure that one out.
*In 1952 McCarthy appointed Roy Cohn as the chief counsel to the Government Committee on Operations of the Senate. Cohn had been recommended by J. Edgar Hoover, who had been impressed by his involvement in the prosecution of Julius Rosenberg and Ethel Rosenberg] [see: www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAmccarthyism.htm] (this one was “available” here without backdoor)
The (real) cost of the Beijing Olympics: facts and rumors
In my seminars, giving a (personal) insight on what the 2008 Olympics mean for Beijing, one of the myths I have to correct is the “cost” of the preparation. At times I air some criticism on how Beijing is preparing for this mega event, sure. But I have to defend Beijing on this point. As usual the distorted view is a consequence of the poor PR of the Beijing officials. Every day they come up with other figures according to their mood or the spin they want to give. So one day they talk about 30 billion USD, another day they mention a couple of billions; BOCOG’s budget is an official mystery, less for me as I scan the news very carefully since years. Some people actually printed the updated budget and were promptly reprimanded. The figure then disappeared.
After much digging and checking I stick to my rough estimates as follows:
– Total investment to make Beijing a modern city so it can be a good host for the Games: US$ 35 billion; it includes projects badly needed and overdue since years and we are all very grateful they are being implemented. Just now they are starting the project of Metro Line 9. The more, the better.
– Many venues are NOT paid by the government while the government itself shoots itself in the foot (they are good at that) by claiming they do, and interfere in the project where they have no business. In fact much of the funding is coming from the private sector – whatever that means – but certainly not from government funding. Difficult to put a sticker on it but US$ 2 billion might be a reasonable estimate.
– I estimate the total cost of the Games to be rather something like US$ 5 or 6 billion, that is for all organizational expenses and temporary venues – in other words, that money is spent and gone, and cannot be considered as a long-term investment.
So, if we look at the article dated 15 March 2007 – “Beijing’s Olympic Stadiums May Leave Costly Legacy”, from THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ASIA – by Mei Fong:
BEIJING – China is a land littered with monuments to past grandeur: the Great Wall, the Terracotta Warriors and the Forbidden City.
Now, China’s modern rulers are using the Olympics to reshape Beijing and cement their own legacy.
The nearly $40 billion price tag for the Beijing Games and related infrastructure will surpass that of previous host cities, and even, by the estimates of some Chinese economists, make up as much as 43% of total spending on all Games since the 1976 Montreal Games.
Etc.
Well, I totally disagree with that “price tag” and its interpretation. I don’t blame Mei Fong for it – she just took over the figures that go around… The rest of the article is pretty accurate (so is my quote). I have been warning since long about the high risks for post-Olympic operation of all the venues in Beijing. Not a rosy picture. According to an expert from the General Administration of Sports, Beijing has 6,100 sports facilities, with 41% not being open to the public (mainly facilities on university campuses). I am too convinced about this high figure but for sure after 2008 Beijing will have dozens of venues, all competing for the same customers and events. Coordination: none. Good luck.
Mei Fong has been chasing me regularly. She belongs to the nice category of journalists, checking quotes before publication and sending me the article. See her here after an interview in the European Chamber on 22 September 2006, together with Giorgio Magistrelli, former secretary general of the EUCCC.
How “Xin Lei Feng” lost his voice and couldn’t call 120
Beijing is tough. Flu and colds are constant epidemics. Once you catch something (easy as everybody around you has “it”), you can’t get rid of it unless you go on a strict diet of antibiotics, Chinese pills & liquids, barrels of water, rest etc. Don’t listen to your European doctors. Just run to the pharmacy where you can get all antibiotics over the counter. At least, that’s the easy part in Beijing.
The horribly polluted air must be the cause of this evil. Seems few people escape. And if you want to know, pollution today was at 130 to 150 around here. Compare that to the WHO max. of 20. Well, could be worse, could be 500. Easy to be satisfied in Beijing.
so I felt a bad week was ahead
I was more than right.
On 7 March I was interviewing nearly 30 candidates to be English-speaking volunteers for “120”, the medical emergency service here. OK, once again all because of 2008, seems those Olympics will never take place, new tasks always pop up. Must be of course because it was just Lei Feng Day two days earlier and I am the “New Lei Feng”. If you have no clue what that means, Google it and relax, many Chinese don’t know either. Some poor soldier in a corner of China doing great things for free. Funny is, there was always some photographer around the corner to take cool pics (Peter Danford denies any involvement).
Lei Feng secretly photographed – (real) Lei Feng looking down on his copycat, in my office
So, well documented, all his good deeds. “Hold it right there, a bit more to the left”. Click! Some bad mouths question why he seemed to have a watch on his wrist, not normal at that time for a poor soldier. Oh well. No Photoshop that time.
To learn from him, a large picture stands in my office and Chinese friends admire my zest.
Back to 120. Valerie and me teaming up, all for the good cause. Valerie was very convincing: her wife (oh well, she was playing the husband, just to confuse the candidates I guess) and the kids were all in a traffic accident, etc. etc. Blood all over. Ambulance urgently required.
We must have made some impression as we were promptly featured on the website of 120 (pics taken from their website). The whole family. All LeiFeng-ing. But we must admit, the 120 staff are real nice and friendly. We even got a reward. And I start to be too well know – out of under 30 candidates 2 actually had met me. Scary.
After hours of interviews my voice started cracking up (or down, rather).
Back in the office. Some “old friends” (foreigners!) came to say hi. In reality they came to bug me for 2 hours on some Olympic stuff. Yeah, try this with a doctor:
“Hello Dr. Sam! Long time no see! How’s the family? Just came to chat, by chance passing by. By the way, I have this pain right here, what could it be? Have a look. What medicine should I take?”. Right. I guess Dr. Sam would have said, sorry, make an appointment. Being nice does not work.
So, voice down the drain even more.
Then, damn, I had promised to attend the Amcham/EUCCC cocktail at the Centro Bar.
Some red wines later with friends and charming Chinese girls, my voice went 100% dead.
Tried to call 120, the operator couldn’t hear me.
So, I shut up for the next days (to the delight of many). And looked up at Lei Feng.
Peter Danford tests his camera – on us
Some days ago Valerie went to help Peter at one of the balls in Beijing. I passed there to say hello and watch people work (I love that). As far as I could see, the ball was pretty messed up with their dubious and chaotic handling of the photography. Some months ago the Italian Ball was another example, quality of pictures taken by the “selected photographers” was simply poor.
Anyway, the good part was Peter wanted to test the set and took Valerie and me as “samples”. I was really not prepared and feeling not that great. We had a lot of fun with the pics, Peter had lots of patience as I was fooling around. Some of the pics came out real cute (I mean, Valerie, not me). Others are definitely NOT for publication here.
see for yourself; these are strongly downsized, the limits of this blog
Thanks Peter!