Well yes. I am going to disappear for two weeks, starting this Saturday 30 June. heading to somewhere in Mongolia where there is no e-mail and no mobile.
It’s going to be a real adventure. I really need this crazy break and I am curious myself how I am going to go through those two weeks filled with the unknown. Well unknown except for the ultra-marathon at around 2,000 meters. And Mongolia’s National Day celebrations.
The right moment for some extracts of my two favorite Flemish poems from the Middle Ages:
Het daghet inden oosten,
Het lichtet overal.
Hoe luttel weet mijn liefken
Och waer ick henen sal
Egidius, waer bestu bleven?
Mi lanct na di, gheselle mijn!
Du coors die doot, du liets mi tleven.
Month: June 2007
The energy police: again?
See other article from “Beijing Today” of 16 June: Beijing sends in the energy police
Quick, check the thermostat – the energy police are on patrol. Businesses in Beijing will have to be more aware of their energy use after the city formed a team to monitor energy-saving practices in response to the central government’s calls to cut consumption in big cities, state media reported. It quoted team leader Huang Qian as saying the “energy-saving police” will check if energy consumption in offices, hotels, schools, shopping malls and other big buildings meets national standards. A special phone number has been set up so the public can report buildings that fail to conform to the rules, Xinhua said. End of article.
OK, isn’t that great! But in the usual “transparency” the “special phone number” is not mentioned. For obvious reasons, the former vice mayor kindly and officially explained to me the energy police has no legal power to enforce the regulations. That was in 2006. At least he was one of the few officials to give a clear answer. I doubt today things are better. I’d love to denounce a couple of buildings, especially in winter time when you are dried out by hot air of 28 to 30C. Like in Powerhouse Gym.
As far as I know, the rules-to-be set indoor winter temperatures at 20C max and summer temperatures at 26C max. Yes, I know, hard to imagine in Beijing.
Ambush Marketing: no IOC reaction but…
Some weeks ago I sent an e-mail to the IOC representative in Beijing who ignored twice my request for information. Oh well, I thought she was nice but I guess I was being an optimist. (I have the bad habit of answering e-mails)
The two questions were:
1) how is it possible that companies like Nike, Kangta and Li Ning can cut deals to give outfits to athletes that will use them openly during opening & closing ceremonies and other?
2) on BOCOG’s website, Johnson & Johnson are listed twice, as TOP and as Beijing 2008 Partners. In the meantime, I found the answer – they are indeed in the two categories.
On 16 June 2007 “Beijing Today” reported “BOCOG to prevent ambush marketing”:
The athletes will not be allowed to endorse non-Olympic sponsors during the Olympic Games in order to protect the legal right of the sponsors to benefit from the Games, an official from BOCOG said.
“We won’t allow participating athletes to speak for non-licensed companies during the Olympics. For example, Liu Xiang has to promise not to represent non-official sponsors, even though he is endorsed by Nike, a non-licensed brand,” Chen Feng, vice-director of BOCOG Marketing Department said. BOCOG will do its best to protect the rights and interests of the sponsors and to fight against ambush marketing, which refers to those non-Olympic companies that gain commercial benefits by selling or promoting fake or unauthorized goods associated with the Games.
So far for the article that gives a partial answer to the first question but does not clarify (yet) the deals struck by certain National Olympic Committees to promote Nike, Kangta and Li Ning during the Games, in particular during the Opening Ceremony.
The first tube for “Strebelle in Beijing 2008”
June 15, 2007. There we are, finally. After over 3 years of hard work, patience, despair and enthusiasm we organized the “Signing of the first piece of the Athletes Alley”, in the BOCOG Exhibition Hall. The VIPs who left their marks were HRH Prince Philippe (Crown Prince of Belgium), Mr. Wang Wei (BOCOG Executive Vice President & Secretary General) and the Belgian artist Olivier Strebelle. Later on their signature will be engraved. The piece is part of the first sculpture element.
Wang Wei signing with the Prince and Olivier watching closely – the Prince signing with Peter Danford shooting his pics – Wang Wei, the Prince and Olivier with the first tube
The Association “Strebelle in Beijing 2008” is donating the art work to the Beijing Government, in the name of the Belgian Government (through the National Lottery) and several enterprises such as Belgacom, Suez Tractebel, Inbev, Janssen Pharmaceutica, CMB, Euronav, Total, Baron Vastapane.
The board of directors of the Association includes François Narmon (Dexia Bank), Jean-Luc Dehaene (former Belgian prime minister), Etienne Davignon (Suez Tractebel), Luc Vansteenkiste (Recticel), Alain Rens (former ambassador), Pierre Jean Everaert (InBev), Gad Weil (project director).
the location in the Park – Gad Weil explaining to the Prince (see the black paper)
Location of the sculpture: in the Olympic Park, close to the main western entrance and north of the International Area and the Olympic Village (Olympic Green).
Five groups of abstract sculptures made of stainless steel tubes are spread over an area of 100 meters long and 20 meters wide. The average height is 14.5 meters and the highest point is 20 m.
From a precise point of view at the entry of the alley, the abstract elements become a figurative ensemble revealing the logo of the Olympic Games, held up by five athletes.
the Strebelle team in Brussels working on one of the many scale models – Sun & Gilbert – the whole Strebelle team
Gilbert with Philippe Rogge (son of Dr. Jacques Rogge and future leader of Belgium’s Olympic Team) – Gilbert with Wang Wei – Wang Wei takes the Prince for a tour of the scale models
“new” BOCOG website: sucks
BOCOG launched a “new version” of their website. To put it mildly, it sucks. Can’t they really find any better designers?
The list of complaints is so long I won’t try to give an overview. Follow some anyway.
It starts with the home page. Sorry people but here we use Celsius and not this F stuff for temperature. You can’t even chose to go metric – OK for me to have an option F for the USA, why not.
If you use a MAC, well, forget it. To download their brochure (suddenly they seem to have one!) you stumble on an .exe file. Did they ever hear about a PDF?
After you login, well, you are not “logged in” and you can’t “log out”.
And their search is totally useless, at least in English. A friend sent me the comment that our Olivier Strebelle project was featured on the website (more about that later, hold on). Tough luck, nowhere to be found in the English section and no result with search.
Their electronic map: as I said to Capinfo and others in the past, their weak point is they don’t have any system to update information on the city. The maps are unreliable and wrong at times. I only checked my area – Gongti. I guess you have to pay them to get the right info mentioned? For reliable information, better go to “That’s Beijing”.
Hopeless really. I did fill out their questionnaire.