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”?
Letting Steam Off
Wasting water and electricity: civil servants
Chinese newspapers reported survey results – civil servants in Beijing use 3 to 7 times more water and electricity than ordinary citizens. China Daily concluded that China’s nearly 7 million public servants (servants?) use almost 5% of the country’s annual electricity consumption, enough to meet the demands of 780 million farmers. That’s a strong statement from our serious China Daily. The same “servants” are the ones to preach energy conservation? Oops.
CCTV5: reading my blog?
Today I went to Powerhouse Gym to run my 10K (OK, I am weird, who runs in such hot, polluted, unpleasant weather?). Surprise when I saw a TV: CCTV finally added the info with the nationals flags of the competing football teams and the present score. I promptly run watching Brazil-Japan, cheering with the goals of the verde-amarelo team. Till all the screens went blank on the treadmills. The Chinese staff, with its usual keen sense of observation and alertness gave it a blank stare and nothing was done – the other TVs were still OK. I’ll read China Daily to find out the final score. At least I know my favorite team did win. The least they could do! Parabens!
Well, you could say it’s all my fault because I don’t understand or read Chinese. Up to a point I could accept that, but what the Chinese with hearing difficulties?
Film censors miss an ad – you can’t see it all! Mission Impossible!
Poor Hollywood. Tough to make a movie here. Next time they should clean the streets, paint the buildings, remove all ads, the mahjong players, the laundry, etc. And give faster cars to the police. Now read this, you don’t need Gilbert’s sarcasm to have a good laugh. Shanghai Daily is as good.
Source: Shanghai Daily
In trying to sanitize Shanghai’s image, the film censors scrutinizing “Mission: Impossible III” missed a phone number for phony documents that China netizens trumpeted.
But by the July 20 release date, that’s likely to be wiped out by the censors who want to put Shanghai’s best foot forward.
One shot the censors initially missed was a scene of protagonist Tom Cruise running past a wall with a poster promoting sale of counterfeit documents – identification papers, college degrees, business papers, drivers’ licenses – you name it.
It was part of the local color and reality in downtown city streets.
The fleeting scene was an embarrassing reminder of the rampant illegal sales of bogus documents for any underachiever or pretender.
Media reports said other aspects of the film were embarrassing – the police being inept and slow to respond to emergencies, and the common practice of hanging laundry to dry on poles outside of windows.
It was not known whether laundry or police scenes would be cut for not exemplifying cosmopolitan Shanghai.
But local media reports about the illegal document business have created a buzz. The number, a virtual hotline was “live” yesterday – a sign of the demand for fake documents and new identities.
In an early unofficial screening of the action thriller, someone spotted the illegal ad pasted on a wall. On May 28, it was posted on www.tianyaclub.com, showing a scene in which the phone number was visible as Cruise ran past.
Netizens disseminated it widely. The mobile phone number was swamped. One caller to the number told a local newspaper that he claimed he wanted a fake document, and met a low-level worker answering the phone.
The man said he was swamped with calls, many from people who simply wanted to find out if the number was real.
Putin in, Shanghainese out
China is the top of the top to roll out the welcome mat to foreign VIPs. It is a friendly country. Mr. Putin and other dignitaries were attending the SCO meetings (Shanghai Co-operation Organization) in Shanghai some days ago. You don’t want those VIPs having to face all those crowds when visiting the Bund and attending their meetings. So, Shanghai, out of respect for the guests, closed down good part of the streets, several metro stations and kindly gave our Shanghainese friends a mini “Golden Week”. A bit of unplanned five-day bonus to go away from the city, travel agencies were busy trying to ship out the citizens while the railways were trying to cope with 570,000 holiday travelers, according to China Daily. It would also guarantee not to have too much laundry drying in the open and mahjong players on the streets.
Rumors were strongly denied that Beijing was sending a team to learn from Shanghai, to prepare for 2008.