Fun Facts for wHeNeVeR

WWSPD

2008-09-11T23:17:00.004+01:00

One day soon, I will be posting a blog about the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, or so is my hope, as it's played a surprisingly significant role in my London education. In the meantime, I will leave you all with the question posed at last night's comedy night at the RVT:

What's the difference between Sarah Palin and an eggbeater?

As part of the joke competition, they ask the audience to compare a famous person who has been in the news that week to a common household object. I've won three times now, and, although I didn't win last night, did think I managed to come up with some decent punch lines:

a) Nothing. They both make whites stiff.

b) Nothing. They can both whip a 'moose'.

:o)

Now, clever doesn't usually win at the RVT, and indeed these didn't. Next time I'll know to put swear words and be obscene.

But in the meanwhile, I thought I'd see if anybody else could come up with something better.

Grow towards the light en VO

2008-09-06T16:52:00.002+01:00

That's 'version original' for all you non-French speaking folk:

I hope to get a few more excerpt from the potato performance, for your own amusement.

Meanwhile, the full text of my ode to the potato:

My first experience with potatoes was at a pretty young age. In second grade, we did this experiment where we cut the eyes out of potatoes and put them in a shoe box to watch them grow towards the light. That’s a message I’ve really kept with me all through these years, grow towards the light. Whenever I get sad, or lonely or depressed, I just think to myself: Grow towards the light, Jeff, grow towards the light!

...So there I was, growing towards the light, just like I was talking about. When suddenly, for no reason, the door slammed shut. Plunging me into darkness. Now, some might call this the whimsical justice of fate. Others might call it the ‘be all’ and ‘end all’. Still others might call it just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Me, I called it dark. D-A-R-K dark.

...But you know what they say, when one door slams shut, another one opens. Of course, it’s not always another door that opens—sometimes it’s something other than a door. I mean, grace is grace, right? But the thing to remember is, when that door opens…or window or can of fruit, whatever it may be—walk through it my friends. Just walk on through. Of course, if it’s something other than a door, you might not be able to walk. You might have to crawl or lurch or find some other means of crossing over. But cross over you must. Cross over, go through, go on and beyond. The light is still there. Keep heading towards it, towards the light.

Grow towards the light

2008-09-04T22:20:00.003+01:00

Well, this year, in honour of the UN-declared International Year of the Potato, my birthday theme is... you guessed it, that twisted tuber, the russet root: the noble spud.

I have therefore decided to preview the much anticipated evening with song and video. Enjoy!

IYP

My name is potato

Potato Song

Psycho Potato

Potato Song 2

Wiggles (an Australian kids TV show) do the Hot Potato

The Little Wiggles (to be watched with/after the previous Wiggles video)

Potato Peel

Potato Song 3

Seeing green

2008-07-01T19:30:00.001+01:00

On my last visit to the US in March, the trans-Atlantic leg of my flight was particularly empty. I had a full row to myself, and bodies dotted the section.

Today the flight is full, and I’m crammed into the back corner. At least it’s a window seat. More families flying than I’m used to – families out for summer jaunts in Europe, defying all my lofty predictions of Americans avoiding a too-expensive Europe this summer. London has swelled noticeably in the last month, both in numbers and in waistline. Summer, and America, has arrived.

My knees have been carefully hitting the back of a (junior?) high school girl sitting in front of me. During the flight she has been passing a crisp three-ring binder back and forth to her sister in the row ahead. A sudden nostalgic rush for the easy-to-organise days of high school swept over me.

As I stood up to stretch, I couldn’t help but sneak a peek at her black notebook as she was dutifully scribbling. ‘Then we went to Rome, which wasn’t as green as…’, I glimpsed the bubble letters to my delight.

What I wouldn’t give to be back on a school trip, where my careful assignment was to record observations and experiences. The beautiful simplicity found in a dusty Rome seemed a lavish break from The Economist’s woeful prognostications on the future of Zimbabwe that had so enthralled me just one seat, one step, behind.

As we whisk our way past Nunavut, I can only hope that Seattle and Colorado offer a paradoxical fresh start. A chance to disengage with global debates. A chance to revel at the majestic Rockies (no, not the baseball team, though I’m looking particularly forward to the game on Monday). A chance to see green…or possibly brown. It is Colorado after all!

Deliciously incongruous

2008-05-27T21:28:00.001+01:00

Proper brits would be appalled. And yet there is something so deliciously beautiful about an american ex-pat sitting across from big ben in a track top eating kebabs and drinking stella while reading a book by an american ex-pat about the quirkiness of this quaint nation.

On my way to trafalgar square

2008-05-14T16:24:00.001+01:00

Though i walk by parliament almost daily. Yay sun!

Sichuan Fog

2008-05-13T02:04:00.002+01:00

IMG_0431
Originally uploaded by knezovjb

This photo was taken on the highway between Chengdu and Kangding, which lies within a couple hundred kilometers of the epicentre of today's earthquake.

They were still in the middle of building the road the first time I travelled the route. We got stopped on the highway for three hours because of the construction--they had limited it to only one lane of traffic, and we were going the wrong way.

The mules they were using to carry the heavy rock looked exhausted, stumbling under the weight.

It was also here that I encountered my favourite Chinese toilet ever: two planks of wood sticking out over a cliff off the side of a road, covered by a tarpulin. Needless to say, I did not venture over the cliff to enjoy the facilities.

I wouldn't be surprised if part of this road is now covered by a rock slide, or if pieces of it haven't fallen off the side of the cliff.

A self-indulgent post

2008-05-13T00:28:00.004+01:00

I hate the feeling of helplessness. In fact, if I had to choose a single motivating drive in my life, it's avoiding that feeling of helplessness. And yet, here I find myself today. The earthquake in Sichuan, China, has brought me there again.

Terrible things happen around the world daily. Hourly. Probably even by the minute. I imagine it to be the opposite of the naive, or at least blissfully unconcerned, Amelie Poulin. Towards the beginning of the film, she imagines the number of people across Paris in simultaneous ecstasy. But what about those in pain and misery?

Of course, we tend not to think of those until it hits closer to home. I remember sitting in my flat in Kunming on 26 December 2004. I was lazing on the sofa in the bright winter sun and working the crossword. Then there was a slight rocking, the sofa tapped against the back of the wall and the curtains were swaying ever so gently back and forth. Back and forth. I thought it could have been an earthquake, so I logged on to the internet only to be confronted with the tsunami (it was an aftershock that I had felt).

In that rocking, there was solidarity, but NOTHING THAT I COULD DO. As Bauman argues, the media have given us artificial eyes, but they have not extended our hands. And so, a feeling of helplessness overwhelmed, and I made it my new year's resolution not to feel like that again.

Today, I have been imagining myself back in my seventh-floor walkup in Kunming. Imagining my life on a different path (a loop of Sisyphusion proportions?). But I would still be there, rocking, with nothing tangible to be done.

Here in London, how far has that boulder rolled? I tell myself I'm making a difference working in international development, but I can't help but cower before the surfeit of problems facing this world. Today, massive earthquake in Sichuan. Last week, killer cyclone in Burma - and thousands of times worse, a military junta so full of itself it is hindering international aid efforts. Mugabe is trying his best to steal the election in Zimbabwe (again). More fighting in Lebanon. A massive food price crisis leaving people starving across the world, even if there is enough food to go around. Darfur. Chad. Afghanistan. Iraq. And those are only some of the major problems, and that's only looking at serious (or potentially serious) humanitarian crises. There's much more simmering below the surface.

So, how to move beyond the paralysis?

Goodreads for the week of 28 January 2008

2008-02-01T14:33:00.000Z

I thought I'd try a new type of post this week. Since so many of my blogs were collections of good articles that I was reading (with commentary), I thought I'd start saving and tagging on del.icio.us and create a weekly list of Goodreads.

Don't get me wrong, there's more commentary to come, but at least this way I can get the things I'm thinking about out there sooner rather than later!

If you're interested, you can subscribe to my Goodreads RSS feed for automated updates.

A lesson for Beijing in the politics of snow - International Herald Tribune
A style of crisis management that relies heavily on laboring to keep real problems out of sight and hence out of mind is little more than a recipe for disaster. More than any other Chinese politician, Wen seems to understand this. But flitting from crisis
to china iht HowardFrench goodreads politics economy snow

Roger Cohen: American Democracy is Riveting - International Herald Tribune
"We've learned that a good or bad U.S. president can make the difference between war and peace. A good or bad Italian prime minister makes no difference at all."
to iht RogerCohen america politics globalisation goodreads

FT.com / World - Washington warned on health costs
The Government Accountability Office – which Mr Walker heads – put the total US public debt at $9,000bn (€6,000bn $4,500bn), including the debt held by social security funds. That was almost double the $5,000bn headline figure for public debt, which
to america politics economy FT goodreads ...

From the Berbers to Bach - International Herald Tribune
So the critical question for today's global leaders is: How can habits and cultures evolve to join a bigger planet, without sacrificing distinct identities and individual pride?
to iht goodreads globalisation culture music YoYoMa ... saved by 3 other people

Solving a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside a cookie - International Herald Tribune
Fortune cookies, Yasuko Nakamachi says, are almost certainly originally from Japan.
to china japan food goodreads ... saved by 6 other people

Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler - New York Times
At about 5 percent of the world’s population, [Americans] “process” (that is, grow and kill) nearly 10 billion animals a year, more than 15 percent of the world’s total. A study last year by the National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Sci
to agriculture environment food health nytimes goodreads economics pollution ... saved by 54 other people

It's official: mail is slow as snails Oddly Enough Reuters.com
to goodreads icts technology ... saved by 5 other people

McDonald's A-level 'tough course', says Brown Schools special reports EducationGuardian.co.uk
The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority has approved a pilot "basic shift manager" course, which will train staff in everything they need to run a McDonald's outlet, from marketing to human resources and customer service skills.
to guardian education uk goodreads

Feed Article Business
China has turned to plastic -- and consumer debt -- as never before, with its citizens for the first time carrying at least one bank card in their wallets on average, according to new figures from the central bank.
to goodreads guardian china economy

Searching for a definition of Britishness: Fine, but 'no motto, please' - International Herald Tribune
to UK culture goodreads iht ... saved by 6 other people

A Series of Home

2008-01-27T01:24:00.000Z

We have entered the epoch of timeless time. At least, this is a key argument put forward by Manual Castells in his seminal, The Network Society. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) and biotechnologies have eroded the logic of linear time. We may not be able to physically travel to points past, control the future or exist in multiple place simultaneously, but as technology develops so does our ability to experience disparate places and times.

In the case of the latter, Anthony Giddens refers to it as the 'phantasmagoric' self. Derived from the Greek phantasma, meaning apparition or ghost, the stress is on the second (or third, or nth) life lived through mediated 'distanciation'. I do not live in Colorado, but my figure looms under the surface as I insert myself through telephone calls and emails, bank transactions and votes cast.

What Giddens failed to consider was the reverse: the ghost of place imposing on the present. Of lives lived and imagined that seep into our day-to-day through media and memory.

London has become routine, but this last week+ has seen a confluence of pasts invading my present.

Partly this invasion is the product of masterful cinema. We have been enjoying a biweekly film night chez nous for the last month or so, and the most recent film struck a chord. Last Friday we watched the latest Coen brothers film: No Country for Old Men. Set in Texas in the 1980s, the film, which is eerily quiet, hangs together on its impressive yet understated cinematography. Its imagery is stark but effective and emotive. Indeed, it is so powerful that an otherwise banal scene sent chills down my spine. The shot?

A house sagging in the summer heat. Boxy, 80s-style cars line the street, the curb crumbling away.

It lasted only a few seconds, as it was only an establishing shot, but it was literally enough to make me jump. Something about the house or the cars or the street made me powerfully recall my childhood in Colorado. It was not a specific memory or event that stirred. Perhaps it was an amalgamation of childhood memories and imagined moments that were summed up in that one shot. The crumbling curb.

But that's just one sequence from one life that seems so far from now. We also watched Smoke Signals a few weeks back. Visions of Walla Walla danced in my head as thunder clouds tumbled in across the rolling blue hills: a vision I look forward to seeing when I return in March for a weekend.

The most invasive moment, however, occurred while I was enjoying the crisp, sunny Sunday afternoon air along the Thames. Settled on a park bench on the Albert Embankment, I sat reading Atonement by Ian McEwen (an excellent book, and I presume a good movie based on the reviews) when Briony, one of the main characters in the novel, came walking past. She was a nurse working at St Thomas's during WWII, and at one point she ventures out to navigate the street-signless roads of London towards Clapham. Narrated in the first person, she walked right past my bench, veered down South Lambeth Road, and commented on the park in front of my house as she passed. How strange it was to her that there should be people playing tennis while London endured the blitz.

How strange it was to me, our encounter in timeless time and placeless place, as worlds melded and passenger jets buzzed overhead.

OK Hillary, there's one thing I don't understand...

2008-01-23T22:35:00.000Z

For having gone to the London School of Economics, you'd think I'd know something on the topic. But, much to the chagrin of my father, I have yet to take an economics course. That doesn't mean that I don't have an understanding of economic fundamentals, it just means that I have a difficult time answering the deeper questions.

I was just listening to the Democratic debate in South Carolina, and it started with Hillary touting her economic stimulus package.

As I was listening, I took notes, and here are the key points:

$110 billion economic stimulus plan

$70 billion goes to 'the mortgage crisis'

Moratorium on home foreclosures for 90 days

$650 to help offset high energy costs this winter

Invest in green collar jobs

Fund for communities who are dealing with housing crisis

5-year freeze on interest rates

Rebates if anything left over

Ok, in terms of sheer monetary value, $110 billion is a bit less than Bush's $145 billion, but since we've already spent that times 10 (made up guess here) on the war in Iraq, maybe this is a good time to stop increasing our national deficit by a little. It's also probably better spent than Bush's proposed tax rebates...

$70 billion going to 'the mortgage crisis' is a little vague, but CNN forced her into soundbite mode. Presumably this is to help rescue the banks who have caused this situation to begin with and to keep 'sovereign funds' (xenophobic code word for outside investors with no loyalty to the US) from investing in American ventures.

Moratorium on home foreclosures for 90 days. This seems sensible to me, let's have a few months to figure things out and readjust.

$650 per qualified household to offset high energy costs? Not great. Let's start with installing low-energy light bulbs, being proactive about turning things off standby and not leaving unnecessary devices plugged in (and maybe as a longer-term solution we install outlets with switches on them like in the UK to help reduce consumption. If the American government is bothering to subsidise the TV digital switchover, you'd think we could subsidise energy-saving measures). Maybe we could also turn down the central heating and put on an extra two jumpers? Seriously, the US is still the largest energy consumer on the planet per capita, there's room for real cuts to be made.

Invest in green collar jobs. Great idea! Helps the environment, and is proactive to helping redefine America's edge in the global economy. Plus, see point above on energy reduction. Gold star, Hillary.

Fund for communities dealing with the mortgage crisis. Not against this one, but again, very vague.

5-year freeze on interest rates. Now this is one that I just simply do NOT understand. Hillary argues that we need stability to avoid more foreclosures. OK, but here's what I don't get:

One of the main ways that the US likes to deal with inflation is by raising and lowering interest rates (note the 75-basis-points reduction by the fed just yesterday). Higher rates make lending more expensive, reduces the amount of money in the market and helps tamp down prices. Now, worries of inflation are not usually far from an economist's mind, but the current situation seems particularly ripe for inflation: the US dollar is extremely weak, oil and gold are near all-time highs, there is a high risk of a worldwide food shortage, and government subsidies and the growth in biofuels have led to near record highs in comestible oils like palm, corn and soy. What about high energy prices, high food prices, and a weak dollar doesn't SCREAM inflation? Not to mention that with current rates of inflation in China, the price of manufactured goods is likely on the rise.

To me, high risk of inflation + no mechanism for controlling inflation = really bad idea!

So, Hillary, what am I not understanding? Are you not actually proposing to hold interest rates at the fed but only for mortgages? If that's the case, how exactly are you proposing to do that? What authority would you even have to do that?

If you are thinking federal interest rates, then how are you planning on controlling for inflation? Raising the value of the dollar globally (that would hurt exports, but I'm still not convinced that we should be trying to position the US as a manufacturing-driven export economy)? Pegging the dollar to the price of gold (with gold still near record highs, would this be helpful?)? Price fixing and subsidies for basic commodities (which generally seems like a bad idea. See, for example, Zimbabwe. Or even Egypt)? Holding down wages a la Gordon Brown's current fight with UK police officers (I thought Hillary wanted to support the middle class)?

Seriously, can anyone else out there explain this one to me, cause I don't get it!

Global economy ≠ Global society

2008-01-22T23:24:00.000Z

Now that the pump is primed and I have you thinking about Davos; and now that my duties as a member of the ODI comms team have been fulfilled, and I have promoted my colleagues' opinions. It's my turn:

What better place to start than the IHT?

You know something big is happening when an article published just today topped the 'most emailed in the last 24 hours' list and is quickly ascending the 'most emailed in the last 30 days' list. The article that's causing the sensation: On the cusp of economic history.

The main argument of the article is that the fate of the world economy has arrived at a crucial tipping point. 30 years of neo-liberal, pro-market values have led us to this climax of global uncertainty. With what Hillary Clinton fears may be a recession (in case you missed her stump speech(es), she pretends to be the only one in the world smart enough to have seen this one coming. Indeed, I'm tempted to call it the 2008 Hillary Clinton memorial recession if she keeps on like this!) looming heavily, the repercussions are already being felt throughout the global economy.

What's worse, the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer. A good measure of this is the GINI coefficient, a common measure of wealth distribution that ranges between 0 and 1, where 1 is extremely unequal and 0 is highly equitable. (See Wikipedia for a good introduction).

Consider this graphic representation of GINI coefficients from around the world since WWII:

The American GINI, sitting at 0.469 in 2005 is at its all-time high for the country since the statistic has been calculated. And what about China, which is supposed to be chipping away at American wealth? It's roughly equivalent to that of the US, and also sits at an all-time high for its country.

This, of course, runs counter to the fundamentals of neo-liberal economics which can be effectively summarised by the rather trite: 'a rising tide lifts all ships'. A stronger global economy was supposed to strengthen national economies. Or, in the words of the article:

"In theory [...] wages increase with productivity growth and all economies have a comparative advantage in the production of something."

But the theory isn't turning out as planned. The coming fear from the 'West' is that: "China and India combined will eventually be able to make just about everything the West can, only cheaper."

So what's the solution?

According to the majority of the candidates currently running for President in the US, the answer appears to be to fall prey to protectionist impulses. If you're Mitt Romney, it means bringing back auto manufacturing plants to Michigan (bad idea). If you're Barack Obama you're concerned about the so-called 'sovereign funds' bailing out ailing AMERICAN companies (so what?). If you're a good number of the candidates, it's about sending home all the illegal immigrants (really bad idea!! I mean people, if you want to lower the value of the dollar globally so that you can push your exports, you gotta have something to export. And that means that something is going to have to be manufactured... and if the majority of the population isn't willing to sit out on the farm harvesting soybeans, what is the US going to export exactly? This is where I also note that food oil prices are at record highs, and in 2007, for the first time in history, over half the world's population now lives in cities).

National economic and social protectionism is not just a bad idea, it's a head-in-the-sand approach that doesn't take into consideration fundamental economic, social, political and cultural changes that have already been set in motion through processes of globalisation.

The economy is not just a local problem, not just a regional problem, and certainly not just a national problem. It is a global one! If anything, the sub-prime debacle has taught us that.

Other GLOBAL problems include: the HIV/AIDS epidemic, tax shelters that undermine the effectiveness of government bodies, bird flu, the environment, migration, terrorism and security, human rights, animal welfare, and the impending global food shortage just to name a few.

In my view, the problem is not the neo-liberal agenda. The problem is that it has been pushed in an economic silo to the extent that there is now a large fissure between the global economy and the rest of reality. Sure, economic globalisation has had knock-on effects. The impressive expansion of information and communication technologies (ICTs) like the Internet across the globe is a good example.

But laws that impede migration maintain inequality between nations. Poverty prevents access to global flows. Societies based on strong family linkages hinder mobility. Isolation allows for irresponsible consumption. Social protection programmes like social security and national healthcare are feeling the pinch, and insecurity impedes progress.

For a global economy to function, we MUST have a global society to match--and how we achieve that is the real question that should be asked at Davos.

Priming the Pump: ODI on... the Davos Question

2008-01-22T22:44:00.000Z

This week sees the return of the World Economic Forum held in Davos, Switzerland from the 23-27 January.

The director of the Overseas Development Institute (where I work), Simon Maxwell, is already on his way there to talk money with the best of them. But thanks to an innovative online comms manager (no not me, I'm not that immodest), the ODI also thought it'd try its hand at participative democracy and the 21st century public sphere by attempting to answer 'the Davos question'.

This YouTube-sponsored question asked: "What one thing do you think that countries, companies or individuals must do to make the world a better place in 2008?"

ODI found five of our researchers to express themselves on camera. All of the videos can be found on the ODI website, but I wanted to highlight two in particular.

The first opinion is by ODI Research Fellow Dr. Fletcher Tembo. I bring it to you here because: a) I'm proud of what he has to say, but also b) because I helped him with the script and filmed him. So, for all of you wonder what the heck it is I'm doing these days, here's a good example:

The other is by my friend, ODI Research Officer Pam Muckosy. I knew her through a mutual friend from China and we went to the LSE together. She basically got me my job at the ODI, so I thought the least I could do was to promote her video. Plus, it's brilliant, but we knew that already. ;o)

Back in the USSR

2008-01-07T00:18:00.000Z

In the most recent Presidential debate, the moderator started by doing his bit to strike fear into the hearts of US Americans (as Miss Teen South Carolina is so fond of calling us) by pressing the hypothetical issue of rogue nuclear bombs being smuggled into America and detonated (a la fictional TV show 24).

As part of his response, Governor Bill Richardson talked about the broader need for nuclear non-proliferation, something he had been involved with when he was Secretary of Energy under Clinton. (ok, still reasonable)

Then, and this is a direct quote, he went on to say:

"If I'm elected president, I will do two things. First, I will seek immediate negotiations with the Soviet Union and other nuclear states to reduce the number of nuclear weapons."

I haven't seen other bloggers or political commentators call him on this (and I did to a little bit of looking around), but is anybody else concerned that the SOVIET UNION IS NOT A COUNTRY?!

What ever made anybody think that this guy was ready for prime time?! Why ABC blocked Kucinich and let Richardson go on to make a fool of himself I do not understand!

It all comes together

2008-01-04T20:21:00.000Z

Last week I began posting interesting articles that I come across to my del.icio.us account goodreads tag (subscribe to the RSS feed to see what I'm reading as I'm reading it). Among the first articles that I posted with some chagrin was a Guardian (good UK newspaper) article entitled China Limits Providers of Internet Video.

The article explains that the Chinese government was implementing a programme aimed at internet video providers that would require them to register with the government and "require providers to report questionable content to the government". I was taken aback, and frankly worried.

Tudou.com (土豆, or tudou, literally earth bean, is Chinese for potato, and no, don't ask me why the number one Chinese video sharing website is called potato.com), the Chinese equivalent of YouTube is probably one of my most frequented sites.

Without a TV here in London, I get my Ugly Betty, Desperate Housewives, 24 (when writers are writing...) and Amazing Race fix from the site. With the sudden closure of tv-links.co.uk several months ago, I wouldn't know where to turn otherwise. ABC only allows viewers inside the US to watch their shows over the internet, and Channel 4, the British carrier of my mainstays Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives offers their free download service only to those with PCs.

Usually, once you get the heavy hand of the Chinese government involved, information stops flowing until either there is enough public outcry that the government changes is position asserting that it was always what they had intended to do, or until whatever key issue that sparked the overreach in the first place fades from the limelight. My problem was that I couldn't figure out what the issue was.

There was nothing on the international scene that seemed to me particularly embarrassing to the Chinese government. When Burma was attempting its ‘saffron revolution’ news from China’s western front was stifled. And when the once-every-five-years Chinese Party Congress got underway in mid-October, I could almost understand why the Chinese government pushed through one of its harshest crackdowns in recent memory, silencing websites, pulling TV commercials and so on.

But the Congress has been quiet for months now, and as we roll into the pre-Chinese New Year lull, I was simply stumped.

Deep down I knew that the Chinese government wasn't concerned with pirating. The Chinese economy would be growing at a third the size without pirated goods (Jeff’s estimate not based in any fact whatsoever). It couldn't be amoral behaviour, could it?

Now my fear crept from my favourite TV shows to my favourite Chinese home videos. What would I do without my weekly dose of laughter at Hong laowai (Red Foreigner, who might be cute but REALLY can NOT sing!)?

Was the Chinese government going to start taking away user generated content? And if so, the question still remained. Why?!

It all came together this morning. Searching for news of Obama’s win in Iowa, I stumbled across yet another article on the Guardian that finally provided the answer: China Bans Film Censored for Sex Scenes.

According to the article, a new film called “Lost in Beijing” about the experiences of migrant workers in Beijing was released after censors stripped it of ten minutes of “graphic” sex scenes. The government accused the film of releasing uncensored versions and pulled it from general release.

To no avail the film crew countered that it was the film pirates and not they who let out the uncensored film. “Why would I give the movie to pirates and hurt my own movie?'' Fang [the director] said in a phone interview with The Associated Press. `We are the victims of piracy. We are the biggest victims,'’ he said.”

The Chinese government wasn’t budging, though, accusing directors of showing the uncensored version at the Berlin Film Festival. According to Xinhuanet.com, China’s official news agency, this has earned the production company two year’s closure.

"This also violated China's film administration regulation," the SARFT official said. Fang said they used the original version because they had no time to prepare a German version for the German audience.

On Dec. 29, 2007, SARFT issued a ban prohibiting producers of erotic movies from competing for any film awards. The ban also prohibits directors and leading actors from taking part in such any awards.

Allowing a film to go forward then pulling it suddenly sounded typical of the Chinese government, but it indicated that there was something else afoot that was causing the kerfuffle.

Then I remembered, while listening to NPR’s Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me last weekend during the ‘Bluff the Listener’ segment, there was a story about Chinese government doctors recommending against viewers trying sex acts from the censored version of Ang Lee’s most recent film "Lust, Caution" at home. Reuter’s quoted the doctors as saying:

‘Most of the sexual maneuvers in 'Lust, Caution' are in abnormal body positions,’ the report quoted Yu Zao, a deputy director at a women's hospital in southern Guangdong province, as saying.

‘Only women with comparatively flexible bodies that have gymnastics or yoga experience are able to perform them. For average people to blindly copy them could lead to unnecessary physical harm,’ Yu said.

Somehow I had missed the sensation that "Lust, Caution" had caused in China. Or more rightly, the sensation that it’s deleted scenes who had found their way onto video sharing sites had caused. The IHT reported that fans were even streaming across the border to Hong Kong to watch the uncensored version. And the Taipei Times notes that one young Beijing man is even suing the Chinese government arguing that the censorship “denied him his right to information and wants 500 yuan (US$67) for mental anguish and apologies from the theater and SARFT.”

Now, I like Ang Lee and his films as much as (or more than) anybody, but what can I say. If I can’t watch my Ugly Betty because of videos like this (note link is rated NC-17 in the US), I’m gonna be pissed.

C/hing/lish

2007-11-26T02:40:00.000Z

Ok, call me immature, but sometimes Chinglish just gets the best of me. I was watching the Amazing Race on tudou.com, a Chinese video sharing site, and I got the following ad:

Couldn't help but laugh. I wonder where I can find me some virgin oil...

And so we can class up this post a bit, here's an interesting IHT article on Hinglish coming into its own that you might find worthwhile.

The Asian Side

2007-11-05T14:34:00.000Z

If the European side of Istanbul is a destination in and of itself, the Asian side seems to me a point de depart (in the various senses of the term). I took the ferry across this morning, hoping to escape the steady rain that was beating down in the old town. It was a breezy journey of twenty minutes. I managed to pick the smoking "cabin" (which had lots of open windows to let out the smoke) which was a bit of a mistake, but I loved the players in the scene. An old man sat next to the window puffing away as rings of smoke circled above his wrinkly face. With a toothless smile he chatted with the tea servers who, dressed in bright blue jump suits, had also hurried to the front for a cigarette break.

There were others munching on what I can only describe as circular pretzels covered in sesame seeds, and tea...

And I think I'm going to stop it there as the Internet cafe I'm at has been 'invaded' by the police who are now looking at everyone's IDs. Not sure what that's about, but they left me alone when I only spoke to them in English. I've had to register my passport number before in China to use an internet cafe, but this is the most obvious incursion on free speech that I've ever experienced before!

Istanbul: Hardly "Nobody's Business but the Turks"

2007-11-04T16:08:00.000Z

Arriving at the uber-modern Ataturk airport in Istanbul last night, any preconceptions I had about the place were shattered.

I suppose that I didn't really know what to expect. Probably something along the lines of Marrakesh or Casablanca (though Istanbul is significantly bigger than either), but my visit to Delhi (with the international airport shielded by a corrugated tin roof!) has taught me not to set my expectations too high.

If anything, upon arriving I felt a strange mixture of China (with recently developed infrastructure such as the lovely airport and the light rail train that I took into the centre of the city) and France, of which the old town (Constantinople proper) is highly reminiscent. Really, Istanbul feels like it could just be any other city in Europe with ubiquitous mosques substituting for churches. Perhaps the Ikea adverts add to this ambiance.

In any case, I spent most of yesterday and today exploring. Last night, after finding a place to stay the night, I wandered down to the Galata bridge to see the sea. I have never in my life seen such a bridge though, with restaurants tucked neatly underneath,presumably floating or somehow attached to the undergirdings of the bridge. I was fascinated, so decided to eat there.

I found a place playing almost haunting (but very enjoyable!) live music, and sat outside to enjoy the view despite the chill. I supped on a rather plain (and worryingly chewy) steak baguette chased down with a beer as I was transported by the music and the scenery. Occasionally, one of the fisherpeople (who were fishing from on top of the bridge, so their lines basically went down into the water right in front of me) would haul up their catch: fish the size of an adult finger. Seemed to me a rather fruitless (or at least highly labour intensive!) task for a Saturday night, but they didn't seem to mind and the fish were plentiful if small.

Today I made it to the Hagia Sofia church/mosque/museum and saw the underground cistern. Tomorrow we'll try crossing the bridge and making a triumphant return to Asia before I head off to Cairo! Three continents in one day wouldn't be too bad for a day's non-work, would it?

Now let's see if I can get out of here before the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, returns from the US and decides it's time to invade Iraq... Last night as I was wandering around Istanbul I stumbled across a rail yard and saw lines of army trucks sitting as cargo on a train. Don't know where it was headed for sure, but it doesn't take much of an imagination to guess!

Recent Discoveries

2007-10-23T01:09:00.000+01:00

A few recent discoveries that have helped me through the week:

Vodafone’s new mobile Internet devices. These snappy USB modems plug right in to give you Internet on your computer whenever, wherever. With speeds up to 7.2mbs (as fast as you can realistically get broadband over a landline in London) and sans the hassle of BT and Orange’s ineptitude, I don’t see what’s stopping people (with perhaps the exception of the somewhat small 3GB monthly fair usage policy…). Of course, I just lost my last post, so maybe I speak a bit too soon.

Robert DeNiro’s character in Stardust. It basically makes the movie. See it if you’re up for a good laugh, and remember, it’s all about reputation.

Yahoo Pipes. A colleague turned me on to this AMAZING service by Yahoo that can help you manipulate incoming RSS feeds to produce your own bespoke feeds. See for example my friends feed that compiles the feeds from all my friends’ blogs and sorts them by most recent post to keep me up-to-date with their news.

Coffee-rubbed salmon. Tonight I decided to take inspiration from a recipe I had seen for a coffee rub for chicken breasts. I added about 2 tablespoons of freshly ground Peet’s coffee (yes I have it imported), ½ teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper, ½ teaspoon of garam masala, 1/2 teaspoon of herbs de provence, and 1 tablespoon of olive oil. I rubbed it over two fillets of salmon and grilled in the oven for about 20 minutes. Divine!

MiKA. You might recognise their songs from various Ugly Betty promotions (including the Season 2 promo with "Big Girl You Are Beautiful"), but they're so much more. I downloaded Life in Cartoon Motion last week and haven't been able to turn it off. I actually think it's becoming a problem.

More on Myanmar

2007-10-01T00:39:00.000+01:00

Some various responses to my last post:

It's weird--the Denver Post (an AP outlet) has nothing about Myanmar on their front page, but I noticed some headlines about it on their news ticker when I was downtown. If you go to the World news page, 2 stories about Myanmar are in the "Top News Stories" box, which makes the absence from the front page even weirder. It looks like the AP is covering the events there, just not...making any attempt to draw peoples' notice to them? Very strange. Article here.

I've been trying to keep up with the news about what's happening in Myanmar (formerly Burma, I believe), and can report that the Corvallis Gazette-Times has had articles regarding the riots, etc, almost every day, although the articles are back on the 4th or 5th page of the main section.

Apparently, you missed that George Bush made extensive comments on your blog issue today.

Just wanted to pipe in that the top story on the NYT website last night when I looked at it hoping for a Myanmar update was a YANKEES GAME. Yes, the coverage has been terrible over here.

Thanks for the references, Jeff. You’ll be relieved to know that NPR (Morning Edition and All Things Considered) is covering the activity. Unfortunately, the news coming out of Myanmar is suddenly being clamped down. Sending prayers for those within…

CNN? USA Today? Those of us who live in the US and are savvy listen to NPR - and let me tell you, Myanmar/Burma is the top story at every news break. It is also a top story at the New York Times. It just depends on where you go for news.

In general it sounds like coverage of what's happening in Burma is out there, but it requires a little digging. While I am reassured that it is at least out there, I continue to be frustrated with the fact that it is not more prominently located. The only way to put international pressure on the junta in Myanmar is to build awareness.

Of course, as one of my readers notices, after the government crackdowns started last Thursday, news and images from the inside has slowed somewhat. Which is why an article on Discovery News caught my attention: Satellite Images Show Myanmar Abuses.

Howard French has also offered an interesting view of the conflict from China in: Letter from China: Myanmar crackdown sheds light on Beijing's aspirations. To quote selectively:

Myanmar is a highly repressive state that has been run into the ground by incompetent leaders who have been partially enabled by China. It is, moreover, a country whose people are now risking their lives peacefully for freedom. This must very nearly be something like a bad dream for Beijing's foreign policy establishment.

Indeed, as French also points out, the Chinese government is between a rock and a hard place. It will be interesting to see how much longer their policy of non-interference with the internal affairs of other states will be a stragtegy they will be able to maintain.

Because of this, French hints, coverage of what is going on in Burma is limited at best in China, and so I would like to re-pose the same question as before to my readers in China (I konw you're out there!). It seems like there is never much of the important stuff that can be found in the media, but what's the word on the street, especially in nearby Kunming? Is there an awareness or reaction to what is happening there?

Rather ironically, I just saw an article on the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television's (SARFT) recent drive to clean up Chinese media before the 17th Party Congress. Sexy sounds and ads for push-up bras are out, good wholesome socialist fun is in. The Deputy Head of SARFT, Tian Jin said, "Every television advertisement management bureau and television station must strengthen their political consciousness and responsibility toward society." Funny, it seems to me that the responsible thing for society would be to report about the atrocities happening right next door...

OK, Seriously Folks

2007-09-28T01:26:00.000+01:00

For whatever foolish reason, I went to check the CNN webpage to see what it had to say about what's happening in Burma. For fun I selected the 'US Edition' and had to scroll more than half way down the page to see a mention of Myanmar. Is this actually not big news in the US?! Then I went to the USAToday just to see if I could give myself a coronary, and only found reference to Myanmar with regards to new US sanctions thereon. What's the big news at MSNBC.com? The 10 dying businesses. And not surprisingly, FoxNews wasn't any better.

Um, hello? Is anyone home in there?

Even in the UK Myanmar has managed to surpass stories about Madeline sightings in Morocco (though only barely). Seriously, any of you in the US, what is the coverage like? The fact of the matter is that what is happening now in Burma has the potential to be one of the defining moments of this decade. If you don't know what's going on, learn!

You can start with my personal fav, the IHT. And even the BBC has had some interesting and in-depth coverage of what's going on there. And if you're still want for information, guess what the feature story is in this week'sThe Economist.

Quick Kunming Roundup

2007-09-28T00:40:00.000+01:00

Kunming seems to be in the news a lot recently, so I thought I'd do a very quick roundup.

First, a brief aside. I still have lots of posts sitting in my head, but no time to write them it seems. Suffice it to say that Myanmar is at the front of my mind, and has been for about the last week. I only wish I knew how to help in a way that felt real (instead of blogging or wearing red). If you have any good thoughts, please share.

Anyway, let's cross the border from Myanmar, wander up past Ruili, mosey through Dali and end up back in Kunming, the capital of the Yunnan Province.

The New York Times, the Atlantic Monthly and Newsweek have all run recent articles highlighting the joys of Kunming. The NYT focused on nostalgia for the Kunming of the past in a place that's kinda like China, but really just China Lite. The Atlantic Monthly was actually from way back in July, but gives a good traveller's guide to the land South of the Clouds. Newsweek prefers to skim over it with a suggestion for how to spend Four Hours in Kunming. If you do happen to find yourself in Kunming, my friend Even offered a brilliant repost to Newsweek and suggested two different and exponentially better uses of four hours in Kunming.

And if you're wondering what's actually going on in Kunming these days, check out the excellent blog GoKunming's post on the mayhem of Kunming's first 'No-car Day'.

The PRC Meets the DRC

2007-09-22T14:49:00.000+01:00

The IHT seems to be almost entirely dedicated to happenings in China today (22 September 2007). From the appointment of a new Catholic bishop in Beijing, to Mattel apologising for recalling more toys than it needed to and thus damaging China’s reputation, it appears to have been a busy couple of days in China. The article that particularly caught my eye, though, was by Howard French, one of my favourite reporters out there. He is currently the Bureau Chief for the New York Times’s Shanghai bureau, though he has a long history elsewhere in Asia (before Shanghai he was in Tokyo) and around the world (he’s covered the Caribbean, but he got his start in Africa). If there is a reporter out there that knows his stuff about the world, it’s certainly him.

His article, The Chinese and Congo take a giant leap of faith, which interestingly follows nicely from my last post, is both provocative and excellently written. The article looks at a recent agreement struck between the governments of China and the Congo offering US$5 billion (an amount that seems to be worth less and less these days…) worth of loans to be granted for infrastructure development in the Congo.

In theory, the deal is win-win for both countries. The Congo gets important infrastructure, such as over 3,000 km each of new roads and rail tracks. China, in turn, gets access to Congo’s vast mineral wealth. Of course, contracts for building the infrastructure will also probably go to efficient Chinese companies who import their own Chinese labour. In other words, China is lending money to the Congolese government so that they can in turn hire Chinese (state-subsisdised?) companies to go in and use Chinese labour to build roads. This not only allows the Chinese government to get kickbacks from companies bidding on projects, collect taxes on their profits, and charge interest on these loans to the Congolese government, but also to find employment for some of the millions strong eligible workforce. I can’t help but think the Chinese got the better end of this deal.

Part of me really hates to pull it into this discourse, but several have already started to question whether the Chinese development model is just a new colonialism. I’m sceptical of yet, but as I’ve already mentioned, China is certainly changing the face of the development sector. I just attended the Development Studies Association’s Annual conference down in Brighton on Wednesday and even stumbled upon a fascinating book published by Zed Books: China in Africa by Chris Alden. I’ve only had a chance to skim the book, but it’s certainly very topical and relevant given developments like these!

NB- More posts to come shortly about my recent trip to Norway among others. My Internet has been down since the end of August, and so it’s been difficult finding time on the net to be able to post. Having said that, NEVER EVER get Orange broadband! Their customer service is reprehensible and their technical support is laughable!!

DRC 'Fun' Fact

2007-08-19T12:40:00.000+01:00

I'll be the first to admit that my knowledge of all things African is pretty limited. Sure I've been to Morocco, but that hardly counts as Africa (except that it's physically on the landmass). But through my work at the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), and with many of my friends at the LSE who are interested in Africa, a flatmate who studies African politics, and two friends who just moved there (one to South Africa and the other to Tanzania), my interest has officially been piqued.

As I've been working on my dissertation (which is due all too soon), I've been trying to bone up on (aside: where does that expression come from?!?!) my African geography and general knowledgebase. Which is why, when an old friend from school who is now into her third year of med school said she was interested in maybe spending a year in the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo), and we both joked that it would be too dangerous, I decided that I needed to find out more about why exactly it would be too dangerous. So Wikipedia, there I went.

And the interesting DRC fact that I learned:

"The Belgian Congo, which was also rich in uranium deposits, supplied the uranium that was used by the United States to build the atomic weapons that were used in the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945."

I had no idea! I thought that we had rich uranium deposits in Nevada that we sourced from in that era. Since there was no source cited, I thought I'd do a little search and indeed, iafrica.com backed up this assertion.

So now I just need to figure out why, besides the uranium, the DRC is a dangerous place... back to the Wikipedia (oh, and the dissertation)!

苦菜酥红豆 (Kucai su Hongdou)

2007-08-07T09:37:00.000+01:00

In Kunming, one of my favorite dishes was the 苦菜酥红豆 (Kucai su Hongdou) or Flakey Red Beans with Bitter Vegetable (sowthistle, if we are to believe Google’s translation services). After a couple of experiments, I’ve come up with my own version of the dish, which goes a long way to help staunch those cravings for delicious Yunnan food! If you’re looking for an interesting new dish, I’d highly recommend giving this one a try. It’s not your ‘typical’ westernized Chinese food!

Ingredients:

1 can (15ish ounces/400ish grams) kidney beans (alternately, soaked and boiled beans, same amounts)
1 cup kale roughly cut into 1cm strips
½ cup flour
½ tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ‘chicken seasoning’ (alternately, a ½ tsp cayenne pepper)
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
5 dried red chillies cut in half
1/3 cup peanut/cooking oil

After opening the can of beans, drain juice and rinse with water. In a medium-sized sealable container, combine flour, salt, baking powder, and chicken seasoning. Add beans and shake well until beans are coated in flour mixture.

Add oil to wok, and then garlic and chillies when at heat. Then add the coated beans to the oil stirring infrequently from the bottom and lifting careful so as not to break the beans. Don’t press down on the beans or you’ll mash them! Add more oil if wok is dry at this point—the beans will absorb a lot of oil at the beginning. After about one minute, add the strips of kale to the beans. Continue to stir fry until the beans move from oily/mushy to brown and crispy and the kale is wilted. Serve with rice and other delicious Yunnan dishes (more recipes to follow!). Let me know if you try it and if so what you think!