Went for a hike 3 days ago at hartz mt. The terrain at the park was very interesting. Almost like a tundra landscape with puddles of water here and there. The plantations are all small and bunched together to conserve energy and prevent heat loss. We also found out that the car was leaking oil (engine oil, not gasoline). Got it checked out by a local mechanic shop and it appeared that it would cost quite a bit to fix it, so we are just gonna ride this thing out by adding oil to it when necessary. (So far so good, we have made 2 trips and returned safely without any problems).
(Pictures posted on facebook) On Wednesday, the other Cdn from BC and I went on a day trip to Bruny Island. We drove to a ferry terminal and took the “albion-like” ferry across to BI. Drove across the narrow strip of land between 2 bays. Checked out Captain Cook’s landing point in Tasmania and did a 3 hour trek in at the Fluted Cape. The path was quite muddy since the rain was on and off with sunny breaks in between. At the top of the cliff, we even had 30 seconds of hail. We did our leaping pictures along the walk and for the entire time, we only saw 4 other people. After the trek, we then made our way down to the opposite tip in the Southwestern point of Cape Bruny (50 minute drive) thru paved and dirt roads to the lighthouse. The lighthouse was built in 1836 and was only decommissioned 5 years ago. We walked around the lighthouse and the open field next to it then we did more jumping pictures. Even though it was super windy in the area, but the condition was great for taking pictures.
Went to the Hastings cave yesterday about 1 hour south of Geeveston past Dover. Checked out the lime stone formations. Good thing that we didn’t have to pay, it was not worth the 22 bucks at all. We found that a lot of the tourist attractions cost a bloody lot here in Tasmania. Fortunately I have “managed” to pay the least amount possible.
The owners at the hostel have offered us 500 bucks to paint the outside of the hostel. So we are going to clean the exteriors of the house before painting it blue.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Geeveston, Tasmania
1) Been here in Geeveston, Tasmania for 2 days now. Got in on Tuesday afternoon from Hobart after a 2 hour flight from Sydney. While landing at Hobart (the capital of Tasmania), I noticed the intriguing landscape of the Tassy east coast. The coastline and the water themselves are like nothing I had seen before. The water around the bay was calm and the little hills surrounding the water were arid. So vast and uninhabited.Got a bus from the airport into the city center where my Geoff and I had lunch at this nice seafood restaurant. We went around the harbour for a bit before stopping by the Lark Distillery (Australia’s oldest distillery) next to the tourist info center.
Funny thing about this distillery is that I had previously written a short paper on it 4 years ago during my last year of university. It was an odd experience from writing about it to being inside of it. If you had told me that I’d be in Tasmania 4 years later from when I was writing that paper, i probably would have said, “Bullshit”.
It was already after 3pm by this time, we caught a bus from the city center to the small town of Geeveston about 1 hour south west of Hobart (population 900). The bus ride itself was painful, as there wasn’t any aircon and it was bloody hot. Geoff and I were the only non-whites on the bus and the rest of the people were all around the age of 6 to 17 years old. (We later learned that there’s not many highschools in between Geeveston and Hobart. Therefore the kids go to school up to 1 hour away from where they live. * Interesting fact is that the Australian school system only goes up to grade 10, as year 11 and 12 are optional.) We checked into a hostel once arriving the “thriving” town of one post office and one non-bank ATM machine.
2) Didn’t do much the first night, but chatted up with 1 married American couple (around my age) and a German with his Korean girlfriend. The hostel itself is pretty cool, as it’s operated by a gay couple. Thus far, most of the travellers are Australians and much older than us (around 40’s and 50’s). We have met Brit and Kiwi expats. Australians from Queensland, Melbourne, Perth, and Brisbane. Other travellers include some Irish and Canadian girl and a couple from Switzerland.
I think other than the interesting conversation with the cdn and Irish girls, the Americans were pretty funny especially talking to them about the race situation in the US. However, it’s still a bit scary to hear what they had to say about the visible minorities in the US. The mentality is just so different. I don’t even know how to start about that topic. (But I do give them kudos for even leaving America for China, Europe and now Australia. Better late than never eh?)
3) Walked around town yesterday and today just to get a feel around this area. It took us about 40 minutes to see all of the town. (yeh, I know.)
Other than the Korean girl and Geoff, I have yet to see another Asian person. Needless to say, there’s no Chinese food around. The only places to eat pretty much only served sandwiches, fish and chips, pizzas, and the all time Aussie fav’s – pies!
Walked 1 hour to Port Huon today from my little town for some fishing action. Bought the baits, fishing lines, weights, and some hooks along the way. We fished from the Port Huon wharf for 2 hours and caught 4 fish. We got 2 Mullets (Daces), 1 Cod, and 1 Barracuda. I personally caught 3 and Geoff caught the Barracuda. It was pretty crazy, as it was the first time we have fished since when we were both kids. Also the first time fishing without a fishing rod.
We walked home for another hour after and cooked 3 of the fish for dinner with some fries. They were alright.
Thinking of going back into Hobart to buy a lemon car tomorrow, as it’s too hard to get around without a car here. Still trying to find work for the orchard.
4) On Friday, we went back into Hobart and bought our “new old car”. It was a 1991 Camry station wagon with 300,000 kms on it. Cost us $1400. Without a car in Tasmania, it is simply impossible to get around. For example, the 1 hour walk each way to go fishing now only takes 5 minutes. Crappy thing is that I’d have to drive all the time, since Geoff doesn’t know how. Gonna have to start teaching him soon.
After acquiring the new vehicle, we headed straight up to Mt Wellington from Hobart. The drive was steep and took us about 30 minutes to get up to the top, but the view was pretty good from above. One could see everything in and around Hobart along River Derwent and its various bays. The landscape at the top of the mountain was arid and with odd rock formations. Almost sort of desert like rocks in limestone formations.
5) Sunday: Went into Huonville to give some orchards a call and find work, but I guess it was Sunday and nobody wanted to be bothered. Went fishing afterwards, though it was super windy and cold at the wharf. Caught 5 fish, with 3 cods, 1 Snotty Treballi, and a mackerel.
* Some French Cdns arrived last night, pretty funny guys. The French cdns put up “QC” on all their food items in the fridge. I thought it was pretty funny……Quebecois. The hostel now has more cdns than any other nationalities. Great success. Anyways, according to one of the French cdns, there’s a sign at the Bangladesh airport saying “one firearm allowed per person”. A Swiss guy was jailed for 4 years for having some poppy seeds on his shirt (from when he had a poppy seed bagel at the Heathrow airport).
Sunday, February 17, 2008
North Korea and Iraq stuff
Watched a feature on Nat Geo today called “Undercover in North Korea”, hosted by Lisa Ling of “The View” (don’t ask me how I know, but I know). Pardon my ignorance, but I find this stuff to be intriguing, but in a very unpleasant way. I had previously seen features on North Korea and its people trying to escape into China or South Korea. Those images def scarred me. It’s something you would expect to see perhaps in the Middle East, Africa, or some of the pacific islands, but not in the relatively prosperous East Asia.
Other than the topic of discussion on the border issue with South Korea, 2 stories stuck in my mind the most: Malnutrition of the kids and the will to leave NK by some of the “traitors”.
It is said that 40% of kids in NK are under malnutrition and are 20 cms shorter than their SK counterparts at age 7 (I forgot the weight difference, but also a significant number). According to a doctor, he saw a group of kids fighting over a kernel of corn embedded in a fresh pile of cow manure. The kid that “won” the fight rinsed the kernel of corn with dirty water and ate it.
On a different occasion, a high ranking solider patrolling the towers around the border to the SK escaped in the middle of the night through electrical fences and 3 kms of mine fields to SK. The other solider died while escaping. When asked what he thinks happened to his family in NK, the escaped soldier simply responded with, “I’d rather not talk about it”.
Lastly, cataract is common in NK amongst all demographics. The primary reason for cataract being, again, malnutrition. A foreign doctor has been operating on the NKn patients. Once recoved from the surgery, instead of thanking the doctor, all the NKns praise the leader and general, Kim Jong Il right away by saying, “Long live Kim Jong Il”. After regaining her eyesight, one woman was quoted saying, “I would work harder at the salt mines to bring (KJI) happiness”.
For me to see that, it was hard to believe. Were the NKns acting out of fear. Or was it blind faith (no pun intended)? Or was it both? I think the line between faith and fear may be distorted by now. KJI and his father ruled NK the past half a century with a philosophy (can’t remember how to spell it, but when translated in English, it means “Up yours”.) They preach the fact that the NKns are self-reliant.
- KJI was once the world’s biggest customer of the world’s best whiskeys. He also has a large movie collection (over 20,000 DVD’s).
- if I remembered correctly, Kim Jong Il’s favourite snack is Doritos.
- KJI rules by fear, concentration work camps known as “22” can be found throughout NK. Some of the camps are family camps with most of the family and extended family members being completely innocent of any crimes. (They were brought there because one member in the family committed some petty crime such as complaining about the portion of food given by the gov’t).
* A side note, got to know a few South Korean backpackers during my time in Sydney. It is very noticeable that the Koreans really stay together through thick and thins. I haven’t seen that in any other groups. They really look out for each other. It is very interesting to see as an outsider.
Watched another feature on Nat Geo afterwards called “Inside Iraq’s Kill Zone” – Blackwater: private security contractors. $600/day really worth it? The potential dangers such as insurgent attacks and IED – improvised explosive device (road side bombs) are ever present. I guess every man’s got a price.
Other than the topic of discussion on the border issue with South Korea, 2 stories stuck in my mind the most: Malnutrition of the kids and the will to leave NK by some of the “traitors”.
It is said that 40% of kids in NK are under malnutrition and are 20 cms shorter than their SK counterparts at age 7 (I forgot the weight difference, but also a significant number). According to a doctor, he saw a group of kids fighting over a kernel of corn embedded in a fresh pile of cow manure. The kid that “won” the fight rinsed the kernel of corn with dirty water and ate it.
On a different occasion, a high ranking solider patrolling the towers around the border to the SK escaped in the middle of the night through electrical fences and 3 kms of mine fields to SK. The other solider died while escaping. When asked what he thinks happened to his family in NK, the escaped soldier simply responded with, “I’d rather not talk about it”.
Lastly, cataract is common in NK amongst all demographics. The primary reason for cataract being, again, malnutrition. A foreign doctor has been operating on the NKn patients. Once recoved from the surgery, instead of thanking the doctor, all the NKns praise the leader and general, Kim Jong Il right away by saying, “Long live Kim Jong Il”. After regaining her eyesight, one woman was quoted saying, “I would work harder at the salt mines to bring (KJI) happiness”.
For me to see that, it was hard to believe. Were the NKns acting out of fear. Or was it blind faith (no pun intended)? Or was it both? I think the line between faith and fear may be distorted by now. KJI and his father ruled NK the past half a century with a philosophy (can’t remember how to spell it, but when translated in English, it means “Up yours”.) They preach the fact that the NKns are self-reliant.
- KJI was once the world’s biggest customer of the world’s best whiskeys. He also has a large movie collection (over 20,000 DVD’s).
- if I remembered correctly, Kim Jong Il’s favourite snack is Doritos.
- KJI rules by fear, concentration work camps known as “22” can be found throughout NK. Some of the camps are family camps with most of the family and extended family members being completely innocent of any crimes. (They were brought there because one member in the family committed some petty crime such as complaining about the portion of food given by the gov’t).
* A side note, got to know a few South Korean backpackers during my time in Sydney. It is very noticeable that the Koreans really stay together through thick and thins. I haven’t seen that in any other groups. They really look out for each other. It is very interesting to see as an outsider.
Watched another feature on Nat Geo afterwards called “Inside Iraq’s Kill Zone” – Blackwater: private security contractors. $600/day really worth it? The potential dangers such as insurgent attacks and IED – improvised explosive device (road side bombs) are ever present. I guess every man’s got a price.
Coy like the Olympics
Pic above: Luo Brothers’ art series “Welcome! Welcome!”. The crossing between ancient Chinese artefacts [the original ones (without the fastfood, of course) made of brass in the 1800’s] and “embracing” today’s value of instant gratification. (I could not find the gold colour one with 3 babies and a hamburger and a camera) *Baby with Koys on top of a bed of Coke cansJust played bball for the 4th day in a row. Note to self: playing 4 days straight will get u nothing but blisters on your feet.
1) Watched a documentary called “paper clips”. It was about some highschool students from the small town of Whitwell, Tennessee (less than 100 miles to the KKK’s founding place) where the population is less than 2000. During the filming of the documentary starting in 98, the highschool had 4 black kids and 1 Hispanic kid.
The students took on a project to learn about the history of the world. The lesson was on the holocaust and the project was to collect over 6 million paper clips with each representing the Jews the Nazi regime killed. Paper clips were chosen because the Norwegians used to wear them on their lapels as a symbol of resistance against Nazi occupation during World War II.
11 million paper clips were stored inside an authentic German transport car (shipped from a town north of Berlin). 6 million for the murdered Jews and 5 million for queers, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Gypises amongst other groups).
Next to the paper clips, there is a suitcase filled with letters of apology to Anne Frank by a class of German students.
By the end of the film (2003), they have collected over 30 million paper clips; 5 times more than they wished for.
For more info on the movie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_Clips_Project
2) A few days ago, I went to this art exhibition as part of Sydney’s Chinese New Year celebration events (I pretty much only went because it was free. Haha) The title of the exhibition was called “More Yum Cha” (yum cha is better known as dim sum or dim sim). Anyways, to my surprise, the experience at the gallery where the event was hosted was amazing. I got to see a lot of contemporary art pieces by Chinese artists and even recognized a few art pieces from when I had seen them in a documentary (about China) before.
I got to talk to the owner for a couple of hours since the place wasn’t busy. He was very interested in what I had to say so he invited me up to his office where he showed me a part of this documentary he’s working on. The documentary is about the Chinese artists he buys the art pieces from. He’s been going to China the last 10 years. Most recent being a year ago and he’s planning for another trip next month, but this time he’ll be going to Chongqing to the hometown of his artists.
One of the art pieces that stunned me the most was by the famous Luo Brothers of the Guangxi province. Their famous “Welcome! Welcome!” series was inspired by the old , but combined with today’s values.
Went to another free exhibitions afterwards at the customs house library called “China Dreaming”, a series of photographs of Chinese people dozing off in daily lives. Pretty interesting to look at.
3) Played bball for the last 4 days straight. That’ll get you a blister or 2 on your feet. Went to the Sydney dragon boat festival yesterday, but it was pretty sad. The scale of the event was tiny, but same as any other dragon boat races in a western society – corporate! Everybody who’s anybody (in terms of company-wise) showed up. Watched a pretty neat feature on discovery channel today called “Ultimate Olympics – Go Beijing!”
I learned some interesting facts about the urban planning of Beijing, both the past, present and the future.
- 3 million cars on the roads of Beijing
- the building of the crows nest stadium– 36 km of steel rod, no pillars which provides a great view for everybody inside. The water cube- steel rods with a polymer material for windows – no glass, better for earthquakes and withstands the diff range of temperatures in Beijing.
- building of another ring road above ground. Highway straight to a new airport terminal.
- by 2015, an additional11 lines (600kms total) will be the biggest subway system in the world.
- building of a Beijing forest park that is twice the size of NYC’s central park. The park contains a artificial dragon lake and a fake mountain of 48 meters high. To prevent the algae growing in the still-water lake, a natural water filtration system is used to recycle the water and absorb the phosphate to reduce algae growth. The park is said to be big enough to alter the microenvironment in Beijing.
- the “etiquette sport” which I had discussed in an entry in November 2006 is still going strong to educate the Beijing citizens on how to behave like a world class citizen. (ie. No spitting/loitering in public, or budding in queues, or
Ps. From what I have seen in china and the western portrayals of the Chinese people, Chinese is very proud of its culture whether if its past, present or future. However, one trend I continue to notice is that an average commoner in China believes so strongly about Beijing’s ability to host the best Olympics. It’s almost to a degree of pure ignorance. To me, it’s either the well-oiled Chinese gov’t propaganda machine at work or the individual’s firm belief that they are going to be the best of the best.
The Chinese of mainland China loves one word – “absolute”. It’s funny that they’d use that word over and over during interviews almost to reassure the audience that even if it’s not gonna work, we’ll make it work somehow. Although, I have to admire the Chinese Can-do attitude.
Anyways, with all this shit going down, how can anybody not be excited for the Chinese. I got 2 words for them made famous by Dizzie Rascalz – Fix Up Look Sharp.
Pps. I wonder if Vancouver’s gonna be ready for the 2010 olympics.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Masking Propaganda
I just like to add one more thing on the politics of the Beijing Olympics.
Much to the Chinese Olympic committee’s /gov't's delight , Article 51 of the Olympic charter prohibits political demonstrations and propaganda in Olympic venues.
I think what China is saying is that, "Hey, we didn't make the rules.....it was there before Beijing 2008."
The Chinese gov't, like any other gov'ts in the world, is a large propaganda machine. For them, or any gov'ts, to ban any sort of political demonstrations and propaganda is yet another irony.
I think it is fittingly that - No propaganda is bad propaganda unless it's propaganda against us.
On a side note, the Australian Olympic Committee had rejected any chances of boycotting the Beijing Olympics over China's lack of actions in the bloodshed of Darfur, Sudan. US filmmaker Steven Spielberg withdraws as an artistic adviser to the Olympics over China's role in Darfur. (China’s response to Spielberg was basically, “That’s fine, we can do without you.”)
If you ask me, boycotting the games is pretty futile, since it doesn’t serve much purpose. However, that doesn’t mean the effort stops there. I have always maintained that……the athletes should go to China to compete and speak their minds. Changes are required, so the time is now. Be grateful that we can all play a part in changing China’s way with human rights.
The following was written by the APP titled “Poms breathe life into mission”. I thought it was f’ing hilarious.
“LONDON: British Olympic athletes will wear masks to protect them from pollution at the Beijing games.
The controversial move comes despite the risk it could offend Chinese Olympic officials and decisions by Australian, American, and Canadian athletes not to wear any masks during competition.
‘This is a competitive issue,’ BOA chief executive Simon Clegg told The Times. ‘We are in the business of trying to win medals here and beat our competitors.’
The masks, featuring a mouthpiece with a filter containing absorbent material, were commissioned by UK Sport’s research and innovation unit.
China has promised to contain air pollution during the Games.”
Much to the Chinese Olympic committee’s /gov't's delight , Article 51 of the Olympic charter prohibits political demonstrations and propaganda in Olympic venues.
I think what China is saying is that, "Hey, we didn't make the rules.....it was there before Beijing 2008."
The Chinese gov't, like any other gov'ts in the world, is a large propaganda machine. For them, or any gov'ts, to ban any sort of political demonstrations and propaganda is yet another irony.
I think it is fittingly that - No propaganda is bad propaganda unless it's propaganda against us.
On a side note, the Australian Olympic Committee had rejected any chances of boycotting the Beijing Olympics over China's lack of actions in the bloodshed of Darfur, Sudan. US filmmaker Steven Spielberg withdraws as an artistic adviser to the Olympics over China's role in Darfur. (China’s response to Spielberg was basically, “That’s fine, we can do without you.”)
If you ask me, boycotting the games is pretty futile, since it doesn’t serve much purpose. However, that doesn’t mean the effort stops there. I have always maintained that……the athletes should go to China to compete and speak their minds. Changes are required, so the time is now. Be grateful that we can all play a part in changing China’s way with human rights.
The following was written by the APP titled “Poms breathe life into mission”. I thought it was f’ing hilarious.
“LONDON: British Olympic athletes will wear masks to protect them from pollution at the Beijing games.
The controversial move comes despite the risk it could offend Chinese Olympic officials and decisions by Australian, American, and Canadian athletes not to wear any masks during competition.
‘This is a competitive issue,’ BOA chief executive Simon Clegg told The Times. ‘We are in the business of trying to win medals here and beat our competitors.’
The masks, featuring a mouthpiece with a filter containing absorbent material, were commissioned by UK Sport’s research and innovation unit.
China has promised to contain air pollution during the Games.”
Friday, February 15, 2008
Both Aus and USA have the letters S. A. U.
In relation to my blog entry on Feb 12th titled “UK Jockeys to Zip It Up in China”.
RIP Peter Norman. Good on you mate, for supporting your fellow American whom just happen to be black, not black Americans.
“Silver medalist Peter Norman (Australian) stood on the podium next to Tommie Smith and John Carlos in the 1968 Summer Olympics while he worn the Olympic Project for Human Rights badge to show his support for the two Americans.
The two American athletes received their medals shoeless, but wearing black socks, to represent black poverty. Smith wore a black scarf around his neck to represent black pride. Carlos wore beads which he described "were for those individuals that were lynched, or killed that no-one said a prayer for, that were hung and tarred. It was for those thrown off the side of the boats in the middle passage." All three athletes wore Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR) badges, after Norman expressed sympathy with their ideals.
Sociologist Harry Edwards, the founder of the OPHR, had urged black athletes to boycott the games; reportedly, the actions of Smith and Carlos on October 16, 1968, were inspired by Edwards' arguments.
Carlos had forgotten his black gloves, but Norman suggested that they share Smith's pair, with Smith wearing the right glove and Carlos the left.
Norman, who was sympathetic to his competitors' protest, was reprimanded by the Australian Olympic authorities and ostracized by the Australian media. He was not picked for the 1972 Summer Olympics, despite finishing third in his trials.
He kept running, but contracted gangrene in 1985 after tearing his Achilles tendon, which nearly led to his leg being amputated. Depression and heavy drinking followed. He died on October 3, 2006. Smith and Carlos were pallbearers at his funeral”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Olympics_Black_Power_Salute
RIP Peter Norman. Good on you mate, for supporting your fellow American whom just happen to be black, not black Americans.
“Silver medalist Peter Norman (Australian) stood on the podium next to Tommie Smith and John Carlos in the 1968 Summer Olympics while he worn the Olympic Project for Human Rights badge to show his support for the two Americans.
The two American athletes received their medals shoeless, but wearing black socks, to represent black poverty. Smith wore a black scarf around his neck to represent black pride. Carlos wore beads which he described "were for those individuals that were lynched, or killed that no-one said a prayer for, that were hung and tarred. It was for those thrown off the side of the boats in the middle passage." All three athletes wore Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR) badges, after Norman expressed sympathy with their ideals.
Sociologist Harry Edwards, the founder of the OPHR, had urged black athletes to boycott the games; reportedly, the actions of Smith and Carlos on October 16, 1968, were inspired by Edwards' arguments.
Carlos had forgotten his black gloves, but Norman suggested that they share Smith's pair, with Smith wearing the right glove and Carlos the left.
Norman, who was sympathetic to his competitors' protest, was reprimanded by the Australian Olympic authorities and ostracized by the Australian media. He was not picked for the 1972 Summer Olympics, despite finishing third in his trials.
He kept running, but contracted gangrene in 1985 after tearing his Achilles tendon, which nearly led to his leg being amputated. Depression and heavy drinking followed. He died on October 3, 2006. Smith and Carlos were pallbearers at his funeral”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Olympics_Black_Power_Salute
Thoughts on China, again.
Pic above: Inspired by my friend Dunn and his facebook group - Leaping Across China, I have since then started my own Oz version. I have posted various photos of me and my bud hopping around Sydney. I spoke to a friend of mine about what I’ve been blogging on China and the Olympics. She thought that China doesn’t deserve to host this year’s games because of its less than humane approach in the area of human rights.
I never thought about whether they deserved the games or not, but since they got it, I hope they make the best of it. As for the human rights issue......it's long overdue. As martin luther king jr would say, "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere". That’s certainly true in regards to human rights.
I am not sure by holding the games in another / or in a democratic country would benefit anybody.......in terms of human rights anyways, so if it's gotta be in China, it might as well be now. Wishful thinking got me hoping that perhaps china will change its ways sooner than later.
I want the best for china. Keeping my fingers crossed.
In addition, I think it is very very very ironic that the BOA would want to gag its athletes to speak out while at the games. They are basically shooting themselves in the foot...it's like do as i say, but not as I do.
U can't expect china to honour freedom of speech when u gag ur own athletes. If that was the case, then that'd be the great irony of the 2008 Olympics.
oh, i saw a borat book with 2 titles "a great guidings to the glorious nation of kazahstan" and the title starting on the other end saying "a great guidings to the minor nation of US and A".
I never thought about whether they deserved the games or not, but since they got it, I hope they make the best of it. As for the human rights issue......it's long overdue. As martin luther king jr would say, "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere". That’s certainly true in regards to human rights.
I am not sure by holding the games in another / or in a democratic country would benefit anybody.......in terms of human rights anyways, so if it's gotta be in China, it might as well be now. Wishful thinking got me hoping that perhaps china will change its ways sooner than later.
I want the best for china. Keeping my fingers crossed.
In addition, I think it is very very very ironic that the BOA would want to gag its athletes to speak out while at the games. They are basically shooting themselves in the foot...it's like do as i say, but not as I do.
U can't expect china to honour freedom of speech when u gag ur own athletes. If that was the case, then that'd be the great irony of the 2008 Olympics.
oh, i saw a borat book with 2 titles "a great guidings to the glorious nation of kazahstan" and the title starting on the other end saying "a great guidings to the minor nation of US and A".
Thursday, February 14, 2008
More on China, Olympics, Human Rights
The following article has been condensed from the original. For the entire content, please go to http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/09/07/china16823.htm
China: Media Freedom Attacks Continue Despite Pledges
11 Months Ahead of Beijing Olympics, Journalist Harassment Ongoing
(New York, September 7, 2007) – The Chinese government continues to violate the rights of journalists in spite of assurances to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that the 2008 Beijing Olympics would foster improvements in human rights and of specific pledges of wider media freedoms, Human Rights Watch said today.
“The continuing harassment and physical abuse of journalists in the countdown to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing raises serious questions about the sincerity of government pledges to greater media freedom,” said Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “The Chinese government seems to see a free media as an enemy rather than a watchdog of public safety and social stability.”
As part of its 2001 bid for the 2008 Olympics, the Chinese government expressly assured the IOC that it would loosen its long-held grip on the media during the Olympic Games. That commitment is consistent with the obligation of Olympic host cities to comply with Article 51 of the Olympic Charter, which stipulates that the IOC should take “all necessary steps in order to ensure the fullest coverage by the different media and the widest possible audience in the world for the Olympic Games.” Moreover, Article 35 of the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China specifically guarantees “freedom ... of the press.”
In late 2006, the Chinese government announced new freedoms for accredited foreign journalists as part of its IOC commitments. The temporary regulations, in effect from January 1, 2007 until October 17, 2008, allow foreign correspondents to freely conduct interviews with any consenting Chinese organization or citizen.
Despite those temporary rules, on August 24, police prevented a group of seven foreign journalists, including two camera crews and a radio journalist, who attempted to visit Yuan Weijing, the wife of jailed human rights defender Chen Guangcheng, prior to her scheduled flight to Manila to receive an international human rights award on her husband’s behalf. One of those journalists told Human Rights Watch that the police on duty outside Yuan’s Beijing residence forced the journalists to accompany them to the neighborhood police post, where they were subjected to a lengthy “registration” process in order to get access to the residence.
Human Rights Watch pointed out that the temporary regulations also do not extend to Chinese journalists or Chinese nationals who work as assistants or translators for foreign journalists the same freedoms they do to foreign journalists. As a result, Chinese journalists remain particularly vulnerable to retaliation from local authorities who do not want embarrassing issues covered.
In mid-August, five Chinese journalists, including a reporter from the government mouthpiece People’s Daily, were interviewing witnesses to the Fenghuang bridge collapse in central Hunan province. Plainclothes thugs interrupted the interviews and kicked and punched the journalists, who were then detained by the police.
On August 19, the media authorities demonstrated their power to control the press by requiring that five of the country’s largest newspapers – the People’s Daily, Guangming Daily, Economic Daily, People’s Liberation Army Daily and the Beijing Daily – run near-identical front pages (see http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2007/08/one_editors_job_for_four_newspapers.php). The Chinese government offered no explanation for the stage-managed front pages, which all led with an article on China’s leaders’ personal involvement in efforts to rescue miners in a flooded mine shaft and included photos of President Hu Jintao’s state visit to Kazakhstan.
On August 31, the government ordered domestic internet search engines, including Google China, China Yahoo, and Baidu.com, to remove all “illegal and unhealthy content” within a week without providing any criteria for making such judgments and without clarifying what penalties might result.
“Such vaguely worded content prohibitions are an obvious direct threat to all media, as they encourage self-censorship of news or postings which could embarrass the government ahead of the Party Congress,” said Richardson. “If the Chinese government is serious about combating corruption and easing social unrest, why is it stifling media and abusing journalists, especially when they are crucial in exposing precisely such threats?” Richardson said. “Such actions make a mockery of the Chinese government’s commitments to its own citizens and the IOC.”
MORE LINKS on related subjects. I found these to be intriguing. Not sure how accurate the info’s are, but worth your time to read and be aware of what’s happening.
1) How to ruin your Olympic image: suppress your critics (January 30, 2008)
http://rconversation.blogs.com/rconversation/2008/01/how-to-ruin-you.html
2) China: Attacks on Media Violate Olympic Commitments- IOC Should Press Beijing to Enforce New Rules on Media FreedomHuman Rights Watch August 7, 2007 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/996/1/China-Attacks-on-Media-Violate-Olympic-Commitments/index.html
To view Human Rights Watch’s response to the “Service Guide for Foreign Media,” please visit: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/05/31/china16029.htm
To view the Human Rights Watch report, “You Will Be Harassed and Detained,” please visit: http://hrw.org/reports/2007/china0807/
3) Beijing 2008: Forget Olympic Spirit (Oct 05, 2006)By Charlotte Cuthbertson, Epoch Times New Zealand Staff
When the International Olympic Committee (IOC) awarded Beijing the Olympics in 2001 under the obligation of cleaning up their dismal human rights record they probably believed it would happen.
Democratic governments are saying, "We hope the Olympics will lead to improvements in human rights."
Olympic Watch, Reporters Without Borders, International Society for Human Rights, Solidarité Chine and Laogai Research Foundation said in a joint statement that despite human rights activists' efforts, "the IOC has refused to face the reality in which Beijing 2008 is to take place" and that the current IOC leadership may be "either too cynical, or too incompetent, or both, to protect the Olympic ideals and take a clear stance on the continuing human rights abuses in China".
Meanwhile, the coalition of human rights organisations are painting Beijing 2008 as a "tool for domestic and international political propaganda of the Chinese Communist Party."
Past Controversy and Boycotts:
New Zealand was the centre of Olympic controversy in 1976 as twenty-five African nations boycotted Montreal. The IOC refused to ban New Zealand from the games for touring South Africa to play rugby, eliciting the boycott.
Four years later more than 50 countries boycotted the Moscow Olympics in a USA-led exodus. When the Soviet regime invaded Afghanistan in 1979 then-US president Jimmy Carter called for a boycott. He threatened to withhold funding and revoke the US Olympic Committee's tax exemption if it would not comply with the boycott.
South Africa was banned from the Olympics from 1964 until 1992 when its apartheid laws had been repealed.
The Olympic movement was discredited in 1936, when it allowed the Nazis to make the Games a spectacle to glorify the Third Reich.
http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/581/1/Beijing-2008-Forget-Olympic-Spirit/Beijing-2008-Forget-Olympic-Spirit.html
China: Media Freedom Attacks Continue Despite Pledges
11 Months Ahead of Beijing Olympics, Journalist Harassment Ongoing
(New York, September 7, 2007) – The Chinese government continues to violate the rights of journalists in spite of assurances to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that the 2008 Beijing Olympics would foster improvements in human rights and of specific pledges of wider media freedoms, Human Rights Watch said today.
“The continuing harassment and physical abuse of journalists in the countdown to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing raises serious questions about the sincerity of government pledges to greater media freedom,” said Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “The Chinese government seems to see a free media as an enemy rather than a watchdog of public safety and social stability.”
As part of its 2001 bid for the 2008 Olympics, the Chinese government expressly assured the IOC that it would loosen its long-held grip on the media during the Olympic Games. That commitment is consistent with the obligation of Olympic host cities to comply with Article 51 of the Olympic Charter, which stipulates that the IOC should take “all necessary steps in order to ensure the fullest coverage by the different media and the widest possible audience in the world for the Olympic Games.” Moreover, Article 35 of the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China specifically guarantees “freedom ... of the press.”
In late 2006, the Chinese government announced new freedoms for accredited foreign journalists as part of its IOC commitments. The temporary regulations, in effect from January 1, 2007 until October 17, 2008, allow foreign correspondents to freely conduct interviews with any consenting Chinese organization or citizen.
Despite those temporary rules, on August 24, police prevented a group of seven foreign journalists, including two camera crews and a radio journalist, who attempted to visit Yuan Weijing, the wife of jailed human rights defender Chen Guangcheng, prior to her scheduled flight to Manila to receive an international human rights award on her husband’s behalf. One of those journalists told Human Rights Watch that the police on duty outside Yuan’s Beijing residence forced the journalists to accompany them to the neighborhood police post, where they were subjected to a lengthy “registration” process in order to get access to the residence.
Human Rights Watch pointed out that the temporary regulations also do not extend to Chinese journalists or Chinese nationals who work as assistants or translators for foreign journalists the same freedoms they do to foreign journalists. As a result, Chinese journalists remain particularly vulnerable to retaliation from local authorities who do not want embarrassing issues covered.
In mid-August, five Chinese journalists, including a reporter from the government mouthpiece People’s Daily, were interviewing witnesses to the Fenghuang bridge collapse in central Hunan province. Plainclothes thugs interrupted the interviews and kicked and punched the journalists, who were then detained by the police.
On August 19, the media authorities demonstrated their power to control the press by requiring that five of the country’s largest newspapers – the People’s Daily, Guangming Daily, Economic Daily, People’s Liberation Army Daily and the Beijing Daily – run near-identical front pages (see http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2007/08/one_editors_job_for_four_newspapers.php). The Chinese government offered no explanation for the stage-managed front pages, which all led with an article on China’s leaders’ personal involvement in efforts to rescue miners in a flooded mine shaft and included photos of President Hu Jintao’s state visit to Kazakhstan.
On August 31, the government ordered domestic internet search engines, including Google China, China Yahoo, and Baidu.com, to remove all “illegal and unhealthy content” within a week without providing any criteria for making such judgments and without clarifying what penalties might result.
“Such vaguely worded content prohibitions are an obvious direct threat to all media, as they encourage self-censorship of news or postings which could embarrass the government ahead of the Party Congress,” said Richardson. “If the Chinese government is serious about combating corruption and easing social unrest, why is it stifling media and abusing journalists, especially when they are crucial in exposing precisely such threats?” Richardson said. “Such actions make a mockery of the Chinese government’s commitments to its own citizens and the IOC.”
MORE LINKS on related subjects. I found these to be intriguing. Not sure how accurate the info’s are, but worth your time to read and be aware of what’s happening.
1) How to ruin your Olympic image: suppress your critics (January 30, 2008)
http://rconversation.blogs.com/rconversation/2008/01/how-to-ruin-you.html
2) China: Attacks on Media Violate Olympic Commitments- IOC Should Press Beijing to Enforce New Rules on Media FreedomHuman Rights Watch August 7, 2007 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/996/1/China-Attacks-on-Media-Violate-Olympic-Commitments/index.html
To view Human Rights Watch’s response to the “Service Guide for Foreign Media,” please visit: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/05/31/china16029.htm
To view the Human Rights Watch report, “You Will Be Harassed and Detained,” please visit: http://hrw.org/reports/2007/china0807/
3) Beijing 2008: Forget Olympic Spirit (Oct 05, 2006)By Charlotte Cuthbertson, Epoch Times New Zealand Staff
When the International Olympic Committee (IOC) awarded Beijing the Olympics in 2001 under the obligation of cleaning up their dismal human rights record they probably believed it would happen.
Democratic governments are saying, "We hope the Olympics will lead to improvements in human rights."
Olympic Watch, Reporters Without Borders, International Society for Human Rights, Solidarité Chine and Laogai Research Foundation said in a joint statement that despite human rights activists' efforts, "the IOC has refused to face the reality in which Beijing 2008 is to take place" and that the current IOC leadership may be "either too cynical, or too incompetent, or both, to protect the Olympic ideals and take a clear stance on the continuing human rights abuses in China".
Meanwhile, the coalition of human rights organisations are painting Beijing 2008 as a "tool for domestic and international political propaganda of the Chinese Communist Party."
Past Controversy and Boycotts:
New Zealand was the centre of Olympic controversy in 1976 as twenty-five African nations boycotted Montreal. The IOC refused to ban New Zealand from the games for touring South Africa to play rugby, eliciting the boycott.
Four years later more than 50 countries boycotted the Moscow Olympics in a USA-led exodus. When the Soviet regime invaded Afghanistan in 1979 then-US president Jimmy Carter called for a boycott. He threatened to withhold funding and revoke the US Olympic Committee's tax exemption if it would not comply with the boycott.
South Africa was banned from the Olympics from 1964 until 1992 when its apartheid laws had been repealed.
The Olympic movement was discredited in 1936, when it allowed the Nazis to make the Games a spectacle to glorify the Third Reich.
http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/581/1/Beijing-2008-Forget-Olympic-Spirit/Beijing-2008-Forget-Olympic-Spirit.html
Updates from Feb 12th's blog entry
In relation to my blog entry on Feb 12th titled “UK Jockeys to Zip It Up in China”.
Extracted from the link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics/7237227.stm . The orange remarks are by me. (The BBC Chinese version of the story can be found at http://news.bbc.co.uk/chinese/trad/hi/newsid_7230000/newsid_7237600/7237649.stm)
Olympic gag row leads to review- British Olympic officials have insisted there is no intention to gag athletes from making political comment in China during the 2008 Games in Beijing.
UK Olympians had been required to sign contracts which would have prohibited political demonstrations or propaganda. But the British Olympic Association (BOA) has said it will now look again at the wording of the draft agreement. Chief executive Simon Clegg said the BOA had "no desire to restrict athletes' freedom of speech".
- I think it’s safe to say that had somebody not brought this matter to light, the agreement would have never been reviewed for its wording.
Political gestures at past Olympic events
For the last 20 years team members have been obliged to sign a contract as a condition of taking part in the Games. But for the first time a clause had been inserted into the Team Members Agreement stating athletes must not comment on politically-sensitive issues during the event in Beijing. BOA officials said they had wanted to draw their athletes' attention to the International Olympic Committee charter's rules on political demonstration.
China has been criticised for its human rights record and the BOA said the clause was intended to prevent organised protests like the 'black power' salute made by American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Games in Mexico.
- Sounds like bs to me that the clause was put in to “prevent organized protests” as such that Smith and Carlos had displayed. The 2 Americans didn’t know they would win the race. If anything, their salute was spontaneous, rather than organized.
Clegg added: "I accept that the interpretation of one part of the draft BOA'S Team Members Agreement appears to have gone beyond the provision of the Olympic Charter.
"This is not our intention and the final Agreement will reflect this."
Clegg's comment came after Opposition politicians and human rights organisations had accused the BOA of pandering to the Chinese.
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg told BBC1's Politics Show: "We have to be very clear with the Chinese: they now play a significant role in the world economy and international affairs. "That brings certain domestic responsibilities with it and I think for us to sort of gag ourselves is a real abdication of our moral responsibility to push for human rights wherever they are being abused."
- Ok, Mr. Clegg, may I propose that what other venue would be better than the Olympics if the UK were to “remind” the Chinese gov’t that they have a certain domestic responsibilities when becoming a major player in the world. The world has tried to be diplomatic when approaching the Chinese gov’t, but that didn’t’ work. Perhaps China needs more than just a nudge, not that the UK would have to purposely piss China off. I quote from a movie even the Chinese officials would love (Spiderman), “With great power comes great responsibilities.”
- To China: get your act together. Stop that lip service you’ve been given the world. On a side note and for future reference, if you ever get to call out other countries like USA and the UK on subjects such as environment issues and whatnot, make sure you got your bases covered (I don’t know….human rights, perhaps?) so they don’t come knocking with ample ammunitions. If you don’t fix the situation then you just make yourself too easy of a target to be picked on. If you wanna roll with the big dogs, then act right.
A spokesman for the human rights group Liberty said: "It would be both un-British and un-Olympian to attempt to muzzle the speech and conscience of athletes attending these Games.
"The price of hosting such a totemic event is greater political scrutiny. Sport should spread international values, not totalitarian ones."
On Monday, Beijing Olympic organisers said they supported a ban on political protests.
- Wow, no shit….I’d never have guessed China’s stance on that one. Thanks Captain Obvious.
Beijing Olympic organising committee spokesman Sun Weide said: "I hope that the Olympic spirit will be followed and also the relevant IOC regulations will be followed in every regard.
- Yes, I acknowledge the regulations existence. However, let’s revisit the definition of the Olympic spirit….. "to build a peaceful and better world in the Olympic Spirit which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play - Olympic Spirit strives to inspire and motivate the youth of the world to be the best they can be through educational and entertaining interactive challenges. Olympic Spirit seeks to instill and develop the values and ideals of Olympism in those who visit and to promote tolerance and understanding in these increasingly troubled time in which we live, to make our world a more peaceful place." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_spirit
- OS sounds to me like, other than hosting a good game, promotion of tolerance and upkeeping of a peaceful world is one of its major goals. You know I often hear if the world is ready for China, but I’d like to pose a question, “Are you ready for the world and its values, Middle Kingdom?”
"Beijing welcomes all athletes from around the world to participate in the Beijing Olympic Games and we have been trying hard to create the best possible conditions for athletes to do so."
Henin wants no politics at Games- World number one Justine Henin believes politics and sport should not mix at this year's Beijing Olympics.
Over the weekend it was reported that British Olympians would be prevented from making political comment at the Games in August. Belgium's Henin said: "Politics and sport must remain separate. "Athletes must be focused on our job which is sport, which is our passion. We all hope to bring joy to the people watching the Games."
China has been criticised for its human rights record and it is feared that some athletes, and possibly political activists, will use the event to make demonstrate against the Chinese government.
Henin, who won gold at Athens four years ago, added: "I'm of course concerned about the politics surrounding the Games, but I'm going there to play tennis not play politics.
- Justine, I know you want to do well and your focus is on winning another title this year, but are you comfortable winning at a stadium where the labourers got under-paid and where there isn’t such a thing as a Workers Safety Compensation Board? It’s too easy to ignore. How about you go to Beijing, win another title, and speak out on the importance of fair treatment and compensations of employees.
"Winning in Athens gave me so much pleasure. The Olympics is very high for me in 2008."
Henin recorded a straight sets win over France's Amelie Mauresmo to win her gold medal at Athens. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics/tennis/7241669.stm
Extracted from the link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics/7237227.stm . The orange remarks are by me. (The BBC Chinese version of the story can be found at http://news.bbc.co.uk/chinese/trad/hi/newsid_7230000/newsid_7237600/7237649.stm)
Olympic gag row leads to review- British Olympic officials have insisted there is no intention to gag athletes from making political comment in China during the 2008 Games in Beijing.
UK Olympians had been required to sign contracts which would have prohibited political demonstrations or propaganda. But the British Olympic Association (BOA) has said it will now look again at the wording of the draft agreement. Chief executive Simon Clegg said the BOA had "no desire to restrict athletes' freedom of speech".
- I think it’s safe to say that had somebody not brought this matter to light, the agreement would have never been reviewed for its wording.
Political gestures at past Olympic events
For the last 20 years team members have been obliged to sign a contract as a condition of taking part in the Games. But for the first time a clause had been inserted into the Team Members Agreement stating athletes must not comment on politically-sensitive issues during the event in Beijing. BOA officials said they had wanted to draw their athletes' attention to the International Olympic Committee charter's rules on political demonstration.
China has been criticised for its human rights record and the BOA said the clause was intended to prevent organised protests like the 'black power' salute made by American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Games in Mexico.
- Sounds like bs to me that the clause was put in to “prevent organized protests” as such that Smith and Carlos had displayed. The 2 Americans didn’t know they would win the race. If anything, their salute was spontaneous, rather than organized.
Clegg added: "I accept that the interpretation of one part of the draft BOA'S Team Members Agreement appears to have gone beyond the provision of the Olympic Charter.
"This is not our intention and the final Agreement will reflect this."
Clegg's comment came after Opposition politicians and human rights organisations had accused the BOA of pandering to the Chinese.
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg told BBC1's Politics Show: "We have to be very clear with the Chinese: they now play a significant role in the world economy and international affairs. "That brings certain domestic responsibilities with it and I think for us to sort of gag ourselves is a real abdication of our moral responsibility to push for human rights wherever they are being abused."
- Ok, Mr. Clegg, may I propose that what other venue would be better than the Olympics if the UK were to “remind” the Chinese gov’t that they have a certain domestic responsibilities when becoming a major player in the world. The world has tried to be diplomatic when approaching the Chinese gov’t, but that didn’t’ work. Perhaps China needs more than just a nudge, not that the UK would have to purposely piss China off. I quote from a movie even the Chinese officials would love (Spiderman), “With great power comes great responsibilities.”
- To China: get your act together. Stop that lip service you’ve been given the world. On a side note and for future reference, if you ever get to call out other countries like USA and the UK on subjects such as environment issues and whatnot, make sure you got your bases covered (I don’t know….human rights, perhaps?) so they don’t come knocking with ample ammunitions. If you don’t fix the situation then you just make yourself too easy of a target to be picked on. If you wanna roll with the big dogs, then act right.
A spokesman for the human rights group Liberty said: "It would be both un-British and un-Olympian to attempt to muzzle the speech and conscience of athletes attending these Games.
"The price of hosting such a totemic event is greater political scrutiny. Sport should spread international values, not totalitarian ones."
On Monday, Beijing Olympic organisers said they supported a ban on political protests.
- Wow, no shit….I’d never have guessed China’s stance on that one. Thanks Captain Obvious.
Beijing Olympic organising committee spokesman Sun Weide said: "I hope that the Olympic spirit will be followed and also the relevant IOC regulations will be followed in every regard.
- Yes, I acknowledge the regulations existence. However, let’s revisit the definition of the Olympic spirit….. "to build a peaceful and better world in the Olympic Spirit which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play - Olympic Spirit strives to inspire and motivate the youth of the world to be the best they can be through educational and entertaining interactive challenges. Olympic Spirit seeks to instill and develop the values and ideals of Olympism in those who visit and to promote tolerance and understanding in these increasingly troubled time in which we live, to make our world a more peaceful place." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_spirit
- OS sounds to me like, other than hosting a good game, promotion of tolerance and upkeeping of a peaceful world is one of its major goals. You know I often hear if the world is ready for China, but I’d like to pose a question, “Are you ready for the world and its values, Middle Kingdom?”
"Beijing welcomes all athletes from around the world to participate in the Beijing Olympic Games and we have been trying hard to create the best possible conditions for athletes to do so."
Henin wants no politics at Games- World number one Justine Henin believes politics and sport should not mix at this year's Beijing Olympics.
Over the weekend it was reported that British Olympians would be prevented from making political comment at the Games in August. Belgium's Henin said: "Politics and sport must remain separate. "Athletes must be focused on our job which is sport, which is our passion. We all hope to bring joy to the people watching the Games."
China has been criticised for its human rights record and it is feared that some athletes, and possibly political activists, will use the event to make demonstrate against the Chinese government.
Henin, who won gold at Athens four years ago, added: "I'm of course concerned about the politics surrounding the Games, but I'm going there to play tennis not play politics.
- Justine, I know you want to do well and your focus is on winning another title this year, but are you comfortable winning at a stadium where the labourers got under-paid and where there isn’t such a thing as a Workers Safety Compensation Board? It’s too easy to ignore. How about you go to Beijing, win another title, and speak out on the importance of fair treatment and compensations of employees.
"Winning in Athens gave me so much pleasure. The Olympics is very high for me in 2008."
Henin recorded a straight sets win over France's Amelie Mauresmo to win her gold medal at Athens. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics/tennis/7241669.stm
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Surfing for Momentum
The image above depicts Barack surfing over Hillary (in true Aussie newspaper fashion) with the white male voters symbolically being the waves. Senator Clinton, too, is surfing a wave composed of female and Latino voters.1) Obama won his 2nd spoken word grammy last weekend for the audiobook version of his popular book “The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming The American Dream.” His first statuette came in 2006 for “Dreams From My Father”.
Not to be outdone, Bill Clinton was also in the running for his 3rd grammy awards for “Giving: How Eatch of Us Can Change the World.”
Former president, Carter, was another nominee for his “Sunday Morning In Plains: Bring Peace To A Changing World.” He won the award in 2007.
Mrs. Clinton’s very own “It Takes A Village” won the award in 1997.
2) The following is summarized and paraphrased from Paul Sheehan (The Sydney Morning Herald on Feb 11th, 2008). Not a huge fan of politics myself, but the article was just too interesting to be ignored. I once read a very interesting quote on my RA’s dorm room door, “If you turn your back on politics, then it will turn its back on you.”
Obama won the primary votes over Senator Clinton by a landslide (2 to 1) in three states last weekend (Washington, Louisiana, Nebraska). *Note: Washington State’s governor is a woman and so are its 2 senators. Detrimental blow to the Clinton camp.
Regardless of winning these 3 states, the race between the 2 Democratic candidates remains close with the senator in the lead. It is said that racial animosity has become a primary factor with Obama winning the majority of the black vote while Hillary winning over the Latino vote. As for the white vote, Obama has been winning over more votes from this group than any of the Republican candidates. This has been equalized with the female voters supporting Senator Clinton.
Obama has already raised more money than his Democratic counterpart. The most interesting fact is that Obama’s campaign has been financed by more than 200k small donors, unlike Clinton’s groups of lobbyists, big donors, and big unions. In addition, it is the very same reason that Obama is advocating for a national health insurance program for all Americans while Clinton plans for minimal changes in the health care system. (Not mentioning that the fundamental differences for the 2 Democratic candidates on the war. Obama has always been against the Iraq war where is Senator Clinton voted for the war.)
Last but not the least, though John McCain of the Republicans is gaining momentum fast, the ironic thing for the 2008 presidential election would be the fact that Senator Clinton has been Obama’s greatest foe, as opposed to any of the Republican candidates.
So far, it doesn’t look like the fellow Americans want to continue the history of having 2 families run their country for an additional 4 years (Bush, Clinton, Clinton, Bush, Bush, Clinton?)
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Night Sydney China
Watched the pilot guides travel program on Indonesia, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Really want to see Indonesia (komodo island!) and more parts of Taiwan (Lanyu aka Orchid island)After bball yesterday, I headed down to circular quay where I watched Aussie’s very own version of Baraka, though this movie was more of a cityscape. It was called “Night”. The film was filled with a great original soundtrack, commentary/interviews, as well as the main component…….the imagery. It discusses humans’ experience of night falls and our interactions with darkness. In addition, how the utilization of lights changed mankind’s socializing clock.
It was cool to see the images of Sydney harbour bridge and the opera house in the film and the theatre I was watching the film was located AT the opera house. I recognized a lot of places in the movie since they were all places around Sydney. Other than that, I think the other places were from Melbourne, where I haven’t been to yet.
The only part I didn’t like about the film was that sometimes I get soo caught up looking at the images and listening to the commentaries/interviews, I couldn’t quite process what’s being said. I get really really into the visual parts of the film.
I had a chit-chat with one of the theatre staff about the movie afterwards and I realized that there were only 2 other people with me in the theatre, both girls.
Inspired by the film, I left the theatre and started taking pictures of the harbour bridge and opera house grounds. To my surprise, it was already 11:30pm and I realized that I had spent the last 2 hours taking pictures. I checked my camera to see how many pictures were taken and there were over 80 pictures taken.
Watched another program tonight on Nat Geo called “China’s driving dreams” partly produced by CBC. Every auto maker wants a piece of the pie and I really worry for China’s present pollution problem. (A Chinese owned automaker called Geely is currently producing 500 brand new cars per day at a selling price of $6000 US dollars……better believe it. The not-so-secret secret in keeping the cost down is cheap labour) The air pollution is soo bad in Beijing, the haze can be seen from outer space. To put things in perspective, the only other thing that could be seen from outer space in China are the Great Walls. (However, with the way the haze is going, it should soon cover up the walls).
Out of the top 20 most polluted cities, 16 are in China.
Guantanamo
Woke up on Monday morning and tuned in the 50th Grammy awards. Pretty good performances by Kanye and A-Keys from what saw. Watched a movie called “The Road to Guantanamo” by one of my favourite directors, Michael Winterbottom, whom also directed “In This World” (I had previously blogged about in November, 2007.I was sick to my stomach after seeing the film because of the true depiction of mankind’s worst side. Michael Winterbottom had shown similar messages before in “In This World”. For anyone who’s unaware of common brutal treatment of POW’s by the various nations’ troops in Afghanistan, this may be a rude awakening. We have all seen pictures of “supposed” Taliban members being stripped down with a bag over their heads while placed in distress positions, but this movie really went further to show exactly what it’d feel like if you were unlawful imprisoned. It’s not something one could even imagine…….I’ve tried, but seeing the movie just confirmed that it’s worse than I thought it’d be (to be suspected as a terrorist and imprisoned).
It all started with 4 Brits’ trip to Pakistan and a fateful side-trip to Afghanistan gone very very wrong. The trip that shoulda taken a month ended up being 3 years. 3 long and unimaginable years.
“In 2001, four Pakistani Britons, Ruhal Ahmed, Asif Iqbal, Shafiq Rasul and another friend, Monir, travel to Pakistan for a wedding and in a urge of idealism, decide to see the situation of war torn Afghanistan which is being bombed by the American forces in retaliation for the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Once there, with the loss of Monir in the wartime chaos, they are captured by Northern Alliance fighters. They are then handed them over the American forces that transport them to the prison camps at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. What follows is 3 years of relentless imprisonment, interrogations and torture to make them submit to blatantly wrong confessions to being terrorists. In the midst of this abuse, the three struggle to keep their spirits up in that face of this grave injustice. Written by Kenneth Chisholm” http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0468094/
I think schools gotta forget about one flew over coocoo’s nest, romeo and Juliet, animal farm, lord of flies, and macbeth. Start showing movies such as AMERICAN history x, HOTEL rwanda, THE last king of scotland, HIGHER learning, IN this world, BORN into brothels, THE corporation, BABEL, THE war tapes, THIS movie is not yet rated, GUNNER palace, AN inconvenient truth, invisible children, CHILDREN underground, CONTROL room, and AMERICAN zeitgeist.
*speaking of which, at the end of “Higher Learning” (spike lee), the shot was on an American flag, while on the screen, a word was spelled out in typewriter fashion – unlearn. I thought that was pretty neat with the flag and word……saying “racism is taught, time to unlrean, America”.
Anyways back to The Road to Guantanamo, I don’t know how these boys survived the physical beatings and mental tortures. I think I would have broken down and signed the paper saying that yes, I am a member of the Taliban. That’s some strong faith they got.
After the movie, I headed out for some bball actions downtown Sydney. Played for a bit with some guys at the court, but they were terrible. I had to break up a fight once. Not sure what happened, but I just saw one guy kicked the other guy in the face.
Random noticeable in Sydney:
1) No “rubbish” bins can be located at major train stations. This is a counter-terrorist attack measure; therefore no bombs can be placed in the trash cans to blow up the busiest junctions.
I had never seen or heard of that before coming to Sydney. I bet London’s got that. It’s so weird to see that all the buses have video surveillance system installed to monitor the passengers onboard. (That would come handy when the bus driver gets attacked by some up-to-no-good teenagers in Vancouver or the time when this middle age white woman told me to “go back to where I came from.” at a bus exchange terminal in 2002.)
* I am personally satisfied with Vancouver’s method of counter-terrorist attack – put up a sign saying “Vancouver is a Nuclear Weapon Free Zone” near Stanley Park and on Boundary/Broadway. I feel much safer with those signs up…..fo serious, yo!
2) Guys are also known as “blokes”. I find it very strange, but I guess it’s more English. Blokes just sound like a dumb door knob or like those thin steel rod things on a bicycle wheel………..spokes? blokes…..spokes….same shit different pile.
UK Jockeys to Zip It Up in China
Picture above: Tommie Smith and John Carlos showing solidarity at the 1968 Olympics (Mexico) after winning the 200meter race. The Black Power salute was to draw awareness against legal lynchings in the US. Smith later said "If I win, I am American, not a black American. But if I did something bad, then they would say I am a N****. We are black and we are proud of being black. Black America will understand what we did tonight.""Some people (particularly IOC president Avery Brundage) felt that a political statement had no place in the international forum of the Olympic Games. In an immediate response to their actions, Smith and Carlos were suspended from the U.S. team by Brundage and banned from the Olympic Village. Those who opposed the protest said the actions disgraced all Americans. Supporters, on the other hand, praised the men for their bravery. The men's gesture had lingering effects for both Smith and Carlos, the most serious of which were death threats against them and their families. Smith wrote his autobiography, entitled Silent Gesture, published in February of 2007 by Temple University Press http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommie_Smith"
After reading the following, I was pretty disgusted with it. Should I be grateful that I am from one of the other nations where they don’t planning on censoring these amateur athletes competing at arguably the world biggest stage, with or without a political stance?!
The irony is that the games itself is political. Nearly everything about the Olympics is a political statement to the global community. (1972’s Olympic Games in Munich, anybody?) Sometimes, I interpret each achievement made by a particular country is really just to shut the other nations up. Biased? Of course, it’s one person’s opinion so it’s totally subjective.
Let me give you an example, the top 5 nations/contenders for the metal count is pretty much the same ones all time for both the winter and summer Olympics. To provide a more specific example, I think that the reason why China has been working overtime to grab all the metals they could just so they could shove it in the America’s face. Through their actions, they (Chinese) are basically saying, “Although we might not be on par in terms of social stability and development with you (USA), but we are better than you TODAY”. That’s the epitome of actions speaks louder than words. (So take that you US and A……China says)
So back to what I was saying, since that the irony is that the games itself is political, however some of us aren’t allowed speak out when the stage is set, the microphone is on, and everybody’s listening. One can’t call itself a free world / first world country if the constitutional rights for freedom of speech aren’t delivered. Now, I understand what I just said isn’t bullet-proof. The following statements may seem very contradicting, but I still gotta say it. I am a firm believer that freedom of speech is more of a PREVILDEGE than a right. To a certain extend, it’s more like a phrase we created to give ourselves a false sense of entitlement when it comes to expressions of any kind.
A rhetorical question lies beneath, do we or do we not have the absolute freedom to speak our minds? Yes and No if you ask me.
I wonder what kind of actions would be taken by the BOA against the “uncooperative” athletes. Lifetime ban in representing the UK in the Olympics?
“UK Olympians banned from China criticism
Sunday Feb 10 21:08 AEDT
British Olympic athletes will be forced to sign contracts banning them from criticising China's human rights record before travelling to the Games.
Each athlete will have to sign a 32-page contract, which includes clauses describing how they will not be allowed to comment on "any political sensitive issues", The Mail on Sunday reported.
The British Olympic Association (BOA) confirmed that any athlete who refused to sign the contract would not be allowed to compete at the Games, which begin in August.
The move is in stark contrast to other countries, including the United States, Canada, and Australia where Olympic Committee president John Coates have said athletes are "entitled to have their opinions" and will be "free to speak".
BOA chief executive Simon Clegg said if athletes stepped out of line in Beijing "action will have to be taken".
"There are all sorts of organisations who would like athletes to use the Olympic Games as a vehicle to publicise their causes," he told the newspaper.
"I don't believe that is in the interest of the team performance. As a team we are ambassadors of the country and we have to conform to an appropriate code of conduct."
©AAP 2008” http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=378121
The irony is that the games itself is political. Nearly everything about the Olympics is a political statement to the global community. (1972’s Olympic Games in Munich, anybody?) Sometimes, I interpret each achievement made by a particular country is really just to shut the other nations up. Biased? Of course, it’s one person’s opinion so it’s totally subjective.
Let me give you an example, the top 5 nations/contenders for the metal count is pretty much the same ones all time for both the winter and summer Olympics. To provide a more specific example, I think that the reason why China has been working overtime to grab all the metals they could just so they could shove it in the America’s face. Through their actions, they (Chinese) are basically saying, “Although we might not be on par in terms of social stability and development with you (USA), but we are better than you TODAY”. That’s the epitome of actions speaks louder than words. (So take that you US and A……China says)
So back to what I was saying, since that the irony is that the games itself is political, however some of us aren’t allowed speak out when the stage is set, the microphone is on, and everybody’s listening. One can’t call itself a free world / first world country if the constitutional rights for freedom of speech aren’t delivered. Now, I understand what I just said isn’t bullet-proof. The following statements may seem very contradicting, but I still gotta say it. I am a firm believer that freedom of speech is more of a PREVILDEGE than a right. To a certain extend, it’s more like a phrase we created to give ourselves a false sense of entitlement when it comes to expressions of any kind.
A rhetorical question lies beneath, do we or do we not have the absolute freedom to speak our minds? Yes and No if you ask me.
I wonder what kind of actions would be taken by the BOA against the “uncooperative” athletes. Lifetime ban in representing the UK in the Olympics?
“UK Olympians banned from China criticism
Sunday Feb 10 21:08 AEDT
British Olympic athletes will be forced to sign contracts banning them from criticising China's human rights record before travelling to the Games.
Each athlete will have to sign a 32-page contract, which includes clauses describing how they will not be allowed to comment on "any political sensitive issues", The Mail on Sunday reported.
The British Olympic Association (BOA) confirmed that any athlete who refused to sign the contract would not be allowed to compete at the Games, which begin in August.
The move is in stark contrast to other countries, including the United States, Canada, and Australia where Olympic Committee president John Coates have said athletes are "entitled to have their opinions" and will be "free to speak".
BOA chief executive Simon Clegg said if athletes stepped out of line in Beijing "action will have to be taken".
"There are all sorts of organisations who would like athletes to use the Olympic Games as a vehicle to publicise their causes," he told the newspaper.
"I don't believe that is in the interest of the team performance. As a team we are ambassadors of the country and we have to conform to an appropriate code of conduct."
©AAP 2008” http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=378121
Friday, February 8, 2008
Most Expensive Work by a Chinese Contempo Artist Ever Sold
Just last week, a painting was sold for 2.9 million sterling pounds by a Chinese painter named Yue Minjun. The sale was a record for a Chinese artist. The painting was named “Execution”.The reference made in the painting was of Goya's "The Third of May, 1808: The Execution of the Defenders of Madrid".
The artist was also inspired by the Tiananmen Square incident of 1989 and finished the painting in one month in 1995.
“According to Yue, the painting represents ‘the whole world's human conflict that is worth laughing about. In my painting, they're pretending to hold guns, as if playing a game,’ he adds. However, he dislikes being called a "Cynical Realist", the term coined to describe China's disaffected new breed of artist. “ (http://www.chine-informations.com/images/upload/)
On a different note, I watched several programs on National Geographies a few nights ago: Qin Shi Huang Di (Secrets of the First Emperor) and then Fight Science before The Caucasian Mummies found in China over 3000 years old and Samurai Swords.
I had also watched another program called “Inside the Forbidden City” (part 2). I learned soo much more about the Chinese history than I knew before. It definitely makes me more proud to be Chinese. The history is just unreal. Something as simple (or hard) as the method moving a single slab of stone weighing over 300 tonnes from a quarry 50 kms away from Beijing is just brilliant.
The DNA tests resulted that the mummies were of mixed origins……with European and Asian genes.
As for Fight Science, it’s like a mythbuster-version of martial arts. They used crash test dummies filled with compression sensors inside to measure the shock absorbed by each style of martial artists (Kung-Fu, Boxing, Muay Thai, Tae Kun Dow, JiJuTsu, and Ninjatsu). Kung-Fu proved to be the fastest form while the boxer had the hardest punch. Muay Thai had the hardest kick with a knee to the chest (equivalent to a car crashing at 35 miles/hr into a wall). Ninjatsu has the best body balance and most deadly punch to the chest (scoring 0.8 with 0 being no damage and 1.0 being a fatal blow to the heart.)
i just watched a program called INSIDE HURRICANE KATRINA on national geography......wow....mind blowing, no pun intended.
The mayor, ray nagin, called out bush (“it’s been 4 years and you guys in nyc have yet to finish anything at ground zero”). it was great......the governor of Louisiana did shit all.......and bush too. Man, if handling the hurricane Katrina was a school assignment, they would have flunked out of the course and perhaps kicked out of the school. But since it’s no school, and the prez fucked up……..i guess it’s ok?!
Ps, randomness reference:
My newly found oxymoron in Australia…….a kiwi country singer named Keith “Urban”.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
The Killing Fields (1984)
The images above depicts the countries which have not signed the Ottawa Treaty (in grey) in banning Anti- Personnel landmines. Although I never got to visit the notorious Choeung Ek around Phnom Penh, I can only picture it in my mind. Rented Oscar winning movie (self-titled) 2 days ago and watched it just now. Though I have seen parts of it prior to visiting Cambodia, I think it was easier for me to understand now that I had actually been there.
It’s only fittingly that I should be watching The Killing Fields here in Sydney, Australia as one of the main characters’ names was Sydney Schanberg. Based on a true story, Sydney was a NY Times’ correspondent sent to Cambodia in 1972 to cover the war between the Cambodian gov’t and Pol Pot’s communist Khmer Rouge. While in Cambodia, he met his Khmer assistant, Dith Pran, whom he developed an unbreakable friendship with.
In the days leading up to KR seizing the capital, all the Khmer nationals were forced out of the city to the countryside where they slaved to death, if not killed or died of starvation and other diseases. Meanwhile, all the westerners were deported back to their own countries. Sydney lost touch with Dith Pran for the next 4 years. Not knowing the status of Pran, Sydney sent over 500 letters to the Red Cross, UN…..etc to find out whether his friend was still alive.
Throughout the course of the film, there were a few scenes that really left a strong impressions on me. First time was when the Angka (Khmer Rouge) brainwashing the kids to rule out their past and reject the ideas and values of the family unit. The most profound image was a 7 year old girl going up to the blackboard and put a big X on a stick-figure depiction of a family of 4. She precisely crossed out the parents and then used her index finger to break the “bonds” symbolically between the parents and the children.
There are a lot of similarities between what was practiced here to the counterparts in Africa with its child-soldiers. As a matter of fact, a part of KR troops were all kids since they are often very impressionable. Not only did they lay down the anti-personnel landmines, they were often the cruellest to the prisoners.
Speaking of landmines, what’s a war movie in Cambodia without landmines and John Lennon’s “Imagine” as part of its soundtrack.
I had previously discussed the Cambodia Land Mine Museum Relief Facility/Fund (CLMMRF) on my blog dated back to October 13th, 2007 or http://sometimesirhymequick.blogspot.com/2007_10_01_archive.html
The museum itself has strong support from the Canadian gov't since the international treaty (aka the Ottawa Treaty) to ban Anti-personnel landmines (strictly used to immobilize the enemy soldiers) was signed by over 100 countries around the world in Ottawa around 1997. As of today, 158 countries from around the world have signed the treaty with 156 ratified it.
As of November 2007, 37 countries from around the world have yet to sign the treaty. Some of the major unsigned players are: China, India, N & S Korea, Russia, and the USA.
There are still over 13 countries in the world that are producing Anti-personnel landmines.
The following facts have been extracted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottawa_Treaty
“The United States refuses to sign the treaty because it does not offer a "Korean exception", as landmines are said to be a crucial component of the U.S. military strategy in South Korea. According to the US government, the one million mines along the DMZ between North and South help maintain the delicate peace by deterring a North Korean attack.
India has not signed the treaty because it deems landmines necessary to prevent infiltration of Pakistani trained Islamic extremists into Jammu and Kashmir state (in Northern India).
There is a clause in the treaty, Article 3, which permits countries to retain landmines for use in training or development of countermeasures. 64 countries have taken this option. In total 289,000 mines have been declared as retained by various countries under Article 3. A further 23 countries have not declared a figure.”
At this point, I am gonna side-track a bit and highlight the one of the shameful similarities between China and America.
In one line, the Americans, under Nixon, didn’t “properly” control the leakage of information on the Vietnam War is to the Chinese who was naïve enough to think that news and images from the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 (aka the June-Fourth Incident / Movement) would not be seen by the world.
I can remember, to this day, sitting in front of the TV in my parents’ bedroom in Taiwan when I was 7 and half years old watching the tanks driving over the student protestors’ tents at Tiananmen Square. News reporters and foreign journalists running for cover while the bullets shower the sky over the world’s largest square. Injured were carried on trolleys for medical attention. While seeing these images, I couldn’t comprehend why anybody would drive a tank over the people sleeping inside the tents in the night of June 3rd, 1989.
My dad was worried for me for traveling in China this past fall. I said to him that nothing was gonna happen to me, unless I put up a sign saying “Free-Tibet” at the Great Walls. I firmly believed that nothing was gonna happen to me, in terms of personal security/safety, since China would want to be on their best behaviour with less than a year to go for the summer Olympics. Even if anything were to happen to me, the Chinese gov’t would do their best to cover up the mess. Hahaha……no doubt about that.
This is, in a sense, very similar to what the US has been doing in controlling the coverage of the war on Iraq and release of information in main stream media.
Instead of the headline in the globe and mail reading “Canadian Missing in China”, it would have never made it to the news. Yikes.
Ps. To read more about the Six Four Incident: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1989
Face 2 Face tour
Went to the Australian Museum (11th oldest museum in the world) today and saw a bunch of neat stuff all for 5 bucks. Took a free tour from the staff. My guide was an old brit. After asking me where I was from, he was overjoyed to tell me that he’s been to Vancouver and knows Vancouver very well especially by the Boundary Bay area. I told me that I lived right at Boundary Bay. Good times. His name was Les.
It was really neat to see the Face to Face exhibitions (http://www.austmus.gov.au/visiting/whatson/display.cfm?uid=26872E94-01AB-7FE1-48F87C17AD7C8379)
“In Australia for the first time, the 'Face to Face' exhibition features thirty emotive portraits of primates - gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orang-utans - whose innocence and vulnerability forces us to question our own inhumanity and arrogance in the way we mistreat nature. (these orphaned apes all shared the same fate…having their parents killed for bushmeat and skins).
These extraordinary images were taken over four years by photographer James Mollison in ape sanctuaries in Africa and Asia (Congo, Indonesia, Cameroon..etc). The world's leading authority on ape behaviour, Jane Goodall, helped him to develop relationships with the apes so he could capture their unique personalities through photography.
The photographs highlight the vitality and intelligence of these magnificent and threatened animals - our closest biological relatives. The exhibition encourages us to consider our relationship with the natural world by bringing us face to face with some of the individual animals that have been most deeply affected by the actions of humans. The Face to Face exhibition is created by the Natural History Museum, London. “
I never really differentiated the difference b/t chimps, gorillas, gibbons, and orang-utans. But when placing their facial portraits side by side, one can really see the difference.
Other than these particular exhibitions, all the bones collections and taxidermy subjects (especially those birds and mammals native to Oz) were all very interesting. I think I will always remember the world’s only 2 types of monotremes (Echidnas and Platypus); both native to Australia and mammals that lay eggs. If one were to examine both species closely, it is noteable that their bone structures resembles more closely to those of the reptiles than mammals (mainly because of the parallel / squareish frame especially by the limbs.)
I learned that wombats are the only marsupials with a backward pouch; reasons being that they dig holes and borrow into the ground. All marsupials have longer pelvic bone extensions to support the weight of their offsprings in the pouch.
Saw a dead sea croc on display. It was huge……about 5 meters long. The deadly Taipan snake. Saw a copy of the Tasmanian Tiger (more like a dingo with stripes on its back). Saw the remaining bones of a triggerfish (now an endangered specie).
I also learned that the gold rush in Melbourne really shaped the history of Australia. All the marjor banks all started in Melbourne. And the people whom made money from the gold rush weren’t the “gold rushers” so to speak, but the ones whom provided the support services aka the cooks and the ones that ran the camps. Saw a replicate copy of the infamous Welcome Stranger gold nugget weighing at a whooping 70 kgs which worth about a street value of 2 million dollars today.
Finally after 3.5 hours at the museum, I was pretty tired. Didn’t have enough energy to make it across to Darling Harbour for the maritime museum to see the ships and caveman.
Made miso soup for dinner. Happy Chinese New Year to myself! : )
Lastly, Shaq for Marion and Banks? What were the Suns thinking? Shaq isn’t in shape to play the uptempo style of offense Phoenix is used to. Marion should fit in well with Wade.
It was really neat to see the Face to Face exhibitions (http://www.austmus.gov.au/visiting/whatson/display.cfm?uid=26872E94-01AB-7FE1-48F87C17AD7C8379)
“In Australia for the first time, the 'Face to Face' exhibition features thirty emotive portraits of primates - gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orang-utans - whose innocence and vulnerability forces us to question our own inhumanity and arrogance in the way we mistreat nature. (these orphaned apes all shared the same fate…having their parents killed for bushmeat and skins).
These extraordinary images were taken over four years by photographer James Mollison in ape sanctuaries in Africa and Asia (Congo, Indonesia, Cameroon..etc). The world's leading authority on ape behaviour, Jane Goodall, helped him to develop relationships with the apes so he could capture their unique personalities through photography.
The photographs highlight the vitality and intelligence of these magnificent and threatened animals - our closest biological relatives. The exhibition encourages us to consider our relationship with the natural world by bringing us face to face with some of the individual animals that have been most deeply affected by the actions of humans. The Face to Face exhibition is created by the Natural History Museum, London. “
I never really differentiated the difference b/t chimps, gorillas, gibbons, and orang-utans. But when placing their facial portraits side by side, one can really see the difference.
Other than these particular exhibitions, all the bones collections and taxidermy subjects (especially those birds and mammals native to Oz) were all very interesting. I think I will always remember the world’s only 2 types of monotremes (Echidnas and Platypus); both native to Australia and mammals that lay eggs. If one were to examine both species closely, it is noteable that their bone structures resembles more closely to those of the reptiles than mammals (mainly because of the parallel / squareish frame especially by the limbs.)
I learned that wombats are the only marsupials with a backward pouch; reasons being that they dig holes and borrow into the ground. All marsupials have longer pelvic bone extensions to support the weight of their offsprings in the pouch.
Saw a dead sea croc on display. It was huge……about 5 meters long. The deadly Taipan snake. Saw a copy of the Tasmanian Tiger (more like a dingo with stripes on its back). Saw the remaining bones of a triggerfish (now an endangered specie).
I also learned that the gold rush in Melbourne really shaped the history of Australia. All the marjor banks all started in Melbourne. And the people whom made money from the gold rush weren’t the “gold rushers” so to speak, but the ones whom provided the support services aka the cooks and the ones that ran the camps. Saw a replicate copy of the infamous Welcome Stranger gold nugget weighing at a whooping 70 kgs which worth about a street value of 2 million dollars today.
Finally after 3.5 hours at the museum, I was pretty tired. Didn’t have enough energy to make it across to Darling Harbour for the maritime museum to see the ships and caveman.
Made miso soup for dinner. Happy Chinese New Year to myself! : )
Lastly, Shaq for Marion and Banks? What were the Suns thinking? Shaq isn’t in shape to play the uptempo style of offense Phoenix is used to. Marion should fit in well with Wade.
Friday, February 1, 2008
Miso North American, not soup
Pic above: artsy fartsy display at bondi beach on my bday, nov 18th. symbolism: if i were the tree, then the cage's gotta be my invisible ignorance to the outside world, literally. (I can't believe I just pulled that BS outa my you-know-where) Oh yes, did I mention that yes, they lock up trees here............fittingly in Australia of all places.........convict style.
3 months now in Sydney, Australia. 2 weeks until Tasmania. I have realized that I am sooo North American that it ain't even funny. Perhaps more American than North American.....don't wanna give Cdns the bad raps. hahaha
I constantly compare anything and everything to back home - Vancity. From ketchup to what day of the week the garbage man comes (sorry, I shoulda said "rubbish" man). If you ask me, I still prefer Canada (Vancouver specifically) over Australia. Not a very fair comment consider that I have only seen Sydney. Vancouver really is truly a beautiful place.
What I miss the most about Vancouver? I miss the view of the mountains in the back drop while driving over the Alex Fraser Bridge from North Delta over the Fraser River towards Richmond and Vancouver.
*but hey, it's only natural to compare to the things you know, right? I am cutting myself some slacks.
I, sometimes, think I am a Yankee and it's scary. It's like this: we all know the earth is round because it's no longer a theory, but a fact.
I have always known that North America is PART of the world, not THE WORLD. I know this sounds very retarded, but by traveling in SE Asia and now in the different hemisphere, I am actually materializing the concept. It's never hit me harder, actually the idea didn't really hit me, but definitly re-enforced the idea of an One World Globe.
To quote Vancouver Canucks campaign from 2 years ago, if being a canuck is like being a global citizen, then I guess, in a sense, "we are all canucks".
Downunder's got all the amenities of the western/1st world countries, but yet so different. Bad analogy coming up, but this should hit it home.
We are all so different yet so similar. It's like cucumbers and pickles. So sim yet so diff.
I am out like Pau Gasol........a bad trade for the Grizzlies. Kwame Brown in return?! WTF? that's a instant write off. Somebody call the cops, the Lakers just pulled off the theft of the decade.
ps. my friend geoff says the aussie beef doesn't taste as good as alberta's very own. I can't say which ones better, but i def prefer cdn beef over the southern cross cows.
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