Help yourself to my "s'more goes blog"! You'll find trackeds and endtrials through S/SE Asia, my Pan-American overland wanderings, SoCal, and always bridges to and through the Middle Kingdom. Expect only occasional updates now from Jets, Journal, Wonder and environs.
November 30, 2004The Great DivideAs an English teacher in Shanghai, here's how long it takes me to earn the equivalent of a day's wages for various people I know or have known. Day's wages are based on an eight-hour work day (or a teacher's equivalent) and a five-day work week. 4 hours: self as gardener in America 1 hour: self as teacher in Qingdao 30 minutes: teacher colleague in Qingdao 24 minutes: waiter at Pizza Hut in Shanghai 18 minutes: lifeguard at my swimming pool 7 minutes 30 seconds: cafeteria worker at Shanghai Public Library 3 minutes: self as volunteer on Burmese border 2 minutes 25 seconds: Bangladeshi mobile phone store clerk (12 hour day) Is this fair? Is this right? Perhaps I'm asking the wrong questions. Am I doing good in the world? Am I appreciating? Am I loving? I can answer yes to all of these. November 29, 2004Fair Trade Kah Fay PleezeI've gotten the terms to describe fair trade coffee in Chinese...down. Down like You down with that? Down like ordering dumplings is down pat. Downier than a down pillow. Down like I'm stark raving evangelical and no one seems to give a...sip. Yes, no one gives a sip. Do you know what fair trade coffee is? Most American coffee drinkers have heard of it. You pay a little extra for your cup o' joe and some coffee farmer in the tropics receives something a little closer to a living wage. It frees the average grower from being beholden to coffee plantation and industry giants, who, like chocolate companies, farm at a high economy of scale in "the south" while roasting at a small scale (the value added) in "the north" for higher profits. When I passed on the idea of fair trade coffee to my students, they said, "hmm... sounds like a government thing." "No, it's a market thing," I replied. "You're not entirely powerless." "Hmmph," they shrugged and went on to talk about the plastic surgery clinic on the 8th floor of my building. (nose reconstruction only about $300 US). Now that is a market thing. The average coffee shop clerk is no better. After explaining how fair trade works, looking at the bags of coffee, and telling them that "fair trade" is not a brand name, I ask "can you request the management buy fair trade coffee?" Their usual response is, "we don't make the decisions. The boss does." "Can you tell the boss that a customer requests fair trade coffee? Tell them I really want to buy some coffee, but I can wait. Tell them more people will want to buy your coffee if it's fair trade. You can advertise your coffee as fair trade." Only once out of the dozen or so times did the clerk seem to take my request seriously. I have yet to find fair trade coffee in China. Yet every day I see a new Starbucks. shudder Perhaps this is due to the fact that shop clerks have little sympathy for farmers in other countries because they themselves can barely make ends meet. Most of them need to work two hours before they can buy a cup of coffee themselves. A waiter at Pizza Hut starts out at 75 cents an hour. A counter slave at "kendudgy" (KFC) makes even less. Perhaps what the coffee shop clerks are thinking when I ask them to help some faceless coffee picker battle a friendly-faced corporate giant is, "what about me?! What about my boss giving me the shaft?" China has returned to the age of the corporate robber barons. Posh bars are full of expats and Chinese executives. I see Humvees and Mercedes and Corvettes on the streets. The "Well-Off Society in an all Round Way with Chinese Socialist Characteristics" that everyone's supposed to be building is in the hands of the WTO and joint ventures. And people's sense of personal responsibility for all this? That's more of a government thing. ~your narrator is a normally-subdued tea drinker from the Great Lakes region. November 27, 2004In Heaven There's Paradise, Down on Earth There's Thanksgiving in HangzhouIn Shanghai, I often forget I'm living in China. Though I've studied Mandarin for a little over two years now, I can't understand Shanghai natives' "sang hay ooh" (Shanghainese, oh, it's a killer). Shanghai's a strange mix of the modern and the colloquial. I imagine at times that I'm in Bangkok or New York, but in those places people don't walk around the street in their pajamas. Jane and Kelvin, if you've been with me since my adventures in the Development Zone began some two plus years ago, are fine South African acquaintances of mine, whom I met in Qingdao, Shandong province. They're now well into their fourth year of Chinatization and invited me to their present locale, Hangzhou, home of West Lake and a few other things to attract the eye. Visiting them was like visiting family. Though Hangzhou is a well-devloped city that caters to tourists and visitors, it is not Shanghai. Whole wheat bread (hard to find in Qingdao) may be in no short supply, but there was no western supermarket was selling two dozen kinds of cheese ten minutes from Jane and Kelvin's apartment as I have near my place in Shanghai. Hangzhou was more like the old China I was used to. No French concession. The streets were wide, the bicycles didn't have to compete much with the cars, and European influence was minimal. I enjoy strolling with Jane and Kelvin because they tarry and appreciate, tarry and appreciate. (Oh, yes, it seems they've grown more valuable with age). Kelvin always seeks out magic tricks and hand puzzles and secret Chinese medicinal cures and Jane rushes to porcelain shops. They're always trolling for sweets and snacks. Lunch never costs more than a dollar. (Kelvin taught me not to be afraid of street food). He also has an insatiable sweet tooth, just like me. In one of Hangzhou's old market streets, Kelvin and I sat down at the cheapest song and dance show I've ever seen. "You pay three kuai and the old Chinaman sings you a song," said Kelvin. So I sat at the stool, smiled at the "old Chinaman" and he began his roaring one-man rendition of "the Journey West" in Chinese folk opera form. Our view of his show was supposed to center on the activity inside his magic box, which had eye-level peepholes of hand-painted plastic screens. Though the peephole was as blurry as the bottom of a Coke bottle, I made out the monkey king, the monk pig, and more than one Bodhisattva. Before we knew it, a crowd the size of my home town had gathered. As the "old Chinaman" lustily heaved his smokey lungs and clanged his gongs and raised his screens, Kelvin and I eyed each other like two gorrillas in a cage. Who was really putting on the show here? The two foreigners with their eyes to the peephole or the old man waving like a vaudeville madman? Kelvin yucked it up--as he's so good at doing--and said "ting bu dong" ("I don't understand") to the crown, to much applause. I woke early the next day for the return trip to Shanghai. Two and a half hours by train, with no hitch but the train carriage couplers. Then I was in Shanghai. In this "no-night city," there are shopping malls. In Hangzhou, there's the China I knew and still love. November 22, 2004American Lads: Register as Conscientious ObjectorsIf you're against war, get it on record!! Just being against war won't save you. You need to have told other people that you won't kill and they need to be able to vouch for you. And you needn't be opposed to war for religious reasons, though the Quakers are more than happy to help you. Not the oatmeal Quakers, but the people who quake. Personally, in addition to being against war in any form, I don't trust Little Bush or Grumpy Grampy Rumsfeld when they say they're against the draft. I started writing my conscientious objector papers before the start of the Second Gulf War, but put off finishing them for some reason. Now that I've started up the process again, I thought I'd pass along what's been helpful to me. Which one are you? --Currently Registered for the Draft: You'll need letters of support on file. If a draft were to begin today, call-ups could begin in as little as eight days, so don't think you can put this off. Read this about Letters of Support for Conscientious Objector Claims from the Center on Consciousness and War. --Currently enlisted or against the Military and ROTC's "Poverty Draft" aimed at recruiting lower income folks should check out the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors at www.objector.org --Those Looking to Be Appalled should check out the stock photos on the Selective Service System's website (www.sss.gov). Those boys remind me of my little brother and his friends. Plus, this site has information on how to obtain your selective service registration number, which you'll need on your letters of reference. You've been warned!! And I've been warned! I'd better get my letters in! And you should too, even if you're not American! Peaceniks, make your voices heard!
November 18, 2004For the LadySUPPORT FREEDOM FOR THE WORLD'S ONLY IMPRISONED NOBEL PEACE PRIZE RECIPIENT! Well, I missed Ani DiFranco when she played at a fellow volunteer's birthday party in my dusty Thai border town (I was slumming it Dhaka style--see the June and July 2004 archives). And what a shucksy darn that was. No celebrity photo for this narrator to pull out. But now!!!... I (and you) can get the next best thing... A whole barrel full of singers--ok, no barrels, only CDs--two CDs!--with procedes going to a noble cause...freeing Aung San Suu Kyi, who remains under house arrest since being attacked by government-backed Burmese thugs. How about reading this promotional blurb? (I did). Aung San Suu Kyi and the courageous people of Burma. The CD-set is titled "For The Lady", and is avaiable in the United States and Canada at major music stores including Barnes and Noble, Tower Records, Best Buy, etc. It is also available for purchase at www.uscampaignforburma.org All proceeds from the sale of this CD will go to the US Campaign for Burma's efforts to support freedom and democracy in Burma. USCB will receive approximately $12 per CD for purchase made through its website or $5.50 per from purchases made at music stores. The CD has already been banned by Burma's military regime. In addition to being the FIRST TIME that major celebrities have shown a public interest in Aung San Suu Kyi, the CD has great music--artists include Paul McCartney, Sting, U2, Pearl Jam, Avril Lavigne, Talib Kweli, Ani DiFranco, Damien Rice, Matchbox Twenty, Bonnie Raitt, and more. And here's what Rolling Stone had to say: Rolling Stone, cover dated November 25th: Rockers for Burma, Freedom Songs Paul McCartney, Pearl Jam, and U2 are just a few of the artists who appear on For The Lady: Dedicated to Freeing Aung San Suu Kyi and the Courageous People of Burma, an album benefiting the U.S. Campaign for Burma (also known as Myanmar). Suu Kyi, a Nobel Prize-winning freedom fighter, has been imprisoned by the repressive regime for more than a decade. In July, Ani DiFranco and Damien Rice, who both contributed tracks to the album, toured refugee camps along the country's southeastern border. "As soon as we made music with people, we were instantly family," says DiFranco. Your narrator added it to his wish list (getting it for Xmas, with the blessings of ChinaPost)...will you? Help free Aung San Suu Kyi and all the people of Burma! Aung Din and Jeremy Woodrum US Campaign for Burma 1612 K St., NW Suite #401 Washington, DC 20006 (202) 223-0300 (202) 466-5189 fax www.uscampaignforburma.org 1612 K St, NW #401 Washington, District of Columbia 20006 United States "The only demand I make of my reader is that he should devote his whole life to reading my works." --James Joyce November 12, 2004sorry everybody"The only demand I make of my reader is that he should devote his whole life to reading my works." --James Joyce formatting issuestry as i might to update my blog in a reasonable way, blogger.com is impossible to load on any public computer in china. thus, i've been emailing in posts. that's why the picture below didn't come through. and why you've been reading that james joyce quote. and why i don't feel like capitalizing. i don't know what the problem is. i assume it has something to do with blogger being half-hearted about what tools it wants to display. since it thinks i'm chinese, it displays a chinese dashboard. thereafter, it's all english, but with no graphical elements (if it loads at all). so we remain quiet, we do. your narrator will one day buy a computer of his own and be able to update as he fancies. November 10, 2004War of the Cross?When I saw a photo (it didn't load and now that the blog technology is working again I can't find it) of a rosary on the barrel of the gun on a Bradley fighting vehicle on the cover of the China Daily the day of the Assault on Fallujah began, I remembered that Crusade translates into Arabic as "war of the cross." Crusade or not, that's what Little Bush said and this is what the world sees. "Mine eyes have seen the glory...." and this certainly is not it.
November 07, 2004being optimistic...maybe bush will invade burma? just think, a resource-rich nation with defenses like poland's calvary against hitler's tanks. but how would america be sold on a burmese menace?
November 05, 2004Narrativizing the Descent Into FascismI cried enough as a child to know it rarely helps. Now, I don't often cry. When I lose a lover, I don't cry. When I fail some expectation or goal I've set for myself, I don't cry.. But today, when I flicked on China Central Television for the election results, I couldn't help weeping like a little baby as I caught naught but pieces of the Great Lie spewing from that Texan's jaws. The first time Bush got into office, I got mad. After 9/11, I went mad. Now the fat man of fascism has fresh vigor as he smothers my nation and the world in the back seat of his large automobile. I hope I can keep from crying and from going mad. Focus. My students knew their teacher wouldn't be happy today. What they did not realize was the depth of my sadness. Or the sadness of those I know and love. Here's a sampling of what arrived in my inbox today. From an old friend, a member of the Traveller's Club, on election eve:
From another member of the Traveller's Club, even older friend:
From a fellow traveller, now in South America, whose family is from Iran:
From His Holiness the Dalai Lama:
& from someone with the same name as me:
"The only demand I make of my reader is that he should devote his whole life to reading my works." --James Joyce November 03, 2004voting gives you the right to complaini voted. or, i express mailed my ballot to my precinct with enough time. whether it gets counted is another thing. chinapost has never let me down before. someone opens my letters from time to time, but that goes with the territory. i'm more worried about what greg palast wrote: <blockquote> "Those who mail in ballots are very trusting souls. Here's how your trust is used. In the August 31 primaries in Florida, Palm Beach Elections Supervisor Theresa LePore (a.k.a. Madame Butterfly Ballot) counted 37,839 absentee votes. But days before, her office told me only 29,000 ballots had been received. When this loaves-and-fishes miracle was disclosed, she was forced to recount, cutting the tally to 31,138. Had she worked it the other way, disappearing a few thousand votes instead of adding additional ones, there would be almost no way to figure out the fix (or was it a mistake?). Mail-in voter registration forms are protected by federal law. Local government must acknowledge receiving your registration and must let you know if there's a problem (say, with signature or address) that invalidates your registration. But your mail-in vote is an unprotected crapshoot. How do you know if your ballot was received? Was it tossed behind a file cabinet-or tossed out because you did not include your middle initial? In many counties, you won't know." </blockquote> from "An Election Spoiled Rotten" on tompaine.com did other americans reading this also vote? if so, pat yourself on the back. do a jig. if not, for shame!! i hope this election is the last dirty one before a populist cleanup. we could begin with standardized paper-based voting machines (need that paper trail, unfortunately) and IRV (instant run-off voting). check out. www.fairvote.org/irv/
Archives
 |
|