The last 2 weeks have been fun and quite productive. I have been having some interesting meetsings, and am now investigating AIESEC launching some initiatives related to AIDs; since I have got so involved in it now, i feel I am much more aware of the issue. At the moment AIDs here is just in high risk populations (drug users, prostitutes, people who had blood transfusions), but it is about to enter the mainstream and that could be a disaster since those who will suffer most will be the poor.
There is a huge impetus to make extralarge efforts now to prevent the World's largest ever catastrophe. Already up to 4 or 5 million are HIV+ in India, China the number is under 1 million; but due to so many isses (social stigma, lack of understanding, high internal migration and so on), the next 5 years will define if in China the number grows up to as much as 10 million or not. If it hits 10 million, then where will it go next? At the moment, AIESEC has been invited to join the joint UN initiated AIDs Working Group in China so this afternoon I'll go to this (yay), having met UNAIDs and spoken to several other UN organisations.
Recently life has been ticking on; relaxing and going out; a reunion with my old classmates in BLCU; back to Tianjin to help AIESEC there; a full-page feature on AIESEC and me on a national english language business magasine and so on...not see the article yet, but should get a copy in the post soon since we didnt buy one. Our next big conference should be in a month; more info to come soon.
Chris arrives tomorrow (Manchester University housemate) for a 2 week visit including a week in north-west China along the old silk road in Gansu province with a couple of girls..shoudl be fun, although it will start with a 20 hour hard seat journey (extending my record for hard seat journeys by about 4 hours...)- can't wait! Saturday is the 56th Anniversary of the Founding of the Republic of China. So what? yeah, well its not as famous as 4th July thats for sure!
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Saturday, September 17, 2005
the well-off, the scale and the life of a laowai
a little over a year after I arrived in China, this post starts with the same title as the very first one back on sep 15th 04 (except with laowai spelt correctly!)
this week was dominated by a trip from hursday to friday to an investment fair in a city called Dongying that is a new, grpwing city exactly in between beijing, shanghai and dalian. Its got lots of oil related industries and big investment from Korea -plus it has had UNIDO advising them on attracting more foreign investment (and they invited us to come to the fair). It meant 7 hours of travelling each way by bus, but it was worth it for the experience.
so, why the title? well i am still (1 year later) learning about the well-of in china, the scale of things and how laowais live. on thursday night once we arrived (everything was paid for the whole time) and given our delegate bags (including VIP badges) we were put on our table, and then toasted by the different important people there who come around each table, 1 at a time. lots of baijiu :( we were higly encouraged to eat the little (expensive, ugly, non-edible looking) lobsters and then shipped off to watch a firework display that lasted over 45 minutes (no kidding) with over 25,000 fireworks (according to the information about the different acts in the show). What a huge waste of money; 10 minutes would be fine.
I guess the scale thing is always a bit double-edged in China; not just to impress the guests, but to show to the local people how well the government in impressing the guests and of course to actually impress the local people too (who were all watching too, but not on the stage on chairs like the 500 of us VIPs). Since so many companies are owned by the government you get the feeling orders are given and costs not really defined let alone considered!
later that night in our hotel we met in the UNIDO guys room for some beers since he had been given the executive suite as an honour; and when the hotel staff came to our room they seemed to do so just to practice their English -somethings will just never change here!
that dinner and the following lunch (which was different -a private affair with the mayor of the city and just our small group) also included some chips, ketchup and a chicken burger, all from KFC. We all laughed at the wonderful attempts they made at cultural understanding (since it gave us the choice of eating non-chinese food if we couldn't handle it), especially as the chips also came at breakfast.
Back in Beijing now in glorious weather and hoping to enjoy it before the art exhibition i'm going to tonight at a private pre-opening viewing in the 'arty' area of town that i have been trying to go to for ages (what a great way to go there!).
I'll write again soon with some reflections of a year in China but its confirmed I'll be back in UK from 25th/12 -8th/1 so look forward to seeing lots of UK based friends soon.
Enjoy your weekend
Adam
this week was dominated by a trip from hursday to friday to an investment fair in a city called Dongying that is a new, grpwing city exactly in between beijing, shanghai and dalian. Its got lots of oil related industries and big investment from Korea -plus it has had UNIDO advising them on attracting more foreign investment (and they invited us to come to the fair). It meant 7 hours of travelling each way by bus, but it was worth it for the experience.
so, why the title? well i am still (1 year later) learning about the well-of in china, the scale of things and how laowais live. on thursday night once we arrived (everything was paid for the whole time) and given our delegate bags (including VIP badges) we were put on our table, and then toasted by the different important people there who come around each table, 1 at a time. lots of baijiu :( we were higly encouraged to eat the little (expensive, ugly, non-edible looking) lobsters and then shipped off to watch a firework display that lasted over 45 minutes (no kidding) with over 25,000 fireworks (according to the information about the different acts in the show). What a huge waste of money; 10 minutes would be fine.
I guess the scale thing is always a bit double-edged in China; not just to impress the guests, but to show to the local people how well the government in impressing the guests and of course to actually impress the local people too (who were all watching too, but not on the stage on chairs like the 500 of us VIPs). Since so many companies are owned by the government you get the feeling orders are given and costs not really defined let alone considered!
later that night in our hotel we met in the UNIDO guys room for some beers since he had been given the executive suite as an honour; and when the hotel staff came to our room they seemed to do so just to practice their English -somethings will just never change here!
that dinner and the following lunch (which was different -a private affair with the mayor of the city and just our small group) also included some chips, ketchup and a chicken burger, all from KFC. We all laughed at the wonderful attempts they made at cultural understanding (since it gave us the choice of eating non-chinese food if we couldn't handle it), especially as the chips also came at breakfast.
Back in Beijing now in glorious weather and hoping to enjoy it before the art exhibition i'm going to tonight at a private pre-opening viewing in the 'arty' area of town that i have been trying to go to for ages (what a great way to go there!).
I'll write again soon with some reflections of a year in China but its confirmed I'll be back in UK from 25th/12 -8th/1 so look forward to seeing lots of UK based friends soon.
Enjoy your weekend
Adam
Sunday, September 11, 2005
tianjin and a night as a Chinese student
The great wall last week was good -the 2+ days I spent at CSR conferences were nice, and seeing my roommates return was also a nice change... but nothing compares to my weekend in Tianjin where I was helping one of our newest AIESEC branches with their first real recruitment.
Inbetween eating Tianjin's local delicacies (goubuli, shibajiemahua and fantastic breakfast snacks) I was handing out flyers at canteens; doing another 15 minute speech to 100 chinese students and coaching 4 lovely girls from Nankai University. Oh, and whilst riding one of their bikes, with the owner of the bike on the back, I managed to completely mangle the wheel!
It was great fun walking into a 'water bar' (sells fruit jiuces for the less alocoholic of Chinese students) that has 8 tables and 15 chairs, and then rearranging it to squeeze 50 students on chairs, plus 5 facilitators and 4 laptops (strategically located around the room) whilst the staff sold the students cold drinks (only 1 fan, no a/c, and the drinks were fantastic). Then I was listening to students talk about 'whether China's reaction to Japan is fair' and 'should gay people be allowed to raise children' (not something that is particularly controversial in the UK but thought of differently here I've learned).
Apart from the dancing in the middle of the campus (looking like a real idiot trying to copy the video playing on my laptop balanced on top of a nearby car) and playing name games near 1 of the exits of the Uni; I spent the 2 nights in one of the male dorms.
I've seen several dorms before, but not for long or in much detail, so was kind of excited to stay in one. It was one of the slightly more expensive ones (about 50 UK pounds for an entire academic year, which is almost double the cheapest ones). The cheapest are 6-8 per room with a central desk to share, mine was 4 per room each with a desk under their (raised) bed. Actually at this University I don't think there were curfews, and my building even had a lift (only 7 floors -I think anything above 5 tends to have a lift in China). Weird experiences:
#1 the bathroom: a long sink with several taps and a pipe in the corner for shower (so kind of public), oh well nothing to be cleaned then!
#2 the bedroom: too hot to need covers, and turn fan off at night, so everyone sleeps in their undies and without covers
#3 in the dorm (each dorm was about 5 rooms, each of 4 students. 3 dorms on each floor) everyone also walks around in their underwear..all day; i mean the best way to keep cool right, and women aren't allowed? anyway, when in Rome...
#4 in the toilets (not western, but not too bad) at 7am for 20 minutes, and not being able to leave because the cleaner was cleaning the dorm. Foreigners not allowed in (let alone to stay) and I didn't fancy being kicked out the building in my underwear
photos will be up soon (embarrasingly). News about China? more action off the coast around Taiwan and Japan (hotting up, expect something to happen in next 2-3 yrs), big deal made of stupid Europeans turning up to renegotiate textile quotas etc.
Off to bed, sweating (its got hot again), and happy and proud of my Nankai girls doing such a great job this weekend. They even chatted up the guy in charge of classrooms who will now lend them a kitted-out classroom anytime.
Adam
p.s. Great Wall last weekend with 13 of us was soooo much fun with suuuuch good weather and sooo on
p.p.s. If England win the cricket it will make up for the abysmal football performance
p.p.p.s Word of the weekend was the chinese for basket (the one on a bike) that transported my laptop around Nankai several times whilst I became an expert at carrying small chinese girls on the back of their bikes!
Inbetween eating Tianjin's local delicacies (goubuli, shibajiemahua and fantastic breakfast snacks) I was handing out flyers at canteens; doing another 15 minute speech to 100 chinese students and coaching 4 lovely girls from Nankai University. Oh, and whilst riding one of their bikes, with the owner of the bike on the back, I managed to completely mangle the wheel!
It was great fun walking into a 'water bar' (sells fruit jiuces for the less alocoholic of Chinese students) that has 8 tables and 15 chairs, and then rearranging it to squeeze 50 students on chairs, plus 5 facilitators and 4 laptops (strategically located around the room) whilst the staff sold the students cold drinks (only 1 fan, no a/c, and the drinks were fantastic). Then I was listening to students talk about 'whether China's reaction to Japan is fair' and 'should gay people be allowed to raise children' (not something that is particularly controversial in the UK but thought of differently here I've learned).
Apart from the dancing in the middle of the campus (looking like a real idiot trying to copy the video playing on my laptop balanced on top of a nearby car) and playing name games near 1 of the exits of the Uni; I spent the 2 nights in one of the male dorms.
I've seen several dorms before, but not for long or in much detail, so was kind of excited to stay in one. It was one of the slightly more expensive ones (about 50 UK pounds for an entire academic year, which is almost double the cheapest ones). The cheapest are 6-8 per room with a central desk to share, mine was 4 per room each with a desk under their (raised) bed. Actually at this University I don't think there were curfews, and my building even had a lift (only 7 floors -I think anything above 5 tends to have a lift in China). Weird experiences:
#1 the bathroom: a long sink with several taps and a pipe in the corner for shower (so kind of public), oh well nothing to be cleaned then!
#2 the bedroom: too hot to need covers, and turn fan off at night, so everyone sleeps in their undies and without covers
#3 in the dorm (each dorm was about 5 rooms, each of 4 students. 3 dorms on each floor) everyone also walks around in their underwear..all day; i mean the best way to keep cool right, and women aren't allowed? anyway, when in Rome...
#4 in the toilets (not western, but not too bad) at 7am for 20 minutes, and not being able to leave because the cleaner was cleaning the dorm. Foreigners not allowed in (let alone to stay) and I didn't fancy being kicked out the building in my underwear
photos will be up soon (embarrasingly). News about China? more action off the coast around Taiwan and Japan (hotting up, expect something to happen in next 2-3 yrs), big deal made of stupid Europeans turning up to renegotiate textile quotas etc.
Off to bed, sweating (its got hot again), and happy and proud of my Nankai girls doing such a great job this weekend. They even chatted up the guy in charge of classrooms who will now lend them a kitted-out classroom anytime.
Adam
p.s. Great Wall last weekend with 13 of us was soooo much fun with suuuuch good weather and sooo on
p.p.s. If England win the cricket it will make up for the abysmal football performance
p.p.p.s Word of the weekend was the chinese for basket (the one on a bike) that transported my laptop around Nankai several times whilst I became an expert at carrying small chinese girls on the back of their bikes!
Friday, September 02, 2005
hurricanes...
another month, another natural disaster...as many people will argue against saying global warming is a reason for more recent natural disasters as those who say that there is still the same number as 100 years ago...as many people will argue about globalisation making it worse as will point out how it helps.
from my point of view, this seems, from the newspapers, like a third world country has turned up in the world's richest country...dead bodies floating down streets, raping etc. amongst the normal support and strength between strangers in crises that develops. What a shock for the residents that this could happen to THEM? its interesting that broadly it seems the poor were those who could not leave the city thus were worse hit. its also interesting that a hugely successful country seems unable to do any more for those in its own country, as it could for those in Phuket. I mean, wouldn't you expect a rich country to be able to instantly call upon people, food, water, transport?
the focus of rebuilding will be jobs; provide unemployment and everything else will fill into place. this America should be able to do easily -in fact most of the damage should be insured (or the government's debt will just increase even more to pay for rebuilding), so that will be spent creating jobs to do the rebuilding. Its amazing that such a large city can be wiped out so easily.
Could London be next? I know we dont have hurricanes, but i know that the Thames Barrier is becoming used more and more often, and whilst we build more houses on the low lying Thames Estuary, how would the rest of London survive if the Barrier was breached? I hope we are as well prepared as we were in July.
somehow, i don't think Beijing would have much of a problem managing. with such huge manpower resources, and such power to control everything within the means of the government, i think it would be fine. Actually i know it would be fine since so much of the city live in 30 story buildings ;). There is very frequent flooding in southern china (if you didnt know), but because it is frequent the consequences are not so severe (except for instances where 300 people get stuck in a flooded mine). At the same time there is frequent flooding in Bangladesh killing tens of thousands annually. Thus since less die in china (richer country) i was expecting less to die in US (even richer country).
Just when you thought rebuilding 16 acres in New York could be tough or expensive, what about an entire city of over a million people?
it seems money is not everyting, and life is not that straight forward.
p.s. full marks, CSR-wise, to the US companies using their resources efficiently (mattel sending toys), U-Haul providing free storage, Nissan lending 50 trucks and Kellogs, 7 trucks of nutrigrain bars. I hope other companies do the same.
p.p.s. interestingly personal donations are set to exceed the records set for the tsunami and 9/11 (because "its America" and americans have been to New Orleands, or have personal connections), but how many other countries are fundraising like they were in January?
from my point of view, this seems, from the newspapers, like a third world country has turned up in the world's richest country...dead bodies floating down streets, raping etc. amongst the normal support and strength between strangers in crises that develops. What a shock for the residents that this could happen to THEM? its interesting that broadly it seems the poor were those who could not leave the city thus were worse hit. its also interesting that a hugely successful country seems unable to do any more for those in its own country, as it could for those in Phuket. I mean, wouldn't you expect a rich country to be able to instantly call upon people, food, water, transport?
the focus of rebuilding will be jobs; provide unemployment and everything else will fill into place. this America should be able to do easily -in fact most of the damage should be insured (or the government's debt will just increase even more to pay for rebuilding), so that will be spent creating jobs to do the rebuilding. Its amazing that such a large city can be wiped out so easily.
Could London be next? I know we dont have hurricanes, but i know that the Thames Barrier is becoming used more and more often, and whilst we build more houses on the low lying Thames Estuary, how would the rest of London survive if the Barrier was breached? I hope we are as well prepared as we were in July.
somehow, i don't think Beijing would have much of a problem managing. with such huge manpower resources, and such power to control everything within the means of the government, i think it would be fine. Actually i know it would be fine since so much of the city live in 30 story buildings ;). There is very frequent flooding in southern china (if you didnt know), but because it is frequent the consequences are not so severe (except for instances where 300 people get stuck in a flooded mine). At the same time there is frequent flooding in Bangladesh killing tens of thousands annually. Thus since less die in china (richer country) i was expecting less to die in US (even richer country).
Just when you thought rebuilding 16 acres in New York could be tough or expensive, what about an entire city of over a million people?
it seems money is not everyting, and life is not that straight forward.
p.s. full marks, CSR-wise, to the US companies using their resources efficiently (mattel sending toys), U-Haul providing free storage, Nissan lending 50 trucks and Kellogs, 7 trucks of nutrigrain bars. I hope other companies do the same.
p.p.s. interestingly personal donations are set to exceed the records set for the tsunami and 9/11 (because "its America" and americans have been to New Orleands, or have personal connections), but how many other countries are fundraising like they were in January?
alone....
In the last couple of weeks my 4 room/work mates have headed to India (along with 8 other students), so I tried to keep sane by having some students come in and help me and from going to meetings or CSR conferences. Unfortunately it means i have not been back in my appt befroe 11pm for 10 consecutive nights, due to eating and drinking out.
I have realised how boring it is living alone, and working alone too! Look forward to the evenings or seeing other people...plus of course its harder to be productive (living and working in same room..) for example although i still get up at 7.30 for run and study, i tend to start work at 9.15 now, not 9 :( -so fire me! by the way, pictures of the appartment/surrounding area are on the imagestation website as usual.
Last week went on another day trip trying to avoid the smog (and not really succeeding, even 2 hours away by bus!). Today its nice again (apparently over 250 days a year are 'good days', but the definition of 'good' is pretty low!) and makes such a difference to feeling good, walking around and running as well. so tomorrow we'll take advantage and do the legendary 4 hr hike on the great wall -can't wait (there might be lots of us, due to a recent invasion of american alumni!). Last night we finally went to Wanfujing food night market -to eat silkworms etc, although did not go much further than that..the scorpions, frogs, sparrows, snakes, cockroaches and more were quite expensive! fun to look at :D
Also been nice catching up with Mitch (Michelle does sound so much more feminine though!) a fair amount, since she arrived for a traineeship -she was a friend in UK, 1 year behind me in AIESEC. unfortuantely before she arrived 4 workers left the company (so just the boss..its a small PR firm), and hoping she would be busy, Mitch was excited (although not sure of the reason for them leaving)...but now spends her time sorting business cards (on a good day). poor her :(
so less about me..today i realised that the chinese government is stupid, since you can access the wikipedia (a very famous free encyclopedia online) site for tiananmen square protests. so i read it, learned some more and downloaded the famous photo (and discovered the 'unknown rebel' was named 1 of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century! -Mao is also there of course.) Amusingly the wikipedia site on the 'tiananmen papers' which was the 'official' government response of what happened is blocked..so i wonder. granted the wikipedia site is very neutral about the protests, but still....
passing comments... when Bush flies over New Orleans, does he realise that the CLIMATE was responsible? when he sees oil refineries in his own country sinking, does he realise his invasion of Iraq has only made the oil price go UP? When France joined the EU, did their PM not read the chapter on free movement of goods, trade etc? And if you ever read about the big chinese (state owned) companies donating money, don't think of it in a western mindset, think of it in a chinese mindset (the government told them to). Meanwhile i hear 100,000 UK students did not get a university place this year -go Blair... your strategy to get 50% of the country into higher education is working wonders!
I have realised how boring it is living alone, and working alone too! Look forward to the evenings or seeing other people...plus of course its harder to be productive (living and working in same room..) for example although i still get up at 7.30 for run and study, i tend to start work at 9.15 now, not 9 :( -so fire me! by the way, pictures of the appartment/surrounding area are on the imagestation website as usual.
Last week went on another day trip trying to avoid the smog (and not really succeeding, even 2 hours away by bus!). Today its nice again (apparently over 250 days a year are 'good days', but the definition of 'good' is pretty low!) and makes such a difference to feeling good, walking around and running as well. so tomorrow we'll take advantage and do the legendary 4 hr hike on the great wall -can't wait (there might be lots of us, due to a recent invasion of american alumni!). Last night we finally went to Wanfujing food night market -to eat silkworms etc, although did not go much further than that..the scorpions, frogs, sparrows, snakes, cockroaches and more were quite expensive! fun to look at :D
Also been nice catching up with Mitch (Michelle does sound so much more feminine though!) a fair amount, since she arrived for a traineeship -she was a friend in UK, 1 year behind me in AIESEC. unfortuantely before she arrived 4 workers left the company (so just the boss..its a small PR firm), and hoping she would be busy, Mitch was excited (although not sure of the reason for them leaving)...but now spends her time sorting business cards (on a good day). poor her :(
so less about me..today i realised that the chinese government is stupid, since you can access the wikipedia (a very famous free encyclopedia online) site for tiananmen square protests. so i read it, learned some more and downloaded the famous photo (and discovered the 'unknown rebel' was named 1 of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century! -Mao is also there of course.) Amusingly the wikipedia site on the 'tiananmen papers' which was the 'official' government response of what happened is blocked..so i wonder. granted the wikipedia site is very neutral about the protests, but still....
passing comments... when Bush flies over New Orleans, does he realise that the CLIMATE was responsible? when he sees oil refineries in his own country sinking, does he realise his invasion of Iraq has only made the oil price go UP? When France joined the EU, did their PM not read the chapter on free movement of goods, trade etc? And if you ever read about the big chinese (state owned) companies donating money, don't think of it in a western mindset, think of it in a chinese mindset (the government told them to). Meanwhile i hear 100,000 UK students did not get a university place this year -go Blair... your strategy to get 50% of the country into higher education is working wonders!
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