When Beijing is blue, Beijing is blue. Last weekend, and this is not as rare occurrence as the media might make out, Beijing's skies were as blue as almost anywhere you could find in the world. It was perfect for enjoying some gluwein (since it is just a few degrees above freezing) -which is mulled wine- at the annual German Christmas market along with various sausages, beers, gingerbread men and the like. An enjoyable experience as always, after a few hours, most of us were left wondering why so few mugs of mulled wine seemed to have such a substantial affect on us!
Today, I can enjoy the apartment, which has finally had heating since it was turned on by the government 2 weeks ago, and has a floor. For a couple of weeks i had a hole in the living room whilst workers tried to identify the source of a leak, fix it, and then re-lay the floor. I can also enjoy some excellent TED videos (www.ted.com), one of which by Denis Dutton i highly recommend spending 17 minutes of your time watching. He talks about Beauty -where it comes from, and how it is defined, arguing it is not so much in the eye of the beholder as ingrained in us through evolution with a clear purpose. His explanation of the role of beauty to attract us, in finding beauty in things done well and in how across the world we all find similar forms of nature beautiful is very compelling and interesting. Another, by Aaron Huey, reveals the disturbing truth of the native Americans' situation today, and how the US has created the problems.
Over the last 2 weeks, there has been a Nordic film festival on, and I have managed to watch 5 of the films -some, such as the experiences of a Chinese entrepreneur failing to build a conference center in Sweden, one about Dole's use of dangerous pesticides on its banana plantations and one about a brothel in Germany with 200 prostitutes were very interesting. A couple of others were also good: how the Norwegian pension fund tries to get companies it invests in to clean up their acts, and the role of the media in Italy's society. Some of the directors were also in attendance answering questions, though interestingly, for the films that are quite activist, neither of the directors approached the films with the aim of creating change in society -they just wanted to make interesting films -and the side-affect is often that the films lead to change. This was interesting in the context of how much effort would be made to use the films to create change; and whether the films were better because they were not purely aimed at creating change, unlike certain films made by charities or governments.
And the highlight of today? The news: ENGLAND 2026 BID TO BE BASED ON BRIBES AND POISON. Check it out if you still need consoling after Thursday's disappointment! http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/sport/sport-headlines/england-2026-bid-to-be-based-on-bribes-and-poison-201012023312/
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