Loyalty vs Respect

Ever since I've been in China I've thought about the issue of relationships in China: whether it is business relationships or personal relationships, both are somewhat different to what I've been used to, but only subtly.

For business relationships, yes, there is no doubt that in China you need to be-friend your business partner and many deals are done due to friendships; but in England it would be incredible naive to presume there is an entirely open playing field and that the show is not still run by certain people who know other people. After all "it is not what you know but who you know" is a western saying, not a Chinese one. And China may have more than its fair share of corruption in its business deals, for a mixture of culture and economic development reasons, but it's not like we are immune to this in the UK either - it's just we've spend a lot of time building up a culture where law matters, and China has not get there yet. With more time, some ponder that it might - others say its not possible as long as the judiciary is not independent or transparent (it does what the Communist Party tells it to do, hearings are short, decisions rarely explained, and the rulings and punishments rarely consistent).

But it is personal relationships that are more interesting. Previously I'd explained it thus: In England you'd be nice to people very quickly, even strangers, but it takes a long time before you can really be friends; whereas in China, you are not nice to strangers, but you can pretty quickly become close friends. This has never satisfied me as an answer though for a number of reasons. So, as I was thinking more about this issue, I came to consider the issue of respect.

In general--and it really is hard to generalize a country so diverse as China, but one must, so one will--there is a lack of respect for the environment, for others' space and for someone else's rights. There is a strong selfish streak, which may be driven by economic reasons. Now it is also fairly clear that many in the UK lack respect too; but that seems more out of immaturity and a strange intentional desire to annoy others more than anything else. But, as many will know, the Chinese care very deeply about their friends and family; one could argue much more than in the west where the family unit is weaker. I strongly agree with this, and thus it came to me that maybe it is worth differentiating between the concept of loyalty and respect.

Maybe the Chinese are very loyal, but not very respectful. Can that be possible? I'm not sure, but it seems to make sense to me: a strong caring for those one knows or needs to know to be successful, but not much consideration for anyone else. I'm not writing a book to explore this more deeply, but I'll think more about it and see if these are the right words to differentiate something that really is a striking difference between the two cultures. Now I wish the youth in the UK would respect others as much as the youth in China would do, and that there would be as little crime as there is in China; but these may be more about economic, judicial and historical reasons than from actual beliefs.

Evidence this might be true? Well, the fact that discrimination in China is rife (automatic feelings against those that are different, either ethnically, geographically, religiously, or according to language, wealth, disability etc) and seemingly impossible to overcome implies a lack of respect and a lack of willingness to respect others. There is a strong lack of respect for differences overall, partly inspired by a government agenda.

The challenge, if this is true, is how to encourage more respect, since there will not be sustainability without respect. And I'm working on sustainability... more thinking clearly needed but the idea of loyalty vs respect is an interesting one I think.

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Interested in what I'm up to? http://adam.nomadlife.org

Celebrating 18 months

How momentous - and why not celebrate by proving to your parents you can climb up a climbing frame in the playground; pee in the potty when it's nearby; and get your first fever!

Happy 18-months old, Hannah!

China's air and gardens

The newest thing China is known for is its awful air quality. When it's bad it gets in western newspapers and everyone seems to be talking about how it affects this or that, whether one is leaving Beijing/china because of it or not (and some cities are better than Beijing). But Beijing does occasionally have insanely blue skies, stunningly blue skies. Unfortunately they are fairly rare - rare enough to really be news that hits the newspapers (though that is not the case).

Last week we did have some stunning blue skies and flaky clouds. We also had some excellent sunsets but city-standards (no comparing to a beach or mountain sunset of course). When Beijing is like that it is a wonderful city. I estimate the weather is depressingly bad about a third of the time, which is quite a lot, but it is not "all" the time. And you can manage around it. No city is perfect. It does not bother us as much as other people. We do use an air purifier when it is really bad; and we go out less - but we still go out, and we still have fun, and so far our health has been fine. Others seem to disagree, and are leaving because of it. If you have other reasons to leave, or if all things really are equal and this tips the scales over, then it might be time to leave. But we have reasons to stay in Beijing and are not, yet, close to a tipping point.

One of the oldest things China is known for, apart from the Great Wall I suppose, are its gardens, though they are certainly not gardens in the English sense. These are usually full of rock features, pagodas, water features, zig-zag bridges, and a variety of plants. There are not actually a lot of flowers, and not a lot of grass, usually. They are of course for a different purpose than those in England: not for play, that is for sure, and certainly born less out of love for agriculture. What they may have in common is a desire to show-off and create a place to relax, just in very different ways. Typically the areas around Shanghai are most famous for their gardens as they have an abundance of water, the right weather for growing a variety of plants, and (presumably) some cultural reasons as well.

China holds a domestic "Garden Expo" every two years: this year it is being held in Beijing so the local government has gone to the usual extremes: found a lot of land, built a new subway, recruited thousands of volunteers and built an insane Garden Expo. We went to visit it today - it is the opposite end of town so took a while to get there, and it was over 30 degrees. Despite a lack of shade though it was worthwhile. There were some incredible gardens: a lot of effort, very pretty, and also quite creative (there are over 40 different mini-gardens, some larger than others). It's a big area, and they have clearly put a lot of effort into it. In fact it is almost too impressive: one wanders what will happen after the Expo finishes in 6 months. I presume they won't just abandon it but it will take work to keep in good condition, as well as money, and though there are some nice walks there and alongside the neighboring river, I can't see a lot of people using the site for any purpose other than just visiting the gardens (and maybe taking wedding photos).

It's not great for a buggy as there are a fair amount of steps or paths made of broken stone; but we enjoyed the 5 hours or so we spent there, even in the heat.There has been a lot of thought into its design, so you can spend hours wandering around and exploring different paths, areas, and mini-gardens. Yet just as its scale and ambition is distinctly Chinese, so are some of the other aspects of it too: the waste of volunteers who mostly just stand there; the desire to pretend it is international which has led to creating a fake stately home with maze and random European huts (but not European gardens); the arbitrary nature of certain things like having a museum that closes 3 hours before the actual park does; and the overly commercial side to it (a lot of tacky gift shops in some of the buildings). 

But on the whole China is getting much better nowadays with tourism: there are electric cars to transport people around, good signposts, maps, plenty of drinks available, good public transport, some ramps for the disabled and even some actual food options (not good food options, but more than just instant noodles and sausages). For those who have traveled in China this will all seem very familiar I am sure.Which leads me back to my earlier issue of what will happen once the Expo is over. Because that has been China's biggest flaw for previous temporary events: they build them so big that they are almost guaranteed to be white elephants. So I'll need to find out more about what happened to the previous 8 expos that were elsewhere in China, and come back to this one next year to see what it is like!

Bicycles in Beijing

In what seems like an eternity ago, and certainly looks like it in photos, Beijing used to be covered in bikes, with the odd car a tourist attraction. In 20 years this has changed somewhat, but some legacies remain: bike lanes segregated from the main roads are common on many streets which can make it a joy to cycle around the city. Others have a bus and cycle lane combined by the side of the road, though this is rarely useful as it is normally used for parking as well - either legally or illegally, there are few parking restrictions actively enforced.

Cyclists, like pedestrians, do not have right of way. The car does. Or so it seems. You need to have your wits about you, and you need to be brave to cross the road when you have a green light, particularly since a car probably is probably also turning across you. For those who have traveled overseas, you'll be aware that this is common across the world, but not in the UK, where (and it would be a left turn, since the UK drives on the other side) red means red and pedestrians do not have to worry about other traffic also being able to cross their path). And so pedestrians need to be brave and stick their necks out as they cross the road. Unfortunately it leads to a culture of pedestrians doing this all the time, whether they have a green man or not - and so they make things worse, blocking the road and causing a hazard. And of course the cyclist, or the e-cyclist may come zooming along at any time, because the color of a traffic light is irrelevant for him or her with a silent deathtrap.

When the wind blows, the typical cyclist hides. In Beijing you come out, fresh in the knowledge that the wind has brought fresh air with it. And after the rain, with fresh air all around and puddles on the floor, the cyclist can joyfully go wherever and stay dry. Increasingly there are cycling parks in office buildings and shopping malls (not least for the low-paid staff who work there and who need to park their bikes), and there are new bike renting schemes across town (several have failed in the past, but the latest seems to have survived though may not be that popular). And so bikes become less prone to theft. And as the traffic gets worse more people realize the speed of cycling is unrivaled.

Yet I was unable to cycle recently for almost a month. A difficult month, spent searching for taxis (whose price recently went up, finally, for the first time in 8 years), sitting on buses in traffic jams, and trying to squeeze on subways at rush hour. It was difficult. But now, with a new bike, I am back on the road again. And with me being on the road again comes Hannah, sitting on Andrea's bike, and we are more mobile and able to explore Beijing again.

At the weekend we went out, first to a shopping mall, since it was raining, where we found H&M had a sale on to someone's delight and Hannah tested out her recent interest in sitting down and refusing to walk with us where we want to go. Ahh, now she really does feel like a kid. Then we took Hannah to her first beer festival: 7 craft beer brewers were there along with some food options and a band, but it was a small affair. Quite the opposite of a British beer festival. This one had a kid's area set-up (complete with a bouncy castle), was held outside (since it's so warm), and was full of a young crowd. Hannah's taken a liking for beer recently, in a comical way. She doesn't really like it but sees us drinking it so grabs a spoon to dip in the beer and take some. Then she grimaces, but takes more!

There's a nice photo on facebook of her at the beer festival with two of her friends. She's the one standing on stage, lifting her shirt up to show off her belly to everyone. So actually, maybe there is one thing the beer festival had in common with a British one after all....

An encounter with Ai Wei Wei

I often comment in a half-joking fashion that Andrea and I do similar things but with different groups: I work with large companies which may be somewhat bland and uninspiring while she works with small amazing non-profits/social enterprises and inspiring individuals. Fortunately I get to tap into her world, going to many of her events, meeting some of the great people she meets and being inspired.

China certainly has its issues--and a lot of people in China may not care or may be making things worse, as with many Western countries, but it also has incredible individuals who are trying to improve things, who are making sacrifices, and who are going against the grain (in a country that really really does not encourage you to go against anything). Many are now well-known in the west because they win Nobel peace prizes, or get locked up, escape to the US or whatever. Some of them do have some impact. Others keep their head down and stay the right side of the line, and don't get noticed (intentionally) but also do great work. And this line is interesting. In China the line is always moving. What can you do that is ok and what can you do that is not ok? What will just mean the police "inviting you to tea" to find out more and be reassured about your motives vs what will lead you to being under house arrest without any legal conviction or actually detained?

I'm always intrigued as to this line, how it moves, where it moves, and most importantly how to stay on the right side of it - not for personal reasons, since I am a long way on the safe side of the line, doing pretty boring stuff (from the government's perspective) - but because it is a really interesting side of China. In most cases when I have spoken to people that are still on the right side of the line, they talk about how they try to push up to the line and try to push the line, but they never across it. They talk to the government where possible to understand where the line is and where it is going (things can move unexpectedly here) and to explain that they sit firmly on the safe side of the line. For many groups and individuals, particularly those fighting for the rights of certain minorities, like prostitutes, gays, HIV+ persons, disabled or others, they really struggle with this. They desperately want to push that line, but they need to be careful. Sometimes they succeed, but sometimes they do not.

There are a few exceptions to these two groups of people that I mentioned earlier (the ones who are across the line and in prison, and the ones who operate under the radar and still behind the line) which is a few people who are right on the line and are vocal about it. Ai Wei Wei is one of these people. He's managed to get himself well-known for boring issues (architecture, art etc) and then used his fame to create a platform for talking about more controversial issues. He's so well-known that the government struggles to keep him quiet without making things worse (when they did put him away for 81 days or so for tax evasion, it just got him more attention), so they don't quite know what to do with him. He continues to walk the line carefully, using the media as a cover to some extent, whilst also cleverly using it to push his agenda. And I'm not an expert on him, so this is just my perceptions and may not be entirely true.

But today i did get to meet him. We went to the German School here which had a summer festival with BBQs, music and games, and he was there. We think because some German friends had invited him along, but he was recognized (he is pretty distinctive) and spent all the time there (that we saw him) which was at least 45 minutes (then we left to go somewhere else) taking photos. Now it was a very orderly and low key. A few people would hang around nearby waiting for their turn, there were laughs, there were kids, there was beer. I could barely imagine if there were Chinese around it might be quite another story (there weren't - the event is really only for Germans and others related to the School). Anyway, before we left I went up to him for a chat (no photo - i'm not sure he really enjoyed spending all his leisure time taking photos, but i did hope he might be interested in some interesting conversation - and besides i can't get anything out of a photo but i hoped for some insights from our conversation.

What did we discuss in the 3 minute conversation? I asked about the line. He reinforced my suspicions (see above) and we talked about his conversations with the government (to find out where the line is, so he can explain his opinion and be honest about his intentions). I asked about his recent music video where he recreated his prison cell and heavily criticized the Chinese government and the government reaction (he said the government were too embarrassed to do anything about it beyond blocking it here, but they did compliment him on how accurate his depiction of the cell was). I also asked about the story of thousands of people donating money to him online and by throwing money into his courtyard to help pay a deposit that was necessary to fight his tax evasion case (he said there were 30,000 people who gave him money, he had written thank yous, and he did try to return it as he promised he would, but that some people did not want it back, and others did not give their names or addresses with it).

My parting words - keep doing what you're doing, keep staying the right side of the line, and good luck! I'm sure he's heard that before.

Our apartment

Wow six weeks have passed since last writing. I am writing this whilst sitting by Hannah's second home: the playground.  It's just outside our front door in the middle of our wonderful apartment complex.
Some background first....It's common in China, no matter your wealth, that your apartment is part of a community: several buildings that are enclosed and have entrance gates. The older communities tend to allow cars to drive in and park, but newer complexes tend to have underground parking. Most have small shops dotted around providing local services like printing, laundry or vegetables.

The newest and most expensive will have luxury landscaped gardens, hedges and fountains. They tend to have less shops though which might lower the tone. It's the older ones that are most lively with the elderly and kids playing in the shade, lots of intermingling etc. However it's rare to find a combination of the new with no cars, nice gardens, fountains etc and the old with shops, atmosphere etc. Our place has that and is fairly cheap too.

What really makes it special is the playground and the lake providing a hub for kids to play. The summer which is five months of warm or hot weather feels, like a holiday. It's very green and lively and we love it. We spend quite a bit of time here and in the many local parks (for some diversity and large grass areas to sit on). Unfortunately our landlord has put the place on the market and possible buyers seem to want to live in it rather than rent it out. If we have to move we'll try to stay in the complex.

Kids have insane amounts of energy but what is amazing is how kids can spend it doing the same things all the time. Most of Hannah's time is spent in our small apartment climbing onto and off the bed or couch, playing with some toys, and just running from the one room to the other;and outside in the swing, up and down the slide, playing with puddles of water or kicking her football around. Everyone downstairs knows hannah though we don't know them! Our nanny has a wonderful job full of smiles! We get to enjoy it too on the precious weekends and evenings.

Meanwhile Hannah's slowly speaking a few more words though she understands hundreds. She's occasionally showing an attitude when she can't get what she wants (though she's easily distracted out of any mini tantrum). she's also now close to 100% using a spoon to feed herself and more confident going up stairs (though some stairs really are just too big for her without using her hands). She had a 30 second (first) dentist checkup, and has had her first proper bruises and cuts, though they all heal very quickly.

Next week is children's day though every day must seem like children's day for a 16 month old.

I voted in a Chinese election

There was a knock-on the door this morning from a volunteer. He was asking me about voting for the local residents' committee. Most communities have these: normally they don't do much, but they seem to have a small budget to fix things and maybe they are the ones arranging for the old people to help out here and then. Anyway, there are always a lot of signs in our elevator all the time from the committee with updates and things, so if nothing else they do make a lot of effort to communicate!

The volunteer pulled out a form and asked me to vote. The conversation went something like this:

Me: "i don't really know any of these people so do i have to vote? who should i vote for?"

Volunteer: "it doesn't matter, just vote for anyone".

Me: "Can you recommend any of the candidates - who is good or bad?"

Volunteer: "I don't know, you need to pick 2 of the 9 who you don't think are competent. Just pick a couple, maybe the ones in the middle, and put a cross by their name".

Me: "ok, i'll pick X and Y"

Volunteer: "good. can you write in your room number, circle option 1, 4 and 5 and also sign on behalf of your landlord"

Me: "ok"

So i have maybe contributed to ruining two people's lives by giving them a vote of no confidence. And i have voted on behalf of a landlord whom I have never met. On the plus side it seems probably no-one else knows who the 9 candidates are so it is unlikely i'll be influencing the vote -- it's going to be entirely random which ones get elected, or else the volunteers are influencing the vote by encouraging giving a no-confidence vote to the ones in the middle. Looks like the ones with names at the beginning and ends of the alphabet will get in then. Would it be any better for such a local election in the "West"? Probably not!

I wonder if they can sort out our hot water. The whole community has had no hot water for a month. It's a bit of a pain. Andrea boils water and then washes from a tub. I just have a cold shower. Our neighbors and even friends (who are lawyers) complain every day. The signs in the lobby change regularly trying to placate us and explain why this is necessary. People are not really happy. Apparently the hotel across the street is doing good business with people ganging up to rent a room to have a shower!

Useful kids

Over a long weekend we headed out to the Great Wall for a night. We stayed at a place recommended by a friend; a place which had an English website and thus was permanently busy with foreign guests. The family struck it lucky when 5 years ago some foreigners picked their little guesthouse to stay at of the ten in that village and hundreds in the area. Those foreigners went and made the simple website (www.greatwallfresh.com) which has led so many other foreigners to go there.

It's in a good spot for the wall with some fairly serious hiking available. It's not easy and it's not a particularly nice village, but it is close to the wall and cheap. We took Hannah up the wall twice on our backs, but the very strong winds at the top did not make her particularly happy. She seemed to have more fun walking around the apple trees and watching the family's animals. We then went to visit some Indian friends for lunch and spent a few hours in the park. We visit the park often when the weather is nice as Hannah is beginning to interact with other children so its a nice opportunity for them to begin to play together.

Hannah's language is coming along, but she's still not really speaking much. There are hints of words that sound like milk or apple, but generally most things are mer, ma, mem, da or something like that. I suppose there is sort of a mem for mum and a da for dad but it's not clear-cut.There is a great deal of pointing though and taking. So she gets what she wants, she is sort of feeding her self using a spoon too though she's not that good at getting food on the spoon she is good at getting the spoon in her mouth. We've found her quite useful though at picking things up, passing things to one or the other of us and so on. Who knew kids could be so useful!

Into the countryside

Last week i accompanied some volunteers from computing companies to the countryside for a few days along with some academics from Stanford and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The purpose was to understand what computers rural schools have, what they do with them, what software they use/learn from on the computers, what internet connection they have and what they do with the internet if they have it. Sparing all the gory details, the trip re-emphasized that just having computers is not enough, it is much more important what you do with them -- in this case access content or use software that help children learn. And of course, if the internet can be utilized it opens up a larger range of options for content/software, allows for more interactivity, and so on. Anyway, following the trip we'll be working on some project ideas but i won't go into all the details.

What is more interesting, for the average person at least, is the perspective of what it is like going on this kind of trip into the countryside. Firstly there is a lot of traveling required. China has great roads nowadays and increasingly highways. These cut journey times but still we spent on average 5-6 hrs a day for 3 days in the car. Great chance to catch a nap though. Secondly such a trip needs to involve government officials, who are partners in the project and who showed us around and gave us lots of hospitality. And they are quite some characters.Particularly around foreigners. And particularly at meal times.

There are a lot of meals. And they always involve alcohol - specifically Chinese liquor. it's generally insanely awful stuff with an aftertaste that lasts days. I've heard the really expensive stuff is not too bad, but I'm yet to try it. Instead its the insanely cheap stuff that is packaged into a nice bottle and shared around. Most of the time one can try to get out of it by drinking beer or wine, but not all the time. There is always a lot of toasting, in fact it is sort of non-stop and makes a lot of alcohol disappear very fast. It starts off as a bit of fun but does get tiresome after a couple of days and a lot of hard work, especially when all the discussion is in a foreign language.

The food itself is sometimes good. Simple and basic. Though sometimes it's the part of the animals you don't really want to eat, or it's a strange flavor added to some vegetables that mean you can't taste the food, just the sauce. Anyway, there is usually some simple dishes towards the end of the meal to chow down on after the delicacies have come out. Some other interesting things from the trip:
- With the big political conferences taking place, all government officials, and indeed many of the teachers, seem to have been required to write essays on "their thoughts on the political conference" which were put up on noticeboards in public.
- Hosts will spend more effort ensuring you are comfortable and never run out of tea than actually talking to you.
- Chinese people are amazingly good at falling asleep in cars. It means there is not much time for awkward conversations and an easy way to get out of conversations (fall asleep or at least pretend to)
- Telecom companies in rural China are just like those in urban China and those in the rest of the world in that they promise you internet speeds you have no hope in ever achieving, yet are apparently paying for!

Back in Beijing, people keep talking all day long about the pollution. It's not good. It's also not like it was good before. A cool image of the last 14 days shows the variation: http://www.china.org.cn/environment/2013-03/18/content_28277548.htm. Not a lot has changed, just a hell of a lot more media coverage and more transparency as to the numbers showing how bad it is. And that is a big deal... the data and the attention - will there be any meaningful response? it does not seem like it. It's mostly excuses and no willingness to sacrifice economic growth or lifestyles or anything else for better environment. At least not yet. But with more and more dis-satisfaction and protests, things might change.

Inquisitive children and geological formations in Dorset

After a quick work trip to a warm hong kong, it was time to fly home for two weeks. It's always strange returning home - nothing really changes so it always seems the last trip was just a few weeks before, and that I've just popped away for a while. It's very easy to slip back in, though when I come back I know it is for a holiday and that real life (if i was back) would be different.

The difference now of course is that the trips home are more frequent - every 6 months - and of course Hannah is always changing, at least in the early years so each trip will be somewhat different. This trip will be remembered for the fancy Deuter 3 backpack that we got from ebay to carry Hannah in across fields in Hertfordshire and throughout a five-day trip in Dorset as we went from pub to pub to cream tea house. As much as she likes walking, she gets distracted a lot, is unable to manage in muddy fields, and prefers the view from up high.

Intriguingly Hannah got almost as much attention in England from strangers as she does in China. She doesn't stand out as much in the UK, of course, but I guess it's a general human thing to go crazy over small kids/big babies. I suppose everything is relative and with nothing more exciting than a small kid/big baby happening in people's lives around the time we turn up, no wonder Hannah gets attention.

Kids have this incredible ability to take everything in their stride and learn. They absorb, accept, copy, experiment. It is just the kind of things we always hear adults don't do: we don't really listen, we don't do anything out of the ordinary or risky, we tend to always question others rather than trust them and so on. Now there are good reasons for those traits, and certainly we'll be teaching Hannah to ask why as she grows up (as if we will be able to stop her asking why....) but still, it makes a nice contrast.

So Hannah launched herself up and down stairs, getting very good at going up, tending to ask for help to go down. She's begun to master picking food up from a table and putting it in her own mouth... probably using a spoon won't be far away (just a few months of messy experimentation one imagines). And most crucially she has begun to really communicate. She points at what she wants, makes choices when you give her options (e.g. three different items of food or drink), and she understands an increasing amount of instructions/questions we put to her.

Apart from walking there were some visits to friends, some of whom we met in the wonderful Museum of Childhood which is free and contains wonderful exhibits that the kids can play in and enjoy. I didn't get to actually read the displays too much since one eye was always on Hannah, but it is a place I will go back to again and again I expect. There was a trip to Bletchley Park where the German codes were broken during World War 2 which was as good as expected: some great exhibits and good guides. Highly recommended, even if the actual old house itself is more a wedding venue nowadays and the exhibits are in the old huts nearby. I suppose that is where all the work was done back then anyway, so fair enough.

There were some work events in London and the journey down to Dorset where we saw the impressive Durdle door, Lulworth Cove and Chesil Beach which gave us our geology lessons for the week. It was good to taste some local ales down there, whilst stretching the legs. We got fairly lucky with the weather and realized there's more to see that we'll go back for another time: the tank museum in particular looked interesting!

At some point I'll upload some of the more interesting photos, in the meantime, I've spent a very busy few days back in Beijing working, experiencing the first sand storm of the year, , enjoying Spring which has arrived (its 15 degrees) and now preparing to watch the big derby game which might make or break the week ahead! I hope I don't have to wait until extra time as happened 2 weeks ago against Lyon!

Weather alert

Just back from playing football outside after work. It's -8 degrees. We had to shovel the snow off half of the pitch. Tomorrow off to Hong Kong where it will be +26 degrees (and only +20 degrees at night). What a wonderful break. Unfortunately I'll be back in Beijing on friday where the low at night will be -14 degrees. At least then when I get to London on saturday, the daytime weather of +6 will still feel fairly warm!

A birthday party or two

And so it came to Wednesday the 16th January. 1 year after my daughter Hannah came into the world. She may have realized something was up when the nanny gave her a new scarf and hat--nice and think and also bright green so we can't lose her in the snow (it snowed again today). As has happened a lot during the winter nanny took Hannah to an indoor kids playground in the afternoon for her to get some exercise and then she dropped her off at my office.

That was when the best laid plans began to go wrong. Most of the office were waiting to see Hannah and some had gifts too. But when Hannah arrived, at 6pm, she was asleep. Worn out from the playground, but having not gone to sleep earlier since she was so busy playing. Once she hits the buggy, she often falls asleep quickly, and so it was on this day. 20 mins later she woke up, groggy and not in the best of moods to receive presents. But receive them she did and then we took off to find the local guy who stands down the road selling helium balloons. Except that day he was not there. All the other local street sellers were. He was not. We asked around. We realized we were getting late. We were planning to take a little three wheel motorized bike-cum-taxi to dinner but nanny had brought the buggy (originally she was just going to bring her in the carrier). So i couldn't get the two of us and the buggy in the little three-wheelers. There's no taxis around at rush hour, so we looked for a bus. Didn't see one and so decided to run it.

a 15-minute run later, we got close to the restaurant. Hannah was getting a little cold, a friend was a bit lost, and then all of a sudden, at the turning to the little alley where the restaurant was, there was a guy selling helium balloons. Crazy. The big shopping/eating area was about half a mile away but i guess the guy had decided to leave there early, and i have no idea why he picked our alley to go up. But he did, and as I found my somewhat lost friend who had turned around to find the correct alley we bought half the guy's balloons and managed to get into the restaurant only 1 minute late... but still the first. So i had ensured the half-German baby was on time to her first birthday party. Surely a good omen for her future!

We had not invited kids, since they all go to bed around 7pm, just some of our adult friends who knew Hannah well. They slowly arrived in dribs and drabs, and then we opened presents, ate and drank --she got some books, clothes, a rug, some toys, well the usual really. I realized the benefit of Hannah's late nap (she normally sleeps around 5pm not 6pm) was that she was able to stay up until 9pm until she collapsed asleep in Andrea's arms. A pleasant evening all round (well until Hannah woke up at 10pm as we got her dressed to go into the taxi... she was not happy waking up and cried a lot until she passed out again once the movement of the taxi kicked in).

Three days later we had some of her baby friends around at our house, which we'd filled with regular balloons (as well as the helium balloons). Thankfully most people also arrived a bit late, waiting for babies to finish naps etc. I say thankfully as at 2pm Hannah was on her backside naked as we had to change her and wash some clothes that she'd soiled. Great way to start!

Five or six of the babies were between 8 months and 15 months so were not really yet into the whole "playing together" thing. But they played around, were curious about each other and us adults chatted. A couple of older kids were there, and they enjoyed showing Hannah how to open (and play) with her presents. Earlier that day we had prepared a birthday cake of sorts. Mostly mashed potato with a layer of boiled carrots in there too, it proved a bit of a hit amongst the babies. We had even spelt out a message on the top using boiled celery too. So it was a nice healthy birthday cake. And Hannah loved it. Just as she loves eating everything else we feed her too!

Anyway it all went well. Today she skype videoed home to get her birthday wishes. In less than two weeks she'll be back in Europe and basking in a lot of attention one imagines!

Some surprisingly interesting museums in Beijing. Really.

Two weeks into 2013 and all the beautiful blue skies typical of
Beijing's winter have been replaced with smog. As much as I wish it
was a sign that Spring is on the horizon, it clearly isn't (even if
the smog does bring the temperature up somewhat, almost to freezing).
Well, we just turn the air purifier on, go out less on weekends (not
that we are outside that much when it is so cold anyway) and i've now
taken to wearing a small mask on my bike ride to work. I wear a scarf
over my mouth and nose anyway to stay warm so it is just one more
thing to put on in the morning.

Since we don't hang out outside too much, but do like to get out (so
to speak) we decided to try a few Chinese museums. We went to three in
the last month or so, which is three more than the last three years
combined! Well i did most of the interesting museums years ago and
never bothered to go back (apart to the Town Planning museum which is
a good one to take guests as it's good a good intro to Beijing, large
scale model and some movies). So we went to the National Museum, which
after a major renovation is supposedly the largest in the World, and
managed to see one exhibit properly, skip through another and couldn't
find anything else of particular interest (we're not really big into
art, sculptures or pottery). Unfortunately most of the museum is the
same as most other Chinese museums, which do get boring after a while
unless you really like pottery and chinese paintings. The one exhibit
we actually explored properly was one with all the gifts that foreign
dignitaries had given to the Chinese President when they came to
visit. Although the first few decades of the PRC's founding were quite
sparse (not many countries actually recognized PRC instead recognizing
Taiwan), after that the visitors poured in, providing all kinds of
pretty interesting things that represent their country/show
off/impress their Chinese hosts. Well worth visiting. Unlike the
exhibit on Chinese underwater archeology finds. It's safe to say the
Chinese don't yet know how to scuba-dive since it seems they've found
so little, it was a very embarrassing exhibit.

The second museum we went to was the Beijing Police Museum. Also
recently refurbished and in an old Western style building (originally
the Bank of New York about 80 years ago or something) it's a good
museum, complete with little stickers for Hannah (and security guards
to play with her). Exhibits on the history of the force, the uniforms,
traffic, guns, mafia, major arrests, tools and detective equipment and
all sorts. It was all there and quite well done. There were some
interesting quips on how many of the force died or were sent to the
countryside during the cultural revolution which was surprisingly
honest, a moving sculpture in memory of all those who died whilst on
duty, and some fun displays (and amusing ones too, e.g. the detective
equipment they used 40 yrs ago). I found out where my dad's old mobile
phone went 20 years ago!

And the third museum was the Ancient Archaeology Museum (or something
like that) which is actually in, and on the grounds of an old temple.
Unfortunately the doors were open and there was no heating, but it had
promise. And we'll go back again when it is warmer. Some well done
exhibits on different archaeology styles over the millenia, features
on different buildings from across the country, examples of bridges,
walls and all sorts. Also worth going to. And we were, literally, the
only ones in that museum apart from two ticket people and two guards.
The Beijing Police Museum was busy in comparison. At least 30 people
must have come through in the hour or two we were there, many with
kids.

Museums, well the ones that are warm, are great for kids. Clean, big
spaces for walking around with interesting things to see that are
usually behind glass so cannot be disturbed, and full of either other
visitors or staff both of whom like playing with kids when they have
nothing else to do. Shopping Malls are similar actually; often fairly
empty, warm, full of interesting things and full of staff with nothing
to do. Unfortunately they do not protect their wares behind glass
allowing a little 1-year old to gleefully pick things up and throw
them around. But at least that gives the staff something to do and
they still can't take their smile off their face when they see the
white baby, with light brown/blonde hair and blue eyes!

So we've hit up some shopping malls recently, some of them have kids
play areas too, though we mostly do the kid-playtime in one particular
place where we bought a monthly card so Hannah can go whenever she
wants. She does love to run around with the balloons, crawl in a
revolving cage like a hamster, crawl up the stairs to the slide and
slide down, or sit on the swing, roundabout or whatever else is in the
indoor playground. She's usually the youngest since she's a quick
walker, but holds her own*. She even began to enjoy (and not be scared
of) the ball pond!

So that is weekend life at the moment. Along with a bit of walking up
and down our hallway, kicking a football, pushing a shopping trolley,
or pulling a little toy horse. Hannah does all three I might add. We
just try to keep the shopping trolley away from the walls as she's not
yet mastered steering.

Now I come to think of it there are a few other interesting museums in
Beijing - the military museum full of propoganda and tanks; the air
force museum full of airplanes outside in the countryside; the
underground city museum that is unfortunately closed but used to be
pretty cool (takes you into the underground city/bunkers) built in
case of an air raid are worth a shout out. The tour books talk about
some of the more bizarre museums that we'll have to go to one day: the
Tap museum, the Watermelon museum and so on. I expect we might go to
the railway museum at some point. And maybe the China Film museum. How
can they not be at least mildly interesting? At least i hope they are
not full of art and pottery. The highlight, by all accounts, is the
(also brand new, if you get the recurring theme here) science and
technology museum that supposedly rivals the London version for fun
things for kids to do. We may want to wait a year or two for Hannah to
be able to fully enjoy it, but I'm excited to go sooner!

Anyway, it's quite enough for one day, and time to go to bed. A long
day tomorrow to get through a pile of work and make sure a prompt
departure is possible on Wednesday from the office for Hannah's first
birthday. Wow, a year does go fast!

*unless clotheslined by a two-year old. But Hannah, stunned, just got
back up and kept walking. It was accidental.

The year that was 2012

So 2012 was over. Work was solid; some highlights being a report on
our work helping companies provide volunteers to build charities'
capacity and several events in London, Beijing and Hong Kong to
promote that report (which is here
http://ciyuan.bsr.org/data/resources/Lessons_of_Localization1.pdf).
There's been progress elsewhere with the CiYuan project, some other
projects and there are some exciting things in the pipeline. It's also
been another crazy year for FYSE with things happening non-stop and I
continue to learn a lot from listening and occasionally helping with
Andrea's amazing work.

Elections have come and gone; nothing hugely exciting in reality and
certainly not compared to the Olympics which were a fantastic
experience and one I am so glad I could have witnessed and that London
hosted. It's clear the London way was about spirit, sport, and heroes.
Which is what it should be, not about impressiveness, grandeur or
efficiency as others have been.

Clearly the year was dominated by the arrival of a daughter, a month
spent in England and Germany, and adapting to being a father. Well to
be honest there was not much adapting necessary. I suppose the 9
months are there so you can prepare really, so we did, in our own way,
which means, we did not do much preparation. We met a few people with
kids, read a book or a book-and-a-half, and bought a few bits and
pieces. And that was that.

In fact the most remarkable thing is not, as I originally thought, the
five seconds transition from living in a closed environment full of
water with eyes closed and breathing and eating through a tube to
breathing through eyes and mouth, using (sort of) eyes, witnessing
sounds and chaos and moving freely. And yes, even despite the
horrendous nature of those five seconds, it's not that remarkable.
That is, compared to what happens afterwards.

In a year, which is not really a very long time, that little baby that
can barely move much, learns to use eyes, ears and other senses to
such an incredible extent that the baby can manipulate things, crawl
and walk, identify things and recognize things. The baby's brain
develops so much within 12 months it can remember things, think in
order to predict, communicate and more. It's quite incredible to think
about it really. Of course it will continue for the next few years; as
the toddler learns to talk, jump and eat. In retrospect, I'm not sure
I've achieved much in my last 12 months... or even the past 25 years
in comparison.

Christmas and Imagining Life without a Camera

I've finally realized why we have eyelashes: so we can still somehow
cycle through the driving snow. I've also realized why we have
fingers: so we can wipe any water or condensation away from one's eyes
(that forms from breathing through a scarf) before it freezes. So it's
been a very cold December.

Since the playmates have dried up somewhat (I suppose most people are
running off for some warmth), we've bought a month membership card for
Hannah to go to a kind of gym for kids. You know the kind, full of
slides, roundabouts and ball ponds. She's the youngest kid in there by
a few months (since few other kids are walking yet) and she can't
really make the most of the equipment but still, she'll crawl up the
stairs to the slide (and fall down the slide), and she'll run around
chasing balloons that are being blown by fans, she'll sit on a swing
and hold on (whilst we push her), and she'll sit on a roundabout. It's
quite sweet, though also amusing, when she'll get to the top of the
slide and play with the little screw in the top, or get to the bottom
of the slide and turn around absorbed with the flashing light on the
side.

She's certainly looking like a toddler but not entirely acting like
one yet. She's sort of half way there. She'll open cupboards and slide
doors. Her latest trick is to get a spoon, but instead of banking it
against a pot which used to be her definition of fun, she'll put it in
a cup, pick the cup up and shake it around. How mature!! She's picking
up her own baby cup and putting it to her mouth but does not yet tip
it back far enough to get anything out of it. She'll push her little
shopping trolley until it hits a wall but then she's not worked out
how to turn it or move it to go in another direction.

She's worked out how to speak a word: ba. And says it all the time,
but she's not given it a meaning yet! So she's making progress. She's
always been a bit of a quiet one so she might not be that fast to
talking. Besides which apparently kids which grow up bilingual are a
bit slower. And at the moment she's still hearing more chinese from
the nanny than english from us. But Hannah came in handy last week
when a taxi driver took pity on us in the cold and picked us up
instead of someone else.

Christmas come-and-gone. We went to a few social events, or held our
own. Nothing major, but some lunches and dinners here and there in the
days beforehand. Not much present-wise, although we do have a tiny
wooden christmas tree, fireplace, snowman and presents that came for
free when we bought something else. Hannah enjoyed grabbing them off
the table and throwing them on the floor. Thankfully she's certainly
moved on past the stage of grabbing glasses or other things to throw
around. And she's definitely in the mood for imitating whatever she
can. She even tried to jump when we showed her how.... all she ended
up doing though was sort of shaking her legs a bit!

I've been going through photos and uploading them to flickr
(www.flickr.com/adamsphotos) but still got a few hundred more to do.
Much of the above moments are recorded in photos and videos on there,
or coming soon. We went and printed a bunch recently and were inspired
to look through some of the old ones. Apart from the passport photo
which was taken on day 6 with her eyes closed and looking like a monk,
the rest are quite adorable. I can't really recognize the baby that
existed in the first two months, but from the time she hit three
months until today she looks very similar. a bit more hair and a few
teeth, but broadly the same. Certainly the same facial expressions
which are really the wonder of babies. So, the closing thought for
this email - what was life like before cameras existed and how did
that affect memories? I pity the parents who could not take photos of
their kids. Having said that i bet Hannah will be distraught when she
is old enough to realize just how many photos of her exist... and
they're all online!

Well maybe by that time everything will be online and she'll just
think it's normal. And how weird for us not to have our entire lives
portrayed, recorded and publicly viewable online... indeed. Yes, i
suppose i do feel a bit older now than i used to. I've been told
Hannah will be able to use an iPhone should we give her one fairly
soon and by the time she's two, though she won't be talking a lot,
she'll already be beating me at computer games. That i can handle. But
despite all the training and practice we've giving her, i hope i'm
still the better footballer than her at that age. Otherwise it won't
be so easy to take!

down the market

There's been a fair bit of snow in the last few days making the roads
pretty dangerous. Since its below zero all day long even the mush
turns into ice, and even some gentle sleet is a major threat once it
hits the pavements. But at least the snow gives you a real sense that
its Christmas time (at least if you are not Australian, otherwise
you'd associate Christmas with the beach). We did have a snow a couple
of months ago, freakishly but that disappeared fast. Here the snow and
ice hang around for ages.

It does make for a more adventurous bike ride into work. It also makes
it easier to find a bike parking space! Cycling is one way to ensure
Beijing remains a liveable city. At rush hour the subway is just not
pleasant, while the traffic is awful. In fact rush hour is so bad it
makes cycling home at rush hour bad too as cars spill over into bike
lanes. I used to leave work after rush hour... around 7pm but
sometimes now i try to get off earlier and it's not an enjoyable ride.

Work is going to get pretty busy until the Chinese New Year holiday
when I'll head home for a couple of weeks. Being busy is often more
satisfying as you feel more has been accomplished but it also means
that other non-urgent things get de-prioritized and it might mean less
time with the little one. This was the first weekend for a while
without a "play date" for Hannah, instead it was playtime for the
adults, hanging out with other friends who all seem to be having some
form of party because of christmas, and hosting a little dinner of our
own. It's funny, even when we don't intent to hang out with parents
with kids, a lot of our friends are all having kids or considering it,
but the conversation thankfully does veer off in other directions
occasionally.

One of the moments of today? A walk down to a local market (or series
of markets) where our local shoe repair guy shined up my shoes,
replaced the heels and worked some miracles. I'm totally impressed and
have brought a pair of shoes back from the dead which are at least
good enough for a back-up pair. And of course we get a healthy dose of
"real China" down in the market; the China that thrives off pure
entrepreneurialism. Next to the shoe guy? A guy selling christmas
decorations. Not sure how many customers he'll get, but the next door
market is full of hotel stuff, so maybe he's pitching to the hotels to
buy his stuff! And the other side of the shoe guy? A shoe woman, next
to another shoe woman. All lovely, photographic, old ladies. Well
until some guy in a van stops in front of them and gets out leaving
the engine running and the exhaust belting into their faces. Those
cute old women can sure get angry when they need to!

Christmas fairs in cold Beijing

It's certainly deep into Winter now. Autumn came and went as fast as
ever and the heating (turned on by the government) had to be turned on
early this year as it got cold earlier in November that usual. Then we
had the marathon last week that began at 8.30am at about zero degrees;
i wrapped my legs in black sacks for the wait at the start line but
ended up keeping my gloves on for the whole race.

Today we froze our feet off at the German Embassy Christmas Fair in
order to drink some Gluhwein and eat some meat. It's always a fairly
cold yet fun occasion. We went with Ben, who became a father a few
weeks ago, so it was good to hear his stories of early fatherhood.
Then we went to a baby shower, where the father-to-be and I chatted
about impending fatherhood downstairs in Starbucks. Clearly a
recurring theme nowadays!

On that note, during a quick trip to Hong Kong, Hannah spent her first
night without her parents-- with her nanny, and all was fine
apparently. Not sure if nanny would tell us otherwise really unless
there was a serious problem. Then whilst Andrea remained in Hong Kong
for a few more days I had the baby at nights and we seem to have
managed to break the "waking up three or more times a night for a feed
from mum" routine, which is good. Now there's just some murmours for a
few minutes once or twice a night but no screaming and no need for
feeding. Let's hope it lasts!

The weather in Hong Kong was pretty miserable too; wet and foggy. The
views were awful so it was good we didn't hang around too long. It was
nice to see some colleagues and friends again. Some were off to a J-Lo
concert. I wonder how it went. We recently saw Elton John which was
somewhat disappointing. Maybe we just don't know enough of his old
music and when we heard it thought it was kind of all the same. When
he finally got going on the piano and kept his band quiet it was
better and more distinctive. Only the one Lion king song though which
was a shame. We also saw The Fray, one of my favorite bands at the
moment. They only have one album but its a corker and there was only a
few hundred of us in a small club. The only downside was that fully a
quarter of the audience seemed to want to record the whole thing on
their mobile phones so all the phones and lights around us somewhat
ruined the view and atmosphere.

A lot of major bands seem to be coming to China nowadays, though i'm
not sure they make that much money off of it. They only play a couple
of gigs, although many of the tickets are very expensive. I suppose
they often target foreigners, at least that was who had paid for the
expensive Elton John tickets and were up dancing around most of the
time. I'm not sure what they heard that we didn't but each to their
own!

Christmas fairs are a popular thing for all the foreigners in China.
All the major hotels have something with free food, tree lighting
things, carol singers and things. Then there are lots of charity fairs
selling second-hand things or other products that charities seem to
profit from to fund their activities. It's always worth going to a few
since there's not a lot else to do in the cold winter!

Elections and Walking

Since I've been back almost three weeks, the focus of the world's
attention has been on a couple of elections and transitions, whilst my
attention was more on a little baby.

Thankfully Obama was re-elected and we can hope that he'll maybe get a
little bit done this time. At least he won't have to start campaigning
again in two years (there will be a funny little Democratic primary
first so Obama can actually focus on running the country). I can't
imagine what his life was like in those last few months and I still
strongly believe that the fact so much time and money was spent on the
election was not a good thing. Yes, there should be debate and the
public should get to know the candidates, but a month or two is
plenty, like most democracies and there is no need to spend so much
money. Having said that, I imagine that without the campaigns the
media, journalists, public relations professionals, and a whole other
slew of industries could not survive without the extra income. I quite
like the British way with a cap on fundraising and a cap on the amount
of time allowed to campaign, as well as some sense of equality in
national advertising for the leading parties.

Then there was the Chinese transition, which was actually more
exciting than one would have expected, with the chaos of the Bo Xilai
scandal earlier in the year, the cutting of the equivalent of the
cabinet from 9 positions to 7, the insane amount of (apparent)
infighting in deciding who got those positions, and the genuine lack
of ability to predict those 7. In the end a few of them were
predictable but a couple of people did lose out. No women again, of
course. China continues to have abysmally low representation of women
in politics where it matters, at senior levels or at grass-roots
levels. We once looked up how many women were ministers, and it was
something like 3 out of 30. Yikes. And we'd better not ask how many
women are on Boards of Chinese companies, particularly the powerful
State-owned ones (where many of the positions are actually political
appointees).

It's clearly going to be tough for those in charge. On a macro-level
China is just getting worse (environmental degradation, inequality,
the need for clean energy, the lack of trust in anything, and on an
on). On a micro-level there are still plenty of amazing people and
organizations doing great things but struggling against a system that
is just not responding to the challenges at hand. A system that loves
status quo as much as the Western systems and a system where
entrenched business and political interests act strongly to keep the
status quo. Authoritarian regime or democracy, there is not that much
different in many ways, and America does have a lot in common with
China in this way as well as many other ways.

Beyond politics I returned to join some play-dates with babies and
some 1-year birthday parties. The parties are somewhat strange at this
age since 1-year olds still can't really play with others (they are
not able to socialize yet) and just play on their own next to others,
or else treat other humans like any other interesting object. Then
there are normally a bunch of older kids actually playing, and there
are the adults who don't really know anyone's names but are quite keen
to drink or eat or play with their own kids. In some cases the women
will all know each other and the men will be at the back, but it
depends. In other cases, the women don't know each other either, since
most of the time its the nannies taking the kids out to play!

And of course the insane consumption that defines our lives begins
with birthday parties. We buy the birthday kid a present; they give
party bags (a concept i had totally forgotten existed) or gifts to the
kids who came; lots of decorations and balloons go up for a few hours
(and then in the rubbish), and our kids who were so happy playing with
an empty plastic bottle or a ball begin to be inundated with things
that flash, beep, or move. Despite Hannah having a number of such
things her favorite activity is walking around and playing in the
playground and her favorite toys are a xylophone, a metal pot with a
spoon and a football. Although she does also enjoying watching her
parents' laptop screens!

Hannah had been pulling herself up and cruising around for a while,
and walking a lot whilst holding one of our hands, but a couple of
days after I came back we had some success withdrawing our hand and
Hannah continued walking on her own. This was especially effective if
she tried to walk towards one of us and we just kept moving backwards!
But for what seemed like a very long time but was only really 10 days,
Hannah was pretty steadfast about not wanting to willingly let go and
walk on her own. Until a few days ago and then she began to get the
hang of it and now, once she has pulled herself up (she still can't
stand up on her own) she'll immediately let go and walk off. Sometimes
she even tried to run, though normally ends up on her bum. In fact her
bum still gets a lot of action, but she's very solid on her feet now
(even if it does not look like it due to the litlte waddle in her
step) and has walked a hundred metres or more each time.

So it's getting more exciting and more dangerous. The little girl is
incredibly inquisitive and marches after anything of interest to her,
especially dogs, no matter if that dog is standing in a dry river bed
20 metres away or next to a bush 5 metres away. So we have to keep a
close eye on her and may soon give her a little present: a backpack
with a leash on the end so we can keep her somewhat close! In other
developments Hannah clearly recognizes her name now (at least when her
parents say it) and has developed her first form of intentional,
expressive and understandable communication: a wave of both hands to
say "no" commonly used when she does not want to eat or drink anymore
(though she is still a good eater). She's also mastered the wave
goodbye too. It's a start. And she's very different from the little
baby she once was. We met a friend last weekend with a 6-week old and
it seems so long ago that Hannah was anything like that. As Andrea
likes to joke, in just a few weeks Hannah will be sleeping with
College boys and smoking.... we have to hope not!

Only in China...

Throughout the whole Summer there was no news on the Marathon. Normally registration begins in June/July for the event in late October. Due to the political conference this year being even more important than the usual political conference at this time, it seemed as though the Marathon was off.

But no, today registration opened for the Marathon that will take place 2 weeks on Sunday. That's 17 days from today. Insane. I'm not sure who will even know about it to register! Meanwhile I have to desperately get in shape. Desperately!

Only in China....

After the storm

Eventually I get kicked out of the Hyatt, but after managing to remain there most of the day. I head over to my friend's girlfriends. She lives up on 55^th street which was not affected by the power cuts. We hand-make pizza for dinner that night (and for the following night) and I end up staying there 2 nights and a whole day. I'm very grateful! On Thursday morning I cab it downtown to get my stuff from the other apartment and then head to the bus station to get back to Newark airport for the flight back to Beijing. Airports mostly opened up again on Wednesday so a Thursday flight is good timing.

Although the subway began to come back to life again, it's still out all of downtown where there parts of it are still flooded and there is no electricity. The BSR office remains closed and without electricity, so my 3 days of work were not as productive as intended to be, and some meetings had to be cancelled, but we made do using skype. Without electricity downtown is strange. The traffic lights are all out of course, and there are no lights on in any shops or restaurants. Most of which are closed but a few shops remain open, taking cash, and selling non-perishable goods. I'm not sure how many people are still living downtown, as most probably did as I did and tried to stay elsewhere. So it's certainly a ghost town down there. And down near the tip, the stock exchange has re-opened, with a power generator to keep it going. I'm not sure who managed to get down there or work there, but it's symbolic at least. Power may return at the end of the week or weekend and then Manhattan will be back to normal (depending on how long it takes to clean the water out of the subways).

In reality the storm did not hit Manhattan that badly—a few trees down, lots of leaves around and so on. Some other areas in New Jersey, or in the New York suburbs were worse hit with some trees collapsing and plenty of flooding from the ocean and rivers (mostly, rather than rain).  At least 70 people died across the US and several million are suffering without power (and for those in high-rises, no water either) which surely has an economic impact. The major problems in Manhattan tended to be at the hospitals where my roommates were all working, so I was somewhat exposed to them, or at least I heard first-hand accounts.

On the Monday when the storm hit, Rachel was working at Tisch hospital , one of two major hospitals right on the east coast of Manhattan and highly vulnerable to flooding. And flood it did. The hospital was also affected by the power cuts, being below 39^th where the power was cut by the power company. The hospital had to use its backup diesel generator to keep priority things running, but that began to fail after a few hours and they had to evacuate the building around 3am. Rachel's story was not pleasant and she said it was worse than in New Orleans, where she was when Katrina hit. At Tisch they had to carry patients down 15 flights of stairs in the dark; sometimes having to balance IV drips. Machines that were in some cases necessary to keep patients alive (for example 20 babies who were born premature) had to switch to battery power but that did not last long and doctors were desperately sitting there, in the dark, calling any hospital they knew and trying to find room for the babies and other patients.  It was pretty chaotic and not pleasant. Even some of the ambulance drivers got lost trying to drive the patients to other hospitals because many additional emergency personnel were from out-of-state and drafted in to help. She got back about 5.30am and collapsed into bed.

Bellevue hospital, next to Tisch, but bigger, with over 700 patients including some which are criminals (and thus on a special floor with protection) had also been running in its backup generator. But the generator was on the top floor and the fuel was downstairs, so apparently up to 200 people, mostly, thankfully, National Guard had to form a chain in the stairwell and spend all day moving diesel upstairs. Meanwhile they began to evacuate the most serious patients. By Wednesday they began to experience problems with their generator too and so a full mass evacuation began. This time in the daytime and better organized compared to that at Tisch (which was happening during the storm) and hundreds of ambulances were on standby. Still, Lucy reported it would take a good two days to complete the evacuation and the hospital was not much fun whilst it was happening, since the toilets weren't flushing and all sorts. The hospital had better learn some lessons about preparing for these kinds of events. To have unreliable generators and no backup plans is embarrassing.

All three of my friends were thus pretty heavily involved, and playing their bit. They were more severely affected than most, but then I also hear the hospital is pretty crazy on a normal day too! Of course the media went crazy over the storm, and it clearly affected many people. On the broad scale of things though, there was good preparation and the storm was not too serious. I imagine that more lives might have been lost on a normal day from car accidents or crime—during the storm there was much less driving and crime taking place! It is still a tragedy of course, but on reflection it's clear that developed countries that are well prepared and with decent infrastructure do pretty well compared to developing countries. The Caribbean was much worse hit by the storm.

And amongst it all politics continued, though adapted. Hopefully it will have helped Obama. And Halloween was cancelled. Well the big street party Wednesday night was, and will be moved to next week, which is a shame. At the girlfriend's apartment, we did get to meet several groups of kids trick-and-treating; some usual costumes like cats and some more unusual like aliens, and some more imaginative like Sherlock Holmes. We had prepared a lot of chocolate, but did not give out much! I imagine there might be more Halloween parties at the weekend, once electricity returns. And maybe people will be dressed up like Sandy.