No, it's not one of those Mensa questions (eg - 24 H in a D), it's simply my way of making sure you all know what my blogpost is about, without me actually having to mention the little old man in red robes. I feel I need to acknowledge what is going on as much as I need to write about our daily life here.
So I'm sure you have all seen recent reports on the news of violence, death, protests etc. Funny that, as we don't seem to be seeing very much at all! News coverage on any issue in this country is lacking to say the least, world news is non existant and senstive news...well it just plain either doesn't exist, or is the exact opposite to the truth. For the first couple of weeks we were here, we didn't really catch up on a lot of world news. Slowly we started spending more time reading daily news websites from home and abroad. That was really when I started taking note of what was being broadcast here. Initially there were reports on China's growing involvment with Dafur and the humanitarian crisis there. Their stance on everything amazes me. There is a rehearsed answer, which has obviously been fed down the line, and no one will deviate from it. I watch CCTV9, the international channel here, and I wonder how the presenters (hardly any of whom are actually Chinese), can justify in their minds what they are being told to say.
I should point out now, that my knowledge on current affairs, or of Chinese or Tibetian history is not strong. I do my best to know what is going on in the world. but there are some areas that I do not feel I can comment on because I don't have enough knowledge. I am not an overly political person, but I do have my own strong beliefs and principles. So this post is purely to point out what I have been experiencing whilst living here.
So over the last couple of weeks, my interest has grown each day, when I catch a glimpse of the news here, and then compare to what I can read on the internet. It should be noted that most international news sites have been blocked over the last few days. We have our ways of getting around that. Whilst I knew when we moved here that there is strict control over the media, I really had no idea of its reaches. Simply put, the people here are fed lies. And day by day as I read the news, the conflict that goes on in my own head grows - it can be hard to reconcile living by choice in a country when their actions go against everything you believe in. However, my reasons for living here are not political, I'm here for a totally different reason, but it is still increasingly difficult, even simply from a human level to know what is going on and know that it is not recognised.
The events over the last couple of weeks have been told as follows - protests organised by the DL to politicise those great games coming turned violent. There were riots in the streets which caused mass damage, and the deaths of 13 people. The riots apparently took place over 2 or 3 days and a couple of hundred "ring leaders" have supposedly "turned themselves in". Hmm.. Whilst we go back to my previous comment on me not knowing a great deal on the history, I find it impossible to believe that the DL would be some sort of devious mastermind...doesn't quite fit with the whole Buddist thing.
Of course we know that there have been many many more deaths, days worth of violence, which has also spread to other parts of this country, and that yesterday also spread to India. We are also hearing about mass condemnation and a lot of talk of boycotts etc. Here, we get the exact opposite. We hear that over 100 nations have thrown their support behind China...might I point out these countries included Zambia, Indonesia, various regions of Pakistan, not exactly your world super powers. There have been no mention of those countries at all.
We also hear that western media lie and manipulate the truth, even though in reality no western media is allowed into the area - and those that are there do their reporting in secret. Talks of boycotting the games intrigues me. Firstly, I doubt it would happen. Whilst I know there is always a degree of politicising when it comes to the games, I highly doubt many would give up their chance for glory. Secondly, even if boycotts did occur, this country is so set on perfection and being the best that they would find a way around it. No kidding. Somehow, they would come up with a way of making it seem like it wasn't important. Thirdly, we have China's position in the world. It is well known that China is the world's factory, and there are huge economic risks involved when so much trade is focused on one country. In an ideal world, athletes or countries could chose to boycott based on their beliefs. However, when so much relies on China, it simply cannot be an option.
I think what frustrates me the most is preventing people from accessing information and therefore knowledge. So much goes on here that is just not reported (eg - the hijack situation in Xian recently) and now that I am witnessing it, it is so hard to comprehend when I come from a country where all of those rights are respected and encouraged. Yes, I have no doubt there are areas of our own media who report things for their own gain or other reasons, but on the whole it is very very different. As they say, knowledge is power, and in a country of this size with such huge numbers of poor, it is going to be increasingly interesting to see which direction this country goes. It is either going to be the next big super power, or it will simply implode on itself.
Ok....now onto some more light hearted things...
Our weekend has been pretty quiet, mostly because I have picked up another flu. Most likely I didn't get over the last one properly and my body is yet to adjust to dealing with hundreds of snotty, sneezy, coughing kids all week. Needless to say, but Friday I was struggling to walk up the stairs to my classroom. Thankfully the classes on Friday basically ran themselves,allowing me to just hover at the front of the class. I then proceeded to sleep for most of yesterday. We got a call last night just before 6pm asking why we weren't at English Corner...sigh! Turns out this voluntary, fortnightly thing is in actual fact a weekly thing...and which we suspect they have changed the name from English corner to Foreign Teacher's Corner. So Marcus dutifully explained that we were told it was every second week, we had not eaten, I was sick and we wouldn't be coming! No doubt we will hear about this again this week, and this time we will be discussing it properly so there are no future misunderstandings! If it is so important, I don't see why we are the only ones expected to go and not all the other 90 English teachers. Time for some words with good old Raymen we think!
Today we headed into the city to do a bit of shopping. I'm still not well, but the thought of spending hours sitting on a wooden couch just didn't appeal. We ended up wandering around for hours, and stumbled upon a really cool park area of the city which we will be going back to explore more. Poor Marcus wanted to buy a new pair of shoes....people weren't lying when they said we wouldn't be able to find things in our size!! I swear we must have been to every shoe and sport shop in the city and no one sold shoes big enough for Marcus. No one. So I'm not sure what he is going to do. We also wanted to each get another one or two warm tops. Of course we were limited in what we could bring over, so now it's time to bulk up our wardrobes a bit! I found a chunky cardigan in one of the department stores that I really liked. So I thought I would just try it on in the shop as it didn't involve a change room. Well! Someone call the police I nearly caused a riot of my own. About 5 girls around me all decided they now wanted the same top that I was trying on! There was only one other one left, and as I was trying to figure out the confusing payment system someone had the other top in their hands. Jeez...who would have thought after all these years I become a style icon?! Needless to say, simply paying for something here isn't straight forward, but thankfully a young customer saw my confusion and spoke English! So once you decide on your purchase, it is bagged for you. Then a receipt is written up, which you must take to another part of the store to the cashier. You pay the cashier, get stamps on the receipt then go back to the store. They take their part of the receipt then you are allowed your bag. I would never have figured this out alone!
Even though I probably should have stayed home today, I wanted us to have some sort of "weekend". This week was mostly good, but I did seem to spend a lot of my time getting into semi trouble and answering questions! I got quizzed on Tuesday by Miss Soon for my lack of appearance at English corner last week. I wont go into it, but I should have told her then that we wont be attending all of them. Alas, that will have to happen this week now. Then on Wednesday after my gifted class I was asked to go to the office to meet a Miss Wong. She is one of the gifted teachers, and wanted to know why there was so much noise and laughter coming from my class....lordie! I reminded her that we teach oral english, and therefore there is a lot of noise! There is 55 kids damn it! I challenge anyone to keep that many kids quiet. She was lovely though and we had a good chat afterward. Sadly, it turns out the following day in class she fell off the teaching podium thing and broke her ankle. Then I got in trouble off a different Miss Wong for letting my class out early! The class before lunch finishes at 11:55, although on our timetable it says 11:50. So I have 3 classes a week that are in this time frame. Once it gets to 11:50 I get them to finish up whatever we are doing and I let them go. They absolutely love it as lunch is the only time of the day when they have free time. I realise there are rules to follow etc, but I can't help but feel more and more on their side, they have absolutely no childhood. So it gets to 11:53 on Wednesday and I let them go. We have an understanding that if I let them go they have to be silent so as to not disturb any other class, which they obey. Well, one of the teachers saw kids leaving the building, found out which class they were and dobbed on me!
Mr Pan dropped over last night, which was seriously the last thing I felt like as I lay comatose on the couch, but he wanted to bring his daughter over. Marcus teaches her in one of the gifted classes and she is a real cutey. Supposedly 12 but looks a bit older. She came over with a present for her teachers, some glorious coffee mugs, as seen below.
Our latest present - coffee cups with pigs and kiwi fruit on them. Go figure!
The side of the box, I can't get enough of the cuteness of everything.
Pig cup also comes in Dog Cup. Both tasty delicacies I hear...
Mr Pan decided that my cough is not because i am sick but is simply a bad habit, and made his daughter run home to get me some Chinese medicine. Mr Pan's father was a traditional doctor when younger, and still seems to mix up potions for the family. So Della returns with two tiny little vials with black balls in them. I am to take 6 of them 3 times a day which is supposed to relieve me of my cough. I am all for Chinese medicine, but I love the way Mr Pan puts it. He says you must take Chinese medicine for a long time for it to work - hmm, I keep thinking, more like by the time I finish taking it yes my cough will be gone because I will be well!!! I tried to explain that I was actually sick, and yes, I do cough a lot normally anyway. I said my dad is kind of the same, we both just clear our throats a lot. So dad, look out, you are next on Mr/Dr Pan's list of rounds! I think he planning on sending you some medicine in the post!
My new medicine...even though I think they are just poppy seeds.
I will leave it there for now as I hear bed calling and we have an early start tomorrow. I need to get some rest and hopefully wake up with my voice restored, as I currently sound like a very very quiet and croaky drag queen. Not quite sure how I'm going to be able to yell to all my classes tomorrow but I have no doubt that it will be interesting!
Finally, two pictures of plants we bought 3 weeks ago. The one above lives on a table in the lounge room. It is actually growing (there's a first for everything!) and is a nice healthy green colour. The one below lives outside on the balcony. It's not looking so flash and I think is slowly dying or being crushed under the weight of dirt and crap that floats through the air here. I hate to think what is happening to our lungs...
1 comment:
Well quite obvious confusius say Happy as pigs in shit so no wonder pig mugs to share things with. xxx
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