Skip to content

The end

Monday, May 11, 2009

My Dad sent me an email saying my blog had been silent for a long time and suggesting it was time for another session on Skype. And then he died.

So now here I sit downstairs back in England. It’s five in the morning and my Mum will wake up soon. I’m hungry and I hope she is too because I want to cook breakfast. Last night she finished the first meal she had eaten in the four days since he died - a supermarket lasagne that my cousin had left in the fridge.

There isn’t any way you can prepare yourself for this. You think you have because you know it will happen. It happens to everyone and everyone gets through it. But knowing it will happen is only a thought, an idea. Reality is different. Real. It comes at you from all directions, in different ways, at different times. All thoughts lead back to him.

Now I realize that he was always a link in all my trains of thought. But in the past that train would continue. Now it stops, dead.

Filed in Other things | Comments (24)

What the US said in 1998 about North Korea’s missatellite

Sunday, March 15, 2009

The North test-fired a ballistic missile over Japan in 1998, a launch the regime also claimed was a satellite. Associated Press

The world is divided into good countries (us) and bad countries (them). Bad countries’ leaders “say,” “claim,” or even “insist” they are doing one thing, but good countries’ leaders “believe” or “fear” that the bad countries are actually doing something else. Journalists know what good countries’ leaders really believe because they are psychic.

Thus:

Western countries fear Iran is refusing to suspend uranium enrichment because it wants to produce a nuclear weapon.

Tehran denies this, insisting the programme is solely to generate electricity.

Sometimes good countries don’t just believe or fear things. We knew exactly where Iraq’s massive stockpiles of chemical weapons were and Colin Powell had cartoons to prove it.

Good countries launch satellites. Bad countries fire ballistic missiles. When bad countries say they are launching a satellite, they are almost certainly lying. North Korea is a bad country, so…

Reuters, 2006:

When North Korea shocked the world in 1998 by firing a Taepodong-1 missile that flew over Japan and landed in the Pacific Ocean, Pyongyang claimed that it was not a missile firing, but rather a rocket launch that had put a satellite into orbit.

AFP:

Flake noted that Pyongyang - which fired a long-range missile over Japan in 1998 - went ahead with another, albeit failed, test in 2006 despite repeated warnings.

Daily Telegraph:

Japan set out to construct a shield against ballistic missiles aimed at its cities and military facilities after another North Korean missile test in 1998 that saw the weapon flying over the northern island of Hokkaido before crashing into the Pacific Ocean.

Associated Press:

Though it is an international norm for countries to provide such specifics as a safety warning ahead of a missile or satellite launch, it was the first time the communist North has done so. It did not issue a warning ahead of its purported satellite launch in 1998 over Japan and a failed 2006 test-flight of a long-range missile.

Reuters, 2009:

North Korea shocked the region when it fired a Taepodong-1 over Japan in 1998, saying it had launched a satellite.

***

Curiously, though, back in September 1998, there were a few other people who said North Korea had tried (but failed) to launch a satellite.

The White House, for instance:

What I can tell you, we have concluded about the North Korea launch is that they did attempt to orbit a very small satellite on August 31st. We’ve also concluded the attempt failed because of problems with the third stage of the rocket that they tested.

And the Pentagon:

Q: But there’s no disagreement about what it was.

A: We believe that they tried and failed to launch a satellite. That hasn’t changed.

And the US Department of State:

We have concluded that North Korea did attempt to orbit a very small satellite. We also have concluded the satellite failed to achieve orbit.

So, going back to that AP quote at the top, the writer might have said: “The North test-fired a ballistic missile fired a rocket over Japan in 1998, a launch the regime claimed the White House, the State Department and the Pentagon said was a satellite.” But he didn’t.

***

As a postscript, on the subject of firing things over Japan, Richard Lloyd Parry of the Times quotes North Korea’s Rodong Sinmun:

It is true that our artificial satellite flew over Japan’s territorial sky and passed through the airspace of the Tsugaru Strait. However, it cannot be a “threat to Japan’s security” or a “violation of its sovereign right”.

Let us ask the Japanese authorities: Don’t you know what the territorial sky is, or an international strait, or the legal position of the airspace above such international straits?

As for the territorial sky, its height has not yet been internationally defined and the only general standard - that the height of the territorial sky should be extended only to a height appropriate to guarantee the security of each country - applies. So, over the past 100 years, the height of the territorial sky has been internationally recognized between 40 to 50 km. . . . Recently, however, some argued that the height of the territorial sky should be about 100 km, on the grounds that the flight altitude of ballistic missiles launched by many countries nowadays is generally within 100 km and that some of the satellites orbit more or less 100 km from the earth. As a result, nowadays, about 100 km is regarded as the height of territorial sky. No nation claims higher territorial sky, nor is it recognized. When it flew over the Japanese archipelago, our artificial satellite’s flying altitude was over 200 km.

Now, Japan alleges this as a violation of its territorial sky. What an absurd allegation it is!

The Japanese authorities say that we had not informed them of our plan to launch a satellite in advance and, therefore, this constitutes a “violation of international law.” Japan has launched dozens of satellites so far and has it ever informed us of any single one? If we are to follow Japan’s logic, it has violated international law dozens of times. The Japanese authorities claim to be reasonable and they have never mentioned this. Why? Nothing could be more absurd. Japan must remember this clearly: no regulations in general international law, or any space laws for that matter, mention the requirement for countries that launch satellite to make information available in advance.

Filed in Other things | Comments (2)

Dispatch from Pyongyang: Xinhua’s sense of humor?

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

election-day-in-pyongyang.jpg
Double Happiness: women dance on election day in Pyongyang (Xinhua photo)

Sunday was a day of extraordinary happiness for North Korean women. Not only was it International Women’s Day, it was also election day so they could exercise their right to cast their compulsory vote in favor of a single candidate to represent them in the Supreme People’s Assembly.

A joyous day indeed, and Xinhua’s correspondent in Pyongyang appears to have enthusiastically entered the festive spirit of it all. For some reason, however, Xinhua’s international department let the side down by not issuing an English-language version of this report, so I thought I should remedy the situation and translate it myself.

It’s not entirely clear to me what the reporters’ intentions are in this article. I suspect that they are seeking to satisfy two very different groups of readers in two very different ways: 1) North Korean officials, who hopefully appreciated all the praise given to their system; and 2) Chinese readers, most of whom will have thought it was all utterly absurd. So far, though, I haven’t found anyone who agrees with me on this, so I suppose I’m probably wrong.

Xinhua, Pyongyang, March 8 (Reporters: Gao Haorong and Zhang Binyang) For women in the DPRK, this year’s March 8 is a day of “double blessing” — welcoming their own festival, International Working Women’s Day, and taking part in the vote to elect deputies to the 12th Supreme People’s Assembly.

It goes without saying that they were overjoyed to greet their own festival, but taking part in the election for the Supreme People’s Assembly is a grand occasion that happens only once in five years. Xinhua reporters saw large numbers of people gathered in the open spaces outside two newly decorated polling stations. Among them were silver-haired elderly women, and also exuberant young girls. They wore ethnic costumes of many colors, making them the most beautiful scene at the polling stations.

Any joyful occasion makes the spirit soar. On this day of “double blessing,” Korean women, who are good at singing and dancing, naturally cannot help but sing and dance. Outside the polling station in the 14th sub-district of the 9th constituency in central Pyongyang, many elderly women danced gracefully to the music of a band, and some children around them also danced for joy. Inside the polling station, women queued and, after staff verified their identities, took their ballots and went into the “small room” encircled by white cloth to cast their own sacred vote. Choe Sun Yong of the Kim Chaek University of Technology research institute says there are many women among the candidates in this election for the Supreme People’s Assembly, fully demonstrating that women in the DPRK are a wheel in the revolution [pun not in the original text] and they are masters of the country.

In the DPRK, the fact that women take part in voting for deputies to the Supreme People’s Assembly symbolizes that they are exercising their right to be masters of the nation. The Korean Central News Agency reported on this day that since the promulgation of the Law on Sex Equality in the DPRK 63 years ago, women have had equal rights in all respects. Many women not only become exemplars and leaders in all fields, they are also deputies of people’s assemblies at all levels. In the last Supreme People’s Assembly, women accounted for 20.1% of the deputies.

Kim In Nam, chairperson of the Moranbong District People’s Committee, writes in today’s Minju Joson newspaper that she is especially excited and moved to take part in this election at the beginning of a new revolutionary high tide to build a great and powerful nation. She says: “Through our actual lives, we realize that the state power of the republic is a precious cradle that guarantees women’s dignity, rights and happy lives.” Mun Kyong Ae, a female worker at the Pyongyang Spinning Factory also published an article, saying: “It is precisely because women can exercise our rights equally that we are determined to pledge our lives to defend the political power of the republic. I will vote in favor in order to express my fervent patriotism.”

Filed in Other things, China | Comments (9)

No commie homo-lovers, please

Sunday, March 1, 2009

It’s nearly a week since the Oscars, but my computer’s been at the shop for an upgrade. So, anyway, how did CCTV-6 translate the first main sentence of Sean Penn’s acceptance speech?



Given the many failings of my translations on this blog, I need to be careful about throwing too many stones inside my glass house. Nevertheless, 你们可真够宽容的 (you really are so generous/tolerant) doesn’t quite capture the full flavor of “You commie homo-loving sons of guns.”

It’s quite possible that the subtitler didn’t understand what Sean Penn had said and didn’t have time to find out. But supposing he/she did understand. Imagine you’re this poor CCTV employee and your ultimate boss is a senior member of the politburo. You’ve got very little time to decide what to do with a phrase that links communism with “homo-loving.” Your decision may not be appreciated by the leaders. OK, just make something up.

(Or am I being too generous? See also Sexy Beijing and Shanghaiist.)

Filed in China | Comments (13)

Blogger stabbed in Beijing

Sunday, February 15, 2009

xu-lai.jpg

(Update: The word is that the attackers have now been caught. Some details known, others not yet clear.

Update 2: One of them was indeed caught and will now stand trial.

Update 3: The attacker has been convicted and sentenced to four and a half years in prison.)

Big-name Chinese blogger Xu Lai, better known as ProState in Flames, was stabbed at the One Way Street bookshop in the Wanda Plaza, Chaoyang district, Beijing, on Saturday afternoon, just after a talk he gave to readers of his blog and his book Fanciful Creatures (想象中的动物). It seems highly probable, though not yet known for certain, that his attackers were offended by his blog.

(All links in this post are to Chinese-language sites. Except this one: not surprisingly EastSouthWestNorth was translating much of the same article as me at the same time.)

For most English-language readers, the name ProState in Flames probably means very little. For Chinese-language readers, however, he’s very well-known. Xu Lai may not have quite the megastar status of Han Han, but he’s very much an A-list blogger. There are three blogs I visit each day before I read anything else: EastSouthWestNorth, Danwei and ProState in Flames. It’s purely a matter of chance which I open first.

Below is a translation of a Southern Metropolis Daily report on the attack. (See also: my1510 - the source of the photo above - Hecaitou and 1984bbs.)


Stabbed in the stomach by two thugs at a bookshop in Beijing; condition not critical; attackers still at large; motives unknown

ProState in Flames is an extremely well-known blog. At 4 o’clock yesterday afternoon, it’s writer, Xu Lai (internet name ProState), was stabbed in the stomach by two thugs at the end of a meet-the-readers event at a bookshop in Beijing. His attackers are currently still at large and their motives are unknown. After emergency treatment in hospital, ProState is in good condition and his life is not in danger.

Invited to attend a small meet-the-readers event

Xu Lai’s book Fanciful Creatures introduces him as a native of Jiangsu province, a lover of mythology and divination and the owner of the blog ProState in Flames. He has worked as a reporter, editor and commentator for various media in Beijing and Shanghai. He won the best novel category at the 30th Hong Kong Youth Literary Awards.

Yesterday afternoon, between 2 and 4pm, the One Way Street bookshop in Beijing held a small event for Xu Lai to meet his readers. The topic was ProState’s “trivial pursuits.” In a post by “Bo Tong” at the 1984bbs forum (ProState is one of the forum’s administrators), the writer says he went to the event and describes what happened as follows:

“Xu Lai arrived about 2 o’clock. After chatting with the host, he began to talk freely and confidently about his “trivial pursuits” and his understanding of notebook novels. (I don’t know why, but during the talk there was a lot of noise on the first floor and requests for quiet had no effect.) After the talk, he answered various questions, mostly about his book Fanciful Creatures, comparisons between himself and other writers of the post-80s generation, his blog and his ideology and ideals etc. ProState kept saying, modestly, that he’s a clumsy speaker and when answering questions on sensitive subjects, he spoke obliquely. There were none of the revalations we would have expected. His main subject was literary experience and creative feelings.”

Two men forced “ProState” into the men’s toilet and attacked him

21st Century Business Herald reporter Guo Jianlong, who was at the scene, says he was on the first floor when the incident took place. Xu Lai was chatting with several people on the second floor. Guo Jianlong suddenly noticed there was a great commotion. Moments later, he realized Xu Lai was at the top of the staircase on the second floor, clutching his stomach and leaning against the wall. Xu Lai’s wife later told Guo that after the talk, two men forced Xu Lai into the mens toilet. She felt something was wrong so she pushed her way in to see what was going on and discovered the two men were attacking him. One was holding a kitchen knife, the other holding a dagger. One of them was preparing to hack Xu Lai’s hand with the vegetable knife. Having been discovered, the two men rushed out of the shop and ran in the direction of Chang’an Avenue. They were chased, but they got away. Someone at the scene took a blurred picture of the attackers and there’s a cctv camera on the street so it should be possible to obtain a true likeness of the attackers.

Yesterday, at 4.55pm, netizen “Zola” quickly sent out a Twitter message: “Guo Jianlong phoned: ProState is lying on the ground clutching his stomach. I told them to cover the wound with their hands to stop the blood, keep him calm and his breathing relaxed so he has chance of survival.” “Not life-threatening, only one stab wound, Guo Jianlong and Xu Lai’s wife went to the hospital together. Stab wound is about the length of a hand, a lot of blood. Mood stable. On the way to hospital.” Guo Jianlong confirmed the contents of that phone call to the Southern Metropolis Daily.

Blog probably created enemies

Another well-known blogger, “Hecaitou,” says he saw a photograph taken at the scene after Xu Lai was rescued, in which Xu was on the floor, clutching his stomach. At that time someone heard one of the attackers say, “You brought this on yourself. You know why we’re doing this don’t you?”

The news quickly spread on the internet. Netizen “doubleleaf” sent out constant Twitter updates from his mobile phone.

Guo Jianlong says that after the crime was reported, the police were the first to arrive. The ambulance didn’t arrive until about 10 minutes later. At first there wasn’t much loss of blood and it was only when Xu arrived at the hospital that the blood flow increased. Xu Lai remained conscious throughout. Zhang Shougang, who helped move Xu at the hospital says he was taken from the the emergency ward to the operating theater at about 7pm. When they were lifting him, the blood hadn’t been cleaned from his body and Zhang’s hands were covered in blood.

At about 10.25 last night, Hecaitou received a phone call from Xu’s family who told him the operation was over. The knife had punctured a small hole in his body which had been stitched up. He was fully conscious and his blood pressure was normal. Hecaitou said Xu Lai is a low-key sort of person and he’s just a science journalist who wouldn’t provoke anyone. However, there are many things on his blog that can touch a nerve and he has probably made enemies that way.

Filed in China | Comments (14)

The Big Boot burns - now you see it, now you don’t

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

See Update Below.

(And see Sun Bin for eyewitness account (and now video); also Shanghaist, Danwei and ChinaSMACK. If you want to see for yourself exactly how the fire started, check out this excellent series of videos on Youtube: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5.)

With breaking news, it’s not unusual for a TV station to not have pictures in its first report(s). Then the pictures arrive and they’re used in later broadcasts. What is unusual is for this sequence to be reversed.

Before midnight, Monday, February 9:

After midnight, Tuesday, February 10:


The mysterious disappearance of pictures continued: 8am News, late morning news….

UPDATE: Why so coy? Well, maybe because it was CCTV’s own illegal fireworks that burned down its extremely expensive building and killed a firefighter:

The blaze that caused one death and six injuries at a hotel near the China Central Television (CCTV) new headquarters in Beijing Monday night was caused by fireworks, the city’s fire control authorities said Tuesday.

CCTV hired staff from a fireworks company to ignite several hundred large festive firecrackers in an open space outside the nearly-completed Mandarin Oriental Hotel, which is part of the iconic CCTV tower complex, said Luo Yuan, spokesman and deputy chief of Beijing Fire Control Bureau.

The people who ignited the fireworks are being questioned by police, he said at a press conference late Tuesday morning without giving details.

Four camcorders recorded the fireworks display and the entire ignition process, Luo said.

He said these fireworks were much more powerful and explosive than what was available at roadside stalls during the Spring Festival and therefore needed approval from the municipal government before being allowed in the downtown areas.

“Owners of the property ignored policemen’s warnings that such fireworks were not allowed,” Luo said. He said investigation is continuing.

Fire broke out at the 30-storey building at 8:27 pm Monday and was put out at 2 am.

A 30-year-old fireman died from respiratory tract injuries at hospital early Tuesday. Beijing Fire Control Bureau said seven others were injured, including six firemen and one construction worker.

CCTV’s apology (without pictures and without an acknowledgment of the firefighter’s death) is here.

Filed in China | Comments (3)

When news isn’t news… and then it is

Monday, February 9, 2009


fighting-the-drought.jpg
The leaders fight the drought (Xinhua)

When does a drought become news? Droughts aren’t like most other kinds of disaster. They don’t usually happen overnight. They’re not like the brief dusting of snow that brought Britain’s quaint transport system to a grinding halt for a day - and then melted as quickly as it came. That was news immediately around the world. We reported it in China. Immediately.

Droughts aren’t like the snow storms that brought China’s transport system to a grinding halt last year and cut off power supplies to provinces the size of countries for weeks. That was international news too - and with greater justification than Britain’s minor brush with disaster inconvenience.

So what about this drought in northern China that finally became news these last few days? It’s supposed to be the worst drought in the region for half a century and it’s suddenly very big news indeed. But, surely, for it to become the worst for 50-odd years, didn’t it have to pass through other “worst since” milestones? Wouldn’t there have been a point when it was the worst for a decade? When did it reach that point? Isn’t something that happens once in a decade news? What about when it became the worst for two decades? Or three? Or four? Who decided that a five-decade record was finally a big enough story to justify reporting it?

Some people might suggest that a problem is only news in China when the government says what a splendid job it’s doing dealing with it. But surely not.

Filed in China | Comments (7)

Religious freedom in China

Monday, February 2, 2009

Uploaded to Flickr by musicoooool.


lotus-temple-chongqing.jpg
Lotus Temple (Lianhua Si) in Tongnan County, Chongqing

(h/t Prostate in Flames)

Filed in China | Comments (5)

The BBC says a big “impartial” Fuck You to Gaza

Sunday, January 25, 2009

The BBC considers Palestinians in Gaza to be unique among the peoples of the world. They, and they alone, are too “controversial” to be worthy of humanitarian aid at a time of extraordinary crisis. Blankets for children whose homes were destroyed in the middle of winter; food parcels for families with virtually no means of subsistence - sorry Gaza, you can’t have them because you’re just not like other people, real people, are you? So it seems, according to the BBC.

Since 1963, British broadcasters have had an agreement with an umbrella group of major charities. At times of severe humanitarian crisis, they have given free air time to strictly apolitical, totally non-partisan appeals by the Disasters Emergency Committee which represents 13 aid groups including the British Red Cross, Oxfam, Cafod, Save the Children, Christian Aid and World Vision. The appeals have been made for victims of earthquakes, floods, famine and war. Until now.

Now, one group of people is alone in being too “controversial” to help. An impartial appeal, criticizing no one, casting no blame on any side, simply asking for money to provide desperately needed food parcels and blankets for those in extreme need might damage public perception of the “impartiality” of the BBC. According, that is, to the BBC.

A BBC spokesperson said:

The BBC decision was made because of question marks about the delivery of aid in a volatile situation and also to avoid any risk of compromising public confidence in the BBC’s impartiality in the context of an ongoing news story.

So, BBC, when you broadcast the appeal for victims of the civil war in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo last November, are you now saying the situation there was not “volatile”? Are you now saying that the war there was not “an ongoing news story”? Are you now saying that the appeal compromised your “impartiality”?

Here is the appeal issued for the Congolese victims of a war that was very much an “ongoing news story” when it was broadcast last year. This is the kind of appeal that would have been broadcast for Gaza. And it will now be broadcast by every other terrestrial TV station in Britain because ITV, Channel 4 and Five have now rediscovered their collective backbone and decided to air the appeal without the BBC.

Note that in November, the BBC was perfectly OK with presenting the following words about the brutal war in the D.R. of Congo:

The DEC’s agencies have been supporting people in this region for many years, so in spite of the difficulties of working in a war-torn area, they’re confident that they can get aid through.

The British government says the claim that aid might not reach those in need in Gaza is absurd. It also rejects the claim that broadcasting the appeal would damage the BBC’s credibility. Britain’s opposition parties agree with the government. So do the charities that have spent decades getting aid through to those who need it. But the director-general of the BBC still says sorry, but no, because:

… Gaza remains an ongoing and highly controversial news story within which the human suffering and distress which have resulted from the conflict remain intrinsic and contentious elements.

For some reason, this did not apply to the conflicts in Kosovo, Darfur and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. And difficulties in getting aid to people in need did not apply to victims of last year’s cyclone in Myanmar. Only Palestinian children are too “controversial” to be given blankets and food. Only Gaza is to “volatile” to be sure aid will get through.

So, now we know just how “impartial” the BBC really is.

For a full list of the charities that make up the Disasters Emergency Committee and for information about their current and former appeals and how to donate, visit their website at www.dec.org.uk.

Filed in Other things | Comments (10)

How to tell if your 100 yuan note is fake

Monday, January 19, 2009

real-and-fake.jpg There’s been loads of news lately about fake 100 yuan notes that are supposedly so good that they’re almost indistinguishable from the real thing. The People’s Bank of China has repeatedly said that this is not true and pointed out a number of ways to tell a real note from a fake one. Photographs and diagrams showing people how to do this have been published in the papers and all over the internet. But as far as I can tell, no one’s thought fit to publish this in English. Surely people who don’t read Chinese would like to know too. So, below the fold, I’ve roughly translated the graphics provided by Sina.com.

(CORRECTION: Within minutes of posting this, I discovered the China Daily has already published an English-language diagram. Oh well.)

I take no no responsibility for any violence that might occur when, based on this information, you falsely accuse someone of trying to give you a fake note. If you do find you’ve been ripped off and your money is worthless, all is not lost. You might not be able to spend that fake 100 yuan note, and you can be certain that the bank whose ATM gave you this counterfeit will not refund you, but you can still follow Michael Manning’s instructions and amuse yourself making Happy-Mao and Sad-Mao.

Most of these security features apply to all yuan-denominated notes. Some of them become less distinct, or even non-existent if the note is old and battered. I still prefer to judge by the feel of the note - the distinct roughness of Mao’s jacket. (Continued)

Filed in China | Comments (10)