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avant-garde_chauvintist wandering through the garden of ideals

Thirsty for freedom

CHINA | Thursday, 6 December 2007 | Views [719] | Comments [2]

When I signed up to work in China, I had a singular mission: to see China. I prettied this up for my interview by saying as a journalist, it is important to understand different groups of people in order to report more accurately and fairly. But, in general, I just wanted to be paid to see another land.

Now that I'm here, actually living in it, I see what I sorta wanted to see. As an idealist, I've struggled for some time with the idea of communism. No matter what, when you think about the idea, it seems great. Perfect. Utopian. But, as we all know, the experiements with it in practice have prove it to be bad. Terrible. Destructive.
I realized long ago that China is not communist. "The Communist Party of China" couldn't care less where people put their money, and it certainly isn't in a common pool so everyone can live nicely. The CPC has one main goal, function, and mission in this modern China: to keep the people down.
To do this, many methods deemed archaic by Western governments (but still slyly used) are employed. Unlike our wonderful Western governments, these methods aren't hidden. Or explained. Or put through the neat little spin machine to seem ok. They're just as blatant and obvious as the color of my hair. And that is the disturbing part.
It is widely known and accepted that very little of Chinese newspapers is accurate. In fact, I read that during the summer even the WEATHER is forged because there is a law that says if it's over 39 degrees celcius you don't have to go to work. The Chinese government has gotten so used to this control that they're trying to do the same to foreign journalists and newspapers who are reporting on the Olympics. In order to maintain the control they have over the people that let's them say, oh, about a week before that one of the four national holidays a year is canceled and have everyone be ok with it, they have to lie. And that's just what they intend to do. Believe it or not, I have absolutely no access to any news articles printed about the Beijing Olympics that discuss free speech. So I had my mom email me one. Here's the link: http://chinaview.wordpress.com/2007/12/03/let-us-launch-a-speak-the-truth-movement-in-china/
I'm staying in the land of communism for another semester. But my contract ends on July 15, and I fully intend on getting the hell out of Beijing before the Olympic madness starts. (I like madness in the form of people. Jack Kerouac taught me that. But madness in the form of government is scary. George W. Bush taught me that.) I have no intention of seeing China's dreams of development meet their demise in person. I have no desire to hear all the horrible things that the Chinese government is going to say about foreigners in lieu of the travesty that will be their attempt at being a world stage. I have absolutely no inclination at all to be caught in the undertoe of the joke that the world is seemingly playing on China.
Because I can only assume that the reason the Olympic Committee gave Beijing the bid for 2008 was to shut them up and let them dig their own grave. There's no other reason. This city, this country is not prepared at all, contrary to what the well designed propaganda posters claim (they make the skies blue in Beijing). And as is evident by the fact that the athletes aren't allowed to stay in China after their events because all the pollution could cause great damage to their health. Or that the horses can't be imported to mainland China because they would have to be quarantined for something like 10 years afterward (long after they've become dog food). Or that the running events as a whole cannot take place in Beijing because runners inhaling carbon monoxide always equals bad news.
Nope. None of this has hit this wonderful country. They're still complaining that the foreigners are casting predijuces against them. That and trying to figure out how to write the stories in all languages so it doesn't get out that the Beijing 2008 Olympics was a complete sham. Oh, and trying to beat the United States in the medal haul.
Meanwhile, this non-athlete is battling a chest cold thanks to the "ready for the Olympics" air in this city as I watch the smokestack next to my apartment belch more of that beautiful pollution...*
(Note: The smokestack is not right outside my apartment. That was for literary value. But it is within spitting distance of one of my classrooms.)

Tags: Culture

Comments

1

Second note: the formatting is mess up on this because I had to fight to get it online. While I was trying to post it, I was interrupted by what I can only guess was the censorship police in China. Yes, that's right, by blogged was censored. All the settings changed as soon as I tried to post it (such as the comments section was turned off and the post went from "live" (visible on web site to "draft" (not visible). Now, I'm afraid to fix any of the mistake for fear of having to deal with proxies and other nonsense to make it happen. So, please excuse any errors you may find.

  avant-garde_chauvintist Dec 6, 2007 4:12 PM

2

Posted fine on my end. Be careful! See you in 15 days! love you much!

  Gretchen Dec 10, 2007 7:40 AM

 

 

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