What cost your DVD player?

You might think it was cheap, “Made in China” on the back, bound to be cheap and good value for money. Considering there is no real alternative, you had to buy it anyway, didn’t you?

At what cost, though?

Would the freedom of over one billion people be cheap enough?

Would the wholesale torture and killing of millions of be more than enough?

Would the enslavement of 100’s of millions by a comparative handful of the rich and powerful be enough?

Think China, because that’s how you got your cheap DVD player, and your cheap TV, and your cheap shoes, and your cheap clothing, and your cheap everything else that makes your “cost of living” so cheap and affordable.

Think again! Think China where all those “cheap” things come from. Are they cheap for the poor people who are slave-driven to produce them?

Think China!!

What is the Chinese totalitarian dictatorship “government” doing to the world? “Buying it up” is the answer. Using the money you gave them to keep their people enslaved producing all those cheap goods you love to buy at a whim, “Yeah, it’s so cheap, and look at the quality”.

How did they do it? They’ve managed to do what Hitler and Stalin did, but in much larger numbers.   Ridding themselves of all dissent by murdering people who oppose them. While we turned a blind eye – “It’s their business isn’t it. What they do in their country’s their business, not ours". Or so they, the dictatorship keep telling us.  Hundreds of millions, not the 7 or 8 million that Hitler disposed of .Or the 20 million that Stalin exterminated. NO, hundreds of millions have been disposed of for being Christians, Falung Gong, democrats, opponents of the regime, whistleblowers who hate the corruption they live under, or just hating a legal system that allows no defence against an all powerful dictatorship.

And now, what are they doing? Liu Xiabo has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Most people consider this to be the greatest honour a person could ever be given whilst still alive and on this Earth, but not the Chinese dictatorship.  Not only is the laureate in prison for advocating greater democracy in China, but the dictatorship have his whole family under “house arrest” and therefore unable to leave China to accept the prize on his behalf. So, an empty chair will symbolize Liu Xiabo’s imprisonment and hopefully the world will awaken to the plight of the Chinese people who struggle from day to day under the political might of their “compassionate” totalitarian dictatorship.

So, please think again, and “THINK CHINA”.

Now in Greece.....

For anyone reading this - my wife and I have moved to live in Kerkyra, Greece. BUT, I hope to be making more posts here soon about life in China, including Hong Kong.

This is what this blog is really about

When my wife and I were living in China and subsequently Hong Kong I intentionally self-censored myself, but here is the beginning of an essay I am writing about the real China-

China – what exactly is it and how does it work?

It takes time to understand the workings of today’s China, years in fact. I lived in Mainland China for seven years, the first in Beijing during the Sars crisis, which was grossly under-reported because of the lies spewed out by the Chinese “Government” concerning the fatalities. My wife and I were teaching at the time and one of our jobs was at a business English school that had been closed during the worst of the epidemic. When it re-opened we were reunited with our students who began to tell what was on the streets concerning Sars and not what the government edicts told. In addition to the thousands, not a few hundred, who died was the huge suicide rate. This was a revelation to us as nothing had been said of this phenomenon. What seemed to be very common was the sort of incident when one member of a family had infected the rest who had all succumbed, the poor person felt responsible and killed him/herself. These suicides were in the thousands, a statistic that was unpublished. It was about then that it really began to sink in what this “government” was all about – several years later, much research and reading, and we had really got a handle on what was happening and how this “government” worked.

Let’s go back to the Long March when Mao Zedong retreated to reform his troops before defeating the Nationalists in the Kuomintang. During the Long March over 8,000 miles, huge numbers of the Communist soldiers died from starvation and exhaustion. The women who gave birth during the march were forced to leave their babies at the trackside to die. Of the 90,000-100,000 people who began the Long March from the Soviet Chinese Republic, only around 7,000-8,000 made it to Shaanxi, but during that time the Chinese Communists won the support of the peasant population. Now, what is unpublished about Mao’s part in this march is that he actually didn’t march alongside his troops – he was carried in a litter for most of the way, eating well and having his concubines alongside. He didn’t exactly slum it! The main leaders of the march were later to become the core of the Communist “government” and subsequently the clique of families who now control the country. It is effectively a nepotistic hierarchy that splits the county’s wealth amongst itself – all done within the semblance of a communist regime. There is no communism or socialism evident in the way the governing classes behave - it is all for themselves. Now, when one of their group steps out of line, the heaviest of penalties are imposed. These can take the form of imprisonment and re-education, losing their citizens rights (effectively throwing the entire family on the street with no right to a job or housing/support of any kind) to total exile for the offender and his family or the imposition of the death penalty. The whole family will be disbarred from party membership for at least 3 generations as in also done in North Korea. During the Cultural Revolution, the “powers that be” examined everybody’s family history for three generations, expunging all those who didn’t fit the bill, expunging meaning torturing, killing or forcing suicide. It’s all still happening today! So this is the emerging super-power – pity help anyone who comes under its control.

Let’s jump to today and have a look at the way people in China behave towards Gweilos’s or “Foreign Devils” as outsiders are known. It has always been a trait in Chinese relations with people from outside the Middle Kingdom, or Centre of Civilisation, that they should be basically scorned and disabused at will. It comes from the fact the Emperors of old were deemed to be godlike figures on Earth and that, basically, they could do as they wished. Also, getting “one over” on your adversary was considered the only way to do business, either commercial or diplomatic. That attitude pervades China’s relations, both business and diplomatic, today too. Take for example the selling of China’s “new market” to western businesses needing new markets to sell to. Here were 1.3 billion customers waiting for your products, come and produce and market your goods here. In reality the market is at most 100 to 200 million of the newly created Chinese middle class. The others are either peasant farmers who exist on US$100 a month, if they are lucky – that is a family, not an individual, or workers in factories who live and work often in slave-like conditions. Most of the new middle classes have been indoctrinated by nationalistic propaganda to only buy or use Chinese products that are generally copies of western goods. Chinese reverse engineering is an art form so being able to recreate quite complex products is not difficult. The problem arises with the quality of the component parts. When metals that just look the part replace specific alloys, the device will work for as long as it takes the buyer to wear out the parts. Not exactly quality control, even in a copy, is it?

Cheating is commonplace, especially in universities where students buy others’ skills to sit their exams for them, even to the point, in my own experience, of a student trying to sit an oral language test with someone who wasn’t their own teacher!! Takes nerve to do that! Now, it also extends to business, especially when it involves foreigners. The Chinese believe strongly that in the past foreigners walked all over them and enjoyed doing it. So, they equally believe that it’s perfectly OK to do the same even though they are doing it all under the auspices of the WTO. If anything goes against them, they simply retreat behind the borders of China where their “legal” system blocks all attempts by foreign businesses to get any form of retribution. Common scams ar to get foreign investment in what seems to be a flourishing business. Factories are displayed and ideal working conditions are there for all to see. Even the workers dormitories, YES, they live communally in dormitories. Are air-conditioned and all the workers are happy. Oh wonders!! In reality the factory that will be doing the production is run down decrepit and the workers live in slave-labour conditions working 12 hours a day, seven days a week every day not being compensated for extra work and being locked in at night. Much of the work done in very “cheap labour” factories is in fact performed by people who have been dragged off the street and forced into 3 years re-education by labour by the police force who are being bribed by the local factory owners. It is perfectly legal for someone to “disappear” into the forced labour camps without trial or any kind of resistance. That’s one of the foundations of the Chinese Legal system.

This is what we in the west are dealing with, mostly with no knowledge of what is actually happening in China.

To re-iterate – I have the greatest respect for the desperate state-abused Chinese people who work diligently just to stay alive with little or no hope of salvation. Only the western powers-that-be can do anything for them by forcing a change in the government of China.

To be continued…

Hong Kong Children's Symphony Orchestra

Yesterday we had a very pleasant surprise. We went to yet another classical concert – this time a Wagner Prelude followed by Symphony No 1 by Prokopief and Piano Concerto No 2 by  Saint-Saens. The surprising thing was that the only adult playing was the Piano Soloist, Angela Cheng from Canada – all the other performers were the Hong Kong Children’s Symphony Orchestra, and all aged between 7 and 18 years old. Mind you, some of them even looked younger than 7 years old. We could hardly see their heads above their music stands! To all extents, if you closed your eyes and just listened, it was as if the orchestra was a full adult one. They were remarkable. Dr Yip Wai-hong founded the orchestra in 1996 on the principle that “When high quality music education is given to foster young buds, they shall sprout and become an influential force of Hong Kong culture in the future.”  He couldn’t have been more accurate!

And here's a very poorly taken photo - on my mobile phone and in a rush as they don't normally allow photos in the Concert Hall.

Lots to say

It's been a busy month with the Hong Kong Arts Festival in full swing. It's now over and ended with a rather disappointing performance of "The Tempest" by the Old Vic Company from London. Prior to that in the same theatre I had seen Steven Berkoff in "On The Waterfront" and was delighted by the magnificent performance. The actors in Tempest were very guilty of mumbling their lines and talking to the back of the stage and, unless you had read the play that day, most of the audience couldn't possibly have known what was going on. Other than that, the rest of the festival was memorable for the quality and variety of the performances. So there, that's my bit of theatre critic over!


Now, over the last few months there has been a growing drought over parts of South China caused apparently by a one-in-a-hundred year drought and the damming of the Mekong River in several places by the Chinese Authorities. Obviously they deny all responsibility, but it's strange that when they release some water, the river rises by over one metre. All being blamed also on the El Niño effect, another good scapegoat.
So, as a result of all this, the peasant farmers are losing their livelihoods and all their animal stock. BUT, the authorities are sending in the troops to drill 2,000 wells into the water table, no doubt worsening things when all they need to do is release the water from their hydro-electric dams.


Today we went for a walk along the bay in front of our home and wandered past a lovely market garden which we were unaware existed. Good veggies, all organic and freshly plucked before our eyes. Hong Kong continues to surprise at every turn. 


On the way back we went into another garden centre and Barbara got some more beautiful pot plants, all delivered one hour later, free of charge!


It looks like the Rio Tinto court case has followed the norms cor China - no proper defense against the charges and no access to defence lawyers during the six months detention prior to the trial. Sentence of between 7 and 14 years in jail were passed down for charges of accepting bribes amongst other more obviously politically motivated charges. Funnily enough, no one has been charged with providing the bribes - strange how one-sided that argument must seem. Looks like a bit of a plant and some coercion to confess are involved here! Nothing unusual in China, I'm afraid to say. 

Time for an update.....
We're now well and truly into the 38th Hong Kong Arts Festival and it's turning out to be quite a treat. Ever since we started visiting HK from the Mainland - almost 7 years ago, I have wanted to have the time to see as many shows as I could in the month of the festival. Well, so far we've seen The HK Philharmonic Orchestra, the HK Sinfonietta Orchestra and Ning Feng, The Cafe de Los Maestros - (amazing 10 minute standing ovation), The David Murray Jazz Quartet (encores demanded and given) and tomorrow we go to see Valdimir Ashkenazy and his sons perform in a rare family performance - can't wait!! It's not all music - on Monday we get to see "On the Waterfront" directed and starring Steven Berkoff. It's all culture and wonderful performances!


More to come...

A quick Trip

Now how's this for a bit of spontaneity! Yesterday, Saturday,  I was coming downstairs to make a cup of tea at exactly 4:00 p.m. Barbara looked up from the "What's On" section of Hong Kong's version of Timeout and said "There's a concert I'd love to see tonight". My reply was "If you really want to see it, then, let's go. Who's playing and what?" It seemed an innocent enough reply. "Well, the concert is by Fou Ts'ong and it's in Macao at 8:00 p.m. - tonight" Now, Fou Ts'ong is a remarkable man who escaped China in 1960 to make his home in London. He just happens to be 75 years old and one of the most gifted pianists in the world. The chance to see this "giant" of classical piano playing was too much to miss. It was quickly back upstairs, quick wash, change and in 45 minutes we were walking the short distance to the ferry pier to Hong Kong Island. About 400 yards from our point of arrival in HK, the ferry departs to Macao, just across the Pearl River. We managed to get the 6:00 ferry to Macao - now this means actually going through immigration and customs as we were actually going to another country for the evening. Of course, we would do the same again in Macao. When we got to Macao we quickly hired a taxi tout who took us to the theatre - it was all a bit too rushed to get a normal taxi as we hadn't the faintest idea where the taxi rank was and didn't have the time to find out.

After we had settled in our last-minute seats overlooking the stage and the piano and the orchestra had finished their 15 minute tuning exercise (which seems to be a peculiarly Chinese thing - I can never recollect any western orchestra tuning for 15+ minutes on stage before a performance. They all seemed to walk on take their seats, hum a middle C and get on with the concert.) Anyway, the side door on the stage opened and on walked this "giant" of classical music, a very diminutive, frail-looking gentleman who was dressed in a traditional black Chinese jacket and who had what looked like fingerless mittens on his tiny hands. He has been described as "the poet of the piano" and he was accompanied by another great in classical music circles, Lu Jia, our conductor for the evening's two pieces, Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23 and Bruckner's symphony No. 4 in E-flat Major, "Romantic".

This is the man.









What an evening!!!!!

Needless to say we got home at around 3:00 on Sunday morning after battling the ferries and two sets on immigration officers again.