Okay well this is not China related but this shit happens all the time, and today was a particularly glaring example. So long as f*ing USA does it, it's okay, but if anyone else does it, they are terrorists, evil etc. Kinda reminds me why I am glad to be gone from that extreme hypocrisy. So on google.com in the news section there are 2 stories side by side.
One, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/20/world/middleeast/20iran.html?ref=middleeast
is about an Iranian ex-journalist who had her journalist badge revoked 3 years ago had just been tried and convicted of spying for the US. Because she is a US citizen of course, Obama mama says: "I have complete confidence that she was not engaging in any sort of espionage". How the f*ck does he have complete confidence, how does he know anything about what espionage she may have been doing? I am sure the relatives of the people who have been sitting in Guantanamo without a trial for 6+ years also have complete confidence in their innocence. The woman's father also says that his daughter had admitted the charges “during her interrogation, under duress and pressure.” Oh, so then it must not be true. Sure, I will buy that. But what about the other news story.
The title of it is Planner of 9/11 Attacks Waterboarded 183 Times. http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN19326905 The story explains that after his waterboarding he admitted planning the attacks. But yet, no one questions that there is any "duress" or "pressure" there...hmm.
Oh, and one more story is up on google that seems relevant. It's title is Mental damage from CIA tactics is disputed. http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-na-psychology20-2009apr20,0,139316.story And it goes on to say that Obama does not want any charges to be brought against perpetrators of the interrogation techniques which included water boarding. Hmm, but what about the fact that the USA convicted Japanese after WW2 for water boarding US detainees, and by convicted I mean hanged! http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/02/AR2007110201170.html
How great it is to have a hypocrytical one sided media and Obama mama and his whole government as well.
Last week I got the chance to fly my first hot air lantern. We lit ours right inside the college campus and the first one just missed the top floor of one dormitory. These things are so simple but so cool. They only cost 12 Yuan or you could even make them yourselves. I plan to bring several to the US in the summer and fly them on 4th of July and otherwise with whoever may be interested. Though I am sure it's illegal to fly these in the US since it is in essence a flying flaming paper bag and when the parafin fuel runs out it does tend to crash down. And I am sure there will be some UFO sightings reported on the news the next day.
The West thinks it invented the hot air balloon in 1783 in France, but Kongming invented these during the Three Kingdoms Period somewhere between 220-280 AD, and the Chinese were using these for sending messages during battles, sort of a an early version of a slow flare. It's a pretty simple process, when you light the candle or oil, the air in the lantern is heated, so the lantern will fly to the sky. After the candle or oil burns out, the lantern will slowly cool down and descend on the ground. You are supposed to make a wish on it and watch it all the way until the light goes out, which is usually about 10 minutes. Some people also will write their wish on the lantern itself. All in all, it just looks very cool.
Monday was a holiday known as the "tomb sweeping day". Not having any tombs in China to sweep, I and Fei Fei, along with Fordy and Tex Mex, decided to go to Wuhan for the long weekend. Wuhan is a big city, somewhere around the 4th to 9th largest in China depending on who you ask, with around 9 million people. It's really a tri-cities area, the 3 portions called Wuchang, Hankou and Hanyang, taking the Wu from the first, and the Han from the other 2, it's now called Wuhan. We saw some interesting sights. As you can see from the pics, the big attraction is the Yellow Crane Tower right in the middle of Wuchang, but the best part I think was the huge snack street area with multitudinous street food options. Wuhan University was also a beautiful place to see (though I didn't include any of those pictures). At night we went to the Wuchang bar area recommended by a taxi driver (unlike our experience in Nanjing, the taxi driver did not take us to a prostitution KTV joint and I think our girlfriends appreciated that). However, that area was more of an American style KTV bar strip with very loud singing going on and seemed to exclusively be patronized (no pun intended) by older married men and their college girlfriends. So after a little while there, we ventured to a pretty cool dance club, though the music was hit and miss.
On the second evening we took the ferry to Hankou (only 2 Yuan a person) to what Fordy was claiming would be a great outdoor restaurant neighborhood with musicians playing for the diners. Well all of that was accurate except he didn't know that the musicians would all be charging at least 30 Yuan per song and that they don't like to take no for an answer, and that there would be dozens of them walking by our table perpetually offering to play a song on some kind of instrument or to sing some songs or both. This would still not be so bad if it wasn't for the other street vendors. Women trying to sell flowers keep coming to the table, putting the flowers in front of our girlfriends and standing there looking sad for at least 10 minutes each and no amount of "bu yao" (don't want!) will make them move. Add to that random people walking around trying to sell cute toys and other people selling Baijo bottles, and this was perhaps the most frustrating dinner ever! But all in all, the trip was a fun experience.