Tuesday, November 08, 2005
MMM DOG, A WEEKEND IN CHINA & SOME CORRUPTI0N
So I've finally eaten dog. It was interesting. A red meat that tasted sort of like beef, but also like really fatty Chinese pork. Yum. As the father was munching on the jawbone, we had a discussion about how Chinese people eat all parts of every animal they can find. The father agreed and was amused that I want to eat xiongmao (panda,) however I agreed to wait until they were no longer endangered. I'm glad I tried dog but don't need to ever again. Maybe it was how it was cooked, but afterwards my stomach was really barking at me.
My name here is Benjamin, not Ben. Apparently, Chinese people can't say Ben; It comes out as "bun." This wouldn't be a problem, except bun means stupid in Chinese. This wasn't working for me, so I decided to go with my given name, which now comes out as "Bunjamee." This is fine since there is no Chinese meaning and my family doesn't like the Chinese name my teacher gave me: Guo Jun Xi. I was told it means something like big, strong, handsome...right I'll believe that.
Things I did this weekend:
1) multiple hours of karaoke, which would've been fine for 15 minutes, but 3 hours was too much. I sang the 3 English songs they had and my family sang some Chinese songs, but then we sat around listening to random people sing. Think of the worst karaoke you can imagine, multiply it by 10 and translate it into Chinese. Yeah.
2) climb a mountain: at 7am Sunday my family woke me up, "Bunjamee, get up please" where we climbed Xi Shan, a mountain overlooking Kunming. Fortunately, only the father wanted to do it & the mom and daughter went slowly so we only hiked 4 miles.
3) Harbin Ice in Snow in Kunming World: at this park there was a display of ice sculptures indoors. All the Chinese people were freezing and were given huge winter coats. I walked in in a tshirt. I didn't get cold until I started throwing snowballs. There was a 20ft. tall ice Buddah and a Statue of Liberty. It was pretty cool. Immediately outside was an upside-down roller coaster. i rode this and was looking forward to the ride until we started. At that point the thought flashed through my mind, "oh shit! this is a Chinese roller coaster. What did I get myself into?" A whiplashed 45 seconds later (it's Chinese) we were returned to the ground, me having had fun, my homestay sister terrified.
This next section will have some spelling modifications, so that I bypass the filters and censors here and don't get deported.
In History class, we discussed a book "China Wakes" by William Krist0f. It discusses the Pe0ples Liberati0n @rmy and the c0rruption that is rampant within the g0vernment. The @rmy is a self-sustaining entity here. With 2.3mln members and in control of 70,000+ factories they can produce everything they need. Under Deng Xia0ping, the @rmy "privatized" some of the companies, and now they produce consumer goods for the people, with the money running into the coffers of the PL@. The facilitate all illegal imports into the country: from $26bln in illegal car imports last year to $muggling in all the her0in to H0ng Kong. They support the Burme$e rebels who farm poppies. they traffik them through Yunnan to Central Europe and HK. They own all the br0thels, casin0s and nightclubs in most major cities. All the gay bars in Beijing are controlled by them...after all who else could get away with something like that in a country where h0mosexuality is illegal? Apparently they even own casin0s in the US. Ji@ng Zamin was even behind bulletproof glass when he visit their headquarters. No one takes power without their express consent. Hu Junta0 is on their Standing Committee. Deng Xia0ping never officially had the titel of Chairman, but the @rmy kept him in power since he was well liked by them (in the revolution he commanded 1mln men.) So yeah, China is still a p0lice state, ruled by a c0rrupt army, controlling a vacuum of p0wer in the top levels of g0vernment. Makes America not look so bad. I almost feel patriotic. Almost.
So I've finally eaten dog. It was interesting. A red meat that tasted sort of like beef, but also like really fatty Chinese pork. Yum. As the father was munching on the jawbone, we had a discussion about how Chinese people eat all parts of every animal they can find. The father agreed and was amused that I want to eat xiongmao (panda,) however I agreed to wait until they were no longer endangered. I'm glad I tried dog but don't need to ever again. Maybe it was how it was cooked, but afterwards my stomach was really barking at me.
My name here is Benjamin, not Ben. Apparently, Chinese people can't say Ben; It comes out as "bun." This wouldn't be a problem, except bun means stupid in Chinese. This wasn't working for me, so I decided to go with my given name, which now comes out as "Bunjamee." This is fine since there is no Chinese meaning and my family doesn't like the Chinese name my teacher gave me: Guo Jun Xi. I was told it means something like big, strong, handsome...right I'll believe that.
Things I did this weekend:
1) multiple hours of karaoke, which would've been fine for 15 minutes, but 3 hours was too much. I sang the 3 English songs they had and my family sang some Chinese songs, but then we sat around listening to random people sing. Think of the worst karaoke you can imagine, multiply it by 10 and translate it into Chinese. Yeah.
2) climb a mountain: at 7am Sunday my family woke me up, "Bunjamee, get up please" where we climbed Xi Shan, a mountain overlooking Kunming. Fortunately, only the father wanted to do it & the mom and daughter went slowly so we only hiked 4 miles.
3) Harbin Ice in Snow in Kunming World: at this park there was a display of ice sculptures indoors. All the Chinese people were freezing and were given huge winter coats. I walked in in a tshirt. I didn't get cold until I started throwing snowballs. There was a 20ft. tall ice Buddah and a Statue of Liberty. It was pretty cool. Immediately outside was an upside-down roller coaster. i rode this and was looking forward to the ride until we started. At that point the thought flashed through my mind, "oh shit! this is a Chinese roller coaster. What did I get myself into?" A whiplashed 45 seconds later (it's Chinese) we were returned to the ground, me having had fun, my homestay sister terrified.
This next section will have some spelling modifications, so that I bypass the filters and censors here and don't get deported.
In History class, we discussed a book "China Wakes" by William Krist0f. It discusses the Pe0ples Liberati0n @rmy and the c0rruption that is rampant within the g0vernment. The @rmy is a self-sustaining entity here. With 2.3mln members and in control of 70,000+ factories they can produce everything they need. Under Deng Xia0ping, the @rmy "privatized" some of the companies, and now they produce consumer goods for the people, with the money running into the coffers of the PL@. The facilitate all illegal imports into the country: from $26bln in illegal car imports last year to $muggling in all the her0in to H0ng Kong. They support the Burme$e rebels who farm poppies. they traffik them through Yunnan to Central Europe and HK. They own all the br0thels, casin0s and nightclubs in most major cities. All the gay bars in Beijing are controlled by them...after all who else could get away with something like that in a country where h0mosexuality is illegal? Apparently they even own casin0s in the US. Ji@ng Zamin was even behind bulletproof glass when he visit their headquarters. No one takes power without their express consent. Hu Junta0 is on their Standing Committee. Deng Xia0ping never officially had the titel of Chairman, but the @rmy kept him in power since he was well liked by them (in the revolution he commanded 1mln men.) So yeah, China is still a p0lice state, ruled by a c0rrupt army, controlling a vacuum of p0wer in the top levels of g0vernment. Makes America not look so bad. I almost feel patriotic. Almost.
