Perhaps this issue is old hat and considering the fact that much of the implementation and enforcement of China’s Social Security Law is, shall we say, open to debate, there might be no purpose at all in even thinking about it. But I have been. And I have come to the conclusion that every expat […]
economics
Support Broke Writers
Raglitmag is a webzine of short stories that you can check out on your E-reader as a pdf. They pay pretty well for a rag these days, so the writing they have is pretty damn good. I have a story in the first edition, “The One Legged River Ho,” based on Chengdu truth. Check out […]
Daddy bought gold o.O
“my sword crashes through your breastplate splashes the blood across your scared face drops leave a trail in the snow showing a clear trace…” I have been thinking and talking and watching gold for a long time, but I never had the cash to actually buy any and join the club. But I did recently […]
A question of existence
I came across some interesting thoughts the least couple of days. Although I don’t write about current affairs nearly as much as I used to, i still rant about stuff during my lunch break or late at night to bean, who listens politely. I’ve explained a few times already why i don’t write about US […]
An anti-establishment radical caught in a corporate setting
Today I picked up the cash portion of my pay. here at Ctrip.com we foreigners have two different forms of payment: 1) Taxable income that is wired in 2) non-taxable income that is given in cash The non-taxable income is basically our rent. In the initial negotiations with HR, we were going to hand them […]
The Beijing Consensus
Let’s take a look at the countries that refused to attend the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony: Afghanistan, Algeria, Cuba, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Iraq, Iran, Vietnam, Venezuela, Sudan, Tunisia, Morocco, Sri Lanka and the Palestinian Authority A collection of enlightened governments, no doubt about it. Standouts include Afghanistan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. The […]
Can’t Truss It ..
No No No No! I try not to get sucked into these discussions anymore, but part of my daily routine is to open sites like Atimes.com and Antiwar.com and others and when I read certain passages I just can’t help my emotional response. Last week, during the peak of the Sino-Japanese pissing contest over rocks […]
I can’t stop laughing at Western businessmen
I don’t even know where to start laughing and where to end. It doesn’t matter. For years and years people like me (but with better jobs) have been saying that China has some issues and we need to help them along, but the money-men always trumped everything by drooling all over each other in attempts […]
Lu Guang’s Photography: Pollution in China
Makes me real nervous to see pics like this. I know that pollution is everywhere, but seeing it up close and personal like these pictures by Lu Guang is still disturbing. For an English translation, go to ChinaHush’s post here. In related news, here is a small story about “grow houses,” which are houses built […]
“Don’t be Evil” — Tell that to Wall Street
After Google announced that it might leave China, Wall Street and other stock exchanges around the world reacted in typical fashion, by buying Baidu stock and selling Google stock. Baidu’s stock jumped by at least 12%, while Google’s slid by about 1%. For the money-men — the same people, let us not forget, who caused […]
Google fed up with China
You can check out the full article on Google and China here at Chengdu Living. Check it out and leave a comment. PeaceS
The Weed Game
I watched the CNBC documentary on weed in Cali, Marijuana, INC. and it was a straight War on Drugs propagan(ja) piece. Trish Regan interviewd weed farmers and the look in her eye said: “this is so crazy, these people are not like (look into the camera with a Palinesque wink) US!” So that was too […]
Xinjiang protests continue
Here is the BBC on the protests … there is some decent video here showing a large group of Han thugs headed to the Uigher part of town for revenge and also a crowd of Uigher women demanding to know where their men were taken. The NYT has a repeat of yesterday’s story with a […]
Violence in Xinjiang
Uighers in Urumqi rioted over the past 24 hours, destroying property, killing people and fighting the police. The immediate cause for the riots was a brawl in Shaoguan, Canton Province that began after some fool posted a note on QQ saying that 6 Uigher boys had raped 2 Han women. Han workers then rampaged through […]
Two books that I urge you to read:
The first deals with IslamNo god but God, the origins, evolution and future of Islam This book (FINALLY) traces the roots of Islam back to the socialist hippy rebel Muhammad and his community of passionate young revolutionaries. All prophets are socialist rebels … have you noticed? and their message eventually falls prey to the wealthy, […]
Crisis of Credit
An excellent project by Jonathan Jarvis of the Design School breaking down the Credit Crisis for fools like me:
Its all bad; its all good
My landlord Nikki V is doing a piece for KBOO Radio about austerity measures people (may or may not have learned from their parents/grandparents) are using to get by in “this nasty economy.” I listen with mild interest, because so far my economy seems unaffected by Wall Street’s 777+ drop this week after the big […]
We have seen this before, and its always sinister
In today’s NYT, the “demise” of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae is treated with the soft gloves of supposed objectivity. The article begins by saying that the tumultuous tumble in stock value of the two mortgage giants is inexplicable and at the same time potentially devastating for the US economy and, above all, taxpayers.“There is […]