bezdomny ex patria

I think this is about the awesomest thing I’ve seen online all year.

There’s something in this post at ESWN I don’t get, a question of terminology. And no, I’m not questioning Roland’s translation, I’m questioning the definitions of commonly used terms. See, those characterised as “extreme” or “angry” leftists in that post strike me as being extreme right, or neo-Nazi skinheads with Chinese characteristics; whereas those in the same post characterised as being “extreme” or “angry” right strike me as being the Chinese branch of America’s Republican Party. And to both groups I tend to apply a certain label starting with F- and ending with -ascist, with the sole embellishment being the addition of the adjective “wannabe”. In other words, I don’t see the difference.

Or, to put it another way, genuine left-wing politics are internationalist politics.

Workers of the world unite!

In other words, to be leftist means to rise above petty national, cultural, “ethnic” and “racial” boundaries and treat all as equal. In other words, once you retreat into petty, narrow-minded nationalism, you can no longer call yourself ‘left’. Instead, you should shave your head, tattoo a few swastikas, and spell Nazi slogans badly- or make a right tit of yourself, to put it simply.

And the extreme rightists in that post? Well, they are extreme rightists, but what gets me is the degree of self-loathing. If you hate yourself and your country so much that you blindly worship an idea which has so far failed to show up in the real world, then I’m going to seriously struggle to respect you. The word “colonised” applies to such minds, and it’s a very sad sight.

Or to put it more simply: I agree with the sentiments expressed in that post.

Hehe, chuarwalla, that’s awesome.

I don’t really want to translate this one, I’ve done far too much public transport lately, but this article in TBN says planning work on four new subway lines has started and two more will begin construction this year. Those to enter the planning stages are lines 3, 11, 12 and 16, while lines 7 and 14 are those to begin construction by the end of the year. Line 15 and the Fangshan line might also begin construction. What strikes me as being the key point, though, is that subway expansion is to be sped up.

But to be honest, I’m feeling too lazy to read the whole article in detail, let alone translate it. Sorry.

I don’t have time right now for this, but just a quick note before lzh and I head off for a study session with one of my colleagues: The headline says:

东城15万居民拟外迁朝阳区

150,000 Dongcheng residents plan to move out to Chaoyang District

Which naturally leaves me asking: “How?” The “why”, judging by the subtitle, is the preservation of the Old City and the raising of living standards. And a carpark will be built outside the hutongs (no, I don’t know what that’s about either).

Anyway, hopefully I’ll remember to look this up and read and maybe even translate the whole thing tomorrow. I mean, moving 150,000 people seems pretty damn momentous to me.

Why is it that I get the feeling that Victoria University of Wellington‘s student newspaper Salient is of a far higher quality than New Zealand’s mainstream media?

When I saw the headline, I was wondering about the article, but then I saw the NZ Herald’s (all too typically) short and seriously superficial excuse for an article, and all that is going through my mind is:

WHAT?!?!?!?

Sure, censorship exists in New Zealand’s publishing industry. It’s a part of publishing, curtailing the excesses of authors, keeping them on the straight and narrow. And sure, the article in question is attributed to Newstalk ZB, a radio station, and New Zealand’s radio stations are little more than vehicles for advertising, with the occasional outbreak of “news”, weather or music. But censorship is a pretty damn big accusation to be levelling in a Western democracy. Could nobody have thought to, like, actually, investigate these claims?

And people wonder why I have no respect for my country’s excuse for journalism….

Just because I felt like I’d done too many rough as guts translations of Chinese articles, I decided to open up Libé instead. And what did I find? That Muammar Gaddafi might be the son of a Corsican aviator…

Yeah.

So here it is:

Le colonel Muammar Kadhafi, fils d’un aviateur corse… Cette idée surprenante, qui circule comme une légende sur l’île de Beauté depuis des années, a aussi retenu l’attention de hauts gradés de l’armée française. Le site d’infos en ligne Bakchich a mené son «enquête corse» sur les traces d’Albert Preziosi, héros de la Seconde Guerre mondiale mort dans le ciel de Russie en 1943. Héros et peut-être le père du Guide libyen. Pour les habitants de Vezzani, en Haute-Corse, cette filiation est une évidence. D’ailleurs, comment expliquer autrement le soutien de Tripoli aux nationalistes corses dans les années 70 ? Problème : aucune trace écrite ne confirme la légende orale. Les archives de l’armée de l’air n’apportent que peu d’informations, si ce n’est une correspondance d’officiers supérieurs français datant de 1999, preuve que l’on s’était déjà interrogé sur la véracité de cette filiation. Si l’on examine de près le parcours de l’aviateur corse, il paraît crédible qu’il ait été en Libye au moment de la date présumée de la conception de Muammar Kadhafi. Mais si ses anciens compagnons de combat évoquent une liaison possible avec une Libyenne, ses descendants sont plus circonspects. En définitive, le meilleur argument des tenants de cette légende reste la ressemblance frappante entre Muammar Kadhafi et Albert Preziosi.

Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, son of a Corsican aviator… This surprising idea, which has been circulating as a legend on the Isle of Beauty for some years, has also attracted the attention of high ranking soldiers in the French army. The on-line news site Bakchich undertook its own “Corsican investigation” into Albert Preziosi, hero of the Second World War killed in Russian skies in 1943. Hero, and perhaps father of the Guide of Libya [???]. For the residents of Vezzani, in Haute-Corse, this parentage is obvious [?????????]. Otherwise, how can you explain the support of Tripoli for Corsican nationalists in the 70s? Problem: No written evidence confirms the oral legend. The air force archives provide only a little information, if it’s not correspondance between superior officers dating from 1999, proving that the truth of this parentage [????] had already been investigated. If one examines more closely the path [???] of the Corsican aviator, it seems credible that he could have been in Libya at the presumed date of conception of  Muammar Gaddafi. But if his former brothers in arms speak of a possible liaison with a Libyan woman, his descendants are more circumspect. What is certain is that the best argument of the believers in this legend remains the striking resemblance between Muammar Gaddafi and Albert Preziosi.

Question marks mark where I’m really unsure of my translation; the more question marks the less sure I am. Corrections are welcome.

Just because I’m using Chinesepera-kun for the first time and enjoying the added ease of access to written Chinese its giving me (it’s soooo much quicker than a dictionary), here’s another story, also from The Beijing News/新京报:

女子坠楼亡 居民绕路走

Woman falls to her death; residents make a detour

[yeah, shitty translation of the headline, good start]

 事发新明胡同4号楼，死者身份尚在调查中

Incident happened at No. 4 Xinming Hutong,  identity of the deceased is still under investigation

本报讯 （记者展明辉）前晚近8时，西城区新明胡同4号楼，一名年轻女子坠楼，当场身亡，吓得附近居民纷纷绕路而行。居民们表示，事发后，未有家属前去认领遗体，警方也未找到死者坠楼位置，其身份尚不清楚。

 Dispatch from this paper (reporter Zhan Minghui) Towards 8 the night before last, at No. 4 Xinming Hutong, Xicheng District, a young woman fell from a building to her death, dying at the scene. The frightened residents one after another detoured around her body. The residents stated that since the incident, no family member has come to claim the remains. The Police have also not found the location she fell from, and her identity is still not clear.

事发地点位于新明胡同4号楼西侧第二个单元门前。据目击者称，前晚近8时，路过的居民发现，一具女尸趴在台阶上，身穿红色羽绒服，头部鲜血四溅，情况惨烈，遂立即报警，并绕行其他单元门回家。随后，民警赶到，封锁现场进行勘察，引得楼上数十居民围观。

The incident happened in front of the door of Unit 2, on the west side of Building Number 4, Xinming Hutong. According to eyewitness accounts, towards 8 the evening before last, residents crossing the street discovered the body of a female lying on the steps. She was wearing a red down coat, her head was splattered with blood, a horrifying situation. They immediately notified the police and went home via the gates of other units. Then the Police hurried to and sealed off the scene to conduct an investigation, leading to crowds of upper-floor residents looking on.

居民介绍，该女子20岁左右，“长得很娇小，乍一看以为是个小孩。”出事半小时后，一直不见死者家属赶来，也未找到其坠楼的位置，“只看见15层的窗户开着。”随后，警方将尸体运离。

A resident introduced the woman as about 20 years old, “She looked very petite, you’d think she’s only a wee girl from the first look.” Half an hour after the incident, still no family member had arrived and they hadn’t found from where she fell, “You could only see that the 15th floor window was open.” Then the Police took the body away.

昨日12时许，现场的痕迹已经被盖上沙土，但仍有大片血迹露出，周围布满溅开的血滴，以及四五个血脚印。该小区值班人员表示，大家都不认识死者，警方也未找到其身份证件，所以案件仍在调查中。

At about 12 o’clock yesterday [am or pm? Not clear to me], the traces at the scene had already been covered with sand, but a large bloodstain was still exposed, and the surrounding area covered in drops of blood, as well as four or five bloody footprints. The community duty officer said nobody knew the deceased, and the Police also hadn’t found her Identity Card, so the case is still under investigation.

Damn, that’s just awful.  

Considering that roughly half my time in China has been spent in Beijing, and roughly half the time I’ve spent in Beijing has been spent in this southeastern corner, around BeiGongDa, it should be kinda surprising that I’d never really explored that small quarter northeast of BeiGongDa, between Xidawang Lu, Pingleyuan, BeiGongDa, and the Fourth Ring Road.

Not that there’s anything to see there, but as I’ve said before, it’s the boring parts of town that are the most interesting.

Anyway, I decided that I needed out of the apartment for lunch and at least part of the afternoon. I was starting to get a bit beyond cabin feverish. So for lunch I went across the road to the campus Muslim restaurant, which is the second closest restaurant to home, but the easiest to get to. It was closed, and will be until February 21. Yeah, welcome to your average Chinese university campus. Anyway, I decided to head northwards, up to a restaurant on the edge of the Pingleyuan market, a Northeastern place specialising in hotpot of some kind or another. Open, good, so I settled in for lunch, ate, and spent a good couple of hours watching the world go by. Then it was time to leave, and, on seeing how this lane followed what used to be the stinkiest canal in Beijing, but which is now dry, to the east, thought, well, I’ve never been down that way before, might as well go for a wander, have a look-see.

So I did.

Past the market was a very regular housing estate that looked like it was built in the 50s, but probably wasn’t quite that old. After that, there was what looked like a park to the left, on the northern side of the lane, and what looked like was a park-by-default, because the slum opposite the northeast gate to BeiGongDa hadn’t quite extended that far north. So I crossed the former stinky canal/current dry ditch and followed one of the attempted paths along the canal/ditch until I confirmed it was only going to take me to the fourth ring road, then turned back. But there were three almost-paths leading the other ways through the slum to the northeast corner of BeiGongDa, and none of them looked like the went all the way, so I asked a passer-by, then followed her directions. Of course, it was no more than 50 metres from where I was standing to the road I was looking for, once I’d been shown which path to take.

And so I took that path, then I headed to the local Jingkelong supermarket to get those infernal lightbulbs, then came home, and that was it. There you go, nothing to report.

Actually, I did manage to make good use of today’s continuing good, clean air and get something approaching exercise, which is what I desperately needed.

And I discovered that there’s a McDonald’s much closer to here than the previous closest one I knew of, but that ain’t good. But right next to that is a Papa John’s, which I believe specialises in pizza, and which may be worth checking out, but we’ll see. lzh and I will be heading in that direction this evening. Oh, yeah, I got to see the back end of our local Outlets (which was the first in Beijing, from what I remember) on my little ramble.

And I’ve all but confirmed that the temple for which that small corner of town is named, 潘道庙, no longer exists. As the title of this post suggests, I walked around that area, but I didn’t go through it. Difference of about 20 metres. Still, didn’t see a temple.

So, in other words, nothing to report.