quick…
It’s been one of those weeks. You know? Yeah, that kind. I can’t figure out why I’m so exhausted, but I am. Yeah, I was ranting about my students not doing what they’d been taught to do, but that was last weekend and Monday. This week? I dunno. Just exhausting, but for no obvious reason.
Got the HP laptop back, screen apparently fixed (it’s working so far) and that is good. It’s amazing how quick you adjust to the new settings. Well, the big box old Lenovo the university supplied was too big- in screen size, at least- and too obviously and poorly pirated- the OS, I mean. The old Lenovo laptop we reclaimed temporarily from Didi was not entirely up to date with all the bookmarks and/or preferences I had developed, but that is only natural, but suddenly seemed a tad small, particularly in screen size. But now the HP is back, all is good, and I finally get to see what the point of Thunderbird is (I finally installed that just a few hours before the screen crapped out).
But most importantly, there’s a bowl of jiaozi sitting on the table waiting to be eaten.
seeya
ramblingly pondering
Posted by wangbo in random, tilting at windmills on October 15, 2008
This post at the Ji Village News set synapses firing in ways they haven’t for a while. I started leaving a comment, but it was getting too long, so I brought my comment over here where it could find a fuller expression.
My father, my mother and I have three different hometowns. I’m not sure you can even say my mother has a hometown. I have, very briefly passed through the small town in Taranaki where she was born, but so far as I can tell, she was raised all over the North Island, spending a year in one town then moving on. My father hails from Gisborne on the exact opposite side of the island. His father was born somewhere in Australia and his father in Rutherglen, just south of Glasgow. My mother’s father was born in Ashburton, in the centre of New Zealand’s South Island, and his father I have no idea where. I don’t know where my grandmothers were born. And any time anybody asks me which part of Wellington I’m from I have to say rather awkwardly, “All of it”, because we moved around so much that I spent at least a year of my childhood in most of Wellington’s different suburbs, hills and valleys. If there is a Waugh 庄 it’s somewhere back in Scotland, the southwest so far as I can work out, and my branch of the clan long since lost any connection with the place- well, my uncle has visited, but it’s easier for him, he’s lived in England since he was 18.
I often wonder about my wife’s home village in Beijing’s Yanqing County. It was part of Hebei until 1958, and Chahar until 1952. I know about the Shanrong harrasing the capital of Yan back in the Warring States and that both Genghis Khan and Kangxi passed through- along the southern edge of the basin, the opposite side from us- and historically Yanqing had a fair bit of strategic value as the road to Beijing’s northwestern gateway. But more than textbook facts, I look at the land and the houses and listen to the people and wonder how they’ve changed over the years. Stories are one thing, seeing is another. The closest I’ve gotten to seeing the changes was on one short visit to the last of the maternal in-laws in my mother in law’s home village just across the provincial border in Hebei’s Huailai County. It’s the same basin in the mountains, essentially the same history (so far as I know), and the two villages are closer to each other than their respective county towns, and yet the difference is amazing. Crossing the border was like stepping back 20 years- that’s what I thought, and that’s what my wife said.
I don’t know when I started wondering about the stories held within old walls and stones and forests and streets, but I’m pretty sure it happened in New Zealand. Perhaps it was wandering through central Wellington, noticing where the shoreline was in 1840 and comparing that with where the shoreline is now. See, the reason Lambton Quay is a street and not a quay, and why the Basin Reserve is a cricket stadium and Kent and Cambridge Terraces streets and not canals, or that the land on which the airport and my old high school are built is dry land and not seabed, or that the street we lived on for four years in Petone has a big lump where the beach once was, and then a few hundred metres more of straight, flat road before you reach the beach where it is now, is the 1855 earthquake. Or perhaps it was living in Dunedin, a city built on the 19th century goldrush and since then sustained by the university. I don’t know. I do know that formal study of history drives me nuts, but somehow it still intrigues me.
I’m sure there were other random thots inspired by that post, but they seem to have shuffled back into the obscure depths of my brain. I’m sure they’ll come back to me at some ridiculous hour this morning. Anyway, I seem to have run out of steam.
Yeah, I believe in ghosts, but not in the conventional, superstitious way.
no surprise, but are there any literate journalists left?
There’s nothing surprising about this headline, but the article is as pathetic as one would expect of the mainstream media trying oh-so-desperately to comment on matters linguistic.
Not surprising, because in my experience (which does, of course, constitute a statistically significant example and would withstand peer review in even the most rigorous journal), younger Poms tend to have a mild local accent but generally sound like they stepped out of the hallowed halls of the BBC. Older Poms tend to be incomprehensible by anybody who was not born within a five mile radius of their home village. Yes, I’m exaggerating. But the principle holds. Younger Poms have less of an accent and more “standard” English than their older counterparts.
Pathetic? Do I need to go into the details? I ain’t no professional linguist, just a language learner and teacher. There’s a difference. And yet even I can tell this would be laughed out of any first year introductory linguistics class at any institute legally entitled to call itself a university.
Example:
And while 85 percent of Britons knew “weiner” was German for sausage,
Oh, please, learn to spell. A quick google shows you ‘weiner‘ is not the word you’re looking for. If it’s sausage you want, wiener, meaning of or from Wien- Vienna- is the word you need.
That would be the worst example I can spot, but the article as a whole, well, if one of my students had handed that in, it would’ve failed. Miserably.
tired, sore, frustrated
Posted by wangbo in life in Beijing, tilting at windmills on October 13, 2008
It’s one thing having to deliver the same lesson four times in one day- which may not sound too bad to those who work in primary, middle and high schools, but at university level that’s four times two teaching hours. Remember that. It’s worse, much, much worse, when circumstances dictate you spend most of that lesson talking. Not just talking, but talking to the entire class so that all here. And not just that, but driving a message home. Y’see, Test 1 revealed that my second year writing students were in desperate need of a wake up call.
Wake up call delivered to all four second year classes, my throat hurts like hell and my voice is shattered. The following word is to be read in an ET voice: Ouch.
But what’s really got me irritated is that the screen on our new HP laptop is playing up again. Yes, again. This time the screen is staying mostly lit, but it’s flickering constantly, and making a strange sound as it flickers, and tonight it was lit only in the centre, and half lit at best in the lower left and upper right corners. This, because I am at this point too lazy to break out the old Lenovo laptop, means I have to use the Lenovo big box computer the university provides. That would be ok if the big box in question had:
- A halfway legitimate version of Windows- or any legitimate version of any OS- installed;
- Was capable of displaying Chinese text properly (I spent a hell of a lot of time trying to get that to work properly, and failed);
- Could at least let me read blogs and newspapers, English, French and Chinese, online in reasonable comfort.
Point three is the real killer. The screen is too big for me to read in any comfort, but when I open a Chinese newspaper, point two kicks in and it becomes just plain painful to read no matter how I adjust the size of the script.
Well, so I have tomorrow afternoon off and I should hopefully manage to get the HP fixed and the last of my tests marked and all should be fine. Failing that I’ll break out the old Lenovo laptop. That still works perfectly.
Now I just realised I need to plan tomorrow’s writing class… back to the books.
good news, frustrating article
Posted by wangbo in beijing public transport, news on October 11, 2008
This article in 新京报/The Beijing News informs us that as part of Beijing’s efforts to expand and improve the city’s public transport network and to match the new traffic restrictions, the terminals of five subway lines are to get new bus routes, but I’ve searched through the article and can’t find which terminals and what new bus routes they’re getting.
See, the subway lines currently operating are:
- 1
- 2
- 5
- 8
- 10
- 13
- Batong
And there’s the Airport Line, but I think it’s fair to assume that’s not one of those getting new bus routes. And the S2 line to Yanqing is not part of the subway network, so that’s out, too. That leaves us those seven listed above. Which two aren’t getting new bus routes?
Oh, and the headline says clearly that five lines will be getting new bus routes, and later on it says the new bus routes will be added to 10 stations….
Will the Batong Line be getting new bus routes added to its Tuqiao terminus? Hard to imagine. And Line 8 in its current Olympic Branch Line form is so short and useless. But Xizhimen and Dongzhimen (Line 13) and Sihui/Sihui Dong at the eastern end of Line 1 already seem overcrowded, and how do you decide where the appropriate terminals are on Line 2, which is a loop? Still, new bus routes at Line 10’s southern terminal at Jinsong should be good, especially if they come past my place- the 801 is good, but can only be trusted to show up half an hour late. I don’t know what the bus situations at Line 10’s northwestern end, Line 1’s western end at Pingguoyuan, or either end of Line 5 are like.
So, please, TBN, spare me the explanation of the legal basis for the new traffic restrictions and give me details of these new bus routes.
Also in this article:
- The new traffic restrictions, which ban cars from the roads for one day each week, start today. I’m not sure anybody’s going to notice, though, from what I remember the restrictions only apply Monday to Friday.
- The last buses on those new routes added to the subway terminals will match up with subway closing times.
- 900-series buses (which run from the city to the suburban districts and counties) will also have their last buses depart later.
- Line 13 is going to get a whole lot of new trains.
- And a related article tacked on at the end says that for the time being there will be no government subsicy for people buying “new energy source” cars. It seems the government is favourably disposed towards electric, hybrid, natural gas, and other “new energy source” cars, but because the infrastructure for running such vehicles in Beijing is not here yet, there’ll be no subsidies for the time being.
So good news, but I’d like more details, please. I just searched through their “Beijing news” section and so far nothing.
And yes, I have developed a minor obssession with Beijing’s efforts to improve and expand its public transport network.
And I really should be in the office marking this huge stack of essays I want to hand back to the students on Monday.
Chris is not happy
Posted by wangbo in ranting, tilting at windmills on October 10, 2008
How? Oh, some bullshit technicality, it would seem. I’m still disgusted- with the actions of Fairfax, for starters, and with the result of the trial. Still, the law is a crusty old bitch and there ain’t no getting around that. I mean, that’s the best, or at least, least bad we can do. Big trouble is, of course, that the article I linked to is on a Fairfax website.
Alright, so I’ll accept the judges verdict. Fairfax was not in contempt of court and therefore the solicitor-general had no business bringing those charges, but Fairfax still broke the law:
However, they [the judges in question] said the articles breached some suppression orders and the law banning unauthorised publication of extracts from intercepted communications. Prosecution for both these types of breach would be a matter for the police rather than the Solicitor-General, the court said.
And of course all that is chased up with the predictable self-righteous media bullshit about free speech. I’ll grant you your free speech when you grow up and accept the responsibility that entails. Because Fairfax still broke the law, and even if the judges found that they did not compromise the accuseds’ right to a fair trial, Fairfax still decided it was above the law, and not only that, but acted highly irresponsibly, and broke the law. And the law in question exists for a very good reason: To guarantee the right to a free and fair trial for all those who find themselves accused of having broken the law. That right, and therefore some semblance of justice, can not be guaranteed unless the media pulls its head in and accepts the responsibilities that freedom necessarily entails.
So, if I were the not very benevolent dictator of New Zealand, I would order Fairfax to publish only the work of 5 year olds on the front pages of its newspapers [and magazines, if they have any] and websites and to change its name to ‘Free of facts’ and I would have all its higher mangement exiled permanently to Campbell Island (haha! Google maps doesn’t know what island I’m talking about! If you follow that link, just imagine a tiny, tiny speck of land roughly one third of the way between the southern tip of New Zealand and Antarctica).
In other words, I am thoroughly disgusted at stupid, stupid “journalists” who would completely fuck over other people’s rights to a free and fair trial because they are
- Maori
- Environmentalists (in a few cases)
- From an Iwi that never signed the Treaty and which has always had an, [ahem] “difficult” relationship with the government
- Accused, dubiously, by the Police of “Terror”
- Involved in a ‘story’ which is just drippingly ripe for media manipulation into collossal huge ratings/circulation
In other words:
- No country has ever needed “anti-terror” laws. I honestly can’t think of anything stupider. All terror crimes are covered by perfectly ordinary laws. All “anti-terror” laws have nothing whatsoever to do with “Terror” and everything to do with fucking us over and keeping us under ever tighter control. It really is that simple.
- Fairfax is thoroughly irresponsible and cares not a whit for the public interest. Fairfax’s only interest is circulation, and therefore profit. Therefore Fairfax does not deserve free speech. Freedom means responsibility, and responsibility means putting one’s own desires aside and considering the needs and interests of others. In order to have freedom, one must first be responsible. Really. You let your two year old run around everywhere unchecked because that’s freedom? No. You restrict your children’s freedom until they are old enough to take responsibility for their actions. Not only that, you gradually give them more and more freedom as they show more and more responsibility. Sadly, in this case, Fairfax behaved like a 2 year old, running straight for instant gratification, because that’s all a two-year-old is capable of.
My reading of that somewhat-less-than-objective article is that Fairfax didn’t so much as win, but not lose that case. That’s alright. Congratulations, for what it’s worth, considering the ref ruled that a different opposing team should’ve been on the field.
BUT
GROW
UP
!
something I can never tire of
I dunno
I can’t tire of Paul Simon’s music. I’ve written about this before, I’m sure, probably on some previous blog.
The man’s a true poet, and that’s a shockingly rare thing.
There’s something fundamentally humane in his music, a calm acceptance of the sadness and beauty of life, something that sees just how far we’ve fallen and just how far we’ve transcended.
Listening to American Tune, for example, as I did not five minutes ago, one feels incredible despondence and yet amazing hope at the same time.
It’s really hard to put your finger on. I’m sitting here racking my brains desperately trying to figure out how to describe Rhymin’ Simon’s music. It’s not possible, at least not for me. It’s something lying deep within the structure of the music and the poetry that elucidates and encapsulates the human condition, but only in the most subtle, subconscious way. It’s in the ease with which he slips through styles. It’s in the tone of his words, the tone of his choice of chords, the relaxed suppleness of his voice.
Yeah, I dunno. Listening now to Still Crazy After All These Years, a live version in which you can hear echoes of the audience singing along, and if I just close my eyes… I find myself sitting on the fire escape of some New York apartment watching the traffic and totally content with the world and totally at ease with all the contradictions and insanity of this existence. And yet I’ve never been to New York, or anywhere that side of the Pacific.
‘scuse my ramblings. It’s just one of those weeks. And tomorrow’s another working day and I should be getting my rest.
can’t resist…
Posted by wangbo in ranting, tilting at windmills on October 9, 2008
I’m sorry, I can’t resist this little rant:
There’s something seriously wrong with this headline:
Europeans perish in Nepal air crash
Especially when you compare it with the first paragraph:
Up to 18 people including 16 tourists from Germany, Australia and Nepal, have been killed after a small aeroplane crashed while trying to land at an airport near Mount Everest, according to Nepalese officials.
And the medium.
Here’s what I mean: “Europeans perish in Nepal air crash” makes me think we’re still stuck in some 1930s colonial mindset in which only European lives matter. I expect this kind of bullshit from the major European and North American media and their Australasian sycophants because, let’s face it, “the West” is still really [and stupidly] trying to get over it’s loss of empire and cope with the fact it is no longer the Undisputed Number One. But from Al Jazeera? For crying out loud! Al J suddenly rates European lives as vastly more important than the lives of mere colonial subjects?! What the hell is going on?
Secondly: Notice the phrase “from Germany, Australia and Nepal” in the first sentence? How many of the countries named are in Europe? One.
only one
So, partly to follow up on my first point, and partly to emphasise the fact that even the first sentence of the article does not give any credence to the stupid, stupid headline: Australia and Nepal are not in Europe. Two thirds of the countries mentioned are not European. The citizens of those countries are not European. In other words: It was not only Europeans who died in that plane crash.
So, how’s about Al J lives up to it’s initial promise, gives an equal voice to the rest of the world, and changes the headline to “Deaths in Nepalese plane crash”, or something that equally gives equal weight to all the lives lost regardless of their continental origin.
speeding up subway expansion
Posted by wangbo in Uncategorized on October 9, 2008
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.
a story that makes you wonder
Posted by wangbo in news, tilting at windmills on October 9, 2008
I’m not sure I really want to translate this. It’s not really my kind of story, but there’s something about it…. Ah, what the hell, might was well. 新京报/The Beijing News’ Zhan Minghui reports on a young Henan mother who has set up camp in the foyer of Chaoyang Hospital’s emergency department:
女子携婴夜宿医院
Woman with a baby stays in hospital overnight
Yeah, the headline doesn’t raise any eyebrows, does it? But continue:
截至昨晚，河南女子王姗姗带着刚出生40多天的女儿，已在朝阳医院急诊大厅暂住了四天。她声称自己长期遭丈夫虐打，后离家出走，目前生活困难。几日来，众多好心人施以援手，甚至表示愿意收养该婴儿。
Up to last night, the Henan woman Wang Shanshan had already stayed in the foyer of Chaoyang Hospital’s emergency department for four days with her 40-something day old newborn daughter. She claimed to have been brutally beaten by her husband over a long period, and so had left home. Currently her life is difficult. These few days, many kind-hearted people have helped her, even expressing their wish to adopt the baby.
女子携被虐照片诉苦
Woman carries a ruined photo to complain
昨晚，朝阳医院急诊大厅的候诊椅上，一名抱婴儿的女子被人群围在中间。据其出示的身份证与结婚证显示，她叫王姗姗，27岁，来自河南农村，与丈夫曾某结婚近一年。记者看到，其结婚证的照片上，丈夫的面部被圆珠笔涂黑。
Last night, on a seat in the foyer of Chaoyang Hospital’s emergency department, a woman carrying a baby was surrounded by a crowd of people. According to her identity card and marriage certificate, she is called Wang Shanshan, 27 years old, from the Henan countryside, married to her husband Mr Zeng for almost one year. This reporter saw that her husband’s face in the photograph in the marriage certificate had been blackened-out with a ballpoint pen.
“怀孕七个月时丈夫就嚷着不要孩子，还总当着老人的面打我，最后把我赶了出去。”王姗姗一边向记者出示自己被打后的照片一边说，40多 天前，她在老家的诊所内生下女儿，尚未取名，在娘家休养期间，她偷偷带女儿离开。因曾在顺义打过工，王姗姗带着女儿来到了北京。无亲无故的她们只好选择朝 阳医院急诊大厅落脚。据医院保安与服务人员等证实，王姗姗已在急诊大厅逗留了4天。
“When I was seven months pregnant, my husband shouted that he didn’t want the child, and always beat me in front of the old people, finally threw me out,” Wang Shanshan told this reporter as she showed a photo of herself after she’d been beaten. Over 40 days ago she gave birth to her daughter at a clinic in her hometown, who she still hasn’t named. When she was recuperating at her mother’s house, she secretly took her daughter and left. Because she had worked in Shunyi [note: a district of Beijing], Wang Shanshan brought her daughter to Beijing. With no relatives or friends in Beijing, they could only choose the foyer of Chaoyang Hospital’s emergency department to stay. Security guards and service staff at the hospital confirmed that Wang Shanshan had stayed in the emergency department’s foyer for four days.
但当记者询问其丈夫联系方式时，王姗姗在说出一个区号后忽然闭嘴，称自己“不记得了”。
But when this reporter asked for her husband’s contact details, Wang Shanshan said an area code then suddenly shut her mouth, saying she “can’t remember.”
围观人群提议收养婴儿
Lookers-on suggest adopting the baby
昨晚8时许，数十位群众围聚在王姗姗的身旁，听其讲述遭遇。期间，不断有好心人送上奶粉、棉衣、纸尿布等物品。“我的钱都花光了，不知道怎么养大这孩子。”得知王姗姗的困难后，四户家庭陆续上前，表示愿意收养其女儿。
At about 8 yesterday evening, a few dozen onlookers gathered around Wang Shanshan listening to her story. During this time, kind-hearted people constantly came to give her things like milk powder, cotton-padded clothing, disposable nappies [diapers]. “I’ve spent all my money, I don’t know how I’m going to raise this child.” After learning of Wang Shanshan’s plight, four families have come forward to express their desire to adopt her daughter.
至昨晚10时许，王姗姗仍在考虑是否将孩子送出。随后，记者电话联系了她的父亲。王父证实，女儿确实遭到女婿的虐打，但该情况在当地很普遍，所以他们家没有报警。“我不知道她来了北京，过两天就把她接回去。”
Up until 10 last night, Wang Shanshan was still considering whether or not to giver her child away. Soon after, this reporter managed to contact her father by telephone. Mr Wang confirmed that his daughter really had been brutally beaten after her marriage, but this situation is very common in that area, so the family had not reported it to the police. “I didn’t know she’d gone to Beijing. Send her back in a couple of days.”
昨晚10时30分，记者将情况反映给朝阳区救助站。目前，事件正在处理中。
At 10:30 last night, this reporter reported the situation to the Chaoyang District Aid Station. The case is currently being processed.
Reading things like “this situation [domestic violence] is very common in that area” makes my heart bleed just a little more, especially when it’s followed up with “so we didn’t call the police”. It may be common, but it shouldn’t be, and doesn’t need to be.
Well, I doubt we’ll hear much more about Wang Shanshan and her daughter, but I hope that some good comes out of this, for both mother and child.
Oh, and if you want to help, I suggest you contact either the Chaoyang District Aid Station or the reporter Zhan Minghui at The Beijing News, or perhaps stop by Chaoyang Hospital to see if Wang Shanshan is still in the emergency department foyer.