Spirit of Giving in China

The following is an excerpt from the China daily. Apparently a school which was offering free training to poor kids was shut down. The reason allegedly given was that the free school had not registered and thus could not operate. In close proximity to the free school was a training school which probably offered similar services, albeit with a price. This is china so you can guess why the free school was closed…

excerpt:
“A volunteer teaching project for migrant workers’ children in Kunming, Yunnan province was shut down by the local department of education earlier this month, only because it hadn’t officially registered as a school, the People’s Daily reported on Friday.

Yan Duansu, who graduated from Yunnan University of Finance and Economics, started a volunteer project in August 2009 to help migrant workers’ children with their homework. In November 2009, she was offered a 25-square-meter room in a bookstore to continue the project. Later called the Folk Classroom, the project attracted more than 20 volunteers and about 20 children of migrant worker parents.

On Dec 7, the local bureau of education notified the Folk Classroom of a decision to penalize it, because it was “enrolling students without permission of an official education department.”

What’s more, according to an official with the bureau, the classroom was located near a registered training school, thus affecting the latter’s enrollment; and Yan charged some student fees, making the project “not purely voluntary.”

Yan said she needed money to keep the project going. The expense list she provided showed an income of 2,300 yuan($347), of which 1781.6 yuan was spent on supplies and surveys. “We don’t have the money for the 200-square-meter room required by the bureau,” she added.

“Education” in China- Part 1

I’ve been in China for over 3 years now and still am trying to figure her out. Each opportunity to watch, to listen, I believe helps me to do so. Partly due to my desire to learn about her, and in general to learn about humanity, have lead me to take classes in ‘higher education’ in China. Let me describe ‘education’ to you in China…
Firstly, allow me to preface this for you with some background. I have studied at quite a few universities back home at both the undergrad and graduate level, in addition, I’ve done some work at other schools across the Americas, so I’ve seen quite a bit of how academia works, in theory and in practice. After coming to China, I’ve had to redefine what education, at least as far as the center country goes, is. My first experience here was at one of the most exclusive schools in the country. The application process, theoretically was rigorous. On paper it says one must have the highest GRE and grades from a top uni. When I went to apply, however, these requirements were brushed aside and the most compelling question was asked.
Lady at school-“hi, can i help you?”
me-“im sorry, i have not filled out the paperwork, but I would like to join your exclusive program, i see that i need to take the xxx test, as well as submit copies of my transcripts…”
lady-“do you have the money now”
me-“yes”
lady- cutting me off “did you want to start now?”
me- “as i said, yes i would like to, but do not have the required paperwork, need to get my transcripts.”
lady-“you from which country?”
me-“usa”
lady-“ok, well you did not sign this paper, ”
me-“yes, as i said, i dont have my grades or anything…”
lady- cutting me off again. “you wanted to sign up now?”
me-“well yes.”

A week later I was sitting in the hallowed halls of a premier Chinese school. The room was had the appeal of a cave, or a jail cell. The older prof was a doddering man who seemed ill at ease discussing the subject matter with foreigners. The swishing of his polyester suit proclaimed his status within the uni, he spoke quickly with a strong accent. While the majority of us began the class with pencils poised, we quickly rejected this approach and considered our chat programs and texting friends. The class had no text book, nor handouts.
-sadly enough this is a true story, more to come…

end of part 1

Subway love in China

in China this type of site is a rarity. This guy seems to be comforting his wife/loved one. To see compassion in China is not a common site.

China Spying on The USA- Over 40 Spies Caught in Last Two Years

China is stealing our secrets and we just allow it, feel its not a threat…pass this excerpt around excerpt: “…Forget about the Russian spy ring the FBI broke up that stole mostly headlines (as opposed to U.S. secrets) for their amateurish methods. This is no joke. These Chinese moles mean business. And they’re stealing highly sensitive military secrets. At least 44 of them have been quietly prosecuted in the last two years alone — a figure that dwarfs the number of Russian spies expelled last month. And those are just the ones we’ve caught. The Chinese agents are serving time in federal prison on espionage-related charges. They stole sensitive weapons technology, trade secrets and other classified information bound for China. Some of the cases involve agents operating on behalf of the Chinese government or intelligence. Earlier this month, a former B-2 stealth bomber engineer in Hawaii was convicted of selling military secrets to China. He sold stealth cruise missile technology to Beijing during trips there. The growing espionage threat comes on the heels of the administration’s decision last year to downgrade our own intelligence gathering on China from “Priority 1” status, alongside Iran and North Korea, to “Priority 2.” The decision sent shock waves throughout the U.S. intelligence community, according to China expert Bill Gertz. So while China has deployed an army of agents to spy on us, we’ve reined in our spooks. That means our intelligence about China’s military buildup will only suffer, adding to an already dangerous gap there. “China has exceeded most of our intelligence estimates of their military capability and capacity every year,” said Adm. Robert Willard, the new commander of U.S. Pacific Command. “They’ve grown at an unprecedented rate in those capabilities. ….Added GOP Rep. Pete Hoekstra, ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee: “China is aggressively pursuing military capabilities and aggressively conducting cyberattacks” against the United States.”

Post Christmas Ranting from China

I read something that I found to be amusing the other day. It was an article proclaiming how China is becoming more westernized, the reason was that China has many Chritmas trees in the city center and larger shopping malls. To me, this is like saying that because I now have tits I am a woman (if you have not followed my blog, I am a man, but due to the wonderful milk products and or toxins, I feel I am sprouting man breasts), in continuation, the article said that China is becoming more westernized/civilized because they have Christmas trees in various shopping malls and buidlings, my reply is that this is pure hogwash. Usually those who write such articles come to beijing or shanghai for three days, only visity tiffany’s and the like and then consider their China experience complete. they return home, reporting to anyone that will listen, that China has changed and is now thoroughly a modern country. Hmmm to anyone who has lived in China, this is laughable. The real China expeirence lies in inhaling mass amounts of CO, NO2, lead and on a daily basis while washing it down with mela – milk. Then before going out to pay the bribes that one must pay in order to live in china, one straps on some pendant made of lead or another poisonous metal, and leaves one’s abode. While out, one will witness people spitting on the elevators, sidewalks, buses etc. They will see the ‘chefs’ at ‘high class’ restaurants use the toilet and never wash their hands, but still prepare a fabulous meal. They will see the babies wearing pants with the rear cut out, so that the child can defecate wherever they are, be it indoors or out. If one has seen these things, one has seen China, if one has seen only the Christmas trees, or the 5 star hotels, then they should have stayed home, read my blog, read this or this, you would at least get an impartial view of the real China. Merry Christmas to All!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

More Spying from China

Here is an excerpt about Chinese allegedly stealing technology. In this instance it was allegedly for Huawei, but in China, this type of theft is quite common. I never leavemy laptop in hotels, nor use usb’s offered by Chinese ‘friends’, i learned the hard way. I also have friends who now refuse to bring laptops into the country. excerpt: “Ever since it was sued by rival Cisco Systems in 2003 for intellectual-property violations, Chinese networking company Huawei Technologies has been trying to repair its reputation. That may be difficult. Business-Week obtained a July 21 letter from the general counsel of Fujitsu Network Communications to Huawei CEO Ren Zheng-fei, claiming that a Huawei employee was caught trying to filch information on rivals’ products at a recent trade show in Chicago. According to the letter, Yi Bin Zhu was discovered after hours in Fujitsu’s booth removing the casing from a $1 million piece of networking gear and taking photos of the circuit boards inside. A security guard confiscated the photo card in Zhu’s digital camera, along with a notebook containing notes and diagrams of other suppliers’ gear. AT & T, Cisco, Lucent, Nortel, and Tellabs got the letter, suggesting Zhu may have had information on some of their products as well. Zhu was wearing a badge saying he worked for “Weihua,” the letter says. But a source says he had a Huawei business card. Fujitsu gave the photo card and notebook to the FBI. “The only logical conclusion that one can draw is that the employee in question was engaged in unlawful activities that may have been a violation of the Economic Espionage Act of 1996,” says the letter from Melanie Scofield, the Fujitsu unit’s chief legal counsel. Scofield couldn’t be reached for comment, but a Fujitsu source says it will not press charges. The FBI declined comment. Other companies say they have not heard from the Feds. Coincidentally, on July 28 Cisco dropped its lawsuit because Huawei passed a review to prove it had cleaned up its act. Huawei says the FBI has not gotten in touch. It calls the incident “an unfortunate misunderstanding” and is trying to determine if disciplinary action is needed. Zhu is still working, but with reduced pay.”

Chinese Christmas

Yeah, just another day…