A
double espresso and a bottle of Perrier settling now down below. Outside my window are four Juneyao
Airlines’ planes. Juneyao is my
carrier today. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juneyao_Airlines
I don’t know much about them. Their logo color is red, almost maroon. Their seats match the stewardesses’ outfits with shades of purple. Juneyao’s two letter airline assignation is: “HO.” Chortle. I just had a look through the in flight magazine with the faux late-Qing Dynasty minimalist painting on the cover. The title of the magazine sounds like a sixties Mod band: “The Moment.” Odd, and off-putting it is to see Beijing inside cast as a tourist destination. You too could go to the places I go every day. The normal cast as the remarkable.
I don’t know much about them. Their logo color is red, almost maroon. Their seats match the stewardesses’ outfits with shades of purple. Juneyao’s two letter airline assignation is: “HO.” Chortle. I just had a look through the in flight magazine with the faux late-Qing Dynasty minimalist painting on the cover. The title of the magazine sounds like a sixties Mod band: “The Moment.” Odd, and off-putting it is to see Beijing inside cast as a tourist destination. You too could go to the places I go every day. The normal cast as the remarkable.
Lots of Shanghainese spoken to my rear and before me. Mixed feelings of attraction and
repulsion around its sounds that you almost never hear anywhere else. Officially, they’re telling me to
turn off the electric bits with a public announcement. Power down. But interestingly there is literally no enforcement. Again, mixed feelings. Why am I largely at peace sitting on
this completely new unknown brand about to jet off into the air? The vehicle is either a Boeing or and
Airbus like any other plane I’ve ever flown and the take off routine is
standardized any carrier in the PRC.
I’m surprised now that still, none of these lassies have come and told
me to get my device turned off.
I’m so well trained I’ll likely just do it myself even though no one appears
to be inclined to stop and order me to power down. Refreshing at one level of thinking. Worrying at another.
The Ethiopian mix has moved on a series of tunes, mixed by “Invisible
System” which is apparently a gent named Dan Harper from the UK who has mixed
this material . This tune “Ambassel”
from his 2011 albums “Street Clan” has some has a beautiful bowed instrument
lead in before a crunching guitar and a squad of confident vocal starts. I’ve got to get down to Addis some day.
Here’s a title for you. The Shanghai based “Global Times” English newspaper, has an
article, which I read during the device-free period. It had me laughing out loud and that is always a fine thing. “Rumors stoke up hatred for officials,
rich, report finds.” You don’t
say? Whoda thunk to mention
it? In the U.S. rumors, as such, are
permissible. There is an entire
genre of magazine and TV show based entirely upon innuendo. We have liable laws for willful
defamation but as it concerns crackdowns and punishments for the scourge of
rumor-mongering, enforcement is usually relegated to the classroom or perhaps
the workplace.
In China of course, rumors are serious stuff. In China 众口铄金[1] You be out there mongering
rumors and you may be putting the stability of the state in jeopardy. Think of all the Bigfoot and
Bermuda Triangle documentaries or “Eat the Rich” hardcore bands I would have
had to forego as a kid in the name of national order.
“About 64 percent of the rumor
samples the research involved hatred of officials, 58 percent hatred of the
rich and 70 percent public emergency incidents. The report jointly released on Monday by the Beijing Academy
of Social Sciences and Social Sciences Academic Press showed.”
One wonders about the sample set and the harvesting criteria
for this “Scientific” survey that may have been its own newspeak manipulation of truth itself to begin with. I’m surprised that the numbers aren’t
higher. It sounds like every cab
ride I’ve ever had in Beijing. One
wonders what else the “researchers” uncovered that people were spreading rumors
about? Presumably most real rumors
are simply bits we share about people in our immediate network. “I think they’re getting
divorced.” There. I’ve started a rumor. Are these part of the sample set? What else do people go on about that
authorities would want to crack down on?
Two headed cows? Miraculous
occurrences? Tibetan Yeti citings?
And while the rumor squad is of course cyber savvy and
vigilant in their monitoring of the nation’s social networks, the even more
threatening challenge seems to manifest itself off line, in the form of older
women.
Rumors spread not only via the
internet but also passed mouth to mouth by “aunts” referring to women over 40
years old, the research said. Some
87.2 percent of these rumors were hard to verify”
This would, I believe, all be worded rather differently back
home. One can hear the
public apology for all the harm the Global Times caused millions of aunties
across America which the publication would have been on the hook for were this
to have run as research findings in USA Today. I, for one, am glad to know that that young women have
better things to do than spread rumors.
I salute your discretion young ladies. And how about those guys? All the bare stomached, bald headed, card playing, audibly
expectorating uncles out there across the nation who said “no” to untruth. Good job fellas. Together we can help the aunties to be
more demur and stay the course for our peaceful rise.
My Juneyao liner is preparing now for its peaceful
decent.
[1] zhòngkǒushuòjīn: lit. public opinion is powerful enough
to melt metal (idiom) / fig. public clamor can obscure the actual truth / mass
spreading of rumors can confuse right and wrong
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