Friday, June 23, 2006
A night at the fights!
So I have arrived in hot and steamy Bangkok. It is clear that this statement can have multiple meanings when one considers that there is a sign at the door of my hostel stating, in good English: 'No thaimales or thaifemales allowed in rooms.' The place is overrun with filthy backpackers who obviously have a different idea of a good time than myself and I am looking forward to leaving this town on Sunday for the Southern beaches and then Malaysia and Singapore. I will talk more about Bangkok in a minute, but first I want to talk about a few things that I didn't consider it to be prudent to raise while I was in the grips of the Chinese Communist Party.
First, I am convinced that our classes were being monitored by the government, in a fairly overt manner. One day, two Chinese guys showed up and started taking notes about what the Profs were talking about. Who were these guys? There was no reason why a Chinese graduate student would attend one of our introduction to Chinese law courses. The only explanation that I can come up with is that someone wanted to keep an eye on what we were being taught. Not that we were learning anything subversive as all the professors basically parroted the Communist Party line. This went to the extent that in our constitutional law class, while the prof was running through slides of all the important President's and Premier's in Chinese history, when he came to Hu Yaobang, the Chinese Premier who 'retired' in 1987 and whose death sparked the protests which lead to the Tiananmen massacre, his picture was not shown.
Secondly, I'd like to talk about what I saw while I was standing in front of the Communist Party headquarters, adjacent to Tiananmen Square. My friend Michael and I were standing in front of the heavily guarded entrance snapping photos and praising the peaceful and productive direction of Angolan - Chinese relations when we heard some screaming and shouting. We looked up and saw about 20 terrified homeless people being dragged off in the back of a police van. From what I've studied, the criminal penalties associated with begging and homelessness are harsh. The official reasoning for this, from what I ascertained in criminal law class, is that everybody is given an opportunity in a communist state. My guess is that these migrant labourers are going to be providing free labour for the next few years.
I found it fascinating to visit China, but I am also glad to have left. It was getting frustrating to not have unimpeded access to information. While I admit that there are shortcomings with western media, it is much worse when the government actively censors and controls what you can read or writes what you read and hear. Tune into the government news channel and you will get a constant stream about what the Chinese president did that day and how Chinese officials met with some minor official from country X and how China is hoping to have peaceful and productive with that country in a broad spectrum of fields. It is boring and repetitive. I enjoy living in a state that when somebody fucks up, be it the Prime Minister, CEO, Chief Justice, police officer or reporter, I can criticize them. It would also be scary, in a way, if China succeeds economically. It would definitely be a challenge to the liberal notion that only open societies can and will become properous. I'm not sure if I like the idea of having an authoritarian, ruthlessly capitalist challenger to the current world order.
So Bangkok. I arrived early yesterday morning. The previous night, we partied hard. Alison and I met a couple of cool people from England on the bus from Dali, so we went out for a meal and stayed up all night drinking at a bar with them. I managed to get myself so drunk that I did the "porecelin dive" and then staggered through Chinese customs and immigration. I arrived in Bangkok and checked myself in at the first hotel I could find. I looked around for a couple of hours and then crashed at 5PM. I slept until 7AM this morning. My room was terrible. Until 3AM I could hear noise from a nearby night club. This town is too crowded with tourists and I am leaving it. Today, I did a little shopping and then met my fraternity brother Dan Buijs friendly girlfriend, Melinda Wong. I don't know if Dan reads this blog, but I have to say that the guy has struck gold. I think he has the intelligence to realize it too, as he is also the guy who, for his Msc thesis, has figured out how the SARS virus works. I have some smart friends. Tomorrow Melinda and I are attending an early Canada Day celebration. The next morning I am going to head south to To Kao, where I may learn how to dive, and then I am going to visit Malaysia and Singapore for a couple of weeks.
Tonight I attended a Thai boxing match. Essentially, Thai boxing is kick boxing. I hope that the boxers wear cups, as the goal seemed to be to grab the opponent and kick the opponent in the nuts and head as often as one could.
First, I am convinced that our classes were being monitored by the government, in a fairly overt manner. One day, two Chinese guys showed up and started taking notes about what the Profs were talking about. Who were these guys? There was no reason why a Chinese graduate student would attend one of our introduction to Chinese law courses. The only explanation that I can come up with is that someone wanted to keep an eye on what we were being taught. Not that we were learning anything subversive as all the professors basically parroted the Communist Party line. This went to the extent that in our constitutional law class, while the prof was running through slides of all the important President's and Premier's in Chinese history, when he came to Hu Yaobang, the Chinese Premier who 'retired' in 1987 and whose death sparked the protests which lead to the Tiananmen massacre, his picture was not shown.
Secondly, I'd like to talk about what I saw while I was standing in front of the Communist Party headquarters, adjacent to Tiananmen Square. My friend Michael and I were standing in front of the heavily guarded entrance snapping photos and praising the peaceful and productive direction of Angolan - Chinese relations when we heard some screaming and shouting. We looked up and saw about 20 terrified homeless people being dragged off in the back of a police van. From what I've studied, the criminal penalties associated with begging and homelessness are harsh. The official reasoning for this, from what I ascertained in criminal law class, is that everybody is given an opportunity in a communist state. My guess is that these migrant labourers are going to be providing free labour for the next few years.
I found it fascinating to visit China, but I am also glad to have left. It was getting frustrating to not have unimpeded access to information. While I admit that there are shortcomings with western media, it is much worse when the government actively censors and controls what you can read or writes what you read and hear. Tune into the government news channel and you will get a constant stream about what the Chinese president did that day and how Chinese officials met with some minor official from country X and how China is hoping to have peaceful and productive with that country in a broad spectrum of fields. It is boring and repetitive. I enjoy living in a state that when somebody fucks up, be it the Prime Minister, CEO, Chief Justice, police officer or reporter, I can criticize them. It would also be scary, in a way, if China succeeds economically. It would definitely be a challenge to the liberal notion that only open societies can and will become properous. I'm not sure if I like the idea of having an authoritarian, ruthlessly capitalist challenger to the current world order.
So Bangkok. I arrived early yesterday morning. The previous night, we partied hard. Alison and I met a couple of cool people from England on the bus from Dali, so we went out for a meal and stayed up all night drinking at a bar with them. I managed to get myself so drunk that I did the "porecelin dive" and then staggered through Chinese customs and immigration. I arrived in Bangkok and checked myself in at the first hotel I could find. I looked around for a couple of hours and then crashed at 5PM. I slept until 7AM this morning. My room was terrible. Until 3AM I could hear noise from a nearby night club. This town is too crowded with tourists and I am leaving it. Today, I did a little shopping and then met my fraternity brother Dan Buijs friendly girlfriend, Melinda Wong. I don't know if Dan reads this blog, but I have to say that the guy has struck gold. I think he has the intelligence to realize it too, as he is also the guy who, for his Msc thesis, has figured out how the SARS virus works. I have some smart friends. Tomorrow Melinda and I are attending an early Canada Day celebration. The next morning I am going to head south to To Kao, where I may learn how to dive, and then I am going to visit Malaysia and Singapore for a couple of weeks.
Tonight I attended a Thai boxing match. Essentially, Thai boxing is kick boxing. I hope that the boxers wear cups, as the goal seemed to be to grab the opponent and kick the opponent in the nuts and head as often as one could.
