Bad Reporting

Remember when I talked about the China brand news? Well, the agencies are still at it, releasing any story that has a number and the word China in it - assuming the number is a casualty count. And sometimes this leads to poor reporting. Today's example is proudly brought to you by Yahoo! News:

"BEIJING – China's official Xinhua News Agency says 12 people have died after an elevator plunged at a construction site in east China.

Xinhua says the elevator fell Thursday morning on a housing construction site called "Sunshine City" in east Fujian province. Rescue efforts have been launched and local officials are investigating the incident.

No other details were available.

Workplace and industrial accidents are common in China, where safety measures have not always kept pace with rapid economic development."

And that's the entire newspost. It even goes to say "No other details were available." This wouldn't be too bad, but they will post no follow-up to the story. There's no backing to the last sentence and it doesn't really offer valuable background information either. This is what I would call bare minimum news. You write what, where and when and press post. It's not much different from Blogging, but more should be expected of news reporting. Perhaps it's reminecent of the time of minimal newspaper notes when you didn't have the pages available. But this is not a printed media.

Be careful with the China news, they underperform in many ways.

OP out.

Photo Challenge 1 Results - Misery, Sex

Hello Everyone.

As you can see, I've brought you last week's Photo Challenge results. Now, remember, participation is still open and I'm taking more categories/topics/requests. You can participate by commenting any of the Photo Challenge posts and leaving a category or a theme you want a picture taken of.

This week "Misery" goes together with the posts on sucky workplaces we've had. There's one guy who has a worse job than you. "Sex" depicts a scene very near to where I live. There are various small shops and barbers (where nobody knows how to cut hair) near here. Some with blue lighting, hinting of other trades in addition to prostitution.

Pictured, challenger

1. Misery - Markvs
2. Sex - Markvs

Open challenges, challenger

1. Martians - Markvs

OP out.

Sucky jobs

I know OP has much more to offer to this topic, but this is something I've been amusing myself on. Being amused about this is about as politically correct as thinking Paralympics as a comedy event, however. But since I live in China (almost) I don't have to concern about political correctness since no one else does either around here.

In fact, nobody cares around here. Racist jokes are funny and so are people in wheelchairs playing tennis. That's the way it is. You don't have to like it if you think it's not proper, or whatever, but it won't change the fact that most people in China don't give damn. If it's funny, it's funny.

Like an extremely funny retardation (© Borat).

Well, enough about that.

About sucky jobs. You see them a lot in China and Hong Kong too. It's, in fact, incredible how many sucky jobs there are around. Rest assured, a vast majority of the western world has no idea what it means to have a awesomely crappy job. You can watch Discovery Channel's show "Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe" and think the people on the show have it pretty bad. But the thing is, they at least get a decent wage and don't have to live in fear of getting fired for trivial reasons.

Let's take a Chinese factory as a case example. A factory worker is at the bottom of the salary-range when it comes to urban jobs. They work long shifts doing a job that repeats itself every 2-10 seconds and get a maximum three breaks a day. Be late from work once and you're fired; be tired one day with reduced efficiency and you're fired. Worst case scenario, you don't have any vacations except Chinese national holidays - not even weekends. Some factories give you one day off per week. No talking to your co-workers while working either.

Because the restriction the workplace puts on you, you probably can't stay up too late after work, so you sleep early in order to wake up in time, fresh, and able to work yet another day. And for what?.. for salary worth my average trip to a clothing store. Not only do the workers need to live on that salary but their families back home depend on the worker sending some of the money there.

Of course, the conditions in factories vary greatly depending on who is your employer. Western companies and bigger Chinese companies tend to have more humaine conditions while the smaller Chinese companies sometimes don't pay some much attention to the finer details.

I once went to a factory that manufactured LCD screens. A really mad-scientist type of underground facility with cleanrooms and high sterility and all that. Well, there were people there working 10 hour shifts, inspecting and working on microscopic details of the electronics in really close-range. They got a 15 minute break every 3 hours or so with lunch at some point. While working, they had to operate on clockwork precision to keep the production line going with required speed. No resting your eyes there.

We asked the factory management about the employees doing the work. And the management said that they have to replace the workers every few years at least since their eyes go so bad they can't do the job. Apparently there was no consideration to actually improve the workers' conditions: the cure to the problem was to replace the old workers with fresh pairs of eyes. Pay them low salary, ruin their eyesight and when they're no longer usefull, kick them out. Repeat every few years.

Well, these are the kind of sucky jobs we hear about in the media as well. Nothing new there. And these are not amusing even for me. However, there are jobs that are. Makes you wonder, what is their function in this great scheme of life and why do the poor souls have to do such a work in the first place.

Like, the legendary taxi-queue service person.

A person whose job is to show (my pointing his/her hand) the next available taxi to a person in a taxi queue. If the salary was good, it'd probably make an ideal job for a lazy excuse for a human like me. But the salary is not good, rest assured. Similar jobs can be found in other places too, like in banks or at the border for passport inspection.

I was at the Canton-fair last week (and had my share of McHell (read OP's post earlier)) and there was a security guy standing on a podium looking very serious and authoritative. Great, expect his podium was placed directly under sunshine and it was a hot, hot, hot day. In any humaine country you'd expect a watch like that to be relieved by another guard every 30 minutes or so. Not this guy. Maybe he was a statue. No idea how he could just stand there and not collapse under hyperthermia.

Other such amusing sucky jobs include the recycling system in Hong Kong which basically is people diving the trash bins for anything suitable for recycle. They collect the stuff and take them to recycle depots. We don't really have extensive recycling program in Hong Kong but we have waste treatment plants. Someone didn't do the math of 1 (trash) + 1 (treatment plant) = 2 (a recycling program), so now there are people who gather the trash themselves for recycling.

Sometimes you see old ladies with a pile of scrap cardboard packing materials on their little trolleys and they're pouring water on the cardboard. This is because they get paid by weight, so they want to make them as heavy as possible. Illegal of course, but anything for an extra dime.

Sucky jobs for everyone! Sucky jobs for everyone! Get your sucky job from here! You want it, we got 'em! (Salary is not included in the package.)

If you think your job sucks. Don't worry. Just look at the picture below and imagine yourself doing that for € 80 per month. In the same factory, the welders didn't have proper welding masks but had makeshift masks made from cardboard and tinted glass. Now, your job isn't that bad after all, is it?

Imports in China

So I'll put the photo challenge thing from my mind for a moment. I'm thinking of posting about it weekly, but that's only if I come up with the pictures in time. Let's go with something more factual which isn't from a news post, for a change. I'll tell you of Imports in China.

Have you ever found a product in China with a white sticker pasted on top of the regular product info sticker? Yeah, it's an import. If the Chinese are good at something, it's exporting. 

You will find imported goods only in the largest chain stores and marts of foreign origin. Seven Eleven will have some imports. Wall Mart will have imports, as will Costco, Tesco and such. The local Chinese supermarkets C&U, Hao You Duo and others will not. 

At some point most foreigners will crave a good from their home country, or at least something similar. Or if all else fails, they might crave something ... not Chinese. Perhaps I'm exaggerating, but you grow vary of Chinese goods and from time to time the imported items seem like a luxury to splurge on. And you go looking for what you find in your local chain stores.

You're in luck if you have a large shop in your area and you want cheese. Actually, with the dairy scare, foreign goods appear all the more enticing for the lao wai. You are also in luck if you like foreign beer, canned foods or expensive brand clothes (hell, even I have a Chinese made jacket with imported fabric.) But aside from those, you are out of luck.

Generally, this would not be a problem but for some items it's next to impossible to find imports and the local items leave a bit to be desired. Sausages spring to mind. And after eating a stick of meat with corn inside I know I've tried. 

So why is this? There exists a 1.3 billion people market opening up to foreigners by the day, eh? Yeah, good luck entering the market here. Your average consumer earns, on average, anything between 800 to 1500 RMB a month. Yes, the rich locals might find value in high quality expensive items and there exists the face culture which means they are willing to spend money on luxury. So imagine your target market is the small minority of wealthy city Chinamen. Consider the difficulty of entering a market where English is next to useless as a marketing tool. Remember it's a market where until the last few years you had to have a joint venture with locals to enter at all. All the while there are Chinese luxury brands coming up, competing with you for the wealthy locals. Suddenly your target market looks a lot smaller, with a lot more competition and risk.

I don't think it's an impossible market, as the people hopping in to Hong Kong to buy milk powder prove - there are opportunities for the brave, lucky and rich. But in the end it means imported goods are few and far between in select shops. 

A foreigner might think there exists a concrete difference between Asahi beer and Red Rock beer; not so much for the local consumer. They will drink beer. If they don't need to make face they can select the cheapest (and as an added benefit,) the lowest alcohol content beer. This goes for foodstuffs in general - and remember, for quite a large variety of other goods you can find cheap copies.

Believe me. If you ever end up drinking The Great Wall Cabernet Vine or Pearl River beer you too will think it's a cheap copy. 

OP out.

Cuts and Saucers

Haircuts, flying saucers.

I have been writing about haircuts previously also in one of my blogs. But anyways, generally, haircuts in Asia are nice: Cheaper than in EU, they always wash, sometimes massage, and the feeling is overall refreshingly gay. Its not one of those overweight lung cancer mamas playing with your hair, its either your Japanese school girl fantasy or alternatively gay Kim's super-fantastic gay barber.

I had the gay alternative today, but I'm really happy with the result. "Senior Stylist" was 65 RM and considering how rarely I bother to even comb my hair, I'd say the price was fair. But definitely on the fucking expensive side when Malaysian haircutting is concerned. I think you can get a regular haircut with 10-15RM if you're not too picky nor staying in the expensive areas.

On another news, I found out that Malaysia is being stalked by an U.F.O. I'm not that scared honestly, but I can already see the mass hysteria after I post this pic so let's just do it for the fuck of it;

Picture was taken by my girlfriend. That's an obvious Nazi UFO right there. Behold!

Photography

I used to lament how posting pictures in the old blog was difficult. And now that I'm here, I post pictures in perhaps half of my posts or less. Way to go me.

So here's what I'm going to do. (And this would be much more fun if we had many more readers, but we can try anyway.) Name a place, item, situation or whatever you want a picture taken of in Taizhou and I'll zip by and photo it for you.

If we get a massive amount of input I'm choosing the best suggestions. Regardless - suggest a topic and I'll photo it and post it here. I'll take submissions from anyone, you can mail it or leave it as a comment to this post. 

3.2...1. and ... go.

OP out.

See you at the party Richter!

I watched Total Recall yesterday. It was the best movie I've seen for a while. Almost better than The Dark Knight, albeit being from the sinister 1990's. But as with all Arnold movies, Total Recall is packed with legendary one-liners, supercool violence and pure awesomeness. ALL of the special effects were flawless as well, not to mention the amazing setting of Mars and future-Earth! 5/5 easily, maybe even 6/5.

The thing about Arnold movies is that they never get old. Some might claim them repetitive when the tempo of a movie is concerned, but the dialog, setting, plot, acting, and characters make up so much that whether your watching Predator, Commando, Terminator, Running Man or Pumping Iron, you feel that the whole setting is real, and it's like watching a documentary except that it's interesting.

The most superduperawesome thing that makes Arnold movies timeless is, however, the critique they present. If you watch, say, Running Man, you can still apply the movie's message to the current state of the world very easily. I'm not going to speculate the message here, because its crystal clear and America sucks again etc, but furthermore, I don't want to spoil anyone's movie experience.

Other than spending time with my best friend Arnold, my laptop broke down. Now I gotta buy a new one. In Finland you have to wait usually for few weeks when you want to buy a computer. In Hong Kong, you have to wait 2 hours. TWO FUCKING HOURS??!! What the hell is that? That's like more awesome than awesome. So I got used to that kind of service because I bought my last laptop from Hong Kong, and now my attitude is that if I want something, I want it NOW. If I can't get it "now", I don't buy it. In Malaysia you have to wait. Shit.

... and here I went to look for laptops ranging from 2500 - 3000 RM, recommended by a friendly PC Gamer magazine. No shop so far has the models available I'm looking for, so fuck them. "We can order" is the most common answer, and "1 to 2 weeks" is the most common waiting time. However, in Malaysia you can double the promised waiting time easily, and furthermore, I'm super pissed even if I had to wait more than 1 day. I'm left with an option to go through all the computer shops until one of them has a satisfying model. This will take more than 1 to 2 weeks, but it gets me less pissed than the alternative of ordering. Ordering sucks also because if the laptop is broken for some reason and I have to return it, then I'm SUPERDUPER pissed.


Fuck slow service. This is 2000's and I'm a kid who has it all. Do something.

Canton Fair

If I were to start a religion, one based on fear, I would tell my
congregation that Hell is a very real place, where you are forced to
eat at the Canton Fair McDonalds every day. This should be enough to
terrify even the most stout atheist, but for those few still
unconvinced I would explain the noise, the immense size filled with
people and the menu. The menu where you have 5 options, two of which
include a coconut flavor apple pie.

Honestly speaking, the fair has improved from last year. It's now in
three sessions instead of two which means less suppliers per session.
And even with the huge exhibition area, less traffic and chaos is a
definite improvement. But McHell is still there, loathsome and vile,
waiting for you to get desperate with hunger. It knows you cab only
walk so much further before you realize it's the only source of food
you can find. After, you feel violated and bloated.

Perhaps next year I'll try going hungry instead.

OP out.

Hey

This post will have even less things to read than the last one. The reason for this is simply that nothing is happening. I cry about the same thing again, you might have noticed, but honestly, as Pekka once stated; routines are pretty much the same everywhere in the world..

1) Wake up
2) Go to work
3) Come home
4) Do hobbies/watch telly/eat/have sex etc.
5) Go to sleep

And the same stuff again on the next day. Boy life is interesting. Seriously though, I'm 100% sure that no-one besides my mum or my girlfriend, gives a rat's ass what I had for dinner yesterday, what hobbies I did, what tv-program I watched etc. Don't get me wrong though, I'm quite happy right now with the situation as the power of Babylon has gotten its stranglehold of me, and I don't know about better anymore. I bet that people living under extreme conditions have much more interesting lives actually, yet they're probably less happy since their lives are unstable and unpredictable.

But before this post goes too deep into analysis about the meaning of life, and how should I repent about my wellbeing and not whine about it, I tell you that I moved into a new nice home which I like very much. 650+ sq. feet just for my skinny ass. Yesterday I bought new stereos as well. They're Sony. They sound very good. I picked the more expensive model 'cause I wanted to have a good sound. Then I also bought a new miniature for tabletop wargaming, but that one's going to be painted as a showcase for a Finnish miniature painting competition. Now I'm drinking McDonalds' coffee to wash down the apple pie and a Sausage McMuffin I just had.

Bob is now 100% sure that Markus is a prisoner of Babylon, and the worst kind actually, because Markus recognizes the "problem" yet does nothing about it. But unlike Bob, Markus doesn't believe in Babylon nor salvation. Markus believes in incurable loneliness of human mind and the joys of the flesh.

Tales from the Traffic Front

So every one has been with a bad driver. Sure, you can talk of your experiences here.

But please do not say you met the worst driver in China or Asia. Don't go on lenghts about how horrible the ride was. The China "vets" have been there and done that. Coming from anywhere except perhaps Italy, we all find the traffic much worse here. We all pay attention to it and at some point we all feel dread, be it doing 120km/h in a bus during a monsoon rain, or with a company driver who nods off on the highway - or just your common "Crazy Chinese Taxi Driver."

I won't be impressed by tales of how bad the traffic is in your home state. I have my tales of awful traffic, and no, you can't top them. Still, every so often a visitor here will want to talk about traffic. On and on. It's such a popular topic, but really, it's been done. My boss and a coworker of mine spring to mind immediately.

I'm not going to share any close calls I've had with my scooter, nor am I going to recount how many similar scooters I have seen stuck under trucks, smashed to bits. If you've been to China, you've seen the like and know what I'm talking of. And if you haven't, you don't need the mental image of a guy laying on the asphalt squirming in pain as onlookers wait for an ambulance. I've avoided any major bumps but I've seen my share.

Traffic. The one topic of which everyone has a top story.

OP out.

The Flow of Information

Did you know in China you are not always required to pass down information?

The example I will recount today regards factory holidays. I asked our contact at our regular supplier to tell me the dates they were going to get off for the National Day, about a week before the day. She told me the holidays were'nt set yet, but would be for one or two days starting on 2nd.

She was sure there wouldn't be a longer holiday though. So, unimpressed with the answer I press on, to ask the production manager a day later. He's higher in the food chain, so I assumed he would know. Same answer, not a long holiday.

So I call on the first to get one last paper done before they go on the holiday. The answer? "Sorry, we're on the National Day holiday and it'll be for three more days. Nobody's at the factory." So here I am, sitting here after the holiday and the subsequent weekend still waiting.

The factory boss was traveling in Japan, and didn't deem it necessary to let anyone else know how long or starting when would they have holidays. He then comes back from his trip a day before the holiday starts and declares it three days. Hardly a coincidence.

I won't even bother to ask when the next holiday is.

OP out.

Saving Face

The Olympics gave a great amount of face to the Chinese, too bad the Chinese children had to suffer for it. I don't mean the children working for Nike or Adidas (and they do use child labor) but the fact that China knew about the Melamine tainted milk powder but hushed the media.

Sanlu (the biggest baby formula manufacturer in China, also blamed) recieved the first complaints of sick babies last December and the first death occurred 1st of May. Newsreporters were prevented from investigating and reporting the incidents, in order not to tarnish the olympics.

Here's the newspost, from AFP, through Yahoo!:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081001/wl_afp/chinafoodsafetychildmedia

It was an intentional act to add Melamine to the milk powder. Then it was deliberately covered up. 50.000+ babies got sick and four died.

OP out.