Bread and Circuses : marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist State (UPDATED)

Bread and Circuses is a millennia-old method of keeping the masses under control, which together with the "carrot and stick" approach is the way the CC State uses in order to create "harmony".

Last year was the Beijing Olympics, this year is the upcoming gargantuan parade for the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist State this week.

The Big Propaganda Machine is again rolling - Stalinist and Hollywood style.
A video.

No Detail Is Overlooked as China Prepares to Celebrate (New York Times).
And Pictures showing preparations for the October 1st parade.

In addition to the Thursday 60th anniversary, this year is a year of other "sensitive anniversaries", Tibet, Tiananmen, etc, and observation makes one think deeply.

20 years on, on Tiananmen tanks will roll again, but this time there will be cheers and ballons - an indication of mass-amnesia of 1,3 billion people. It is very scary.

Also the escallated ethnic and social tensions (in Tibet and Xinjiang) are showing how far and deep are the exhisting problems and how things are far from "harmonious"...
Connected news articles:

About the social challenges that China faces today:
60 years on, China faces major social struggles (AFP)

China's Internet Censorship Gets "Worse And Worse" Ahead Of 60th Anniversary
China Clamps Down on Internet Ahead of 60th Anniversary

The National Day celebration follows the most violent and sustained unrest against Chinese rule in decades in its far western regions of Xinjiang and Tibet.

Ahead of the parade for the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Chinese State which is on the 1st of October China bans foreign tourists from Tibet again!*


*China requires foreigners to obtain special permission to visit Tibet and routinely bars them from all Tibetan minority areas of the country during sensitive periods. The region has been periodically off-limits since riots in March 2008 saw Tibetans protesting Beijing's rule attack Chinese migrants and shops, and torch much of Lhasa's commercial district.

An UPDATE - After the Parade (3rd October):

News feeds about the spectacle:

video

pictures

articles:

Communist China marks 60 years with tanks, kitsch (AP)

China marks 60 years with spectacle of power (Reuters)

On China's 60th anniversary, Tibet wants quiet (The Christian ScienceMonitor)

Another UPDATE:

An interesting analysis of the State sponsored Hollywood-style 'docu-drama style' blockbuster film 'Founding of a Republic' (建国大业) - Reshooting History in a New China Film (TIME).

3 days in the mountains

Last week I finally managed to get away and go to P. mountains for 3 days hiking. Previously since I am back I went on two occasions for a day hike to nearby (not so far away from my hometown)mountains, but it's much different to go to a bigger mountain and sleep up there at high altitude away from cities and civilisation. The special physical exhaustion of mountain trekking is something I miss very much yearlong. The way the body feels walking, trekking at higher altitude, with the majestic views of mountains around is something that I cherish very much.
P. is a very majestic and beautiful mountain, but it is also very severe looking and sometimes technically hard for hiking. It has a very stone-hard feeling about it, 'cold' beauty that I can appreciate, but frankly it is not the kind of mountain I feel most comfortable with. I prefer green slopes and softer outlines, forests and rounder hills and ridges...
After a year of almost zero physical exercise I thought that I'm in a very bad shape, but it turned out that it's actually not so bad.

The trek was good and energy-filling apart from the last part of our third day when we climbed down from a dangerously-looking peak.

Here is a photo showing the last peak we climbed on the 3 day of our trekking in P. mountain. The picture shows with a red line the descend path. The technically difficult descend almost led to a tragic outcome, since one of our fellow climbers misstepped and slipped on a stone, damaged his knee and suffered a severe shock that caused loss of cautiousness. I really don't know how, but he managed to regain consciousness and some strength and with much struggle we managed to climb down from the dangerous and technically difficult path and safely went down.






You can see more views from the places I went to this time here. (The pictures are not mine and are not taken this time)

The exhibition

Here is a link to a web album where I have uploaded some photos showing a part of the exhibition (it's in the cafe of the galery where the exhibition was held that's why there are chairs and tables). The album also contains some selected images which entered the final selection for the exhibition or would have entered if there was enough space...

http://picasaweb.google.com/d.karmapolice/WhereThereAreFliesThereAreAlsoBuddhas?authkey=Gv1sRgCI7t6O6J2qiObw#

I hope this will give those of you who didn't have opportunity to see the photos or the exhibition a chance to have some idea of my latest "project"...




By the way the exhibition ends today...

Is China Now the Climate Change Good Guy? (news feeds)

Having left China almost a month ago, I still keep on tracking (on a daily basis) news about China and keep on following closely the "Rise of China".Climate change without doubt is a question that deeply concerns since it affects the whole Planet, and China has a growing (and alarming) "contribution" to it.With the advancement of the Copenhagen UN meeting where the successor of the Kyoto Protocol is supposed to be signed by world countries the focus on China's involvement is a point that gets much attention, and since China is already the world's N. 1 carbon dioxide emitter (=worst polluter) this attention is very natural, furthermore it is easy to forsee that the fact of China's Rise direct is not going to change any time soon.It is to be noted that Chinese leaders are making a diplomatic effort to show some amount of participation(but really very vague), but frankly I remain really very sceptical about the real value of these almost empty speeches about commitment, since the reality is that Chinese leaders and citizens are in reality very far from being really responsible and concerned about environmental protection and very far from really making any meaningful and truly effective actions.

Here are a few recent news articles that discuss China's recent participation in the climate change:

Is China Now the Climate Change Good Guy? (TIME)

Has China Really Gotten Serious About Climate Change? (TIME)

China to rely on coal 'for long time'(AFP)

Photographic Exhibition :Where there are flies there are also Buddhas

This is the photo that heads the exhibition and which is featured on the poster too.
The title of the exhibition is :Where there are flies there are also Buddhas (see this older post about explanation of the title).
The exhibition will continue until 26th.

As a matter of fact I actually almost had given up making the exhibition - the very poor organization, the lack of time, lack of money, etc where all reasons that made me give up the idea to make the exhibition, but...As I thought about it more, I decided it is nevertheless worthwhile to make something...So here it is. The opening was yeasterday evening. The lack of time meant that only a few people came for the opening itself, but I hope some people will go and see my photos in the remaining days before the 26th. Fot this exhibition (this is my second photo exhibition, as I believe those of you who know me know) 31 images were selected and exhibited. Mostly these are images from my last trip to Central Tibet (the so-called Tibetan Autonomous Region) in July this year. Only 4 or 5 pictures are taken during other trips from other tibetan regions. I will try to upload more images from the exhibition from the upcoming days and share here...

Yesterday I gave two interviews for the media, hopefully in this way more people will find out about it...

Overall there are many things about I'm not happy about, mainly about the organization...The printing turned out quite good. After a couple of days during which I was completely desperate that nothing decent will come out as a result, I managed to find a place and make quite good prints. The colours are not bad and the overal result of the images is not too bad I think...
But again, as everything was made in a haste, there was no time to do things well in arranging for things, no time to inform the media, no time to invite more people...Hopefully in the coming days somehow people will learn about it and go and see it...
I feel sorry that some people I personally invited and some that promised to come didn't show up at the opening last night...

Anyway. Let's see what happens during the following few days...

all that you leave behind...

It has been a while since my last post. In fact there has been a month since my last post...Although I was very motivated right after returning from my Tibet trip to write a series of posts about it for many reasons I failed to do so meanwhile. Also added is me being aware of how few people actually follow and read my posts, so frankly I feel very discouraged and definitely not very much motivated to write more or more frequently...

Actually, there are more reasons for this blog silence (apart from the discouraging lack of readers and support)...

Meanwhile throughout the whole of August I was extremely busy with shipping, posting, packing...IT IS NOT EASY to pack and leave after 8 years. The amount of books and stuff (especially books) that I realised that I have managed to accumulate made me feel nauseous of buying books for a while. I send most of the things (books) back home to Europe. I send some daily necessities, cosmetics and clothes to Japan. (As I believe most of you know, my next destination from October is Kyoto.)

The cargo will arrive here (back home) after I have left for Japan. I am currently trying to make my mother physiologically prepared for the amount of boxes which will arrive...Unpacking will be who knows when and where...

I send the things to Japan to an address which I know to be my dormitory. Perhaps I am the only person who has ever asked the postal service to send the packages slower (!) since I am afraid that even though I have used the slowest possible (land/sea) mail perhaps my packages will arrive before me.

As of a few days ago, I know that I will be travelling on the 1st of October and will arrive in Osaka on the 2nd of Oct. Luckily there is a pick-up service that will take me on the same day to Kyoto directly to my dorm.

My (Japanese language) classes are scheduled to begin on the 9th of October.

Meanwhile, it has been 11 days since I am back home in Europe. Ever since my arrival I was very busy since the very first day and the first week since my arrival I was busy mainly with organising and doing arrangements for my pending stay in Japan. Issued a new passport(my old one expires soon), went to the Japanese embassy a couple of times for the visa (I have a 2 year visa now) and other formalities. Meanwhile been corresponding with my academic advisor and the international student's office in Kyoto University about formalities and arrangements, etc. So I haven't had chance to rest much. And after the very exhausting last few weeks I do need to rest and relax...I had the intention and wish to make a photo exhibition with my photos from Tibet. I had the films developed in Beijing, but made the paper prints here. It took me 3 days and I printed out most photos in size 13x18 in order to see them and decide. I selected some 50 prints that are good and can make a good exhibition, but as of yesterday I don't believe that the exhibition can happen. Main reason is financial, but also the lack of time to properly make a good organisation and also lack of support and motivation...For now it looks that I will just end up showing the pictures to my friends.
But another main reason why making an exhibition now is not a great idea is my need to have a rest. If I do make the exhibition happen now will mean that I will have absolutely no time to take a break and go somewhere...I feel very exhausted, both physically and emotionally. I have too many things on my mind right now...

The last few weeks in China were very hard. Mainly because of physical exhaustion (the packing and sending of all of my things, working to make the money to pay for it and for two weeks going to a seminar lecture in Buddhism) my last month in China and Beijing was incredibly tense and exhausting...

Emotionally it was very hard too. I left many things undone. Things that were actually in my control to do and I failed to organise myself. But also many things that are beyond my control were also left undone. Going to Japan is maybe not such a great idea. It is too close to China and it will be hard for me to put some things behind...

And as it has been my established "custom" for the past 4 years I cried on the Beijing airport. I hope these will be my last tears of sadness and bitter helplessness on Chinese soil. Ever!

Hm. This didn't turn out as a very cheerful post...But that's how things are...
These days there are good things happening too though. Being home, seeing friends, spending time with my mum, my cat (which is now at the incredible age of (at least) 18 years old! but looks quite healthy and well)...Actually being home feels cozy and relaxing...