Fight the Power!

Photos

I have a new hero: my supervisor. I have been having ongoing fights for months now with my Real Estate Agent over various items in my house, one of which being the Niagara Falls that is my kitchen tap. And I don't mean water coming out the nozzle, it was pouring out of the base, seeping down to cupboard under the sink then flooding my kitchen floor. I've bugged them about it before and they sent a man to come look at it but the report back from the Agent was that is was an "expensive European" tap and so I would need to pay for it myself. But, oh, they'll provide me with a receipt. Ha! I wasn't born yesterday. European tap, my tush! And official looking bits of paper are handed around like one yuan notes and are worth about the same. Damn The Man! So I refused to pay and nothing was done, but it has been getting worse so I asked my counterpart to call them again. My supervisor was there when I asked and when it my counterpart translated my request to her, she tutted and shook her head about the way I've been treated, bless her. She is a very tall but tiny boned lady (I'm talking Size 0), sweet and gentle. She likes to mother me, in an endearing way. Her name partly means "flower" which suits her to a T. So imagine my surprise when my counterpart comes to me the next day and says that she went down to the Real Estate Agency that morning to talk to them and they are coming to fix the tap today, is 12pm ok? Oh, and you have a new Real Estate Agent, here's her card.

I couldn't believe it! I had this vision of my sweet little supervisor standing in the smokey dirty offices of my Real Estate Agency which is full of large swarthy men, and just letting them have it. In my mind, all the burly men are standing there with heads hanging down, like children who are being chastised. I nearly hugged her when she came back except I was scared to breaking her, and could only give her the packet of Yacult I bought her as a thank you. She's put the "super" back in supervisor! (Sorry, couldn't resist!)

This week was also the media launch of a project my friend Charlotte has been working on: the United Nations Conservation Union's (IUCN) launch of "Countdown 2010 - China", a campaign to stop or drastically reduce the current rate of biodiversity loss by the year 2010. It's been launched by around the world before now but they've turned their eye to China now because it's one of the world’s megadiverse countries, believe it or not. China is home to nearly 15% of the world’s mammals, 14% of the birds, and 18% of the fishes. The IUCN were recruiting partner NGOs to sign up to the campaign and I got my NGO on board. Since then, I've also recruited her two more NGOs so my commission is in the mail she tells me. Anyway, I went with my supervisor though she did all the work; I was just there for moral support. It was interesting but slow as the keynote speaker, the big-wig Scientific Adviser to the UN, had to have his whole speech translated into Chinese. But then a member of each organisation had to make a very symbolic "signing up" to the campaign on a large poster to the side of the stage, very cute. The photo is me and Sheng Jianghua in front of said poster, she is very sweet insisting I be in the photo though really my only contribution was helping eat the food.

But the big news of that week was the totally rocking Beijing Pop Festival! Not a 'pop' festival at all, it was all about the Rock 'N' Roll and it was fantastic. The crowd were great, all about the fun and the music. It was a really lively atmosphere and anyone who has been to a concert in Canberra will know what I mean when I say it was nice to be in a crowd that got it is supposed to be "LIVE" music and you are hence supposed to act like you have a pulse. I think there was, however, a slight air of disbelief however that we were grooving to internationally reknown bands in a country that still looks at creative expression as something they found at the bottom of their shoe. The G have cancelled music festivals in the past, but luckily that hasn't happened to anything I've been to so far.

But, considering dissidence is virtually defined as anything they don't like, it's amazing it was allowed considering the acts the organisers pulled together. I mean, Public Enemy and Nine Inch Nails were the headline acts! How crazy is that? Public Enemy (or P.E. as they were billed because of the "controversial nature of their name", and that's a direct quote) had us all chanting "Fight the power" for half the show, it was wild! Other acts present were the awesome, New York Dolls and Marky Ramone, as well as Brett Anderson (ex Suede) and Band who was such a dag but the crowd added him. Also, Cui Jian who is the "Godfather of Chinese Rock and Roll", and a few lesser internationally known acts like Mando Diao, Mumiy Troll, Muma & Third Party, XTX and Rize.

The guards looked quite uncomfortable at times. Except for the few younger ones who you cold tell were actually loving it all. I saw one guy who just typified 'New China': a young guy, looking a little severe in his guard uniform except that his cap was just a little crooked, his shirt was just a little untucked and his body was rocking just a little rhythmically. Long live rock and roll...