Talking to friends in Beijing

I’ve just been talking to friends who were in Beijing. It began with explosives and flames and firebursts, extreme incandescent lighting, electronic wizadry, no cost spared to make a positive and lasting first impression.

But from then on, bossy officials belching and barking orders that didn’t make any sense, demanding immediate obedience from everyone. Stooges with authority screaming abuse, waving sticks and pointing and using language that didn’t sound polite, friendly or even sensible. Smiling faces, polite words, but was any of it understood and what were the real sentiments and intentions?

Air pollution that had them gagging, reaching for masks, tears welling their stinging eyes, coughing and spluttering and noses filled with who dares knows. Feeling unclean within minutes of showering, humidity and dust and dirt and flies and acrid air – all the time, no escape. Bad atmosphere with little desire to improve it in a lasting way. A temporary fix while so many easily impressed people are watching.

Cheap, tacky plastic knock-offs that last a short while and end up in the bin and shortly afterwards in a leeching land fill. No wonder there’s a carbon emissions issue the size of China.

Poor journalism. Facts misrepresented. Statistics misinterpreted. Atrocities unreported. Officials censoring everything. Good news good, bad news bad. Internet sites blocked, e-mails tapped, telephone communications monitored. Spot checks, unannounced observations.

A nagging, underlying, subtle worry about the quality of drinking water. Is it chlorined and fluorided or is there more in it? Is it safe? Should we bring our own from home? And is the food safe?

Human rights abuses. Accusations of wrong doing with no rights to justice, fair trial, or in many cases, even the right to be heard. Doctored evidence.

Workers’ rights hung out to dry like a well-worn and overused cleaning rag. Flagrant abuses of health and safety issues. No concern by employers for workers’ physical safety in the face of obvious dangers, and no concern for mental and emotional well-being. Get the job done, satisfy the customer, more money in than money out, be quiet and get on with it. Protests neither permitted nor tolerated.

Drugs and other cheating prohibited, of course. Yet, just how recently were they themselves the centre of drugs abuse and scandal? Takes one to know one I suppose. And what about copyright abuse?

And of course – an overbearing dictatorship, profound contempt for the will and desire of the people they govern, substandard buildings for many, astronomical food prices and falling incomes for the poor while the wealthy and connected continue in their blissful ignorance.

And that wasn’t them talking, it was just me filling them in on what’s been happening here while they were away.

— Peter Giddens