Reflections on lucky 08
January 14, 2009 by Chinatex
Disclaimer: There is no legal information or advice in the following blawg so please don’t expect any free information from Chinatex.
2008 was an interesting year in China. It began with migrant workers and many others stranded at the bus and train stations prior to the New Year holiday. Not merely thousands of people, but millions. Imagine a million people stuck at Chicago O’Hare and the toilets, that’s why I always fly through SFO. China mobilized the police and the army and the railroad tracks and highways were cleared of ice and snow and people got on their way, but it could have been way worse than Katrina. Here is a pic of people waiting to buy tickets in Beijing just to give you an idea of the size of the annual migration.
I was thinking that maybe we should use our army to help our own people in the U.S. during natural disasters. But it’s probably a silly idea. It was really cold here in sub-tropical China, even the palm trees were frozen, in addition to my hands and feet and nose - which has to stick out from under the covers to breathe. You can’t get warm in south China in the winter as we don’t have heat in the houses because of global warming or because they can save some money by not including much needed heat! Concrete and cinder block are excellent insulators – imagine living inside of a refrigerator for a month. It’s been a low of 7 degrees for a few weeks. I still don’t know how cold that is, the whole Celsius thing, but I could hang meat in my apartment.
Anyway, shortly after everyone returned to their jobs from the New Year holiday and began thawing out from the winter, China had an earthquake in Sichuan province. Official estimates place the death toll at more than 200,000 people. I can’t remember how many died on 9-11, maybe 1% of that number? Mother nature, the ultimate terrorist. Once again the army came in and did their best to help everyone, and Premier Wen went to the site and implored those still stuck in the rubble to hold on. This reminded me of when Dick Cheney went down to New Orleans and……. or was that Texas, and shot his friend while hunting.
Then to make things even more difficult for this tiny little up and coming country, people tried to mess with the Olympic torch relay. ”Crazies with nothing else to do”, as my mother would say, tried to put out the torch with a fire extinguisher. Little did they know that the torch is made at the same factory as those trick birthday cake candles that I hated as a kid. Little did they know that their efforts would only galvanize a little up and coming nation of close to 2 billion people. They even borrowed my home’s slogan, “Don’t Mess With China”.
Then, on 8-8-08, an auspiciously lucky day, and after all the bad press and nonsense that China had to endure, the Olympics kicked off with a bang.The acclaimed director Zhang Yimou gave the world the most incredible opening ceremony ever and Steven Spielberg, who quit the team early on was given a schooling on how things are done. Wow!, the opening ceremony was like nothing I had ever seen and made me share a pride for this country that I have felt for mine during similar events. I had the pleasure of going to the Water Cube and the Birds Nest and even watching Phelps break a couple of world records and I even got to watch the closing ceremony at Hooters in Beijing with 20 cute little hooterless girls and a bunch of cool Chinese friends.
Then in late September Old Chinatex had an accident and broke his neck, and a few other bones. While it hurt, I wasn’t stuck under a collapsed school nor did I lose my only child in the earthquake. In fact, I was lucky because during my time lying on the cement, in the hospitals and even after, I had many friends and family look out for me, take care of me and just be good friends. I even had clients come and visit me and not one of them pulled the plug!! That’s a lawyer joke for any of you without lawyers. An accident like I had, puts everything in perspective and gives you a dose of reality that no matter how crazy this world is, and it is indeed, if we have family and friends we have it all – except for heat in sub-tropical China.
Then, while I was recovering from my accident and only two weeks out of the hospital, my friend’s sailboat Authority, won the HKPN class of the second China Cup Regatta. I wasn’t able to crew but I brought KFC and beers everyday after they finished and ours was the funnest boat in the marina. All in all Authority, which was sponsored by the great people at Thinkpad, won all but one race, collected 3 trophies including 1st place overall in it’s class. I was happy to be part of a great crew and make new friends. Here’s a picture of Team Thinkpad accepting the first place trophy. 
So now I sit in my refrigerator during another obvioius example of global warming – “can somebody tell me why we still have winter?” – and freeze my emaciated ass off. I can’t find an outlet for the heater. There is only one in the entire living room, another obvious effort to save 3 Yuan (about 50 cents or .30 euros for those of you in Macedonia). So i stare at the heater and ask it if it is feeling as cold as me, it doesn’t respond. I imagine the Titanic floating across the top of my coffee – “near, far, wherever you are….”
It’s a slow time for news in China as everyone prepares for the Lunar New Year holiday and the rest of the world reels from a global economic meltdown. I’ll share developments from the jungle as they arise. For now, I hope everyone has safe and warm travels, can stop to appreciate their family and friends and has as great a 2009 as I had in 2008.
Yeeeha!! Chinatex
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