Life in the city

Racist tirade against Chinese

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Bad German guy

Even China Daily took up the story that circulated wildly on the Chinese Internet, about the Racist tirade against Chinese by a German guy. He did wrong but did anybody care to look for the reasons of his outburst? Maybe he was daily being faced with (unpleasant) parking problems? Was there a special reason he snapped? Who knows. And yes, I know some foreigners who really act as axxholes here and shame us. But that is not the point.

My view

Sorry but I have my personal view on all this, shared by several old timers in Beijing.

Street assaults and robberies are now more common, but also anti-foreign attitudes. Worse, if a foreigner is assaulted and beaten in a robbery, he is likely to be accused of “assault”. So, I guess you give all your money and stuff, let yourself be beaten up, to avoid even worse. For those naïve, I have some (bloody) pictures of such assaults (that I did not want to post here…). As for the “racist” stuff, see below.

The story

“Senior Daimler executive removed from post after racist tirade against Chinese people in Beijing parking row”
German expat Rainer Gaertner also allegedly pulled out pepper spray to disperse onlookers during quarrel over parking space
Dated 22 November 2016
Link: http://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2048191/german-executive-sacked-over-racist-tirade-china

My comment as posted on SCMP:

I have a different take on this story. Yes, the guy used improper language and attitude. Agreed. On the other hand we see in Beijing mounting anti-foreigner sentiment (without any immediate reason), racist insults and even physical aggression. If a foreigner defends himself physically he faces prison. Racist and xenophobic attacks seem to be “OK”. Will those (Chinese) attackers face any punishment? Like losing their job? It is a one-way “justice”. China has changed for the worst, in the past Chinese were overall very polite. Now some have become arrogant and blame foreigners for whatever, ranting and assaulting them. You won’t read this in the media because this is CENSORED. So, we have no rights? Contrary to what wumaos say, as foreigners we have no “favorable treatment”, on the contrary right now. Not to be surprised foreigners are leaving, so China is one of the countries with the lowest amount of foreigners IN THE WORLD. I have many local friends but they are the first to tell me “Be careful. Many bad people. Don’t try to argue”.

 

Shui Wawa promotion at Legend Beer

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Shui Wawa?

On 19 November, a Shui Wawa promotion at Legend Beer.
I was asked to help to describe the product and take some pictures.
SHUI WAWA, or, WATER BABY 4D, is a probiotic product putting a bio film on the teeth. It is similar to mouth wash, looks like foam toothpaste. It is a new generation of products to protect your teeth. Spray it in the mouth, wash the teeth with it then spit it out. It is a new way to use probiotics.
It was a fun evening, as usual having a lot of my favored draft “Worker Stadium West IPA”, a pretty bitter IPA I prefer above others of their good beers. See the picture with the brew master.

Shui Wawa promotion at Legend Beer

Anyway, a good excuse to enjoy the food, their sausages, baby ribs and crispy pork knuckle are all very well done. And all in the company of many nice people, friends and gorgeous-looking girls, and of course many Chinese. People from all over the world, USA. UK, Australia, Ukraine, Venezuela and Kazakhstan, among others. And many Chinese who were eager to take pictures with the photographer.
See also some pictures of earlier visits. One customer had ordered the big lamb leg,

District SR Frank Yih at Rotary Beijing

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Our special guest(s)

On 15 November District SR Frank Yih (Special Representative) joined the Beijing Rotary lunch at the Kempinski Hotel, along with other delegates from Shanghai.
SR Frank started his presentation with a video of RIP John Germ’s speech about this year’s theme – Rotary Serving Humanity. Frank then explained the Presidential Citation and the status of our clubs. There are 15 clubs and 5 provisional clubs in Mainland China as of today; there are 7 Rotaract clubs and 11 Interact clubs, see the slides. Frank also presented the district structure, finance and plans. The current District Service Projects are Gift of Life (GOL) and Save Kids Lives (SKL). SR Frank also invited fellow Rotarians to join him in the RI Convention Atlanta on June 10-14, 2017.

Our Gift of Life Program

One of our key project, now gradually the task is taken over by other organizations.
Congenital Heart Defects in China:
The incidence rate of CHD is about 0.7% to 1.1% based on the national data, and in the higher elevation regions the rate is increased to 1.37% to 2.5%.
More than 150,000 born with CHD per year.
About 1/3 died in one month due to the serious CHD or complex malformation
Another 1/3 died in very young age due to the exacerbation or delay of the surgery.
What we have achieved:
Over 20 million RMB raised by Rotary Club of Shanghai, Beijing & Chengdu;
More than 1,000 children from poor family operated.

Visiting Rtn James presented Save Kids Lives Project (SKL).

As few people know. the leading cause of death in China for children under 14 are traffic accidents, another major cause being drowning.
Ever seen kids sitting in the front seat, or back seat, without protection? Adults in the back seat without a safety belt? Those are major causes of death. Chinese totally ignore the terrible risks. In European countries those attitudes are punishable by law. In case of any accidents the kids simply fly through the front window, normally with instant death.
SKL promotes awareness of the danger, with the government and all concerned.

PP Piper explains DDF

PP Piper gave a presentation on the Fund Drive 2016: District Designated Fund (DDF) and the global Impact of Rotary Work.
The mission of The Rotary Foundation is to enable Rotary members to advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through the improvement of health, the support of education, and the alleviation of poverty. The Foundation is a not-for-profit corporation supported solely by voluntary contributions from Rotary members and friends of the Foundation who share its vision of a better world. This support is essential to make possible projects, funded with Foundation grants, that bring sustainable improvement to communities in need.

Thanks  District SR Frank Yih for the visit and the presentations!

Old China Hands lunch 4 November

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Old China Hands at Morel’s Restaurant

Great to have our twenty Old China Hands at our lunch of Friday 4 November. The usual RSVP with people super busy, travelling or – with an autumn cold.

The next Old China Hands Lunch

Next one is Friday 2 December. I expect also people to be super busy again. The last one for 2016. In 2017, the first one to be on Friday 6 January. Mark your calendars!

Beijing 2016 British Ball

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Many balls in Beijing

The 2016 British Ball is one of the many in Beijing, each month there are several to choose from. Most are pretty expensive (over 1000 RMB per ticket) and formal.
As we had never been to a British Ball, we were happy to join the Rotary table on 22 October in the Kerry Hotel Grand Ballroom.
Rotarians were: President Daniel R., Joergen, Klaus, Eli, Helen, Russell.
Also happy to see our Belgian friend Ruben playing the violin!

A fully packed ballroom

While some balls have a hard time selling their tickets, the Beijing 2016 British Ball was sold out (750 seats I was told). Thanks to Rotarian Russell Brown for arranging our table. He was also the MC of the evening.
For me also great to meet again the UK Ambassador H.E. Barbara Woodward: we closely worked together on the preparation of the 2008 Olympics when she was posted here previously.
Food and drinks were great. Of course we did not win any prize, as usual, but it was a fun evening with many friends!