A really, truly fascinating piece in the
Christian Science Monitor. Growing prosperity, easier access to credit, improved roads in China have all
dramatically increased the number of people ditching their bikes (the traditional mode of transport) and driving cars.
Indeed, owning a car is the “in” thing, a sign you made it. A status symbol. And while all the traffic and pollution
problems are horrendous in some places, it has also created new opportunities for people to take to the open road. It’s
not quite like driving into the gaping West of the US, a la Jack Kerouac, but it wouldn’t surprise me if someone like
that comes along, a young Chinese literary voice who celebrates the Chinese countryside, the thrill of four-wheeled
freedom. In a way, you could argue that China is kind of like the US circa the 1950s, a country awakening to its
identity, a country filled with a sense of opportunity and optimism for the future.
Walking the Mormon Walk
Not certain how many of you are interested in hikes highlighting the struggles of Mormons in the
days where wagon wheels and handcarts lead the way out west,
but it might make for a promising Wyoming trek. The two day trek begins at Sixth Crossing which is next
to Sweetwater Station, extends 28 miles one way and ends at a place called Rock Creek. The historic pioneer trail
typically sees members from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but welcomes all visitors to
come explore and pull a handcart along the trail. (The handcarts are free at
Sixth Crossing.) CNN has the
full scoop on the history of the trail and more on planning your own historical weekend hike.
Changing Face of Shanghai
It is one of the most alluring, fastest-growing, intense cities on the face of the earth right now. There are so
many cranes to be seen across the sky in Shanghai that it sometimes seems that the city is growing them for export. You
get a nice feel for the rapid changes taking place in the city from
this article in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star
Tribune.
The writer experiences the unrelenting thrum of the city’s cosmopolitan character, but observes that some old habits
die hard. For example, after dodging the omni-present Volkswagen Santanas which serve as taxis in the city, he
passes through the shadow of the Oriental Pearl Tower, one of the tallest buldings in the city, and soon finds himself
at an outdoor mall where a rally is taking place featuring three hundred red-flag-waving Communists chanting slogans
and celebrating the joys of Maoism.
Gore’s Current TV Live
So after all the hoopla, all the acerbic musing about whether we
need another 18-34 demographic TV channel, Al Gore’s Current.tv is finally live and
broadcasting to select cable outlets around the country. I think some 20 million households are being covered, so most
likely you’ll be able to see it.
Lots of articles were run this weekend about the effort, including this one in the
New York Times, and this one in the
LA Times. All the speculation so far about the channel’s
success has been more or less positive. Optimists are crossing their fingers that the channel will indeed usher in an
entire new genre of compelling, user-created TV that takes us away from mainstream tripe. But critics are saying the
channel is likely to be the “same ol’ same ol'” in an already over-saturated marketplace. Personally, I hope the former
is true.
Why? Because I really admire what they are doing. In fact, as folks here may remember, I submitted
a video to them that became a finalist in their
user-created content contest. It was tremendous fun, and the piece will supposedly air on TV sometime today. In fact, I
was psyched to see that Time
Magazine this week mentioned my piece, calling it, “a gripping, sensitively shot video of Indian
families cremating their loved ones on the Ganges“. That’s positive, right?
The Current Web site is completely new as well, and has a much nicer look and feel than the earlier iteration, whose
color scheme was kind of an electric vomit. They break out what’s on and what’s coming up on the channel, and provide a
nice overview of their “pod” system (one wonders what Apple think about that name?) which breaks out stories into
themes like “Current Parent”, “Current Soul” and so on.
Everyone give this new channel a look. Find out if it’s on in your area and watch it. Or at the very least check out
the Web site and give it a once and twice over. And if you’ve got some interesting ideas, submit them. You never know,
you might become a star.
.
Looting Angkor
When I was in Angkor
in 2003, I remember how the nearby town of Siem Reap seemed right on the verge of exploding. Hotels were sprouting
up everywhere, and there was lots of hustle on the streets as people were clearly developing and refining their
techniques to separate tourists from their dollars.
It turns out, though, that tourists are not the only ones
being taken. Over the last
few years, due to the worldwide interest in Angkor antiquities, people have been looting the World Heritage Site and
selling the goods on the black market. As
this article explains,
temple raiders are more often than not stealing items to sell to Western collectors. Buddhas are literally being
chiseled out of temple walls, arms are sawed off statues. Growing cultural awareness will help change things, but more
important are tighter controls, like the 2003 American ban on trade in illicit Cambodian artifacts.
Hopefully the Cambodians will realize, as I’m sure they are, that their tourist trade depends on sites like Angkor, and
they’ll act fast to stop the looting.