So it's been quite a while since I've updated my blog. I would love to regale you with tales of adventure, but I work in the TV news business and with that comes the fact that owners want to make money, news people want to cover the news. Guess who wins most of the time?
Hunter S Thompson in Generation
of Swine described the media this way; "The TV business is uglier than most things. It is normally perceived as some kind of cruel and shallow money trench through the heart of the journalism industry, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs, for no good reason." I agree.
China has had some interesting stories going on. Floods in early July displaced half a million people and killed over 60. We didn't cover it. There has also been much unrest in Urumqi in the North West of China. It is an area of unrest that contains considerable oil and gas reserves. Seem that the exploration has brought the ethnic Uighur population out of balance. The in flux of the Han Chinese seems to have meant no benefits for the Uighur's in the area. A fight at a factory last month was the trigger for this violence. The Chinese feel that there are outside influences, but I'm not sure that would be a huge influence as outside sources would be at a minimum due to the control the government exercise over media and internet.
We unfortunately (or fortunately depending on if you're a member of my family,) weren't given the green light to cover what is arguable the largest protest in China in 20 years.
So what have been doing? Well here is a little happy story on the children of prisoners in Chinese jails.
