I've been working pretty hard for IB exam week and the like, so I haven't posted the ones I wanted to.
Here are a couple of highlights:
-Runin with Chinese policemen; test of diplomatic immunity
-SanLi Tun drug raids; high school students and Africans arrested
-Planting and cleaning around the district.
Here are some of the highlights of the above:
1) Was carried in under suspicion of shoplifting something I couldn't possibly have, found corrupt police who only picked a friend and I because we were obviously not locals. Released once they found my Dip status because "It's too damn much trouble to process your papers." Had to stay in, refused to leave until she was released as well.
2) Bar street's notorious for drug deals and dodgy Nigerian men who try to scam people out of money or drinks or whatever. But apparently Pure Girls 1-4 (bars) were put into lockdown mode on Friday night while two of my teachers were out (the school has a system; because it's not illegal for us to drink, smoke or to go out here, teachers volunteer to go downtown and sit in the more frequented bars and make sure that nothing happens to the kids. Additionally, an RSO (regional security officer) that is close with my parents stays down there to get kids out of trouble if they're dumb enough to do something stupid).
Anyhow.
Apparently these are the bars used most often for drug selling/buying/taking. Shotgun-wielding Chinese SWAT team members (not SWAT, but the closest they could get I'm sure) show up and search everyone in the bars. They close down the entire block (which is huge, considering it's around the size of four NA city-blocks) and arrest every African man there, putting bags over their heads and literally beating them senseless. Several had broken ribs, bloodied faces, broken jaws.
Relatively unprovoked. Supposedly there wasn't much resistance, the only bit there was was later in the night and it has to go along with another portion of the interesting bit about picking up the Africans.
The police then made rounds and picked up everyone who didn't have any identification on them, locals and foreigners alike. A friend of my classmate was picked up and they wouldn't accept her school ID and was taken to the station (god those places smelled bad. When we were booked they didn't call anyone but sat around ordering food) where she was given an apparently brisk cavity search and left in her underwear for about an hour until the RSO officer showed up.
So. The police bring her into the cell, and in an adjacent one (she was in one with a few locals and foreigners) were the Africans. They'd all been handcuffed and had bags over their heads.
This is what the RSO officer and two of my teachers were telling us.
It was a very plain case of racial discrimination. I'd be hard-pressed to say that any of the men actually had anything on them. But having heard about this (and a teacher with a video) makes me a little uneasy.
There's a lot of cleaning up going on with the Olympics coming, and this is just one of those things. Apparently they're looking at doing this frequently.
3) Andie and I spent about an hour the day before yesterday planting eightyseven mung bean plants in recycled aluminum pans in my garage. We're going to go plant them. Also, earth day is coming up and I'm helping to organise an Earth Day celebration and running a buy-a-tree stand. This is going to be trees donated from local nurseries that can be 'adopted' or 'sponsored' by anyone willing to dish out between 10-20RMB depending on the tree, and they get a little badge that gives details about the project. We're going to care for the seedlings until they're about six inches or so, then plant them in reconstructed areas and small villages during the end-of-year China Link trip. The money's going to be split (we anticipate quite a few purchases as well as donations because my school's rather upscale - it costs 25,000USD per YEAR to attend, but most of it was sponsored by my parents' job) between a couple charities and donated to buy supplies for our chapter of HFH (Habitat for Humanity).
We're doing a lot more, such as livestreaming on ustream.com a Project: Global Cooling concert I'm going to be playing in, setting up computer kiosks where those attending can check their eco-footprints, screening movies, etc etc etc.
I'm looking forward to taking pictures and posting the link to our ustream. There's a video up on the youtube account of Andie and I planting and dancing like retards, and I'm going to be making a video about the drugraids and police brutality soon.
Additionally, the ustream has a record function that I'm going to be taking advantage of and posting a youtube vid about as well. Maybe a few.
Who knows, maybe things'll look better for everyone before the Olympics. I've got my fingers crossed.
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