Polce and security guards talk to a journalist near the crime scene at Singha Plaza.

Murders in the news are as common as the weather report, and are rarely read with any greater attention. It is not often that they touch your life in some way, even if just remotely.

Unfortunately, such is not the case with Suzhou’s most recent homicide, as it happened only a couple hundred metres from where I sleep, and to someone I’ve (if only peripherally) very likely met.

This past Wednesday morning the bloodied and naked body of a girl in her early 20s was found in her Singha Plaza (Xīn Dū GuǎngChǎng) apartment. Despite sharing the apartment with 7-8 other girls, none of them had heard a thing. The body was found when her roommate (as in shared her room) returned home in the morning.

While the news reports only indicated that she was a cashier at a “Western” restaurant (of which Singha Plaza is a long string of), I had heard from another friend that she worked at La Rose — a decent restaurant Maggie and I frequent regularly.

It wasn’t until yesterday (Saturday) that the killer was caught a few blocks away in the Four Seasons (Sì Jì Jiāyuán) apartment complex. Aparently the police had known since Wednesday that he was hiding out somewhere in the mass of upper-income apartments, and were sitting on the exits. Yesterday, after the owner of a vacant apartment on the 21st floor attempted to enter it and found it locked from the inside, the drama began to unfold.

The apartment owner called the police, who had been waiting for just such notice. With the police now surrounding the building, the guy threatened to jump and save the courts the trouble. After three hours of negotiations, and a giant safety pad being put in the jump zone, the suspect surrendered – butcher knife in hand.

Though I’ve not yet read what the relationship was between the victim and the suspect, reports indicated he used to be head of the security guards for my apartment complex, but left more than a year ago and was most recently working for a restaurant in the same strip of restaurants that the victim worked at (it wasn’t revealed if it was the same restaurant or not).

Now, before this post goes into Googleland and starts creeping up on searches from people looking for info about Suzhou, let me say that Suzhou, and China at large, is one of the safer places a foreigner can live in – and a marked improvement over many of our own countries. Though theft is rife, violent crimes are no higher here than any place else, and arguably lower than many. Being mugged is uncommon, and being anything “at gun point” is almost unheard of.

My point in blogging about this is not to showcase the seedier side of the city, but to simply comment on the creepiness of having something so horrible happen so close to home. All I can really say is how badly I feel for that girl, her family and her friends; and how glad I am that the suspect was caught and is not lurking around my neighbourhood anymore.

[UPDATE 7pm May 10/09] Just a quick update, caught the Suzhou news on this. Looks like the motive, perhaps unsurprisingly, was unrequited love. The guy had written love letters all over the walls inside her apartment building. She apparently had turned him down and suffering humiliation and a loss of face he killed her. What a fucking tragedy. Truly.

But before you go powering everything down for a bit of candle-lit clockwatching, check out these posts on Lost Laowai peripherally connected to the topic:

• “Earth Hour” VS “Serf Liberation Day”
• China wants Chinese product importers to pay for her pollution

You spoke to us all Mr. President. We all listened, and now we all must act.

The Entire Text of Barack Obama’s Inaugural Address

My fellow citizens,

I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.

Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents.

So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.

That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.

These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land — a nagging fear that America’s decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.

Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America — they will be met.

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.

We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted — for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things — some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.

For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.

For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.

For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn.

Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.

This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions — that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.

For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act — not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. All this we will do.

Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions — who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.

What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them— that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account — to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day — because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.

Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control — and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our Gross Domestic Product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on the ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart — not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.

As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience’s sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and we are ready to lead once more.

Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.

We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort — even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.

To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society’s ills on the West — know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world’s resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.

As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages. We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves. And yet, at this moment — a moment that will define a generation — it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.

For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter’s courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent’s willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.

Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends — honesty and hard work, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism — these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility — a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.

This is the price and the promise of citizenship.

This is the source of our confidence— the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.

This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed — why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.

So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America’s birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:

“Let it be told to the future world…that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive … that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet [it].”

America. In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children’s children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God’s grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.

Thank you. God bless you. And God bless the United States of America.

Now with the majority of State-run businesses at least partly privatized, and the future of an econimically powerful China prophecized, why is it that the Great Torchbearer of Capitalism seems to be taking economy lessons from Mao-era China?

I watched this GM-produced video about all the horrors that will befall the country as a whole should the American people not get behind the Big 3 Auto Industry Bailout:

And then I read “Chrysler shuts down all production“, where the company (somewhat following GM’s lead) has gift-wrapped an unpaid holiday for all its American employees. Though easy to excuse as the fault of “the times”, I can’t but see it as anything other than a thinly disguised ditch effort to rally the work/union voice for their bailout.

Aren’t we past fear-mongering for public support? Did a world under eight years of Bush control teach us nothing? Do we not understand that if a (semi)domestic industry is crying out for a patriotic duty to assist it in its time of need, everyone needs to back the Ford up and consider why it’s in trouble in the first place.

The reason, as if anyone didn’t know, is because it cannot compete. Sure, the flavour of the month is to blame the economic crisis, it’s the CFO equivalent of a Get Out of Jail Free card. But the US auto industry was in HUGE trouble LONG LONG LONG before people with no right to buy a sofa on credit were given hundreds of thousands of dollars in mortgages.

Definitely, should the big three automakers fall, jobs will be lost. Many jobs. Good honest people will need to find a new industry to employ them. Local governments will need to find new ways to attract new industry to keep their populations employed. This is the way things work. Invest in that.

Or consider the alternative. Consider this bail out. You will be investing in an industry that has proven NOT TO BE PROFITABLE. You will all, as tax payers, become part owners of companies that suck. We’re not talking about investing in Google, and waiting for the bounce-back. We’re talking about dating a invalid 90-year-old widower with no pension and no savings.

If these companies get their payout, how long will it be before the domestic steel and coal industries, the few remaining non-outsourced call centres, the American-made silicon chip manufacturers, and a sundry of other globalized industries just barley holding on come a-callin’, demanding like I did as a child “but it’s not fair, THEY got some, I want some too!”

And what will you have at the end of the day? A government that has “wisely” invested billions of your dollars (that it doesn’t have, and has had to borrow at high interest rates) into industries that have proven they do not have a sound fiscal model for profit – let alone repayment or eventual buyback.

China calls its brand of commucapitalism “communism with Chinese characteristics”, maybe it’s about time that the US take a good hard look at what its elected officials are rushing through before you have “capitalism with un-American characteristics”.

A number of unnamed McCain campaign aides have come out since the Republican defeat Tuesday anonymously criticizing that:

• She had $150,000 spent on her clothes by the RNC
• She was fooled by a Canadian comedian pretending to be the French president
• She didn’t know Africa was a continent, not a country
• She did not know which countries were covered by the North American Free Trade Agreement

In response she shot back that the criticism was “cruel and it’s mean-spirited, it’s immature, it’s unprofessional, and those guys are jerks.” To everyone’s surprised she didn’t call them poo-poo heads.

She then went on to say:

“So, no, I think that if there are allegations based on questions or comments that I made in debate prep about Nafta, and about the continent versus the country when we talk about Africa there, then those were taken out of context”

Ah… it was just taken out of context. Ok, that happens all the time. I mean, Republican Jerks and the Liberal Media Elite always do that. Wait, wait, hold up. Did you say “the continent versus the country when we talk about Africa” ?

Umm, Mrs. Palin. This isn’t Australia. There is no “the country” of Africa.

And in case it happens that you come across this post, let me take this opportunity to explain that South America is, in fact, a continent, and not the place where gators and the Confederates come from.

“Older” sounds a little better than “old,” doesn’t it? Sounds like it might even last a little longer … I’m getting old. And it’s OK. Because thanks to our fear of death in this country I won’t have to die — I’ll ‘pass away.’ Or I’ll ‘expire,’ like a magazine subscription. If it happens in the hospital they’ll call it a ‘terminal episode.’ The insurance company will refer to it as ‘negative patient care outcome.’ And if it’s the result of malpractice they’ll say it was a ‘therapeutic misadventure.’

You were a comedic genius and legend. Whatever it’s called, You will be missed.

Some of the greats

Usage of the Word Fuck

Filthy Words (Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television)

this isn’t the original bit, but I don’t know if it was captured on video – YouTube doesn’t seem to think so.

Religion is Bullshit

Whether you are a reader in or out of China, please join me in observing this moment of silence and taking the time to remember the victims of last week’s tragedy and also consider how fortunate we are to not be in such circumstances.

Every day is a gift, and times like these remind me to live them as such.

More info about the notice here.

The Bookworm’s sister branch in Chengdu has become a focal point for assisting those groups currently providing on the ground support for those in Sichuan affected by the earthquake tragedy.

There is a concern that unless we get urgently needed supplies to the survivors of the quake, more people will lose their lives from exposure, starvation, and lack of medical treatment.

The Chinese Red Cross are currently setting up operations in affected areas. In the meantime, smaller groups are doing what they can to provide food, water, shelter and medicines.

The Bookworm is assisting these groups, until the larger organisations are able to provide support.

Here in Suzhou, from now until the night of the 17th, as advised by the Chinese Red Cross, we’re collecting emergency donations of:

• TENTS
• DRIED/PACKAGED FOOD
• PRACTICAL CLOTHES
• QUILTS
• EMERGENCY BLANKETS
• MONEY FOR WATER AND MEDICINE

Our friends at DHL will ship all collected donations to The Bookworm Chengdu on Saturday 17th May.

Please drop off all donations by 4pm on SATURDAY 17th MAY.
Call Rebecca on 15995472835

Beyond these dates, our efforts will continue in accordance with advice from the Chinese Red Cross.

Thank you for your desperately needed support.

I had no idea.

At the time I would have been out getting Addie’s rabies shot and RF chip and though I can’t be certain, I assume I was on the road walking back home when it hit, but I didn’t notice a thing.

Reports from Shanghai and Beijing indicate that buildings shook for upwards of 2 minutes. Surely I should have noticed buildings swaying. But despite being closer to the

Strange.

This makes the third large-scale earthquake to hit Western China this year (one in January in Tibet and another in Xinjiang in March), but is the first to hit a heavily populated area. With Sichuan being China’s most populated province, and that population almost entirely housed in multi-storey apartment buildings (that seem shaky on a good day), it sadly leaves little question that the already massive death-toll is sure to continue to rise.

It also can’t help but bring to mind Tangshan, a city directly hit by an earthquake in 1976, which killed more than a quarter million people. Coincidentally, the initial quake in Tangshan also measured 7.8 on the Richter scale. In that case, and I pray not in this one, the death and damage severely increased when an aftershock hit the area 15 hours later.

For some detailed coverage of reports on the quake – check out this continually updated Shanghaiist article.

Here’s some YouTube coverage of the Sichuan quake: