For those of you who might actually see Mum around, please don't tell her/ask her anything about this because it's supposed to be a surprise. =) I'll send it through DHL soon.
Description I put on DeviantArt:
Okay now for the actual post, which is nothing like roses and love and fuzziness.
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I am constantly being chilled by the knowledge that I am just seeing certain things for what they look like. It reminds me of what a shallow/non-understanding person I can be. Nevertheless, I am glad to be conscious of the other side of a person/issue - it is better than being overly optimistic or judgmental without ever realizing it.
You know about the disastrous quake in Sichuan. The entire nation had half-flags, even major websites changed their colours to grey-scale. You see donation drives everywhere (even the foreign students have one right outside our dorm block). Everywhere you hear calls for the country to be united (大灾面前，众志成城) and etc etc etc...
But you know, I've heard about:
I was very moved when I saw Hu Jintao on TV - he was speaking to the soldiers at ground zero, and right at that point of time some tremors occurred. He and the other leaders only paused and looked around for a while before he continued speaking to the soldiers, the ground still shaking. Some of you might say - well, it's for TV, propaganda, whatever. But I know that it is important for the leaders to show the people that they have a fearless government backing them up, to stabilize their hearts. The top leaders - Hu Jintao, Wen Jiabao - are all at ground zero, speaking to people, encouraging them, directing rescue operations. They are not just nicely holed up in Beijing doing remote directing. By being on the site, they face some risks because there are still tremors happening. I chatted with a Sichuan Taobao seller online a couple of days before, and he/she told me that there are about 5000 occurrences of tremors already. For that alone, I applaud the Chinese government for their sincerity, or at the very least, the efforts to let the people know that they are sincere.
The government is one thing, but the actual public can be very disappointing. I can't help but cynically wonder how many of these donation drives are real and how much money can actually be given to the victims. This is the shopping site I frequent, and you can look around for all the traces of fund-raising options. I mean, it'd be great if the money really goes to help, because Taobao is under Alibaba - which is the biggest Internet corp in China. This group has lots of money and influence (especially since they work through the net). I really, really pray that the people can get help. But because of what I know about China and its people, I've hesitated about donating money to the various drives around and only to the foreign students' donation drive as a form of support.
祈祷吧，为了中国。
On a brighter note of the "not what it seems to be" issue, my groupmate Xiao and I were doing research for this project presentation (tomorrow) and we realized we had a mountain of research material to deal with, and they are all over Beida. There's this remotely-located library which took us half an hour to find (actually Xiao wondered whether we should even go, because that library's site said they only serve graduate students, professors, visiting scholars, etc). But I felt we should check it out anyway. To our great, great delight (after sweating and walking for 1/2 hr), it's okay to go in to refer to books, just that we can't take them out. And we also realized that this library had all the information that we needed.
There's a grumpy-looking laoshi in-charge of the photocopying machine records and he actually asked me about my country and stuff when he realized that I'm Singaporean. Later, the very sweet Xiao gave him this packet of snacks which she brought for our lunch. He didn't react much, but before we even realized what was happening, some chocolates appeared on his table. He still didn't have much expression on his face. I found that extremely heartwarming, however. =) Nah, certainly not grumpy.
Description I put on DeviantArt:
A little something I painted for my Mum's birthday on June 8th. I can't remember the last time I ever gave her anything for her birthday - usually I replaced that with a hug, a kiss, a surprise cake and being extra helpful on that day. But this year I am stuck two oceans away.--------
Acrylic on canvas. 5.5X7 inches.
The original is here, just so that you guys know that
1) this composition is not mine
2) I made a mess out of the original
Please be kinder with comments considering that I hadn't touched a paintbrush in about 4 years.
Okay now for the actual post, which is nothing like roses and love and fuzziness.
--------
I am constantly being chilled by the knowledge that I am just seeing certain things for what they look like. It reminds me of what a shallow/non-understanding person I can be. Nevertheless, I am glad to be conscious of the other side of a person/issue - it is better than being overly optimistic or judgmental without ever realizing it.
You know about the disastrous quake in Sichuan. The entire nation had half-flags, even major websites changed their colours to grey-scale. You see donation drives everywhere (even the foreign students have one right outside our dorm block). Everywhere you hear calls for the country to be united (大灾面前，众志成城) and etc etc etc...
But you know, I've heard about:
- Supply trucks being robbed even before they reach the people who need it - by people whose supplies are not affected much by the quake.
- In a school (or maybe some schools), in order to create impression of an enthusiastic donation drive, the teachers actually had the previously donated money taken out of the box and re-distributed to the students, for them to line up and "donate".
- There's this national athlete who was caught on film for "donating" to the box bare-handed.
- etc...
I was very moved when I saw Hu Jintao on TV - he was speaking to the soldiers at ground zero, and right at that point of time some tremors occurred. He and the other leaders only paused and looked around for a while before he continued speaking to the soldiers, the ground still shaking. Some of you might say - well, it's for TV, propaganda, whatever. But I know that it is important for the leaders to show the people that they have a fearless government backing them up, to stabilize their hearts. The top leaders - Hu Jintao, Wen Jiabao - are all at ground zero, speaking to people, encouraging them, directing rescue operations. They are not just nicely holed up in Beijing doing remote directing. By being on the site, they face some risks because there are still tremors happening. I chatted with a Sichuan Taobao seller online a couple of days before, and he/she told me that there are about 5000 occurrences of tremors already. For that alone, I applaud the Chinese government for their sincerity, or at the very least, the efforts to let the people know that they are sincere.
The government is one thing, but the actual public can be very disappointing. I can't help but cynically wonder how many of these donation drives are real and how much money can actually be given to the victims. This is the shopping site I frequent, and you can look around for all the traces of fund-raising options. I mean, it'd be great if the money really goes to help, because Taobao is under Alibaba - which is the biggest Internet corp in China. This group has lots of money and influence (especially since they work through the net). I really, really pray that the people can get help. But because of what I know about China and its people, I've hesitated about donating money to the various drives around and only to the foreign students' donation drive as a form of support.
祈祷吧，为了中国。
On a brighter note of the "not what it seems to be" issue, my groupmate Xiao and I were doing research for this project presentation (tomorrow) and we realized we had a mountain of research material to deal with, and they are all over Beida. There's this remotely-located library which took us half an hour to find (actually Xiao wondered whether we should even go, because that library's site said they only serve graduate students, professors, visiting scholars, etc). But I felt we should check it out anyway. To our great, great delight (after sweating and walking for 1/2 hr), it's okay to go in to refer to books, just that we can't take them out. And we also realized that this library had all the information that we needed.
There's a grumpy-looking laoshi in-charge of the photocopying machine records and he actually asked me about my country and stuff when he realized that I'm Singaporean. Later, the very sweet Xiao gave him this packet of snacks which she brought for our lunch. He didn't react much, but before we even realized what was happening, some chocolates appeared on his table. He still didn't have much expression on his face. I found that extremely heartwarming, however. =) Nah, certainly not grumpy.
