Salamon...

Well...
Salamon it's family business, so please don't mess with my cuz!

Surveillance follows Chinese activists

BEIJING, China (AP) -- Nearly two dozen plainclothes police swarmed the apartment on a December afternoon, confiscating laptops, cell phones, bank cards and books.
The wife, who was bathing her 6-week-old daughter, heard nothing. The husband, China's brashest dissident, was quietly whisked away.
In a matter of minutes, Hu Jia had vanished into the country's state security system.
The December 27 raid sent a clear message that the Chinese leadership is determined to silence critics ahead of this summer's Beijing Olympics.
Although not a household name in China or abroad, the 34-year-old Hu exercised an outsize influence from his airy, fourth-floor apartment, even while under house arrest. Using the telephone and the Internet, he tirelessly detailed the arrests, harassment and detention of other activists to a network of dissidents, reporters and diplomats in China.
When he was taken away, he had been confined to his home for 223 days.
Now Hu faces a charge of "inciting subversion of state power" -- a nebulous accusation often used to imprison dissidents for years.
"It's an obvious signal to activists and other vocal citizens that the same could happen to them if they don't shut up," said Teng Biao, Hu's friend and fellow rights advocate.
The arrest dealt a blow to a fledgling grassroots civil rights movement in China. It also suggests that the government is willing to weather international criticism rather than let protesters mar the August 8-24 Olympics, even as the games put its human rights policies under increased scrutiny. The European Parliament passed a resolution demanding Hu's release, and the U.S. raised his case with Chinese officials.
Why authorities decided to take him away remains unclear. One factor may have been his participation via Webcam in a November 26 European Parliament hearing, when he reportedly said it was "ironic that one of the people in charge of organizing the Olympic Games is the head of the Bureau of Public Security, which is responsible for so many human rights violations."
His wife, Zeng Jinyan, is still under surveillance, with no telephone or Internet access. Their apartment, in a residential complex on Beijing's outskirts named Freedom City, has been cordoned off by police. Security agents turn away reporters as well as visitors carrying milk powder for the baby and other gifts.
The Beijing police and its homeland security department that watches dissidents refused to take questions over the telephone on Hu's case and did not respond to a faxed request for information. A Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said the case was being handled according to the law.

Imprisoned in Freedom City

In becoming an activist, Hu chose a path typical for many dissidents. He started out working on specific issues -- in his case, the environment and AIDS. But because the government gave little ground, Hu began to see China's problems as rooted in authorities' lack of respect for human rights.

Tenacious, resourceful and possessed of a wry sense of humor, he used a handheld video recorder to capture the mundane routine of surveillance from his apartment: security agents eating boxed lunches, napping on lawn chairs and playing cards. They crowded around Zeng as she tried to walk out of the compound and followed her in unmarked cars when she drove off in her metallic orange compact.

"They are just like a pair of friends who faithfully follow us," Hu deadpans in a voiceover.

Hu and Zeng turned the video into a half-hour documentary called "Prisoners in Freedom City." They were put under house arrest May 18 as they tried to leave for Europe to promote the movie and meet other activists.

"I never compromise with the government," Hu said in a November interview. "I believe there must be someone at the front lines to let the public and the outside world know the truth."

Using the e-mail address "freebornchina," he sent out audio files of his interviews with dissidents.

"I have nothing to lose. The only thing worse is going to prison," Hu said. "If people give me information, I'll send it out with no hesitation. This is what I can do for them."

Activist wife shuttered away from public

In 2000, Hu met Wan Yanhai, an AIDS activist pressuring the government to deal more openly with the disease. Hu founded an AIDS awareness group, Loving Source, to help AIDS patients and orphans in Henan province.

The work led to his first arrest. In December 2002, he was detained for four days while trying to deliver toys and winter clothes to Henan's AIDS orphans.

"It was the first time in my life my freedom was restricted, the first time I had been searched, been threatened," Hu said.

AIDS is one area where activists have had some impact, with the government now offering free HIV tests and treatment for the poor.

"All he is doing is fighting for justice," said his mother, who now runs a store with her husband. Both have been warned seven times by security agents not to talk to journalists about Hu's case, she said.

In January 2006, Hu married Zeng, whom he had met while she was doing AIDS volunteer work.

A month later, he was seized by security agents and driven with a hood over his head to an unknown location. He was held for 41 days and questioned about a nationwide hunger strike he helped organize to protest violence against dissidents.

Zeng, a waiflike 24-year-old with a heart condition, became a fierce human rights advocate, using her blog to bring attention to her husband's case. Last year, she was named by Time magazine as one of the world's 100 most influential people.

On November 13, Hu sent a text message announcing the birth of their daughter: "She is our angel." Being a father seemed to deepen his commitment to activism.

"Now that she is in this world, the one thing I can do for her is to push for change in society so that we have more freedom," Hu said. "There are so many children being born in China every day. We need to do this for them."

Six weeks later, he was gone.

CNN.com

China crisis: The human cost

You could only admire her bravery. A stream of pumped-up Chinese police reinforcements was slicing at speed through a tactical opening in the security barricades at Guangzhou train station.
The woman, 40ish, slightly built and alone, flung herself into the breach. For a moment it seemed she'd be minced meat. A police officer wrenched her aside and pulled the barricades back together.
"I want to go," she wailed. "I want to go."
But she was back with so many others, on the wrong side of security, with tens of thousands of people between her and the great prize of a seat on a train heading anywhere.
China's current emergency can be seen on one level as an epic collision.
On one side: nature, wild and indifferent. On the other: a very human drive to visit family during one slender window each year.
It is a deeply intimate story.
China's economic rise - and my cheap T-shirts and kids' toys - depend on ordinary Chinese who leave their homes to work often seven days a week in factories in the south. The trip home for Lunar New Year fulfils ancient obligations to family. It is also the only chance most of them have to see family members - including spouses and children - all year.
The vast tides of people waiting at Guangzhou might be sources of fascination, curiosity - even incomprehension. They can never be figures of fun.
Thirty years ago, the travel writer Jan Morris made a trip from Guangzhou to Hong Kong. She spoke of not seeing people so much as "statistics on the move." A neat line.
But the tens of millions currently disrupted by China's weather are no mere statistics. Theirs are all too human faces, desperate to keep faith with their families after for the long months of separation.
Their powers of endurance will be remembered long after their occasional flashes of exasperation or anger.

-- From CNN Correspondent Hugh Riminton in Guangzhou

The next heroe

Water Man, coming up in Heroes, season XII.

Near miss...

In a few hours a comet almost as big as the height of the Macau Tower (or more) will be passing one time and half times the distance to the moon at 9.25km/second.

That's a close call.
If a full hit, the comet would be smaller due to the mass lost when entering our atmosphere. Anyway, it would be a bang.

So if you here a whistle in a few hours, look up.
You might get lucky.

For much more info, visit this.
And for research on future events, click here.

Beijing after the Olympics...

Just a thought...

What will happen to the 600.000+ jobs created per year for the last six years (3.6million jobs!!!!) , AFTER the Olympics?

A tip of what "can" happen it's a replay of what happened to Athens in 2004.
Millions invested in infra-structure, new buildings and new jobs for beautiful historical pictures. Yep, historical because everything has been left behind and the Athens is back to the past.

Just this time, the numbers are bigger and the result can be catastrophic.

reference

Unlocked iPhones - Update

Now Apple claims 3.7 million iPhones in 2007.
Meaning 1 on three sold for unlocking purposes....

Full story here.

The Olympics and... POLLUTION

Expressions like:

"View out of the plane window might not be so great."

"There's some very polluted air in parts of China."

"...the preparation will include simply not being in Beijing until the last minute -- training instead in places like Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, and Japan."

"..."damage of lung tissue" and "asthma attack," and even notes that the rate of heart attacks is higher on high pollution days."

"...U.S.O.C.'s own monitoring of Beijing air has shown levels of pollutants to be "disturbingly" high."

"...When you are coughing up black mucus, you have to stop for a second and say: 'O.K., I get it. This is a really, really bad problem we're looking at.'"

"...I could still taste the grit on my teeth, but I could actually talk and breathe. That wasn't the case in other years."

"...I think it would be a huge political issue and an embarrassment to the Chinese people and to the I.O.C. if American athletes wore masks in the event itself..."

"If that image was beamed around the world on TV, it would cause nothing but problems."

Got it?
International athletes, not only Americans, looking forward to wear masks during the competitions?

Welcome to the 21st Century and God bless fresh air.

Read the article here.

Unlocked iPhones... nop!!!!!!!

Wanna know where your "unlocked" Macau iPhone version came from?
Of course all came from the same place. but how many of them have been bought with the intent to use out of the legal contract of the local carriers?

Apple claims it had sold 2 million units in 2007.
AT&T exclusive carrier reports "only" 900 thousand units.
Europe itself, among Germany, France and UK estimates something around 350 thousand units tops.

Do the math: 900 thousand + 350 thousand = 1.250 million units, right?
Where are the other 750 thousand units Apple claims it had sold?

Some of them are piling up on AT&T shelves.

People are waiting for a faster 3G version, new applications coming from the Developer Kit soon to be released in February and some price incentives. That's SOME of them...

A whole lot of them are distributed all around the world.
Asia itself might be responsible for more then 600 thousand units.
Well, i know ONE that travelled all the way around the Globe and went to South America, via Macau. But that's only one.

In Macau you find LOTS of people using the "unlocked and please do not connect the phone via iTunes" iPhone for US$550.
HK? Same stuff.
Singapore? Same same.

It seems that there's a whole lot of water running under the bridge and we never know where this water comes from or where's going to.

Nasty Traffic dispute in China

"A female student was bicycling down the right side of the street on her way back to the dormitory, and a Buick vehicle came along in the same direction. The two vastly different vehicles collided with each other, and the bicycle left a scratch of 20 to 30 millimeters on the car.

At that time, the female car owner got out of the vehicle angrily and demanded an apology from the student. Furthermore, an apology was not good enough because there had to be payment for damages. So the student called her teacher for assistance. By this time, many students had gathered around the scene and one of them asked the car owner: “Where do you come from? Why are you on our school campus?”

The woman said something that was provocative: “If I produce my identification document, you should be scared to death.”

So the students began to confront the car owner while refusing to listen to the police. The police pulled the car owner aside and began a discussion. But the elder brother of the car owner has shown up with some friends. They talked tough and they began shoving the students around! The students were infuriated and there was physical contact. But since the car owner is female, the students restrained themselves.

Then a male student tried to make scratch marks on the car. The brother of the car owner assaulted him and they also demanded that the police take him in. According to rumors, the male students was severely injured (note: it was very chaotic at the time).

Then we called 120 (note: emergency medical service) and an ambulance came to take the injured male student away. The elder brother of the car owner saw trouble coming and quietly sneaked away. This became the focus of the story later on.

The woman was trapped. Her mother came. Although the mother was an elderly lady, she was just as unreasonable and barbaric. The campus security guards also came. But we chased them away. Then the security director came, and the students asked; “How did a car without a permit enter campus? What do you guys do for a living?”

A teacher showed up and promised that the chancellor will be here.

Before the chancellor could arrive, the students demanded that the car owner turn over the person who conducted the physical assault on the male student. That would be the elder brother of the car owner. But the car owner refused to say a word.

Then the security guards showed up again. We started cursing and yelling, and called them a bunch of pigs. Someone said that the security guards were letting outsiders without student ID’s come and go in the university. We now have proof that a vehicle without a permit could come and go on university campus. The security guards were speechless and they could only glare at us. At that moment, someone began to assault the car. First, they broke the windshield glass. Then they yanked out the registration plate.

A teacher came to mediate, but he was told to scram. The security guards tried to stop the vandalism, but the students would not budge and held them off. A teacher then said that the chancellor would come in ten minutes. We stood and counted ten minutes. He did not show up, and so we started to assault the car again. The police tried to stop us, but the students pushed them out. There was some physical contact. One police officer was hit and left holding his head in his hands. The police did not come back again.

The teachers who tried to intercede were dragged off. We asked the people on the other side to disperse, and then we overturned the car. The female car owner tried to stop us, but we dragged her off by force. The car was overturned and the chancellor still had not shown up.

Someone there said that he was from the Student Affairs Office, but the students told him to scram (and that applied to the teachers, security guards and police officers).

Then we broke all the windows on the car and nearly ripped the car doors out. It was quite a scene. But the car was solidly built as the front window never came off.

A student leader jumped on the car and tried to speak, but we couldn’t hear what he was saying. On one hand, his voice had gone hoarse from all the yelling. On the other hand, too many other people were yelling.

Then we Nankai University students got together and sang our school song! When the school song is sung, all Nankai people are united. Back then, the Japanese military bombed our campus but they could not destroy our unity!!! So this city bum couldn’t count for anything!!!!

Finally, Chancellor Zhang Jing appeared and promised:

1. The students will not be pursued for responsibility
2. Traffic within the campus will be improved
3. The instigator will be pursued in accordance with the law."

Original story