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Clean Cut Kid
posted Thursday, 24 April 2008
A smile was sent to face today as I stepped out for my daily constitutional. I was headed in the direction of the bread shop, then the market. Oh! And I had to purchase a new fish slice. The handle broke on the last one. I lead such an interesting life.
Anyway, there I was strolling up the lane which leads to the outside world when I spot a new addition to the local decorations. Someone has only been and gone and went and stuck up a huge red banner!
Dragon City is Our Home. Cleaning is Everyone’s Duty.
Dragon City is another name for Liuzhou, by the way.
So, I rushed home to clean up and found my water turned off. They are replacing a pipe. Bit difficult to clean in these circumstances so I head off out again towards the market. This time I pay more attention and spot the notice that says that Liuzhou is trying to win some prize for clean city status.
They love their prizes round here. The fact that it is the government giving prizes to different bits of the government seems to escape everyone's notice.
I have lost count of the number of times I have been asked to translate company information for brochures intended to attract foreign investment and been presented with a long list of prizes. Ask them what their turnover is and they look nervous but answer. Ask them what their profit margin is and they are baffled.
But they have prizes.
Then I pass the government headquarters. There is a huge crowd of men outside and hundreds of cops. Another demonstration against the perfect Chinese government I think, but then notice that they are holding up a banner. It seems they are workers from Liujiang Paper Factory who haven't actually received their salaries for months because their employer is bankrupt and they are asking the government for help. Given that the government actually owns the factory, that seems reasonable. Well, they can dream on.
(Note: There are no photos of this despite the fact that I had three cameras with me. Crazy foreigners taking pictures of disturbances isn't an option.)