“Chinese gold miners abused and raped Ghanaians, says online report”

South  China Morning Post

Read this report on Alberto’s FB . It reminds me of these two photos posted above. They are taken in China, somewhere unknown with anonymous photographers,  posting or publishing agencies.

No matter how afraid the photographers are to disclose the ugliness of Chinese miners at home, the inhumane, or better say abnormal cruelty of all creatures and exploitation of the same species,  what is shown in these photos indicates the roots of problems abroad.

When someone behaves bad in the society, there must be something wrong at home. Usually if he is abused or distorted at home during the time he is bought up, he gets used to these ill treatment and has taken it normal, then he most likely has learned it by intuition and most probably, he will use the same ways to treat others. Learning by intuition provided and enhanced by certain environment marks the learners with deep-rooted strongest effect which would take him forever to remove or quit, or even to realize.

For a nation, it is the same. When its people behave bad in their own country, treat themselves and each other in bad ways, it is almost impossible for them to behave differently. They are equipped with THESE WAYS and these are THE WAYS. They are unconscious of the wrongs that are born to their bones and melted into their blood generations after generations.

When the ill treatment or behaviour has always been accepted, or ignored of its wrong for long, especially for a nation who has been shut away from the trends of the world, its people have lost the sense of justice until they meet with oppositions. Chinese bad behaviour will not likely to encounter the violent oppositions because their balls are held by their stomaches. If a weak Chinese dares to say anything or even show a little bit colour of discontent, he will be fired.

China had been strong over the world in certain periods of history: Tang and Yuan Dynasties, or we can say that the history of China or any great civilization has been one of expansion all along the time line. China used to be very small, only places of now Centre,  East and south of China. She had expanded to Northeast, further South, Southwest and North West. Where ever Chinese went, they brought its agricultural technologies,  its language and other cultural aspects. Of course, any habit needs to be broken, and it is fine if the habit we break belongs to an inferior category.

The world has greatly changed, not only in ways of working, but most importantly, in ways of how people treat themselves at home, each other  in the society and how to treat people of different cultures. In a word, humanity has become the most important element of our modern world, a world which has become smaller because of internet, a world closer in understanding the essence of life, a world much less tolerant to ill behaviours.

Twenty-First Century is China’s century! This will not come true until Chinese genuinely realize who they have been, how they have treated themselves and each other, how they have been ignoring and tolerating injustice at home! China needs an anchor at home to hold its own boat in storms. She needs capable sails that will guide the boat breaking through the evil wind from its own land and that of the world.

Part VII-2 – Scared and Desperate

At about 10 am one Sunday morning, Simone’s cellular rang as she was preparing some documents for her clients in her home office.

“Hi, Simone. It’s Ge Wen!”  Simone didn’t know Ge Wen was back.

“Oh, oh, Ge Wen na! How are you?” She was happy to hear Ge Wen’s voice.

Ge Wen did not respond to her greeting; many overseas Chinese were not used to greeting each other or making small talk as North American people often do before starting a conversation on a subject. Instead, he asked abruptly:

“Was Ou Yang there with you last night?”

Being Chinese herself, Simone was used to this kind of bluntness-getting right into the point. So she answered directly:

“No, she was not here!” Obviously, Simone had no idea why he would ask such a question.

Naively Simone added: “ why do you ask?”, her mind was still focused on her laptop, searching for the French version of her client’s contract that wasn’t  showing up under “Documents”.

“She said that she was with you last night!”

Then, from the other end of the line came no more sound. A moment of silence.

This moment of silence was long, so incredibly long that Simone immediately regretted her words. She felt stupid. Why had she not held her tongue? Why was she still working instead of paying full attention? She couldn’t blame Ge Wen for being blunt and rushing her into this stupidity, could she?!

“Oh, oh, shit!”

It was the first time she had ever done something so unbelievable, so stupid. By leaking information she hadn’t intended to, rather than to fear that she would lose her loyalty to Ou Yang, she started to worry that she might have gotten herself involved in something unpleasant and troublesome-something she wanted nothing to do with.

Without surprise, Ou Yang arrived crying in the afternoon.

“Ge Wen knows now that I am dating this guy!”

Ou Yang sounded like she was crying, but there were no tears in her eyes. Only the puffiness of her face showed that she had shed some serious tears earlier that day

“Well, shouldn’t you be prepared for this kind of thing when you started dating without getting divorced, or at least you might have made clear your intention?  I thought Ge Wen knew,” Simone said coldly.

Simone was tough but true, yet maybe too tough and true for nothing. Should she just hold Ou Yang in her arms and let her cry more?

“He wanted me to give him François’s name and phone number!” Ou Yang was reluctant to say François’s name.

Ge Wen was very angry for the fact that she started dating and sleeping with “this guy” whom he had no idea about.

“Who is this guy? Why was he spending time with MY son?” Ge Wen asked, attacking with his questions. “Is he really better than me? Is he so good and considerate? Am I that disgusting to you?”

These questions stunned Ou Yang. Ge Wen’s temper – a temper Ou Yang had never seen before – scared her. Such fury, coming from this meek, sheep-like husband, began to shatter Ou Yang’s nerves in a strange way she had never felt before. She became desperate, so desperate that she wished she could hide herself somewhere, anywhere where she wouldn’t have to answer those questions.”

Ge Wen was scared too. He began to realize that he was losing his wife to “this guy” whose name he actually did not want to know ever, to some unknown, green-eyed ghost. His worst nightmare might become reality in no time: his hope for life, his only son might not live with him forever, instead, he might spend time with this gxx who had done nothing for him, but soon might enjoy the harvest for which Ge Wen had worked so hard all his life.  Further more, he couldn’t even imagine the reaction of his parents when they found out they were losing their only grandson – the last sole male of three generations of their family…

Surprisingly even to himself, Ge Wen was also scared in another sense. He was scared at his own rare display of anger…

To Be Continued…

Part VII-1-  A Taste of New Life

Ge Wen accepted a job and moved to Vancouver in the middle of September 2011.

He presumed that Ou Yang would come to join him, bringing their son along, if he was making more money, and that he would feel more comfortable in an English-speaking environment. Feeling more comfortable would usually make one more relaxed and better in bed, which would please his wife as a result, and set everything right again. He was guessing his way out.

The tough thing for him was that his wife seemed to have a habit of appreciating what she didn’t possess and destroying what things she did. Ou Yang was a victim of the martyr mentality – someone  who believed o be the unluckiest person on earth, misunderstood by the whole world, and what’s more, that the entire universe opposed her on purpose.

Ge Wen was indirectly made to feel guilty, thinking he was to blame for not providing happiness and a better life for his wife and son. More money and a new environment, he somehow believed, would improve their situation and give the three a fresh chance in Vancouver.One can certainly hope for the best, even though physical or change in geographical locations might not have anything to do with the change of one’s mentality.

Unconscious of what the root of the problem wa, Ge Wen blamed himself. He focused on the needs of his wife and son – seemingly achievable goals – to avoid having to attend to his own. After all, he came from a nation whose needs were invariably shut out, making it easier to care for the needs of others than one’s own.

When he really thought about it, he wasn’t even sure what his needs were. He had become like a coconut shell drained of its juices, or a transplanted tree strangled by strong vines, choked by the needs of his wife and son, or by the cultural need for survival of the Chinese man.

Somewhere down the line, his heart and body had become disconnected; he had no idea who he really was. He felt absurd and totally disoriented, and without bearings, as he had left his whole world behind once again.

He was completely in the dark about Ou Yang’s online dating.  With his busy new $60K job and a new lease on life, Ge Wen continued dreaming energetically about his reunion with the two he left in Montreal. His increased salary didn’t really make much difference with the rocketing house prices and higher cost of living in Vancouver, let alone the fact that the Quebec offered better child support and much less expensive education

Ge Wen called his son twice a week – one weekday and one weekend – to ask about his studies and chess practice. Every four or five weeks, he made the flight back to Montreal to visit, using the discounted airfares from his accounting job at Air Canada to fly back and forth.

During these visits, Ge Wen slept in the basement guest room of their cottage. He would take his son shopping during the day and out to the movies in the evening.

Only when he was back with his son, either playing with him in the basement or going out, or holding his soft little hands, did he feel back to himself, no longer lost, almost even happy, Coming back to Montreal, a city that he had hated so much, made him feel nostalgic for his good old times. Traveling back and forth and being with his son distracted him from his miserable, awkward and lonely present. His son was like an alternative version of himself in the past and also in his own future,  but without pain or loss.

He kept trying to persuade Ou Yang to sell the cottage and move to Vancouver. But Ou Yang didn’t want to. She wanted to try a different life with a different man, and it was troublesome to search for a new job.

She didn’t love her job; her boss was “unprofessional”, someone for whom she had nothing but contempt. But she was still reluctant to move. It was the first time they had stayed in one place after leaving Xi’an, China, settling in Montreal for nine years now, and she wasn’t eager to pick up and move again. She also wanted their son to continue learning French.

It all depended on François, this new man in her life. If it worked out, she would stay; if not, she would continue dating around or leave for Vancouver.

Ou Yang dropped by Simone’s one Friday night; Ge Wen was visiting and had taken their son out. He brought the check of his share of the mortgage payment.

“How is life with Ge Wen not here?” Simone asked.

“Oh, God!” said Ou Yang, as if the God in whom she did not believe would understand.

“Busy,” she said, “suuuper busy.” Ou Yang couldn’t believe how difficult it was to handle the full schedule all on her own.

“François lives in Mont St-Hilaire on the South Shore and works from his home office. It takes almost an hour to get here, so he only comes over on weekends. He’ll take us to dinner or golfing sometimes, and we have fun. He’s really nice to my son, too. But he can’t help out during the week,” she explained.

“Well, no one is perfect,” said Simone. “But he’s a good person and nice to your son; that’s what’s important.”

“ Yeah, I know, and I am happy about that!” agreed Ou Yang. “No Chinese man would do this, treating my son like his own.”

Chinese people and westerners had a very different mindset. Chinese men would avoid middle-aged women with extra baggage, preferring naïve young girlfriends instead. And a married Chinese woman and mother would be uncomfortable and feel strange with a westerner adopting someone else’s child as their own. Family blood was the only tie strong enough to warrant kindness and care.

Simone hadn’t heard from Ou Yang in a few months, but she understood that the life of a single mom was not easy and hadn’t wanted to disturb her. She hoped Ou Yang would begin to enjoy her life a little now that she had made her decision. Especially after months, maybe even a year, without sex. At last Ou Yang had someone who “cared for her”, and cared about her son too.

Of course, François wasn’t perfect in Ou Yang’s eyes, but who was in this world? Still, Simone was happy for her, happy to be replaced by someone who could help solve her friend’s problems   with something that had been said to be universal and magical.

To be continued…

Part VI-3 – Love Life Behind The Computer Screen

It was difficult for Elizabeth to put herself back on the market again, after more than twenty years of marriage. The she lived in a small village of about three thousand residents; everyone in town knew each other, and nobody there had caught her eye.

The Internet, a revolutionary invention of the 20th century, has not only shrunk the world at the speed of light and extended the human experience with a multitude of content and colours, it has also penetrated our intimate lives. Dating sites like Plentyoffish, Match.com, Lavalife, and hundreds of others have created a world behind the computer screen, real communities built with virtual bridges. Online we can find plenty of fish of all sizes, shapes, and colours.

But Elizabeth preferred traditional dating, which was understandable but limited in many ways. It is true that one can never really know who they are communicating with behind the screen, and most people are not sure if they want to bring a stranger into their reality. And so Elizabeth was dating a man whom she had met through friends, a big, strong Catholic who did not live very far away.

Ou Yang had started dating on Lavalife after talking with some other girls who had found their boyfriends on the site. She had come from a new nation that gave her the guts to go abroad and built her home in a strange land, so she could hardly be called bold for dating on a website.

Yet Ou Yang did not have much time for endless browsing and meetings. As she said: “I have no time to waste!”  She could not afford to go too much into detail neither.She was too busy with her work, household chores, and caring for her son, so the objective in her head and in front of the screen was clear. It seemed to her that dating had to be done as a goal to achieve rather than a period of life to live. She also did not want to grow fat from the endless coffees, lunches, and dinners, and she worried that she would spend too much money on worthless men, in addition to her precious time.

Soon enough Ou Yang found a French Quebecois as Ge Wen was leaving. Ge Wen had functioned for a few months as a baby sitter as Ou Yang prepared to replace him as a husband, and yet he knew nothing.

She had been talking to her “buddy” Simone for a while about François.

“What do you think of him?” Ou Yang asked Simone after telling her François’ age, appearance, and what he did for a living.

Simone was conscious that Ou Yang was dating while still married, right under her husband’s nose, and Simone felt a bit awkward giving her opinions under such circumstances about a man she had never met.

“Well, I really don’t know! You have to judge for yourself. I don’t know what you want and I have never met this person.”

Simone’s last comment led to a party suggestion by Ou Yang, and soon enough there was a BBQ on the back deck of Simone’s house one Saturday afternoon.

Now the man behind the screen showed up.

About eight years older than Ou Yang, Francois Rousseau was a self-employed business man who had been selling companies for owners who wanted, or had to sell. He was a good-looking middle aged man of medium height; his hair was turning the mixed colour of salt and pepper, thinning on top of his head; his body was straight but with ease, his face properly portioned and delicate, his red-striped shirt nicely well ironed. Though, with a bit of a belly hanging, he was quite pleasant to the eyes.  All these showed that he was doing pretty well in his business and life.

He was more prudent than humorous, as most business men usually are, but easy and pleasant enough to socialise comfortably.  After all, he bore the standard merits and characteristics of a decent Canadian professional salesperson. As Ou Yang was searching for a reliable Quebecois man, Francois’ fascinating blue eyes might actually rank dead last in her criteria, a pair of eyes that could attract romance with little effort.

Simone invited a few friends to help liven up the party. There was Victor Point, Simone’s boyfriend, Jeremie, a young Frenchman who was one of Simone’s Salsa friends, and a nice, gentle Chinese woman who had immigrated to Quebec from France. The guests started arriving around 3:30pm and slowly started a pleasant BBQ of steak, potatoes, salad, rice, and a red wine that Victor had brought back the previous summer from Bex, Switzerland.

Victor was a talkative person, and a party could be very dull without someone like him. He talked a lot, but he seldom spoke nonsense or went on meaningless rants. His humour was slightly weird and cynical, possibly due to his dead-end musical career. He had switched to web programming just because he believed that art is private, very subjective, and personal. Depending on art for a living was akin to putting art under pressure and scrutiny. Art is for appreciation and opening one’s mind, like humour is for laughing and mental health, even though some jokes bear criticism artistically and some can even turn sarcastic. But Victor’s jokes often had his new “friends” lost in the clouds with their absurdity and cynical flavour.

His tongue would deliver many interesting stories and his eccentric humour would either shock people or push open the gates of a common sense for the hidden variations of comprehension of life’s meanings in its richness and profundity. His endless novelties would make the people around him wonder how he could possess such wide a range of knowledge and how he could have such an unusual memory! Despite the cynical hint in his jokes, he was well appreciated and favoured as an original person by Simone.

Simone and Jeremie were the party exciters who made the party lively by showing off in a Salsa dance. It was a nice autumn afternoon and all of Simone’s tenants were out with their parents, biking or roller-blading by the Saint-Lawrence River. Nice music did not really disturb anyone,  nor did any of Simone’s friends arouse unfriendly feelings of her neighbours, only the occasional burst of laughters startled off the small delicate exotic red-coloured cardinal of Montreal.

Things went pleasantly for every one, also for the quiet Chinese woman from France. Her gentle light smile with a nod or a simple “oui!”  eased the hot Salsa dance. Simone did not quite understand Jeremie’s tongue rolling French of Paris, but their love for life did not stop because of the language barrier, for they had this mutual consenting smile and the sexy latin music and dance moves that both apprehended very well in similar senses. François soon grooved into the party, though Ou Yang unconsciously displaced  a little nervousness and some kind of concern with her tense body posture and slightly forced smile, maybe she was thinking about her son, or feeling uneasy about her husband left home with their son…

Towards the end of the party, Ou Yang dragged Simone inside the house and asked earnestly:

“What do you think?”

After three hours of BBQ, chatting and dancing, Simone had to say something to meet Ou Yang’s expectation.

“Well, he seems like a fine person!”

Simone did not want to intrude with too much of her opinion, knowing that she and Ou Yang were two different types of women in their different phases of life. She knew that life had to be experienced with people’s own ideas and mistakes, and that her opinions might be absurd for anyone else but her. People truly are very different.

“Yes, I think so. He is very good to my son as well.”

Of course, any single men who wish to date Chinese women with children should always treat the children well with no conditions, although it was almost unheard of for a single Chinese woman to date a single dad. They would probably rather be old spinsters.

Simone was a bit concerned about Ge Wen, but as the Chinese saying goes that: “ water at distance can not ease the immediate thirst -远水解不了近渴（yuan shui jie bu liao jin ke) ”, and let alone the fact that Simone was not a friend to Ge Wen, which meant the kind of distance at heart, she could do nothing else but “help” her friend Ou Yang. That seems to be what a friend is for.

To be continued…