Posted on 07/27/2010 3:13:35 AM PDT by oldmomster
Mark MacKinnon
Shoubaozhuang, China — From Monday's Globe and Mail Published on Sunday, Jul. 18, 2010 11:48PM EDT Last updated on Wednesday, Jul. 21, 2010 5:20AM EDT
Gated villages in China have for years been symbols of affluence; places where the rich can live in villa-style homes, surrounded by private schools and swimming pools, with fences to keep out those who don’t belong.
Now China is gating off low-income villages, where migrant labourers from the countryside (the people who built those expansive villas) live in near squalor. The newly erected fences and nighttime curfews are designed to hold in the residents, and the criminality that supposedly emanates from these communities. “Enhance the idea of safety and reduce illegal crimes,” reads a red banner hanging over the main road to one such village south of Beijing, home to some 7,000 migrants
That road into Shoubaozhuang is guarded 24 hours a day by two uniformed guards and partially barred by an accordion gate that closes tight at 11 p.m. each night. Until 6 a.m. the next day, the residents are sealed in. Only those with passes are allowed to come and go, their movements recorded by a video camera stationed over the entrance.
(Excerpt) Read more at theglobeandmail.com ...
Ghettos, lovely. True progressives those Red Chinese.
This is not surprising. When my late mom and my stepdad visited Beijing as part of a tourist group in the early 1980’s, they stayed at a foreign guest house normally reserved for visiting diplomats. And there was a definite presence of armed guards between 9 pm and 6 am. Those guest houses were among the first buildings to get really modern amenities we take for granted in the USA like air conditioning and modern bathroom fixtures.
/s
That changed a good 10 years ago... I have my own condo (yes, I’m sitting in it right now, enjoying a lovely Shanghai evening, and I own this place outright - no Chinese cosigner required) in an all-Chinese apartment complex. I’m the only lao wai within 10 km, at least according to my butcher at the local Tesco (he’s been there 18 years, and I’m the only white guy he’s ever seen in the store).
I’ve yet to find a place I cannot go, that ordinary Chinese can go. I’ve been living half-time over here for close to 5 years (coming to China for 10 years), and haven’t had any problems yet!
This compound for the poor is pretty common, though. China takes a dim view of homeless, they are a blight on society is the Chinese thinking. So lock them up in a compound at night, and if you’re found outside after curfew and suspected of being homeless, your ID will be requested. Not from Beijing, but in Beijing? You’ll get escorted to the homeless camp, or spend a night in jail...
I thought the Chinese wouldn’t allow access to freerepublic.
No problem at all to get the FR; however, I do use a VPN to watch Hulu and Netflix (which restrict themselves on the US side).
Most websites are freely accessible from China; Facebook and Youtube are the two big exceptions, but then again - VPN to the rescue!
But FR, and most political and news sites (I can’t remember the last one I came across that was not accessible from inside China), are no problem to access from China. With the way Obama and the JournoListers are going, it won’t be too long before China has greater freedom of speech than the US!
A shame we cant do that as part of immigration reform.
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