Stone Age Courtship Goes High Tech

The popular view of relationships in the stone age is that the man sees a woman he wants. He hits her on the head with his club and drags her back to his cave and uses her for his primal needs.

Today, thousands of years later, the club has been replaced by pharmaceuticals but the rest is pretty much the same.

RFA reports vendors in China saying  they routinely ship out sedatives believed to be associated with “date rape” in the West, with some openly claiming that the drugs can aid would-be rapists.

“I have three kinds of drug here—[for] sedation, an unconscious dream state, and date rape,” said one vendor in the southeastern province of Fujian when contacted by an RFA reporter posing as a potential customer.

“The rape one is 980 [yuan],” he said.

Mekong Diaries: Day 57

Day 57

We spring out of the very comfortable folds of our beds at 4 am and polish our sleepy faces in readiness for Gordon and Verne. They are already waiting outside with a couple of Camrys, the national conveyor in Cambodia, (did you know that a Camry could drive up the side of a rain-soaked mountain, or ford a flooded stream? They can, it’s terrifying!).

We leave for the Kampi dolphin pools and are on the water well before the sunrise. It is chilly and in the darkness the water starts to glow with that deep indigo which signals the coming of the light, and in its beautiful surface we begin to make out the shapes of rising dolphins.

North Korea: Normality, Hope Amidst the Perms and Lunacy

When the cover of The Economist magazine featured Kim Jong II with his permed hair and the caption “Greetings Earthlings,” it seemed to aptly sum up the world’s view of North Korea. It has the image of being so isolated and different that it may as well be from another planet.

But that popular image is based on the leadership and the policies of those at the top. There is no question Kim Jong Il and his cronies are corrupt, dangerous, isolated, or in some cases simply mad.

The infrastructure of the country is in tatters even as the leadership pursues the acquisition of nuclear weapons. People starve while resources are poured into long-range missiles.

But there is a different North Korea, not centered on Pyongyang but rather the rural communities that make up the bulk of the country.

62 Gag Orders in 2009

Hard on the heels of a major communications crackdown in strife-torn Xinjiang, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) reports that China’s powerful Central Propaganda Department issued at least 62 gag orders on state-controlled media in 2009.

Mekong Diaries: Day 55 & 56

Day 55 & 56

We take the advice of our hostler and decide to avoid the added cost of a private Camry for the next leg of our journey, this time down the river to Kratie. Instead we book seats on a minibus, quicker and cheaper, or so we think. 12 hours later, having been shunted between several different mini-buses, and somewhere along the way lost completely our senses of humour, we arrive in port town of Kratie, just in time for the sunset over the wide Mekong.

Mekong Diaries: Day 53 & 54

Day 53 & 54

Today became an unexpected mental health day when our plans fell through due to our own disorganisation. Working seven-day weeks without a break is our excuse and Sunday morning in bed feels awfully right. Once the heat of the day has burnt off we venture out to meet Meach Mean of the Three River Protection Network near a lake in Ban Lung town. We move to the manicured grounds of Terre Rouge, Red Earth for an interview and then retire just a few steps further to find the pool and its charming bar to complete our observance of the day of rest.

More Sex in Vietnam

More young people with newfound economic freedom are living on their own and moving to cities in Vietnam, and it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to see where that might lead.

Microsoft Too Soft on China, says HRW

A week after the China-Google fracas, Human Rights Watch is accusing industry behemoth Microsoft of downplaying China’s cyber-censorship.
Recent public statements by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and founder/chairman Bill Gates appear to contradict the company’s official statement of opposition to such censorship and minimize or even support online censorship in China, it said.

Mekong Diaries: Day 51 & 52

Day 51 & 52

For U.S. $5 a head we leave Don Sadam and the 4000 islands behind, by boat and minibus on a bad road, then a big bus on a sealed one, make the only three-hour trip to Stung Treng, in northern Cambodia. On the way we passed a large fresh water stingray gasping for air on the back of a pick-up truck among sacks of iced fish.

Mekong Diaries: Day 50

Day 50

We slept really well, even on the flat wooden beds provided by our host. Over time your body starts to really like the physical stretching and rest provided by a hard bed. Before the sun had even started to rise we walked down to the river and set up the camera to record the sunrise. Villagers were coming down to the river to cast hand nets, collect water and bathe.