Back from Beixing!

I got back to Wuxi, China, after a overnight stay in Beixing, about one hour ago.  Beixing was dull, dirty, first hot and then wet.  I hope Tony spends as little time there as possible. 

This morning in Beixing, I saw a child nearly run over.  The driver apparently didn't realize that what was stopping his forward progress was a little boy.  I don't mean to be crude, but the little boy's nuts must have been damaged with the vehicle damn near drove over him. 

The sight of the two-year child under the front tire of a SUV will haunt me for the rest of my life.  My wife tells me that it was my screaming that stopped the child from being run over.  It also helped that the driver wasn't going fast.  The vehicle was heading down a narrow path when the child went under it.   The child had apparently darted into the vehicle's path as careless children will.

I was to scream at the driver again because I saw him smile.  He may have smiled because he didn't know what to think of the only foreigner in town screaming at him so he kept on smiling.  He may have also smiled because of the habit the Chinese have of smiling when they are in the wrong or embarrassed.  I called him a few bad words which he didn't understand but I am sure that by my manner of expressing them he knew what I meant.  I was seething as the man drove off five minutes after the incident.  But from my wife I learned the driver knew the father of the child.  What I saw was that the driver and the father talked for a while, thought it was a big joke and went on with their days.

 

My wife felt the earthquake on Tuesday because she was in our 21st floor apartment when it happened.  Now, cracks are starting to appear in the walls.  This is testament either to the power of nature or the shoddiness of Chinese construction. 

 

Here was the good part about going to Beixing.  I saw my son, The Toner, again.  Here is the video.  My rare Blogspot readers can see it first.

 

China's Earthquake gets political.  The talk that this earthquake is a bad sign for the current Chinese dynasty is to be expected.  This article, however, suggests that, so far, four of the five Olympic Mascots have been signs of some disaster for China.  What will be the fifth disaster?  The Olympics?  A John McCain election victory?