Thursday, October 22, 2020

Latvian Independence Day; Good & Bad Moments; Traffic Accident; No More SPCs?; Stay Away; Nuremberg Trials for Who?; Moronic Stopping; Wuxi Metro Line #3 Now in Operation



Note to myself.  Latvian Independence Day is November 18th.  Make a point of remembering it this year!


This is further to my intemperate behavior at a Car Wash (See previous blog entry).  Having finished re-reading the Boswell's Life of Johnson, I saw that the great Doctor had great moments and some bad moments where he was intemperate as I was at that Car Wash.  But, not being great, and being too timid of character to not feel remorse for my intemperance, I can at least say that in my life, I have had my bad moments, my selfish moments and some good moments, but nothing more.


I forgot to mention a traffic accident I witnessed while riding a bus home after work on a Saturday evening.  Traffic was heavy and I saw this big white boat of a sedan, driven by a woman, trying to make a right turn from a side road across three full lanes of traffic.  Moments before the accident I noticed the car because it made itself very conspicuous by its feeble attempts to get onto the road.  I thought it was strange to see it being forced to back up, or retreat you could say, to the side street from which it had come. Then, I looked back inside the bus.  An instance later, out of the corner of my eye, I saw the car attempt a quick dash across the lanes, before hearing a crunch as the car ran into the side of a car.  I see a lot of accident scenes in Wuxi as I go about the city but this was one of those rare instances where I noticed the car before it got into the collision or even seemed in danger of getting in a collision.


On a Tuesday, someone at our school made a decision to cancel all the Speakers Corners for the week.  For me, it meant having even less work to do than I already had, that all the classes I would have would be with children, and that I would have no way of getting the pulse of the Chinese people by talking to adults.  Why was the decision made?  I was told of the decision by social media by someone who didn't make the decision, but talked to them that did, and this someone told me that they no idea why the decision was made.  I suspect that one reason was the appearance of these old ladies at the Speakers Corners.  These ladies hadn't paid the school any money for coming to these open classes and so the school perhaps wanted them to scat. 

I was able to read a notice that the school made announcing the cancellation and it said that the SPCs were cancelled for a week so there could be planning and organization, whatever that meant.  It would be sad if these classes that I have done since 2004 suddenly came to an end.

[Two days later]  I don't know why I never thought of this sooner.  The reasons for the SPC cancellation may be political.  That is, the powers that be don't want to have public forums where babbling, loose-cannon foreigners, like yours truly, may say something that shouldn't be said.  In fact, I can say that every SPC, I say things that would not be allowed to be said by Chinese citizens.



Sometimes, the best way to be nice to someone you admire is to stay away from them.  You can't assume that your company is worth anything to most people.


There should be Nuremberg Trials for the people who decided to implement lock-downs.  There should be Nuremberg trials for Trump because he must have done something wrong about Covid because he is Trump and evil and bad and lying....   Two viewpoints I have been exposed to.


Far too many locals don't exhibit consideration for others when they stop or park their cars.  I probably have reported, to the very rare readers of this blog, of times when I witnessed people parking their cars so that they trap previously parked cars.  What I have been witnessing the past week is inconsiderate stopping of cars right in front of the entrance to our apartment complex.  At least five times, there were these cars which were side-road stopped right in front of the entrance, blocking the path that cars would take to exit or enter the complex.  Why they don't stop on the side of the road away from the entrance area is beyond me.  It never seems to occur to many locals (who are Chinese!) that where they happen to be standing or stopping, they are in the way of others.  Another manifestation of this is the local who steps off an escalator and stops right in front of it blocking others behind them on the escalator.

And if the blocking I had already seen at my apartment complex wasn't bad enough, some genius local found a way to make it even more egregious and selfish and blindingly stupid.  What did this "Einstein Wang" do?  The driver of a white SUV, after driving out of the complex, stopped practically in front of the entrance gate causing other exiting cars, like the one I was driving, to make a wide turn to get around them and so get into the path of cars trying to enter the complex.  As I drove around this SUV,  I blared my horn at it and my wife, who was in the passenger seat, gave them the what-for.  

And a day later, as if to reinforce my point, I saw another example of inconsiderate parking; this time at our school.  What did a driver decide to do?  On the narrow side-street near our school, someone parked their car on the opposite side of the road from which all other cars are usually parked and thus created a winding gauntlet through which to navigate for other cars.  In addition, this side-street often is the scene of standoffs between cars trying to go in opposite directions.  The car parked where it was would make that situation is more of a gong show.



Wuxi Metro Line 3 is now running.  I decided to check the Blue Line out on the day I heard the news.  So, coming back to Compound Kaulins from work, I got on the #1 Line (the Red) at the Nanchang Temple Station.  I transferred to the #2 Line (the Green) at the Sanyang Station (one stop from Nanchang).  I then rode the Green train for three stops to the Jianghai station where I transferred to the the #3 Line (the Blue).  I then farted around the Jinaghai station, taking a video of an incoming blue train, and then taking the blue train a few stops in the opposite direction, before getting off and boarding a train going to the direction of the Wuxi Train Station Station.  This station was two stops from Jianghai.  At the Wuxi Train Station, I transferred to the #1 Line and took the red train to Yanqiao from where I could then walk home.

I could see that many locals were checking the new line out.  I saw numerous people taking photos of the station and their signs with their phones.  

But beside witnessing this, the experience of taking the line was rather hoo-hum.  Other than the color of the train being blue, the riding experience was no different from taking the green and red train lines.  I will have to find out if the Blue line ever goes above ground; for it would be worth riding it more than for the few stops I have ridden it.  If it doesn't go above ground, I need not take it unless it can get me somewhere that I have to go.

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