Last weekend, while playing in our final soccer match, I took a spill on the astroturf and roughed up my knee. It's nothing too serious. Most soccer players are accustomed to having rug burns or 'raspberries' on their legs or arms after a tough indoor match. Many of my soccer playing students also have these battle wounds so I feel less clumsy and less alone. What I've found in the treatment of my simple rug burn is that everyone in China is a doctor.
At the beginning of my classes this week, I've had every student gasp at my leg and wonder what happed. After my tall-taled conclusion (I always tell them that I got into a fight with a shark while swimming in the Pearl River... And you should see the shark!), the students often tell me what I need to do to make it heal faster. One sophomore student, Wing, approached me after class on Tuesday and gave me a note. It read, "Paul, Take care! To make your leg healing faster you must not eating these foods: goose, mushroom, egg, beef. Trust me, it works! Please, listen to me and take care!" Her concern was genuine and touching.
Chinese medicine is firm about abstaining from certain 'hot or cold' foods to bring a desired medical effect and to restore balance to one's Qi (often misspelled as "Chi")- the body's health force. Since Wing's note, I have drastically cut goose out of my meal (to be honest, I've eaten it only once in my 20 months here). To be sure, I have abstained from the other foods Wing mentioned as well, and have kept up with ibuprofin just to balance the Eastern philosophy with good old Western pharmaceuticals. Chinese medicine has been around for 5,000 years, why not give it a try?
Some have even prevented me from buying their 'hot' foods, in respect to my leg. As I approached my favorite fruit vendor, who sells amazing whole, cut pineapples for 1 RMB (US $0.12), she noticed my rug burn. I asked her for 2 fresh pineapples. She said, "No." No,? Why not? "Pineapple is a hot food and your leg will not feel better if you eat it. You cannot by pineapple," she firmly explained. But, I'm thirsty and I want pineapple! "No," she said, ending the debate. I conceded the point and decided instead to buy some fresh mangos at 2 RMB a piece. "No. Mangos are also hot. I will not sell you mangos," she firmly replied. Argh! You win! No citrus fruits! I asked her about green apples. Green apples aren't a hot food, are they? "Ok," she said, "I will sell you green apples." She plopped 3 in a bag for me. How much? "9 RMB, please," she said. I paid her and as I walked away, I was amazed at how firm she was in protecting me from buying pineapples and mango. Then, I did the quick math. Pineapples were 1 RMB. Mango were 2 RMB. She protected my health and sold me apples for 9 RMB. As she's been fair in the past, I'm sure her desire to see me fit outweighed her quest for profit.
Then, at the request of my students, I went to the campus clinic to see what the doctor would prescribe. The doctor first cleaned the exposed area with hydrochloric acid and rinsed it with a neutralizing liquid. He then painted my leg with 红药水 (red medicine water - it's honest technical name) to accelerate the scab and growth process. He also gave me some amoxicillin pills to ward off infection. To be distress of some purists, many modern doctors supplement Chinese medicine with western drugs. The 红药水 left a light red water-color stain on my skin for a day or so and made my wound look like it was bleeding profusely. My students were all the more terrified at the sight of it. Prompting them to tell me other things to cut out of my diet, like coffee (you're killing me here!), and to increase my intake of cold teas and turtle Jello (a herbal medicine in gelatin form made in part with turtle).
Slowly my leg is improving and with the help of my friends' common wisdom of Chinese traditional medicine I've been assured a speedy recovery. Now, when students ask me about it, I keep the facts positive, "Well, it's getting better everyday. I don't think they'll have to amputate it afterall." They smile and nod diffidently, not sure if I'm being serious or not, and then continue to write their list of what 'hot' foods I should avoid.
peace, love, and red medicine water. paul.
Thursday, April 27, 2006
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Podcast mania
Living in China has it's many perks, but I still really miss diverse, objective, and tenacious journalism and media... which is definitely not available here. Or is it?
For my daily fix of news, features, and general what not, I've become a podcast connoisseur. These TiVo'ed radio shows for your iPod provide me with more than enough to listen to (I don't have a video iPod... yet). At first, I was skeptical because I believed that it was only for techie nerds by techie nerds. Now, I'm realizing that it's the next generation of radio where HAMM broadcasters can fight for the same listeners and bandwidth as the major stations.
So much more than just news updates, today alone I was able to study Chinese. learn new grammar for the GRE and win Carl Cassell's voice on my home answering machine (the last one's only theoretically).
Yet, few major radio stations have made the jump to pure original programming sponsored specifically for the podcast listeners, there are still quite a few gems out there to keep me interested and informed about a wide range of topics during my walk to class in the am.
Some of my favorites:
Slate Magazine podcast. Daily one-story podcasts from Slate magazine reporters offer a brief and interesting view on topics from Bush's foreign policy to the 80s show Moonlighting. Under ten minutes, the clips are succinct and interesting. Their gabfest round table discussions are great too. www.slate.com
SciAm podcast. A weekly podcast from the Scientific American magazine offers a 20min look into that week in science. I don't know jack about science, but I'll listen to it to try to change that. If it's not that interesting, I just delete it. www.sciam.com
NPR: Wait! Wait! Don't Tell Me!. My favorite weekly show from Chicago public radio is now free to me online. This is how I spend my saturday mornings. Just like home. Yet, calling in would be a hassle, so I doubt Carl will do my answering machine message. Wait, I don't have an answering machine.
History Channel and Discovery Channel also put out their own podcasts, so they're interesting to listen to on a long train ride or a long walk to a coffee shop to study. Which brings me to GRE and Chinese study guides. I can learn Shanghainese AND improve my English language discourse with these programs.
I'm hooked. Most of the 'outside' world has probably already picked up on just how sweet podcasts are, but like China, I'm a little behind.
For my daily fix of news, features, and general what not, I've become a podcast connoisseur. These TiVo'ed radio shows for your iPod provide me with more than enough to listen to (I don't have a video iPod... yet). At first, I was skeptical because I believed that it was only for techie nerds by techie nerds. Now, I'm realizing that it's the next generation of radio where HAMM broadcasters can fight for the same listeners and bandwidth as the major stations.
So much more than just news updates, today alone I was able to study Chinese. learn new grammar for the GRE and win Carl Cassell's voice on my home answering machine (the last one's only theoretically).
Yet, few major radio stations have made the jump to pure original programming sponsored specifically for the podcast listeners, there are still quite a few gems out there to keep me interested and informed about a wide range of topics during my walk to class in the am.
Some of my favorites:
Slate Magazine podcast. Daily one-story podcasts from Slate magazine reporters offer a brief and interesting view on topics from Bush's foreign policy to the 80s show Moonlighting. Under ten minutes, the clips are succinct and interesting. Their gabfest round table discussions are great too. www.slate.com
SciAm podcast. A weekly podcast from the Scientific American magazine offers a 20min look into that week in science. I don't know jack about science, but I'll listen to it to try to change that. If it's not that interesting, I just delete it. www.sciam.com
NPR: Wait! Wait! Don't Tell Me!. My favorite weekly show from Chicago public radio is now free to me online. This is how I spend my saturday mornings. Just like home. Yet, calling in would be a hassle, so I doubt Carl will do my answering machine message. Wait, I don't have an answering machine.
History Channel and Discovery Channel also put out their own podcasts, so they're interesting to listen to on a long train ride or a long walk to a coffee shop to study. Which brings me to GRE and Chinese study guides. I can learn Shanghainese AND improve my English language discourse with these programs.
I'm hooked. Most of the 'outside' world has probably already picked up on just how sweet podcasts are, but like China, I'm a little behind.
Immigration to the U.S.
Just months before Hu Jin Tao's visit to Seattle and D.C., this is very interesting leader buried in the NY Times. A container was found to be 'too light' at the Seattle's Harbor Island port terminal. It's cargo: 18 Chinese men and 4 Chinese women. Oh yeah, and inside the container were also water bottles, food, blankets, and toilets. Some load!
The term for those who smuggle humans from Asia are called 'snakeheads', this of course is different than those from Central and South America called 'coyotes'. (There's a great book by Ted Conover by that name.)
The Seattle Times reported that these 'snakeheads' can make $30,000 to $60,000 per head. Not too cheap, especially when converted into RMB ~250,000 or 500,000. These were people with some money, equivelant to China's middle to upper middle class. The 22 individuals spent 15 DAYS in the container. Geez, I get restless after 15 HOURS in Northwest's coach class...
Regardless of money or method, they're in Seattle. Now what to do with them? Well, the Seattle Times article concludes: "The 22 stowaways have a few options regarding their future in this country. With stowaways, the government can invoke immediate removal.
The immigrants can also seek asylum, in which they would need to establish a credible fear of returning to their home country.
"If they have relatives in the U.S., then they [the relatives] can petition for them to remain here in the U.S.," Milne said. "They may also be held as material witnesses in a criminal human-smuggling operation."
After this hoopla, I'm guessing they have a credible fear of returning to China. In an interesting power-play, Bush could toy with giving them immunity. This, of course, would infuriate Hu before his visit, but may be productive to sway the release of the NYTimes journalist Zhao Yan who was imprisioned 6 mo. ago. This scenario would be tricky, with immigration and amnesty a firey topic in the Senate right now (Read LA Times article in their immigration coverage series). Yet it might underscore the hard rhetoric that Bush and Rice have been doling out about China's abhorrant human rights record.
***As it's been a while since I've posted, I've tried to add as many links as possible to this piece.
The term for those who smuggle humans from Asia are called 'snakeheads', this of course is different than those from Central and South America called 'coyotes'. (There's a great book by Ted Conover by that name.)
The Seattle Times reported that these 'snakeheads' can make $30,000 to $60,000 per head. Not too cheap, especially when converted into RMB ~250,000 or 500,000. These were people with some money, equivelant to China's middle to upper middle class. The 22 individuals spent 15 DAYS in the container. Geez, I get restless after 15 HOURS in Northwest's coach class...
Regardless of money or method, they're in Seattle. Now what to do with them? Well, the Seattle Times article concludes: "The 22 stowaways have a few options regarding their future in this country. With stowaways, the government can invoke immediate removal.
The immigrants can also seek asylum, in which they would need to establish a credible fear of returning to their home country.
"If they have relatives in the U.S., then they [the relatives] can petition for them to remain here in the U.S.," Milne said. "They may also be held as material witnesses in a criminal human-smuggling operation."
After this hoopla, I'm guessing they have a credible fear of returning to China. In an interesting power-play, Bush could toy with giving them immunity. This, of course, would infuriate Hu before his visit, but may be productive to sway the release of the NYTimes journalist Zhao Yan who was imprisioned 6 mo. ago. This scenario would be tricky, with immigration and amnesty a firey topic in the Senate right now (Read LA Times article in their immigration coverage series). Yet it might underscore the hard rhetoric that Bush and Rice have been doling out about China's abhorrant human rights record.
***As it's been a while since I've posted, I've tried to add as many links as possible to this piece.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
