It’s reported that over 1.5 million people are at serious risk from diseases such as cholera, dysentery and malaria and may die if aid is not delivered soon. It seems that the number of dead cannot be accurately determined at this time, but i am confident that this disaster is on a par with the terrible earthquake in China. It’s rather strange then that China sent 50,000 troops to Sichuan province to help with the aid effort, but is blocking UN sanctions to force the Burmese government to accept foreign aid! I understand the principal that the Burmese should decide for themselves, but i think that when this many lives are at stake – there’s not really much time to look at everyone’s principals.

China broadcasts to the media globally that it would appreciate foreign help; unsurprisingly everyone scrambles to show them how much they can do…and maybe they can get a few new trade agreements next year, but at the same time they block aid from going to Burma! It doesn’t really make sense in my head.

So…what can be done. On Saturday 17th May, the Global Day of Action for Burma’s Cyclone Victims will take place. The emphasis is on getting the rest of the world to enforce aid upon Burma to save literally millions of lives. I don’t agree with this tactic as it will only worsen relations with the government, but then i also do not have a better solution to propose!

Protests are taking place in London as follows:

French Embassy: Time: 12:30 – 13:00
Address: 58 Knightsbridge London SW1X 7JT

American Embassy: Time: 13:30 – 14:00
Address: 24 Grosvenor Square, London, W1A 2LQ

Foreign Office: 14:40 – 15:10
Address: King Charles Street London SW1A 2AH

Click here to view a map of the day’s protests.

Other protests across the world can be found here.

And sadly, i don’t think this is uncommon either, probably more common than the article makes it out to be.

What does this say about the company? Not really sure. Businesses (and humans alike) can only do so much to promote a certain image, and Google was always keen on being seen as the good guy. However, we must remember that they’re a multi-billion dollar company, they have a board of directors, they are incorporated (which means they have a legal commitment to making the most money possible for their shareholders), they are in a highly dynamic market and they are a major global power – they need to have stategies and rules. Unfortunately this may be the very thing that bursts their bubble. No one is really sure how and when their bubble will burst, but as IBM and Microsoft before them, it is likely to burst. A company that’s success is down to the fact that they are innovative and interesting…and well…fun, can’t suddenly turn into a dictating and controlling powerhouse without losing a serious batch of users.

Interestingly, China recently unblocked wikipedia claiming that the Chinese internet users couldn’t live without it! What does this say about all the companies that succumbed to the government’s censoring policy? Arguably Google (implying the trademarked company Google Inc) is more important for net users than wikipedia, and if they and other big players had held on a few months longer, we could see a situation today where very few sites are censored in the country.

As always…there’s some interesting portraits…

Plus some scenery…

And a house or street here or there to mix it up a little!…

Click any of the photos to check out the rest…Enjoy…

It was a nice day cycling around the busy streets of Chengdu, China, but when the heavens open…they really let loose. Like many other people, we decided to hide under a bridge for the rain to stop – when i saw this woman cycling past, obviously not bothered by the rain like the rest of us!

Nothing that profound to say really, just thought i’d post a picture!

Thanks to Callum (new window) for setting me up with a secure tunnel to his UK server…allowing me to browse the web unrestricted like a happy little bunny!

This isn’t one of China’s many restrictions, but a Google policy to not show video in China. Part of the deal when Google agreed to release a Chinese language search engine was that there would be heavy censoring (click here to open a list of words which bring up censored results in Google China, new window)…and Google Video seems to have been hit too!

The next day we had the task of getting back to civilisation and hopefully a bus station…we managed to hitch a ride with the local police jeep to the next town to then get rammed into a tiny van with 8 other people (and the driver who was drinking a rather large bottle of beer), 3 bags of rice and a couple of boxes of who knows what. We booked the onward bus the next morning for what we heard was supposed to be a bit of a rough ride…Erik and Callum may remember (will definately remember) our 16 hour bus ride through Laos and Vietnam…this made that look like a walk in the park! Aside from being on cliff tops the whole way…the road was no more than mud for around 200km – oh and it’s the rainy season.

At one point, we all had to get out and push the bus to get it through a particularly thick patch of mud…well, all the men were supposed to, i just got out to take pictures of them all doing it…ha ha ha ha.

Anyways….that was all fun and games…we arrived the next day at the world famous ‘Tiger Leaping Gorge (new window)‘. We decided to get a lift along the gorge then walk back…leaving our bags at the start to pick up the next day. We couldn’t find any taxis for a good price, so we hitched a lift on a truck…we were a little worried as to the safety of the vehicle as it didn’t seem so steady…and it was a pretty tight road with a sheer drop down to the right (oh…and the possibility of avalanches and falling stones from the cliffs above). Infact…so unsafe it was, that less than 12 hours later a poor guy was killed on the same road by a falling rock during a small avalanche!

So, 30km of hard walking later (mostly in the rain!) we managed to jump on a bus (being rather smelly…i felt sorry for the poor girl next to me) and arrived in this cool town of Lijiang.

Enough of my antics…life’s pretty good. Had some tasty food and despite my iPod nearly breaking a number of times…everything’s going well.

Over and out.

After missing our ride to the next town we managed to meet a guy who works for the post office and who could give us a ride at 6.30am the next day (today!) in his truck! Arriving safely this morning…we’re now heading to Ya Ding nature reserve…which is supposed to be one of the most beautiful places in China (and hopefully not so touristy as so far it’s pretty hard to get there!).

I started off in Chengdu at 500m above sea level, moved to Luding at 2100m, then to Moxi at around 2400, then onto Kangding at 2900m and have just arrived in an amazing little town called Litang at a whopping 4014m above sea level!

The road here runs along the Southern Tibetan highway and basically goes right through the himalayas. On our trip here we made passes at over 5000m high!!

So, in short (why did God make me so funny!!) the air’s a bit short (oh here i go again!) but the people are amazing. We’re in fully fledged Tibetan country now (despite the government not classing this as inside the Tibetan Region), so there are yaks a plenty, lots of tents on moutains which are scarily high…lots of mountains which are scarily high (i think from this town you can see 6 peaks all over 6000m, with some as high as 7600m!…that’s nearly half the height of Ben Nevis!).

The Tibetan people all seem rather cool…with some amazing faces and costumes (although they all seem to smell a bit cheesy…i’m not sure exactly what it is…but i think it’s cause yak milk, cheese, yogurt etc are so popular here…probably how many westerners smell to Asians!). I watched in awe as very young kids performed amazing acrobatics on the street for a few pennies (videos coming soon!), and in even more awe as children about the same age were puffing on cigarettes!

I moved onto another little town the next day (where i am now) which is on the border of what Tibet used to be, so the Tibetan influence is getting much stronger, and there are much more Tibetan people around, which is pretty darn cool. We ventured out to a Tibetan disco last night (Saturday night and all…who says the Tibetans don’t parT!!) and saw some local dancing and singing…bit of an experience..sadly no pics or videos…but i’ll do my best to get some next time!

Today, we hired a car and took a trip up to the highest lake in the region (3700m high!!!) which was pretty darn cool…thought it would be a three hour trip and turned out to be a whole day trip which was rather nice as i was with a bunch of other folk.

Anyways…to stop this sounding like an itinerary of my trip, i’ll fill you in to some other exciting things going on in my life! Was feeling a bit ill…and bit better now…which means the 20p bottles of beer will be flowing tonight. Heading west tomorrow (hopefully, just realising that we haven’t booked tickets for a 6.30am bus…so may be here for another day!) deeper into Tibetan country…before visiting some amazing national parks and heading down to Tiger Leaping Gorge, which should all be rather cool. Met up with a Chinese friend from Singapore so going to travel with her for a few days which will be cool (big help on the old eating and the whole speaking chinese thing).

Well, that’s all for now…over and out!

I’ve been feeling a bit ill for a few days, so decided to stay in bed this morning and engross myself in Chinese TV! I went out for some food around lunch time, and was stared at by the table next to me as i sat eating my rice and courgettes! Eventually i waved at them and smiled…but they didn’t really get it and instead turned around thinking there must be someone i know behind them! Alas, the nosiness doesn’t stop there. The hotel owner decided to open my window this morning (from outside) then couldn’t resist but have a little peek through the curtains…despite the fact i was lying in bed looking at her…when she finally noticed me…she just shouted something in Chinese..and off she went!

Sitting in an internet cafe now and the guy next to me won’t stop smoking (or blowing smoke towards me), while the girl on my left keeps pointing her webcam at me so that her friends can watch me…and the funny thing is…she thinks i don’t know…despite the fact i can see my face on her screen. Well, maybe she does know…cause she keeps giggling every now and again…and the smoker from the other side goes over to check what she’s writing!

Definately a different concept of privacy, but you just gotta love it! I found it quite hard for the first few days, especially after the smiles of Thailand…but getting used to it all now…and it’s pretty good fun.

Was supposed to be going up a mountain this morning to see the world’s lowest glacier…but think i’ll leave that until tomorrow when i’m hopefully feeling a bit better. Will try and get some pics up soon.