4-25-05

Colombia has 3 presidents. When Colombia's president, Alvaro Uribe Velez, showed up at the Vatican to visit the new Pope Benedict XVI, Uribe told the press: "As I was approaching the stand by the Pope, they told me: 'but the Colombian President already came over to greet the Pope' ". Apparently some smart guy had pretended to be the Colombian president already to get a few words with him. The funny part of the story however, is that after Uribe saw the Pope, yet ANOTHER Colombian individual came up to the Pope and claimed himself to be the President. "Three Colombian presidents said hi to the Pope today" said Uribe.

RELATED INFO:

- Article in el Tiempo.com

 

4-23-05

Clear to take off. No wait! A TANK! I'm pretty sure most paragliders around the world don't have this type of problem. That day, there were a bunch of students so we decided to spend a few hours at the 小山 'xiao shan' (small mountain) practicing take-offs. As we approached the field, we saw Chinese military war tanks stirring the dry powdery dirt that had been accumulating since the last snowfall. At least a 10 tanks were on the go as we stood up there waiting for good wind, and a clear landing area, tank-free that is. The leaders in charge of the entire operation didn't seem to have a problem with us flying during their training session. I'm telling you, it was quite funny to see a bunch of foreigners flying paragliders with tanks rolling in the background.

Achin smiles

We managed to take off a few times before two soldiers came up to us. It was inevitable and as I saw them walk up the hill, I thought to myself: 'it was obviously just a matter of time'. The two soldiers, or young soldiers should I say, showed up in a very respectful and at the same time cheerful manner. With smiles of confusion they kindly asked us to stop flying. We managed to negotiate that they let the three remaining gliders take off and then we would on our way. With no resistance, they agreed.

I then started talking to the two soldiers. Both coming from the province of Hunan, these young patriots could not believe I spoke Mandarin. I asked them how old they were: both 16. I then proceeded and asked some questions related to their military and the experience they were having. They politely waved their hands at me in a way to make me understand they didn't want to talk about it.

In the end however, we established a good relationship and they even helped us take off and pick up the gliders.

 

4-20-05

New Pope! By now you can definitely tell I've been bored for the past three days. Anyways, fresh from the oven I bring you the news even before CNN.com did. A new Pope has been elected! I can finally sleep at night. Check out the chimney through which the smoke thousands of millions of people were waiting to come out from. Shouldn't they make it a little more imposing than that?

Anyways, I was looking at the article on CNN.com and saw this web poll they have. Interesting how the highest percentage votes for a South American Pope. I wonder if this tells us that people want a South American Pope, or if it is mostly South Americans (the first minority in the US) reading CNN.com. Africa was second (African Americans being the second minority in the US), and well so on and so forth. But how cool would it be if the next Pope is Chinese?? Let's just wait and see.

Ten minutes later: Oh wait...just came out: German. Never mind then. Scary looking in that picture.

From CNN.com

 

Created: Monday, April 18, 2005, at 08:33:55 EDT
Which region do you think the new pope should come from?
Italy   15% 7353 votes
Other Europe   17% 8099 votes
South America   27% 13153 votes
North America   13% 6087 votes
Africa   20% 9803 votes
Asia   7% 3339 votes
Total: 47834 votes

 

4-19-05

Sino-Japanese tensions. You might have read it recently on the news. The past is creeping up on the Japanese and the Chinese still retain resentment against their neighbors. But let me tell you, although it's a breaking news story, over here there's nothing new about it. I probably could have mentioned it before but never did in order to avoid any confrontations or bitter disagreements amongst friends or readers.

Chinese, and I say about 98% of the Chinese I've asked, dislike the Japanese. Why? Amongst others, the 'Nanjing Massacre' during WWII. Women were raped and thousands of others died in what marked an event that no Chinese will ever forget. Whether you ask a cab driver, the cashier at the supermarket, or even some teachers in my university, they will most likely confirm their odium abhorrence towards the Japanese people and say it with no shame at all.

Living in an area of Beijing where I find myself surrounded not only by local Chinese but also by foreigners (and by foreigners I mean not only westerners but also asians including Japanese) I remember asking that one teacher that doesn't like Japanese: "So what happens if you have a Japanese student in your class?" - I will act nice, he's my student after all. But that does not mean I like him" she says. What followed this question was a one-hour conversation about on this subject. I stared at her in disbelief as I heard her speak her thoughts, thoughts which had no real foundation other than "they are mean, we hate them for what they did to us, and that's the way it will always be". I tried telling her that in the West, in the past there were problems with the Germans, and well nowadays there's no reason why we can't be friends with Germans. In fact, one of my classmates was German and I told her: "see this guy? what has he done to me directly, what reason has he given me to hate him? what reason have your Japanese students given you to hate them?" - I don't need any reasons to hate them, I just do - she replied.

That's just one example of many I've heard, so in the end it's a pretty deep issue they have inside. Japan has already apologized to China more than 17 times since they restored diplomatic relations in 1972, according to The Economist Global Agenda. Apparently that doesn't make the newspapers because Chinese don't know it.

What is triggering these effects we read about in the news recently? Well, I'm not exactly a politician and probably ignore many facts that pretty much everyone does as it happens with these issues, but I know that it has to do with textbooks. Japanese talk about the Nanjing Massacre in their japanese school textbooks but leave out all the raping and massive murdering. The Chinese don't like this and get angry. Good enough of a reason to go to their embassies and start throwing rocks at them. Added to this, are the South Koreans who were also affected by the Japanese invasions in the past. The Japanese also seem to have an opinion on Taiwan which is just fueling the Chinese's discontent.

RELATED INFO :

-The Epoch Times

 

4-18-05

And the government said: let it rain! Who said Noe's Arch story wasn't made on purpose? Well hear this. In Beijing, and many other regions of China, rain isn't abundant. Usually when it does rain, it's because 'they' wanted it to rain. A simple push of a button will suffice and everyone pulls out their umbrella.

I was pretty much as puzzled as you might be right now, and when I first heard this story, I didn't really believe it. But hey, some things are facts and others just myths. This one is a fact. Silver iodide shells explode in the air creating a quick air condensation, and if things work out as planned, rain is what you get. For this they use special aircrafts, rockets, artillery shells, balloons and other techniques.

Only last year, China spent almost $50 million doing 'cloud-seeding' as they call it. About 35,000 people took part in this "weather modification" process as they made use of 6,929 anti-aircraft guns and 3,804 rocket and artillery launchers to fire chemicals into the sky.

The main purpose to justify these actions is to simply avoid a high impact of drought on the economy in needy regions. The Northern Plains region of China is home to half of the nation's wheat and corn grows. The lack of rain is a constant threat for these farmers who see the Weather Bureau's 'miracle rainmakers' as heroes. Controlling the almighty Mother Nature doesn't seem to bother them though, and these gases they throw into the air aren't exactly good for the environment. But who's out there to tell them? China is currently the world's leader in 'cloud-seeding' and don't seem to have a problem with it.

All this story just to tell you that right now, as I sit down here by my window writing this short update, it started thundering like I haven't seen in a long time. I remember the last big rainfall was last June when half of Beijing got flooded, I'm guessing because they pushed that button one too many times. Rain doesn't happen frequently here and is appreciated when it does. Just a few seconds ago, as the first raindrops started falling after a good 20 minutes of lightning, some people started to clap their hands as others lit up firecrackers whose resonance juxtaposed the earsplitting call of thunder.

RELATED INFO:

-Cloud seeding fails

 

4-16-05

Let the good times roll. Not that I haven't been lucky in life because I know I have, but lately lot's of things just seem to be piling up together. Some small, some bigger, but all in all good opportunities. First the visit of the President and the TV coverage with the people from Caracol, which turned out to be very successful as we all did a great job. Not only reporting the political facet of his visit, but also showing another side of China's life.

The other day we went out flying and there was a reporter from one of Beijing's daily newspapers, and she asked me a few questions. Next thing you know, I'm on the 'weekend' section with a cool little head shot of last thursday's issue! (I'll put up a copy soon enough).

Then just a couple of days ago, I get an email from a person working for a Travel Guide company called Bradt Guides. She said they might be interested in some pictures from some of my travel experiences. So yep, coming to China and learning Mandarin has been paying off pretty well.

 

4-7-05

Day THREE. Uribe walks the Great Wall of China and becomes the president to have walked the farthest on it. However, this is not how the day started. The delegation was scheduled to leave Diaoyutai (their residence) at 8 o'clock sharp, so this time, to avoid missing them like we did at the Forbidden City the day before, I decided to get there at 7:15am. The place was deserted and the morning promised a nice and clear day. The winds from the north had swept with all the pollution and the air was breathable once again. On site, Monica had the great idea to make a short note on our cab driver, Huang Chun Ping. He kept saying how amazing it was to be in that place and that only very few privileged people had the right to enter the Diaoyutai. Well that was it, we got the camera, microphone, and made a short note on Huang. Since neither the reporter nor the camera-man spoke mandarin, I was the one in charge of interviews with chinese people.

At around 8:30am, (half and hour late) we left the premises our destination being the Great Wall at Badaling (the crappiest wall around here). This is where all the tourists go since it's perfectly reconstructed along with restaurants and snack shops at every tower. We started walking and the wall kept getting steeper and steeper. Let me tell you a little bit about our president's physical conditions: he does yoga and jogs every morning. Tip-top shape guy. The Chinese secret service guys could not keep up with his pace. All reporters, journalists (including me) and other delegation members were barely able to follow him. After about 20 minutes we reached a point where three soldiers stood to block our way indicating that it was time to go back down. The president was told that it was as far as previous president's have gone. Not surprisingly, he said he wanted to keep going and dragged us with him for another three towers. The guards then start running in disbelief making way for some of the public that was transiting the other part of the wall. Tourists around him cheered as he spoke the two words he knew in mandarin: ni hao! ni hao! After reaching his goal, we went back down where he signed a special guestbook and was awarded something (I can't recall what it was).

Back on the convoy, at speeds of over 150km/h, we went back to Beijing but not before making a 1hour stop at the Huawei Technology Corporation. Speeches were made, hands were shaken and that was it. They had lunch, took a two-hour break and went to the People's Hall once again, this time to meet with the President of the Assembly where they signed agreements of cooperation.

The night was quickly catching up to us and only two more events left for the day. First a quick visit to the National Art Museum where a Colombian artist had his exhibition inaugurated by the President, followed by a press conference at the Colombian Embassy where Uribe spoke for over an hour. He mentioned the incident about the 17 soldiers being killed in Colombia only hours before and kindly asked for China's cooperation in the fight against terror.
Monica Interviews Li Chow, General Manager of Columbia Tristar Films in China.

In the meantime, Monica, Orlando and myself kept running around looking for good stories to run. During the short breaks in between events, we went out on the streets shooting interesting images, interviewing people and editing material. The last story we ran was about pirating. Monica had some interesting data about it and we went to those markets where one may find all the Louis Vouitton purses and other brand names. We also made a short segment on DVD pirating for which I managed to get an interview with Li Chow (left) that helped give our note a much more solid foundation and credibility.

Breaking into these DVD shops with the camera you see on the picture, was needless to say a challenging task. People would simply not allow us to film thinking we were going to betray them and turn them into the police. After a while we convinced some of the guys and got the images we wanted.

 

Monica interviews our driver, Huang Chunping.

A view of how they blocked all the traffic.

Vicky Davila, Alvaro Uribe, Monica Villamizar

Orlando Ramirez, Alvaro Uribe

Guards start running when the president tells them he's going to keep going

Coming back down

Interviewing Li Chow

President Alvaro Uribe before his press conference

 

4-6-05

Day TWO. Today was a long day: the President's arrival. To start things, we missed the convoy that left from the Chinese President's Guest House (Diaoyutai) to the airport. This was the first time we got nervous and I felt partly responsible since I was in charge of timing and logistics. Well, we still made it to the airport on time in our private vehicle and were admitted into the airport's VIP room where Uribe was to be greeted upon his arrival.

The escalator in front of us suddenly got crowded as one could hear the people yelling anticipating the President's appearance. He comes down the stairway accompanied by about 40 other important figures including Colombia's Ambassador in the Washington D.C., Luis Alberto Moreno who plays a key role in the 'Plan Colombia' agreements between the U.S. and Colombia.

An AP photographer, Monica and Orlando go over details before the President's arrival

Presidential Guard (Guobing) the best of the best		 The President walks into the VIP room where he gives our Caracol reporter (Monica Villamizar) an interview, the first exclusive images sent to Colombia and other Latin American news sources. After leaving the room they quickly left the airport with 20 other cars down to Diaoyutai and rested for about four hours before taking off to the Great Hall of People (Renmin Dahuitang). There he met with Hu Jintao, the Chinese President, who received him with official honors. A short ceremony inaugurated by both National Anthems was quick but dazzling at the same time. A few hundred guards (as seen on the picture) made quite an impression. They all had the same exact height and coordinated every single movement as one in a spectacular performance of unity. The three corps were there: ground, navy and air forces. After chatting with our driver, he told me that they were simply the best guards in China, highly known and respected by all.

Uribe and Hu Jingtao met for about an hour in a enormous room with some other 20 people or so. Through translation and bits of patience, they expressed each other's feelings for the so special acquaintance. The third time a Colombian president came to China on an official visit.

Well enough of the boring stuff, what was going on with us? Our competition (RCN) had arrived, and although we were all on the same boat and are still humans after all, there was a competition going on underneath the covers. Peeping on what the other one is doing, what they're thinking, who they're interviewing became a skill I acquired. At 1pm we had our second satellite transmission. We got in our second extra note (something that has nothing to do with the president's arrival) which should actually get more ratings than some boring political visit. So for our second note we looked at bicycles in Beijing. For this we got some images of bicycles on the street and interviewed a few old people.

I learned today how important it is to be meticulous and precise when shooting. Timing and organization is everything when every second is worth not only money but your job position and the quality of your work, needless to say the quality of journalism itself. Fortunately, after comparing my team with the competition, I can proudly say that I was on the right team. These two know how to work together, and although Monica lost her temper a few times, everything worked out well and both of them did a great job and weren't satisfied until it was perfect. I noticed today how mediocrity can slap you back on the face in an event of this magnitude. Mistakes or half-assed takes will simply not forgive and will either not be played on the news segment or will simply be mediocre journalism. So let that be a lesson well learned for everything.

So here we go, another day with four hours of sleep, I think it's time for bed now. Third day coming up soon, in the meantime enjoy these images I managed to get inside the Great Hall of People.

 

President's arrival, first images

In the VIP room

Leaving the airport

 

Fighting the wind for a presentation in the Forbidden City

Monica Villamizar (our reporter), Vicky Davila (famous news anchor in Colombia). Forgot the other guy's name.

Hu Jingtao recieves Uribe with full military honors.

Left: Hu Jingtao President of the PRC Right: Alvaro Uribe President of Colombia

First dialogues between presidents

Monica prepares a presentation

Vicky looking 'cute'

Uribe leaves the People's Hall

Final presentation of the day by Tian'anmen

 

 

4-5-05

Day ONE. Like I said on the front page, a Colombian news channel, perhaps the most prominent, got in touch with me recently and asked me to produce and coordinate the coverage of the Colombian President, Alvaro Uribe's, visit to China.

My team consists of a reporter (Monica Villamizar) and a camera-man (Orlando Ramirez), both Colombians. After a three day trip from Bogota coming through New York where they were stuck for a whole day because of bad weather, they arrived to Beijing late Monday night. I picked them up and took them back to the hotel where we sat and discussed the next day's agenda. I got back home at around 1am.

Opening segment, first shot of China transmitted to Colombia (Temple of Heaven)

Little did I know, hell was coming up on me. A good hell though. Today, I was up by five in the morning on my way to the hotel and with an empty stomach and little sleep, started what became a 19-hour day. Carolina and Orlando didn't get any sleep however, so I can't complain.

So, finally I get to see what happens behind the scenes when you see a reporter talk for 20 seconds in front of a camera. It's complete chaos! The reporter and camera man were supposed to arrive on Monday morning which gave us two full days of time to cover short notes on 'china life' and other interesting topics before the President's arrival on Wednesday April the sixth. Because their airplane was delayed 12 hours, we lost an entire day, which meant we had to rush things today (Tuesday). And so we did. Running up and down, fighting cops and security services for some images on camera, interviewing people on the street, in the shops, or just about anything kept us busy.

Because of time differences, the reporter must fake live transmissions: shoot indoor scenes and speak as if it were night time and say what would be happening in 13 hours (the actual time difference between Beijing and Colombia). So, there you go, whenever you see that word 'Live' on the top part of the screen..it's not very 'Live'. It's probably been recorded hours before...but sssshhhh, don't tell anyone! Clothes must change, hairdo, make-up etc., this way it looks like a different day.

Along comes the time pressure. But why? well, the news channel in Colombia arranges 15 minutes of 'satellite time' with a special studio in Beijing. In our case, we had from 7.30pm-7.45pm. During those 15 minutes of satellite connection, we can do whatever we want, in this case, send the material we've recorded. Five minutes of satellite time cost about one thousand dollars. So yea, you better not be late or mess it up.

After getting footage from the entire day, we go back to the hotel room and start editing on this very heavy and expensive little laptop you can see on the picture. You can probably guess what happens next: yea, it's not working properly. After dealing with technical problems and only minutes away from our satellite transmission time, we have to rush out of the room to the satellite place and make only a few minutes short.

The image is being transmitted directly to Colombia (at 6.30am Colombian time) and will be in the 7am news, that is only 15 minutes after the transmission is over. Unbelievable. Every minute, every second that goes by is priceless. The air in the transmission room only inspired anxiety as the reporter, nearly in tears, spoke with the people in Colombia receiving the images and sound.

After the transmission, at around 8pm we headed out for more footage. This time, we went for weird food and the pedestrian street at Wangfujing. This is like the equivalent to a 'Times Sq.' in NYC but obviously not similar. They sell all kinds of food including scorpions, cockroaches, snakes and other unseen creatures. After 18 hours of straight work, we're all kind of tired, especially the Monica and Orlando who haven't slept in the past 3 days. Needless to mention is the fact that there's absolutely no time to stop and eat.

Okay, well that was it for today, tomorrow I meet the president. Here are some other shots from today, enjoy!

 

Getting ready for shooting

Monica memorizes her notes

Interviewing the Colombian Ambassador in China

The 'hectic' satellite room

Tian'anmen and the Forbidden City decorated with Colombia's flag in honor to the president's visit

 

RELATED INFO:

-BBC's article on Uribe's Visit