"Vanishing act; Beijing's rundown storefronts are concealed behind walls as China puts best face on for the Games" by Patricia Wen, Globe Staff | August 10, 2008
BEIJING - Blame it on the wall.
Not that one, but the 8-foot brick wall Chinese authorities have erected down the south side of Luomashi Boulevard, obstructing a row of rundown storefronts, including Wu's, and the alleyway "huttong" housing of the neighborhood. Walls like it have been built in many parts of the bustling city, as some 500,000 foreigners have come to town for the Games - part of the government's pursuit of perfection, albeit sometimes a Potemkin perfection, in the way the ancient capital presents itself to the world.
Sort of like Baghdad now?
Of course, the U.S. wouldn't try to hide our slums from foreigners (sigh)!
From her motorcycle shop, Wu recalled the day when government workers showed up with truckloads of bricks, offering no advance notice. Wu and other shopkeepers pleaded with them to stop. The wall, they said, would ruin them. Some residents, Wu said, staged a protest in which they placed chairs to block the construction. But then the police came, the crowd dispersed, and protesters were taken away, said Wu.
Sounds like AmeriKa when they want to make room for a Wal-Mart!
She pleaded with the workers to, at least, create a opening in the wall at the front of her store, so passersby might be lured by the sight of her brand-name motorcycles. But workers said that could not be done.
Sounds like the Palestinians, Israelis and the Apartheid Wall, doesn't it?
Wu, who is married and the mother of a 5-year-old boy, said she made calls inquiring about who was responsible for the wall. Eventually someone told her to complain to a government office. But she never went, and does not see herself lodging a protest.
Yeah, protests don't do any good, right, agenda-pushing MSM -- that is, when they aren't global-warming, immigration, or gay rallies!!!?
"It would not do any good," she said. "I want to get on with my life," she said. "Looking at the wall is very depressing."
Imagine how a Palestinian feels!!!!
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