21 October 2007 294 days to Olympics 10 days to fatherhood 
(Photo of west side of one of the two CCTV tower structures taken on my walk to work) Impending fatherhood in Beijing must be the same as the potential arrival of a bundle of joys anywhere, with some extra things to think about at home and in the hospital, both in the short term and as we move into the next 5 year plan of China. One of the matters that Wei and I have been trying to solve is help. Many expatriates have full time nannies in China. Chinese have grandparents take care of babies while parents go to work. We have decided to not have a full time live in maid in the interest of keeping our home life more private although I was tempted by a carefully typed advert in the local shop: ‘Baloy Sitter.’ ‘Liuing in Beiftng, haatthy. Have etpeiirues in Baby Sittny fm Many Yees. Pls Contaut me if yon meed a baby fitter.’ This for me raises one of the key issues around child care here in China, and elsewhere in Asia; ensuring that the child gets a proper environment and example from an early age. I met a teacher of autistic children who told me that she encounters expatriate children who are believed to be disabled but in fact are simply overwhelmed by the number of languages they are surrounded by. Our child will have a British father who speaks bad Chinese, a mother who speaks Mandarin, Shanghainese, and American English, one grandmother who speaks only Shanghainese and one who speaks only English. I pray that the baby is a better linguist than I am. In the run up to the Olympics comments are being printed in the English language papers suggesting that speaking out freely is going to be easier than ever before. At a strategy meeting that the Beijing EASTWEST team held this week Nellie, a former journalist herself at the Beijing Youth Daily, explained how the editors of publications are sent a monthly update of what subjects are not to be covered by the approximately 10,000,000 journalists in China. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists China had 31 journalists in prison as of Dec 2006, including SHI TAO who is serving 10 years for an internet report on the 10th anniversary of Tiananmen square. The Press and Publications Administration apparently has committees in each province populated by party members who read all the publications and compile lists of any contentious articles and who prepare a list of topics not to be written about. The 17th Party Congress ended today (Sunday 21st) and a statement has been issued that the press briefing will be held on Monday, which will cover issues concerning China being a ‘well off society.’ One of the delegates to the Congress was former gymnastic champion Wang Qihong 
, who no doubt would approve of a notification that we received last week from Beijing Local Taxation Bureau regarding hiring disabled as employees or paying the disabled career funds for the year 2007. The promulgation that takes immediate effect means that all companies must submit documents for their disabled employees, and if they don’t have any disabled employees will be fined on a formula of salary bill x 1.7%. As it is compulsory for foreign firms to make payroll through the CIIC or Fesco, both government agencies, it is impossible to mask payrolls. The penalty for non payment is interest at 0.5% daily on the payable amounts. While applauding the sentiment this latest promulgation comes with news from Xiaolei that the landlord won’t be able to give us official fapiao (receipts) which will increase our taxable income. Perhaps my tax payments will help to pay for the increased expenditure for the Olympics which has apparently been increased from US$1.6bn to US$2 bn, an event that is expected to create 600,000 jobs in Beijing. The city is certainly starting to get ready, at least in terms of the infrastructure, even though we are still not seeing blue sky promised as a result of moving over 167 factories away from the city. The Bank of China and Visa have announced the opening of 25,000 ATM’s across the city which of course is good news for merchants, including the counterfeit DVD shop near my office that has ‘hidden room’ for which the password is ‘no police’ instead of abracadabra. My hopes of carrying the torch with LP have been crushed by Jenny Bowen of America who raised 14,188 votes and Marcos Antonio Torres of the Philippines who drew 13,342. I raised only 64, an embarrassingly poor show for someone in public relations. 
Still, fatherhood is a week away and self-publicity is far from my mind, instead concerned with the myriad of paraphernalia required for modern parenting. For a two night stay in the Beijing United Family Hospital we have 3 bags packed as if going away for a weekend to Europe. I have finally restrained the Graco baby seat in the back of the car having nearly put my back out trying to juggle the large plastic form in a confined space. Everyone tells me that life is about to do one of many things; end, start, never be the same again, take on a new meaning, have focus, lose all independence, and be one of indentured servitude. As with the Dire straits song, two men say they are Jesus, one of them must be wrong – for now I will settle with an incongruous mentor, Russell Crowe, who just says ‘it’s awesome.’ Now all I do is to pray that the LP is healthy and that we won't 'meed a baby fitter.' Man zou. Jim
(Photo of west side of one of the two CCTV tower structures taken on my walk to work) Impending fatherhood in Beijing must be the same as the potential arrival of a bundle of joys anywhere, with some extra things to think about at home and in the hospital, both in the short term and as we move into the next 5 year plan of China. One of the matters that Wei and I have been trying to solve is help. Many expatriates have full time nannies in China. Chinese have grandparents take care of babies while parents go to work. We have decided to not have a full time live in maid in the interest of keeping our home life more private although I was tempted by a carefully typed advert in the local shop: ‘Baloy Sitter.’ ‘Liuing in Beiftng, haatthy. Have etpeiirues in Baby Sittny fm Many Yees. Pls Contaut me if yon meed a baby fitter.’ This for me raises one of the key issues around child care here in China, and elsewhere in Asia; ensuring that the child gets a proper environment and example from an early age. I met a teacher of autistic children who told me that she encounters expatriate children who are believed to be disabled but in fact are simply overwhelmed by the number of languages they are surrounded by. Our child will have a British father who speaks bad Chinese, a mother who speaks Mandarin, Shanghainese, and American English, one grandmother who speaks only Shanghainese and one who speaks only English. I pray that the baby is a better linguist than I am. In the run up to the Olympics comments are being printed in the English language papers suggesting that speaking out freely is going to be easier than ever before. At a strategy meeting that the Beijing EASTWEST team held this week Nellie, a former journalist herself at the Beijing Youth Daily, explained how the editors of publications are sent a monthly update of what subjects are not to be covered by the approximately 10,000,000 journalists in China. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists China had 31 journalists in prison as of Dec 2006, including SHI TAO who is serving 10 years for an internet report on the 10th anniversary of Tiananmen square. The Press and Publications Administration apparently has committees in each province populated by party members who read all the publications and compile lists of any contentious articles and who prepare a list of topics not to be written about. The 17th Party Congress ended today (Sunday 21st) and a statement has been issued that the press briefing will be held on Monday, which will cover issues concerning China being a ‘well off society.’ One of the delegates to the Congress was former gymnastic champion Wang Qihong 
, who no doubt would approve of a notification that we received last week from Beijing Local Taxation Bureau regarding hiring disabled as employees or paying the disabled career funds for the year 2007. The promulgation that takes immediate effect means that all companies must submit documents for their disabled employees, and if they don’t have any disabled employees will be fined on a formula of salary bill x 1.7%. As it is compulsory for foreign firms to make payroll through the CIIC or Fesco, both government agencies, it is impossible to mask payrolls. The penalty for non payment is interest at 0.5% daily on the payable amounts. While applauding the sentiment this latest promulgation comes with news from Xiaolei that the landlord won’t be able to give us official fapiao (receipts) which will increase our taxable income. Perhaps my tax payments will help to pay for the increased expenditure for the Olympics which has apparently been increased from US$1.6bn to US$2 bn, an event that is expected to create 600,000 jobs in Beijing. The city is certainly starting to get ready, at least in terms of the infrastructure, even though we are still not seeing blue sky promised as a result of moving over 167 factories away from the city. The Bank of China and Visa have announced the opening of 25,000 ATM’s across the city which of course is good news for merchants, including the counterfeit DVD shop near my office that has ‘hidden room’ for which the password is ‘no police’ instead of abracadabra. My hopes of carrying the torch with LP have been crushed by Jenny Bowen of America who raised 14,188 votes and Marcos Antonio Torres of the Philippines who drew 13,342. I raised only 64, an embarrassingly poor show for someone in public relations. 
Still, fatherhood is a week away and self-publicity is far from my mind, instead concerned with the myriad of paraphernalia required for modern parenting. For a two night stay in the Beijing United Family Hospital we have 3 bags packed as if going away for a weekend to Europe. I have finally restrained the Graco baby seat in the back of the car having nearly put my back out trying to juggle the large plastic form in a confined space. Everyone tells me that life is about to do one of many things; end, start, never be the same again, take on a new meaning, have focus, lose all independence, and be one of indentured servitude. As with the Dire straits song, two men say they are Jesus, one of them must be wrong – for now I will settle with an incongruous mentor, Russell Crowe, who just says ‘it’s awesome.’ Now all I do is to pray that the LP is healthy and that we won't 'meed a baby fitter.' Man zou. Jim