10.02.08
Posted in Awesome, Beijing at 22:07 by Little Herschel
Useless ID, an Israeli punk band from Haifa, put on a great show last night along with No Opinion, a German band, and local talents SKO and Recycle.
The show was scheduled to take place at the MAO Livehouse in Jiaodaokou but a suspicious last minute safety inspection deemed the venue unfit for rocking. Supposedly, there were very high levels of “hydrogen” in the building and the show was forced to move elsewhere. Apparently the local constabulary were worried that the show would disturb the coffee-sippers across the street at Nanluoguxiang.
Despite the temporary setback, the bands/organizers called an audible and the show was moved across town to the Get Lucky Bar. And what a show it was!
Shame MUL couldn’t make it; I guess he’s too busy Fatwatching in Hong Kong.
October 8th update.
Here is a picture from the actual show:
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08.28.08
Posted in Law and Order, Politics, Rumors, USA at 15:55 by Little Herschel
Here’s a fascinating story from Caijing about alleged money transfers to terrorist groups through Bank of China accounts:
More than 100 terror victims filed a class action lawsuit August 21 against the Los Angeles branch of Bank of China (BOC) for allowing millions of dollars to be wired by Hamas and the Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ). Hamas and PIJ are designated terrorist organizations by the U.S. government, and such wire transfers are a crime under American law…
The plaintiffs allege that beginning in 2003, BOC executed dozens of wire transfers for the Hamas and PIJ totaling several million dollars. These dollar transfers were initiated by PIJ and Hamas leadership in Iran and Syria, were processed through BOC’s branches in the United States, and were sent on to a BOC account operated by a senior operative of the Hamas and PIJ in southern China’s Guangzhou City. If the accusation is true, BOC would have facilitated the funding of terrorist activities.
In 2005, Israel counter-terrorism officers met with officials from the Chinese Ministry of Public Security and BOC regarding these wire transfers. Despite Israeli warnings, BOC persisted in wiring funds for Hamas and PIJ.
If true, this is another example of how China’s “internal affairs” (in this case, corruption and lack of oversight) inevitably become external problems that affect the rest of the world.
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07.06.08
Posted in Religion at 10:10 by Little Herschel
An interesting article by Haaretz describes one of Israel’s smallest Jewish communities, that of the Kaifeng Jews, numbering just 10 souls:
Jin, 22, and Wang, 21, arrived in Israel at the beginning of 2006, together with two other friends from Kaifeng on tourist visas. They received temporary resident status after they begun conversion studies and received citizenship after undergoing a conversion ceremony in a rabbinical court. Wang explains that as children their parents and grandparents “told us we are Jews and that one day we’d return to our land.” Jin Jin boasts, “We have a family burial plot that goes back dozens of generations, and we have genealogy books showing our connection with earlier generations of Jews.”
The town’s Jews reconnected with mainstream Jewry thanks to visits by Jewish tourists, who brought learning materials and religious objects to local Jews. Jin’s uncle Shlomo Jin went to the Israeli embassy in Beijing eight years ago seeking to immigrate to Israel. Embassy officials didn’t want to hear about it, so he eventually came to Israel with his family via a European country. Shavei Israel, an organization which reaches out to lost Jewish communities, helped community members get accepted into a conversion program.
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06.12.08
Posted in Chinese Nationalism, Politics, Religion at 18:18 by Little Herschel
I subscribe to daily news alerts from MEMRI - the Middle East Media Research Institute, and an email I got a few days ago was about Islamic fundamentalism in Xinjiang. I’ll let you read the original article on their website, as it is filled with several terms that can get our site blocked.
NATOR ADDS: Check out The Opposite End of China for excellent coverage of Xinjiang.
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03.30.08
Posted in Religion at 16:59 by Little Herschel
Back in 2005 I went up to Haerbin on China’s May vacation. Haerbin once had a prosporous Jewish community, with two Synagogues and a Jewish school. The Synagogues are still standing but remain closed to the public and the old Jewish school is now a Korean girl school. Dr. Irena Vladimirsky writes a fascinating article on the history of Judaism in Haerbin (if you are surfing from China try this link).
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