I got this short query from a blog reader:

Story suggestion:
We were in Beijing last November and were surprised that we saw no pigeons...how is that possible in any city in this day and age?

Thanks!
Susan R***

Anybody have any clues to what lurks behind the “pigeonless” city?

I lived in Nicaragua in the early 1990s and heard many stories about how during the Sandinista Revolution the capital suddenly became devoid of birds. The culprit: Huge use of DDT to kill mosquitoes. The birds eventually came back, and so did the mosquitoes.

I imagine there is a pigeon-extermination brigade in Beijing, although pigeons aren’t one of the “four pests” – rats, sparrows, flies and mosquitoes – that have been the subject of periodic campaigns.

The always-interesting ESWN blog out of Hong Kong translates an internet posting about a high school vice principle sacked for refusing to make a donation for the Sichuan earthquake relief.

The story rang a bell for me because I wrote a story last week saying that not all donations rolling into quake relief were really voluntary, at least as we in the West see it. Some are given after arm twisting. Here’s the link.

So here’s what reportedly happened in Qingdao, a port city east of Beijing and quite far from the Sichuan earthquake:

At a Qingdao news forum, a post titled “Qingdao School Vice Principal Dismissed For Refusing To Make Earthquake Donation” appeared and received more than 10,000 hits within hours.  The post was then circulated to the major portals.  The post alleges that the vice principal named Zhao told the teacher in charge of the donation campaign that he has no money to give.  In spite of pleas, he was adamant that he won't donate a single cent.  When the school staff and students learned about this behavior, it created bad influence.  "The school leaders spoke to Zhao but he insisted that it was his choice to donate and it was nobody else's business.  Zhao had also been derelict in his duties, showing up late and leaving early.  The school board has made the unanimous decision to dismiss Zhao.

Zhao was interviewed by Southern Metropolis Daily.  He said that he had previous disagreements with the school principal named Ma over working styles.  Zhao preferred to be practical but Ma was apparently more flamboyant, including throwing one RMB notes into the air for people to grab.  Zhao had unsuccessfully tried several times before to quit, but he was persuaded to leave.  When the Wenchuan earthquake occurred, Zhao asked Ma to organize a donation campaign but Ma refused.  So Zhao made two separate donations totalling 1,200 RMB through other channels.  On May 21, the school began to organize donations.  Zhao received a telephone call from a worker and said that the school principal required middle-level managers to donate at least 100 RMB.  Zhao resented the use of "required" and "at least."  Zhao said, "I was born in the 1980's.  I have my own personality and views.  I don't think people should be forced to donate money.  This is a personal matter.  What was he doing when I was making my donations?  This school principal wants to use the workers' money to accomplish his own goals.  That is why I refused."  He said that Ma used his departure to hype up the topic, and that was really disappointing.

Ma was also interviewed by Southern Metropolis Daily.  "I left the delegated the donation campaign to the school workers.  I did not force anyone to donate any fixed amounts.  It does not matter if it is 10 RMB or 20 RMB, but isn't it unreasonable not to donate even one cent?  We have two vice-principals.  One donated 2,000 RMB while the other gave not one cent.  This is hard on me.  You make more than 4,000 RMB per month.  Is it too much to ask you to donate one or two hundred RMB?"  He thought that Zhao had talents, but he lacked character, responsibility and concern.  Therefore, the school board decided to dismiss him.

P.D. I'll be traveling in the Guangxi autonomous region for a few days and postings may become erratic till early next week.

Quick! How many Americans have died of mad cow disease in the past year?

If you are one of tens of thousands of South Koreans taking to the streets to protest the renewed import of U.S. beef, you probably think Americans are dying regularly.

I came across this news story that suggests seven people may have died in the United States last year from variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, but the U.S. press certainly doesn’t link these deaths definitively to mad cow disease.

Judging by the U.S. press, there isn’t a significant problem with mad cow disease in the United States.

But judging by the South Korean press, the problem is major. And many South Koreans probably think the real facts are being covered up.

I bring this up because protests have been growing in size in South Korea against U.S. beef imports, and the growth has been a little difficult to understand. Among foreign journalists who regularly go to South Korea, myself included, we often say that South Koreans like to take to the streets. They gather together. They sing old protest songs. They light candles. Hey, what’s not to like?

But that doesn’t really explain this explosion of protest against President Lee Myung-bak, who came to office in late February but has seen his popularity plummet to, by some indications, barely 20 percent of the voters. Some 70,000 protesters gathered Tuesday night in Seoul

Here’s the explanation offered by a newsletter called Nightwatch, that is a daily compendium of analysis of events off the front pages of newspapers but worthy of attention. If this analysis is right, then mad cow disease has less to do with these protests then sudden unhappiness with the Lee administration over a variety of factors, some quite unrelated to the safety of beef.

Feedback from a well-informed and brilliant Reader advised that the protests against US beef imports are driven by an underlying disappointment and hostility to President Lee’s government. Lee won a landslide electoral victory based on his promises of economic prosperity, increased per capita income for all and tougher policies in dealing with North Korea. One hundred days into his administration, South Korea has been buffeted by high prices for food and fuel. South Korea is completely dependent on imported oil.

The demonstrations are more about the increased cost of living, a perception of favoritism for the wealthy and lack of progress in keeping his campaign promises. In their own inimitable fashion, the South Koreans will register their discontent in the streets in huge rallies which always carry the risk of street escalations.

Lee would seem to have few options. He will dismiss some cabinet officials, as scapegoats, but they are not responsible for the problems generating the outbursts. He can buy time by reimposing the ban on US beef imports, but the opposition leaders will shift focus to rising food and fuel costs. Large protests are likely to continue.  In an earlier time, continuation of demonstrations on this scale would lead to a military coup, imposition of a state of emergency or the resignation of the President. The situation is not that grave … yet.

Here are a couple of paragraphs from another news story that I found interesting:

Until the discovery of mad cow disease in the US in 2003, South Korea was the third largest importer of US beef, spending $850 million year. It eased the ban in 2006 only to find backbones, a banned substance, lurking in the beef and reban it, impounding 5,300 tons. Now the meat, which has been in storage, is rumored to soon be released. Will it be billed as fresh?

Of course there are other dangerous meats in the South Korean diet. No hygiene regulations govern the millions of dogs slaughtered for food each year says the Herald Sun, because they are not considered livestock.

For now, the protesters will probably remain in the streets, shouting slogans like, “Mad Cow, You eat it!” and “Mad Cow Drives our People Mad!”

Okay, for all non Chinese speakers, here’s a short video on how to pronounce the name of China’s capital properly. It also offers a memorable explanation of why the Beijing Summer Olympics logo is so beautifully linked to the Chinese characters used to spell the capital.

I know nothing about the “two characters” who put on this video but they should do more.

I’m just catching wind of an interesting item at Huffington Post about the potential role of Christian missionaries during the Olympics.

The item goes into detail about the position of Rev. Franklin Graham, son of legendary evangelist Billy Graham, who was just in China a few weeks ago. This is an issue to watch, in part because of sensitivities in China about religion but also due to freedom of religion issues for athletes. Graham caught heat for suggesting that evangelists should respect Chinese laws.

Click here to see the post.

China reached into its quiver in the last few hours to use wartime weapons for a peaceful purpose.

Soldiers fired four missiles at boulders to smash them and clear the way for a sluice channel to drain dangerous Tangjiashan lake, the swelling body of water in Sichuan province that is imperiling some 1.3 million quake-stricken people living downstream.

The lake finally began to drain over the weekend. But this morning’s China Daily said the lake is filling from new rains faster than it is draining.

The newspaper says engineers may drop underwater explosives in the channel to deepen it.

Meanwhile, in another only slightly related matter dealing with a weird type of weapon, Germany’s Spiegel Online reports that China has bought U.S.-made items known as long-range acoustic devices _ or “sonic blasters” _ that could be deployed against protesters during the Olympics.

The blasters are mounted atop vehicles and emit an ear-splitting sound louder than a jet engine or gun blast. The painfully loud blast can be aimed at protesters, making them scatter and run.

The device is made by San Diego-based American Technology Corp. Here’s more from Spiegel Online:

It was used to ward off pirates in 2005 by a cruise ship sailing near the coast of Somalia. And was used to disperse pro-democracy demonstrators in Tbilisi last November, where Human Rights Watch said it precipitated panic among the crowd.

ATC's Robert Putnam argues that, "since LRAD is a communications system, we are not subject to export control lists." But the Commerce Department may soon decide to see things differently.

The Commerce Department review is motivated, in part, by concerns that US-manufactured security equipment -- from closed-circuit television to vehicles -- will be abused by the Chinese police and security forces in repressing internal dissent and peaceful protests, particularly during the Olympic Games.

So keep your eyes out for fleeing protesters during the Games. If security forces are found to be using devices with “Made in the U.S.A.” tags, it could turn out to be a bigger problem for Washington than Beijing.

After all, since 1989 Washington has kept export controls on most military, crime control and detection equipment to China, fearing it might be used on civilians.

Anxiety is rippling through China. Millions of people know that what happens over the next two days could be a crucial turning point in their lives.

Think I’m kidding? Then you don’t understand the pressure that builds every year at this time before the annual college entrance examinations across China.

It’s a pressure cooker out there.

Some 10 million high school students will show up at schools Saturday morning and began testing -- two hours in the morning, then two hours in the afternoon. They return Sunday for hours more testing. When the testing is over at 5 p.m. on Sunday, there’ll be an audible sigh across the country as relieved students and parents head home to relax, glad that the ordeal is over.

Known as the “gao kao” in Chinese, the college entrance exam is considered the “test of a lifetime” because it determines whether and where you can get into university.

Doing well on the exam and getting into a top university is a ticket to a lifetime of opportunities. That is only partly because students at the top schools will have a social network of friends who will help them advance for the rest of their lives.

This year, some 5.95 million lucky high school seniors will be admitted to universities, a much smaller percentage than in other countries like South Korea and Japan.

This exam is serious business for parents. I’ve been hearing about it for months from one of our office workers, whose son will be sweating it out in the exam room this weekend.

Some parents actually will be renting hotel rooms near the testing locations tonight and over the weekend to take one less worry away before the testing.

According to this story, some parents are crowding into temples to pray for good fortune, and burn incense and candles.

Other parents are practically force-feeding their offspring special tonics meant to increase concentration.

"If you collected up all the empty bottles of tonic my classmates have drunk, you could make a small hill," high school student Vicky Yang told China Daily.

Every year before the exams, the issue of test security appears on the front pages of newspapers, and this year has been no exception. Authorities do their best to keep test questions from leaking out. According to the Beijing Evening News, as cited by the Danwei blog, the test papers have been labeled “top secret” and anyone caught trying to cheat will face severe punishments.

By Monday, all those students stoked up on tonic will be completely relaxed. But the tension will build toward June 28. That’s when the test results come back.

It seemed that the 19th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre in Beijing would pass quietly this year amid shock over the devastating Sichuan earthquake. But in the end a couple of interesting things happened regarding both the anniversary and the quake.

Thousands of people jammed Hong Kong’s Victoria Park last night, enough to cover seven soccer fields. Crowd estimates range from 15,000 or so to nearly 50,000.

Organizers decided to commemorate both the Tiananmen bloodbath as well as the huge toll from the Sichuan quake. So Hong Kong remains the epicenter, as it were, of collective memory about the events of June 4, 1989, when soldiers from the People’s Liberation Army fired on and killed hundreds, and maybe thousands, of pro-democracy protesters in and near the main plaza in Beijing.

The topic remains radioactive in China, where all media and internet mention of the events are flatly banned. And the Chinese Communist Party has done a pretty good job of erasing memory among youth of what happened that day. Most university students and those younger know only vaguely of those long-ago events.

But this wound has not healed. For one thing, dozens of people remain in prison for their involvement in the pro-democracy protests.

Early last month, I spoke by telephone with Joshua Rosenzweig of the Dui Hua Foundation in San Francisco, an organization that works to free political prisoners in China. I didn’t get a chance to write a news article at the time about Dui Hua’s appeal for a blanket amnesty for June 4th prisoners. But it is worth noting that China has tied itself into some legal knots as it tries to become recognized as a state with rule of law even while denying legal recourse to these prisoners.

According to Dui Hua, 60 to 100 people remain in prison for June 4, 1989, involvement.

“Many of the remaining June 4th prisoners who remain in prison today, that we know about, we’re charged with hooliganism. That crime doesn’t exist anymore,” Rosenzweig told me.

So there you have it. Still in prison for a crime that isn’t a crime. And it’s been nearly 20 years. Anybody care to defend this policy? Dui Hua last month called for a blanket pardon for those among the prisoners who clearly are no longer a threat to society. The last such pardon was in 1975.

Speaking of interesting commemorations, the South China Morning Post has a story this morning about the Dalai Lama leading a prayer ceremony of his Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala, India, for the victims of the May 12 earthquake, which took some 70,000 lives.

Here's an excerpt from the Morning Post's article, which unfortunately is behind a pay wall:

A banner expressing condolences in Chinese characters was hung at the main entrance of the monastery, an unusual sight in Dharamsala, while monasteries across India also held similar ceremonies yesterday morning, according to Lawrence Brahm, a columnist who participated in the ceremony.

The ceremony, which lasted for one hour and 15 minutes yesterday morning, was attended by Samdong Rimpoche, prime minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile, together with all the members and staff of the exiled government.

"It is a very strong positive message to China. And this can be interpreted as the kind of gesture China has been waiting for," Brahm said by telephone from Dharamsala.

"While China has repeatedly asked them [the Dalai Lama's side] to exert some control over the protesters, stop all the protests during the mourning period, it is the kind of gesture that goes beyond simply Dalai Lama himself saying prayers."

Brahm said the ceremony was held yesterday because it was the opening day of the month-long Sagadawa festival commemorating the birth of Buddha.

An American graphic designer gets stopped at a red light in Shanghai. Because he had no valid Chinese driver license, only a U.S. license, he was thrown in jail for a week. Check out two short video clips, here and here, to hear him tell his story. Then let me know what you think.

What does this say about China? About the attitude of foreigners living in China?

When it was time to make a decision on whether China would ban free super-thin plastic shopping bags, the public wasn’t consulted.

There were no hearings, no surveys done, no polls taken, no research commissioned.

And maybe that is a good thing.

China’s leaders simply made a decision with a snap of the fingers. As of Sunday, all ultra-thin bags were banned nationwide, while other plastic bags can only be handed out at a charge. The government essentially declared war on the plastic shopping bag.

And there is sound reason for the war. China is by far the world's biggest consumer of plastic bags, going through an estimated three billion every day. Until this week, it has been consuming at least 1,300 tons of oil daily to produce bags for supermarkets alone.

Experts say plastic products, including bags, comprise three to five percent of China’s daily waste.

Forcing customers to bring their own reusable bags will take some getting used to. Stores will still be able to sell thicker plastic bags to shoppers. But already shoppers are beginning to tote their own.

This subject reminds me of a puzzling interview I once had with a U.S. environmentalist who expressed little concern about the sorry state of China’s skies and waterways. He said that as an authoritarian state, China could implement changes and make improvements very quickly and that he wasn’t particularly worried about the smoggy skies. He noted how bad London’s air quality was in 1952, when in December of that year a cold snap forced Londoners to burn more coal. The resulting Great Smog killed thousands of people and gave impetus to a growing environmental movement.

China can act even more quickly than London did, he added.  If China can ban plastic bags, imagine what else it can do without fussing about public opinion and business owners worried about a decline in sales.

This isn’t meant as a defense of benevolent authoritarianism. But in some cases, the public may well benefit from quick action.