Boy George Getting Ready to do Community Service

[thetrailboss]

Yep, he was busted on drug charges and is going to pick up trash on NYC's streets in mid-August. The article.

 

[BeanoNYC]

IIRC, he's quite an accomplished DJ now. Steve might know better though. I have yet to see him spin yet, but am willing to give him a try.

 

[ctenidae]

Considering his past activities, he should be pretty good at picking up trash in NYC.

 

[riverc0il]

yea, boy george has been DJ'ing for a while, at least half a dozen years if not more. he used to stop by avalon in boston once a year or so. i have never seen him spin, but his set lists were respectable for his genre of dance music (legit prog/uk deep house a few years back, iirc). not my type of stuff now, but i probably would have enjoyed one of his sets half a dozen years ago or so. i respect the man for his musical contributions, though i don't care much for his music.

 

[BeanoNYC]

I heard on Howard Stern today that he's assigned to China Town, which is filthy. No cush for him.

 

[ctenidae]

I heard on Howard Stern today that he's assigned to China Town, which is filthy. No cush for him.

Filthy, in comparison to what? No garbage picking duty in NYC is good garbage picking duty.

 

[BeanoNYC]

I heard on Howard Stern today that he's assigned to China Town, which is filthy. No cush for him.

Filthy, in comparison to what? No garbage picking duty in NYC is good garbage picking duty.

Filthy in comparison to the rest of NYC. Have you been to China Town? Fish guts all over the place. Horrible smell. Litter ALL over the place. Bad news cten, bad news.

 

[ctenidae]

I guess the main difference I see between Chinatown and most of the rest of NC is that the odor is pervasive in Chinatown, and spotty in the rest of the city. I like NYC, don't get me wrong, but it could use a good scrubbing. Of course, Chinatown here in Boston isn't all that different.

 

[BeanoNYC]

It cracks me up...The china town in Amsterdam is beautiful. I don't understand what the problem is here in America ... or at least the east coast. I've never had the opportunity to see China Town in, lets say San Francisco.

 

[Grassi21]

I was in Hong Kong for 8 days last November. My company has an office in the Bank of China Tower. Every morning there was a crew washing down the sidewalks around the building. I can't find the picture right now, but in the elevators there is a sign that reads, "This elevator will be wiped down and sanitized every 15 minutes." Thanks SARS for making HK spotless.

 

[thetrailboss]

Well, speaking of Hong Kong, from my research this summer, China is not the cleanest country so I can understand why some of her expatriots may not be the cleanest either...no offense or anything. Just lots of people in a small space...so that makes things difficult.

 

[Grassi21]

Hong Kong Island is pretty clean considering its dense population. The streets and sidewalks were clean, there wasn't garbage strewn about, and the public transportation would put NY to shame. I spent most of my time in the financial district. We didn't hit the mainland, but the two other island we visited in the chain were a different story. Things went down hill fast once you leave Hong Kong Island. The air quality in general is really poor.

 

[thetrailboss]

Hong Kong Island is pretty clean considering its dense population. The streets and sidewalks were clean, there wasn't garbage strewn about, and the public transportation would put NY to shame. I spent most of my time in the financial district. We didn't hit the mainland, but the two other island we visited in the chain were a different story. Things went down hill fast once you leave Hong Kong Island. The air quality in general is really poor.

Yeah, that's what I've heard...HK is very clean and ordered. Makes sense considering their connection to the Brits.

 

[ctenidae]

Hong Kong Island is pretty clean considering its dense population. The streets and sidewalks were clean, there wasn't garbage strewn about, and the public transportation would put NY to shame. I spent most of my time in the financial district. We didn't hit the mainland, but the two other island we visited in the chain were a different story. Things went down hill fast once you leave Hong Kong Island. The air quality in general is really poor.

I'll be there, Shanghai, and Beijing in April, so I'll let you know.

 

[Marc]

I'll be there, Shanghai, and Beijing in April, so I'll let you know.

Shanghai isn't bad either. I liked Shanghai best of all my stops. Beijing wasn't bad I suppose, but it really depends on where you are. They keep Tian'enmen Square squeaky clean, but some of the side streets are filthy, and the whole city at times is just covered by a good layer of dirt and grime. I had noticeable amounts on my hotel room window in Beijing.

Now the people in general have much lower hygiene standards than western countries (even compared to me). Most of them smell quite bad, as do most of their buildings and domestic planes. The average person on the street will have quite matted and greasy hair. The public toilets in Beijing are just holes in the floor with no privacy provisions, and you can smell them from down the street about 100 feet in either direction.

The further out from wealth you go, the dirtier it gets. TB understated it quite dramatically. Dust and dirt covers everything. And dirty dirt, not clean dirt. Dirt filled with garbage and sewer runoff, mixed in with solid particulates from all of their completely unscrubbed coal burning plants, of which there are several.

The living conditions for the "lower middle class" consist of shacks on the site of the factory, in general. I saw a few people using the gutter as a toilet. No one has straight or even a shade of white teeth.

Also, instead of being curteous and waiting in line for anything, they are non confrontational weasels and slip in any open space and pushing other people out of the way. I learned quickly to throw elbows and attempt to make eye contact if you need to get anywhere. But being in close contact with people that smell that much was like a catch 22. They drive similarly. It's "me first." Red lights are merely suggestions. I'm not sure why they put mirrors on the cars. Mercifully, they can't really speed in any of their cars because the roads are so bad and the maintenance of the cars is non existant, all the cars are so far out of alignment, the vibrations become violent shudders approaching 65 mph.

Also, most of them will assume you are quite ignorant if you can't speak Manderin and will probably attempt to scam you in some way.

Most of China looks down on Shanghai and Hong Kong for being too Western. Probably why I preferred Shanghai over any of the other 5 cities I visited while I was there.





So yeah... big culture differences, and I gotta say, I'm a fan of ours over theirs.

 

[Grassi21]

Also, instead of being curteous and waiting in line for anything, they are non confrontational weasels and slip in any open space and pushing other people out of the way. I learned quickly to throw elbows and attempt to make eye contact if you need to get anywhere.

Marc is on the money with this one. I had read about this and experienced it while in Hong Kong. I was told to expect it and not get upset or confront anyone if this happens because it is the cultural norm. If you did that in NYC you would get at least an earful and maybe a fresh one across the face.

 

[Marc]

Marc is on the money with this one. I had read about this and experienced it while in Hong Kong. I was told to expect it and not get upset or confront anyone if this happens because it is the cultural norm. If you did that in NYC you would get at least an earful and maybe a fresh one across the face.

Quite- I imagine the transition for one of them would be harder to our culture than the opposite.


I was also quite shocked when some of my business clients confronted me about my politics (can I tell this story here?). They are fed so much Chinese propaganda, they assume that everyone else in the world apparently thinks like the Chinese do and they all think they are the superior nation to any other on Earth.

Seriously, they looked at me like I had two heads when I told them the old politics and religion addage.

I didn't attempt to counterpoint, since it was a client after all, but I came close to playing Devil's advocate once or twice, and they were shocked I'd even do that. It was wierd.

 

[ctenidae]

The Chinese philosophy going way, way back has been that the further you get from Beijing, the worse and more barbaric it is. Considering what they've run up against in Mongolia, it's not a difficult philosophy to understand.

TB's comment that Makes sense considering their connection to the Brits is interesting. If you look at African countries, the ones that have been most stable (a relative term, to be sure) are former British colonies, while the least stable were French colonies (with some exceptions- Algeria has had problems, but overall they're okay) The Dutch probably did the best with South Africa, and the Italians didn't, surprisingly, completely screw up Ethiopia, but I think the French/British divide is pretty stark. It even goes to SE Asia, It hink- China- large British influence, very stable country. Vietnam- former French colony, big civil war.

There's a term paper in there, somewhere...

 

[BeanoNYC]

The Chinese philosophy going way, way back has been that the further you get from Beijing, the worse and more barbaric it is. Considering what they've run up against in Mongolia, it's not a difficult philosophy to understand.

TB's comment that Makes sense considering their connection to the Brits is interesting. If you look at African countries, the ones that have been most stable (a relative term, to be sure) are former British colonies, while the least stable were French colonies (with some exceptions- Algeria has had problems, but overall they're okay) The Dutch probably did the best with South Africa, and the Italians didn't, surprisingly, completely screw up Ethiopia, but I think the French/British divide is pretty stark. It even goes to SE Asia, It hink- China- large British influence, very stable country. Vietnam- former French colony, big civil war.

There's a term paper in there, somewhere...

 

[thetrailboss]

:lol:

So are any of you NYCer's going to go see Boy George do his service???