When Jerry met Anna: Online conversation with China commentator Jerry Grey and guest Anna Chen

Anna's new website: ANNA CHEN

Last Sunday, I was an online guest of Jerry Grey, the British-born China commentator who caught our attention with accounts of his marathon bicycle trips around China, including Xinjiang, China's Belt And Road back door which leads across the Eurasian continent as far as Barking in the far east ... of London.

Along with a growing band of Westerners on the ground, Jerry has posted eye-witness evidence countering the wave of US and western propaganda centring not only on this key region coveted by the West, but also a buckshot of deranged claims fired off ever since America's Tonya Harding syndrome kicked off in earnest under former President Donald Trump.

Once Trump's trade war (launched 2018) failed to bring China to heel, the race was on to "contain" China with a crashing reversal of the good relations that brought mass produced affordable goods to the West ever since the Nixon/Kissinger initiative in the 1970s.

Cheap labour in the world's factory enabled American consumers to live beyond their means, disguising Reagan's and subsequent administrations' transferral of huge wealth from poor to rich in the form of tax cuts that have hollowed out the working- and middle-classes until the top 0.1 percent own as much as the bottom 90 percent of the US.

China's fortunes, however, are on the rise. Although per capita income is still only a quarter of America's, China is catching up. It has already lifted 850 million people out of absolute poverty thereby creating a middle-class nearly twice the size of the US population, a middle-class that consumes large amounts of western goods. Contentment with the government is up, according to Harvard research, with 95 percent of polls expressing satisfaction with the governing CPC (Communist Party of China).

The two superpowers will soon cross over as America's mismanagement becomes increasingly apparent. The ruling elite of the richest nation on Earth can't rein themselves in and halt their grand larceny against their own people. They could stop the rot and pour money into much-needed infrastructure, healthcare and education, instead preferring to extract maximum profits for the Military Industrial Complex and fossil fuel companies. They could work with China to bring peace and prosperity to all, but America is blinded by the guilt of its own sins and its rulers can only project their monstrous drives and appetites onto anyone who challenges their supremacy.

American society screams in pain, having been turned into rats in a sack, killing each other and plunging into poverty without hope. Tent cities multiply. Two or more jobs are needed just to keep steady. Most can't find $400 for an emergency. Brutality and killing by cop has been normalised.

The last thing the larcenous elite want is for the American people to look with clear eyes at the rising superpower that has flourished without a war in four decades. It does not want China standing as a model for how human society can thrive, so it throws obscene amounts of funds into twisting the public's perceptions to monster our global lifeboat: over $500 MILLION on anti-China propaganda in one year alone.

The US is dragging us all into a devastating world war to protect the tiny number of oligarchs at the top. They couldn't care less about their own population. Obviously. If anything, the eugenecists among them believe there are too many people populating the planet and that means the masses on their own turf as well as elsewhere.

Only five years ago, the global economy was crawling out of the US's Great Crash of 2008 in sync and with increasing stability under the shock absorber effects of a rising China. The time-warped American state has taken it upon itself to trash that hope as it prepares to do to the world what European invaders did to the native Americans. Similarly grabbing at Empire delusions, some elements in the UK are engaged in a 19th century cosplay thinking they'll replay Britannia not realising that its history is repeating itself in the western axis as simultaneous tragedy and farce.

Jerry Grey on Twitter: Jerry's China
and Jerry's Take on China
YouTube: Jerry's Take on China Anna's website: ANNA CHEN

The Forbidden City video: Anna and Paul in China

In China for the Bookworm Literary Festival and only a day left in this astonishing city of 30 million, so what to do? You can't visit Beijing and not see the old quarter, the hutongs, Tiananmen Square and, of course, the vast Ming era (15th century) Forbidden City.

It makes a welcome relief from the endless glass and steel towers of modern China. Imagine Canary Wharf. Now multiply it by dozens, going on for miles. That's what the big Chinese cities look like, even the secondary ones. Lil ol' Chengdu, nestled in the Himalayan foothills in the middle of the country, has a population of 14 million. Five more than London. Think on that.

The low-lying Forbidden City and its environs are exactly what these tourists craved. The air may be polluted but the streets are the cleanest you'll find anywhere, due in part to the government's Keynsian employment of human beings to sweep the streets with old fashioned twiggy brooms and cute little motorised carts.

We were supremely lucky, according to our friends, to enjoy a rare run of blue skies and warm spring weather for our sightseeing. The first time I'd seen Beijing was on a trip with my parents in the 1970s, where everything was Mao suits and bicycles and not a grubby thought to be had. Now everyone has pollution-gauge apps on their smartphones and shops at every familiar western outlet from Gucci to H&M.

We were as fascinated by watching ordinary Chinese at play as they were by my lovely companion, Paul Anderson. The young people like their fashion and electronic kit. The elderly marvelled at the inner sanctum of imperial life that had always been denied them, despite being built on the backs of their ancestors. They were all eager to learn about their own history and grab a little piece of it on their smartphones, as was I — watch the scrum around the throne pavilion in the video. We are indeed all more alike than different.

The fact that the Chinese have any access at all to this beautifully preserved city — now known as the Palace Museum — is fortunate, considering the looting and destruction perpetrated by both the Kuomintang and the Japanese during the first half of the previous century. When I saw it in the 1970s, the painted woodwork was faded, with many of the tiles broken and fallen, and there were few tourists. It's undergone a transformation as stunning as the Chinese economy.

We arrived earlyish at around 10.30am and the place was already thronging. The long queues through the airport-style security outside Tiananmen Gate were packed into narrow avenues protecting us from terrorist attacks such as the one a couple of years ago that killed several tourists when a jeep ploughed into the crowd and exploded in a fireball – but they got us through quickly enough.  

By 4.30pm, when the kicking-out music was played over the loudspeakers, we'd barely seen a quarter of it. You can sense the ghosts of residents past and trace the route taken by emperors borne in palanquins by eunuchs over magnificent stone carvings. Imagine the imperial writhings on the silk beds in the private quarters; hear the pillow talk, the intrigue. What must the palace politics have been like? What must it have been like to be a minion? A concubine? Trapped, never seeing the world outside these dusty red walls for an entire lifetime?

It must have felt eternal, as if it would continue for another five hundred years at least. But nothing lasts forever, especially if rulers grow complacent and forget the interests of the wider population. That's a lesson we're learning in the West, a lesson that knows no national boundaries.

The first movie I stuck on the telly when I returned home? The Last Emperor, natch, shot in the Forbidden City itself by Bertolucci nearly thirty years ago in 1987. Reader, I woz 'ere!

More videos of Anna and Paul in China:
The Kung Fu Pandas of Chengdu
The Great Wall at Mutianyu

A banker, a worker and an immigrant walk into a bar … TED Talk by Anna Chen

My TEDxEastEnd talk has just been posted on You Tube.

Genetic science has definitively proved that all humans originate from the same group of East African ancestors. So why do people insist on trying to create divisions between races or nationalities? Anna Chen suggests this is more than instinctive racism – there are economic interests at stake. Political rhetoric about migrants exists to justify exploitation and create divisions. A better world is possible.

Anna Chen is a writer, poet and broadcaster who was born and raised in Hackney, east London, by a Chinese father and an English mother. She is an Orwell Prize shortlisted blogger, and writes and presents programmes for BBC radio and Resonance FM. Her collection of poetry — Reaching for my Gnu — is published by Aaaargh! Press.

http://ted.com/tedx

A thousand years of the changing map of Europe in one time-lapse video

Definite Wow! factor in this video of the changing map boundaries of Europe over the last 1,000 years. I quite liked the dramatic Inception music track.

Sad to think that every time there's a lurch in the boundary changes, people died.

Keep an eye on them Golden Horde Mongols!

The Red Dagger by Heathcote Williams: what the power elite do when the poor play up

Part 1 of The Red Dagger, a fascinating history of the poor from Heathcote Williams. When the power elite clamped down on the masses, Wat Tyler led a challenge and was martyred for it. I'm not saying we're heading back to feudal times, but …

Narration and montage by Alan Cox.

Lily Allen's Hard Out Here video: the lady doth protest. Or does she?

Is Lily Allen having her cake and eating it with her video, Hard Out Here? The lyrics are sort of subversive but the women in the video are still having to shake their booty for a payday.

The lady of the manor doesn't have to twerk (for a living) to make her point but the hired help do. And she gets to say bitch. A lot.

Charles Shaar Murray says, "What would have been really subversive is if the women in the video turned out to be guys in drag."

Lily Allen and misogyny in the Independent.

Suzanne Moore points out the race dimension in the Guardian.

Margaret Thatcher Died at the Ritz: new poetry video from Anna Chen

Wilko Johnson likes Anna Chen's poetry: video

So pleased to have received such sweet encouragement from Wilko Johnson for my poetry book, Reaching for my Gnu. (When I hear the word "culture", I reach for my gnu.)

I've uploaded the video again at full quality as my camera struggles in low light.

Thank you, Wilko. x

Anna plays the Stoke Newington Literature Festival on Sunday 9th June in the Budvar Marquee at around 5pm — time to be confirmed.

Crosstown Lightnin' "Werewolves of London" at the Black Velvet

A culture-rammed week began with Crosstown Lightnin' at the Black Velvet club in West Kensington last Saturday 18th May, supporting Bex Marshall and her band.

Here's Crosstown Lightnin's encore with special guest Stephen Dale Petit. Charles Shaar Murray, Buffalo Bill Smith, Marc Jefferies and Pete Miles play "Werewolves of London" by Warren Zevon.

Video by Anna Chen.

May Day poetry: Credit Crunch Suicide from Anna Chen

Had a lovely gig last night at the Morning Star's May Day celebrations in Kilburn, London.

Also playing, singer songwriter Sean Taylor, a wonderful guitarist. Q Magazine called him, "A bluesey devotional intensity that rightly draws comparisons to John Martyn". And they;'re right.

Khamis and J-Mac were our DJs for the night, while Attila the Stockbroker headlined with his angry punky poetry. Very funny.

I performed my poems. First video up — Credit Crunch Suicide — about our delightful bankers. Thanks to Charles Shaar Murray for camera duties.

Anna reads Margaret Thatcher Died at the Ritz

Anna reads I am Rich and You are Poor: lines on dead Chinese cocklepickers and their rich benefactors

The Grudge Lonely Heart: Madam Miaow seeks boyfriend

The Grudge is looking for a boyfriend so give her a Ring. You have seven days ...

Anna Chen's poem about the cuts: Big Society

A little bit of politics, laydees an' gennelmen with "Big Society: on a conversation at the Foundling Museum".

Recorded at Café Art during the St Ives Arts Festival September 2011. Written in June 2011.

St Ives Festival 2011: Intro and Kicking A Dinosaur video
St Ives Festival 2011 pix: Artists & Tate Balloons
St Ives Festival 2011 pix: The Island and St Nicholas Chapel

Need ... more ... cat ... videos

Here's another good cute cat video to cheer us all up. Not just great puddy footage but some awesome music editing. You may recognise Alien.

WTF Kitty: I want one!

It's no good. Boyfriends just don't cut the moutarde any more. What I really need is one of these.

David Cameron: Common People video

This is hilarious. And how true ...

Thanks to Harry Paterson and David Harwood on Facebook.

Jon Stewart on the Murdochs: David Cameron PMQs in Parliament today Live Blog

First some laughs from Jon Stewart who skewers Fox News over their non-coverage of the Murdochs in front of the Parliamentary select committee yesterday.

Prime Minister's Questions:
11:40: David Cameron, still jet-lagged from his truncated trip to Africa, is telling Parliament how marvelous the resigned rozzers were. The inquiry,which will start this month, consists of:
Shami Chakrabarti, the Liberty director, Sir Paul Scott-Lee, a former police chief, David Currie, the former Ofcom director, Elinor Goodman, the former Channel 4 political editor, George Jones, the former Daily Telegraph political editor, Sir David Bell, the former Financial Times chairman

Calling on people from abroad with different skill-sets to sort out the Met. Defending refusal to talk to John Yates re Ed Llewellyn [about more potentially damning info on Coulson]. Defending BSkyB decision, but distancing himself just in case. Didn't know about Neil Wallis offering advice before election until last week.

On Andy Coulson, depends on whether they can prove Coulson lied. So no responsibility on PM's part to investigate major player implicated in phone-hacking scandal. But taking responsibility for hiring Coulson — principle of innocent until proven guilty. "Believe me, I have learnt."

Acknowledges excessive closeness between politicians and media owners. Shuns petty political point-scoring but should all work together.

11:50: Ed Miliband Welcomes Lord Leveson's inquiry and panel. Welcomes apology from Murdoch and withdrawal of BSkyB bid. Prime Minister must work together if they are to move foreward. Speaker having to calm rowdy house. "Stoppit!"

Ed: PM says he was excluded from "formal" decision process re BSkyB but has met Murdochs, Brooks from News International on 26 occasions. Did he or Culture Sec discuss bid with News Int?

Five opportunities to change mind on employing Andy Coulson. Chief of Staff did nothing with information. (Wilfull blindness again.) Yates offered to brief Cameron but offer turned down by Llewellyn. PM compromised by relationship with Coulson so could not be told. Conflict of interest re new director of communication. PM did nothing. (Putting your telescope to your blind eye.) Ed v good at calmly listing each occasion when PM could and should have known about renewed interest in Coulson's connection with phone-hacking investigation.

Asking why PM's support built a wall of silence around him regarding Coulson. Three questions to ask: BSkyB involvement, Coulson, and the Met commissioner. Heckling, "hindsight" from Tories. I'd like to know what happened to foresight. Ed inviting Ed to apologise for bringing Coulson into the heart of government.

12 noon: David Cameron denying the tissue of lies from Ed. (Tory benches looking grim.) Desperately trying to turn it back on Blair and Brown. Re Andy Coulson, no issue about his behaviour in role. Defending Chief Of Staff Ed Llewellyn — everyone saying his decision not to bother PM with Yates offer correct. Saying matters around the cops answered. Saying Gordon Brown was closest of all to Murdoch, advised by Ed Miliband at the time. Referring to Ed's "slumber party" laid on for Rebekah Brooks. Insists there was no breach of ministerial code and no inappropriate conversations with NI re BSkyB.

12:05: Alan Johnson — Neil Wallis was giving advice to Met. Did PM know? Dave says no.

Simon Hughes asking if for last 20 years, governments too close to media. Wants this to end. Dave taking a swipe: in the past the only way you learnt about secret meetings with Murdochs was waiting for Alastair Campbell"s diaries.

In answer to Jack Straw, repeating that he depended on Coulson's assurances even after NY Times article. If it's proved, he'll throw Andy out the back of the sleigh.

12:11: Tom Watson contradicting PM, reminding him he wrote a letter re Coulson during his employment, but hasn't been answered. Dave blustering that no-one complained about Coulson's conduct while he was in the job.

Dave says inquiry can go back to examine relationships between govt and media, so Labour won't come out smelling of roses. Dragging in BBC, Independent and Guardian, "not just News International".

Keith Vaz mentions Harbottle & Lewis hanging onto incriminating emails for four years until Lord Macdonald said he discovered evidence of wrongdoing within five minutes of reading the material.

Ben Bradhsaw asks if there were any conversations about BSkyB bid. Dave says, yah, boo, sucks, you talk about your tenure as Culture Sec.

NI insisting on client confidentiality from Harbottle & Lewis, in contradiction to yesterday's humility pantomime, despite Lord Macdonald's findings.

Louise Mensch yah boo sucking over Damian McBride.

Dennis Skinner: The PM has been asked a simple question twice and refused to answer. Did he ever have a conversation with NI over the BSkyB bid. Dave: "I had no inappropriate conversation. I've answered the question." We've answered in contrast to the party opposite. We set up the inquiry unlike Labour. We should allow it to get on with the job.

Paul Farrelly: Yesterday, NI defence shifted from one rogue reporter to rogue lawyers.

Tory says should be no apportioning of blame but use this as an opportunity for change.

12:29: Dave never saw Rebekah Brooks in her jammies (unlike Ed Miliband who laid on slumber party.)

Nick Raynsford: Dave challenged again that he had no info on Coulson. Yet a year ago he was advised on Coulson's involvement in illegal surveillance of govt official. Dave's mantra: there was no complaint about Coulson while he was in the job.

Emily Thornbury on NYTimes article. When did he hear about it, who told him about it? Dave says if it was credible info he would have fired Coulson. Not my problem any more as Coulson not employed by him. "I had no responsibility for BSkyB bid." Three wise monkey answers.

Minister for Police: Did he want to be kept in the dark, or is he angry with his Chief of Staff? PM: Stephenson, Yates, etc, all say Ed Llewellyn's decision was right.

Ooh, first mention of Chancellor George Osborne employing Coulson. Dave says it was his decision alone.

Jeremy Corbyn asked about Coulson. Jack Dromey pointed out Coulson had employed the men who'd hacked Milly Dowler's phone. Wasn't this evil? Damian McBride, Alastair Campbell and now Tom Baldwin cited by Cameron as bogeymen equivalent to Coulson.

Tory woman wearing identical pink jacket to Wendi Deng, yesterday, trying to suck up some of Wendi's mojo. Fail.

12:58: Alastair Campbell tweets: @campbellclaret Look forward to Cameron providing the evidence that I falsified government documents. Given there is none, could be a long wait.

(BTW, this morning Palace announced it, too, had advised Cameron about Coulson. Denied by Dave.)

Ann Clwd: As Dave can't smell a rat within his midst, can he be sure he doesn't have any more dodgy geezers in his team?

Dave says he never knew if Neil Wallis advised Coulson while he was in Downing Street. Opposition cruel to amnesiacs. Asked again for the name of the company hired to vet Andy Coulson. Again stonewalls.

13:47: What's fast emerging is that David Cameron is extremely slippery on several fronts.
1) Which company vetted Andy Coulson for Downing Street? What did they find? Did they donate to the Tories?
2) Did David Cameron ever discuss the BSkyB bid with News International figures? He has still not categorically denied it but has slid around it. "No inappropriate conversations."
3) Despite the Murdoch's pledges to change, they are refusing to release Harbottle & Lewis from their confidentially regarding the email letter denying there was a case to answer, whereas Lord Macdonald found evidence of wrongdoing within five minutes.

UPDATE: After admirable pressure on Cameron from Labour at PMQs, Culture Sec Jeremy Hunt let the cat out of the bag that there had been conversations between the PM and NI about BSkyB. Cameron has had to admit that his weasel words were attempting to deny the fact that he had spoken to NI executives (presumably Rebekah Brooks) about the BSkyB bid but still insists there was nothing "inappropriate".

Not only that, but it now turns out that, unlike communications directors Alastair Campbell, Dave Hill and Michael Ellam, Andy Coulson was never put through top security vetting. Or, as one tweeter put it, because Cameron was neutering Nick Clegg at the time.

News International has released Harbottle & Lewis from their confidentiality agreement so they can defend themselves and now dish the dirt. Talk about rats in a sack.

The Who: Baba O'Reilly shred video

Never let is be said that Madam Miaow doesn't have her sticky mitts on the cultural pulse, only that she writes about herself in the third person.

Here for your delectation is an example of the new fangled "shred video" in which under-utilised scamps devise an entirely new and awesomely unflattering soundtrack that could be, just at a pinch, the original act.

She is assured that these have been around for ages and that YouTube is awash with the critters.

Boy arrested for possession of pen on royal wedding day: video

A boy is arrested on the day of the royal wedding for possession of a pen. William and Catherine, this is what's being done in your name.

Thanks heavens we're not in China.

Another video showing democracy in action.



All in all, a great weekend for burying bad news and getting away with murder. More videos here

Thames Clipper video: Tower Bridge to Embankment, London

A lovely trip through the centre of London the other week by Thames Clipper, under the shadow of the absurdly huge Shard-enfreude which looks like the Tyrrell Corporation in Blade Runner.

Includes Tower Bridge, the Tower of London, City Hall, The Shard, Globe Theatre, Millennium Bridge, Tate Modern, St Paul's Cathedral, National Theatre, Royal Festival Hall, London Eye, Big Ben and Hungerford Bridge.

Only a fiver with a travel or Oyster card.

Recall of hollow-point bullets which fail to explode flesh: The Onion

The Onion reports on Steel Hawk Inc's defective batch of ammunition which "may not properly shred internal organs". Steel Hawk CEO promises the "long-shreddingest" bullets ever.

"Some of these defective bullets can leave an exit wound as small as a plum. That is unacceptable."

Dry. Very dry.

Hat tip John Booth