ChinaFubar

Anybody remember Arlo Guthrie’s iconic “Alice’s Restaurant?”  Remember one of the main issues during the song was the dump being closed for Thanksgiving, and no one ever heard of a dumb being closed on Thanksgiving?

Seems a lot of times I feel that way here in P.R.  I mean, sitting here in the car, sitting here in my little borrowed car, we seem to come to a lot of stuff that logically should be open, but for some reason isn’t.  And we find we’ve driven a long time to get there only to find out it’s closed, or closing, or we can’t get access.

First, shopping.  The laws have recently changed, and with it the mall hours, but first time we experienced this was going to the shopping mall close to our apartment,  Aguadilla Mall.  Has a K-Mart as one anchor, and an Amigo grocery as the other anchor.  Got there about 7:30 on a week night, K-Mart and Amigo open, mall closed.   Ok, look at the door sign, mall’s open late Thursday, Friday and Saturday.   So Thursday we go back, and the mall still closed at 7:30, even though the signs say closing at 9.  We check our Spanish/English translation… no, we’re not totally stupid, it really does say open to 9 on Thursday’s but the mall still closed at 7… ok.  Home we go.  With a stop off at Rex Ice cream at the Aguadilla town square.

So, that Sunday, we decide to head to the mall in Mayaguez.  Get there, about 1 in the afternoon, seems not a lot of cars.  “Gee, the recession’s hit pretty hard here, mall is deserted” we thought.  Wrong….mall is closed.  Now this is a pretty large mall. several anchors, etc.  Ok, what’s up with that.  Found out later stores and shopping malls are closed on Father’s Day in Puerto Rico.   Now since my father bailed when I was like 3, I never celebrated Father’s day, so I never kept track of it… Oh, ok…. Father’s day you close the malls… Give the old man a tie and let’s go shopping.  So we head home, stop at Rex Ice cream at the Aguadilla town square.

Fast forward a couple of months, and we decide to go out to a local state park for a hike, picnic, etc.  Sunday, afternoon.. think the state park would be open.  And you would be wrong my little friends….  Get to this park after a half hour of narrow winding roads… nice picnic areas, barbque grills, pavilions, all that fun stuff.  Behind a locked fence.  Sign says park is opened until 3.  Ok, it’s only 1.  Why closed.  No reason.  Just closed.  Go home, stop at Rex Ice cream at the Aguadilla town square.

So we get savvy about this.  Look at the guide books to see what days places are open.  Then head to Cagua to the Botanical and cultural Garden.  Well, ok, part of this is our fault, decided to have lunch on the way, and got there at about 3.. find out the Garden closes at 4.. and they charge 7 bucks to get in so to us, not much use to go in for an hour, takes at least 2 hours to see the place according to the guidebooks.   So, go home, stop at Rex Ice cream at the Aguadilla town square.

Which brings us to our latest adventure.  Decide to go to the Rio Camuy cave and park.  We plan ahead.   We have lunch on the way, so we get to the park oh, about 1:30.   And, we’re stopped at the gate.. “park is full, reached capacity for the day, can’t let any more people in – come back tomorrow”  Huh?   Park Closed?  After a 3 hour drive?  CRAP!

Check the map, Ah, Arecibo Observatory  not too far away, let’s go there.. plug that into the GPS… and after an interesting trip through progressively narrower and windy roads, we find the place.  And……IT’S OPEN!!!! YIPEE!!!   Interesting and impressive place, will write about that later post.  No Rex Ice cream today>

So, the point of all this, is we’re finding out that just because a place should logically be open, or signs say they are open, or will be open, that is not always the case.  Be flexible and have a backup plan.

And Rex Ice cream in Aguadilla Town square is always open until 9.

Ok, so a couple days after the story on SCMP “broke” the story about how the police in Beijing are asking bar owners in the Sanlitun bar district to ban blacks, there have been several follow up reports, some from the SCMP and some other investigative reporters.

SCMP still sticks to their story, with a follow up written by Tom Miller in Beijing, who writes

Police in Beijing’s popular Sanlitun bar district deny they are conducting a racist campaign ahead of the Olympics, as another bar owner revealed he had been ordered not to let in blacks.

“They made us sign and chop a document saying we would not allow black people in [during the Olympics],” the owner said. “But no one is willing to say so because we’ll all get deported … and have our business shut.”

Asked yesterday whether they had told landlords not to let blacks in bars, an officer at the Sanlitun police station had a one-word answer: “No.”

The story goes on mention one bar owner who said blacks can still come into his establishment, but they have been asked to watch for people acting suspiciously.

Meanwhile Beijing Boyce made some calls and visited some bars in the district and found

- An owner said police met with Sanlitun bar reps and told them to monitor black patrons. He said the police told the reps that drug dealers are predominantly black in the area. He said the police did not ask bar owners to ban blacks.

- Several Sanlitun area bar owners said they had not been told by police to ban blacks or Mongolians.

- I also spoke to several people in the restaurant business and they told me they have not heard of police telling city eateries to ban people.

- Most interesting, two people working at one bar had different perspectives on the terminology used by the police. One said the police used “black” in reference to skin color; while the other said it was used in terms of bad elements (the Chinese character for “black” is part of a phrase used to describe criminals)

Beijing Boyce will be providing follow ups as they become available.

So, the question remains, is this just bad reporting on the part of the SCMP, a lot of misunderstanding of terminology, or another heavy handed tactic being used by Beijing police to “provide for the public safety” during the “No Fun” Olympics?