1. Affordable, authentic
international cuisine does exist in Beijing...
you just have to look in the right places
The truth is that I
haven’t tried too many foreign restaurants in Beijing, but I’m a skeptic. Coming from Southern California, and especially after living in LA,
I’ve been spoiled with cheap and authentic ethnic foods from all corners of the
world. Mexican, Korean, Chinese, Ethiopian, Salvadoran, Brazilian, Persian,
Japanese... the list goes on and on. You can see why I’d rather just stick
to Chinese food in Beijing.
I did try Japanese near my work (mediocre and a rip-off), Korean near
Chaoyangmen (not bad but that was more thanks to the situation rather than the chef, since I was freezing cold and they basically put paste, noodles,
and kimchi into a hot soup), and Mexican food in the hip hutongs by Lama Temple
(not great and pricey). The common factor? I won’t be going back to
any of these places. However, last night’s find left me full and satisfied- my friend YJ and I chatted with the restaurant owner, the food was extremely affordable and yummy,
and it was clearly quite authentic as Arabic was spoken much more than Chinese.
2. Who says Chinese is difficult?
Arabic speakers have the
capability to dominate the Chinese language within months. Hey, if you already
speak the #1 most difficult language to learn in the world, the #2 should be
cake. Or honey-soaked baklava
3. Flight tickets are made easy by Gaza hackers
They’re capable of
more than just attacking Israeli websites- identity theft and purchasing flight
tickets has become a big money-maker for Palestine hackers.
Here’s how it goes
down: Let’s say you're going to purchase an Istanbul-Tokyo flight. You talk to
your friendly Palestinian hacker bud, who can purchase this ticket using
someone else’s credit or debit card, and being in Gaza, I guess Interpol isn’t
able to track their activity. Generally they target individuals with $100,000+
in their account, who are less likely to notice when $2000 disappears. Then you
pay them half of the value of the ticket, so you’re pretty happy about the deal
that you just got, and of course your friendly hacker has just made $1000 at
the click of a mouse.
My reaction? First,
shock and anger. Identity theft is so common that it can and does happen to
anybody- I can think of 3 instances off the top of my head. Oh yeah, and
stealing is also a crime- the pathway may be completely wireless but there’s
always an entirely innocent victim on the other end. My next reaction was,
oddly, kind of smug. The world has been screwing over the Palestinians for over
half a century, of course not just politically but also economically and
socially. At least the identity theft business is one way for them to screw
over the rest of the world, if in a circular way the victims of identity theft
are reimbursed by their financial institutions, which are the same entities
that control much of the high-level international politics that makes decisions
that affect Palestine.
Yes, it's a stretch. Anyways this brings me to my final reaction- conflicted
and helpless. The crime of identity theft is still being committed against
innocent victims, just as the Palestinian conflict has taken the life of so
many innocent victims. There’s no way that these two (or other) injustices can
be compared, and even if we could, two wrongs still do not make a right. It’s
unfortunate but much of society is how it is because somebody benefits
from screwing over someone else.
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