November, 2008

 When the melamine milk scandal was revealed post-Olympics, Beijing went into a dairy-phobic blitz. After ingesting these dairy products for months, even years, we were suddenly ordering soy lattes at Starbucks and avoiding the dairy section of our local supermarket.

In a recent article from the New York Times, China was reported as introducing a new raft of food and safety standards. In theory, this time they’ll do more than fire a few scapegoats. However, China’s history of food and safety standards does not encourage consumer confidence. Last year the US placed bans on Chinese-made pet food, and then of course there was the contaminated dairy within China itself. Not too long ago, we learned that melamine had also been found in Chinese produced meat and eggs.

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Kids have an amazing ability to get their fingers into just about anything; hinges, jars, plugs, even other kids’ eyes. I’m sure we can all remember being yelled at for pulling apart the doll grandma gave us as a birthday present, or using dad’s hammer to “fix” the fridge, or that time you fed your babysitter a Tabasco-laced peanut butter sandwich just to see what would happen.

Kids are endlessly amused by their own imagination. Even the lowly stick was inducted into the Toy Hall of fame recently as testament to its unfaltering popularity among kids (and animals). 

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After numerous conversations with Beijing expats, I am still struggling to ascertain whether or not China has been hit by the Western world’s financial crisis. On one hand we have luxuries I would have to sell my right arm on the black market to afford back home. Ayis and massages immediately come to mind.

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Yesterday morning (Beijing time) Barack Obama won the US presidency – with a large lead of electoral votes and the popular vote, his victory marked the end of the longest presidential campaign in history. Obama, 47, will enter the White House on January 20, 2009. For those of you who weren’t watching the election tally live (those without America television in their homes could be found at Sequoia Café or the Rickshaw) you can take a look at Obama’s inspirational victory speech. Also, check out one thing that's different about this president-elect.

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