Al Qaeda Urges Uyghurs to Rise Up

Moms, you may have recently read about how Al Qaeda is encouraging Uyghur Chinese to rise up against China. CNN has a fear-mongering article up on their website, which should be taken with a grain or two of salt. They couldn't get a comment from any Chinese official, so they pretty much write about how Abu Yahia Al-Libi hates the Chinese, Westerners, Russians, etc.

Other than the lack of analysis, I was bothered by something else in the article. It mentions how this call to war against China was posted on an Islamist website. Now, here's my problem with this: if I cannot access my own cat's blog in China, how exactly are any Uyghur Chinese supposed to view this video? Never mind that most controversial websites are blocked in China, but the fact alone that an angry militant requires a computer with internet to view this video puts a cap on the number of people who are able to tune in. Remember that China controls all of its media, and will probably not mention this in the news.

Most of China's 8 million Uyghurs live in Xinjiang, but some have ventured into the rest of the country. Does this mean that we should avoid anybody wearing a tunic? Nope. The call to arms is against the Han Chinese, who have been moving into Xinjiang and taking all of the good jobs. So, Melissa and I are not really the targets of violence in the Uyghurs' eyes. Then again, the Uyghur Chinese in Suzhou will probably not rise up at all, due to the fact that they are wildly outnumbered by the Han Chinese. If there are any acts of aggression, they may come in the form of bombings, which have been few and far between in tightly-controlled China. So, according to my speculation, we should be fine here in Suzhou.

I know that I don't comment on the news very much, but I thought that I might try to quell any fear that we are in danger. Sleep tight, Moms!

Suzhou's Less-Seen Sights

Melissa and I have not done a damn thing since we arrived here in Suzhou one month ago, which is appropriate since we are, technically, tourists here. And since we are tourists in this fine Chinese city, we've done a little bit of touring!

Melissa already mentioned that we jointly bought an electric bicycle, which is AWESOME!!! We got helmets (not pictured) to spoil a little of the fun and also to keep our heads from turning into hamburger... gross. Above is a shot of Melissa in front of Suzhou Health College's new campus, which is where we live and teach.

Above is a shot of Suzhou Health College's old campus, which is where we neither live nor teach. Boo!!

Doug and Tom took us to see a little of the Singapore Industrial Park (a.k.a. SIP), which is an economic district surrounding a gigantic man-made lake to the East of the city center. Lots of rich folk live there, and it's pretty much only accessible by car.

We also went to not one, but TWO old towns! One in Suzhou by night...

... and one in nearby Mudu by day.

While we were in Mudu, we climbed a mountain with a temple on top. The mountain was really crowded with tourists due to the week-long national holiday, so I assume that some of the serenity was diminished.

However, that did not stop us from enjoying our monk-approved noodle lunch!

And on the lefthand side of the moto you'll find...

So we finally broke down and turned into the walking money-bag stereotype that we appear to be to all of the merchants in eastern Asia and bought an electric motorbike! Or moto! Or e-bike! Whatever sounds less terrifying to the moms. This wasn't a whimsical purchase, I promise you. We started thinking about investing in "clean transportation", as the Chinese government likes to delude themselves into believing that 1.4 billion motorbikes (with another billion waiting for more money-bags to walk by) on the road could really be such a thing, back in Rong Jia Won during the daydreaming phase of our life here in Suzhou.

Cullen, pictured above, heroically carried the bike up to our sixth floor apartment in the elevator to charge it overnight because we were too lazy to look thoroughly for an outlet in the parking area.

Unlike the common misconception about hybrid cars needing to be plugged in, it is true of the motor-e-bike that you are a slave to a well-placed outlet if you want to make it up that hill without suddenly and uncontrollably speeding backwards into other motorists, a car, or in some cases a baby... but that won't happen again, probably. Anyway, we plugged it into an outlet in our apartment that night, but never again. Those three stairs leading up to the elevator lobby are brutal!

She slept in the hall while re-juicing under the door. We slept with one eye open because even within the walls of our apartment building we don't trust anyone! These things are stolen more than Toyota Camrys! Of course there's probably like 5 moto-bikes for every Camry on the road, but that's not the point. Anyway, isn't she a beaut? Photos of reckless joyriding to come!