Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Banned, Blocked, Barred, Boycotted/ Horrific Human Stampede

Well it’s official- I’ve been cut- off here in China; my little BLOG has been blocked! Not only my Blog but Facebook and Twitter account too! It’s funny because my Myspace account is fine- but I guess no one really cares about Myspace these days…. Sorry Tom! Just being honest. I know that the Chinese Government put a ban on Facebook about a month ago due to the human rights protesting in the North, but my Blog???? COME ON……. Am I really that big of an influence to the political world in China??? Does the youth in China REALLY care what a small time Los Angeles Fashion Designer thinks about bathroom habits and Chinese food preparation? Seriously, I only get like 2,000 hits per week, I would expect for bigger blogs to be banned like Trash Talker Perez Hilton. Well someone in China thinks I am talking too loud and needs to keep quiet. It’s just a bummer since my intentions have always been for the greater good of all human kind with this blog.

As I grow and learn, I want others to grow and learn from my experiences, hence the reason I blog. I’m not writing to write. Actually writing is not my favorite pastime, and I am not that good at it (not giving up my day job anytime soon), but I feel that I’ve had quite the Colorful life, and I would like to share it with the Customers that make my job/ life possible every day. I am soo thankful I get to live my dream every day, it is TRULY a blessing. So China, I know that Freedom of speech is not part of your program, and I will be in your country for a while longer like it or not. I always play by your rules and am very respectful of your people and cultures. But I stand by my honesty, and I will continue to be honest, now even more than ever since you have pissed me off. No holds barred!

Yesterday, I witnessed and was involved in the one of the most devastatingly scary events of my life. I have seen and read about people been trample to death on television but never thought that I would be put in one of those experiences myself.

I had just arrived at the train station to go back to my factory from shopping all day for fabrics and trims for my summer collections. My hand truck was overloaded with 80 pounds of goods and the heat inside the train station was topping 100 degrees. 4 trains were cancelled consecutively, including mine, leaving about 2,000 passengers standing like cattle in an area for almost 3 hours until more trains came. It was a nightmare, and smelly, and hot. Finally when the trains arrived, and the gate opened everyone started pushing and running it was a disaster. I am soo large in size compared to the Chinese people, I can hold my own, but I saw babies being knocked out of mothers arms and being stepped on, women falling to the ground, and being kicked, an old 80+ man was pushed to the ground and trampled to a bloody pulp, this nice German man and I helped him up and shielded him until a medic came, he went to the hospital. I pray that he is okay. I have NEVER seen anything like this. So much gore, and disrespect for human life. I was soo shaken up by the sight of this, it was life changing. I hope that never witness this again, or anyone that I know has to witness this in their lifetime. I can only imagine the number of people that were injured during this train station fiasco, which could have been completely avoided, with some self control.

The sad thing is that some local people that spoke English sitting on the train next to me said that this is not a rare occurrence when there are problems at the train or bus stations. Sad, sooo, soo sad, that at times like that you have no respect for human life, China.