“Stop, stop, talkin’ ’bout who’s to blame
When all that counts is how to change” – Born of Frustration, James.
Back in April, I started writing this: What have we become? Passing Asda in Eastlands, Manchester, I spy a band of kids picking up litter in the car park. A man uses a Go Pro to document and likely add the happening to social media. A woman in an Asda Foundation beams smiles. On walking to the far end of the car park, I discover a pile and spread of litter dumped in a disabled bay at tax-avoiding Starbucks. The rubbish could fill two bags. It is reflected in the coffee store’s whoring windows.
Nigel Farage, April 29: “This money was given to me so that I would be safe and secure for the rest of my life”.
Nigel Farage, May 14: “Frankly, it was given to me as a reward for campaigning against Brexit for 27 years.”
Where did the litter pickers at Kwik Save supermarket go? Many moons have passed since April. Resurrection of the mothballed writing begins now.
Over in Guangdong, the often nicknamed factory of the world, living conditions and the environment have drastically increased since I first stepped foot in Guangzhou in 2014. In just over a decade, the air appears fresher, even if the wrong side of 37°C. More tree-lined streets, cleaner water channels, more bins, less litter, and a plethora of electric car brands have helped. Dense populations and crowds will always place strain on facilities, as I found at the world’s worst toilet (the canteen in South China University of Agricultural 华南农业大学 AKA SCAU).
Being at SCAU to see the museum and some cows was an unexpected journey (driven by someone intent on lapping the huge campus on the lookout for invisible cows). Apparently the cows are headed around the campus in the morning and hunker down in barns during the hot day. Although autocorrect changed barns to Barnsley. Imagine the cows on Juneyao Airlines all piling on for a flight to The John Stones Barnsley International Aerodrome. That’d be some upset cattle at the in-flight meal: beef. The museum was simple enough and thr grounds green with star fruit trees and all manner of leaved species. Unlike the toilets that resembled a brown Tarantino scene.
And back when I came to China, pizza, coffee and western food was rare outside of modern city centres or areas with heavy foreign populations. McDonald’s sadly was and remains everywhere. F*** you Ronald McDonald and your shit burgers. As China develops and grows at gargantuan rates, so do tastes. You can pass an Argentine restaurant in Huizhou’s suburbs or jog into a burger joint in Guangzhou, and pizza stalls aren’t too far away. Pulled along by 3 wheel, these mobile kitchens cam be found selling sushi, barbecue, teas, coffees, and oddities like tacos made of seaweed. What a wonderful world we live in! Or just eat pies.
P.S. Orange juice with Americano coffee is growing on me. Iced of course. And Manchester is the said Fly Tipping Capital. I defy anyone to say otherwise, having cycled many routes and seen many parkland areas of Manchester, we have a huge fly tipping and dumping problem.
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