Gideon Nkala
27 June 2008
column
Gaborone — My seven-year-old daughter does not think the world about China. To her, China is a huge cauldron where inferior goods are cooked.
"O seka wa re tlela di-Fong-kong tsa Machaena," she blurted out as I clutched my bags ready to embark on thousands of kilometers to China. That was four weeks ago.
The trip to China was not always an easy one. About a week before the departure date, I received a call from the Chinese Embassy inviting me to an all expense paid training course in China for African editors. The finer print showed that I would have to be away from the office for about three weeks and, oh! Oh, that I would have to pass a comprehensive medical examination including an HIV/Aids test. In my case I was going to miss my daughter's seven year-birthday party while away on the trip and that is a big deal.
The folks in the newsroom felt that the requirement to undergo an HIV/Aids test was insulting. "We are a newspaper we fight against stigma and discrimination and we cannot be seen to participate in this farce," was the refrain in the newsroom. The discussion becomes polemical but in the end the storm dies down and I go for my tests. At the air-strip, curiously misnamed Sir Seretse Khama International Airport, I join Outsa Mokone of the Sunday Standard to catch a 45 minute flight to Johannesburg. After a few hours of wandering around Oliver Tambo International Airport we are on board an Emirates plane for a nine hour voyage to Dubai-in the United Arab Emirates.
Like Doha in Qatar, the two small gulf states have turned themselves into major transit transport hub for passengers going to Asia, Europe, the Americas, Africa and the Pacific. Initially, it was the Emirates who started with their state of the art flying birds and their world famous duty free airport shops in Dubai. The Qataris came along and they have even raised the bar with their five star Qatar Airways and an ambitious multi terminal airport under construction in Doha.
Emirates poured millions of pounds into Chelsea Football Club as the official sponsor before switching sides to fellow Londoners, Arsenal Football Club, where they hold the name rights of Arsenal's Emirates stadium. Qatar Airways splashed millions of dollars getting all the prime advertising slots in major international television stations.
In the economy section of the plane, a passenger does not get leg room and enough space to recline so sleeping in a crammed space can be a huge challenge, particularly when you see the fellows in first class and business section sleeping as if they are in their bedrooms. Even up in the skies there are divisions. My benefactor on this trip is the People's Republic of China where equality counts for something or at least it should.
The entertainment section on the Emirates is packed with movies and all the classic and popular songs that one can ask for. I delve in entertainment over-drive to kill the nine hours to Dubai. The variety of cuisine offered on board is tasty. Before one could count the number of turbulences that we have had, the pilot's voice interrupts the entertainment service and announces our descent into Dubai. First, you see endless seams of loose soil interspersed with some tufts of vegetation. This view of desolation is soon replaced by huge buildings and even taller sky-scrapers under construction. Money can do everything. The sky-line looks impressive and it seems this city is growing every time you pass through these shores.
The Dubai duty free shop is a magnet, almost everyone who passes through Dubai takes the memories of the Arab Emirates from here. From the world famous jewellery, perfumes, books and even electronics. In fact, many of the shops in our region are said to procure jewellery and perfumes in Dubai, which they, in turn, sell at 300 percent profit to an unsuspecting customer.
After a few hours, Emirates Flight EK 308 is taxing down the Dubai runway and, in a short while, we are back in the skies and this time we are headed to Beijing. Beijing is the city that will host the Olympic games in just under two months. Beijing, the seat of Chinese power. The Same Beijing where Chairman Mao Zedong's grave lies immortalized. Yes, Beijing, where you find the Tian'anmen Square.
The flight movement screen shows that you are flying closer to Lahore and you think of the slain Benazir Bhutto. Not far from the flight map of Pakistan, you see a flight map of Afghanistan and you think of the Bush wars. You are many kilometers from home and the mind has a way of drifting into a little game of its own, perhaps out of worry that you have been snatched away from your regular security of family, friends and a familiar environment.
How will China be? Will the water be safe to drink? What about the earthquakes that have been pounding China? What if SARS breaks out while I am here? What if...?
I am only jostled from deep slumber by a pilot's announcement welcoming us into Beijing.
It's 26 hours since we started the journey from Gaborone.
Beijing Airport is a massive structure. One terminal has just been completed with the generous use of granite on the walls and floors; it is dripping with opulence. Could this be communist China?
Its well after midnight and the subways are still teeming with passengers. The officials at the airport are rigorous; they take a whole two minutes studying your passport. Then scan it. When they are done with the document, the focus falls on your face. They scan your face, eyeball to eyeball, looking at one feature at a time and when they are satisfied the document and the person standing in front of them match, they nod and hand back the passport.
I finish faster than Outsa Mokone, whose passport picture bears a dreadlocked portrait of him but now that he had removed the hair locks, he had some explaining to do. Perhaps sensing he could have been dealing with a case of passport 'espionage', the officials crossed over to the other cubicle where a short conference is held. After some back and forth checks, Mokone was allowed to walk freely into Beijing.
Even in my exhaustion, I could afford a laugh.
The next barrier was a body search.
I managed to carry my exhausted body into the waiting car, which, like the Yellow River, snaked into night silence of Beijing. There were very few cars moving around in the streets of Beijing in the wee hours of the morning. You do not get to see the buildings in the city, most of them are unlit. Even offices are generally unlit and I am wondering whether this is an energy conservation measure. I want to ask the driver but I am tired even to move my lips, I am hungry and we do not share a common lingua franca anyway.
China Foreign Affairs University
After a journey that seemed like eternity, our shuttle car inched its way into China Foreign Affairs University. I take the elevator to room 608, a small world that would be my place of abode for the next two and half weeks.
The room is fitted with two bunker beds on both sides of the room, a shower and a toilet are provided en suite. Flashes of my college life come streaming back.
"At least there is a telephone set and, amongst the over fifty Chinese channels, there is BBC and CNN," I mutter to myself in consolation.
Located in the city center, the China Foreign Affairs University is said to be a premier institution that trains personnel mostly in the foreign service. Its enrolment is very small. Moving around the campus is like you have been thrown into the melting pot of humanity; you see people from all over the world, Africa, including a diplomat from our own ministry of Foreign Affairs, Europe, Asia and the Americas, including those from the United States of America and all of them learning at this Chinese University.
Amongst the many lectures we were all looking forward to was a lecture on Tibet. The Dalai Lama, the monks and the people of Tibet have all been on the news ever since the Olympic relay torch started moving around the world's cities.
In his lecture to a group of 22 journalists from African countries, Professor Zeng Chuanhui, who identified himself as a member of the Communist Party of China, said Tibet has always been a part of China and greater Tibet is a media creation that never existed. China has one China policy.
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