Making sense of the recent mayhem has become an on-line sport
The Chinese government declared three days of official mourning
beginning Monday for last week’s earthquake. In addition to a
lax ban on “public entertainment,” and advertisements, it
began with three minutes of national silence at 2.28pm - the time the
quake began last week. Drivers were asked to honk their horns at the
same time and disaster sirens were also scheduled to wail, which I
feared would jar the solemn mood and wouldn't sound too much
different from a routine Beijing traffic jam. Nine people in our
department stood before two TV sets ticking down the time towards the
moment and watching silent footage of the disaster.
Out a window I could see construction workers in blue jump suits and
yellow hard hats standing across the street atop office buildings,
most with hands folded and heads bowed. The horns began howling; the
sirens keened above them and it was as if the entire country was
suddenly weeping. Two female coworkers dabbed their eyes and I also
began choking up.
Three minutes later it ended. True silence for a second except for
sniffles and televisions, then the jackhammers, saws and drills at
the construction sites began their barrage again.
"So sad, too sad," one person whispered, a little
embarrassed at her tears.
"It's okay." I said. "Everyone is sad."
Like the US post-9/11 and my fellow office workers, many of China's
Netizens have been trying to find meaning in what it is being called
the worst year in the country's history - though none mention the
famines in the late '50s or the Cultural Revolution years.
There were the crippling snowstorms of January, unrest in Tibet
followed by what is widely perceived here as international insult and
humiliation heaped on the "sacred flame" of the Olympic
torch while it made its journey outside the Middle Kingdom. A
horrific train crash came next and now the earthquake the
Internet is abuzz with material that is familiar in its own way to
Americans who have pondered the coincidences of the John Kennedy and
Abraham Lincoln assassinations ("Lincoln had a secretary named
Kennedy, Kennedy had a secretary named Lincoln; both had vice
presidents from southern states named Johnson...").
It is also reminiscent of the weird idea that a Nostradamus couplet
foretold the attack on the Twin Towers, or that the word "Satan"
could be seen in the smoke that rose above the collapsed building on
9/11.
In China, it's about numbers: add up the dates of the snowstorm
(1-25), the Tibet riots (3-14) and the earthquake (5-12) individually
and you get "8" normally an unusually auspicious
number and the reason the Olympics will kick off on 8-8-08 (and why
it costs significantly more to get a phone number with multiple 8's).
The five tooth-achingly cute cartoon character Olympic mascots called
"Fuwa" – I think of them as exotic, colorful Smurfs
are also now seen by some to be harbingers of China's recent
miseries. Representing a fish, panda, swallow, Tibetan antelope and
the Olympic flame, those seeking coincidence see the panda as an
earthquake warning, since the ravaged area is also home to China's
endangered giant panda; the Tibetan antelope well, you can
figure that out; ditto for the Olympic flame; the swallow is seen as
emblematic for the "kite city" of Weifang in Shandong
province where China experienced a deadly train crash last month.
The remaining one is a fish symbol, representing water, which online
doomsayers suggest could indicate pending horror in the Yangtze
River.
Some Taiwanese TV stations are also blaming the feng shui of
Beijing's massive new "Bird Nest" Olympic stadium, saying
it has "interrupted the pulse" of a giant dragon said to
lie beneath the country.
Then there are sincere, if syrupy, efforts to offer some online
comfort, like this anonymous poem, which is jerking tears throughout
the country. There is now talk of turning it into an earthquake
memorial song.
For the children of Wenchuan who have died in the earthquake
Hurry child, grab mommy's hands
Child, tightly grab mommy's hand
The way to heaven is too dark and mommy's afraid you'll hit your head
Hurry, tightly grab mommy's hands, let mom go with you
Mommy, I'm scared that the road to heaven is too dark
I can't see your hands since the fallen walls stole the sunshine away
I will never again see your loving gaze
Child, you can go to the road ahead
You will have no sadness, no endless homework, or your father's
scolding
You must remember daddy's face and mine
In the next life we will walk together again
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The grim truth of war remains: hearts and minds are lost in the campaign to get the enemy by the balls
The exact time according to USGS, occurred at 14:28:01.42 CST (06:28:01.42 UTC)
01.42 second .... not 08 second .... Therefore the number 8888 would not be able to be derived.
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2) This "Coincident" guy then multipled 8 three times from the Olympics date 08-08-08 . It baffles me why he doesn't use the real date 08-08-2008 (8x8x2008 = 128512).
This is not even mere coincidence. This is a cook-up story of the highest degree.
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That is what happens when people plucking numbers out of the air. Absurdity is the order of the day.