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What a week: No fireworks for Edinburgh but China lights a lantern

Scottish capital calls off its festival fireworks and Chinese leader Xi Jinping holds a telephone conversation with Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky during a phone call with the President of the People's Republic of China, Xi Jinping, on Wednesday April 26. Image: Ukrainian Presidential Press Off/UPI/Shutterstock.

Oh the things children talk about these days – Harry Potter, Pokemon Go, the disgraceful exploitation of workers in Chinese clothing factories…

Who knew kids would rather watch a documentary about employees doing 18-hour shifts to earn 2p per garment instead of vegging out with Prisoner of Azkaban and a bucket of popcorn?

Or that the rest of a Saturday night sleepover would be spent Googling a certain manufacturer and planning a social media-powered boycott?

Not me, I admitted, as I put Daniel Radcliffe back in his DVD boxset and rifled through the wardrobe to check I’ve never bought anything from the fast-fashion conglomerate in question.

I rely on youngsters to keep me right, not just about YouTube watchlists, but about the bigger stuff – politics, ethics, art, philosophy.

They seem to have things figured out and are confident about taking action when something gets their goat.

someone using a sewing machine.
A documentary has exposed exploitative practices in clothing factories in China.

Covid consigned to a paragraph

How different it must be for young people in China, behind the Great Firewall of internet censorship, media control, surveillance and propaganda.

In China’s schools, Covid has already been consigned to the history books and merits little more than a paragraph in an official textbook.

This week a clip showing the paragraph was uploaded by a history teacher on to Douyin, a domestic version of TikTok, and has been viewed more than five million times with people baffled by its brevity.

The general gist is that the Chinese won a “war on Covid” and that’s all anyone needs to know.

Women wearing face masks take a selfie as they visit the Temple of Heaven park in Beijing.
Women wearing face masks take a selfie as they visit the Temple of Heaven park in Beijing in Febuary this year. Image: Andy Wong/AP/Shutterstock.

I have my daughter to thank for keeping me up to date with the ongoing battle between Ron DeSantis and the Walt Disney Company.

Disney launched a suit against the Florida governor after state officials voided a development deal around the Orlando theme parks.

It’s an escalation of the row after the entertainment giant opposed his “don’t say gay” law and has seen North Carolina senators file the Mickey’s Freedom Restoration Act to move the famous theme parks to their state instead.

Ron DeSantis, his wife Casey and their children.
Ron DeSantis, his wife Casey and their children. Image: Rebecca Blackwell/AP/Shutterstock.

Tourists at home have been getting a hard time on the NC500, says one Highland councillor who is urging locals to be more tolerant of visitors.

Duncan Macpherson said: “What we must be very careful of is people’s attitudes towards tourists. Let’s not kill the golden goose here. Let’s not punish all the tourists for the few bad eggs.”

Nothing ugly about it…

South of Ullapool, a £3.1m visitor centre has opened at Corrieshalloch Gorge, which translates as “ugly hollow”.

The mile-long canyon was created by melting glaciers at the end of the last ice age and has a 148ft waterfall.

Its name may not be as pretty as Cinderella’s Castle but it’s every bit as beautiful and no-one is suggesting it be moved to say, Edinburgh.

Corrieshalloch Gorge and the Falls of Measach.
Corrieshalloch Gorge and the Falls of Measach.

Race for the White House

The Scottish capital has its own tourism issues as the Festival fireworks, which usually attract more than 250,000 spectators, are to end after 40 years because they don’t have a sponsor.

While the Orlando fireworks seem a world away, I take an interest in DeSantis and the race for the US presidency because what happens there will have an impact on all of us.

Trump said he could end the war in Ukraine in one day if he made it back to the White House, presumably because he’d let Putin have all his own way.

And while I’d like to walk along Stonehaven beach without worrying about those military-looking, low-flying helicopters or Russian spy ships in the Moray Firth, I don’t want the crisis to be solved through “easy negotiation”.

The Edinburgh International Festival fireworks
The Edinburgh International Festival fireworks have now been left without a sponsor. Image: Brian Anderson | Edinburgh Elite media.

‘Meaningful’ call

We can guess at Trump’s train of thought (it’s whatever would get him back on the golf course fastest) but Xi Jinping’s plan is harder to fathom.

On Wednesday the Chinese leader held a telephone conversation with Volodymyr Zelensky, which the Ukraine president later described as “meaningful”.

The Biden administration welcomed the call as “a good thing” but appears just as uncertain as the rest of us as to where this relationship is going.

Russia noted “the readiness of China to work toward a negotiation process” while foreign affairs spokeswoman Maria Zakharova had a dig at Washington “puppets”.

Notice she said puppets and not Muppets that’s how we know she wasn’t talking about Trump.

Councillor Duncan Macpherson
Councillor Duncan Macpherson is asking for tolerance over NC500 tourists. Image: Sandy McCook.

 

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