Monday, November 29, 2004

Rumors of terror

Got an email from Wang Jun today with a posting from the BeiDa BBS. Claims that the last weeks there has been more than 20 terrorist attacks in Beijing. Specific times and places are mentioned. Nothing in the media of course. Maybe it's true, but more likely it is just another rumor that flourishes here since people don't really trust the media. It would probably be pretty hard to cover up such a thing in Beijing since there are so many foreigners and journalists here. Then again, there would be pretty strong motives to keep it a secret.

It is scary because there are a lot of strange things happening and I believe there is a sharp increase in violent crimes. Students around here all have stories of crime and nasty accidents. Koreans talk about the students that got hit by a car and left bleeding to death, or the another student that was found dead in his apartment after a month after apparently having encountered a burglar in his flat. Kids are cutting you bag in the bus to take your wallet, old women with infants are selling porn on the street, bags and bicycles are stolen even on the guarded university campus. I hear people blame minority groups such as the Xinjiang people or migrant workers. Nasty.

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