Chengdu, China -- Truely a beautiful city full of incredible people, 10 mil strong... video footage I took back in 2006 while visiting Chengdu

After a long amount time (well more than usual), spent thinking about what to concentrate this update on, I found this video on my Picassa (google video) web albums-- along with other long forgotten items...

I decided to orient this post video which is of a taxi ride down a major avenue in the Capital of Sichuan Province, Chengdu. This post is therefore dedicated towards helping the people of Sichuan province, who as I've reported in past posts have suffered a great deal in the past month and a half.

The province of Sichuan is known to be home to the Chinese frequently considered the most "relaxed and mellow," people of China. Traditional tea houses, some with a modern flare these days, are all around the capital of the province-- Chengdu. Sad it was the only part of the province I was able to visit.

I shot this video using a digital camera in December of 2006. My friend and i were on our way from our hotel to Chendu Daxue-- which translates into Chengdu University.

This video was taken as my friend I road in a taxi along a main road in Chengdu, a city in South-Western China of 10,000,000 people!--which despite being larger than New York City has remained largely off the world's radar for years... that is until a 8.0 earthquake struck, killing roughly 65,000 thousand people and causing countless other miseries.

Following the video are links to websites in which you can offer your support if you so choose to the victims of the earthquake in Sichuan province.




Support the Quake Relief @ -->

Mercy Corps and Tzu Chi Foundation via google's easy donation site are the ways I personally used.

World Vision I have read and personally be told is a good avenue to donate and have your $$$ reach the victims.

The Redcross and the UN have their own donation sites as well, google them if you'd like. I tend to avoid both, but who I am to judge... No further comment, hehe.

People flee floods in Southern China -- worse to come, see Reuters Video below

Reuters - Millions Flee South China Floods



Moving back to previous topics and the video topic of the last few days, I return to food, and agricultural commodities. Food prices are rising. This video, displayed both above at times in the youtube provides videos explains the situation on a human level. It is form a news agency from New Zealand, and they explore the impact in the Philippines...



And I must say, I do not agree with everything in the below video or even the things the man, Carlos Mencia says on his tv show. However, in the wake of the food crisis, and having recently seen this video on TV, here is a clip offered by Comedy Central.com/videos

I don't mean to be crude and I warn readers under the age of 14 (personally decided age limit... officially I should say 17), to be warned there might be questionable footage in the video below, please exercise self control and do not watch it if you are underage.

Even the big guns of comedy central know there is a problem, it is ridiculous instead of action we see speculation on agricultural commodities and other foodstuffs. I can't admit it does not make me happy to see Peru, the country my mother was born and raised in, actually making money and growing from the sale of fish meal, but at the same time in today's day and age lets not make people go hungry. Maybe a humorous approach towards this topic will connect to some... Keep in mind the younger generations of the WORLD, grow up on these shows... so it might do some readers well to keep informed with the messages being conveyed to today's youth via media.

I will say on a side note I am slightly bias, and do like Carlos Mencia, if only everyone understood Spanish... and the latino culture, his jokes would make so much more sense. I must also thank Comedy Central for offering video of their highest rated shows on the video section of the homepage.

Click here to view video... I refrain from using the "embed feature" due to inappropriate content for younger kids and comedy central's odd choice of the opening screen shot to display when I "embed" or rather place the video directly into my page.