Shanghaiist: Environment Archives

Jay-Z coming to Shanghai or is he? Fans of rap and hip-hop, take this down: is coming to Shanghai.

Probably. The Grammy-winning rapper will be performing at the Hongkou Soccer Stadium on Monday, October 23, as part of a tour that will also see him making stops in Taipei and Seoul, according to Shanghai Daily.

Jay-Z s agent contacted us two months ago.

And we decided to cooperate after seeing that Black Eyed Peas was a box-office success last month, said Sun, Jay-Z is the leading trendsetter in American hiphop. He s more highly regarded than the Black Eyed Peas in the same industry.

However, conflicting information from his label s own also has him listed as playing Singapore on the very same night.

Unless Jay-Z plans to magically perform at back-to-back concerts, there are either going to be a lot of unhappy Singaporean fans or a bunch of crushed Shanghaiers.
This upcoming tour was announced a couple weeks ago, when Jay that he would be partnering up with the UN for a campaign aimed at bringing attention and relief to the many parts of the world where lack of safe drinking water is destroying communities and lives. A documentary will air on MTV in November.

It s a huge responsibility, and humbling at the same time, Jay said, after the [UN] conference, about the role he s taking on. I wanted to go to these [countries I ve never visited before] to just tour and play music. Of course, I can t go to any place without touching the culture and seeing what s going on.

There s no word on whether anyone from the will tag along for the fun, but there s a very good chance that his will be in attendance.
Arguably the greatest rapper alive (if he does say so himself), Jay-Z is a rap icon that has remained relevant for more than a decade in the industry. In 1996, he released his first album, Reasonable Doubt (which was recently in its entirety for a 10-year anniversary concert at Radio City Music Hall), and reached his commercial peak in 1998 with Vol.

2, Hard Knock Life. His most recent album (the Grammy-winning Black Album) was supposed to be his last, but that ll probably change the way things are going these days. Although the man is supposed to be retired from music right now, he s been quite busy lately.

A mash-up EP with Linkin Park. Producing. Performing at Live 8.

Cameo appearances (Kanye West, Beyonce). Being best rapper ever. Keeping track of his clothing line.

Part-owning a basketball . It seems that the of Def Jam didn t get the memo about his own retirement.
On October 23rd, if all goes well, Shanghai will trump Singapore.

Keep an eye out.
Jay-Z at Hongkou Soccer Stadium, October 23, 2006 at 19:30. Ticket prices range from 100 to 800 RMB.

We swear, we re not trying to ruin your weekend First up, we have a couple of high-profile political imprisonings. There s the New York Times researcher, Zhao Yan, who has been to three years in jail for correctly predicting former president Jiang Zemin s retirement, aka fraud.

Then there is blind activist, Chen Guangcheng, who has been for 4 years for pissing off local officials in Yinan, Shandong, after exposing their use of forced abortion as birth control. Officially, he was jailed for damaging property and disrupting traffic. The night before his trial, Chen s lawyer was detained for allegedly stealing.

The South China Morning Post reported that two local lawyers were hastily assigned to defend Chen, with useful responses like we have no objections.
Shanghaiist keeps following these stories on rabies that keep popping up around the country. Slaughters are happening in places like , and now stories about dog bites and rabies cases in and .

Our paranoid mind can t help but wonder if the state media is planting seeds of warning.
A has been unfolding involving the director of Shanghai s Labor and Social Security Bureau, a dodgy, rich businessman, one of the city s largest private investment firms and $400 million in misallocated pension funds used to invest in toll roads. The scandal, believed to be one of the biggest in recent city history, continues to grow as the latest victim to be caught up is the Baoshan District governer.

A State Environmental Protection Administration official earlier today that two major indicators point towards a steadily worsening ecological environment in China. Chemical oxygen demand, which measures the amount of organic matter in , was up 4.2 percent while sulfer dioxide discharges had increased 5.

8 percent. China has recently been the dubious honor of world s most plentiful producer of sulfur dioxide. China will be placing greater emphasis on sustainable development and environmental impact when it comes to evaluating officials performance, in light of recent linking corruption with the country s worsening environmental health.

Lastly, a in Mengniu River, a Songhua River tributary, has caused a bubbly red slick, believed to be xylidine, a chemical that can cause liver, lung and kidney damage. Panicked Harbin residents have been buying up and storing water, and Russia blamed Chinese authorities for dragging its feet in warning them. Again.

Initial reports indicate nothing in the way of major, long-term damage. But then again, initial reports of last November s spill did not indicate anything in the way of a complete water supply cutoff to China s largest northeastern city of 4 million.
Have a great weekend!

Talks of population growth and sustainability inevitably lead to one fundamental question: Can we house and feed the world s growing population? One look at the ticker in the upper-right hand corner of the s home page paints a dismal picture indeed.

It is estimated that China produces 35 percent of the rice consumed across the globe every year, but a focus on economic development and industrialization has reduced the amount of arable land available to increase production capacity in lock-step with global population growth, which means one thing: The price of rice is on the rise.
What will this mean for the globe? Cost incentives are needed for farmers to increase production improvements in irrigation and introduction of higher-yielding strains require capital inputs.

Statistics offered by the IRRI state that one-half of the world s population depend on rice to constitute their staple diet, which means that price increases passed along to consumers will affect over 3 billion people worldwide. Unless governments in large rice-producing nations such as China and India take a heavy hand in subsidizing the technological development of rice paddy agrictulture, a significant price increase for rice will have a negative impact on those households which depend on rice for nourishment.
What will this mean for Shanghai residents?

Probably not a whole lot, as we are already well-prepared to pay inflated costs for food and drink. But increases in cost-of-living have already dramatically impacted China s rural-urban migration, which will increase should the cost of rice soar. With droughts in Sichuan province and the Chongqing municipality severely affecting crop yields in the southwest, prices are already on the rise.

Sadly, this is a trend that appears will only get worse before it gets better.
Officials met August 16th in Hebei to discuss the adverse impact of this year s unusually severe typhoon season. Saomai, the most recent of eight typhoons this year, has resulted in over 300 deaths.

Even more dramatic is the impact of the resultant cool and damp conditions in areas affected by the typhoons a plague of planthopper insects, which thrive in such conditions, which could destroy up to 40% of China s rice yield. If you do the math (40% of 35% of the world s rice supply = 14%), the impact on global food supplies could be dramatic.
Time is running out for Shanghaiist.