Another \'nail house\' in China gets hammered

HONG KONG - A renowned “nail house” in eastern China was finally hammered to the ground on Saturday, as the authorities demolished the house that was sitting smack dab in the middle of a new roadway.

The duck farmers who owned the five-story house, Luo Baogen and his wife, had refused to sell when local officials began buying up property in 2008 for a new highway in Zhejiang Province. More than 450 homeowners in the neighborhood took the government's relocation offer, reportedly about $35,000 each.

But Mr. Luo resisted, even as construction began last year. The road, leading to a new train station outside the city of Wenling, was completed anyway - completely encircling the Luo house in a strange, bulging loop of tarmac.

Homes like Mr. Luo's are known in China as nail houses “because such buildings stick out and are difficult to remove, like a stubborn nail,” according to Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency.

His refusal to move became something of a cause célébre in China, especially on social media, and he was seen as a symbol of resistance to government land grabs, illegal midnight demolitions and rapacious development.

Mr. Luo's home still had electricity and water, unlike other nail houses whose owners usually relent when their utilities are cut off.

Late last week, however, the couple agreed to move, accepting about $42,000 and a plot of ground for a new house, Xinhua said. New reports said Mr. Luo, 67, had originally put the value of his house at 600,000 renminbi, or about $96,000.

There was no clear or immediate explanation of why he gave in, although Xinhua quoted him as saying, “It was never a final solution for us to live in a lone house in the middle of the road. After the government's explanations, I finally decided to move.”

Another Chinese nail house, in the sprawling city of Chongqing, drew nationwide attention in 2007 when its owner, a plucky woman named Wu Pi ng, refused to surrender her house for a new commercial development.

She was the lone holdout among 280 homeowners, and her husband, Yang Wu, stayed in the house as excavation went on around him. Their house eventually came to sit atop a free-standing mesa of land, and Mr. Yang was essentially marooned up there.

Ms. Wu brought him food, water and propane, which he hauled up on ropes, and he defiantly flew a Chinese flag above the house. Five stories below, Ms. Wu gave impassioned interviews and staged impromptu news conferences.

As my former colleague Howard W. French Jr. reported at the time, Ms. Wu's defiance struck the same sort of nerve as Mr. Luo has:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/27/world/asia/27china.html

It has a universal resonance in a country where rich developers are seen to be in cahoots with politicians and where both enjoy unchallenged sway. Each year, China is roiled by tens of thousands of riots and demonstrations, and few issues pack as much emotional force as the discontent of people who are suddenly uprooted, told that they must make way for a new skyscraper or golf course or industrial zone.

What drove interest in the Chongqing case was the uncanny ability of the homeowner to hold out for so long. Stories are legion in Chinese cities of the arrest or even beating of people who protest too vigorously against their eviction and relocation. In one often-heard twist, holdouts are summoned to the local police station and return home only to find their house already demolished.

Even the state-run newspaper China Daily seemed to sympathize, writing at the time that “experts believe that the outcry reflects a growing dissatisfaction among common people about the way sites are commandered and buildings demolished. On China's portal Web sites like Sina, 85 percent of those polled showed support for the couple.”

Ms. Wu reached a settlement with the develope r in April 2007, her home was promptly demolished and she became a national celebrity.

Eminent domain is a sensitive issue in many countries, of course, and a handful of Japanese farmers have held on to their small parcels for decades, despite efforts to expand Narita Airport outside Tokyo. Farmers, activists and leftist students fought the police to block construction at Narita in the 1970s, and one riot there left three police officers dead.

“The original plan drafted by the government in the 1970s envisioned three runways at Narita,” The Japan Times reported in April. “But it was unable to acquire the necessary land due to violent opposition from local residents and farmers, forcing it to open with just a single runway in May 1978.”

A second, short, provisional runway was built in time for the 2002 World Cup, but since then, the paper said, “the airport has relied entirely on a single 4,000-meter strip for all passenger and cargo flights.”

Part of the resistance efforts included the building of huts on the contested land, and in a compromise reached more than 40 years later, two of those huts were demolished last week.

The Longest Season Really Is Over

PARIS - It may be as difficult to believe for fans as it is for the Formula One teams and the media, but the 2012 season is really, finally, over.

It was the longest season ever, with 20 races from March to the end of November, on every continent except Africa and Antarctica. I heard some fans say the season was too long. For many years the norm had been 16 races, then slowly crept up to 17, 18, 19… until we hit 20 this year. Personally, I don't feel the season was too long. Nascar has twice as many races.

The difference is Nascar's races all take place in the United States, basically, whereas the real problem with the final third of the F1 season, from the Singapore Grand Prix in late September to the Brazilian Grand Prix last weekend, was that there was intensive - very intensive - travel from one time zone to another, one part of the world to another, with no respite.

And there were three back-to-back race periods to close out the season. That meant that there were three groups of three races one week apart, in different parts of the world: Japan and South Korea; India and Abu Dhabi; Texas and Brazil. Journalists and team members were counting the dead in the last few races - sorry, I mean, the ill, the wounded.

At least one journalist was sent home when he arrived in Austin after discovering he had malaria from the India trip. Two other journalists were thought to have malaria, and were sent to rest in their hospital or hotels. They did not apparently have malaria (or the more worrying mosquito-carried dengue fever that Delhi has been battling lately).

Word from teams and other support personnel was that the illness level was much higher this season than usual. I spoke to someone - I cannot remember who! - who told me in Austin that the venerable Dr. Sid Watkins, Formula One's great safety innovator who died in September, had once told him that for a complete physical recovery, the human body needed a week for each time zone it visited.

Formula One personnel did not have that this year. My own travel schedule since early October: Two weeks on the road, one week at home in Paris, two weeks on the road, one week at home in Paris, two weeks on the road.

Am I complaining? No way! What a privilege to be able to do this job and bop around the world covering this sport. But there very definitely were times when I knew my body was not finding the adequate time needed to recover.

Funny enough, the people who suffered the least through all that work, play and travel, were the Formula One drivers. They are the first to admit that. Everything is done to protect their health and given them sleep and a break. Having said that, Sebastian Vettel, the man who won the title, spent a fortune to rent a private jet to take him to the final races in order to keep the physical exhaustion and stress as far away as possible. Looks like it worked - his Abu Dhabi and Brazil races were brilliant!

Having said that, on Thursday morning at around 2 AM, when I noticed a fellow journalist had posted something saying that the results of the season might change due to a suspicion that Vettel may have made an illegal move in Brazil, I thought it was a joke. I thought the journalist was just having fun now that the dust had settled and the season was over and he, like me, was just getting back into the rhythm of daily life as a grounded person.

The next morning I found that Ferrari had indeed sent a letter asking the International Automobile Federation, the series' governing body, to clarify why Vettel had not been penalized for a move that appeared to break the rules. Had Vettel been given the usual 20-second penalty, he would have dropped to eighth position, and the Ferrari driver, Fernando Alonso, would have won the driver's title.

After I read the F.I.A. explanation of what had happened on the track, it was clear that no rule had been broken. And when I saw that the F.I.A. had said all the teams and drivers had been educated in the correct way to deal with the electronic warning lights it made me suddenly think that perhaps whoever asked for clarification at Ferrari was also just too exhausted from all that travel to have remembered the details.

In the end, I learned that the only reason the whole issue came up was because fans had started showing videos on YouTube of this moment when it appeared Vettel had broken the rules, while passing Jean-Eric Vergne and Ferrari had received thousands of queries from fans on why Vettel was not penalized. So Ferrari decided that the best thing to do was to have the whole question settled by the F.I.A. The F.I.A. did this immediately, and Ferrari accepted the explanation.

It was interesting to see how the fans and YouTube can affect the climate surrounding the series. It was a season without major controversy - except for the Bahrain race - and the biggest controv ersy had suddenly come three days after the season ended, after Ferrari had graciously accepted defeat. And then it was pumped up by media and fan sites into looking like a major controversy with the title at stake…when there was no controversy whatsoever.

That is why if you read my season review stories in today's newspaper, you will find no mention of this post-season glitch. My main feature is an overview of the season; my Q&A is with Bobby Epstein, the chairman of the Circuit of the Americas, where the U.S. Grand Prix ran in Austin two weeks ago. And this year, I decided to write an article comparing the two finalists, Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso, because I thought they would not only make a great study in contrasts, but also that they both deserved the title.

Christmas Tree Controversy Fires Multicultural Belgium

LONDON - It's that time of year again. As November turns to December, a work gang just arrived outside the front window to set up the neighbourhood Christmas tree and mark the approach of the annual season of peace and good will.

Meanwhile, across the Channel in Brussels, there is a distinct lack of good will this year as locals in the Belgium capital tangle over a controversial decision by the city fathers to replace the traditional pine tree with an abstract structure of illuminated cubes.

The 82-feet tree of light installed this year on the Grand Place, the main square in Brussels, has sparked a protest movement and an online petition, demanding respect for “values and traditions”, which has so far attracted 25,000 signatures.

Some are claiming, however, that the campaign amounts to a thinly veiled attack on multiculturalism in the capital of the European Union, with undertones of Islamophobia.

The controversy was sparked by remarks by Bianca Debaets, a city councilor from the Christian Democrat and Flemish Party, who claimed the Socialist-run municipality was pandering to the sensitivities of non-Christians by scrapping the traditional tree.

“What next?” she asked. “Will Easter eggs be banned from the city because they make us think of Easter?”

The municipality has defended its choice, saying it wanted to blend the modern and the traditional to show off the city's annual winter fair. More traditional Christmas symbols would also be on display in the Grand Place, including a Nativity scene, officials said.

Ms. Debaets has since distanced herself from openly racist comments that have attached themselves to an otherwise innocent online protest movement, some of which claimed the city was bowing to pressure from its estimated one-in-five Muslim minority.

In online comments, Muslims ridiculed the claims and Semsettin Ugurlu, chairman of the Belgian Muslim Executive that represents the Muslim community, said his organization did not object to any kind of Christmas tree.

“We know we are living in a country with a Christian culture, we take no offence over a traditional Christmas tree,” the BBC quoted him as saying.

The organizer of the online protest petition, identified as Olivier, told Belgian television he was not a racist and merely wanted his children to enjoy the pleasure of seeing the traditional tree.

The wording of the petition, and some of the comments attached by signatories, nevertheless revealed a wider agenda. It said the scrapping of the traditional tree at the Grand Place followed a ban on Christmas trees at law courts, the suppression of religious symbols at school and a ban on pork at school canteens.

The Christmas tree controversy comes after two members of an Islamic list, who said they might one day seek a referendum on establishing Sharia law in Belgium, were elected last month as councilors in Flemish-spea king districts of the Brussels region.

That prompted its own online petition, sponsored by a far right party, to have their grouping banned.

Their election embarrassed moderate Muslim organisations, one of which started its own petition rejecting Sharia law. The Belgian Muslim Executive also said it was inconceivable to most Muslims that Belgium would ever become a Muslim state.

Olivier Mangain, a center-right Francophone politician, meanwhile called for secularism to be written into the Belgian constitution in order to prevent any religious or other group from undermining fundamental rights such as gender equality.

La Vie, a Christian weekly in neighboring France, commented: “In a country hit by economic crisis, in the grip of regional tensions, and now starting an annual battle over how to mark Christmas, this affair has once more sparked a debate over the identity of Belgium.”