Chinese Black Tea - How to Enjoy a pot with Confidence

We Canadians should drink Chinese tea more often. Here in Burnaby we are fortunate to have access to some of the finest teas on the market, and yet how many of us hesitate to sample them?  In our home we like to boast that we have our own "Tea Museum". We get away with such incautious remarks because over the years many good friends have given us gifts of superb teas, some of them purchased at auction in Taiwan and China.  My favourite tea is Formosa Oolong, but in fact I like many varieties.  I am not competent to describe good tea, or to make recommendations, so I asked a friend to help me out. She writes well, and is also a photographer. So the photographs are hers too.

What if CONSUMER REPORTS magazine

tested Chinese Puer (Dark Tea)?

by Amethyst Yi Chen

The prices of Chinese teas can range from cheap to extremely expensive. For example, you can buy a box of Lipton Black Tea which contains 20 tea bags in Superstore for only $16. However, expensive teas can cost more than $2,000 or can be so extreme that you need to attend the auction for it. 

Do more expensive teas generally taste better? What are the factors behind the pricing of tea? It is worth understanding the pricing rationale, so that you can make a better purchasing decision. There are many types of tea available in the market, with each there are different ways to determine the quality. Therefore, we are going to mainly focus on the sheng Puer tea today. 

What is Puer?

There are two types of Puer tea – sheng Puer and shu Puer, which literally mean raw Puer and matured Puer, respectively. Each style begins with Puer Mao Cha (unfinished tea). To be considered a Puer, the tea leaves must be grown in Yunnan Province and must be from descendants of Da Ye Zhong (large leaf type). The leaves must also be dried in the sun. The difference between sheng and shu Puer is the processing methods for each. Sheng Puer is a style of Puer where Mao Cha is aged naturally over time. Aging here means a combination of oxidation and fermentation. On the other hand, Shu Puer is wherein Mao Cha is pile-fermented, a process known as wet piling. 

Products I am Tasting

Here is the list of sheng Puer that will be tested, sorting from low to high price:

David’s Tea Sheng Puer:$8.98 for 50g, one-year aged

Cha Le Aged Lotus Pu’er Loose 2007: $12 for 50g, 12-year aged

Cha Le Aged Sheng Pu’er Cake 2007: $180 for 357g (equivalent to $25 for 50g), 12-year aged

Yunnan Tingxiang Puer Cake 2015: $300 for 357g (equivalent to $42 for 50g), 4-year aged

Simao Yunnan Puer Cake, 2008 Limited Edition: $1300 for 400g (equivalent to $162 for 50g), 11-year aged

Whether it tastes nice or bad sometimes can depend on personal preference, but the quality of tea is strictly determined through inspecting the dried leaves, the tea liquor, and the spent tea leaves. 

Here is the process I am intending to follow for testing: I will take 4 spoonfuls of tea from each product, respectively, brewing with my Yixing clay teapot in 100℃water. Since Puer is not supposed to steep, I will pour the tea liquor to my cup with a funnel right away (in 5 seconds, or the tea will be too strong for tasting).  And before drinking the tea, I will observe and record the colour of each of the tea liquors and spent tea leaves. 

Dried leaves: 

Colour: As the tea ages, the colour of the tea leaves will turn from green to brown red. I can see that David’s Tea Sheng Puer andYunnan Tingxiang Puer Cake 2015 are relatively green, while the Cha Le Cha Le Aged Sheng Pu’er Cake 2007 and Simao Yunnan Puer Cake, 2008 Limited Edition have turned dark brown red. Although age is one of the pricing factors (the older, the more expensive), it is not the key indicator of good quality puer tea. 

Shape: High quality leaves are visually distinct. If you take a closer look at the leaves, they should ideally be whole and very indistinct. David’s Tea Sheng Pueris comparatively fragile and powdery – a signal of low end Puer. 

Aromas: Older Puer tea smells more fragrant even when they’re dry. Among all the products, Yunnan Tingxiang Puer Cake 2015 andSimao Yunnan Puer Cake, 2008 Limited Edition have the best aromas. Tingxiang, like its literal meaning in Chinese, smells like flower fragrance. This could be because the leaves came from a tree which was surrounded by flowers. The Simao Yunnan Puer Cakehas a natural wood-scent, which is a commonly seen in high end Puer. 

Tea Liquor:

Colour: Instruction in David’s Tea Sheng Puersaid it should be steeped for 4-5 minutes; however, the authentic way to brew Puer is not to steep at all. I followed the traditional way to brew David’s Tea Sheng Puer(pour the tea to an empty cup in 5 seconds). The colour of the tea liquor is very light – pale yellow – so I expected it to taste like water.  Cha Le Aged Lotus Pu’er Loose 2007 showed a dark brown colour but looked relatively muddy. The tea liquor of Tingxiangis like orange yellow, which is commonly seen in 3-5-year aged Puer tea. Simao Yunnan Puer Cake, the most expensive tea on the list, proves that it is worth the price. This 11-year aged tea shows a crystal-clear garnet colour. 

Aromas: Just as how I mentioned in the dried leaves section, the Tingxiang Puer Cakeand Simao Yunnan Puer Cakehave the best aromas in their tea liquor. 

Tasting: Generally, the taste of sheng Puer should be smooth, with slight hints of bitterness. It can also be woody or earthy. The taste can change as the tea ages, so sometimes it is hard to judge if the tea is considered a top grade through tasting. As long as it is mellow and smooth, not tightening your throat (some low-end teas do!), I will consider it ok. More importantly, the special feature about Puer is its sweet aftertaste, called “hui gan” in Chinese. It means that once the bitter sensation of the tea liquor is gone, the sweet aftertaste appears in the mouth. Unlike other types of tea, the aftertaste of Puer is generally long-lasting. For top graded tea, you can feel the liquor down the throat rather than just on the tongue. 

Among the five products I am tasting, Simao Yunnan Puer Cake, 2008 Limited Edition has the strongest and longest aftertaste (hui gan), leaving a nice “feeling” in the back of the throat. Tingxiangtastes a combination of sweet and bitter and also has a nice aftertaste. Generally, teas with good aftertaste and a thickness of flavour generally do better over time. Therefore, if we store Tingxiangproperly (dried and neutral) for an extra few years, it will definitely taste even better. David’s Tea Sheng Puerhas the least strong taste – I can barely taste it. 

For best results prepare the tea in an unglazed earthenware pot.

Affordable tea services are easy to find in Metrotown malls.

Spent Tea Leaves:

The condition of spent Leaves is one of the most important indicators of the quality. There are three factors to evaluate spent tea: tenderness, colour and the overall tea leaves shape.

Tenderness: Press the spent leaves with a finger – if they are soft and not elastic, then the tenderness is considered great. Based on this rule, here is the ranking of the tenderness, from good to bad: Yunnan Tingxiang Puer Cake 2015 >Simao Yunnan Puer Cake, 2008 Limited Edition >Cha Le Aged Sheng Pu’er Cake 2007. Note that the David’s Tea Sheng Puer and Cha Le Aged Lotus Pu’er Loose 2007 are comparatively crumbly, which I could not judge if they were tender. 

Colour: High quality of Young sheng Puer spent leaves usually appears bright yellow green. If you see dark green, or dark green leaves with red stems, that could be problematic. On the other hand, if aged sheng Puer shows bright red, then it is considered great. Among all the products, again, Tingxiang Puer Cake 2015and Simao Yunan Puer Cakehave the best colour. 

Evenness:
It is important to contemplate the overall evenness of spent tea leaves because high end tea leaves are very consistent in shape and colour. By that I mean, they will appear in about the consistent size of leaves and colour. As I mentioned, the David’s Tea Sheng Puerand Cha Le Aged Lotus Pu’er Loose 2007are crumbly and have large number of broken fragments. The rest of the teas are modest. 

Recommendations

In conclusion, Yunnan Tingxiang Puer Cakeand Simao Yunnan Puer Cakeperform the best in every respect of the testing. Simaois much more expensive than Tingxiang, but they are actually about the same level of quality. The reason that Simaois pricier is that it is 11-year aged while Tingxiangis only 4-year aged. With that being said, if the Tingxiang is also 11-year aged, they could have priced the same. Cha Le Aged Sheng Pu’er Cake 2007is considered okay. If you are a beginner with Puer tea, I would recommend you try this one first. However, I would not recommend David’s Tea Sheng Puer and Cha Le Aged Lotus Pu’er Loose 2007. 

Chinese and Taiwanese Movies on DVD - Borrow them at Burnaby Metrotown Library

For those who use such things, the automated  check-out system at the

Metrotown Branch of the Library. At the time it went operational, a

smiling staffer assured me that "not a single job was lost." I never

use it myself. The blue finger points to the Chinese media section.

TAX WEEK IN BURNABY

The line has been long this week at Burnaby City Hall, as many ratepayers enjoy the annual ritual of meeting their property taxes. For those who wait last minute, here is a tip. When you get as far as the elevator, don't forget to take off your hat, turn to the left and smile. Each taxpayer gets a photograph taken as we snail by. It won't be long until facial recognition software is added to the mix. I asked, and a nice lady at the counter assured me it was not installed yet... but maybe next year.  To amuse myself while waiting, I sorted memories of the past year, identifying the municipal services I receive for my generous contribution to city coffers.  One certainly has to be the DVD lending collection at the Metrotown Library, which I partake of several times per year.  I have a robust DVD collection of my own, but I enjoy viewing and studying foreign film, and the Criterion editions are just too expensive for a single viewing. The library has most, if not all of the movies known as the  Criterion Collection.

Superb Lending Collection -

Chinese and Taiwan DVDs

The Burnaby library collection of movies, documentaries and television series on DVD is truly massive, and if you love watching quality video, you certainly must spend an hour familiarizing yourself with what is available for borrowing. (This is an example your tax dollars at work!) I used to have favourite shops I enjoyed visiting and purchasing from, but very few local retailers continue to stock DVDs. Our library system purchased most of the DVD catalog from C & L Multimedia, a  family business that has become the leading supplier in Greater Vancouver. They also supply the U.B.C. and S.F.U. campuses. Both of those universities have film-studies  programs.

The collection is on the main floor, but I must point out that a special collection of Chinese and Taiwanese DVDs has been assembled, and it is shelved with the Asian books and magazines, in the n.e. corner of the building. I took a photograph this week to accompany this introduction to the service.  I do not know how much of the collection is currently out on loan, but it was very easy for me to fins a couple of movies to enjoy this week.

The best way to show what you can expect to find in this China - Taiwan DVD Collection  is to describe the two movies I borrowed and watched this past week.

BLIND SHAFT 盲井 is a Chinese crime-drama directed by Li Yang 李杨. The story, released in 2003,  unfolds in an extremely interesting, and also quite ugly, rural landscape that you may have read about in the news. There exists in China a very dangerous  archipelago of quasi-legal coal mines, most of which are notorious for exploiting poor migrant labourers, often to the point of death. This is an amazing film that was shot in a working coal mine, and on the streets of a miserable mining town. The packaging notes quote a review in The Village Voice that described BLIND SHAFT as "Part neorealistic expose, part noir thriller." That is actually a rather accurate summation of Li Yang's modus. A superb film!

STRAY DOGS 郊遊 is a 2013 Taiwan film that I had read about, and was thrilled to discover in the Metrotown Library collection. As I once lived and worked in Taiwan, I have an acquired taste for its national cinema, and I even have a couple of Tsai Ming-Liang's movies at home. But STRAY DOGS caught me off guard. I was not prepared for the intensity of my response to its principle ideas and its carefully constructed images. I take movies quite seriously and usually watch good films alone. As per habit, I immediately started imposing on family and friends, because an encounter with visual story-telling at this level, is something we often continue to process, in part by describing it to others.   I could give the story away in a paragraph, but that would be a cultural sin.  I expect to sit to a second viewing later this summer, if only to test my lasting impressions.

"THE EIGHT HUNDRED"
Political prejudice has delayed
China's best movie of 2019.

Chinese war movies seem to exist in only two varieties.  A quality production that tells a story well, or botch that is a total waste of time. NETFLIX is currently running a Chinese war film that is so bad, Bruce Willis should donate his pay-cheque to charity. AIR STRIKE  (2018) is ghastly, and Willis' performance is nothing short of an insult to cinema. By way of contrast, I am expecting great things from THE EIGHT HUNDRED,  a large-budget production that is a vivid (and admittedly embellished) retelling of one of the great Chinese victories of the Sino-Japanese War. In history it serves a similar function for China as Dunkirk did for Britain only a few years later. It was a defining moment of  sacrifice and patriotism that has actually been an inspiration to folks on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.  

The Battle of the Sihang Warehouse, was a rear-guard action conducted by a picked battalion. The Japanese has flanked the Chinese defensive line and were poised to overrun the Chinese half of Shanghai in 1937.  You may not have heard of it, but the brave stand on Soochow Creek was a notable  battle of its day, and well-covered by the British and American newsreel cameramen, who were filming from vantage points in the Foreign Settlements. In fact, the opposite side of the creek was British territory, and three men of the Royal Welch Fusiliers were killed during the Japanese assault. The story of the so-called  "doomed battalion" has been covered by four previous Asian movies made between 1938-1975 - one each made in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan. The Japanese rarely credited the Chinese army with having  credible combat skills, but they were forced to admit that the defence of Sihang Warehouse had been exceptional. The Japanese Naval Landing Force suffered 200 dead, compared to only ten Chinese defenders. Japan cinema in the 30s was experimenting with social realism, and it was films like "A Naval Brigade of Shanghai" (1939) that proved too much for the Nippon government to stomach. Film censorship ensued.

Allegory in a wartime propaganda poster.

We see China savagely tortured by an army 

of Lilliputians - Japanese Naval Infantry.

This 2019 rendition is expected to become the definitive account and it is definitely a Hollywood-style action picture. In fact several American experts were hired to do  a breakout of action sequences, and several foreign actors have speaking roles.  The official movie trailer shows that the combat is not limited to "the stand" inside the row of concrete warehouses, but spills  into the streets of Shanghai and the sky above. That allows for a truly massive body count on both sides.

Unfortunately the movie's opening at the Shanghai International Film Festival has been cancelled, due to naked political prejudice.  Some whiny communist committeemen are interfering with the release, and may even demand heavy censorship before THE EIGHT HUNDRED gets out of limbo. They just cannot live with the fact that the hero soldiers commanded by their "class enemies" were serving in the Koumintang's National Army, and it was the Sun flag dramatically hoisted in defiance of Japanese assault troops, not the Red flag.  If this nonsense persists, the money spent in promotion will be pissed away, and the film will lose momentum. It was just announced that the films premiere, scheduled for July 6, has been cancelled. We China film fans may end up, oh the irony!, of having this movie debut in North America not on big screens, but on NETFLIX.   

The official trailer for  THE EIGHT HUNDRED

is found onYoutube - HERE. 

Metrotown Murder Case - DNA DRAGNETS ARE HERE TO STAY

DNA-SPYING JUGGERNAUT

I started paying attention to DNA analysis about fifteen years ago, when I read an article describing how a Seattle high school was teaching basic DNA sequencing. I thought, "Fantastic! Their first hire might still be minimum wage, but at least they avoid a dead-end job, like flipping hamburgers." Then in 2012, I read a very credible report that American spooks were secretly collecting the DNA of all foreign leaders, while going to extraordinary lengths to clean up after Barack Obama. Secret Service duties included denying foreign enemies any opportunity to collect his DNA - hair, saliva, semen, skin flakes, etc. [Obama's original, signed and dated, birth registration in Hawaii was secured with equal vigilance.] Our American cousins had "weaponized" DNA, as they do with almost everything they touch. What Washington may do with the Trudeau DNA is anyone's guess, but the Canadian government has failed to warn our citizens about the perils awaiting those who volunteer DNA samples to the Yanks. That is a dereliction, or it is a leakage of their own intentions. 

One month ago I collected a chat-string that was archived on an open Facebook site. Their topic was, personal experience with the DNA Testing kits sold by ANCESTRY.Com and 23andMe. Of the 76 comments in the chat-thread, half offered a verdict on DNA test results. The group was a split between the 'Satisfied" or 'Sceptical'. Several of the disappointed consumers had clearly been influenced by what they learned from an investigation conducted by the MARKETPLACE program on the CBC television network: DNA ANCESTRY TESTS. They now understood they had wasted their money.

What I expected to read, but did not, was some mention of two 'good news' stories from 2018, filed by CBC reporters. One case involved two half-brothers in New Brunswick, men in their 80s who did not know they shared a father. It was a curious niece who initiated the DNA test. The other case was of two sisters, also in their 80s, who had been separated by adoptions. Recently they were re-united as a result of DNA test results injected into the genealogy Internet data-stream. Testimonials sell product and I note ANCESTRY has a SALE on this Canada Day week.

 In this recent video, Canadian journalist James Corbett

does not mince words. "Took an Ancestry DNA test? You

might be a 'genetic informant' unleashing secrets about

your relatives. Corbett's video is available HERE.

The CBC MARKETPLACE investigation, in consultation with accredited experts, identified a number of problems with the basic science used by the heavyweights in the DNA testing business, as well as questionable business practices. The show's dramatic narrative was its insistence on an explanation for how the five testing companies could generate widely divergent reports on identical twins, the Agro sisters. The team at Yale University who evaluated the five DNA reports insist the results should be uniform, if they hope to be deemed credible science.

Program length and the limits of viewer engagement, forced CBC journalists to concentrate on two key points. 1) The sequenced DNA from the Agro twins was compared to reference sets (the largest sets include millions of samples) assembled from people who originate from all inhabited regions of the world. Unfortunately each company creates its own approximation of the borders of ethnic regions. Their choices are "arbitrary" and this will cause "discrepancies" when two or more DNA reports are compared. 2) Sample-to-set comparisons are only made possible by the use of custom algorithms, and each company uses proprietary software. "The way [each of] these calculations are run is different." What the consumers are paying for are low resolution scans that produce little more than an "ethnicity estimates," which will in fact change over time as the reference sets increase in size. If you choose to become pen-pal with a far-distant stranger whose DNA correlates with your own, that's a bonus.

The CBC report failed to address a dangerous situation that is now an open-secret. Several U.S. companies that started out selling access to their genealogy databases, for a fixed monthly fee, have now morphed into billion-dollar DNA testing labs, intent on making huge profits selling client genetic data to "Big Pharma" and to all Law Enforcement and Spy Agencies who come calling. 

DNA testing revealed the "Golden State Killer" was former-cop Joseph James DeAngelo.

His courtroom expressions of contempt - scowls and grimaces, made his menacing mug as 

familiar as Freddy Krueger. Several artfully-staged press conferences in 2018 rendered 

Mr. DeAngelo the designated POSTER BOY FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT GENOMICS.

THE "GOOGLE OF GENOMICS"

We are just beginning to understand the ramifications of "surveillance capitalism" - emerging economies dependant on the commercial exploitation of digital oceans of behavioural data. What began with the seduction of the gullible onto the Social Media platforms, was just a bit of foreplay compared to the promised capabilities of the 5G network connecting the "Internet of Things". We are actually expected to applaud Orwellian tidings of a mad, mad world in which even the marriage-bed will be configured to record individual performance and levels of satisfaction, and relay that hot and desirable data stream to the corporate gods. The Internet Tycoons of tomorrow will anticipate our every mood and desire, processing the data generated by cities populated by two-legged lab rats. The Silicon Valley Billionaires created this dangerous behemoth for their benefit, not ours. Trillionaires and governments will merge in the new "surveillance economy".

Google is the 'gold standard' for companies that currently trades a "free service" of dubious value, for unlimited usage of personal data. The 'platinum standard' will be established by that company which is first to offer whole genome sequencing, free of charge. Imagine how the suckers will line up for a "free" sequencing - their complete genetic makeup on a single DVD. Information they do not understand and cannot use, a plastic token in exchange for corporate ownership and unlimited use of their genetic information.

Millions of us will be horrified by these predictions, and some consider resisting. The softening up process involves false promises and outright lies. Who hasn't heard this one: "The families of the wrongfully convicted deserve justice." Perhaps, but one man's freedom should never be dependant on fingerprinting and gene-printing an entire nation. Totalitarianism is not an antidote for a broken judicial system. In 2018 there was an avalanche of hype about the potential for solving "cold cases", using DNA databases. Police agencies and DNA experts held joint press conferences but offered few facts about what is really going on. ANCESTRY.COM, which is now the leading for-profit genealogy company in the world, (the Government of Singapore is an equity stakeholder) is privately held and therefore does not have to disclose much. ANCESTRY has though, boasted of its stockpile of DNA data, the fruit of fifteen million processed DNA kits. They further claim that in 2018 ANCESTRY handled only ten requests for cooperation with law enforcement. All those legal orders concerned credit card fraud and identity theft. Such companies let "Cold Case" stories "sell" the public on the concept of mass DNA sampling, but all such programs (Corporate and Law Enforcement) are forward-looking. The past is only incidental.

THE FBI PLUMBERS ARE BACK

In the 1930s J. Edgar Hoover ran aggressive media campaigns pushing his creepy idea of families voluntarily registering fingerprints with the FBI - "for their own benefit". Today it is your genetic fingerprints the FBI seeks, and they will not scruple to ask for them. Years ago the FBI went rogue, developing and deploying software enabling covert access to any common computer or. "The Bureau" has become a massive Intelligence Agency operating globally, and it is has the staff and budget to collect data it expects to need in the future. It will use DNA archives built today to enforce laws that do not even yet exist, and to destroy foreign opponents of the American Empire. In that dystopian future it will be a serious crime to seek simple privacy, because "stealing" data-flow from government and corporations will equate with theft of money.

You may remember the televised-trial of the "Golden Gate Killer" in 2018. Joseph James DeAngelo was an ex-cop turned serial killer and rapist, who evaded detection for decades. It was only when detectives tapped into the capabilities of commercial genomics websites that the case was cracked. By identifying and targeting a dozen distant relatives, investigators tracked back and arrested a shadowy fugitive killer, by then a 72 year old man. The media, predictably, played up the case and the public swallowed everything they were told. In fact public opinion polls helped solidify the idea that the public fully supported "DNA dragnets" as a necessary law enforcement methodology. Legislators went to work, and starting in California, added DNA swabbing to fingerprinting, at time of booking the accused. Worse, police officials everywhere, including Canadian sleuths, placed hands over hearts and swore an inability to conceive of doing their job without access to large-scale genome archives, coupled with the best technology available. It is already projected that within five years, the FBI (and RCMP?) will deploy mobile DNA sequencing technology to the crime scene, and retrieve a preliminary match within minutes. Of course any such curbside-DNA test will implicate a large number of people, all related by blood.

What you don't know, because it is not openly publicized, is that the FBI has been helping itself to commercial genome databases for some time. Their intrusion was exposed because in one case the purloined genome files, formatted in an unusual way, gave the data-thieves trouble. The Bureau phoned the offices of FamilyTreeDNA and boldly demanded free access. The company CEO, in an interview with FORENSIC MAGAZINE revealed that he was threatened with "a virtually endless succession of subpoena after subpoena" if he would not grant open access. The company caved.

Lex Calla has put together a short Youtube that will take

you through the Marrisa Shen (申小雨) story. It is HERE.

BURNABY IN TURMOIL 2017-18

Here in Burnaby, the benefits of an ethnically diverse community are very apparent. We all enjoy living here, and (gasoline taxes aside) there is is little to complain about. My wife is an active member and supporter of a Chinese temple in Metrotown, and there is a well-attended mosque two blocks from our home. Newcomers tend to want and need traditions such as religion, much more than do the greying generation of Canadians. Generally speaking, everyone gets along. Still, incidents do occur. Take the case of Marissa Shen, a young Chinese who was murdered on July 18, 2017 in Central Park, Metrotown. Her killing traumatized this city, and public safety became a hot-button local issue during the last election cycle. At the time the 13-year old was killed, I was one of those who jumped to conclusions. A good friend of mine who provides counselling to many newcomer families who struggle to adapt, had described the support given the Shen family before the girl's murder. (Marrisa was actually quite typical of girls her age and background.) My assumption was she had simply encountered a cunning fox on Social Media, and had considered the nearby park a safe arena. (Kids these days think they are invulnerable.) An intensive DNA Collection Dragnet proved me wrong, but police tactics rang alarm bells that should trouble you too.

DNA DRAGNET  IN  B.C.  TARGETS
MIDDLE-EASTERN  REFUGEE MALES

The only thing the American news industry loves more than a mass-shooting incident, is a complex serial killer investigation. Speculation, investigation, the take down, and a court room drama. A clever killer is better than Crazy Glue for keeping bums in seats, faces fixed on millions of flat screen TVs.  In August of 2018 the latest sensation was Joseph James DeAngelo, the so-called Golden State Killer, who was arraigned in August 2018.  DNA testing had been a constant factor in the investigation for almost twenty years,  first implicating and then exonerating many suspects. Then, in January of 2018, detectives tried something different - they uploaded DNA evidence to the website of GEDmatch, an "open source" archive of results collected primarily from family history enthusiasts. Bingo! Genealogical DNA identified almost twenty distant relatives of the elusive rapist-murderer, all of whom instantly fell under intensive investigation. The track-back to DeAngelo was easy. The decades old mystery was cracked and Mr. DeAngelo instantly became, what I fairly term,  The Poster Boy for Law Enforcement Genomics.  [Ref: Sacramento Bee article "'Open-source' genealogy provided missing DNA link to East Area Rapist, Investigator Says "]

Up here in Burnaby, Canada,  law enforcement agencies were under equally intense pressure to solve the murder of a young Chinese immigrant - Marrisa Shen.  The precise moment our local police bosses signed contracts with PARABON NANOLABS is still their secret, but the Shen case was clearly a test-bed for sleuthing methods that have forever changed how our cops go about their business. What we are currently witnessing is a perfect storm of privacy-obliteration.  The marriage of  two immensely powerful and insatiable beasts, on the one hand BIG intrusive governments and on the other, GREEDY immoral corporations. In the very near future, as high-speed DNA matching is added to the ubiquitous data-matching (ie. spying) routinely conducted by our federal, provincial and even municipal governments across Canada. In the future your family DNA profile will be matched not only against samples taken from murder and rape suspects, but to investigate such mundane "crimes" as real estate speculation and the surreptitious dumping of trash. Here in B.C., such Orwellian measures are being considered. Over in Toronto, condo associations are already forcing pet owners to register DNA, simply to catch pesky poopers.

A suspect in the Shen murder was arrested on September 7, 2018. He was identified as  Ibrahim Ali, a Syrian refugee who had been sponsored for entry into Canada by a Vancouver Christian church. The unmarried Syrian male had been here less than three months before he murdered a child in a Burnaby public park. RCMP - IHIT held a televised press conference three days later. A police spokesperson praised "our many partners [who] worked tirelessly for over a year to find answers", and offered a few statistics ... more than 1,300 residents near the crime scene canvassed, over 600 interviews conducted, over 2000 persons of interest identified and subsequently eliminated, and over 1000 hours of video image collected from 60 locations. The significant "notable partner" NOT named at the presser was the American genomics company PARABON NanoLabs. The role of that co-investigator, or details of the contract may come out in the trial. We can know about Paragon in advance, because a defence lawyer, who had access to the evidence and who spoke to CBC NEWS, spilled a trade name. "The analysis is called DNA phenotypic - also known as "Snapshot DNA" (see graphic above) - and it has provided leads and arrests in several cold cases in the United States by helping investigators predict the appearance or even ethnicity of a suspect." Here is a promotional graphic for the SNAPSHOT KINSHIP INFERENCE model.

It was Cornelia Naylor, an intelligent reporter, who uncovered the story of how RCMP - IHIT had really broken the case. "Marrisa Shen investigators may have done DNA sweep of Middle Eastern Men - BURNABY NOW, November 13, 2018. The local television affiliates of CTV and CBC followed her lead, and within a week it was out in the open. The DNA Dragnet had been nothing short of kick-ass. "The NOW has learned numerous Middle Eastern men living in the Lower Mainland - some of whom came to Canada to escape persecution in totalitarian regimes - were called up seemingly randomly and asked to provide voluntary DNA samples in relation to the killing." Soon individual Syrians and Kurds spoke to reporters, and it became very clear that none of the 2000 men who "volunteered" DNA samples did so unwillingly. What else can one do? Burnaby resident Ayub Faek asked "Why me?" He was assured, "Not only you. Many people." Our federal troopers have the guns, our governments their 24/7 electronic surveillance programs, and our society its reputation for yielding to all that coercive power without a whimper. We get, what we are going to get. And often.

JUST THE BEGINNING

I still recall some of the more naive comments shared on that FACEBOOK chat page, and I wonder if they will ever understand what they have stumbled into. But it was a CBC report that gave some urgency to my research. "Vancouver Police using same DNA technique that caught suspected Golden State Killer" - CBC May 30, 2019. "For the first time, a Canadian police force has confirmed it's using the same genetic genealogy technique that finally caught the suspected Golden Gate Killer, to solve a cold case of it own. Vancouver police have hired U.S. firm Paragon NanoLabs to search all available genealogical records in hopes of finding any link to a suspected miller's DNA. ... Parabon scours public genealogical sites such as GEDmatch and FamilyTreeDNA, which allow police to access their databanks. Most other well-known DNA testing companies don't cooperate with law enforcement without search warrants." 

Did you catch that? The American contractor will search "all available genealogical records".  Over 2000 immigrant men in Greater Vancouver, many of them refugees from war zones,  have just had their first encounter with a DNA Dragnet. Their personal genomes are now locked inside databases that will be consulted and matched against the records provided by millions of people who are determined to play with things they do not understand.   What once existed only in the realm of Dystopian fiction is now our reality.  And as Orwell made so very clear in his prophetic work, NINETEEN EIGHTYFOUR,  the precious freedoms the "Prols" surrender to Big Brother, they will never, ever get back.

The bitter irony in all this?  Over 2000 entirely innocent immigrant men have been aggressed against by the Canadian state.  Each will respond to that aggression in their own way. All responses are entirely understandable. Worse, not a single detective or crime lab boffin will have regrets about perpetrating those acts of aggression against innocent parties. They are proud exponents of state power, they relish that power, and they covet even more intrusive capability.   As to the suffering of the Shen family, who are the greatest victims of the "refugee system", which is a political process, they have no recourse. The trial of Ibrahim Ali will soon get underway, and we will learn nothing useful from that process.

Chinese New Year 2017 - Metrotown stores are a joy to visit

CHINESE NEW YEAR is alway an electric zap to the sensorium ... especially the frenetic shopping process and the binge-eating that soon follows. Sometimes I do remember to carry my smartphone, and typically I take more photos with it than I ever make calls.  Here are a few examples of what I've been noticing in Metrotown this week:

The treats are certainly piled high at T & T Supermarket in Metrotown Mall, including an astonishing array of Chinese New Year gifts and snacks.  We filled two shopping bags with goodies... everything from fresh Taiwanese bamboo shoots to a tray of just-baked egg tarts.     

The seafood section at T&T has a choice selection of product including Live Alaskan King Crab, but what really caught my interest were the Live Farmed Sturgeon.   Massive sturgeon can be caught in the Fraser River, about one kilometre east of us, but this is the first of the farmed variety I have encountered.

We regularly select from the offerings in the prepared meal section at T & T Supermarket.

Frozen Chinese and Japanese treats in abundance.  Even the packaging is dreamy!  For those wondering how prices compare, I can confirm that they are competitive with other chains, such as SUPERSTORE.  For example, in the T & T pharmacy I picked up half a dozen packets of FISHERMAN'S FRIEND throat lozenges, priced cheaper than either COSTCO or WALMART.  No kidding.

Sending Christmas cards seems to be falling out of fashion, as it now cost $1.00 in postage to send one out.  At  T & T Supermarket they offer Chinese New Year cards, but I didn't catch anyone poking through them.  

I also enjoy shopping in the marketplace located on the ground floor of CRYSTAL MALL, and it is particularly enticing during Chinese New Year week. Parking sucks, but I usually stop at the Burnaby Main Library first, leave my car, and cross the street to the mall. 

Whether you are making careful selections for your hot-pot dinner or searching for special treats to entice visitors to your home... it's all there in the Chinese marketplace at Crystal Mall. 

Inexpensive orchids offered today at the COSTCO store on Willingdon Avenue. I popped in to pick up a deck of batteries to feed my Apple mouse and keyboard, but I couldn't pass up a chance to poke my nose through the thicket of pretty plants.  Enjoy your Chinese  New Year weekend!

R.J. Jack in B.C.

GOLD HOUSE - a new landmark begins rising in Metrotown

Above the Beresford Art Walk - a giant LED display will become

operational astride the Metrotown Skytrain Station in 2019.

December 22, 2016

It is not often that I make a fuss over one of my wife's real estate investments, but in the case of GOLD HOUSE in Burnaby Metrotown, I think she made a very wise purchase -  a two-bedroom apartment in the south tower of the complex. This is a project that is very good value for the money, and will be turning heads for years to come - quite literally.  In concert with the Burnaby Art Gallery, the developer is planning to install a giant LED screen on the face of the first tower (157 feet long and wrapped around the building from the second to the fifth floors).  Similar to the popular screen at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles,  the Digital canvas above the "Beresford Art Walk" promises to be the largest screen of its type in Canada.   The Panasonic display will showcase "dynamic art" that is intended to look brilliant and HD from a distance - i.e. meant to impress both the pedestrians and the Skytrain riders who daily pass through Burnaby.  Though many residents of Metrotown are night owls, the giant screen is planned to be dimmed at 10 PM nightly. 

Municipal planners in Burnaby are determined that Beresford Street, astride the enlarged and redesigned Metrotown Skytrain Station, will offer street events and amenities to rival downtown Vancouver.  Many of us would like to see a new performing arts centre in Metrotown, but for now we must be content with shared benefits that will emerge from the explosion of residential towers and new retail developments.  That means the installation of many art pieces along Beresford Street as each new tower is completed, an Art Walk that will eventually total some $10 million in investment.

GOLD HOUSE and the Beresford Art Walk

are shown ion this map of Metrotown.

There are good images of GOLD HOUSE available online, and I scraped this one (below) from the RIZE website.  It shows the two towers with the mountains in North Vancouver in the distance. The graphic is a bit deceptive because in fact two other towers - Modello and SILVER, are located west and on the same block. They already exist and should be in the image. The SILVER building is already tenanted and Modello has recently topped out.  My wife sold residential and street level retail units in SILVER and her clients are all very happy with return on investment, but for herself, she decided to hold out for a unit in GOLD HOUSE.  We enjoy our own home, and may never take up residence in Metrotown, but I have a feeling we will keep this unit, if only to pass on to our children.

Good Luck Ceremony

Many of the purchasers of units in GOLD HOUSE are Chinese,  and they will appreciate the interesting "Good Luck" ceremony conducted by the developer, RIZE - ALLIANCE, on December 14, 2016.  I am not aware of any time-capsules placed in the foundations of Metrotown high-rise towers, (most Canadians now outlive the buildings we work in or inhabit) but certainly the developers did something unique on Beresford Street.  Assembled guests scattered gold foil into the five-story deep excavation at Tower One, and workmen in gold-painted helmets carefully applied gold leaf to a cement casting in the deep pit. A nice touch, and the sort of theatrics buyers do appreciate during the long wait as towers rise.

December 14, 2016 - GOLD HOUSE construction site.

Builders apply gold leaf during a foundation "Good Luck"

ceremony at the base of the five storey deep excavation.

Competing for Status in "The Centre" of Metrotown

Your Blogger at the preview of  "THE CENTRE", the last tower

of the STATION SQUARE development. A sales person made

a point of emphasizing the giant version of the Station Square logo,  
the architects have incorporated into the design of their tower.

 (See on photo above.)  This is something to ponder.

Ronald J. Jack
Burnaby, B.C.

"41 FLOORS, UNPARALLELED VIEWS, TRANSIT CENTRAL, WORLD-CLASS SHOPPING"  
Those are the talking points in the Early Preview Package.

I had the opportunity yesterday, to preview Phase Three of the STATION SQUARE development in Metrotown. The civic address for the tower will be 6080  McKay Avenue, Burnaby, B.C.
I skip most such events because they are now too frequent, but I was curious about this phase of the prodigious Station Square project, so I dropped in.  First the colour images (which I confess I simply scraped from the Email distribution kit) and later tonight I will add the words.  Not a review as such, but my thoughts on the project so far. I want to include what we might expect in what the promoters term "The Centre" of Metrotown. 

I hasten to add that yesterday was only a 'sneak-preview'.  No price sheets were given out, but I was thinking of 1-Bdm at mid-level, and told prices are in the $850 - 950 per square foot bracket, and  possibly going up. The Sales Team are watching up-to-the-minute values, as regional and Burnaby-specific sales data accumulates. As a possible investor-buyer I was given current Metrotown rental figures and some idea of what these units might yield a few years out. The Presentation Centre on McKay Avenue is now closed, as workers are installing show suites for the Big Splash,  and the glitzy promo packages are still with the printer.

An artists' rendering of the Station Square group of towers, when completed.

A spectacular addition to Burnaby's newly designated "Downtown". Yet, there are so 

many more towers coming, including a total redevelopment of the squat 1950s-era

SEARS property to the east of Metropolis, that this impression will not last long.

" A slim, central spine establishes an elegant connection between the ground level, podium, and tower.

Alternating pattern of four-storey white and grey stacks playfully ascends the tower's facade.

An iconic red square prominently tops the building."  

This is an interesting rendering of 6080 McKay Avenue as it will look to birds and micro-drones when construction is completed.   No. 7  is the Chinese shopping centre - CRYSTAL MALL, a  project that was badly handled by some very greedy developers in the 1990s. The residential component did well, but the Retail Mall was half-empty for several years. Now it has matured into a wonderful, bustling marketplace where a simple purchase can be infused with a host of sensory and emotional boosts.

THE NAME GAME

I really disliked the name "The Crystal", when the project was promoted in 1997, but it has grown on us.  When the west-side of Metrotown Mall was enlarged and dubbed "METROPOLIS"  I was enthused, and I recall contributing a long letter to one of the Burnaby newspapers in which I predicted that the name would take hold.  Well I was wrong. In the run-of-a-year I very seldom hear anyone refer to "Metropolis".  Locals use "Metrotown" and "Station Square" almost exclusively when referring to destination,  and I think the developers of the STATION SQUARE redevelopment project know that.  Hence the decision to add the big red logo to the Phase Three tower. I have also written that "THE SOVEREIGN" was a great name for the landmark tower on Kingsway at Willingdon,  Many of the names bestowed on prestige buildings in Greater Vancouver are boring or simply dumb, but we don't live in them, so we don't feel the need to slight them. As some persist in promoting Vancouver as a "Gateway" to Asia, you would think one culture-conscious property developer with a sense of history might name a cluster of towers for those great explorers who forged a trading link across the Pacific, linking Asia, the Americas and Europe.  What is this aversion to history and hero figures?

This clipping is from an old real estate file I kept.  "The Crystal Plan Questioned", was a report in the BURNABY NOW, November 5, 1997. Through the early 1990s the NDP controlled council, and it must be said, Burnaby City Planners, were determined to prevent Asian commercial development sited in Metrotown. I know firsthand because I met with them to discuss a 24-7  Sports/Entertainment complex to be built above SUPERSTORE. (This was before Silver City went in.) When They learned I was fronting for a Taiwanese developer, I was shown the door, and they were blunt about what they "wanted for Metrotown". Experienced Asian developers often wanted to replicate the kinds of projects that had made them wealthy back home. But the Canadian political imperative was - "You supply the money. We'll supply the vision."  What the politicos didn't understand in the 90's, but certainly understand today, is that modern Asians detest the limitations of segregated shopping precincts, especially touristy Chinatowns.  "The Crystal" was a necessary first step to crushing the old Burnaby mind-set, and the future of Metrotown will be amazing.

Visually interesting from afar, but spectacularly cramped

and off-putting as a shopping experience, the mall had a 

very rough start.  It seems to be doing well in 2016, but 

don't try parking there. Walk over from SUPERSTORE Parking.

UPTOWN  NOT  "DOWNTOWN"

This is a dramatic sunset view of downtown Vancouver as seen from "The Centre" of Metrotown.  As we all know, the development of Burnaby has been promoted around four Town Centres but last year city government decided to officially designate Metrotown as our "Downtown".  This is a bit awkward as Metrotown is actually built along a high ridge, which ensures that views from the residential towers are particularly spectacular. Some may prefer staring down at the Vancouver skyline, but others will prefer the view over the Skytrain line -  Mount Baker,  the trace of saltwater separating us from Vancouver Island,  and the now emerging Surrey, B.C. skyline.

This will soon be the pretty perch of some young urban professional, or perhaps a pair of students attending Simon Fraser University.  In reality, those who do not tremble when they discuss the rent. The purchase price, plus monthly Strata fees will bite into the buyer's belly fat, so one will have to have great confidence that local property values will continue to soar.

Most of the photographs herein, are taken
from the Anthem Properties,  Beedie Living
promotional package, distributed by email.