Gary McGath <garym@mcgath.com> wrote:
>There's a video of the SMOFCon presentation for the Chengdu Worldcon on
>YouTube. People are seriously talking about whether it will even happen.
>I've posted a commentary on my blog, with a link to the video:
>
>https://garymcgath.com/wp/dark-clouds-chengdu-worldcon/
>
>The involvement of "governmental entities" shouldn't surprise anyone.

Here's the thing: everything in China is a governmental entity. Every
corporation is 51% owned by the Chinese government. All those American
companies who "own a factory in China" actually have an agreement with
a Chinese corporation acting as their subsidiary that owns 49% of the
factory.

This goes for nonprofits too. The Chinese nonprofit running the Worldcon?
It's majority owned by the Chinese government.

You can say this is a terrible thing or you can claim it is a wonderful
thing, but making value judgements is irrelevant. This is a thing, and
it's a thing that you can turn to your advantage or allow to be turned
against you.

Because everyone is working for the government, everyone pretty much has
some degree of rank, and that might be a formal rank of an informal rank.
That rank and your connections basically allow you to get stuff done.
Everything works by having rank and pull. If you are a foreigner you have
no rank and no pull.

What you are seeing is that a group of people who don't have very much
political capital are putting on a convention and because they don't have
very much political capital, it is very difficult for them to get things
done. It's not impossible, it's just very slow, and so they are falling
behind on important deadlines.

It's very common for non-US worldcons to be run by younger organizations
that may not know how to work the system, and for Worldcon corporate to
come in and help them work the system. (One clear exception was New
Zealand... I was amazed at how those guys knew how to work the system.)
But in China, foreigners have no power and no pull in the system and
most don't know anyone who does. So the amount of assistance that
corporate can give them is very limited.

This is a shame and it's likely going to mean budgeting issues where
all the money comes at the last minute after the opportunities for
expanding have ended. But it will be a worldcon.
--scott
>--
>Gary McGath http://www.mcgath.com

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

In article <tp5976$gta$1@panix2.panix.com>,
Scott Dorsey <kludge@panix.com> wrote:
>Because everyone is working for the government, everyone pretty much has
>some degree of rank, and that might be a formal rank of an informal rank.
>That rank and your connections basically allow you to get stuff done.
>Everything works by having rank and pull. If you are a foreigner you have
>no rank and no pull.

(Hal Heydt)
A bit of an aside... The US military does much the same. If you
are employed by or working under contract with the military as a
civilian you get categorized as to what effective type of rank
you have.

When my father was working as field service engineer (usually
known as a tech rep), the Air Force treated tech reps as
commissioned officers. The Navy, however, classed tech reps as
equivalent NCOs.

The irony of it all was that my father had left the Navy in 1933
as an Electricians Mate, and the Maritime Service in 1954 as a
Lieutenant Commander. Since (as a civil service employee with
the Navy) at the end of his life, it came as a shocking surprise
to his immediate boss--a Navy Lieutenant--that he'd held a
commissioned rank (and higher than the Lieutenant), I seriously
doubt he ever mentioned it to anyone he worked for as a tech rep.