"WOTAM"

pronounced, "woah-tam," accent on the "woah"

English meaning: Waste Of Time And Money
Cantonese meaning: punch to the gall bladder

For me, at this time, both phrases have roughly the same meaning.

Back to the blog... Yichang & the 3 Gorge Damn tour was a giant WOTAM.
Not only was it pouring, but it was so foggy that we couldn't see a thing. Greyness. The Nothing. What dam? What gorges? And we were on a boat. In the freezing, biting, foggy rain.

I was a bit down on this part of the trip, until I saw the New York Times article, "Choking on Growth." They just published part IV of this series and it focuses on the 3 Gorge Dam Project. It made me realize that although I personally had a miserable time in Yichang; the 3 Gorge Dam is incredibly relevant to China today. It is a fascinating place where indistrial growth meets tourism, energy needs for the world's fastest growing economy meet forced migrations, environmental concerns meet national pride, and on and on... I'm thrilled that our film will touch upon this and endeavor to use it as another layer, as context illustrating that there are infinite sides to every coin.

Maybe that punch to the gall bladder wasn't quite so bad as I first thought.

That dam fog...


On the boat...



As good as it gets (and that's not saying much...)


We do keep our sense of humor through it all... and i couldn't resist a jumping shot at the 3 Gorge Dam & in front of a Yao Ming billboard. 2 birds with one stone. Made the WOTAM almost bearable. Almost.



P.S. To check out the NY Times article that I mentioned above, follow this link:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2007/11/19/world/asia/choking_on_growth_4.html