Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
Two Chinese officials have been sacked from the country's ruling Communist Party for their involvement in "superstitious activities" which included casting magic spells in order to aid promotions.
Tang Yuansong and Huang Xiaowen were dismissed from their duties by officials who claimed the pair attended "fengshui" training courses under the guise of business trips and claimed expenses back from the party.
Yuansong attended the Hogwarts esque training session five times, at a total cost of 54,000 yuan ($8,000), which he was later reimbursed for according to state media outlet Xinhua.
After attending the magical sessions, the Gandalf loving official then went on to tutor other followers in the art for which authorities say he was paid 5,000 yuan a year.
Source: https://www.rt.com/viral/398744-chinese-officials-fires-magic-spells/
(Score: 4, Informative) by maxwell demon on Monday August 07 2017, @07:23AM (6 children)
From the summary:
I'd bet the true reason they were sacked was them claiming the expenses back under false premise. Of course "Chinese officials sacked for claiming back expenses under false premise" would not make a good headline …
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 5, Informative) by lx on Monday August 07 2017, @07:38AM
RT: even more childish and uninformed than British tabloids.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 07 2017, @07:44AM
Govs should sack people who wast public money on superstitions.
FWIW China views religion as superstition: http://www.reuters.com/article/china-religion-superstition-idINDEE93K03V20130421 [reuters.com]
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Monday August 07 2017, @07:55AM
One of the more difficult things that Chairman Mao tried to do was convince the peasants that they weren't peasants because of the bad feng shui of their ancestors' burial sites. Nice to see the old ideas come back, even under nominal communism. Not.
(Score: 2) by FakeBeldin on Monday August 07 2017, @09:46AM
Fired over a bill of $8,000? Sure, that's bound to be the one and only thing that's going on.
I mean, someone who is making $700 extra a year on top of his salary can never pay that back... oh wait.
<wild speculation>
Perhaps they got sacked because of an internal power struggle, and the "other side" saw an opportunity and grabbed it?
</wild speculation>
I don't know what's going on, but I strongly doubt these folks lost their position solely for over $8,000.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by driverless on Monday August 07 2017, @10:56AM
Russia Today, that paragon of quality, unbiased, accurate reporting, says:
Our IT guy does the same thing. He invokes these long incantatations, "sed awk grep sudo cal grep nroff!". I think it's latin. I'm sure he's angling for a promotion.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 07 2017, @08:16PM
So it wasn't for Fenshui, but for IcaShing.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by SomeGuy on Monday August 07 2017, @08:52AM (3 children)
So can we sack officials that think they talk to an imaginary magic sky fairy?
Right, because one form of fake voodoo magic is more "real" than another.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday August 07 2017, @10:09AM
Expelliarmus!
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 07 2017, @11:36AM (1 child)
Prayer/spell
spell book/bible
Not much difference to me.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 07 2017, @01:10PM
The bible is a book full of stories of varying quality. I don't think spell books contain any stories.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 07 2017, @12:08PM (2 children)
science and "feng shui" is like comparing McDonalds to 5-star nouvel cuisine restaurant.
if both source from the same farm then there's really nothing magical about it except the
tiny portion size.
however, if one farm uses feng-shui, so the poop of the chicken drops to the ground instead of
lingering around the feet (and beak) of the chicken -or- (the other way around) allows the
chicken some distance of existence from the ground and the collected poop then this is good magic.
the other farm doesn't care if the chicken wade thru their own poop and uses science
and antibiotics to fight any problems.
sometimes you should prefer magic to science ...
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 07 2017, @01:16PM (1 child)
It's not science that makes the chicken wade through their own poop. Indeed, science says it is a very bad idea to do so.
Unfortunately chicken farms are not driven by science, but by profit. When science offers them a tool to increase their profit (antibiotics) they happily take it. But if science tells them anything that reduces their profits (don't let your chicken wade through their own poop), it is in the best case completely ignored, and in the worst case actively denied and undermined with "studies" that "show" how those scientists are all wrong, and are part of a conspiracy to destroy our economy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 07 2017, @09:04PM
Don't forget the Countachs and Ferraris and Koernigeggegggegeggegegegegeggs all those scientists are driving around thanks to their scheming!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 08 2017, @01:02AM
finally an appropriate action against a lord of the rings miscreant.