A Window Cleaner Named Pu & Unlicensed Scottish Shiners

It's really high," said Pu, a window cleaner.

The real-life spidermen: Many of us know all about the Spiderman movies. But did you know there are some real spidermen out there, braving some truly jaw-dropping heights? Cleaning skyscrapers is truly a job for superheroes. At the Canton Tower, in Guangzhou, the highest tower in China, these real-life spidermen took the risks up there just to give the thousands of tourists a better view.

Mission impossible? No. Tom Cruise? No. But these "Spidermen" are still superheroes to many. Working up at the 108th floor, we find one very experienced "Spiderman", Pu Xianlin. "I was very afraid the first time I stood on the roof and looked down. It's really high," said Pu, a window cleaner for the Canton Tower. There are ropes and boards to keep them safe. But the "spidermen" use their hands to walk, with special suction pads to fix themselves to the glass. The swinging ropes make the job even more dangerous.

A cleaner may not be a lofty job in many people's eyes. But Pu Xianlin's son thinks his father is a brave superhero. "When I take my son out, I tell him I've washed this building and that one. He always gets exited and tells me he feels proud of me," Pu said. Pu Xianlin says he takes a photo at every building he cleans. He may not always be able to afford the high ticket prices, but he can at least show his son some stunning pictures.

Three days of action to close the net on town’s rogue traders: Officers from Kirkcaldy North Community Team and Fife Council Trading Standards joined forces recently to target rogue traders. Last week the combined team came together for a three day enforcement operation and went out on patrol in the Kirkcaldy, Kinghorn and Burntisland areas. As a result, they detected four traders working as unlicensed window cleaners.

They stopped and questioned workmen and traders to make sure they were complying with the relevant legislation. Sergeant Scott Murray from Kirkcaldy Police Station told The Press: “The focus of this operation was to bring together different practitioners to share experiences, knowledge and legislated powers to tackle criminals who are a risk to our communities.” Geoff Bates, service manager, Fife Council protective services, said: “Joint working by police and trading standards is an effective way of targeting rogue doorstep tradesmen and bogus callers. ‘‘We have also been able to advise legitimate traders on how to comply with trading laws.”

During the three day period, contractors working on private properties were approached and the majority of those questioned were found to be bona fide traders providing a professional service. However, four people were discovered operating as unlicensed window cleaners and reports are being compiled in relation to each case. Sergeant Murray said: “This may seem a trivial offence, but a potentially an un-vetted person could be peering into homes whilst cleaning windows. By ensuring cleaners are licensed, it provides some measure of re-assurance they are fit and proper people to carry out the work.”

Fife Council operates a Trusted Trader scheme which lists businesses that have agreed to trade fairly. Sergeant Murray added: “The focus of our work is keeping people safe and this operation was a great success for both the protection of the community and for the recognition of professional tradesmen.”

Embarrased to Clean Windows in China

GUANGZHOU, China - She majored in English and loved her job as an office worker in China's once-booming export industry. But now Xiong Xuhua is jobless and in training to be a housekeeper, a fate she is too embarrassed to tell even her husband about. Wearing a blue apron with a white Hawaiian floral print, Xiong spent a recent day at a school for domestic workers practicing how to use a squeegee to clean a window without leaving streaks across the glass.
"I haven't told anyone in my family, not even my husband, that I'm going to do this kind of work," the petite 24-year-old woman said in a hushed voice as she looked down at the ground with a blank face. China's economic slump has sidetracked the careers of thousands of university graduates who studied computers, management and other fields. Now, many professional women are scrambling for jobs as nannies and housekeepers — work they never would have considered before.
It's a jarring change for an educated elite in a society where university students are called "Proud Children of Heaven." Parents warn kids they will wind up as nannies or cleaners if they fail to study. Many are getting their first taste of domestic work after spending their childhoods being pampered by their own nannies. The job search will only get tougher this year when 6.1 million college graduates enter the market. They will compete with 1.8 million graduates who finished school last year but have yet to find work. More than 23,000 graduates flooded into Beijing's first job fair after the Lunar New Year holiday earlier this month to apply for only 4,000 positions.
China has no statistics how many female professionals are now working as domestic help, but anecdotal evidence suggests the numbers are growing. Cong Shan, general manager of Guangzhou Home EZ Services in Guangzhou, China's southern business center, said that until last year, she had never had a university graduate apply to her company, which trains and places domestic workers. But since August, 90 percent of the 500 to 600 women who have applied have higher-education degrees. The popular job-search Web site 51job.com is seeing more university graduates and white-collar workers looking for lower-status jobs, said Feng Lijuan, the company's chief career adviser. While female professionals are turning to domestic work, China's legions of unemployed male graduates don't have that option and either remain out of work or settle for other less-desirable jobs, such as restaurant or retail work. Cong said her agency has yet to receive an application from a man.
Xiong, the former office worker, was trying to be upbeat while she trained at Cong's agency, where maids practiced their skills in a large kitchen and a model luxury apartment with a bedroom and bathroom. Xiong tried to clean the window with the squeegee three times with little success. "I told a former classmate what I'm doing, and she said I shouldn't look at it as housekeeping. She said what I'm really doing is managing a household and educating children," said Xiong, who graduated from Central South University of Technology in the southern city of Changsha.

Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, arrives for talks in Beijing today: China now owns more than $600 billion (£420 billion) of US government debt, and will be called on to buy more as President Obama's stimulus package inflates the budget deficit.

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