20 picked up in ICAC raids over highway contracts

Not to sound petulant but I thought that the reason Hong Kong pays its Civil Servants such extraordinary salaries is so that they will not accept bribes. I'm sure the government will conclude that this means they need to pay the already over paid, under worked troglodytes even more to ensure that they cannot be bribed. That then begs the question, "Why do we need the ICAC?"

Here is a thought. Fire the entire civil service. Reset the pay scale to 1/2 of the current level. Abolish the over the top retirement and separate medical program (Civil servants even have their own hospital) Draw up a set of professional ethics that every civil servant must adhere to and have them sign it. If they violate it they go to jail. Make them use the health system they foist upon the population. Indeed, that is a good policy for any state that has a socialized medical scheme. The government officials should have to use it to the exclusion of any other. Anyone who wants their job back can then have it at the lower pay and benefits level.

I see that civil servant in the back over there yelling "But that violates the basic law! The government can't give any civil servant less money than they made in 1997!" I've got news for you friend, the basic law is meaningless. The government does more or less whatever Beijing wants. Besides the IRD violates the basic law when it assumes that all expatriots are tax cheats and makes them pay their taxes a year in advance yet the basic law says we are innocent until at least charged with a crime. By working on the presumption of guilt the IRD violates the basic law. The same is true when the police conduct mass breathalizer test on motorist, even if they catch a few drunks the cost is a massive reduction in personal freedom. You don't mind that. The labor department discriminates against Indonesian minorities by allowing employers to pay Indonesian maids less than those from the Philippines that is racial discrimination. The list of the ways that Hong Kong civil servants violate the basic law in ways great and small everyday is quite long. Therefore, sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. Fire them all.

If I am going to live in a fascist society then I want the governmental officials to be subject to the oppressive laws just as I am subject to them. It limits the brutality the state is willing to engage in if Joseph Yam or York Chow or Albert Au are subject to those laws.

It also turns a fascist state into one that simply has some rather draconian laws. Severe penalties can be a cultural norm. Having leaders who are above the law is not, it is evil. Paying civil servants 4 times the going rate for the same job in the private sector means that the state gets greedy civil servants who are more concerned with keeping their jobs than serving a civil society. That may not be evil but it is certainly not smart either. I also think that the evidense shows it does not make them less likely to take bribes.

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who will accept a draconian state but not a fascist one

Hemlock Blacklisted

Well, well, well.

So Hemlock has been blacklisted by Google. Notice, there is no issue with Malware or viruses. He is just “Blacklisted”

I hope he wears this as a badge of honor but it means that he is going to have a hard time getting off this list.

Hemlock is not a blog for little kids but I cannot fathom why he would be blacklisted.

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who hasn't been blacklisted yet

We're #2

If THBT and the rest of the Hong Kong worked for AIG they'd be in deep trouble!

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who deos not make nearly so much money

Malaise

There is a somewhat funny saying: “An optimist believes that we live in the best of all possible worlds and a pessimist is afraid that the optimist is correct.” The really smart, pretty, hard working and looks twenty-five years younger than she is wife has been telling me that I have become too pessimistic. I think in some ways she is right but I maintain that I am trying to look on the bright side except there isn’t one. That is part of why I’ve not been posting much. I can only write so many caustic essays. Kind of the Thumper Rabbit principle, “If you can’t say something nice then don’t say anything at all.”

But there is some good news. The late Nina Wong’s Fung Shui Master Boyfriend is about to get charged with fraud. He evidently forged the will that gave him the fortune that she stole from her even later husband’s family. That’s good. I still don’t like China-Chem very much but at least the crooks who earned the money have what is theirs. I think Nina Wong had her husband murdered and forged a will to gain control of the company and there is perverse humor in then seeing someone do to her what she’d already done.

Many places, most of them fascist including Hong Kong have gun control. Hong Kong also has “Tree-Control” As with most things a government does it works poorly. Recently a dying tree fell and killed a teenage girl. The tree couldn’t be cut down without government permission which evidently takes years to get. So, we can’t get an anti-air pollution law with teeth, murderers get 8 months in jail but people are prosecuted for cutting down a dying tree.

We’ve also had a series of scandals involving pharmaceutical companies that have packaged out-of-date or defective drugs. A lot of people would attribute this to “The profit motive” I don’t. I attribute it to the “I have no ethics because I grew up in the Hong Kong educational system” motive.

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who is trying to find good things to say

The Future Present

Kind of an odd essay.

Until Next Time
Fai mao
The Blogger who should post more often

Help, I just ate my lipstick!

Question: Many male fashion designers are homosexual. I do not know if this man is or not but assume he is. If true then by looking at these fashions is it safe to assume that at least some homosexual men hate women? Can you be a homosexual misogynistic?

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The blogger who has no fashion sense

Signs of the times

Not that this does not need to be done but really. Is this the best they can think up?


Until Next Time
Fai Mao

The Formal Complaint

I sent the letter below to Albert Ho who is a member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong as a follow up to my series of letters with the EPD. I included my real name and links to the various Emails I've received from the EPD.

Councilor Ho,

I do not think that you are my geographical representative; I have looked on the Lego-Co web page but the geographical areas for the various members are not listed as far as I can find. However, since I know that you and your party have an interest in the area I am concerned about I thought it might be appropriate to send you this letter voicing my concern over the activities and programs of a governmental department that I find very disturbing.

Recently a student group in the school I work for placed posters around our campus with a telephone number and the URL of the Environmental Protection Department. The posters encouraged students to “Put this number on your speed dial and use it” The number is to report vehicles that they think are emitting excessive exhaust to the EPD. After contacting the EPD in a series of Emails I discovered that this is indeed an EPD program and they do encourage people to report smoky vehicles using that number. While I complain, as do many others in Hong Kong of the poor air quality this program is simply evil and I, and I believe many others, would appreciate the Legislative Council requiring them to put a stop to it.

This program should be stopped because one of the hallmarks of a Fascist state is that it encourages citizen to spy on one another. This program is, ideologically speaking, little different from the practices of having children report “anti-revolutionary” attitudes of their parents during the Cultural Revolution in the PRC. The fact that the consequences to the drivers turned in by this program are trivial is beside the point. I believe that history shows us that any time a government can abuse power it will. The less accountable the government is the more likely the power will be abused. I cannot imagine many government officials less accountable than Hong Kong bureaucrats. How long will it be before they decide to stop sending simple warning letters to the drivers reported and issuing summonses to have their vehicle turned up?

This program should be stopped because it also violates our right in Hong Kong to face our accusers in court. The report is anonymous. Suppose a number of your political critics all sent your license plate number in using this program and then found a way to publish the fact that you had been cited 12 or 15 times for a vehicle with excessive smoke in the exhaust? Would such an action damage your reputation? The potential for abuse of a program like this by non-governmental factions is as great as the potential inside the government; probably more so. And yet, if you were harassed by a person or group using this program you would have no way to face them, stop them or defend yourself. If you believe that the press in Hong Kong would seek to tell your side of the story then you are mistaken. While less physically painful than being bludgeoned by a baseball bat the political effect would be the same.

This program should be stopped because it is useless and provides no benefit to Hong Kong. Assuming that the officials in the EPD are more enlightened than I have given them credit for and take steps to prevent abuse, if all that occurs is for a warning letter to be sent to vehicle owners then I must ask: “What is the benefit of the program?” There is already a yearly inspection for all vehicles in Hong Kong. Any vehicle that emits excessive pollution should be dealt with at that time. Is a warning letter from the EPD going to scare someone into repairing their automobile three months early? If there are no “teeth” in a program like this it is useless. If there are “teeth” it is Fascism. In either case it is a program that needs to be done away with.

This program must be ended because it will not do Hong Kong any good to obtain large goals such as universal suffrage if our society is held hostage to programs administered by government organs that encourage citizen to spy upon one another. Open societies are based upon trust and mutual respect. They are also based upon toleration. This type of program encourages citizen, in this particular case secondary school student, to develop an intolerant and accusatory attitude to those around them. A society where citizens are constantly looking for flaws in others that can be reported to the government or to bully them into particular modes of behavior is not a society I want to be a member of.

This program should be stopped because it does not matter how laudable the goal if the means used to reach the goal are evil the program is evil. This program is evil because the means are evil. That is particularly true in this case because the only thing this program accomplishes is to make work for a clerk at the EPD and to give people reporting smoky vehicles a feeling of self-righteous moral superiority for having turned someone in as a polluter. Great evil is done because small evils are allowed. None of us wake up and say “I am going to become a great sinner today.” Instead, we chip away what is good letting the end we desire justify a little loss of ethics, honor and morality here and there until we are what we hate and do not understand how we became what we are.

There are many things we could do to improve air quality in Hong Kong. This program is not one of them. Sir, please see to it that the EPD ends it soon.

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who does not believe that the end justifies the means

The Final EPD Email

This arrived in my mail box today from the EPD:

Dear Mr. Fai Mao,

Again, please note that the number 2838 3111 is open for public to report pollution complaint to us to follow up. It is not necessary to send us the poster you mentioned. Anyway, thank you for bring this matter to our attention.

Notice I did not post the senders name or their Email. Unlike previous Emails this one came from a real person with a non-public Email. I will honor their privacy by not revealing who they are.

However, the telephone number IS for the public to complain about smoky vehicles and that would mean that the people encouraging middle school and high school students to "Put this number on your Cellphone" to call are, in fact, legally encouraging children to spy upon adults and society at large.

Despicable.

The Basic Law in Hong Kong gives us the right to face our accusers. Except in this instance.
The Basic Law in Hong Kong says we are innocent until shown to be guilty. Except in the matter of taxes and this instance.

There is already a vehicular inspection program in Hong Kong so this program is a waste of funds and manpower.

The government either needs to follow the law or admit that they take orders from Beijing and that the Basic Law is a sham.

Holy Cow! I hope that Hu Jintau comes to Hong Kong and his Red Star limo gets reported for smoking like an old-man in a brothel. I hope every school kid in Hong Kong reports him and the EPD sends him a letter.

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger rides the bus

Another Alcoholic Judge

This is not a joke.

Eric Au-Chun Kit side-swiped a car then careened down the road and rear-ended a motorcyclist who died at the scene. He refused to be tested for his blood-alcohol level until an hour after the accident and was, at that time found to be still three times over the legal limit .

This was not his first offense. He is a habitual drunk driver.

He was given what amounts to a slap on the wrist yesterday for this crime given his obvious disregard for the law and the safety of others. He had his driving license suspended for 5 years. He was also fined. He was then given a 4 year in prison term. Tell me, do you need a driving license in prison? So how is that different from a 1 year suspended license?

The man he killed had a wife and two small children. Do they get off in four years? Yet this brother of a "Rising Canto-pop Star" according to the SCMP offered a paltry $70,000 to compensate the victims; which is probably not even the cost of the motor cycle the man he killed was riding.

After the accident he claimed the sun was in his eyes and that the motorcycle just suddenly appeared in front of him. In other words because he was drunk his pupils were dilated and his reactions were slowed. What a moron! He is so stupid that he does not even know what the sysmtoms of being drunk are.

There is a movement in the US to charge people who kill someone while driving drunk with murder. Though in Hong Kong the prison sentence for murder would be about the same unless you are Nancy Kissel. Yet still such a measure here would at least say that slime bags like Eric Au-Chun Kit are not welcome in this society.

I can't help but wonder if the apparent pathological leniency of the judges in Hong Kong in cases like this isn't because they are all boozers themselves?

Eric Au-Chun Kit. You are slimy, no good, self-centered, ignorant bastard and you you should be put in prison for the rest of your natural life for your crimes. Your wealth should be confiscated and given to the children of your victims. If you received justice then maybe Nancy Kissel would feel better because then she would be able to see that the courts were not picking on her.

Eric, if I were you, I'd hang myself in shame of what I'd done. But you have have no shame. You're just a drunken brat. At least you'll be off the streets for 4 years.

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who believes that justice is seldom served in Hong Kong.

Another Reply from the EPD

The Environmental Protection Department replied again today. Here is what they had to say:

Dear Mr. Fai Mao,

Referring to your email, please be informed that the telephone No. '28383111' is an EPD hotline for general public to report pollution matters including smoky vehicle to EPD. In addition, we do not place posters in school about spotting smoky vehicle and encourage children to make such complaint. Thank you for your e-mail.

Now, don't miss understand. The program still appears to me to be either an egregious attempt to recruit citizens as spies or a total waste of time. Neither of those are good things for governments to be engaged in. However, it appears that who ever put up the posters in the school I work for was not doing something that is "officially sanctioned." Or, this guy could simply be unaware of that policy. I find it really interesting that who ever printed the posters put an emergency number on them, the web address of the EPD and the instruction to "Put this number on your mobile phone's speed dial."

I think it would be funny if these posters turned up all over town and somebody got arrested for improper use of an emergency number? But I have a sadistic sense of humor.

I must admit to being surprised that the EPD spent so much time on this.

Here are links to the previous post in this string
Post #4
Post #3
Post #2
Initial Post

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who thinks that sometimes being Green is really being Red

Headless Body in Legless Story

Sometimes Mark Stein is just too good for words.

If this guy was a moderate Muslim then what about the fanatical ones?
Before someone says: "Well, Christian preachers and Jewish Rabbis murder their wives too!" you need to remember they are condemned by their own religion for it. What this man did was not a crime under Sharia law but rather a virtuous act. You would be very hard pressed to find any group other except Islam that propagates a legal code as barbaric as Sharia Law.

I started to not post this but then I've seen other posting about it.

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who probably is an insult to Islam

Renaming the University Department

The Really smart, looks 25 years younger than she is, pretty, hard working, loving and sexy wife works for an institution of higher learning here in Hong Kong. They are trying to rename their department and are offering a HKD $500.00 prize to the winning entry. I would not know this except I was in her office this afternoon and heard the professor in the next office talking to himself as he worked on is entry. When I realized what he was doing I got my MP3 out and recorded the soliloquy which is transcribed below
____________________________________________

Geez, I really want to win that prize! Let me think, Think, think!

How about: Department of Politically Correct Education

But wait, the word "Department" is exclusionary and as academics we desire a non restrictive, open environment that will never do. We don't want to have our students compartmentalized into preexisting formulas designed to keep them from being able to think for themselves but knowledgeable enough to perform the menial repetitive work that the conspiracy of the bourgeois and religious leaders have planned for them.

How about: Center for Politically Correct Education

But wait, the word Center implies a locus of control which has connotative resonance, in most personal narratives, with the male centered hegemony favored by masochistic reactionary forces of non-deconstruction exclusively heterosexual thinkers. It is a code word for the oppression of women and minorities!

How about: Support Group for Politically Correct Education

But wait, the word "Education" is indicative of route learning pedagogy which reinforces the idea that we are unable to rise above our gender, class, race, sexuality or religion. Education can mean that someone is imparting knowledge or facts to us in a preexisting format that has been developed to further the oppression of the poor and lowly. We can't use the word education!

How about: Support Group for Politically Correct Learners

But wait, the words "Support Group," are not right. Isn't there a little bit of a negative connotation in them? It isn't like we are all a bunch of alcoholic heroine addicts. I mean I'm sure some arn't. We need a phrase with a more positive conotation.

How about:Sharing Group of Politically Correct Learners

Now we are getting somewhere. But it still isn't right. I mean we aren't "Sharing" we are "Instructing." But we want to avoid the word "instruction" because it is too similar to "education" and makes us appear to be so rigid so, how about Enlightened? Yeah, that's good

How about:Enlightened Group for Politically Correct Learners

Oh my God! That is so good.

But wait, isn't that a bit arrogant? I mean it is true but you don't want to put people off so why don't we add the word "Reasonably" to the front. That makes us look humble and looking humble is a good thing.

How about: Reasonably Enlightened Politically Correct Learners

Better but not quite. I mean people know we are Politically Correct because we are so smart. Do we have to rub it in? Hmmmm, maybe we could drop that term but going with just "Reasonably Enlightened Group Learning" sounds kind of vague.

How about: Reasonably Enlightened Transmitters of Learning

Yeah that's good because it brings the focus back. But it isn't enough. We are a university after all and that means there must be a professor and a student. We may see ourselves as guides to help our students become the self-actualized beings trapped inside their oppressed, gender confused bodies but we want them to know that we accept them. We are not trying to change them into agents for the majority. Hey wait a minute!

How about:Reasonably Enlightened Transmitters of Acceptance Learners.

Something is wrong grammatically there. I guess it could be "accepted learners" that might work. But then those who were not accepted would suffer irreversible psychic damage.

How about: Reasonably Enlightened Transmission of Academics to Learners.

Not quite, almost, but not quite. Still a little bit too much Moses on Mount Sinai. And we are not all learners, some of us are professors. But the word "Student" is so passé. Disciple! That's it disciple! Our students are our disciples! They carry the good news of progressive education to the whole world. John Dewey would like that term.

How about: Reasonably Enlightened Transmitter of Academic Diciples

Nope. Damn! I need another word. We don't transmit disciples we train them and send them forth! That's it

Reasonably Enlightened Trainers of Academic Disciples

Trainers is a bit of a stretch because after all we merely provide them with the tools to create their own personal narrative that they can then use to reach other confused proto-intellectuals. Our disciples are not merely parroting us. They are finding their own way to be relevant in an absurd, irrelevant world. I've got it

Reasonably Enlightened Trainers of Academically Relevant Disciples

Yeah almost, almost. But our students then go out and start training little children as disciples. I think I really need to put a little of that mission in this. OK. They become disciples and then they are hired based upon their experience. Experience - the philosophy of experience is Existentialism and their existential experiences is how they are relevant and then once they move into schools they are bringing relevance to those schools.

What about: Reasonably Enlightened Trainers of Academically Relevant Disciples Existentially Dispersed

That's good! That very good. My mother always told me I was genius.

But the acrostic won't work

Reasonably Enlightened Trainers of Academically Relevant Disciples Existentially Dispersed

Maybe we should just call it the The Department of Special Education

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who is not very politically correct

Banning Books for Environmental Health

You can't make this stuff up.

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who owns lots of old books

The Reply to the Reply

I wrote a short note to EPD today in reply to their second letter to me yesterday

Ms Li,

What you have engaged in is classic Orwellian double speak. In other words you talked around the issue without answering the question. My specific complaint is that groups such as "Roots & Shoots" in Hong Kong are placing posters in schools that tell children to put your complaint number in their cell phone and to report any vehicle with black smoke immediately. You are effectively making children law enforcement officers and encouraging them to conduct covert surveillance operations. This is another way of saying that you want children to spy on adults. Encouraging people to spy on one another is immoral, encouraging children to do it is worse by several orders of magnitude.

We will see if they reply again.

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who likes to bother government flunkies

The NAZI Bureaucrat Replies (Again)

My reply yesterday to the non-reply I received from the EPD was a polite "I know the license was invalid. I just thought you might like to see what people think of your policies and you have no other contact address."

So today this reply comes:

Dear Mr. Fai Mao,

Thank you for your email. Regarding measures for the reduction of emissions from motor vehicles, over the years, the government has adopted from time to time various measures to reduce vehicular emissions including the tightening of the emission limit for newly registered vehicles, adopting better fuel quality and incentive scheme for the replacement of in-use vehicles with environmental friendly vehicles etc.

- Show quoted text -

In other words:

We're just doing our jobs bla, bla, bla, bla. Don't understand your question, bla, bla, bla. What does that mean? bla, bla, bla Must follow orders; bla, bla bla. Two hour lunch break, bla,bla,bla. Civil Service jobs are for life, bla,bla,bla. Warning bla,bla,bla, Warning, Bla,bla,bla, Warning, bla,bla,bla. Resistance is futile. bla,bla,bla You will be assimilated.

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who should really know better than to expect a cogent answer from a government policy wonk.

The NAZI Bureaucrat Replies

This morning I had the following Email:

Dear Mr. Fai Mao,

Thank you for your complaint on 5.2.2009 regarding excessive emission from a vehicle 123yyy.
Please note that we cannot take action on this case as 123yyy is not a valid vehicle registration under the register of Transport Department.
Thank you again for your concern on the environment.

C.S. Li
Mobile Source Control Section (1)
Environmental Protection Department

The Environmental Protection Department (EPD) has no way to simply contact them unless you are spying on someone so I filled out their form and posted a link to my post about this evil scheme in the online form.

It does not even look like a human read the reply. If he'she/it did they didn't read the post otherwise they'd have responded differently.

Until Next Time

Not Yours to Give

The post below is an except from the book: The life of Colonel David Crockett, which is in the Public domain. Given the constant calls by various segments of the populous here as well as other places for government handouts due to the financial problems that have recently been in the news, I thought it might be an insightful read. The book is still in print through the University of the Pacific Press.

In case some of the Asian and European readers of this blog don't know, David Crockett is better known as "Davy Crockett". He was a frontiersman, explorer, and congressman from Tennessee. He died at the Alamo in the Texas revolution.

The war referred to in this excerpt is the war of 1812


Not Yours To Give

One day in the House of Representatives, a bill was taken up appropriating money for the benefit of a widow of a distinguished naval officer. Several beautiful speeches had been made in its support. The Speaker was just about to put the question when Crockett arose:

"Mr. Speaker--I have as much respect for the memory of the deceased, and as much sympathy for the sufferings of the living, if suffering there be, as any man in this House, but we must not permit our respect for the dead or our sympathy for a part of the living to lead us into an act of injustice to the balance of the living. I will not go into an argument to prove that Congress has no power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every member upon this floor knows it. We have the right, as individuals, to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity; but as members of Congress we have no right so to appropriate a dollar of the public money. Some eloquent appeals have been made to us upon the ground that it is a debt due the deceased. Mr. Speaker, the deceased lived long after the close of the war; he was in office to the day of his death, and I have never heard that the government was in arrears to him.

Every man in this House knows it is not a debt. We cannot, without the grossest corruption, appropriate this money as the payment of a debt. We have not the semblance of authority to appropriate it as a charity. Mr. Speaker, I have said we have the right to give as much money of our own as we please. I am the poorest man on this floor. I cannot vote for this bill, but I will give one week's pay to the object, and if every member of Congress will do the same, it will amount to more than the bill asks."

He took his seat. Nobody replied. The bill was put upon its passage, and, instead of passing unanimously, as was generally supposed, and as, no doubt, it would, but for that speech, it received but few votes, and, of course, was lost.

Later, when asked by a friend why he had opposed the appropriation, Crockett gave this explanation:

"Several years ago I was one evening standing on the steps of the Capitol with some other members of Congress, when our attention was attracted by a great light over in Georgetown. It was evidently a large fire. We jumped into a hack and drove over as fast as we could. In spite of all that could be done, many houses were burned and many families made homeless, and, besides, some of them had lost all but the clothes they had on. The weather was very cold, and when I saw so many women and children suffering, I felt that something ought to be done for them. The next morning a bill was introduced appropriating $20,000 for their relief. We put aside all other business and rushed it through as soon as it could be done.

"The next summer, when it began to be time to think about the election, I concluded I would take a scout around among the boys of my district. I had no opposition there, but, as the election was some time off, I did not know what might turn up. When riding one day in a part of my district in which I was more of a stranger than any other, I saw a man in a field plowing and coming toward the road. I gauged my gait so that we should meet as he came to the fence. As he came up, I spoke to the man. He replied politely, but, as I thought, rather coldly.

"I began: 'Well, friend, I am one of those unfortunate beings called candidates, and--'

"'Yes, I know you; you are Colonel Crockett, I have seen you once before, and voted for you the last time you were elected. I suppose you are out electioneering now, but you had better not waste your time or mine. I shall not vote for you again.'

"This was a sockdolager . . . I begged him to tell me what was the matter.

"'Well, Colonel, it is hardly worth-while to waste time or words upon it. I do not see how it can be mended, but you gave a vote last winter which shows that either you have not capacity to understand the Constitution, or that you are wanting in the honesty and firmness to be guided by it. In either case you are not the man to represent me. But I beg your pardon for expressing it in that way. I did not intend to avail myself of the privilege of the constituent to speak plainly to a candidate for the purpose of insulting or wounding you. I intend by it only to say that your understanding of the Constitution is very different from mine; and I will say to you what, but for my rudeness, I should not have said, that I believe you to be honest. . . . But an understanding of the Constitution different from mine I cannot overlook, because the Constitution, to be worth anything, must be held sacred, and rigidly observed in all its provisions. The man who wields power and misinterprets it is the more dangerous the more honest he is.'

"'I admit the truth of all you say, but there must be some mistake about it, for I do not remember that I gave any vote last winter upon any constitutional question.'

"'No, Colonel, there's no mistake. Though I live here in the backwoods and seldom go from home, I take the papers from Washington and read very carefully all the proceedings of Congress. My papers say that last winter you voted for a bill to appropriate $20,000 to some sufferers by a fire in Georgetown. Is that true?'

"'Well, my friend; I may as well own up. You have got me there. But certainly nobody will complain that a great and rich country like ours should give the insignificant sum of $20,000 to relieve its suffering women and children, particularly with a full and overflowing Treasury, and I am sure, if you had been there, you would have done just as I did.'

"'It is not the amount, Colonel, that I complain of; it is the principle. In the first place, the government ought to have in the Treasury no more than enough for its legitimate purposes. But that has nothing to do with the question. The power of collecting and disbursing money at pleasure is the most dangerous power that can be intrusted to man, particularly under our system of collecting revenue by a tariff, which reaches every man in the country, no matter how poor he may be, and the poorer he is the more he pays in proportion to his means.

"'What is worse, it presses upon him without his knowledge where the weight centers, for there is not a man in the United States who can ever guess how much he pays to the government. So you see, that while you are contributing to relieve one, you are drawing it from thousands who are even worse off than he.

"'If you had the right to give anything, the amount was simply a matter of discretion with you, and you had as much right to give $20,000,000 as $20,000. If you have the right to give to one, you have the right to give to all; and, as the Constitution neither defines charity nor stipulates the amount, you are at liberty to give to any and everything which you may believe, or profess to believe, is a charity, and to any amount you may think proper. You will very easily perceive what a wide door this would open for fraud and corruption and favoritism, on the one hand, and for robbing the people on the other. No, Colonel, Congress has no right to give charity.

"'Individual members may give as much of their own money as they please, but they have no right to touch a dollar of the public money for that purpose. If twice as many houses had been burned in this county as in Georgetown, neither you nor any other member of Congress would have thought of appropriating a dollar for our relief. There are about two hundred and forty members of Congress. If they had shown their sympathy for the sufferers by contributing each one week's pay, it would have made over $13,000. There are plenty of wealthy men in and around Washington who could have given $20,000 without depriving themselves of even a luxury of life.

"'The congressmen chose to keep their own money, which, if reports be true, some of them spend not very creditably; and the people about Washington, no doubt, applauded you for relieving them from the necessity of giving by giving what was not yours to give. The people have delegated to Congress, by the Constitution, the power to do certain things. To do these, it is authorized to collect and pay moneys, and for nothing else. Everything beyond this is usurpation, and a violation of the Constitution.

"'So you see, Colonel, you have violated the Constitution in what I consider a vital point. It is a precedent fraught with danger to the country, for when Congress once begins to stretch its power beyond the limits of the Constitution, there is no limit to it, and no security for the people. I have no doubt you acted honestly, but that does not make it any better, except as far as you are personally concerned, and you see that I cannot vote for you.'

"I tell you I felt streaked. I saw if I should have opposition, and this man should go to talking, he would set others to talking, and in that district I was a gone fawn-skin. I could not answer him, and the fact is, I was so fully convinced that he was right, I did not want to. But I must satisfy him, and I said to him:

"'Well, my friend, you hit the nail upon the head when you said I had not sense enough to understand the Constitution. I intended to be guided by it, and thought I had studied it fully. I have heard many speeches in Congress about the powers of Congress, but what you have said here at your plow has got more hard, sound sense in it than all the fine speeches I ever heard. If I had ever taken the view of it that you have, I would have put my head into the fire before I would have given that vote; and if you will forgive me and vote for me again, if I ever vote for another unconstitutional law I wish I may be shot.'

"He laughingly replied: 'Yes, Colonel, you have sworn to that once before, but I will trust you again upon one condition. You say that you are convinced that your vote was wrong. Your acknowledgment of it will do more good than beating you for it. If, as you go around the district, you will tell people about this vote, and that you are satisfied it was wrong, I will not only vote for you, but will do what I can to keep down opposition, and, perhaps, I may exert some little influence in that way.'

"'If I don't,' said I, 'I wish I may be shot; and to convince you that I am in earnest in what I say I will come back this way in a week or ten days, and if you will get up a gathering of the people, I will make a speech to them. Get up a barbecue, and I will pay for it.'

"'No, Colonel, we are not rich people in this section, but we have plenty of provisions to contribute for a barbecue, and some to spare for those who have none. The push of crops will be over in a few days, and we can then afford a day for a barbecue. This is Thursday; I will see to getting it up on Saturday week. Come to my house on Friday, and we will go together, and I promise you a very respectable crowd to see and hear you.'

"'Well, I will be here. But one thing more before I say good-by. I must know your name.'

"'My name is Bunce.'

"'Not Horatio Bunce?'

"'Yes.'

"'Well, Mr. Bunce, I never saw you before, though you say you have seen me, but I know you very well. I am glad I have met you, and very proud that I may hope to have you for my friend.'

"It was one of the luckiest hits of my life that I met him. He mingled but little with the public, but was widely known for his remarkable intelligence and incorruptible integrity, and for a heart brimful and running over with kindness and benevolence, which showed themselves not only in words but in acts. He was the oracle of the whole country around him, and his fame had extended far beyond the circle of his immediate acquaintance. Though I had never met him before, I had heard much of him, and but for this meeting it is very likely I should have had opposition, and had been beaten. One thing is very certain, no man could now stand up in that district under such a vote.

"At the appointed time I was at his house, having told our conversation to every crowd I had met, and to every man I stayed all night with, and I found that it gave the people an interest and a confidence in me stronger than I had every seen manifested before.

"Though I was considerably fatigued when I reached his house, and, under ordinary circumstances, should have gone early to bed, I kept him up until midnight, talking about the principles and affairs of government, and got more real, true knowledge of them than I had got all my life before.

"I have known and seen much of him since, for I respect him--no, that is not the word--I reverence and love him more than any living man, and I go to see him two or three times every year; and I will tell you, sir, if every one who professes to be a Christian lived and acted and enjoyed it as he does, the religion of Christ would take the world by storm.

"But to return to my story. The next morning we went to the barbecue, and, to my surprise, found about a thousand men there. I met a good many whom I had not known before, and they and my friend introduced me around until I had got pretty well acquainted--at least, they all knew me.

"In due time notice was given that I would speak to them. They gathered up around a stand that had been erected. I opened my speech by saying:

"'Fellow-citizens--I present myself before you today feeling like a new man. My eyes have lately been opened to truths which ignorance or prejudice, or both, had heretofore hidden from my view. I feel that I can today offer you the ability to render you more valuable service than I have ever been able to render before. I am here today more for the purpose of acknowledging my error than to seek your votes. That I should make this acknowledgment is due to myself as well as to you. Whether you will vote for me is a matter for your consideration only.'

"I went on to tell them about the fire and my vote for the appropriation and then told them why I was satisfied it was wrong. I closed by saying:

"'And now, fellow-citizens, it remains only for me to tell you that the most of the speech you have listened to with so much interest was simply a repetition of the arguments by which your neighbor, Mr. Bunce, convinced me of my error.

"'It is the best speech I ever made in my life, but he is entitled to the credit for it. And now I hope he is satisfied with his convert and that he will get up here and tell you so.'

"He came upon the stand and said:

"'Fellow-citizens--It affords me great pleasure to comply with the request of Colonel Crockett. I have always considered him a thoroughly honest man, and I am satisfied that he will faithfully perform all that he has promised you today.'

"He went down, and there went up from that crowd such a shout for Davy Crockett as his name never called forth before.

"I am not much given to tears, but I was taken with a choking then and felt some big drops rolling down my cheeks. And I tell you now that the remembrance of those few words spoken by such a man, and the honest, hearty shout they produced, is worth more to me than all the honors I have received and all the reputation I have ever made, or ever shall make, as a member of Congress.

"Now, sir," concluded Crockett, "you know why I made that speech yesterday.

"There is one thing now to which I will call your attention. You remember that I proposed to give a week's pay. There are in that House many very wealthy men--men who think nothing of spending a week's pay, or a dozen of them, for a dinner or a wine party when they have something to accomplish by it. Some of those same men made beautiful speeches upon the great debt of gratitude which the country owed the deceased--a debt which could not be paid by money--and the insignificance and worthlessness of money, particularly so insignificant a sum as $10,000, when weighted against the honor of the nation. Yet not one of them responded to my proposition. Money with them is nothing but trash when it is to come out of the people. But it is the one great thing for which most of them are striving, and many of them sacrifice honor, integrity, and justice to obtain it."

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who is "at home on the wild fronteer"

Enviro-NAZISM is not being a responsible citizen

How wonderful! On the day I have time to post again I am given a topic that sets my blood boiling.

The Environmental Protection Department (EPD) is encouraging children to call a number and report the license plate of vehicles if they see "Black Smoke" in the exhaust.

This sounds, at first hearing, innocuous enough but isn't. Having citizens SPY on each other is one of the hallmarks of a Fascist government and that is exactly what this is, just like what happened in the Cultural Revolution, and in NAZI Germany and is still happening in North Korea and Zimbabwe. What is next? Having kids turn their parents in for disagreeing with THBT?

In a practical sense, though ideologically less severe is the problem of someone simply sending your license plate in out of spite, malice or boredom. Suppose they do this MULTIPLE times. This looks like a practical joke waiting to happen. It also looks like a nearly anonymous way to harass someone you simply don't like.

It would be worse if the EPD did more with these complaints than sending the owner of the vehicle a "warning letter." Taiwan used to offer a bounty to people who turned in cars that didn't meet pollution control standards. School kids would go to parking lots and copy down license numbers and turn in thousands of cars because the probability was that at least some of them would fail and they could then collect the bounty. I know this happened because I have friends in Taiwan and their son earned walking around money this way. What happens if the EPD decides that if a driver is reported for this three times then they must go and get their vehicle inspected at a cost of three or four hundred dollars per whack or pay a traffic ticket?

On the other hand, in a sense, if all the EPD do is send a warning letter then what is the point? After all, if I have a car that is in need of service, with clogged fuel injectors, bad valves or fouled spark plugs that causes the engine to emit more pollution than it should I'd probably know it. Performance suffers, fuel efficiency suffers and the vehicle does not run right; not to mention I'd see the smoke in the rear view mirror. So, what is the point of a warning letter? If I'm driving a car like that and haven't fixed it then a simple letter with no legal teeth is useless.

It would appear to me that a program like this really has only two purposes.

1. To allow people who want to flaunt their environmental conscience to feel important by doing something when they are, in fact only padding their sense of Self Righteousness .
2. To allow the government to say it is doing something about a problem when it isn't

Neither one is good reason.

This program is evil. Simply evil. The fact that they are trying to "Save the Earth" makes it even more so because it gives a certain segment of the population the impression that they are helping to reduce pollution when they are not. It also potentially alienates others from environmental programs that would be useful and for which government and community support is needed.

If the EPD is so concerned about vehicular pollution then why not do something that would actually reduce it instead of having a program like this?

Why not require automobiles to pass a pollution control emissions test yearly? (This may be done already. Since I don't drive I can't say.)

Why not standardize the fees for all the tunnels so that drivers take the tunnel that is the most direct route rather than waiting at the one that is cheapest for 30 minutes with their engine idling? This would make a huge difference in the amount of air pollution emitted each day

Why not require all vehicles in Hong Kong to run on Propane? If someone wants a car that can be driven in China then let them park it in Shenzhen or pay a huge license fee and let them know that they will not be able to gas it up in Hong Kong.

Why not give a subsidy to the bus companies and MTR so that they can lower fares to encourage ridership?

Why not allow the use of electric scooters on roads in Hong Kong? Electric cars are impractical but several companies make one person scooters that can travel at about 50 to 60 Kph with a 50 Km range; perfect for many Hong Kong commuters

Why not restrict delivery times to business so that delivery trucks do not clog the streets at rush hour?

Why not take steps to make Hong Kong more bicycle and pedestrian friendly?

Why not make the MTR put up some parking garages at some of the stations in the N.T. so that people could drive to Tai Wai and then take the train on in? Park & Ride, hmmmm, where have I heard of that idea before?

Because doing the things listed above would take civil servants who were more concerned about reducing pollution than simply keeping their over paid, iron-rice-bowl jobs. Because it would not be something the construction cartels that the civil servants use to brown their noses want.

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who believes that pollution is a real problem that needs solutions not based in the Cultural Revolution

Back in the Saddle

What a month.

I've had a daughter visiting. The job has been nuts. Chinese New Year. Then, to top it off I got the flew.

There is a reason for not posting.

Hopefully I'll be able to get going again soon.


Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger with a busy life

I believe I can I fly, I believe I can touch the (Bam hits sidewalk)

Robert Heinlein once said "Never underestimate the power of stupidity."

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who is a chronic malcontent but not a Super Hero

Warning! Warning! Warning!

This has been a brutal two weeks for old actors with cult followings!

First: Patrick McGoohan, then Richardo Montalban and now Bob May have all died.

I realize there is a lot going on in Hong Kong right now but how can the world survive without "The Prisioner", "Fantasy Island" and the Robot from Lost in Space?

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who watches old TV shows

How to get out of China

I've received a lot of comments, not all of it in the comments section of the blog about the experience of being robbed in Shenzhen. I was careful while there to get copies of all the documents and will be posting a step-by-step walk through of what you need you need to do if this happens to you shortly. One thing I can't do is post some photos of the various buildings since one of the things stolen was the digital camera.

Until that time. If you need help with a situation like this then please email me. I will see if I can walk you through the process


Until Next Time
Fai Mao

Help I'm Trapped in China or What I did on My Christmas Vacation or My Life in a Dingy Hotel

Note: I posted this from Shenzhen. I was able to hack around the PRC censors and see the blog and post to it but could not make any corrections to the spelling or grammar

The past two weeks have been some of the most stressful I can remember. Probably by next year I will look back and laugh at this Christmas but that is difficult right now. Actually, I will never laugh at the past two-weeks. They will never be funny and time will never take the edge off the experience of my last two weeks.

The very pretty, looks twenty-years younger than she is, really smart and loving wife and I were robbed in Shenzhen on Christmas eve while returning from a week-end excursion to a Hot-Spring. The robbers took almost everything we had except for my Hong Kong ID and my Visa. They stole all of my wife's ID including her Visa, ATM, Insurance cards, HKID, Chinese ID and my US Passport. They also took most of the clothing we were not wearing a digital camera, MP3 most of our cash and things like family photos in my wife's wallet that were precious to her. We were simply cleaned out. This suddenly turned what had been a rather pleasant trip to a Hot-Spring into a 15 day nightmare.

The only thing that kept it from being unimaginably worse was that the thieves didn't get my visa card. There were two reasons this was extremely fortunate.

First; we were able to borrow a phone and call the emergency number provided by the bank and that was printed on the back of my card that allowed us to cancel Kim's Visa card and ATM card and leave a message with the branch manager of the bank where our primary accounts are to not let anyone withdraw money unless they were in person at the University of Hong Kong Branch and approved by her. Since they had all of my wife's ID it was theoretically possible that a middle-aged Chinese woman could go to a branch of the bank, submit all the required ID's and look enough like my wife to make a huge withdrawal since it would not be difficult to look enough like an ID photo to fool a bank teller. We were able to avoid this because we could call the emergency number and called it within 15 minutes of the theft so neither the visa or ATM could be used.

Second; we were in sudden need of a hotel. Not all Chinese hotels take a non-Chinese Visa but most now do and we were able to find a fairly clean if ragged hotel that didn't cost an arm-and-leg a night. The Visa saved our bacon and kept us off the street that night.

We borrowed a cellphone and called my wife's sister in Hong Kong. She came up the next day and loaned us 3000 Yuan, a cell phone, a couple of canvas bags and various other small items that proved as useful as the cash in some ways. The night before the manager of the restaurant "Man Xin Fat Food" (No that isn't a typo their sign is misspelled) where the robbery occurred had given us an additional 200 yuan. I cannot thank the man enough for his generosity. It wasn't much but it was incredibly kind.

The cash that Ping brought us enabled us to pay the fees that the PRC requires to get our travel document replaced. Otherwise I guess we'd have had to have gotten jobs or hit the street as beggars. It is one of the cruelest of truths that you need money to get out of the PRC if you are the victim of a crime. The catch 22 of not having any money because you've just been robbed does not seem to register on the officials in China.

The next step after filing the police report and getting some cash was to go to the Bureau of Internal Security on Christmas day (Not a Holiday in China) and fill out the paper work to get our exist visas replaced. We were odd ducks in that my wife needed one document and I needed another. It turned out that my wife was able to fill out a form, pay about 500 Yuan and then get a stamped, initialed and dated form that allowed her to re-enter Hong Kong the next day after a 24 hour wait. Because I'd come into Shenzhen with a US passport I couldn't do that. I had to go to Guangzhou and get my passport replaced before I could get an exit Visa. This was frustrating because while I am still technically a US citizen I live in Hong Kong and have permanent residency there. I can even vote in Hong Kong elections. I could produce a valid Hong Kong ID and only needed to get past the Chinese Immigration booth and walk 500 meters or so. Anyway, the PRC is the PRC and despite the fact that the only thing that either my or my wife's paperwork needed at this time was to be stamped and initialed by a supervisor we were told to leave and come back the next day. So we did.

We were first in line on December 26 to pick up our now "Processed" paperwork. After giving us a bit of run around to make some photocopies, get some photographs and the like everything was stamped, initialed and glued. Kim could go back to Hong Kong and I had permission to Guangzhou to get my passport replaced. This is where the frustration really began to kick in. The only thing the paperwork needed was to be signed by another clerk. They could have done it the day before but didn't. 

Well, we rushed to the train station and hopped on the bullet train to Guangzhou. We arrived at the US consulate which is across the street from the train station at about 11:20 only to find that it had closed at 11:00 that day. Growl! Curse! Throw things! Yell at the security guard! Growl, curse throw a few more things and growl some more!

We found an inexpensive hotel (The Ping-An Hotel) and settled in for the week-end. It didn't help that the emergency number listed for US citizens in need of help was answered by an answering machine in Putongwah and that the message was said so fast and with such a bad accent that my Putongwah speaking wife could not understand what was being said. However, we spent the next couple of days doing walking tours of Guangzhou. This helped to take the edge off some of my frustration by Sunday. I was still upset at the embassy for closing early on the 26th. However this ended up not making but one day's difference.

On December 29th we got to the embassy at about 8:30. I was a little irritated at this point because I found that they open for immigration, tourist and student visas at 8:00 but for US citizens at 9:00. However, I was the first in line. I went to the window, submitted my documents, paid the USD $100.00 and then had them tell me the photos made in Shenzhen were the wrong size and had the wrong background. Growl! Curse, stomp back down stairs get more photos with the proper background and dimensions, stomp back up the stairs, cut in line turn everything in and wait for the processing to be finished. By starting at 9:00 AM I had my new emergency passport in hand by 11:45. We then ran across the street and bought tickets for the bullet train back to Shenzhen and thought: "This is almost over!"

It wasn't!

Not by 8 days it wasn't

Since the Bureau of Internal Security is closed for a whopping two hours for lunch from 12:00 until 14:00 and our train arrived in Shenzhen at 12:47 we checked back into the Railroad Hotel and grabbed some quick lunch ourselves before taking the metro three stops to turn in my passport. We got there just after 14:00 took a number and waited until after 4:00 before we were called. The clerk gave me the make a few photocopies, get a receipt from a window upstairs and three new signatures run around again and then I was given a bill for 980 Yuan which I promptly went upstairs and paid. After running back down stairs and pushing the next number out of the way the officer-clerk-sadist-paper pushing-party apparachnik stamped the bill and said my visa would be ready in five working days. But since there was week-end and New Years day in between those five days it would be 7 days. Because we had not turned the paperwork in before lunch that day didn't count so 5 becomes 8.

The wife had a conference to go to and had to leave after this point. I spent the next 8 days in a dingy hotel and window shopping.

One interesting thing I discovered is that I can see my blog in the PRC but cannot post to it from China.

This was not a good Christmas break.

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who will staple his travel documents to his chest the next time he goes to Shenzhen

Some things are to horrible to Contemplate

Warning the link above is NOT for the easily grossed out.


Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Bogger who hopes he never has anything like this happen to him

O Come O Come Emanuel

O Come O Come Emanuel is one of the oldest Christmas carols still commonly sung and possibly dates from as early as the 12^th century though most hymnologist put it in the 15^th century. I like this carol but I’m not sure that it is a Christmas song at all. There are several reasons for this.

First the tune is an actual medieval funeral hymn which doesn’t seem to be a good choice of music for a Christmas carol.

Second, the Church at this time believed what is known as “Covenant Theology.” One of the tenants of this type of theology is the belief that all of the promises made to the nation of Israel were transferred to the Church after the resurrection of Jesus. That is why you see the constant references to Israel in this hymn. In the minds of the people who originally sung this hymn they were the New Israel. The Christians at this time considered the words Israel and Church to be nearly synonyms

Third, these were people who had lived through the Black Death. They were being overruns on the East by the Turks. The Moors were invading from the West. Areas that had been predominantly Christian for 100’s of years were being converted to Islam at the point of a sword. The writers of this hymn believed that they lived in dark days.

When you look at the theology and history of the age when this hymn was written its meaning changes. This hymn isn’t about the Advent but the Second Coming. This is the voice of people who live in fear of disease, and invasion. This is a hymn for people who are afraid they are going to be asked to die for their faith. This is a song for people who believe that God will protect them even in times of trials. This is a song about finding hope in hopeless times.

Maybe that makes a good Christmas carol after all.

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
and ransom captive Israel,
that mourns in lonely exile here
until the Son of God appear.
Refrain:
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, thou Wisdom from on high,
who orderest all things mightily;
to us the path of knowledge show,
and teach us in her ways to go. Refrain

O come, thou Rod of Jesse, free
thine own from Satan's tyranny;
from depths of hell thy people save,
and give them victory over the grave. Refrain

O come, thou Dayspring, come and cheer
our spirits by thine advent here;
disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
and death's dark shadows put to flight. Refrain

O come, thou Key of David, come,
and open wide our heavenly home;
make safe the way that leads on high,
and close the path to misery. Refrain

O come, O come, great Lord of might,
who to thy tribes on Sinai's height
in ancient times once gave the law
in cloud and majesty and awe. Refrain

O come, thou Root of Jesse's tree,
an ensign of thy people be;
before thee rulers silent fall;
all peoples on thy mercy call. Refrain

O come, Desire of nations, bind
in one the hearts of all mankind;
bid thou our sad divisions cease,
and be thyself our King of Peace. Refrain

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
and ransom captive Israel,
that mourns in lonely exile here
until the Son of God appear. Refrain

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who sings Christmas carols

Oh The Monkies Have No Tails in Zam Boanga

I wrote the post in the link last year and several people wrote me and said how it moved them. I thought I'd repost it this year.

I'll have a new Christmas post up in a couple of days

Now they tell me!

One of the most frustrating areas of my job is weeding. That is the term that librarians use for removing old books from the shelves. There are many reasons for doing this. Sometimes the books are just worn out and are being replaced. Sometimes the library has more copies of a work than it needs. Sometime the content is dated. Sometimes the focus of the library has changed. But mostly books are pulled, as much as librarians hate to admit it simply because nobody reads them. This last reason is really problematic and bothersome. Librarians actually spend a lot of time reading reviews, looking at curriculum and deciding what to buy. They then promote the new purchases, look at lesson plans and try to let teachers know what is available. All to no avail. So, this potentially really useful book sits on the shelf for 10 years until the person who has their job after them sees the book and says, "That's dated" and throws it away.

That's when the problem starts. As soon as I publish a list of withdrawn items I get teachers and administrators at my desk saying "What, you're gonna throw that out! That's to useful to discard!"

Then why didn't they read it before I got ready to throw it out?


Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who knows that 95% of everything in a library is simply helping to make the other 5% that is read look important but doesn't like it

Smile, you're on surveillance camera

Scary stuff even if you aren't paranoid.

One of the assignments I have students in middle school do is to put their name in quotation marks into a Google search. It is interesting to see how much stuff is available about you unless you are very, very careful.

What is scary is the ability not just governments but banks and even just voyeurs are getting track our lives. Things like debit cards for mass transit systems and cell phone records automated toll plazas all create records. I've been told, though I don't know first hand since I don't drive that in places like Singapore if a crime is committed and an automobile is used then the first thing the police do is check these records to see if any cars matching a description were in the area. You are suspect simply because you drive a white Accord. Governments are bad enough but, I wonder how many other people have the ability to access this information?

The smart ID card in Hong Kong is certainly easy to use but man is it somewhat scary too just because of the amount of information it contains. Yet if you intentionally disable that information then it is a crime.

It appears to me that there are really only three absolutely basic rights. 1) The right to follow my conscience, which would include the free speech, freedom of religion and privacy. 2) The right to my property, which includes such things as deciding where to live, what to eat and wear. 3) The right to liberty which would include such things as choosing my own career and living where I want.

Obviously none of these are an absolute right. But it just seems that each is becoming more circumscribed and restricted all the time. Today is no different than the past in that regard because in all times and all nations there are those who wish to impose tyranny for the good of "the people" regardless of how many people have to die to obtain that good. It is just that now it is easier for them to do it.

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who sometimes thinks he should wear sabots and could be related to Ned Ludd

Rudolph's on the Red-Line Train Dear

Sung to the tune or Rudolph the Red Nosed Raindeer

Rudolph’s on the Red-Line train dear, you can reach him on his cell phone.
None of the other riders mind if he receives a call.
They'd never let his talking, bother them in the least.
Mostly they’re just chatting or listening to MP3’s

Then on one crowded afternoon a SenSan couldn’t hear.
When he began to shout into his phone
Rudolph got mad and punched him out.
Now all the MTR riders always back away in fear.
They never shout on cell phones if they see that Rudolph’s near.


Notes;
1.The MTR is the Hong Kong subway system
2. SenSan is Chinese for "Mister" "Man"or "Husband"

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger with a twisted sense of Christmas

To eat or not to eat

I have a friend whose wife is a vegetarian. I like her a lot, she is a really sweet person. She is one of the most unoffensive vegetarians I've ever met. But I still wonder about vegetarians and I must admit that she is one of the few I've met who don't fall into two basic groups; Hindus and weirdo's.

I can almost understand why Hindu theology espouses vegetarianism. Almost not quite. I understand the concept of doing good works and not harming anything. I have read the Vedas and the Upanishads and the Sutras and have at least a cursory understanding of the development of Eastern Pantheism.

The rub for me is that the Wheel of Karma is mechanical. You are getting paid in this life for the sins of your previous life. How do I know that it isn't fated for that pig to become a Chinese New Year's dinner? Maybe that is what he was born for and is fulfilling his Karma in doing so. If that is the case am I not being cruel to not eat him? Because if I don't then he will just have to pay for those past sins, and any that he commits as a pig in the next life and because he will live longer he will probably have a greater Karmic load. What if the best way for him to shed Karma is make me happy by eating him? Sacrificing himself for the good or at least happiness of others is surely a high and noble thing to do. What if by not eating him I am actually injuring him more than if I'd eaten him. Then I'd not be doing good but harm.

Far be it from me to keep any being from being able pay back their Karma, pass the mustard please.

When I look at the social inequity in Hindu society that is perpetuated through the caste system I cannot help but think the Hindus might shed more Karma by abstaining from assigning people positions in society at birth and eating meat. Still despite the issues I have with Hinduism I can understand why they eat what they eat. There is a certain internal logic to it and if you buy into the system; I suppose it makes sense.

The problem is that not all vegetarians are Hindus or its off shoots Buddhism, Jainism and so forth. Most are like my friend's wife only pushier. She became a vegetarian because when she was 13 she went to a BBQ and got sick eating chicken. You see surprising numbers of stories similar to this one. What I find strange is that I have never heard anyone swear off vegetables because they got sick at a salad bar. I wonder why that is? Especially since many more people that get sick from eating things like salad which isn't cooked than they do from eating meat items. Maybe it happens, maybe there are people I don't notice that only eat meat and no starch, fruit or vegetables but there are not many. Sort of moral Adkins dieters; but the only ones I can think of are arctic tribes that live on seals and whale blubber. Other than them I haven't heard of anyone who is exclusively a meat eater.

What would happen if a 13-year-old says “Mom, I got sick on those green beans last night and now I'm only eating cornbread and meat”? I bet the parents would not allow it. Yet evidently little kids are allowed to do just the opposite and swear off animal protein. Even if they don't eat a wide enough variety of vegetables to be healthy.

Even people who don't eat many vegetables eat more vegetables than vegetarians do meat. Normal humans (yes it is normal for us to eat meat) also seem to be much more tolerant of vegetarians than vice versa. I guess this is where “M” and I agree, she isn't seeking any form of moral superiority through vegetarianism. She just doesn't like meat. Most vegetarians are actually quite high-horsed about their diet and that can drive non-vegetarians up a tree. I guess they are sort of crypto-evangelical-Hindus. They'd probably be better off being the real thing. Except then they'd have to buy into all that caste-system stuff and that isn't very fun. Especially since I'm in a higher caste than they are.

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Non-Vegetarian Blogger

A bridge to far?

Last Sunday I sent a polite email to several legco members asking if the Hong Kong-Macao-Zhuhai bridge project included a railroad link. I had hoped to wait to write about this until I received a reply.

Crickets chirped, grass grew, seasons changed

Not one of them replied

I'm a lot less opposed to this bridge than some people appear to be but I cannot figure out why they would build this thing without a rail link on it. It would seem to me that bringing a rail link directly to the Kwai Fong container terminal would be a logical, long term job creating way to justify this bridge. Isn't it better to have a 1000 shipping containers arrive via train than arrive one at a time via tractor trailer? I'd think so.

It would also be a great idea to be able to run commuter trains to Zhu Hai because as we continue to become more integrated into the greater Chinese economy it might become attractive to live there and commute to work. Kind of like the stock broker that lives in New Jersey and works on Wall Street.

This is a good example of how public schools create the society. The schools here are actually simply vomitoria where students repeat what they've learned without trying to apply that knowledge. While I have at times defended that to some degree the leaders should be better than that. I would bet they simply didn't think that it might be a good idea to have more than one rail link with the rest of China. Now, since they are getting ready to start building this thing it would be embarrassing to have put the plans on hold for 6-weeks while the architects reworked the plans.

Or, it could be that they were all busy trying to not send a plane or two down to Bangkok to help evacuate local citizens.

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who takes the ferry

A Fai Mao Christmas Hymnal

Here are the lyrics of all the spoofs that I've done over the years that I can find.

Some are simply silly and other were written in response to social issues at the time.

2008
Noisy Night
(Silent Night)

Noisy night, smoggy night
All is busy all is bright.
Round yon bus stop mother and child.
Waiting patiently in the crowd
‘Till they catch a ride home, till they catch a ride home

Noisy night, smoggy night
All is busy, all is bright
Standing grumpily in the queue
Hoping to find a seat for the ride home
Hoping that it won’t rain, hoping that it won’t rain

Noisy night, smoggy night
All is busy, all is bright
Still the quiet place calls to each one
Waiting silently never proud
‘till we find our way home, ‘til we find our way home

Noisy night, smoggy night
Sitting still, sitting quiet
Knowing that Christmas is in the heart
Ignoring the neon is just the start
‘till we find our way home, ‘till we find our way home

___________

This Carroll was written because at this time in 2007 there were a number of horrific suicides in the government housing complex known as Tin Shui Wai

2007
O Little Town of Tin Shui Wai
(O Little Town of Bethlehem)

O little town of Tin Shui Wai,
How still we see thee lie.
Above thy deep unemployed sleep
The silent stars drive by;
Yet the dark Mercedes hideth
The everlasting bureaucrat;
Whose hopes and fears for retirement years
Are fading as you die.

For children born of immigrants,
And gathered in one place
While parents work the siblings keep
their watch of indifferent love.
O buildings packed together
Proclaim the contractors greed.
In flats so small a barbie doll.
Would find them cramped and leave.

How silently, how silently
The wordless grief is given!
The hopeless lives of migrant wives
Their fate fixed for all time.
No ear may hear them falling;
‘till on the ground they lie,
Where hopeless grief collides with concrete
And all we can do is cry.

Where children bound hand and foot,
Pray simply to be spared;
Their misery cries out to me,
Can we not do better by thee?

Where charity stands watching,
And LEGCO holds wide the door,
The dark night screams, the body breaks,
and the coroner comes once more.

O lonely child of Tin Shui Wai,
Descend not to the pavement, we pray;
Cast not out thy self but stay within;
Find some hope in life today!

There is more for you than you see
More than the Donald Tsang could ever say;
For though it is true that he has ignored you
You don't deserve to die.


2007
Cell Phone Bells
(Silver Bells)

City sidewalks, busy sidewalks.
Dressed in DKNY style
In the bus there's a few old men standing

Children pouting
People staring
walking mile after mile

And on ev'ry street corner you'll hear

Cell-phone bells, cell-phone bells
It's still work time in the city
Ring-a-ling, don't you hate them to sing?
Soon it will be dim-sum time

Strings of street lights
Even stop lights
Blink a bright red and green
As the shoppers rush home with their cell-phones

Hear the snacks crunch
See the tourist bunch "Is this the way to Mong Kok?"
And above all this bustle you'll hear

Cell-phone bells, Cell-phone bells
It's still work time in the city
Ring-a-ling, don't you hate it when they sing?
Soon it will be dim-sum time

2001
Jingle Bells - Hong Kong Style

Rushing through Mong Kok in a Kowloon Motor Buss
Over the bumps we go
Talking all the way (yak yak yak)
Bells on Cell Phones Ring
Making spirits bright
Oh, what fun it is to sing a Cell Phone Song Tonight

Oh Cell phones ring, cell phones ringPeople answer "Wai?"
Oh what fun it is to ride in a buss tonight

_______


2002
Walking in a Hong Kong Wonderland
(Winter Wonderland)

Tram bells ring are you listening?
In the street lights are blinking
Its crowded tonight
What a frenetic sight
Walking in a Hong Kong wonderland

Gone away is bluebird
We killed them all because of flu birds
We'd rather not cough
As we walk the along
Walking in a Hong Kong wonderland

In the crosswalk we can see an old man pushing
a cart full of paper brown He'll say: Can you help meWe'll say: No, Man
But you'll be there by sundown
Later on we'll conspire,As we push our stock price higher
As we live and we die
In our flats in the sky
Walking in a Hong Kong wonderland

When we get old we'll retire
In Canada or Australia
We'll frolic and play
Though far far a way
Walking in a Hong Kong wonderland


2005
Hong Kong 12 Days
(12 days of Christmas)
On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me
A pirated CD

On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Two soy sauce chickens and a pirated CD

On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Three cake shop vouchers, two soy sauce chickens and a Pirated CD

On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Four cell-phones calling,
Three cake shop vouchers, two soy sauce chickens and a pirated CD

On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Five golden Rings
Four cell-phones calling, three cake shop vouchers, two soy sauce chickens and a pirated CD!

On the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Six taxis honking
Five Golden rings
Four cell-phones calling, three cake shop vouchers, two soy sauce chickens and a pirated CD!

On the seventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Seven (Filipino) maids a shopping, six Taxis honking
Five Golden Rings
Four cell-phones calling, three cake shop vouchers, two soy sauce chickens and a pirated CD

On the Eight Day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Eight ferries crossing, Seven (Filipino) maids a shopping, six Taxis honking
Five Golden Rings
Four cell-phones calling, three cake shop vouchers, two soy sauce chickens and a pirated CD

On the ninth day of Christmas my true love gave to me

Nine Tours a touring, eight ferries crossing, seven (Filipino) maids a shopping, six Taxis honking
Five Golden Rings
Four cell-phones calling, three cake shop vouchers, two soy sauce chickens and a pirated CD

On the tenth day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Ten ledge-co members, Nine tours a touring, eight ferries crossing, Seven (Filipino) maids a shopping, six Taxis honking
Five Golden Rings
Four cell-phones calling, three cake shop vouchers, two soy sauce chickens and a pirated CD

On the eleventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me.
Eleven buses parking, ten ledge-co members, nine tours a touring, eight ferries crossing, seven (Filipino) maids a shopping, six Taxis honking
Five Golden Rings
Four cell-phones calling, three cake shop vouchers, two soy sauce chickens and a pirated CD

On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me
A 12 square foot flat
Eleven buses parking. ten Ledge-co members, Nine tours a touring, eight ferries crossing, seven (Filipino) maids a shopping, six Taxis honking
Five Golden Rings
Four cell-phones calling, three cake shop vouchers, two soy sauce chickens and a pirated CD

2006
Chestnuts Roasting in an Open Barrel
Chestnuts roasting in an open barrel
Bus fumes getting up your nose
People going by looking down at their shoes
talking on their cell phones

Everybody knows it rude to push through the crowd
Yet seldom does anybody care
But from time to time you you can see and you can hear
The sound of someone spreading cheer

Everyday we walk righ past all those other folks
Looking neither left or right
But even in the crowd and noise that everywhere here

May you find a Merry Christmas and good cheer

Until Next Time
Fai Moa
The Christmas Blogger

Noisy Night

Every Year I try to re-write at least one Christmas Carrol for Hong Kong. Last year was a really sad one this year not so much:

Noisy Night
(Silent Night)

Noisy night, smoggy night
All is busy all is bright.
Round yon bus buss stop mother and child.
Waiting patiently in the crowd
‘Till they catch a ride home, till they catch a ride home

Noisy night, smoggy night
All is busy, all is bright
Standing grumpily in the queue
Hoping to find a seat for the ride home
Hoping that it won’t rain, hoping that it won’t rain

Noisy night, smoggy night
All is busy, all is bright
Still the quiet place calls to each one
Waiting silently never proud
‘till we find our way home, ‘til we find our way home

Noisy night, smoggy night
Sitting still, open heart
Knowing that Christmas is in the heart
Ignoring the neon is just the start
‘till we find our way home, ‘till we find our way home

Links to the previous year's carrols:
http://faimao.blogspot.com/2006/12/cell-phone-bells.html
http://faimao.blogspot.com/2007/11/o-little-town-of-tin-shui-wai.html
http://faimao.blogspot.com/2005/12/jingle-bells-hong-kong-style.html

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who wishes you a very merry Christmas

A culture of Trust

It disturbs me that the same ideas about policing are used here in Hong Kong.

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger is only mildly Anglophobic