Holy Cow!
The really smart-pretty-looks twenty years younger than she is- hardworking wife and I go to the hot spring for Easter break and Hong kong goes to Hell in a handbasket. Geez, I guess I don't need to ever take a vacation.
So tell me, who pays for raising that tug boat that sank after it was rammed by a Chinese freighter? There are traffic rules for ships just like there are for automobiles. That means that someone, figuratively speaking was in the wrong lane or ran a stop sign. Shouldn't the owners of the ship in the wrong be charged for the rescue and salvage? Yet the local news hasn't said as far as I can see which ship was in the wrong.
Let us not even ask what a tug boat registered in the Ukraine was doing in Victoria harbour?
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who doesn't have a boat
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Monday, March 17, 2008
Who Says The Elite Aren't Fit To Serve?
Well said indeed!
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who was 4F
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who was 4F
You can't do this if you are Chinese
I am not a fan of this woman's music. Couldn't careless about her most of the time. I also think think this was an empty gesture that may even have been counter-productive. The leadership in China are all paranoid and think everybody is out to get them. Giving them reason to believe their fears are justified doesn't really help the situation.
Besides Tibet isn't the issue in China, or at least not the whole issue. The real issue is that the entire nation groans under the imperial heel of the jackbooted, Ex-communist cum Neo-Nazi party that controls my nation. It isn't just the people in Tibet who are oppressed in China it is everybody. To single Tibet out because the somewhat charismatic Dalli Lama makes them an issue and to ignore the rest of the country is not right. She should have yelled. "Freedom, Freedom, Freedom" not "Tibet, Tibet Tibet" Better yet, she should could have yelled; "Live up to your Constitution and obey the laws you claim to respect; you slimly pieces excrement and black hair dye!"
The Chinese constitution promises, freedom of speech and religion and a whole host of rights that the Chinese people are routinely denied. The government of the PRC needs to live up to its own creeds which were adopted in the 1980's. But doing so would threaten the party and the party, in the eyes of its members must never fail. Chairman Mao forbid (Since they are officially Atheist I can't say God forbid) that the party should ever be shown to be guilty of a crime! It can't be. They are the progressive and compassionate leaders of the proletariat revolution. I think they need to read Karl Popper's critique of Socialism.
But, at some level, I've got to admire what this singer did. Especially since the central government just declared a "People's War" against Tibet yesterday because of the protest going on there. I asked around a bit to find out what a "People's War" is. The definition provided by the nearly always unreliable Wikipedia is evidently somewhat incorrect or at least in this case less than complete. It appears that in this case the government has declared a state of overt Martial Law, as opposed to the somewhat more discreet version that is the norm in China. It also means that the police, military and other security forces in Tibet are probably going to simply machine gun the protesters after putting a media blackout in effect.
I've printed these lyrics before. But they deserve to be printed again
How Many Tears
Gunmetal grey for golden rules
White hot steel for the comfort of fools
Molten wills in iron hands
Forge new sons for the Motherland
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who wants all of China to be Free
Besides Tibet isn't the issue in China, or at least not the whole issue. The real issue is that the entire nation groans under the imperial heel of the jackbooted, Ex-communist cum Neo-Nazi party that controls my nation. It isn't just the people in Tibet who are oppressed in China it is everybody. To single Tibet out because the somewhat charismatic Dalli Lama makes them an issue and to ignore the rest of the country is not right. She should have yelled. "Freedom, Freedom, Freedom" not "Tibet, Tibet Tibet" Better yet, she should could have yelled; "Live up to your Constitution and obey the laws you claim to respect; you slimly pieces excrement and black hair dye!"
The Chinese constitution promises, freedom of speech and religion and a whole host of rights that the Chinese people are routinely denied. The government of the PRC needs to live up to its own creeds which were adopted in the 1980's. But doing so would threaten the party and the party, in the eyes of its members must never fail. Chairman Mao forbid (Since they are officially Atheist I can't say God forbid) that the party should ever be shown to be guilty of a crime! It can't be. They are the progressive and compassionate leaders of the proletariat revolution. I think they need to read Karl Popper's critique of Socialism.
But, at some level, I've got to admire what this singer did. Especially since the central government just declared a "People's War" against Tibet yesterday because of the protest going on there. I asked around a bit to find out what a "People's War" is. The definition provided by the nearly always unreliable Wikipedia is evidently somewhat incorrect or at least in this case less than complete. It appears that in this case the government has declared a state of overt Martial Law, as opposed to the somewhat more discreet version that is the norm in China. It also means that the police, military and other security forces in Tibet are probably going to simply machine gun the protesters after putting a media blackout in effect.
I've printed these lyrics before. But they deserve to be printed again
How Many Tears
Gunmetal grey for golden rules
White hot steel for the comfort of fools
Molten wills in iron hands
Forge new sons for the Motherland
How many tears will fall down
How many tears must fall
How many tears will stain this ground
How many tears must fall
Hidden mounds in jungle dust
Youthful voices forever lie hushed
Poets and peasants know the truth
But what in the world can one man do
How many tears will fall down
How many tears must fall
How many tears will stain this ground
How many tears must fall
A mother’s eyes ache with her hatred
Her lips they are crippled with fear
She waits for the news that she don’t want to hear
How many tears
How many tears
How many tears must fall down
Ain’t no funerals
Ain’t no prayers
Ain’t no blood in the Government Square
Reign of terror
True and tried
Dries the eyes before they’ve cried
How many tears will fall down
How many tears must fall
How many tears will stain this ground
How many tears must fall
How many tears
How many tears will fall down
From Dry Bones Dance
Back to The Mark Heard Lyric Project
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who wants all of China to be Free
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Right Here Right Now
I am an existentialist. That is a difficult thing to say not only because Existentialism is such a difficult movement to pin down (though it is) but, because it has also been out of fashion since the 1950’s. So it is somewhat embarrassing to say “I am an existentialist” in the same way that the middle-aged stockbroker in an Armani suit is just a little embarrassed to say “ In college back in the ‘60’s I used to wear tied-dyed T-shirts and told myself that only fascist drove Volvos.”
Another reason it is somewhat embarrassing to admit to being an existentialist is that there is a general conception that existentialists are a group of morose or depressed individuals. Sort of like a room full of Edgar Allen Poe want-to-be types only they don’t write poetry but prose in French or German.
In reality, only some existentialists were morose and depressed. At least one was insane. Quite a few were religious unless they were Atheist. Heidegger was a NAZI but his friend Jan Husserl whom he dedicated his book “Being and Time” to was Jewish, as was Henri Bergson. Jaspers was a psychologist before giving up that pseudoscience to pursue uncertain philosophic truth. Kierkegaard was a devout Lutheran whose meditations are still read in Danish churches. Some like Jean-Paul Sartre attained a kind of celebrity status if only for the purpose of seducing women[1], while others like Bergson and Popper sought ways harmonize philosophy, science and religion. Some existentialists are read only by other existentialist if at all; but Camus was a best selling novelist. Francis Schaeffer was a Protestant missionary in Switzerland who wrote books in which he spent a lot of time complaining about how existentialist are a bad influence are on society but his theology is based upon experiencing a personal God so you could, in a sense call him a Christian Fundamentalist-Existentialist.
If you look around you can probably find an existential writer to praise or blame, support or debunk any subject you can think of.
Which brings us to the central questions; “What is Existentialism?” and “Why am I am Existentialist?”
What ties existential thinkers together is a belief in experience. Existentialists generally believe that it is our experiences which explain reality not primarily logic, reason or laws. It is this emphasis upon experience that separates existential philosophy from not only more popular schools of philosophy but even from concepts like Dadaist art. Art is not, to the existentialist what the artist says it is, that is Nihilism which I think is a form of sophistry, but rather art is important because of what the experience of experiencing the art reveals about us and the artist.
Believing that experience is equal to reason, and logic and doesn't mean that existentialist don't believe in moral absolutes, ethics or science. Just that they don't feel you can separate the experience from the fact in most cases.
I do not always agree with everything that every existentialist says. Far from it; often I often disagree heartily. But, because I recognize the role of experience in the thought process I can better talk to people that have different points of view. It also gives me a way to convince those who hold different views. I can simply say "Try it, you'll like it"
Something that I find funny about existentialism is that you can an existentialist and be almost anything else at the same time. You can be a philosophic Idealist, a Platonist if you will and still be an existentialist at the same time. But, you can also be a philosophical Realist, have Aristotle memorized in the original Greek and heartily agree that Thomas Aquinas is the greatest intellect in 1500 years and still be an existentialists. I guess you could probably be a Nihilist, believing that nothing is real and go around trying to experience nothing in an existential manner but the difference between that and a Buddhist might be hard to explain to all those people who aren’t really there and probably couldn’t careless.
Experience is broad topic. As you can imagine there is considerable disagreement over what constitutes a “valid” existential experience and different existentialist have looked at different types of experience as valid. Early in his career, Heidegger said that the ultimate experience was our angst over death but as he grew older he thought that we should look to our poetic muse and the creation of beauty in the world and in our lives. Sartre, thought the universe was meaningless and wrote about our feelings of alienation and striving to impose meaning and personality upon an impersonal universe. Martin Buber and Soren Kierkegaard describe experience in terms of faith and experiencing God. This means that existentialist maybe tied together by their emphasis upon experience but the rope has lots of slack and the knot isn’t that tight. That is one of the things that makes’ existentialism attractive to me. There is room for all sorts of people. I think it was Richard Rorty who said something like “90 % of everything that philosophers say is wrong; but the 10% they get right explains 99% of everything else.” Well, that statement is as true of existentialism as it is of any
This broadness and amorphous quality of existentialism is my chief proof for my next statement. I am an existentialist because I believe that we are all, every one of us, regardless of culture, creed or gender, are existentialist. We may, and many do, try and deny this. We want to deny it because it is a scary thought. We want the universe to make sense. We want to be able to prove, to know, to understand. Existentialism offers no assurance we will find those things. But, look around. How many of the decisions we make each day are really based upon logic, or reason? The closest we normally get to those things is biology. Indeed, we almost never use reason or logic as the sole basis for important decisions. Even if we think we do. For example; when I wanted to get married I did not advertise a vacancy for a spouse, collect resumes, have candidates vetted for, attractiveness, earning potential, compatibility, age or what not. It didn’t happen that way at all. It never does. If we look, most of the major decisions we make are made according some metaphysical soup ethics, logic and experience. I think that the more important the decision, the less logic and reason actually have to do with it. The sooner we realize that the sooner we will make better decisions.
Does that mean I don’t believe in logic, reason or absolutes? No, it does mean that I am aware that many times I will use reason, logic and other external cannons to justify my own desires. Reason and logic are not the deities that eighteenth-century French philosophers thought them to be. They are tools, a kind of mental hammer that allow us to break down our desires into simpler parts that we can understand. We’d see that we aren’t half as smart as we think we are but maybe far wiser.
We are all creatures of experience. We all live, or should live for the love of life. Not that it is always pleasant, or easy or even understandable; but just because it is. Is there a meaning to it all? Science, logic and reason can never know. But the existentialist can; right here right now.
More on this at a later time.
[1] Thinkexist.com: http://thinkexist.com/quotation/if_i_became_a_philosopher-if_i_have_so_keenly/159232.html March 16, 2008
Until Next Time
Fai mao
The Philosopher Want-to-be Blogger
Another reason it is somewhat embarrassing to admit to being an existentialist is that there is a general conception that existentialists are a group of morose or depressed individuals. Sort of like a room full of Edgar Allen Poe want-to-be types only they don’t write poetry but prose in French or German.
In reality, only some existentialists were morose and depressed. At least one was insane. Quite a few were religious unless they were Atheist. Heidegger was a NAZI but his friend Jan Husserl whom he dedicated his book “Being and Time” to was Jewish, as was Henri Bergson. Jaspers was a psychologist before giving up that pseudoscience to pursue uncertain philosophic truth. Kierkegaard was a devout Lutheran whose meditations are still read in Danish churches. Some like Jean-Paul Sartre attained a kind of celebrity status if only for the purpose of seducing women[1], while others like Bergson and Popper sought ways harmonize philosophy, science and religion. Some existentialists are read only by other existentialist if at all; but Camus was a best selling novelist. Francis Schaeffer was a Protestant missionary in Switzerland who wrote books in which he spent a lot of time complaining about how existentialist are a bad influence are on society but his theology is based upon experiencing a personal God so you could, in a sense call him a Christian Fundamentalist-Existentialist.
If you look around you can probably find an existential writer to praise or blame, support or debunk any subject you can think of.
Which brings us to the central questions; “What is Existentialism?” and “Why am I am Existentialist?”
What ties existential thinkers together is a belief in experience. Existentialists generally believe that it is our experiences which explain reality not primarily logic, reason or laws. It is this emphasis upon experience that separates existential philosophy from not only more popular schools of philosophy but even from concepts like Dadaist art. Art is not, to the existentialist what the artist says it is, that is Nihilism which I think is a form of sophistry, but rather art is important because of what the experience of experiencing the art reveals about us and the artist.
Believing that experience is equal to reason, and logic and doesn't mean that existentialist don't believe in moral absolutes, ethics or science. Just that they don't feel you can separate the experience from the fact in most cases.
I do not always agree with everything that every existentialist says. Far from it; often I often disagree heartily. But, because I recognize the role of experience in the thought process I can better talk to people that have different points of view. It also gives me a way to convince those who hold different views. I can simply say "Try it, you'll like it"
Something that I find funny about existentialism is that you can an existentialist and be almost anything else at the same time. You can be a philosophic Idealist, a Platonist if you will and still be an existentialist at the same time. But, you can also be a philosophical Realist, have Aristotle memorized in the original Greek and heartily agree that Thomas Aquinas is the greatest intellect in 1500 years and still be an existentialists. I guess you could probably be a Nihilist, believing that nothing is real and go around trying to experience nothing in an existential manner but the difference between that and a Buddhist might be hard to explain to all those people who aren’t really there and probably couldn’t careless.
Experience is broad topic. As you can imagine there is considerable disagreement over what constitutes a “valid” existential experience and different existentialist have looked at different types of experience as valid. Early in his career, Heidegger said that the ultimate experience was our angst over death but as he grew older he thought that we should look to our poetic muse and the creation of beauty in the world and in our lives. Sartre, thought the universe was meaningless and wrote about our feelings of alienation and striving to impose meaning and personality upon an impersonal universe. Martin Buber and Soren Kierkegaard describe experience in terms of faith and experiencing God. This means that existentialist maybe tied together by their emphasis upon experience but the rope has lots of slack and the knot isn’t that tight. That is one of the things that makes’ existentialism attractive to me. There is room for all sorts of people. I think it was Richard Rorty who said something like “90 % of everything that philosophers say is wrong; but the 10% they get right explains 99% of everything else.” Well, that statement is as true of existentialism as it is of any
This broadness and amorphous quality of existentialism is my chief proof for my next statement. I am an existentialist because I believe that we are all, every one of us, regardless of culture, creed or gender, are existentialist. We may, and many do, try and deny this. We want to deny it because it is a scary thought. We want the universe to make sense. We want to be able to prove, to know, to understand. Existentialism offers no assurance we will find those things. But, look around. How many of the decisions we make each day are really based upon logic, or reason? The closest we normally get to those things is biology. Indeed, we almost never use reason or logic as the sole basis for important decisions. Even if we think we do. For example; when I wanted to get married I did not advertise a vacancy for a spouse, collect resumes, have candidates vetted for, attractiveness, earning potential, compatibility, age or what not. It didn’t happen that way at all. It never does. If we look, most of the major decisions we make are made according some metaphysical soup ethics, logic and experience. I think that the more important the decision, the less logic and reason actually have to do with it. The sooner we realize that the sooner we will make better decisions.
Does that mean I don’t believe in logic, reason or absolutes? No, it does mean that I am aware that many times I will use reason, logic and other external cannons to justify my own desires. Reason and logic are not the deities that eighteenth-century French philosophers thought them to be. They are tools, a kind of mental hammer that allow us to break down our desires into simpler parts that we can understand. We’d see that we aren’t half as smart as we think we are but maybe far wiser.
We are all creatures of experience. We all live, or should live for the love of life. Not that it is always pleasant, or easy or even understandable; but just because it is. Is there a meaning to it all? Science, logic and reason can never know. But the existentialist can; right here right now.
More on this at a later time.
[1] Thinkexist.com: http://thinkexist.com/quotation/if_i_became_a_philosopher-if_i_have_so_keenly/159232.html March 16, 2008
Until Next Time
Fai mao
The Philosopher Want-to-be Blogger
Friday, March 14, 2008
No cause for flu panic: scientist
I guess this scientist doesn't have an children.
That said the population here does tend to panic a bit over these things,
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who can understand why parents are concerned.
That said the population here does tend to panic a bit over these things,
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who can understand why parents are concerned.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Wedding role for `dingo car'
If this had happened in Hong Kong the mother would have been convicted but not gone to jail if she had looked remorseful to the judge
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger without any faith in Hong Kong's justice system
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger without any faith in Hong Kong's justice system
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Another Paedophile - Another Stupid Judge
I wish that the link above would take my gentle readers to the actual article. It won't and the newspaper digest that I have access to is always a day late so if you want to see the rest of the article you'll have to register. I'll replace the link when I get access to the article.
This was the 4th time this animal (Apologies to our four footed friends who probably don't deserve to be maligned by having their good name associated with this beast) was convicted of molesting little girls. This time he'd setup his own after school tutorial business and priced it cheap to attract low income parents then raped their preteen daughters.
According to TVB last night he exhibited no remorse but is only sorry he got caught. But, he pleaded guilty and so the damned idiot of a judge gives him a four year sentence.
This is just another case that shows that the justice system in Hong Kong is broken. Pedophiles, cannot be rehabilitated. They don't out grow it. This was not a case that could have been an accident in that this creep (In the actual meaning of the word) didn't accidentally or unintentionally place his hand to low on a girls' shoulder while trying to help her with her homework.
This sub-human-slice-of-bottom-feeding-sewer-scum needs to be put away forever. However that might be considered cruel and unusual punishment or inhumane given that normal criminals, thieves, triad members, murderers and the like don't like pedophiles and often don't have any scruples about abusing them as they've abused children. So, maybe Hong Kong should just turn him over to mainland authorities and have his family billed for a bullet. That would be the humane and merciful thing to do. Just kill him; do it today. That won't happen.
Our socialist-pig-progressive-never-give-the-victims-of-crime-closure-or-justice-trained- in-Europe judges evidently don't think pedophilia is that big a deal. I guess they vacation in Amsterdam.
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who believes that Pedophilia should be a capital offense
This was the 4th time this animal (Apologies to our four footed friends who probably don't deserve to be maligned by having their good name associated with this beast) was convicted of molesting little girls. This time he'd setup his own after school tutorial business and priced it cheap to attract low income parents then raped their preteen daughters.
According to TVB last night he exhibited no remorse but is only sorry he got caught. But, he pleaded guilty and so the damned idiot of a judge gives him a four year sentence.
This is just another case that shows that the justice system in Hong Kong is broken. Pedophiles, cannot be rehabilitated. They don't out grow it. This was not a case that could have been an accident in that this creep (In the actual meaning of the word) didn't accidentally or unintentionally place his hand to low on a girls' shoulder while trying to help her with her homework.
This sub-human-slice-of-bottom-feeding-sewer-scum needs to be put away forever. However that might be considered cruel and unusual punishment or inhumane given that normal criminals, thieves, triad members, murderers and the like don't like pedophiles and often don't have any scruples about abusing them as they've abused children. So, maybe Hong Kong should just turn him over to mainland authorities and have his family billed for a bullet. That would be the humane and merciful thing to do. Just kill him; do it today. That won't happen.
Our socialist-pig-progressive-never-give-the-victims-of-crime-closure-or-justice-trained- in-Europe judges evidently don't think pedophilia is that big a deal. I guess they vacation in Amsterdam.
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who believes that Pedophilia should be a capital offense
Saturday, March 08, 2008
"You might think I'm Plastic"
Can you identify the quote above?
I love articles like this because they illustrate three things.
Fai Mao
The Blogger who wants a clean environment not a dishonest environmental movement
I love articles like this because they illustrate three things.
- People have very short memories as a rule.
- Most people just want extremist to leave them alone and so will sometime go along with things to shut them up.
- The environmental movement is full of cowardly people.
Rant One: It was the environmental moment back in the 1980's that pushed for the use plastic bags instead of paper bags. They claimed that the plastic bags were more ecologically friendly than paper ones. I doubt you could get any of them to admit this now but I heard them myself on Radio talk shows. The slogan at the time was "Don't destroy the rain forest just to carry you groceries home." This despite the fact that rain forest are generally cut down by people wanting to convert the land to agricultural purposes not make paper. The trees for paper are grow on big tree farms just like wheat or soybeans. However there was some limited truth in the statement because paper mills, especially older one are not very pleasant and the stores liked the plastic bags because they took up less space and didn't attract pest like roaches that feed on paper.
Most people had a justifiably hard hard time understanding how a biodegradable paper was more environmentally friendly than a plastic? Wouldn't it be better to have just built cleaner paper mills?
Because the environmental lobby was insistent and most people want to be left alone we went along with it. It made them feel good and we just wanted them to leave us alone. However, I think that most people looked at the change to plastic bags as nuisance in that the paper ones were useful as bin liners and for kids to use as construction and coloring paper.
Rant Two: Because normal people don't like to have environmental idiots yell at them and don't like to argue with people in public they found it easier to go along than to challenge the nuts. The nuts know this so they become aggressive and threatening in public and obsequious in private. Because they couch their idiocy in pseudo-philosophic language about higher purpose and "Saving the Earth" they feel they have the right browbeat any one who challenges them. What this means to me is that people who know better need to not worry about having ideological baboons call them names. Society needs to stand up thugs, especially those who think their actions are justified because some higher calling.
Rant Three: It appears to me that the real object of much of the environmental movement is not to protect the environment but to bring about some kind of political agenda and is besotted with some form of noble savage myth. I may be wrong but it appears to me that the environmental lobby wants everyone to live in a mud hut with no electricity and use dried grass for toilet paper after destroying the US, UK and sometimes Japan. I guess they can grow their marijuana organically in the back garden. I say this because they only seem focus on issues that hurt Western nations economically.
For instance; look at the thugs that bother the Japanese about whaling, do they ever go after Indonesian fishermen who dynamite a coral reef? No.
How about harassing some Chinese fishing boats catching sharks? Oh they'd never do that.
How many times have they picketed in front of the Chinese medicine factories that collect bear bile? None. Why not?
Could it be because Indonesian is not a free-market economy?
Could it be because whales have a cuter image than garoupa?
Or, is it as I believe because environmentalist are essentially cowards and know that they can harass a Japanese whale boat or American housewives with impunity and that the Indonesian fisherman would simply heave a couple of stick of dynamite at the environmentalist rather than into the reef? I don't know. I do know this. dynamite fishing is wide spread in Asia and I would bet is a greater threat to the environment the few dozen whales the Japanese kill for culinary research each year.
Please note, I don't support whaling. The Japanese should eat something else.
However, because the environmental movement focuses on easy targets or only in nations where they won't get arrested or who have a decidedly non-socialist agenda I think they are either cowards or have another agenda that they don't talk about. At least political psychopaths sometime have to stand and fight like the monsters the Colombian government whacked a couple of weeks ago. Speaking of that, why is it that everybody gets so worked over Columbia going after commie thugs and nobody cares when Turkey goes inside Iraq to kill a few Kurdish thug? but I digress.
A prediction: In ten years or so, maybe 15; after all of the factories that make paper and plastic bags have closed the environmental movement will start another hugh and cry. This time they'll say "Those awful Cotton bags! Don't you know how much pesticide is used on Cotton? Do you know how much water it takes to grow it? Don't you know how company 'X' based in the US/UK/Australia/wherever works poor migrants as slaves so that you can carry your groceries home? We've got to abolish cloth bags! they are bad for the environment!" You just wait, it will happen. By 2020 the environmental movement will advocate the use of brown craft-paper bags.
Until Next TimeFai Mao
The Blogger who wants a clean environment not a dishonest environmental movement
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
McUniversities
They used to call it Great Britain but it hasn't been great in quite awhile; now it is just the UK. With universities like these no wonder they spell thing funny and drive on the wrong side of the road.
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger with a four year US undergraduate degree, a three Year Master's and a PhD from China
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger with a four year US undergraduate degree, a three Year Master's and a PhD from China
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Of Pots and Kettles and Relative Blackness
I wonder if my reference to idiom in the title will be understood by the people at China Travel?
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who appreciates good service
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who appreciates good service
The Return of the Fat Cat and the Death of the Fat Woman
I haven't posted anything for two weeks but that isn't because there has been a lack of things to think about; just a combination of my laziness and business. I had other things to do at the times I normally post and didn't want to take the time at other points of the day.
Perhaps the most noteworthy item in the past couple of weeks however was the memorial service for Lydia Shum ( Fey Fey) this past Sunday. As far as Hong Kong celebrities go she will definitely be missed. The lady was just funny; Lucille Ball funny. You could also sit down with a 6 year-old and watch "Living With Lydia" and not have to worry about periodically covering their ears or eyes. I also apreciated the fact that she seemed to be comfortable in her extra large skin. Healthy life style and all that aside, there is a place for people to be content with their appearance. Hong Kong actors, at least those on the local TV programs all seem to have that overly perfect makeup, and strive for that animi-cartoon look. Lydia's rotundity helped to make her acting appear human.
I have a lot of sympathy for her daughter. That poor girl effectively had to bury her mother in public three times. That is two too many for anyone.
TV needs more like Fey Fey.
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who is slightly less rotund than Lydia Shum
Perhaps the most noteworthy item in the past couple of weeks however was the memorial service for Lydia Shum ( Fey Fey) this past Sunday. As far as Hong Kong celebrities go she will definitely be missed. The lady was just funny; Lucille Ball funny. You could also sit down with a 6 year-old and watch "Living With Lydia" and not have to worry about periodically covering their ears or eyes. I also apreciated the fact that she seemed to be comfortable in her extra large skin. Healthy life style and all that aside, there is a place for people to be content with their appearance. Hong Kong actors, at least those on the local TV programs all seem to have that overly perfect makeup, and strive for that animi-cartoon look. Lydia's rotundity helped to make her acting appear human.
I have a lot of sympathy for her daughter. That poor girl effectively had to bury her mother in public three times. That is two too many for anyone.
TV needs more like Fey Fey.
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who is slightly less rotund than Lydia Shum
Monday, February 25, 2008
Beijing Keeps shooting itself in the Head
Why is it that all the people in the Chinese government are such knuckle-dragging thugs?
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
Monday, February 18, 2008
A new way to create wealth in Hong Kong
I'm being sarcastic here folks.
After all why do we need another pyramid scheme here when we can, with impunity engage in insider trading just like David Li the president of the Bank of East Asia?
Holy Cow! All we have to do is invite the CEO's of big brokerage houses here and hobnob with them over cocktails and canapes.
Who needs to be able to sell kits for producing "magic cheese" to peasants when we can rig the markets so that HK investors, at least the big rich ones like David Li never lose?
More than that, why is the Human Bow Tie so concerned about his friend David that he is willing make Hong Kong an international pariah in financial circles?
David Li is a criminal. He is also if you talk to people who work at the BEA a very mean and stingy boss. He should go away. I don't care where. Maybe retire in the South of France with the other third world dictators and tax evaders.
Hong Kong may not not have the insider trading laws like most non-corrupt nation but he knew that what he was doing was unethical. He should not only be barred from the government but removed from his post as CEO of the BEA as well.
Geez, this guy makes Li Kai Shing and Nina Wong look good. The only way this story could be better is if he'd used some of the money he stole to hire prostitutes in Macao.
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who thinks Hong Kongers should get over their "Get rich quick mentality"
After all why do we need another pyramid scheme here when we can, with impunity engage in insider trading just like David Li the president of the Bank of East Asia?
Holy Cow! All we have to do is invite the CEO's of big brokerage houses here and hobnob with them over cocktails and canapes.
Who needs to be able to sell kits for producing "magic cheese" to peasants when we can rig the markets so that HK investors, at least the big rich ones like David Li never lose?
More than that, why is the Human Bow Tie so concerned about his friend David that he is willing make Hong Kong an international pariah in financial circles?
David Li is a criminal. He is also if you talk to people who work at the BEA a very mean and stingy boss. He should go away. I don't care where. Maybe retire in the South of France with the other third world dictators and tax evaders.
Hong Kong may not not have the insider trading laws like most non-corrupt nation but he knew that what he was doing was unethical. He should not only be barred from the government but removed from his post as CEO of the BEA as well.
Geez, this guy makes Li Kai Shing and Nina Wong look good. The only way this story could be better is if he'd used some of the money he stole to hire prostitutes in Macao.
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who thinks Hong Kongers should get over their "Get rich quick mentality"
Friday, February 15, 2008
Me and Eric and that Woman on the Bus (Another long and rambling post)
I must confess I don’t much like cold weather. I grew up in a hot place and I enjoy the heat. I’m not really comfortable until it gets close to 30 degrees Celsius. While air pollution here is horrific and the humidity is a killer I don’t ever feel like the heat just assaults me like I did when I was a boy in
Another thing that is unexpectedly pleasant this winter is the new bus I now get to take to work. It is faster than the MTR in this case and much more comfortable in that I always get a seat. Sometimes it is just me, the driver and my MP3. I guess that not many people live in
I think that a nearly empty bus is a good place to be in the morning. It gives me time to think and have my morning devotions without being overly concerned about who is looking. However, my devotions have changed in the several months since I got my new bionic eyes. While I generally see much better now that I no longer have cataracts, color blindness or myopia and greatly enjoy seeing in 3D for the first time in my life there are some things my new eyes cannot do as well as the old pre-cataract surgery ones could. Two those things and they are the only two which really bother me all the time are that I am now quite far sighted which means that I require reading glasses and I can no longer read in a moving vehicle. I am now much more comfortable reading print on a screen than I am on a page. All of that means that I don’t read on the bus anymore. My morning devotions are now stints of thinking about what I’ve read other places while plugged into the MP3 so that I cannot hear the infomercials for weight loss clinics that play on the commercial video system on the bus. I guess that’s just middle age.
I’ve been thinking of late about how we change and grow spiritually as we get older. I know that some people don’t seem to change much as time goes by but I think that most people do and I think most people are better for it. I’ve also been thinking a lot about the way we hide behind codes of language and fashion to hide our flaws and how that becomes or should become less important to us as we get older provided that we are happy with ourselves.I started thinking of this, in part because my ever lovely, gracious, looks-25 years younger than she is, hard working and really smart wife gave me an Eric Clapton CD and DVD this Christmas and I've had the CD on my MP3 for a couple of months now. Clapton is an interesting guy and his music has been intriguing to me for many years because he is someone that you can really see change and become a better person over time. I like him because he is also an anomaly in many ways in the contemporary music industry, especially when contrasted to Canto Pop singers who can make the 1980's version of Elton John look like a conservative dresser. Clapton doesn't do the big stage shows, fancy hats or weird costumes but just comes out and sings and plays. There is also an obvious spiritual element in much of his music and yes I know that sometimes, especially in the older stuff the spiritual parts are code for drug use but sometimes they don’t appear to be either.
When I was younger I’d have never used Eric Clapton in a meditative sense. I guess I was too orthodox or legalistic or whatever; but as I’ve gotten older “I Feel Free” to do so. Youth, it seems to me is often times like being in a “white room with black curtains” but those who are older know that we often time live in a world that is really shades of gray and I came to a “crossroads” several years ago and took a little less strident and to my mind more grace filled path.
I guess as I’ve grown older I’ve come to see that there might be more ways to stand in the “presence of the Lord,” and more ways of “running on faith” than I would have imagined when I was a 20 something idiot who was just walking around "after midnight" with nothing to do.
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who is still "Riding with the King"
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Things in the World and Caring
I found out last night that a man I'd intermittently corresponded with on the Internet over the years had died. His name was Sheldon Brown and he lived in Massachusetts. It would be dishonest to say that he and I were close friends but he was someone I knew slightly through Internet user groups and respected though politely disagreed with on several issues.
Martin Heidegger wrote about how it is in caring for others that we separate ourselves from the animals and from inanimate objects. I think that is probably the truest thing that Heidegger ever said. Humans care for each other not because we have family ties or because it necessarily makes us more successful as a species in an immediate way but because we realize how much alone we would otherwise be. Other people add beauty to our lives. In at least some small way I cared for Sheldon Brown because he made me feel less alone and added beauty to my life; I hope that I did a little of both for him.
I am saddened by the death of Sheldon Brown. My world was made better because he was included in my life if only as a fellow poster on user groups that dealt with antique bicycles and bicycle touring.
I will grieve for Sheldon Brown today and weep in my own quiet way with his family. It is the caring thing to do; it is the human thing to do; it is all that I can do.
Rest in Peace Mr. Brown
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The blogger who is getting old enough to have friends die.
Martin Heidegger wrote about how it is in caring for others that we separate ourselves from the animals and from inanimate objects. I think that is probably the truest thing that Heidegger ever said. Humans care for each other not because we have family ties or because it necessarily makes us more successful as a species in an immediate way but because we realize how much alone we would otherwise be. Other people add beauty to our lives. In at least some small way I cared for Sheldon Brown because he made me feel less alone and added beauty to my life; I hope that I did a little of both for him.
I am saddened by the death of Sheldon Brown. My world was made better because he was included in my life if only as a fellow poster on user groups that dealt with antique bicycles and bicycle touring.
I will grieve for Sheldon Brown today and weep in my own quiet way with his family. It is the caring thing to do; it is the human thing to do; it is all that I can do.
Rest in Peace Mr. Brown
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The blogger who is getting old enough to have friends die.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Ferris Wheels
They should have called this the Singapore Sling
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who would rather ride a roller coaster
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who would rather ride a roller coaster
Monday, February 11, 2008
Internet Sex - Hong Kong Style
This whole story is a joke.
Since when do HK Canto-Singers mind a few nude photos of themselves? Oh, I remember, these were obtained for free. If they'd been purchased from the celebritard's web sites then it would be OK.
As far as I can tell, all this scandal (The word is used in the most lose sense of the term) proves is HK signers and movie stars are about twice as immoral as the average stray alley cat and have about the same amount of body hair and fleas.
They can't sing, they can't act, and they aren't even that good looking without six pounds of makeup.
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger with a wife that is prettier than any of wenches in this scandal
Since when do HK Canto-Singers mind a few nude photos of themselves? Oh, I remember, these were obtained for free. If they'd been purchased from the celebritard's web sites then it would be OK.
As far as I can tell, all this scandal (The word is used in the most lose sense of the term) proves is HK signers and movie stars are about twice as immoral as the average stray alley cat and have about the same amount of body hair and fleas.
They can't sing, they can't act, and they aren't even that good looking without six pounds of makeup.
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger with a wife that is prettier than any of wenches in this scandal
Garlic flavored Chocolate?
I guess that this is just the stuff if your favorite food is raw fish and your boyfriend is a Sumo wrestler.
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who prefers his chocolate without garlic
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who prefers his chocolate without garlic
Thursday, February 07, 2008
At least he couldn't smoke in public!
So the government was unable to find that this guy had done anything wrong but now wants to let life guards and street-sweepers give fixed-penalty fines for smoking in public.
And people wonder why I think the Hong Kong government is both corrupt and incompetant?
Anyway, happy Chinese New Year
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who doesn't like rats
And people wonder why I think the Hong Kong government is both corrupt and incompetant?
Anyway, happy Chinese New Year
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who doesn't like rats
Friday, February 01, 2008
Do you find this odd?
I don't find it odd at all that students with poor English skills have a harder time being accepted into a University that teaches in English. Indeed when the HKEdB changed the medium of instruction to Chinese in 1997 this was predicted.
I don't find it odd that the universities, especially HKU want to maintain English as the medium of instruction either. Indeed, given that something like 70 or 80 percent of all printed research is in English a strong case can be made that all tertiary education should be in English. English is, in that regard the new Latin. Please note, that says nothing bad about other languages. However, the arts and sciences are better served by having a "lingua franca" and English is currently that language.
I don't find it odd at all that the HKEdB would suppress a report that criticizes the decision it made to give fewer students an education in English in order to protect a few immorally overpaid running dogs and other assorted bureaucrats.
I do find it odd that more people don't see that limiting the number of students who can gain entrance to HKU and CUHK to those wealthy enough to get an education at an English school was exactly the plan. The HKEdB and the rest of the bureaucratic sycophants, aging shoe-shiners, running dogs and wealthy tycoons wanted to keep the entrance to the governance of HK in the hands of a few families, the local elite. While they might not say it publicly they believe that only those with the right breeding should lead Hong kong. One of the signs of having that breeding is that you are able to graduate from one of the "elite secondary school" that are on the Peak or in the Mid-Levels.
I have no doubt that the afore mentioned autocrats would heartily deny what I've just said being true. I would counter, look at who gets government jobs, what universities did they attend? What secondary schools did they attend? Did their families have either money or some other connection to the British? Now look at the secondary schools that are currently sending young scholars to HKU and CUHK, do you see a pattern? I thought you would.
The poor yahoos who don't have money or can't get a scholarship should just pipe-down and accept their place in life is to be lead by governed by the cartel.
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who didn't come from an elite school
I don't find it odd that the universities, especially HKU want to maintain English as the medium of instruction either. Indeed, given that something like 70 or 80 percent of all printed research is in English a strong case can be made that all tertiary education should be in English. English is, in that regard the new Latin. Please note, that says nothing bad about other languages. However, the arts and sciences are better served by having a "lingua franca" and English is currently that language.
I don't find it odd at all that the HKEdB would suppress a report that criticizes the decision it made to give fewer students an education in English in order to protect a few immorally overpaid running dogs and other assorted bureaucrats.
I do find it odd that more people don't see that limiting the number of students who can gain entrance to HKU and CUHK to those wealthy enough to get an education at an English school was exactly the plan. The HKEdB and the rest of the bureaucratic sycophants, aging shoe-shiners, running dogs and wealthy tycoons wanted to keep the entrance to the governance of HK in the hands of a few families, the local elite. While they might not say it publicly they believe that only those with the right breeding should lead Hong kong. One of the signs of having that breeding is that you are able to graduate from one of the "elite secondary school" that are on the Peak or in the Mid-Levels.
I have no doubt that the afore mentioned autocrats would heartily deny what I've just said being true. I would counter, look at who gets government jobs, what universities did they attend? What secondary schools did they attend? Did their families have either money or some other connection to the British? Now look at the secondary schools that are currently sending young scholars to HKU and CUHK, do you see a pattern? I thought you would.
The poor yahoos who don't have money or can't get a scholarship should just pipe-down and accept their place in life is to be lead by governed by the cartel.
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who didn't come from an elite school
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