Someone else's Turn

Steven James, who I don't know has written another HK Christmas Carol.

Pretty funny

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Christmas Caroling Blogger

Walk About

The lovely, really smart, looks 20-years younger than she is, wife and I made our normal all-day walk about in Shenzhen this past Saturday. I enjoy these outings for many reasons but not the least of them is seeing how China has changed over the past dozen years or so.

China has lots going for it these days. However, I am not as rosy about China's future as many people are. Here is why:

1. China has 1/6 th of the world's population but 1/2 of all the smokers live in China. When I am in China it sometimes it seems like my wife and I are the only people on the street not smoking. Since the population of China is fairly young I wonder what the effect upon the health care system and labor supply will be in 25 years when all of the 30 somethings are 50 somethings with lung cancer?
2. The One-Child policy means that China has a rapidly aging population. Indeed, China's population will start to fall in the near future. While this good in many respects it means that the cost of labor in China is going to rise dramatically and soon. It also means that the stuff that is manufactured in China is going to become much more expensive. China will no longer be the ubiquitous source for cheap shoes or toys. What will that do to the economy of China?
   
3. China has huge, modern looking cities that are fed by aging peasants who own tiny farms that are plowed with oxen. Most of the younger generation have moved to the cities for better paying jobs. China needs to allow the creation of large, efficient farms that use modern technology. It also needs to encourage at some of the next generation to stay on those modern farms. A nation cannot truly call it self a super power if it relies upon illiterate 70 year olds to grow its food. Who is going to feed all those factory workers as the farmers, many of whom are already elderly die?
4. I could not be normally called an environmentalist. However, China has huge environmental problems which if not addressed are going to kill the nation. There are thousands probably tens of thousands of kilometers of rivers that are horribly polluted. Worse than anything anywhere in Western Europe or North America. China is literally polluting its drinking water to the point that not only can the water not drunk but KILLS crops that are watered with it. While less obvious than the foul air this is a horrific problem that China must address soon to avoid literally dying of thirst. What is China going to do about its water supply?
   
5. China needs to deal with the endemic corruption that is part and parcel of the lower levels of government. That probably means that the party needs to allow people to openly criticize the party. In short, China needs to live up to the rights it constitutionally guarantees to its citizens and allow free speech. How can government corruption be fought if it is against the law to complain about the government?
   
6. Indeed, the government in China needs to enforce its constitution at many levels. If it did many of the problems in China would become much more solvable. When will the government of China prosecute county and provincial officials who oppress religious and political groups which have a constitutional right to exist in China?
   
7. China needs to harness the patriotism of its population in positive ways. True patriots want the best for their country and do not simply parrot the party line. It is time for the people of China to stand up and demand that their government change. When will the Chinese people learn that they must stand up for a better China?
   

Locals in Hong Kong probably know all of these things. It may even be patently obvious to everybody but me. But, it is what I have been thinking about this week

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger Who Observes China

Fancy squirrel stew or roast fox? TV chef gets meals from tarmac to table

Back when I was a kid we always used to laugh at the poor, reclusive old woman who would clean and eat road kill.

We called her crazy.

I guess if she'd lived in the UK she could have been a TV star.

It looks like crazy red-necks have come up in the world

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who will continue to get his meat from the store

Just Leave Christmas Alone

This is an old column by Charles the Hammer.

It is also one of his best ever.

Merry Christmas
Fai Mao
The Blogger Who Celebrates Christmas

The day we killed John Lemon (er, I meant Lennon)

I am so tired of the deification process that pseudo-intellectual, aging hippie losers with brains that are fried from drug use keep trying to start for this guy.

"Imagine no possessions,
I wonder if you can,
No need for greed or hunger,
A brotherhood of man,
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world..."


He couldn't imagine this. If he could have imagined it and it bothered him he would have given away his wealth to help the poor. He didn't, he just sang about it. I read somewhere that Lennon was worth just over 40 million at the time of his death. How much good would 20 million or so have do to alleviate the problems he was singing about?

Here is my new verse for this song

Imagine 20 million
I wonder if I can
No need for them to suffer
I've got more than I can spend
Imagine all the people
Sharing what I have!


Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Not a John Lennon Fan Blogger

Not From My Baby You Won't!

An official in the UK is seriously suggesting that the country take samples of everyone's DNA when they are born and of immigrants and store those records in a database. I cannot believe that anyone in their right mind would allow a government to do this. George Orwell would be proud of this guy!

There are several objections that spring to mind with a plan like this:

• It assumes that every citizen is a criminal because the information would be stored in a criminal database.I guess in the UK they no longer believe (if they ever did) in the presumption of innocence because the purpose is to find criminals. So, you are a suspect in every crime unless there is no evidence to prosecute you.
  
• I guess that the population doesn't fear the database would eventually be used to silence the critics of the government. This despite the overwhelming evidence that governments will eventually abuse power to maintain themselves.
  
• I guess that in the UK citizens do not have the right their own body, otherwise they would not force their citizens to do this.
• I guess the people in the UK would rather live as safe slaves than a free people.
  

None of these are even remotely acceptable. Any government that would keep records of every citizen like this is evil and any nation with this type of surveillance cannot call itself a free country. Period, full-stop, end of argument. They will not accept genetically modified wheat or corn but they will allow this?

First get samples of the DNA, then control the parents, number, gender, intelligence, personality and other genetically influenced aspects of citizens lives through genetic manipulation. "Hello Cybermen!" Unfortunately there is no Dr. Who to save us!

But I guess I'm just a paranoid American who has an irrational fear of government.

Better an irrational freeman than a rational slave

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Libertine Blogger

Shenzhen

The wife and I went to Shenzhen on Saturday.

I always enjoy going one of the nearby cities in the PRC proper; it is a good break from Hong Kong Kong. In Shenzhen we did a little Christmas shopping but mainly just explored. We rode the subway to an area we'd not been to before and just walked all day from about 11:30 AM until about 6:00PM with a 1 1/2 hour lunch in a hot pot restaurant.

One of the great things about China is the mangled English that you see on signs. Here are some I saw on Saturday

#1 - Sorry this is a bit fuzzy. The name on the store is "Bo Lin WHTCH" So are they selling watches or witches? Phonetically it could be either but in reality all they had were handbags.

#2- I wonder if this store named "B.S.Boy" sells counterfeit jeans, mushrooms or organic fertilizer?
#3 I find it rather strange that a Nation that is officially Atheist would have so many stores that sell Christmas decorations. I do not remember seeing stores like this in the malls at home. Well, maybe one but not a whole city block of them


Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who Shops in the PRC

Ding Dong the Witch is Dead!

The Hong Kong government officially abandoned its plans for a GST this week.

It is now seeking a more socially palatable tax and is considering, among other things a Capital Gains tax. These people just go from bad to worse. One of the strengths of the Hong Kong economy is that every body saves. The population as a whole saves nearly 20% of their income. A capital gains tax discourages saving and investment and amounts to a double tax on income. It would also hit the middle classes here very hard.

Hey Henry Tsang, has anyone ever told you you are aren't as smart as you think you are?

Because I believe in civic responsibly, I am going help Henry. I am going to propose taxes that would be neither repressive nor onerous and would not not have a devastating effect upon the poor that the GST or Capital gains taxes would have. Some of these are serious and some are tounge in cheek. I'll let Mr. Tsang decide which is which

1. A flat HKD$1000.00 tax on every shipping container that leaves the port of Hong Kong. This would be easy to collect and raise about 20 billion a year. Since it would only apply to goods shipped from or transshipped through Hong Kong it would be a tax that is paid by people in other countries. Since the value of a container of goods can be millions it is actually a trifling tax and the people who purchased the goods in the container could simply pass the increased cost along to the consumers in the destination country.

2. A imaginary square footage property tax on developers. This would be a tax on the difference between the advertised size of a flat and the actual interior size. Thus if a developer builds a flat that is advertised at 1200 square feet and the interior actually measures 800 square feet then the developer would have to pay a tax on 400 square feet a year for as long as the building stands. The rate for this should be some thing like $25.00 a square foot. The tax would be non-transferable so that the builders could not slide the tax into a management fee. Existing buildings would be exempt from this tax but the floor space would have to corrected when the flat was sold. This might not raise a lot of money but it would go a long, long, long way toward making the Hong Kong real estate market more honest.

3. A flat $100.00 tax on any new cell phone with a new price of over HKD $2500.00

4. Tax the contracts of Filipino and Indonesian maids. If you are rich enough to afford a maid you are rich enough to be taxed for it. How about making the tax equivalent of 1/2 the total cost of the contract. (Note, this a tax paid by the employers of the maid not by the maid)

5. Quadruple the amount of taxes on everything associated with private automobiles. License, purchase fees, petrol everything. Nobody needs a car here anyway. Clearing the roads of the arrogant, unsafe drivers who think the are a superior species would make Hong Kong a safer place and the government might not need to build that extra freeway through Central.

6. Impose a one time "Your sooooooooooo ugly" tax of about $60 billion on Nina Wong.

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Tax Expert Blogger

Confessions of a Retrogrouch

Sometimes it is good to know you aren't alone.

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Retrogrouch Blogger

Burned Out

This has been a strange few months.

I started this school year with a bang because I was coordinating a big project to give us inventory control of textbooks. That meant that I started tired. It was a lot of work. I generally try to push big jobs to either the beginning or the end of the year because I feel that it gives me more time to deal with students and the normal everyday grunt work of running my library. However, the textbook inventory program was a bear. It really took a lot out of me. Almost immediately after that I had to coordinate our Fall Fair. Then the main book order arrived and had to be processed. I am the faculty representative for the standing committee that deals with accreditation issues. I just finished being a chaperon to a group of middle school students on a week long field trip of camping and hiking.

It gets worse after the Christmas break. The school is moving to a new campus next year so I have to start managing and implementing the moving process not to mention doing the technical assistance for staging and construction for school concerts, plays and other performances. I hit the ground running in August and haven’t slowed down.

I realized somewhere about mid-October that I do not want to do this anymore. I am tired. I am tired of working from 7:00 AM until 4:30 PM or later, not including many Saturdays and eating lunch at my desk.

I am tired of dealing with children, who have had so many extra English, Math, Advanced Math, Really Advanced Math, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Violin, Piano, Russian, Japanese, Sanskrit and SAT preparation course or tutors that they don’t know how to play and be real children. I am tired of dealing with children raised by Filipino maids who are psychotic because they only see their parents once a month and have never been the recipient of any form of loving discipline other than bribes. I am tired of dealing with kids that are given more money for their allowance every week than Bruce Wayne could make in a month.

I am tired of the air-pollution. I am tired of having to listen to old-men yell into their cell-phones on the bus. I am tired of people farting in the MTR. I am tired of people who claim to be so busy yet walk so slowly on the street. I am tired of the vacuous TV. I am tired of the crowds. I am tired of the abysmal customer service. I am tired living in a cramped flat with no closets. I am tired of the noise. I am tired of smelling the polluted harbor. I am tired of having to carry an MP3 player so that I can tune out the surrounding environment. I am tired of having to pay a fee to listen to baseball via the Internet. I am tired of feeling like I have to be rude to walk down the street. I am tired of my upstairs neighbor’s karaoke machine.

I am tired of the paternalistic, do nothing, mealy mouthed government bureaucrats who are more interested in keeping their over paid jobs than providing good government. I am tired of bow-ties, crew-cuts, long hair and the broom head. I'm tired of Anson Chan and Nina Wong. I am tired of having to carry an ID card with my life history and finger prints recorded on it.

I am tired of walking by dried seafood stores.

I am tired of having Pakistani tailors wanting to make me a suit.

It would not bother me if I never see another mini-bus.

I’ve been in Hong Kong for 10 years and I am tired of it. I am beginning to wonder if it isn’t time to cash in and go somewhere else.

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger Who Thinks Mineral Wells is Looking Better All the Time

Cell-Phone Bells

It is that time of year again.
Christmas is weird in Hong Kong. Over the years I have wondered what would Christmas Carols have been like if their writers had been from Hong Kong? Sir David Bowring, who was governor of Hong Kong wrote a Christmas Carol but it isn't very good and nobody ever sings it. So I'm left with rewriting the carols of others with a Hong Kong flavor.

You can see my previous efforts by clicking the links below.

Walking in a Hong Kong Wonderland

Hong Kong 12 Days

Hong Kong Jingle Bells

This Year I have chosen the Carol "Silver Bells" as my Hong Kong Carol

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

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Christmas Caroling Blogger

Amen!

I cannot agree more

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger Who Doesn't Trust Reporters

China plans human rights exhibition

This article reminds me of the woman who murdered her husband, parents and children and then asked the court for mercy because she was a widowed orphan still mourning the death of her children!

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger Who Thinks the PRC Government has a lot of Gall

So much fun

Hemlock is in top form this week.

If you haven't stopped by in a while then you should

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The blogger wishing he could have breakfast a girl named "Winky Ip"

Shiva?

I cannot imagine a society like this. I guess it is good I don't have to use my imagination.

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger Who Isn't a Hindu

The Spell of the Meme

I cannot improve upon this man's argument. He just nails it

Notice, clicking on the link above will open a PDF file

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger Who Sometimes wishes He were more Eloquent

I must really be dumb

I must really be dumb. I get a couple of emails a day with a message similar to the one copied in below. I must be missing something; I don't understand this at all.

Make recommendations to Corporate Drug Safety Committee, as required.
Good communication skills.
Those who have interest in doing quality projects and expand their carrier growth are welcome. Interact with pharmacovigilance units in countries.
Perform black-box, guerilla, and regression testing of software products as required.
Interprets and prepares virology data for regulatory submissions. Then they are transform into the rice plant for the transgene expression and finally their analysis.
Ability to read a lot of material and condense the information.
Prepare reports of PMS studies for regulatory submission. After the constructs are clone into the suitable vectors they are mobilised into the Agrobacterium Strain.
Those who have interest in doing quality projects and expand their carrier growth are welcome.
Candidates well versed with GLP, FDA and other regulatory requirements will be preferred. Incumbent will work closely with Sales and Manufacturing Departments, as well. The candidate will perform data entry, data clean up, and data loading to maintain and expand a commercially successful database of available chemicals.
After the constructs are clone into the suitable vectors they are mobilised into the Agrobacterium Strain.
Degree: Life science degree expected with particular focus on virology.
Experience in sterile cell culture procedures, cell processing is needed.
Ensure that the global pharmacovigilance database is updated periodically.
A HO licence is preferred. Solids and liquid dosage form experince.
Board certified or board eligible is preferred.
Solids and liquid dosage form experince. This position will be responsible for production of analysis datasets and specifications, well documented code, summary tables and some statistical analysis of data. Participate in company core data sheets and product label changes and medical interpretation of safety data for regulatory documents. Provide pharmacovigilance input on designated products. Apply results to bug tracking system. Those who have interest in doing quality projects and expand their carrier growth are welcome. Responsible for supporting pre-clinical and clinical development of HCV compounds. Interact with pharmacovigilance units in countries.
The job requires: Independent working to develop processes and molecules within challenging time targets. D in pharmaceutical sciences.
Manages clinical staff and clinical projects, including CROs and contract labs. Experience of setting up facilites for sterile and cytotoxic products.
Board certified or board eligible is preferred. To produce and manage material for a variety of scientific disciplines. Interact with bug tracking system to monitor fixes and retests.


Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who Receives lots of Spam

His Title Not Mine

This is the second part of the four part refutation of Global Warming Issues.

He make a very good point about China opening a new coal burning power plant every five days until 2015 or so.

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who Knows what the Word "Meretricious" Means

A Different Perspective

The link to the speech by Michael Creighton is an interesting read.

I find his premise to be interesting because I often see left leaning people complain about science being high-jacked by corporate (right-wing) interest but who fail to see how their own ideology has distorted science as well.

You may agree or disagree with Creighton, I don't care. The object here is to provoke some thought on an issue that many people don't normally think about. Namely, "Is what I believe really based upon reason and evidence or a political or emotional agenda?"

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger Who is Agnostic on the Issue of Global Warming

Leaving America Redux

I originally posted this after the last presidential election. I think I'll re-post it here again as I am sure similar discussions are going to spring up in a couple of days.

Leaving America

Let me start out by saying that I am an ex-American. While still a citizen of the US I have not lived in the US for years. I live in Hong Kong and in China. I do not plan to ever live in the US again. My wife is Chinese and her family is here. My child was not born here but grew up here and is not really comfortable in the rural US settings that I remember. Thus, I am caught between the love of my native culture with the rhythm and pace of the small Texas town and the frenetic crowdedness of Hong Kong. I have thought long and hard about renouncing my US citizenship. But, changing your citizenship is, in many ways, like getting married. You are in the new country for "better or worse until death do you part." Indeed, it strikes me that it is easier too change your spouse than to change your nationality the difference being that to renounce your citizenship you don't need a lawyer.

That is why when I read article after article in paper after paper about people in the US who want leave the US because George Bush is the president for four more years I simply have to smirk. I don't know who will read this blog. But if you are one of the people who are considering this then let me as an American ex-patriot give you some advice.

Stay where you are. It isn't better somewhere else. I know. I've been there; I've done that. While my reasons to consider renouncing my US citizenship were, I think better thought out and based upon sounder logic than simply being frustrated that my party had lost an election it was still a mistake and it is a mistake that if you make it; you cannot call it back. It probably won't be better somewhere else.

I've read that one of the main reasons liberal democrats want to leave the US is because they are tired of dealing with all the *$#%@ Christians in the US who seem to have an inordinate amount of influence upon elections. I'm not going to challenge their assumption. Not because I necessarily believe they are right but because I can say that unless they go someplace like Northern Europe, if there, it doesn't get any better. I am also assuming that if they think Christians are bad they will also think that the Buddhist here in Hong Kong who burn phony money to the gods of the underworld so that they can have a good life the next time around are also rather depraved.

Indeed, the Good-Land Buddhism as practiced here with it's evil spirits and thousands of gods to bribe so that your stay in purgatory between incarnations is shorter makes the Southern Baptist look good. The whole idea of Chinese Buddhism as it is practiced by the locals, not necessarily as it is presented in English language guides to religion, is that you suffer less in Hell after you die and gain a better life after being Re-incarnated if you BRIBE the gods of the underworld in this life. Far from being a religion that discourages a materialistic lifestyle Chinese Buddhism glorifies it.

Hong Kong is the most devoutly and overtly religious place I think I have ever seen not only the Buddhist but the Christians here are quite bold and try hard to evangelize. There are also thousands of devout Muslim women who work as domestic helpers and walk around veiled.

Christianity is growing at a rapid pace and Buddhism is doing a good job of holding on to its own. So if you don't want to be evangelized don't come here!

Where else could the disaffected American liberal go? South America? Get real they are 98% Roman Catholic and Catholic dogma is an official part of the state. Furthermore, they are not the nearly lapsed Catholics that are politically liberal that you find in the US. They take their faith SERIOUSLY. So these people in the paper want to run from a place where only about one third of the population attends a religious service once a week to a place where 90% plus of the population does? I am sorry. That is idiotic.

Other articles I read have mentioned people wanting to go to nations like Canada or New Zealand that they, the distraught voter feel would be more suitable with their politics. Really? What happens to the Canadian economy if three-million people or a million or 1/2 a million suddenly show up looking to live there? Prices go up and wages go down that's what. It is just that simple. The governments know this and they will not allow so many people to immigrate that they wreck their economy and overload their social systems. The dirty ugly fact is that it is easier to take less skilled workers and then assimilate them as they gain prosperity than it is to take in lots of skilled workers who drive down the price of white-collar wages.

That means all the disgruntled liberal voters are going to have to spread themselves around. That means they need to think harder about where to go. That means you need to think non-English speaking.

When you think of non-English speaking countries you need to think about your children. If you were to go to a non-English speaking place are you willing to home school them like a fundamentalist Christian? I doubt very seriously that there will be a bilingual English track in the local schools. Even if they do, (some schools in Hong Kong have such a program) you are not going to like the schools. Would you think proper for your child to do five hours of memorization homework every night? I didn't think so. How about classes that require them memorize Bible, Koran or Buddhist scripture verses? Corporal punishment anyone? Do you want your children to be taught why they should be patriotic Singaporians?

If you don't like the options above that means private schools. Can you afford that? Doesn't that mean your kids will go to school with the children of the international corporation managers who are in that nation raping the resources and destroying the environment for the benefit of the capitalist pig developed world at the behest of Dick Cheney and Halliburton? Does that bother you? It would would me if I were an American liberal. Especially since you'd probably have to work for one of those companies before you could come here.

But, private schools don't really solve the religion problem. Arguably the best private school in Hong Kong is one that was founded by Lutherans missionaries. I know some of the teachers there. Indeed, I know the director of personnel. Nice lady. She attends a church with a Dallas Theological Seminary graduate Pastor. Yeah, fundamentalist in Hong Kong. Indeed, ECC it is quite probably the largest Protestant church in Hong Kong.

If the religion in the schools doesn't scare you the cost of tuition should. The Private schools here that use English fall into three categories: expensive, very expensive and cost more than Harvard. Can you afford to pay USD $20,000 a year per child for a private school in Hong Kong? That is about the minimum tuition charge here.

If you go with the less expensive international schools you get names like International Christian School, United Christian College, Christian Alliance International School and St. Paul's Convent School. Do you as a liberal see anything you don't like in those names? If I were leaving the US because there were too many Christians I would.

Are you a proponent of Gun control? May I suggest you don't go to any place in Asia. Yes, Hong Kong has a very strict gun control law but the triads (local gangsters) still have some. I know first hand from shopping in Southern Thailand that you can purchase a used AK-47 for about USD $25.00 in the street markets. (I was only willing to pay USD $20.00 and the guy wouldn't go below USD $25.00) Try doing that in L.A.

What about crime? Hong Kong and Japan are very safe (though very expensive) but most places in Asia are not. Central and South America are worse. How would you feel about having to hire an armed body guard to take your kids to school? What about limiting your shopping trips to daylight hours? If you are concerned about your safety don't go to the third world.

Racial prejudices are a world wide problem. Generally, it is worse anywhere else but the US. I mean that. If you have never lived outside the US you haven't seen prejudice. If you want your kids to learn how to be a bigot let them live South Korea! If you want to be discriminated against because of the color of skin then try being a Caucasian living in China! If you want them to become passive snobby bigots then move to the UK.

You want to see women oppressed try the middle East and Asia or Africa though any Muslim nation will do.

Pedophilia anyone? Go to Bangkok Yeah, 12 year-old girls and boys as prostitutes are everywhere there. Does that bother you? It should unless you're one of the people abusing those children.

A last reason not to go overseas is quite simply you will get trapped here. It happens all the time, and it happens in two ways. First, if you get that good job, and make a lot of money will you want to go back in four years to a job that makes 1/3 as much? Even if you have to live in a small apartment, in fear for your life and in an intolerant and abusive society? Lots of people can't bare the loss of money.

Conversely, You may find that you have nice life but can't afford to return. I know of a man in Wuhan which is a city in China. He went there 10 years ago to teach English on a two year contract because he wanted to help the poor and thought it was noble thing to do. He has four children. He does not make enough money to fly back for vacations in the US. He can't really save that much because he doesn't make much. He can feed his kids and actually has a pretty good life in China on the USD $800.00 a month (Twice the local teacher salary) but he can't leave because his standard of living would fall dramatically if he went back to Canada. He and his family are trapped in China. Does that sound appealing? He cannot even afford to send his kids back to Calgary for summer visits to Grandma.

A last reason to not go over seas is that your standard of living will probably fall. What if an apartment that was 500 to 600 square feet cost you USD $4-10000.00 a month and each of your kid's school tuition was USD $1800.00 a month. What if for USD $110,000.00 a year you couldn't afford an automobile? On top of all that, you would still have to fill out US tax forms every year. Doesn't sound so great anymore does it.

What about air pollution. How may days did the pollution index where you live hit 85? In most Asian cities and many South American cities that is an everyday event.

Remember the grass always looks greener but is because you are looking through your gestalt glasses. Your lenses are tinted green by politic, envy or both.

Now all of this not meant to make it sound like places other than the US are certified Hell Holes. They aren't. I greatly enjoy living in Hong Kong. It has been a wonderful experience to live here. It is a good place to raise a family. But, it isn't necessarily better than the US if you are an American Liberal.

Until Next Time

Fai Mao
The Blogger Who Would Find It hard to Return to The USA