A plane crash in Africa was caused when a crocodile that had been smuggled onto the plane as luggage got lose and starter attacking passengers. How do you do that? Who would do that?
Kane West has his teeth replaced with diamond implants. Quick somebody lone me a club and pair of pliars!
A three-year-old and five-year-old are engaged in Syria. What do you expect?
The Yankees are getting beaten like a rented mule in the playoffs. Its about time!
Sombody thinks that the Hong Kong realestate market is not bubbled up. Just goes to show you that idiots live everywhere.
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who enjoys odd news
Friday, October 22, 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Hong Kong and Tripods
Part of my job is reading juvenile literature. I’ve been reading the Tripod books by John Christopher the past few days and found them quite thought provoking in a number of ways. It is always interesting to be able to see the way that moral issues are handled in books for teen-agers; especially in what is left unsaid at times. It is also interesting to see how often I think people who review books, not just these books but most books completely miss the point.
Fiction is often a way for us to explore what might be and to clarify our moral and ethical horizons. It doesn’t have to do this and it is perfectly appropriate for it to simply entertain us but it often does so much more than entertain. The Tripod books do more than entertain.
The plot of these books is a pretty basic one. The Aliens from space land, they take over and a small band of humans manages to overthrow the alien oppressors despite what would appear to be insurmountable odds. Like many books of this type there rather huge gaping, holes in the plot and more than a few rather incredible coincidences needed to allow the good guys to win.
What sets these books apart for me and makes them a book I’d recommend to students is the discussion in the books of what it means to be human and what constitutes good and evil. The space alien bad guys in these books view themselves as morally superior good guys. On their own planet, in their own society, they don’t have crime, don’t have wars, they cannot lie and don’t have social problems like over population. They also don’t have art, humor, or friendship.
Yet, these same beings that live in peace with each other practice racial genocide on planets that they conquer. The vices they avoid with each other they inflict upon those weaker than they.
The idea of political elites that believe they have the right, or responsibility to force a population to do good always devolves into a tyranny that is upheld by force. Political elites resulting from education, wealth or heredity are, in effect, a “Might makes right” argument. The idea that government control is better than individual freedom is a particularly virulent and widespread form of this.
A particularly damning aspect of the Tripod books was how even after the mind control device had been turn off many of the people who had been "Capped" were unable to function normally. They still needed the protection of the tripods.
When governments win the support of the masses through the use of subsidies then they have just as effectively “capped” the population as the tripods ever could. The use of housing subsidies proposed by THBT and the HK government will simply mean that the government has moved from enslaving the poor to enslaving the middle class. Governments like to have a population dependent upon them because people who are dependant upon the government support the government even when it oppresses them. They have no choice. The rent to purchase scheme proposed by THBT will accomplish just that. It also does so without addressing the root cause the high cost of housing in Hong Kong; namely, the corrupt monopolistic practice of the property developers who actually control our government with the tacit approval of the Shoe-polish-hair-dye-brigade in Beijing.
So how should THBT have approached this problem?
Require developers to build on the land they buy. Right now they build the “luxury” flats and mothball the developments slated for more affordable housing. Simply tell them if you don’t have a building up in “Nth” number of months you must pay the equivalent of the rates (Property Tax) that the owners would pay.
Do not allow real estate agents to engage in price fixing of their fees.
Pass an anti-collusion law so that developers cannot collude with each other to keep prices high and quality low. This would also bring food prices down.
Require developers to advertise the actual internal size of the flats they sell with out adding part of the elevator lobby, bay-window and imaginary rooms.
To curb speculation place a 50% capital; gains tax on any property re-sold within 180 days
Limit sales of flats priced below 3 million dollars to people with valid Hong Kong residency
Until Next Time
Fai mao
The Blogger who thinks Hong Kong is looking and more like a bad Sci-Fi novel
Fiction is often a way for us to explore what might be and to clarify our moral and ethical horizons. It doesn’t have to do this and it is perfectly appropriate for it to simply entertain us but it often does so much more than entertain. The Tripod books do more than entertain.
The plot of these books is a pretty basic one. The Aliens from space land, they take over and a small band of humans manages to overthrow the alien oppressors despite what would appear to be insurmountable odds. Like many books of this type there rather huge gaping, holes in the plot and more than a few rather incredible coincidences needed to allow the good guys to win.
What sets these books apart for me and makes them a book I’d recommend to students is the discussion in the books of what it means to be human and what constitutes good and evil. The space alien bad guys in these books view themselves as morally superior good guys. On their own planet, in their own society, they don’t have crime, don’t have wars, they cannot lie and don’t have social problems like over population. They also don’t have art, humor, or friendship.
Yet, these same beings that live in peace with each other practice racial genocide on planets that they conquer. The vices they avoid with each other they inflict upon those weaker than they.
The idea of political elites that believe they have the right, or responsibility to force a population to do good always devolves into a tyranny that is upheld by force. Political elites resulting from education, wealth or heredity are, in effect, a “Might makes right” argument. The idea that government control is better than individual freedom is a particularly virulent and widespread form of this.
A particularly damning aspect of the Tripod books was how even after the mind control device had been turn off many of the people who had been "Capped" were unable to function normally. They still needed the protection of the tripods.
When governments win the support of the masses through the use of subsidies then they have just as effectively “capped” the population as the tripods ever could. The use of housing subsidies proposed by THBT and the HK government will simply mean that the government has moved from enslaving the poor to enslaving the middle class. Governments like to have a population dependent upon them because people who are dependant upon the government support the government even when it oppresses them. They have no choice. The rent to purchase scheme proposed by THBT will accomplish just that. It also does so without addressing the root cause the high cost of housing in Hong Kong; namely, the corrupt monopolistic practice of the property developers who actually control our government with the tacit approval of the Shoe-polish-hair-dye-brigade in Beijing.
So how should THBT have approached this problem?
Require developers to build on the land they buy. Right now they build the “luxury” flats and mothball the developments slated for more affordable housing. Simply tell them if you don’t have a building up in “Nth” number of months you must pay the equivalent of the rates (Property Tax) that the owners would pay.
Do not allow real estate agents to engage in price fixing of their fees.
Pass an anti-collusion law so that developers cannot collude with each other to keep prices high and quality low. This would also bring food prices down.
Require developers to advertise the actual internal size of the flats they sell with out adding part of the elevator lobby, bay-window and imaginary rooms.
To curb speculation place a 50% capital; gains tax on any property re-sold within 180 days
Limit sales of flats priced below 3 million dollars to people with valid Hong Kong residency
Until Next Time
Fai mao
The Blogger who thinks Hong Kong is looking and more like a bad Sci-Fi novel
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Dollar for dollar?
THBT almost gets some points from me on this one. Almost not quite.
How about this. How about he, personally, Donald Tsang, gives two months salary to the coause helping the underprivilged and challenges the business comunity to do the same?
He seems to be mighty generous with tax dollars but I doubt he is as generous with his own funds.
Come on Donald, shell out a few million, you've got pleanty.
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
How about this. How about he, personally, Donald Tsang, gives two months salary to the coause helping the underprivilged and challenges the business comunity to do the same?
He seems to be mighty generous with tax dollars but I doubt he is as generous with his own funds.
Come on Donald, shell out a few million, you've got pleanty.
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
China Tells Norway What to Do
When I first moved to China in the early 1990's China was becoming a freer place. Under the leadership Dung Xiaoping and then Jang Xiamin China it looked like that China would make the transition from a dictatorship to something approaching a free nation. Hu JingTao has reversed that process
This kind of thing actually makes me nervous. It seems that they have reclaimed the position of the old Empire that they are "The Middle Kingdom" and the true rulers of the whole Earth. It could also be that they are still assuming the eventual inevitable triumph of dictatorship, err, I mean Communism.
There has been a noticeable increase in the uneasiness I feel over the actions of the Chinese government over the past several years.
This is a scary time to live in China
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who hopes for a free China
This kind of thing actually makes me nervous. It seems that they have reclaimed the position of the old Empire that they are "The Middle Kingdom" and the true rulers of the whole Earth. It could also be that they are still assuming the eventual inevitable triumph of dictatorship, err, I mean Communism.
There has been a noticeable increase in the uneasiness I feel over the actions of the Chinese government over the past several years.
This is a scary time to live in China
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who hopes for a free China
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
Please Accept My Humble Apologies
I have over the years made rather well deserved fun over the strange first names you find in Hong Kong. While giving lip service to the idea that other people in other places might have names as strange I never really believed it.
Well Marijuana Sawyer takes the prize. Chocolate Cake Wong, Swim Ng and Shampoo Chan are a distant second. (Yes those are actual people I've met.)
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who in real life has a normal name
Well Marijuana Sawyer takes the prize. Chocolate Cake Wong, Swim Ng and Shampoo Chan are a distant second. (Yes those are actual people I've met.)
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who in real life has a normal name
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Remembering Grief
I remember when I was watching television with my wife ten years ago and the phone rang. It was our friend from Singapore and he asked if we'd seen the buildings? Because TVB was slow to the disaster we hadn't and then Jenny Lam broke into the evening show and TVB cut to footage from ABC just as the second plane hit the second building.
We watched in horror for the next several hours. We saw the collapse of the buildings I walked as zombie for several days afterward, unable to sleep much or concentrate. I watched as Muslims in various cities celebrated over this and called it a great act of Jihad. I literally prayed for every Muslim I saw for several years after that; I prayed that they'd find true peace and abandon their filthy cult of death. My prayer was that by September 11, 2051 800 million Muslims would come to Christ. I still do. If that makes me less than politically correct or unenlightened then so be it. The current wars the the US fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan are not, as the Islamist claim Crusades. Would that they were, the world would be a better place without the followers of that false prophet who announces the anti-Christ
I am generally apathetic about US politics. But I saw the speech below when it was televised later that week. I wept then. It still makes me weep. On that evening at least I was proud to be an American
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who has nephews and cousins in Iraq and Afghanistan
We watched in horror for the next several hours. We saw the collapse of the buildings I walked as zombie for several days afterward, unable to sleep much or concentrate. I watched as Muslims in various cities celebrated over this and called it a great act of Jihad. I literally prayed for every Muslim I saw for several years after that; I prayed that they'd find true peace and abandon their filthy cult of death. My prayer was that by September 11, 2051 800 million Muslims would come to Christ. I still do. If that makes me less than politically correct or unenlightened then so be it. The current wars the the US fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan are not, as the Islamist claim Crusades. Would that they were, the world would be a better place without the followers of that false prophet who announces the anti-Christ
I am generally apathetic about US politics. But I saw the speech below when it was televised later that week. I wept then. It still makes me weep. On that evening at least I was proud to be an American
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who has nephews and cousins in Iraq and Afghanistan
Tuesday, September 07, 2010
Wednesday, September 01, 2010
The T-Shirt Patrol Strikes Again
I saw a young mother this morning walking her primary school age child up to school. She had a T-shirt that said "Work Hard & Party Naked" Not that I necessarily have any problem with that but I wonder if she could read the shirt? You don't see as many weird T-shirts here as you used to. Several years ago I'd see one every couple of days at least and sometimes several in one day. I don't think that is a reflection on improving English standards in Hong Kong so much as an improving level of not selling overstocks from adult book and gift stores in the street markets. I think the retailers are getting a little more sophisticated.
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who still looks for strange T-Shirts
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who still looks for strange T-Shirts
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Reading
One of the things that seems to have gotten harder over the years is pleasure reading. In a way that is odd since I work as a librarian you'd think I read all the time. Well I do, but only in a professional capacity. I try to read at least four or five juvenile novels a year so that I have some idea what middle-school and high school students are reading. That means that I seldom read anything that I appreciate as an adult. Most of the books read are written for students aged from about 10 to 17 and while they are sometimes very good indeed, most of the time they are are not very good at all.I don't count those because I am reading them as part of my job. I don't have a great deal of time to simply read something because I want too.
I ran into an exception this week. I read The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa.I read it because it is a book that is read by the high school students in the school where I work in the 11th grade.
I was absolutely stunned by this book and it will haunt my thinking for weeks to come. I am sure I will read it again. It is a lovely book.
Like all really good books it is utterly unbelievable. I think that is why the book works so well. While the themes and ideas presented are simply stunning; generally speaking only talking animal books, Watership Down, The Book of the Dunn Cow or The Wind in the Willows can deal with subjects in the way this book does because we know humans too well to talk like this. In a normal novel the professor would be contrived or corny and he isn't in this book.
The basic plot of the book is that a 28 year-old, unmarried mother who is the daughter of an unmarried mother is sent to work as a housekeeper for a retired professor of mathematics, a genius, who has only 80 minutes of short term memory because of brain damage in an automobile accident many years before. After 80 minutes he forgets everything and everybody. The professor can remember everything in his life until 1977 but has to write note to himself for important things in order to live. He does not remember the housekeeper from day to day; or even from morning until after lunch. The housekeeper has to struggle to find ways to deal with this most eccentric of old men. In the process she becomes his friend and he becomes something of a father figure to her son. And yet, because he cannot remember them from day to day cannot return their affection.
Something that I found especially odd about this book is that only one of the main characters is named and he never speaks. A main character in the book is a famous Japanese baseball player Enatsu, who was a favorite of the professor before the accident. The housekeeper's young son is always referred to by the nick-name the professor gives him "Root" never his real name. You never find out the name of the housekeeper, the professor, Root, the professors widowed sister-in-law or any of the other people in the book. In a sense that helps the reader to internalize this book and makes it more personal. It is just assumed that you know every-bodies name.
You'll learn a lot about math from this book and wish knew more.
You will also struggle to be thankful fort being able to wake up and know your name.
To say more would be to spoil the book for you.
I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a read that is more than simple entertainment.
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who should really read more
I ran into an exception this week. I read The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa.I read it because it is a book that is read by the high school students in the school where I work in the 11th grade.
I was absolutely stunned by this book and it will haunt my thinking for weeks to come. I am sure I will read it again. It is a lovely book.
Like all really good books it is utterly unbelievable. I think that is why the book works so well. While the themes and ideas presented are simply stunning; generally speaking only talking animal books, Watership Down, The Book of the Dunn Cow or The Wind in the Willows can deal with subjects in the way this book does because we know humans too well to talk like this. In a normal novel the professor would be contrived or corny and he isn't in this book.
The basic plot of the book is that a 28 year-old, unmarried mother who is the daughter of an unmarried mother is sent to work as a housekeeper for a retired professor of mathematics, a genius, who has only 80 minutes of short term memory because of brain damage in an automobile accident many years before. After 80 minutes he forgets everything and everybody. The professor can remember everything in his life until 1977 but has to write note to himself for important things in order to live. He does not remember the housekeeper from day to day; or even from morning until after lunch. The housekeeper has to struggle to find ways to deal with this most eccentric of old men. In the process she becomes his friend and he becomes something of a father figure to her son. And yet, because he cannot remember them from day to day cannot return their affection.
Something that I found especially odd about this book is that only one of the main characters is named and he never speaks. A main character in the book is a famous Japanese baseball player Enatsu, who was a favorite of the professor before the accident. The housekeeper's young son is always referred to by the nick-name the professor gives him "Root" never his real name. You never find out the name of the housekeeper, the professor, Root, the professors widowed sister-in-law or any of the other people in the book. In a sense that helps the reader to internalize this book and makes it more personal. It is just assumed that you know every-bodies name.
You'll learn a lot about math from this book and wish knew more.
You will also struggle to be thankful fort being able to wake up and know your name.
To say more would be to spoil the book for you.
I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a read that is more than simple entertainment.
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who should really read more
Saturday, August 14, 2010
The Long Road Home
After a summer of traveling we returned home to find jobs waiting for us and a buyer for the Causeway Bay flat with cash in hand. The really-pretty-looks-25-years-younger-than-she-is-smart-hard-working-Chinese-wife and I were suddenly in moving mode. We'd purchased the flat in Causeway Bay as an investment and never really thought that we'd live there. It turned out to be the place we've lived longer than any other place since we've been married. We owned that flat nearly 10 years and there were a lot of memories tied up in it but I was still glad to leave. Sometimes we see stories on the news or in the media about people that have lived in one place for 40, 50 or 60 years. This is presented as some sort of virtue but I wonder about that.
I think it is good to move house every so often and this was the time for us to move.
We invest the places we live with part of ourselves. The pictures on the wall the paint on the door, the curtains and even the scratches and wear on the floor become comforting and make us feel secure. A home home also ties us to our past and as we age it becomes important to move on or we may find that we cannot move at all. When I was younger I used to live up the road from an old woman, in her 90's, who had one child, a son and he died in accident along with her husband when the son was about 8 or 9 years-old. She never remarried and still had her dead husbands clothing in the closet and the little boys bedroom just as it had been 65 years before. She'd grown old but hadn't really noticed because she was trapped in the past. She should have moved on past those tragic deaths but couldn't and I think that after awhile it was the house that trapped her.
Mrs Mao and I have had nothing that tragic happen to us but as empty-nesters it was time to move on. Our kids are grown, married and gone. All we have left besides photographs is the occasional Email and even rarer visit. That isn't a sad or bad thing, it is life. They have their own families and their own concerns. They are doing well enough and I guess I should feel thankful that they seem to be happy in their lives and done bother us for huge piles of cash. Yet, in the Causeway Bay flat we were tied to an earlier time. Symbolically moving was a way to start again; to move on into the next phase of life.
Because we both work in the New Territories it made sense for us to be there rather than on Hong Kong Island.
Until Next Time
Fai MAo
The Blogger with a new home
I think it is good to move house every so often and this was the time for us to move.
We invest the places we live with part of ourselves. The pictures on the wall the paint on the door, the curtains and even the scratches and wear on the floor become comforting and make us feel secure. A home home also ties us to our past and as we age it becomes important to move on or we may find that we cannot move at all. When I was younger I used to live up the road from an old woman, in her 90's, who had one child, a son and he died in accident along with her husband when the son was about 8 or 9 years-old. She never remarried and still had her dead husbands clothing in the closet and the little boys bedroom just as it had been 65 years before. She'd grown old but hadn't really noticed because she was trapped in the past. She should have moved on past those tragic deaths but couldn't and I think that after awhile it was the house that trapped her.
Mrs Mao and I have had nothing that tragic happen to us but as empty-nesters it was time to move on. Our kids are grown, married and gone. All we have left besides photographs is the occasional Email and even rarer visit. That isn't a sad or bad thing, it is life. They have their own families and their own concerns. They are doing well enough and I guess I should feel thankful that they seem to be happy in their lives and done bother us for huge piles of cash. Yet, in the Causeway Bay flat we were tied to an earlier time. Symbolically moving was a way to start again; to move on into the next phase of life.
Because we both work in the New Territories it made sense for us to be there rather than on Hong Kong Island.
Until Next Time
Fai MAo
The Blogger with a new home
Sunday, July 11, 2010
More lies - But then they never tell the truth
Nothing these people say is true. They are all liars, all the time.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Hold on to your Hats
I thought that I was the only one who could see this coming.
The Chinese boom is actually a Chinese bubble. Not only for the reasons listed in the article but because of the one child policy which will mean there are fewer workers to work in the coming years thus each worker will be worth more; but also the fact that 1/2 the smokers in the world live in China and what is going to happen when those 30 year-old smokers become 50 year-old cancer stricken coughers?
This is actually a huge oportunity for Hong Kong if the government and people here are smart enough to see it.
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The blogger who still lives in China
The Chinese boom is actually a Chinese bubble. Not only for the reasons listed in the article but because of the one child policy which will mean there are fewer workers to work in the coming years thus each worker will be worth more; but also the fact that 1/2 the smokers in the world live in China and what is going to happen when those 30 year-old smokers become 50 year-old cancer stricken coughers?
This is actually a huge oportunity for Hong Kong if the government and people here are smart enough to see it.
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The blogger who still lives in China
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
On Patriotism
As a Hong Konger who is from somewhere else I find the expression of and lack of expression of patriotism by the general population in Hong Kong to be quite odd. It seems that either the population is somewhat rabidly pro PRC or distrustful of it and have a suitcase packed in case the tanks roll down Queen's road. There is no in between. We are either fully supportive or just here for the money. Indeed, perhaps the most loyal Hong Kongers that I have met are the expats from really slimy and oppression places like Rwanda and London where they understand the problems that come from living in a society that lacks respect for basic human dignity. Thus, I am not sure how much the article I've linked too above can be extrapolated into similar feeling about Hong Kong. I would still like to know how many citizens here describe themselves as "patriotic?"
I watched the parade and demonstrations here in "The Pearl of the Orient" on July 1st. Since I live in Causeway Bay I had very little choice! Group against group and party insulting party. What should be a day that is a celebration of the return to China, which no matter how imperfect a nation is the proper place for Hong Kong to be part of; has instead become a day that has been turned into just another chance to show how intolerant and childish we are of others.Why can't we have a holiday where we simply express how happy we are to be Hong Kongers; where we put aside, if only for a little while political differences and squabbles and celebrate the good things about each other and the city where we live?
Until Next Time
Fai mao
The Blogger who likes where he lives
I watched the parade and demonstrations here in "The Pearl of the Orient" on July 1st. Since I live in Causeway Bay I had very little choice! Group against group and party insulting party. What should be a day that is a celebration of the return to China, which no matter how imperfect a nation is the proper place for Hong Kong to be part of; has instead become a day that has been turned into just another chance to show how intolerant and childish we are of others.Why can't we have a holiday where we simply express how happy we are to be Hong Kongers; where we put aside, if only for a little while political differences and squabbles and celebrate the good things about each other and the city where we live?
Until Next Time
Fai mao
The Blogger who likes where he lives
Friday, July 02, 2010
Looking foward to fall
This is turning out to be the summer of my discontent. Last spring was ridiculously busy and I had trouble finding time to post Summers are always problematic because I am often out of Hong Kong. I am something of a technology Saboteur in that I do not carry a cell phone or one of those devices which would allow me to post from wherever I am. I post from from home or from work. If I am not one of those places I don't post
I am home for the next couple of weeks.
Yesterday was a trapped in the flat day as the yearly mish-mash of protesters, party sympathizers and running dogs and radicals were all out marching and waving their banners and shouting slogans. I actually think that the people who are worried about Hong Kong being a free place should take a step back and look at Victoria Park yesterday.
Until Tomorrow
Fai Mao
The Blogger who needs to get back in the habit of posting everyday
I am home for the next couple of weeks.
Yesterday was a trapped in the flat day as the yearly mish-mash of protesters, party sympathizers and running dogs and radicals were all out marching and waving their banners and shouting slogans. I actually think that the people who are worried about Hong Kong being a free place should take a step back and look at Victoria Park yesterday.
Until Tomorrow
Fai Mao
The Blogger who needs to get back in the habit of posting everyday
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
50 things that make you a better person +1
This is cross posted from Martin Freeberg's Blog
Fifty Things That Make You a Better Person
A short time ago The Blog That Nobody Reads put up a list of one hundred things that do not make you a better person. We perceived then, and still maintain today, that the need for the list was present, intense and palpable. People nowadays seem to be grasping at straws, trying to find ways to show their wonderfulness; and the things they do to show off their wonderfulness, overall, do not seem to have beneficial effect.
Frankly, over the years we have come to see this as something of a crisis. We’d even go so far as to say society would be better off if everyone just chucked the whole effort, and contented themselves with regarding all others as a bunch of stinkers, and being seen that way.
We had many thoughts about the ensuing reactions to this list, which we jotted down during vacation. We were most impressed by this: If you measure the response by nose, it seems close to ninety percent of the readers agreed with us. If you measured it by perceived volume, the ratio became reversed. To put it more simply, those who objected to our list objected loudly and forcefully, toward the end of projecting greater numbers in their camp than it seems actually exist. And they seem to be doing this deliberately. It seems they’ve picked out their chosen techniques for demonstrating some cosmetic personal wonderfulness they don’t really have; showing it over and over again, manic-compulsively, takes enough of their energy and they aren’t terribly receptive to having to contend with debates about whether the wonderfulness is genuine or not. Wasn’t part of their plan.
It occurs to me that perhaps there’d be less consternation and contention if alternatives were provided. How can people show off their wonderfulness? My short answer would be: Just stop showing off. After all, if you look to others to confirm that you’re wonderful, and what you’re really after is self-confidence, obviously you’re never going to get there — you have to develop your own internal barometer for your wonderfulness. You need to be sure. You have to get hard-nosed enough that a whole room full of people can tell you you’re wrong about something, and deep down you’ll still know you’re right. You have to measure this independently.
I was not able to come up with a list of a hundred things that really do show you’re a better person. But I did come up with fifty.
1. Run.
2. Walk.
3. Ride a bicycle.
4. Run, walk or ride, just a little bit further than you ever have before. Make records. Break them with new records. Then break those.
5. Read until you find a word you’ve never seen before. Find out what it means. Use it…just once. Then do it all over again.
6. Notice some things about what people do that you’ve not heard of anyone else noticing. Point it out.
7. Donate — anonymously.
8. Open a door for a pretty girl.
9. Open a door for an ugly girl.
10. Teach a child a new skill.
11. Make a list of things to do for your entire day. Cut it off at five. Make a list for the entire week. Cut it off at seven. Make sure each one is all-the-way-done.
12. Make a pot of coffee while your girlfriend/boyfriend/husband/wife is still sleeping. Prepare a cup exactly the way they like it, and bring it to them.
13. Stop an echo.
14. If someone’s working hard to sell you something, and the product makes sense to you, buy it. If it doesn’t, tell them why you aren’t buying. Tell them exactly why. The whole story. Whether you think they can do something about it, or not. Put them in charge of figuring out the next move.
15. Find someone you know who is doing more than their share of the work. Figure out if there’s anything you can do to help. If you can do this, then get it done. If you can’t, ask.
16. If you can see the bartender is one of these workhorses that keeps the whole place from collapsing, and she’s keeping track of what’s going on, taking initiative, but doesn’t enjoy any advancement or seniority from any of this, tip her something crazy. I mean, like 150% percent. Tell her why.
17. If you see a soldier out celebrating his safe return with his girl, motion your waiter over and tell him you’d like to settle the soldier’s bill.
18. If you can do #17 anonymously, do so.
19. If you cannot, give the soldier a great big thank you.
20. Find some arcane political issue you’ve never understood. Read up on it until you do understand it.
21. Always vote down whatever creates a new “civil right” that didn’t exist before, since this would deprive someone of freedom.
22. Also, anything that would nationalize an industry or function that is currently within the private sector. We’ve moved far enough in that direction already.
23. Whatever would make litigation more plentiful or likely, because hey, who really wants to live in a world like that.
24. Everything that would make it more difficult or impractical to start, buy or manage a business; if the thing we want is a stronger economy, then let’s start working toward that.
25. Find out who is responsible for the proposed laws that fit #21, #22, #23 and #24, and vote them out of office. Something tells me they don’t really want to be working at anything anyway.
26. Always give kids the bigger picture. If you’re watching a thirty year old television show with a twelve-year-old, explain Watergate and Nadia Comaneci, so he knows why bad guys had to wear business suits and good guys had to rescue Russian gymnasts who were trying to escape bad guys in nice business suits.
27. Completely sidestep it when a liberal veers off the subject of the argument, and starts evaluating your worthiness as a person. Just come out and tell him: Yes, maybe I’m a creep, but back to the subject at hand…your idea won’t work. Keep doing it.
28. Grab the grocery cart that jerk has let loose in in the middle of the parking lot; use it as yours if you’re looking for one, otherwise put it where it belongs.
29. Pick up litter.
30. On a rainy day, hold your umbrella over the head of a woman who forgot to bring hers.
31. If you know an old person who is living independently, see what you can do about delivering their groceries.
32. Take lots of pictures.
33. Show them to people.
34. Put them on the Internet, if that’s appropriate…
35. Having your life at the mercy of a complex piece of machinery is a privilege and an opportunity, not a problem or a burden. If your home computer does things you don’t understand, find out what those things are and figure out how they work.
36. If you’re told the rules say you can’t do it, take the time to find out what rule that is. Make them tell you.
37. Better yet: Call back, get a different person on the line, find out if they’ve ever heard of this rule, and if that really makes it impossible.
38. Even better still: Find out what it takes to change the rule. People who lack this vision, shouldn’t have control over the people who have it.
39. If you gave someone some money because they needed it, and a very short time later they need more, find out why.
40. If someone is angry and you have the opportunity to mollify them by doing something, remember Thing I Know #52. Put some real thought into maybe letting them stay as angry as they want to be.
41. Usually when people are unwilling to consider clearly superior alternatives, it’s because they don’t have a full reckoning of the consequences of what they want to do. This is especially true if they refuse to allow anyone else to get a word in edgewise. See what you can do about letting them feel the full weight of the consequences, you might be doing them a favor.
42. Combine your bill-paying into your exercise routine.
43. Project what day your bills are due, with what day-of-week that is. Plan it out three months in advance, and see if you can pay every single bill a little bit early.
44. Browse a store that sells fine, reliable tools. Then browse your home looking for something that doesn’t work quite right. Repeat, and repeat again, until you can define an inexpensive project that will improve things. Then do it. Keep doing this. Think creatively. Build things that work for you, regardless of whether they’d be right for anybody else.
45. Follow objectives, not procedures. If there is a list of steps in your life that you have to follow, take the time to learn about each step until the list itself comes to mean nothing. See if you can learn enough to improve the list.
46. If the teevee show is put on the teevee to indoctrinate, rather than to entertain, change the channel.
47. If the school’s special activity is there to indoctrinate rather than to educate, pull your child out of it.
48. This one is for my blogger friend Daphne, who is currently stressing (although I’m sure she doesn’t really need to be told): Don’t keep your kids away from dangerous things. Put together a list of safety rules; make sure it is right. Triple check it. Make sure they understand all of the rules and competently practice them. Then let ‘em go do it.
49. Find something people had to know how to do, back in your grandparents’ time, that they don’t have to know how to do today. Figure out how to do it. Even better, figure this out with your kids.
50. Find someone who wants, desperately, to be wonderful; point out to them the things they have already done that are genuinely wonderful, and make sure they know they are admired for this. Maybe you can stop them from supporting liberals.
51. Learn to tell the difference between opinion and principle and base you decisions upon principle
Thanks Martin for a great list
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who will cross post
Fifty Things That Make You a Better Person
Sunday, June 13th, 2010
A short time ago The Blog That Nobody Reads put up a list of one hundred things that do not make you a better person. We perceived then, and still maintain today, that the need for the list was present, intense and palpable. People nowadays seem to be grasping at straws, trying to find ways to show their wonderfulness; and the things they do to show off their wonderfulness, overall, do not seem to have beneficial effect.Frankly, over the years we have come to see this as something of a crisis. We’d even go so far as to say society would be better off if everyone just chucked the whole effort, and contented themselves with regarding all others as a bunch of stinkers, and being seen that way.
We had many thoughts about the ensuing reactions to this list, which we jotted down during vacation. We were most impressed by this: If you measure the response by nose, it seems close to ninety percent of the readers agreed with us. If you measured it by perceived volume, the ratio became reversed. To put it more simply, those who objected to our list objected loudly and forcefully, toward the end of projecting greater numbers in their camp than it seems actually exist. And they seem to be doing this deliberately. It seems they’ve picked out their chosen techniques for demonstrating some cosmetic personal wonderfulness they don’t really have; showing it over and over again, manic-compulsively, takes enough of their energy and they aren’t terribly receptive to having to contend with debates about whether the wonderfulness is genuine or not. Wasn’t part of their plan.
It occurs to me that perhaps there’d be less consternation and contention if alternatives were provided. How can people show off their wonderfulness? My short answer would be: Just stop showing off. After all, if you look to others to confirm that you’re wonderful, and what you’re really after is self-confidence, obviously you’re never going to get there — you have to develop your own internal barometer for your wonderfulness. You need to be sure. You have to get hard-nosed enough that a whole room full of people can tell you you’re wrong about something, and deep down you’ll still know you’re right. You have to measure this independently.
I was not able to come up with a list of a hundred things that really do show you’re a better person. But I did come up with fifty.
1. Run.
2. Walk.
3. Ride a bicycle.
4. Run, walk or ride, just a little bit further than you ever have before. Make records. Break them with new records. Then break those.
5. Read until you find a word you’ve never seen before. Find out what it means. Use it…just once. Then do it all over again.
6. Notice some things about what people do that you’ve not heard of anyone else noticing. Point it out.
7. Donate — anonymously.
8. Open a door for a pretty girl.
9. Open a door for an ugly girl.
10. Teach a child a new skill.
11. Make a list of things to do for your entire day. Cut it off at five. Make a list for the entire week. Cut it off at seven. Make sure each one is all-the-way-done.
12. Make a pot of coffee while your girlfriend/boyfriend/husband/wife is still sleeping. Prepare a cup exactly the way they like it, and bring it to them.
13. Stop an echo.
14. If someone’s working hard to sell you something, and the product makes sense to you, buy it. If it doesn’t, tell them why you aren’t buying. Tell them exactly why. The whole story. Whether you think they can do something about it, or not. Put them in charge of figuring out the next move.
15. Find someone you know who is doing more than their share of the work. Figure out if there’s anything you can do to help. If you can do this, then get it done. If you can’t, ask.
16. If you can see the bartender is one of these workhorses that keeps the whole place from collapsing, and she’s keeping track of what’s going on, taking initiative, but doesn’t enjoy any advancement or seniority from any of this, tip her something crazy. I mean, like 150% percent. Tell her why.
17. If you see a soldier out celebrating his safe return with his girl, motion your waiter over and tell him you’d like to settle the soldier’s bill.
18. If you can do #17 anonymously, do so.
19. If you cannot, give the soldier a great big thank you.
20. Find some arcane political issue you’ve never understood. Read up on it until you do understand it.
21. Always vote down whatever creates a new “civil right” that didn’t exist before, since this would deprive someone of freedom.
22. Also, anything that would nationalize an industry or function that is currently within the private sector. We’ve moved far enough in that direction already.
23. Whatever would make litigation more plentiful or likely, because hey, who really wants to live in a world like that.
24. Everything that would make it more difficult or impractical to start, buy or manage a business; if the thing we want is a stronger economy, then let’s start working toward that.
25. Find out who is responsible for the proposed laws that fit #21, #22, #23 and #24, and vote them out of office. Something tells me they don’t really want to be working at anything anyway.
26. Always give kids the bigger picture. If you’re watching a thirty year old television show with a twelve-year-old, explain Watergate and Nadia Comaneci, so he knows why bad guys had to wear business suits and good guys had to rescue Russian gymnasts who were trying to escape bad guys in nice business suits.
27. Completely sidestep it when a liberal veers off the subject of the argument, and starts evaluating your worthiness as a person. Just come out and tell him: Yes, maybe I’m a creep, but back to the subject at hand…your idea won’t work. Keep doing it.
28. Grab the grocery cart that jerk has let loose in in the middle of the parking lot; use it as yours if you’re looking for one, otherwise put it where it belongs.
29. Pick up litter.
30. On a rainy day, hold your umbrella over the head of a woman who forgot to bring hers.
31. If you know an old person who is living independently, see what you can do about delivering their groceries.
32. Take lots of pictures.
33. Show them to people.
34. Put them on the Internet, if that’s appropriate…
35. Having your life at the mercy of a complex piece of machinery is a privilege and an opportunity, not a problem or a burden. If your home computer does things you don’t understand, find out what those things are and figure out how they work.
36. If you’re told the rules say you can’t do it, take the time to find out what rule that is. Make them tell you.
37. Better yet: Call back, get a different person on the line, find out if they’ve ever heard of this rule, and if that really makes it impossible.
38. Even better still: Find out what it takes to change the rule. People who lack this vision, shouldn’t have control over the people who have it.
39. If you gave someone some money because they needed it, and a very short time later they need more, find out why.
40. If someone is angry and you have the opportunity to mollify them by doing something, remember Thing I Know #52. Put some real thought into maybe letting them stay as angry as they want to be.
41. Usually when people are unwilling to consider clearly superior alternatives, it’s because they don’t have a full reckoning of the consequences of what they want to do. This is especially true if they refuse to allow anyone else to get a word in edgewise. See what you can do about letting them feel the full weight of the consequences, you might be doing them a favor.
42. Combine your bill-paying into your exercise routine.
43. Project what day your bills are due, with what day-of-week that is. Plan it out three months in advance, and see if you can pay every single bill a little bit early.
44. Browse a store that sells fine, reliable tools. Then browse your home looking for something that doesn’t work quite right. Repeat, and repeat again, until you can define an inexpensive project that will improve things. Then do it. Keep doing this. Think creatively. Build things that work for you, regardless of whether they’d be right for anybody else.
45. Follow objectives, not procedures. If there is a list of steps in your life that you have to follow, take the time to learn about each step until the list itself comes to mean nothing. See if you can learn enough to improve the list.
46. If the teevee show is put on the teevee to indoctrinate, rather than to entertain, change the channel.
47. If the school’s special activity is there to indoctrinate rather than to educate, pull your child out of it.
48. This one is for my blogger friend Daphne, who is currently stressing (although I’m sure she doesn’t really need to be told): Don’t keep your kids away from dangerous things. Put together a list of safety rules; make sure it is right. Triple check it. Make sure they understand all of the rules and competently practice them. Then let ‘em go do it.
49. Find something people had to know how to do, back in your grandparents’ time, that they don’t have to know how to do today. Figure out how to do it. Even better, figure this out with your kids.
50. Find someone who wants, desperately, to be wonderful; point out to them the things they have already done that are genuinely wonderful, and make sure they know they are admired for this. Maybe you can stop them from supporting liberals.
51. Learn to tell the difference between opinion and principle and base you decisions upon principle
Thanks Martin for a great list
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who will cross post
Up for air
This has been an incredible month for being busy.
Hopefully I'll be able to post more. It isn't as if there has been nothing to write about, there has been pleanty. I've just been too tied and tied up to say anything.
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
Hopefully I'll be able to post more. It isn't as if there has been nothing to write about, there has been pleanty. I've just been too tied and tied up to say anything.
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Some General Information
I received a rather strident, but not unexpected comment from someone regarding a previous post on the problematic behavior of domestic helper picnics on the sidewalks in Hong Kong. It started with the rather predictable. "These women are treated like slaves"
Two words: B.S.
They are not slaves. Nobody forced them onto a slave ship. They were not "Sold" at a market and they can quit any time they want. At the end of a two year contract the employer has to pay their way back home. They often quit in the middle of a contract and either return to where they came from or find another employer in Hong Kong. They have garanteed days off and holidays. None of those things are rights that slaves have.
More than that, domestic helpers are not particularly low paid by Hong Kong standards.
Domestic helpers in Hong Kong have a higher actual salary, when you include their benefits and more days off than many of the locals in Hong Kong.
The commentor says "I don't believe that!" Well let us add it up: Domestic Helpers make about $3500 Hong Kong dollars a month in basic salary. All of that is disposable income because they are provided room and board and you have to look at the cost of that as well in figuring their salary. How much is that worth? Well a small room with a shared bathroom and some kitchen privileges in Causeway Bay is about $2500 a month. Figure that food cost the average low wage earner in Hong Kong about $50.00 a day assuming they do not eat out. Maids have to have an insurance policy provided for them by the employer; which cost about $500.00 a month. They are provided airfare home once a year which must be figured into their income. When all of this is put into the total, a maid in Hong Kong actually has a life style closer to a local person making about $8000.00 a month. They don't work more hours than many other professions like security guards or those in food-service or hotels, indeed even most rather high-dollar jobs here require lots of hours. So, let us assume a maid is on duty 12 hours a day, six days a week. That comes to 72 hours a week and 288 hours a month or about the average for a job in Hong Kong. $8000 a month divided by 288 is about 28 dollars an hour. Lots of people in Hong Kong do not make that much. Please notice, my wife and I looked at hiring a maid and this is how I know these figures.
Now are some, possible a high percentage of the maids done hard by their employers? Yes, certainly. Does that mean that all employers treat them poorly? No, it doesn't.
However, whether the domestic helpers are treated badly by their employers our not is irrelevant to my point. They maids I complained about were having a picnic on a pedestrian bridge that was over a busy street. The police will not let pedestrians block that bridge for other purposes, we can they? If it is a traffic hazard for the normal population to do this then it is a traffic hazard for domestic helpers to do so as well. Their working conditions have nothing to do with it.
If the other low income workers in Hong Kong cannot picnic on the sidewalk then the domestic helpers should not be allowed to either. I would bet that the person making the comment drives a car, and thus does not have to walk over the maids.
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger without a maid
Two words: B.S.
They are not slaves. Nobody forced them onto a slave ship. They were not "Sold" at a market and they can quit any time they want. At the end of a two year contract the employer has to pay their way back home. They often quit in the middle of a contract and either return to where they came from or find another employer in Hong Kong. They have garanteed days off and holidays. None of those things are rights that slaves have.
More than that, domestic helpers are not particularly low paid by Hong Kong standards.
Domestic helpers in Hong Kong have a higher actual salary, when you include their benefits and more days off than many of the locals in Hong Kong.
The commentor says "I don't believe that!" Well let us add it up: Domestic Helpers make about $3500 Hong Kong dollars a month in basic salary. All of that is disposable income because they are provided room and board and you have to look at the cost of that as well in figuring their salary. How much is that worth? Well a small room with a shared bathroom and some kitchen privileges in Causeway Bay is about $2500 a month. Figure that food cost the average low wage earner in Hong Kong about $50.00 a day assuming they do not eat out. Maids have to have an insurance policy provided for them by the employer; which cost about $500.00 a month. They are provided airfare home once a year which must be figured into their income. When all of this is put into the total, a maid in Hong Kong actually has a life style closer to a local person making about $8000.00 a month. They don't work more hours than many other professions like security guards or those in food-service or hotels, indeed even most rather high-dollar jobs here require lots of hours. So, let us assume a maid is on duty 12 hours a day, six days a week. That comes to 72 hours a week and 288 hours a month or about the average for a job in Hong Kong. $8000 a month divided by 288 is about 28 dollars an hour. Lots of people in Hong Kong do not make that much. Please notice, my wife and I looked at hiring a maid and this is how I know these figures.
Now are some, possible a high percentage of the maids done hard by their employers? Yes, certainly. Does that mean that all employers treat them poorly? No, it doesn't.
However, whether the domestic helpers are treated badly by their employers our not is irrelevant to my point. They maids I complained about were having a picnic on a pedestrian bridge that was over a busy street. The police will not let pedestrians block that bridge for other purposes, we can they? If it is a traffic hazard for the normal population to do this then it is a traffic hazard for domestic helpers to do so as well. Their working conditions have nothing to do with it.
If the other low income workers in Hong Kong cannot picnic on the sidewalk then the domestic helpers should not be allowed to either. I would bet that the person making the comment drives a car, and thus does not have to walk over the maids.
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger without a maid
Friday, May 14, 2010
Dogs in Space
Did they have melamine in the milk powder?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who does not eat dogs
Inquiring minds want to know.
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who does not eat dogs
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