Although I am reading constantly for school these days, I haven't written anything in ages, and it is really starting to bother me. I had writers' block for such a long time in the past, finally beat it, and then now I find myself beginning to slip back towards having it again.
This week I was in Rome for an energy conference(http://www.energymeeting.it/REM2008/it/index.html).
It was my first time visiting Rome, and I enjoyed it quite a lot. The city felt big and spacious, but on the other hand the ancientness and beauty of the buildings was almost overwhelming.
The speeches at the conference were fascinating. The speakers were drawn from Italy, Russia, the United States, and the Middle East. The speeches spanned such topics as Energy Security, Gas, Oil, Climate Change, and Nuclear Power.
One thing that caused me to be slightly taken aback was that one of the speakers noted that China is building the majority of the new nuclear power capacity in the world. Naturally, at the moment, China is heavily reliant on coal power, and the amount of greenhouse gas emissions from China and India are projected to make up the majority of the new greenhouse emissions in the next 30 years, which will destroy the world's environment if not stopped. China is projected to add at least 60 gigawatts of nuclear power production capacity. While I knew this in the back of my head, the reminder was much appreciated.
At the conference, there was a speaker from the IEA who spoke on climate change. I was somewhat dismayed by the fact that he spoke only about two possible climate change scenarios- one in which atmospheric carbon dioxide would be stopped at 550 parts per million, and another, the more 'optimistic' blue scenario, in which the atmospheric C02 would be stopped around 450 parts per million. The 350 parts per million green scenario was not mentioned, and this was rather disconcerting to me, as this is the more or less ideal scenario that should be aimed for when controlling climate change.
So many things to do these days, I only hope that I have time to put everything together at the end of the day.
11.15.2008
5.13.2008
list of things we can do without, thereby preventing global warming and pollution
Air conditioners
television
automobiles
motor sports
large wardrobes
carnivorous diets?
Out of the list above, the no-brainer is the large wardrobe.
One can argue that the air conditioner is a necessity in hotter climates; however, the same effect may be reached by drinking cold fluids and swimming- in the worst case, one would have to take siesta during the hot hours of the day.
Automobiles must either be fixed to be energy efficient or banned if an efficient solution is not readily available.
Motorsports are a subcategory of the automobile issue- while they are probably not widely-polluting, they also do not serve much purpose, and hence they may be banned.
Television sets resemble automobiles in that they must either be made extremely energy-efficient, or banned.
television
automobiles
motor sports
large wardrobes
carnivorous diets?
Out of the list above, the no-brainer is the large wardrobe.
One can argue that the air conditioner is a necessity in hotter climates; however, the same effect may be reached by drinking cold fluids and swimming- in the worst case, one would have to take siesta during the hot hours of the day.
Automobiles must either be fixed to be energy efficient or banned if an efficient solution is not readily available.
Motorsports are a subcategory of the automobile issue- while they are probably not widely-polluting, they also do not serve much purpose, and hence they may be banned.
Television sets resemble automobiles in that they must either be made extremely energy-efficient, or banned.
5.06.2008
Shanghai Public Transportation
This morning as I was getting the metro, I noticed that there was a normal police officer waiting outside the turnstile at my metro station.
'That is a bit unusual', I thought to myself.
As I walked through the turnstile I noticed two more city guards standing inside the station. Each of the city guards had a bomb sniffing dog by his side.
'Hmmm, this doesn't look good. I wonder if there has been an incident, or if this is just for show,' I thought.
On the off chance that there had been an incident during the morning rush hour, I sent a text to some friends asking whether there had been any new incidents this morning. One of my friends texted me back:
'my cop friend told me not to take public transportation for the next two days. I didn't ask why.'
That certainly made my day. I am now trying to think how I will get home later today. I normally change lines at People's Square. For those of you unfamiliar with the public transportation in Shanghai, the People's Square metro station is an interchange between three lines. The station is a bit old, and extremely crowded during rush hour. In short, if there was anyplace in the Shanghai public transportation system where one might say it was likely that the excrement might hit the fan, People's Square would be the prime candidate.
Certainly, we are cursed to live in interesting times...
Lately I haven't written much here because I have been trapped under a mountain of reading, mainly literature and essays pertaining to the recent nationalism here in the PRC. Interesting times indeed...
4.16.2008
Thursday Malarkey
As now everyone has put 'love China' on their MSN, I have responded in kind by changing my SN to 'love clean nature, free media, democracy, and la mian', because at least China has la mian.
3.27.2008
Risk and its rewards. Disjointed thoughts on a Friday Morning
I have been following the recent comments by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on the recent subprime loan crisis with great interest. He has stated that in future, he will implement regulations which will prevent the occurrence of a similar investment banking crisis.
The sympathetic tone taken by the writers of various NYT and WP articles dealing with fate of the employees of Bear Stearns made me smirk a bit:
'Awww those poor bankers'
But then I stopped and thought: 'really, that could be me right there. I know people who work at Bear Stearns and really, they aren't bad people.'
This got me thinking about why society tends to channel people who are very hardworking, intelligent and motivated into investment banking.
I currently work in an adjunct function to the financial industry and I would say that most people that I have encountered work rather frantically. To quote Jon Candy's character Barf from the Mel Brooks' 'Spaceballs', the reason financial services professionals work so hard "isn't for a lotta money, it's for a SHITLOAD of money". Financial services is an industry where people work as hard as possible and try to find all edges possible in order to maximize their take of the overall resources.
If Paulson really carries out his plan to throw further regulation into the mix, a fair amount of the edge that certain players in the game possess will be negated, thereby make the game unprofitable.
To me, it seems as though the cart has been put before the horse. Changing the rules of the game doesn't really change the fact that everyone is playing. As long as the prizes are the same, people will want to play, and will always work hard to win, at times bending the rules.
From an economic standpoint as long as society in the US rewards greed, things won't change. I hate talking about human nature but really it is obvious that the goals of a person without any spiritual motivation are just to maximize resources and reproduce. Aunque el mono se vesta de seda, el mono se queda...
As to which jobs should ideally receive the maximum reward, i would prefer that jobs competing against nature, or creating things which are useful, rather than jobs which involve competition against other people, should receive the highest amount of benefit. In such a society, firefighters, policeman, doctors, engineers and artists would make more than bankers and lawyers.
However it seems that in many ways there are two axes to this graph. On one hand, we have the level of benefit to society- this axis determines the level of desire that an overall society should have for individuals performing a certain job.
Firefighters, for example, are very beneficial- on the other hand, while performing the work of a firefighter is physically strenuous and dangerous, it is not mentally taxing. Being a banker is marginally beneficial to society, but the work is exhausting, and hence highly lucrative.
The level of reward and also the level of difficulty channel people with various disparate talents into various fields of work...
Granted, I like making bling (and the nice steaks, trips to Japan, and assorted stuff I can use my money to buy) as much as the next guy, but it would seem that in a macro sense, the work that I am doing, while it is beneficial to ME, is not necessarily particularly beneficial to everybody...
The sympathetic tone taken by the writers of various NYT and WP articles dealing with fate of the employees of Bear Stearns made me smirk a bit:
'Awww those poor bankers'
But then I stopped and thought: 'really, that could be me right there. I know people who work at Bear Stearns and really, they aren't bad people.'
This got me thinking about why society tends to channel people who are very hardworking, intelligent and motivated into investment banking.
I currently work in an adjunct function to the financial industry and I would say that most people that I have encountered work rather frantically. To quote Jon Candy's character Barf from the Mel Brooks' 'Spaceballs', the reason financial services professionals work so hard "isn't for a lotta money, it's for a SHITLOAD of money". Financial services is an industry where people work as hard as possible and try to find all edges possible in order to maximize their take of the overall resources.
If Paulson really carries out his plan to throw further regulation into the mix, a fair amount of the edge that certain players in the game possess will be negated, thereby make the game unprofitable.
To me, it seems as though the cart has been put before the horse. Changing the rules of the game doesn't really change the fact that everyone is playing. As long as the prizes are the same, people will want to play, and will always work hard to win, at times bending the rules.
From an economic standpoint as long as society in the US rewards greed, things won't change. I hate talking about human nature but really it is obvious that the goals of a person without any spiritual motivation are just to maximize resources and reproduce. Aunque el mono se vesta de seda, el mono se queda...
As to which jobs should ideally receive the maximum reward, i would prefer that jobs competing against nature, or creating things which are useful, rather than jobs which involve competition against other people, should receive the highest amount of benefit. In such a society, firefighters, policeman, doctors, engineers and artists would make more than bankers and lawyers.
However it seems that in many ways there are two axes to this graph. On one hand, we have the level of benefit to society- this axis determines the level of desire that an overall society should have for individuals performing a certain job.
Firefighters, for example, are very beneficial- on the other hand, while performing the work of a firefighter is physically strenuous and dangerous, it is not mentally taxing. Being a banker is marginally beneficial to society, but the work is exhausting, and hence highly lucrative.
The level of reward and also the level of difficulty channel people with various disparate talents into various fields of work...
Granted, I like making bling (and the nice steaks, trips to Japan, and assorted stuff I can use my money to buy) as much as the next guy, but it would seem that in a macro sense, the work that I am doing, while it is beneficial to ME, is not necessarily particularly beneficial to everybody...
3.13.2008
significant news of the day
The news of Taiwan's reversal of its previous ban on Taiwanese banks' investment in the mainland as well as the possibility of making it easier for mainlanders to buy property in Taiwan and for Taiwanese companies to bring mainland workers over sprung out at me as being rather significant for ever so many reasons.
Points of thought:
1) This would seem to indicate a further step towards reunification and a step closer to the end for Taiwanese independence supporters. On the one hand reunification has the possibility of doing many good things for the economy of Taiwan. On the other hand, freedom is a hefty price to pay for a bigger payday. One country, two systems has proven beneficial for a certain portion of residents in HK, but the SAR has experienced strong economic polarization as well.
2) Exposure to Taiwan living may benefit mainland workers.
3) Investment offrun from the mainland property bubble would also be good for the Taiwanese real estate market?
Points of thought:
1) This would seem to indicate a further step towards reunification and a step closer to the end for Taiwanese independence supporters. On the one hand reunification has the possibility of doing many good things for the economy of Taiwan. On the other hand, freedom is a hefty price to pay for a bigger payday. One country, two systems has proven beneficial for a certain portion of residents in HK, but the SAR has experienced strong economic polarization as well.
2) Exposure to Taiwan living may benefit mainland workers.
3) Investment offrun from the mainland property bubble would also be good for the Taiwanese real estate market?
3.04.2008
Bjork, Subprime Loan Crisis
I attended the Bjork concert at the Shanghai International Gymnastics center on Sunday night.
The concert was pretty enjoyable overall, and as far as I could see, most concertgoers enjoyed themselves.
Apparently, at the end of the concert Bjork sang the words "Free Tibet" three times. A video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEUFCK1qBMI The comments make entertaining reading, but I marked a good portion of them as spam for being flamebait.
Bjork's singing is quite incomprehensible, and I don't think that many people could understand what she was saying until afterwards...
This morning I spent 30 minutes this morning watching a very funny slide presentation on the subprime loan crisis, complete with stick figures and swears. Who knew that lawyers could be this funny?
The concert was pretty enjoyable overall, and as far as I could see, most concertgoers enjoyed themselves.
Apparently, at the end of the concert Bjork sang the words "Free Tibet" three times. A video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEUFCK1qBMI The comments make entertaining reading, but I marked a good portion of them as spam for being flamebait.
Bjork's singing is quite incomprehensible, and I don't think that many people could understand what she was saying until afterwards...
This morning I spent 30 minutes this morning watching a very funny slide presentation on the subprime loan crisis, complete with stick figures and swears. Who knew that lawyers could be this funny?
2.20.2008
time and anti-time
＂Ｗｈｙ ｄｏｅｓ ｓｏｍｅｔｈｉｎｇ ｃｏｍｅ ｆｒｏｍ ｎｏｔｈｉｎｇ？＂
Lately I have been thinking about the ultimate question. The universe, where did it come from, and why? Precluding the existence of an omnipotent figure, which would simply shift the onus of causation a further step, the universe simply came from nothing.
Right now my conceptualization of this nothingness is that it is a temperature of absolute zero, or perhaps less than absolute zero. Some property of the nothingness causes matter/energy (same thing anyways, simply at a different energy level) to come into being. This property has to exist, because the existence of me writing this affirms that I exist, and without the beginning of the universe, I could not exist.
Apparently at very cold temperatures, matter crystallizes. However, I would guess that as matter passes below absolute zero, it would become antimatter? Matter plus antimatter causes large explosions, and hence we get a big bang...but what about the matter-antimatter? Where did that come from? Theoretically 'absolute nothing' should contain neither matter nor antimatter?
For that matter, if it was so cold, shouldn't time itself slow down, stop or even reverse itself, as it is a measurement of vibration of subatomic particles(?) Is there anti-time? Even if there were, still that doesn't explain the something from nothing effect.
I also wonder what the connection between the term 无极 in ancient texts and my idea of nothingness, they seem quite similar. 无极---〉阴跟阳---〉太极 yes, there it is, wuji leads to yin and yang, which combined together make taiji...but why why why...
2.13.2008
A clear day in Shanghai
I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.
With my sister visiting, I haven't had much chance to read or think much recently. I have continued with 'Sputnik Sweetheart' but otherwise have not had a chance to put much of a dent in 'The Wealth and Poverty of Nations'.
The wikipedia entry on Frank Herbert gives scant information about his influences. Before becoming successful as a novelist, he worked as a newspaper journalist and magazine editor, as well as working as a photographer for the US Navy Seabees during WWII.
The research for Dune took him six years to complete. Frank Herbert was interested in general semantics, which in many ways seems to base itself on a restatement of David Hume's ideas on causation and the problem of induction. The idea of general semantics is basically to clarify thinking: the 'Litany Against Fear', written above, seems to be a good example of the aim of general semantics. I also see strong similarities between the ideas of general semantics and those written in certain passages in 菜根谭: [君子之心,雨过天晴], as well as [事悟而痴除,性定而動正]in particular spring to mind. English wikipedia has no entry on 菜根谭("Cai Gen Tan", traditional character version), and the Chinese version basically is a blurb saying that it was written in the Ming dynasty and written by 洪自诚.
In reading Jack Vance's books, I am always quite convinced that Vance draw upon his experiences travelling in the Merchant Marine and touring the world when he creates new locales in his novels. Apparently Frank Herbert and Jack Vance were also friends, and they and their respective families lived together in Mexico for some time.
Frank Herbert said the following about writing:
A man is a fool not to put everything he has, at any given moment, into what he is creating. You're there now doing the thing on paper. You're not killing the goose, you're just producing an egg. So I don't worry about inspiration, or anything like that. It's a matter of just sitting down and working. I have never had the problem of a writing block. I've heard about it. I've felt reluctant to write on some days, for whole weeks, or sometimes even longer. I'd much rather go fishing, for example, or go sharpen pencils, or go swimming, or what not. But, later, coming back and reading what I have produced, I am unable to detect the difference between what came easily and when I had to sit down and say, "Well, now it's writing time and now I'll write." There's no difference on paper between the two.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.
With my sister visiting, I haven't had much chance to read or think much recently. I have continued with 'Sputnik Sweetheart' but otherwise have not had a chance to put much of a dent in 'The Wealth and Poverty of Nations'.
The wikipedia entry on Frank Herbert gives scant information about his influences. Before becoming successful as a novelist, he worked as a newspaper journalist and magazine editor, as well as working as a photographer for the US Navy Seabees during WWII.
The research for Dune took him six years to complete. Frank Herbert was interested in general semantics, which in many ways seems to base itself on a restatement of David Hume's ideas on causation and the problem of induction. The idea of general semantics is basically to clarify thinking: the 'Litany Against Fear', written above, seems to be a good example of the aim of general semantics. I also see strong similarities between the ideas of general semantics and those written in certain passages in 菜根谭: [君子之心,雨过天晴], as well as [事悟而痴除,性定而動正]in particular spring to mind. English wikipedia has no entry on 菜根谭("Cai Gen Tan", traditional character version), and the Chinese version basically is a blurb saying that it was written in the Ming dynasty and written by 洪自诚.
In reading Jack Vance's books, I am always quite convinced that Vance draw upon his experiences travelling in the Merchant Marine and touring the world when he creates new locales in his novels. Apparently Frank Herbert and Jack Vance were also friends, and they and their respective families lived together in Mexico for some time.
Frank Herbert said the following about writing:
A man is a fool not to put everything he has, at any given moment, into what he is creating. You're there now doing the thing on paper. You're not killing the goose, you're just producing an egg. So I don't worry about inspiration, or anything like that. It's a matter of just sitting down and working. I have never had the problem of a writing block. I've heard about it. I've felt reluctant to write on some days, for whole weeks, or sometimes even longer. I'd much rather go fishing, for example, or go sharpen pencils, or go swimming, or what not. But, later, coming back and reading what I have produced, I am unable to detect the difference between what came easily and when I had to sit down and say, "Well, now it's writing time and now I'll write." There's no difference on paper between the two.
2.12.2008
Smokescreen, Presidential Races, and Spielberg
Everyone's talking about Edison. In the past four days in Hong Kong, not one conversation with a friend failed to touch on it. Sitting down for lunch in the chacanting, the two guys sitting across the table were reading gossip mags with Edison pics, on the plane back, the front page news of the newspapers being read by people on both sides of me was Edison.
Through reading news on the HK MTR's internet kiosks, I have been following the election news, which says that Obama continues to lead Hillary Clinton, although an NY Times article which I read last night says that neither candidate may have enough votes to win the nomination, and the primary will be decided by superdelegates, which seem to be basically an intraparty voting committee selected in rather arbitrary fashion. The NYT article seemed to paint the superdelegate voting system as a way that Hillary may be able to snatch victory away from Obama.
By far the most interesting news of the morning, however, is that Steven Spielberg has resigned as artistic advisor to the Beijing Olympics. His main reason for quitting was due to China's lack of action to stabilize the chaos in Darfur in the Sudan. It will be extremely interesting to see how the PRC media decide to handle his resignation...Maybe they can get his non-union Mexican equivalent...
Through reading news on the HK MTR's internet kiosks, I have been following the election news, which says that Obama continues to lead Hillary Clinton, although an NY Times article which I read last night says that neither candidate may have enough votes to win the nomination, and the primary will be decided by superdelegates, which seem to be basically an intraparty voting committee selected in rather arbitrary fashion. The NYT article seemed to paint the superdelegate voting system as a way that Hillary may be able to snatch victory away from Obama.
By far the most interesting news of the morning, however, is that Steven Spielberg has resigned as artistic advisor to the Beijing Olympics. His main reason for quitting was due to China's lack of action to stabilize the chaos in Darfur in the Sudan. It will be extremely interesting to see how the PRC media decide to handle his resignation...Maybe they can get his non-union Mexican equivalent...
1.29.2008
Tuesday, Suharto, China
Reading the cover article and editorials about the death of present Suharto of Indonesia in Monday edition of WSJAsia I was immediately struck by the obvious parallels with and focus on China. The cover story by Richard Borsuk led with:
"Suharto, the autocratic leader who dominated Indonesia for 32 years, lifeted his country out of extreme poverty. But many Indonesians are more likely to remember Mr. Suharto, who died yesterday at age 86, as a stubborn strongman who blocked the development of democracy, repressed civil liberties and fostered a business culture tainted by patronage, nepotism and corruption..."(italics mine)
Inside, two editorials gave varying treatment to Suharto, drawing parallels between Suharto and Mao Zedong: "His government brought stability and prosperity, at a price" and Suharto and Deng Xiaoping: "he rescued his country from totalitarianism and poverty, and put it on the path to prosperity and a large measure of personal freedoms."
All of the articles make reference to economic corruption and nepotism in Indonesia, which I think has strong parallels to what is going on in a large portion of businesses in China, the mixture of money, politics, and family, permissible when the Indonesian economy boomed in the mid-90s, which eventually led to riots and turmoil after the Asian financial crisis of 97-98.
The main WSJ article also harps on Suharto for the media control during the 1980s, another place where Suharto's policies resemble the mainland China of today.
Wikipedia's entry on Indonesia's economy gives further examples of places where the business environments of the two countries resemble each other, chief among which are the large amount of state-owned enterprises and weak rule of law.
In the same issue was a short article about J Craig Venter, the biologist who deciphered the human genome. I recently saw a video of Dr. Venter giving the 2007 Dimbleby lecture, on genetics and synthetic genomics. He hopes to make synthetic bacteria which would be able to produce chemicals, or produce or absorb carbon.
I was just watching Goodness Gracious Me and Vic & Bob on youtube. Why does wikipedia link to youtube, but youtube doesn't link to wikipedia? It would be quite handy to be able to have two-way links...
"Suharto, the autocratic leader who dominated Indonesia for 32 years, lifeted his country out of extreme poverty. But many Indonesians are more likely to remember Mr. Suharto, who died yesterday at age 86, as a stubborn strongman who blocked the development of democracy, repressed civil liberties and fostered a business culture tainted by patronage, nepotism and corruption..."(italics mine)
Inside, two editorials gave varying treatment to Suharto, drawing parallels between Suharto and Mao Zedong: "His government brought stability and prosperity, at a price" and Suharto and Deng Xiaoping: "he rescued his country from totalitarianism and poverty, and put it on the path to prosperity and a large measure of personal freedoms."
All of the articles make reference to economic corruption and nepotism in Indonesia, which I think has strong parallels to what is going on in a large portion of businesses in China, the mixture of money, politics, and family, permissible when the Indonesian economy boomed in the mid-90s, which eventually led to riots and turmoil after the Asian financial crisis of 97-98.
The main WSJ article also harps on Suharto for the media control during the 1980s, another place where Suharto's policies resemble the mainland China of today.
Wikipedia's entry on Indonesia's economy gives further examples of places where the business environments of the two countries resemble each other, chief among which are the large amount of state-owned enterprises and weak rule of law.
In the same issue was a short article about J Craig Venter, the biologist who deciphered the human genome. I recently saw a video of Dr. Venter giving the 2007 Dimbleby lecture, on genetics and synthetic genomics. He hopes to make synthetic bacteria which would be able to produce chemicals, or produce or absorb carbon.
I was just watching Goodness Gracious Me and Vic & Bob on youtube. Why does wikipedia link to youtube, but youtube doesn't link to wikipedia? It would be quite handy to be able to have two-way links...
China, media control, trade imbalances
The development of China is a topic which often occupies my thoughts. China is a country of over 1.3 billion people ruled by an authoritarian one-party system. From reading news reports in many major news sources, one risks falling into the trap that China’s Communist party has been extremely successful in ruling the country and growing the national economy. However, such media reports present an extremely myopic vision of the overall condition of the Chinese people and society. Firstly, currently the government of China controls and censors most major media sources dealing with China, either directly, as in the case of China’s state-run media, or indirectly, as in the case of theoretically ‘free’ international media. There are several types of indirect control that the international press in China receive. One type of control that the Chinese government exerts is denial of information: many government departments and state-owned businesses simply refuse to speak with media outlets that are not censored by the government. Secondly, media sources also practice a measure of self-control, in order that they might preserve their ability to be distributed in China. Furthermore, both Chinese and international reporters are routinely detained, harassed, and even physically beaten at times when such reporters investigate issues which are considered off-limits. In total, China was ranked as one of the 10 worst countries in the world in terms of press freedom in 2007 by Reporters Without Borders, an international non-profit organization advocating media freedom. Censorship in China does not end in print and broadcast media, but rather extends to the online world, where access to sites critical of the Chinese government, including CNN, the BBC, and wikipedia are routinely blocked.
China’s propaganda screen conceals several vital flaws in the country’s system of governance. First of all, the authoritarian regime and media control in China allow for massive systemic corruption. Without effective controlling measures, many local officials rule their areas as virtual fiefdoms, complete with squads of armed hirelings to enforce their decrees upon the rest of the populace. Secondly, media control obscures the massive unpaid environmental costs which have accompanied China’s economic growth, leaving most of the water in China befouled and the air unbreathable. Finally, a lack of democracy in government has led to wide-scale business cronyism: without the proper governmental connections, it is extremely difficult for small start-up businesses to succeed. The connection between governmental power and successful business has effectively created a barrier between most of China’s people and the possibility of economic success, and, paired with an extremely uneven educational system, is the reason that economic polarization is such a marked phenomenon in China today. Recently I had a discussion with a contact of mine who works for the PRC government- he said that China’s Gini index, a common indicator of economic disparity, which had been officially reported by the UN to be 44, has now actually exceeded 50, which places China’s level of economic disparity close to such countries as the Dominican Republic, Argentina, and Papua New Guinea.
The reason that I am concerned about China is that there are strong implications of dealing on even footing with a dictatorship with little regard for the welfare of its citizens. I feel that at the moment, the United States is playing China’s game on China’s terms: the US purchases huge quantities of Chinese-made goods without objecting to the fact that the corruption and protectionism in China’s markets prevent US businesses from entering into China, thereby causing a huge trade imbalance which yawns ever wider. The future prospects for the US if this trend is not reversed are bleak.
China’s propaganda screen conceals several vital flaws in the country’s system of governance. First of all, the authoritarian regime and media control in China allow for massive systemic corruption. Without effective controlling measures, many local officials rule their areas as virtual fiefdoms, complete with squads of armed hirelings to enforce their decrees upon the rest of the populace. Secondly, media control obscures the massive unpaid environmental costs which have accompanied China’s economic growth, leaving most of the water in China befouled and the air unbreathable. Finally, a lack of democracy in government has led to wide-scale business cronyism: without the proper governmental connections, it is extremely difficult for small start-up businesses to succeed. The connection between governmental power and successful business has effectively created a barrier between most of China’s people and the possibility of economic success, and, paired with an extremely uneven educational system, is the reason that economic polarization is such a marked phenomenon in China today. Recently I had a discussion with a contact of mine who works for the PRC government- he said that China’s Gini index, a common indicator of economic disparity, which had been officially reported by the UN to be 44, has now actually exceeded 50, which places China’s level of economic disparity close to such countries as the Dominican Republic, Argentina, and Papua New Guinea.
The reason that I am concerned about China is that there are strong implications of dealing on even footing with a dictatorship with little regard for the welfare of its citizens. I feel that at the moment, the United States is playing China’s game on China’s terms: the US purchases huge quantities of Chinese-made goods without objecting to the fact that the corruption and protectionism in China’s markets prevent US businesses from entering into China, thereby causing a huge trade imbalance which yawns ever wider. The future prospects for the US if this trend is not reversed are bleak.
1.27.2008
Monday, American Psycho, Weekend, Rock Climbing, mah na mah na
It has been snowing in Shanghai since last Friday, and my obsession with Glenn Gould continues. Today during lunchtime I was walking around in the snow humming, I must be losing it.
Last Friday I spent the entire day working on pitches for my boss and got roped into staying at the office with one of the associates to work on a pitch until around six, at which point I decided that I had enough for the week and went home. At home, I ordered a hummus pita, dolmeh, and a pepper and cheese on laffa sandwich from the mediterranean cafe, and drank shochu in my room while reading "American Psycho", which was of course very nasty and the diary-like tone of which is definitely carrying on into my writing today.
The chapters are quite formulaic in some ways and after having finished the book I think in many ways I would find it easy to copy the author's writing style. Each chapter begins with a laundry list style description of the characters present, fully itemizing each piece of clothing being worn and its respective designer, what is being eaten and drank by each character, and then going onto describe the characters' activities, which mainly include scoring coke, taking perscription pills, checking out women, and, in the case of the main character, murder. My cousin described "American Psycho" as "pure evil", and I have to say that some of the later episodes with the main character (which I read on Sunday) were a bit difficult to read, as they reached the point where they were rather nauseating. Friday night I read until about midnight, becuase I had a soccer game scheduled for the next day.
Saturday morning, the snow hadn't stopped and my firm was unable to field a full team, so we postponed the match and I returned from the field in Pudong to my apartment in Puxi and met with my tai chi teacher for some push-hands practice. I am currently learning the fast Wu style form, so we spent about a fourth of the class working on that as well as talking about some Xingyi teacher who is famous for being very violent- my teacher compared him to IIRC Yang Banhou, who was famous for 1) being a great fighter and 2) infamous because he never took a pupil, as he would injure anyone who tried to study with him.
Afterwards, I read more American Psycho and finished the bottle of shochu before dinner, which was Italian at La Isola Bella on Huaihai Rd. For appetizers, we had some parma ham and mortadella, and also an insalata caprese. I had linguine with speck and radocchio for a main course, and cassata with an espresso for dessert. Afterwards, we went to YY's for a friend's birthday party, but I was feeling rather tired because of the snow and ended up going home at around 2 am.
Sunday I woke up at noon with a stomachache. As my tai chi teacher was coming again at 2, I had a muffin and a hot chocolate at the starbucks across the street from my house (41 RMB, which is now over $5 thanks to inflation and the weakening dollar). Tai chi practice went ok, but my stomach still hurt a bit. After tai chi I took the metro to Shanghai stadium. Apparently, there was a Jay Chow concert being held last night at the Shanghai Grand stage, which is in a smaller building next to Shanghai stadium, but luckily the snow meant that there were fewer scalpers than normal. Climbing went quite well, as I managed once again to make it across the top of the overhang in the bouldering section, which I had previously accomplished last Tuesday while my friend wasn't looking, and then was unable to repeat for the rest of the day. Yesterday as I wasn't feeling well, I tried to concentrate mainly on footwork and moving smoothly in order to prevent my arms from tiring out too quickly. Also, the cold weather means that it is quite easy to get space in the gym, as it seems that many people are not interested in leaving the house while it is snowing and the only people besides me, my friend, and the staff were a Chinese guy with his girlfriend and three or four Euros who are, seemingly, always there.
It was still snowing as we were coming out of the stadium, and I had visions of crashed buses and squashed pedestrians as we meandered through traffic towards IKEA. I had swedish meatballs for dinner, along with about a mouthful of watery fountain pepsi, which I decided not to finish because the soda fountain is obviously hooked up to a straight line of Shanghai tap water.
I wasn't in the mood to ride the metro home, so I stopped off at my friend's place and continued reading 'American Psycho' on his couch while watching an Elizabeth movie starring Clive Owen as Sir Walter Raleigh, with a scene quite reminiscent of the Blackadder episode entitled "Potato",and drinking a Coke and becoming -more-than-slightly- paranoid because of the nastiness of the book, to the point where I politely refused my friend's offer of a cup of tea because "you never can tell with people". After finishing with the book, I recommended to my friend that he definitely NOT read the book, and that if he was interested, that the movie adaptation was perfectly good, worth watching, and not nearly so nasty.
The Elizabeth movie had ended and so we watched several episodes of Frasier which to this day I have never gotten into, but which my friend quite likes. Never having been a huge Cheers fan, I had to ask my friend why exactly it was that Frasier and his brother Niles are so intellectual, whereas their father is a very down-to-earth former police officer.
After once again politely refusing a cup of tea(I have to apologize to my friend next time I see him), I went to Charmant for some noodles and a ginger coke. On the way to Charmant, the taxi I was riding in had a minor slide on the slushed-over Huaihai Rd., but we didn't hit anything. After Charmant, I decided that it would probably be a good idea to take the surface roads home, as I didn't want to gamble with riding in a seatbeltless Santana on an icy highway.
After arriving at home, I started reading "The Wealth and Poverty of Nations", which is the last of the four books that I borrowed from my classmate, the others being, "Bringing Down the House", "The Long Tail", and "American Psycho". So far it seems a bit denser than "The Long Tail" or "Bringing Down the House", although I am hoping that the author will remain objective. According to Wikipedia, The Wealth and Poverty of Nations has been accused of being Eurocentric, and gives "Guns, Germs and Steel"(which I quite liked) as an example of a book which focuses more on geographic factors, rather than cultural factors, which led to European colonial success.
I am also (only on the bus to and from work) still reading "The Sputnik Sweetheart" by Haruki Murakami, which shares several elements with Norwegian Wood, which I finished reading last November, including, notably, detached first-person narration by a male character, European travel, tons of references to F. Scott Fitzgerald, and lesbianism. No wonder Murakami's books sell so well (I laugh as I write this).
Last Friday I spent the entire day working on pitches for my boss and got roped into staying at the office with one of the associates to work on a pitch until around six, at which point I decided that I had enough for the week and went home. At home, I ordered a hummus pita, dolmeh, and a pepper and cheese on laffa sandwich from the mediterranean cafe, and drank shochu in my room while reading "American Psycho", which was of course very nasty and the diary-like tone of which is definitely carrying on into my writing today.
The chapters are quite formulaic in some ways and after having finished the book I think in many ways I would find it easy to copy the author's writing style. Each chapter begins with a laundry list style description of the characters present, fully itemizing each piece of clothing being worn and its respective designer, what is being eaten and drank by each character, and then going onto describe the characters' activities, which mainly include scoring coke, taking perscription pills, checking out women, and, in the case of the main character, murder. My cousin described "American Psycho" as "pure evil", and I have to say that some of the later episodes with the main character (which I read on Sunday) were a bit difficult to read, as they reached the point where they were rather nauseating. Friday night I read until about midnight, becuase I had a soccer game scheduled for the next day.
Saturday morning, the snow hadn't stopped and my firm was unable to field a full team, so we postponed the match and I returned from the field in Pudong to my apartment in Puxi and met with my tai chi teacher for some push-hands practice. I am currently learning the fast Wu style form, so we spent about a fourth of the class working on that as well as talking about some Xingyi teacher who is famous for being very violent- my teacher compared him to IIRC Yang Banhou, who was famous for 1) being a great fighter and 2) infamous because he never took a pupil, as he would injure anyone who tried to study with him.
Afterwards, I read more American Psycho and finished the bottle of shochu before dinner, which was Italian at La Isola Bella on Huaihai Rd. For appetizers, we had some parma ham and mortadella, and also an insalata caprese. I had linguine with speck and radocchio for a main course, and cassata with an espresso for dessert. Afterwards, we went to YY's for a friend's birthday party, but I was feeling rather tired because of the snow and ended up going home at around 2 am.
Sunday I woke up at noon with a stomachache. As my tai chi teacher was coming again at 2, I had a muffin and a hot chocolate at the starbucks across the street from my house (41 RMB, which is now over $5 thanks to inflation and the weakening dollar). Tai chi practice went ok, but my stomach still hurt a bit. After tai chi I took the metro to Shanghai stadium. Apparently, there was a Jay Chow concert being held last night at the Shanghai Grand stage, which is in a smaller building next to Shanghai stadium, but luckily the snow meant that there were fewer scalpers than normal. Climbing went quite well, as I managed once again to make it across the top of the overhang in the bouldering section, which I had previously accomplished last Tuesday while my friend wasn't looking, and then was unable to repeat for the rest of the day. Yesterday as I wasn't feeling well, I tried to concentrate mainly on footwork and moving smoothly in order to prevent my arms from tiring out too quickly. Also, the cold weather means that it is quite easy to get space in the gym, as it seems that many people are not interested in leaving the house while it is snowing and the only people besides me, my friend, and the staff were a Chinese guy with his girlfriend and three or four Euros who are, seemingly, always there.
It was still snowing as we were coming out of the stadium, and I had visions of crashed buses and squashed pedestrians as we meandered through traffic towards IKEA. I had swedish meatballs for dinner, along with about a mouthful of watery fountain pepsi, which I decided not to finish because the soda fountain is obviously hooked up to a straight line of Shanghai tap water.
I wasn't in the mood to ride the metro home, so I stopped off at my friend's place and continued reading 'American Psycho' on his couch while watching an Elizabeth movie starring Clive Owen as Sir Walter Raleigh, with a scene quite reminiscent of the Blackadder episode entitled "Potato",and drinking a Coke and becoming -more-than-slightly- paranoid because of the nastiness of the book, to the point where I politely refused my friend's offer of a cup of tea because "you never can tell with people". After finishing with the book, I recommended to my friend that he definitely NOT read the book, and that if he was interested, that the movie adaptation was perfectly good, worth watching, and not nearly so nasty.
The Elizabeth movie had ended and so we watched several episodes of Frasier which to this day I have never gotten into, but which my friend quite likes. Never having been a huge Cheers fan, I had to ask my friend why exactly it was that Frasier and his brother Niles are so intellectual, whereas their father is a very down-to-earth former police officer.
After once again politely refusing a cup of tea(I have to apologize to my friend next time I see him), I went to Charmant for some noodles and a ginger coke. On the way to Charmant, the taxi I was riding in had a minor slide on the slushed-over Huaihai Rd., but we didn't hit anything. After Charmant, I decided that it would probably be a good idea to take the surface roads home, as I didn't want to gamble with riding in a seatbeltless Santana on an icy highway.
After arriving at home, I started reading "The Wealth and Poverty of Nations", which is the last of the four books that I borrowed from my classmate, the others being, "Bringing Down the House", "The Long Tail", and "American Psycho". So far it seems a bit denser than "The Long Tail" or "Bringing Down the House", although I am hoping that the author will remain objective. According to Wikipedia, The Wealth and Poverty of Nations has been accused of being Eurocentric, and gives "Guns, Germs and Steel"(which I quite liked) as an example of a book which focuses more on geographic factors, rather than cultural factors, which led to European colonial success.
I am also (only on the bus to and from work) still reading "The Sputnik Sweetheart" by Haruki Murakami, which shares several elements with Norwegian Wood, which I finished reading last November, including, notably, detached first-person narration by a male character, European travel, tons of references to F. Scott Fitzgerald, and lesbianism. No wonder Murakami's books sell so well (I laugh as I write this).
1.21.2008
Glenn Gould, Paper Clips, Net Content Editing
Yesterday I made the discovery of the entire movie of 'Slaughterhouse Five' on youtube, and split watching it between yesterday. I hadn't seen the film since eighth grade, which was before I read the book, and in many ways the film didn't make a lot of sense to me at that time. After watching the film a second time, what struck me most wasn't the film, which was excellent but naturally lost a lot of content compared to the book, but rather the soundtrack by Glenn Gould. In particular one scene which sticks in my mind now is one where captured US soldiers are being marched through the city of Dresden, over which a harpsichord version of Brandenburg Concerto 4 is being played, showing the gothic architecture of the as-yet-unmarred city.
I looked up Glenn Gould on wikipedia just now. The entry mentions his distinctive humming when he played, which is definitely quite audible on his recording of the Well-Tempered Clavier which I have on my computer, although I don't think it detracts from the music. I will try to find a copy of Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould, which I have meant to watch before now.
Naturally it is on youtube. The combination of high speed internet, wikipedia and youtube, along with amazon, is quite a good one.
I passed on the Glenn Gould to my coworker and received some Kun Qu in return. I wonder if it would be possible to trade up to a house ala the Craigslist red paper clip trade maneuver by Kyle MacDonald, originally from Belcarra, British Columbia.
This morning I did some reading online about internet 'editing' here in the PR0Ch. The most recent list of topics is posted here: http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2008/01/internet_censors_latest_working_instructions.php
In many ways, there isn't really that much to be said on the subject that hasn't been said already. I passed the link on to a bunch of friends and got replies back from two, who said basically exactly the same thing: "this is comical". In many ways I can compare the consciousness of the internet editing to the last time I went hiking in the snow and wore a heavy jacket. The jacket got wet as a result of the exertion I was putting forth schlepping a 50 pound backpack while wearing showshoes, but as long as I kept moving, I couldn't feel it. However, as soon as I stopped for a rest, the jacket was cold, wet and uncomfortable.
I looked up Glenn Gould on wikipedia just now. The entry mentions his distinctive humming when he played, which is definitely quite audible on his recording of the Well-Tempered Clavier which I have on my computer, although I don't think it detracts from the music. I will try to find a copy of Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould, which I have meant to watch before now.
Naturally it is on youtube. The combination of high speed internet, wikipedia and youtube, along with amazon, is quite a good one.
I passed on the Glenn Gould to my coworker and received some Kun Qu in return. I wonder if it would be possible to trade up to a house ala the Craigslist red paper clip trade maneuver by Kyle MacDonald, originally from Belcarra, British Columbia.
This morning I did some reading online about internet 'editing' here in the PR0Ch. The most recent list of topics is posted here: http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2008/01/internet_censors_latest_working_instructions.php
In many ways, there isn't really that much to be said on the subject that hasn't been said already. I passed the link on to a bunch of friends and got replies back from two, who said basically exactly the same thing: "this is comical". In many ways I can compare the consciousness of the internet editing to the last time I went hiking in the snow and wore a heavy jacket. The jacket got wet as a result of the exertion I was putting forth schlepping a 50 pound backpack while wearing showshoes, but as long as I kept moving, I couldn't feel it. However, as soon as I stopped for a rest, the jacket was cold, wet and uncomfortable.
1.19.2008
Saturday, Bali, Sandwiches, and KTV
Finally a weekend. Friday night was a bit quiet. I had dinner with my classmate from Uni in the states and we got to to talking about the VC where he is working and the atmosphere of VC investment in China. He says he will be leaving for the states again in a few months, because even though he is enjoying the work that he does here, he says that life outside of work doesn't make it worthwhile to stay in Shanghai. I have reached a similar conclusion.
Yesterday I had a productive training day. It has been raining continually for the past three days, so I was stuck indoors, but I managed to practice tai chi for a good 2 hours, did some striking training and jumped some rope before having some soba for lunch and then meeting with my teacher for 2 hours.
After class I had early dinner with a couple of friends who live near my place. We split a taxi to the Mediterranean cafe on Dagu rd. Of course, because it was raining,
it took longer for us to get the cab and go there than it would have to just order the food and have it delivered to us, but I got a hot chocolate at Starbucks and stood in the rain while I waited for them to pick me up. The waterproof jacket that my mom gave me for Xmas was, in the words of my friend, 'impressively waterproof', so the waiting wasn't so difficult.
My friends had just gotten up and had a rather lazy day, as people are apt to do when it is freezing and rainy outside,
so we ordered quite a lot of food. I had a tomato soup served inside a loaf of bread, a 'balkanize' sandwich (feta, olives, and grilled peppers) , and a coke,
as well as some hummus and pita. It was a bit more food than I felt like eating at the time, so I ended up getting half my sandwich wrapped up
so I could eat it later. Over dinner my friends and I discussed our respective travels during the New Year holiday. My friends had gone to Bali,
where they had shared a bungalow and mainly spent time on the beach. On new year's eve, they were trapped in a downpour and missed out on going
to any parties, but they really didn't seem too bothered. The weather in Bali was, according to my one friend, 'humid'. She is from Hong Kong, so really
I wonder how much more humid Bali could be compared to HK, but I suppose I will have to take her at her word.
Apparently Shanghai Air now has direct flights to Bali, which makes travelling there considerably more tempting- that previously it was necessary to transfer through Thailand or Singapore.
After dinner, we waffled between going Karting and going singing. Both are good options, but the indoor karting lost out to karaoke because karting was across town, and the closest karaoke that we could think of was 2 blocks away, that being, the Holiday at the intersection of Huaihai rd. and Chengdu rd. We thought about going to Cashbox(it has a better sound system and better AC), but decided that given the weather and the fact that it was Saturday night, Cashbox would have too much of a wait, so Holiday it was. Naturally, the sound system had volume problems, the mics were shaky, and the heat in the room wouldn't turn off, but still we managed
to sing for two hours. It had been a while, and the selection at the Holiday was poor, so I was mainly stuck singing Beatles songs, Wu Bai, and some random Jay Chow songs. Of course, they didn't have Rock the Casbah, which was what I had been dying to sing since the previous day.
Coming downstairs from the karaoke, my friend mistakenly wandered into the hostess bar on the ground floor for a moment, and then we jumped Shanghai Taxi #2703 to go to Fuxing rd. Taxi 2703 for some reason decided that we would not take Huaihai rd., that being the shortest route to where we wanted to go, as there was "too much traffic", so we took Fuxing rd. all the way over while discussing taxi numbers, the changes in Shanghai, and the lovely rain that was falling. The driver said that he was very familiar with Jz bar, but didn't know La Bella, which was our destination.
Arriving at La Bella, we found it to be empty, with no sign of the promised open mic night that had brought us there, so we stopped into Jz, only to find it to be packed, and then went to Shelter for a drum and bass show. Many friends were there, and I drank a lot of tequila, which made for a fun night, and I will leave it at that.
Yesterday I had a productive training day. It has been raining continually for the past three days, so I was stuck indoors, but I managed to practice tai chi for a good 2 hours, did some striking training and jumped some rope before having some soba for lunch and then meeting with my teacher for 2 hours.
After class I had early dinner with a couple of friends who live near my place. We split a taxi to the Mediterranean cafe on Dagu rd. Of course, because it was raining,
it took longer for us to get the cab and go there than it would have to just order the food and have it delivered to us, but I got a hot chocolate at Starbucks and stood in the rain while I waited for them to pick me up. The waterproof jacket that my mom gave me for Xmas was, in the words of my friend, 'impressively waterproof', so the waiting wasn't so difficult.
My friends had just gotten up and had a rather lazy day, as people are apt to do when it is freezing and rainy outside,
so we ordered quite a lot of food. I had a tomato soup served inside a loaf of bread, a 'balkanize' sandwich (feta, olives, and grilled peppers) , and a coke,
as well as some hummus and pita. It was a bit more food than I felt like eating at the time, so I ended up getting half my sandwich wrapped up
so I could eat it later. Over dinner my friends and I discussed our respective travels during the New Year holiday. My friends had gone to Bali,
where they had shared a bungalow and mainly spent time on the beach. On new year's eve, they were trapped in a downpour and missed out on going
to any parties, but they really didn't seem too bothered. The weather in Bali was, according to my one friend, 'humid'. She is from Hong Kong, so really
I wonder how much more humid Bali could be compared to HK, but I suppose I will have to take her at her word.
Apparently Shanghai Air now has direct flights to Bali, which makes travelling there considerably more tempting- that previously it was necessary to transfer through Thailand or Singapore.
After dinner, we waffled between going Karting and going singing. Both are good options, but the indoor karting lost out to karaoke because karting was across town, and the closest karaoke that we could think of was 2 blocks away, that being, the Holiday at the intersection of Huaihai rd. and Chengdu rd. We thought about going to Cashbox(it has a better sound system and better AC), but decided that given the weather and the fact that it was Saturday night, Cashbox would have too much of a wait, so Holiday it was. Naturally, the sound system had volume problems, the mics were shaky, and the heat in the room wouldn't turn off, but still we managed
to sing for two hours. It had been a while, and the selection at the Holiday was poor, so I was mainly stuck singing Beatles songs, Wu Bai, and some random Jay Chow songs. Of course, they didn't have Rock the Casbah, which was what I had been dying to sing since the previous day.
Coming downstairs from the karaoke, my friend mistakenly wandered into the hostess bar on the ground floor for a moment, and then we jumped Shanghai Taxi #2703 to go to Fuxing rd. Taxi 2703 for some reason decided that we would not take Huaihai rd., that being the shortest route to where we wanted to go, as there was "too much traffic", so we took Fuxing rd. all the way over while discussing taxi numbers, the changes in Shanghai, and the lovely rain that was falling. The driver said that he was very familiar with Jz bar, but didn't know La Bella, which was our destination.
Arriving at La Bella, we found it to be empty, with no sign of the promised open mic night that had brought us there, so we stopped into Jz, only to find it to be packed, and then went to Shelter for a drum and bass show. Many friends were there, and I drank a lot of tequila, which made for a fun night, and I will leave it at that.
1.17.2008
Friday, Rock the Casbah, Drugs and the US Armed Forces, and the 2008 presidential race
It's Friday. For the first time in the two weeks since I came back from vacation in Japan, I am going to get a day off tomorrow.
The office manager has come back to our office from a trip to Hong Kong. For that reason, I started singing the opening hook from 'Without Me' by Eminem, as I was meeting my coworker in the back pit. Right around the beginning of my walk back down the corridor to the section of the office that holds my desk, 'Without Me' somehow morphed into the chorus of 'Rock the Casbah', which for me always had a really nice electro house sound, mainly in the choral voices and the jangly guitar hook (I think there is probably also a house version floating around out there that I have heard).
Arriving back at my desk I opened up youtube and started watching the video, which features the Clash playing and dancing in front of oil derricks, as well as an obvious arab character(wearing a thawb and keffiyeh) and a jewish character(black suit, payoth, beard) taking a ride together, swilling champagne, and going to Burger King.
The first thing that I thought of while watching the video was my friend's description of his trip to Dubai. My friend went to a nightclub- however, of course, one of the main pastimes in nightclubs is drinking, which is forbidden by Islam. My friend said that instead of drinking vodka and redbull, clubbers just consumed straight redbull. He described a conversation that he had with some guy who he met in the club:
Guy: Ohh man I am so wasted, this club is great!
Friend: Oh really, what are you drinking?
Guy: Redbull man!
Wikipedia says that the song may be alluding to the banning of rock music in Iran under Ayatollah Khomeni. It was also popular with the US armed forces during the first gulf war. I wonder if similar songs were written during the most recent invasion of Iraq, and also what soldiers are listening to these days.
I met some navy people the last time I was in Tokyo. They were partying at a club in Shibuya, and quite a lot of them were eating pills and rather high. I gathered that they were stationed at the naval base near Yokohama, and a bit bored with life. They were pretty nice and friendly people on the whole, even though I find the idea of people in my country's armed forces taking recreational drugs to be ever so slightly disconcerting. On the one hand, being a soldier is a pretty high-stress job, so I can understand wanting to blow off some steam, but on the other hand, I also want the people whose fingers are on the buttons, triggers, etc. of instruments of death to be able to think clearly, and of course, recreational drug use doesn't particularly encourage clear thinking in my book. Circumstantial book/movie evidence suggests that a fair part of the US army in Vietnam was smoking quite a fair bit, and also I remember hearing about blue-on-blue incidents in recent years partially caused by poor perception due to Air Force pilot use of (airforce-supplied) stimulants to keep awake during long flights; however, wikipedia has litte to say about either.
My coworker stopped by my desk when I was watching the Rock the Casbah video and we had a short chat. He is a Queen fan but doesn't know the Clash. He also saw the joke Hilary Clinton card that my sister sent me (currently framed on my desk, it is a joke because HRC's right nipple is clearly visible through her jacket), which precipitated a short discussion about presidential politics. My coworker asked directly who I was planning on voting for, 'the woman or the black man?', my answer being that I would vote for whoever won the democratic primary as I think that the Iraq conflict was too costly for the US and therefore economically unsustainable. One of the clear split lines in my mind regarding the democratic and republican candidates is that the democrats are more for lessening of US involvement in Iraq, and this is something I am for.
In former times I would also have said that I didn't want my hypothetical tax money (were I living in the US and paying taxes) being spent for the war, but I now know that actually my tax money is spent on paying the interest on the national debt, so no worries there. I can only wonder what my tax money goes to in China, but of course I can say with more than half seriousness that it is probably spent on some combination of whisky, green tea, and mistresses for a Chinese official.
The office manager has come back to our office from a trip to Hong Kong. For that reason, I started singing the opening hook from 'Without Me' by Eminem, as I was meeting my coworker in the back pit. Right around the beginning of my walk back down the corridor to the section of the office that holds my desk, 'Without Me' somehow morphed into the chorus of 'Rock the Casbah', which for me always had a really nice electro house sound, mainly in the choral voices and the jangly guitar hook (I think there is probably also a house version floating around out there that I have heard).
Arriving back at my desk I opened up youtube and started watching the video, which features the Clash playing and dancing in front of oil derricks, as well as an obvious arab character(wearing a thawb and keffiyeh) and a jewish character(black suit, payoth, beard) taking a ride together, swilling champagne, and going to Burger King.
The first thing that I thought of while watching the video was my friend's description of his trip to Dubai. My friend went to a nightclub- however, of course, one of the main pastimes in nightclubs is drinking, which is forbidden by Islam. My friend said that instead of drinking vodka and redbull, clubbers just consumed straight redbull. He described a conversation that he had with some guy who he met in the club:
Guy: Ohh man I am so wasted, this club is great!
Friend: Oh really, what are you drinking?
Guy: Redbull man!
Wikipedia says that the song may be alluding to the banning of rock music in Iran under Ayatollah Khomeni. It was also popular with the US armed forces during the first gulf war. I wonder if similar songs were written during the most recent invasion of Iraq, and also what soldiers are listening to these days.
I met some navy people the last time I was in Tokyo. They were partying at a club in Shibuya, and quite a lot of them were eating pills and rather high. I gathered that they were stationed at the naval base near Yokohama, and a bit bored with life. They were pretty nice and friendly people on the whole, even though I find the idea of people in my country's armed forces taking recreational drugs to be ever so slightly disconcerting. On the one hand, being a soldier is a pretty high-stress job, so I can understand wanting to blow off some steam, but on the other hand, I also want the people whose fingers are on the buttons, triggers, etc. of instruments of death to be able to think clearly, and of course, recreational drug use doesn't particularly encourage clear thinking in my book. Circumstantial book/movie evidence suggests that a fair part of the US army in Vietnam was smoking quite a fair bit, and also I remember hearing about blue-on-blue incidents in recent years partially caused by poor perception due to Air Force pilot use of (airforce-supplied) stimulants to keep awake during long flights; however, wikipedia has litte to say about either.
My coworker stopped by my desk when I was watching the Rock the Casbah video and we had a short chat. He is a Queen fan but doesn't know the Clash. He also saw the joke Hilary Clinton card that my sister sent me (currently framed on my desk, it is a joke because HRC's right nipple is clearly visible through her jacket), which precipitated a short discussion about presidential politics. My coworker asked directly who I was planning on voting for, 'the woman or the black man?', my answer being that I would vote for whoever won the democratic primary as I think that the Iraq conflict was too costly for the US and therefore economically unsustainable. One of the clear split lines in my mind regarding the democratic and republican candidates is that the democrats are more for lessening of US involvement in Iraq, and this is something I am for.
In former times I would also have said that I didn't want my hypothetical tax money (were I living in the US and paying taxes) being spent for the war, but I now know that actually my tax money is spent on paying the interest on the national debt, so no worries there. I can only wonder what my tax money goes to in China, but of course I can say with more than half seriousness that it is probably spent on some combination of whisky, green tea, and mistresses for a Chinese official.
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