Mourning Mr. 柏楊

It's hard to say when I learned to use irony in my writing. But reading 醜陋的中國人 definitely had a huge impact on how I use writing to make my points. Mr. 柏楊 was jailed for 9 years because he translated Popeye to Chinese.

(Um... nope, not the Communists... it's the Nationalists, aka modern day Taiwan, pre-democracy. CNN might report that Mr. 柏楊 was "jailed by Chinese" in their current mode of reporting "news." Don't be fooled!)

无独有偶... The Torch "around-the-world" Rally has sadly proven Mr. 柏楊's point again. Sadly, I am not surprised. Sadly, it won't serve as a lesson for the future.

• It's sad that overseas Chinese have resorted to violence against those who hold a different opinion on Tibet
• It's sad that Chinese who hold a different opinion are targeted as non-patriots (let's not even discuss the follies of "being a patriot")
  
• It's sad that most Chinese can't be open to different opinions
• It's sad that some think violence against "non-patriots" makes you a patriot
  
• It's sad that Western media has chosen to present partial facts to push opinion
• It's sad that so many organizations have chosen to politicize the Olympics, even though it is indeed effective
  
• It's sad that so many athletes will be ignored because of the continued political debacle
• It's sad that while the Chinese government says the Olympics shouldn't be politicize, quite a portion of the people participating in the rally are politicians and/or businessmen. In Hong Kong, only 30% are athletes and the rest consists of politicians, important businessmen, and stars. Really? We shouldn't politicize the Olympics?
• It's sad that Western world has developed such a misconception of the Eastern world
• It's sad that we rely so much on media "news" and not on facts; go see for yourself

You will be missed, Mr. 柏楊.

He was 89.

Is this staged...?

Enter the world of Shmoo. Follow the instructions. (I'd add to move forward to look back to see what is happening). I promise it's worth 5 minutes of your time.

On Motivation...

I never imagined blogging being so difficult!? I've had two posts in the last month or so! There is so much happening in the world and I have so little to blog about... actually, I have a lot in my mind. Just no time to share.

Instead of saying "You shouldn't be so CCTV" in China (CCTV being the Communist Party mouthpiece), the common phase is now "You shouldn't be so CNN." I have many thoughts on Tibet, a place where I would love to go back and spend even more time there as a spiritual tourist. Looks like that won't be in the near future. Here are some of my travel logs from Tibet. Hm... I even had thoughts on it! More on this at another time.

On motivation. Two weeks ago, I was involved in a meeting where I had no business being in. I was asked to do a list of stuff as a result of the meeting, and I was definitely not thrilled about it. In fact, I felt a bit duped. I did what I had to and got the shit done and I thought that was that. Not quite. More requests come my way. Anyway, in an effort to get out of these unwanted obligations, I went to the higher ups to see how I can get out of it.

It was not to be. The higher ups first praised my efforts for helping in the first place even though I didn't have to and provided a set of very compelling reasons on why I should continue to help.

Well, with this new set of reasons, I'm suddenly much more motivated to help. I was again involved in the same meeting where I (originally) had no business being in. Very different ending though, as I was psyched to help and eager to please.

And that's why the higher ups are the higher ups. Motivation. That's all it is.

About to give up on HSBC

It's mid-April, aka TMUDIATWWTAF.

What? You don't know what that is?

The Most Unnecessary Day in America that We Want to Avoid Forever.

That's right, it's tax day for most Americans! Me being in Hong Kong, that doesn't mean I don't have to pay taxes. In fact, it means that I have to make extra efforts to make sure that I file taxes correctly given the different tax laws. Oh, and I have to do the same for Hong Kong tax day as well... except that it will only be a four page form that takes no more than 10 minutes to fill in. Instead, I'm stuck with Turbo Tax trying to find the definition of "bona fide residence" and "state residence" to see if what my filing status should be.

(Josekin's note: I still don't know... but I'm going to fill in the form such that I get the most money back... IRS, are you reading this? I'm just kidding. Just kidding, you hear me?)

Back to my returns. I've earned interest in Hong Kong through my HSBC savings account in Hong Kong... so I called them to find out how much interest I earned in 2007. No problem, they can fetch the data out from a database. And it will cost me HKD$150.

WHAT!? I don't think I even HAVE $150 in interests last year thanks to HSBC's 1% or so interest rates. WTF!?

Can I download all my statements in 2007? No, you can only download the last two months.

Okay, then maybe I should just give up on your bank.

How did it get up there...?

View from my office. How did the get up there...?

The Southern Tip of Hong Kong

Couple of weeks ago, went hiking at the Poi Toi Island, at Hong Kong's southern tip. Here are some pictures. (I know I know, this is a cheap blog post... how can I not blog in two weeks!?)

All the pictures from PT Island.
All the pictures from Miami.
And I uploaded some new pictures into my favorite pictures... finally having some for 2008.

Basic people living basic life on the island...

Seaweed is a specialty...

Strange rocks around the island... Buddha's Palm