Taiwan has a lot of earthquakes. Most are too small to notice. Some are big enough, but you don't notice them anyway. There was a 5.1 earthquake in the middle of the country last week. It was reportedly felt all over the island. I never knew about it until I read the news.
I was on a train to Taipei a few months ago. When the train started to slow down nowhere near a station, I assumed it was some kind of mechanical issue. Then I got a phone call asking me if I was okay.
“The train will get in late if it doesn't speed up,” I said. “But how did you know?”
There was a large earthquake between where I was and where I was going. The high speed train moved very slowly just in case there was damage to the tracks. I never felt any earthquake. You might think that was because I was on a train, but the high speed train is pretty smooth. Not Japan smooth. If you stand a coin upright, it will probably fall. But the cars were made in Japan. It is not a bumpy ride.
On Tuesday morning there was a 3.4 in Yilan, over 200km from Kaohsiung. That was too far away and too small for me to feel. Two hours later, there was a 4.8 off the coast of Haulien, just south of Yilan. I felt that one. It was like a large truck driving by. It ended before I even realized it was an earthquake.
At 01:06 on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, there was a 5.4 off the coast of Taitung. I felt that one. The epicenter was just over 100km away, and 5.4 is a lot bigger than 4.8. At 01:41, there was more shaking. At first, I thought it was an aftershock to the 5.4. Only this one felt much larger and lasted far longer. I never timed it, but it just kept going. It was like hearing “American Pie” for the first time. You think it is going to wind down after yet another chorus, but then here comes another verse. In the middle of all the shaking, my phone started screaming. The government sends out automated alert messages as soon as possible to warm people of the larger earthquakes. More often than not, you get the message a second before you feel the ground shake, or as it starts. This time, I got the message right in the middle. That either meant I was close to the epicenter or it was going to be a big one.
What I initially thought was an aftershock turned out to be a 6.6 earthquake in Hualien, 150km north of the 5.4 in Taitung. We get a lot of earthquakes, but a 6.6 thirty five minutes after a 5.4, in two completely different locations, is a little unusual.
The first aftershock to the 6.6 came exactly one minute later. It was a healthy 5.7. Less than a minute after that one, there was a 6.1 aftershock. The experts are still debating if that was an aftershock or its own earthquake. It was certainly large enough, but it was in the same area and came two minutes after the 6.6.
Between 01:44 and 12:26 there were at least 49 aftershocks larger than 4.0. Two of them managed to top 5.8. The tectonic plates are still angry as I type this, though the aftershocks are getting smaller. I can't feel any of them anymore.
So far, there are no reports of any serious damage or death. I have not heard about any freeway damage yet, though something along the east coast must have broken. Haulien and Taitung are the two least populated counties, outside of the smaller island groups. Not coincidentally, they take the brunt of most earthquakes and typhoons.
In the middle of all these aftershocks, there was a tiny 2.7 in Hsinchu, 150km away from all the action. Nobody is going to talk about that one. That was like Farrah Fawcett dying on the same day as Michael Jackson.
Most of this happened today. Some of the numbers above will probably change as the experts make their calculations.
Showing posts with label all the news that fits. Show all posts
Showing posts with label all the news that fits. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 23, 2022
Tuesday, May 11, 2021
Walk Through the Fire
Taiwan is in the middle of a drought. The news is calling it the biggest drought in 50 years. But they always say things like that. Every single year, they dramatically announce that one day in January is the coldest day of the year, even though the year just started, and the coldest day of every year is always in January. If some white supremacist “patriot” assassinates Biden, it will be the biggest American assassination of the 21st century. None of the cable news channels will point out that it was also the first presidential assassination of the 21st century.
I would be amazed if the US Secret Service reads this blog, but just in case, I want to point out how ironic I would consider it if Biden were assassinated. Then a black woman would become president. That is not exactly what the white supremacists want, but are any of them astute enough to figure that out? To be safe, they could take out both the president and vice president. That would be dramatic enough to get them the attention their parents obviously never gave them as children. But then the speaker of the house would become president. All those brave patriots might want to hold off on the killing spree, at least until the next election.
Whether our drought is the most dramatic event in the history of the world or a bit of an inconvenience, it has people talking, complaining, and vowing to make changes. Though most of the country is a subtropical forest, the entire west coast was deforested generations ago. The east coast still gets more than enough rain every year, but almost everyone lives on the west coast, and for reasons a lot of people do not understand, there is no system to transfer water from east to west. There used to be a time when the large mountain ranges between the coasts hindered transportation, but 21st century technology must have a way to get water around mountains.
Taiwan is entirely responsible for turning the lush west coast into steel and concrete, but other countries, mostly China and the United States, are responsible for the lower rainfall every year. But as long as today has record profits, who cares about tomorrow, right? We moved to Kaohsiung during typhoon season, so we saw plenty of rain when we first got here, but it has rained little since. It was only when people started talking about the drought that I noticed how seldom it was raining. Since I came from Hong Kong, I liked how I could leave the house without an umbrella. Typhoon season is coming up, so people are expecting more rain soon, but it will have to pour like there is no tomorrow to flood the drought. We need a large typhoon with all of its water to hit us directly, rather than simply pass by and give us its wind.
As is often the case, there will be some changes made because of this drought. Rather than think ahead, the people in charge of this country, just like the people in charge of every country, react to the complaints of their constituents more than they anticipate a disaster and solve it before anyone threatens to vote for someone else. Taiwan has handled this virus issue much better than most countries. But not because the leaders had the foresight to expend considerable resources on a future emergency that might never come. Taiwan's leaders were fully prepared for SARS 2 because of experience gained from SARS 1. If American leaders are smart, they will learn from their current situation and prepare for the next one, just as Taiwan did. If history is any indication, one political party will show the other who is the boss, and screw over the people.
One of the best things about Taiwan is that one political party does not dismantle everything done by another party. If the people in charge now can find a way to prevent future droughts, the other parties will keep everything in place when they take over. But first, someone has to find a way to prevent future droughts.
I would be amazed if the US Secret Service reads this blog, but just in case, I want to point out how ironic I would consider it if Biden were assassinated. Then a black woman would become president. That is not exactly what the white supremacists want, but are any of them astute enough to figure that out? To be safe, they could take out both the president and vice president. That would be dramatic enough to get them the attention their parents obviously never gave them as children. But then the speaker of the house would become president. All those brave patriots might want to hold off on the killing spree, at least until the next election.
Whether our drought is the most dramatic event in the history of the world or a bit of an inconvenience, it has people talking, complaining, and vowing to make changes. Though most of the country is a subtropical forest, the entire west coast was deforested generations ago. The east coast still gets more than enough rain every year, but almost everyone lives on the west coast, and for reasons a lot of people do not understand, there is no system to transfer water from east to west. There used to be a time when the large mountain ranges between the coasts hindered transportation, but 21st century technology must have a way to get water around mountains.
Taiwan is entirely responsible for turning the lush west coast into steel and concrete, but other countries, mostly China and the United States, are responsible for the lower rainfall every year. But as long as today has record profits, who cares about tomorrow, right? We moved to Kaohsiung during typhoon season, so we saw plenty of rain when we first got here, but it has rained little since. It was only when people started talking about the drought that I noticed how seldom it was raining. Since I came from Hong Kong, I liked how I could leave the house without an umbrella. Typhoon season is coming up, so people are expecting more rain soon, but it will have to pour like there is no tomorrow to flood the drought. We need a large typhoon with all of its water to hit us directly, rather than simply pass by and give us its wind.
As is often the case, there will be some changes made because of this drought. Rather than think ahead, the people in charge of this country, just like the people in charge of every country, react to the complaints of their constituents more than they anticipate a disaster and solve it before anyone threatens to vote for someone else. Taiwan has handled this virus issue much better than most countries. But not because the leaders had the foresight to expend considerable resources on a future emergency that might never come. Taiwan's leaders were fully prepared for SARS 2 because of experience gained from SARS 1. If American leaders are smart, they will learn from their current situation and prepare for the next one, just as Taiwan did. If history is any indication, one political party will show the other who is the boss, and screw over the people.
One of the best things about Taiwan is that one political party does not dismantle everything done by another party. If the people in charge now can find a way to prevent future droughts, the other parties will keep everything in place when they take over. But first, someone has to find a way to prevent future droughts.
Wednesday, November 25, 2020
Never Trust Anyone Over Thirty
The boomers who used to tell you not to trust anyone over 30, over 50 years ago, are now senior citizens. But it was good advice. As they themselves have shown, the older you get, the easier it is to abandon your principles. Rather than save us from the establishment with peace and love, they became the establishment, as every generation does. Peace and love never pays as well as divide and conquer.
When I was young and idealistic, I was going to be a famous ballerina. That never happened, for a few reasons. Almost no ballerinas are famous. Debbie Allen told her students that fame was unlikely. Fittingly, she is the only one of them who is still famous. Dancing, like pretty much any art, is what you do because you have to do it. There is something inside that compels you to bust your butt and work as hard as you can for little reward. If you want to be rich, go into politics. Art is created for art's sake.
Unlike music or acting, dancing is for the young. Sure, Baryshnikov was on stage well into his 50s, but most of us are not Baryshnikov. Though I knew I would never have a career anything like his, I was doing all right into my late 20s. Thanks to some medical issues, I unofficially retired at 29. Like Baryshnikov, and a great many others before and since, I got into choreography. I miss being on stage in front of an audience, but working behind the scenes pays more and is much easier on the toes.
Most of the dancers I work with are younger than I am. That is perfectly normal for most choreographers, but I am used to working with people my own age or older. In my 20s, I was with the cool kids. At 30, I sit at the adult table. I accidentally went from a rebel to part of the establishment. I think that just happens spontaneously when you turn 30. That's why no one is supposed to trust us.
I also moved from one country to another. China was probably not the best choice for my career, but it provided opportunities to work in a variety of other countries. Taiwan is a better and steadier gig, but I have yet to work outside of the country. Of course, a large obstacle is that much of the world is highly contagious right now. When I lived in China, the air was cleaner wherever I went abroad. In Taiwan, I am infinitely safer. There were quite a few changes in my life when I turned 30. Technically, this all happened when I was 29, but 30 sounds better.
There are a great many people who will tell you that 30 is still young. And they are correct. I plan on living a long time, so middle age for me should be around 50. Some people say middle age is well into your 60s, but that sounds optimistic. If you get the senior citizen discount, you are closer to the end. Of course, any of us could die tomorrow, so those are all just useless labels.
According to the label people, I was born in the middle of the Millennial Generation. No one called us that when we were young. It was Generation Y, which I always thought was stupid. The generation before us is Generation X because no one could think of a name. After the Baby Boomers, every generation suddenly had to have a name. Hemingway and his gang were the Lost Generation, but no one called the Greatest Generation the greatest generation until they had one foot in the grave. Imagine what would happen if you called teenagers the Greatest Generation. They would not end up so great. With Generation X somehow sticking, all the geniuses in charge of naming came up with Generation Y, followed by, hold onto your hats, Generation Z. The irony is, the X was never about the 24th letter of the alphabet. It was X, as in unknown, alienated, blank. Now it is just another letter. If you have to name every generation, at least come up with a name. Call boomers Generation W and see how upset they get.
Then they started calling us millennials. Not because we were born at the end of an old millennium or the beginning of a new one. Those are Generation Z, who some people like to call “zoomers”, even though that is stupid. Someone chose “millennials” because we started becoming adults at the new millennium, even though that naming convention does not match other generations. Did boomers become adults when the baby boom started? That would be the Silent Generation. I guess we know why they were so silent.
According to the internet, boomers and millennials are natural enemies. Then again, on the internet, boomers think anyone born after they were is a millennial, even though whenever boomers complain about young people, it is usually something Generation Z does. Possibly because Generation Z was born around the new millennium and it would make far more sense to call them millennials. Not that millennials have to worry about it. We are on the winning side. Time has a way of making the older generations obsolete. Long after the last boomer is dead and buried, we will still be here, complaining about those young Generation AAs or Generation Alphas or whatever stupid name someone comes up with.
When I was young and idealistic, I was going to be a famous ballerina. That never happened, for a few reasons. Almost no ballerinas are famous. Debbie Allen told her students that fame was unlikely. Fittingly, she is the only one of them who is still famous. Dancing, like pretty much any art, is what you do because you have to do it. There is something inside that compels you to bust your butt and work as hard as you can for little reward. If you want to be rich, go into politics. Art is created for art's sake.
Unlike music or acting, dancing is for the young. Sure, Baryshnikov was on stage well into his 50s, but most of us are not Baryshnikov. Though I knew I would never have a career anything like his, I was doing all right into my late 20s. Thanks to some medical issues, I unofficially retired at 29. Like Baryshnikov, and a great many others before and since, I got into choreography. I miss being on stage in front of an audience, but working behind the scenes pays more and is much easier on the toes.
Most of the dancers I work with are younger than I am. That is perfectly normal for most choreographers, but I am used to working with people my own age or older. In my 20s, I was with the cool kids. At 30, I sit at the adult table. I accidentally went from a rebel to part of the establishment. I think that just happens spontaneously when you turn 30. That's why no one is supposed to trust us.
I also moved from one country to another. China was probably not the best choice for my career, but it provided opportunities to work in a variety of other countries. Taiwan is a better and steadier gig, but I have yet to work outside of the country. Of course, a large obstacle is that much of the world is highly contagious right now. When I lived in China, the air was cleaner wherever I went abroad. In Taiwan, I am infinitely safer. There were quite a few changes in my life when I turned 30. Technically, this all happened when I was 29, but 30 sounds better.
There are a great many people who will tell you that 30 is still young. And they are correct. I plan on living a long time, so middle age for me should be around 50. Some people say middle age is well into your 60s, but that sounds optimistic. If you get the senior citizen discount, you are closer to the end. Of course, any of us could die tomorrow, so those are all just useless labels.
According to the label people, I was born in the middle of the Millennial Generation. No one called us that when we were young. It was Generation Y, which I always thought was stupid. The generation before us is Generation X because no one could think of a name. After the Baby Boomers, every generation suddenly had to have a name. Hemingway and his gang were the Lost Generation, but no one called the Greatest Generation the greatest generation until they had one foot in the grave. Imagine what would happen if you called teenagers the Greatest Generation. They would not end up so great. With Generation X somehow sticking, all the geniuses in charge of naming came up with Generation Y, followed by, hold onto your hats, Generation Z. The irony is, the X was never about the 24th letter of the alphabet. It was X, as in unknown, alienated, blank. Now it is just another letter. If you have to name every generation, at least come up with a name. Call boomers Generation W and see how upset they get.
Then they started calling us millennials. Not because we were born at the end of an old millennium or the beginning of a new one. Those are Generation Z, who some people like to call “zoomers”, even though that is stupid. Someone chose “millennials” because we started becoming adults at the new millennium, even though that naming convention does not match other generations. Did boomers become adults when the baby boom started? That would be the Silent Generation. I guess we know why they were so silent.
According to the internet, boomers and millennials are natural enemies. Then again, on the internet, boomers think anyone born after they were is a millennial, even though whenever boomers complain about young people, it is usually something Generation Z does. Possibly because Generation Z was born around the new millennium and it would make far more sense to call them millennials. Not that millennials have to worry about it. We are on the winning side. Time has a way of making the older generations obsolete. Long after the last boomer is dead and buried, we will still be here, complaining about those young Generation AAs or Generation Alphas or whatever stupid name someone comes up with.
Thursday, August 13, 2020
A Voice To Lead
I have lived in Taiwan for just over two months and have seen the president twice, though the first time was during a trip in February, before I lived here.
On Tuesday, the Taiwan Nursing Association gave a friend of mine, who is a nurse, an award. It was part of their big International Nurses Day celebration, “Nurses: A Voice To Lead, Nursing the World To Health”. They have a big ceremony every year, but this year came with a bigger bang, probably because a large chunk of the world is having a few medical problems. Nurses are generally treated with about as much respect as janitors, who also do an invaluable job. But this year, people are starting to appreciate what nurses do, if only temporarily. When the virus is gone and everyone is obsessed with the next big thing, I'm sure most people will treat nurses like crap again.
President Tsai Ing Wen gave a speech at the beginning of the ceremony and handed out a few awards. Having already seen her speak, I was not surprised by how calm and soothing her voice is, but I could not help but notice that her speech was about the nurses and not about herself. She never mentioned how popular she is, even though she won the last election in a landslide. She did not use the opportunity to attack her opponents, perceived enemies, the media or science and education. In fact, she seems to think science and education are a good thing. The most annoying part of her speech, to me, was that she had the entire thing memorized and yet was able to speak in coherent sentences. There were no teleprompters anywhere and she never looked down at notes or the lectern. It was either memorized or she was improvising. If the speech was improvised, then Tsai is a remarkably intelligent person. While she was praising the work that nurses do, I was wondering how a country with such diverse and occasionally volatile political opinions can so effortlessly have a worthwhile leader.
The ceremony reminded me of the Oscars. While the point was supposed to be recognizing a few people for their achievements, most of the time was used up by the host's inane chatter and too many song and dance numbers. I have nothing against song and dance numbers. I have made a decent living from them, but singing and dancing seems unnecessary when handing out awards to nurses. One of the songs at this particular award ceremony was by a high school a cappella group who were dressed like DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, for some reason. I wanted to be on their side since I know what it takes to sing on stage without any instrumental accompaniment, and this show was probably a great honor for them, but teenage a cappella groups around here are nothing like the Mills Brothers or Manhattan Transfer. Instead of harmony, they focus on “beatboxing” and a combination of rap and doing poor imitations of Mariah Carey. It was pretty bad.
While only a few people got awards personally handed to them by the president, a few hundred nurses were given plaques. That took a long time. Fortunately, they did not announce everyone's name. They lined up on stage in groups of eight, got their plaque, had their pictures taken, and went back to their seats. Names were printed in the program.
Since the president was involved, it was on the news that night. Rather than tell the people much of anything, the news showed the president posing for photographers with the head of the Taiwan Nursing Association and mentioned that this year is Florence Nightingale's 200th birthday. The nurses were the stars that night, but only for three hours.
On Tuesday, the Taiwan Nursing Association gave a friend of mine, who is a nurse, an award. It was part of their big International Nurses Day celebration, “Nurses: A Voice To Lead, Nursing the World To Health”. They have a big ceremony every year, but this year came with a bigger bang, probably because a large chunk of the world is having a few medical problems. Nurses are generally treated with about as much respect as janitors, who also do an invaluable job. But this year, people are starting to appreciate what nurses do, if only temporarily. When the virus is gone and everyone is obsessed with the next big thing, I'm sure most people will treat nurses like crap again.
President Tsai Ing Wen gave a speech at the beginning of the ceremony and handed out a few awards. Having already seen her speak, I was not surprised by how calm and soothing her voice is, but I could not help but notice that her speech was about the nurses and not about herself. She never mentioned how popular she is, even though she won the last election in a landslide. She did not use the opportunity to attack her opponents, perceived enemies, the media or science and education. In fact, she seems to think science and education are a good thing. The most annoying part of her speech, to me, was that she had the entire thing memorized and yet was able to speak in coherent sentences. There were no teleprompters anywhere and she never looked down at notes or the lectern. It was either memorized or she was improvising. If the speech was improvised, then Tsai is a remarkably intelligent person. While she was praising the work that nurses do, I was wondering how a country with such diverse and occasionally volatile political opinions can so effortlessly have a worthwhile leader.
The ceremony reminded me of the Oscars. While the point was supposed to be recognizing a few people for their achievements, most of the time was used up by the host's inane chatter and too many song and dance numbers. I have nothing against song and dance numbers. I have made a decent living from them, but singing and dancing seems unnecessary when handing out awards to nurses. One of the songs at this particular award ceremony was by a high school a cappella group who were dressed like DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, for some reason. I wanted to be on their side since I know what it takes to sing on stage without any instrumental accompaniment, and this show was probably a great honor for them, but teenage a cappella groups around here are nothing like the Mills Brothers or Manhattan Transfer. Instead of harmony, they focus on “beatboxing” and a combination of rap and doing poor imitations of Mariah Carey. It was pretty bad.
While only a few people got awards personally handed to them by the president, a few hundred nurses were given plaques. That took a long time. Fortunately, they did not announce everyone's name. They lined up on stage in groups of eight, got their plaque, had their pictures taken, and went back to their seats. Names were printed in the program.
Since the president was involved, it was on the news that night. Rather than tell the people much of anything, the news showed the president posing for photographers with the head of the Taiwan Nursing Association and mentioned that this year is Florence Nightingale's 200th birthday. The nurses were the stars that night, but only for three hours.
Saturday, April 11, 2020
Fat Camp part 3
The part where I get political and offend easily offended Americans
An incidental benefit to staying in Taipei for the next two to four weeks is that Taiwan is one of the safest countries in the world when it comes to the new American Flu. How that happened is a mystery to Americans, but it makes perfect sense to anyone who knows anything about Taiwan. They were hit hard by the SARS epidemic 15 years ago and they put those lessons into practice. The people of Taiwan, unlike Americans, never believed they were inherently immune to disaster. They get fatal typhoons every single year and have had their share of catastrophic earthquakes. Significantly, every Taiwanese alive today has lived with the constant threat of a Chinese invasion. Americans have the luxury of fighting their wars on the other side of the planet.
Rather than make racist jokes and spread conspiracy theories, propaganda, misinformation and disinformation when COVID-19 hit, Taiwan immediately sprang into action. They had a plan of attack after SARS and used it. Presidential administrations have come and gone since SARS, and even though two different political parties have been in charge, no one rejected their preparation efforts out of spite. They all put the country's safety ahead of their own agenda.
The people in charge of Taiwan and the United States are also very different in their backgrounds and temperament. America's vice president is a religious extremist who thinks science is the devil's work. Taiwan's vice president is an epidemiologist who was the minister of health during the big SARS epidemic.
Hong Kong is also far safer than the United States, but it is much closer to Hubei. People from Mainland China flood into Hong Kong all the time, mostly for shopping. While Taiwan immediately canceled all flights to and from the Mainland, Hong Kong only restricted certain cities. From what I have seen, the largely incompetent leaders of Hong Kong did a pretty good job in dealing with the virus. They acted infinitely faster than the Americans and have shown their ability to adapt and adjust as the situation changes. To American leaders, the only options are turning the knob all the way down to 0 or all the way up to 11. Hong Kong leaders know there are several volumes in between and that sometimes you have to turn it up or down when the song changes.
In parts of the United States, or every inch of it if you watch CNN, Americans are prisoners in their homes, the streets are empty and businesses are closed. I don't know how accurate that is, but every American I have talked to is staying home from work right now. In Hong Kong, the streets and shopping malls are just as crowded as ever, but more people are wearing masks and they closed Disneyland, KTVs and nightclubs. In Taiwan, I have seen no difference whatsoever. Everything is open, as far as I know, trains are still crowded, stores are still stocked. Maybe more people are wearing masks, but I remember plenty of masks the last time I visited before the virus.
Some Americans will take offense to everything I have said about the United States. That's just the American way. We are the best at everything, and anyone who criticizes anything is a traitor. Unless the other party is in charge. Then the United States is going to hell in a handbasket. But when it comes to this virus, the United States has failed miserably and Taiwan, of all places, has shown the world how it should be done. Unfortunately for the world, the WHO refuses to listen to Taiwan, and Taiwan will never get the recognition it deserves. When this is all over, someone will take credit for ending it, but I bet whoever that is will never acknowledge Taiwan's research, preparedness and ingenuity. I don't know how often the average Taiwanese is proud of their country, but they should be right now.
Rather than make racist jokes and spread conspiracy theories, propaganda, misinformation and disinformation when COVID-19 hit, Taiwan immediately sprang into action. They had a plan of attack after SARS and used it. Presidential administrations have come and gone since SARS, and even though two different political parties have been in charge, no one rejected their preparation efforts out of spite. They all put the country's safety ahead of their own agenda.
The people in charge of Taiwan and the United States are also very different in their backgrounds and temperament. America's vice president is a religious extremist who thinks science is the devil's work. Taiwan's vice president is an epidemiologist who was the minister of health during the big SARS epidemic.
Hong Kong is also far safer than the United States, but it is much closer to Hubei. People from Mainland China flood into Hong Kong all the time, mostly for shopping. While Taiwan immediately canceled all flights to and from the Mainland, Hong Kong only restricted certain cities. From what I have seen, the largely incompetent leaders of Hong Kong did a pretty good job in dealing with the virus. They acted infinitely faster than the Americans and have shown their ability to adapt and adjust as the situation changes. To American leaders, the only options are turning the knob all the way down to 0 or all the way up to 11. Hong Kong leaders know there are several volumes in between and that sometimes you have to turn it up or down when the song changes.
In parts of the United States, or every inch of it if you watch CNN, Americans are prisoners in their homes, the streets are empty and businesses are closed. I don't know how accurate that is, but every American I have talked to is staying home from work right now. In Hong Kong, the streets and shopping malls are just as crowded as ever, but more people are wearing masks and they closed Disneyland, KTVs and nightclubs. In Taiwan, I have seen no difference whatsoever. Everything is open, as far as I know, trains are still crowded, stores are still stocked. Maybe more people are wearing masks, but I remember plenty of masks the last time I visited before the virus.
Some Americans will take offense to everything I have said about the United States. That's just the American way. We are the best at everything, and anyone who criticizes anything is a traitor. Unless the other party is in charge. Then the United States is going to hell in a handbasket. But when it comes to this virus, the United States has failed miserably and Taiwan, of all places, has shown the world how it should be done. Unfortunately for the world, the WHO refuses to listen to Taiwan, and Taiwan will never get the recognition it deserves. When this is all over, someone will take credit for ending it, but I bet whoever that is will never acknowledge Taiwan's research, preparedness and ingenuity. I don't know how often the average Taiwanese is proud of their country, but they should be right now.
Tuesday, October 22, 2019
Blog Is a Crazy Word Anyway
Personal blogs died a long time ago. I used to read a few. One by one, they all disappeared. Some made an announcement that they were done. Most simply stopped. Now, it seems like most blogs are businesses. I'm sure Facebook had a lot to do with it. It is easier, you get more comments and, most importantly, you can collect more “friends”. I could go on and on about the Facebook definition of friendship versus mine, but that is not the point of this post.
I don't like Facebook. I never have. It always felt too intrusive to me. Most of my early concerns have since proven to be more accurate than paranoid. But beyond all that, I simply don't like the way Facebook breaks everything down to the lowest common denominator. In a blog, or at least the blogs I used to read, people could get into whatever they wanted to talk about in depth. On Facebook, it is a picture of something no one cares about and a sentence or two. More often than not, a Facebook post is simply some cartoon someone copied from someone else's post. Most of the typing happens in comments and most of the comments are horrible. I never met a sociopath on a blog. It looks like Facebook is littered with them.
Facebook is also highly censored and its rules are enforced arbitrarily. You can say anything you want on a blog, and I have seen pictures that would get a Facebook user banned for life. Even I have posted things that would cross the line on Facebook. And I am the most vanilla person I know.
The point of this particular blog, as far as I know, has always been to document my life in Hong Kong. As hard as it is to believe now, there was a time when I did not live here. Once upon more than a few years ago, Hong Kong was new and exotic to me. Now, it is simply where I live. No place is exotic when you live there long enough. The top news story right now is the big extradition protest. I have posted nothing about it. Protests are so common in Hong Kong, they are pretty easy to ignore, even when news outlets in other parts of the world make it sound like the entire city is on fire. If my health were better, I probably would have gone out into the middle of the action once or twice just to see what all the fuss was about, just like I did during the umbrella movement a few years ago.
Every once in a while, I read a long forgotten post that I wrote years ago. I like the fact that I wrote down something while it was still fresh in my mind, and I realize I should do that more often. The more my brain fails me, the more important it is to record memories. If I were smart, I would write down a little something every day, if only to keep track. But I don't. This blog would be so much better if I updated it every day, or at least once or twice a week. There would be a lot more to look back on. But I have never had that much free time. That might be one reason Facebook is so popular. How long does it take to upload an image and type “lol”? But then, what is the use of reading that post a few years later?
Then there are health issues. I want to document everything while it happens, but I know how tedious it is to read about someone else's medical problems. If I do not want to read something somewhere else, I certainly do not want to read it here. Unless that person is a doctor or nurse. They can often talk about their problems and give useful information at the same time. The rest of us know what we are told. I can go on all day about how to perform a craniotomy, but only from my experience. There are probably a dozen other ways to do it, and some might be better. Medical professionals also have better inside information about staying in hospitals.
I have no intention of shutting this blog down. For now. But I have no strong desire to keep going. I think posts will be infrequent and not necessarily about any particular subject or theme. I was posting some of the dreams I wrote down after the craniotomy, but I don't really see the point of doing that anymore. They are old news.
I might get interested again some day. There could always be a burst of activity out of the blue, followed by another slow period. Or I could have a lot I want to say for a longer time. Who knows. Anything can happen, which is why I am not closing up shop entirely. But I think I will be taking longer lunch breaks.
lol
I don't like Facebook. I never have. It always felt too intrusive to me. Most of my early concerns have since proven to be more accurate than paranoid. But beyond all that, I simply don't like the way Facebook breaks everything down to the lowest common denominator. In a blog, or at least the blogs I used to read, people could get into whatever they wanted to talk about in depth. On Facebook, it is a picture of something no one cares about and a sentence or two. More often than not, a Facebook post is simply some cartoon someone copied from someone else's post. Most of the typing happens in comments and most of the comments are horrible. I never met a sociopath on a blog. It looks like Facebook is littered with them.
Facebook is also highly censored and its rules are enforced arbitrarily. You can say anything you want on a blog, and I have seen pictures that would get a Facebook user banned for life. Even I have posted things that would cross the line on Facebook. And I am the most vanilla person I know.
The point of this particular blog, as far as I know, has always been to document my life in Hong Kong. As hard as it is to believe now, there was a time when I did not live here. Once upon more than a few years ago, Hong Kong was new and exotic to me. Now, it is simply where I live. No place is exotic when you live there long enough. The top news story right now is the big extradition protest. I have posted nothing about it. Protests are so common in Hong Kong, they are pretty easy to ignore, even when news outlets in other parts of the world make it sound like the entire city is on fire. If my health were better, I probably would have gone out into the middle of the action once or twice just to see what all the fuss was about, just like I did during the umbrella movement a few years ago.
Every once in a while, I read a long forgotten post that I wrote years ago. I like the fact that I wrote down something while it was still fresh in my mind, and I realize I should do that more often. The more my brain fails me, the more important it is to record memories. If I were smart, I would write down a little something every day, if only to keep track. But I don't. This blog would be so much better if I updated it every day, or at least once or twice a week. There would be a lot more to look back on. But I have never had that much free time. That might be one reason Facebook is so popular. How long does it take to upload an image and type “lol”? But then, what is the use of reading that post a few years later?
Then there are health issues. I want to document everything while it happens, but I know how tedious it is to read about someone else's medical problems. If I do not want to read something somewhere else, I certainly do not want to read it here. Unless that person is a doctor or nurse. They can often talk about their problems and give useful information at the same time. The rest of us know what we are told. I can go on all day about how to perform a craniotomy, but only from my experience. There are probably a dozen other ways to do it, and some might be better. Medical professionals also have better inside information about staying in hospitals.
I have no intention of shutting this blog down. For now. But I have no strong desire to keep going. I think posts will be infrequent and not necessarily about any particular subject or theme. I was posting some of the dreams I wrote down after the craniotomy, but I don't really see the point of doing that anymore. They are old news.
I might get interested again some day. There could always be a burst of activity out of the blue, followed by another slow period. Or I could have a lot I want to say for a longer time. Who knows. Anything can happen, which is why I am not closing up shop entirely. But I think I will be taking longer lunch breaks.
Wednesday, January 23, 2019
In the Year 2525
Bernardo Bertolucci died November 26. He was a great filmmaker, but since this blog is about me, I'm going to make his death about me. There is something unwholesome about that, but I think Bertolucci would approve. Or at least give that little smirk he used from time to time.
Bertolucci is a character in my most recent book, Acting Like Adults. He does not run from town to town solving crimes or anything as stupid. He is a very minor character. One of the protagonists is an actor who gets a part in a feature film. As soon as I decided that the fictional film would be a biography of French writer/anarchist Émile Armand, I knew that Bertolucci had to be the director. I could have just as easily created a fictional director, but this seemed like a project he might enjoy, and his reputation works in my favor. Had I created a fictional character, it would have been based on Bertolucci anyway.
Legally, you can portray a real person in your work of fiction as long as it is not libelous. Bertolucci is described in this book as a great filmmaker, so I doubt anyone would call that libel. Realistically, he was never going to know about it anyway. The only possible trouble I might have faced was in my description of his home. A recent interview with him described the interior and it was surprisingly easy to find his address. In the one in a billion chance he read the book, he might not have appreciated my attention to detail.
My only real concern was his health. He was 76, recovering from spinal surgery and confined to a wheelchair when I started writing the book. He also had cancer, but that disease is a wild card in everyone's deck. If he had died while I was writing, I would have changed him into a fictional character.
Hugh Hefner died in September 2017, long after I finished the first draft. He is not a character in the book, but two of the characters do some work related to his magazine and there is a brief mention of someone making a film about his life. Like Bertolucci, he is very much alive when this story takes place. I was kind of hoping that someone would make a movie about him just after this book came out. That has yet to happen.
They were alive when I wrote the book, as were Jerry Lewis, Jeanne Moreau, Glenne Headly, Martin Landau and Rose Marie. There was a time when I considered having the story take place in the recent past. Had I done that, it might be easier to understand that so many dead people are supposed to be alive.
In the book, one of the actor characters gets a part in a new HBO series about the Civil War called Secession. Other than what would have to be a ridiculous budget, the fictional series in the story sounds like something the real HBO would love to do. There is plenty of room for excessive violence, action and nudity. As far as American wars go, the Civil War is one of the most popular.
More than a year after I created the fictional series, HBO released a real series called Succession. It has nothing to do with the Civil War, but the title similarities put it in the predictions category. I'm no Jules Verne, but this book saw the future more than anything else I have ever written. Of course, the real HBO series was probably in development before I started writing about the fictional series, but along with the rest of the general public, I had no way of knowing about that. And their title might have changed more than a few times. Even when it was announced, I never heard about it. Most HBO shows never make it to HBO Asia. I don't think we get this one, but we have the one about the detective in 1960s Singapore that they probably don't show in America.
But my biggest unintentional prediction in Acting Like Adults is Harvey Weinstein. The lead antagonist is a respected and successful movie producer who does very bad things in private. Everything we know about Weinstein's crimes became public knowledge long after I finished the first draft. Looking at it now, anyone would assume that my fictional character is based on him. But I knew nothing about all the horrible things he did while I was writing the story. I even mentioned him by name, positively, in a previous book, Harmony On Spring Hill. One of the fictional characters in that book is described as “the Harvey Weinstein of Israel”. It was meant as a description of that character's success. Today, it sounds like I'm saying something very different that I never intended.
My fictional Weinstein character might sound like the real Weinstein in hindsight, but I actually based him on Lou Pearlman, the successful record producer who did very bad things in private. I'm not even subtle about it. The character's name is Jay Pearlman. Lou Pearlman's full name was Louis Jay Pearlman. The real Lou Pearlman was from Queens and used his cousin, Art Garfunkel, to break into record producing. The fictional Jay Pearlman is from New York and uses his family connections to break into movies. But Weinstein and his crimes are more famous, so anyone who reads this book will make the obvious assumptions. Five hundred years from now, when children are forced to read this book in school as the last surviving example of literature from the Ancient American Empire, it will be a given that the Jay Pearlman character was based on the real life monster who inspired the Winestine Laws. Those poor children will never know the truth.
Obviously, I'm joking about one of my books being read in 500 years. The only thing they will have from today is Fifty Shades of Grey and The Great Kardashian Twitters.
Bertolucci is a character in my most recent book, Acting Like Adults. He does not run from town to town solving crimes or anything as stupid. He is a very minor character. One of the protagonists is an actor who gets a part in a feature film. As soon as I decided that the fictional film would be a biography of French writer/anarchist Émile Armand, I knew that Bertolucci had to be the director. I could have just as easily created a fictional director, but this seemed like a project he might enjoy, and his reputation works in my favor. Had I created a fictional character, it would have been based on Bertolucci anyway.
Legally, you can portray a real person in your work of fiction as long as it is not libelous. Bertolucci is described in this book as a great filmmaker, so I doubt anyone would call that libel. Realistically, he was never going to know about it anyway. The only possible trouble I might have faced was in my description of his home. A recent interview with him described the interior and it was surprisingly easy to find his address. In the one in a billion chance he read the book, he might not have appreciated my attention to detail.
My only real concern was his health. He was 76, recovering from spinal surgery and confined to a wheelchair when I started writing the book. He also had cancer, but that disease is a wild card in everyone's deck. If he had died while I was writing, I would have changed him into a fictional character.
Hugh Hefner died in September 2017, long after I finished the first draft. He is not a character in the book, but two of the characters do some work related to his magazine and there is a brief mention of someone making a film about his life. Like Bertolucci, he is very much alive when this story takes place. I was kind of hoping that someone would make a movie about him just after this book came out. That has yet to happen.
They were alive when I wrote the book, as were Jerry Lewis, Jeanne Moreau, Glenne Headly, Martin Landau and Rose Marie. There was a time when I considered having the story take place in the recent past. Had I done that, it might be easier to understand that so many dead people are supposed to be alive.
In the book, one of the actor characters gets a part in a new HBO series about the Civil War called Secession. Other than what would have to be a ridiculous budget, the fictional series in the story sounds like something the real HBO would love to do. There is plenty of room for excessive violence, action and nudity. As far as American wars go, the Civil War is one of the most popular.
More than a year after I created the fictional series, HBO released a real series called Succession. It has nothing to do with the Civil War, but the title similarities put it in the predictions category. I'm no Jules Verne, but this book saw the future more than anything else I have ever written. Of course, the real HBO series was probably in development before I started writing about the fictional series, but along with the rest of the general public, I had no way of knowing about that. And their title might have changed more than a few times. Even when it was announced, I never heard about it. Most HBO shows never make it to HBO Asia. I don't think we get this one, but we have the one about the detective in 1960s Singapore that they probably don't show in America.
But my biggest unintentional prediction in Acting Like Adults is Harvey Weinstein. The lead antagonist is a respected and successful movie producer who does very bad things in private. Everything we know about Weinstein's crimes became public knowledge long after I finished the first draft. Looking at it now, anyone would assume that my fictional character is based on him. But I knew nothing about all the horrible things he did while I was writing the story. I even mentioned him by name, positively, in a previous book, Harmony On Spring Hill. One of the fictional characters in that book is described as “the Harvey Weinstein of Israel”. It was meant as a description of that character's success. Today, it sounds like I'm saying something very different that I never intended.
My fictional Weinstein character might sound like the real Weinstein in hindsight, but I actually based him on Lou Pearlman, the successful record producer who did very bad things in private. I'm not even subtle about it. The character's name is Jay Pearlman. Lou Pearlman's full name was Louis Jay Pearlman. The real Lou Pearlman was from Queens and used his cousin, Art Garfunkel, to break into record producing. The fictional Jay Pearlman is from New York and uses his family connections to break into movies. But Weinstein and his crimes are more famous, so anyone who reads this book will make the obvious assumptions. Five hundred years from now, when children are forced to read this book in school as the last surviving example of literature from the Ancient American Empire, it will be a given that the Jay Pearlman character was based on the real life monster who inspired the Winestine Laws. Those poor children will never know the truth.
Obviously, I'm joking about one of my books being read in 500 years. The only thing they will have from today is Fifty Shades of Grey and The Great Kardashian Twitters.
Tuesday, December 19, 2017
Hailey's Novel Diary – 12/19/17
Chapter 10 is now chapter 9 and less graphic than before. It did not need to be graphic. In fact, it works better if everything is described clinically. It's supposed to be as arousing as a colonoscopy.
I have gotten in trouble with adult themes before. That is kind of ironic when you think about how uptight and vanilla I am in real life. I had to rewrite parts of Nudist Cruise because the publisher I was dealing with at the time thought it was an erotic novel, and that was a genre they did not cover. That one is kind of a long story, but the main issue was that, like a lot of people, they could not see the difference between nudists doing their thing and swingers at an orgy. There was never anything swinger or orgy about Nudist Cruise, but I had to tone down the minuscule hint of sexuality that was in there. Now, it is as innocent as a puppy. But it's still considered a “sensitive” topic because some of the people are nudists.
In this story, which is not about nudists or swingers, I'm describing anything that can be even remotely considered sexual in two different ways. It is either clinical and sterile or vulgar and flamboyant, depending on the situation. Ideally, readers will see the difference and understand why. If you find details of Harvey Weinstein's crimes arousing, you might not get it. If you find him and his actions appalling, you will.
Chapter 10, formerly chapter 11, is now much shorter. It kind of dragged on and on, so I cut it down from a long, poetic soliloquy to just stating the facts.
In some circles, there is a rule that you should not use adverbs. That is completely, utterly, absolutely, downright wrong. Adverbs are good. Verbs love adverbs. They can also modify adjectives and nouns. They are pretty versatile little guys.
But chapter 10 was too flowery. Sometimes you just have to get down to the heart of the matter. But my will gets weak and my thoughts seem to scatter. And sometimes Don Henley is in the news.
The Eagles will most likely never come back to Hong Kong, but I saw them in 2011, without Don Felder, and they were fantastic. I will never get to see them with both Frey and Felder, but they put on a great show.
I have gotten in trouble with adult themes before. That is kind of ironic when you think about how uptight and vanilla I am in real life. I had to rewrite parts of Nudist Cruise because the publisher I was dealing with at the time thought it was an erotic novel, and that was a genre they did not cover. That one is kind of a long story, but the main issue was that, like a lot of people, they could not see the difference between nudists doing their thing and swingers at an orgy. There was never anything swinger or orgy about Nudist Cruise, but I had to tone down the minuscule hint of sexuality that was in there. Now, it is as innocent as a puppy. But it's still considered a “sensitive” topic because some of the people are nudists.
In this story, which is not about nudists or swingers, I'm describing anything that can be even remotely considered sexual in two different ways. It is either clinical and sterile or vulgar and flamboyant, depending on the situation. Ideally, readers will see the difference and understand why. If you find details of Harvey Weinstein's crimes arousing, you might not get it. If you find him and his actions appalling, you will.
Chapter 10, formerly chapter 11, is now much shorter. It kind of dragged on and on, so I cut it down from a long, poetic soliloquy to just stating the facts.
In some circles, there is a rule that you should not use adverbs. That is completely, utterly, absolutely, downright wrong. Adverbs are good. Verbs love adverbs. They can also modify adjectives and nouns. They are pretty versatile little guys.
But chapter 10 was too flowery. Sometimes you just have to get down to the heart of the matter. But my will gets weak and my thoughts seem to scatter. And sometimes Don Henley is in the news.
The Eagles will most likely never come back to Hong Kong, but I saw them in 2011, without Don Felder, and they were fantastic. I will never get to see them with both Frey and Felder, but they put on a great show.
Thursday, August 31, 2017
The Rainy Season
Summer is indisputably the rainy season in Hong Kong. We get more rain between June and August than in every month of winter, fall and spring combined. Between May and September, it will rain at least half the month. Guaranteed.
Summer is also typhoon season. But it's not that all the rain comes from typhoons. Summer will be rainy whether any typhoons come close or not. Typhoons form over the ocean every year, but they don't always hit us. Most will hit the Philippines, some will hit Japan or Taiwan, and pretty much every typhoon that is headed west will hit somewhere in China. But it's pretty hard to hit Hong Kong.
Whoever decided to build this city was smart. You have the natural harbor and mountains that make it interesting, and all of the economic advantages of international trade and opium wars, but two of Hong Kong's major advantages are the Philippines and Taiwan. Without them, we would be hit by multiple typhoons every year. I doubt Hong Kong would be the city it is today without that protection.
As it is, typhoons have to squeeze through a tiny passage to get to us. Almost every typhoon that collapses near here has already made landfall somewhere else. That makes them much weaker.
This typhoon season has been a little different. We have already had two tropical storms that slammed directly into us, Merbok and Roke, and one that landed close enough, Pakhar. That happens from time to time. Tropical Storm Roke slipped through our Philippines/Taiwan blockade. Pakhar slammed into the Philippines and slowed down before hitting us. Merbok was a little sneaky and formed west of the Philippines. It headed north, so there was nothing to protect Hong Kong.
But those were tropical storms. They bring a lot of rain, but this is the rainy season anyway. Hong Kong is not subject to flooding the way the Philippines and low lying parts of Mainland China are. Tropical storm winds are 75 mph or less. In a typhoon, it's the wind that really causes the most damage. We get tropical storms every year. Something we don't always get are typhoons.
On August 23, Typhoon Hato crashed right over Hong Kong and Macau before landing in Jinwan. It was the first time Hong Kong issued its highest warning system since Typhoon Vicente. That one caused a lot of damage. The streets looked exactly as you would expect streets to look after a super typhoon. Somehow, no one died.
Typhoon Hato was a little smaller, and not nearly as dramatic. At least in Hong Kong. I would like to say that the government learned from Vicente and made improvements to protect us, but we probably just got lucky.
Macau and Guangdong were not as lucky. Hato was Macau's strongest storm in 50 years. The army had to clean up debris. Government officials resigned. Ten people died. In the rest of China, a few hundred thousand people were left homeless and 19 people died. The damages were about US$3 billion.
You did not hear about Typhoon Hato on CNN because at the same time, Hurricane Harvey was hitting Texas. CNN is an American company, so obviously anything happening in the United States will always take precedence over anything anywhere else, and Harvey was definitely a newsworthy event. But it would be nice if CNN finally recognized that more than one news story can take place at the same time. They spent four straight days talking about nothing but Harvey. There was some information in there that most of us would have never known otherwise, but one of CNN's biggest problems is talking about the same thing over and over, even when there is nothing new to report. They will repeat everything they said five minutes earlier. In between updates, they could acknowledge that there are other countries besides the United States. If you get all your news from CNN, you probably have no idea that most of the people on this planet live nowhere close to Wall Street.
Typhoon Hato 2017
Typhoon Vicente 2012
Summer is also typhoon season. But it's not that all the rain comes from typhoons. Summer will be rainy whether any typhoons come close or not. Typhoons form over the ocean every year, but they don't always hit us. Most will hit the Philippines, some will hit Japan or Taiwan, and pretty much every typhoon that is headed west will hit somewhere in China. But it's pretty hard to hit Hong Kong.
Whoever decided to build this city was smart. You have the natural harbor and mountains that make it interesting, and all of the economic advantages of international trade and opium wars, but two of Hong Kong's major advantages are the Philippines and Taiwan. Without them, we would be hit by multiple typhoons every year. I doubt Hong Kong would be the city it is today without that protection.
As it is, typhoons have to squeeze through a tiny passage to get to us. Almost every typhoon that collapses near here has already made landfall somewhere else. That makes them much weaker.
This typhoon season has been a little different. We have already had two tropical storms that slammed directly into us, Merbok and Roke, and one that landed close enough, Pakhar. That happens from time to time. Tropical Storm Roke slipped through our Philippines/Taiwan blockade. Pakhar slammed into the Philippines and slowed down before hitting us. Merbok was a little sneaky and formed west of the Philippines. It headed north, so there was nothing to protect Hong Kong.
But those were tropical storms. They bring a lot of rain, but this is the rainy season anyway. Hong Kong is not subject to flooding the way the Philippines and low lying parts of Mainland China are. Tropical storm winds are 75 mph or less. In a typhoon, it's the wind that really causes the most damage. We get tropical storms every year. Something we don't always get are typhoons.
On August 23, Typhoon Hato crashed right over Hong Kong and Macau before landing in Jinwan. It was the first time Hong Kong issued its highest warning system since Typhoon Vicente. That one caused a lot of damage. The streets looked exactly as you would expect streets to look after a super typhoon. Somehow, no one died.
Typhoon Hato was a little smaller, and not nearly as dramatic. At least in Hong Kong. I would like to say that the government learned from Vicente and made improvements to protect us, but we probably just got lucky.
Macau and Guangdong were not as lucky. Hato was Macau's strongest storm in 50 years. The army had to clean up debris. Government officials resigned. Ten people died. In the rest of China, a few hundred thousand people were left homeless and 19 people died. The damages were about US$3 billion.
You did not hear about Typhoon Hato on CNN because at the same time, Hurricane Harvey was hitting Texas. CNN is an American company, so obviously anything happening in the United States will always take precedence over anything anywhere else, and Harvey was definitely a newsworthy event. But it would be nice if CNN finally recognized that more than one news story can take place at the same time. They spent four straight days talking about nothing but Harvey. There was some information in there that most of us would have never known otherwise, but one of CNN's biggest problems is talking about the same thing over and over, even when there is nothing new to report. They will repeat everything they said five minutes earlier. In between updates, they could acknowledge that there are other countries besides the United States. If you get all your news from CNN, you probably have no idea that most of the people on this planet live nowhere close to Wall Street.
Thursday, November 10, 2016
2 For 1 Sale
2014-2016
RIP
Our long national nightmare is finally over. The “experts” on TV will analyze what happened for a while, but the two year campaign is dead and buried.
I'm not a big fan of changing the Constitution. I think it should be left well enough alone, save for something like abolishing slavery or letting women vote. But I would wholeheartedly support a constitutional amendment limiting presidential campaigns to less than six months. People could announce their candidacy after 4th of July, the primaries could be in August, conventions in September and election day in November.
This would make it much harder for the two corporate parties to spend a billion dollars getting their boys elected. They would still spend entirely too much money, but it might give other parties a chance to compete. Americans are supposed to like competition, but our political system guarantees that only two teams get to play. Imagine the NFL with only two teams. How exciting would that be?
The most obvious benefit, of course, would be far fewer campaign commercials in far less time. I don't know anyone who loves watching campaign bullshit for two straight years. Making it shorter would probably burn out fewer people and increase voter turnout.
This is one reason it would never happen. The Republican and Democratic parties count on low voter turnout. If 100% of eligible voters actually showed up, or even more than 60%, other parties would win a few elections. The people in charge will never let that happen. The question is, why do we?
Wednesday, October 19, 2016
Party All the Time
I don't normally care that much about politics. Politicians say whatever they think will get them elected, and the higher the office, the fewer campaign promises they will ever keep. Everyone knows it, but people pick sides anyway. Party loyalty is more important than common sense in a country like the United States. It is almost like sports, except people pick their sports teams based on where they live, and they have more realistic expectations. I want the Vikings to win the Super Bowl because I am from Minnesota, but I know that is never going to happen. Political parties are handed down from generation to generation.
I did not particularly care who won in 2012. Obama's first term was disappointing and Romney was an elitist career politician completely out of touch with the people. The funny thing is, there is always at least one elitist career politician completely out of touch with the people in each election. When he is a Republican, Democrats say that is bad. When he is a Democrat, Republicans say that is bad.
Therein lies my biggest problem with politics. It is as hypocritical as any billion dollar church. All of the arguments one party uses against another in one election are reversed in another election. Clinton (D) has experience, which is great according to Democrats and bad according to Republicans. But in 2008, Obama (D) had no experience and that was great according to Democrats and bad according to Republicans.
In 2004, Kerry (D) was criticized by Republicans for going to school in Switzerland and knowing French. Those same Republicans had no problem with Romney (R) living in France and knowing French. The voters did not care either way. Or maybe they did. Both candidates lost.
Democrats always criticize rich Republicans, even though Democrats have had plenty of very wealthy candidates of their own. Bush (R) was a rich elitist in 2000 and 2004, even though his opponents were from extremely wealthy families. Gore (D) followed his father into politics just like Bush, and Kerry (D) was the richest person in the senate. Of the top 10 richest presidents, 5 were Democrats (Kennedy, Jackson, Johnson, Roosevelt, Clinton) and 2 were Republicans (Roosevelt and Hoover). The other 3 were before the Democrats or Republicans existed. Ironically, George Washington is the only president that everyone likes, and he was richer than almost all of them combined.
But the thing is, none of that matters. What their parents did, where they went to school, what they did before running is all irrelevant. Democrats will vote for the Democrat, Republicans will vote for the Republican. No matter what. Party loyalty is more important to Americans than anything else. Or at least to the few Americans who actually vote.
I'm not a member of either party. As an independent, I can vote for anyone. The two corporate parties and the media want everyone to think there are only two parties, but there are usually several in each election. I come from a state where independence is considered a good thing. People assume we are all Democrats because we vote for the Democrat in most presidential elections, but that is partly because Mondale and Humphrey were on the ballot for 20 years. Other parties do well in lower offices. We have had independent and Reform governors, independent and Farmer-Labor senators and mayors from every party imaginable.
Democrats need not fear that I'm not voting for their candidate. She will win my state by a mile. Republicans need not care that I never vote for their presidential candidates. As an absentee voter, my vote is never counted. But I vote anyway. I have every right to vote in my country's elections, no matter where I live. And I have just as much right to vote for people who are not members of the two most corrupt corporate parties the country has ever known.
I did not particularly care who won in 2012. Obama's first term was disappointing and Romney was an elitist career politician completely out of touch with the people. The funny thing is, there is always at least one elitist career politician completely out of touch with the people in each election. When he is a Republican, Democrats say that is bad. When he is a Democrat, Republicans say that is bad.
Therein lies my biggest problem with politics. It is as hypocritical as any billion dollar church. All of the arguments one party uses against another in one election are reversed in another election. Clinton (D) has experience, which is great according to Democrats and bad according to Republicans. But in 2008, Obama (D) had no experience and that was great according to Democrats and bad according to Republicans.
In 2004, Kerry (D) was criticized by Republicans for going to school in Switzerland and knowing French. Those same Republicans had no problem with Romney (R) living in France and knowing French. The voters did not care either way. Or maybe they did. Both candidates lost.
Democrats always criticize rich Republicans, even though Democrats have had plenty of very wealthy candidates of their own. Bush (R) was a rich elitist in 2000 and 2004, even though his opponents were from extremely wealthy families. Gore (D) followed his father into politics just like Bush, and Kerry (D) was the richest person in the senate. Of the top 10 richest presidents, 5 were Democrats (Kennedy, Jackson, Johnson, Roosevelt, Clinton) and 2 were Republicans (Roosevelt and Hoover). The other 3 were before the Democrats or Republicans existed. Ironically, George Washington is the only president that everyone likes, and he was richer than almost all of them combined.
But the thing is, none of that matters. What their parents did, where they went to school, what they did before running is all irrelevant. Democrats will vote for the Democrat, Republicans will vote for the Republican. No matter what. Party loyalty is more important to Americans than anything else. Or at least to the few Americans who actually vote.
I'm not a member of either party. As an independent, I can vote for anyone. The two corporate parties and the media want everyone to think there are only two parties, but there are usually several in each election. I come from a state where independence is considered a good thing. People assume we are all Democrats because we vote for the Democrat in most presidential elections, but that is partly because Mondale and Humphrey were on the ballot for 20 years. Other parties do well in lower offices. We have had independent and Reform governors, independent and Farmer-Labor senators and mayors from every party imaginable.
Democrats need not fear that I'm not voting for their candidate. She will win my state by a mile. Republicans need not care that I never vote for their presidential candidates. As an absentee voter, my vote is never counted. But I vote anyway. I have every right to vote in my country's elections, no matter where I live. And I have just as much right to vote for people who are not members of the two most corrupt corporate parties the country has ever known.
Thursday, October 13, 2016
Dancing Across Asia
I'm going to Tel Aviv on Saturday. As much as I would love to stay as long as I can, this will be a short trip. I'm going for a rehearsal and then I have to come back. I always try to sneak in as much time for myself whenever I travel anywhere, but when you juggle different jobs, you can't always look around.
My next trip will be next month. I will be in Tel Aviv during the election. That should be interesting. It will not be the first time I have watched a presidential election from another country, but it will be my first time from Israel. I'm looking forward to their take on everything. Hong Kong did not seem to care whether Obama or Romney won. Israel might have an opinion on Clinton versus Trump.
My next trip will be next month. I will be in Tel Aviv during the election. That should be interesting. It will not be the first time I have watched a presidential election from another country, but it will be my first time from Israel. I'm looking forward to their take on everything. Hong Kong did not seem to care whether Obama or Romney won. Israel might have an opinion on Clinton versus Trump.
Tuesday, September 13, 2016
Hong Kong Elections
Hong Kong held elections last week, almost two years after the big umbrella protests. A lot of people were expecting some big changes. The protests brought out huge crowds and pretty much shut down parts of Admiralty for longer than Beijing wanted the world to know. In the end, it never really made much difference.
The pro-Beijing parties lost three seats. But the pro-democracy parties also lost three seats. The smaller anti-establishment parties got a few seats, which some called a great victory, but they mostly never had any before this election, so they had nowhere to go but up. I read an article about how ironic it was that the anti-establishment parties did so well when the pro-democracy candidates who believe in pretty much the same things did poorly. But it was not ironic at all. Beijing forced several pro-independence candidates to drop out while a few prominent pro-democracy candidates dropped out on their own. Without the famous names, it was no surprise that people voted for more unknown, new options.
The largest party, DAB, is pro-Beijing and was the largest before and after the election. They have been in charge for the last decade and don't seem to be going away anytime soon. The Civic Party, the largest pro-democracy party, goes up and down with every election. Maybe if the Umbrella Movement was less than a year before the elections, something might have changed. Two years is plenty of time for people to be distracted by the latest cell phones and TV shows.
The pro-Beijing parties lost three seats. But the pro-democracy parties also lost three seats. The smaller anti-establishment parties got a few seats, which some called a great victory, but they mostly never had any before this election, so they had nowhere to go but up. I read an article about how ironic it was that the anti-establishment parties did so well when the pro-democracy candidates who believe in pretty much the same things did poorly. But it was not ironic at all. Beijing forced several pro-independence candidates to drop out while a few prominent pro-democracy candidates dropped out on their own. Without the famous names, it was no surprise that people voted for more unknown, new options.
The largest party, DAB, is pro-Beijing and was the largest before and after the election. They have been in charge for the last decade and don't seem to be going away anytime soon. The Civic Party, the largest pro-democracy party, goes up and down with every election. Maybe if the Umbrella Movement was less than a year before the elections, something might have changed. Two years is plenty of time for people to be distracted by the latest cell phones and TV shows.
Saturday, July 30, 2016
Unconventional 2016
I watched a tiny patch of the Republican convention and even less of the Democratic convention. I don't see why these conventions have to spread out over a few days. They used to pick their candidates at the convention, but now we all know who it is going to be long before anyone breaks out the balloons and straw hats. Today's conventions are little more than pep rallies to stroke egos. This may be an unusual election, but I care about it less than usual.
Republicans will say I should care because if Clinton is elected, the country will fall apart, the terrorists will take over and the ground will open up and swallow the United States in a biblical rage.
Democrats will say I should care because if Trump is elected, he will declare himself dictator, outlaw every religion and race and turn the country into a police state.
I doubt either will happen. Clinton would most likely be a standard Democratic president. The economy will improve slightly while Republicans fight her every step of the way, calling her the worst president in the history of the world. In the end, she will be neither best nor worst. Unless some extraordinary event challenges her and she either rises or falls. Lincoln would not be considered great without the Civil War, just as Hoover would not be a failure without the Great Depression. Neither president caused those events, but how they reacted determined how history remembers them. Then again, Hillary Clinton has a vagina, so any speculation about her presidency is purely academic. I would bet big money she does not win.
I don't know what kind of president Trump would be, but that is only because he is not really a Republican and the only time he tells us what he would do, it is something unconstitutional or well beyond the president's authority. The Great Wall of Mexico and deporting Muslims is never going to happen. He says horribly racist things and wants people to believe that he is dangerous, but when you look beyond the show, he has never said or done anything original. His ranting and raving is simply white noise. Unfortunately, I think he stands a pretty good chance of winning. Not because he has anything to offer, but because he has absolutely nothing to offer. Americans are very grumpy right now, and grumpy old grampa Trump is the kind of person they can look to for some good old fashioned nonsense. With any luck, he will surround himself with people who are far more experienced and they can determine policy while he whines on Twitter. But I think he will more likely pick corporate executives who fail quickly, and his administration will have a high turnover rate.
This two-year election will be over in a few months and CNN can get back to endless stories about Syria. One of the greatest things about living outside of the United States is that I don't have to see any campaign commercials, but CNN has been reporting every single thing that comes out of Trump's mouth for the last year and a half. No matter what happens on election night, at least that will stop.
Republicans will say I should care because if Clinton is elected, the country will fall apart, the terrorists will take over and the ground will open up and swallow the United States in a biblical rage.
Democrats will say I should care because if Trump is elected, he will declare himself dictator, outlaw every religion and race and turn the country into a police state.
I doubt either will happen. Clinton would most likely be a standard Democratic president. The economy will improve slightly while Republicans fight her every step of the way, calling her the worst president in the history of the world. In the end, she will be neither best nor worst. Unless some extraordinary event challenges her and she either rises or falls. Lincoln would not be considered great without the Civil War, just as Hoover would not be a failure without the Great Depression. Neither president caused those events, but how they reacted determined how history remembers them. Then again, Hillary Clinton has a vagina, so any speculation about her presidency is purely academic. I would bet big money she does not win.
I don't know what kind of president Trump would be, but that is only because he is not really a Republican and the only time he tells us what he would do, it is something unconstitutional or well beyond the president's authority. The Great Wall of Mexico and deporting Muslims is never going to happen. He says horribly racist things and wants people to believe that he is dangerous, but when you look beyond the show, he has never said or done anything original. His ranting and raving is simply white noise. Unfortunately, I think he stands a pretty good chance of winning. Not because he has anything to offer, but because he has absolutely nothing to offer. Americans are very grumpy right now, and grumpy old grampa Trump is the kind of person they can look to for some good old fashioned nonsense. With any luck, he will surround himself with people who are far more experienced and they can determine policy while he whines on Twitter. But I think he will more likely pick corporate executives who fail quickly, and his administration will have a high turnover rate.
This two-year election will be over in a few months and CNN can get back to endless stories about Syria. One of the greatest things about living outside of the United States is that I don't have to see any campaign commercials, but CNN has been reporting every single thing that comes out of Trump's mouth for the last year and a half. No matter what happens on election night, at least that will stop.
Sunday, July 10, 2016
Another Day, Another Shooting
Police officers shot a young black man in St Paul who had a broken tail light. What I find unbelievable is not so much that the police shot a young black man. That seems to be alarmingly common. What I can't believe is that it happened in Minnesota. That's something that happens in the south, California and Wisconsin. If it can happen in Minnesota, it can happen anywhere. Maybe not in Vermont. If you are one of the five young black men there, you probably already know how to avoid the police.
Now people are shooting the police in Dallas. I'm not on Facebook, so I don't have all the answers to society's problems, but I doubt making the police more paranoid is going to help anybody.
Whenever I go to Israel, people always warn me that Israel is a dangerous place, even though it is not. No one has ever told me to be careful when going to the United States. Then again, I am not a young black man.
Now people are shooting the police in Dallas. I'm not on Facebook, so I don't have all the answers to society's problems, but I doubt making the police more paranoid is going to help anybody.
Whenever I go to Israel, people always warn me that Israel is a dangerous place, even though it is not. No one has ever told me to be careful when going to the United States. Then again, I am not a young black man.
Wednesday, March 2, 2016
Winter in Winnipeg part 5
I voted today. That in itself is not so interesting, except that this was definitely the first time I voted in Canada while living in China. As an absentee voter, I could have sent in my ballot earlier, but I waited on purpose. I wanted to see what happened in this circus election.
I am not going to say who I voted for. As soon as you talk about politics, people go crazy. I can't say if this is the most divisive time in American history. Since we are not currently in a state of civil war, it is probably not. But with the internet and a million talking heads on TV, there is an awful lot of rhetoric and hyperbole getting thrown around. People get very hateful when they talk politics online.
One of the great things about Minnesota is that we don't have to register for any particular party. We can vote for anyone we want in the primaries, just like the general election. In some states, you have to register as a member of a party and you can only vote for someone in that party during the primaries. I like having choices. That makes it feel like the United States is almost a democracy.
I would not want to be a Democrat or a Republican. Both parties are owned by giant corporations and just as corrupt as the other. But a lot of the more fanatically loyal members of each party think anyone who disagrees with their choice is either crazy or ignorant. I think that is just stupid. If you honestly believe that you are smarter than everyone who disagrees with you, you are probably not that bright. Those of us who are not forced to be a member of any party in order to vote can be open minded. That certainly does not make us any smarter. Plenty of elections have shown that Americans are not the smartest people in the world. But at least we don't have to toe any party lines and parrot all the talking points. As an independent, I can vote for both Bernie Sanders and Mike McFadden. I would never do such a thing, but I could.
For anyone unfamiliar with American/Minnesotan politics, Bernie Sanders is a “Democrat” who will not win the nomination, and Mike McFadden is a Republican who was easily defeated in his run for Senate. Ideologically, they are polar opposites.
I am not going to say who I voted for. As soon as you talk about politics, people go crazy. I can't say if this is the most divisive time in American history. Since we are not currently in a state of civil war, it is probably not. But with the internet and a million talking heads on TV, there is an awful lot of rhetoric and hyperbole getting thrown around. People get very hateful when they talk politics online.
One of the great things about Minnesota is that we don't have to register for any particular party. We can vote for anyone we want in the primaries, just like the general election. In some states, you have to register as a member of a party and you can only vote for someone in that party during the primaries. I like having choices. That makes it feel like the United States is almost a democracy.
I would not want to be a Democrat or a Republican. Both parties are owned by giant corporations and just as corrupt as the other. But a lot of the more fanatically loyal members of each party think anyone who disagrees with their choice is either crazy or ignorant. I think that is just stupid. If you honestly believe that you are smarter than everyone who disagrees with you, you are probably not that bright. Those of us who are not forced to be a member of any party in order to vote can be open minded. That certainly does not make us any smarter. Plenty of elections have shown that Americans are not the smartest people in the world. But at least we don't have to toe any party lines and parrot all the talking points. As an independent, I can vote for both Bernie Sanders and Mike McFadden. I would never do such a thing, but I could.
For anyone unfamiliar with American/Minnesotan politics, Bernie Sanders is a “Democrat” who will not win the nomination, and Mike McFadden is a Republican who was easily defeated in his run for Senate. Ideologically, they are polar opposites.
Sunday, November 15, 2015
#J’en ai ma claque
Everyone stands with Paris. That's great, but maybe it is time to do something about the murderers who stand against us all. Lowering flags, lighting buildings, Twitter octothorpes and blog posts are all fine and dandy, but they do nothing to stop any of the terrorists who have declared war on humanity.
Sunday, May 24, 2015
Public Shaming Through DNA
An NGO called Hong Kong Cleanup that has been trying to convince people in Hong Kong to pick up after themselves has just joined an advertising agency in order to publicly shame the litterbugs of Hong Kong.
Through DNA tests from the trash they collected, they created digital posters of the people who don't know how to use a trash can. Some of these posters are now up on billboards in the city. The billboards basically say this person is wanted for throwing a cigarette on the ground or gum or whatever trash was tested.
On the one hand, something needs to be done about how much people treat this city like their own personal trash can. I don't mind the public shaming. If you spit out your gum on the sidewalk, you have already shamed yourself. The posters don't encourage the public to find the person and beat them to death with their own cigarettes. They simply point out that the person shown has committed a crime.
On the other hand, how accurate is this DNA testing? One article said that the digital images are never going to be 100% accurate. They are more like a “family resemblance”. There is also no way of knowing how old the person is through their DNA. So you could see a picture of yourself on a billboard accusing you of littering when it was actually your son or grandfather doing the littering.
This might be a minor issue. Especially in a country where no one gives a rat's ass about littering. But sooner or later, this technology can be used for more serious crimes. If there is ever a billboard of someone accusing them of murder or rape, they better have done it. Close enough is not good enough. Being accused of a crime your relative committed is not good enough.
Through DNA tests from the trash they collected, they created digital posters of the people who don't know how to use a trash can. Some of these posters are now up on billboards in the city. The billboards basically say this person is wanted for throwing a cigarette on the ground or gum or whatever trash was tested.
On the one hand, something needs to be done about how much people treat this city like their own personal trash can. I don't mind the public shaming. If you spit out your gum on the sidewalk, you have already shamed yourself. The posters don't encourage the public to find the person and beat them to death with their own cigarettes. They simply point out that the person shown has committed a crime.
On the other hand, how accurate is this DNA testing? One article said that the digital images are never going to be 100% accurate. They are more like a “family resemblance”. There is also no way of knowing how old the person is through their DNA. So you could see a picture of yourself on a billboard accusing you of littering when it was actually your son or grandfather doing the littering.
This might be a minor issue. Especially in a country where no one gives a rat's ass about littering. But sooner or later, this technology can be used for more serious crimes. If there is ever a billboard of someone accusing them of murder or rape, they better have done it. Close enough is not good enough. Being accused of a crime your relative committed is not good enough.
Thursday, December 18, 2014
Hong Kong Protest part 5
The big democracy protest is now officially over. Thousands of people camped out in the streets demanding something from their government that they were never going to get. China has historically not had the most open government in the world. Killing people is preferable to them than listening.
In the beginning, the protests were interesting. People were excited to be involved. Local and international media were excited to see some action. Then everyone got bored. With instant everything these days, several months of protests are never going to hold everyone's attention. The international media left soon after they arrived. Even the local news stopped talking about it, except to complain that the protesters were blocking traffic and interfering with sales. Since most local Hong Kong media is owned by people with business connections to Mainland China, they were never going to be in favor of the protests. Most simply chanted the Chinese government mantra.
The world basically ignoring the protests is exactly what the Chinese government wanted. They could always block content in China. Even this blog was blocked after I mentioned it, apparently. But there was never anything they could do about the rest of the world. Fortunately for China, the rest of the world had its own problems. The protests in the United States were always going to be more newsworthy, and they turned out to be far more violent. The protests in the Arab world were always going to be more violent. Say what you will about Hong Kong protesters or Hong Kong police, but they are far more polite to each other than you get in most countries. There were a few minor issues with police assaulting their own people, but it was nothing compared to American and Arab police killing their people.
When Hong Kong officials started clearing the protest sites, not a lot of people outside Hong Kong even noticed. When they closed down the protests at Admiralty and Causeway Bay, most of the people I know who don't live in Hong Kong thought it had all ended a long time ago.
In the end, the government agreed to nothing. The new election laws that started the protests are still in place. CY Leung is still in charge. Some of the protest leaders are in jail. Some will probably quietly disappear. I was hoping that more would come of it, but at least it ended peacefully. There was no Tiananmen Square in Hong Kong.
In the beginning, the protests were interesting. People were excited to be involved. Local and international media were excited to see some action. Then everyone got bored. With instant everything these days, several months of protests are never going to hold everyone's attention. The international media left soon after they arrived. Even the local news stopped talking about it, except to complain that the protesters were blocking traffic and interfering with sales. Since most local Hong Kong media is owned by people with business connections to Mainland China, they were never going to be in favor of the protests. Most simply chanted the Chinese government mantra.
The world basically ignoring the protests is exactly what the Chinese government wanted. They could always block content in China. Even this blog was blocked after I mentioned it, apparently. But there was never anything they could do about the rest of the world. Fortunately for China, the rest of the world had its own problems. The protests in the United States were always going to be more newsworthy, and they turned out to be far more violent. The protests in the Arab world were always going to be more violent. Say what you will about Hong Kong protesters or Hong Kong police, but they are far more polite to each other than you get in most countries. There were a few minor issues with police assaulting their own people, but it was nothing compared to American and Arab police killing their people.
When Hong Kong officials started clearing the protest sites, not a lot of people outside Hong Kong even noticed. When they closed down the protests at Admiralty and Causeway Bay, most of the people I know who don't live in Hong Kong thought it had all ended a long time ago.
In the end, the government agreed to nothing. The new election laws that started the protests are still in place. CY Leung is still in charge. Some of the protest leaders are in jail. Some will probably quietly disappear. I was hoping that more would come of it, but at least it ended peacefully. There was no Tiananmen Square in Hong Kong.
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
Gutter Oil
Taiwan's gutter oil scandal found its way to Hong Kong, for some reason.
Gutter oil is the appropriate description for recycled cooking oil that some cheaper restaurants and even a few high end places like to use to save a few pennies. It is less expensive for the restaurant, but they can still charge whatever they want because no one will ever know what type of oil they use. At least until there is a big scandal and government investigation.
The scandal comes not from the fact that gutter oil is repulsive and will make your stomach feel about as good as if you drank the water in Victoria Harbour. Surprisingly, gutter oil is actually illegal in Hong Kong. Most restaurants will try to use the cheapest oil they can find, but somewhere along the line, the Hong Kong government decided that cooking oil that literally went down the drain and has been shown to cause various types of cancer is probably not ideal. I don't know if it is illegal in Taiwan, but they are in the middle of a big scandal, so someone there is obviously upset about having poison in their food.
Restaurants cutting corners to save money is nothing new around here. If Hong Kong had a restaurant health inspection ratings system, millions of places would have a big F posted in their windows. What is unusual is that the Hong Kong restaurants caught up in this latest investigation bought their gutter oil from Taiwan. I would assume that illegal poison oil would be cheaper to get from China. Most things from China are cheaper, and it's easier to import Chinese products. The Chinese government would definitely rather have Hong Kong restaurants serve Chinese poison over Taiwanese poison. Beijing does not like Hong Kong very much right now, but they have not liked Taiwan for a long time.
Hong Kong has banned the import of all products made from the company in Taiwan that is getting the most attention, but it does not seem like they are doing anything about any of the other companies that sell gutter oil. In typical Chinese fashion, if they only concentrate on the most infamous troublemaker, they think no one will notice that so many other troublemakers are still making trouble.
Gutter oil is the appropriate description for recycled cooking oil that some cheaper restaurants and even a few high end places like to use to save a few pennies. It is less expensive for the restaurant, but they can still charge whatever they want because no one will ever know what type of oil they use. At least until there is a big scandal and government investigation.
The scandal comes not from the fact that gutter oil is repulsive and will make your stomach feel about as good as if you drank the water in Victoria Harbour. Surprisingly, gutter oil is actually illegal in Hong Kong. Most restaurants will try to use the cheapest oil they can find, but somewhere along the line, the Hong Kong government decided that cooking oil that literally went down the drain and has been shown to cause various types of cancer is probably not ideal. I don't know if it is illegal in Taiwan, but they are in the middle of a big scandal, so someone there is obviously upset about having poison in their food.
Restaurants cutting corners to save money is nothing new around here. If Hong Kong had a restaurant health inspection ratings system, millions of places would have a big F posted in their windows. What is unusual is that the Hong Kong restaurants caught up in this latest investigation bought their gutter oil from Taiwan. I would assume that illegal poison oil would be cheaper to get from China. Most things from China are cheaper, and it's easier to import Chinese products. The Chinese government would definitely rather have Hong Kong restaurants serve Chinese poison over Taiwanese poison. Beijing does not like Hong Kong very much right now, but they have not liked Taiwan for a long time.
Hong Kong has banned the import of all products made from the company in Taiwan that is getting the most attention, but it does not seem like they are doing anything about any of the other companies that sell gutter oil. In typical Chinese fashion, if they only concentrate on the most infamous troublemaker, they think no one will notice that so many other troublemakers are still making trouble.
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