Sunday, July 31, 2005
Corporate Social Responsibility (Links)
Only links at the moment: "In Defense of the Business Charity" by Oikono (July 17) | "Corporate Social Irresponsibility" by Johnny Munkhammar at TCS (July 28) | "Do Corporations Have a Social Responsibility Beyond Stockholder Value?" by Gary Becker (July 24) | "The Social Responsibility of Corporations--Posner's Comment" by Richard Posner (July 24) | "Social Responsibility: Posner's Response to Comments" by Richard Posner (July 30) | "Response on Social Responsibilities of Corporations" by Gary Becker (July 31).
Relevant to the concern of this earlier post.
Relevant to the concern of this earlier post.
Richard Posner: How can the conventional news media hope to compete with the blogs?
Sighted on the New York Times (July 31), "Bad News" by Richard Posner:
update: The Daily Ablution (blog) vs. The Guardian (MSM)--2:0.
The charge by mainstream journalists that blogging lacks checks and balances is obtuse. The blogosphere has more checks and balances than the conventional media; only they are different. The model is Friedrich Hayek's classic analysis of how the economic market pools enormous quantities of information efficiently despite its decentralized character, its lack of a master coordinator or regulator, and the very limited knowledge possessed by each of its participants.(The article as a whole is about news media as a whole; the discussion about the blogs begin on "page 5" of the link.)
In effect, the blogosphere is a collective enterprise - not 12 million separate enterprises, but one enterprise with 12 million reporters, feature writers and editorialists, yet with almost no costs. It's as if The Associated Press or Reuters had millions of reporters, many of them experts, all working with no salary for free newspapers that carried no advertising.
How can the conventional news media hope to compete?
update: The Daily Ablution (blog) vs. The Guardian (MSM)--2:0.
Friday, July 29, 2005
Quickstops (Jul 29, 2005)
- So you think it's all fun and joy to be a corrupt Chinese official with all the money to spend on wine and women? Think again! (EastSouthWestNorth)
- Apple Store: if it's not online, it's not important, ergo, junk the books, buy apple. (Virginia Postrel)
- So are we or are we not online diarists? (Singapore Ink, Singapore Contrarian) update: Singapore Ink, Singapore Contrarian.
- Singapore is reinventing its facilities for the mice market? (Bangkok Post)
- Oops: another example of Mainstream Media's internet ineptitude. (Morgan Spurlock Watch)
- 天網恢恢，疏而不漏--Skynet reports that three out of four suspects of the London bombings now in police custody. | Guardian: the fourth one too.
- "Few things matter more than how men chose to deceive themselves", so Lee Harris tells us. I think that has to be right; just don't forget to apply this insight to the varieties of atheism as well. (TechCentralStation)
- Apple Store: if it's not online, it's not important, ergo, junk the books, buy apple. (Virginia Postrel)
- So are we or are we not online diarists? (Singapore Ink, Singapore Contrarian) update: Singapore Ink, Singapore Contrarian.
- Singapore is reinventing its facilities for the mice market? (Bangkok Post)
- Oops: another example of Mainstream Media's internet ineptitude. (Morgan Spurlock Watch)
- 天網恢恢，疏而不漏--Skynet reports that three out of four suspects of the London bombings now in police custody. | Guardian: the fourth one too.
- "Few things matter more than how men chose to deceive themselves", so Lee Harris tells us. I think that has to be right; just don't forget to apply this insight to the varieties of atheism as well. (TechCentralStation)
Income Inequality and Social Mobility
Remember Sze Meng's earlier piece "It’s a good thing the rising tide lifts all boats" that was written for Friday Matters for Straits Times, but not published, and that I wanted to comment on but did not find time to? Looks like a new and better version was just published in ST Friday Matters (July 29), available on his blog as "Moving up: Does school system help?" You are encouraged to read it (click on the link). The following comments are general in nature and not all of it will apply directly to the piece--which you should read. (Incidentally, I've mentioned some of the below in a comment before.)
Look at the title of this post again: I think it is important to keep the two items--income inequality (including the related "widening income gap") on the one hand, and social mobility, on the other.
For example, the recent Household Expenditure Survey suggests a widening income gap in Singapore. In a nutshell, the data indicates that households in the lowest quintile enjoyed a much smaller increase in average income (and that's only after throwing in a whole range of government assistance) than that enjoyed by households in the highest quintile between 1998 and 2003. So, the quick conclusion is: the poor are getting poorer, and the rich are getting richer. Yes, but note that this has nothing to do with mobility. All that the data tells us is that the relative position of those in the lowest quintile deteriorated against that of the highest quintile: in that sense, "the rich"--whoever they are, are getting richer, while "the poor"--whoever they are, are getting poorer (relative to "the rich"). What it does not say is that households X, Y and Z, which were poor in 1998, are now even poorer; while households A, B and C, which were rich in 1998, are now even richer. We just don't know. For all we know (though this is unlikely), the households in the highest and lowest quintiles switched places between 1998 and 2003.
So: widening income gap need not indicate decreasing social mobility. In fact, it is perfectly compatible with the wildest social mobility. This brings up an interesting question: how does one study social mobility short of tracking a sample of individual households over time?
So, to answer the question Sze Meng posed in his piece: "Does this increasing income gap suggest declining social mobility in Singapore?" I will have to give a cautious "no". Cautious because some of it is suggestive (even if not probative). For example, according to the HDB Household Survey "the average household income of those living in one- and two-room flats has dropped even though HDB dwellers, in general, are better off." I think that there is a somewhat better chance that those living in N-Room flats in 1998 would overlap with those who do so in 2003, but without more specific data, it's hard to say.
In short, the dynamic between income equality and social mobility is not a straightforward one. Furthermore, the presence of income mobility entails some degree of stratification--there must be better and worse positions for the person or household to be mobile across. Conversely, with perfect income equality, there will no longer be any social mobility to speak of. And since mobility is always movement across relative social positions, for every household to move up, some other household will move down.
On a different note, Sze Meng makes some observations about school enrollment:
update: Reactions to Sze Meng's post by LcT and Emil.
one more thing: both social mobility (the possibility of change to a person or household's relative position) and income equality are again distinct from issue of living standards. For example, it is possible for a household to move downwards in terms of relative social position in a context where the overall distribution shows a higher degree inequality and yet enjoy an improvement to its living standards. And that need not solely because of an increase in income--it could also be because what used to be luxuries enjoyed only by the rich have now become widely affordable (e.g., the fridge, the microwave oven, the DVD player are all good examples). We tend to forget that even those in the "lowest qunitile" in many ways enjoy a far higher standard of living compared to "rich people" of another era.
Why go through all this trouble making these distinctions? The short answer is this: when faced with such data as is presented, e.g., in Sze Meng's piece, we should be very clear to ourselves exactly what the perceived problem is supposed to be--is it that social mobility is decreasing, or that there is a problem of those in the lowest quintile living in poverty, or that there is an increasing income gap.
And beyond that, why. For example, it might seem obvious that if a significant proportion of Singaporeans live in poverty--that it, not that they are in the lowest quintile (somebody will be in the lowest quintile no matter how good the times are), but that their standard of living is dismal (have to make clear by what standards), then we have a problem on our hands. An increasing income gap on its own, on the other hand, is less obviously a problem--unless one holds to distinctive (i.e., egalitarian) views about social justice.
Look at the title of this post again: I think it is important to keep the two items--income inequality (including the related "widening income gap") on the one hand, and social mobility, on the other.
For example, the recent Household Expenditure Survey suggests a widening income gap in Singapore. In a nutshell, the data indicates that households in the lowest quintile enjoyed a much smaller increase in average income (and that's only after throwing in a whole range of government assistance) than that enjoyed by households in the highest quintile between 1998 and 2003. So, the quick conclusion is: the poor are getting poorer, and the rich are getting richer. Yes, but note that this has nothing to do with mobility. All that the data tells us is that the relative position of those in the lowest quintile deteriorated against that of the highest quintile: in that sense, "the rich"--whoever they are, are getting richer, while "the poor"--whoever they are, are getting poorer (relative to "the rich"). What it does not say is that households X, Y and Z, which were poor in 1998, are now even poorer; while households A, B and C, which were rich in 1998, are now even richer. We just don't know. For all we know (though this is unlikely), the households in the highest and lowest quintiles switched places between 1998 and 2003.
So: widening income gap need not indicate decreasing social mobility. In fact, it is perfectly compatible with the wildest social mobility. This brings up an interesting question: how does one study social mobility short of tracking a sample of individual households over time?
So, to answer the question Sze Meng posed in his piece: "Does this increasing income gap suggest declining social mobility in Singapore?" I will have to give a cautious "no". Cautious because some of it is suggestive (even if not probative). For example, according to the HDB Household Survey "the average household income of those living in one- and two-room flats has dropped even though HDB dwellers, in general, are better off." I think that there is a somewhat better chance that those living in N-Room flats in 1998 would overlap with those who do so in 2003, but without more specific data, it's hard to say.
In short, the dynamic between income equality and social mobility is not a straightforward one. Furthermore, the presence of income mobility entails some degree of stratification--there must be better and worse positions for the person or household to be mobile across. Conversely, with perfect income equality, there will no longer be any social mobility to speak of. And since mobility is always movement across relative social positions, for every household to move up, some other household will move down.
On a different note, Sze Meng makes some observations about school enrollment:
Take primary education as an example. Some primary schools are much more popular than others, because parents believe these schools give the child a head start in the meritocratic educational system. Some primary schools thus have 10 times more applications than available spaces.I wonder what he would think of Heavenly Sword's recent piece "Why should primary schools matter so much?" (see also comment by Lei's Mom).
The primary school registration process gives preference to applicants with siblings and parents who are studying or have studied in the school.
This legacy preference gives more educated, wealthier Singaporeans - usually alumni of the most popular schools - easier access to these schools for their children. Properties around the most popular schools are highly sought after and increasingly expensive, giving wealthier Singaporeans a better chance to send their children to these schools.
update: Reactions to Sze Meng's post by LcT and Emil.
one more thing: both social mobility (the possibility of change to a person or household's relative position) and income equality are again distinct from issue of living standards. For example, it is possible for a household to move downwards in terms of relative social position in a context where the overall distribution shows a higher degree inequality and yet enjoy an improvement to its living standards. And that need not solely because of an increase in income--it could also be because what used to be luxuries enjoyed only by the rich have now become widely affordable (e.g., the fridge, the microwave oven, the DVD player are all good examples). We tend to forget that even those in the "lowest qunitile" in many ways enjoy a far higher standard of living compared to "rich people" of another era.
Why go through all this trouble making these distinctions? The short answer is this: when faced with such data as is presented, e.g., in Sze Meng's piece, we should be very clear to ourselves exactly what the perceived problem is supposed to be--is it that social mobility is decreasing, or that there is a problem of those in the lowest quintile living in poverty, or that there is an increasing income gap.
And beyond that, why. For example, it might seem obvious that if a significant proportion of Singaporeans live in poverty--that it, not that they are in the lowest quintile (somebody will be in the lowest quintile no matter how good the times are), but that their standard of living is dismal (have to make clear by what standards), then we have a problem on our hands. An increasing income gap on its own, on the other hand, is less obviously a problem--unless one holds to distinctive (i.e., egalitarian) views about social justice.
Coup de grâce / Cheap Loh!
The two are as different as they come:
I discovered Coup de grâce: Point, Counterpoint (started July 21) recently, and though the "about page" is still pending as of this post, I think you should be able to get a sense of the tone and character of the blog by looking at the posts so far. Some of the posts, e.g., "The perpetuation of race", about Singapore's racial policy, and "The middle class" (about, that in Singapore) are rather substantial. Looks very promising. Some help concerning wordpress is also being requested.
The authors of It's Cheap Loh! A Blog on Cheap Shopping in Singapore (started 19 June) claim that this is "the only Blog on cheap shopping in Singapore"--they "scour for novelties and food that [they] really like that are under S$2 and list them here". Updated daily. And the reader is also invited to be a "cheaploh-scavenger!" by sending suggestions to them. Click on the post titles to see the store at which the item may be purchased. I hope they also do critical reviews--not just what we can get, but also what we probably shouldn't get.
I discovered Coup de grâce: Point, Counterpoint (started July 21) recently, and though the "about page" is still pending as of this post, I think you should be able to get a sense of the tone and character of the blog by looking at the posts so far. Some of the posts, e.g., "The perpetuation of race", about Singapore's racial policy, and "The middle class" (about, that in Singapore) are rather substantial. Looks very promising. Some help concerning wordpress is also being requested.The authors of It's Cheap Loh! A Blog on Cheap Shopping in Singapore (started 19 June) claim that this is "the only Blog on cheap shopping in Singapore"--they "scour for novelties and food that [they] really like that are under S$2 and list them here". Updated daily. And the reader is also invited to be a "cheaploh-scavenger!" by sending suggestions to them. Click on the post titles to see the store at which the item may be purchased. I hope they also do critical reviews--not just what we can get, but also what we probably shouldn't get.Thursday, July 28, 2005
Discipline problems in British classrooms
From Telegraph (July 3), "The pupil shrieked: 'Don't make me hurt you. I swear to God I'll do it'", by Julie Henry:
The girl was ignoring me and playing music on her mobile phone, so loudly that the rest of the class could hear. I kept telling her to stop. Then suddenly she lost control. Standing up, she put her face inches from mine and shrieked: "Don't make me hurt you. I swear to God I will do it."What follows, is a heartbreaking tale of how disciple has broken down in many British classrooms (click on the link to read), and how even the staff had resigned themselves to the state of affairs--complete with the wayang put up for visiting inspectors too:
I was two days into my undercover investigation for a Channel 4 Dispatches programme when this incident happened...
When Ofsted [Office for Standards in Education] inspectors arrived the week after for a two-day visit, however, the school was suddenly transformed. I got through a whole lesson without incident, the corridors were mayhem-free, the atmosphere calmer. The mystery was solved by a classroom assistant who told me in a hushed exchange in the lavatory that more than 20 of the most difficult pupils had been sent on a "day trip".The motivation to tell this story:
As inspectors monitored lessons, senior managers popped up taking classes that they did not normally teach. Experienced teachers from neighbouring schools were parachuted in. One teacher, who appeared seemingly out of nowhere, said: "I've been drafted in basically to give support to this department while HMI are in. It's a bit of a con-job really." Staff at three other schools told me that "hiding" problem pupils from inspectors was common practice.
Every day children told me that they could not learn, that there "was nowt to learn for". Yet in every chaotic classroom, there were one or two pupils huddled over books trying to do their work. It was these children who convinced me that the story had to be told.
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Austin Bay on the "War on Tourism"
From StrategyPage (July 26):
Call it the terrorists' War on Tourism -- a war waged by jihadists that long predates 9-11, Afghanistan and Iraq.Talking about "instant international headlines", I recall another recent article by Bay: "The Millennium War: A report from the Mesopotamian front" (Weekly Standard, July 25):
Last week's terror attacks on Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh resorts left nearly 90 dead. The attacks also sent an economic and political shockwave throughout the rest of Egypt...
Here's a sketch of the terrorists' counter-tourism strategy: Attacks on foreign visitors guarantee instant international headlines, especially in the visitors' home nations. All terrorist attacks are designed to sow doubt in the local government's ability to protect lives, property and businesses, but the tourist industry is a very international industry and attacking it is an easy way to discourage international investment.
These attacks also isolate and impoverish individuals who work in tourist industries -- people who tend to be multilingual and aware that "foreigners aren't devils." ...
When will the media figure this out: Al Qaeda and its cohorts are strategic information powers and little else. "The terrorists have yet to win an engagement above the platoon level," Gen. Abizaid said as we flew from Qatar to Iraq. I mean, a C-17 is loud, but the man said it with exacting clarity. Terrorist bombs are made for TV, and terrorist beheadings are made for the Internet. Here's a radical thought, politically incorrect, incorrect in terms of TV ratings but still strategically correct and correct in terms of defending liberal values: Winning the global war against Islamist terror ultimately means curbing the terrorists' strategic combat power, and that means ending the media magnification of their bombs.Bay is not the only ex-US military now writing from the front. Also discovered Michael Yon (ex-special forces), now "guerrilla media" independent journalist. A sample of his writing style:
A Kashmiri Mohammedan said to me, "God keeps men in three jars. Do you understand?"Nice.
"Yes," I answered, "you say God keeps men in three jars."
"In the first jar," the man looked at me, "God keeps the Americans. God keeps that lid very, very tight, for the Americans try their level-best (he used Indian phrases) to escape and rule the world."
I nodded, hinting a smile, saying, "God is right."
The Mohammedan smiled back, holding up a hand to quiet me, and continued, "In the second jar, God keeps the Europeans. But God does not keep that lid so tight," still holding up his hand, as if expecting interruption, "You see, God knows the Europeans also want to rule the world, but Europeans do not try hard."
"Is true, is true," I chuckled.
But, like a preacher, the man held his hand even higher, and continued on with a louder voice, "God keeps Kashmiris in the third jar, but God does not keep a lid on our jar. We also want to rule the world but every time one of us tries to escape, the rest pull him back down!" and he clenched his fist!
"Sir," my smiled faded, "It would be difficult to convey more truth with fewer words."
IHT: "How to succeed Daddy: Asia's rich learn to manage legacy"
From IHT (July 26) by Donald Greenlees:
SINGAPORE: Cries of "buy" and "sell" ring out in the chandeliered ballroom of the Shangri-la Hotel here.
Young men and women gather in several huddles, frenetically bargaining. They are surrounded by banks of computers blinking incessant changes in currency exchange rates.
"They just bought from us - er, no, we just bought from them," one perplexed young man tells a colleague.
The confusion is understandable. The young man and the other twentysomethings in the room are having their first experience with currency trading. Some are raking in big profits; others slipping deeper and deeper into loss.
Fortunately for the losers, it is only a simulation, part of a training exercise arranged by Citigroup Private Bank.
And, in reality, even losses of tens of thousands of dollars would not make much of a dent in the personal holdings of this group: They are the sons and daughters of the mega-rich of Asia and the Middle East, going to class to learn how to manage the family wealth.
Over the course of a week, 60 participants, several of them the offspring of billionaires, gain insights to help prepare for the day they inherit the family fortune. They learn a little about capital markets, hear lectures on planning to succeed their parents in the business and, of course, try their hand at money-market trading, with mixed results...
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
Myanmar to forgo chairmanship of ASEAN
From IHT (July 27), " Myanmar to forgo leadership of Asean", by Seth Mydans:
Under pressure from both its neighbors and its critics in the West, the military regime in Myanmar agreed with obvious reluctance Tuesday to forgo its turn as chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations next year.Sigh of relief.
The announcement said Myanmar was deferring its chairmanship of the 10-member association until "it is ready to take its turn." Its place will be taken by the Philippines in 2006, the next country in the rotation according to alphabetical order.
Singapore Entrepreneurs Blog
A new blog on the block: Singapore Entrepreneurs. Run by a team of young entrepreneurs with the aim of reaching out to people and geting them involved in the spirit of enterprise: not just starting hi-tech businesses but also social entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship in developing countries. Sounds good. I think they are interested in contributions as well. But do read the rules.
Monday, July 25, 2005
Local Grads can't get jobs? Increase enrollment of foreign students!
note: for those who just stumbled upon this post--the real action is in the comments section.
Saw this on Simon World, entitled, "Why Can't HK Grads Get Jobs?" by HK Dave. Quoting in full (emphasis mine):
I'm not saying whether I agree or disargee with the argument (though I have my opinions), but it is something to think about the next time one is tempted to see the increase intake of foreign students in NUS/NTU as squeezing out the local chap and thus necessarily a bad thing.
update: this also relevant.
Saw this on Simon World, entitled, "Why Can't HK Grads Get Jobs?" by HK Dave. Quoting in full (emphasis mine):
Today's Standard carries an article about how Hong Kong university graduates are unable to secure good jobs, even as Hong Kong's economic climate continues to improve. 40% of the 90,000 applicants are looking for single person-units from the public Housing Authority, as they cannot afford to move out of their families' apartments, some as small as 200 sq. ft.Now substitute all the references to "Hong Kong" with "Singapore"...
The obvious subtext is this - the highest-paying local employers simply do not value local graduates, and prefer to hire foreigners or Hong Kongers that have gone abroad for their education. One can blame part of this on employers' mindsets, but obviously another problem is just that local universities are not putting out a high-enough quality product. It's not the professors - many of them are excellent, and are also among the highest-paid in the world. Airport Authority Chairman Victor Fung (of Li & Fung fame) was absolutely right in his speech last week that local universities need to become more competitive by seeking a far more diverse student body. By largely limiting enrollment to local students, the pool of academic talent entering Hong Kong's tertiary institutions is of course going to be limited. Columbia University in New York would be a far less prestigious institution if it largely only accepted New Yorkers.
The next step beyond that is to make it simple for foreign students studying here in Hong Kong to get work permits. Only then will the top-tier Hong Kong employers - its banks and consultancies - be willing to hire local grads. Some might say it makes the lot of the current crop of Hong Kong youth even more disadvantaged - but competition is always a good thing. Hong Kong has always been a city of immigrants - in fact the growth rate of new immigrants today is far lower than in previous ages - and to shut off the taps of new talent today would only hurt Hong Kong's future.
I'm not saying whether I agree or disargee with the argument (though I have my opinions), but it is something to think about the next time one is tempted to see the increase intake of foreign students in NUS/NTU as squeezing out the local chap and thus necessarily a bad thing.
update: this also relevant.
Sunday, July 24, 2005
Unfinished...
I feel so bad about it: additions pending on my account of "prizing/valuing", the unfinished book meme, a projected analysis of resentment in the Singapore context, partly in response to Heavenly Sword, comments for Sze Meng's piece and for the Lee Harris essay. While I'm at it, throw in also the ongoing examination of elitism and meritocracy.
A blog is, for the most part, occasional in nature. But the nature of some of my interests and the discussions generated often cry out for much more sustained reflection and exchange over a longer period of time...
Anyway, just another "to do" reminder.
On a different note, I am in the process of implementing "category" functionality by way of del.icio.us tags. You can see the results so far here: this blog began Jan 8, 2005, I'm now at Jan 15. For various reasons (to do with sorting, mostly), I wanted to do it chronologically (i.e., tag from earliest to latest). This means that if I ever want to finish this implementation, I must tag the existing posts at a higher rate than I generate new posts. Granting that, I wonder when will I catch up with myself...
A blog is, for the most part, occasional in nature. But the nature of some of my interests and the discussions generated often cry out for much more sustained reflection and exchange over a longer period of time...
Anyway, just another "to do" reminder.
On a different note, I am in the process of implementing "category" functionality by way of del.icio.us tags. You can see the results so far here: this blog began Jan 8, 2005, I'm now at Jan 15. For various reasons (to do with sorting, mostly), I wanted to do it chronologically (i.e., tag from earliest to latest). This means that if I ever want to finish this implementation, I must tag the existing posts at a higher rate than I generate new posts. Granting that, I wonder when will I catch up with myself...
Saturday, July 23, 2005
Donald Trump on the UN building project
Quick one: from Radio Blogger:
...I have to start by saying I'm a big fan, a very big fan of the United Nations, and all it stands for...Unbelievable. Go listen to the whole thing. Note: he was talking about the proposed renovation of the UN Building in New York. The UN official in charge is estimating a cost of 1.5, later 1.2 billion, when it could have been done for a fraction of that--according to Trump, who is in real estate after all. Let me add a bit more context to the second bit quoted above:
...they were talking about $1.5 billion dollars to renovate the United Nations. And this was around December of 2000. And I said well, there's only two reasons. Either gross incompetence, or something far worse than that...
...So, that's it. Congratulations. You've got yourself a mess on your hands.
My involvement with the United Nations began with a letter, which I will give to the committee, from the Ambassador to the United Nations from Sweden. And it's a long letter, and a very beautifully written letter, and essentially, he read an article about the success of Trump World Tower, which is the building that I can show you, right here, which is, as you can see, very, very substantially taller than the United Nations, bigger than the United Nations. And he read an article in the New York Times, saying that the building cost approximately $300 million dollars to build. So, he wrote me a letter, and ultimately called me, and said is it possible that that building cost $300 million dollars, because it just seems so much bigger, and so much better, and so much more expensive, and so much more luxurious. And how could you have done that for $300 million dollars, when, at that time, Senator, they were talking about $1.5 billion dollars to renovate the United Nations [building]. And this was around December of 2000. And I said well, there's only two reasons. Either gross incompetence, or something far worse than that. And you know what the something is, and that's corruption. Because there's absolutely no way that that building could have cost $1.5 billion dollars to build.Another bit about his dealing with the UN:
When I went to see the administration, and when I went to see Kofi Annan, I was actually quite excited. Because I thought that I could save this country, this world, everybody, including myself, a lot of money, just by sitting down and having a meeting...When it comes to real estate, I would take Trump over UNwhatsit anyday.
I wrote letters, and you have copies of the letters. I wrote letters after the meeting. I thought the meeting went amazingly well. I was expecting a call the following day from...whether it's Kofi Annan or his people. At that time, it was a man named Conners. I met with Mr. Conners. Mr. Conners didn't know the first thing about what he was doing. He didn't know whether or not the curtain wall was going to be new, old, and didn't even know what a curtain wall was. I said, "What are you going to be doing with the curtain wall?"
He said, "What is a curtain wall?" Now, he was in charge of the project. The curtain wall is the skin of the building.
I said, "Will it be new or old?"
He said, "I don't know."
I said, "Are you using New York Steam? Or are you using a new boiler system?"
He said, "I don't know what New York Steam is." It's a very common form of heating in the building. He had no clue. And the price, at that time, was $1.5 billion dollars. I mean, I don't know why it came down, because the world has gone up. But it came down. That was in the year, approximately 2000-2001. So he didn't have a clue. I don't know if he's still there. Perhaps he is. The one thing I found him very, very good at, is that he didn't want to lose control of this project. He was a man that absolutely wanted to keep control of the project, but he didn't have even the slightest inkling of what it was all about. Knew nothing about it. He then told me that he may move people out. He may not move people out. He didn't know. He thought he might. He wasn't sure. He had no...he just didn't know.
So, I went through a whole list of questions for him, and then I realized that the United Nations is in serious trouble, because the $1.5 billion that they were talking about, there was no way it was going to happen for that. And I say today, that the $1.2 billion, which they brought down, even thought it's basically the same work, and even though things have gotten more expensive, so I don't know why they brought it down, because I don't think they brought it down for any particular reason. But the $1.2 billion, in my opinion, and I'll be sitting here in three years. And I'll be saying, and I'm going to predict that it'll cost over $3 billion dollars, because they just don't know.
Busy...
'Been on the busy side--especially after spending time translating the Lu Xun essay. So, here's my favorite story from the ancient Hindu Scriptures, the Upanishads. No, I'm not Hindu; I just happen to like this story very much. From the Brihadaranyaka-Upanishad Part 2, Third Adhyaya, First Brahmana:
Elsewhere, fascinating discussion at Anthony's, wherein the present author left a couple of long-winded comments, thus contributing to his feeling that he should go do more work now...
Ganaka Vaideha (the king of the Videhas) sacrificed with a sacrifice at which many presents were offered to the priests of (the Asvamedha). Brahmanas of the Kurus and the Paikalas had come thither, and Ganaka Vaideha wished to know, which of those Brahmanas was the best read. So he enclosed a thousand cows, and ten padas (of gold) were fastened to each pair of horns.Touché
2. And Ganaka spoke to them: 'Ye venerable Brahmanas, he who among you is the wisest, let him drive away these cows.'
Then those Brahmanas durst not, but Yagnavalkya said to his pupil: 'Drive them away, my dear.'
He replied: 'O glory of the Saman,' and drove them away.
The Brahmanas became angry and said: 'How could he call himself the wisest among us?'
Now there was Asvala, the Hotri priest of Ganaka Vaideha. He asked him: 'Are you indeed the wisest among us, O Yagnavalkya?' He replied: 'I bow before the wisest (the best knower of Brahman), but I wish indeed to have these cows.' ...
Elsewhere, fascinating discussion at Anthony's, wherein the present author left a couple of long-winded comments, thus contributing to his feeling that he should go do more work now...
Friday, July 22, 2005
Long article by Lee Harris
"The Future of Tradition", Policy Review 131 (June/July 2005). Teaser:
In every culture war the existing customs and traditions of a society are called to the bar of reason and ruthlessly interrogated and cross-examined by an intellectual elite asking whether they can be rationally justified or are simply the products of superstition and thus unworthy of being taken seriously by enlightened men and women...
But is it possible to defend tradition with the help of reason? Can a particular tradition be justified by reason? And what if our traditional belief conflicts with reason — can we rationally justify keeping it? Suppose we have been raised in the belief that we must wash our hands before every meal in order to appease a local deity in our pantheon, say, the god of the harvest; and suppose again that we have come to learn of the hygienic benefits of washing our hands before every meal. Must we keep the absurd tradition once we have grasped its scientific rationale? In either case, whether tradition and reason conflict, or tradition is revealed to be reason disguised, reason wins and tradition loses.
Where reason shines forth, then, tradition is no longer necessary. Hence the question before us: In a world that is being more and more rationalized, does tradition have a future? Or will we one day look upon it as we now look upon the myths of the ancient world — quaint and amusing, but of no real relevance to our lives?
Lu Xun on the Chinese "national swear"
(revised July 22 1255 -0400)
Apparently, my earlier post on Lin Siyuan's article "Inquiry into the Chinese and Foreign Philosophies of Swearing" has been picked up by various sites, including Language Hat, sparking some discussion in the comments section there. In an addendum to the earlier post, I also mentioned Lu Xun's 鲁迅 essay "On (the swear) 'Your Mother...'" (lun tamada 《论『他妈的』》); Chinese etext). Well, I've translated most of it below. Language Hat should be thanked for prompting me to get cracking on it.
The language used--earlier twentieth century ("May Fourth") Chinese, plus the many learned classical citations, make the piece not that easy for me to translate. I have not been literal in all instances, and suggestions for improvements are most welcome. Language Hat also helped with a Russian bit (see below), and for suggesting corrections. All material in parentheses--and all hyperlinks (no, Lu Xun was not known to be html savvy)--are added by me. "[1]" = End Note 1.
You can find out more about Lu Xun here (wiki page).
* * * * *
Lu Xun 鲁迅, "On (the swear) 'Your Mother...'" (lun tamada 《论『他妈的』》)
Those who live in China will often have occasion to hear the swear: tamade (他妈的) and others like it. I think the geographical distribution of this phrase is probably as wide as the lands upon which the Chinese have set foot; and I'm afraid the frequency of its use may not be less than that of the polite nin hao ya (您好呀). If, as some have put it, the peony is China's "national flower", then this has to be considered China's "national swear" (guoma 国骂).
I grew up east of Zhejiang—Mr. Xiying's "somewhere" [1]--the variant of the "national swear" in circulation there is very simple: it is only limited to the ma (i.e., "mother"), never involving others. It was only after I started traveling that I began to appreciate the richness and subtleties of the national swear: ancestors, sisters, children and grandchildren and even those with the same surname could be involved, it's really "limitless like the milky way" [from Zhuangzi, ch. 1]. It is used not merely on people, but can be extended to animals as well. Year before last, I came across a cart whose wheels got stuck in a deep rut. The driver angrily jumped down, and whipped the donkey while shouting at it: Ni meimei de! Ni meimei de! (lit. "your sister's, your sister's").
I do not know how it is like in other countries. But I do know that the Norwegian writer Hamsun (1859-1952) has a novel Sult (Hunger) in which can be found much vulgarity; but I did not find a swear of this sort (i.e., like tamade). The numerous bums in the many novels of Gorky (1868-1963) too did not swear in this way, at least not in the books I've read. Only Artzybashev (1878-1927) in The Worker Shevyryov had the character Aladev swear "your mother…". [2] At that time, Aladev has already decided to sacrifice his life for the sake of love, but the reader is invited to laugh at his self-contradictory courage. The translation of this swear was a very easy matter in Chinese, but rather difficult in other languages. The German translation rendered it "I have used your mother before". The Japanese one says "Your mother is my bitch". That's just too obscure--in my estimation.
So the Russians have this swear too; but it doesn't seem to have the same richness as in Chinese, so the honor still belongs to us. But this is hardly such a big honor, so they probably need not protest; nothing as scary as "Sovietization". And the wealthy, famous and powerful people of China should not be astonished. In China, those who say it are exclusively from the "lower classes": trishaw coolies and such like. Those in the upper classes, the shidafu (士大夫; "gentry and great minister"), would never say any such thing, let alone write it. "Late born was I", missing the Zhou Dynasty, not making the dafu (大夫) grade, nor shi (士), I could have freely written it. But in the end I decided to shave off a verb and a noun from the national swear, and changed it to the third person. [2b] After all, I've never pulled a trishaw before, and thus have that bit of a "whiff of nobility". Now since the use of this swear is thus limited, perhaps it should not be considered a national swear. But this need not be the case: the peony so admired by the wealthy is hardly considered "the most noble among flowers" [3] by the lower classes.
As to the origins of tamade, I do not know. The usual swears encountered in the historical classics are yifu (役夫, "slave"), sigong (死公), and such like; or the more nasty ones such as laogou (老狗; "old dog"), haozi (貉子; "raccoon dog"); and even more nasty ones, those involving one's ancestors, do not go beyond er mu bi ye (而母婢也; "your mother is a servant") or zhui yan yi chou (赘阉遗丑; "heir of a castrate") [4]. No such thing as made; perhaps the shidafu did not see fit to write them down.
But the Guanghongmingji (《广弘明集》) says of Xing Zicai (邢子才) from the Northern Wei Dynasty that he once asked his friend Yuanjing (元景): "Must your surname be Wang?" Yuanjing was aghast. Zicai said, "I too, need not have the surname 'Xing'; can it be preserved for five generations?" There may be something here. [5]
The Jin Dynasty was already a time when one's lineage counted for much, too much. Magistracies were easily within the reach of those who came from noble houses, no matter how incompetent they were. Though the northern territories were lost to the Tuoba people, the scholar-gentry were all the more crazy about an intricate social stratification and making fine distinctions between ranks. Talented people, as long as they were from a common background, could never hope to equal those from the great houses. As for the great houses: it's really a case of sheltering under the achievements of one's ancestors, and using it to lord over others; and such arrogance obviously led to much unhappiness. Since the gentry invoked their ancestors as their talisman, the oppressed commoners naturally saw their ancestors as the enemy. It's hard to say if what Xing Zicai said was motivated by anger, but it was still a fatal blow struck against all those who hid behind their family's name. Power, position, reputation--these were maintained upon the sole basis of the "ancestors"; once the "ancestors" are smashed, everything goes with it. This is the certain retribution of those who take shelter under the achievements of their ancestors.
The same thing, if said by someone from the "lower classes" without the literary talent of a Xing Zicai, would basically be tamade!
Attacking the ancient castles of the old nobility by aiming at their lineage--that truly can be considered a cunning strategy. The person who invented tamada must be considered a genius, but he is a despicable genius.
From the Tang Dynasty and after, the habit of boasting about one's lineage gradually died out; and by the time of the Jurchen (Jin Empire) and Mongolians (Yuan Dynasty), barbarians had ascended the emperor's throne, while butchers and hucksters were now ministers and gentry, and by right, the issue of rank should have become harder to establish. But some people just had to have such a desire to arduously climb to the "upper classes"… [6]
Before someone from the "lower classes" makes it rich, in general, he will naturally have many tamade to say. But given an opportunity to climb, to learn a few words, he is now wont to be elegant. Now he has title, status, and he even has the family genealogy constructed--and for that, he has to find a grand ancestor, if not a famous scholar then a famous minister. Henceforth transformed, he will be as his seniors in the "upper class": elegant and refined in speech and conduct. But even the ignorant masses can be clever enough to see through the whole charade, thus the saying "all goodness and virtue on the lips, thieves and whores in the heart" (口上仁义礼智，心里男盗女娼！). They understand.
And so they protest, saying: tamade! [7]
Even today, there are numerous "classes" in China, still many who rely upon family status or count on their ancestors. As long as this does not change, there will always be occasion for the "national swear", voiced or unvoiced. That's tamade, surrounding us, even in this time of peace.
But there exist different uses that are occasionally encountered: either to express astonishment or or that one is moved. [8] I once witnessed a farmer and his son having lunch together back in my hometown. The son pointed to a dish and said to his father: "This is not bad, made you should try it!" The father replied, "I don't want it, made you finish it!" It has basically mellowed so much as to share the same meaning with today's fashionable "my dear".
July 19, 1925
end notes
[1] Chen Xiying 陈西滢 (1896-1970), or Chen Yuan 陈源; editor of 《现代评论》 and long time critic of Lu Xun. [add:] If you read Chinese, here's what appears to be a decent article about the man. Hayek and Harbamas mentioned.
[2] Thanks to Language Hat for helping with the name--I couldn't quite figure out of what 亚拉借夫 was supposed to be a transliteration. He points to this etext of the novel, if you read Russian (I don't). He also located the exact quote: "Пошли к черту, мать вашу!... - бешено закричал Аладьев..." -– "Go to the devil, your mother! [Poshli k chortu, mat' vashu!] - cried Aladev in a rage..."
new: [2b] Lu Xun says that in talking about 他妈的, he has in fact taken off a verb and a noun, and changed it (the object, probably) to the third person. This suggests that the original, unexpurgated form is *Verb你妈的Noun, and the most likely fill in for the verb is, I suppose, 操 (see the earlier post). I have no idea what the noun is though.
[3] From Zhou Dunyi 周敦颐 (1017-1073), Neo-Confucian philosopher. This page (Chinese) has a brief introduction to the man and also the text of the Ailianshuo 《爱莲说》.
[4] The six "classical insults" cited. Unless otherwise noted, all the links for the author or book point to English pages; links to the actual text of the citation point to Chinese etexts.
- yifu (役夫, "slave") is from the Zuozhuan 《左传》 (Duke Wen, Year 1);
- sigong (死公) is from the Houhanshu 《后汉书》, in the 文苑列传;
- laogou (老狗; "old dog") is from Ban Gu 班固, Story of (Han) Emperor Xiao Wu 《汉孝武故事》;
- haozi (貉子; "raccoon dog") is from the Shishuoxinyu 《世说新语》, no. 35;
- er mu bi ye (而母婢也; "your mother is a servant") is from Zhanguoce 《战国策》, Zhao; and
- zhui yan yi chou (赘阉遗丑; "heir of a castrate") is from Chen Lin 陈琳, 《为袁绍檄豫州文》. A brief introduction to the man can be found here (in Chinese).
Yes, it's a bit rough, and many of the links point to Chinese pages. I might have to come back and do more for this one.
[5] The Guanghongmingji 《广弘明集》 is a Buddhist text compiled some time in the Tang Dynasty. It contains material from the Wei (i.e., Three Kingdom)-Jin Period through to the early Tang, by more than 130 writers. An introduction to the text is available here (in Chinese), and an etext, here. The passage cited by Lu Xun is from scroll no. #7.
[6] The following not translated: 刘时中的曲子里说：“堪笑这没见识街市匹夫，好打那好顽劣。江湖伴侣，旋将表德官名相体呼，声音多厮称，字样不寻俗。听我一个个细数：粜米的唤子良；卖肉的呼仲甫……开张卖饭的呼君宝；磨面登罗底叫德夫：何足云乎？！”（《乐府新编阳春白雪》三）这就是那时的暴发户的丑态。
[7] [The following not translated (because I'm not sure how best to translate it): 但人们不能蔑弃扫荡人我的余泽和旧荫，而硬要去做别人的祖宗，无论如何，总是卑劣的事。有时，也或加暴力于所谓“他妈的”的生命上，但大概是乘机，而不是造运会，所以无论如何，也还是卑劣的事。]
[8] The original is 或表惊异，或表感服. I'm not sure about the latter half. update: Jimmy Ho, one of the readers of Language Hat, helpfully emailed me the definition on the Hanyu Da Cidian (CD-Rom ed. 2.0) and it says:
【感服】1. 謂使人感動而悅服。 宋 秦觀 《盜賊策上》："王者所以感服天下者，惠與威也。" 宋 李綱 《論將》："此數子者，雖其材略過人遠甚，亦其所將皆舊部曲，威信、恩惠足以感服之，故能必其成功。"2.感動佩服。 宋 蘇軾 《謝管設副使啟》："感服于衷，筆舌難盡。"《紅樓夢》第三七回：" 湘雲 聽了，心中自是感服。" 葉聖陶 《倪煥之》一："'有這樣熱心的人！' 煥之 感服地說。"
* * * * *
Apparently, my earlier post on Lin Siyuan's article "Inquiry into the Chinese and Foreign Philosophies of Swearing" has been picked up by various sites, including Language Hat, sparking some discussion in the comments section there. In an addendum to the earlier post, I also mentioned Lu Xun's 鲁迅 essay "On (the swear) 'Your Mother...'" (lun tamada 《论『他妈的』》); Chinese etext). Well, I've translated most of it below. Language Hat should be thanked for prompting me to get cracking on it.
The language used--earlier twentieth century ("May Fourth") Chinese, plus the many learned classical citations, make the piece not that easy for me to translate. I have not been literal in all instances, and suggestions for improvements are most welcome. Language Hat also helped with a Russian bit (see below), and for suggesting corrections. All material in parentheses--and all hyperlinks (no, Lu Xun was not known to be html savvy)--are added by me. "[1]" = End Note 1.
You can find out more about Lu Xun here (wiki page).
* * * * *
Lu Xun 鲁迅, "On (the swear) 'Your Mother...'" (lun tamada 《论『他妈的』》)
Those who live in China will often have occasion to hear the swear: tamade (他妈的) and others like it. I think the geographical distribution of this phrase is probably as wide as the lands upon which the Chinese have set foot; and I'm afraid the frequency of its use may not be less than that of the polite nin hao ya (您好呀). If, as some have put it, the peony is China's "national flower", then this has to be considered China's "national swear" (guoma 国骂).
I grew up east of Zhejiang—Mr. Xiying's "somewhere" [1]--the variant of the "national swear" in circulation there is very simple: it is only limited to the ma (i.e., "mother"), never involving others. It was only after I started traveling that I began to appreciate the richness and subtleties of the national swear: ancestors, sisters, children and grandchildren and even those with the same surname could be involved, it's really "limitless like the milky way" [from Zhuangzi, ch. 1]. It is used not merely on people, but can be extended to animals as well. Year before last, I came across a cart whose wheels got stuck in a deep rut. The driver angrily jumped down, and whipped the donkey while shouting at it: Ni meimei de! Ni meimei de! (lit. "your sister's, your sister's").
I do not know how it is like in other countries. But I do know that the Norwegian writer Hamsun (1859-1952) has a novel Sult (Hunger) in which can be found much vulgarity; but I did not find a swear of this sort (i.e., like tamade). The numerous bums in the many novels of Gorky (1868-1963) too did not swear in this way, at least not in the books I've read. Only Artzybashev (1878-1927) in The Worker Shevyryov had the character Aladev swear "your mother…". [2] At that time, Aladev has already decided to sacrifice his life for the sake of love, but the reader is invited to laugh at his self-contradictory courage. The translation of this swear was a very easy matter in Chinese, but rather difficult in other languages. The German translation rendered it "I have used your mother before". The Japanese one says "Your mother is my bitch". That's just too obscure--in my estimation.
So the Russians have this swear too; but it doesn't seem to have the same richness as in Chinese, so the honor still belongs to us. But this is hardly such a big honor, so they probably need not protest; nothing as scary as "Sovietization". And the wealthy, famous and powerful people of China should not be astonished. In China, those who say it are exclusively from the "lower classes": trishaw coolies and such like. Those in the upper classes, the shidafu (士大夫; "gentry and great minister"), would never say any such thing, let alone write it. "Late born was I", missing the Zhou Dynasty, not making the dafu (大夫) grade, nor shi (士), I could have freely written it. But in the end I decided to shave off a verb and a noun from the national swear, and changed it to the third person. [2b] After all, I've never pulled a trishaw before, and thus have that bit of a "whiff of nobility". Now since the use of this swear is thus limited, perhaps it should not be considered a national swear. But this need not be the case: the peony so admired by the wealthy is hardly considered "the most noble among flowers" [3] by the lower classes.
As to the origins of tamade, I do not know. The usual swears encountered in the historical classics are yifu (役夫, "slave"), sigong (死公), and such like; or the more nasty ones such as laogou (老狗; "old dog"), haozi (貉子; "raccoon dog"); and even more nasty ones, those involving one's ancestors, do not go beyond er mu bi ye (而母婢也; "your mother is a servant") or zhui yan yi chou (赘阉遗丑; "heir of a castrate") [4]. No such thing as made; perhaps the shidafu did not see fit to write them down.
But the Guanghongmingji (《广弘明集》) says of Xing Zicai (邢子才) from the Northern Wei Dynasty that he once asked his friend Yuanjing (元景): "Must your surname be Wang?" Yuanjing was aghast. Zicai said, "I too, need not have the surname 'Xing'; can it be preserved for five generations?" There may be something here. [5]
The Jin Dynasty was already a time when one's lineage counted for much, too much. Magistracies were easily within the reach of those who came from noble houses, no matter how incompetent they were. Though the northern territories were lost to the Tuoba people, the scholar-gentry were all the more crazy about an intricate social stratification and making fine distinctions between ranks. Talented people, as long as they were from a common background, could never hope to equal those from the great houses. As for the great houses: it's really a case of sheltering under the achievements of one's ancestors, and using it to lord over others; and such arrogance obviously led to much unhappiness. Since the gentry invoked their ancestors as their talisman, the oppressed commoners naturally saw their ancestors as the enemy. It's hard to say if what Xing Zicai said was motivated by anger, but it was still a fatal blow struck against all those who hid behind their family's name. Power, position, reputation--these were maintained upon the sole basis of the "ancestors"; once the "ancestors" are smashed, everything goes with it. This is the certain retribution of those who take shelter under the achievements of their ancestors.
The same thing, if said by someone from the "lower classes" without the literary talent of a Xing Zicai, would basically be tamade!
Attacking the ancient castles of the old nobility by aiming at their lineage--that truly can be considered a cunning strategy. The person who invented tamada must be considered a genius, but he is a despicable genius.
From the Tang Dynasty and after, the habit of boasting about one's lineage gradually died out; and by the time of the Jurchen (Jin Empire) and Mongolians (Yuan Dynasty), barbarians had ascended the emperor's throne, while butchers and hucksters were now ministers and gentry, and by right, the issue of rank should have become harder to establish. But some people just had to have such a desire to arduously climb to the "upper classes"… [6]
Before someone from the "lower classes" makes it rich, in general, he will naturally have many tamade to say. But given an opportunity to climb, to learn a few words, he is now wont to be elegant. Now he has title, status, and he even has the family genealogy constructed--and for that, he has to find a grand ancestor, if not a famous scholar then a famous minister. Henceforth transformed, he will be as his seniors in the "upper class": elegant and refined in speech and conduct. But even the ignorant masses can be clever enough to see through the whole charade, thus the saying "all goodness and virtue on the lips, thieves and whores in the heart" (口上仁义礼智，心里男盗女娼！). They understand.
And so they protest, saying: tamade! [7]
Even today, there are numerous "classes" in China, still many who rely upon family status or count on their ancestors. As long as this does not change, there will always be occasion for the "national swear", voiced or unvoiced. That's tamade, surrounding us, even in this time of peace.
But there exist different uses that are occasionally encountered: either to express astonishment or or that one is moved. [8] I once witnessed a farmer and his son having lunch together back in my hometown. The son pointed to a dish and said to his father: "This is not bad, made you should try it!" The father replied, "I don't want it, made you finish it!" It has basically mellowed so much as to share the same meaning with today's fashionable "my dear".
July 19, 1925
end notes
[1] Chen Xiying 陈西滢 (1896-1970), or Chen Yuan 陈源; editor of 《现代评论》 and long time critic of Lu Xun. [add:] If you read Chinese, here's what appears to be a decent article about the man. Hayek and Harbamas mentioned.
[2] Thanks to Language Hat for helping with the name--I couldn't quite figure out of what 亚拉借夫 was supposed to be a transliteration. He points to this etext of the novel, if you read Russian (I don't). He also located the exact quote: "Пошли к черту, мать вашу!... - бешено закричал Аладьев..." -– "Go to the devil, your mother! [Poshli k chortu, mat' vashu!] - cried Aladev in a rage..."
new: [2b] Lu Xun says that in talking about 他妈的, he has in fact taken off a verb and a noun, and changed it (the object, probably) to the third person. This suggests that the original, unexpurgated form is *Verb你妈的Noun, and the most likely fill in for the verb is, I suppose, 操 (see the earlier post). I have no idea what the noun is though.
[3] From Zhou Dunyi 周敦颐 (1017-1073), Neo-Confucian philosopher. This page (Chinese) has a brief introduction to the man and also the text of the Ailianshuo 《爱莲说》.
[4] The six "classical insults" cited. Unless otherwise noted, all the links for the author or book point to English pages; links to the actual text of the citation point to Chinese etexts.
- yifu (役夫, "slave") is from the Zuozhuan 《左传》 (Duke Wen, Year 1);
- sigong (死公) is from the Houhanshu 《后汉书》, in the 文苑列传;
- laogou (老狗; "old dog") is from Ban Gu 班固, Story of (Han) Emperor Xiao Wu 《汉孝武故事》;
- haozi (貉子; "raccoon dog") is from the Shishuoxinyu 《世说新语》, no. 35;
- er mu bi ye (而母婢也; "your mother is a servant") is from Zhanguoce 《战国策》, Zhao; and
- zhui yan yi chou (赘阉遗丑; "heir of a castrate") is from Chen Lin 陈琳, 《为袁绍檄豫州文》. A brief introduction to the man can be found here (in Chinese).
Yes, it's a bit rough, and many of the links point to Chinese pages. I might have to come back and do more for this one.
[5] The Guanghongmingji 《广弘明集》 is a Buddhist text compiled some time in the Tang Dynasty. It contains material from the Wei (i.e., Three Kingdom)-Jin Period through to the early Tang, by more than 130 writers. An introduction to the text is available here (in Chinese), and an etext, here. The passage cited by Lu Xun is from scroll no. #7.
[6] The following not translated: 刘时中的曲子里说：“堪笑这没见识街市匹夫，好打那好顽劣。江湖伴侣，旋将表德官名相体呼，声音多厮称，字样不寻俗。听我一个个细数：粜米的唤子良；卖肉的呼仲甫……开张卖饭的呼君宝；磨面登罗底叫德夫：何足云乎？！”（《乐府新编阳春白雪》三）这就是那时的暴发户的丑态。
[7] [The following not translated (because I'm not sure how best to translate it): 但人们不能蔑弃扫荡人我的余泽和旧荫，而硬要去做别人的祖宗，无论如何，总是卑劣的事。有时，也或加暴力于所谓“他妈的”的生命上，但大概是乘机，而不是造运会，所以无论如何，也还是卑劣的事。]
[8] The original is 或表惊异，或表感服. I'm not sure about the latter half. update: Jimmy Ho, one of the readers of Language Hat, helpfully emailed me the definition on the Hanyu Da Cidian (CD-Rom ed. 2.0) and it says:
【感服】1. 謂使人感動而悅服。 宋 秦觀 《盜賊策上》："王者所以感服天下者，惠與威也。" 宋 李綱 《論將》："此數子者，雖其材略過人遠甚，亦其所將皆舊部曲，威信、恩惠足以感服之，故能必其成功。"2.感動佩服。 宋 蘇軾 《謝管設副使啟》："感服于衷，筆舌難盡。"《紅樓夢》第三七回：" 湘雲 聽了，心中自是感服。" 葉聖陶 《倪煥之》一："'有這樣熱心的人！' 煥之 感服地說。"
* * * * *
Weblog Ethics Survey Results
Remember that survey you took a while back? The results are now available here.
The researchers distinguish between two different sorts of bloggers:
Some of their key findings about these two groups:
This one is interesting:
Anyway, nice job they have done.
The researchers distinguish between two different sorts of bloggers:
From the literature on blogging, we identified two distinct groups of bloggers: personal and non-personal. Personal weblogs are those that resemble an online diary or personal journal. Non-personal weblogs are those that focus on specific topics and content, usually intended for larger audiences. In addition to different types of content and intended audiences, these two types of bloggers are likely to have different perspectives on the functions and impact their blogs have which may in turn influence their ethics in blogging.There: those who don't and those who do take offence at the appellation "onlin diarist", I suppose.
Some of their key findings about these two groups:
- 73% of the bloggers surveyed said that their weblogs are personal while the remaining 27% said that their weblogs are non-personalI don't know about the last one, at least for the Singapore case.
- Non-personal bloggers are typically older males, with more formal years of education than personal bloggers.
- Non-personal bloggers tend to have more readers, update their weblogs more frequently, and spend more time on their weblogs.
This one is interesting:
Ethical Beliefs and PracticesBut that should have been expected: the world of bloggers is just too diverse, and the conditions of the countries they operate in too different for any such code to be viable or useful.
Personal and non-personal bloggers value and adhere to four ethical principles differently. For instance, personal bloggers believe that minimizing harm is more important than non-personal bloggers.
For both groups of bloggers, they believe attribution is the most important and accountability the least important.
The degree of association between ethical beliefs and practices is different for personal and non-personal bloggers: in general, the level of correspondence between what people believe and what they do is higher for non-personal bloggers than personal bloggers.
Both types of bloggers are quite ambivalent about whether any kind of a code is necessary.
Anyway, nice job they have done.
Thursday, July 21, 2005
London attacked again!
From Times Online (July 21), "London's day of deja vu" by Simon Freeman:
Elsewhere, a "British LGBT civil rights group says its leaders have received death threats from Muslim fundamentalists and warns that gay clubs could be targets for terrorist bombers" (365gay.com July 18; hat tip Chrenkoff).
Meanwhile, the spooks at DEBKAfile presents a scoop about the first London bombings.
More on the most recent bombings: a timeline of events from CTV.ca; eyewitness reports from This is London (Evening Standard); and everyone's looking for "a black or Asian male, 6 feet 2 inches tall, wearing a blue top with a hole in the back and wires protruding from it" (MSNBC).
update: tscd--"previously from Singapore, currently in the United Kingdom" as she describes herself--gives us her impressions from the point of view of a health care worker in London. Also the earlier posts on the first attacks.
Two weeks after its worst attack in 50 years, London was getting back to normal.Continuous updates available on the Counterterrorism Blog.
But today, the capital was today thrown into its worst nightmare with a series of copycat Tube and bus bomb attacks coming exactly a fortnight after the atrocity that claimed 56 lives.
At just before 1pm, the Underground was placed on 'amber' alert and the Hammersmith & City, Victoria and Northern line were evacuated. Roads were closed around three stations. Mobile phone networks went into meltdown.
Scotland Yard was quick to inform a terrified public that the latest series of incidents - on Tubes at the Oval, Warren Street and Shepherd's Bush and a bus in Hackney Road, East London - was not being treated as a major terrorist attack.
Within two hours it became clear that the four co-ordinated attacks were not on the same scale as July 7. The sense of relief was palpable as services on the Tubes began to return to normal.
Elsewhere, a "British LGBT civil rights group says its leaders have received death threats from Muslim fundamentalists and warns that gay clubs could be targets for terrorist bombers" (365gay.com July 18; hat tip Chrenkoff).
Meanwhile, the spooks at DEBKAfile presents a scoop about the first London bombings.
More on the most recent bombings: a timeline of events from CTV.ca; eyewitness reports from This is London (Evening Standard); and everyone's looking for "a black or Asian male, 6 feet 2 inches tall, wearing a blue top with a hole in the back and wires protruding from it" (MSNBC).
update: tscd--"previously from Singapore, currently in the United Kingdom" as she describes herself--gives us her impressions from the point of view of a health care worker in London. Also the earlier posts on the first attacks.
US DoD annual report on the Chinese Military
The report itself is available here (.pdf file). The cover news:
The last part of the report is all about the Mainland-Taiwan military balance.
The Defense Department's annual report on Chinese military power, released late July 19, is "deliberately non-alarmist," a senior official said. However, some findings are "worrisome," the official added.A much more alarmist take by Max Boot in the LATimes.com (July 20), "China's stealth war on the U.S.":
The 45-page report, required by Congress each year, "is a very factual presentation of what's taken place in the People's Republic of China," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said, shortly before the report was released...
The Pentagon on Tuesday released a study of Chinese military capabilities. In a preview, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told a Singapore audience last month that China's arms buildup was an "area of concern." It should be. But we shouldn't get overly fixated on such traditional indices of military power as ships and bombs — not even atomic bombs. Chinese strategists, in the best tradition of Sun Tzu, are working on craftier schemes to topple the American hegemon.More available here and here.
The last part of the report is all about the Mainland-Taiwan military balance.
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
The Singapore I want / Rising Tides
First, Jeff Yen points to an interesting discussion on the SPUG Forum entitled, "The Singapore I want".
Which ties in nicely with a piece freshly written by Sze-Meng and Vaughn, "It’s a good thing the rising tide lifts all boats" (written for Friday Matters for Straits Times, but not published). It's not directly about a Singapore that the writers want. But by painting an alternative history of sorts--
Interesting reads.
(...to be continued)
Which ties in nicely with a piece freshly written by Sze-Meng and Vaughn, "It’s a good thing the rising tide lifts all boats" (written for Friday Matters for Straits Times, but not published). It's not directly about a Singapore that the writers want. But by painting an alternative history of sorts--
But what if Singapore had taken a slightly different path? What if meritocracy had led us instead in the direction of increasing social inequality and slowing social mobility as it has done in many countries larger, wiser, and older than us? The country that the generation which saw independence imagined in Singapore’s future would be a very different place.----the writers do invoke a vision of the Singapore they want.
Interesting reads.
(...to be continued)
Raffles Hotel sold to US real estate investment fund
From IHT (July 19), "New owners for Singapore's Raffles Hotel", by Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop:
By the way, they really should have quoted the rest of what Kipling wrote. This is the whole bit:
[Technorati: singapore]
SINGAPORE Legend has it that Somerset Maugham would work all morning under a frangipani tree in the Palm Court of the famed Raffles Hotel here, turning the bits of gossip and scandal overheard at dinner parties into famous stories. Ernest Hemingway is said to have patronized the hotel's Long Bar and its celebrated Singapore Sling, while a young Rudyard Kipling once had this simple advice: "Feed at Raffles."(Read on). According to the WSJ (July 19), "The Singapore government will also retain control over renovations of the hotel."
With its elegant colonial architecture, grand staircase and breezy arcades, the 118-year old Raffles Hotel - named after the founding father of colonial Singapore, Sir Stamford Raffles - has long epitomized a bygone era of elegance and old world opulence, an iconic cornerstone of Singapore's hospitality industry.
On Monday, it was sold to a U.S. real estate investment fund, Colony Capital LLC, by its parent, Raffles Holdings, along with another 40 hotels and resorts around the world, including the Swissotel chain...
By the way, they really should have quoted the rest of what Kipling wrote. This is the whole bit:
Providence conducted me along a beach, in full view of five miles of shipping,—five solid miles of masts and funnels,—to a place called Raffles Hotel, where the food is as excellent as the rooms are bad. Let the traveller take note. Feed at Raffles and sleep at the Hotel de l’Europe.Ahh...the early days of "product placement". (The Hotel de l'Europe eventually became the now-no-more Cockpit Hotel.)
[Technorati: singapore]
ST: blogs brought the NKF low (sic)
All from From ST (July 19) Digital Life
1. "Blogger power", by Hellen Tan:
2. From "You can blog, but you can't hide--Masked or otherwise, being responsible is best. Clear-cut defamation laws apply to the bloggers too, say lawyers" (i.e., yada yada) by Stephanie Yap:
update: in case anyone gets the wrong ideas, it's not all bad. In fact, it has been received as mostly good.
1. "Blogger power", by Hellen Tan:
There was no chance for the NKF public relations machinery to launch any counter measures to arrest the crisis.Funny, I thought it was the 85 stories, review articles and forum page letters (July 12-19), plus full court proceedings transcript, plus interesting photos on ST that did the job.
Overnight, dozens of blogs posted opinions about the saga. That grew into thousands. Then, there was an online petition that was set up last Tuesday by a 20-year-old full-time national serviceman, and in just a day, gathered more than 18,000 online signatures supporting the removal of NKF's chief executive officer, Mr T.T. Durai. You know what happened next.
This incident demonstrate that blogs and online communities are beginning to be a force to be reckoned with.
2. From "You can blog, but you can't hide--Masked or otherwise, being responsible is best. Clear-cut defamation laws apply to the bloggers too, say lawyers" (i.e., yada yada) by Stephanie Yap:
From CANDID VIEWS, WITH PIE CHARTSGood one. Is there an assumption that blogs exist for people to share their "innermost thoughts" online? Believe you me I don't read Instapundit to find out about Prof. Glenn Reynolds' "innermost thoughts", and I do happen to read the EconLog precisely for the economic stuff. Incidentally, Mr. Soon's blog seems interesting.
While PSC scholar aiyah wants to remain anonymous, a PSC Open scholarship holder, Mr Dominic Soon, 23, provides a headshot and his resume on his blog at www.dominicsoon.com.
But anyone visiting his blog hoping to learn his innermost thoughts would instead find entries akin to economics essays, some complete with pie charts.
As Mr Soon puts it: 'I sometimes have ideas related to economics, which are hopefully amenable for general consumption.'
Mr Soon is not concerned about being identifiable. 'Generally, I'd like to think that my opinions are rather measured.'
As for whether he knows if PSC has ever seen his blog before, he said candidly: 'Oddly enough, my future employers haven't yet given me any feedback on my blog. I suspect they are more interested in Xiaxue.'
update: in case anyone gets the wrong ideas, it's not all bad. In fact, it has been received as mostly good.
Monday, July 18, 2005
ST on Bloggers.sg 2005
Saw this on yesterday's ST (July 17), "1st bloggers' conference is one big YAWN--Mostly in their 20s, they seem guarded; Internet Relay Chat livens things", by Jeremy Au Yong and Shawn Woo:
To the left, you see Penny's reaction when Daddy told her: "it's been more than a month since ST got serious about blogs...but obviously, they still a long way to go..." (disclaimer: some creative licence applied).
Elsewhere, choice reactions from Jeff Yen, Tym, Caleb, with Mr Miyagi promising some--and, keeping tabs from across the Pacific Ocean, the ever measured Anthony.
update: More from Mr. Wang, and Singapore Ink has extensive reflections ("These reporters are not content with getting their first draft of history in, they are wannabe anthropologists too - horribly anachronistic ones.")
THEIR personal websites are all about attitude - keeping readers riveted with provocative pictures, biting commentaries and wit.
Yet, when 200 of these bloggers got together at DXO CLUB at the Esplanade yesterday, the result was neither riveting nor provocative.
Many of the mostly 20-somethings seemed guarded, as if uncomfortable without the protection of their online personas. They listened politely to the talks given, spoke in turn, clapped at the right times and largely kept to PG-13 topics.
To the left, you see Penny's reaction when Daddy told her: "it's been more than a month since ST got serious about blogs...but obviously, they still a long way to go..." (disclaimer: some creative licence applied).Elsewhere, choice reactions from Jeff Yen, Tym, Caleb, with Mr Miyagi promising some--and, keeping tabs from across the Pacific Ocean, the ever measured Anthony.
update: More from Mr. Wang, and Singapore Ink has extensive reflections ("These reporters are not content with getting their first draft of history in, they are wannabe anthropologists too - horribly anachronistic ones.")
Quote of the day
From ST (July 18) Forum Page, "Charity still saving lives and still needs support":
As a civilised society, we should not lightly condemn anyone in the court of public opinion without the benefit of due process and the right to a fair hearing. Even murderers have that right. - Mdm Ho Chingupdate: there is a wiki page for everything! even everything.
Saturday, July 16, 2005
Charity or helping the poor and needy
Teaser
One of the ST (July 16) Forum page articles today has the title, "A charity should not be run like a business". It begins:
Out of this world
Rather, I want to tell a story--and this time, it's a real life present day story--about the Aravind Eye Care System, based in Madurai, India (hat tip to this book; scroll down).
In brief, Aravind is a profit making institution providing healthcare--specifically, for the eye; and very specifically, the cataract eye surgery. The equipment and service is world class. The quality of care compares favorablely with the Royal College of Ophthalmologists, UK, so much that British patients have been travelling to India to get their surgery done there in recent years. (A resident from Harvard Medical School who was there at one point also remarked that he was getting more clinical experience than any of his classmates in Harvard, as he got to see many instances of rare eye diseases that back in Harvard, you only get to read about.)
At this point, one might think: must be expensive to go to Aravind. And that's where the shocker lies: 60% of the patients are nonpaying patients while the remaining 40% pay about US$50 to $300 for cataract surgery. (It cost about US$3000 for the equivalent surgery in the US.) Even allowing the differences in cost of labor, the contrast is out of this world, considering the quality of care that Aravind provides. Furthermore, Aravind is not only debt free, runs a surplus, but has been financially self-sustaining from day one. No government grants, no donations, never asked for them either. How is this even possible?
The founder, Dr. Venkataswamy ("Dr. V") says he was inspired by McDonald's. Nothing mysterious, merely the observation that an "In-depth attention to inputs and process steps guarantees high-quality outputs":
A thought (slightly revised July 16, 1100 -0400)
I do wonder if in the NKF uproar and the subsequent soul searching over how charity organisations should conduct themselves, an alternative has been overlooked.
"Charity organisation"--of the scale of an NKF anyway--did not, does not, could not survive on charity alone. It has to be thoroughly professional and business-like in efficiency--in translating the charity of the donors, on the one hand, into actual relief for the patients under its care, on the other hand. And there is no better way to guarantee this professionalism than by paying good money for the best brains that money can buy--and I am not talking about unnecessary toilet fixtures or shenanigans with the travel perk (after all, it is possible to overpay a CEO even in the profit making world).
There is thus an important sense in which the "charity organisation" is a misnomer: the small time donors putting in his $10 from a take home pay of $1000, the volunteers putting in time and effort, and the staff on half pay because he or she is there for the cause--that's where the charity resides. But the organisation--it cannot run on charity alone precisely if it wants to be the best steward for the charitable contributions of its supporters.
It is undeniable that Dr. V has deep compassion for the poor and needy--remember that 60% of the patients do not pay--that the very foundation of Aravind is inspired by his desire to do his bit to help the lot of fellow men. But what he runs is not a "charity organisation" of the kind that we might be familiar with, i.e., one that asks for and is sustained by our charity. And because it does not do that, the issues that plague us about how "charity organisations" ought to be run simply do not arise for Aravind.
Perhaps what we need to rethink is not how "charity organisations" should be run, but the more basic question of how the poor and needy could be helped. And it is not obvious that they are always best served by the charity of donors, that is, it is not obvious that that they could not be even better served by other means.
Something to think about for the aspiring social-entrepreneur.
coda: yes, this is all related to my "freakonomical turn"...
update: see also the long comment left by Prodigal.
* * * * *
Some more background on Aravind: Aravind started in 1976 with a 11-bed private clinic (in Dr. V's brother's house, no less). The mission: to eradicate all needless blindness in Tamil Nadu, if not in the entire nation of India. Today, the System consists of five hospitals, manufacturing centers for lenses, sutures and eye care related pharmaceuticals, training institute, international eye bank, a woman and child care center, a postgraduate institute of ophthalmology (awarding MS and fellowships, and a center for community outreach programs. The 1,500 bed hospital at Madurai alone performs some 95,000 eye surgeries every year. The five hospitals (Madurai, Tirunelveli, Coimbatore, Theni and Pondicherry) together perform 190,000 surgeries every year, 45% of all eye surgeries in the state of Tamil Nadu, 5% in the whole of India (Prahalad, 265-266).
* * * * *
pertinent:
From ST Forum Page (July 21), "It costs much less to have dialysis in KL" by Cindy Yim Ah Hoe (Mdm):
One of the ST (July 16) Forum page articles today has the title, "A charity should not be run like a business". It begins:
AMID the controversy over the National Kidney Foundation (NKF), I want to raise my concern at a deeper problem: the commercialisation of charities. The disturbing thing about NKF is how it ran itself as a business and, indeed, sees itself as a business. It constantly compares itself to a business and sometimes refers to the donations received as revenue or turnover. Such commercialisation is likely to lead to a culture where employees and management see themselves as under the employ of the business, and that their salary and bonuses are 'entitlements' for the service they provide. They compare their compensation to private companies and expect similar benefits. A charity is, after all, a charity...And there's more in the same vein. The next one, however, takes a different tune: "Not fair to blame Durai for $600,000 salary". This one goes:
I HAVE always been impressed with the NKF, and how it is managed like a business. The success that it has enjoyed is testimony to the effectiveness of Mr T.T. Durai's role as the CEO. In fact, I think there is much that other charities can learn from the NKF. The measure of a successful charity has to be its ability to raise funds. The fact that the NKF has a $262-million reserve is the best measure of its success as a fund-raiser. This is what makes the NKF different from other charities in Singapore - it is extremely successful by any business standard...I won't quote more (if you really want to read them, and do not have access to ST or STI, drop me a note and I'll use the "email article" function on the STI webpage to send it to you). Nor is my concern here really to consider the pros and cons of the above two points of view (for that, I can recommend no better than Heavenly Sword's recent tour de force).
Out of this world
Rather, I want to tell a story--and this time, it's a real life present day story--about the Aravind Eye Care System, based in Madurai, India (hat tip to this book; scroll down).
In brief, Aravind is a profit making institution providing healthcare--specifically, for the eye; and very specifically, the cataract eye surgery. The equipment and service is world class. The quality of care compares favorablely with the Royal College of Ophthalmologists, UK, so much that British patients have been travelling to India to get their surgery done there in recent years. (A resident from Harvard Medical School who was there at one point also remarked that he was getting more clinical experience than any of his classmates in Harvard, as he got to see many instances of rare eye diseases that back in Harvard, you only get to read about.)
At this point, one might think: must be expensive to go to Aravind. And that's where the shocker lies: 60% of the patients are nonpaying patients while the remaining 40% pay about US$50 to $300 for cataract surgery. (It cost about US$3000 for the equivalent surgery in the US.) Even allowing the differences in cost of labor, the contrast is out of this world, considering the quality of care that Aravind provides. Furthermore, Aravind is not only debt free, runs a surplus, but has been financially self-sustaining from day one. No government grants, no donations, never asked for them either. How is this even possible?
The founder, Dr. Venkataswamy ("Dr. V") says he was inspired by McDonald's. Nothing mysterious, merely the observation that an "In-depth attention to inputs and process steps guarantees high-quality outputs":
Dr. V has developed and standardized the Aravind process, in which the first step is more than 1,500 eye camps where the poor are tested for vision problems and those needing help are admitted. They are then transported to hospitals. This is different from the more popular on-site eye camps in villages and small towns in India. The conditions of sanitation and medical care in such camps cannot be controlled as well as they can be in specially designed hospitals developed for this purpose. In the Aravind process, technicians, often young women drawn from the local areas and trained in eye care only, supplement the work of doctors. Patient preparation and postoperative work are done by these technicians. Doctors perform only surgeries. The process flow allows a doctor and two technician teams to perform more than 50 surgeries per day. Because the process is so well developed, technicians and doctors are so carefully trained, inputs are fully controlled, and the system and values are rigidly enforced, Aravind boasts of an outcome rate that is among the best in the world. (Prahalad, 37; emphasis mine)In other words, process innovation drives the costs way down, thus enabling very low prices, thus allowing Aravind to serve "Bottom of the Pyramid" customers--the poor and needy.
A thought (slightly revised July 16, 1100 -0400)
I do wonder if in the NKF uproar and the subsequent soul searching over how charity organisations should conduct themselves, an alternative has been overlooked.
"Charity organisation"--of the scale of an NKF anyway--did not, does not, could not survive on charity alone. It has to be thoroughly professional and business-like in efficiency--in translating the charity of the donors, on the one hand, into actual relief for the patients under its care, on the other hand. And there is no better way to guarantee this professionalism than by paying good money for the best brains that money can buy--and I am not talking about unnecessary toilet fixtures or shenanigans with the travel perk (after all, it is possible to overpay a CEO even in the profit making world).
There is thus an important sense in which the "charity organisation" is a misnomer: the small time donors putting in his $10 from a take home pay of $1000, the volunteers putting in time and effort, and the staff on half pay because he or she is there for the cause--that's where the charity resides. But the organisation--it cannot run on charity alone precisely if it wants to be the best steward for the charitable contributions of its supporters.
It is undeniable that Dr. V has deep compassion for the poor and needy--remember that 60% of the patients do not pay--that the very foundation of Aravind is inspired by his desire to do his bit to help the lot of fellow men. But what he runs is not a "charity organisation" of the kind that we might be familiar with, i.e., one that asks for and is sustained by our charity. And because it does not do that, the issues that plague us about how "charity organisations" ought to be run simply do not arise for Aravind.
Perhaps what we need to rethink is not how "charity organisations" should be run, but the more basic question of how the poor and needy could be helped. And it is not obvious that they are always best served by the charity of donors, that is, it is not obvious that that they could not be even better served by other means.
Something to think about for the aspiring social-entrepreneur.
coda: yes, this is all related to my "freakonomical turn"...
update: see also the long comment left by Prodigal.
* * * * *
Some more background on Aravind: Aravind started in 1976 with a 11-bed private clinic (in Dr. V's brother's house, no less). The mission: to eradicate all needless blindness in Tamil Nadu, if not in the entire nation of India. Today, the System consists of five hospitals, manufacturing centers for lenses, sutures and eye care related pharmaceuticals, training institute, international eye bank, a woman and child care center, a postgraduate institute of ophthalmology (awarding MS and fellowships, and a center for community outreach programs. The 1,500 bed hospital at Madurai alone performs some 95,000 eye surgeries every year. The five hospitals (Madurai, Tirunelveli, Coimbatore, Theni and Pondicherry) together perform 190,000 surgeries every year, 45% of all eye surgeries in the state of Tamil Nadu, 5% in the whole of India (Prahalad, 265-266).
* * * * *
pertinent:
From ST Forum Page (July 21), "It costs much less to have dialysis in KL" by Cindy Yim Ah Hoe (Mdm):
...The cost of a dialysis session in Singapore...ranges from $178.50 to $283.50 for the non-subsidised patient.(Note: according to Mercer's Global/Worldwide 2005 Cost of Living Survey City Rankings, Singapore has an index score of 88, while Kuala Lumpar, 67.1; so, theoretically, Singapore is 31% more expensive than KL).
My mother, who undergoes dialysis three times a week, pays a lot less as a non-subsidised patient at private dialysis clinics in Malaysia - RM100 (S$44.40) in Taiping or Kampar, RM170 in Kuala Lumpur.
With the ringgit being worth less than half of a Singapore dollar, one wonders how these private profit-making clinics in Malaysia could survive and thrive even though they never canvass for donations from the public...
Friday, July 15, 2005
New Insights into Singapore History
Got this by email circular:
New Insights into Singapore History - Perspectives of Emerging ScholarsI believe the event is free and open to all on a first-come, first-served basis. Since space is limited, you are supposed to register by 6th August 2005 (email contact available on the website).
A one day workship jointly presented by the Department of History, National University of Singapore and the National Library Board, Singapore:
Tuesday, 16 Aug 2005 – 8.45 am to 5 pm
Imagination & Possibility Rooms,
Level 5, National Library Board, 100 Victoria Street, Singapore
Synopsis:
As a society and nation matures, the history, or the narrative discourse, of the nation and its people inevitably evolves as well. The accepted version of the past is re-assessed and rewritten, while the boundaries of the narrative—that which is accepted and what is not—are periodically redrawn in the cycle of scholarship.
The writing of Singapore’s history has, over the last forty years, gone through three such cycles. Beginning with post-colonial scholars, who traced the history of Singapore from its emergence as a colonial port-city to an independent state, emphasizing the importance of British colonialism as the chief historical factor for the raison d’etre of modern Singapore, scholarship on Singapore’s history has moved on during the 1980s and 90s to examining the events leading up to independence in 1965, to presently casting Singapore’s history within the regional and global context.
For more information (presenters, paper titles and abstracts), please visit the website
Still on the NKF Saga
update: (July 15 1910 -0400)
Latest ST Tally
The blogosphere is in an uproar over the NKF saga, and there's no better way to say what I mean by that than point you to the screencap below:
'nuff said.
Meanwhile ST puts out another 15 stories and 5 Forum Page letters.
Since I've been preoccupied (by work), I haven't really commented much. So, do check out the round up on Singapore Ink, including the latest fallout--Durai and the entire NKF board has resigned. Even Mrs Goh CT has relinguished her position as patron of NKF. Hmm... public opinion as a force in Singapore?
Check out also Heavenly Sword's long discussion about peanuts. (New link)
Ok, back to my work...
update:
Taking a break and surfing some.
Check out Intredipidity's timeline of events. Also Justice for NKF Donors.
Looks like the international press has picked up a bit of the saga. The Reuters and FT reports are (slightly) more interesting than the rest. From the FT article:
Latest ST Tally
July 12: 6 stories* * * * *
July 13: 10 stories
July 14: 9 stories, 3 review articles, 11 Forum Page letters
July 15: 15 stories, Forum Page letters
July 16: 8 stories, 3 review articles, 4 Forum Page letters
The blogosphere is in an uproar over the NKF saga, and there's no better way to say what I mean by that than point you to the screencap below:
'nuff said.
Meanwhile ST puts out another 15 stories and 5 Forum Page letters.
Since I've been preoccupied (by work), I haven't really commented much. So, do check out the round up on Singapore Ink, including the latest fallout--Durai and the entire NKF board has resigned. Even Mrs Goh CT has relinguished her position as patron of NKF. Hmm... public opinion as a force in Singapore?
Check out also Heavenly Sword's long discussion about peanuts. (New link)
Ok, back to my work...
update:
Taking a break and surfing some.
Check out Intredipidity's timeline of events. Also Justice for NKF Donors.
Looks like the international press has picked up a bit of the saga. The Reuters and FT reports are (slightly) more interesting than the rest. From the FT article:
The headquarters of the National Kidney Foundation was covered with protest graffiti, in a rare act of vandalism for the normally placid city-state, and the topic has dominated internet chatrooms.Also dug up the ST April 19, 2004 story that started it all: "The NKF: Controversially ahead of its time?" by Susan Long. It's a long article, but this bit caught my eye:
The issue could prove embarrassing for the government since the chief patron of the NKF is the wife of Goh Chok Tong, Singapore's senior minister and former prime minister.
The public outrage also reflects complaints that Singapore's elite appears to be enjoying a lavish lifestyle when the income gap between the rich and poor is widening.
Its money-minting machinery, however, was not always so hard-nosed or well-oiled. Starting out in an unprepossessing Singapore General Hospital attic with just two beds and one metal tray in 1969, Mr Yong says, it battled the same growing pains that less publicised, cash-strapped charities face today.Ironic...
When it set up its first dialysis programme in 1982 in Kwong Wai Shiu Hospital, it dispensed free treatment with little regard for outcomes and costs.
In 1986, it ran out of money, so he and other board members had to make the heart-wrenching decision of who among their 32 patients should continue with dialysis, and who would have to be sent home with morphine to die.
'I couldn't sleep; I couldn't eat. Who were we to play God?' he recalls. It hit home then: It was important to have 'healthy reserves that can withstand even the most dire economic times', and self-generated income 'so that we can be independent, instead of on our knees, poor and begging for life'.
So the irony is that, despite being one of the oldest, the NKF is yet one of the most progressive charities here. As a mature 35-year-old, it is looking at sustainability and continuity issues for the next 100 years, even as most other voluntary welfare organisations (VWOs) grapple with day-to-day survival issues.
In the international arena, it is such a trail-blazing model of social entrepreneurship that American universities like Harvard, Johns Hopkins and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have done case studies on it.
Locally, however, it is so far ahead of its time that society has yet to keep pace. Unlike in the West - where charities aggressively campaign for the charity dollar, professional fund-raising is a bona fide industry and tie-ups with commercial entities are old news - the social sector here unfortunately is still in its infancy.
According to Mr Terry Farris, head of charity management for Asia at European private bank MeesPierson, the fact that it costs money to raise money - the accepted norm, he says, is now 15 to 20 cents out of every dollar - may not have sunk in here yet.
Many VWO chiefs note there still exists an arcane expectation that non-profits should survive on the 'goodwill and sacrifice' of volunteers, even though it is recognised worldwide that the public good is much better served by hiring professional managers at market rates.
Thursday, July 14, 2005
Book Meme
Arrowed by Anthony...
Total Number of Books I'ved Owned:
There are probably 200-250 volumes in my apartment here in Toronto, Ontario. And then there's another 15 (10 x 12 x 15") boxes of them--say, 500-600 volumes--in a friend's garage in San Francisco, California--when I first moved from Berkeley to Toronto, the plan was to return for '05-'06 (but I've changed my mind since); so they were left there for safe keeping. They are still there, minus some retrieved when visiting the Bay Area over Christmas '04. And finally, there are another two large shelves, several cabinets crammed literally to the brim, and an assortment of boxes in my HDB apartment back home: anywhere between 1000-2000 volumes.
(If my wife's collection is thrown in as well, the total number will probably increase by another 30-50%)
Most of the non-fiction books (which constitutes the bulk by far of the entire collection) are in philosophy (especially Chinese, Greek, Early Modern, and contemporary Ango-American) or history (especially Ancient Greek/Roman and Chinese), with a scattering in politics, military affairs, sociology, economics, etc. The fiction department is smaller and consists mostly of novels. (Ivan would be happy to learn that I used to read a lot of Science Fiction and Fantasy at Ang Mo Kio and Toa Payoh NLB Branches.) Anywhere between 10-20% of the collection is in Chinese (both modern and classical).
Last Book I Bought:
I'll do better than that--I've mentioned the last five books I bought on this blog: here and here.
Last Book I Read:
The last book I read cover to cover was S. L. Hurley, Justice Luck and Knowledge (Harvard University Press, 2003). In the meantime, there is a pile of (half-read) books around the apartment--some I intend to read cover to cover, others, only the relevant sections; some for my own enjoyment, others for dissertation work. The recently purchased books are in this pile.
...to be continued:
Five Books that Mean a Lot to Me
People I AmArrowing Passing The Meme To
* * * * *
Some bookshelves I used to have when still in Berkeley, CA (ca. 2002)
Total Number of Books I'ved Owned:
There are probably 200-250 volumes in my apartment here in Toronto, Ontario. And then there's another 15 (10 x 12 x 15") boxes of them--say, 500-600 volumes--in a friend's garage in San Francisco, California--when I first moved from Berkeley to Toronto, the plan was to return for '05-'06 (but I've changed my mind since); so they were left there for safe keeping. They are still there, minus some retrieved when visiting the Bay Area over Christmas '04. And finally, there are another two large shelves, several cabinets crammed literally to the brim, and an assortment of boxes in my HDB apartment back home: anywhere between 1000-2000 volumes.
(If my wife's collection is thrown in as well, the total number will probably increase by another 30-50%)
Most of the non-fiction books (which constitutes the bulk by far of the entire collection) are in philosophy (especially Chinese, Greek, Early Modern, and contemporary Ango-American) or history (especially Ancient Greek/Roman and Chinese), with a scattering in politics, military affairs, sociology, economics, etc. The fiction department is smaller and consists mostly of novels. (Ivan would be happy to learn that I used to read a lot of Science Fiction and Fantasy at Ang Mo Kio and Toa Payoh NLB Branches.) Anywhere between 10-20% of the collection is in Chinese (both modern and classical).
Last Book I Bought:
I'll do better than that--I've mentioned the last five books I bought on this blog: here and here.
Last Book I Read:
The last book I read cover to cover was S. L. Hurley, Justice Luck and Knowledge (Harvard University Press, 2003). In the meantime, there is a pile of (half-read) books around the apartment--some I intend to read cover to cover, others, only the relevant sections; some for my own enjoyment, others for dissertation work. The recently purchased books are in this pile.
...to be continued:
Five Books that Mean a Lot to Me
People I Am
* * * * *
Some bookshelves I used to have when still in Berkeley, CA (ca. 2002)
NKF saga on ST
The NKF saga on ST:
July 12: 6 stories
July 13: 10 stories
July 14: 9 stories, 3 review articles, and 11 Forum Page letters.
Reminds me of something...
coda: The entire saga also points toward another important reason why the freakonomical model is too simplistic, apart from the one discussed earlier.
July 12: 6 stories
July 13: 10 stories
July 14: 9 stories, 3 review articles, and 11 Forum Page letters.
Reminds me of something...
coda: The entire saga also points toward another important reason why the freakonomical model is too simplistic, apart from the one discussed earlier.
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
More than friend, less than ally
Reuters (July 12) via Boston Globe, "Singapore deepens security ties with U.S.":
See also the transcript of the press conference. Predictably, the reporters took their chance to ask Bush about the upcoming US Supreme Court nomination.
Singapore has expanded military ties with the United States in a move that boosts Southeast Asian security, the city-state's defense minister said on Tuesday after top-level talks in Washington.Read on.
Defense Minister Teo Chee Hean accompanied Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at a White House meeting with President Bush where the two countries signed a Strategic Framework Agreement to cooperate against terrorism and weapons proliferation.
"It takes the military relationship further," Teo said of a pact that consummates years of deepening military ties, including frequent U.S. Navy ship visits. The accord covers joint military exercises and defense technology cooperation. The relationship is one of being more than just friends but not an alliance relationship," he said in an interview.
See also the transcript of the press conference. Predictably, the reporters took their chance to ask Bush about the upcoming US Supreme Court nomination.
NKF vs. ST
A lot has already been said on the above, so I shall not comment for the mere sake of commenting but merely point you in the direction of Singapore Ink, Mr. Wang, WhiteOut, Jeff Yen, the usual suspects. Actually, a technorati search will reveal many, many more. I only know of one, so far, who came out in defense of NKF's CEO. [add: not forgetting Tomorrow.sg, which has links galore, and Mr. Brown, who also defended the CEO's 600k pay. I'm inclined to agree. But those gold plated taps are another story altogether...]
addendum:
Ok, ok, one observation and a story. A downside to any organised efforts to 'help people in need' (by collecting donations from some one else and then spending said donations on the needy) is that once the organising reaches a certain level, it becomes an organisation; and before long, the organisation will acquire its own interests and priorities; and sometimes, these interests and priorities will conflict with the intended goal of helping people in need.
It's akin to the "devious middleman effect" which is best illustrated with a story.
Once upon a time, goods were traded between Chinese Han Empire and the Roman Empire via the middlemen countries of central Asia--especially Parthia--without the two knowing much about each other. In fact, they knew of each other's existence only vaguely. Eventually, in AD 97 a Chinese ambassador by the name of Kan Ying was ordered to find a way to Rome and make first contact. He went as far as Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), and was told by the Parthians that it's two years from there to Rome. The unadventurous Kan Ying was duely discouraged and went home. But of course he was deceived. If Kan Ying had proceeded just a bit more, he would have entered the border provinces of the Roman Empire, just next door to Parthia! So why did the Parthians do this? They fear that should China and Rome make direct contact, the gravy train for their middleman role will come to an abrupt halt.
(The story is from the Hou Han Shu 《後漢書》 and a translation of the relevant sections is fortituously available here. See also this fake news on the historical event.)
So you see, I am not all that surprised to read this (ST CNA via Singapore Ink):
afterthought:
WhiteOut is skeptical of ST as an objective reporter of the facts. Actually, the significance of the incident does not depend on whether ST is a truly 'free' press, or whether it will be impartial (come on: SPH is being sued). Rather, it lies in the ballpark of something that a wiser man once said about supplying the defect of better motives by opposite and rival interests (Federalist #51)...
choice quote from the proceedings:
more: (July 16 1305 -0400) excellent read on Singapore Ink about the role of the media. See also my comment.
addendum:
Ok, ok, one observation and a story. A downside to any organised efforts to 'help people in need' (by collecting donations from some one else and then spending said donations on the needy) is that once the organising reaches a certain level, it becomes an organisation; and before long, the organisation will acquire its own interests and priorities; and sometimes, these interests and priorities will conflict with the intended goal of helping people in need.
It's akin to the "devious middleman effect" which is best illustrated with a story.
Once upon a time, goods were traded between Chinese Han Empire and the Roman Empire via the middlemen countries of central Asia--especially Parthia--without the two knowing much about each other. In fact, they knew of each other's existence only vaguely. Eventually, in AD 97 a Chinese ambassador by the name of Kan Ying was ordered to find a way to Rome and make first contact. He went as far as Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), and was told by the Parthians that it's two years from there to Rome. The unadventurous Kan Ying was duely discouraged and went home. But of course he was deceived. If Kan Ying had proceeded just a bit more, he would have entered the border provinces of the Roman Empire, just next door to Parthia! So why did the Parthians do this? They fear that should China and Rome make direct contact, the gravy train for their middleman role will come to an abrupt halt.
(The story is from the Hou Han Shu 《後漢書》 and a translation of the relevant sections is fortituously available here. See also this fake news on the historical event.)
So you see, I am not all that surprised to read this (
On NKF’s reserves, the court was told it stood at $262 million as of July 2005.There is a sort of 'happy' ending to the Kan Ying story. The Romans eventually conquered the Parthians, and in ADD 166, the Emperor Marcus Aurelius sent an envoy to China via the Persian Gulf. I can't recall if they actually reached China though.
Mr Singh argued that if the NKF stopped all fundraising activities and concentrated on treating kidney patients, it would still have enough money to see through its operations for 30 years, based on its expenses scheduled for 2003.
For that year, the NKF received $24.4 million for patient fees for dialysis but spent some $31 million for these operations.
So even if it was out of pocket of $7 million to $8 million per year, NKF’s current reserves were sufficient for at least 30 years.
But Mr Singh says the organisation has been telling Singaporeans its reserves won’t last more than three years, according to statements made by its officials.
afterthought:
WhiteOut is skeptical of ST as an objective reporter of the facts. Actually, the significance of the incident does not depend on whether ST is a truly 'free' press, or whether it will be impartial (come on: SPH is being sued). Rather, it lies in the ballpark of something that a wiser man once said about supplying the defect of better motives by opposite and rival interests (Federalist #51)...
choice quote from the proceedings:
[Mr. Durai]: We try. We are at the mercy of the newspapers. We try. We try our best to see whether we can work with them.
more: (July 16 1305 -0400) excellent read on Singapore Ink about the role of the media. See also my comment.
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Monday, July 11, 2005
Diodati does a round up / a tangent on Heavenly Sword on the talented
Elia Diodati does a superlative roundup of discussions about meritocracy and the scholarship system on both sides of the causeway. I must say that the style (of exposition) is reminiscent of another blogger who used to do such things... Anyway, there's a lot there and the reader is encouraged to read it for himself or herself, and do follow the multitude of links. Fascinating stuff--and comprehensive too.
The only important one I know of that he missed (because it is only just posted), is Sze Meng's posting of the unabridged version of the paper prepared for the ERC Committee as part of the ERC (Overseas) initiative in June 2002. Sze Meng is also looking for space to host a .pdf version of the file, so watch for that.
But back to Elia Diodati because there is one bit that I will briefly comment on:
For the Singapore case, however, it is perfectly understandable that the discussion will so quickly focus on the scholarship system. It is the most obvious place where the "merit" meets the "-cracy", considering that PSC scholarship holders are not just graded academically, but selected and groomed for a position in the civil service.
So while the other elements mentioned by Elia are important in a more comprehensive consideration, the scholarship system--especially the PSC (and analogous) scholarship system--is the ultimate lynchpin to the meritocratic nature of our society. Though it is true that, as a whole, our society does accord some sort of superior status to the academically accomplished, MPs are still democratically elected (don't laugh, I'm am talking about the official version) rather than simply meritocratically determined (cf. Brave New World).
* * * * *
Heavenly Sword's piece Singapore's system of talent production makes an interesting read on its own, apart from the implications for larger discussion about meritocracy. He argues that, paradoxically, the 'system' in Singapore is plagued by its own success in turning out 'talent':
(note: The following is somewhat "off the top of my head"--so I can't guarantee that I won't change my mind about it, perhaps even soon.)
Why do we--or societies--value talented people in the first place? By the talented, I mean nothing mysterious, just people with "a marked innate ability, as for artistic accomplishment", as the dictionary.com definition goes. And just as in the case of "elite", we can talk about the issue at the level of the word definition, or at the level of what a community counts as talent, accomplishment, etc. This means that there is no such thing as a "talented-in-itself, in the abstract"; the notion is always indexed to specific communities, times and places, etc., and even when not explicitly not, it is still by default indexed to "most people, today, in most places round the world, say".
To cut a long story short, a person is considered talented for having ability X in society Y only if society Y prizes X-ing and by implication, an ability to X. If society Y doesn't prize X-ing or the ability to X, then the person is usually only called "talented" in jest, as we might say that "John is so talented, he has this unique ability to make a lot of noise by digging his nose..."
So, a question about just who are the talented in society Y quickly involves us with the next question: what sorts of abilities does Y prize? What sorts of things counts as accomplishments according to Y? Since different historical societies have often prized very different sorts of abilities, even contrary ones, does it mean that talent is relative to specific societies? That there is no such thing as a trans-historically objective concept of a talented person? Well, not necessarily. Though there are many differences, societies across time and place have tended to prize some things in common. And societies are not always isolated from each other--upon contact, they may change their mind, learn new things, convince others of the superiority of their ways, conquer or get conquered, etc. Secondly, it is at least conceivable that there are things that would be prized as accomplishments by all sane human beings (given a non question begging definition of sane), if given the chance. And it could even be that this concurrance is to be explained by something deep in what it is to be a human being.
But most importantly, the notion that "we prize X as an accomplishment" likely contains within it an implicit critical dimension. In other words, the thought is (usually) not just "we just happened to prize X as an accomplishment", but rather "we find X worthy of its being prized". This means that in prizing X as an accomplishment, there is an implication thatshould there be a convincing proof that X is not worthy of its being prized by us, then we have a reason to stop prizing X X's being an accomplishment is meant to be backed by reasons, and therefore, if those reasons are found wanting, X will no longer be counted as an accomplishment. (edited; to tell the truth, I am still not totally happy with this--that it actually says what I want to say. See the discussions in the comments.)
The stage is thus set for asking the next set of questions: what sorts of stuff should a society prize as accomplishments, and why?
The only important one I know of that he missed (because it is only just posted), is Sze Meng's posting of the unabridged version of the paper prepared for the ERC Committee as part of the ERC (Overseas) initiative in June 2002. Sze Meng is also looking for space to host a .pdf version of the file, so watch for that.
But back to Elia Diodati because there is one bit that I will briefly comment on:
I cannot help but comment, in addition, that there is perhaps a misleading tendency in the preceding articles to equate meritocracy with the concept of scholarship awards. This is far too narrow a point of view: the meritocracy does not concern itself merely with its best products, though surely they will receive disproportionate attention per capita: the whole system of meritocracy is all about separating the wheat from the chaff, but also to grade the various qualities of wheat and chaff. No doubt scholars form the apex of the meritocratic system and are in every way the star performers, but they form at most two percent of the entire school year’s cohort; one should not forget the lower echelons of non-scholar graduates, diploma holders, and everyone in between and around that contribute to the machinery nonetheless. So comprehensive as the discussions may be, they are still fundamentally incomplete by focusing very much on the issue of scholars and scholarships.That's right--a meritocracy would, presumably, be bigger than a scholarship system. In fact, on my earlier analysis of the components of any meritocratic system, a scholarship system would be something under item #6 "The methods by which the potentially meritorious are cultivated (if any)"--though with implications for a few of the other parameters as well.
For the Singapore case, however, it is perfectly understandable that the discussion will so quickly focus on the scholarship system. It is the most obvious place where the "merit" meets the "-cracy", considering that PSC scholarship holders are not just graded academically, but selected and groomed for a position in the civil service.
So while the other elements mentioned by Elia are important in a more comprehensive consideration, the scholarship system--especially the PSC (and analogous) scholarship system--is the ultimate lynchpin to the meritocratic nature of our society. Though it is true that, as a whole, our society does accord some sort of superior status to the academically accomplished, MPs are still democratically elected (don't laugh, I'm am talking about the official version) rather than simply meritocratically determined (cf. Brave New World).
* * * * *
Heavenly Sword's piece Singapore's system of talent production makes an interesting read on its own, apart from the implications for larger discussion about meritocracy. He argues that, paradoxically, the 'system' in Singapore is plagued by its own success in turning out 'talent':
Everywhere we go, we hear about Singaporeans with a string of A's under their belts or high scores for standardized tests. The paradoxical effect of our success is that individual 'young and uniquely' talented persons are often not considered to be unique, for they are now hidden within the talent-crowd comprising talent of varying degrees of excellence, passion, and dispensibility. As a result, a prodigy-in-the-making with great passion in his chosen field may very well be treated as any 'ordinarily talented' person.Read the whole thing for yourself. But now, I'm going to go on a tangent, as I often do, to consider the notion of "a talented person".
(note: The following is somewhat "off the top of my head"--so I can't guarantee that I won't change my mind about it, perhaps even soon.)
Why do we--or societies--value talented people in the first place? By the talented, I mean nothing mysterious, just people with "a marked innate ability, as for artistic accomplishment", as the dictionary.com definition goes. And just as in the case of "elite", we can talk about the issue at the level of the word definition, or at the level of what a community counts as talent, accomplishment, etc. This means that there is no such thing as a "talented-in-itself, in the abstract"; the notion is always indexed to specific communities, times and places, etc., and even when not explicitly not, it is still by default indexed to "most people, today, in most places round the world, say".
To cut a long story short, a person is considered talented for having ability X in society Y only if society Y prizes X-ing and by implication, an ability to X. If society Y doesn't prize X-ing or the ability to X, then the person is usually only called "talented" in jest, as we might say that "John is so talented, he has this unique ability to make a lot of noise by digging his nose..."
So, a question about just who are the talented in society Y quickly involves us with the next question: what sorts of abilities does Y prize? What sorts of things counts as accomplishments according to Y? Since different historical societies have often prized very different sorts of abilities, even contrary ones, does it mean that talent is relative to specific societies? That there is no such thing as a trans-historically objective concept of a talented person? Well, not necessarily. Though there are many differences, societies across time and place have tended to prize some things in common. And societies are not always isolated from each other--upon contact, they may change their mind, learn new things, convince others of the superiority of their ways, conquer or get conquered, etc. Secondly, it is at least conceivable that there are things that would be prized as accomplishments by all sane human beings (given a non question begging definition of sane), if given the chance. And it could even be that this concurrance is to be explained by something deep in what it is to be a human being.
But most importantly, the notion that "we prize X as an accomplishment" likely contains within it an implicit critical dimension. In other words, the thought is (usually) not just "we just happened to prize X as an accomplishment", but rather "we find X worthy of its being prized". This means that in prizing X as an accomplishment, there is an implication that
The stage is thus set for asking the next set of questions: what sorts of stuff should a society prize as accomplishments, and why?
Posts on this page
- Closure?
- Corporate Social Responsibility (Links)
- Richard Posner: How can the conventional news media hope to compete with the blogs?
- Quickstops (Jul 29, 2005)
- Income Inequality and Social Mobility
- Coup de grâce / Cheap Loh!
- Discipline problems in British classrooms
- Austin Bay on the "War on Tourism"
- IHT: "How to succeed Daddy: Asia's rich learn to manage legacy"
- Myanmar to forgo chairmanship of ASEAN
- Singapore Entrepreneurs Blog
- Local Grads can't get jobs? Increase enrollment of foreign students!
- Unfinished...
- Donald Trump on the UN building project
- Busy...
- Long article by Lee Harris
- Lu Xun on the Chinese "national swear"
- Weblog Ethics Survey Results
- London attacked again!
- US DoD annual report on the Chinese Military
- The Singapore I want / Rising Tides
- Raffles Hotel sold to US real estate investment fund
- ST: blogs brought the NKF low (sic)
- ST on Bloggers.sg 2005
- Quote of the day
- Charity or helping the poor and needy
- New Insights into Singapore History
- Still on the NKF Saga
- Book Meme
- NKF saga on ST
- More than friend, less than ally
- NKF vs. ST
- Probably a good reason for me to stop blogging
- Diodati does a round up / a tangent on Heavenly Sword on the talented
Archives
- January 2005
- February 2005
- March 2005
- April 2005
- May 2005
- June 2005
- July 2005
- August 2005
- September 2005
- October 2005
- November 2005
- December 2005
- January 2006
- February 2006
- March 2006
- April 2006
- May 2006
- June 2006
*updated the last hr
News and Stuff
Singaporean blogs
Blogosphere
Philosophy and Stuff
Tsunami Related
Military Affairs
legalese
Disclaimer: All opinions expressed herein by the author remains the sole responsibility of the author, and not representative of any third party, except where otherwise attributed. Further to this, the author does not endorse nor take responsibility for any information or opinion expressed by any third party in any comments, trackbacks or links external to this website.Licence: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License
