Savant (Part 1)

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You know certainly there are many angles and levels
You try to maintain an impartial position all along
The myriad world is minified in your practiced mind
The jaded retinue keep going and going in the heath

Montreal's after-hours retailing market

The opening of Montreal's after-hours retailing market a few years ago has led to fierce competition and emotions nowadays. A for instance is partly manifested along this forum thread at Sinoquebec.com.

Article via web - 内地价管山雨欲来乎？

Here're some excerpts from （2010.11.23）内地价管山雨欲来乎？_张五常_新浪博客:

（二）十月份中国的消费物价指数上升百分之四点四，主要由食品物价带动，后者上升了百分之十点一。可能把温家宝先生吓倒的，是十八种主要蔬菜的平均批发价每公斤人民币三元九角，按年上升了百分之六十二点四！有报道说这急升是游资炒作的效果。炒作会增加市价的波动，但农业的蔬菜类是竞争非常激烈的产品，炒作不会导致这类产品的市价远离没有炒作之价。话虽如此，我认为蔬菜之价将会回落一点，因为农民的反应会转到增加蔬菜的种植。

解释过几次，中国农产品之价上升得比工业产品之价为速是好现象。若要马儿好，让马儿吃草。让农产品的相对价格上升是最可取的帮助贫困农民的方法。这些年那么多的农民转到工、商业去——工作年龄的四个转了三个——农产品的相对价格怎会不大幅上升呢？我认为目前的上升还不足够：长远一点看，蔬菜批发均价人民币三元九角一公斤还是偏低。我的估计，要让农民的生活水平追上城市的中等人家，非农产品之价不变，农产品之价还要上升大约一倍多。说过多次，农民的生活搞不起，中国的经济改革算不上是成功。要帮助农民，天下没有比多花几块钱购买他们的产品更好的方法。

（三）农产品的相对价格上升是好事，而蔬菜之价急升是大好特好。这是因为种植蔬菜每亩所需的劳动力大约是植稻所需的八倍（见拙作《佃农理论》一六七至一六八页）。蔬菜的培植是劳动力密集的玩意，灌溉、施肥频密，而中国人的口味苛求，某些蔬菜他们要吃鲜的，菜农要在天还未亮起床，拔菜清洗应市。因为需要密集的劳动力，蔬菜之价是个重要指数，其急升反映着农民劳动力之价升得好。三年前我对一位同学说，衡量农民的生活改进，不要多管其他数字，重点是看蔬菜的批发价变动。这是经济学。

（四）蔬菜之价急升，市民当然投诉，甚或怨声载道，但受益者是中国的农民。中国的经济改革是为苦了数千年的农民而改的。今天投诉菜价的市民，大部分不到三十年前也是农民。我们知道来自农村的市民的生活还不是很好，但有了大改进，回头帮一下还在种菜的老弱人家是他们应该做的事，怎会学得过桥抽板那样没出息？炎黄子孙的文化不是教道义的吗？没有其他方法能比多付一两块钱买一斤蔬菜更合乎经济发展原则的帮助。

（五）自公元二千年起，中国农民的收入上升大有可观，我在《中国的经济制度》中说是中国经济发展的两大奇迹之一。今年升得特别快，有两个原因。其一是北京两年前推出新劳动法后，月是故乡明，回乡归故里的流动人口多，跟着北京反应快（赞一赞），促成乡镇工业加速发展。其二是泰国的政局出事，加上越南等地乱来，一时间中国沿海一带的接单工业忙得不可开交，工资提升得快。农民的收入于是得到接单工业加薪的协助。

Unwieldy logistics of blogging outside the Chinese wall

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Effective blogging requires unwieldy logistics, especially due to the being of the Great Firewall in front of the willing readers of my blog who dwell in China. I did try to ferret out a blogging service which was hosted in China and I really liked, but that produced no result.

Article via web - Language as a Blunt Tool of the Digital Age

English learning has increasingly fallen to be a mainstream after-hours activity in a host of countries worldwide, I guess. Just how big the magnitude of that is, I have no idea yet.

On a different note, for those people who leave for an English-speaking nation from an East Asian one, including China, in their teenage years which deem them premature, we can consider the situation life puts them in, which possibly is that "They end up, as the Indian writer Pavan Varma has called them, “linguistic half-castes,” functional in many tongues, without command of any."(See below for the quote.) Think, and think twice about that, my friend.

There is an article published in January 2010 by The NYT: Currents - Language as a Blunt Tool of the Digital Age. Below go some excerpts:

Globalization, in bringing cultures together, exerts its own pragmatic pressure. With English the escalator of globalized success, the language’s center of gravity is tilting away from English-speaking lands. A stripped-down English of catchphrases and trite idioms, light on richness, is becoming the true global language.

The English-learning boom in developing nations also corrodes their own languages. Their young increasingly learn enough English to do a global-economy job but not so much as to be articulate in it. Yet many give up on mastering their native languages. They end up, as the Indian writer Pavan Varma has called them, “linguistic half-castes,” functional in many tongues, without command of any.

In the language-as-protocol worldview, the best lyrics are the least lyrical, because the greatest number can follow them. The most successful headlines are not those with the freshest word choices but those whose well-worn expressions are frequently Googled. The most effective communication at work is not the bulky memo, but the bullet-riddled PowerPoint presentation, which people from varied nationalities can absorb in very little time.

The real existence of labor unions

In Canada and USA, the real existence of labor unions, sometimes, is the elephant in the room. Have they been becoming increasingly irrelevant? You bet they have and you bet they will.

Vintage music video - The Beatles - Can't Buy Me Love (Live)

Here go the lyrics.

In or not in its own right, most people chase after money, some after fame, and some after love. Well, as the adages go, life's all about choices, and all's well that ends well.

Cenotaph (Part 2)

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Inscribed on his epitaph in a cemetery was
He liked the sounds of birds fluttering
He liked the look of flurries of skirts
But those things he fought for
He liked more

Cenotaph (Part 1)

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Most of them were good citizens
With vim for their home country
Mostly they would fight and fall
In order to keep a land for all

Some Chinese companies seize a technology and wrest it

It seems that some Chinese companies are enterprises which seize a technology and wrest it from a Western or Japanese firm and run with it, appropriating it as its own, to profiteer and leverage unfairly. Some Western companies may be going to remonstrate about that further down the road. Well, legal battles ahead.

Anticipating the real-deal Canadian winter

With an eye toward the real-deal Canadian winter followed by the thawing spring, I would say I for one like flurries but don't favor slush quite much.

Viral video - "He'll never be a real Canadian"

Interesting keywords: Canada-born Asian, racism, identity, racialization, remonstrance.

It can be consuming for an individual to deal with his or her internal struggles with self identity.

Canada is a reading country

As I've realized and discovered over the years, Canada is a reading country. Be it books, newspapers, websites, blogs, Canadians read them all and read, and read. After all, this state is evolving into a knowledge economy. Well, the other day, it turned out there's one more book for Canadian people to peruse. The recent announcement of the Giller Prize winner has wreaked a flurry of media exposure and then a flurry of people's purchasing the winning book "The Sentimentalists". Gee.

Wrestle

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In public two nations wrestle
Take a friction and run with it
Their state machines hustle
With pendulous tactics with-it

Invisible power from one another to wrest
Debate, intercept, and ambush with zest
People like to fill themselves with delusion
Serendipity mostly let them find resolution

Twitter and speedier dissemination of information

Twitter wreaked quite a flutter in the Western world. I still haven't truly grasped why it has been so stupendously popular. A little speedier and simpler dissemination of information is what that communication medium essentially offers, in my opinion, but that's not something really huge. However, that's solely my take for the time being.

Bay Street of the U.S.A. (Part 4)

(Image from http://bit.ly/9Bgp7q)

Until some finance insiders blurt out the reality

Prospectuses are my means to solicit and deceit

Later on you will be in the unconscionable know

But sadly you have never truly learned the lesson

Sing, sing for the Bay Street of the U.S.A.

Article via web - 海外华人生活 - 在加拿大学英文的"苦"

回望昨日在异乡那门前

唏嘘的感慨一年年

但日落日出永没变迁

...

在那些开放的路上

踏碎过多少理想

- Beyond乐队

海外华人生活：在加拿大学英文的"苦"

来加拿大之前我的英文程度可说是"零"，除了会说"How old are you"、"What's your name"、"good morning"……等等之外，就真的一窍不通了。


在来的第二年春天我开始上ESL课，就在学期快结束时的某个午休，有一位来自香港的女同学用广东话跟我说："你的英文那么烂，为什么会被分来这班？" 我摇头说："不知道"。结果上课时，老师心血来潮想和我聊天；他才刚说完，那位女同学又跟我说："你不用说，你的英文那么烂，说什么老师也听不懂的。"说完又用英文跟老师说："她的英文那么烂，为什么会来这班？"顿时之间所有的同学都向我望来。


当时我强忍着泪水，只因为我不想让外国同学看我的笑话； 我装着一副听不懂的表情，才平息了这尴尬的场面。在回家的路上边开车边哭，想到母亲常叮咛我的话："同样一件事，如果被人笑一次是那个人没有风度；被笑第 二次是自己没有智能；被笑三次或以上是自取其辱；人要有志气，面子是自己给的，不是别人给的。"再想想："自己的英文确实很烂，也怪不得别人会笑你。"心情也较舒服了些。


学期结束后，在朋友的建议下上了LINC，但我觉得老师教的是中式英文，并不是我想要的道地英文，结果只上了两周就没有上了。后来我自费到Seneca学校上ESL，虽才短短的三个月，却让我培养了对英文的兴趣；但因我嫌他每周只上一天，所以学期结束后就没有上了。


有天得知多伦多大学有密集的英文班，虽学费很贵，但在外子支持的情况下，我上了多大的ESL。经过测验，我的听、说能力是第二级，而读、写则在第三级。就在读、写的第一堂课，老师要我们写一篇"自传"；当时心想："我文法不通、单字又少，这不是在叫四岁的娃儿写作文一样吗？"经过一周绞尽脑汁之下，终于如期的缴了作业。


就在发作业时，我心跳得好快，心想："老师可能会降我级，死就死吧，只要能学好英文就好了。"结果打开作业簿一看，老师不但没降我的级，反而称赞我写的好，还叫我把文章投到学校的校刊。经过老师三次的修改之后，我的文章真的被刊登在多大的校刊上了。


虽然我的读、写进步了，但我始终还是觉得我的英文不好，可是又不知道问题在哪里。就在最后一堂课，我把我的烦恼告诉了老师。她说："学英文最好的方法就是在家多听英文新闻、看英文节目和报章杂志，只要持之以恒一定可以学好英文的。"(Important! So, the ESL teacher working at U. of Toronto said that keeping on reading newspapers and magazines is going to lead to continuous improvement of English. --double_take)学期结束后，我照她的话做。


刚开始很痛苦，时常挣扎地想转回中文台；后来索性把中文台停了，就这样逼自己听和看英文节目。我觉得看英文节目还好些，看报纸才是最痛苦。刚开始光是一个小框框就得花几个小时，不懂就查、查了又忘、忘了再查，查字典真的是查到哭。但我知道，我今天不努力，将来一定会后悔，正所谓："人无远虑，必有近忧。"我不想将来会因我放弃学英文而后悔，("摇落深知宋玉悲。" --double_take)所以每当我查字典查到哭时，我就停下来把眼泪擦干再继续查。


就这样半年之后，我的英文真的进步了！现在我已可以轻松地看英文节目和报纸了。


英文进步后，让我的生活更方便，也让我更有自信。回想起那些留学业者常说的，"学外语，只要到了国外自然就会"，其实并不是如此。


如果你不努力的话，不管你住在国外多久，你还是不会英文的。大家努力吧！


文章来源：中华移民网

- Copied from the web in around 2008
- Recycled in 2010

Vintage music video - "Stranger in Moscow" - Michael Jackson

I especially appreciate the part "Stalin's tomb won't let me be" in the lyrics.

New word: Armageddon.

Slightly updated - "Public Force" vis-a-vis "Government Forces"

(Image from http://bit.ly/c4hb64)

Here is the French notion of Public Force:

In contrast to similar declarations of rights from Anglo-Saxon countries, the emphasis is on the citizen's duty to contribute to the existence of such a force, rather than on the citizen's rights vis-a-vis such a force.

But what if the government, the commander of the public force, becomes or is complicit with corruption or outright incompetence? And what if a serious rupture between the citizens and the state government erupts?


On the other hand, in English, the corresponding idea is called "government forces", in lieu of "public force". Hmm, let's ponder over that.


- Last revised in November 2010
- Initially published on October 14th, 2010

Bay Street of the U.S.A. (Part 3)

(Image from http://bit.ly/9Bgp7q)

Ombudsmen never have actual power over me

Because they must be impartial all the time

And I always design my financial products

Very slyly and preempt any loss on my side