Down with the Chinese Capitalism!

[Really no regular thermometers?]

My wife had the flu and a fever, and I could not find our good old-fashioned thermometer after our recent move. The drugstore told me that fact with a straight face, but the clerk also told me that the much more expensive electronic ones are available. Was the clerk really telling the truth? Or was this yet another example of institutionalized price gouging? For months now, it has been difficult to find affordable face masks for the H1N1 epidemic. Only the so-called "advanced" models are available, but they are expensive.

It is not really possible to legislate business ethics and morality. Those qualities are a matter of one's free will. Moral and ethical behavior is social and cultural, and is based on value systems. Many people can be law-binding citizens but can be very crooked any way you look at them.

[Bargain for a dead body]
I saw this picture in my daily dose of mobile phone news. I was outraged, not simply because the picture depicted bargaining for a price to the dead body the boat crew was able to retrieve, but also because of
the loss of human decency and dignity. I felt deep pain and outrage. What if I were this corpse's parent and what would I do if my son's body were waiting to be traded. Was it worth 12000 RMB?

You can also read the story about 3 college students who perished while saving two children in the Hubei province. You can read the CCTV's version. Society has become so selfish, and thus we have created heroes before our own eyes. What's wrong with this society? Where is the beloved government and leadership?



[China is a haven for Capitalism]
This country is sick. The last 30 years of economical openness and reform without corresponding political openness and reforms has turned the people into money-worshipers and government into investment bankers. Can China be capitalism's last haven? What happened to government and leadership? What are they focusing on? On maintaining the 8 percent year-to-year growth in GDP ?

The government's job seems to paint a glorious picture of an economical boom and military advancement. Have state-run branches invested in the Blackstone mutual fund again? Why is the government making such investments itself? Is it trying to create regulations so that there is a level playing field that benefits everybody, and now is it thinking how to make the pot of gold grow bigger? The government has screwed up its priorities big-time.
Maintaining a strong military power to defend the motherland while the poor and needy are crying out loud for justice and help? We are in the 21st century now. Does the government really see any serious threats from other countries and regions?

[Refocusing on the social fabric and value systems]
The government should refocus its energy and priorities to address the needs of migrants, the aging, minorities, and the medically deprived. Domestic justice and the fabric of society are in serious need of being repaired. A harmonious society is not just a noble goal or slogan. If the moral, ethical and spiritual emphasis is not there, society will continue to become corrupt and eventually collapse. The government will go with it.

On this note, I was by chance introduced by my good friend CH to the film director Jia Zhangke. Anyone who is interested and has the stomach to see the raw aspects of modern-day Chinese society should watch his films. Maybe in time he'll be the Charles Dickens of China, depicting the country as it goes through the painful process of modernization.

English with an American Corporate Accent - 009

This is another collection from recent meetings and trips. It works best if you can find a native English speaker with exposure to corporate America to elaborate on the finer points that I cannot cover well here.

* You are absolutely right. She did mention that. My bad. [You are absolutely right. She did mention that. It is my oversight.]
* John, error checking and data validation checks need to be spruced up some more. [John, error checking and data validation checks need to be better taken care of.]
* That is too much to ask. It is pie in the sky. [That is too much to ask. It is something unrealistic.]
* Don't push that yet, we are not ready for prime time. [Don't release that yet, we are not ready to show that.]
* How much push back did you get when you talked to the customers? [How much suspicion and doubt did you get when you talked to the customers?]
* That tool is great. It has the whole nine yards. [That tool is great. It has everything in it. [That tool is great. It has everything in it.]
* To be honest, I couldn't wrap my brain around all the details. [To be honest, I couldn't understand all the details.]
* That was a mouthful of information. [That was a lot of information that you just said.]
* They are getting a free ride and they know it! [They are getting that without any effort and they know that!]
* One solution to this quandary is to call Jacob directly. [One solution to this difficult dilemma is to call Jacob directly.]
* I have been trading emails with John on that subject. [I have been communicating with John using emails on that subject.]
* For that question, I have to consult with my cheat sheet here to see if it has the answer. [For that question, I have to look at my handy notes here to see if they have the answer.]

English with an American Corporate Accent - 008

This is another collection from recent meetings and trips. It works best if you can find a native English speaker with exposure to corporate America to elaborate on the finer points that I cannot cover well here.

* Let's avoid camping on pool equipment, that's not acceptable. [Let's avoid hoarding shared equipment, that's not acceptable.]
* Let's be cognizant of what we really need in terms of equipment. [Let's be conscious and considerate of what we really need in terms of equipment.]
* If everybody can be a bit more proactive about this bad trend, we won't get emails from high-level execs. [If everybody can anticipate and act accordingly about this bad trend, we won't get emails from high-level executives.]
* We have to walk before we run. [We have to do things in the right sequence.]
* I am behind my email communication with Steve. [I have not caught up with what I need to read from Steve's emails.]
* We have a lot of runways left to deliver this project and we can add a couple of new features. [We have a lot of time left to deliver this project and we can add a couple of new features.]
* I think that Charles is pulling your leg! [I think that Charles is joking with us!]
* Let's try to work this out together next week, so that we don't get blindsided by additional testing requirements. [Let's try to work this out together next week, so that we don't get caught by surprise by additional testing requirements.]
* We are poised to get in with the standard build for that device driver. [We are ready to get in with the standard build for that device driver.]
* The bits are ready. We are good to go. [The bits are ready. We are ready to go to the next step.]
* That item is a long shot in all those engagements. [That item has little chance to make it in all those engagements.]
* Let Henry present that first. We don't want to shortchange him. [Let Henry present that first. We don't want to treat him unfairly.]

English with an American Corporate Accent - 007

This is another collection from recent meetings and trips. It works best if you can find a native English speaker with exposure to corporate America to elaborate on the finer points that I cannot cover well here.

* What I suggest here is to put everything on the table for future discussions. [What I suggest here is not to hide anything for future discussions.]
* We like to make an informed decision in this meeting. [We like to make a decision based on solid information and good reasoning in this meeting.]
* David, you are right on mentioning that issue the engineers found yesterday. [David, you are doing the right thing by mentioning that issue the engineers found yesterday.]
* If you ask for that feature, Joe will tell us to take a hike. [If you ask for that feature, Joe will tell us to go away.]
* This is frosting on the cake for that project delivery. [This is just an extra benefit for that project delivery.]
* They were all strapped to the heels already. [They were all bogged down and busy already.]
* At the end of day, we'll not have that problem. Don't worry about it. [In the end, we won't have that problem. Don't worry about it.]
* Let's disseminate the right information down the pipe. [Let's send the right information down the normal channels.]
* Looks like we are trading horses in the meeting. [Looks like we are making compromises in the meeting between the two parties.]
* Let's compare notes and put our heads together to address that issue. [Let's compare what we know and work together to address that issue.]
* We have to expect a longer haul in this acquisition process. [We have to expect a longer waiting period in this acquisition process.]

Swimming Etiquettes in Beijing

I enjoy swimming very much. This is one of the few sports that won't hurt your joints and muscles. I am not a good swimmer and I swim about 500-700 meters each time for about 30 minutes. I picked up lap swimming in the Scotch Plains YMCA 20 years ago. I have never truly completed my swimming lessons, as I just could not manage the 'breathing' technique. So I had been using a snorkeling tube until a year ago. Years ago during my college days, I yelled help after only two sessions when the coach took us beginners to the deep end to practice. I think that subconscious fear of deep water was the culprit in preventing any further progress.

[My Swimming Epiphany]
A snorkeling tube is a rare sight even in the U.S. I used it to breathe so that I can move all my limbs. I was simply too tense and too nervous. I could not sustain a regular breathing pattern without going into a vicious cycle of sinking in deeper and deeper.
A young child at Huaqing Garden swimming pool once asked me what sort of special technique I was learning with my snorkeling tube. I was embarrassed and told him that I needed it because I had not mastered the breathing technique yet and that he should be quite proud that he didn't use this apparatus.

I learned to breathe finally with encouragement from the lifeguard Mr. Chen. He showed me that a true beginner friend could start to do breast stroke in a few months on a once-a-week schedule. All I needed was to relax and not get in a panic when I did not breathe in enough or got some water into my mouth. Being able to stay calm and recover to normal breathing pattern was key to my epiphany ;-) I was so pleased with this breakthrough, because I never thought it would be possible in my lifetime. Here is a picture of me without the tube in Sanya, Hainan at the end of last year.









I have listed below my observations in and around Beijing swimming pools. Since my samples are limited, I would be cautious in generalizing these observations too much.

[Locker Rooms and Shower Stalls]
When you are done with swimming, drying off right after the shower is common in the U.S. since the locker room area is usually carpeted. Locker rooms are rarely carpeted in China. You are lucky if they do not use ceramic tiles for the floor. The pool I had frequented in the last two years finally changed to a material similar to artificial turf, and I don't have to be extra careful and apprehensive of slipping and falling.

Some facilities have a sauna installed. In one place, the management finally gave up on repairing the sauna unit. Too often I have witnessed abusive users pouring water directly over the hot rocks. It is dangerous and also likely to destroy the sauna unit. I understand why management just gave up on this endless repairing, and it is a shame not having that sauna to use after a good swim.

Shower stalls have good water, hot and cold. But normally that drainage system is not designed to match the usage volume. Standing water here and there is quite common. It is often quite slippery in the shower area. Here is a sign I like. Instead of "Slippery, please be careful," it says "Slip Carefully." I am not sure what the Korean translation says.






[Swimming Pool Access]
There is always a wading pool to wash off your feet between the locker rooms and the pool. They could easily install shower heads to cover the access pathway so that people can really clean themselves before entering the pool. Although "shower before swimming" signs are posted in clear view, there are still some people not observing them.

[Swimming Etiquettes]
It is a common practice to put fast swimmers in the middle lanes and slower pokes on the outside lanes. This is usually clearly marked in the U.S. It is natural to let good (and faster) swimmers avoid the slower folks by staying in the middle lanes, since slower ones like to hang on and be close to the side walls of the pool. When sharing a lane, it is common in the U.S. to see a sign reminding swimmers to "split lane with two and circle with three or more." Here, people just swim in all directions, which is similar to Beijing traffic. Parents and instructors do not teach their children common sense like "see and avoid" and "pool courtesy."

It would be a while before you feel a higher level of civility in the swimming pool. There is no incentive to formulate common-sense rules as far as I can tell. Everything is from the top down, possibly all the way from State General Administration of Sports. A centralized system naturally limits its innovations and improvements to the selected few elites. Scaling is a big challenge to China in many of its policies and regulations.

Although there are signs showing "no jumping/diving" in shallow water, many children are ignoring the rules. Safety consciousness is not big on the teaching agenda.

[Pool Usage Convention]
I am not aware of any ideas along the lines of family swim versus lap swim. All pool areas are either all divided into lanes or completely open. Poor lap swimmers usually have to avoid the beginners and those who are simply playing around for fun.

Swimming is still considered fun and entertainment for families and individuals. Pool schedules are tailored to this type of usage. No pools are open to meet the needs of work-out times such as early morning (before work), lunch time and early evening (after work). Most, if not all, pools operate at management's convenience, not at users' convenience. This reminds of my friend SX's one-liner: There are no rights, only obligations for the individuals in China. It is so true.

[Others]
No photos are allowed in most swimming pools. I don't know why.
Men and women all wear caps, a policy that is mandated by pool management.
A deep water certificate allows swimmers to be in deep water areas. To get a certificate, you must pay 10RMB to apply and must be able to swim 200 meters and tread water for 30 seconds.
There are often swimming lessons for children, especially in the summer time. There are many more bystanders (parents/friends) than students. A typical scene in China.

What's Different Between Beijing and San Jose, California (Bay Area)

What's Different Between Beijing and San Jose, California (Bay
Area)

These are two different worlds to me. I decided to be more scientific about documenting the differences I perceived in a short note this time. Here is the note from my August trip to the US. If I don't jot down my impressions at the time I have them, I'll quickly adjust to them and the differences won't be that obvious after a short while.

[Blue sky and bright sun light, clean air and sometimes air is sweet in the nice early morning breezes.]
It was especially apparent when I walked out of the airport. The sunlight hurt my eyes. The Bay Area is special because California is a sunshine state. I recall old conversations
about K-12 education in California. Do you know that this
high-tech state ranks towards the bottom in the US in this category? What does California have to offer, one might ask?
Sunshine and plenty of it. :-)



Here is a lunch picture with my longtime friend LB in an
outdoor sandwich shop in Mountain View. He is my inspiration. He works on what he enjoys and loves, computers and software. He is a lucky guy and I am not far behind either. It was a pleasure to see LB again.


On this trip, he took my family for a special demo of the PDP-1 computer . LB got involved quite early in this project and is still an active member in this organization. This museum is an interesting place to see when you are in the area. Normally, you don't give a eulogy until someone or something has died. And you don't have a history museum until something has matured enough. Food for thought?








[Public Library in America]
I was brought up to treat the library as a place to study. I never checked out a book during my college days in Taiwan. I was taken to the library by my own children. They had class projects and reading to do, and after a while, I found things to do in the library. In China, library systems and audio books are the things I miss very much. For this trip, I needed to find some Arabic language references, so I did my search and reservation in Beijing through the
Santa Clara library system. I got email notifications when the items were ready for pickup. A couple of days after I got to my Campbell home, I went to the library to pick up my books and CDs. What a pleasure to do this so effortlessly!

The Campbell library is the closest and most convenient for me. When I have to spend a few hours in the library browsing books or reading magazines and newspapers, I prefer the recently
remodeled Saratoga library. It is a charming place to have my retreat.

Many people in China know about America from movies, TV shows, and tourists. Yet these are necessarily superficial types of encounters. Public services and places like libraries and parks are truly impressive and enjoyable for the mind and body. How people use library systems reflects the true depth of a nation and a culture. The ability to read, learn and draw conclusions and to ask questions is the true wealth of a nation and its people. I wish to see more of this in China.

[San Jose Airport: cell phone waiting area]
These days people are practicing just-in-time fetching for friends and family members from the airport with the aid of cell phones. It saves parking fees and often saves a lot of time. One catch is that cars need a place to wait for a short while. In many airports, cars circulate along the terminal areas and are forced to move by the parking patrols. San Jose airport has designated an area away from the airport so that you can wait in the parking area until you are called. You can time it just right to quickly get your passengers and go.

I have seen cars parked along the approaching highway curb sides at the Beijing airport and other Chinese airports. It is a safety hazard for sure and can only happen when people are not analyzing the issue. The airport authorities want people to pay and stay in the airport parking lots. Creating services to cater to people's needs is not always a high priority in China, especially when there is a conflict of interest. For instance, the airport authorities want to make parking lots profitable. The fundamental structure of governance and accountability is a problem. Hopefully time and wisdom can correct this.

[Morning swim in Campbell Community Center swimming pool]
I enjoy swimming a lot. It is my favorite exercise, because it does not hurt any joints or muscles. And it is one of the few things I do that's refreshing afterwards ;-)

I found my 3-year old swimming pass and went to the pool at the Campbell Community Center for a morning swim. They still accepted my pass, which made me quite happy.

Swimming outdoors is a true pleasure in California. The Campbell pool opens three times a day for about 2 hours at a time, with times designed for morning workouts, lunch time workouts and evening workouts. I wish I could take my morning swim at my apartment complex in Huaqing Gardens in Beijing. They open in the afternoon around 2 p.m. The concept of swimming as a workout is not yet popular in China. Swimming is still mainly associated with fun and entertainment. I'll have more about differences around swimming and practices around the swimming pool in a coming blog.

[BBQ in the backyard: good beef without added 'water']
The backyard is my favorite part of the house. I like the landscaping and it is the only place not
cluttered with years of collections. Maybe this is the reason I like to move to a new place - to leave all the baggage behind. Barbecuing at home in the summer is commonplace in the US. My favorite is filet mignon without any marination or seasoning. The best beef needs nothing to enhance it and should have a taste of the original raw flavor. Medium rare on the grill with a proper fire and timing will do the trick.

One thing I miss a lot in Beijing is good beef without an unwanted layer of permeated water. It is unfortunate that many animals, including cows, are force-fed with water before being weighed and sold to the slaughterhouse. You can hardly find beef without added layers of water. I wish that someday this practice can stop, hopefully when people are willing to pay a higher price per kilogram of beef without extra water added to it. Cheaper diluted beef does not offer any more beef, but rather a false notion of a better buy.










[How much does a corn on the cob cost?]
From this picture, it is 4 US dollars. ;-) Often people are impressed with how much money
one can make in North America. They think that it would be a paradise in which they could accumulate a fortune in just a few years. How much people can save depends on their living expenses and lifestyle. If you could work in North America by day and live in China by night, then you could save a bundle really fast. That's the way Chinese migrant workers tried to live in the early 20th century, so they could send money back to their villages. Differences between countries will always exist and people will continue to move to gain financially. As the world becomes more globalized and integrated, this physical movement will become less necessary and the differences will become smaller. Income will match the productivity in an more equitable fashion.

This picture shows how much a banana will cost you. This picture is from a grocery store outside of Denali National Park, and the corn picture is from a Saturday outdoor market in Anchorage, Alaska. The fruits and vegetables are more expensive than in a typical Safeway grocery in Northern California.

My Alaska Cruise and Land Tour to Denali National Park

Here are some highlights of my recent trip to Alaska.
There are many beautiful cruise pictures on the Internet and I am not about to outdo them. ;-)

From August 15 to August 22, 2009 I was on an Alaska cruise to attend my college reunion. We sailed on a Diamond Princess cruise ship. This picture was taken by Michael on a day with average cloudy conditions. We sailed from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada to Whittier, Alaska, USA with 2900 passengers. Ten percent were children 18 or under.








Here you can find my classmates from the National Taiwan University EE department. All were in good spirits and I certainly found maturity and thoughtfulness in this crowd. It was worthwhile for me. The attendance rate was not the best, mostly due to difficult economical times. The cruise itself was not that expensive, but the flights getting to
Vancouver and out of Anchorage could take a big bite of family finances.










There are many glaciers in Alaska. These were not in my last cruise trip 11 years ago. On that cruise, we turned back to Vancouver at the Hubbard Bay Glacier. College Fjord, which branches off of Prince William Sound, plunges into the heart of the Chugach Mountains. You should be able to see at least five glaciers to the left of the channel in this photo.








After the reunion cruise, we added a land tour to Denali National Park. We boarded the two-level luxury coach. The dome-like upper level was great for viewing the wilderness of Alaska.












Dining was on the bottom level, which was not any worse than the upper level. The food prices were typical for a nice restaurant. This is one nice thing I like about America. Price-gouging does take place, but not at most places.










Denali is the only National Park I have visited that does not allow personal
automobiles, only chartered buses and some RVs. There were many animals in the park. We saw a brown bear family with two cubs in the distance. Here you'll find pictures of a herd of Dall sheep and a nearby red fox in the rest area.


















[Other interesting facts in this trip]
Alaska is the 49th state of the USA and celebrates its 50-year statehood this year.

There are about 600,000 pilots in the US (300 millions) as of 2008, but one in every 56 people is a pilot in Alaska. There are almost 10 times as many pilots per capita in Alaska as compared to the rest of the US.

China Mobil's Gotone international roaming service is not available in Anchorage which was a surprise to me. But, I was stunned getting welcome message in Denali National Park. These two regions could be covered by different carriers and all that. Go figure.