Sunday, April 28, 2013
Sunday, April 21, 2013
042113 (Sn) A Sunday night conversation via fb with an NTU alumnus in Taiwan
A Sunday night conversation via fb with an NTU alumnus in Taiwan.
莊永森
14 hours ago ·
民眾大都是盲從的.須要好的領導人引導,社會才會進步.
是引導, 不是指揮或操弄.
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You, Robert Clark and 3 others like this.
Crystal Huang Partially agree! The well informed citizenry is the guarantee of freedom and democracy. Taiwan has many conscious and conscientious grass-root organizations and active social moments to challenge the status quo. It has been growing healthily - I observe (which could be my bias as well !) (I would like to type in characters, but, like the turtle crawling !)
11 hours ago · Edited · Like · 1
莊永森 同意有公民意識和能力的公民是自由民主的保証.問題是在台灣,具有公民意識和能力的公民不到五分之一,民間非營利組織 又大都不健全(許多仰賴政府的資金補助).
5 hours ago · Unlike · 1
Crystal Huang I might be wrong - please correct me. I do see some check and balance as well as a certain degree of freedom in media and educational institutions, which is a healthy sign, though. I have seen (via the Internet and other social media) many well organized activities against the hegemonic domination in many corners of the society, which gave me the impression of more than 20% of the collective consciousness as you mentioned. In particular, Taiwan has been under tremendously politic-economic disadvantaged conditions for so long in the troublesome international-communities, but still thriving for democracy and freedom with a great pace. Mr. 莊 has a great expectation, respectable! Surely, I do agree that a legitimate and strong leadership representing the majority-rule is a must.
4 hours ago · Edited · Like · 1
莊永森 我認為台灣問題的根源是一個腐敗的老朽政黨製造一個比正常水準大一倍以上的政府,還能繼續執政,壟斷台灣的公共領域.媒體和高等教育由於開放競爭的壓力正面臨正向改變的過程,但更重要的中小學基礎教育仍是一攤死水,改變緩慢.我預計2016年台灣的百年老朽政黨會徹底瓦解,台灣將開始經歷在廢墟中重建的辛苦過程.
4 hours ago · Unlike · 1
Crystal Huang 臺雖舊邦, 其命維新- 又日新. I hold optimism !
4 hours ago · Edited · Like · 1
莊永森 由於台灣人民的公民意識薄弱和公民能力不足,才使得政治權力的壟斷牢不可破,政治的競爭不足,妨礙台灣革新和進步的速度.當然,苦難國家的人民沒有悲觀的權利.
3 hours ago · Unlike · 1
Crystal Huang Yes, 苦難國家的人民沒有悲觀的權利!!!多難興邦, 死於安樂! As I am getting old, not because I am becoming cold-heartless, but I realize that hardship and challenges shape the "Post-modern" privileges ! I see certain generation in some affluent and privileged societies might gradually losing grounds for fighting justice, peace and love not because of lack of the will but the adversities...
3 hours ago · Like
Crystal Huang A minor question- "由於台灣人民的公民意識薄弱和公民能力不足..." compared to what?
3 hours ago · Like
莊永森 這是我自己的體驗和認定.公民意識薄弱可從選舉時很多候選人靠買票當選和選舉人大都以其和候選人的關係深淺決定投票對象,不是以公眾利益決定.公民能力不足展現在集會和結社能力很差,很多社團領導人不會主持會議,也不了解其組織賴以運作的章程.
54 minutes ago · Unlike · 1
Crystal Huang So as here!! Just a little bit more sophisticated. 不是我愛說龜笑鱉無尾 or 五十步傚百步 ! There is no perfect democracy. As long as there is a will, always having room for progress. Again, optimism. Thanks for the nice conversation. Good night.
6 minutes ago · Like
042113 (Sn) Like Father, Like Daughter...
April, 21 (Sn) 2013
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSfhgGGt_PU
An fb friend posted the above viral clip again.
I made a short comment:
Does it take a whole village (i.e., plus, an angelic father) to raise a good child, marriage, and family....?
Though with envious, jealous, angry and a little bit misunderstanding tears, I still love my father who passed away many years ago ♥!
So luuuuucky, bless their hearts!
For me, hard to watch, though...
Then, I felt like writing something, so here it goes:
(The original draft, see below)
Why?
Always, always,
try to avoid
hearing another angelic fathers' fairy stories?!
No more jealousy, nor envy,
for no reasons, she is not angry,
just replaced the unconscious mind with smiley face.
Praying for Gods,
working with the Almighty,
like kneading the clay with great patience,
kicking the wheel with the fiery energy,
artistically pulling up the cylinder,
carefully designing the shape,
to fire, to bisque, to glaze with all his imaginations,
again, again, and again,
until
born out of his dream – an ideal vase!
Hold his proud porcelain,
sharing with you for appreciation,
like a delicate bird, a fragile butterfly,
not too loose, nor too tight.
for he is nurturing his little princess!
Let her feeling her first man's unconditional love,
learning her first man's beautiful mind,
touching her first man's gentle heart,
and,
demanding all of his soul in holly magics!!
Oh, the Great Almighty,
please grant the strengths and opportunities
to all fathers
for every girl on this Planet
- not just the Few who are Lucky!
Friday, April 19, 2013
041913 (F) The Week of April 15, 2013
The revised draft:
My love – the almighty technology
transforms thinking and behaving of the individuals, societies, and the planet.
Jobs with senses of humans are amorphizing,
electro-digitally easy-outsourcing around the globe,
do we like it?
E/M-learning, e-loving, e-hating, e-relationship, e-family,
e-commerce, e-power, e-hierarchy, e-territories, and surely e-anarchy,
for better or worse,
have we got our enough doses of e-harmony?
In the “democratizing” cyberspace,
desensitizing the true pains and joys,
do we interact wholeheartedly in the phantom reality?
Digital workforces and communities,
close eyes to the 3rd wave of digital divide’s widening,
but focus on these non-luxuries –
ipad, i-smart, ipaid, ipain and i-scream,
more gadgets, smaller screens,
have we even been feeling near-sighted recently?
Wi-fi, blue ray, and the faster Internet,
yet, all we need is simple love, communications, and understanding.
Nurture the surreal social interactions in the 2nd Life and 3rd cybernetic domains,
and are we euphemizing the virtual reality as genuine?
Cars, work, entertaining, the Wal-Mart, K-Mart and Target,
shopping sprees, moving fluidly, and consumption manipulated,
entitlement and privileges are blurry.
More things, less thinks,
and the voluntarily deprived feeling and emotions,
everything short and quick, as well as the decontextualized,
the agile fingers, strained eye-sight,
but are we sure not to dumbfound the brainy, nor to worry the big brother’s watching?
Tucson, Aurora, Oak Creek, Sandy Hook, the Boston Patriot day, and the Fertilizing Texas,
then, oil in democracy, Iraq, Bush, Cheney, Halliburton and Afghanistan,
six Navy-seals on Laden Bin,
and the Nobel Peace Award is continued.
Too tight, too loose, too much, too little, who knows how it works?
Hard to believe it –
we are the happy yet controversial culprits,
aren’t we?
So, what is progress?
Terabits cause information overload with depression and anxiety,
million pounds of funeral and the budget deficits,
where does money go? who checks it?
Are we the silent, the isolated, the bellicose, the genuine, and the hypocrites,
the oppressors, the oppressed
the liberals, the conservatives, and the greens,
bickering at the immigration, guns, gay marriages, and the rest?
Is this a melting pot, salad bowl, or what?
Perhaps, a tapestry or a quilt for it is supposed to be?
Don’t ruin it - a beacon of hope
not for sale via dehumanizing, nor robotization!!
Thursday, April 18, 2013
041813 (R) When the undocumented immigrants are unavailable...
One of my posts/contributions to fb on April 16 (T).
Crystal Huang Why, imposing so much "work ethics" on the defenseless sentient beings...?
Hold on, hold on, hold on - when the undocumented immigrants are unavailable...
- about an hour ago · Edited · Like · 1
Crystal Huang https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2N_uvnvGbI
REM - Everybody hurts (with lyrics)
Crystal Huang A picture might not just tell thousand words, it can also evoke million pieces of reminiscences . This donkeyfriend did bring forth several episodes of my early childhood memories.
When I was a child, Taiwan had been enduring economic hardship (before the 2nd wave of the globalization sweeping through the "Asian 4 dragons").There were working cattle carrying all sort of heavy duty materials, in particular, horribly overloaded with the big bags of cements, all sorts of bricks, and other machine tools... cumbersomely tramping through our alley.
The working men would whip and beat up the slow-down or exhausted oxen, and I (around 5 or 6 years old) always, knowing that I got no ways to argue or fight against these adults, the only thing I could do was to rush to the back side of the carts/transporting wagons (牛車), pushing, pushing, and pushing painstakingly and tirelessly with all the little strength I had at that time. Then I would receive some adults' and other kids' joking and laughing at me for such a "funny", or "cute" behavior !
Nowadays, though these "nostalgic" scenes have never appeared again in the post-Modern metropolitan Taipei, it transfers to other less fortunate countries and regions.
The global stratification is running wilder than ever....-----------
Note- As to the notion of globalization, seemingly it "controversially nurtured" the little dragons to get out of the stagnated "ponds". Surely, the price to pay was to sacrifice almost 2 generations' predicaments to exchange the edu-economic growth in Taiwan and other "little dragons".
I could remember that my eldest sister right out of elementary school (and my eldest brother could keep on his studies, though he needed to take on part of father's role to take care younger siblings) had to plunge into multinational corporate companies as a full time child laborer, working in the most prevalent labor-intense textile factories for 5 to 10 cents per hour (converted in U.S. dollars) wages until she got married (from 12 years old to 26) with an occupational - lung disease.
There was a well-known and acceptable saying, " Never born into an impoverished family as the first child, in particular- as a girl, because s/he had to obligatorily bear the burden to take on the role of a mother/father." As to me, I could not imagine if I were born into my elder sisters' condition!! Just a sheer of luck, my birth order gave me tremendous advantages compared to my elder sisters'. I was never required to drop out of school to work on full time child laborer job. I got the opportunities to continue my education with some part-time odd jobs and mentored my younger sister to work in the 3 - 5 cents per hour child-laboring factories, which was popular in the "developing" countries. Children, during those were the days, never being liabilities, but precious assets!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XO4a9dIAOp4
Nana Mouskouri Amazing Grace
Saturday, April 13, 2013
041313 (Sa) Neither Fair, Nor Unfair...
"Blurry", isn't it (the above poster)? Here is my original draft:
Neither Fair, Nor Unfair...
Hollywood, London, Washington D.C.,
beauty, talent, and smartie,
don’t blame for god’s random gifts in biology!
Fair skin, o.k. and/or fine classes,
save one 20 years’ struggling in dreary.
Though, 2 determinants of life chances working out the intersectionality,
with good endeavors,
be what you "wannabe"!
beauty, talent, and smartie,
don’t blame for god’s random gifts in biology!
Fair skin, o.k. and/or fine classes,
save one 20 years’ struggling in dreary.
Though, 2 determinants of life chances working out the intersectionality,
with good endeavors,
be what you "wannabe"!
Is it hard to see
?
When –where- how to be born into the race, class, gender, nationality,
localities, timings, as well as physicality,
for better or worse,
are not your choices?!
When –where- how to be born into the race, class, gender, nationality,
localities, timings, as well as physicality,
for better or worse,
are not your choices?!
Fortunately,
there are achieved statuses in a much open society,
waiting for you to construct your social mobility.
there are achieved statuses in a much open society,
waiting for you to construct your social mobility.
How achieved!- the
glamour and the glory,
tell us what the “Meritocracy” is,
for s/he is on his/her own feet, the self-made kings and queens
occupying on the top of the Pyramid that no one else built it?
tell us what the “Meritocracy” is,
for s/he is on his/her own feet, the self-made kings and queens
occupying on the top of the Pyramid that no one else built it?
Where is the naughty mechanism
- the so called unearned and invisible Privileges ?
- the so called unearned and invisible Privileges ?
Not to mention
some gentlemen,
how about Ladies Bhutto, Gandhi, Myers, Aung San Su Ki, Evita Peron, Clinton, and the rest
with tremendous courage and opportunities,
serving as role modeling,
while, if, reincarnated into Uganda, Rwanda, Bangladesh, or Burundi,
stripping off the advantages from daddies/mommies, husbands, classes, and appearances,
as well as the strong masculine arms and fists behind the screen!
how about Ladies Bhutto, Gandhi, Myers, Aung San Su Ki, Evita Peron, Clinton, and the rest
with tremendous courage and opportunities,
serving as role modeling,
while, if, reincarnated into Uganda, Rwanda, Bangladesh, or Burundi,
stripping off the advantages from daddies/mommies, husbands, classes, and appearances,
as well as the strong masculine arms and fists behind the screen!
Yes, necessary
conditions need to meet the sufficient,
as chances embrace choices,
because all life opportunities are created, given, and obtained “equally”,
and the playing field is leveled,
isn't it, kaleidoscopic?
as chances embrace choices,
because all life opportunities are created, given, and obtained “equally”,
and the playing field is leveled,
isn't it, kaleidoscopic?
Not just boys,
men, and the genteel,
girls, women, and ladies,
and all classes, races, ethnicity, and the rest of diversity,
work hard, harder, and hardest,
and don’t ever look back on the dragging-down social forces which are "designed" to challenge thee.
girls, women, and ladies,
and all classes, races, ethnicity, and the rest of diversity,
work hard, harder, and hardest,
and don’t ever look back on the dragging-down social forces which are "designed" to challenge thee.
End post - "But Justice and Injustice – on the April 8, thinking of Annette Funicello and Margaret Thatcher"
Sunday, April 7, 2013
040713 (Sn) Marlin and Santiago
Life of Pi reminds me of a couple of movies (such as The Old Man and The Sea as well as The Poseidon Adventure, which have similar genre- fighting something against the almighty Leviathan. The common motif of them can be the transcending spiritual power beyond death and triumph.
A conversation with my friend who mentioned Marlin that sparkled the following scribble.
Thanks, DB.
Friday, April 5, 2013
040513 (F) Life of Pi
Here is my thought about this movie. Share with you.
The pictures are too tranquil in the song :P - when thinking of both movies from different cultures and social class fighting against different battles with similar implications: )!
There's got to be a morning after
If we can hold on through the night
We have a chance to find the sunshine
Let's keep on lookin' for the light
Oh, can't you see the morning after
It's waiting right outside the storm
Why don't we cross the bridge together
And find a place that's safe and warm
It's not too late, we should be giving
Only with love can we climb
It's not too late, not while we're living
Let's put our hands out in time
There's got to be a morning after
We're moving closer to the shore
I know we'll be there by tomorrow
And we'll escape the darkness
We won't be searchin' any more
There's got to be a morning after
(There's got to be a morning after) repeat x4
There's got to be a morning after - MAUREEN MCGOVERN
LOL!
We have a chance to find the sunshine
Let's keep on lookin' for the light
Oh, can't you see the morning after
It's waiting right outside the storm
Why don't we cross the bridge together
And find a place that's safe and warm
It's not too late, we should be giving
Only with love can we climb
It's not too late, not while we're living
Let's put our hands out in time
There's got to be a morning after
We're moving closer to the shore
I know we'll be there by tomorrow
And we'll escape the darkness
We won't be searchin' any more
There's got to be a morning after
(There's got to be a morning after) repeat x4
There's got to be a morning after - MAUREEN MCGOVERN
LOL!