Living With the Han V: Ordnung Muß Sein!

One of the great joys of living in northern Europe is that life more often than not is predictable. Punctuality is generally considered to be a virtue and planning is a necessity. That sort of living is highly civilised. Even when plans change or things take a different course more often than not outcomes are still predictable. In China, in contrast, is as reliable as a Mexican jalopy maintained by an amateur African mechanic.

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For Sipu or anyone really.

I have been thinking. Big thinking!

Mankind is not doing very well is it? Wars, financial crises, ISIL, people becoming so old that we can’t afford to look after them, religion and all the associated suffering because of it, babies washed up on sea shores, migration at “biblical proportions”….I could go on all day.

So, as I said, I have been thinking. Just as when our computers become clogged up with garbage and cease to function properly we reboot or even reset to manuafcturers settings, maybe mankind also needs a reset.

What would this include? Here are just a few ideas to get started.

  1. Euthenasia for over 80s
  2. Concept of needing to “work” to exist needs changing
  3. Religion abolished
  4. Introduction of democracy throughout the world, especially in the West
  5. World Government
  6. Abolish money
  7. Genetically engineer humans to remove the ‘greed’ gene.

Over to you Sipu 🙂

Select few

Almost everyone’s gone. Maybe not to the moon (but who knows?). And parting is such…er….sorrow. Especially when y’all left without so much as a flounce, a strop or a fond farewell. Was it something we said or failed to say? Was it fickle fate that tempted you to pastures new? Was it the Big House or twatter or facebonk?

No answers unless you’re planning to stick around. Excuses are so yesterday.

 

Augen Zu

For people of pallor China is a paradise for finding employment. They’re not necessarily the best jobs they are jobs. Competition for candidates is so fierce that even defective candidates can easily be placed. In urban centres of any size Europeans, Antipodeans and North Americans under forty seemingly can’t walk for ten minutes without receiving at least three job offers. Huzhou being relatively small I’ve escaped this exercise in tedium. Then again, I’d actually need to leave my flat to be seen and in the past weeks that’s been too much to ask. Problems arise when the Chinese assume that they can treat Westerners in the same way they treat Chinese. In China, the massive population allows for employers to treat employees like rubbish and arbitrarily change their wages. It is not unheard of for employers to not pay all wages. An acquaintance, a Briton who teaches in another province, told me the story of an American he heard of who was not paid for the last two months he worked. They only finally paid him after he threatened to smash all the windows at their school.

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Rewilding

Apart from the horror of the word, let’s pause to consider the sheer madness involved in reintroducing species which man deliberately wiped out long ago.

I like the article’s final line: ‘The Scottish government has said there are no plans to reintroduce large predators’.

But what about fish? The little Sturgeon is quite enough, thank you; not to mention the untameable Salmond.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/rewilding-reintroduction-extinct-species-back-to-britain-will-be-enormous-challenge-study-finds-10478370.html