Please vote for OBAMA!
McCain gets lost in the economic fog
Eugene Robinson
Updated on Sep 22, 2008
from South China Morning Post: http://www.scmp.com/portal/site/SCMP/menuitem.2af62ecb329d3d7733492d9253a0a0a0/?vgnextoid=d611bedb0d48c110VgnVCM100000360a0a0aRCRD&ss=Insight&s=Opinion
John McCain was telling the truth when he said that economics wasn't his strong suit. In response to what many economists have called the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, the Republican presidential nominee has sounded — and let's be honest here — totally, embarrassingly and dangerously clueless.
His now-famous remark about how "the fundamentals of our economy are strong" would almost by itself be enough to justify my assessment. But he committed what was probably an even worse gaffe last Tuesday when, as the insurance behemoth AIG teetered on the brink, he said: "I do not believe that the American taxpayer should be on the hook for AIG. We cannot have the taxpayers bail out AIG or anybody else."
Within hours, the federal government had bailed out AIG to the tune of US$85 billion. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson — and others who know how Wall Street works — understood that, if AIG were to collapse, much of the financial system might follow.
Senator McCain quickly changed his tune, saying the government was "forced" to rescue AIG because of "failed regulation, reckless management and a casino culture on Wall Street".
That sounds OK, but wait a minute. If he had any idea of what he was talking about — if he had any inkling of how big AIG is, or how central it has become — then why on Earth would he have taken a stand against a bailout in the first place?
Senator McCain released new television adverts last week regarding the economy. "I'll meet this financial crisis head on," he says in one. "I won't tolerate a system that puts you and your family at risk. Your savings, your jobs — I'll keep them safe."
In fairness, Barack Obama has no magic bullet to solve the financial crisis, either. There are differences, though. For one, Senator Obama's proposals for action — a stimulus plan, protection for homeowners in peril of foreclosure, increased regulation — are more specific than Senator McCain's.
For another, Senator Obama blames the crisis on "an economic philosophy that sees any regulation at all as unwise and unnecessary". Senator McCain now calls for better regulation, too. In other words, Senator McCain is running against his own record. To cite one example, he backed landmark legislation in 1999 that removed the walls between banks, investment firms and insurance companies. That bill allowed a company like AIG to expand beyond its traditional insurance business into exotic new products that ultimately brought the company down.
Senator McCain, who told The Wall Street Journal in March that "I'm always for less regulation", now asks voters to believe he will be a champion of tough, unblinking oversight. He's outraged that Wall Street's preening Masters of the Universe threw a drunken toga party and smashed all the furniture — but he helped buy the beer and told the police to look the other way.
This is the man who's going to reform the US economy?
Eugene Robinson is a Washington Post columnist
Fellow Americans, for the sake of our country, citizens, and for fellow humans around the world (i.e. think innocent civilians in Iraq who have had family members and friends killed or injured and don't feel safe even in their own homes), please vote OBAMA. McCain will no doubt bring about 4 more years of the last 8 which have been the worst in Amercian history — wars, lies, deception, accelerated global warming, and innocent lives destroyed. Don't be selfish and pick McCain just over 1 or 2 issues that you THINK McCain would help more than Obama. McCain is promising ANYTHING he thinks will get people to vote for him but he hasn't been telling the truth. And many of his promises do not add up at all if you really stop and analyze them with a bit of common sense. Worse, he's been telling us things that are in fact the OPPOSITE of reality and the truth. Just check YouTube for much proof of that. Most recently, listen to the comments he made before and after AIG got bailed out. Or check out these:
McCain is really no different than Bush. Ditto for Palin.
We need real change and the RIGHT (morally and ethically correct, for the people and not for only the rich and big oil companies) decision-making that OBAMA will bring.
It's all about decisions!... Who do you trust to make the right decisions on such key issues as our economy, Iran, climate change, and health care? (See: US Elections Issues Guide from the BBC) Come on people, use your decision-making power to vote and make the RIGHT decision by voting for OBAMA!!
Cheers,
Derek
Here's a interesting article by Elizabeth Drew, author of "Citizen McCain"...
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0908/13541.html
How John McCain lost me
By: Elizabeth Drew
September 17, 2008 10:53 PM EST
I have been a longtime admirer of John McCain. During the 2000 Republican presidential primaries I publicly defended McCain against the pro-Bush Republicans' whisper campaign that he was too unstable to be president (aware though I was that he had a temper). Two years later I published a positive book about him, "Citizen McCain."
I admired John McCain as a man of principle and honor. He had become emblematic of someone who spoke his mind, voted his conscience, and demonstrated courage in bucking his own party and fighting for what he believed in. He gained a well-deserved reputation as a maverick. He was seen as taking principled positions on such issues as tax equity (opposing the newly elected Bush's tax cut), fighting political corruption, and, later, taking on the Bush administration on torture. He came off as a man of decency. He took political risks.
Having emerged, ironically, from his bitter 2000 primary fight against Bush as an immensely popular figure, he set out to be a new force in American politics. He decided to form and lead a centrist movement, believing that that was where the country was and needed leadership. He went against the grain of his party on the environment, patients' bill of rights, and, of course, campaign finance reform.
While McCain's movement to the center was widely popular (if not on the right) — and he even flirted with becoming a Democrat — there's now strong reason to question whether it was anything but a temporary, expedient tactic. (In his 2002 memoir, "Worth the Fighting For," he wrote, revealingly, "I didn't decide to run for president to start a national crusade for the political reforms I believed in or to run a campaign as if it were some grand act of patriotism. In truth, I wanted to be president because it had become my ambition to be president... In truth, I'd had the ambition for a long time.")
When he decided to run for president in 2008, he felt he couldn't win without the support of the right, so he adapted.
In retrospect, other once-hailed McCain efforts — his cultivation of the press ("my base") and even his fight for campaign finance reform (launched in the wake of his embarrassment over the Keating Five scandal) now seem to have been simply maneuvers. The "Straight Talk Express" — a brilliant p.r. stroke in 2000 — has now been shut down.
When the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law, widely opposed by Republicans, began to seem a liability during the 2008 primaries, his reforming zeal gave way to political exigencies, and he ceased mentioning his one-time triumph. Though in 2003 he had introduced a bill to fix some other problems with the campaign finance system, in later years his name was no longer on the bill.
When Bush, issued a "signing statement" in 2006 on McCain's hard-fought legislation placing prohibitions on torture, saying he would interpret the measure as he chose, McCain barely uttered a peep. And then, in 2006, in one of his most disheartening acts, McCain supported a "compromise" with the administration on trials of Guantanamo detainees, yielding too much of what the administration wanted, and accepted provisions he had originally opposed on principle. Among other things, the bill sharply limited the rights of detainees in military trials, stripped habeas corpus rights from a broad swath of people "suspected" of cooperating with terrorists, and loosened restrictions on the administration's use of torture. (The Supreme Court later ruled portions of this measure unconstitutional.)
McCain's caving in to this "compromise" did it for me. This was further evidence that the former free-spirited, supposedly principled, maverick was morphing into just another panderer — to Bush and the Republican Party's conservative base.
Other aspects of McCain, including his temperament, began to trouble me. He seemed disturbingly bellicose. He gave the Iraq war unflagging support no matter the facts. He still talks about "winning" the war, though George W. Bush gave that up some time ago. As the war became increasingly unpopular, he employed the useful technique of blaming its execution rather than recognizing the misconceptions that had led him to be one of the most enthusiastic champions of the war in the first place.
Similarly, in making a big issue of having backed the surge (and simplifying the reasons for its apparent success), he preempts debate on the very idea of the war. He has talked (and sung) loosely about attacking Iran. More recently, he oversimplified this summer's events in Georgia and made intemperate remarks about Russia, about which he's been more belligerent than the administration for some time. (He has his own set of neocons.)
There's an argument that all this compromise wasn't necessary: some very smart political analysts believed from the outset that McCain could win the nomination by sticking with his old self. And they still believe that McCain won the nomination not because he gave himself over to the base but as a result of a process of elimination of inferior candidates who divided up the conservative vote, as these observers had predicted. (These people insisted on anonymity because McCain is known in Republican circles to have a long memory and a vindictive streak.)
By then I had already concluded that that there was a disturbingly erratic side of McCain's nature. There's a certain lack of seriousness in him. And he does not appear to be a reflective man, or very interested in domestic issues. One cannot imagine him ruminating late into the night about, say, how to educate and train Americans for the new global and technological challenges.
McCain's making a big issue of "earmarks" and citing entertaining examples of ridiculous-sounding ones, circumvents discussion of the larger issues of the allocation of funds in the federal budget: according to the Office of Management and Budget, earmarks represent less than one percent of federal spending.
Now he's back to declaring himself a maverick, but it's not clear what that means. If he gains the presidency, is he going to rebel against the base he's now depending on to get him elected? (Hence his selection of running mate Sarah Palin.) Campaigns matter. If he means "shaking up the system" (which is not the same thing), opposing earmarks doesn't cut it.
McCain's recent conduct of his campaign — his willingness to lie repeatedly (including in his acceptance speech) and to play Russian roulette with the vice-presidency, in order to fulfill his long-held ambition — has reinforced my earlier, and growing, sense that John McCain is not a principled man.
In fact, it's not clear who he is.
Elizabeth Drew is author of "Citizen McCain" (Simon & Schuster, 2002; paperback with new introduction, 2008.)
(c) 2008 Capitol News Company, LLC
Christopher Keyes' "Letter to the Editor" published in the South China Morning Post on Feb 15, 2005 had an excellent argument for the planned ban on smoking in all restaurants in Hong Kong. I couldn't agree more with him.
Beware smoker's logic
Tuesday, February 15, 2005To read letters criticising the plan to ban smoking in public places is to be overwhelmed by "smoker's logic". They all seem to argue, as in "After smoking, alcohol" (February 12), that the legislation is "less about smoking than a drive by professional campaigners to dictate all kinds of behaviour" and that the next steps are bans on alcohol, coffee and chocolate.
They seem oblivious to the distinction that someone indulging in these less-than-healthy products does not endanger the health, or affect at all, a person enjoying a meal at the next table. The government is not proposing to ban smoking but to ban irresponsible smoking. We have enacted traffic laws not to prevent people from driving but to prevent them from driving irresponsibly.
Let's face it, smoking is a disgusting habit that, done uncaringly, endangers others' health and ruins their enjoyment of a meal or drink. I know many smokers who are sensitive to this, which usually means stepping outside for a few moments. They are not the problem; it is the irresponsible smokers who are. It is time they realised that the legislation is less about them than their effect on others.
To help smokers bridge the gap between their behaviour and its effects, perhaps they could consider a situation where someone sets a boom box on a restaurant table and blares out music at levels that most find offensive and pose a threat to the hearing. If this were a common occurrence, would the government be out of line enacting legislation requiring them to use earphones?
CHRISTOPHER KEYES, Lantau
OK, I'm putting the whole US presidential election thing behind me and am hoping to catch up on more Tom family (mostly Justin!) and tech news entries!
Been following the election results from these sites:
Bush: 289
Kerry: 242
[UPDATE @ 8:22pm local HK time: I called the numbers too early and as it is now Bush has 254 Electorial Votes and Kerry has 252. Ohio will determine the final outcome. Kerry is down by over 155,000 votes though so unless some major irregularities in the voting process surface, Bush will win.]
[UPDATE on Nov 4 @ 1:35pm: OK it's official, Bush has been reelected.]
I find a little consolation in this editorial piece by Philip Bowring, published yesterday in the South China Morning Post:
Let Bush clean up his own mess
Tuesday, November 2, 2004PHILIP BOWRING
The instincts of my heart and soul wish for a victory by John Kerry. But a calculating head sends a different message. In some ways, I, a non-American, fear a victory by Senator Kerry more than the return of George W. Bush, disastrous though his presidency has been.
It is easy to roll off a long list of the destruction wrought by this ignorant man, who has allowed assorted fundamentalists — Attorney General John Ashcroft, Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, Vice-President Dick Cheney, top political adviser Karl Rove, and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld — to change the face of America and its position in the world.
Life for Osama bin Laden may be uncomfortable, but he must be pleased that such men are in power in Washington and used September 11 to turn America away from its tradition of liberty, tolerance and internationalism. As Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels once remarked, make the people believe they face mysterious foreign threats and they will accept almost any action which claims to increase their security. So Americans have accepted the Patriot Act, imprisonment without trial in Guantanamo Bay and racial profiling, for example. Fundamentalist Christianity with messianic views is now part of the political landscape, and issues of personal choice are claimed as a matter for the state. The war on Iraq was made under false pretences, meanwhile providing cover for an expansionist Israel to do as it pleases.
Mr Bush has spawned a deficit even larger than during the Vietnam war, in the process making the US a debtor to the rest of the world to the tune of US$3 trillion. Income inequalities have been increased by tax cuts for the rich. Employment has stagnated, and the economy has gained only modest ground, despite a huge rise in household debt and the loosening of environmental standards.
In short, it is only the Goebbels dictum which will re-elect Mr Bush, and bin Laden's sudden reappearance may help him. So why do I harbour doubts about electing the thoughtful Senator Kerry, representative of a mainstream, internationalist, unideological America? First, it is out of a sense that those who created the mess in which America finds itself must bear the responsibility for its consequences. They must find a way out of Iraq. They must restore US credibility, cut spending and raise taxes to slash the budget deficit. They must face the inevitable recession if the proper balance between savings and consumption is to be restored, and the trade deficit reduced to a sustainable level.
Whoever wins, the next four years threaten to be very difficult. There is every chance that the difficulties will blow apart the credibility of the Bush right-wing, unilateralist republicanism so that liberal democrats will sweep back in 2008.
By the same token, a Kerry administration may find itself having to face the unpopularity of these problems, possibly losing heavily in the 2006 mid-term congressional elections, and being hemmed in by Congress and right-leaning justices from undoing much of the human rights and environmental damage. The way could be open for a return of the radical right in 2008.
Senator Kerry would go down well overseas and patch up relations with allies. However, while he would never have led the US into Iraq, he will find it no easier to get out.
Less likely to extend the war to Syria or Iran, Senator Kerry is, however, as trapped as anyone in the domestic politics of support for Israeli outrages. He may restrain the administration from the most oppressive aspects of the Patriot Act. But so successful has Mr Bush been in creating a climate of fearful patriotism, that Senator Kerry may have a hard time reversing direction.
On environmental issues, he would be much more forceful, and a reversal of many of Mr Bush's tax cuts is likely and desirable. But Senator Kerry might succumb even quicker than Mr Bush to trade protectionism if that is seen as the only way other than recession in righting the trade balance.
So, although I loathe most of what Mr Bush stands for, I am in two minds about the longer-term desirability of a Kerry presidency.
Philip Bowring is a Hong Kong-based journalist and commentator.
Oh, I hope so much that Kerry wins but it does not look promising. From the polls, I'm very disappointed at fellow American voters who are so easily deceived and manipulated by Bush and his administration. You only have to look at the news and have some common sense to see that what he says is not the truth and he's done a terrible job in the past 4 years on so many fronts — terrorism, security, economy, jobs, deficit... Since the invasion of Iraq, the world has become a more dangerous place and the terrorist networks have never been so strong and aggressive (bombings, kidnappings, beheadings, etc). How can you look at each day's headline news and disagree with that?
Has Bush made the world a safer place to live in and is he "winning the war on terrorism"? OF COURSE NOT! With bin-Laden and now al-Zarqawi and thousands more of their followers happily willing to kill themselves to fight against us, of course not! The Iraq war was and is a boost to their cause and they have more support now than before the war. Think about that... doesn't that make sense? Just look at CNN's Top Stories each day if you want proof. Today (Nov 2, 2004) I see: American among 6 kidnapped in Baghdad - Two Iraqi officials assassinated, Teen suicide bomber kills three, and Bin Laden: Goal is to bankrupt U.S.. From Sunday, there was Beheaded Japanese to be flown home.
Bush's biggest sin: lying to Americans and the world about the threat of Iraq to justify the invasion for personal interest, gain, and greed (oil, contracts to Halliburton, money, revenge for Saddam's attempted assassination of his father, etc). And because of that, over 1,100 American soldiers AND over 14,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed. We are talking babies, kids, mothers, fathers KILLED because of this. And what about the thousands who have lost limbs or have permanent brain or nerve damage from serious injuries? There are also the families of those killed or injured who are suffering big-time. No doubt many more will die and suffer before things settle down. Bush should be held accountable for all of that. Look at the record-high old prices and the record-high deficit too. He's terrible on environmental policy as well by not supporting the Kyoto Protocol. For me, it's very simple to see who has and will do "the right thing".
Let's see if I can summarize why we need Bush OUT and thus Kerry in:
Check this out:
100 Facts and 1 Opinion
The Non-Arguable Case Against the Bush Administration
by Judd Legum
The article contains 100 facts on Bush and his administration, including links to credible news sources. Here are a some of them:
IRAQ:
3. The Bush Administration ignored estimates from Gen. Eric Shinseki that several hundred thousand troops would be required to secure Iraq.
Source: PBS
5. During the Bush Administration's war in Iraq, more than 1,000 US troops have lost their lives and more than 7,000 have been injured.
Source: globalsecurity.org
6. In May 2003, President Bush landed on an aircraft carrier in a flight suit, stood under a banner proclaiming "Mission Accomplished," and triumphantly announced that major combat operations were over in Iraq. Asked if he had any regrets about the stunt, Bush said he would do it all over again.
Source: Yahoo News
10. According to the Administration's handpicked weapon's inspector, Charles Duelfer, there is "no evidence that Hussein had passed illicit weapons material to al Qaeda or other terrorist organizations, or had any intent to do so." After the release of the report, Bush continued to insist, "There was a risk — a real risk — that Saddam Hussein would pass weapons, or materials, or information to terrorist networks."
Sources: New York Times, White House news release
TERRORISM
12. After receiving a memo from the CIA in August 2001 titled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack America," President Bush continued his monthlong vacation.
Source: CNN.com
20. Even though an Al Qaeda training manual suggests terrorists come to the United States and buy assault weapons, the Bush Administration did nothing to prevent the expiration of the ban.
Source: sfgate.com
NATIONAL SECURITY
26. During the Bush Administration, North Korea quadrupled its suspected nuclear arsenal from two to eight weapons.
Source: New York Times
CRONYISM AND CORRUPTION
30. The Bush Administration awarded a multibillion-dollar no-bid contract to Halliburton — a company that still pays Vice President Cheney hundreds of thousands of dollars in deferred compensation each year (Cheney also has Halliburton stock options). The company then repeatedly overcharged the military for services, accepted kickbacks from subcontractors and served troops dirty food.
Sources: The Washington Post, The Tapei Times, BBC News
ENVIRONMENT
74. President Bush broke his promise to place limits on carbon dioxide emissions, an essential step in combating global warming.
Source: Washington Post
RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES
81. Since 9/11, Attorney General John Ashcroft has detained 5,000 foreign nationals in antiterrorism sweeps; none have been convicted of a terrorist crime.
Source: hrwatch.org
Australia's Spy Chief Says Al-Qaeda Benefited From Iraq War
2004-10-26 20:55 (New York)
By Gemma Daley Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) — The war in Iraq gave the al-Qaeda terrorist network recruitment opportunities and may have inspired new followers in Australia of its leader Osama bin Laden, Australia's intelligence chief Dennis Richardson said.
"Iraq has provided al-Qaeda with propaganda and recruitment opportunities," Richardson, director general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization, said yesterday in Sydney, according to a faxed transcript. "It is possible that some new followers in Australia have been motivated primarily by Iraq."
Australia sent 2,200 troops to Iraq and some 850 of them are still there. Prime Minister John Howard won an election Oct. 9 with a pledge to keep the troops there "until the job is done." Opposition Labor Party leader Mark Latham vowed to pull the troops out by Christmas if the party won power.
Australia was not a "priority target" before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, Richardson said. Australians have been targeted since then in terrorist attacks including the October 2002 Bali bombings that killed at least 202 people, 88 of them Australian nationals.
"Before Sept. 11 2001, any attack within Australia would most likely be directed against the United States and/or Israeli interests," Richardson said, according to the transcript. "So far, Iraq has not had a significant impact on the security environment here in Australia."
Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian terrorist group linked to al-Qaeda, has been blamed for the Bali attack and two bombings in Indonesia's capital, Jakarta. A bombing outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta Sept. 9 killed nine people.
"Terrorist attacks outside Iraq during and since the war would have occurred with or without the war," Richardson said. "To the extent Iraq might have been a motivator, when you strip it down, it would have been an add-on, not the central driver."
On local TV news tonight, I heard Bush warning of the threat of terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and claiming that Americans are safe because we are fighting Zarqawi's group abroad so we don't have to fight them at home.
Common sense tells me that Bush's decision to invade Iraq actually GAVE RISE to Zarqawi's group (and many other similar militant groups). And every new day there in Iraq, more of our soldiers and innocent Iraqis are getting killed.
Bush also said, "you know where I stand... I'm proudly running on my record whereas senator Kerry is running from his."
I don't know how Bush can be proud of his record of wrongly invading Iraq, resulting in the deaths of thousands of innocent people. And despite Bush trying to portray Kerry as being wishy-washy, in the presidential debates, Kerry was much clearer and more detailed in presenting his positions. I'm clear on where Kerry stands and understand and agree with why he takes certain positions (on stem-cell research, for instance).
Bush also said, "as long as I hold this office I will not risk the lives of American citizens."
Our soldiers are American citizens too so how can he claim that when so many have been killed and continue to be killed daily as a result of his decision to invade Iraq instead of focusing on battling al-Qaeda?
On top of all this, I note that oil prices are at record highs and this affects not only the US but all nations and practically all industries... everybody. Again, I am sure the situation in Iraq has had a part to play in this.
Bush is entirely responsible for the sorry situation in Iraq and its tremendous ramifications — massive increase in global terrorist and militant activity (bombings, beheadings, kidnappings...), tens of thousands dead (how can you put a price on people's lives... someone's son, father, daughter, brother, mother...?), $200 billion deficit, record-high oil prices (affecting cost of gas, electricity, airline industry, tourism industry...), Osama bin-Laden still on the loose, shameful and inhumane treatment of prisoners.
Folks, we are NOT more safe because of Bush's decisions and policies — exactly the opposite, in fact. Not convinced? Just look at the daily news and not the unsubstantiated claims and scare tactics Bush is dishing out at his speeches. After the war broke out, do you actually feel safer at home and on vacation overseas?
I also note that Bush gave a tax break to the rich and did not support the Kyoto Protocol to combat global warming and climatic change caused by greenhouse gases.
Bush was also the one who ditched his duty to fight in the Vietnam war, thanks to his father's special "connections". How fair, honorable, and ethical is that? Kerry fought in the war, was awarded several medals, and then came back and rightfully campaigned against the war and all its atrocities.
Can you think of anything "right" or positive that Bush has done in the last 4 years?
No, we desperately need a new president. Please vote for Kerry.
I agree fully with George Soros (I first read this from the South China Morning Post which published it a few days ago):
Why We Must Not Re-elect President Bushby George Soros
Prepared text of speech delivered September 28, 2004
National Press Club
Washington, DC,This is the most important election of my lifetime. I have never been heavily involved in partisan politics but these are not normal times. President Bush is endangering our safety, hurting our vital interests and undermining American values. That is why I am sending you this message. I have been demonized by the Bush campaign but I hope you will give me a hearing.
President Bush ran on the platform of a "humble" foreign policy in 2000. If we re-elect him now, we endorse the Bush doctrine of preemptive action and the invasion of Iraq, and we will have to live with the consequences. As I shall try to show, we are facing a vicious circle of escalating violence with no end in sight. But if we repudiate the Bush policies at the polls, we shall have a better chance to regain the respect and support of the world and to break the vicious circle.
I grew up in Hungary, lived through fascism and the Holocaust, and then had a foretaste of communism. I learned at an early age how important it is what kind of government prevails. I chose America as my home because I value freedom and democracy, civil liberties and an open society.
When I had made more money than I needed for myself and my family, I set up a foundation to promote the values and principles of a free and open society. I started in South Africa in 1979 and established a foundation in my native country, Hungary, in 1984 when it was still under communist rule. China, Poland and the Soviet Union followed in 1987. After the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, I established foundations in practically all the countries of the former Soviet empire and later in other parts of the world and in the United States. These foundations today spend about 450 million dollars a year to promote democracy and open society around the world.
When George W. Bush was elected president, and particularly after September 11, I saw that the values and principles of open society needed to be defended at home. September 11 led to a suspension of the critical process so essential to a democracy — a full and fair discussion of the issues. President Bush silenced all criticism by calling it unpatriotic. When he said that "either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists," I heard alarm bells ringing. I am afraid that he is leading us in a very dangerous direction. We are losing the values that have made America great.
The destruction of the twin towers of the World Trade Center was such a horrendous event that it required a strong response. But the President committed a fundamental error in thinking: the fact that the terrorists are manifestly evil does not make whatever counter-actions we take automatically good. What we do to combat terrorism may also be wrong. Recognizing that we may be wrong is the foundation of an open society. President Bush admits no doubt and does not base his decisions on a careful weighing of reality. For 18 months after 9/11 he managed to suppress all dissent. That is how he could lead the nation so far in the wrong direction.
President Bush inadvertently played right into the hands of bin Laden. The invasion of Afghanistan was justified: that was where bin Laden lived and al Qaeda had its training camps. The invasion of Iraq was not similarly justified. It was President Bush's unintended gift to bin Laden.
War and occupation create innocent victims. We count the body bags of American soldiers; there have been more than 1000 in Iraq. The rest of the world also looks at the Iraqis who get killed daily. There have been 20 times more. Some were trying to kill our soldiers; far too many were totally innocent, including many women and children. Every innocent death helps the terrorists' cause by stirring anger against America and bringing them potential recruits.
Immediately after 9/11 there was a spontaneous outpouring of sympathy for us worldwide. It has given way to an equally widespread resentment. There are many more people willing to risk their lives to kill Americans than there were on September 11 and our security, far from improving as President Bush claims, is deteriorating. I am afraid that we have entered a vicious circle of escalating violence where our fears and their rage feed on each other. It is not a process that is likely to end any time soon. If we re-elect President Bush we are telling the world that we approve his policies — and we shall be at war for a long time to come.
I realize that what I am saying is bound to be unpopular. We are in the grip of a collective misconception induced by the trauma of 9/11, and fostered by the Bush administration. No politician could say it and hope to get elected. That is why I feel obliged to speak out. There is a widespread belief that President Bush is making us safe. The opposite is true. President Bush failed to finish off bin Laden when he was cornered in Afghanistan because he was gearing up to attack Iraq. And the invasion of Iraq bred more people willing to risk their lives against Americans than we are able to kill — generating the vicious circle I am talking about.
President Bush likes to insist that the terrorists hate us for what we are — a freedom loving people — not what we do. Well, he is wrong on that. He also claims that the torture scenes at Abu Graib prison were the work of a few bad apples. He is wrong on that too. They were part of a system of dealing with detainees put in place by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and our troops in Iraq are paying the price.
How could President Bush convince people that he is good for our security, better than John Kerry? By building on the fears generated by the collapse of the twin towers and fostering a sense of danger. At a time of peril, people rally around the flag and President Bush has exploited this. His campaign is based on the assumption that people do not really care about the truth and they will believe practically anything if it is repeated often enough, particularly by a President at a time of war. There must be something wrong with us if we fall for it. For instance, some 40% of the people still believe that Saddam Hussein was connected with 9/11 — although it is now definitely established by the 9/11 Commission, set up by the President and chaired by a Republican, that there was no connection. I want to shout from the roof tops: "Wake up America. Don't you realize that we are being misled?"
President Bush has used 9/11 to further his own agenda which has very little to do with fighting terrorism. There was an influential group within the Bush administration led by Vice President Dick Cheney that was itching to invade Iraq long before 9/11. The terrorist attack gave them their chance. If you need a tangible proof why President Bush does not deserve to be re-elected, consider Iraq.
The war in Iraq was misconceived from start to finish -- if it has a finish. It is a war of choice, not necessity, in spite of what President Bush says. The arms inspections and sanctions were working. In response to American pressure, the United Nations had finally agreed on a strong stand. As long as the inspectors were on the ground, Saddam Hussein could not possibly pose a threat to our security. We could have declared victory but President Bush insisted on going to war.
We went to war on false pretences. The real reasons for going into Iraq have not been revealed to this day. The weapons of mass destruction could not be found, and the connection with al Qaeda could not be established. President Bush then claimed that we went to war to liberate the people of Iraq. All my experience in fostering democracy and open society has taught me that democracy cannot be imposed by military means. And, Iraq would be the last place I would chose for an experiment in introducing democracy — as the current chaos demonstrates.
Of course, Saddam was a tyrant, and of course Iraqis — and the rest of the world — can rejoice to be rid of him. But Iraqis now hate the American occupation. We stood idly by while Baghdad was ransacked. As the occupying power, we had an obligation to maintain law and order, but we failed to live up to it. If we had cared about the people of Iraq we should have had more troops available for the occupation than we needed for the invasion. We should have provided protection not only for the oil ministry but also the other ministries, museums and hospitals. Baghdad and the country's other cities were destroyed after we occupied them. When we encountered resistance, we employed methods that alienated and humiliated the population. The way we invaded homes, and the way we treated prisoners generated resentment and rage. Public opinion condemns us worldwide.
The number of flipflops and missteps committed by the Bush administration in Iraq far exceeds anything John Kerry can be accused of. First we dissolved the Iraqi army, then we tried to reconstitute it. First we tried to eliminate the Baathists, then we turned to them for help. First we installed General Jay Garner to run the country, then we gave it to Paul Bremer and when the insurgency became intractable, we installed an Iraqi government. The man we chose was a protégé of the CIA with the reputation of a strong man — a far cry from democracy. First we attacked Falluja over the objections of the Marine commander on the ground, then pulled them out when the assault was half-way through, again over his objections. "Once you commit, you got to stay committed," he said publicly. More recently, we started bombing Falluja again.
The Bush campaign is trying to put a favorable spin on it, but the situation in Iraq is dire. Much of the Western part of the country has been ceded to the insurgents. Even the so-called Green Zone (a small enclave in the center of Baghdad where Americans live and work) is subject to mortar attacks. The prospects of holding free and fair elections in January are fast receding and civil war looms. President Bush received a somber intelligence evaluation in July but he has kept it under wraps and failed to level with the electorate.
Bush's war in Iraq has done untold damage to the United States. It has impaired our military power and undermined the morale of our armed forces. Before the invasion of Iraq, we could project overwhelming power in any part of the world. We cannot do so any more because we are bogged down in Iraq. Afghanistan is slipping from our control. North Korea, Iran, Pakistan and other countries are pursuing nuclear programs with renewed vigor and many other problems remain unattended.
By invading Iraq without a second UN resolution, we violated international law. By mistreating and even torturing prisoners, we violated the Geneva conventions. President Bush has boasted that we do not need a permission slip from the international community, but our actions have endangered our security — particularly the security of our troops.
Our troops were trained to project overwhelming power. They were not trained for occupation duties. Having to fight an insurgency saps their morale. Many of our troops return from Iraq with severe trauma and other psychological disorders. Sadly, many are also physically injured. After Iraq, it will be difficult to recruit people for the armed forces and we may have to resort to conscription.
There are many other policies for which the Bush administration can be criticized but none are as important as Iraq. Iraq has cost us nearly 200 billion dollars — an enormous sum. It could have been used much better elsewhere. The costs are going to mount because it was much easier to get into Iraq than it will be to get out of there. President Bush has been taunting John Kerry to explain how he would do things differently in Iraq. John Kerry has responded that he would have done everything differently and he would be in a better position to extricate us than the man who got us in there. But it won't be easy for him either, because we are caught in a quagmire.
It is a quagmire that many predicted. I predicted it in my book, The Bubble of American Supremacy. I was not alone: top military and diplomatic experts desperately warned the President not to invade Iraq. But he ignored their experienced advice. He suppressed the critical process. The discussion about Iraq remains stilted even during this presidential campaign because of the notion that any criticism of our Commander-in-Chief puts our troops at risk. But this is Bush's war, and he ought to be held responsible for it. It's the wrong war, fought the wrong way. Step back for a moment from the cacophony of the election campaign and reflect: who got us into this mess? In spite of his Texas swagger, George W. Bush does not qualify to serve as our Commander-in-Chief.
There is a lot more to be said on the subject and I have said it in my book, The Bubble of American Supremacy, now available in paperback. I hope you will read it. You can download the chapter on the Iraqi quagmire free from www.GeorgeSoros.com.
If you find my arguments worth considering, please share this message with your friends.
I would welcome your comments at www.GeorgeSoros.com. I am eager to engage in a critical discussion because the stakes are so high.
This was published on the Straits Times Interactive site on Oct 13, 2004:
Experts condemn US foreign policyNEW YORK - More than 650 foreign affairs experts from the United States and abroad have signed an open letter condemning the Bush administration's foreign policy, saying it has harmed the fight against terrorists and calling for a change of course.
The letter from the non-partisan Security Scholars for a Sensible Foreign Policy was released on Tuesday and points to what it described as a series of blunders in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
'We judge that the current American policy centred around the war in Iraq is the most misguided one since the Vietnam period, one which harms the cause of the struggle against extreme Islamic terrorists,' the letter states.
It adds that 'the results of this policy have been overwhelmingly negative for US interests'.
The man who first thought to write the letter, Dr Stuart J. Kaufman, a professor of political science at the University of Delaware, said the group wanted to influence the public debate, not endorse one presidential candidate over the other.
'The part of it that's news is that the overwhelming consensus among national security experts is that the current policy is not working,' he said. 'And the people who signed this are usually people who don't agree on anything.'
Among other things, the scholars claimed that:
The scholars who signed the letter are mostly academics from universities throughout the US and some allied countries, including Britain, Sweden, the Netherlands and Argentina. They include former staff at the Pentagon and the US State Department. -- AP
- The US did not send enough troops to Afghanistan to fight Al-Qaeda, and that the focus on Iraq diverted much needed resources from Afghanistan.
- Some of the reasons cited by the Bush administration to go to war against Iraq were later proven wrong, including by government agencies. They include the claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
- The administration did not commit enough troops to Iraq, created a security vacuum by disbanding the Iraqi army, and embarked on a poorly planned reconstruction effort.
- American actions in Iraq have increased the popularity of Al-Qaeda in some countries and attracted recruits.
After I watched the first Bush-Kerry debate and went to sleep, I woke up at like 3am and wrote this:
If you are concerned about the safety of you and your family in this "new world" we live in, you should vote for Kerry. Here's why:You only have to look at the daily news to see that the world is a much more dangerous place to live in since 9/11 and the war in Iraq — despite all that Bush has been proclaiming. Bush's decision to misleadingly sell Americans and the world on invading Iraq, failing that, and then going ahead anyway has directly led to more terrorism, more and more powerful global terrorist and militant groups, the killing of thousands of American soldiers and innocent civilians in Iraq and Afganistan (and other parts of the world), and hatred of the US by the citizens of most other nations and Muslims around the world. And Bin Laden and "25%" of al-Qaeda (according to Bush) are still on the loose — still effectively spreading fear, terrorism, and hatred. Bush's move to invade Iraq has actually backfired — helping al-Qaeda's cause by motivating more Muslims to take up arms against a "bullying" US.
Bush claims that US and the world are safer because of his "war on terrorism" and invasion of Iraq. Excuse me but after Iraq's invasion, there has been an enormous and unprecedented increase in terrorist activities around the globe — bombings and hostage-takings in Iraq, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Turkey, Russia, Philippines, Spain, and Egypt. And the numerous hostage beheadings we are seeing today never occurred before either. NO, Bush's war on terrorism has in reality escalated terrorism to an entirely new level. Bush's logic and strategy are incredibly flawed.
Bush and his administration have consistently mislead, deceived and flat-out lied to Americans and the world. They justified the war in Iraq by first claiming that Saddam had links to al-Qaeda. As that proved false, they then tried to justify the war by saying Saddam had "weapons of mass destruction" and was a major terrorist threat. Now as even those have proved false, they have said "so what that all our justifications were wrong — war with Iraq was the right thing to do and even knowing what we know now we still would have done the same". Unbelievable — you cannot get much more unethical, insincere, and arrogant than that. Perhaps they really did know all along that they were majorly stretching the truth to convince the world that invading Iraq was necessary. As the war was ending they also claimed that most Iraqis were happy to be free and liberated. I saw the exact opposite on TV and the newspapers — Iraqis seemed very upset and bitter with all the turmoil and death in their country and they wanted the American "invaders" and "occupiers" out. Bush's administration is now saying that they have made lots of progress in Iraq and that Iraq is under control but the reality is that fierce battles and bombings continue every day and each month more US soldiers and Iraqis are getting killed. Reality is often the complete opposite of whatever the Bush administration is saying.
How can you sensibly support someone who has made such a huge mistake in which thousands have died or suffered greatly as a direct result? That major mistake's effect on global terrorism affects the lives of practically everyone in the civilized world. Do Americans, British, or Australians at home or travelling abroad feel any safer now? Do Indonesians or Russians in their own countries feel any safer now? Of course not. If Bush were heading a company after having made such a big error in judgement and misleading people, he'd have been fired and sued!
Setting up military bases in Iraq and investing billions in new military weapons and a missile defense system, as Bush supports, is not the right way to combat terrorism and to make the world a safer place. The terrorists have proven that these types of counter measures are ineffective against them. If they did get a hold of a nuclear bomb, chances are they would not launch it as a missile and even if they did, I have my doubts about the defense system actually working. And how would you effectively counter such a strike?
A better approach is to more aggressively hunt down Bin Laden and al-Qaeda and at the same time build better relations with Muslims around the world and mend relationships with allies to combat terrorism and hatred, reducing the chances of deadly strikes happening, as Kerry is advocating.
Please vote Kerry — we can't afford another 4 years with Bush misleading, both in terms of making wrong decisions and in deceiving.
Quick note to say that our Photo Gallery section has been updated with loads more photos, including those from Justin's 2nd birthday bash, and even 3 video clips (justin jammin' to the beat is particularly entertaining!).
Typhoon Dujuan (TY 14W) is headed our way! I'm at work now but headed home shortly as Tropical Cyclone Warning Number 8 is expected within 30 minutes. Signal Number 10 is expected at 5pm.
More info:
http://www.hko.gov.hk/contente.htm
http://www.hko.gov.hk/wxinfo/currwx/tc.htm
http://metoc.npmoc.navy.mil/jtwc.html
Graphic below provided by the (US Navy's) Naval Pacific Meteorology and Oceanography Center's Joint Typhoon Warning Center (link just above):
[UPDATE @ 8:45pm: Signal No. 9 was issued at around 8pm. Signal No. 10 may be issued later. Worst is expected to come at around midnight.]
[UPDATE @ 11:50pm: Typhoon warning was downgraded to Signal No. 8 (winds with mean speeds of 63 kilometres per hour or more) at around 10pm. Amber Rainstorm Warning (heavy rains exceeding 30 millimeters per hour) went into effect at 9:05pm.]
Wow, a month has flown by since my last entry. From June 28 to July 11 we were on vacation in Honolulu (my home town). Justin got to meet most of his relatives on my side for the first time. He loved the new environment — fresh air, lots of open spaces, and perfect weather. Took us all a few days to get adjusted to the new time zone (18 hours behind Hong Kong time). In the first few days we also pigged out on all our local favorites: Yami Yogurt at Ala Moana shopping center, tuna sushi rolls at Kozo Sushi (on King's Street), lau laus and lomi lomi salmon (just from Safeway supermarket at first, then from Young's Fish Market), malasadas (Portuguese-style doughnuts) at Leonard's Bakery (on Kapahulu Avenue), waffle hotdogs and "Ono Ono shakes" at KC Drive Inn (also on Kapahulu Avenue), custard pie from Dee Lite bakery, chili from Zippy's, and Coco Puffs (a cream puff with special frosting on the top) from Liliha Bakery. We enjoyed lunches, dinners, shopping, and just hanging out with family and friends (Kenny Lee, Keith & Nalani Yoshida's family, and Leslie Lum). At times it was hectic — we were constantly on the go and spent quite a bit of time just on the road getting to places (traffic has gotten really bad). Still, we managed to make it out to the Waikele factory outlets 3 times (still wasn't enough for Gwen though!). Justin did not like Sandy Beach, Waikiki Aquarium, or the Honolulu Zoo but he did enjoy the pool at the Waialae Country Club which was quite a surprise. Will be putting up new photos in our Gallery section real soon. I'm 4 months behind in updating that!
No, I'm not being metaphorical here in Hong Kong... As I look outside from my office window it's pouring rain and very dark — gives you quite an eerie feeling! Although it's only 9:55am, the darkness makes it feel like it's 7pm. Amber Rainstorm and Thunderstorm Warnings are in effect.
http://www.underground.org.hkYikes!... Yahoo forecast (above link) shows we're expected to have thunderstorms for the next 4 days at least!
http://weather.yahoo.com/forecast/CHXX0049_f.html
Excellent anti-smoking letter by Esther Morris of Mid-Levels as published today in the South China Morning Post "Talkback" column:
I write with reference to Sherry Lee's article "Hungry to stoke a smouldering issue" (May 9), according to which restaurant owner Richard Feldman objects to a total ban on smoking because it would deprive smokers of their "rights".I would like to know which particular rights Mr Feldman is referring to.
Presumably he is talking about liberty, but can such liberty be justified at the expense of another person's right to well-being?
The universality of human rights requires that each person act with due regard for other persons' freedom and well-being as well as for their own. This implies there is a responsibility as well as a right. Smokers, who are in the minority, impose the effects of their habit on non-smokers, who are the majority. How can this be right?
Hong Kong desperately needs to improve its image with the rest of the world. Banning smoking in restaurants would be a step in the right direction.
ESTHER MORRIS, MID-LEVELS
Dr Margaret Cheng, in her "Doctor" column today in the South China Morning Post started out her article titled "Tobacco treaty" this way:
Remember those protest marches by waiters and bar staff against plans to ban smoking in restaurants and bars? It was going to ruin their business and put them all out of work, they said.A year on, a lot of them have lost their jobs. But the ban on smoking had nothing to do with it. Air quality, or the fear that air quality is not good or safe enough, has had everything to do with it.
While Sars has managed to do what the smoking ban couldn't — all the evidence in other countries is that more people use restaurants and bars once smokers stop polluting them — Hong Kong has had a lot to do with moving the world towards a healthy smoke-free status.
How? Dr Judith Mackay (a former South China Morning Post health columnist) has worked tirelessly for nearly a decade to get the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) — which aims at curbing tobacco-related deaths and diseases — passed by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Of course, I am all for this! More info on the FCTC:
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/releases/2003/prwha1/en
http://tobacco.who.int
Big day for Hong Kong: WHO removes recommendation to avoid travel to Hong Kong.
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/releases/2003/prwha4/en/
An excerpt from yesterday's press release:
23 May 2003 | GENEVA -- Effective today, the World Health Organization (WHO) is removing its recommendation that people should postpone all but essential travel to Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Guangdong province, China.The recommendation to consider postponing all but essential travel to Hong Kong and Guangdong was issued on 2 April in order to minimize the international spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). WHO is changing this recommendation as the situation in these areas has now improved significantly.
[...]
In Hong Kong, the three-day average number of new cases has remained below five over the last six days and the pattern of the outbreak shows a sustained decline since the peak of new cases in late March. The total number of people who are still infectious (all of whom are in hospital) has fallen below 60, although there are other former SARS patients who are still convalescing or being treated for other conditions in hospital. All new cases in the past 20 days have occurred in people who were already identified as contacts of a person with SARS and under active surveillance by the local health authorities. There have been no recent reports of internationally exported cases from Hong Kong.
And on top of this good news, today, for the first time since the reporting of daily SARS cases began, there have been NO new cases. Yesterday, 2 new cases had been reported.
Whoa, a whole month has gone by without me writing a single entry here! Why no updates in such a long time? Well, a bunch of factors, really. I have been lazy. I have been extremely busy in the office. I have been spending more time with little Justin. Here's one of the main reasons though: My main computer, a PowerBook G4/500, has been never been working right since I had the logic board replaced, the result of coffee I had spilt directly onto the keyboard.
I have had the logic board changed 2 times already and it looks like it'll be changed yet another time. With the first 2 replacement logic boards the problem was a relatively minor one — a push of certain keys would have the effect of 3 or 4 other keys being depressed. With the 3rd logic board, the problem is quite serious — the machine would totally freeze/lock-up anywhere from 4 to 20 times a day. The mouse pointer/curser would completely freeze or disappear. These freezes occured in a freshly-installed OS X (10.2.4), stock OS 9 (9.2.2), in Single-User command-line mode (booted with Command-S keys held down), booted from an OS 9 install CD and a Disk Warrior boot CD, and in many different applications (i.e. Eudora, Disk First Aid, Terminal, Internet Explorer). Another important point is that I had never experienced these sort of solid lock-ups since I started using OS X, almost a year ago. Of course, all of this pointed to a hardware, rather than software, problem. On a recent visit to an Apple authorized repair center (one visit out of over half a dozen in the past 2 months or so), the technician suggested the problem was my hard disk. Fed up with the constant freezes and visits back to the repair center, I immediately bought a new hard disk and had it installed. For 2 days, on Saturday and Sunday, the PowerBook worked without any freezes. On the following Monday, however, the freezes came back! I actually took over half an hour of video showing my PowerBook continuously freezing (freeze, power off, start up, disk check, freeze, power off, start up, disk check...) in an effort to convince the Apple repair center that the logic board was likely the problem. So now my PowerBook has been at the repair center for a week of thorough testing and I've been told that the logic board will likely be replaced again (for the 3rd time!) and that I'd probably be able to get the PowerBook back in another week or so, on around June 2nd. So I have spent a tremendous amount of time in the past month troubleshooting and continuously backing up my data. I'll be using my Windows 2000 PCs at home and work for another week.
The day before yesterday I submitted this brief letter to the South China Morning Post for publication.
More Sars info would be helpfulThe daily release of latest Sars figures could be improved to include detailed information such as how new patients got infected. A good example of providing this sort of information which I have found helpful and can be comforting to the public can be found on the Singapore Ministry of Health's site: http://app.moh.gov.sg/sar/sar03.asp.
Details of new patients' movements can also help the government in "contact tracing" which I understand is an important step in helping to contain the outbreak. Also, as the government is releasing a list of buildings where confirmed Sars patients reside, shouldn't patients' workplaces also be included since those would seemingly be Sars "hotspots" as well?
Thursday, April 24, 2003
More information, pleaseI think one of the biggest problems with the Sars outbreak has been the lack of information released by the government.
In contrast, Singapore's daily report gives complete details about how each Sars patient picked up the disease and possible contacts before the first symptoms appeared (app.moh.gov.sg/sar/sar03.asp).
I think the people of Hong Kong deserve to know more each day than "the remaining 29 were other patients and contacts of patients with atypical pneumonia" as we were told at the weekend. This information gives us no information on how the disease is being caught and spread in Hong Kong.
The government should immediately start to release the following information. Each day, give us comprehensive particulars on each new patient on a case-by-case basis, as is done in Singapore, including letting us know how many Sars patients caught the disease outside our borders and brought it into Hong Kong.
In the list of buildings with infected patients released each day, give the following additional information: date of first infection, date of latest infection and number of flats in each building that had a Sars infection. We can then have an idea whether the disease is spreading within families or within buildings.
For all the flights that have had a Sars passenger, give a flight-by-flight breakdown of how many people subsequently caught the disease. Such information will let the travelling public make an informed decision on how safe it is to fly (and perhaps save our airline and tourism industries).
For those fit and relatively young people who have died, give an indication of why they might have died, including facts such as late treatment, suspected high viral load or a form of Sars that is harder to treat.
Give us the death rate based on the current recovery rate, not on the number of infections to date, which an earlier correspondent showed was misleading ("Analysing the numbers and what they mean", April 16).
It is only with the above information that we can all help fight this disease and win. Not releasing these relatively straightforward details risks more people needlessly dying, and the death of Hong Kong as Asia's World City.
NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED
This letter is an excellent piece that precisely conveys my thoughts and more (and I'm sure that of many others as well). Kudos to whoever wrote it! I certainly hope the government hears this message and takes appropriate action very soon.
Excerpts from two separate South China Morning Post articles today:
But six of eight deaths reported over the weekend were people ranging in age from 35 to 52 and Hospital Authority spokeswoman Elinda Luk said on Monday that officials were investigating what had happened.The senior executive manager of Hong Kong's Hospital Authority, Liu Shao-haei, told a news conference Sunday he was "unhappy" to see deaths of the younger, fitter patients but offered no immediate explanation.
Seven more people in Hong Kong have died from the atypical pneumonia virus, the Department of Health said on Monday.The latest deaths bring Hong Kong's total number of fatalities from severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) to 47.
The seven victims include two women with a history of chronic disease, aged 74 and 67. They died in Kwong Wah Hospital. Two men, aged 49 and 78, died in Princess Margaret Hospital. A 69-year-old woman and a 74-year-old man, with a history of chronic disease, died in Prince of Wales Hospital. A 95-year-old woman, also with a history of chronic disease, died in United Christian Hospital.
The department said an additional 40 patients with symptoms of atypical pneumonia were admitted to public hospitals on Monday. They include four health-care workers — two from Kwong Wah Hospital, one from Prince of Wales Hospital and one from Shatin Hospital — and five more patients from Amoy Gardens. The remaining 31 were new patients and contacts of patients with atypical pneumonia.
Some 229 patients have recovered from Sars and have been discharged from public hospitals. Of these, six were discharged on Monday, the department said.
Andy Rooney's TV commentaries on (against) the War on Iraq are just awesome! He's just brilliant. He reveals profound insights about the war and the Bush administration while still being very funny. For those who may not know, Andy Rooney has been a commentator on CBS's weekly news show "60 Minutes" since 1978. Each episode ends with his commentary.
I just watched his latest, Just Tell Us The Truth, tonight on local channel ATV World and it was awesome — and funny! Last week's commentary, It's Just My Opinion, was superb too. Explosive Progress starts out pretty hilarious but ends with a serious warning:
If we continue our progress inventing weapons capable of wiping ourselves out, Earth could end up without people again.
The supporting video clips add a lot to the commentary so with these links to just the text you're missing at least 50% of the humor and impact. Hope you didn't miss these on TV!
[Update: I just discovered that you can watch videos (not just read the text) of Rooney's commentaries from the links above — just look under the Multimedia tab on the right of the pages but you'll need RealOne Player. Go check 'em out!]
This excerpt from The Straits Times Interactive article Scientists' worldwide race against virus is particularly scary:
The latest theory is that 'silent spreaders' who carry the disease but show few signs may be most responsible for spreading Sars. 'There is some evidence of that,' Mr Iain Simpson, spokesman for WHO's communicable disease programme, said. 'It's something we're exploring but we don't fully understand.'That might mean there is a Sars Sally out there, akin to America's Mary Mallon, who spread typhoid fever in the US in 1907 without showing any symptoms, leading scientists to dub her Typhoid Mary.
YAY!... A letter I wrote on SARS and submitted by email this past Sunday was published today in the South China Morning Post's "Letters" section. Not only that but it was the "featured" letter in the section, printed in bold and set between two thick rules (view a scan of it)! OK, OK, yes, I am "haolian" (sort of like "too proud"), as my wife (and other Singaporeans) would say!
Well, here's my letter as it was published. Of course, the SCMP editor added a bit of polish to my original which I'm thankful for.
Tuesday, April 8, 2003Why the Sars virus is so dangerous: key facts are still unknown
A few readers' letters published in the South China Morning Post suggest that statistics, as in the statement "many more people die of typical pneumonia than of severe acute respiratory syndrome", means that Sars is not as serious as the "mass hysteria" would indicate.
This is despite the fact that noted institutions on disease control — the World Health Organisation and the US Centres for Disease Control — have declared Sars a worldwide health threat and advised international travellers to postpone trips to Hong Kong and southern China.
Also, the recent release of the "real" figures for mainland China are shocking.
One of your correspondents claimed that "99.99 per cent of the people in Hong Kong are completely free of Sars and the number of new cases reported daily appears to be dwindling."
The truth is that at this stage, we cannot be sure how many people are free of Sars because there may be some who have the virus and do not show symptoms. And it is too early to say that the number of new cases is dwindling because on Sunday there were 42, three more than Saturday.
Experts do not yet know the cause of Sars (a new coronavirus is the leading candidate, but paramyxovirus and/or chlamydia as a co-factor have been hypothesised), or the routes of transmission (droplets, animals and environmental factors have been put forward).
While most who have died from Sars were elderly and/or had chronic diseases, Sars has in fact struck down young, healthy people as well and that is unusual.
Another concern is whether those infected can infect others before showing symptoms. If you look at the daily updates and statistics on Sars on www.who.int/csr/sars/en/ you will see that it is far from being under control globally.
It has spread across the globe very fast and under undetermined circumstances can infect a huge number of people (and not just in hospitals) in a very short time — as in the Amoy Gardens and Metropole Hotel cases. These are the few facts and certainties about Sars.
The bottom line is that there are many uncertainties and unknowns about Sars and the information is changing daily.
We — indeed, the experts — cannot yet reach any conclusions as to what are "sensible precautions" or how serious the disease really is. Do masks help? Common sense tells me that if an infected person sneezes in an elevator just before I step in, my chances of catching Sars will be much less if I am wearing an N95 mask.
Also, with more people wearing masks the potential of spread via droplets is reduced — the droplets of the infected will be better contained and masks will help prevent the infection-free from breathing in the virus.
While I appreciate that the statistics provided by the correspondent have been insightful, my worry is that such letters may persuade readers to let their guard down and not take, or be more lax about, "sensible precautions".
I feel that the more of us who err on the side of caution, the quicker we will be able to get this virus under control and get on with life as normal.
DEREK TOM, Wan Chai
If you're interested, here was my original letter:
Optimistic statistics may be a disserviceSeveral readers' letters published in the SCMP over the past few days suggest that based on statistics such as "many more people die of typical pneumonia than of SARS", the danger of SARS is not as serious as the "mass hysteria" would indicate. This is despite the fact that international experts on disease control — the World Health Organization and the US Centers for Disease Control — have declared SARS a worldwide health threat and have advised international travellers to postpone trips to Hong Kong and Southern China. Also, the recent release of the "real" figures for mainland China are much more shocking.
One of your respondents claimed that "99.99 percent of the people in Hong Kong are completely free of SARS and the number of cases reported daily appears to be dwindling." The truth is that at this stage, we cannot be sure of how many people are free of SARS because there may be people who have the virus and don't show symptoms, as was reported in today's SCMP. And it is too early to say that the number of new cases are dwindling because Saturday's numbers are 39, 12 more than the day before.
Experts don't yet know the cause of SARS (a new coronavirus is the leading candidate but paramyxovirus and/or chlamydia as a co-factor have been hypothesized) and routes of transmission (droplets, animals, and environmental factors?). While most who have died from SARS were elderly and/or had chronic diseases, SARS has in fact struck down young, healthy people as well and that is unusual. Another key concern is whether those infected can infect others before showing symptoms.
If you look at the daily updates and statistics on SARS on http://www.who.int/csr/sars/en/ you'll see that SARS is far from being under control globally. It has spread across the globe very fast and under certain but undetermined circumstances it can infect a huge number of people in the community (not just in hospitals) in a very short period of time — as in the Amoy Gardens and Metropole Hotel case. These are the few facts and certainties that we have about SARS.
The bottom line is that currently there are many uncertainties and unknowns regarding SARS and information about it is changing daily. We — indeed, the experts — cannot yet make any conclusions as to what are "sensible precautions" or how serious the disease really is.
Do masks help? Common sense tells me that if an infected person sneezed in an elevator just before I stepped in and I wasn't aware of that, my chances of catching SARS would be much less if I were wearing a N95 mask. Also, with more in the community wearing masks the potential of spread via droplets is reduced — those infected will have their infectious droplets better contained and those virus-free can prevent from breathing in the virus and getting infected.
While I do appreciate that the statistics provided have been insightful, my worry is that such letters may persuade readers to let their guard down and not take, or be more lax with, "sensible precautions". I feel that the more of us who err on the side of caution, the quicker we'll be able to get this virus under control and get on with life as normal.
Latest SARS info from the World Health Organization (updated daily):
http://www.who.int/csr/sars/en/
A heart-wrenching article reveals the horrific realities of the war, any war...
Published on April 3, 2003 in the South China Morning Post.
Thursday, April 3, 2003Civilian victims were seeking US help
MEG LAUGHLIN of Knight Ridder near Najaf and AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE in Washington
An Iraqi family that lost 11 members when US soldiers opened fire on their van were fleeing towards US lines on the advice of US leaflets, according to a survivor.
Bakhat Hassan lost his daughters, aged two and five, his three-year-old son, his parents, two older brothers, their wives and two nieces, aged 12 and 15, in the incident on Monday. He said US soldiers at an earlier checkpoint had waved them through as they drove away from their home village.
As they approached another checkpoint 40 km south of Karbala, they waved again at the American soldiers.
"We were thinking these Americans want us to be safe," Mr Hassan said.
The soldiers didn't wave back. They fired.
"I saw the heads of my two little girls come off," Mr Hassan's wife, Lamea, 36, recalled numbly. "My girls . . . my son is dead."
US officials originally gave the death toll as seven in the incident, and reporters at the scene placed it at 10. But Mr Hassan's father died later at a US army hospital near Najaf.
American officials said the soldiers who opened fire were following orders not to let vehicles approach checkpoints. On Saturday, a suicide bomber killed four US soldiers outside Najaf.
The survivors tell a distressing tale, of a family fleeing towards what they thought would be safety, tragically misunderstanding instructions.
"A miscommunication with civilians," said an army report written on Monday night.
Mr Hassan's father, in his 60s, wore his best clothes for the trip through the American lines: a pinstriped suit. Mr Hassan said: "To look American."
Mr Hassan, his wife and another of his brothers are in intensive care at the military hospital. Another brother, sister-in-law and a seven-year-old child were released to bury the dead.
The Shi'ite family of 17 was packed in its 1974 Land Rover, so crowded that Mr Hassan, 35, was outside on the rear bumper hanging on to the back door.
Everyone else was piled on one another's laps in three sets of seats. They were fleeing their farm town southeast of Karbala, where US attack helicopters had fired missiles and rockets the day before.
Helicopters also had dropped leaflets on the town: a drawing of a family sitting at a table eating and smiling with a message written in Arabic.
Sergeant Stephen Furbush, an army intelligence analyst, said the message read: "To be safe, stay put."
But Mr Hassan said he and his father thought it just said: "Be safe." To them, that meant getting away from the helicopters.
His father drove. They planned to go to Karbala. They stopped at an army checkpoint on the northbound road near Sahara, south of Karbala, and were told to go on, Mr Hassan said.
But the Iraqi family "misunderstood" what the soldiers were saying, Sergeant Furbush said.
A few kilometres later, a Bradley fighting vehicle came into view. The family waved as it came closer. The soldiers opened fire.
Mr Hassan remembers an army medic at the scene of the killings speaking Arabic.
"He told us it was a mistake and the soldiers were sorry," Mr Hassan said.
"They believed it was a van of suicide bombers," Sergeant Furbush said.
Soldiers in the region have been jittery following alleged "false surrenders" by Iraqis who have then opened fire.
Brigadier General Vincent Brooks of the US Central Command in Qatar also expressed regret, but added that civilian deaths "remain unavoidable".
President George W. Bush, through a spokesman, expressed similar sentiments to the top US military officer.
"The president always regrets any innocent loss of life. And he recognises that most innocents have been lost in this war at the hands of Saddam Hussein and his henchmen," said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.
"That's who is to blame for the loss of innocent lives."
But Mr Fleischer declined to comment specifically on the killings, which a European Union spokesman described as "a horrible and tragic incident".
Mr Hassan, his wife, his father and a brother were airlifted to the army hospital. Three doctors and three nurses worked on the father for four hours. His right hand and right leg were amputated by a plastic surgeon.
A cardio-thoracic surgeon operated on his chest, and an internist repaired a hole in his colon. But his heart stopped and they couldn't restart it.
"We didn't know who he was and we didn't care. We just wanted to save him," said John Cho, the cardio-thoracic surgeon who worked on the father.
On Tuesday, Mr Hassan and his wife were in beds next to each other in the green hospital tent in the desert. He had staples in his head. She had a mangled hand and shrapnel in her face.
Major Scott McDannold, an anaesthesiologist, said Mr Hassan's brother, five beds down, would not make it.
Major McDannold stayed up all night on Monday with the brother, who is on a respirator with a broken neck.
Mr Hassan, a poor farmer, and his wife, who is nine months pregnant, rarely speak or sleep. They lie in their drab green beds with open, dead eyes.
http://www.who.int/csr/sarsarchive/2003_02_02b/en/
Here's an excerpt:
The SARS outbreak in Hong Kong SAR has developed an unusual pattern of transmission. This pattern is different from what is being seen in the vast majority of other SARS outbreaks, and is not yet fully understood. The number of cases is continuing to increase significantly, and there is evidence that the disease has spread beyond the initial focus in hospitals.These developments raise questions related to other routes of transmission, in addition to well-documented face-to-face exposure to droplets released when an infected person coughs or sneezes. Epidemiologists are considering whether SARS is being transmitted in Hong Kong by some environmental means for which no satisfactory explanation has been found.
Particular concern centres on a large cluster of cases linked to residential buildings in the Amoy Garden housing estate in the Kowloon district of Hong Kong.
A good friend and excellent writer, David Wall, had this to say on the war... (I concur with him, of course.)
It's an illegal war, not because of the de jure lack of a specific United Nations resolution endorsing the use of "any means necessary" in Iraq, but because the war fails to meet the accepted criteria for a just war. For lack of a better codification of what a just war is, we can consider the statement of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops on the matter. Let's take the statement one element at a time."The damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave, and certain;"
We have to define "aggressor" liberally here. Saddam Hussein is obviously a bad guy, indeed one of the worst. His behaviour as a political leader is in opposition to generally accepted standards of human decency and civility. One could argue that his sympathies with terrorist groups — and despite the fact that there appears to be no particular love between Al Qaeda and the Iraqi regime, there is the "enemy of my enemy" phenomenon going on — constitute a "grave and certain" threat to humanity.
"All other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective;"
Eh. Ten years of a weak inspection regime (which involved AIRCRAFT only in its waning weeks, probably after the die was cast) was hardly an effective attempt at peaceful resolution.
"There must be serious prospects of success;"
Sure, the West will win. No question here. It may take a while, and be a bit messier than advertised, but they'll kill all the Saddam guys' hardware.
"The use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated. The power of modern means of destruction weighs very heavily in evaluating this condition."
This is the problem. The evil spawned by the current operation will likely be far worse (and certainly more far-reaching) than the evil that existed in the previous totalitarian state. For sure, the West will face a heap of terrorist attacks, against Western military targets and against civilian interests all over the world. Resentment of the West will grow in the Muslim states, on the simple grounds that soldiers from the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia are occupying land that isn't rightfully theirs. Terrible damage has already been done to the United Nations (arguably the greatest political accomplishment of the post-WWII world) and to the NATO alliance.
Speaking of which, isn't it odd that neither U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell nor U.S. President Bush bothered to *visit* fence-sitters Russia or China during the run-up to the war? The level of hubris is shocking.
There was a time, a whopping 15 years ago, when the United States were the good guys, standing up to the demonstrably evil and obviously malignant Soviet Union. The West won that one, and properly so. Now, the country has embarked on something very close to a war of aggression, and it seems to be way out of line. The fact that the war may expand to other countries, as posited recently in the Wall Street Journal, presents a further complication.
It is a difficult time to be an American.
In the MTR (subway) trains and stations over 90% of the people are wearing face masks. On the streets, in shopping malls, and at the airport it's slightly less — probably 75-80% — but still shocking seeing so many of the public wearing masks. In my office, around 50% of the staff (including me) wear masks in the office! Hardly anyone goes to restaurants, theaters, shopping malls these days. We have to be anti-social to prevent from getting infected. Sadly, and quite shockingly, this is what life is like here now.
The safest N95 masks/respirators have completely sold out in Hong Kong and probably the rest of Asia. I had my mom FedEx over 90 3M model 8210 "N95" masks from Hawaii. She spent US$220 (4 boxes @ $55/box) on the shipping! I should be receiving the masks on Thursday.
Tonight the government evacuated the remaining residents (around 270 people) of Amoy Gardens Block E (quarantined just yesterday) to 2 government-owned holiday camp isolation centers. They have 4 of these holiday camps reserved for quarantining infected patients. The combined capacity of these camps is around 1050 people. The government is also providing 3 meals a day and daily necessities (soap, toothpaste, and disinfectant) to all those quarantined. The South China Morning Post reported, "At a glance, it now looks more like a supply station in a war zone, with bags of rice and rolls of toilet paper stacked outside." Psychologists are there to provide free counselling as well.
Latest stats:
75 new cases for a total of 685 infected in Hong Kong today. 1 more dead for a total of 16. Globally, close to 1900 have been infected in 15 countries and 63 have died.
More from CNN.com:
http://www.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/04/01/hk.sars/index.html
Got this from an email just now:
The Hong Kong government reported today 92 new cases of a deadly pneumonia virus at a single housing estate, bringing the total number of infections in the territory to more than 620.
The disease has killed 59 people worldwide and infected more than 1,600 others. The number of cases from Amoy Gardens housing estate in Kowloon has risen to 213, according to the Hong Kong Health Secretary at a news briefing. On Sunday there were 121 cases at the housing project.
A sharp jump in the number of cases at the estate has raised fears that the virus could be airborne rather than spread by droplets from sneezing or coughing as previously thought. The government has ordered residents of one apartment block in Amoy Gardens to be quarantined for 10 days.
Sources: Metroradio
Here's an excellent "letter to the editor" by Paul Serfaty, as published in today's South China Morning Post:
Protests based on peace, not propping up SaddamAnti-war protesters do not believe Saddam Hussein is a nice man. No one disputes Iraq is likely to be better off without him. He is comparable, in his use of chemical weapons and his treatment of minorities, with Hitler. But the parallel stops there.
There were no protests against the war on Hitler in 1939 because he had by then invaded Czechoslovakia and Poland and followed that up by swallowing Denmark and Norway. When he afterwards invaded Belgium, Holland and France, the decision to wage physical war was not exactly a difficult one, and demonstrating against such a defensive war somewhat eccentric.
But the latest anti-war movement doubts the motives of President George W. Bush, doubts the evidence he has presented for war and for the timing of war (it is freezing in the desert at night), and the way he has discarded the agreed disarmament process. It feels that ignoring allies who are physically present in and expert about areas of conflict — in which they have vital interests — may lead to grievous errors. The Arab nations around Iraq and Iran; the Asian nations around North Korea; the Europeans by virtue of their experience of conflict: all are concerned about this friend and ally that now feels it knows our interests better than we do ourselves — enough to dictate to us.
It is concerned that the unilateral abandonment of the accepted constraints on military action destabilises the world further and that the refusal to accept the constraints of multilateralism undermines international due process and takes us backwards to a Bismarckian "might is right". The Bush administration can even break a 50-year taboo to discuss use of nuclear weapons as a tool of modern war.
This reckless passion to dominate is so very far from Winston Churchill's "broad uplands" vision of human progress — progress for which so many died — that the anti-war movement feels the words from Longfellow that Churchill quoted in 1941: "But Westward, look, the land is bright", have been at best sadly compromised, at worst betrayed.
None of these protests are about the legitimacy of Saddam Hussein's rule. They are about building an effective mechanism for controlling the buildup of conflicts, not exacerbating them.
PAUL SERFATY
Mid-Levels
Bush claims that the war in Iraq will bring about "US security and peace in the world" but that couldn't be farthest from the truth.
As Tony Pitts of Bala Cynwyd, PA (a CNN.com reader who left his comments on the site) put it, "Bush's actions are "spawning another generation of terrorists and turning the entire world against the US".
Indeed, the war is dividing nations and dividing governments and their citizens. The terrorist threat now and for many years to come will be greater than it was before.
The war is only bringing about immense pain and suffering (on both sides), and death and destruction.
War itself is not civilized or humane or ethical or moral.
None of the following reasons Bush gave for justifying the war are worth the death of hundreds of innocents civilians (especially children) and soldiers (American, British, Iraqi, or others).
Despite health experts claiming that the virus is only spread via "close contact" the recent spread of the disease to the general public is clearly evidence to me that it can be spread with only "casual contact" or even just breathing in an area where an infected person has sneezed or coughed. Even in the initial outbreak at the Metropole Hotel in Mongkok, some of the seven people who got infected merely visited the hotel or stayed on the same floor as Doctor Liu Jianlun who brought the disease with him from Guangdong. None of them knew Doctor Liu so they were unlikely to have come in close contact with him unless they shared an elevator together. OK, so that is a possibility. But the spread of the virus to 5 families living on different floors of a housing estate, a librarian, a bank staff, a bus driver, a subway (MTR) worker, and 2 police workers indicates that the virus can spread through more casual contact.
Previously, I had thought that wearing a mask only in crowded areas or where I could see someone nearby looking sickly or coughing or sneezing would be sufficient. Now, however, I am wearing a mask outside my home at all times because there is the possibility that, for instance, an infected person sneezes in an elevator and gets out. When I catch the elevator it is empty but end up breathing in the virus and get infected.
There are 3 big reasons why I'm not taking any chances and am wearing a mask out and am washing hands often:
Other evidence that the virus is highly contagious: doctors and nurses who know best how to avoid contracting the virus and have access to safety gear like masks and gloves got infected and several of them have died.
I am also following other recommended precautions — building up immunity by eating right (lots of fruits, vegetables, and proteins), getting adequate rest, and avoiding crowds.
Sure, the mask looks stupid and is very uncomfortable but it is better to be safe than... dead! People who aren't wearing masks are ignorant.
In the news:
Personal observations and experiences:
The atypical pneumonia outbreak here in Hong Kong and now in many other countries is very serious. The new virus actually originated from mainland China, in the Guangdong province. Currently, in Hong Kong only, almost 300 people have been infected and 10 have already died from what has been termed "Sars" (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) by the WHO (World Health Organization). Singapore has 700 people quarantined and 1 has died. They've also closed all their schools. Hong Kong has ordered only 100 schools closed for a week.
What's eerie is seeing so many people (myself included) on the streets, in the subway, and in offices wearing masks to breath through. My guess is that 5-10 percent of the pubic here are now wearing masks. You see a whole assortment of masks — some surgical, some for the construction industry. I've been using the 3M 8210 model mask which I've heard is one of the best.
I just upgraded Movable Type to 2.6.3 (from 2.51). I made sure I backed up all my files (db folder, mt folder, blog folder) first using Transmit 2.3, my choice for best Mac OS X FTP client. I also exported all my entries.
I'm also attempting to duplicate my Movable Type and Gallery (hosted on a US-based Linux server) on my local machine, a (company-owned) PowerBook G4/400 running OS X 10.2.4. I got Movable Type already installed and working but getting all my existing entries, categories, and templates over and working is proving difficult. We'll see.
I was plesantly surprised at how easy it was to get Movable Type running on OS X. All I had to do was activate Apache by ticking the Personal Web Sharing checkbox in the Sharing => Services preference pane. Perl 5.6.0 was already installed. I then installed Movable Type as normal but this was much easier because I was doing it locally — no FTPing and issuing commands via SSH. Oh, I even got ImageMagick 5.5.4 and PHP Apache Module 4.3 installed very easily by using Marc Liyanage's free UNIX Ports Packages. Thanks, Marc!
Bush is supposedly going to war for global "peace and security". The truth is the exact opposite is happening. The terrorist threat is increasing all over the world and anti-American sentiment is growing not only in the Muslim world but in major countries like France, Russia, Germany, and China. The war is inciting more terrorists to take arms against the US and Americans. Bush and his administration are acting "above the law" by bypassing approval by the UN Security Council. Indeed, the majority of the global community does not want a war against Iraq, at least not now. I seriously question whether Bush is any better than Saddam. I'm saddened that as an American I can do nothing to prevent the war and I'm extremely disappointed in my country's government.
Hasn't Bush effectively become the world's dictator? He's able to invade another country even though failing to convince nowhere near the majority of the global community that such action is justified. Even in countries whose governments support Bush, the majority of its citizens are against the war. Again, how democratic are Bush's actions? Listen to the way he talks too — everything is on his terms, no matter what anyone else says.
I am normally not political at all but the Bush administration is pissing me (and millions of others around the world) off because its intentions and actions are unjust and immoral. CNN reported here that President Bush said, "Tomorrow is the day we determine whether or not diplomacy can work." So he is saying that if he doesn't get his way, diplomacy doesn't work? How democratic is that?
He went on to say, "Many nations have voiced a commitment to peace and security, and now they must demonstrate that commitment in the only effective way, by supporting the immediate and unconditional disarmament of Saddam Hussein." Of course, by "immediate and unconditional disarmament..." he means "authorization for war." So Bush is asking nations to support "peace and security" by authorizing war. Uh, isn't that a bit contradictory?
Bush, tell me this: why is the need to go to war so critically urgent right now if progress to disarm is being made? How are Iraqis an increasing threat with all the UN inspectors in their country and the whole world watching? You say war should be the last resort but clearly this is not how you actually feel.
While I am for the pressure — through the US military build-up in the region — on the Iraqi government to disarm I am against the Bush administration's bullying and aggressive yet unjustified push for war.
And while I hate Saddam because he's a cruel and evil dictator, innocent Iraqi people and millions of others in other Middle Eastern countries (Kuwait, Jordon, Turkey...) shouldn't have to suffer, directly or indirectly, because of an unnecessary war. Indeed, the whole world will suffer because of this war that Bush has been set on starting for some time now. Thousands of innocent civilians will most certainly die. Hundreds of thousands will have their lives ruined in other ways. Is it worth it? Bush does not care. Sadly, no one can stop him.
Just got back from my 3rd visit to my dentist for root canal treatment. My God, that was definitely the most pain I ever had to endure! It was so painful that many muscles in my neck and upper body trembled during the process. If I knew the pain would be that severe I would have gladly taken an injection for local anesthetic. The dentist told me AFTER that the treatment is extremely painful because for each of the FOUR roots, you get an electric charge (and contact with a rotating twisted-wire thingy) directly on your nerve! Thank God that the nerve under one of my roots was already dead. I'm told that I can expect pain for another 48 hours but boy am I happy the worst is over (I hope!).
There's a lot more I want to write about but don't yet have the time. I really need to catch up on Justin news (and photos and videos). Here are other things I will (hopefully) get around to writing about as well:
I really, really want to redo this layout template too. Will use at least 1 table, less bright colors, and different fonts. Will get rid of the calendar and move the search button to the top. Need to upgrade Movable Type to version 2.6.3 too!
It's almost 1am here so I'll play catch-up later! Good night.
A quarter of my face is still numb! I got my first root canal treatment just a few hours ago. Well, actually, I just had the first step done; I have 4 or 5 more visits to go. I think (and hope) that today's treatment was the most painful of all the steps since it's over and done with now! We'll see. My next appointment is next Tuesday at 6pm.
Oh, I'll be going to Shanghai on Thursday to sort out some Internet connection and/or worm (self-replicating computer virus) issues in our office there. Will be back in Hong Kong on Friday evening.
For the record, I'm American and I declare that I am totally against war with Iraq. It is unjust and immoral and would certainly result in the deaths of thousands of innocent people. I also don't see the urgency of war. How can Iraq be a threat to anyone right now with intense UN inspections and arial surveillance going on in their country? I also don't see Iraq as a threat to the US or its people. Ironically, the actions of the Bush administration toward Iraq greatly increase any threat to and hatred of Americans by muslim extremists and terrorists angered by this US aggression.
First day back at work after a 5-day holiday and what do I do first thing in the morning?... Colleagues excitedly pop into my office to collect "lai see", I get a bit nervous and then, yes, topple my coffee thermos right onto my PowerBook G4! The coffee drenches the keyboard and I quickly hold the PowerBook upside down. For about 15 seconds the PowerBook still runs but then goes out. I disconnect the power cable, take out the battery, pop off the keyboard and start wiping down the keyboard and try to absorb the coffee from underneath the keys. After the keyboard's exterior is dry I take off the thin titanium base plate of the PowerBook. The mainboard and most everywhere else is pretty dry. I leave the exposed PowerBook resting open and on one of its sides like an open book. I discover that the keyboard's ribbon cable easily disconnects from the mainboard and I start popping off keys, one by one to try and soak up the coffee from inside the thin membrane-like keyboard base. The keyboard is well designed because it protects the mainboard from spills and the keys pop off and back on easily, yet firmly. I want to blow everything dry with a hair dryer but none could be found in our office. I let everything air dry for about an hour while I go off to sort out another emergency — a PC that had a power supply that had blown. In the end, many keys on the PowerBook's keyboard don't work and so now in order to do any work I need to plug in an external USB keyboard. Thankfully, my company insured the PowerBook for accidents like this and so soon I'll be taking it in to a repair shop. I understand that they need 5-6 days to fix it so I'm wondering how I'm going to get much work done without it for that long! Well, I'm definitely going to try and rush them.
On the way back home I stopped by the Wanchai Computer Centre and picked up a cheap, HK$55 (US$7) Genius-branded USB keyboard to use at home. It works but the Command (Apple) key is the key with the Windows logo on it.
A nice thing that happened today was Nancy, who now lives in Tokyo and is visiting Hong Kong for just a week, dropped by to see Justin and ended up joining us for dinner. It was nice to catch up with her!
KUNG HEI FAT CHOI ("Happy Chinese New Year" in Cantonese)! GONG XI FA CAI ("Happy Chinese New Year" in Mandarin)! Today is the start of the Year of the Goat. I've also heard people calling it the Year of the Ram and Year of the Black Sheep as well so I'm not entirely sure which is correct!
Anyway, this is probably the most celebrated season of the year here in Hong Kong. Practically everything — offices, retail shops, supermarkets, and most restaurants — shuts down for at least 4 days and locals spend time with family and close friends. Children and any unmarried folks go around collecting "lai see" (red packets containing money) from the married folks and elders.
We had Christina and Pattra over for dinner last night. I baked some ham, Christina made some curry beef brisket (delicious Thai style!), and we had Pina make some garlic, soy-sauce prawns. Yes, it was kind of a weird combination but we enjoyed all of it. We also had some "lin gou" (Chinese rice cakes) that Pina fried up for us with taro and a bit of batter (apparently, Singaporean style). After dinner we watched the "Catch Me if You Can" DVD that Pattra brought over.
Gwen and I are just enjoying the extra time off with Justin. We've also been catching up on watching movies. Since last Wednesday, I've rented a bunch of DVDs from Blockbuster and we've seen "Minority Report", "The Sum of All Fears", "A Beautiful Mind", "Signs", and "Star Wars - Episode 2". Tonight I returned 3 DVDs and rented out "High Crimes" and "Austin Powers Goldmember". We also bought an ex-rental copy of "Monsters, Inc." for Justin!
For the first time in several years, I got to see Yuki and Chiaki (old friends from the days when I used to live in Laguna City, about 7 or 8 years ago!). They dropped by our apartment just before their farewell dinner for Chiaki (yes, she is really leaving Hong Kong this time!) downstairs at Cine Citta restaurant. When they came, Gwen was shopping with her sister, Lim, and Christine (visiting from Singapore) so unfortunately they weren't able to meet up. We were hoping the girls would be able to stop by after dinner but they just rang and because it's so late now (past 11pm) we decided to try and meet another time. At least they got to meet little Justin. Farewell, Chiaki!
OK, so I thought I'd start taking notes about the wines I've drunk. Keep in mind that I only started seriously learning about wine through books and some sites just a few weeks ago. So at this point I'm just a baby when it comes to discerning wine's many smells and tastes and describing them. Don't laugh, here goes:
Color is ruby red. Smells very fruity, berry-like — like many other reds I've tried. Light to medium bodied. After about 20 minutes after opening the bottle, tastes like brandied cherries — quite pleasant and easy-drinking. Tannins there but minimal. Medium acidity. Sour then pleasant buttery finish.
From a couple of sites I came across, I found out that Claymore Wines just opened in 1999 in South Australia so this is definitely one of their first wines out the door. From the label: "This Claymore 'Nocturne' range of wines represents the combination of exceptional McLaren Vale fruit with traditional winemaking expertise. This, our very first bottling of McLaren Vale Cabernet Sauvignon, has been carefully selected and produced for your indulgence. Our fruit comes from the Wilepena Vineyards in the heart of the McLaren Vale region. The wine has matured in brand new French oak with only 600 cases bottled after 12 months of maturation."
I paid about HK$125 (US$16) from Wine Buff Fine Wines shop located just down the street from our apartment on Queen's Road East. I like this wine better than the 1998 "Clos des Menuts" Saint-Emilion Grand Cru wine from the same shop that cost HK$216 (US$27). Would I buy this again? Probably not since it wasn't exceptional and at this stage I just want to try a huge variety of wines. I don't regret buying it though. Overall, it's an average, quite smooth, pleasant wine to drink. I like it better than many other more expensive wines I've tried and if it were cheaper, it'd consider buying more. Having said that, Gwen just approved of buying more but said we need to make sure we breathe the wine for at least 30 minutes before drinking (she didn't like the first taste). Gosh, you know what?... I''ve drunk almost half the bottle already — perhaps this is a pretty good wine! It's certainly easy to drink.
On the way home tonight, I stopped by Watson's Wine Cellar in Seibu's GREAT supermarket in Pacific Place to pick up a bottle of 1999 Penfolds "Koonunga Hill" Shiraz-Cabernet Sauvignon. It was on sale for HK$108 (US$14), normally HK$138.
Oh, our Vintec 120 SG wine cellar is being delivered tomorrow morning — woohoo!
Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and wishing you and yours good health, happiness, and prosperity in 2003!
Our new year's celebration was pretty uneventful — Gwen, myself, baby Justin, Lim (Gwen's sister visiting from Singapore), and our helper Pina just had pizza and ribs delivered to our door from Pepperoni's for dinner! We opened a bottle of 1998 "Clos des Menuts" Saint-Emilion Grand Cru wine but that was pretty disappointing. The small fireworks show in Victoria Harbour at 10pm we were only able to view on TV and not from our living room window as we had in the past — thanks to the massive building coming up in front of us off of (I think) Hennessy Road! Still, we enjoyed a mellow, safe, relaxing time at home. On new year's day we had lovely brunch with John and Gloria Young, John's mom, and Steve Lawrence (John's old roommate) at "Brasserie on the Eight" in the Conrad hotel.
In between my last entry and this, we've been busy: We had Pattra and Lisa over for dinner, we attended Nadim and Cynthia's son "Jun Jun's" 2nd birthday, we had a full-day's outing on Cheung Chau Island, and I ended up buying a wine cellar! Photos and a video clip of Justin babbling are to come.
Merry Christmas!
Here's Justin's latest trick — drinking milk while holding the bottle on his own. Doesn't he look sassy with his legs crossed like that?!
Today for lunch we had a small gathering at Pattra's apartment. For that, I baked a pumpkin pie and we also brought over some Jenny-Os turkey bacon and a bottle of wine (I know, that's a strange combination!). We had dinner at Karen & John Lam's apartment. For that, I baked a gammon smoked ham (4 pound, boneless). Yep, lately I've certainly been in the cooking mood.
On Christmas Eve, I had lunch at Kublai's with John & Gloria Young who are visiting from New York. They also came by our apartment to see little Justin. In the evening, we had a nice dinner at Rob & Janey Ho's apartment in Happy Valley.
Oh, I thought I'd also share that I'm really getting into drinking wine. My current favorite is Irvine's Eden Crest Merlot from Eden Valley in Australia.
Right now, the local temperature is just starting to dip down to the forecasted 9- to 12-degrees Celsius (48- to 54-degrees Fahrenheit). Our livingroom window is starting to fog up! We'll no doubt be bringing out our fan heaters tonight!
We enjoy another public holiday tomorrow (26th, boxing day) and the following day (Friday), Gwen and I have taken annual leave so we have a nice, long weekend ahead of us — woohoo!
It's late Sunday evening now and I haven't gotten around to sorting through our latest pictures yet — around 250 of them. I wish the software would make it easier to help me mark the best pictures and then copy them into a separate folder so that I can downsample them using my Photoshop droplet. I use the ImageBrowser software that came with my Canon PowerShot G1 camera which is good in some areas and bad in others. ImageBuddy for Mac OS X and 9 has a neat grading system but when I tried it, importing pictures was slow (and why can't I just select a folder to work from?). It certainly shows some promise though. I do hope to get around to adding more photos to our Gallery section within the next few days.
By the way, I think I'm going to start to use the term "pictures" instead of "photos" when referring to pictures taken by my digital camera since the images are not actually recorded on light-sensitive photographic paper like traditional photographs are. "Digital photos" sounds okay though but it's too long. Still, "photos" implies a picture taken from a camera and not just a drawing or something like that. Hmmm... well, I guess I'm still undecided. What do you think?
CONGRATULATIONS to Rob and Janey Ho on the birth of their new daughter, born just yesterday, October 20, 2002! Here's a photo of Lauren with her new little sister!
Today is very dark, wet, and stormy here in Hong Kong... but TGIF!
I've already put up photos from our full day today (well, technically, yesterday):
saturday, october 12, 2002 album - 27 photos
Gwen and I had a good time but Justin was pretty tired so he was a bit laid back and grumpy, not much in the smiley mood.
Monday, October 14, is a public holiday, "Chung Yeung", so we'll be enjoying a long weekend. I'm not sure exactly what Chung Yeung is but think it's related to paying respects to your ancestors.
Tomorrow (well, actually today), we're meeting Andreas & Tina Moellmann, who are visiting from Germany, for a late lunch (2:30pm) at Jade Garden in Star House, Tsim Sha Tsui. Mutual friends, Sau Ling Kan and Jonathan Slosberg, are also joining us. Both Andreas and Tina used to work in Hong Kong. For dinner, we're meeting Christina Fang, Rob & Janey Ho, Richard Li, Hoe Lui, and Angela Wong at "Ling Po" Chinese restaurant in Lan Kwai Fong, Central. Yup, a pretty full day!... I wonder how Justin will handle being out for so long. Well, it'll be similar to our days in Singapore on vacation, I guess.
Boy, am I tired!... Well, no wonder — it's 3:20am! Time to hit the sack.
Gorgeous weather in Hong Kong that started yesterday. Here's the view today from our office on the 35th floor of Dorset House, Taikoo Place, Quarry Bay (Hong Kong Island East). Temperature is a very comfortable 25 degrees Celsius (77 degrees Fahrenheit). Still a tad bit of haze in the distant mountains in the New Territories.
Here's the view of the China National Day fireworks over Victoria Harbor from our apartment tonight. Fireworks started at 9pm and lasted for about 23 minutes. Justin was only mildly interested! Sadly, this is likely the last year we'll see fireworks from our apartment due to a new building coming up (note the 2 cranes already obscuring the view).
The view tonight from our apartment. Tall buildings going up everywhere. Directly in front of us, a 40-story office building is going up and our "open" view will be no more. Also in front of us but further out toward the left, another massive building is coming up (green scaffolding and 2 giant cranes). We no longer see the distant mountain on the Kowloon side and we'll probably no longer see the fireworks on special occasions. Heck, by the time the buildings are complete, I hope we can see the sky. How sad. I only wish the Hong Kong government had planned to build shorter buildings near the harbor and taller buildings further back. That way more people from more buildings could enjoy the nice skyline from either side of the harbor. It's really just common sense. This recent development of new tall buildings at the edge of the harbor is certainly sad.
Early this evening we got back from an 8-day vacation in Singapore. Was fun and a bit hectic! Justin enjoyed all the attention from loads of relatives and friends. In particular, Auntie Kee, Auntie Choo, Auntie Lim, Auntie Phoebe, Cousin Hui Hui, and Grandma ("Ah Ma") just showered Justin with love! We've got lots of photos to share (to come!). While we had a super time there, it feels good to be back home. Just now we just got back from a quick and nice Chinese dinner at Steam and Stew Inn restaurant just down the street (well, 10-minute walk). Tomorrow, Gwen and I took the day off and the following day is a public holiday (China National Day) so we've got a few more days to relax before heading back to work on Wednesday! Well, we do have some errands to run (i.e. gotta take my Ericsson T68 to Mongkok for repair) so it won't be 2 totally leisure days. More to come...
The gorgeous evening scene of the ocean from "Curry on the Bay" Indian restaurant (6th floor) at Stanley Market. Panorama was created using 3 (poorly shot) photos and Canon's PhotoStitch (Mac) software (auto settings). Photos were taken on Saturday, September 14, 2002 at around 6:30pm.
Recently, I noticed the "spare tire" around my waist getting more inflated! So last night at around 9:30pm I popped down to our apartment's small gym and got on the treadmill. (Last time I was on the treadmill was about a year ago!) I started out at a speed setting of 7 and kept that up until around 15 minutes. I then bumped up the speed to 8 and then 9 till around 23 minutes and then slowed down to a brisk walk pace for two more minutes (25 minutes total). When I got off the treadmill I couldn't even tell that my legs were moving but I was moving forward! My legs were in "auto" mode and were quite numb. I was exhausted and dripping wet — just what I wanted. Of course, today my legs are totally aching, especially when walking down stairs.
Now let's see if I can keep this up at least 3 times a week. I've been struggling trying to eat less too... Gotta shrink that stomach!
After several days of stormy weather, constant rain, and flooding in some areas, the sun has finally come out and we've got blue skies again — yippee! Oh, and the haze that we had for weeks has cleared as well. Hope it stays this way!
Typhoon signal number 8 was hoisted at 2pm today, cutting short our work day. Caused by severe Tropical Storm Hagupit (what a name!). I left the office at around 3:30pm.
9/11 — a sad day today. Lots of coverage of commemoration ceremonies on TV. Am watching the ABC News special containing real coverage of the terrible event filmed by a French guy who was making a documentary on one of the NY fire stations. Very sad stuff.
For the past 2 weeks or so Gwen's been swimming every day after work. I'm impressed! Now if I could only get off my lazy butt and keep up with her healthy new routine!
Kerman is an old friend whom I hadn't seen in like 5 years! He was a colleague at my very first job in Hong Kong, at a company called Quicksilver (no not the surfing/outdoors clothing company!). Well, he, his wife Cindy and nearly 5-year-old son "Tiga" came by for dinner tonight. With Pina helping to make fish stock, chop up vegetables, and wash the seafood (okay, Pina did do most of the work!), I cooked up some bouillabaisse (Italian seafood soup)! Turned out pretty well, I think. That said, it's pretty hard to mess up a soup made up of loads of seafood — fish, shrimp, clams, crab, and scallops — and a bunch of fresh vegetables and Italian herbs! Pina also made burritos, soy sauce chicken wings, sauteed mushrooms, and steamed baby lobsters (yes, Pina works hard and cooked up quite a storm!). Gwen also helped out with the cooking but mostly took care of our precious baby Justin. Oh, the baby lobsters were interesting. They were each around 3 inches long, sold live, and were quite inexpensive. I was thinking that they were just freshwater crayfish that resembled lobsters but after having tasted them, I was convinced that they were indeed baby lobsters. Taking lobsters that young can't be good unless they're somehow aqua-cultured. Okay, enough about food! Kerman's got a real nice family and another baby on the way. Little Tiga is handsome and well-behaved. I don't know why Kerman and I never kept in touch. Sad when I think about it but the main thing is we're still good friends and I hope to keep in touch with him and his family from now on. We had a good time tonight! Next time we'll visit them at their home in Tai Po.
Gwen and I took this past Monday and Tuesday off from work just to rest ("sleep in" and nap!), relax and spend more time with Justin. We hit the swimming pool 4 days in a row! Well, I didn't swim last night (did the other 3 days) but watched as Gwen, Justin, our friend Patricia and her daughter Arianna played in the pool. On Sunday and Monday, the Ho family (Rob, Janey and little Lauren) also came by to swim and have dinner with us. So we got some exercise and enjoyed some good company! Oh, Gwen and I and even baby Justin got our hair cut yesterday at Vickie's Salon in Wanchai. Vickie was extra careful while cutting and shaving Justin's hair. It helped that Justin was half asleep! Justin's hair definitely looks better although I'm not so sure I like the back — the bottom half is shaved pretty much to the skin so it looks like he's got one of those rice-bowl haircuts! On Monday we took Justin in to the government clinic get an immunization shot but were told to come back in a month so no injection for Justin this time. We did get him weighed though and he's now 7.7kg (almost 17 pounds) at 5 months and 1 week old!
Last week I had a quick business trip to Tokyo — left on Sunday evening and came back on Wednesday afternoon (Aug 4-7). Was there with our regional finance director, Soo Siong, to look at ways to reduce our office's capital expenditure budget there. Highlight of the trip was dinner with Soo Siong and Ms Chizuru Yukita at Kani Seryna in Roppongi. The crab dishes we had were fantastic! As part of a dinner set, we each had half of a Horse Hair Crab and Snow Crab Shabu-Shabu. Pricey, but well worth it in my opinion! Thanks, Chizuru!
Through today's InfoWorld Ahead of the Curve e-mail newsletter I read the tragic story of brilliant programmer and peer-to-peer pioneer, Gene Kan, who took his own life. He was only 25 and suffered from clinical depression.
I had never heard of him before (I have heard of what he worked on, Gnutella, of course) but from what I've read about him just today, he has my utmost respect and admiration. His is an amazing, sad, and moving story.
Read more about Gene Kan:
Here's a letter I wrote that got published today in the South China Morning Post's Letters to the Editor section. (The South China Morning Post is Hong Kong's main English newspaper.) I wrote it in response to a letter that was published just this past Sunday in the same section. Well here's the edited, improved version of my letter that they published (thanks, Editor!):
SMOKING BAN WOULD ACTUALLY BE GOOD FOR BUSINESS
I refer to the letter by Laura Ruggeri headlined ''Ban on smokers must be up to individual restaurant owners'' (South China Morning Post, July 13).
I disagree with Ms Ruggeri's suggestion that instead of the government implementing a total ban on smoking in restaurants, the owners of each restaurant should decide. The owners have always been free to make this choice, so if Ms Ruggeri had her way things would never improve.
Recent surveys, which were fair and objective, have proved that the majority of Hong Kong residents and even visitors prefer a smoke-free restaurant environment and that business for restaurants would increase, not decrease, if a smoking ban was implemented. Of course, the tobacco lobby always claims otherwise, without any hard facts or figures to back up their claims.
What many smokers fail to realise is that in any restaurant their smoking habit always makes non-smokers around them extremely uncomfortable.
Non-smokers choke in the smoke-filled air.
They often lose their appetite, and are forced to rush out of the restaurant. Over time, exposure by non-smokers to second-hand smoke can lead to serious health problems as well. Indeed, smokers infringe on the rights of others by just lighting up, whether in a restaurant or on the street.
If the ban was in effect for restaurants, non-smokers would undoubtedly be less exposed to harmful carcinogens.
A total ban is not an ''absurd'' idea. California introduced a ban in restaurants in 1994 and then in bars in 1998. The results have been positive.
Hong Kong should adopt the same policy. Bring in a ban in restaurants as soon as possible and, at a later date, consider extending the law to bars. The well-being of the non-smoking public should not continue to be compromised for the sake of the smoking minority.
Those who do not indulge in this bad habit have suffered for long enough. The situation will not improve in restaurants until a smoking ban is enshrined in legislation.
DEREK TOM
Wanchai
Direct link on SCMP's online site: http://focus.scmp.com/focusnews/ZZZNRNMNM3D.html
(Premium View subscription required though.)
Whoa!... Yes, I've been slacking at updating this blog. Sorry. We've been busy. Have had a lot of out-of-town guests the last several weeks. You can see most of them in a new photo album I put up (only 23 photos though). I've got more photos to add but have not had the chance yet to select, resize, optimize, and upload.
Hmmm... Any other notable things? Well, at work a fan that cools 2 SCSI hard disks burnt out so Alex and I replaced it. During the process, we improved the case airflow by removing two 5.25" drive bay covers and using duct tape to funnel air into the new fan. I'll try to put up a photo of the work. On another of our servers, the power supply's fan burnt out so I replaced the power supply. Oh, oh, oh... how could I forget?!... our Malaysia office had their Internet connection down for like 3 days. The ISP, Jaring, which is pretty much a monopoly, claimed the problem was with the leased line provider, Telekom Malaysia. Well on the 3rd day, they said the line was up and everything was fixed but we still weren't getting Internet access. Turned out that our firewall's configuration had gotten corrupt — probably as the result of repeated cycling of the firewall's power by our part-time IT guy, Chris, to try and get the connection working. In the end, over the phone I walked Chris through the process of wiping our firewall's firmware, uploading new firmware and then reconfiguring the firewall again from scratch. Thank God that did the trick! BTW, if you're looking for a good firewall, I recommend SonicWALL's products.
Just the other night we had dinner with my old neighbor, Eric Loo, and an old grade-school classmate, Gifford Chang, who were visiting from Hawaii. Well, they were visiting Hong Kong with the Hawaii Narcissus Court which I think is sponsored by the Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii. So, we had dinner with the whole tour group (minus the court!) at Grace's Garden in Time's Square, Causeway Bay. Was a fun night and good to catch up with the two guys whom I hadn't seen in like 15+ years! Got a few photos of that night which I'll put up later.
After having verified over the phone from IBM's Service Hotline that there was nothing more I could do to get our IBM ThinkPad T23 to boot (thing would not even flash the IBM logo on the screen or do its memory test although light indicators for the battery and drive bay came on), I took the T23 to IBM's Service Center (thankfully, only a 5-minute walk from our office). They said they'd call within 2 hours to let me know the status and sure enough within 2 hours they called to say that they had fixed the machine and I could pick it up any time — amazing! The problem turned out to be a defective "combo card" (802.11b wireless LAN and something else) which they replaced — swiftly! I figure most other computer companies would take 3 days to a week to do the same thing. The T23 also comes with a 3-year warranty — nice!
When I got the T23 back in our office, I got stuck trying to hook it back up to our wireless LAN. Foolishly, these were the reasons why I could not get the T23 to access our wirless LAN:
Thanks to my brother, Dwight, and Annessa (currently, the only reader of my blog!) for the well wishes. I'm feeling much better today. Doctor Kwok was also nice enough to phone to check on me today too. How many doctors these days do that?! When I woke up at 8am, I was debating whether I should go in to work since I had a slight headache and figured I could work and rest at home. I went in anyway and, well, I'm glad I did. Was fairly productive... I finished encoding all the video clips I could and made some key decisions on what video formats we'll use on our intranet — progressive-QuickTime (MOV) and Windows Media Video (WMV) formats at 320x240 pixels. I'm looking forward to the last day of the work week!
I've got a "viral infection" so I took 3/4 of the day off from work today. I basically have a cold but without the usual fever, sore throat, runny nose, and coughing symptoms. Instead, I have a constant headache and a bit of aching muscles and nausea. It's the headache that's the kicker! Saw Doctor Michael Kwok who gave me some anti-nausea medicine (Metoclopramide), anti-acid medicine (Famotidine), and anti-headache medicine (Ibuprofen). When the headache starts to come back I feel miserable and only want to sleep. Not sure I'm going in to work tomorrow. May just stay home and rest and work. We'll see tomorrow morning.
Just as soon as I got into the office this morning, our Mac-based mail server beeped with an alert that stating that something was wrong with one of the hard disks and that I'd better check it. The problem disk turned out to be an external SCSI drive that I had all my server programs running off of. At that point the disk was already making clicking sounds every few seconds (not a good sign!). I unmounted the disk, powered the drive down, powered it back up, but it never came back, even after a server restart. I even hooked it up to another Mac but no go. I ended up using an old backup of all the server programs that was already on the server's internal hard disk. I had a newer backup of just the accounts database on my PowerBook so using Timbuktu I transferred the data to the server, deleted all old accounts, disconnected server from the network, and imported the newer accounts data. We have backups of all recent incoming and outgoing emails so I had the server reprocess all messages from like 5pm yesterday onwards. I then updated serveral pieces of software (EIMS 3.1->3.1.2 and SimpleText Filter 1.2->1.2.4), tried to fix all aliases and file/folder references I could recall, then put the server back online. PHEW! Then I deleted old accounts, recreated a few group accounts that had been wiped out, and backed up the accounts database and all server programs. Will need to follow-up tomorrow or in the next few days to replace the SCSI drive and ensure that the server is running smoothly. Spent most of the rest of the day converting our digital video clips to progressive-QuickTime format. This involved learning a lot more about digital video encoding (by reading the Cleaner manual!) and doing dozens of encoding "experiments".
Just finished upgrading my Web-based photo-gallery application, Gallery, to version 1.3. For me, the nicest improvement is the addition of a slideshow function. Here's a list of all the improvements:
Oh, I have also added a new photo album titled, "justin's friends", and containing 39 photos. Please check it out!
At work the past few days, I've been busy helping to sort out issues with our intranet. Will be converting a bunch of MPEG-1 video clips to streaming-QuickTime format using Cleaner as part of the solution.
Past 3 days in a row, I've been having headaches too. Thank God for Excedrin! I think part of the reason for these headaches has been lack of sleep and perhaps a bit of work stress.
Tonight, Vernon and Conwell came over for nice dinner. Pina cooked her signature stuffed-lettuce dish, steamed tofu stuffed with minced shrimp, steamed mud crabs, sauteed mushrooms, sauteed won bok, and Cantonese lotus-root soup — YUMMY! Vern and Conwell brought over a nice bottle of 1996 Torreon De Paredes Cabernet Sauvignon wine, and a Lamaze Traveling Mobile and baby Nike shoes for baby Justin. Baby shoes are just sooo cute, huh?! Will be putting up photos of Vern and Conwell's visit soon.
We had a nice dinner at our place with Sarah and Rainy. Pina cooked up some excellent "yong tau fu" (Singaporean-style soup with fish balls, tofu, cuttlefish, ocra, "tung choy" veggies, and more) and her "signature" Chinese stuffed-lettuce dish. We also enjoyed some scrumptious American cheesecake that Rainy brought from The Penninsula hotel (yummy!). Baby Justin just loved playing with Sarah and Rainy — he smiled, laughed, and "talked" with them so much! I'm sure Justin hopes they'll visit again soon! Sarah stayed to watch Shallow Hal with us (I just bought the VCD). The Farrelly Brothers have done it again... Shallow Hal was extremely hilarious (touching too)! I also enjoyed watching the...er, "hotties" and got a kick out of the big Hawaiian guy (made me think of home!). Sooo... I'll have to work on fixing this site tomorrow! Will also try to put up some photos of tonight.
Hmmm... I'm not sure why the timestamps of all my entries are ahead by 1 hour. In Movable Type I have the timezone set correctly to "UTC+8 (China Coast Time)". (We reside in Hong Kong.) I'll definitely have to sort that out...
Well, it's just past midnight and so what I'm about to write applies to the previous day, Monday, May 27...
Today was Gwen's first day back at work after over 2 months of maternity leave. Of course, she missed Justin but both she and I were able to monitor Justin throughout most of the day via the AXIS 2100 Webcam we have at home so that helped. Pina seems to be doing a great job taking care of Justin.
The previous day (Sunday) we took Justin out to Pacific Place and it was the first time we had him in the BABYBJORN baby carrier facing forward and not facing our chest. He just loved it! Most of the time he just gazed up at and around the varied and interesting environment.
Oh, check out the latest pictures and video of Justin I've just put up!
