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I am not sure whether the sci-fi movie The Fly produced in 1986 was the ever first movie of its kind about genetic engineering(GE). Be it true or not, the plot of this movie was an very advanced concept at the time. The story was about a human who was accidentally "fused" with a fly during an experiment so a creature with genes of both species emerged. It was an horror movie because the hybrid became a monster finally and was terminated by its human counterpart. The production seems to be against creating hybrid via the technology of GE juding from the story. I am not a scientist so only have limited knowledge about GE. Just like most of the technologies, there are pros and cons depending on its application and most of all, the people's mind behind who are developing and making use of these technologies as well as their objectives. Basically I am alright on GE as long as the technology does not change the nature of a species fundamentally but just fine-tuning its characteristic towards an improvement or eliminating some inherited flaws.
The Fly was produced in 1986 and coincidentally a political hybrid alien was also created around that time. It was the Sino-British Joint Declaration signed 1984. The Declaration was meant to resolve the reunion of Hong Kong with China after 1997 when the lease of New Territory, a part of Hong Kong, would be expired. Apart from many technical issues, the reunion was based on the idea of so-called One Country, Two Systems which was in hope to keep Hong Kong's status quo as well as way of living unchanged after the reunion by marrying the China's socialism and the western world's capitalism as much possible as it can be resting the hope (wish?) in 50 years time the Two Systems will eventually integrated into one as seamless as possible.
The One Country, Two Systems (Idea) was once commented as an ever creative and bold master piece designed by the CCP's greatest reform pioneer Deng XiaoPing. It was true that based on the comparatively rigid and stubborn era in the CCP's history, the Idea was really creative because capitalism was viewed something toxic and even a target of striking by some veteran comrades. Allowing its existence in its own soil is really a bold idea. Deng was commented as a pragmatic person well-known with his slogan "Be it white or black, it is a good cat as long as it catches rats" so Deng's Idea was a compromise between the idealism and reality that China was very much behind of the western world including Hong Kong in all aspects so making use of this advance island to modernize the Mainland was something the lesser "evil" by allowing this once stepped son remained as much possible unchanged as the CCP could tolerate.
Despite the Idea allows the lap of 50 years to gradually bringing the once stepped son back on board with the big family but things, especially in the recent years, do not go well. Indeed it is a disaster that Hong Kong is not only not getting closer than it was to its motherland but vice versa. After all, the Idea is meant to convert Hong Kong, in baby steps by buying time, into socialism. Keeping the capitalism nature in Hong Kong was something a compromise but when China is getting more and more fully-fledged and the reliance on the island for its modernization becomes less indispensable, the Idea became less and less unshakable especially when China is imposing more and more "guidance, direction, monitoring" over Hong Kong's internal affairs.
Some people seem to be awakened and is aware of just in recent years about China's changes on the relationship with Hong Kong. They might be puzzled about the changes and some attribute it to the social movement in the past few years. They are partly right because Beijing is getting more and more annoyed with those social movement but frankly speaking the relationship is bounded to be changed even if without these social movement. People should not forget that allowing the capitalism element was only a temporary compromise based on a pragmatic need at that time. Exercising socialism in Hong Kong is CCP's ultimate goal when the island's role on assisting China's modernization is eventually finished but this step will not happen overnight in June 30 in 2047. Marrying the two systems and finally converting them into one takes time and the only way is while increasing the socialism element at one hand then decreasing that of the capitalism at the same time. we are just almost in the mid way of this process. It is like genetically engineering the capitalism gene with the socialism gene into one creature, or an alien if you like, into Hong Kong in this moment.
While the alien is getting into its shape now it also laid an egg as well. It is the Hong Kong version of National Security Law(NSL). The Law is termed as the alien's egg because it further hybrids the two incompatible law practices, ie., the Common Law and the Continental Law, into this Law. The NSL is at large based on the concept of Continental Law but it is meant to be implemented in Hong Kong where Common Law is exercised. Most of the legal practitioners in Hong Kong, especially barristers are confused how they can defend their clients in the courts or how to advise their clients to avoid violation on the NSL which mainly laid out the principles but not the specific actions of crime as put in the Common Law. The NSL egg is exact the example of the artificial genetic engineering of the hybridization the Two Systems.
God bless Hong Kong!
2020年7月13日 星期一
2020年7月1日 星期三
Declaration
In light of the enactment of the Hong Kong version of China National Security Law since yesterday and the content was disclosed since then, the below declaration is essential particularly in response to the Article 29 (5) of the Law.
DECLARATION
1. As stated in my first post, this blog is solely a record of my thoughts. While the Blogger cannot stop visitors, no invitation of viewing has ever been made to whosoever.
2. The Blogger has no knowledge of psychology so cannot anticipate any viewer's emotional development including but not limited to hatred after reading this blog.
3. This blog's content may or may not contain comments on HKSAR government and/or China government, any person, residing in the HKSAR, who might develop emotional development including but not limited to hatred towards these two Governments should STOP reading NOW and never visit this blog again.
4. While every effort has been made to avoid emotional development including but not limited to hatred towards the HKSAR government and/or China government, the Blogger assumes no responsibility should any viewer residing in the HKSAR keeps reading this blog thus leading to their emotional development, including but not limited to hatred, and their subsequent actions.
DECLARATION
1. As stated in my first post, this blog is solely a record of my thoughts. While the Blogger cannot stop visitors, no invitation of viewing has ever been made to whosoever.
2. The Blogger has no knowledge of psychology so cannot anticipate any viewer's emotional development including but not limited to hatred after reading this blog.
3. This blog's content may or may not contain comments on HKSAR government and/or China government, any person, residing in the HKSAR, who might develop emotional development including but not limited to hatred towards these two Governments should STOP reading NOW and never visit this blog again.
4. While every effort has been made to avoid emotional development including but not limited to hatred towards the HKSAR government and/or China government, the Blogger assumes no responsibility should any viewer residing in the HKSAR keeps reading this blog thus leading to their emotional development, including but not limited to hatred, and their subsequent actions.
2020年6月30日 星期二
An historical day
Today is the last day of this June and this is also the end of the first half of 2020 which is an extraordinary year in the sense of globally as well as locally here in Hong Kong. The novel coronavirus pandemic is truly remarkable globally. A tiny creature has turned the human world upside down yet it is still ongoing and its impact is yet fully emerged.
Locally the Hong Kong version of China National Security Law(NSL) is finally passed in today's the People Congress meeting despite of the strong opposing opinion from the West and it is expected to be enacted in tomorrow, July 1, the day of reunion of Hong Kong to China 23 years ago. This should be an important event in Hong Kong but surprisingly it seems not receiving the relevant level of concern from the majority of the people here in Hong Kong except those figure heads of the pro-establishment and opposition political camps. It is surprisingly but indeed not surprisingly because the public know that the NSL is going to be passed and be enacted for sure no matter what criticism or sanction from the West, mainly the U.S., has put forward. There is an interesting analogy here saying that one just cannot help when the rain is going to fall as well as mama is going to marry someone else meaning when the CCP is determined and committed on the NSL, there is literally nothing the islanders can do on it. The power between the two are just so unproportional that people here in Hong Kong can do nothing other than being indifferent on such an important law that is going to affect their life significantly.
The HK version of NSL is so important to Hong Kong that some commentators even called this Law turns Hong Kong into the chapter of re-reunion with China meaning the enactment signifies the Central Government is going to modify its governance over Hong Kong in light of the failure of the implementation of the so-called One Country, Two Systems here in Hong Kong in the past 23 years. It is widely believed that the Law is going to be effective in clamping all sorts of opposing voices and actions which were considered as legitimate in the past. The grapevine says the penalty is ranging from 3 years of imprisonment to life sentence so it should be effective to mute Hong Kong. It is going to be an quite different Hong Kong starting from tomorrow.
The NSL is not only a local issue but it also receives much attention internationally. Almost the whole western democratic camp opposes it yet China stands firm on the legislation. Apparently China is more and more confident on her advocacy as and when she is becoming more and more fully fledged. Despite knowing the whole western world is opposing yet she is bold enough to insist on the legislation, the action is more meaningful than the Law per se. It is announcing to the world that China can say no.
When in today China is publicly announcing she can say no to the world, she also publicly posts her stance that she dares to challenge the world order that has been established by the U.S. since the WWII. Simply being the second largest economy just cannot fulfill China's appetite. When she sees the whole world is struggling with the pandemic on lockdown or reopen, mask or no mask but she can manage to contain it within a province. China just can't help but thinks she can lead the world better. Ambition rises along with self content.
The rise of a big nation!
Locally the Hong Kong version of China National Security Law(NSL) is finally passed in today's the People Congress meeting despite of the strong opposing opinion from the West and it is expected to be enacted in tomorrow, July 1, the day of reunion of Hong Kong to China 23 years ago. This should be an important event in Hong Kong but surprisingly it seems not receiving the relevant level of concern from the majority of the people here in Hong Kong except those figure heads of the pro-establishment and opposition political camps. It is surprisingly but indeed not surprisingly because the public know that the NSL is going to be passed and be enacted for sure no matter what criticism or sanction from the West, mainly the U.S., has put forward. There is an interesting analogy here saying that one just cannot help when the rain is going to fall as well as mama is going to marry someone else meaning when the CCP is determined and committed on the NSL, there is literally nothing the islanders can do on it. The power between the two are just so unproportional that people here in Hong Kong can do nothing other than being indifferent on such an important law that is going to affect their life significantly.
The HK version of NSL is so important to Hong Kong that some commentators even called this Law turns Hong Kong into the chapter of re-reunion with China meaning the enactment signifies the Central Government is going to modify its governance over Hong Kong in light of the failure of the implementation of the so-called One Country, Two Systems here in Hong Kong in the past 23 years. It is widely believed that the Law is going to be effective in clamping all sorts of opposing voices and actions which were considered as legitimate in the past. The grapevine says the penalty is ranging from 3 years of imprisonment to life sentence so it should be effective to mute Hong Kong. It is going to be an quite different Hong Kong starting from tomorrow.
The NSL is not only a local issue but it also receives much attention internationally. Almost the whole western democratic camp opposes it yet China stands firm on the legislation. Apparently China is more and more confident on her advocacy as and when she is becoming more and more fully fledged. Despite knowing the whole western world is opposing yet she is bold enough to insist on the legislation, the action is more meaningful than the Law per se. It is announcing to the world that China can say no.
When in today China is publicly announcing she can say no to the world, she also publicly posts her stance that she dares to challenge the world order that has been established by the U.S. since the WWII. Simply being the second largest economy just cannot fulfill China's appetite. When she sees the whole world is struggling with the pandemic on lockdown or reopen, mask or no mask but she can manage to contain it within a province. China just can't help but thinks she can lead the world better. Ambition rises along with self content.
The rise of a big nation!
2020年6月1日 星期一
Politics is cruel?
I wrote blogs occasionally but more often I read posts of other bloggers as well. One of the bloggers recently said politics is cruel because this generation of youth in Hong Kong is going to be deleted meaning they will not be given opportunity in career because employers are worry on their political stance. This whole generation of youth will end up to be victims resulting from the recent political social events no matter the ones who have really engaged or just onlookers. Employers will just play safe to avoid hiring youth in this age group. The recent social events are no doubt political and it is the whole generation of youth who is going to pay the price. This is why the blogger said politics is cruel.
His reasoning might be controversial but his view is out of question. In fact my opinion is that politics is not just cruel but even unforgiving. To explore the topic, a better understanding on what politics is perhaps can help. Wikipedia puts it as the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations between individuals, such as the distribution of resources. The Oxford Dictionary says it is the activities involved in getting and using power in public life, and being able to influence decisions that affect a country or a society. I am not knowledgeable enough to argue on these definitions but personally I think they are just too textbook type of things though. A street smart view is that whenever there are three persons or more then there is politics. My own interpretation is very straight forward that politics is the way of parceling out interests among powers within an assembly of people. No academic jargon.
In fact politics ranges from small scale between couples to social circle and office politics, as well as large scale in societal, national and global so perhaps it did not happen only when Robinson was stranded in an island of nowhere. Unlike the politics between couples that it is more about the dominance of the family issues and/or sexual life but rather than financial, the one I talk about is on the societal or national, if not in global level. Politics at such level is about large scale, enormous interests. Very often it is also not only about the benefit of one or a few but a bunch of people/nations who form a beneficiary group. When the interests is large enough then it naturally attracts different groups who are also in pursuit of it thus fierce competition is inevitable. Politics at this level is all about conspiracies, deception, coercion, lure, alliance, alienation ... all sorts of dirty tricks to defeat, if not eliminate, the rivals as the ultimate goal. Therefore it is just too gentle to describe politics is cruel but in fact it is unforgiving and about life or death without any mercy.
Politics is unforgiving in nature due to the underlying fundamental that it is about parceling out interests among powers while greed is the most deep seated nature of human being. Despite of thousands of years of civilization, mankind is still under the control of the greed on the pursuit of power, wealth and fame. Politics is the way to consolidate self's power and undermining that of the rival, while power is the means to acquire wealth and wealthy people want their names marked in the history. Nevertheless wealth is the center piece of the whole pursuit. Without the prize of wealth, power is tasteless. Any comrade in our dear communist party knows about this and that is why all anti-corruption movements either ended up in failures or just turned out to be the tool of the internal power struggle which in turn became the politics in combating for the say to allocate the control of the state-run enterprises thus the source of the enormous interests considering the huge revenue of these Enterprises.
Politics among nations, especially between the alpha and its challenger, is also ferocious. The combat between the U.S. and China is a good example that no more elaboration is needed. All things like trade war, Huawei 5G equipment spying conspiracy, ban on the export of the U.S. technologies to China, allegation on the pandemic, Hong Kong policy act, argument on the HK version national security law etc are just excuses. The U.S. "suddenly" woke up and realized that if they do not eradicate the CCP regime from the earth, their existing dominance over the global affairs thus its privilege on parceling out the global interests will soon be lost. An all-round attack was thus launched since two years ago. Naturally being committed as a challenger, the CCP was aware of the story board in day one when she had the intent to take down her uncle Sam. China bought time by engaging with the U.S. on rounds after rounds of negotiation in the past two years, today she is well prepared for the counter-fighting. China is now up and ready for a full contact combat with the U.S. for global dominance. This is true politics in play and the battle is about the life and death of being a world leader thus the say on the global interests. A "good show" is coming soon.
Politics is always about survival. Winner takes most, if not all. The prize is so big so mercy is never an option. For people who decide to take part into it, this is something they must be aware of in the first place. There was a joke happened on the HKSAR ex-chief executive, Donald Tsang, who once claimed his occupation is politician. Apparently he does not know the underlying nature of politics so mistakenly thought a government administrator is politician. However, he ended up to be imprisoned as a victim of the political game beyond his terrain.
His reasoning might be controversial but his view is out of question. In fact my opinion is that politics is not just cruel but even unforgiving. To explore the topic, a better understanding on what politics is perhaps can help. Wikipedia puts it as the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations between individuals, such as the distribution of resources. The Oxford Dictionary says it is the activities involved in getting and using power in public life, and being able to influence decisions that affect a country or a society. I am not knowledgeable enough to argue on these definitions but personally I think they are just too textbook type of things though. A street smart view is that whenever there are three persons or more then there is politics. My own interpretation is very straight forward that politics is the way of parceling out interests among powers within an assembly of people. No academic jargon.
In fact politics ranges from small scale between couples to social circle and office politics, as well as large scale in societal, national and global so perhaps it did not happen only when Robinson was stranded in an island of nowhere. Unlike the politics between couples that it is more about the dominance of the family issues and/or sexual life but rather than financial, the one I talk about is on the societal or national, if not in global level. Politics at such level is about large scale, enormous interests. Very often it is also not only about the benefit of one or a few but a bunch of people/nations who form a beneficiary group. When the interests is large enough then it naturally attracts different groups who are also in pursuit of it thus fierce competition is inevitable. Politics at this level is all about conspiracies, deception, coercion, lure, alliance, alienation ... all sorts of dirty tricks to defeat, if not eliminate, the rivals as the ultimate goal. Therefore it is just too gentle to describe politics is cruel but in fact it is unforgiving and about life or death without any mercy.
Politics is unforgiving in nature due to the underlying fundamental that it is about parceling out interests among powers while greed is the most deep seated nature of human being. Despite of thousands of years of civilization, mankind is still under the control of the greed on the pursuit of power, wealth and fame. Politics is the way to consolidate self's power and undermining that of the rival, while power is the means to acquire wealth and wealthy people want their names marked in the history. Nevertheless wealth is the center piece of the whole pursuit. Without the prize of wealth, power is tasteless. Any comrade in our dear communist party knows about this and that is why all anti-corruption movements either ended up in failures or just turned out to be the tool of the internal power struggle which in turn became the politics in combating for the say to allocate the control of the state-run enterprises thus the source of the enormous interests considering the huge revenue of these Enterprises.
Politics among nations, especially between the alpha and its challenger, is also ferocious. The combat between the U.S. and China is a good example that no more elaboration is needed. All things like trade war, Huawei 5G equipment spying conspiracy, ban on the export of the U.S. technologies to China, allegation on the pandemic, Hong Kong policy act, argument on the HK version national security law etc are just excuses. The U.S. "suddenly" woke up and realized that if they do not eradicate the CCP regime from the earth, their existing dominance over the global affairs thus its privilege on parceling out the global interests will soon be lost. An all-round attack was thus launched since two years ago. Naturally being committed as a challenger, the CCP was aware of the story board in day one when she had the intent to take down her uncle Sam. China bought time by engaging with the U.S. on rounds after rounds of negotiation in the past two years, today she is well prepared for the counter-fighting. China is now up and ready for a full contact combat with the U.S. for global dominance. This is true politics in play and the battle is about the life and death of being a world leader thus the say on the global interests. A "good show" is coming soon.
Politics is always about survival. Winner takes most, if not all. The prize is so big so mercy is never an option. For people who decide to take part into it, this is something they must be aware of in the first place. There was a joke happened on the HKSAR ex-chief executive, Donald Tsang, who once claimed his occupation is politician. Apparently he does not know the underlying nature of politics so mistakenly thought a government administrator is politician. However, he ended up to be imprisoned as a victim of the political game beyond his terrain.
2020年5月24日 星期日
Probably a silver lining?
A political nuclear bomb exploded here in Hong Kong in last Friday when the news set in that China is going to establish a HK version of China National Security Law to be added into the HKSAR Basic Law in the form of an annex. This is commonly understood as a bypass of the Hong Kong Legco's failure to proceed on the law-making as per the Article 23 of the Basic Law after 22 years since the reunion with China. Apparently China is mad about the incompetence of the HKSAR government so lost her temper compounded with the more and more explicit squeezing from the U.S. during the last couple of years.
The article 23 of the Basic Law has been a taboo in Hong Kong because there is a fear among the general public that the infringement on human rights issues that happened across the border will happen in the island after the establishment of the Article. The worry on the further tightening amid the already ever increasing self-censorship on the freedom of speech, freedom of press and the independent jurisdiction surges when the news sets in. The opposite camp described the move signals the death of the "One Country, Two Systems" is certified.
The fact that the Article has such a low reception among the general public here in Hong Kong does not come without ground. China is notorious with her record of infringement on human rights on her citizens. The national security law is a swiss knife on clamping the opposition against the CCP's ruling. Despite of the title of national security but the law per se is mainly for the sake of the fortification of the CCP's governance. The extension of the China's National Security Law(NSL), be it through the establishment of the Article 23 or the introduction of the HK version of NSL, brings only the same outcome that the level of the Hongkongers' human rights will significantly be clamped.
While the public was shocked when the news was aired during the morning news report, the Hong Kong bourse responded with a more than 1300 points all way down blunt plummet throughout the last trading day of the week. The market expressed its most explicit view and the preliminary general view from the stock market commentators were conservative. Most of them hold the view that there will likely be a testing of further south. They are most likely correct because the HSI has leveled off in the past one and a half month while the Bollinger Bands width has reduced to the 1000 points range in the last two weeks, a typical signal that breakthrough is around the corner.
While the stock market is more about the money game rather than the business field, there are also views that the NSL will drive away the foreign investments in Hong Kong as a result of the worry of the deterioration of the One Country, Two Systems which in the worst scenario will render the island becomes just among one of China's thousand common cities. While the impact of the NSL on the future living of the majority of the islanders is out of question, the business world, especially international players, might hold a different view though. For businesses, especially foreign investors, the key concern has always been whether there is business opportunity to make money when deciding where to invest. The well-being of the local people is the least consideration, deep inside their mind.
When the HK version of NSL is in force, the protestors vs police confrontation will become history. All sorts of the opposing voice, view, action against China and the puppet HKSAR government will be harmonized under force. Offenders will be arrested and prosecuted under the NSL immediately to keep all these unwanted phenomenons at bay. Not a nice place to live but it is definitely a more stable environment for conducting businesses as long as the judiciary especially regarding the commercial part remains relatively independent. After all, given that the present situation on human rights in China is much worse than that in Hong Kong now but there are already many foreign investments in China so even if one day the human rights in Hong Kong becomes the same as that in China, it does not really bother foreign investors as long as the capitalism part of the One Country, Two System still survives.
Despite of the high profile comments from the western countries, it is most likely that China is set in stone to proceed the HK version NSL anyway. In fact, the opposing comments from the West in most cases just turned out to be a disservice of their original intent as the CCP has a tradition to defend their ego just to do against what they are criticized by their western counterpart. The more the West criticizes on the HK version NSL the stronger China's determination and sooner the implementation will be. Waiting ahead for the Hong Kong people is a monotone, be harmonized, steady society. People no longer have to worry about the police's tear gas nor the protestors' road blockages. Businesses can go as usual again.
Is that a silver lining of the HK version NSL?
The article 23 of the Basic Law has been a taboo in Hong Kong because there is a fear among the general public that the infringement on human rights issues that happened across the border will happen in the island after the establishment of the Article. The worry on the further tightening amid the already ever increasing self-censorship on the freedom of speech, freedom of press and the independent jurisdiction surges when the news sets in. The opposite camp described the move signals the death of the "One Country, Two Systems" is certified.
The fact that the Article has such a low reception among the general public here in Hong Kong does not come without ground. China is notorious with her record of infringement on human rights on her citizens. The national security law is a swiss knife on clamping the opposition against the CCP's ruling. Despite of the title of national security but the law per se is mainly for the sake of the fortification of the CCP's governance. The extension of the China's National Security Law(NSL), be it through the establishment of the Article 23 or the introduction of the HK version of NSL, brings only the same outcome that the level of the Hongkongers' human rights will significantly be clamped.
While the public was shocked when the news was aired during the morning news report, the Hong Kong bourse responded with a more than 1300 points all way down blunt plummet throughout the last trading day of the week. The market expressed its most explicit view and the preliminary general view from the stock market commentators were conservative. Most of them hold the view that there will likely be a testing of further south. They are most likely correct because the HSI has leveled off in the past one and a half month while the Bollinger Bands width has reduced to the 1000 points range in the last two weeks, a typical signal that breakthrough is around the corner.
While the stock market is more about the money game rather than the business field, there are also views that the NSL will drive away the foreign investments in Hong Kong as a result of the worry of the deterioration of the One Country, Two Systems which in the worst scenario will render the island becomes just among one of China's thousand common cities. While the impact of the NSL on the future living of the majority of the islanders is out of question, the business world, especially international players, might hold a different view though. For businesses, especially foreign investors, the key concern has always been whether there is business opportunity to make money when deciding where to invest. The well-being of the local people is the least consideration, deep inside their mind.
When the HK version of NSL is in force, the protestors vs police confrontation will become history. All sorts of the opposing voice, view, action against China and the puppet HKSAR government will be harmonized under force. Offenders will be arrested and prosecuted under the NSL immediately to keep all these unwanted phenomenons at bay. Not a nice place to live but it is definitely a more stable environment for conducting businesses as long as the judiciary especially regarding the commercial part remains relatively independent. After all, given that the present situation on human rights in China is much worse than that in Hong Kong now but there are already many foreign investments in China so even if one day the human rights in Hong Kong becomes the same as that in China, it does not really bother foreign investors as long as the capitalism part of the One Country, Two System still survives.
Despite of the high profile comments from the western countries, it is most likely that China is set in stone to proceed the HK version NSL anyway. In fact, the opposing comments from the West in most cases just turned out to be a disservice of their original intent as the CCP has a tradition to defend their ego just to do against what they are criticized by their western counterpart. The more the West criticizes on the HK version NSL the stronger China's determination and sooner the implementation will be. Waiting ahead for the Hong Kong people is a monotone, be harmonized, steady society. People no longer have to worry about the police's tear gas nor the protestors' road blockages. Businesses can go as usual again.
Is that a silver lining of the HK version NSL?
2020年5月3日 星期日
Wild thoughts amid the novel coronavirus pandemic (2)
While the novel coronavirus situation seems to be leveling off in the western world like Europe and mixed in the U.S., in fact, from the global perspective it is still far from satisfactory because there are still a daily close to thousand new cases in Singapore throughout the past week while things in Russia is getting worse now. Coincidentally these two places are in two extremes in the climate that one is hot all year round and the other one is still cold at night now so it tells us that this virus can spread disregard of the weather. Unfortunately this phenomenon suggests that the earlier forecast made by the medical experts that this virus is going to be with us for good perhaps bingo. On the other hand, not only there were already protests in some of the states in the U.S. that people requested lifting on the ban a couple of weeks ago but there are also voices in the Europe that people urging for reopening. Ironically the U.K. prime minister Johnson has just made his speech about his experience on the fighting with the disease saying that he was indeed at the brink of death yet people just seems too brave to ignore the consequence of contracting this virus. Apparently just as what I said in my earlier post that if this outbreak as well as lockdown persist then the fear of more people will die from financial unwell than that from disease overrides mind. This is sad but true and this is the reality or dilemma the world is facing now.
While it is still controversial on the cause and origin of this virus but no matter what this is a setback of the arrogance of human being which is totally defeated by a much much smaller tiny creature at least up to this moment. Not only that an effective vaccine is still far from availability but even if when it exists, how much time will it take to produce enough dosages for the world's 7.8 billion population? Let alone some countries just even cannot afford to buy enough vaccine for their citizen. Willingly or not, herd immunity seems to be the ultimate resort for some poor countries despite at a high cost that many infected will not make it given the poor condition of the healthcare system in these countries.
Despite it is called novel coronavirus but in fact people should not be surprised on its attack. Medical experts have been waving red flag on the onset of the superbugs which is as the result of the abuse on the usage of antibiotics. In fact there are already a few antibiotic-resistant bacteria exist, namely MRSA, CRE, VRE...etc, that these bacteria cannot be treated by the usage of existing antibiotics. These superbugs can cause diseases in various severity from skin infection to death. Luck seemed to be on human's side so far that there was no outbreak of fatal disease caused by these superbugs. Is this Coronvirus just another red flag or will it end up to be the terminator? Time will tell. People should not forget that 90% of the population of the indigenous Indian in the America was wiped out by the virus brought to this new land by the European settlers centuries ago. Viruses are tiny but could be lethal.
Prior to this virus outbreak, human is so contented on their level of scientific knowledge and technologies. Some even think they are almost playing God's duties. People believe that there is a will, there must be way to defy the laws in the mother nature. The world, oh no, should be the universe is all up to human's exploitation. But is it?
No doubt that human's intelligence is above all creatures in the world so this single species excels in this planet. Human being not only dominates the earth but squeezes the room of existence of other species. With their superior intelligence human created a host of tools that other creatures are no match with in the competition on resources. Mankind seems to be almighty with the equipment built under their technologies. However, while people is contented with the progress made along with their intelligence, it seems they have overlooked that other species are also evolving along their own path. Different animals have developed different abilities which mankind is no match with at all not only to survive but also to race against their preys and predators in order to flourish. Unlike the external equipment to human being, these animals own these innate abilities built in their own bodies like bats can locate with supersonic, eagles see with super vision, electric eels shock their prey with high voltage electricity, sharks can detect the tiny electric wave emitted by the prey...etc.
When people is so proud with their equipment and the abilities brought by these tools, it seems they have never thought how vulnerable human is when they are deprived from these equipment which they take it as granted. No need to go too extreme to imagine when there is no electricity in the world but just imagine the Internet is, for some reason, no longer working then can someone think about what a world will we be living in? On the contrary our animals counterpart is not upset at all if one day no matter due to whatever reason human's technologies do not work anymore. There is a saying that if one day the world is destroyed by our own invention of nuclear bomb but cockroach will still be living.
Human appears strong and in fact we are strong when we are in command on our equipment. In other words, we are strong just because we have these equipment and we are nothing when we do not have them. The reality is that most of the people do not survive without the civilization we created.
I recall one of the lyric of the song Hotel California.
"We are all just prisoners here, of our own device"
While it is still controversial on the cause and origin of this virus but no matter what this is a setback of the arrogance of human being which is totally defeated by a much much smaller tiny creature at least up to this moment. Not only that an effective vaccine is still far from availability but even if when it exists, how much time will it take to produce enough dosages for the world's 7.8 billion population? Let alone some countries just even cannot afford to buy enough vaccine for their citizen. Willingly or not, herd immunity seems to be the ultimate resort for some poor countries despite at a high cost that many infected will not make it given the poor condition of the healthcare system in these countries.
Despite it is called novel coronavirus but in fact people should not be surprised on its attack. Medical experts have been waving red flag on the onset of the superbugs which is as the result of the abuse on the usage of antibiotics. In fact there are already a few antibiotic-resistant bacteria exist, namely MRSA, CRE, VRE...etc, that these bacteria cannot be treated by the usage of existing antibiotics. These superbugs can cause diseases in various severity from skin infection to death. Luck seemed to be on human's side so far that there was no outbreak of fatal disease caused by these superbugs. Is this Coronvirus just another red flag or will it end up to be the terminator? Time will tell. People should not forget that 90% of the population of the indigenous Indian in the America was wiped out by the virus brought to this new land by the European settlers centuries ago. Viruses are tiny but could be lethal.
Prior to this virus outbreak, human is so contented on their level of scientific knowledge and technologies. Some even think they are almost playing God's duties. People believe that there is a will, there must be way to defy the laws in the mother nature. The world, oh no, should be the universe is all up to human's exploitation. But is it?
No doubt that human's intelligence is above all creatures in the world so this single species excels in this planet. Human being not only dominates the earth but squeezes the room of existence of other species. With their superior intelligence human created a host of tools that other creatures are no match with in the competition on resources. Mankind seems to be almighty with the equipment built under their technologies. However, while people is contented with the progress made along with their intelligence, it seems they have overlooked that other species are also evolving along their own path. Different animals have developed different abilities which mankind is no match with at all not only to survive but also to race against their preys and predators in order to flourish. Unlike the external equipment to human being, these animals own these innate abilities built in their own bodies like bats can locate with supersonic, eagles see with super vision, electric eels shock their prey with high voltage electricity, sharks can detect the tiny electric wave emitted by the prey...etc.
When people is so proud with their equipment and the abilities brought by these tools, it seems they have never thought how vulnerable human is when they are deprived from these equipment which they take it as granted. No need to go too extreme to imagine when there is no electricity in the world but just imagine the Internet is, for some reason, no longer working then can someone think about what a world will we be living in? On the contrary our animals counterpart is not upset at all if one day no matter due to whatever reason human's technologies do not work anymore. There is a saying that if one day the world is destroyed by our own invention of nuclear bomb but cockroach will still be living.
Human appears strong and in fact we are strong when we are in command on our equipment. In other words, we are strong just because we have these equipment and we are nothing when we do not have them. The reality is that most of the people do not survive without the civilization we created.
I recall one of the lyric of the song Hotel California.
"We are all just prisoners here, of our own device"
2020年4月18日 星期六
Globalization rethink
The novel coronavirus global pandemic not only hits the world on the health aspect but also imposed a profound impact on the world economy as well. As and when the virus situation subsides (hopefully it will) there will be a host of topics that the world must look into it so many people said our world is going to be a different one after the pandemic. Among the list of topics, one most talked about is the future development of the existing globalization setting.
Some people said the once flourish globalization is nearly destroyed overnight along with the onset of the outbreak. Alongside the lockdowns and shutdown on the national borders on many nations across the major continents human traffic, especially cross-border, literally came to a complete halt. Cargo traffic is equally hit as well because when lockdowns on cities as well as on some nations kicked in the production is unavoidably severely impacted. Globalization means production of all the parts within a product scattered throughout different countries, if not continents. The Domino effect further hammers the normal operation in production when one or some imported parts is out of stock due to the lockdowns. This is particularly true for those enterprises who practice JIT (Just in Time) inventory system. The world suddenly realizes that how fragile the existing system is so people can't help but just question whether we should keep the existing system running.
Naturally the concern on the stability issue arising from the logistic problem is quite valid. The view is rather monotone though. The argument rests mainly on economic which focuses on the disruption on production and the economic losses arising from it. Despite there are also some western countries have political concern that some strategic essentials which are now produced overseas. This raises the concern up to the national security level when supplies are interrupted just like what has happened on the face masks. Naturally it is almost for sure that governments around the world will raise an agenda for the procurement on such strategic essentials but after all, these items are just a very small fraction of the total world trade volume so the retreat of these items from the world trade will not pose a significant impact on the globalization status.
Perhaps before we go further on the assessment on the survival of globalization, a look back on how the globalization is born can help. Most people see globalization a rather modern thing meaning it happened quite lately. Many people relate it to the industrialization and the modern management theory of labour division. It is true that only after the industrial revolution that production mode changed from manually to inception of machinery so efficiency was gradually increased and so was the output. As the technologies advanced over time but not all countries progressed in the same pace and the same direction, some countries outperformed others in the production of some particular products so labour division emerged among nations and that was the background of the birth of globalization.
Nevertheless, industrialization and labour division just provided a breeding ground of globalization but they do not necessarily cultivate it without a key drive. There must be someone giving them a big push to facilitate the onset of globalization. In fact industrialization and labour division were something very revolutionary by themselves at their birth but they were just the means of the underlying end, ie., profit maximization. By the employment of sophisticated production technologies and having the products made in a low costs country yields the highest profit. Profit maximization is the ultimate goal, or the single goal, if a business must choose from. Yet this is the economic drive only.
In the earlier paragraph I mentioned that most people think that globalization is a rather contemporary concept but in fact perhaps it happened as earlier as in the heyday of the British Empire who was once described as the empire on which sun never sets. The Empire earned this title because she once had colonies where the sun would always shine on one of her colonies. She owned so many colonies not for fun but for profit maximization. People should remember that the Empire was the birthplace of the industrial revolution so she had the most state of the art machinery at that time. The Empire needed a great deal of raw materials for her production as well as a big market to dump her products made by the machinery. Naturally she did not have enough natural resources from her own soil of three islands only so the Royal Navy conquered those colonies which fed the Empire's appetite. On the other hand, the warships also opened up the market for her products in different continents. This is the globalization in true sense.
After the WII, the U.S. succeeded in replacing her mother to be an empire. "American Empire" exists in another form that it basically does not own colony but through its strong military muscle and the U.S. Dollar landscape the "Empire" has been ruling the world with even more (economic) colonies than her mother. Therefore the U.S. was, till this late decade, an hard core fan of globalization. People have heard her solid support on the globalization as well as free world trade over the past decades because these two advocates are the nutcracker on opening up the world market on the natural resources supplies as well as product export. Things started to change only when Trump became the president of the U.S. because he holds different view from the multiple super super wealthy families whom are the beneficiaries of the U.S.'s globalization policy. Therefore Trump does not earn their support and people see Trump has his leg being pulled more than any of his predecessors.
Just like any of the empires in the history, the British Empire fell so will the "American Empire" eventually but people is seeing a young challenger on the rise. China is eagerly trying to mimic what the Uncle Sam's defeat over his mother to replace this ageing giant. People see that China is pathing her way towards an empire by advocating the Rise of a Big Nation followed by the initiative of Belt and Road. She is actively stretching her legs and arms over the world. Therefore people is not surprised to see China became the most solid supporter of the free world trade and globalization than is the U.S. now.
Globalization is the way empires pillage the world so as long as there is empire in the world, there will always be globalization out of question.
Some people said the once flourish globalization is nearly destroyed overnight along with the onset of the outbreak. Alongside the lockdowns and shutdown on the national borders on many nations across the major continents human traffic, especially cross-border, literally came to a complete halt. Cargo traffic is equally hit as well because when lockdowns on cities as well as on some nations kicked in the production is unavoidably severely impacted. Globalization means production of all the parts within a product scattered throughout different countries, if not continents. The Domino effect further hammers the normal operation in production when one or some imported parts is out of stock due to the lockdowns. This is particularly true for those enterprises who practice JIT (Just in Time) inventory system. The world suddenly realizes that how fragile the existing system is so people can't help but just question whether we should keep the existing system running.
Naturally the concern on the stability issue arising from the logistic problem is quite valid. The view is rather monotone though. The argument rests mainly on economic which focuses on the disruption on production and the economic losses arising from it. Despite there are also some western countries have political concern that some strategic essentials which are now produced overseas. This raises the concern up to the national security level when supplies are interrupted just like what has happened on the face masks. Naturally it is almost for sure that governments around the world will raise an agenda for the procurement on such strategic essentials but after all, these items are just a very small fraction of the total world trade volume so the retreat of these items from the world trade will not pose a significant impact on the globalization status.
Perhaps before we go further on the assessment on the survival of globalization, a look back on how the globalization is born can help. Most people see globalization a rather modern thing meaning it happened quite lately. Many people relate it to the industrialization and the modern management theory of labour division. It is true that only after the industrial revolution that production mode changed from manually to inception of machinery so efficiency was gradually increased and so was the output. As the technologies advanced over time but not all countries progressed in the same pace and the same direction, some countries outperformed others in the production of some particular products so labour division emerged among nations and that was the background of the birth of globalization.
Nevertheless, industrialization and labour division just provided a breeding ground of globalization but they do not necessarily cultivate it without a key drive. There must be someone giving them a big push to facilitate the onset of globalization. In fact industrialization and labour division were something very revolutionary by themselves at their birth but they were just the means of the underlying end, ie., profit maximization. By the employment of sophisticated production technologies and having the products made in a low costs country yields the highest profit. Profit maximization is the ultimate goal, or the single goal, if a business must choose from. Yet this is the economic drive only.
In the earlier paragraph I mentioned that most people think that globalization is a rather contemporary concept but in fact perhaps it happened as earlier as in the heyday of the British Empire who was once described as the empire on which sun never sets. The Empire earned this title because she once had colonies where the sun would always shine on one of her colonies. She owned so many colonies not for fun but for profit maximization. People should remember that the Empire was the birthplace of the industrial revolution so she had the most state of the art machinery at that time. The Empire needed a great deal of raw materials for her production as well as a big market to dump her products made by the machinery. Naturally she did not have enough natural resources from her own soil of three islands only so the Royal Navy conquered those colonies which fed the Empire's appetite. On the other hand, the warships also opened up the market for her products in different continents. This is the globalization in true sense.
After the WII, the U.S. succeeded in replacing her mother to be an empire. "American Empire" exists in another form that it basically does not own colony but through its strong military muscle and the U.S. Dollar landscape the "Empire" has been ruling the world with even more (economic) colonies than her mother. Therefore the U.S. was, till this late decade, an hard core fan of globalization. People have heard her solid support on the globalization as well as free world trade over the past decades because these two advocates are the nutcracker on opening up the world market on the natural resources supplies as well as product export. Things started to change only when Trump became the president of the U.S. because he holds different view from the multiple super super wealthy families whom are the beneficiaries of the U.S.'s globalization policy. Therefore Trump does not earn their support and people see Trump has his leg being pulled more than any of his predecessors.
Just like any of the empires in the history, the British Empire fell so will the "American Empire" eventually but people is seeing a young challenger on the rise. China is eagerly trying to mimic what the Uncle Sam's defeat over his mother to replace this ageing giant. People see that China is pathing her way towards an empire by advocating the Rise of a Big Nation followed by the initiative of Belt and Road. She is actively stretching her legs and arms over the world. Therefore people is not surprised to see China became the most solid supporter of the free world trade and globalization than is the U.S. now.
Globalization is the way empires pillage the world so as long as there is empire in the world, there will always be globalization out of question.
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