Into the World:
The Random Thoughts in My Mind

It is common logic that laws are only enforceable where individuals can be tracked down when crimes are committed. The ability to identify and track down the criminal is perhaps the most factor preventing more people from harming others for personal benefit. Seriously, if one knows that one is guaranteed that one cannot be found by the law-enforcement agencies, where is the risk for doing something illegal? In the modern world, this sort of "disappearing criminal" logic still works in two circumstances: international relations and the cyberspace. As for international relations, I don't need to elaborate. A country can easily make up some bullshit reasons to invade another in the name of "justice." And domestic laws can easily be overridden when foreign fishermen are concerned. The logic is clear, the criminal with more power, as defined by greater technology, greater economic strength , and even greater size becomes good enough reason to replace the bound...

After looking at the ongoing boat row as a financial damage to Japan and as a personal experience of getting negative treatments in Japan , it is perhaps necessary to look at the whole reason why border disputes between nations are so hard to resolve. Some tend to argue that the issue is largely economic. The whole reason there are disputes over Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands is over the seabed oil fields nearby, and the whole reason why Japan still argues over islets with Russia and Korea is also over fishing fields and trade routes. According to these arguments, somehow Japan's economy/economic security can be greatly boosted through control over a few islands. But aside from a few decades of cheap fish and oil, the short term benefits are just as hard to establish as long term strategic interests. An essentially Euro-centric Russia sees no reason for war in sparely populated Far East for further expansion, and Japan should not see itself powerful enough to go at it with nuclear Russ...

So it seems these days when Chinese walks around in the streets of Tokyo. Of course, unless we open our mouths, no one would know, but public opinion is public opinion after all...just seeing the guy next to you on the commuter train reading a newspaper article titled "China's Ambitions to Take Over the East Sea" can't possibly be very pleasing for myself and millions of other Chinese who are in this country. And then comes the news that Japan rejects Chinese demands for apology and in exchange issues a demand for financial reparations. I really wonder if the government is heeding the call of the people on this particular issue, on both sides. There are few bilateral economic relationships as close and interrelated as the one between Japan and China, with goods and personnel constantly crossing the borders. As much as citizens on both sides have certain negative images about each other, no one, even on the extreme right, can deny the existing benefits of economic c...

Finally, today, I sent my grandmother back to Nanjing, ending my pretty much self-imposed three-week house arrest. Watching my grandmother behave in public for one last time (in a long long while, at least) as we head our way by train, it still makes me think how older people behave in China. Maybe a lot of what I say here is peculiar to my grandmother, but basically, all the social vices we perceive that Chinese people have are incredibly prevalent among elders. For instance, cutting in line is normal (quite humiliating for me to watch when my grandmother does it because I can't follow her in that particular act). Also, for her, words like "Excuse me," "Thank you," and "Please" are never to be used in public toward strangers (even customer service people)...and, smiling toward others is just not something to be done logically. Ironically, when foreigners first think of Chinese elders, bearded wise smiling old men (like Confucius) are probably the...

There has a lot of attention on Japan holding Chinese fishermen and Japan selling Yen to devalue it against USD, but everyone thought the two news are completely unrelated to each other...until now. There has been new reports (more like rumors) saying that the Chinese are beginning to throw its massive 2.5 trillion USD foreign reserves into buying Japanese government bonds, in such a scale that the CCP is actually selling off many of its USD assets to make the purchases. If the rumors can be proved correct, its potentially a huge financial assault on Japan amid political confrontation. The economics is this: when the Chinese sell off USD-denoted assets, the demand of USD decreases, causing its value to decrease. At the same time, buying Japanese government bonds requires the Chinese to first buy huge amounts of cash in yen (using USD or RMB), causing the demand and value of yen to increase (USD and RMB to devalue as they are put in the market in place of Yen). Together, the two mov...

Recently, a rich girl in Korea showing off her wealth and luxury goods on a local TV station got the whole country pissed off. When it turned out that the TV station told the (averaged middle class) girl to make up the whole thing to get higher rating for the show, criticism and financial punishment for the TV station was logically and swiftly called for. The fact that the TV station is capable of thinking up something like this and the success in attracting (mostly negative) attention to the said TV show goes to show the sensitivity normal people have regarding an outright display of social inequality. Of course, this kind of wealth display is not new or rare. Internet forums in China practically gets new pics of some rich boy or girls' personal "accessories" every single day, attracting fiery comments from netizens. The fact that these young boys and girls are from wealthy families and did not work for any of their wealth only increases the negative sentiments towar...

So it seems I have believed for a long time. The manual labor job that probably has one of the highest date rates, the coal miner is the ultimate blue-collar job. In China, thousands of them die every year, only to be replaced by thousands more who come from the countryside for a quick buck (and a quick death). The lack of regulation in the mining industry (not just coal) means that laws cannot protect the workers and can't be used to improve their conditions. Popular belief (not just here but also everywhere) think that no matter how "safe" laws make the mines, mining is a dangerous, boring job without any prospects for brighter future. But the ongoing media coverage on rescuing 30-some Chilean coal workers trapped underneath a collapsed mine tunnel for a few months shows that maybe to simply consider coal miners are hapless and unfortunate pawns of gigantic mining companies is becoming a thing of the past, at least in certain parts of the world. There seem to be da...