Yao Ming to da BANK.
Yao Ming, the Chinese-born, All-Star Center for the Houston Rockets of National Basketball Association, has
signed a gigantic contract extension. Not the biggest, but LARGE still. He will be guaranteed to be paid a quarter of his team's total (theoretical) salary budget. As a fellow native Shanghainese, I am happy for Yao, but I have to wonder how this will impact the rest of the team. Especially since Tracy McGrady, Yao's smaller (in size) partner in crime, has an equally
bigger contract. This will mean that two players will take up at least half the team salary, which will dramatically limit the manuverability of the team to sign free agents and re-sign productive teammates.
Problems solved.
Problem #1: China's "one-child" family planning policy and age-long preference for sons have led to a shortage of girls. The ratio for boys to girls is approaching 1.2.
Problem #2: Australia and New Zealand are experiencing "man-drought," possibly due to the migration of male workers.
Yes, see where I am going with this? Extra Chinese men and extra Outback ladies. Sure, the two group hardly seem a match made in heaven. And the 20,000 surplus of women from Down Under will hardly fix the problem of China, which has a population wrong side of 1 billion. But surely there are other countries in need of some able male bodies. Russia maybe? Hey you want globalization and exporting? How about exporting the extra Chinese bachelors, eligible or not.
Culture of death.
Why are we so fixated on death? Are we not trying to foster a "Culture of Life?" People are always celebrating the passing of luminaries. Do you know that James Dean died today, August 23, 50 years ago? Or that Linus Pauling, the famed biochemist and two-time Nobel laureate, died this month, August 19, 11 years ago? Or that Groucho Marx, comedic genius, died on that same day, 17 years before that? And how about this, Mel Gib...er, I mean, William Wallace, the Scottish rebel, made famous in "Braveheart," was executed today exactly 700 years ago.
The TV news love to bombard us about anniversary of death for famous people. Why? Why do we celebrate the loss of these remarkable people, whose contribution made our lives that more rich and livable? Should we not be celebrating their births? Were those not moments of great joy for each mark the beginning of one human being's search for meaning of life in arts, science and ultimately, the power of human spirit? While one's death is a neat and convinient puncturation to mark the end of a life time's work, I believe that the event itself does not deserve so much attention. Save the anniversary of death for people we despise like Hitler and bin Ladin. And remember instead, that on this day, David Chappelle was born and destined to make us laugh and make us question about ourselves and the country that we live in.
Memories of Murder
That is the English title of a 2003 South Korean crime thriller,
Salinui chueok. Excellent movie. Despite its lack of physical action and idiosyncratic Korean behaviors, the movie soon sucked me in and pushed me along for 2+ hours. It is really impossible for me to describe to anyone who has not seen it how the movie was able to capture me so thoroughly. The movie is based on a true story about a serial rapist-murderer in 1986 in Korea.
However, the point of this post is not about me trying to become a movie critic, but an interesting side note. It may be considered a spoiler despite my effort, so be warned. Apparently in 1986, forensic DNA testing was just becoming available. But not in Korea. So the Korean police had to send their DNA samples to the U.S. or Japan for testing. Now fast forward 19 years. The table has turned. South Korea has become the world leader in genetic cloning. The irony is not lost on me.
Now, Korea may never challenge the economic prowess of the U.S. However, it is clear that, with focus and determination by its policy makers, a country the size of state of Indiana can compete with the U.S. in specific areas of science and technology that have far-reaching consequence in the future of man-kind. Some in America could claim the ambiguous moral high ground of "a Culture of Life," or the pseudo-philosophical superiority of "Intelligent Designer" criticism of biological evolution. In the end, igorance is not bliss, and the U.S. should be wary of following the footsteps of the Catholic Church, which went from the Keeper of Knowledge during the middle ages to the Inquisitor of Galileo and Darwin.
How many languages do you speak?
My girlfriend claims she can speak at least half a dozen languages. English and Chinese of course.
Also Japanese: sushi, sashimi, amaebi, hamachi, etc.
Korean: bebimbop, bugulki, kimbob, etc.
Spanish: tequilla, burrito, etc.
French, Italian... well you get the idea. It is all about the food. We Americans may not have traveled the world or taken formal classes, but we know how to order in the resturants from around the world. And I think that is one of many great things living in the U.S. You are inevitably exposed to so many different cultures even if it is only their diets. It is arguable that nothing is more essential, and therefore more closely reflrect the essence of, ones culture than what one eats. To accept another's food and cuisine might seem a small gesture, but it signifies that you are accepting a large portion of other's culture. Well, some would consider ingesting fried insects or alcohol-chased snake gall bladder not small gesture at all.
Be the best you can be
This is not a U.S. Army ad. This is about reaching the pennicle of one's life. I got to thinking last night after watching "Dicky Roberts: a former child star." It is a paroday about the life of Roberts when he tries to make a comeback in the show biz at thirtysomething. In the end of the movie, there was a song performed by some forty actual, former child TV/Movie stars. The song is meant to be funny, yet one could not help but feel that there is some bitterness and regret in their voices--that no matter how hard they try they had rarely been able to redefine their careers and lives as something other than child stars.
Is that sad? I wonder how many struggling actors out there would do almost anything to be as famous as anyone of these child stars? Not all of course, but surely many, the many that a successful career in acting equals celebrity. And is it sad to be so "successful" so young, with the rest of ones life to live up/down to it?
People reach the pennicles of their careers at different ages. Child actors at their teens. Professional athletes their twentieth. Doctors in their thirtieth and fortieth. Nobel prize winner get their medal usual sixtieth. Some artists only became acclaimed after their passing. On an everyday scale, this happens to all of us. When was the last time that you knew that you were the best among your peers? Math in the fifth grade? Little league baseball at age 11? Ballet in high school? And the whole world seems to be there for your taking. But soon or later, each of us come to the realization that there is someone out there that is smarter, or stronger, or more graceful, or just plain better. The question is, what do I do? Remain fixated on the glory of past? Or try to run away from it? Or...
Simply be the best I can be.
Nicotin and cigarette
I just finished Malcolm Gladwell's
The Tipping Point. In general I liked it--it is not earth shattering like some people think--but I enjoyed the rich examples of people and social phenomenoms that he wrote about in the book. However, in the Afterword, he wrote something that I thought was troubling.
He suggested an alternative way to decrease the risk of young people becoming addicted to cigarettes. The cigarette companies could be persuaded to make cigarettes with lower nicotine content thus making it more difficult for teenagers who are merely experimenting to get enough nicotine to get hooked. However this is ignoring the complex relationship between smoking and health. We do not want people to smoke because it is bad for their health. People smoke because they are addicted to the nicotine. But nicotine is only one of over 4000 chemicals in cigarettes, many of which are more dangerous to one's health than nicotine. Lowering nicotine content may prevent addiction in teens, but it may force addicted smokers to smoke more cigarettes to get their nicotine "fix" and therefore more cancer inducing chemicals.
I am of the opinion that while nicotine is addictive it can be argued it is no more harmful to individuals and society as alcohol. If one could find a way to deliver nicotine to people who enjoy it, a la Starbucks style, without the harmful sleu of chemicals one find in cigarettes, it could be a big step forward in preventive health care.
You call this paradise?
Would you and your family want to live in a place like this?
1. It is shaped like a shriveled penis.
2. It is the target of natural disasters a dozen times a year.
3. It has the highest elderly population in the U.S. (19%) Fitting, considering point #1. Also, as a corollary, I expect driving in the state to be a pain in the butt.
4. It is the state that gave us the butterfly ballot and 8 years of Faith-Based governance. I only wish I could blame it on the elderly again.
5. It has the "Happiest Place On Earth!" Disney World.
6. Its governor and politicians, hoping to curry favors from the Right, shamelessly prolonged the misery of a poor brain-dead woman and dragged a responsible husband through a pool of mud the size of Everglades.
And if these are not enough, I just found out that FLORIDA is one of only five states in the U.S. that HAS NO MENTION OF EVOLUTION IN THEIR STATE CURRICULUM STANDARDS. This is the last straw--Evolution OPTIONAL? Not that I plan to have kids soon, but Florida would be one place where I may consider home-schooling. Yah right, like I would ever live there.
Cleaning
I hate the phrase, "... mop the floor with ..."
It usually goes like "Alex Rodriguez could mop the floor with Derek Jeter," or George Bush would mop the floor with John Kerry" meaning that Player A or Candidate A is much superior than Player or Candidate B as to defeat the latter so thoroughly as to use him like a dirty rag. Very occasionally you get a headline like this,
"FU [Fairfield University] prepares to mop the floor with discrimination," which is much less penetrable.
On the other hand, for someone uninitiated with baseball, or less knowledgeable with the less-than-amicable political wind, "mopping the floor" just sound like a couple of friends spending an afternoon for spring cleanning. And while we are at it, can we stop "cleaning the clocks" too?
