A very interesting profile of Errol Morris in GQ.
Ask film buffs for a list of the greatest living American directors and you may hear the name Errol Morris, the documentarian who created an entirely new way of conducting interviews, made classics like The Thin Blue Line (which helped get a man out of prison), and this month gives us the fullest, most honest look yet [in the film Standard Operating Procedure] at the people who took part in Abu Ghraib
In episode 11, we continue and finished the case discussed in episodes 9 and 10.
You can click here to listen to episode 11 of the program in mp3 (or you can download or stream the program here).
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Program Info: My friend Simon has worked as a Hong Kong-based purchaser for over 30 years before his retirement. Simon has agreed to record a series of Chinese audio shows/podcasts call “Tales of a Chinese Purchaser 買手的故事“ to share his years of experiences and insights in purchasing and working with Chinese factories. (Note: This program has been recorded in the Cantonese dialect.)
Interesting to read what Wallace considers as “the most important statement made by Steven Cheung“. For the curious readers who want to read the complete article where this quote comes from and the statement’s context, you can check out “假若人是不自私的（附后记）” (1984.02.17).
I don’t know enough to pick which is Steven Cheung’s most important statement. But I can say Steven Cheung’s way of thinking and analyzing problems play an important role in shaping my own. And Cheung has written this series of articles to share his insight in 1984,
As an aside, some of my friends have commented that I read very broadly. Over the years, I’ve tried to learn from a diverse group of people. If you have time, I encourage you read and learn from people like Warren Buffett, Richard Feynman, and Bill Buxton (with videos and book recommendations). These three people are very different from each other but I believe we can learn from them just the same. For fun, I’ve created a series of posts call “Great minds of our time“ to share my personal picks of some of the great public minds of our time.
Very good news.
An excerpt from CBC (emphasis added),
A shipment of weapons destined to Zimbabwe from China will be returned after neighbouring countries refused to allow them to be shipped through their territories, a Chinese spokesman said.
Countries neighbouring Zimbabwe refused to allow the Chinese freighter carrying the weapons, which included mortar grenades and bullets, to dock at their ports.
"This cargo was not unloaded because the Zimbabwe side was unable to take delivery as scheduled," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu.
[...]
Jiang said the shipment was a purely commercial transaction that broke no laws and had nothing to do with the ongoing political crisis. [K: If China wants to be a true world power, commerce can no longer be the only consideration. Of course, the Chinese gov may have wanted Mugabe to stay in power and that will be a different issue all together.]
There is no international arms embargo against Zimbabwe, and China is one of the southern African nation's main trade partners and allies.
Here is a video of Paul Graham, founder of YCombinator, speaking at Startup School 08 about how to create a successful startup. [Hat Tip: Austin Hill]
Here is an excerpt from my friend Trevor Doerksen's insightful blog entry "The Streaming Victims - Canadians" (emphasis added),
Turn Audiences to Customers
Broadcaster and producers refer to their fans as audiences. Unfortunately, these audiences don't want to be told how, when, what, and where to passively view content. I consider these fans as customers. We know their names, their email addresses, and their likes and dislikes. In fact, when speaking to broadcasters and producers in Canada I often ask what they know about their fans. They know very little. This must change. The Internet is a communications medium, it is not just a passive viewing system. Together we must develop relationships that allow everybody: the customer and the producer to benefit from knowing each other better.Provide content not formats
In music the transformation is almost complete. Customers no longer have to pay for format. Purchasing Queen on vinyl, 8-track, cassette, CD, and digitally rights managed (DRM) digital download is over. Customers don't have to pay for the format, they just buy the content and move it around as they please. TV and movies will need to give customers what they want. They can't keep pretending. I know the customers I deal with are much smarter than that, giving them what they want is a viable business model. Providing seamless, unified, and flexible access to their favourite content is viable.
Great article from Fortune. Here is an excerpt with emphasis,
Before we start in on questions, I would like to tell you about one thing going on recently. It may have some meaning to you if you’re still being taught efficient-market theory, which was standard procedure 25 years ago. But we’ve had a recent illustration of why the theory is misguided. In the past seven or eight or nine weeks, Berkshire has built up a position in auction-rate securities [bonds whose interest rates are periodically reset at auction; for more, see box on page 74] of about $4 billion. And what we have seen there is really quite phenomenal. Every day we get bid lists. The fascinating thing is that on these bid lists, frequently the same credit will appear more than once.
Here’s one from yesterday. We bid on this particular issue - this happens to be Citizens Insurance, which is a creature of the state of Florida. It was set up to take care of hurricane insurance, and it’s backed by premium taxes, and if they have a big hurricane and the fund becomes inadequate, they raise the premium taxes. There’s nothing wrong with the credit. So we bid on three different Citizens securities that day. We got one bid at an 11.33% interest rate. One that we didn’t buy went for 9.87%, and one went for 6.0%. It’s the same bond, the same time, the same dealer. And a big issue. This is not some little anomaly, as they like to say in academic circles every time they find something that disagrees with their theory.
So wild things happen in the markets. And the markets have not gotten more rational over the years. They’ve become more followed. But when people panic, when fear takes over, or when greed takes over, people react just as irrationally as they have in the past. [...]
[Fortune] Your OFHEO example implies you’re not too optimistic about regulation.
[Buffett] Finance has gotten so complex, with so much interdependency. I argued with Alan Greenspan some about this at [Washington Post chairman] Don Graham’s dinner. He would say that you’ve spread risk throughout the world by all these instruments, and now you didn’t have it all concentrated in your banks. But what you’ve done is you’ve interconnected the solvency of institutions to a degree that probably nobody anticipated. And it’s very hard to evaluate. If Bear Stearns had not had a derivatives book, my guess is the Fed wouldn’t have had to do what it did.
[Fortune] Do you find it striking that banks keep looking into their investments and not knowing what they have?
[Buffett] I read a few prospectuses for residential-mortgage-backed securities - mortgages, thousands of mortgages backing them, and then those all tranched into maybe 30 slices. You create a CDO by taking one of the lower tranches of that one and 50 others like it. Now if you’re going to understand that CDO, you’ve got 50-times-300 pages to read, it’s 15,000. If you take one of the lower tranches of the CDO and take 50 of those and create a CDO squared, you’re now up to 750,000 pages to read to understand one security. I mean, it can’t be done. When you start buying tranches of other instruments, nobody knows what the hell they’re doing. It’s ridiculous. And of course, you took a lower tranche of a mortgage-backed security and did 100 of those and thought you were diversifying risk. Hell, they’re all subject to the same thing. I mean, it may be a little different whether they’re in California or Nebraska, but the idea that this is uncorrelated risk and therefore you can take the CDO and call the top 50% of it super-senior - it isn’t super-senior or anything. It’s a bunch of juniors all put together. And the juniors all correlate.
Here is an excerpt G&M Report on Business video interview with Susur Lee (emphasis added),
Celebrated Canadian chef, Susur Lee, moves his East-West fusion cuisine to New York this fall with plans to open with a restaurant inside the new Thompson hotel on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Mr. Lee says that he just couldn’t turn down the opportunity. He will close his Toronto restaurant, Susur, which opened to rave reviews in 2000, at the end of May but will continue the more relaxed eatery Lee, located right next door.
The 50-year-old chef told the Globe, “If I don’t change, I’ll get old. I always love the challenge. I always love to do new things. I’m not sad at all.”
The Hong Kong born chef, who moved to Canada almost three decades ago, is generally credited with developing a new form of cuisine that blends Chinese with French cooking.
Enjoy.
Interesting video interview of security expert Bruce Schneier by TechWebTV at RSA 2008 Conference.
I am surprised and angry of how arrogant the Conservative government/party has become when it decided to selectively invite some media outlets while excluding some large media outlets including the Canadian Press, the CBC, Maclean's, the Globe and Mail (original scheduled but later canceled) and the Halifax Chronicle Herald. Here is an excerpt from CBC report (with video) (emphasis added),
CBC News requested to attend the briefings, but was rejected and told by party spokesman Ryan Sparrow that it was a private meeting, Boag said, adding reporters from the Canadian Press, Maclean’s magazine and Canwest Global Communications Corp. were also not permitted to attend.
Giving some reporters a briefing before Monday’s court release of the warrant allows the party a chance to shape the story, but it also creates the impression that the Conservatives need to spin it, Boag said.
Here is an excerpt from Canadian Press report “Conservative effort to limit raid damage leads to bizarre farce” (emphasis added),
The federal Conservatives made “false and misleading” statements in their financial returns for the last election and exceeded their campaign spending limit by over $1 million, Elections Canada says in a warrant that led to a raid on party headquarters.
A copy of the warrant and supporting materials was provided to The Canadian Press.
The documents were supposed to be made public Monday, but a bizarre attempt by the Tories to get ahead of the news by briefing select reporters on Sunday led to a slapstick scene that saw party representatives switching hotels, slamming doors and scampering down fire exits to escape pointed questions from journalists who weren’t invited to the meeting. [K: Are they for real here?]
The Conservatives have contended ever since the raid last week that they did nothing wrong and were surprised when the RCMP, acting on a request from Elections Canada, showed up with the warrant at their offices.
Elections Canada officials offered stark disagreement.
“The Conservative party of Canada exceeded its election expense spending limit for the 39th federal general election,” the 68-page supporting affidavit for the warrant alleges.
The document maintains that the Conservative Fund of Canada, the party’s official agent, filed financial returns “that it knew or ought reasonably to have known contained a materially false or misleading statement.”
And the affidavit, signed by Elections Canada investigator Robert Lamothe, alleges that Tory advertising transactions - commonly known as the “in and out” scheme - allowed the party “to spend more than $1 million over and above” its legal campaign limit of $18 million.
Here is an excerpt of a report from The Globe and Mail (emphasis added),
In releasing the abridged version of the documents to select media, the party hoped to give Mr. Sparrow, campaign organizer Doug Finley and party lawyer Paul Lepsoe a chance to explain the Conservative point of view.
In the end, the plan went horribly awry.On Saturday night, Mr. Sparrow called a number of reporters to ask them to come to meetings that had been scheduled for yesterday at the Lord Elgin Hotel in downtown Ottawa saying it “would be worth their while.”
But media outlets who were not among those invited got wind of the meetings yesterday morning and began to ask what was going on.
When one reporter asked in an e-mail about the news conference, Mr. Sparrow replied: “No conference, not sure where you got that from.”
The reporter then flipped Mr. Sparrow back an e-mail in which he had told another reporter who was on the list that the briefing would be at “4:30 Lord Elgin, Boardroom 800. Embargo until 7:30 pm Sunday night.”
To which Mr. Sparrow replied: “I meet with journalists privately all the time.”
Shortly thereafter, the Liberals found out about the briefings and advised all of the Ottawa press gallery, some of whom were quite miffed to find they had been excluded. When they threatened to show up at the Lord Elgin, despite the lack of an invitation, the meeting was secretly moved to the Sheraton.
The first briefing for select television outlets took place but, by that time, the excluded reporters found out the new location and began to stake out the hotel.
That led the Conservatives to cancel all subsequent briefings, including the one they had planned with The Globe. And Mr. Sparrow, Mr. Finley and Mr. Lepsoe fled from the Sheraton down a back set of stairs.
CTV News (see its report) and Toronto Star (its report) are amongst the media outlets that got invited. But sadly, they now have, in my eyes, credibility problems simply for the fact that they were the “chosen” media outlets. Can I trust them to report fairly? Or are they known to be easily controllable and are on the “good side” of the Conservatives?
I haven’t gone to J-school and don’t know what is the proper journalistic and ethically right thing to do. But I wonder if and should the reporters from CTV News (Mike Duffy) and Toronto Star (Tonda MacCharles) have done the honourable thing and share their media package (hundred of pages of documents and CD) with their colleagues in other media outlets that got excluded?
Canadian Press said it right, it is surely one “bizarre farce”!
P.S. Here is an article in The Hill Times, "Conservatives confusing public on 'in and out' financing says Prof. MacIvor - It's the content of Tory Party's ads in question", analyzing some of the original issues that Elections Canada is investigating.
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Apr 21, 2008 Update: From CBC, "Tories overspent on election by $1M: HQ raid warrant"
I am allergic to all forms of nationalism, be it Canadian, American, or Chinese nationalism. Here are some articles about some recent acts of Chinese Nationalism that alarmed me. In particular, the attack against Grace Wang (Qianyuan, 王千源), a Duke University Chinese student under attack.
And here is an excerpt from an insightful article written by Grace Wang in the Washington Post - "Caught in the Middle, Called a Traitor" (emphasis mine),
I study languages -- Italian, French and German. And this summer -- now that it looks as though I won't be able to go home to China -- I'll take up Arabic. My goal is to master 10 languages, in addition to Chinese and English, by the time I'm 30.
I want to do this because I believe that language is the bridge to understanding. Take China and Tibet. If more Chinese learned the Tibetan language, and if Tibetans learned more about China, I'm convinced that our two peoples would understand one another better and we could overcome the current crisis between us peacefully. I feel that even more strongly after what happened here at Duke University a little more than a week ago.
Trying to mediate between Chinese and pro-Tibetan campus protesters, I was caught in the middle and vilified and threatened by the Chinese. After the protest, the intimidation continued online, and I began receiving threatening phone calls. Then it got worse -- my parents in China were also threatened and forced to go into hiding. And I became persona non grata in my native country.
It has been a frightening and unsettling experience. But I'm determined to speak out, even in the face of threats and abuse. If I stay silent, then the same thing will happen to someone else someday.
So here's my story.
When I first arrived at Duke last August, I was afraid I wouldn't like it. It's in the small town of Durham, N.C., and I'm from Qingdao, a city of 4.3 million. But I eventually adjusted, and now I really love it. It's a diverse environment, with people from all over the world. Over Christmas break, all the American students went home, but that's too expensive for students from China. Since the dorms and the dining halls were closed, I was housed off-campus with four Tibetan classmates for more than three weeks.
I had never really met or talked to a Tibetan before, even though we're from the same country. Every day we cooked together, ate together, played chess and cards. And of course, we talked about our different experiences growing up on opposite sides of the People's Republic of China. It was eye-opening for me. [...]
Some people on the Chinese side started to insult me for speaking English and told me to speak Chinese only. But the Americans didn't understand Chinese. It's strange to me that some Chinese seem to feel as though not speaking English is expressing a kind of national pride. But language is a tool, a way of thinking and communicating. [...]
The next morning, a storm was raging online. Photographs of me had been posted on the Internet with the words "Traitor to her country!" printed across my forehead. Then I saw something really alarming: Both my parents' citizen ID numbers had been posted. I was shocked, because this information could only have come from the Chinese police.
I saw detailed directions to my parents' home in China, accompanied by calls for people to go there and teach "this shameless dog" a lesson. It was then that I realized how serious this had become. My phone rang with callers making threats against my life. It was ironic: What I had tried so hard to prevent was precisely what had come to pass. And I was the target.
[read the rest of the article]
Grace, your levelheadedness is truly a breath of fresh air and I really admire you and your family for being so brave. I hope some reasons will get into the head of the fen qing (angry youth), internet mob, and the people that have been threatening your and your family's safety.
It is actually interesting to see how they do it — painting a plane! Would love to hear a technician explain the process. (smile) [via OpenSkies blog]
Here is a link to 43 minutes long and insightful video interview with the Dalai Lama by Ann Curry for NBC Nightly News (transcript included). Great job Ann. (emphasis added)
ANN CURRY:
China says you're not helpless. China blames you for it. (LAUGHTER) It calls you, "A wolf in monk's clothes. A devil with a human face. A terrorist." Are you a terrorist?
DALAI LAMA:
(LAUGHTER) You should judge. (LAUGHS) Is sometimes you see uh the wolf with Buddhist robe during Cultural Revolution, now these words is used. So, now again, you see they use these uh also they-- these old words. Okay, doesn't matter. But one thing I really consider is-- (SNIFF) uh because of official propaganda, millions of innocent Chinese in mainland China, who have no sort of, I would call access to know through sort of third information or some more, I think realistic information. uh they're only relying, they have to rely on their own, how to say, government sources. So, if those innocent Chinese, very sincere Chinese brothers, sisters-- millions of these people really feel-- how-- is something uh demon. (LAUGHS) Then I feel really sad. But otherwise no problem. Whatever you call me-- people call me-- I'm still a human being. (LAUGHTER) I'm still a simple Buddhist monk, and that's all. No problem. And in fact, as a Buddhist practitioner, this is-- now, this is real sort of test period that I sincerely practicing, sort of Buddhist teaching. Teaching of compassion, tolerance, and these things. If because of such sort of circumstances, if I lose my temper, heated. Then that means I'm not really sincere Buddhist practitioner. So, these are for practitioners, (UNINTEL PHRASE) Golden Period.
ANN CURRY:
A Golden Period?
DALAI LAMA:
Uh-huh (AFFIRM).
ANN CURRY:
Is this a period in which you are, as the Chinese government says, did you or your government encourage any of these protests in Tibet, in London, in Paris--
DALAI LAMA:
No.
ANN CURRY:
--in San Francisco?
DALAI LAMA:
No.
P.S. I applaud NBC for posting the full 43 minutes interview online. I hope CBC, CTV, and other news media in Canada will post more full length interviews online.
In episode 9, we talk about
You can click here to listen to episode 9 of the program in mp3 (or you can download or stream the program here).
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Program Info:
My friend Simon has worked as a Hong Kong-based purchaser for over 30 years before his retirement. Simon has agreed to record a series of Chinese audio shows/podcasts call “Tales of a Chinese Purchaser 買手的故事“ to share his years of experiences and insights in purchasing and working with Chinese factories.
(Note: This program has been recorded in the Cantonese dialect.)
From TorStar, "Beijing Games water policy troubling",
"There's just no water," she [Fan Xiangnu, straight-talking grandmother of 63] says bluntly, squinting into the sunshine. "So there's no wheat."
As she speaks, just 300 metres away a legion of labourers is hard at work building a broad canal to transport desperately needed water supplies.
But the canal won't supply her family – or those of the other parched peasants in this community.
Instead, the canal will take 300 million cubic metres of Hebei's remaining waters and rush them some 300 kilometres north to Beijing.
It's all part of the national effort to prepare for the Olympic Games.
The central government wants Beijing green and gleaming come August.
Green and gleaming it will be – even if it means others may have to go without.
A government slogan painted on a nearby wall trumpets the goal, urging everyone to support the project to "guarantee a secure water supply for the Olympics."
Very interesting and insightful chat between Ted Turner and Charlie Rose. [Hat tip: Byron]
In the beginning of this creative journey of cooperation with Carmen, l want to get to know more about her and we ended up chatting for 2 hours on and off camera.
* Carmen’s idol, the funny comedian Gilda Radner. (Check out Gilda’s “Lets Talk Dirty to The Animals” bit and her bit with Steve Martin.)
* How Carmen started doing comedy. Her trouble of doing “comedy” in class in grade 9 and what happened when the teacher found out.
* Her marriage, at 19, to a vacuum cleaner salesman with a lazy eye.
* Her first two shows - Rubberneckin’ (1993) and Afterthoughts (1995).
* And her leaving comedy behind (she thought at the time) after two years at that point and became a hair dresser.
In Part-1b, we talked about many things including,
* Carmen’s treasured comedy bag with all her notes, notebooks and ideas for her show. A look inside Carmen’s comedic mind.
* The material for CBC Comedy Festival in 2007. And how she created the show.
* Carmen showed the working notes that helped her remember the flow of each and every joke in the show. She walked through a three-minute joke in particular and gave us some interesting insight. (Note: This joke is in the Comedy Central clip.)
* Talked about the use of teleprompter in telecast performance.
* The poodle (Carmen’s step-mom) segment.
* Writing lots and lots as many jokes will never work.
In Part-1c, Carmen and I talked about many things including,
* The story of her comedy bit “Jesus Christ Carmen”.
* Carmen’s style of slow-burn comedy. A story teller of dry humour.
* The stories of Carmen’s four trips to LA to try to be a comedian there. [K: Very honest and insightful.]
* The logistic of a Canadian comic working in the US (especially in recent years).
* What bought Carmen back to Calgary from her most recent 2-year stay in LA?
* Coming back to become a comedian once again after 6.5 months of being a hair dresser.
* Carmen talks about her up-coming trip away to just write her new 45-minute show call Waiting to Exist. The general structure of the show.
Check out this 2003 Globe and Mail article about Carmen.
By the way, after doing the researches, chatting with Carmen, and watching some of Carmen’s clips and performances, I have quickly become a fan of her. She has worked so hard. I wish Carmen will have a creative and fruitful trip in creating some wonderful comedy in the next few weeks. It has truly been my pleasure to be in this creative journey of cooperation with Carmen to look into the funny business of comedy.
P.S. Special thanks to my friend Christine Cheung for connecting me to Carmen.
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Carmen Stockton Bio
Carmen’s comedic career began in 1993 when she wrote, produced and starred in her first one-woman show Rubberneckin’. This was a love story for the ages; the haunting tale of her falling head over heals in love with a rubber sex doll. In 1995 the curtain rose on her second show Afterthoughts, the lighthearted look back on her not-quite-forever-marriage to a lazy eyed vacuum cleaner salesman. In 1998 Carmen took her unique comedic voice into the world of stand up comedy. She won the Yuk Yuk’s new talent competition in 1999 and during that same year was invited to perform at the prestigious Just For Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal. She has twice been featured on CBC’s nationally broadcast radio program Madly Off In All Directions in 2001 and 2003. In 2004 Carmen drew critical acclaim for her Canadian television debut for the CBC Comedy Festival and was invited back to film another gala in March of 2007 (airdate tba). In 2005 she made her American television debut for Comedy Central’s Premium Blend. After living in Los Angeles for the past few years, Carmen has come home to Canada…plastic surgery free and is now feverishly working on her new show Waiting To Exist scheduled to delight audiences in Spring of 2008.
From CBC report (with video),
Members of Canada's film and television industry are on Parliament Hill Thursday to voice their concerns over a proposed bill that would give the government the power to deny tax credits to productions it considers offensive.
Canadian filmmaker Sarah Polley, actress Wendy Crewson and Brian Anthony, CEO of the Directors Guild of Canada, are among those appearing before the Senate committee on banking, trade and commerce, asking for changes to Bill C-10, an omnibus bill proposing a host of amendments to the Income Tax Act.
"These clauses are an attack on freedom of expression and will destroy film financing in Canada," Crewson said in a news conference ahead of her presentation.
It will cause TV and film producers havoc if the tax credits can be retroactively withdrawn as financing risk will simply to too high for investors to invest and banks to make loans or interim financing available.
What is new? (big sigh)
City of Calgary
8:13 AM MDT Thursday 10 April 2008
Snowfall warning for City of Calgary issued
10 to 15 cm of snow this morning.
An intense and very localized snow storm has positioned itself over Calgary. Amounts of 10 to 15 cm can be expected before the snow tapers off later this morning. Areas just to the east and north of Calgary may also receive amounts of 5 to 10 cm.
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See CBC report "Calgary slogs through slippery, snowy commute".
Hot off the press from Globe and Mail (April 10, 2 AM EST) "Ottawa rejects space firm's sale to U.S.". (Note: also see my earlier blog entry about this sale and a link to a legal opinion.)
OTTAWA — The federal government has said no to selling Canada's leading space company to U.S. interests, concluding that the deal would not be in the best interests of the country, The Globe and Mail has learned.
Industry Minister Jim Prentice made the decision to issue an initial rejection of the deal on Tuesday, when he wrote a letter to the potential buyer, Alliant Techsystems Inc. of Edina, Minn., that said the takeover of MDA Corp. would not provide a “net benefit” to Canada.
Under Canada's investment-review law, the company has 30 days to make new arguments to the minister, and Mr. Prentice must then confirm his rejection. But Mr. Prentice's move signals his intention to take the unprecedented step of blocking a major corporate takeover, in an issue that has been fraught with controversy as opponents argued that the sale of MDA could impair Canadian sovereignty.
A spokesman for Mr. Prentice, Bill Rodgers, confirmed Wednesday that the note had been sent, but he was unable to provide further details. When contacted by The Globe and Mail Wednesday night, Alliant officials responded with a two-sentence statement that indicated that they are not willing to declare the deal dead. [...]
The proposed sale of MDA Corp.'s Information Systems Unit has raised nationalist sentiment and fears that Canada could lose control of the data from Radarsat-2 in a dispute over Arctic sovereignty. [K: I agree the Radarsat-2 data has an important role in our national interest and won't trust any US companies (which has to follow US government directives in case of national security related issues). At the same time, I reject the unfair negative implication associated with using words like "nationalist sentiment".] Alliant, also called ATK, is a U.S. weapons and space contractor. The systems unit is responsible for most of MDA's operations and 1,900 employees. [...]
Some of the staunchest criticisms came from within the Conservative Party. Tory MP Art Hanger voiced sharp concerns, and Conservatives on the Commons industry committee treated the sale with skepticism.
One Conservative MP, speaking on condition he not be named, said the sale had raised a surprising backlash among Canadians, who saw it as a point of pride being peddled to the United States – which might possibly use it against Canada's claim to Arctic waters.
I think Minister Prentice did the right thing here in rejecting the sale.
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Few days ago I spent sometime talking to Calgarian Ralph Maclean, a Hong Kong veteran who fought for Hong Kong in the Canadian army during the Second World War. In fact, Ralph was captured by the Japanese army and became POW for 3 years and 7 months. His love of Hong Kong has continued to this day and he actually visited HK in recent years and was part of a HK-made documentary about that war and these HK vets.
The reason of my chat with Ralph was that he was really upset and disappointed of what he saw how the Chinese government has mistreated the Tibetans and jailed other innocent Human Rights activists in China. He read this article “Olympics? I will not run, jump or dive in China” and wanted to hear our thoughts on it. So I called Ralph to share with him my thoughts.
I told Ralph that, in my humble opinion, having the Olympics in Beijing and the torch relay around the world can actually bring some unintended but needed attentions to Chinese Human Rights problems, the Tibet stalemate, and even Chinese investment in Sudan (which indirectly prolong the genocide in Darfur). The protests in London, Paris, and today in San Francisco created an unprecedented international platform to focus on, I repeat, Chinese Human Rights problems, the Tibet stalemate, and even Chinese investment in Sudan.
Membership to World Trade Organization, host country of the Olympics, de facto “Factory of the World”, etc are achievements that the Chinese should be proud of. At the same time, it is about time the Chinese government also starts to respect human rights, helping to halt the genocide in Darfur, etc.
I can write more but I should stop now and end with a crowd-shot London protest video clip and an excerpt from Telegraph.
Here is an excerpt from Telegraph.
Sebastian Coe, the chairman of the London Olympic Committee, has described the Chinese officials guarding the Olympic torch as “thugs”, piling more embarrassment onto the Games’ organisers. [...]
Lord Coe made the comments as a member of Channel 4 News staff was attempting to contact him over the telephone and they were accidentally connected via the switchboard to a private conversation.
“They tried to push me out of the way three times. They are horrible. They did not speak English … I think they were thugs,” he said.
In a statement, Channel 4 News said: “By chance Channel 4 News had attempted to contact Lord Coe’s press office via their switchboard and was accidentally connected to the conversation he was having with a colleague, a 2012 press officer Jackie Brock Doyle.”
Here is a link to the list of 2008 Pulitzer Prizes for Journalism winners (and their work). The following are a few of my favourite reports. [via Richard Sambrook]
* PUBLIC SERVICE
THE WASHINGTON POST
The Post was honored for a series of articles that exposed the mistreatment of wounded veterans at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. [...]
* NATIONAL REPORTING: JO BECKER and BARTON GELLMAN
For articles in the Washington Post documenting the power and secrecy wielded by Vice President Dick Cheney.
* FEATURE WRITING: GENE WEINGARTEN [K: A very lovely piece that I blogged about last year.]
For an article in the Washington Post on a world-famous violinist playing incognito for subway riders.
* EXPLANATORY REPORTING: AMY HARMON
For a series in The New York Times exploring the impact of new genetic technology on American life.
ABC is airing an one hour special about Randy Pausch on April 9th, 2008 at 10/9c. Don't miss "The Last Lecture: A Love Story For Your Life" (with a promo clip).
See my other posts about Randy. In particular, this blog entry links to Randy's Last Lecture online video, and this blog entry links to Randy's Time Management video.
[Hat tip to Jeff Zaslow, ghost writer of Randy's book "The Last Lecture"]
I watched Fox TV’s “game show” and hit “Moment of Truth” a few nights ago and I think it had clearly crossed the line of good taste.
On the surface, it raised the basic questions of how much will someone be willing to be humiliated and had ones’ relationships with loved ones harmed in order to have a chance to win some prize money? I think Washington Post’s Lisa de Moraes said it well, as I think the water pressure should have plunged as “people leapt into showers to clean off the filth after watching … The Moment of Truth“. And blogger Jordon J. Ballor has this insightful observation (emphasis added),
“But I want to pay special attention to the contestants’ motivations. They are essentially willing to air any and all secrets (what used to be called “dirty laundry”) to the public in exchange for money (or merely the chance to win money, depending on their success). That people are actually eager to get on the show as a contestant speaks to how little they truly value and are willing to “monetize” their personal relationships.“
Here is a sample clip (with 290,000+ views),
With an “update” of what happened to this particular “contestant” afterwards,
What I want to explore more are the consequences, unintended consequences, and enabling factors for a show like this to be on TV.
Consequences
Based on the one show and some YouTube clips that I’ve watched, I think it is pretty obvious that the relationships between the contestants and their family members, spouses, closed friends were deliberately designed to be damaged for our “entertainment”.
Unintended consequences
Enabling factors
Not too long ago Jim Carrey made a movie call “The Truman Show” (now a classic). Here is an excerpt of the Plot (emphasis added),
The film is set in a hypothetical world, called Seahaven, where an entire town is dedicated to a continually running television show. All but one of the participants are actors. Only the central character, Truman Burbank (Carrey), is unaware that he lives in a constructed reality for the entertainment of those outside. The film follows his discovery of his situation and his attempts to escape. On the surface level, it criticizes greed, portraying people who would do anything for fame and money. Central characters fake friendship to Truman, and in the case of his “wife”, bury their real feelings of disgust.
One may ask, what kind of society will allow a baby be adopted by a TV production company, his relationships with everyone be lies and his whole life be transmitted as a TV show? I guess we can also ask what kind of society w
(Spoiler alert) Here is the lovely ending of “The Truman Show” to help washing off the filth of “Moment of Truth”. Enjoy.
P.S. TV Guide’s Joe Rhodes share his experience of “Sitting on the Moment of Truth’s Hot Seat”.
In episode 8, we talk about
You can click here to listen to episode 8 of the program in mp3 (or you can download or stream the program here).
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Program Info:
My friend Simon has worked as a Hong Kong-based purchaser for over 30 years before his retirement. Simon has agreed to record a series of Chinese audio shows/podcasts call "Tales of a Chinese Purchaser 買手的故事" to share his years of experiences and insights in purchasing and working with Chinese factories.
(Note: This program has been recorded in the Cantonese dialect.)
[hat tip to: Leona]
Justin Lin, new Chief Economist of The World Bank, delivered a new English speech “Development and Transition: Idea, Strategy and Viability” at the Chinese University of Hong Kong on March 31, 2008.
Enjoy.
I previously blogged about my friend Larry Giesbrecht’s insightful film call “Children who work“ about child labour in Egypt. It is nice to see World Vision launched a campaign to create more awareness around child labour. (look closely at the automatic revolving doors)
[via CBC Docs newsletter]
THE PASSIONATE EYE SHOWCASE(Sunday April 6 at 10pm ET/PT on CBC Newsworld)RADIANT CITY (90 minutes)Genie Award-winning Radiant City offers an entertaining look at life in suburbia.While Evan Moss zones out in commuter traffic, Ann toils away in her dream kitchen and the kids play sinister games amidst the fresh foundations of monster houses. Developers call it big business, but the Moss family call it home. Welcome to the neighbourhood and welcome to Radiant City - an entertaining and startling look at 21st century suburbanites and suburban sprawl.Discuss this film online.
I first saw Gary Burns' Radiant City at Calgary international film festival. (See a trailer here and more info on filmmakers here.) It is a very interesting movie and I quite liked it. Feel free to leave your comments or thoughts on the film in the comment section. And I will share with you my thoughts about it.
By the way, Gary is a Calgarian and it has been my pleasure to run into him a few times in Calgary at movies or industry events. Gary is a really nice guy.
Warning, there may be spoilers in the comments. So please considered yourself warned. (smile)
It was my great pleasure and deep honour to meet a true Canadian hero last month when Senator Roméo Dallaire came to speak at the Engineers Without Border event in Calgary.
The following are links to eight different excerpts of Dallaire’s March 16, 2008 speech.
It was real nice to meet and hear Ryan Spencer Reed, photojournalist and contributing photographer to the Darfur/Darfur multimedia exhibit, spoke when he was in Calgary opening the exhibit. As I blogged previously, I found some the following videos in Ryan’s site,
In the following video, Ryan tells the story of how one of his photo was used by Newsweek very differently in its international edition and in its American edition. To me, it is a telling story of how US media are tailoring their story to their own national interest.
Here is my interview with Ryan where he shared with us his emotional experience in taking pictures in Sudan, and what can actions can people in the west take to stop the atrocities in Darfur (SudanDivestment.org).
