"Democracy is the name we give the people whenever we need them." - Marquis de Flers Robert and Arman de Caillavet
***
An Election-Themed Edition:
A common grouse is that wages for many jobs in Singapore are too low, and that instead of importing foreign workers to do them we should use locals instead.
Yet, that will inevitably lead to at least some part of the cost being passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices, and it is my hunch that many of the people who say that the number of foreign workers should be reduced and that we should get locals to do those jobs are the same people who cry to high heaven when the price of char kway teow rises by $0.50.
You can't have it both ways, especially since the price of char kway teow (and other things) is going to rise by a lot more than $0.50 if you want locals to perform these jobs. Indeed, this is linked to the forthcoming death of Singaporean hawker food: as older hawkers die and the younger generation declines to replace them it will move into cafés and restaurants, or be cooked by immigrants who won't be as good (even in Red Star, only the older staff are Singaporean, while the younger ones are PRC; you see the same pattern with cobblers also).
My Favourite Periodical: "many people in Britain think cashiers and care assistants should be paid more and chief executives and football stars less. Yet few Britons tip cashiers, boycott firms with fat-cat bosses or watch second-division football teams"
Singapore follows global best practices and benchmarks when it suits it, and insists on special circumstances and sovereignty otherwise.
The *** doctrine - ruling not through voters' votes being known, but the fear of them being known
Newfound humility, a willingness to sacrifice people, new carrots, distancing yourself from a Living Saint - amazing what a little competition does for consumer welfare. I wonder what more competition - and not just every 5 years - will bring?
RT @kiezin If ANYONE is still under the delusion that change comes fr joining the PAP, look at Vivian and you've ur answer
RT: @Fake_PMLee: Yesterday was Adolf Hitler's birthday. He led a one-party parliament. #WeLoveSwift&DecisiveGovt #sgelections
RT @mermerized: I think govts have reason to fear students activists, cause 1. they young & stupid. 2. they think they got nothing to lose
RT @joeljoshuagoh: I love how the Opposition has not been stooping to the level of the PAP by mudslinging and insulting others. #SgElections
RT @FakeSTcom Arts intern says: Entertainment this weekend: Macbeth or #SGelections? Either way, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
RT: @FunkeeMonk: #sgelections Ruling party using our funds = "sharing". ("Grow And Share") Opposition suggests using funds = "raiding reserves".
RT: @BB_See: How many PAP candidates does it take to change a light bulb? None, because they'll tell you it's working fine so stop complaining about it.
RT @contrabandkarma: It's sad how cowed and utterly afraid Singaporeans are
Me: Which perhaps is the saddest and most damning thing about Singapore
RT @edchng: Don't you get that feeling that Singapore is being built up at the expense of Singaporeans?
RT @hulabaloola I think it's time to pay SAF Captains $1m a year. That should eradicate corrupt acts by SAF personnel.
***
Someone: my colleague said
he voted in oppo election after election
still get his [civil service] promotion
in fact he just got promoted this yr
he asked if he has been affected
he won't get promoted
no matter what he did
so he says no
they won't trace
Someone else: Suppose the PAP were to cancel all its rallies for the whole week of campaigning till Polling Day--would it make a difference in the election outcome?
Would the PAP win regardless of whether it holds rallies?
Me: I dont think rallies make much pf a difference
they just stoke the base
but since voting is compulsory people will vote anyway
Someone else: I am getting a very very uncanny feeling that the ritualised spectacle of all these election activity--its passivized quality--is deeper than Opposition supporters realise.
It's as if the PAP is putting up a half-hearted attempt to make impassioned rally speeches to keep the Opposition supporters happy.
I have a suspicion that if the PAP stopped giving rally speeches, most Singaporeans would not be outraged at all. Only the Opposition supporters would start fuming and asking what's going on.
It's like the following: parents think they are pretending to believe in Santa Claus to keep their young children happy, but WHAT IF it's the other way around, i.e. what if it's the children pretending to believe in Santa Claus to keep their parents happy?
Me: huh
why would pap speeches make the opposition happy
Someone else: My hypothesis is: the PAP's rallies, even most of the election activity, is like the young children pretending to believe in Santa Claus.
TO keep the parents happy.
The whole thing is becoming a mere game, a mere ritual to be endured.
Me: ... I'm not starting on this
children are not as complexas you think
Someone else: Neither are they as innocent as we tend to assume.
How else do we explain the "silent majority" who vote PAP election after election?
Me: among other things they think the vote isn't secret
I don't study freud so I'm not that creative
Someone else: im just posing the possibility as to how most spectators, viewers, of the rallies might be really very very passive, and are there only to feel that they are actively participating in democracy
they're there just to watch. nothing really happens
Me: that is different from pretending to believe in santa claus
Someone else: no, the santa claus part is for the PAP
i mean, the PAP's rallies are like young children going along with the ritual of present giving etc., to please the parents/Opposition supporters
to continue to play the game of believing in Santa Claus
perhaps we--meaning the impassioned supporters of the Opposition, the believers in democratic participation--are really the biggest fools of all
fools in the sense of not realising how passive most Sporeans are
Me: of course
that's why apathy is a rational response to emasculation and repressionit's a very unsettling and startling thought...
Someone else: when i look at the wide-perspective photos of rallies, i think most of the passive spectators as domestic cats noticing a recent novelty that appeared in the living room
* i think of most of the ...etc.
"oh! hey, something new. let's see if it threatens us. maybe we can play with it."
Me: that's a comparatively minor reason
better ones are that they don't want their property to drop in value
they don't think the vote is secret
and the people who don't go outvote them in numbers
or smear tactics work
Someone else: yes, these are known.
but i just wonder how much the impassioned political rhetoric online seems to not consider the possibility i just mentioned
or maybe it's just me, who am deceived most of all.
it's terribly unsettling...can't sleep.
the possibility i just described to you makes all these impassioned rhetoric and activity hopelessly, absurdly futile
Me: hurr hurr
L'origine de Bert
Tuesday, May 03, 2011
An Ironic Blast from the Past
"We hate some persons because we do not know them; and we will not know them because we hate them." - Charles Caleb Colton
***
[In the Commonwealth,] enlightened self-interest is tempered by a sincere desire to do what we can to improve the lot of the others, or at least make it more bearable...
Restraint and good manners prevented face to face encounter from degenerating into disorder, which characterised the French Assembly of the Fourth Republic...
A shortage of workers for the jobs in the lover (sic) social order has tempted governments to seek the easy way out, by allowing immigrants to take up these jobs. Now, they have to live with the problems of accommodation and integration...
White racist-supremist theories can only be demolished by clearly demonstrating that the whites are not superior... We cannot despair either for the white, black, brown, or the yellow man. There are in every ethnic group the outstanding intellect, that percentage of highflyers. Ralph Bunche or Arthur Lewis, in diplomacy or scholarship, or James Baldwin and Richard Wright in literature, many blacks have made outstanding contributions in open competition with a mainly white population.
But the problem the less developed countries face is not that we do not have the individuals with exceptional qualities. The problem is that we are judged by our performance as a group, not as individuals. And for group performance, more than a few men of outstanding qualities are required. The cultural ballast, the value patterns, the solid discipline, the organisational framework of effective government within which individual endeavour is made rewarding, and collective performance becomes a source of national pride -- these are crucial ingredients. Then we will command equality, both as individuals, and as ethnic and social groups...
We shall be disappointed if we believe that this dissolving of primeval prejudices will happen overnight. Behind the intellect is the primordial nervous system, reacting involuntarily with fear and prejudice to the strange and the unaccustomed. Worse, this is reinforced in so many ways by the portraying of inferiority of certain ethnic groups in literature, on television, and even in dolls...
Please remember that we do not pretend to be virtuous. Hypocrisy is not a feature of Singapore's leadership"
--- Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 1971: Address at the Closure of the Conference by the Chairman, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, on 22nd January, 1971
***
[In the Commonwealth,] enlightened self-interest is tempered by a sincere desire to do what we can to improve the lot of the others, or at least make it more bearable...
Restraint and good manners prevented face to face encounter from degenerating into disorder, which characterised the French Assembly of the Fourth Republic...
A shortage of workers for the jobs in the lover (sic) social order has tempted governments to seek the easy way out, by allowing immigrants to take up these jobs. Now, they have to live with the problems of accommodation and integration...
White racist-supremist theories can only be demolished by clearly demonstrating that the whites are not superior... We cannot despair either for the white, black, brown, or the yellow man. There are in every ethnic group the outstanding intellect, that percentage of highflyers. Ralph Bunche or Arthur Lewis, in diplomacy or scholarship, or James Baldwin and Richard Wright in literature, many blacks have made outstanding contributions in open competition with a mainly white population.
But the problem the less developed countries face is not that we do not have the individuals with exceptional qualities. The problem is that we are judged by our performance as a group, not as individuals. And for group performance, more than a few men of outstanding qualities are required. The cultural ballast, the value patterns, the solid discipline, the organisational framework of effective government within which individual endeavour is made rewarding, and collective performance becomes a source of national pride -- these are crucial ingredients. Then we will command equality, both as individuals, and as ethnic and social groups...
We shall be disappointed if we believe that this dissolving of primeval prejudices will happen overnight. Behind the intellect is the primordial nervous system, reacting involuntarily with fear and prejudice to the strange and the unaccustomed. Worse, this is reinforced in so many ways by the portraying of inferiority of certain ethnic groups in literature, on television, and even in dolls...
Please remember that we do not pretend to be virtuous. Hypocrisy is not a feature of Singapore's leadership"
--- Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 1971: Address at the Closure of the Conference by the Chairman, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, on 22nd January, 1971
Post ID: 6720518972779743610
Les célibataires
"If there are no stupid questions, then what kind of questions do stupid people ask? Do they get smart just in time to ask questions?" - Scott Adams
***
"La dénonciation du célibat doit être replacé dans la hantise sexuelle du XIXe siècle.
Bien sûr, pour que de telles statistiques puissent être valables, il faudrait les mener sur une vaste échelle; ne peut-on penser, par exemple, que la proportion de célibataires sera plus grande chez les jeunes gens cacochymes et rachitiques qui ne trouveront guère à se marier, et dont la mortalité sera certainement plus précoce ? Le célibat est peut-être la conséquence, plus que la cause, d'une constitution chétive. C'est ce que souligne notamment Durkheim, dans un vocabulaire qui trahit les intentions moralistes de son temps : la classe des célibataires << se trouve ainsi comprendre tout le déchet humain du pays. C'est là que se rencontrent les infirmes, les incurables, les gens trop pauvres ou notoirement tarés>>. Les antiques clichés sur les vieux garçons sybarites cachent peut-être aux moralistes ceux qui meurent doucement au fond des sanatoriums.
Le cliché le plus répandu, cependant, est celui de l'égoïsme. Dans un monde où l'homme propose et la femme dispose, le célibataire a fait un choix conscient, dont il est pleinement responsable ; la femme, dans bien des cas, n'a pas été choisie, et n'est coupable que si des refus répétés ont motivé son célibat. Dans la vision pessimiste de Balzac, héritier en cela de l'époque classique et de dix-huit siècles de christianisme, l'égoïsme est naturel à l'homme. Si, dans la tradition chrétienne, c'est l'humilité de la foi qui l'en corrige, dans la société décrite par le romancier, ce sont les relations sociales, et en particulier le mariage : << Il est nécessaire à l'homme d'éprouver certaines passions pour développer en lui des qualités qui donnent à sa vie de la noblesse, en étendent le cercle, et assoupissent l'égoïsme naturel à toutes les créatures >>
--- Histoire du célibat et des célibataires / Jean-Claude Bologne
***
"La dénonciation du célibat doit être replacé dans la hantise sexuelle du XIXe siècle.
Bien sûr, pour que de telles statistiques puissent être valables, il faudrait les mener sur une vaste échelle; ne peut-on penser, par exemple, que la proportion de célibataires sera plus grande chez les jeunes gens cacochymes et rachitiques qui ne trouveront guère à se marier, et dont la mortalité sera certainement plus précoce ? Le célibat est peut-être la conséquence, plus que la cause, d'une constitution chétive. C'est ce que souligne notamment Durkheim, dans un vocabulaire qui trahit les intentions moralistes de son temps : la classe des célibataires << se trouve ainsi comprendre tout le déchet humain du pays. C'est là que se rencontrent les infirmes, les incurables, les gens trop pauvres ou notoirement tarés>>. Les antiques clichés sur les vieux garçons sybarites cachent peut-être aux moralistes ceux qui meurent doucement au fond des sanatoriums.
Le cliché le plus répandu, cependant, est celui de l'égoïsme. Dans un monde où l'homme propose et la femme dispose, le célibataire a fait un choix conscient, dont il est pleinement responsable ; la femme, dans bien des cas, n'a pas été choisie, et n'est coupable que si des refus répétés ont motivé son célibat. Dans la vision pessimiste de Balzac, héritier en cela de l'époque classique et de dix-huit siècles de christianisme, l'égoïsme est naturel à l'homme. Si, dans la tradition chrétienne, c'est l'humilité de la foi qui l'en corrige, dans la société décrite par le romancier, ce sont les relations sociales, et en particulier le mariage : << Il est nécessaire à l'homme d'éprouver certaines passions pour développer en lui des qualités qui donnent à sa vie de la noblesse, en étendent le cercle, et assoupissent l'égoïsme naturel à toutes les créatures >>
--- Histoire du célibat et des célibataires / Jean-Claude Bologne
Post ID: 455891060223887950
Monday, May 02, 2011
Links - 2nd May 2011
"In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
***
YouTube - Crowd Chants "Mas Selamat" in Wong Kan Seng's Face
Rethinking our Fascination with Love - "Whereas becoming even a fairly competent artist or gardener or editor or plumber or banker or singer is dearly purchased with long effort and then only by the few with sufficient talent, love is a democracy of salvation open to all... Today love has arguably become the only truly universal religion in the West – including in the United States... though we indeed couldn’t flourish without illusions, they need to work with the grain of human nature and not against it. The reality, I argue, is that love is a thoroughly conditional desire... to see it as the opposite – as entirely unconditional – is to infuse our relationships with false expectations and so to sabotage them from the start... It is fascinating to discover that Jesus is much more modest in his talk of love than we tend to be these days... love became god only in modern times – that is, roughly since the mid 18th Century. This can’t be a coincidence, for since the 18th century belief in the Judeo-Christian God has drastically declined"
Vitamin-takers more likely to gorge on fast food: Pills provide 'false sense of security' - "Although the popularity of dietary supplements was increasing, levels of general health had remained the same... those who believed they had taken a supplement felt immune to health hazards and were less likely to go for a walk to benefit their health. They were also more likely to choose a buffet meal over a more healthy organic one... Another recent study concluded that eating organic food could make us fat. The American research found consumers tend to assume that organic foods – particularly snacks – contain fewer calories... vitamins A and E may shorten life, not extend it, while other research linked the two vitamins to increased cancer risk. And those who take fish oils as well as a multivitamin could be consuming too much vitamin A, raising their odds of brittle bones"
The mark of a THIEF - "Damn. Who knew Nintendo was worse at making you feel guilty than your own mother? As ingenious as this addition is, I am surprised it hasn’t carried over into more modern games"
Six completely irrational things I do in videogames - "Every time I left a room in Alan Wake I turned off the lights because ... well ... *sigh* ... I wanted to save electricity. I am not kidding."
Man Dressed as Cow Steals Milk - "He loaded about $92 worth of milk into a shopping cart and simply rolled the cart out of the without paying... He then attempted to give the milk away outside the store, and tried to flee the scene by skipping away, police said."
Working: Employers ferret out online lives - "Many companies check the criminal and credit backgrounds of their applicants, so it's a logical next step to investigate someone's online presence... the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has been paying closer attention to how companies use credit and criminal background checks. The agency has sued companies recently, contending such investigations disproportionately screen out minorities and other protected groups. "I don't think most employers are comfortable with it," Barron said. "You don't want to be the test case," he said - forced to spend thousands of dollars to prove what you did was legal"
Armadillos pass leprosy to humans, study finds
Engineer saved her marriage by watching porn - "AN ENGINEER saved her marriage using the 'tricks' she learned from porn films, China Press reported. The Singaporean woman said she started watching porn films after reading a pornographic magazine sent by her friend from Australia eight years ago. However, she said, she became addicted to these films about three years ago after her husband started giving her the cold shoulder. The 32-year-old said she learned many tips sexually and emotionally in managing a relationship from the films, and saved her marriage"
Which are the strong opposition parties this GE? - "Dr da Cunha, however, had a sober word of caution should the opposition party fail to win more than its current two seats in Parliament, or lose a seat. "I have never seen the ground so polarised as it is today. Those who are against the government and its polices are vehemently so," he stated. "It will get worse if these people are not represented in Parliament". This might result in anti-PAP voters turning to civil disobedience in hopes of bringing about change, he noted.""
HAHAHAHAHAHA
Where Bears Roam Free: Sectarian Christians replaced by Sectarian Gays - So what's the difference? - "At one stage she was evenly brazenly asked who was she supporting - the old or the new. My wife spoke to some other members of the public, who like her were non-partisan, and found that they too felt they had been "mishandled" by the group of white shirts. My wife also observed that supporters of the old group hogged the microphone. Speakers who did not support the old guard were booed and jeered. They numbered less than five, because dozens of Old guard supporters hogged the microphone. Supporters of the old guard on the other hand were cheered to the point that the chairperson could not reply to what was said by people from the floor. Overall scenario was the crowd was boorish, boisterous and gangster-like."
This is about the AWARE 2009 EOGM
Stop worrying and embrace the passive tense | The Japan Times Online - "One of the unspoken highlights of the passive voice is its ability to create beautifully efficient phrases... Haruki Murakami took advantage of this aspect of the passive voice in "Toi Taiko" ("A Distant Drum"), his travel diary of the years he spent living in the Mediterranean region. The first stop on his itinerary was a small Greek island where the local Greek men ogled with impunity the foreign female tourists sunbathing topless. At first he seemed surprised, but then, in a moment of sheer linguistic genius, he decided, what the hell: Oppai wo dasu no mo katte nara, dasareta oppai wo miru no mo katte de aru (おっぱいを出すのも勝手なら、出されたおっぱいを見るのも勝手である). As usual there are no pronouns, and Murakami builds a wonderful play on words between oppai wo dasu (show breasts) and dasareta oppai (breasts that have been shown), with the latter taking advantage of the passive tense. The subject of dasareta are the breasts themselves, but someone had to take them out; This someone is the invisible, implied doer of the action ― the women sunbathing on the beach, presumably"
"If it’s a person’s prerogative to reveal her boobs, then it’s also a person’s prerogative to look at revealed boobs". This is a good u r wt u wr/anti-feminist slogan against the 'male gaze'
My conversation with the TNP editor. - "TNP went with "IS S'PORE READY FOR A GAY MP?"... 1. One cannot criticise if one has not read the article... He likened the prejudging of the TNP article without reading it to the case of The Satanic Verses written by Salman Rushdie... 2. "Are Singaporeans ready for a gay MP?" was the angle TNP chose to take because they thought it was an important issue concerning voters... 3. It is only a smear campaign if what the PAP say about Vincent Wijeysingha is untrue... 4. The choice of headline is fair: When Mr Singh found out that I am a filmmaker by trade, he likened the headline of an article to the cutting of a trailer, saying that I would never cut a trailer that made it seem like the film was boring, but would pick the best, most interesting bits to put forward. Therefore, this was the headline that would be attention-grabbing."
Addendum: The New Paper explains its headline
Female journalist found dead, naked - "A female journalist with local magazine Her World was found dead... She is said to have had a good fashion sense"
-_-
Ink, dye and wax being used to make noodles
WOO HOO CHINA
Man cannot cope with wife's sex demands - "she suspected that her husband was having an affair, but had no evidence. Then, she put to practice her friend's suggestion to have sex with her husband everyday so that he would have no energy for other women. Recently, she asked for a second round after having sex with her husband, but he refused. She then "played" with his genitals and performed oral sex on him for over an hour. The man, who was worn out by then, grabbed his pants and ran to the police station to seek help."
How about 'Richer, Kinder, Slower'? - "I have met foreign workers from poorer countries in the region who ask me, with great puzzlement (sometimes shock), how is it that in Singapore, one of the richest countries in the world, there are so many frail elderly women and men working alongside them, as they clean toilets and scrape leftover food off plastic plates. I am embarrassed, and unable to answer. ‘This will never happen back in our country’, some of them say, shaking their heads. Which makes me wonder, as it increasingly does for others: what is the point of being one of the wealthiest countries in the world, when we are so callous towards the weak and marginalized?... The state has never revealed in total how much it earns in revenue from the foreign worker levies, where this money - billions! - is channeled to, and how it is used. There is no transparency and no accountability, and yet we have to accept their rationale, as foreign worker levies continue to rise alongside foreign worker numbers, that this is really for our own good... In one episode of Undercover Boss, one employer discovered differences in the cleaning teams in two different caravan resort parks, both of which he owns. Among the better performing team, wages were notably higher"
Vodka Redbull lead to more risky behaviour than just alcohol - "While physical and mental impairment were no different with the combination, the feeling of intoxication was higher"
Shades of gray in the global marketplace - cultural and ethical considerations in making business decisions - "The manager of a large U.S. company operating in China caught an employee stealing. Following company policy, she fired him and turned him over to the local authorities. Later, she was horrified to learn that the employee had been summarily executed... He cautions against moral imperialism- demanding that foreign companies and colleagues act just like us - and against cultural relativism, conforming to whatever behavior is the local norm... By exploring the reason behind the demand for the bribe, Torma found that the official was facing a paperwork backlog of monumental proportions. Rather than pay the bribe, Torma offered the assistance of a secretary - a solution both legal and satisfactory, and one that shows what Donaldson calls "moral imagination"... even complex ethical dilemmas can usually be boiled down to one of four competing sets of choices: truth versus loyalty; short term versus long term; individual versus community; or justice versus mercy... In every country, there are people who value truth and fairness, who think responsibility and affection are important. "Even in Indonesia, the most corrupt country you can find," says Kidder, "there is a bedrock human desire to not live that way"... Kidder's research reveals five core human values across cultures: compassion, fairness, honesty, responsibility, and respect for others"
***
YouTube - Crowd Chants "Mas Selamat" in Wong Kan Seng's Face
Rethinking our Fascination with Love - "Whereas becoming even a fairly competent artist or gardener or editor or plumber or banker or singer is dearly purchased with long effort and then only by the few with sufficient talent, love is a democracy of salvation open to all... Today love has arguably become the only truly universal religion in the West – including in the United States... though we indeed couldn’t flourish without illusions, they need to work with the grain of human nature and not against it. The reality, I argue, is that love is a thoroughly conditional desire... to see it as the opposite – as entirely unconditional – is to infuse our relationships with false expectations and so to sabotage them from the start... It is fascinating to discover that Jesus is much more modest in his talk of love than we tend to be these days... love became god only in modern times – that is, roughly since the mid 18th Century. This can’t be a coincidence, for since the 18th century belief in the Judeo-Christian God has drastically declined"
Vitamin-takers more likely to gorge on fast food: Pills provide 'false sense of security' - "Although the popularity of dietary supplements was increasing, levels of general health had remained the same... those who believed they had taken a supplement felt immune to health hazards and were less likely to go for a walk to benefit their health. They were also more likely to choose a buffet meal over a more healthy organic one... Another recent study concluded that eating organic food could make us fat. The American research found consumers tend to assume that organic foods – particularly snacks – contain fewer calories... vitamins A and E may shorten life, not extend it, while other research linked the two vitamins to increased cancer risk. And those who take fish oils as well as a multivitamin could be consuming too much vitamin A, raising their odds of brittle bones"
The mark of a THIEF - "Damn. Who knew Nintendo was worse at making you feel guilty than your own mother? As ingenious as this addition is, I am surprised it hasn’t carried over into more modern games"
Six completely irrational things I do in videogames - "Every time I left a room in Alan Wake I turned off the lights because ... well ... *sigh* ... I wanted to save electricity. I am not kidding."
Man Dressed as Cow Steals Milk - "He loaded about $92 worth of milk into a shopping cart and simply rolled the cart out of the without paying... He then attempted to give the milk away outside the store, and tried to flee the scene by skipping away, police said."
Working: Employers ferret out online lives - "Many companies check the criminal and credit backgrounds of their applicants, so it's a logical next step to investigate someone's online presence... the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has been paying closer attention to how companies use credit and criminal background checks. The agency has sued companies recently, contending such investigations disproportionately screen out minorities and other protected groups. "I don't think most employers are comfortable with it," Barron said. "You don't want to be the test case," he said - forced to spend thousands of dollars to prove what you did was legal"
Armadillos pass leprosy to humans, study finds
Engineer saved her marriage by watching porn - "AN ENGINEER saved her marriage using the 'tricks' she learned from porn films, China Press reported. The Singaporean woman said she started watching porn films after reading a pornographic magazine sent by her friend from Australia eight years ago. However, she said, she became addicted to these films about three years ago after her husband started giving her the cold shoulder. The 32-year-old said she learned many tips sexually and emotionally in managing a relationship from the films, and saved her marriage"
Which are the strong opposition parties this GE? - "Dr da Cunha, however, had a sober word of caution should the opposition party fail to win more than its current two seats in Parliament, or lose a seat. "I have never seen the ground so polarised as it is today. Those who are against the government and its polices are vehemently so," he stated. "It will get worse if these people are not represented in Parliament". This might result in anti-PAP voters turning to civil disobedience in hopes of bringing about change, he noted.""
HAHAHAHAHAHA
Where Bears Roam Free: Sectarian Christians replaced by Sectarian Gays - So what's the difference? - "At one stage she was evenly brazenly asked who was she supporting - the old or the new. My wife spoke to some other members of the public, who like her were non-partisan, and found that they too felt they had been "mishandled" by the group of white shirts. My wife also observed that supporters of the old group hogged the microphone. Speakers who did not support the old guard were booed and jeered. They numbered less than five, because dozens of Old guard supporters hogged the microphone. Supporters of the old guard on the other hand were cheered to the point that the chairperson could not reply to what was said by people from the floor. Overall scenario was the crowd was boorish, boisterous and gangster-like."
This is about the AWARE 2009 EOGM
Stop worrying and embrace the passive tense | The Japan Times Online - "One of the unspoken highlights of the passive voice is its ability to create beautifully efficient phrases... Haruki Murakami took advantage of this aspect of the passive voice in "Toi Taiko" ("A Distant Drum"), his travel diary of the years he spent living in the Mediterranean region. The first stop on his itinerary was a small Greek island where the local Greek men ogled with impunity the foreign female tourists sunbathing topless. At first he seemed surprised, but then, in a moment of sheer linguistic genius, he decided, what the hell: Oppai wo dasu no mo katte nara, dasareta oppai wo miru no mo katte de aru (おっぱいを出すのも勝手なら、出されたおっぱいを見るのも勝手である). As usual there are no pronouns, and Murakami builds a wonderful play on words between oppai wo dasu (show breasts) and dasareta oppai (breasts that have been shown), with the latter taking advantage of the passive tense. The subject of dasareta are the breasts themselves, but someone had to take them out; This someone is the invisible, implied doer of the action ― the women sunbathing on the beach, presumably"
"If it’s a person’s prerogative to reveal her boobs, then it’s also a person’s prerogative to look at revealed boobs". This is a good u r wt u wr/anti-feminist slogan against the 'male gaze'
My conversation with the TNP editor. - "TNP went with "IS S'PORE READY FOR A GAY MP?"... 1. One cannot criticise if one has not read the article... He likened the prejudging of the TNP article without reading it to the case of The Satanic Verses written by Salman Rushdie... 2. "Are Singaporeans ready for a gay MP?" was the angle TNP chose to take because they thought it was an important issue concerning voters... 3. It is only a smear campaign if what the PAP say about Vincent Wijeysingha is untrue... 4. The choice of headline is fair: When Mr Singh found out that I am a filmmaker by trade, he likened the headline of an article to the cutting of a trailer, saying that I would never cut a trailer that made it seem like the film was boring, but would pick the best, most interesting bits to put forward. Therefore, this was the headline that would be attention-grabbing."
Addendum: The New Paper explains its headline
Female journalist found dead, naked - "A female journalist with local magazine Her World was found dead... She is said to have had a good fashion sense"
-_-
Ink, dye and wax being used to make noodles
WOO HOO CHINA
Man cannot cope with wife's sex demands - "she suspected that her husband was having an affair, but had no evidence. Then, she put to practice her friend's suggestion to have sex with her husband everyday so that he would have no energy for other women. Recently, she asked for a second round after having sex with her husband, but he refused. She then "played" with his genitals and performed oral sex on him for over an hour. The man, who was worn out by then, grabbed his pants and ran to the police station to seek help."
How about 'Richer, Kinder, Slower'? - "I have met foreign workers from poorer countries in the region who ask me, with great puzzlement (sometimes shock), how is it that in Singapore, one of the richest countries in the world, there are so many frail elderly women and men working alongside them, as they clean toilets and scrape leftover food off plastic plates. I am embarrassed, and unable to answer. ‘This will never happen back in our country’, some of them say, shaking their heads. Which makes me wonder, as it increasingly does for others: what is the point of being one of the wealthiest countries in the world, when we are so callous towards the weak and marginalized?... The state has never revealed in total how much it earns in revenue from the foreign worker levies, where this money - billions! - is channeled to, and how it is used. There is no transparency and no accountability, and yet we have to accept their rationale, as foreign worker levies continue to rise alongside foreign worker numbers, that this is really for our own good... In one episode of Undercover Boss, one employer discovered differences in the cleaning teams in two different caravan resort parks, both of which he owns. Among the better performing team, wages were notably higher"
Vodka Redbull lead to more risky behaviour than just alcohol - "While physical and mental impairment were no different with the combination, the feeling of intoxication was higher"
Shades of gray in the global marketplace - cultural and ethical considerations in making business decisions - "The manager of a large U.S. company operating in China caught an employee stealing. Following company policy, she fired him and turned him over to the local authorities. Later, she was horrified to learn that the employee had been summarily executed... He cautions against moral imperialism- demanding that foreign companies and colleagues act just like us - and against cultural relativism, conforming to whatever behavior is the local norm... By exploring the reason behind the demand for the bribe, Torma found that the official was facing a paperwork backlog of monumental proportions. Rather than pay the bribe, Torma offered the assistance of a secretary - a solution both legal and satisfactory, and one that shows what Donaldson calls "moral imagination"... even complex ethical dilemmas can usually be boiled down to one of four competing sets of choices: truth versus loyalty; short term versus long term; individual versus community; or justice versus mercy... In every country, there are people who value truth and fairness, who think responsibility and affection are important. "Even in Indonesia, the most corrupt country you can find," says Kidder, "there is a bedrock human desire to not live that way"... Kidder's research reveals five core human values across cultures: compassion, fairness, honesty, responsibility, and respect for others"
Post ID: 5737396958036914609
Two Concepts of Liberty (2/2)
"Words ought to be a little wild for they are the assaults of thought on the unthinking." - John Maynard Keynes
***
(continued from Part 1)
"The only true method of attaining freedom, we are told, is by the use of critical reason, the understanding of what is necessary and what is contingent... Knowledge liberates, as Epicurus taught long ago, by automatically eliminating irrational fears and desires...
We are enslaved by despots - institutions or beliefs or neuroses - which can be removed only by being analysed and understood. We are imprisoned by evil spirits which we have ourselves - albeit not I consciously - created, and can exorcise them only by becoming I conscious and acting appropriately...
A rational (or free) State would be a State governed by such laws as all rational men would freely accept; that is to say, such laws as they would themselves have enacted had they been asked what, as rational beings, they demanded; hence the frontiers would be such as all rational men would consider to be the right frontiers for rational beings.
But who, in fact, was to determine what these frontiers were?... it is only irrationality on the part of men (according to this doctrine) that leads them to wish to oppress or exploit or humiliate one another. Rational men will respect the principle of reason in each other, and lack all desire to fight or dominate one another...
How am I to treat recalcitrant human beings? I must, if I can, impose my will on them too, 'mould' them to my pattern, cast parts for them in my play. But will this not mean that I alone am free, while they are slaves? They will be so if my plan has nothing to do with their wishes or values, only with my own. But if my plan is fully rational, it will allow for the full development of their 'true' natures, the realisation of their capacities for rational decisions, for 'making the best of themselves'...
The common assumption of these thinkers (and of many a schoolman before them and Jacobin and Communist after them) is that the rational ends of our 'true' natures must coincide, or be made to coincide, however violently our poor, ignorant, desire-ridden, passionate, empirical selves may cry out against this process. Freedom is not freedom to do what is irrational, or stupid, or wrong. To force empirical selves into the right pattern is no tyranny, but liberation...
In due course, the thinkers who bent their energies to the solution of the problem on these lines came to be faced with the question of how in practice men were to be made rational in this way. Clearly they must be educated. For the uneducated are irrational, heteronomous, and need to be coerced, if only to make life tolerable for the rational if they are to live in the same society and not be compelled to withdraw to a desert or some Olympian height. But the uneducated cannot be expected to understand or co-operate with the purposes of their educators...
Even though men suffer and die in the process, they are lifted by it to a height to which they could never have risen without my coercive - but creative - violation of their lives. This is the argument used by every dictator, inquisitor and bully who seeks some moral, or even aesthetic, justification for his conduct. I must do for men (or with them) what they cannot do for themselves, and I cannot ask their permission or consent, because they are in no condition to know what is best for them; indeed, what they will permit and accept may mean a life of contemptible mediocrity, or perhaps even their ruin and suicide...
The same attitude was pointedly expressed by August Comte, who asked why, if we do not allow free thinking in chemistry or biology, we should allow it in morals or politics. Why indeed?...
What can have led to so strange a reversal - the transformation of Kant's severe individualism into something close to a pure totalitarian doctrine on the part of thinkers some of whom claimed to be his disciples? This question is not of merely historical interest, for not a few contemporary liberals have gone through the same peculiar evolution...
Paternalism is despotic, not because it is more oppressive than naked, brutal, unenlightened tyranny, nor merely because it ignores the transcendental reason embodied in me, but because it is an insult to my conception of myself as a human being, determined to make my own life in accordance with my own (not necessarily rational or benevolent) purposes, and, above all, entitled to be recognised as such by others... I may, in my bitter longing for status, prefer to be bullied and misgoverned by some member of my own race or social class, by whom I am, nevertheless, recognised as a man and a rival - that is as an equal - to being well and tolerantly treated by someone from some higher and remoter group, someone who does not recognise me for what I wish to feel myself to be...
It is only the confusion of desire for liberty with this profound and universal craving for status and understanding, further confounded by being identified with the notion of social selfdirection, where the self to be liberated is no longer the individual but the 'social whole', that makes it possible for men, while submitting to the authority of oligarchs or dictators, to claim that this in some sense liberates them...
It is not a demand for Lebensraum for each individual that has stimulated the rebellions and wars of liberation for which men have been ready to die in the past, or, indeed, in the present. Men who have fought for freedom have commonly fought for the right to be governed by themselves or their representatives... men who have made revolutions have, as often as not, meant by liberty no more than the conquest of power and authority by a given sect of believers in a doctrine, or by a class, or by some other social group, old or new. Their victories certainly frustrated those whom they ousted, and sometimes repressed, enslaved or exterminated vast numbers of human beings. Yet such revolutionaries have usually felt it necessary to argue that, despite this, they represented the party of liberty, or 'true' liberty, by claiming universality for their ideal, which the 'real selves' of even those who resisted them were also alleged to be seeking, although they were held to have lost the way to the goal, or to have mistaken the goal itself owing to some moral or spiritual blindness...
The liberals of the first half of the nineteenth century correctly foresaw that liberty in this 'positive' sense could easily destroy too many of the 'negative' liberties that they held sacred. They pointed out that the sovereignty of the people could easily destroy that of individuals. Mill explained, patiently and unanswerably, that government by the people was not, in his sense, necessarily freedom at all. For those who govern are not necessarily the same 'people' as those who are governed, and democratic self-government is not the government 'of each by himself, but, at best, 'of each by all the rest’. Mill and his disciples spoke of 'the tyranny of the majority' and of the tyranny of 'the prevailing opinion and feeling', and saw no great difference between that and any other kind of tyranny which encroaches upon men's activities beyond the sacred frontiers of private life.
No one saw the conflict between the two types of liberty better, or expressed it more clearly, than Benjamin Constant. He pointed out that the transference by a successful rising of unlimited authority, commonly called sovereignty, from one set of hands to another does not increase liberty, but merely shifts the burden of slavery. He reasonably asked why a man should deeply care whether he is crushed by a popular government or by a monarch, or even by a set of oppressive laws. He saw that the main problem for those who desire 'negative', individual freedom is not who wields this authority, but how much authority should be placed in any set of hands. For unlimited authority in anybody's grasp was bound, he believed, sooner or later, to destroy somebody. He maintained that usually men protested against this or that set of governors as oppressive, when the real cause of oppression lay in the mere fact of the accumulation of power itself, wherever it might happen to be, since liberty was endangered by the mere existence of absolute authority as such. 'It is not against the arm that one must rail,' he wrote, 'but against the weapon. Some weights are too heavy for the human hand.’ Democracy may disarm a given oligarchy, a given privileged individual or set of individuals, but it can still crush individuals as mercilessly as any previous ruler. An equal right to oppress - or interfere - is not equivalent to liberty...
[Ed: This is a good quote on the preservation of liberty by the dispersing/dispersion of power and having competing power centres.
keywords: balance power]
Constant saw in Rousseau the most dangerous enemy of individual liberty... Hobbes was at any rate more candid: he did not pretend that a sovereign does not enslave; he justified this slavery, but at least did not have the effrontery to call it freedom... Few governments, it has been observed, have found much difficulty in causing their subjects to generate any will that the government wanted. The triumph of despotism is to force the slaves to declare themselves free. It may need no force; the slaves may proclaim their freedom quite sincerely: but they are none the less slaves...
One belief, more than any other, is responsible for the slaughter of individuals on the altars of the great historical ideals - justice or progress or the happiness of future generations, or the sacred mission or emancipation of a nation or race or class, or even liberty itself, which demands the sacrifice of individuals for the freedom of society. This is the belief that somewhere, in the past or in the future, in divine revelation or in the mind of an individual thinker, in the pronouncements of history or science, or in the simple heart of an uncorrupted good man, there is a final solution. This ancient faith rests on the conviction that all the positive values in which men have believed must, in the end, be compatible, and perhaps even entail one another...
To admit that the fulfillment of some of our ideals may in principle make the fulfillment of others impossible is to say that the notion of total human fulfillment is a formal contradiction, a metaphysical chimera...
If, as I believe, the ends of men are many, and not all of them are in principle compatible with each other, then the possibility of conflict - and of tragedy - can never wholly be eliminated from human life, either personal or social. The necessity of choosing between absolute claims is then an inescapable characteristic of the human condition...
It is not merely in practice but in principle impossible to reach clear-cut and certain answers, even in an ideal world of wholly good and rational men and wholly clear ideas - may madden those who seek for final solutions and single, allembracing systems, guaranteed to be eternal. Nevertheless, it is a conclusion that cannot be escaped by those who, with Kant, have learnt the truth that 'Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made’...
To preserve our absolute categories or ideals at the expense of human lives offends equally against the principles of science and of history; it is an attitude found in equal measure on the right and left wings in our days, and is not reconcilable with the principles accepted by those who respect the facts.
Pluralism, with the measure of 'negative' liberty that it entails, seems to me a truer and more humane ideal than the goals of those who seek in the great disciplined, authoritarian structures the ideal of 'positive' self-mastery by classes, or peoples, or the whole of mankind. It is truer, because it does, at least, recognise the fact that human goals are many, not all of them commensurable, and in perpetual rivalry with one another. To assume that all values can be graded on one scale, so that it is a mere matter of inspection to determine the highest, seems to me to falsify our knowledge that men are free agents, to represent moral decision as an operation which a slide-rule could, in principle, perform... In the end, men choose between ultimate values; they choose as they do because their life and thought are determined by fundamental moral categories and concepts that are, at any rate over large stretches of time and space, a part of their being and thought and sense of their own identity; part of what makes them human.
It may be that the ideal of freedom to choose ends without claiming eternal validity for them, and the pluralism of values connected with this, is only the late fruit of our declining capitalist civilisation... This may be so; but no skeptical conclusions seem to me to follow. Principles are not less sacred because their duration cannot be guaranteed. Indeed, the very desire for guarantees that our values are eternal and secure in some objective heaven is perhaps only a craving for the certainties of childhood or the absolute values of our primitive past. 'To realise the relative validity of one's convictions', said an admirable writer of our time, 'and yet stand for them unflinchingly is what distinguishes a civilised man from a barbarian.’ To demand more than this is perhaps a deep and incurable metaphysical need; but to allow it to determine one's practice is a symptom of an equally deep, and more dangerous, moral and political immaturity."
--- Two Concepts of Liberty / Isaiah Berlin
***
(continued from Part 1)
"The only true method of attaining freedom, we are told, is by the use of critical reason, the understanding of what is necessary and what is contingent... Knowledge liberates, as Epicurus taught long ago, by automatically eliminating irrational fears and desires...
We are enslaved by despots - institutions or beliefs or neuroses - which can be removed only by being analysed and understood. We are imprisoned by evil spirits which we have ourselves - albeit not I consciously - created, and can exorcise them only by becoming I conscious and acting appropriately...
A rational (or free) State would be a State governed by such laws as all rational men would freely accept; that is to say, such laws as they would themselves have enacted had they been asked what, as rational beings, they demanded; hence the frontiers would be such as all rational men would consider to be the right frontiers for rational beings.
But who, in fact, was to determine what these frontiers were?... it is only irrationality on the part of men (according to this doctrine) that leads them to wish to oppress or exploit or humiliate one another. Rational men will respect the principle of reason in each other, and lack all desire to fight or dominate one another...
How am I to treat recalcitrant human beings? I must, if I can, impose my will on them too, 'mould' them to my pattern, cast parts for them in my play. But will this not mean that I alone am free, while they are slaves? They will be so if my plan has nothing to do with their wishes or values, only with my own. But if my plan is fully rational, it will allow for the full development of their 'true' natures, the realisation of their capacities for rational decisions, for 'making the best of themselves'...
The common assumption of these thinkers (and of many a schoolman before them and Jacobin and Communist after them) is that the rational ends of our 'true' natures must coincide, or be made to coincide, however violently our poor, ignorant, desire-ridden, passionate, empirical selves may cry out against this process. Freedom is not freedom to do what is irrational, or stupid, or wrong. To force empirical selves into the right pattern is no tyranny, but liberation...
In due course, the thinkers who bent their energies to the solution of the problem on these lines came to be faced with the question of how in practice men were to be made rational in this way. Clearly they must be educated. For the uneducated are irrational, heteronomous, and need to be coerced, if only to make life tolerable for the rational if they are to live in the same society and not be compelled to withdraw to a desert or some Olympian height. But the uneducated cannot be expected to understand or co-operate with the purposes of their educators...
Even though men suffer and die in the process, they are lifted by it to a height to which they could never have risen without my coercive - but creative - violation of their lives. This is the argument used by every dictator, inquisitor and bully who seeks some moral, or even aesthetic, justification for his conduct. I must do for men (or with them) what they cannot do for themselves, and I cannot ask their permission or consent, because they are in no condition to know what is best for them; indeed, what they will permit and accept may mean a life of contemptible mediocrity, or perhaps even their ruin and suicide...
The same attitude was pointedly expressed by August Comte, who asked why, if we do not allow free thinking in chemistry or biology, we should allow it in morals or politics. Why indeed?...
What can have led to so strange a reversal - the transformation of Kant's severe individualism into something close to a pure totalitarian doctrine on the part of thinkers some of whom claimed to be his disciples? This question is not of merely historical interest, for not a few contemporary liberals have gone through the same peculiar evolution...
Paternalism is despotic, not because it is more oppressive than naked, brutal, unenlightened tyranny, nor merely because it ignores the transcendental reason embodied in me, but because it is an insult to my conception of myself as a human being, determined to make my own life in accordance with my own (not necessarily rational or benevolent) purposes, and, above all, entitled to be recognised as such by others... I may, in my bitter longing for status, prefer to be bullied and misgoverned by some member of my own race or social class, by whom I am, nevertheless, recognised as a man and a rival - that is as an equal - to being well and tolerantly treated by someone from some higher and remoter group, someone who does not recognise me for what I wish to feel myself to be...
It is only the confusion of desire for liberty with this profound and universal craving for status and understanding, further confounded by being identified with the notion of social selfdirection, where the self to be liberated is no longer the individual but the 'social whole', that makes it possible for men, while submitting to the authority of oligarchs or dictators, to claim that this in some sense liberates them...
It is not a demand for Lebensraum for each individual that has stimulated the rebellions and wars of liberation for which men have been ready to die in the past, or, indeed, in the present. Men who have fought for freedom have commonly fought for the right to be governed by themselves or their representatives... men who have made revolutions have, as often as not, meant by liberty no more than the conquest of power and authority by a given sect of believers in a doctrine, or by a class, or by some other social group, old or new. Their victories certainly frustrated those whom they ousted, and sometimes repressed, enslaved or exterminated vast numbers of human beings. Yet such revolutionaries have usually felt it necessary to argue that, despite this, they represented the party of liberty, or 'true' liberty, by claiming universality for their ideal, which the 'real selves' of even those who resisted them were also alleged to be seeking, although they were held to have lost the way to the goal, or to have mistaken the goal itself owing to some moral or spiritual blindness...
The liberals of the first half of the nineteenth century correctly foresaw that liberty in this 'positive' sense could easily destroy too many of the 'negative' liberties that they held sacred. They pointed out that the sovereignty of the people could easily destroy that of individuals. Mill explained, patiently and unanswerably, that government by the people was not, in his sense, necessarily freedom at all. For those who govern are not necessarily the same 'people' as those who are governed, and democratic self-government is not the government 'of each by himself, but, at best, 'of each by all the rest’. Mill and his disciples spoke of 'the tyranny of the majority' and of the tyranny of 'the prevailing opinion and feeling', and saw no great difference between that and any other kind of tyranny which encroaches upon men's activities beyond the sacred frontiers of private life.
No one saw the conflict between the two types of liberty better, or expressed it more clearly, than Benjamin Constant. He pointed out that the transference by a successful rising of unlimited authority, commonly called sovereignty, from one set of hands to another does not increase liberty, but merely shifts the burden of slavery. He reasonably asked why a man should deeply care whether he is crushed by a popular government or by a monarch, or even by a set of oppressive laws. He saw that the main problem for those who desire 'negative', individual freedom is not who wields this authority, but how much authority should be placed in any set of hands. For unlimited authority in anybody's grasp was bound, he believed, sooner or later, to destroy somebody. He maintained that usually men protested against this or that set of governors as oppressive, when the real cause of oppression lay in the mere fact of the accumulation of power itself, wherever it might happen to be, since liberty was endangered by the mere existence of absolute authority as such. 'It is not against the arm that one must rail,' he wrote, 'but against the weapon. Some weights are too heavy for the human hand.’ Democracy may disarm a given oligarchy, a given privileged individual or set of individuals, but it can still crush individuals as mercilessly as any previous ruler. An equal right to oppress - or interfere - is not equivalent to liberty...
[Ed: This is a good quote on the preservation of liberty by the dispersing/dispersion of power and having competing power centres.
keywords: balance power]
Constant saw in Rousseau the most dangerous enemy of individual liberty... Hobbes was at any rate more candid: he did not pretend that a sovereign does not enslave; he justified this slavery, but at least did not have the effrontery to call it freedom... Few governments, it has been observed, have found much difficulty in causing their subjects to generate any will that the government wanted. The triumph of despotism is to force the slaves to declare themselves free. It may need no force; the slaves may proclaim their freedom quite sincerely: but they are none the less slaves...
One belief, more than any other, is responsible for the slaughter of individuals on the altars of the great historical ideals - justice or progress or the happiness of future generations, or the sacred mission or emancipation of a nation or race or class, or even liberty itself, which demands the sacrifice of individuals for the freedom of society. This is the belief that somewhere, in the past or in the future, in divine revelation or in the mind of an individual thinker, in the pronouncements of history or science, or in the simple heart of an uncorrupted good man, there is a final solution. This ancient faith rests on the conviction that all the positive values in which men have believed must, in the end, be compatible, and perhaps even entail one another...
To admit that the fulfillment of some of our ideals may in principle make the fulfillment of others impossible is to say that the notion of total human fulfillment is a formal contradiction, a metaphysical chimera...
If, as I believe, the ends of men are many, and not all of them are in principle compatible with each other, then the possibility of conflict - and of tragedy - can never wholly be eliminated from human life, either personal or social. The necessity of choosing between absolute claims is then an inescapable characteristic of the human condition...
It is not merely in practice but in principle impossible to reach clear-cut and certain answers, even in an ideal world of wholly good and rational men and wholly clear ideas - may madden those who seek for final solutions and single, allembracing systems, guaranteed to be eternal. Nevertheless, it is a conclusion that cannot be escaped by those who, with Kant, have learnt the truth that 'Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made’...
To preserve our absolute categories or ideals at the expense of human lives offends equally against the principles of science and of history; it is an attitude found in equal measure on the right and left wings in our days, and is not reconcilable with the principles accepted by those who respect the facts.
Pluralism, with the measure of 'negative' liberty that it entails, seems to me a truer and more humane ideal than the goals of those who seek in the great disciplined, authoritarian structures the ideal of 'positive' self-mastery by classes, or peoples, or the whole of mankind. It is truer, because it does, at least, recognise the fact that human goals are many, not all of them commensurable, and in perpetual rivalry with one another. To assume that all values can be graded on one scale, so that it is a mere matter of inspection to determine the highest, seems to me to falsify our knowledge that men are free agents, to represent moral decision as an operation which a slide-rule could, in principle, perform... In the end, men choose between ultimate values; they choose as they do because their life and thought are determined by fundamental moral categories and concepts that are, at any rate over large stretches of time and space, a part of their being and thought and sense of their own identity; part of what makes them human.
It may be that the ideal of freedom to choose ends without claiming eternal validity for them, and the pluralism of values connected with this, is only the late fruit of our declining capitalist civilisation... This may be so; but no skeptical conclusions seem to me to follow. Principles are not less sacred because their duration cannot be guaranteed. Indeed, the very desire for guarantees that our values are eternal and secure in some objective heaven is perhaps only a craving for the certainties of childhood or the absolute values of our primitive past. 'To realise the relative validity of one's convictions', said an admirable writer of our time, 'and yet stand for them unflinchingly is what distinguishes a civilised man from a barbarian.’ To demand more than this is perhaps a deep and incurable metaphysical need; but to allow it to determine one's practice is a symptom of an equally deep, and more dangerous, moral and political immaturity."
--- Two Concepts of Liberty / Isaiah Berlin
Post ID: 859990637820541023
Sunday, May 01, 2011
France/Spain 2011 - Day 1 - KL LCCT-Paris-Strasbourg
"Imagine what it would be like if TV actually were good. It would be the end of everything we know." - Marvin Minsky
***
France/Spain 2011
Day 1 - 17th March - KL LCCT-Paris-Strasbourg
I flew from Singapore to KL to Paris via AirAsia. The return ticket cost me $773 (all-in except for Paris-KL food as I refused to pay 50 ringgit for Nasi Lemak) on promo in November. On the downside I had more than 8 hours to kill at LCCT on the way there.
While AirAsia is one of the few good things to come out of Malaysia, they screwup sometimes too:
Seat ad for in-flight mobile phone usage
Sign proclaiming that you can't use your phone during the flight
One nice thing about going to Malaysia is learning wonderful new words in Bahasa:
"celcom sukses" - I think this is pronounced "celcom sucks"
In the immigration form for Malaysia you can state your occupation as "housewife" (too bad for househusbands). And the purpose of your visit can be "incentive travel". At first I thought this had something to do with the corruption Malaysia is so famous for.
As I had almost 9 hours to kill, I was going to have a snack (and caffeine) at McDonald's to keep me going. I didn't want to sleep as I was following my jetlag amelioration strategy - to try to shift into the desired timezone before landing. So since France and Spain were 7 hours behind Singapore/Malaysia, staying awake until I boarded the plane at 9am would work.
Unfortunately the whole terminal was closed for a few hours for fumigation. GAH.
With my jetlag amelioration strategy in danger of failing, I found a "food garden" a ways off from the terminal. Unfortunately the roti canai stall had closed down, but I didn manage to buy a teh tarik.
The lousiest Macaroons I've ever seen
Later I hit a significant life milestone: when an Indian boy's change rolled under my backpack, he said "excuse me Uncle..."
Coklat Celebration
"Vacancy wanted. Promoter & Cashier"
I feel sorry for the existing Promoter & Cashier
There was an Iranian lady who I lent a power adaptor to - because she thought the power plugs in Malaysia were the same as in Iran. Duh.
At KL LCCT, I was asked to buy some Sat Kek Mah. I already had 2.8kg of duck eggs (20 century eggs and 6 salted duck eggs) and a tin of matcha powder, which I was going to have to lug around Europe. This was very irritating.
Boarding the plane, I was pleased to discover that the seats reclined. Indeed, except for the lack of free entertainment and that food and amenities had to be paid for, it was more or less identical to a regular airline.
Interestingly, the stewardesses on the flight to Paris did their hair up. Maybe it was an long distance route thing, since on the Asian flights I'd been on they all let their hair down.
The flight to Paris was one of the coldest flights I could recall. Doubtless this was a devious plot to sell you their convenience packs (because blankets were not free). The added benefit was that it was cheaper for them as they didn't need to warm up the outside air pumped into the cabin as much.
The achar in AirAsia's briyani is disgusting - like cardboard.
I have my doubts about AirAsia's food - somehow their Kung Pao dishes are not spicy at all (and according to the spiciness key contain no chilis - even though the description of the Kung Pao Chicken mentions dried chilis and that of the Kung Pao Tofu mentions chilis), while even BBQ Chicken is mildly spicy.
You might notice a preponderance of Chicken on the menu. So did I. So I did a full count of the menu, and most of the dishes used chicken as their meat (except for "Pizza Bake" on the kids menu where I could not tell the meat used - but it's a good bet it was chicken too).
More specifically, of the 14 x 2 x 2 meal items (14 rows, in and out of KL, and 'Western' vs 'Asian'), only 4 were non-chicken:
1) "Beer Barg with Saffron Rice" (Tehran)
2) "Beef Stir-fry with Saffron Rice" (Tehran)
3) Australian Roast Lamb (from Australia)
4) Roast Lamb with Kumara Mash (from Christchurch)
Perhaps Ayamas is a key shareholder in AirAsia and the chicken all comes from them.
The "Western" menu for trips to/from Paris was unique - none of those items could be found on the other routes. I was amused that they had the decency to call their Chicken Cordon Bleu stuffed with turkey slices, "French inspired". However, this ignored the bigger problem with their Chicken Cordon Bleu - it's actually American and not French.
Also notice that unlike other airlines, which cater from the place they fly from, AirAsia seems to fly food from KL to Paris-Orly for the Paris-Orly to KL flights (they also fly their mineral water - presumably because generic French mineral water is not Halal). No wonder Nasi Lemak costs 50 ringgit!
Interestingly AirAsia has a corporate culture executive. Who is called Yvonne Lady Diana John Brian Anthony. Who is female despite half her names being male.
CHM ad: "London - an arguably desired destination". Way to go, whoever wrote that copy!
As you can see AirAsia still has problems with their geography after 2 years (see: Jogja post for May 2009).
Mistake seen earlier are that Northern Ireland still does not exist and country borders are still not fully drawn. However I think they got rid of the Middle East and East Indonesia, forestalling the problems I'd previously pointed out.
AirAsia may be the world's best low cost airline, but certainly their geography is still FAIL.
This was my first time in Orly. I found it more agreeable than Charles de Gaulle, and nearer to the city to boot.
Halal Foie Gras. Notice the Halal premium - a 210g bloc goes for 31€, versus 28,9€ for a normal bloc.
Another nice thing about Orly was that there was a La Durée, which Shengfeng had recommended I visit.
La Durée cart in the Domestic terminal.
They were perhaps the most expensive macarons in Paris, if not the world, at 1 for 1,6€ (and 80€ per kg). A box of 30-32 cost 49,7€. For the smallest box (a Reglette Napoléon of 4) one had to pay 7,90€ - there was a 1,50€ premium for the coffret (box). So I just got a paper packet.
Man choosing macarons
Macaron selection
"Maison fondée en 1862" ("Since 1862")
Vanille, Fleur d'Oranger, Citron, Praliné noisette (Vanilla, Orange Blossom, Lemon, Hazelnut Praline)
Fleur d'Oranger
Expensive though they were, the macarons were excellent. Orange blossom tasted like what you'd imagine a Body Shop orange shower gel would taste like if it tasted like it smelled. Actually it was better - it reminded me of the Orange Blossom De Tuinen shower gel from the Netherlands.
Saveurs d'Auvergne ("Flavours of Auvergne")
Gourmet vegetables and groceries in a major train station. Mmm.
Gare de l'Est (East Railway Station)
"Pokémon ils sont partout !" ("Pokémon, they're everywhere!")
Since I had a few hours to kill before taking my TGV train to Strasbourg, I went to stone in a McDonalds, which had power and wifi. Perhaps I was getting old, but then it was getting dark, I had a backback and my train was in just over 2 hours.
They were out of the shake, which I wanted to try ("recette victim de son succès" - "the recipe, a victim of its success"), so I had the 1,95€ wrap ("le p'tit wrap ranch").
Menu at "le bistro lorrain". Pas authentique ! Why is there spaghetti with chorizo, and "tagliatelles alla Bombay"??? Also I have my suspicions about "pizza" from Lorraine.
A French brasserie at night. Amusingly ALL of them on the terrace were facing the street, and had turned their chairs to do so.
"Femmes de Dictateur"
I think there's some wordplay here, given the title "Femmes de Dictateur" ("Dictatorial Women", I think) vs "Femmes des Dictateurs" ("Women of the Dictators").
007 Gear
"Paul: Patisseries extra fine. Maison de Qualité fondée en 1889"
Now that Mirabelle has closed down I must go to France for good Croissants. Well actually the croissant I had wasn't very good, but it was 8pm.
I noticed that the Stressdoron homeopathic medicine had alcohol in it. No wonder it worked.
It'd been a while (3 years) since I'd been on a high speed train, but at night they weren't so fun as you couldn't see the terrain speeding by. The gentle rocking of the train lulled me to sleep - either a failure of my jetlag avoidance strategy or a symptom of advancing age.
Palais de Justice, Strasbourg
There was to be a Janacek opera in April. I wonder if the music would've been alright.
At my Strasbourg hostel the lift was spoilt, so I had to walk up to the 4th (5th) storey. And the wifi was down to boot. Gah.
***
France/Spain 2011
Day 1 - 17th March - KL LCCT-Paris-Strasbourg
I flew from Singapore to KL to Paris via AirAsia. The return ticket cost me $773 (all-in except for Paris-KL food as I refused to pay 50 ringgit for Nasi Lemak) on promo in November. On the downside I had more than 8 hours to kill at LCCT on the way there.
While AirAsia is one of the few good things to come out of Malaysia, they screwup sometimes too:
Seat ad for in-flight mobile phone usage
Sign proclaiming that you can't use your phone during the flight
One nice thing about going to Malaysia is learning wonderful new words in Bahasa:
"celcom sukses" - I think this is pronounced "celcom sucks"
In the immigration form for Malaysia you can state your occupation as "housewife" (too bad for househusbands). And the purpose of your visit can be "incentive travel". At first I thought this had something to do with the corruption Malaysia is so famous for.
As I had almost 9 hours to kill, I was going to have a snack (and caffeine) at McDonald's to keep me going. I didn't want to sleep as I was following my jetlag amelioration strategy - to try to shift into the desired timezone before landing. So since France and Spain were 7 hours behind Singapore/Malaysia, staying awake until I boarded the plane at 9am would work.
Unfortunately the whole terminal was closed for a few hours for fumigation. GAH.
With my jetlag amelioration strategy in danger of failing, I found a "food garden" a ways off from the terminal. Unfortunately the roti canai stall had closed down, but I didn manage to buy a teh tarik.
The lousiest Macaroons I've ever seen
Later I hit a significant life milestone: when an Indian boy's change rolled under my backpack, he said "excuse me Uncle..."
Coklat Celebration
"Vacancy wanted. Promoter & Cashier"
I feel sorry for the existing Promoter & Cashier
There was an Iranian lady who I lent a power adaptor to - because she thought the power plugs in Malaysia were the same as in Iran. Duh.
At KL LCCT, I was asked to buy some Sat Kek Mah. I already had 2.8kg of duck eggs (20 century eggs and 6 salted duck eggs) and a tin of matcha powder, which I was going to have to lug around Europe. This was very irritating.
Boarding the plane, I was pleased to discover that the seats reclined. Indeed, except for the lack of free entertainment and that food and amenities had to be paid for, it was more or less identical to a regular airline.
Interestingly, the stewardesses on the flight to Paris did their hair up. Maybe it was an long distance route thing, since on the Asian flights I'd been on they all let their hair down.
The flight to Paris was one of the coldest flights I could recall. Doubtless this was a devious plot to sell you their convenience packs (because blankets were not free). The added benefit was that it was cheaper for them as they didn't need to warm up the outside air pumped into the cabin as much.
The achar in AirAsia's briyani is disgusting - like cardboard.
I have my doubts about AirAsia's food - somehow their Kung Pao dishes are not spicy at all (and according to the spiciness key contain no chilis - even though the description of the Kung Pao Chicken mentions dried chilis and that of the Kung Pao Tofu mentions chilis), while even BBQ Chicken is mildly spicy.
You might notice a preponderance of Chicken on the menu. So did I. So I did a full count of the menu, and most of the dishes used chicken as their meat (except for "Pizza Bake" on the kids menu where I could not tell the meat used - but it's a good bet it was chicken too).
More specifically, of the 14 x 2 x 2 meal items (14 rows, in and out of KL, and 'Western' vs 'Asian'), only 4 were non-chicken:
1) "Beer Barg with Saffron Rice" (Tehran)
2) "Beef Stir-fry with Saffron Rice" (Tehran)
3) Australian Roast Lamb (from Australia)
4) Roast Lamb with Kumara Mash (from Christchurch)
Perhaps Ayamas is a key shareholder in AirAsia and the chicken all comes from them.
The "Western" menu for trips to/from Paris was unique - none of those items could be found on the other routes. I was amused that they had the decency to call their Chicken Cordon Bleu stuffed with turkey slices, "French inspired". However, this ignored the bigger problem with their Chicken Cordon Bleu - it's actually American and not French.
Also notice that unlike other airlines, which cater from the place they fly from, AirAsia seems to fly food from KL to Paris-Orly for the Paris-Orly to KL flights (they also fly their mineral water - presumably because generic French mineral water is not Halal). No wonder Nasi Lemak costs 50 ringgit!
Interestingly AirAsia has a corporate culture executive. Who is called Yvonne Lady Diana John Brian Anthony. Who is female despite half her names being male.
CHM ad: "London - an arguably desired destination". Way to go, whoever wrote that copy!
As you can see AirAsia still has problems with their geography after 2 years (see: Jogja post for May 2009).
Mistake seen earlier are that Northern Ireland still does not exist and country borders are still not fully drawn. However I think they got rid of the Middle East and East Indonesia, forestalling the problems I'd previously pointed out.
AirAsia may be the world's best low cost airline, but certainly their geography is still FAIL.
This was my first time in Orly. I found it more agreeable than Charles de Gaulle, and nearer to the city to boot.
Halal Foie Gras. Notice the Halal premium - a 210g bloc goes for 31€, versus 28,9€ for a normal bloc.
Another nice thing about Orly was that there was a La Durée, which Shengfeng had recommended I visit.
La Durée cart in the Domestic terminal.
They were perhaps the most expensive macarons in Paris, if not the world, at 1 for 1,6€ (and 80€ per kg). A box of 30-32 cost 49,7€. For the smallest box (a Reglette Napoléon of 4) one had to pay 7,90€ - there was a 1,50€ premium for the coffret (box). So I just got a paper packet.
Man choosing macarons
Macaron selection
"Maison fondée en 1862" ("Since 1862")
Vanille, Fleur d'Oranger, Citron, Praliné noisette (Vanilla, Orange Blossom, Lemon, Hazelnut Praline)
Fleur d'Oranger
Expensive though they were, the macarons were excellent. Orange blossom tasted like what you'd imagine a Body Shop orange shower gel would taste like if it tasted like it smelled. Actually it was better - it reminded me of the Orange Blossom De Tuinen shower gel from the Netherlands.
Saveurs d'Auvergne ("Flavours of Auvergne")
Gourmet vegetables and groceries in a major train station. Mmm.
Gare de l'Est (East Railway Station)
"Pokémon ils sont partout !" ("Pokémon, they're everywhere!")
Since I had a few hours to kill before taking my TGV train to Strasbourg, I went to stone in a McDonalds, which had power and wifi. Perhaps I was getting old, but then it was getting dark, I had a backback and my train was in just over 2 hours.
They were out of the shake, which I wanted to try ("recette victim de son succès" - "the recipe, a victim of its success"), so I had the 1,95€ wrap ("le p'tit wrap ranch").
Menu at "le bistro lorrain". Pas authentique ! Why is there spaghetti with chorizo, and "tagliatelles alla Bombay"??? Also I have my suspicions about "pizza" from Lorraine.
A French brasserie at night. Amusingly ALL of them on the terrace were facing the street, and had turned their chairs to do so.
"Femmes de Dictateur"
I think there's some wordplay here, given the title "Femmes de Dictateur" ("Dictatorial Women", I think) vs "Femmes des Dictateurs" ("Women of the Dictators").
007 Gear
"Paul: Patisseries extra fine. Maison de Qualité fondée en 1889"
Now that Mirabelle has closed down I must go to France for good Croissants. Well actually the croissant I had wasn't very good, but it was 8pm.
I noticed that the Stressdoron homeopathic medicine had alcohol in it. No wonder it worked.
It'd been a while (3 years) since I'd been on a high speed train, but at night they weren't so fun as you couldn't see the terrain speeding by. The gentle rocking of the train lulled me to sleep - either a failure of my jetlag avoidance strategy or a symptom of advancing age.
Palais de Justice, Strasbourg
There was to be a Janacek opera in April. I wonder if the music would've been alright.
At my Strasbourg hostel the lift was spoilt, so I had to walk up to the 4th (5th) storey. And the wifi was down to boot. Gah.
Post ID: 5693199968868548049
Saturday, April 30, 2011
u r wt u wr - 30th April 2011
"Of those who say nothing, few are silent." - Thomas Neill
***
u r wt u wr:
- [Contributed] 'The waitress gave me crabs'
- [Auntie in her 50s] 'Just the two of us secret'
- '♥ my shirt'
- 'I may look innocent but I sure can put you into trouble'
- 'Magic woman' (Maybe she makes your money disappear)
- 'Happy nude year'
- 'Time has no meaning when you are in love' (I'd like to say that I saw her running for a bus, but that'd be a lie)
- 'Nice *picture of heart with moustache* moustache' (Maybe it was commentary on her bikini line)
- 'He's not my BOYFRIEND <- He's my BODYGUARD' - 'I'm confident' (If you are, you won't need to proclaim it) - 'Bisous *kiss lipstick mark* pour toi' (Translation: 'Kisses for you') - 'Not lonely here at the top' (There was an upward-pointing arrow in the o in 'not' pointing at her non-existent pearl necklace)
- 'Hot waffles to go *picture of open waffle maker*'
- 'I *star* shining for you'
- [Auntie in her 50s] 'What's Your Number?' (this looked like an event shirt but nothing was big enough to read)
- 'U like what you see?' (She had a bulging tummy, so no)
- 'We're so cool. We're so cool. Ice cubes are jealous'
- [Woman in her late 50s] 'I want to be your love *many words*'
- 'What you wish for'
- 'Don't forget to blink'
- 'Get what you want'
- 'Hug *tree trunk* me'
- 'I only date models not you' ("Only date" was in a heart)
- 'Only sos as girl lover'
- 'Nice and sweet' (she was wearing a tudung with a T-shirt)
- 'Innocent by day. Party girl *something*'
- 'I'm a beautiful girl. Just let us love'
- 'Your tee will look cool on me'
***
u r wt u wr:
- [Contributed] 'The waitress gave me crabs'
- [Auntie in her 50s] 'Just the two of us secret'
- '♥ my shirt'
- 'I may look innocent but I sure can put you into trouble'
- 'Magic woman' (Maybe she makes your money disappear)
- 'Happy nude year'
- 'Time has no meaning when you are in love' (I'd like to say that I saw her running for a bus, but that'd be a lie)
- 'Nice *picture of heart with moustache* moustache' (Maybe it was commentary on her bikini line)
- 'He's not my BOYFRIEND <- He's my BODYGUARD' - 'I'm confident' (If you are, you won't need to proclaim it) - 'Bisous *kiss lipstick mark* pour toi' (Translation: 'Kisses for you') - 'Not lonely here at the top' (There was an upward-pointing arrow in the o in 'not' pointing at her non-existent pearl necklace)
- 'Hot waffles to go *picture of open waffle maker*'
- 'I *star* shining for you'
- [Auntie in her 50s] 'What's Your Number?' (this looked like an event shirt but nothing was big enough to read)
- 'U like what you see?' (She had a bulging tummy, so no)
- 'We're so cool. We're so cool. Ice cubes are jealous'
- [Woman in her late 50s] 'I want to be your love *many words*'
- 'What you wish for'
- 'Don't forget to blink'
- 'Get what you want'
- 'Hug *tree trunk* me'
- 'I only date models not you' ("Only date" was in a heart)
- 'Only sos as girl lover'
- 'Nice and sweet' (she was wearing a tudung with a T-shirt)
- 'Innocent by day. Party girl *something*'
- 'I'm a beautiful girl. Just let us love'
- 'Your tee will look cool on me'
Post ID: 5936203906064840960
France 2010 - Day 14
"One man's folly is another man's wife." - Helen Rowland
***
France 2010
Day 14 - 15th October - Departure
Before returning the car I had to fill up the gas tank. The second station the GPS led me to - an Aldi - had disappeared. Then while getting to the third, I witnessed an accident (a car ploughed headlong into the side of the engine area of another car) which caused a traffic jam. Luckily both seemed unhurt.
The third station I went to had a long queue, and someone cut my line (Paris, je t'aime !); somehow most gas stations with payment at the pump rejected my cards - even those with chips.
On my way to Charles de Gaulle airport I saw another accident (in my 6 days driving, the worst that happened to me was I knocked a highway cone). As well as a Samsung ad where a colourful hand in a thumbsup pose grabbed a phone ("Bagus!"). There was also a Concorde ad mounted on the tarmac for some reason.
I returned the car at 9:45am, 45 mins late, but didn't get fined. Maybe you get an hour's grace. Or maybe they were understanding, with all the strikes.
For breakfast, I decided to have something one definitely cannot find in Singapore:
McDonald's REAL Bacon and Egg McMuffun. And a 1€ "Mandise" (I can't find a translation so I'm assuming it's the name of the product rather than a generic name for the confection)
Check out that bacon
Inside of the "Mandise" with chocolate. It was excellent.
"Liberté, sécurité, flexibilité et agilité, tout est dans un seul nuage" ("Liberty, safety, flexibility and agility, all in the same cloud")
They couldn't find a way to squeeze in égalité and fraternité in there.
Charles de Gaulle looks like the Death Star, with all the grey concrete
Inside the Death Star
A girl who likes to ride
Woman in a coat which was basically a giant duvet from her neck to her ankles, with extra puffiness around her neck (and compartments with down/padding). Like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, in black.
This was in the immigration queue. I'm not sure how she stood it.
Giant Chupa Chups
What happens to crisps in the plane
As we got further from France, the French of the stewardess doing announcements seemed to get worse.
5 star hotels do exist in France, but they only have since 1st January 2009.
Overall the weather was good during my trip, with no rain (even in Brittany). This was despite it raining the week or two before I went there.
After some travel, you discount guidebook descriptions by half. It seems every other town has a Musée des Beaux Arts (Fine Arts museum) and a Château. That's not to say they are not nice, but the one in the next town might be better.
***
France 2010
Day 14 - 15th October - Departure
Before returning the car I had to fill up the gas tank. The second station the GPS led me to - an Aldi - had disappeared. Then while getting to the third, I witnessed an accident (a car ploughed headlong into the side of the engine area of another car) which caused a traffic jam. Luckily both seemed unhurt.
The third station I went to had a long queue, and someone cut my line (Paris, je t'aime !); somehow most gas stations with payment at the pump rejected my cards - even those with chips.
On my way to Charles de Gaulle airport I saw another accident (in my 6 days driving, the worst that happened to me was I knocked a highway cone). As well as a Samsung ad where a colourful hand in a thumbsup pose grabbed a phone ("Bagus!"). There was also a Concorde ad mounted on the tarmac for some reason.
I returned the car at 9:45am, 45 mins late, but didn't get fined. Maybe you get an hour's grace. Or maybe they were understanding, with all the strikes.
For breakfast, I decided to have something one definitely cannot find in Singapore:
McDonald's REAL Bacon and Egg McMuffun. And a 1€ "Mandise" (I can't find a translation so I'm assuming it's the name of the product rather than a generic name for the confection)
Check out that bacon
Inside of the "Mandise" with chocolate. It was excellent.
"Liberté, sécurité, flexibilité et agilité, tout est dans un seul nuage" ("Liberty, safety, flexibility and agility, all in the same cloud")
They couldn't find a way to squeeze in égalité and fraternité in there.
Charles de Gaulle looks like the Death Star, with all the grey concrete
Inside the Death Star
A girl who likes to ride
Woman in a coat which was basically a giant duvet from her neck to her ankles, with extra puffiness around her neck (and compartments with down/padding). Like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, in black.
This was in the immigration queue. I'm not sure how she stood it.
Giant Chupa Chups
What happens to crisps in the plane
As we got further from France, the French of the stewardess doing announcements seemed to get worse.
5 star hotels do exist in France, but they only have since 1st January 2009.
Overall the weather was good during my trip, with no rain (even in Brittany). This was despite it raining the week or two before I went there.
After some travel, you discount guidebook descriptions by half. It seems every other town has a Musée des Beaux Arts (Fine Arts museum) and a Château. That's not to say they are not nice, but the one in the next town might be better.
Post ID: 2160266495774505220
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