All bow to High Priests of cancel culture who warned me NOT to write this

LOUIS DE BERNIERES: All bow to High Priests of cancel culture who warned me NOT to write this

"Sir Kazuo Ishiguro, one of our greatest writers, expressed anxiety that young authors were being forced into self-censorship out of fear of being trolled by the anonymous lynch mobs of the politically correct.

He said that he felt safe himself, because he was already well-established: ‘It may be an illusion, but I think I am protected.’

Ish may be more protected than I am by the fact that he is not white...

This is mainly out of consideration for my editors, who display mild panic at every sign of political incorrectness.

I don’t know whether or not they actually are ‘wokesters’ — I rather doubt it — but I think they might be terrified of those who are.

Everyone dreads being trolled by the Pharisees who pray in public, our social-justice and identity warriors.

I refer to the kind of people who force students to take unconscious bias exams in which you have to admit to things of which you are not guilty because otherwise you don’t pass; to those who have ‘cancelled’ or ‘no-platformed’ both our most influential modern feminist (Germaine Greer) and our most popular storyteller (JK Rowling) in order not to be ‘triggered’, and to be ‘safe’.

Even Lionel Shriver, who has been an outspoken critic of political correctness, admitted last week that she had agreed to remove dialogue from her forthcoming book after being told it was ‘othering’...

Thanks to the success of my novel Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, I was made patron of The British Banjo, Mandolin And Guitar Federation but, after I wrote a letter to The Times about the attitudes of Scottish nationalists in January, some snowflakes from north of the border complained and I was promptly fired.

Even though I was warned not to write this article by a well-meaning friend, I decided to go ahead because my partner insisted that I must. She is full of the dread of what will become of us if there is no resistance.

My own fears have roots in the past. My parents are both dead now, but they were proud of having struggled through World War II because our freedom of speech and thought were thereby set in stone.

In fact, we didn’t become truly free until the Lady Chatterley trial, when Penguin was found not guilty of obscenity after publishing D. H. Lawrence’s sexually explicit novel about a love affair between an aristocratic woman and her gamekeeper.

Ever since then, we have steadily been losing ground. I think I might have lived at the best time in our cultural history, set up for freedom by my parents’ generation, and dying just in time not to see us spiral back down again into a stultifying intellectual and moral captivity.

My theory is that the older people in publishing, of whom there are no longer very many, may have become over-sensitive to the passions of younger members of staff.

These have come through the humanities departments of universities that have, since the 1990s, been steadily taken over by petit bourgeois armchair revolutionaries who have never used a shovel in their lives.

These are the kind of people who hounded the writer and philosopher Roger Scruton for being conservative, drove Laurence Fox out of the acting profession... and have recently ganged up in their hundreds against Kathleen Stock, a professor of philosophy at the University of Sussex, for stating that she thinks there is a biological basis to sex difference.

This terrible sin is known as ‘essentialism’, which is taboo over all issues of race, gender and diversity, except in the case of white middle-class male heterosexuals (WMCMH), who are quintessentially evil and the cause of all that’s wrong in the world.

I first became aware of these tendencies in the 1990s, when English Literature departments in Canada became obsessed with post-colonial studies. Suddenly, people were studying works not because of their intrinsic literary merit, but because of who wrote them and where they came from.

It’s easy to fall into this kind of mistake. In my 20s, I fell in love with the work of a small posse of Latin American writers and, so, for ten years, read nobody but Latin Americans. One day, I suddenly realised that I had been loyally hoovering up any old dross as long as it was from Latin America.

This kind of thoughtlessness has now extended in every direction, and ideology routinely trumps quality. Any and everything has to be ‘problematised’.

‘Cultural theory’ is taught as if it were fact, by people who say it’s a fact that there are no facts, but only ‘texts’.

The whole world is construed not as an empirical shared reality but as a text whose reality is dependent upon the standpoint of the ‘reader’.

So if you think a horse is really a car you are still perfectly sane if you walk round and round it looking for the doors and headlights, and you are exceptionally correct if you happen to be from the tiniest of tiny minorities.

The concept of ‘intersectionality’ means you get many more gold medals in the Oppression Olympics if you can find ever more recondite niches to occupy. There are an awful lot of boxes to tick these days, and those from the greatest number of oppressed minorities get to be the winners.

There is a comical struggle for the moral high ground in all this, reminiscent of the circular firing squads of the socialist Left in the past. The point of these ‘studies’ and this ‘critical theory’ is to privilege minorities at the expense of the mainstream culture that has allegedly oppressed them, and it is a dog-eat-dog competition to assert oneself as the most downtrodden.

God help you if you are a WMCMH and you want to open your mouth and speak, perhaps to suggest that maybe one’s sex and sexual orientation are not socially constructed, and to confess that no one has been able to discover any unconscious bias in the sewers of your psyche.

The more you can’t find it, the more it’s there, of course. That’s how deeply ‘structural’ and ‘systemic’ it is.

Connected with all this, which I think began in American universities many years ago, is the attempt to proscribe all ‘appropriation’ of other people’s cultural experience. What this amounts to is that you can’t write about being a woman in a kitchen unless you actually are a woman in a kitchen...

Paul Simon suffered hideous flak for his Gracelands album, one of the greatest ever created, because he ‘exploited’ South African musicians, who then went on to become successful and beloved all over the world.   

It means telling Eric Clapton, one of the greatest blues guitarist who has ever lived, that he shouldn’t be playing the blues, and that he ‘exploited’ BB King by making an album with him. 

It means accusing me of ‘Orientalism’ for writing a novel that is now used for teaching Ottoman history in Turkish universities. Luckily, the offence of Orientalism is one that almost no ‘Orientals’ give a damn about.

Bob Dylan is said to have answered a critic who accused him of appropriation by looking at him as if he were mad, and saying: ‘That’s how it works.’

It’s true; all art is related to all other art; all books are made of other books. Any artist knows that theft is of the essence. Without theft nothing new is created.

You steal what you want without shame or permission, and you make it new and original through your own talent. If some academic heretic-hunter tells you otherwise, the only response worthy of an artist is to give them the finger.

Irrationality and bad logic are at the heart of the matter. I have even read somewhere that logic is to be deplored because of its white male ‘heteronormative’ origins. The unintentional insult to women worldwide is apparent.

In informal logic, there is something known as ‘the genetic fallacy’. This consists in appraising the worth or truth of a statement on the grounds of its origin.

If it is raining, only an idiot would deny it just because it was, for example, Adolf Hitler who pointed it out. If it is not raining, only an idiot would say that actually it must be, as it was an ‘oppressed’ person who just said it was...

The canon became the canon because of its excellence. The point is to add to it, not signal your piety by substituting someone else just because you think they were from a disadvantaged minority.

It is a great testament to the public that it keeps the arts flourishing in our civilisation with very little assistance from the universities, which for years have been abandoning the cultural transmission model of education. On reflection, giving our culture back to the people may even be a good thing, because it is clearly not safe in the hands of academics.

The trouble with grievance and victimhood studies is that they cannot thrive without creating, exaggerating, and cementing division, like the vulture that cannot thrive without a corpse.

You have to tell someone they are oppressed so they can get angry about it and become your disciple. Every time they fail, or something goes wrong, or somebody is curt to them, you tell them to blame institutional prejudice and unconscious bias.

Why bother to try when you’ve been educated to believe you haven’t got a chance? When pessimism and hopelessness have been drummed into you?...

We have fine exemplars of people who might have been told that they didn’t have a chance, but must have waved the idea away with contempt. Sadiq Khan, Rishi Sunak, Priti Patel, Diane Abbott, Ben Okri, Floella Benjamin, David Lammy, Kwasi Kwarteng, and Nadiya Hussain. The Nobel Prize-winning poet and playwright Derek Walcott, author and broadcaster Lemn Sissay, Cabinet Office minister Alok Sharma, and Labour frontbencher Tan Dhesi…

The list is so long that one would lose heart attempting to exhaust it. None of them got to the top of the tree by playing the victim...

Once I was in a pub talking to a young black woman, who said: ‘I don’t understand all this fuss about identity. We’re all just human, aren’t we?’

She saw the delight in my eyes, and we did a high five."

Links - 1st September 2022 (1 - China's 'peaceful' rise)

Facebook - "The real “lesson” from HK is that once the democracy genie is let out of the bottle, you can’t put it back in. You can try to suppress it, but you’ll have to resort to increasing repression and state violence... The second “lesson” is that it’s pointless and futile for political (and business) elites to decry the protests, or demonize them as “enemies of the people”, or claim the support of the “silent majority”. When you are not popularly elected, it’s probably wise for you not to attempt to portray yourself as the defender or representative of the people. Far better to admit failure and acknowledge that you’ve lost the right to govern than to pretend that (the stature of) your office confers you any legitimacy. As for those who say that the protests will achieve nothing and that they are driven by foreign interference, they will have to resort to ever more elaborate stories about foreign interference, or how the local council elections aren’t an indication of public support for greater democracy, or how the majority of Hongkongers are stupid/ingrates, or how democracy was a dastardly British conspiracy. We should simply ignore these jokers, i.e. the likes of Leslie Fong.  The third “lesson” is that leaders should not underestimate their capacity for self-deception.  In fact, that’s their default mode — especially if they’re not subject to genuinely competitive elections. This bubble breeds elitism and complacency, and a self-justifying belief that they know best, that those asking for voice and accountability are a vocal minority, and that the masses are gullible folk asking for strong leadership from the elite.  The fourth “lesson” has to do with how we should make sense of popular democracy movements such as this. It’s easy to resort to simplistic and binary narratives, such as “nothing justifies violence”, or “the ends do not justify the means”, or “democracy hurts stability and prosperity”, or “it’s futile, nothing will change”, or “it’s caused by foreign interventions.” Anyone who’s read Hirschmann’s The Rhetoric of Reaction will recognise these “arguments” as those of perversity, jeopardy and futility commonly used by those in power to resist changes to the status quo."

From Lantau to Ealing: Hong Kong’s homesick exiles in Britain greet the Year of the Tiger - "Some 90,000 people have already applied for a new visa scheme that Britain introduced in January 2021, months after Beijing imposed its National Security Law on the former British colony... If they all come, those 90,000 Hong Kongers — equivalent to the population of an English town like Hastings or Hartlepool — will add to an already significant Cantonese community and join the West Indians, South Asians and Eastern Europeans as the latest wave of newcomers to help reshape the fabric of modern Britain after World War II.  Beijing criticized the U.K. scheme for turning Hong Kongers into “second class citizens,” but many see flight to Britain as the only lifeboat available to them...   Many of those who have just moved to the U.K. have first-hand experience of the massive protests of 2019, when 2 million Hong Kongers took to the streets — some clashing with the police — to call for the local government to withdraw an extradition bill, which could have seen Hong Kong citizens sent to mainland China for criminal trials...   There is also a desire to preserve the unique and brash cultural heritage of Hong Kong and not allow Beijing to snuff it out.  New groups have been formed teaching “Hong Kong-style Cantonese” and screening (made-and-banned-in-Hong Kong) documentaries chronicling the 2019 protests. A news presenter who used to work in Hong Kong’s largest broadcaster has set up a YouTube channel with Cantonese news about Britain. The British government has also offered funds to campaigners providing assistance and counseling services to recent migrants from Hong Kong...   “When we meet up, we only talk about which restaurants to go to, where to do shopping or look for a nice flat. No one feels safe enough to share political thoughts with strangers who’ve just known each other,” said Carol, a recent migrant who works in the tech industry. “There’s a lot of mutual suspicion.”  As Lau puts it: “Fear is a major thing, because you know you are never safe. Even in the U.K. there are spies or undercover from the [Chinese Communist Party] and because I still have friends and family back in Hong Kong, I am always aware of this.”    Indeed, even many of Lau’s cohort — ex-politicians who had a track record of speaking up — are keeping their heads down. Dozens of other pro-democracy politicians are currently taking refuge in Britain, but many of them refuse to talk to the media — or even publicly acknowledge the fact they’ve emigrated.  “We don’t know what might happen to our family members if we become too high-profile here [in the U.K.],” said one former elected politician, who now works as a waiter and prefers not to be named. “It’s better for us to lie low.” The same unwillingness to speak publicly is also true of former journalists, half a dozen of whom requested anonymity to speak for this report. Many of them recalled the worsening level of press freedom, which, in the words of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, has been left “in tatters.”  Three independent media outlets, including the pro-democracy Apple Daily, have been shut down within the last seven months, while other media have seen the mass departure of journalists. Hong Kong’s police chief last week reminded those attending a press conference that “press freedom is not absolute.”   Unsurprisingly, media workers are among those who are worried enough to take up the new visa quickly. An ex-Apple Daily journalist, who moved to the U.K. about a year ago and spoke on condition of anonymity, said a return to Hong Kong would be out of the question.  “I think 70 percent of me wants to explore different countries, different cultures; 30 percent of me is thinking, like, I have to escape,” she said. “I think most of us agree that [the past few years] was a really painful experience. It’s like seeing your friends change into a different character. And you know that things will get worse.”  “It’s definitely not a nice thing to see.”  On the positive side, the community is showing solidarity in exile."

Many more Hong Kongers are thinking about moving to Britain | The Economist - "Man-yee Kan of Oxford University surveyed 1,000 Hong Kongers with British National Overseas (BNO) status for the Migration Observatory, a think-tank. She found that just over 6% had already applied to the British scheme or planned to. Since about 2.9m Hong Kongers have BNO status, that implies 186,000 people, plus their dependants. Remarkably, a further 32% were considering it. Some are vague about when they might apply, which suggests they are not serious—at least, not yet. But about 380,000 could apply within the next five years. They are the sort of immigrants any country should be happy to receive. Half of those planning to apply or considering doing so were born in the 1980s or 1990s (BNO status was given only to people born before Britain relinquished control of Hong Kong in 1997). They are more likely to be university-educated than the Hong Kongers who plan to stay, and more likely to be full-time employees. A slight majority are women. Those planning or pondering a move are disgruntled about the governance of Hong Kong. They expect to be freer in Britain, not more prosperous: 63% think their earnings will fall. They are probably right, at least about the short term. Even skilled migrants tend to struggle at first if they come without job offers, and many Hong Kong immigrants are still waiting for National Insurance numbers. A survey in August by Hongkongers in Britain, a self-help group, found that less than a third had found jobs in the country. But their fortunes will surely change. Many of the Asians who fled east Africa in the 1960s and 1970s came with nothing, and took years to find their feet. They ended up better educated than the average Briton, and more likely to hold top managerial and professional jobs."
From Dec 2021, before the UK opened BNO to those born after 1997 in Feb 2022
China shills still claim that only those born after 1997 want to migrate to the UK and that those who lived under the British know how bad life was and prefer Chinese rule

Survey finds majority of Hongkongers holding BN(O) visas in UK are university educated, married, don’t plan on coming back | South China Morning Post - "Most Hong Kong residents who successfully applied for a pathway to UK citizenship are university educated, married or in a relationship with children, and have no plans to return to the city, according to a British Home Office survey.  The survey interviewed a random sample of 500 British National (Overseas) visa holders living in the United Kingdom last year, and was released on Monday – exactly a year since the scheme was launched on January 31, 2021... Some 88,900 Hongkongers have applied for the visa scheme since its introduction on January 31 last year, of whom 76,176 have been approved... about 96 per cent of successful applicants staying in Britain said they planned to stay indefinitely...  most participants, or 61 per cent, were aged between 35 and 54 years old... 14 per cent were aged 55 to 64. The smallest age groups among visa holders were those aged over 65, at 4 per cent... Most survey participants said they were aware that leaving Hong Kong would mean accepting a lower-paying job and changing industries. But about 69.4 per cent said they were financially secure."
China shills will claim that they will soon realise that their new life is worse and go back to Hong Kong

Hong Kongers warn of 'social conflict' as new arrivals to UK struggle to find jobs, housing and school places - ""The Home Office estimates 150,000 Hong Kongers will come this year alone. Speaking to a friend in Hong Kong, schools are closing down because so many children have moved.  "I think this is just wave one - these are the early adopters these are people with money and a bit more social agility and capacity to move quickly, whilst others will have to wrap up businesses, sell houses and make plans for elderly relatives and that takes some time... He revealed concerns that some traditional Chinese groups and businesses in the UK - who are loyal to the communist government in Beijing - may not be as welcoming.  He claimed: "Through these organisations the Chinese government are exerting their influence to try to make a hostile environment to put off Hong Kongers.  "There have been online messages through WhatsApp and Facebook and social media calling for people not to employ Hong Kongers and not to do business with Hong Kongers."

Britain betrays Hong Kong activists - "There is, however, one group of people who are not helped by the scheme, and yet are among those most vulnerable and in need of sanctuary: those activists born after 1997. Yet these are the people most in need of protection: 93% of those who have been arrested, charged and tried for involvement in the 2019 pro-democracy protests are under the age of 25. If they have one parent with BNO status, current rules allow them to come to the UK, but only with their parent. For many, this is not possible. Often the parents don’t want to leave — either because their political views are different from their children’s and they back the pro-Beijing establishment, or simply because they don’t want the upheaval of fleeing their home city. And so for those young people who need to escape Hong Kong to Britain, or face years in jail, their only option is asylum."

Hong Kong: Top UK judges resign from highest court - "The UK has announced that two of its Supreme Court judges will no longer be sitting on Hong Kong's top court.  The judges said the threat to civil liberties had made their role on Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal untenable... UK Supreme Court President Lord Robert Reed said he and Lord Patrick Hodge were resigning from the court over the threat to civil freedoms posed by the new law... The role of foreign judges in Hong Kong's courts has been legally guaranteed since the territory was returned to China, intending to maintain the common law tradition established under British rule.  Non-permanent judges from Canada, Australia, and New Zealand also sit on the court, as well other judges with British nationality."

Hugo Restall: Hong Kong Was Better Under the British - WSJ - "In "Two Cheers for Colonialism," Mr. Davies attempted to explain why the city flourished under the British... The Brits created a relatively uncorrupt and competent civil service to run the city day-to-day. "They take enormous satisfaction in minutes, protocol, proper channels, precedents," as Mr. Davies described them, "even in the red tape that binds up their files inside the neat cubby holes within their registries." Their slavish adherence to bureaucratic procedure helped create respect for the rule of law and prevented abuses of power.  Above the civil servants sat the career-grade officials appointed from London. These nabobs were often arrogant, affecting a contempt for journalists and other "unhelpful" critics. But they did respond to public opinion as transmitted through the newspapers and other channels. Part of the reason they did was that Hong Kong officials were accountable to a democratically elected government in Britain—a government sensitive to accusations of mismanaging a colony. Still, local officials often disobeyed London when it was in the local interest—for this reason frustrated Colonial Office mandarins sometimes dubbed the city "The Republic of Hong Kong." And for many decades the city boasted a higher standard of governance than the mother country.  Mr. Davies nailed the real reason Hong Kong officials were so driven to excel: "Precisely because they were aware of their own anachronism, the questionable legitimacy of an alien, non-elected government they strove not to alienate the population. Their nervousness made them sensitive."   The communists claim that the European powers stripped their colonies of natural resources and used them as captive markets for their manufacturers. But Hong Kong, devoid of resources other than refugees from communism, attracted investment and built up light industry to export back to Britain. And as for taking back the profits, Mr. Davies noted, "No British company here would have been mad enough to have repatriated its profits back to heavily-taxed, regularly devaluing Britain."   Most expatriate officials retired to Blighty, so they were less tempted to do favors for the local business elite. The government rewarded them with pensions and OBEs. A Lands Department bureaucrat didn't have to worry whether his child would be able to find employment in Hong Kong if a decision went against the largest property developer.  Contrast all this with Hong Kong after the handover. The government is still not democratic, but now it is accountable only to a highly corrupt and abusive single-party state. The first chief executive, Tung Chee Hwa, and Beijing's favorite to take the post next month, Henry Tang, are both members of the Shanghainese business elite that moved to the city after 1949. The civil service is localized.   Many consequences flow from these changes, several of which involve land, which is all leased from the government. Real-estate development and appreciation is the biggest source of wealth in Hong Kong, a major source of public revenue and also the source of most discontent.  In recent years, the Lands Department has made "mistakes" in negotiating leases that have allowed developers to make billions of Hong Kong dollars in extra profit. Several high-level officials have also left to work for the developers. This has bred public cynicism that Hong Kong is sinking into crony capitalism.   This helps explain why the public is so upset with Mr. Tang for illegally adding 2,400 square feet of extra floor space to his house. Likewise Michael Suen, now the secretary for education, failed to heed a 2006 order from the Lands Department to dismantle an illegal addition to his home. His offense was arguably worse, since he was secretary for housing, planning and lands at the time... now there is one set of rules for the public and another for the business and political elites. Under the British, Hong Kong had the best of both worlds, the protections of democracy and the efficiency of all-powerful but nervous administrators imported from London. Now it has the worst of both worlds, an increasingly corrupt and feckless local ruling class backstopped by an authoritarian regime. The only good news is that the media remain free to expose scandals, but one has to wonder for how much longer...   Mr. Davies ended his appraisal of colonialism's faults and virtues thus: "I only hope and trust that a local Chinese will never draw a future British visitor aside and whisper to him that Hong Kong was better ruled by the foreign devils." Fifteen years later, that sentiment is becoming common"
From 2012
Weird. China shills claim that it's the tycoons who are making life miserable for Hong Kongers, and blame the British

Facebook - "Amid a pandemic, Hong Kong arrested 15 high-profile pro-democracy protesters who were accused of joining three unapproved protests last year. The arrested include the billionaire media tycoon Jimmy Lai and 81 year old Martin Lee who has been integral to Hong Kong rights and democracy for decades. The senior barrister co-authored the Hong Kong Basic Law – effectively the constitution of the territory – in the months leading to the British handover in 1997 and is the founder of the Democratic party.  Arresting Mr. Lee, the "father of democracy in Hong Kong," is an audacious move by the authorities that should once and for all collapse any illusion that the whole one country, two systems that was constructed over so many years since the joint declaration remains intact. It is also a very symbolic move.  Let me take you back to 1997...through the diary of Prince Charles... "The whole business was drearily reminiscent of the Soviets and their behavior when I was in the Royal Navy over 20 years previously."... The Prince described the Chinese president and "his cronies" at a handover dinner that followed. The president "gave a kind of propaganda speech which was loudly cheered by the bussed-in party faithful at the suitable moment in the text," Charles wrote. "At the end of this awful Soviet-style display we had to watch the Chinese soldiers goose-step on to the stage and haul down the Union Jack and raise the ultimate flag."  The journal continued:  "Thus we left Hong Kong to her fate and the hope that Martin Lee, the leader of the Democrats, would not be arrested..." He said everyone at another reception was "thoroughly optimistic" about Hong Kong's future. "But in the background was the sneaking worry about creeping corruption and the gradual undermining of Hong Kong's greatest asset - the rule of law." Back to present day. It's 2020. Martin Lee has been arrested, and the Prince's ominous thoughts about Hong Kong's future back in 1997 have come to pass. Now what will we do? What *can* the world do?"

How Thatcher failed to ensure democracy in a China-ruled Hong Kong - YP | South China Morning Post - "there was another reason Britain didn’t fan Hong Kong’s democracy: threats from China. Recently unearthed British documents suggest that, as early as the 1950s, the Chinese warned their British counterparts that any attempt to introduce democracy to Hong Kong would be considered a hostile act. And such an act might be met with force from China, according to a recent report by Gwynn Guilford in Quartz, an online newsmagazine.  In 1960, Liao Chengzhi, a high-ranking Chinese official, told Hong Kong union representatives that China would "not hesitate to take positive action to have Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories liberated" if the British introduced self-governance."
China shills claim it's fake news by the British that China threatened to invade Hong Kong if the British gave them democracy. Damn MI6 hacking the South China Morning Post!

Taiwan's #FreedomPineapple campaign gathers pace after China ban - Nikkei Asia - "Beijing has so far refused Taipei's calls to reverse the pineapple decision. It says the ban isn't political but is about pests found in some of the fruit last year. Taiwan says this assertion is disingenuous as 99.79% of its pineapples passed China's customs tests last year... Diplomatic offices in Taipei have expressed support for Taiwan following China's pineapple ban. The American Institute in Taiwan posted photos on Facebook of pineapples on their premises, including one of a smiling Brent Christensen, the de facto American ambassador, with three large pineapples on his desk. The Canadian office posted a photo of staff with pineapple-topped pizzas, and Britain shared a recipe for a pineapple upside-down cake. Thompson said that Beijing's consistent economic coercion of not just Taiwan was a "global challenge... and it really needs a global solution." "It's easy for the U.S. to give rhetorical support, but where's Australia and Sweden and other countries who are victims of this form of economic blackmail?" he said. "The bigger issue here is ... really the international community's unwillingness to stand up and coalesce around illiberal behavior by Beijing in the trade space.""

Why is China making a permanent enemy of India? - Nikkei Asia - "In terms of territory gained, China's Ladakh aggression may have been a success. But politically, it has proved self-damaging, driving India closer to Washington and making a major Indian military buildup inevitable. Relations between Beijing and New Delhi are at a nadir. This seems a replay of 1962, when China set out, in the words of then-Premier Zhou Enlai, to "teach India a lesson." China won the war but lost the peace. The difference now is China is making a permanent enemy of its largest neighbor."

'Fragile' song pillorying China's online troll army gets millions of views - "Namewee and Kimberly Chen are blocked in China after the song, which references Taiwan, the coronavirus, forced labor in Xinjiang and Winnie the Pooh. A pop duet taking aim at China's army of nationalistic "Little Pink" commentators and trolls has garnered nearly 10 million views on YouTube after the singers' accounts were blocked on Chinese social media and their songs removed from online platforms.  In the official video for "Fragile," Malaysian singer Namewee and Australia's Kimberly Chen sing repeated apologies to a dancing panda, who lives in a hobbit-style house and waves a flag bearing the online insult "NMSL," frequently used by Little Pinks to wish death on the mothers of those they believe have insulted China or hurt the feelings of its people...   "You never want to listen to people, but just launch constant counterattacks," Namewee sings. "I'm not quite sure how I've offended you."  "You always think the world is your enemy."  Namewee and Chen, who are based in democratic Taiwan, which China has threatened to invade if it doesn't accept CCP rule, then sing together: "You say I belong to you, and that I should come home," adding "you are unreasonable ... you want me to affirm that we are inseparable."   "Sorry that I hurt your feelings," the pair sing, amid the sound of breaking glass. "I hear the sound of fragile self-esteem breaking into 1,000 pieces."... Taiwan rapper Dwagie and singer Chen Chia-hsing both welcomed the song for speaking out against CCP-backed online trolls, known collectively as Little Pinks, or the 50-cent Party.  Chen Chia-hsing told Taiwan's Central News Agency (CNA) that the slang phrase "Chinsult" is used to refer to anything China finds insulting, saying that living in Taiwan is enough to make CCP supporters feel you have insulted their homeland.  "Being alive is a Chinsult too ... If you want to be a free person, you will inevitably Chinsult, and as time passes, you get used it, therefore the earlier you Chinsult, the earlier you begin to enjoy the freedom"...  Both Kimberly Chen and Namewee's accounts on the Chinese social media platform Weibo were blocked after the song was released, while their music has been taken down from online platforms like QQ Music and Tencent Video.  Namewee said on his Facebook page that he had made no mention of China in the entire song, "yet you think every word and phrase is an insult directed at you."...   Taiwan-based labor union official Sun You-lien, who hails from Malaysia, said Namewee and Chen have clearly made peace with the loss of access to the Chinese market.  "A lot of people are willing to give up [creative freedom] to keep the Chinese market, and avoiding offending people in a system they know is unjust," Sun said.  "This song is saying very clearly that [China's] world isn't my world ... and it's getting that message through to even more people that pop artists can play their part [in resisting China]""

Watching a film about communism, I realised I had been lied to as a child in China - "I was born in north-east China in a province that was particularly heavy-handed with party propaganda. I learned to march in formation before knowing how to write, and maybe even count. Every morning at school started with a flag ceremony and obligatory salutes to Mao Zedong. Textbooks were illustrated with watercolour Lenins and Stalins, drawn to look much more handsome than they actually were. The propaganda made its way home as well. I think that, even to this day, my father knows only socialist songs.  The life I’ve just described may sound extreme, but in fact it was a relatively free period in the 1990s, after the worst of our state terror and before Xi Jinping’s more recent crackdowns. We never had a democracy, but the 90s were as close to it as we ever got, and life was generally pleasant... What really changed me was the 1997 film Anastasia. Before the first song started and the first talking animal appeared, I saw some familiar faces, straight out of my former life in China: young revolutionaries storming a palace, with the same determined expressions, the same grey or green overcoats, the ushankas, the fists. These were people I recognised very well, only my Chinese schoolbooks drew them as liberators, and the American film drew them as a mob... The most valuable gift from my American years was critical thinking – the ability to see that the way something is presented is not necessarily how things are. Even there it was not always encouraged, and was sometimes punishable, but at least it was possible to go through the school system and come out with a free mind, which, once earned, becomes the one freedom nothing can take away.  Over the years I found out that my first home town in China, far from the homogeneous and nationalistic place I remember, is ethnically diverse, and had been much more so before the establishment of the current People’s Republic; in addition, it had once been a Japanese colony. And in fact, I’m not even Chinese, but Mongolian with some Turkic blood – now that’s a twist Princess Aurora might have appreciated. People of my ethnic groups had fought against the communists and, after Mao’s takeover of the region, were heavily assimilated. As there were so many non-Chinese influences for the communists to purge, the repression there was particularly heavy-handed.  Although my parents did not discuss it much or openly, I eventually gathered fragments of stories about our family’s involvement in Mao’s revolution"

China Tech Crackdown: $1.5 trillion rout not over - Bloomberg - "Just as a growing number of investors believe China may ease its private-sector crackdown to focus on growth, they were reminded on Friday it may be too soon to make that call... What once seemed an unstoppable ascent of China’s Big Tech started to crumble a year ago, as Beijing’s crackdown in pursuit of “common prosperity” upended the fortunes of the likes of Didi Global Inc. and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. The Hang Seng Tech Index has halved from its February 2021 peak. The Nasdaq Golden Dragon Index, a measure of U.S.-listed Chinese names, has slumped about 60%. Investor hesitation lies with the unpredictability of Chinese regulation. The nation’s education stocks took a renewed dip in recent weeks following last year’s plunge as speculation swirled over intensified crackdowns"
I saw a China shill claim that this was good because it helped the common people - at the same time claiming that the CCP was good because it encouraged economic growth

China threatens to nuke Japan non-stop if it tries to defend Taiwan - "They also added that they will take back the Diaoyu Islands and the Ryukyu Islands. ‘We will either manage them or let them be independent’"

China’s Marxism majors prosper amid labour market woes | Financial Times - "Chinese university graduates are struggling to find work in the country’s worst labour market in years — unless they have degrees in Marxism. Despite being China’s ruling ideology, Marxism has for decades been an obscure major for students. But it is enjoying a revival under President Xi Jinping, who has urged Chinese Communist party cadres to “remember the original mission” as he prepares to begin an unprecedented third term in power this year. According to Yingjiesheng, a leading job search website for university graduates, there has been a 20 per cent increase in openings that require a Marxism degree in the second quarter — the peak hiring season — compared with the same period last year. Marxism experts are being sought by employers ranging from government departments to private conglomerates... Xi’s government has cracked down on young people who apply Marxist analysis too critically to abuses of labour allowed under China’s system of state capitalism. But it has boosted demand for Marxism teachers, who now play a critical role in educating the public about why China’s communist regime is superior to the west.  In a circular issued in 2018, the same year the party eliminated the previous two-term limit on the presidency, the education ministry told universities they should hire at least one Marxism instructor for every 350 students... Marxism teachers’ salaries and benefits are catching up with those on offer to jobseekers with previously more popular majors such as business administration... Other education institutions, ranging from kindergartens to high schools, are also actively hiring Marxism graduates in accordance with directives requiring students as young as 10 to study “Xi Jinping thought”... Private sector companies are also hiring Marxism majors in an effort to showcase their allegiance to the party in the wake of crackdowns on technology and property entrepreneurs such as Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba and Ant, and China Evergrande chair Hui Ka Yan. “It helps to have someone who speaks the party’s language work for us,” said David Tong, who owns a machine tool factory in the eastern city of Ningbo, near Shanghai. “The government will trust us more.”  Tong recently hired a Marxism expert to help his firm improve communication with local authorities. The hire had an immediate impact."

China opens more research centres dedicated to Xi Jinping Thought - "The new addition, dedicated to his thoughts on ecology, brings the total of such research centres to 18... The latest centre, run by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, will be dedicated to “Xi Jinping’s Thoughts on Ecological Civilisation”... Alfred Wu, an associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, said these research centres would serve to consolidate Xi’s power. “In the past, policy areas such as the economy used to be under the purview of the premier. But Xi is now taking over almost all areas and he has to demonstrate that he is a leader with great ideas in all areas”. “It is Chinese tradition that a great leader must also be a great thinker. What’s happening is a combination of Communism and Confucianism.”... He said Fujian and Zhejiang had been chosen because Xi had previously worked there and suggested that Shandong was picked because it was where Confucianism was born."

Xi Jinping Thought Creeps Into Chinese Sci-Fi to Company Filings - Bloomberg - "What sort of science fiction does Xi Jinping like? How can China’s weathermen use the president’s political philosophy to improve their forecasts? In what ways can “Xi Thought” help prepare the country for the next big earthquake?  These are the sorts of questions Communist Party cadres are now pondering as they prepare for the next big milestone in the president’s effort to cement control: Elevating Xi Thought alongside Maoism... Once Xi has his own “-ism,” the theory goes, he’ll be elevated to a political standing on par with Mao Zedong, whose portrait hangs over Tiananmen Square and is printed on the currency. It will also make it all-the-more difficult to question his edicts... No other leader besides Mao has had his ideology raised to the level of “thought,” which carries a special meaning in Communist Party propaganda. Deng’s reforms are described as “Deng Xiaoping Theory,” while concepts advanced by Xi’s immediate predecessors, Presidents Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, don’t even carry their names... Criticism of Xi Thought is not an option, as the leader maintains his unprecedented wave of disciplinary investigations against party officials. The country’s top anti-graft body, the National Supervisory Commission, has so far warned 20 central government agencies that they were “not doing enough” to master and implement Xi’s thinking... Writers and producers in the nation’s burgeoning science fiction scene were urged by an official industry association to take Xi Thought on board and transform China into a sci-fi powerhouse.  Ultimately, Xi Thought can be whatever Xi thinks he needs to ensure his own rule."

Facebook - ""All content has been blocked. The user is banned from using the account,"  That's what happened to one of the top Chinese economic analyst, Hong Hao, managing director and head of research at the investment arm of megabank Bank of Communication. His crime? For commenting on the sharp slowdown of the economy and the effects of the shakedown of the tech industry, obviously both not flattering to the commissars. Darkness continue to descent on Chinese asset markets where you cannot even say the bloody obvious and investors can only be fed with the approved comments, obviously the ones that say only good things.. One man wishes for a 3rd time and everything must be subjugated to that objective. As for foreign investors, the risk premium keeps going up. Reserve currency status? You need your head examined."
Comment (elsewhere): "A word of caution to the SInophiles here wishing the RMB to be a reserve currency. There are huge issues to do with governance, movement of capital or currencies and the risk premium of China announcing sudden market-impacting measures - esp when it is to preserve whatever narrative they are promulgating at any one time. The current situation is not ideal with the hegemony of the USD, but it sure is better than the alternative"

Sony Refuses Chinese Demand to Delete Statue of Liberty from Latest ‘Spider-Man’ - "When Sony refused to delete the statue from the movie, Chinese authorities asked if the company could diminish the statue’s presence. Sony considered the request, the sources told Puck, but ultimately decided against editing the movie and did not release it in China. It’s unclear whether Chinese censors blocked the movie’s release or if Sony preemptively opted against releasing it...   The news that Sony apparently declined to make the edits comes after years in which Hollywood studios have acceded to various requests by Chinese censors in order to distribute movies in that country. Most recently, Warner Brothers removed dialogue referencing a gay relationship in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore in the version released in China. “In the case of ‘Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore,’ a six-second cut was requested and Warner Bros. accepted those changes to comply with local requirements but the spirit of the film remains intact”"

Chinese Spies Accused of Using Huawei in Secret Australian Telecom Hack - Bloomberg - "The U.S. government has warned for years that products from China’s Huawei Technologies Co., the world’s biggest maker of telecommunications equipment, pose a national security risk for any countries that use them. As Washington has waged a global campaign to block the company from supplying state-of-the-art 5G wireless networks, Huawei and its supporters have dismissed the claims as lacking evidence.  Now a Bloomberg News investigation has found a key piece of evidence underpinning the U.S. efforts — a previously unreported breach that occurred halfway around the world nearly a decade ago.  In 2012, Australian intelligence officials informed their U.S. counterparts that they had detected a sophisticated intrusion into the country's telecommunications systems. It began, they said, with a software update from Huawei that was loaded with malicious code... The update appeared legitimate, but it contained malicious code that worked much like a digital wiretap, reprogramming the infected equipment to record all the communications passing through it before sending the data to China, they said. After a few days, that code deleted itself, the result of a clever self-destruct mechanism embedded in the update, they said. Ultimately, Australia's intelligence agencies determined that China’s spy services were behind the breach, having infiltrated the ranks of Huawei technicians who helped maintain the equipment and pushed the update to the telecom’s systems. Guided by Australia's tip, American intelligence agencies that year confirmed a similar attack from China using Huawei equipment located in the U.S...   Huawei and ZTE don’t need to be a participant in — or even be aware of — any attacks for them to occur through their employee ranks. “Chinese intelligence services need only recruit working-level technicians or managers in these companies” to carry out compromises of customer networks... In the years since then, various reports have linked Huawei or its employees to spying and surveillance. In 2019, for example, the Wall Street Journal reported that Huawei technicians, in at least two instances, helped African governments spy on political opponents, intercepting their encrypted communications and using cellphone data to track their locations. Last year, Australia’s Financial Review found that Huawei built a facility to store the entire data archive for the Papua New Guinea government, but it contained glaring security gaps that exposed sensitive files to being stolen. And on Dec. 14, the Washington Post published documents from Huawei showing that the company has played a broader role in tracking China’s populace than it has acknowledged... the U.S. and its allies have had evidence for years that China has manipulated Huawei equipment through software updates.  “Huawei has thrown a lot of head fakes by saying it would never put a back door in the hardware — a back door means nothing because there's a front door that's open every day through software,” he said. “Huawei’s software updates can push whatever code they want into those machines, whenever they want, without anyone knowing.”... In Australia, after nearly a decade of hostility with the government, Huawei has abandoned many of its operations. Last year, the company revealed a $100 million financial cut to its Australian investment and more than 1,000 local job losses, according to the Financial Review.  A key factor behind that 5G ban, the Sydney Morning Herald reported, was an intelligence assessment that the vulnerabilities associated with Huawei products were so severe that more than 300 separate risks would need to be mitigated in order to use it securely."

Recent Spy Case Shows How Industrial Espionage Helps China's Military - "A historic court decision sheds light on how China has used espionage to gain a military and economic advantage over the US and the rest of the world.  US counterintelligence officials managed to lure Yanjun Xu, a senior Chinese intelligence officer, out of China in 2018 and then get him extradited to the US to stand trial for attempting to steal advanced aircraft-engine technology, which China's military has struggled to develop... During his presentation, Zheng had technical difficulties with his laptop, which contained five GE Aviation training documents. The hosts offered assistance, and a Chinese student inserted a thumb drive into Zheng's computer — an apparent effort to insert malware or copy the hard drive — and "fixed" the problem... Under China's national security law, every Chinese citizen and firm is obliged to cooperate with the Chinese Communist Party on matters of national security. In practice, that means Chinese companies that do business with foreign firms are required to share any technology or information they acquire with the Chinese military or intelligence services.  Similarly, researchers and postgraduate students working on science, technology, engineering, or mathematics projects are expected to share their research with Beijing. US companies are always at the top of the target list, but "friendly" countries aren't safe either.  Earlier this year, it was reported that Rubin Design Bureau, one of Russia's main submarine designers, was hit by a cyberattack likely done on behalf of China. In 2012, two Russian academics were jailed for passing information on nuclear missiles to Chinese intelligence"

Links - 31st August 2022 (2 - Covid-19: China)

Chinese vice-premier ‘deeply ashamed’ over woman losing baby after Xian hospital turned her away citing Covid-19 rules - "Chinese Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan said she felt deeply ashamed that a woman in the northwestern city of Xian lost her unborn baby after a hospital refused to admit her because of an expired Covid-19 test result... Several hospital staff members have been sacked or suspended and local health officials have been given warnings over the incident. A video circulated online showed the woman, who was eight months pregnant, sitting outside Xian Gaoxin Hospital with blood running down her legs. Her niece said she was refused entry for having a Covid-19 test result four hours too old. Xian’s anti-epidemic task force on Friday banned hospitals from refusing admission on the basis of someone not having a negative test result from the previous 48 hours, saying people in that category would be tested at the hospital.  It also ordered all health centres to open for people with regular illnesses and said that they should not be closed because of staff helping to conduct mass testing... A second woman in Xian had reportedly lost her unborn child after a hospital turned her away on the grounds that she lived in a “closed loop” area that, under lockdown rules, she was not supposed to leave."
Is the story still made up by the biased Western media if even if the Vice-Premier apologised?

Shanghai Covid: Ikea shoppers flee attempt to lock down store - "Health officials were attempting to lock the store in Xuhui district down as a customer had been in close contact with a positive Covid case.  Videos show the guards closing the doors at one point, but a crowd forced them open and made their escape... The scenes of panic at Ikea follow videos last week showing people in another part of Shanghai running out of a building over rumours of an abnormal Covid test result."

COVID-19: Beijing closes down businesses as millions told to work from home - but government in China avoids calling it a lockdown - "Schools, gyms, hairdressers, parks, restaurants and bars are shut, millions have been told to work from home, but do not call it a lockdown.  The Beijing government zealously avoids the term. Instead, the phrase currently in favour is jing mo, "stay silent"... And because everything is shut, life is fairly boring. Getting a PCR test - you need a negative one within the last 48 hours to enter supermarkets, or your district may have been told do to mass testing - is one of the more interesting things to do.  Beijingers themselves are calling this period "dynamic food storage", a play on the official policy "dynamic COVID zero", because people keep having to replace the fresh food they have bought in case of full lockdown. Effectively, the situation here is pretty similar to the UK lockdowns, although households are still allowed to mix.  Of course some people are really locked down, shut in their residential compounds with guards at the door, or sent to centralised quarantine if they are COVID positive or a close contact.   Boredom is one thing here in the capital but nothing compared the misery of the lockdown in Shanghai. Again, they do not call it lockdown, even though people have been kept inside for six weeks now... Others areas have had the gut punch of another official notice, telling them they cannot even order deliveries, instead relying on the government to supply groceries, and must stay inside their rooms for another two to five days.  People are sceptical about that time frame. They were told the initial Shanghai lockdown would last just four days.   Videos circulating on social media continue to show shocking and bizarre scenes. A distressed woman being separated from her child by the da bai, meaning "big whites", the ubiquitous officials wearing full PPE.  Or workers entering someone's home and dousing the whole place - sofas, pictures, clothes - in disinfectant, although the government has since said this practice should not be followed."

Coronavirus: Disabled boy dies in China after father quarantined - "Two officials in China have been removed from their posts after a teenager with cerebral palsy died when his father - and sole carer - was quarantined for suspected coronavirus.  Yan Cheng, 16, was found dead on Wednesday, a week after his father and brother were placed in quarantine.  The boy was fed only twice during this time"
From 2020

Tesla Shanghai factory workers living on-site and working 12-hour shifts six days a week - "Workers at the Tesla factory in Shanghai have reportedly been sleeping on-site and working 12-hour shifts with just one day off per week.  With the Chinese government continuing to pursue its zero-COVID strategy, Shanghai has been stuck in lockdown for more than six weeks, leading to new disruptions in production for the U.S. carmaker... More than 20,000 bankers and traders in the city were reported to have been living at their offices last month, as financial services firms adopted the closed-loop system.  Meanwhile, Shanghai Port, the world’s busiest seaport, is reported to have maintained a 24-hour operation by implementing the policy."

COVID curbs prompt 93% of U.S. firms in Shanghai to cut revenue forecasts - survey - "A quarter of the 64 consumer and services companies and 20% of the 69 manufacturers said they planned to decrease investment in China. Only one company said it planned to increase investment in the country, where a zero-COVID policy is causing concern about further restrictions and economic fallout... the possibility of lockdowns loom every time a new case is found. In practice, while most curbs have been lifted, many people in Shanghai still remain in lockdown for periods from a few days to several weeks due to such incidents"

China Uncensored - Posts | Facebook - "Can’t count as a Covid death statistic if you die of starvation welded into your apartment! 🧠 #china"

Shanghai University Sparks Ridicule After Moving Swimming Test Online - "Shanghai University said that students who had yet to complete a 50-meter (164 feet) swimming test before graduating could do so "online" from home.  The move was made to "ensure that the graduation process proceeds smoothly" amid Shanghai's Covid outbreaks, the school said on its website in a now-deleted notice that was screengrabbed and widely circulated over social media... To pass the swimming requirement this year, students must fill out an online "Basic Theory of Swimming" test by May 29, the notice said... Many users also shared videos of themselves pretending to swim in their rooms as a joke submission for the test"

Lessons From China’s Covid Lockdowns - WSJ - "Beijing’s Covid lockdowns are an economic danger to China and everyone else, and the Communist Party seems to know it. Witness recent, belated attempts to pump up economic growth amid the zero-Covid policy disaster.  Large swathes of China have been under some form of lockdown in recent months...   This self-inflicted disaster is a growing danger to the global economy. Any supply chain passing through China either has snapped already or is in danger of doing so. Beijing’s zero-Covid mistake is disrupting the supply of a wide range of goods for consumers elsewhere, and is prompting more companies to reconsider their China business.  The biggest risk, however, is to China’s own economy—and Beijing increasingly realizes it. The country is all but certain to miss the Party’s 5.5% economic-growth target for the year, and that already was a modest goal compared to years past. Surveys of business confidence and investment are dire and the property market continues to sink. This is causing Beijing to worry about employment, with Premier Li Keqiang dispatched this weekend to demand that officials double down on job creation. Beijing’s main concern is social unrest if lockdowns pull prosperity out of the grasp of millions of Chinese waiting to move into the middle class... The situation is dire enough that Beijing is exhorting the private economy to lead a turnaround. In recent years President Xi Jinping had tried to reduce the influence of private firms with a harsh and arbitrary regulatory crackdown, especially on tech firms.  But in recent weeks, as he sees slow growth ahead of his expected coronation this fall to a third term, Mr. Xi has spoken of the virtues of private capital to fuel investment and growth. Mr. Li has chimed in with what’s billed as a jobs plan, featuring tax relief for private companies and pressure on banks to extend credit to small and medium-sized enterprises.  This is better economic policy, but businesses believe it at their own risk. Investors saw in last year’s tech crackdown how hostile Mr. Xi can be toward successful private companies. Traders in China’s highly speculative stock markets have been happy to play along with the recent change of heart, with tech stocks responding well. And Chinese firms, which have little choice but to endure, will welcome the political respite.  But foreign firms that do business in China, or rely on it for goods and components, have learned a hard lesson. The Communist Party’s political needs will always trump economic policy. If Mr. Xi decides to invade Taiwan, he won’t care about the damage to Western supply chains. Foreign companies need to minimize their exposure to China’s political vagaries or risk more business trouble ahead."

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom calls China’s 'zero covid' unsustainable and gets censored - The Washington Post - "Authorities in China have blocked debate over its controversial approach of constantly striving for zero coronavirus infections through draconian lockdowns. Researchers have warned that abandoning the policy would unleash a “tsunami” of coronavirus cases... The comment by Tedros, once seen as an ally of Beijing, is a setback for China, which has strenuously defended its “dynamic clearing” covid policy. In April, China’s Foreign Ministry said the country’s coronavirus controls were in line with the WHO’s principles and were spoken of “highly” by the health body.  Following his comments, the hashtags “World Health Organization” and “Tedros” were blocked on microblog Weibo. The messaging platform WeChat banned the sharing of an article from the United Nations’ official WeChat account that included the director’s comments. It also removed a video clip of his remarks because of “a violation” of the terms of service. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian in a news briefing Wednesday called on Tedros to avoid making “irresponsible” remarks and to view China’s coronavirus policies “objectively.”... China’s top leaders declared last week that there would be no easing of zero-covid measures and that they would fight against all efforts to “distort, doubt or deny” the government’s policies... Chinese state media ignored the WHO director’s comments, instead publishing articles citing the WHO’s May 5 report on excess deaths caused by the coronavirus between Jan. 1, 2020, and Dec. 31, 2021."

Downtown Beijing goes quiet as zero-Covid policy smothers capital - "Some finance workers were moving into hotels near their offices, as restrictions start to shape daily life in the city of 21 million.  "Our company said we should try not to go home as they feel that there may be risks in commuting," a Beijing-based investment manager who has moved into a hotel near his workplace.  "Some of my friends have been advised not to take public transport to work, and to drive or take a bicycle, so as not to be affected by the spread."... The frustration has also hit the streets -- in a country where protest is rare and swiftly snuffed out by authorities.  Authorities have verified a video that ripped across social media over the weekend showing residents in Zhuanqiao Town neighbourhood clashing with hazmat-suited health authorities over food shortages.   "Police took action as soon as possible to persuade onlookers to disperse and calm the situation down," a statement by the Zhuanqiao Town Covid response team said Sunday.  "According to an on-site investigation, the troublemakers had sufficient supplies at home." Residents of the neighbourhoods hit by new curfews -- including some areas previously declared lower-risk -- have been ordered not to step out of their apartments except for PCR tests for as long as a week and forbidden from ordering "non-essential" deliveries, according to the notices."

Customers get stuck in hot pot shop for 3 days & get free flow of food - "Due to the blockade, 10 staff members, and around 40 customers were trapped in the shop for three days."

Shanghai moves to impose tightest restrictions yet - "Shanghai officials will over the next few days further restrict access to food and hospitals in some parts of the city, the most severe phase of its extended lockdown yet.  Commercial food deliveries are not allowed and access to hospitals for all but emergencies must first be approved.  Neighbours of Covid-19 cases and others living close by are also being forced into government quarantine facilities.  Shanghai is now in its seventh week of city-wide restrictions.  Confirmed cases have fallen significantly from their peak, but authorities have not yet been able to hit the target of what they call "societal zero", where no cases are reported outside of quarantine facilities.  Despite the tougher measures, Shanghai officials insist that people living in half the city's districts are now free to leave their homes and walk around... The BBC is already aware of some cases where residents have had difficulties in getting emergency ambulances to come quickly, with some patients forced to use private cars to get to a hospital... State censors have moved quickly to remove questions about the legality of the disinfection and also of the moving large numbers of people from their homes, despite testing negative.  In some cases, people who have been removed from their homes and taken into central quarantine have been told to leave a key to their home, usually in the door, so officials can come in and disinfect the space. Some legal figures have questioned if this move is "constitutional". A constitutional law professor based in Shanghai had earlier posted an open letter online stating that forcing residents into quarantine centres required State Council approval or new laws passed by the legislature. His post was quickly taken down. As concern over food supplies grow, city officials said they would remove anyone living in temporary accommodation on the streets or in vacant buildings, placing them into "closed loop management" - which means that employees have to live as well as work at their offices or factories."

China: worse | Financial Times - "We have been pessimistic about China. But not pessimistic enough, as you will see... The last time we wrote about China, at the end of last month, the topic was the country’s “impossible trilemma”. Solving simultaneously for 5.5 per cent economic growth, a stable debt-to-GDP ratio, and zero Covid-19 is impossible. Given this, the short-term path of least political resistance for Beijing is supporting growth by pouring debt into low-productivity real estate/infrastructure projects. Recent noises from Xi Jinping make it clear that the country plans to take the easy path again. But it turns out that describing the situation as a trilemma is too generous. Horrific economic data from China in April suggests that the zero-Covid policy may be inconsistent with anything but meagre growth, even in the presence of government attempts at stimulus... China’s real estate industry is undergoing a wholesale restructuring. Homebuyers are going to be treading carefully... Why would a corporation want to risk a big new investment, even if bank financing were available, when the zero-Covid policy has an estimated 300mn city dwellers under some form of lockdown. How do we know it’s a demand issue? Zhu noted “the discrepancy between pick up in M2 [broad money] growth . . . and slowdown in loan growth . . . Accordingly, the ratio of new loans to new deposits fell to 86.2 per cent.” That’s the lowest ratio in five years... Gavekal Dragonomics noted there is “a fundamental tension between maintaining the current Covid prevention strategy and lifting growth”, which renders fiscal stimulus increasingly impotent — as demonstrated by low infrastructure investment in April... People don’t buy new houses when they are locked in their old ones, and businesses don’t borrow when supply chains are shut down. Will the government relent on zero Covid? No one seems to think so."

Can Xi Jinping vanquish Covid without crushing China’s economy? | Financial Times - "there are crucial differences between the successful nationwide clampdowns at the start of the pandemic and the current series of rolling closures.  The 2020 measures were a relatively short, sharp shock. They coincided with the annual lunar new year holiday — China’s equivalent of the western Christmas and New Year break — during which many manufacturers routinely close for two or three weeks.  After an extended holiday, most of the country reopened within a month. Only Hubei and Wuhan were subjected to longer restrictions, and even these were lifted by late March. The impact on growth mirrored the brevity of the closures, with a 6.9 per cent year-on-year decline in first-quarter economic output, followed by a steadily accelerating recovery for the rest of the year.  By contrast, this spring’s lockdowns have been ad hoc and open-ended. They are ultimately controlled by low-level district or neighbourhood officials who respond — often brutally — to sometimes contradictory policy signals from the top of the Chinese Communist party. At a May 5 meeting of the party’s most powerful body, the Politburo Standing Committee, Xi reiterated that he would not tolerate any let-up in the effort to eliminate all Covid cases from China. More worryingly for business owners such as Wang, he did so without his previous reassurances to “reconcile zero-Covid with growth” or to “minimise the impact of the pandemic on the economy”... James Zimmerman, a China lawyer at Perkins Coie who recently underwent a five-week quarantine ordeal to return to Beijing from the US, says 10 of his 30 colleagues in the capital have been caught in random residential lockdowns, with “more expected to get the call to stay at home at any time”.  “The uncertainty and unpredictability of the whiplash policy changes is a dismal experience,” he added. “It’s now a cat-and-mouse game to avoid crossing lines into areas on lockdown or near lockdown.” The government finds itself in the difficult position of trying to fight “two battles simultaneously: containing Covid and preventing the deterioration of the economy”, says Chen Long at Plenum, a Beijing-based consultancy. “Officials are told to win both,” he adds, “but the reality is they must prioritise one over the other. Zero-Covid still trumps the economy for now.”  This is true even while fears for the economy are being voiced by the premier Li Keqiang or by vice-premier Liu He, Xi’s most-trusted economic adviser who is particularly concerned about the lockdowns’ impact on the property and financial sectors... One such official in the city of Nanjing, Jiangsu province, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorised to speak to foreign media, voiced his frustration: “The Politburo Standing Committee made it clear last week that fighting Covid was our top priority,” he says. “But we can’t ignore the economy, which is in freefall.” His dilemma illustrates another difference between these local lockdowns and the national one two years ago. Because of the interconnected nature of China’s sprawling economy, companies in areas subject to moderate or even no controls can still be severely disrupted by the knock-on effects of those elsewhere.  The official says his “main job” has become lobbying his counterparts in Shanghai, 270km to the east, to authorise production at suppliers that Nanjing-based manufacturers rely on. “How can large firms operate normally when most of their suppliers are still under lockdown?” he says. “Stimulus won’t work if factories can’t return to normal.”  Foreign investors are also caught in the turmoil. Last week 60 per cent of more than 370 respondents to a survey by the EU Chamber of Commerce in China said they were lowering revenue forecasts for the year, while about one-quarter said they would move existing or planned investments out of China... Despite the intensifying economic pain, few expect Xi to relax his zero-Covid campaign before securing an unprecedented third term in power at a party congress later this year. The strategy “has become a political crusade — a political tool to test the loyalty of officials”, says Henry Gao, a China expert at Singapore Management University. “That’s far more important to Xi than a few more digits of GDP growth.”"

China Cements Lockdown Rules Showing the Country's Commitment to Xi' Covid Zero - Bloomberg - "China’s revised Covid guidelines that cut quarantine in half for inbound travelers also created a standardized policy for mass testing and lockdowns when cases flare, showing the country still has a zero tolerance approach to the virus.   President Xi Jinping solidified the position during a trip to Wuhan, where the pathogen first emerged in 2019, saying China is capable of achieving a “final victory” over the coronavirus... The first update of the National Health Commission’s protocol since May 2021 sparked enthusiasm in financial markets and increased demand for travel by cutting quaratine time in half, with some analysts projecting it may signal the start of China’s withdrawal from the Covid Zero approach that largely cut it off from the rest of the world since 2020.   A closer reading of the document shows it is codifying critical Covid policies that have widely varied until now and lays the groundwork for faster and more extensive deployment of testing and lockdowns. Even with reducing quarantine times to 10 days from as long as three weeks, China remains one of the most difficult countries to enter. “They are modest steps that do not materially change China’s overall Covid stance,” said Louis Kuijs, Asia Pacific chief economist at S&P Global Ratings. “Indeed, as long as ‘dynamic zero’ remains the overall guiding principle, new outbreaks pose serious risks to the economy.”"
Looks like China will be in covid zero hell for the rest of eternity. Or at least till Xi goes

China thinks an ill wind from North Korea is blowing Covid-19 over the border - "China is testing the air from North Korea for traces of Covid-19 and encouraging people living along the border to shut their windows on days with a southerly wind... residents who lived near the river - which measures less than one kilometre wide in some spots - were ordered in a government notice to close their windows and refrain from walking by the river. They were also asked to go for more frequent testing... government censors had also blocked a North Korean public health video reassuring the public that most cases of the omicron variant were mild and could be treated at home. It triggered praise from Chinese internet users, who said that Pyongyang was taking a more scientific approach. “Suddenly I realise we are the most pathetic,” said one social media user."
When you need a scapegoat for your failed policies. I'm not sure if this is more stupid than frozen seafood

Shanghai fences up COVID-hit areas, fuelling fresh outcry - "Shanghai authorities battling an outbreak of COVID-19 have erected fences outside residential buildings, sparking fresh public outcry over a lockdown that has forced much of the city's 25 million people indoors."
Of course the China shills will claim that the fences are fake news spread by the Western media to make China look bad. My friend who was living in Shanghai and witnessed them and shared a video of fire engines in Pudong delayed in responding to a fire due to the fences must be a CIA agent.

After Shanghai lockdown, new career in Singapore gives Canadian teacher hope - "During the recent Covid-19 lockdown in Shanghai, Canadian teacher Jonathan Garcia, 37, would always check on how his fourth-grade students were doing before they started their daily online class. "It was ridiculous how some of my students weren't getting any food but their parents were doctors or lawyers or engineers"... He said the lockdown was the last straw for many foreigners who had been on the fence about whether to stay in SHanghai or return to their home countries and families, whom they had not been able to visit for two years"

Beijing city walks back plan to tighten Covid vaccine requirements - "China’s first large-scale attempt to require Covid vaccinations appears to have ended before it began.  On Wednesday, the capital city of Beijing announced that starting Monday, most people would need to be vaccinated before entering social gathering spots like gyms.  On Thursday, the city removed mention of the mandate, according to the state-run local newspaper, Beijing Daily."
Interesting. Covid apartheid is less politically acceptable in China than democracies

We must not follow China into a never-ending lockdown nightmare - "Seemingly, everyone has got Covid again. Why, even the Chinese premier Xi Jinping, who reportedly demands that those he meets quarantine for days beforehand, may have it after a trip last week to Hong Kong, where a lawmaker he came into contact with has tested positive... The problem now being encountered is a phenomenon which has long been observed in influenza - so-called "original antigenic sin". This refers to the propensity of the body's immune system to memorise the properties of the first infection, making it less capable of reacting to variants of the same pathogen when they emerge...   Early success in containing the virus has for China turned — in the era of vaccines — into a never-ending nightmare of economically crippling shutdowns and mass testing.   Officially, China still has the lowest death rate of any major economy, helping to justify the zero-Covid containment strategy applied. In a symbolic visit to Wuhan, epicentre of the original outbreak, President Xi said that the "herd immunity" approach applied in the West, which he disparagingly likened to the "lying down flat movement", wouldn't work in China because of its large population and "would lead to consequences that are unimaginable". bottom of the article to get it every Tuesday Jeremy Warner 5 July 2022 • 2:27pm Jeremy Warner One in 30 Brits currently have Covid, but the number is climbing fast One in 30 Britons currently have Covid, but the number is climbing fast Credit: Hollie Adams/Bloomberg  Seemingly, everyone has got Covid again. Why, even the Chinese premier Xi Jinping, who reportedly demands that those he meets quarantine for days beforehand, may have it after a trip last week to Hong Kong, where a lawmaker he came into contact with has tested positive.   But let's not exaggerate; the latest Office for National Statistics infection survey suggests that "just" one in 30 of us here in the UK have it at the moment. That number is, however, rising fast, and the way things are going will soon top the last peak reached in March.  Vaccines may be good at preventing serious illness, but by the look of it, they are virtually powerless against new and repeated infection. Worryingly, hospitalisations are also picking up fast, and in France there are already warnings of hospitals once more becoming overwhelmed. They thought it was all over; sadly, it is not, even if, thankfully, the mortality rate has shrunk to little more than that of seasonal flu.  The problem now being encountered is a phenomenon which has long been observed in influenza - so-called "original antigenic sin". This refers to the propensity of the body's immune system to memorise the properties of the first infection, making it less capable of reacting to variants of the same pathogen when they emerge.   Well over 90pc of the UK population will by now have Covid antibodies in their system, either through infection or vaccination.   But this doesn't necessarily safeguard against the latest mutations of the omicron variant. As a consequence, lots of people are repeatedly coming down with Covid, sometimes within a few weeks of the previous infection. New vaccines that theoretically provide protection against the latest sub-variants are under development, but the virus seems to be staying one step ahead.  As far as Europe and America are concerned, renewed lockdown is pretty much unconscionable, and given now relatively low mortality rates, in any case unjustifiable on almost any cost benefit measure you care to take. But already a certain amount of voluntary social distancing is reemerging — face mask wearing on public transport, for instance, even though there is no legal requirement for it, and, for any excuse not to work, many people are again self-isolating at the slightest sign of a sniffle.   Anecdotally, absenteeism is again mounting. I've even heard of overseas holidays being cancelled, though travel chaos may be the overriding factor here.  This is bound to have a dampening effect on economic activity. Coming at a time when the cost of living shock is already threatening to push the economy into recession, another Covid wave was just what we didn't need.  Yet the major economic impact is not going to come from within these shores. Rather, it will again be from China, the world's second largest economy. It was China that gave us not just the virus itself, but also the idea of lockdown as a method of containing it.  Unlike almost everywhere else, the Chinese leadership is sticking with the strategy. Every time there is an outbreak, draconian lockdowns are reimposed. The much more infectious Omicron variant has made this approach a particular challenge. Just as China thinks it has rid itself of infections, up pops another outbreak, as is now occurring in provinces near Shanghai.  Early success in containing the virus has for China turned — in the era of vaccines — into a never-ending nightmare of economically crippling shutdowns and mass testing.   Officially, China still has the lowest death rate of any major economy, helping to justify the zero-Covid containment strategy applied. In a symbolic visit to Wuhan, epicentre of the original outbreak, President Xi said that the "herd immunity" approach applied in the West, which he disparagingly likened to the "lying down flat movement", wouldn't work in China because of its large population and "would lead to consequences that are unimaginable".  But even if true, it is only because China has been both slow to vaccinate and its own homegrown vaccines — no room for Western vaccines in China, obviously — have been substandard.   For Xi, who is up for election for an unprecedented third term as party chairman later this year, zero-Covid has been made synonymous with his own success or failure as a leader, and is therefore a totemic policy that cannot be challenged. This might make him more vulnerable to opposition; the policy has come at shocking economic and social cost. But it has also had the effect of suppressing criticism and preventing discussion of alternative strategies.  Yet there is no such restriction on external appraisal. From being the standout number one in the Bloomberg Covid resilience rankings — which seek to assess how well countries are dealing with the pandemic — China has sunk all the way down to 51. Only Taiwan, which has similarly applied a zero-Covid strategy, and Russia, are deemed to be doing worse.   In any case, the upshot of all this totalitarian madness is that it has holed the Chinese economic miracle below the water line. This might from a Western perspective be deemed a good thing if it slows China's march towards economic hegemony, but because of the way China is integrated into global supply chains, it also damages the West. Stalled production in China means more shortages of key components, and more cost-push inflation just as it looked as if these barriers to economic recovery were beginning to ease."

China's Covid Zero Strategy Could Last Years Under Xi - Bloomberg - "China has staked so much on avoiding virus fatalities, it can’t exit the pandemic as other countries have — by accepting greater death as a reality of living permanently with Covid.  Many elderly people in China remain vaccine holdouts: In early July, about 30% of Shanghai’s seniors still hadn’t received even one dose. And Hong Kong’s experience earlier this year showed what could go wrong, as omicron tore through nursing homes, giving the under-prepared city the world’s highest death rate in March.  Given the size of China’s population, the stakes are even higher.  More than a million people might die if China - which has little natural immunity - were to abandon Covid Zero, according to an analysis by researchers at Shanghai’s Fudan University... Foreign business groups say companies are looking to divert investment away from China and move headcount to other parts of Asia to avoid disruption like that seen during Shanghai’s two-month lockdown earlier this year... Lance, who asked to be identified only by his first name due to the risks of criticizing Xi’s signature policy, now makes most of his purchases online rather than risk going to the store.  “The work I do means I need to socialize a lot, but I barely go anywhere these days”... Affluent and well-educated Chinese like Lance will be looking to exit if Covid Zero continues longer term... Living cut off from the world is “not the future they signed up for,” she said. “It’s going to be hard to retain talent and it’s going to be hard to lure talent.” Yet so far Xi is unmoved. In fact, he’s doubling down.  In a recent address from Wuhan heavy with symbolism, Xi repudiated the West’s embrace of “herd immunity,” saying the consequences of “lying flat” against the virus would be unimaginable for China... the unequivocal commitment to Covid Zero has led to a reassessment for some who expected the country to reopen once Xi secured a third term at the once-in-five-year Party congress due to be held later in 2022.  Covid Zero will remain in place for at least another year because it’s now inextricably tied to Xi, said Joerg Wuttke, president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, during a July 20 webinar sponsored by the Peterson Institute.  “My guess is China can at the earliest open up late 2023,” he said. Officials “are in a deep hole and they keep digging.”... While China has approved Pfizer Inc.’s Covid anti-viral pill, it hasn’t permitted foreign-made mRNA vaccines shown to have higher efficacy rates than its home-grown, inactivated shots... The bet they’re taking is that somehow Covid Zero will defeat the virus, things will open up some day and economic losses can be recouped, Menon said. “What if that bet is wrong? What is then their Plan B?’’ Menon said. “That is not clear to me or them. They have bet the house on Covid Zero.”"
Weird. Why don't Chinese people trust their government? Damn CIA!

Xi's Strict Covid Zero Policy in China Pushes Wealthy to Leave Country - Bloomberg - "Hu is joining what investment migration consultancy Henley & Partners estimates is a cohort of 10,000 high-net-worth residents seeking to pull $48 billion from China this year — the second-largest predicted wealth and people outflow for a country after Russia... While policy makers haven’t explicitly tightened curbs on relocating, immigration lawyers say moving has become more difficult in recent months as passport processing times have increased and documentation requirements have become more onerous. Shifting large sums of money out of China has also become harder after a pullback by overseas counterparties who had long helped residents sidestep the country’s capital controls via private swap arrangements.  That’s setting the stage for a fresh bout of tension between wealthy Chinese and the ruling Communist Party, which was already strained amid President Xi Jinping’s populist campaign for "common prosperity." The government has put a premium on stability ahead of a leadership confab later this year at which Xi is expected to secure an unprecedented third term, but the long-term economic toll on the country of Covid Zero will be determined by the ultimate scope of China’s talent and wealth exodus...  Despite the hurdles to leaving, Hu said he’s intent on relocating to Canada. “Can you imagine that I almost starved to death at the beginning of the lockdown in the most developed city in China?” said the 46-year-old, who recently sold much of his majority stake in two high-end Shanghai restaurants for 20 million yuan ($3 million) and has hired an immigration lawyer and wealth manager to help him move. “I am very sad, but it is time to leave.” Migration consultants and lawyers in China said inquiries grew three- to five-fold in spring —  when Shanghai was in lockdown — compared to a year earlier. Inquiries about moving money out of the country have grown exponentially, according to interviews with seven bankers who didn't want to be named because they are not authorized to speak publicly... In another sign of the national mood, a recent note from Shanghai-based billionaire Huang Yimeng announcing to employees that he plans to move his family out of China went viral on social media... One private banker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said a Shanghai-based client had recently tried to get her child a Singapore visa to study but was denied by the local government agency... Just a year ago, viable options for shifting money out of China included using cryptocurrencies or making a private arrangement with an overseas counterpart looking to send yuan onshore. However, China's sweeping crackdown on crypto in the last few years has meant bans on almost all activities including exchanges, initial coin offerings, mining and transactions. Meanwhile, swap agreements are becoming more difficult to come by as fewer people want to move money into China"

China zero-Covid: Xiamen swabs freshly caught seafood for coronavirus - "The Chinese coastal city of Xiamen is testing freshly caught fish, crabs and even shrimp for Covid-19 as it goes all out to contain a spiraling outbreak -- a policy drawing ridicule online and criticism from experts who say it's a "waste of resources."... Jin Dongyan, a professor at Hong Kong University's School of Biomedical Sciences, told CNN the policy was a "waste of resources." "They should focus on the people rather than the fish," he said. According to Jin, testing the catch is "completely useless" because the chances of the fish testing positive and spreading the virus to humans was "very low." "It is 100 or 1,000 times more possible that these fishermen got infected by other fishermen. There's no evidence that the fish can transmit the virus"... in January 2022, the Centre for Animal Health and Welfare at the City University of Hong Kong said the risk of getting Covid from animals was "negligible."  Previously, reports have emerged of seafood, livestock, fruit and even crops being tested for Covid in China"

The "Dwayne Johnson Rule"

A feminist told me about the "Dwayne Johnson Rule."

The rule, as she explained it, was that in order to determine if a particular comment was appropriate to say to a woman, first ask yourself, 'Would I be comfortable saying this to Dwayne Johnson?' If not, don't say it.

I thought this sounded like a good rule. So I told her:

"Your chest is fucking epic."

Links - 31st August 2022 (1)

Her Novel Was Pulled for Plagiarism. Her Explanation Was, Too. - The New York Times - "A writer’s personal essay explaining why she plagiarized portions of what was to have been her debut novel was removed from a literary website on Monday after the essay itself was also found to have included plagiarized material.  The writer, Jumi Bello, had reached the final stages of publishing her book when she admitted to plagiarism"

Del Duca's plan for schools won't fix the education system | Toronto Sun - "His pitch for smaller class sizes and hiring 10,000 more teachers though is aimed at getting the votes of teachers as much as it is aimed at parents.  For most of their 15 years in office, teachers’ unions were powerful allies for the Ontario Liberals. The unions spent millions of dollars in each campaign to help ensure a Liberal win and they were rewarded handsomely for it.  Smaller class sizes, more prep time and less teaching time, and big pay raises were all part of the deal. Between 2003 when the Liberals took office and 2018 when they were defeated, the education budget more than doubled even after accounting for inflation.  We had a shrinking enrolment but kept hiring more teachers. It’s a trend the Ford government has not reversed despite all the claims of classes being packed and not enough teachers being available. When the Liberals took over in 2003, there were 112,235 teachers overseeing 2,129,742 students. By 2018 it was 125,980 teachers plus 9,054 early childhood educators overseeing 2,020,301 students. Now we have 130,923 teachers, plus 10,072 for a student population of 2,025,258.  We’ve gone from 18.8 students per teacher in 2003 to 16.1 in 2018 and now it sits at 15.4. The total education budget now stands at $32.4 billion, or $15,998 per student.  Where is this gutting of education that Del Duca claims needs to be reversed? What his pitch for a hard cap of 20 students is really all about is playing up to the false idea that ever shrinking class sizes will increase student performance. This claim has been called into question, especially in areas of teaching science, or in Ontario’s case math. Yet parents feel that if their kid has fewer students in class, they will get more one-on-one attention and do better. It’s a major part of the sales pitch from private schools and it also works well on upwardly mobile middle-class parents who aspire to private school education for their children but can’t afford it...   Del Duca knows that to make good on his promise would require hiring more teachers, teachers that aren’t easy to find. We now have a teacher shortage and with baby boomers continuing to retire, it only gets worse.  This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. That’s why he is promising to recruit teachers in other provinces and other countries. It’s easier said than done... The plans put forward though should be about improving the outcome for students, not for allies like the teachers’ unions. They should offer practical solutions that will get students ready for the future, not offer sales pitches to win votes of concerned parents."
Teachers are a lot less overpaid in Finland, yet Finland is praised as having a world-leading education system.
Liberals love paying teachers even more money, and all education problems are to them caused by a lack of money. So firing up the helicopter is the solution.
Meanwhile in Singapore they have 40 to a class.

Meme - "'insect noises*
long take of HDB corridor
*construction noises*
Singaporean HDB living in the 90s
dimly lit dinner at a tiny table flushed against the wall in a HDB flat kitchen
lush overgrown vegetation
young people walking along railway tracks
road trip to Malaysia
dementia
wise grandparent - grandchild relationship
*Singapore's changing landscape*
MRT hurtling by
~WILDCARD~
flashbacks to childhood
cigarette + contemplation
slow lost person walking amongst skyscrapers
hurtling by in the MRT
"pa. ma. chi fan.*
"tackles taboo issues in a non-confrontational manner"
taxi uncle
giant long kang
rediscovery of a non-English song from one's childhood
porno close up shot of hawker food
"exploration of nation-building"
wide shot of HDB block where each flat looks like tupperware"
"[Singapore] localcinemapekcek bingo"

Alan Garner: ‘The Chronicles of Narnia are atrociously written’ - "I never enjoyed CS Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia. I read the books with horrid fascination. They were, in my opinion, and remain, nasty, manipulative, morbid, misanthropic, hectoring, totalitarian and atrociously written."

Employee awarded US$450K for unwanted office birthday party - "A Kentucky jury has awarded a man US$450,000 who sued his employer after he asked them not to celebrate his birthday at work — and they did it anyway.  Kevin Berling told his manager at Gravity Diagnostics in Covington in 2019 that a birthday celebration would cause him immense stress.  But the company didn’t heed his request, and Berling suffered a panic attack, the Courier Journal reported. The next day Berling had another panic attack when his supervisor chastised him for “stealing his co-workers’” joy and “being a little girl,” according to a lawsuit. Berling was fired after the second attack...   Berling had told his supervisor that a birthday celebration would bring back bad childhood memories surrounding his parents’ divorce. The supervisor forgot to pass along his request"

Hallmark movies are fascist propaganda | Salon.com
Anyone to the right of Stalin is fascist

KFC on Twitter - "I don’t care A) what your politics are 2) what your gun stance is d) what happened in Kenosha & at the trial if you see those clips of Rittenhouse saying “I like butts and boobs” and your reaction isn’t “well that was weird & uncomfortable” you’re a weirdo"
KFC on Twitter - "The Great Barstool Boobs vs. Butt Debate is live. Vote here and answer this once and for all"

Meme - "Only a master of the four races can save the pop world *Ariana Grande looking Asian, white, black and latino*"

Sunlight affects whether languages have a word for ‘blue’ - "People with more exposure to sunlight are more likely to speak languages that lump green and blue together, under a term that linguists dub “grue.” That’s because of the effects of a lifetime of light exposure, the team speculates: Lots of Sun causes a condition called “lens brunescence” that makes it harder to distinguish the two hues...  if cultures begin to dye clothing with hard-to-produce blue pigments, that could also prompt the emergence of new color terms... Living near a lake increased the chance of having a separate word for “blue.” So did living in a larger society."

As People Flee New York City, The Rats Are Moving In

Opinion | For Uber and Lyft, the Rideshare Bubble Bursts - The New York Times - "Piece by piece, the mythology around ridesharing is falling apart. Uber and Lyft promised ubiquitous self-driving cars as soon as this year. They promised an end to private car ownership. They promised to reduce congestion in the largest cities. They promised consistently affordable rides. They promised to boost public transit use. They promised profitable business models. They promised a surfeit of well-paying jobs. Heck, they even promised flying cars.  Well, none of that has gone as promised (but more about that later). Now a new study is punching a hole in another of Uber and Lyft’s promised benefits: curtailing pollution. The companies have long insisted their services are a boon to the environment in part because they reduce the need for short trips, can pool riders heading in roughly the same direction and cut unnecessary miles by, for instance, eliminating the need to look for street parking. It turns out that Uber rides do spare the air from the high amount of pollutants emitted from starting up a cold vehicle, when it is operating less efficiently, researchers from Carnegie Mellon University found. But that gain is wiped out by the need for drivers to circle around waiting for or fetching their next passenger, known as deadheading. Deadheading, Lyft and Uber estimated in 2019, is equal to about 40 percent of rideshare miles driven in six American cities. The researchers at Carnegie Mellon estimated that driving without a passenger leads to a roughly 20 percent overall increase in fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions compared to trips made by personal vehicles.  The researchers also found that switching from a private car to on-demand rides, like an Uber or Lyft, increased the external costs of a typical trip by 30 to 35 percent, or roughly 35 cents on average, because of the added congestion, collisions and noise from ridesharing services... Uber and Lyft envisioned a future in which software algorithms would push each car to host three or more passengers, easing traffic and providing a complement to public transit options. Instead, passengers have largely eschewed pooled rides and public transit in favor of private trips, leading to downtown bottlenecks in cities like San Francisco. The duration of traffic jams increased by nearly 5 percent in urban areas since Uber and Lyft moved in. Lyft’s president, John Zimmer, once claimed the majority of rides would be in autonomous vehicles by 2021, but the company has largely backed away from its self-driving efforts, including selling its developmental unit to a Toyota subsidiary this year. Uber, which once characterized robot cars as “existential” to its future, sold off its autonomous vehicle division last year after mounting safety and cost concerns. The efficiencies of ride hailing were supposed to all but end car ownership; instead vehicle sales are on the rise again this year, after a down year in 2020. There is also evidence that Uber and Lyft may actually spur an increase in car sales in cities where they begin operating. Public-transit use in some areas, despite the companies’ claims, has been waning, according to several studies, as more consumers opt to jump in Ubers and Lyfts that drive them door to door... Underwritten by venture capital, Uber and Lyft hooked users by offering artificially cheap rides that often undercut traditional yellow cabs. But labor shortages and a desperate need to find some path to a profitable future have caused rideshare prices to skyrocket, perhaps to a more rational level. After burning through billions of venture capital dollars, Uber said it was on a path to profitability last year, using an accounting metric that ignores many of the costs that actually make it unprofitable"

Dara Khosrowshahi: Uber CEO works on app for a day and reveals how much drivers can make - "he earned $106.71 during a half-day period, meaning his hourly rate was roughly $30 an hour, well above the local, state and federal minimum wages. Uber declined to answer questions about the average earnings of drivers in San Francisco and nationally as compared to the minimum wage. According to April 2021 data from the company, an Uber driver in San Francisco on the app for 20 hours a week earns a median wage of $25.28 per hour before tips or expenses.  Uber Eats drivers, however, are part-time contractors who provide their own transportation, food, healthcare, etc, and it has been claimed that they can take home less than that median figure, sometimes less than minimum wage."

DoorDash and Uber Eats Are Hot. They’re Still Not Making Money. - WSJ - "Delivering food is an expensive logistical undertaking. Apps earn money by charging restaurants a percentage of the order, as well as by charging consumers a service fee. They then dip into those earnings to pay drivers, their biggest expense.  After accounting for advertising costs and refunds to customers, among other operational expenses, DoorDash on average is left with 2.5% of a customer’s overall bill, according to a Deutsche Bank analysis. That means DoorDash ended up with 90 cents on the average order during the height of the pandemic, worth around $36.  The math isn’t pretty, but it’s the best in the industry. While DoorDash hasn’t posted an annual profit in its eight years of operation, it slipped out of the red for one quarter last year, becoming the only food-delivery company in the U.S. to do so during the health crisis... Uber says that starting next month it will allow consumers to combine their food order with a convenience run from a nearby store. DoorDash is testing a similar feature.  A grocery or alcohol order is typically more lucrative than food, so apps can drive up people’s basket sizes and, in turn, their revenue. They can also get “better and better about upselling,” said Mr. Payne, the DoorDash COO. Now, he said, apps can ask: “Do you want fries with that? Do you want a Cabernet Sauvignon with that?”... The strategy is also helping apps drive down their biggest expense: the cost of the delivery itself. Food-delivery apps couldn’t always wait to combine a tiny order with a more lucrative one because hot meals needed to be delivered quickly. Executives say expanding into nonperishable items is letting them bundle deliveries in a way they couldn’t with food alone... Analysts say food-delivery penetration is still low despite last year’s rapid adoption—only 6% of the U.S. population uses DoorDash, the nation’s biggest food-delivery service by market share—so “outside of a city like New York, it’s still very early days”... Uber’s Mr. Gore-Coty was struck at how many consumers complained about missing combo meals during the early months of the pandemic. When he dug into the problem, he found that in fact, major parts of the combos generally arrived, but often missed items like a side salad or dessert.  The app didn’t allow consumers to say that one of the items within the combo was missing, leaving Uber to refund the cost of the entire meal. Last summer the company began allowing consumers to break down items missing from a combo. To minimize errors, apps are tweaking the technology they provide restaurants, too. Before the pandemic, the item most commonly missing from Cheesecake Factory Inc. delivery orders was cheesecake itself. Restaurant staff would pack hot food but leave cold cheesecakes to be packed later. That increased the likelihood that staffers would forget about the cheesecake.  DoorDash’s solution was to integrate reminders into the restaurant’s delivery tablets so orders with cheesecakes displayed notes in big, bold letters. The change reduced missing desserts as staffers were less likely to overlook them when they handed orders to Dashers. DoorDash says cheesecake is no longer its most-forgotten item... DoorDash now provides delivery services for Walmart Inc., Macy’s Inc. and Petco Health and Wellness Co., among others.  These orders are more profitable because apps don’t need to refund consumers for errors, nor do they need to spend money on marketing. Clients like Walmart bring big business, meaning drivers typically carry more than one order at the same time, lowering apps’ delivery cost.  Deutsche Bank’s Mr. Walmsley estimates that DoorDash makes a profit of $2 on such a delivery, as opposed to the 90 cents it made on the average food order in the middle of last year."
And this is ignoring the tip, which consumers pay

‘This can’t be real’: Grubhub promotion turns New York City restaurants into a ‘war zone’ - "What were they thinking?  That’s what customers, restaurants and delivery workers want to know after a surprise promotion by the food delivery platform Grubhub went badly awry – and proved there’s really no such thing as a free lunch.  Grubhub’s plan was ambitious: to feed everyone in New York City and the surrounding Tri-State area for free, during lunch hours on Tuesday. The platform cited a survey it had conducted that found that 69% of working New Yorkers said they had skipped lunch.  But that’s exactly what the stunt ended up doing, after Grubhub’s platform crashed as New Yorkers rushed to place orders. The fiasco left restaurants overwhelmed, delivery workers frustrated, and many customers with empty stomachs... many users never saw their food after spending money, with some kept hungry and waiting for hours by the app’s promises that the food would soon arrive."

The Two Sides of Singapore, As Seen By A Food Delivery Rider - "The deliveries I get in the town area, the final figure is like … $110. That kind of crazy number for very few items, because each item is very expensive. I’m always carrying a light backpack for very very expensive things. One pizza and one pasta for $85. That they order for dinner on Tuesday. No special occasion.   Like, there’s a bunch of Japanese expats who live in Martin Place and they’re always ordering from Ma Maison.  And delivery fee is not that cheap, right? So you order things that make sense, like a full meal. But I get the weirdest orders from Grange Road, Leonie Hill. One scoop of ice cream from Häagen-Dazs. I pick up the thing and it’s like weightless.  Then I will hold the ice cream, look at the Häagen-Dazs lady, and be like, “This? That’s it?”  And she’s also like, “You know, rich people like that la,” and we laugh and pretend we’re friends.  There’s also this guy who always orders one latte from Dal.komm at Centrepoint. One latte. Just one latte. Every time. It’s roughly $6 to $7 for that stupid latte, But with the delivery, he’s paying $11 to $12 for the latte every day.   Don’t you think this guy has an expensive espresso machine at home? I’m sure, right? But he must have his daily $11 Dal.komm latte.  But they’re paying my salary, so thank you...   The job gets very exhausting because it’s a cycle of negativity. Can you imagine if you never feel satisfied with your job? You’re always tired. You always feel like you’re not earning enough. You always feel people don’t respect you. You always feel invisible."

Commentary: Does rise in food delivery roles suggest something's wrong with full-time employment? - "In 2020, Singapore’s proportion of own-account workers — self-employed workers who are not employers — among working residents was at a decade-high of 9.7 per cent...   Instead of stealing workers from the traditional economy, platform firms may be adding new workers to the Singapore economy - workers who would otherwise not have entered the workforce in the first place - and putting a floor on unemployment during this pandemic.   Instead of stealing workers from the traditional economy, platform firms may be adding new workers to the Singapore economy - workers who would otherwise not have entered the workforce in the first place - and putting a floor on unemployment during this pandemic...   While the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) 2020 Labour Force Survey shows that there are more residents who do own-account work on a non-preferred basis — 37,400 in 2020 compared to 21,500 in 2019 — this number is smaller than the pre-pandemic level of 46,700 in 2017.  The proportion of own-account workers who did it not because of their preference, at 16 per cent, also pales in comparison to the 84 per cent who chose to do it because of the flexibility and freedom.   The same MOM survey showed that while 52 per cent of own-account workers faced challenges at work in 2020, primarily because of the pandemic, only 12 per cent of this group sought employee work as a solution. As the economy readies for the pick-up, delivery work and other gigs may provide a bridge between permanent jobs, as a Grab survey of driver partners show. More than 70 per cent said they planned to stop driving after two years...   About 70 per cent of Grab’s partners only had a highest education level of secondary school or lower"

The Big Read in short: Bridging the Singaporean-foreigner divide - "Despite having learnt the quirks and way of life in Singapore, both Ms Jia and Mr Goutham said that outside of work, their social circles remain limited to mainly fellow expatriates.  On their part, Singaporeans told TODAY that while they are quick to help their foreign co-workers adjust to the Singaporean way of life, not all of the locals are able to form deeper relations beyond the professional setting.  Singaporean Gouthaman Haridass, a 33-year-old consultant in the fintech industry, said that he has invited his foreign colleagues over to his home to celebrate local festivals or tell them about places in Singapore beyond the usual expatriate haunts like Bugis, Orchard or Holland Village.   On the other hand, Ms Nur, a 28-year-old who works as a manager in the banking industry and declined to give her full name, does not feel the need to proactively educate her foreign colleagues on local culture as most leave their jobs in a few years, and conversations on local culture may not be of relevance or interest to them. Indeed, even as Singaporeans and foreigners live and work alongside each other, both groups have found it difficult to break out of their existing social circles and build deeper relationships with people from the other side... while two in five Singaporean youth feel that foreigners are able to integrate into local culture comfortably, a slightly higher proportion of half think that foreigners tend to stick to their own social circles.  Foreigners in the professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMET) category whom TODAY spoke to also acknowledged that their social circles comprise predominantly other expatriates.   Although they are keen to get to know more Singaporeans, the foreign PMETs cited limited opportunities, existing networks and “reserved Singaporeans” as among the reasons they are unable to do so.   Ms Jia, for instance, said that her friends are mainly expatriates from the United States or Europe as she got to know them through her American husband who is also working in Singapore.  And while she is open to making Singaporean friends, Ms Jia said that foreigners tend to seek each other out as there is a sense that they should “get close and help each other out” in a new country.  Mr Goutham, the Indian national and Employment Pass (EP) holder, said that his relationship with his colleagues does not extend beyond work...   Some Singaporeans interviewed also felt that their foreign counterparts are sometimes hungrier and more competitive at work.   On this, Mr Goutham, the Indian national, said: “There’s a perception that as a foreigner, you need to perform well. Otherwise, you might lose your job and be thrown out of Singapore. That very feeling makes you work a little harder because you need to keep the job."...   Debunking the misperception that all foreigners in Singapore are living in riches, Mr Goutham, the Indian national, noted that Singapore is expensive to live in and many foreigners like himself “spend a bomb” to live here."

Jean-Pierre Jeunet on why he won't make 'Amelie' sequel: Paris is ugly now

Turkish DNA Project Calls For Boycott After Ancestry.com Highlights Many Greeks Were Turkified - "The Turkish DNA Project, a misinformation portal on Facebook and Twitter known for posting genetic graphs and charts without references or sources, expressed frustration with Ancestry.com, the largest for-profit genealogy company in the world.  The misinformation project called for “all Turks to boycott this company: Ancestry.”  “AncestryDNA prioritizes to demonize the Turkish people and delegitimaze their presence in Turkey rather than giving information about the genetic structure of the relevant population”...  Ancestry.com correctly highlighted that many Turkish citizens are indeed mostly unrelated to Turkic peoples from Central Asia and are rather native Anatolian people that have been Turkified.  Of course, the Turkish DNA Project’s graphs, charts and data present another “truth.”  However, these are in complete opposition to science, hence their call for Ancestry.com to boycotted as science continually disproves their misinformation campaign.  Ancestry.com highlighted that after the Ottoman conquest of Pontos in today’s Turkey’s southeastern Black Sea coast, the “Pontian Greeks adopted Turkish language and culture, and many converted to Islam in order to have greater opportunities in Turkish society.   Ancestry.com also highlighted that another round of Turkification of Pontian Greeks occurred after the second Russo-Turkish War (1828-29)...   A famous case of a Turkish citizen discovering they are Greek is Yannis Vasilis Yaylalı, born Ibrahim Yaylalı.  Yannis was a former Turkish ultra-nationalist that was proud of his enmity towards Kurds and other indigenous peoples of Asia Minor.  However, he soon discovered he was actually Greek, became Christian and then became an activist for minorities in Turkey despite originally joining the Turkish Army to kill them... Uzay Bulut, a Turkey-born journalist, also responded to the call by the Turkish DNA Project to boycott Ancestry.com.  “Why are Turkish nationalists so terrified of the truth? Because if they face it, the lies they’ve come up with will be shattered to the ground,” she said on Twitter.  “Through these lies, hatred has grown which made them commit so many crimes against Greeks, Armenians, Assyrians, Jews and others,” Bulut said.  “Then they will realize that by destroying those peoples, they’ve actually destroyed their own ancestors and cultural heritage,” the journalist said, adding: “The truth will set us all free and bring much needed peace to the region.””

Turkish Spokesman Says Modern Greeks Are Unrelated To Ancient Greeks, But What Do Genetic Tests Find? - "A spokesman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has shown once again why Turkey remains an extremely unscientific country with the third lowest IQ on the European continent and its surrounds, according to the Ulster Institute for Social Research.  İbrahim Kalın questioned whether the Greeks of today are connected to the Ancient Greeks...   “I remember some of the left-leaning professors at the university saying the same thing. Greece is proud of its history. Let Kalın burst. We are Greeks, we were Greeks, we are a continuation of the ancient Greeks, we defend our history and in this history we do not go back. The Turks came here much later,” he said.  Genetic testing conducted in a peer review process and analysed by several American hospitals have confirmed that there is a clear link between the Ancient Greek Bronze Age civilisations of the Minoans and Myceneans, and the Greeks of today.""

Why Navy SEALs in Vietnam Wore Bluejeans Instead of Jungle Fatigues - "“Mosquitoes couldn’t get through the denim,” Berta, who was an adviser for Lien Doi Nguoi Nhai, or LDNN, the South Vietnamese frogman unit, told author Dennis Cummings in The Men Behind the Trident: SEAL Team One in Vietnam, a collection of stories about notable Vietnam War SEALs.  “The leeches could crawl up the legs, so we’d put rubber bands around the bottom of the pant legs,” Berta said. “The mud didn’t cling to Levis like it did to the cammo pants, and there were no large side pockets on the jeans, like there were on the cammo pants, that would fill with water when you came out of a river or canals.”"

Spoiling Rice in Vietnam Show Perils of Food Protectionism - Bloomberg - "Hoa is one of more than 100 traders in Vietnam hurt by a government measure last month to restrict shipments on concerns that global demand will spike as the coronavirus upends supply chains. While the world’s third-biggest rice exporter has since reopened some trade, hundreds of thousands of tons of spoiling rice at the country’s ports show the dangers of curbing exports... If the rice isn’t shipped, the companies involved will struggle to survive, the Vietnam Food Association said in a state newspaper... In Can Tho, a city in Vietnam’s rice belt, officials estimated that a majority of its rice exporters have been losing as much as $14,000 a day each on damages paid to shipping companies, container fees, and fines for being unable to fulfill export contracts"

Meme - Authoritarian Left: "Blame the Americans"
Authoritarian Right: "Blame the Jews"
Libertarian Left: "Blame the Rich"
Libertarian Right: "Blame the Government"
Ascended: "Blame the RICH JEWS in AMERICAN GOVERNMENT"

Couple Permanently Lives On Cruise Ship Because It's Cheaper Than Mortgage - "Angelyn Burk, 53, and her husband Richard have been hopping from ship to ship for around $44 a night each since May 2021. This includes accommodation, food, beverages, and all transport."

Married couples who meet online are SIX times more likely to divorce - "Married couples who meet online are six times more likely to divorce within the first three years than those who meet their partners through more traditional routes.  Research has found that 12 per cent of couples who met over the internet did not make their leather – third – anniversary, compared to just two per cent who found love via family or friends. The report, by the Marriage Foundation, suggests that those who meet online are at higher risk of divorce because they could be 'relative strangers' when they tie the knot. 'Gathering reliable information about the long-term character of the person you are dating or marrying is quite obviously more difficult for couples who meet online without input from mutual friends or family or other community,' said Harry Benson, the foundation's research director."

Controversial influencer couple who euthanised dog refused to adopt baby because of social media ban - ""After you pick up your child, they are your child, but you are not allowed to talk about them or share any images, photos, videos, anything about them online for a year"... Holt International, the adoption agency referenced in the video, told Business Insider that Thai adoption law restricts the release of an "adopted child’s information, photos, videos and films to mass media or Internet before finalisation”.  Social media users were quick to hit out at the couple, accusing them of wanting to adopt a child for “profit” through the creation of content for the page."

S'porean couple met online playing Diablo III, has a themed pre-wedding shoot in honour of it

Gonzalo Lira on Twitter - "Do you know why Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941? Because the US imposed a total trade embargo. And then an oil embargo. With the explicit aim of crushing Japan's economy. And ever after always claimed: “The Japanese attacked us for no reason whatsoever!”"
If trade restrictions justify war, the Opium Wars were good and the East India Company did nothing wrong

Chemistry papers find themselves on the scrapheap quicker than physics ones - "Perhaps unsurprisingly, papers in history journals had the highest proportion of references to older journal articles. In history papers from 2019, more than 41% of references were to studies more than 20 years old, while 10% of citations relate to articles more than 50 years old.  In chemistry, just 11% of citations were to articles that are over 20 years old. This is less than half the rate seen in physics, where a quarter of references are to papers published more than 20 years earlier. Over 50 years, the survival rate for papers in chemistry is seven times lower than in physics, and around 50 times lower after 100 years.  Of the eight subject areas that Dorta‑González and Gómez‑Déniz analysed, the lowest survival rates were seen for papers in electronic engineering and medicine. Only 8% of references in electrical and electronic engineering articles, and 9% of references in medicine papers, are to studies more than 20 years old. In these disciplines, just over 0.1% of references are to papers over 50 years old, compared to around 0.4% of references in chemistry papers."

Couple in India sue son for not giving them a grandchild - "A couple in the north Indian state of Uttarakhand are suing their only son and his wife for not giving them a grandchild after six years of marriage.  Sanjeev and Sadhana Prasad, 61 and 57, say they used up their savings raising their son, paying for his pilot's training as well as a lavish wedding.  They are demanding compensation worth nearly $650,000 (£525,000) if no grandchild is born within a year... The highly unusual lawsuit was filed on grounds of "mental harassment".  Mr Prasad said he had spent all his savings on his son, sending him to the US in 2006 for pilot training at a cost of $65,000. He returned to India in 2007, but lost his job and his family had to support him financially for more than two years... Shrey Sagar, 35, did eventually get a job as a pilot. His parents say they arranged his marriage to Shubhangi Sinha, now 31, in 2016, in the hope that they would have a "grandchild to play with" during their retirement. The parents say they paid for a wedding reception in a five-star hotel, a luxury car worth $80,000 and a honeymoon abroad.  "My son has been married for six years but they are still not planning a baby," Mr Prasad said. "At least if we have a grandchild to spend time with, our pain will become bearable."  The couple's lawyer, AK Srivastava, told The National that the couple had demanded the money "because of mental cruelty".  "It is a dream of every parent to become a grandparent. They had been waiting for years to become grandparents.""

A $71 Billion Plunge Casts Doubt on Singapore’s New Economy Aura - Bloomberg - "Singapore’s two largest new-economy firms have been touted as the next big thing for years. A $71 billion rout in their share prices in 2022 seems to show investors aren’t buying the story. Shares of ride-hailing company Grab Holdings Ltd. have more than halved since the start of the year while gaming and e-commerce giant Sea Ltd.’s stock price has tumbled by 46%. The two U.S.-listed firms are languishing at the bottom of the MSCI Asean Index, with Grab among the biggest losers on the Asia Pacific stock benchmark as well."