The senior colleague in our department finally left, in a hurry, after the last visit she paid to a customer in the afternoon. I saw her off into the elevator. Another male colleague, once her subordinate, carried personal belongs for her down to the street. For the brief moment when she and I were alone, she said I was a careful person and would have a promising future. Before that she gave every junior colleague a farewell hug. Despite all these, she left in a hurry, without even a goodbye message, which has become so common that people would think of them as holiday broadcast. 

On the same day, email box broadcasts tens of dozens of promotions to managing directors, with some being promoted again within a year. 

Well, above all the title inflations, the sacking, the quitting, it's just a job and nothing more.

On Professor Yang Sued "Counter-Revolutionary"

One university professor in East China University of Polictical Science and Law was sued by two of his students as "counter-revolutionary". It so happened that Professor Yang Shiqun criticised on some of China's current policies during a lecture on ancient Chinese language. Two students were apparently offended. They complained to Professor Yang after class and then went to the police and charged Professor Yang of "counter-revoluntionary" speech.  

The matter was posted on Professor Yang's own blog, which has since been removed. But a reprocuded post could be found here. According to the post, the two girls were actually in tears when they complained to him. Apparently they were really into the belief that any statement against the government was unpatriotic. It then raises the question - does one need to totally agree with the government on everything to be patriotic? If so, where is the freedom of speech? 

What's worse is that this happened on the campus of a prominent university on politics and law. One has reason to believe not all of these youngsters are like these two girls but it is nevertheless alarming that the ideology behind this thinking is worrying. Indeed, as many have observed, China's younger generation are increasingly loosing touch on the country's own history. What these two girls have done would have striken an especially stronger cord in those who have exprienced the turmoil in the 1960s and 1970s. For forty years ago, the girls would have had an upper hand in suing their professor. I'm sure no one would ever wish to repeat that all over again. But could we take it for granted that it never will? Particulary given the current state of mind of the young in China? And given their awareness (or lack of it) of our past? 

熟视无睹之怪现状

The article carries an interesting summary of events in 2008

1. China's customs restricts one Bible per person
2. Sanlu milk powder continues to be sold in Hebei despite its melamine content
3. University teachers will have a more difficult time going forward as they will be no longer allowed to lecture what deviate from party's line.

The last point strikes a special cord in me. Going back to be a university teacher is still my dream. Now that prospect looks dimmer. 

30 years into the reform and opening up,  China is papering up its past history of reforms. Foreig-invested enterprises have been forced into accepting trade unions.

http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displayStory.cfm?story_id=12758848&source=hptextfeature

作为80后，我们必须要《奋斗》。

My diaries

My diaries

On Certified Emission Reduction
Once property rights are defined, even pollution rights could be traded. Carbon emissions are now actively traded between developed countries and developing countries. 
Basically, the rich countries signed a scheme called Clean Development Mechanism, or CDM, in which they agree on an emission reduction target to be achieved within a few years. However, for these rich countries to reduce emission is very costly because the existing ways of production or ways of life are hard to change. So the UN allows them to buy emission quotas from other countries, typically developing countries that are rapidly building up production lines and accumulating wealth, to partially fulfill their obligations. Effectively, developing countries that have found a way to reduce emissions will be rewarded in the form of getting paid for the emission reduced. So there is a stronger incentive for developing countries to develop cleaner projects because the extra cleanliness can now be monetized. 
How Are CERs Measured?
The quantity of emission reduced is certified by UN and registered in units of CER credit. One unit of CER credit represents the equivalent to one tonne of carbon dioxide reduced under CDM. How are CERs measured? 

CER in China After 2012
Currently China is the largest CER seller in the world because it is not an Anex I country for the moment and does not have an obligation  to reduce emissoin. But as the current treaty expires in 2012, will China be included as well? 
The Price Behavior of CERs in Primary and Secondary MarketCERs are considered a commodity in many senses. It has a primary market where CERs are orginated. This is the place project owners of clean energy would sell their CERs to an intermediary. It also has a secondary market where CERs are traded and bought by the final users, typically producers from developed nations.  References:Wikipedia.org
newenergy.com.cnShanghai Securities NewsCarbonpositive.net

Lin Yutang: "The Little Critic"

Lin Yutang - The Little Critic

----Book Review of With Love & Irony 



Lin Yutang, a famous but forgotten name in Chinese society, has been a well-known writer among English readers from the Western world ever since his publications of My Country and My Men and The Importance of Living. His fame topped when he was nominated for the Nobel Prize for his work A Moment in Peking, which vividly narrates the life of a middle class home in Peking throughout the unstable times from the collapse of the Qing Dynasty to the Anti-Japanese War. Lin Yutang, as he self-describes, is a "mix of contradictions". So is reflected in his works. In A Moment in Peking he is a Confucius, who cares for the miseries of his countrymen, while in My Country and My Men and The Importance of Living he is a Taoist, who prefers to step back into the stage curtains and take a sarcastic but all-encompassing view of life. He once wrote essays for a column called The Little Critic in Nanjing during the rule of the Nationalists to criticize those in power but with witty styles so as not to cause anger of certain persons and to disclose life in ordinary people with a persuasive but calm heart so as not to disturb people's lives. The book With Love & Irony is such a collection of critical but humorous essays written during that period. 



He has a good opinion of what Englishmen and Chinese are like. He writes that the English and the Chinese are both nations which would not loose common sense to pure logical reasoning. He compares the two nations to the German and the Japanese, which were then at war with other nations. Englishmen would always maintain their own way of living even in a most remote place as the African desert or the Amazon jungles. They are so confident in themselves that they believe what they do should not and could not be otherwise wrong. For example, they have such firm confidence in their English banks that it won't go bankrupt just because they believe so. That is the reason why the Bank of England was left with its name untouched even after it was acquired by HSBC in the last century. While the English stubbornness represents a masculine style the Chinese vagueness deals with life in a feminine way. Chinese are good at holding back their opinions and thus bad at drawing comparisons. A is good but B seems not bad either, maybe from a different viewpoint, better. "Action without thinking may be foolish, but action without common sense is always disastrous." 

Besides his humor, his sarcasm is expressed explicitly when he talks about nudism. He first confesses he sees no harm in nudism. Then he adds that he is a "reasonable" nudist "at certain hours and in certain circumstances". He would like the fresh air to touch his naked body in his bathroom well protected from neighbor's peeping eyes but hates the idea of walking down the street disclosing the skin that is mother-given. So is he discussing being a vegetarian. He stresses being reasonable rather than principle-abiding, eating nothing but vegetables. No point in refusing blood-sticking beefsteak paying every mercy to the cattle slaughtered while turning a blind eye on the thousands being killed or starved to death every day around the world. 



This book With Love & Irony is thus a making of his wisdom, fearlessness and unaffected commentary delivered with sparkling humor. Featured by ranging aspects of daily life to the fascinating insight of the social and political scene at that time, some essays of this book are untimely that we may get amazed that much of his observations recorded in the 1930's are still valid and relevant today. Lin Yutang, the little critic, is such a genius but who took to ordinary life so much that he is a true life philosopher who merely lived, observed life and went away, leaving behind piles of books in which stored his great but plain spirits for us to experience and through them explore our true inner selves. 

公司附近有个红绿灯

公司附近的红绿灯，旁边站交警，见到行人乱穿马路就要抓，抓来坐下看电视，电视里面播放的是交通教育片。所以这个红绿灯普遍遵守交通规则，偶尔有个别不看灯，被交警叔叔抓起来，大家都嗤之以鼻。对面红绿灯就没有交警，大家于是无视红灯，心安理得。长久如此，行人就会养成看交警过马路的习惯，而非看红绿灯。

另外，经常看到红字头车牌的车，无视红灯，乱穿马路，交警叔叔同样熟视无睹。有些交警同志不知好歹，偶尔逮到一个红字头车，车内人物使起脸色，最终扬长而去。长久如此，交警就会养成看车牌执行交通规则的习惯，而非遵章照法。

了解国外的朋友会知道，以上是中国特有的国情。西方的社会，行人会养成的习惯，是看交通灯过马路，交警养成的习惯，是看法律执行公务。西方的社会，法律健全，规章制度井然有序，执行起来严格，但是最终由大法官们灵活掌握。中国的社会，法律同样健全，规章制度同样井然有序，但是执行起来，由我们每个人灵活掌握。

在中国，到处都是红绿灯，每个人心目中，都必须有一盏红绿灯。