Post truth

POST -TRUTH :   When facts are sacrificed at the altar of expediency
                          

divine

Some things in life are destined ,and through moving to a new land,we could overcome the fates of  geographical limitations and political instability."It's written in the stars".Our earliest ancestors were refugees and migrants,moving across continents to escape natural disasters and nomads looking for food.

My eldest sister and aunts went back to Xinhui,my mom's ancestral home and it was good to know that the present generation have gained from modern agricultural farming practice to rear husbandry,fish and vegetables and their initial apprehension of open defecation and outhouse toilets eased when they were invited to stay a few days in a modern farmhouse with air condition and all the modern gizmos of the technological age.Well,my fourth aunt was moved by the " warm reception" and the freshness of their home cooked meals.Being a foodie,Iguess there's nothing like getting your own dinner from the backyard.
    I remember our grandparents knew how to cook food that strengthen our immune system ,the bitter tea and herbal concoctions .That's why they lived till their 80's but in search for quick relief,we had to live with the side effects.The thorny chinese spinach that grew in the wild was fabulous for detoxification when we had bacterial infection at the corner of the eye but now even eye drops would not work in the long term as that wild spinach.They cooked with bitter almond seed to nourish the lungs and speed natural recovery.
  

Hotel Iris by Yoko Ogawa

After reading Hotel Iris,it leaves a very unsettling impression on the type of relationship between a teenager and an elderly man.Is it a coming of age novel,but at the same time it starts with the restrictive life a a teenager under the control of a dominating single mother who goes to the extent  of doing up the hair of her daughter in a certain way at an age when teens are rebellious and strive to break the boundaries by establishing their independence through their appearance.Is that a subconscious sign of rebellion when she could literally let her hair down by conducting an illicit affair with a man old enough to be her grandfather who has a weird fetish.There is a sickening hint of his potential for violence and he practically seems to be  a sexual predator who exploits her sense of looking for a father figure who has been absent in her life for a long time.But her perverse will of submission and his fetish for sado machism is totally senseless and disgusting.Under the veneer of respectability lurks a beast with no saving grace.The style of writing is minimalistic but hints at so much more.