The golden land is not in the gilded stupas or statues but the people who have hearts of gold.
Only Mad dogs and Englishmen come out in the noon day heat and nowadays wanderlust tourists with a penchant for shooting not wild white elephants but trigger happy with Iphones and digital DLSRs.
Sunday, February 17, 2013
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Hissing 2013
Chinese New Year Vegetarian Menu
Drinks-rosella with candy winter melon and rose buds
1.Mock Cod fish simmered with sliced ginger,chrysantemum petals,osmanthus buds, spring onion and rose chinese rice wine with a sprinkling of gouji berries
2.braised mock chicken pong teh w
fermented bean curd,shitake mushrooms, cubed carrots served with steamed flower roll buns
3. braised mock abalone,bai ling mushroom,brocolli in oyster sauce
4. sweet and sour mock prawns with cherry tomatoes ,big onion and pineapples in sour plum sauce
5.pie tee with shredded yam turnip, carrot and french beans
6. fried mock pandan chicken with sriracha sauce
7. stuffed green ,red and yellow bell peppers with minced mock meat,shredded celery,carrots ,in tomato puree grilled with olive oil and topped with shredded mozarella cheese
8. creamed sweet corn soup with water chestnuts and cubed Japanese bean curd
Drinks-rosella with candy winter melon and rose buds
1.Mock Cod fish simmered with sliced ginger,chrysantemum petals,osmanthus buds, spring onion and rose chinese rice wine with a sprinkling of gouji berries
2.braised mock chicken pong teh w
fermented bean curd,shitake mushrooms, cubed carrots served with steamed flower roll buns
3. braised mock abalone,bai ling mushroom,brocolli in oyster sauce
4. sweet and sour mock prawns with cherry tomatoes ,big onion and pineapples in sour plum sauce
5.pie tee with shredded yam turnip, carrot and french beans
6. fried mock pandan chicken with sriracha sauce
7. stuffed green ,red and yellow bell peppers with minced mock meat,shredded celery,carrots ,in tomato puree grilled with olive oil and topped with shredded mozarella cheese
8. creamed sweet corn soup with water chestnuts and cubed Japanese bean curd
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
The Price of Development
When developing countries try to play "catch up" with the developed world's model of economic development that uses intensive resources from energy to raw materials,what are the long term effects? We need not second guess as the effects from over consumption to massive exploitation of the environment can be seen in the environmental degradation , geo-political instability and vast income disparity.
So why are we still copy cats? Why not set forth to a brave,new world where a different yardstick for development can be started? Why can't we learn from the mistakes of others ? Why does history need to keep on repeating itself?
It's so paradoxical that we can't have the best of both worlds in that we need to sacrifice one for the other.
According to the text "When a billion Chinese jump",Yunnan faces the threat of deforestation and species extinction,opening up road and rail linkages in Tibet could cause a rise in climate.Guangdong's massive rubbish industry is based on recycling or outsourced dirty manufacturing from advanced countries.The level of lead in China's children is 50% higher than the US.Coal fired power plants increase carbon emission ,causing prevalence of respiratory illnesses.Farming uses fertilisers and insecticides which pollute ground water for drinking. Sewage and industrial waste are dumped into seas causing heavy metal to be accumulated in fish.
In poisoning the environment we live in,aren't we shooting ourselves in the foot ?
So why are we still copy cats? Why not set forth to a brave,new world where a different yardstick for development can be started? Why can't we learn from the mistakes of others ? Why does history need to keep on repeating itself?
It's so paradoxical that we can't have the best of both worlds in that we need to sacrifice one for the other.
According to the text "When a billion Chinese jump",Yunnan faces the threat of deforestation and species extinction,opening up road and rail linkages in Tibet could cause a rise in climate.Guangdong's massive rubbish industry is based on recycling or outsourced dirty manufacturing from advanced countries.The level of lead in China's children is 50% higher than the US.Coal fired power plants increase carbon emission ,causing prevalence of respiratory illnesses.Farming uses fertilisers and insecticides which pollute ground water for drinking. Sewage and industrial waste are dumped into seas causing heavy metal to be accumulated in fish.
In poisoning the environment we live in,aren't we shooting ourselves in the foot ?
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Monday, December 17, 2012
burning of books
Shih Huang Ti did it, Hitler did it and Mao did it -so why are thought dictators afraid of other streams of thought for knowledge is power and ignorance kills. Why then would there be SOPA? Would knowlege be the domain of the rich and privileged when the internet which has been one of the greatest leveller of stratified social classes is limited to a narrow group? The old fashioned way is to burn that which is different and so a threat to whose security? The modern way is to firewall it or commodify that which should be the right to know of all regardless of race,religion or social class.
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
The solitude of prime numbers
I've just finished viewing this touching movie based on the debut novel by Paulo Giodarno called The solitude of prime numbers.The emotional scars on these two lost souls reverberates through their growing up years and spans from high school years to his winning a prestigious scientific international award and her descent to a failed marriage and bouts of anorexia.The emotional and psychological torments that haunt both from some childhood tragedies continue into their adult years as their guilt is manifested in the self mutilation of the male protagonist and the bouts of anorexia of the female.I just hope our bookstores have better stocks of books instead of greying eroticas.The two characters are like the same poles of a magnet,forever pushing each other away because they have too much in common.I just can't believe that Mr Giordano is a physicist and wrote this amazing novel whilst preparing for his Phd in particle physics.He is like Primo Levi.the scientist who can be brilliant in both the right and left brain.
I've this crazy habit of reading diffrent genres at the same time.I'm into Naguib Mafoz:Tales from the Arabian Night and the economist A. Sen's " Development As Freedom.
My back pain woke me up the other night and I was reading Haruki Murakami's short story on "The Mirror" when I fell asleep on the sofa.I had this dream within a dream sensation when I heard soft rattling from the balcony.Thinking that it might be a cat burglar,I l peered out through the kitchen window.There was no breeze as it was a stifling hot night-the heat was so oppressive that the trees could not breathe.then i saw the warm orange glow of the dragon lantern that I hung on the railing of the balcony.I thought I had removed the green candle before putting it there.This dragon was made of transparent yellow cellophane paper with a brilliant red hued body stuck with dazzling sequins and a blue tail.Green tassels hung from its jaws.No way,I rubbed my eyes,the dragon was moving as if some invisible hand was holding the bamboo stick that was tied to it.
I rushed back to the sofa and covered myself with the throw rug.The next day,I asked around the neighbourhood.It seemed that a 6 year old little girl was playing with candles secretly on the night of The Mooncake festival when without her grandparent's notice,the lantern she was holding caught fire as she slipped and fell .
I think Murakami's eeries story on The Mirror had just overactivated my imagination or if not,who was that holding my red dragon lantern?
I've this crazy habit of reading diffrent genres at the same time.I'm into Naguib Mafoz:Tales from the Arabian Night and the economist A. Sen's " Development As Freedom.
My back pain woke me up the other night and I was reading Haruki Murakami's short story on "The Mirror" when I fell asleep on the sofa.I had this dream within a dream sensation when I heard soft rattling from the balcony.Thinking that it might be a cat burglar,I l peered out through the kitchen window.There was no breeze as it was a stifling hot night-the heat was so oppressive that the trees could not breathe.then i saw the warm orange glow of the dragon lantern that I hung on the railing of the balcony.I thought I had removed the green candle before putting it there.This dragon was made of transparent yellow cellophane paper with a brilliant red hued body stuck with dazzling sequins and a blue tail.Green tassels hung from its jaws.No way,I rubbed my eyes,the dragon was moving as if some invisible hand was holding the bamboo stick that was tied to it.
I rushed back to the sofa and covered myself with the throw rug.The next day,I asked around the neighbourhood.It seemed that a 6 year old little girl was playing with candles secretly on the night of The Mooncake festival when without her grandparent's notice,the lantern she was holding caught fire as she slipped and fell .
I think Murakami's eeries story on The Mirror had just overactivated my imagination or if not,who was that holding my red dragon lantern?
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