American dream

We who stand on the fringe of the developing world used to look up to the Americans like how Scott Fitzgerald described how Gatsby in his novel Great Gatsby rose from rags to riches gazing across the dark waters of the straits to wonder at the bright city lights glimmering in the dark. We were brought up with the tv telecast of the first humans who took the first step on the Moon,the Walt Disney cartoons of Snow White and the little Mermaid,listened to Micheal Jackson songs and his iconic moonwalk,gawked at the A and W rootbeer n coney dogs and fried chicken with fries,addicted to soap operas of Happy Days and Fonzie and read National Geographic,Readers Digest and the Marvel comics of Superman and Spiderman. The American dream symbolised hope,opportunity and the chance to make good based on hard work and decent values. Will those good old times come back? i feel that Thomas Friedman,Jeffrey Sachs,Noam Chomsky and Fareed Zakaria are all giving constructive ideas that is not reaching the people who have the power to make lives better for the average working class and for the rest of the world.What happened to the progressive reforms that ended global wars,uplifted millions from poverty,improved global healthcare and humanitarian values and assured protection for the marginalised,the vulnerable,the migrants.Why is America disengaging from the world?Why is it building walls instead of bridges?What does justice,freedom and equality mean?

Daily meal

I cooked a fusion pasta for lunch.its a stir fried dry curry minced chicken macaroni.My aunt cooked this for us when young.i added curry powder,garam masala powder,tumeric powder,chilli sauce,chicken stock,red bell pepper n big onions. sprinkle with chopped coriander leaves.it was smoking hot and burned my tongue. Dinner i cooked cantonese ginger braised duck drummet.i bought frozen duck drummet at rm1.70 each,marinate with 5 spice powder n dark soya sauce.braise with old ginger slices,fermented red bean curd,taucheo and caramelized sugar.fry in sesame oil and put in shitake mushroom it tasted like how grandma cooked it xinhui style n old fashioned.taste like ayam pong teh .ate with acar or pickled vegetables.the only missing ingredient in the duck dish is aged tangerine peel or chan pei which is a Cantonese delicacy hard to find.why doesnt someone from Canton prepack the 5 spice powder,dried ginger slices n dried tangerine peel for export Thank goodness for free trade globalisation,i get to eat an international diet like ocean perch,dory fish,salmon belly,kubota or iberico pork sliced paper thin for shabu or yakuniku,wahyu beef burgers or angus beef steak,potato gnocchi,frozen ravioli.Even in term of fruit i enjoy more variety than my parents from blueberry,avocado,dragon fruit,musk melon,lychee or figs. today i bought ingredients to cook indian fish curry.i used local ikan tenggiri or Spanish mackerel king that cost rm 5 a slice.also bought my favourite gold susu thai mango at rm1.80 each and thai green black gold rm 2 each.i couldnt find Kimball local chickpeas in can in three supermarkets as out of stock so i bought a can of Italian chickpeas at rm5.90. compared to local at rm 5.80.i bought seedless green grapes from India at rm 7.00.So thankful for globalization so i get affordable variety of food.next week i gonna buy Italian potato gnocchi n pesto sauce..Open free trade brings benefit to consumers as we have more choices and lower costs.Affordable food ensures food security and is basic human rights to live a decent life.But in Malaysia we have overnutrition with 6 meals a day so we are now the champions of the heavy weights in Asean.The problem is the education system doesnt not only teach sex education but health education and sports education is sorely neglected but there is lots of hate education as Siti Kassim pointed out. Look at what kindergarten kids in China are learning in preschool from dexterity skills to life skills like cooking to science and maths while we are still into rote learning.Malu la.

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Professor Jeffrey Sachs

At the Antalya Diplomatic forum ,Prof Sachs talks sense.In order to fix the budget instead of trimming social security,welfare of veterans,medical care n education budget,why not close down some of the 80 global American military bases all around the world.Starting wars is more costly than diplomatic efforts to resolve issues from a trade war to regime changes. It was reported that in the US,in 10 states ,supermarkets are running out of stock and consumers may pay hefty prices soon for coming Christmas. But the more dangerous threat to the world that is bigger than Covid pandemic will be the climate crisis. It was mind blowing to get intelligent questions from the floor we have moved on from dealing with a tangible economy in the past from agriculture,manufacturing to intangibles like service and artificial intelligence.Has our nation prepared for the economic challenged ahead as the knowledge worker replaces the blue and white collar worker or are our heads still in the cloud and not the Google cloud and Deepfake comes along with Deepseek.Is the regulatory authorities ready for futureproofing the systemic shift

Delicious food from East to West

Jun likes an Asian meal n a Western meal daily either lunch or dinner.Lunch i cook French fish stew Bouillabaise Marseille.I put in tomato puree n soup n 4 fresh tomatoesleeks,big onions,cubed potato,a whole black pomfret,haddock,shrimp n oysters.while i was gutting n cleaning the pomfret,pussy smelled the fishy entrails n tried to jump on kitchen countertop.i shoo him away n closed the wet kitchen door.Pussy got mad and pissed on my spare apron that i hung on the door knob.shit i gotta buy a new kitchen apron. i ate french stew with toasted garlic butter baguette and an appetiser of kim chi.i like the mild flavour of cabbage,apple,carrot n beetroot kimchi with prebiotics.

China peasants.Wo Shi Nong min chu sheng.Ni shi chu sheng!!!

Vice President JD Vance dismissed Chinas economic rise to prosperity as rising on the backbone of peasants.Like the French revolution that saw the rise of the proletariat against the nobility,elite class of rich landowners that oppressed the factory workers and poor farmers who overthrew the monarchy system,the revolution led by the Red Army to fight the imperialists Japanese depended on the grassroot support of the peasants to overthrow an inept emperor and end the Qing dynasty.The army was disciplined,non corrupt and respected the peasants who provided food,supplies and manpower to the army and in return the soldiers helped in agricultural labour.Mao introduced land reforms that won the overwhelming support of the peasants. It couldnt be smooth sailing to replace an entrenched centuries old political system like the monarchy in France and China with a new political system. Yeah so im proud to have my ancestors coming from peasants background.They toil long hours and use blood and sweat to grow the food to feed millions and keep famine at bay.With industrialisation,they migrated to cities to work in factories to provide cheap labour to lower production costs so that the nation need not kidnap black people from Africa and sell them as slaves to work in cotton plantations and treat them as commodities These so called peasants have a better standard of living than the average migrant peasant in the land of the free.They get to own their homes usually double or three story buildings with all modern facilities like electricity n water,subsidized healthcare,free education and disposable income to own vehicles and travel. People in power should remember the source of their power.As the Proverb says water can float a boat but it can also sink a boat.Mao reminded his soldiers that the red army must move amongst the people like a fish swimming in the sea and the masses of peasants are akin to the sea and the soldiers the fish

When a cock scares the shit out of a pussy

Iam encouraging my housebound pussy to explore new surrounding like the park,childrens playground,the cafe and so on so that he will enjoy travelling to new places and seeing new sights. My neighbour on the ground floor unit has a pet Bantam cock outside in his garden that is kept in a cage.This morning i wanted Captain pussy to take a catwalk.He refused to leave my unit and used his paws to cling to the metal grill door.I gently persuaded pussy to let go and carried him on my shoulder down to the ground floor to see the cock.The moment the cock crowed loudly it scared the shit out of this pussy and his body trembled in fear and he clung to my neck.I dont know who was more horrified? the cock or the pussy.This neighbour also keeps a ginger pet cat so the cock was used to cats meowing but the scaredy Captain has been overprotected and saw an alien or a ghost until he was shivering in fright.He had post traumatic stress and refused the cat treat i gave him.i had to bring him home and the moment he was in a safe place,he ran inside his cat house that was dark and warm.Aiyo how can i take him outside to travel to a cat cafe or the special cat theme park in shah alam when all he wants is to stay home.bloody unadventurous like Jun who is a homesbody and i have to push him to try new activities.safe but dull and boring like the pussy who dislikes exploring.

Global appetite

Yipee I found a grocery store that sells middle eastern spices n im looking at date syrup,pomegrenate molasses and saffron infused syrup so i can learn to cook morocco and tunisia food like pilaf. this week i plan on cooking cantonese ginger duck stew as i bought frozen duck drummet,a french fish n seafood stew of bouillabaise marseille ,a thai green curry laksa with mini brinjals and indian fish curry with chickpea moringa leaf . im gonna cook the dish for dinner in Stephen Chows The God of Cookery and that is the pissing beef ball and the sorrowful rice. But i feel in sorrowful rice ,we should have tears and sweat on our faces while eating it.My idea is to cook superspicy Mala added with tom yam bird eye chilli ,wasabi powder so that you cry while eating it.szechuan pepper and birds eye chilli and wasabi combined will cause tongue to numb,eyes to cry and nose to sneeze.very yum gong or ,pathetic

curry.