‘Op Ed’ Archives
My Birth month with no blogging…
I have a group of friends that coined the phrase - 'birth month'...cause you can never celebrate enough of "you"...well one friend in particular - who I miss terribly. I'd like to say that my lack of posting in May was due to whooping it up for May, my birth month -- and I did - there were 2 trips to Beijing and then one long one in late April [...]
88 days to go!
8 is a lucky number in China...it is time for some of this luck, coupled with the fact that it is indeed my year - The Year of the Tiger roared in this Valentine's February 14th - to rub off on me! On that day I was sitting in a hammock on Koh Payam beach...which seems very, very far away now. I am reticent to say that [...]
The New Year…2010 approaches, it’s an odyssey all right!
Did I ever think that I would be living in China in 2010? NO. Did I ever think I would be a teacher in 2010? NO. Did I ever think I would be sitting in my place of work wearing long johns, full winter gear, my winter coat and hat and gloves in 2010? NO. (No, I do not teach at an Arctic substation. But I do work in an uninsulated, [...]
Climate change, Copenhagen, and coughing
I think I may have mentioned how my time here in China has been dominated by a fearsome fog of composed of sea haze (i.e. actual fog) construction debris and downwind factory pollutants. This seems to have resulted in a nagging, sometimes hacking cough that just does not go away, is most prevalent in the mornings...and well, troublesome to say the [...]
The fine art of diplomacy.
It always surprises me that some professionals in this world have still failed to master even the most rudimentary of diplomatic skills. Sure, they seem as if they can navigate through their respective professional spheres quite well - somehow even excelling and being promoted to positions of some authority where they must deal with sensitive [...]
accepted truths
*This post was originally drafted on October 26th and just finished off today. While I admit it goes off on many tangents, I enjoy the parts too much not to post the sum;-) History is written by the victors...isn't that the saying? Was it only in Churchill's time that this was finally acknowledged? or just said out loud? There are many [...]
Dear Obama:
Dear Obama: I am worried...I am worried for you...and not for the first time, I am worried for your party and your country. Worry for your country (which so many other countries uphold as the model of democracy and 'where dreams come true') means worry for my country, so close and therefore so often mistaken and lumped in with its southern [...]