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Frist. I’m up late unravelling the mysteries of the latest version of Civilization.
One of these days I’m going to remember in time that midnight in Brisvegas is 11.30 pm in Adders, and be frist.
Just hope that day doesn’t come when Adelaide moves to daylight saving time, PC!
Here’s a thing. There’s a Lebanese family next door. Their son, Illy, was in Lebanon until a couple of weeks ago. Imagine the mother’s distress. She couldn’t sleep at nights while Downer was messing about. It was awful. One night I had to go out for a chocolate fix: no mean feat in the Melbourne cold. She was just coming home and very distressed, I was very cold, and I didn’t know how to comfort her, other than saying “It’s just so terrible.” I ended up saying, “Well, I’d better go and buy my chocolate, then. Cheerio.”
What a dickhead.
Anyway, Illy was in Lebanon during the whole business, and was finally evacuated to Turkey. (We were glad to have him safely home, but didn’t welcome the doof doof techno coming from next door). Apparently he has video footage of a Hezbollah rocket hitting an Israeli ship offshore, among other stuff we haven’t seen.
Should I put him in touch with Harry M Miller, or would that be devil-pacting? Do you think it’s still of interest? Should I ask him if I can put it up here? Do you think it’s worth seeing these images at all? Do they have any utility?
五番�
Quoi?
at the-whay?
weathergirl, it wasn’t a rocket, it was a C-802 anti-ship cruise missile supplied to Hizbollah by Iran.
Is there a better movie line than “I’ve had it with these mutherfarkin’ snakes on this mutherfarkin’ plane”?
I’m not sure what the movie is about but Samuel L Jackson sez muthafarkin so well. It has become something of a cult movie before release.
anthony, you are truly a renaissance man, as well as a man who cooks. I’m in awe of your ability to get Chinese characters onto a blog thread, whereas I can’t even manage the odd diacritic mark or two…
What about my pig latin? Does that not impress? : (
I dunno Anna. How go you say “muthafarkin snakes on a plane” in pig latin?
Not in the well known Greater Public School of blair, perhaps?
I bought some Japanese incense today, but I can’t type in the brand name in spiffy characters!
Also, how do Chinese characters on blackberries work?
培 è®è®²å¸ˆæ˜¯æ–°å…´çš„çƒé—¨è?Œä¸šï¼Œå?·ç§°â€œé’»çŸ³â€?è?Œä¸šã€‚从事æ¤è?Œä¸šçš„人，在高收入的å?Œæ—¶ï¼Œè¿˜
å€?å?—ä¼?业尊é‡?ï¼Œå› æ¤æˆ?为很多专业人士的选择。
那是ä¸?是ä¼?业里里，能说会é?“，å?£æ‰?好的，就å?¯ä»¥å?šåŸ¹ è®è®²å¸ˆå‘¢ï¼Ÿæ˜¯ä¸?是æŸ?领域的专家，
å°±å?¯ä»¥å?šåŸ¹ è®è®²å¸ˆå‘¢ï¼Ÿæ˜¯ä¸?是形象气质好，就å?¯ä»¥å?šåŸ¹è®è®²å¸ˆå‘¢ï¼Ÿå?šæ˜¯å?¯ä»¥å?šï¼Œä½†æ•ˆæžœå¦‚何呢？
我们看到大多数内è®å¸ˆä¸Šè¯¾ï¼Œå¦å‘˜æ˜¯è§‚众，在å?¬ï¼Œè€Œä¸?是在练，讲师å?ªæ˜¯åœ¨è®²ï¼Œè€Œä¸?是在
引导。一天下æ?¥ï¼Œå¦å‘˜ç´¯ï¼Œè®²å¸ˆä¹Ÿç´¯ï¼Œè¿˜ä¸?知é?“å¦å‘˜åˆ°åº•å¦åˆ°äº†å¤šå°‘，å??æ£è¯¾ç¨‹æ˜¯ä¸Šäº†ã€‚一些
讲师已ç»?æ„?识到培è®ä¸ï¼Œå¼•å¯¼æŠ€å·§çš„é‡?è¦?性，但怎么å?šåˆ°å‘¢ï¼Ÿå¾ˆå¤šäººè¿˜åœ¨ç‹¬è‡ªæ‘¸ç´¢ã€‚
本课程将通过大é‡?案例和现场演练，结å?ˆè®²å¸ˆè‡ªå·±çš„授课体会，帮助å¦å‘˜åœ¨å·²æœ‰æŽˆè¯¾æ°´å¹³
的基础上，å¦ä¹ 引导å¼?的授课方å¼?，真æ£å?šåˆ°ä»¥â€œå¦å‘˜ä¸ºä¸å¿ƒâ€?的培 è®ã€‚培 è®ä¸?是å?‘生在讲师
的舌头上，而是å?‘生在å¦å‘˜çš„头脑里。
unno-day haun-say.
W T F ?
Suitably schmazzled here. Have we all reached consensus while I was away?
.
La Muerta
Si tú no vives,
si tú, querida, amor mÃo,
si tú
te has muerto,
todas las hojas caerán en mi pecho,
lloverá sobre mi alma noche y dÃa,
la nieve quemará mi corazón,
andaré con frÃo y fuego y muerte y nieve,
mis pies querrán marchar hacia donde tú duermes,
pero
seguiré vivo,
porque tú me quisiste sobre todas las cosas
indomable….
If you are not living,
if you, beloved, my love,
if you
have died,
all the leaves will fall on my breast,
it will rain upon my soul night and day,
the snow will burn my heart,
I shall walk with cold and fire and death and snow,
my feet will want to march toward where you sleep,
but
I shall go on living,
because you wanted me to be, above all things,
untamable….
Is that Neruda?
Ð?аучнаÑ? библиотека ГоÑ?ударÑ?твенного РуÑ?Ñ?кого музеÑ? (ГРМ) раÑ?полагаетÑ?Ñ? в центральной чаÑ?ти МихайловÑ?кого дворца. Первое документальное упоминание о библиотеке вÑ?тречаетÑ?Ñ? в “Положении о РуÑ?Ñ?ком Музее Императора Ð?лекÑ?андра IIIâ€? 1897 года. КоллекциÑ? библиотеки включает литературу по вÑ?ем гуманитарным наукам. ОÑ?нова фонда и его Ñ?пецифика определена профилем музеÑ? – руÑ?Ñ?кое иÑ?куÑ?Ñ?тво. Фонд библиотеки начал активно формироватьÑ?Ñ? Ñ? 10-Ñ… годов 20 века. Ð’ него вливалиÑ?ÑŒ отдельные, Ñ?пециально приобретенные музеем книги и целые книжные коллекции. СейчаÑ? в библиотеке работает 12 Ñ?отрудников. Фонд библиотеки наÑ?читывает 170 000 единиц хранениÑ?. Как научнаÑ? и Ñ?правочнаÑ? библиотека, она помогает в иÑ?Ñ?ледовательÑ?кой деÑ?тельноÑ?ти в облаÑ?ти иÑ?куÑ?Ñ?твоведениÑ?, музейной педагогики и других гуманитарных наук. УчитываÑ? уникальноÑ?Ñ‚ÑŒ Ñ?обраниÑ?, в котором имеютÑ?Ñ? Ñ?кземплÑ?ры редчайших изданий, нарÑ?ду Ñ? Ñ?обиранием и хранением иÑ?куÑ?Ñ?твоведчеÑ?кой литературы вÑ?тал вопроÑ? о Ñ?оединении в единую коллекцию редких изданий длÑ? их Ñ?иÑ?тематизации и изучениÑ? .
http://www.rml.org.ru/russian/about.htm
Mark, re the diacritics, I keep a Word file with some handy stuff, including stuff I’ve harvested from German text on the web. So I have ä ö ü on tap as well as Bähnisch. I think there is somewhere in Word you can get this stuff, but I’ve forgotten where.
This might be of some help:
Typing diacritics http://www.colby.edu/lrc/help/diacritics.html
Well I’ve been away for a little while, let’s just say I was forced to do some ‘holidaying’ up at ‘Silverwater’. Behind ‘bars’. The toothpaste is shit, the company’s pretty frightening, and all the booze tastes like shampoo and methanol (though I’m told that at Kirkconnell near Goulburn, Rodney Adler does a nice fresh loaf of bread). This morning I’m catching up on drinking drinkable drinks and blog readin’. Got my 12 year-old Scotch warming in my hand and my 5 year-old PC overheating and shaking the floor like River Phoenix. Might have some Weetbix soon.
So now that it’s so easy for authors to publish, who’ll step up to the plate to run a decent (say) fortnightly blog digest?
Why do people I don’t know keep trying to kill me?
Weathergirl,
Do you still write for Overlander, and can you tell me how to subscribe?
PS – I love you.
*runs away giggling*
You mean Overland, Alex.
Here’s the subscription link:
http://www.overlandexpress.org/oversubscribe.html
Never let it be said LP doesn’t give good service.
me no likim olgeta snek i stap insait long balus
Kim, how do you know he doesn’t mean
Overlander? Maybe t’girl has more strings to her bow than we think?
Tony – heh.
Perhaps wg does write reviews of large 4wd campervans, and I’m not aware of it!
That is all.
Tony
Ha! I’ve long found LP sadly lacking in reiviews of kangaroo jacks.
Mark
You’d find plenty of time to pursue gentlemanly skills if you did as I did and saved time by just leaving short obscure comments or tapping out half developed unresearched arguments.
On Macs, Japanese is written in kotoeri which uses the same technology of most Japanese word processors. Words are typed phoentically using roman characters and then pressing the space bar brings down a menu of possible combinations of their syllabary, hiragana and katakana, and chinese characters, kanji. Takes a bit of practice as the limited number of phonemes means many of the characters cross over, leaving quite a few choices. Still, it’s easier than a 2000 key typewriter.
As far as street cred goes though, give me a good umlaut any day (though a squiggly c like in soupçon flatters my gentler side)
Just don’t ask him to make you a coffee
Speaking of kangaroo, Anthony, our local supermarket has started getting in some nice roo fillet – got any good roo-cipes?
Ooh Anna you are sooooooo going to get it.
Sorry Tony I bunked off shopping without seeing your comment.
Kangaroo is very lean so you definitely don’t want to overcook it and the best way is to cook it as thin fillets. Seared quickly on either side like you’d do with a medium rare steak. Then you’d slice it thinly to increase the tenderness and given the weather today, on a mash maybe with a plum sauce – the roo has a hint of iron so the sweetness balances it off. I’ve been liking my ras al hanout moroccan spice rub of late and a spice rubdown and then served on couscous with raisins in it could be quite the treat.
I find the commentary from the resident RWDBs, such as CL, Rob, Observa, Bird and various others to be so repulsive, I no longer enjoy reading this blog.
I plea to the administrators to ban these fools for the sake of this forlorn occasional lefty.
FWIW, I am so sick of The Australian’s daily rants on TEH EVIL POSTMODERN HISTORY that I’ve vowed to physically annotate them with unsubtly foul language in permanent black texta from this day forth.
You go right ahead Irritated person, but I’d advise you to wait until you’re reading the print edition, NOT the online version
Yes Alex, could not agree more. Invariably they divert and sabotage what could be a (reasonably) intelligent and stimulating discussion. I get pissed off enough watching the MM news etc without having to suffer these idiots on an otherwise interesting blog!
Laura,
It was already too late for certain print copies last night. Paperboys beware.
Alex and Adrian – we explicitly try to provide a space for relatively open discussion. Unfortunately that means that sometimes there’ll be people whose contribution is mainly negative (I’m not agreeing or disagreeing with the ones you’ve named – except to note that observa is a weird dude). My advice to everyone is always to ignore those you don’t want to engage with and shape the discussion as you’d like it to hear.
Alternatively, I believe there is now a WP plugin which allows people to select commenters whose contributions they never want to see.
Any interest in that?
Speaking of black textas – the syllabus discussion paper by Greg Melleuish for the new old history was excerpted in the Australian today:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20172818-12332,00.html
“the almost bland taste of the Australian experience… why Australia did not have the wars that blighted Europe for generations.”
Heh.
It’s actually a lot better than I expected it to be.
And he appeared to be saying the Summit was a bit of a flop on Lateline.
http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2006/s1718847.htm
But you could get your texta out for the ridiculous spin Paul Kelly puts on it:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20173819-12250,00.html
Interesting Lateline interview, thanks for the link. Back to my narrative (god forbid…be praised?) history book!
Ok, which one of you is Ladyboy Pantywaist?
No matter how little you like or agree with Tim Blair, you have to admit that’s funny. You all are caricatures. Thank you.
If LP was of a mind to ban CL, it would not be worth the time of day. Whereas if Alex and Adrian stopped coming here, nobody would notice for a second.
Well, there shouldn’t be.
Alex: “…I plea to the administrators to ban these fools…”
Observe the power of hypnotism, ladies and gentlemen! Thus far, under my spell, Alex has barked like a dog, clucked like a chicken, and pleaded for the banning of ideas he finds disagreeable. Some of you in the crowd have even nodded in agreement. I ask you, ladies and gentlemen: how do you know that you, too, have not been hypnotized?
(cue Theremin music.)
Alex: when I count to three and click ‘Submit,’ you will awaken from your slumber. You will go back to being a reasonably intelligent person. You will recall what is so pernicious about what you have asked for. You will remember nothing of what has happened here.
One. Two…
Love your work Sluggo.
But if you’re really an Amazing Master of Hypnotism, you should be mesmerically potent enough to break the hypnotic spell cast by Loather, Malevolent Conjurer of Irrational Rage on CL, Observa and his other unfortunate victims.
You’re not too scared to take on Loather, are you Sluggo?
Wronwright, when were you first aware of your little habit of talking to caricatures? Have you ever tried to make friends with real people?
@#Wronwright
I like reading Tim Blair, Andrew Bolt et al. It makes me feel like a sane person…
I similarly love your work sluggo, very clever. But, I come to a left wing blog (that’s what it says it is in the top right hand corner), to read the opinions of intelligent progressive lefties, not the repulsive guttural chundering of the wingnut.
But I will take Kim’s advice and try to ignore them.
Alex:”..read the opinions of intelligent progressive lefties, not the repulsive guttural chundering of the wingnut.”
Funny thing is, the conservatives who come here also like to read leftist opinions as it helps to form a balanced view. You state, however, that you do not wish to read any view but ones which already accord with your own – thus guaranteeing that you have an unbalanced view.
Yet, you would probably call yourself a member of the ‘reality based progressive community’, while specifically not permitting yourself a reality based view open to alteration when the facts change.
How limited and strange a way to think.
MarkL
Canberra
What MarkL said. Or: Alex, you’re weird, dude.
Dude!
Wierd!
[air guitar riff]
The other point worth adding is that by provoking debate, the RWDBs foster increased sharpness and precision for the arguments of the LP HIVE MIND.
“narfing knows nuffink”
Ye Gods, Kim, I am glad I had swallowed my coffee when I read your comment. Brilliant! Still laughing about it five minutes later.
You just blew away the oft-expressed (and erroneous) view that ‘lefties have no sense of humour’.
Cheers: MarkL
Canberra
Weathergirl, maybe you should forget about Harry M. Miller and instead think about contacting the Australian Federal Police?
I presume that you’re being sarcastic, MarkL?
I too read conservative blogs for another perspective, and am not suggesting that people should be banned from reading. The commentators I spoke of are trolls who far from engaging with a subject, walk into a room and defecate in the middle of it.
As for, Rob, after having a read of your blog, you strike me as the classic ex-lefty. Guilt ridden and holding all lefties accountable for stupid choices that you made in your life. Get over yourself.
I dont know if people are aware, but there’s a major stoush going down over the last week at the UN over whether the new peacekeeping force in Timor will be ‘green-helmet’ (ie led by Australia) or Blue-helmet (UN led).
The Australian position is being supported by the US, Japan and the UK; basically everyone else opposes this (EU, ASEAN, New Zealand, Malaysia,Portugal) and its most important to realise that East Timor also strongly opposes it.
I hold no special brief here at all against the ADF – im just aware that the reasons ET opposes it is that the perception of neutrality and lack of self-interest is critical in the delicate time, and on the ground, for right or wrong, the ADF just doesnt enjoy that rep right now – at least not compared to the UN.
(Neither, I hasten to add, does Portugal or Malaysia – the other countries with significant forces – but then, they arent asking to lead it up.)
You know, the INTERFET/ UNTAET shift worked really well last time while they were there – the main problem was leaving too early. Downer’s also making really weak arguments that arent turning any swingers (ie that Brigadier Slater seems to be doing a good job so why change it). Aside from the problem that a lot of Timorese dont actually agree with that assessment, there’s a wider issue of some Howard doctrine style “trusteeship” relationship that will brew way more resentment in ET fractured politcal culture, and make Ramos-Horta’s job even harder.
Ramos -Horta is not anti-Australian in any way. In fact, you’d have to describe him a slightly pro-, rather than neutral. Yet he is ‘dead opposed’ to the green helmet proposition.
Just sayin….
OK, I put those inverted commas in the wrong place….
thats: Yet he is dead opposed to the ‘green helmet’ proposition.
Yobbo’s a reason for censorship. Look at the racist remark he makes on this thread, for instance. Yobbo, why should weathergirl call the AFP? Because her neighbour is Lebanese?
Yobbo’s point was that Hizbollah is deemed to be an illegal terrorist organisation in Australia and people with knowledge of its local operatives should call the police. Nothing to do with racism.
Shaun and Tanja:
Mi laikim senek istap insait long balus; i nambawan kaikai …. liklik In-Flight Meal. Yu traim kaikai
Lol! I think i’ll pass thanks…(.and from the look of it, .i evidently can’t spell in English OR in Pidgin). At least i can follow you Graham, unlike all the Brainiac’s in here who are prone to quoting Latin
I did once share a MAF flight with a live cassowary and some pigs a metre away though.
Tanja:
L-O-L …. some in-fight meals I’ve had, on a very small and unrepresentative number of flights, made me think we helpless passengers might have been better off catching and cooking our own food …. I accidently misspelled “in-flight” as “in-fight”; I’ll leave it, it makes more sense
Yes, the Latin here caught me by surprise but I’m getting used to it,
Oh, the horror! Tim Blair’s latest post contains a spellling mistake:
Shall we mock him endlessly?
Pulll your head out of the sand, Tim!
No, it doesn’t work for me either. Damn, I wish I could be more petty.
The blog title should have been a dead give away ….;)
How can you pretend to know what Yobbo’s point, was, Rob, when he couldn’t articulate it for himself? He didn’t say as much. He simply said weathergirl should call the police about her Lebanese neighbour, who had been in Lebanon and shot video footage of the war. There was no evidence in her post he knew of “local operatives”.
If an Anglo-Australian had been there at the time and shot footage, I doubt there would be such a comment from Yobbo. His comment was racist.
You’re an idiot Alice.
The point is whether or not Weathergirl’s neighbor is connected to Hezbollah, whatever video he has could come in very useful to the AFP or ASIS in the whole “war on terror” thing that you may or may not realise has been going on for quite some time now. As weathergirl states, she believes it to be footage that nobody else has, so it could come in handy.
Tone it down, Yobbo.
Yobbo is quite justified in this case. Alice was hurling around an accusation of ‘racism’ from a comment that any one with a basic literacy education could see was alluding to the Hezbollah video footage. It shows how madly politically correct some people are becoming about alleged ‘Islamophobia’.
Bite me Kim. I am sick of being called a racist by morons. If you don’t like it, ban me, but don’t threaten me – I couldn’t give a fuck.
Alright, Yobbo, fair enough, though Alice did say your comment was racist not you. But people shouldn’t be abusing each other, right?
“though Alice did say your comment was racist not you.”
You really are shameless.
Yay!! 22 today!! Well… not a big year… but I’ve survived a year of adulthood-proper so that’s an achievement, no?
I’ve made the decision to go to China with my girlfriend at the end of the year and meet her parents. We’ll have been together for three years next April, and she’s met my parents on a number of occasions so it’s only fair… and she was rather disappointed last year when I changed my mind re: travel to China. I’m quite excited about it… but am a bit nervous about meeting the parents. I knew Yanzi had no worries meeting mine… not only is she a model significant other, very beautiful, consientious and has great prospects… but my parents are far more liberal than most Australians are…and that’s saying something. China is a far more conservative culture, however… and, with Yanzi being a “little Empress” (only female child -> thanks to one child policy)… I’m not sure I will get off so lightly… me being an Australian (already a mark against my name. Westerners have a crazy reputation in China), and a student… with a degree that will perhaps not make me a great deal of money. Furthermore, I won’t even be able to talk directly with them. I’m going to have to be a very polite, humble and incredibly chaste young Cliff for a month or too. Wish me luck! (and maybe some advice for those who know the middle Kingdom).
You’ll be fine and you’ll have a great time Cliff.
Westerners have a much better reputation in China than you seem to think. It’s in Japan where we get the shaft (big sign in the airport: BEWARE! Foreigners Have AIDS!)
No holding hands or touching. Only longing looks. Bring a gift for mum dad.
Which part of China are you going to? If it’s anywhere other than Shanghai or Beijing, be prepared to have a lot of people staring at you in bewilderment.
Nanjing… the old Imperial Capital of the South, briefly known as Tianjin under the Taipings, home to Sun Zhongshan’s tomb… but far more famous in modern history than it (or its inhabitants) deserved to be
Colour me Bloody Jealous, Cliff. My advice: Try not to eat too many dogs, no matter how they are prepared.
Ever since i read about it in a Frederick Forsyth novel, i’ve always wanted to visit the far northwest extremes of China. There’s an ancient city where the Mongol and Chinese history meet – according to Forsyth at least. Thing is, I understand China is pretty big and has a fairly big desert in the middle of it.
Happy Birthday, Cliff!
You seem a very polite boy, no doubt her parents will love you.
/grandma
Hehe… I think dog eating is more of a southern thing. Yanzi, at least, has never tried it. Xinjiang is the province in the far northwest… definitely desert, but very beautiful from what I’ve heard and the pictures I’ve seen. Ethnically it is muslim and probably more related to the central asian nations. There is a troublesome separatist movement there.
“You know, the INTERFET/ UNTAET shift worked really well last time while they were there – the main problem was leaving too early”
Actually Lefty E, UNTAET was an absolute disaster, any and all progress made under INTERFET was reveresed within weeks of the UNTAET Administration (?) taking over
Thankyou, and thankyou
I do my best… though I think I’ll have to lay off the Chinese wine while I’m over there. It’s not that I get impolite… but my faux paz susceptibility skyrockets 
Cliff, happy birthday.
So you are going to China soon ?
” I’m quite excited about it… but am a bit nervous about meeting the parents ” .
Parents can be very tolerant in these situations.I met my future in laws for the first time when I was asking for their permission to marry their daughter.
I guess their main concern was the usual things about security of employment and future plans as a couple. Maybe you can develop an answer which will address these matters while not being too specific or making you feel umcomfortable ? Many people in China are very focused on the future and their plans can seem very ambitious( or at least they seem that way to me !).
And I would avoid the “wine ” – it is usually rocket fuel in a easy to carry container.The Devil may disagree but stick to the beer.
Another happy birthday wish, Cliff.
Enjoy the trip to China. At least with not speaking the lingo especially well, whatever faux pas you make can probably be smoothed over by your girlfriend (she’ll be your translator, yes?)
Hope you can keep online some of the time (start up a photoblog so we can see the once-was-a-capital).
Happy birthday (belatedly online), Cliff! Sorry I couldn’t make your birthday drinks on Friday…
I do indeed disagree, boredinHK.
Chinese wine: easy to carry, not too overpowering a taste, high alcohol content, the product of a flourishing home-grown industry… what’s not to like? I’d prefer a dry sherry myself, but you could do a lot worse. Certainly I’d rather drink Chinese brain marinade than some of the fucking awful $8 chardonnays being produced in Australia these days.
The last time I went to a party with Chinese friends (Malaysian diaspora Chinese) the whole thing ended up pretty enjoyably messily. There were mountains of white wine to wash down seafood and the night ended with everyone toasting everyone else in Scotch. Is there a Chinese equivalent to gemütlichkeit? Certainly the concept translates.
I think faux pas are the least of your worries, Cliff, and I agree with tigtog here—I think meeting the olds is more stressful when you both have a language in common. Smile, baby, and the world smiles with you.
December or January… I’d say for about four weeks. I wouldn’t mind going for spring festival (which is generally in feb) but I probably should be job hunting and/or preparing for phd (if I get 1st class hons… fingers crossed) by then.
True. They’ll probably think I’m lazy for not learning much mandarin. Might have to brush up on some.
I’d be taking my laptop over so I’ll be able to do that.
Thankyou, and no worries! Will see you soon.
That’s true… Yanzi says I have to be deferential, and address her mother and father as ‘aunty’ and ‘uncle’ (in mandarin the words must have much wider connotations). Chinese table manners are, from my experience, not a problem. I’ve got my chopstick technique under control
Should be good. It’ll be the first time I’ve travelled overseas (except to NZ… which, absolutely stunning natural beauty aside, is very much like Australia)… so I’m psyched. Now I’ve just gotta get back to my studying and put it out of my mind for a few months. Not the easiest thing to do… I have a tendency to live in the future too much in my imagination… which ironically sometimes gets in the way of me actually doing the things now that will improve my future
Bush goes existential on y’all!
Er weathergirl, this wouldn’t be the Isreali ship sinking picture would it?
You’ll get 1st class honours, Cliff. Take my word for it!
Thanks for that evidence-free anti-UN ideological outburst, Oigal. Care to provide some detail of your case, so I can see what I’m aiming at?
Hate to fire blind, you know.
Cliff:
zhu ni Sheng Ri Kuai Le (happy birthday)
Nanjing is pretty good. Modernizing like mad but it has a lot of charm; maybe you would prefer Nanjing to Shanghai.
Before you go: Get into drinking practice with nips of neat vodka (or Mao Tai, Wu Liang or Er Guo Tou if you can get your hands on any); first toast down the hatch, subsequent toasts just take a wee sip and say quietly “Sui Bian” unless you are a champion tosspot …. in which case, go for Gold!
December-January is frrreezing cold in Nanjing. Just watch out for black ice when you are walking if it has been snowing …. and especially if you are crossing the road.
Northerners eat dog too but it’s too expensive. Stick to beef, pork, chook, duck or fish. Hope you’ve learnt to handle slippery jiaozi with slippery plastic chopsticks.
Whatever you do, you MUST learn some basic phrases and answers/responses and practice them until they become automatic …. you’ll miss out on 95% of the fun if you don’t
TheDevilDrink:
BoredInHK gave some sovereign advice. The problem is that the Chinese word “jiu” is usually translated as “wine” and it covers everything alcoholic from chunderous rice brew to rather nice grape wines from Shandong and Henan to “guochan” local brandies (great mixers) to pleasant spirits like Hua Diao Jiu and Mei Gui Lu to paint-stripper (dead drunk for 2 Yuan).
Cliff:
About the parents – be polite and respectful but definitely NOT humble; they want their daughter to be with an ambitious young man who will make his way in the world, not a wimp.
This is China in 2006 we’re talking about; didn’t you mean very discrete and very private?
Oh… the “war on terror” thing. Do you mean that ad campaign where they distributed free merchadise — fridge decoration, I think it was — to try and scare the bejesus out of people and make them think a war and local police state were justified?
Hmm, let me have a think about that. The AFP getting footage of a foreign war, that might be really helpful for the case of the (Anglo!) terrorist recently arrested in Brisbane.
Why do you feel the need to point out his race? I think you might be a racist.
Good to see you trying so hard, Yobbo, but I’m afraid you don’t understand when someone’s taking the piss, or making a point.
Shock! “WordPress > Error”!
Blog reading ain’t the same with
No Catallaxy!
SIGH
yes – Catallaxy this week has gone down more times than [insert dirty joke]
I check out Antony Loewenstein’s blog most days (before anyone comments that this is strange or narrow I’ve had a fascination with the course of events in Afghanistan from the early 1990’s) .
So after a quick eyeballing of the topics for today I move over to other blogs, in the handy link list on the side of the window but today the link for LP has been expunged.
What did you all say ? I mean Scott Burchill gets a mention so quality isn’t an issue so what have you done ?
Lefty E…
“You know, the INTERFET/ UNTAET shift worked really well last time while they were there”
You are right Lefty…I should have provided detailed evidence that UNTAET was a disaster…perhaps I may as soon as I sift through the wealth of evidence you provide for your statement (wouldn’t want to be one sided now would we..)
In the meantime, perhaps you could name some (one?) of those wonderful working public institutions they left behind (or even whilst they were there)..you know like the police service, customs, tax office..wait maybe the courts..Perhaps we should mention the floating hotel and the fun that was had there. Gee and it only cost…??
Sorry what were those daily allowances again? How many 4×4 vehicles. What about a tax code that specifically identified Tampons in its own special paragraph as GST FREE because that happened to be the big bad GST issue (anti howard) in Australia at the time. At least we knew they were focused on helping the people not playing with their own little agenda.
OK, Oigal, now at least I know what you’re referring to.
Yes – there was a lot of wasted money (though it wasnt just UN, some big NGOs were part of that action). But your essential point is misbegotten: INTERFET was in no position to undertake the UNTAET task, as it was simply a security force, not a state-building exercise. The two tasks were entirely different. Id say the same applies now.
In any case, I have to completely disagree with your assessment that UNTAET was a ‘disaster’. Building a state from the ground up -literally from nothing – was never going to be easy, and most Timorese agree de Mello did a fine job under tough circumstances. He is well regarded, and remembered publicly in ET each year since his death. As for institutions, well, we all know the problems with the army and police. But Im sorry to tell you that Australians (some ex-INTERFET) advisers were primarily responsible for training and advising the army, so give UNTAET a break! And the Police were well and truly screwed up after UNTAET by Rogerio Lobato (though I agree, to be fair, that recruiting former police from the Indo era was one clear example of a bad UNTAET decision).
More positively, democracy actually works pretty well (eg much greater % of voter turnout than the US or UK), the education system is barely above adequate, but hardly a “disaster”, and the court problem is very serious, but not one that could ever have been addressed in 3 years, by anyone or anything. Its a simple question of a a lack of human resources, complicated by language policies. Neither of which were UNTAET’s fault.
On expense: what Australia proposes with a ‘green helmet” operation means taking all those costs itself, rather than spreading some to the international community.
The ADF is copping a bit of flack for some simple failures (eg failure to station security at the refugee camps, until guess who – the UN – took up that cause recently). Plus there is a huge % of the timorese population who – rightly or wrongly – believe Australia was implicated in bringing down the government they voted for. Australia is in NO position to run this reconstruction without adding to tensions within Timorese society.
Thats why the Timorese Government itself is asking for a blue helmet operation. They know the Australians cant do it as effectively – this is no longer a simple security operation, but a political reconstruction exercise.