Laforet Tokyo

This is an old entry of my log on 21 July 2008.

One day in 2002, I was on my way back to the city where I stay, stopping over in Tokyo. I took the Airport Limousine to Shinagawa Prince, and on the way, the bus stopped by Laforet in Shinagawa, before stopping at the Prince. I had been to Japan for so many times that I thought I should get used to the scenary of this country and should not have profound feeling when encountering something new. I had this thought many times but each time I was proven to be wrong. Every time I met with something of my taste in Japan, be it a new thing or a familiar experience, I had that refreshing feeling. Laforet, again, gave me the refreshment I longed for. Probably I was awaken after a brief nap which I always did whenever I sat inside a limousine bus to downtown Tokyo. I saw a couple of bellboys, welders and disciplined, picking up luggages for their clients at Laforet. What a beautiful moment! The yellowish light at the entrance that appeared to glow exceptionally bright, accompanied by the darkening sky with the fiery purplish hue, presented the best picture of the working bellboys. I was not sure what this hotel was, but not long after this moment, my memory put this picture away. All I had perhaps was a faint memory of the word Laforet. Time flies, and 6 years later, I again planned my trip to Japan of this year. I haven't gone to Japan this year because of the honeymoon for which I chose France. The autumnal temperament made a sojourn to Japan inevitable and irresistible. Except one in the early 1990s in which I was a college student, my trips to Japan were never budget ones. I am never thrifty when coming to enjoying the best of Japan. I am not particularly financially better off, but I think that whenever affordable, I should enable my heart and soul to be touched by the essence of Japan without disturbance. One way to achieve this is to make peace of mind a first place. I do not need to worry about transportation, accommodation, food, books and sightseeing arrangements. So I would choose the best that I can afford. One day when I was browsing on the Net for hotel information, the picture of the Laforet bellboys at dusk was suddenly retrieved from the archives and it gave me the comforting moment as strong and alive as when in 2002 I actually saw them. The actual substance of this moment remains somewhat beyond verbal description, but the desirability and comfort drawn on the picture I recalled and the Japan I know definitely played an important part here. I decided to look for Laforet and my memories were correct. Can I really experience Laforet this time? From a commuting perspective, it is not truly a desirable place. Laforet is located in Shinagawa, a short distance from the JR station. Although Shinagawa is not comparable with Shinjuku, Shibuya or Ikebukuro, if trendy nightlife is your goal, it has certain attractiveness to me, so to speak, for it is still on the Yamanote Line and Shinjuku and Shibuya are only a couple of stations away. But Shinagawa is far subtler in the sense that the chances of meeting those loud people from the city where I stay would be much lower, and it has also some historical significance not far from that which you would find in Shinjuku, Ginza or Tokyo Marunouchi.

I don't know what else to say...but I am certain that the reality created by, if you will, the Laforet experience, would be an enjoyable one - it is a pursuit of happiness, serious and far from frivolous, stretching the amplitude of life, in what I believe is the highest level of human living. That evening, alone and tranquil, was a moment and it was eternity.

Kamakura

I think it is great to read some history in a softer way. Formal, detailed hard history is good to read seriously. In a sense it is a necessary form of archiving incidents past. At times, we should enjoy some leisure moments, very much in an austere manner I suppose, and read history, including the livelihood of people in the past, without having to speculate how the train of events occurs and developments unfolded. All I need is some information on which I can think about how the world looked like at that time. Appended below is an article in Chinese, from the Hong Kong Economic Journal of 1st December 2009.

鐮倉大佛 抹茶冰淇淋
奧巴馬總統十一月訪問日本，在三得利音樂廳講演，開篇就談到，幼時母親曾帶他到鐮倉看過大佛，但他的興趣卻在「抹茶冰淇淋」上。鐮倉大佛為日本國寶。不但高大（高十三米多；重一百二十一噸），而且與日本其他地區的大佛不同，頷首低頭，視線向下，明顯有中國佛像風格。
雖說日本的佛教是經由中國、朝鮮半島傳來，但佛像多具日本特色，而鐮倉一帶的佛像很多帶有中國傳統。十二世紀末，與京都天皇「公家」對立的源賴朝，被任命為征夷大將軍，建館鐮倉，一般被認為是 「鐮倉幕府」時代的開始。這時正值中國北南宋、遼金交替時代，鐮倉幕府從中國引進了「禪宗」思想，作為武士的精神支柱。由實權人物北條時賴（源賴朝之丈）在鐮倉建立了日本第一個「禪寺」—建長寺。而鐮倉左近寺院的佛像，也就多如中國佛像體態舒展、表情豐富，衣紋也多模仿中國的雕刻樣式。鐮倉附近青雲寺的「觀音菩薩遊戲坐像」，甚至就是在中國造好再運來的。為了方便與中國的船隻往來，還在鐮倉海邊人工建島（和賀江島）。這裏出土了很多中國的陶瓷器皿和錢幣。甚至有人認為，當時的鐮倉市面都是一色中國風格。
但這些都是作為武家政權的鐮倉幕府，要與京都的貴族文化「劃清界限」，建立獨自文化而為。鐮倉三面環山，一面臨海。把守從關西京都到關東江戶的要衝。古時不但外圍有「鐮倉七口」要隘，防止入侵，市內小路也故意造得盤根錯節，而且不畫在地圖上，敵軍即使侵入也會暈頭轉向。大佛位於鐮倉西口，據說也是表明與西邊京都勢力的對抗。
大佛是高德院的本尊如來坐像，建於十三世紀中葉。原計劃是木雕，不知怎麼就變成銅像了。大殿毀於十五世紀末的大海嘯，大佛就成了露天的了。現在花二十日圓就可以進入大佛底座觀看。
奧巴馬說他從大佛看到了和平和寧靜，但其實背後卻隱藏着戰爭的血腥。鐮倉幕府因抵禦元朝從海上來犯，財政吃緊，被當時的後醍醐天皇派兵攻陷。執掌幕府的北條一族兵敗自盡，鐮倉幕府落下帷幕。
其實，鐮倉的一些「洋館（洋式建築）」也是很有味道的。往往地處半山，高窗明室，建築奇巧。明治後，當時西洋的「休閒觀」傳入日本，鐮倉附近的湘南海岸成為日本第一個海水浴場，很多文人、豪族、實業家被吸引到鐮倉建宅邸，被稱為「鐮倉文士」。小說家里見惇在關東大地震後，於鐮倉建洋館，據說防震是沿用了當時帝國飯店的標準。但又在旁邊為自己建了一棟和式的寫作間。
我遊鐮倉，不看大佛，不走大路，喜歡躲開眾多遊客穿小道，可以看到一般市民的生活。還可以在新建的洋式建築間徘徊，出入小規模的美術展覽，間或靜靜地喝一杯咖啡。當然，也一定會有冰淇淋，而且是「抹茶」的。

Cigar Appreciation

The bland people of the world, the health crooks, use as much pseudoscience and fake evidence and stupidly wrong induction to convince the world that smoking should be eradicated as the Oriental communist rulers used moronic propaganda to fool their foolish subjects. Needless to say, the world full of morons buys into this lie. Of course the cigarette industry consists of the equally nasty crooks who should be controlled to an extent much stricter than the bland people health crooks. But this affects the secret art of cigar smoking, which, in any case, belongs to the privileged few. And it should always belong to these few and be kept out of contact by any other underprivileged, disprivileged and cheaper specimens in the human race. Perhaps, one should say when people lack the sense and decorum to enjoy a good smoke. He should not be permitted to touch a good stick of Havana again, until, if it happens, he is penitent to the fact that a good smoke is holy.

http://www.leon.jp/category/cigar

Keizoku (On-going Investigations)

ケイゾク(繼續［調查］) is Japan's answer to Cold Cases. This was my favourite series in 2006, starring Nakatani Miki. The theme song, Chronic Love, is composed by Sakamoto Ryuichi and performed by Miss Nakatani herself. Even you don't fully understand the lyrics, you will feel its melody partake of a sense of mystery in the episodes of these 'on-going investigations', a euphemism of 'cold cases' that occurred years ago and are now just dusty files. Enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZXdRjIIs-0&feature=related

Red Ear Slider

I have a lovely slider hatchling, Fat Fat. A month ago, Fat Fat became inactive and he could not swallow. He just spit out whatever in his month, and he was increasingly inactive. So I brought him to the vet who suspected pneumonia as she found him lopsided afloat. Fat Fat went through the treatment which included 2 rounds of antibiotics (5 injections each) (Fortum Ceftazidime), 2 shots of vitamin A (0.01 ml each) and 1 injection of fluid (1 ml). The vet also prescribed Reptoboost from Vetark, a UK brand, that is a powder mixture of glucose and maltodextrins as a 'pick-me-up'. I quarantined him as well. Fat Fat got better and was gaining weight (I could feel him heavier every day when I picked him up). He was still a bit 'dull' but had good appetite which made me relieved. However, he appears to be stressed out and tends to hide away whenever I come to see him (except when he's hungry).

Today, suddenly it seems he is losing appetite again as he spit the food I gave him (he ate some shrimps but not as many as a few days ago). I found him lopsided more seriously and gasping quite a lot. Currently I put him in a small vivarium and give him frozen brine shrimp, frozen vitamin-fortified bloodworm (both Japanese products) or dried shrimps and pellets (a Polish product, Aqua Szut) on a rotation basis (I don't see many US brands here in Hong Kong). I tried to entice him to have some greens but he is just too carnivorous. I am now giving him Reptoboost, lest he is weakening.

At the moment, he appears ok. Whether he has got pneumonia or gut problem and whether I am doing the right thing for me is being reviewed. Is there a possibility that he is born with defects that make him weak? I do not know. If the situation worsens, I probably need to bring him to the vet again.

His environment: temperature (water) about 80; room temp (daytime reaching 90 and at night 82-84). The vivarium is put beside the window with fair amount of sunshine. UVB light is installed as well. I have a heating tube but guess don't need it in summer time. The vivarium is a small one (7.5 inches (W) x 5 inches (D) and 5 inches (H)) as I separated him from his peers.

Comme Au Premier Jour by Andre Gagnon

Listened to some pieces of Andre Gagnon. I don't know what to say except feeling blessed. Sometimes the ungratefulness of human beings worsens life more than the misfortune we experience. On some occasions where the seeming misfortune is in fact a blessing we lack the capability to perceive it as so and to acknowledge that we are blessed and strengthened by the sufferings that are sweet in their core. The musical pieces of Andre Gagnon's I just listened to are familiar but somehow strange to me, although I have listened to this Canadian composer-cum-pianist since my early ages. The solo of M. Gagnon might not be of the taste to a young man with an explosive mind who were surrounded by more bountiful Modern Romantic music in the 1980's. But now more than 2 decades have passed, when I listened to the piano that singularly produces the music, I feel something I have never felt before, that heavenly otherworldly melody that makes me immerse in somewhere not belonging here. It would be hard to believe that the world would come to perfect harmony in which every human is satisfied and perfected, no matter how much he has suffered in this corporeal life; but it would not be difficult to expect that happens if music of this great influencing power can be composed and rendered.

Kabei - Our Mother

Sayuri Yoshinaga, Rei Dan, Tsurube Shofukutei, Keiko Toda, Mirai Shida, Miku Sato, Tadanobu Asano, et al. Directed by Yoji Yamada.

What else can I write?

Nissan Teana (2)

Teana is very impressive, but I have been deeply ingrained with the idea that Europe is privileged when coming to automobile manufacture, and that Japanese automobiles may be reliable and come equally as far as technology and performance are concerned yet European cars are a combination of luxury, prestige and technology - especially German cars. I was struggling at the time as my target is locked, an Audi A4 1.8T. From the standpoint of luxury and comfort, it may not be comparable to a 2.5 Teana. But A4 is turbo-charged with tiptronics, whereas Teana is fully a sedan for driving not performance. A4 could win the performance test. It seems some details are available with the A4, electronics and B&O audio. Teana is, in a way, comfortable, luxurious (in the sense that it bears substance not appearance) and beautiful. It might come from Cefiro but the silhouette is more elegant and aesthetically superior. A4 is labelled to be a middle class's car (probably a worst breed I detest) - professional, young and somewhat energetic but family-orientated, with the implication that the family is better off. I do not know where Teana is positioned. Though elegant and beautiful, it looks massive and less trendy and energetic as the mean-looking A4 demonstrates. However, after a few nights of thinking, I began to realised that the subtle aesthetics that Teana quietly presented gradually occupied my thought. I recalled that I was a modest person and pursued long-lasting enjoyment, appropriate comfort (and in times sufferings that strengthened my will) and substantial and essential quality within. A Teana seemed to fit all these parameters. I do not believe the outer shell of the middle class. The professional, young and energetic look can be misleading. I am more concerned with the introspective capability that these young people lack. In Teana, I knew I had found something I longed for and something that I wished to demonstrate my very self in a manner that was not too noisy.

I believed no-one would be concerned with the details of Teana, but I did (and I do). At that point in time, I was given some thought but my mind was in the middle of the spring board and did not know which side to slide to. Story to be continued.

Nissan Teana

This is not an automobile review. I am no expert on cars and am not an experienced driver. I should only like to say how Nissan Teana came to my attention from the outset and how this car's image had developed within me and how it eventually took me over from my original favourite Audi A4 and completely reversed my supposedly sturdy view that I must own a European but not Japanese car.

The passage of development and change within me was subtle and while not quite lengthy in terms of time past, was rather slow and in a sense below your consciousness that allowed you to be highly cognizant of the development. I must say, from the appearance of it, Teana is a beautiful car, rightly curved and squared, impeccably constructed on a right size of an Accord or Mercedes E-Class. More than that, Teana partakes of a subtlety and, so to speak, a hint of modesty, in the face of a Mercedes or BMW (a Beemer, as it sometimes is called) such that the aesthetics of such an impeccable body defines itself as a different yet substantial and functional counterparty by no means inferior to any of its rivals of all classes.

I believe luxury itself is hallow without substance from a higher civilised cause, and luxury is an inanimate object if not pouring in it a soul from plausible human activities. In those days when luxuriousness, the nature behind luxury and luxurious items, was interpreted, rather correctly, to equal elegance, erudition and sophistication, it would be easier for me to be in love with luxury. But now times have changed, we have to face a deformed concept and a distorted mentality of human-like organisms. The elegance, erudition and sophistication which once define luxury have given way to much lesser attributes such as showiness, loudness and conspicuousness of those activities that are branded as luxurious. Still matured economies such as Japan and France, where the old school luxury is preserved, still provide us with such surprises from time to time. I need refreshment.

The silhouette of Cefiro, a former model similar in style - or the predecessor of Teana, gave me some impression that some Nissan model was meant for an upper market than the average Japanese car such as Civic and Jazz from Honda or Picnic or Corrolla of Toyota. Then I forgot it until one day I saw a black sedan in front of me going in such a smooth and gentlemanly manner that it attracted my attention. I noticed the engine size, a 3.5. I thought it was a Cefiro as far as I could remember its silhouette. I saw someone sitting on the back seat, comfortably, probably a client whom the car which was supposed to bring to his destination. After a while, I saw another one, which was a 2.5 model with a smaller engine, again black and moving gracefully. That black image and the comfort of the person who sat on the back seat lingered on my mind. For the next few days I put this image away. Then in a certain night I picked it up again and immediately went to Nissan's homepage. I found no Cefiro but Teana. All right, it was a Teana I saw the other day. Clearly, Teana is no direct successor of Cefiro, probably in a lot of places, improvements and changes are made including the engine and the chasis. The first part of the story ends here.

The Strings in Shinagawa

How do I treat a people or a population I supposedly belong to? Yes, a population. I should treat it nicely, for if I am one of them, and I do not treat it nicely, I probably do not treat myself nicely. The logic could be right. But in fact, I shall not bother. Perhaps, I should say, whenever I bump into any one of this clan, I shall slap him on the face. The logic is right, as I do not bother and slapping him on the face does not cause me anything that I should consider as treating myself nicely. Instead I treat myself really nicely, for I feel happy if not ecstatic by slapping this person on the face. What can I be made happier then? Slapping him a few more times. I am a Happy Slapper. This is the clan, a group of nonsensical compost-eating, urban-shitting cowards that I have to face everyday and tolerate and am forced to belong to. But the Happy Slapper could not be happier, if he goes to Japan. I am just fine without having to bring along with me the Happy Slapper. I shall be reluctant to become a villian in the highly pressurised nation, Japan, which is built by pressuring her subjects and by her subjects being subjected, rather willingly I guess, to such pressure. But pressure constructs beauty. I should say Inferno, not Purgatory, should consider bringing the reprobates to the city where I stay.

Shinagawa gives me another misty impression of Japan, which, despite such poetic obscurity necessary for aesthetics, is absolutely endearing, a feeling from within. I do not like commercial slogan but I cannot but admit that this makes feel home - Home Away from Home, a motto found on the brochure of The Strings in Shinagawa, an InterContinental Hotel. It would be unnecessarily profound to be ontological about Home Away from Home, as I did quite some time ago. Comparing Home Away from Home with Nirvana or plugging it into an ontological argument that 'Japan is home' per se is undeniable may still be logically and analytically understandable but will easily be rendered nonsensical. If you read existential writings of Continental Europe, you will oftentimes find something similar, well, by all means, as ontological as Home Away from Home, so gorgeously packaged in philosophical wrap, pretentiously posed for eternal discussion aimed not at finding an answer but meant to continue the game. However, from deep within myself is there a sense of aesthetics that guides my feeling, temperament and disposition; and this sense of aesthetics produces such power on me that I say, 'yes, I am home.' Such proclamation, so devoid of patriotism, is simply here, inside me. Some scenary such as Laforet or Gingakuji provokes the aesethetical sense to lead me to say 'yes, I am home'. The Strings is again another provocation - or put it more mildly - stimulus. With it I have the confidence to say, 'go back where you belong, patriotism.' At least, patriotism or chauvanistic nonsense attaced to my population in this case becomes obsolete and highly obscene, not to mention blasphemous against humanity.

Forecasting

When someone tells me that James is wealthier than I by 2050, I should probably ask him to tell me what would happen to me in 2 days. If he cannot even tell what I shall be like in the coming 48 hours, it seems reasonable to doubt his forecast of what I shall be like in or before 2050, 42 years from now. However, if this person (or entity) who tells me what happens by 2050 is Goldman Sachs, an investment bank, I think I cannot simply ignore it. Goldman Sachs, needless to say, qualifies its work with verbiage such as "if things go right" (p.3, paragraph 4 in its Global Economics Paper No: 99), and it also declares "Our projections are optimistic," and "economically sensible, internally consistent" (p. 3, paragraph 5), which I think is a responsible act. The forecast by itself is sensible and all significant factors are taken into consideration. I think it is a very useful paper for us to visualise what will happen if the global economy trods the path and does not derail in the coming decades. I take the liberty add that it will become even more useful if certain alternative scenarios are added, built upon by using not only change in the scale in the parameters, but also the frame of reference on which certain economic developments are constructed. These scenarios are meant to develop the options to tackle certain issues that are of concern to a party. The scenarios Certain factors that pop out in my mind right now are: a full-blown war triggered by ideology or energy shortage; regional0 natural disasters or change in the mindset of G7 citizens against the rise of the emerging economies. These are by no means exhaustive and probably hundreds or more of these variables can come up on the whiteboard and the picture of the future will become entirely different if a line is drawn from a present situation which is twisted and reformulated by these other factors.

Well, well, well, the Better Things in Life of course exclude such disgraceful manner as shown in populism, which is demonstrated in the behaviour of the uncivilised people, who believed that they had been the victim of a conspiracy that was aimed to hinder their regaining their once but long gone brilliance, well, well, well, perchance civilisation, to a certain degree. But I am always a doubter of civilisation past. Christopher Hitchen, well known as an atheist with an eloquent tongue, correctly writes (idea) that at the time of those "brilliant philosophers" such as Thomas Aquinas, Augustine of Hippo, Cardinal Newmann, et al, not a single person of wisdom knew of the germ theory, let alone dream of such small organisms as bacteria and viruses. So how intelligent their works on our world, on how the universe began, on how plants and animals evolved, and on how people will be in terms of shedding light that can lead us to fully appreciate these questions for sure? However, civilisation of the past does have attributes that are functional as much as beneficial to us modern people as the works of those ancient philosphers. European civilisation, the cradle of Christianity, served to be a repository of brilliant art and literatures. Without Christianity, European civilsiation would have been entirely different, if it ever exists, to put it more radically. In the Orient, the situation is more or less than the same. But instead of the Rennaissance, there was backward looking in most of the socities, and as a consequence, the Western civisilation becomes Civilisation.

Ravishment of Art

When the Brainless begin to fall in love with allegory or metaphor, regardless of what they want to call it, the world becomes immersed with cliches. A cliche by itself is of no harm. It only demonstrates to those of us who have a brain that even truism can one day be degraded to the extent that it becomes nonsense. One of the terms that the Brainless love to use is "rape" or in verb form "to rape". I am not sure of why, but they just love to use it in a very broad sense. They like to say, "you are raping the [result of the] poll." Or they say, "you are raping the will of the people." Even worse, perhaps, they say, "you are raping your own dignity." But what they do not know is that they are raping the word 'rape'. They would feel surprised that the term 'rape' can now be raped. The use of the term "rape" or the verb "to rape", like some chanting of life, provides the Brainless with some sense of meaningfulness in their unworthy life.

Just read an article from a local newspaper that says Mona Lisa, the painting Leonardo created, is being spiritually raped by a bunch of dudes who come from a country called China. How can civilisation like China rape another civilisation that flourished because of the Renaissance? Perhaps there is some misunderstanding of this civilisation or that civilisation. China boasts herself that she has a civilisation of 5,000 years or more if those who domiciled in where now China is and looked more like their kins the chimpanzee than us homo sapiens, are included. But the civilisation of the West is quite different from China's. I would tend to believe that civilisation of China is no longer existent. It perished after Tang Dynasty as civilisation had met its pinnacle then. Afterwards, civilisation headed downward and when Qing Dynasty became corrupted that even a newly developed Japan could beat it, civilisation was no longer civilisation, but the situation only represented a current being of the 5,000-year history. Call it a snap-shot? I would prefer the term snap-shot to Zeitgeist, for the spirit of time is nothing of what we have now is nothing but antiquity. After many years weakness and travesty, a new China re-emerged in the early 1980s. What we saw was, in fact, merely a billion people who were completely outmoded after years of backward alienation. Then another 2 decades have gone, what we now see is 100 million people who can afford to go out of China, buying some good stuffs like Louis Vuitton - for them it is a two-letter word LV, for Louis Vuitton proves as too difficult for them as philosophy is to the monkeys. But they have money -- they have been given plenty of monies by the Japanese, the US and Europe, for the people there are cheap. They have 300 million workers who are willing to make a shirt at 5 pence. The advantage of China is they have people and those people can work. 1/100 th of their population can collapse Louvre! Now they know civilisation, again, and they rush to see civilisation of the West. Lord Clark asks "what is civilisation?" and he answers in the meantime, facing the Notre Dame of Paris, "I don't know .... but I shall know it when seeing it, and I am seeing it now." But what they do is the complete contrary of civilisation - a property of Chinese people. Even in "a bit more developed place" such as Hong Kong, the situation does not much deviate from the old backward China. People there like "to be there". They have things to talk to their relatives or friends and boast, in such a shallow, obnoxious tone, that they have been there - seeing Mona Lisa, the real one, very much like a small kid tells his peers that he has been to a zoo and has watched an elephant as told derisively in this newspaper article. Wow, hail civilisation! In fact, for the civilised, I have to agree, this is a ravishment of art, which civilisation in fact forbids. Where is an old civilisation placed, when the re-emerged one is so in lack of the elements of a civilisation? Should it still be called a civilisation. Lord Clark opines that civilisation declines and falls as it becomes exhausted. I take the liberty to add, after imagining 100 million people look at Mona Lisa in such an obscene manner, that civilisation is suffocated to death.

The Divinity of Humanity

This is a grand title. In the sense that it is a statement subject to verification, this title appears to be nonsensical. However, the Principle of Verification has long been scrapped and made way for the Principle of Confirmation, Principle of Credulity, etc. No principle per se suffices to describe what I mean to say here. The Divinity of Humanity belongs to human beings - not human forms of sub-humans or non-humans, defined as so not by biological means or, if you will, principles, but by observation against a set of non-exhaustive behaviour standards that we see out of true human beings.

Let's talk about hypocrisy. You may want to subdivide this into hypocrisy of the clever and hypocrisy of the ignorant. The former is hypocrisy; the latter is not. It is so called because such behaviour bears the apparent forms of hypocrisy, but the underlying elements that lead to such behaviour and the rationale behind the elements and the behaviour itself are not the same. George W. Bush is hypocritical, and no-one would disagree. And as President of the United States, he possesses such hypocrisy which we are safe to say as hypocrisy (I don't need to add such redundancy as true hypocrisy). Some non-descript A, who shows extra care to a pregnant woman, though, possesses such "hypocrisy" which is not hypocrisy. Although A shows the same hypocritical behaviour as George W. Bush has shown to the tortured prisoners of war in Iraq, A has a profound belief that he shows such extra care as he truly believes such extra care does the woman good, while in fact, though not in itself bad, such extra care spoils the woman to the extent that she will exploit such extra care as much as she believes she is inborn to be entitled to such extra care that everyone else should make way for her, if something does not go her way.

Living things do not live in such pathetic manner as these sub-humans, such lowlives. Living itself is precious and elegant; perhaps quoting Hemingway who though refers to our world but should bear the same sense, is worth fighting for. "Fighting for" is the key word. We need to fight for life. For us, it need not mean that we need to kill or hurt others to survive. Instead we live by ourselves as much as we can rather than receiving such extra care only to suggest that we are fragile, but as we are sacred, we are more entitled to live than other living organisms. As we are created by God and know how to worship God, we are much higher than other living organisms. We deserve the extra care in the same manner as the pregnant woman receives from non-descript, totally spoiled A, who now irresponsibly attempts to spoil others as he has been spoiled since childhood.

Let me tell me, Gentlemen, life is not like that. Life is not as pathetic as that, which is why I hereby write the Divinity of Humanity as our Humanity is at the brink of extinction as such irresponsible behaviour as we now know as the hypocrisy of the ignorant are infesting. The Divinity of Humanity is not we can pretend to be good by irresponsibly showing the extra care to someone who can absolutely take care of herself when she was born with the genes being capable of teaching her to survive; not we can speak some language and praise God, wrongfully presuming that we are different from the rest of the living planet and exploiting the world. I have to say, we need to stand on our own feet - we have been given so much advantage to live in this world. But I see how the Emperor Penguins live their life. I see the Great Tortoise strive to crawl to the sea. I see how a frozen frog can resume to life after thwarting. When I see all these, I see the Divinity of Humanity as we stand up before Nature and live.

Lacrimosa

It has been quite a long time since I seriously listened to Lacrimosa's music. Just now I finished Hohelied Der Liebe. I was so greatly interrupted by the music that I visualised pictures of a world materialised by such substantive musicality. You may think it a bit hard to understand this statement. Let me use an example. In a vacant opera house, a clown stands on the stage all alone, playing the violin, with the company of a few torches behind him, the smoke of which dances gracefully and only gracefully without the currents of wind. Who is he playing for? Why does he need to play the violin alone without audience? What such music could have visualised such desolate scene, such desolate beauty, such desolate bereavement which still is more worth than the realities expressed in our world?

Our world, if you call it a reality, is so in lack of beauty per se that there is no reason to appreciate it. But with some of us, the true musicians of our world, our world is recreated, by means of music, in such a way that it is no longer what it is, but another world materialised by the vision of the artists. The stories they tell of and in this world mimick our world's incidents but have become the stories beyond our world's appreciation. So what are these stories and the pictures this music creates? I should perhaps call them the Idea of beauty. Appreciate the Idea of beauty and then our world begins to show its worth of being, for it holds us, who create and appreciate the music that turns the non-descript and unworthy world to one that is mysterious but adorable.

Emotion In Motion

By Ric Ocasek of the Cars.

There are a number of things I wish to talk about in the 1980s. Music is one of them. Why the 1980s? Part of it, I believe, is the 1980s was where my childhood was. With more painstaking thought, I have to say, it is more to do with the flourishing music industry and the flourishing musical styles in the 1980s that impressed me so much that even now I can not forget it. If I say it is a grace that technology brings all that happiness back to us, it is not something sentimental, but fundamentally true. Without someone who created Youtube.com, you would not be able to watch a great video such as Ric Ocasek's Emotion in Motion again. I had not ever thought that I could watch it again. I watched it once in the 1980s, but when you had no expectation, you would not have a sense of loss. But now I just watched it on Youtube.com, I felt a sense of grace, which is more thaan the antiquated religious feeling that immersed in ancient people, but a somewhat refreshing moment for a much well-informed, advanced person.

Maria Theresia

Listening to Hadyn's Symphony No. 48 in C Major "Maria Theresia".

I was wondering who Maria Theresia was, after whom such a beautiful symphony was named. Perhaps this is worth some efforts of digging in the library:

Maria Theresa (1717-1780), the eldest daughter of Charles VI, who promulgated the Pragmatic Sanction to permit her to suceed to the Habsburg monarchy and Elisabether Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbuettel, was Archduchess of Austria and Queen of Hungary and Bohemia and, through her marriage, Holy Roman Empress.

Ignorance and Sentimentality

Why, you may ask, does the Brainless cause harm to us and our society in such a way as I described? It is perhaps a book-length writing in order to keep people (I mean the good people) convinced that I am right. However, it can still be briefly described here. Take an example of a response to a dying baby girl who had lived 9 days, which says, the girl has lived a life of great significance and meaningfulness, and life should not be measured in terms of its length. This message consists of two elements - ignorance and sentimentality. Ignorance is very obvious. First of all, the phrase "life should not be measured in terms of its length" may be correct, it is a matter of value and a judgement of value is not easily absolutely established though it can be established. So I shall presume it correct. But how would "life is short but meaningful" be applicable to this incident in which a diseased girl was brought to our world and let die? The answer is absolute and unquestioned. It is nothing. The diseased girl was not unconscious. How do you know she was not conscious? The answer lies on the answer of this question. What happened to you when you were just born? If she was not even conscious of what was happening to her, then where is such great significance and meaningfuless placed? The answer is again absolute and unquestionable. It is nowhere. As a result, I should say, this person has no idea of what he commented. He just said something other people (including great people) said of a truly moving story, but if this idiot believed what he said was equally applicable to the dead girl incident as any other moving stories of the great people, then obviously he is ignorant. And ignorance is an important element of the Brainless. Now the question comes, why does ignorance harm? We may say, quoting Mill, that as long as one's action does not harm others, the actor should not be restricted from so doing. Yes, I would accept this principle. What if he does, and does to a considerable extent? Sometimes he is harmful indirectly and chronically. Then, I have to say, regardless of Mill and the rationale behind his rationale, he must be controlled and that he is controlled must be known to others, the Brainless or otherwise. If such harm is being done indirectly and chronically, how can we prove it? It sounds tricky. But when a person is ignorant and says ignorant things in such idiotic manner as the "life is short" person, it would not be that difficult to prove the harm this kind of saying would inflict on us (or some of us).

Before we are mature enough to be able to differentiate right from wrong, the intelligent from the stupid, we are prone to ignorant things and have a fair chance accepting ignorant things as intelligent. Especially those things are said and done under the guise of intelligence. "Life should not be measured in terms of its length" and "life may be short but is meaningful". How right these statements per se are! The correctness of those statements in themselves, which may be universal by human standard, despite the fact that this is still arguable, does not guarantee that the matter such statements refer to is by itself correct, and it does not immediately warrant that a correct reference is made between the matter referred to and the correct statements. Obviously, a wrong association is there in the case that the meaningfulness is applied to the new-born baby girl who had not gained the consciousness that enabled her to appreciate meaning and who died subsequently. If such wrong is distributed and those of us who are not capable of differentiating the right from the wrong, for whatever reason, then they will be misled to believe that bringing a child to our world and seeing her die is (a) a meaningful thing to do; and (b) the child has lived a short (really very short!) yet meaningful life by being dragged to the intensive care unit and seen to be dying. Such harm is done by propagating the wrong message that creates such great travesty of humanity that unnecessary suffering is now refurbished to become martyrdom and a cowardly act of failure to face the reality that a child has no chance of living on has turned a heroic act and we should pay our tribute to the hero who faces the adversity and are standing against the darkness of Fate. The consequence is very, very serious. The humanity is now degraded to the extent that cowardice is now heroic, a milquetoast is now a hero. The society would in due course be doomed to be held by cowards and submissiveness, which is not acceptable.

Secondly, when something as grand as "life is short but meaningful" is from the mouth of such an idiot, such a Brainless as this "life is short" person, then the Brainless believe that they are grand and great, for they know what the grand and great know, and behave what the grand and great behave, and are moved by what moves the grand and great. Are they truly moved by a story of a dying girl who in fact was brought to the world and all of us saw her die? Has she lived a full life? Has she gone to Heaven? Is she living a blissful life after suffering the 9 days (though she may not really suffer the pain to the same extent as a grown up, for, as I said, she was not even conscious of herself and her sufferings)? If she was not let out after being diagnosed as having the disease while in the womb, would she not be brought to Heaven and be living as blissful a life as she had been seen to live through the 9 days, fully logged and commented on and sighed for? I am not entirely sure, even I am a Christian, a Catholic, an intellectual, a person who has striven to learn about our world. The parents, irresponsible and ignorant, believe it is their responsibility to bring her out so that they can go through some "great" moments as heros who face their adversity. As a result of their faith in God, the dead girl is now an angel, living happily and eternally beside God. And only these parents who had self-proclaimed, though indirectly but wilfully, themselves as heros and God's servants, then this girl could become angel. Otherwise, no, she might be condemned, for she had not been a human and been blessed with God's grace, such Grace being given by such distributors of grace as her parents. What the world has become? This is not entirely an appropriate answer, for the world has always been as brutal and ignorant as before, and we should be not surprised that distributors of God's Grace are always around as we see insurance agents, financial planners and cosmetic sales every day every where. The Brainless turned themselves to heros, the grand and great, and perhaps even thought of leaving a mark in their worthless history, being servant of God, being such salesman of Heaven, being the crooks of Grace, being undeserved acceptors of knowledge and information. They created such sentimentality that only the Brainless would buy. The hypocrisy that this story tells us is very obscene - to those who truly appreciate life and have lived a truly good life. But let me tell you, the Brainless, the parents of a dead girl, you are worthless, regardless of how many tears you have shed by creating a pseudo-moving story. You have squandered your life and if there be Heaven, you should return the ticket to it, for there are more people who strive to create a better, to make a difference to this Another Heaven, our Human World, deserving this ticket than you do. So please admit to yourself and your God, if there is one, that you are the Brainless. You created such stupid stories and made yourself a hero. Then, you let the other Brainless feel they were heros too. Sentimentality has paved the way to hell; but in fact I do not care when and how you go to Hell, but I do care you bring those worthy of Heaven with you.

The Storied Suppression; The Benevolent Despots remembered

The unwarranted arrogance that comes with the Brainlessness gives the Brainless such excess that the world, our brave new world, has been damaged to the extent that it is irreparable. The human world that we were once proud of and wondered has turned into a confusion immersed in excess, condemned by eternally spiralling confusion. The true people, who may be called the elite for ease of reference, are confused, but remain mute to what has been happening, for they still have the advantage, or believe they do, being the elite. In spite of the fact that the elite enjoy the privilege that the Brainless cannot imagine, the latter are so noisy and enormous in terms of absolute number that it is they who somewhat exert influence they deserve not, and the elite, in a democratic world, have to bear the price of freedom, the freedom that has been granted to the undeserved. At some point, enough is enough, the elite will yell, and when they fight back, they fight back fiercely. They swing the pendulum back to the other extreme, for they need to swing it back to such a magnitude that the equilibrium will ever been set right. How would this happen? In history, I have so far seen many cases resembling the scenario I have just mentioned, although I cannot for sure ascertain these cases mean exactly the status of my description. I have to say, regardless of what triggers such action which aims to counter uncontrolled liberalisation, eradicate the Brainless and cleanse the arrogrance of the Brainless which is unjustifiable, there are moments which must be looked upon with care, the moments of blemishes in human history that many were, so to speak, persecuted and killed; many had their dignity deprived, the kinships torn apart. These moments must be carefully recognised, thought about and understood. The figures who stood on top of these moments, those despots in history, those who handed down bestial cruelty that brought blood on the parchment of history, should be remembered in such a way that, with a balance of what evil has done to counter another evil, we shall recognise what harm the hypocrisy, arrogance and naivety of the Brainless have done to our world. Only by such thought, we give the world what others have overlooked or dared not look at, but it should be case.

The Brainless

After all those festivities, it is the right time to continue the Brainless series. I do not want to be vague about that. The Brainless is harmful and detrimental to us, to our health and to our mentality. The fact that a moving story is being made at the expense of a dying baby is nothing more sentimental than such sentimentality you can find in a soap opera, where a melodramatic kind of lack of intelligence immerses and spreads. We should be very fortunate to be living in a world that we live in, for the knowledge and information we can get access to everyday is unprecedented - not a single intelligent man in the 19th century could every imagine the way we acquire knowledge and grasp and digest information. I have to say, people are cleverer. But statistically, I still can say, people are idiots. The reason is simple, only 5% of people are clever and there are more people than any point in time previously. We meet more people than our ancestors and we meet even more idiots in terms of absolute number. So the statement that people are idiots is statistically correct. And it extends to the fact that these idiots are very much in lack of intelligence, despite knowledge and information being available around them. They cannot think properly, understand properly and deduce properly. They believe this dying baby has lived a life "of great significance" and "meaningfulness", regardless of the life being short. What is this all about? The baby had not even developed the consciousness that she would know she ever existed in the few days she lived. An unconscious infant talks about such meaningfulness and life being long or short? This is nonsense. I have choked with such nonsense by many people - some are cunning and lie to their own benefit. Some are stupid and talk without a brain. Some are naive and propagate the good but pave the way to hell. I would admonish you that the Brainless are as harmful and detrimental as those cunning folks, for the latter who lie and set you up, whereas the former preach the good and lead you to hell. Pray believe me.