A letter to our dear Ah Bian - repent and you do belong in jail

Dear Ah Bian,
I am writing to you, as someone who is your estranged relative, someone who shares the same history, long long time ago, back when your people and my people were still under the leadership of our dear leader and national father Sun Yat-sen, to ask you to repent, to recognize your wrongdoings and stop behaving like a congenital jerk and a thick-skinned spoiled brat. Please, as the ex-president of the renegade province, act with grace and manner, even though you are now in jail. You have to admit that you do belong in jail.

Sometimes I wonder whether Asia should have democracy. It's like Asians will loose control once they have freedom. Look at you, and our Southeast Asian neighbor -Philippines. Look at Estrada and how he comes to the helm of leadership because of his impersonation as a hero. You too, as a figure of outright audacity and your guts to stand up against China, you have won respect and adoration among your populace. People call you dearly as "Ah Bian". Yet,you, like Estrada, your counterpart, who are also chosen by his own people, have abused power and involved in lots of disgraceful shenanigans. And still, you think you are entitled to do so. You are still shameless enough to deny everything and now even threaten your people with hunger strike and try to bring further turmoil to Taiwan, which has been wrecked completely by you. How can you sleep in the middle of the night? How can your family stand in front of the people who have been embezzled and betrayed by you? Haven't you no shame?

Of course, I understand avarice is part of human nature. And of course, stupidity and pride are also the perpetrators of human tragedies. Look at the Bush administration and now the Americans have shot themselves enough in their feet that they finally come to their senses . Still, I believe what makes human beings so special is that we have a conscience to tell us what we should do and shouldn't do. Dear ah bian, there must be something good in you if you can still stand up and admit your faults. Taiwanese would still remember they have a president, who, even though committed mistakes, is brave enough to stand in front of all people, with grace and air, to admit his faults and ask for forgiveness. Think about George Washington.

Sadly, I guess you have ever heard of the story about Washington when you were young, haven't you?

Your dear relative

Isabella in Hong Kong

Can Obama live up to the hope of the world? Let's keep our fingers crossed!

I have not been writing my new blog for a month. This has nothing to do with my tenaciousness. I love writing, always do. It's just that I have other more important writings to deal with à la moment: compiling and recompiling and writing and rewriting my fieldnotes. At this stage, I am quite a mess as I am still at the stage of interviewing and reinterviewing and having interviews that need to be understood and analyzed and somehow I am afraid that I have overanalyzed some of the phenoms in my research process. Anyone who is working, or has worked on their research will know what I mean: that I am in a stage of hysteria and utter desperation. But the good news is that at least I have some stuff: two notebooks filled with notes and data and information. I think I am safe. At least that's what I hope.

That leaves me no room to notice anything happened around me for the past month, not even my investment. I have finally decided to leave it in God's hand and sure God spares me. My financial planner has transferred all my money into the monetary funds and by the end of the mandatory period, I will still have gained HKD 7000. It sounds very pathetic to me but it's better than haemorraging and losing all my money in the end. At least I can now sleep in peace.

Speaking of which, it seems like the world is now betting their hopes on Barack Obama and he is now our Savior, the reincarnation of Jesus the Messiah. He who we know little (I bet lots of people would differ because of his kiss-and-tell autobiographies and his famous dancing episode with Ellen deGeneres) will be shouldering, at least in the coming four years, the responsibility of revamping a collapsing/collapsed economic system and re-establishing a sound and healthy financial mechanism; dealing with the mess left by our dear ex-president George W. Bush on Iraq; recovering from the tarnished international reputation as an imbecile, inconsiderate and irrational aggressor; coming to terms with the world community on the global warming issue, and last but not least, saving face from the world scorn over Americans as a stupid and thoughtless group of people who will let someone as thick and selfish as Bush and Cheney to be elected, time and again. What daunting tasks Obama is facing!!

Changes are good, but not always. I remember when I was still working for an international magazine in 2000, I traveled to China and I bumped into a pair of Americans. Naturally, as the election was just around the corner, I asked them who they would pick as president, Bush or Gore, and they said, "Certainly Bush!! It's so boring to have the Democrats for eight consecutive years. We need a change!" Well, look what they have done to themselves. The Americans should have asked for tips from the fashion gurus: What you wear can change your life. What you choose, buddy, can change your entire dear life! Look what Bush the wrecker has managed to do to the world and he is an absolute disaster. I cannot say Obama will be a good change. But at least I hope he is smart enough to learn from his predecessor's mistakes and bring a good new era to America and to the world and of course to people like me, who won't be disappointed every single day again when I turn on the TV or flip through the newspaper, and time and again, shake my head and sigh in despair.

The current financial crisis - My crisis?

I must now confess to everyone here what the fortune teller has said about me and my money is absolutely right - despite the fact that I am now a baptized Christian for two years. That guy from Wong Tai Sin Temple, whose name is Mr. Tao, once told me "Miss Ng, never thought about buying or speculating on anything. Once you start speculating, the whole world will be in dread." I brushed it off with a laugh. How can this happen? I rolled my eyes and cast a scornful look at him, as if he was just a ruddy big, fat liar pretending to pronounce an oracle from a temple (not a Greek one, a very Chinese and very Taoist one). He caught my despicable face, sighed and said, "Well, if you don't believe me. You can go ahead. But whatever you speculate, they will fall and you will crash and burn."

Well, now look what I have done to myself! I just bought the Zurich vista fund this Feb and I have invested several thousands dollars with a promise of 50% bonus each month to what I put in monthly. Since then, the market has been going the dogs. Now, all I can earn, instead of a 50% promise, it's just a pathetic 8% and could be less as now the stock market keeps plunging even though the US has passed the rescue plan. Investors' confidence has now reached almost an all time low. My heart is sinking and my money is shrinking. I still have 10 months to go for paying off the mandatory period of the plan. I am now considering jumping off the boat, sacrificing that several thousands dollars so that I can regain my peace of mind. Yet, my two financial planners and some of my family members think I can still wait because that money is used for my retirement. God! I am so incredibly stupid. I don't even know when I will die. Why am I even thinking about retirement plan?

I guess probably there are thousands of others who are having the same thoughts as I am. Thinking about retirement is a must-do these days when filial piety is almost dead and when couples are extricating themselves from the burden of childbirth and child-raising. For me, a soon-to-be divorcee who still has the earning power, it is unthinkable not to plan for the future, when it now looks so "volatile", to use the IT term of the market. It seems like having a retirement plan is what an adult should do and as a 38 year-old adult (at least age wise), it will be inappropriate not to think ahead. And trusting fund managers to bet on some bonds or low-risk funds seem to be a wise thing to do. Conventional wisdom has it that planning for the future is a sure-fire rule to save yourself from a penniless, childless fate.

I seriously don't know who to trust now. How can I trust financial planners when those financial gurus and financial giants are suffering the "crash and burn". I guess the recent financial crisis serves a wake-up call to anyone who believes that wall-street miracle and cash is king. As for my money, I guess I will just leave it to the Divine. And I am praying hard to my God that I am not certified "dead" with my money and I still hold faith that the Wong Tai Sin oracle will not stand long if my God intervenes. :)