Rugao, Jiangsu, China

Rugao, Jiangsu, China

This is my third day in Rugao. Weather a bit cool, about 25C and clear sky, no haze. 

Yesterday spent whole day on tour of city area and the main place of interest was a huge mansion of a Ming Dynasty gentry, Mo Pi Jiang and his consort Dong Xiaowan. It was as big as Chinese Garden and with the houses and ponds still intact. would post some of the pics to show the architecture on my return. 

Friday was a big rush, leaving office at 10.10am for Changi, depart at about 1pm, arrived about 5.30pm. Then waited at Pudong Airport in Shanghai for 1 and a half hour for our coach to Rugao. It took another 3 and half hour travelling in the day. The highway was new and smooth flowing and did not travel at high speed. Had a couple of stops along the way. Coach was new and comfortable. 

Reach Rugao almost midnight. First big problem was struggling with the local Sim card. It did not work. The phone did not support the card and affected several of us. Finally confirmed the problem and had to rent a temp hp costing 10rmb per day this morning. 

Rugao is a small city, probably 4th or 5th tier, about 1440 sq km, twice Reddot but only 1.4m people. It is a booming little city and the high rise is taking over the city scape. The residential homes were low rise semi Ds or detached and low rise condos. My, anytime better than ours and the roads were clean and nicely landscaped, quite like Reddot but cleaner in many places. 

The people are well dressed, looking very well off and modern. But they are locals and were quite surprised that we could converse in Mandarin. Our Indian colleagues were celebrities and sought after for photo taking as novelties. 

Oh, the lunch for the tour was unbelievable. About 14 courses in a restaurant private room. Cost, 38 rmb or about $8 per head. We were speechless as they kept pushing out the dishes non stop. And the dishes were good, very good, with green tea. 

We had another great feast for dinner. When they served the cold dish, 8 plates, including cold steam prawns, cold beef, cold pork jelly etc etc, we were stoned. Definitely could not finish, the cold dish alone. And they served another 15 or so dishes, more prawns, crabs, big fish, pork leg, chicken etc etc, we gave up by the 4/5 dish. There were 6/7 of us per table. 

Help came when another 6 late arrivals came to join us. Even then so much food were left unfinished. 

Cost 600rmb per table. That is the cost of living here. Unspoilt by commercialism in a small ancient city with all the modern facilities. The shopping malls were no different from ours. I did not bring my shaver, thought it would be provided by the hotel and had to get a new Philips shaver, the cheapest at 119rmb. 

In the evening there was a stage performance out our hotel next to a shopping mall to promote the opening of a gym. The stationary bikes for for the gym were the latest models, nver seen before. And the performers, all young people not different from our Orchard Rd kids. The drummer of the life band was a 12 year old boy and whacking the drums like a pop artiste. 


Posted by Chua Chin Leng 

Sunday, 24th September, 2017

The Hubris of Trum's Speech At UN General Assembly Part Two

In his speech at United Nations General Assembly on 19th September,2017 , Trump also labelled Syria and Venezuella as rogue regimes. But the fact is US historically has been a rogue country throughout its 242 years of nationhood. Every American president starting with George Washington is guilty of serious unforgivable war crimes against humanity. Rogue America has been carrying out wars of aggression and conquests every year for over 230 years out of its 242 years of independence from its rogue forbears England.

Nobody can beliecve America when it says this or that country is a rogue regime except America itself. The fact speaks for itself when big and small countries have been attacked and swallowed by America during the last over two hundred years. Every present existing American president should be hauled up by an international court of justice and sentenced for war crimes against humanity and every past American president starting from George Washington should likewise be posthumously denounced and sentenced for war crimes especially against Native American Indians, African Americans and Mexicans.

President Bashar Assad was democratically elected by his countrymen. His government sees to the needs of the people. Syria is the only country in the Middle East where more than 90 percent of the people  are educated. Until the American aggression most Syrians have a decent job and a standard of living well above the surrounding sea of of fanatic militant Sunni Islamic Arabs. Syria has a secular government and unlike fanatical wahabists Saudi Arabia, it respects every faith and women's rights and is friendly to all nations.

All hell let lose when in 2011 Saudi Arabia wahabists with the support and complicity of America planned to topple all secular governments in Middle East. US and Saudi Arabia wanted to occupy Syria and impose the brutal sharia law on the Syrians.

At the same time in that year 2011, US NATO Commander Wesley Clark disclosed US plans in 2001 to overthrow seven seven countries in the Middle East inclusive of Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Libya and Sudan.

In 2006 US embassy in Damascus published plans to instigate a revolution in Syria in 2011. In that year CIA plans for wars of aggression and covert operations were set in motion in their deadly plans to invade Syria and topple Assad. President Assad put up a good fight but he could not hold for long against overwhelming odds and the all powerful US and its hordes of allies in NATO, Saudi Arabia, Turkey Kuwait, Israel and Australia.

Assad legally sought Russia's help and with timely Russia's intervention the American rogues and its cohort of of allied aggressors were stopped in their path of conquest against Syria. But evil Rogue America has not given up hope of destroying Assad and Syria. But Russia is just as determined to protect Syria at all times.

Venezuella , Central America and South America have been at the receiving ends of US aggression throughout history. To hold sway over the countries of Central America and South America US enacted the sinister Monroe Doctrine which forbids other foreign powers or countries to have strong political or commercial relationships with the countries in the region. This type of illateral and illegal self assertive control over the region is evil extraterritoriality dictatorship and hegemonic control par excellence.

America has a history of overthrowing Central American and South American regimes which it disapproves. In 1954 CIA overthrew the democratically elected government of President Jocob Arbenz in a CIA sponsored military coup in Guatemala . In 1961 US tried to invade Cuba  to overthrow Fidel Castro in the failed invasion known as "The Bay of Pigs." In 1963 in Ecuador CIA backed military forces overthrew the democratically elected preseident of Jose Velasco and replaced him with Carlos Arosemans and the vice presidency with a CIA approved person. In 1964 in Brazil CIA backed military coup overthrew democratically elected government of Joao Goulart and replaced him with junta ruthless rule for 20 years under the watchful and evil training system of CIA. In 1965 US toppled the elected leader of Juan Bosch of the Dominican Republic. A sponstaneous uprising by the Dominicans to reinstal Juan Bosch was brutally crushed by US marines directed by CIA.

In 1968 ihn Bolivia US in contravention to interventional sovereignty rights illegally used extraterritoriality power to infiltrate into Bolivia in a CIA organized military operation captured the legendary guerilla Che Guevara and had him executed by the demeaning pro US government. However in 1971 Bolivia had a elected leftist government in president Juan Torres who was than deposed by a CIA backed military coup.

In 1973 in Chile CIA overthrew and assassinated president Salvador Allende and replaced him with CIA backed General Augusto Pinochet who under CIA command murdered thousands of Chileans of labour leaders and political opponents. 

In the 1980s and 1990s US tried to destabilise Venezuella with CIA sponsored organized demonstrations that culminated in the Curacozo riots of 1989. In 1992 CIA organized two military coups which however failed badly. In 1993 pro USA  president Andres Perez was impeached for corruption . In 1998 Gugo Chavez was elected president and in 1999 his Constituent Assembly wrote a new constitution of Venezuella. Hugo Chavez was a good president who look after his people and country and because he was all for nationalising the Venezuella oil industry and strongly against CIA clandestine activities in Central and South American countries he was a marked man by CIA who plotted to assassinate him . It was claimed that Hugo Chavez might have been poisoned by CIA fifth column in Venezuella or in US A when he was undergoing treatment for a medical problem though he finally succumbed to cancer .

With Hugo Chavez 's death US has not given up hope to interfere in Venezuella's politics and internal affairs and is now using traitors and fifth columns to create choas and uprising against his successor president Maduro. 

US is a deadly rogue country unsurpassed in history and must be eventually destroyed and eliminated for the safety of mankind


Southernglory1

Sunday,23rd September, 2017

The Hubris of Trump's Speech at UN General Assembly - Part 1

Trump in his speech on Tuesday, September 19, 2017 at the UN General Assembly labelled North Korea, Iran , Syria and Venezuela as rogue regimes. He conveniently left out mentioning the world's most evil satanic rogue regime and that is the United States.

Korea was brutally torn asunder and conquered by Japan in 1905. At the end of the Second World War the Koreans threw out the Japanese and attempted to form a unified country. But to suit their insidious agenda the Americans and the Russians would not allow a single political entity of a unified Korea. They staged the Korean War which lasted from 1950 to 1953 and only an armistice was signed without both the American camp and the Russian camp committing to a peace treaty. Without the American and Russian intervention in the Korean Civil War , Korea would have been a unified country albeit notwithstanding whatever political system it decides to uphold. It is the rogue American intervention that resulted in a divided Korea to this day, just as its illegal intervention in the Chinese Civil War between Chairman Mao's People's Republic of China ( PRC ) and the Kuomintang ( KMT ) of the treacherous Chinese traitor Chiang Kaishek which resulted in the false division of China into Mainland China and offshore Taiwan. The rogue Americans by stationing its 7th Fleet in the Taiwan Strait prevented the PRC from recovering Taiwan to achieve a successful completion of a unified China.

Iran just as all the Middle East Arab countries face constant subversion by CIA. CIA covert clandestine operation overthrew the dully elected government of prime minister Mossadeq of Iran in June, 1953. Mossadeq was murdered by CIA's henchmen in Iran. Rogue America then installed a pro American Shah. The Shah regime did not last long  when the Shah himself was overthrown by the Iranians in 1979.  Iran was then ruled by Islamic clerics headed by Ayatollah Khomeini. Khomeini wanted to nationalise the Iranian oil industry which was then under US full control. CIA and Pentagon then armed Saddam Hussein of Iraq to confront Iran in September 22nd, 1980. CIA armed and supported an Iraqi invasion of Iran resulting in a war which lasted for eight years.During these eight years of war America not only sold weapons to Iraq but covertly sold weapons to Iran and thus reaped hundreds of billions of dollars in illicit profits. To rogue America it is alright for the Iraqis and the Iranians to fight and kill themselves while they laughed all their way to the bank.

In Part Two of the next article we will learn how Rogue America destabilise Syria and Venezuella  and destroy the two countries.

Southernglory1

Saturday, 23rd September, 2017

Redbean’s Art of Management

Many are familiar with such concepts like Murphy’s Law, Peter’s Principles, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. I have just had an enlightened and would like to share with everyone about a new management doctrine or principle while I proudly claimed and called Redbean’s Art of Management.
 
The basis of this management doctrine is derived from age old practices, culling from the great religions, the essence of their teachings and why they are so popular with the people. It is all about the promise that everything would be alright in the future. You see, all great religions promise a great future, a glorious future waiting for the believers if they believe. Great religions don’t want to talk about the trouble and pain the believers are suffering in the present. Some even claimed that the pain today is good and part of the process to reap the rewards in the future. Suffer now, never mind, the future is good, must be good, very good.
 
In a way the religions are deceiving the people into forgetting their present sufferings and pains and hope, and hope that the promised future is really good. In the long run, everything is good, or the prophets of good future would be dead anyway. No wonder Mao Zedong called religion the opiate of the people.
 
Putting this great stuff from the religions into management principles is akin to applying Sun Tzu’s Art of War to management. Redbean’s Art of Management is about talking about how good the future is, or promising the future and not talking about the present. 

In short, Talk about the future and Sell hope!
 
There are many advantages to this Art of Management. Yes, when you promise the future, you would not be around to answer if it fails. You also can buy time to sort out the problem or pretend to be sorting out the problem. And the people would forget about the present problem when no one is talking about it and would forget to complain about it. The best part is that the current problem is gone, not solved, but shelved. The people are in a way expected to accept the plight of the present.
 
The assumption of this Art of Management is that the people are daft and you can pull wool over their eyes. The daft would not question when you talk about the future, how good is the future. They would just believe and stop thinking about the problems right in front of them. They would not know that their attention has been directed away from the present to the future. Some call this kicking the can further down the road, procrastinating, or passing the buck to the future, buy as much time as you can. Some may call this bluffing, a deception. Anyway, it is a good management tactic for the inept when they could not solve the problem at hand. Why not, can continue to keep the job and pretend to be working very hard and all will be fine in the future when one is no longer around, but the problem still around.
 
Think can write a book about this, Redbean’s Art of Management…for the daft.

PS. I will be away for a week. Will try to post whenever I can find the time.

Terrex Lesson - Kicking a hard ball

The ball looked pretty, like a football, very tempting. Someone went ahead and kicked. 'Ouch, it's a hard ball', so hard that it almost broke his leg. This practically sums up the Terrex Incident. Any lesson learnt, or anything good came out from it?

Going back to pre incident day and just read the media and the numerous and almost daily anti China articles would tell a story. Then there was the Rajaratnam School lashing out at China on the South China Sea issue and the chest thumping that Singapore was going to punch anyone regardless of size and power.

Read the news today and the glorious reporting of China's economic activities and infrastructure development in the BRI and compare the difference. Incidentally when one reads about China, it is all about trade, economic activities and infrastructure development. When one reads about the USA, it is about wars, threats of wars, sanctions, warnings and selling of weapons of mass destruction, etc etc. The bankrupt evil Empire has nothing else to contribute to world peace except wars.

The media is also bustling with news about how good China Singapore relations are, a stark contrast to the pre Terrex days when Singapore was snubbing and rubbing at China all over the place. No?

It looks like Singapore has sat down and took a relook at its strategic position and reviewed its policies towards China and how it should go forward. The policies of snuggling closely with the Americans continues and allowing the devil to compromise Singapore’s neutral position could not be the same anymore. The Americans did not need to manipulate or pressure Singapore to be nice and good to the Americans. That is what Sun Tsu's highest state of the Art of War. No need to fight the enemy, the enemy willingly surrender itself, prostrate itself to be screwed.

Singapore's policies towards China has taken a dramatic turn for the better, hopefully, at least that is what you read in the media and what the ministers are saying. How true is this, only time will tell. What is real is that Singapore cannot advance and grow economically without China. Being left out in the cold by China is an economic disaster for Singapore. No country could give Singapore a lift economically other than China. This is the positive outcome of the Terrex Incident.

The Terrex Incident has forced Singapore to start thinking again after falling into complacency that all is well with or without China. After putting everything down to brass tack, Singapore's teeny weeny economy that has no growth engine other than raising property prices and dumping the island with more foreigners will go into depression if it does not tag along with the Chinese economic train. The biggest economic growth engine today is China. Running foul with China is a no go.

Hence today we are seeing a 180 degree turn in Singapore China relations. The so called think tank schools that were walloping China thinking that they could behave like backlane gangsters have been asked to shut up. At least that is what I think is happening. No more cocky and thoughtless remarks of a school boy bullies wanting to challenge China to a fight.

Something good did come out from kicking a hard rock in the Terrex Incident. It jolted Singapore from its snoozing to realise the world has changed and it is time to wake up to face the reality. The big question, has enough damage been done that it is too late to change the direction of a ULCC.

The current visit to China by Hsien Loong and his team and the high level reception, the meetings with all the who’s who in China is telling a story that China wants to put everything aside and start anew. This is a new moment of truth. Would Singapore squander it again? It is does, there will be no return road.

What would follow in Hsien Loong’s meeting with Trump is interesting to watch. Trump is going to pressure Hsien Loong to do his will. Would Hsien Loong buckle or continue to be a willing partner to the evil Empire and its evil deeds of inciting wars, provoking wars, threats of wars and conducting wars? Would Trump twist Hsien Loong’s hands in Singapore’s relations with China or would Hsien Loong be telling Trump that Singapore would not be pressured by external powers, including the USA, to do what is not in the interest of Singapore?

China would be watching the visit very closely.

USA – The real threat to the world

The mad Americans have been yelling to the world that the North Koreans are a threat to them and to the world. However, the real threat to the North Koreans and to the world and human civilization is the mad Americans. How can a small country that could hardly defend itself be a threat to the Americans when the latter possesses enough WMD to wipe North Korea out of the surface of the earth?
 
And this is exactly what Trump said at the UN General Assembly, in front of all the nations of the world, ‘we will have no choice than to tally destroy North Korea’. What no choice? What had the North Koreans done to deserve such a threat of total destruction? All because they wanted to have their own nuclear weapons to protect themselves from the mad Americans? And it is exactly this kind of threat that the North Koreans need to have nuclear weapons. And what threat to the Americans but just a wild allegation that the North Koreans are a threat to their national security?
 
The sad thing is that the assembly of nations did not rebuke the mad Americans for threatening to destroy North Korea. This is naked aggression against another country and its people. How can human civilization be so dumb to let the mad Americans go on threatening North Korea and other countries as they like and when they choose to?
 
Trump accused the North Korean’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles to ‘threaten(s) the entire world with unthinkable cost of human life’. The truth is that the North Koreans would not dare to use their nuclear weapons unless attacked by the Americans. And without provocation, just by building and testing their defense system are not provocations, the Americans is threatening to destroy totally the whole of North Korea and in the process, ‘threaten(s) the entire world with unthinkable cost of human life’.
 
This is what the fucking mad Americans are going to do to the North Koreans and to the entire world when they dare to strike North Korea. It is the Americans that are threatening to attack North Korea, not North Korea threatening to attack the USA.
 
Trump went on to threaten other states and ‘called Iran an “economically depleted rogue state” that exports violence.’ The truth, it is the economically bankrupt rogue state of the USA that is exporting violence, starting wars and conducting wars everywhere. And all the terrorism and terrorist acts have American thumbprints on them, originated and Made In USA.
 
The UN General Assembly should speak up against this rogue state that is threatening to destroy North Korea and bring the whole world along with it. Period.

Middle East Peace Efforts

SISI-NETANYAHU MEETING IN NEW YORK 

Introduction

Reports of a meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in New York Egyptian President were received with mixed feelings in the Arab World, from “shameful” to a sign of “peace and tranquility”.

It was widely reported in Arabic media and commented upon online. Commentators view the meeting very differently, depending on which side they are with in the complex Middle-East politics.

The meeting was not reported by the popular Al-Jazeera immediately and many other Arab media failed even to mention it.

General Trend

The general trend among pro-Qatar or pro-Iranian media was to bypass the issue. PressTV in Iran ignored the meeting but highlighted a new US military base in Israel.

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia’s Al-Arabiya didn’t mention the meeting directly but did have a piece devoted to Sisi’s visit to New York and his condemnation of supporters of terrorism and criticism of Qatar.  Egypt, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and UAE have been in a confrontation with Qatar since last year. The article said that Sisi met Netanyahu to discuss Middle East peace and met with Jewish organizations.  The site has a short article on the meeting, claiming it “revived” the peace process and that Sisi stressed the need for a “final and just settlement” of the conflict.

Egyptian Media

Most Egyptian media highlighted aspects of Sisi’s trip and some focused on the Netanyahu handshake. Although Al-Ahram in Egypt did not mention the meeting on its homepage an article did highlight Egypt’s role in trying to aid Palestinian reconciliation. On the Arabic site, it noted that the Secretary General of the Arab League Ahmed Aboul Gheit, “commended Egypt’s efforts which paved the way for this important achievement.”

Al Masry al-Youm reported, “Sisi stressed the importance that Egypt attaches to efforts to resume negotiations between the Palestinian and Israeli sides with a view to reaching a just and comprehensive solution to the Palestinian issue in accordance with the two-state solution and the relevant international references.”

Al-Wafd featured an article that showed Netanyahu shaking hands with US President Donald Trump and discussed the new US military base in Israel, but did not mention the Sisi meeting.

Other Arab Media

Other major Arabic and regional media, such as The National in the UAE ignored the meeting. Al-Sharq al-Aswat didn’t include it. Al-Bayan in the UAE didn’t mention the UN General Assembly at all. Its top stories including something about Janet Jackson and her Qatari “billionaire husband” and salacious stories about domestic violence.

Al-Ain in Abu-Dhabi reported the meeting with a very straightforward explanation that it sought to settle the Palestinian issue and “create a new reality in the Middle East where all the peoples of the region live in stability, security and development.” It added that the meeting also included Khaled Fawzi, the head of Egyptian intelligence.

Milad media, a Palestinian website, said Sisi had launched a peace initiative in May 2016 with the French and Americans and that Sisi hoped “we could achieve some solution to this issue and create hope for the Palestinians and security for the Israelis and write a new page.”

Views On Social Media

On social media the meeting was publicized with photos of the two leaders smiling. One account called @Al_otaibiq8 with 89,000 followers criticized Sisi for “selling Egyptian territory and restoring relations with Israel.” Accounts linked to Qatar, Iran were more critical. Others located in the Gulf and in Egypt seemed to highlight the event without comment or with a kind of cheeky sarcasm. One twitter used named Hamdan al-Mutairi wrote “Unspeakable happiness” with photos of the smiling leaders.

A pro-Syrian rebel account also highlighted the “chuckling in public” and noted they had met “secretly last year.” The former  vice-President of the Egyptian students union, Ahmed el-Baqry, tweeted a photo of the meeting which he described as shameful, accusing Sisi of being a “Zionist agent” and mocking the leaders’ “love.” Another user said that it was a good sign of peace and tranquility in the region, while another compared Sisi to Anwar Sadat, who signed the Egypt-Israel peace agreement in 1979.

Cleavages Exist

In general the regional coverage of the meeting reveals the cleavages that exist. First of all it plays into the Saudi Arabia, UAE and Egyptian pressure on Qatar. They have linked this to terror funding of Hamas and Hezbollah, two enemies of Israel, which puts Israel in their court. However the general populist view in much of the region is still that Israel is the enemy and that those leaders who openly meet with Israel not only lead to “normalization” but are also attacked as shameful.

Conclusion

The disconnect between elite media presentations and how social media discusses the meeting is clear. Particularly interesting is that pro-Iranian media did not latch onto the meeting to criticize Israel. This may reveal that the old days of using the accusation that enemies “work with Zionists” does not play as well when leaders openly meet with the Israeli prime minister and discuss peace.

Hope reason will prevail and peace will finally be achieved in the Middle-East, if not totally at least partially between Israel and her neighbours .