Was in Woolworths one day with a friend and I used the automatic checkout service. My friend criticized me saying that using these machines cost the jobs of cashiers. I never thought of that and was like ooh I didn't realize that I won't use it in the future if that is the case.
That is probably the case, however, thinking back I do wonder if new technology brings us convenience, why should we avoid it? There used to be days that every single person has to grow or hunt for their own food and make there own clothes, in modern words everyone's involved in the primary industry, no existence of secondary or tertiary industry at all. Would one say the industrial revolution cost the agricultural people's jobs? It's more like freeing more people from the farms and the wild into factories, where their labour resource was used more efficiently, and increasing local productions by further processing of products from the primary industry. The workers are in turn paid for their own living.
I tend to think the same in terms of adopting new technologies. The automatic checkout machines are more likely freeing cashiers into doing something more productive and something can't be replaced by machines at this stage. And I do believe we have the resource required to train those people to make them fit for the job.
Unemployment is possibly also an indication of development, not to be rude. I suspect the unemployment rate is 0 in a pure primary industry society because anyone who doesn't work dies of starvation. Unemployment simply means someone does not have to work to stay alive with the excess resources produced by the society. Also, the excessive production also allows more education of people and research.
I don't think I need to feel guilty using those automatic checkouts anymore :) The advance of technology is not a crime after all.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Thoughts on Islam
I did not have a clear idea about the Islam when I was young. I do remember when I was small there was one mosque in my city called 'smooth tower', like in contrast to other Buddhist/Taoist towers which has multiple levels, balconies, lots of decoration and stuff. I do remember I have a classmate in middle school who is Hui (a variation of Muslim widespread in China), but she does not distinguish in any obvious way among us. We speak the same language, eat the same food (yes including pork, she did say in her family they are not supposed to but they didn't bother) and basically lead a same life as the Han Chinese people.
The first time Muslims really surprised me was when I was in Melbourne and working part time in the market. I was working with a few Muslims from Indonesia. They had to do their salah before starting their work, which just at the time salah is supposed to be performed. What this guy did is he brought all his gadgets required for the salah to work, then quietly spread a blanket on the floor, removed his shoes and then knelt down kowtowing towards Mecca(?). This goes on for like 5 minutes and then we can start our work. Muslims have to do this five times every day but well we all respect that it is their tradition and culture we should not say anything about them but when I read off news that the Muslim astronaut whom goes around the earth 16 times a day had to pray 80 times per day in theory it just cracked me up, like more than a quarter of his time spent in the international space station was praying if each one takes five minutes. Every university that I know of (I'm not sure about other places) in Australia have some sort of praying facilities dedicated to their Muslim students, which does show how tolerate the Australians towards other cultures. Muslims are allowed to build Mosques in Australia and most of other Western countries (even on ground zero NYC), Muslim woman are even allowed to wear their burqa in public and even on ID photos in some countries, which just goes beyond the line.
Can we expect the same in return from Muslims? I don't think so. The most basic fact is there is no Christianity churches in any Islam countries are allowed to be built, other than that, Islam just do not have any tolerance towards other cultures and religions. They might appear nice and talk to you about all those equality and tolerance and whatever to create the illusion that they are friendly, but once they get what they want initially they ask for more and more, until it becomes irreversible that the Muslims rule in the country. Some of the Europeans have realized a quarter of their population is becoming Muslim and they are the fastest growing in the country as Caucasians tends to have less or no children these days. It is impossible as many people thought that they can convert/influence the Muslim population given that they live long enough on the land of Christianity, they believe in the other way around and they are in no way to be changed seldom get into contact with people other than Muslims. There is a possibility that Muslims born in Western countries be converted through education in schools with children from other cultural backgrounds, but a ban of singing the national anthem of Australia in a primary school in Queensland because of Muslim parents' protests on the news late last year was just makes me rethink this possibility.
In a word, they talk about equality when they build their mosque in your country, and they talk about cultural discrimination when you ask them to lift the burqa. Treat them as is will leave your own country discriminated by Muslims in the end and they will probably celebrating their victory of another jehad against the evil Christians.
The first time Muslims really surprised me was when I was in Melbourne and working part time in the market. I was working with a few Muslims from Indonesia. They had to do their salah before starting their work, which just at the time salah is supposed to be performed. What this guy did is he brought all his gadgets required for the salah to work, then quietly spread a blanket on the floor, removed his shoes and then knelt down kowtowing towards Mecca(?). This goes on for like 5 minutes and then we can start our work. Muslims have to do this five times every day but well we all respect that it is their tradition and culture we should not say anything about them but when I read off news that the Muslim astronaut whom goes around the earth 16 times a day had to pray 80 times per day in theory it just cracked me up, like more than a quarter of his time spent in the international space station was praying if each one takes five minutes. Every university that I know of (I'm not sure about other places) in Australia have some sort of praying facilities dedicated to their Muslim students, which does show how tolerate the Australians towards other cultures. Muslims are allowed to build Mosques in Australia and most of other Western countries (even on ground zero NYC), Muslim woman are even allowed to wear their burqa in public and even on ID photos in some countries, which just goes beyond the line.
Can we expect the same in return from Muslims? I don't think so. The most basic fact is there is no Christianity churches in any Islam countries are allowed to be built, other than that, Islam just do not have any tolerance towards other cultures and religions. They might appear nice and talk to you about all those equality and tolerance and whatever to create the illusion that they are friendly, but once they get what they want initially they ask for more and more, until it becomes irreversible that the Muslims rule in the country. Some of the Europeans have realized a quarter of their population is becoming Muslim and they are the fastest growing in the country as Caucasians tends to have less or no children these days. It is impossible as many people thought that they can convert/influence the Muslim population given that they live long enough on the land of Christianity, they believe in the other way around and they are in no way to be changed seldom get into contact with people other than Muslims. There is a possibility that Muslims born in Western countries be converted through education in schools with children from other cultural backgrounds, but a ban of singing the national anthem of Australia in a primary school in Queensland because of Muslim parents' protests on the news late last year was just makes me rethink this possibility.
In a word, they talk about equality when they build their mosque in your country, and they talk about cultural discrimination when you ask them to lift the burqa. Treat them as is will leave your own country discriminated by Muslims in the end and they will probably celebrating their victory of another jehad against the evil Christians.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Memoir (Elementary School)
Let me continue my story.
Immediately after I entered elementary school I stopped all my acting jobs, partly because it wasn't that exciting anymore and partly because my family didn't want me to continue on, they want me to focus on study.
I was like a good for everything kid when I first entered my elementary school. I love all the teachers in my class and they obviously loves me too. I feel like I got some sort of previlage and extremely honours when my Year 1 maths teacher gave me some pictured story books privately and exclusively for me to read. I got full marks on like every subject. I was selected into the choir and the athlete's team (I know). I sang solo in front of the school...
Until like Year 3 things changed. I quitted the athlete's team because I'm not performing well (expected :P), I don't like the new Chinese teacher (which I think it's only because the first one was too good, and thinking back, she did actually pay a lot of attention to me and gave me enough effort) and I even started a fight with her at Year 4. I quitted doing homework at some point, from when she had to take me to her place after school and I had to finish my homework there before allowed to go home. I start fights with like every single classmate back then, and some of them actually went quite violent and caused injury to another kid when I was Year 5.
Back home I was changing too. I do remember we used to have a fold up dinner table in my grandfather's house, and that table was for me to study before dinner, quite a slippy surface and I usually place two sheets of newspaper on the table while I was studying. And gradually I actually started reading the newspaper when I'm bored of the homework, and I love tearing it after reading too, pinning the paper with my finger nail and rip it so the bit of paper folds back beautifully under it while tearing away.
Back in those days there was so many 'game houses' around where arcade games are available, and they were described as the place where all evil incubates. While we were warned strictly never to enter those places I started playing them anyways when I was Year 4, but stopped at Year 6. Samurai Showdown IV was my absolute favourite back in those days and I later become quite good at it attracting other people in there watching me play. I still play a bit of it sometimes on the emulator in my computer. My grandfather started tracking me down those places and if he found me there he'd be absolutely furious. Once I was caught in a game house and on that day the dinner was my favourite steamed pork ribs, my grandfather didn't shout at me but he just keep taking all the ribs from the dish and I had to do the same to protect my share, the result is the rest of the family just watched us and there hadn't been any left for them as we took all of them within 1 minute, including the juice.
In contrast with my athlete's adventure me in the choir actually went quite well and the music teacher actually referenced me for a place in the "youth's palace" choir of the city, which is quite an honour given that there was only two people in my school selected in. What I did quite wrong that I still regret was that after I was selected into the youth's palace choir I stopped going to the training in the school choir, throwing an attitude on it which made my music teacher quite sad. After I graduated I had visited the school once but I didn't see that teacher and failed to say all those thank you's and sorry's. I started learning piano when I was year 2 too, not being exceptionally good and eventually dropped it when I was in middle school, focusing back on the choir.
soccer was the favourite game amongst the boys back in those days. As we have an early finish every friday the gang would head to a lawn in a nearby museum and kick it off. We don't have a proper field or even a proper ball. An empty bottle is out ball and two bags laying on the ground indicates the goal. That lawn is actually overly grown for our purpose as soccer but we had heaps of fun until dark or the security kicks us out, whichever comes first. I usually don't need to do much as I am just at the back, mostly chatting to the goalkeeper and when the ball comes about kick it out. Seems like we won most of the time against another class.
Later there was a hype in table tennis and we are all crazy of it. While I don't have those quite expensive bats and stuff and I actually played quite crappy. There was a guy in other class though, quite good at this and actually won a few tournaments in the city level. He taught me some of the tricks and I got a bit better, but only at serving. Eventually table tennis didn't get to me that much.
Back like 30 years my father was actually a traner in badminton so I actually played quite good badminton under his training, sometimes on the weekends we go out to rent a real badminton field in the Sports University where my other grandparents live. I still have the bat with me which is more than 10 years old now but I haven't been playing it for a while.
Sex started to become the topic of our talks around Year 5 but back then no one actually knows what happens, we are just all curious and tend to laugh at funny names relating to sex. Rumours are around that this guy is going out with that girl and stuff and they do admit it, just not that sort of going out though. I myself didn't have an "official" "girlfriend" back then but rumours are out there anyway and my friends actually know that there was a girl that I've been getting on well with in the class for years. And my friends are like quite happy for me when that girl was randomly selected to sit beside me by the supervisor of the class. Nothing happened between us though, but I do steal money from home and buy her birthday presents back in those days.
Today is her birthday.
Immediately after I entered elementary school I stopped all my acting jobs, partly because it wasn't that exciting anymore and partly because my family didn't want me to continue on, they want me to focus on study.
I was like a good for everything kid when I first entered my elementary school. I love all the teachers in my class and they obviously loves me too. I feel like I got some sort of previlage and extremely honours when my Year 1 maths teacher gave me some pictured story books privately and exclusively for me to read. I got full marks on like every subject. I was selected into the choir and the athlete's team (I know). I sang solo in front of the school...
Until like Year 3 things changed. I quitted the athlete's team because I'm not performing well (expected :P), I don't like the new Chinese teacher (which I think it's only because the first one was too good, and thinking back, she did actually pay a lot of attention to me and gave me enough effort) and I even started a fight with her at Year 4. I quitted doing homework at some point, from when she had to take me to her place after school and I had to finish my homework there before allowed to go home. I start fights with like every single classmate back then, and some of them actually went quite violent and caused injury to another kid when I was Year 5.
Back home I was changing too. I do remember we used to have a fold up dinner table in my grandfather's house, and that table was for me to study before dinner, quite a slippy surface and I usually place two sheets of newspaper on the table while I was studying. And gradually I actually started reading the newspaper when I'm bored of the homework, and I love tearing it after reading too, pinning the paper with my finger nail and rip it so the bit of paper folds back beautifully under it while tearing away.
Back in those days there was so many 'game houses' around where arcade games are available, and they were described as the place where all evil incubates. While we were warned strictly never to enter those places I started playing them anyways when I was Year 4, but stopped at Year 6. Samurai Showdown IV was my absolute favourite back in those days and I later become quite good at it attracting other people in there watching me play. I still play a bit of it sometimes on the emulator in my computer. My grandfather started tracking me down those places and if he found me there he'd be absolutely furious. Once I was caught in a game house and on that day the dinner was my favourite steamed pork ribs, my grandfather didn't shout at me but he just keep taking all the ribs from the dish and I had to do the same to protect my share, the result is the rest of the family just watched us and there hadn't been any left for them as we took all of them within 1 minute, including the juice.
In contrast with my athlete's adventure me in the choir actually went quite well and the music teacher actually referenced me for a place in the "youth's palace" choir of the city, which is quite an honour given that there was only two people in my school selected in. What I did quite wrong that I still regret was that after I was selected into the youth's palace choir I stopped going to the training in the school choir, throwing an attitude on it which made my music teacher quite sad. After I graduated I had visited the school once but I didn't see that teacher and failed to say all those thank you's and sorry's. I started learning piano when I was year 2 too, not being exceptionally good and eventually dropped it when I was in middle school, focusing back on the choir.
soccer was the favourite game amongst the boys back in those days. As we have an early finish every friday the gang would head to a lawn in a nearby museum and kick it off. We don't have a proper field or even a proper ball. An empty bottle is out ball and two bags laying on the ground indicates the goal. That lawn is actually overly grown for our purpose as soccer but we had heaps of fun until dark or the security kicks us out, whichever comes first. I usually don't need to do much as I am just at the back, mostly chatting to the goalkeeper and when the ball comes about kick it out. Seems like we won most of the time against another class.
Later there was a hype in table tennis and we are all crazy of it. While I don't have those quite expensive bats and stuff and I actually played quite crappy. There was a guy in other class though, quite good at this and actually won a few tournaments in the city level. He taught me some of the tricks and I got a bit better, but only at serving. Eventually table tennis didn't get to me that much.
Back like 30 years my father was actually a traner in badminton so I actually played quite good badminton under his training, sometimes on the weekends we go out to rent a real badminton field in the Sports University where my other grandparents live. I still have the bat with me which is more than 10 years old now but I haven't been playing it for a while.
Sex started to become the topic of our talks around Year 5 but back then no one actually knows what happens, we are just all curious and tend to laugh at funny names relating to sex. Rumours are around that this guy is going out with that girl and stuff and they do admit it, just not that sort of going out though. I myself didn't have an "official" "girlfriend" back then but rumours are out there anyway and my friends actually know that there was a girl that I've been getting on well with in the class for years. And my friends are like quite happy for me when that girl was randomly selected to sit beside me by the supervisor of the class. Nothing happened between us though, but I do steal money from home and buy her birthday presents back in those days.
Today is her birthday.
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