stlplaceGRE analogy problem
China GDP number: politicians vs.
Corporate earning: executives stock options
Hint: the local officials pump up the GDP numbers so that they can get promoted; the corporate CEO/CFO pump up the earning number so that their stock options will be more valuable.
Of course in an ideal world, when the law is enforced, those kind of things will not happen.
Yesterday was a special day in modern China’s history. This is a time the leaders don’t want to talk about, and generation Y (young people born after 1980s) don’t know much about. I was a high school senior at the time, and we worried we would get into a sort of cultural revolution considering chaotic situation at that time. All right, I don’t want to get into the politics and the details of the event. All I want to say is I have lots of sympathy to the people lost loved ones in the event, and I was pleased to see the positive development in our country in last 20 years.
Gas and Panera: more saving tips
Yeah, the $4 a gallon gas is finally coming, it’s $3.899 in recent 3 days here in STL. I tried to stretch the gas I put last time at $3.699 as much as I could, but it seems like I will need to put gas either tomorrow or Monday. Meanwhile, I tried to walk to and from Panera this morning and afternoon, maybe I saved a dollar or two on this 🙂
Seriously, I think my last car tune up worked in terms of improving gas mileage.
We all know the terrible earthquake happened in China, and the Chinese goverment and people are doing the best helping the survivors. There are many many heart touching stories since May 12 when the quake hit. NPR Melissa Block and Robert Siegal (read their Chengdu diary) did a good job from a foreign journalist perspective.
But I also noticed it is not free of controversies in this all out effort to save lives and help the needy. Notably, Wang Shi (王石), the chairman of Vanke (largest home builder in China), is inadvertly got into this “donation gate”.
We all know the terrible earthquake happened seven days ago (May 12, 14:28 PM) in Sichuan province. Today the while country is mourning the loss of the lives in China. I belive many people in the world share the same loss too. After all, we are living in the same earth (global village).
I visited Sichuan Jiu Zhai Gou about 3 years ago. While mother nature is ruthless sometimes, we should not ignore that Sichuan is a beautiful place, same as her people. So don’t refrain yourself from visiting Jiu Zhai Gou or Sichuan in the future. I gurantee you will love it.
Full size picture here, my blog post in June 2005 (at blogspot).
more Jiu Zhai Gou pictures note as of 11-28-2023 the pictures link are not working 🙁
(Update) I set the color of the header of this blog to black (#000000), as we mourn the loss of lives in this earthquake.
(Update May15) My friend Sun also set up a donation page for earthquake relief. He even put up a challenge (match) for Paypal donors. Kudos to him. I sent a check of $51.20 to OSCCF today.
(Source: NPR.org, more pictures from NPR)
(Original) There are lots of organizations one can donate for the China earthquake, such as this list (Chinese) and another list (English). I think everyone can pick an amount and a charity feel comfortable. Also the wider the participation (more people give in small amount), the better. Note some employers offer match for certain charities, and there is tax deduction for donors if the charity has registered with IRS for that purpose (there is an EIN). Personally I am debating about the following two:
1. Overseas Saving Chinese Children Fundation: as name implied, the emphasis is on the need of small kids.
2. Peking Univ Fundation: Chinese, English, they said the donation will be “for the middle and primary schools in the disaster area in China. All donations will be transferred to benefit schools within a month.”
Today is Earth day, we are seeing all kinds of “Green talk” from CNBC to Fox News, from Google to WSJ, from Democrats to Republicans. I think this is all good but this environment thing should be done in our everyday lives, not some sort of campaign or movement: when the passion run out or when the gas back to $2, we back to our old habbits 🙂
Similar logic can be applied to the recent Chinese boycott movement against French brands, after the recent Olympics torch incident in Paris. I noticed the Chinese goverment and news media already toned down harsh words. They are now asking Chinese people show patrotism in the daily work and lives, which is exactly my point.
Boycott does not work
Here are the reasons:
1) Lose moral high ground: in this case the role of the big French supermarket chain in current pro-free Tibetan movement is not definite, we could hit the wrong guy. Even if if somebody hit us, do we have to hit back everytime? I think it depends on the situtation.
There are lots of discussions (e.g., wang jianshuo) about boycotting French companies lately, after the Paris Olympics torch relay incident, and some France politicians unfriendly move. Now the France supermarket giant Carrefour, which has a large presence in China, will be boycotted on May 1, because (arguably) its main shareholder supports free Tibet organization. Baidu dedicated a full page to Carrefour boycott (Chinese).
My 2 cents on France and boycotting:
It’s official, the Hangzhou Bay bridge, which connects Ningbo (my hometown) and Shanghai (to be more precise, connects Ci Xi to Jiang Xing 南起浙江宁波慈溪市，北至浙江嘉兴海盐县), will open on this May, according to Ningbo goverment offical. Chinese news from Xinhuanet here.
(source: sohu)
At this time this is the longest sea crossing bridge in the world (36 km, or 22.5 miles). A new Hangzhou Bay railway bridge is also under planning (Chinese).
Dream come true
Financial Times did a Top 10 Chinese global brands survey recently. And here are the winners. Did you notice anything interesting?
I noticed BoC, Air China, China Mobile, China Telecom, Sinopec, CCB are state owned (majority owned); while Lenovo, Tsingtao beer, Haier and Baidu are public companies. I am a little puzzeled why ICBC and PetroChina did not make it to the list; and I was NOT surprised Baidu tops Sina, Sohu and Netease.
By the way, many of the top 10 brands are Beijing Olympics sponsor, such as BoC, Air China, China Mobile and Lenovo. If you watch NBA on TV, you will see Lenovo and Haier ad. from time to time.
(Full size pic is here).
