Bin Laden DEAD!

I haven't lived in the U.S. for over 5 years. Today, I sit in an apartment in Hong Kong reacting to what seems surreal and fantastic. But even with the distance of time and space from 9/11 in NYC, as I look at these spontaneous celebratory images, I can't help but feel emotional.

I grew up in the New York Tri-State area. When those towers tumbled, like many others, I felt a piece of my life crumble and fall. Many lives were lost that day. Even many more have been lost since as a result of that day. I never imagined I would feel this way about the death of an individual man. But today, I am a kindred spirit with this flash mob.

FB Making Moves

Since I've moved to mainland China my blog entries have been extremely sporadic. That's because most international blog sites and that makes it enough of a pain where I don't blog regularly. (That and my crazy production and work schedules).

I'm currently in NYC on a trip over the New Year. (Happy Year of the Rabbit to all!) So I figure it's a good time as any to make a quick blog entry about Facebook in the headlines. Facebook is another site that's blocked in mainland China. After viewing this report on the New York Times Website, it's very obvious what' China fears:

Cairo's Facebook Flat

I mean, the guy pretty much said that Facebook and Twitter is what has made the last 2 weeks of protest and possible revolution possible. So I'm wondering why Egypt block or control Facebook and Twitter like they do in China.

I also found the following article in South China Morning Post to be quite timely and interesting as well:

Facebook opens HK office as part of Asian push:

I read that Facebook has hardly any presence in Japan and of course is blocked in China. Lots of speculation about what Facebook is planning to do in Asia and China specifically. But many people I know in HK are pretty damn hooked on Facebook.

And then this article makes China's stance on the Net pretty clear:

War on independent Web cafes worries Net users


In China, information and the Net are closely controlled and monitored. For example, this blog entry can't be easily accessed in the mainland. Currently, if you don't have a VPN, you're pretty much out of luck. I've heard rumors that China's making plans that will render VPN's useless in the mainland as well. Hope not. I like to stay informed about the world beyond what the state says I can or can not follow.

Anyway, that's an interesting snapshot on the state of the world at the beginning of the Year of the Rabbit and 2011. Now let's see how long it'll be before my next blog entry...

Oh My Lady Gaga!

Consider this my birthday blog: I haven't had enough luxury of time, inspiration or motivation to set finger to keyboard and tap out a blog entry in a while. So if I can't take a moment to reflect and comment on life in China on my birthday, then when!?!

OK, so the first topic I've been itching to write about is the phrase that has swept China, "Oh My Lady Gaga!" At least this phrase seems to be all the rage in Shanghai. I've used it a few times in Beijing and it seems to have less affect or recognition. So when and how do you use this phrase?

First of all, it's actually said in English. There's no Chinese version as far as I know. It's used in exasperation or reaction to something that is outrageous or silly (Gaga-licious!). It's kind of replacement for 我的天, or the Chinese equivalent of OMG!

So Her Gaga-ness has not only arrived in China (non-stop and repeatedly in all the damn expat nightclubs) but she's made her way into mainland vernacular as well!

Birthday post over: Now if I have time, I hope my next blog entry can be about a prominent director's comments about the state of beautiful women in China!

The Cult Has Landed!

It's time for another one of my sporadic blog entries! I would love to make more entries but the Great Firewall of China is just hard enough to jump over that it actually dissuades me. But I digress.

This entry is about the official opening of Apple's second store in China. The first was in Beijing, which I witnessed 2 years ago. The second is here in Shanghai, which I attended yesterday. Yeah, everyone knows I'm a bit of an Apple nut. But even I have to admit the picture snapped here is a bit freaky. It just looks so religious and cult-like. Apple's symbol is so bright it defies capture on my iPhone 3G (yeah, I'm behind the curve and craving an iPhone 4). It's just floating high above everyone in the temple of Apple. OK, consider me officially creeped out.

Shanghai Expo Redux

We're weeks away from the World Expo opening here in Shanghai. I've been living in Shanghai for over 4 months and what I find amazing is how quickly things get deconstructed gutted, remodeled and rebuilt so quickly!

Like the Olympics in Beijing, there have been many construction projects in preparation for the millions of expected international visitors. From the facades (I've seen front of buildings painted nicely, but when you go into the alley, you see it's only the front facade painted), to entirely new buildings and parks (like the Expo grounds), it's an amazing site to behold. But what I find the most fascinating are scenes like the picture to the above and left.

These are actual commercial sites that have many active customers and patrons. But then suddenly a few days later you'll see it gutted. It's not like there's only a few patrons, but hundreds of active patrons. Yet as you see in the picture above, many people still frequent these places while construction is going on. I literally had just eaten at that food court a few days earlier only to see this place gutted a few days later. This has happened to at least a few other places I used to eat at. The speed of change, construction and renovation happening in China is already mind blowing. Add international events like the Olympics and the World Expo to that change and I'm witnessing a very unique, strange and exponentially rapidly changing China everyday.

This unique time in history is a daily aspect life in China right now. It is just one of the many reasons I choose to live here at this time.

Magical But Unsustainable

I ordered my iPad (or as some call it, my "giant iPod") a few weeks ago and I'm told it's currently waiting for me in California. So while I'll be taking a journey overseas for business reasons, I'll be able to pick up this "magical" device (as Steve Jobs and company describe it) weeks before its international release. Not dissimilar to my experience with the iPhone, as an Apple fanatic, I'm salivating at the prospects of playing with this device. Nothing new there. End of story right? The difference is this time, I tracked my iPad's progress. As indicated in the screen cap below, my iPad's journey begins in Shenzen, China!


While I currently live in Shanghai China, I just happened to be in Shenzen last week on transit from Hong Kong back to Shanghai. So wouldn't it have been cool if I could just pick this device up at the factory where most Apple products are assembled in China? Yeah, I know commerce doesn't work that way. But it should.

Who am I to be getting on my high horse after ordering this device and going (indirectly) overseas to pick this up? I admit it. I'm guilty as are most of us for committing unsustainable practices. What the heck does "unsustainable practices" even mean? That's one of the things I'm trying to define. How? Why?

One, I've been reading "Confessions of a Radical Industrialist" by Ray C. Anderson on my Kindle. Mr. Anderson is at the forefront of creating truly sustainable companies. Two, I'm starting a new project which proposes to build a green and sustainable university campus in China. This is one of those "journey not destination" moments. But I believe it is an extremely important and worthy journey. I hope someday I will look back upon this blog entry about picking up my "magical" device in an unsustainable manner and laugh at how we used to practice unsustainable commerce back in the early 2000's.

If that future were to become real, then that would truly be magical!

OIHK!

I just attended a friend's birthday dinner at D17, a small seafood restaurant in Hong Kong. It was good food, good company and overall a good experience. But there was one experience that I had to snap a pic of and document.

That experience would be when I went to the men's room which is represented in picture to the left. While snapping it, I thought how Hong Kong this image is. Only in Hong Kong where space is at a premium would I see them fit such a narrow door in a tiny corner. Hong Kong is nothing if efficient. But in most other cities this space would barely be enough for a closet much less an entire bathroom with a working urinal, toilet and sink.

The restaurant staff told me no one has ever had trouble going to the men's room. But I would imagine any large or overweight person would have to use the ladies room.

In the mainland, several Westerners told me they have a shorthand saying, OIC or Only in China. While Hong Kong is part of China, there's still a menality the Hong Kong is a not China. So perhaps I can start a new term, OIHK! I prounounce that like a pig's oink, only with a silent "n".

Yeah, it's late. Time for bed.