Author: Willem

It’s Monday and the hotel shows its appreciation for the long-term guests (me) on Mondays by leaving some treats in the room.  Alas, I have to check out in the morning since I will go up to Beijing for a day or two to attend a presentation.

This is the street corner in Da Peng just outside the gate to the nuclear power plant .. busy with pedestrians, traffic and an impromptu street market of sorts. We had a little accident on Wednesday morning with the bus. A car driver tried to overtake us from behind on the inside.  Trouble was, the bus was already starting to turn its nose into the open lane, and there was also oncoming traffic. So the car driver could not get out of the way or stop in time.  In the end there was just a bad scape on the big fender of the bus but a big dent in the rear door of the car.

Happy Fourth of July!  Here is the famous preamble which includes the ideas and ideals that were principles of the Declaration of Independence.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

I love the colors on my coaster for the green tea that we were served in a meeting I attended on Monday.  The color of the yellow ring is a little washed out.   The bird symbol in the center is a crane, probably a red-crowned crane.  We may have some here in the green areas around the nuclear power station, but I have not seen any.

The US Supreme Court on Thursday upheld President Obama’s near-universal healthcare law.   Below is Republican Party nominee Mitt Romney on Japan’s NHK TV on Thursday vowing nonetheless to repeal it ‘on Day 1 when I am in office’.  And so all the political pundits look forward to him explaining why he is denouncing the federal law – now upheld by the Supreme Court – that is almost identical to the one he championed as governor of the state of Massachusetts.  The US Supreme Court held that per the Constitution the US government can tax its citizens, also as a penalty for not signing up for health insurance.  Meanwhile, on Tuesday in Japan, Prime Minister Noda pushed through legislation (that still has to be ratified) to double the national sales tax from 5% to 10% starting in 2015 in an effort to reduce Japan’s national debt.

P.S. Tropical storm Doksuri tracked further south of Hong Kong and only brought wind gusts and some rain to us here in Dameisha

It’s very hot out here .. it’s more the steamy humidity that is a problem.  There is also the tropical storm named Doksuri approaching (wind and lots of rain), and we’re on a T1 alert. The storm is projected to make landfall in the Hong Kong area early Saturday morning.  The symbols and the map are from the Hong Kong Observatory website.

Here is an unusual license plate I spotted at a traffic stop, so let me decode it for you.  I think it says ‘O-o-oh! Western Province’.  The Oh as in O Canada, the national anthem, and Western Province is probably a reference to the local provincial rugby team with their venerable striped jerseys.   The Western Province rugby team is the arch enemy of the Blue Bulls, the team from up north in the Pretoria area.

I like to look for t-shirts that shows the city or country that I find myself in. This one is by Quiksilver with their wave-and-mountain logo (depicting a tsumani?). And it does explain that the big SA stands for ‘South Africa’. The small print is of South African beaches and surf terms. The most famous South African surf beach – Jeffreys Bay – is missing, though.