I can’t stop thinking about the interview I saw yesterday on Charlie Rose with SOHO’s billionare founder. One thing has stuck with me since, when Charlie’s asked her whether women fare far worse than men in China, and she answered that Chinese women probably fare the best in the world on a relative scale, when it comes to freedom and choices.

Now, social issues aside (let’s be clear that Chinese women, particularly rural ones, are seriously oppressed through marriage and traditional patriartical values, do in fact have the highest suicide rate of any female groups in the world), this is an interesting discussion to be had. Zhang’s arguement was that most middle-class Chinese women have a lot of support to learn on – child-rearing is supported by parents on both sides, and much household tasks can be off-loaded to affordable and readily available labour that migrates from the rural areas. This frees them up to pursue things outside of their homes, whether intellectually or in business matters. It is not hard to spot women in Chinese boards and high level executivie positions, nor are girls’ aspirations to make themselves a career anything to be surprised about. Compared to its East Asian neighbours, Korea and Japan, the female participation rates in the labour force is far far higher.

But consider how accidental this “progress” came to be – who could have predicted that in a still rather traditional and Confucius society, females in China have achieved what decades of feminist movements and thoughts in the West have fallen short in – an aspiration and a firmer grasp of economic freedom. Most of these are due to two events completely unrelated and unintended to have anything to do with female empowerment: 1) politics ordained official “equality”, and just like East Germany, this communist/socialist value pushed a lot of females into the work force, and 2) when China finally opened up post-80s, the working mentality had already been deeply entrenched in the Chinese female psyches for more than a generation, and urban females jumped on the career fast-track, courtesy of rural migration that bought to the cities wave after wave of available domestic help.

The cloest thing you see to the Chinese phenonemon is perhaps the US, where cheap Mexican labour has also freed up many Americans, men and women, to pursue more economically productive matters. In Europe, on the other hand, through stricter migration and labour laws, higher taxes (which makes it more worthwhile for you to take care of your own children, mow your own lawns, cook your own meals, and paint your own houses), and perhaps a higher level of complancy of females in knowing that their “equality” is realized through legal versus economic means, has practically barred its women from venturing back to the work force after having a family.  So is it Schadenfreude when the continent scratched its head and wonders what other tricks it has under its sleeves as to how it can best motivate and allow its highly-educated female population to become more productive members of society?

So while European women has resolved the work and life balance issue by clearly ticking the life box (or work, if you want to remain childless, and possibly family-less), and American women continues to fidget through internal battles of guilt, worries, while balancing and weighing their ambitions against their familial responsibilities, their Chinese counter-parts can more or less have both. It’s still an art to hold together a family while making meaningful contribution to your career, help or no help, but consider the probabilities of success in those aforementioned instances.

Sometimes when I see housewives leisurely pushing carts of their children through the park here in the neighbourhood, I wonder, in 20 years, when faced with their counter-part from another part of the world, children, husband, and all, how would these women feel? Would the so-called “equality indicators” really mean much at all? And whether more unintended factors, whether they be demographics, politics, matters of nature, will have far more influence over our lives than things we have struggled to advance and control.

With multiple gun shootings in Finland over the last couple of years, a couple of which taking place in schools, Finland is now on high alert.

The response resembles more out of an inner-city school in some hard-knocked American industrial city, than that of a frozen northern tundra of a country famous otherwise for its mobile phones and sauna.

Getting through the door at Järvenpää High School requires an electronic key these days. Once inside, students leave their coats and bags at a monitored rack. Students too are under the close watch of video cameras.

The school’s pupils say the measures add a sense of security.

“It feels safe here, and we’re not afraid to come to school, especially in light of the school shootings. We know outsiders can’t get in,” says Sini Huuskola, a student at the school.

There we have it.  Scandinavia ghetto-rized, one cold corner at a time.

There are euros enough to spare yet in the German budget yet.

The drug policy commissioner in Germany has has said that when it comes to continuing welfare allowances for smokes and beers, “clearly there is room for luxury items in benefits for the long-term unemployed”.  And that anyone whom doesn’t agree with her is simply populist. For good measure, however, she does adds moderation is important.

Good news for the smokers in Germany though, the government is keen to defend their rights to smoke and refuses to increase the taxes on cigarettes.  Poor Germans are now reduced to rolling their own smokes.

“Regarding the tobacco tax we first need to create a level playing field,” she said. “Many smokers have moved to fine-cut rolling tobacco and roll their own cigarettes now, because it’s cheaper due to the lower taxes.” Instead of raising the tax on a pack of smokes, the government should instead insure that cigarette smuggling is reduced to insure that they are paid at all, she told the paper.

When my now-fiancé first told his parents about his new girlfriend a couple years ago, me being Chinese-Canadian, the first question my now future father-in-law asked was, “does her family run a Chinese restaurant?”

Now, I love my father-in-law to pieces, who is a lovely man with not one drop of racist blood running through his veins.  But in his mind and through his experiences, perhaps the idea that a Chinese family can do anything other than running Chinese restaurants is a revelation. As far as I know, no members of my immediate family has ever ventured into the restaurant, grocer or laundry business.  So he might be disappointed that I’m not that good of a cook after all.

The point of the story is that when it comes to the issue of race, there’s a lot missing in the collective European psyche.  Through its own lack of experiences with multiculturalism – unlike in North American and other parts of the New World, where barriers and stereotypes get broken down and built up again, Europe is still stuck on Racial Issues 1.0.

I think this ad was meant to be funny, but is it?

Entitled “Ideal” – and to my eyes without the slightest sense of irony, the narrative goes to say that in an ideal world, the Netherlands is a small village, and then goes on to name various members of the farming community that produces the cheese in question.

After what feels like a great start to a propaganda film made for the Third Reich, where wholesome blonde girls and boys are contentedly occupied with various aspects of farm fun, the camera pans to an obviously dark-haired and ethnic girl – Fatima.

Slight pause, followed by the surprised but still jolly voiceover, oh, what the heck!  The implication being that as long as she’s making cheese – and playing by the rules of the farm, she’s part of the village.

Some might say it’s just the ad poking fun at itself for being too serious about the white picket-fence depiction.  Given the political situation in the country, where the far-right anti-immigration party is now projected to become the second-largest party in the country, and tempers are high on all fronts, is this really a sensible subject to joke around?

Call me hard-assed, but there are unspoken rules about what is appropriate to mock, and where. You don’t get to credibly make jokes about race unless your society has reached some level of racial harmony and mutual understanding on the subject.

So, dear misguided cheese company, until your supermarkets take those “negro kisses” off the shelf, your government starts to have some sensible conversations about immigrants and actually treat their children and grandchildren as your own citizens, those race jokes are not yet yours to make.

I used to think charging for toilets, and having up to two attendants sitting outside washroom facilities and collect coins in a little tray, ceremoniously spraying a whiff of air fresher in toilet stalls after each use, was an act relegated to developing countries with severe under-employment problems.  I was wrong.

On the European Continent, it is the rule rather than exception to have paid toilets.  Whether it’s in McDonald’s, department stores, highway rest stations, or sometime even museums, I always go forth with change in my pocket.

The newer automated paying toilet turnpike system adopted along the Germany highway is at least without attendants, generally well-lit, well-stocked and sanitary.  You also get a coupon back for the amount you inserted to get inside the washroom, which can be used in the chain of highway rest stop restaurants and shops.  So not all’s wasted.

In shopping areas and fast food outlets, I find it harder to justify installing paid bathrooms at 20 to 60 cents per use.  Why penny-pinch the customers that are buying things and keeping your business afloat?

However, the idea of keeping customer happy in Europe is still stuck at a level where YOU, and not THEM, are expected to pay for customer service.  The consumerist drive is still under check by relatively expensive goods and inconvenient shopping environments – expensive parking, spread out shopping areas, and a general indifference to the idea of comfort when shopping.

PS. Apparently Paris is also subjected to a pay-for-use public toilet system, with some places literally robbing the tourists on one whole euro per use.

Canada and the US top the giving chart, coming up high on instances of money and time giving.  Although compared to the top performers of Europe, the difference is hardly noticeable.

The interesting difference comes from how giving changes with age. In no other region in the world, does giving rise at quite the same consistent pace as age as in North America.  Given US (and Canada) hardly has the most “secure” welfare system for the old and presumably eventually sickly, it is interesting how the upward slope contrasts with that in Australasia and Western Europe.

Do Americans just believe more in “giving it all away” when faced with the prospects of death, or are there more plausible, and perhaps cynical explanations out there?

source: Charities Aid Foundation

Früh is a pretty famous brewery in Cologne, Germany.  On their website, they have archived all their billboard campaigns, organized by year.

At the very bottom of the list, there’s a separate category called Düsseldorf, which is a rival city.

Those ads poke fun at Düsseldorf, with taunting taglines like “Now also in small villages around Cologne”, “line up”, “for relief, now available in A3 (German highway outside Düsseldorf)”.

Full archive here.

London is spending a pretty penny in getting a bike-sharing scheme up and running in the centre of the city.  Sounds great in theory, but why do I have the idea that the focus on getting the science and logistics right on bike logistics will not go very far in promoting and fostering a mainstream biking culture?

The Netherlands is perhaps the most bike friendly country in the world, followed by countries such as Denmark (or at least Copenhagen).  The roles that bikes play in everyday life has little to do with the availability of bikes on the road, but the fact that there are roads to bike on.

Now, like most of North American cosmopolitan centres that are also trying to encourage more biking and less driving, London suffers from a number of infrastructural problems.  To put it simply: the roads are built for cars, and bikers – the minority, have to make do with minimal disruption to the drivers – the majority.

Having lived in a bike-centric country for more than two years, here are some problems I foresee with the London attempt:

• Most of the bike lanes are either totally unmarked (you and your bicycle squeeze in however you can), or marked but only wide enough to accommodate one single bike that does not swerve.  This is unsafe.  Drivers swerve and hit bikers.  Sometimes bikers get killed.  After a couple of front-page headlines screaming “Biker get killed by speeding/drunk/careless drivers”, no mothers will want their kids try this.
• Bikers get suited up.  With reflective markings on their backs, anti-scratch shirts and pants, specialty biking shoes, protective gloves and helmet.  Now going out by bike becomes more of an exercise in playing dress-up than anything else, relegated to the hardcore.  Who else would bother?
• The anxiety of not having a dedicated lane to you, separated from BOTH car traffic and pedestrians, is a huge turn-off.  Imagine how feasible it would be to bike next to cars on a rainy day – the puddle splashes, on a foggy day – the fright! Some people talk about biking etiquette, but that is non-sense. Pedestrians are not told about walking etiquette, because they cannot be expected to share a paths with other moving vehicles.  Biking should be no different.  Separating all three types of lanes with barriers in between is the most sensible way to do this.

A few other things:

• Doing this kind of scheme densely populated area is best.  People will most likely not mind biking for around 30 minutes to work, 5-10 to get groceries or pick up their kids.  Anything more than that, alternatives will be considered.  This bike scheme is only available in central London, because London is simply too large to bike from end to end.  So for everyday commuters, I’m just not sure that by tacking on a bike ride at either the beginning or the very end of someone’s already excruciating commute will appeal to many people.
• Having a flat area/region/country helps tremendously.  You won’t be puffing and huffing once you reach your destination and have to change into a new shirt. Also, water don’t accumulate in inconvenient places that might make biking impossible during the rainy days.
• The is-this-comfortable test?  Most bike paths here fit at least 2 bikers at the same time, so you can have a nice chat with your friend while biking.  Helmets are unheard of – because biking is perceived as such a safe mode of transportation (and I don’t disagree, given the VIP lane treatment, but that’s very specific to this country), so you will look just as composed once you reach your destination. And biking skills have reached such expert level that it’s no shock to see girls with skirts and high heels, or guys with suits on bikes.  All this means that biking has reached the same level of convenience and comfort as taking the car or public transportation.
• For the biking culture to be adapted by the mainstream, it has to make economic sense above anything else.  We think we’ll bike because we want to exercise and save the environment, but more often than not, these are but a casual and positive by-product of biking when it is economically and socially advantageous to do. Biking is embedded in the Dutch culture, because it is the easiest and cheapest way to get around driving your expensive car and pay for exorbitant parking, and much faster than walking.  Surely, there are always bikers that will bike almost anywhere, regardless of conditions. But if the economic and convenience scale that weighs all other available modes of transportation does not tip in favour of biking in your city, than this kind of scheme will not take off on a massive level.

If language is in fact an artifact of culture, then what does the way we name family members say about us?

In Chinese, the naming conventions for every member of the family is dependent on their gender, whether the relationship stems from the father or the mother’s side, and their age in relation to you or your parents.

For example, the concept of an “aunt” is dependent on whether the aunt is directly related to either the mother’s or the father’s side, whether they are older or younger, and whether they are siblings to your parents or married into the family.

Another example, my dad’s younger sister’s son would have a different name (a variation of the concept of cousin), than if he was the son of my dad’s older sister.  And that would still be different than if he was the son of my dad’s older brother.

Still with me?

Anyway, when this is all too much, go Dutch.  In the lowlands, the words neefje and nichtje, which covers not only the ideas of nephew and niece, but also cousins of the same sex.  That’s to say, in a cross-generational sweep of generalization, a female cousin of yours bears the same concept as a niece, and a male cousin of yours is the same as a nephew.

As a result, most Dutch have trouble with the concept of cousins, which I suppose, in a familial sense, is probably just as remote as niece and nephews.

The Roma issue in Europe is complicated and very sensitive to all involved.  Lately, those in richer parts of Europe, such as France and Italy, are turning what is fundamentally a social problem into a rhetoric that is increasingly becoming all about criminality and domestic security.

It is no surprise that this is making the news at a time when Sarkozy and Berlusconi’s supports are at all-time lows.  Those countries are mired in a plethora of economic and social problems, least of which has anything to do with Roma.

But as any visitors to those countries well know, the roaming Roma are the ones that can potentially escalate your leisurely strolls in the windy streets and busy subways of Paris and Rome from one of annoyance, to paranoia and fear.  And any long-term residents of the countries know about the unsightly camps, poverty, abuse, and organized crimes that plague those communities.

Compare the issue of Roma immigration and integration, which has been a thorn in Europe’s eye for over 600 years, to ongoing discussions over Muslim immigration and integration Western Europe, which when you think about it, only surfaced no more than half a century ago, then the magnitude of the Roma problem looks really deep-rooted.

This is not the first time France has attempted to expel Roma from its borders.  But what is different now, are the bad examples the likes of France and Italy are setting Eastern Europe, where most of the Roma come from.  It is hard to maintain a position of moral superiority and lecture the new member state of the EU on human rights and due processes, when a founding member of the EU literally ships out an unwanted group of minorities, back to a country where they are even more despised and discriminated against – rightly or wrongly, has a lot to do with where you live and how you see the problem, but that’s for another day.

Back to France and the present time.  The question is amplified, because the construct and aspirations of the European Union ensure that such so-called “domestic affairs” are no longer domestic, but have consequences far beyond its borders.  The implications of Sarkozy’s calculated political machinations are now weighed with either worries or jubilation by government ministers and right-winged nationalists, in places like Sofia and Bucharest.  But that’s hardly Sarkozy’s problems at this very moment.

On Swedish quirks, which include:

• Early morning birthday gift-giving rituals: I think there’s something quirky about birthdays in all these northern European mini-states.  The Dutch bake their own cake and serve everyone but themselves on their birthdays, not to mention the circle party where everyone congratulates you and your family, presumably, for making it through another round of intolerably insufferable family gatherings.
• Shitty customer service: Again, much to be desired in much of the Continent. Yes, you need to pay yourself (often at exorbitant rates, of 20-30 cents per minute) to reach customer service.  No, there’s no guarantee you’ll reach anyone within a reasonable amount of time. Yes of course the lines are closed on nights and weekends. And yes, to have someone tell you something is simply “impossible” is the most likely outcome of your concerted efforts.
• Odd breakfast spread combos like apple sauce on cereals: The Dutch has its own mind-boggling combination of breakfast specialties that include chocolate bits on top of butter and spread on biscuits.
• And wordsthatsticktogetherthatmakesyounauseous: Although English seems to be the exception in this case, in its refusal to jive with the rest of its ancestral Germanic cousins in putting words together with no breathing space in between.

This is how the likes of Geert Wilders hijacks meaningful conversations on immigration and integration.  When a chasm the size of New Zealand’s newly torn fault line exists between what politically-correct politicians and media say, and what the Joe Schmo thinks, then these populist telling-it-as-it-is ideas begin to take hold.

What I’m getting from this Newsweek take on the Sarrazin non-sense sweeping Germany, is that one, Germany refuses to acknowledge its long-term negligence and mistakes made on immigration and integration policies.  As a result, Germany’s post-war repentance took on a wildly ignorant and politically correct tone which confused racial equality and tolerance with recognizing disadvantaged and left-behind communities for what they are, disadvantaged and increasingly left behind.

And two, politicians and media cannot effectively deal with this underclass of mostly immigrant citizens, and refuses to acknowledge what is in plain sight – that is, their low economic and social status.  I understand the nuances required in separating the underlying social problems from their attached communities, but that’s what politicians are paid to do.

So far, it looks to me as though they are only capable of doing one of two things.  One, blaming poor development in the Turkish/Arab communities in Germany (and Turkish/Moroccan communities in the Netherlands) on Islam.  Or two, pointing the finger on politicians on the other side of the table and calling them Hitler, and thereby exempting themselves from meaningful discussions on the wider social problems and policy mistakes made in the past, possibility by their own parties.

Many people have said that this is all but a distraction from the real economic and demographic challenges that Europe faces.  No doubt, Europe could very well harvest this “crisis” into an opportunity and benefit from the younger demographic profiles of their immigrant communities.

But I would say that when you have 10-20% percent of your population in a politically provoked, socially isolated, and economically unfulfilled state, those countries are out of balance.  In Brussels, Moroccan youths are (from reliable friends that live there) wreaking havoc in Arabic neighbourhoods – everything from petty theft and property vandalism to rioting against the police.

On the other hand, Belgium is also a country where most white-collar work places have no (not a little, but none whatsoever) people of colour, despite a good 15-20% of their compatriots being non-white.  It says something about the society when most native Belgians have never encountered a non-European co-worker, instead only interacting with the immigrant underclass through their jobs as office cleaners, grocers, and other lowly menial jobs.

But back to Sarrazin, is it then any surprise that most Germans support him and his views?

Home births has been getting more attention in the last little while in the English-speaking world, as the idea of purer and less interventionist births seem to coincide with the naturalist trend.

But are home births actually better and safer?  Some claim the rate of post-natal depression is lower in women that do give births at home, others see the practice as primitive and risky.

In the Netherlands, as many as a quarter of births take place in the home – which seems high, but still much lower than what it was 30 years ago. The midwifery role is well-integrated into the health-care system – who replaces doctors in their roles of monitoring pregnancies, birthing, and post-natal care.

The affinity for expectant mothers to turn to midwives instead of doctors has perhaps more historical and cultural bearings than what’s been given credit to.  The Dutch shuns painkillers and sees medication as the last resort, perhaps owning to its somewhat agrarian past where healthcare is not concentrated and widespread, and its Calvinist staunchness.

The government and the medical profession likes to keep the population think their stoic approach against pain and illness, is more sensible against what they view as the cry-baby paranoia of the Americans.  In fact, when a relatively famous Dutch TV host gave birth with the help of epidurals and later praised it as “invention of the century” (blasphemy!), she was quickly condemned by both the health ministries and physician associations for giving women the wrong idea.

As a result, it still remains that in the 21st century and a somewhat post-feminist world, when the majority of developed-world’s women have made peace with the role pain-relief plays during the birthing process, the average Dutch woman is still guilt-tripped into viewing a drug-free birth as the ultimate testament to their womanhood.

Visits to the doctors usually end with the patients empty-handed, with doctors doing little except telling patients to wait-and-see, and let-it-blow-over.  The entire healthcare profession also has little penchant for preventative care, which is to say, yearly check ups (no pap smears before the age of 40, and only every 2-5 years thereafter) and preventative dental care is almost unheard of.

But back to home births, is it better and just as safe as hospital births?  This report doesn’t seem to think so.  Although it’ll probably take another generation before the Dutch assertion that “home birth is the best option for a large number of women” goes challenged.

By car, that is.  According to a German paper, chauffeuring your kids to school not only denies them of physical exercises, but can also impair their social developments.

The Rabenmutter cultural spell lingers.

via Planet Germany

I heard about this movie last year, and just got around to watching it.

Here’s what the movie got right:

- The film was made in Egypt, you can tell because the whole deal with traffic is pretty much spot on. There’s no real concept of traffic lanes in Egypt, nor does the concept of traffic lights exist – there are none.  Taxis are from the 60s, some release toxic fume from the inside.  But most of the time you are poisoned from the pollution from out the window.  Keeping the taxi drivers awake is also important.

- Patricia Clarkson’s character’s surprise in having men follow her everywhere when she goes out in blouses and skirts.  Women get this pretty quickly: you either cover up, or you are “asking for it”.  Unwanted sexual attention that is.  And it goes without saying that every Arabic men that approaches you on the street will have no trouble telling you how beautiful you are. Without fail.

- There are too many camels and not enough donkeys in the film. There are more donkeys in Egypt.

- Yes, you will be offered hot hibiscus tea all the time, even when it’s 40 degrees outside and you are trying to cool down. Tea is usually served with spoonfuls of sugar.

- The gushing new foreigner, and the cynical long-term expat.

- When Clarkson says, I’ll write something about street children, and Tareq says, you don’t live here, it’s complicated.  Right on.

- Everyone you meet seems to be studying some combination of language and tourism. Becoming a tour guide and one day running their own travel agency seems to be the best prospects for a lot of young people.  I have heard every major language spoken while I was there, including impeccable Chinese while inside the Egyptian Museum.

- “Tomorrow I will take the day off.”  Many Egyptian men that endlessly wander the street seem to have this luxury. Under-employment and outright unemployment seems to be a chronic malaise.

Where it’s not one hundred percent:

- It’s not that hot in November. During the days, you can get by with a sleeveless shirt, but it’s no sweltering heat.  At night, it gets chilly fast.

- Venturing out to the oasis doesn’t really count as going out in Cairo.  The white desert is a few hours away, and you need a 4×4 jeep to get out there.  These trips are done overnight, usually with Bedouin tour guides.

- Sailing on the Nile: it’s almost pointless to sail on the Niles during smoggy days, you can’t see three meters from the boat.  Most people sail at night, while eating on one of those boat restaurants.  Much cooler, plus the pollution would’ve been more settled by then.

- “I’m not married.” That’s what all Egyptian men say.  And they are all married. Some maybe twice. In real life, Tareq would tell Clarkson he’s not married while being married with three kids and they’d carry on a torrid affair. She’d find out years later, heart broken, and go back to Egypt and find a younger lover.

- It’s impossible to just see the pyramids without hoards of people trying to sell you everything from fruits, postcards, to camel rides. It’s not a stroll down the Niles either with the smog and traffic.

- And no other tourists around the pyramids?  What is this, a scene straight from Murder on the Niles?

- The movie portrayed the relationship between the two characters as some kind of accidental rediscovery of love for Clarkson and Tareq.  In reality, Egyptian men make a sport out of flirting and sleeping with foreign women.  The worst are those in Cairo that wander the streets, and tour guides. It is not uncommon to see very young Egyptian men with middle-aged European women.  There are even villages in Upper Egypt filled with such couples. The sexual politics of Egypt is very particular, and this is but a romanticized version of such daily occurrences.