YOGAYUGA

Some people don’t like this news, but I am alright with it. I don’t think I will bring so many bottles in my hand baggage anyway. I don’t even bring hand and face lotions. I don’t wear make up on plane. I only have my contact lenses kept with liquid inside a case, which capacity is less than 30ml. I can’t think of anything else I do carry on plane apart from my ticket, passport, wallet and laptop.

I totally agreed with the following saying:

“On the surface China has changed so much, but essentially it still is a coercive society. The Maoist ideology has been replaced by “getting rich is glorious” ideology. I discovered that it is almost impossible not to become corrupt. The hypocrisy of the establishment is destroying the morality of Chinese people.”

There are many good sides to be seen on the surface of society, but deep down the weakness is leaking. The gap between the rich and the poor is getting bigger and bigger. We need balance and critical thinking in our society. During Cultural Revolution, Mao reformed thinking of Chinese people towards the new China for what he created, but this ideology didn’t complete his objective. It only slowed down the understanding development of China towards outside world. I wonder what Mao is thinking if he was still alive, and seeing the modern China??

“We should have a target for the withdrawal of all British troops by the end of October this year”  Sir Menzies Campbell

Basically, Tony Blair is also trying to save his PM position in the parliament. He is no longer popular and powerful since his policy has been so active towards the war.

Well, I really hope that Bush can make some sensible judgment on what he has been doing, and not keep sending more and more troops to the dead end. This is really a tragedy of the century, and the sadness of modern world.

Well, I don’t know what to comment about this news as a dog owner, but I guess I need to give less food to my Bibi. hahaha! It’s hard to imagine that keeping your dog fat could commit to crime. (well, I am not sure if it is related to real crime or not, but is a trial overall) I have never thought of that, as to certain extent I always think pets are cute to be fat. Anyway, the dog’s owners do have to pay certain responsibilities to the way they took care of their dog.

I thought American don’t like playing soccer, but LA Galaxy paid Beckham one million dollar a week for playing of it. I am very surprise!

Smoking bans in Spain on January 1, France on Feb 1, Denmark on April 1, and UK on July 1. Smoking also bans in HK on Jan 1.

I watched an interesting programme about the HK smoking ban policy on TV. The related department do concern very much about when HK can be completely become a smoking free region. Many people have been verbally warned when they were smoking in some smoking free public areas after the ban. Since smokers cannot smoke indoor of most of restaurants and some smoking free areas, then they would naturally smoke in any outdoor area that allows them to smoke. More and more people will smoke on the street. I did see a group of people surrounding a public rubbish bin on the street last night, and smoking together as they can use it as an astray. In fact, the ban won’t stop people smoking suddenly, but will make people to smoke more on the street. Certainly, it will take time to make HK becoming smoking free completely.

The programme was talking about stores of Marlboro and Dunhill. Marlboro only sells clothes and accessories in their stores, but the smoking ban department does worry that their advertising and promotion can have strong propaganda to lead teenagers smoking. Dunhill has been created as a fashionable brand for professional and upper class people, so their cigarettes can have the same idea for people who smoke with it. Well, I think the government people do make a good point, but really, I do doubt their stores could make much influences to the people who don’t smoke. If those, they smoke, then they just smoke. They won’t go for smoking because of the fashion brand, especially in the society of 21st century. If the kids did follow the trend, is about the education of family and school. If the adult did smoke, is more or less related to his/her life style. Of course, if the government did adopt related policy earlier then there will be people less smoking in HK. In fact, the figure of smokers in HK getting lower and lower every year since 10 years ago. There are countries in Asia; people do smoke freely without too much limitation such as Japan, Taiwan and Mainland China. A place I ever went in Tokyo, where was full of cigarettes on the ground. Everyone does smoke in that area, and like throwing cigarettes on the ground. I can’t remember where it is now. My Taiwanese boss and colleagues did smoke freely inside the office non-stop, especially in the conference room while they were having meeting. They wouldn’t care who doesn’t smoke in the room. Some Mainlander Chinese do smoke inside the exhibition centre regardless they are allowed or not to smoke in that area. This is related to the overall smoking atmosphere of the society, as their government doesn’t promote anyting against smoking.
Many Europeans do smoke. I remember more than 3/4 of my course mates did smoke in the university I studied. I had few friends who did smoke from time to time in the boarding school. Sometimes, they did climb out of window from their rooms after 10pm at night, and smoked. I thought it was funny and scary as if they had been caught by housemistress of school they would be dead meat!!! Teenager girls do smoke because of fashion, and try to be adult. A Greek course mate ever told me “How can you not smoke while you are sitting in the cafe and enjoying a cup of coffee?” “This is the real life, mate!” Italian says the same. “You can’t enjoy yourself properly if you don’t smoke while you are having cappuccino!” Well, whether this saying is right or not, is really your choice! ^_-
Personally, I do not even give a try for once. My family doesn’t smoke. I also don’t see any smoking temptation in my brain. I am the kind I would only do something I want to do, or simply not do it if I don’t even like it. So I won’t even try it as I am not interested in it. There is no tempation between my lines. I don’t mind people smoking in front of me as long as I don’t feel disturbed. People still have basic right to do something they want to do as long as they don’t disturb others. Of course, I also don’t choose any smoking area inside the restaurant unless I got no choice.

I think this article is very good to brief the ban network across the UK, the detail analysis.

Raising prices for non-residents isn’t really a solution: Collections are already a problem. Well said!
Be honest, HK ID card is not that attractive of many think. HK is an international and nice city to live in, but not completely, a perfect city you must have your baby born in here. I don’t quite understand why there are many Mainlander mothers want to have their babies born in HK in the recent few years. Some of them said medical care of HK is much better than hospitals in Mainland, so they can have better medical care in here. Some of their purposes aim to get the HK birth certificate for their babies, then their babies can live and study here in the future. Our government hospitals raised up the price against more and more pregnant Mainlander mothers to give birth in HK, but it doesn’t help. The cost is raised up to HKD40,000.00 same as private hospitals charge for non HK residents. Then the private hospitals raised up their cost again and try to avoid anymore Mainlander mothers giving birth in their hospitals, but it also doesn’t help. If those mothers can pay up to HKD40,000.00 for giving birth in HK; it means they can also pay the same or even higher price in the best hospitals in Mainland. The medical care won’t be too bad in those private hospitals of Mainland. Some are even like six stars hotels. This situation causes serious complains of both taxpayers and local HK pregnant mothers. Many Mainlander mothers do enter to HK while their babies are almost due, then they can guarantee the hospitals will accept their entry without refusal. Many of them didn’t even have full body check up before they went to the hospital that could be dangerous as the doctors don’t know what the health status of those mothers are on during their pregnancy. Meanwhile, for the local resident mothers will be lack of care in the hospitals as the nurses are not enough to take care of so many mothers under such situation. They will go for those who are in emergency. Moreover, if the nurses and doctors do treat Mainlander mothers differently compared with the local mothers, then they will be said against the law. The taxpayers are also not happy, as they are paying for the medical care not for themselves, but some people who don’t live in this city, and who never pay tax.

I heard that if any Chinese (or any pregnant women from foreign countries) pregnant women enter the US, they would have trouble to enter the country even with visa, and they could be exiled immediately. I am not sure about the truth but this is being said around for years. The US government is against those who aim to have their babies born in the US and trying to have the residency. This won’t be happened in HK, as it’s against the basic law of HK; the law sees it as some sorts of inhuman treatment. However, I think the Chinese government should do something for it either to improve their local medical care or educate the local people. A married couple in China is not allowed to have more than one child in a family. If they have the second one, then they will get fine and punishment. This is the law since 70s. During 80s, if pregnant women have been found pregnant the second time then they would be forced to do abortion. If those haven’t been found, then they would secretly travel to another county of Mainland giving birth and having the residency of that county. In this case, they won’t be found out they have two childs in the family. It’s part of the reasons why Mainlander mothers would travel to HK and giving birth. We may see that there is a leak in the law of Chinese government.
There are many nice cities in Mainland, perhaps it could be still lack of resources to certain extent in some places, but it’s not really that bad. Staying at home, is not that bad, isn’t it??

It’s not a good idea for people travelling to China for work often. China is going to have their own telecommunication system within the country. This system will bring lots of inconvenience to business travellers. I believe this system will lower the phone cost of local people, as now they have to refill the phone card regularly once they finish the value of it. For what I understand is their phone card doesn’t store too much value to cover much talking time as their phone cost is quite expensive. We pay by monthly fee such as HKD138.00 for 2,000 minutes. Some companies offer HKD60.00 for 1,500 minutes. We have plenty of choices. My supplier did discuss about the telecommunication system in China with me last week. They are surprise that we run monthly payment system for mobile phones, as they have to refill their value card every while, sometimes is less than two days when they talk a lot on mobiles. RMB100.00 is not much to cover, maybe only up to 100 minutes for local phone calls. It’s indeed expensive.

The new system will certainly lower the local mobile phone cost, and brings lots of benefit to local telecom companies. However, it makes very difficult situation for foreigners who travel to China for business, and also make difficulties for local people who travel abroad often. It means people need to have more than one mobile phone for usage as sim card changing system is no more existed. It’s just like network system in Japan and Korea. Most of HK mobiles can work in Japan, Korea and US as most are under network of WCDMA, GPRS and GSM. I guess when China has well developed system for their new network, its about the time HK has upgraded telecom technology to meet their changes otherwise most of HK telecom companies will be in very competitive positions with the Chinese telecom companies.

Yes, I do.

It’s so sweet to see six elderly couples finally said, “I do” to legally seal their marriages after living with their partners for more than half a century…..Poverty and war did not drive them apart, nor did unfaithfulness or incompatibility -  Because this is true love! ^_^

I went out with my parents today. We passed through Wong Tai Sin temple. There were many people taking photos of dragon decoration outside the temple. We decided to go in and see what was happening. We saw many people standing and watching a special ceremony inside the temple. There were six couples having legal marriage registration inside the temple. They were married under the Taoist custom. All the couples are over 70 years old. They did marry in the pre-war period under the custom of traditional Chinese marriage, not signed any lawful paper. They married again today with the same husbands and wives legally under the law. It’s so sweet to see elderly couples dressed in red, and having the ceremony again after living eachother for more than half a century. They walked on the red carpet after the registration finished along the dragon decoration by the side.
Wong Tai Sin temple is a legal place for marriage registration since 1997, but today is the first day opened for elderly couples in group marriage. It’s very special as there are not many Chinese elderly couples willing to do that.

It’s a magnificent event. More than 1,000 of Napoleon’s fans went to Jena, Germany for the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Jena by re-acting the whole battle. Jena was one of the most famous Napoleon’s victories areas in Europe. The Battle of Jena is as a symbol of European unity.

Napoleon’s fans came from 17 countries to take part in the spectacle. An American actor, Mark Schneider, played the role of Napoleon. I did watch the series he played about history of Napoleon as well as love story between Napoleon and Josephine. Any of you must know famous wine and dessert also named as Napoleon, so I truly believe this event will be continued and never changed. Love story of Napoleon and Josephine is indeed romantic.