Meh Olympics Part II

People ask me how can I possibly shun my country's own Olympic games. Well, it's simple. I just casually opened today's newspaper to find these two articles. Naturally, they were completely overshadowed by Olympic related news. It makes me wonder whether a country with such glaring problems deserves to host this event.

Sadly, there's a possibility that the journalists who uncovered these will be jailed or killed from retribution by corrupt local governments. In most foreign countries, they would be hailed as heroes.

Such is China.

Meh Olympics Part I

The Olympic torch has arrived in Hong Kong, yay... not.

I'm finding it extremely difficult to get excited about the Beijing Olympic games. Between the shameless event promotion being done by the local government, the protests, and China's negative track record overshadowing the event, I just can't get bring myself to muster up any interest.

Looking back, I've always had a grim perception of the Olympic games overall. The Olympics itself is really a show. Back when I was in the US, the TV stations would promote the games early on: seeking out the potential medalists and turning them into instant celebrities. There would be interviews, mini documentaries, non-stop repeating footage of past events, silly slogans, plus the sudden flood of endorsements. It gave the public a month long love affair with these select athletes. Once the Olympics ended, they once again faded into obscurity. For me, it felt like a cruel cycle of highs and lows for these athletes, and I could never get comfortable with it. You could see the athletes eating up this short lived stardom, knowing that it may be their one and only chance to make a buck off their athletic careers.

Yet, even back then I still found the games enjoyable. The commercial nature didn't manage to completely overshadow the actual games. Watching athletes succeed and have their dream come true was still a very inspiring event to watch. The most memorable Olympic moment for me (and likely many Hong Kong people), was when Hong Kong won its one and only gold medal (during colonial rule) in 1996 via windsurfer Lee Lai Shan. I still get choked up and teary-eyed just thinking about it (very much like the 2004 World Series).

The Beijing Olympics are just not the same. It's like there's a huge cloud hanging over the upcoming event. Instead of the promotion of athletes, we've got Darfur, Tibet, RWB, human rights atrocities, pollution, and corruption issues popping up left and right. Instead of Olympic athletes getting their 15 minutes of fame, China's controversial issues are getting noticed.

Don't get me wrong. Anyone who's been reading this blog knows that I'd much rather have these issues dominate the front pages of newspapers than the Olympics. It's just hard to feeling happy about it when you're constantly faced with the shameless celebration of China, contrasted with the dark, ambiguous injustices occurring in the background.

Once you go black...

Perhaps in a feeble attempt to stay on top and stay organized, I have long been a faithful PDA user. Since my Palm V died about 3 years ago, I've been trying hard to find a reliable replacement. Part of the plan was to also combine the whole phone/PDA/mobile email into one device. I tried a lot of options. At one point I got so frustrated, I even switched to the Hipster PDA.

Well, the notorious Blackberry devices finally caught my attention, and I bought in to the hype. The results have been eye-opening. The Blackberry email is great, but to be fair, a lot of providers do push email. Blackberry Internet Service is probably better than others because of their sheer size, but that's not what impressed me the most. The latest devices are just superb.

Not only are they reliable, efficient, and user friendly, but they are miles ahead of the competition. I won't go into the details, since any tech head on the net can tell you the positive details of RIM devices. Just comparing to other PDAs, RIM is much more reliable, extremely logical and easy to use, and the battery life actually performs to level stated by the manufacturer. It has no flaws, aside from perhaps being too boring for some people (usually iPhone users).

RIM doesn't try to do too much with their PDAs, and that's exactly what I want.

Self Imposed Handicap

I caught a prison documentary on TV the other night. It isn't news that prisons are a problem: life in prison, managing prisons, managing prisoners, keeping a balance between prisoner's rights and keeping them in check, etc. One thing I never understood is why prisons have weight lifting equipment. Violence is a major issue in prison. So wouldn't it be easier to subdue weaker, out of shape inmates, rather than have to deal with inmates who have been bulking up and getting strong all-day?

It makes no sense. Prison guards are the people who should be working out, not prisoners. In fact, they should feed inmates a near vegetarian diet to keep them from gaining too much weight. At some prisons, all the inmates do is lift weights all day, everyday. Why not give them books to read instead? Make sure they're paperback books, so they won't use them as weights to workout.

Patriotism(?)

Will patriotism go the on/off extreme route, as it did in the US? With China being heavily criticized for pretty much every move it makes (as any superpower should expect): Tibet, Olympics, Chinese netizens are showing their "patriotism".

Click here to see what I'm talking about.

This really reminds me of the "USA" chants at international sporting events, and the obnoxious American flag t-shirts, etc. To me, it's all a bit lame. No, patriotism is not lame, but people "showing off" patriotism is pretty weak. So you add "heart China" before your MSN name... so what? Most people are doing it just to be trendy, or they're doing it in response to attacks against China. But what else have they done to demonstrate patriotism? By the way, I don't consider protesting against a department store, to be patriotic in any way (it's just a waste of time).

A real patriot would do things to help his or her country; for example helping the disadvantaged or impoverished. Helping to fight injustice is a true demonstration of patriotism (though in China, that may land you in prison or even kill you). I just wonder how many of these silly chat room folk actually step away from their computer and make themselves useful (in the name of patriotism).

To express my disappointment towards China, I instead use

iTunes = Slow

I don't know how else to put it. Apple iTunes is excruciatingly slow. My computer isn't anywhere near top of the line. I don't need the latest computer because I don't use heavy duty programs, and I don't play PC games. So why should I upgrade just for a music player. That's what I find to be most inexcusable: iTunes is a music player! Yes, it has other functions like iPod sync, iTunes store, and Quicktime. I would expect delays if all those programs were running all at once, but that is never the case.

Things slow down when I edit song names, organize the songs, or even just scroll up and down. When I say slow, I mean the program just freezes for a full 10 seconds. You can't do anything in iTunes, the CPU usage shoots up to 90-100%, and Windows Task Manager lists the program as "Not Responding".

I find it hard to believe that this type of program is taking up so much processing power. What the hell is it doing?! What could it possibly be doing?! All I want from iTunes is for it to sync to my iPod, and download podcasts when I ask it to. Perhaps it is trying to do too much. This is a flaw in the design. iTunes should be designed to work well on both faster and slower computers. It should give the user the option of making it run "heavy" or "light". If it weren't for my iPod(s), this program would have been tossed long time ago.

Typhoon Neoguri

As Hong Kong suffers through, Neoguri, the first typhoon of the season, I can't help but remember the spicy korean instant noodles I used to love in college. Good times.

租霸

One problem Hong Kong has failed to tackle over the years is the case of deadbeat renters. I remember seeing a mini documentary on how professional deadbeat renters or "租霸"s, take advantage of legal loopholes and terrorize small-time landlords. They refuse to pay rent, refuse to vacate the property, and when they do finally leave, they destroy existing appliances and facilities. Did I mention they don't pay rent?

The law "allows" these people to wreck such havoc because the law is designed to protect renters. They didn't want to see people being put on to the street because they were late with a rent payment.

Are landlords powerless? They can go to court and have a judge force the renter to leave and pay up the owed rental fees. However, this application process can take up to six months. The deadbeat renter often gets off with about one year's worth of free housing. They may pay the first two month's worth of rent, then just stop paying after that. The landlord doesn't realize it's a problem until perhaps a month after that, and pretty soon it gets to be a year before a judge forces the renter to leave. Of course, the deadbeat renter will destroy everything they possibly can in the apartment, including sinks, toilet bowls, air conditioners, and even the walls.

Just a few weeks ago, an incident happened which was similar to the documentary I saw five years ago. The government has done nothing to improve this situation, and these issues never make front page news.

Where are gangsters when you need them?

What non-lethal actions could a landlord possibly do to make the tenant leave on their own?

Call the cops - not only do the police have no power over these disputes, they often don't bother to step in between a landlord and a tenant.

Cut the power - this has not worked, as the renter would simply have the power reconnected under his/her own name.

Secretly let loose cockroaches/mice/foul smelling stuffs into the apartment - this might actually work, but the owner will have to do it strategically. First it must be on a day when no one is home. It can prove to be tricky, as even deadbeat renters hire domestic helpers. Lock picking may be required, as renters like this are overly suspicious and install their own locks. The owner must also let the loose only a couple at a time, as not to cause suspicion.

In the end, new legislation is ultimately required to solve the issue once and for all.