It's not just Chinese who are materialistic, it's Asians in general. Take a Japanese jeweler who are selling gold calendars, yes, gold calendars for around 20 million yen (€133K) each! Crazy, isn't it?
October 2006 Archives
Someone was asking in the IBC forum to create some sort of a gallery for folks here to post up pics. Was playing with Gallery 2, but it sucks. Anyhoo, Flickr is still good to use.
I created a group in Flickr in response to this : http://www.flickr.com/groups/irishbornchinese
So, when more folks post up pics, a flickr badge will be updated with the latest pics from that group, either in HTML or Flash... like as follows:
| www.flickr.com |
www.flickr.com
This is a Flickr badge showing public photos from the Irish Born Chinese group pool. Make your own badge here.
But most likely be in HTML. Folks can just send pics from their flickr account to the group, and you can discuss about the pics. Plus it has an RSS feed that people can subscribe to.
Plus if we get enough pics, we can print out cute business cards courtesy of moo.com.
Even though this was a promo for 2006, I saw this today during an ad break on Discovery Channel. It's cheesy alright, and shows all the usual touristy stuff, including Disneyland, Ngong Ping 360 cable car and so on.
... or you cannot pass the school entrance exams in an all-girls high school. Strange isn't it? All because they want to see...
[...] if applicants have acquired the minimum levels of eating manners by checking their use of chopsticks
It's really happening. I have been blogging about it. Hong Kong will be banning smoking in public areas, bar some places.
Anti-smoking activists were disappointed the bill was watered down to give an exemption until mid-2009 to some of the worst smoking blackspots catering to adults over 18 such as bars, saunas, nightclubs and mahjong parlours.
Apart from that, from Jan 2007, no more smokey restaurants, yay!
Only in Japan would you find the forerunner of innovative ideas being tried, like this footsteps powered ticket machine.
I have notice a massive influx of Immigrants from our EU Eastern European countries. You still hear locals giving out crap that they are taking away our jobs. But how come I still see "wanted help" posters in many businesses in cities like Dublin and Limerick. I would assume this would be the same for other towns and cities around Ireland. And unfortunately, some of these people are exploited for the cheap labour. And from the Indo article Mary Robinson, she said:
"There are economic implications, but I think it's clear that the migrants who come are actually helping part of the Irish economy [...] very important that employers don't exploit the potential of cheap labour at a standard that's not acceptable."
From my point of view, I thing the immigrants have kept things going. Even my parent's restaurant has hired Polish staff. What I found funny was, the Polish hired is a kitchen porter, he didn't know much English, and the kitchen staff mainly spoke Cantonese and Mandarin when they work. Given that communciation is vrey important whilst working in the kitchen, it still worked out in the end. It just started off with bits of English, pointing and hand gestures. My mom was impressed, as he was hardworking (ok, maybe a bit attached to talking to his mobile), but hardworking nonetheless. They even learnt curse words from each other. And the reason why we started to hire Polish people as staff... locals don't stay long, Macauans and Mainland Chinese just bugger off without notice as soon as they learn the skills (which they should have in the first place), and the rest have no work permits (which we don't hire anyway). All many businesses want are people would are willing to work, just because it's catering, retail etc., and not like IT, or other white-collared jobs, does not mean they are easy take up. It's all hard work, and they don't get to sit down for breaks much either.
Ireland is changing, and whether people like it or not, we need the immigrants. The Irish use to be the immigrants to US, UK, Austrailia etc. Why do we forget the abuses to the Irish as immigrants in other countries? We should be treating immigrants here, just like how we would have liked other countries to treat the Irish working in their countries. Maybe we are too proud to admit we need help, as I mentioned in the beginning, just look around at all those "wanted help" signs.
Comments welcome at the IBC forum.
I know the forums has polls, but I want to try this out on my blog and see how well it works.
This stems from the Anyone have any reasons why a Chinatown should be setup? forum post.
Wow, these tees are so much cheaper than buying online. 
Given how lucky oversea Chinese have it, when it comes to studying does not mean some oversea Chinese students still get away with some of the familiar reactions if you fail an exam.
Well, I am lucky that my parents did not say stuff that was in the article to me. For me, it was pretty much "Do your best!".
You can discuss this at IBC forum.
Even with a computer glitch that caused delays on Tues, Hong Kong airport is voted the world's best again.
This is wierd, a robot that cooks Chinese food, called AICookingrobot. Not sure about the replacing of cooks in fastfood restuarants, or home-cooking. I am sure it's a good idea, but I doubt it will take off.
Further on from my last blog about fake products, the HK government has issued an alert about another beauty product, as the user has a high chance of getting mercury poisoning. The product originates from Shenzen, and the authorities are not sure if they are on sale in HK.
Also, a syndicate of medicine counterfeiters were arrested for producing, packaging and distributing fake cough medicine.
The final one is not fake per-sae, as in the fruit is real, but the labelling was faked. Oh and if you are wondering what pomelos are, here is wikipedia's explanation of it.
So the mid-autumn festival will be here soon, October 6th to you and me.
So what will everyone be doing? Having a little bit of mooncake, not too much, they are so bad for you!
Related links:
Found this Chinese Culture Blog and it contains alot of great information about Chinese weddings. Ok, I am not having a traditional Chinese wedding, but it can still give me ideas (even though I am at the end of my preparations for my wedding here in Ireland).
Another entry about otakus. Although I would never be considered some kind of otakus, I am still at awe at these Japanese fanatics. Here's an insight about otakus and what they do, plus an interview with one serious otaku, who is trying to give up.
