万里无云

随写

2006-08-06T15:06:00.000+08:00

许久没有写新的东西了。究竟是忙还是懒呢？这也是个让人难以回答的问题。

这两个月来发生了许多的事情。诸如私定终身。。。再接下来就要执子之手了。这样一生一次的事情，我都似乎很谨慎，可能是perfectionism的性格作祟，反复推演和盘算，不能容许出一丝的纰漏。而这过程虽然累人，却也非常enjoyable。当一切变得近乎完美，我也会陷入一种自我陶醉式的满足。

公司的事情照例很忙，expense和headcount照例又冻结了，而部门的几个senior都辞了职。我成了team里面最资深的，被告知要暂时 lead the team。。。没有accounting和finance background，只做了一年不到，真是让人倍觉前途艰辛。

例常的身体检查，被查出胆固醇含量过高。YL立刻就对我做出了一系列的饮食和健康安排，看来，接下来我需要过一种“healthy lifestyle”了。这通常意味着吃不好吃的食物和做大量的运动把自己累死。。。

生活相当忙碌，而且越来越忙碌，我在managing a family, managing my career and managing my health，过了2006年再回首，可能会相当感慨我能够渡过这样一年吧。

前程

2006-06-03T21:04:00.000+08:00

最近又有朋友转身投向了上海。

而对于我们这群人来说，定居似乎成了一个很难的事情，似乎更倾向于过一种逐水草而居的生活，成为现代的游牧族。

有时难免会发出“行路难，行路难，多歧路，今安在”的感慨。求索多年，似乎仍然前路漫漫；溯洄从之，亦是道阻且长。

不管如何，还是要祝福他。借用海子的诗句：
“愿你有一个灿烂的前程，愿你有情人终成眷属，愿你在尘世获得幸福。”

看选举

2006-05-06T15:35:00.000+08:00

前天我也去了工人党在宏茂桥的群众大会。人山人海，真的非常壮观。

听完演讲，我想，我自己确实是一个左倾的自由主义者啊。。。。

丢手机

2006-04-22T15:51:00.000+08:00

自2000年用手机以来，第一次弄丢了手机。

起源如下，本周已经连加了4天班，周四昏昏沉沉的在11点左右上了taxi，刚到家就发现手机不见了，想到刚才在车上还打过电话，于是确认手机是从裤袋滑出来留在了车上，立刻拨电，却发现已经被关机了。

当时心里就有不祥的预感，就拨电taxi公司的lost&found，结果对方联系了那个司机，司机说已经载过其他乘客，没有看见我的手机（深感怀疑，因为才隔了几分钟）。。。

周五花了几个小时去重新activate SIM card什么的。现在最头痛的就是contact全丢了，记得以前读过一篇文章，按什么键就可以知道手机的什么ID号码，被偷了以后就打电话给 telco，他们就会disable这个手机，其他人就再也不能用了，可惜之前自以为自己非常小心谨慎，不会发生丢手机的事情。。。今后一定要提高警惕，下车时候往座位上扫一眼。

当然，究其原因，让我连续加班的公司也要负至少50%的责任。。。。

看到这篇文章的各位，请给我发一个SMS吧。。。

云南小朋友寄的一封信

2006-03-28T20:02:00.000+08:00

台湾之乱象

2006-03-11T23:33:00.000+08:00

这两日台湾纷纷扰扰,乱象频生.

对我来说,倒是还能以平常心来对待.台独的焦虑感日渐急迫,以及绿营内部的不合已经快到了极点.对外遂以极端手段来谋取政治利益.

台湾政治之乱象,对我来说,反而是对中国政治的一个启示.将来中国,要严加防备诞生一个如民进党一般,专门以撕裂社会,挑拨仇恨来谋取政治利益,并且以此为养分生存的政党.

以国民党蒋经国执政末期之成就,国民党至今尚且背负原罪,每次选举都面对"屠杀者","独裁者"，“卖台vs爱台”的指责.共产党身负大跃进,反右,文革,六四等种种原罪,不难想象将来只要有一个如民进党般，每次都以"民主先驱","改革者","受害者代表","我们中国人vs你们独裁政党"来掩盖自身的无能和贪渎的政党，中国必将陷入比今天台湾还要剧烈的政治风暴中。

共产党应该从现在做起，努力地进行全民的和解以及历史的构建，化解民族的伤痕。比如巴金建议的文革博物馆等，完全应该建立。今日之共产党应该借构建，开放，化解历史来和过去之共产党切割，而不是选择掩盖，遮捂历史的真相，使得中国走上和台湾一样的道路。

忙

2006-02-19T18:49:00.000+08:00

春节后的几个星期忙得不成样子。对这里也疏于照顾。

一方面是公司的年度预算和财报事宜，另一方面要学习如何在帐上做一点“手脚”，每天都是12点以后回到家，洗漱完毕，倒头就睡，第二天接着去公司。

某一天12点以后，照例步出公司，看着空荡荡的街区，突然心里有一阵难过。似乎有很久没有看过一页书，阅读过新闻时事，听过音乐，看过戏，吃一点好吃的东西，喝喝茶之类的了。

生活还是不能够被工作overtaken... 确实需要我们时时注意的。

关于索罗斯的对话

2006-01-14T11:15:00.000+08:00

以下几段是我和一个朋友关于Soros的对话，起因是Soros在一次演讲中说了这样的话“I am not responsible for financial crisis”。我看了不爽，就做了些评论。摘抄如下。

我：
"I am not responsible for financial crisis" is only true in his own philosophy...

The fact that a knife is fatal to human being does not justify the crime of killing a human being with a knife. The fact that Thai baht is overvalued does not justify his action to short Thai baht and consequently causing financial crisis; given time and correct measure, such deviation could be corrected and millions of peoples' life could be better than today.

友：
so we blame hitler for WWII, and only two other categories left -- "victims and heros."

我：
we don't blame historical issues on one single personal, WWII was caused by various complicated reasons and so was Asia Financial Crisis.

But to me, it doesn't make sense if Hitler claimed "I am not responsible for WWII, go to blame the constitution of Weimarer Republic and President Hindenburg who made me the Premier; go to blame the terrible German econmoy during 1930s when I could sell my theory easily; go to blame Rommel, Guderian or Manstein who trashed French, Russian and British army; go to blame Vichy who surrendered so easily....."

To many people, it will be funny if Hitler himself made all those claims... To me, it is equally funny that Soros made such a claim that "I am not responsible for asian financial crisis"

友：
I always believe the existence justifies.

If it wasn't the collapse of German economy, driving people to seek for a "hero" to raise up the once glorious Germanic peoples, there wouldn't be a Hitler.

If it wasn't the over-reliance on banking system for corporate funding, the Thai Bhat wouldn't be so vulnerable.

The world needs balance, but cannot always own it. Smooth transaction from one stage to another only happens when condition permits. Else, a sharp jump or fall would happen, even spikes.

I wouldn't say Asian Crisis was good for Asia, only because it's too cruel to say so. But I think the Crisis shook down the old financial systems for a lot of countries, and rang the alarm for the rest. Central banks and ministries of Finance then learnt their lesson, to build up their capital markets, providing alternative funding sources for corporates and governments. So that we can see a light that one day, Asia becomes the next America.

As for investment bankers, let's group them into corporate financers and global marketers. Soros is a hedge fund manager, and I don't call him investment banker. But some global marketers do make money in the same way as he does. I should say they are greedy people, driven by profits. But as what I have just said, existence justifies. They spot arbitrage opportunities, gamble on speculations but hedge risk at the same time. Their existence helped to prevent market from overvaluing. But of 'cos there are blacksheeps as long as there's people. Speculation caused a lot of tragedies, I agree. But most of the time, it was underpinned by the dangers in incubation.

The most exciting and interesting thing about the world is we have so many people doing different things, and think differently. One man can never rule the world. So I would not blame a single person for his wrongdoings. And I will also not destroy the forest because of a few sick trees. But I wouldn't be happy to see the healthy ones get contaminated.

我：
I agree with you in many aspects, but we approach the problem quite differently.

The world needs balance, and any deviation or distortion will ultimately be restored to its balanced point. However, should the financial crisis be such a painful path to it? Should Hitler be the necessary solution to German nationalism? Maybe we have to, But being an individual, if you encounter such an opportunity like Soros or Hitler, do you take the profit (and through a legal way!) or you try not to if you are aware of the consequence. The market may crash one day, the war may break out one day, but do you want to be that single straw that broke the camel's back.

I am not against of IB at all, in fact, I think a well functioned IB industry is very important, corporate finance people optimizes the capital allocation, traders eliminates arbitrage opportunties and drive the market towards a perfect market. Everything exists for a reason, I agree, but an individual should have his own principle as well, for example, hedge funds suppose to hedge risks, but what are most of them doing right now?

Again, I agree with most of what you said and I think you will agree with what I said as well but we approach the problem quite differently, or rather, with different value systems. You see it from a macro-level, the market will correct itself and any movement (being sharp or gradual) is just a reasonable reflection of the current distorted market, so you don't blame that single person because tragedy seems to be inevitable. I understand that. But for me, I look from the individual level, when such circumstances come to an individual, what is your decision and what is your individual choice?

From this perspective, I feel sad that Soros never regret for what he has ever done.

新年愿望之二

2006-01-04T15:42:00.000+08:00

我的第二个新年愿望是今年能够资助一个小孩子上学。
　
其实从开始工作以后，我就有这个想法。但是希望工程丑闻之后，我对中国慈善机构非常失望，而且一直没有找到其它合适的渠道。去年Y介绍给我她采访过的世界宣明会(world vision)，一开始由于这是一个基督教慈善机构，我对其存有疑虑。前几天，看到他们的网页上有“child sponsorship”，于是写信去询问。得到的回复至为详细，在此略作描述。
　
========
　
宣明会从1996年开始在中国云南永胜县开展一系列的慈善活动，其中新加坡分会资助的项目位于片角乡枯木村。永胜位于云南丽江地区，在横断山脉脚下，金沙江畔，人口有55万人，但是人均收入每年只有826元。
　
枯木村是一个僳僳族村落，产玉米、高粱、豆类等。因此地缺水，草木难以生长而干枯，故名"枯木村 "。在宣明会开始项目之前，村中只有一条道路通向村外，生态系统也遭受很大的破坏。由于村民基本处于刀耕火种的状态，水土流失非常严重，土壤也日渐贫瘠，影响粮食产量。50%的村民尚不能温饱，教育和卫生条件也很差，只有一间教室，两位教师，全村没有初中学生，只有一位医护人员。
　
宣明会在永胜主要开展如下项目：
1。教育：提供学费补助，修建枯木宣明小学
2。卫生：建立村医疗站，培训村医并且提供疫苗注射和体检
3。基础建设：铺设了13公里的公路。修建蓄水池和水槽解决全村人畜饮水困难。修建水沟水渠使得农田可以得到灌溉。
4。农业：因地制宜普及杂交玉米，脱毒洋芋，剑麻等经济效益比较好的作物。同时采取农林混合的方法，发展青枣，木豆等抗旱，固土的经济林。
5。生态：通过农林混合，进行土地改良和建立灌溉系统，逐步重建生态。
6。社区发展：在社区发展时，提供村民参与讨论，学习，决策的机会。同时成立类似农会性质的社区发展协会，提供贷款发展农村手工业，培训农民，培养农村社区领袖，逐步走向可持续的发展。
　
========
　
我看了以后深受感动。在以上六条中间，我以为社区发展是最重要的。“授人以鱼不如授人以渔”，当援助结束后，如果村民不能自己管理自己，那么农田还会荒废，生态还会恶化，道路还会湮没。从这一点来说，宣明会不是简单的给钱了事，而是在帮助永胜做整体社区发展。

我捐助的小孩子叫Bai Xin Lei，应该是一个僳僳族的小朋友，今年8岁。每个月的45新元不是直接给他，而是和其他捐助者的钱一起帮助整个社区进行各种发展项目。我仔细的看了整个项目，又上网查询了一下关于永胜的情况，最后决定捐助。另外，根据宣明会去年的审计报告，79%的捐款直接用在了当地的建设项目上；这比NKF的拿一块，给一毛要好得多了。
　
宣明会的网址: www.worldvision.org.sg
永胜项目网址: www.yongsheng.org.cn

新年愿望之一

2006-01-02T00:27:00.000+08:00

建立一个blog是我的新年愿望之一。
　
说来好笑，不久前，我还嘲笑blog是一个“给寂寞、自恋的人进行消遣，同时满足公众偷窥欲”的地方，并且提供了一个廉价的手段“使现代人能以简易、工业化的方式攫取大众的attention”。这篇文章写了大半年，由于行文过于恶毒，恐怕招致众blogger群起攻之，终于没有敢发表。
　
如今，时间再次证明了“退一步海阔天空”的真理性，如果我发表了那篇文章，今天就不好意思开这个blog了。而且我是下了很大决心，甚至将之列为新年愿望的。那么，我的态度为什么转变了呢？
　
开blog的第一个理由，我想是希望能和朋友们多一种方式保持联系。生活越来越忙碌，不但和朋友见面的时间越来越少，连msn上打招呼的次数也少了。维护一个blog，写一点自己最新的进展和生活，这样大家来能够比较方便的知道彼此的近况。
　
第二，blog可以作为一个纪录自己思考的地方。新的一年，我希望每天能多一点时间反思和自省。有些想的比较定的，就可以写在blog上。

第三，呵呵。。。顺便说一下，本blog的名字取自“千江有水千江月，万里无云万里天”。而sojorner是古法语，是sojourner的词源，和peregrine差不多的意思。（参见我的blog连接）

最后，欢迎每一个朋友的到来，希望新的一年大家都有新气象。