Handshake is a culture that promotes peace, friendship, and cooperation. People shake hand when they congratulate someone, meet friends, or seal a deal. It’s said that ancient people shake hands to show that there’s no weapon in their hands. Watch this video to learn more about it:
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People from different cultures shake hands differently. The Germans normally give firm and confident handshake to show trustworthiness. But such handshake will make some Malaysians feel uncomfortable. Malaysians’ handshake is much softer and colder. I know about it because some Malaysians openly complained that my firm western handshake was quite hurting (I only shake hands with moderate strength and never intend to crush bones). Maybe it was some sort of culture shock.
Besides being a potential culture shock inducer, hand shaking is not a culture that I like because of hygiene issues. People seldom wash their hands before and after a handshake. This enables germs and dirt to pass around. Imagine someone cough into his hand before shaking your beautiful hand.
Now imagine someone did one of these things with his right hand before touching you:
Digging or rubbing nose
Coughing into palm
Sneezing into palm
Directly or indirectly having hand contact with own feces (shit)
Touching oneself or inducing sexual sensation (ahem ahem)
Touching potentially dirty surfaces like door knob and wall
Handling random bank notes
Licking fingers after a good meal
and many more….
Don’t forget: many people don’t wash their hands thoroughly. That means some dirt (or slime) might stuck to their hands for quite some time.
I strongly think that we need alternative gestures (with no body contact) to replace hand shaking, since it’s disgusting or culturally offensive to some sensitive individuals. Raising one’s hand and say “Hi!” or “Bye!” is good enough for me. Anyways, the video below demonstrates an alternative ritual to handshake. You might enjoy watching it (but not actually doing it).
I love to read books about China. However, I always have to ask whether the book I pick up is China praising or China bashing (panda hugging versus dragon slaying). Nowadays it’s not easy to get China related books that offer balanced point of view.
Last year (2008) National Geographic published a special edition magazine focusing on China. You know what’s inside this magazine? There are tons of pictures showing poverty, factory workers, pollution, and all sorts of “dark” side of China. More than 90 percent of the pictures put China in negative light. Those who have visited China and seen the country for themselves will find the pictures in this magazine misleading.
It’s misleading because a country has both positive and negative aspects. When you show only dark side without stating the bright side of the story, you’re unfair and bias. It’s sad that a reputable media like National Geographic does something like this, as if the China hating fanatics are running the editorial board.
Last time I saw a heap of China themed books at a book store. I randomly picked up a book and read its back cover. It says something like this, “The high oil price is caused by huge demand in China and India.” The (China bashing) book was published before the recent economy crisis. We know it isn’t true because the oil price plunged deeply during the recent crisis. The price fluctuation is due to commodity speculation. Yet, the book blamed China for it. Come to think of it, they’ll blame everything they can think of on China (and never on themselves). I’m not surprise if they point finger at China when their pet goldfish dies.
It’s great that there are still good China-themed books to read. One such example is The China Road by Rob Gifford. It’s a travelogue, where the author used his travelling experience to discuss about the lives of the Chinese and the progress of China. It shows both negative and positive aspects of the country. I think the author is great by giving a voice to the local people. He wrote down his conversation with the Chinese so that the readers also know what the Chinese people think about their nation.
A Year Without “Made in China” by Sara Bongiorni is also a good read. It’s about an American family’s struggle to boycott “Made in China” products for a year. Interestingly, they do this as a curious experiment just to see if it’s feasible. Their boycott is rather neutral and not driven by other anti-China causes like human rights, separatism, anti-communism, local job losses etc. It’s a break from the usual China bashing.
So what’s the moral of the story?
Number 1
Media should be fair by providing balanced and neutral point of view.
Number 2
Blindly demonizing the whole nation will only bring more tension and cause more trouble. People of different nations will end up suspicious of each other and it’ll hamper the dream of unity in humanity.
A magical book that might change your life forever…
This book is written in Malay language by Zulkifli Musa, a Malaysian blogger who’s very knowledgeable in local human resource market. He maintains a popular bi-lingual blog called Skor Career: an excellent resource for those who are concerned about Malaysian job market.
The title literally means “making money without being employed“. It mainly talks about alternative ways for white-collar employees to generate income without the need to work 8 hours a day at office.
Imagine your wife and children leave you because you spend most of your time at the office. This book reveals the harsh reality faced by many white collar employees, where their lives are negatively affected by their work. Not everyone loves to run the office rat race. Many people are forced to work from 9 to 5 till they’re 65. Maybe they’ll live a happier life by making a living by other means as outlined in this book.
If you think white-collar working lifestyle doesn’t suit you and feel like escaping it, then you might need this book. If you love your stable job, or if you are ambitious to climb your career ladder, this book is still valuable to you because you can use it to learn how to generate side income to make your wallet fatter.
This book is easy to read as it’s written in a casual style. Read more about it here.
Green cars, such as hybrid and electrical cars, are expensive and impractical. Some of them still cause some degree of air pollution. That’s why I think to make our environment greener, we shouldn’t focus only on creating the cleanest vehicles, but also on new concepts of human transportation to reduce energy consumption and air pollution. For example, it’s greener for 60 people to travel by 2 normal buses than by 60 bio-fuel cars.
Good City Design – because you don’t want to drive 2 hours to the cinema
Imagine places like shopping centers, schools, and post offices are miles apart within a city. You have to travel a great distance just to do simple things like shopping and sending postcards. Such inconvenience eats away the fuel and your time. That’s why cities should be well designed to reduce the need to travel great distance.
Helsinki, Finland is a well designed city. You can take a cruise ship (Silja or Viking line) from Stockholm to Helsinki and it’ll dock directly at the heart of the city! Just walk a little further and you’ll reach the shopping places, main train station, schools etc. Everything is in walking distance, and you hardly need a car. Another example of well designed city is Gothenburg of Sweden, where walking is the best mode of transportation to get you anywhere.
Map of Helsinki, Finland
Providing green transportation infrastructure – because you don’t want to cycle in the middle of the road
The government should enable “green traffic” by providing the required infrastructure. You just need to visit cities like Amsterdam and Copenhagen and see how people travel around. Their bicycle lanes can be as wide as a two lane road! No wonder so many people choose to travel by bikes. Possibly in the future, there’ll be lanes for Segways.
Thousands of bicycles in Münster, Germany
Public transportation network – because it’s better than getting stuck in front of traffic lights
Those who live in developing nations know how lousy their buses and trains are: confusing and never punctual. It’ll be great if the government sets up an efficient public transportation network throughout the city, which allows people to commute easily. That will reduce the dependence on cars.
The network has to be integrated, where the buses/subway/trams/trains are under one system or management so that people can transit easily between different modes of transportation. We just need to buy a ticket to use all modes of transportation in the city. Proper incentives should be offered to encourage people to use the public transportation network. Frequent travelers should get cheaper ticket (normally it comes in the form of weekly or monthly pass). People who travel in one group should also get cheaper group tickets. I wish they provide us free coffee too!
Transportation network in Frankfurt, Germany
* * * * *
I know some of you are familiar with the ideas mentioned above, but they are still new to many countries. If every major city implements them, the world will be much greener.
Eating is basic human activity to stay alive. It gives us nutrient, brings us pleasure, and keeps hunger away.
This simple activity gradually evolves into complex rituals in human society, where it plays an important role to initiate and encourage human interaction. It also serves other purposes such as fulfilling emotional needs and healing. Here are some of the “applications” of eating in human society:
Healing or recovery
Growing (for children)
Improve health
Refreshing body and mind
Gaining pleasure from food (taste, smell, texture etc.)
Gaining experience from new kind of food
Recalling old experience from food
Reducing stress
Escaping reality through eating
Showing gratitude
Expressing apology
Expressing joy
Being a part of religious rituals
Celebrating
Partying
A way to past time
Initiating conversation
Trading (barter trade a meal for something)
Initiating other activities, such as negotiation and business dealing (this includes prostitution)
Make a lot of people gather together at certain place/time (Banquet, wedding dinner etc.)
Enabling mass socialization
Showing one’s social or financial status
Getting to know someone better
Conveying certain message or making certain announcement
Spreading propaganda
Marketing gimmick and business promotion
Courting and inducing romantic/sexual relationship
Strengthen relationship amongst individuals
Asking favor from someone
Getting people together to start negotiation or discussion
Motivating people
and many more….
I’m writing this thing down because not many people think deeply about this very important aspect of human life. Hmmm…. I’m thinking of eating pizza now.
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