做人的标准

不是每个人都能符合我的标准，
我也不能符合每个人的标准。

别人的标准只要合情合理，我会努力改善自己，
但即使我的标准合情合理，我也不会对他人寄予很大的希望。

Leute sind verschieden. Ich erwarte nicht, was die Anderen könnten, aber tue was ich kann.

杜柯坊

青皂黑黝乌漆墨
丹赤红彤朱绯胭

China Welcomes You

Mentioning “China”, some would smile, some frown; visiting China, some would be awed and impressed, and some frustrated and disgusted. China is like any other country in the world with its shares of accomplishments and disappointments. As China welcomes the world to the Olympics, the world needs to hug back and say: “Welcome back, and let’s together make China and the world a better place”.

Kibbutz Living

“Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world”

Struggling and adapting, what failed categorically in Russia and China has nevertheless survived in the unexpected Land of Holies. Kibbutzim in Israel, however, are not what they used to be. Community members mostly eat their meals at home, receive salaries according to contribution, and the commune may now be professionally managed. Palmachim, 30 minutes southwest of Tel Aviv, is a typical example of the present day kibbutzim.

I was greeted by 80-year-old Mr. Zvi who looked like Jack Lemon’s twin brother. One of the founding members of Palmachim in the late 1940s, Mr. Zvi spoke with nothing short of great pride and confidence. The first place we went was the dinning hall which is at the heart of the kibbutz. Communal meals were essential and necessary to kibbutz living at the beginning when most of the members were in their youth and owned no personal properties. As community has grown, most people now choose to spend their private time with their family members. The dinning hall still serves meals, and a simple lunch costs less than 30 shekels (or US$ 8.60)



On a land of dirt and sand, Palmachim was built from scratch on the Mediterranean coast. Today it looks like a resort cluster near Caesarea that may cost US$ 10,000 per square meter.





There are a few different building types in this 500-member community: single family homes close to the entrance, two-level multiplexes along the beach, and various two- to four-unit apartment buildings in the middle. The kibbutz has an expansion plan to virtually double its current size, but most of the new buildings will be up for sale.







This “new” capitalistic management system as almost all kibbutzim in Israel are desperately adapting seems to have turned the original socialistic ideal right on its head. “The new system”, as Mr. Zvi tactically put it, is expected to save the financially struggling utopia. People now receive salaries and are paid differently based on their individual contribution. With advancement in agriculture and relocation of the cow ranch, many people work in the nearby city of Rishon LeZion during the day, and return at night. Some of the buildings are current rent out to outside companies. The kibbutz can no longer provide free housings, so the new condos will need to be purchased by the community members. These are just a few examples.

“We all voted for it”, said Mr Zvi. The despair and disappointment were as evidently poignant as the hot and salty Mediterranean breeze. China has been doing the same transmorphing for almost 30 years. The otherwise long extinct Marxist mammoth is now the world’s most coveted commercial paradise and is hosting the spectacular coming-out-of-Commie-closet extravaganza this August. So, Mr. Zvi, everything will be sababa, but I didn’t say it to him.

Nurseries are located between the dinning hall and the living quarters. In such way, the kids are safe and not likely to wander into the sea without being noticed. Kibbutz children are raised together. The parents don’t give up their newborns but share the responsibility of taking care of all the children in the commune. This is similar to how cubs are raised in hyena packs. Lactating hyenas feed any needy cubs in the pack, and spoil is also shared with no discrimination. Despite hyenas’ deceivingly lowly appearance, I have the highest respect for them, probably the most efficient and tenacious survivalists in Serengeti. I don’t know any kibbutz kids, but I bet almost all Israelites know this kibbutz boy. His name is Ben Gurion, the founder of the modern state of Israel. When the national airport in Tel Aviv is named after him, I guess he must have done something right in his life.







The last stop was the kibbutz museum. When building the community, people discovered many items of archaeological importance. Right at the crossroad of culture highways, the Judea Hills witnessed and, many times, endured the coming and going of many great peoples: Phoenicians, Canaanites, Israelites, Egyptians, Syrians, Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, Byzentiums, and Arabs. The list is of course not exhaustive. When the dust settles, millennia of dynastic changes, gruesome conquests, massive losses of human lives, all seems to amount to little more than a few fragmented potteries, eroded coins, and cracked skulls buried deep in the dirt.

Greed, probably the greatest motivation in human history, has propelled us from the Stone Age to the Information Age, yet with an equally staggering price tag. I suspect with confidence that the renunciation of greed for personal gains was part of the reasons that the ideal of kibbutzim was developed and implemented on this restless land. Sadly, the world is not ready for it, neither was it kind to Russia and China in the 20th century. Change is inevitable for survival, but may not be a betrayal. The question whether to die for an ideal or to live another day trying to fulfill it later has been answered, both in Masada some 2,000 years ago and in present day Palmachim.

Shalom, Mr. Zvi and Palmachim. Behatzlacha!

The White City of Bauhäuser

A world heritage site by UNESCO, Tel Aviv boasts over 4,000 Bauhaus buildings, which originated in pre-WWII Germany and make no distinction of form and function. One of the best examples is supposed to be 34 Frug Street in the city center. Pretty illiterate about architecture, I think I can appreciate its function, but its minimalistic match-box form is quite plain and unremarkable.




Its rectangular balconies may have maximized the usable area, but the edginess and stiffness in form bring on tension and stress. The ornamental gap, a nice addition, seems to serve no functional purpose. The dimensionally matching overhang looks like a sharp blade cutting abruptly into a vanilla cake, which seems to help further psychological strain. The size of the windows may suffice for lighting and ventilation, but enlarged windows, while enhancing the functionality, might help reduce greatly the surface tension of the blandness of the flat white exterior wall. Often found in luxury condominiums, the roof awning supported by a colonnade does produce a much needed spatial relief from solid planes, but, judged from the street, its practical purpose eludes me. So an amateur’s opinion, I think the distinction of form and function at 34 Frug Street is quite clear, and they do not seem to complement each other quite well. But again, the days I spent in studying architecture is zero. So for the moment, I will pretend to agree with UNESCO.

A few more examples of Bauhaus structures around Dizengoff Square are stored in my unwilling camera.

Useful Hebrew Phrases

shalom
lehitra'ot
boker tov
toda
toda raba
tov me'od
bevakasha
ken
lo
regga
rak regga
beseder gamur
sababa hegozim
ma shlom cha?
baruch hashem
savlanut (= patience)
bidiyuk (= exactly)

Carlin (1937-2008)

The first Carlin piece I saw was “flying on the airplane” in which he challenged some conventional use of words, which, if you think about it, doesn’t really make much sense. Examples include “pre-boarding process”, “non-stop flight”, “check the vicinity of your seating area for any personal properties you might have brought on-board”, etc. A language teacher myself, I was much inspired thereby and did discover that our daily communications were often overwhelmed by hackneyed clichés and true meanings often were lost in the process.

Many comedians do such routines in which they challenge conventional wisdom, but nobody has been more direct, poignant, and precise than Carlin. He never hesitated in spitting out the naked truth about religion, ugly facts in politics, shameless abuse of language, capricious trends in society, and the list goes on. Walking away from lucrative contracts doing clean, safe and brownnosing Vegas shows, Carlin reinvented himself, or went back to his true roots. His life long anti-establishment motif is utterly absent in the cautious Seinfeld or the hilarious Williams, yet the influence is apparent in the neurotic Black and the slightly gay Maher. He could fire more rapidly than the obnoxious Miller yet still sound more eloquent than the witty Letterman. Carlin was really among the very few who were able to stun, challenge and entertain his audience at the same time.

Carlin, thank you for all the grievances and complaints. I will miss you...

Kung Fu Panda

Everybody was Kung Fu fighting, and everybody loves Kung Fu Panda

My First Hebrew Lesson

I met with Chen for some Hebrew lesson this evening. It was totally a Donna Chang situation, because her name wasn’t really Chen, but חן. There wasn’t any English equivalent. Anyway, getting through the alphabet was challenging, since there were many exceptions to the rule. At the end, I tried to say something coherent:

אני אהוב את סין

Was it?

Une Nouvelle Chine

À 14.28 le 19 Mai, 6 jours après le tremblement de terre ravageur à Szechuan, toute la Chine avait un moment de silence pendant 3 minutes, une coutume chinoise réservée seulemment pour un chef d'état. C’était la première fois pour les sinistrés dans l’histoire de la Chine.

Il y a un tremblement de terre plus dommageable qui a tué plus de 250,000 personnes en 1976. À ce moment-la, la Chine a refusé toute l’aide un tout le média aux pays étrangères, comme le gouvernement de la Birmanie cette année. Maintenant, au contraire, le sauvetage des “goons and thugs” est arrivé beaucoup plutôt que l’Air Force One qui est seulement descendue aux 17,000 pieds au-dessus du Mississippi 4 jours après Katrina et jamais fait atterrir dans la région dévastée.

J’ai quitté la Chine il y 14 ans et le pays a changé de façon significative depuis. Un ne voit pas seulement les gratte-ciel flambants neufs, voitures et restaurants fantaisies, Louis Vuitton et Chanel ominprésent, mais également une entièrement nouvelle génération qui est folle de l’idéologie et philosophie de l’ouest et, en même temps, de l’idée qui la Chine est l’un des plus grands pays au monde.

La Chine rouge a commis beaucoup de fautes dans le passé, mais depuis les années 80 la Chine s’a dégagé de son âge des ténèbres et embrassé le monde. Elle continue à épouser bonnes pratiques telles que l’économie de marché, le fair-play, la protection de la propriété intellectuelle, etc. Le changement le plus important est la transition du centre de l’attention sur l’état en les citoyens. Les sociétés essayent de concevoir merchandises plus humaines; le gouvernement modifie ses routines pour mieux service; les talk shows prospèrent en parlant des vies des personnes ordinaries. Le centre du sauvetage après le tremblement de terre à Szechuan est de sauver les rescapés à tout prix.

Si vous envisagez de saisir une torche d’un athelet amputé encore à l'avenir, regardez ce film :

4.1 MET: The Beautiful Nile

Almost all civilizations started by rivers: the great Tigris and Euphrates, the mighty Yellow River, the mythical Indus River, and of course, the most magnificent Nile.

My hotel room in Luxor was just at the riverfront and I woke up to one of the most beautiful scenes in the morning. The Nile in brilliant dark Periwinkle blue was sprinkled with dawn sunlight; fleets of feluccas parked along the riverbank with proudly erect masts coated in gold; so were the dwellings reflecting the shining golden sunlight. A few hot-air balloons were flying some thrilled early birds over the Theban Necropolis and the Nile.






When the sun was high, more colors came out and vied for my attention. Bright white felucca sails stretched fully in confidence. The rich jungle green outlined the waterfront with a backdrop of sand hill in creamy café au lait.












At dusk, the sun graced the river again with its magnificent golden color, and the sky precipitated from pale blue to a real beautiful dark sapphire. The palm trees turned rusty green and their trunks subdued orange red.







I took a sunset felucca ride in Aswan. The winter tropical breeze was mild and pleasant, propelling the boat at a leisurely speed. Cruising the Nile was simply astonishing, even not in a basket or along with the logs carrying rocks for the pyramids. I think it’s something everyone should do once in his or her lifetime.

4.1 MET: En Train to Luxor, Part Two

On the train to Luxor, there was a German family sitting behind me, parents with two boys who just loved the Rock-paper-scissors game. The funny thing is that when one boy played with his brother, he used German: Schere, Stein, Papier, while using French, pierre, papier, ciseaux, when he played with the dad. The dad, from Köln, said that French speaking boy lived in Belgium for a while, which accounted for his familiarity with the language.

Later, I commented on the grand Kölner Dom, but the dad was somehow bitter about it. He complained about the Allied bombing during the war which practically razed the city saving the cathedral. He considered the city was at its best in the 80's when artists flourished, but now most of them had moved on to Berlin. Even my Muslim seatmate picked up a sense of bitterness. Luckily the train was approaching the destination, and the conversation was saved by the horn.

4.1 MET: En Train to Luxor, Part One

I took an overnight train to Luxor. I boarded the train in late evening at the Ramses station in central Cairo, and the train stopped briefly at Giza Station 30 minutes later. An attractive young Muslim lady got in and seated herself next to me. The First Class cabin I was in had seating like the business class on a plane. I was pretty beat after a long day, so fell asleep quickly after Giza.

The train ride was smooth and pleasant. I didn’t wake up until we were about an hour away from Luxor. My seatmate also woke up, and we began socializing.

Originally from Haram, or Giza, she was an endocrinologist working in Sinai. Still a medical degree candidate, she was traveling to Luxor for a medical conference after stopping by Cairo to see her folks. Her father was a diplomat but had already passed away, and her mom was a physician herself. Since her childhood, she had already traveled to most of the Arab world.

Intrigued by her background, I asked her about her experience as a Muslim studying western medicine. She said that the US and European communities had advanced researches in medicine. Although she disagreed with western family values and foreign policies, one of the Egyptian ways was to adopt good things. Western medicine was a good thing. She had no problem studying it and had been to the US for medical conferences. That reminded me that the American fast food chain stores were ubiquitous in Cairo. The Egyptians may oppose America’s junk policy, but certainly enjoy its junk food.

Feeling emboldened by her frankness and friendliness, I ventured an aggressive question: “Would you go if you were invited to an important conference on endocrinology in Tel Aviv?” Daughter to a diplomat, she said she would go to Belgium where the endocrinological research was most advanced. “Seriously”, she continued, “ I have to think about it if it’s in Israel”. In her opinion, the appearance of reconciliation between Egypt and Israel remained at a diplomatic and business level, and as for the public, there was still palpable tensions. Regular Egyptians still had problems with the state of Israel.

I noticed my seatmate covered her hair as many Muslim women I saw in Egypt, so asked her about this Islamic practice. She informed me that according to the Qu’ran, a woman needed to cover her hair, neck, and arms. If someone dressed up like a beekeeper, it was more a local and sect tradition, but was certainly not required by the Scriptures.

Asking about my itinerary, she commented that although most people visiting Egypt wanted to see the ruins from ancient time, to her, an Egyptian, those legendary structures meant little as they were merely an evidence of pharaohs’ self grandeurs, and they had little to do with an average Egyptian, then or now. She appreciated more about the Islamic teaching about caring the people around you. Preaching or now, she sounded sincere.

Obnoxiously persistent, I asked her about another Islamic practice: praying. When I was visiting the pyramids, I sat on a hill overlooking them and the modern city of Cairo waiting for sunset. Then the call for the sunset praying went on from probably thousands of high volume speakers all across Cairo. To me, it would be inconceivable for doctors to simply stop surgeries or soldiers to drop their weapons. She responded that she just prayed in her seat. She supposed that praying was not just a physical activity. If one could stop and pray, that’d be nice, but if one couldn’t, she thought, it was also fine as long as pray took place in one’s heart. The act of praying was independent from the actual behavior.

Then she smile and said, she just prayed that I would have a safe trip in Egypt.

友人の一日（第四回）

BOOBYがアメリカで最下位というのを知った、日本では最下位から二番目を意味する。12AMがここで真夜中を意味する、でも日本では正午を意味する。私に語源を勉強するいい機会をくれるので、違いは興味深い。違いのために、まだ言葉を誤用する。

4.1 MET: Religious Reformers

When Pharaoh Amenhotep IV and his feminist Great Royal Wife Nefertiti systematically destroyed the centuries-old worship of Amun and other deities in ancient Egypt, they might have done so to consolidate power in the New Kingdom, or to legally rob the priesthood of its immense wealth, or simply to proclaim their preference for an obscure god called Aten. Whatever their motivations, they seemed to do so for their personal benefits. With resistance from almost everyone plus a devastating pandemic, their reformation and royal reign was short-lived.

Amenhotep IV, aka Akhenaten, might find his plaque in the Hall of Fame, but the Michael Jordon of religious reformers has to be Martin Luther. The lowly monk’s detest of papal sanctioned indulgences and renascent emphasis on a personal relationship with the divinity might have won some minds and hearts, but his IPO was far from spectacular. He was declared an outlaw of the state and excommunicated from the church. Protestant Inc. was de-listed. Yet, the ruling Germanic princes saw the real economical implication: less participation in the church meant more disposable and taxable income to the principalities. The financial gain was so great that the princes went to war for it, and for 30 years. Thus the ultimate rivalry of Coke and Pepsi was created.

Since almost all religion founders are, in a sense, reformers, and vice versa, the success of a religion or a religious reformation hinges on its alignment with the interest of the ruling class, not necessarily of the actual ruler. King Henry VIII promoted the English reformation so that he could marry the woman he shacked up with, yet his successor disagreed so strongly that we named a cocktail after her commemorating her brutality. Although Constantine adopted Christianity after a few rapid eye moments, JC’s peaceful and Buddhistic preaching, a drastic departure from the violent and vengeful Judaic fables, actually worked well in helping stabilize the vast and heterogeneous empire of Rome. It should come with no surprise that it went on and became the most successful enterprise in the history of mankind.

4.1 MET: Egyptian Antiquities Museum

The Egyptian Museum of Antiquities in Cairo seems at first lacking its uniqueness among other major museums in the world, many of which house an abundance of Egyptian sculptures, sarcophagi, mummies, and large murals. When I first stepped into the Egyptian Arts Department in the MET in New York years ago, I was met with two colossal seated pharaoh statues flanked by equally tall limestone walls, which temporarily made me feel spatially displaced as if I'd been all of sudden dropped in Egypt. The Louvre and the British Museum are also well stocked with Egyptians artifacts. So the first impression of the Cairo museum is somewhat of a déjà vu.



However, as I walked around the spacious galleries, the shear number of artifacts was simply overwhelming. Besides quantity, there were still many unique objets d’art that weren’t on permanent loans to Western museums.



Colossal statues of Amenhotep III and his Royal Great Wife, Tiye, parents to the famous religion reformer Akhenaten, grantparents to yet more famous Tutankhamun. Statuettes of their three daughters stand by their feet, a tradition in ancient pharaohic monuments.



A pyramidion or pyramid capstone from Dahshur. Some believe that a capstone contains the information to allow the pyramid it caps to make contact with other universal systems in the chain of cosmology it arises from and reflects into the Infinite.



Egyptian hieroglyphs on the capstone.



The ancient Egyptians mummified almost everything. Some of the animals, like this mummified Crocodile, used to flourish in both Lower and Upper Egypt, but today they move south to the warmer heartland of Africa.



Cats are sacred animals in ancient Egypt. The most famous cat goddesses are Bastet and the lion headed Sekhmet. On display are some mummified cats whose vertebrates and limbs were broken to fit the shrouds.



A mummified baby baboon.



Of course, the highlight for most visitors is Tut’s treasures, of which the most famed artifact is the Boy King’s gold mask.



Tutankhamun’s funerary bed in the form of ancient god, Mehet-Weret.



Akhenaten, or originally Amenhotep IV, changed his name to pursue a monotheistic worship of Aten. He and his world-famous chief wife Nefertiti even moved the capital away from Thebes (Luxor). The stunt was only reversed by his successor Tutankhaten or Tutankhamun, as he renamed himself later to resume his loyalty to Amun.



The great Ramesses II, no longer 20 meters tall by Lake Nasser, lies quietly, humbly, and humanly in this air conditioned, humidity controlled, and shock absorbed glass case.

The Mist

Even with the best intention and the best laid plan, we often get unfavorable results. That’s okay. We can not foresee the future, nor can we control every detail in our lives. We should be judged by our intention and effort but never the outcome.



“We gave it a good shot. Nobody can say we didn’t.”

4.1 MET: Inside the Pyramids

The pyramids have been looted many times over in history, and there is nothing to see inside. However, just physically being inside these mysterious structures is a lifetime experience.

Among others, you can go inside the Red Pyramid in Dahshur or the Great Pyramid of Cheops or the Khufu Pyramid, in Giza. I chose the less touristy and quieter Red Pyramid. It’s about 343 feet tall, and the entrance is 94 feet above the ground level. Stone and wooden steps were installed for easy access.



The tunnel into the interior is narrow, low, and long, and slopes 27 degrees downward. I practically crawled down the path with my backpack rubbing the rocks above. I arrived at Dahshur very early that day, so I was the first and the only one in the tunnel. I would imagine in the middle of a hot summer day, crawling down this passageway with dozens of other visitors would not be most comfortable.



The 206 foot length seems to extend for ever. Looking back at the opening, I seemed to understand why the pyramids were designed for the renaissance of the souls which could go though the long dark tunnel heading for the bright light at the end.



Finally I got to the bottom where the tunnel leads to a rectangular chamber with a pointed roof. The corbeled high ceiling tapers faster than the pyramid itself, leaving me wonder what lies between the large limestone walls of the chamber and the outer surface rocks. There aren’t any ornaments or objects in this bare chamber. On the other side, there is another opening.





The passageway on the other side connects to another chamber which resembles the first one. This chamber seems to be the only one lying directly beneath the apex of the pyramid. Yet another passage opens up on the other side leading to the final chamber believed to be the actual burial place. It also has a high stepped ceiling. The floor of the burial chamber has been excavated but no other passageway has been found so far.



I didn’t know what was first found inside the pyramid, nor could I imagine the excitement of the treasure hunters who first made it into the chambers. Mais, du centre de ces pyramides, quarante siècles m'encerclent. From the center of the chamber right under the apex, I took a deep breath, taking in, along the musty air, the forty centuries of solemnity and spirituality of a long lost civilization.

4.1 MET: Who Built The Pyramids?

Did aliens build the pyramids? After a few hours touring those majestic constructions, the answer becomes quite obvious.

The oldest standing pyramid was the Step Pyramid, built around 2,600 BCE (III Dynasty of the Archaic Period). It was the first attempt to break away from an earthbound tradition and create a “straight up” structure, or per-em-us in ancient Egyptian.



Version 2.0 was designed to smoothen the steps. The Bent Pyramid, built in the IV Dynasty of the Old Kingdom Period, managed to get rid of the steps. However, the project started with an ambitiously steep 54.3 degree slope and tapered abruptly at a gentler angle (43.5 degrees) towards the top. The change of slope stabilized the structure, and nicely commemorates a stunning learning curve in an engineering feat.



The first true pyramid was the Red Pyramid, built for the same pharaoh Snofru after the Bent Pyramid. It had the same lower angle of 43.5 degrees.



The master pieces were completed by the later pharaohs of the IV Dynasty. The so-called Great Pyramids of Giza have wondered their admirers for millennia. However, looking at the history of pyramids, one could easily recognize that the sole standing wonder of the ancient world was not conceived, created, nor perfected over night.



If all the pyramids had been built by aliens, who must have journeyed millions of light years by either bending the space-time or traveling faster than light, or by other means too sophisticated for the feeble human brains, why would they have had so much trouble with steps and angles in putting a few rocks together?

Since it’s not likely for intergalactic visitors to have to learn and experiment with simple earthly geometry, it’s not likely they were the pyramid builders. QED.

4.1 MET: 上海美女在埃及

居然在金字塔上肆情放纵, 春光外泄, 真是大逆有道, 十恶可赦.













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