Tonight I went to the semi-annual dinner of APEGBC Vancouver branch to receive the framed certification for my Professional Engineer designation. All new certified professional engineers from different fields show up in the meeting. Actually there were over 50 people receiving their P.Eng title in Vancouver in the past 6 months. The event started off with a standard cocktail session, the so called networking opportunities. I talked to quite a few engineers from other fields, learned something interesting such as forensic engineering and environmental regulations, but didn’t really make any useful connection. There was a presentation from the APEGBC chairman following the dinner. The chairman belongs to the Al Gore’s climate change work force. He is one of the selected thousand individuals who received training in presenting Al Gore’s slides. Yeap, you name it, the presentation tonight is a live version of “The Inconvenient Truth”. I have already watched the movie, so I have seen all those slides. I must admit Al Gore has done a much better job in giving that presentation. As a result I dozed off almost half of the presentation. After the boring talk, at last all the new P.Eng are lined up to receive their certificate. Just like your university convocation, you get about 5 seconds of stage time, just enough to shake hands with the chairman and take a picture. And that concludes tonight’s event. What a waste of time. To make me feel like even more stupid, I actually got the certificate in mail. I have to bring the certificate to the dinner, have the chairman present it to me and then bring it home. I could have save all those trouble by forgoing that stupid picture.
檸檬茶
「檸檬茶」是今期在博客中最流行的題目﹐事緣有香港補習名師貼中這條今年會考中文作文的試題。大眾先起是關注是否有涉露會考試題﹐後來改為評論「檸檬茶」是否一條合適的作文考試題目。這麼一鬧﹐引來一眾已過會考年齡的博客﹐大家齊齊重當考生寫作品﹐重捨當年考試的情懷。當然我也不例外﹐手痕地寫了篇「檸檬茶」。 想當年中文作文我考獲乙級成績﹐不知今次這份考卷的成績又如何呢﹖
香港會考中文作文題 – 檸檬茶
在香港的茶餐廳文化中﹐檸檬茶是不少香港人喜愛的飲品﹐可惜這杯茶不是我的那杯茶。我不喜歡喝檸檬茶﹐不是因為怕酸﹐也不是因為不喜歡茶的味道﹐而是因為我懶。
在茶餐廳點一杯檸檬茶﹐比點一杯奶茶或咖啡麻煩。在待應把飲品送上來後﹐除了要加入沙糖外﹐還多出了要擠壓檸檬的步驟。把檸檬汁從檸檬擠壓出來後﹐更要把從杯中挑出來。不然檸檬片浸得太久的話﹐檸檬皮滲出的苦味就會破壞整杯茶的味道。而且如何處理挑出來的檸檬片也是一個傷腦筋的難題﹐大多數餐廳杯子底下的碟子太小﹐檸檬片放得不好就會把桌面弄濕﹐更有可能弄髒衣服。除此之外﹐喝檸檬茶也是一件很費心神的事情。不像喝奶茶咖啡﹐可以拿起杯看也不看就倒入喉嚨。喝檸檬茶則要很小心﹐不要讓給擠了出來的檸檬核子嗆到喉嚨。就是這些多出來的功夫﹐令我對檸檬茶望之卻步。
想喝檸檬茶﹐除了去茶餐廳點新鮮檸檬茶外﹐還可透過買紙包檸檬茶的這個途征。可是香港的紙包檸檬茶市場給「陽光」和「維他」兩大品牌攏斷。這兩個品牌的紙包檸檬茶﹐一個太酸﹐另一個則太甜﹐最致命的缺點﹐是兩者皆完全沒有茶味。喝完紙包檸檬茶後﹐口中殘留著像喝化學品的不舒服感覺﹐真是失敗中的失敗。所以我在香港時﹐我很少喝檸檬茶。若非沒有其他選擇﹐不論是新鮮還是紙包﹐我也一既敬而遠之。
到了我移民來加拿大後﹐我發現這兒的檸檬茶與香港的很不同。檸檬茶主要由可樂和百事兩大汽水商代理﹐雖然沒有加入二氧化碳氣泡﹐按歸類應該屬於汽水類飲料。可以在自助式汽水機購賣﹐在超級市場也有瓶裝檸檬茶出售。加拿大的檸檬茶味道適中﹐帶甜的茶味中透出檸檬的香味。現在我不再拒抗檸檬茶了﹐反而成為我心熱來潮﹐不想喝可口可樂時的第二號選擇。
(七百字﹐ 寫作時間三十分鐘)
Friendster is out, facebook is in. In the past few weeks, facebook seems to grow exponentially around my circle of friends. Everyone is ditching friendster and signing up with facebook. I registered my facebook account two weeks ago and now I already have over 30 contacts. People even send messages in friendster to tell people they are switching to facebook. It is fair to say friendster is showing its age. The site is always slow and it lacks of features. Facebook is much more user friendly and the interface is quite intuitive. How the photo album supports tagging people’s name is really genius, highly recommended. It is only the matter of time before facebook overtake friendster, repeating how MSN overtake ICQ. I am pretty sure a few years, some better social networking site will comes in and out shine facebook. Then there will be another round of mass exoduses, everyone migrate their contacts from one site to another.
There is one thing about this kind of social network I love to hate or hate to love. Before everyone you ever known is connected by social network, whatever passed is passed. If you want to forget someone after you two’s circle of life drifted apart, normally you won’t hear any news from each other. Eventually the memory will be preserved under a dusty corner somewhere inside your brain. Now with these kind of massive social networks, that someone is just always a few click away. You may tell yourself you don’t want to and you don’t need to know anything about that person. But curiosity makes people click in and take a look how that person is doing these days. Is she happy? Has she find someone to take care of her yet?
相對貧窮
說起什麼是貧窮﹐大部份人必定會想起非洲那些餓很瘦骨如柴的飢民﹐ 又或者在電視新聞上看起那些衣不蔽體﹐頂無片瓦的難民。畢境不論是基於人道責任還是身為人類的同情心﹐我們也不能接受社會上有人連生存的權利也沒有保障。可幸的隨著經濟發展人民生活日漸富裕﹐社會有能力負擔公共福利為人民提供最基本的生活必需﹐在發達國家中生活於貧窮線下的人數已大幅減少。在今天的香港社會中﹐相信不會出現路有凍死骨或小孩子要挨肚餓的慘況。正當我們的滅貧大計取得空前成功﹐一些社會學者卻提出貧窮一個的新慨念。他們把上述的問題稱為絕對貧窮 (absolute poverty)﹐而引入一個新的相對貧窮 (relative poverty)觀念。貧窮不再單純是吃不飽穿不暖的問題﹐而是由於未能負擔一般人一樣的消費能力﹐未能享受社會上一般人的生活模式﹐從而感覺到自己貧窮。於是貧窮從一個客觀性的經濟指標﹐變成一個主觀性的文化心理慨念。那些社會學者更進一步指出﹐經濟發展不能解決相對貧窮的問題﹐反而會不斷產生新的貧窮﹐只有重新分配財富﹐改變現行資本主義的社會架構﹐才能在根本上解決貧窮的問題。可是他們有沒有想過﹐相對貧窮有必要解決嗎﹖
首先從字面的定義上去看﹐相對貧窮這個慨念並不存在。相對貧窮只是窮﹐並不是貧。很明顯翻譯這個詞語的人只是囫圇吞棗地﹐把英文詞語照字面的意思硬譯過來﹐而沒有細心思考過在中文裏﹐貧窮二字已包含絕對和相對兩個不同的觀念。物質上的不足為貧﹐是絕對的慨念。窮則是相對的慨念﹐例如龔如心比李家誠窮。世界各國大多有扶貧滅貧的社會計劃﹐只有共產主義的國家﹐才會有做又三十六﹐唔做又三十六的滅窮計劃。在數學上來說﹐除非所有人的收入也相同﹐否則一定會有人比別人窮。貧可滅﹐窮永不可滅。以史為鑑﹐滅窮只能像共產政權那樣製造均貧﹐可是均貧肯定不是我們樂於見到的結果。
窮本身並不是一件值得讓人懼怕的事。正所謂人窮志不窮﹐在生存有基本保障後﹐不必擔活在赤貧的人﹐他們可以憑自己的努力﹐去創造財富逐步爬地上社會階梯。反之富有的人著終日無所事事揮霍無度﹐他們的財富也有花盡的一天﹐會從有錢階級掉下來變成窮人。最有效保障階級上下流動的社會制度是論功行賞的功績主義(Meritocracy)。生產力高對社會有供獻多的人﹐相對的獲得更多財富回報作為鼓勵﹐而生產力低對社會供獻少的人﹐則以相對較少的生活享受作為的懲罰。只要使用得宜﹐富與窮正是最有效增進社會生產力的葫蘿白和棒子。
每一項經濟增長均是來自科技或制度的進步﹐在經濟增長的初期﹐擁有新技術或新知識的人﹐因為生產力相對上升有比較優勢而先富起來。剩下來低技術低知識的人﹐生產力相對下降淪為窮人。讓他們脫窮的唯一方法﹐就是提升他們的生產力﹐通過教育和培訓讓他們在技術和知識追上其他人的平均水平。若果強行把高生產力的人的財產通過分配手段﹐白白送給低生產力的人﹐只會傳達一個錯誤的訊息﹐變相懲罰提高生產力的人。最終只會造成反效果﹐導致社會整體生產力下降或停滯不前﹐對人民不僅益處反而有害處。
透過經濟增長增加社會上的總生產力﹐社會才能夠投放更多資源在低收入階層﹐改善他們客觀生活條件。人民得以豐衣足食﹐貧困也成為過去的代名詞。事實上在今天的香港社會﹐只要沒有不良嗜好﹐就算領綜緩住公屋的市民﹐他們的客觀生活質素比五十年前的中產階級還要好﹐大慨比一百年前的大地主也過之而無不及﹐這就是經濟增長帶來的好處了。經濟增長可以滅貧﹐但不能滅窮。要滅窮的話﹐倒頭來就沒有了經濟增長。不過若果窮是因為人比人比死人的心理問題﹐只是因為生活享受不夠別人好﹐就感覺自己是貧窮的話﹐那麼經濟政策絕不是解決問題的方法。心病還需心藥醫﹐向低下階層傳揚佛家道家無慾無求的思想﹐又或者基督教的克己追求精神而非物質滿足的傳統﹐也可以令他們不再覺得自己貧窮﹐這才是根治窮人心理問題的良方。
TV commercials
Normally, people hate watching TV commercials. They will avoid watching commercials by pressing the fast forward button in recorded programs, change channels or go to the washroom in live programs. I can’t believe I watched nothing but commercials for almost half an hour today. I haven’t watched Hong Kong TV commercials for a long time. Although I watch TV programs from HK quite frequently, those program are usually commercial free. I am curious how the TV commercials in HK look like nowadays and what are the differences with those here in Canada. I downloaded a collection of HK TV commercials and watched it half-heartly this afternoon. Actually I am quite disappointed, out of the hundred or so commercials I watched, there are only a few good ones with a sense of humor or with artistic expression that is pleasant to watch. I always thought commercials in HK would be more interesting than those broadcast here. I guess commercials are just equally boring everywhere. Some commercials hire celebrities as speak persons, which I found quite this type of commercials often lacks substance and instantly turned me off. Ok, commercials with showering scenes by famous female stars are exceptions, but I still won’t buy those products because of the stars. Some commercials trying to be too informative, giving boring useless sales number to the audience so that they can forget in the next second. There is one clueless commercial featuring Chow Yun Fat with lots of weird visual imageries. It turns out to be the commercial for the new casino in Macau. No wonder the advertisement company can make an expensive commercial seems so meaningless, that is exactly the effect they want to archive. You can’t hard sell gambling in TV commercials. To my surprise, I found some ancient commercials from my childhood days still on air these days. The tag line of those commercials are part of the collective memories among people form different generations. Actually, I am more surprise those products are still in business. Who wants to by a product running an aging commercial?