Durex might be really overly optimistic or there is this guanxi with being an Internet addict (does not bode well for me?!). See here how difficult it can be for women to find a well performing partner. Well, all thanks to China Daily, reporting about the south where I feel Chinese eat the whole day but eat rather poorly. Sorry for being a bit simplistic here, otherwise why are people in the south shorter, have “other” shortcomings (no word play intended) compared to their brothers in the north?
China Daily reports: China Scene: South – 7 November 2007
Tell lonely heart money can’t buy love
A 22-year-old woman has spent more than 300,000 yuan (US$ 40,000) on a lonely hearts advertisement in a local newspaper in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province. The woman’s father is thought to be a real-estate tycoon, whose estimated worth is 1 billion yuan (US$ 134 million).
(Information Times)
Men bouncing check of love in Dongguan
A quarter of the male population in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, is suffering from erectile dysfunction, a polite way of saying they are impotent, coming up short, or disappointing Miss Daisy. According to a recent survey, more than 25% of male residents in the prosperous Pearl River Delta city are not rising to the occasion.
Many of the men are so ashamed of their ejectile dysfunction they only seek medical advice after being forced to do so by their sex-deprived wives, who complain of zero copulation growth.
(Southern Metropolitan News)
Must be bad business for Durex down there.
South African Ladies in Beijing
On 24 October I was invited to give a presentation to a delegation , organized by the Da Vinci Institute for Technology Management, Johannesburg, South Africa. The topics, as usual, ranged from the preparation for the Beijing Olympics to women in China and doing business here.
The group of executives: all ladies from the banking sector. My presentation turned out to be totally improvised and the paper I was going to use stayed in my hand and was never opened. The debate was quite lively and the ladies had some pretty sharp questions.
Refreshing challenge for me, and pleasant company. Much nicer than some of those “seasoned executives” I described in an earlier entry.
Thanks to the South African Embassy for the arrangements and to Ms. Belinda Goddard and Prof. Ben Anderson (lucky guy!).
Again I wonder, where are the European delegations… At least one from Copenhagen is expected later this month.
Some of the participants.
More inward investment in Belgium than in China
I did not make up this one. Had to read it twice to realize it was “genuine”.
Source: Flanders Investment and Trade / Club Diaspora
Brussels – October 17, 2007 – According to the UNCTAD World Investment Report, foreign direct investment in Belgium doubled in 2006 to USD 72 billion. The notional interest deduction scheme is one of the main reasons why Belgium outperformed China, which came in at USD 69.5 billion.
The report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) shows that only the United States, the United Kingdom and France attracted more foreign direct investment in 2006. For a small country like Belgium, fourth place is an impressive achievement. Belgium also doubled its outward investment to USD 63 billion.
The strong growth in foreign direct investment is, according to the UNCTAD report, the result of the beneficial fiscal measure for coordination centers and of the notional interest deduction scheme here. The latter was installed in 2006 and allows foreign companies and organizations to reduce their taxable base when making investments from their own resources.
Belgium has, after Hong Kong, the highest ‘transnationality index’. This index measures which countries derive the most benefit from inward investment. The index is based on the business assets that foreign companies own in Belgium, the inward flow of new investment and the relative share of branches of foreign companies in Belgian GDP and in the total employment.
The report also states that Belgium is an economically-attractive location for branches of international financial groups. In that regard, there are three Belgian banks in the top 50 of the most internationalized financial institutions: KBC, Dexia and Fortis. (reported by De Tijd newspaper)
So-called seasoned executives
Just very recently I was in one of those meetings where I am supposed to sit with seasoned executives. Oh well. In Brazil we had a famous comedian (Jo Soares) who would say “A ignoráncia desta juventude é um espanto”. Something like “The ignorance of these young people is unbelievable”. Actually untranslatable and difficult to explain if one never saw the program.
Well, for me, many of those executives are the ignorant ones. Or maybe I am just frequenting the wrong crowd.
Many have no clue about a computer, neither about IT in general. They do use their mobiles a lot. (How do they manage that? OK, they do disturb everybody with the loud ringing). They claim to understand China. After 27 years of China I feel I am still in kindergarten myself.
They seem totally clueless about how Beijing will handle the Olympics. They seem well brainwashed by China Daily (not reading well the newspaper). They don’t see the logistical thunderclouds approaching. I just went through days and days of discussions with specialists, foreigners and Chinese and local government and we all agreed we need to “fasten seatbelts”. So, it hurts when my remarks on some risk issues are considered as some silly ideas by those so-called execs. It is actually often unbelievable the amount of rubbish I have to listen to myself.
Well, there is always a lesson somewhere:
– they are execs with probably fatter wallets than me, so what’s the use of my wisdom;
– trying to suggest well-intended plans out of pure idealism is mostly looked up on like “this guy must have a hidden agenda”;
– the wisdom I have, correction, the bits of information I have about the 2008 Olympics & China: I sell myself too cheaply.
As the same famous Brazilian comedian said:
“Cale te boca”.
Read: shut your (big) mouth.
Or another – French – piece of wisdom: “On a tort d’avoir raison” – you are wrong to be right.
With that I need a good whisky.
Most vulgar napkin holder
Really?
Got this picture from my favorite journalist, Yinan from CRI. She took that during a recent trip to Thailand and thought it was disgusting.
I already see it coming. Chinese are reading my blog and next week you can buy this stuff in the Silk Market here in Beijing.
Or maybe it’s already there?