by Richard L. Weaver II, Ph.D.
Singapore was our second stop after Bangkok on our Southeast Asia cruise, and the differences between Singapore and Bangkok are enough to overwhelm you — especially when one city directly follows the other. Neither place, I suppose, offers the visitor a completely fair and balanced look at what comprises a Southeast Asian city, and yet, here they stand in very sharp contrast to each other.
Singapore is located at the tip of the Malayan peninsula, just one degree north of the equator. It is almost directly southeast from Laem Chabang, the main port for Bangkok, and there is one full sea day of cruising between the ports.
It is Singapore’s free trade policy that attracted merchants and migrants from Malaya, Indonesia, China, India, the Middle East, and Europe. After Japanese occupation, British possession, two years in the Federation of Malaysia (including Malaya, Sabah, and Sarawak), it has been an independent republic since 1965, after being asked to leave the Federation.
With its diverse history, it is no wonder there is such diversity in Singapore. For example, it has five official languages: Malay, Mandarin, Tamil, Chinese, and English. The latter is most widely used, and English is the language used in the public schools and on all road signs. The population is composed of 4.99 million people, but it represents Chinese (77%), Malays (14%), Indians (8%), and others (1%). Even the various local religions support diversity with mosques, temples, and churches existing within a climate of complete freedom of worship.
“Singapore,” according to a website on the Internet, “is a parliamentary republic, and the Constitution of Singapore establishes representative democracy as the nation’s political system. The People’s Action Party (PAP) dominates the political process and has won control of parliament in every election since self-government in 1959.”
I had a vague idea of what to expect in Singapore when I investigated it on the Internet before our trip. The main/primary tourist attractions for travelers include: 1) a butterfly park, 2) a bird park, 3) a zoo, 4) and an “Underwater World.” If you have been as many places as we have, seen and experienced as much, and taken advantage of as many diverse excursions on previous journeys, you wouldn’t be surprised to know that these “tourist attractions” offer no interest whatsoever. They are not “natural wonders” but manmade tourist attractions.
The second aspect of my Internet search prior to taking this cruise that fueled my “vague idea of what to expect,” was the emphasis discovered on shopping: “Before going to other major Singapore tourist attractions,” one Internet site exclaimed, “one should start with the shopping opportunities.” There was an emphasis on Orchard Road: “The area is packed with some of the most vibrating shops and shopping malls.”
Even the bus driver of the shuttle from the port into the city (where we were deposited at a large shopping mall anchored by a Hilton Hotel), let all bus passengers (about 35 of us) know the city was happy to have us there and wanted us to spend our money.
While Bangkok had its Grand Palace, numerous Buddhist temples, China Town, the Old City, and trade centers for gems and silks, Singapore had its towering, gleaming skyscrapers and immaculate, gorgeous shopping malls. Singapore, too, has its Little India where two Hindu temples are located, but we did not have the time to go there.
We arrived in Singapore at the farthest possible end of its huge container port with containers all neatly stacked and organized, wide concrete avenues all controlled by stop lights and nearly barren intersections, and many high-container lifts designed to move containers on and off ships quickly and efficiently. The place was spotless with not a single speck of litter or debris of any kind.
It took our free shuttle from the ship just 10 minutes to move us from our dock (there is no passenger terminal of any kind as you find in many Caribbean ports), to the gates of the port and onto the freeways and avenues that connect the port to the city — about 30-40 minutes away. The trip is smooth; traffic is light; the roads are clear of any litter or debris; buses and autos move freely. We spotted no rickshaws, bicycles, motor scooters, motorcycles, or, of course, tuk-tuks.
When in Bangkok, you get the impression it is a very “lived in” city. There is litter. The various modes of transportation (especially the motorcycles and tuk-tuks), make negotiating traffic far more of a challenge than in Singapore. Everywhere, it seemed, there was congestion (and sometimes chaos). Bangkok is truly a fun, exciting, challenging city full of vibrancy and contrasts — that clash of old and new or traditional versus modern.
Now, I must admit something here that makes the contrasts between Bangkok and Singapore more pronounced and severe than they may be. We spent 2 ½ days in Bangkok and traveled around much of the city (some of it in a tuk-tuk — a motorized, covered rickshaw). In Singapore, we were deposited at a large downtown shopping mall, and we spent about 2 ½ hours (not days — hours) in the city. And, too, we were not in just any part of the city but in the most elite, sophisticated, modern, and expensive part of the city. (Of course there would be a contrast!)
In Singapore we walked from the Hilton Hotel on Scott’s Avenue, abut 1 ½ blocks to Orchard Road. Just for fun, we looked for litter along the way and found none.
In Bangkok you could go almost nowhere without encountering both litter and sidewalk vendors. Many of the local people eat their lunches from sidewalk vendors who deep fry chicken or fish at their carts, cook chicken kabobs over their small grills, or sell fresh fruit and vegetables all cut and trimmed to promote an easy sale.
There are numerous other contrasts such as the existence of sidewalk vendors in Bangkok and none in Singapore, the “smart casual” dress of the people we observed in Singapore and the dress of those in Bangkok which far better represented a cross-section of the whole Thai population, and even the language — those in Singapore spoke fluent English and those in Bangkok spoke little (some very broken) English. There were even great differences in modes of transportation as noted previously.
Just from these examples alone, you can see that the differences between Singapore and Bangkok are enough to overwhelm you. Remember, however, that our two experiences were different in the amount of time we spent in both places and with that, our limited ability to make a thorough investigation. Just the same, it was an enjoyable and thoroughly interesting juxtaposition.
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At “Stickman’s Guide to Bangkok: Readers’ Submissions — Singapore vs. Thailand” by Amazing P, there is a delightful essay that compares Singapore and Thailand — much as I do in my essay. Amazing P, however, offers many additional contrasts (some things I observed, too, but did not have the experience or background to write about). The essay is quite thorough and — beware — goes into some areas (such as prostitution) that gives you a contrast that is, well, let’s say, quite suggestive and a bit “over the top.” Despite this (this discussion comes at the end of the essay), it is an enjoyable and interesting set of contrasts and certainly underscores and supports (with greater detail) much of what I’ve written above.
The essay is called “‘Asian Values’ and Democracy in Asia” and although the essay is fascinating and extremely enlightening, it is also highly academic. The first sentence of this essay by Takashi Inoguchi and Edward Newman gives you an idea of the sophistication of this essay: “Cultural determinism argues that cultural values condition modes of social and economic organization, including patterns of political relationships, political participation, citizenship and government.”
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Copyright March, 2011, by And Then Some Publishing, LLC.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Day #245 - Find peace in personal pleasure.
SMOERs: Words of Wisdom
"The secret of success is learning how to use pain and pleasure instead of having pain and pleasure use you. If you do that, you're in control of your life. If you don't, life controls you." --Anthony Robbins
Day #245 - Find peace in personal pleasure.
"The secret of success is learning how to use pain and pleasure instead of having pain and pleasure use you. If you do that, you're in control of your life. If you don't, life controls you." --Anthony Robbins
Day #245 - Find peace in personal pleasure.
SMOERs: Self-Motivation, Optimism, Encouragement Rules! - Daily Reminders for Outstanding Living
An everyday guide full of quotations to uplift your spirits. This is one of six motivational quotations for Day #245.
Free 30-Day sample: smoers.com
An everyday guide full of quotations to uplift your spirits. This is one of six motivational quotations for Day #245.
Free 30-Day sample: smoers.com
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
And Then Some News
Thursday's Essay Preview
This is the fifth of 17 essays that cover our Southeast Asia cruise (March, 2010). The first paragraph of the fifth essay reads as follows: "Singapore was our second stop after Bangkok on our Southeast Asia cruise, and the differences between Singapore and Bangkok are enough to overwhelm you — especially when one city directly follows the other. Neither place, I suppose, offers the visitor a completely fair and balanced look at what comprises a Southeast Asian city, and yet, here they stand in very sharp contrast to each other."
Thursday's Essay Excerpt - from the last two paragraphs of the essay
There are numerous other contrasts such as the existence of sidewalk vendors in Bangkok and none in Singapore, the “smart casual” dress of the people we observed in Singapore and the dress of those in Bangkok which far better represented a cross-section of the whole Thai population, and even the language — those in Singapore spoke fluent English and those in Bangkok spoke little (some very broken) English. There were even great differences in modes of transportation as noted previously.
Just from these examples alone, you can see that the differences between Singapore and Bangkok are enough to overwhelm you. Remember, however, that our two experiences were different in the amount of time we spent in both places and with that, our limited ability to make a thorough investigation. Just the same, it was an enjoyable and thoroughly interesting juxtaposition.
Just from these examples alone, you can see that the differences between Singapore and Bangkok are enough to overwhelm you. Remember, however, that our two experiences were different in the amount of time we spent in both places and with that, our limited ability to make a thorough investigation. Just the same, it was an enjoyable and thoroughly interesting juxtaposition.
And Then Some News
Monday, March 28, 2011
The hidden brain: How our unconscious minds elect presidents, control markets, wage wars, and save our lives
By Shankar Vedantam
http://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Brain-Unconscious-Presidents-Control/dp/0385525214/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1276111912&sr=1-1
Book review by Richard L. Weaver II, Ph.D.
First, you may wonder what made me look twice at this book. I read a “Science” editorial in the June 7, 2010, Newsweek, by Sharon Begley called, “The hidden brain: What scientists can learn from ‘nothing,” and enjoyed the article and thought Vedantam could shed additional light and substance on the subject.
Second, you may wonder at the outset, what credentials does Vedantam have for writing a book like this? According to the back flyleaf, he “is a national correspondent and columnist for The Washington Post and a 2009-2010 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University.”
About his educational background, I found this at Wikipedia.comzzzzzzzzzzzzzz; “Vedantam has an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from India, and master's degree in journalism from Stanford University. Prior to his Washington Post employment, he worked at the Philadelphia Inquirer, Knight-Ridder's Washington Bureau, and New York Newsday.”
Verdantam was born in Bangalore, India, in 1969, and Wiikipedia also states: “Shankar Vedantam's articles touch on a wide range of subjects, most of them with links to current events. In his column in the Washington Post he routinely explores the overt and covert influences that shape people's attitudes to the world around them. His interests also include the role of science and religion in everyday life, and the effects of religious faith on health. In his articles he has explored the interplay between neuroscience and spirituality.”
For this 270-page book, there are nine pages of notes — 249 citations.
Well, Sharon Begley’s Newsweek essay was just the tip of the iceberg. That is, she is talking about the mind at rest. Verdantam, actually discusses some of the forces at play when the mind is at rest: “hidden cognitive mechanisms.” Basically, what he disputes is the fact that “human behavior [is] the product of knowledge and conscious intention.”
Verdantam’s entire book, replete with numerous stories, explains the “unconscious forces that [act] on people without their awareness or consent” (p. 6).
He writes about the stories he uses: “The selection of stories in this book is mine and mine alone. To the extent they are wrong, misleading, or simplistic, the responsibilities lies solely with me. To the extent that they are revealing and insightful—and not merely interesting—the credit mostly belongs to the hundreds of researchers whose work I have cited” (p. 7).
What is the hidden brain? “The ‘hidden brain’ was shorthand for a range of influences that manipulated us without our awareness. Some aspects of the hidden brain had to do with the pervasive problem of mental shortcuts or heuristics, others were related to errors in the way memory and attention worked. Some dealt with social dynamics and relationships. What was common to them all was that we were unaware of their influence” (p. 7).
Some of the subjects Verdantam uses to portray the effects of the hidden brain include the brain at work and at play, the brain displayed in mental disorders, in the life cycle of bias (the infant’s stare and racist seniors), the role it plays in gender and privilege, disasters and the lure of conformity, as well as in terrorism and extremism, the death penalty, politics and race, and in genocide.
If you accept his premise (which I do), then some of the experiences he discusses become a bit long and tedious, even though the book is well written and interesting. The content of the book is 255 pages in length, and, for the most part, I feel Verdantam has chosen good examples that are engaging.
Pistol Pete "Pete,” of Houston, Texas, wrote this four-out-of-five star review at Amazon.com: “I thought this book was brilliant. Every chapter tackles different subjects and studies that try to explain how the subconscious works. I was very happy with the amount of research, especially scientific studies, that were detailed in the book. There are a lot of anecdotal stories as well, which are also necessary to illustrate the points.
“I found the book persuasive and interesting. How does our group affect our thinking? How does race come into politics through our subconscious? What motivates terrorists? There are many great questions that the author raises and his research into the subconscious helps answer many of the questions. I highly recommend this book to all readers interested in psychology.”
I would probably award the book three out of five stars. Although interesting and well-written and supported, as I noted above, once you accept the author’s premise — as I did before I began reading the book — then it becomes quite long. I’m not suggesting it is common sense, I am simply saying that it is not a premise that I question nor is it one that I would pursue (or have an interest in reading) in any depth.
This book is available at Amazon.com: The hidden brain: How our unconscious minds elect presidents, control markets, wage wars, and save our lives
http://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Brain-Unconscious-Presidents-Control/dp/0385525214/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1276111912&sr=1-1
Book review by Richard L. Weaver II, Ph.D.
First, you may wonder what made me look twice at this book. I read a “Science” editorial in the June 7, 2010, Newsweek, by Sharon Begley called, “The hidden brain: What scientists can learn from ‘nothing,” and enjoyed the article and thought Vedantam could shed additional light and substance on the subject.
Second, you may wonder at the outset, what credentials does Vedantam have for writing a book like this? According to the back flyleaf, he “is a national correspondent and columnist for The Washington Post and a 2009-2010 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University.”
About his educational background, I found this at Wikipedia.com
Verdantam was born in Bangalore, India, in 1969, and Wiikipedia also states: “Shankar Vedantam's articles touch on a wide range of subjects, most of them with links to current events. In his column in the Washington Post he routinely explores the overt and covert influences that shape people's attitudes to the world around them. His interests also include the role of science and religion in everyday life, and the effects of religious faith on health. In his articles he has explored the interplay between neuroscience and spirituality.”
For this 270-page book, there are nine pages of notes — 249 citations.
Well, Sharon Begley’s Newsweek essay was just the tip of the iceberg. That is, she is talking about the mind at rest. Verdantam, actually discusses some of the forces at play when the mind is at rest: “hidden cognitive mechanisms.” Basically, what he disputes is the fact that “human behavior [is] the product of knowledge and conscious intention.”
Verdantam’s entire book, replete with numerous stories, explains the “unconscious forces that [act] on people without their awareness or consent” (p. 6).
He writes about the stories he uses: “The selection of stories in this book is mine and mine alone. To the extent they are wrong, misleading, or simplistic, the responsibilities lies solely with me. To the extent that they are revealing and insightful—and not merely interesting—the credit mostly belongs to the hundreds of researchers whose work I have cited” (p. 7).
What is the hidden brain? “The ‘hidden brain’ was shorthand for a range of influences that manipulated us without our awareness. Some aspects of the hidden brain had to do with the pervasive problem of mental shortcuts or heuristics, others were related to errors in the way memory and attention worked. Some dealt with social dynamics and relationships. What was common to them all was that we were unaware of their influence” (p. 7).
Some of the subjects Verdantam uses to portray the effects of the hidden brain include the brain at work and at play, the brain displayed in mental disorders, in the life cycle of bias (the infant’s stare and racist seniors), the role it plays in gender and privilege, disasters and the lure of conformity, as well as in terrorism and extremism, the death penalty, politics and race, and in genocide.
If you accept his premise (which I do), then some of the experiences he discusses become a bit long and tedious, even though the book is well written and interesting. The content of the book is 255 pages in length, and, for the most part, I feel Verdantam has chosen good examples that are engaging.
Pistol Pete "Pete,” of Houston, Texas, wrote this four-out-of-five star review at Amazon.com: “I thought this book was brilliant. Every chapter tackles different subjects and studies that try to explain how the subconscious works. I was very happy with the amount of research, especially scientific studies, that were detailed in the book. There are a lot of anecdotal stories as well, which are also necessary to illustrate the points.
“I found the book persuasive and interesting. How does our group affect our thinking? How does race come into politics through our subconscious? What motivates terrorists? There are many great questions that the author raises and his research into the subconscious helps answer many of the questions. I highly recommend this book to all readers interested in psychology.”
I would probably award the book three out of five stars. Although interesting and well-written and supported, as I noted above, once you accept the author’s premise — as I did before I began reading the book — then it becomes quite long. I’m not suggesting it is common sense, I am simply saying that it is not a premise that I question nor is it one that I would pursue (or have an interest in reading) in any depth.
This book is available at Amazon.com: The hidden brain: How our unconscious minds elect presidents, control markets, wage wars, and save our lives
Friday, March 25, 2011
LAUGH . . . And Then Some
Two Rednecks are sittin' in a boat on the lake fishing and suckin' down beers when all of a sudden Woody says, "Ah think ah'm gonna divorce mah wife---she hain't spoke to me in over six months."
"I want my husband to pay attention to me," says the woman to the clerk behind the counter. "Do you have any perfume that smells like a computer?"
From Day #194 in a complete manuscript compiled by Richard L. Weaver II
Bubba slowly sips his beer and says, "Ya'll better think it over--wimmen like that are hard to find."
"I want my husband to pay attention to me," says the woman to the clerk behind the counter. "Do you have any perfume that smells like a computer?"
Laugh Like There's No Tomorrow: Over 2,000 jokes from the Internet
From Day #194 in a complete manuscript compiled by Richard L. Weaver II
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Bangkok: Big City of Contrasts II
by Richard L. Weaver II, Ph.D.
At the end of essay one on Bangkok, my wife and I were touring “high-end” stores so our tuk-tuk driver could get “gas coupons.” When our tuk-tuk tour ended, we gave our driver 60 bahts rather than the 40 negotiated at the beginning of our trip. Still, at 60 bahts for over 1 1/2-hours of travel, the cost in U.S. dollars was less than $2.00 (about $1.86 to be exact).
Back at the Grand Palace (once the official home for the Kings of Siam), which was our original destination when we left the Four Season’s Hotel in the morning, our intent was to see the Emerald Buddha located within the Palace walls. I’m not quite sure why our focus was on seeing a wide variety of Buddhas; however, that was what was happening.
The admission price to the Grand Palace and museum was about $10.00 U.S. (350 baht), but we discovered, in retrospect, that it was well worth the price. We shortened our self-guided tour, however, because of the excessive heat and humidity. There was bright sunshine, and in walking the grounds of the Grand Palace, we were continually in search of shade.
An Internet essay, “History of the Emerald Buddha,” offers a short explanation of the Emerald Buddha which we heard repeated several times by tour guides we overheard at the Palace: “According to reliable chronicles, lightning struck a Chedi in Chiangrai province of Northern Thailand in 1434 A.D.and a Buddha statue made of stucco was found inside. The abbot of the temple noticed that the stucco on the nose had flaked off and the image inside was a green color. He then removed the stucco covering and found the Emerald Buddha which is in reality made of green jade.” The explanation we heard for the stucco covering was to protect it. It was applied by people who knew the stucco would be unattractive to uninvited plunderers whereas the green jade would be stolen at once. The Emerald Buddha stands less than 18-inches tall.
To get to the Reclining Buddha (Wat Pho) — our next Buddhist destination — which was located next to the Grand Palace, we had to walk around half of the large, walled enclosure, but, fortunately, we walked in shade under trees and vendor umbrellas. There were at least 100 sidewalk vendors along the route from the Palace to Wat Pho. “The word “Wat” means “place of worship.” We moved rapidly among the locals, and there was never fear nor anxiety, even though we saw no other tourists and no other Caucasians during this long walk in the heat and humidity.
Also, just before getting to Wat Pho and the Reclining Buddha, we walked to the edge of Chao Phraya River which flows through the heart of Bangkok. At the website, Virtual Tourist, it says this about the River: “[The] Chao Phraya River plays a main role [in] Thai life. Some of [Thai] history can be traced within [its] sprawling river banks. [There are] Old Temples, palaces, and [many] communities . . . along the river.”
Beside the river and looking out over it, we found the S & P Restaurant where we “enjoyed” a spicy cream/chicken/artichoke soup that I ate with tears coming to my eyes. My wife had a spicy tomato/beef/curry soup that was not as spicy, but spicy enough! Traditional Thai food is very spicy, and locals tend to use white rice to mute the intensity. I used all of the white rice we were provided — both mine and my wife’s!
Although we had many opportunities to eat from sidewalk vendors or in numerous local restaurants (especially in a “Food Park” at a mall close to our hotel, we ate all our breakfasts (3 total) in our hotel room with locally purchased bakery items), and we had entirely “safe” food (also cheap!) at a McDonald’s and a KFC. (You can find many of the well-known, fast-food, brand name restaurants in Bangkok such as KFC, Burger King, Dunking Donuts, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Dairy Queen, Starbucks, A&W and so on. (YUM! Restaurants, Inc., [owner of KFC] operates over 32,500 restaurants in more than 100 countries and territories in the world.)
Getting back to our walk from the Grand Palace to Wat Pho, you may wonder why we wanted to see the Reclining Buddha? At the website, “Into Asia” there is a description of it: “The highly impressive gold plated reclining Buddha is 46 meters long [151 feet] and 15 meters high [49 feet], and is designed to illustrate the passing of the Buddha into nirvana. The feet and the eyes are engraved with mother-of-pearl decoration, and the feet also show the 108 auspicious characteristics of the true Buddha.” If you ever think you’ve seen enough Buddhas, or that you’ve seen them all (there are over 1,000 images of Buddha in Wat Pho alone!), and you’ve missed the Reclining Buddha, you have missed a remarkable sight.
After our 2 ½ days in greater Bangkok, we were ready to head to Laem Chabang (the port that is two hours away, board our ship (the Diamond Princess), and begin traveling to Singapore (with over 2,600 others). The words “greater Bangkok” are important. According to the very short essay,“Thai Traditional Ways of Life in Bangkok” the writer claims we never saw “the real Bangkok.” “Bangkok is very much grounded in modernity,” the writer says. “It is a fast and furious city of business and commerce with a pace equal to that of any capital in the world. Despite this, Thailand’s capital also has a quieter, gentler side. The real Bangkok can be found in the backstreets and ‘Sois’ (small roads) where people live in communities that have not changed much over the years.
Obviously, getting out of the city centre is the best way to find Bangkok’s traditional way of life, but even in the centre a short walk away from tourism and business areas will find people sitting in the street, eating, chatting, listening to music and enjoying Thailand’s clement evening weather.” The point the writer is making is simple: There are even contrasts that those who visit Bangkok will miss if they don’t get out of the city center.
Despite not getting out of the city, however, we noticed the contrast between the traditional and the modern. For us, one of the best symbols of this contrast was seeing one of the women sidewalk vendors toting her wares in bamboo woven baskets, attached to a bamboo pole, carried over her shoulders, then selling her wares on the sidewalk beneath a large, modern, skyscraper. Where else in the world but Bangkok?
-----
At this tourist website, there is a brief history of Bangkok. I found the following paragraph the most interesting one in this essay: “A century ago, Bangkok had many river tributaries and canals until it was known as "Venice of the East." As modernization steps in during the past 30 years, more and more roads were built with the sacrifice of these canals. Small and mega-buildings replaced the rice paddy fields and agricultural farms. However, Bangkok still retains its charm by portraying the combination of old and new and is one of the most attractive cities to visit.”
At One-Stop Bangkok, the essay states: “The bigger size of Buddha statues can also be seen in every temple in Thailand. Bangkok boasts many exquisite temples which are regularly visited by pious Buddhists on special religious occasions. The most famous one is the Temple of Emerald Buddha (Wat Phra Kaew), situated within the Grand Palace. The emerald Buddha acts as a sacred symbol of the Rattanakosin. Thai people always go to the temples to offer food, candles, incense sticks and lotus flowers to the Buddha statues and also give money to make merit to the temple and monks. Some also receive blessings from the monks which they believe will bring good fortune and prosperity.”
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Copyright March, 2011, by And Then Some Publishing, LLC.
At the end of essay one on Bangkok, my wife and I were touring “high-end” stores so our tuk-tuk driver could get “gas coupons.” When our tuk-tuk tour ended, we gave our driver 60 bahts rather than the 40 negotiated at the beginning of our trip. Still, at 60 bahts for over 1 1/2-hours of travel, the cost in U.S. dollars was less than $2.00 (about $1.86 to be exact).
Back at the Grand Palace (once the official home for the Kings of Siam), which was our original destination when we left the Four Season’s Hotel in the morning, our intent was to see the Emerald Buddha located within the Palace walls. I’m not quite sure why our focus was on seeing a wide variety of Buddhas; however, that was what was happening.
The admission price to the Grand Palace and museum was about $10.00 U.S. (350 baht), but we discovered, in retrospect, that it was well worth the price. We shortened our self-guided tour, however, because of the excessive heat and humidity. There was bright sunshine, and in walking the grounds of the Grand Palace, we were continually in search of shade.
An Internet essay, “History of the Emerald Buddha,” offers a short explanation of the Emerald Buddha which we heard repeated several times by tour guides we overheard at the Palace: “According to reliable chronicles, lightning struck a Chedi in Chiangrai province of Northern Thailand in 1434 A.D.and a Buddha statue made of stucco was found inside. The abbot of the temple noticed that the stucco on the nose had flaked off and the image inside was a green color. He then removed the stucco covering and found the Emerald Buddha which is in reality made of green jade.” The explanation we heard for the stucco covering was to protect it. It was applied by people who knew the stucco would be unattractive to uninvited plunderers whereas the green jade would be stolen at once. The Emerald Buddha stands less than 18-inches tall.
To get to the Reclining Buddha (Wat Pho) — our next Buddhist destination — which was located next to the Grand Palace, we had to walk around half of the large, walled enclosure, but, fortunately, we walked in shade under trees and vendor umbrellas. There were at least 100 sidewalk vendors along the route from the Palace to Wat Pho. “The word “Wat” means “place of worship.” We moved rapidly among the locals, and there was never fear nor anxiety, even though we saw no other tourists and no other Caucasians during this long walk in the heat and humidity.
Also, just before getting to Wat Pho and the Reclining Buddha, we walked to the edge of Chao Phraya River which flows through the heart of Bangkok. At the website, Virtual Tourist, it says this about the River: “[The] Chao Phraya River plays a main role [in] Thai life. Some of [Thai] history can be traced within [its] sprawling river banks. [There are] Old Temples, palaces, and [many] communities . . . along the river.”
Beside the river and looking out over it, we found the S & P Restaurant where we “enjoyed” a spicy cream/chicken/artichoke soup that I ate with tears coming to my eyes. My wife had a spicy tomato/beef/curry soup that was not as spicy, but spicy enough! Traditional Thai food is very spicy, and locals tend to use white rice to mute the intensity. I used all of the white rice we were provided — both mine and my wife’s!
Although we had many opportunities to eat from sidewalk vendors or in numerous local restaurants (especially in a “Food Park” at a mall close to our hotel, we ate all our breakfasts (3 total) in our hotel room with locally purchased bakery items), and we had entirely “safe” food (also cheap!) at a McDonald’s and a KFC. (You can find many of the well-known, fast-food, brand name restaurants in Bangkok such as KFC, Burger King, Dunking Donuts, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Dairy Queen, Starbucks, A&W and so on. (YUM! Restaurants, Inc., [owner of KFC] operates over 32,500 restaurants in more than 100 countries and territories in the world.)
Getting back to our walk from the Grand Palace to Wat Pho, you may wonder why we wanted to see the Reclining Buddha? At the website, “Into Asia” there is a description of it: “The highly impressive gold plated reclining Buddha is 46 meters long [151 feet] and 15 meters high [49 feet], and is designed to illustrate the passing of the Buddha into nirvana. The feet and the eyes are engraved with mother-of-pearl decoration, and the feet also show the 108 auspicious characteristics of the true Buddha.” If you ever think you’ve seen enough Buddhas, or that you’ve seen them all (there are over 1,000 images of Buddha in Wat Pho alone!), and you’ve missed the Reclining Buddha, you have missed a remarkable sight.
After our 2 ½ days in greater Bangkok, we were ready to head to Laem Chabang (the port that is two hours away, board our ship (the Diamond Princess), and begin traveling to Singapore (with over 2,600 others). The words “greater Bangkok” are important. According to the very short essay,“Thai Traditional Ways of Life in Bangkok” the writer claims we never saw “the real Bangkok.” “Bangkok is very much grounded in modernity,” the writer says. “It is a fast and furious city of business and commerce with a pace equal to that of any capital in the world. Despite this, Thailand’s capital also has a quieter, gentler side. The real Bangkok can be found in the backstreets and ‘Sois’ (small roads) where people live in communities that have not changed much over the years.
Obviously, getting out of the city centre is the best way to find Bangkok’s traditional way of life, but even in the centre a short walk away from tourism and business areas will find people sitting in the street, eating, chatting, listening to music and enjoying Thailand’s clement evening weather.” The point the writer is making is simple: There are even contrasts that those who visit Bangkok will miss if they don’t get out of the city center.
Despite not getting out of the city, however, we noticed the contrast between the traditional and the modern. For us, one of the best symbols of this contrast was seeing one of the women sidewalk vendors toting her wares in bamboo woven baskets, attached to a bamboo pole, carried over her shoulders, then selling her wares on the sidewalk beneath a large, modern, skyscraper. Where else in the world but Bangkok?
-----
At this tourist website, there is a brief history of Bangkok. I found the following paragraph the most interesting one in this essay: “A century ago, Bangkok had many river tributaries and canals until it was known as "Venice of the East." As modernization steps in during the past 30 years, more and more roads were built with the sacrifice of these canals. Small and mega-buildings replaced the rice paddy fields and agricultural farms. However, Bangkok still retains its charm by portraying the combination of old and new and is one of the most attractive cities to visit.”
At One-Stop Bangkok, the essay states: “The bigger size of Buddha statues can also be seen in every temple in Thailand. Bangkok boasts many exquisite temples which are regularly visited by pious Buddhists on special religious occasions. The most famous one is the Temple of Emerald Buddha (Wat Phra Kaew), situated within the Grand Palace. The emerald Buddha acts as a sacred symbol of the Rattanakosin. Thai people always go to the temples to offer food, candles, incense sticks and lotus flowers to the Buddha statues and also give money to make merit to the temple and monks. Some also receive blessings from the monks which they believe will bring good fortune and prosperity.”
-----
Copyright March, 2011, by And Then Some Publishing, LLC.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Day #244 - Build your self-confidence.
SMOERs: Words of Wisdom
"Don't wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles, and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident, and more and more successful." --Mark Victor Hansen
Day #244 - Build your self-confidence.
"Don't wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles, and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident, and more and more successful." --Mark Victor Hansen
Day #244 - Build your self-confidence.
SMOERs: Self-Motivation, Optimism, Encouragement Rules! - Daily Reminders for Outstanding Living
An everyday guide full of quotations to uplift your spirits. This is one of four motivational quotations for Day #244.
Free 30-Day sample: smoers.com
An everyday guide full of quotations to uplift your spirits. This is one of four motivational quotations for Day #244.
Free 30-Day sample: smoers.com
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
And Then Some News
Thursday's Essay Preview
This is the fourth of 17 essays that cover our Southeast Asia cruise (March, 2010). The first two paragraphs of the fourth essay read as follows: "At the end of essay one on Bangkok, my wife and I were touring “high-end” stores so our tuk-tuk driver could get 'gas coupons.' When our tuk-tuk tour ended, we gave our driver 60 bahts rather than the 40 negotiated at the beginning of our trip. Still, at 60 bahts for over 1 1/2-hours of travel, the cost in U.S. dollars was less than $2.00 (about $1.86 to be exact).
"Back at the Grand Palace (once the official home for the Kings of Siam), which was our original destination when we left the Four Season’s Hotel in the morning, our intent was to see the Emerald Buddha located within the Palace walls. I’m not quite sure why our focus was on seeing a wide variety of Buddhas; however, that was what was happening."
Thursday's Essay Excerpt - from the last paragraph of the essay
Despite not getting out of the city, however, we noticed the contrast between the traditional and the modern. For us, one of the best symbols of this contrast was seeing one of the women sidewalk vendors toting her wares in bamboo woven baskets, attached to a bamboo pole, carried over her shoulders, then selling her wares on the sidewalk beneath a large, modern, skyscraper. Where else in the world but Bangkok?
And Then Some News
Monday, March 21, 2011
Unfinished business: One man’s extraordinary year of trying to do the right things
By Lee Kravitz
http://www.amazon.com/Unfinished-Business-Extraordinary-Trying-Things/product-reviews/1596916753/ref=cm_cr_dp_all_helpful?ie=UTF8&coliid=&showViewpoints=1&colid=&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending
Book review by Richard L. Weaver II, Ph.D.
The plot is a simple one. Kravitz was fired from a high-profile job. Instead of trying to find a new job, he took a year off to re-connect with the people who mattered most to him in his life — those he had not spent time with or cared much about as he rose in the ranks and devoted his time to his job.
If you’re looking for a moral, it, too, is a simple one. We all have unfinished business in our lives. That unfinished business tends to weigh us down, burden us with guilt, and hold us back. Clearing up that unfinished business frees us, unburdens us, and as S. Lipson, a reviewer wrote: “. . . release[s us]] of regret and stress.” That “thankfulness, love, [and] admiration,” this reviewer says, adds “deeper meaning and understanding of . . . friends and family,” and, too, “[enhances one’s] character, personality, and spirituality.” I thought these were very good insights.
Another reviewer at Amazon.com, Tiela A. Garnett, wrote a very short five-star review:
“A wonderful, entertaining book, written from the heart, about one man's courageous and loving path to tying up the loose ends of his life. An inspiring story and a good read.”
David Casker, of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, wrote a review with which I totally agree as well: “Most of us in one way or another try to ‘do the right things’ in our lives. But we often become too busy, too distracted, too willing to procrastinate, too willing to accede to the increasingly intrusive demands of employers. In ‘...unfinished business...’ we have a very personal journal of one man's delightful, moving and healing reaction to being fired from his job [at Parade Magazine]. He turned what could have been no more than a very sour jolt in life into, in a sense, a journey into his past, to see if he could still make up for slights and omissions.
Anyone trying to live a spiritual life will soon discover that the most personal is the most universal. And Mr. Kravitz has struck just the right chord between autobiography and reflection on one's life, spiritual growth and the inextricable connections with have with others whose lives have touched ours and vice versa.
An insightful but also entertaining exploration of how really GOOD it is not to let our basic humanity be co-opted, and when we do, how GREAT it is to work up the courage to make amends. Highly recommended.”
It’s a 209-page book and the ten stories are interesting and engaging.
This book is available at Amazon.com: Unfinished business: One man’s extraordinary year of trying to do the right things
http://www.amazon.com/Unfinished-Business-Extraordinary-Trying-Things/product-reviews/1596916753/ref=cm_cr_dp_all_helpful?ie=UTF8&coliid=&showViewpoints=1&colid=&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending
Book review by Richard L. Weaver II, Ph.D.
The plot is a simple one. Kravitz was fired from a high-profile job. Instead of trying to find a new job, he took a year off to re-connect with the people who mattered most to him in his life — those he had not spent time with or cared much about as he rose in the ranks and devoted his time to his job.
If you’re looking for a moral, it, too, is a simple one. We all have unfinished business in our lives. That unfinished business tends to weigh us down, burden us with guilt, and hold us back. Clearing up that unfinished business frees us, unburdens us, and as S. Lipson, a reviewer wrote: “. . . release[s us]] of regret and stress.” That “thankfulness, love, [and] admiration,” this reviewer says, adds “deeper meaning and understanding of . . . friends and family,” and, too, “[enhances one’s] character, personality, and spirituality.” I thought these were very good insights.
Another reviewer at Amazon.com, Tiela A. Garnett, wrote a very short five-star review:
“A wonderful, entertaining book, written from the heart, about one man's courageous and loving path to tying up the loose ends of his life. An inspiring story and a good read.”
David Casker, of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, wrote a review with which I totally agree as well: “Most of us in one way or another try to ‘do the right things’ in our lives. But we often become too busy, too distracted, too willing to procrastinate, too willing to accede to the increasingly intrusive demands of employers. In ‘...unfinished business...’ we have a very personal journal of one man's delightful, moving and healing reaction to being fired from his job [at Parade Magazine]. He turned what could have been no more than a very sour jolt in life into, in a sense, a journey into his past, to see if he could still make up for slights and omissions.
Anyone trying to live a spiritual life will soon discover that the most personal is the most universal. And Mr. Kravitz has struck just the right chord between autobiography and reflection on one's life, spiritual growth and the inextricable connections with have with others whose lives have touched ours and vice versa.
An insightful but also entertaining exploration of how really GOOD it is not to let our basic humanity be co-opted, and when we do, how GREAT it is to work up the courage to make amends. Highly recommended.”
It’s a 209-page book and the ten stories are interesting and engaging.
This book is available at Amazon.com: Unfinished business: One man’s extraordinary year of trying to do the right things
Friday, March 18, 2011
LAUGH . . . And Then Some
A very depressed man walks into a bar. He sits down on a stool and orders a triple scotch. He quickly downs his drink and orders another. The bartender, seeing the man is in some distress, asks if he is all right. The man replies, "I just came home early from work and found my wife in bed with my best friend. I told her to pack her bags and go, it's finished between us."
The bartender said, "What about your friend?"
The man replied, "I looked him straight in the eye and said . . . BAD DOG!"
From Day #180 in a complete manuscript compiled by Richard L. Weaver II
The bartender said, "What about your friend?"
The man replied, "I looked him straight in the eye and said . . . BAD DOG!"
Laugh Like There's No Tomorrow: Over 2,000 jokes from the Internet
From Day #180 in a complete manuscript compiled by Richard L. Weaver II
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Bangkok: Big City of Contrasts I
by Richard L. Weaver II, Ph.D.
It was dark when we landed at the airport, and we could see little (or nothing) during the shuttle ride from the airport to our hotel just outside the main areas of most interest (e.g., the Old City, China Town, and sights along the Chao Phraya River). After a 21-hour, 36-minute (total) series of flights (3 different aircraft) — 3 legs (Detroit-Chicago, Chicago-Tokyo, and Tokyo-Bangkok) — we were dead tired and ready to check in to our Princess-cruise arranged, Four Seasons’ Hotel, which we did around 2:00 a.m. We slept in until 9:30 a.m. the following day.
Although we were still a bit sluggish from our long trip yesterday and the day before (we lost a day in transit), we decided to spend the first half day staying fairly close to the hotel. Out on the street walking, openly using our maps for direction, and looking unclear and confused, crossing the street at the first light after leaving our hotel, a woman asked if she could help us.
We didn’t know there was a hospital on this corner where we were standing, and this helpful woman was the wife of a physician, and she was just going to meet her husband for lunch. She had a great deal of information to share, and when she heard of where we wanted to go (the Gem and Jewelry Trade Center), she recommended it. (I wrote about her and professor Chanchai in a previous essay, “Orchestrating a Sale,” so I won’t repeat it here, except to say, this was our opening experience in Bangkok. Although Bangkok was quite a contrast to anything we had previously experienced, meeting a woman fluent in English and so anxious to help us was really a sensational introduction — like being welcomed by a warm, friendly greeter into a department store in a new city.
Getting to the Trade Center we used a tuk-tuk. One website writes this about the tuk-tuk: “So named because of the sound of their engine, these are motorized rickshaws and are popular amongst tourists for their novelty value. They are occasionally faster than taxis in heavy traffic as weaving in and out is easier, but generally about the same or slower.” The website, “Into Asia” writing about tuk-tuks, also says, “they expose passengers to the high pollution levels in the middle of Bangkok's roads and offer almost no protection in case of an accident.” Despite these drawbacks, and having had the experience ourselves, any adventurous traveler to Bangkok should take a ride in a tuk-tuk.
Why should tourists take a tuk-tuk ride? First, it places you down among the locals because, with the exception of the small motorcycles and scooters, it is a common and heavily used form of transportation. Second, it offers a real look — through immersion — at the traffic congestion of which this big city is characterized. Third, you see how much the pulse of the city depends on local sidewalk vendors for you travel through sections where these vendors form the side rails of the city streets. You see the fruit and vegetable vendors, smell the charcoal grills cooking kabobs and small pieces of chicken, and absorb the pungent odors of deep fryers cooking chicken, pork, and fish. Fourth, you get — first hand — the rich mix of odors that make up the material substance and grittiness of this big, active, thriving city. Sure, there is the exhaust of the buses, trucks, and tuk-tuks, the acrid smoke from burning incense and cigarettes, the smoldering charcoal grills and deep fryers, but this is the rich, thick, penetrating flavor of this big-city’s life.
It was our second day in Bangkok when we experienced even more of the grit and texture of the city. In a metered taxi secured at the hotel, we traveled to the Grand Palace, through China Town and parts of the Old City. In China Town, there were small, open-front shops selling flashy (brilliant gold) Buddhist statues (—there is a Buddhist shrine, temple, or symbol on many street corners and 95% of Thai people are Buddhist ---), food, clothing, bolts of fabric, shoes, sandals, and all kinds of merchandise. Once again, it was as if the street was the center thoroughfare of an active and thriving bee hive with worker bees moving here and there all with purpose and a destination — except for the shop owners who sat just outside their shops drawing deeply, one after another, on their Thai cigarettes
When we arrived at the Grand Palace we were told we couldn’t see the Emerald Buddha until after noon, and because we had over an hour a fellow who could speak some English sent us to see the White Stone Buddha (located in a small monastery), then a Happy Buddha, in yet another Buddhist temple.
One thing you can say about Buddhists, and you can say it without reservation and based solely on a limited experience in a Buddhist country, the temples and houses of worship, statues, and other testaments of faith, tend to be ornate, flashy (often adorned with small pieces of mirror or bright colored tiles (usually orange, red, green, and blue). Their religious buildings and pagodas and other houses of worship are, too, ornate, with fancy, often gilded, roof extensions that bend upward to give the feeling of flight or lightness.
As we were driving by bus from Bangkok to Laem Chabang, the port closest to Bangkok, we could easily spot temples throughout the small villages.
It may reflect my limited travel experience or lack of traveling expertise, but the “gas coupon” situation was new. When we negotiated the 40-baht (about $1.25 U.S.) tuk-tuk ride (for more than 1 ½ hours), from the Grand Palace to see the White Stone and Happy Buddhas, we had no idea what we bargained for. 40 bahts was extremely cheap for both the time and distance we traveled, but there’s a catch. Because of previous agreements, numerous “high end” stores give tuk-tuk drivers gas coupons for bringing their customers to their stores.
As we entered the first of these “high end” stores, we were told by our tuk-tuk driver we had to remain for 15 minutes in a store for him to receive his coupon. When we entered the store, we were asked by an attractive hostess if we wanted a free beverage from a bar, before being ushered into a sales area. (Having encountered — endured — a similar sales situation the previous day, we refused the drink, left the establishment, and denied our tuk-tuk driver a coupon.) In the next two stores, we asked how long we needed to stay for him to get his coupon, kept close tabs on our watch, and we immediately left when we could — in just five or ten minutes.
This essay will be continued in a second essay on Bangkok — which was not planned when the original essay was written. Looking back on our entire Southeast Asia trip, both my wife and I agreed that Bangkok was our favorite city of the nine we visited. Perhaps, this is the influence of first impressions; however, it could have been our freedom (and time) to explore the city on our own, the experiences we had there, the friendly and helpful people we met, or, as I most suspect, it could have been the exciting, interesting, and obvious contrasts this big city offered.
-----
At Lonely Planet, there is a wonderful paragraph which support my essay, “Big City of Contrasts”: “Of the famous and infamous attractions, Bangkok’s best feature is its intermingling of opposites. A modern world of affluence orbits around a serene traditional core. Step outside the four-star hotels into a typical Siamese village where taxi drivers knock back energy drinks and upcountry transplants grill chicken on a streetside barbecue. Hop the Skytrain to the glitzy shopping malls where trust-fund babies examine luxury brands as carefully as the housewives inspect produce at the open-air markets. Or appreciate the attempts at enlightenment at the city’s famous temples and doorstep shrines, or simple acts of kindness amid the urban bustle.”
“Buddhism in Thailand: Its Past and Its Present,” is an essay by Karuna Kusalasaya that includes this comment: “Thailand is perhaps the only country in the world where the king is constitutionally stipulated to be a Buddhist and the upholder of the Faith. For centuries Buddhism has established itself in Thailand and has enriched the lives of the Thais in all their aspects. Indeed, without Buddhism, Thailand would not be what it is today.”
-----
Copyright March, 2011, by And Then Some Publishing, LLC
It was dark when we landed at the airport, and we could see little (or nothing) during the shuttle ride from the airport to our hotel just outside the main areas of most interest (e.g., the Old City, China Town, and sights along the Chao Phraya River). After a 21-hour, 36-minute (total) series of flights (3 different aircraft) — 3 legs (Detroit-Chicago, Chicago-Tokyo, and Tokyo-Bangkok) — we were dead tired and ready to check in to our Princess-cruise arranged, Four Seasons’ Hotel, which we did around 2:00 a.m. We slept in until 9:30 a.m. the following day.
Although we were still a bit sluggish from our long trip yesterday and the day before (we lost a day in transit), we decided to spend the first half day staying fairly close to the hotel. Out on the street walking, openly using our maps for direction, and looking unclear and confused, crossing the street at the first light after leaving our hotel, a woman asked if she could help us.
We didn’t know there was a hospital on this corner where we were standing, and this helpful woman was the wife of a physician, and she was just going to meet her husband for lunch. She had a great deal of information to share, and when she heard of where we wanted to go (the Gem and Jewelry Trade Center), she recommended it. (I wrote about her and professor Chanchai in a previous essay, “Orchestrating a Sale,” so I won’t repeat it here, except to say, this was our opening experience in Bangkok. Although Bangkok was quite a contrast to anything we had previously experienced, meeting a woman fluent in English and so anxious to help us was really a sensational introduction — like being welcomed by a warm, friendly greeter into a department store in a new city.
Getting to the Trade Center we used a tuk-tuk. One website writes this about the tuk-tuk: “So named because of the sound of their engine, these are motorized rickshaws and are popular amongst tourists for their novelty value. They are occasionally faster than taxis in heavy traffic as weaving in and out is easier, but generally about the same or slower.” The website, “Into Asia”
Why should tourists take a tuk-tuk ride? First, it places you down among the locals because, with the exception of the small motorcycles and scooters, it is a common and heavily used form of transportation. Second, it offers a real look — through immersion — at the traffic congestion of which this big city is characterized. Third, you see how much the pulse of the city depends on local sidewalk vendors for you travel through sections where these vendors form the side rails of the city streets. You see the fruit and vegetable vendors, smell the charcoal grills cooking kabobs and small pieces of chicken, and absorb the pungent odors of deep fryers cooking chicken, pork, and fish. Fourth, you get — first hand — the rich mix of odors that make up the material substance and grittiness of this big, active, thriving city. Sure, there is the exhaust of the buses, trucks, and tuk-tuks, the acrid smoke from burning incense and cigarettes, the smoldering charcoal grills and deep fryers, but this is the rich, thick, penetrating flavor of this big-city’s life.
It was our second day in Bangkok when we experienced even more of the grit and texture of the city. In a metered taxi secured at the hotel, we traveled to the Grand Palace, through China Town and parts of the Old City. In China Town, there were small, open-front shops selling flashy (brilliant gold) Buddhist statues (—there is a Buddhist shrine, temple, or symbol on many street corners and 95% of Thai people are Buddhist ---), food, clothing, bolts of fabric, shoes, sandals, and all kinds of merchandise. Once again, it was as if the street was the center thoroughfare of an active and thriving bee hive with worker bees moving here and there all with purpose and a destination — except for the shop owners who sat just outside their shops drawing deeply, one after another, on their Thai cigarettes
When we arrived at the Grand Palace we were told we couldn’t see the Emerald Buddha until after noon, and because we had over an hour a fellow who could speak some English sent us to see the White Stone Buddha (located in a small monastery), then a Happy Buddha, in yet another Buddhist temple.
One thing you can say about Buddhists, and you can say it without reservation and based solely on a limited experience in a Buddhist country, the temples and houses of worship, statues, and other testaments of faith, tend to be ornate, flashy (often adorned with small pieces of mirror or bright colored tiles (usually orange, red, green, and blue). Their religious buildings and pagodas and other houses of worship are, too, ornate, with fancy, often gilded, roof extensions that bend upward to give the feeling of flight or lightness.
As we were driving by bus from Bangkok to Laem Chabang, the port closest to Bangkok, we could easily spot temples throughout the small villages.
It may reflect my limited travel experience or lack of traveling expertise, but the “gas coupon” situation was new. When we negotiated the 40-baht (about $1.25 U.S.) tuk-tuk ride (for more than 1 ½ hours), from the Grand Palace to see the White Stone and Happy Buddhas, we had no idea what we bargained for. 40 bahts was extremely cheap for both the time and distance we traveled, but there’s a catch. Because of previous agreements, numerous “high end” stores give tuk-tuk drivers gas coupons for bringing their customers to their stores.
As we entered the first of these “high end” stores, we were told by our tuk-tuk driver we had to remain for 15 minutes in a store for him to receive his coupon. When we entered the store, we were asked by an attractive hostess if we wanted a free beverage from a bar, before being ushered into a sales area. (Having encountered — endured — a similar sales situation the previous day, we refused the drink, left the establishment, and denied our tuk-tuk driver a coupon.) In the next two stores, we asked how long we needed to stay for him to get his coupon, kept close tabs on our watch, and we immediately left when we could — in just five or ten minutes.
This essay will be continued in a second essay on Bangkok — which was not planned when the original essay was written. Looking back on our entire Southeast Asia trip, both my wife and I agreed that Bangkok was our favorite city of the nine we visited. Perhaps, this is the influence of first impressions; however, it could have been our freedom (and time) to explore the city on our own, the experiences we had there, the friendly and helpful people we met, or, as I most suspect, it could have been the exciting, interesting, and obvious contrasts this big city offered.
-----
At Lonely Planet
“Buddhism in Thailand: Its Past and Its Present,”
-----
Copyright March, 2011, by And Then Some Publishing, LLC
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Day #243 - Take a chance.
SMOERs: Words of Wisdom
"Certainly it's a risk or gamble, but when you venture and win, the benefit to your ego and your willingness to take a similar or slightly greater risk or gamble a second time, increases out of all proportion to the chance that you took in the beginning." --Richard L. Weaver II
Day #243 - Take a chance.
"Certainly it's a risk or gamble, but when you venture and win, the benefit to your ego and your willingness to take a similar or slightly greater risk or gamble a second time, increases out of all proportion to the chance that you took in the beginning." --Richard L. Weaver II
Day #243 - Take a chance.
SMOERs: Self-Motivation, Optimism, Encouragement Rules! - Daily Reminders for Outstanding Living
An everyday guide full of quotations to uplift your spirits. This is one of six motivational quotations for Day #243.
Free 30-Day sample: smoers.com
An everyday guide full of quotations to uplift your spirits. This is one of six motivational quotations for Day #243.
Free 30-Day sample: smoers.com
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
And Then Some News
Thursday's Essay Preview
This is the third of 17 essays that cover our Southeast Asia cruise (March, 2010). The first paragraph of the third essay reads as follows: "It was dark when we landed at the airport, and we could see little (or nothing) during the shuttle ride from the airport to our hotel just outside the main areas of most interest (e.g., the Old City, China Town, and sights along the Chao Phraya River). After a 21-hour, 36-minute (total) series of flights (3 different aircraft) — 3 legs (Detroit-Chicago, Chicago-Tokyo, and Tokyo-Bangkok) — we were dead tired and ready to check in to our Princess-cruise arranged, Four Seasons’ Hotel, which we did around 2:00 a.m. We slept in until 9:30 a.m. the following day."
Thursday's Essay Excerpt - from the last paragraph of the essay
This essay will be continued in a second essay on Bangkok — which was not planned when the original essay was written. Looking back on our entire Southeast Asia trip, both my wife and I agreed that Bangkok was our favorite city of the nine we visited. Perhaps, this is the influence of first impressions; however, it could have been our freedom (and time) to explore the city on our own, the experiences we had there, the friendly and helpful people we met, or, as I most suspect, it could have been the exciting, interesting, and obvious contrasts this big city offered.
And Then Some News
Monday, March 14, 2011
The mom & pop store: How the unsung heroes of the American economy are surviving and thriving
By Robert Spector
http://www.amazon.com/Mom-Pop-Store-American-Surviving/dp/0802716059/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1276093014&sr=1-1
Book review by Richard L. Weaver II, Ph.D.
Let me begin by telling you what this book is not. First, it is not a history nor a background study of mom and pop stores. One reviewer at Amazon.com commented on precisely this aspect: “If you're looking for a book to give you some background, data and understanding of small businesses, how they operate and how they fit in and affect the US economy, unfortunately this is not it. It will not tell you, as its title suggests, how mom & pops are ‘surviving and thriving.’”
Second, it is not at all concise. Rather, it rambles a bit.
Third, it is not the least bit analytical. He has no interest in writing a rational, logical, or organized approach to the topic. He has, instead, put together a love story (or love stories) that reveal the passion, creativity, and tenacity small business owners demonstrate — in the Studs Terkel tradition — in order to survive.
One reviewer at Amazon.com, A. Westerman, writes, “Robert Spector has written a homage to the small, family-owned business -- the type rooted in the American psyche and as iconic as a Norman Rockwell illustration. Spector hopes to combat the notion that the family store is, much like The Saturday Evening Post, fading from the contemporary scene.
“The book, part memoir of the author's childhood at the family butchershop, part tribute to others family-owned businesses, Spector seeks to make the case that family shops aren't leaving the retail landscape. He does this with varying degrees of success: the profiles of business owners and their family members are heart-warming and interesting, but he also makes claims that are not supported by evidence. I can't say he's wrong when he talks about the unique characteristics family-owned businesses, such as old-fashioned values of hard work and community. Yet he doesn't have any other evidence but anecdotes to support him.”
This 291-page book includes five pages of notes, two-and-one-half pages of “selected bibliography,” and a 12-page index. However, the book is a series of stories (including his own at the family’s butcher shop in Perth Amboy, New Jersey) — anecdotal in nature — that tends to meander (a bit) as he pieces together a portrait of mom and pop stores in the U.S. today. I found it somewhat interesting but tedious.
This book is available at Amazon.com: The mom & pop store: How the unsung heroes of the American economy are surviving and thriving
http://www.amazon.com/Mom-Pop-Store-American-Surviving/dp/0802716059/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1276093014&sr=1-1
Book review by Richard L. Weaver II, Ph.D.
Let me begin by telling you what this book is not. First, it is not a history nor a background study of mom and pop stores. One reviewer at Amazon.com commented on precisely this aspect: “If you're looking for a book to give you some background, data and understanding of small businesses, how they operate and how they fit in and affect the US economy, unfortunately this is not it. It will not tell you, as its title suggests, how mom & pops are ‘surviving and thriving.’”
Second, it is not at all concise. Rather, it rambles a bit.
Third, it is not the least bit analytical. He has no interest in writing a rational, logical, or organized approach to the topic. He has, instead, put together a love story (or love stories) that reveal the passion, creativity, and tenacity small business owners demonstrate — in the Studs Terkel tradition — in order to survive.
One reviewer at Amazon.com, A. Westerman, writes, “Robert Spector has written a homage to the small, family-owned business -- the type rooted in the American psyche and as iconic as a Norman Rockwell illustration. Spector hopes to combat the notion that the family store is, much like The Saturday Evening Post, fading from the contemporary scene.
“The book, part memoir of the author's childhood at the family butchershop, part tribute to others family-owned businesses, Spector seeks to make the case that family shops aren't leaving the retail landscape. He does this with varying degrees of success: the profiles of business owners and their family members are heart-warming and interesting, but he also makes claims that are not supported by evidence. I can't say he's wrong when he talks about the unique characteristics family-owned businesses, such as old-fashioned values of hard work and community. Yet he doesn't have any other evidence but anecdotes to support him.”
This 291-page book includes five pages of notes, two-and-one-half pages of “selected bibliography,” and a 12-page index. However, the book is a series of stories (including his own at the family’s butcher shop in Perth Amboy, New Jersey) — anecdotal in nature — that tends to meander (a bit) as he pieces together a portrait of mom and pop stores in the U.S. today. I found it somewhat interesting but tedious.
This book is available at Amazon.com: The mom & pop store: How the unsung heroes of the American economy are surviving and thriving
Friday, March 11, 2011
LAUGH . . . And Then Some
Saint Peter was manning the Pearly Gates when forty people from Detroit showed up.
Never having seen anyone from Detroit at heaven's door, Saint Peter said he would have to check with God.
After hearing the news, God instructed him to admit the ten most virtuous people from the group.
A few minutes later, St. Peter returned to God, breathless, and said, "They're gone!"
"What? All of the Detroiters are gone?" asked God.
"No!" replied Saint Peter. "The Pearly Gates!"
Laugh Like There's No Tomorrow: Over 2,000 jokes from the Internet
From Day #189 in a complete manuscript compiled by Richard L. Weaver II
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Proud to be an American
by Richard L. Weaver II, Ph.D.
Just for the fun of it, I pulled out a 20 Chinese Yuen at a cash register in a local store, and because I had just returned home from China, I told the cashier where I got the money, and she said, “You know, I’ve never had any desire to leave this country.” I responded saying, “It is a positive experience, and it makes you proud to be an American.”
Of course, I didn’t have the time to explain my statement, but what I said to the clerk made me stop and think about it. How does it make me proud to be an American?
There are three caveats regarding my comments. First, they are based on my personal perspective only. Second, they are generally based on this one experience abroad, even though I have traveled around the world, lived in Pakistan for fourteen-and-a-half months, and taught at several universities in Australia. Third, they are generalizations. They capture my feelings at this moment, within a week of my return from twenty-three days abroad.
Also, I must mention the reference base for my observations. Perrysburg, Ohio, where I have lived for more than 35 years, is a suburb of Toledo, Ohio. It is a small town where most residents are educated, literate, well-informed, and either middle or upper class.
On the 16-day cruise, my wife and I visited nine large Asian cities: Bangkok, Thailand, Singapore, Saigon and Nha Trang, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taipai, Taiwan, Okinawa, Japan, and Shanghai and Beijing, China. Although each of these cities has qualities similar to the others, each has a unique and distinct quality all its own, and in the observations that follow, I do not want to suggest that I am grouping these cities or considering them a single entity. Grouping them is unfair. For example, there is a radical difference between all of these cities and Saigon. Singapore, too, offers a situation that is radically different from all of the others. (I have written separate essays on my experiences in each of these nine cities, and they are published elsewhere.)
Why am I proud to be an American? There is no question (in my mind) that travel abroad makes you proud to be an American, because with no experiences outside of our country, it is hard to appreciate what it is that makes us special—special enough to make me want to write about it.
The first element that makes me proud to be an American is that I can go almost anywhere in the U.S. and know that I can drink the water. I cannot believe, for example, that in Beijing, the capitol of China, where over 15 million people live, you cannot drink the water. Anywhere! The residents boil their water before drinking it, and many depend on bottled water. Even in the luxurious hotels, bottled water is provided, and you are warned not to drink it from the tap.
The second element that makes me proud to be an American is that I can go almost anywhere in the U.S., and there is little or no pollution. Of course our large cities suffer from pollution problems, but the nine cities I visited each has serious pollution problems. In Hong Kong, we never had a day when we could clearly see all the buildings. Every one of the cities we visited have heavy pollution, and Beijing (once again) is the worst polluted city in the world. Often, as you drive from the dock area into the city, you can see the cloud of smog that envelopes the city. As we approached Istanbul, a couple of years ago, the gray-yellow mass that hung over the city was obvious, thick, and covered the city like a large, dirty comforter.
The third element is litter, dirt, and poverty. I don’t want to suggest we don’t have areas of our country that are affected by litter, dirt, and poverty, but I have never seen as much of each in one place as I saw when traveling from the dock (Phu My) into Saigon. There are unlikely to be many places in the U.S. where residents use the side of the road as a dump, where residents (millions of them) live from hand-to-mouth on a daily basis, where the air is filled with swirling dust, dirt, and exhaust emissions, and where small open-front stores selling all kinds of goods, including fruit, vegetables, and other foods—and even restaurants—cannot help but be contaminated by the dirt, litter, and pollution.
In addition to Vietnam, nations such as Cambodia, Laos, Burma, and East Timor rank near the bottom of global development lists. Across Southeast Asia, more than 1 billion people live on less than $2.00 U.S. per day.
The fourth element—and this could, and perhaps should, be listed first—is our freedom. In Taiwan, we were told by our tour guide, Jan de Vries, that the people cannot own land. All the land is owned by the government, and people can only rent it. In Singapore, it is against the law to chew gum in public—and the law in this pristine, litter-free place is enforced ruthlessly. In Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Beijing, the media is owned by the government, and although things are more open today than ten or twenty years ago, free speech is limited, and there is no open political debate or discussion. If you think what you see is democracy because it looks free and open, think again: it isn’t. A political junkie like myself who enjoys the free and open discussion of politics and relishes the controversy displayed in the media would go nuts in these countries—and maybe be imprisoned.
As the fifth element (and beyond), I want to group a number of things that I observed that make me proud to be an American. I like our malls and shopping centers for their cleanliness and fixed prices; I have experienced enough dirty markets and bazaars where there are no fixed prices, where you must bargain for everything, and where hawkers grab at you, yell at you, and try to pull you into their shops. I like speaking English and enjoy interacting with people who at the very least have English as a second or third language. Although I enjoy seeing street vendors, they are rampant in Bangkok, and the local people depend on them for food and snacks. Their stalls, stands, or carts are generally dirty and poorly maintained. In the U.S. they would be banned as a health hazard. I like our sanitation and health standards. Although not always maintained as well as they could be, I love our interstates, highways, and roads. The roads in Saigon are horrendous, and the streets within most of these large cities were never constructed for the amount of traffic they bear. It is overwhelming, and in Bangkok and Saigon, motor cycles and scooters are preferred, and few drivers respect the rights of pedestrians—anywhere.
My list could go on to mention 5,000-year-old traditions and beliefs, populations density, societies that depend on class consciousness, or the garishness of religious symbols, but I want to add a final note. We enjoy traveling widely, and our trip to Southeast Asia was no exception. Just because I observed differences between cultures, does not mean I disliked anything I observed. It comes back to the old cliche: “Nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there.” “While no nation is greater than another,” one writer on the Internet said when I Googled, “Proud to be an American,” “and no nationality is superior to another, I am happy to be among those who call the United States their home.” .My conclusion is simple: “It sure makes you proud to be an American.”
-----
At “The Heritage Foundation” website, the article there by Walter Lohman, “Guidelines for U.S. Policy in Southeast Asia,” (March 20, 2007), will give you phenomenal perspective and interesting insights as to why the U.S. has an interest in this particular area of the world. This article is valuable and offers an eye-opening examination of Southeast Asia.
At the website “Encyclopedia.com,” I found the following comment, which I quote here (f.y.i.), in full: “SOUTHEAST ASIA EXHIBITS TREMENDOUS CULTURAL AND RELIGIOUS diversity; all the major religions of the world can be found in the region. It is also marked by vast economic disparities. At one end of the spectrum is Singapore, which has a standard of living higher than that of Spain or Portugal. At the other end are countries like Laos and Burma (Myanmar), which are desperately poor. There is also a great deal of variety in the types of political systems that characterize the region. The Philippines is a democracy, the Republic of Vietnam a one-party state, and Brunei a semi-feudal …“ The rest of the article is available at HighBeam Research, and I did not read it.
-----
Copyright March, 2011, by And Then Some Publishing, LLC.
Just for the fun of it, I pulled out a 20 Chinese Yuen at a cash register in a local store, and because I had just returned home from China, I told the cashier where I got the money, and she said, “You know, I’ve never had any desire to leave this country.” I responded saying, “It is a positive experience, and it makes you proud to be an American.”
Of course, I didn’t have the time to explain my statement, but what I said to the clerk made me stop and think about it. How does it make me proud to be an American?
There are three caveats regarding my comments. First, they are based on my personal perspective only. Second, they are generally based on this one experience abroad, even though I have traveled around the world, lived in Pakistan for fourteen-and-a-half months, and taught at several universities in Australia. Third, they are generalizations. They capture my feelings at this moment, within a week of my return from twenty-three days abroad.
Also, I must mention the reference base for my observations. Perrysburg, Ohio, where I have lived for more than 35 years, is a suburb of Toledo, Ohio. It is a small town where most residents are educated, literate, well-informed, and either middle or upper class.
On the 16-day cruise, my wife and I visited nine large Asian cities: Bangkok, Thailand, Singapore, Saigon and Nha Trang, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taipai, Taiwan, Okinawa, Japan, and Shanghai and Beijing, China. Although each of these cities has qualities similar to the others, each has a unique and distinct quality all its own, and in the observations that follow, I do not want to suggest that I am grouping these cities or considering them a single entity. Grouping them is unfair. For example, there is a radical difference between all of these cities and Saigon. Singapore, too, offers a situation that is radically different from all of the others. (I have written separate essays on my experiences in each of these nine cities, and they are published elsewhere.)
Why am I proud to be an American? There is no question (in my mind) that travel abroad makes you proud to be an American, because with no experiences outside of our country, it is hard to appreciate what it is that makes us special—special enough to make me want to write about it.
The first element that makes me proud to be an American is that I can go almost anywhere in the U.S. and know that I can drink the water. I cannot believe, for example, that in Beijing, the capitol of China, where over 15 million people live, you cannot drink the water. Anywhere! The residents boil their water before drinking it, and many depend on bottled water. Even in the luxurious hotels, bottled water is provided, and you are warned not to drink it from the tap.
The second element that makes me proud to be an American is that I can go almost anywhere in the U.S., and there is little or no pollution. Of course our large cities suffer from pollution problems, but the nine cities I visited each has serious pollution problems. In Hong Kong, we never had a day when we could clearly see all the buildings. Every one of the cities we visited have heavy pollution, and Beijing (once again) is the worst polluted city in the world. Often, as you drive from the dock area into the city, you can see the cloud of smog that envelopes the city. As we approached Istanbul, a couple of years ago, the gray-yellow mass that hung over the city was obvious, thick, and covered the city like a large, dirty comforter.
The third element is litter, dirt, and poverty. I don’t want to suggest we don’t have areas of our country that are affected by litter, dirt, and poverty, but I have never seen as much of each in one place as I saw when traveling from the dock (Phu My) into Saigon. There are unlikely to be many places in the U.S. where residents use the side of the road as a dump, where residents (millions of them) live from hand-to-mouth on a daily basis, where the air is filled with swirling dust, dirt, and exhaust emissions, and where small open-front stores selling all kinds of goods, including fruit, vegetables, and other foods—and even restaurants—cannot help but be contaminated by the dirt, litter, and pollution.
In addition to Vietnam, nations such as Cambodia, Laos, Burma, and East Timor rank near the bottom of global development lists. Across Southeast Asia, more than 1 billion people live on less than $2.00 U.S. per day.
The fourth element—and this could, and perhaps should, be listed first—is our freedom. In Taiwan, we were told by our tour guide, Jan de Vries, that the people cannot own land. All the land is owned by the government, and people can only rent it. In Singapore, it is against the law to chew gum in public—and the law in this pristine, litter-free place is enforced ruthlessly. In Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Beijing, the media is owned by the government, and although things are more open today than ten or twenty years ago, free speech is limited, and there is no open political debate or discussion. If you think what you see is democracy because it looks free and open, think again: it isn’t. A political junkie like myself who enjoys the free and open discussion of politics and relishes the controversy displayed in the media would go nuts in these countries—and maybe be imprisoned.
As the fifth element (and beyond), I want to group a number of things that I observed that make me proud to be an American. I like our malls and shopping centers for their cleanliness and fixed prices; I have experienced enough dirty markets and bazaars where there are no fixed prices, where you must bargain for everything, and where hawkers grab at you, yell at you, and try to pull you into their shops. I like speaking English and enjoy interacting with people who at the very least have English as a second or third language. Although I enjoy seeing street vendors, they are rampant in Bangkok, and the local people depend on them for food and snacks. Their stalls, stands, or carts are generally dirty and poorly maintained. In the U.S. they would be banned as a health hazard. I like our sanitation and health standards. Although not always maintained as well as they could be, I love our interstates, highways, and roads. The roads in Saigon are horrendous, and the streets within most of these large cities were never constructed for the amount of traffic they bear. It is overwhelming, and in Bangkok and Saigon, motor cycles and scooters are preferred, and few drivers respect the rights of pedestrians—anywhere.
My list could go on to mention 5,000-year-old traditions and beliefs, populations density, societies that depend on class consciousness, or the garishness of religious symbols, but I want to add a final note. We enjoy traveling widely, and our trip to Southeast Asia was no exception. Just because I observed differences between cultures, does not mean I disliked anything I observed. It comes back to the old cliche: “Nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there.” “While no nation is greater than another,” one writer on the Internet said when I Googled, “Proud to be an American,” “and no nationality is superior to another, I am happy to be among those who call the United States their home.” .My conclusion is simple: “It sure makes you proud to be an American.”
-----
At “The Heritage Foundation” website, the article there by Walter Lohman, “Guidelines for U.S. Policy in Southeast Asia,” (March 20, 2007), will give you phenomenal perspective and interesting insights as to why the U.S. has an interest in this particular area of the world. This article is valuable and offers an eye-opening examination of Southeast Asia.
At the website “Encyclopedia.com,” I found the following comment, which I quote here (f.y.i.), in full: “SOUTHEAST ASIA EXHIBITS TREMENDOUS CULTURAL AND RELIGIOUS diversity; all the major religions of the world can be found in the region. It is also marked by vast economic disparities. At one end of the spectrum is Singapore, which has a standard of living higher than that of Spain or Portugal. At the other end are countries like Laos and Burma (Myanmar), which are desperately poor. There is also a great deal of variety in the types of political systems that characterize the region. The Philippines is a democracy, the Republic of Vietnam a one-party state, and Brunei a semi-feudal …“ The rest of the article is available at HighBeam Research, and I did not read it.
-----
Copyright March, 2011, by And Then Some Publishing, LLC.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Day #242 - Learn to relax.
SMOERs: Words of Wisdom
"In a state of relaxation I find the best time to consider ideas, problems, and concerns. Relaxation offers views, angles, approaches, and interpretations that I seldom have during the ebb and flow of daily activities." --Richard L. Weaver II
Day #242 - Learn to relax.
"In a state of relaxation I find the best time to consider ideas, problems, and concerns. Relaxation offers views, angles, approaches, and interpretations that I seldom have during the ebb and flow of daily activities." --Richard L. Weaver II
Day #242 - Learn to relax.
SMOERs: Self-Motivation, Optimism, Encouragement Rules! - Daily Reminders for Outstanding Living
An everyday guide full of quotations to uplift your spirits. This is one of five motivational quotations for Day #242.
Free 30-Day sample: smoers.com
An everyday guide full of quotations to uplift your spirits. This is one of five motivational quotations for Day #242.
Free 30-Day sample: smoers.com
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
And Then Some News
Thursday's Essay Preview
This is the second of 17 essays that cover our Southeast Asia cruise (March, 2010). The first paragraph of the second essay reads as follows: "Just for the fun of it, I pulled out a 20 Chinese Yuen at a cash register in a local store, and because I had just returned home from China, I told the cashier where I got the money, and she said, 'You know, I’ve never had any desire to leave this country.' I responded saying, 'It is a positive experience, and it makes you proud to be an American.'"
Thursday's Essay Excerpt - from the last paragraph of the essay
My list could go on to mention 5,000-year-old traditions and beliefs, population density, societies that depend on class consciousness, or the garishness of religious symbols, but I want to add a final note. We enjoy traveling widely, and our trip to Southeast Asia was no exception. Just because I observed differences between cultures, does not mean I disliked anything I observed. It comes back to the old cliche: “Nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there.” “While no nation is greater than another,” one writer on the Internet said when I Googled, “Proud to be an American,” “and no nationality is superior to another, I am happy to be among those who call the United States their home.” .My conclusion is simple: “It sure makes you proud to be an American.”
And Then Some News
Monday, March 7, 2011
Have a little faith: A true story
By Mitch Albom
http://www.amazon.com/Have-Little-Faith-True-Story/product-reviews/0786868724/ref=cm_cr_dp_all_helpful?ie=UTF8&coliid=&showViewpoints=1&colid=&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending
Book review by Richard L. Weaver II, Ph.D.
This is, just as the front flyleaf suggests, “a beautifully written story of a remarkable eight-year journey between two worlds—two men, two faiths, two communities—that will inspire readers everywhere.” There is no doubt about it: Albom tells a great story.
The book is a very short (249-pages in a 5" by 7" book) read, much like his Tuesdays With Morrie and in a similar style, mode, and approach. The book is engaging, entertaining, touching, and fully satisfying.
One reviewer at Amazon.com, Stephen T. Hopkins from Oak Park, Illinois, offers the best, short synopsis of the book: “Readers looking for a touching story about real people will enjoy Mitch Albom's latest book, Have a Little Faith. He presents the lives of two men from different backgrounds, different faiths, and different places. Albert Lewis was the rabbi from Album's hometown synagogue, and Henry Covington is an African American minister of a church in Detroit. What they share is hope and faith, and a love of God and people. These are inspiring lives that will lift the spirits of every reader.”
Another reviewer of the book, Indian Prairie Public Library in Darien, Illinois, writes at Amazon.com: “Mitch Albom, who hasn't been to a church since he was young, is moved by the deep faith of two very different men, an elderly and spirited rabbi who wants Mitch to give his eulogy when he dies, and an ex-con turned minister to the poor and homeless. The book is touching and entertaining and just might get us thinking about our faith and the place God has in our life.”
Anna Roberts Books, the author, reviewed the book at Amazon.com in this way:
“‘Have a Little Faith’ is a book I was so intrigued by that I couldn't put it down. It is such a heart breaking story, something you don't come across everyday.
“This book made me laugh and cry. There were times I didn't even realize the number of pages I had read. I was stirred by the sudden slam of a door, truthfully this book made me realize things I could relate to, as the author, Mitch Albom, pointed out so many things in life we know, but don't actually sit down and read.
“I can't believe the amazing journey Mitch Albom went through, it captured my heart and I am sure going to pick up another one of his books. I don't want to give anything away, you have to read the book yourself!!”
This is a book in which you will not be disappointed.
This book is available at Amazon.com: Have a little faith: A true story
http://www.amazon.com/Have-Little-Faith-True-Story/product-reviews/0786868724/ref=cm_cr_dp_all_helpful?ie=UTF8&coliid=&showViewpoints=1&colid=&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending
Book review by Richard L. Weaver II, Ph.D.
This is, just as the front flyleaf suggests, “a beautifully written story of a remarkable eight-year journey between two worlds—two men, two faiths, two communities—that will inspire readers everywhere.” There is no doubt about it: Albom tells a great story.
The book is a very short (249-pages in a 5" by 7" book) read, much like his Tuesdays With Morrie and in a similar style, mode, and approach. The book is engaging, entertaining, touching, and fully satisfying.
One reviewer at Amazon.com, Stephen T. Hopkins from Oak Park, Illinois, offers the best, short synopsis of the book: “Readers looking for a touching story about real people will enjoy Mitch Albom's latest book, Have a Little Faith. He presents the lives of two men from different backgrounds, different faiths, and different places. Albert Lewis was the rabbi from Album's hometown synagogue, and Henry Covington is an African American minister of a church in Detroit. What they share is hope and faith, and a love of God and people. These are inspiring lives that will lift the spirits of every reader.”
Another reviewer of the book, Indian Prairie Public Library in Darien, Illinois, writes at Amazon.com: “Mitch Albom, who hasn't been to a church since he was young, is moved by the deep faith of two very different men, an elderly and spirited rabbi who wants Mitch to give his eulogy when he dies, and an ex-con turned minister to the poor and homeless. The book is touching and entertaining and just might get us thinking about our faith and the place God has in our life.”
Anna Roberts Books, the author, reviewed the book at Amazon.com in this way:
“‘Have a Little Faith’ is a book I was so intrigued by that I couldn't put it down. It is such a heart breaking story, something you don't come across everyday.
“This book made me laugh and cry. There were times I didn't even realize the number of pages I had read. I was stirred by the sudden slam of a door, truthfully this book made me realize things I could relate to, as the author, Mitch Albom, pointed out so many things in life we know, but don't actually sit down and read.
“I can't believe the amazing journey Mitch Albom went through, it captured my heart and I am sure going to pick up another one of his books. I don't want to give anything away, you have to read the book yourself!!”
This is a book in which you will not be disappointed.
This book is available at Amazon.com: Have a little faith: A true story
Friday, March 4, 2011
LAUGH . . . And Then Some
Where do you find a dog with no legs?
Right where you left him.
Why do gorillas have big nostrils?
Because they have big fingers.
Why don't blind people like to sky dive?
Because it scares the dog.
From Day #186 in a complete manuscript compiled by Richard L. Weaver II
Right where you left him.
Why do gorillas have big nostrils?
Because they have big fingers.
Why don't blind people like to sky dive?
Because it scares the dog.
Laugh Like There's No Tomorrow: Over 2,000 jokes from the Internet
From Day #186 in a complete manuscript compiled by Richard L. Weaver II
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Cruise Number Ten: Bangkok to Beijing
by Richard L. Weaver II, Ph.D.
There is a certain safety and security that can be appreciated when you are protected and followed pre-travel (and during your travels) by a well-known cruise-industry line. For example, when my wife and I traveled to the Great Rivers of Europe via Grand Circle, a representative met us at each of the airports: the Detroit Metropolitan Airport, Amsterdam, and Vienna, our final destination. Nothing was left to chance, and there was someone at all points to shepherd us to the places we needed to go—even when a plane was missed in Amsterdam because of a prolonged security investigation of our carry-on baggage.
The same is true for our trip to Southeast Asia via Princess. Although it costs more to do it, we booked flights, hotel stays, transportation to and from the hotel to the cruise-ship dock all through this company. Because of this, Princess has maintained contact with us regarding numerous itinerary changes and the acquisition of all necessary documents, including obtaining (expensive!) visas for China. Further, they provide an easy-access phone number and a cruise-line representative to answer all our questions as we proceeded through the preparation stages. (AAA, our travel agency, has helped as well, and they will give us our final boarding passes.)
One question we had for our cruise-line representative—to show you how trivial the questions can be—when and how do we attach the cruise-line identification tags to our suitcases. Sounds easy? We covered them in clear tape to reinforce the flimsy paper tags downloaded from the Internet, but it was clear we could not attach them at home for they would be ripped off by the airlines, because they did not apply to them. The cruise-line representative told us to attach them as we picked up our baggage at the airport in Bangkok, Thailand. That’s fine, however, the tags clearly said to staple them at the bottom to secure them to our bags, and airline security would surely remove and discard any stapler we would carry. She said the Princess representative in Bangkok would have a stapler, and I said to her, “Yeah, right!” So, we’re taking a roll of tape to secure them.
There are a variety of measures one must take, or at least be aware of, when planning to cruise in Southeast Asia—different than the elements involved when cruising the Caribbean or other American or local destinations. It is normal, of course, to plan your wardrobe according the weather and the length of the trip. You make certain, too, that all your papers, medications, and toiletries are in order. Planning for a tenth cruise is easier simply because you are better prepared. The only problem is taking things for granted. The best method is to have a checklist to make certain nothing is overlooked or forgotten. The two sites recommended at the end of this essay both include checklists; the second article is more complete than the first.
What difference does it make that we’re beginning our cruise in Bangkok and ending in Beijing? First, it demands early preparation. There are a number of inoculations, for example, that must be begun early. They’re not required but recommended. They had to be started early because the Hepatitus A vaccine requires a series of two shots at least six months apart. Along with the Hepatitus A shot, I received one for tetanus, one for pneumonia, another one for MMR (mumps, measles, and rubella), and a shingles shot as well. In addition to the Hepatitus A second shot, I received a flu shot, and a Swine Flu shot. I feel totally shot-up. (The shingles shot protects you for life and resulted from a bout with shingles my father-in-law experienced.)
A second difference between cruising from Bangkok to Beijing and cruising in the Caribbean (or within the U.S.) is having to get a visa for entering China—a double-entry visa since we’ll visit both Shanghi and Beijing. Another call to our cruise representative told us we did not have to have a visa for Hong Kong (China). This process had to begin early because we had to send our passports to the embassy to have them stamped, and there had to be time to allow them to return them as well. This was handled by a company called Travisa which took care of the entire process (for a fee), but using a secure mailing service (FedEx in this case) helped insure the safety of the entire transaction. Also, we needed an additional picture to be used to secure a passport onboard to Vietnam by Princess. My assumption is that you have up-to-date passports that will not expire within 6 months of your cruise.
If you fly you are already aware of the 3-ounce requirement for all liquids in carry-on luggage. There is no difference between domestic and international flights with respect to this requirement, but a long trip such as ours (17-day cruise, plus 3 days on each end equals 23 days) means planning ahead. Three ounces of hairspray, deodorant, shampoo, toothpaste, or whatever, may not be sufficient, thus, some must be placed in the check-in baggage as well.
A fourth difference, because this is an international trip involving a number of different countries (Singapore, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, and China), requires that we notify our credit-card companies that we will be traveling abroad. On one of our trips, for example, a credit-card company stopped payment on a card because it looked as if it was used improperly. We, generally, take two cards in case this happens. We found there is a 3% handling fee on one for use in foreign countries, but there is a cheaper rate on another card (AAA-Visa) for such use, and we prefer using it if there is a choice. Some people open a free checking account, put part of their travel allowance in the account, and use a debit card—which is a good idea as well. The point is, whatever you plan to do and however you plan to do it, requires some early preparation.
A fifth difference requires getting advance information on all the ports and cities you plan to visit. This may not be a difference if you have never traveled in the Caribbean, for example, and you want to get information on each country or port-of-call. Traveling in Southeast Asia was an entirely new experience (exotic, to say the least), and we wanted to make certain we didn’t miss anything. We like to get general information (history and culture) on each city from Wikapedia, then check the Internet for other sites that offer specifics on the important places tourists should visit. This is collected in a notebook with material arranged in the order of places to be visited, and they can be read just prior to moving to a new location. On this trip, we will be in nine separate and distinct places.
There is another preparation process required because of travel abroad and that has to do with any medications. Security inspectors want medications in their original containers. One thing involves having enough medications to cover the entire trip, quite another is having small-enough containers for each of the medication types. Also, if you have significant medical problems, take a copy of your records and tests—helpful if you need a doctor onboard.
This essay was not intended to scare-off would-be world travelers; however, once aware of the kinds of things that require early thinking and preparation, the entire process becomes easier, more efficient, and less stressful. Although it is comfortable being protected by a cruise company, a cruise company cannot nor will not remind you of all the activities and processes necessary prior to traveling. As I said, the more you travel, the easier it becomes to remember everything. One key for us is simply starting the process early. For example, we began setting things out a month or more before traveling, and we were fully packed (except for small last-minute items) a full five days before leaving home. It was Henry Ford who said, “Before everything else, getting ready is the secret to success.”
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At Cruise Guide Direct, there is a short essay, “Preparing to Cruise,” that offers nine reminders—a “to-do list”—for those planning to cruise.
Susan J. Young, in a two-part essay, “The Before-You-Cruise Checklist,” at CruiseMates, includes a truly superb set of reminders of things to do well before you travel, six weeks before, then two-to-four weeks before,
one week out, the day before, and the day of departure. This is an excellent article well worth a read.
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Copyright March, 2011, by And Then Some Publishing, LLC.
There is a certain safety and security that can be appreciated when you are protected and followed pre-travel (and during your travels) by a well-known cruise-industry line. For example, when my wife and I traveled to the Great Rivers of Europe via Grand Circle, a representative met us at each of the airports: the Detroit Metropolitan Airport, Amsterdam, and Vienna, our final destination. Nothing was left to chance, and there was someone at all points to shepherd us to the places we needed to go—even when a plane was missed in Amsterdam because of a prolonged security investigation of our carry-on baggage.
The same is true for our trip to Southeast Asia via Princess. Although it costs more to do it, we booked flights, hotel stays, transportation to and from the hotel to the cruise-ship dock all through this company. Because of this, Princess has maintained contact with us regarding numerous itinerary changes and the acquisition of all necessary documents, including obtaining (expensive!) visas for China. Further, they provide an easy-access phone number and a cruise-line representative to answer all our questions as we proceeded through the preparation stages. (AAA, our travel agency, has helped as well, and they will give us our final boarding passes.)
One question we had for our cruise-line representative—to show you how trivial the questions can be—when and how do we attach the cruise-line identification tags to our suitcases. Sounds easy? We covered them in clear tape to reinforce the flimsy paper tags downloaded from the Internet, but it was clear we could not attach them at home for they would be ripped off by the airlines, because they did not apply to them. The cruise-line representative told us to attach them as we picked up our baggage at the airport in Bangkok, Thailand. That’s fine, however, the tags clearly said to staple them at the bottom to secure them to our bags, and airline security would surely remove and discard any stapler we would carry. She said the Princess representative in Bangkok would have a stapler, and I said to her, “Yeah, right!” So, we’re taking a roll of tape to secure them.
There are a variety of measures one must take, or at least be aware of, when planning to cruise in Southeast Asia—different than the elements involved when cruising the Caribbean or other American or local destinations. It is normal, of course, to plan your wardrobe according the weather and the length of the trip. You make certain, too, that all your papers, medications, and toiletries are in order. Planning for a tenth cruise is easier simply because you are better prepared. The only problem is taking things for granted. The best method is to have a checklist to make certain nothing is overlooked or forgotten. The two sites recommended at the end of this essay both include checklists; the second article is more complete than the first.
What difference does it make that we’re beginning our cruise in Bangkok and ending in Beijing? First, it demands early preparation. There are a number of inoculations, for example, that must be begun early. They’re not required but recommended. They had to be started early because the Hepatitus A vaccine requires a series of two shots at least six months apart. Along with the Hepatitus A shot, I received one for tetanus, one for pneumonia, another one for MMR (mumps, measles, and rubella), and a shingles shot as well. In addition to the Hepatitus A second shot, I received a flu shot, and a Swine Flu shot. I feel totally shot-up. (The shingles shot protects you for life and resulted from a bout with shingles my father-in-law experienced.)
A second difference between cruising from Bangkok to Beijing and cruising in the Caribbean (or within the U.S.) is having to get a visa for entering China—a double-entry visa since we’ll visit both Shanghi and Beijing. Another call to our cruise representative told us we did not have to have a visa for Hong Kong (China). This process had to begin early because we had to send our passports to the embassy to have them stamped, and there had to be time to allow them to return them as well. This was handled by a company called Travisa which took care of the entire process (for a fee), but using a secure mailing service (FedEx in this case) helped insure the safety of the entire transaction. Also, we needed an additional picture to be used to secure a passport onboard to Vietnam by Princess. My assumption is that you have up-to-date passports that will not expire within 6 months of your cruise.
If you fly you are already aware of the 3-ounce requirement for all liquids in carry-on luggage. There is no difference between domestic and international flights with respect to this requirement, but a long trip such as ours (17-day cruise, plus 3 days on each end equals 23 days) means planning ahead. Three ounces of hairspray, deodorant, shampoo, toothpaste, or whatever, may not be sufficient, thus, some must be placed in the check-in baggage as well.
A fourth difference, because this is an international trip involving a number of different countries (Singapore, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, and China), requires that we notify our credit-card companies that we will be traveling abroad. On one of our trips, for example, a credit-card company stopped payment on a card because it looked as if it was used improperly. We, generally, take two cards in case this happens. We found there is a 3% handling fee on one for use in foreign countries, but there is a cheaper rate on another card (AAA-Visa) for such use, and we prefer using it if there is a choice. Some people open a free checking account, put part of their travel allowance in the account, and use a debit card—which is a good idea as well. The point is, whatever you plan to do and however you plan to do it, requires some early preparation.
A fifth difference requires getting advance information on all the ports and cities you plan to visit. This may not be a difference if you have never traveled in the Caribbean, for example, and you want to get information on each country or port-of-call. Traveling in Southeast Asia was an entirely new experience (exotic, to say the least), and we wanted to make certain we didn’t miss anything. We like to get general information (history and culture) on each city from Wikapedia, then check the Internet for other sites that offer specifics on the important places tourists should visit. This is collected in a notebook with material arranged in the order of places to be visited, and they can be read just prior to moving to a new location. On this trip, we will be in nine separate and distinct places.
There is another preparation process required because of travel abroad and that has to do with any medications. Security inspectors want medications in their original containers. One thing involves having enough medications to cover the entire trip, quite another is having small-enough containers for each of the medication types. Also, if you have significant medical problems, take a copy of your records and tests—helpful if you need a doctor onboard.
This essay was not intended to scare-off would-be world travelers; however, once aware of the kinds of things that require early thinking and preparation, the entire process becomes easier, more efficient, and less stressful. Although it is comfortable being protected by a cruise company, a cruise company cannot nor will not remind you of all the activities and processes necessary prior to traveling. As I said, the more you travel, the easier it becomes to remember everything. One key for us is simply starting the process early. For example, we began setting things out a month or more before traveling, and we were fully packed (except for small last-minute items) a full five days before leaving home. It was Henry Ford who said, “Before everything else, getting ready is the secret to success.”
-----
At Cruise Guide Direct, there is a short essay, “Preparing to Cruise,” that offers nine reminders—a “to-do list”—for those planning to cruise.
Susan J. Young, in a two-part essay, “The Before-You-Cruise Checklist,” at CruiseMates, includes a truly superb set of reminders of things to do well before you travel, six weeks before, then two-to-four weeks before,
one week out, the day before, and the day of departure. This is an excellent article well worth a read.
-----
Copyright March, 2011, by And Then Some Publishing, LLC.
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