Drought

While I was thinking about the story of Lord Mengchang (孟嘗君), I met my friend L again.

"Szeto, have you heard of the recent story in North Korea?" He asked.

"You mean the missile business? Yes, part of it."

"No, I mean the new round of famine."

"Another round? I suppose there's only one famine in North Korea since the 1950s - and it continues till now." I chuckled, "Oh, I should not make joke on a miserable people. What's that all about?"


"Oh, nothing. Just that their Supreme Leader Mr. Kim III declares, once again, that they have another bad drought - one that you see once every 50 years - again, and he demands people around the world to support and make donations."

"Very well said - by using the word demand." I almost laughed, and asked my cynical friend, "What do you make out of that?"

市義

A recent hot topic of our city is whether we should donate HK$100 million to our friends in SiChuan. I must say I have no strong opinion on either side of the argument. However, this little incident reminds me a little story in the ancient China.

Here you go:

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孟嘗君出記，問門下諸客：「誰習計會，能為文收責於薛者乎？」馮諼署曰：「能。」孟嘗君怪之，曰：「此誰也？」左右曰：「乃歌夫長鋏歸來者也。」孟嘗君笑曰：「客果有能也，吾負之，未嘗見也。」請而見之，謝曰：「文倦於事，憒於憂，而性懧愚，沉於國家之事，開罪於先生。先生不羞，乃有意欲為收責於薛乎？」馮諼曰：「願之。」於是約車治裝，載券契而行，辭曰：「責畢收，以何市而反？」孟嘗君曰：「視吾家所寡有者。」驅而之薛，使吏召諸民當償者，悉來合券。券遍合，起矯命以責賜諸民，因燒其券，民稱萬歲。

長驅到齊，晨而求見。孟嘗君怪其疾也，衣冠而見之，曰：「責畢收乎？來何疾也！」曰：「收畢矣。」「以何市而反？」馮諼曰：「君云『視吾家所寡有者』。臣竊計，君宮中積珍寶，狗馬實外廄，美人充下陳。君家所寡有者以義耳！竊以為君市義。」孟嘗君曰：「市義柰何？」曰：「今君有區區之薛，不拊愛子其民，因而賈利之。臣竊矯君命，以責賜諸民，因燒其券，民稱萬歲。乃臣所以為君巿義也。」

劉向《戰國策‧卷十一‧齊策四‧齊人有馮諼者》

Nightmare

(The letter that the First Lady wrote to M did not end there.)

My dear friend, to tell you the truth, Barack was dumbfounded at the executive meeting two months ago, when he was challenged by all the mayors and attorneys whom he appointed. Smoking in the City Hall! Who doesn't? It's just a matter of magnitude. And the evidence that Barack is smoking more than the others does not hold water. The design of the cigarette audit was hopeless, and the result presented was deliberately incomplete. In the meeting, my husband was shown with the result and then being kicked out from the Hall; there was no chance for him to defend - not to say any opportunity for him to go through the data and check with the accuracy. To use such an audit as the reason for banning my husband from going to the Hall is an insult to his citizenship. After all, Barack is a dutiful statesman and is keen to see his people (and party donors!) in the Hall!

Yes, I know it's all the idea of Joe, who is in charge of the business of this country. Or, is it from Norman - or Ben himself? (Szeto's note: Joe is the president of the Senate, Ben is the General Secretary of the United Nations, and Norman is the president of its Security Council.) M, in the past two months, Barack and I were living in hell. Or, was it all our nightmare? Neither of us could sleep well without dope. I write to tell you all these not because I want to seek your help. Nobody could help us.

But I just want you to listen to the other side of the story.

Sincerely, et cetera.

Rebuttal

(The letter from the First Lady continued.)

My friend, Barack is the most hard working person that I have ever heard of. He works relentlessly in his career to take care of his own people, write influential papers, secure party donations, and build up international connections. A few years ago, when Barack was the governor of Texas, there was one occasion when he had intense back pain for a prolapse disc, and he couldn't even move, but, since he accepted to give an important speech in a global summit, he begged our son and myself to wheel him to the airport and catch the flight. Why did he have to do all this? It's all for the benefit of Texas and the whole America, to consolidate our position in the world stage as an influential country, or, really, the only superpower.

And, now, look, how do the Texas people treat him? What does he do wrong? Yes, he holds most of the resource and is demanding to the others, but that's all for making things work and for a better development of the others. It is all his work so that A is now the mayor of St. Antonio, B the chief attorney of Dallas, C the mayor of Houston, and so on. And, now, what do these people do in return?

Wife

Some of you may remember the little story about an American president and his people from Texas that I mentioned here some weeks ago.

The story obviously did not end there. Unfortunately I know very little about the happenings after the dinner talk amongst the senators. Nonetheless, we may want to have a glimpse on the things from a slightly different angle.

Here is the excerpt of a letter written by the First Lady to M, the Senator of Massachusetts.

************************

My dear friend,

I am sure you know what happened to Barack recently. As his wife, I feel obliged to come out and say something for my husband.

You know, Barack is born and brought up in this country. He is all from America, and all for America. Ever since he decided to become a statesman, everything he does is for a better America tomorrow.

(To be continued.)

Successor

(The discussion between A and I went on.)

I paused for a while and continued, "You know, JW has high hope on H."

"Yes, I can see that."

"And it's not just H. JW also expects high - and demands high - on other trainees in his team." I said, "I am sure my friend would like to see in 15 or 20 years time H will become another JW, and someone else become VW and others. Alas, that's the ultimate goal of any great teacher - to see someone as good as, or even better than, himself to follow his footsteps, thrive and grow strong and becomes another good teacher to inspire more students of the next generation. Remind you, a bright student may not have - and does not need - a famous teacher, but a really brilliant teacher always have many prominent students."

The two of us lapsed again into silence.

Training

"A, how's H doing?" I asked my medical officer in a casual tone after we finished with the emergency take round.

A is a fourth year (or fifth, I am not too sure) physician trainee and H is her fiance. The two of them are classmates in the medical school, and H is now a trainee in another specialty. Although A is almost unknown to our medical students, H is certainly one of our most famous graduates in the past 10 years - many of our final year students are still reading his study notes nowadays, sometimes instead of any formal medical textbook.

"Alas, he's thriving, or struggling to thrive," A said with a twist on her lips, "There are lots to learn, and, you know our workload. It is really difficult to read up anything in the evening - we are just exhausted after work. I actually cannot imagine how one could also spare part of his energy and take part in some research work!"

(To be continued.)

分享

Like myself, many of you may read To Kit (陶傑) regularly and would know just too well a concept that our famous columnist is wholeheartedly against: to be inclusive (包容).

And, I now come to realize an equally annoying term that has been increasingly abused in recent years: to share (分享).

You see? When we tell a story to the someone else, we say Let's share the story. When a movie star knows a good way of making apple pie, he shares the recipe with the others. And, worst of all, we are not sharing the story or recipe or whatever to a few whom we feel intimate, but, rather, to a large crowd of unknown people. As the giving side, I always feel sore to share anything with another person. No, I have no problem to tell him a story, give him a piece of advice, show him how to make a pie, or, if he is badly in need, give him a fiver. But these are not sharing. The story, the advice, or that five-pound note, leaves my world and lands on his. The two of us have no link. No connection. No continual relationship. In short, I remain free.

But, to share calls for a different virtue. If I have two pillows and you have none, I can give you one - but please sleep somewhere else. However, if I have only one pillow and need to share with you, it means we have to sleep together. The implication is much more profound than that tiny cushion that supports our neck during sleep.

Temper

On two independent occasions recently, I was asked to comment on colleagues with a strong temper.

(The request was, I have good reasons to believe, intended to be sarcastic; my own temper is as strong as anyone.)

"Of course we all have temper," one of my friends said, "Because there are things we feel serious about. After all, that's our character. If we are always soft and placid, we are no longer ourselves."

I smiled and nodded, "That may be true. Nonetheless, I think people are not really disturbed by our temper - but it touches their nerve if we burst out unexpectedly."

"What do you mean?"

"Yes, and it goes back to a very basic principle of game theory," I said, referring to the work of Oskar Morgenstern and John von Neumann. The idea is simple: The optimal way to tackle our adversary and optimize our own benefit in a one-to-one zero sum game is to do things at random (or, using the mixed-strategy according to the game theorist). However, when we face our ally (define as, pragmatically, when there is a synergistic benefit and cooperation is possible), we use a clear pattern of behaviour to communicate and convey our desire.

Go read http://ccszeto.blogspot.hk/2010/06/penalty.html and related posts.

Dividend

During a casual conversation, Vivian asked, "I just get this letter from the bank - it's about the stock that you bought for Euterpe. The question is simple: Shall we choose dividend in specie (以股代息)?"

My response was almost immediate, "Why! Certainly not. No, not that I have no confidence in the company,  but odd lot (碎股) is a pain in the neck. And a propagating pain too - by the next announcement, it becomes even more odd."

Although dividend specie is often regarded as a good way of long term investment, I consider it a kind of inadvertent diworsification. The reality is, if you have a tiny sum of money, you won't split it into, say, two shares of HSBC and three of CLP - even if they are sold in discount. What you should do is, really, to keep that money until it accumulates to the amount sufficient for one lot of the one company that you prefer, in which case there is some economy of scale, and you will have to review your investment portfolio - a good idea even for long term investor.

PS. Regular visitors of this site may know I buy stocks as birthday present for my two princesses, and I use their red-pocket money to buy some more when the price is good. There is, however, minimal diversification of their infantile investment, and the two only items that they hold are China Construction Bank and Standard Charter.

Ramen

The psychology seminar over-ran, and it was close to half-past-one when Vivian and I had lunch.

Vivian decided to try Rasuperman, the successor of MIST - the first ramen restaurant that wins a Michelin star.

I must say our hope was high, and this classy bistro did not let us down. The noodle was suitably al dente (and gave me an deja vu feeling of dan-dan noodle [擔擔麵] from Sichuan [四川]), the miso broth was rich but not viscid, and the slice of pork was there to enrich the complexity of flavor and texture, not competing for the attention of our taste buds. Every bit of the dish, or the bowl, was a cut higher than any other ramen shop in the city - except the price was two cuts higher.

I still prefer Yokozuna (橫綱).

PS. I used to be a fan of the traditional Shoyu (soy sauce) broth but had turned to miso in recent years. It may merely be the problem of myself but I always find the Shoyu broth in Hong Kong not as rich as the ones I had in Japan.

Need

Attended a seminar on the development of adversity quotient in children.

I must say I am no fans of  multiple Q's and my presence was for purely political reasons. The talk was delivered by a social worker, and a not very experienced one too. Nonetheless, it did remind of me some important principles of psychology.

For example, the Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

Or, to put it simply, when the basic need of subsistence and safety are satisfied, we ask for love, belonging, and respect from others.

The very problem of children is, unfortunately, they could not voice out their need because the hierarchy per se is quite beyond their comprehension; the sensation of lacking a basic need goes to the amygdala rather than the neocortex and is therefore not perceived by their conscious mind. Their response is, as a result, frequently indirect and seemingly irrelevant: They may crave for candies, wet their bed, being tardy to do their homework, or just yelling for no reason. The message is all the same - there are important basic needs not yet fulfilled. Any measures that targets the sweet teeth, enuresis, or attention deficit would only bring transient relieve until another syndrome develops from the same underlying cause.

Alas, am I talking about children? Or are many adults - doctors included - still children?

Museum

Shortly after I paid a visit to that remarkable sandwich company, I had a day off and decided to bring Euterpe to the Space Museum.

It was a chilly afternoon with occasional shower. To my surprise, the queue outside the box office was exceptionally long, and it took really a while for the two of us to get our tickets. We managed to fix up two seats for a 3D movie one-and-a-half hour later, and, naturally, we went to the exhibition halls to kill the time.

I must say I am no astronomers and my knowledge on constellation largely comes from Masami Kurumada (車田正美). Nonetheless, as an expired astrologist, I was imagining I know enough to bluff for 90 minutes.

But there was no need. There were short games and videos and live-demos here and there. The time just flied, and, when we settled ourselves under the hemispheric theatre, you know what - Euterpe was fast asleep.

***************
On our way home, I asked my princess, "Girl, what do you think about the Museum?"

"Why! It's gorgeous. Maybe Adler can join us next time. But, daddy, no more 3D movie for me. It is rather boring - and I feel dizzy with that funny glasses!"

I laughed and nodded.

Sandwich

On a recent occasion, I had to do a kind of marathon teaching at the campus.

It was a rainy afternoon. The story goes like this: From 2:30 pm, I was asked to do some case presentation to our year one students, followed by another two hours of clinical demonstration at the Basic Science Building. By 6:30 pm, I had to appear in the Chung Chi College and do another two-hour lecture for another master course.

That's not an easy task - especially when you are having a sore throat. Thank goodness there's an hour break in between, sufficient for me to do some walking and take a good afternoon tea - or a light dinner if you prefer the term.

The problem for me was: Where to eat? CC Canteen is, for obvious reasons, to be avoided. But, you know my personality, I did some preparatory homework before I set off for the marathon, and, after a quick search on the Internet, I came to find a place called the American Sandwich Company - a small bistro hidden in the jungle of teaching complex.

I ordered a small burger with chips at the side and a glass of ice tea. Oh, I shall not tell you how they tasted - just that it is as good as another famous local burger shop at Hung Hum. (Interested visitors may like to refer to http://ccszeto.blogspot.hk/2008/08/standard.html)

However difficult our life may appear, there are always bits and pieces that we could find enjoyable.

Do

L considered for a while and said slowly, "Not much. Yes, they can refuse doing paper work, but that's quite irrelevant. I would say no strike would be effective if the workers want to be responsible."

"What do you mean?" I was alarmed.

"Simple. If there is any element of your work that is suitable for the strike because it has no direct immediate effect, you should not be doing it right from the beginning."

I was forced to agree, "In that case, our conscientious workers will certainly be on the losing side. What card could they play?"

"Alas, what are creatures outside the solar system afraid of? No, strike isn't even worth they spit. The things that really touch their nerve are - complaints and the media!"

Strike

Met my friend L during weekend. For obvious reasons our conversation turned to the recent strike, or, strictly speaking, attempt to strike.

"What do you think of that?" I asked.

"Alas! The basic problem is rather simple," he returned a distant smile, "If you expand the service and there is no corresponding increase in manpower, the system would be difficult to sustain - not to say there is now a deficit in our head count to start with."

I nodded.

"And, to go one step further, there is no point to beat around the bush and say the resource is coming; money would not solve the problem, for no one could turn cash into flesh-and-blood working hands - unless you are Hades and using the underworld bank notes (溪錢)!"

I chuckled, dare not pointing out that my friend had mistaken the old Chinese story of turning peas into soldiers (撒豆成兵) by Jiang Ziya (姜尚). In fact, I hallucinated I heard my friend murmuring about the subcontractor and various hidden agenda of different people.

After a long and uncomfortable silence, I asked, "Since Hades is sitting at the other side of the negotiation table, what should people on earth do?"

Laureate

While I was thumbing through Milky Way (銀河), the last chapter of Stepfather, Vivian and I had a chat about famous authors that had never won the Nobel Prize in Literature.

"Em... I'm sure if the Swedish Academy changes their regulation and the award could be given to a person who died in the past century, Franz Kafka would be the laureate next year," I said, "After all, if Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus were on the list, there is no reason why their more original and imaginative predecessor should not get this well-deserved recognition!"

"Quite right," my wife nodded, "Well, I just note that Milan Kundera is not on the list either."

"Really!? That's most disappointing," I pursed my lips, "It's nothing personal, but, isn't The Jokes a cut higher than any of the work of Mo Yan (莫言)? By the way, you just remind me: There is a book that I've long to read but do not even have the time to buy - The Book of Laughter and Forgetting (笑忘書)."

PS. The other three that I put on my wish list are the Ages of Eric Hobsbawn.

Reading

For obvious reasons I do not read only Kafka or Yann Martel. My recent leisure reading is Stepfather (繼父) of Miyabe Miyuki (宮部美幸).

In short, it is a collection of short detective stories centered around a thief and two school children. The plots are, seriously, not entirely exciting, and much of the deduction work is rather far fetched. Nonetheless, the characters are lively, conversations humorous, and this tiny paperback is, undeniably, an enjoyable reading.

********************
By the way, while many people have their favorite "comfort food" to ease their minds from excessive tension, I keep a few "comfort books" in my Kindle for the same purpose.

Here is my list:

• Agatha Christie: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: The Complete Sherlock Holmes
• Philo Vance: The Benson Murder Case; The Canary Murder Case; The Greene Murder Case
• 金庸：神鵰俠侶；倚天屠龍記；笑傲江湖

Hoax

While I was convinced I read too much Kafka, our morning paper reported that twenty missing letters by the giant of Czech literature are newly discovered.

I shall not repeat the story of how these letters re-appeared to the world. (Interested readers may like to refer to http://udn.com/NEWS/READING/X5/7800981.shtml) Yes, it is probably a hoax for the All Fool's Day. Nonetheless, I was happily deceived, and I actually searched in the Internet that evening - trying to see if I could buy that mysterious book anywhere, no different from that fictitious little girl whom the dying writer met in the park and was cheered up by a series of fake letters.

Or, as Kafka said himself, Die Lüge ist für die Ordnung der Welt. (The lie is made for the world order.)

PS. Talking about those missing letters by Kafka, I must say the only constructive thing that Gestapo ever did was probably stealing most the ones from Dora Diamant's apartment.

Algae

The greatest obstacle to our destiny is, somewhat surprisingly, the algae island.

No, I'm not talking about any simple physical pleasure or worldly treasure. But, when our burden weighs a ton and travel becomes a curse, we may find ourselves easily satisfied in a place where we could lay down our load and rest from the voyage - be it an island of no root.

But, as Yann Martel pointed out, this island is dangerous. When we sleep comfortably on the algae bed, our soul will be trapped and digested to the bone. To arrive at the true heaven, we must not settle with a transient relief.

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For these reasons, I have a strong belief that the two Japanese investigators are putting their cart in front of the horse. It doesn't really matter what triggers the journey, and there is little point to determine which version of the story was the genuine happening. If you read the Holy Bible, you want it to lead you to salvation, and not an anatomical discussion on how nailing on the cross could lead to death.

I read too much Kafka, I know.

Beast

The irony is, for our soul to arrive at that distant heaven safe and intact, we cannot simply kick our inner beast out of the life-boat, but, rather, we have to travel with it.

Yes, there is always a danger that Richard Parker would tear our soul into pieces. It is also not an easy task to sustain the beast - it eats up, literally and practically, the tiger's share of our catch from the sea. However, contrary to the expectation of most of us, the beast usually lies low and remains half asleep while our soul pursue for the very destiny. It only wakes up and strikes when there is a higher call. With some experience and much courage, we would gradually learn the trick; not only does our soul live with the inner beast, but we begin to know its habit and ways to tame it. On a few occasions along the journey, we actually need the help of this crouching tiger. As it turns out, Richard Parker is not only not an obstactle to the heaven, but an indispensible companion of the journey.

Of course, when our soul eventually reach the other side of the shore Jenseits von Gut und Böse, there would be no place for our inner beast, and Richard Parker vanish into an unknown forest.

Journey

The story should go like this:

Unexpectedly and involuntarily, our soul set off for a lonely journey to the distant heaven. But, we are not alone to begin with; our faculty also includes scientific knowledge (with a broken leg), our worldly moral, and our asura - greed and jealousy.

Of course, these little creatures are not meant for that distant heaven. If anything, they are hindrance of our soul - and they fight with each other. As you would expect, any broken knowledge succumb to our asura early in the odyssey. Our inner moral tries to resist asura - but it is to no avail.

But asura could not dominate our faculty for long, and it falls in front of the bigger beast hiding inside our faculty - the tiryagyoni (the Sanskrit word for animal), our flesh-and-blood desire to live.

And there comes the problem: Although we can do away with our asura, how could we possibly arrive at that distant heaven if we have to stay with our own inner beast?

Pi

My recent leisure reading is Life of Pi by Yann Martel.

I bought this book from Books Kinokuniya (紀伊國屋書店) of Kuala Lumpur last year - before I knew Lee Ang was making a film of it.

I did not watch the movie - but its comment and criticism were everywhere, so much so I believe I know the exact point of hot discussion: Did Pi really stay with a tiger? Or was it a story of man eating man?

Or, as my friend VW pointed out, which story should we believe when we talk about god?

*************************
The book is terrific. In fact, I enjoyed very much the first one-third of the story (before the shipwreck); Martel's insight on philosophy and religion should be written down as a compulsory chapter for the general education of all university students.

After Tsimtsum sank in the Pacific Ocean, I continued to read with a meek interest - not so much on discerning which version of the story is true, but more attracted by the physical set up of a life boat and all the details of survival tips.

But, when it came to that algae island, I saw light.

Yann Martel must be trying to say something else!

Chinese

(Real life conversations that I recently encountered.)

(After seeing a difficult case in a morning round.)

"Em... What are we going to do?" The trainee asked.

"Let's do this and that." The consultant replied.

"How does this decision come along?" The trainee went on.

"Alas! It is after a comprehensive Chinese-style democratic discussion  of the whole team." The consultant said - with a wicked smile.

"Which means...?"

"Which means it is a decision of the top leader - or you can call him our grandfather (阿爺)."

********************************
(During a team discussion on duty assignment.)

"Let's ask X to take this up." One consultant said.

"Is he willing to do so?" Another consultant asked.

"Don't worry. He is very flexible."

"What does it mean?"

(In Cantonese) "佢好易屈。"

Interpretation

(Let's call it a day for my story on complaint.)

On a recent occasion, I encountered a document that outlined the structure and function of a committee - an eye-opening experience for me.

Here is the original description:

The Committee consists of the chairperson, one of the company's senior executive or designee, and at least two other members of the advisory board (i.e. a total of four members).  Critical decisions of the Committee should be made by unanimous vote.  However, if this is not possible, majority vote will decide.  In the event of a tied vote, the Chair will hold the casting vote.

If the above paragraph were written by Sir Humphrey Appleby, let me provide Bernard Woolley's translation in simple English:

Unless all other three Committee members go against the Chairman, otherwise the latter will make the decision.

Apologize

LP was certainly impressed by my response and explained, "I must say the revision lecture really may not be up to the expectation of our students. They have good reasons to be disappointed."

"Friend, may I ask you two questions?" I asked slowly.

"Yes?"

"First, do you think the material covered in that revision lecture is important?"

"Why? If not, why on earth should I asked that private organization to give that talk?"

"Very good. Second, in the examination, did you set any question on the material covered in that revision lecture?"

"Of course! One-fourth of the questions come from that lecture."

"In that case, what's there for you to apologize?" I became more serious, "The official purpose of a revision lecture is to highlight and go through some important topics of a particular subject. It is never meant to be a comprehensive talk on everything. The pragmatic purpose, on the other hand, is to give our student's some tips and clues for the examination. If you are satisfied with yourself that what you covered in the revision lecture is important, and you did put up questions from the talk, what's there for your to apologize?"

My friend was forced to nod.

"And, I remind you, it would set a very bad precedent if you apologize," I continued, "We should be the ones to tell our students what should be taught and what they are expected to know. If what we teach does not conform to their expectation and they complain and we have to apologize, who is responsible for running the curriculum?"

Different

LP hesitated for a while and said, "Two aspects. To begin with, just to satisfy my curiosity, can you compare the two anonymous complaints and determine if they come from the same person?"

"Oh...!" I exclaimed. The request was entirely logical but very much unexpected.

After considering for a while, I cleared my throat and answered, "From what I could see, they seem to be coming from different persons."

"Why?"

I continued to play Sherlock Holmes, "It goes like this: Not only are they coming from two email addresses, the style of writing, and how the student called himself are all different. More importantly, their recipient lists are entirely different - the previous one was directed to a few colleagues who are involved in the organization of final year teaching, while this one goes straight to the top members of the faculty." (I was about to say that's why JW should be disappointed - because the tendency of making anonymous complaint is not an isolated incident.)

"I see," LP said, seemed to be satisfied with my deduction.

"So, what is the second reason of coming to me?"

"Em... I wish to seek your opinion on this," LP murmured, "In half an hour time it would be the medical grand round and all students will be together. Should I apologize to the class?"

"What!?" I could not believe my ears.

Revision

(Our discussion continued.)

I must apologize I could not show you the full original version of that email. (I have nothing to copy-and-paste, and, contrary to what many of you believe, I do not have the gift of remembering something after reading it once.)

To cut the long story short, the message was simple: Shortly before the examination, my friend arranged a revision lecture for the medical students. However, rather than giving a general review of the whole subject or picking up a few important topics for pragmatic discussion, a considerable proportion of the lecture was delivered by an invited speaker of a voluntary organization with a religion background. Some promotion activity was also involved.

I must say the practice is really borderline. But, instead, I asked slowly, "I see. What happened next?"

"As you may find from the email, it is directed to the Dean and a few other important persons of the faculty," LP said, "HK - one of the associate deans - called me and I told him what happened. In essence, the invited speaker was not meant for promotion of anything, and, whoever wrote the complaint was unlikely to be present in the lecture - because he got some of the simple facts wrong. HK concluded that he would not investigate further on anonymous complaint like this one. After all, revision lectures are outside the formal syllabus and are attended merely on a voluntary basis. There is no rule that governs their content or quality."

"In that case, the complaint is settled," I nodded, "What am I here to contribute?"

Another

My little story on student complaint seems to linger on.

Well, while I was about to draw a close to the topic, my friend KM gave me a call, "Szeto, do you have some time to talk to LP?"

"Yes... what's up?" I was slightly surprised. LP is an adjunct teacher of our medical school, largely responsible for the course on medical ethics.

"Em... he receives a complaint from the students," my friend explained, "Once again, it is anonymous."

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Fifteen minutes later, I found LP sitting in my office - he appeared more confused than upset.

"My friend, what story do we have this time?" I said with an encouraging tone. (The principal question in my mind was, in fact, why did LP come to me - but I was too polite to ask this question right at the beginning.)

He did not speak. Instead he took out his mobile phone and began to search. A minute or two later, he showed me an email on the screen.

(To be continued.)

Disclaimer

As to the email I showed yesterday, I would have to add a disclaimer as footnote.

Here is what I have to say, slightly modified from Yes, Minister:

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This email of the Right Hon. Mr. X has not been edited (besides spelling and simple grammatical mistakes), and the fact has not been verified. I leave it to the readers to make their own judgement as to whether any given statement represents:

1. what happened;
2. what he believed happened;
3. what he would like to have happened;
4. what he wanted others to believe happened; or
5. what he wanted others to believe that he believed happened. 

The truth is further obscured by reference to the memory and records of Mr. X.

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No, I'm not trying to say X is making up his version of story. Everyone, including myself, haspossible conflict of interest and may exercise economy of truth. By the law of physics, you need vertebral column to have a stand, and an opinion must have some bias.