桃李

大馬歸來，癸巳歲末，舉家於尖東日航酒店桃李團年。之前曾兩度於此用膳，水準不俗而訂位容易。這次菜單便為區區所定。

先上柚麥琵琶乳豬。此味究其原理，係燒乳豬為本，再以柚子減其油膩，麥芽添之焦香。琵琶者，始於燒鴨作法，以成品汁少味濃，扁平而似琵琶，故以名之。而今看之，與普通婚宴乳豬全體並無二致。啖之，倒也皮脆而有肉味。較之普通食肆，是優勝不少。然而回想福臨門出品，郤只能説吃過更好的。

再上是蟹拑竹笙鴿蛋燉湯。與其説是燉湯，此味倒不如當作湯菜。何也？觀其作法，是以火腿老雞先煮高湯，再扣以蟹拑、竹笙、鴿蛋、草菇、菜遠等作料。味清鮮而每樣火侯都恰到好處，較之任何車軩人食店，也是毫不遜色。

自此主菜接踵上桌，計有蝦多士、黑松露炒班球、荔芋香酥鴨、琵琶豆腐。蝦多士没吃，席上衆人均稱香口而略油，區區隔岸觀之，也是如此。

黑松露炒班球乃傳統油泡班球加松露醬的變奏。班肉嫩滑而不油，松露醬也是適可而止，不致喧賓奪主。只是部份班球偶有餘骨，於此高級食肆，便是瑕疵。順帶一提，此味伴碟之西蘭花飽吸魚汁和松露香，是出乎意料的好吃。

蝦麵

The favorite Malaysian dish of mine is har mee (蝦麵), which I had the privilege to had it twice during my recent stay in KL.

The whole idea of har mee is, you know what, an excellent example of thrifty: The head and shell are used to prepare the broth, while the flesh of the prawn is served with the noodle. Like most of the cuisine in Southeast Asian, a large amount of hot spices is added to the soup to enhance the flavor. In the original version, pig bones are used together with the prawn shell to make the broth (which helps the taste a lot), and there are a few slices of pork in the noodle. Nowadays, most restaurants use chicken bone for that purpose – so that Muslim gourmets would not be turned away.

Similar to har mee, there is a traditional dish in Jiangsu (江蘇) called three prawn noodle (三蝦麵). In addition to a broth of head and shell, there are three parts of a prawn that are added to the noodle: the flesh, the brain (蝦腦), and the roe (蝦籽). It seems highly probable that when Chinese immigrants first settled in Malaysia some 300 to 500 years ago, they brought along with them the prawn noodle, which gradually got modified to suite the local taste buds.

Malaysia

Shortly after I came back from Macau, I had another official trip to Kuala Lumpur.

You may recall I was here not too long ago (see http://ccszeto.blogspot.hk/2012/09/kinokuniya.html), but this time I stayed in a different part of the city. No time to visit any bookstore on this occasion. In fact, I spent the two days either in a hospital to take part in a professional examination or in my hotel to do my own homework.

I must say the former is the principal puropose of my trip, and it is really an eye-opening experience to see how things could be done differently in other parts of the world.

PS. Similar to my trip to Macau, I finished with another detective fiction during the flight this time. It is Agatha Christie’s Elephants Can Remember. Believe it or not, this is the only novel featuring Hercule Poirot that I had never read.

Extra

To the surprise of K, the two persons on the other side of the table do not appear to be offended by his incriminating remark.  Mr. Charrington remains speechless but is frowning even more vigorously – if that’s at all possible. Ms. O’Brien continues with her ever so charming voice, “Mr. Director, I’m afraid that’s the fact that you have not only to face, but also to swallow. To tell you the truth, opening a new wing in the museum to display kids’ paintings is just part of our plan.”

“What do you mean?” K is immediately on the guard.

“We have decided to put some paintings by the kids from the Oceania Kindergarten into your existing exhibition halls. You see? In that case you could boost up the number of your collection by a trivial sum of money.”

K is dumbfounded. He believes if he were a visitor, he would find it horrifying to see Monet’s The Water Lilies by the side of a kid’s painting. True, the original collection – and a brilliant one, too – is still there, but the value of the museum does not go up by having some extra paintings by kids. Paradoxically, the perceived value goes down. K remembers that’s a classical psychological trap described by Daniel Kahneman.

The room remains silent. K sighs. It takes a few minutes to pull himself together and leave the meeting. All of a sudden he feels that he is living in the universe with some crooked rules of physics.

Expand

For a moment, K thinks he must have misheard what Ms. O’Brien says.

“You mean… kids’ painting?”

“Yes. That's a brilliant idea. I think they are really artistic. After all, kids’ painting are a form of traditional art.” Mr. Charrington nods, "You know, many people love seeing this kind of drawing, which makes you feel good."

"Em... I still find it difficult to imagine a renowned museum to display the work of Picasso and Monet in one room but paintings of kids from kindergarten on another..."

"Mr. Director, let's face it, that's the only way you could expand," Ms. O’Brien says, "Your budget is limited, but you want to have more things to show to your visitors - or you want to appear to have more things. Who cares?"

"Madam, I'm not sure it is we who want to have more things to show - or is it you?" K suddenly finds himself courageous, "After all, should we artists decide what to display in a museum, or should you people from the Ministry of Harmony do so? In my opinion, if we do not have the money, we could keep our collection status quo and tell so to our visitors. It is the politicians who want us to expand without money - and take that as their achievements."

New

There is a long table in the middle of the room. On one side there sits two persons – a man with a large jaw and a woman with a fair face. K recognizes the former. That’s Mr. Charrington, the Minister of Art. He is frowning so hard that his face could have easily buried into the furrows.

But the one who speaks is the woman who K does not know, “Pray sit down, Mr. Director. I suppose you know the Museum is running a huge deficit. Either we could put up a plan today to fix the problem, or we would have it filed for protection under Chapter 11.”

K is puzzled. No, he understands what Chapter 11 means. (In case you don’t, it is, in essence, bankruptcy.) What K doesn’t know is who this woman is.

Mr. Charrington seems to know K’s difficulty, “Oh, let me introduce. This is Ms. O’Brien. She represents the Ministry of Harmony.”

“That’s what the Newspeak calls those people from the Home Office. Things are not going in the right direction.” K said to himself.

“Sir, what do you suggest to do?” K turns to his own minister.

“You know, we should open a new wing to attract more visitors.” Mr. Charrington says.

“But, what are we going to put up there? We have no money to expand the list of our collection.” K says.

“That’s not a problem,” Ms. O’Brien interjects, “We can use the new wing to display paintings of students from the Oceania Kindergarten.”

Museum

K hesitates before knocking at the door.

Yes, he has every reason to feel uneasy. As the director of the National Museum of Modern Art, he could hardly be called successful. Although the Museum has an exhaustive collection of modern paintings and sculptures, they seem not to attract as many visitors as K wishes to see, and, you know, it is hell expensive to maintain all these artistic possessions – not to say you’ve got to acquire a few more every now and then to keep the Museum up-to-the-date. True, the government does give some support, but the Museum runs its own budget, and it is all up to K to report to the Ministry of Art and explain how and why the deficit is astronomical.

And it is for the problem of this imbalance sheet – or, as they like to put it, a structural deficit – K is summoned to the Ministry for a hearing.

“Things that may happen will happen,” K shakes his head and murmurs to himself before he knocks.

In no time, a charming voice inside the room answers, “Is that K? We are all waiting for you. Pray come in.”

The museum director turns the knob and decides to meet his fate.

(To be continued.)

Trip

In the next morning after I attended the fasting evening meeting, I went to Macau to give a small talk.

It was a short trip as compared to what I had the night before, and, since I stayed for just a couple of hours, there’s very little for me to comment. The host is one of the very few persons that I have the utmost respect, and we had the best hospitality. In fact, it is always a great fun to sit there and watch the other people.

As Horace Walpole said, the world is a tragedy to those that feel, but a comedy to those who think.

***********************
Well, there’s another gain for me: I managed to finish with a detective fiction during the trip.

It was Watashi Ga Kare O Koroshita (我殺了他) by Keigo Higashino (東野圭吾).

Alas, it doesn’t really matter whether the story is good or not. (It is damn good.) When I was a final year student, I used to read a detective fiction (usually Agatha Christie or Ellery Queen) every Saturday, and I really cannot remember when was the last Saturday that I had such a privilege ever since I graduated.

Dinner

I must say a late meeting is not a big problem. For me, the critical question is: What about the dinner?

For that, I have a really unexpected answer: No.

You find it difficult to believe? So am I. The meeting was held in the function room of a pub, and some snacks were served – sufficient to prevent anyone from having hypoglycemia, but far from filling a stomach to any detectable extend. The supply of orange juice was limited. Coffee? Yes, you could drink as much as you like, but it was neither hot nor chilled. Who on earth with a sane mind would like lukewarm coffee in a freezing weather and with an empty stomach?

To add oil to my fire, some discussants overrun, and it was 10 PM when we finished. Thank goodness ST, my colleague from the other side of the harbour, gave me a ride so that I could arrive home an hour later.

And this was the rare occasion that I found cup noodle a great invention.

Company blacklisted.

Meeting

While going through where I dined for my birthdays in the past, I was summoned to attend a local business meeting.

It was a Friday evening, and the agenda was supposedly simple. Nonetheless, it turns out to be the most remarkable meeting that I had in the past few years – ever since that dramatic dinner symposium in 2009 (see http://ccszeto.blogspot.hk/2009/12/powerpoint.html).

To begin with, the meeting took place at a hotel that is farther away from most of us than Shenzhen but is within Hong Kong. (I agree it is physically quite impossible but the sponsor was ingenious, or ingenuous, enough to find – and to decide to choose – such a place.)

And, since it took such a long time to travel, most of us were late. (One of the attendee did really come from a hospital close to Shenzhen and was late for over an hour.) For that reason, we had to start late; the meeting was scheduled to kick off at 6:30 PM, but, at the end of the day (literally !) formal discussion eventually began at 7:15 PM.

(To be continued.)

Birthday

During a recent casual conversation, a few of my colleagues were discussing where to dine on the birthday of their other half. Since I do write diary (nearly) everyday, it doesn’t take long for me to go through what Vivian and I had for her birthday in the past 10 years:

2004 澳門台山水佬榮
2005 Toscana at Ritz Carlton (closed)
2006 Nicholini’s at Conrad
2007 北角大江戶
2008 Nicholini’s at Conrad
2009 Ruth’s Chris
2010 Ruth’s Chris
2011 Gaddi’s at Peninsula
2012 8½ Otto E Mezzo Bombana
2013 Imasa at Peninsula

And here are my treats:

2003 九龍灣中國芳﹝已結業﹞
2004 Cafe Milano at Fortress Hill (closed)
2005 Bombay Dream
2006 草苑
2007 (Dine at home)
2008 (Dine at home)
2009 好時沙嗲
2010 佐敦金山海鮮
2011 黃大仙詠藜園
2012 九龍城清真牛肉館
2013 Table 18 Bar & Restaurant

Revolution

While I am considering great physicians in the history of China and professional quality of a good doctor, my recent leisure reading is Eric Hobsbawm’s The Age of Revolution.

Hobsbawm was a Jewish Marxist historian born in 1917, and Revolution (which is the first from the Age trilogy) outlines the history of Europe from 1789 to 1848. Contrary to what most of us expect from a book of history, this paperback describes hardly any factual details of historical events during that period. The purpose of the book is not to tell you what happened (in fact, it is quite difficult to follow Hobsbawm’s discussion if you are not familiar a priori with what had happened), but to explain (basically from a Marxist point of view) why these things happened. Although the arguments are sometimes biased, the logic of discussion is mostly sound and often well supported by facts and figures.

Hobsbawm’s idea is simple. In short, there were two critical events during that period: the industrial revolution in Britain, and the revolution in France that ended up with the execution of Louis XVI. The former changed the economic structure of many societies and, in addition to many other effects, created a class of working poverty; the latter shaped the mentality of this group of poor people, cumulating in the things happened in the following decades.

Are we seeing the same problems again after the second wave of industrial revolution?

Quality

Ironically, humanistic quality was put on the second chapter of Sun’s Essential Formulary.

How about the first? It is Professional quality of a great doctor (大醫習業).

The chapter is amazingly short and I can quote it here:

凡欲為大醫，必須諳《素問》、《甲乙》、《黃帝針經》、明堂流注、十二經脈、三部九候、五臟六腑、表裡孔穴、本草藥對，張仲景、王叔和、阮河南、范東陽、張苗、靳邵等諸部經方，又須妙解陰陽祿命，諸家相法，及灼龜五兆、《周易》六壬，並須精熟，如此乃得為大醫。若不爾者，如無目夜遊，動致顛殞。次須熟讀此方，尋思妙理，留意鑽研，始可與言於醫道者矣。又須涉獵群書，何者？若不讀五經，不知有仁義之道。不讀三史，不知有古今之事。不讀諸子，睹事則不能默而識之。不讀《內經》，則不知有慈悲喜舍之德。不讀《莊》《老》，不能任真體運，則吉凶拘忌，觸塗而生。至於五行休王，七耀天文，並須探賾。若能具而學之，則於醫道無所滯礙，盡善盡美矣。

PS. It is entirely logical to put professional quality before humanistic requirements. Unlike many other professions and contrary to what most people think, the ability of a doctor is usually more important than the ethical standard. Most of the mishaps in this field are due to lack of knowledge (or failure to apply knowledge); truly unethical decisions with adequate scientific support are uncommon.

After all, an unethical doctor with sufficient knowledge is a lousy doctor, but a kind person with no medical knowledge is a pastor.

Simiao

In addition to being a pioneer of surgery in the history of Chinese medicine, it has been suggested that our medical students should learn from the humanistic side of Hua Tuo.

Em… I shouldn’t say I beg to disagree, but the information we could find in formal historical record is actually limited, and there  are certainly better ones to set a role model. For example, how about Dong Feng (董奉), who was famous for asking his patients to plant apricot trees in his garden?

But, seriously, the pioneer of teaching medical ethics and professionalism in Chinese medicine was Sun Simiau (孫思邈). In his classical textbook Manual of Emergency and Essential Formulary (備急千金要方), there was a chapter dedicated on medical ethics: Humanistic quality of a great doctor (大醫精誠).

Let me show you two paragraphs from this chapter:

凡大醫治病，必當安神定志，無欲無求，先發大慈惻隱之心，誓願普救含靈之苦。若有疾厄來求救者，不得問其貴賤貧富，長幼妍媸，怨親善友，華夷愚智，普同一等，皆如至親之想。亦不得瞻前顧後，自慮吉凶，護惜身命，見彼苦惱，若己有之，深心淒愴，勿避險巇，晝夜寒暑，飢渴疲勞，一心赴救，無作功夫形跡之心。如此可為蒼生大醫。反此則是含靈巨賊。

夫為醫之法，不得多語調笑，談謔喧嘩，道說是非，議論人物，炫耀聲名，訾毀諸醫，自矜己德。偶然治瘥一病，則昂頭戴面，而有自許之貌，謂天下無雙，此醫人之膏肓也。

Myth

Talking about professionalism, on several recent occasions, I encounter people making comments on Hua Tuo (華佗), the legendary Chinese doctor who lived in the Three Kingdoms Period.

There are, in general, two matters to compliment: Hua was regarded as the pioneer of surgery in ancient China, and, as a doctor devoted to patient care, his life and doings should be introduced to our medical students as part of the curriculum of medical ethics.

For the part on surgery, I must say my first concern is it remains debatable whether Hua did really exist. (I discussed briefly here on this matter some years ago. See http://ccszeto.blogspot.hk/2010/08/blog-post_19.html) Nonetheless, even if he was, consider the following scenario:

***********************
Patient: Doctor, I have a headache.
Doctor: Yes, you have wind in your head and need a surgery - I shall open up your skull and fix the problem.
P: Oh, doctor, may I ask for your experience? How many similar cases have you operated on in the past?
D: Nop. You are the first one.
P: Em... Do you have any training in surgery, or have you ever try it in animals - pigs or monkeys or what-so-ever?
D: Never. I am the pioneer of this field, and animals are quite different from human.
P: In that case, have you ever open up the brain of any dead body to study its structure - so that you know what you expect to find when you open up mine?
D: Don't be silly. Cutting up dead people's head is not ethical. We all regard it as a humiliation of human dignity.
P: Alas, in that case have you ever read any textbook on neuroanatomy?
D: Of course not. There is no such kind of book around.

I'm afraid you will agree with me if this very patient agrees to be operated, he would, instead, need to see a psychiatrist.

Consequence

That evening, I met the endocrine professor again.

“You know, N declines both lines of action. He just wants to express his frustration and prefers to do nothing,” she said.

“Alas, how could that be?” I sighed, “But I suppose we can still go ahead and arrange these students to meet you in the OSCE? How about me as the other examiner? I am equally fair – if not more.”

“Szeto, that’s quite impossible.”

“Why?”

"Because we do not know who the students are!"

"I think it is not difficult to trace them back. Don't we know which group they come from? We can ask Priscilla." I said. Priscilla is our secretary responsible for the third-year students' matter.

"Yes and no. We can ask, but we cannot be sure. Since the tutorial that we are talking about is an extra session arranged by some supposedly enthusiastic students, they may not come from one group. In addition, I don't think we should meet that very student who did turn up for the tutorial!"

"You are right..." I sighed and shook my head. I'm afraid the only consequence of this little incident is few of our professors will ever agree to give any extra tutorial in the future.

Response

In the next morning, I met PS in her office.

“Szeto, you read that much,” our professor of endocrinology began, “I’m going to discuss with M and N again today. What do you think we should do?”

“It’s up to you three. But, if you ask me, I think there are two possible courses of action. First, N can call that group of students to his office and give them a tutorial on professionalism. Or, if N does not have the time, we can arrange that group of students to meet N during their OSCE – possibly with you as the other examiner. I’m sure you two are fully capable of giving them a fair assessment!”

“Alas, anyone who looks at the timetable would know that something is wrong!”

“Exactly. That proves the point: Quantum mechanics does not apply to sociology. Things do not occur in random; every happening has a reason behind.” I smiled.

“Well, I shall talk to them and see.”

港孩

While writing the little story of my daughters, my friend PS showed me an email that she received from another colleague of us.

Here you go:

*************************
Hi M,

I write to report to you an incidence

A group of Med 3 students (about 15 of them) repeatedly sent email to me to ask for an additional tutorial. I don't normally due this, but due to their persistence, I finally arranged a time slot for them today. When I arrived at the ward, none but ONE showed up just to tell me that they are BUSY. I left immediately. They did not even inform me beforehand.

I am not sure what can be done, but to reflect it to the concerned persons....

N

港女

A household story that is better told in Cantonese:

老竇睇完家長通告後：“德德姐姐，你學校遲D有運動會。你可以揀60米賽跑或抛豆袋一樣嚟參加。你想揀邊樣？”

“唔…是但啦。”

老竇：“咁你鍾意玩邊樣吖？”

“都話是但咯。”

“好。慧慧妹妹你過埋嚟。不如咁，依家你兩個猜包剪揼。德德，你贏就玩60米賽跑，妹妹赢就玩抛豆袋，好唔好？”

“好…”家姐蚊滋咁細聲。

“好！！”妹妹大聲附和。

老竇：“嗱，一，二，三…哦，德德贏咗！”

家姐扁咀：“唔…不如再猜多次…”

妹妹：“好呀！再猜！一，二，三…”

老竇：“嗯，又係德德贏。就决定參加60米賽跑啦！”

“唔…嗚…”家姐開始眼淚攻勢：“做乜猜親都係我贏…”

老竇：“贏都唔高興？乜你其實想玩抛豆袋咩？”

家姐點頭。

老竇(有D勞氣)：“咁你又唔早講！”

Totoro

Although I am not entirely satisfied with the movie, Vivian has a different opinion.

“I think it is the perfect finale of the great cartoon producer.”

“Why?”

“You know, Jiro and Naoko just reminds me of the story My Neighbour Totoro (龍貓), the ground breaking movie of Miyazaki. The father of our lovely Satsuki Kusakabe (草壁梽月) was an academic of some sort, and Satsuki’s mother was staying in a sanatorium for tuberculosis.”

My wife is right. In fact, the name of the father in Totoro is Tatsuo Kusakabe (草壁辰雄).

For that reason, to add a final touch of comedy, Naoko should write to Jiro and say that she was going to Seven Hills Hospital (七國山病院) for treatment.

Wind

Watched The Wind Rises (風起了) with Vivian.

This is supposed to be the last movie to be produced by Miyazaki Hayao (宮崎駿), and my wife has great expectation. Since the two of us are well warned ahead that the story is far from a comedy, we did not bring our princesses along to the cinema.

You may probably know the plot is based on the life and time of Jiro Horikoshi (崛越二郎) – the chief engineer responsible for the design of the Zero Fighter. Alas, a genuine aircraft engineer is obviously less romantic than that appears in the movie, and the love story between Jiro and his wife is based on Tatsuo Hori’s (崛辰雄) novel Kaze Tachinu (風立ちぬ), and the name of Jiro’s wife, Naoko (菜穗子), comes from another novel of Tatsuo.

By coincidence, the two Hori studied at the University of Tokyo at the same time.

************************
I must say I was slightly disappointed when we walked out of the theatre. Well, it is good – but far less impressive than Spirited Away (千與千尋) or Castle in the Sky (天空之城).

Equal

You may come to the conclusion that it is the fault of our education system and the problem a sociological one. Yes, that’s exactly what I’m trying to imply.

Nonetheless, I am not saying medical schools pay no role in aggravating this problem.

How?

Let me give you the unlikely answer: We ask how enthusiastic they are to study medicine.

You see? Enthusiasm is assessed by whether they have participated in voluntary work or some of the faculty’s attachment program. The inevitable result is, children from affluent families are more likely to have the time and money to take part in voluntary work. As to attachment by school children, the arrangement is undoubtedly fair and all students certainly have an equal chance.

Just ask George Orwell.

Opportunity

If you conduct a survey to determine what schools do our medical students come from, you will be surprised to find that the Pareto principle is wrong – we are not having 80% of our students coming from 20% of the schools, but, 95% of them from 5% of the schools.

Let’s face it: Some school do give better students and have superior result in public examinations. No, these schools may not be offering better teaching (oh, they may, of course), but, rather, recruiting better kids , having more resource, or, having students with more resource.

The reality is, there are, broadly speaking, two kinds of schools in our city: private or public. Yes, both types have good or not-so-good ones. To study in a good private school, the family should be well-off enough to pay for the tuition fee, which is often not a humble sum.

How about good public schools? Alas, they consider several factors when recruiting students, and two remarkable ones are whether your parents are alumni and where you live. In other words, if your parents graduated from a good school, you are more likely to have the same privilege. Alternatively, if your family could afford living in a “good” area (which usually means more expensive), you would also have a better chance.

You see? What we are getting at is, not (or, not only) that students from the grassroots class are less willing to choose medicine, they are simply less likely to have an examination result good enough to apply.

Grassroots

Very soon after our discussion on teaching assistant, my friend JW appeared in the morning paper and talked about the decline in the proportion of medical students coming from the grassroots class.

(See http://hk.apple.nextmedia.com/news/art/20131230/18571510)

I have to admit the observation is entirely just, and my worry is indirectly alluded to in this site previously. (See http://ccszeto.blogspot.hk/2009/02/expensive.html) What I didn't mentioned some years ago, and what my friend is trying to imply now, is that the high percentage of medical students coming from affluent families is the result of the fact that many secondary school students from the lower social class do not apply for studying medicine, because they worry that the degree is beyond what they could afford.

Em… That may be true. It is a global phenomenon that studying medicine is getting more expensive. (For example, see Asch DA, et al. Are we in a medical education bubble market? N Engl J Med 2013; 369: 1973-1975.)

Nonetheless, I believe that’s not the major reason for having fewer students from the lower social class.

Administration

I must say my opinion is in the minority. After some discussion within the solar system, the idea of employing teaching assistant changed from asking them to help with the teaching to the orchestration of teaching and student affairs.

You may think all we need is more capable secretaries for these matters. But no. As VM, our professor of neurology, pointed out, "The problem is not really the workload of teaching; we are all eager to teach our students. Otherwise why should we take up an academic post? However, much of our energy is diverted to administrative matters related to teaching - fixing up timetables, coordination between panels and teachers, handling complaints and emergencies, and what not. You know, the whole of this morning I was engaged in a task entirely unrelated to teaching: I was asked to soothe some unhappy students!"

Many of us nodded. Nonetheless, I tapped on the shoulder of VM and shook my head, "My friend, a teaching assistant would not solve your problem. Students that could be moderated by a professor of neurology would respond very differently when they meet a teaching assistant!"

PS. As to the secretarial tasks of teaching administration, a certain degree of medical knowledge is often important. Since the actual amount of work is hardly substantial enough to occupy a full time doctor, asking an academic staff to take that up is an unavoidable compromise.

Assistant

On a recent occasion, our lady from Mercury suggested that we should employ some teaching assistants to shoulder part of our work load.

(Haven’t you heard of the lady from Mercury? Too bad. You know what, the lady lives outside the Earth, but on a planet that is the farthest away from any extraterrestrials that inhabit outside the solar system.)

On the first glance, it seems a brilliant idea. With the increasing number of medical students (and possibly other need of teaching), we really need someone to help out.

However, I become skeptical in no time. My concern is a purely pragmatic one: How could we create a post of teaching assistant that is attractive enough to recruit reasonable applicants? If a person agrees to take up a post with a modest salary and nondescript title, and the duty is nothing but regular teaching and clinical ones, they are most likely not good enough – otherwise they should have better prospect as full time academic or clinical staff.

Performance

You may ask: How was my portfolio doing during this year?

On 31 December 2012, the Heng Sang Index closed at 22656. I had around 12% of my portfolio as cash. One year later, the proportion of cash in my portfolio becomes 16%. The Hang Seng Index closed in 2013 at 23306. In other words, it rose by 2.9% over 12 months.

How much did I earn during this period?

Exactly 8%.

As always, what would happen if I did nothing to my portfolio in the past 12 months?

Alas, I would have earned 11.8% !

Not something for me to boast.

Well, if there has been any achievement, this portfolio is much more simple that the one last year.

Portfolio

Following what I did in the past two years, it seems a good time to take a look on how well one is dong in the past year.

To begin with, let me show you my latest portfolio:

You could find the one last year here: http://ccszeto.blogspot.hk/2013/01/update.html

Pioneer

Although Ryoma Sakamoto played a critical role in the process of taisei houkan (大政奉還), and the Eight Policies in the Boat (船中八策) did become the principal strategic directions of the early Meiji period, Ryoma’s contribution to Meiji Ishin (明治維新) and the modern Japan was at best indirect.

Nonetheless, Ryoma is often taken as a symbol of modernisation, and his doings were way ahead of his time.

A short story is most illustrative of what kind of person Ryoma was:

During a casual conversation, Ryoma told his friend Higaki Naoji (檜垣直治), “Combat that takes place indoor will become more common in the future, and I favor the use of kodachi (小太刀) – which is more convenient for that purpose. The traditional long sword (太刀) is rather outdated.”

A few days later, Higaki brought a kodachi and visited Ryoma again, and the pioneer of revolution took out a pistol and shook his head, “You see, this is more powerful than a kodachi.”

Some months later, Higaki took a pistol to visit his friend again and, this time, Ryoma took out Henry Wheaton’s Elements of International Law (萬國公法) and said, “My friend, pistol can only kill the enemy, but this book could revive our country!”

PS. The irony is, Ryoma did revive his country but lost his life during an indoor assassination.

Ryoma

While talking about Ricky Wong, my recent bedtime reading is Ryoma Sakamoto (坂本龍馬) by The Two Oceans Club of History Research (兩洋歷史研究會).

For those who are not familiar with the history of Japan, Ryoma was a prominent figure in the movement to overthrow the Tokugawa Bakufu (德川幕府), largely by his achievement of uniting the Choshu (長州) and Satsuma (薩摩) provinces to work against the shogun (將軍) of the Tokugawa family. He was assassinated, presumably by Bakufu supporters, at the age of 31.

As Jack London said:
I would rather be ashes than dust.
I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot.
I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.
The function of man is to live, not to exist.
I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them.
I shall use my time.

寧化飛灰，不作浮塵。寧投熊熊烈火，光盡而滅；不伴寂寂朽木，默然同腐。寧為耀目流星，迸發萬丈光芒；不羨永恒星體，悠悠沉睡終古。

Honorary

During a recent casual discussion, Vivian said with much admiration, “You know, the story of Ricky Wong is amazing. Just see how he comes back with a TV license. This undefeatable character is really the core value of Hong Kong!”

“Very true,” I smiled, “He does set a good example for our people. I must say I feel honored to be graduating from the same university as him.”

“So am I,” my wife nodded.

“In fact, I think it sounds a good idea if our university is going to give him a honorary doctor degree.”

“For what?”

“For his remarkable business skill. For his personal character. For setting a good example to all of us. From the public image point of view, this is really a good move.”

“Alas, you may be right, but what degree would you suggest? Honorary doctor of business administration?”

“Oh, don’t be silly,” I laughed, “The easiest option is no doubt a honorary doctor of social science. But, looking at how he finally gets the TV license, I suspect our Mr. Wong is good enough for a honorary doctor of political science!”