(Let me continue with the story.)
Anna has her edge. She is humble and all willing to ask people around to help - as well as giving them the power and honor that they deserve. On the other hand, she stands in the front to face the difficulties and works relentlessly to treat her people well. It doesn't take long for her country to recover from the horrible frozen winter.
Of course the story does not end there. Amongst the monarchs previously being ill treated by the Snow Queen, The Duke of Weselton and Prince of the Southern Isles form a league and declare war to Arendelle. Although Anna has a cohesive kingdom under her hands, she is at her wits end because she is quite powerless to a military conflict.
At this time, she remembers her elder sister. She travels to the no man's land and, by this time, Elsa is quite depressed and autistic - convinced that her special power has no earthly value. But Anna gives her all the encouragement and, after a lengthy and wholehearted persuasion, Elsa agrees to come out from the ivory tower and help the new Queen.
For obvious reasons, with the capability of controlling cold and ice, the small army of Arendelle wins. Anna invites her elder sister to stay so that the two of them could run the country together. But, by this time, Elsa knows what she is good at and what she loves. She decides to retreat to her ivory tower for a simple life.
After all the hassles, the Snow Queen learns how to make the ivory tower warm.
Happy new year.
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Monday, December 30, 2013
Plot
You may say I am merely criticizing without any constructive suggestion.
Em... If I were writing the story, it might go like this:
*******************
The King of Arendelle has two daughters. Elsa, the elder one, has the special power of manipulating cold and ice at her own wish, while Anna, the young one, is just a lovely ordinary girl.
When the King gets old, he has great hope on Elsa and makes her to become the Queen of the country. Everyone is excited because they all think, with the special power of Elsa, their country will prosper. But, the reality is, after a short honeymoon period, they realize that their new Queen has difficulty to control her power. She looks down upon her ministers because she considers them useless people with no special capability. She takes whatever she wants from Dukes and sovereigns around and does not treat her alliance with fair terms. Soon afterwards, the country gradually gets frozen. Elsa is taken as a monster and has to exiled to an icy ivory tower.
After Elsa is forced to leave the country, Anna becomes the Queen of Arendelle. To begin with, she hesitates, because, without any special power like her elder sister, she doesn't think she could rule the country well. However, since the old King has no other children, she has to agree with reluctance.
I suppose you could imagine how the story is going to unfold subsequently?
Em... If I were writing the story, it might go like this:
*******************
The King of Arendelle has two daughters. Elsa, the elder one, has the special power of manipulating cold and ice at her own wish, while Anna, the young one, is just a lovely ordinary girl.
When the King gets old, he has great hope on Elsa and makes her to become the Queen of the country. Everyone is excited because they all think, with the special power of Elsa, their country will prosper. But, the reality is, after a short honeymoon period, they realize that their new Queen has difficulty to control her power. She looks down upon her ministers because she considers them useless people with no special capability. She takes whatever she wants from Dukes and sovereigns around and does not treat her alliance with fair terms. Soon afterwards, the country gradually gets frozen. Elsa is taken as a monster and has to exiled to an icy ivory tower.
After Elsa is forced to leave the country, Anna becomes the Queen of Arendelle. To begin with, she hesitates, because, without any special power like her elder sister, she doesn't think she could rule the country well. However, since the old King has no other children, she has to agree with reluctance.
Sunday, December 29, 2013
Frozen
Vivian and I brought our princesses to watch Frozen the movie during the Christmas holiday.
To begin with, as an adult with a convoluted mind, I am sure I see little point watching this cartoon of Disney. Well, I am almost right. The story is remotely related to Andersen’s The Snow Queen, and, as a musical for kids, the plot is expectedly weak and sometimes unrealistic. For example, why should Prince Hans refuse to kiss Anna? Since Elsa is regarded by everyone as a monster and there is only her younger sister to rule the country, any crook in a sane mind would jump to that opportunity and seize the crown.
Em… I must say my criticism is undoubtedly biased because I watched the 2D Cantonese version; all the songs are converted to Chinese and I am not able to determine how good they are in their original English appearance. Alas, I can’t really understand why the songs need to be converted to Chinese. After all, do we expect asking some American pop stars to sing for Yam Kim-Fai (任劍輝) and Bak Sheut-Sin (白雪仙) when a gweilo watches The Flowery Daughter of the Emperor (帝女花)?
PS. The best part of the film is, you know what, the cartoon of Mickey and Minnie that appeared at the beginning as a prologue. It is hardly a story and, I believe, has no hidden meaning. Nonetheless, it is immensely funny and entertaining.
The good old traditional Disney is really beyond comparison.
To begin with, as an adult with a convoluted mind, I am sure I see little point watching this cartoon of Disney. Well, I am almost right. The story is remotely related to Andersen’s The Snow Queen, and, as a musical for kids, the plot is expectedly weak and sometimes unrealistic. For example, why should Prince Hans refuse to kiss Anna? Since Elsa is regarded by everyone as a monster and there is only her younger sister to rule the country, any crook in a sane mind would jump to that opportunity and seize the crown.
Em… I must say my criticism is undoubtedly biased because I watched the 2D Cantonese version; all the songs are converted to Chinese and I am not able to determine how good they are in their original English appearance. Alas, I can’t really understand why the songs need to be converted to Chinese. After all, do we expect asking some American pop stars to sing for Yam Kim-Fai (任劍輝) and Bak Sheut-Sin (白雪仙) when a gweilo watches The Flowery Daughter of the Emperor (帝女花)?
PS. The best part of the film is, you know what, the cartoon of Mickey and Minnie that appeared at the beginning as a prologue. It is hardly a story and, I believe, has no hidden meaning. Nonetheless, it is immensely funny and entertaining.
The good old traditional Disney is really beyond comparison.
Saturday, December 28, 2013
Footprint
The basic idea of water footprint is simple: It is the amount of water used by a household or a country, or the amount used for a given task or for the production of a given quantity of some product or crop. For the latter, it means the total volume of freshwater used to produce a product, summed over the various steps of the production chain.
For example, the production of a cup of tea requires 32 litres of freshwater, a glass of milk means 200 litres, and one kilogram of beef is equivalent to 15,000 litres.
And, therefore, it goes without saying that for countries with limited water supply, it is far more cost effective (and more environmental friendly) to import a spoon of tea leave or a bottle of milk than to transport that gigantic volume of water to make the corresponding items locally. In fact, even if a country does not have to import water from other places to grow their own food (hardly any countries actually need so), there remains an opportunistic cost to pay. For example, do you really want to cut down the petroleum consumption slightly (by doing away with importing food from other countries) but, at the same time, cut down the freshwater available in a local river (with a number of ecological consequences to follow)?
For example, the production of a cup of tea requires 32 litres of freshwater, a glass of milk means 200 litres, and one kilogram of beef is equivalent to 15,000 litres.
And, therefore, it goes without saying that for countries with limited water supply, it is far more cost effective (and more environmental friendly) to import a spoon of tea leave or a bottle of milk than to transport that gigantic volume of water to make the corresponding items locally. In fact, even if a country does not have to import water from other places to grow their own food (hardly any countries actually need so), there remains an opportunistic cost to pay. For example, do you really want to cut down the petroleum consumption slightly (by doing away with importing food from other countries) but, at the same time, cut down the freshwater available in a local river (with a number of ecological consequences to follow)?
Friday, December 27, 2013
Water
On a first glance, it seems a good idea to grow our own food because agriculture is green.
But no. The reality is quite different.
First, agriculture is, by and large, not environment friendly. To most countries (Hong Kong included), growing our own food does not mean we turn part of the cement forest to genuine ones; it is achieved by converting some woods and grasslands of the country side into farms and fields. The place for wild trees and flowers becomes occupied by edible crops and vegetables.
You may argue producing our food locally is still a good idea because we consume less petroleum (and hence there is less air pollution) for the transportation of crops.
Well, do you know what is water footprint?
But no. The reality is quite different.
First, agriculture is, by and large, not environment friendly. To most countries (Hong Kong included), growing our own food does not mean we turn part of the cement forest to genuine ones; it is achieved by converting some woods and grasslands of the country side into farms and fields. The place for wild trees and flowers becomes occupied by edible crops and vegetables.
You may argue producing our food locally is still a good idea because we consume less petroleum (and hence there is less air pollution) for the transportation of crops.
Well, do you know what is water footprint?
Thursday, December 26, 2013
Food
I must say I should not be too harsh to the extraterrestrials on Sirius. They are noble creatures and always pave our way with good intentions.
While talking about the swarm from the ocean, I am reminded of a hot topic that comes up repeatedly in the media over the past few months: We should grow our own food.
You may think it is all advocate by fans of environment protection. But no. The original idea comes from nationalists and supporters of protectionism, and the objective is simple: If a country could be self-sufficient in terms of food supply, it has no fear of being isolated and could have all the say on her home affair as well as foreign policy.
Of course that doesn’t work out. A country can affect another by millions of ways, and food has little weight in this equation.
Although the objective is not achieved, however, the idea persists and is carried forward by environment protection groups. Their argument is simple: Agriculture means green and is environment friendly.
While talking about the swarm from the ocean, I am reminded of a hot topic that comes up repeatedly in the media over the past few months: We should grow our own food.
You may think it is all advocate by fans of environment protection. But no. The original idea comes from nationalists and supporters of protectionism, and the objective is simple: If a country could be self-sufficient in terms of food supply, it has no fear of being isolated and could have all the say on her home affair as well as foreign policy.
Of course that doesn’t work out. A country can affect another by millions of ways, and food has little weight in this equation.
Although the objective is not achieved, however, the idea persists and is carried forward by environment protection groups. Their argument is simple: Agriculture means green and is environment friendly.
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
Shuffle
If you think it is a pain in the neck to ask a group of creatures that have never seen a tree to discuss the suitable strategy for preserving the tropical forest, you may may even a lower opinion to know what happened that very morning after we fixed up with the direction.
Alas, we had a tea break and then shuffled – all creatures moved randomly to another area and discussed what projects should be undertaken to materialize the strategies being chosen. (You see? It is really poisonous to go outside the solar system. I stayed there half a day and begin to talk like an extra-terrestrial!)
And, if you have ever tried the megaphone game (傳聲筒遊戲), it is easy to predict what’s going to happen. When the earthworm was dismissed (and joined the group for South Pacific Current) and the strategy on the tropical forest was elaborated by a Neanderthal, a polar bear, a platypus, an oyster from mercury, and a ladybird from Uranus, the original strategy was interpreted in an entirely different manner.
As Humphrey Appleby always says, this kind of workshop serves only one purpose:
They appear to be doing something.
Alas, we had a tea break and then shuffled – all creatures moved randomly to another area and discussed what projects should be undertaken to materialize the strategies being chosen. (You see? It is really poisonous to go outside the solar system. I stayed there half a day and begin to talk like an extra-terrestrial!)
And, if you have ever tried the megaphone game (傳聲筒遊戲), it is easy to predict what’s going to happen. When the earthworm was dismissed (and joined the group for South Pacific Current) and the strategy on the tropical forest was elaborated by a Neanderthal, a polar bear, a platypus, an oyster from mercury, and a ladybird from Uranus, the original strategy was interpreted in an entirely different manner.
As Humphrey Appleby always says, this kind of workshop serves only one purpose:
They appear to be doing something.
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