I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,(...)who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat up smoking in the supernatural darkness of cold-water flats floating across the tops of cities contemplating jazz ,who wandered around and around at midnight in the railroad yard wondering where to go, and went,leaving no broken hearts,who lounged hungry and lonesome through Houston seeking jazz or sex or soup
3.12.18
Column: Where are the poets, the wild ones?
LOOKING at the Chinese literary scene, one wonders, where are the poets, the non-conformists? Where are, as Kerouac put it, “the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved”? (Read more here)
I met him at a coffee shop near the Nam Van Lake, where he asked my permission to sit at the table. I thought it was an atypical request, given that most people here seem to be foreigner-shy (unlike in other parts of the country), and I continued reading the newspaper until he began the conversation.
He looked like a Korean – as many Northern Chinese do – but told me he came from Shenzhen and was aged 30, although with a much younger appearence. An “uncle” – which I guess means a boss in Cantonese entrepreneur lingo – brought him to Macau to work in a restaurant. Just to do the “easy stuff,” he said.
HENGQIN Island has undergone massive development over the past few years. When I first visited the neighboring island in 2009, there was almost nothing there besides some rustic restaurants serving tasty oysters.
Eight years after that visit, Hengqin’s development is quite visible from Taipa and Coloane. It is actually almost oppressing to see residential towers growing in Hengqin’s shoreline adjacent to Macau, almost like they are trying to keep up with the Joneses.
DONALD Trump’s unexpected rise to the US presidency sent waves of shock worldwide and Macau’s response was no exception. On November 9, the day the result was known, the Monetary Authority of Macao issued a statement that apparently reacted to Trump’s win without mentioning it. (Read more here)
“Politicians don’t talk. They make sounds. It’s just noise.”
CHRONICLE on the first-ever Hong Kong Formula E "ePrix"
(...) Overtaking often does not seem to be a product of brave driving, but results of the quantity of battery available. “Piquet Jr. has 42 percent of the battery available while Sam Bird has made a better management of the battery and has 46 percent of battery available,” announced the speaker. The cars don’t race as conventional cars do… Brazilian driver Lucas Di Grassi drove several laps with a broken car nose and didn’t lose a place. Something unthinkable in F1, where speed and aerodynamics go to another level. Formula E introduced a new lingo to racing. Terms like “energy management” are being heard for the first time. “Energy is quite complicated… they way you utilize to optimize lap time,” Grassi said at the winners’ press conference. It seems like the drivers are racing like I try to manage the battery of my cellphone.(More here)
THE report on the mid-term review of the city’s gaming industry is a precious tool for the analysis of the status quo in Macau. The 280-page (Portuguese language version) document was efficiently presented in May by the Secretary for Economy and Finance, Lionel Leong; the director of the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, Paulo Martins Chan and Davis Fong, the director of the University of Macau’s Institute for the Study of Commercial Gaming, who compiled the commissioned report. (Read more here)
MY column this week: "In Macau’s politics we often see the application of the principle articulated by the writer Tomasi di Lampedusa in his novel “The Leopard”: “If you want things to stay as they are, things will have to change.” But with a local twist: sometimes things will not stay as they are… they will get even worse." (Read more here)
To play or not to play politics - that is the question
(...) I wouldn’t go as far as certain philosophers who claim that everything is politics. But when someone is contributing to reach common decisions that affect a group of people, they are engaging in politics, even if their power is very limited. Therefore, it seems that this stress on the term “with no political power” derives from a somewhat apolitical view of the world, where only a few privileged are entitled to engage in politics and all others should follow.
BECAUSE of its conflicted nature, journalism has been portrayed by American films since the beginning of the cinema industry. Following the work of a Boston Globe investigative team, this year’s Best Picture Oscar winner, “Spotlight,” is just the latest in the line of great movies about journalists.
On the top of my list is “All the President’s Men” (directed by John Schlesinger 1976), about the struggle of two Washington Post journalists – Bernstein and Woodward, played by Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman – to uncover what some consider the biggest scoop ever: the Watergate scandal that brought down nobody less than US president Richard Nixon. The movie shows the merits of good journalism and its reach in a democratic society. Two persuasive reporters work almost like detectives, fact-checking clue after clue until they have no doubt that the president himself is implicated in the conspiracy. Quote of the film: “Deep Throat says our lives may be in danger.”
But journalists are not always depicted by Hollywood as the “good guys.” One of my all time favorites is the little-known “Ace in the Hole” (directed by Billy Wilder, 1951), where an unscrupulous former big-city reporter (played by Kirk Douglas) creates a media circus around a man trapped in a cave. The film foresees the sensationalism of 24-hour TV news channels and the human obsession with tragedy that feeds media sensations. Quote: “I can handle big news and little news. And if there’s no news, I’ll go out and bite a dog.”
Also shot during the 50s, “Sweet Smell of Success” (by Alexander Mackendrick, 1957) portrays New York’s most influential columnist, J.J. Hunsecker (played by Burt Lancaster), and his rotten dealings with a press agent. Quote: “You’re dead, son. Get yourself buried.”
Filmed in black and white, “Good Night and Good Luck” (directed by George Clooney, 2005) depicts the opposition of great journalist Edward E. Murrow to Senator Joseph McCarthy. Murrow (played by the circumspect David Strathairn) is on a quest to protect freedom of speech in America and has to fight not only McCarthy but also the management of CBS, the TV station he works for. Quote: “We’re going to go with the story because the terror is right here in this room.”
Another genre in which movies relating to journalism are common is, of course, crime. “Capote” (directed by Bennett Miller, 2005) depicts writer Truman Capote’s investigation into a sordid criminal case in the US countryside. Capote (beautifully interpreted by Philip Seymour Hoffman) develops a close relationship with one of the killers, who is waiting for the electric chair. Quote: “If I leave here without understanding you, the world will see you as a monster. I don’t want that.”
There are many movies about journalists as foreign correspondents who witness atrocities beyond imagination and risk their lives to tell the world what they saw. One of them is “Killing Fields” (directed by Rolland Joffe, 1984), about a New York Times correspondent in a Cambodia ravaged by the “Khmer Rouge” revolution. He tells the story but is torn by feelings of guilt after leaving behind his Cambodian friend and translator. Quote: “This is a big story, a major story, understand? We have got to get down there!”
From a humorous perspective, “Wag the Dog” (by Barry Levinson, 1997) is a great movie about the power of mass media, particularly television. What happens when a spin-doctor and a Hollywood producer join hands and make up a war to cover-up a presidential sex scandal? Quote: “The American people bought that war. War is show business – that’s why we’re here.”
Biography is another genre where journalists often appear as observers to the lives of great men, such as the epic “Gandhi” (directed by Richard Attenborough, 1982), where Charlie Sheen plays a reporter who accompanies the Indian martyr during some key moments of his life.
Not exactly a biography, the classic “Citizen Kane” (by Orson Wells, 1941) should also be included. Like Charles Kane (or is it William Randolph Hearst?) said, “If the headline is big enough, it makes the news big enough.”
IN the early hours of the first day of the Year of the Monkey (February 8), I visited the A-Ma Temple and witnessed a memorable moment. The night was misty and there was the occasional sound of firecrackers, which are thought to scare away evil spirits. The square facing the temple was crowded with families coming from their CNY-eve dinners. People were buying joss sticks, altar candles and pinwheels from the stalls facing the temple and dutifully proceeding inside in order to pray and make wishes for good fortune, prosperity, and wellbeing. For someone who comes from the West – where religion and superstition nowadays have, let’s say, more contained expressions – it’s puzzling to see grown men and women making their beautiful, newly-bought pinwheels spin around and around in the breeze inside the temple and bowing to the goddess. Both tradition and faith say that praying brings blessings and that pinwheels may help “to turn one’s luck around,” or turn obstacles into opportunities. That’s why they are a revered symbol during the Spring Festival. “Pinwheels are made with a number of pinwheels and auspicious elements affixed to a frame. As the pinwheels revolve in the wind, the individual pinwheels secure and multiply the states of being or the spiritual benefits desired by the worshiper. Those who suffer from bad luck, are dissatisfied with their living conditions, or are concerned about family and personal issues, hope to effect a change in their fortunes, or at least, an easing of difficulties, from the good effects of the pinwheel,” explains Janet Lee Scott in her book “For Gods, Ghosts and Ancestors: The Chinese Tradition of Paper Offerings.” Those who believe in the benefits of the pinwheel are in the realm of magical thought. But who said that allowing ourselves a certain degree of magical thought every now and then is wrong or childish? It was precisely that eruption of tradition and superstition that brought about the fairylike atmosphere at the A-Ma Temple on the first day of the first lunar month. My foreign eyes see the Chinese New Year as a blend of Christmas and New Year’s Eve. There’s the moment of family reunion, gift exchange (“lai see”), and also the countdown to midnight and passage to another season. There are promises of good luck and well wishes in the air, with cheerful people dressed in their best clothes, celebrating together with their loved ones, making wishes for a better future, shouting “kung hei fat choi!” In the fast-paced world we live in, where so many families are disrupted and greed rules, the brief moment of CNY benevolence is worth all the magical thought. In Macau, the lunar year started with mixed feelings. On the positive side, the number of tourists who entered the region during the festive week totaled 908,000. The official data released by the Public Security Police Force indicates that this is an increase of 4.7 percent when compared with the 2015 CNY, but my impression when walking downtown is that there have been busier years in the past. Anyway, tourists, especially those from the mainland, still like to visit this “charming and quiet place,” as they say. Time to make a profit while that perception lasts… The bad news was the fire at the main pavilion of the A-Ma Temple, rightly considered to be one of the city’s top attractions. According to the initial assessment, the damage is not irreversible and the major repair works will be concluded within three months. But those who are prone to the above-mentioned magical thought would certainly say that it is a bad omen for Macau. (published in MDT)
IT’s common to find in mainland China examples of what I
deem the “fake international” model. To give a familiar example, in a newly
developed area in Hengqin there is a line of restaurants next to a huge tourist
complex. There you have a “Portuguese restaurant” decorated with the
traditional tiles, next to several Southeast Asian eateries and other venues
that feature some decorative aspects that may convey an international look.
What’s peculiar in these cases is that the food in these
restaurants tastes almost the same. Even the menus are similar. I suspect that
the “international kitchen” is centralized, serving all the restaurant fronts
at the complex.
Places like these cater for thousands of mainland tourists
that, in most cases, have never set foot outside China. Some of them have
probably never visited Macau or Hong Kong. For them, the restaurants look
“foreign” and thus give the appearance of an international environment. It
doesn’t matter if the food is genuinely international or not. There’s no way to
compare it with the real thing.
The same phenomenon is also on the rise in Macau, I’m
afraid. Recently I visited a “Thai restaurant” that had just opened downtown
and featured Thai flags at the entrance. The interior is decorated with wooden
elephants, probably bought cheaply in Chiang Mai or even in mainland China.
The restaurant is managed and apparently owned by young
local people, who are almost unable to speak any other language than Chinese
and seem surprised when a “gwai lo” enters their establishment.
Once you are seated, the international façade/charade starts
to fall. The food has some Southeast Asian inspiration, but you can hardly call
it Thai. After consulting the menu, I picked a dish that is perhaps as famous
in Thailand as the “African Chicken” is in Portugal.
In Macau we also have countless examples of “trattorias”
where the risotto costs a fortune but would bring shame to any Italian tavern.
Or the apparently sophisticated cafes that seem to be the only form of youth
entrepreneurship in Macau, as some lawmakers recently pointed out during the
Policy Address debate. It all looks very nice until you try the coffee and it
tastes like dirt.
This “fake international” logic is understandably popular in
some parts of China. But here in Macau, given the region’s history and the
resources available, it’s possible and expectable to have genuine international
influences. Nevertheless, we see that bogus logic growing and causing
ramifications that go as far as heritage issues. This is the logic behind the
“Parade Through Macau, Latin City,” for example.
The casinos also play a role in perpetuating the “fake
international” model. Just look at the British Royal Guards greeting the guests
outside a local casino, among many other possible examples, to see the point.
If Macau’s heritage is despised or commercialized, it risks
becoming a façade and a ruin similar to St. Paul’s.This logic will not contribute whatsoever to
the proclaimed aim of setting up Macau as a “World Centre of Tourism and
Leisure.” Like the slogan, it is a naïve pretense.
MYlast take on Macau: "What happens when a society’s most esteemed values turn out to be flawed? And what happens if a region subsists on the presence of legal loopholes? I believe that many foreigners living in Macau began their summer holidays with this question – or variants of it – on their minds. People here are disenchanted."
PACHECO Pereira, um grande leitor do país, numa incisiva crónica no Público: Não é este o meu Portugal. Não lhes tenho respeito. Uns fazem por si, outros fazem pelos outros. Conheço-os bem de mais. Não gostam dos de “baixo”. Acham que eles são feios, porcos e maus. Querem receber sem trabalhar. Querem viver à custa dos outros, deles. Se estão pobres é porque a culpa é sua. Se estão desempregados é porque não sabem trabalhar. Se se lamentam da sua sorte, são piegas. Deviam amochar disciplinadamente para serem bons portugueses. Não. “Há-de gelar-te o coração”.
