Conversational Topic #6 - "Countries don't have friends, they have interests..."

Being an avid follower of history, I often read up all sorts of historical developments, and one thing I've seen so far that remains constant since the 1st century, and flares up even today-whitewashing of pasts.

While most of the powers-that-be in charge of countries declare themselves inpartial and honest, the base human instinct of being the victim and gross exaggeration comes into play, and not just by dictator-run lesser economically developed countries. One example would be the annual China vs. Japan diplomatic firefight. Both countries have long collective national memories, and significant pride. This results in the usual bickering over war crimes in World War 2. While China has a point, (See the Rape Of Nanking, and the chemical and biological incident at Changde.) it too has been guilty of blanking out numbers and data in unfavourable situations(The Great Leap Forward, Cultural Revolution, Tiananmen Square protests.) Personally, I feel while China has a right to demand an apology, it has little right to read the riot act to Japan on correcting history. Pot, meet kettle.

While such actions draw much condemnation (If they are ever proven/caught), it would always occur. Anyone who has handled young children would know they do not need to learn how to victimize or exaggerate to swing people to their side. When manipulated skillfully, leaders would use the same techniques to sway public opinion to their cause, even with baseless or otherwise callous accusations. (See Joe McCarthy, Ayatollah Khomeini) Such individuals are rare, to the fortune of human society in general. Having too many people who are good at Demagogy could mean some major problems.

By The Dolphin

"He pauses shaving and he tells himself that he is the bomb,
She has her curlers set, her credit cards are paying the funds,
He's not that old, I've been told,
She goes out every day ,
She goes every way...oh yeah!

And they don't even care at all

She's open waiting for more;
And I know he's only looking to score,
And it's way too unhealthy,
Often they've typically,
Been starved for attention before."

Blink 182-Enema Of The State-Mutt

IT Show 2007

-This post has been marked for journal purposes.-
Although I have not been updating my blog the past 2 weeks, this week I have a good excuse, having gotten a part-time job at the IT Show held at Suntec City, selling BenQ Projectors. Much of the work is strenous, both physically (Imagine standingwalking about for 9 hours, getting 15-20 minutes to scarf down some food during lunch and dinner), to mental (Trying customers, assault on well-being from being in front of Pioneer's sound-and-movie setups).

For most part, the customers who came were decent folks, even those who were just curious about the projectors. However, there are those you just wish you could murder them as an example to others. The 'best' offenders involved the clueless-"Do you make digital photo frames?" to the incredibly cheapskate-"How about you reduce the price by $200, and give me a free screen...?"
and even a visit by the "Avatar of Retardicus, from the pantheon of the mentally-infirm deities"-"Can i get a smaller projector (Currently size of an A4 paper, weight 1.3kg) for under $1500? (Ours costs $2,699)"

Being paid on a commission on top of a rate, selling machines took utmost importance. The first day was great, selling 2, although just getting the hang of things. Day 2 netted 9 projectors, including an epic 4 projector order from a certain organization. Day 3 was poor, with only 1 sale, while ending on day 4 with a respectable 4, for a total of 16 projectors.

One discrepancy I found was the sales between weekday (11) and weekend (5). One reason I accounted this is that while traffic increased, most of the people belong to the "unwashed masses" who came looking for something cheap, i.e. under $400, and asking things as compatibility of their Starhub Cable Vision(SCV) 'box', as opposed to the lunch-and-dinner crunches of the weekday, with business-types who had done their homework come and discuss
deep details such as Lumens and DVI usage.

All in all, I'd not recommend too many such experiences such as this-I still can't feel my legs.

By The Dolphin

"Tell me why can't you see, it's not the way,
When we all fall down, it won't be too late.
Why is there no reason we can't change?
When we all fall down, who will take the blame?"

Sum 41-Chuck-No Reason