Wednesday 29 October 2008

Typical Affair

Thomas and Amanda was a very sweet couple. They got married after they graduated from college. It may seem that they would stick together to the end. However, one day Thomas was demanded by his boss that he was going to the newly found factory in Mainland China to establish their new business there. Thomas had no other choices but go there because he had to earn money to support his family. Despite of Thomas’s will, Amanda, who was deeply attached to Thomas, was naturally reluctant to let him go. She loved Thomas so much that she could not even just imagine the days without him. She could not sleep on the bed without his warm hand circle on her belly. She could not watch idiotic talk show without Thomas’s loud laughing. She could not stand waking up in the morning without a cup of hot tea on the table and a note telling her to remember to eat the breakfast he made before going to work.

“Why you? Why can’t the boss send someone else to do the job?”

“Because I am the only person he trusts. And this is a great opportunity to get me promoted if I do well on the business in China.”

“Then let me go with you. I must go with you. I can’t live without you.” Amanda said.

“No you must not. It is too dangerous for you to come with me. The condition there is very bad. I cannot put you in the perilous place. Plus, you may not accustom to the environment there.”

“For you, I can get used to any terrible conditions,” said Amanda.

“I know you can. But the problem is that I can’t. I cannot bear worrying about your safety all day when I’m working. It is not possible that I can get good performance on my job under that condition.”

Amanda still wanted to persuade Thomas to take her with him, but Thomas had determined that he must go to China alone.

Amanda was extremely heartbreaking when Thomas left. She called her three times a day, and just couldn’t hang up the phone. She couldn’t help badgering at him for trifles because she loved him so much that she just wanted to talk to him. The longer the phone call was, the more joyful Amanda was.

But Thomas did not think the same way. At first he was also very happy to receive her calls. Nevertheless, day after day, with his work getting heavier and heavier, he had become busier and busier, and did not really have so much time to talk to Amanda anymore. But he still got her three calls a day, three long long calls. Gradually he got tired. He didn’t want to answer the phone anymore. It is not that he loved Amanda no more. He was just exhausted for the job and for the seemingly interminable nagging phone calls. He wanted to have his own time to rest. He wanted to find a place for him to relax.

Amanda had not talked to Thomas for three days. Every time she called, he didn’t answer. Not only this, Thomas had recently acted strangely to her. First in their last few calls, when she complained about the trifles of the housework and the gossip she heard from the neighbor, he became impatient and trying to end the conversation quickly as though there were somebody else in the room. At their last call, he even hung up the phone abruptly without saying goodbye. And now, he had not answered her phone three days already. Amanda became dubious of his beloved husband.

“Why didn’t he answer my phone? Did I say something bad about him? Maybe he was working on a huge project that he didn’t have time to answer my phone. Or maybe his phone was broken. Or…… Or…… ……”

Even though Amanda tried to excuses for Thomas’s weird behavior, she just couldn’t convince herself. The thought of his husband’s unfaithfulness grew in her mind.

“Can it be possible that he cheats on me? No! Of course not. I love him. And he loves me too! Does he?”

Amanda decided to find the truth that whether her husband was cheating on her or not. She hired a private agent to investigate the affair.

A week later the agent responded with an envelope filled with photos of Thomas and another woman. They went to a shopping mall, went for dinner, and even went back to Thomas’s dormitory together. The evidence of Thomas’s affair overwhelmed Amanda. She couldn’t believe the man who said that he would love her and take care of her forever would one day cheat on her. The fact was just too shocking for her to handle.

“This is not real. I must be dreaming. Thomas would NEVER cheat on me. The man I loved, the man hold me in arms every night , the man who always woke up early to prepare breakfast for me, the man who said he loved me forever, the man…, the man…… There must be some misunderstanding. I must go find him to ask him the truth. He will tell me that the thing the photos shows is absolutely not true. It was just coincidence. The man I loved would never cheat on me. I must go find him.”

Amanda went to China to find Thomas.

Three days later, Amanda went back to Taiwan alone. She also brought a huge luggage of a statue which looked just like Thomas.

From then on, no one had really seen Thomas. Amanda had since then never left her house. She put the statue in every corner in the house. She let it sit on the chair and place a cup of tea on the table as if the statue would take up and drink. She put it beside her on the couch when she watched TV. She even put it on the bed when she slept. She laid its arms around her stomach.

“The man I loved is still mine. Mine…….”

The Intrigue to Control the World

Have you ever thought about a question—are we really live in the world we believe? Is life really going as simple as it looks like? Once you finish reading my discovery, you may not be able to think that way anymore. Here is the thing: One day I was thinking about buying a pen. I always bought Mitsubishi’s pen, for it works the smoothest in writing. However, as I looked in my pencil case, I found out all of my pens are made by Mitsubishi, even my ruler is too. I sprouted a thought that the three-diamond mark has also appeared on the front of the cars. Then the company must be very big to produce these thoroughly different types of items. Therefore, out of curiosity, I decided to look up for information about Mitsubishi. I wanted to know if there are still other kinds of companies in it. To my astonishment, the content of aspect in the companies was way beyond my imagination—much, much more.

When we hear the name ”Mitsubishi,” normally the first thing comes to the mind is its automobile company. The brand is the most common item among various Mitsubishi Corporations. It is pretty regular to see the diamonds on the streets. Since 1970, it has become one of the biggest automobile manufactures in the world. In addition, Mitsubishi Motors had reached 1.3 million cars of total production in 2007—a huge success in sales in Taiwan, Southern East Asia, and is looking for the market in China. With the great amount of output of the automobile, Mitsubishi can easily control the car price in the public market. Whether the cost goes high or low, it all depends on the company’s will. Fortunately, they did not plan to sell the cars solely to the rich. They provide cheap and basic version of cars to the lower class people letting everybody has the chance to own their car. Of course, on the other hand, there are exquisite and luxurious vehicles which may contain GPS, TV, and more powerful engine for the upper class people.

Nevertheless, things introduced above are just the one people can imagine. It is just a tinge of the tremendous Mitsubishi Group. The true phenomenal success of business among all the companies is the Mitsubishi Corporation (MC), which is now Japan’s largest general trading company, with over 200 bases of operations in approximately 80 countries worldwide. We can see its extent from its worker number that together with its over 500 group companies, Mitsubishi employs a multinational workforce of nearly 54,000 people. Under the extraordinary high market share, MC can never be looked down of its power in the market.

Beyond the high market share, the diversity is the really startling part of Mitsubishi. They want to involve in every part of our life! For instance, Mitsubishi Bank, the core company of Mitsubishi Group, is actually Asia’s largest financial services company measured by assets. They also involved themselves in insurance business, real estates, even the famous tourist company—Golden Sado., Ltd. as well. Nikon, a famous brand of camera, is also one of its companies.

Still, despite of its commercial trades among the business world, Mitsubishi has great influence on the world’s chemical industry. Mitsubishi Chemicals, now the largest Japanese chemical company, has developed miscellaneous items by synthetic resin, which is the source of all kinds of chemical product from umbrellas, plastic bags, to papers, clothes, etc. One of those is Asahi Glass Co., one of the largest flat glass companies in the world, significantly influencing glass industry in Europe to North America in general. The Mitsubishi Chemicals has the power to affect the world’s manure, glue, fiber, medical agricultural business, and farm business with its machines. We can almost say every daily utensil we would use has a connection to Mitsubishi Chemicals in some way.

If you were already shocked being surrounded by the companies mentioning above, then you must be frightened to hear the following part. Mitsubishi has actually involved in food business too. In fact, the famous beer company Kirin is one of the members of the group. Furthermore, Mitsubishi has also invested in crops, dried laver, vinegar, and many other food ingredients, which means they have control the source of food’s raw materials. Thus, it is very likely that every food you eat has something to do with Mitsubishi. Not merely the food has connection to the corporation; the clothes we wear are related to the company too. Mitsubishi owns Rayon companies which produce most of our clothes—gauzes, jeans, jumpers… Every costume you wear is from Mitsubishi. How scaring is it!

The name Mitsubishi may not be heard very often every day, but it actually controls nearly every part of our daily life, from what we eat, what we wear, what we drive, to what we use per day. Once they decide to raise the price of the products, the whole world will be affected. When I found out the possibility of the inflation or corruption of the business around the world, I wondered why no one has noticed and reported it. According to my memory, there was a time when similar situation had happened.

In late 19th and early 20th centuries, “Trust” had gained economic power in the U.S. The term “Trust” means the corporate leaders of a board forced the shareholders of all the companies in one industry to transmit their shares to a board of trustees, in exchange for dividend-paying certificates. This board would then be in command of all the companies in Trust and minimize the competition in the process, causing the monopolization in general—including oil, steel, tobacco, and marine companies. Nonetheless, the U.S. president latter established the “Antitrust Laws,” which was called “Competition Laws” in other countries, ending the era of monopolization.

Since we have a precedent in the history, then how come there is no one discovering the fact and accusing them? Here is the problem, or the corporation’s scheme. The Mitsubishi Group cleverly separates its corporations to small companies. They even use different names to develop its own business. Therefore, people would hardly perceive the siege of the company. Still, whether they know or not, the truth is—those heads of all these businesses are all related or controlled by the Mitsubishi Group.

As you know the intrigue of the Mitsubishi, maybe it is time for you to rethink about what you use every day and concern for the monopolization of international group. You can start now, having your own thinking about the international group. After all, nobody would like to be ruled without knowingly or unwillingly.

Breaking the Habit: Dozing off at Class

It is said that nearly 95% of students all over the world have the record of dozing off in classes. Needless to say, I am one of them. Since I became a junior high student, I had felt drowsy in many classes thanks to the hardworking last night. However, after I took some advices from others, I have broken the bad habit thoroughly. Therefore, if you also want to quit the bad habit to get more efficiency during the lessons, you can follow my steps.

First of all, there is one thing to do before going to school—preview. Maybe it does not sound it has much to do with the issue, but it does help you to stay awake in class. All you have to do is spare about fifteen minutes before going to bed briefly flipping through the textbook, preview the lesson which will be conducted tomorrow. Previewing the material which will be covered the next day would let you better understand the teacher’s lecture and keep you interested in the lessons, thus it would in some way to help you stay conscious during the class.

The next thing to do is get good and sufficient sleep everyday—at least seven hours a day. To do so, of course you have to go to bed early every night. Still, there are some ways to prevent you from the awkward situation that you cannot fall asleep even though you have already been tucked in the bed for a long time. One is that you should not do drastic exercise before bed time lest you get over excited and cannot cool down easily. Another one is that you should be aware of not to watch too much TV before going to sleep because the program would linger in your head keeping you thinking. When you try to sleep in the bed, you should keep your thoughts plain; just relax your mind and body. By doing so, you can have bigger chances to get good sleep. Inadequate sleep, in the contrast, would easily cause the desire for sleep in classes, making you hardly concentrate on the teaching.

After previewing the lessons and having a good sleep, you may not easily feel drowsy at class anymore. But everything has exceptions. At times some courses are just too boring to stay awake. Hence, here are some tips for you to fight with the Hypnos (the god of sleep) in classes. When you feel like sleepy during the speech, you can drink some water to take a rest; you can hold a candy in the mouth, or even chew gums to distract the attention from sleepiness. Chewing is a way to exercise the muscles which can prevent the mind stop working. Moreover, having a taste in the mouth will give you another thing to feel besides the possibly boring lecture.
Nevertheless, you have to be careful—some teachers do not like students eating in class.

Another tip to remain conscious in class is to think something interesting. For example, you can look through the text book to find sentences or pictures which is interesting or scaring. Or you can observe others’ motions when they feel sleepy as you do. It may give you a lot of fun by seeing classmates’ action when battling against drowsiness. If these all fail, you can just look out the windows daydreaming: what to eat after class, which basketball team won last night; or you can even think about something serious like “live and dead” issue, etc. Just isolate yourself from the lesson for a while. It would help you regain the energy for the address.

What if the tips above all fail to work—you can no longer prop up the heavy eyelids and about to faint? A timely tap on the back would certainly wake you up. It is said that being shocked when drowsing would give the person the most strength to stay awake. Consequently, you can ask your friends to help to arouse you by a pat on the back, a note to alert, or a voice of your name. According to my personal experience, this method works the best. A sudden stimulus can send you all the vigor you need in a class which makes it effortless to regain the concentration to the course.

The last step to follow to cut out the bad habit is to take a good rest in the break time. Get some fresh air outside the classroom. Go to the sink using cold water to wash your face. Or go to the canteen to buy a cold drink which you can use it to ice your forehead during the class. These motions can not only rest your mind and body, but also give you power for the next class.

Once you take all these steps, you will find out that you are not the person who always dozes off in class anymore.

A Heart-breaking Fight

There was a time in my life so miserable that the impact still lingers in my heart. My father was an alcoholic at that time, always getting drunk after work. When he went back from work, he would often have a quarrel with my mom. Thus the atmosphere in my house was always very tense, especially at nights. However, there was a peculiar night that the situation became even worse, throwing the image of strong tough mother in my mind to the vulnerable oppressed woman.

It all happened from the threshold of the house when I got back from cram school one stormy night. As I walked into the hallway, I was immediately shocked by the mess of the entire house—broken plates and cups spread all over the floor, ornaments which used to hang on the wall were pulled off, the scene looked like the house had been thieved. However, the situation was in fact even worse. Walking into the living room, I saw mom standing beside the cabinet, looking extremely irate. She kept angrily staring at the couch. As for dad, just as I expected, he was lying on the couch, looking completely drunk. Immediately, I knew something awful had happened, and the disturbing atmosphere told me better to leave the scene as soon as possible. Therefore, in case of being involved in a fierce fight, I quickly crept into my room.

Nevertheless, even though I had hidden myself well in the bedroom, I still suffered the verbal abuse from the violent fight.

“You irresponsible bastard!” said mother, “How can you get yourself into this mess again? Don’t you know that I was worried the hell about you?”

“You don’t understand anything, woman. The pressure in the office was… devastating. I worked like a dog to earn our bread. So after a burdensome work day, I deserve a rest,” father yelled back.

“How about your responsibility of the house chores?” mom vehemently shouted, “I need to work too. And after work, I still have another job to do the chores. Do I look like a robot or a superwoman? How dare you just selfishly get drunk and pretend none your business!”

Young as I was, I could not endure hearing the frightening shouts and yells from two of my dearest people in the world. I was thoroughly terrified. Out of fear, I turned on the music to cover the fighting sound, excluding myself in the music. Yet, the roaring was too loud to be overlapped, so I could still hear what they were howling.

“Don’t you think that I don’t know what you did behind me,” dad yelled, ”You have been seeing another guy, haven’t you?” said father.

Parents really should not let their kids hear this kind of ugly things, but the truth is—I heard it. Not only so, I could even hear the following blackguardly words father said to mom. It absolutely distressed me when overhearing this. Abruptly, an anger had come to mind saying:”I do not need to suffer this.” I walked back and forth in my room thinking whether I should go out and interfere it or not. Nonetheless, courage was what I lacked at that time—I was too young to stand straight up to parents. Thus, I chose cowardly stay in the room, but still tolerating no more, I roared at top of my lung with the song, hoping the fight would end soon.

Still, things would hardly happen in the way you hope. The fight did not cool down whatsoever, on the contrary, it went worse. Mom had become hysterical—she seemed to have emotional explosion because she began to cry out loudly. What’s worse? The sound she throwing thing away which may break on the ground was dreadful, while dad used foul words to insult her. And I, I was crouching on the opposite corner in the room against the door, trying to get the longest distance apart the fight. Never would I expect mom would breakdown one day, because in my memory, mom has always been a mature and caring woman. It was not until mom collapsed had I noticed that the fight was very extraordinary than others. The severer conflict went on, the louder bawling became. Finally mom could not abide it anymore, rushing out the house and slapping the door on dad’s face. Notwithstanding dad still indignantly growled and bellowed at the door though mom has left already.

It was very complex to describe my feelings in the incident. I was desperate to be involved in the fight. I got resentful, for they did not consider how I felt when they were vehemently roaring and shouting. But the strongest feeling I got was the sense of helplessness, for I could do nothing except cowardly hiding behind the music in the room. I felt extremely disappointed for myself and my miserable life.

Mother was not home for three days. I had to put up with, struggled with the depressing atmosphere in the house. However, as the years go by, I finally realize that: it was parents’ fault to let their children feeling so sorrowful to their life. They should have known that children are often the real victims of the heart-breaking fight. Children actually get the most serious harm deep in their minds, because the impact may stay in the children’s heart forever. It may even influence the personality development of the children in the long run. The hearts the fight breaks are in fact the children’s hearts.

A Night Market Scene from a Beverage Stall

It was an unusual sultry June evening which the heat even made the air judder. After spending entire day studying at home, I decided to relax my mind by going for a drink in the night market nearby the neighborhood. The sun had just set beneath the horizon, the firmament turned from golden yellow to dark purple black. The night market was just about to open. And I walked into a small inconspicuous beverage stall in the corner and ordered a glass of cold black tea. In fact, it was the black tea that pressed me into the observation of the boisterous bazaar.

In fact, I was overwhelmed when the tea was served on the table. The first thing catching my eyes was the thick creamy white bubbles with a few spots of chocolate brown caramel on the surface, interlacing into a beautiful painting of a bodhi leaf like those would do on the cappuccinos. Then it kept amazing me as I looked down the surface because the color of the tea was very rare to be seen in normal beverage stalls. It was lucent red, easily penetrated through by the light and glowing like a chunk of garnet. With the impression of gorgeous jewelry, I smelt the fragrance of the delicate fresh tea like those leaves were just plucked from the trees. Then I took a slightly sip of the bubble tea. It was though a bit sweet but the leaf’s natural flavor was well preserved in it. And after a short time, the aftertaste of the sugary sweetness began to scatter in my mouth. And the sweetness of fresh tea had lingered in the jaw for a long time.

As the aftertaste remained in my mouth, I started the journey of observation over other stalls in the night market. First was the juice booth next to the stall I stayed in. The cubicle was replete with fresh fruits especially the papayas displayed on the stand with a green light spotting on, which made them look even fresher. Also the hue of the papaya milk was almost as soft as the sunset making me eager to taste. Then, on the opposite side of the juice booth across the street was a barbecue stall selling grilled sausages. I could only see the smoke started by burning the charcoal swirled up beautifully like a snake gracefully crawling to the heaven. Suddenly, as the roasted sausages’ fragrance spread, I felt a bit hungry when smelling the meat. It reminded me of the days in fifth-grades, I often bought a stick of grilled sausage on my way home as a snack after school.

As the firmament got darker and darker, the night market seemed to become more and more boisterous with throngs of people appeared on the street. The game stalls vendors looked ecstatic as if it was the first time they saw so many people in the night market. They vociferously bawled to passengers asking them to come to visit their stalls. Being a spectator, I watched people vehemently throwing darts beside the grill stall, fervently netting fish behind the beverage stall, and damping the ground by casting water polo to a Styrofoam wall which had been drew five layers of concentric circles and marked with different scores in the middle of the street. My ear was steeped in the strident music of the raucous marble games and the customers’ shouting sounds. I could feel something changing in the night market.

With the time passing, the night bazaar had congregated more and more people. It had become overcrowded with too many people gathering together. Tourists on the street could only limped forward slowly due to the cram. They were jostling and sweating together, and were voraciously devouring whatever the food in their hands. I could hardly see through the crowd to the opposite side of the street anymore. All I could see was their black heads overlapping with each other’s and moving ahead at an extremely slow pace as if they were impatiently lining for a superstar’s concert. Moreover, the atmosphere was jammed with the annoying roaring and clamorous noise. The scene was so vexing that I even came up with an illusion that the chaotic night market had become a Warfield:

Abruptly people started rapaciously quarrelling and fighting against one another! The vendors violently fisted toward each other simply because their customers changed from one stall to another. Teenagers furiously busted together only for a gaze or a word. Kids were, out of fear, crying and screaming at the top of their lungs in the middle of the street. Even the dogs were barking sharply adding the tumult to the disturbing night!

When I recovered from my turbulent delusion, I still felt awfully distressed for the congestion of people. The reason why I went to the night market was to relax. But I could only find affliction at the time. Therefore, I decided to think about something delightful to cheer me up. I looked back to the fruit stall where the fresh papayas were. To my dismay, almost all of the papayas on the stand were gone. It seemed that they all had been sold out. But somehow I saw an even sorer truth: the papaya milk, which I thought very beautiful was actually added in many ice cubes! In other words, the taste of the creamy yellow papaya milk was impossible to be as good as its appearance. The vendor’s dishonest trick was indeed resentful. Nonetheless, as I looked back to the swirling smoke of the grill booth, I was astonished to discover that the color of the smoke changed from light grey to heavy black after going out of the fluorescent light from the bulb on the iron stand above the stall and had since obstructed the light of the moon and stars like a huge bank of black cloud upon the head. As for the aroma of the roasted sausage, it was still the same smell, but it had become much stronger—too strong to abide. I was almost suffocated by the heavy smother, and the stinking odor had since stuck at my clothes. My appetite for the sausage was all gone. The night market had just become hateful to get in.

I was so distressed of the entire observation of the night market. The only thing I wanted to do was finish the delicate garnet black tea and leave. Thus, I drew back my eye sight from the outside and focused on the drink. Astounded as I was, the color of the black tea had changed. It was precious garnet red when it served on the table. Nevertheless, after a journey to the disordered night market, the ice melted, the tinge had darkened into the dim bloody red which was not pervious to light anymore. To make things worse, I even discovered some little black leaves at the bottom of the glass which would definitely bitter the drink. Also, the fresh fragrance of the tea could not be smelt anymore. I did not care that much at that time. I just wanted to leave the crowded night market as soon as possible. Thus I sipped a full mouthful of the black tea. However, I regretted instantly. The black tea had altered from the natural flavor of leaves into a total artificial sugary sweetness after the ice melted. Not to mention of the occasional bitter of the lees at the base. And the aftertaste had turned out to be pure artificial pigmental sugariness.

I did not finish the tea, nor did I have a leisure time in the hideous night market.