"China" Brand News

So why all the press from China?

Simply because there are so many news items and the numbers are always big doesn't seem to cut it. I'm sure there are other large countries where development has left things behind and news happens. India doesn't seem to get any coverage.

Of course I follow more news of China, specifically, than India - just picking an example here, but I believe there's not so much to go around with. If a fire in a night club kills 40+ (Xinhua through AP on Sunday) or a mining accident kills 30+ due to inhaled gas (AP again, on Sunday) I'm sure to read of it. But not so much of any other developing nation.

It's because China has become unique. It's not any longer a nameless statistic in the developing countries list. It's China. Think if brand goods. You have your miscallenous soap and you have your Dove. You have MP3 players and you have your iPod. And just like with brands, there are several, but people are only interested in few. You have your Zune and if you really pay attention, you might recognize the Zen from Creative. But name three after that? The same goes for localized news. I can tell you there was news from US and China last week. I also know there was news from Finland, but name three more countries?

It's there if you know where to look for it, but the fact is, China now gets coverage for news much smaller in importance and more frequently than many other countries. And since positive things hardly make for gripping news, most items are negative - often with numbers like 30+ or 40+. This is what is contributing to China's track record.

People follow the news about China more. More news includes more bad news which people remember. People recall bad news and read more bad news. China's track record grows worse. See how this works?

There is nothing wrong with reporting accidents, catastrophies, faulty goods or internal strife about China. I'm not saying it's not worthy. But I am saying you should be aware of the spotlight China is under. Hell, just reading my writings you get exposed to a little more China coverage, and much like AP, I seldom write if something trivially jovial occurs.

Please continue enjoying your branded goods, they usually deliver on their promises. As surely as a McDonalds branded food items is going to be unhealthy for you, China news will continue to deliver casualties and problems.

OP out.

Tomorrow life is "ho best".

I decided to dig an old draft from the depths of infinite bit-space, and finish it , to commit to our blog in somehow, since I've been recently very lazy with my posting. This is excusing myself, but I tend to do that sometimes, so deal with it or go cry to momma. Anyways, the post.. ;

Malaysia has been criticized by some because of its "tomorrow" culture. Simply put, it means that in Malaysia everything is done "tomorrow" - nothing happens today, now, very soon, or currently. There is just "Today I'm having this and that, but TOMORROW everything is fixed." Sounds great until you realized that this applies to every single thing on every single day, so virtually nothing is ever happening.

In work life this is quite annoying; boss is pushing me to push projects through, and then I have to explain him every day, today and TOMORROW that why the fuck nothing is happening today. Luckily enough, he seems to be quite accepting to the concept of tomorrow as well. I've learned, however, that telling him "next week" is way worse. If you tell "next week", he says "ALWAYS THE NEXT WEEK! CAN'T WAIT ANYMORE!", despite its possible/happening/etc or not. 'Tomorrow' answer, however, makes him smile despite the thing happening or not. Strange.

Well. Anyways, I guess the main thing to pick from this post is that making a successful business is quite difficult in Malaysia if you depend on contractors or other outsourced elements, because I'd claim that managing them takes a lot more effort here, than in Hong Kong for example, where everyone is more than eager to work. Culture and motivation issue then, so to say.

Baby Formula, The Chinese Way

Hey, recall the post I wrote regarding the baby shop? The one where I wasn't completetly convinced all the products were for me?

Well, in case you haven't been following news of China, here's a tidbit.

There's a big thing being reported, where baby formula has been tainted with melamine. The most recent news from today cite 3 dead babies, over 6200 sick and (from yesterdays news) more than 50 babies in critical condition. Among these are over 150 cases of acute kidney failure

A probe was launched to find out the extent of the problem and it appears that approximately 20% of the companies providing formula are involved. China's largest dairy announced a product recall too.

Want to guess why they would add melamine? They likely used melamine to make the milk appear higher in proteine content. Yeah, that's right, it's most likely not an accident you find a chemical used in the plastic industry in baby milk here in China.

The previous formula-scare is from 2004, when 13 babies died of malnutrition, as the formula was fake and contained no nutrients. Let's see how big the numbers get this time.

Sorry for not posting about Finland, but I'll upload a few choice pics once I get them organized.

EDITED- Sorry. It's the 150 babies hospitalized and over 6200 sick, they are not all in hospitals.

Later

I'll try to write more tomorrow before I fly to Finland on Sunday.

The wedding party was yesterday, and I'm still dead tired. Happy too.
I just wanted to share a picture of my bride, seeing as we have a new (great idea, BTW) cover pic for the page. Surely more pretty Chinese girls will give more readers?

I have the 80 photos of the photoshoot to sort trough, and the 150 or so pics we took during the dinner, but I'll share one to tide you over.

OP out.

More for me

Fasting month has just begun in Malaysia, and for muslims it means denial from each thing that is good for man - like sex, alcohol and cigarettes. It also means no eating before... was it... before 19:00 I think, or something like that. Fasting month means, however, nicer lunching for me because halal restaurants aren't filled with hungry Malaysians. They have to starve and worship. How very sad.

Furthermore, this season since 1st of September should mean a big bunch of incoming public holidays, which I'm of course very excited about. Malaysia has the 2nd most amount of public holidays in all of Asia, if I remember correctly - this is naturally due to various ethnic and religious groups represented in the country, and each want their share of free days. Actually it creates a bit of a mess for companies to manage all, since some holidays only consider muslims etc. Simply put - each holiday is lost revenue to some. But guess what? I don't give a flying fuck 'cause all the more for me.

On another subject, OP pointed out last week that our blog doesn't have _that_ many readers actually, so I decided to change the Bruce Lee picture to something more appealing. Enjoy!