AKIC Weekend

The plan was to go to the new apartment today but we just learned we can't get into the apartment because the keys are locked in another apartment which we can't get to.  So, we don't know what we are going to do.  It looks like I am going to blog.

 

I made the mistake of having expectations and now I am paying for it.  I am battling the urge to scream out about it all the while knowing it will do no good.  So, I will have to tough it out.  I got my Tony and Jenny: everything else is irrelevant.

 

From our school library, I have borrowed two more books.  One is about President Nixon; the other is about President Franklin Roosevelt and leadership.  From what I have read of the first book, Nixon was some sort of mistrustful loner with which I can feel empathy.  The second book is written from a Democrat party point of view so I think many of its lessons on leadership would be irrelevant for me.  FDR is praised by the author for not saying "we should make the voters understand." with "we are going to make the voters understand."  My first inclination on reading this passage was that it demonstrated praise for an authoritarian instinct.  The author qualified it by saying the a leader has to tell his group what they will do, not what they should do.  Certainly, as a leader in some group situations, especially business, you have to get your followers doing one thing.  But, when a politician starts saying that, voters should be wary.  "Our" in a political sense is collective in the extreme and we know what disasters politicians saying "our" have wrought in the twentieth century.

 

We had an Olympic English event yesterday.  The teacher pegged to do it was right to worry about hostile reaction from the Chinese.  The things I have read on Chinese Internet BBS's and hearing about Chinese Internet users changing their names so as to show a love for China have raised concerns.  There are historical precedents for the Chinese population experiencing a spasm of foreigner hatred.  The School thought we were crazy to mention our fears and it may well be that we are over-reacting. But foreigners have heard the talk of the times of insanity in the 1960s from the Chinese.  It happened once here; it could happen again.

 

HyLite School in Wuxi is looking for two Summer teachers for the months of July and August.  The School prefers English speakers from North America, Australia or Europe who will happen to be in Wuxi over the Summer.  So if you are teaching at an university and have nothing to do over the summer come see us.  If your companion or spouse or partner is working in Wuxi over the summer, you may want to work with us.

 

Yesterday, I had a conversation class about fashion.  I learned that one of the biggest fashion items for Chinese women is the mobile phone.  The male students told me stories of women changing their mobile phone every three months to stay in fashion.