Saturday, December 19, 2009

Prisoner of the State

I picked this book up at Hong Kong airport - I wasn't expecting to see it there - prior to boarding a 14-hour daytime flight to London. Of course, I didn't manage to read it all on the plane. Cathay Pacific's amazing in-flght entertainment system made sure of that. But it was an interesting window onto the Chinese mentality that I had heard about but never needed to understand.

The book is the secret memoir of Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang, who was removed from power for trying to negotiate an end to the student uprising in 1989, rather than taking part in the military crackdown imposed by the hard-liners.

The book shows the cloak and dagger world of politics, influence and personal interests that lies behind any political system, though always covered up in China where, under the one-party system, such posturing and conflict could not be admitted.

Unfortunately, and this is part of that same system and philosophy, the book rambles on about many, many different issues, then revisits some of them in a economic rather than a political context, making the book very hard going.

It is clear that Zhao Ziyang was wronged and improperly treated and that China's economic development suffered in organsational terms as a result, but so many years later, that is water under the bridge.

Overall, a book for academics and enthusiasts. Don't risk picking it up as a curiosity.

Friday, December 18, 2009

I have NOT got H1N1!

Actually, I knew that before I went to the health centre on Wednesday afternoon. I called beforehand to book an appointment with my family doctor, preferably for the same day, as I was coughing up blood! The telephonist suggested I should go to the flu section, for faster treatment.

I was attended to fairly quickly and patiently explained that I had received the annual flu, pneumonia and H1N1 vaccines, but thought that the blood should be seen to. The duty doctor appeared to agree and wrote me a reference letter for a chest x-ray at the hospital.

The hospital was also well organised, but couldn't give me an x-ray without me seeing the duty doctor first. It appears one professional opinion is not enough! So I was taken to the H1N1 quarantine area - one doctor, three patients in front of me. More than an hour later, it was my turn. Finally, a doctor who listens and even asks if there's nothing more he should know. Unfortunately, his initial diagnosis on the admission form was "H1N1".

So we ran the tests - unfortunately they take 2 hours! Nasal swab, throat swab, blood sample. During the 2 hour wait, they even took me to x-ray.

The 2 hours were up. Where's the doctor? "Oh, he also has to do general emergency, and it's rather busy", I was told. When he finally returned, he confirmed that I have not got H1N1, that the blood is not coming from my lungs and prescribed me some antibiotics, as well as giving me some preventive hints for someone of my age - off to the cardiologist for me then! Great doctor!

I reached the health centre at 2 p.m., got home at 10. So much for the fast track!

Monday, December 14, 2009

More Power to the Taxman

Who came up with the idea of giving the Portuguese tax authorities automatic access to bank records for the family members of suspected tax fraudsters? It's unbelievable!

Consider the well publicised IT errors that keep on cropping up: assessments for years where liability has lapsed, tax payments that do not get set off against the respective assessment, inspection staff completely devoid of any reasoning capacity, only worried about meeting their quota of inspections. It's easy for just about anybody to fall foul of such errors.

So if my company is inspected and incorrectly assessed for extra tax, which we claim against, leaving a file open (subject to somebody at the tax office remembering to register the claim), any of my family members can have their bank accounts inspected!

Not even the judiciary has such sweeping powers, but that would likely be inconvenient for a large number of eminent politicians.

So once again the little guy gets squeezed while the country rots from the top down...