a rambling update

[amw]

There is little more absurd than "voting" happening in a region where all of the candidates who do not toe the party line have been disqualified from standing for office. The nerve of these pro-Beijing assholes to "urge everyone to vote", after greatly reducing the number of seats that are directly elected in the first place. It's just unbelievable

Comments

[newwaytowrite]

Glad to have a post from you. Keep learning as much Spanish as you can cram into your internal language file.

The situation in Hong Kong makes me sad and it is the very thing that concerned me when the UK “returned” it to China.

[benicek]

One of my old (Australian) HK schoolmates has recently returned there to work as an English teacher in a state school. God the Orwellian bollocks they are being soaked in there now you’d hardly believe. He’s whatsapped me photos of the compulsory training he’s had to sit through. A whole hour explaining how the democracy protests were a product of mass mental illness. Also compulsory questionnaires for the kids grading their patriotism. Fuuuuuuck.

[king_of_apathy]

Damn, that's depressing.

[annaserene]

wow :(

[coercedbynutmeg]

Oh man. The height issue. In Bahrain, at 5'4", I was as tall as a lot of the men and taller than a lot of the women. I can only imagine what it's like trying to find pants when you're north of six feet in a part of the world where that's not so common.

[amw]

It's surprising to me that Latin America is short. Like, in China i expected it, because it's a bit of a stereotype that East Asians are short. But it seems that the stereotype really should work in the other direction - Northwest Europeans are unusually tall, and that includes me. Europe is the only place i have really found it easy to get clothes in my size. Shopping online is usually a good solution, but it's a bit more fiddly to do when you are traveling and don't have a local address or bank account.

[bennuheron]

Americans who won't take basic health measures seriously are the reason for all these border closures in the first place.

[amw]

That is not a fair read. Both delta and omicron variants didn't originate in the US. Arguably Americans and other developed countries hoarding their vaccines and refusing to take any action to compel pharmaceutical companies to share their techniques so other organizations could produce and distribute vaccines more equitably are the reason this pandemic keeps on going

[bennuheron]

I agree with you 100%

[annaserene]

Sorry, I haven't been up to date with your journal recently, but this is an interesting post I enjoyed.

Japan's closed borders is one thing that's driving me to leave.

[fauxklore]

FYI, gallo pinto is specifically rice and beans. It's pretty much the National food of Nicaragua and served at breakfast and lunch daily.

If you do it with black beans and white rice, Cubans call it moros y christianos (meaning Moors and Christians). My grandparents lived in Havana for several years and, as Jews, were always amused by eating this.

[amw]

I did a bit more sleuthing since making this post, and i think that they don't really have gallo pinto in Panama. I mean, they know what it is, but it's not available in all of the restaurants. What they do have is some kind of rice with a bunch of different things mixed into it that seems more influenced from Chinese fried rice than the gallo pinto pictures i've seen on Wikipedia. But they also do have white rice with a side of red beans and lentils mixed together, which they don't call "frijoles", but they do understand what i mean when i say frijoles. Next time i need to ask what they call it, but it's tough when you are in a busy restaurant line, or when they misinterpret your question for "what is it called" as "what does it have inside it", which happens frustratingly often.

Moros y christianos is a very funny name!