" . . . He is not dead," I said.

"Imagine a person, tall, lean and feline, high-shouldered, with a brow like Shakespeare and a face like Satan, a close-shaven skull, and long, magnetic eyes of the true cat-green. Invest him with all the cruel cunning of an entire Eastern race, accumulated in one giant intellect, with all the resources of science past and present, with all the resources, if you will, of a wealthy government--which, however, already has denied all knowledge of his existence. Imagine that awful being, and you have a mental picture of Dr. Fu-Manchu, the yellow peril incarnate in one man." Commissioner Sir Denis Nayland Smith, 'The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu' (1913) by Sax Rohmer

Yes, that is correct, Dr. Fu Manchu is still alive and well, and is the evil mastermind behind China's rise to world superpower, economic powerhouse and host of the 2008 Olympic games! This is arrant nonsense, of course, and I am not citing such an imperialist, racist stereotype for any other reason than that I loved this serialization when I was a child, as have many people for almost 100 years, and to illustrate that, in one form or another, some of these old bugaboos still exist in the collective unconscious of western society. Cinema has not been especially kind to Asians, either. You would be hard-pressed to find any significant percentage of the vilification of Caucasians in Asian cinema as widespread as vilified Asians in occidental cinema. It should be noted, however, that as a boy reading these accounts of the supervillain and the British empire's unrelenting fight against him, I identified and sympathized with Dr. Fu Manchu, not the agents of the western order. I wished for an army of hamadryads (in the Fu Manchu books, hamadryads are NOT a sub-genus of dryads) and other rare, poisonous reptiles as well as lethal vegetation, not to mention beautiful, exotic and cruel female agents, to carry out my own plans for world domination. Exactly what plans for world domination I had as a child I am not quite sure, but that I had them was never in doubt, at least in my fevered imagination. Alas! such plans never materialized, and my life has rolled by in much the same fashion as uncounted others, no overarching "master plan" guiding me inevitably, remorselessly, towards my true destiny as . . . as . . . Ming the Merciless! Yes, yes, that is who I was meant to be! (Maniacal laughter fades into the distance as I exit your torture chamber/eventual tomb by means of a secret seaside exit.)

Now that I have started in such an odd and unorthodox fashion, I intend to continue that way. I firmly believe that you should start as you mean to continue, and I believe that axiom "should" apply to most endeavors. To begin anything in one fashion and then switch methods or approaches in mid-path is extremely dishonest and tends to erode any confidence that may be placed in you by others. Naturally, there are situations where such single-mindedness does not always work and you have to change direction or alter plans, but in general starting as you mean to continue can function as a surety of your character, allowing yourself and others to place confidence and faith in your word. That only matters, of course, if you still believe in the quaint and antiquated idea that a person's "word" has any value. The corollaries to this are numerous, but only one concerns me here: the presentation of a lie as a truth, stamped with a rubric which connotes "honest", "factual" and "objective". I noticed over the weekend a mini-flood of news items (Le Monde, click the link on the left, NYTimes, The Independent) concerning the coming-to-light of the dishonest, manipulative and simply conscious, erroneous editing of Wikipedia© articles by organizations to misrepresent or occlude the truth. In the first place, I do not understand why any Tom, Dick or Harriet can enter and edit the articles, but be that as it may, that they do, for the purpose of misdirection and outright lying to the public, is now documented. Some clever programmer worked out a program to trace down the edits to Wikipedia entries, and - surprise surprise! - corporations and governments, among others, are actively spinning truths and facts in said entries to reflect their own politics and policies rather than factual information. Thus the CIA alters political history entries, oil companies alter ecological entries, etc., you get the idea. Why do I take umbrage? For the simple fact that the generic label "encyclopedia" has been plastered across these presentations of wishful thinking and, whether we like it or not, people "out there" tend to put faith in something that is thus labeled. If one were to quote from the Encyclopædia Britannica©, for example, one doesn't a priori question the truth of the entry. Now, however, millions know that an entry from Wikipedia is not necessarily factual at all, and if you need to be sure of the truth of a matter, Wikipedia is completely untrustworthy and not where you want to be researching. Not even for subjects for idle cocktail chatter, because what is as humiliating as having your cocktail rant interrupted by someone declaiming, "Why, that's a lie! You are a liar, and I can prove it!" (Yes, I know, there are many things more humiliating, but let's not digress, agreed? And no, I know no one who surfs Wikipedia hunting ideas for small talk, nevertheless . . . stop being so picky, or I will cite figures to you proving that unstable people often resort to argumentativeness to cloak their insecurities. Just a second, I'll find those stats in Wikipedia . . . .)

Good news for you civet cat owners! According to Reuters©, the ultra-hip coffee drink now favored by the cognoscenti is "luwak coffee". There is none of the normal bitterness associated with coffee present in this drink, and you ask, "Oh really? Why?" Because, my friend, luwak coffee is made by mixing coffee beans with civet cat droppings which annul the bitterness and produce a smoother, more intense cup of coffee. I'll bet. This is something born in the steaming depths of the southeast Asian tropics, and enterprising villagers there are trying to domesticate and raise civet cats in order to make this idea commercially viable. It is already available, although you must be well-heeled to sip this ambrosia; it is selling at $50 Australian a cup, $75USD the 1/4 lb. in New York City. I can not help but wonder how this was discovered, and who in the world was the lunatic who was brewing coffee & catshit together searching for something "more drinkable". Yes, I know, you are as bemused as I, and now the fact that your Uncle George likes to lick the bottom of the birdcage doesn't seem quite so outré as you had thought, he may be experiencing culinary delights which you can only imagine. Jesus wept . . . .

From the ridiculous to the sublime, I would like to recommend an article I read this weekend (19/08/07) in the NYTimes Sunday Magazine© entitled "The Politics of God" by Mark Lilla. It is a crystalline presentation of the mechanics behind the modern abyss between so-called western ideology and Muslim thinking, and why our assumptions about communication between the two are so fundamentally off the mark. It's all history, people, keep looking back to History to find your answers, a simple truism that continues to be ignored by all and sundry even now. I liked this article so much that instead of waxing prolific about it, I shall simply include a link. Read it for yourselves.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/magazine/19Religion-t.html?ex=1345262400&en=ca0143ee010fab66&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

I see the British authorities have recalled millions of kiddies' jewelry sets made in, you guessed it, China, because of lethal levels of lead in said trinkets (BBC). (This on top of the Mattel© recall.) Personally, I think the Chinese missed the mark on this one, as well. If they had been a bit more canny, they could have made serious money marketing this junk in connection with a Britney Spears tour under the label "Toxic! Jewelry". Not only would the target consumers have snatched it up more precipitously and at a much higher price, but Britney's song might have had a longer play life which, as we are all aware, is devoutly to be wished for by her fans everywhere. In the future, after Devi and I have taken the Lotus Express to Bodhisattva City, you will eventually discover that Dr. Fu Manchu is still alive and running things quite well in China, thank you, and that the imminent downfall of the decadent and corrupt West will be due entirely to his clever placing of children's paraphernalia in the global marketplace. Voice in the wilderness, people, but you will not have time to ponder your mistakes as you hurry on your bicycle to your People's Cadre Re-education Center indoctrination class.

Wry random headlines this weekend included: "NASA: Endeavor crew comfortable with decision" (you are halfway between here and the Moon and you are going to start an argument with the people getting you home?); "Navarette: Military duty could be risky for aliens" (go ahead, riff anyway you wish on that one); and, in French, "Marriage bad for 3 in 4 couples' taxes" (gee, no joke?). I enjoy surfing the news not least for its amusement factor, as you can witness. Language is like a well-oiled snake (venomous, naturally) that often escapes its handler, with unforeseen results.

"He died of the Zayat Kiss. Ask me what that is and I reply 'I do not know.' The zayats are the Burmese caravanserais, or rest-houses. Along a certain route--upon which I set eyes, for the first and only time, upon Dr. Fu-Manchu--travelers who use them sometimes die as Sir Crichton died, with nothing to show the cause of death but a little mark upon the neck, face, or limb, which has earned, in those parts, the title of the `Zayat Kiss.' The rest-houses along that route are shunned now."

I must now end this post, as I need to take a flight to Rangoon immediately. Thus, until the next . . . .
Leducdor