Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Getting away Scot-free? Far from a Loch.

Freedom is kinda a big deal. If you think about national heroes, people who show up on currency, they are probably around 15% scientists or brilliant thinkers, 5% athletes, and 80% leaders who either brought about the independence movement or expanded the country while in power. Immortalized heroes have gone on hunger strikes, marches, guerrilla warfare and been tortured, executed or assassinated in the name of freedom. And now Scotland is getting a chance to vote on it, because they’re tired of dealing with shit from the English. And here, freedom is still a big deal. It has huge effects on Scotland’s healthcare system, national security, natural resources and currency, not to mention national pride. But amazingly, this has so much comedic value, so much more than any national movement has ever had before, besides perhaps the establishment of the nation of Sealand. There was a comedic event at Edinburgh called “The Referendum.” I doubt there was anything of the sort in South Sudan. Most national movements involve long periods of struggle and oppression, but whatever gripes the Scottish currently have against London rule, they are not currently oppressed. Yes there have been centuries of tension and some second guessing since King James became simultaneous King of Scotland and England, but Scots have been a firmly engrained part of the United Kingdom with nary a riot for some time now.

This is not a conflict zone
I hesitate to get into this topic because I’ve spent all of 2 days of my life in Scotland and have about 5 Scottish friends. So let’s avoid the complicated political issues and get into the interesting/funny parts.

  • Scots who are living abroad are not allowed to vote. Non-Scots who legally reside in Scotland and are citizens of EU or Commonwealth nations are allowed to vote. This means that Polish and Indian immigrants to Scotland are deciding on whether Scotland remains in the UK, but Scots living in London do not. Coming from America and our brutal green card hurdles and our absentee balloting, this is mind boggling to me.
  • The Scottish currency situation should it go independent is not determined. This seems to me gross incompetence. London is saying that they won’t let Scotland stay in currency union with the pound, but that could be a scare tactic as it seems to be the best issue for both sides.
  • Scotland could still use the pound anyway. If so, the land that produced Adam Smith will join the likes of Central African Republic, Monaco, El Salvador, and Gabon as nations who do not control their own currency.
  • Scotland could be forced to use the Euro as a condition for entering the EU.
  • Scotland could use their own currency, which is always fun, especially coming up with names. That’ll be 5 Haggis please.
  • Scotland has a model and also serves as a model. Just across the straits lies the Republic of Ireland, a former part of the United Kingdom and successfully independent nation using the Euro. It’s very possible to have multiple nations and even borders in the British Isles. Meanwhile Wales in particular will be watching how Scotland votes and fares. There’s less incentive to leave the powerful UK when you are as small as Wales, and ditch your main vowel importer to boot, but Welsh people actually still speak their national language and have plenty of national pride.
  • The national animal of Scotland is a unicorn.
  • The Scottish Parliament First Minister is named Salmond and Deputy First Minister is named Sturgeon. Could we have a fishier 1-2?
  • Lottery winners contributed 3.5 million of the 4.5 million pounds that the Yes Scotland campaign has received. To me, this fundraising is surprisingly low. But I think that this shows how the vote is more about pride and less about money.
  • The amazing thing is that this won't actually change all that much. Sccotland already has a lot of autonomy. This includes their own education system able to provide reduced tuition for Scottish students at Scottish universities and their own football team that has qualified for several World Cups.

For me, this whole process is just utterly fascinating. Scottish Independence movement cuts across many political factions. You'd have to be an expert to fully understand the currency and legal implications of the separation, but anyone can still feel profoundly affected by the decision. Nationhood! It arguably has less effect on the welfare of citizens than say a Presidential election would - after all the leadership of the Scottish Parliament isn't changing -  but it gets more people animated and talking.

What nation am I in??

So many places would love to be able to vote on their independence. I live in one of these places. This Scottish vote comes only a month after Beijing basically told Hong Kong that it will never really be independent or democratic. Coincidentally, Hong Kongers would probably welcome a vote on whether to join the United Kingdom. It's by no means a consensus, but has been a fun speculative question to ask around these past few weeks. It's been interesting for me living here in a place with a compromised identity, debating the ideals of freedom versus the impracticalities of a mandatory national service. It is not a simple question, but for many Hong Kongers, it's never been a question truly worth investigating because the option simply won't present itself. For Scotland, amazingly the option is present.

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

When Progress Isn't Progress

I don't know how it got to here but I can't help myself. As I lie sprawled on my couch watching John Oliver on YouTube, guilty thoughts seep into the front of my mind. "How many push-ups have I done today? Did I write any code today?... I need to look for jobs....when was the last time I listened to a Mandarin podcast in full?" Ok ok, there's only 5 minutes left in the video. The right corner of my screen an some quick calculation tells me that by 9:40 I'll be off my computer and on the ground doing a set of push-ups. 

The video is hilarious. John Oliver is on point, his deliberate Englishness belying his astute understanding of America. Time for push-ups because I want to be a better athlete, and because I've never really had sculpted pecs and now I don't have a gym membership. As I get up I see my bookshelf and the unread half. There's McCarthy's Bar, a novel about drinking in Ireland that my mom got for me that I haven't read. The book on Chinese wind energy that my professor wrote that I  need my full mental effort to crack, and may be irrelevant within 2 years. That teen romance book that my aunt mistakenly thought would make a decent present. That book on choice that caught my eye at Eslite, I really thought I'd have read it by now. That book about the history of trade - actually read that one. And then there's the huge hardcover about mathematicians that all my guests notice but I've barely opened. When does life have time for these? They're more fixtures of my interior design than published media.

I break my gaze away from the daily reminders of stuff I haven't read and get ready to tackle the daily exercise I haven't done. But as my hands hit the floor I'm not even sure what I want to do. A full set of normal push-ups? A set of 30 clap push-ups to get more explosive? Or finger push-ups til I drop to make my flick huck stronger? I opt for 100 of the traditional and push my way through,  digging deep in the 90s. Getting up I can barely raise my arms as I go wash my hands. Staring into the mirror, my reflection tells me I need to do sit-ups as well, and work on my obliques and lower back. And now that I think about it, I should be doing calf raises to help this ankle heal.

Back on my laptop I close YouTube and see another 10 tabs to manage. The article on big data in the smart grid that dad sent, the Wikipedia article I wandered to on a Hungarian polymath patriot, the CodeAcademy course for Python - and of course my blog. Without even realizing it, I've put on a podcast on sports that I've already listened to.

When did my apartment become a repository for reminders to be productive? Do I live in a one bedroom rental, or a terribly inefficient factory manufacturing Cal's life? Maybe my ADD is feeding off this place. Maybe it's the busyness of Hong Kong that has removed any sense of calm from my life. Or maybe this is me working hard to be the best person I can be. In fact, I would say that much of my happiness this past year has been derived from satisfactory productivity.

And this is why I can't stop. There are so many things I want to do and even more things I think I ought to do.  My life has devolved into an ever-evolving to-do list which has made the time go by way too fast and left me often tired, but I guess I kinda enjoy it. I tie so much of my self-worth to my athletic, social, professional and miscellaneous advances. I can no longer even understand how people can be happy just being. Every workout that leaves me sore, every new recipe satisfactorily executed, every job applied leaves me a little more hopeful for the future, and don't get me started on how I feel when I finish a real book.

I open my fridge to get a drink of cold water. Bending down, I see the literal overriped fruits of my ambitions, purchases made in the pursuit of balanced vitamins but forgotten in the pursuit of everything else. It's somehow already 11:30. I'd set a goal to get to sleep by midnight, which means I really shouldn't do sit-ups now. I still have 11 tabs open because the internet has made it easy to find all the tools to finding everything you ever wanted to learn, but hasn't really made it all that much easier to learn it. I miss my midnight bedtime by an hour and a half.

Part of this lifestyle is to be blamed on my values. I should know better. I know that none of this stays when I die, that knowledge gained from the books will be buried with me, that lifeless lips don't speak any language. Jesus conveys this message and I think I really do get it. But when I apply it to the society I'm living in, I really think I can cheat the system - I'll work so hard that I can leave something eternal behind. But as soon as I type this, I know that nothing humans create is truly eternal.