Green Vipers (Death with no feet)

Dear Gentle Reader,

Your humble scribe has shown you Hong Kong's fearsome spiders of the apocalypse and shared both his cockroach horror tale from Taiwan and images of the giant cockroaches of Hong Kong. 

These stories remind your humble scribe of an altercation with a snake that occurred in Taiwan, near Hong Kong.

First, Taiwan has a lot of poisonous snakes.

Here are the main poisonous snakes that a Taiwanese mountain biking website feels its members should be aware of...

Here are some venomous snakes that Yang Ming Shan National Park thinks are important to warn English-speaking residents about on its website. 

(Yang Ming Shan or Yang Ming Mountain is a mountain/nature reserve just beside Taipei, the capital of Taiwan. Your scribe lived directly beside the mountain when he first moved to Taiwan.) 

We had one friend in Taiwan who came home from a night at the bar and found a Chinese Bamboo Viper in front of him after he descended into the balcony before his door.  

Our friend made it through that chance encounter. 

The snake did not.

Another friend, who taught at the American International School, always took a rest in the teacher's lounge between classes. Something did not feel "right" about the cushion one day and, when she stood up to readjust the cushion, a snake reared up.  

In that situation the firemen were called and the snake was captured and identified as venomous. 

Taiwan is a not a country that you want to be a fireman in. 

Even if you can escape long-term cancer from fighting fires in plastic and resin plants, there are always the snake removal jobs to do you in...

And then there was Ned...  

Ned liked exploring the backroads of Taiwan on his 150 cc motorcycle, dodging rogue trucks and betel nut crazed drivers. 

(Aside: Betel nuts (and betel leaves) contain a powerful, natural stimulant which is released by chewing. If you have been driving with no sleep breaks for a couple of days, chewing betel nut will keep you zooming around, but not very safely. 

Chewing the leaves and nuts also released a pigment that stains the user's teeth and lips red. 

You might think it obvious to never get in a taxi when the taxi driver's mouth is apparently dripping blood. 

Many people, surprisingly, do not follow that internal (I presume) and prudent advice. 

Usually they live to regret it. This aside is now over.)

Despite the rogue truck drivers and the crazed, betel nut chewing drivers, Ned loved driving quickly on the ribbon of black asphalt that sinuously wound up, down, and around the mountains of Taiwan. 

On one trip, THLUMP.

Ned drove over a brilliant green snake sunning itself on the black asphalt. 

Ned's motorcycle skittered somewhat from the impact and Ned slowed to a stop to ensure that everything was fine. 

Then Ned looked back.

Lying motionless on the road was a one meter (three foot) long irridescent, emerald snake.

Ned, seeing that the snake did not move and was truly dead, turned in a tight circle, drove back, parked his bike at the side of the road, and bent over to look at his "kill".

Our great hunter picked up the snake; it was beautiful.  

Ned thought that it would be a waste to leave this beautiful snake, so he dropped it into his backpack, to somehow preserve when he finally returned home.

The snake was heavy and lumpy and was bumping against his back through the thin material of his backpack.

After a while Ned became worried about the snake. 

He worried that the snake might rot before he arrived at his destination; things turned bad quickly, in Taiwan, because of the heat.

Ned did not want rotten snake juice running down his back--he had a girl to see.

So, Ned stopped his bike and dismounted.

Ned slung the backpack off his back and dropped it on the ground at his feet.

Ned unzipped the bag and plunged his hand in...

...

Ned grabbed the snake and held it in front of his eyes one last time...

...

and he threw the brilliant, green snake into the tall grass beside the road, zipped up the bag, mounted his bike, and drove away. 

...

Ned told your scribe this story at a party where your scribe first met him. 

Your humble scribe was incredulous.

"What did you mean by 'pristine condition'?" your humble scribe asked Ned.

"Perfect. Not a mark on it." he replied.

"Right..." I said slowly... 

"But, what about the tire tracks?" I asked, after a bit of a pause.

"Tire tracks?"

"You know, tracks in the snake from where your tires hit it?" 

A questioning silence filled the air.

"Depressions with tread marks?" I added helpfully.

"You don't understand" Ned said "it was perfect, that was why I liked it so much. I stil wish that I had brought it home." 

"Right..." I said. "Ummm, you know what snakes are made of, right?"

Snakes are made of muscle, mostly. Sure, they have bone and viscera too, but mostly they are muscle. When they are about to be hit, snakes tense up so that they do not get hurt. Snakes can get run over by cars and survive. They tense up, absorb the impact, get bruised, but survive.

"If a snake is dead from being run over by a car, there will be a big tire and tread mark, or a big trauma wound. Otherwise, that snake might just be playing dead..."

"Of course, after a while, a snake playing dead will try to get away. Or fight if it feels threatened...." 

Ned said nothing, but looked a bit pale.

"I think it was alive the whole time. In fact, it sounds like it was a One Hundred Pacer. You know--it bites you, you take 100 paces, and then the venom kills you." I said with a grin.

In retrospect, I was wrong. 

It was likely a Green, or Chinese, Bamboo Viper.

The Yang Ming Shan tourist information guide says this about the Chinese Bamboo Viper:

"In Taiwan, the green bamboo snake is the number one attacker of humans."

The guide goes on to say that "this viper is not too venomous, with only a 1 to 2% mortality rate". But, and here I am guessing, I suspect that the snake's odds of getting you "for good" increase if it bites your face or your neck...

So now you know.  

...

The other day your humble scribe was hiking, with some friends, up bamboo-studded mountains here in Hong Kong.

As we were bent over double, to go underneath very low-hanging bamboo that was matted with detritus, a friend's girlfriend, who had grown up in Hong Kong's New Territories, called out to us from the back of the line of hikers...

"Don't thrash about with the sticks so much..."

"You'll anger the green bamboo snakes." 

"Just stamp really hard so the snakes can hear you and they might choose to leave. But, if you see one rise, turn and run. You have one second when their eyes close, as they rise before they strike. Oh--and they'll aim for your face or neck."

Just the sort of thing you want to hear when you are crouched over double in a dark, bamboo, natural tunnel on a disused mountain path that the local old guy, crouched fishing at the stream at the beginning, said was dangerous.

Great. (I think of Ned. I don't want to be dead.)

Don't just worry about the spiders of the apocalypse and the giant cockroaches.

Worry about the snakes, too... ...Death with no feet, sliding silently amongst the bamboo stalks, blending perfectly into the background and the foreground.

...We'll go hiking when you come and visit...

Tschuess, 

Chris, Regina, and Pommes (who is suddenly pleased to be a housecat in Hong Kong)

Hong Kong fashion (aka Santa in spring; nature in Hong Kong)

Dear Gentle Reader,

Santa hats for fashion.

...And not just at Christmas.

Who would have guessed it? 

Well, it looks like it, but it's not true.

In the last post I included a shot of two lovely outfits on Cambodian mannequins, one with a Santa hat. 

Heidelweiss asked if Santa hats were normal for Hong Kong, out of the Christmas season.

I guess the answer to your question, Heidelweiss,  ...is yes.

Serendipity just batted her eyelashes; this designer outfit I found has nothing to do with Santa besides the hat. 

I could completely imagine this as a prêt-à-porter piece in Hong Kong; I have seen women walking around in similar outfits.

(As always, roll the mouse over the picture for more information. As always, there is a hidden title--today strictly informative, though.) 

This dress was part of an exhibition of fashion designs revolving around nature. This design is based on the lowly raccoon. 

In honour of style, and because the Heroine is in Germany, I watched Ultraviolet, again, because, like the Chronicles of Riddick or Underworld or the Fifth Element, it has a lovely sense of style, which ameliorates other cinematic defects.

Style makes me think of Asia.

Sometimes here, like in other hot countries (as in Spain, especially Andalusia, or in Brazil) style is simply a welcome deficit of clothing, attracting the eyes to the promises hinted at, and almost shown, yet hidden under the little that remains.

Sometimes, though, the style is flamboyant with fabric, rather than flesh.

At many Chinese community fundraisers and charity balls that your humble scribe has attended (in Asia, North America, and in Europe), the emcees have been glittering.

True, society expects the women to be glittering at black or white tie events, but the men are normally more subdued, to offset the glittering glory of the women a fortiori.

Yet the male emcees, at Chinese community fundraisers, might show up in a sequined smoking jacket or a lurid pink with emerald green embroidered dinner jacket...

And the women can have very interesting fashion choices, too.

Why did this come to mind?

Because I stumbled upon an exhibit of recent Hong Kong fashion designer hopefuls, from a fashion garment educational programme.

These graduation pieces were (are) on display in a back corner of the Hong Kong Subway system.

Pieces like this.

I can easily visualise this piece being worn in Hong Kong at a fancy ball. 

Why does the dress look like a duck? It was built that way.

There is an accompanying blurb for this mandarin duck themed dress, written, presumably, by the designer. It reads:

Orphaned bird, difficult cry (mandarin ducks):

Mandarin ducks live in pairs but this loyalty does not stop the unscrupulous predator -- man -- from catching and killing the male for its attractive and valuable feathers. The female is robbed of her mate only to remain alone by the river. This design highlights the beauty in nature and, particularly, the distinctive colour ands and delicacy of the mandarin duck. There are also some elegant Chinese feminine elements in the design reflects (sic) the relationship between the male and female duck, which is often torn apart by man's greed.

It is always interesting to know what goes on in other people's minds when they create something. To know what they were trying to achieve. This is why I am reproducing the artist/designer's statements.

Then your scribe stumbled upon this beauty. 

The rebellious piece on the right, below, is described as follows...

Struggle for living (white tiger):

This design shows a distinctive "punk" style with its ripped cloth strips and iron chain suggesting the marks of a struggle, not a struggle for man but for the tigers' survival as the hunt for these rare and beautiful creatures continues.

To your humble scribe, this looks about as punk as Vivienne Westwood. Still, I can imagine young women who could carry it off.

Finally, I found this magnificent piece that I thought might have been evocative of  "daughter of the little shop of horrors":

Hidden flying (barn owl):

The behaviour of the barn owl is often a mystery to us because they are most active at night. We call them "the night walkers". Like most owls, these creatures are shy and avoid humans as much as possible. This design was made to illustrate the beauty and rhythm of night-flying.

(Here I thought that this was a flower when I first saw it. Aside: Could it be that the expression "what a hottie" is derived from hot house flowers, delicate and sublimely beautiful, shown off in outfits like this?)

Tschuess,

Chris and Pommes, preening his socks and and vest, oh so nonchalantly as if to say, look at me, Miss Kitty.

PS: What was the blurb for the Santa/raccoon image at the start of the post? Here it is.

New cloth for raccoon (raccoon):

For his own benefit man destroys the woods, forests, and oceans. He destroys wildlife habitats and ruins the ecology that sustains them. This is true for the raccoon, which man kills exclusively for its fur. Pressure groups have gone some way in stopping this activity by promoting a raccoon cartoon, which arouses concern for this animal. This design has a a cartoon "style" for a human body in order to highlight the irony.

3WW (CXXVIII) entries

Dear Gentle Reader,

I just returned from China, but here are my 3WW haiku before I lay down to rest...

This week the words are burden, natural, and ubiquitous.

Tschuess, Chris

HUNGRY HUNTER'S THOUGHTS...

Ubiquitous birds

hide in natural cover,

burden hand better.

WHAT CIVIL CRIMINAL LAW BELIEVES AND COMMON CRIMINAL LAW DOES NOT

Ubiquitous thief!

Natural burden of proof

should fall on you, no?

WHAT CAME FIRST (THE CHICKEN OR THE EGG)? A.K.A. HOW DO WE MANIPULATE THOUGHTS IF WE HAVE NOTHING TO THINK ABOUT?

Tabula rasa.

A ubiquitous burden

to natural minds.

Finally, a naisaiku...

Natural beauty

ubiquitous onanist...

burdens wipes supplies

THAT LOVE THAT DARE NOT SPEAK IT'S NAME

burdens wipes supplies

ubiquitous onanist...

Natural beauty

To return to the Monday Poetry Train click here.

To return to 3WW click here.

To return to Naisaiku click here.

Carbon markets Cambodian style

Dear Gentle Reader,

 

Today, the 2009 Carbon Markets Insight Conference is wrapping up in Copenhagen.

The conference is trying to lay the groundwork for new, improved carbon markets around the world.

In Cambodia, carbon markets are old hat.

Cooking power, for example, is supplied from charcoal, carbonised wood.

And you don't get that charcoal for free... which implies a market.

The title image is a street vendor's DIY charcoal BBQ for making food to sell in Phnom Penh.

Your humble scribe wandered into the kitchens of a few small restaurants; they were powered by charcoal also.

Where does one buy charcoal?

My first question, as I live in Asia, is do you mean wholesale or retail?

Retail carbon sales are made at the side of the road, like everything else, of course. 

Mind you, the wholesale network is also a roadside job.

I woke up before sunrise and caught these people in the twilight sorting carbon, wholesale, on the road in front of my hotel. 

I couldn't take pictures until it was brighter; I didn't want to spoil any one's night vision with my flash because sorting black objects in the dark is not easy...

After the boss has roughly determined how much charcoal he has bought, he will hand it down to his workers who will squat on the road, weigh it, and repackage it...

Then the dollar baggies are delivered to restaurants and market stalls.

There. You have it. 

Carbon markets Cambodian style.

Just don't ask where the wood that is cut down to be burned is from. 

People in third world countries don't look upon jungles as being as beautiful as wealthy eco-tourists do. For them jungles are just nuisances that might contain some things which are easily convertible into food or cash.

The argument here is that when you are just trying to survive, today counts more than tomorrow.

Tschuess,

Chris

Ugly American was not intended; an explanation

Dear Gentle Reader,

Mea culpa.

I wrote some long notes to yesterday's post. 

But, just as I know that very few roll their mouse over the images to see what messages or titles I have left, almost nobody goes back to look at comments. 

So, I will repackage them because it is important.

Yesterday's post could be seen as an easy attack on three self-centered Americans who happened to be girls. Classic ugly Americans in action. That was not my intention.

The post was meant to be a sardonic look at the actions of three young people, three young girls, who happened to be American.

The posting does me no credit as I had to have an Oscar Wilde line at the end; I couldn't just walk away. 

But, I feel worse if people think I harbour anti-American sentiments.

So, I will risk further assaults on my character and revisit yesterday.

In yesterday's post I meant to highlight the profligate silliness, obtuseness, and self-centered nature of youth (compared, of course, to the foil of my helpfulness, reasonableness, and cleverness.)

First, ugly Americans do exist.

As do hooligan Brits, lager lout Dutch, culturally self-centered and self-righteous French, towel-wielding beach-reserving Germans, et cetera. And snide Canadians, too.

There are, statistically and in my experience, almost as many ugly Canadians as ugly Americans.

But, thankfully for Canadians, there are ten times more Americans than Canadians, which skews the number of ugly Americans as opposed to ugly Canadians that other countries' citizenry get to meet.

Then, we can further skew the ratio because more than ten times the number of Americans, compared to Canadians, have the disposable income to send their kids, or themselves, abroad.

That results in more than the 10:1 ratio of ugly Americans:ugly Canadians abroad that you would expect.

And the ugly idiots always stand out, if only for their idiocy and ugliness. 

Everyone remembers the idiots; their impacts crowd out the memories of the lovely people. 

Now add international resentment to the USA's wealth and power... 

Still, today, a vast amount of the world's GDP (GDP is Gross Domestic Product--the total value of all final goods and services produced with the national borders of a political economy within a particular year) is generated inside the USA. 

Yes, the EU generates a similar GDP, but that is the entire EU... not just one country... (The EU is the European Union whose countries now include all of Western Europe less Switzerland, all of Northern Europe less Norway, all of Southern Europe, and most of Eastern Europe...)

I just crunched the numbers. 

If we use 2007 IMF (International Monetary Fund) numbers then the US produces 25% of world GDP and the EU produces almost 31% of world GDP.

If we use 2007 World Bank numbers then the US produces 25% of world GDP and the EU produces 22% of world GDP.

If we use 2007 CIA world factbook numbers then the US produces 18% of world GDP and the EU produces 24% of world GDP.

Whichever numbers you use, the US is wealthy. 

This wealth provides the US federal government the ability to fund military and economic activities to create and project power.

The USA is still the only global superpower as it has been from the end of the cold war to today. 

It still is the world's policeman, and it struts accordingly, some days. 

It has also taken on the role of the world's judge through the doctrine of extra-territorial jurisdiction which is the US doctrine that US laws apply anywhere and everywhere... ...a bit of a slap in the face to the sovereignty of every other country on the planet.

So, people like to latch onto the idiots and tar the rest with their cultural misdeeds. It allows people to feel better, nationalistically, when innately comparing their country to the might, power, and wealth of the USA.

It's too easy to make fun of the ignorant few. 

Hence my big mea culpa, today; I do not want to be considered anti-American.

I am just intolerant of fools, no matter what their nationality.

I had not intended to raise the spectre of ugly Americans in yesterday's post, I was just poking fun at three vapid, self-centered young girls. 

And, heck, they were likely exhausted, jet-lagged, culture-shocked, and unprepared to hear people tell them hotel rack rates in dollars in English and they might have been confusing the HKD prices with USD prices. 

The ten dollar (USD) per night hell holes in Chungking Mansions might have been interpreted by them as 78 USD per night, instead of the 78 HKD per night that would have been meant when the reception staff would have leered and said "78 dollars, Missie" to their breasts.

What bothered me about the three girls was the way they were trying to control me with orders and their gravity-defying breasts. And the slyness of the looks they gave each other when they thought I had given up some state secrets of housing to them...

Tschuess,

Chris