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Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Should Voyagers Pay Rescue Costs?

One of the recent Scuttlebutt’s (Here) carries a survey on whether voyagers who have to be rescued at sea should pay for the cost, often huge, involving ships, helicopters, rescue coordination centers, etc. This has frequently been an issue in the media. Australian tax payers have long been howling at the cost their country must bear to go out into the Southern Ocean and pick up hapless racers off their upside down race boats.

When I see some of the voyages which are planned or embarked upon, I think they are ill advised stunts, doomed to fail, and I think those folks should post a bond or carry insurance to cover the cost of a potential rescue.

It really irks me when I hear about some cruising boat calling for rescue when their main problem is that they just don't like the rough ride. They are the ones with lots of insurance or enough money, so that they don't care or not if they lose the boat; they just want off. Those people, who abandon boats that are still capable of reaching port without outside assistance, give sailors a bad name, and they should pay, plenty.

But, boy, this raises some sticky issues: For one, who enforces this rule? Second, what do you do if a person has failed to post the bond, jail them or decline to rescue? Maybe in that case a financial judgment would a good punishment, because it would probably bankrupt most people. But then, do we really want to squelch the adventerous souls who try the unthinkable, like kite sailing across the Atlantic?

Finally, and this is probably the deal breaker, who decides what voyages would be subject to this requirement?

Well, maybe some voyages seem to be easier to judge as “likely to require rescue” than others. The guys crossing oceans in row boats for example. But that’s just my opinion. I am sure those same adventurers would beg to differ. What about the singlehanded Round-the-World racers? How about the Syndey-Hobart competitors or the Fastnet boats?

How about me? I am a voyager. With my wife Judy I cross oceans in my own boat. Some people would probably say that we are foolish, and should be subject to such a rule, should be forced to pay for any potential rescue, but I don’t want to; I couldn’t afford to cruise in that case.

Actually, some people think we’re all nuts and we should stay at home, even that we even deserve to die at sea if we dare to go out there. I once thought that myself, and with that view, Judy and I didn’t even carry an EPIRB when we first set out. We were going to be self-sufficient, or pay the price. Since then I have had some friends die at sea, some while I listened to them on the radio. That hit us hard. We realized how easily it could be us. We weren’t ready to die, we decided. We bought an EPIRB. So that means we hope to be rescued in the event of a disaster at sea. So, am I prepared to pay the cost for that? No, I guess not.

So, I guess it should apply to everyone else.

Fred Roswold, SV WINGS, Hong Kong

Thursday, September 22, 2005

What is Moon Cake?

What is Moon Cake?

Eating moon cakes has become the favorite after dinner activity during the Mid-Autumn festival and these rich, elaborately packaged desert cakes are frequently exchanged as gifts to family, friends, and co-workers. In Chinese cities tons of them are sold each year.

Enjoying moon cake, for the westerner, is an acquired taste.

The traditional moon cake is about 1” thick and 4” wide, and comes four to a tin, which is inside a fancy box, packaged to be sold from the refrigerated section of the supermarket or in specialized cake stores. They will last a long time, like a fruit cake.

Moon cake is made with a flakey pastry layer on the outside, and a thick, soft pasty inside made of lotus seeds, and black or yellow beans, with plenty of sugar and many, many calories. Imagine the filling of an almond pie, slightly more firm. Buried in the very middle is a surprise, usually a whole egg yolk, hard boiled, or preserved. It can be a chicken egg or duck egg, (preferred). Other exotic flavors and fillings are available for the adventurous.

Umm, sounds so good I’m going to have one now.

Chinese Fish and Noodle Soup



Chinese Fish and Noodle Soup

This is a mild, NON-FISHY, wonderful soup served in noodle restaurants all over Hong Kong and Southern China.




Ingedients:
-One packet Fish Soup paste
(or three table spoons mixed shrimp paste, scallop paste and Chili paste, and ½ tsp salt. you can even use chicken soup base)
-One lb. frozen or fresh, mild white fish, such as Sole, Flounder, or Cod, deboned, and cut into 1” squares.
-One package (one dozen) frozen pork wontons or small Dim Sum
-One small package of Chinese flat noodles (quick cooking variety)
-One medium leek, cut into ½” sections
-One bulb of garlic cloves, each clove skinned and chopped in half
-Four small, hot, red chili peppers, whole, but with stem cut off
-Two stalks of Celery, sliced into ¼” sections
-Two Spring (Green) Onions, the white part cut short, the green part cut into 1” sections
-Other ingredients as you wish, for example: Mushrooms, Tofu cubes, etc.
-Two quarts water

Perparation:

-Add Fish Soup Paste to water, and bring to a boil.
-Add leek, garlic, chili peppers, celery, spring onions and any other ingredients you are adding.
-Simmer for 30 mins.
-Add fish and wontons, and noodles to the simmering broth as required by the instructions on the noodle and wonton packets so that all ingredients are fully cooked at the same time.

Serve:
Moderate portions in large bowls, use Chinese soup spoons and chopsticks for just the right, authentic, mood,

with quarts of ice cold Chinese Beer,

with fresh bread and butter, (this is a break from Chinese tradition, but it is good)

Serve moon cake and sip rice wine for desert.

Sunday, September 18, 2005

Nancy & Commodore Tompkins, cruising on Flashgirl

I ran across this update from Nancy & Commodore Tompkins, cruising on Flashgirl, at the St. Francis Yacht Club web site. A very nice account of a wonderful place in the Marquesas. Click here.

Here is proof that WINGS is not the only cruiser in the Pacific without roller furling headsails.

Actually, seeing what one of the world's most experienced and skilled sailors has chosen for a cruising boat validates our own choice, as if that was needed.

I met Commodore Thompkins when he was sailing St Francis VII in the 6 Meter Worlds in Seattle in 1973, with Tom Blackaller, and I was out in my powerboat Easy, taking photographs. They sailed well, and won the regatta, but not by much, over some pretty good local boats. They also had fresh lobster and other exotic goodies in their box lunches, insisted on the fastest towboat (me), and had some beautiful admirers waiting for them at back at the yacht club. I had some nice chats with them while the fleet waited for the wind to fill in, but the new friendship faltered when I wouldn't tow them in and out as fast as they wanted to go. It wasn't that I couldn't; my Searay, with a top speed of 65mph, was by far the most powerful boat around, but I just wasn't playing the game with them. Blackaller insisted on being the the first everywhere, and he wanted me to tow them at about 10 knots. Sorry Tom, find yourself another tow boat. He did.

In the end they also snubbed CYC, flying out of town imediately after the last race, and skipping the awards ceremony.

Maybe that was all Blackaller's doing.

Thompkins, on the other hand, was a very gentle and pleasant fellow.

Sorry I don't have any photos from back then.

Fred Roswold

Saturday, September 17, 2005

Crime & Punishment in China

I've become a bit cynical about Chinese criminals and the ability, or will, of the Chinese authorities to deal with it. By Chinese I include Hong Kong police and mainland. The crooks cannot really be differentiated either, they are seamless across the borders.

I'm not an expert, not even an Old China Hand, just a gweilo, still green, who can't help but shake his head over what he reads in the newspapers or hears around the marina.

In the first place the bad guys are ruthless, utterly ruthless. The Triads are the local version of the Mafia, but in addition to their crime syndicates they do thuggery for hire. Recently a step-mother, in a financial dispute with her husband, with whom she lived, hired some triad members to "chop" her eight year old step-son, also a member of the household. Chopping, in China, means just what it says. These despicable folks attacked the kid on a public street with machetes, focusing on one of his arms, intending to complete their assignment of rendering his hand useless for rest of his life. Nice step-son, nice crooks.

In another case of "chopping", a white investment banker, who volunteered to tend bar at a local pub while the regular bartender and owner participated in a charity fund raising event, was mistaken by the triad thugs hired to teach the regular employees a lesson for not paying the required "protection" payments to their bosses. When the banker went to leave the premises the triad guys jumped him as he climbed into a cab, and hacked away at his arms and head, then jumped on the back of waiting motorbikes, and roared away.

The police are, a) Worthless b) Corrupt c) Idiotic. They rarely catch anyone who is trying to hide. An exception is the chopping of the eight year old. His story generated so much sympathy in the press that the police were forced into action. After a week of investigation they finally arrested eight people, including the loving step-mom.

What the police in China are good at is catching people who aren't hiding. For example, if you are a reporter who writes a story considered to be critical of the Chinese authority, they find you right away, arrest you, and a few weeks or months later they will reveal that they have you in custody and have charged you with revealing state secrets. Anything can be declared a "state secret" after the fact if it contributes to a harmful story, and if it read by foreigners ... well, that can also be considered spying.

If you are a villager whose "elected chief" had been stealing land or money which should belong to the village , and who finally pushes you to the limit by condemning your land and house so his crony can start a development, and when your complaints go unanswered so you decide to protest, this is also cause for arrest - yours.

But do they catch the chiefs who steal the land and money and then take a runner? No. Most likely they warn him in time for him to make good his escape.

The list of crimes which go unsolved is astounding.

Astounding, that is until you remember that the job of police in China is to protect those who pay for protection, and otherwise to do as little as possible.

For example, I can walk into the computer marts in Wan Chai and easily buy pirated software. Any software you could wish for: Microsoft Windows XP, Adobe Photoshop, Autocad, anything. It's not like making a drug buy on the street where you have to approach some shady character and, with furtive eyes, make a secretive deal. These shops are permanently there, they have signs, displays, and prices are posted. But the police can't seem to make many arrests for piracy. Occasionally they make a high profile bust of some warehoused operator with a few million copies of something, and then the head police guys get to make a TV speech, but it's all staged, we know it, and the piracy continues.

The richest woman in China, Mz. Wang, who is worth about $24 billion, inherited her wealth from her husband, who simply disappeared one day, was never seen again, and who had just, amazingly, written a will giving it all to her, or so she purported. The only witness to the signing of this new will was the loyal butler, who made a deposition to that effect. and then disappeared himself, and wound up dead some time later, before he could be interrogated. The father-in-law fought the wife over the will, but lost. Meanwhile he, at 94, is missing in action too. Where? No one, not even his lawyers, seem to know. The daughter-in-law, in a fit of generosity said, "We are looking for him, we want to help him. As soon as we get our hands on him we'll take care of him." Huh? Was something lost in the translation of that or did she really say that?

Oh, her 70-something doctor brother was recently attacked as he walked the dog. Four men jumped out from behind bushes and beat him and the dog with baseball bats. The press didn't even have to allude to the possibility that it was father-in-law who was behind that nice piece of work. No one in Hong Kong needed anything as obvious as that told to them. It was, quite simply, and everyone knew it, punishment to the daughter-in-law for trying to keep her missing husband's money from the 94 year old man.

Have any of these misdeeds been solved by the police? Of course not.

That's crime and punishment in China.

Fred Roswold

Friday, September 09, 2005

Who Is To Blame for New Orleans?

My friend Michael wondered if, from New Orleans, we'd learn our lesson.

It's not that we need to learn our lesson. We have had enough lessons, both at home and from disasters elsewhere; the lessons are obvious. The problem is that our leaders have not taken courageous and decisive political action based on those lessons. In our political system, and probably in all political systems, the people who can get elected are good at politics, not good at being decisive, and not good at being courageous, not good at taking action.

We need bold, decisive, courageous, and skilled executives at all levels of government and in FEMA and in other agencies; people who have a vision of what needs to be done, and the leadership skills to get it done; people who are demanding and unrelenting in the pursuit of excellence and, more than anything, results.

We need leaders who demand excellence from their subordinates and who are merciless at replacing people who do not perform; who quickly recognize the seriousness of a situation, quickly get good advice about what needs to be done, and let nothing stand in the way of execution.

People like this do exist. They can be found in business (often) and in the military (when wars need to be won) but rarely in US political circles.

A story I read about one Lieutenant General who arrived in New Orleans, stepped out of a helicopter and started cussing and giving orders and kicking butts of people who offered excuses instead of getting the job done in any way that was needed. This was when the situation on the ground started to change, I don't know that guy's name, but we need more like him.

Instead we get people whose main skill is playing politics. In the US system we weed out anyone who steps on toes or is courageous or takes strong action, anyone who has strong principles, before they can advance beyond the level of city council.

We reward those who can placate everyone, offend no one, and compromise everything. We reward them by electing them.

It has been said that democracies get the leaders they deserve, meaning if they don't pay attention, and are not selective, they will vote for poor leaders, and by being so careless, they get what they deserve.

If we want change, if we want better leaders, if we want leaders who will "learn the lesson", we need to look to ourselves.

The problem is that the electorate in the US is not demanding enough.

We should be.

We have only ourselves to blame.

Fred Roswold

Sunday, September 04, 2005

Incompetents Need To Be Replaced

We are sitting here in Hong Kong watching the New Orleans Katrina aftermath. We get plenty of news here, although no US broadcast news. In addition to the online news, (CBS, MSNBC, Fox, etc etc), we watch the BBC,Australian Networks, & Chinese TV news. All have had extensive coverage of the relief effort, but also have had heavy coverage of the criticism within the US of the administration in the Katrina response. I think that this criticism is justified and I don't think all of this criticism is partisan.

Honestly, I have to say that I am shamed by this, and I am not at all convinced by any report I have heard that it was better than it looked.

And I don't believe the administration spin.

The flat truth was that the response was inadequate to meet the need.

What we hear and see about "why" it was inadequate sounds like an excuse.

The reasons given are in my opinion are not only excuses, but lame excuses.

In my own field I expect my subordinates to tell me how they are going to solve a problem, not why they can't.

I expect the same of my leaders; find a way, not spout excuses.

I have become hardened to the feeling that the whole thing reeks of incompetence.

Incompetent people need to be replaced.

We can start with Bush.

Friday, September 02, 2005

The Disgrace of New Orleans

Watching the events unfold in New Orleans brings to me a sense of shame, and it should bring that sense shame to all Americans.

With New Orleans we have proven to ourselves and to the world that our incompetence and lack of caring for people, even our own people, is beyond the immoral, it is criminal and shameful.

In New Orleans we knew Katrina was a category 5 storm. We knew that the city’s levees were safe to only a category 3 storm.

We knew that the residents should be evacuated and when the evacuation order was given, and thousands did not leave, we knew they were in grave danger.

We should have anticipated that electricity and water and sewer would soon fail if the city flooded and that Katrina would surely flood it.

We should have known that the floods would close roads, airports, and that communications would be cut off. Surely the officials in New Orleans and Louisiana could not have depended on the use of cell phones during such a disaster as was bound to occur?

We knew how much food and water would be needed by the numbers of people left in the city, and we should have known how much we had.

We knew there would be medical emergencies and that the hospitals would need assistance.

We knew that in desperation, or even just with opportunity, there would be lawlessness.

We knew all these things ahead of time, didn’t we?

So this disaster was totally predictable.

It was more than predictable; for days before it occurred it was a certainty.

In fact I am sure everyone could and should have seen it coming. I did, from a viewpoint as far away as Hong Kong. I knew that New Orleans would be flooded and devastated at least two days before hand, and I am sure people everywhere knew this.

Yet New Orleans and Louisiana and the US officials and emergency departments seemed to be caught flat footed. Their response was shamefully and criminally slow and totally inadequate. For three or four days it seemed like our top government officials were in shock and didn’t know what to do.

George Bush stayed at his ranch for two days.

The governor of Louisiana called a press conference and cried.

This is unacceptable.

In the face of such a disaster we need decisive executives who make things happen in hours not days.

More to the point they should have mobilized all the assistance before the hurricane hit so that help would be on the way instantly. For them to say that the scope of the disaster simply overwhelmed the authorities confirms that their preparedness was inadequate, that their limited vision could not conceive of the disaster which was inevitable.

This is unacceptable.

Leadership is more than press conferences with sympathetic platitudes and disaster preparedness meetings filled with bureaucratic excuses for inaction.

Our cities and states and our nation deserve powerful, decisive leaders who take action ahead of time and who waste no time dithering, not the helpless fools we seem to have.

It’s shameful.

Fred Roswold