Posts

Showing posts from November, 2016

And from the beginning there was Harmony

My mood is somewhat better today, as I am able to write next to a towering tree full in the throes of belatedly changing its colors for FALL.   The leaves are a mix of orange and red, with rapidly fading green and yellow.   Within my subdivision I would imagine it is always the last tree to lose its green color as well as the last to regain its Spring finery.   Our American Thanksgiving Holiday is winding down and as such I now have time to write. As such, writing next to this beautiful scenery of peace and tranquility only dims somewhat the passion I had for this post.    My competitive zeal in Youth without question colored my judgement towards marriage.   I’ve written extensively as to what a laowai must look for when marrying a Chinese Woman.   When one ignores the warning signs one must all the same make another internal decision;   to “carry on!” or simply to quit when one still has a chance.    I chose the former, and it of course has made all the difference in the

So now what do we do?

Trump, for the Love of God, is President of these here American States. Oh, he didn't win the vote.  Let's not forget that.  But he DID win the Electoral College. Let me explain a bit to my readers in Morocco and Bahrain what the hell an Electoral College is. This two sentence explanation will suffice: The EC was designed to keep "crazies"(my word) from becoming President.  It was specifically designed to keep a Hitler from becoming Supreme Leader.  It was also designed to ensure smaller states were still important enough to not be ignored. Well, yeah, that was actually three sentences. The irony of course is that The Crazy we tried to avoid was elected President.  And in a sick sort of way, maybe that is a good thing for America, and probably not so good for China(in a moment, please). The American Democratic Party has only "lost" one election by popular vote since 1992. One.  Just One. That wa

Assorted ramblings on doing business in China

As I was trying to say, it has been quite a while since I’ve had the opportunity to write a post on business. Too long in fact.   And that is perhaps my fault.   I obviously do business with Chinese on a daily basis.   Perhaps the proximity of such makes for poor observation.    But events over the past few months have led me again to question why The West acts like it does, when dealing with Chinese businessmen? At least in my field. In my profession we willingly deal in reclaim parts.   Or what one may call secondhand parts.   Why do we do this?   Because they are cheaper than new original parts.   With a shorter leadtime, at 80-90% the quality.   Sometimes even better than 90%.    Pricing for these parts is typically 20-25% the cost of the original parts (OE).   Although more sophisticated parts can only be had at 50% cheaper. So great deal, right? On the face of it, yeah.   Absolutely great deal.   Why go pay $150 for a new OE part when you can get a reclai