BEIJING, April 25 — To blog or not to blog Is that a question for you?
He said it was mainly because he could not get accustomed to the blogosphere, which he called “dirty and foolish.”
“It seems that anyone can utter any curse in the guise of anonymity on the Internet,” Gao said. “It is especially unfair for us, since our blogs are real-name but most of our blog viewers leave unfriendly comments without a name.”
Calling the Internet an “uncivilized place,” the music producer said he hated to “re-evolve online as a civilized man.”
Like Gao and Bai, a number of celebrities, including crosstalk star Guo Degang, closed their blogs in the past two months, either in response to harsh comments from netizens or as a result of increasing intentional misconceptions.
I learned the truth at seventeen
That love was meant for beauty queens
and high school girls with clear skinned smiles
who married young and then retired
The valentines I never knew
The Friday night charades of youth
were spent on one more beautiful
At seventeen I learned the truth
And those of us with ravaged faces
lacking in the social graces
desperately remained at home
inventing lovers on the phone
who called to say – come dance with me
and murmured vague obscenities
It isn’t all it seems at seventeen
A brown eyed girl in hand me downs
whose name I never could pronounce
said – Pity please the ones who serve
They only get what they deserve
The rich relationed hometown queen
marries into what she needs
with a guarantee of company
and haven for the elderly
Remember those who win the game
lose the love they sought to gain
in debentures of quality and dubious integrity
Their small-town eyes will gape at you
in dull surprise when payment due
exceeds accounts received at seventeen
To those of us who knew the pain
of valentines that never came
and those whose names were never called
when choosing sides for basketball
It was long ago and far away
The world was younger than today
when dreams were all they gave for free
to ugly duckling girls like me
We all play the game, and when we dare
we cheat ourselves at solitaire
Inventing lovers on the phone
Repenting other lives unknown
that call and say – Come dance with me
and murmur vague obscenities
at ugly girls like me, at seventeen
Alice Poon (2006)在近作Land and the Ruling Class in Hong Kong指香港中產階級根本不是中產階級。在近乎歐洲中世紀封建模式的經濟下，香港人花了六成以上的金錢投入於不成比例地高昂的樓房、公共服務。還要命的是雖然可動用的收入少之又少，但香港人不但不會懷疑自身的處境，還繼續自我感覺良好。
要解釋為什麼香港「中產」自我感覺良好﹖為什麼老是不覺得遭大地產商剝削﹖1930年代的意大利哲學家Antonio Gramsci提供了答案。他指當時的政府和教會壟斷了意識形態的演繹，透過潛移默化的社會化，意大利南部的農民自我感覺良好，完全不自覺受到意大利北部工業家階層的剝削。在現代，John Perkins (2004)在Confessions of an Economic Hit Man中描寫了暗中為美國服務的經濟職業殺手在國際顧問公司的掩飾下，用大量的錢把發展中國家的政府拉到為美國經濟服務的大陰謀中，使他們在經濟上受到控制、政治上為美國服務。透過世銀、國基會的貸款，美國向這些國家提供透支和貸款。貸出的錢，最後由美國企業來包辦，錢從美國的左袋入右袋。在Alice Poon的描述中，我們亦有如此的光景，為幾大家族或其子公司打工，向銀行貸款買樓，每月亦向這幾個大家族的地產商及其控制的公共服務邀稅，中產定義中必不可少的經濟自由（economic independence）只是鏡花水月。
