Educating Mao ※
December 2010
2010
Subject: how do you pronounce sophomore?
Dear Lloyd
I understand this is an American word and the title for a female student.
How did it become adopted by China?
Yesterday I went to town and along to the RSA for lunch only to find
that it closed for lunch on Mondays. I think I did too much walking
because this morning I had trouble dressing myself. I just couldn't
get my legs to do what I wanted them to do.
I think of Uncle Harold's song, -But alas and alack even trampers
grow old and peaks are too lofty-.
I just just managed to dress myself before Beverly arrived.
I am getting very old and tired. There is not much joy in life these days since Mum left me
Sorry I sound so miserable but I am afraid it goes with the age.
Love and best wishes from
Dad
Subject: american english replacing british english
Dear Dad
Since Microsoft software, American English has been globally replacing
British English. So common American expressions are used as natural
English worldwide. Sophomore (sophisticate+o+more) is
the name for second year College students. It means, in classical Greek, clever
fool. The first year College classes are called freshmen.
Did you walk from Stout street to the RSA club? My suggestion is you find out at the club if they have car-pooling for old soldiers. That means a driver takes you there at set times and you contribute to travel costs. Also you should ask the club for a timetable on their hours.
I hope after a rest you are feeling happier now.
I had two freshmen classes today. The first was a real estate class. Real estate classes are often my bug bear. The standard is much lower and there is distinct lack of motivation. It went across okay. But after break I was furious to find a substantial number – about a third – did not return. I guess they had come for the test.
I had already written on the whiteboard a warning they would lose one mark for finals if they did that. So I found out who they were and marked them absent. It angers me because if the absentees complain about me, I can't do anything about it.
China has a shocking record for attendance in College classrooms. I have heard several times of other Colleges of classes of over thirty students dwindling to one or two and even disappearing all together.
The next class was international finance. Apart from three students who slipped off because they had some etiquette issue to attend to, the thirty or so students stayed for the whole lesson.
I have to be philosophical as a white male and realise I am the world's slave
teacher.
That is why I so admire Julian Assange. Our Spartacus!
Now off to bed and my book, After the Victorians.
Love from Lloyd
2010
Subject: clever fool
Dear Lloyd,
‘A little learning is a dangerous thing’ must have developed
from the name sophomore. It surprises me that there is such a thing
as ‘freshmen’
and ‘real-estate’ are even tolerated in a communist state.
Here's another question: In N.Z. we have the detested law where one cannot be dismissed until one has worked for at least 90 days, even though you have proved utterly hopeless as an employee. There seems no such protection in China.
Another thing, do you have medical cover in your contract so that if you become ill you are covered for medical expenses?
I am feeling much better this morning. Both Becky and Paul were here
yesterday and that cheered me up but I will watch my walking carefully
from now on. I will watch this also in Christchurch.
I leave for there on the 23 Dec and return on 30 Dec.
Ben and Megan will be in the house while I am away. Bruce and Becky will be at the beach in their tent while their house is being rented.
Love and best wishes
Dad
Subject: re: clever fool
Dear Dad,
"A little learning is a dangerous thing" is a line from Alexander
Pope, the English poet. He was very wise; I will google him later.
The American Colleges traditionally have fraternities who come from completely philistine homes and get their first taste of high culture. In the second year they are known to be very opinionated.
I think most of the real-estate students are just failed scholars being dumped in these classes like the commercial classes at Lytton High. Some boys seem distinctly retarded. But at least they are very docile. Before they do any oral lesson, I make them stand up. I wouldn't dare try that in a western culture.
I had three sophomore classes today. The second class is not so bad. But the others are quite depressing. Many can barely speak or not at all speak a sentence. Many did not turn up at all for the second class. I wondered if they were embarrassed to show their ignorance in the oral test. Some boys don't bring their books and just look at me helplessly as I arrange books for them.
It is a ridiculous situation that I have to accommodate myself to these drongoes. It is like your livelihood at Hicks Bay depended on the good will of Pinky Tihore.
After classes in the evening, we had a teachers meeting. Arrangements were made for the Christmas festivities at the College. The Irish teacher wanted to fill the campus with the radio sounds of traditional Christmas carols.
The three month employment has been slipped into western contracts
after unions were done away with. For someone like myself they are a
disaster. I am the perfect scapegoat target. My contract is for a year.
I understand my contract provides medical cover.
Must away to bed and my good book.
Love from Lloyd
2010
Subject: international-finance freshmen
Dear Dad
Today I had in the morning two international-finance freshmen classes.
There is no comparison with the general dead wood the day before. They
are enthusiastic and are learning well. We did an internal test. They
had to talk about a movie they saw the day before. It was a rather
silly movie about a little dog but many said in their talk that they
cried!
After classes, I went into town and had lunch at the Good Restaurant and two wines at the Good Coffee restaurant. Then I bought a week supply of food and a month supply of general provisions and coffee. I got a taxi to take me back to the College because I had a bag of provisions and the buses are packed. Unfortunately I got lost coming back. I ended up leaving the taxi and wandering completely disoriented. Then wonders I found myself back at Good Coffee restaurant. In the process I discovered quite an interesting shopping centre down from the restaurant.
I returned back to the College and had dinner and a few beers at a cheap restaurant down the road from the College. The gate watch at the College permitted me to leave my shopping bag with them. From now on when I leave the neighbourhood I am going to carry my College ID card so that I won't get lost again.
Now off to bed and my good book.
Subject: your 3 dec e mail received
Dear Lloyd
I had a letter from both you and Scott this morning. What a lucky fellow
I am? I would be lost without this computer. However I wasn't
so lucky this morning because half-way through printing one of them
the printer jammed. I called Dawn and she was here within minutes.
She is always ready to help. I invited her to lunch at the Villagio
but she had another appointment. We will make another date next week.
Becky and Bruce's tent at the beach is purely a money-making event. They rent their house at a fabulous rate to outsiders from Auckland. Wealthy city-dwellers don't mind paying over $1000 a week for a house at the beach!
Ben and Megan have been living in sin in Becky's flat but must vacate for the big rent. In the meantime they will live rent-free with me. I will enjoy the company after I return from Christchurch.
Did you read on the Gisborne web page that our polytech is going through another name change? We are now going to be joined to the Napier E.I.T. so that students can sit the BA Degree (in Maori of course). You can guess how successful they will be!
What are your plans for Xmas?
Love and best wishes from
Dad
2010
Subject: i have given the wrong impression
Dear Dad
Perhaps I have given the wrong impression. Most students respond well
to my teaching. My expertise in my subject can scarcely be equalled.
However in the modern teaching climate that is never enough. You also
have to please them!
Is the Villagio the RSA club dining rooms?
I am sorry to see you are having balance problems.
Christmas day is not a holiday in China. I don't know if the foreign teachers get the day off. At the end of this month there is a two month paid holiday. I tentatively plan to spend a few days in Hong Kong and Macau and then take the train to Vietnam and Cambodia.
This morning I worked with Jerry til midday on learning how to upload my website. We sent to iServe a file with pictures of our progress. We have not yet been able to upload. After a prepared lunch of yogurt and kiwifruit, I read my book until evening. Then I went down the road and purchased a dinner and a few beers.
What are
Ben, Kate, John and Julia up to these days?
Love from Lloyd
Subject: your saturday's email
Dear Lloyd,
I am delighted to read it. That email is the first positive letter
about your work. You are now getting a grip of things in China and
Mum would have been glad to hear of it as I am. When the best students
are responding with good work, tell me of further successes
I have just returned from Paul and Dawn's place where I had lunch. I go there most weekends for lunch. I invited Dawn to lunch at the Villagio but being Monday it was closed. However we have made a date for next Wednesday. Becky usually comes here on Wednesday so I will invite her to Villagio too
I go to see Murray Smith on Monday. He may be able to tell me why I have lost my balance and have difficulty walking I had a good long walk today with Paul and managed quite well with my stick. Paul comes to me on his bike for he is in training for his Burma trip in a couple of months.
What are your arrangements for Xmas? Do the Chinese celebrate this festival? I thought you might have planned a trip with someone somewhere.
Love and best of wishes from
Dad
2010
Subject: domestic duties
Dear Dad
This morning I did my weekly clothes washing and house cleaning. I put
out the rubbish. I had lunch of yogurt and kiwi fruit.
Then I wrote an email to John Stroup. He has a column in the Gisborne Herald. We communicate on political issues. He replied and wrote he had got my email from my Sargon Press internet site.
Then I read my book until the evening. Then I went down the road and bought dinner and a few beers. I cam back with four rolls of toilet paper.
Then I prepared for tomorrow's classes. Now off to bed and my good
book.
Love from Lloyd
Subject: email to john stroup
Hi John
I am still pottering on wondering if my present luck will last. Years
ago, you may not have been in New Zealand then, I was forced by WINZ to
do the work for the dole scheme. That is instead of collecting money
I was required to do twenty hours community work instead. In America
it was called the Wisconsin scheme. I grit my teeth and did it.
I was later able to use a good reference from it to get me professional College work in countries such as Mongolia and Iraq. I took that positive attitude because I thought the scheme itself was what mattered not the packaging.
As my supervisors on the scheme were themselves doing work
for the dole they quietly ignored its' dickensian aspects, such as no
paid holidays and fines for lateness. My employment record has been shaky
as I have aspergers.
I think there are some good lessons here where I can agree with the
right.
I have an Internet site Sargon Press that you might like to google.
1957 still seems a bit young to me, the same age as my younger brother.
I think the backlash against socialistic health care in America comes
very much from an understandable, largely, but not entirely racial, security
fear.
My late mother was taken ill in Washington DC years ago. Because she
had no health insurance in America, no doctor would go near her. When
Father was going to call an ambulance to take her to the public hospital,
she said she would not under any circumstances go there.
Mum and Dad just had to wait through the illness until she recovered.
Recovering via no doctors is itself a lesson on health care which is always a lottery.
What is your trade in Gisborne?
Lloyd
john stroup, columnist for the Gisborne Herald, replies
Hi Lloyd,
Individualism vs collectivism is an old issue, never seems to get resolved,
just argued by a new group.
When we were back in the States, my daughter dislocated her knee, requiring an ambulance ride to the hospital. Fortunately, we had taken out travel insurance, which covered all costs. Private insurance is just a different way of paying or not for healthcare.
This represents a difference in approach towards healthcare, personal responsibility. People are being dumbed down to rely on government to take care of them from cradle to grave, that is a great disservice to peoples dignity. Give people the means to make something of themselves, not tell them what, how and who to be.
I'm looking into the UN's Agenda 21, a huge incremental advance in collectivism. Talk about spooky NWO. Education is programing students to be the good little global citizens, without thinking too much, and not making any trouble. Consensus is not truth, it's agreement to call anything something. Search for truth, now that's a worthy endeavour. Independent free thinking.
I'm a builder.
I've seen Sargon, that's where I got your e-mail address.
www.lhr.co.nz is
a group we've started for mission work in the Pacific Islands, self-funded,
practical Christianity that does the work for people as was originally
intended, freely give, freely receive.
John Stroup
2010
Subject: your e mails received so regularly
Dear Lloyd
Thank you for all your e mails received so regularly. I must look for
John Stroup's column in the Gisborne Herald. This newspaper connection
could be very useful at a later date.
I read a couple of nights ago about the beginning of another pornographic
witch-hunt on Pitcairn Island involving the mayor who had a very interesting
name. You might put him to the google test. He says he will defend
his case vigorously but he obviously hasn't heard the saying,
"The man who is his own defence counsel has a fool for a client".
Perhaps he has his suspicion that the defence of the original was not
very vigorous. I wish him well anyway.
Your Cowper niece and nephew are jogging along living in sin happily.
Kate is married to very nice Steve and very comfortably settled in
Wellington.
Glennis took me for a nice drive up the Coast yesterday and then we
had afternoon tea at the Breakers restaurant
I have not been very well of late and I have been a bit slow in replying of late. Put it down to being age-related!
With love and good wishes
Dad
Subject: right-wing American ideology
Dear Dad
John Stroup writes real tea party right-wing American ideology occasionally
in columns in the Gisborne Herald. I had replied to him in the Herald
several times. On request of Paul I had stopped writing to the Herald.
However we now have quite a friendly email correspondence about once
a week. He has that American generosity of spirit.
I read about the problems of the Pitcairn Mayor. I have forgotten
his name. I will try to find it. I think he means to have a lawyer.
Whether it is a witch-hunt by the British Crown, I don't know.
I had the feeling the Crown male officials thought the whole thing was
nonsense. They let the Pitcarin men build the prison. They made it as
comfortable as possible. Then for about six months they sat in there
and smoked and yarned. Their women ministered to them.
As soon as they were on probation, they were released and returned to
their hard labour. They might be looking back at it nostalgically.
This morning I had two sophomore classes. The first class were up to
their old trick. I thought I had weaned them off disappearing in the
break after roll-call and had not warned them. But several did it again
and others were late. So I will have to give them a good roasting next
Monday.
Those that did not return were noted as absent and lost one mark for
the final exam. At least that is what I will tell them. Their behaviour
is more like senior high school students.
Last week a female student forgot to return to me my attendance record sheet. She was updating it. I permitted it as she is the class monitor. She returned the new one but forgot the old one. They just cannot understand why I insist on having it back.
We covered weddings this morning. I said to them all girls in referring to text, they will have a big surprise after their wedding. That drew some laughter.
You omitted to say how John is faring. Is he still working for Trevor?
Where is the Breakers restaurant?
Your letters are fine. I always hope to get one when I check my emails in the morning.
Now back to my book and bed.
Love from Lloyd
2010
Subject: Pitcairn Mayor being prosecuted
Dear Lloyd,
I too like to see there is an e mail in the in box when I sit down
at the computer. The Pitcairn Mayor being prosecuted has the same
name as the prosecuting counsel sent from NZ to prosecute the original
prisoners.
He appeared in a picture in the NZ Herald in fancy dress with wig and enormous boobs on a ship sailing back to N.Z. after the trial.
That shows the calibre of the guy!
I hope their women administered generously to the prisoners in their jail. They should have been in there with them! After all they each collected $10000 on condition they testified. DISGUSTING!
John has made little progress since his accident and is very handicapped. He attends Trevor's factory but cannot do much. However he will draw 90% of his pre-accident salary from ACC for the rest of his life.
Poor Susie Wong did the wong thing and has been turfed out of the
Cabinet. Now the Maori Party controls Parliament.
Key continues to swan around being nice to every one and saying the
right thing. The unions are now threatening big compensation and Jerry
Brownly looks more confused at every interview,
Paul is 62 today. He is practising very conscientiously in preparation for his Burma ride next February
Love and best wishes from
Dad
2010
Subject: internet service in china
To: Hon. Murray McCully (MIN)
Dear Mr McCully
As a New Zealand resident in China, I am concerned about the issue of the refusal of their internet cafes to allow me to use their computer services.
That in itself does not bother me. However I am frustrated that they will not permit me even when I show them my valid New Zealand passport. American and other nationalities have told me they are all allowed to use these internet services when they show their national passports.
Beside being an issue of discrimination against New Zealand, it is also a very inconvenient and potentially a dangerous situation for a New Zealander travelling through China. Through language difficulties, the internet cafes have been unable to explain.
But there is no question all – except one – have excluded me. The one exception needed some persuading. It seems to be general law as it has happened to me in both northern and southern China.
Can you throw light upon this and what can you do about it?
Lloyd Gretton
Gongyi
China
Subject: RE: internet service issue for new zealand citizens in china
On behalf of Hon Murray McCully, thank you for your email. Your correspondence has been noted.
Please be aware that the Minister receives a large volume of correspondence every day which means we cannot always respond as rapidly as some email users may anticipate.
While the Minister considers all correspondence to be important, if you are writing to express a personal view, your opinion will be noted but a response beyond this acknowledgement may not necessarily be sent.
Kind regards,
The Office of Hon Murray McCully
Subject: your newsy letter
Dear Lloyd,
I was delighted to get your newsy letter this morning. Beverley had
already done out my room and made my bed. Very civilised. She is
a very efficient housemaid. She reminds me very much of Jeeves of
P G Wodehouse.
This morning before breakfast she noted I had put out the wrong pre-breakfast
tables and corrected it on my tray as if she was a male assistant.
She could be described as a gentleman's gentleman as P G Wodehouse
described Jeeves!
John Key will regret his chumming up with Hone Harewera for that guy is bad news and his policies are very crafty. There is an interesting land dispute up North at the moment. They don't need a big decision only a little change in the law which will assist the next big law change.
I intend to start packing for Christchurch today. I don't think
I will like travelling alone but I shouldn't be such a boob.
I do still miss Mum so much.
Mary tells me the girls have been making plans as how to entertain me. I hope we don't get cold weather but Jim Hickey says there is more good weather coming up.
I have been going in our car to the supermarket with Beverley driving and helping with the purchases. Becky soon got tired of the job.
With all good wishes and love from
Dad
Subject: grab by local Maori
Dear Dad
The stories of Jeeves make great television but bad books. I am sure Wodehouse would have made a great TV script writer. He sort of did
that in German occupied Europe, and A. A. Milne called for his execution.
Rather like what is happening now to Julian Assange. The American
military are now trying to get him into their hands.
So you still do things around the house. You should do as much as possible to keep yourself energetic.
It is quite clear to me there is a grab going on by local Maori
groups of coastal resources. As they continue to get State support, they
have nothing to lose and a great deal to gain. I have posted messages
to the New Zealand Herald pointing out that the shore-line of
1840 bears no relationship to 2010. In the 1980s I tried to link the Waipoa river-bank to the history of the 1860s. It was all different.
Time and tide waits for no man. The Herald did not post.
On Wednesday John Stroup published a column in the Gisborne Herald. Have
you read it?
It is a good idea to use the home-help for driving. I kinda knew this would happen once you had been immobilised.
This morning and afternoon I had two freshmen classes. I gave my little talking to to the first class about not returning after break. I read out again the names of those who skipped the week before. Nearly all came back. I bounce on this pretty hard because I feel it is taking the mickey out of me.
When I was returning to the apartment I heard "Hello". It was
Jessie. I thought at first she was a student of mine. She is now back
from home leave after having her baby. We had a friendly chat, not about
classes. Like so many employees nowadays I regard work discussions as
a threat.
That is an unfortunate attitude. But understandable in the age of the
employment contract or lack of it.
She said it is much warmer than last year when at this time there was
snow.
The evenings are nice and cool. The freshmen classes come out and clean the grounds. I love work. I can sit and watch it for hours.
What day do do you leave for Christchurch? I can continue sending daily emails to your email address. I will be more circumspect. I have a horrible feeling John's presence at the factory is causing problems. Trevor is in the position of the rich Uncle. But as his daughters could not go to the Gisborne festival because of costs, I suspect he is struggling. I have been having flash-backs about John.
I am now reading a College book, Paris In The Fifties by an
acclaimed American journalist who was the Paris correspondent in that
era for Time magazine.
Love from Lloyd
2010
Subject: finished reading your email
Dear Lloyd,
It is getting close to the 23rd when I leave for Christchurch. I return
on 3 Jan because that day Mary and family leave for North Auckland.
Ben and Megan will meet me at the airport and will be living with
me until Becky's tenants leave her house. Ben and Megan rent
her bottom flat.
No, I didn't read John Stroup on Wednesday as I find newspaper
print very difficult. I can only cope with large print so newspapers
are almost a no-no.
I have been very disappointed with my optician. He doesn't seem
to be interested.
Wodehouse made a lot of money in the 30s with his rich fool Bertie Wooster. He was a very popular light reader and was not to be taken seriously. I did not hear of his exploits in Vichy France during the German occupation.
I will be pleased to receive e mail in Christchurch. Mary will show me how to access it on her machine.
The Villagio is the restaurant in the Village. I took you there once but it was Monday, their closed day, so we had a coffee at home.
I go with Becky, Dawn and Kate for lunch there on the 22nd, the day before I leave for Christchurch.
With love and best wishes from
Dad
Subject: Wodehouse in Germany during the war
Dear Dad
I am sorry you are having serious trouble with your eyes. I suggest you
purchase a magnifying glass. You are missing out on local news by not
being able to read the Gisborne Herald.
Wodehouse was actually in Germany during the war. There was
a strong movement of intellectuals and very high officials and royal
family members who worked for a negotiated peace settlement. While I
am full of admiration for your war years, I think what could have been
done.
That history was smothered over after the war, only things slipped
out like Wodehouse's story who was depicted as Bertie Wooster.
The true story is now becoming known again.
You have lived long enough for history to go full circle. Events are now moving very fast just like in 1939. Meanwhile NZ politicians have invented a war situation in New Zealand.
I remember the Villagio. That was where you went after you had quite rightly tired over the over-ministrations of Mum and Glennis. I will never forget your dramatic exit from the house with your walking frame and hat.
Today I had my three Real Estate classes. I always dread Thursday. They don't misbehave but in the the first class most of them are asleep after about an hour. I speculate what I could do differently. Trouble is it is bad money chasing out good money. If I dumbed it down further the few good students might not come and worse still complain. So I just follow the requisite text book.
In the third class about twenty out of fifty were missing. Many of those that come cannot speak a sentence. A few cannot even read a sentence. Most have no concept of the language rules and can only parrot. That's after about eight years of English instruction including a year and a term at College.
After classes finished at four p.m. I did some computer surfing. Then at six I went to the cafe and had dinner.
I am greatly enjoying my book Paris In The Fifties. But the author is unbelievably a name dropper.
Now off to bed with my book.
Love from Lloyd
2010
Subject: magnifying glass for dad
Hi Paul and Dawn
Dad has complained he cannot read the Gisborne Herald because
of his bad vision. I am speculating you might consider arranging for
a magnifying glass for him. They are quite commonly used in library newspaper
rooms. Maybe you could get one for his Christmas present.
John Stroup published a column in the Herald yesterday about the ‘New World Order’. He had started off as an ignorant tea potter. But I seem to have set him off into a more intellectual level. We have been emailing each other. He got my email address from my Sargon internet site.
He is going to publish two more articles, the next one on Saturday.
He started off with the Illuminati which was set up by a Rothschild in
the eighteenth century.
This stuff is easy to find these days if you
want to look for it. He didn't mention that Illuminati is code for Lucifer i.e.
devil worship.
The fascinating thing is it all seems to have come to pass as was first
planned.
For example the Harry Potter cult! Harry Potter is Lucifer!
Lloyd
Subject: re: magnifying glass for dad
Dear Lloyd
Funny you should come up with the suggestion of a magnifying glass
for Frank as we have been working towards doing the very same (great
minds must think alike).
In my last email, I mentioned Hoover in relation to Hitler. J. Edgar
Hoover, while head of the FBI, carried out a concerted campaign of
terror against homosexuals.
After his death it came to light that he himself was a rampant poof.
(What a funny old world we live in.)
We are expecting Julia & Steve shortly as they will be staying with us over Christmas.
Cheers
Paul
2010
Subject: Christmas in Hong Kong
Dear Dad,
This morning I went to town and purchased air tickets for Christmas in
Hong Kong. I will depart on twenty-third at five am. A travel agency
bus will pick me up and take me straight to the international airport.
I should be in Hong Kong in the late morning. I plan to stay at my
old haunt. There is a lovely Irish restaurant just down the street.
I will see what Christmas there is in a city which began its British colonial history in 1840. I will fly back on the twenty-sixth in time for classes the next day.
I had lunch at KFC. Then I took the taxi back. As I had my passport with me, I didn't dare take the bus. In the afternoon I went to bed and continued with my book.
I had dinner and a few beers down the road. Daniel has just rang. We
are going out somewhere with another teacher for a fun night in half
an hour's time.
Love from Lloyd
Subject: World War Two
What a laugh.
How long would a negotiated peace like that last?
Love and best wishes from
Dad
Subject: re: World War Two
Dear Dad
That reply was short and sweet. You obviously don't believe in the John
Lennon song, ‘Give Peace A Chance’. Still it is good we can
argue these issues without ad-hominem attack.
Last night I went out with Daniel and Hassan to a bar. We were the
only ones in a quite neat place. The barman put on music and we drank
two rums and talked earnest things. Daniel was about his favourite thing,
movies. He teaches that at College. I am so glad I only teach oral. It
gives me the perfect excuse not to mark any essays. They are rat-shit.
Hassan is half Indo-Iranian, a quarter Portuguese and a quarter Angolan.
As so many coloured people, he is a genius on computers.
This morning I did my house cleaning, washed my clothes and put out the rubbish. Then I went to business street inside campus and purchased a battery for my alarm clock. I will be getting up at 4am on 23rd for my bus journey from the College gates to the airport. After lunch at the cafeteria in Business Street – fried eggs, beef, and two cobs – I returned to the apartment and finished my book. Then I started to read a standard book on the history of theatre.
The first dramas appeared to be religious ritual in Ancient Egypt four
and a half thousand years ago. I did my normal daily internet surfing.
Chuckled over David Irving's depiction of my Polish ancestors.
Then I read online the play The Clouds by Aristophanes.
Very relevant to today. Socrates' house gets burned down
at the end of the play by a disgruntled father of a student.
Then I prepared for Monday morning. Now off to bed.
Love from Lloyd
2010
Subject: too cold to go out for dinner
Dear Dad
Today was perhaps the coldest I have encountered in China. In the morning
I did two sophomore classes. We talked about teletexting. I told them
one day teletexting will be the standard international English language.
We did some teletexting grammar. I found their rules quite interesting.
After twelve, I went to the business street dry cleaners and got back my business clothes. I had lunch in business street on corn cobs and chicken. I bought in business street two packets of chewing gum and some bananas. I returned to the apartment. I went to bed and read my book on theatre. It was too cold to go out again for dinner. So I had a meal of yogurt, vitamins, oranges, and bananas. Then I had a coffee.
I found in my suitcase a beret which I will wear tomorrow. Now back
to bed with my book.
Love from Lloyd
2010
Subject: My delayed letter
Dear Lloyd,
I tried to write you an e mail last Saturday but as I had lost my reading
glasses I had to abandon the attempt. My ladies and I spent almost
2 days looking for them and it wasn't until Beverley arrived this
morning that they turned up. I have very little to write about other
than that after a despondent period I am now well. At my age it's
a terrible thing to lose ones glasses. I am feeling much better now.
Becky was here this morning and planned out the itinerary for next
week. She tells me Scott will be staying with me for a week before
Xmas which will be nice.
Glennis and Beverley will be replaced by one Debbie during the time they will be away. I leave for Chch on the 23rd.
Can you state any negotiated peace where the Nazi side kept its side
of the negotiated space? I'm thinking of Czechoslovakia, Poland,
and Russia.
Not one, all broken by Hitler. He was full of excuses. I have read
them all. All very much in his favour of course
I am horrified, like Prof. Higgins, at what the cockney has done to the language of Shakespeare and Milton in London. You are expected to do this to pidgin in China?
Love and the best of wishes
Dad
Subject: re: lost glasses
Dear Dad
I am sorry to hear you lost your glasses. My advice is go to the optician
and purchase a pair of standard glasses. You can buy them for about
thirty dollars. Then put them away into a safe place.
I keep in my bag permanently old reading glasses. Like you I am incapacitated without them.
It will be good to have Scott. You will be departing to Christchurch the same day I will be departing to Hong Kong.
I did one sophomore class this morning. In the break I got this letter from the class monitor.
Dear Teacher
We're glad to be your students. We feel very blessed and lucky.
The school has many foreign teachers but only you teach us this semester.
So it's blessed. Lucky, your serious teaching style, makes us feel
you are a responsible teacher.
After your several classes, we realise your teaching point is grammar. As the Chinese students, what we are most afraid is grammar. So we fear to speak in the class. We know the grammar can make our English more veritable. Maybe our behaviour is unsatisfying, but we have done our best. There are some poverty students want to get the scholarship. So they hope the grade is enough high to improve their scores.
There might have some mistakes, please understand. The Christmas is coming. I'm behalf as the all students say to you. Merry Chrismas!
Sincerely
International Trade 3
I read it with mixed feelings. I have a natural conspiratorial turn of mind.
After class, I went to the College library and returned two books and got two new ones. I read my book in bed. I had cafe dinner in the evening.
At seven pm I went to English Corner and chatted with teachers and English major students. The majors are enthused at my visit to Hong Kong. They so wistfully want foreign travel.
Don't worry about World War Two. It now belongs to history.
Love from Lloyd
2010
Subject: two freshmen classes today
Dear Dad
I did two freshmen classes today. One in the morning and one in the afternoon.
A lot of students don't come to the real-estate class, but out
of a class of over forty there was one absence in the international
finance class.
After dinner, I walked down the road to a shop and bought oranges and
bananas. The cold wind almost froze me. Now back to my book and bed.
Love from Lloyd
2010
Subject: Dear Teacher
Dear Lloyd,
What a delightful letter. It must make you feel good about yourself.
I recall Uncle Harold got one like that when he was trying to teach
French to Maori students at Taupo. He was trying to teach oral
French but the kids just couldn't get it.
Now I have my glasses again I feel much happier. I will adopt my
mother's policy, -There's a place for everything and everything
should be in its place-.
She confided to me that she hated looking for lost articles when she
was living alone after my father died.
I am sorry to hear you are feeling the cold. This must be avoided at all costs. You need to buy a warm winter's overcoat Buy one today and I will deposit the cost into your BNZ account. That is what Mum would have liked. You must keep healthy
Paul will be taking me to the airport at 7:45a.m. on Thursday 23rd Dec. Mary will meet me at Christchurch airport. I will return to Gisborne on 7th January.
Love and best wishes from
Dad
Subject: Thank you for your Christmas present
Dear Dad
I felt both unease and joy reading the letter. I don't permit any
negativity if I can help it. Uncle Harold's time at that Maori
school is another world. These days he would be more likely to be mugged.
Thank you so much for your Christmas present. I have arranged a College bus with other teachers will go on Saturday morning to Zhengzhou. That is a major city where I can buy bargain winter clothes. Dawn, Daniel's wife, is coming with us and she can advise. I will also buy winter trousers and gloves. I will access the BNZ for both your Christmas and your birthday gifts.
After I buy the coat, I will give you an estimate of the price in NZ dollars. I will consider it and the other clothes gifts from you.
Today I had my three real-estate sophomore classes. We covered the
matter of teletexting. In the third class only about half turned up.
I have warned them again and again they lose one mark for every class
absence. The bright ones come. I don't mind the absentees if they don't
blame me. That would be outrageous. But the teaching profession is at
the mercy of retardos.
Love from Lloyd
2010
Subject: Shopping
Dear Lloyd,
Buy some warm undercloths too, for you have just started winter where
you are. Later tell me about your shopping experience.
It will be so different from in N.Z.
Love and best wishes
Dad
Subject: Zhengzhou a dull Chinese place
Dear Dad,
For some obscure reason the bus cannot be released for us on Saturday.
I saw Dawn, Daniel's wife, about taking the train to Zhengzhou.
She wrote up for me in Chinese words for jacket and found
out ticket times. However when I googled ‘Zhengzhou’, it sounds a typical
dull Chinese place. I am afraid that is the character of China.
So on Saturday I will take instead the bus to Gongyi central supermarket and buy a thick jacket, and other clothing. I will make a record of the cost of the jacket that you can make my Christmas present.
This morning I had two freshmen classes. They nearly all came and were enthusiastic to learn. After classes, I took my coat to the business street dry cleaners and checked that my month's salary had arrived. It had. Then I took the bus to Gongyi and went to Good Coffee restaurant where I had two wines, one of which was on the house, and a pepper steak with vegetables. Then I went to the local supermarket and bought two bottles of yogurt and oranges and bananas.
I came home and saw Dawn about the jacket. Then I returned to the apartment and had a dinner of yogurt, an orange and a banana.
I have In Ancient Times. Now off to my bed with my new book.
Love from Lloyd
2010
Subject: Shopping in Gongyi city centre
Dear Dad
I took the bus this morning to Gongyi city centre. There were on the
bus six of my College girl students. They insisted on coming with me
and selecting my new clothes. They were able to arrange discounts for
me. I have purchased a winter jacket, gloves, six pairs of winter socks,
winter trousers, and two jockey underwears. They then left me for a
birthday party while I had lunch at KFC.
When I returned I met Dawn who pronounced satisfaction at my purchases. We had gone to several shops.
If you deposit one hundred dollars, I will think of the jacket and gloves as your Christmas present. I have decided not to withdraw the money from the BNZ as depositing money in there from China is a nightmare.
I returned to my apartment and read my book through the evening.
I went down the road and had a light dinner with a few beers.
Now back to my book.
Love from Lloyd
Subject: New World Order
Hi John
I was looking forward to reading your third instalment of New World
Order. But I haven't seen it in the Herald.
I generally knew about what you wrote about. One new illumination is that the Illuminati infiltrated the Masonic Lodge. I had often wondered about the link.
The Masonic Lodge appears to be the repository of the Knights Templer's looted gold from the Holy Land. The Masons were proscribed by the Kings of Europe. Then they appeared to disappear. I hold disappearance never really happens in history. Things soon resurface in new form.
The Masonic Lodge, I think, created the middle class as the Iluminati created the capitalist class. If you look in Gisborne you will see the biggest historic building is most likely the Masonic Lodge and the biggest buildings now are the money lenders.
I have had several discreet overtures to benefit from the Illuminati but have always declined. I have many faults but I cannot live saying one thing and doing another.
The public has no idea how controlled their perceptions are. Wikipedia on certain issues will tailor articles to the expected formula language within two hours instead of the normal two weeks. I know because I have experienced it.
The multi-cultural society, I agree, is at best a chimera, at worst a poison. Yet it has been for more than sixty years hoisted on white people. An Austrian leader Haider was murdered two years ago because he was leading a European movement generally against multi-culturalism and was allied to Islam. The two are compatible.
The Muir family, owners of the Herald, are Jewish. So play
it cautious.
Lloyd
2010
Subject: Liberty Equality Power
Dear Dad
This morning I cleaned my apartment and took out the washing. I put a
new sheet onto my bed. Then I finished reading my Roman History book.
I am now reading a large College text book on American history titled Liberty
Equality Power. It starts with the Indians crossing the Bering
strait and ends with George W Bush.
I prefer the Indians.
In the evening I had a College cafe dinner. Then I prepared my class
work and clothes for tomorrow's classes. Now off to bed. It has been
a nice cool day and evening. I was in my light jersey and did not have
to wear my new jacket. I am going to get the girls very excited tomorrow
in my new outfit.
Love from Lloyd
2010
Subject: two sophomore classes
Dear Dad
This morning I had two sophomore classes. After the classes, I returned
library books and had a College cafe lunch. I purchased two pencils
and bananas in business street. Then I continued to read my American
book.
I am greatly enjoying it. I am up to the Salem witch trials. Each new American State has its own religious history and special colouring.
In the evening I arranged to have my Christmas present wrapped and sent upstairs for the College teachers Christmas party on Tuesday.
The Assange wikileaks is getting a lot of publicity in the New Zealand Herald. Many revelations are coming through about New Zealand politicians. It is the sure sign of a fall of an Empire when it cannot keep secure its secret records.
I sent a comment to the New
Zealand Herald comparing it to the fall of Akhenaton and the
eighteenth dynasty of ancient Egypt. The story figures in the fiction Sinue
the Egyptian. However the Herald did not post it. It is probably
too inflammatory and revealing.
John Stroup emailed me from Gisborne his third article for the Gisborne
Herald on secret organisations. But I could not access it. I am
hoping I can read it on Wednesday in the Herald.
Love from Lloyd
2010
Subject: Email of 21 received
Dear Lloyd,
I am not feeling very well this morning. I am somewhat confused as
to when I go to Christchurch. I thought today was Thursday and at
5:50 a.m. I had a dress rehearsal for Thursday morning and was
ready for Paul to take me to the airport. I could not believe that
it was only Tuesday and that I was two days ahead of myself, being
old and confused is no fun I don't like it
I have grown old very rapidly these last few months. I am looking forward to seeing Mary's family again soon. I have not much faith in living much longer. There is not much joy in it.
I hope you will understand. I am wholely dependent upon my glasses and without them I cannot read much at all. I get very depressed without my books.
I am sorry this is such a miserable letter but please bear with me. Put it down to old age?
Love and best wishes
Dad
Subject: no elixir of youth
Hi Paul and Dawn
Dad this morning sent me such a miserable email I think you should share
it. I fear both his hearing and eyesight are going. The pharmaceutical
industry has lucrative profits keeping old people alive. For some years
both Mum and Dad appeared to me to be getting younger. But alas it
is no elixir of youth and now with poor Dad age has caught
up but not mortality.
The U.K. is going to have a nightmare with the Queen. She has lived all her life studiously preserving her health and has the world's top doctors and medication to administer to her every care. As she continues to age, so will the pharmaceutical industry develop its anti-ageing drugs.
She will wither away completely and her brain will keep functioning
over maybe decades. In the meantime Charles Ⅰs ageing and even William!
The royal family will become an old people's home.
What is the story about his magnifying glass?
Dad emailed me he was going to buy me a winter coat for Christmas. I
have purchased it but I cannot tell if he has deposited one hundred
dollars into my BNZ account. If he has done that I would like to know
for practical and sentimental reason.
Can you ask him about that?
John Stroup has published in the Gisborne Herald his final article on the New World Order. Don't miss it in today's paper. It is very well written. I make the distinction between benign and malign New World Order. The benign is the Rockefeller order, the malign is the Biederberg order. It is certainly unfortunate Jews are behind both!
The Assange leaks are a perfect example of the fall of an Empire. The first thing your enemies do is release all your secrets. I think Mossad is behind it. The leaks always put the Israel Government in a good light. But they are being double crossed by an Israeli Christian called Israel Shamir.
He has now started releasing his own and has gone into hiding. His first leak showed all the western diplomats at the UN were waiting poised for a signal from a U.S. official to walk out together when the President of Iran in the General Assembly either denied the Holocaust or said Isarel had no right to exist. The Iranian President did neither which caused confusion. Who can now with a straight face deny absolutely the Jews run the world?
I am going to Hong Kong for Christmas. I am taking the direct flight early Thursday morning and arriving at about eleven. I am planning to go to Indo-China for my Summer vacation in mid January.
Merry Christmas and a happy new year. What are your plans?
Regards Lloyd
2010
Subject: Thank you, email received this morning
Dear Lloyd,
I read John Stroup's letter in the local paper. He was ranting
on about householders who neglect to cut their front hedges allowing
them to compete for room with passing pedestrians on their lawful business
around the town.
I expected something political.
Love from Dad
Subject: e mail received this morning
Dear Lloyd,
I have read John Stroup's letter in the Herald. It was about a small domestic matter which could have been fixed with a phone call to the mayor.
I am feeling much better this morning. Tomorrow I fly to Christchurch. I think that was the cause of my despondency. I miss not having Mum to discuss our future plans in Christchurch.
I am glad your girls like your new clothes. Who is Dawn? She seems like she could become a good friend. I have Debbie looking after me now. Glennis and Beverley have both gone to Australia on holiday.
I will deposit $100 in your bank account in town this afternoon
Love and best wishes from
Dad
Subject: Thank you for the email received this morning
Hi Lloyd,
I copied and pasted this:
Gisborne is a beautiful town. Many a place pales in comparison. On a walk to the shop tonight, I had noticed how bountiful the foliage had become. I would ask home dwellers to take responsibility for the foliage on their properties and in front of their properties.
Although it is nice to see how well things grow in Gisborne, it is difficult to walk down sidewalks when flora is protruding into the space that pedestrians are to occupy. So, please, when you're doing your yard work, look at the footpath as well.
Subject: the rates rise
Have you been following the rates rise?
If you look at the overall rise this year, 2.5% GST (suposed to be offset by a reduction in payroll tax, no one is feeling/noticing that adjustment), 3.5% GDC rates rise, and the 5% surcharge for ETS. All told, an over 10% tax increase.
Notice where it's all coming from? Business is not going to be able to create more jobs while being saddled with higher tax. Wealth redistribution happening right in front of your eyes.
I thought it interesting that farmers/landowners were hit equally hard. Almost as if trying to get rid of self suficency and property ownership, hmmm.
Tell Grandpa, it's not all about insideous entities seeking to subjugate the masses.
John Stroup
Tradewind Pacifica Ltd
Gisborne, NZ
Subject: Re: our father
Hi Lloyd
Thanks for your Christmas wishes. Regarding our father, actually both
his health and eye sight are quite normal for his age. His main problem
is feeling sorry for himself.
I have spoken to his optometrist and he does not need a magnifying glass, but he does need a good reading light. He reads up to four hours a day in not very good light so is suffering just eye strain.
I am going to take him shopping when he gets back from Christchurch
to buy a halogen light to set up beside his chair.
I am taking him to the bank this afternoon, I guess that is regarding
your coat.
{Change of plan, have just heard he will do that now while in
Christchurch}
You seem to have interesting vacations planned
Cheers from us both,
PAUL
Subject: International Finance class
Dear Dad
Today I had two freshmen classes, one in the morning and one in the
afternoon. The morning one, the freshmen class, a number of the boys
had brought neither book nor pen. They look up at me like – I won't
say in case a Chinese official is reading this email. What infuriates
me is if they complain about me, the system always takes their side.
The class gave me a Christmas gift of a shiny red apple. There are some
bright enthusiastic ones among them.
Jackson this morning wanted my expert teachers certificate. I suspect they are afraid I will do a bunk and leave them just before the exams.
In the afternoon I had the International Finance class. They are a bright enthusiastic class. In the evening, I went down the road and had dinner and a few beers.
I am now packed and ready for my departure at five a.m. tomorrow morning
from the College gates by the travel agency bus. I will be arriving in
Hong Kong by about eleven a.m.
Dawn is Daniel's Chinese wife.
I replied to an email from John Stroup. I will forward you his.
Wishing you a good flight.
Love from Lloyd
Subject: The Harry Potter thing
Lloyd,
Quickly, there does not seem to be any resistance from the GH, yet.
The Harry Potter thing, that's a reflection of the moral climate
these days.
The interest in the occult is an alarming development. My daughters youth group at church went over these books, most kids didn't know that agrandising occultic activity was a BAD thing.
UNESCO is the education arm of the UN, I knew that.
What's interesting to find out, they're everywhere, programs
in lots of countries, including NZ.
NZ seems to be fully onboard with this indoctrination, both Labor
and National. Same party, just different colors. Keeping people busy
watching one hand, while changing everything with the other.
Got to go.
Subject: father is a bit befuddled
Hi John
My father is a bit befuddled but excellent for ninety two. I am sure your
columns are being published.
UNESCO is linked to the United Nations. I think it is actually an agency of it. After World War Two the German leadership was brutally executed. I have heard it said Germany has replaced National Socialism with National Masochism. Yet not so deep down they remain the same old bullies. After the Berlin wall fell, the fifty year old Marxist German capital became the capital of Europe and the enforcer of the international bankers. Berlin has always represented the Prussian mentality and the German authoritarian tradition. The EU is actually a Marxist state. As in Marxism and National Socialism, the EU ruthlessly employs a legal fig leaf to imprison and silence European dissidents.
Some years ago, I met some South Korean high school students in Queen Street Auckland, raising funds for Amnesty International. I said to them,
"Do you know Amnesty International campaigns to have European dissidents imprisoned in Europe?".
They were startled and said give examples. I was impressed. If they had been kiwi high school students, they would have looked at me blankly. I said to them,
"Say the name David Irving to your teacher".
I didn't say anymore as I don't harass school students.
Amnesty International, while it may have started idealisticly, is now a paid-up mind-control organisation of the EU and by extension the UN and NATO. The public is beguiled by the expression hate speech which is used to spook people into compliance. In Europe if there is a demonstration against the NWO, the media will immediately defile its report by mixing it in with some low-life crime somewhere involving immigrants or gypsies.
The old-fashioned Marxists actually – in the main – had and have some standards as they believe they are in the western intellectual tradition. Their successors have no such scruples. Partly I think the cause has been the take-over by feminism and ethnic groups. Freedom of thought and individualism is not their tradition and they completely run the NWO orders.
The white man by his use of objective thought created the modern world and them. They enjoy its benefits but say nothing good about its founders. They are like spoilt maladjusted teenagers, in fact Harry Potter. His rise in this era is not a co-incidence.
From what I have heard in the 1980s the European Marxist groups went to Michel Gorbachev and said;
"What can we do? We have no public support."
Gorbachev said to them;
"Campaign on bread and butter issues. Then by increments, bring in Marxist States."
From the Marxist point of view, the fall of the Berlin Wall was a triumph. The present EU leadership and most of the American leadership have Marxist backgrounds. The EU now most closely resembles the Soviet Union in Lenin's era. America is going the same. As for New Zealand, Maori tribalism and feminism run amok. John Key is a money man.
It will be interesting if you can continue writing Herald columns. Just don't mention the word Jews or express doubts about the Holocaust. Otherwise you seem to have an open forum.
I will be flying to Hong Kong and returning Sunday. I haven't started packing
yet.
Regards
Lloyd
2010
Subject: your elderly moment
Dear Dad
I am sorry at your elderly moment. It seems to me to be quite a minor
event. You were semi-sleepwalking at the time. Once your real time
comes, you will be fully prepared for departure to Christchurch.
I had one sophomore class this morning. After it I went into town and had lunch at Good Food restaurant. Then I went to the printers and made up the exam paper for the sophomore classes after Christmas.
When I returned to the College, I wrote an email to John Stroup about his Gisborne Herald article today on the New World Order.
Then I went to the foreign teachers Christmas party. The College senior administrators were there and thanked us for our work. We had a buffet and wine. Then we had Father Christmas and gifts for the children residents at the College.
Deputy Principal Jerry
Daniel as Santa Claus Doctor Xu
Hassan with Lloyd The Teachers
Lloyd Group Photo
When I returned to my apartment, there was an email from John Stroup.
Now off to bed.
It is no longer so cold. The climate is not so bad and I now have my
coat.
My students liked my new coat which I wore in the classroom.
Love from Lloyd
Subject: most collectivists want to subjugate
Hi Lloyd,
I thank you for the compliment on the quality. I do try to keep things
interesting, you could have the most compelling point, but if no
one can manage to struggle through it, it won't get the point
across.
What is not understood is the fact that individualism is the source
of the resource (wealth) that most collectivists want to subjugate.
Killing the goose that lays the golden egg, or cutting your nose off
to spite your face. In the long run, suppressing industry (in the
broad sense) will result in less wealth, which will make all those
financiers grumpy. I just wish that they would figure out that they
can't have their cake and eat it too. But as you most astutely
noted, things aren't getting better. Youthful idealism, naivety, or
plain old stupidity, will get them something they won't want when
they've got it.
Groucho Marx once said "I wouldn't want to be a member of a club
that would have me as a member."
The guerrilla model of war fighting does seem to be the winning one for the last half of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century. I think that the tensions in the mid-east are the keep the monotheists busy so the pantheists can run amok. Judeo-Christian and Islam have been identified as being the biggest deterrent to "progress" in implementing NWO. What better way to keep us occupied than to chase our tails and spend our $ than to pit J-C against Islam? I haven't quite got the connections put together on that one yet. I do know that Islam would be a strange bed fellow.
Have you read much about unesco's involvement with NZ education? Look up: Guidelines for Environmental Education in New Zealand Schools, or The Role of Partnerships in Environmental Education in NZ schools, or any thing that unesco has put out in relation to NZ education, the indoctrination has been going on for some time now. It's getting harder to know who to believe. Bush 41 was very involved in getting the US tied up in UN treaties, Clinton, a liberal ideologue, was worse. We're being sold down the river.
If you read the docs (which titles are above), when you read them, substitute NWO any time you see sustainable development. It starts to get very scary. I'd be interested in what you think about unesco's involvment.
Enjoy your trip to HK, how are you travelling? How long are you
to be there? Supposed to be a good place to get clothes (made),
I know when I was in Bangkok, I got clothes, well made, and cheap.
John
Subject: merry christmas mary
Hi Mary
Merry Christmas. You will be seeing Dad soon from Gisborne. He was very
upset that he got ready for departure Tuesday morning thinking it was
Thursday. The letter he wrote apart from being miserable was very coherent.
He was just in a sleep-walking state. So please don't make fun
of him. No doubt Paul will tell Becky and Becky will circulate it.
I leave by plane for a Christmas holiday in Hong Kong on Thursday morning. I fly back to College on Sunday. Next week will be exam time at the College. The College has become something of a sanctuary for me in a mad world. As all my classes are oral I am already semi-retired.
A teacher Jerry was teaching me how to upload my internet site Sargon Press. We got so close but then my ISP has gone silent on me. We cannot progress further until they reply. I suspect they are in the holiday season. They sent me a bill today. I am sure Trevor would have a few words to say about that.
What are the arrangements for John Gretton? I hear he is working at your company. Poor fellow. I keep having flash backs about him. When Dad and Mum celebrated their golden anniversary, they seemed to be so extraordinarily lucky. Now fate has crept up on us.
Has the city made a good recovery from the earthquake?
Lloyd
Subject: re: merry christmas mary
Hi Lloyd
Merry Christmas to you too! I am waiting at airport for dad to
arrive. He had told me about the false start last week. He also told
me he was looking for his togs so he can go in our spa pool which is
funny as he has never been in it before! Becky says he is in good
spirits. We have lots going on this week so I hope he can cope with
all the activity.
I know nothing about ISP service – I liked your website though
so hope you get it sorted.
On Sunday an alcohol and drug addled man drove across the road and
wrote off our parked car. He was very apologetic and today put $2500
into our bank account to repair it. Our insurance company would not
pay to repair it as by writing it off they got to keep and sell the
parts and make money on the deal. Bastards.
The drunk druggy was much easier to deal with!
Dads plane is delayed – probably because it took dad so long to board. John is doing very well. He works a few hours each day. He has one good leg but is in a wheelchair permanently.
Our city is doing well with lots of construction going on. Even the
old repertory theatre is being restored and other buildings which we
expected to be demolished.
Disruption to traffic is still a problem.
I have a one year full-time contract at our polytech next year teaching accounting. I am to lose my nice office to a permanent staff member though so am a bit grumpy about that. I love teaching there and I too feel semi-retired as it's pretty easy with only 12 lecture hours per week.
Why is your teaching so easy? I may enrol for my masters next year to keep me busy and because the polytech will pay.
Well I hope you have a nice Xmas in Hong Kong.
Love Mary
Sent from my iPhone
Subject: now in Hong Kong
Dear Dad,
I hope you made a good journey to Christchurch.
I am now in Hong Kong. I was picked up by the tourist bus and taken straight to the airport. There were no serious hitches on the journey to Hong Kong.
I took a boat trip around the harbour. Then I had an excellent dinner
of roast lamb and apple crumble at the Irish restaurant.
Love from Lloyd
2010
Subject: plan to visit Macau
Dear Dad
I trust you are now in Christchurch with family. I went on a bus tour
of Hong Kong island today. Tomorrow I plan to visit Macau.
I have booked in at a more upmarket place. My room has a window!
Now off to my Christmas eve dinner and a live Irish band at Murphy's
down the street.
Love from Lloyd
2010
Subject: merry German Christmas from Hong Kong
Hi Birgit
A merry Christmas.
I am now having a not very satisfactory Christmas in Hong Kong. I hope today to take a ferry to Macau and have booked a Christmas dinner at the Irish Murphy pub just down the street, with live Irish music! That brings out my Irish side of my family.
I checked my emails and I think my last email to you was in March last year. Then I was teaching in Oman. I am now teaching oral English at a private University College in Gongyi in mainland south China. It is part of a franchise of Colleges owned by a Taiwanese Chinese.
It is modeled on a red-brick English University and has a huge security presence, probably to protect us from the Chinese Government. How a former refugee can be so philanthropic I don't like to think. But so long as I can share some of it I am happy. I see the College as a refugee for myself. I have been one term there and seem to be doing OK.
However I have become so fatalistic, that if I am suddenly called into the office and summarily dismissed, I would laugh at them! I am sorry I have come to feel that way, but for people in my situation, i.e. economic refugees, it is a survival strategy. But like the most interesting & disturbing things these days you will never read about it in a book.
In my March email, I mentioned that I had a column in an ESL on-line magazine ESL Daily, and for payment would have my Sargon Press web site uploaded. The on-line magazine is now defunct. It is still on-line, I posted under the bi-line Goethe. Notice the German name. I have become very pro-German these days. Goethe became quite notorious. They do give the wrong impression.
Failure is always more interesting to write about than success. A comment was made on a chat line, on another on-line site,
"that Goethe fellow tells why ESL teachers have a bad reputation".
I quoted it back by referring to the poster's confusion with the possessive adjective its.
At the beginning of this year I was having a bad time at a Chinese business school in Harbin and lost my mother, my passport and my job in the same week.
Mother had tried to pick up Dad who had fallen on the floor and died of a heart attack. Dad is still alive in a gloomy state. I am told he lives on my daily emails. He loves to tell everyone he has a son who is a University teacher in China.
Incidentally, I found out some
years ago, he was never a warrior during the war. His story is part
of the mythology of those years. He was a passenger on two bombing
raids and they bombed France!
I am sorry he wasn't shot down
and survived –
intact of course!
My passport was recovered after a couple of weeks. A taxi driver drove off with my bag. But the New Zealand Internal Affairs Department had invalidated it. Their vandalism so enraged me, I considered I had to tone down my language to them or be put on a terror watch. I eventually got a new one.
They had the new one and weren't going to send it for a couple of weeks, which I was desperately waiting for. I was living at my new College on the invalid one and any day was due for the Government medical tests. I wrote to them that I had an internet site and would be posting about my experience with them. The next day I got an email from their senior office that the new one had been posted that morning. The lesson to that is, if you displace your passport do not inform your Government until they receive a posted letter from you with your paper application forms that you have downloaded from their site.
They, the Governments, are the real terrorists and the international criminals. If they were the least concerned about our security, they would put a warning watch on our passports until a new one is issued. Then passport holders should co-operate with them.
Incidentally the new passport is a delight to the eye. I had a lot of fun showing it to my students. But I wouldn't let any of them even touch it.
As you have a busy schedule, I thought maybe we could post to each other each year on Christmas until we reach our lay-by date. You seem to have an excellent life and a lovely husband. Have you told him about me? Looking foward to your email.
My site Sargon Press was updated by the ESL magazine. It has on it
an article, a biography, two novels, a short story and a radio play.
I am waiting to upload another novel, a radio play and articles. I
like to think my postings are there to make people think, or at least
amuse. I get about six hits a day from places all over the world including
Russia and Seychelles.
A number of other on-line sites have linked
to mine. Oddly they are furniture companies and travel agencies. No
literary or historical site has come near me.
A College teacher was teaching me how to upload onto the site. Unfortunately the ISP
from Auckland went silent. I don't think it's a political reason.
They are still happy to bill me. I think too much New Zealand festivity!
When
I see or write the name New Zealand overseas, my eyes start filling
with tears. It is a strange thing, patriotism.
I was going around saying that the next populist leader of Germany
will be a Turk. Then Boris Johnston surfaces in U.K. Right now the
new German leader is a twelve year old boy in a mixed race home near
you. He kicks a football in the morning and surfs the internet in the
evening.
Google Spellcheck upper-capitalizes Internet and lower-capitilizes
president. That tells you so much.
Now off to the ferry pier – and I hope, Macau – with my passport in my coat pocket.
Regards
Lloyd
2010
Subject: back in the College today
Hi Dad, Mary and Trevor
I am back in the College today Monday. I arrived last night via bus from
the international airport. When I arrived, I was suddenly violently
ill. I managed to extract most of the contents of my stomach. By morning
I was in that bilious state. I had not drunk any alcohol all Sunday.
So I think it was the airplane food.
I had two classes today and am feeling better. But after this letter, I am going to retire to bed with my book about American history, Liberty Equality Power.
This morning Jackson gave me letters Merry Christmas and an
invitation from the English Corner Club for Tuesday.
Today is exam week.
It is now quite sunny and I have my laundry being done in the washing machine.
As regards your problem with the Insurance Company, once a corporation can afford a battery of lawyers all human decency disappears from their operations.
You asked, Mary, why my teaching is so easy. I don't have disciplinary
problems. There is no written work and I am a savant on the English language.
Love from Lloyd
2010
Subject: I made a good recovery
Dear Dad
I have made a good recovery although my stomach is still a bit unsettled.
I did a class this morning. I asked the letter writer of the Dear
Teacher letter to sign the letter. I might hang it up on a wall
if I ever set up a foreign language school in Auckland.
I went into town and had lunch and bought two bottles of yogurt and oranges and bananas from the supermarket.
I went to the English Corner this evening and had some interesting conversations with English Majors. They knew about Assange. They mentioned him, not me. The girls agreed the charges against him are entirely political.
I was chatting with Daniel in the teachers compound when Jackson came up and asked me for my holiday plans. I tentatively said I plan in a fortnight's time to take the train to Vietnam and cross into Cambodia. We have a six weeks paid vacation and holiday allowance before the start of the next term. I continue to enjoy my American book.
I got an email from John Stroup. He has another column in the Herald
due this week. I recommended he not write letters to the newspaper and
stick to the column.
Love from Lloyd
Subject: email to john stroup
John
We had Christmas at my school.
We brought in a teacher dressed as ‘evil
Santa’!
Then a game was played with the children that involved
stealing the presents from each other. Like the Harry Potter stories, most people
would think it harmless. But it preys on children's minds and shapes
their view of the world.
Imagine if a school played ‘evil Mohammad’.
In a previous email I made a foolish mistake that made the sentence obscure. I wrote the European Kings proscribed the Masons, I should have written the European Kings proscribed the Knights Templers.
I think there
was an instigated general massacre and seizure of their wealth. My suspicion
is the Knights Templers had hidden away wealth from looted Palestine.
Descendants of the Knights Templers became clergy men, clerks, tradesmen.
They used the wealth as a means to winning power in their respective
countries and displacing the landed gentry.
In the early nineteenth-century
families from obscure backgrounds, unlinked to the landed gentry, suddenly
became very wealthy and powerful. You looked around and they were everywhere.
Social revolutions do usually happen almost overnight.
I went to Hong Kong and Macau. I felt Hong Kong was tawdry. I had demanded to hear the sound recording on a tourist bus and was abused by the bus driver.
However I enjoyed a nice Irish pub down the street from my hotel. There was a live band there on Christmas eve. I thought the Auckland Irish band I had seen was better.
I did a pathetic tour of the Hong Kong
harbour.
That was really an excuse to board the boat to have a pee.
Lloyd
Subject: john stroup replies
Hi Lloyd,
You may have been in mainland China longer than you'd thought, if HK seemed decadent. Shows that the longer exposure, the greater effect. When I went to Fiji in '07, I remember coming back to NZ and thinking how decadent our society had become, and I was there, in Fiji for only 3 weeks.
I've sent in a column on "Social Engineering", should be out this week. GH has shutdown for the Stat Holidays taken Mon. and Tues. in place of Sat. & Sun.
I knew that there was a purge of Templer by a King, just not which one, or where Templer resurfaced. The notion of a ruling elite is persistent and insideous. People don't want to think that conspiriritorial efforts to enslave the masses is ancient and contemporary.
The latest itiration is just a spin of the same old story. Collectivism ends in oppression, every time, regardless of the altruistic imputis.
We're headed down to Mahia to see some friends renting a place there for the week over "Rythm & Vines". They've rented out their house for the week for an outragous amount.
Should be a good time, weather here has been overcast but warm in the morning, then blazing in the arvo when clouds burn off.
John
2010
Subject: Han Chinese are either First World or Third World
Dear Dad
I haven't heard from you for some days. I had two classes today,
one in the morning one in the afternoon. They were freshmen classes.
It is exam time.
Yesterday I prepared their exam in my notebook for them. It seems to me the Han Chinese are either First World or Third World. Yet I see no racial or any other distinction between them, only brains and motivation. The dullards are the most unmotivated sleepy people I have ever met in my life. The bright ones are the opposite.
Jackson yesterday returned me my expert teachers certificate.
It is getting cold again. I am very glad I have your coat. I didn't go to the cafe tonight as I had stored food from there the previous night.
Now back to my book.
Love from Lloyd
2010
Subject: the truth is the best joke
Hi Paul and Dawn
I have had no communication from Dad for some days despite emailing every
day except for one day when I was ill. I have forwarded you this communication
between myself and History Professor Paul Moon. I thought
it might interest you.
Paul wrote me previously that he feared losing his job after he published
a book about the Kosovo war. The book has only one copy in the Auckland
library and is not listed in his Wikipedia biography. He showed how the
Kosovan Muslims were able, through their media-savvy Middle Eastern brethren,
to turn themselves into the victims and the Serbs the villains. Paul
Moon is himself a Dali.
It is now a bit confusing as all Muslims are meant to be our enemies.
Paul Moon is sure my tongue is firmly planted in my cheek. As Bernard Shaw once said, the truth is the best joke.
I got to Hong Kong and Macau. I enjoyed the Irish restaurant in Hong
Kong and had a bit of fun in Macau.
Lloyd
Subject: article in Herald opinion section
Hello Paul
I have just read an online New Zealand Herald article as regards
first Maori settlement of New Zealand. You are quoted as saying
the new claimed scientific data shifts the time period forward to the
late thirteenth or fourteenth century which has implications in the Waitangi
Tribunal. That is immediately squelched by an iwi leader
who is quoted that he will be relying on the oral evidence. The oral
evidence has no chronological dating. But we needn't consider this
will affect the claims or the Tribunal decisions.
This new carbon dating appears to parallel a fascinating development in history research. Nineteenth century European scholars reported on the basis of oral history that ethnic groups claimed that they were descended from the lost ten tribes of Israel or from defeated Roman armies and so on. Modern DNA tests actually claim to confirm this. The builders of the Zimbabwe castles are now thought to have been Yemeni Jews who took their wives from the local people.
My personal feeling is the modern New Zealand Maori are actually the descendants of the working classes of British sea-ports. The characteristic brawling and heavy-drinking British working class are so wittily portrayed as the Dolittle family of Alfred and Eliza in the play Pygmalion. The modern Maori life style most closely resembles them, the sailors on the first European ships.
It is very significant to me that the one native fauna that the modern iwis have an affinity for is the kiore. Their natural catastrophic destruction of the natural environment they seem to to admire. They champion them and enforce their release to the horror of the real conservationists.
I think Professor Parsonson, the father, was toying with this
idea.
Alfred, remember, won a fortune because he was thought to be a descendant
of Welsh bards and Eliza married Freddy.
Regards
Lloyd
Gongyi, China
Subject: article in Herald opinion section
Dear Lloyd,
As always, a pleasure to hear from you. The tussle between scientific
evidence and oral history should not be taking place – surely
the former trumps the latter?
However, obviously some people have other ideas about that.
Your tongue is obviously planted firmly in your cheek with your own theories.
All the best,
Paul Moon
Subject: will read your stuff later
Hi Lloyd
Just quickly, will read your stuff later.
Frank has been in Christchurch with Mary this past week, will be home
tonight.
PAUL
Subject: another bitter cold day
Dear Dad,
It was another bitter cold day. I had my two freshmen classes. The first
class presented me with a apple and the entire class of about fifty
students applauded. I pass no comment except the event itself.
After the classes, I had lunch and two Free Cuba wines at the Good Food and Good Coffee restaurants. Then I returned home. I sent an email to John Stroup with advice about his next column.
Last night at dinner with Daniel, we tentatively planned to meet in Haiphong, the major port in North Vietnam during the holiday.
Now back to my warm bed and book.
Love from Lloyd
Subject: a well written column
Hi John
I read your column. It was well written. I also read the column by John Watling. I
think you should develop your next column from this one. You might give examples
of your arguments. I would point out that UNESCO does excellent cultural work
in preservation of cultural sites and literacy. There are also many dedicated
professional people among them. Then you could show how they are used as a front
for the promulgation of the New World Order by the U.N.
My fourteen year old niece in Christchurch has had years of conditioning on denigration of her Caucasian heritage and boosting of her minuscule Maori heritage. Naturally she would identify with the latter. Yet her entire satisfactory lifestyle is derived from the former.
Almost every day the New Zealand sheeples are exposed in some way to this paradigm: brown=good, white=bad. I read her school essay, which sufficiently disturbed my sister that she gave it to my late mother, who has shown it around.
All this is quite preplanned. Something comes up in the world, Hey Presto it is instantly being repeated or adapted every day. The latest one is the theft of a sign, probably erected by the Polish Communist Government outside the German camp Auschwitz. It was stolen and the thieves received imprisonment of several years. We are carefully told of "systematic murder of a million people there mostly Jews". The rest are all the social darlings (Gypsies, homosexuals, lefties, disabled, even coloured!) It is hard not to laugh.
Old camp records, the camps were meticulous recorders, were preserved in the Soviet Union. There mortality figures for that camp was forty-two thousand. A much higher mortality rate required a much greater infrastructure which didn't exist. That is a lot of deaths. However if you took the mortality rate of Gisborne city over the last five years and put on top of it a typhoid epidemic, I imagine it would be about the same. Often you just die.
This issue came up in an Auckland picture theatre a year ago and everyone burst out laughing and some applause. I have never heard such laughter for something ostensibly not funny.
The first sign of the impending fall of the Soviet Union was the uproarious laughter in Soviet picture theatres when Soviet slogans were said.
Speaking of that, I read today a CBS report that Spring 2011 is "the day of
reckoning for the States and city Governments in America".
CBS would, if it was an American "enemy", call it melt-down by February. After new years day, the Federal
stimulant will run out. Already State troopers are being refused service of
their credit cards and State offices are being ejected for non-payment of rent .
It is a parallel of twenty years ago in 1991, the melt down of the Soviet Union. It is too much of a coincidence for me. It is preplanned by men or a mathematical God. I have always found it intriguing the parallel in the names and careers of Gorbachev and Gore. 2011 is the time to strike if the enemies of the NWO in America are serious with their words. Most of the US military is stuck in foreign wars. They could turn into banditry.
I have been reading a College text book on the American revolution. Of course the protest movement in America does call itself tea potters. I take a small heart in the general ignorance of the American people. Just like two/three hundred years ago, they are empty vessels to be filled. Maybe not so many are cracked or too leaden.
If you google irving focal point links, you will find a set of sites that deal
with issues banned from real space publication. The IHR is particularly
interesting as it deals with alternate history, "real" history as it calls
itself.
Its publishing house was burnt down in 1984 and the police said it could
only have been an attack by a foreign Government.
Focal Point publishing house by David Irving also has excellent materials. I was corresponding with David Irving. He was sending instant replies. But he suddenly stopped. I think he found out I wasn't going to send him money!
A happy new year. Did you mean you went to Mahia to escape R & V or to join it?
Lloyd