In his recent weekly columns Peter King, a Sports Illustrated senior writer focused on NFL, mentioned philanthropy acts of NFL players and owners. First, Dan Snyder (Redskins owner) and Marc Bulger (Rams quarterback) will host certain soldier who is coming back home for a leave during his second tour in Iraq and whose correspondence with Mr. King is regularly mentioned in the columns (for more please see MMQB 9/21/08 - please scroll to the Good Guy of the Week section).
In the latest column (MMQB 9/29/08) he mentions Kurt Warner (Cardinals quarterback) and his family who pick up tabs for anonymous families dinning in the same restaurant. According to the column this is to learn his children joys of giving.
Are these acts selfless acts of goodwill or are they clever publicity stunts to gain some good points and increase your popularity and jersey sales? In Mr. Warner case, picking up tabs was something going on for past several years (according to the story), making it hard to argue that this is pure publicity stunt. In case of Mr. Snyder and Mr. Bulger it is a bit harder nut to crack. At the begining of this season Mr. King announced that his column will include new features (also the Good Guy of the Week section) and as he was regularly writing about the adventures of the above mentioned soldier, one should expect that anything interesting happening to him will be published on the website (consider that Mr. King is nationally recognized and well established sports writer). Anyway, let us assume that no publicity gain was initially aimed for.
Is it a duty of the rich to share their wealth with those less lucky after they provide for themselves and for their dearest? Is the philantrophy something that we should feel obliged to do? Even in today's strictly money focused economy philanthropy thrives as those who earned their share are trying to leave some imprint not only in the material world (see Mr. Gates and Mr. Buffet's donations to charities and medical research organisations). This tendency can be seen in the past two or three hundred years as the society got richer and gap between poor and rich grew wider. During this time society come to expect from those on the top to give something to those on the bottom and something like "moral obligation" was introduced. Those who do not give are considered greedy and plain stupid (see Paris Hilton :) ).
But what is the level of "richness" when you should start giving back? Nobody can answer this question as there is no level or standard. There cannot be a simple answer as all of us have different needs to be satisfied and thus different amount of money we need. Mr. Warner tries to give back even though income of his family per capita is much lower than the income of Mr. Gates (Mr. Warner has allegedly 5 children with his wife). And even though it is not much, it still makes some other family happy. On the other hand other philanthropists attempt to find cure for cancer and/or other diseases which will make eventually whole lot of people happy. What is more?
But not only rich people are doing moral amends. Those who do not have enough money and still feel need to give something back are doing it via service to society. Through providing services which they posses (e.g. coaching little league teams as Mr. King does, trying to improve the neighbourhood by cleaning up the streets and taking care of gardens etc.) for no compensation. Do yu know somebody like this?
Next blog will be published on Sunday as I am going for a 5 day hike to Wugong shan. Enjoy!
9/30/2008
9/25/2008
About China
Without further ado let me tell you something. Shanghai rules!!! First, it is hot here - today is the first day since the arrival when temperature is below 30 degrees (it is 22). This drop comes handy if you are lazy to do your laundry or still did not figured out how to wash your clothes with Chinese-only washing machine and thus running out of T-shirts (easy switch to long sleeves). Anyway, I send warm greetings to all those stuck in 10-degree countries in Europe :D What is really different to Europe is level of humidity in the area. Climate makes it impossible to survive the day without taking two showers to get rid of sweat and changing clothes each couple of hours.
Secondly, Shanghai is huge, fairly clean and modern city. The number of skyscrapers standing and being built is quickly approaching those on lower Manhattan. Furthermore, it continues to grow like crazy with construction sites everywhere you go. Regarding smog issues there is no much difference between Prague or any other big European city and Shanghai. Only if you go on your bicycle (already bought one and in true local fashion it started to fell apart after 3 days) to the city center you will feel the increased dust level from the many above mentioned construction sites (I live slightly outside of city center - one hour by bike :) ).
Talking about locations, I reside in bigger of the two campuses of the university I should study at. Sports facility-wise a major improvement compared to any campus I have seen in Europe (and you can believe me as I have seen fair share of campuses in past 8 years). Behind dorms is athletic stadium next to which is c. 20 basketball courts (all packed during the day), volleyball courts (sand and concrete) and tennis courts. The dorm rooms are fairly small (see pics gallery - Shanghai pics) and facilities are somewhere between European and Arab countries level (in the two thirds towards Europe :) ).
Food is abundant and in great varieties. In my thorough exploration I have just passed cooked and roasted vegetables' mixes (with anything-what-moves-or-grows) part of the on-campus dining and started with noodle section (there is still soup section and roasted rice section in front of me). Although, I had my fair share of tofu (which I always confuse with chicken), no harm was done to my Karlin-trained alimentary tract. Of course as you let your guards down eventually everybody is caught up by a "toilette rush" - my undoing was Uyghur beer which brought me 2 days of suffering and interrupted my running patterns (instead of rounds at athletic track it was back and forth between my seat and nearest toilet). Anyway, in true explorer fashion, I continue to explore freely perks of local dinning (snake is good, octopuses even better).
Activity-wise, Shanghai appears to be the same as Prague. Only change is me going to classes every day instead to Karlin. Otherwise it is the same old same old - almost every night in the city center. Zuzka (former colleague) and her company stopped by in Shanghai this week for their last stop on their two weeks journey around China. Furthermore, there was another Czech/Slovak get-together with the Budvar acting as a main guest. I resisted the temptation of shots this time - I had a dictation next morning so beers were just fine and I think I am matured now :D
Anyway, I think I will be fairly busy for next couple of months as I signed up for intensive Chinese class (15 weeks of 5 times a week 3 hours a day). Besides that, I will have hopefully some additional classes and will actively pursue my professional and other education. Also as forthcoming week is the whole week off (Chinese national holiday) we are going to mountains for a 5 day hike - next blob on Shanghai adventures will be after my return (actually it appears that they are only hills rather than mountains - as high as Krkonose ;) ).
That is enough for now as this is getting way too long. So long and don't forget to feed the fish :)
Secondly, Shanghai is huge, fairly clean and modern city. The number of skyscrapers standing and being built is quickly approaching those on lower Manhattan. Furthermore, it continues to grow like crazy with construction sites everywhere you go. Regarding smog issues there is no much difference between Prague or any other big European city and Shanghai. Only if you go on your bicycle (already bought one and in true local fashion it started to fell apart after 3 days) to the city center you will feel the increased dust level from the many above mentioned construction sites (I live slightly outside of city center - one hour by bike :) ).
Talking about locations, I reside in bigger of the two campuses of the university I should study at. Sports facility-wise a major improvement compared to any campus I have seen in Europe (and you can believe me as I have seen fair share of campuses in past 8 years). Behind dorms is athletic stadium next to which is c. 20 basketball courts (all packed during the day), volleyball courts (sand and concrete) and tennis courts. The dorm rooms are fairly small (see pics gallery - Shanghai pics) and facilities are somewhere between European and Arab countries level (in the two thirds towards Europe :) ).
Food is abundant and in great varieties. In my thorough exploration I have just passed cooked and roasted vegetables' mixes (with anything-what-moves-or-grows) part of the on-campus dining and started with noodle section (there is still soup section and roasted rice section in front of me). Although, I had my fair share of tofu (which I always confuse with chicken), no harm was done to my Karlin-trained alimentary tract. Of course as you let your guards down eventually everybody is caught up by a "toilette rush" - my undoing was Uyghur beer which brought me 2 days of suffering and interrupted my running patterns (instead of rounds at athletic track it was back and forth between my seat and nearest toilet). Anyway, in true explorer fashion, I continue to explore freely perks of local dinning (snake is good, octopuses even better).
Activity-wise, Shanghai appears to be the same as Prague. Only change is me going to classes every day instead to Karlin. Otherwise it is the same old same old - almost every night in the city center. Zuzka (former colleague) and her company stopped by in Shanghai this week for their last stop on their two weeks journey around China. Furthermore, there was another Czech/Slovak get-together with the Budvar acting as a main guest. I resisted the temptation of shots this time - I had a dictation next morning so beers were just fine and I think I am matured now :D
Anyway, I think I will be fairly busy for next couple of months as I signed up for intensive Chinese class (15 weeks of 5 times a week 3 hours a day). Besides that, I will have hopefully some additional classes and will actively pursue my professional and other education. Also as forthcoming week is the whole week off (Chinese national holiday) we are going to mountains for a 5 day hike - next blob on Shanghai adventures will be after my return (actually it appears that they are only hills rather than mountains - as high as Krkonose ;) ).
That is enough for now as this is getting way too long. So long and don't forget to feed the fish :)
9/21/2008
First - Group and individual culture
To show that search for dignity and culture is taken seriously, the first post is presenting views on definition and existence of culture. Culture as a word has c. 6 meanings (see Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary for more) one of which defines culture as "the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group ; the characteristic features of everyday existence (as diversions or a way of life) shared by people in a place or time" and so on about common goals etc etc.
But is it possible to characterize certain group of people as having a culture? Or being cultural? How do you define characteristic features or customary beliefs? If you are too narrow or strict you will end up with group of very limited "membership base". If you are too broad and vague you will encompass people who feel as belonging to other cultures and not the one defined by you. Argument goes that we cannot attribute certain group of people with specific culture because as much as we want them to be the same, people are diverse. In any group there will always be someone who does not belong. Who stands out. Someone with different preferences and different views. For example there is always some Arab drinking alcohol (either secretly or openly) and there is always some Russian preferring beer to vodka. As absolutely homogeneous group of people (meaning that its members have same characteristics) does not exist, there does not exist group of people with specific culture.
Culture can be developed only on the individual level through "the act of developing the intellectual and moral faculties especially by education" and experience. Individual culture can be than defined as "enlightenment and excellence of taste acquired by intellectual and aesthetic training". This blog is dedicated to search and description of individual culture in views of the author.
Note: All quotes and citations used are from the Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary - entry "culture".
But is it possible to characterize certain group of people as having a culture? Or being cultural? How do you define characteristic features or customary beliefs? If you are too narrow or strict you will end up with group of very limited "membership base". If you are too broad and vague you will encompass people who feel as belonging to other cultures and not the one defined by you. Argument goes that we cannot attribute certain group of people with specific culture because as much as we want them to be the same, people are diverse. In any group there will always be someone who does not belong. Who stands out. Someone with different preferences and different views. For example there is always some Arab drinking alcohol (either secretly or openly) and there is always some Russian preferring beer to vodka. As absolutely homogeneous group of people (meaning that its members have same characteristics) does not exist, there does not exist group of people with specific culture.
Culture can be developed only on the individual level through "the act of developing the intellectual and moral faculties especially by education" and experience. Individual culture can be than defined as "enlightenment and excellence of taste acquired by intellectual and aesthetic training". This blog is dedicated to search and description of individual culture in views of the author.
Note: All quotes and citations used are from the Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary - entry "culture".
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