Last
night (Saturday - remember the Firewall) I went out with my team member and our Factory Director. Our
supplier is fantastic. He's Canadian/Chinese so has that western
mentality (meaning he gets what we want with no communication
problems and I know he treats his worker very fairly) but speaks
Cantonese, Mandarin and understands the Chinese culture (meaning we
don't get ripped off by other suppliers, which is commonplace over
here when doing business).
Some
people frown upon Chinese manufacturing, but that's just the way the
world works – If a consumer wants nice things that work
commercially, the Far East has it covered and has successfully won
the business of the modern world. We simply couldn't keep up on
mass-volume. Perhaps this'll change in the future, and I'd love to
see some manufacturing coming back to the UK, but for the moment it doesn't yet seem to be viable.
Anyway,
this is far too deep for my hangover. Let's talk about prostitution
instead (you heard me)...
Last
night we went out in Hong Kong and ended up in the Wan Chai district.
This place has lots of bars and clubs and, I quickly learned, has a
high popularity in those bars for men seeking the company of ladies.
After about 10 seconds of walking into the bar I clocked that pretty
much every man in there (Western) was with a girl (Asian). God knows
what they thought of us three... A blonde, Western looking girl; a
very white skinny man; and a short Chinese-looking fellow with
perfect English.
Each
to their own I guess, I'm not one to judge, but it does make me a
little sad on both sides to see this. I've been to Thailand, Bali and
other areas in Asia and Indonesia where this is commonplace and
although it doesn't shock me anymore, it does make me wonder how
these girls got into this situation and how or why the men justify
taking advantage of it (or if they didn't, where would the girls be
perhaps). I've seen it happen the other way round (with well-off
Western women and young Thai males) and arguably the customer is
often the one being taken for the ride (no pun intended) – The
“salespeople” are certainly by no means stupid, but either way
it's one of those accepted things because there seems to not be any
way out of the circle, but it still makes me feel awkward about being
in its presence.
I
did drink a lot of gin though and did end up on my balcony room
putting the world to rights with my co-worker until 5am. Not sure
I'll be going for Manager of the Year award any time soon, but I
think it's important to let people rant and rant we did.
Off
to a meeting now, assuming I can see straight and make it to the
train station. A hungover meeting is my speciality, but like I say
I'm not sure I can keep it up for too much longer. I'm generally
pretty healthy so I'm blaming the jet lag.
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