Happy Lunar New Year + Australia Day!

I wish you all a happy Chinese New Year of the Ox, hoping that this Ox will soon morph into a Bull!

The above characters read “Gong Xi Fa Cai” (in Mandarin) or “Kung Hei Fat Choy” (in Cantonese) and are the usual greeting at this time of the year.

It’s a time to stay at home with your family, to play Mahjong (well, not for me, as it is waaay too noisy), to go to the temple to pray for a prosperous year, and to give “Hong Bao” (in Mandarin) or “Lai See” (in Cantonese) i.e. “Red Envelopes” with money (using only brand new bank notes to symbolise the new year).

On a completely separate note, this year is special, as the 26th of January is both the first day of the Lunar New Year and Australia Day!

I thus wish my friends down under a Happy and Eventful Day as well, and a “double celebration” to all Australian Chinese!

For more background, see also “A history of Australia Day“, by Dr Elizabeth Kwan.

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Happy New Year 2009 to all bloggers and to all blog readers!

Tous mes voeux pour l’an (deux mille) neuf

Be optimistic – gardez le moral

Two news of suicides and tentative of suicide made some headlines on Christmas’ eve (click on the pictures for more info).

Rene-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet (former employee of Credit Lyonnnais Securities in New York), 65y old NY based french, killed himself after losing US$1.4bio in the Bernard Madoff’s scandal.

Claudie Haignere, 51y old and first french woman (rheumatologist by profession) to go to space, married to another astronaut and with one daughter, tried to commit suicide (but fortunately didn’t succeed).

It is very important, when feeling depressed, to know how to put things in perspective, to know how to reach for help from family and friends. It is too sad to see people kill themselves, or to attempt suide, when then have all they need to be happy (smart, healthy etc.). In the case of  the investor, to loose money “stupidly” might certainly be upsetting, but who hasn’t in the past 12 months? Whatever the darkness you might see at some point in time, there is always some brighness waiting to be discovered nearby and / or very soon.

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Il est très important, en cas de déprime, de savoir garder le moral quoi qu’il arrive, de savoir tendre la main à la famille ou aux amis pour chercher un réconfort. Il n’y a pas d’obstacle insurmontable. C’est toujours trop bête de voir des gens se suicider – ou essayer de se suicider – et c’est d’autant plus incompréhensible quand ils ne semblent avoir aucune raison sérieuse de le faire. Dans le cas de l’investisseur, par exemple, perdre de l’argent “bêtement” est certes vexant, mais de là à se suicider pour celà, il y a un énorme pas que personne ne devrait franchir.

L’animal symbol de la France est le coq (notamment pour les matchs de sport, cf. la marque du “Coq Sportif”), et c’est aussi mon signe zodiacal chinois. Et bien le coq est le seul animal qui chante les pieds dans la merde, alors pensez-y si un jour vous aviez des idées noires!

Merry Christmas! Joyeux Noël !

To follow the tracks of Santa Claus, click on the below picture.

Pour suivre les traces du Père Noël, cliquez sur l’image ci-desssous.

Voir aussi le billet de Jean-Marie Gall à ce sujet.

Wishing you all a:

Mumbai attacks

Wishing all our friends in Mumbai that they are unhurt from last night’s terrorist attacks and safe from the current hostage situation.