Postscript Books

I thought this book was the best book on Vietnam that I have ever read. Its a facinating look into life as a line officer in a front line Marine Infantry batallion during the early part of the war. Caputo holds nothing back when it comes to describing life on the front line and what goes through the minds of these young, too young Marines who fought on the front line. An excellent read and I highly reccomend it.

Its a page turner from start to finish. A very unique view of the war.

I assigned this book to my college students for a closer glimpse of the Vietnam Conflict. I had not read it before, but had done research and study on the subject. I found Caputo's book to be insightful, controversial and thought provoking. He doesn't glamorize the war but explains how it effected soldiers and one of the many reasons it was such a mess. Throughout the book, Caputo shows how the conditions changed the average American teenager into a robotic killer and how their experiences stayed with them. In the end, he speaks against the war, but not in the normal Jane Fonda version of bashing the military and labeling them rapists and baby killer. Caputo talks about how the government was at fault and created the situations that lead to PTSD and other issues for returning soldiers.

A must read to understand the war and its effects on our soldiers.

In keeping with the theme of this Memorial Day weekend, I would like to offer my thoughts on "A Rumor of War," a classic tale of Vietnam. Philip Caputo has crafted one of the most moving and disturbing testaments to the men who fought and died in that far away land. When the book was first published in 1977, the New York Times called it "The troubled conscience of America speaking passionately, truthfully, finally." I became aware of this classic memoir when my friend, Capt. Kyle Kalkwarf, West Point Class of 2002, told me that it was one of the best books about war he had ever read. He recommended that I add it to my reading list. He was right in doing so.

Caputo's recollections of his time as a Marine in Vietnam are filled with anger and sorrow at the misbegotten policies promulgated in Washington and carried out with disastrous results by General Westmorland and his subordinates. The author makes it clear in his introductory remarks how he felt and feels about that war and the impact that it had upon him and his comrades in arms:

"Beyond adding a few more corpses to the weekly body count, none of these encounters achieved anything; none will ever appear in military histories or be studied by cadets at West Point. Still, they changed us and taught us, the men who fought in them; in those obscure skirmishes we learned the old lessons about fear, cowardice, courage, suffering, cruelty and comradeship. Most of all, we learned about death at an age when it is common to think of oneself as immortal. Everyone loses that illusion eventually, but in civilian life it is lost in installments over the years. We lost it all at once, and in the span of months, passed from boyhood through manhood to a premature middle age. The knowledge of death, of the implacable limits placed on a man's existence, severed us from our youth as irrevocably as a surgeon's scissors had once severed us from the womb. And yet, few of us were past twenty-five. We left Vietnam peculiar creatures, with young shoulders that bore rather old heads. . .

This book is partly an attempt to capture something of its [the war's] ambivalent realities. Anyone who fought in Vietnam, if he is honest about himself, will have to admit he enjoyed the compelling attractiveness of combat. It was a peculiar enjoyment because it was mixed with a commensurate pain. Under fire, a man's powers of life heightened in proportion to the proximity of death, so that he felt an elation as extreme as his dread. His senses quickened, and he attained an acuity of consciousness at once pleasurable and excruciating. It was something like the elevated state of awareness induced by drugs. And it could be just as addictive, for it made whatever else life offered in the way of delights or torments see pedestrian." (Pages xv-xvii)

Caputo's last comments in the section just quoted seem to be eerily in keeping with the themes of the stunning films, "The Deer Hunter" and "Apocalypse Now."

In one of the most gripping passages in the book, Caputo recaptures the spectrum of emotions he felt during a helicopter assault - running the gamut from fear to courage:

"A helicopter assault on a hot landing zone creates emotional pressures far more intense than a conventional ground assault. It is the enclosed space, the noise, the speed, and, above all, the sense of total helplessness. There is a certain excitement to it the first time, but after that it is one of the more unpleasant experiences offered by modern war. On the ground, an infantryman has some control over his destiny, or at least the illusion of it. In a helicopter under fire, he hasn't even the illusion. Confronted by the indifferent forces of gravity, ballistics and machinery, he is himself pulled in several directions at once by a range of extreme, conflicting emotions. Claustrophobia plagues him in the small space: the sense of being trapped and powerless in a machine in unbearable, and yet he has to bear it. Bearing it, he begins to feel a blind fury toward the forces that made him powerless, but has to control his fury until he is out of the helicopter and on the ground again. He yearns to be on the ground, but the desire is countered by the danger he knows is there. Yet, he is also attracted by the danger, for he knows he can only overcome his fear by facing it. His blind rage then begins to focus on the men who are the source of the danger - and of his fear. It concentrates inside him, and through some chemistry is transformed into a fierce resolve to fight until the danger ceases to exist. But this resolve, which is sometimes called courage, cannot be separated from the fear that has aroused it. Its very measure is the measure of that fear. It is, in fact, a powerful urge not to be afraid anymore, to rid himself of fear by eliminating the source of it. This inner, emotional war produces tension almost sexual in its intensity. It is too painful to endure for long. All a soldier can think about is the moment when he can escape his impotent confinement and release this tension. All other considerations, the rights and wrongs of what he is doing, the chances for victory or defeat in the battle, the battle's purpose or lack of it, become so absurd as to be less than irrelevant. Nothing matters except the final, critical instant when he leaps out into the violent catharsis he both seeks and dreads." (Pages 277-8)

Caputo's thoughtful and passionate recounting of the growing up that he did in the cauldron of Vietnam added to my understanding of what many of my generation experienced as they fought in Southeast Asia and returned to a country that had grown sick of the fighting. As our nation once again wrestles with combat fatigue and the questions of when to withdraw and how to withdraw from Iraq, I am grateful that this time around - unlike the situation that existed in the late `60's and 70's - even those who oppose the war have not showered those returning from the Gulf with opprobrium. They desire our admiration and our gratitude.

Thanks Kyle, for recommending this book, and for your continuing service to our nation.

Al

Caputo wasn't much of a marine. He started complaining about Vietnam before he arrived. Every page is filled with criticism, cynicism, griping, complaining, and self-serving tripe. He wanted to be a hero, but he didn't have what it took to be anything but a whining wimp. Certainly he writes well. But writing well and living well are entirely different. He doesn't understand honor or duty. Sure the war was politicized, but so is every war. Sure the rules of engagement were stupid, but a soldier serves. Caputo did not serve; rather he whined. Many of us who served in Vietnam believed there were many things that made no sense. But we didn't turn tail and run. We served. For those who want to understand what is was like to be a soldier in Vietnam, read "We Were Soldiers Once... and Young" or "Steel My Soldiers' Hearts". If you want to know what is was like to be useless in Vietnam, read this book.

While devouring this book, I really felt that I was getting close to, quote unquote, "The Answer." That's how powerful it was on both me and, as I see, some of my fellow reviewers. So much of it has to do with making decisions, and making decisions is an integral part of Soren K's definition of truth. But you have to get at it subjectively, not objectively. There's one part where, let's say, you (the reader) are in prison, and you will get your head chopped off by the guillotine tomorrow. You are afraid, naturally. I, as your friend, can talk to you and say (objectively), "Oh, you're worried about the guillotine tomorrow. You see, it's very simple: you just walk out to the scaffold, put your head down on the slab of wood, making sure to put your neck in the appropriate neck hole; they will cut a rope, the blade of the guillotine will come down, your head will be chopped off, and it will all be over in a minute." You, the subjective decision-maker, do not see it in the same way.

Be warned! The Princeton edition of this book comes in two volumes. Volume 1 is just the body of text to Kierkegaard's book. There is no historical introduction in the first volume, just Kierkegaard's satirical introduction that was intended for the original book. The historical introduction and scholarly apparatus are in the second volume. If the reader does not wish to inquire beyond Kierkegaard's text, he need not worry, the second volume is for the person who did not find Kierkegaard mind numbing enough and sees need to go behind the text. I am one of those kind of people, but you might not be.

This is Kierkegaard's most important work - the real meat of his writings. It is more difficult then most of his works and should be approached with caution, but it is absolutely essential to achieve a full understanding of Kierkegaard. Keep in mind that _Concluding Unscientific Postscript_ was originally written under the pseudonym of Johannes Climacus, the sceptical and pessimistic alter ego of the real Kierkegaard. Not to spoil the surprise, but in reading this book you should remember that much of what is being said is contradictory to Kierkegaard's real beliefs. In my experience reading this book, I only began to realize this gradually. This is because not EVERYTHING in this book is antithetical or diametrically opposed to Kierkegaard's real views; only portions of it are antithetical. Kierkegaard truly engages and challenges the reader by exposing views that make sense at first, but then after letting Climacus get riled up, his rantings and ravings become increasingly illogical and pessimistic. The challenge consists in discovering where the real Kierkegaard leaves off, and where the pseudonymous Johannes Climacus picks up. The reader must constantly be on alert for antithetical and contradictory statements, and must approach this book with a highly critical mindset. The end result is one of the most fantastically thought-provoking, creative, original, and entertaining books you will ever read. By forcing the reader to take this critical approach, Kierkegaard gives us an opportunity to formulate and fortify our individual beliefs in contradistinction to those of Climacus, forcing us to truly think for ourselves. The reader is bombarded with profound philosophical statements which are oten true and sensible, and can be proven consitsent with Kierkegaard's real beliefs. But sandwiched between these logical statements, Climacus will say something so off the wall that the reader must subject these statements to a critical re-evaluation. This is what makes the _Postscript_ such a profoundly thought-provoking and personally enriching experience.

One more thing to consider before you read this book: As I said, this book was written under the pseudonym Johannes Climacus. To fully understand the inner workings of this character, you must also read _Philosophical Fragments/Johannes Climacus_, which is the precursor to _Concluding Unscientific Postscript_. This first book helps the reader understand the pseudonymous and sometimes antithetical beliefs held by Kierkegaard's neurotic alter-ego. Taken together, the _Johannes Climacus/Philosophical Fragments/ Conlcuding Unscientific Postscript_ series is the be-all end-all philosophical work of the 19th century. It is a monumental achievement of epic proportions and will go down in history as the most important and profound work of literature to come out of Europe during that time period.

Along with Nietzsche's The Gay Science, this book had the most impact on me of any philosophy books I have ever read. For those who find themselves running around in cirles looking for objective proof of this or that, Climacus (Kierkegaard) insists you are just wading out into the sea of life. Take the leap onto 70,000 fathoms of roaring ocean! Live!

After Hegel's reduction of the individual to a cog in the grumbling historical machine, it is refreshing to read of the individual and the individuals concerns. As mentioned, Climacus ridicules objectivity and focuses the reader in on subjective truth, encouraging us to be authentic and take responsiblity for life. Christian or non-Christian alike, this book will challange the reader in many ways. It was a major influence on existentialist and Continental thought for a good reason. Unconditionally recommended.

To begin with, the title is a joke. This is the in keeping with the putative author of the piece. Johannes Climacus (who is named for the Seventh Century Hermit and Monk, St. John Climacus) is a humorist. A humorist, as he will point out, is someone on edge of becoming religious, but is not yet religious and, in fact, may never become religious. That being said, back to the title. "Concluding," as is obvious, implies that SK intended this to be his last book (in a separate declaration published with the book he acknowledges all the previous pseudonyms with the proviso that no one should quote him directly unless it is from a book that bears his name as author and claims that he has no privileged access to the pseudonyms than any other reader). However, as the result of a religious conversion after it's publication, it became the middle child of his authorship, recapitulating all that had come before and pointing forward toward new things yet to be imagined. "Unscientific" is a dig at Hegel. If one wishes to over-simplify one may say that SK's position is Either/Or: Either there is a God and the world actually means something, Or there is no God and the world is absurd, meaningless and accidental. Hegel abolished God and attempted to find meaning in historical process. This is the "science" for which SK has such contempt. For this reason, SK refuses to call himself a philosopher, content to call himself a "poet." If a fraud like Hegel is a philosopher, then he wants no part of the designation. "Postscript" is where the joke comes in. This book is a "Postscript to the Philosophical Fragments." The "Philosophical Fragments" is, therefore, a 100 page book with a 600 page postscript attached (that's the joke ha ha) Of all of SK's books this is my favorite. It is his funniest and either you keep your eye carefully peeled or you will miss a joke (the first time you read it you will miss hundreds of them). And in typical SK fashion the more he jokes the more deadly serious he is (by the end he is claiming the book, in its entirety, is a joke). The central distinction is between our ideas about things and the things themselves. If you have any trouble, there is always Merold Westphal's "Becoming a Self," a good commentary. The only problem is that he probably takes SK more seriously than SK would be comfortable with. That's not necessarily a good thing. You lose too many good jokes in the process.

I bought this book in 1994 when I had absolutely no clue about programming. It was a real eye-opener, and to this day it's my reference bible with regard to PostScript. Highly recommended.

Simple, concise, yet by no means limited. I learned essentially all the postscript that I needed to know for my job in about 3 hours reading this book. Excellent examples, easy to follow, what could more could you ask for?

This is a wonderful starting point for learning postscript. It takes you step by step through a very complex topic in a way that is easy to understand as well as offering opportunities to practice what you are learning. I recommend it highly!

This book is useful to people employed or interested in graphics, desktop design, document engineering, or programming. It will help you better understand any of these topics. PostScript, developed by Adobe, is the language "under the hood" of PDFs, many layout programs, and a category of printers. It's a full-fledged programming language that's pretty much dedicated to graphics, letting you get at the elements of lines, shapes, shading, and color. And it is becoming even more relevant. Before a document can be made into a PDF, traditionally it has had to be converted into postscript (.ps), and even Microsoft has given a little territory in that direction by their attempts to include automatic creation of PDFs in Office 2007.

PostScript is relatively easy to learn and can also diversify your understanding of programming concepts. Unlike varieties of C or Java, PostScript is a "reverse Polish notation" language, which means that the parameters are stated prior to the relevant commands. Like "144 144 lineto" will draw a line to the coordinates listed. It is also "stack-oriented," so I find that it's a little easier to visualize what is happening as I work through the code. Because it's so graphics-directed, PostScript obviously lends itself to the "visual approach." Most of the basic commands resemble actual everyday words, so you can learn rapidly before you even know you are programming. In other words, you don't have to be a programmer or script writer to learn PostScript.

And this particular book makes learning PostScript basics easy. It gives code on one page and then shows what happens next to it. It starts with the basics of positioning on the page, and then adds commands that extend the complexity and richness of the illustrations. It also does a good job introducing the programming concepts such as RPN and stack arithmetic. Over the years, PostScript has evolved into a more complex language, incorporating numerous commands that extend the language and concatenate groups of simpler commands (such as a command to draw a box rather than 4 commands to draw the sides). But the book sticks with the basics, and slowly extends your knowledge and skills. Like other programming languages, PostScript includes techniques like recursion, definitions of variables, definitions of complex tasks, mathematics, etc. PostScript is not object-oriented.

As a graphics description programming language, PostScript needs some type of compiler for you to see what your code actually draws. This traditionally involves an accompanying program called "ghostscript" that allows the user to see the results in nearly real time. I personally don't care much for ghostscript and often used Adobe Distiller and created PDFs to see the results. Those who don't have Distiller can install and use ghostscript, and that is covered in the book.

Since PostScript is a relatively mature technology, there are a lot of older books available, as well as a plethora of web sites and a couple discussion groups. Adobe has some excellent books that can be downloaded for free. They all have something to contribute, but I found this book to be the best of the lot, the easiest to read, and generally the most useful. Improvements? Well, occasionally the author works a new term into the code and doesn't really explain it. That happens more frequently later in the book, and by then you can sort of guess what the term accomplishes. At a certain point, things like this are probably unavoidable, since it's a very rich and complex language, and you can't be treated like a "dummy" all the time. I would also like to see more discussion about PDFs and how to work my written code into existing PDFs, but this book - like many of them - was written more for the era of the PostScript printer than the current period where PDFs are so prominent.

This book offers clear, simple examples and covers the basic Postscript concepts in a way that makes it easy to apply them to real-life situations.

I borrowed this book froma friend, and I have GOT to add it to my library -- a must-have!

James P Blaylock's 'Digging Leviathan' is a superb book, one of the best I've ever read in my life, a sometimes frenzied, sometimes somber race between mad scientists, good (William Hastings and young Giles Peach) and evil (the abominable Hilario Frosticos). Mr. Blaylock loves to constantly blur the lines--Is Hastings really crazy? Do the machines work by science or by Peach's will? And how did those dog droppings appear in the yard?) Most of Mr Blaylock's books have a similar theme; a good-hearted anyman (William Hastings, Walt Stebbins), usually with the help of family or friends (Blake Society, Trigimestus Club) must confront and defeat vile evil (Frosticos, Ignacio Narbondo) on the edges of a society that never knows what it was saved from. In DigLev, Hastings must confront his own fears and flaws in order to rescue the innocent Peach, stop Frosticos, and save us all from catastrophe. If you can find this book, read it.

The only copy of this book that I've stumbled across is the one I own ... And I've read it 4 times in as many years!

Not only, as the other reviewers here describe, is The Digging Leviathan a rollicking, post-mystical romp through a Los Angeles of indeterminate timeframe, it is also an eloquent and beautifully rendered story. Blaylock's great power as a writer, in addition to the fantastic situations he has dreamed up in this novel (his best, in my opinion, and I've read them all now!), comes from his grace as a stylist of prose. There are imagistic moments in this book on the level of Gabriel Garcia-Marquez that will bring tears to your eyes.

As well, his characters, although uniformly eccentric, are lifelike & believable, sympathetic & empathetic in their relationships with each other. The under-emphasized relationship between young Jim, the book's protagonist, and his purportedly crazy father is subtle and wonderful. This novel reinvigorated my taste for fantasy after a lapse of many years ... Get it! Read it!

I first read this book in the mid 80's, and it made me a Blaylock fan for life. I had never read anything like it, and can count on my fingers the books of this style I have read since (why couldn't Blaylock be a little more prolific?). Apparently, this book was completely misunderstood by his Balumnia (i.e. Elfin ship, etc.) publisher (Del Ray) forcing him to turn to other houses to get it published. I am grateful he was so persistent.

A young boy with gills and webbed fingers builds a digging machine to travel to the center of the earth. The machine is much like the many complex devices constructed by preteen inventors who are disapointed that the laws of physics didn't bend to their wills. But this boy is different...

In brief: Young Jim Hastings, his eccentric father William, his bookish uncle Edward and his best friend Giles (who has webbed fingers and vestigial gills), become involved with an odd collection of poets, madmen and explorers in a frantic race through (and under) Los Angeles, seeking a way to the center of the hollow(!) earth. If you have read Blaylock's later novels this wild, funny, gentle, occasionally dark valentine to all our silliest and noblest pulp dreams may surprise you. Ostensibly set in Southern California, it actually takes place in a kind of book-lover's fantasy world: ALL the protagonists are eccentric, bookish, single males, whether bachelor, widower or prepubescent boy. None of the characters seem to have a job (except the terrifying Dr. Hilario Frosticos, who runs an insane asylum). This lack of real world attachments gives the book a refreshing purity: these dilettantes, pseudo-scholars, poets and madmen have nothing to do but pursue, and be pursued by, their magnificent obsessions, which include immortality (literary and otherwise), merman hunting, miraculous inventions (the eponymous machine, antigravity), and attempts to encourage amphibious habits in mice. Blaylock's writing has since become more assured, his characters more real, his themes more mature, but there is a crazy joy in this book, and a lyrical beauty that charms me silly every time. This is a book about dreamers, for dreamers. If you grew up reading Edgar Rice Burroughs and Jules Verne, seek out THE DIGGING LEVIATHAN but be warned: it may break your heart. I leave a little piece of mine inside everytime I read it.

These views are personal! This book is comparable and on equal footing with the "International Business" by Czinkota, Ronkainen & Moffet. One is complementary of the other.Some of the subjects are overlapping. I am in the opinions both are focusing on the topics for the benefits of the readers, especially for MBA students. Both are a great & wonderful books. By the way, I have only read Mr Hill's 1st edition book. I have not read his latest edition (1998)Thank you.

Having purchased this book for a class on World Business, it was required reading. We have worked mostly with the text jumping around a bit.

The book has proven to be highly educational. Covering both macro and micro aspects of World Business, the book is easy to read for anyone with some knowledge of economics.

In-depth case studies throughout the book make it quite enjoyable, and emphasize the authors points.

This is one of the few books that I picked up and read it completely until I was finished! The book is such an engaging and positive book that I bought a copy for all of my children! I can't wait for more stories with these characters.

This is a well written book. I read it in one sitting because I couldn't put it down. I had to see how it all worked out. Excellent work Mr. Karris. I am looking forward to the next one...

POWDERHOUSE is the second installment of Bjorneboe's trilogy, generally known as "The History of Bestiality." The narrator is a "renovation worker"--i.e., "sanitation engineer"--at an asylum for the criminally insane in the south of France. The institution occupies the buildings of La Poudriere, a former munitions depot with a stone tower (the powderhouse), which is surrounded by a large park; the renovation worker occupies one of the outlying peasant cottages and has a delightful little sunlit garden. Here he rests from his daily chores, eating simple but satisfying meals, drinking a variety of wines, entertaining guests, sometimes smoking hashish, sometimes taking a hit of LSD, sometimes enjoying the embraces of a little brown nurse and every night feeding a friendly hedgehog. His chief occupation after cleaning the grounds is writing The History of Bestiality, and his discussions with visitors deal either with this theme or with the doings of madmen. Nevertheless, the halcyon air of the garden lends a pastoral atmosphere to the proceedings, an idyllic enchantment to recitations of the most zealous campaigns of carnage in history. Thus paradise, realized here and now, is contrasted with the hell that has become the wide earth, and the reading is oddly both horrifying and delightful at the same time.

Bjorneboe gives more attention to form in this novel. He draws a series of colorful characters with independent roles, creates a bit of a murder mystery and devises a mechanism for the insertion of factual horrors: Dr. Lefevre, the chief of staff, believes that it is good therapy for residents of the Powderhouse to deliver and hear lectures on themes that disturb them. Thus three long lectures are laid out in chronological order and provide a solid structure to the six-chapter novel, leaving no gaps, expanses of uncertain time or cessation of forward movement as in MOMENT OF FREEDOM.

The centerpiece is the second lecture, delivered by an inmate named Lacroix. It has no title, but might be called "Sympathy for the Executioner." Speaking from experience, Lacroix reminds his audience that executioners carry out the will of society; they are hired for their "special qualifications," paid with taxpayer money and approved for their performance. They execute criminals legally condemned to death by a court, yet they are shunned and despised by society. He then bemoans the difficulty of killing people neatly, especially when they turn to the executioner and ask for a speedy dispatch. Each method of execution designed to be merciful, such as long-drop hangings, beheadings and firing squads, proves to be unreliable, so that the executed may struggle to live for a long time. For the executioner these experiences are ultimately debilitating; the profession brings physical and mental illnesses and often leads to suicide. Although approved by society, the executioner bears the blood of the human race and stands guilty before humanity and before God; but who, Lacroix cries out in despair, who thinks of him?

The speech is nothing less than a masterpiece of world literature, as piercing in its humor as Voltaire's CANDIDE (1759) and as consistent in its wrong logic as Desiderius Erasmus' IN PRAISE OF FOLLY (1511). It takes the reader into an extreme reach of black humor which passes beyond definition--something way over the top, revoltingly gruesome and wildly hilarious and close to the quick at the same time. After this, the novel tends to get preachy, yet it deserves to be read for its entrancing mood and its flashes of bitter genius. Once again, the work is beautifully translated by Esther Greenleaf Murer.

I read this book in my early teens, and it made an enormous impression on me. This is the first book in the trilogy "History of bestiality" I read, I have also read the last two. This is painful book to read! Many times I wanted to throw away the book, and forget that all this pain, madness and evil existed, but I couldn't. In many ways I think it changed the way I saw the world. This is book is meant for a more grown up public than I was when I first read it.

I had to do a paper on Albania and the only book I could find on "Albania" was this book. It is very useful because it gives the social and political background of Albania from post WWII era to the recent democratic changes. The book is not a guide but a study of the always changing political situation in Albania

No doubt, the business environment of Hong Kong in this year of 2003. It is much better after August due there have some new policies for the local economy, they are including CEPA with SME and Free Personal Travels from Southern Provinces of China. Hence, more people can come to Hong Kong more easily than before. And they can carry some gifts and electronics from Hong Kong without Custom's Duty. In order to make more rapid growth for the Hong Kong's local economy, it is the only concerns for both SARHK and Central Governments. After the biggest demonstration on July 1, Hong Kong People are needing to have the right policies to re-build the business and economic's structures from the HKSAR Government. Now Hong Kong has the highest un-employment rate at 8.7% of the total working people; reckon it is not the good figure to analysis in the Business development in 2003. Although all the parties are hoping to help and decrease the percentage of en-employment, it is no way to avoid during the trend of globalization in this decade.
Of course, Knowledge Economy is the main road for us to run in 2003, but Hong Kong's People has learned the enough knowledge or not?
When you are thinking of Globalization, your competitors are everywhere.... such as Taiwan, China, Macau, Singapore, Thailand, India & etc.
No countries willing to lose their best ranking when gains the business in Asia or even exportation to American and European Markets. So how to maintain and improve your ranking in the Top 5 in Asia, That's the major concerns for every Government in the Circle of Asia.
Do your best, Learn from your peers and re-fresh your minds to absorb the new concepts of " Front Store in Hong Kong and Factory in your Mother's place ". Best services and Global thinking with your clients and carry your home's factories to face the E-commerce and E-business ways are the major business roads and better enviroment in the coming decade.
Hong Kong is the best model for our Home Markets and factories.
China is still far away from you when doing the international business. No worry your ranking and place in the next generations.
Be confidence with your HKSAR Government.
Be forget your history of British Colony.
Be free your speech and comments with your Government.
Hope your Central Chinese Government will learn from you.

I believe that Dr. Evans has provided us with one of the best secondary books about Kierkegaard! I have been truly benefited in my study through this book. It's a carefully argued and delightfully written book. You can't miss the insights that will benefit you 'existentially' from this book!