Irony Alert

[MikeN]

Read this op-ed in the Taipei Times on Friday:

“America’s blinders mean it is ill-prepared for an Asian future”

taipeitimes.com/News/editori … 03563594/2

Usual “Asia rising, America in decline” but this caught my eye:

Intellectuals, on the other hand, have a special obligation to think the unthinkable and speak the unspeakable. They are supposed to consider all possibilities, even disagreeable ones, and prepare the population for prospective developments. Honest discussion of unpopular ideas is a key feature of an open society.

The author?

Kishore Mahbubani is dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore.

[TheGingerMan]

I love that bit about “special obligation”.
What rot!
More like instinct, such pissing on the door of any and all deans.
Not that I have ever done such a foul, seditous deed.

[headhonchoII]

IF China and India and Japan got on then the author has a point. But they don’t, so he has none.

There is a rebalance yes, but the US and some other parts of the West are not in decline.

It takes a lot more than a big population to be leaders.

[Deuce_Dropper]

who was the Taiwanese politician that referred to Singapore as a flea on China’s nuts?

[shiadoa]

@Deuce Dropper

who was the Taiwanese politician that referred to Singapore as a flea on China’s nuts?

Don’t know,but I like it Did he use the word LP?.

[ChewDawg]

@Deuce Dropper

who was the Taiwanese politician that referred to Singapore as a flea on China’s nuts?

MarK Chen
taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/ … 2003204697

[MikeN]

Just wondering what would be the equivalent of a lecture about the need for intellectuals to speak truth to power coming from the dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy .

A lecture on the need for religious tolerance from the dean of the Ayatollah Khomenei School of Ecumenical Studies?

[Steve4nLanguage]

@ChewDawg

[quote=“Deuce Dropper”]who was the Taiwanese politician that referred to Singapore as a flea on China’s nuts?

MarK Chen
taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/ … 2003204697[/quote]

Totally off topic, but…

I just read that article. All this time I thought the kids giggling and saying “LP” referred to penis, but it actually means testicles? (卵葩)

[Rotalsnart]

[quote=“Steve4nLanguage”]
Totally off topic, but…

I just read that article. All this time I thought the kids giggling and saying “LP” referred to penis, but it actually means testicles? (卵葩)[/quote]

Technically, LP (卵葩: lan pa) refers to the whole “nutsack.” If we are being specific, the testicles are called “lan hut”.

[Novaspes]

[quote=“Rotalsnart”][quote=“Steve4nLanguage”]
Totally off topic, but…

I just read that article. All this time I thought the kids giggling and saying “LP” referred to penis, but it actually means testicles? (卵葩)[/quote]

Technically, LP (卵葩: lan pa) refers to the whole “nutsack.” If we are being specific, the testicles are called “lan hut”.[/quote]

That weird moment in which you realizw you know how to say “scrotum” in Mandarin but still can’t remember how to say “oranges”.