JAMES TAM  谭炳昌

Finally, we've reached the end of the Flower Lounge story. The Court of Appeal made a long story very short on the 9th of May, 2012. 

Finally, we've reached the end of the Flower Lounge story. Contemplation may not be an existential prerequisite, but is very likely the primary distinction between man and beast. Only through deliberate thinking can humans deny, restrain, or indulge basic instincts and develop human nature, for better or for worse. Trying to understand one’s existence is a natural, reflexive, down-to-earth human curiosity; it doesn’t have to be arcanely philosophical.

放监前想了一下：「人性」到底是啥呢？没人性的人具体缺乏了些什么呢？「我思故我在」可能应该翻译为：「我思，故我如是？」 思考虽可令人迷茫，却是人与自身兽性斗争的主要手段，甚至唯一手段，因为只有经过思考，人类才会刻意控制天生兽欲，培养所谓「人性」。不一定是什么深邃哲理哦！只不过尽量认识一下匆匆而过的一生而已；连这也懒得好奇的话，恐怕只能跟随天性吃喝拉睡，与禽兽无别，如此人身纵使难得，得来干嘛呢？

Justice is paradoxically unique and universal, intuitive and complex all at once. Humanity seems further from universal justice after millennia of contemplation, deliberation, and experimentation. It was high time that some prisoner gave this dead-end issue some good thinking in his plentiful spare time. I volunteered. From social justice, my reverie ventured into slippery territories like reincarnation.

公平公义比自由更难掌握。一般人可能并不真正需要自由，却真心渴望公平，起码希望自己的人生比其他人的更公平。富人们都说：「人生根本就沒有『公平』这码事，认命免得瞎折腾」真的吗？也许公义类似财富，一般人永不嫌多，盲目追求，却极少花时间究其本质。趁着坐牢有空，将这难题思考了一下。 美國法庭的定罪率非常高，但其中只有大概百分之二—— 2%左右 —— 的案件完成審訊程序，其餘都是經「認罪協商」定罪的，原因很簡單。。。 想不到这班穷师兄对公平公义的见解竟然与索罗斯或盖茨之流甚为相近。 由社会公义扯到轮回业力似乎有点远，有点玄，但所有人间课题，一直追问下去都会变得玄之又玄，没有例外。。。

Freedom is a bewitching phantom. Many who defend it with a passion don’t seem to know what it is. They can’t define or describe its basic features, significance, or potential meaning to our lives. Why is it so blindly, embraced? If a hungry person gets food, he gobbles it up. What would an unfree person do if given unlimited freedom? These questions tickled my mind when I stood still to kill time in jail, surrounded by men who had been denied freedom

Had Descartes not thought at all, he'd still have been, just less aware. The 'meaning of life' is summed up in a flowchart with 60 words

笛卡尔凭一句「我思故我在」成名，然而他不思不考的话，也大概率会曾经存在，只不过与大部分人相似，浑噩过活，茫茫然不知所以过一生而已。思考可能并非存在大前题，但绝对是认识人生的起点，究竟真谛的途径，也可能是人类与野兽的基本分野。 我用几十个字编造了一个流程图。。。

能够明白聪明「怎」被聪明所误而自我解脱的话，聪明人的一生大概率比傻瓜活得自在。脑袋发达的人容易过于自信好胜，自觉有执着的「理由」，放下等于失败心有不甘，无意中强化了习气，招致五毒攻心。聪明人头壳内的那块肉特别发达，与天生壮健的人肌肉分外粗壮是同一现象，只不过部位不同。

clever people are better equipped to learn, absorb, and utilise information. How then could anyone be too clever for his own good?

何谓创新呢？被市场追捧了几十年的「创意」，最后除了五花八门的武器和满街满巷的刷屏行尸外，为人类的幸福贡献过些什么呢？可能是时候稍停片刻，摆脱市场枷锁，在我们永远无法跳出的大框框内静静反思一下了

What is innovation? Why is it so blindly promoted? And what has it contributed to humanity after decades of desperate promotion?

Many believe freedom of the press is absolute & inviolable even though it has never existed. That is changing rapidly, unpredictably

理论上，绝对新闻自由有其利弊，但如何界定假新闻和恶意谣言等技术问题永远不会有公认答案。然而这从未实现过的「自由」理念于过去几十年一直被大力吹嘘，成了部分人的信仰。普及科技彻底改变了通讯环境，自由传媒这维持了短短几十神话正面对严峻挑战。。。

中华文明与海盗文化有很多不同之处The difference between Chinese & American culture is that Chinese know we’re greedy, selfish, arrogant & vain Homo sapiens

十年前在 “过渡博客” 写过关于美国在伊拉克扔贫铀弹的暴行，令人发指，想不到今天英国又再奉命搬出这绝子绝孙的武器来制造新闻，有点儿难以置信！

这是智利和阿根廷几个著名坟场的摄影特辑 A photo album of famed cemeteries in Chile and Argentina, including Cementerio de la Recoleta

最近与一班中学生分享了我对「富不过三代」的理解，认为「寻找自我」属反逻辑浪漫主义的原因，和 一些有关捕捉契机的经验

I explained to secondary students why wealth don’t last three generations, why self discovery is dangerous, & how to capture opportunities.

今天的「百年不遇大变局」与我们有极大切身关系，是历史的因果循环，世界格局的新陈代谢，牵涉到军事、金融、领土、主权、文宣、地缘政治、财富分配、国际秩序的全方位博弈；是世界大战，亦是史诗级的全球革命，将之比喻为「大棋局」略嫌轻率，却甚为恰当。然而很少人留意到「防疫」也是盘上一子。