Category Archives: Parody
Lessons in Mandarin
Posted by on May 20, 2018
Sunday on Facebook: Last week I posted a video from an interview with Zhang Weiwei on his book ‘The China Wave’ and an article from Zhang Weiwei on ‘Meritocracy versus Democracy’. They were both very informative, especially in promoting the idealism of the Chinese meritocratic system of government. I concluded that public administration in a meritocratic system of government differs very little from that of a demos driven democratic system, the differences lying in their notional definitions democracy.
Written four years ago the following reprise is not entirely tongue in cheek but may well represent my innate cynicism that irrespective of the politics represented ‘mandarin‘, is not the purview of the Chinese. The following ‘Lessons in Mandarin’, may point to the inscrutability and clear consciousness of all (supposedly meaningful) exchanges.
Misleading Cases: Reprise
Posted by on Jan 20, 2017
This week on Facebook: It occurs to me in reading the misleading cases of A. P. Herbert that they are as relevant today as at the time they were written. Their context may be somewhat different and certainly society’s views on the freedom the individual are, but the law — far from being less oppressive — insidiously tightens its grip over individual freedoms. Read more of this post
Lessons in Mandarin
Posted by on Aug 2, 2014
Very occasionally as a Civil Servant I was required to provide a technical contribution to Parliamentary Questions (PQs), at a time when PQs really did allow Members of Parliament to hold the Government to account. The only role my contribution had to a PQ was to complement the response being prepared by a Mandarin. Anything that I may have written would have been lost in the revisions they underwent before reaching the likes of a Bernard Woolley or a Sir Humphrey Appelby. I was reminded of this when I revisited an old paper on Civil Service Mandarin. Read more of this post
Aasof’s Reflections 