2012年1月22日 星期日

鍾庭耀(CHUNG Ting Yiu Robert):香港大學民意調查風波

香港人的身份認同惹惱北京: 香港大學民意調查風波

鍾庭耀英語CHUNG Ting Yiu Robert),現職香港大學民意研究計劃總監,香港社會學學者、大學教授香港大學利銘澤堂舍監,畢業拔萃男書院、香港大學社會科學系(社會學)。是2000年港大民調風波中的主角之一。

1987年香港大學成立隸屬社會科學學院的社會科學研究中心(Social Sciences Research Centre),鍾庭耀便加入研究中心任助理研究主任。1991年6月,中心成立「民意研究計劃」負責透過民意調查收集數據,並研究和分析香港的民意發展,鍾庭耀出任民意研究計劃研究主任。

[编辑] 港大民調風波

主條目:港大民調風波

2000年7月7日,鍾庭耀分別於《南華早報》和《信報》撰文,指行政長官董建華過去一年多次透過特別渠道向他施壓,要求他停止對政府及行政長官的民望進行民意調查。其後,鍾庭耀公開傳話人身份是當時的港大校長鄭耀宗,並透過副校長兼鍾氏的博士論文老師黃紹倫傳達。港大校務委員其後委任一個獨立調查小組,最後查明鍾庭耀的指控屬實,行政長官辦公室高級特別助理路祥安透過會面鄭耀宗,希望阻止不利政府的民調結果。同年9月6日,事件在鄭耀宗及黃紹倫宣佈請辭告終。

[编辑] 外部參考

2012年1月15日 星期日

Ronald William Fordham Searle

British graphic artist, born in Cambridge, where he studied at the Cambridge School of Art, 1936–9. After the Second World War (most of which he spent in Japanese prisoner-of-war camps) he settled in London and established his reputation with Forty Drawings (1946), a record of his captivity. However, it is as a caricaturist and humorous illustrator that he has become famous; in particular, his creation of the fiendish schoolgirls of St Trinian's (who first appeared in book form in Hurrah for St Trinian's! 1948) has made him a household name in Britain. The St Trinian's characters typically blend mock horror and grotesque distortion with effervescent humour. The idea spawned a popular series of films which kept the concept alive long after Searle stopped drawing the girls; the most recent was released in 2007. His work was widely used in advertising in the 1950s and became so familiar that this decade in Britain has been described as the ‘Searle decade’. Certainly for anyone growing up there at that time, he is likely to have been the first artist known by name. In 1960 Searle settled in France, supposedly to escape the notoriety which St Trinian's had brought, and in 1973 a major exhibition of his work was held in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris; he was the first living foreign artist to be so honoured. Searle is also a painter, etcher, and lithographer, and has worked on the design of several films, notably Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965).

Ronald Searle

Ronald Searle, artist, limner of St Trinian’s and St Custard’s, died on December 30th, aged 91. Nigel Molesworth of St Custard’s writes

ART is for weeds and sissies whose mater hav said Take care of my dear little Cedric, he is delicate you kno and cannot stand a foopball to the head. Whenever anebode mention Art they all sa gosh mikelangelo leenardo wot magnificent simetry of line. Shurely the very pinnackle of western civilisation etc.etc. Pass me my oils Molesworth that I may paint my masterpeece. The headmaster sa gosh cor is that the medeechi venus hem-hem a grate work so true to life reminds me of young mrs filips enuff said.

Molesworth sa on the contry the most beatiful form in art is a Ronald Searle GURL from St Trinian’s in a tunick with black suspenders and armed with a hockey stick to beat the daylites out of another gurl or maybe just a teacher chortle chortle. Mr Searle sa he hav based her on his sister Olive. She hav wild platts and an empty gin bottle in her pocket a sack of poysinous todestools two sticks of dynamite and possibly a hippo on a lede while an old crone alias a teacher sa from a window Elspeth put that back AT ONCE. Or she will be sharpening a massiv knife on a grinder with grusome heads of gurls on a shelf behind and the headmistres will be telling the surprized parent this is Rachel, our head gurl, ha ha ha. We offer every attention to your prescious chicks including drunken orgeys wiches sabbaths every form of the subjunctive in fr. or lat. and coffin-making for a modest charge.

The luvely creaturs of St Trinian’s so pleased the publick that Mr Searle sa, people think I have drawn nothing else, I am sick to dethe of them, so he began in 1953 to draw from Geoffrey Willans words the farest forms of St Custard’s, viz, Peason my grate frend who hav a haircut like a chimney brush, fotherington-tomas with curlie hair who believe in fairies, Molesworth 2 my younger bro who is uterly wet and a weed and Grimes the headmaster, alias soho sammy with a face of evil unparralled. Not to mention Me n. molesworth brave and feerless wot a noble BOY in his yellow blazer and his cap at a rakkish angle, a gift to Art with the lite of geenius gleeming from his glasses and an expreshun that strike fear into every teacher in the skool. Mr Searle hav drawn too the charming scenes of the place, viz, the headmaster’s office with escape runways, the many varities of Kane one with telescopic sights, the Glurk and Lesser Titwort as found in Botany, the hairy gerund as found in lat. chiz chiz, Matron smoking in her room ahem, a corner of the playing fields with pouring rane and a ghastly THING with many feet and claws that is Molesworth 1 about to curse the skool for EVER.

Mr Searle left skool at 15 cheers cheers. He was office boy for a solicitors but he could not stop drawing, even on leegal dokuments scratch scratch, is that a kartoon you have done my lad, yes it is a fantasy of the future Molesworth, wot a horrible thing I think you had better leave. Cambridge Art Skool and then in the war camooflaging pill-boxes as haystacks, how about sum more straw round the doorway, perhaps a dunghill outside, how artistick feel free.

A mistery voyage to Singapore then followed drawing all the way, but then come the Japs invading, Boom KABOOM!! ack-ack-ack-ack-ack, motorbikes roring by, urum-urum-urum-uraaaaaa, too late, into prison camp, still drawing. He staid four yeres there and was six stone when he left. A wunder he could smile agane after seeing men die all around him from cholera or torchure with bodes like sticks, but what he drew afterwards had a savvage melankoly underneath it as the art master sa, old majors with large noses and small handkerchiefs, dogs that are undoutedly plotting an evil dede, lugubrioos couples dancing hem-hem, criket bats and balls killing players at a single blo, a man catching music like flys in a jar, a child-hater selling balloons that carry the pathetik little weeds far away.

Yet in 1961 tired of drawing for Punch or roming America for Holiday magazine he zoomed across to France, where there were long thin men in berets long thin loaves of bred and many swurly balconys besides the usual sad dogs, maniack cats, mademoiselles with long eyelashes ahem who sa, how about a good time will you have a glas of Champagne. And he looking autour de lui sa Houp-la I am so happy here pore as a mouse in my attick in Paris and then on my hilltop in Provence, I will never return to boring old Blighty, but I will work for Le Monde and Le Figaro Littéraire, and also Life and the New Yorker. For I recall that for my first t.v. over there I was paid $1,000 a minit, super smashing good show. And he drew New York City as per ushual very tall and thin and inky humans with bodies still like sticks scowling among the skycrapers but also collossal painted butterflys flutering by, hullo clouds, hullo sun, and giant flowers of many coluours sprowting out of desks. And his Nature was v. grand and beattful red and blue while the spiky tarts and bisnessmen raced round not seing it or ruining it all.

And speking of Life, sa silently the long black undertaker in his tall black hat sitting by the grave, I do not think much of that as a titel for a magazine, why not Dethe, but Dethe where is thy sting, where Grave thy victory cry Molesworth (over the WHACK of the Kane), when everbode still kepe larffing at the world Mr Searle hav made.


Ronald Searle
Born 3 March 1920
Cambridge, England
Died 30 December 2011 (aged 91)[1]
Draguignan, Var, Provence, France
Nationality English
Field Illustration, cartoons
Modern Classics reissue of Ronald Searle's St Trinian's drawings

Ronald William Fordham Searle CBE, RDI (3 March 1920 – 30 December 2011)[2] survived the notorious Death Railway while a prisoner-of war of the Japanese in the Second World War to become a well known artist and satirical cartoonist.

He is perhaps best best remembered as the creator of St Trinian's School and for his collaboration with Geoffrey Willans on the Molesworth series.

Contents

Biography

Searle was born in Cambridge, England, where his father was a porter at Cambridge Railway Station. He started drawing at the age of five and left school at the age of 15. He trained at Cambridge College of Arts and Technology (now Anglia Ruskin University) for two years.

In April 1939, realizing that war was inevitable, he abandoned his art studies to enlist in the Royal Engineers. In January 1942, he was stationed in Singapore. After a month of fighting in Malaya, Singapore fell to the Japanese, and he was taken prisoner along with his cousin Tom Fordham Searle. He spent the rest of the war a prisoner, first in Changi Prison and then in the Kwai jungle, working on the Siam-Burma Death Railway. Searle contracted both beri-beri and malaria during his incarceration, which included numerous beatings, and his weight dropped to less than 40 kilograms. He was liberated in late 1945 with the final defeat of the Japanese.

He married the journalist Kaye Webb in 1947; they had twins, Kate and Johnny. In 1961, he moved to Paris, leaving his family and later marrying Monica Koenig, a painter, theatre and jewellery designer.[3] After 1975, Searle and his wife lived and worked in the mountains of Haute Provence.

Searle died on 30 December 2011, aged 91.

Early work as war artist

Although Searle published the first St Trinian's cartoon in the magazine Lilliput in 1941, his professional career really begins with his documentation of the brutal camp conditions of his period as a prisoner-of-war of the Japanese in World War II in a series of drawings that he hid under the mattresses of prisoners dying of cholera. Searle recalled, "I desperately wanted to put down what was happening, because I thought if by any chance there was a record, even if I died, someone might find it and know what went on." But Searle survived, along with approximately 300 of his drawings. Liberated late in 1945, Searle returned to England where he published several of the drawings in fellow prisoner Russell Braddon's The Naked Island. Another of Searle's fellow prisoners later recounted, "If you can imagine something that weighs six stone or so, is on the point of death and has no qualities of the human condition that aren’t revolting, calmly lying there with a pencil and a scrap of paper, drawing, you have some idea of the difference of temperament that this man had from the ordinary human being."[4]

Most of these drawings appear in his 1986 book, Ronald Searle: To the Kwai and Back, War Drawings 1939-1945.[5] In the book, Searle also wrote of his experiences as a prisoner, including the day he woke up to find a dead friend on either side of him, and a live snake underneath his head:

"You can’t have that sort of experience without it directing the rest of your life. I think that’s why I never really left my prison cell, because it gave me my measuring stick for the rest of my life... Basically all the people we loved and knew and grew up with simply became fertiliser for the nearest bamboo."

At least one of his drawings is on display at the Changi Museum and Chapel, Singapore, but the majority of his originals are in the permanent collection of the Imperial War Museum, London, along with the works of other POW artists. The best known of these are John Mennie, Jack Bridger Chalker, Philip Meninsky and Ashley George Old.

Magazines, books, and films

Searle produced an extraordinary volume of work during the 1950s, including drawings for Life, Holiday and Punch. His cartoons appeared in The New Yorker, the Sunday Express and the News Chronicle. He compiled more St Trinian's books, which were based on his sister's school and other girls' schools in Cambridge. He collaborated with Geoffrey Willans on the Molesworth books (Down With Skool!, 1953, and How to be Topp, 1954), and with Alex Atkinson on travel books. In addition to advertisements and posters, Searle drew the title backgrounds of the Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder film The Happiest Days of Your Life.[6]

After moving to Paris in 1961, he worked more on reportage for Life and Holiday and less on cartoons. He also continued to work in a broad range of media and created books (including his well-known cat books), animated films and sculpture for commemorative medals, both for the French Mint and the British Art Medal Society.[7][8] Searle did a considerable amount of designing for the cinema, and in 1965, he completed the opening, intermission and closing credits for the comedy film Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines. In 1975, the full-length cartoon Dick Deadeye, or Duty Done was released. It is based on the character and songs from H.M.S. Pinafore.[9] Animated by a number of artists both British and French, it is considered by some to be his greatest achievement, although Searle himself detested the result.

Archives

In 2010, he gave about 2,200 of his works as permanent loans to Wilhelm Busch Museum Hannover (Germany), now renamed Deutsches Museum für Karikatur und Zeichenkunst. The ancient Summer palace of George 1st, this Museum holds Searle's archives.

Awards

Searle received much recognition for his work, especially in America, including the National Cartoonists Society's Advertising and Illustration Award in 1959 and 1965, the Reuben Award in 1960, their Illustration Award in 1980 and their Advertising Award in 1986 and 1987. Searle was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2004.[10] In 2007, he was decorated with one of France's highest awards, the Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur, and in 2009, he received the German Order of Merit.

Influence

His work has had a great deal of influence, particularly on American cartoonists, including Pat Oliphant,[11] Matt Groening,[12] Hilary Knight,[13] and the animators of Disney's 101 Dalmatians.[14] In 2005, he was the subject of a BBC documentary on his life and work by Russell Davies.[citation needed]

He was an early influence on John Lennon's drawing style which featured in the books In His Own Write and A Spaniard in the Works.[15]

Bibliography

St Trinian's

  • Hurrah For St Trinians, 1948
  • The Female Approach: The Belles of St. Trinian's and Other Cartoons, 1950
  • Back To The Slaughterhouse, and Other Ugly Moments, 1951
  • The Terror of St Trinian's, or Angela's Prince Charming, 1952 (with Timothy Shy (D. B. Wyndham-Lewis))
  • Souls in Torment, 1953 (preface by Cecil Day-Lewis)
  • The St Trinian's Story, 1959 (with Kaye Webb)
  • St Trinian's: The Cartoons, 2007
  • St. Trinian's: The Entire Appalling Business, 2008

Molesworth

  • Down With Skool!: A Guide to School Life for Tiny Pupils and Their Parents, 1953 (with Geoffrey Willans)
  • How to be Topp: A Guide to Sukcess for Tiny Pupils, Including All There is to Kno About Space, 1954 (with Geoffrey Willans)
  • Whizz for Atomms: A Guide to Survival in the 20th Century for Fellow Pupils, their Doting Maters, Pompous Paters and Any Others who are Interested, 1956 (with Geoffrey Willans) Published in the U.S. as Molesworth's Guide to the Atommic Age
  • Back in the Jug Agane, 1959 (with Geoffrey Willans)
  • The Compleet Molesworth, 1958 (collection) Molesworth (1999 Penguin reprint)

Other works

  • White Coolie, 1947 (with Ronald Hastain)
  • This England 1946-1949, 1949 (edited by Audrey Hilton)
  • The Stolen Journey, 1950 (with Oliver Philpot)
  • An Irishman's Diary, 1950 (with Patrick Campbell)
  • Dear Life, 1950 (with H. E. Bates)
  • Paris Sketchbook, 1950 (with Kaye Webb)
  • A Sleep of Prisoners, 1951 (with Christopher Fry)
  • Life in Thin Slices, 1951 (with Patrick Campbell)
  • The Naked Island, 1952 (with Russell Braddon)
  • It Must be True, 1952 (with Denys Parsons)
  • London—So Help Me!, 1952 (with Winifred Ellis)
  • The Diverting History of John Gilpin, 1953 (after William Cowper)
  • Looking at London and People Worth Meeting, 1953 (with Kaye Webb)
  • The Dark is Light Enough, 1954 (with Christopher Fry)
  • Patrick Campbells Omnibus, 1954 (with Patrick Campbell)
  • The Journal Of Edwin Carp, 1954 (edited by Richard Haydn)
  • Modern Types, 1955 (with Geoffrey Gorer)
  • The Rake's Progress, 1955
  • Merry England, Etc, 1956
  • Anglo-Saxon Attitudes, 1956 (with Angus Wilson)
  • The Big City or the New Mayhew , 1958 (with Alex Atkinson)
  • The Dog's Ear Book, 1958 (with Geoffrey Willans)
  • USA for Beginners, 1959 (with Alex Atkinson)
  • Anger of Achilles: Homer's Iliad, 1959 (translation by Robert Graves)
  • By Rocking Horse Across Russia, 1960 (with Alex Atkinson)
  • Penguin Ronald Searle, 1960
  • Refugees 1960, 1960 (with Kaye Webb)
  • Which Way Did He Go?, 1961
  • A Christmas Carol, 1961 (with Charles Dickens)
  • The 13 Clocks and the Wonderful O, 1962 (with James Thurber)
  • Searle In The Sixties, 1964
  • From Frozen North to Filthy Lucre, 1964
  • Haven't We Met Before Somewhere?, 1966
  • Searle's Cats, 1967
  • The Square Egg, 1968
  • Take One Toad, 1968
  • This Business of Bomfog, 1969 (with Madelaine Duke)
  • Monte Carlo Or Bust, 1969 (with E. W. Hildick)
  • Hello, where did all the people go?, 1969
  • The Second Coming of Toulouse-Lautrec, 1969
  • Secret Sketchbook, 1969
  • The Great Fur Opera: Annals of the Hudson's Bay Company 1670-1970, 1970 (with Kildare Dobbs)[16]
  • Scrooge, 1970 (with Elaine Donaldson)
  • Mr. Lock of St. James's Street, 1971 (with Frank Whitbourn)
  • The Addict, 1971
  • More Cats, 1975
  • Dick Dead Eye, 1975 (after Gilbert and Sullivan)
  • Paris! Paris!, 1977 (with Irwin Shaw)
  • Zodiac, 1977
  • Ronald Searle, 1978
  • The King of Beasts & Other Creatures, 1980
  • The Situation is Hopeless, 1980
  • Winning the Restaurant Game, 1980 (with Jay Jacobs)
  • Too Many Songs by Tom Lehrer With Not Enough Drawings by Ronald Searle, 1981
  • Ronald Searle's Big Fat Cat Book, 1982
  • The Illustrated Winespeak, 1983
  • Ronald Searle in Perspective, 1983
  • Ronald Searle's Golden Oldies 1941 - 1961, 1985
  • Something in the Cellar, 1986
  • To the Kwai and Back: War Drawings 1939-1945, 1986
  • Ronald Searle's Non-Sexist Dictionary, 1988
  • Ah Yes, I Remember It Well...: Paris 1961-1975, 1988
  • Slightly Foxed But Still Desirable: Ronald Searle's Wicked World of Book Collecting, 1989
  • Marquis De Sade Meets Goody Two-Shoes, 1994
  • The Tales of Grandpa Cat, 1994 (with Lee Wardlaw)
  • The Hatless Man, 1995 (with Sarah Kortum)
  • A French Affair : The Paris Beat, 1965-1998, 1999 (with Mary Blume)
  • Wicked Etiquette, 2000 (with Sarah Kortum)
  • Ronald Searle in Le Monde, 2001
  • Railway of Hell: A Japanese POW's Account of War, Capture and Forced Labour, 2002 (with Reginald Burton)
  • Searle's Cats, 2005 (New and Expanded Edition, all illustrations are new)
  • The Scrapbook Drawings", 2005
  • Cat O' Nine Tales: And Other Stories, 2006 (with Jeffrey Archer)
  • Beastly Feasts: A Mischievous Menagerie in Rhyme, 2007 (with Robert Forbes)
  • More Scraps & Watteau Revisited, 2008
  • Let's Have a Bite!: A Banquet of Beastly Rhymes, 2010 (with Robert Forbes)
  • What! Already?: Searle at 90, 2010
  • Les Très Riches Heures de Mrs Mole, 2011

See also

References

Further reading

External links

2012年1月11日 星期三

新加坡政治新星陳碩茂: 「打造世界第一國會」的理想

專訪最耀眼政治新星陳碩茂:從全能政府邁向公民社會


2011-12 天下雜誌 488期 作者:王曉玟

相關關鍵字:

專訪最耀眼政治新星陳碩茂:從全能政府邁向公民社會 圖片來源:黃明堂

他是新加坡天空最耀眼的政治新星。


二○一一年五月新加坡國會大選,台裔新加坡律師陳碩茂,代表在野黨工人黨參選,標榜「打造世界第一國會」的理想。

他和工人黨其他候選人,一起在八十七席的國會中,攻下向來被視為執政黨鐵票區、由前外交部長楊榮文坐鎮的阿裕尼選區,拿下六席。

正是這區區六席,讓許多新加坡人徹夜難眠。

人民行動黨苦澀地吞下建國以來最低得票率(六成)。總理李顯龍閉門檢討,內閣大幅換血。

陳碩茂的學、經歷,讓奉行菁英主義的新加坡人,心服口服。

屏東林邊出生的陳碩茂,十一歲時隨父母移民新加坡,之後成為哈佛、史丹佛、牛津的法學博士,美國知名的達維律師事務所(Davis Polk & Wardwell)合夥人。

二○一○年,陳碩茂幫助中國農民銀行完成史上籌資額最大的IPO,金額達二○二億美元,被《美國律師》選為二○一○年「年度最佳交易律師」之一。

但攀上事業頂峰後,陳碩茂卻選擇投入新加坡國會大選,拒絕執政黨的網羅,代表工人黨出征。

他演講時魅力四射。

五月大選前,阿裕尼選區的大操場,五萬人站在毛毛雨中,無聲傾聽陳碩茂演講。

別讓下一代唯唯諾諾

二○一一年十月,陳碩茂發表他的首次國會演說。他一說話,總理李顯龍馬上放下手邊的文件,專心聆聽。

「在這國會任期裡,希望執政黨能做唐太宗,我們來做魏徵,開出太平盛世,而不是一個政者獨斷,小人唯唯諾諾的世代,」陳碩茂用中文,溫和而堅定地闡述。


「真正完整的人格、獨立的精神,是不可能在一個凡事聽從獨大的執政黨、凡事唯唯諾諾的環境下生成。我們要我們的下一代有創新、有獨立自主精神,就不能不在政治上、精神上,給他一個自由競爭的環境。這要求,及這深深的憂慮不安,其實是隱藏在許多新加坡人心中,」他說。

他的崛起,代表了新加坡開始從全能政府,邁向公民社會的轉型。

《天下雜誌》專訪這位政治明星,聽他傾吐從政理念:

新加坡獨立後發展最大的特色,就是一黨獨大。但我們向前看,希望塑造一個更成功的國會,讓政策更加反映民意,改善民生。

我記得今年總理李顯龍在國慶日演講中,提到美國國會辯論政府預算的僵局,他這麼形容這僵局:一黨希望永遠不加稅;另外一黨則希望永遠不砍福利支出。

如果真如李總理所說,這預算僵局映證了多黨政治的不足,那請問:在一黨獨大的理想國度裡,這場僵局會如何收場?是不再加稅,還是不再砍福利支出?任何一個方案都不盡完善,因為兩者雙雙反映了民間不同的價值觀。

雙方如何把這兩個有衝突的價值充分、公開地討論及協調,這就是國會該扮演的角色,也是我們民主政治正當的程序。

第一世界的國會,就是要能夠反映民意,幫助我們社會做出一個盡量完善的選擇,減低選錯整體方向的風險。並不只求愈快愈好。長遠來看,這是最有效率的安排。

舉我們近幾年的人口政策為例,這其實也是我們的經濟政策。

為了追求更高的經濟成長,引進了更多的外勞。人多了,經濟體大了,自然就會成長。可是,這是一種粗糙的成長,因為它沒有帶來相應的生產力的提高。這政策雖影響重大,卻並非是在國會裡有全面的討論後才落實的。

這政策帶來什麼結果?第一,新加坡人的就業及薪酬受到了壓力。第二,配套的公共運輸、住房、生活空間及其他方面的建設沒跟上人口的增長。這些是誰在買單?主要還是普通新加坡人,包括低收入的新加坡人。可是經濟成長他沒有充分地分享到。

兩個月前,人力部出了一份報告。過去十年,我們收入最下層二○%的國民,調整了通貨膨脹後,薪資成長是零。五○%,即是過半的新加坡人,每年薪資成長一.二%,這比經濟成長是少得多。

我有朋友在執政黨內,他們短期內能制定、執行政策,對民生做出直接的貢獻。不要忘了,我們爭取民主主要也是為了改善民生。

可是,我相信我選擇走這條路,幫助反對黨茁壯成長,讓民主政治的體系能夠好好運作,讓政策更加反映民意,長遠來講,對政策、民生能起更大、更好的作用。

未來五年,大的風險,是國際的局勢,對新加坡這樣一個小而開放的經濟實體帶來的經濟衝擊。我希望我們能加強社會保障安全網,讓新加坡人更放心。

新加坡人在全球賽場上,他要參賽、要衝刺。政府跟他講了,引進外國人也是要讓新加坡人跑得更快。可是也該讓他放心,跌倒的話,不能完成賽程、退出,這個社會,也就是其他新加坡人,還能扶他一把。


2012年1月6日 星期五

George Eastman 柯達 Eastman Chemical

士曼-柯達公司(Eastman Kodak Co.)對其業務進行重組﹐並稱此舉旨在削減成本﹐加速公司向一家數字企業的轉變﹐並為股東創造價值。

《華爾街日報》(Wall Street Journal)上週報導稱﹐若出售旗下專利權組合從而增加現金流的努力失敗﹐伊士曼-柯達準備在未來幾週內尋求破產保護。

根 據新的公司架構﹐伊士曼-柯達旗下三個業務部門被削減至兩個﹐分別為商用和消費﹐這兩個部門將分別由Philip Faraci和Laura Quatela擔任首席營運長。此外﹐Faraci將繼續擔任伊士曼-柯達總裁和首席營運長﹐並將專注於企業業務。Quatela將負責個人消費業務。調 整已於1月1日生效。

Ben Fox Rubin


George Eastman 柯達照片公司快倒了... 據說柯達化學還好得很
BUSINESS
At Kodak, Workers Remember Their Moment
As Kodak prepares for a possible bankruptcy filing, its former employees worry about their retirement benefits, and recall brighter days at a company that once dominated its industry.


American inventor (1854–1932)

Eastman, who was born in Waterville, New York, began his career in banking and insurance but turned from this to photography. In 1880 he perfected the dry-plate photographic film and began manufacturing this. He produced a transparent roll film in 1884 and in the same year founded the Eastman Dry Plate and Film Company. In 1888 he introduced the simple hand-held box camera that made popular photography possible. The Kodak camera with a roll of transparent film was cheap enough for all pockets and could be used by a child. It was followed by the Brownie camera, which cost just one dollar.

Eastman gave away a considerable part of his fortune to educational institutions, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He committed suicide in 1932.

****

As Kodak struggles, Eastman Chemical thrives

As Kodak struggles, Eastman Chemical thrives align=

NEW YORK: George Eastman is best known as the inventor of photographic film and founder of Eastman Kodak Co, but his century-old legacy of entrepreneurship now rides on the lesser-known Eastman Chemical Co.

That was hardly the case in 1994, when Eastman Kodak spun off its chemicals business to help pay down debt. At that time, Kodak was still a colossus in photography whereas Eastman Chemical was a small player very much in its parent’s shadow.

But because of a sea change in digital technology and different approaches to business, Eastman Chemical’s stock market value has since increased 71 percent to $5.5 billion today, while Kodak’s has plummeted 99 percent to about $185 million.

Interviews with former executives, retirees and analysts describe two companies that were polar opposites in many ways, despite their shared heritage: where Eastman Chemical was swift to move into new markets, Kodak rested on its laurels for too long; where Chemical had a management team obsessed with the bottom line, Kodak retained cushy employee benefits even when the advent of digital cameras caused film demand to crater.

Speculation flared in September that Kodak was on the verge of bankruptcy, after the Rochester, New York-based company hired restructuring experts. Last month, Kodak warned that unless it could raise $500 million in new debt or sell some patents in its portfolio, it might not survive 2012.

“George Eastman’s legacy will be Eastman Chemical and not Eastman Kodak,” said Willy Shih, a Harvard Business School professor who ran Kodak’s digital imaging business from 1997 until 2005. “I am absolutely convinced of that.”

Eastman Chemical shares lagged Kodak’s until 2006:

link.reuters.com/myg75s

Eastman Chemical vs Kodak quarterly profits:

link.reuters.com/nyg75s

George Eastman, a high-school dropout from rural New York, founded Eastman Kodak Co in the late 1880s and built it into the world’s biggest photographic film supplier and camera maker. He patented roll film when he was 30 and quickly became a wealthy man. In 1919, he gifted one-third of his Kodak stock — worth roughly $10 million at the time — to employees.

Eastman established a chemicals subsidiary in 1920 to supply acetic acid and other photographic chemicals to Kodak, a business that grew strongly in the next 50 years, gaining many customers beyond its sibling.

After Eastman Chemical was spun off, it continued to expand and innovate by staking out new niche chemical markets, such as fibers for cigarette filters and plastic free of bisphenol A, a potential carcinogen.

Kodak, on the other hand, invented the digital camera in 1975 when one of its engineers developed a prototype that was as big as a toaster and captured black and white images.

But it failed to capitalize on that innovation, and it was only when Kodak’s film business began to decline a decade ago that it tried to catch up with rivals by launching mass-market digital cameras with the Easyshare line.

“We had something that was so good, but now it’s deteriorated to the current state of affairs,” said Bob Shanebrook, a former Kodak executive who ran the professional film business and retired in 2003. “We thought $40 per share was a ridiculously low stock price, but now it’s below a dollar.”

Kodak’s five-year credit default swaps were quoted at distressed levels earlier this month, reflecting a 92 percent chance of default on its debt in the next five years.

The city of Rochester itself seems resigned to Kodak’s fate. At one point, the company employed more than 60,000 people in the area — now, that number is closer to 7,000.

A PATERNAL HISTORY

To be sure, Eastman Chemical has been fortunate to be in an industry that has changed little compared to the technology sector, which has forced other American icons including International Business Machines Corp and Corning Inc to reinvent themselves. The type of chemical products may change, but the science of producing them does not.

Nonetheless, people familiar with both companies give Eastman Chemical credit for a corporate culture change that has helped it eschew the Kodak legacy.

In March 2009, for example, Eastman Chemical asked all employees from the CEO down to take a 5 percent pay cut to prevent widespread layoffs. The tactic worked, layoffs were averted, and the prior pay levels were restored later that year.

“We needed to understand that we were not a family; we were a team,” Brian Ferguson, who joined Eastman Chemical in 1977 and was chief executive from 2002 through 2009, said in an email. “We had difficulties dealing with these issues due to the paternal history of Kodak, which implied employment for life, benefits forever unchanging and general conflict avoidance.”

Kodak, in contrast, was much more generous with its employee benefits. Even after the decline in its business forced massive layoffs — it has 18,800 global workers today, down from 86,000 in 1998 — the company offered lucrative severance packages.

“They could have just said, ‘Thanks for coming, goodbye,’” said Shanebrook, the former Kodak executive. “Instead, they gave people at all levels separation packages based on how long they worked. They continue to provide medical coverage for retirees.”

Kodak’s U.S. pension plans, which cover 65,000 people, were underfunded by nearly $200 million at the end of 2010. The funds slipped into the red after a surplus of more than $2 billion as recently as 2008, according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

When asked for comment, Kodak spokesman Gerard Meuchner said in an-email that the company has cut its post-employment benefits by two-thirds since 2005 and lowered its severance benefits from two weeks per year of service to 1.5 weeks.

CONTRASTING CEOS

The differences in Kodak and Eastman Chemical’s cultures are reflected in the management styles of their leaders. Eastman Chemical Chief Executive Jim Rogers, a former naval aviator and corporate treasurer, has a reputation for being pragmatic and low-key. Kodak CEO Antonio Perez is known for his charisma, but some of his spending decisions have raised eyebrows.

Perez’s liberal use of corporate jets has become a popular topic among Kodak pensioners on Internet message boards. Perez, who is on the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, flew with his wife in 2006 on a Kodak plane to a Super Bowl football game viewing party at the White House.

The plane was later destroyed when a hangar near Dulles International Airport collapsed after a snowstorm. Perez decided to lease another one.

In 2010, he racked up a $309,407 bill using Kodak’s jet for personal travel, according to regulatory filings. Starting in 2011, the company said Perez would have to pay out of pocket if his personal travel bill eclipsed $100,000.

Rogers, by contrast, used Eastman Chemical’s jet infrequently in 2010 for personal travel. The cost was so small — less than $10,000 — that Eastman Chemical said in filings it would not bother to report it.

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

Among the handful of Wall Street analysts who still follow Kodak, three advise selling the stock. By contrast, at least seven Wall Street analysts say the shares of Eastman Chemical are a good buy. StarMine, a Thomson Reuters data service that aggregates leading analysts’ expectations, believes the stock’s true value is nearly double current levels.

Earnest Deavenport, who was chief executive of Eastman Chemical when it first became independent, said the company would not have flourished if it had remained part of Kodak.

“The cash needs of the chemical group and the rest of Kodak were out of phase with each other,” Davenport said. “Kodak did not see the global expansion of the chemical group’s manufacturing base as strategic to the parent company.”

As an independent company, Eastman Chemical had to learn to compete with Dow Chemical, BASF and other global chemical giants. It never grew complacent the way Kodak did with its near-monopoly of the photographic sector.

Kodak has been hamstrung by Asian competitors that have experience making cheaper electronics. In 2010, Kodak held about 7 percent of the digital camera market, in seventh place behind Canon, Sony Corp, Nikon and others, according to research firm IDC. Its position has slipped since 2007, when it was No. 4 in U.S. digital camera sales with a 9.6 percent share.

Kodak’s spending on research and development fell 10 percent last year to $321 million. Eastman Chemical spent $152 million on research in 2010, up 23 percent from the previous year.

If Perez cannot find a way to revitalize Kodak, Rogers could soon find himself the only CEO of a company with “Eastman” in its name.

In 1932, sick and frail from a spinal disorder, George Eastman took his own life with a bullet to the heart, feeling that his legacy had been cemented by both the film and chemical businesses. He left a note, unaware that Kodak would one day fall on hard times.

“To my friends,” Eastman wrote. “My work is done. Why wait?”

(The Iron Lady/Meryl Streep

Agence France-Presse ()
由好萊塢影星梅 莉史翠普(Meryl Streep)扮演的英國前首相柴契爾夫人(Margaret Thatcher)的電影「鐵娘子:堅固柔情」(The Iron Lady),4日在倫敦進行歐洲首映會,梅莉史翠普(Meryl Streep)特別倣效柴契爾夫人的招牌藍衣,踩著大會準備的藍地毯,接受影迷的歡呼。

歐洲首映會在倫敦市中心BFI Southbank舉行,扮演柴契爾夫人的梅莉史翠普一身黑衣加上藍色長外套,由於藍色是柴契爾夫人所屬的保守黨(Conservative party)傳統顏色,所以主辦單位特別準備的藍地毯星光大道。

梅莉史翠普表示,柴契爾夫人胸懷雄心大志,在那個時代她是西方世界最強悍、同時也是唯一的女性領袖,這也是這個角色吸引她的原因之一。

另外,柏林影展下個月舉行,大會公布今年的終身成就獎,將頒給美國影星梅莉史翠普(Meryl Streep),以表揚她過去三十多年在電影界的成就。

梅莉史翠普入圍奧斯卡16次,2度獲獎,今年再以「鐵娘子:堅固柔情」問鼎奧斯卡影后。柏林影展主席寇斯力克(Dieter Kosslick)表示,梅莉史翠普能輕鬆地遊走在戲劇和喜劇角色之間,是一位才華洋溢、極為卓越的演員。

「鐵娘子:堅固柔情」2月24日全台上映,並搶先於2月10日「榮耀時刻:2012奧斯卡影展」「秒殺口碑場」單元中特別映演。

http://www.taiwannews.com.tw/etn/news_content.php?id=1806928


Tony Bennett

BBC 某節目訪問他
地點在美國大都會博物館的繪畫-雕塑區
因他每天必畫畫才能唱 一次三幅
說上帝是自然
自然無一物是直線.....



Tony Bennett (born Anthony Dominick Benedetto; August 3, 1926) is an American singer of popular music, standards, show tunes, and jazz.

Raised in New York City, Bennett began singing at an early age. He fought in the final stages of World War II as an infantryman with the U.S. Army in the European Theatre. Afterwards, he developed his singing technique, signed with Columbia Records, and had his first number one popular song with "Because of You" in 1951. Several top hits such as "Rags to Riches" followed in the early 1950s. Bennett then further refined his approach to encompass jazz singing. He reached an artistic peak in the late 1950s with albums such as The Beat of My Heart and Basie Swings, Bennett Sings. In 1962, Bennett recorded his signature song, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco". His career and his personal life then suffered an extended downturn during the height of the rock music era.

Bennett staged a comeback in the late 1980s and 1990s, putting out gold record albums again and expanding his audience to the MTV Generation while keeping his musical style intact. He remains a popular and critically praised recording artist and concert performer in the 2000s. Bennett has won fifteen Grammy Awards, two Emmy Awards, been named an NEA Jazz Master and a Kennedy Center Honoree. He has sold over 50 million records worldwide. Bennett is also a serious and accomplished painter, creating works under the name Benedetto that are on permanent public display in several institutions. He is also the founder of Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Astoria, Queens.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Bennett

2012年1月2日 星期一

鄧散木

鄧散木(1898--1963),上海人,晚年居北京。初名菊初、士杰,更名鐵,號鈍鐵、老鐵、無恙、閭禲B糞翁、散木、一足、楚狂人、山人居士、無外居 士、郁青道人、天禍且渠子、鄧孟。齋堂為三長兩短齋、廁簡樓、豹皮室、三夢闇、懷馨室。能詩詞。善書法,師蕭蛻庵,博臨眾碑帖,篆隸正行草無所不能,中年 所書灑脫放縱,晚年復歸含蓄蘊藉;小楷也見功力,娟秀典雅。偶作畫。篆刻師趙古泥,行刀亦衝亦切,布局參用封泥特點,疏密有致,極善應變,印文融籀、篆、 隸於一體。自言平生事藝,篆刻第一。存世有《篆刻學》、《書法學習必讀》、《三長二短齋印存》、《廁簡樓編年印稿》、《癸卯以後鍥跡》、《鋼筆字寫法》、 《鄧散木詩詞選》。more 鄧散木 - Library

  1. 邓散木_百度百科

    2011年11月26日 – 邓散木(1898-1963)中国现代书法、篆刻家。原名铁,学名士杰,字纯铁,别号且渠子,更号一夔,一足,斋名厕简楼,豹皮室。生于上海,在艺坛上有“ ...
  2. 邓散木_互动百科

    www.hudong.com/wiki/邓散木 - 頁庫存檔 - 轉為繁體網頁
    2011年11月2日 – 邓散木-[邓散木](1898-1963)中国现代书法、篆刻家。原名铁,学名士杰,字纯铁,别号且渠子,更号一夔,一足,斋名厕简楼,豹皮室。生于上海,在 ...

鄧散木- 台灣大百科全書Encyclopedia of Taiwan

taiwanpedia.culture.tw › 〔美術〕〔尚未分類〕 - 頁庫存檔
鄧散木不僅精研篆﹑隸﹑楷﹑草各種書體﹐而且在每一書體中又兼善各派﹐把各派諸家的不同面貌加以吸收而形成自己獨特的風格。他兼長小楷與大字,大字氣勢磅礡, ...

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