Chinese men vs. endangered species

Tigers, bears, reindeers, leopards, wolves, cobras and boas, and now the African rhinos (Economist subscription required) are on the list too.

What do those animals have in common? They are probably all endangered to some degree, and most of them are protected by international laws against poaching. Additionally, all of them are also being hunted because a huge underground Chinese market demands paws, antlers, bones, organs and other parts from those animals. The afore-linked Economist article talks about the African rhinos being sold in China despite regulations sought to protect them.

Of course the claimed medicinal benefits all have something to do with the male sexuality. The Chinese believe the animals parts either have aphrodisiac effects or can cure/alleviate male impotence.

This is obviously no old news to most of us but I hear it so much now that I feel ashamed that I'm Chinese. China, a rapid advancing society with a long civilization is still fascinated with stupid myths and beliefs. How is this possible? Did Confucius have impotence problems too??

I recall at a very young age, images of tiger parts soaked in rice alcohol being sold at morning's farmer's market. My mom used to tell me how those "tiger bone medicine wines" were fake. The sellers apparently used cow bones, glued on dyed cowhide to make them look like tiger bones.

Are Chinese men more genetically prone to sexual dysfunction and impotence? This really puzzles me. I haven't been able to find any scientific studies on this. It does seem to me that whatever the problem those guys have, they sure make a big deal out of it. To the degree that they want to stuff themselves with exotic animals.

People who are always talking about why Asian girls date white guys in the US. If Chinese men have problems getting it up, why shouldn't Chinese women marry non-Asian men? I don't pity those guys at all if innocent animals are being slaughtered in vain.

Another amazing entrepreneur under 30

While poking around on Wikipedia today, I started reading the page on facebook. I vaguely remember being invited to join the site in 2004 while in graduate school at U of A.

It's funny that something seemingly so amateur and collegiate to me then has spung into a mainstream media outlet with million dollar deals involved in keeping it running. I felt the same way about LinkedIn when my classmate Srini first invited me to join, circa 2004 as well. There were only 2 people that I knew on that site! These days, I'm averaging a new contact almost every day.

What really amazed me was the profile of a major player currently at thefacebook, Matt Cohler. (see LinkedIn) I found his page on Wikipedia and started reading it immediately. It detailed Matt's adventures betweens getting Yale degrees, launching marketing plans at a pioneer IT company in Beijing, playing Jazz professionally as well as being a consultant at McKinsey, funding LinkedIn and now strategizing for Facebook. And all that accomplishment before the age of 30, I reckon? Holy crap!

I guess it did make me feel severely underachieved. This happened before trust me. Most recently it was stumbling upon Steve Jurvetson's Flickr account after being captivated by an interesting photo. I later realized he was a million dollar venture capitalist! In his 40's perhaps, he's lived almost a lifetime of an industry.

I gotta leave work now, but had to write down those thoughts before driving. Time to figure out my lifeplan after 30. Too little too late and/or not even possible with today's economy and success stories?