I am a father, but my daughter is safely in the lower part of single digit age, so I haven’t yet had to protect her from the social consequences of puberty, which the internet sometimes tries to convince me would involve shotguns and/or curfews. As a parent, I wholeheartedly understand the genetic imperative to protect my offspring, but I can’t help feeling that the stereotypical daughter defence fantasy is somewhat misguided. To that end, I will offer up my own fantasies about a future where I am defending my adolescent daughter.

Since last year when the Standing Committee of the Chinese National Congress released its white paper on democracy in Hong Kong, there has been some debate over what universal suffrage means in a Chinese context. From a Western perspective, the proposal with a nominating committee that proposes three candidates that the public then gets to choose from, is quite far from democratic. Especially when the composition of the nominating committee is taken into account it becomes quite clear that Beijing is not about to actually let the people of Hong Kong select their governor freely, but rather have them choose between puerh and oolong – either way you will enjoy Chinese tea.

This site contains pieces that have a single thing in common: Sid has put his signature on them. I predict that it will contain musings of a white man living far from home (sounds super exciting, I know). Let's see where it goes from here.