Boston Legal
大牌律师，心高气傲，诠释巧舌如簧；
精彩庭辩，妙趣横生，笑侃世态炎凉。
横批： 练习英文辩论的好材料。

Skins
英剧，一杯颓废、叛逆、残酷，混杂人性光芒的威士忌。
P.S. “18＋”，当初就是冲着这个才看的。

This story, my story, happened in a thriving economy with its booming stockmarket once seeing no ceiling. When almost everyone around you were gaining fat profits simply by buying and selling shares and went into raptures at mere mention of it, even the most prudent and adamant saver would feel it is hard not to be attempted.

Equipped with basic knowledges of share investing, I bought some shares of a listed company at the price of 13.5. After a rocky start, the share price rocketed its way up to 29.3 at its peak within months, as the market turned to an orgy. Although my assets already more than doubled, my greed inflated even more: I refused to sell them unless the price reaches 30.

It is inevitable that bad thing happens. Since then, the shareprice began its downturn all the way to 11, showing no sign of turning back by now.

    I am not there. I do not sleep.

    I am a thousand winds that blow.

    I am the diamond glints on snow.

    I am the sunlight on ripened grain.

    I am the gentle autumn rain.

    When you awaken in the morning's hush

    I am the swift uplifting rush

    Of quiet birds in circled flight.

    I am the soft stars that shine at night.

    Do not stand at my grave and cry；

    I am not there. I did not die.

POWER struggles in China these days tend not to be as vicious as they were under the rule of Mao Zedong, but the dismissal on September 24th of Shanghai's Communist Party chief, Chen Liangyu, was still redolent of that former time. Photographs of Mr Chen were removed from official websites. So too were his speeches and interviews. Mr Chen's musings on building Shanghai into a “socialist modern international economic centre” mercifully disappeared with them.

      如今中国的权力斗争没有象在毛泽东统治下的那般残酷无情，但9月24日上海市委书记陈良宇被撤职的处理让人又想起了过去时光。陈的照片，讲话和访谈录被从官方网站上撤除。关于他将上海建设成“社会主义现代化的国际经济中心”的理想也随之灰飞烟灭了。

Rumours had long been swirling that Mr Chen was in trouble. The arrest in August of Qin Yu, a district chief in Shanghai and a former senior aide to Mr Chen, suggested that the noose was tightening. Mr Qin (who is also a translator of Jean-Paul Sartre) was accused of involvement in the misappropriation of $400m of the city's social-security funds. Now investigators say Mr Chen himself played an unspecified part in the scandal. He is also accused of “seeking benefits for a number of unlawful enterprise owners”, protecting lawbreaking aides and seeking illegitimate gains for his relatives. The government's news agency, Xinhua, said this had created a “vicious political impact”. Several Shanghai officials as well as business leaders are being investigated. 关于陈有麻烦的传闻流传了很长一段时间。

      8月份秦裕的被逮捕表明风声越来越紧，秦是上海市某区区长，曾担任陈的高级助手。秦（他也是萨特著作的译者）被指控违规使用高达4亿美元的社保基金。如今调查人员说，陈本人在这个丑闻中扮演了特殊的角色，还被指控“为一些非法企业主牟利”，袒护违法的下属及为亲属获得非法利益。根据中国新闻机构，新华社的说法：造成了“很恶劣的政治影响”。与此同时，几位上海的官员和商业巨子也受到讯问。

Mr Chen is the most senior party leader to be accused formally of wrongdoing since Beijing's party chief, Chen Xitong (no relation), was forced from office in 1995 and later jailed on corruption charges. In both cases, struggles among top leaders appear to have played an important role. Shanghai's Mr Chen, who studied at Birmingham University in England for a few months in 1992, was appointed as party leader and a member of the Politburo ten years later, at the same time as Hu Jintao became the party's general secretary. Mr Chen clearly owed his rise to the patronage of Mr Hu's predecessor, Jiang Zemin. This made him vulnerable.

陈是自从陈希同（和陈良宇的案件没有关系）以来因为腐败而被免职的最高官员。陈希同是前北京市委书记，1995年被免职随后以腐败的罪名入狱。对这两个案件而言，高层的权力之争显然是一个重要的因素。上海的陈于1992年在英国的伯明翰大学学习过几个月，10年后成为一名党的地方领导和政治局委员，而胡锦涛同期也成为党的总书记。陈的提升显然归功于胡的前任江泽民的赏识，这也因此埋下伏笔。

But whereas Chen Xitong was a political giant who was seen at the time by Mr Jiang as a direct challenge to his power, there is little sign that Mr Hu's leadership has been seriously threatened by Chen Liangyu. It appears more likely that Mr Hu has moved against Mr Chen in order to demonstrate his resolve in the face of a more general threat: that of provincial and lower level leaders blithely ignoring the central government's efforts to tame the economy. With the help of compliant local banks, many are investing in lavish new projects and encouraging speculation in real estate. The central government fears this is creating bubbles in the property market that could threaten social and financial stability.

当时的陈希同作为政坛强人，被江看作是对其权力的一个直接挑战。而没有迹象显示陈良宇对胡的领导权有任何严重威胁。更可靠的说法是，胡开除陈是为了在面对更广泛的威胁中展示权威：这些威胁包括省及其以下的官员们漠视中央对经济的调控意图。在地方银行的配合下，许多豪华项目上马，纵容房地产的投机行为。中央政府担心由此导致房地产市场上泡沫的产生，威胁到社会及金融的稳定。

The timing of Mr Chen's fall is important too. The party has just announced that its Central Committee will hold its annual session from October 8th to 11th. A key theme will be how to establish a “harmonious society”. This principally means how to curb an upsurge of protests around the country, fuelled by corruption. During the meeting, Mr Chen is likely to be expelled from the Politburo (his duties have already been “suspended”). By targeting Mr Chen, Mr Hu is, as the Chinese put it, “killing the chicken to scare the monkeys”. In the buildup to a five-yearly party congress due to take place in late 2007, many local officials will end their terms. Mr Hu wants them replaced with loyalists. In Shanghai, the city's mayor, Han Zheng, has taken over as acting party chief, but it is likely that Mr Hu will send one of his protégés to fill the post.

 陈下台的时间也耐人寻味。共产党刚刚宣布一年一次的党的中央委员会将在10月8日到11日举行。会议的主题是建立“和谐社会”。主要是指如何控制由于腐败而导致的，日趋增多的抗议。预计陈在会上有可能被免职（现在他的职务已被“暂时终止”）。胡拿陈开刀，按照中国的说法是，“杀鸡儆猴”，为的是2007年晚些时候召开的五年一次的党代表大会安插自己的亲信，届时许多地方官员将任职期满。在上海，作为市长的韩正已接任为代理市委书记，但胡很有可能随后将安排他的亲信接替这个位子。

At the central level, there is little sign of any concerted challenge to Mr Hu. Observers of Chinese politics often refer to a “Shanghai gang” of politicians who came to power thanks to their association with Mr Jiang when he was the city's party chief in the 1980s. But Mr Jiang's influence has ebbed considerably since he gave up his last position, as military chief, in 2004. He has kept quiet on state affairs. China's vice-president, Zeng Qinghong, at one time considered a Jiang loyalist, has shown no obvious sign of resistance to Mr Hu. Another Jiang ally in the Politburo's nine-member standing committee, Huang Ju (a former Shanghai party chief), has been ill with cancer for the past several months.

在中央一级的层面上，几乎没有什么势力会威胁到胡的地位。中国政治问题的观察家，通常将80年代江在上海任市委书记时与他有关联而掌权的人称为“上海帮”。但随着他交出最后一个职位“军委主席”，他的影响力明显削弱了，渐渐淡出政坛。而曾经被认为是：“江派”人物的国家副主席，曾庆红，也无意对抗胡。作为政治局9名常委中的一员，另一位“江派“人马黄菊（曾任上海市委书记）在过去几个月中身患癌症。

Mr Hu's problem with local governments is largely one of the party's own making. The party decrees that maintaining social stability is of paramount importance. To local officials this means keeping growth rates high, regardless of any damage to the environment or buildup of bad loans in the banking system. When they hear the central leadership call for more rational growth, they reckon that ignoring the centre is less politically risky than the potential consequences of an economic slowdown, which could exacerbate unemployment and thus social tensions.

胡与地方官员的问题相当程度上是共产党自己造成的。党把“社会稳定”作为首要任务时，地方政府官员解读为，以牺牲环境和银行系统的稳定来保持经济的高速增长；而当中央号召“理性增长”时，地方官员却认为由此会导致经济速度增长速度放缓而造成失业率恶化，影响到社会稳定，（相比于环境破坏等影响而言问题更严重）。从政治上来说，他们漠视此项指令，会更保险些。

For all Mr Hu's resolve in dealing with Mr Chen, he and his prime minister, Wen Jiabao, sometimes appear to lack determination when it comes to steering the economy. Unlike his predecessor, Zhu Rongji, who took considerable political risks to steer China into the World Trade Organisation in 2001, Mr Wen has made more concessions to a groundswell of economic nationalism. It is unclear whether he will heed an outcry from abroad over new regulations issued this month by Xinhua aimed at tightening its control over the distribution of news services in China by foreign agencies. This has been viewed as an effort by Xinhua to displace foreign companies such as Reuters and Bloomberg, which dominate the provision of financial news and information to Chinese banks and brokerages.

相对于胡处理陈的铁腕而言，胡和温家宝总理在驾驭经济问题时，有时显得不那么坚定。不象他的前任，朱镕基，在2001年冒着巨大的政治风险领导中国加入世界贸易组织。温在面对汹涌的经济“民族主义”时，有着更多的妥协。不知他是否听到国际上对新法规的抱怨。这项规定在本月由新华社发布，目的是加强对海外驻华新闻机构关于发布新闻的管理。此项规定被看作是新华社排挤如路透社和彭博这样的国际新闻机构，垄断有关中国银行证券的财经新闻及信息的供应。

The shake-up in Shanghai might at least prompt new thinking about the chaotic management of China's social-security funds. These (apart from a centrally managed reserve fund) are currently in the hands of local officials who have a tendency to invest them rashly or to pocket them. The illicit flow of this money into real-estate ventures gives local governments all the more incentive to pump up property prices. Shanghai Daily, a state-run English-language newspaper, quoted an official as saying that from next year the funds might be supervised centrally and entrusted to “independent fund managers”. That is long overdue.

上海政坛的“重组”事件至少给人们对中国社保基金的混乱管理提供新的思维。这些基金是由地方官员掌管的（不同于外汇储备归中央统一管理），他们或是盲目投资，或是衷饱私囊。资金违规进入房地产市场，导致房产价格升高，官员从中牟利。一家官方的英文报纸，Shanghai Daily, 引用一名官员的话说，从明年起基金将被统一监管。交由“独立的基金经理”托管。不过来的有点太晚了。