Bước chân vào một quán cà phê hiện đại, bạn sẽ bắt gặp rất nhiều loại thức uống cà phê với các tên gọi đa dạng như espresso, cappuccino, latte… Vậy các thức uống cà phê này được pha chế như thế nào và khác biệt thế nào so với cà phê truyền thống mà […]
Bước chân vào một quán cà phê hiện đại, bạn sẽ bắt gặp rất nhiều loại thức uống cà phê với các tên gọi đa dạng như espresso, cappuccino, latte… Vậy các thức uống cà phê này được pha chế như thế nào và khác biệt thế nào so với cà phê truyền thống mà bạn vẫn thường thưởng thức tại nhà mỗi sáng?
Hãy cùng điểm qua một số đặc trưng của các loại thức uống này.
Cafe truyền thống
“cho anh ly nâu/đen đá em ơi!”
Cafe là thức uống phổ biến được yêu thích và lựa chọn nhiều nhất hiện nay, trong đó cafe đen, cafe sữa là 2 loại được ưa chuộng và được nhiều người sử dụng thường xuyên nhất. Chủ yếu 2 loại cafe này được pha chế từ các loại hạt cafe rang xay nguyên chất như cà phê Robusta, Arabica hay cao cấp hơn là cafe chồn,…
Về cách pha chế thì tùy vào nhu cầu, sở thích mà thực khách có thể lựa chọn 1 ly cafe pha phin trực tiếp hoặc pha sẵn rồi uống nóng hoặc cho thêm đá lạnh. Những ai yêu thích cafe nguyên chất thường chọn 1 ly cafe đen không đường để thưởng thức được trọn vẹn hương vị nguyên bản của hạt cà phê, hoặc có thể pha thêm 1 – 2 thìa đường. Còn những ai thích ngọt ngào, thơm béo thì sẽ yêu cầu 1 ly cafe sữa.
Cà phê Espresso là gì?
Là loại cà phê được pha bằng máy, cách pha chế này giữ được nguyên chất lượng và hương vị của hạt cà phê chất nhất. Các loại café pha máy khác hầu như là biến thể từ dòng café espresso này.
Cà phê espresso được pha chế bằng cách dùng nước nóng nén dưới áp suất cao khoảng 9 đến 10 bar qua bột cà phê được xay mịn. Pha chế bằng phương pháp này hương vị cà phê sẽ rất đậm và khi thành phẩm thì trên mặt có một lớp bọt màu nâu gọi là crema, đây được coi là thành phần đóng vai trò quan trọng trong việc tạo hương thơm cho cà phê.
Cà phê espresso thường được uống bằng tách dày được hâm nóng trước, dung tích tách (ly) vào khoảng 40ml và tùy theo khẩu vị người thưởng thức mà có thể cho thêm chút đường hoặc không cần cho đường. Cà phê espresso thường được phục vụ kèm theo một ly nước lọc.
Macchiato là gì?
Café macchiato hay còn được gọi là espresso macchiato, được pha chế từ cafe espresso với 1 chút sữa, thường sau khi được đánh bọt.
Thông thường tỷ lệ espresso thường lớn so với sữa, nhằm tạo sự hài hòa về hương vị khi cho thêm đường vào. Cách pha chế truyền thống là 1 đến 2 shot espresso pha với 1 lớp bọt sữa bên trên.
Có rất nhiều biến thể từ Macchiato. Trong đó ta phải kể đến món caramel macchiato đã tạo nên sự thành công của Starbucks. Với sự kết hợp của macchiato với sốt caramel, đây luôn là loại đồ uống ưa thích của khách hàng tới Starbucks.
Latte là gì?
Bắt nguồn từ Ý, latte là café với nhiều sữa. Chính vì lớp sữa nhiều mà người pha chế latte có thể sử dụng chính động tác đổ sữa để tạo nên những hình ảnh đẹp mắt trên bề mặt tách café.
Nếu bạn không thích café quá đặc hoặc hương vị café quá đậm thì latte chính là lựa chọn hoàn hảo. Cũng giống như capuchino, latte rất được các bạn trẻ ưa chuộng.
Trong quá trình pha chế thì kỹ thuật đổ latte art (tạo hình latte) cũng là 1 kỹ thuật hết sức quan trọng của mà các barista cần rèn luyện để cho ra một ly latte hoàn hảo.
Capuchino là gì?
Là 1 loại cà phê xuất phát từ Ý. Capuchino là một thức uống sang trọng và cầu kỳ với các thành phần chính tạo nên một thức uống hoàn hảo bao gồm cà phê espresso, sữa nóng và sữa sủi bọt. Khi thưởng thức, thường người ta sẽ rắc lên trên cốc cà phê Capuchino một ít bột ca cao hay bột quế để cafe capuchino sẽ ngon và đậm đà hơn.
Tách dùng để thưởng thức cà phê Capuchino phải được làm bằng đá hoặc sứ, có thành dày để giữ nóng lâu cho cà phê bên trong. Capuchino có vị cà phê trầm và nhẹ, cùng hương thơm của kem hòa lẫn vị béo của sữa.
Ice blended – Hay còn có tên gọi là cà phê đá xay
Dùng để chỉ các loại đồ uống đá xay nói chung. Ice blended cũng có nguồn gốc từ các quốc gia phương Tây mà cụ thể là Ý, cái nôi của những loại thức uống đạt đến trình độ “mỹ vị” nổi tiếng.
Về cách trình bày, ice blended được cho vào những ly tiện dụng dưới dạng take away rất được ưa chuộng. Nó có vị béo, vị ngọt, vị nồng lẫn chút the the, có hương của vani, chocolate, trái cây, soda…Có các dòng ice blended phổ biến là: Coffee, Mocha, Vanilla, Caramel, Cookies, Fruit, Frappuccino…
Thông thường, sẽ có một lớp whipping cream trên mặt ly ice blended được cho vào khéo léo, điểm thêm ít “hoa văn” là chocolate, syrup, trái cây… tùy vào loại thức uống chính.
Nếu được chuẩn bị để mang đi, ice blended sẽ được cho vào một loại cốc nhựa đặc biệt có nắp đậy hình “mái vòm”. Chiếc ly này cũng là một “biểu tượng” yêu thích của giới trẻ.
Matcha – Matcha được xem là Espresso trong các loại trà
Dùng để chỉ loại bột trà xanh. Điểm đặc biệt của bột matcha là hương vị của trà dễ chịu, dịu đồng thời rất mạnh và ngát hương. đặc biệt, chất chống oxy hóa trong bột matcha là những tinh chất và enzim chịu trách nhiệm chiến đấu chống lại những ảnh hưởng tiêu cực của tia cực tím, giúp trẻ hóa làn da và ngăn ngừa một số căn bệnh nguy hiểm.
Bột matcha có thể được dùng để chế biến hàng trăm loại đồ uống và đồ ăn. Trong đó phải kể tới món matcha đá xay, kem matcha, bánh matcha…
Matcha Nhật Bản là loại matcha cao cấp nhất và cũng có giá cao nhất, cao hơn nhiều so với Matcha Đài Loan và các loại Matcha khác. Đặc biệt, không giống như nhiều loại trà khác cần uống kèm đường, sữa hoặc chanh để có vị dễ uống hơn, matcha không phải pha chế thêm bất cứ thứ gì. Nó có được vị thơm ngon đặc biệt nhờ các axit amin L-Theanine.
1. Công việc không phải là tất cả của bạn Dù là thời điểm nào cũng hãy nhớ rằng, công việc chỉ là một phần của cuộc sống, chứ không phải là tất cả. Bạn cần hiểu rằng dù bạn đang làm những công việc đao to búa lớn, ảnh hưởng đến cả thế giới […]
Dù là thời điểm nào cũng hãy nhớ rằng, công việc chỉ là một phần của cuộc sống, chứ không phải là tất cả.
Bạn cần hiểu rằng dù bạn đang làm những công việc đao to búa lớn, ảnh hưởng đến cả thế giới hay chỉ là những công việc vụn vặt, không ý nghĩa thì những công việc ấy cũng chỉ nhằm giúp cuộc sống của bạn tốt hơn mà thôi.
2. Tiền bạc không mua được hạnh phúc mà bạn mong muốn
Tiền bạc suy cho cùng chỉ là một công cụ. Nó có thể mua được những nhu yếu phẩm cần thiết cho cuộc sống sinh hoạt, có thể mua được nhà cao cửa rộng, xe sang, giày hiệu… Có đôi khi nó còn mang lại cho bạn cảm giác an toàn nữa.
Thế nhưng tiền bạc không thể giúp bạn hàn gắn một mối quan hệ rạn nứt, cũng không thể giúp bạn thoát khỏi sự cô đơn. Cảm giác “hạnh phúc” do tiền bạc mang đến chỉ là thoáng quá chứ chưa bao giờ giúp con người ta hạnh phúc thực sự.
3. Yêu là một loại cảm xúc, và cũng là một lựa chọn
Tình yêu từ cái nhìn đầu tiên, tình yêu khiến trái tim người ta loạn nhịp hay những tình yêu bùng cháy mãnh liệt trong chốc lát thường không bền. Bởi lẽ tình yêu không chỉ là một loại cảm xúc mà còn là lựa chọn mà bạn gặp phải mỗi ngày.
Tình yêu cần sự đầu tư, cần sự tin tưởng, cần sự bao dung, cần sự thấu hiểu. Muốn làm được những điều đó, nghĩ thì dễ, thực hiện mới khó. Chỉ có năm tháng dài rộng vẫn chung thủy một lòng mới là minh chứng rõ nhất.
4. Người nghiêm khắc với bạn chính là người tốt
Cuộc sống vốn là vậy, thuốc đắng thì dã tật, lời nói thật thì thường khó nghe.
Có một vài người nhìn thì lạnh lùng, khó tiếp cận hoặc không cũng cực kì nghiêm túc, thích vạch lá tìm sâu. Chưa đến cuối cùng, có thể bạn sẽ không hiểu được ý tốt của họ, nhưng về bản chất, họ vẫn là người tốt.
5. Thiếu kiến thức không có gì đáng phải xấu hổ hết
Không có ai là biết tất cả, cũng không ai có thể giải đáp mọi vấn đề. Dù bạn nói ra câu “Tôi không biết” thì cũng không có gì đáng để mất mặt cả. Giả vờ hoàn hảo không thể khiến bạn thực sự trở nên hoàn hảo mà chỉ khiến bạn mệt nhoài vì phải duy trì hình tượng giả tạo ngụy trang ấy.
Là con người ai cũng sẽ mắc sai lầm, thậm chí đôi khi còn làm cả vấn đề bung bét hơn. Phải không ngừng học tập, không ngừng tiến bộ, đó mới là cuộc sống. Không ai thích một con người quá hoàn mỹ, hãy nhớ rằng một chút khiếm khuyết không làm ảnh hưởng đến toàn bộ, ngược lại, khiếm khuyết đó có đôi khi còn khiến bạn trở nên thú vị hơn, dễ tiếp cận hơn.
6. Đừng so sánh mình với người khác
Khi bạn biết tận hưởng cuộc sống của chính mình, bạn sẽ sống một cách thoải mái hơn, dễ chịu hơn, đường đi đến hạnh phúc cũng dễ tìm kiếm hơn.
Sinh mạng này là của bạn, cuộc sống này cũng là của bạn, đừng lãng phí thời gian đi so sánh bản thân mình với người khác. Ai cũng có điểm đáng để người khác phải ngưỡng mộ, ai cũng có chút thiếu sót gì đó cho riêng mình, nào có ai mọi thứ đều thuận lợi, như ý đâu.
7. Chú ý đến sức khỏe ngay từ bây giờ
Tuổi tâm hồn thường già đi muộn hơn tuổi vật lý từ 10 đến 15 năm. Sức khỏe của bạn sẽ yếu đi nhanh hơn bạn nghĩ rất nhiều, và điều đáng sợ là phần lớn thời gian, bạn sẽ không nhận ra điều này.
Thế nên nếu bạn không muốn điều bất trắc xảy ra, ngay từ lúc này đây, hãy nghỉ ngơi đúng giờ, ăn uống lành mạnh và vận động nhiều hơn.
8. Bảo vệ niềm hạnh phúc của bản thân
Hạnh phúc vốn là một loại khả năng. Bạn có thể hạnh phúc hay không, điều này phụ thuộc vào thái độ, tâm thế của bạn. Ai cũng có phiền não của riêng mình, quan trọng là bạn phải phát hiện ra vấn đề nằm ở đâu và trút bỏ chúng kịp thời.
Con người ta sống ở đời, sống lâu chẳng bằng sống vui, lương cao chẳng bằng vui khỏe, hạnh phúc mới là động lực giúp con người sẵn sàng nỗ lực, sẵn sàng tiến lên.
9. Tha thứ cho những người chưa từng đối xử tốt với bạn
Tha thứ cho người khác là một món quà bạn tự dành cho mình. Tha thứ giúp bạn tập trung hơn cho tương lai thay vì nhập nhằng mãi với quá khứ. Khi bạn tha thứ cho những gì đã qua thì bạn mới có khả năng khám phá ra những sức mạnh tiềm tàng khác.
Không có sự tha thứ, vết thương lòng của bạn sẽ không bao giờ lành để bạn có thể tiếp tục bước về phía tương lai. Bất kì điều gì xảy ra trong quá khứ đều chỉ là một chương của cuộc đời mà thôi. Đừng đóng sách lại, hãy lật sang trang mới.
10. Luôn ngẩng cao đầu và giữ nụ cười trên môi
Mỗi ngày bạn còn sống đều là một chương của cuộc đời. Trừ khi sinh mệnh bạn kết thúc, nếu không cơ hội sẽ luôn tồn tại.
Đừng khóc cho quá khứ, hãy cầu nguyện rằng bản thân có thể vượt qua vết thương ngày hôm qua.
Đừng miễn cưỡng cười vui để che đi sự đau khổ, hãy dùng nụ cười đó dễ chữa lành những tổn thương.
Đừng suy nghĩ mãi về những bi thương sầu khổ trong nhân thế, hãy hướng đến những điều tốt đẹp vẫn tồn tại xung quanh chúng ta.
(1991 chữ, 8 phút đọc) Hãy tưởng tượng bạn bị tước hết vũ khí và quy hàng, bị rút hết sự toan tính và cúi đầu tuân lệnh, bạn nằm rạp xuống mặt đất và không còn một chút ý đồ riêng, bạn khóa chặt miệng và chỉ hoàn toàn lắng nghe.
Trước kia mình vẫn hay nhắc đến từ “quy phục” (surrender) trong các bài viết về sự thức tỉnh, nhưng hôm nay mình mới có đủ điều kiện để viết về nó một cách chi tiết hơn. Có lẽ, theo góc nhìn của mình, mọi kỷ luật trên đời của con người tốt hơn hết nên dành để thực hiện sự quy phục. Vì điều gây nên những khốn khổ và bất hạnh cho cuộc đời chúng ta không phải là hoàn cảnh, mà chính là sự chống cự lại hoàn cảnh ấy, hay cố gắng kiểm soát nó theo ý mình.
Mình đã nhìn thấy rất nhiều lần sự chống cự ấy ở những người xung quanh, từ cường độ nhỏ đến lớn, từ cố tình đến vô ý đủ cả. Gần như 100% số người không hạnh phúc mình từng tiếp xúc đều có vấn đề về việc quy phục. Ai cũng thể hiện một thái độ chống đối, cứng nhắc và cố gồng lên ở bên trong khi đối diện với vấn đề của bản thân.
Có một người bạn gái kia suy nghĩ rất nhiều, mình chỉ cho bạn tập ngồi thiền mỗi ngày để lắng dịu tâm tưởng. Sau mấy tháng bạn quay lại hỏi mình rằng tại sao tớ tập thiền mà vẫn mệt mỏi, ăn uống không ngon miệng và suy nghĩ không ngừng nghỉ. Khi hỏi kỹ ra thì bạn này thực hành không đều, buổi đực buổi cái. Hỏi kỹ ra nữa thì biết bạn vẫn còn nghi ngờ bên trong rằng thiền không có tác dụng, thiền chẳng giải quyết được vấn đề gì. Đây là một người không biết quy phục.
Có một anh chàng kia hỏi xin ý kiến mình về những việc anh ấy làm. Khi mình nói xong thì anh ấy diễn lại ý mình theo cách ảnh hiểu, và cách đó hoàn toàn không phải ý mình muốn nói. Dù mình nói đi nói lại mấy lần anh chàng vẫn không chịu hiểu ra vấn đề. Đây là một người không biết quy phục.
Có một chị gái kia hay xao nhãng trong công việc nhưng lại muốn có thành tựu như một người tập trung cao độ. Mình bảo chị gái hãy tập các thói quen mỗi ngày để tăng sự ổn định thì chị không tập. Mình bảo vậy thôi chị hãy tập hài lòng với sự xao nhãng của chính mình thì chị ấy lại cũng không chịu. Đây là một người không biết quy phục.
Có một em kia gặp khủng hoảng trong cuộc sống, lồng lộn muốn làm mọi thứ theo ý mình cho đỡ khổ, tìm đến mình để xin lời khuyên. Khi mình bảo là bỏ cái ý của em đi thì đỡ khổ, thì em này không thèm nói chuyện với mình nữa. Đây là một người không biết quy phục.
Có một cô kia gặp chứng rối loạn lo âu và hỏi mình rằng làm sao để tiêu diệt nó đi. Mình bảo rằng cô chỉ cần không muốn tiêu diệt nó là được. Nhưng cô này lại hỏi thêm đủ thứ là cô không muốn nữa mà nó vẫn lộng hành thì sao, cô không thể không quan tâm đến nó được. Đây là một người không biết quy phục.
Kể ra thì rất rất nhiều trường hợp khổ sở lắm rồi nhưng khi gặp thuốc thì không chịu uống, gặp thầy thì không chịu tin. Bên trong những người này luôn có một sự chống cự, nghi ngờ, lý sự, thích vừa làm theo ý mình vừa được sung sướng. Nhưng không ai biết là ý của họ phải được thuận cùng ý Trời thì khi ấy mọi sự mới hanh thông hoàn hảo. Mà ý Trời lại nằm trong những hoàn cảnh mà họ đang chống đối kịch liệt.
Mình kể câu chuyện của những người bạn trên thì cũng kể luôn câu chuyện của chính mình khi chống cự nó khổ sở thế nào. Những gì mình viết ra ở đây không phải là từ việc đọc sách vở này kia rồi nói suông, mà đã được thực chứng, không phải một lần mà nhiều lần. Cách đây 5 năm, mình đã từng rơi vào một giai đoạn trầm cảm và ngắt hết mọi kết nối với cuộc sống. Đây là trạng thái mình không bao giờ kỳ vọng vì mình đã luôn sống như một người dồi dào sinh lực, hưng phấn và nhiệt huyết cao độ. Khi lâm vào nghịch cảnh, mình đã rất sợ hãi hoảng loạn, ra sức quẫy đạp, tìm đủ mọi cách để lấy lại cuộc đời đầy năng lượng trước kia. Nhưng đó chỉ là một sự trốn tránh thực tại, chạy theo những gợi nhớ từ ký ức.
Có một điều mình để ý thấy đó là càng chống cự và cố gắng kiểm soát tình huống bao nhiêu, mình càng tiêu cực và kiệt quệ bấy nhiêu. Vào một khoảnh khắc buông xuôi vì quá mệt mỏi, mình chợt hiểu ra rằng không có chuyện đời trao cho một quả cam, nhưng mình lại nằng nặc muốn nó là một con gà. Quả cam là quả cam, và đời đưa thì mình phải nhận lấy (take it). Nếu chống cự, đời giã mình ra cám. Nếu đón nhận, đời cho mình thêm một bản kế hoạch nuôi trồng trang trại cam chất lượng cao với toàn bộ vốn chỉ là một quả cam ấy.
Lúc đó, có một tia sáng mát mẻ lan tràn trong tâm hồn và khiến mình thôi không gồng nữa. Bỗng nhiên, mình nhớ lại một kỷ niệm trong một khóa thiền cách đó vài năm. Cuối buổi thiền, người hướng dẫn bảo rằng có một bí mật ở dưới nệm của mọi người. Mọi người hào hứng lật tấm bồ đoàn lên và nhận được các lá bài mang các thông điệp khác nhau. Lá bài của mình có từ “Surrender”. Vậy là cuối cùng mình đã hiểu ra từ đó có nghĩa là gì, không phải bằng việc tra cứu từ điển, mà bằng trải nghiệm trực tiếp thông qua một cơn trầm cảm. Lúc đó, mình tìm lại được sự sống ngay ở giữa những sụp đổ, nhẹ nhàng đi qua nó sau hơn 6 tháng vật lộn chống cự.
Và sau này, có hẳn một người bạn xuất hiện và nhắc mình liên tục về việc quy phục. Với mỗi lần trải qua nhiều những loại nghịch cảnh khác, mình đều coi đó là cơ hội luyện tập để nhìn thấy sự gồng ép bên trong. Nhờ đó, mình mới tiếp tục tháo gỡ nó đi được. Có những chuyện phải lặp đi lặp lại nhiều lần mình mới hoàn toàn quy phục. Dù không thành tựu ngay, nhưng mình biết sau mỗi lần, nội lực bên trong có tăng trưởng và cơ hội hạ mình càng ngày càng gần với tầm tay. Chuyện này hòa loãng được thói nóng giận cực độ bên trong mình, làm giảm những suy diễn ảo tưởng, khiến mình càng ngày càng thảnh thơi thư giãn và sống gắn bó với hiện tại hơn.
Bây giờ, thay vì bất mãn với những gì không như ý, mình chỉ tự nói trong lòng một câu “biết làm sao giờ” hoặc “tôi xin thua” và sau đó lại thấy vui vẻ trở lại như bình thường. Đôi khi, tự làm cho mình bất lực lại là một điều cần thiết để cân bằng sự quẫy đạp và căng thẳng bên trong.
“Bạn không cần phải nhúng tay vào nó, huyền cơ sẽ tự vận hành. Hãy để nó được thực thi công việc, đừng ngăn cản nó bằng việc nghĩ rằng bạn giỏi hơn hay chuyện gì nên xảy ra ở đây. Không, đừng làm thế. Rất nhiều người trong số các bạn đi tới một mức nhận thức mà phải tự thú nhận với chính mình rằng “Tôi chẳng biết cái quái gì cả.” Hãy nhớ rằng tâm trí vật lý (physical mind) chỉ được thiết kế để trải nghiệm những gì đang diễn ra, nó không đảm nhiệm bất kỳ chức năng gì khác. Còn tâm trí bậc cao (higher mind) thì biết những gì cần diễn ra. Và nó nói với bạn, để bạn biết điều gì nên xảy tới bằng cách biểu lộ sự giao tiếp của nó trong bạn như một đam mê. Vì đam mê, bạn mới sẵn sàng đi theo, trừ phi bạn để cho những niềm tin tiêu cực ngăn chặn chính mình. Vậy nên, hãy ngừng lảm nhảm để có thể lắng nghe tâm trí cao hơn. Đó là tất cả những gì bạn phải làm.” — Bashar (Channeled by Darryl Anka)
Xét theo khía cạnh tâm linh huyền học, bài học quy phục thuộc về khu vực luân xa 6, là nơi trí tuệ ngự trị. Chỉ người nào biết cúi đầu khiêm hạ, chấp nhận toàn bộ những gì đang xảy ra một cách thản nhiên thì mới được khai sáng. Năng lượng sẽ được lưu thông và luân chuyển lên luân xa 7 là sự hiệp nhất với tình yêu, chân lý và thực tại tối hậu. Đây chính là sự thức tỉnh của con người. Nếu bạn không quy phục, bạn sẽ mãi nằm trong bóng tối và sự mò mẫm tìm lối đi cho riêng mình. Đầu óc bạn sẽ vẫn cứng nhắc, đen tối với vô số những suy nghĩ muốn kiểm soát thực tại thay vì gia nhập với nó.
Bình thường từ “quy phục” hay “vâng phục” được nghe phổ biến ở bên Đạo Thiên Chúa. Còn bên Đạo Phật, từ đó là “buông bỏ.” Hãy tưởng tượng bạn bị tước hết vũ khí và quy hàng, bị rút hết sự toan tính và cúi đầu tuân lệnh, bạn nằm rạp xuống mặt đất và không còn một chút ý đồ riêng, bạn khóa chặt miệng và chỉ hoàn toàn lắng nghe. Khi tâm trí bất lực, trí tuệ lên ngôi. Những người vô minh cảm thấy kinh hãi khi tâm trí bất lực. Nhưng với người hiểu chuyện, sự bất lực của tâm trí là một phúc lành, đó là cái chết của bản ngã. Khi ấy, tận sâu tâm hồn họ sẽ tỏa ra một sự thanh thản và thinh lặng đến vô cùng.
“Hôm qua chúng ta vâng lời những vị vua và cúi đầu trước những vị hoàng đế. Nhưng hôm nay chúng ta chỉ sấp mình trước sự thật, chỉ bước theo cái đẹp, và chỉ tuân theo tình yêu.” — Khalil Gibran
Bạn cần biết rằng một trạng thái hoàn toàn khiêm cung, bình thản và nhất tâm là người hướng dẫn tuyệt vời và hùng mạnh nhất. Ngoài nó ra, mọi dấu hiệu tiêu cực, giãy đạp và lý sự đều là kẻ độc tài. Chúng chỉ là những cái thùng rỗng kêu to, gây nhiễu bằng tiếng ồn nhất thời. Khi bạn lắng xuống tận cùng thì bạn nằm ngoài chúng, bạn trở thành ông chủ. Còn nếu bạn cố vươn lên, bạn sẽ chỉ trở thành một trong số những cái thùng đó – tự làm ồn chính mình, tự mâu thuẫn nội tâm và đổ lỗi cho hoàn cảnh xung quanh làm bạn khổ sở.
Mình thiết nghĩ rằng quy phục là điều quan trọng bậc nhất để một người thấu hiểu và đón nhận được ánh sáng trí tuệ. Chỉ ánh sáng đó mới xua tan được những đau đớn bên trong, mới khiến cho tâm trí con người thống nhất và mềm dẻo. Từ đó, đức tin mới hiển lộ. Bởi niềm tin, chúng ta mới có thể tồn tại và làm nên những chuyện không ngờ. Vậy nên, bất kỳ khi nào bạn thấy nghi ngờ, căng thẳng hay đau đớn, đừng chống cự mà hãy hạ mình quy phục!
(1251 chữ, 5 phút đọc) Và liệu cuộc đời này có phải là giấc mơ không khi nhìn vào sự tương quan giữa giấc mơ và cuộc đời, chúng hoàn toàn giống nhau về tính chất, chỉ khác nhau về tầng cấp, mức độ phức tạp và logic.
Tôi rất thích những giấc mơ của mình, nó như một chuyến phiêu lưu vào một câu chuyện mà tâm trí của tôi là tác giả. Thú vị ở chỗ chúng ta không biết tâm trí sẽ dắt ta đi đâu, tình tiết sẽ thế nào, mọi thứ như một sự kiện không biết trước và hoàn toàn bất ngờ. Có đôi lần, những giấc mơ mang lại cho tôi một cảm xúc rất chân thật, có yêu thương, có xúc động, có sợ hãi, lo lắng – thứ thật ra là do tâm trí tôi tạo nên qua trải nghiệm của nhân vật “tôi” trong giấc mơ. Đôi khi tôi mơ thấy mình “yêu” một cô gái nào đó trong giấc mơ, khi tỉnh dậy tôi vẫn còn dư âm của cảm giác yêu thương và hình bóng của người con gái đó trong vài tiếng đồng hồ sau khi tỉnh dậy.
Có một điều rằng khi mơ, chúng ta thường không biết mình đang mơ. Trong giấc mơ, các sự kiện/”cảnh quay” chuyển tiếp một cách thiếu logic và bất hợp lý – điều mà chúng ta có thể nhận ra khi hồi tưởng về những giấc mơ lúc đã tỉnh dậy. Kiểu như bạn đang chạy trốn trên đường thì đột nhiên bạn lại chuyển sang chơi trong một trận bóng nếu như 2 cảnh tượng đó có một mối liên kết nhỏ nào đó. Khi mơ ta không hề nhận ra điều đó và xem đó chỉ là một điều bình thường hiển nhiên. Chúng ta bị cuốn lấy các tình tiết, phản ứng và nảy ra các cảm xúc với chúng. Như việc tôi mơ thấy mình gãy hết răng và tôi cảm thấy cực kỳ tồi tệ trong khi đó chỉ là những gì tâm trí thêu dệt nên.
Và liệu cuộc đời có phải là giấc mơ không khi nhìn vào sự tương quan giữa giấc mơ và cuộc đời, chúng hoàn toàn giống nhau về tính chất, chỉ khác nhau về tầng cấp, mức độ phức tạp và logic. Cuộc đời chúng ta là một “giấc mơ cỡ lớn” hay một trò chơi vô cùng tinh vi, logic, chân thật. Thực tế tới nỗi người chơi/mơ cực kỳ khó để nhận ra mình đang chơi/mơ. Vậy điều gì mới là thật. Theo tôi thì “thật” hay “ảo” đơn giản chỉ là những gì một người tin vào.
“Nếu bạn đang gặp vướng mắc về lòng tin, bạn đang sống vì điều gì? Tình yêu đúng là khó tin, cứ hỏi những người đang yêu. Sự sống đúng là khó tin, cứ hỏi các nhà khoa học. Thượng Đế đúng là khó tin, cứ hỏi những người đang tin. Bạn có vấn đề gì với những chuyện khó tin?” – Life of Pi
“Ai là người có quyền nói cái gì thật và cái gì giả? “Thật” là một sự phân biệt của một tâm trí thiên vị. Ý tôi là, chủ nghĩa thực nghiệm thiên vị cũng có giá trị phần nào, cho tới khi người ta khám phá ra vật lý lượng tử 70 hay 80 năm trước đã tiết lộ một bí mật rằng nền tảng của sự thật chỉ là phòng chơi dưới tầng hầm!” – Terence Mckenna
“Morpheus: Cái gì là “thật”? Làm sao định nghĩa được “thật”? Nếu thật là thứ anh có thể cảm, ngửi, nếm, nhìn, vậy thì thật đơn giản chỉ là những tín hiệu điện từ được diễn dịch bởi não bộ của anh.” – The Matrix
Chúng ta không thể nhận thức được chúng ta chìm vào giấc mơ khi nào, đâu là điểm bắt đầu của nó, cũng giống như chúng ta không biết được điểm bắt đầu của cuộc đời là khi nào. Chúng ta chỉ có đủ nhận thức về cuộc đời khi ta từ 2-4 tuổi. Đối với tôi, ký ức và nhận thức về bản thân chỉ phát triển khi tôi 4 tuổi, còn lại tôi chẳng nhớ một chút gì khi tôi 3 tuổi hay nhỏ hơn cả. Và khi tỉnh dậy cũng vậy, chúng ta tỉnh dậy giữa chừng khi bị ai đó tác động dù vẫn đang trong cảnh mơ – giống như một cái chết bất đắc kỳ tử. Hay khi chúng ta tỉnh dậy và nhận thức dần dần – giống như cái chết từ từ của người bệnh tật. Mặc dù chúng ta chuẩn bị tâm thế sẽ đi vào giấc mơ với nhận thức về giấc mơ của mình, nhưng chúng ta vẫn mơ và không nhận ra điều đó – giống như chúng ta bước vào cuộc đời nhưng luôn luôn không nhớ về bản chất thật hay cội nguồn của mình. Chúng ta có rất nhiều giấc mơ – cũng như ta có nhiều kiếp người. Chúng ta không thể nhớ về giấc mơ trước đó khi chúng ta đang trong giấc mơ hiện tại – giống như chúng ta không thể nhớ được tiền kiếp. Và có một hiện tượng gọi là Lucid dream – trạng thái người mơ biết rằng mình đang mơ, còn với cuộc đời thì đó là đạt tới sự tỉnh thức khỏi ảo tưởng và biết rằng cuộc đời chỉ là giấc mơ lớn hơn. Địa ngục và Thiên đàng chỉ là miêu tả về hai trạng trạng thái tâm thức có tần số rung động đối lập nhau – giống như trạng thái khi chúng ta tỉnh dậy với một cơn ác mộng hay một giấc mơ tuyệt đẹp vậy. Và liệu có phải khi chết mới là lúc ta thực sự tỉnh dậy khỏi giấc mơ của đời mình?
Một bộ phận trong chúng ta sẽ có vài lần Lucid Dream trong giấc mơ, nhưng có nhiều người sống cả đời vẫn không “Lucid dream” với cuộc đời của họ, hay nói đúng hơn là tỉnh thức trong đời sống của họ một lần. Hầu hết chúng ta lao vào cuộc chơi vật chất, điên cuồng với việc kiếm tiền và thỏa mãn thú vui. Chúng ta chưa bao giờ dừng lại để hỏi “đời sống này có ý nghĩa gì?” hay “tôi là ai?” Chúng ta không nhận ra rằng đời sống là một cơ hội để ta trải nghiệm chính bản thân mình, rằng cuộc sống này đầy nhiệm màu và tươi đẹp chứ không phải chỉ có tiền, nhà, xe và hóa đơn cuối tháng.
Tôi tin rằng mỗi chúng ta đều đang mơ giấc mơ đời mình. Điều này chỉ ra rằng một trong những mục đích lớn lao nhất trong đời là để Lucid Dream giấc mơ đó/Tỉnh thức/Tìm thấy cội nguồn và bản chất hiện hữu chân thực của bản thân. Để từ đó, tạo ra một giấc mơ thực tại trong sự ý thức, để biến nó thành một thứ đẹp đẽ, để biết quý trọng cơ hội trải nghiệm lớn lao này. Để làm điều đó chúng ta phải dẹp bỏ những ảo tưởng của mình, những vô minh mê muội trong đam mê bản ngã và ma trận vật chất, những tham sân si, ganh ghét và hãm hại lẫn nhau. Vì chúng ta đều cùng bản chất, đều cùng một cội nguồn, God bên trong mỗi chúng ta, God đã đưa chúng ta vào đây để trải nghiệm giấc mơ này. Và đây sẽ là một giấc mơ tuyệt đẹp hay là một cơn ác mộng? Điều đó phụ thuộc vào sự tỉnh thức của chúng ta – những người kiến tạo nên thực tại này.
(1740 chữ, 7 phút đọc) Niềm tin và thói quen ăn uống chủ yếu dựa vào protein được truyền thông đưa lên tận mây xanh, qua các quảng cáo, các nhân vật truyền hình và thể thao đã khiến cho các chứng minh về một chế độ ăn chay tốt trở nên không có trọng…
Bộ phim bắt đầu bằng việc cựu võ sĩ UFC James Brett Wilks “Lightning” gặp chấn thương đứt 2 dây chằng và mong muốn tìm được cách hồi phục nhanh nhất có thể mà bỏ qua của y học và bác sĩ. James Wilks đã bỏ ra gần 1000 giờ tìm hiểu, đọc sách, tra cứu thông tin về việc làm thế nào để hồi phục sau chấn thương với thời gian ngắn nhất và một chế độ dinh dưỡng hợp lý.
Cuối cùng, khi tìm hiểu về các võ sĩ giác đầu thời La Mã, những người được rèn luyện kĩ lượng ở mật độ kinh khủng và nổi tiếng với chế độ ăn lý tưởng thì James Wilks đã bị sốc: Các võ sĩ giác đấu là người ăn chay. Họ có một chế độ ăn rất nhiều đậu và lúa mạch để tăng cường cơ bắp và sự chắc khoẻ cho khung xương gọi là Hordearii nghĩa là “Đậu và máy nghiền lúa mạch.”
James Wilks tìm đến những nhà khảo cổ và cơ thể học để tìm bằng chứng cụ thể. Địa điểm ở đây là một phế tích ở Thổ Nhĩ Kỳ, vốn là đấu trường Thời La Mã có hơn 5000 bộ xương của các võ sĩ giác đấu đã chết. Họ lựa chọn 68 bộ xương bất kì, lấy một lượng xương nhỏ nghiền ra để thí nghiệm hoá học và tất cả đều có lượng stronti cao chỉ thấy ở người ăn chay. Stronti là một khoáng chất quan trọng trong việc phát triển tế bào xương, tăng mật độ xương và làm giảm tỉ lễ gãy xương cột sống.
Sau đó James Wilks lại lao vào tìm kiếm thông tin liệu có nhiều vận động viên, võ thuật, chuyên gia dinh dưỡng có áp dụng việc ăn chay trong cuộc sống của mình không và ảnh hưởng của nó thế nào. Và anh đã nhận được rất nhiều thông tin từ các vận động viên Olympic, đấu sĩ UFC, bóng rổ, bóng bầu dục… rằng họ đang áp dụng chế độ ăn chay, ăn thực vật và cảm thấy nhiều năng lượng hơn, cơ thể hồi phục nhanh hơn đồng thời dẻo dai hơn.
Đặc biệt James Wilks còn nhận được sự xác nhận về lợi ích về việc ăn chay trong tập thể hình của Kẻ huỷ diệt Arnold Schwarzenegger. Ở tuổi 70, Arnold Schwarzenegger vẫn duy trì hình thể lý tưởng và thừa nhận rằng trong những năm gần đây ông đã ăn chay thường xuyên.
Sau đó, James Wilks biết được rằng hai kỉ lục thế giới như nâng tạ 550kg đi được 10 met hay chạy marathon trên mọi địa hình với quãng đường dài hơn 3500km trong 46 ngày (người bình thường là 7-8 tháng) đều là các vận động viên ăn chay.
Và từ lúc áp dụng chế độ ăn chay, James Wilks liên tục vượt qua các rào cản giới hạn của thể lực và tập luyện trước đây. Anh phá kỉ lúc ở phòng tập khi đập dây liên tục trong 70 phút. Trước đây Wilks chỉ có thể đập dây tối đa chưa được 15 phút.
Con người sinh ra để ăn thực vật
Khi trao đổi với các chuyên gia về thực vật, cơ thể người và dinh dưỡng, James Wilks mới biết rằng cơ thể con người thực sự phù hợp để ăn chay và hấp thụ chất dinh dưỡng tốt hơn là ăn thịt qua ba chứng minh.
Thứ nhất chúng ta là loài ăn tạp, nhưng lượng răng nanh và răng hàm nhọn để xé thịt chẳng là gì so với động vật ăn thịt. Răng con người bằng và vuông cũng như cứng hơn để nghiền vỡ vỏ và hạt cây quả để ăn.
Thứ hai so sánh đường tiêu hoá và ruột của con người dài gấp 15 lần vùng bụng, còn sư tử chỉ là 4 lần. Ruột dài hơn để quá trình tiêu hoá tốt hơn vì thực vật cần nhiều thời gian để chuyển hoá thành dinh dưỡng hơn thịt.
Thứ ba con người không có khả năng tổng hợp vitamin C và trong thịt có rất ít hoặc không có Vitamin C. Thiếu vitamin C trong thời gian dài sẽ gây ra chứng bệnh kinh hoàng Scurvy – vết ma cắn đã ám ảnh giới thuỷ thủ thời cổ đại cho tới đầu thế kỉ 19 mới truy tìm ra được lý do là trong các chuyến hải trình dài thuỷ thủ không ăn rau củ quả có chứa vitamin C. Ngoài ra mắt chúng ta nhìn ba màu, khác với động vật chỉ nhìn thấy hai màu để phân biệt và nhận biệt hoa quả nào ăn được và không ăn được. Và còn bất ngờ nữa, trong thịt cũng không hề có vitamin B12, động vật hấp thụ vitamin B12 qua thực vật, vi khuẩn trong đất và nước. Ngay đến súc vật lấy thịt cũng phải bổ sung B12 vì thuốc trừ sâu, nước nhiễm bẩn hay chất tăng trưởng đã loại bỏ vitamin B12 trong tự nhiên. Con người cũng vậy, bây giờ chúng ta bổ sung B12 qua thuốc uống dù có chế độ ăn nhiều thịt vẫn thiếu hụt B12. Trái lại, vitamin C và B12 có mặt rất nhiều trong rau quả và ngũ cốc.
Sự bất công của khảo cổ và niềm tin ăn thịt sẽ tăng cường cơ bắp
Lợi ích và bằng chứng con người đã ăn thực vật như một chế độ dinh dưỡng cao có rất nhiều trong các dấu ấn từ thời cổ đại, nhưng thời gian và sự ưu ái của khảo cổ học dành cho các hoá thạch như xương, đồ vật đã khiến cho việc lưu giữ những bằng chứng đó cho đến bây giờ còn rất ít.
Một phần quan trọng là công nghệ bây giờ mới cho phép chúng ta phân tích các mảnh vụn ít ỏi của các vết tích thực vật trong xương, hạt, các vùng định cư cổ xưa một cách kĩ lưỡng hơn thì mới thấy rõ được các dấu vết của thực vật trong bữa ăn hàng ngày của thời cổ.
Những năm 1800, nhà hoá học Đức Justus Von Liebig tuyên bố rằng protein ảnh hưởng đến sự phát triển và hoạt động của cơ bắp rất nhiều và chế độ ăn rau củ quả không có lợi với con người. Niềm tin này được công chúng đón nhận tốt đến nỗi một thời gian ngắn sau đó ở Mỹ đã có kiến nghị đưa đạm là thành phần chính trong việc khẩu phần ăn hàng ngày của người dân.
Sau này khi khoa học chứng minh Liebig đã sai vì cả cơ bắp lẫn não bộ ngốn một lượng carbonhydrat và glucose khổng lồ để duy trì hoạt động thì đã muộn. Niềm tin và thói quen ăn uống chủ yếu dựa vào protein được truyền thông đưa lên tận mây xanh, qua các quảng cáo, các nhân vật truyền hình và thể thao đã khiến cho các chứng minh về một chế độ ăn chay tốt trở nên không có trọng lượng.
Và thịt súc vật được hình thành từ thực vật, súc vật chỉ là trung gian trong việc truyền tải chất dinh dưỡng từ thực vật vào con người. Nhưng việc hấp thụ thịt động vật đã gây ra các biến đổi hoá học không tốt và không phù hợp với cơ thể con người.
Còn trong thực tế, lượng đạm trong hai lát bánh mỳ bơ đậu phộng tương đương với 85gram thịt bò. Năng lượng luyện tập là carbon hydrat ở thể glycogen trong cơ bắp. Ăn nhiều đạm sẽ suy giảm sẽ gây suy giảm carbon hydrat và glycongen vốn có gây mệt mỏi và thể lực kém.
Ăn thịt có liên quan đến ung thư, tim mạch và rối loạn cương dương
Trong Game Changers có sự tham gia của những giáo sư, chuyên gia đến từ Havard, Brown… chỉ ra các chứng minh khoa học rằng rất nhiều loại ung thư có liên quan việc ăn thịt đỏ và trắng. Thói quen ăn thịt sẽ gia tăng 40% ung thư ruột kết và 27% bệnh tim mạch bên cạnh thói quen hút thuốc, sinh hoạt không lành mạnh.
Các nước phương Tây bệnh tim mạch vành rất phổ biến vì có nền văn hoá ăn thịt. Mỹ tiêu thụ lượng thịt bò gấp 3 lần thế giới. Ăn nhiều đạm từ thịt tạo các cặn mỡ siêu nhỏ bám trong mạch vành gây ra chứng đau tim, khó thở và huyết áp cao. Trong nghiên cứu chỉ ra rằng 70% lính cứu hoả ở New York chết vì tim mạch do thói quen ăn uống. Một thí nghiệm kéo dài 7 ngày khi cung cấp cho hơn 20 lính cứu hoả khẩu phần ăn chay đã được nồng độ đường trong máu và huyết áp giảm đến xấp xỉ 50% ngay lập tức.
Việc ăn nhiều thực vật cũng ảnh hưởng lớn khả năng cương cứng lâu và nhiều lần hơn đối với nam giới. Các cầu thủ bóng bầu dục tham gia 3 ngày thí nghiệm bằng cách đeo một thiết bị theo dõi độ cương cứng của dương vật theo thời gian, song song với việc ăn thịt và ăn chay. Những đêm ngủ sau khi ăn toàn đồ chay, tỉ lệ cương cứng lâu và nhiều lần cương của dương vật gia tăng 300-500%.
Ăn thịt tàn phá môi trường sống
Mình sẽ trích dẫn vài thông tin trong The Game Changers cung cấp việc ăn thịt từ gia súc gây ảnh hưởng đến môi trường thế nào.
Để sản xuất 1 chiếc humburger thịt bò cần 2400 lít nước.
27% lượng nước trên trái đất để sản xuất thực vật cho gia súc.
Ở mỹ các trại gia súc thải ra nguồn nước bẩn gấp 50 lần tổng số hộ gia đình.
Ngành chăn nuôi gây ra 15% lượng khí thải toàn cầu. Bằng tất cả khí thải của các loại phương tiện giao thông cộng lại.
Ở phương Tây, bệnh tim động mạch vành phổ biến vì chế độ ăn nhiều thịt.
1 người ăn chay sẽ tiết kiệm 1 triệu lít nước sạch một năm.
Danh sách các nhân vật nổi tiếng và vận động viên ăn chay
Leonardo Da Vinci, Pierre Gassendi , Nikolai Tesla, Steve Jobs, Lewis Hamilton, Kyrie Irving, Novak Djokovic, Serena William, Lizzie Armitstead, Morgan Mitchell…
Many different types of “blocks” are taught in most martial arts school. We are taught high blocks, low blocks, middle blocks, knife hand blocks, etc. Some schools will also teach how to use the legs to block an attack, as well.
The purpose of this writing is to possibly open some minds to the possibilities of going outside the box and considering alternatives to the basics.
Blocking is taught as a way of protecting oneself from harm. Truly, we don’t “block” anything, as a non-martial artist would think of it. What we call “blocking” is more of a redirection of an opponent’s attack, or even a counterstrike against the opponent’s attacking limb.
To block something would mean to put something, like your arm, leg or other body part directly in front of the attack. That would certainly hurt and possibly cause some damage. The goal should be to move the attack out of the way in order to prevent injury and provide a way to fight back. For example, many schools teach blocks as a limb moving toward the strike such as a circular high block.
The movement required for a block might have other uses, if you keep an open mind. The blocking techniques can also be used as attack techniques. For example, your “low block” may be used as a striking technique against the outer thigh of the attacker. Your high block might be used as a strike to the jaw. The set up for a block can be used as a deflection, as well as the actual block.
Doing a block or a series of blocks will most likely not end an attack. A block needs to be followed by a counterattack. While the block is usually taught as a separate technique in order to learn it correctly, it should also be used in combination with a counter.
The more you know, the more you realize how much you don’t know. Intensive books can and have be written about basic techniques. With this writing, I am hoping to create interest in exploring the additional possibilities for what we have been taught and what we teach others.
About Grand Master Stevens
GM Stevens has been training in taekwondo for 47 years under the tutelage of the late legendary Grand Master Richard Chun. He holds an 8th degree black belt and is certified in the USA and in Korea. Grand Master Stevens is a member of the Board of Directors of the prestigious Richard Chun TaeKwonDo World Headquarters organization. He has been very active in his community and has been a volunteer with the Glen Rock Volunteer Ambulance Corps for over 11 years. He is a certified member of C.E.R.T. (Community Emergency Response Team).
Gary Stevens Taekwondo is located at 175 Rock Road in Glen Rock, New Jersey.
Do you want to maximize your self defense skills? Learn the game of combat chess and most importantly the queen of all moves.
Allow me to intercept those who would object to the title of this article. I’m not claiming that there’s a secret move, shortcut or hack that will give you the edge in any fight. Even if there was an ultimate weapon or strategy, you likely would avoid it because youknow that attachment to any one idea ultimately will limit your options and make you more predictable in battle. With that said, there is a move that’s perhaps the most versatile technique for use in personal combat, and Bruce Lee knew it well.
Combat Chess
Jeet kune do is a scientific approach to street fighting, a method for developing complete martial artists who are not bound by any style or system. Rather, they’re able to adapt to all styles, systems, situations and circumstances. JKD, of course, is the result of Bruce Lee’s search for the truth of combat, and part of that truth is that those who have mastered attacking the eyes and groin while weaponizing their awareness will have a distinct advantage in a street fight.
A street fight is like a very brief game of combat chess involving two strategists. In this context, the “queen of all moves,” the most versatile technique of all, is the bil jee, or thrusting finger jab executed with the lead hand. Simply put, it’s the fastest, most effective strike in the martial arts. It can be found in all traditional styles and reality-based self-defense systems. It even appears in MMA — think about how many times you’ve seen an accidental finger to the eye stop a UFC fight.
With the bil jee, you don’t need to pierce or penetrate the target; you just need to touch the eyeball. This offers an incredible advantage from a speed and range perspective. To strike with a boxer’s jab, you must get closer to your opponent and hit “through” the target in order to cause damage. That makes you slower because your fist must travel farther to make contact and then move past that point.
In chess, the aim is to attack with the queen while defending your king. The queen isn’t limited to any set pattern and can strike from all angles, making it the most powerful piece on the board. Similarly, the bil jee can attack from any angle, and it can be adapted to work with any style. Further, the technique allows you to maintain the “fighting measure,” or safe fighting distance, and effortlessly strike your enemy’s eyes with the speed of a cobra.
Whether you choose to initiate the attack or use a counterattack, the bil jee offers an opportunity to create a flinch response or a moment of pain. This is your opportunity to steal the next beat in time and seize an open line of attack. For example, using a high-low-high strategy, you first attack the eyes (high) with a bil jee, then on the next half-beat, you attack the groin (low) with a lead-leg kick. Finally, you come back up to the eyes (high) for another bil jee.
The real power of the bil jee lies in its seamless integration with other striking, trapping and grappling tools. Depending on one tool or strategy as your be-all and end-all is not a good tactical approach. The chess master knows this, which is why he uses every piece on the board and coordinates attack and defense in an integrated fashion.
In JKD, the idea is simply to simplify. Attack the eyes and the groin, maintain the distance and intercept the space between. Use elbow and knee destructions to defang the snake and destroy the opponent’s punches and kicks. Be deceptive with footwork and timing, and draw him by setting and breaking rhythms. Weaponize awareness to connect to him, create opportunities and adapt like water. When the opponent expands, contract. When the opponent contracts, expand. Recognize patterns and seize openings by waiting, observing and reading his movements and intentions.
Defend The King
As you attack with your queen, you must not forget to defend your king. The king, in this case, is your breath. In chess, the king can move only one square at a time. Similarly, breathing can be managed only one breath at a time. If you lose track of your breathing, you’re doomed — in a fight and in life.
Proper breathing is important for two reasons: It allows you to conserve energy, and it helps you weaponize your awareness. When you fight, fear, stress and anxiety create tension, which can cause you to hold your breath. When you hold your breath, your energy gets depleted. Feeling slower and weaker, you start to panic. Obsessive thinking sets in, and the chatter in your mind robs you of the present moment, making you your own worst enemy.
Controlling your respiration in tense situations is a skill that must be developed. Learning to relax on demand during conflict, chaos and the ever-changing circumstances of a fight is often overlooked and usually undertrained.
Fighting changes from moment to moment based on you, your opponent and your environment. Victory is not in the end result. Rather, victory is gained by making the right decisions and adapting from one moment to the next. To effectively adapt to your opponent, you must learn to weaponize your awareness. To weaponize your awareness, you must learn to come from the center of time and space. The center of time and space is where you, the observer, should live. An observer has no thoughts, judgments or attachments. An observer knows without knowing and acts and reacts on his own. That may sound mystical, but it’s really not. Consider:
While driving your car, have you ever swerved out of the way at the last moment and barely avoided an accident? It’s almost like you moved before you had time to process the event, and only afterward did you realize what you’d done.
In sparring, have you ever just hit your opponent and then, in the next moment, realized that he was open? This is the phenomenon you’re after. Awareness is always there; it’s just that some people have lost touch with it. By reconnecting with awareness, you’re not creating anything new. Rather, you’re connecting with something you may have forgotten.
Weaponize Your Awarness
My tai chi master taught that to weaponize awareness and orient from the center of time and space, a martial artist needs to know the four pillars of the mind: imagination, sensation, intention and attention. They’re considered the keys to weaponizing awareness because they teach you to task your mind with orienting from the perspective of the observer and not the thinker. Outlined below is the three-step process that I teach all my students, from military and law-enforcement personnel to civilian martial artists.
Step 1: Orient From The Still Point
Start by directing your intention and attention to your respiration. When you inhale and exhale, feel your abdomen expand and contract. Now focus on the still point of the breath, the pause between an inhalation and exhalation and between an exhalation and inhalation. During the pauses, direct your intention to your heartbeat. Feel the sensation as it ripples throughout your body like a stone rippling on a pond.
Count four heartbeats, then slowly increase the number. If you try to expand the duration of your still points too quickly, you’ll introduce tension in your body. Your mind will start to panic because it thinks you’re dying due to lack of air. Rest assured you’re not going to die. Instead, smile, relax and let go of the tension. Don’t force this. As you practice and relax into it, the time between breaths will increase naturally, and you’ll develop internal awareness. Once this becomes comfortable, expand your awareness outside your body and listen to the sounds in the room.
Next, you must learn how to operate from the center of space. You need to extend your spatial awareness outward toward the six directions: forward and backward, left and right, and up and down. Extend your awareness by putting your intention and attention on these directions, and you’ll be operating from the center of space. Remember that your awareness is a full 360 degrees, not just what’s in front of you.
You can try it right now while you’re sitting. Concentrate on extending your attention into the six directions. Let your awareness envelope the entire room. If it seems difficult, do two directions at a time until you feel comfortable, then integrate the others.
The next phase is to imagine your physical body melting away. All that’s left is internal and external awareness, which merge into one “noticing awareness.” As you practice removing yourself (mind and body) from the equation, you’ll become familiar with this state of being. You’ll create a new reference point, which is the center of time and space.
Heed The Wisdom of Musashi
Tactics, strategies and weapons are just knowledge, and knowledge without wisdom can be dangerous. Wisdom is the application of knowledge. You can learn about awareness, understand strategy and know the fastest move (the bil jee), but if you can’t apply this knowledge, it’s just useless information.
Miyamoto Musashi said, “The way is in training.” Your confidence stems from experiential knowledge and knowing that you’ve embodied your tools and strategies so they can be adapted for use in changing situations. Only then can you be wholly in the moment and surrender to the experience by letting go of victory or defeat.
The best way to develop this ability is by using a training method that’s fun and functional. It should develop your physical attributes, strategies and weapon selection while sharpening your awareness. It should be equal parts feeding drills, counter-for-counter drills and sparring against resisting opponents. Because a fight is a living exchange, your training must incorporate timing, angles, distance and progressive resistance. To help you with this, I have developed a method that gamifies the learning process.
Play Combat Chess
To absorb all the benefits of training, you need a step-by-step progression that chunks pieces of information and installs them in your subconscious mind. The greatest chess masters isolate individual pieces — for example, a king versus a king and a pawn. Chess masters learn how these isolated pieces move together on the board, and this information is stored in their subconscious. This isolation method of training accelerates the learning process, which is why Rickson Gracie made it part of his Brazilian jiu-jitsu training philosophy. When you isolate tools or positions, you have fewer options and are forced to focus on energy, awareness, timing, and the space between the strikes and positions.
The four “games” listed below can be used to functionalize any tactic or strategy, but to mesh with this article, you should focus on bil jee attacks to the eyes and lead-leg attacks to the groin. For best results, experiment with opponents of different body types and martial arts backgrounds. Start by feeding each other techniques with no resistance so the correct mechanics can be learned. Next, introduce counters so you can start to understand timing and the appropriate responses. Finally, incorporate resistance and intelligently spar using the isolated weapons and positions.
Game 1: Coordinate Awareness And Movement
Your partner, wearing boxing gloves, is restricted to using only the jab. His goal in the first round is to hit you 30 percent of the time while feeding you 70 percent of the time. In the second round, he switches to hitting you 70 percent of the time and feeding you 30 percent. Your objective is to move, watch and breathe. When moving, reposition your feet, head and hands as one unit. When watching, extend your awareness in all six directions. When breathing, don’t tense up or hold your breath.
Put The Art In Martial Arts
“Creation” refers to making something that didn’t exist before. When you create art, there can be no fear of the outcome, just honest self-expression. By following the combat-chess methodology, you’ll start chunking information and installing the chunks in your subconscious. Your subconscious has the ability to connect the various groupings of information and create responses without conscious thought, leaving you to be the observer of the experience.
Operating as the observer will make time seem to flow more slowly and allow you to “start after but arrive before” your opponent. It’s the most freeing phenomenon that can be experienced in the martial arts. It’s the instinctive response that Bruce Lee was referring to when he said, “It hits all by itself.”
The master key to success in this fighting process is you. Remember that results rule. Question everything and always look to explore, discover, grow and create.
Sifu Harinder Singh
Harinder Singh Sabharwal teaches jeet kune do, wing chun, tai chi, savate, kali, boxing, wrestling and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. He’s the founder of the Jeet Kune Do Athletic Association and Black Belt University. For information about his new online course, visit jkdforblackbelts.com.
If we don’t support these businesses, we may lose many of them for good.
It’s safe to say that all restaurants have experienced hardship and financial difficulty during the coronavirus pandemic. However, Chinese restaurants in particular have experienced immense difficulty over others. Not only were they suffering during city shutdowns, but Chinese restaurants have had to endure months of slow business even starting as early as January due to scared customers and concerns surrounding COVID-19, which was first detected in Wuhan, China. Acts of xenophobia and hate crimes have caused issues not only at restaurants, but in Asian communities around the country.
This, of course, means a significant decrease in profits, and Chinese restaurants are continuing to suffer because of it. Without any support, we will see Chinese restaurants disappearing the fastest from our communities.
Chinese restaurants have experienced a significant loss in business.
Lucy Yao, a New York City-based musician and educator, grew up working in Chinese restaurants throughout her childhood. While she always experienced hateful comments and xenophobic customers (one person even threw General Tso’s chicken at the restaurant owner), she says the amount of hate crimes surrounding coronavirus in the Asian community is astronomically higher—and no one is noticing.
Reported hate crimes toward the Asian community have spiked over the past few months. Nevertheless, Asian communities have been dealing with xenophobic comments for so long, that these reports probably don’t even match the actual amount. “Your strength is coming from being able to tolerate something,” said Yao. “The number of hate crimes that are reported that actually happened is probably wildly off.”
Sadly because of this, many businesses are suffering significantly. Workers feel unsafe to work or even travel to restaurants and fewer people are ordering. CNN Business reports that as of April 15, 59% of independent Chinese restaurants across America have stopped taking debit and credit card transactions, meaning many businesses have ceased operations.
Seeing a decrease in profits has been common for many restaurants, but because of the nature of Chinese restaurants, their loss is much greater. Typically Chinese restaurants keep prices of food low and they profit off a volume of food, meaning they need to sell a lot of it in order to have enough money to get by. Some of this is coming from the believed notion that Chinese food should be cheap, so restaurants have been able to keep the prices low because they end up selling that much food within the day. However, since fewer people are ordering Chinese food, businesses aren’t able to even scrape by—or pay rent.
Shutterstock Businesses were already suffering before stay-at-home mandates. Grace Young, a cookbook author and culinary historian who recently won a James Beard Award, recently wrote an article about New York City’s Chinatown suffering for Food & Wine. Business was already down significantly in January 2020 because fewer people from China were flying and numerous people were scared of stepping foot into Chinatown because of how this disease was being called the “Chinese virus.” Poster House, a museum located in NYC, asked Young to help out with an exhibit. But as things got serious in New York regarding COVID-19, the project for Poster House transformed into an online series about how the pandemic significantly impacted Chinatown.
“It’s very hard for Chinese restaurant owners right now,” said Young. “I think the xenophobia, all of this anti-Chinese sentiment, is not helping business.”
Young took a trip to Chinatown to record interviews for this online series. During her time in Chinatown, she found out that 70% of the businesses were going to be closing the following day, simply because they didn’t have enough coming in to continue operating. As she walked around from business-to-business, numerous owners refused to be interviewed. “In Chinese culture, it’s sort of losing face to even talk about the fact that you’re going through a difficult economic time,” said Young. “It’s just too private, too personal.”
While she was able to get a few interviews with some brave restauranteurs, hours after her time in Chinatown, New York City’s Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that all restaurants were to be closed that following Tuesday. Her time in Chinatown became a documentation of one of the biggest things to happen in Chinatown’s history.
Wellington Chen, the Executive Director for NYC Chinatown’s Partnerships, said that 117 restaurants out of 291 decided to stay open after the shutdown. But by early April, only 39 eateries were able to stay in business. The rest closed.
Two months later, as restrictions start to loosen up, Chinatown—along with numerous Chinese restaurants around the country—are starting to open back up for business. On May 28, Chen reported that 126 eateries were open in Chinatown and they are hoping the number continues to grow. That’s where we as consumers come in.
Shutterstock How you can support Chinese restaurants at home. It may seem simple, but actually putting your money toward their services and enjoying your favorite Chinese dishes at home on a regular basis is going to significantly help your favorite eateries.
But here’s the real catch: Try to avoid ordering through your usual third-party services. When you order from a company online, some of them take around 30% of the profits from that purchase, meaning less money is going in the restaurant’s pockets. Instead, call the restaurants and order directly from them.
Another great option is to order through Chowbus, which is a company focusing on Asian restaurants specifically. They are working hard to create more business opportunities for these eateries, which includes expanding their delivery breadth. In Chicago alone, they expanded delivery up to a 40-mile radius. Because of their efforts, Chowbus has been able to see a significant amount of partners back on the app and in business already—about 90%.
“We’re doing as much as we can to help the restaurants go through this hard time,” said Linxin Wen, CEO of Chowbus. “While we don’t see any of Chowbus’ restaurant partners going out of business, that doesn’t mean the restaurants didn’t take any hits.”
This is where you come in by ordering from your favorite Chinese restaurants. However, even Young says that it would be helpful to order food even more often than just a Friday night takeout and to support all types of Asian businesses in the community that are struggling.
“That’s a lovely sentiment, but it takes more to show your love by showing up once a week, we really need to show up two, three times,” said Young. “It’s like a very ill patient, like taking care of your grandma. If you really love this neighborhood, and what it stands for, you have to really monitor and really take care and check-in. And not just eat in restaurants, but shop in the stores, have a massage, fix your watch down there, buy your baked goods, shop for your groceries in the supermarkets.”
If you’re not near Chinatown you can even support by ordering Chinese food through Chinatown for Manhattan medical workers. Shutterstock But according to Chen, not every restaurant in Chinatown can make a takeout model possible. “Most Chinese food is meant to be eaten piping hot like dim sum with a rolling steamer,” said Chen. “They’re not geared for takeout.”
This means that as your cities start to open back up, ordering takeout is good, but actually going to the businesses that aren’t doing takeout can help as well. Because many of them are tiny hole-in-the-wall locations in Chinatown that won’t be able to seat as many customers due to social distancing, Chen says they are doing surveys of the restaurants and getting geared up to do closed street outdoor seating so these restaurants can continue to serve a variety of customers. And do this often! If social distancing is going to be a part of our future for who knows how long, these businesses only have a few months of warm weather to take advantage of dining outdoors.
“If we don’t support during the coming summer, this will be one of the darkest winters,” says Chen. “People will not be able to hang on because they need to make up for what they lost from January to now. So [we have] between July and August, and hopefully, September and early October, if the weather does not turn cold and rainy. After that, we cannot do outdoor dining, and distancing will be hard to do. So please come and support these mom and pops.”
Both Chen and Young are on the same page in terms of what you can do at home: Give these businesses the initial support they need. “Their decision right now is that if we don’t give them initial support, they may just pack up and go,” said Chen. “And that is the critical moment we are so concerned about.”
Lastly, you can do this by bringing awareness on social media. Poster House is hosting a campaign where you can share about your favorite Chinatown experiences on Instagram using the hashtag #ChinatownStories. Tell the world why you love Chinatown, what your favorite places and eateries are, and bring awareness to their needs to others. This can help support a thriving community within your city—and not just in New York. Support the Chinatowns in your metropolitan areas and your favorite Chinese eateries in your town, because their stories are likely the same.
3,000-year-old microparticles prove the fruit traveled across the ocean with early Pacific Islanders.
A TYPICAL DAY FOR MONICA Tromp might include scraping tartar off 3,000-year-old human incisors. “It’s basically like being a dental hygienist for the dead,” says Tromp, an Affiliated Researcher at New Zealand’s University of Otago, about her work studying ancient Pacific Islanders’ diets.
The hot, humid climate of places like Vanuatu, an archipelago 1,100 miles east of Australia, makes it notoriously difficult to find archaeological plant and animal remains. So for the past several years, Tromp has turned to an unlikely treasure trove of culinary data on early Pacific Islanders’ diets: the calcified plaque, called calculus or tartar, left on ancient human teeth. Now, in a new paper, Tromp and her fellow researchers have solved an agricultural mystery that has puzzled archaeologists: the migration of the banana.
Bananas are staple crops across the Pacific Islands. Researchers have long suspected that the earliest mariners brought the fruit, along with other staples such as taro, yams, chickens, and pigs, with them when they first began navigating canoes from Southeast Asia across the Pacific 3,000 years ago, settling uninhabited islands along the way.
“They supposedly brought this whole transported landscape,” Tromp says. But the difficulty of finding preserved plant or animal matter in humid island climates meant that archaeologists lacked material proof that Vanuatu’s earliest settlers carried specific fruits, including bananas. Instead, researchers relied on contemporary linguistic evidence: Pacific Islanders, for example, had very similar words for different foods, suggesting a single ancient origin for the plants.
Now, Tromp and her team have used banana microparticles, preserved in teeth from a 3,000-year-old human burial site, to show that bananas began their trans-Pacific journey with Oceania’s earliest settlers. Their find supports the theory that early settlers traveled with a floating plant and animal menagerie. It also adds credence to the increasingly accepted idea that indigenous people across the world actively shaped rainforest ecosystems once assumed to be largely untouched by humans.
The trail of evidence starts in Teouma, a cemetery of the ancient Lapita people who first settled Remote Oceania, the archipelagos east of the Solomon Islands. Located on Efate Island, in present-day Vanuatu, the cemetery is a rare example of Lapita material culture, well-preserved because the bodies are buried in limestone. The skeletons at Teouma had been decapitated, likely as part of rituals related to ancestor worship, says Tromp. But their teeth were left behind. After initial excavations in the early 2000s, researchers stored the remains at a museum in Vanuatu. That’s where, more than a decade later, Tromp found them, and began investigating the tales their teeth could tell.
While tartar is a bane for contemporary dental hygienists, it’s a boon for ancient ones. Throughout our lives, mineral microparticles from the plants we eat, called phytoliths, get trapped in our plaque. When our plaque calcifies, it preserves the particles, Tromp writes, “much like the infamous Jurassic Park mosquito in amber.” To study these microparticles, Tromp scraped the calculus off the ancient teeth and treated the substance with a weak acid, which degraded the tartar, leaving only phytoliths behind.
By comparing the phytoliths to microparticles from contemporary plant specimens, Tromp and her team were able to identify a range of plants from the burial site, including banana leaf and seed phytoliths. “They look like little, tiny volcanoes,” Tromp says. The presence of both leaves and seeds suggest Lapita people used bananas for a wide range of purposes, from eating to cloth- and jewelry-making. Tromp has examined calculus from sites all over the world, but the number of phytoliths at the Lapita site was particularly notable. “It’s the first time I’ve ever seen such a high concentration of this kind of microparticles,” she says. This suggests that Lapita people engaged in substantial use of culinary and medicinal plants, and that they had a greater hand in shaping Vanuatu’s rainforests than archaeologists previously thought.
Tromp’s research has changed her perspective on Vanuatu’s landscape as well. Now, when she walks through the dense, seemingly wild jungle, she notices yam plants, taro, and fruit-bearing trees, all part of an agricultural legacy first established by early Lapita settlers. It’s a big shift in perspective brought about by tiny particles, and an unlikely time capsule: human teeth.
As the co-founder of one of the country’s largest independent food companies, I’ve spent the past 38 years trying to plan for the future. Now, I’m taking my cues from history
Over the 38 years we’ve been in business I’ve worried about, talked through, and planned for hundreds of strange scenarios. I’m a planner, and here at Zingerman’s we’ve been forecasting and budgeting and organizing for so many years I can barely remember when we began doing it. But, as Mike Tyson once famously said, “Everyone has a plan till they get punched in the mouth.” I don’t think anyone I know in the food world has ever thought about preparing for a pandemic. Having talked to dozens of colleagues around the country, we all seem to be pretty much in the same boat, struggling to answer the same questions. How do we deal with unexpectedly having to lay off dozens/hundreds/thousands of people that we’ve worked with for years? Are we providing better community service by staying open, or by closing? Can we figure out what the 900 pages of the CARES Act really mean? How does unemployment really work? What’s the difference between a furlough and a layoff? Can we survive for six months on limited menus for delivery and pickup? How long will this go on? Will it ever end? If it doesn’t end for a year, how do we handle that? If it does end, what will happen next? Just writing these questions, I can see why I — and probably most of us — have felt overwhelmed, pretty much daily, for the last few weeks.
On the evening of Tuesday, March 11, we had a sold-out fundraising dinner at Zingerman’s Roadhouse for SafeHouse Center, the place in town that provides shelter for victims of domestic abuse. It was a great event.The next morning, Wednesday, March 12, was a day that will probably live in infamy in the food world for at least a few decades. It’s the day that almost every restaurant in the country felt a shock that I can only equate to what it must have felt like when the stock market crashed on October 29, 1929.
It’s only been six weeks, but it seems like six years. We furloughed nearly 300 of the 700 staff members in our company, which comprises a community of 13 different food businesses. Normally at this time, we’d be ramping up for our busiest weekend of the year: the University of Michigan commencement, which was scheduled for the first weekend of May. Instead, our total organizational sales numbers are now running about 40 percent of plan. Who would imagine that we’d already have adjusted our expectations down so much, so quickly, that we’re celebrating as a “good day’s business” what a month ago we would have thought of as an unremarkable Monday lunch in the slow season of the year? It’s hard to remember the last time I was happy to see a $7,500 day at Zingerman’s Roadhouse, which has 150 seats — but now it seems like a decent weekday’s sales!
March 12 was a day that will probably live in infamy in the food world for at least a few decades. The effects of the pandemic are felt differently across the company. Our events space, training business, and food tours have seen their sales drop nearly to zero. At our three restaurants (where we continue to do takeout and delivery), bakehouse, creamery, coffee, and candy businesses, sales are somewhere between 30 and 60 percent of what they would normally be this time of year, though wholesale sales to supermarkets and our mail-order business are helping keep us afloat. The bright note for us is that mail order is very busy — about twice what sales would typically be this time of year. And also that we’re still being kind and collaborative and cooking and serving (I mean delivering) good food. We’re following the CDC and local health department guidelines — constant handwashing, keeping plenty of distance between staff and guests (who are in very limited numbers inside our bakeshop, our creamery, and our coffee company), checking staff temperatures before they begin work — and, in the last week or so, wearing masks. For now, at least for us and for so many others, that’s our new normal.
As an erstwhile history major, two thoughts play around in my head. One is that it’s generally said that no war with a foreign power has ever been fought on American soil. I haven’t lived through one so I’m not sure the analogy is accurate, but this does sort of feel like what I imagine that living through a war would be. Life as we knew it has been drastically altered, perhaps for years. Within a few days of the “invasion,” everything was turned, seemingly, upside down. The craziness of the restaurant world that we all love and have learned to live with and actually kind of enjoy now seems stable and calm compared to this world where the coronavirus is calling the shots and we hope and pray that we, our colleagues, and our businesses can survive.
The other piece of history in my mind is that, while none of us have been through this before, humanity has, many times. Annalee Newitz recently wrote a great piece in the New York Times about the 1666 bubonic plague in London. Over the course of the year, the city lost over 15 percent of its population; across England, 750,000 people died. Newitz’s article reminded me of what I already knew: history always repeats. The good, long-term learning from Newitz’s article is that, as we know, the world did keep going when the plague receded. While it was a horrible year, and things didn’t just return quickly to normal, England did recover. The plague did go away. And there were restaurants still operating at the end of it. (On a lighter note, Newitz shared that Samuel Pepys buried a wheel of “Parmazan” cheese in his backyard when the city was evacuated.) In our 38 years at Zingerman’s, we have worked through massive inflation, the tragic upheaval of 9/11, and the instability of the recession of 2008. Looking back, I can see that we survived the fear and uncertainty by staying true to our values, taking good care of our customers, communicating caringly with our crew, staying in touch with vendors, and maintaining quality. We continued to talk things through collaboratively, to work cooperatively, to stay as grounded and centered as we could under the circumstances. And this time around, we’re doing the same.
Eventually, like World War II and the plague of 1666, this will start to end.
If I’d gone to med school like my grandmother wanted me to, I might be trying to save lives in a hospital or doing research in a lab to find a vaccine or a cure to end this crisis. Unfortunately, I have nothing to contribute on either count. So all I can do is work to keep our community and our organization as healthy as possible. Try to figure out creative and caring ways through the darkness. Try to listen and be empathic and share struggles as best I can. To keep calling colleagues all over the country, hoping that someone smarter has come up with some great solutions. To stay in touch, and keep energy focused on safety and sanitation — and, at the same time, what we have left of service, sales, and staff. And then keep my fingers crossed, think positive thoughts, rub my rabbit’s feet, and, as with all long walks through darkness, hope like hell we can get through to the other side together.
Eventually, like World War II and the plague of 1666, this will start to end. Every day I wait to hear good news, and at some point there will be some. When it does come, we can say something along the lines of what Winston Churchill said as the British turned the tide of a very long war by defeating the Germans in Egypt in 1942. “This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end,” he said. “But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”
Whatever happens, I feel incredibly fortunate to have worked with so many great people both here in our own organization and in the food community across the country and around the world. To have bought, sold, served, and eaten so much good food, to have had a positive impact on so many people’s lives. I’m not ready to give up yet. And I’m reminded of something one of our line cooks shared with me from her previous job: As they used to say during really rough shifts, “See you on the other side!”
For all the poverty he practiced and Stoic philosophy he wrote, clearly there was some part of Seneca that was dazzled by money. Even though he was born into a wealthy family, he wanted more and more of it. That’s what drew him into Nero’s service, where he accumulated a net worth of millions and millions of dollars. So too with Cicero, who was born to a less prestigious family, but still strove for fame and fortune. Although Cicero refused to take bribes as a politician, he had no problem marrying rich or accepting large gifts from benefactors.
What’s striking, though, about these two men’s lives is that while they eventually achieved their grand ambitions—accumulating much fame and fortune—they, with time, came to be disillusioned by it all. Both Cicero and Seneca died in exile. Both of them had much of their wealth confiscated. Both of them came to despise the corruption and the evil and the excesses of their time. They had played the game for a long time—wanting to be part of the in-crowd, wanting to be liked, doing what they needed to do to fight for their spot—and only slowly realized that the game had been playing them the whole time. And, in fact, that the people they wanted to be accepted by were actually awful and possibly evil.
In a way, their story mirrors a realization that Hemingway captured in one of his stories about his friend F. Scott Fitzgerald:
The rich were dull and they drank too much, or they played too much backgammon. They were dull and they were repetitious. He remembered poor Scott Fitzgerald and his romantic awe of them and how he had started a story once that began, “The very rich are different from you and me.” And how someone had said to Scott, “Yes, they have more money.” But that was not humorous to Scott. He thought they were a special glamorous race and when he found they weren’t it wrecked him as much as any other thing that wrecked him.
So it went for Cicero and Seneca and so it will go for you. You should not need to learn that money is worthless—and does not make you more worthwhile as a person—by experience. You can see that right now from history. You should not tie your fantasies up in fancy things or exotic trips. You should not trade too much of the most precious asset in the world (your time) for an incredibly common and infinite thing (dollars).
There’s nothing special about money. Or being rich. Or being important. Realize that now before it’s too late.
When most people think of the word confidence, they associate it with a lack of fear or self-doubt. They look on in wonder, for example, at that confident coworker who seems to just speak their mind without a care in the world for what other people think. And while it’s true that confident people often feel less anxious than the rest of us, there’s more to the story of highly confident people: Confidence isn’t the absence of fear. It’s the belief that you’ll be okay despite your fear. In other words, confident people haven’t figured out how to eliminate fear — they’ve changed their relationship to it. They see fear and uncertainty as uncomfortable but not dangerous. And as a result, they’re able to act alongside their fear instead of being paralyzed by it. A happy implication of this is that anyone can learn to become more confident. In my work as a psychologist, I help many people who struggle with low self-esteem, chronic anxiety, and poor confidence to change their relationship to fear. And as a result, their confidence rises — sometimes dramatically so! The secret sauce to becoming more confident is to build better habits. What follows are four habits confident people practice regularly that keeps them confident in the face of fear and insecurity.
1. Accepting fear instead of running away from it Confident people don’t lack fear — they just have a healthier relationship with it. The biggest mistake I see with people trying to become more confident is that they try to eliminate or avoid fear altogether. But this is dangerous for several reasons. Eliminating your fear is impossible. Your brain evolved a threat-detection system for a reason — keeping you alive. A side-effect of that threat-detection system is feeling fear. For example: When you hear the rattle of a mama rattlesnake in the bushes next to the trail you’re hiking on, you’re threat-detection system kicks in quick — releasing adrenaline, increasing heart rate and muscle tone, narrowing your attentional focus, and of course, feeling afraid. You might not like it, but this whole fear system is there for a very good reason — it helps keep you safe from genuine threats. Even if it were possible, getting rid of fear entirely would be foolish. Fear can be useful. The second reason it’s dangerous to try and avoid or suppress your fear is that, even in situations that are not life-threatening, fear can be useful. You’re not going to die if you flub the intro to your presentation in front of the whole company. But the fact that your fear system kicks into a gear a little bit during public speaking can be to your advantage. When your fear system gets activated, your body releases adrenaline, which is a powerful performance enhancer, both physically and mentally. Everything from your attention and memory to your reaction times improve with a little adrenaline. Good performers from athletes to public speakers know this and harness fear to their advantage. Avoiding fear creates anxiety. At the heart of every chronic anxiety issue is a simple process: When you try to eliminate or run away from fear, you teach your brain to be afraid of fear itself. In the long-run, this makes you chronically anxious. If you immediately “attack” or “flee” from your fear anytime it comes up, your brain is understandably going to start thinking of fear itself as a threat and danger. This means it’s going to be increasingly on guard and hypervigilant to anything that might make you anxious or afraid. And if it finds something, it’s going to make you even more anxious! Confident people don’t eliminate fear. They embrace it. If you cultivate the willingness to accept your fear and get on with life despite feeling afraid, you send a powerful message to your brain: Fear is uncomfortable but not dangerous. And when your brain really believes that, confidence is not far behind. A simple way to build your confidence and cultivate a better relationship with fear is to practice naming it and acknowledging it. By simply telling yourself I am afraid and that’s okay you’re beginning the process of retraining your brain not to be afraid of fear itself. And the more it believes that to be true, the more confident you’re going to feel. Bran thought about it. ‘Can a man still be brave if he’s afraid?’ ‘That is the only time a man can be brave,’ his father told him. ― George R.R. Martin 2. Communicating assertively Confident people communicate their own needs honestly and respectfully. On the other hand, people with low self-confidence routinely put aside their own wants and needs in favor of someone else’s: The adult woman who’s so afraid of upsetting her mother that she drops everything — even the needs of her own family — any time her mom asks her for something. The timid employee who says yes to every request anyone makes of him at work and ends up feeling chronically stressed out and anxious as a result. The passive spouse who never brings up their unhappiness in the marriage for fear of “rocking the boat” and making the other person angry. If you always put other people’s wants and needs before your own, you’re always going to feel unworthy. And it’s awfully hard to feel confident if you don’t think you are worthy. Confident people believe that their wants and needs are every bit as valid and important as other people’s and they act accordingly: They ask for what they want clearly and respectfully. They respect other people’s right to say yes or no just as they respect their own right to ask. They say no to what they don’t want and are willing to set and enforce boundaries with people. That’s easy for them…, you say, They’re already confident. I could ask for what I wanted if I felt as confident as they do! The problem here is mistaking cause and effect. Yes, confident people have an easier time communicating assertively because they feel confident. But they only feel confident because they’re willing to be assertive even when it’s hard. Nobody likes saying no and disappointing people. But confident people do it anyway if it’s the right thing to do. And when they see that things actually turn out okay in the long-run, it becomes a little bit easier to do the next time. Confidence comes from doing the right thing even if it feels difficult in the moment. If you want to feel more confident, practice being more assertive. Ask for what you want clearly and respectfully. Say no to what you don’t want. Set and enforce healthy boundaries. If you respect yourself enough to communicate assertively, confidence won’t be far behind. Assertiveness isn’t about building a good disguise. It’s about developing the courage to take the disguise off. — Randy Paterson 3. Making decisions based on values, not feelings Confident people build trust in themselves by prioritizing values over feelings. The secret ingredient to feeling more confident is trust. But it’s a very specific form of trust: Confident people trust themselves to do the right thing no matter how they feel. Let’s unpack that a little… People who lack confidence are constantly putting aside what they really want and value because they’re afraid of how they’ll feel or how others will feel. Here’s a simple example of how this works: Your partner suggests watching a romantic comedy for the third night in a row. And even though you’d rather watch something else, you’re afraid they’ll be upset or annoyed if you say no. So, without much deliberation, you do what feels easier in the moment and say okay to the romantic comedy. The problem is you’re teaching your own brain that what you want and value isn’t important. And it’s awfully hard to feel confident if you don’t believe your values are important. Confidence comes from trusting yourself to act on your values instead of your feelings. If you want to feel more confident, look for small ways to choose values over feelings: Do an extra two minutes on the treadmill even though you feel tired. Take out the trash even though it’s not technically your job. Read that report over one more time even though you’re sick of it and just want to be done with it. We rightly admire and believe in people who are principled — people who put doing the right thing above what’s easy or expedient. These are our heroes. Confident people know that the same thing applies to ourselves. They know that you can become the hero in your own life by sticking to your values even when they conflict with your feelings. Get in the habit of choosing values over feelings and your self-respect and confidence will soar. Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. — James Clear 4. Embracing self-compassion after mistakes Confident people know that beating yourself up for mistakes is no way to succeed long-term. In many ways, confidence is less about what you do and more about what you don’t do. And there’s no better example of this than how we respond to mistakes, setbacks, and failures. A common pattern in people with low self-confidence is that they are overly-critical and judgmental with themselves when they do something wrong. They say things to themselves like: I knew I would screw this up. I never should have tried in the first place. I wish I wasn’t so anxious all time. People are never going to respect me if I’m always nervous. Ugh… I’m just the worst. It’s no wonder nobody likes me. There are two major problems with responding like this after a setback: Negative self-talk is almost always unrealistic. It’s often overly black and white (“I wish I wasn’t so anxious all the time.”) or makes assumptions without real data (“People are never going to respect me…”). Negative self-talk makes us feel even worse about ourselves and makes it harder to act with confidence the next time. In other words, it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. Confident people understand that it’s simply unhelpful to beat yourself up when you’re already down. It doesn’t do any good and should be avoided at all costs. Because in addition to making yourself feel even worse, it erodes your confidence in the future. When they make a mistake, confident people simply treat themselves the same way they would treat a good friend — with compassion. Being compassionate with yourself after a setback or failure doesn’t mean you’re shirking responsibility. You can own up to your mistakes honestly and still be gentle and compassionate with yourself. And when you do, not only will you feel a little better in the moment, but your odds of succeeding next time go up as well. If you want to start feeling more confident, resist the urge to wallow in self-judgment after setbacks and treat yourself like you would treat a good friend — with compassion and understanding. Falling off the wagon isn’t the problem. It’s the rolling around in the mud that gets you.
All you need to know Becoming more confident doesn’t mean eliminating fear from your life, it means learning to live with your fear. Build the right habits and you can learn to speak and act with confidence no matter how you feel. Accept your fear instead of running away from it. Communicate your wants and needs assertively. Make decisions based on values, not feelings. Be compassionate with yourself after mistakes.
One of the primary documents essential to any early-stage company fundraising process is a pitch deck. I’ve created pitch decks for dozens of companies and have used them to successfully raise almost $700 million of total capital, including more than $40 million of pre-seed equity for startup companies. Based on this experience, I’ll share what I’ve learned about creating a pitch deck that works (i.e., gets capital raised).
The pitch deck is typically given to a prospective investor after they have heard or read your elevator pitch and expressed interest in learning more about your company. Any sophisticated investor will want to understand four key elements of the business opportunity, which should form the outline of your pitch deck:
Product
Market
People
Money
I’ll discuss each of these elements in more detail. However, let’s cover a couple of general presentation FAQs first.
Pitch Deck FAQ
Q. How many slides should be in the pitch deck?
A. No more than 10-15. Save the real details for your due diligence deck, which will be one of the first things a prospective investor asks for if they’re still interested after the pitch deck.
Q. How much detail should be on the slides?
A. You should have two versions of the pitch deck – one that you use when you’re actually giving the pitch in person and another, with more details, that you send to people who will read it on their own. You just want the major takeaways on the in-person version, as you want the audience to be listening to you, not squinting to read detailed bullet points on your slides. The “read on your own” version can have more information. But remember, all you’re trying to do with the pitch deck is get their “greed glands” flowing. If you do that, there will be plenty of opportunities to give them more details. If you overwhelm them with details at this point, they may miss the big picture.
Q. How important is the “look and feel” of the pitch deck?
A. It depends. At the risk of stating the obvious, in all cases, the content should be clearly written and free of typos and spelling errors. If you’re presenting your company in a business plan contest or other situation where you’ll be one of a number of presenters competing for the audience’s attention and dollars, I’d suggest you think about hiring a professional designer to make your deck stand out from the crowd. If you envision just a series of one-on-one interactions with prospective investors, that’s not as important.
The example slides you’ll see in this article are homemade, i.e., I started with a PowerPoint template and was more focused on the content than the appearance of the slides. If I’d hired a professional designer, I’d have gotten a custom template, custom graphics or even videos, a more refined color scheme, better slide layouts, and probably fancy transitions between the slides. The content would still have been the same, but the overall look would be much more polished and refined. Having been in the audience many times when entrepreneurs were presenting their business plans one after the other, I can assure you that it quickly becomes a blur. Anything you can do to differentiate yourself and capture the audience’s attention is beneficial.
Q. Should the pitch deck cover topics in a certain order?
A. There’s no magic to the order in which you cover the four key elements of the opportunity. You typically want to lead with your strengths. For example, if your company just signed a JV with Amazon to develop the next generation of online shopping technology, get that fact out early, as investors will likely view everything else they hear in a more positive light. Also, you don’t have to strictly segregate each topic onto different slides in the deck. For example, if your VP of sales was formerly the VP of sales at the dominant company in your target market, you may want to mention them early in the pitch when you’re making general introductions, but then really highlight their credentials on a later slide, after you’ve explained the market structure, so the investors can have a better appreciation for how much value they add to the company.
Q. How aggressive should I be in my business outlook and financial projections?
A. There’s always a tension between having your “sales hat” on and showing a plan that you can realistically execute. Personally, I’ve always tried to create “reasonably aggressive” business plans and financial projections, which are then summarized in the pitch deck. I also try to build plenty of financial reserves into the plan for the inevitable surprises that always seem to occur in startups. Most investors will recognize wildly aggressive plans right away and won’t invest in them. It’s almost worse if they do because you inevitably end up in a bind when you’re unable to deliver on what you promised and you have to go back to investors, hat in hand, with vastly diminished credibility.
Q. Should I include risk factors on a slide in the pitch deck?
A. No. The pitch deck is a sales document. There will be plenty of opportunities to formally disclose risk factors further downstream in the fundraising process. Having said that, you should definitely be prepared to discuss risk factors when making the presentation. More often than not, someone will ask, “What keeps you up at night?” Your answer to this question should indicate that you know and acknowledge there are risks, but you have plans to mitigate them. There is no such thing as a riskless startup. If you try to pretend that yours is the first, don’t be surprised if you’re struggling to find investors.
With that general background, let’s break down the primary information you need to convey about each of the four key elements of your business. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I’ve also included some example slides from an old pitch deck I used to raise $1+ million of very early-stage equity.
Breaking Down Your Pitch Deck Structure
1) Define the Product
Your product overview should be dominated by the answers to two critical questions:
What unmet market need does your product fill?
How does your product address the market need in a differentiated manner from the current competitors?
Many good pitch decks use the first slide to highlight the unmet market need the company is addressing and the second slide to provide an overview of the company’s solution. Additional slides can be used to explain how the product is differentiated from competing solutions as well as any intellectual property or other barriers to entry associated with the product.
Your company doesn’t need to have invented the cure for COVID-19 to get funded, but you do need to be able to clearly and succinctly explain why customers will pay for what you propose to sell. If you’re struggling to create a simple table that shows your competitive advantages, you may want to rethink things.
2) Cogently Quantify the Market
Your pitch deck has to address three critical questions related to the market:
What is your company’s market penetration strategy?
How much, if any, market traction does the company have?
The keyword in the first question is “addressable.” One common mistake many entrepreneurs make is to overstate the addressable market size. It’s very easy to lose credibility when it becomes clear that the true addressable market for your product is much smaller than the total market size you’ve described. Imagine if you saw a pitch from the founder of a local brewery startup who told you that the market size was hundreds of millions of potential customers. It may well be true that there are hundreds of millions of beer drinkers worldwide, but a more realistic estimate of the addressable market is probably the tens of thousands of beer drinkers within a 25-mile radius of the brewery.
For most businesses, one of the hardest things to do is acquire customers. Thus, any sophisticated prospective investor will want to understand how you plan to make that happen and the cost you’ve budgeted to achieve the targeted market penetration. Do you plan on selling through wholesalers/resellers or direct? Are you exclusively using social media, or do you need a direct sales force complemented by TV ads? In today’s world, there are well-established customer acquisition cost metrics for many different business models. If your plan is well outside the norms, it probably won’t pass the smell test.
If you’re lucky enough to have market traction, by all means flaunt it! Customer testimonials are one of the most compelling things you can have in your pitch deck. Market survey results are also great, as is feedback from focus groups. Anything you can do to show that real customers actually do, or likely will buy your product is a plus.
3) Introduce the People Behind It
Sophisticated investors only invest in businesses if they have confidence and trust in the management team. In order to maximize your chances of raising money, your pitch deck should:
Explain why the key employees you currently have are the right people for their roles.
Address any “gaps” on your current team and the plan to fill those gaps.
I usually include pictures and brief bios in the people section of my pitch decks. In addition to their specific skill sets and accomplishments, I make sure to highlight:
Any of the team members that have worked together previously (that’s a plus).
Prior entrepreneurial experiences any team members have (even prior failures are typically viewed positively, as many investors understand that the knowledge acquired in a failed startup often minimizes avoidable mistakes in future startups).
In most cases, the CEO is viewed as most critical to the company’s success. If you can convince investors you have the right CEO, it goes a long way toward successful fundraising. Conversely, if your CEO isn’t able to demonstrate s/he is the right person to lead the company at its current stage, it’s pretty much a non-starter, unless you’re onto a really great opportunity and the CEO is willing to relinquish the role to someone else.
4) What Their Money Will Be Spent on
There are three things you need to cover related to money:
A summary of your financial projections
How much capital you’re currently raising and what milestones you plan to achieve with it
Projected investor returns
In addition to presenting the high-level results of your financial model, somewhere in the pitch deck, you need to explain your basic business model. How is revenue generated (e.g., subscriber fees, freemium model, advertising)? What are the major cost drivers? Are you paying for the content or acquiring it at no cost? In either case, from whom? Simply put, how does the business work?
Your current raise and projected use of proceeds should also be highlighted in the pitch deck. If some of the desired capital is already circled, by all means include that—many individual investors don’t like to be the first ones in the deal, and institutional investors may move faster to avoid losing it to another firm if they like the deal. To be clear, you never say who has circled the deal, just that there’s interest.
Finally, you should include the returns that investors are projected to receive on their investment if your plan becomes reality. While most investors will run their own numbers as part of the due diligence process, you’re more likely to get their greed glands flowing if you tell them how much money you think they can make.
Provide What Investors Need to Move Forward
In closing, there is no such thing as one perfect pitch deck for all investors. Every prospective investor will have their own unique way of looking at the opportunity. If you try to build a pitch deck that addresses every possible question that anyone might ask, you’ll drive yourself crazy and have a 40-slide pitch deck that will have more people dozing off than reaching for their wallets. I like when investors ask questions because it gives me the opportunity to demonstrate that I really know the business and also shows they’re engaged enough to want to know more.
Even if you follow the guidelines that I’ve outlined here word for word, there’s no guarantee that you’ll be successful in raising capital for your startup. However, I can promise that you won’t miss out on a fundraising opportunity because your pitch deck didn’t provide enough information to whet investors’ appetites and give them the impetus to take the next step.
The Investopedia Anxiety Index and the VIX have separated, signaling turbulence
KEY TAKEAWAYS The Investopedia Anxiety Index and the VIX have diverged, which is rare Market volatility has cooled just as personal finance anxiety has risen This could foretell more volatility, and a potential dip for stocks
The Investopedia Anxiety Index, a measure of our readers’ concerns about market and economic related issues, and the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), otherwise known as the “Fear Gauge,” have historically been closely correlated. The Anxiety Index typically increases ahead of the VIX as investors attempt to learn what is happening before they take action in their portfolios. That has been consistent since the last financial crisis, and every peak and valley in between.
IAI v. VIX. But the last several weeks have revealed a notable divergence between the two as anxiety, especially around personal finance related issues, has spiked, just as markets-based anxiety has subsided. It’s not surprising that has come on the heels of April’s 14% rise in the S&P 500, while some 24 million Americans filed for unemployment.
If April was the month that the stock market and the U.S. economy completely diverged, May has brought on a wave of anxiety tied to personal finance fears as the realities of this recession set in.
Anxiety was spiking around terms like bankruptcy, foreclosure, forbearance, unemployment, and liquidity. This shows us that the economic crisis brought on by the global pandemic has become very personal for individuals and investors, as they face potentially life-altering financial decisions.
What the VIX May Be Missing The VIX, or CBOE Volatility Index, is a measure of future volatility expectations as seen through the options market. The more active it is, the more wild swings are likely to appear in the stock market in the near future. Volatility in the stock market cooled from a raging bonfire in March to a simmering BBQ in April as stocks climbed from steep losses.
The collapse in oil prices in April reignited investors’ animal spirits, but they settled as prices climbed. But April brought millions of unemployment claims, furloughs, and business closures. Even though stimulus checks went out to millions of Americans, the reality of a deep recession was becoming more evident. Indeed, first-quarter U.S. GDP sank 4.8%, a foreshadowing of a steeper downturn on the horizon.
U.S. Unemployment Rate. The Personal Economy is Crumbling Inside households, spending dropped (except for food), and mortgage delinquencies and missed rent payments climbed. According to TransUnion1 , hardship loans are on the rise for credit card and car payments in April, a trend likely to increase. Meanwhile, banks took on more loan loss provisions to bolster against bankruptcies and missed loan payments. Many small businesses decided to forego PPP loans, lay off workers, and plan to reopen with diminished headcounts if and when they get the green light. While many laid off workers claimed their job losses were temporary, the realities inside their former employers may be telling a different story.
While the stock market’s recovery has given confidence to the investing class, the realities of the economic damage brought on by the shutdown are painting a very different picture. It took the U.S. labor force six years to go from 10% unemployment at the height of the great financial crisis, to 5% in 2016.
With U.S. unemployment expected to top 25% – the highest mark since the Great Depression, the road back may be long, bumpy, and winding. That is bringing about a rethinking of risk, and a battening down of the hatches among Americans, especially older ones who are taking a very conservative approach to investing their money.
Investopedia Reader Survey, May 2020. What’s Next for the Stock Market? That is, of course, the $10 trillion question. It is not unusual for the stock market to spike after a steep correction. To wit, the S&P 500 has climbed 32% in 40 trading days, an astounding rebound by any measure. That has many big investors calling this a bear market rally, and decrying sky-high valuations for stocks.
That rally has been built upon an extremely accommodative Federal Reserve that has poured money into government securities and corporate debt, with plans to spend even more than the $1.5 trillion it has already committed. While that has stabilized financial markets for the time being, the collapse of personal finances for millions of out-of-work Americans may be more than it can handle. That’s why the Fed has been goading U.S. lawmakers to pass more stimulus measures, stat.
The split between the Anxiety Index and the VIX is telling us that the stock market and its participants are not hearing this message, or choosing to ignore it.
That could be costly.
[Charts by D. Zurawell, W. Williams, and A. Morelli]
After a year of protests and upheavals, Beijing is poised to put an end to Hong Kong’s autonomous status. The National People’s Congress (NPC) has approved a decision on new ‘Mechanisms for the Preservation of National Security’ in the Special Administrative Region.
The decision includes articles authorising national security organs of the central government to establish branches in Hong Kong (most likely the Ministry of State Security) and an article authorising the NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC) to draft a new national security law to be implemented in the city. The specifics of this law are still vague, but they will touch on four areas — secession, subversion of state power, terrorist activities and ‘activities by foreign and overseas forces that interfere in the affairs’ of Hong Kong.
Two things are clear: the NPC decision is almost certainly unconstitutional with regards to Hong Kong law and neither Beijing nor the pro-Beijing political establishment in Hong Kong care much about its legality.
In a rhetorical manoeuvre similar to the frequent repetition of the Chinese Communist Party’s ‘core socialist values’, both Beijing and the Hong Kong government have doubled down on invoking One Country, Two Systems (1C2S). The decision to impose national security law is in fact an ‘improvement’ on 1C2S — a way to ‘ensure the enduring success’ of the framework, according to official statements.
Yet if 1C2S means anything, it is the separation of the political systems of Hong Kong and the mainland, guaranteeing judicial independence and legislative autonomy in the Special Administrative Region — the exact autonomy which the current decision is set to undermine. While 1C2S is certain to remain a favoured phrase of the establishment, the principle itself — and the rights and freedoms it was meant to guarantee — seem entirely dead, spelling the end of an era for Hong Kong.
What makes the NPC decision unconstitutional? As it currently stands, the Basic Law — Hong Kong’s constitutional document — clearly sets out that the local legislature has the responsibility to ‘enact laws on its own to prohibit any act of treason, secession, sedition, subversion…’ This is covered in Article 23.
Beijing is currently proposing to implement national security law in Hong Kong, drafted by the NPCSC, via Article 18. Article 18 makes clear that national (meaning PRC) laws shall not be applied in Hong Kong, with the exception of a set of laws listed in Annex III. These laws ‘shall be confined to those relating to defense and foreign affairs as well as other matters outside the limits of the autonomy of the Region…’
The implementation of the laws added to Annex III can take place either via promulgation — meaning that the Hong Kong Chief Executive issues a legal notice and enacts the law — or via legislation, meaning that the laws have to go through the Legislative Council (LegCo) and be made into legislation appropriate to Hong Kong’s existing legal system.
By imposing national security law in Hong Kong via Annex III, Beijing is planning to go the promulgation route and implement the law very quickly, without consulting LegCo or any other local institution. This would most certainly go against established practice. But promulgation would not necessarily be against Hong Kong constitutional law.
What does appear unconstitutional is using Article 18, rather than Article 23, to implement national security law. The areas that the proposed law touch on are explicitly covered under Article 23. These are two different articles for a reason — subversion and secession do not equate to foreign and defence affairs, as currently defined in the Basic Law.
Given that Annex III only applies to laws that fall outside the limits of Hong Kong autonomy, and that this emphatically does not include issues of national security, Beijing’s move is on its face unconstitutional. It seeks to bypass existing legislative channels and reinterpret the very meaning of autonomy.
The power of final interpretation of the Basic Law lies with the NPCSC, so what is at present an unconstitutional move could swiftly be turned into legal fact by the Beijing body’s reinterpretation (or more accurately rewriting) of Articles 18 and 23. Such a move would be possible given the powers granted to the NPC, but it would also be the final nail in the coffin of Hong Kong’s legislative autonomy, going against the promises made in the Sino-British Joint Declaration more than three decades ago.
Beyond the issues of constitutionality lie more immediate concerns over the consequences of the national security law. New draconian laws on secession, subversion and the interference of foreign entities in Hong Kong would likely criminalise a host of activities that are currently common practice, and which are in fact protected as rights by the Basic Law (Article 27). Freedom of assembly, freedom of speech and freedom of association are sure to be heavily curtailed. Former Hong Kong chief executive C Y Leung said as much over the weekend, hinting in an interview that vigils commemorating the Tiananmen Square Massacre are likely to be outlawed in Hong Kong going forward.
Nobody knows exactly what will come next, but one thing seems certain. While the end of Hong Kong’s autonomy is upon us, the city is not ready to go silently into the night. Large-scale protests erupted over the weekend, after months of quiet during the pandemic, and more are sure to follow over the coming weeks.
Dr Jeppe Mulich is a teaching associate of global history at the Faculty of History, The University of Cambridge.
President Donald Trump this week signed an executive order aimed at discouraging social media companies from censoring posts. The order follows a decision by Twitter earlier in the week to add fact-checking labels to two of Trump’s tweets, even as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he doesn’t believe internet companies should fact-check political speech.
Amid the back-and-forth between Twitter and perhaps its most high-profile user, here are some fast facts about Americans’ attitudes toward social media companies, based on Pew Research Center surveys of U.S. adults fielded before the current controversy.
In a survey in February and March 2018, 56% of Americans said tech companies should take steps to restrict false information online, even if it limits freedom of information. Around four-in-ten (42%) said freedom of information should be protected even if it means false information can be published. Republicans were about evenly divided on this question (50% vs. 48%), while most Democrats (60%) said tech companies should take steps to restrict false information online. Notably, Americans were more open to tech companies restricting false information online than they were about the government doing the same. Only about four-in-ten adults (39%) said the government should take steps to restrict false information online, while 58% said freedom of information should be protected even if it means false information can be published.
About seven-in-ten Americans (72%) said in a May and June 2018 survey that it is somewhat or very likely that social media sites intentionally censor political viewpoints they find objectionable. More than eight-in-ten Republicans and Republican-leaning independents (85%) expressed this view, as did 62% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents.
In the same 2018 survey, 43% of U.S. adults said major technology companies support the views of liberals over conservatives, while 11% said they support the views of conservatives over liberals; 43% said tech companies support the views of both liberals and conservatives equally. (This question was asked in the context of perceptions of tech companies’ political leanings generally, not necessarily in the context of regulating speech on their platforms.) A majority of Republicans (64%) said tech companies support the views of liberals over conservatives. Among Democrats, 53% said tech companies favor the views of both liberals and conservatives equally. Few in either party coalition (6% of Republicans and 16% of Democrats) said these companies favor the views of conservatives over liberals.
The same summer 2018 survey found that a minority of Americans think tech companies can be trusted to do the right thing just about always (3%) or most of the time (25%). Roughly half of the public (51%) said they should be regulated more than they are now.
Social media sites have emerged as a prominent source of news for some Americans. About three-in-ten Americans said in a July 2019 survey that they get news on social media often (28%), up from 20% in 2018.
Americans are divided over fact-checking efforts by news outlets and other organizations. Half of U.S. adults said in an early 2019 survey that fact-checking efforts by these organizations deal fairly with all sides, while 48% said they tend to favor one side. Partisans were sharply divided in their views: Around seven-in-ten Democrats (69%) said fact checkers deal fairly with all sides, while roughly the same share of Republicans (70%) said they tend to favor one side. (This question did not ask about fact checking by social media companies specifically.)
The U.S. public’s views of tech companies have become more negative in recent years. In a summer 2019 survey, half of Americans said tech companies were having a positive effect on the way things are going in the country – a decline from 2015, when 71% said this. Negative views of technology companies’ effect on the country have nearly doubled during this period, from 17% to 33%. There was a similar decline in positive views among both Republicans and Democrats.
Legoland Florida Resort is set to reopen on June 1 with some health and safety measures, including reduced capacity, cashless payments, social distancing and additional cleaning amid the outbreak of COVID-19.
Universal Orlando is getting ready to reopen Universal Studios Florida, Volcano Bay, and Islands of Adventure on June 5. The resort is implementing enhanced sanitation procedures and additional measures for social distancing.
Six Flags announced that Frontier City in Oklahoma City will reopen with limited capacity from June 5. It has also released its extensive safety measures for the upcoming reopening its theme parks.
A new aerial view image of Super Nintendo World under construction in Japan has emerged on Instagram. The photo suggests that the expansion is almost complete at Universal Studios Japan.
Europa-Park is reopening in Germany. The theme park has prepared extensive health and safety guidelines, which are explained in a video demonstrating the ‘new normal’ amid COVID-19.
Disneyland, Universal, SeaWorld and other theme parks in California are able to reopen in Stage 3 of Governor Gavin Newsom’s four-part reopening plan –but only “if the rate of spread of COVID-19 and hospitalizations remain stable”.
Walt Disney World Resort announced plans for a phased reopening beginning on July 11. The theme park resort in Florida will implement social distancing and face coverings in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Japanese theme park associations have released new guidelines to prevent the spread of coronavirus upon reopening, also suggesting a ‘no screaming’ rule on roller coasters.
Small Worlds Tokyo, an indoor theme park featuring moving mini attractions, is set to open with a tiny Sailor Moon exhibit in June 2020. Small Worlds features six different worlds of detailed miniature recreations.
A HK$5.4 billion (US$0.7bn) bail-out for Ocean Park Hong Kong has been approved to enable the theme park to keep operating for another 12 months.
Museums
Space Center Houston is reopening on July 1. It will feature spacious outdoor experiences, new exhibits, and additional health and safety measures. These include face masks and social distancing.
The Eden Project has announced that it will start working on a feasibility study for a proposed new project in Dundee, known as Eden Project Scotland. The study will establish a suitable site and develop content ideas.
The International Council of Museums (ICOM) has published its full coronavirus report, raising concerns about the difficulties facing museums and analysing the impact of lockdown during COVID-19.
Beijing is set to become a ‘city of museums’ as part of a new plan to upgrade its historic sites and transform the city into a national cultural centre with distinctive features, plenty of exhibits and cultural resources.
New developments
The Heart of Europe, an experiential tourism island destination off the coast of Dubai, is on track to open its first phase by Q4 2020. The Heart of Europe will boast six themed islands and floating homes with underwater views.
ILMxLAB has announced a VR experience in collaboration with Oculus Studios, based on the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge expansion at Disney theme parks. Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge is set on the planet of Batuu.
In depth
The Florida Aquarium: Roger Germann talks education and expansion MORE
Recovering from COVID-19 and beyond: 5 benefits of contactless payments MORE
Blooloop lockdown playlist: favourite themed entertainment soundtracks MORE
ALVA’s Bernard Donoghue on COVID-19 and UK attractions MORE
How and why museums are collecting COVID-19 stories MORE
Creative and out-of-the-box ideas to generate revenue right now MORE
How might reduced theme park capacity impact the shared guest experience? MORE
What should we expect when Orlando theme parks reopen? MORE
Coronavirus update: news from the attractions industry MORE
The meal kit industry, once under fire for having unprofitable unit economics, seems to be doing better than ever.
Meal kits seem to be a product designed for current times: Ingredients are home-delivered, letting customers avoid a trip to the supermarket. The kits take a color-by-number approach, which is perfect for the hordes of beginners new to the world of home cooking.
As a result, meal kit sales have been surging during the pandemic. And they may be poised to find a stronger niche in the marketplace by adding variety with promises of fresh ingredients, convenience, and unique recipes.
More than half of Americans say they are cooking more now than they were pre-pandemic and plan to continue to do so once life reverts back to normal, according to a survey by Hunter, a food PR firm.
Changing consumer needs during the pandemic has allowed meal kit companies to reintroduce themselves:
HelloFreshgrew its U.S. customer base to 2.6 million subscribers this year, while overall sales increased 66% to more than $600 million.
Blue Apron reported that sales were up 9% to 1.7 million meal kits in the first quarter of 2020, while Sun Basket said weekly sales have almost doubled, as regular customers placed orders more often and for more meals.
As consumer behavior and preferences change post-COVID, every industry will be required to adapt. Customers will welcome heightened culinary experiences to their dining tables, with a broader range of cuisine offerings and prep times.
Funding and Acquisitions
Amplitude, a startup that tracks online user behavior announced it had raised $50 million in Series E funding at a valuation of more than $1 billion. Demand for its product has spiked as the COVID-19 pandemic forced companies to work out how best to engage customers on their online platforms.
American Well, which offers virtual medical visits, raised $194 million to keep up with skyrocketing demand. Prior to the coronavirus outbreak, telemedicine was growing slowly because of the patchwork of complex state-by-state regulations. Since then, states have loosened many of these regulations to encourage medical providers to conduct their visits online, letting patients avoid unnecessary exposure to the virus.
MasterClass, a startup that sells celebrity-taught classes to people, has raised $100 million in Series E funding at around $800 million valuation. The new fundraising comes as MasterClass has been seeing a boost due to COVID-19 as consumers look for new skills and hobbies they can pursue from home.
Mindstrong, a healthcare company focused on improving mental health has raised $100 million in Series C funding. Mindstrong has developed a digital platform for providing therapy to patients with severe mental illnesses ranging from schizophrenia to obsessive-compulsive disorders. It is looking to tackle a problem that costs the American healthcare system $20 billion per month.
Aspiration, the fintech startup that’s brought a socially and environmentally conscious twist to digital banking has raised $135 million in Series C funding. With the coronavirus pandemic disrupting traditional commerce around the world and keeping many indoors, present-day circumstances appear to lend themselves to tech-enabled, online-only neo-banks like Aspiration, Chime and Varo.
This week, what to stop, what to start, and what to accelerate when thinking about reopening. Plus, why this crisis is different for the oil and gas industry, and McKinsey partner Sarah Kleinman on the successful responses she’s seen.
The past months have been grueling, destabilizing, often deadly. Now, as governments and businesses try to find their feet amid the pandemic, there’s room for hope, tempered with caution.Still so many questions. How can companies navigate this difficult environment, especially in the next few weeks, as restrictions are loosened in many countries? What is the financial health—and state of mind—of suppliers and consumers? How can employees be motivated to return to work and be reassured about their safety? How quickly will demand return?Based on our research and conversations with leaders of large companies, from all sectors, we believe eight actions are essential. In addition to safeguarding their employees, companies should provide customers with safety guarantees that restore trust, revive demand, and reboot operations and supply chains.To start, create a detailed relaunch map. Go country by country, site by site, segment by segment, customer by customer, and product by product to prioritize recovery opportunities. This map will guide production, supply-chain, and marketing and sales efforts, and help determine a recovery timeline for each site. It may be appropriate to freeze some planned or ongoing projects until the company has the capacity to reassess them.What about governments? For weeks, most governments focused on controlling the spread of the virus, many of them by implementing a full lockdown strategy. Now, many are moving to strike a better balance between “flattening the curve” and reviving the economy. But uncertainty is rampant. In an April article on restarting national economies, we outlined a selective lockdown strategy in which certain regions and sectors can gradually return to work. Such a strategy makes it possible to define the optimal number of people allowed on the streets, making sure that lives are protected while also minimizing the cost on livelihoods.Yes, but. The toughest leadership test still looms: how to bring organizations back, full force, in an environment in which a vaccine has yet to be found and economies are still reeling. Imagination and on-the-field execution will be paramount as leaders consider how to navigate the restart. Business as usual will not be nearly enough; the game has changed too much. But by reimagining how they operate, organize, and use technology, even as they return to work, leaders can set the foundations for enduring success.Let’s end on an optimistic note. It’s said that the worst of times brings out the best in people; as it happens, this is true of organizations as well. Almost every leader we speak with has an inspiring story of radical, positive change in how work gets done and what their employees can—and did—accomplish. Amid the fear and uncertainty, people are energized as companies make good on their purpose statements and find new ways to serve their customers and communities. Let’s hope this continues well beyond the pandemic.
Oil and gas dig deep amid disruption The oil and gas industry is experiencing its third price collapse in 12 years. After the first two shocks, the industry rebounded, and business as usual continued. This time is different: the current context combines a supply shock with an unprecedented drop in demand and a global humanitarian crisis. On top of that, the sector’s financial and structural health is worse than in previous crises (the industry has underperformed against the S&P 500 over the past 15 years, as we show below). To respond, the industry will have to tap its history of bold structural moves, innovation, and safe and profitable operations in the toughest conditions.
The worst contraction seems to be over, at least for now.
Slightly less awful than April. That is our primary takeaway from last week’s release of May’s IHS Markit preliminary—or “flash”—purchasing managers’ indexes (PMIs) for many major world economies. PMIs tally the breadth of economic activity, and while more companies are now reporting an uptick, the results still show most businesses are contracting. This, despite gradual reopening, likely contributes to what seems to be an increasingly common view: that any economic recovery will be slow and drawn out. How fast that economic revival moves from here probably depends on further reopening progress. But for stocks, we think what matters most is how the economic trajectory squares with expectations.
May’s flash PMIs broadly rose versus April’s extremely low levels. But all remained well under 50, indicating contraction—just not as widespread as last month’s. (Exhibit 1) Services activity—the lion’s share of developed world GDP—saw the biggest jump off of April’s depressed levels, leading the increase in composite PMIs. Yet services’ readings remained worse than manufacturing’s across the board.
Exhibit 1: Major Economy PMIs Source: IHS Markit and FactSet, as of 5/21/2020.
Despite the bigger-than-expected bounce, these PMIs show the global economy remains in dire straits. Business contraction is still more widespread than at any time on record pre-pandemic. Forward-looking new orders also remain weak, suggesting June isn’t likely to fare much better. As IHS Markit reported for the US: “Although the overall contraction in new business eased in May, it was still the second-steepest in the series history. Firms continued to report significant decreases in client demand as customers further postponed the placement of orders.”[i] This sentiment was rife in Europe as well.
On a sector basis, services’ global rebound appeared driven by loosening lockdowns, which suggests reopening is helping unleash some pent-up demand. As for manufacturing, its continued higher readings may give the impression factories are better positioned for the crisis. Perhaps that is true, especially with factories across the developed world appearing on track to open before other businesses. But it could also be a mirage. Last month’s final read showed a record rise in firms reporting supplier delivery times lengthening. While an increase in this subcomponent is normally a sign of surging demand, in this case, as IHS Markit notes, “suppliers have simply not been making and shipping goods.”[ii] It is possible that trend continued in May, although flash PMIs lack necessary detail to really size up what is driving the uptick.
A country-by-country look makes it somewhat easier to see the lockdowns’ impact. Japan was arguably the last major developed country to impose lockdowns. So it is no surprise to us that its composite PMI didn’t budge much as manufacturing faltered. No significant lockdown lifting, no uptick. Similarly, the UK was the last Western European nation to enter lockdown. UK PMI industry details show healthcare and technology services reported growth, while many travel, tourism and leisure firms noted that business had slumped to zero. Meanwhile, Germany’s PMI appears to be leading the eurozone’s higher with the country further along in the reopening process. In America, contraction seems relatively less extensive, likely resulting from the easing lockdowns in some areas as well as e-commerce’s wider use.
More telling from a market perspective, in our view, is the reaction to the data. Few seem to be taking much comfort in May’s higher numbers. While acknowledging slight relief from easing restrictions, most coverage emphasized economic conditions’ ongoing deterioration, vulnerability to a COVID second wave and the absence of a vaccine, echoing companies’ caution. Economists remain pessimistic, saying PMIs are further evidence Q2 will likely post the worst quarterly economic contraction on record, with any recovery likely sluggish. As one bank economist put it, “People hoping for a V-shaped recovery should go back to the alphabet and pick another letter.”[iii]
Sentiment, in short, remains near rock bottom. Tentative reopening and somewhat less bad PMIs aren’t leading to a surge in optimism. For investors, souring sentiment suggests reality going forward is unlikely to disappoint markets.
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