Unrequited love

I haven't been posting much on this blog, since I have the avenue of Facebook now. However this topic is one I cannot publish on any of the social media I am on. The reason why I will reveal later.

I met my best friend during the first year of medical school. She was (and still is) beautiful, kind and funny. Like every teenage male with raging hormones, I fell in love with her instantly. There was just one problem - she didn't love me and was already in a relationship. She could sense my feelings towards her and let me down gently (or as gently as you can when you are being friend-zoned). There was nothing that I can do but accept the situation. 

Her relationship with her boyfriend continued over the years. They got married, have successful careers as doctors and have kids. She continued to be my best friend (but not necessarily out friendship was the same the other way around - her best friend was definitely somebody else). She was there when I struggled with my depression and through medical school. She was there when I tried to commit suicide and was hospitalized. She was there when I broke down in my first few days as an intern. She joined me at concerts and comedy gigs. She is one of a few people I keep in touch with over the years. And not once did I say to her how I truly felt.

I thought she had a happy marriage. It was shocking to hear last year they had separated and were getting a divorce. Apparently what you post on social media is not evidently what is happening in real life. Her husband thought of her more of as commodity rather than her wife. He displayed her as a trophy: "Look at my wife, a successful doctor, academic and mother to my children." It is alright to boast about your wife but not if you are contributing as well. He didn't help in raising the kids, although he has an excuse that he is jetting around the world to medical conferences. What really got to her is how he didn't support her emotionally. When she felt sad, he only complained that she was ruining his day by feeling sad. When she was tired on holiday (because she had to sort out all the logistics regarding their children), all he could say is she was ruining his vacation. Basically he was acting like a rich, pretentious, entitled prick. That is not surprising given that he comes from a very rich background. 

At this point I should say I've only heard from my best friend's point of view. She admits that his work is important and that he's good at it. Her husband is a really nice guy who I don't have any animosity towards. He is better than me in so many ways - emotionally, physically, financially, academically and professionally. I don't want them to get divorced, for the sake of themselves and their children. I told my mother about their situation and she said that all men act like that, even her husband / my father. 

When she told me she was getting divorced, the news brought up my repressed feelings towards her. I started to fantasize what it would be like to actually date her. Immediately I had to remove those thoughts, since I know it would crush me inside. but like the old phrase it is easier said than done. Of course I haven't told her how I feel about her - that would ruin her and our friendship. I can't talk to anybody about this. She would normally be the go-to-person for this kind of thing. I can't talk about it on any of my social media, since either she or her husband are on them. This blog is my only outlet, even though there is a small risk they could find this out.

The ultimate truth is I don't love her. I am selfish - I don't want to ruin my cosy existence for the uncertain future of dating and taking care of her kids. I continue to wallow in my depression rather than get better and improve myself as a person, trying to impress her. I know I couldn't let her try to cope with me and my depression. If I was truly in love, I would make the effort and sacrifice to do all these things for her.. but I don't. I also think I don't do these things because I know there is a strong probability she won't love me back.

I've been getting back into TV drama recently, specifically the DC TV Universe. I wish I hadn't because I identify myself in some of the characters or the situations. Unrequited love, loving somebody you cannot have - basically every emotional string that the screenwriters pull to captivate their audience.

There is only one aspect that I truly love her - I want her happiness, even if it without me.

Dread and motivation

Dread and motivation have something in common - they look to the future, something I do do and don't do respectively.

Confused? Let me explain.

Every morning I am woken up by my mother. Even at 40 years old, I've still need somebody to wake me up and force me out of bed, like an unruly teenager who doesn't want to go to school. I dread the day ahead. I hate being stuck in traffic for an hour, I hate being consulted by patients, I hate eating my packed lunch nowadays and I hate being consulted by more patients. It's worse when I wake up and my depressed part of me keeps saying don't go to work, take a sick day or resign. Unfortunately that part of me has been increasing steadily. People say it is the anticipation of a dreaded event is worse than the dreaded event itself. Everybody has anxiety before taking examinations but the actual test itself maybe not so bad. For me that is not the case. "Why won't it be 13:00/17:00?" is what I'm constantly feeling. Yes I know everybody have these thoughts. So why am I different? I should buckle down and get on with it but... I don't know, 

On the flip side I don't look to the future regarding motivating myself. I know I should study medical topics but I don't. I know I should clean up my paperwork but I don't. Even the obsessive compulsive things I do, like back up my podcasts, tidy up my Lego parts or watch movies I haven't seen that are on my Netflix "My List", I don't have the motivation for. I keep repeat old episodes of QI / The Bugle. Or try to refine my designs on my Lego MOCs (My Own Creations) on the Lego designer program. 

I wish I had less dread and motivation in life, rather than vice versa.

Should I wear a surgical face mask?

I had this heated discussion / debate / argument with my brother - should a normal person wear a face mask during the Covid 19 pandemic? My brother lives in Europe, where wearing a surgical face mask is not the norm, even if one has respiratory symptoms. He has read up the literature and the evidence suggests that a normal person should not need to wear a face mask. I am based in East Asia and have lived through SARS. Wearing a face mask is now seen as secondary behaviour. I'm also a general practitioner, so wearing a face mask is pre-requisite for me (even though this practice is not seen in primary care physicians in the West).

So I have been ignoring people posting information without a source on social media and have been looking around. At moment, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommend that a normal person should not need to wear a face mask. The evidence seems to support this; a recent review by the University of Hong Kong and published by the CDC's journal - Emergency Infectious Diseases - finds that studies cannot support the use of surgical face mask by normal people for influenza, or at most they have a modest impact on transmission.

Of course not every study is designed perfectly. If you look closer at the studies examined, you will find factors to pick at. The good points are that all of these studies are randomized control trials - the best sort of evidence a doctor would want. However the population sizes studied are quite small - they range from 84 patients and their household contacts to 1437 university hall residents recruited with 1297 university hall residents further analyzed. Only one of the studies was studied on the general population - 165 Australians going on the Hajj pilgrimage. Two studies were of university students residences and nine studies were on patients with their household contacts. These will be patients who are in close contact with their surrounding people, and not likely to mimic the general population.

The studies showed the impact of influenza and wearing face mask. Only one study (Macintyre et al. 2016) test for other respiratory viruses, including coronavirus. The study showed "a potential benefit of medical masks for source control, but is limited by small sample size and low secondary attack rates." Influenza is transmissible one day before the onset of symptoms. SARS-CoV-2 (the coronavirus causing Covid 19) has been shown to be transmissible during the incubation, which can last from 2-14 days. SARS-CoV-2 has been shown to be more transmissible and much deadlier compared to influenza. If you don't have symptoms and have Covid 19, when you sneeze and cough (as all people do from time to time, even if they don't have a cold), you are spreading the disease if you don't cover your nose or mouth.

There has been suggestions a surgical face mask will decrease the chances of infection because people will stop touching their face more, but if you are not use to wearing a surgical face mask (as most of the general population in North America and Europe are), you will tend to touch your face more since you have to adjust the face mask to make yourself feel comfortable.

In a recent Time article, David Hui, a respiratory medicine expert at the Chinese University of Hong Kong who studied the 2002 to 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) extensively, points out that there can never be truly good evidence in situations like SARS and Covid 19 where you can find out if wearing surgical face masks will be useful or not.

Hui adds that the lack of solid evidence supporting the effectiveness of masks against the virus is no reason to dismiss its use, because there may never be definitive scientific proof. A properly controlled study would be impossible to conduct ethically, he explains. “You can’t randomize people to not wear a mask, and some to wear a mask, and then expose them all to the virus,” he says.

Most of the West haven't lived through something like this. Hong Kong went through SARS in 2003. There were 1755 cases in Hong Kong, second only to China, and 299 deaths. And these were not deaths in elderly people with medical conditions. SARS killed young health adults as well. I was a third year medical student at the time. Sixteen medical students were infected. Looking back, I should have been more scared than I was.

Ultimately it is a personal decision whether to wear a surgical face mask or not. Generally I would advocate it, seeing that Covid 19 is transmissible even when you are asymptomatic. If you are in close proximity of a Covid 19 case, have underlying medical conditions or caring for a person who has underlying medical conditions or have respiratory symptoms - wear a surgical face mask. Ultimately there is this point - there is no harm wearing one.

Obsessive compulsiveness as my (poor) coping mechanism

To avoid my depression sliding further down, I tend to perform repetitive tasks. Essentially I have somewhat become obsessive compulsive. I have not reached  the extent that my condition has become an disorder, affecting by daily routine, but significant enough for myself to acknowledge the situation is not ideal.

My first method was to collect photos of cheerleaders and race queens. Originally the material was to form an offline library for the purposes of... well you can guess what I - a single straight male - was going to use the photos for. However as time went on, it become more of an obsessive compulsive task and did not form any of its primary purpose.

Considering how much material there was on the internet, the logical & sane part of me knew I wouldn't be able to collect all the photos and would spend too much time browsing the internet. So the non-depressed and depressed sections of psyche formed an agreement, to place some criteria so I wouldn't be submerged in my own patheticness:

• I would only collect studio photos, so no pictures of events or in-action shots. I wanted a plain background. As to why I wanted a plain background...
• Photos from the same team had to be of the same dimensions (e.g. all the individual photos of the cheerleaders from the Buffalo Bills would be 400 x 600 pixels, if the majority of the individual photos were of that size). As some photos were of different sizes, I would have to adjust the dimensions and alter the background - having a plain background made this task easier. Considering how much time the editing took, I did cut down the time by downloading a program which performed the task more quickly.
• The photos had to have a minimum width of 200 pixels and minimum height of 300 pixels - basically I wouldn't have to strain my eyesto see the photos. There weren't any maximum dimensions but I did reduce some larger photos just so I could fit all the photos on one CD/DVD. 
• For naming of the file, individual photos would be numbered, group photos would be lettered (e.g. Los Angeles Lakers a, Los Angeles Lakers b).
• To stop me constantly searching the internet every day or checking the homepage of each team, I had to form a spreadsheet with the date I last checked the webpage and when I should recheck the webpage. 

I know this "hobby" makes me very perverted and extremely creepy. The collection started with cheerleaders and race queens, but did spread to other areas. At some point I came to the realisation this wasting my time and I had to stop. Eventually I did put an end to the photo collection, after seven years. The material is still stored on some CDs/DVDs and my external hard drive. I have rarely look at the photos since. Some part of me doesn't want to delete the files, consider how much time and effort I spent collating this hoard.

After ending this obsessive compulsive behaviour, I knew I had to focus my coping mechanism to something which was at least constructive. Since 2013, my way of ignoring my depression and real life has been vacation research. I plan my holidays to the minutest detail. Every aspect of the trip is thoroughly researched, websites are constantly refreshed for the latest prices, Google is repeatedly used to find the best discounts and the itinerary is revised for the 22nd time. All this research goes into spreadsheets. I even have material for vacations I wanted to go on but were cancelled or ideas I have had. There is a big file regarding a massive US & Canada road trip and a gigantic European rail journey that I did in 2016, just when I converted to being a part-time doctor and was really thinking of taking a year off to travel.

The fascination with spreadsheets continues, with another Excel document detailing my travel expenses over the past 5 years. Everything transaction is tracked, categorised and analysed. The logical part of me convinces myself why I keep a detailed travel expenses spreadsheet is so I can better plan my vacations but deep down I know is my obsessive-compulsiveness.

My obsessive-compulsiveness does have some limits. For example, another collection I have are the radio programmes and podcasts I have collected over the past 10+ years. Some programmes I do listen to again and some I don't. There are podcasts which have introductions to other shows at the beginning and end, or advertisements in the middle of the programme. But I don't edit those out - I know that would significantly waste my time. However I like to keep things organised (another way to say you are obsessive compulsive) by making sure the file is named the correct way, with the appropriate metadata (episode title, artist, collection name, etc.) properly labelled.


I tend to watch my favourite TV shows and listen to my favourite podcasts / radio programmes far too often. Even though I listen to "Fighting Talk" and "No Such Thing As A Fish", I tend to repeatedly play "The Bugle" and "The News Quiz" podcasts. I really have to force myself to listen to the first mentioned podcasts, which I tend to do when I'm doing other tasks - driving, doing my shoulder rehabilitation. The same goes with "Mock The Week" and "QI" - these are on a loop on my computer where I should be trying to use my Netflix more often.

My latest project has been Hong Kong hotel buffets. I have made several spreadsheets (what a surprise!) documenting nearly all the hotel buffets that are available in Hong Kong and finding what discounts I can get. If I had more computer skills, I would have set up a website. At least this time the project has been applicable, using the data three times in eating out and saving money.

I really wish my obsessive compulsive behaviour could be turned into something productive for work. I really should be trying to make myself write notes in preparation in seeing patients in specialty clinics but still I try to find the latest discounts on brunch buffets...

Online postgraduate diplomas and degrees

When I pass my Exit Examination for the Hong Kong College of Family Physicians, I plan to take a postgraduate course to get a masters. This is not to extend the letters after my name, which we were jokingly told during our undergraduate studies. It is so I can fully understand the subject so I can put it into practice and help me to get into the fields I plan to go into the future.

With the improvement of technology, learning online has started to become the norm. Major universities are waking up to this and started to offer numerous postgraduate diplomas and degrees. Naturally you will lose the face-to-face interaction and any practical aspect which comes with the subject. However many people work full time and cannot take time off to attend a full time course. Even if the course is part-time, you have to consider travelling time and money. Some online course off an intensive teaching period, which you could attend during your annual leave.

I have been focussing on three main areas of study which I'm interested in - Family Medicine, Medical Education and Public Health. Below are the three main course I plan to take, with the other courses I took into consideration and why chose the particular course. Fees mentioned are for international students, so local students will be considerably cheaper.

1. Masters in Primary Care, University of Glasgow

I wanted to take a course which further develops my family medicine skills and knowledge. Our own college (Hong Kong College of Family Physicians) offers a certificate/diploma course. That one is primarily aimed at private doctors who are not specialising in anything, even Family Medicine, to show they have some skills in the area. Hong Kong Baptist University offers a postgraduate diploma / masters in primary care in conjunction with the University of Western Sydney. However the Baptist University doesn't have its own medical school, just a school of nursing and a private hospital, which means they don't have their own dedicated academic staff to teaching this subject. The medical teaching will likely come from private doctors or remotely from the University of Western Sydney.

There are two universities which offer online courses in this area apart from Glasgow. The University of Edinburgh has a masters of science course in Family Medicine. They have the best ranking amongst the universities here, placing 23rd in the QS World University Rankings in Medicine 2017. However the course at Edinburgh requires two periods of two weeks where they require face-to-face teaching at the university. That will require me to take annual leave and getting two weeks off is very difficult. Monash University use to offer a Masters of Family Medicine but have changed the title to Masters in Advanced Primary Health Care Practice. Monash is ranked 29th, so they aren't a bad medical school. The course details are somewhat vague but the real killer to this cost is price.

Monash will cost HKD 17,766 more than Glasgow, which is GBP 1800+ or USD ~2300 more. If Edinburgh didn't require me to attend face-to-face teaching, I would have taken their course. It is just GBP 297 than Glasgow, which is HKD ~2900 or USD 370+. I know I can afford the differences but it is not worth it. Glasgow is only ranked ten places lower than Monash, at 39th place, and I feel the University of Glasgow name carries slightly more value than Monash University's name.

2. Masters in Public Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Public Health is a subject where the whole content can be delivered online, since the content is mostly theory or non-practical based. Since this is the case, and public health schools are quite prevalent, there are many universities which offer this course online. Below are the universities which offer the course 100% online, except the Hong Kong universities which I have included as they are possible options for me. Ranking is based on US News 2017 rankings for Best Global Universities for Social Sciences and Public Health.

This decision is no brainer. London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (or LSHTM) has the best ranking and is the cheapest university with a ranking in the top 100. Sheffield is cheaper but is ranked 118 places below LSHTM. The cheapest university with a ranking is Essex, which Staffordshire offers the cheapest out of all universities. I have the option of completing the course at more leisurely pace. Most schools intend for you to complete their masters in two years, while LSHTM allows you a maximum of five years. Another point which is not displayed in the table is that I can take their course by modules alone and don't have to do a dissertation or project, which a lot of the other courses require you to perform.

I would like to take this opportunity to make my point on differences between nations. UK offers the cheapest courses by far. Hong Kong offers similarly priced courses but you have to factor in the travel time and cost. However I would get Continuous Medical Education points if I attend the Hong Kong courses.

Next comes Australia, with the cheapest course coming from the University of Tasmania and the highest ranked course coming from Monash. Yet Tasmania is HKD 29,250 (GBP 4,900+, USD ~3400) and Monash is HKD 96,215 (GBP ~9,900, USD ~12,400) more expensive than LSHTM. 

USA is much more expensive than UK. The cheapest course is Florida (Difference between LSHTM: HKD 94,030, GBP ~6,600, USD 8,200+) and the highest ranked is North Carolina (Difference between LSHTM: HKD 403,000, GBP 41,000+, USD ~52,000). Most ridiculously is Southern California (or USC as it is more famously known), which is eye-poppingly priced at USD 81,541. That would be half year's salary if I was still working full time. How would they even attract international students with that figure? 

3. Masters in Health Professions Education, University of Glasgow
I eventually would like teach in some capacity, to trainees or medical students. Some part of the reason why is to feed my ego, to feel important, but mainly I do want better trained doctors (I have a whole blog entry I could write regarding improperly trained or not trained doctors).

The degrees come under a few names: Medical Eduction, Clinical Education, Health Professions Education. I've grouped into the same category since the content will be similar, if not the same. Like Public Health most of the course knowledge and theories are non-practical based. So you wouldn't lose so much between delivering the course online or face-to-face.


This is the one course I had difficulty choosing. There were many course I could select but I narrowed the options down to four universities. The other universities were either too expensive or didn't have a good ranking in either medicine or education.

Melbourne, even though a very highly ranked medical school, isn't worth the extra added cost. Edinburgh would have been my choice since the degree has already been approved as a quotable qualification in Hong Kong. However the course is research oriented, which I rather avoid. Glasgow has the nice balance of being a well ranked medical school with a reasonable price course. 

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Holiday plans 2017-2018

For those who know me from Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, I've been busy preparing and taking my Exit Examination for the Hong Kong College of Family Physicians. Basically it means I'm trying to gain the title of "Specialist in Family Medicine". I know I won't pass because I bollocked up the clinical audit part of the exam, by handing in the audit late and incomplete. Hopefully that is the only part I have failed.

Since there is nothing I can do about the outcome, my focus has turned to my holiday plans for the next two years. I am very obsessive compulsive when it comes to holiday planning, as I have prepared trips years in advance. I already scheduled a trip to Taipei this year, no matter what the outcome of my examinations were. I'm taking my mum along this time because a) she hasn't had a proper vacation for a long time and b) I need her to help me navigate the language (since I can't read Chinese or speak Putonghua). For 2018, I have two trips planned. I want to go back to the UK in May/June 2018 so I can catch up with my brother and friends. I couldn't go to Seoul last summer, so I'm heading there in October 2018 to coincide with the WONCA (World Organization of National Colleges, Academies and Academic Associations of General Practitioners/Family Physicians) conference.

All this scheduling has left me a gap in late 2017 for a small trip. I have prepared options but I'm a bit indecisive in the matter, so I'm throwing it out to the public to gather opinion. I have four options, in order of date:

1. Tokyo Game Show (23rd to 24th September 2017)
Apart from E3 (the Electronic Entertainment Expo) and gamescom, the Tokyo Game Show is one of the most significant gaming conventions in the world. Since you need to be a member of the video game industry to gain entry to E3 and gamescom is a bit far away as it is held in Cologne, the Tokyo Game Show is a more accessible option. I want to see what games will be coming out and see if there are gaming options for smartphones and tablets, as I've gone back to gaming recently after my cousin gave me his Xbox 360. The tickets are not expensive (¥1000 for advance tickets, ¥1200 for onsite tickets and ¥3000 for VIP tickets) and I can always do a bit of sightseeing. I've been to Tokyo twice before but I can't remember anything from the previous trips.

2. Malaysian Grand Prix (29th September to 1st October 2017)
Although I'm not a enthusiastic fan of Formula 1, I enjoyed the experience of the Singapore Grand Prix in 2014. I was also intrigued by the hospitality tickets for the Grands Prix (that's the plural of 'Grand Prix'), so I looked around at the other Asian Grands Prix to see what they could offer.

There are seven Grands Prix in Asia. I've been to Singapore, so I can rule that out. The Chinese Grand Prix is held in Shanghai but the circuit is actually in the outskirts of the city, which makes travelling to and from the hotel a bit of a hassle. Also I don't feel comfortable going to Chinese countries and not being able to speak the language (hence why I'm dragging my mum with me to Taipei). The only thing putting me off going to the Bahrain Grand Prix is that there is no direct flight between Hong Kong and Bahrain. This adds to the inconvenience and travel time. The Japanese Grand Prix has the same problem as the Chinese Grand Prix. It is held at Suzuka but that's about an hour away from the nearest city, Nagoya, and there isn't much I want to see around there.

That leave me with three possibilities: Australia, Malaysia, Abu Dhabi. Melbourne hosts the Australian Grand Prix and since I've just been there last year, I won't be back anytime soon. Abu Dhabi seems intriguing, since I've just found some attractions worth visiting. However it's a bit far away and would be reasonably expensive.

That leave the Malaysian Grand Prix, held in Kuala Lumpur. To be more exact it is in Sepang, an hour outside of Kuala Lumpur. I know I'm being hypocritical, since I excluded the Chinese and Japanese Grand Prix for being too far outside the main city but I also had other reasons not to choose them. Also I have a friend who lives in Sepang, so I could bunk up with my friend and save on accommodation fees.

I've been to Kuala Lumpur twice but I can't remember the attractions I saw (my memory is failing me), so I probably want to refresh my memory. The hospitality ticket I'm eye is not that expensive at ~US$2000.

So what is putting me off going to the Malaysian Grand Prix? As I said, I'm not a big fan of Formula One and I enjoyed the experience of Singapore Grand Prix but less so of the sport. It helped that the Singapore Grand Prix also had concerts by John Legend and Robbie Williams. Also going alone (as I will be) seems a bit pathetic and I don't know why. It's going to be difficult to find somebody to go with me and fork up that amount of cash.

I have to decide soon about the Malaysian Grand Prix, since this will be the final year it will be held as the Malaysian Government is not renewing the contract.

3. WTA Finals (22nd to 29th October 2017)
Before anybody says I'm going only to perv at female tennis players - you're probably right. But I did enjoy watching the Hong Kong Tennis Open in 2015, so I want to see top level tennis again. My overall aim would be to see Andy Murray, preferably at Wimbledon, but the logistics of that seem very troublesome. As the WTA Finals are held in Singapore, this is a more convenient option. I didn't go to see many attractions the last time I went to Singapore, so I hope to rectify that with this trip. The only problems are that a) I need a tennis player to root for and the only female tennis player I would go and watch is Laura Robson, who is way off from qualifying for the WTA Finals and b) like Formula One, I'm not a big fan of tennis.

4. Tokyo Motor Show (27th October to 5th November 2017)
Like any other grown up boy, if it is not video games I like then it would be cars. As Japan is a significant producer of the automobile, the Tokyo Motor Show would definitely be a place to see what the motor industry is offering in Japan.

Again ticket prices are not that expensive (¥400-1600) and since it's held over ten days, there are plenty of days to choose from. The only downside to the Tokyo Motor Show is that it is a biennial event. So if I don't go this year, I have to wait for 2019 for the next opportunity.

At the moment, I'm leaning towards the Tokyo trips but I know this is the last year I have the option going to the Malaysian Grand Prix (and probably one of the cheapest hospitality tickets on the Formula One schedule).

Left vs Right

I'm trying to stay out of politics recently but the situation in the world makes the subject very difficult to avoid. Politics are dominating the news and social media. The events of 2016 - mainly the refugee crisis in Europe, Brexit and the election of Trump to the U.S. presidency - have left me confused as to why so many people are taking right-wing views and has lead me to re-examine my political thinking as a liberal.

Ever since I could remember, I have always been a leftie. I wanted equality for all and believed climate change + animal rights are real problems the world should face. Yet I never really examined why I take these views on these issues. So I went back to basics and looked up the definitions of right wing and left wing. On Wikipedia (where else would I have gone to?), this was the definition of right-wing politics:

Right-wing politics hold that certain social orders and hierarchies are inevitable, natural, normal or desirable, typically defending this position on the basis of natural law, economics or tradition.

Before I go on, we should really establish that when the article mentions "social orders" and when I write anything about "social", what is really meant is wealth. Social classes went out the window after the World War 2 and was on really meant for countries where nobility thrived. What differentiates us the most in today's society is how much money you have. I don't deny there is this economic hierarchy. There will be people who will be richer or poorer than others. Yet I have a problem with how this social order is established and maintained. There are many who become rich via good, hard work. I don't have a problem with these people. My bile is reserved for those who arrive into the higher echelons of the social strata by scrupulous means. The methods include nepotism, exploitation of the masses, bending or breaking of the rules. I'll go more into this when I write about the economics of the Left and Right.

My argument brings me to the definition of left-wing politics (again, retrieved from Wikipedia):

Left-wing politics supports social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy and social inequality. It typical involves a concern for those in society whom its adherents perceive as disadvantaged relative to others (prioritarianism), as well as a belief that there are unjustified inequalities that need to be reduced or abolished (by advocating for social justice).

Before people start to label me as a Communist or a liberal elite hippie, I'm not advocating that everybody is equal. It has long been established Communism, where everybody is seen as equals, rarely works. The main Communist state of the Soviet Union fell and the other examples of Communist states nowadays are not really Communist (China, Vietnam) or don't thrive very well without some sort of capitalism to help (Cuba, North Korea). There never will be true equality amongst. We all cannot have the same money, material possessions, intelligence or physical attributes.

What I am advocating is equal opportunities for all. A person shouldn't be more entitled to a job, just because his/her relative owns the company or has connections to other businesses. A person shouldn't be denied access to education or health care because he/she has less money (something I will go into further detail when I approach education and health care).

Another moot point I have regarding right-wing politics is the use of "tradition". The term is rather vague but in essence people want to have things the same rather than change. I argue that things cannot always stay the same. Things will always change. We, as a person and a society, cannot stand still or we will cease to exist in our current state. If we continued to have tradition, the concept of slavery and female submission would have been kept. If we didn't progress, the Dark Ages would have continued and the sciences and the arts would not be where they are today.

A lot of "tradition" has used religion as its basis, something I totally disagree on. Some of my arguments against using religion as a basis of establishing rules and views on society is that not all people will be of that religion. There are people of other religions or of no religion, who will have different rules and views on society. Either there has to be a consensus between these groups of people, or a rule where the religion isn't affected (something I will elaborate when writing about gay marriage).

Delving into the definitions of left & right wing politics has re-affirmed by belief of being liberal but maybe not as liberal as I thought I would be. There always be a hierarchy, whether there are liberals or conservatives in power. But there always will be change and the end result should be an equal opportunity for all.