Physiognomy or anthroposcopy is the practice of assessing a person's character or personality from his or her outer appearance – especially the face. The practice was well accepted by the ancient Greek philosophers. It is a pseudoscience to many, an opinion which I largely share. But when it comes to American politicians, I think this pseudoscience does hold water.
During the run-up to last year’s presidential
election in the US, many of us were banking our hope on Joe Biden. He did seem
“lost” many a time during public appearances and engagements, but Donald Trump
was so obnoxious to us then. When Biden was finally declared the winner, I am
sure most of us breathed a sigh of relief!
I for one was for him, thinking he should
have the courage and wisdom to correct the wrongs of Trump. The first couple of
weeks of his presidency was reassuring. Alas, my respect for him soon took a
sharp turn south.
Then I remember Barrack Obama’s 2020 book A
PROMISED LAND. Biden was hardly credited for any decision Obama made during
his presidency. If at all, Obama appeared dismissive of his vice presidency’s
counsel on most issues.
Left: Obama’s A PROMISED LAND
And I dug deeper. This is what I unearthed: A Politico report said well before the nomination of the Democratic Party’s candidates for the 2020 presidential election “Barrack Obama has privately voiced doubts about the ability of Joe Biden … to beat President Donald Trump … Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to f… things up… said to be concerned privately that Biden does not have an intimate connection with the electorate.”
Even with the benefit of the hindsight, we wouldn’t have done otherwise, would we? It was a Hobson’s choice to armchair observers like me.
Left: Shit, what have I done?
Right: “Oh, God, forgive me!”
The
left picture of Biden was taken when Taliban entered the Kabul’s presidential
palace without firing a single shot. Afghanistan was conquered by Taliban in a
matter of weeks. The picture on the right was taken immediately after 13
American soldiers, together with many desperate Afghans, were killed by suicide
bombers during an attack at the Kabul airport. What do these pictures tell us?
For the picture on the left, I can only surmise Biden’s thought as: Shit, what have I done; and for the right picture, “Oh, God, forgive me!”
I am not here to argue whether his decision to quit Afghanistan was sound. But most would agree that his execution was outright stupid! Obviously, it must have been conducted without the advice of any military, logistics or even administrative professionals. Judging from Antony Blinken’s clueless performances so far and his relationship with Biden, he must also be the cheerleader behind Biden’s “go” decision. Clueless is as Clueless does. Period.
I was watching Blinken’s live address on CNN this morning (7am, 31st August 2021 Malaysian time). This man obviously was trying to salvage his reputation. From the very outset, he was crowing about America’s feat in being able to evacuate some 6,000 Americans and 120,000 others from the Kabul airport before the deadline. He talked about America’s commitment to help those Afghans who want to build new life outside their very own country. This chap is a real nut. Some 100-200 Americans are still in Afghanistan, yet he threatens sanctions. If America has the wellbeing of Afghans at heart, they should encourage Afghans to stay behind to help rebuild the country. That’s where American help will be greatly welcomed. The billions of dollars of military helicopters and vehicles and weaponry left behind may also potentially end up elsewhere. If I were China and they are offered to me, my answer is Why Not? Stupid is What Stupid does again!
What
have all this got to do with physiognomy or anthroposcopy? I believe a person’s
mental and moral characteristics, if persist, will in no time transform his or
her facial features physically to reflect those characteristics. We tend to
stereotype when we come across these features – evil or sadistic looking, dishonest,
treacherous, advantage-taking, etc, amongst them. Of course, we can also be
fooled by such prejudices.
Biden strikes me as “sor-cai”, a Cantonese term which I often used in junior school to poke fun at some of my mates who could not solve simple problems. It means “stupid fellow”. Or one who doesn’t use his or her brain. He could have used his presidency to leave a legacy, after all, who could go down as the most useless president in American history. Now it looks as though he and Trump might be fighting for the same title.
Blinken’s face reflects cluelessness, charlatanism, timidity guised as intellectuality and all the pretensions you can think of. Feel free to disagree!
Coming back to Trump’s physiognomy or anthroposcopy, those of us who have done some graduate studies in business or management would have already known Trump was largely a conman even as far back as the 1980s. I remember there were plenty of stories on him in Fortune or Forbes those days about his unscrupulousness and failures in business dealings. So, when his niece Mary Trump published her volume in 2020 TOO MUCH, NEVER ENOUGH, I said to my wife, “Didn’t I tell you all along that this man is a conman?”
His unscrupulousness is written all over his face and carried in
his gestures. Below is a picture of the conman receiving the president of
Serbia Aleksandar Vučić. How would you feel if you were Vučić? This conman has
absolutely no concept of decency, let alone the understanding of international
diplomatic protocol.
Now
let me touch on some of the lesser mortals. First, Kamala Harris.
Her face mask hides her total lack of knowledge in anything outside California. I read from Wikipedia that before she assumed vice presidency she had only been to Jamaica and India for family visits and not much beyond these two places. Given her career background, I suppose before her embarked on her recent Singapore and Vietnam trip, she also did not know much about Southeast and East Asia. The way she blasted China in Singapore and Hanoi underscored the fact that the lines were written by someone else. (And it is simply bad manners or poor upbringing to scold you host’s neighbour when you do not know the true feelings of your host.) It is an open secret that her office is a dysfunctional one. But her physiognomy has still not fully developed yet. Give her a couple of years, her shallowness will be written all over her face if she keeps believing in her own misplaced logic.
I always argue that the greatest enemies of China are some Chinese – foreign-born or migrant – all over the world. I would just name three below.
The most notorious of whom is none other than China-born Miles Yu Maochun, who was advising Mike Pompeo on how to humiliate China.
Vicky
Xu Xiuzhong
A new star is emerging at CNN. She is Nectar Gan. Before joining CNN in 2020, Nectar was a China reporter at the South China Morning Post. She has covered a wide range of topics from diplomacy to the environment, and written extensively on politics and religion, according to CNN’s website. She is said to be based in Hong Kong since 2010.
I
was trying to google to find out where she hails from. I had no luck; there was
close to zero information on her background. Nonetheless, I saw a PhD candidate
at the London School Economics listed her work in his bibliography. She must be
quite smart to be cited at that level. However, from her surname Gan, I have a
hunch that she must have hailed either from Malaysia or Singapore. Or she might
be an ABC (American or Australian Born Chinese).
The following are two recent articles which have listed Nectar Gan as the first author. I leave it to readers to judge her sanity or her going all out to gain brownie points with her new bosses at CNN.
What Do All these Qin Hui [秦桧] have in common in physiognomy?
Qin
Hui is generally regarded as the greatest traitor in Chinese history. In a
museum in Zhejiang, one can go and “spit” at him and his wife, although he died about a
thousand years ago. Qin was a chancellor of the Song dynasty and was the man
behind the persecution and execution of Yue Fei, a general who fought against
the Jin army.
Miles Yu, Vicky Xu, and Nectar Gan are modern-day Qin Hui!
And what do they have in common in facial features? My answer: Shades of greed, and ever readiness to ingratiate to the modern-day Jins, aka Western Masters.
Of course, I am just joking about the discernability of these features in their faces. Theirs are just as normal as yours or mine. But their actions are certainly those of Qin Hui and they truly deserve our contempt.
There are many modern-day Qin Hui out there. Watch out for them!
I love America. They have great universities and thought leaders. Columbia University’s Jeffrey Sachs is one of my favourites. But I have very low opinion of their politicians.
End
Acknowledgement
As usual, my good friend Lilian Low and Chew Hai Hong helped me to make this into a readable article. Thank you Lilian and Hai Hong!
Will be great if you did physiognomy on the Chinese team, including individuals like Wang Yi and Yang JieChi. :>
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