(Sun Yat-sen memorial, Zhongshan) Cigarettes in vending machines, probably not such a great idea.
There is a graceless human tendency to wish upon others the ills visited upon oneself. Instead of pointing successors towards short cuts, you relish seeing them clambering through identical hoops.
The author of this particularly insightful observation was describing her experience advising a prospective journalist. She was asked for advice about how to write a book about Africa in a thoughtless way that was not conducive to actually receiving the desired information (it provoked the sentiments quoted), but she offered some very different and still valuable wisdom. In other words, the person got what they needed, but not what they wanted to hear. Unfortunately, it’s more likely that her wisdom was ignored by the intended recipient.
