You folks already know my hankering for little thought experiments. They are a good exercise of the imagination...hehe! So I asked myself this question, if I had a choice, what would I want to be born as in my next life? I don't have the option to be born as a God or to not be born at all (that would have been easy!). It has to be among the living options available on earth right now. You know what I'd choose? To be born as a white able-bodied male.

I suppose that's not a surprising answer at all if one is being realistic and not trying to win a Miss Universe contest or impress anyone? I would want to start life, if I was being forced to, on an easy footing, and live it easier as well. Perhaps you have to be someone with none of these characteristics to really know the difference they make. It's a bit like what they call the 'pretty privilege'. A good-looking person has very little idea how much life is smoother for them compared to someone who is plain though they can make some guesses simply by observing how people treat her and treat other people. I think this would be 100x the case for a white male. They automatically get credibility where a woman would have to earn it and where a man/woman of colour would have to earn it even harder. I would like to experience what that feels like. To walk into a room completely ignorant and yet have people hanging onto my every word? To not feel any lack of confidence at all because I know that they will all give me the benefit of the doubt, particularly the non-white folks. They have been trained to associate the skin with higher capacities. It would be great to not have to prove that you have earned the right to be in the room or that you are equally as competent as everybody else; your own confidence is shaky from having to prove it again and again. To say nothing of the burden that comes with being a woman, no matter what colour. As the white male grows more and more dashing with age, you will grow more and more your age. With all the bodily issues that come with it… I can’t imagine that any other form of life would allow me to live a life of the mind with as few encumbrances and as many privileges!

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On a lighter note, I had a breakthrough in my Chinese language learning efforts. I kept feeling that the Didi drivers muttered the same words when I got into the taxi. It sounded a bit like 'urliu'. Suddenly it came to me—because I had briefly learned numbers—that this perhaps sounds like numbers? I checked my Didi account name, and lo and behold, saw that the last four digits of my phone number were revealed on it. The last two of those numbers are 2 and 6 which I found are pronounced er and liu! The next time the Didi driver picked me and said 'urliu', I said 'shi' (yes) almost spontaneously. The guy swiftly turned around and drove. I have to say that at that moment I felt a bit like Ali Baba would have felt when he said 'khul ja sim sim' and the cave opened ;)