With loving respect and apologies if we failed to reach you with last year's greetings. At precisely the wrong time, Fred suffered a broken leg as reported in the message that you can still find at: XMAS98 with all the sad details. We will long remember 1999 as the year of the LEG, a punishing year for Ciel who with great dedication and love gave 24-hour service to Fred who was immobilized in a hospital bed at home for eight months. Wendy was busy with her work as a "head hunter" but spent many hours helping moom and dad -- what a joy it was to have her around. It was great, finally, to start hobbling around last summer it was not until this month that Fred was able to take his first trip -- a conference on constitutional design held at Notre Dame University -- for details see: CD2000 It was great to see the outside world again, but Fred was sorry not to see any snow on the ground -- he could only imagine it from high above by peering out the window of an airplane as we overpassed the Rockies -- but that was a glorious sight.

Apart from her nursing duties, Ciel did manage to keep up her reading and clipping on earthquakes, volcanos, and natural health matters. A weekly visit from Koji Hayashi, a dedicated healer of the Tenrikyo church, headquartered in Japan but now globally active, gave her much food for thought -- and helped him improve his command of English. She gave her symphony tickets away, but manage to hear and meet Yo-Yo Ma, an exciting experience -- and attended two of our three operas. She is now busily working to finalize the tree trimming and other tasks of this festive season.

Wendy continues to work hard and productively finding candidates to fill managerial positions, a pleasant task that requires a lot of "networking," so she has many encounters and social chats with interesting people. She has a lovely office in down-town Honolulu, overlooking Tamarind Park where many festive gatherings provide some entertainment and levity. She is currently in California for a major spiritual "intensive" with Guru Mai.

While Fred "rested" in his hospital bed, he entertained himself by writing his "intellectual odyssey" -- it's a kind of autobiography more familiar in China than here in which one talks about ideas and writings rather than more personal events. Perhaps the family details will come later. Meanwhile, if you are curious, you can see the results at: Autobio The first two chapters are personal, detailing a childhood in China and the university years. The remaining five chapters take up the major themes of his work: comparative public administration, conceptual and terminological discovery; ethnicity and ethnic nationalism; presidentialism and parliamentarism; and globalization. This sequence marks stages in Fred's career but they are all linked, as he explains.

He as also able to keep up the five e-mail lists he manages, with related correspondence -- these projects are explained at: Lists If you are interested in joining any of them, please let me know. The latest project has been a paper for UNESCO on Ethnic Diversity, Nationalism and Constitutional Democracy -- see the draft .

During the year much was happening in the world and we watched with alarm and concern as the impeachment effort came to an end, the war in Kosovo flamed, and the new presidential campaign started more than a year ahead of schedule -- it will heat up during the coming year as a marker for the new century and millennium. Fred's open letters on these matters can be viewed at: Vortex . Excuse all these Web links, but for an immobilized octogenarian, they provide an invigorating hobby. If you have an e-mail address, and/or a home page, please let us know -- as we find it more and more difficult to manage our slow mail, it would be most helpful if we could reach you by e-mail. And so, while the world awaits the new era with mixed fears and hopes, we send you our loving greetings and all best wishes.

Wendy, Ciel and Fred

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Updated: 20 December 1999