My father left school before he was fourteen years old, as did many boys of his generation. He spent the rest of his brief life in a love affair with books. He was severely practical in his reading, being of the opinion that whatever you want to know is in some book, somewhere.

He died on Christmas Day in my ninth year, and one of his only legacies to me was the axiom in the title. His extensive reading and life’s experience had made this plain, and he made sure that I understood it well.

Today is February 17th 2007 by the calendar used by many Western nations. Tomorrow is the beginning of the Chinese New Year of the Pig signifying fertility and abundance, a good year to be born for would-be Chinese entrepreneurs. But it isn’t the year 2007 for the Chinese. They are not a young country. For them it’s the year 4708.

I thought it might be a good idea to do a little work on this topic. I write a lot about how our lives are run by our unexamined assumptions, and many people here think that the whole world runs on the same calendar as Washington DC, the centre of the world.