Thursday, December 29, 2011

A quick thought on gun control gone awry

Saw this article about a woman who apparently was trying to check in her loaded gun (for which she had a permit in her home state) when she realized she shouldn't have it and, instead of trying to help her figure out where to keep it, the police promptly arrested her. I hope for her sake (not to mention the increasingly embattled second amendment) that the charges are dismissed once she has her day in court. But it does make me question where common sense has gone in this world.

As a funny aside, I'm sure those who know me would laugh at that last statement since common sense has never been one of my strong suits. But hey, even I can recognize it sometimes...  :-)

Back to the topic at hand, though, surely someone would have understood when the woman asked where she could check in her loaded pistol that she was not trying to do anything wrong but instead to follow the posted rules. There could have been a conversation to explain the laws in New York forbade the possession of such gun and arrangements could have been made to resolve the issue without arresting her. Instead, they took the route of "the letter of the law" and arrested a tourist for illegally possessing a gun in the state (or site, the article isn't entirely clear on this fact). Technically, they were right to do so. But I can imagine this will only make the state and its law enforcement look autocratic at best - or like Seattle's.

Should people have guns at the Sept 11 memorial - maybe not the smartest move on her part. But I can understand accidents. I've been known to have my little Swiss army knife on me when entering theme parks or other areas where it's not permitted and they have simply asked me to turn it in and I can retrieve it on my way back out. I hope we are not reaching the point where "security" (and yes, I use that term very loosely) is overriding all other concerns (like common sense).

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Random Thoughts

Some interesting things have been happening lately both in my world personally as well as the world at large. Since I don't often comment on my own life here, we'll work on the world at large.

I found this story to be interesting along with some of the views of people who both supported and opposed Byron Thomas's view on hanging the Confederate flag from his dorm room at the University of South Carolina Beaufort. What truly piqued my interest was one quote from a story on CNN relating to this (can't find it right now or I'd post it here) that quoted an activist (who is black) saying that while he didn't support Mr. Thomas's views he did support his right to hang the flag if he felt so inclined (which Mr. Thomas now says he won't do). I wonder if that same activist would support whites who wanted to hang the flag from their dorm rooms at the university - or anywhere else, for that matter. If not, I then wonder if he (or anyone else, for that matter) would interpret that as being racist? Somehow, I doubt it. After all, hanging the flag (if you're white) is racist but opposing it is virtuous. And for the record, I'm not stating my views on his hanging the flag or not, merely pointing out both an irony and what I perceive as a hypocritical point of view by some on this issue.

Next, while listening to NPR (National Public Radio) the other morning and they were discussing the Arab Spring  that has spread across several nations in the Middle East, I started to wonder about the impact of GW Bush's presidency and the impact of his actions in Iraq, in particular, and whether there was some relation to the Arab Spring. Seeing as how US combat troops (you'll note that many news media will omit the term "combat" and simply imply all US troops) will be removed from Iraq by the end of the year and people have seen how Iraq went through a very rough time but is progressing along the front of independence, sovereignty and nascent forms of democracy - not to mention the fact that it has all been broadcast in bright, vivid colors by Al-Jazeera - did those activists who stood up and overthrew several regimes feel that the time for change had come now that the US had precipitated it in Iraq with their 2003 invasion? Was there any inspiration by US actions that spurred young people (who make up a large majority of those countries where the Arab Spring occurred) to take to the streets and overthrow dictators who, in some cases, dominated their countries for much of my own lifetime? Did they take heart in the fact once the first one fell, the others could be similarly dislodged as a sort of domino effect (ah, the old domino effect from the halcyon days of the Cold War)? For that matter, if the US had not gone into Iraq to "establish" democracy, would the uprisings still have occurred? Yes, I know that this is pure conjecture and mostly useless in the real world, but it is still interesting to ponder for those who have the time to do so.

And speaking of uprisings, what about the situation in Wukan (in Guangdong, China)? It has been ongoing for a little while, though the West only recently caught wind of it and started reporting upon the situation. Unlike some who feel this may be a turning point in China that could lead to a greater uprising with those unhappy with the government, rampant corruption and growing economic and social inequality, I do not feel this is the likely outcome. Instead, I think that pressure will slowly be pushed until the people are left with no food or medicine and will likely surrender. Then, the government will quickly round up the leaders, punish them severely and put their followers into a situation that will appease their most immediate concerns for the time being until they can be dealt with later (after the Western media has gone onto the next story elsewhere). Local government officials will suffer no more than a wrist slap - if that - and any news relating to it will continue to be kept away from the rest of China. The one curious thing that I wonder is whether the people will follow that same script. Thus far, they have held together and stood firm in the face of the local government (not to mention they have barred the local government from the area - something that I do not immediately recall occurring in similar situations) pressure, mainly because they hope for a reprieve from the national authorities. While this is a misplaced hope (see the stories of those who have suffered in black jails after attempting to petition the federal government), could it spur the people to realize that they cannot afford to be split apart because they know that, once divided, they will all fail? And if so, will it result in a situation similar to the spring of 1989 in Tiananmen Square and a massacre that could truly explode nationwide? Again, I do not think so but the thing about the future is that people and situations evolve and only time will truly tell. Heroes and villians are never apparent at the outset and a bad ending today can result in a good ending tomorrow. I only hope that the situation is resolved in the most positive manner possible. An impossible hope, I know, but still...

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Ignorance is taught

I do not normally post things that happen to me on this blog because I like my privacy. However, I encountered a situation recently that made me step back and wonder just what is happening to the world today and whether I am missing something or perhaps there is more I should do to prevent such situations in the future. So, first, a little background. I have a wonderful wife who means the world to me and a son who is no less important. My wife is not of the same ethnicity nor language and, while it has sometimes given itself over to troubles in our life together, it has also forced us to work harder to overcome those differences. As anyone in a multi-cultural relationship can attest, there are difficulties that are not always obvious nor easily resolved - beyond the means of a monocultural relationship. However, I support my wife completely and she the same. So, enough background and onto the situation.

While with my son and several other boys his age, some of whom I was not immediately familiar with (and who were not familiar with us), one of the boys kept referring to me as "Don's" dad. After it was pointed out to him that I was not Don's dad but my son's dad on several occasions, he finally looked at me and my son and stated, "I see 'Mike' (my son) has darker skin but you have really white skin. How can you be 'Mike's' dad?"

Ok, I think to myself, I can see past this as an innocent mistake, though not one that we've encountered in his near 12 years. "'Mike's' mom is from China. He has his mom's skin."

"Oh, is she black?"

Say what?! This is an 11-year old boy and he's just been told that someone is from China and his first question is whether she is black?! Frankly, my nerves were beginning to be plucked at that point but I persevered with patient responses. After all, he's only 11 and I don't know if perhaps he has some issues with his intellect. Though, it would be very hard to imagine my son as having any black ancestry from his appearance. Frankly, most people have assumed he is white though they have wondered about perhaps some Hispanic or Asian roots in his background based on his appearance. So, again, I respond, "No, she is Chinese."

That was not enough for him. "Oh. Does she have a green card?"

Taken as a single statement, this would probably not have been too bad. On top of the already ignorant questions this child had asked, I could only wonder if he was not either deliberately obtuse or profoundly mentally deficient. Mentally, my first response was, "Oh, so all Chinese must be immigrants and therefore need a green card?! Only white people are able to be native-born Americans?! Seriously?!" Instead, I answered with as much patience as I could muster, "No, she is a US citizen." I could have gone further and pointed out that she is a first-generation immigrant who came to a brand-new country, has worked hard to learn its language and its customs and has tried very hard to fit in to what, at times, has been a very alien culture to her, but it would have been wasted effort on my part. In the end, it was just as well I didn't for this boy's final statement answered the questions that had been building up in my own mind about his mental acuity.

"Oh, so she's like President Obama. He was born in Africa, y'know."

This boy was simply parroting what he had heard at home. At that moment, I almost felt sorry for him. Almost... He is a product of his environment - and his environment is his home. But this child will likely grow up to be as ignorant as I feel his parents to be. To him and them, non-whites are all foreigners (and apparently all black) and America's first black president is illegitimate despite significant evidence to the contrary. (I do not intend to argue for or against the "birther" discussion, I simply state that there is significant evidence that the president is a native-born American from Hawaii.) It is an attitude from an uglier time in America and one that I had hoped had faded to the background - I am not so naive as to believe that racism has been erased. But I had hope that it had receded and was less acceptable. Instead, it seems that it has been thrust into a new paradigm using code words and phrases to delegitimize people based on something they cannot control - the color of their skin. I only hope that the recent situation described here is the aberration.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Derailed Plans

I actually had started making up my collection of thoughts on the Republicans running for president (in a biting, sarcastic format that I was really enjoying as I thought about it) when I suffered a catastrophic hard drive failure on my primary desktop at home. And, since I only write on this blog from home, that was obviously going to be a problem. As it stands, I'm currently writing this on my home laptop - the same laptop that I really hate using since it runs slower than an insurance company paying on a claim and runs on Windows Vista (I guess that could be another blog post all unto itself).

Mind you, this desktop is less than a year old and already has a hard drive failure. I suppose I've been lucky that I've never had a hard drive failure previously (though I have crashed a machine or two). And, discovered today that I could at least retrieve the data from the drive so that is a good thing - my book is currently on that drive so I'm going to have to come up with another plan for saving that data. I may have to finally break down and get an external drive. I know, my own fault if I lose anything but live and learn. Or, as I've been told I can be at times, live and don't learn. Oh well...

Maybe once I get that situation straightened out, I will get back to working on my original thoughts... Cain's suggestion that China was on the brink of possessing nuclear weapons (ALREADY?!) and Perry's inability to remember the names of the the government departments he would shut down if he were elected (hey, the Dept of Energy was so unimportant since he's going to get rid of it, there's no need to remember its name) were the two most immediate ones. I just wish there were some more Democrats to pick on. I hate not being able to be an equal opportunity offender...

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Political Disgust

It's only a year until the next presidential election and already I am tired of it. The pursuit of power in this country has become a big game between the rich and powerful and the more rich and powerful. It is nothing more than the pursuit of a new trophy to put on the mantle of those who achieve it. They claim to work for the people but it is, in reality, they work for themselves alone with a veneer of humble public service - and not much of a veneer sometimes. They are often bland personalities who cannot think for themselves and shout rhetorical platitudes designed to inflame passions and reduce logical thought. And, based on the reactions of their frothing partisans, it seems to work. Unfortunately, it is the smaller partisan groups that tend to dominate because they are such a vocal minority and they override the moderate, middle majority who so desperately wants true public servants who are willing to serve for a short time and in the best interests of all not the narrow interests of just a vocal few. And, because they do dominate in such a fashion in the political arena, those who pursue power cater to them and leave rational discourse until the very end - when the general public has become so embittered with the extreme positions staked out by the candidates that those who vote do so only out of a sense of responsibility rather than a sense of genuine trust of their chosen candidate.

There are those who argue that the candidates are as trapped as the general public by the extreme positions of the most rabid politizens (I wonder if this is a new word and, if so, I want the credit for it!). In order for the candidates to win their respective parties nomination for the general election, they must cater to the extreme positions. Even the candidates with the most reasoned and nuanced positions must swerve to the sides of heated rhetoric in order hope to get to the general election within the party framework that has come to command the political system in the US. And as soon as they swerve to one side, all hope of moderation is lost and the debate has moved from one of being in the interest of all to the interest of the few. And, as the nation continues down this path, it is only a matter of time before the many move from their continued blind devotion to the ideals of the republic to the recognition that their public servants are no longer acting in the best interest of the nation as a whole but in the interest of those who wish to maintain power simply for the sake of power. And, upon that time, the issue becomes what will that majority do?

This is not to sound negative nor to imply that this is a fait accompli - merely a scenario that seems to be a likely occurrence given the way things progress today. I hope not.

Monday, October 31, 2011

Short update

It's been almost two months since I last posted anything here and, frankly, it's been a bit of a struggle to find the energy and motivation to write on anything recently. I took on a new job about the same time - coincidence? Probably not. My time has been spent mostly learning new things and trying to keep myself straight with the new job. Technically, it's not a stretch. But relearning a business I last was a part of more than 10 years ago has both positives and negatives. Overall, though, it's not a bad thing. I like the people I work for and with and, to me, that is very important.

I will have more thoughts coming soon (as I find the time and subject material). Or, if there are other things that you think I should cover, feel free to send me a note and I'll see what I can come up with. (Really, did I just end that sentence with a preposition?)

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Apathy is pathetic


Apathy is pathetic.

Actually, apathy is a lack of interest in or concern for things that others find moving or exciting. That sounds like a pretty apt definition of the situation in the United States as pertains to politics for a great number of people. And it seems pretty pathetic when people are so turned off by the practice of politics that they are unsure of who their elected representatives are - and don't care.

This is not to say that everyone should be a political animal but people should at least know who represents them in government and be at least minimally informed on the issues of the day. But there a great many people who are not. And that is worrisome.

Sure, everyone knows who Barack Obama (or President Obama) is - even if not everyone likes him. But they do not always know who the senators or representatives are. Heck, I suspect there is a good number of people who do not even know who the Vice-President (Joseph Biden) is. Sure, it is important to know who the president is but it is not (and should not be) the president who drives everything in the country. It is the Congress who should generate legislation but they have chosen to abrogate their responsibilities which, unfortunately, has also rendered them mostly invisible to the general public. Indeed, between their abrogation of responsibility and the high degree of partisan gridlock that has gripped the nation's capital, not to mention the constant campaigning that now consumes the majority of a politician's time instead of actually trying to run the country in a responsible manner, it should probably be no surprise that people pay little attention to their representatives.

In which case, I guess it really is not a big surprise why there is such apathy in the US when it comes to issues that matter in the running of the country.

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Everyone has an opinion

...but not everyone can offer valid proof and evidence to support their opinions. Or the proof they do offer is of dubious origin, lies or urban legends among other things. And normally this is not a problem as everyone should have the right to openly express their opinions in my opinion. Heck, I know I have ideas and opinions that many other people cannot necessarily understand or agree with but the joy of being able to express them is rare in many parts of the world and should be appreciated by those who have that ability.

In some ways, that is why I have this blog. It offers me an opportunity to express ideas and opinions to a wide range of people who then have the option to read and either agree, disagree or even argue with me over them. However, to paraphrase one of my favorite quotes regarding the internet - well, I saw it on the internet so it *must* be true! That statement is very apropos when discussing blogs in particular as it is usually rather difficult to sort the wheat from the chaff when it comes to what you read online. In my own case, I tend to read various news sources to get my news - regional, national and international as well as from varying political angles. The great majority of those news sites are reputable (if not always deliberately propagandistic as in the case of certain sources from countries with less than free media) and there is a clear distinction between news and editorial commentary. And I do read the editorial commentary but at least I have the knowledge to distinguish facts from opinions.

I read very little in the way of blogs when it comes to facts. There are a few I read and most of those have very deliberate political opinions but I read them for what they are - opinions with occasional facts thrown in. I have one favorite that I have mentioned here before - Seeing Red in China - by an American living in China who does the best of any I have yet come across at explaining life in everyday China, without undue praise or criticism, to people who may otherwise never get to experience it. But it is still a blog with the opinions of a single individual and his experiences.

I was recently treated to the antithesis of that blog by another China-related blogger posting ideas that minimized responsibility for Mao for things that happened during his time in power. Against my better judgment, I responded asking for more info to support the writer's hypothesis and instead received the sort of conspiracy theory spouting that is, in my experience, far more common to blog writers who can write whatever they want without any sort of vetting prior to publication as would take place at more reputable news media or research outlets. In the end, I stopped responding as it was simply generating troll-like responses from others on the blog and, quite frankly, I have much less patience for that than I have when I was younger. While I was frustrated by the negative power of such ideas, not to mention the power of the internet to spread such bad ideas with no proof to support them, it did serve to remind me that I am still fairly lucky to not be inundated with such tripe and that hopefully the good will still outweigh the bad when it comes to the power of ideas and the internet.

Monday, August 29, 2011

Look at those foreigners speaking Chinese!

Came across a show on CCTV recently that featured a variety of foreigners (non-Chinese) all speaking Chinese and it caused me wonder what is the fascination with people who can speak Chinese. After all, we don't see television shows in the West feature Chinese who can speak English (or French, German or any other Latin-based language of your choice). So exactly what is the fascination?

Is it because it still seems like such a novelty to find non-Chinese who can speak the language (and, having seen more than a few of these foreigners using the language with relative ease, I can assure you they speak it very well)? Is it because Chinese is so hard to learn that any non-Chinese who can master the language should be showcased to the nation? Or is it because this is a way of showing that China is becoming a major power in the world and and people are working hard to learn about China - the language being the most obvious manner in which to showcase it? Or perhaps a combination of the three - or others that I have not yet considered?

I have to admit that seeing non-Chinese (e.g. white Westerners or even black Africans) speaking Chinese is still a bit jarring - even when I am among that group. Granted, I'm not nearly as fluent as I would like to be but I know the effect I've had on people who did not expect to hear me speaking Chinese so I can certainly relate to that. But there is a growing legion of people who can now do that, both in China and among other nations (typically among those who have studied in China), that the novelty is surely wearing off - even among Chinese (particularly in the larger Eastern cities with higher populations of foreigners). Perhaps 15 years ago, when the number of foreigners who could speak even passable Chinese was much smaller, the novelty would have been enough to support the idea of television shows dedicated to Chinese-speaking foreigners but that time has surely passed by now. And the fact that there are so many Chinese-speaking foreigners today (of varying levels) is surely testament to the fact that the impediments to learning it are not overwhelming. Sure, it is a tonal language that is difficult for those from Latin-based linguistic backgrounds, but not impossible.

So could this simply be a political tool or a way or enhancing the Chinese self-image? In other words, is the idea of shows that feature Chinese-speaking foreigners a way of telling the Chinese populace that foreigners are working hard to learn about and even emulate China? Is it a status symbol to show people that China is growing in importance and that the foreigners are now bowing down to the inevitable rise of China? Is it a way of helping to erase the hundred years of shame that the government often considers to be its starting point of history (to help justify its continued singular grip on power) by showing these foreigners emulating the Chinese language (and potentially other aspects of Chinese culture)? And, if so, does that not create a paradox in that the government often touts how China is now coming into its own without the West yet uses these shows as a way of showing how the West now works hard to learn Chinese? A rather puzzling conundrum if that is the case.

Or, it could just be that I am overthinking this and that the significance of these shows is much the same as the glut of "reality" shows that pervade Western television - not much at all.

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Random Thoughts

As I noted in my most recent post, I had recently started using Spotify, an online music service. I cannot tell you how absolutely thrilled I am with this service. Granted, I am not necessarily a huge user beyond my office and occasionally at home but the ability to play both the music I already have then the music I find from their site has been absolutely wonderful and opened up new genres for me to appreciate. This evening, I found the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack as well as a variety of music from the various Star Wars films among the music available and have been listening to them with great joy. This does not include the list of music from the 70's, 80's & 90's that I have found and listened to over the last week or so. Granted, they do not have all of the music I would like (I found very little by Peter Schilling who I truly enjoy) but it has been far more of a gift than a disappointment. For music lovers, this site is highly recommended!

For those in the US (not that most Americans are paying any attention to it at the moment other than the various talking heads who have been wailing for the last few weeks), the looming debt crisis has to be rather unnerving. The possibility that the US could fall into a default status is a worrying concern and one that, frankly, should never have reached a critical point such as it now faces (3 days from today). Politicians have whored themselves out to every interest group (I can't refer to them as special interest groups as that would assign them a status that would not be fitting) and created causes for which government money can be spent with wild and reckless abandon. It has deemed itself an integral factor into the everyday life of its citizens and, as a sad result, requires vast sums of money to support itself. And now, both sides are playing brinksmanship in the hope of winning political points (and elections) rather than trying to resolve an issue that has no short-term solution. Democrats are unwilling to cut social programs - let's face it, if you received money from any one of those social programs (and far too many people do), would you vote for the party that took it away from you? Republicans are unwilling to increase the debt limit unless some form of fiscal restraint (and significant social spending but not military cuts) are imposed. And both sides of Congress waited until less than a week before even attempting to pass any form of legislation - and both sides passed bills that they knew would not pass in the other half. It is at times like this that not only Americans but people everywhere look at this form of government and wonder how the US managed to become a world superpower.

And, just to be fair, let's not forget the other burgeoning superpower that is facing a crisis that seems to have only grown in the past week and does not figure to become better with time - the fatal crash of one of its high-speed trains. A nation that has grown increasingly restless with the corruption that has plagued its government leaders found a focus upon which to vent in not just the crash itself but the actions taken by the government that seemed designed to hide any unpleasant facts that may have placed culpability for the crash upon itself. And the fact that there has been little transparency and deliberate efforts by the government to put a rosy picture on the efforts of the government to help the people hurt by the crash (much like the Wenchuan earthquake of 2008 which saw the rise of Ai Weiwei who worked to reveal facts of shoddy school construction that resulted in many children's deaths that the government did not want advertised) has only added fuel to the anger of many people who want accountability. Sadly, the likely outcome of this will be a sop - some poor official who has insufficient ties to higher officials for protection will be held as a sacrificial lamb and likely executed for "corruption". It is worth wondering how much longer Chinese will be satisfied with such sops before they demand real answers and accountability that correspond with the rise of the Chinese nation. For that matter, it's worth wondering how long Americans will be content to live with the decreasing accountability they seem to hold their own officials to...

EDIT: And just learned that apparently there isn't much in the way of an independent judiciary in China (big surprise!). Or at least it doesn't seem that way when the government tells all lawyers in the vicinity of the train crash they are not allowed to help any victims of the train crash because it "is a major sensitive issue concerning social stability".

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Blog Design Change

While listening to music I haven't heard in a while on Spotify (I absolutely love this!), I decided to make some changes to my blog. Well, more precisely, a simple background change since that is a clicky-clicky change and I'm too lazy at the moment to do anything more significant. But I like this one - lots of books in the background to suit my nerdy personality. I may go make some layout changes later but depends on how I feel. With this music, though, I may feel very inclined to do a bit more. Music is one of my passions (listening, not making, since I have no talent in that arena whatsoever) and I associate a great deal to music. It also serves as my muse in many instances - so maybe I'll feel more focused on that in the near future.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Time to think

I just realized that this was a draft from almost two years ago and that I had forgotten to actually publish it. But I thought it was worthwhile so making up for that error now:

Recently, I visited Monticello - the beloved home of the third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson. Every American child learns about Jefferson as the third president and his importance in the history of the nation (not to mention, since 1998, his apparent relationship with his slave, Sally Hemings). What may not always be mentioned in those lessons is his other interests and proficiency in many of them. Or, if they are, they are secondary to the larger importance of his place in history.

But I was reminded that Jefferson truly was a renaissance man in every sense of the word. It was his fervent belief that the purpose of government was to secure the natural rights of man, the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. While this may seem natural to those of us in the 21st century, it was quite a leap at a time when the right of governance was determined by birth and those who were not so fortunate were subjected to the whims of those who were. Almost every nation in the world was run by kings and leaders whose positions were determined by their lineage, not by their ability to lead. Their people were subjected to lives similarly predetermined by their birth, but not at the lofty level of their lords and lieges. To argue that men had the right to choose their own leaders and to pursue their own lives independent of kings chosen by God was a revolutionary thought in more than a few ways.

These were things about which I was certainly aware though partly forgotten over the years. But my visit to Monticello did remind me and I was grateful for the opportunity to relearn them. I have and will also continue to relearn those lessons for they are no less important today than they were 200+ years ago.

But what caught my interest was what apparently also caught Mr. Jefferson's interest - architecture, science, history, technology and horticulture - among other things. He was an accomplished architect (I believe he designed Monticello), noted the daily weather in a diary for 50 years and filled his home with maps of the known world at his time as well as bones of animals not known in his homeland and artifacts from different cultures. His intellectual curiosity knew no bounds. Combined with that interest, however, was the desire to spread the knowledge out further. The University of Virginia, a highly regarded place of higher learning, was conceived and originated by Mr. Jefferson. Indeed, he was a man of letters (more than 20,000 if I recall correctly) who professed his love of books to his friends. Aside - I had forgotten that the US Library of Congress was founded through the generous assistance of Mr. Jefferson.

Jefferson's legacy is one of the few who can be said to be almost universal. His approach to government, not to mention his contributions to science and the pursuit of higher learning, have endured and are emulated not just in his own nation but elsewhere throughout the world. This is a man to whom great debts are owed and much praise is due. Frankly, I think the world needs another like him who can transcend his own time and similarly provide for the future.

Monday, July 11, 2011

NOW he's illegitimate?!

Syria's Bashir Al-Assad has lost the legitimacy to rule according to Hillary Clinton. Of course, the previous several months when he was shooting, beating and otherwise terrorizing his subjects (yes, I am using that term deliberately) he was still a legitimate ruler and someone that the US was trying to find ways to cajole into behaving better. However, now that he's unleashed his supporters to rampage through the US embassy in Damascus, NOW he's no longer a legitimate ruler.

Ignoring the fact that the US is assuming the role of sole arbiter of who is the legitimate ruler of any nation (other than the US), I'm sure that those who have been sacrificing themselves to promote a better form of government in Syria are now thrilled to know that the US actually agrees with them - months after the fact and only after the US government itself has been the target. Sort of reminds me of Afghanistan which the US essentially ignored (when the Taliban was abusing its citizenry in the late 90's) until the 9/11 attacks and then it was the first target of US revenge.

Yep, I guess if you want to help topple your government and you live in a nation where the leader is cozy with the US, ratchet up the pressure and get the tyrant to personally offend the US if you want any assistance (or even pro-forma support).

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Venezuelan medical care is that bad?

A few weeks ago, Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez underwent surgery to deal with a pelvic abscess (sounds painful, quite frankly) - in Cuba. I have to admit that my first thought was, um, why is the leader of a nation having surgery in another country rather than in his own nation? I would assume that pelvic abscesses are not something so unfamiliar that they can't be handled as part of a routine procedure and would therefore be something that could be handled by doctors in your own nation. After all, can one imagine the president of the US going to Turkey (or Switzerland, for that matter) for a similar procedure?

Heck no! (S)he would undergo surgery in his own country from the best his nation has to offer. So, I guess it begs the question of exactly why Chavez had surgery in Cuba (for which, to those otherwise unaware, he has been an economic patron while Fidel Castro has been his political mentor). Is it because Venezuela doesn't have competent doctors? Perhaps Chavez doesn't want his own populace to be aware of his weakness (from whence he might be dumped from office)? Maybe it's more convenient to perform surgeries in Cuba than it is in Venezuela?

Cuba does seem to have an excess of doctors that it exports throughout the world so I guess they must have a decent reputation... And it's not the first time leaders have had medical concerns dealt with external to their own countries (the Shah of Iran and members of the Saudi Arabian elite are notable personages who sought medical care in the US for serious or rare medical conditions that could not be addressed in their respective nations). But it certainly does not speak well of either the Venezuelan medical system or the trust that the leadership has in it. Too bad the poor Venezuelans who make up much of his political base can't have similar options when it comes to their own medical care...

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Expanding Points of View

I recently finished Christiane Bird's Neither East Nor West, a story of her travels in Iran. Her book reminds me of one of my favorite blogs, Seeing Red in China, by an American named Tom about his view of China on a daily basis. What these two things have in common is a desire to look beyond the very narrow, news-oriented point of view of daily life in Iran and China respectively and offer their readers the opportunity to see life in places they may otherwise never have the opportunity to see. Frankly, it is people like this that help to bring the world closer together and make it, hopefully, a better place for everyone.

And while my commentary may be directed more at Westerners (and Americans in particular), it is by no means limited only to them. Misconceptions and generalizations about others has no limits nor boundaries and they are rarely positive. The only way to overcome those misconceptions is to truly live some place else and recognize that life in the US is really not that significantly different than it is in China or Iran or anyplace else. This is not to suggest that there are no differences but to point out that we tend to have a very limited perspective when we think of others. For example, we tend to view Iran as a misogynistic, radically religious, fundamentalist nation that is bent on acquiring nuclear weapons and imposing a radical view of Islam upon the rest of the world. Yet few Westerners realize that there is a great deal of diversity within Iran, that they actually do have elections (perhaps not to the standard that we have in the West but certainly better than any in the Middle East) and that there is a long line of Persian history, art and culture to which they are the inheritors. The same goes for China. To hear China in the news, it is often in regard to their rising economic status, their belligerent behavior in the South China Seas toward their neighbors, the rising number of protests in the countryside or their human rights violations (see Liu Xiaobo, among others). Yet very little street-level discussion is provided to offer the full context of life in China - much of which revolves outside of the limited political view with which it is held in nations outside of China. Indeed, I have always found it interesting that Chinese often knew more about US politics (although often negative or bad things) than most US citizens. In reality, it could be argued that the majority of people in both Iran and China like the US, if not necessarily its government or policy decisions. But then again, there is a sizable portion of US citizens who have problems with its government and policy decisions, so there may be some validation to that particular argument.

Perhaps not everyone has the opportunity to travel to these places and see things for themselves but they should, at the very least, avail themselves of the opportunity to read about them beyond the limited scope of what they see/hear in the news. Expanding one's horizons and perspectives can only be to the benefit of not only the individual but potentially even rising to higher levels of policy making that can allow nations to work together to solve problems for the mutual benefit of more than a select few. Perhaps this is a simplistic and naive point of view but everyone should dream about making the world a little better else nothing will change. As the saying goes, think globally - act locally.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Where's Captain Obvious?!

Reading through something on Yahoo earlier today had me wondering if someone had forgotten to reference Captain Obvious. Yes, the headline of the article was "TV Executives Admit in Taped Interviews That Hollywood Pushes a Liberal Agenda". It was all I could do stop myself from uttering out loud, "Oh really?!"

Yes, someone actually got a bunch of Hollywood writers, producers, execs and who knows who else to admit on camera that they were biased, happily so, and would just as soon see anyone who isn't of the same opinion as they go unemployed (at least in Hollywood). Now, I'm sure that some of these people who were interviewed will then cry foul that their tapes were released (exactly what would make them think that TAPED INTERVIEWS would not be used at some point in a public forum?) and others will freely continue to admit that they are better than their non-conservative peers with no public recrimination. And in Hollywood, it does not seem that recriminations from their many like-minded peers will be forthcoming, so that does not seem to be a deterrent to spouting forth their points of view. But I wonder if they will be at all more hesitant to express such views if no one watched their shows and they suddenly find themselves unable to earn an income? (Not that I think that likely; that is more of a wandering thought meandering through the vast desert of empty space in my head.)

And I do not begrudge them their views even if I do not necessarily agree with all of them. No, I think what gets me is the arrogance they show in their superior beliefs and the disdain that they hold for any who do not believe as they do. It is surely an open secret (if "secret" be the right term) that Hollywood has a liberal bias and that is not so much an issue. If you do not like what Hollywood produces, then go create your own or find your entertainment elsewhere. But to assert the rightness of your beliefs and then to deny others who might disagree with you the opportunity to work for/with you would find you in front of a courtroom in almost any other line of business. Heck, Target was recently targeted (no pun intended) for protests when it was learned that the company had donated money to anti-gay politicians. They then backtracked and offered to compensate the opposite side in order to avoid any controversy. Yet the Hollywood elite (and even the not-so-elite) boast of their narrow-minded views and the retribution they deliver to those who don't agree and no one says anything. While they claim to hold tolerant views, it is clear from their words and actions that they are extraordinarily intolerant - while accusing anyone who disagrees with them as being such.

In the world in which I live, this is called hypocrisy. And, anywhere outside of Hollywood, it would not only be frowned upon but likely means of all kinds of not-so-positive things to happen. However, in Hollywood, it appears to be the standard. But I guess that shouldn't be so surprising for an industry that is based on escaping reality.

Sunday, May 29, 2011

More political demonization thoughts

Sometimes, it amazes me how people see each other, particularly when it comes to politics. And, I will preface before I go further that I am absolutely certain this is nothing new but the speed with which things are spread via the internet simply allows this sort of vitriol and negative stereotypes to perpetrate themselves with lightning speed. And, for the purpose of this post, I will limit myself to US politics as that is what I am most familiar with. The general stereotype is that Republicans are social and fiscal conservatives, often deeply religious and strongly supportive of the military and financial responsibility. For Democrats, it is the belief that they are borderline communists whose belief in greater government interaction with society is for the betterment of all and who prefer that the rich should be taxed more heavily to support the poor and downtrodden in society who cannot do for themselves.

It should be pretty obvious to anyone who has read this blog for any period of time that I do not belong to either of these political parties as I tend to despise them pretty equally for different reasons. The one thing I dislike is hypocrisy and I strive hard not to be that way in my own life. However, it seems impossible to be involved with any sort of political activity and not become hypocritical at some point. Republicans, to me, are hypocritical based on their "Do as I say, not as I do" attitude, particularly galling for a group that positions themselves as the more "moral" party based on their increasingly religious credentials (and when I say religious, I am referring more to Christian). Correspondingly, Democrats gall me for their attitude of being the more "elitist" party who thinks they know all of the answers and can implement them if only the government were granted more power to do so - in spite of the mountain of evidence through history that indicates that increased power with government usually does not provide for anything to society other than the desire for more power for those who already have it. But this does not stop either party from stooping to various lows to denigrate their opponents for transgressions while ignoring their own. Perhaps this is why so many people outside of the political beltway try to ignore it.

So what has ignited this particular post? The following comment came through my Twitter feed recently and it just irked me a little.

If you slotted Hitler into the current Republican presidential field he’d be a moderate.

Obviously, it is posted by someone with Democratic leanings. But how is it ok for Democrats (the supposed peace party - their current president probably excluded) to make these associations? Or, for that matter, how is it ok for Republicans to paint Obama as anything from Lenin to Stalin to Mao to Hitler (individuals whose only comparable feature was that they were all dictators within the last century)? And, frankly, how does this sort of discourse allow for any sort of rational compromise to occur that will benefit the nation as a whole? It often seems like the entire point of politics today is nothing more than a race to see who will finish first regardless of the consequences. And the deteriorating state of society that seems very evident to any who wish to see it is the sad result. It is not the fault of the Democrats or the Republicans, it is the fault of both and a society that happily allows itself to be fooled into thinking that it is someone else's fault in order to avoid blame unto themselves. I only hope that we will wake up one day to recognize that we are the ones who have to take action if we hope to avoid falling into third world status in the next generation.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

The Tank Man

Last night, we watched The Tank Man. I had never seen it and recently found it was on Netflix so I ordered it. While several years old, I still found it to be very enlightening in some regards and it certainly was news to my better half (who lived in China at the time and was completely unaware of many of the things that were shown in the documentary) as well as Mini-Me (who was exposed to something that he ordinarily would not have seen).

The events of the spring of 1989 in China, as I have pointed out in this blog previously regarding the similarly egregious Cultural Revolution, remain unexamined in China as a result of explicit refusal by the government to permit it. This inability to examine the events of that time have allowed for only the perspective of Westerners who were able to both videotape and write about their experiences and it certainly colored an entire generation both in and outside of China. In China, that generation remains unable to articulate their experiences unless they leave (with no intention of returning). In the West, that generation views China today through a lens that is still colored by the actions of a tyrannical government that willingly sacrificed its legitimacy (and I use that term loosely) through the use of battlefield weapons against its own people in order to preserve its rule.

The actions of a single man, defying the might of the state, is a defining image and has imbued many who have seen it with a strong sense of purpose and strength in terms of the relationship with the state. His willful defiance stands in contrast to the weakness of those few in power in China who chose to brutally murder their citizens instead of working to create a better society for everyone. Their fear of their own people is what precipitated the tragic events that June 3 night and, while the actions of a single man (who remains unidentified to this day) have helped to restore some pride to China, that fear continues to haunt the nation. A fear of looking in the mirror and seeing the ugliness and finding a way to address it so that the future can be made to look prettier. The reality is that China can fix the bullet holes in the buildings, repair the tire tracks from the tanks on Changan Avenue and show the world a wonderful Olympics a mere 19 years later but all of that will be a mere facade built upon a fragile framework that will threaten to collapse until it is reviewed and truly repaired. Hopefully, all Chinese will one day be able to learn the entire story of that spring as well as the truth behind the Tank Man.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Android Apps

Yesterday, while waiting for Mini-Me's piano recital to begin, was cruising through the Android Market to see what apps I could just find. Now, bear in mind, that I refuse to pay for any apps at this point - particularly games - so I was just seeing things that could be of use. And the current list of apps on my phone must make me seem pretty nerdy as it runs a fairly comprehensive list of free Chinese language learning apps (1000 Chinese, Chinese Word of the Day - which had an incorrect definition for yesterday's word I should point out - Chinese Translator, Google Translate, Chinese flashcard apps and a couple of dictionaries for added measure), multiple news apps (ranging from CNN, MSNBC, FoxNews, BBC, Al-Jazeera and others) and a few games that I enjoy (Chess, Chinese Chess, Pente and Sudoku among others - though my progeny would prefer I get racing games). This does not, of course, include a sizable portion of my music collection that I have yanked onto the phone.

But, came across a couple of very useful apps that I had probably heard of previously but somehow neglected to look up once I actually purchased this phone less than six months ago. The most notable were three - Shazam (a music service that helps to identify songs you may not know), Coupons (which provides an online list of coupons that can be used at various retailers - and I'm curious to find out whether I can actually use these coupons directly from my phone as they say) and GasBuddy (which helps to find the best gas prices in the local area or wherever you wish to search). Using GasBuddy, I managed to actually get gas for $.15/gallon less than I would have found if I'd refilled at my local station. And Coupons helped me find some decent coupons for the restaurant we'd eaten at the previous evening (oh well, better late than never to learn). Meanwhile, I've managed to confuse Shazam only with a couple of Chinese songs (but not all of them) so that is a pretty useful app (since I truly love music and would like to know about certain songs when I hear them).

So, it does beg the question of what other useful apps are out there that people have used? I use the Samsung Galaxy which means I'm limited to the Android market but most apps exist on both the Android and iPhone markets so there aren't many limitations. I'm sure there are others that are handy for the casual user (which is how I view my own usage). If you have some recommendations, feel free to share them.

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Cultural Revolution vs. French Revolution

Perhaps it is because of my interest in China and Chinese history but I am rather familiar with the Cultural Revolution and consider it to be one of a series of tragedies that have occurred under the Communist Party. However, I find it particularly egregious that there has been very little in the way of official study that would allow for complete disclosure of the tragedy. Instead, it has been glossed over officially in China with no serious attempts at understanding what happened and why - and any attempts to do so are strongly dissuaded at best if not resulting in detention or worse. Surely the horrors, the breakdown of family and society, the destruction of historical sites and artifacts would all resonate with the victims and encourage some form of reflection to determine the causes and learn how to prevent a repeat action. Yet it is seemingly ignored in the official annals - perhaps with good reason on the part of the leadership.

After doing some reading lately on the French Revolution, I learned more of the events of that time and the horrors that were visited upon the French as a result. And what is frightening are the similarities between the French Revolution and the Cultural Revolution in China less than 200 years later. The tyranny of a few fighting for power and overthrowing the established order by seeking radically extreme views of constant revolution (Robespierre, Marat & Danton among others in Franch, Mao in China), the destruction of the monarchy in France and the rightists in China, and the breakdown of social order and its replacement by chaos and anarchy.

Yet the terror of the French Revolution is now condemned to history and its lessons learned by a population that has not repeated those mistakes. The problems of the Cultural Revolution are more known outside of China than they are in the country. There is uncertainty whether it could be repeated. Those who suffered during the Cultural Revolution either are unwilling to speak of it or are openly prevented from doing so - after all, it was in the past and "mistakes were made" but the implication is that China cannot move into the future unless it forgets the negative past. However, it is the very belief that the past should be forgotten in order to concentrate on the future that prevents China from attaining the prosperous future it foresees for itself. It is impossible to see the future and work hard to succeed when you cannot overcome the past. This is true for individuals and no less true for nations.

Unless and until China and its citizens are able to become more introspective and view their history in a more dispassionate manner - rather than the enforced, faux-positive nationalistic viewpoint supported by the Communist Party - there will be no way to overcome that past and move forward to attain the goals they have set for themselves.

Monday, May 2, 2011

Thoughts on Osama's demise

Last night at 10.00 pm, I saw flash go across my Twitter feed indicating that President Obama would be making an announcement at 10.30 pm EST. So, my curiosity aroused by the fact that the president was requesting time on the national television stations at 10.30 on a Sunday night, I decided to stay up to see what was going on. Normally, I would have been bound for bed by that time since I have to get up at 6 am in the morning for work, but I figured I could handle it for a day.

At 10.30, I flipped on the television and found a news station that had the talking heads wondering what was so important that the president need to announce. They originally considered it had something to do with Libya (which, to be honest, was also my first thought). Then, about 10.50, some 20 minutes after waiting for the president to appear, the news started to filter out that Osama bin Laden had been killed with no shortage of varying details (in this case, "rumors" would be a better description) as to his demise.

My better half and I both looked at each other in amazement and not some small degree of satisfaction. The perpetrator of the worst terror attack in our lifetimes had come to suffer a not totally inappropriate fate at the hands of the military of his avowed enemy. He was killed in a surprise attack against his compound where he had spent, according to reports, much of the last six years.

We watched as the television showed scenes of spontaneous celebration breaking out in various parts of the US. I followed my Twitter feed as people from all over the world offered various commentary on his death, ranging from the witty to the macabre and everything in between - much of it by people who I know as being mainly apolitical at best. The actions of September 11, 2001, planned by Osama bin Laden, had now been revisited upon him and justice, such as it was, had been served almost 10 years later by the nation that had suffered under the repressive memories that he represented.

And yet, I now stop to ponder, almost 24 hours later, just what is the appropriate reaction in this situation. Should we feel glee at the killing of another individual, even one as evil (subjective though that term may be) as Osama bin Laden? Does his death restore the sense of peace and security that America (and much of the rest of the world) may have known prior to 9/11? Does it bring back to life those who died on that tragic day or repair the lives that were ripped asunder?

There are no easy answers to these questions. For me, I take no satisfaction that he died the way he did but I am not unhappy to see him gone. I miss the sense of security that I had prior to 9/11, illusory though it may have been, but recognize that it likely will never return to what it once was in my mind. But then again, the days passed are always better than today in our minds so this is not surprising. I did not suffer losses directly as a result of that day but I do not know how I would feel if I had - and I am glad that I do not have to worry about that feeling.

My hope for tomorrow is that it will be better and brighter than today. I hope the spectre of Osama bin Laden will disappear soon and the negative inspiration that he provided will fade as the hope of an entire region replaces the hatred that he so fervently espoused with the strong push for freedom that has enveloped it over the last several months. May his legacy be not his hatred and violence but the recognition by people that he was the antithesis of what we all desire and the hopes we have were encouraged by opposition, and successor, to him.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

More China-related thoughts

I've actually had a lot of things I wanted to write about over the course of the last month or so but I can't seem to find the time. I think my prioritization could use a bit of help sometimes but I guess that is something I'll just have to work on.

I have become much more enthralled with one of my original passions recently - China and Chinese (language). My own language skills have been languishing at various levels of disuse in recent years as Mini-Me only uses it when speaking to his grandparents (when they're here) and my better half has spent much of her time trying to take care of the various things as they pertain to daily living rather than trying to help me expand my knowledge. Of course, this makes it more incumbent upon me to try to find the time to do so on my own but it's hard to sometimes find that motivation after a long day at work and then trying to take care of other things at night where I'm too tired to do much.

I have come across some very good blogs and have discovered that there is a great deal more China-related material on the net than was there even a few years ago. Reading through many of those blogs has helped to rekindle my passion for the subject and I hope to perhaps be able to add in my own studies and thoughts on various lessons as I can. In the meantime, I'll list here some of my favorites in case others are also interested.

The one that really brought me back into the fold was one written by an American named Tom living in China (actually, many of these blogs are written by foreigners in China) who provides an open-minded point of view on things in the country that he sees or encounters - SeeingRedInChina. I have been very impressed with his blog and even went back to read it from the very beginning when I first found it.

Others that I found through him were Tim Corbin who has his own viewpoints that I find interesting - plus he's living in my wife's hometown. HaoHaoReport is a site that has a compilation of various news stories that relate to all things Chinese and has helped me to find a number of other China-related sites as well as more than the run-of-the-mill news stories that might be found in Western papers.

And my first place to find Chinese language info is ChineseHacks which is how I first found some of the information I relayed in my previous post. There are others that I have also come across via the ChinaBlogNetwork and I hope to go through more of them as time permits.

And truly, therein lies my biggest problem - time. With a full-time job and a family - not to mention finally getting started with the book idea I've had in my head for a while - time is not something I currently possess a great deal of (yes, I know I just ended that sentence with a preposition but I'm too tired to consider it at the moment). But perhaps this will be a good method to move into a new direction - or at least a more familiar and preferred direction.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Studying Chinese

I came across these things today for people who are interested in studying Chinese. Quite frankly, I'm not sure how I missed them before but these should be some awesome tools when online and I think these will help to jumpstart my own degrading language skills.

The first is a Taiwanese site that prints the news in Chinese and English side by side. The LibertyTimes will now be bookmarked on my machine and I hope to be able to step through a couple of articles each week. I found out about this site from ChineseHacks which also gave me information on how to convert traditional Chinese to simplified Chinese characters (and vice versa) using a plugin (Tong Wen Tang) available via Firefox, Chrome and Safari.  He also showed another plugin from PeraPera-Kun which offers an incredible online dictionary that will help to translate Chinese characters on the web into English.

I've tried them out on my browser (FF 4.0) and am very pleased thus far. If you are serious about wanting to study Chinese online (or at least being able to brush up on it as in my case) for free, these are some pretty cool resources. Rest assured, I will have both LibertyTimes and ChineseHacks bookmarked for future reference!

(11/17/11 - I just discovered that the PeraPera-Kun website changed their domain and I have updated my link here accordingly.)

Friday, April 8, 2011

Chinese Harmony

I was reading some things today and one of the things that caught my eye had to do with the Chinese desire for social harmony and how strongly the government argues that it cannot permit any protests or disagreement with its method of governance. Whenever an activist or dissident attempts to raise his or her voice about their concerns with things in China (and there is certainly no lack of things to worry or be upset about in China - much like anyplace else on Earth), they are typically hushed up either through intimidation or arrest. The reason for this is that the government is unwilling to tolerate any dissent and would prefer that everyone simply live in harmony with one another. After all, there has been enough chaos and anarchy in recent Chinese history and there is no need to repeat it according to the government.

What the government typically neglects to point out, however, is that all of the disharmony that existed in the recent past is due directly to the government and its actions - most notably by Mao. The Cultural Revolution was orchestrated and directed by Mao (vis-a-vis his intermediaries in the Gang of Four who were subsequently assigned all of the blame after Mao's death so as to preserve Mao's stature) and that is the most grievous example of the social disharmony brought on by the government. This does not include the student protests in 1976 after Zhou Enlai's death, the protests in 1989 after Hu Yaobang's death, the Hundred Flowers campaign and the Great Leap Forward in the 1950's or the numerous bloody purges that took place as a result of Mao's desire for constant revolution to weed out any potential opposition. Furthermore, it is the distinct lack of any critical review of those times, official or unofficial, within China that allows for the ability to learn from those mistakes. Instead, they are glossed over as an unfortunate period of time in which there was much chaos (without probing too deeply into the actual reasons why) and a deep desire to only move forward and develop a deep sense of nationalistic pride.

Unfortunately, the only way in which harmony can truly be achieved is to come to terms with the past and to be able to move past it. Possibly the best example of this would be post-apartheid South Africa which, while not perfect (but what ever is perfect?), offers the vision of what can be achieved when the aggrieved can have the opportunity to reconcile with the aggressors. Perhaps this can never be achieved (after all, one of Mao's stated objectives during the Cultural Revolution was to destroy all of the relationships upon which society was framed) but, if it is not even tried, there can be no hope of ever moving past it and it will forever stain the social fabric of China - let alone prevent any chance at the social harmony that the government preaches ad nauseam at the remotest threat of disagreement.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Grateful Citizen

I was thinking yesterday about how grateful I am to be a citizen of the United States of America. But, being me, I wanted to determine for exactly what I was so grateful. As it turns out, I am grateful for things that may not seem to go together. But it is a crazy patchwork of things that has made this country not just survive, but thrive, in the manner that it has for more than 200 years. Granted, that is a short time in the relative history of many other nations but a sign of the dynamism and wonder that is this nation.

So, what are the things for which I am grateful (as a citizen)? There are three and all are enshrined in the US Bill of Rights (and upheld through the law):

  • The right to bear arms (the right, not the obligation)
  • The right to freedom of speech (and the right to suffer the consequences accordingly)
  • The freedom of the press to monitor the actions of both the government and the people (admittedly, I am an NPR - National Public Radio - fan)
 Yet these are seemingly incongruous within the current political landscape. Or, to be more precise, certain political groups would support the right to bear arms but deny the right of NPR (or most other news organizations) as being politically biased and therefore useless - and vice versa. Yet it is the ability of these ideals to exist with each other that makes this nation stronger, in my opinion. My right to bear arms is to help moderate the power of the government and help to ensure that it remains answerable to its citizens rather than a tyranny under which the citizens must suffer. My right to speak my mind without fear of arbitrary punishment as a result - though I am (and should be) held accountable when my speech causes undue harm to others (such as shouting "Fire!" in a crowded building). And the right of the press to monitor and report upon the government, in particular, helps to ensure, much like the right of the citizenry to own guns, that it will remain responsive and responsible to the people which it is designed to serve.

The key part of all three of these things is that they all be practiced in moderation. And herein lies the point of contention with many who inexplicably (at least in my mind) oppose them in given situations. Just because you have the right to own a gun does not mean you have the right to use it on your fellow citizens. Just because you have the right to speak your mind means you should do so without thinking first. And the power of the media should be moderated to ensure that it is not a power unto itself but a moderating force upon those it should report.

It is a delicate balance and there have been, and continue to be, the occasional errors. But, for the most part, it has worked and I am glad and grateful that it does.

(As a side note, I should also mention that writing early in the morning makes it more difficult to recall certain words that I wanted to use but couldn't immediately recall. I reserve the right to edit this post later when I remember the proper words. EDIT - "arbitrary" was the word I was looking for.)

Friday, March 18, 2011

Homeland? Security?

A very short thought but why do those of us in the US now have a department to secure our homeland?  Maybe it's just me but I always seem to relate "homeland" to Nazi Germany.  Surely that isn't the image that we want to evoke in others with that particular phrase, is it?  Not to mention I'm not very certain that they've secured a lot, either.  I know my private parts don't feel very secure when passing through one of their checkpoints.

I guess that language and words really do mean a lot; and not necessarily in the right way.

Perhaps we should say that we will defend our country or our nation to the best of our ability and leave the homeland to the past?

Thursday, March 17, 2011

War and Demonization

I was recently getting my car worked on at the local dealership and, while waiting, ended up watching some of Fox News.  Unlike many people, Fox News does not bother me most of the time; if anything, I view it as the anti-MSNBC.  In other words, I recognize that it has a specific editorial bent and watch it with that in mind.

On that particular day, they were covering the recent protests in Egypt and specifically addressing their concerns regarding the possibility that the Mubarak regime would be replaced by the Muslim Brotherhood.  With little context other than the repeated use of the phrase "Muslim" Brotherhood expressed in a dark and sinister tone, anyone whose knowledge of the world was garnered only from Fox News (and I know more than a few) would automatically infer that this was bad and therefore to be avoided.  Another inferred suggestion was that the US should instead support the Mubarak regime at all costs because it was secular and not based on Islam (not to mention his support of a peace treaty with Israel).

But it is this directly implied reference to the negative aspects of Islam (via the twisted ideology of Islamist fanaticism) with the very term of "Muslim" that provokes a sad reminder of the past - one that has been oft-repeated and still is not learned from.  Or, more precisely, it has not been learned from in the context of preventing it from recurring.  Unfortunately, those who have learned from it have discerned that it continues to work in spite of its negative historical precedents.  The lesson, of course, is that in order to foster a willingness to fight against an enemy, it is vitally important to demonize that enemy.  And when I say demonize, I mean to classify your enemy as being less than human, as being not worth consideration or insignificant, as being nothing more than an object to be destroyed.  After all, it is always far easier to kill someone when you do not consider them to be human or worth the effort to consider why you should not kill them on someone else's orders.  And such a demonization can be done based on ethnicity, gender, political affiliation, religion, national standard, or any other subjective measure; there are no limits to this classification.

The historical precedents within just the last century are staggering when we consider that they still continue today.  Hitler and his rabid persecution of the Jews during the 1930's and 40's are perhaps the clearest example - but not the only ones.  We also have the persecution of Tutsis by Hutus in Rwanda in 1994, the massacres of Kosovars by Serbians in the mid 1990's, the slaughter of Chinese, Koreans and other Asians by the Japanese during WWII and the attacks against civilians (perceived to be enemy supporters) in Vietnam by the United States in the 1960's.  This does not include other events that could be similarly classified - China during the Cultural Revolution, the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, the reign of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, nor incidents that occurred under Western colonial rule throughout Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

The key factor that all of those times mentioned above have in common is the consistent dehumanization that took place prior to and during each of them.  The view that your enemies were lesser than you whether by virtue of color, culture, religion or political bent was the key factor in energizing the supporters of a given leader to be willing to attack, hurt and kill the "enemy".  It is easy to want to destroy something that you do not understand - I have an abhorrent hatred of cockroaches and would sooner kill one than look at it and I do have a general understanding of cockroaches.  When your enemies are designated as cockroaches, you no longer see them as human and have less compunction about hurting them (this example is particular to 1994 Rwanda and the treatment of the Tutsis).  This is reinforced by ensuring a clear separation and delineation of your enemies (such as the Jews in Germany who were forced to identify themselves as such by the wearing of a yellow star) and making certain there is no mixing that might lead to a recognition that your opponents are very similar to yourself.  Referring to your enemy in negative stereotypes and not understanding their point of view (the US attitude toward its enemies in Vietnam as well as the Japanese during World War II) leads to an unbridled arrogance that is hard to overcome and bridge the gaps between.

Yet the one way to overcome this sort of demonization is to open the lines of communication between various groups and allow people to be more than just a stereotype.  When your only understanding of someone different from you is a stereotype, then it is not difficult to carry that image into a negative portrayal that can easily be twisted into something that inevitably becomes far more dangerous.  But the responsibility for breaking through the barriers separating groups lies with everyone - not on the other people.  Indeed, when it relies on other people, that is where the path toward demonization begins.  Find someone who is different and learn how to prevent those barriers from being erected in the first place.

(Special thanks to FP for editing assistance. Any errors are mine alone.)

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Uprisings in the US?

According to the Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, yes, they will occur.  Of course, he also believes in UFO's and claims to be Muslim so hopefully I will be forgiven if I have a difficult time taking his words at face value.  This is, after, the same man who admitted that his incendiary rhetoric "may" have led to the assassination of his former mentor, Malcolm X - though he has been often accused of a far more complicit role in the murder.  And this does not even mention his relationship to currently embattled Libyan leader Moammar Qadhafi.  Yes, it would seem that Brother Minister Loius Farrakhan has a slightly twisted relationship with reality so, while I will not argue that an uprising similar to what is currently engulfing many states in the Middle East is impossible in the United States, I will certainly have a difficult time believing that Mr. Farrakhan has any prescient (and unbiased) views on the issue.

But can uprisings like those in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Libya and others occur in the US (or even in Western Europe)?  Absolutely they can!  Note that I said they can occur, not that they *will* occur.  The reality, as difficult as it may be to admit, is that no nation is impervious to the types of internal strife and difficulties that are now striking the Middle East.  They can, however, be sublimated or hidden from general view until they explode into the open.  Much as western analysts failed to predict the actual failure of the Soviet Union (though they had predicted ad nauseum that it would fail eventually?!), so, too, did they fail to understand and predict the massive changes now occurring in the Middle East.  What had been a relatively stable, if autocratic social and political structure has begun to show just how fragile it truly was.  Tunisia and Egypt fell without the sort of repressive crackdown that had been expected.  Iran, Libya and Syria have all felt the tremors and moved to crack down either before it could begin in earnest (Iran and Syria) or in a massacre of protesters whose crime was to speak out against the ruling tyranny.  Similar protests have occurred in Jordan, Bahrain, Oman and Yemen, among others and the response has been varied between seeking to placate the protesters and simply killing them in armed responses.

Some of these nations were stable and educated while others were poor and not as educated.  But the one thing that they all hold in common is the lack of accountability on the part of the government.  All operate under a form of dictatorship - whether by a singular, titular leader (Qadhafi, Mubarak, Assad), a group (Bahraini Sunnis) or even faux electoral processes (Iran).  None operated under the idea of Western electoral democratic ideals where leaders are held accountable to the people under whose name and authority they allegedly rule.  Yet, in spite of the many variations that existed within each nation, all now experience the tidal wave of frustration that has risen up in the form of revolutions that seek to improve the lives of the protesters.

It is also worth noting that more than a few countries and organizations throughout the world are also taking note of these protests and their successes and failures.  China is very worried about protests there and is clamping down hard on noted activists at the hint of any sign of discontent - even though it seems that they are not leading any charge in that direction.  And it seems likely that nations in Central Asia (including Pakistan and other former Soviet republics) are very wary of such a tidal wave of revolution spreading to them.

And this leads us back to the question of whether a similar uprising can occur in the US.  While there is certainly a possibility of such a level of discontent that could threaten to erupt into a revolution, it does not yet seem to exist in the US.  This does not mean to imply that it could not change but there is not the same level of discontent within a majority of the population that would stimulate such a revolution - however much Mr. Farrakhan may hope to proclaim or incite one.  This does not mean there are not problems that cause anger, angst, frustration or other responses as there most certainly are.  However, there are other recourses available to the citizens that allow them to vent their feelings without building up to the point of a revolution.  In the US, life may not always be perfect or even comfortable all of the time, but pushing down on people until they rise up and explode in anger is not a better solution and that is certainly clear in the Middle East today.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Excuses

(I'm not sure if writing in the early morning is such a good idea but the idea was in my head and woke me up with the need to write it down.  Hopefully this is more cogent than I feel at the moment.)

In the last two months, there has been a tidal wave of change in the Middle East.  It began with Tunisia, quickly followed by Egypt and now threatens countries all over the Middle East and North Africa (though it is worth pondering if it will stop there).  Bahrain, Libya, Iran, Jordan and Yemen (among others) are all threatened with the possibility of regime change.  The leadership of those countries are all deeply concerned about the possibility of being toppled and are working to determine strategies that will enable them to stay in power.  Those strategies seem to vary from the pragmatic to the "we really do think you're stupid" approach.

Iran, for example, is actually boasting that Tunisia and Egypt's revolutions are based on their own "Islamic Revolution" from 1979 - despite any evidence that they were led by any Islamic organizations (if anything, the Muslim Brotherhood in both nations tagged along once the revolutions were well on their way).  Egypt, from the other side of that argument, claimed that its regime was preventing an Islamist takeover.  Libya has today claimed that the protests are being staged by hooligans and illegal immigrants!  (It's very hard to resist a jab at the "nativist" argument that is so prevalent on one side of the US political spectrum today.)  Indeed, each of the leaders, in essence, argues that they must stay in power in order to prevent calamity and disaster should the unwashed masses succeed in overthrowing them.

While it is still very early in both Tunisia and Egypt, there has been no marked change that would propel either nation toward a French Revolution scenario of chaos and anarchy - though it is worth pointing out that there is obvious concern both internal and external to both nations in that regard.  If anything, there has been a general happiness at the removal of a tyrannical dictatorship that will hopefully evolve toward a more democratic form in the future.  There is no way to know if the same should continue in all cases - statistics alone would indicate that is not likely to be so.  Indeed, the violence that has erupted in Libya as Qadhafi struggles to maintain his power seems to point toward a struggle that could explode when/if he does fall.  The Bahraini leadership is similarly struggling to maintain its hold on power and has not refrained from violence, either.  And the violence used by the regime in Iran actually dates back to the last (disputed) elections and is clearly a sign of the concern that government has over its own internal dissent against otherwise peaceful protesters.  But it is easy to argue that the violent upheaval that has begun in those two nations was brought on by a leadership desperate to stay in power and is therefore the chaos they warn against is of the government's own doing and not that of the revolution nor its adherents.

What does seem clear, however, is that the excuses each country's leadership makes for staying in power seem to no longer be working with their respective citizens.  And, if history is any indication (and it should be), a government cannot continue when the people have either lost faith in it or lost fear of it.  It seems that the "change" that was such a mantra in the 2008 US presidential elections has moved around the world and is more of a force elsewhere than with the man who claimed it as his mantle.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Self-censorship

In China, many people who write online or in any form of media practice a form of self-censorship in order to keep themselves from trouble with the government.  And Westerners (in particular) often feel compelled to decry this sort of behavior, stressing that it is impinging upon the rights of the individual.  And, in countries that espouse the rights of man within society (rather than society itself), they would likely be right.  However, is the right to free speech as free as its supporters within the West claim?


I suppose that depends upon your definition of "free".  Certainly you are free to say and write whatever you want with little interference from government intrusion.  (Well, ok, I'm sure that Julian Assange would disagree with that assessment.  But then again, in the US, he would likely be tried in a court of law that operates mostly outside of the political spectrum.  In most other countries, if he were tried in a court of law it would be one where the guilty decision would be pre-determined by the political authorities and then either whisked away to prison or to a speedy execution.  And some countries would not even bother with a kangaroo court.  But I digress...)  However, the opportunity and the ability to say and write whatever you wish is tempered by the very same court of law which has rendered things like libel and slander as offenses which can be punished - rightly so!  Furthermore, and this is especially true in an increasingly interconnected world where there can be very little separation between an individual's professional and personal life, there can be very serious consequences to what one says or writes.

There are plenty of examples of people being fired for Facebook or blog posts (this is just one example).  People complaining about their employers or even their friends can result in lost jobs or lost friends - there are always consequences.  So, most people will choose to limit what they say to a degree so as not to encounter potentially negative consequences.  Sure, they have the right to say what they want but most people recognize there are (and, frankly, should be) limits.

So, when criticizing people in China for self-censorship in order to avoid negative political consequences, bear in mind that the same applies in the "free" West - even if not necessarily within the same paradigm.  We all do it to one degree or another even if we don't recognize it in the same fashion.

Now I'm off to someplace very private to go complain about my job...

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Random Thoughts

Just dawned on me I had a few other things upon which I wanted to write.  Figures that it would happen after I had already written a mostly useless blog entry already today.  *sigh*

I don't normally follow a lot of blogs.  I obviously pay attention to those from LessThanDot (from a variety of authors - all of whom are very good at what they do and from whom I learn a great deal) and then a few others of friends or the occasional political blog (there is one I still "follow" but I won't list it here because it has become nothing more than a hyper-partisan attack blog from the left - I'll be delisting it soon from my follow list).  However, I have recently come across one blog that actually went back to read from the very beginning.  http://seeingredinchina.wordpress.com/  is written by a Westerner (I'm pretty sure he's American) who is living in China and he offers his experiences there to allow his readers a different view of a nation and people that most Americans (Westerners) may never otherwise see.  I have very much enjoyed reading his point of view because he strives to avoid the common stereotypes of China and instead offers a more nuanced view of the country and its people.  From my own experiences in China, I can easily see the author's point of view and appreciate the ability of someone to see beyond the stereotypes.  It is very enlightening and I highly recommend this blog as an opportunity to learn more about China beyond the news stories that offer little more than generalized stories about the nation and its people.

Over the last couple of days, I've finished two books.  The first was a very positive biography of the Marquis de Lafayette - the hero of the American Revolution.  That is a part of history to which I had heretofore not given a lot of attention and his story has now made me curious to do more learning on that subject.  The second book I found to be very inspiring and is a highly recommended read for those who want a little perspective on their lives.  The Story of My Life by Farah Ahmedi is a wonderful autobiography of a young Afghan girl and the struggles she has gone through - and she is only 17 at the time of the book's publication.  Losing her foot at age 7 as the result of a land mine in her native Afghanistan, she weaves a powerful tale of struggle against incredible odds to not only survive but to move forward with her life.  She talks about her escape from Afghanistan to Pakistan and thence to the United States of America.  Her struggle to deal with her tragic circumstances is both poignant and heart-warming and a reminder of the strength and fragility that we all possess.  The fact that she has triumphed as best she can and yet shares her continued concerns for her future life gives an insight that is rarely found in most stories.  A quick Google search after I finished the book shows that she continues to succeed as she goes to college and presumably has been able to lead a "normal" life that would otherwise have been unavailable to her.  Her story will certainly make me pause and reconsider  the next time I have a bad day at the office or at home.

When to write

I would say that it is strange that, whenever I have the time to sit down and write, I often cannot think of what to write about.  This is a direct contrast to the many other times that I have plenty of ideas upon which to ruminate on this virtual medium - except no access to the virtual medium itself.  Most specifically, I find this tends to occur when I drive.  And, it seems plainly obvious to me, I am not being distracted by other things (well, other than the act of driving itself) when I drive and can devote time to considering any number of issues.  Of course, I also find that I am often driving and thinking because I am listening to NPR which often has stories that cause me to think on a variety of issues.  I also find it to be rather engaging for me even if I do not always agree with its editorial slant.  But, I tend to only listen to NPR when I am anywhere but in front of my computer where I could put my thoughts to paper (so to speak).  From one perspective, that seems like it may actually be a blessing in disguise.

Perhaps I should spend more time in front of my computer when listening to the news.  Then I would have subjects galore upon which to write.  The only problem, of course, would that this would be a far more political blog.  And there are certainly more than enough political blogs in the world - the great majority of them so slanted in their perspective that they serve as only white noise to those who seek more nuanced points of view.  No, I guess with this perspective, it is probably just as well that I do not have the ability to actually write the ideas that come to me while listening to NPR.  There are enough dumb (political) ideas out there already without me unnecessarily adding to the clutter.

So maybe I should come up with some other things to write on.  It is at times like this that I wonder if I should have majored in philosophy instead of political science.  At least then, I might be able to ruminate and look smart at the same time.