Final Crows Arrived and We're Off!!

Consuella and Diane have both arrived safely and all is well. Consuella had a good day yesterda ybeing introduced to Kunming's scenery. Mom had a nice dinner with the Xizhou family. Diane made it through a monsoon in Shanghai. It is warm and sunny and we are heading off Right Now to the ceiling of the world to test our high elevation chops and medidate on boutique hotel verandas overlooking a sacred mountain. What an adventure! More later....

I am sipping Gin and (Lemon) Juice with my Mom In KUNMING!!!

she is here. she is talking about things she read in magazines. things about the election. brain development. china. she cracks me up. she likes my apartment. and we really are drinking gin and juice.

Morning Show Madness: McCain 2.0

I was just scanning the news to see how depressed I could get about the economy when I stumbled upon this pastiche of McCain on every single morning show. Apparently, John is taking a populist turn: praising workers, dissing executives. But, I scratch my head and think.... You are an Anti-Regulator and so much of this crisis started with deregulation and loopholes that he supported. Workers (and unions) depend on RULES that PROTECT them from Greed and Corruption. It makes me kind of ill to watch this, but here goes... John McCain becomes a populist with a very very rigid set of talking points.

And: notice at 2:12, he says, "dead-a-little." Does this mean John is rigged up as the spokesperson for some mysterious man behind the curtain? Will the real Wizard of Oz please stand up!

UPDATE:

From Steve at the Washington Monthly
To hear John McCain tell it, when it comes to the Wall Street crisis, he deserves credit, not for taking steps to prevent it, but for knowing it was coming.

On CBS's "The Early Show" yesterday, McCain said, "[T]wo years ago I warned that the oversight of Fannie and Freddie was terrible, that we were facing a crisis because of it, or certainly serious problems.... [T]he influence that Fannie and Freddie had in the inside-the-beltway, old-boy network, which led to this kind of corruption is unacceptable, and I
warned about it a couple of years ago."

Evidence to support McCain's gift of foresight is surprisingly thin. In fact, evidence to the contrary is much easier to come by.

ABC's Jake Tapper found an interview McCain did in New Hampshire, shortly before the Republican presidential primary, on the seriousness and the dimensions of the subprime mortgage crisis. McCain conceded that he didn't see the mortgage crisis coming.

"I don't know the dimensions of this. It's hard to know what the dimensions are.... [I]n this whole new derivative stuff, and SIBs and all of this kind of new ways of packaging mortgages together and all that is something that frankly I don't know a lot about.

"But I do rely on a lot of smart people that I have that are both in my employ and acquaintances of mine. And most of them did not anticipate this. Most of them, I mean I can find some that did. But, a guy that's on my staff named Doug Holtz-Eakin, who was once the head of the Office of Management and Budget, said that there was nervousness out there. There's nervousness. There was nervousness that we had such a long period of prosperity without a downturn because of the history of our economy. But I don't know of hardly anybody, with the exception of a handful, that said 'wait a minute, this thing is getting completely out of hand and is overheating.'

"So, I'd like to tell you that I did anticipate it, but I have to give you straight talk, I did not."

Funny, he seems to have a far different message now. I wonder why that is?

ANOTHER MCCAIN REINVENTION UNDERWAY.... Yesterday, on the "Today" show, John McCain rejected the notion of government intervention to support AIG, saying, "I do not believe that the American taxpayer should be on the hook for AIG." NBC's Matt Lauer asked, "So, if we get to the point, in the middle of the week when AIG might have to file for bankruptcy, they're on their own?" McCain replied, "Well, they're on their own."

This morning on "Good Morning America," McCain took a far different line on the bailout. "I didn't want to do that. And I don't think anybody I know wanted to do that. But there are literally millions of people whose retirement, whose investment, whose insurance were at risk here," McCain said.

It was yet another reminder that when it comes to addressing trying economic times, McCain has to pretend he never believed all of the things he's always believed.

A decade ago, Sen. John McCain embraced legislation to broadly deregulate the banking and insurance industries, helping to sweep aside a thicket of rules established over decades in favor of a less restricted financial marketplace that proponents said would result in greater economic growth.

Now, as the Bush administration scrambles to prevent the collapse of the American International Group (AIG), the nation's largest insurance company, and stabilize a tumultuous Wall Street, the Republican presidential nominee is scrambling to recast himself as a champion of regulation to end "reckless conduct, corruption and unbridled greed" on Wall Street. [...]

McCain hopes to tap into anger among voters who are looking for someone to blame for the economic meltdown that threatens their home values, bank accounts and 401(k) plans. But his past support of congressional deregulation efforts and his arguments against "government interference" in the free market by federal, state and local officials have given Sen. Barack Obama an opening to press the advantage Democrats traditionally have in times of economic trouble.

This is more than just about giving Obama an opening; it's principally about McCain trying to reinvent himself on the fly, hoping no one notices.

[In 1999], McCain had joined with other Republicans to push through landmark legislation sponsored by then-Sen. Phil Gramm (Tex.), who is now an economic adviser to his campaign. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act aimed to make the country's financial institutions competitive by removing the Depression-era walls between banking, investment and insurance companies.

That bill allowed AIG to participate in the gold rush of a rapidly expanding global banking and investment market. But the legislation also helped pave the way for companies such as AIG and Lehman Brothers to become behemoths laden with bad loans and investments.

McCain now condemns the executives at those companies for pursuing the ambitions that the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act made possible.

In other words, McCain personally gave the financial industry a green light to do exactly what they did. And now he's outraged.

It's precisely why McCain's economic message has been so oddly incoherent this week. Turning on a dime, he's gone from supporting fewer regulations to supporting more, from supporting less oversight to supporting more. McCain is slamming Wall Street execs for playing a dangerous game after McCain helped throw out the rules.

McCain said during the Republican primaries, "The issue of economics is not something I've understood as well as I should." He continues to prove it with each passing day.

In case anyone was wondering....

I have been camped out her in Kunming this week, not posting much. When I read the news, I am starting to get weary. Watching the US economy implode is not a fun activity. I sit at the bar with friends lamenting the future of the world. There are so many cynical people here who really think McCain is going to win. I literally cry in my whiskey.

I did my part this week and registered for an absentee ballot with the Chengdu Consulate. There was something very exciting about applying for a ballot in China. Apparently, Cook County is the only county in Illinois that will allow you to vote via email. My friend from Texas has to fax it in.

In other news... I have been preparing for the arrival of my mom and her two lovely lady friends. We are going to take a 10 day trip up into the mountains of Shangri-La and wind our way back through Lijiang and Dali, back to Kunming. I have made a makeshift bed out of foam and thick quilts for my mom to sleep on. I have filled the house with flowers. I am really excited to show them my city and take a break together. I live in semi-retirement at this point, but I know they really need a break from the hectic Chicago work-a-day lifestyle.

It is strange to think that just three weeks ago I was sunning on the beaches of northwest Sumatra and soaking in an entirely new environment. It will be good to go up high into the Himalayas for a change of scenery.

This picture makes me laugh. There was an old school desktop just sitting on the beach. The boats were bobbing out on the ocean, the breeze was blowing... and then the modern world jumped into view. Makes me happy to leave my computer by itself some days.

McCain vs. The World

It seems that McCain and his foreign policy team have taken a very Cold War-era approach to the rest of the world. In simple math, it goes something like this... Georgia=good, Russia=Bad. According to McCain's chief foreign policy guy, Randy Scheunemann, Russia and China are not our allies and pose serious threats the the United States and democracy in general.

I like the way Ezra responds to this madness:

One thing worth keeping in mind about great power conflicts is that they're rarely inevitable. At times, France and England have been at war, and at times they've been allies. A lot of it has to do with how leaders interact with each other, and whether they aggressively court conflict or publicly seek a constructive relationship. If you court conflict, soon enough, the other country does, and both sides build up a narrative of slights and provocations -- many of them quite real -- that lead to war and discord. But it is a choice: You can decide whether you want a relationship defined by transgressions and stare-downs, or whether you want a relationship where the overriding narrative is of alliance and both sides work to play down points of disagreement. Scheunemann, here, is courting conflict, and as McCain's chief foreign policy adviser, that's a pretty good indicator for how a McCain administration would look.

One of McCain's ideas - a league of democracies - is supposed to counter the perceived threat of a Russian or Chinese veto in the United Nations Security Council. While I think there are critical issues where a Chinese veto stymies progress (eg. Burma), the Security Council does a great deal to serve the interests of the United States.

Yglesias puts it well:

The UN Security Council mechanism by design prevents any country from taking action that is deemed contrary to the vital interests of the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Russia, or France. This causes some very real problems. It’s important to note, however, that it’s a completely two way street and, historically, the U.S. does more vetoing than any other country. I think it would make a lot of sense for the United States to propose shifting the Security Council from a unanimity rule to some kind of qualified majority rule. But what Scheunemann seems to be contemplating (a world in which the US does get to protect its vital interests, but Russia and China don’t) is going to be a non-starter in Moscow and Beijing for obvious reasons.

And at the end of the day, each country is going to do what it is going to do:

If the U.S. were to try to invade Burma in the face of Russian and Chinese opposition, in the context of new great power tensions, you’d just wind up with a bloody proxy conflict not with vast new humanitarian benefits. The problem, at the end of the day, is with the underlying pattern of facts — SLORC is terrible, Burma is close to China, China sees defending Burma’s sovereignty as important, and China is a big and important country these days. Given those facts, there’s no great procedural fix no matter what you do with the UN Security Council. But the Security Council mechanism, as currently operating, has a lot of value in other domains that would be lost if we cast it aside in pursuit of a fantasy that doing so would somehow allow us to completely brush off opposition of other major countries to certain proposed military adventures.

Thou Shalt Not Cook On T.V.

I love Thailand. After weeks of protests across the country, the Prime Minister was finally forced out of office for...hosting a cooking show.

Dieting: Save My Soul and Our Planet!

I remember the first time I heard the Dalai Lama say that in order to find inner peace Americans should eat less. Now we have the United Nations saying we should reduce meat consumption in order to slow global warming. And, sure science says a reduced calorie diet extends life by up to 1/3, but these days who knows if that is a good thing.

Look for Illinois

A little statistical analysis goes a long way. It seems that governors in small states have higher approval ratings because "In a large state, there will be more ambitious politicians on the other side, eager to knock off the incumbent governor; small states often have part-time legislatures and thus the governor is involved in less political conflict."

I include this not only because Gov. Palin seems to follow this trend, but because Gov. Blago (my former boss) seems to have hit a new and lowest low. Yikes!!

Sino Space Walk Planned

While my mom and her two lady friends will be here in China, there are bound to be some fun newspaper reports to take home for souvenirs. It's like they planned it or something....

Palin's Jeramiah Wright?

It seems that Republican VP candidate Palin has some interesting 'religious mentor' issues in her closet as well. I wonder if the Democrats will mention it (probably not) and what the Republicans would have to say in her defense. Ideas: She was not in the pews that day. She does not subscribe to these extreme views of her pastor. America (and Wassilla, AK, even) are bastions of sin and only the saved will survive the wrath. What bittersweet revelations...

Kroon placed Zephaniah in a modern context, warning that the sinful habits of Americans would invite the wrath of God. “And if Zephaniah were here today,” Kroon bellowed, “he’d be saying, ‘Listen, [God] is gonna deal with all the inhabitants of the earth. He is gonna strike out His hand against, yes, Wasilla; and Alaska; and the United States of America. There’s no exceptions here — there’s none. It’s all.’”

Thanks to Andrew Sullivan and the Atlantic

Bangkok Bliss

I put a few photos of my recent trip through Bangkok here on my Facebook page. It was the first time I had the chance to navigate the city on my own, but there were the usual stops to Chatuchak JJ Market and stunning views of the river. Enjoy!

Indonesia Pictures

I have posted a few of the pictures from my trip to Indonesia on my Facebook page. I plan on posting more so stay tuned, You can click here to take a look! If that does not work, just go to my Facebook page and scroll down on the left to my picture album called Awesome Aceh.

Melting Machines

I wish I could say it has been a great 24 hours, but I have been battling with technology. I hate to admit this, but I am not that great with computers and my technical Chinese (How DO you say compressed air?) is lacking. Yesterday. I noticed my precious laptop running sloooow and hooooot and getting angry with sudden shut downs. As you may well imagine, my computer is my lifeline to the outside world. I NEED it. So, I set off in search of a can of compressed air to blow out the piles of Kunming dirt nad dust that must have been accumulating.

At the computer bizarre, I found weak little vacuums and screen cleaner. Then, I found someone who seemed to know what I was talking about. She somehow convinced me that a can of air with some 'detergents' was just what I was lookin' for. Sure! It says it is used to clean precision instruments and that is exactly what this hardworking laptop is to me. So I took home the spray and blasted the chemical mist into the vents and around the keys to 'remove the dust and dirt'...BUT seconds later I realized the spray was melting my computer!!!! MELTING, like the Wicked Witch of the West. I scrubbed, to no avail. My heart sank.

After a few drinks with friends who came over and consoled me that the most precious, expensive thing I own was not dead.... I realized a few things: I cannot afford a new laptop so must make this work; I should NEVER trust Chinese computer people again unless they know me; I really really really love and depend on this machine; I CAN reinstall Firefox and solve one of the random scary 'crash' issues I have been facing today; When the fan stopped, I realized perhaps I need to go to a professional for help on that one; AND my old laptop has a lovely grey-ish talc powder patina on the entire keyboard that will forever serve to remind me how careless I am not to have done an 'allergy test' like they advise on the bottles of hair dye.

I am trying to remain calm in the face of random shut downs, sticky keys and crashing programs, but I wanted to write this on the computer as long as it is staying on and functioning for a few minutes. I hope on my life this is not the last dispatch from Old (Nuclear Bomb Tested) Faithful.

UPDATE: The NYT today posted a recall notice on Vaios. Funny, my model is not included but it does remind me that other people have melting computers as well.

Rove in New Obama Ad?

Karl Rove:

With all due respect again to Governor Kaine, he’s been a governor for three years, he’s been able but undistinguished. I don’t think people could really name a big, important thing that he’s done. He was mayor of the 105th largest city in America. And again, with all due respect to Richmond, Virginia, it’s smaller than Chula Vista, California; Aurora, Colorado; Mesa or Gilbert, Arizona; north Las Vegas or Henderson, Nevada. It’s not a big town. So if he were to pick Governor Kaine, it would be an intensely political choice where he said, `You know what? I’m really not, first and foremost, concerned with, is this person capable of being president of the United States?

Interestingly, the Richmond Metropolitan Area is about twice the size of Alaska. And three years are more years than two. Ezra is the best.

David Brooks: Desperate, Weird and Confused

Wow. David Brooks, the Left's favorite conservative, has been on a raucous tirade lately full of lazy thinking and vitriol. This is my take on several recent columns, one on US politics and two on his recent trip to China. I think David could have benefited from my company as he was traipsing through western China looking for the real story.

This week his column was an attempt at satirizing Obama's DNC acceptance speech. His growing cynicism is second only to the McCain choice of Palin. I have a particular gripe with this insinuation that Obams is only a candidate for younger voters without a sense of history:

"We meet today to pass the torch to a new generation of Americans, a generation that came of age amidst iced chais and mocha strawberry Frappuccinos®, a generation with a historical memory that doesn’t extend back past Coke Zero."

And this one that suggests Democrats simplify Republicans when it is really the hard-core Republicans who have chosen to simplify complicated issues, descend into sensationalistic smear tactics and resist coming to terms with their sheep mentality on a war of choice:

"For we are all one country and one American family, whether we are caring and thoughtful Democrats or hate-filled and war-crazed Republicans."

His bitterness and cynicism about Barack's life story is pitiful. As the child of a single mom myself, like many many Americans, I know this is a character defining trait. Being a pioneer within his own family, is not something to be ridiculed. Sicko.

I dare someone to write a column about the RNC and McCain using only facts that shows everyone who McCain and his new Rove strategists are. I bet it would be even more scary than this piece of bologna from Brooks.


On August 11th, his column was about the "collectivist" society of China that will serve as a new model for global governing and economic growth that may outpace Western individualism. He was in Chengdu, Sichuan during the Olympics, spouting some racist pop psychology based on a single book of shoddy science called How Asians Think. I was shocked, but thankful to see so many comments setting him straight.

From my personal experience here in China, I have several quick observations I can share:

Hierarchy, imposed and enforced in many incarnations over the centuries, should not be mistaken for collectivism.

Chinese people can be some of the most celebrity-obsessed, name-obsessed people. The word for 'famous' translates as 'has a name.' People want to be in the number one school, the number one program, the number one country in gold medals.... There is a distinct '#1 or die' mentality here that confuses his concept of collective society.

I am not sure David experienced getting on a bus or buying a train ticket or getting a job. Chinese people could not give a rip about people who are not in their family, extended social network, or happen to be #1 in a useful position. There is no standing in line here and grandmas throw elbows just as much as the rest of us as we struggle to get a seat on the bus. People push and scramble to get ahead here and they usually do not care who gets knocked down in the process.

Finally, his assertion that the Olympics were a display of China's Eastern, collective power is so off-base.

"The ceremony drew from China’s long history, but surely the most striking features were the images of thousands of Chinese moving as one — drumming as one, dancing as one, sprinting on precise formations without ever stumbling or colliding. It was part of China’s assertion that development doesn’t come only through Western, liberal means, but also through Eastern and collective ones."

As a former ballet dancer, I can say that getting lots of people to move in unison is not as hard as it looks. In jest, I suggest that perhaps the Opening Ceremony committee, headed by famous director Zhang Yimou, was convened under Robert's Rules and each and every dancer, performer and singer sat around a big table discusing their choreographic options. Brooks is delusional if he cannot see that that ceremony was the result of a highly competitive audition process and the show was in preparation for at least 4 years. Come on!


The Human Side of David Brooks:

The week after the 'collectivist vs. individualist' train wreck, it looks as if David actually got out to talk to some real folks in the earthquake region in Sichuan. He must have had a real shock and his humility comes through.

These were weird, unnerving interviews, and I don’t pretend to understand what’s going on in the minds of people who have suffered such blows and remained so optimistic. All I can imagine is that the history of this province has given these people a stripped-down, pragmatic mentality: Move on or go crazy. Don’t dwell. Look to the positive. Fix what needs fixing. Work together.

In my own experiences, I have also discovered a pervasive lack of expressed sentimentality here. I believe there are many factors: political oppression, media censorship, community surveillance, lightning-speed economic development and the physical and emotional losses that come with powerlessness in the face of change, and on a lighter note, a culture where showing your teeth is looked down upon and the same applies to tears. The Chinese word meaning 'to bear hardship' literally translates as 'to eat bitterness.' Chinese people tend to swallow everything, for better or worse.

Friedman paints us a picture

Thomas Friedman's postcard from Guangzhou would read like this:

“Dear Mom and Dad, this place is so much more interesting than it looks from abroad. I met wind and solar companies eager for Western investment and Chinese college students who were organizing a boycott of an Indonesian paper company for despoiling their forest. An ‘Institute of Civil Society’ has quietly opened at the local Sun Yat-sen University. The Communist Party is trying to break the old mold without breaking its hold. It’s quite a drama. Can’t wait to come back next summer and see how they’re doing ...”

China as laboratory for Western clean energy companies...
Politburo member allowed to experiment with “mind liberation”...
A move from “made in China” to “designed in China” to “imagined in China”...
Southern China is no longer the low-cost producer in Asia; Vietnam and Western China now beckon...

And the Point: "The problem for the ruling Communist Party is this: China can’t have a greener society without empowering citizens to become watchdogs and allowing them to sue local businesses and governments that pollute, and it can’t have a more knowledge-intensive innovation society without a freer flow of information and experimentation."

Where are the China foreign policy folks coming up with ideas about HOW the United States can learn about and support these processes of social, legal, educational and political transformation?

Illicit: The implications of illegal trade

NYT: "Gone are the days when Mexico’s drug war was an abstraction for most people, something they lamented over the morning papers as if it were unfolding far away."

As I take a break from my reading of Illicit: How Smugglers, Traffickers and Copycats are Hijacking the Global Economy by Moises Naim this pops up on the NYT.

I was in the middle of the chapter on the drug trade, reading an example on Mexico City. A construction company owner tried to uncover the root cause for high turnover for his drivers. He realized that a single border crossing with a load of narcotics could earn the driver nearly a year's salary! He got interested in the financing of such runs and soon hit his drivers up for a piece of the profits, since "it was only fair that he share." He continued to act as a financier and concluded that the construction business was more dangerous to his personal safety. He felt that, as a low-level actor, neither the government nor the high-profile drug bosses would get him. It seems this NYT article has uncovered a worsening of the situation in Tijuana for innocent civilians and families.

Point: High profile criminals are only the tip of the iceberg. "The diffusion of the drug business into the fiber of local and global economic life is harder to fathom, let alone combat. It is this pervasive global mainstreaming of the business that the fight against drugs is up against today." p.67

Point: Last paragraph of the NY Times article reminds me of the reaction to the recent Kunming bus bombings last month. Two women at my yoga class embodied this polarized response. One woman was shaking her head, planning to keep off the public buses. The other woman just laughed: "What are you gonna do? Life has to go on."

Note: The book, Illicit, could have used some of the ethnographic touches that make this article vivid. While I am only just getting into it, I wish Naim could have done a bit more storytelling. The writing style is a bit laborious, but the evidence and argument are truly fascinating. The Chinese translation is translated, notably, into traditional characters that are only used in Taiwan and Hong Kong. I wonder if you can find it on the mainland...

(Again!) Oh No, Not Again

I am doing the Saturday afternoon news junkie thing and suddenly the fan starts to tip back and forth... the plants start to shake... I know living anywhere has risks, but having felt the tremors of the Sichuan earthquake the first time under exactly the same circumstances, I can only pray that it was in my head.

UPDATE 7:00pm:
It's official. The AP says, "China's official Xinhua News Agency says a 6.1 magnitude earthquake has struck Sichuan province. There were no reports of casualties. Xinhua said Saturday the earthquake hit 31 miles southeast of Panzhihua city, near the border with Yunnan province On May 12, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake in Sichuan province killed nearly 70,000 people and left 5 million homeless. "

The initial reports of the May 12th earthquake from the AP were 900 dead. I hope the 'no casualties' reports hold true this time. I have to say my heart was racing and I froze to make sure everything was really shaking, then I jumped up and ran to the bathroom for safety. In this 6th floor walk-up apartment made of concrete blocks, I was truly panicked and reminded how utterly devastating it would be to experience another massive natural disaster. Oh, and it took me a few minutes to reconcile these thoughts as I recalled the anniversary of Katrina today and a giant storm aiming for the Gulf Coast in the states.

UPDATE Next Day:

Official (early) Reports Say... An earthquake about six miles deep killed 25 people, injured 192 people, damaged or destroyed more than 100,000 homes and affected at least 440,000 residents, state media said on Sunday.

It added that 656 schools had also been damaged and that heavy rain and difficult terrain were hampering rescue efforts, with mobile telephone communications patchy. State television showed pictures of houses with large cracks in their sides, broken tiles on the road and people receiving medical attention under tents.

I was again in the living room reading on a lazy Sunday afternoon... and the shakes started again today. I called a friend who was running out of his apartment. This is normal and we will all have to adjust, but I must admit that it is a bit unsettling to have felt each and every one of these things. I am slightly envious of my friends who are in a taxi or playing basketball and don't feel a thing.

In Transit No More

I am back in Kunming after 10 days of mad dash exploration and deep experiential vacationing. I have so many cool pictures and stories, but I have to sleep first.

I cannot help but share my favorite ad from my favorite ad campaign that I captured on the gangway to my flight from BKK to KMG. This is a series of clever mental twists from HSBC about economic perspective; I only see them in the Bangkok airport. Lovely.

Obama-Clark '08?

Just checking in on the state of world affairs as I drift to sleep here in Bangkok. Came across this incredibly articulate, clear explanation about what the USA should do about the Russia-Georgia conflict. He looks straight-forward, sounds clear and concise...

I had a nightmare the other day where the headline was Obama Picks NY Senator for VP, but I would much rather see a real straight-talker like Clark out there bashing McCain and proposing ideas about how to get us out of this mess.


Here's a link to the transcript of you would rather read it. 'Night.