Lunar eclipse took place in America. I visited a website and found that a Chinese student took some pictures of the eclipse. That guy must have very professional cameras to get these images. It’s beautiful (check the photos).

I have been really busy these days and did not update my blog. I also missed the democratic presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama (a black man) on CNN last night.

Anyway, now it seems that Obama has great potential to win Hillary and become the Democratic presidential nominee, who then will compete with the Republican presidential nominee McCain and the winner will be the next president of the United States of America. McCain is a weak candidate (and his “US troops in Iraq for 100 years” suggestion?! This man is crazy). So many people believe that the country will have their next president from Democratic Party, Obama or Hillary Clinton. No matter who finally gets to the White House, it will be a big change in American political history: the first female or a black president in the country’s history.

I personally think that Hillary is more experienced and has better understanding about international issues than Obama. But some American people say that they are tired of the “Bush-Clinton-Bush (-Hillary Clinton?) presidential pattern. The elder Bush (the father of George W. Bush) was US president for 4 years. Then Bill Clinton took his place and stayed in the White House for 8 years; after that 8 years of George W. Bush’s government and now Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton’s wife is running her campaign so the family will return to their old home, the White House. More Clinton years? Some people think it will make the legacy look more like a dynasty. People are tired of the politicians from Washington and are looking for change, for fresh faces. Some people think that Obama’s fresh face represents the real changes that they are looking for. Fresh face will bring real changes; the logic is right but change for the better or worse? I am not saying that if Obama is elected as the president, bad changes will happen. It’s just that people should be more careful with their decision. From promise to action, still a long way to go.

Martin Luther King made a wish: “…one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood”. He’d be very pleased to see Obama doing presidential campaign. I do believe that now in the US, people judge a person not by the color of his/her skin. But are Americans really ready to have a black president for the country? The 2007 Nobel Prize owner for literature, Doris Lessinbg, made a prediction, saying that if Barak Obama is to be elected as president, he would be assassinated. Lessinbg is in England so I do not know why she is so sure about this American issue. But what some Americans think about this prediction? The following are quotes from an American’s blog and the responses left by visitors to that blog:

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Marc:

So this lady in Englad - Doris Lessinbg - who won the Nobel prize for literature in 2007 is predicting that if Barak Obama is elected president - he’ll be assassinated. Unfortunately I agree with her.

This country (my country - the U.S.) is filled with crackpots, nut case, bigoted racist assholes - and they would go ballistic if we elected a Black Man - even a half-Black man.

You never hear about left-wing nut cases assasinating people or blowing buildings up. Yet the right-wing is full of these kind of people. They call themselves ‘militia’.

That’s the truth about this country. They reelected Bush - they don’t seem to care about anybody but themselves and their ignorance gets them issuing second and third mortages on their homes - which then then lose. These kinds of folks are what fills up the states between both coasts and inhabit what we call the red states - the states that elected Bush - twice.

So what to do?

Lessing says we should elect a Clinton/Obama ticket.

Walid Says:
February 9th, 2008 at 11:35 pm

This is a hypothetical assessment. There are people who hate all sorts of other people. But does fear of being attacked make us not dare to take the next step? This is precisely what their aim is. If we just back down because of those possibilities or even credible threats, we may as well forget about elections as a whole because they would have dictated the way we live our lives.

Doug K. Says:
February 11th, 2008 at 10:11 am

NJ Says:
February 11th, 2008 at 11:29 am

Jeff Says:
February 19th, 2008 at 10:26 pm

 

This last comment, well I got something to say about Chinese taking jobs in big companies away from Americans in US. Chinese who can get job offers from big American companies in US usually have Master and/or Ph.D. degree in science/finance/accounting. They are not illegal immigrants who are taking easy jobs at low wage that common American people can do. When I started my studies at an American university, a friend of mine who studied in Chemistry Department told me that when they had graduate student meetings, if the professors did not attend, they spoke Chinese. And the Computer Science department, graduate students were half Indians half Chinese, no Americans at all. Maybe the person was talking about American big companies’ manufacture outsourcing. I doubt the new president, whoever s/he is, can resolve the problem since it’s not only an American issue and it came with the development of the economic globalization worldwide.

Anyway I will follow up the campaigns. By the way, I think George W. Bush looks like a monkey and now if Obama becomes the new president, these two presidents have something in common.

 

I went to the new China Town in Flushing Queens last Satuarday. We always go there for Chinese grocery shopping. In Flushing you do not need to speak English. Everyone speaks Mandrin or Cantones. I took a photo of the resturant where we had Zao Cha. So many people. Some of them wore Chinese tradicional cloth for people are still celebrating the Spring Festival.

I finally finished my report and got some time to write something for my blog.

People in America, I suppose people all over the world, are talking about the presidential election in this country and who's gonna be in the white house next year to ran the country. I am not American but have found it pretty interesting to follow up a little bit the campaigns and debates. The whole process looks like a long job interview that goes up for almost one year.  The American people are the judges while the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates need to talk through, in front of the judges, their beliefs, their strategies and their plans to cope with the country’s major issues if s/he is elected as the president of the United States. They are in a race to best prove their qualifications and capabilities in public and to finally get the job offer.

To tell the truth, I can hardly imagine this kind of presidential election take place in China. Not only because that we have totally different political system which makes it impossible to elect our political leaders that way (No more discussion on politics. Believe it or not I am not interested in it). Put aside the political concerns, Chinese people’s way of thinking and acting in a competition, their mentality and behavīor will just make it impossible.

I was a big fan of American reality show “the Apprentice”. Young and talented people of different backgrounds, high degree holders and street smarts, compete to become the apprentice of Donald Trump. Each candidate needs to prove that s/he is the best by showing his/her intelligence, critical thinking ability, creativity, leadership etc through working with other candidates on the assignments given by Donald Trump to them, real business to deal with. What’s more, s/he must know how to defend him/herself in the boardroom, if it happens that in certain week the team s/he longs to looses. If somebody screw up and even s/he is aware of that, the person will not give up very easily in the boardroom where Donald Trump and his two assistants will question all the team members who is responsible for them to be defeated by the other team.  Everyone will do his best to defend himself for it’s clear for them that the reason why they are in this interview is to get the job. And that’s what competition is all about: show the best of you and when time comes defend yourself the best you can. I think in the business world, it’s very important for one to know how to protect oneself. You may have made some mistakes that are part of the reasons why the project failed. But it can’t be all your fault. If you let others to take advantage of the situation, I believe, that’s a sign of you being weak.

Last year when I went back to China, I found that CCTV had cloned this American TV show and the Chinese version is called “Win in China”. It pretty much copied the whole structure of “the Apprentice”. The reward, of course, is not to become Donald Trump’s apprentice. Rather, the top three that stand out from the competition will get investments of RMB 5 million, each of them (maybe I got the number wrong, really don’t remember). What called my special attention was Chinese candidates’ performance in the boardroom. Each time when a team was called in to the boardroom for they were defeated, you knew that to the question from the judges:”who is responsible for this failure?”, they would give unanimous answer. It seems that they are so comfortable to take the chance to talk about how wonderful job the other team members have done and how s/he is sure that him/herself is the sole reason for the failure. No exception. I was totally confused for I could not understand what’s their purpose to be there? Just to show what a loser they are in front of the judges and the nationwide TV audience? I don’t think so for they really looked very comfortable when giving the answer, sometimes even with a smile on their faces. So maybe that’s one hypocritical side of our culture which keeps us from showing our true colors, our true personality in front of others.

Why it is so difficult for us to say in public: “I think I am much better than them in…for the reasons that…”?  Why in front of others, we’d like to hide ourselves behind a hypocritical modest? Why we are sometimes afraid of fighting toe to toe with our competitors for something that we really want or believe in? (what’s sad is that in our culture it is common that things people dare not say in front of you, they say it at your back).

In one Democratic presidential debate, Senator Obama said: “I was friends with Hillary Clinton before we started this campaign; I will be friends with Hillary Clinton after this campaign is over.” That’s the attitude for competition.

Show your true colors, are you up for this?

 

pretty good weather today after yesterday's snow storm. i am sitting in a small room in long island, NY, in front of my computer to write this first article for my blog. when i first came here in 2001 i had no idea how long i would stay in this country and what kind of life i would have here. my spanish classmate natalia, who is getting married this summer in paris, used to call long island " the Lonely Island". one hour drive away from NYC, it's the opposite of the city almost in every way. you can have good and original long island ice tea here, though .

i plan to get my ticket back to china this week. don't know when will come back this time. this country and this place is just too boring for me. i will meet the mexican client this thursday in downtown and start packing up.

i went to the school gym and walked around the campus. nothing changed. will take some photos next time i go there. i saw more korean students and chinese students, no only on campus but also in the oriental store, run by the taiwanese couple.

i made chinese dumplings this spring festival with some chinese friends living in chapin. chinese students' life here is still boring. they go to labs, do their TA thing, meet their boss (professors) and cook. i made a good decision on not going for phd. i can not imagine myself follow that routine for 5 straight years or more. american economy is down. i talked with some new graduates. they are all worried since big companies are doing the lay off or freezing head counts. some of them have been looking for job for almost 6 months. i do not understand why they'd like push themselves that hard instead of going back to china where they can find a decent job much easier. the salary won't be at the same level, but you do not pay so much taxes in China one of them told me that if he goes back to china only with a degree and no working experience, people may see him as a loser. but 6-months-long phone and onsite interview without job offer does not make him less loser, rather it makes the whole situation look even worse.

i think i was lucky for i made the right decision at the right time. also i will not care if others call me a loser as long as i feel comfortable with my life, whether it's in US, in Canada, in Mexico or in China.